Lead Stories

Oil prices soar past $100 a barrel as war escalates in Iran

The price of oil surged past $100 per barrel on Sunday, the first time it crossed that mark since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. President Donald Trump, in a social media post, called surging oil costs a “very small price to pay.” “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social.

Oil futures and gasoline prices have skyrocketed as traders worry that the war in Iran would lead to prolonged restrictions on the flow of oil around the globe – particularly as the war has spread to other countries in the Middle East, including attacks on nearby refineries in the oil-rich region. Iran has threatened to attack any oil tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil transits. US oil futures rose 18% to about $108 a barrel, their highest level since July 19, 2022. US crude briefly hit $110 a barrel Sunday evening. Brent futures, the global benchmark, increased 16%, near $108 a barrel. Oil could rise to $150 a barrel by the end of March if travel through the strait doesn’t start flowing again, said Homayoun Falakshahi, lead crude research analyst at Kpler. Surging oil prices have weighed heavily on stocks in recent days, as traders fear that a prolonged spike in fuel prices could lead to another spike in inflation and hurt the economy. Dow futures dropped more than 800 points, or 1.7%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures fell 1.6%.

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Iran signals a fight to the end with appointment of Khamenei’s son

The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s new supreme leader defies President Trump and signals that Tehran won’t back down as it fights a war with the U.S. and Israel. The elevation of Mojtaba Khamenei, a conservative long close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, shows that Trump’s efforts so far to cow the regime into surrender have failed. It also appears to have put hard-liners in firm control of the country, with moderate and reformist factions long marginalized. The 56-year old Khamenei is expected to take a confrontational stance toward the West. His appointment also shows that Iran won’t acquiesce to Trump’s demand that he approve the country’s new top cleric. Trump told Axios last week that “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me.”

The younger Khamenei’s ascendance “suggests the continuation of the same old strategy: repression at home and resistance internationally,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House. The Revolutionary Guard and Iranian army pledged allegiance to the new leader. Following his appointment, Iran launched a wave of missiles toward Israel, state media said. In addition to his father being killed at the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli campaign, the new leader has also lost his mother, wife and a son in the strikes. Israel said on Sunday that it would target whoever was appointed as the new supreme leader. Despite the risk, the appointment of a new top cleric is important in signaling to Iranians and the world that the regime can still function. The ability to appoint a new supreme leader defied the expectations of its enemies, said Ali Larijani, head of the national security council. He added that Khamenei had been “raised in the school of leadership,” with teachings from his father, which would help him govern the country. The younger Khamenei has mostly kept away from the public eye, and his political views aren’t well-known.

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Major airports grapple with hourslong security wait times and TSA staffing shortages amid partial government shutdown

Travel at major U.S. airports turned into a nightmare Sunday, with up to three-hour security wait times and a shortage of TSA workers at the start of spring break travel amid the partial government shutdown. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Lauren Bis said travelers are facing missed flights and massive delays. She blamed the chaos on congressional Democrats' refusal to fund DHS, which led to the partial shutdown. “These political stunts force patriotic TSA officers, who protect our skies from serious threats, to work without pay,” she said in a statement. “These frontline heroes received only partial paychecks earlier this month and now face their first full missed paycheck, leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.”

DHS funding expired Feb. 13, with lawmakers locking horns over ICE and Customs and Border Protection policies after federal agents killed two Americans in Minneapolis. Democrats are seeking reforms to rein in those agencies, but Republicans have argued that changes were already made in response to the killings. The impasse triggered the partial shutdown affecting DHS, which affects the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard. TSA officers, who are considered essential employees, must work without pay while the funding bill is stalled in Congress. This week starts the bustling spring break travel period. William P. Hobby Airport in Houston was experiencing wait times of 2 hours and 45 minutes just before noon Sunday, according to federal officials. The airport warned on X that TSA wait times may exceed three hours. “Due to the federal government shutdown, passengers should arrive 4-5 hours before their flight to allow extra time for TSA screening,” it said.

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After a decade of missteps, a Texas city careens toward a water-shortage catastrophe

The imminent depletion of water supplies in Corpus Christi threatens to cut off the flow of jet fuel to Texas airports and other oil exports from one of the nation’s largest petroleum ports, triggering potential shockwaves through energy markets in Texas and beyond. Without significant rainfall, Corpus Christi is headed for a “water emergency” within months and total depletion of the system next year, according to the city’s website. “The impacts are going to be felt tremendously through the state, if not internationally,” said Sean Strawbridge, former CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, the nation’s top port for crude oil exports, in a 40-minute interview Thursday. “This should be no surprise to anybody. We were talking about this over a decade ago.” Other current and former officials, alarmed at what they call a lack of preparations, have suggested the potential for an economic crisis involving mass layoffs, disruption of fuel supplies and billions of dollars in emergency spending to avoid an evacuation of the city.

Strawbridge, who now lives in Houston, laid the blame on city leaders, citing “their lack of experience, their lack of knowledge, their lack of recognizing the risks” in a bumbling, decade-long endeavor to build a large seawater desalination plant that would veer the region off its clear course towards calamity. “They’ve found themselves in quite a dire predicament as a result of those poor decisions,” Strawbridge said. “Time is up.” A spokesperson for Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette Guajardo declined interview requests, citing “prior commitments,” and did not respond to follow-up questions. City manager Peter Zanoni also did not respond to questions. Instead, Corpus Christi public information manager Robert Gonzales provided an emailed statement. “The water shortage in the Coastal Bend is the result of a historic five-year drought,” it said. “Currently, the City of Corpus Christi has $1 billion in City Council-approved and funded water projects underway to address our water needs. The City remains committed to ensuring water security for the more than 500,000 residents and our commercial and industrial customers.”

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State Stories

Trump administration removes some Big Bend area projects from "Smart Wall" plan

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) this week quietly removed two stretches of planned border walls from its map of "Smart Wall" projects in the Big Bend region of West Texas, including one such project slated to run through Big Bend National Park. Earlier this week, an online map showed multiple "primary border wall system" projects planned for the region, including projects that would run through Big Bend National Park and along the southern border in Terrell County. By late Thursday, the map had been changed to show "detection technology" projects planned in the national park and areas further east. The move amounts to a reversal back to CBP's original plans; that stretch of the border had been slated for only technology upgrades in the fall, before border wall projects were added in mid-February.

CBP did not formally announce the change, but in a statement late Friday after this story was published, the agency said it is continuing to "develop and finalize its execution plan for border barrier construction." "CBP is currently focusing on the top operational priorities with historical rates of high illegal entry where illegal aliens regularly attempt to enter the United States," an agency spokesperson said. "The Big Bend National Park and State Park are still in the planning stages. CBP will continue to coordinate with the National Park Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and other federal and state agencies, throughout the planning of border barrier and technology deployments, in order to achieve Border Patrol's operational priorities." The map has continued to change without notice in recent weeks. It's not clear whether the most recent change is final. Local officials and residents have in recent weeks reported being contacted by private construction firms known to have worked on border wall construction in the past. Elsewhere in the Big Bend — in Presidio, Jeff Davis and Hudspeth counties — border wall plans appear to still be moving forward for a 175-mile stretch beginning at Ft. Quitman, south of Sierra Blanca, and ending at Colorado Canyon in Big Bend Ranch State Park.

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Spring Break business starts slow on Galveston’s Strand after overnight flooding

Spring Break is getting underway on Galveston Island, but some businesses along The Strand say rough weather overnight slowed what is usually the start of a busy week. Spring Break typically marks the beginning of a busy stretch for Galveston businesses that cater to tourists. Shops, restaurants and carriage operators along The Strand often see an increase in visitors during the holiday week, with travelers arriving from across Texas and beyond. But, after storms moved through the area overnight, some business owners say the day got off to a slower start than expected. Business owners told FOX 26 the rain and flooding created challenges early Sunday, keeping some employees from getting to work and delaying the usual flow of tourists and customers.

Brett Von Blon, who operates scenic carriage rides in Galveston, said flooding created complications after one of his carriages had been rented for an event the night before. He said the conditions meant he had to go help an employee leave the area once the event wrapped up. By Friday morning, he said only two of the carriages in his fleet had been rented out — something he described as unusual for this time of year. Despite the slow start, some business owners say they are optimistic the crowds will arrive as spring break continues. Tiffany Cloud, who works at Bell Lees Boutique on The Strand, said this week typically signals the beginning of a busy season that lasts well into the summer months. "So, this week, it picks up, and it probably kicks off for the summer," Cloud said. "Really, we stay busy throughout the summer." Cloud said the store sees a wide range of customers, from cruise ship workers and local regulars to visitors looking for beachwear and souvenirs while spending time on the island. But business owners say weather can play a major role in determining how busy the early days of spring break are.

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Young Muslims say GOP politicians’ anti-Islam focus is at odds with the Texas they know

It's a Saturday evening during Ramadan and chicken curry, naan and rice are on the menu at the Maryam Islamic Center in Sugar Land. Hundreds of people have gathered in the Houston suburb to break their fasts, under an American flag and a Texas flag waving in the center's courtyard. Sign up for the Hello, Houston! daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox. "Ramadan is a spiritually grounding month for me," said Warda Wyne, a 25-year-old Pakistani American from the Dallas area. "I feel like it kind of redirects my intentions and purpose." Wyne, who moved to Houston for dental school, brought a Catholic classmate with her to the mosque's iftar. This year, the two friends began observing Ramadan and Lent on the same day.

Ramadan is the Muslim holy month observed with daylight fasting as well as communal prayer and reflection. Lent is a 40-day observance by Christians that is marked by prayer, fasting and almsgiving. "I feel like our generation has been doing a good job of, you know, educating themselves, getting information, seeking information and kind of making opinions and judgments on their own accord," Wyne said. But the conversations she's having with her peers are very different from the conversations playing out in the Texas government. Top Texas Republicans are invoking fears of Islamic extremism in their recent rhetoric and legal actions targeting Muslim groups. In September, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law banning what his office called "sharia compounds," targeting a Dallas-area housing development geared toward Muslims. Sharia is a set of Islamic religious laws. "The ban on sharia law in Texas is now strengthened," the governor said while signing House Bill 4211 into law.

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Texas Republicans announce 'Sharia Free Texas' caucus targeting state's Muslims

A group of Texas lawmakers announced the formation of an anti-"Sharia" legislative caucus Thursday, the latest in a string of moves by state Republicans that target Muslims in Texas. The Sharia Free Texas Caucus, which comes after the Sharia Free America Caucus formed in the U.S. House of Representatives in December, was formed in response to "the alarming rise of Sharia Law in Texas," according to Texas Rep. Brent Money (R-Greenville). “Texas has always been a beacon of freedom, forged in the fires of independence and rooted in unyielding Christian values,“ read a statement from Money. "We defiantly declare: We will not stand idly by as Islamic influences seek to transform our great state into another conquered territory."

The group, which blamed Democratic border policies for “a surge in Muslim immigration in Texas,” says it will focus on reinforcing “Biblical foundations” and called Sharia incompatible with the Constitution. Sharia is the personal religious and moral code of Islam, offering broad faith-based guidelines for Muslims. Conservatives have latched on to the term in recent decades, describing it as an extremist threat. Efforts to target the religious practices of Muslims have previously been found to violate the First Amendment. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country's largest Muslim civil rights group, has denounced that assertion as fear-mongering. "Muslim Americans are teachers, lawyers, doctors, politicians, and neighbors, that is to say that we are an essential part of the cultural fabric of Texas and the United States," CAIR DFW Community Liaison Nooradeen Barreh wrote in n email to KERA. "We at CAIR Texas urge the members of the Sharia Free Caucus to retract the many false statements made and to learn the history of Muslims in the United States."

