Lead Stories

Abbott's school voucher ally pulls in big money for HD118 race

A deluge of spending and attack ads are suddenly raining down on two San Antonio-area state legislative races that previously weren’t getting much attention. Campaign finance reports covering Jan. 23 through Feb. 21 were due Monday, detailing money raised and spent by campaigns and outside groups in the month leading up to early voting. They showed state and national PACs pouring money into a GOP primary on the South Side, where Republicans are choosing between a school voucher architect and a trial lawyer as their nominee to replace state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio). Meanwhile in another district, longtime Democratic state Rep. Liz Campos (D-San Antonio is spending big to fend off a 25-year-old challenger whose family has deep political connections, and could benefit from the surge of new Democratic primary voters turning out to vote.

In the Republican primary, the most recent reports showed a surprise uptick in spending for Jorge Borrego, a 30-year-old former think tank scholar who helped craft Gov. Greg Abbott’s landmark Education Savings Account program in the last legislative session. Borrego worked on education policy at the Austin-based think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation, and is now one of three Republicans seeking their party’s nomination in House District 118. That race once seemed all but sewn up for attorney Desi Martinez, who Lujan recruited to run for his old seat, but who now faces a barrage of attack from Borrego’s deep-pocketed supporters. A national school choice group, AFC Victory Fund, is on TV with ads depicting Martinez on an Obama-era hope poster, and criticizing him for having run as a Democrat in the past. Martinez’s campaign said he does support school vouchers — a defining issue in last cycle’s GOP primaries — but one that’s hardly been discussed this cycle since they were approved in the last session. Similar attacks are flying from the statewide group Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), which accounted for the vast majority of Borrego’s surprising $360,000 haul on the latest campaign finance reports. TLR is spending big to elect candidates who support tort reform, and opposing trial lawyer candidates from within the Republican Party. Now Borrego is getting help from Abbott, who will campaign alongside him at Texas Pride Barbecue on Thursday morning.

Read this article at San Antonio Report - Subscribers Only

Crockett up by double digits in Texas Senate Democratic primary poll

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) holds a double-digit lead over her opponent in a hypothetical Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas, according to a survey released this week. The two-week University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll, which concluded Feb. 16, shows the congresswoman leading Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D), 56 percent to 44 percent, among likely Democratic primary voters in Texas. The poll was conducted just before the start of early voting, which began on Feb. 17 and lasts through Feb. 27. The primary will be held on March 3. The survey also took place before Talarico got a boost of momentum last week from the national controversy surrounding his appearance on CBS’s “Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. The talk show host said CBS told him not to broadcast Talarico’s appearance, citing pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), though the network denied the accusation.

Colbert pushed back, releasing the interview on YouTube, where it garnered millions of views and helped the campaign raise millions of dollars. Some political observers say the surprise development has the potential to be a last-minute game changer in the closely watched primary. Talarico’s standing in the survey may reflect, in part, his relatively low name recognition, though that may shift after the CBS controversy. While the congresswoman outpaces Talarico on favorability — with 71 percent of Democratic voters viewing Crockett favorably and 59 percent viewing Talarico favorably — more than a third of Democratic respondents say they don’t know of or have strong feelings about Talarico. In the survey, 21 percent of Democrats say they don’t know or have no opinion of the Texas State representative, while 15 percent say they hold neither favorable nor unfavorable views of him. By contrast, 12 percent of the same group say they don’t know or have no opinion of Crockett, and 9 percent say they’re neutral on their feelings about her.

Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only

Hillary Clinton set for deposition with House Oversight Committee in Jeffrey Epstein probe

Members of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee are scheduled to question former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday as part of their investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The closed-door interview, which will be videotaped, is set to take place in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons have a house. The committee will meet with former President Bill Clinton the next day for a similar deposition. The in-person interviews come after months of bitter back-and-forth between the former first couple and the committee, which at one point threatened to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena it issued in August.

The committee initially scheduled their depositions for October. Committee chair James Comer, R-Ky., has accused them of having given the panel the runaround since then. The Clintons had volunteered to testify at a public hearing, but Comer said the committee's practice is to conduct closed-door interviews with witnesses before it holds hearings. The Clintons have repeatedly denied wrongdoing related to Epstein and have not been accused of any crimes in connection with him. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee who lost the presidential election to Donald Trump in 2016, has said they have little information to offer the panel about Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. She has accused the committee of using her and her husband to try to distract from Trump's ties to Epstein. "Other witnesses were asked to testify. They gave written statements under oath. We offered that," she told the BBC in an interview last week. "Why do they want to pull us into this? To divert attention from President Trump. This is not complicated."

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From Jalisco to Texas: El Mencho’s death triggers violence across the borderlands

The detention and killing of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, sparked a wave of violence in over 20 states with 252 violent events. But one of the first sparks, happened in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Around 8:00 am on Sunday, several cars were set on fire, blocking highways. At first, there was no clear explanation because there was no visible local security operation that would justify this type of blockade. It wasn’t until around 10 a.m. that questions began to arise about the leader’s death. The presence of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Tamaulipas has been confirmed since 2023. At the time, the U.S. government declared that they had formed an alliance with the “Metros” faction of the Gulf Cartel to gain control of customs trafficking and fuel theft operations (or huachicoleo), and to maintain control over this part of Tamaulipas.

Cecilia Farfan, head of the North American Observatory at The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) explains that “border towns like Reynosa are important because the border is a region where added value is created.” When substances move north, that triggers an increase in their price once they cross the border with the U.S. The value of trafficked firearms and ammunition goes up when they enter Mexico. Although Tamaulipas is geographically far from Jalisco and Michoacán — the CJNG’s main centers of operation — organized crime dynamics closely connect these regions. “El Primito,” identified as originally being from Colima, went to Tamaulipas to take charge of the “Metros” faction. In Reynosa, he reportedly oversaw the structure for fuel trafficking through the bridges connecting Reynosa with the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The U.S. government has considerable information about operators involved in this logistics network, including environmental logistics and fuel smuggling operations carried out through fiscal mechanisms. James and Maxwell Jensen — whose extradition has been requested by the Mexican government for alleged links to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Veracruz and Tamaulipas — are both linked to “El Primito.”

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State Stories

Texas is correcting thousands of errors in controversial Bluebonnet curriculum

Texas will correct more than 4,200 errors in the controversial, state-written Bluebonnet curriculum, which was rolled out in public schools this year, the state board of education ruled on Wednesday. The fixes, which range from missing commas and improperly licensed images to incorrect answer keys and factual errors, were submitted by the Texas Education Agency, which wrote and published the curriculum as part of Texas’ push for state-issued “high-quality” instructional materials. Board members approved the changes, but not before expressing frustration about the “unprecedented” number of errors. Several raised concerns that they hadn’t been caught in the initial approval process and that taxpayers would be on the hook for the costs of reprinting the updated material.

“I’m very concerned about our review process,” said Will Hickman, Republican of Houston. “It feels like we’ve done something wrong, that we have high-quality instructional materials that were approved by us, but then they are coming back with 4,200-plus corrections.” The Republican-led board voted 8-6 to approve the changes, with support from most of the board’s conservatives. Republican Evelyn Brooks of Frisco joined Democrats to oppose them, and Hickman did not take a vote. Bluebonnet has been highly controversial since its adoption two years ago. Portions of the materials integrate Biblical teachings and are viewed by some critics as part of a national effort to return Christianity and prayer into public schools. Texas is also one of the only states in the country to write and print its own textbooks in addition to setting guidelines for private publishers to follow. The Texas Education Agency gained that power through a new law approved by the state Legislature in 2023 that aimed to increase rigor in classrooms and give teachers more ready-made lesson plans. The state-issued materials are optional, but public school districts receive a financial incentive if they adopt them, which critics say represents an effort to increase top-down control of classroom instruction. Just under one-third of the roughly 1,200 districts statewide voted to adopt Bluebonnet this school year.

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Texas Republican warns Trump of Iran regime change: 'You break it, you own it'

U.S. Rep Michael McCaul is speaking out on the risks posed by a U.S. invasion of Iran, an idea reportedly under consideration by President Donald Trump. Ahead of the president's State of the Union speech Tuesday night, McCaul, an Austin Republican who is not seeking reelection this year, warned that were the United States to attempt to remove Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the administration did to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last month, it is unclear who would take his place. "The problem is you don't have a clear leader. (The opposition) don't have weapons, and they don't have communications," he said. "I think it's going to be more complicated than Maduro. That was an extraction. I think regime change in Iran will be... you know when you break it you own it. We've done that a couple times in the Middle East, and I'd be very careful."

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Trump has told advisers that if diplomacy or any initial targeted U.S. attack does not lead Iran to give up its nuclear program, he would consider a larger-scale attack towards driving that country’s leaders from power. During the State of the Union, Trump accused Iran of actively developing nuclear weapons, despite a U.S. strike on nuclear facilities there last year. "They're starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start it all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions," he said. Iran's Foreign Ministry denied that claim Wednesday, writing on social media: "Professional liars are masters at creating the illusion of truth." The former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, McCaul has a history of questioning Trump administration policy. Last year, he warned Trump's global tariffs could potentially drive U.S. allies in Asia and South America to make deals with China. And earlier this month he criticized criticized former Border Patrol commander at-large Greg Bovino for escalating the standoff between Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and protestors in Minneapolis, resulting in at least two deaths. "Agent Bovino came into the situation, and I'd say in fairness he escalated the situation by the way that was handled," McCaul said at a hearing with two of Trump's top border and immigration officials.

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Hood County rejects second data center moratorium, seeks attorney general's opinion on authority

Commissioners in Hood County voted down a proposed moratorium on large-scale data center development Tuesday for the second time this month — instead choosing to seek an opinion from the Texas Attorney General on whether the county even has the authority to enact one. The proposed pause, which failed in a 3-2 vote, would have temporarily halted new large-scale development while county leaders studied potential impacts on water, infrastructure and public health. Commissioners Kevin Andrews and Jack Wilson along with County Judge Ron Massingill opposed the moratorium, with Commissioners Nannette Samuelson and Dave Eagle voting in favor. It follows a similar vote earlier in February.

Commissioners have faced mounting pressure from residents concerned about water usage, noise and long-term environmental effects tied to artificial intelligence-related data centers and power generation projects proposed in the area. During Monday's meeting, dozens of residents spoke during public comment, many urging commissioners to approve a moratorium under Chapter 231, Subchapter K of the Texas Local Government Code, a provision unique to Hood County that allows certain regulations on development. Enacted in 1999, Subchapter K specifically gave the county more regulatory authority in order to better preserve and protect nearby bodies of water including Lake Granbury and the Brazos River. But commissioners said their legal counsel, including County Attorney Matthew Mills, advised them that a moratorium may not be permitted under state law. “We hired the most qualified attorney for development regulations that we've hired to guide us through the development process and what we can do and can't do with Subchapter K," Andrews said. "The short answer: no. The commissioners court of Hood County is not authorized to institute a moratorium on development in the county, as the Texas Legislature has not granted such authority."

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Suzanne Bellsnyder: Rural Texas needs champions, not loyalty tests

(Suzanne Bellsnyder is editor of the Texas Rural Reporter.) A few years back, I left my life in Austin to move back home to the Texas Panhandle to raise my family, help my aging dad and build a business in the community where I grew up. As a girl who was raised in a rural community and an agricultural family, I always felt a void in my city life. Not everyone understands this feeling, and not everyone values the life we live in rural Texas, but a few of us do. Generally, we’re conservative, we are present in our faith, we work hard, and we are often unheard. There is a small but mighty group of us working to advocate for rural Texas in state government, and to bring a better understanding of issues that impact our communities. So when I heard recently that one of those champions for rural Texas, former Texas Rep. Glenn Rogers, had been stripped of an administrative appointment by Texas A&M University, I felt a strong calling to speak up about the situation.

In 2021 and 2023, the Legislature created the Rural Veterinary Incentive Program (RVIP) to encourage the recruitment of young veterinarians into rural communities. Rural places experience shortages of veterinarians – just like we do with nurses, doctors and teachers – mostly because the pay in rural communities is lower, making it harder for students to pay back their education expenses and creating a financial disincentive to return home or move to a community like the one I live in. RVIP helps us build our rural workforce. It’s a critical public health investment. And with threats facing Texas, such as the new world screwworm, it also becomes a matter of national security. As a former policy director in the Texas Senate, I also know that the long-term viability of programs like these depends on good people who understand the fabric of rural Texas communities. Folks like Rogers, with his experience and expertise, are critical in a program like the RVIP. Texas A&M recognized Rogers’ value last fall when it recruited him to begin reviewing applications for the program. And rightly so. Rogers was a joint author of the legislation that created RVIP. He has served as president of the board of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners. He’s a Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine Outstanding Alumnus. And he is a rural practitioner and animal health expert. If those qualifications are insufficient for an advisory role on rural veterinary policy, it is fair to ask what qualifications would be?

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

New details have emerged on the sale to ICE of a New Jersey warehouse with a Dallas connection.

Monday morning, we published a story about a Dallas connection to the sale of a warehouse in New Jersey to ICE. We updated that story twice since, as new details emerged, including who owned the warehouse exactly, and a couple of clues as to why the sale probably went through. Monday night, CoStar News, which covers real estate specifically, was able to confirm with ICE that the agency did purchase the building. It also confirmed that it was owned by DG Roxbury Property Owner, an entity that includes a Goldman Sachs asset management fund as a majority owner and Dalfen Industrial (which is headquartered in Dallas) as a minority owner.

Goldman Sachs says that the company had a “fiduciary obligation” to sell the property when an offer was made, especially since the building had been vacant for two years. In a comment to the Dallas Morning News, Dalfen provided another clue: They sold the property because “of the potential of eminent domain.” Even before this story was published, we had been trying to get a better sense of how these deals are done. We had some of the likely components when we explained why cities are often caught unaware that ICE is looking at a warehouse in their boundaries here. We ended up finding someone familiar with these deals who would speak on background. From the story: In most cases, the warehouse owners—whether it be a real estate development company or an investment firm—are approached by a third-party government contractor, a person with knowledge of such deals but who is not authorized to speak to the press told D Magazine. The risk, the source says, is if the seller rebuffs the government’s offer, the government could attempt to take the property through eminent domain. If successful, the price would be set by the courts and could be lower than what was originally offered. Should that happen, it introduces another issue: If the seller has investors or is part of an asset fund, for instance, its required to protect investors. Turning down the offer and risking seizure at a lower value—along with the attendant legal costs—doesn’t do that. Even if the seller is opposed or uncomfortable with the deal, that risk doesn’t leave them with any good choices, the source said.

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Appeals court strikes down AG’s effort to halt Harris County’s immigrant legal services fund

The Fifteenth Court of Appeals on Tuesday struck down Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s effort to halt Harris County’s legal fund to defend undocumented immigrants in court. While the ruling appears to be a legal win for Harris County, justices concluded that it won’t prevent the state from continuing to argue that the county’s Immigrant Legal Services Fund is a violation of the state’s constitution. The state in December appealed a Harris County judge’s ruling that rejected Paxton’s attempt to shutter the program. In its appeal, the state argued the legal defense fund constitutes unconstitutional grants of public funds to private entities and serves no public purpose.

Harris County attorneys fought that notion and argued that the program — which was approved by the Harris County Commissioners Court in 2021 on a party-line vote — strengthens the economy and keeps families together. The justices’ ruling on Tuesday asserts the program has operated for nearly five years with no apparent objection or controversy. “The state has yet to produce proof that, despite several years in operation, the program has resulted in any actual harm to residents of Harris County or the state," according to the ruling. Harris County Attorney Jonathan Fombonne on Tuesday said the county has a clear authority to continue operating the program. “This is an important win for Harris County and the families who rely on this program,” Fombonne said. “The court recognized that the attorney general’s claims don’t match the facts. This program has operated responsibly for years and continues to serve a legitimate public purpose.”

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Texas man who saved lives at Camp Mystic honored at Trump's State of the Union

The Coast Guard swimmer who saved 165 lives during the deadly flooding at Camp Mystic last year received an award for "extraordinary heroism" during the State of the Union Tuesday night. President Donald Trump awarded the Legion of Merit award to Scott Ruskan, who was seated in the U.S. House of Representatives chamber with one of the girls he rescued from Camp Mystic, 11-year-old Milly Cate McClymond. Trump said it was the first time the two had reunited since the July 4 flooding that killed more than 130 people in the Texas Hill Country, including 28 at the Christian girls' camp that McClymond attended. Trump called the flooding "one of the worst things I've ever seen."

The rescue mission to Camp Mystic had been Ruskan's first after finishing his training with the U.S. Coast Guard roughly six months earlier, according to the military branch. He traveled there on a four-person flight crew but was reportedly the only first responder rescuing campers on the ground at the time. Ruskan received a roughly 30-second standing ovation before a military aide arrived to decorate him with the Legion of Merit medal.

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AG Ken Paxton sues more out-of-state providers for allegedly shipping abortion pills to Texas

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing more providers for allegedly shipping abortion medication into Texas. Paxton's office announced a new suit Tuesday against Aid Access, a nonprofit based in Austria, as well as two medical providers. The office asked a Galveston County judge for a temporary injunction that would prevent the defendants from providing medicine to Texas residents and practicing in the state without a license. The suit alleges Aid Access's founder, Dutch physician Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, and California physician Dr. Remy Coeytaux violated Texas' abortion law by prescribing "abortion-inducing drugs" to Texans and shipping the medications into the state. KERA reached out to Aid Access for comment and did not receive a response.

Gomperts founded the organization in 2018 to "create social justice and improve the health status and human rights of women who do not have the possibility of accessing local abortion services." The "abortion pill" refers to two medications — mifepristone and misoprostol — used to end an early pregnancy. Both are part of the most common type of "medication induced" abortion. In the U.S., 9 in 10 abortions occur within the first trimester, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The World Health Organization said in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, abortions can be safely self-managed outside of a health care facility "in whole or in part." However, the Food and Drug Administration has only approved mifepristone for people less than 10 weeks pregnant. Texas law requires abortions permitted by narrow exceptions to be performed by a physician licensed in the state. Paxton's complaint said by providing abortion medication to Texas residents through a telehealth structure, Aid Access also violates the state law, which says people may not "mail, transport, deliver, prescribe, or provide an abortion-inducing drug in any manner to or from any person or location" in Texas.

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Redistricting pits Democratic colleagues and allies against each other in Texas

The new Texas congressional map that kicked off a nationwide redistricting fight last year was designed to boost Republicans in the midterm elections. First, in the primaries, the map is pitting the newest Democrat in Congress against one of his longest-serving colleagues in a primary. Rep. Christian Menefee took office this month after he won a late January special election to fill the Houston-based seat of Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died last year. But because of the new congressional maps, Menefee is running for a full term in a district composed of a mostly new group of voters. Meanwhile, Rep. Al Green is running in the same district after the Legislature redrew his longtime seat to lean more Republican. It's not the only awkward primary matchup forged in part by redistricting.

Democratic former Rep. Colin Allred, who endorsed current Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson to succeed him in a Dallas-based district in 2024, is now challenging Johnson after a redistricting shuffle that led two other Democrats from the metro area to leave their seats and Allred to leave the Senate race to seek election to the House once again. The race between Johnson and Allred has heated up over stock trading and immigration enforcement, while Menefee and Green's has been fueled by calls for generational change. The primaries Tuesday highlight some of the issues that will echo through Democratic primaries around the country all year. But the matchups have their roots in redistricting, which occasionally pits incumbents against each other — though usually only once every 10 years, after a census. Early voting in Texas has already begun as voters decide which members of Congress they want to keep. “I think that we should always acknowledge and start from the premise that this is what the Trump administration wanted,” Allred said. “They wanted to draw districts together to force Democrats to run against each other. They wanted to sow division and reduce representation, and that’s what their aim was.”

Read this article at NBC News - Subscribers Only

Hutto city officials subject of lawsuit over Cottonwood development

Over two years after development talks began, the city of Hutto and a Houston-based development firm are now at odds in a legal dispute. Hutto Mayor Mike Snyder and the Hutto Economic Development Corp. were among the defendants in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for Midway Development Group LLC on Feb. 19. The filing calls for over $301 million worth of damages – $50 million of which would make up for Midway's estimated loss of profits and $250 million of which are being sought for the benefit of the city's residents. The petition comes nearly five months after the city's board voted to cease negotiations on the buildout of the 250-acre Cottonwood Tract – a move Midway executives called "disappointing." Midway is alleging breach of contract, tortious interference with a contract, bribery and civil conspiracy in its suit, which was filed in the Harris County District Court.

Snyder, who is a member of the EDC board, announced the termination of Midway's plans on social media in October. He reiterated comments in an interview with the ABJ, in which he primarily pointed to the development's "lack of progress" for pushing the vote. Reached by phone on Feb. 19, Snyder said he had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment. In a Feb. 20 Facebook post, Snyder said in response to the lawsuit that the city got few concepts of what the development would look like. "What we did get was a lot of excuses," he said. "And, as anyone who knows me knows, excuses are worthless and results are priceless." Representatives for the Hutto EDC did not respond to a request for comment. Midway was selected to build out the site in December 2023. Company representatives had said they hoped to create a cohesive space for the community, similar to Hutto's Co-Op District, all while increasing commercial and retail offerings and spurring economic growth. Concept plans for the six-phase project included apartments and townhomes, big retailers, restaurants, parks and trails, a potential school site and sports facilities.

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George P. Bush: With smart planning, data centers can strengthen Texas communities

(George P. Bush is an American attorney, U.S. Navy Reserve veteran, and Republican politician who served as the 28th Texas Land Commissioner (2015–2023).) 1930s. By Amanda McCoy Texas sits right at the heart of a generational investment, the data center boom. The Lone Star State is on track to have more data center capacity than any other state. This ongoing expansion means an extensive new pool of job opportunities and long-term economic advantages across Texas. Although this ?sort of innovative landscape ?is worth embracing, Texas needs to home in on these benefits while working with local communities to address their concerns around this new era of infrastructure buildout. Data center development involves long-term water planning, land-use coordination and infrastructure upgrades that can shape a community for decades. Texans living in these communities deserve both the economic tailwinds from these investments and a comprehensive strategy to ensure construction headlines are accompanied by responsible resource management.

The good news is we don’t have to choose between the false narrative of growth and responsibility — we just need the right partners. Texas must put a framework in place to make sure data center development strengthens the fabric of local communities. When it comes to energy, large load customers, such as data centers, should help cover the cost of keeping the grid strong and reliable. That could include investing in their own on-site backup power, supporting new generation or crafting thoughtful ways to respond to high power demand. States such as Indiana and Missouri have enacted capacity commitment frameworks that balance growth and consumer protections by requiring large industrial electricity customers to pay for the costs associated with serving their operations and prevent cost shifting to other ratepayers. Some tech companies operating in Texas have gone further, establishing dedicated energy impact funds to support grid reliability and affordability for the communities around them — a model worth encouraging industrywide. Long-term water planning must also be part of this conversation, especially in drought-prone regions across Texas

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Texas child care centers get business support

The Texas Workforce Commission is launching a new Child Care Business Support initiative to uplift child care providers as a key part of the state’s workforce infrastructure. Licensed and registered child care programs across Texas will have access to free business coaching, training and tools meant to help them stabilize their operations, manage finances and retain staff, according to the commission’s announcement on Monday. To obtain the support, providers must register, complete a business health assessment, receive a personalized learning plan, and connect with one-on-one and group coaches, along with self-paced learning modules and training events in English and Spanish. Joe Esparza, the Texas Workforce Commission chair, said in a statement that the initiative demonstrates his agency’s commitment to helping child care providers manage their business needs.

“Texas child care businesses are a critical link in the workforce system, providing children with safe, nurturing environments while their families contribute to a strong Texas economy,” his statement said. The initiative offers two main types of support. Business coaching is aimed at improving day-to-day operations such as budgeting, marketing and supervising staff. The initiative also connects providers with experts in early childhood and adult learning for training in financial planning and risk management, among other topics. Alberto Treviño III, the Texas Workforce commissioner representing labor, called the initiative a direct investment into the workforce. He said in a statement that the initiative will strengthen the foundation for working families to thrive across Texas. That matters, because inadequate access to child care already costs Texas an estimated $11.4 billion each year in lost productivity and revenue for parents, businesses and taxpayers, according to the University of Texas at Austin. Advocates warn those losses will only increase as more parents scramble for limited care. State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, told The Dallas Morning News last year that more than 5,000 child care centers have closed in Texas since the pandemic. The state lost nearly 75,000 child care seats in 2024 alone, according to the advocacy nonprofit Children at Risk.

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National Stories

Takeaways from surgeon general nominee Casey Means’ Senate confirmation hearing

Dr. Casey Means, the president’s nominee for surgeon general, believes the US is a “nation with a broken heart” reckoning with unprecedented amounts of chronic illness and mental illness. But during a lengthy confirmation hearing on Wednesday, she said vaccine policy would not be her priority. At one point, she sparred with a senator over the benefits of flu vaccination, dodging repeated questions on whether she thinks it’s effective against hospitalization and death. Means was interrogated by senators from both sides of the dais about her positions on vaccines, abortion and contraception and pesticides. She also fielded questions about her qualifications, conflicts and even her personal use of psychedelic mushrooms.

In her opening remarks Wednesday, Means described the “unraveling” of mental and physical health” in the United States and “a society losing its mind” to dementia and depression. “As a physician, I have always been inspired that the root of the word healing means to return to wholeness,” she told senators. “Nothing is more urgent than restoring wholeness for Americans, physically, mentally and societally.” Means said she would push to address root causes of chronic illness through nutrition, steering away from “frankenfoods made in factories,” and said she wants to focus the health care system on understanding “why we are sick and not just reactive sick care.” Advocates and some former officials have criticized Means’ nomination because the surgeon general is typically a physician with clinical experience; Means dropped out of her medical residency program, and her Oregon medical license is inactive. Means acknowledged on Wednesday that her license is not active and she cannot write a prescription. She said she has no plans to reactivate her license. Here are highlights from the roughly two-and-a-half hour hearing. Means’ vaccine views were a common theme throughout the hearing, with both Democrats and Republicans questioning her stance on the childhood vaccine schedule and certain immunizations under new scrutiny by Kennedy appointees, such as the hepatitis B vaccine.

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Washington Post losses topped $100 million in 2025

The Washington Post lost more than $100 million last year, according to people familiar with the matter, financial troubles that contributed to the company’s decision to cut its staff by 30% earlier this month. The Post lost roughly $100 million in 2024 and $77 million in 2023. The paper, known in part for its coverage of the Watergate scandal and the Pentagon Papers, has struggled to find a sustainable business model in the face of waning web traffic and changes to the way consumers access news and information online. In their first major presentation since the layoffs, acting Chief Executive and Publisher Jeff D’Onofrio and Executive Editor Matt Murray held a staff meeting Wednesday in which they described years of overspending and declining productivity.

D’Onofrio told newsroom staff that expenses surpassed revenue between 2022 and 2025 because the company had hired hundreds of staffers in the years prior, according to people in attendance. He didn’t detail the depth of the losses at the meeting. The number of news stories published by the Post has fallen by 42% since 2020, while newsroom costs were 16% higher in 2025 compared with 2020, D’Onofrio said. Murray acknowledged the “painfulness of the moment” in light of the recent cuts. The former Wall Street Journal editor in chief, who took the top spot at the Post in June 2024, tried to reset expectations for newsroom staff. “We don’t want or need to do every story or jump on everything that happens,” Murray said. “We’re not a paper of record; there’s no such thing anymore in today’s world.” Still, he said, “We want to be distinctive, urgent, must-read with every chance we have.” D’Onofrio, who was named to his post earlier this month after the departure of publisher and CEO Will Lewis, said he is looking toward a larger strategic plan. “Bear with me, because that will take some time and obvious care, but I’m keen to get going on it,” he said. “And we are going to go after it, and we’re going to go after it hard, because we owe it to this place to do that.”

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U.S. brings tough demands to Iran nuclear talks

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are entering a crucial round of talks over Iran’s nuclear program Thursday with tough demands, under pressure from hawks in the administration and Republicans in Congress not to agree to a deal that could be criticized as soft. In the talks, now under way in Geneva, the U.S. negotiators were expected to make clear Iran must dismantle its three main nuclear sites—at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan—and deliver all of its remaining enriched uranium to the U.S., officials said. They were also expected to insist that any nuclear deal must last forever and not sunset—the way restrictions rolled off over time under a nuclear pact negotiated under the Obama administration that Republicans have long said was too weak. Trump pulled out of that deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in his first term, reimposing tough sanctions on Iran.

The U.S. demands come after Trump warned in his State of the Union speech Tuesday that Iran continues to pursue a nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles that could hit the U.S., charges Iran denies. The demands could be tough for Tehran to swallow as both sides look for a diplomatic alternative to a U.S. strike. Trump has threatened to take military action if a deal isn’t reached and has massed a force near the country that includes two aircraft carriers and a host of advanced warplanes, destroyers and missile defense. Iran has warned it would treat any attack, however limited, as a trigger for an all-out response. “This may be the last chance to clinch a deal,” said Saeid Golkar, associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and an expert on Iran’s military. “Failing that, the U.S. will next sort out by military means what it can’t resolve through diplomacy.” Iran insists on its right to enrich uranium but is floating proposals to placate the U.S. They include reducing enrichment to as low as 1.5% from up to 60% currently, pausing enrichment for a number of years, or processing it through an Arab-Iranian consortium based in Iran.

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Larry Summers to resign from Harvard over Epstein ties

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers on Wednesday said he will resign from teaching at Harvard University at the end of the academic year, amid the continuing fallout from his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein."I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year," Summers said in a statement. Summers, also a former president of Harvard, has been under fire since the U.S. House Oversight Committee released documents detailing an ongoing personal correspondence between Summers and Epstein.

Summers discontinued teaching roles at Harvard and went on leave as a director of a business and government school at the university in November after the university said it would conduct a review of people named in the Epstein files. “In connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein has accepted Professor Lawrence H. Summers’ resignation from his leadership position as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government," Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton said in a statement. Newton said Summers would remain on leave until he retires from his academic and faculty positions at Harvard at the end of the school year.Summers also resigned in November from the board of OpenAI, the developer of the ChatGPT artificial intelligence tool, after Harvard announced its review.Summers said then he was "deeply ashamed" of his actions and said he would step back from public commitments to "repair relationships with the people closest to me."