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How Texas’ $1 billion voucher program is fueling a microschool boom

At Mindsprout Montessori outside Houston, children are encouraged to play with dirt in the outdoor mud kitchen, and each classroom cottage features its own pet. Most of its 90 students are homeschooled part-time and show up between one and four days per week. “A Montessori setup is incredibly costly,” said founder Desiree Corbin. “Our goal was to do the heavy lifting for (parents) and to provide a Montessori experience that is more accessible.” The school is part of an emerging trend of microschools, an umbrella term for schools that blur the lines between home education and traditional private schooling and that are poised for a huge boom in Texas under the state’s new $1 billion voucher program.

Rules set by the state could let even the tiniest become accredited and accept the full $10,500 private school voucher, far more than the $2,000 allotted for homeschool. Though loosely defined as schools serving 100 students or fewer, no single philosophy unites microschools other than a belief that some children’s needs can only be served outside of traditional school settings. The range of microschools in Texas is vast. Some, like Mindsprout, are independent and resemble co-operative homeschooling. Others are backed by billionaires like Elon Musk. National chains are also preparing to stand up scores of new microschools in the state, often supported by funding from school choice advocates, including the pro-voucher billionaire Jeff Yass, and “edtech” investors in Silicon Valley. Few microschools in Texas are currently accredited, a typically rigorous and lengthy process that is required for private schools to accept state voucher dollars.

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Edwards Aquifer nears emergency drought conditions

Austinites who have been around at least a decade may remember that back in the summers of 2015 and 2016, Barton Creek flowed from Barton Springs into South Austin, pocketed with deep green, swimmable water holes. That’s because in both years, Central Texas had over 20 inches above average rainfall as measured at the airport and Camp Mabry, recharging the Edwards Aquifer after the 2008-2011 drought years. But in 2022, annual rainfall in Austin plunged to 10 inches below average. Our annual rainfall levels have hovered in the red ever since, with 2025 getting about 11 inches less than a normal year. “We’re basically missing an entire year’s worth of rainfall at this point,” said Shay Hlavaty, communications and outreach manager at the Barton Springs-Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. “What we need is long-term, sustained, above-average rainfall, ideally for years.”

As of October 2025, the district declared its territory to be in Stage 3 Exceptional Drought, which includes portions of the Edwards and Trinity aquifers that supply drinking water to nearly 100,000 residents. Exceptional Drought was only declared for the first time ever in December 2023. Now, the district says the Austin area is close to another first-of-its-kind declaration: a Stage 4 Emergency Response Period, with Edwards Aquifer levels and springflow at Barton Springs dipping closer to historic lows. “This is unprecedented. These are crazy times, and so our rules and bylaws say that our board of directors can take action as they see fit to help protect flow in the aquifer,” Hlavaty said, noting that such plans are in the works ahead of the declaration. A Stage 4 declaration would mean even tighter pumping curtailments for those who have well permits to pump water out of the Edwards and Trinity aquifers through the district – depending on the permit type, monthly pumping out of the aquifer must reduce by 30%, 50%, or 100%, according to the District’s User Drought Contingency Plan.

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$7M toxic well blowout sparks 'unprecedented' fight with Houston company

The Texas Railroad Commission spent an eye-popping $6.95 million to plug a Ward County well bursting with toxic water in September 2024. It was a price tag so hefty — roughly 230 times the amount needed to plug the average well — that it became a symbol of the financial pressure facing the commission as it struggles to contain decades-old leaking wells. Now, the commission is trying to recoup those funds from a prominent Houston wastewater disposal operator it says was responsible for the blowout. WaterBridge, which went public last year in a high-profile initial offering, denies it was to blame and aims to dispute the findings in a hearing.

The legal battle to come is a test for both the commission and the oil and gas industry it regulates, as tension builds over who should be held accountable for a rash of leaking wells in Texas. “This case is unprecedented,” attorneys for WaterBridge wrote in response to the commission’s enforcement proceedings. The case is unusual because WaterBridge’s disposal well was properly permitted and operating within the confines of those permits, the company said. And yet the commission is holding WaterBridge responsible for a blowout that occurred a half-mile away at a 1950s-era well that was not plugged by modern standards. Hundreds of thousands of decades-old wells dot the Texas landscape — mile-deep holes that can provide a pathway for the industry’s wastewater to rise to the surface and contaminate groundwater along the way. A Houston Chronicle analysis recently identified 2,700 Texas wells at high risk of leaking. WaterBridge said the commission failed to prove that its wastewater was the fluid coming from the blowout well in Ward County and that it had contaminated groundwater. It also dismissed the commission's use of pressure data to link its disposal well with the flowing well. It pointed to three other disposal wells within a two-mile radius that could have triggered the event.

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Austin is ending its rental assistance program and shifting to eviction prevention

People looking to receive help paying their monthly rent will no longer be able to apply for assistance from the city of Austin. The portal was set to open on April 1. Instead, the city will direct its resources toward eviction settlements. The program's closure will cut off hundreds of struggling families from receiving assistance that prevents evictions, according to officials who distribute the funds. Rental assistance is among many cuts the city made following the failure of Proposition Q last November. The original budget included $4 million for rental assistance and eviction prevention, but the total was cut to $3 million marked only for eviction settlements in the 2026 budget.

Susan Watkins, division manager of housing for the city, said the program funding has been split between assistance for people facing eviction, including paying back rent to help people stay in their homes, and helping people pay their monthly rent before an eviction happens. “This shift is kind of a return to what we know is something very important for residents that are facing eviction,” Watkins said. “And it's kind of a core function that we wanted to make sure we can maintain with limited resources.” Rosa Murillo, CEO for El Buen Samaritano, said ending the rental assistance portion of the program is a shock. El Buen helps distribute the city’s rental assistance funds. Murillo said the money helps about 180 families out of the 2,000 people who apply every month. “We weren’t even serving 10% of the need,” she said. “And that need will continue.” She said residents should still reach out to the organization if they need help. Other programs are available for struggling families, and she said the group is prepared to help connect people to other resources. As the city struggles to fund social services and makes cuts, Murillo said families will suffer — and not just from a financial standpoint.

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Congresswoman Julie Johnson renews push for polling place notifications after Election Day confusion

Dallas-area congresswoman Julie Johnson is making a renewed push for a bill that would require counties to notify voters when their polling locations change, citing problems in Dallas County caused by what one judge called "mass confusion" on Election Day. The Voter Outreach for Transparent Elections — or VOTE — Act would modify existing election law to require a state to notify a voter by mail and phone of their new polling place at least seven days before the election. Election offices would also be required to post notices of the change on their websites and social media pages, and at physical locations. "I felt like it was really important that we have a federal standard by how polling places should be notified to the voters," Johnson told KERA. "This bill really simply just requires notification to the voter seven days before an election if their polling places are different."

The push comes after thousands of voters were turned away at the polls on Election Day after showing up at the wrong location. Last year, the Dallas County Republican Party decided not to run joint primary polling sites with Democrats, meaning voters had to go to their assigned precinct locations instead of voting at any countywide vote center — a system that had been used for several election cycles. Johnson blamed the decision on party leadership, including chairman Allen West, for contributing to the confusion. "We all saw this coming," Johnson said. "There was just a lot of confusion about it." West has pushed back on those claims. "This whole thing about the Democrats being confused — I think that was a very weak excuse to do what they did," he said. Precinct locations were finalized less than two weeks before Election Day, and the county's website that listed polling locations temporarily crashed as voters tried to confirm where to vote. Johnson argued precinct-only voting can make elections harder for voters to navigate. "It causes confusion amongst the voters, because the place has changed from cycle to cycle," she said.

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Austin ISD looks to cut costs by $39M as budget shortfall grows

Austin ISD is planning to cut $39 million from its budget this fiscal year and $125 million in FY 2026-27 to reduce a growing shortfall and rebuild its fund balance.. (Chloe Young/Community Impact) Austin ISD is aiming to reduce its expenses over time and increase its savings, known as fund balance. The district is planning to make $39 million in cuts this fiscal year and $125 million in reductions in FY 2026-27, according to AISD documents. The FY 2025-26 cuts come as the district works to lower a projected $49 million shortfall. “We’ve been reducing our deficit by controlling our expenses,” Chief Financial Officer Katrina Montgomery said at a Feb. 26 board meeting. “We’ve been doing a good job reducing expenses, but we have to start making permanent cuts or reducing the budget.”

AISD was initially working to lower a projected $111 million shortfall for FY 2025-26 to $19 million. The district was expected to sell two properties for $45 million and cut $47 million through additional strategies. In January, the board of trustees approved selling the former Brooke Elementary campus in Southeast Austin to Trammell Crow Company and High Street Residential. The development is slated to serve as a multifamily apartment complex. The projected shortfall has since increased to $136 million after a $26 million land sale failed to go through this fiscal year, Montgomery said. Community pushback and pending litigation has slowed AISD's plans to sell the former Rosedale School campus in North Central Austin to OHT Partners. The developer has proposed building a 435-unit, market-rate apartment complex spanning six stories with a parking garage.

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They missed the NIL era. Now they help college athletes navigate a whole new world

When she is facilitating name, image and likeness (NIL) deals like the one a few months ago between University of Texas softball players and Walmart, the irony is never lost on Sarah Fuller. She is just a few years removed from being a college athlete herself, one who earned national acclaim from becoming the first female to play for a power-five conference football team. She remembers, one November night at Vanderbilt in 2020, watching her social media following explode from 1,400 to 200,000. Hailed as a “trailblazer” and “pioneer,” her story attracted widespread attention — she even introduced Vice President Kamala Harris in a video message for an inauguration event. It uniquely positioned her to capitalize on newfound fame by monetizing her name, image and likeness. One problem: The NIL era didn’t start until July 2021. Fuller missed her NIL moment by seven months.

These days, the Wylie native is Chief Athlete Officer at NOCAP Sports, which works with more than 60 schools, offering a suite of services that ultimately help put money into pockets of college athletes. “I felt it firsthand being taken advantage of by your university and the NCAA,” Fuller told The Dallas Morning News. “So my goal every day is to wake up and help support athletes. To make sure we’re putting the athlete front and center of everything we do, and making sure those funds go back to support athletes,” she said. “That we’re bringing them good NIL deals, that they understand what kind of deal they’re getting into. That’s the biggest thing for me, getting to work with these athletes and bring them opportunities I wasn’t allowed to have.” Fuller is a prominent example of a growing number of former college athletes — most of whom missed all or part of the NIL era — who now help lead companies that benefit athletes in this new multibillion-dollar paradigm. A memorable NCAA commercial in recent years said there are more than 400,000 student-athletes and most “will go pro in something other than sports.”

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Women voters control Dallas County politics

Women voters remain the most potent force in Dallas County politics. They proved that again last week, outperforming men countywide and in many down-ballot races. Among the results: Former judge Amber Givens beat well-funded incumbent John Creuzot for district attorney in the Democratic primary, victories by Dallas minister Frederick Haynes III in the 30th Congressional District and Dallas Constable Michael Orozco were the only races in which a man facing a woman won outright in the primary, just seven contests in Dallas County produced results in which women failed to capture more than 50% of the vote, and preliminary data indicates women made up 61% of Dallas County’s primary turnout. That’s in line with previous cycles, but was boosted by new primary voters. After early voting, the electorate was 40% Black, 40% white, 17% Latino and 3% Asian.