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FBI raids home and offices of major Los Angeles school district superintendent

Federal officers conducted a search Wednesday related to the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), federal officials told Fox News Digital. Investigators reportedly targeted Alberto Carvalho’s home in San Pedro and the school district’s downtown headquarters, LAUSD said. FBI agents also raided a Miami property linked to the school executive, according to Fox 11 Los Angeles. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California, confirmed that search warrants were judicially approved but declined to provide additional details on the nature of the investigation, noting that the warrants remain under seal. Carvalho has led LAUSD, the nation’s second-largest school system, since early 2022. He was also recently unanimously reappointed to the position in September 2025.

LAUSD released a statement saying the district is fully cooperating with federal officials. "We have been informed of law enforcement activity at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters and at the home of the Superintendent," it said. "The District is cooperating with the investigation." The home of Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is located in San Pedro, Calif. (KTTV) Early Wednesday morning, staff members at the LAUSD headquarters were reportedly evacuated as federal agents arrived to conduct the search, Fox 11 said. Footage captured multiple investigators, appearing to be FBI agents, going in and out of Carvalho’s home carrying various items, including a small suitcase and several cardboard boxes. Additionally, FBI Miami told the local outlet that a home in Southwest Ranches linked to Carvalho was also searched. The property has since been cleared, the station reported.

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Epstein files are missing records about woman who made claim against Trump

The vast trove of documents released by the Justice Department from its investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein failed to include some key materials related to a woman who made an accusation against President Trump, according to a review by The New York Times. The materials are F.B.I. memos summarizing interviews the bureau did in connection to claims made in 2019 by a woman who came forward after Mr. Epstein’s arrest to say she had been sexually assaulted by both Mr. Trump and the financier decades earlier, when she was a minor. The existence of the memos was revealed in an index listing the investigative materials related to her account, which was publicly released. According to that index, the F.B.I. conducted four interviews in connection with her claims and wrote summaries about each one. But only one of the summaries, which describes her accusations against Mr. Epstein, was released by the Justice Department. The other three are missing.

The public files also do not include the underlying interview notes, which the index also indicates are part of the file. The Justice Department released similar interview notes in connection to F.B.I. interviews with other potential witnesses and victims. It is unclear why the materials are missing. The Justice Department said in a statement to The Times on Monday that “the only materials that have been withheld were either privileged or duplicates.” In a new statement on Tuesday, the department also noted that documents could have been withheld because of “an ongoing federal investigation.” Officials did not directly address why the memos related to the woman’s claim were not released. On Wednesday afternoon, the Justice Department said in a new statement that it was reviewing which documents were released in connection to the index. The department said it would publish any documents “found to have been improperly tagged in the review process” that are legally required to be made public. The woman’s description of being assaulted by Mr. Trump in the 1980s is among a number of uncorroborated accusations against well-known men, including the president, that are contained in the millions of documents released by the Justice Department.

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Hegseth warns Anthropic to let the military use the company’s AI tech as it sees fit, AP sources say

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic’s CEO a Friday deadline to open the company’s artificial intelligence technology for unrestricted military use or risk losing its government contract, according to a person familiar with their meeting Tuesday. Anthropic makes the chatbot Claude and is the last of its peers to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network. CEO Dario Amodei repeatedly has made clear his ethical concerns about unchecked government use of AI, including the dangers of fully autonomous armed drones and of AI-assisted mass surveillance that could track dissent.

Defense officials warned they could designate Anthropic a supply chain risk or use the Defense Production Act to essentially give the military more authority to use its products even if it doesn’t approve of how they are used, according to the person familiar with the meeting and a senior Pentagon official, who both were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The development, which was reported earlier by Axios, underscores the debate over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how the technology could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance. It also comes as Hegseth has vowed to root out what he calls a “woke culture” in the armed forces. “A powerful AI looking across billions of conversations from millions of people could gauge public sentiment, detect pockets of disloyalty forming, and stamp them out before they grow,” Amodei wrote in an essay last month. The person familiar called the tone of the meeting cordial but said Amodei didn’t budge on two areas he has established as lines Anthropic won’t cross — fully autonomous military targeting operations and domestic surveillance of U.S. citizens. The Pentagon objects to Anthropic’s ethical restrictions because military operations need tools that don’t come with built-in limitations, the senior Pentagon official said. The official argued that the Pentagon has only issued lawful orders and stressed that using Anthropic’s tools legally would be the military’s responsibility.

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Lead Stories

Key takeaways from Trump’s State of the Union address

President Trump delivered a State of the Union address to the nation, setting a record for the longest speech of its kind. Polls show him struggling to connect with the public on the economy and Republicans bracing for a challenging midterm election. In an address heavy on patriotism, Trump billed the past year as a “turnaround for the ages.” Here’s a look at the main takeaways from Tuesday’s address before a joint session of Congress. Trump addressed the nation only days after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling striking down his sweeping tariffs agenda and the president’s swift move to impose 10% tariffs on imports from all countries for 150 days. He said last Saturday that he would raise duties to 15% but hasn’t done so yet. Trump said “everything was working well” and the U.S. was gaining revenue through tariffs. He bemoaned the Supreme Court’s ruling but said foreign countries and companies wanted to keep the tariffs in place.

The president said tariffs were “saving the country” through the “kind of money we’re taking in” and implausibly said tariff revenue could one day replace the nation’s income tax, “taking a great financial burden off the people that I love.” But Trump’s new tariff approach is premised on a legal authority never before used by a president for tariffs and is likely to be challenged in court. The stage was set for a confrontation between Trump and the Supreme Court after the president vented his frustration over the court’s tariffs ruling last week. He previously said the families of justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett—whom he nominated during his first term—should be “embarrassed” they voted with the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts. But there were no major blows. When Trump arrived and walked past the area where the justices were seated, he shook hands with the four justices in attendance, including Roberts and Coney Barrett. Gorsuch didn’t attend. During his speech, the president referred to the tariffs decision as an “unfortunate ruling,” but avoided attacking the justices by name. Trump blamed Democrats for making the high cost of living an issue. “You caused that problem,” he said, eliciting a standing ovation from Republicans. “Their policies created high prices; our policies are rapidly ending them.” Trump painted a rosy picture of declining costs on major goods—eggs, beef and fuel—though prices haven’t broadly fallen.

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Key witness who saw immigration agent fatally shoot friend dies in car crash

The passenger in the car when Texas driver Ruben Ray Martinez was fatally shot last year by a federal immigration agent gave a lengthy statement to lawyers for the slain man's family disputing the government's version of events. That witness died Saturday in a fiery car crash in San Antonio, according to a lawyer for Martinez's family. Joshua Orta rode with Martinez on a Spring Break trip last March when they came upon a group of local police and federal agents directing traffic around an accident at a busy intersection. In a statement issued Friday, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that Martinez “intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent,” thereby causing another agent to fire “defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.”

The Associated Press and other media outlets reported last week on details of Martinez’s death, which would mark at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since President Donald Trump’s coast-to-coast immigration crackdown. DHS made no public disclosure for 11 months that one of its agents pulled the trigger. According to the draft affidavit prepared following interviews in September, Orta reportedly said that Martinez did not hit an officer with his vehicle, that their car was “just crawling as we were trying to turn around” and that a federal agent fired into the driver’s side window from about two feet away without “giving any warning, commands, or opportunity to comply.” San Antonio Police said a 25-year-old man was killed Saturday when he drove into a curved highway exit at a high rate of speed before losing control and slamming into a utility pole. Passengers were able to escape as the vehicle caught fire, but they were unable to pull out the driver. Lawyers for Rachel Reyes, Martinez’s mother, said Orta was the man who was killed in the car accident. The draft affidavit indicated Martinez’s family is preparing to file a wrongful death lawsuit in the earlier shooting.

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Ted Cruz endorses Steve Toth in race against U.S. Rep. Crenshaw

U.S. Sen Ted Cruz on Tuesday endorsed state Rep. Steve Toth in his campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, the Houston Republican who has come under fire from right-wing media figures. In a post on X, Cruz said Toth had, "faithfully served the people of Texas in the Texas House of Representatives, championing our Texas values of liberty, limited government, and constitutional governance." The endorsement comes as President Donald Trump has stayed out of the race. Cruz and Crenshaw clashed around the Jan. 6 riots in 2020, with Cruz supporting Trump's unfounded claim the 2020 election was stolen and Crenshaw calling out the effort as a "political theater." However, they both criticized former Fox News host Tucker Carlson last year for having the white nationalist and Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes on his podcast.

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Trump administration considers requiring banks to collect citizenship information

The Trump administration is considering executive action that could require banks to report more information on the citizenship of their customers, the latest move by the White House to crack down on illegal immigration, according to four people familiar with the matter. The steps under consideration include a potential executive order requiring banks to collect information from all customers — both new and existing — and could require new forms of documentation, such as a passport, to verify citizenship, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Bank executives and industry experts fear the potential new documentation requirements would create new impediments to obtaining financial services in the United States, though people familiar with the administration’s thinking said the details of any forthcoming order or similar action have yet to be decided.

It’s not clear whether the order would require banks to simply collect more information about their customers or go further by closing the accounts of individuals who don’t have the added documentation, such as a passport. Approximately half the U.S. population doesn’t have a passport. The White House declined to comment on the possibility of an executive order on immigration, which was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal. A separate person familiar with the administration’s deliberations said officials within the Treasury Department were working on the initiative and weighing steps to crack down on undocumented immigrants’ access to bank accounts. “Any reporting about potential policymaking that has not been officially announced by the White House is baseless speculation," White House spokesman Kush Desai said. Jeremy Kress, associate professor of business law at the University of Michigan, said the coming order could prevent many legal residents from accessing traditional banks, pushing them toward higher-cost, less regulated financial services. “This is a way to weaponize the banking system to achieve political ends, which is exactly what the Trump administration criticized the Biden administration of doing with respect to climate and DEI,” he said, referring to “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives.

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State Stories

Republican appalls internet with defense of House colleague accused of sex misconduct

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) is facing mounting calls from within his own party to resign as details trickle out about his alleged sexual misconduct against a House staffer who died in a gruesome suicide last year. But one of his Texas colleagues is pushing back on that whole effort: Rep. Troy Nehls. Gonzales, who represents a sprawling district stretching from the San Antonio suburbs to the border near El Paso, allegedly carried on an extramarital affair with the staffer, Uvalde regional director Regina Santos-Aviles, and asked her over text to send him "sexy pics," which caused her to express discomfort. So far, Gonzales has resisted calls to resign — and Nehls appears to agree.

"We can't afford him to resign," said Nehls, a former Houston-area sheriff, in conversation with reporters on Tuesday. "Should he pull out of the race? Well, that's up to Tony, but the voters are halfway through this. Let's just see if he wins his primary, but it's just not a good look." Nehls' comments provoked a swift backlash from commenters on social media. "Troy Nehls says the quiet part out loud. 'We can’t afford him to resign.' If @RepTonyGonzales resigns, Republicans will be down to 217 Rs in the House," wrote Jeremy Wallace of the Houston Chronicle. "'It's not a good look' — Rep Nehls says of Rep Gonzales' extramarital affair while standing next to Attorney General Paxton," wrote Quorum Report's Scott Braddock, referencing Paxton's own allegations of marital infidelity. "I think I’m starting to understand why we have so many sexual predators in government," wrote Texas state representative candidate Sara McGee. "It’s because they wouldn’t be able to get a job anywhere else."

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Bastrop County drops Charlie Kirk highway renaming proposal

A proposal to rename a stretch of road in a small Texas county after slain conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk has been put on hold after dozens of people showed up at a meeting Monday to weigh in on the resolution, according to local media outlets. Bastrop County commissioners were set to vote on whether to support a resolution designating FM 969, a nearly 29-mile stretch connecting Bastrop to the Austin area, as the “Charlie Kirk Corridor.” The resolution called on state lawmakers representing the county to sponsor legislation in the next session to codify the change.

“Bastrop County Commissioners Court urges members of the Texas Legislature to support the passage of this designation in recognition of Charlie Kirk’s contributions to encouraging civic engagement, expanding youth participation in political processes, defending free expression, and promoting core conservative principles,” the resolution stated. The issue drew a crowd of more than 100 people to the Bastrop County Courthouse for Monday’s meeting, where attendees took turns voicing their support and dissent, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Some reportedly held signs reading “No” to show their opposition. The alternating comments came after the resolution was tabled at the request of Commissioner David Glass, who later told the newspaper an influx of emails led to the decision. “Two-thirds of them were from very considerate constituents asking me to postpone the vote and/or to reconsider the resolution,” Glass said. “I felt that I would honor their request. I replied to every email myself. The other 1/3 were very hateful with threats, etc.”

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Tony Gonzales defiant after affair revelations: ‘Not gonna resign’

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales on Tuesday declared he will not give in to mounting pressure from Republican colleagues to step down over his affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. “I’m not gonna resign,” Gonzales, a third-term Republican from San Antonio, told CNN in the halls of Congress Tuesday afternoon. “I work every day for the people of Texas.” Gonzales was set to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson later in the afternoon. On Monday, Johnson, R-La., called the “allegations” about the staffer “very serious” but said he was waiting on the House Ethics Committee to investigate the matter.

On Tuesday, former California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who served as House speaker before Johnson, told CBS News that Gonzales should step down. "If this was in a business, he would've been fired," McCarthy said. Several hard-right GOP members of Congress publicly condemned Gonzales in recent days, after the San Antonio Express-News reported that Gonzales had repeatedly pressed an aide in 2024 to send him “a sexy pic.” She pushed back and told him he was going “too far, boss” in the text messages, which the Express-News obtained. Last week, the Express-News was first to publish a verified text message in which aide Regina Santos-Aviles told a coworker that she had “an affair with our boss.” U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Nancy Mace of South Carolina on Monday called Gonzales’ behavior “disgusting” and “disturbing.” Two Texas Republicans – U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound and Rep. Chip Roy of Austin – have urged Rep. Tony Gonzales to drop out of his competitive GOP primary race. Roy previously endorsed Gonzales’ opponent, YouTuber and gun manufacturer Brandon Herrera, in 2024. On Tuesday, Gonzales did not address CNN’s question about the authenticity of the text messages or answer whether he had an extramarital affair with a staffer, and has repeatedly refused to answer detailed questions from the Express-News. However, he told CNN on Tuesday, “There will be an opportunity for all the details and facts to come out. What you've seen is not all the facts." U.S. House ethics rules prohibit members from having sexual relationships with their employees. Gonzales has been under investigation by the Office of Congressional Conduct over his relationship with Santos-Aviles since at least November, according to a letter of inquiry the office sent to Santos-Aviles’ widower, Adrian Aviles, that month. Mace on Tuesday filed a resolution directing the House Ethics Committee to “preserve and publicly release” records pertaining to inquiries into “sexual harassment and unwelcome sexual advances” by members of Congress. "This is an abuse of power,” Mace posted on X. "Congressional staff serve their country. They should never have to endure predatory behavior from the people they work for.”

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Is Austin CrowdStrike’s home? Texas court weighs trade secrets lawsuit.

Cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike was in court Tuesday in Austin arguing the city isn’t its home. The location of its headquarters — which it says is in California — is at the heart of an argument over the proper venue for a trial in a lawsuit alleging the company was founded on stolen trade secrets. The 3rd Business Court Division’s decision will determine whether the intellectual property case can go forward. The lawsuit filed by GoSecure Inc. claims two CrowdStrike employees, including a co-founder, “ripped off” systems GoSecure developed for cybersecurity. It says CrowdStrike’s ubiquitous Falcon platform was based on the data. CrowdStrike denies the allegations.

But its chief concern Tuesday was getting the case thrown out of the Texas court and back to California, where it was originally filed. Marcy Greer, an attorney representing CrowdStrike, asked for the online hearing to be closed to the public citing the presence of an Austin American-Statesman reporter and confidential data in their motions and presentations. Judge Melissa Andrews closed the court over the newspaper’s protest. GoSecure, a California company, sued its adversary in Texas after, it says, a court in its home state took too long to produce results. At the heart of the current dispute is whether CrowdStrike has sufficient business ties to Texas for the case to be heard in Austin. While CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. moved its principal offices to Austin in 2021, corporate offices for Crowdstrike Inc. are located in Sunnyvale, Calif. In court documents, CrowdStrike Inc. argues its “decision makers” are all located outside Texas and its Austin office is merely a “satellite” filled with mostly junior sales staff.

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Year in review: Top 5 changes President Jim Davis brought to UT

One year ago, the University of Texas System Board of Regents unanimously appointed then chief operations officer Jim Davis as UT’s interim president. The former administrator has overseen significant changes to the Forty Acres in his first year on the job. Davis is the first UT president in more than 100 years not to come from an academic background. His experience includes time as a UT student and graduate, Navy cryptologist, deputy attorney general and senior administrator overseeing legal affairs and operations at UT. There was no national search or committee involved in his selection last February. UT System Chair Kevin Eltife charged the new president with improving the school’s operational efficiency. Eltife said he had full confidence that Davis’s passion, knowledge of campus and commitment to the role will lead UT to success.

In the last year, Davis has named new leaders, bolstered campus safety and reassured faculty that UT would support them amid federal cuts to research. Davis has also declined all interview requests with the Austin American-Statesman about decisions made during his tenure thus far, but told The Alcalade, UT’s alumni magazine, in August that “I bring a different set of experiences to questions that many universities haven’t faced in a long time.” Shortly after becoming interim president, Davis ended the Skills & Experience Flags Program, a series of UT-specific requirements that every Longhorn had to take to graduate. The program required students to take courses in quantitative reasoning, cultural diversity and global cultures. Former President Jay Hartzell charged a committee with reviewing the program after conservative lawmakers targeted core courses focused on race and gender. Davis’s decision to end the program came after the committee said they supported the program’s value and suggested tweaks to better align it with graduate requirements. To determine future requirements, Davis launched a core curriculum review committee aimed at ensuring graduates leave UT with a broad and ideologically diverse mix of courses. In an effort to better steward limited university resources and to broaden overly “fragmented” degree programs, Davis announced several reorganizations across multiple schools and colleges.

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San Antonio mayor says she won't step down from committee, issue written apology if censured

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones on Tuesday said she won’t step down from a key committee role, undergo leadership training or issue another written apology if the majority of City Council votes to censure her on Friday. “I’m not doing that,” Jones said at a a City Hall press conference when asked if she would give up her seat on council’s Governance Committee — one of the demands outlined in the proposed censure resolution council is scheduled to vote on Friday. The document also calls for Jones to undergo leadership training and issue a written apology to District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur with whom she had a heated exchange earlier this month. Five members of council issued a complaint about the mayor’s treatment of Kaur, which took place behind closed doors — a move that led to the upcoming censure vote.

Under San Antonio city policy, a vote to censure the mayor or a council member is a largely symbolic move meant to signal disapproval. Still, such a vote against Jones would be unprecedented, since no Alamo City mayor has been formally censured by colleagues before. During Tuesday’s press conference, Jones told reporters she had already apologized in person to Kaur for “hurting her feelings,” adding that it was “certainly not” her intention to offend the councilwoman. The mayor also said she had already apologized to Kaur in writing, so a formal apology letter shouldn’t be needed to resolve the matter. Further, Jones said she wouldn’t participate in the recommended leadership training — which would include discussions on civility, de-escalation, conflict resolution and effective workplace interactions — unless the rest of council also agreed to take part. “I think that’s something that if the council wanted to undertake as a collective, then I would be more than happy to do,” Jones said. Jones’ press conference came a day after a majority of City Council decided to move forward with the censure vote during closed-door executive session. An independent third party investigation also found that Jones’ verbal spat with Kaur violated the anti-harassment and workplace violence clauses in City Council’s code of conduct.

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As some cities cancel DART withdrawal elections, Addison moves ahead

Voters in Addison will decide this spring whether the city stays in or leaves Dallas Area Rapid Transit after city leaders voted to move forward with a planned withdrawal election. The city council on Tuesday voted 5-2 not to rescind the election, even as Plano and Farmers Branch canceled theirs. Addison is one of six cities that called for a withdrawal election amid concerns with DART’s funding and governance structure. The vote came after months of negotiations between DART and the several member cities looking to leave the system over funding and governance. In a deal struck between the agency, city leaders and the Regional Transportation Council, DART will give $360 million to member cities over the next six years to use on transit-related projects — if they sign onto the agreement.

Addison would receive $8 million back. The DART board of directors is also set to be restructured for each member city to have a representative on the board. This reduces voting power for the city of Dallas. Transportation DART cities could cancel withdrawal elections after agency approves ‘Hail Mary’ deal Pablo Arauz Peña , February 23, 2026 Four cities have confirmed they're considering a new DART plan to keep the agency intact. Council member Chris DeFrancisco said the deal isn’t perfect, but “it represents progress.” Plano on Monday approved its agreement with DART; Farmers Branch City Council voted Tuesday to cancel its election. Addison leaders said the question of whether to stay in DART should go to voters. "The poison pills that DART puts in their agreements are absolutely unacceptable and ... take away the right of the people voting," council member Randy Smith said. After a failed vote in December, council members voted 5-2 last month to call the election, citing DART's financial accountability. Ahead of Tuesday's discussion, residents urged council members to protect DART in the city. Addison’s only light rail station is on the newly opened Silver Line.

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Spring man accused of giving abortion drug to mother of his unborn child

Sheriff investigators have charged a Spring man who they said secretly gave an abortion pill to the mother of his unborn child. Montgomery County Sheriff Office deputies were called to a hospital in The Woodlands on Saturday to investigate a report that a woman had a miscarriage under suspicious circumstances. The victim told deputies she believed the father of her baby had secretly given an abortion drug to her, without her knowledge or consent, to end her pregnancy. The child, whom her mother named Presley Mae, was stillborn at the hospital, according to deputies. Detectives with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and crime scene investigators were then called to the hospital.

Investigators say they found the suspect, 25-year-old Jon Rueben Gabriel Demeter, had tried to convince the mother to undergo an abortion on multiple occasions, and even offered to pay for her to travel out of state. The mother repeatedly refused and expressed her intent to carry the pregnancy to term, according to the sheriff's office. Investigators said Demeter got mifepristone and gave it to the mother without her knowledge or consent with the intent to cause the death of the unborn child. Demeter was arrested Feb. 23, 2026, and is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury-family violence. Authorities said more charges may be added. He is being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office says Demeter has asked for a bail review on Wednesday. Sheriff Wesley Doolittle said "Our thoughts and prayers remain with the mother and her family as they mourn the loss of Presley Mae."

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Houston Rep. Al Green again removed from Congress during Trump speech

U.S. Rep. Al Green, the Houston Democrat in the midst of a primary fight for his political life, was again removed from the House chamber during a speech by President Donald Trump. Minutes into Trump’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday in Washington, Green was escorted out. Last March, Green was removed from the House chamber after interrupting Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress when he shouted and pointed his cane at the president. He was subsequently censured over the outburst.

On Tuesday night, when Trump walked toward the podium before his speech, Green held up a sign that said, “Black People Aren’t Apes!” It was a reference to a racist video Trump’s social media account posted and subsequently deleted earlier this month that depicted former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. “I don't think the president has really received the message that it's unacceptable,” Green told reporters after his removal. “He seems to think he can do these dastardly things with impunity. Tonight I wanted him to have a person confront him and let him know that Black people aren't apes, that Black people are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior.” The 78-year-old Green, the longtime representative of the 9th Congressional District, is seeking reelection in the newly redrawn 18th Congressional District. He switched after Texas Republicans undertook a rare mid-decade redistricting — at the behest of Trump — in an attempt to help the GOP win up to five additional congressional seats in Texas during the November midterm. Green is facing U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, 37, in the March 3 primary. Menefee was recently sworn in to Congress after winning a special election runoff to complete the term of late U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner. The seat was vacant for nearly a year, which helped Republicans maintain a slim advantage in the House and push through Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill.

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Another city joins Plano in canceling DART withdrawal election while 3 others keep vote

Farmers Branch decided Tuesday night to join Plano in calling off an election to cut ties with Dallas Area Rapid Transit — but Addison and the Park Cities are going forward with their plans to put membership in DART on the May ballot. Plano leaders voted Monday to cancel their referendum and Irving will decide on Thursday. Highland Park announced Tuesday it will keep its May election to let voters decide the town’s future with DART, joining University Park in the decision. Negotiations to find compromises to DART’s funding, governance and service have succeeded in convincing two of six cities with scheduled votes to cancel their elections just days away from deadlines to finalize ballot language. Proposed deals to convince its member cities include giving smaller cities more representation on DART’s governing board and returning some sales tax back to cities for transportation-related uses.

“No one’s going to walk away from this happy,” Farmers Branch Mayor Terry Lynne said before his council voted 4-1 to cancel its election. “Both sides have to give … it gives us a starting point that we’ve never had before.” More than 50 people packed the Farmers Branch council chambers and dozens of speakers addressed City Council members, with most in favor of keeping DART. In Addison, more than 30 people addressed the council, many in favor of keeping DART but many in favor of letting town voters decide the city’s future with the transit agency. The Park Cities did not consider an ordinance to cancel elections. Nearly half of DART’s 13 member cities — six total — had scheduled an election this spring to leave the system after citing concerns with its funding, governance and subpar services compared to the cost of a one-cent local sales tax that each member pays to the agency. The opportunity to hold an election to leave DART comes every six years, per state law.

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Medical board: Ken Paxton made 'inaccurate' claims supporting Houston doctor

Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office made “numerous inaccurate statements” in court filings and statements when it sided with a Houston doctor in her legal battle against the Texas Medical Board, state regulators said. The medical board’s response came one week after Paxton’s office announced it would not defend the state agency in a lawsuit filed by Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, an ear, nose and throat specialist who has garnered national attention for her opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and support for using ivermectin, an anti-parasite medication, to treat the virus. Paxton’s office accused the medical board of “acting on nothing more than personal animosity and spite” when it issued a public reprimand to Bowden over her treatment of a COVID-19 patient.

“I will not stand by as Dr. Bowden has her Constitutional rights trampled and ability to serve her patients impeded with an illegal reprimand,” Paxton said in a statement. The Texas Medical Board said some of Paxton's claims were erroneous, though a spokesman for the agency declined to specify which statements in the court filing were inaccurate. “(The board) has provided ample justification for disciplining Dr. Bowden for attempting to treat a patient at a hospital in which she did not have privileges,” the board said in a statement last week. “(The board) intends to vigorously contest these claims and will stand firm to ensure hospitalized Texans receive care from doctors who are authorized to be on hospital premises.” The medical board is still evaluating its options for legal representation in the case now that Paxton’s office is not defending the agency, the spokesman said. The Texas Medical Board is a state agency tasked with protecting the public by licensing and disciplining physicians and other health care professionals. Paxton’s office would normally represent the agency in litigation. But his office has refused to defend state agencies dozens of times in the past, a 2023 investigation by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune found.

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Ted Cruz's air safety bill blocked by House after Pentagon opposition

A more than year-long effort by Sen. Ted Cruz to ramp up airline safety regulations in response to the D.C. plane crash last year was blocked by House Republicans Tuesday after the Pentagon came out against the bill. The bipartisan legislation, which passed the Senate unanimously in December, would have required airplanes and helicopters to use tracking technology to better locate aircraft around them — technology the military helicopter that collided with a jet plane in D.C. last year was not using, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The bill only got a vote of 264-133, short of the two-thirds threshold required for passage in the House, where it was opposed by GOP leadership. Almost every Democrat and 77 Republicans, including Texas congressmen Troy Nehls, Chip Roy and Michael McCaul, voted for the legislation. The vote came after the Pentagon on Monday said that it was reversing course and opposing the bill. A spokesman called the new requirement overly costly and said it wouldcreate significant risk for military aircraft, adding the Senate failed to include “mutually discussed updates” to the bill. Cruz said in a statement Monday that the legislation, known as the ROTOR Act, included language added "at the Pentagon’s behest to best protect classified flights." Cruz is the chairman of the Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee, which led the legislation. "(Military training) flights— like the one that killed 67 people last January — should have to broadcast their position using ADS-B Out in busy airspace like every other military and civilian flight," Cruz said in the joint statement with U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, the ranking member on the committee. "We appreciate the dialogue with the Pentagon and look forward to the ROTOR Act’s passage so that our skies are made safer immediately.”

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Prairieland ICE center trial: Officer testifies about being shot, returning fire

A collection of just shy of two dozen people furious at U.S. government efforts to deport illegal immigrants gathered outside a detention center in rural Johnson County on the symbolically significant July 4 to carry out a violent rebuke, prosecutors described to a jury in Fort Worth on Tuesday at a joint trial for nine defendants. With a rifle, Benjamin Song, a former Marine Corps reservist, fired upon Alvarado police Lt. Thomas Gross just after Gross arrived at the center, prosecutors allege. A projectile entered his upper shoulder, left the back of his neck and took a path through tissue and muscle, but avoided vital organs. Song confessed to three co-defendants, who have pleaded guilty, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith said in the government’s opening statement. The accomplices will testify at the trial, Smith forecast.

“They’re going to tell it to you,” Smith said of the expected testimony on Song’s admission. Defense attorneys who represent eight of the nine defendants offered in their openings a radically different account of evidence they said would fall short of establishing a sophisticated conspiracy to commit violence. Rather, many of the defense attorneys asserted, their clients intended to participate in nothing more than a noise demonstration to bring hope to detainees. One is a mechanical engineer; another operates a benign book club, the defense attorneys said. Defense attorney Phillip Hayes, who represents Song, reserved his opening statement for a time later in the trial. The indictment represents an attempt to prosecute citizens for their political beliefs, defense attorneys have argued. Defense attorney Warren St. John, who represents Meagan Morris, said his client was present at the detention center but was not involved in a crime. “She didn’t get out of the van one time,” St. John said in his opening statement. Beyond Song and Morris, who is referred to as Bradford Morris in the indictment, the defendants are Autumn Hill, referred to as Cameron Arnold in the indictment, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto and Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada. Gross took the witness stand for the government, recalling being shot, falling to the ground and returning fire at a moving silhouette. The emotional toll of the shootings continues, the lieutenant testified. “It’s a day I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life,” Gross said. The trial is to continue on Wednesday with the government’s case.

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County Stories

Tarrant incumbent clerk calls out Dem candidate for misstating the office’s role

The incumbent Tarrant County Clerk is calling out a Democratic primary candidate for not understanding the job. In the Star-Telegram’s 2026 March 3 Primary Election Questionnaire, Democrat candidate Lydia Bean said the county clerk has authority over the elections administration. “The incumbent has helped our County Judge advance his voter suppression agenda,” Bean said in the questionnaire. “I will stand up for voting rights as the deciding vote on the Tarrant County Elections Commission.” For the average resident, the county clerk’s office is where someone goes to file or get copies of important personal and business records. According to the website, the office also collects over $24 million in fees and fines and $17 million in bonds.