“Dallas Democratic primary voters like to elevate public servants who resemble themselves,” said Democratic political strategist David de la Fuente, who has studied the data. De la Fuente said the gender gap in Dallas County primaries often runs about three women for every two men. “It makes running as a male in Dallas an uphill endeavor,” he said. Another factor that created a primary surprise: Early estimates indicated a third of the Democratic turnout came from new primary participants. Having no history in Democratic voter databases, they are difficult for candidates to identify and reach, making some contests unpredictable. Many of those voters were likely seeking change. The surge also appeared tied to U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s Democratic Senate campaign. In her losing bid against state Rep. James Talarico, Crockett, who lives in Dallas, easily won her stronghold and helped energize new primary voters, including women. Givens, a Democrat, has a robust social media following that helped lift her campaign as district attorney. She said the win showed voters chose “a people-powered movement” over money and political influence. Many voters either never saw or were not concerned about her legal troubles before she stepped down in December as a district court judge to run.

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Fort Bend County prosecutor: Judge KP George files '11th-hour' petition days before trial

A prosecutor for the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office is calling on a Texas Appeals Court to reject what he calls an "eleventh-hour" petition from Judge KP George ahead of his money laundering trial. Special Prosecutor Brian Wice sent a letter to the Fourteenth Court of Appeals on behalf of the Fort Bend County DA's Office. The letter is said to be in response to County Judge KP George filing a "Petition for Writ Mandamus" last Friday ahead of his trial starting on Tuesday. According to the Texas Grizzly Law Firm, a writ of mandamus asks a higher court, like a Texas Appeals Court, to intervene in a lower court case while it's still in progress.

Wice's letter is asking the Court of Appeals to reject the county judge's petition, claiming that it's "clearly groundless and brought solely for the purpose of delay." "We're confident that the court of appeals will reject the defendant's eleventh-hour ploy to derail his upcoming felony money laundering trial," Wice said in a statement to FOX 26. "His latest legal filing is as unsupported as it is unsupportable and doesn't even qualify as a Hail Mary." In April 2025, County Judge KP George was arrested and charged with two counts of money laundering between $30,000-$150,000. Punishment ranges from two to 10 years in prison, if convicted. Since the arrest, the case has been a legal battle regarding the involvement of District Attorney Brian Middleton. Lawyers for Fort Bend County Judge KP George is calling for County District Attorney Brian Middleton to resign due to allegations tied to George's case. Previous filings from George's defense team include a motion to dismiss the case and a motion to disqualify the DA's office. George's team has accused Middleton and his team in the past of using apps like WhatsApp and Signal to send messages about George's case without disclosing the information to the defense team. George has also accused Middleton of acting out of retaliation for KP George "being critical" of the DA.

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Prairieland defendants expected to present cases this week as ICE shooting trial enters week 3

Prosecutors will likely wrap up their case early this week and attorneys representing nine defendants on trial for the Prairieland ICE detention center shooting will present their cases as the proceedings in Fort Worth federal court continue. The government has spent two weeks presenting evidence in what the Trump administration calls the first domestic terrorism case associated with “antifa,” or the anti-fascist movement. The government alleges those on trial played a role in the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside the immigration detention center in Alvarado July 4, and they were motivated by anti-fascist, anti-ICE and anti-government beliefs.

Jurors have watched footage from that night, heard for the first time from defendants who took plea deals, got a closer look at the alleged antifa materials owned by the defendants on trial and saw the judge strike down the accused shooter’s self-defense argument. The jury heard five perspectives from the night of the shooting and the events surrounding it — testimony from law enforcement officers who interviewed defendant Meagan Morris and direct testimony from cooperating defendants Lynette Sharp, Seth Sikes, Susan Kent and John Thomas. Lynette Sharp, 57, and Seth Sikes, 22, said they met alleged shooter Benjamin Song at Finn's Place, a community center in Fort Worth where Song taught a self-defense class. Thomas was roommates with Song and Song's partner Joy Gibson, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty. Sharp described Song as an excellent teacher who was intelligent and soft spoken. Sikes called him charismatic.

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ICE detention of teen musicians roils Texas mariachi community

Last June, two teenage brothers from South Texas and their high school mariachi bandmates traveled to Capitol Hill. They had been invited there by their congresswoman, Monica De La Cruz. She was going to recognize the band on the House floor for winning a state mariachi competition. “Your community is so so proud of your hard work, your talent and your dedication,” Ms. De La Cruz, a Republican, told the students. Nine months later, the brothers, Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, along with their parents and younger brother, are in ICE detention and facing deportation. The family’s detainment has drawn concern and criticism from Texas lawmakers, who have raised questions about the kinds of people the Trump administration is targeting in its mass deportation campaign.

“Donald Trump said he was going after criminals,” Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, said in a video posted to social media on Saturday. “He said he was going after people who were dangerous to Americans. Well, how is it that these two young men were good enough to perform at the United States Capitol at the invitation of their congresswoman?” Mr. Castro continued: “They were safe enough to tour the White House. And yet, the Trump administration has them sitting in a prison.” The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The family entered the United States in 2023 at the border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, on an asylum claim and settled in nearby McAllen, according to Luis Antonio Martínez, the father. In an interview last week, Mr. Martínez said that he and his wife and children were fleeing threats in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he had been kidnapped by cartel members.

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National Stories

Investigation further suggests it was the US that struck an Iranian school, killing 165

The investigative group Bellingcat says newly released video “appears to contradict” U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran was responsible for an explosion at an Iranian school that killed over 165 people at the start of the war raging in the Mideast. It comes as mounting evidence points to U.S. culpability for the Feb. 28 strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Minab, Iran, in the country’s southern Hormozgan Province. Experts interviewed by The Associated Press, citing satellite image analysis, say the school was likely struck amid a quick succession of bombs dropped on the compound.

The video shared by Bellingcat is a three-second clip of a video taken the day the school was struck and circulated Sunday by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency. The video shows a munition falling on a building, sending a dark plume into the air that mingles with smoke that likely came from earlier strikes on the compound. Trevor Ball, a Bellingcat researcher, geolocated the video to a site near the school, something also done by the AP. Ball identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile — which only the U.S. is known to possess in this war. It’s the first evidence of a munition used in the strike. Complicating any assessment of the incident is the lack of images of bomb fragments from the blast. No independent agency has reached the site during the war to investigate. When asked by a reporter Saturday whether the U.S. was responsible for the blast, which killed mostly children, Trump responded, without providing evidence: “No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.” Trump added that Iran is “very inaccurate” with their munitions. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quickly chimed in to say the U.S. was investigating. Several factors point to a U.S. strike.

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Trump’s food industry friends are warning him RFK Jr.’s agenda is bad for business

America’s food-makers have a message for President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers: You must choose between Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda and ours. Since Trump teamed up with Kennedy to win the 2024 election and made him Health secretary, the GOP’s traditional allies in the food industry have mostly stood down as Kennedy called their products poison and blamed them for chronic disease. They aren’t standing down anymore. “Anytime that you’re increasing the regulatory burden or changing a system…you end up driving up the cost of the product,” said Jay Timmons, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers. In a new video and report titled “Manufacturers Feed America” shared first with POLITICO, NAM warns the food industry is “under increasing strain” and federal and state rules targeting ingredients “risk undermining the system.”

NAM is demanding national uniform standards and a seat at the table on policies stemming from Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. Last year, Timmons warned the White House strategy on MAHA would “take America in the wrong direction.” Food and beverage companies make up the largest segment of NAM’s membership, which includes jam-maker Smucker’s, spice- and condiment-maker McCormick & Co., and the maker of processed meats Smithfield Foods, among other iconic American names. The NAM campaign is the latest escalation from the food industry against Kennedy and his MAHA movement’s efforts to target their ingredients. It underscores how companies are exploiting Republican vulnerabilities on the economy in an effort to push their agenda ahead of the November midterm elections, which will shape Trump’s influence for the remainder of his term. Midterm pressures have prompted the Trump administration in recent weeks to recalibrate its messaging on MAHA. On Feb. 18, Trump signed an executive order to boost glyphosate production, a weedkiller that a Kennedy-backed White House report last year linked to cancer. Kennedy has also embarked on a messaging blitz, touting the administration’s new dietary guidelines and drug pricing deals while talking less about his efforts to downsize the vaccine schedule. He has endorsed a Super Bowl ad paid for by the MAHA Center featuring boxer Mike Tyson and the slogan “Eat Real Food.”

Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only

Fox News apologizes for showing old video of a hatless Donald Trump at a dignified transfer ceremony

Fox News apologized for airing old video of a hatless President Donald Trump during coverage Sunday of his attendance at the dignified transfer ceremony for U.S. soldiers killed in the Middle East war, insisting it was an honest mistake. In a polarized time, some online critics suggested without evidence that it wasn’t an error — that the network was trying to make Trump look better by not showing him wearing a baseball cap during what is considered one of the most solemn duties of a commander in chief. The return of the bodies of six soldiers took place Saturday at Dover Air Force Base. But Fox News said archival footage of Trump at an earlier ceremony was inadvertently pulled up by a staff member and used on two Sunday morning telecasts. A spokeswoman noted the correct footage was used at other times, including on Saturday.

“We regret the error and apologize for the incorrect footage,” Fox said in a statement. Fox News anchor Griff Jenkins issued an on-the-air correction Sunday, saying “we extend our respect and condolences” to the families of the service members killed. The apology didn’t sit well with some critics. “If any other network did this it would be a huge scandal, Fox would lead the chorus of criticisms and faux-outrage, and people would lose their jobs,” said Mehdi Hasan, founder of the online site Zeteo. Johnny “Joey” Jones, a veteran and co-host of “The Big Weekend Show” on Fox News Channel, said on social media that he was “embarrassed and ashamed” that this happened. “My belief was that this was an honest mistake, but that doesn’t make it an acceptable one,” Jones wrote. “Few things are more sacred than our heroes who give their lives in the line of duty.” Jones said that “if posting snarky comments and insults is your way of reacting to this, please direct them at me. I’m the one with sharp words on these issues. If you are using this as a way to take a partisan jab at my hard working colleagues, check your watch.”

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Trump wants to ‘take over’ elections. These states are prime targets.

Facing the possibility of big losses for Republicans in the midterm elections, President Trump has reiterated his unfounded assertions of electoral fraud. He has also begun speaking of the need to “nationalize” elections, and for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in parts of the country. This rhetoric is often vague, coming across as a hint of plan, rather than an actual one. But a map of potential targets may be coming into focus and includes the swing states Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. Voting experts, government officials and others have identified a host of conditions that could make those places ripe for meddling from the Trump administration or its allies.

In Michigan, a coalition of right-wing activists has obtained copies of about 150,000 absentee ballots and envelopes from the 2020 election, and is organizing to investigate them for errors, anomalies or fraud. In North Carolina and Arizona, several Republican legislators and local election officials continue to embrace electoral conspiracy theories and have pushed for more control over voting processes. Most significant, in Georgia, the F.B.I., acting on a search warrant that relied on debunked claims about the 2020 race, seized hundreds of boxes of ballots from a government warehouse in late January, an extraordinary intrusion into the American electoral process. The fear is that pro-Trump forces in these states could begin pushing dubious pretexts to try to change election rules, take over local voting systems or otherwise find ways to give Republicans unfair advantages as they seek to ride out a wave of discontent over Mr. Trump’s second presidential term. Democratic officials in other states have also begun to wonder whether their jurisdictions will be the next target of the administration’s scrutiny, or worse.

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At White House, college leaders plead for federal action

Declaring that “a lot of really bad things are happening” in college athletics, President Donald Trump said Friday he’s planning to draft an executive order to overhaul the system. What would be in the order is unclear, but Trump said at the end of a two-hour roundtable about the future of college athletics that he would like to return to a system where student athletes are compensated primarily via athletic scholarships. He acknowledged that any executive order would likely face a court challenge.

Trump repeatedly warned that without significant changes, college athletics threatens to bankrupt institutions. “Many are going to go down the tubes,” he said of colleges. Several court rulings and settlements have upended college athletics in recent years. In 2021, judges declared the NCAA restrictions on compensation a violation of federal antitrust laws, paving the way for student athletes to profit from use of their name, image and likeness as well as to share in revenue generated from their sports. Colleges that opted in to a recent settlement, which took effect last July, agreed to pay at least $20 million per institution in revenue-sharing payments to athletes each year. Those changes have driven up the cost of running an athletics program and led to increasingly dire warnings about the sustainability of the model. Some athletic departments are running up larger deficits and taking on debt, while others are looking to private equity or Middle Eastern investors for capital. And college officials say program cuts are likely.

Read this article at Inside Higher Ed - Subscribers Only

2 Pa. men arrested in connection with explosive devices ignited outside NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence

A large law enforcement presence was seen Sunday afternoon at the home of one of the two Pennsylvania men who were arrested after explosive devices were ignited outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence the day prior, when protesters clashed. The FBI launched a terrorism investigation after the explosive devices were ignited, allegedly by a counter-protester. Emir Balat, 18, and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, who are both from Pennsylvania, were arrested after the protest but have yet to be charged. On Saturday, an anti-Islam protest near Gracie Mansion, the New York City mayor's official residence, was organized by people associated with Jake Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter and far-right influencer, according to New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

A group of more than 100 people also gathered at the same location for a counterprotest called "Run the Nazis Out of New York City/Stand Against Hate." According to Tisch, Balat lit and threw an ignited device toward protesters. Witnesses told police they saw flames and smoke as the device traveled through the air before it struck a barrier and extinguished itself a few feet from police officers. In a video from the scene, a man appears to yell "Allahu Akbar" — or "God is Most Great" — just as Balat throws the device. The CBS News Confirmed Team verified the videos. It is not clear from the videos who was shouting the words. Tisch said Balat then ran southbound and got a second device from Kayumi. Balat allegedly lit the device and ran with it before dropping it on the west side of East End Avenue between East 86th and East 87th streets. Tisch said in a statement Sunday that one of the devices was determined not to be a "hoax device or a smoke bomb," but instead it was "an improvised explosive device (IED) that could have caused serious injury or death." Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News that a federal terrorism investigation is underway after the suspicious device was ignited.

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Trump moves to undo tax rule that Biden said would bring in $100 billion

The Trump administration signaled a plan Friday to revoke a two-year-old tax rule designed to crack down on an arcane but highly lucrative tax avoidance tactic used by some of the largest and most complicated businesses. If enacted, the Trump administration’s proposal would mean that large business partnerships no longer need to tell the IRS when they shift assets from one corporate entity to another. Those transactions, called “basis shifting,” have allowed businesses to dodge tens of billions of dollars in taxes, the Treasury Department alleged in the past, by illegally depreciating the same asset over and over again. “My concern is that people will take this as a substantive conclusion that these transactions are okay,” said Stuart Rosow, a partnership tax attorney. Rosow said that he and other lawyers who handle complex partnerships’ taxes stopped looking for the transactions to report to the IRS last year, when the Trump administration initially signaled that it would repeal the reporting requirement.

Multimillion-dollar partnerships and their lawyers had been lobbying against the rule from the moment the Treasury Department announced it. “The problem was that the way they did the regulations, they were almost impossible to comply with,” attorney Eric Sloan said. “It hit so many ordinary, everyday transactions. … It was just a bundle of errors. I felt really strongly from day one that they simply needed to be pulled.” Under President Joe Biden, the Treasury Department announced the crackdown on basis shifting by partnerships in 2024 and estimated that the effort would raise more than $100 billion over the next decade. The posture quickly changed under President Donald Trump. “You have an administration that wants to, as a general matter, deregulate and be pro-business,” said Miles Johnson, who focuses on partnership tax issues at New York University’s Tax Law Center. Johnson said some partnerships will probably take the move by the Trump administration as tacit permission to continue basis-shifting practices, even though “these sorts of transactions, in their worst forms, are pretty abusive.”

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Cryptic emails and no strings attached. How MacKenzie Scott gives away billions.

It started with a cryptic email containing the word “confidential” in the subject line. A brief phone call later, Angelique Albert sat stunned by the knowledge that Native Forward, the grassroots nonprofit she runs to fund scholarships for Native American students, had just received an unsolicited $20 million grant from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos. The Albuquerque, N.M., nonprofit used the 2020 gift to create new scholarship programs and expand advising services for students. It moved out of a cramped, rented office and bought a 10,500-square-foot, two-story building as its headquarters. It hired a consulting firm to help develop its strategy. Last August, an email with a different address popped into Albert’s inbox asking if she might have 15 minutes to chat.

This time, the gift amounted to $50 million. “Fifteen million?” Albert recalled asking, scribbling notes to herself so she would know she had heard correctly. “Fifty million, 5-0,” came the reply. Since 2019, MacKenzie Scott has given away more than $26 billion, making her one of the most generous philanthropists alive. The $7.17 billion in giving she disclosed for the roughly one-year period ended in December 2025 represented her largest single slug yet, with more money going to new grantees than to prior recipients for the first time, according to philanthropy adviser Panorama Global, which has analyzed Scott’s giving. Scott has described her strategy as focusing on “undersupported causes and people” of all kinds. Her priorities include equity, education, economic security and the environment. More wealth than ever is being created among the ultrawealthy, and the amount of money they are giving to charitable causes has ticked up in recent years. But their annual giving rate has stayed relatively steady at about 1.2% of their net worth, according to philanthropy advisory firm Bridgespan Group, which has worked with Scott. Scott’s philanthropy is on a different order of magnitude, and life on the receiving end of it can be head-spinning.

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Lead Stories

Trump says he won’t sign any bills into law until SAVE Act passes

President Trump on Sunday threatened to not sign any bills into law until the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act is approved by the Senate, doubling down on his push to change voting requirements ahead of the midterm elections. “I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY – ILLNESS, DISABILITY…,” the president wrote in his Sunday morning Truth Social post. The leader has pressed Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to use a talking filibuster to pass the bill, which was approved by the House in February.

The filibuster would force Democrats to speak continuously on the Senate floor to delay a vote on the bill. But, once they cede the floor, Republicans could circumvent the need for a 60-vote majority and pass the measure with just 51 votes. On Sunday, Trump again urged Thune to use this tactic to get the bill across the finish line. “Great Job by hard working Scott Pressler on Fox & Friends talking about using the Filibuster, or Talking Filibuster, in order to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, an 88% issue with ALL VOTERS,” the president wrote, referring to the conservative activist. “It must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE,” he continued. Thune, who ran for Senate majority leader under the committment to uphold the 60-vote threshold, has not budged on his stance despite Trump’s pressure. The SAVE Act has ample support from House Republicans and has already passed the lower chamber three separate times over the years. Democrats, however, have pushed back on the measure, claiming it would pose challenges for registered voters and potentially inhibit people from heading to the polls. The Hill has reached out to the White House as well as Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) offices for comment.

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Dems aren’t sure whether to actually spend big to flip Texas

It didn’t take long for Democrats’ hopes of flipping Texas to dim. Enthusiasm remains high for the party’s Senate nominee, James Talarico, but national Democrats aren’t sure how far they should go to support him — particularly if Sen. John Cornyn emerges from the GOP runoff in May. Interviews with nearly a dozen high-dollar donor advisers and strategists poured cold water on the likelihood that the party would fully commit to the staggering price tag it’d take to finally flip Texas. “No one’s taking Texas seriously,” said a Democratic bundler who, like most others, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about intra-party dynamics. Among their concerns is that Cornyn did better than expected in the GOP primary against Attorney General Ken Paxton, and with President Donald Trump’s potential endorsement would be able to ease his runoff victory.

Democrats planning for Talarico to compete against Paxton, a scandal-ridden MAGA darling, are instead facing the prospect of trying to oust a 24-year moderate incumbent in a state that hasn’t voted for a Senate Democrat in nearly four decades. There are also competing priorities for national spending — just Wednesday evening, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) dropped his re-election bid in a state Senate Democrats held as recently as 2018 — potentially elevating it as a target for spending. Underlying it all, Democrats said, is the reality that contesting Texas would require a massive injection of cash — while there are other, cheaper options on the Senate landscape. “We have to be practical about how we use our resources,” said Alex Hoffman, a Democratic donor adviser. “You need a perfect storm to kill a white whale, and if it’s going to be Cornyn [in the general election], then it’s not a perfect storm.” Democrats have long dreamed of turning Texas blue. But the idea of flipping the state — much less retaking the Senate overall — appeared laughable last year, when the party hit new lows in its public polling and sustained sweeping losses in 2024. But a string of overperformances in off-year and special election races, combined with Trump’s own stubbornly low approval rating, have Democrats increasingly bullish about their chances.

Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only

Report: Plane tied to Houston waited too long after de-icing before Maine crash

A private plane tied to a Houston-based law firm stayed on the tarmac too long after de-icing treatment before crashing during a January takeoff in Bangor, Maine, according to a preliminary report released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The aircraft took off 17 minutes after de-icing treatment began on Jan. 25, the report states, but due to “moderate” snowfall and an outside temperature of 3.2 degrees, Federal Aviation Administration guidelines dictate the pilots should have waited no more than nine minutes from the start of the de-icing before taking off. After attempting to take off, the plane landed upside down on the runway and burst into flames. The airport closed for several days as officials had to wait for snowy conditions to subside before recovering the bodies and wreckage from the tarmac.

Six people, including two crew and four passengers, were on board the aircraft linked to the Houston law firm Arnold and Itkin, which crashed amid a deadly winter storm that blanketed much of the United States. The passengers were Tara Arnold, 46, who co-founded the law firm with her husband, Kurt, and three people who worked for her luxury travel company, Beyond: event planner and Lakewood Church employee Shawna Collins, 53; sommelier Shelby Kuyawa, 34; and professional chef Nick Mastrascusa, 43. The two pilots were identified by officials as Jacob Hosmer, 47, and Jorden Reidel, 33. Hosmer was a father of two from Pearland who loved his family and playing pickleball, his loved ones wrote in a GoFundMe. The plane departed from Houston and stopped in Maine to refuel before a planned trip to Paris. The aircraft had received proper de-icing treatment before heading to the runway for takeoff, during which the crew had discussed holdover times, according to recorded audio from the cockpit. The pilot said that it was “standard” to have 14 to 18 minutes between de-icing and takeoff and that if the wait exceeded 30 minutes, they would return to the ramp to deice again, and the copilot concurred, the report states. A preliminary review of the flight data recorder found no evidence of a flight control malfunction or failure, and both engines continued to develop takeoff power until the flight data recording stopped.

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Brandon Herrera’s YouTube gives Democrats more hope in West Texas race

A gun rights activist and hard-right YouTuber became the default Republican nominee in a West Texas congressional race late Thursday after a sex scandal forced the incumbent, Representative Tony Gonzales, to drop his bid for re-election. By Friday, clips of the challenger, Brandon Herrera, shooting Nazi-era weapons and discussing his copy of “Mein Kampf” were circulating widely among Democrats. Suddenly Mr. Gonzales’s district — the solidly red Texas 23rd — appeared to Democrats as one they could flip in November. Democratic strategists in Washington were exploring whether to dedicate money to support their candidate in the district, which stretches from San Antonio along the U.S.-Mexico border to El Paso.

The seat was not on the party’s initial list of potentially vulnerable Republican districts. Adding it would mean fund-raising and providing strategy help for the Democratic candidate in the race, Katy Padilla Stout. It also could create an added headache for Republicans, who have already had their hopes of flipping five Democratic U.S. House seats in Texas grow more remote. Mr. Herrera, popular with the hard-right base of Republican voters, runs a YouTube channel with more than four million subscribers where he is known as the AK Guy. He tests firearms and discusses military history in his videos. In an interview on Friday, Mr. Herrera said the clips being shared online by Democrats were selectively edited, “disingenuous” attacks against him. “I have a career on the internet doing comedy,” Mr. Herrera told The New York Times. “If their strategy is going to be clutching their fake pearls, and they don’t know the difference between jokes and what I actually believe, then this is going to be a very annoying few months.”