County Clerk Mary Louise Nicholson, who is running for re-election in November, said her office has not had authority in the elections administration since 1999, when the county commissioners created the elections administrator position. Nicholson has held the seat since 2011. Bean, a small business owner, was the Democratic nominee for Texas House District 93 in 2020 but lost to Republican Matt Krause. By statute, the Tarrant County Clerk is the vice chair of the County Election Commission, which meets regularly for updates from the elections administrator about election matters. The Texas Legislature in 2011 outlined that the commission cannot do anything beyond appointing, accepting the resignation of or recommending the termination of the county’s election administrator. The commission is chaired by the county judge and includes the tax-assessor collector, the county Republican Party chair and the county Democratic Party chair. As of now, four of the five are Republicans. “Given the above, the idea the County Clerk can advance an agenda of voter suppression or otherwise influence an election outcome is baseless,” Nicholson said to the Star-Telegram in a statement. Bean said she stands behind her questionnaire response because Nicholson “refused to stand up to” County Judge Tim O’Hare when the previous elections administrator, Heider Garcia, resigned in April 2023 following disagreements with O’Hare.

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National Stories

U.S. private school tuition nears $50K as costs climb, boarding programs face pressure

Average tuition at U.S. private schools is approaching $50,000 a year, according to a report from S&P Global Ratings. Among 59 rated schools, day school tuition rose about 5% to an average of $49,745, while boarding school tuition increased 3.5% to $75,466. Though still steep, the increases were smaller than last year’s surge. Despite higher prices, enrollment grew at nearly two-thirds of the schools S&P tracks, with median enrollment up 6% to 705 students. Tuition accounts for roughly 73% of revenue at these institutions. S&P analyst Sue Ryu said independent schools retain strong pricing power and are relatively well positioned compared with other education providers, even as the overall school-age population declines and competition expands through school choice programs. To attract students, many schools are investing in upgraded athletic complexes, wellness centers and STEM facilities. At the same time, operating expenses are rising, particularly for boarding schools. Half of the schools reporting deficits in fiscal 2025 were boarding institutions, prompting some to scale back or reconsider those programs. Ryu noted that schools with sizable endowments can better absorb the higher costs, while smaller institutions are increasingly questioning whether boarding remains financially sustainable.

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In Democratic response to Trump, Abigail Spanberger frames the party's midterm message

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger blasted President Trump's policies and invoked a civic call for Americans to push for better leadership, in a rebuttal to the State of the Union that offered a preview of how Democrats plan to message against the GOP in this year's midterm elections. "In his speech tonight, the president did what he always does, he lied, he scapegoated and he distracted, and he offered no real solutions to our nation's pressing challenges, so many of which he is actively making worse," Spanberger said. Speaking from Colonial Williamsburg as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the recently sworn in governor structured her address around three questions: "Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?"

Spanberger, who previously served in Congress for six years,became the first woman elected governor of Virginia in November, flipping control of the office from Republican to Democrat. Prior to her career on Capitol Hill, she served in the CIA. Her gubernatorial race was under the national spotlight as one of the first major indicators of voters' political leanings during the second Trump administration. Spanberger focused her campaign on affordability, a message Democrats continue to embrace ahead of the midterm elections and one that featured heavily in her roughly 13-minute speech. "As I campaigned for governor last year, I traveled to every corner of Virginia and I heard the same pressing concern everywhere: costs are too high — in housing, health care, energy and child care," she said, underlining that Democrats "across the country are laser focused on affordability." She slammed what she called Trump's "reckless trade policies." "Americans are paying the price," she said, "and even though the Supreme Court struck these tariffs down four days ago, the damage to us, the American people, has already been done."

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Epstein hid secret files in storage units across US

Jeffrey Epstein hid computers and photographs from United States authorities in secret storage lockers across the country, The Telegraph can reveal. Documents uncovered by this newspaper show the paedophile paid private detectives to remove equipment from his Florida home in an apparent attempt to prevent investigators from finding it. The documents also show that he rented six storage units across the US and used them to house items from his properties, including computers from Little Saint James, his private island in the Caribbean. He leased at least one unit from 2003, when he was part of a Florida social set that included Donald Trump. Credit card receipts obtained by The Telegraph show regular storage payments continued until 2019, the year of his death.

Search warrants reviewed by The Telegraph suggest US authorities never raided the lockers, raising the possibility that they may contain unseen evidence relating to Epstein and his associates, including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Lord Mandelson. In December, the US department of justice (DoJ) released thousands of files relating to the financier. The revelations they contain led Lord Mandelson to resign from the Labour Party and quit the House of Lords. They have also led to the arrest of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office and the prospect of his removal from the line of succession. On Sunday, a Cabinet minister suggested the former prince could face a judge-led inquiry. However, while Epstein has long been suspected of collecting compromising material on his associates, relatively few such photographs or videos have emerged. That has fuelled claims that the DoJ is seeking to shield powerful figures from scrutiny, although authorities have repeatedly denied this.

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Mortgage rates hit lowest level in nearly 4 years, but homebuyers are still stuck on the sidelines

Mortgage rates dropped sharply last week, and while that helped to prolong gains in refinancing, homebuyer demand seemed unimpressed. Total mortgage application volume was essentially flat, rising just 0.4% compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $832,750 or less, decreased to 6.09% from 6.17%, with points decreasing to 0.53 from 0.56, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. That was the lowest level since September 2022.

Applications to refinance a home loan increased 4% last week from the week before and were 150% higher than the same week one year ago, when rates were 79 basis points higher. Refinancing has been on a bit of a tear lately, as rates drop. While the comparisons to a year ago are quite large, it is important to take into account that refinancing was quite low at this time last year. Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home dropped 5% for the week and were 12% higher year-over-year. While lower mortgage rates are improving affordability, home prices are still slightly higher than they were at this time last year and economic uncertainty is weighing heavily on consumers. Redfin cited this uncertainty in a report showing that nearly 40,000 home-sale agreements nationwide were canceled in January, equal to 13.7% of homes that went under contract. That’s up from 13.1% a year ago and the highest January share in records dating back to 2017. Borrowers are also sought more savings in adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), which are slightly riskier but offer lower rates. “The ARM share stayed above 8 percent, as ARM rates remained more than 80 basis points below conforming fixed rates,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist in a release. “This is giving payment-sensitive borrowers or those seeking larger loans, an incentive to choose this product offering.”

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Hegseth appeals ruling blocking punishment of Dem senator over ‘illegal orders’ video

War Secretary Pete Hegseth moved to reignite his high-profile clash with Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., on Tuesday, appealing a federal court ruling that blocked the Pentagon from punishing the Democratic lawmaker over a video urging U.S. service members to defy "illegal orders." The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on behalf of Hegseth, the Department of War, the U.S. Navy and Navy Secretary John Phelan. The filing follows a ruling earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who determined the Pentagon likely violated Kelly’s First Amendment rights, and those of "millions of military retirees," when it formally censured him on Jan. 5. Leon blocked the Pentagon from demoting Kelly’s retired rank of captain or reducing his military retirement pay, prompting Hegseth to swiftly vow an appeal.

Kelly reacted to the latest move while reposting coverage of the appeal on X. "These guys don’t know when to quit," he wrote. "A federal judge told Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth that they violated my constitutional rights and chilled the free speech of millions of retired veterans." "There is only one reason to appeal that ruling: to keep trampling on the free speech rights of retired veterans and silence dissent," Kelly continued. "I went to war to defend Americans’ constitutional rights and I won’t back down from this fight, no matter how far they want to take it." Hegseth previously fired back on X following the district court ruling, writing: "Sedition is sedition, ‘Captain.’" In November, a group of Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds found themselves in hot water after posting a 90-second video urging service members to "refuse illegal orders." The video, which was first posted by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., also included military veteran Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania.

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Data center tax breaks are on the chopping block in some states

After years of states pushing legislation to accelerate the development of data centers and the electric grid to support them, some legislators want to limit or repeal state and local incentives that paved their way. President Donald Trump also has changed his tone. Last year he issued an executive order and other federal initiatives meant to support accelerated data center development. Then last month, he cited rising electricity bills in saying technology companies that build data centers must “pay their own way,” in a post on Truth Social. As the momentum shifts, lawmakers in several states have introduced or passed legislation that aims to rein in data center development by repealing tax exemptions, adding conditions to certain incentives or placing moratoriums on data center projects. Virginia lawmakers, for example, are considering ending a data center tax break that costs the state about $1.6 billion a year.

“Who is actually benefiting from these massive data centers that, in many cases, are the size of one or two shopping malls combined?” asked Michigan Democratic state Rep. Erin Byrnes, who introduced a proposal to repeal the state’s data center tax exemptions. “They have a large footprint in terms of land and energy usage. And by and large, it’s not going to be the average resident who lives near a data center who’s going to benefit.” Over the past few years, more data centers have been built in an effort to meet the demand for digital processing power, which has rapidly increased as more artificial intelligence systems come online. Data centers house thousands of servers that are responsible for storing and transmitting data required for internet services to work. But as local communities voice growing outrage over rising electricity prices and environmental concerns brought by data centers, such as water and energy use, lawmakers in several states are hoping to slow data center development. By limiting incentives or placing moratoriums on new projects, state legislators are hoping to give themselves more time to determine whether the massive facilities are worth losing millions or more in tax revenue each year.

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Lead Stories

Trump to visit Texas as Senate primary looms

President Donald Trump is heading to Corpus Christi, Texas on Friday for an energy- and economy-focused speech just days before the state’s Republican Senate primary. But the three leading candidates fighting for the nomination haven’t been invited to join him. Trump has withheld his support in the pricey three-way race between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. “I just haven’t made a decision on that race yet. It’s got a ways to go, and I haven’t,” Trump said last week when asked about a possible endorsement in the race. “I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three.”

Despite Senate candidates not receiving invitations, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Trump-endorsed House members from nearby districts are expected to attend, according to a senior White House official. Nearly $100 million has been spent on campaign advertising across the Republican and Democratic Senate primaries, including at least $59 million spent by Cornyn and political action committees supporting him, according to AdImpact. The Republican primary is widely expected to go to a runoff. “President Trump looks forward to returning to the great State of Texas next week to discuss the economy and tout his ‘Drill Baby Drill’ agenda,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. The visit will be Trump’s first trip following his State of the Union address on Tuesday — and his first visit to Texas since surveying the damage from the catastrophic flooding in Kerrville last summer.

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What Tony Gonzales aide said minutes after setting herself on fire

Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, the congressional staffer who died in September after setting herself on fire in her backyard, told first responders she did it because she had discovered her estranged husband was romantically involved with her best friend, newly disclosed records show. Santos-Aviles, 35, was director of U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales' regional office in Uvalde, and she'd had an affair with the married congressman in 2024, text messages and interviews show. News reports on the liaison have become fodder for partisan attacks in the sharply contested March 3 Republican primary in Texas' 23rd Congressional District. Gonzales, 45, is running for a fourth term.

In responding to an opponent's demand that he resign over the affair, Gonzales last week called on authorities to release police records on Santos-Aviles' suicide, apparently believing they would put the controversy in a different light. Uvalde officials provided the records to the San Antonio Express-News on Monday morning. The documents show that police received a 911 call from Santos-Aviles' home in Uvalde at 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2025, and that she could be heard screaming in pain: "Please send help. It hurts so bad." When the dispatcher asked for her address, Santos-Aviles cried out, "Oh my God, I don't want to die," according to a report by a Uvalde detective who listened to a recording of the 911 call. Five police officers, four firefighters and an EMS unit responded. Police reviewed footage from a home security system, which captured the suicide. According to the newly released records, the video shows Santos-Aviles pouring gasoline from a canister all over her body and setting herself aflame with a handheld lighter.

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Trump to sell the economy during State of the Union address

President Trump will use his State of the Union address to sell the public on the economy and unveil new measures meant to lower costs, as Republicans try to address voters’ concerns ahead of the midterm elections later this year. The official theme of the speech, according to White House officials familiar with the draft: “America at 250: Strong, Prosperous and Respected,” a reference to the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. The address will emphasize the idea of American exceptionalism, and the president is planning to weave in stories of Americans who say they have benefited from his policies, the officials said. The address to a joint session of Congress will give the president a high-profile platform to tout his agenda.

He is expected to tick through prominent policies, including tax cuts passed by Republicans in Congress last year and efforts to lower prescription drug prices. He is planning to call on Congress to pass a legislation codifying the healthcare framework he released earlier this year, which calls for redirecting federal subsidies from insurers to consumers. While some Republicans praised the plan, they have so far shown little interest in taking it up during a midterm election year. The speech comes amid polling that shows voters are dissatisfied with the economy and concerned about costs. Political strategists of both parties warn those frustrations could translate into Republican losses in November’s elections. The president’s top advisers have encouraged him to focus on affordability, a message that Trump has sometimes resisted. Trump faces the challenge of praising the economy he has overseen over the last year without dismissing voters’ concerns. While some positive signs have emerged, including cooler inflation, government data released this past week showed U.S. economic growth slowed sharply at the end of last year.

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The predawn ambush in a sleepy mountain town that brought down a drug kingpin

Mexican tourists seeking a quiet mountain retreat are drawn to the hillside cabins outside the town of Tapalpa, known as a “pueblo mágico,” or magic town, thanks to the beauty of Jalisco state’s pine forests. On Sunday morning, one of those tourists was Mexico’s most-wanted man: Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, the leader of the paramilitary Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the premier trafficker of cocaine to the U.S. He was there, Mexican authorities said, for a weekend tryst with one of his girlfriends but, as always, accompanied with a heavily armed personal security force. Just before dawn, the quiet of the Jalisco hills was jolted by the sounds of combat helicopters, military aircraft and then gunshots ripping through the air. Mexican security forces were closing in on Oseguera’s cabin with the kind of firepower reserved for war.

Oseguera’s security detail fired back. “It was truly a very violent attack,” said Mexican Defense Secretary Gen. Ricardo Trevilla in a news conference in Mexico City. The elite troops deployed Sunday were specially trained to fight cartels that have enough money and firepower to outgun government forces. And they knew they had to act fast before Oseguera’s team had time to use its most potent weapons, such as rocket-propelled grenade launchers that the Jalisco cartel had used to down a military helicopter in 2015. Dozens of soldiers and armored military vehicles plowed into the forest amid the sound of heavy gunfire, social-media videos showed. Drones buzzed overhead, tracking the fight. The ground team chased Oseguera’s men into the forest, forcing them to abandon their highest-powered weapons in the cabin complex, Trevilla said. Soon, Oseguera’s forces were pinned down and surrounded but continued to fire back for about five hours. A military helicopter was hit by the gunfire and had to make an emergency landing at a military facility.

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State Stories

Plano cancels DART withdrawal election after approving funding deal

Plano leaders have decided to call off the election to potentially withdraw from Dallas Area Rapid Transit after reaching a deal with the agency. On Monday, the city council voted unanimously to cancel the May 2 election that would have let voters decide to stay in or leave DART. Plano Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Rick Horne reminded residents at the meeting that the city's efforts to reform public transit was all about improving the agency. "What we have is good, it’s not perfect, but it’s a starting point and that’s something that we are going to count on [residents] to improve this," Horne said. The council also voted to repeal an earlier resolution supporting capping DART’s tax revenue collections.

The decision follows months of negotiations between DART and several member cities that have pushed for changes in DART’s funding and governance. Plano is one of six cities that called withdrawal elections that would end bus and train service within their city limits. Transportation DART cities could cancel withdrawal elections after agency approves ‘Hail Mary’ deal Pablo Arauz Peña , 23 hours ago Four cities have confirmed they're considering a new DART plan to keep the agency intact. As part of the new deal, DART will give $360 million back to all of its member cities over six years. It also plans to restructure its board of directors so each city has a representative, expanding the board and reducing voting power for the city of Dallas. Plano City Council members passed a resolution Monday expressing support for the reform and “requesting state legislative action to implement a new governance structure." DART CEO Nadine Lee has told KERA the agency will need to finding other revenue streams to keep operations running. The Regional Transportation Council earlier this month approves a plan to help DART pay another $75 million to cities.

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Texas coordinating with feds as Americans told to shelter in place amid Mexico violence

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is urging Texans who are currently in Mexico, or who have family and friends traveling there, to closely follow U.S. government travel warnings as violence and security operations intensify in parts of the country. According to the U.S. Department of State, Americans in several Mexican states are being advised to shelter in place until further notice due to ongoing security concerns, road blockages, and criminal activity. Those states include Baja California, Jalisco, Quintana Roo, and areas of Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.

“Texans’ safety is my top priority, whether they are here at home or traveling abroad,” Abbott said in a statement Sunday night. “I urge all Texans in Mexico to follow the guidance of U.S. officials, stay alert, and ensure they are in contact with the U.S. Embassy or nearest U.S. Consulate. Situations on the ground can change quickly, and staying informed can save lives.” The governor reiterated those sentiments during a campaign stop in Magnolia on Monday morning. "We urge those who are in Mexico right now, or those who may be thinking about going there on spring break. Please follow the messaging that's been sent out by the United States Department of State," Abbott said. "For one, they're saying shelter in place right now. They will tell you anything more. Once you can safely move. But also, if you're thinking about going to Mexico, follow the standard set by the Department of State. They know we're safe. They know what's unsafe."

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Growing number of Republicans call for Gonzales to exit race over affair

A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are publicly condemning U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales for an affair with a staffer who later committed suicide, escalating pressure on the San Antonio Republican days before his March 3 primary and complicating his path to political survival. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill became the first Texas member of Congress to urge Gonzales to drop his reelection bid after newly-released text messages showed Gonzales repeatedly pressed the aide to send a “sexy pic” and to meet up with him in person in 2024. Twice, she said he was going “too far.” “America deserves better,” Gill wrote in a post on X.

Several more of the chamber’s most conservative Republican members, including U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Nancy Mace of South Carolina also piled on, excoriating Gonzales for behavior they called “disgusting,” “disturbing” and an “abuse of power.” The House Freedom Caucus opted to endorse Gonzales’ leading challenger Brandon Herrera for a second time. “The entire Texas delegation, as well as every single other Member of Congress, should be condemning a sitting Member of Congress asking for explicit photos of their staff,” Luna wrote on Monday. “I am so sick of people not calling this crap out.” But the condemnation from the party’s rightmost wing has yet to reach Republican leadership. The chamber’s most powerful Republicans have seemed reluctant to call on Gonzales to step aside as they fight to hold together a thin and fragmented majority, where a loss of a single vote could decide the fate of major legislative packages. Neither President Donald Trump nor House Speaker Mike Johnson have rescinded their endorsements of Gonzales, who has dismissed the latest attacks as “personal smears.” On Monday, Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, called the “allegations” about Gonzales’ affair with the staffer, Regina Ann “Regi” Santos-Aviles, “very serious” but said he was waiting on the House Ethics Committee to investigate the matter.

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Texas Lt. Gov. urges DSHS halt renewal of Camp Mystic’s license

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday sent a letter to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) commissioner asking not to renew Camp Mystic’s license pending investigation into the deaths of 25 campers, two counselors and its owner, and that necessary changes are made to ensure lives are not lost at the campsite again. “It would be naive to allow Camp Mystic to return to normal operations before all the facts are known,” the Lt. Gov. wrote. He added the camp “should have decided on their own to suspend operations this coming summer but it appears they are planning for camp in 2026 and will likely be seeking your approval to operate with a renewed license.” KXAN reached out to DSHS for a comment on the agency’s licensing and operations at Camp Mystic. We also reached out to Camp Mystic and the Campaign for Camp Safety on the lieutenant governor’s request to DSHS. We are waiting to hear back.

On Monday, Camp Mystic responded in a statement regarding the Lt. Gov.’s request to deny its license. “Camp Mystic Cypress Lake is in compliance with all aspects of the state’s new camp safety laws,” the camp said. “There is, consequently, no regulatory basis to deny Camp Mystic Cypress Lake its license… it’s a separate property that is not adjacent to the Guadalupe River and sustained no significant damage from the historic flood on July 4.” The Guadalupe location is not reopening for this summer, but it is located less than two miles from the Cypress Lake location. Attorneys Christina Yarnell and Bradley Beckworth are representing Will and CiCi Steward who’s 8-year-old daughter, Cile, died from the flooding in Camp Mystic. The attorneys say both locations are more or less the same camp. “The only difference is that one is completely, ruined by the water damage. And one was on a little bit higher ground,” Yarnell said. “They’re putting once again their need to make money and have profits over what’s right,” Beckworth said.

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‘People are not happy.’ Dallas County’s separate primaries bring less privacy for voters

Voting has always been a private tradition for Michael Ray, and he doesn’t care to flaunt his political affiliation to the world. This year he didn’t have a choice. When he walked Friday into Josey Ranch Lake Library in Carrollton to vote early, Ray, 34, was surprised to be greeted by an election worker directing voters toward check-in tables and machines for Republicans on one side of the room and Democrats on the other. Being forced to publicly identify their party inside voting centers has rattled some voters, a shift triggered by the county GOP’s decision to break from a jointly administered March 3 primary with Democrats. That means separate check-in tables, workers and voting machines for each party inside shared locations, during early voting and on election day.

“I deeply feel your vote is your own and the fact you have to split up in an obvious way … it feels like another way they’re trying to split the country in two,” Ray said. Republicans defended the move, saying it protects party control and prevents conflicts between workers from different parties. Onsite, the setup has stirred tension and raised concerns about privacy. Liza Hameline, the Democratic election judge at Josey Ranch Lake library, said she has seen neighbors get outed to one another while voting and others outraged at having to announce something they consider personal. When voters push her on why they are required to vote this way, Hameline said she’s directing them to the county Republican Party chair, Allen West. “This whole separate but equal thing is making it like we’re not a unified community and that’s jarring for them just because it’s like we’re on one side and you’re on the other,” Hameline said. At Northway Christian Church, a large early voting site, the separation is on full display. Strips of red and blue tape run across the floor, guiding voters in different directions before they even reach the check-in area. The arrows lead to distinct tables, where election workers sort them based on their party ballot.

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‘We need it now:’ Protesters urge special legislative session on Texas data centers

Attendees of a Monday protest want Texas to Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session to address the effects of data centers on the state. About 40 people — including visitors from the Paluxy Valley and a slate of speakers — rallied outside the Capitol on Monday, asking for the special session as data centers pop up across Texas. In North Texas and across the state, people have sounded the alarm over existing and planned sites, raising concerns over noise, water use and possible environmental impacts. Attendees stood outside in front of the Austin building, holding signs in opposition of data centers. One read “you can’t drink data.” Another advocated for the protection of farmland. “Say no to data centers,” declared a sign, accompanied by a drawing of a microphone.

Only Texas Gov. Greg Abbott can call the Legislature into special session. The next regularly scheduled legislative session starts on Jan. 12. “Our star filled skies will be gone,” said Brian Crawford, a retired Lockheed Martin employee who shares a fence line with a planned the Comanche Circle data center project. “Our quiet nights of only hearing wildlife will be gone. Our two lane farm-to-market roads will be incredibly dangerous.” Crawford, whose property is in Somerville County, was representing Protect the Paluxy Valley Inc. as a speaker at the event. He said Abbott should take a “sober look” at the impact data centers and power plants on the state. The governor should convene a special session where lawmakers could issue an immediate “statewide moratorium or rural industrialization” so that the effects of such projects can be analyzed, Crawford said. Legislators should also consider letting counties regulate industrial development to protect citizens, he said. “My message is that we need a special session, and we need it now,” said Joanne Carcamo, a co-founder of the Paluxy Valley group who attended the protest. “We cannot wait. This is an invasion of rural Texas. This is an invasion in Hood County.”

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Border wall closes in on Big Bend

Plans for a border wall through the Big Bend region of West Texas are raising alarms among residents and elected officials. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intends to build border barriers throughout this remote region of Texas that encompasses ranchland, small towns and a cherished state and national park. Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) waived 28 laws for environmental protection and historical and archeological preservation to expedite construction in a more than 150-mile stretch from Fort Quitman in Hudspeth County to Colorado Canyon in Big Bend Ranch State Park. An online map posted by CBP indicates that “smart wall” construction is planned both within the state park and in neighboring Big Bend National Park. Historically, the number of people crossing unauthorized into the United States in the Big Bend region is much lower than in more urban, populous areas. But since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in July 2025, appropriated $46.5 billion for border wall construction, no region appears to be spared.

While unauthorized border crossings have dropped dramatically in the past two years, the Trump administration is moving forward with the border wall, including in Arizona’s San Rafael Valley and wildlife refuges in South Texas. According to the CBP website, construction for the smart wall can include a steel bollard wall or waterborne barrier, “along with roads, detection technology, cameras and lighting and in some cases a secondary wall.” The Big Bend region in southwest Texas may be next. In Presidio County, the Big Bend Sentinel reported that landowners have been approached about leasing for barrier construction. Marfa Public Radio reported that companies are looking for land for staging areas. The highest elected official for Brewster County, Judge Greg Henington, spoke against the wall during a public appearance in the county seat of Alpine on Feb. 12. Big Bend National Park is in Brewster County. “This county judge sees no reason to go with a border wall in Brewster County,” Henington, a Republican, said. “I get border security, but there are other ways to do it.”

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San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones to face censure vote after dropping ‘f-bomb’ at council member

The San Antonio City Council will vote on Friday whether or not to censure Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones. The decision comes after council members met on Monday without Jones or District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur who had filed a code of conduct complaint against the mayor over an incident on Feb. 5. The council met in executive session for about two hours to review the findings of the complaint and investigation. The details of the investigation are set to be made public possibly on Monday. However, on TPR’s "The Source," Mayor Jones admitted to using an "f-bomb" while talking to Councilwoman Kaur privately over a discussion on the Bonham Exchange nightclub that was up for vote on Feb. 5.

“Was my voice elevated? Yes. Did I drop an F-bomb? Yes. Did I point to locations? Yes, I admit to doing all of those things. I in no way — in no way — personally berated her. I did not use derogatory language. I did not do those things,” Jones told "The Source" shortly after the vote had occurred. At hand, Jones said, was a vote on giving the night club a year extension on installing fire sprinklers that were up to city code. Jones, however, brokered another deal with the owner of the Bonham that reduced occupancy. “For me, this is never personal. It's always about progress, and in this instance, it was about public safety. So I admit to raising my voice because we were about to do something needless,” she said. Jones had committed to helping the Bonham raise $500,000 to install the system. Kaur said via a statement she would not be making any comments until after Friday’s vote. “To maintain the integrity of the process based on an external, independent investigation, I am recusing myself from this week’s meetings regarding the censure,” Kaur said.

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Why Texas students keep walking out of class

In a video she posted to San Antonio Students for Peace’s Instagram account, Claire Lewis asks for grace while she tries to explain Texas truancy law and attendance policies. “I’m nineteen years old; I’m still in college; I’m learning the difference between truant and unexcused absence,” Lewis says, before noting that three unexcused absences in a four-week period can lead to a truancy case. Teens and their parents have been concerned about the penalties students might face if they join others across the U.S. walking out of class to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Students across Texas at at least sixty middle and high schools have participated in the walkouts, and the movement seems to be growing—causing increasing concern among school administrators and teachers, who are caught between keeping students safe and supporting them in a way that doesn’t run afoul of increasing scrutiny from state leaders eager to clamp down on the protests.

Early this month, Governor Greg Abbott posted on X that the walkouts were facilitating “chaos,” and that schools allowing the protests could potentially be stripped of funding. Days later, he announced that students who participate in walkouts should be considered absent without an excuse, which could lead to fines and truancy penalties. The Texas Education Agency quickly doubled down, saying that schools that refuse to count protesting students absent could lead to state takeovers of districts. And Attorney General Ken Paxton this week announced investigations into three districts—Dallas; North East, in San Antonio; and Manor—for allegedly facilitating walkouts. “Let this serve as a warning to any public school official or employee who unlawfully facilitates student participation in protests targeting our heroic law enforcement officers: my office will use every legal tool available to hold you accountable,” Paxton said. Nationwide school walkouts began in January, after immigration officers in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who was recording their activity. I spoke with student organizers throughout Central Texas, in San Antonio, Austin, Pflugerville, and Round Rock. They pointed me to their planning documents, calendars, and safety checklists, which show that many of these Gen Alpha– and young Gen Z–led efforts are the products of strategic, albeit rapid, planning. Lewis even sent out digital forms to collect feedback on students’ experiences in both the planning and execution of the events.

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Austin ISD turns to land sales in response to budget gaps, fueling community pushback

Facing a budget deficit of nearly $20 million, Austin ISD leaders are turning to the sale of former school campuses for fast cash, a strategy that has triggered community backlash and reopened long-standing tensions over who benefits when public land is sold. After the embattled sale of the former Rosedale Elementary site, Austin ISD board members voted in January to negotiate the sale of Brooke Elementary, which closed in 2019. Board members and Austin ISD leaders said selling both properties is key to preventing the nearly $20 million deficit from growing. Still, multiple trustees cited community concerns about the Brooke site’s future, the intentions of the developers and the fate of current tenants of Brooke, which has become a community hub since students left.

The East Austin campus houses the Native American Cultural Center and Vela, an organization dedicated to supporting families of children with disabilities. Trustee Fernando de Urioste, who voted against authorizing negotiations, said community members are willing to make difficult sacrifices when they feel included in decisions. But the feedback he said he heard showed a gap between district leaders and the community. Without the sale, he said, the district would need to make cuts elsewhere before the end of the budget cycle, a consequence he believes many residents do not fully understand. “In a different part of the city they are not going to be worried about this land in the same way that the Eastside is,” De Urioste said. De Urioste said real estate transactions were identified during budget planning as essential to stabilizing district finances. However, he said community members questioned why the Brooke site was chosen and whether selling another East Austin property to a high-end developer was justified.

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Report finds 2024 fatal Deer Park hydrogen sulfide release caused by labeling, protocol issues

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) found that refinery operators failed to clearly label equipment and follow written procedures, leading to a fatal hydrogen sulfide release in Deer Parknearly two years ago. The board released its final report Monday about the Oct. 10, 2024, fatal incident at the PEMEX Deer Park Refinery. Two contractors were killed, and 13 additional workers were taken to nearby hospitals to be evaluated for exposure to toxic hydrogen sulfide. The incident started after two contract workers for Repcon, Inc. opened the wrong flange on mislabeled piping. More than 27,000 pounds of the toxic gas were released, and Deer Park and Pasadena issued shelter-in-place orders during the incident.