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Americans are now a target in Trump’s immigration crackdown

Prosecutors were ready for troublemakers. Federal officer Dinko Residovic had spoken with the U.S. Attorney’s Office before heading out to arrest two immigrants held at a jail in Washington, D.C. “They were, like, ‘If you need anything, let us know. Anybody interferes, assaults, let us know. Get them on camera. We’ll prosecute,’” Residovic said in a recorded conversation. “I’m, like, f—k yeah.” After he and other federal agents arrived at the jail, they spotted 44-year-old Sidney Lori Reid, who was recording them on her phone. Reid moved for a clearer view, and an agent grabbed her. He pinned Reid to a wall while a man was escorted from the jail to a government vehicle. That is what videos later showed. But that wasn’t what Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleged after Reid’s July 22 arrest.

Reid was one of the targets in an aggressive public-relations tactic in the Trump administration’s war on illegal immigration, an enforcement campaign praised for record-low southern border crossings but widely criticized for its treatment of U.S. citizens. Protesters, observers and passersby taken into custody by federal agents were declared terrorists and attackers in hundreds of social-media posts by U.S. officials and departments since the start of the immigration sweeps in cities. This includes Minneapolis, where two citizens were excoriated by officials after they were killed by federal agents in January. The Wall Street Journal found that the Department of Homeland Security, created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against citizens. Of the 279 people accused by officials on X of attacking federal officers in the past year, 181 were U.S. citizens, the Journal found. Close to half of those Americans were never charged with assault. None have been convicted at trial.

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State Stories

Trump, Texas Republicans gear up against James Talarico

Texas Republicans are quickly aligning with President Donald Trump in targeting Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico following his primary win Tuesday. Talarico, a state representative from Austin, secured the Democratic nomination over U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, finishing with 52.4% of the vote to Crockett’s 46.2%. His victory drew a response from Trump, who wrote Wednesday on Truth Social that Republicans now face “an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent” in the November general election. Despite calling Talarico an easy target, Trump urged Republicans to “TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively!” He also criticized U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — who are headed to a runoff, with Cornyn leading — saying they are running “great races, but not good enough.”

"We must win in November!!!" Trump exclaimed. Gov. Greg Abbott also weighed in, resurfacing remarks Talarico made in 2021 about co-authoring legislation to teach “diversity, equity and inclusion” in Texas schools and sponsoring a bill that would have required larger school districts to hire a DEI officer. “Great. A large majority of Texas voters are against your crazy DEI mandates. Also, taking race or sex into consideration when hiring, directly violates the Texas Constitution,” Abbott wrote Wednesday on X. “When Texans and Americans learn about your Bernie Sanders voting record, you will be toast.” Abbott and Talarico recently clashed over the mass shooting near the Austin bar Buford’s. After the incident, Talarico called for gun reform. Abbott criticized that response, arguing lawmakers should instead address what he described as the “unvetted immigrant loophole.” The shooting suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, was born in Senegal and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2013. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz also criticized Talarico, resurfacing a 2021 X post in which Talarico wrote: “Black Americans in a church. Mexican Americans in a store. Asian Americans in a spa.”

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Big Bend locals worry new border wall will hurt tourism, environment

Residents of the picturesque and wildlife rich Big Bend of Texas are concerned about federal plans to install 100 miles of steel border wall in the region. Alpine, Texas, city council members share some of those concerns. The council this week unanimously approved a resolution urging the federal government to “carefully evaluate” the economic and environmental consequences of a permanent physical barrier. They’re suggesting increased use of technology – surveillance cameras with artificial intelligence, ground sensors capable of distinguishing wildlife from humans – as an alternative. “We all support border security, but history proves the goal can be accomplished without a massive destruction of our area’s economy, recreational base and environment,” Alpine resident and wildlife biologist Raymon Skiles said at Tuesday’s council meeting.

More than 560,000 people visited Big Bend National Park in 2024, contributing $57 million to the local economy. Locals describe the expanse and mountains as “visually awe-inspiring.” In the past few years, they’ve also supported a project called Dark Skies Initiative. That involves making night lighting more efficient and localized so that people can look at the stars. Tuesday’s resolution states Alpine “supports the exploration of border security measures that are effective while minimizing adverse impacts” to the environment tourism and cultural resources of the Big Bend Region of West Texas. Council member Eva Martinez said she supports a virtual wall, but not a physical one. She and other councilors said they have received calls from concerned residents. “We are on their side. We don’t need a physical wall,” she said. The resolution authorizes Mayor Catherine Eaves to relay the council’s concerns to President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and to other appropriate federal and state agencies. Other local governments and officials in the region recently have expressed similar concerns, NBC News reported. Federal officials have told Border Report the intent is not to place barrier all along the bend of the Rio Grande that separates the U.S. and Mexico in the region. “We are still early in the planning stages. When the engineers get out on site and start doing the detailed planning, things might shift,” a federal official said. “The plan is to have border barrier in some areas of the park but there are areas where there’s not going to be any border barrier. Nobody wants to cut off people from going to Hot Spring or the ability to go to Boquillas. There are some places like Santa Catarina canyon where you have 400-foot cliffs where it may not make sense to have wall.”

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Banning Islam, deporting Muslims discussed at Fort Worth church after primary elections

Political and religious leaders suggested deporting, jailing or converting all Muslim people to eradicate what they perceive to be the “threat of Islam” in Tarrant County and Texas. The ideas were debated in a panel discussion Thursday night, during which a Republican legislator suggested state lawmakers remove federal protections for the practice of Islam by classifying the faith as a political system rather than a religion. “We could basically say, ‘In the state of Texas, we get to define what a religion is, and Islam is not a religion protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” said state Rep. Andy Hopper, who represents Wise County northwest of Tarrant. Hopper joined four other panelists at Light of the World Church for the event hosted by For Liberty & Justice, the political arm of Fort Worth’s Mercy Culture Church.

The event came just two days after primary elections — in which many Republican candidates in local, state and national races campaigned on anti-Islamic rhetoric — and during Ramadan, which is the holiest month in the Islamic faith. The other speakers were Shahriq Khan, a self-described “ex-Muslim” turned Christian social media influencer; Benji Gershon, founder of the Dallas-based grassroots group American Jewish Conservatives; Abteen Vaziri, who lost his primary bid for the GOP nomination for northeast Dallas County’s U.S. House District 32; and John Guandolo, a former FBI agent and author of the 2019 book “Islam’s Deception: The Truth About Sharia.” Combatting “Islamic extremism” is a long-held concern in fringe Republican circles, but the ideas discussed March 5 signal a “big step” from traditional talking points, said Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University who studies the intersection of religion and politics.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: We don’t know why Dallas elected Amber Givens for DA either

Among the many surprises in Tuesday’s primaries, one of the most shocking took place in the Democratic primary for Dallas County district attorney. Amber Givens, a former district court judge with a history of injudicious behavior on the bench, handily beat incumbent John Creuzot, whose leadership and experience in office earned the respect of a wide array of legal and community leaders. We had expected that Democratic voters would want to retain a public servant who performed his job with diligence and integrity. Creuzot championed innovative, evidence-based programs to address the needs of suspects with mental illness and substance abuse problems. Instead they elevated someone whose ability to do the job is an open question. So what happened? We don’t know.

Maybe voters viewed Givens as the more progressive of the two candidates, and preferred her politics. Long ago, Creuzot did run for judge as a Republican. But as a Democratic district attorney, he’s been a favorite target of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Early in his first term, Creuzot announced his office wouldn’t prosecute low-level theft of basic necessities, partly to keep impoverished, nonviolent offenders out of jail. He later dropped the policy when he found it had little impact on the crime rate. Creuzot also joined several other big-city DAs and sued Paxton after his office tried to impose onerous reporting requirements on local jurisdictions. The DAs won. Meanwhile, before her victory, Givens was in the news for all the wrong reasons. In June, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct publicly admonished her for “failing to comply with and maintain professional competence in the law,” in regards to due process and for failing to treat a defendant with “patience, dignity and courtesy.” Givens was also publicly reprimanded for allegedly allowing a court staff member to substitute for her during a virtual bond hearing and for mistreating attorneys in her courtroom. She appealed the rulings and a three-judge panel in Austin re-tried the case late last month but has not yet issued its verdict.

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New body camera footage raises questions in fatal ICE shooting of SA man on South Padre Island

Newly released body camera footage from the Texas Department of Public Safety is providing a closer look at the moments leading up to a fatal shooting by a federal immigration officer during Spring Break on South Padre Island last year. The video captures the early morning shooting of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez of San Antonio on March 15, 2025, after he drove up to the scene of a car accident. Authorities previously said an officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fired when Martinez’s vehicle sped toward law enforcement, posing a threat. But an attorney representing Martinez’s family says the newly released footage contradicts that account.

“Their justification for killing Ruben was that Ruben was a danger to them,” said attorney Butch Hayes, who represents Martinez’s mother. “The video does not support that at all. In fact, when the bullets ring out and go through Ruben’s torso, what you see are the brake lights on.” The footage released by DPS was recorded by a trooper at the scene, not the ICE officer who fired the shots. According to Hayes, Martinez had spoken with several officers after arriving at the crash scene and was told to follow the flow of traffic. Hayes said an officer later shouted for others to stop the vehicle from roughly 100 feet away. “There’s no chance that Ruben could have heard that,” Hayes said. Martinez’s best friend, Joshua Orta, was in the car at the time of the shooting and previously disputed law enforcement’s account.

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Texas fracker turned escort says repression allowed business to flourish

Mickey says his stint as a handyman transformed into a lucrative sex business due to the region’s ‘self-denial’ A western Texas fracker starring in a podcast about how his attempted moonlighting as a handyman turned into lucrative sex work largely solicited by distracted oil industry professionals’ housewives says he believes his region’s repressive sexual attitudes gave his side gig an opening to flourish. “There’s an inherent kind of self-denial,” the subject of The Handyman of West Texas, identified only as Mickey, said in a recent interview. “We all have these thoughts. But we lie to ourselves and try to conform to … how you’re supposed to be repressing your own pleasure.”

Mickey said he arrived at that observation in part from the post-coital talks he has held with many of the adult women in his sliver of the Permian Basin’s Midland area, who collectively compensated him in the mid-six figures during his five-year run escorting amid communities depicted on television shows such as Landman and Friday Night Lights. As Mickey put it on the documentary podcast and separately to the Guardian, his path to escorting was circuitous. He had just gotten divorced from a woman to whom he had been married to for two decades. He wanted to keep himself occupied as well as earn a little money during his resting periods between his fracking work, which typically involve 15-hour daily shifts, two weeks at a time. So he posted an online advertisement offering his services hanging shutters, repairing leaky faucets or completing other such odd jobs. The rugged, visually appealing Mickey included a picture of himself, thinking it might make potential clients feel safer about hiring a stranger off the internet.

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Affordable housing project in Wylie seeks to set national example

In a community 30 miles north of Dallas, a model for addressing the affordable housing crisis is set to open its doors in the coming weeks in the hopes of setting a nationally replicable example of how to bring families out of housing instability. On Saturday, dozens of community leaders, donors, volunteers and supporters celebrated the soft opening of Jericho Village, a 2.5-acre, 38-unit housing development in Wylie. The village includes 10 buildings: nine residential units and a community center. Jericho Village is more than an apartment complex. Leaders see it as a community meant to provide an affordable, longterm place to live to help families reach self-sufficiency and stability. “Just putting someone in an apartment to get them off the street, that is not sustainable unless they have empowerment services to help them become who they can be,” said Janet Collinsworth, founder and CEO of Jericho Village.

Jericho Village plans to offer “wrap-around” services such as counseling, access to health care, child care, transportation and educational opportunities. The village has a sliding-scale rent based on income and is open to the general population. Residents are expected to move in as early as next month, though the complex is not yet accepting applications. Wylie Mayor Matthew Porter has supported the project and said Jericho Village is about providing longterm solutions, not Band-Aids. “It’s great to give someone a place to stay,” he said. “But the wrap-around care that is part of this model sets it apart. It provides a way to change the outcome … the influence that will have on multiple generations of a family is what makes this so special.” In February, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner visited Jericho Village to see how the faith-based project will address housing instability. “For too long, our faith-based partners were excluded from HUD’s work supporting our most vulnerable citizens,” Turner said in a statement. “Jericho Village shows how affordable housing, paired with supportive services, brings hope and dignity to families in need.”

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Valley lawmakers react following allegations of McAllen family detained by ICE

United States Congressman Vicente Gonzalez for District 34 and Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz for District 15 have made a statement following reports of McAllen High School mariachi students who were detained by ICE. According to a news release from Congressman Gonzalez, three McAllen mariachi students, who are siblings in the 6th, 9th and 12th grade, were detained by ICE along with their parents. The family is currently being held in the immigration center located in Dilley and Raymondville, Texas. Congressman Gonzalez states that they have been tracking the reports of the Gámez-Cuéllar family.

On Saturday morning, Gonzalez published the following statement on social media: “This family followed the appropriate process and procedures, yet this Administration is actively tearing them apart. They are proven contributing members of our community. I call on this Administration and every member of our South Texas Congressional Delegation to speak out against this senseless cruelty and fight to keep this family together.” Congresswoman De La Cruz posted on social media the following statement: "The Gámez-Cuéllar family’s story breaks my heart. South Texans know better than anyone that we can secure our border and still treat people with dignity — these are not competing values. I have repeatedly urged that enforcement target those who actually threaten our communities, not good, law-abiding, talented people who are working through the legal process. My office is closely monitoring their situation and we are doing all we can." Gonzalez added that the family arrived in the Rio Grande Valley in 2023 during the Biden administration through the CBP-One program.

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How Austin plans to keep West Sixth Street safe after shooting

Businesses along West Sixth Street's entertainment district began welcoming patrons on Friday afternoon, just days after a mass shooting at Buford's bar that left four people dead, including the shooter. Bars along the nightlife corridor were preparing for the first weekend of business since the early Sunday morning shooting. Passersby continued to stop at the growing memorial outside Buford's. One man, wearing a flannel and dark sunglasses, placed yellow flowers beneath a photo of Jorge Munoz-Pederson, one of the victims killed in the attack. Nearby, an employee outside Buford’s removed yellow and green metallic streamers from the bar’s front deck.

Staff at Buford's announced it would reopen on Friday, writing in an Instagram post that the decision came after "many conversations with our staff." The statement described Buford's as "home for many in our community," adding that returning to a sense of routine and togetherness — while difficult — can be an important part of healing. Buford’s staff said they have been coordinating with law enforcement and city leaders to ensure the bar reopens “as safely as possible.” The bar is also installing protective glass in its beer garden as an added safety measure. Parlor & Yard, a neighboring bar, said on Instagram that a portion of its weekend sales will be donated to help those affected. "We love y'all, Austin," the Friday post read. "West Sixth Strong."

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San Antonio has over 20 data centers and more on the way

San Antonio leaders are open to more data centers, but say they want new rules for the companies that build them. San Antonio City Council members say there needs to be new zoning regulations and discussions with local utilities around resources and infrastructure availability — particularly for recycled water. The discussion, which took up much of a Wednesday City Council B Session, came after Councilman Ric Galvan (D6) filed a request to look at data center development and resource use in San Antonio. “[I’m] very thankful to all the residents in District 6 who have shared their input on this topic, who have shared their personal feedback in living near the highest concentration of data centers in our city,” Galvan said.

Council member ideas ranged from community benefit agreements with data centers to encouraging them to bring tech jobs to asking data center developers to share backup power with local neighborhoods during power outages. Galvan focused on the idea of updating San Antonio’s Unified Development Code, or UDC, and categorizing data centers as general industrial. Amin Tohmaz, the city’s development services director, said current zoning law does not have any rules specifically for data centers. The UDC is typically amended every five years. The next update is scheduled for 2027, but Galvan and multiple council members, including Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, pushed for earlier amendments for data centers. But Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) wanted to hold off on amendments until 2027. Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) focused on potential for data centers bringing jobs and more money in property taxes to the area.

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San Antonio advances moratorium on private detention centers

San Antonio City Council on Thursday directed city staff to explore zoning and development code changes governing detention facilities while initiating a moratorium on any new private detention centers. The action followed a City Manager’s report updating council on a February resolution that asked staff to evaluate what actions San Antonio could legally take in response to immigration enforcement activity and a newly purchased ICE detention facility expected to operate on the East Side. The new resolution directs staff to examine potential changes to the city’s Unified Development Code, the city’s primary land-use planning ordinance, that could establish detention facilities as a defined land use and require City Council approval before such facilities could be developed in the future.

Council also approved an amendment introduced by District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez instructing city staff to begin the process of creating a moratorium — a temporary halt on new development approvals — for private detention facilities. City officials originally recommended zoning code changes over a moratorium, citing implementation time as a benefit to zoning code changes that could be enacted in 45 days under an expedited process versus a months-long process to pass a moratorium. McKee-Rodriguez argued that the two should move forward simultaneously to prevent new private detention proposals while the city evaluates long-term regulations. The amendment and the resolution both passed by 8–2 votes. Council members Marc Whyte (D-10) and Misty Spears (D-9) voted against the measures, and Councilman Ric Galvan was absent. City spokesperson Brian Chasnoff previously stated that under state and federal law, the city would have no zoning authority over federal government property or property leased by the federal government, meaning federal facilities are not required to follow local zoning rules or permitting processes.

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How a surge in microschools could be the wildcard in Texas’ $1B voucher program

At Mindsprout Montessori outside Houston, children are encouraged to play with dirt in the outdoor mud kitchen, and each classroom cottage features its own pet. Most of its 90 students are homeschooled part-time and show up between one and four days per week. “A Montessori setup is incredibly costly,” said founder Desiree Corbin. “Our goal was to do the heavy lifting for (parents) and to provide a Montessori experience that is more accessible.” The school is part of an emerging trend of microschools, an umbrella term for schools that blur the lines between home education and traditional private schooling and that are poised for a huge boom in Texas under the state’s new $1 billion voucher program.

Rules set by the state could let even the tiniest become accredited and accept the full $10,500 private school voucher, far more than the $2,000 allotted for homeschool. Though loosely defined as schools serving 100 students or fewer, no single philosophy unites microschools other than a belief that some children’s needs can only be served outside of traditional school settings. The range of microschools in Texas is vast. Some, like Mindsprout, are independent and resemble co-operative homeschooling. Others are backed by billionaires like Elon Musk. National chains are also preparing to stand up scores of new microschools in the state, often supported by funding from school choice advocates, including the pro-voucher billionaire Jeff Yass, and “edtech” investors in Silicon Valley. Few microschools in Texas are currently accredited, a typically rigorous and lengthy process that is required for private schools to accept state voucher dollars. But dozens of microschools are hoping to gain access to the program through a new microschool-focused accreditor that is racing to get state approval, and promises a much cheaper and quicker path to accreditation.

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Inside Dallas City Hall: Sixteen hours, frayed tempers and a split council vote on its future

“Today was not a good day.” That lament from Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson came just after 1 a.m. Thursday, capping a 16-hour day that exposed deep City Council divisions over the future of City Hall. Minutes later, the council voted 9–6 to direct the city manager to study moving its emergency operations, dispatch and service call center out of City Hall while devising funding plans for repairing the aging building, staying there and relocating. The decision came after hours of speeches, amendments and clashes on whether to remain there or leave and redevelop the downtown site. Supporters said the measure allows Dallas to fully weigh its options before making a final call. The other six warned the city was racing toward a costly and uncertain exit strategy.

By the end, Johnson broke from his usual role as neutral referee. He rebuked critics of city staff and vendors and voice frustration with those who opposed simply exploring alternatives, saying the rancor carried consequences. The council’s conduct, he said, raised risks for the city and “we may pay a price for that.” The road to that vote was a long one. City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert was the first to speak after the public at 5:05 p.m., just hours after Mayor Johnson announced her father died the day before and called for a moment of silence. The resolution the council was considering was straightforward but sweeping: Authorize shifting 311, 911 and emergency operations out of City Hall, explore relocating all other city staff and study redevelopment of the site.

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National Stories

Russia revels in a sudden reversal in fortunes as oil and gas prices soar

The Kremlin is enjoying a sudden resurgence of its importance as a global supplier of oil and gas, as the conflict in Iran disrupts energy production and shipment across the Middle East and sends global energy prices soaring. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, in his only comments to a journalist since the start of the U.S.-Israeli onslaught against Iran, did not mention President Trump or what he had earlier called the “cynical murder” of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Instead, Mr. Putin spoke with bravado about European nations’ longstanding plans to phase out imports of Russian gas in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, threatening to accelerate the divorce himself as prices spike on the continent. “Now other markets are opening up, and perhaps it’s more advantageous for us to stop supplying the European market right now,” Mr. Putin said on Wednesday to a state television reporter, Pavel Zarubin, who chronicles the Russian leader.

The surge in energy prices comes as a reprieve to Moscow, after a year in which Russian oil and gas revenues declined by nearly a quarter and strained the nation’s wartime economy. “We are seeing an increase in demand, a substantive increase in demand for Russian energy providers in connection with the war in Iran,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told journalists in a briefing on Friday. European gas futures have risen by more than 60 percent since the Iran conflict began last weekend, and while prices remain well shy of levels that would induce a sense of crisis, the upheaval is spooking leaders. Iranian oil is subject to Western sanctions, but the disruption to production and transit in both Iran and the rest of the Gulf has driven up prices globally for all buyers. Norway’s energy minister, Terje Aasland, said on Tuesday that the soaring gas prices would revive a debate about how much pain the European Union was willing to endure in its efforts to starve Moscow’s war machine. Yet Europe has so far shown little sign of ending its campaign to wean itself off Russian energy. Officials from across the 27-nation European Union have met repeatedly in recent days to discuss the situation in Iran and its potential impact on energy prices. So far, they have emphasized that the shock is temporary and that it comes at the end of winter, just as heating demands are lessening.

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Iran is hitting the radars that underpin U.S. missile defenses

Iran is targeting the radar systems that serve as the eyes of the air defenses in the Middle East, hitting several in recent days and degrading the ability of the U.S. and its allies to track incoming missiles. Iranian strikes in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign have hit radar, communications and air defense systems in Qatar, the U.A.E., Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, according to U.S. officials, military analysts and commercially available satellite images. The strikes are often carried out by Iran’s one-way attack drones, such as its Shaheds, which are a fraction of the cost of the missiles that the sophisticated U.S. systems were designed to defend against. Iran has fired fewer missiles in recent days.

“Overall, our defenses are doing quite well. That said, it is clear that the Iranians have a sense of what type of targets they want to continue to press against, and that includes command and control and our ability to detect inbound missiles and drones,” said Ravi Chaudhary, a former assistant secretary of the Air Force in charge of installations. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command said the military remained at full combat capability despite the hits. The U.S. has been bolstering its defenses in the region, sending in more equipment and interceptors, U.S. officials said. The U.S. says it is degrading Iran’s ability to launch attacks by the day. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said Thursday that ballistic-missile attacks had decreased by 90% and drone attacks had dropped by 83% since the war began. The U.S. and its partners in the region use a network of Thaads, Patriots and other air-defense systems to shoot down missiles, drones and rockets fired by Iran and its allied militias in the region.