PEMEX and Repcon did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the report. The board found that four factors contributed to the fatal toxic gas release. The leading cause of the incident was a lack of proper identification of the piping, the board found. While the refinery provided drawings and lists of the flanges, they were not sufficient to help workers tell the difference between "nearly identical segments," according to a news release from the board. Additionally, the tag identifying the correct flange was out of sight, the board found. "Without reliable identification, workers searched for unlocked flange devices similar to what they had seen elsewhere in the refinery," the board said in a news release. "The CSB noted that accidental releases from opening the wrong equipment are common in the chemical and refining industries and that no industry-wide standard currently addresses this issue."

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How will Kansas enforce its anti-transgender bathroom law? Texas' version has caused confusion

Two months after a Texas bathroom law went into effect for government buildings, public officials there are still working through how to comply with the law’s vague language. Just this week, the law will receive its first test after the parent of a student in Austin’s Independent School District complained that a male is using the women’s restroom, said Mary Elizabeth Castle, director of government relations at Texas Values. Kansas recently passed a similar bathroom law, Senate Bill 244, which goes into effect upon publication in the Kansas Register, expected in the next two weeks. The law requires that people using private facilities where anyone might be in a state of undress — such as bathrooms, locker rooms and dorm rooms — use the facility that matches their biological sex at birth.

The law’s lack of clarity about how to comply is causing consternation among various governmental entities in Kansas, mirroring challenges in Texas. The Texas Women’s Privacy Act went into effect Dec. 4. Darrell Alexander, director of facilities for the city of Austin, said the city hasn’t made any changes because they believe they are in compliance. “The law here is pretty vague too,” he said. The city outlined its process through memos put out during October and December. The Austin memos challenge the idea put forth by Kansas proponents of the law that there will be no costs associated with it, showing the amount of staff time dedicated to assessing buildings and creating processes to comply with the law. The bathroom portion of Kansas’ law was inserted so quickly there was no fiscal note, and when questioned about it, legislators said there would be minimal or no costs.

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Dallas City Council members question consultants over City Hall report’s repair estimates

Dallas City Council members clashed Monday over new soaring repair estimates for City Hall, as the debate shifted from how to fix the building to whether the city should invest in its future or abandon it altogether. Engineering firms and consultants hired by the Dallas Economic Development Corporation stood by their assessment of the 48-year-old building, estimating that urgent repairs would cost about $329 million, while a full modernization could exceed $1 billion over 20 years, including financing. But council members remained divided over whether the report was thorough enough to guide the costly decision. Some council members, including Adam Bazaldua, Paul Ridley, and Cara Mendelsohn, questioned the accuracy of the assessment and argued that firms like AECOM and CBRE -- which helped conducted the analysis --could benefit financially from a relocation or redevelopment of the prime downtown property.

“This all here is very one-sided, predetermined, agenda-driven, contrived, worst-case-weighted, rushed, conclusion-driven, cost-amplifying, and this analysis, to me, just completely falls short of transparency and the due diligence and public accountability that’s needed,” Mendelsohn said. The trio called for an independent review of the EDC’s findings. But other council members, including Chad West, Gay Donnell Willis, Jaime Resendez, Zarin Gracey, Jesse Moreno, Kathy Stewart and Maxie Johnson, said they trusted the estimates and the experts behind them. They argued the city must move forward to determine the best path for the building. “The numbers presented are significant, and understandably they’ve sparked strong reactions across our community,” Resendez said. “This is a generational decision. It demands seriousness, transparency, and respect for the people of Dallas. The most important thing we can do is protect the integrity of the process.” The council’s seven-member Finance Committee unanimously approved a resolution directing City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to: Relocate 311, 911, and emergency operations to a new government center as quickly as possible; Pursue options to move all other City Hall staff and functions to new locations; Explore redevelopment options for the current City Hall site.

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National Stories

Why DHS suddenly reversed course on suspending TSA PreCheck

The Department of Homeland Security’s plans to temporarily suspend TSA PreCheck were conceived by DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem and her top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, but then pulled back after the White House intervened, according to a White House official and a person close to the Trump administration. The back-and-forth led to brief confusion about what measures the agency planned to take in light of the partial government shutdown, which stems from a congressional impasse over funding for DHS. The department said Saturday that it planned to halt PreCheck, a popular program that allows certain travelers to move through airport security faster, starting at 6 a.m. Sunday, only to reverse itself hours later. The people spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The initial announcement received swift pushback from Democrats and air and travel industry groups.

Social media users posted Sunday morning that TSA PreCheck lines were operating as planned. The agency has said that Global Entry, a program run by Customs and Border Protection, will remain paused. A White House spokesperson referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security. A DHS spokesperson did not address whether Noem and Lewandowski came up with the idea to temporarily suspend TSA PreCheck or whether the White House intervened. “We decided to handle TSA pre-check on an airport-by-airport basis depending on workforce and resource strain instead of a blanket policy,” the DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “If the government stays shutdown, we will be forced to implement these emergency measures nationwide to mitigate resource and workforce strain. This political game by the Democrats is putting strain on our TSA workers who are working without pay.” The White House has previously rescinded DHS decisions. Last year, President Donald Trump said he had reversed the agency’s plans to cut $187 million in counterterrorism and law enforcement grants for New York.

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Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump

The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump. Some files have not been made public despite a law mandating their release. These include what appears to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, and notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor. NPR reviewed multiple sets of unique serial numbers appearing before and after the pages in question, stamped onto documents in the Epstein files database, FBI case records, emails and discovery document logs in the latest tranche of documents published at the end of January.

NPR's investigation found dozens of pages that appear to be catalogued by the Justice Department but not shared publicly. The Justice Department declined to answer NPR's questions on the record about these specific files, what's in them, and why they are not published. Other files scrubbed from public view pertain to a separate woman who was a key witness for the prosecution in the criminal trial of Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking. Maxwell is seeking clemency from Trump. Some of those documents were briefly taken down and put back online last week, while others remain hidden, according to NPR's comparison of the initial dataset from Jan. 30 with document metadata of those files currently on the Justice Department website. NPR does not name victims of sexual abuse. When asked for comment about the missing pages and the accusations against the president, a White House spokeswoman told NPR that Trump "has done more for Epstein's victims than anyone before him."

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Peter Attia out at CBS News after Epstein files correspondence disclosures

Longevity guru Dr. Peter Attia is stepping aside as a contributor to CBS News, after correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and the researcher and health media personality came to light in the release of the Epstein Files from the Department of Justice. CBS News staff were informed of the decision Monday in a note from the network’s booking department, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Attia told CBS that he would be resigning effective immediately. Attia was one of a number of high-profile contributors that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her planned overhaul of the network news division, seeking to bring more voices into CBS’ linear and digital coverage.

Shortly after that announcement, however, the embarrassing exchanges were released by the DOJ, many of which contained crude banter. CBS subsequently pulled a rerun of a 60 Minutes segment that featured Attia. That said, Attia had been expected to remain a contributor to the network, with Weiss being a critic of so-called “cancel culture.” Of course, the Epstein emails damaged his reputation even if he personally did not engage in or know about any criminal activity, as Attia wrote in a note he sent to his team and his patients. “I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me,” Attia added. “I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.” Attia’s name appears some 1,700 times in the 3 million Epstein documents released on Jan. 30. The bulk of the emails between Attia and Epstein are from the mid-2010s — after Epstein was convicted (in 2008) on a Florida charge of soliciting prostitution from someone under 18, but before a 2018 Miami Herald exposé on a host of allegations against Epstein and his second arrest in 2019.

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Satellite imagery shows rapid increase of U.S. military planes near Iran

The U.S. military has rapidly increased its presence near Iran, shiftingmore than 150 aircraft to bases in Europe and the Middle East sincea second round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran ended without a breakthrough on Feb. 17, according topublicly available flight tracking data and satellite imagery reviewedby The Washington Post. The current presence of U.S. military forces in the region is among the largest in more than two decades, since before the Iraq war in 2003.The buildup comes after President Trump threatened to attack Iran unless a deal can be reached to restrict Iran’s nuclear program, although he has not indicated the goals of such an attack. Iranian officials have said a deal is possible but that reaching one will take time. Experts who reviewed the the deployment said it has surpassed the military buildup that was seen before the U.S. strikes against the Iranian nuclear program in June of last year.

They said the assets being assembled are indicative of a multiday campaign without a ground invasion. Dozens of additional planes are aboard the warship USS Gerald R. Ford, which was spotted off the coast of the Greek island of Creteon Monday. The Ford is the second aircraft carrier sent to the Middle East, and its arrival means roughly a third of all active U.S. ships are now in the region. “The massive level of force amassed means the U.S. military can execute on whatever Trump decides — anything from a sustained, highly kinetic campaign to more targeted, limited strikes,” said Dana Stroul, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East who is now a research director with the Washington Institute, a think tank focused on American foreign policy in the Middle East. If the administration is planning foran extended, weeks-long air campaign, evenmore military assets willbe needed,saidMark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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Nancy Guthrie doorbell image captured on separate date: source

One of Nancy Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera images released by the FBI was taken on a different date than the others, a source with knowledge of the investigation confirmed to Fox News Digital Monday. The new details indicate the masked suspect scouted the home in advance of the 84-year-old Guthrie’s suspected abduction on Feb. 1. The source declined to specify what day the earlier image was taken, citing the active investigation. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos tells Fox News that the information did not come from him.

Authorities have alternately asked for neighbors to check their home security systems for the entire month of January, the night of Jan. 11, and the hours surrounding Guthrie’s disappearance, between Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. The suspected scouting visit was first reported by ABC News, citing unnamed sources. Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason Pack told Fox News Digital that the suspect casing the home reveals that the crime wasn't impulsive, and that it took planning. "That’s sophistication. That’s the hallmark of someone who thought about this before they acted. And it matters significantly from a legal standpoint, because premeditation and planning elevate the severity of what investigators are looking at," Pack said. "The suspect in this case may have thought they were being careful. But appearing twice on camera while trying to avoid identification isn’t careful. That’s exposure. And right now, investigators are working very hard to close that gap."

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Most conservative students don’t feel persecuted on campus

Despite widespread political rhetoric claiming that colleges suppress conservative viewpoints, new data shows that most college students feel free to express themselves regardless of their political affiliation. According to a report that Gallup and the Lumina Foundation published today, just 2 percent of all college students—including 3 percent of Republicans—say they feel they don’t belong on campus due to their political views. That’s one of the many disconnects between public perceptions about higher education’s climate and value and what students say is actually happening on campus, according to the report, “The College Reality Check: What Students Experience vs. What America Believes.”

“For years, the American public has been saying they’re losing confidence in higher ed because they believe it’s too political, too expensive and doesn’t lead to jobs,” said Courtney Brown, Lumina’s vice president of impact and planning. “When we compare that to what students and alumni are saying, it’s two different stories.” In an effort to understand those disconnects, researchers last fall surveyed nearly 4,000 college students and 6,000 alumni about their perceptions of campus climate and the value of pursuing higher education. The results showed that two-thirds of college students said most of their professors encourage them to share their views, including those that make others uncomfortable. At the same time, 71 percent said their professors create a classroom environment that supports both students who express unpopular opinions and those who may be upset by such views. Additionally, 93 percent of students said they’re confident they’re learning the skills they need to get the type of job they want, and 88 percent expressed confidence that their degree or credential will help them get a job after graduation. The majority (75 percent) also believe college is worth the cost, including 76 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Independents.

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Lead Stories

Mexico takes on cartels as killing of drug kingpin sparks violence

Mexico’s military killed the country’s most powerful drug kingpin, Nemesio “Mencho” Oseguera, escalating the government’s war against cartels amid pressure from President Trump to curb narcotics trafficking and sparking a widespread, violent gang response. Oseguera, a former Mexican police officer, was the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The cartel also controls vast fuel-smuggling schemes and other underworld rackets across Mexico and the U.S., Mexican authorities said. Oseguera’s killing marks the most significant operation yet in Mexico’s recent crackdown on cartels. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has expelled more than 100 convicted drug traffickers to the U.S. to appease rising demands from Trump, who has pressured Sheinbaum to allow U.S. military forces in the fight against drug gangs. So far she has rejected direct U.S. involvement but has strengthened security and intelligence cooperation.

Mexico’s Security Ministry said the country’s special forces killed Oseguera in the rural municipality of Tapalpa—close to Ajijic, a lakeshore community with a large American retiree community. The ministry said the country’s central military intelligence unit planned and executed the operation with Mexico’s armed forces, including the country’s air force and an elite national-guard unit trained to fight cartels. U.S. authorities provided “supplementary information.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Oseguera was a top target for the Mexican and U.S. governments. Last year, Trump designated the Jalisco cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, she wrote on X. Oseguera controlled vast swaths of territory in Jalisco state and beyond and was known for sophisticated paramilitary tactics. He had been expanding his influence and was locked in a bloody struggle for control of neighboring Michoacán state. The U.S. had a $15 million bounty on Oseguera. He rarely left his mountain compound, according to authorities. Few photos of him circulate. The cadre of men protecting Oseguera, known as the Special Force of the High Command, carry heat-seeking, shoulder-fired rocket launchers capable of piercing a tank, people familiar with cartel operations said.

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Texas Senate race: New poll shows Jasmine Crockett could beat Ken Paxton

A new poll shows U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett with the best chances to topple Republicans in the Texas U.S. senate race in the general election. A poll from Hart Research shows Crockett, a Dallas Democrat, beating Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a General Election matchup for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton is currently polling ahead of Cornyn, though the Republican primary will likely be headed for a runoff. “I’ve been doing the work and fighting on behalf of Texans since before I entered this race," Crockett said in a news release. "Voters know my leadership and trust me to fight for them. Texas voters are smarter than DC would have you believe. Texans can cut through the noise and won’t be swayed by pundits nor podcasters."

Crockett is currently locked in a tight primary battle with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, an Austin Democrat whose recent appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" has immensely bolstered his name recognition and campaign war chest. The poll also confronted voters with the kind of negative ads likely to crop up if Crockett wins the primary, but those polled were unmoved by the attacks. “I’m up with Latino voters and young people, independents favor me by a double-digit margin, and I am the preferred candidate of working-class voters," she said. "This is who we need to rebuild our winning democratic coalition." On the Republican side, Paxton is looking to use his endorsement from Turning Point Action — the PAC for Turning Point USA, the organization founded by Charlie Kirk — to bolster his lead on Cornyn. A new ad from Paxton's campaign features Kirk, who was assassinated last year, praising him as an “American patriot” and “amazing, Constitution-loving” attorney general “who’s doing a great job.” “Charlie Kirk is an inspiration to millions of people across the world, and I’m blessed to have known him and called him a friend,” Paxton said in a news release. “Right now, we are in a civilizational battle to save America and our future, and we must have conservative warriors willing to go to battle against the radical Left. I’m honored to be the Turning Point Action-endorsed leader to fight for Texas in the Senate, and I will continue to work tirelessly to defend the freedoms of the next generation.”

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Trump Administration backs off shutdown suspension of TSA PreCheck

The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that its TSA PreCheck program would remain operational, contradicting an earlier statement from the agency announcing that the service would be suspended alongside Global Entry, another airport security screening program. The popular programs allow travelers to proceed through security checkpoints faster by allowing for advance vetting, and any suspension will likely lead to greater wait times for passengers at airports across the country. “As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case-by-case basis and adjust operations accordingly,” a TSA spokesperson said in a statement. Earlier Sunday morning, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that both the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection would be “prioritizing the general traveling population at our airports and ports of entry” during the department’s ongoing funding lapse.

In addition to the programs for the general public, DHS is also suspending its customary security escorts for members of Congress and their families traveling through airports. “Without appropriations, TSA simply cannot afford to risk overstretching our staff and weakening our security posture,” the statement said. “Until funding is restored, all travelers should expect a process that does not sacrifice security, but refocuses TSA officers to standard screening procedures.” The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the reinstatement of TSA PreCheck came after conversations with the White House. Congressional Democrats blocked a DHS funding bill from passing as part of the larger federal appropriations budget earlier this year, triggering a partial government shutdown for the department. Lawmakers failed to successfully negotiate while a two-week temporary funding package was in place, and ultimately returned to their districts on Feb. 13 without any resolution to the impasse. Democrats are pushing for a host of reforms to the agency following the shooting deaths of two American citizens during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis earlier this year.

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Europe hits back at ‘pure tariff chaos’ from the U.S., warning trade deals are at risk

Europe has warned that trade deals struck with the U.S. could now be at risk after President Donald Trump unveiled a new global 15% tariff on all imports at the weekend. Trump’s move came after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday struck down his global tariffs policy, implemented last spring, that had upset the long-standing global trading order. The president reacted to the Supreme Court’s judgment by initially announcing a new universal 10% levy, using a different legal framework for the latest tariffs, but then increased the global tariff rate to 15% — the legal maximum which can be in place for 150 days before Congressional approval is required. The new import duties are “effective immediately,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday.

Officials in Europe and London expressed alarm and consternation at the latest upheaval in global trade relations, saying Trump’s new tariff policy could upend trade deals signed with the U.S. last year. They asked for more clarity from the White House as to what the new tariff policy framework means in practice for their respective trade deals, which saw most EU exports to the States hit with a 15% duty, and those from the U.K. slapped with a 10% levy. “Pure tariff chaos from the U.S. administration,” the Chair of the European Parliament’s committee on International Trade, Bernd Lange, reacted to the White House on Sunday. “No one can make sense of it anymore — only open questions and growing uncertainty for the EU and other U.S. trading partners,” Lange wrote on social media platform X.

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State Stories

Pro-AI network to spend $5M in Texas GOP primaries

Leading the Future, a super PAC network backed by AI industry executives, will spend $5 million in the upcoming House GOP primaries in Texas. That spending begins today when the bipartisan network will launch a $500,000 ad buy to boost Jessica Steinmann, a MAGA lawyer running for an open red House seat in the greater Houston area. The network will run ads supporting her on broadcast, cable, streaming and digital. Steinmann is the clear front-runner for the seat, which was vacated by retiring Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas). A top Steinmann opponent ended his campaign when Steinmann nabbed an endorsement from President Donald Trump. “We believe the races in Texas present a unique opportunity to usher in a new class of pro-innovation candidates who will work together to enact an agenda that creates more economic opportunity for working families,” said Zac Moffatt, a co-strategist for Leading the Future.

Leading the Future plans to part with millions of dollars this cycle to elect AI-friendly candidates. The upcoming $5 million investment is in addition to what the network is already spending to help Chris Gober, a lawyer who is running for retiring GOP Rep. Michael McCaul’s (Texas) open seat. Texas’ primaries are set for March 3, but any race where a candidate does not clear 50% of the vote will advance to a May 26 runoff. Leading the Future is likely to be active in those runoffs. Besides McCaul and Luttrell, Texas GOP Reps. Chip Roy, Jodey Arrington, Troy Nehls and Wesley Hunt are also either retiring or running for a different office. That leaves plenty of opportunities for the network to help shape the future of the Texas delegation. Leading the Future is backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI, and his wife Anna. In New York, the network is spending to oppose Alex Bores, who is running for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) seat.

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Southwest Airlines, American Airlines cancel flights to Puerto Vallarta

North Texas’ hometown carriers Southwest Airlines and American Airlines canceled flights to parts of Mexico Sunday after the country’s army killed the leader of a powerful cartel during an operation to capture him. “Southwest Airlines has canceled the four flights we had scheduled to fly into Puerto Vallarta today and the four turns back,” the company told The Dallas Morning News in an email. “We will set up extra sections to support our Customers affected by today’s cancellations, once it is safe to do so. Nothing is more important to Southwest Airlines than the Safety of our customers and our employees,” the company said in the email.

Southwest is the dominant carrier at Dallas Love Field, where it operates 18 of the 20 gates. American, which operates its central hub at DFW International Airport, told The News in a statement that it canceled flights to and from Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara for the remainder of the day. The airline said it had issued a travel alert to allow affected customers to rebook travel plans without change fees. “We will continue to monitor the situation and make any additional changes to our operation as necessary to ensure the safety and security of our customers and team members,” American said in the statement. American was originally scheduled to operate three flights from DFW Airport to Puerto Vallarta International Airport and four flights back, according to scheduling data from Diio by Cirium. American also had four flights scheduled between Guadalajara and DFW Airport on Sunday, according to Diio. Southwest operates flights to Puerto Vallarta from other markets it serves but does not have flights between Dallas and Puerto Vallarta because it cannot fly internationally from Love Field due to the remnants of a law passed in 1979. Other major airlines like Air Canada, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines warned that flights to the region may be disrupted.

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Harris County fails third consecutive jail financial audit since 2022

A January audit of Harris County inmates’ commissary accounts identified critical oversights and financial control failures, including violations of state law and county policies. It’s the latest in a trio of reports published by the Harris County Auditor’s Office since 2022 that have warned of inadequate or non-existent documentation, excessive employee access to sensitive financial information and discrepancies between the jail’s inmate management and commissary account systems. According to the audit, the sheriff’s office was unable to provide receipts for payments made from inmate’s bank accounts across a two-month period, which one expert called “unusual.”

“I find that to be unusual,” said Todd Buikema, principal technical adviser of accounting and reporting for the Government Financial Officers Association, a nonprofit that advises local governments on financial policy and accounting. “According to this, none of the payments made during the period they examined were substantiated.” The audit, which was published Jan. 23, identified five major problems — three of them labeled “repeat issues” — that auditors said significantly increased the risk of fraud. Among the findings was an ongoing failure on behalf of the sheriff’s office to proactively release funds to inmates after they are released, which was identified in both the 2026 audit and a previous report published in 2023. Both audits found the sheriff’s office relied on former inmates to reach out and request their funds, which is a violation of the Texas Government Code.

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Topo Chico Mineral Water temporarily unavailable in US, company says

Topo Chico Mineral Water is unavailable in the United States until later this year, Coca-Cola, the brand’s owner, said in a statement. The company’s statement said the product will be temporarily unavailable while the company makes facility upgrades at the water source and production facilities in Mexico. “As always, safety and quality are the company’s top priorities,” the statement said. The company said they aim to have the mineral water product back later this year.

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Massive data center planned near Texas dinosaur park sparks outcry

Footprints left by dinosaurs 113 million years ago have survived floods, droughts and shifting riverbeds in North Texas. Now, residents say they could face a new threat: a proposed industrial data center complex the size of a small city. A 2,600-acre development planned for the Paluxy Valley near Dinosaur Valley State Park would bring dozens of warehouse-sized server buildings and multiple natural gas power plants to the rural landscape that feeds the Paluxy River—the same river where the park's world-famous dinosaur tracks are preserved. The proposal has ignited a fight over water, air quality and who controls development in fast-growing parts of Texas, as artificial intelligence fuels a surge in data center construction statewide.

The Fort Worth Group of the Sierra Club is urging residents to oppose three air quality permits tied to the project's associated power generation. In an action alert, the group is asking Texans to submit comments to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and request a public meeting or contested case hearing. Support for the park has exploded on social media in recent weeks, with posts about the proposal widely shared and residents urging others to participate in the action alert and submit comments to state regulators. Brian Crawford, who lives along the Hood and Somervell county line and is involved with Protect the Paluxy Valley Inc., said Sailfish Investors has contingent contracts on roughly 2,100 acres of continuous property in the valley. He said the project was initially pitched as a five-gigawatt data center but now appears closer to three gigawatts—a scale that would likely require three large natural gas power plants. NRG Energy has submitted an air quality permit to TCEQ for the first 1.2-gigawatt combined-cycle gas turbine plant, Crawford said, describing the facilities as "massive power plants." Concept plans presented to Hood County commissioners show 45 buildings of about 450,000 square feet each—more than 20 million square feet in total. Crawford compared the footprint to roughly 112 Walmart Supercenters. He also estimates the site would require around 2,000 diesel backup generators.

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AGC fears North Texas road construction could be delayed if Congress doesn’t pass funding bill

Construction is nearly complete on a new bridge to connect westbound traffic from Interstate 820 to Interstate 30. The $267 million mobility project, which includes multiple bridges at the intersection of the two highways, will improve traffic flow for travelers headed west from Fort Worth to Aledo, officials said. But contractors are worried that road improvements could stop — and potentially hamper growth in Texas — if Congress does not pass the Surface Transportation Bill to expand funding before the current funding expires at the end of September. The Associated General Contractors of America launched a $2 million nationwide campaign called America’s Moving Forward to educate the public about transportation funding.

“Improving highways and transportation systems makes it easier for companies to thrive and expand by lowering shipping costs, accelerating deliveries and connecting firms to clients and investors,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the contractors organization. Without a long-term transportation bill in place, Simonson said, “it is hard to see how the DFW area will be able to sustain its meteoric job growth.” Between December 2020 and December 2025, 47,100 construction jobs — a 22% increase — were added to the North Texas economy. Construction has allowed North Texas to grow faster than 14 other metro areas in the country over the past five years, according to data from the contractors organization. In June 2025, a long-range regional transportation plan outlining $217.3 billion in needs for North Texas road, rail and air quality improvements through 2050 was approved by the Regional Transportation Council, an independent policy group of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Fort Worth city officials are also developing a Moving a Million comprehensive mobility plan to prioritize road projects and align them with state and regional 2050 plans. Clint Henson, director of special projects for Zachry Construction Corp. and president of the Associated General Contractors of Texas, said highway projects like the one at I-30 and I-820 “represent growth for workers, businesses and the communities that surround projects like this.” The funding bill is needed later this year as contractors and transportation officials begin planning road projects years in advance, Henson said.

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San Antonio-area Congressional primaries get push from PACs

The Texas primary election got a late start this year, while the courts were still deciding whether to allow the GOP’s new congressional maps. Now party leaders and PACs are swooping in at the last minute to boost candidates who lack the time and resources needed to find voters shuffled around by redistricting, according to campaign finance reports due Thursday. Roughly 43% of Bexar County voters are now in a different congressional district than the last time they voted, according to the county elections department. Yet the latest numbers released indicated that few campaigns had brought in the type of money needed to introduce themselves in the six weeks leading up to early voting. One exception is the heated GOP primary rematch in Texas 23rd Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) and YouTube creator Brandon Herrera spent a combined $1.9 million from their campaign accounts between Jan. 1 and Feb. 11.

But in the two races without incumbents on the ballot, candidates are leaning on endorsements, personal money, grassroots organizing, and TV ads from outside groups to get their name out to voters. “The timeline has been truncated,” San Antonio political strategist Bert Santibañez said of the adjustment to new congressional districts. “You have cut through the noise to make an introduction in some of these new districts… [but] just based on the timeline [this year], that accelerated spending probably has to be done by outside groups.” In the newly created Texas’ 35th Congressional District, that means TV ads linking longtime sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia to his popular, well-known boss, Sheriff Javier Salazar. Bigger-name Democrats passed on an opening that was drawn to favor Republicans, and now the party is scrambling to shore up a first-time candidate whose campaign spent just $120,000 in the six weeks before early voting. A PAC aligned with the Congressional Blue Dog Caucus spent $300,000 on the pro-Garcia ads ahead of the four-way primary, in which one of the other Democrats accused them of turning politics into a “chessboard.”

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UT’s Women's and Gender Studies won a department. Then came the political pressure

By any measure, 2023 was a golden year for University of Texas students and faculty studying women’s and gender studies. After decades of classes and years of advocacy for more resources, the university approved the field to become an official department. The move meant WGS would have its own full-time faculty, a chair reporting directly to the dean and more money for programming. Faculty celebrated the milestone as a sign their work—and their place on campus—was finally being recognized as valuable. “Both new faculty and long-standing faculty were almost in tears with how impactful it was to feel that sense of belonging,” said Lisa Moore, the director of UT’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies department. Moore and her colleagues did not know then how fleeting that feeling would be.

Conservative pressure and the criticism from UT leadership about “overly fragmented” departments have snowballed in recent years: scrutinizing, at times criticizing and—most recently—dismantling the fields. Last week, UT President Jim Davis announced plans to collapse ethnic and gender studies into a new department and review the courses and majors within it. Faculty and students fear consolidating the department with others could threaten individual degree programs, courses, programming, research and faculty jobs. Though all current students will be allowed to continue in their degree programs, Davis has not said if there will be faculty or majors in the future. It’s also unclear when consolidation will occur. Conservatives criticize the courses of study for veering into activism and often describe the curriculum as “indoctrination.” They argue the state shouldn’t fund it and students shouldn’t be forced to take it as part of required curriculum.

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Ken Paxton’s ‘shoddy’ prosecution of a midwife is meant to stretch power. Low-income Houstonians lose.

Houston attorney Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube sat flabbergasted at her desk in early October. A press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had just touted the arrest of eight people affiliated with a network of Houston-area medical clinics alleged to have practiced abortion care in violation of the state’s extreme ban. Paxton, currently a U.S. Senate candidate as well, labeled the individuals a so-called “cabal of abortion-loving radicals” and denounced their actions as “evil,” amid an ongoing case. The sensational release served as an update to his office’s earlier announcement of the arrest of the clinics’ founder, 49-year-old midwife Maria Margarita Rojas, last March. “A prosecutor who is truly interested in justice does not blast out a public press release like this to the media while a trial is pending. Nothing has been proven in court yet, and this inflammatory language is just meant to fan the flames of public outcry and poison a jury pool before the facts are heard,” Hochglaube, who serves as Rojas’ criminal defense lawyer, told the Texas Observer. “It’s unethical and irresponsible.”

Rojas is believed to be the first healthcare provider criminally charged for abortion care after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, and she is certainly the first in Texas. The unprecedented prosecution marks a sharp escalation of Paxton’s zealous ongoing attacks on reproductive health providers—and signals his desire to expand his powers to go after those he believes are in violation of abortion law. Paxton’s office is prosecuting the criminal cases, after the Waller County district attorney referred them over, and his office also initiated a separate civil case to shut the clinics down; a status hearing in Rojas’ criminal case is scheduled for early June, while oral arguments in the civil case, which is on appeal, are set for Thursday in Houston. Hochglaube said Paxton’s “desperate” attempt to smear charged individuals is indicative of the state’s overwhelmingly flimsy argument against the medical workers. On March 17, Paxton announced the arrest of Rojas for purportedly providing an illegal abortion as well as practicing medicine without a license at her network of low-cost clinics in the Waller, Cypress, Katy, and Spring areas of the Houston metro. The next day, he announced the arrest of one of her employees, Jose Ley, on the same charges—specifically noting Ley’s status as a Cuban immigrant paroled in under Joe Biden’s “open borders policies.” To date, a total of nine arrests have been made in the case. Texas enforces one of the strictest criminal abortion bans in the United States, with no exception for rape, incest, or severe fetal abnormality.

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How UTEP leadership decisions led to loss of a potential $160 million grant and derailed El Paso’s aerospace plans

Two years ago, El Paso celebrated grants to coalitions led by the University of Texas at El Paso that could have brought up to $200 million to the region to develop a transformational manufacturing operation focused on defense and aerospace. El Paso business owner Pablo Rodriguez, owner of PROD Design & Analysis, created a subsidiary, PROD Aerospace, in July 2022 to capitalize on anticipated growth in the defense and aerospace industry. It never happened. “We have had zero activities, zero employees, zero revenue. Zero. Zero. Zero,” Rodriguez said last year about his subsidiary, with more disappointment than bitterness. He closed the subsidiary’s bank account in September and shuttered his aerospace company in December. “Everything has been zero.”

El Paso leaders had spent years aiming to transform the area’s economy, banking on defense and aerospace manufacturing as a key driver for that change. Those plans, however, quickly unraveled in the spring of 2024, when UTEP President Heather Wilson, a former congresswoman and secretary of the Air Force during the first Trump Administration, and other university officials raised concerns with the National Science Foundation about an awarded grant application that could have generated as much as $160 million for the region. The NSF suspended the grant on April 25, 2024, and the science foundation’s inspector general began an investigation. NSF killed the grant in August 2025, before the investigation was concluded. Amid the grant’s suspension, Wilson demoted Ahsan Choudhuri, the engineering professor who provided the overall vision for developing the regional economy through aerospace manufacturing.

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Both sides are running out of water: US and Mexico’s deal amid historic drought

Mexico has committed to delivering 431.7 million cubic meters of water a year to the United States under the 1944 Water Treaty — a deal announced last week after sustained pressure from Washington on Mexico who has often delivered significantly as required by the treaty. The agreement, confirmed by the U.S. State and Agriculture departments, comes after months of negotiation and threats from President Donald Trump to impose higher tariffs on Mexican imports unless Mexico met its water delivery obligations. In a phone call last month, Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reportedly agreed to measures to stabilize deliveries and support rural producers on both sides of the border. President Sheinbaum explained that both sides agreed that the water would be delivered over several months within the framework of the treaty.

“We guarantee human consumption of water in Mexico, as well as part of the irrigation needs, along with a series of infrastructure projects being carried out in the north of the country, particularly irrigation modernization, which allows us to use less water from the Rio Grande to cover farmland in Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas,” the president of Mexico told reporters. Under the treaty, Mexico is expected to deliver an average of 350,000 acre-feet (about 431.7 million cubic meters) annually to the United States over a five-year cycle. While that volume has long been the norm on paper, chronic drought has meant that Mexico has accumulated a “water debt” that U.S. officials estimate at nearly 986 million cubic meters over the last cycle. What’s new is the urgency: Texas farmers and ranchers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, a major agricultural region, have reported serious shortages when treaty deliveries lag, forcing costly shifts in irrigation and crop planning — impacts that local agricultural groups link directly to water deficits.

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Jury selection begins again in Fort Worth for Prairieland shooting defendants after mistrial

The second attempt at a federal trial of nine people connected to the nonfatal July 4 shooting of a police officer outside an immigration detention center begins Monday — one week after a federal judge in Fort Worth declared a mistrial during jury selection. The case stems from what defendants and supporters say was a noise demonstration outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado meant to show support for people inside the facility. The Justice Department alleges the defendants are part of a North Texas Antifa Cell that coordinated the incident to kill ICE agents. A total of 19 people have been arrested in connection with the shooting over the past seven months. Some of the federal defendants face up to life in prison for their charges, which include attempted murder and providing material support to terrorists.

Benjamin Song, the 32-year-old former Marine Corps reservist accused of being the gunman and the group's ringleader, spoke with KERA News from jail and said he was "confident" ahead of the first round of jury selection. "I feel overall that the case has been pretty ridiculous," he said. "The government has harmed a lot of people going overboard here." Seven others facing federal charges pleaded guilty in November and face sentencing in March. Three more defendants face only state charges. Government officials have called this the first-ever federal domestic terrorism case associated with “antifa," short for anti-fascist. President Donald Trump declared the ideology a domestic terror threat last year. Judge Mark Pittman declared a mistrial hours into jury selection last week in response to defense attorney MarQuetta Clayton's shirt featuring American civil rights protest imagery, which he said could send a political message to the jury pool. Clayton could face sanctions for wearing the shirt, which Pittman said violated a court order on dress code.

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National Stories

Mar-a-Lago shooter identified as Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina

A man was shot and killed early Sunday after allegedly breaching the secure perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the U.S. Secret Service said. The incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. when the suspect made an "unauthorized entry" through the north gate of the resort as another vehicle was exiting. The man has been identified as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw confirmed to Fox News. The suspect was observed carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can. Agents and a deputy from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) confronted him.

"They confronted a white male that was carrying a gas can and a shotgun. He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him – at which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position," Bradshaw told reporters. "At that point in time, the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons and neutralized the threat." Bradshaw said the suspect did not exchange any words with law enforcement officers who instructed the man to "drop the items." The man was pronounced dead at the scene. No Secret Service or PBSO personnel were injured, and no Secret Service protectees were present at the location during the time of the incident, officials said. Trump was at the White House at the time of the breach, even though he frequently spends weekends at Mar-a-Lago, according to The Associated Press. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the man is believed to have bought the shotgun while traveling south, and authorities later discovered the weapon’s box inside his vehicle, The Associated Press reported. The Moore County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that a relative reported Martin missing around 1:38 a.m. Sunday. He was entered into a national missing person database before federal authorities informed local officials they were conducting an active investigation in Florida related to Martin.

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Thanks but no thanks: Trump’s hospital ship plan provokes defense of Greenland health care system

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would deploy a hospital ship to Greenland, alleging that many people there are sick and not receiving care, even though both of the U.S. Navy’s hospital ships are currently docked at a shipyard in Alabama. Trump’s announcement prompted a defense on Sunday of Denmark and Greenland’s health care system from their leaders, and it was the latest point of friction with the American leader who has frequently talked about seizing the massive Arctic territory. “It’s a no thank you from here,” said Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. Trump’s social media post about a hospital ship came after Denmark’s military said its arctic command forces on Saturday evacuated a crew member of a U.S. submarine off the coast of Greenland for urgent medical treatment.

The Danish Joint Arctic Command, on its Facebook page, said the crew member was evacuated some 7 nautical miles (8 miles; 13 kilometers) off Nuuk — the capital of the vast, ice-covered territory — and transferred to a hospital in the city. The crew member was retrieved by a Danish Seahawk helicopter that had been deployed on an inspection ship. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday night, referred to his special envoy for Greenland and said, “Working with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there. It’s on the way!!!” “We have a public health care system where treatment is free for citizens. That is a deliberate choice — and a fundamental part of our society,” Nielsen said. “That is not how it works in the USA, where it costs money to see a doctor.” He added, in a note of exasperation, that Greenland is always open to dialogue and cooperation. “But please talk to us instead of just making more or less random statements on social media,” he said. Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, speaking to public broadcaster DR, said Danish authorities had not been informed that the U.S. ship was on its way. The Pentagon referred questions about the status of the U.S. Navy’s two hospital ships, the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort, to the White House. The White House did not immediately respond to repeated requests for more information. Both ships are currently at a shipyard in Mobile, Ala., according to social media posts from the shipyard, which also posted photos of them next to each other.

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Gov. Wes Moore’s redistricting plan is poised to die. He’s still fighting.

While Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) spent last week in verbal combat with President Donald Trump over a sewage spill, he was also quietly losing his biggest political battle at home. Moore’s months-long fight to redraw Maryland’s congressional maps — and oust its lone Republican member of Congress — produced zero movement among Democrats in the Maryland Senate. Despite a public pressure campaign without modern precedent in this deep-blue state, which typicallyresolves intraparty fights behind closed doors, Tuesday’s unofficial deadline to act on mid-cycle redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms will come and go without fellow Democrats heeding Moore’s demands for a vote. “The window of opportunity is closed for ’26,” said Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), who refuses to redistrict, arguing that the state’s Democrats have already gerrymanderedas much as possible and that further attempts will backfire.

The apparent loss, which Moore vehemently does not concede, draws a sharp contrast between himself and another potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who swiftly persuaded his state’s legislators and voters to redraw five more Democratic-leaning seats in retaliation for Republican gerrymandering done at Trump’s behest in Texas. Other potential 2028 presidential candidates also did not push through redistricting, but Moore stands alone as a Democrat who vowed to fight Trump with a redistricting scheme but failed to achieve it. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another potential 2028 contender, cast redistricting in his state as a potential counterpunch to GOP map-drawing in neighboring Indiana, for example. But it was a punch he never threw because Indiana’s redistricting failed. Moore rejects the conventional wisdom that Maryland must pass a map before Tuesday, the candidate filing deadline, after which new congressional districts would require shifting the entire election schedule.

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Spanberger signs bill that could help Democrats gain four House seats

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has signed a bill that includes new congressional maps intended to give Democrats four additional seats in Congress, though the process faces significant hurdles before the maps can take effect. Spanberger signed House Bill 29 late Friday night after a rushed approval process in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. Democrats are scrambling to act in time for this fall’s midterm congressional elections to counter President Donald Trump’s push for new districts in Republican states, which he hopes will help his party retain its narrow control of the House. States normally carve up new districts after a census, once every 10 years. Trump’s demand to do so mid-decade has created a gerrymandering frenzy.

Texas, North Carolina, Missouri and Ohio have so far added seats favoring Republicans; Virginia is attempting to join California in drawing Democratic districts to counter them, with Maryland and other blue states considering similar efforts. In Virginia, early voting could begin March 6 ahead of an April 21 referendum on amending the state constitution to allow the new maps, but this week a judge in Tazewell County — a heavily Republican area in the rural southwest — issued an injunction to put the process on hold. Circuit Judge Jack S. Hurley Jr. acted on a suit filed by the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and two of the state’s GOP members of Congress — Rep. Morgan Griffith and Rep. Ben Cline — challenging the wording of the referendum question. Virginia’s delegation features six Democrats and five Republicans. The maps in the legislation Spanberger signed Friday night would create one solid red district in the southwest corner of the state and 10 others that lean blue.

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Winter storm brings heavy snow, power cuts and blizzard warning

The powerful winter storm pummeling a vast swath of the Eastern Seaboard was intensifying on Monday morning, dumping snow at a furious rate and strangling major metropolitan areas at the dawn of the workweek. By 6:15 a.m., official blizzard conditions — wind gusts of more than 35 m.p.h. for at least three hours with visibility under a quarter of a mile — had been reached at both Newark Liberty International and Teterboro Airports in northern New Jersey, the National Weather Service said. The storm has left hundreds of thousands without power and paralyzed transit across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with no signs of abating. As of Monday morning, over 40 million people remained under a blizzard warning, and the Weather Service said that Long Island and parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were also likely to meet blizzard criteria as the snow and wind intensified.

Parts of New York, New Jersey and Delaware received over a foot of snow within 12 hours, much of it falling overnight. In total, more than two feet of snow is expected to fall in parts of New England, and the New York City region could receive at least 18 inches. The storm has left more than 260,000 customers in the Mid-Atlantic region without power, mostly in New Jersey and Delaware, according to poweroutage.us. Forecasters and government officials warned that the storm could affect commuters across the region deep into Monday. In the New York City and New Jersey regions, roads, airports and mass transit have all been severely compromised. NJ Transit halted all trains, buses and light rail, and the Long Island Rail Road shut down. Metro-North Railroad said it would operate on an hourly or weekend schedule on Monday on most of its lines, but suspended West-of-Hudson service on Sunday. New York City’s subway was running with delays or with trains going local instead of express, and the C line was suspended as of Monday morning. City buses were running with delays.

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Top Noem aide entered cockpit before firing pilot over missing blanket, sources say

Top U.S. homeland security aide Corey Lewandowski entered the cockpit of a government jet uninvited during a flight last year, after which he fired a pilot over a misplaced blanket, two people familiar with the matter said.Lewandowski, a long-time ally of President Donald Trump, was traveling with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when they discovered her blanket was missing, the people said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal government operations.

The new details about the pilot incident suggest Lewandowski may have violated the safety guidelines set out by the U.S. Coast Guard, which operated the plane. Lewandowski entered the cockpit before the plane had reached 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) and while the seatbelt sign remained on, one of the people said.Federal Aviation Administration rules, several of which were tightened after 9/11, strictly limit cockpit access and prohibit interfering with aircraft crew duties. An FAA regulation also prohibits airline pilots and staff from engaging in non-essential activities or conversations in the cockpit while operating under 10,000 feet, and civil aircraft operators that violate that rule could face thousands of dollars in fines while pilots could face fines or termination. The U.S. Coast Guard is not legally bound by the FAA's regulation, known as the "sterile cockpit rule," but has a similar policy, spelled out in a 2021 operations manual: "No person shall engage in any conversation or activity that could distract or interfere with a flight crewmember properly conducting their assigned duties during critical phases of flight."The manual does not provide a specific penalty for violating the rule, but states that rule violations generally will be handled through internal disciplinary processes.In response to a Reuters request for comment, Lewandowski said in a text message: "There was never a conversation in the cockpit when the flight was taking off."Lewandowski said the facts as related by the sources were wrong but he did not respond on whether he entered the cockpit while the plane was climbing and still under 10,000 feet.Aviation safety experts consider the initial ascent among the riskiest parts of any flight.Randy Klatt, a flight safety officer with The Foundation for Aviation Safety, said planes are "low and slow" during the initial climb to 10,000 feet, making it important for pilots to focus on flight operations."This is a vulnerable situation for any aircraft," Klatt said. "You don't have the altitude to spare, or trade for airspeed if needed."The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard, which falls under DHS, declined to comment on the flight in question.

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Kash Patel spotted celebrating in U.S. Olympic hockey team’s locker room

FBI Director Kash Patel was spotted celebrating in the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s locker room Sunday following a gold-medal winning performance that saw the American squad beat Canada, 2-1, in overtime. CBS News and MS NOW previously reported that Patel used a Justice Department jet to travel to Italy with plans to watch the men’s hockey game, but the bureau quickly denied the story, suggesting he was only traveling to conduct official business. Assistant FBI Director of Public Affairs Ben Williamson, in one of several posts on X, said Patel was in Italy visiting the Milan Joint Operations Center, where a group of American officials have been deployed to assist with security.

“[I] have yet to receive any follow up from CBS or MS NOW who purposefully misled people to think Kash was flying to Italy to hang out at the Olympics,” Williamson posted Saturday, before footage of Patel celebrating with Team USA began circulating online. Patel was briefly spotted Sunday in U.S. center Dylan Larkin’s Instagram livestream, celebrating with the team in the locker room after their gold-medal win. In the now-deleted clip, Patel can be heard thanking the players “for representing the greatest country on earth.” Patel later posted on X a collection of four photos of Sunday’s hockey game, including a selfie with team head coach Mike Sullivan in the locker room and a photo of himself with a group of players holding an American flag. “Unity, Sacrifice, Attitude- what it takes to be the best in the world. These men live and breathe it,” Patel wrote in the post. “Thank you for representing the greatest country on earth, in the greatest game ever created.” The FBI did not respond to a request for comment Sunday regarding Patel’s attendance at the game.

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Lead Stories

Records show ICE agent fatally shot U.S. citizen nearly a year ago in Texas, as lawmaker seeks public hearing

Democratic Texas state Rep. Ray Lopez, who serves as vice chair of the Texas House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety and Veterans' Affairs, said he formally exercised authority under Rule 4, Section 6A of the Texas House Rules to compel Committee Chairman Cole Hefner, a Republican, to schedule a hearing on Martinez's death. The proposed hearing would examine the shooting death of Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025. While his death was reported at the time, ICE's involvement in the shooting was not disclosed until this week, over 11 months after the shooting.

Lopez said it is the first public use of the provision, which was adopted during the 89th Legislative Session that concluded last June. The rule requires a committee chair to "promptly schedule" a hearing designated by the vice chair. Lopez requested a written response from Hefner by the end of business on Feb. 23. It was not immediately clear when a hearing might be scheduled. Local news outlets in Texas reported on Martinez' killing last year, but the involvement of federal immigration agents in the fatal shooting was first revealed earlier this week by Newsweek, which used government documents recently released by the American Oversight Project, a nonprofit ethics watchdog, to connect the death with an internal ICE report. The internal ICE report, which redacts Martinez's name, stated that the March 15 incident involved agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, who were helping South Padre Island police officers control traffic in the late night hours following a major car accident.

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Armed man shot and killed after entering perimeter around Trump’s Florida home

US Secret Service agents and Palm Beach County law enforcement shot and killed an armed man after he “unlawfully entering the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago” Sunday morning, the Secret Service said. The president and first lady were at the White House in Washington, DC, at the time of the incident. A man in his early 20’s entered the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago around 1:30 a.m. before he was shot by agents and a deputy with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the Secret Service said in a statement. He appeared to be carrying a shotgun and a fuel can, according to the Secret Service. The man’s name is being withheld until his family is notified of his death. His background and motive are under investigation by the FBI and other authorities, the Secret Service said. No law enforcement agents were harmed in the incident, the statement said. The Secret Service agents involved will be placed on administrative leave during the investigation “in accordance with agency policy,” the statement said.

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Meta launches Texas campaign to get AI-friendly Republicans elected

A Super PAC backed by a $45 million investment from the California tech giant Meta launched an ad campaign in Texas this week to boost state Republicans viewed by the company as friendly to the development of artificial intelligence. On Friday, the Forge the Future Super PAC launched its first round of digital ads that support Kelly Hancock, who is locked in heated GOP primary battle for Texas Comptroller, two candidates for state Senate and one North Texas state representative. The ads don't make mention of AI or the data centers that drive the technology, and instead focus on the candidates' efforts to keep taxes low and improve education. Brian Baker, a GOP strategist leading the effort, said in a statement the Super PAC will support "a select group of pro-innovation Republican candidates" for the state Legislature and state offices like governor and attorney general.

"Our focus is on elevating Republican leaders who have demonstrated a strong commitment to championing America’s tech future and maintaining our global competitive edge," he said. Hancock and the other candidates, who include state Rep. Trent Ashby, a Lufkin Republican running for an East Texas state Senate seat, and Brett Ligon, who is vying to replace Galveston state Sen. Mayes Middleton, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The campaign, which is also active in California and Illinois, comes amid a flurry of efforts in Texas to put guardrails around AI technology and the affiliated data centers that require huge amounts of water and energy to operate. Last year, state Sens. Angela Paxton and Tan Parker, both Republicans, spearheaded a bill that for the first time established a regulatory framework for AI in Texas, including provisions prohibiting the misuse of biometric data and AI technology that discriminates against a particular group of people or encourages suicide and self-harm. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is pushing regulation to stop the development of data centers on prime farm land by encouraging tech companies, through tax breaks and other incentives, to insteadbuild them on less productive acreage.

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DHS suspending TSA PreCheck and Global Entry as shutdown continues

The Department of Homeland Security is suspending two popular programs Sunday that allow some travelers to move more quickly through airport security because of the shutdown of much of the agency, according to a DHS spokesperson. The department is pausing its TSA PreCheck and Global Entry programs — one of several emergency measures the agency said it is taking to redirect staffing more than a week after Congress did not vote to send more money to the agency. DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem said in a statement that the agency is “making tough but necessary workforce and resource decisions” and prioritizing the “general traveling population” at airports and ports of entry. “This is the third time that Democrat politicians have shut down this department during the 119th Congress,” Noem said in a statement. “Shutdowns have serious real world consequences, not just for the men and women of DHS and their families who go without a paycheck, but it endangers national security.”

Democrats in Congress demanded Republicans agree to impose new restrictions on DHS after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renée Good, last month in Minneapolis. The White House negotiated with Democrats, but the two sides did not reach a deal before DHS funding ran out on Feb. 14. Among the changes the agency is making starting Sunday is suspending airport police escorts for members of Congress and other expedited services, the agency said. The Federal Emergency Management Agencywill also halt all “non-disaster related response to prioritize disasters,” Noem said, noting the upcoming winter storm this weekend. The Washington Post previously reported that DHS halted almost all travel amid the standoff over the agency’s funding. DHS is now requiring approval for all FEMAtravel, including for disaster relief. Democrats have insisted that federal agents wear body cameras and don’t wear masks, get judicial warrants before raiding people’s homes, stop raids on “sensitive sites” such as churches and schools, and adhere to a new code of conduct similar to those of state and local police, among other demands.

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Tariff ruling sends CEOs back to company war rooms

For a few minutes after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s signature tariffs Friday, Ethan Allen Chief Executive Farooq Kathwari felt a jolt of relief. Then a jumble of emails from colleagues began pouring in. “This is good news for us,” a leader in the furniture maker’s Mexico operations wrote. It’s too early to know what this means, the head of merchandising emailed minutes later. The executive followed up soon after: With no guidance from the court on refunds, she said, “businesses must continue to pay.” Now that the Supreme Court has resolved one question about the Trump tariffs, it has left U.S. business leaders awash in a flood of others: Are tariff refunds any closer to reality? Will the possibility of new tariffs under a different legal authority prove costlier? And how to proceed without ruffling the Trump administration—which has staked its economic agenda on tariffs—or customers seeking price breaks?

Many company bosses say they are now spending the weekend digesting legal briefs and the president’s response to game out what comes next. Since the ruling, Trump has announced a new global tariff of 15% under a different legal authority, arguing the levies are necessary to address large trade and balance-of-payments deficits. “We’ll try to understand it much better,” Kathwari said of the days ahead. “It’s a bit complicated.” Mark Mintman, chief financial officer for Kids2, an Atlanta-based manufacturer of baby products and toys, learned of the ruling on vacation in Florida from a string of text messages. Since he was away, he entered the 170-page ruling into ChatGPT for a quick summary, he said. “My emotional response is muted,” said Mintman, given all of the uncertainty and potential additional tariffs. “I’ll take this as a tiny win.” Kids2 sold around half of its potential refund value, which it estimates is around $15 million, to a hedge fund to recoup some of the cost. The fund will also help with any legal action needed to pursue a refund. The uncertainty around refunds “is a big reason we made the agreement,” he said.

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State Stories

SMU’s $50 million pledge is a threat to TCU, Texas, Baylor, Texas A&M et al

The insanity and absurdity will one day slow down, or stop, but SMU is making sure rather than join the family of schools in search of a “solution,” it will play by a series of regulations that exist in the land of make believe. SMU bought its way into power college sports, and now the Mustangs will attempt to buy its way to national titles. On Friday, SMU announced that four families donated $50 million, as well as an initiative to raise an additional $50 million by the end of the year. All of these millions are designated to fund “scholarships, NIL advancement and revenue sharing,” SMU said in a statement. (If you are part of the group that believes $100 million could do so much for groups that desperately need it, you are correct, but we can’t lose sight on the importance of beating Wake Forest in football).

The statement did not specify how much of this potential $100 million will go to football players, but 85 to 90 percent feels about right. Misplaced priorities aside, this type of money will be felt immediately in recruiting, and in the 2027 season on the field. Whatever margin between TCU and SMU that existed for the majority of this century is gone. These are two private schools in the same major metro area that compete in the third and fourth most visible conferences in college sports. Flip a coin as to which one - the ACC or Big 12 - is “superior.” For years TCU justifiably didn’t give SMU much thought because there was no need, a line of thinking that now is out-dated. There is no way to slalom around what $100 million that is dedicated to the recruitment of players will do to an athletic department, and university. A winning football team does a lot for a school. Ask TCU. The momentum SMU created since it joined the ACC two years ago is undeniable, and this sort of donation ensures it won’t fade. That type of spending will find the most talented players available. And the players who aren’t immediately available. At least the players who like money.

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Judge blocks Houston, Katy schools from enforcing Texas law banning DEI efforts

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction Friday to block three Texas school districts, including Katy and Houston, from enforcing a new state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public schools. The law, Senate Bill 12, has banned gender and sexuality alliance clubs at high schools across the state, among other provisions. In August, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Transgender Law Center and the Baker McKenzie law firm sued Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath and Houston, Katy and Plano ISDs to block the law from being enforced. The organizations filed the suit on behalf of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance Network and two anonymous individuals. They say the new law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the Equal Access Act. In December, attorneys asked for an injunction to prevent further harm to students.

“This win affirms that every young person, no matter their background, should have the freedom to learn about themselves and the wide range of identities of their peers,” said Dale Melchert, a senior staff attorney at the Transgender Law Center, in an ACLU press release. “Students in these districts can once again join GSA clubs, learn about and discuss various histories and cultures, and critically—have their identities, including usage of the correct names and pronouns respected by their teachers. We will keep fighting for schools that are safe, inclusive, and welcoming for all.” The school districts involved in the lawsuit are now temporarily blocked from enforcing four sections of SB12, which restricts school-sponsored DEI efforts; prohibits staff from referring to students with names or pronouns that they are not assigned at birth; bars instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity; and bans student clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The judge in his ruling said the three districts have declined "to take a position as to SB 12 on the merits, even after implementing policies or otherwise taking action to accord with its overall directive." He ordered the districts to declare within two week if they plan to defend SB12.

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Dallas City Hall report divides backers of move, supporters to stay

The same report, two different readings. With a nine-figure repair estimate now public, the City Hall debate has grown louder. One side says it’s time to move. The other says restore the landmark. The Dallas Morning News asked a relocation advocate and a City Hall supporter to lay out their arguments. Developer Jack Matthews said Saturday the report bolsters his initial views — City Hall should be torn down. That potentially would free the current site at 1500 Marilla St., which some have suggested as a prime spot for an arena, hotels and mixed-use projects tied to expansion of the convention center growth. “It confirms what I was thinking in an even stronger way,” he said. “It’s more expensive than I thought.” The question now, he said, is whether the city should build a new City Hall elsewhere or move government operations into an existing property, such as a downtown office tower, in or near the urban core.

Matthews favors updating an older building. Spending money to update the current City Hall should not be considered. “We have too many more important places to spend money than building a new City Hall,” he said. Matthews, a major player in Dallas real estate, is involved in several projects downtown and in the nearby Cedars neighborhood. “My dog in this fight is – the better Dallas is, the better my developments are,” he said. “What’s good for the city is good for me.” Matthews also pushed back against assertions from the building’s supporters that the estimates compiled by the Dallas Economic Development Corp. were not legitimate. He said the firms involved are “at the very top end of reputation and ability to understand these things” and added that he does not believe any would “sell their soul” for the possibility of working on a future City Hall project.

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Lubbock Feeders announces feedyard closure after 70 years

It’s the end of an era on the South Plains. After 70 years of operation, Lubbock Feeders, a cornerstone of the region’s agricultural economy since 1955, has announced it will close its doors. The feedyard, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2025, has fed well over five million head of cattle during its decades of operation, becoming both an economic engine and a cultural symbol of the South Plains. Manager and CEO Kyle Williams described the closure as a tough and emotional decision, underscoring the weight of ending a 70-year legacy built by generations of cattle feeders, employees and agricultural partners. The decision follows a series of economic and regulatory challenges that have significantly impacted operations.

Typically, between 60 and 70 percent of the yard’s cattle inventory originated from Mexico. However, since November 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has closed the southern border to live animal imports for biosecurity purposes. The action was taken in response to the northward movement of the New World screwworm, a parasitic fly whose larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals, posing a serious threat to livestock, pets, wildlife and, in rare cases, humans. Without access to Mexican cattle, Lubbock Feeders lost a critical supply pipeline. The border closure comes at a time when U.S. cattle inventories are already at historically low levels. Fewer available cattle, combined with sharply rising market prices, have squeezed feedyards across the region. For Lubbock Feeders, the combination of limited supply and escalating costs proved unsustainable. The Lubbock Feeder partners ultimately determined that closing the business was the only viable path forward. The impact extends far beyond the feedyard’s gates. Local farmers who depended on feedyard demand to sell corn, silage, and other feed crops now face uncertainty. Truckers, veterinarians, equipment suppliers and countless other businesses tied to the cattle-feeding supply chain will also feel the effects.

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Two Texas exonerees to launch a podcast dedicated to the junk science that got them convicted.

Josh Burns and Andrew Roark, who have been convicted and later exonerated of crimes related to “shaken baby syndrome,” which is now largely considered junk science, will launch a podcast, Unshaken Truth, next month. In 2024, Roark became the 47th person exonerated in Dallas County after spending decades behind bars. Burns, who is from Michigan but now lives in Texas, was also exonerated that year. The two say that the Robert Roberson case spurred their decision to begin the podcast.

“Robert’s case horrified me,” Roark said in a press release announcing the podcast. “The idea that someone could be executed in a situation where there was actually no crime, based on the exact same junk science of shaken baby that led to my wrongful conviction, really shook me. His case is so similar to mine, except, even worse, his daughter died.” They say the first season of the podcast will focus on Roberson’s case and the science that convicted him, the state laws regarding the use of junk science in court, and guests who have worked to get him off death row. That includes author John Grisham, lead detective Brian Wharton, who investigated the death of Roberson’s daughter Nikki but now believes Roberson is innocent, State Rep. Lacey Hull, and Keith Findley, co-founder of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Science. They also plan to have other exonerees on the show, which will drop weekly on Thursdays beginning March 5. In October, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution for Roberson, just a week before his scheduled execution.

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Bastrop County leaders could call for renaming FM 969 as ‘Charlie Kirk Corridor’

Bastrop County commissioners could call on their state leaders to rename a portion of a busy road through their area after the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. They’re set to vote Monday on a resolution in support of deeming FM 969 from the Bastrop County line to State Highway 71 as the “Charlie Kirk Corridor.” If that passes, county leaders said they would then ask their state lawmakers to introduce legislation that could officially bring about that name change and designation. The next time Texas legislators can introduce and approve a bill to do something like this is when the regular legislative session begins on Jan. 12, 2027.

Kirk, who helped create the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, died in September after a gunman shot him while speaking at a college event in Utah. Following the assassination, Gov. Greg Abbott joined other Texas leaders in pushing for every high school in the state to create Turning Point clubs on their campuses. Texas became the third state to announce a partnership with the group after Florida and Oklahoma. KXAN also recently looked further into the dozens of Texas educators who risk losing their ability to teach over comments they made on social media in the wake of Kirk’s assassination. The state began collecting complaints about teachers’ online posts. While diving into records, KXAN found that several months into the state’s review of more than 350 misconduct complaints tied to social posts, several school districts and the state are continuing to push back on releasing details that would reveal how many educators face losing their teaching certification — or the comments that triggered the state’s investigation into them.