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Inside War-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach members club turned gilded situation room

“Hey, we have a lot going on with Iran right now, so we’re not going to do the auction,” Damien Stuck recalls hearing. The Tampa-based artist, known for his maximalist MAGA paintings, got the news from the organizer of a charity gala at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Stuck’s work has earned him several invitations to the Palm Beach members club, in this case for a party in the ballroom to raise money for a local nonprofit focused on “faith-based” efforts to help foster children and combat child trafficking. Trump was meant to sign a Stuck painting that would then be auctioned off. At one point in the evening, the president waltzed out into the ornate chamber to bask in the crowd, as he so often does. “Trump came in there and the whole room just bombarded him,” Stuck says. Wearing a suit and white “USA” hat, the president arrived around 9 p.m. and danced to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”—briefly. “I gotta go to work,” he informed the revelers. “Have a good time, everybody.”

At that point, Trump returned to a side room at Mar-a-Lago, the one cloaked in black drapes, to oversee the largest military operation in two decades: the opening strikes of a war with Iran. A few hours later, US and Israeli bombs began to fall, killing the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dozens of top Iranian officials, and, by Tuesday, more than 1,000 civilians, including 181 children under 10, according to HRANA. “I sell Art at Mar-a-Lago with the President while he bombs evil dictators,” Stuck wrote in the caption of his Instagram post for the evening, “We are not the same pimp.” Photos released by the White House captured the scene as the attacks unfolded: Trump, ball cap on, his face the familiar color and texture—ochre and moist. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Marco Rubio, who serves as both secretary of state and national security adviser, sat to his left. CIA Director John Ratcliffe sat to his right. On an easel, a map of the Middle East, with American flag pins denoting US military positions. Red diamonds showed a wide range of targets within Iran. The room is the Mar-a-Lago version of what’s known as a “sensitive compartmented information facility,” or SCIF, which was erected at the club to allow the president a space to discuss classified information. It

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US immigration authorities arrest Spanish-language news reporter in Tennessee

A reporter for a Spanish-language news outlet in Tennessee who has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not shown any warrant when she was arrested this week, according to court documents filed by her attorney. Estefany Rodriguez Florez, a reporter for Nashville Noticias who has done stories critical of ICE, was arrested Wednesday during a traffic stop, according to documents filed in federal court in Nashville. Her lawyer called for her immediate release, but ICE has asked a judge to deny the request. Rodriguez, a Colombian citizen, entered the U.S lawfully and has been living in the country for the past five years, court records filed by her lawyer show. She has a valid work permit, and she has applied for political asylum and legal status through her husband, who is a U.S. citizen.

Rodriguez has said she left Colombia after receiving death threats for her coverage of crime in the region, according to a statement from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The association said it “denounces immigration tactics that detain journalists and any efforts to interfere with news coverage of immigration enforcement.” Related Stories New Orleans police say recruit detained by ICE had been verified through agency's system U.S. citizens and legal residents sue over aggressive immigration raid at Idaho horse racing track US Attorney General Pam Bondi announces 2 more arrests in the St. Paul church protest Rodriguez was with her husband in a marked Nashville Noticias vehicle when it was surrounded by several other vehicles and she was taken to a detention center, the news outlet said in a statement.

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Kalshi and Polymarket are skirting laws on sports betting, states say

Online prediction markets allow users to put money on the outcome of almost anything — this weekend’s NBA game between the Warriors and the Thunder, the next supreme leader of Iran, whether the government will confirm the existence of aliens. But those markets have no state oversight and operate even in states that ban gambling. The platforms are raising bipartisan alarms, especially related to sports gambling. As states have legalized sports betting in recent years, they’ve required legal sportsbooks to jump through multiple hoops — from age verification procedures to protections for gambling addiction to tax collections. Online prediction markets circumvent all those rules. Platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket say they are offering contracts similar to commodity markets that speculate on the future price of corn or oil — not outright gambling. But a growing number of states are rejecting those justifications, arguing the platforms are offering a backdoor to skirt state gambling regulations, particularly on sports.

The issue has sparked action from state regulators, new legislation, and lawsuits from both states and prediction markets. Complicating matters are the federal government’s moves to block state regulation of prediction markets, which see more than $13 billion in transactions each month. Most activity on those platforms revolves around sports. And in national ads, Kalshi even marketed itself as the first national legal sports betting platform — even though states approve and regulate sports gambling since a 2018 Supreme Court decision. In 11 states, sports gambling remains illegal. “This is sports wagering. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably sports wagering, in this situation,” said Kentucky state Rep. Michael Meredith, a Republican. Meredith, who sponsored a 2023 law that legalized sports betting in Kentucky, called for states to regulate prediction markets during a webinar hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures. That organization, representing state legislators across the country, has urged Congress “to act swiftly to address the rapid growth of unregulated sports-related event contracts.” State leaders argue their longstanding authority to oversee gambling should allow states to regulate or ban prediction market platforms. But those companies maintain they are not beholden to state regulations. “I think it’s very clear that this authority should be vested in our state governments,” Meredith said last month.

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Judge rules Kari Lake unlawfully ran U.S. media agency, voiding layoffs

A federal judge in Washington ruled Saturday that Kari Lake has unlawfully served as chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees Voice of America, and nullified many actions she has taken in the role, including mass layoffs of staff. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, in a 17-page opinion, granted summary judgment to a group of employees, led by Voice of America’s White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, who sued Lake last year. Lamberth found that Lake, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, violated the Constitution’s appointments clause and the Federal Vacancies Reform Act by helming the agency. “The Court finds that these expansive delegations were an unlawful effort to transform Lake into the CEO of U.S. Agency for Global Media in all but name,” Lamberth wrote.

The decision is the latest in a string of legal defeats to the Trump administration’s year-long effort to dismantle USAGM, the federal agency that in addition to Voice of America oversees other U.S.-funded international broadcasters including Radio Free Asia. “The American people gave President Trump a mandate to cut bloated bureaucracy, eliminate waste, and restore accountability to government,” Lake said in a statement on Saturday. “An activist judge is trying to stand in the way of those efforts at USAGM. … We strongly disagree with this decision and will appeal.” Lake, a former television anchor who unsuccessfully ran for governor and a U.S. Senate seat inArizona, billed herself as a reformer who would fix what she has called the “most corrupt agency in Washington.” After Trump issued an executive order last March ordering the drawdown of the agency, Lake placed most staffers on administrative leave and cut hundreds of contractors. Two lawsuits were filed, one by a group of employees and another by VOA Director Michael Abramowitz, challenging her moves, but most of the agency’s workers are still on leave today.

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Jesse Jackson’s family gathers for intimate final goodbye

A day after former presidents, sitting governors and local Chicago residents alike attended a vibrant, televised celebration for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., the family and friends who knew him best hosted a more intimate gathering Saturday to grieve the civil rights leader at his organization’s headquarters. The final memorial service at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s headquarters on the South Side of Chicago included a few hundred attendees, most of whom were family members, allies and confidants. The homegoing served as a capstone to a week of services and a call to action. In a series of speeches, the late reverend’s children, civil rights leaders and two presidents of African nations said the best way to honor Jackson’s legacy is to continue his advocacy for universal human rights and economic justice.

“It is appropriate that we respect this season of grief,” said Yusef Jackson, one of Jackson’s sons and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “However, it is also appropriate to honor him by stepping up, to step out, and continue his work by answering his call to serve.” The younger Jackson said that the Rainbow PUSH Coalition recently honored Jackson by deepening partnerships with activists in Minnesota, which saw mass protests after the Trump administration launched the largest ever Homeland Security operation in the state. U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, an Illinois Democrat and one of the late reverend’s sons, said that his father “taught me that any society that will not support the many who are poor will never be able to save the few who are rich.” He said that his father’s relentless activism and charisma were rooted in a Christian call to service. “For the children on the reservations, in the barrios, in the ghettos, he was speaking to you,” said the congressman. “My father was attacked for speaking about diversity. He was vilified for his stand on equality, and had the people who wanted to kill him had their way, we would have never seen a rainbow coalition.”

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Anthropic’s ethical stand could be paying off

At first glance, last week looked like a catastrophe for Anthropic. The AI company refused to let the U.S. government use its products to surveil the American public or direct autonomous weapons without human oversight. In response, the Department of Defense canceled its $200 million contract. On Truth Social, President Trump called the company “leftwing nut jobs” and ordered every federal agency to immediately stop using its products. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went a step further, designating Anthropic as a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security.” OpenAI, Anthropic’s chief rival, quickly signed its own deal with the Pentagon. Anthropic’s principled stand continues to pose enormous risks for the company. But some early indications suggest that it just might pay off. The company’s confrontation with DOD has proved more effective than some of the world’s most expensive advertising—at least according to one metric.

After a Super Bowl campaign earlier this year, Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, became one of the top 10 most-downloaded free apps in America, per Apple’s charts. The day after Hegseth announced that the government was severing ties, it took the No. 1 spot, a position it still holds as of this writing. Downloads have topped 1 million a day, according to Anthropic’s chief product officer. A spokesperson told me that the company “has broken its own sign-up record every day since early last week, across every country where Claude is available.” Users aren’t just signing up for Claude—they are also abandoning OpenAI (which has a corporate partnership with The Atlantic). Uninstalls of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s flagship app, spiked 295 percent on February 28, as details of OpenAI’s deal with the Pentagon emerged. One-star reviews surged nearly 800 percent, and five-star reviews fell by half. Perhaps more consequential, Anthropic has gained the trust and admiration of engineers across the AI industry. Letters of support for the company are circulating among its competitors’ employees. One such letter had some 850 signatures as of Monday. Many of these employees are demanding that their companies show solidarity with Anthropic and honor the same red lines. Some have reportedly threatened to leave if those demands are not met.

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Lead Stories

Rep. Tony Gonzales ends reelection campaign amid scandal over affair

Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales abruptly abandoned his reelection campaign late Thursday night in the wake of mounting pressure from GOP leaders and a congressional inquiry into his affair with a staffer. “After deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I've always had to my district,” Gonzales, R-San Antonio, said in a statement. "Through the rest of my term, I will continue fighting for my constituents, for whom I am eternally grateful."

The decision capped a rapid downfall for the three-term lawmaker and former Navy cryptologist, who entered the primary election armed with an endorsement from President Donald Trump and insisted just a day ago that he would not surrender his bid for a fourth term. Calls for Gonzales’ ouster built in recent days, especially after he went on a conservative talk radio show on Wednesday and admitted to having an affair in 2024 with Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, director of his regional district office in Uvalde. Santos-Aviles, 35, died by suicide in September. On Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top GOP leaders pressed Gonzales to withdraw from the election. The chairman of the House Republican campaign arm, which had spent more than $100,000 on ads boosting Gonzales, made a similar request. Without institutional backing, his likelihood of surviving a May runoff election narrowed considerably.

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Donald Trump clashes with Ken Paxton over endorsement in Texas' Senate runoff

President Donald Trump threatened to endorse U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Thursday morning as Attorney General Ken Paxton remained defiant against the president’s decision to play kingmaker in the state’s U.S. Senate runoff. Trump has faced a right-wing backlash over his plan to finally throw his support behind a candidate in the GOP runoff, while asking the other to drop out. Conservatives in Texas, from radio host Mark Davis to gun rights activist Kyle Rittenhouse, have said the president should stay out. In an interview Wednesday night, Paxton said he would never exit the race that has already drawn upwards of $100 million in donor spending. “I owe it to the people of Texas. I spent a year of my life campaigning against John Cornyn because John has not represented the people of Texas well,” Paxton said during a television interview.