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How the Bush Center’s Shilo Brooks plans to avoid turning it into a ‘mausoleum’

Less than a year into his new job as president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Shilo Brooks is operating on all cylinders. The 43-year-old Texas Panhandle native, named after a Louis L’Amour Western character, landed back in his home state in July following a three-year stint at Princeton University. “I’ve been really shocked by just how extraordinary Dallas is, and how it’s grown since I first came here as a kid from Lubbock,” Brooks said, in his first interview since officially taking over the reins in September. “It happened just in my lifetime.” Brooks was named in May to succeed the highly regarded Ken Hersh, who led the center for nearly a decade of dynamic growth and increased community engagement. “Ken set up this organization so that a person like me could be here,” said Brooks, who still carries vestiges of his Lone Star lingo. “He left me a really, really healthy organization that’s ready to position itself for its next chapter. I’ve been handed the keys to a really fast car, and all I have to do is drive it wherever I want to go.”

Where exactly is that? “A number of these institutions are mausoleums for the president,” Brooks said. “I’ve said this to President Bush: ‘We don’t want this to be a Graceland for you.’ And he said, ‘No, we don’t. That’s not what this is about. It’s about the future.’ “So we are an organization focused on the future but understands the principles that animated him, which are American principles. I want to make it clear that his legacy matters,” he added. “The Bush Center at this particular inflection point in America, when things are so polarized, has a role to play as a preserver of American ideals in their most robust sense,” he said. “I want to make clear that this place is about the best of what our country is. We want to be an educational institution that offers people a chance to reflect on that.” But before Brooks began drawing his roadmap for the future, he spent several months settling his family into their Park Cities home, getting his 8-year-old daughter ready for elementary school ? and becoming more attuned to the ways of Dallas, and the 43rd president’s legacy domain.

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Even as Cy-Fair ISD reverses a book ban, some say the harm can't be undone

Nearly two years after Cypress-Fairbanks ISD trustees voted to remove 13 chapters from several career and science textbooks, a newly elected board has reinstated the materials. The initial ban triggered community outrage and protests, an influx of campaign donations ahead of board elections, and ultimately the defeat of conservative trustees at the ballot box last November. But teachers and students say the effects of that decision – rushed lesson planning, strained morale, and cautious classroom discussions – can’t be undone with a single vote.

“I’m not going to be a part of CFISD for much longer, but it is deeply gratifying to see such change,” Cy-Fair ISD senior Alissa Sundrani, 17, said. “That being said, this is not the end, and there is still a good amount wrong with CFISD curricula that needs to be updated. I hope this empowers the board to do so.” Now that the newly elected board — supported by Democratic political donations — has reinstated the chapters, several former and retired teachers are sharing new details about how the ban undermined their authority, limited their teaching and even changed the course of their careers. At least one science teacher filed a grievance against the board. Another science teacher left her position entirely. "Our professional educators are highly and continuously educated in their field yet many began to feel stifled in the classroom by boardroom decisions," Nikki Cowart, Cy-Fair AFT president said. "(It can) cause morale to plummet when school board policies are decided without any input from the employees or the families we serve."

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Austin-area doulas lead the way as profession eyes future advocacy efforts

When Josephine Adegbite had her second baby last spring, all the stars seemed to align. At a midwife-led birthing center in Manor, she labored in a tub of water as music played. Just when it was time to push, she heard the opening notes of “Akikitan” — one of her Nigerian grandmother’s favorite Yoruba gospel songs. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Like, what are the odds?'” Adegbite said. “I think that's what gave me so much more power and strength to give birth.” While the timing may have been perfect, the playlist was planned with this day in mind. By Adegbite’s side the whole time — supporting her with water, towels and massages and keeping the music rolling — was her doula, Alicia Rivera-Clemente. “I was happy to be there and happy to see that she was so comfortable and felt safe,” Rivera-Clemente said.

Adegbite’s first experience giving birth just a couple of years earlier was different. The memory of the difficult emergency c-section she underwent with her toddler-aged eldest daughter was still fresh when she found out she was pregnant again. “I did not like it,” Adegbite said. “I did not like the recovery. I didn't like the way I was treated in the hospital. I felt like I didn't really have a voice.” That’s why, this time, she sought out a doula — a non-medical support person to be her advocate during pregnancy and childbirth. A growing body of research shows that doulas are associated with better birth outcomes. That includes reduced rates of preterm labor and fewer c-sections — which can be lifesaving but come with increased risks when performed unnecessarily. These benefits have been especially noted for Black women, who have a maternal mortality rate 2.5 times higher than white women in Texas, per data from the Texas Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee. Legislators and health leaders in states including Texas have begun to take note in recent years, introducing bills that support furthering access to doula care.

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Democrats are going to miss Ken Paxton as Attorney General

The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long, they say. If you want to be in it for the long haul, then, cast away Christ’s instruction from the mount: Do hide your light under a bushel. No brightness of any kind has been detectable around our great state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, since he won office in 2014, which may be the reason he has held it for so long. Three full terms, despite the efforts of a large part of his own party to impeach him from office or remove him in his primaries for allegations including corruption, incompetence, and horndoggery, and the failed efforts of state and federal prosecutors to put him in jail. But his haters are finally notching one in the W column. Whether he wins or loses his bid for the U.S. Senate, he will, come January 2027, no longer be the top lawman in Texas. For this they may be glad, but only for a moment. Paxton’s reign contains a central perversity that remains poorly understood by both his most fervent critics and his most adoring fans: He has not been very good at his job. His first two terms were marked by incredible dysfunction and a degradation of the core functions of his office—the prosecution of crimes and the advancement of Republican causes.

His predecessors—Greg Abbott, and before him John Cornyn, who became a U.S. senator in 2002—did these perfectly well, and anyone who takes over for him will likely be better at both. Though his career has been saved several times now by Republicans rallying around him, believing him to be persecuted by RINOs and the left, the irony is that they would have been better off sacrificing him—while Democrats should have preferred him to any Republican who might replace him. The view that Republicans would be better off without Ken’s dead weight seems to have been held by, among others, Paxton’s former first assistant attorney general, a fellow by the name of Chip Roy. In 2020, while a congressman, he argued during one of the AG’s recent scandals that “Attorney General Ken Paxton must resign,” because “the people of Texas deserve a fully functioning AG’s office.” Roy now seems most likely to succeed him, and pledged at a four-way primary debate on Tuesday that he would, in essence, work harder and smarter than his former boss. If that comes to pass, Democrats in Texas will find themselves missing Ken. Roy has been in a feud with Paxton since 2015, when he was picked to be Ken’s sidekick in the AG’s first year in office. He had been Ted Cruz’s chief of staff in the U.S. Senate, where he sometimes pushed the hard-line Cruz to take even harder stances. He was, in other words, ideological and uncompromising. In the AG’s office, Roy and the other senior staff ran things because Paxton visited the Austin office just a few days a week.

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UNT dean's fears of political repercussions led to removal of art exhibit, leaked transcripts show

In leaked transcripts of meetings held by leaders of the University of North Texas art school, Dean Karen Hutzel wouldn’t tell faculty or staff who ordered an exhibit closed and removed from a campus gallery. She described the decision as an “institutional directive” in a meeting with faculty, and told college staffers that she was expecting “a media storm.” Administrators might survive public excoriation, she said. Elected representatives, however, can more readily slash programs, impugn professors and hold state funding over college executives’ heads. Hutzel discussed administrators’ widespread fears over funding loss, and how those concerns are compounded by leadership purges at the University of Texas and Texas A&M University after ideological clashes with Texas Republicans, who have spent the last two legislative sessions fighting what they say is leftist bias and indoctrination in public education.

Texas public universities have seen curriculums forcibly overhauled by lawmakers, and entire programs have been eliminated because they don’t align with the conservative values of Republican lawmakers in the state house or in Washington. The UNT College of Visual Arts and Design has been in headlines across the country since it shuttered an exhibit last week by globally known street artist Victor Quiñonez, known broadly by the graffiti tag he developed in east Dallas, Marka27. The graduate of Dallas’ renowned Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts had an exhibit, “Ni de Aquí Ni de Allá,” open Feb. 3 in the CVAD Gallery. The exhibit explores Quiñonez’s identity as a bicultural and bilingual American. Born in Juarez, Mexico, Quiñonez grew up in east Dallas. His exhibit, whose title translates to “neither from here, nor from there” included work from his “ICE Scream” series. The work uses a popular Mexican treat, the paleta, to honor his heritage while it considers incarceration and deportation.

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North Texas FIFA host committee outlines human rights priorities ahead of World Cup

Workers’ issues and human trafficking were among the chief concerns of a human rights plan released Monday by the North Texas World Cup host committee. FIFA requires each of the 16 host cities to develop a plan addressing human rights issues ahead of the tournament, which is expected to bring over 100,000 people a day to North Texas. With a first draft submitted to FIFA in January, the plan was developed over the course of several years in collaboration with more than 200 stakeholders, including the city of Dallas and nonprofit organizations across the region. The version presented to the media at a roundtable discussion on Tuesday will be refined before a final plan is published in May.

The host committee is responsible for public safety, transportation, local vendors and events such as the fan festival in Fair Park. FIFA will independently oversee operations at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, which will be referred to as Dallas Stadium during the tournament, and the International Broadcast Center in downtown Dallas. The region will host nine matches, the most of any of the 16 host cities. Dallas is preparing to host an estimated 3.8 million fans during the World Cup’s 39-day run, with over 35,000 fans expected to attend events at Fair Park each day. The human rights plan outlines a vetting process for local suppliers, who must comply with FIFA’s sustainable sourcing code before being approved as vendors. Supplier categories include food and beverage, security, general contractors, event planning and janitorial services. The code prohibits forced labor, trafficking, child labor and other abuses of workers’ rights. Suppliers who gain approval may be subject to continued monitoring under the plan, and an independent third-party firm will conduct employee interviews to ensure compliance with host committee policies. The plan also stipulates a $15 minimum hourly wage for event workers.

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National Stories

What happened to the $150 hotel room?

For Skift’s annual company meeting in New York, Rafat Ali tries to put the participants in Manhattan hotels. Last year, his team scoured the city for reasonable rates, but came up empty. Each room cost hundreds of dollars, so all but one of the attendees were sent across the river, to New Jersey. The last-minute guest got stuck by the Lincoln Tunnel, in a modest property charging luxury prices during the popular fall tourism season. That spot, the Yotel, “used to be cheap, and now, of course, it’s too much,” said Ali, the founder and CEO of Skift, which specializes in travel news and research. “It was like $400 or $500 a night.” Hotel rates rise with inflation, a simple fact of economics. Goods and services — from the price of eggs for the breakfast buffet to the hourly wage of housekeepers — cost more, so properties adjust their rates accordingly. The midscale segment, which caters to travelers who have graduated from budget but are still several pay grades from luxury, is especially vulnerable.

“What used to cost $100 now costs $150 and what used to cost $150 now costs $200,” said Jan Freitag, national director for hospitality market analytics at CoStar. “That’s just a way of life.” According to CoStar, the average daily rate of U.S. hotels jumped from $131.56 in 2019 to $160.49 in 2025. Some destinations surpass the national average, such as New York City ($333.81 a night), Boston ($232.51) and Miami ($224.24). Freitag said that, in all but the high-end sector, the increase in hotel prices is below the inflation rate, so room rates, when adjusted for inflation, are less today than they were several years ago. But ultimately, you are spending more money for the same standard room with the same basic amenities at the same chain hotel. You’re not getting a more spacious room or finer linens, though you might get stuck with a resort fee. (The price is for hotel only, not including taxes or resort fees, which vary wildly by destination.)

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A new generation of MAGA megadonors is emerging — and they’re swamping Democrats

Artificial intelligence executives, cryptocurrency moguls and other donors who have little or no history of federal political contributions are pumping millions of dollars into President Donald Trump’s flagship super PAC, a NOTUS analysis of new campaign finance disclosures indicates. While Trump is constitutionally ineligible to serve a third presidential term, the newbie megadonors’ money could serve the dual purpose of boosting Republicans during the 2026 midterms and endearing the donors to Trump himself. Ben Landa, who built one of the largest nursing home operations in New York, cut a $5 million check to the MAGA Inc. super PAC in August. Trump nominated Landa last month to be ambassador to Hungary.

Private equity investor Konstantin Sokolov went from making a few four-figure contributions in years past to cutting checks worth a combined $11 million to MAGA Inc. in 2025. Sokolov also donated an undisclosed amount toward the president’s White House ballroom project. And Foris Dax, the company better known as Crypto.com, has given $30 million to MAGA Inc. since Trump took office. Crypto.com, which has not donated to federal candidates or committees in previous election cycles, scored a massive win this week when Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, announced the federal government’s intention to regulate prediction markets and shut out individual state governments, which could promulgate more draconian rules. Billionaire Jeff Yass, a prominent Republican megadonor, has already given nearly $54.5 million through the same period. Together, their contributions have more than replaced the money Republicans lost when older megadonors died — Bernie Marcus, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Foster Friess, David Koch — or all but quit giving, as Robert Mercer did.

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How the Epstein files frustrated Trump’s White House

When the Justice Department released its last trove of millions of files about Jeffrey Epstein, President Trump found himself in the same place he had spent a year trying to avoid—dealing with the fallout, again. The files showed his own commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, had visited with Epstein long after Lutnick said they had cut ties. Lutnick had to publicly explain his past statements, provoking a direct conversation with Trump, according to administration officials familiar with the matter. Trump questioned why he previously denied connections to Epstein when he knew he had visited Epstein’s island, the officials said. Since last February, the administration has tried to move on from questions about an issue that has animated Trump supporters like few others, even as it has continued to metastasize.

Trump officials initially opposed the release of the files from the investigation into the convicted sex offender and then fumbled their response, telling allies there was little new information to glean from the documents. The disclosures from the latest release, ordered by Congress, have instead forced prominent lawyers and business leaders to step aside, and prompted new criminal inquiries in three other countries. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are testifying before Congress next week, after the released files included photos of Clinton visiting with Epstein, too. The latest episode started during a conference call just before Christmas, when aides broke the news to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that another million documents attorneys believed were likely duplicates in fact weren’t. Blanche sighed in exasperation, eventually alerting senior White House aides, who shared his anger and received updates for days, according to administration officials. In the ensuing weeks, the agency ordered hundreds of additional prosecutors to review the files, working through weekends to redact sensitive information and at times plying them with pizza to keep going at night.

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As Trump pushes voting restrictions, states have a rarely used option to push back

When Kansas began requiring residents to prove their U.S. citizenship before voting more than a decade ago, Steven Wayne Fish tried and failed. A first-time father in his 30s at the time, he wanted a say in debates over public school funding despite having never voted before. But Fish, who was born on a since-decommissioned Air Force base in Illinois, couldn’t find his birth certificate, leaving him unable to register for the 2014 general election. A federal court eventually blocked the Kansas law following a lawsuit in which Fish was the namesake plaintiff. For years, the Fish legal case served as a warning to politicians who wanted voters to produce documents proving their citizenship. That’s changing, as President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress try to impose a similar proof-of-citizenship voter registration requirement nationwide through a long-shot proposal called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or SAVE America Act.

Blue states would have a major tool to push back. Whether they would use it is less clear. States have the power to set separate rules for state and local elections and to apply federal restrictions only on residents voting in federal races, according to interviews with more than a dozen election experts, officials and lawmakers. Operating two distinct election systems, a process called bifurcation, would give states more freedom over who can vote in races for governor, state legislature and other down-ballot contests. Bifurcation would ensure that individuals like Fish could still cast a ballot in some contests, even if they couldn’t vote for members of Congress or president. “It’s very strange and surreal,” Fish told Stateline about a potential national requirement during an interview on Tuesday in Ottawa, Kansas, where he works at a warehouse. Those looking back at his state, he said, will see “it did not work at all.” Under the U.S. Constitution, states regulate the times, places and manner of federal elections, though Congress has the authority to override them. But Congress has far less authority over state and local elections.

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Blizzard warnings issued for swath of East Coast, including NYC

A fierce storm was poised to blast the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast with heavy snow and strong winds Sunday into Monday, leading forecasters to issue blizzard warnings for much of the coastal Northeast, including New York City, which faces as much as two feet of snow. The storm is expected to bring heavy snowfall, strong winds and blizzard conditions from Delaware to southern Connecticut, the National Weather Service said on Saturday. Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center, said the winds will bring the blizzard conditions but also “create other problems, including moderate to major flooding and high surf at the coast.” He also said there could be widespread power outages with Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts at the highest risk.

The blizzard warnings were in place for nearly 30 million people from Sunday morning until Monday afternoon, with the heaviest snowfall — one to two inches per hour, if not more — expected by Sunday night, the Weather Service said. Forecasters warned travel will be “dangerous, if not impossible” on roads, as it became clear that the Monday morning and evening commutes will be messy in the big cities, from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, to New York City to Boston. As of Saturday night, more than 3,500 flights across the United States were being canceled for Sunday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware. This is the first blizzard warning issued for New York City since 2017, according to the Weather Service. There was also a blizzard warning for the city the year before, in 2016, when a record-breaking snowstorm dumped an accumulated 27.5 inches of snow onto Central Park — the largest since records began in 1869.

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Team USA's Matt Boldy makes incredible goal to put team ahead vs Canada in Olympic gold medal game

Tensions were high going into the Winter Olympics gold medal men’s ice hockey game between Team USA and Canada on Sunday and it was the Americans who had the crowd on their feet early. U.S. forward Matt Boldy received the puck in the center of the ice. He tapped the puck forward and was able to split Canadian defenders Devon Toews and Cale Makar. Neither Canadian defender was able to stop him.

Boldy pulled the puck back and got it around Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington for the first score of the game. It came on Team USA’s first shot. Auston Matthews and Quinn Hughes were credited with assists. The score sent the Milan crowd buzzing, and the incredible goal drew a ton of social media reaction. The U.S. had a 1-0 lead after the first period. Boldy, who plays in the NHL for the Minnesota Wild, is on the Olympic roster for the first time. He was a part of Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off and had a goal and two assists in the tournament last year. Canada defeated the Americans in the final of that tournament as the rivalry between the two nations was revitalized.

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What happens to billions in tariff money already paid? Supreme Court leaves refunds unsettled.

In striking down a large chunk of President Donald Trump’s tariffs Friday, the Supreme Court set up a new legal battle over the $130 billion-plus the government has collected from those duties. The justices, in their 6-3 ruling, did not order the Trump administration to provide refunds to importers for the tariffs already paid, or spell out how repayment should work. That likely leaves the U.S. Court of International Trade responsible for sorting out a thicket of legal issues related to possible repayments; under customs law, tariff refund claims are typically handled through that trade-focused, New York-based court and processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The president himself lamented the court’s omission in a press conference Friday afternoon. “They take months and months to write an opinion and they don’t even discuss that point,” he told reporters at the White House.

“Wouldn’t you think they would have put one sentence in there saying that, ‘keep the money’ or ‘don’t keep the money,’ right? I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years.” In a dissenting opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned the refund process will be a “mess” — echoing Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s description during oral arguments. Barrett, nonetheless, joined the majority ruling against Trump’s duties. “The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers,” Kavanaugh wrote, adding that “refunds of billions of dollars would have significant consequences for the U.S. Treasury.” That’s a point the president and other senior economic officials made repeatedly in the build-up to the court’s decision. In a Truth Social post last month, Trump warned that striking down the tariffs could force the U.S. to repay “many Hundreds of Billions of Dollars” — potentially “Trillions” when accounting for related investments — calling such a scenario “a complete mess” that would be “almost impossible for our Country to pay.” Trade and customs experts agree any potential repayment process will be a logistical “nightmare” for both the federal government and the companies seeking compensation — and that legal fights are likely.

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DOJ struggles as White House presses on voter fraud

The Justice Department has struggled to meet White House demands to prosecute noncitizen voters as conspiracy theories that President Donald Trump and his allies have pushed in public fail to hold up legally. The president has grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of results, advisers said, leading to his public pronouncements about nationalizing elections and requiring voter ID, which he lacks the authority to do unilaterally. Top Justice Department officials regularly meet with officials from Homeland Security Investigations — the law enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security that works with prosecutors to bring cases against undocumented immigrants — about tracking down instances of voter fraud.

The meetings include at least one aide to Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and the architect of the president’s aggressive immigration policies, according to two people familiar with the matter who, like several others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. A White House official said the effort dates back to an executive order last year, and it’s standard to coordinate implementation involving multiple agencies. This week, DHS instructed all HSI offices to review all open and closed voter fraud cases and report any individuals who registered to vote before they became naturalized U.S. citizens, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. The Justice Department is preparing to give HSI officials access to voter registration data for suspected noncitizens, according to a Justice Department official familiar with the matter. The officials have so far decided against DOJ providing all voter data to DHS because of concerns about generating bad publicity or being difficult to defend in court, the official familiar with the matter said. The information would come from state voter rolls, but many states have refused to give those to the Justice Department. The efforts so far haven’t yielded results, in large part because the types of rampant voter fraud that the Trump administration describes have never been found. A Justice Department official said that it has brought significantly more voter-fraud cases than the Biden administration and that the law enforcement agency could bring more cases once it reviews the remaining voter rolls.

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Lead Stories

Tony Gonzales says he’s being 'blackmailed' over affair with staffer

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales said Thursday he is being “blackmailed” after reporting by the San Antonio Express-News found he had an affair with a staffer who later died by setting herself on fire. “I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED,” the San Antonio Republican wrote in a social media post Thursday morning. “Disgusting to see people profit politically and financially off a tragic death. The public should IMMEDIATELY have full access to the Uvalde Police report. I will keep fighting for #TX23.” In the post, Gonzales attached a partial screenshot of an email from a lawyer representing Adrian Aviles, the husband of the late staffer, Regina Ann “Regi” Santos-Aviles. The email is undated and the recipient is unclear. But in the message, the attorney, Robert “Bobby” Barrera, suggests he is weighing filing a lawsuit that could be damaging to the San Antonio congressman’s career and seems to propose a settlement that would include a nondisclosure provision.

Barrera notes that statutory deadlines for the Congressional Accountability Act, which he refers to in the email as the CAA, mean “time is of the essence.” The act provides congressional staffers an avenue to sue if they face discrimination, harassment or labor violations at work. The email refers to a “maximum recoverable” amount of $300,000. In an interview with the Express-News, Barrera said he was “in shock” that Gonzales and his lawyer chose to publish part of what he described as a confidential settlement communication. He said he sent the email Feb. 10 to J.D. Paurstein, Gonzales’ San Antonio-based attorney, and received no response. “This is clearly a last act of a desperate man who is going to do anything but admit what he did,” Barrera said. He said the letter “clearly shows we did not want to go public, and we weren’t attempting to damage his career.” On social media, Aviles rejected the claim that he “blackmailed” Gonzales.

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Is Crockett going to top Talarico?

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) may have waited until the last possible day to enter the Texas Senate race. But she’s still the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. The big question now: Can state Rep. James Talarico overtake Crockett with less than two weeks to go until the March 3 primary? It’s not over yet. Talarico, who entered therace in September, does have one key advantage — money. Talarico has significantly more resources than Crockett, and he’s outspent the congresswoman on advertising, $11.2 million to $2.7 million. Plus, a pro-Talarico super PAC has already dropped $5 million into the race. But Crockett has something that might be more valuable in a state as massive as Texas — a national following and extremely high name recognition.

“We’re the underdogs against Congresswoman Crockett,” Talarico said while campaigning this week in Austin. “I’m the most unknown candidate in the race, probably in either party, so it’s incumbent upon me to introduce myself to voters.” Talarico did get a big publicity boost this week after late-night TV host Stephen Colbert accused CBS of blocking him from airing a Talarico interview out of fear of the FCC. Yet Crockett’s penchant for sparring with Republicans from her perch on the House Oversight Committee has made for several viral moments. One clash she had with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was immortalized in a Saturday Night Live skit. It’s that kind of exposure that gives the two-term House member such a huge edge in the primary. Crockett told reporters her most recent polling showed her with a close to 10-point lead over Talarico. “When there’s a spread like that, and we’re in a shorter amount of time, then it’s not a matter of you just catching up. You’ve got to bring me down,” Crockett declared.

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Four men accused in Austin's yogurt shop murders have been exonerated

Four men who had been accused, two of them convicted, in one of Austin's most infamous murders have been declared officially innocent. Maurice Pierce, Robert Springsteen, Mike Scott and Forrest Welborn were the key suspects in the 1991 murder of four teen girls at a yogurt shop. Now, more than 34 years later, Travis County Judge Dayna Blazey has stated all are innocent, clearing their records and formally exonerating them after they were wrongfully accused in 1999. Last year, police announced they believed Robert Eugene Brashers was guilty of the killing of Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, and Jennifer and Sarah Harbison at an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop in December 1991. Brashers died in 1999, but police were able to tie him to the murders through forensic and DNA evidence after decades of searching for the real killer.

Travis County District Attorney José Garza filed a motion to revisit the case and formally clear their names late last year. All four suspects were implicated, investigated and later arrested in the aftermath of the murders that drew national attention and haunted Austin for decades. Springsteen, who was sentenced to death and spent 10 years in prison, said in a written statement read by his attorney, Amber Farrelly, that his wrongful arrest turned his life into a cycle of “chaos and uncertainty." “I have been persecuted every day,” Springsteen said. “I have lived every single day …being seen as a monster for something I did not do.” Scott, the only exoneree who spoke in court, said the police who arrested him, and prosecutors who convinced a jury to give him life in prison, robbed him of his youth — of a full life. "For decades I have carried the burden of wrongful conviction. Every day, I have carried the weight of a crime that I did not commit," he said. "No court ruling can return the years and the love that were taken from me, but it can acknowledge the truth: I am not guilty."

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The freshman lawmaker working to build Republicans’ bench makes a swing through Texas

Rep. Brian Jack has been in Congress for just a little over a year, but the freshman from Georgia has quickly become one of the lead recruiters for House Republicans — crisscrossing districts to meet with candidates who could help the GOP hang on to its slim majority. Republicans have grappled with messaging over the past year and have their backs up against the wall ahead of the upcoming midterms, when the party in power historically struggles, leading to members fleeing for the exits. Now, between retirements and Republicans’ mid-cycle redistricting in the state, Texas has a number of new and open districts. And it’s up to Jack — who takes his role as deputy chair of the campaign arm for the House GOP deeply seriously — to help find the best of the bunch. NOTUS joined Jack for part of a recent six-day swing through Texas, where he met with more than 10 candidates to learn who they are and determine whether they’re the right fit for their respective districts.

He then takes the information he gathers to President Donald Trump and House Republican leadership to keep them informed and help them make endorsement decisions. As he’s in these meetings, Jack says he’s looking for three specific things. “First and foremost is electability,” Jack said. “Ultimately, this is a game where there are literally winners and losers. So you want to recruit people who can help support that.” Next: Is the candidate a good fit? “I’m big on ideological fits for the district,” he said. “Some districts, there’s a different ideological bent; other districts, there are other ideological fits. And I think it’s important to travel, frankly, to understand that. When you’re in a certain area, you could feel what that community wants and needs.” And the third is determination and drive, because “rarely will you have a scenario in which you’re the only game in town, and everyone’s paying attention to the race. So you’ve got to be very creative, crafty and innovative to get your message out.” Jack considers himself a student of politics. He studies the background of the candidates he meets with. Questions for them are often just a formality — he knows many of the answers already, but wants to get a sense for who the person is, their social skills and if he could envision them representing that district. “Have you ever read ‘The Ambition and The Power’?” Jack asked this reporter after the third candidate meeting of the day, as Nicki Minaj’s “Chun Swae” played over the car’s stereo. “It’s a great read.” The book, authored by journalist John Barry and published in 1989, chronicles the rise of former Speaker Jim Wright, his view of politics, how he built strong allies and his time as speaker. NOTUS spent four days with Jack in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin and was able to watch him interview eight candidates: Abraham Enriquez, Tom Sell, John Lujan, Jace Yarbrough, Ryan Binkley, Chris Gober, Mark Teixeira and Carlos De La Cruz.

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State Stories

Taylor Rehmet sworn into Texas Senate District 9 after runoff upset.

Taylor Rehmet — the Democrat who got national attention after successfully flipping a historically red district — is officially North Texas’ newest state senator. The union leader and mechanic was sworn into office on Thursday at the Texas Capitol in Austin. Rehmet won a Jan. 31 special election for Senate District 9 against Republican Leigh Wambsganss, who had the support of President Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Rehmet and Wambsganss’ are set for a rematch in the November midterm election. Rehmet will serve as senator for a little less than a year, as he finishes out the remainder of former Sen. Kelly Hancock’s term. The North Richland Hills Republican left the Capitol for the Texas Comptroller’s office in June. The winner of the November election takes office in January for a full, four year term representing the district that spans northern and western Tarrant County.

Rehmet said he felt “deep gratitude” as he officially took office in Austin, surrounded by friends and family. “It’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life,” Rehmet said. Rehmet is the first Democrat since 1983 to represent the district, according to his office. At 33, he’s also the youngest member of the Texas Senate. “When the people of Texas sent me here, they asked for a chance at a future they can be proud of,” Rehmet said in a statement. “A future where a good job can build a good life. Where a child’s path is determined solely by their effort. Where communities are safe, schools are supported, and opportunity is close enough to touch. They sent me here believing tomorrow can be better than today. I accept that responsibility with humility and with absolute confidence in what we can accomplish together.” The Texas Legislature doesn’t convene until Jan. 12, which means the Senate will not be in session while Rehmet finishes out the year.

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UT System votes to limit 'controversial topics' in class, raising concerns about academic freedom

The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved an initiative on Thursday that limits “controversial topics” in the classroom. The new policy states that faculty must “not attempt to coerce, indoctrinate, harass, or belittle students, especially in addressing controversial subjects and areas where people of good faith can hold differing convictions.” Faculty must also exclude “unrelated controversial or contested matters” from syllabi and only follow the contents of the syllabus for each course. The initiative states that it recognizes faculty’s freedom in the classroom, but says instructors must also adhere to principles of academic integrity.

It says faculty members have the responsibility to foster a culture of trust where all students feel free to voice their beliefs; fairly present contrasted opinions with academic evidence; teach students to come to their own conclusions; and abstain from controversial topics that are not relevant to the course. The new policy has raised concerns among academic freedom advocates who worry it restricts faculty’s ability to respond to student questions on past and current events and challenge students to think about the future. They worry avoiding “controversial topics” could lead to censorship that will leave students ill-prepared to become field experts. Brian Evans, president of the Texas American Association of University Professors, said if students ask about current topics, instructors will have to decide whether to engage or not, since everything discussed in class will have to be pre-cleared. "A faculty member is not going to be able do talk about current events without risking being fired," he said. "What kind of education is this?" The policy says if a course includes “controversial topics,” faculty must approach it in a broad and balanced way that allows a discussion of ideas in the classroom. The guidelines do not define specific “controversial topics,” however, the change comes at a time when other Texas university systems have limited curricula related to sex and gender identity.

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San Antonio City Council to discuss possible reprimand for Mayor Jones on Monday

The San Antonio City Council will hold a special meeting on Monday, Feb. 23, to discuss recent accusations of misconduct against Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones. The allegations are outlined in a five-signature memo filed on Feb. 9 that says Jones has demonstrated “repeated instances of unprofessional conduct” with fellow council members, city staff, and residents of San Antonio since she took office last June. The signatories were councilmembers Phyllis Viagran, Teri Castillo, Marina Alderete Gavito, Ivalis Meza Gonzalez, and Misty Spears. Under the city charter, at least three council members can request a special meeting on a subject though a direct request via memorandum to the city clerk.

This memo process has been used in the past to force a discussion on an Israel-Palestine cease-fire in 2023 and last summer to oppose changes Mayor Jones requested to the city's council consideration request process. The request for Monday’s discussion comes after a formal code of conduct complaint filed by District 1 City Councilwoman Sukh Kaur detailing an incident between Jones and Kaur on Feb. 5, the full details of which have not been made public. The complaint and memo are the latest in a string of visible points of contention between the mayor and council members, ranging from the handling of Project Marvel, attempts to change policy making processes, and moving the city's elections from May to November of odd years. In a statement last week, Jones said she was disappointed that some of her colleagues felt this meeting request was a necessary step. "It is no secret that I have disagreed with my colleagues at times about what is best for our city. I have tirelessly advocated for the things that will advance San Antonio and help our people succeed," she said. "My style of leadership is grounded in my lived experience, and that approach does not always align with the traditional templates of female leaders or my colleagues' views. Still, I know we are all committed to engaging with dignity, respect, and compassion." The discussion is the only item on the agenda for Monday’s special meeting. It will begin at 10 a.m.

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Why did Ron Nirenberg replace the logo on his Tesla?

Ever since he announced that he was running for Bexar County judge, Ron Nirenberg has been driving all around town. The former San Antonio mayor has zipped from debates to luncheons to fundraisers to neighborhood meetings to television and podcast appearances as he tries to convince voters to choose him over County Judge Peter Sakai in the Democratic primary. He's done that driving a dark grey Tesla Model Y. But Tesla's shiny signature "T" logo is nowhere on the car. Instead, just above the license plate, there's a Toyota emblem. The SUV "used to be a Tesla," Nirenberg jokes. "I'm no fan of Elon Musk," he adds.

Nirenberg is one of millions of Americans who became outraged at Musk, Tesla's CEO and the world's richest person, when he turned into one of President Donald Trump's closest confidants. So Nirenberg bought a Toyota logo on eBay, used dental floss to remove the Tesla logo and then pasted on the Toyota emblem. Nirenberg also scrapped all the Tesla logos from the center caps of the four wheels. But for all of his ire against Musk, Nirenberg bought the electric car after the billionaire poured hundreds of millions of dollars to return Trump to the White House and then went to work for him. Musk joined the administration in January 2025 to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, an office tasked with overhauling the federal bureaucracy by firing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and dismantling government agencies.

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TEA clears Tarrant County school superintendent of wrongdoing

A Euless charter school superintendent has been cleared of wrongdoing following a months-long investigation by the Texas Education Agency. Last summer, a contingent of parents at Treetops School International accused James Whitfield, who joined the campus in 2023, of financial mismanagement and of failing to report an alleged incident of physical abuse by a teacher. At the time, the parents were vocal in their displeasure with Whitfield’s leadership, but there was little in the way of concrete evidence to support the claims against him. Much of the uproar came after Treetops administrators voted to adopt a four-day school week and eliminate seventh through 12 grades beginning with the 2025-26 school year.

The school now operates as a kindergarten through sixth grade campus. Based on at least one parental complaint, the TEA opened a formal investigation into Whitfield in the summer of 2025. On Feb. 18, the agency notified Whitfield that the investigation had concluded, and the investigative warning had been removed from his TEA educator certificate. Whitfield shared a copy of the letter he received from the TEA informing him the case was closed. In that letter, a TEA investigator said the allegations against Whitfield were unfounded, and there was no evidence of rules violations that could have impacted Whitfield’s educator certification. In an email sent to Whitfield, the TEA investigator responsible for the case thanked Whitfield for his cooperation and wished him the best.

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The right-wingification of UT continues

Texas Republicans’ efforts to control what is taught at the University of Texas passed another milestone last week, as UT administrators announced that the school will consolidate its highly regarded gender and ethnic studies programs into one new department. UT-Austin President Jim Davis sent a notice to the school community on Feb. 12 that the independent departments of American Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies will soon cease to exist. Their areas of study – which Republicans have criticized as part of a woke agenda – will be folded into the newly created Department of Social and Cultural Analysis. Three more departments – Slavic and Eurasian Studies, French and Italian Studies, and Germanic Studies – will become the Department of European and Eurasian Studies. All seven affected departments are in UT’s College of Liberal Arts.

The decision to consolidate them came with minimal input from faculty and none from students. The consolidations will lower funding and reduce the number of professors granted tenure in the study areas, sources told the Chronicle. The chairs of the seven departments learned about the consolidations in a 30-minute Zoom call with COLA Interim Dean David Sosa on Feb. 12. Cherise Smith, chair of African and African Diaspora Studies, said the meeting left her numb. UT has offered courses on African Studies since the late 1960s, and all top-tier universities have departments devoted to ethnic and gender studies in this day and age. Having helped lead the department in various capacities over the last 14 years, Smith said the programs bring prestige to the university. “I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this,” Smith said. “Multiple departments, multiple faculty, and many, many students are going to be affected. It’s a big change, and a change that is taking us off the course of being a top-ranked, global research institution.” Other faculty members echoed Smith’s dismay. “Our leaders are taking a giant leap backwards,” said Julie Minich, a professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies.

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Dallas delegation heading to New York City to try and lure business to 'Y’all Street'

Mayor Eric Johnson announced Thursday that he and City Manager Kimberly Tolbert will lead an official “Y’all Street” delegation to New York City next week in an effort to highlight Dallas as a business destination. Officials declined to take questions during the conference, so many details of where they’ll be in the city and who they plan to meet with are unknown. A cost estimate of the trip is also currently not known, but the city said in a press release members of the delegation will cover their own costs of travel and lodging. “During this visit, we're going to be highlighting Dallas as a premier destination for innovation and investment, especially in the financial services industry,” Johnson said at a press conference. “We're going to be working to strengthen our existing relationships with investors and executives and decision makers who help shape global markets.”

Tolbert said the delegation will be in New York next week for two days on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. Y’all Street is a phrase used by officials to describe the rapidly growing financial sector in Dallas. Johnson said the delegation will invite New York-based businesses to come to Dallas. Tolbert said the delegation will be “on the ground promoting Y'all street and pitching Dallas as America's premier destination for financial services, investment and innovation.” Dallas’ growth recently caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who in January posted on Truth Social that building a New York Stock Exchange in Dallas would be bad for New York. “I can’t believe they would let this happen,” Trump wrote. Just a few years ago, Texas had no stock exchanges. Now it has three, all located in Dallas. Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange — the heads of the national stock exchange duopoly — set up in the city soon after the announcement of the Texas Stock Exchange, a home-grown effort.

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Katy ISD board considers banning 2 more books. Here's which titles.

Katy ISD trustees were split this week over two challenged library books, the latest for a district that has removed 57 titles from shelves over the past five years. The board will vote next week on whether to retain, modify or remove “Cat Kid Comic Club” and “Fake News Phenomenon.” In January, trustees voted to remove three books. “Read Me Like a Book,” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and “Rumble” were all pulled from district libraries. Those decisions came under the board’s updated reading materials policy, which gives trustees final authority over formal reconsideration requests.

The first book, “Cat Kid Comic Club” by Dav Pilkey, was challenged over concerns that it is too violent, said trustee Mary Ellen Cuzela. A review in The New York Times described “Cat Kid Comic Club” as containing “elements of cartoon violence, bathroom humor, and chaotic action.” The review noted the book includes scenes of “intense, albeit silly, action,” such as a parodied “Frogzilla” creating massive destruction. Several trustees pushed back immediately, describing the graphic novel as harmless humor written in a comic-strip style for children. “I own multiple copies of the book because I have multiple children who all love Dav Pilkey’s writings,” said board member Morgan Calhoun. “I’m going to disagree on this.” “This is a comic book that’s a little silly,” she added. “We should put it back into circulation.” Another trustee said they also read the book and found nothing harmful. "It’s just a goofy book,” said Dawn Champagne. "There's a little bit of violence even in fairy tales and things like that.” Discussion of “Fake News Phenomenon” was more divided. The book was challenged over concerns that it is politically biased and tied heavily to the 2016 presidential election, Cuzela said. Champagne defended the book’s broader historical context, contending that the election was one of many references.

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Texas Southern regents face intense scrutiny after state audit

The Texas Southern University Board of Regents approved about $2.7 million in contracts after some deliberation, careful not to violate Gov. Greg Abbott's order to pause non-essential state funding at the historically Black university. The board's caution shows how deeply a routine state audit has shaken the university since Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blasted TSU last fall in a surprise release of the findings that called out “significant weaknesses” in the school's financial processes. Every contract must now cross President James W. Crawford III’s desk before going to the board. The Texas Rangers are investigating potential fraud or waste. And the 2027 legislative session is looming for the university, which is the state's last remaining public university operating outside of a Texas university system.

"I want the public to understand how important this is, and … when I say the public, I mean also the governor and lieutenant governor,” Regent Richard Johnson said during the board's first regular meeting of the year. “At the end of the day, we’re going to have to argue for our resources in the next legislative session, and I need to be extremely clear on new contracts and extension contracts if the moratorium has not been lifted.” The regents met in executive session after Johnson requested that they publicly disclose whether the contracts had any compliance issues with Abbott's order. That would have required the board to waive its attorney-client privilege, said Lisa McBride, whose law firm provides counsel to the university. After closed session, the regents approved spending on eight items on the consent agenda, including for police radio services, firewall upgrades and landscaping. It was not immediately clear how much of the contracts were paid with state appropriations exempted from Abbott's executive order and how much was funded by other means.

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Democrats testing in Houston plan to recruit popular content creators in new strategy to win back Latino voters

An evening rally to boost Democratic turnout for Texas’ rapidly approaching primary featured plenty of the state party’s political star power, but it was someone who won’t be on a ballot who drew the most attention. Carlos Eduardo Espina, a progressive political influencer who boasts more than 14 million followers on TikTok, mingled with lawmakers and took selfies with attendees who eagerly posted them online. The Tuesday night gathering at a Houston Mexican restaurant was more than just a pre-primary rally. It also was a curtain-raiser of sorts for a campaign strategy Democrats hope will help them in this year’s midterms and beyond. Espina and nine other Houston influencers invited to the event are at the center of that strategy, which seeks to build a network of online content creators to better engage Latino voters after many of them gravitated toward Republicans two years ago.

The strategy, developed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ political arm, is being rolled out in the Houston area as early voting begins for Texas’ statewide primary on March 3. The idea is to capitalize on the popularity of local influencers and social media superstars such as Espina to more effectively spread Democrats’ messaging to Latino voters. Strategists hope to expand the effort, called “ RUIDO ” — Spanish for noise — which consists of a network of online content creators, into other competitive primary and general election races where Latino candidates and voters could prove decisive. However, leaders of the Hispanic Caucus PAC have yet to decide when or where to invest next. “The Trump campaign reached out to those nontraditional voices to amplify their message,” Rep. Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat and chair of the caucus’ political action committee, said of the Republican’s engagement with social media influencers and podcasters two years ago. “We didn’t anticipate that was going to be a way by which politics was disseminated. We’ve seen the contrary, that we do need to be in those spaces, as well.” The program’s launch comes as Democrats continue to grapple with broad dissatisfaction with the party and questions about how to effectively engage voters, particularly younger ones, voters of color and those without college degrees who shifted away from the party during the 2024 presidential election. President Donald Trump made inroads with Latino voters that year with a strategy that heavily leaned on engaging streamers, podcasters and other online content creators.

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UH proposes professor checklist for courses to prevent advocacy of politics, ideology

The University of Houston administration is circulating proposed revisions to its faculty guidelines, which would require professors to self-evaluate their curriculum to "not require students to adopt, affirm, or comply with specific political, ideological or belief-based viewpoints,” according to an association of teaching professionals. The proposal comes less than two weeks after UH faced backlash for asking professors to sign an agreement not to indoctrinate students. The self-evaluation plan is being reviewed by the UH faculty council's curriculum committee. The faculty council was created after the UH faculty senate was dissolved last year to comply with Senate Bill 37, which limited faculty influence over academic decisions at public universities in Texas.

Holley Love, a UH mechanical engineering professor and member of the UH chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), said if the proposal were implemented in its current form, it would amount to a never-before-seen level of academic oversight. "UH's handling of this political moment has been better than others like [Texas] A&M and Texas Tech, but this is unprecedented for us," Love said. "It should be unprecedented for any university." The self-evaluation guidelines are unnecessary, because faculty are already equipped with the skills to refine their own syllabi and course materials, Love said. "I really don't see a need for a university-level checklist, and I think a lot of faculty will use that checklist as ways to censor themselves, and that would have a deleterious effect on students," she said. "Students are not going to get the real, detailed, in-depth discussions that they might otherwise be able to engage in if faculty are always worried about whether somebody is going to come back and say that they've violated an item on this largely arbitrary checklist." The proposal includes a "curriculum review self-assessment checklist" broken down into seven sections. The checklist includes requirements such as: "Materials do not require students to adopt or affirm political, ideological, or belief-based viewpoints." "Podcasts, TED Talks, YouTube, journalism, or websites, are intentionally paired with contrasting or varied perspectives where appropriate." "Assignments encourage development of critical thinking skills rather than viewpoint agreement." "Grading criteria assess students' academic performance and mastery of course content, not their alignment with any particular viewpoint." "Participation expectations do not penalize students for differing perspectives."

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Galveston ISD becomes latest local school district to reject daily prayer periods, Bible readings

Galveston ISD on Wednesday became the latest local school district to reject school prayer periods, which are permitted by a new Texas law. Board members for Houston ISD, the largest district in Texas, also have voted against carving out prayer periods and Bible-reading sessions. So have several other Houston-area school districts, including Alief ISD, Conroe ISD, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Humble ISD, Katy ISD and Spring ISD, according to Houston Chronicle reporting. Leaders of at least one Houston-area district, Magnolia ISD, have voted to adopt designated prayer periods, which are voluntary for students and staff under Senate Bill 11. The law requires all public school boards and charter school governing bodies in Texas to make a decision by March 1 about whether or not to implement the prayer sessions.

Galveston ISD officials stated that even without adopting them, students and employees are not prohibited from participating in prayer or reading the Bible or other religious texts during a period of the day that isn't designated and does not interfere with instruction. Some supporters of the law have said carving out time for prayer at school is important, asserting that the opportunity for voluntary prayer or reading of the Bible or other religious texts has deteriorated, according to previous Houston Public Media reporting. Opponents say the new law risks violating First Amendment protections, erodes the separation of church and state and would be difficult to implement in schools. They also argue the bill was not necessary since students are already allowed to express their faiths in public schools. The Galveston ISD board meeting agenda item, in opposition of adopting prayer periods, was approved in a 6-0 vote without discussion on Wednesday night. School board vice president Johnny Smecca was absent for the vote, which was taken as part of a consent agenda that included multiple items.

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National Stories

MAGA architects hire gay porn star for education role

The conservative machine behind Project 2025 hired an adult film star to work on education policy. The Heritage Foundation announced Thursday that Corey DeAngelis, a prominent school choice advocate who opposes LGBTQ inclusion in education, is joining the think tank as a fellow at its Center for Education Policy. It is a standard conservative policy hire, with the exception of DeAngelis’s history as a gay porn performer. The group proudly celebrated the appointment in a post on X, linking to an announcement article highlighting his work on education reform. Acting center director Jonathan Butcher praised DeAngelis’ “high-quality research” on education reform and said the team was “very pleased to add him.”

Butcher also emphasized DeAngelis’s alignment with the team’s values, noting that DeAngelis has been working toward the same education goals as Heritage staff for years. What went unmentioned in the official communications: DeAngelis’ past appearances on gay adult site GayHoopla under the alias “Seth Rose,” in which he participated in both group and solo porn scenes. That history is not new. DeAngelis’ time as an adult performer originally resurfaced in 2024, triggering backlash that led to his exit from the conservative nonprofit American Federation for Children, where he had served as a senior fellow. DeAngelis has since acknowledged the material, describing it as something he regrets. In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, he said the videos—filmed over a decade ago—were “embarrassing” and did not reflect who he is today. “There are images and videos circulating of me from my college days that I’m not proud of,” he said. DeAngelis framed the fallout as politically motivated, arguing critics were attempting to “cancel” him because of his conservative views. “Cancellation requires consent,” he said, insisting he would not participate in efforts to derail his career. Instead, he has recast his past as fuel for his current advocacy—particularly his push to limit LGBTQ-related content in schools.

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People are leaving Congress because the job sucks

There’s been a lot of buzz in Washington lately about the “exodus” of members of Congress in the 2026 midterm-election cycle. So far, 51 U.S. House members (30 Republicans and 21 Democrats), and nine U.S. senators (five Republicans and four Democrats) out of 35 up for reelection, are not running this year. Another three House members are running against one another after mid-decade redistricting measures. According to ABC, it’s the most combined House and Senate retirements in the 21st century and well over average generally. And the numbers for the House could go higher still, given pending partisan gerrymanders in Florida and Virginia. From 40,000 feet, you might think the retirements are concentrated among members of Congress who are in danger of losing their seats in November. And there are some retirees that fit this description: Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Gary Peters of Michigan, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire were theoretically vulnerable, and according to Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, eight of the 54 open House seats are in very competitive districts.

But that leaves 46 that aren’t. The single-largest factor in House retirements is the number of people who are running for other offices: 15 House members (eight Republicans, seven Democrats) are running for the Senate, and another 11 (ten Republicans and one Democrat) are running for governor. One more Republican (Chip Roy of Texas) is running for attorney general. Of the other retirees, the most inscrutable are among Republicans in safe seats who aren’t too old to serve and would seem to be reaching the peak of their careers. Those include two of the most recently announced retirements: Nevada congressman Mark Amodei and Georgia congressman Barry Loudermilk. Amodei’s stated rationale for leaving Congress was that “15 years seems like a pretty good run.” Loudermilk was even more opaque, retreating behind the standard “more time with my family” excuse. Anyone actually familiar with the daily grind of congressional service, especially in the House, can tell you that in some cases members hang it up because the job sucks. Many, perhaps most, Americans believe people go into politics to get rich. Maybe congressional service is a milepost on the road to riches, but nobody’s getting rich while serving in the House unless they are breaking the law, given restrictions on outside income and conflict-of-interest rules. But you do have to maintain two residences (unless you are one of the dozens of members who sleep on cots or sofas in their offices) and struggle with balancing the need for a pristine House attendance record (absences go right into the oppo-research files of your enemies) and being very visible back home (not doing so will get you a primary- or general-election opponent quicker than anything else).

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Former Prince Andrew’s arrest upends royal family’s effort to move past his scandal

For decades, Sandringham Estate has been a place for the House of Windsor to escape from it all. Three hours northeast of London, the palatial country house, its 20,000 sprawling acres and residences are where King Charles III and his family celebrate Christmas, waving to admirers as they parade to church services in their holiday best. Early Thursday morning, the idyllic estate was swarmed by unmarked police cars as officers arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the king’s brother, amid allegations that he shared confidential government information with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. Later in the night, he would return to Sandringham, slinking low in the back seat of a black sport utility vehicle, with news cameras craning to capture his release.

The scenes of Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor, already stripped of his title and kicked out of his longtime home, could be seen as an unmistakable message about the end of an era. Not since King Charles I was arrested and tried for treason nearly four centuries ago, in January 1649, has a British royal been detained. The king’s family, long rocked by scandalous infighting and grievous losses, is now facing what could be the gravest threat in more than a generation to its moral authority and the central role it plays, culturally and symbolically, in the country. The arrest represents the ultimate collision of police and pageantry, upending fierce efforts by Buckingham Palace to distance itself from the accusations against the former prince. The investigation into the former prince, which might continue for weeks or months, could rival royal weddings and coronations as one of the biggest public spectacles in modern British history. If charges are filed, by law and tradition, they will be formally brought in the king’s name: King Charles III v. his brother. The arrest follows years in which the king, and before him his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, stayed silent on separate accusations that Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor forced Virginia Giuffre to have sex with him after she was trafficked by Mr. Epstein when she was 17 years old. The former prince has denied those allegations and wrongdoing related to Mr. Epstein.

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After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it

After pulling out of the World Health Organization, the Trump administration is proposing spending $2 billion a year to replicate the global disease surveillance and outbreak functions the United States oncehelped build and accessed at a fraction of the cost, according to three administration officials briefed on the proposal. The effort to build a U.S.-run alternative would re-create systems such as laboratories, data-sharing networks and rapid-response systems the U.S. abandoned when it announced itswithdrawal from the WHO last year and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal deliberations. While President Donald Trump accused the WHO ofdemanding “unfairly onerous payments,” the alternative his administration is considering carries a price tag about three times what the U.S. contributed annually to the U.N. health agency. The U.S. would build on bilateral agreements with countries and expand the presence of its health agencies to dozens of additional nations, the officials said.

“This $2 billion in funding to HHS is to build the systems and capacities to do what the WHO did for us,” one official said. The Department of Health and Human Services has been leading the efforts and requested the funding from the Office of Management and Budget in recent weeks as part of a broader push to construct a U.S.-led rival to the WHO, officials said. Before withdrawing from the agency, the U.S. provided roughly $680 million a year in assessed dues and voluntary contributions to the WHO, often exceeding the combined contributions of other member states, according to HHS. Citing figures in the proposal, officials said the U.S. contributions represented about 15 to 18 percent of the WHO’s total annual funding of about $3.7 billion. HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon did not answer detailed questions about the proposed WHO replacement but said the agency “is working with the White House in a deliberative, interagency process on the path forward for global health and foreign assistance that first and foremost protects Americans.” A spokeswoman for OMB declined to comment. Public health experts said the effort would be costly and unlikely to match the WHO’s reach. “Spending two to three times the cost to create what we already had access to makes absolutely no sense in terms of fiscal stewardship,” said Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who served as a senior covid-19 adviser during the Biden administration. “We’re not going to get the same quality or breadth of information we would have by being in the WHO, or have anywhere the influence we had.”

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US CDC cancels February vaccine adviser meeting; no new one set yet

A U.S. vaccine advisory committee meeting scheduled for later this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will not be held, with no new dates announced, according to a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stepped up efforts to rewrite national vaccination policy, including dropping broad recommendations for six childhood shots including COVID and hepatitis B, deepening federal support for states' vaccine exemptions, and cutting funding for mRNA-based vaccine research. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which makes recommendations for who should get which vaccines, had been scheduled to meet from February 25-27, according to the CDC's website. But no Federal Register notice had been made to announce the meeting, nor had the CDC posted an agenda.

"We will not hold the ACIP meeting later this month. Further information will be shared as available," HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said. Later on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice notified a federal judge in Boston of the postponement, which occurred days after medical groups opposed to Kennedy's vaccine agenda had gone to court asking him to block the panel from meeting. The committee's recommendations historically have been used to guide U.S. health insurance coverage, state policies on vaccines needed for schools and how physicians advise parents and patients. The panel faced multiple revamps last year, after Kennedy fired all 17 of its members in June. One source familiar with the matter said the CDC is considering rescheduling the meeting for March. The committee generally meets at least three times a year. When the committee last met in December, it voted to remove the recommendation that all newborns in the U.S. receive a hepatitis B vaccine. The CDC followed that vote in January with its own broad changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, removing the recommendation for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A. The ACIP did not vote on these changes. Several state and medical groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics have issued their own vaccine recommendations as an alternative to those issued by the CDC. Leadership at the CDC is shifting. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya will step in as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Trump administration official said on Wednesday, replacing current acting director Jim O'Neill.

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DHS admits its website showcasing the ‘worst of the worst’ immigrants was rife with errors

The Department of Homeland Security admitted that its website featuring what it calls the “worst of the worst” arrested immigrants was rife with errors and changed the site this week after receiving questions from CNN about it. DHS created the website in December and the agency, its secretary Kristi Noem and the White House have all heavily promoted it on social media as the Trump administration has sought to justify its aggressive and heavily scrutinized immigration enforcement operations. The website currently lists about 25,000 people, along with the crimes the agency says they were arrested for or convicted of — including many who were initially linked only to relatively minor offenses.

But DHS this week conceded its website was filled with inaccuracies. After receiving questions about a CNN analysis of the website, a DHS spokesperson admitted on Tuesday that the charges against hundreds of immigrants listed on the website were described incorrectly by the agency. The spokesperson attributed the inaccuracies to a “glitch” that they said DHS worked to remedy. The spokesperson said on Wednesday that the glitch had been “resolved.” A CNN review of the website found that thousands of the people listed on the website were described by the agency as being convicted of or arrested for serious charges — including sex crimes or different forms of homicide. But hundreds more who DHS considered the “worst of the worst” were described as being arrested for or convicted of far less serious crimes, including single charges of traffic offenses, marijuana possession or illegal reentry, a federal felony that involves someone reentering the United States after having been previously deported. CNN could not independently verify the descriptions of each of the thousands of people listed on the website.

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Labor Secretary’s husband barred from department premises after reports of sexual assaults

The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times. The women said Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, had touched them inappropriately at the Labor Department’s building on Constitution Avenue. One of the incidents, during working hours on the morning of Dec. 18, was recorded on office security cameras, the people said. The video showed Dr. DeRemer giving one of the women an extended embrace, and was reviewed as part of a criminal investigation, one of the people said. In January, the women’s concerns about Dr. DeRemer, 57, were raised as part of an internal investigation by the department’s inspector general into alleged misconduct by Ms. Chavez-DeRemer and her senior staff, one of the people said.

On Jan. 24, Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department filed a report about forced sexual contact in December at the Labor Department, according to their report, which was viewed by The Times. The police report is the only one from the last three months associated with the Labor Department’s address, a police spokesman said, adding that the Police Department’s sexual assault unit is investigating. After the women described the incidents to investigators, Dr. DeRemer was barred from entering the Labor Department’s premises, according to people familiar with the decision, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the allegations and ongoing investigations surrounding the department. “If Mr. DeRemer attempts to enter, he is to be asked to leave,” a building restriction notice viewed by The Times said. Dr. DeRemer, an anesthesiologist in Portland, Ore., who frequently visited his wife’s Washington offices, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the Department of Labor did not provide a comment. A lawyer representing Ms. Chavez-DeRemer in the inspector general investigation declined to comment.

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ICE explores outsourcing some of its efforts to deputize local police

The Trump administration is looking for private companies that can train, recruit and provide liability protection for local police carrying out immigration enforcement as it expands its deportation apparatus. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the local partnerships known as 287(g) agreements, requested information until Feb. 10 from companies interested in managing the booming partnerships, which can include deputizing police and other officers to arrest people they suspect are living in the U.S. without authorization. Over the past year, 287(g) agreements have skyrocketed, allowing sheriffs’ and police departments to get involved in President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportations. Nearly 800 agencies across 32 states have signed up to deputize their officers to act as immigration agents as part of a previously dormant model of the 287(g) agreements, according to the federal government’s list of participants. Florida has the most agreements.

Potential contractors had to tell the agency by Feb. 10 about their existing relationships with all the sheriffs’ departments in the country, how they could train sheriffs to participate in the 287(g) program and whether they could provide liability protection to officers acting as immigration agents. The request for information ICE posted to the federal government’s contracting database in January is a preliminary step and does not guarantee there will be a contract offer. Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, a nonprofit group advocating against privatization of the criminal legal system, told NOTUS the outsourcing of training could mean that companies profiting from immigration detention might end up training local police on detaining immigrants. “It’s not surprising because this administration has been privatizing everything,” she said. Although it’s unclear which companies expressed interest in managing the 287(g) partnerships, a Q&A document posted in early February shed more light on the kind of services ICE is interested in, such as an outreach effort rolled out across the country simultaneously and marketing campaigns.

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Lead Stories

'Abused his power:' Husband of Tony Gonzales aide breaks silence about affair

For more than five months after his estranged wife died after setting herself on fire, Adrian Aviles declined to speak publicly about allegations that she'd had an affair with her boss, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales. In an interview with the San Antonio Express-News, he said Gonzales “abused his power” by becoming romantically involved with Regina Ann "Regi" Santos-Aviles, who worked in the Republican congressman's Uvalde office. “I said the truth would come to light when it’s time, and the time is now,” Aviles said via Zoom from his lawyer's office in San Antonio on Wednesday. “Tony abused his power. He should have held himself to a higher standard as a congressional leader.”

Aviles said he doesn't want an apology. “I hope that Tony will stand up and be accountable for his actions,” he said. Aviles, 40, spoke a day after the San Antonio Express-News reported that a text message shared by a former Gonzales staffer showed that Santos-Aviles acknowledged having an affair with the married congressman. The text was from a phone number that the paper verified was Santos-Aviles'. It was part of a thread from April 27, 2025. In the message, she wrote, "I had (sic) affair with our boss.” Santos-Aviles, 35, was Gonzales’ regional district director. She and her husband had an 8-year-old son. On Sept. 13, 2025, authorities said Santos-Aviles poured gasoline on herself outside her home in Uvalde and was engulfed in flames. She died the next day at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. In November, the Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled her death a suicide by self-immolation. Police said home surveillance video showed she was alone when the fire started and that there was no evidence of foul play.

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Prince Andrew arrested in connection with Epstein files revelations

Police have arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following the US government’s release of documents detailing the former prince’s ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten Windsor is the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested. He has denied all accusations against him and insisted that he never witnessed or suspected any of the behavior of which Epstein was accused. He has not commented on recent allegations of misconduct in public office. Police in the U.K. don’t normally name suspects when they are arrested. Police didn’t give any further details on the arrest, but disclosures about Mountbatten-Windsor’s dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have dominated headlines in Britain, with the former duke stripped of his titles and moved out of his royal residence in Windsor. Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to his dealings with Epstein. Buckingham Palace didn’t have any immediate comment.

King Charles III said he learned “with the deepest concern” of his younger brother’s arrest, and stressed that “the law must take its course.” In the meantime, Charles said: “My family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.” Misconduct allegations: The allegations of misconduct likely relate to Mountbatten-Windsor’s decade spent as UK trade envoy. He stepped down in 2011 after coming under fire for his friendship with Epstein. Documents released by the US Department of Justice showed that the former prince was in contact with Epstein during his time as trade envoy. Sandringham estate: Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. He had moved there earlier this month after being evicted from the royal estate at Windsor, where he had lived since 2003, by King Charles III, his older brother. Sandringham is also where Prince Philip, Mountbatten-Windsor’s father, spent his final months before his death in 2021.

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Fed minutes show no rush to restart rate cuts

Officials at the Federal Reserve signaled no rush to restart interest rate cuts after pausing reductions last month, according to minutes from January’s meeting. In fact, several policymakers even went so far as to raise the possibility of rate increases if inflation stayed stubbornly high. The record of the latest gathering, released on Wednesday, underscored the sharp divisions that have plagued the central bank as it contends with a mixed economic picture after a series of rate reductions last year. Several policymakers indicated that there was still a path to lower rates this year if inflation declined as expected, while a larger group signaled support to hold rates steady until there was “clear indication that the progress of disinflation was firmly back on track.”

The minutes showed that several policymakers wanted the Fed to convey “the possibility that upward adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate could be appropriate if inflation remains at above-target levels.” January’s meeting marked the first gathering since July at which the Fed held rates steady, voting 10-2 to maintain the previous 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent level. Two governors, Christopher J. Waller and Stephen I. Miran, dissented in favor of a quarter-point cut, arguing that the labor market was vulnerable without additional support from the central bank. The decision to pause came after three consecutive contentious meetings at which officials splintered over how to contend with a slowing labor market and intensifying inflationary pressures caused by President Trump’s tariffs. The Fed, prompted by growing concerns about rising unemployment, lowered rates between September and December by a cumulative 0.75 percentage point, although those decisions featured dissents in both directions. Some officials wanted the Fed to cut even faster, while others voted for the Fed to stay on hold.

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To avoid state takeovers, Texas districts are spending millions to outsource struggling schools. Here’s how it works.

Texas school districts are opting to outsource their failing campuses to third-party operators in a little-known, but increasingly common attempt to avoid state takeovers, a WFAA investigation found. In exchange for paying millions to a third party with the promise of improved accountability scores, the TEA grants a two-year reprieve from state intervention and sends the district additional public education funds to help cover the cost. In these scenarios, superintendents and school boards keep their jobs and retain at least partial local control over their schools — all of which would be at risk with a state takeover. More and more districts are now turning to these "1882 turnaround partnerships" — named for the 2017 bill creating the option — as pandemic-paused accountability scores reach the five-year trigger for state intervention.

The only provider with more than one turnaround partnership — the Colorado-based nonprofit Third Future Schools — estimates it may nearly triple the number of Texas schools it runs on behalf of districts next year. "I think we’ll land between 10 to 12 additional campuses due to many schools being in year three or four of the F ranking, and districts needing to do something to pause the accountability clock," said Third Future Superintendent Zach Craddock during a January board meeting. Questions remain about what happens to student outcomes once the contracts end and the turnaround partners — and their often highly-paid teachers — leave the schools back in the districts' hands. In one instance, a West Texas school that hired Third Future Schools saw its test scores decrease after their contract ended. In a situation with a district in Southeast Texas, Third Future’s contract ended early after a dispute over payment. "Status quo is not an option — [districts] have proven they have not been successful," said former Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who now works as an education consultant. "I think it’s an interesting experiment, but it’s got to stand the test of time." No matter the outcome, the reality for districts choosing to contract with turnaround partners is the same: They lose local control of select schools and send hundreds of thousands of public education dollars to third-party entities.

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State Stories

‘Horrible injustices’: Four men previously accused of Austin yogurt shop murders expected to be formally cleared

After spending decades of their lives wrongly accused of one of Austin’s most infamous crimes, four men previously believed to have killed four teenage girls at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop on Anderson Lane in 1991 will finally see their names cleared. On Thursday morning, prosecutors will ask a Travis County judge to formally clear Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce. The hearing follows a major breakthrough in the case last fall, when Austin Police revealed ballistic and DNA evidence pointed instead to a known-serial killer, Robert Brashers, as the person responsible. APD cold case detective Dan Jackson said evidence shows Brashers, who has since died, acted alone.

The hearing is expected to spotlight the failures of the justice system in this case, with remarks from Travis County prosecutors, as well as at least two of the men — Welborn and Scott — and their attorneys. According to a news release from the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, Springsteen’s attorney, the executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas, which is representing the late Maurice Pierce, and Det. Jackson will also play a role. The gruesome crime has captured the attention of people across the country, since the bodies of the four girls — Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Sarah Harbison and Jennifer Harbison — were found with gunshot wounds and recovered from the burned wreckage of the yogurt shop. In the days and years that followed, police arrested Pierce, Welborn, Scott, and Springsteen in connection with the case. Scott and Springsteen were tried and convicted in the early 2000s, leaving Scott facing a life sentence and Springsteen on death row. During their trials, they both claimed the way police questioned them prompted them to deliver false confessions. Authorities have said no forensic evidence tied them to the crime, and an appeals court eventually overturned their cases on a constitutional violation related to their statements being the primary form of evidence against them.

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U.S. Sen. John Cornyn warns of a blue Texas if AG Ken Paxton wins Senate primary

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican trying to keep his seat in a heated primary election, warned of a blue Texas if Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wins the March 3 race. Early voting started Tuesday, and U.S. Senate candidates are sweeping through North Texas as they try to turn out voters. A few dozen people gathered at the Fort Worth Police Association on Wednesday afternoon to hear from Cornyn, whose leading Republican primary opponents include Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Houston Republican. “It makes a difference who is at the top of the ballot, because if Ken Paxton is the nominee, we could well experience a massacre and the first Democrat elected since 1994 in the state of Texas,” Cornyn said.

Democratic Senate primary candidates include Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Dallas Democrat, and state Rep. James Talarico, who represents the Austin area. Tarrant County recently saw a historically Republican state Senate seat won by a Democrat in a special election runoff. On the first day of early voting, the number of Democratic primary voters surpassed GOP primary voters. “I think Democrats are energized,” Cornyn told reporters at the campaign event, adding, that “they’ve got full blown Trump derangement syndrome” and an active base that turns out to vote. He encouraged Republicans to turn out and vote. The Senate candidates have exchanged barbs on the campaign trail, and Cornyn spent part of his time in Fort Worth working to distinguish himself from the embattled Texas attorney general. Cornyn boasted about trust and relationships he’s built during his more than two decades in Washington.

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Messy House primary in Texas becomes proxy war in broader Democratic identity fight

Tejano music star Bobby Pulido is a favorite of national Democrats this cycle, as he mounts an uphill battle to flip a deep-red Rio Grande Valley House seat that President Donald Trump won by 18 points in 2024. But before he can take on Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) in the state’s 15th District, he must navigate the politics of a messy primary with emergency room doctor Ada Cuellar in a race that has turned increasingly personal — and mirrors the fight up the ticket for one of the state’s Senate seats. The primary has emerged as somewhat of a proxy war in the high-profile Senate primary between Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who has backed Cuellar, and state Rep. James Talarico, who supports Pulido.

Both contests have become emblematic of larger divides facing a party that is still going through growing pains after across-the-board losses to Republicans in 2024. Pulido is running a race geared toward a general election with a Republican-leaning electorate. In an interview, he said he is “not trying to run a primary race,” but rather a “general campaign.” Cuellar, meanwhile, argues Pulido’s vision for the future of the party is out of touch with what’s on the ground. Cuellar herself is facing a tough path to even reach November. Pulido’s name ID alone may be enough to get him through to the general. Even still, she has mounted repeated attacks on Pulido across the airwaves, arguing he is too conservative of a Democrat. A few of them have landed. Pulido’s campaign has apologized for a past misogynistic comment directed toward Hillary Clinton. His opponents have also focused on past remarks in which he said he doesn’t live in Texas full time and used his friendship with a local judge to get out of a speeding ticket.

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Outgoing Bexar County DA backs 4 candidates in crowded Democratic primary

Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales picked four candidates he thinks are suited to be his successor ahead of March’s primary election. Gonzales, a Democrat who announced in June that he would not seek a third term, said he would likely endorse one of four candidates in a crowded field to replace him. Three of them already work in his office. He said his endorsement would come during a potential run-off or general election in November. “The ideal candidate to take over should be somebody who's done this job before, who's been a prosecutor,” Gonzales said. “It's important that the voters know that this is not the kind of job that one should have on-the-job training.”

In an interview with the Express-News, Gonzales said his top picks are his juvenile division chief Jane Davis, his family violence chief Melli Powers and prosecutor Oscar Salinas Director of Bexar County’s Managed Assigned Counsel Office Jim Bethke is also high on the list, but Gonzales says the three others have an edge over him. Since Gonzales announced he would not run for reelection, a mix of prosecutors, defense attorneys and county officials have jumped into the race for their shot at the Democratic nomination. The winner of the general election will be responsible for overseeing a county office of more than 500 employees and a budget of over $55 million. “I'm in an awkward position,” Gonzales said. “It would be unfair of me to single out one over the others; that's why I've avoided making an endorsement until the primary.” Gonzales said Davis and Powers have done a "great job" leading their respective divisions and have decades of prosecutorial experience. He said Salinas has "a lot of energy and would do well" in the DA role. He then said Bethke has the administrative experience necessary for the job.

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Bexar County moves voter registration vendors for 2026 midterm

Forced to choose between a new paid voter registration system or a free state program that’s been faulty, Bexar County Commissioners voted Tuesday to move to a new private vendor for the 2026 midterm election. The contract totals roughly $2 million for a voter registration and elections management system software package. Like other large counties, the Bexar County Elections Department was thrust into chaos last summer when its longtime voter registration vendor, Votec, went under. They had to quickly onboard to a free state system, known as TEAM, at the same time that system was undergoing a massive update. The result was a massive backlog of voter registrations that the county had to hire temporary staff to manually enter in the days before early voting for the state’s November constitutional amendment election.

A similar backlog occurred in the lead up to the March 3 primary and was also resolved in the nick of time. However, voter registration cards — one of the many forms of identification people can use when they go to vote — have still not been delivered due to the delay. Under pressure to resolve the issues, this week county leaders forewent the traditional request for qualifications process to purchase services from a new vendor, VR Systems. VR Systems is now the vendor of choice for a number of other large Texas urban centers, including Tarrant, Denton, Collin and El Paso counties. One of its executives even attended a January meeting of the Commissioners Court to complain that Bexar County was causing unnecessary delays in the contracting process. But county leaders said they were being extra cautious to ensure that VR Systems would truly provide better services than the free state system once the TEAM System update is fully functional.

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School board rejection of prayer in schools grows

Trustees from a handful of Tarrant County districts recently voted not to create a daily period for voluntary prayer in public school classrooms stressing that students already have religious rights. Lake Worth, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Mansfield and Castleberry join a growing list of Texas districts declining the option in a vote a new state law requires of every Texas public school board by March 1. So far two area districts — Keller and Aledo — adopted the prayer period. A new Texas law requires trustees to take a recorded vote in a public meeting on whether to establish the designated prayer period in public schools. If districts adopt the period, they must set aside time during the school day for students to pray or read religious texts in segregated spaces. Parents would have to consent and waive their right to sue over constitutional claims related to the policy.

On Feb. 16, Lake Worth trustees unanimously rejected the prayer period after administrators explained how students already have broad rights to religious expression under existing law and district policy. “Our students do have the right to have self-expression,” said Sylonda Burns, executive director of campus leadership and school improvement. Students may pray individually or in groups before, during or after school and may read religious texts on campus — practices allowed under federal and state law, Burns noted. It would also cause logistical issues, she said. “So just like you have eight periods a day, now you would have like 8.5,” Burns said, describing the scheduling impact. Trustees said they received no complaints about current practices and that religious expression has long been accommodated on campuses. “Prayer has never been taken away from this district,” trustee Cindy Burt said. “We’ve always let students do what they believe.” The next night, Mansfield ISD trustees unanimously rejected the separate period as well. The vote came under the consent agenda, which allows elected officials to vote on multiple items in a single vote without discussion.

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Houston anti-fascist group responds to Paxton suit alleging ‘violent terrorism’

A Houston-based anti-fascist organization denied allegations that it violated Texas law after Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he was suing the group over claims it incited "violent terrorism." On Feb. 6, Paxton said he was launching an investigation into the Screwston Anti-Fascist Committee to determine whether the group engaged in unlawful activity, including terrorism and "doxxing," or the act of publishing a person's personal information to encourage harassment or violence. He said the group was self-admittedly associated with Antifa, which was designated as a terrorist group by President Donald Trump in September.

In a statement posted to its website on Wednesday, the organization said it was being targeted by the attorney general and called the lawsuit a "blatant act of intimidation." "This assertion of authority should concern everyone in Texas and beyond," the statement read. "He has used this tool against any perceived 'enemy' of his agenda, including organizations that provide valuable and fully legal services to marginalized groups across the state. We fully condemn this cynical erosion of rights to score political clout." Paxton claimed that merchandise sold by the group "promotes the death" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and encourages "violence by mentally ill 'transgender' individuals."

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Can labor candidates help Texas Dems win back power?

After pulling off an upset special election win for the solid-red Tarrant County Senate District 9 in late January, Democrat Taylor Rehmet told his cheering supporters at the Nickel City bar in Fort Worth: “This win goes to everyday working people.” The local Machinists’ union president beat his right-wing Republican opponent Leigh Wambsganss by 15 percentage points in a district Trump had won by 17 just two years ago. Wambsganss had raised 10 times the amount Rehmet raised for his campaign. Democrats have been looking for a path forward since facing devastating losses two years ago—including by redoubling their efforts to shore up support among working-class voters. Rehmet’s stunning victory has not just energized the Democratic Party heading into the 2026 midterms; it’s seen as proof of concept for an upstart slate of candidates who have come from the ranks of organized labor to run for office and, ideally, shake up the status quo of Democratic politics in Texas. “People are tired of the same old politics,” Leonard Aguilar, the new president of the Texas AFL-CIO, told the Texas Observer in an interview in early February.

The state labor federation announced its 2026 primary election endorsements in January. “The working people of Texas are looking for somebody that is actually going through what they are, who can understand what their kitchen table issues are and make sure they have somebody that fights on their behalf. That’s what Taylor and the other labor candidates are about.” Take, for instance, Marcos Vélez, a Gulf Coast region labor leader-turned-upstart candidate for lieutenant governor, who made some waves when the Texas AFL-CIO endorsed him last month over four-term Austin state Representative Vikki Goodwin. These days, Vélez’s day job as the assistant director of the United Steel Workers District 13—which covers the union’s workers in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico—starts before dawn and goes until the afternoon when he begins campaigning for lieutenant governor for the rest of the evening and weekends. “You have working people all over the state of Texas that work 16- to 18-hour-days, and they can barely keep food on the table. So I’m not going to complain, because I’m very blessed for the job that I have, and it’s going to take long hours to get this done for the people of Texas,” Vélez told the Observer at his Steelworkers union hall in Webster.

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Former Harris County Tax Office workers accused of taking bribes to skip vehicle inspections

Two former Harris County Tax Office employees and the owners of a local vehicle title-service company have been charged with engaging in organized criminal activity after investigators uncovered a bribery scheme in which vehicle registrations and title transfers were processed without required inspections, proof of insurance and other legal requirements. Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen said the case strikes at the heart of public trust. "This involves public corruption by those who violated the people's trust in government and abused their positions to line their own pockets," he said. "This scheme was brazen, and the schemers will now face justice."

The four defendants charged are former tax office employees Renisha T. Wilkins, 35, and Sarah A. Anderson, 31, along with Oswaldo Perez, 51, and Adriana De La Rosa, 43, the owners of Bella's Multiservices, a South Houston vehicle title-service company. Wilkins, Anderson and De La Rosa have been arrested. Perez, who also goes by Osvaldo, remains a fugitive. Each defendant faces two counts of engaging in organized criminal activity, first-degree felonies each punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Detectives with Constable Precinct One's Special Investigations Unit conducted a two-year investigation into the scheme, which ran from at least November 2023 to April 2024, according to investigators. The two tax office employees were fired in April 2024. According to court records, Bella's Multiservices used TikTok and Facebook to advertise its ability to quickly process vehicle paperwork without the "BS" of meeting standard requirements. The company's owners paid tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to the two tax office employees in exchange for processing vehicle registrations and title transfers without valid proof of insurance, emissions testing, inspections and residency requirements. The employees also changed vehicle owner information to reflect Harris County addresses and ZIP codes to push through fraudulent transactions. The scheme was actually uncovered by officials at another Texas county tax office who spotted the TikTok advertisements. Those officials alerted state authorities, who then contacted the Special Investigations Unit at the Harris County Tax Office. Rosen credited the tax office for its role in bringing the case together.

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Federal lawsuit claims Texas motels ignored signs of sex trafficking

A sex trafficking survivor filed a lawsuit in Lubbock’s federal court against the Lubbock and Amarillo Red Roof Inn and its owners, alleging they knowingly benefited from sex trafficking on their hotel premises. The victim, Jane Doe, said she was trafficked between 2013 and 2018 by two men, according to court records. Court records said Doe’s traffickers used several methods to control her, including forcibly injecting her with heroin. According to federal court documents, the traffickers repeatedly used the Red Roof Inn locations in Lubbock (now the Regency Inn) and Amarillo. The lawsuit claimed the hotels were chosen because their staff regularly ignored “obvious and pervasive” signs of ongoing trafficking.

The petition, which was originally filed in Lubbock County and removed to federal court, outlined dozens of “red flags” for trafficking that should have been noticed. Some red flags included paying with cash or prepaid cards, high volumes of men at rooms at unusual times and guests arriving with few possessions for extended stays. The lawsuit alleged that staff commented and acknowledged the illicit behavior but took no action. “The organizations who developed these red flags then educated and trained the hotel industry about them,” court documents stated. “For example, the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign initiative issued specific guidance to the United States hotel industry through a Hospitality Toolkit describing human trafficking warning signs that could be detected by various categories of hotel staff.” In one instance at the Amarillo motel, the lawsuit said a hotel employee believed to be a manager told the traffickers that he “knew what was going on and should call the police.” Court records said despite this, the manager did not contact law enforcement and allowed the group to keep renting rooms.

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Head of Border Patrol union will be John Cornyn’s guest at Trump’s State of the Union

Sen. John Cornyn has named Border Patrol union chief Paul Perez as his guest at Tuesday’s State of the Union address, a pick heavy with political implications as Cornyn fights for survival in the March 3 GOP primary. The union has endorsed Cornyn’s reelection bid, with Perez joining him at campaign events to show appreciation for his work on border-related legislation. Cornyn highlighted Perez’s role in providing his union members with needed resources to secure the border. “I’m proud to welcome him to President Trump’s State of the Union address next week as my guest and look forward to continuing our work together to bolster border security, counter the disgraceful demonization of law enforcement by the Left, and keep Americans safe,” Cornyn said in a news release.

In a statement, Perez called Cornyn a strong advocate for the Border Patrol union and of Trump’s policies. “Our mission couldn’t be accomplished without Senator Cornyn’s leadership,” Perez said. Cornyn is facing Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston in the March 3 primary. Each member of Congress typically receives a guest seat in the House gallery for the president’s big speech. Some choose to hand the coveted ticket to a spouse, another family member or friend. Many go with guests intended to deliver a political message. Presidents from both parties have followed a similar course, filling the first lady’s section of the gallery with guests who illustrate key points in their speeches. In the Texas campaign, immigration and border policies remain potent among Republican voters, even as border crossings fall and the emphasis shifts to interior enforcement. Paxton and Hunt have attacked Cornyn as resistant to Trump on immigration, pointing to his past skepticism of building a “giant wall between the United States and Mexico from sea to shining sea.”

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University of North Texas warns of budget cuts amid $45 million deficit

A big reason for a UNT budget deficit might surprise you. The president of the university pointed to issues with visas and politics involving international students. The University of North Texas is now projecting a $45 million deficit, about $14 million larger than projected and a major factor the university president is pointing to is a sharp decline in one category of master’s degree students. These students typically pay much more in tuition and fees than their in-state counterparts.

In his letter to staff, UNT President Harrison Keller called the deficit structural and not temporary, saying that the university will now have to make some hard decisions to stabilize its finances and warned of budget cuts that will be felt across the university. "Nobody could have envisioned what was going to be happening in international student enrollments," said Keller. "A significant number of those master's students, particularly in some fields, data science, computer science, were international master's students." "That has a significant impact on our budget, on our budget forecast," said Keller. According to the university, it grew rapidly over the last decade in part because of those students. But now shifts in federal immigration policies have made it harder for many international students to enroll and stay in the United States. In January, the state department said it had revoked 8 thousand student visas as part of its mission to "Keep America safe." According to data released by the national student clearinghouse research center, there were almost ten thousand fewer foreign students enrolling at the graduate level in Fall of 2025. "When I talk to colleagues across the state, this is part of a larger trend that we're seeing," said Keller.

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National Stories

Nation's only unsalaried legislature asks New Mexico voters to reconsider its volunteer status

Members of the country’s only unsalaried legislature are asking voters to reconsider their volunteer status that has endured for 114 years since statehood in New Mexico. The state Senate on Tuesday night narrowly endorsed a constitutional amendment that would do away with the state’s prohibition on legislative direct compensation. That allows voters to decide in November whether to tie legislative salaries to the median income level in New Mexico — about $67,000 currently. After stalling for years, the initiative was promoted successfully this time by a group of young female legislators who have talked about the challenges of balancing work, family and legislative duties.

“Can working parents juggle child care, a mortgage and legislative service? Some of us do, but it’s not sustainable,” said Democratic state Sen. Angel Charley of Acoma, a sponsor of the measure. “When service requires personal wealth or extraordinary sacrifice, representation narrows. ... Democracy shrinks.” New Mexico taxpayers already foot the bill for travel expenses, and an allowance for meals and lodging, when the Legislature is in session. Many lawmakers also have access to public pension benefits. New Mexico’s “citizen legislature” of volunteer politicians has long been a source of civic pride in the state. But advocates for professionalizing the New Mexico Legislature say the current system discourages young, working-class candidates from serving and can inhibit progress on complex policy issues as legislators juggle separate paid and political careers. In New York and California, legislative salaries exceed $100,000, while New Hampshire opts for a nominal $100 annually per lawmaker.

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Gorsuch’s ‘told you so’ moment on Trump’s tariffs

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is having an ‘I told you so’ moment when it comes to President Trump’s tariffs. At November’s blockbuster arguments, Gorsuch raised alarm about what he called a “one-way ratchet” of authority from Congress to the president if Trump wins a case that challenges his use of emergency powers to impose duties on a host of countries. “It’s going to be veto-proof,” Gorsuch warned of Trump’s declared emergencies. “What president’s ever going to give that power back? A pretty rare president. So how should that inform our view?” Gorsuch’s concern is now in the limelight as the justices prepare to return to the bench to issue opinions on three separate days between now and next Wednesday.

Last week, Trump saw one of the first major pushbacks from Congress on the matter, when six House Republicans joined Democrats in voting 219-211 to repeal Trump’s Canada tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). That measure now heads to the Senate, where four Republicans joined Democrats last year on a similar effort. The new vote only needs a simple majority. But even if it gets to Trump’s desk, the revolt is largely symbolic. The bipartisan support for repealing the tariffs falls far short of the two-thirds majority needed in both the House and Senate to override an expected veto. Gorsuch saw it coming — and he wasn’t the only Trump-nominated justice to read the tea leaves back at November’s arguments. “Let’s say that we adopt your interpretation of the statute,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett told the government. “If Congress said, ‘Whoa, we don’t like that, that gives a president too much authority under IEEPA,’ it’s going to have a very hard time pulling the tariff power out of IEEPA, correct?” Congress can amend IEEPA at any time to make clear whether the 1977 law does, or does not, authorize Trump’s tariffs. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has expressed no appetite for doing so, leaving the nine justices to parse the nearly half-century-old phrasing that has left global financial markets in suspense for months.

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Billionaires’ low taxes are becoming a problem for the economy

California’s plan to hit its richest residents with a one-off wealth tax is a long shot, and its design has problems. But a look at who picks up the tab when billionaires scrimp on taxes, and how wealth concentration is affecting the wider economy, shows why the issue isn’t going away. The risk is that the U.S. economy becomes increasingly dependent on a narrow group of very rich households, whose spending is tied to the performance of the stock market. This could mean the entire economy pays a steep price in the next market correction. California has the highest concentration of billionaires in the U.S. with 255 individuals, or slightly more than a fifth of the country’s billionaire population, data from wealth-intelligence firm Altrata shows. Federal cuts to the state’s Medicaid program will leave its health system short of billions of dollars. A California healthcare union wants an emergency, one-time 5% levy on the wealth of any resident worth over $1 billion to plug the hole.

The proposal still needs to get enough signatures to qualify for a ballot in November, and a majority of voters would then need to approve it. Problems are already appearing with its design. The levy will be calculated based on whichever is the higher of a billionaire’s voting interest or economic interest in a company. The Tax Foundation says this could hurt tech founders, whose supervoting shares can be many multiples of their economic interest, resulting in outsize tax bills. Wealth taxes are hard to administer, and the ultrarich can simply leave if they don’t like where a state’s tax policies are headed. Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently left California. Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel says he might follow. Worries about California’s billionaires leaving and taking jobs with them may be enough to turn voters against the initiative. But debate about how much tax billionaires pay is likely to grow as America’s fiscal situation deteriorates and its wealth gap widens. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that only the richest 1% of households have grown their share of overall U.S. wealth since 1990. Their share hit a record 32% in the third quarter of 2025, equivalent to $54.8 trillion.

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Walmart reports strong holiday growth, but earnings outlook falls short of estimates

Walmart said on Thursday that holiday-quarter sales rose nearly 6% and its quarterly earnings and revenue surpassed Wall Street’s expectations as gains in e-commerce, advertising and its third-party marketplace boosted its business. For the full current fiscal year, Walmart said it expects net sales to increase by 3.5% to 4.5% and adjusted earnings per share to range from $2.75 to $2.85. That earnings outlook fell short of Wall Street’s expectations of $2.96 per share, according to LSEG. In an interview with CNBC, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said speedy deliveries from stores are helping Walmart attract more shoppers, particularly those with higher incomes. “Our ability to serve customers at the scale that we have, combined with the speed that we now have, is really translating into continued market share gains,” he said. “Those market share gains are occurring across all income cohorts, but consistent with last quarter, the last few quarters, most notably in the upper-income segment.”

Rainey also said consumer price increases from inflation and President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes should ease in the coming months. Food inflation at Walmart in the fourth quarter was just above 1%, while it was slightly higher for general merchandise, he said. “It seems to be a little bit more of a normalized price environment,” he said. “I think we have, largely as a retail industry, absorbed or seen the brunt of the impact from tariffs.” Here is what the big-box retailer reported for the fiscal fourth quarter compared with Wall Street’s estimates, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG: Earnings per share at 74 cents adjusted vs. 73 cents expected with revenue at $190.66 billion vs. $190.43 billion expected The results also show an inflection point in the industry. For the first time, Amazon topped Walmart as the largest retailer by annual revenue, as the company posted $716.9 billion in sales for its most recent fiscal year compared with $713.2 billion for Walmart.

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DOT wants to block transit money to states that aid migrants

The Trump administration is pushing a legal change that could block states, cities and towns from offering free transportation to unauthorized immigrants, according to a proposal obtained by POLITICO — the latest in a series of Trump administration moves that seek to encroach on local transportation decisions. The draft law from the Department of Transportation would prohibit state and local governments from using federal transit money to help migrants elude federal immigration enforcement. But the proposed language could encompass a much broader range of activity, such as any free transportation to migrants, said a person familiar with the plan who was granted anonymity to discuss an internal matter. Such services have typically arisen in Democratic-run cities and states.

The proposal would ensure that “systems that receive Federal funds are not using them to circumvent or break Federal immigration law,” the text reads. It would cover all federal programs the Federal Transit Administration administers, including buses, subways, light rail and ferries. The plan is part of a package of measures — including prohibiting speed cameras in Washington and restricting funding for free buses — that DOT and the White House are considering for inclusion in the surface transportation reauthorization bill that Congress is supposed to approve this year. The current law expires Sept. 30. The DOT proposal takes aim at instances in which cities have provided free buses to help migrants reach resources, such as intake centers or shelters, according to a person familiar with the proposal. Many of those migrants had reached those communities after being shipped north by Republican governors during President Joe Biden’s time in office: Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas bused migrants to Democratic-run cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

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How a recent shift in DNA sleuthing might help investigators in the Nancy Guthrie case

Investigators in Arizona are hoping that DNA found in and around Nancy Guthrie's house in Tucson could lead them to a suspect — and the missing woman. Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie, was last seen on Jan. 31. So far, a key tool — the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a federal database of genetic records mainly taken from people suspected or convicted of crimes — has not returned a match for samples that have been tested, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department. But in cases where CODIS can't help, other DNA tools are available. "Investigators are currently looking into additional investigative genetic genealogy options for DNA evidence to check for matches," the sheriff's department said on Tuesday.

An important option is forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG), which incorporates public genealogy websites with DNA analysis. It has cracked high-profile cold cases such as the Golden State Killer attacks — prompting the National District Attorneys Association to proclaim in late 2023 that FIGG was ushering in a "new era in crime solving." That same year, FIGG helped solve a notable case. "The most obvious one that was recently used was the Bryan Kohberger case in Idaho, where he killed four college students," says Kathleen Corrado, executive director of the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute at Syracuse University. That case, she says, showed FIGG "can be used in active investigations." Now that includes Nancy Guthrie's case. Here's a brief guide to FIGG and other DNA investigative tools that authorities could use as they continue the search for the missing woman:

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