Trump did not take Paxton’s defiance well. “That’s bad for him to say,” Trump said in an interview with Politico on Thursday morning. “That is bad for him. So maybe, maybe that leads me to go the other direction.” The back-and-forth comes as Republicans are handwringing over the prospect of spending millions more dollars in what will likely be a vicious GOP battle ahead of a tough midterm. Senate Republicans are increasingly calling on the president to back Cornyn. With control of the chamber on the line in the midterms, GOP leaders have said their money would be better spent in states that are typically more competitive than Texas. Paxton on Thursday sought to highlight tension between Trump and Senate Republican leadership, who have resisted the president's calls to scrap the filibuster to pass the Save America Act, legislation that would require voters to provide proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time of voting. Paxton called the Save Act, "the most important bill the U.S. Senate could ever pass" and said he would "consider" dropping out if Senate leadership ended the filibuster to pass it — something that appears very unlikely to happen.

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Susie Wiles sounds the alarm on gas prices

President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is telling his advisers to bring ideas to the Oval Office to lower gasoline prices in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran, according to two energy industry executives familiar with the conversations. The White House is “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,” said one of the executives, who was granted anonymity to describe internal administration discussions. The attack and Iran’s subsequent targeting of the Persian Gulf’s energy sector has sent crude oil up more than $10 a barrel, lifting gasoline prices to their highest levels since Trump took office last year.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other advisers focused on energy policy, including a council led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, “are getting screamed at to find some good news” on bringing down prices, the same executive said. “Folks are scrambling for announcements and messaging to counter the narrative” of rising prices, this person said. White House officials didn’t address internal conversations but pointed to moves earlier in the week aimed at securing oil supplies. “As usual, POLITICO wrote sensationalist, unverified gossip for clicks,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Nobody is panicking. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership in his first term and current term, the United States remains the largest crude oil and natural gas producer in the world. President Trump’s entire energy team, from the White House to the National Energy Dominance Council to Secretaries Wright and Bessent, have a game plan to keep oil prices stable throughout Operation Epic Fury.” She also noted that the U.S. is continuing to tap into “newfound oil markets in Venezuela,” and that Trump had announced that the U.S. Development Finance Corporation will provide political risk insurance for crude carriers and cargo ships operating in and around the Persian Gulf. Trump also said the U.S. Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary.

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How Kristi Noem finally lost Trump — and her job

After a year of controversies, Kristi Noem’s fate was sealed over just a few days. It started with a heads-up from the Hill. Sen. John Kennedy let the White House know Sunday that he was not going to go easy on the Homeland Security secretary when she appeared before the Judiciary Committee. The Louisiana Republican planned to pepper Noem with tough questions about her agency’s lavish spending on an advertising campaign that prominently showcased her. Before cameras and a packed audience Tuesday, Kennedy eased into his line of questioning. Properly vetting people at the southern border isn’t racist, right? Both Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are needed to do that, are they not? Noem responded in the affirmative. “OK,” Kennedy said. “I just wanted to get my congratulations on the record.”

He then delivered on his plan, unleashing a series of questions about the $220 million ad campaign and how that squared with Noem’s stated promise to root out waste from her agency. He had to ask more than once whether Trump approved that spending spree before Noem provided a direct answer: “Mmhmm, yes.” That response, it turned out, was the embattled Cabinet secretary’s final straw. Kennedy got a call from Trump later that evening. The president, Kennedy told CNN, “was pissed.” “Her version and the president’s version of whether the president, A) was informed and B) consented are decidedly different,” Kennedy said. (Trump told NBC News Thursday that he hadn’t known about the advertising campaign. “I wasn’t thrilled with it,” he said.) It was in that same conversation with Kennedy that Trump floated an idea for a replacement: What did he think about his colleague in the Senate, Oklahoma’s Markwayne Mullin?

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State Stories

Don Huffines says he wouldn't change voucher program

State Sen. Don Huffines nabbed the GOP nomination for Texas Comptroller vowing to “DOGE” state government. But the ultra conservative firebrand said in an interview after his primary win that the shakeup will not include the state’s new $1 billion voucher program, a signature policy of his once political nemesis, Gov. Greg Abbott, who Huffines spent millions trying to unseat just four years ago. He praised the current handling of the program, including the ongoing block on Islamic schools. “We’re not here to be disruptive,” Huffines said. “I don’t see a big disruption in the process that’s already started, as long as it’s going smoothly and being run effectively and managed.”

The change of hands at the Comptroller’s office will come at a critical time for the voucher program. It will be halfway through its first year, with funding already flowing to families. And it will be on the verge of opening its second round of applications. The new comptroller could also play a role in the push to add funding for the program, which allows families to spend state dollars on private school tuition, in the next legislative session. On Tuesday, Huffines trounced Abbott’s pick for the job, acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who has run the voucher program in close coordination with the governor since July. The Dallas businessman called his victory an “earthquake” for the GOP establishment, adding that he “slaughtered” two well-funded opponents. Neither of his opponents, who also included Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, broke 25% of the vote, even as Abbott spent millions to boost Hancock in the race. But the former foes have already started to smooth things over. Huffines said he and Abbott had a “very nice” phone call after the election and discussed working together on the voucher program.

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Nate Sheets promises to fire everyone linked to Sid Miller at Texas agriculture department after primary win

Nate Sheets promised to clean house at the Texas Department of Agriculture on Wednesday after he ousted Commissioner Sid Miller in the Republican primary. “We’re going to fire every one of the cancerous people that were pro-Sid and clean house,” Sheets said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. “We’re going to get a culture focused on excellence and service, where farmers, ranching and clean food are at the center.” Sheets’ victory, aided by Gov. Greg Abbott and influential agriculture industry groups, was a rare rebuke of a sitting Republican statewide official. Before Sheets can begin making changes at the department, he must defeat Democrat Clayton Tucker in November — a likely outcome as no Democrat has won state office in three decades.

Miller’s three terms as the state’s top agriculture official have been marked by multiple controversies and scandals that opened the doors for his detractors to voice their discontent. For example in his second term his close political aide was indicted for commercial bribery and theft for trying to sell hemp licenses regulated by Miller’s agency. After Smith pleaded guilty to commercial bribery, Miller installed him as chief of staff of the agency. Abbott said Miller has been an “utter failure” and endorsed Sheets, citing Miller’s “tolerance for criminality.” Last year, The Texas Tribune reported that a friend of Miller told police that Miller asked him to dispose of marijuana because he worried he was being investigated by federal drug authorities. Miller conceded to Sheets Wednesday afternoon, saying that now is the time to come together to protect Texas agriculture. “While the results are not what we hoped and prayed for, I am deeply grateful for the support, prayers, and hard work of Texans across this great state who have stood with me over the years,” Miller said.

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New video footage, 911 calls show chaos of Austin mass shooting

Austin police on Thursday released a trove of audio and video recordings and other information that together provide the clearest public picture yet of how Sunday’s mass shooting erupted and ended along West Sixth Street — and revealed that 19 people were shot, a higher total than previously reported. The updated figure includes the gunman, who was fatally shot by three officers. Four people are dead: Savitha Shan, 21, and Ryder Harrington, 19, were pronounced dead at the scene; Jorge Pederson, 30, died Monday from his injuries; and the shooter was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police. Fifteen other victims were shot and treated at hospitals, with two still hospitalized Thursday — one in critical condition — Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said.

"I don't think any of us can imagine what these families are going through right now, the suffering that they are dealing with," Davis said Thursday. "Our hearts are with them." During a detailed briefing at Austin Police Department headquarters, Davis on Thursday presented audio recordings of 911 calls and police radio traffic, and video from multiple vantage points: a private vehicle, a public surveillance camera and body-worn cameras from two of the officers who opened fire. The materials trace the roughly four-minute arc of violence from the first shots outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden to the suspect’s death in the street. According to investigators, the shooting began at 1:58 a.m. outside Buford’s, at 700 West Sixth St., as crowds filled the entertainment district near closing time. Authorities say the gunman initiated the attack from a black Cadillac SUV, traveling south on Rio Grande Street before pulling alongside the bar and firing a pistol into a crowd gathered outside and on the patio. Several people were struck. In one of two 911 calls released Thursday, a woman can be heard yelling directions to others as gunfire erupts.

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Former Judge Amber Givens lays out plans after winning DA primary

Former judge Amber Givens said Thursday that her upset victory over Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot showed voters chose “a people-powered movement” over money and political influence. Speaking at Antioch Fellowship Church in southern Dallas in her first appearance since Tuesday’s Democratic primary, she said the outcome proved that “justice in Dallas County is not for sale” after her low-budget campaign defeated the well-funded incumbent. Givens, who is appealing judicial sanctions tied to her conduct on the bench, said her campaign spent less than $60,000 compared with more than $420,000 raised by Creuzot, a two-term incumbent.

“What ultimately decided this election was not money,” she said. “It was the people of Dallas County. The people of Dallas County spoke louder than money, louder than endorsements and louder than any political machine.” She described the win as proof that voters want a justice system “built by the people,” and pledged to work with supporters and critics alike as she prepares to take over the office early next year. Among her plans is the creation of community justice councils that will bring residents, community leaders, victims and “justice system stakeholders” together to ensure that the office remains “grounded in the needs of the people we serve.” She also wants to work with the Dallas County Commissioners Court to fund and establish a prosecutorial intake division. It would allow law enforcement to work with prosecutors at the earliest stage of a case. Officers would be able to connect with the office before an arrest so they can determine whether charges are warranted and begin securing evidence for prosecutors. While her supporters celebrated her victory, her detractors had concerns. Amanda Branan, former president of the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said she’s “gotten a lot of phone calls. There’s a lot of people freaking out.” “It’s scary to think she’s going to be the next district attorney. She couldn’t even run her court very efficiently and now she’s going to be the DA? It’s upsetting that somebody who has treated people with such disrespect in her courtroom and has been so untruthful has won.”

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After 16 hours, Dallas City Council moves forward on city hall resolution

Ain’t no meeting like a City Hall meeting because a City Hall meeting don’t stop. The Dallas City Council’s briefing/special-called meeting yesterday was slated to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday. It actually began closer to 10, and it didn’t end until somewhere around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. After watching the meeting unfold all day, I watched the rest on closed caption on my phone from about 10 p.m. to the end, and then fell asleep as if powered off like a robot. I awoke at 6:30 a.m. with my phone still in my hand. Between 10 a.m. and about 5 p.m., the day was spent checking off other agenda items (some in closed session) and listening to roughly 90 people tell the City Council what they thought of the potential move from 1500 Marilla that would likely put City Hall in the crosshairs of a wrecking ball. Most were against it. A handful spoke out in favor for a variety of reasons. But it wasn’t until the dinner hour and after that the debate around the horseshoe began in earnest. A lot happened in 16 hours. The original resolution tasked City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert with moving the city’s emergency management office, and the 911 and 311 call centers to another location. It also required her to “pursue options” for sites for a new City Hall and developing the site. Six council members—Paul Ridley, Cara Mendelsohn, Adam Bazaldua, Paula Blackmon, Laura Cadena, and Bill Roth—held the line and attempted to amend the resolution. Ridley attempted to get the Council to agree to defer the resolution to later in the summer and bake in some provisions for community engagement, but it did not pass.

The Council ultimately approved the resolution, 9-6 in favor, but not without some amendments. Those include: Changing the word “pursuing” in the original resolution to “exploring.” Companies related to that participated in assessing its condition for the report released last month from bidding on contracts related to the City Hall project. It directs Tolbert to find at least options for leasing or purchasing for new locations for 311, 911, and emergency management and other City Hall departments. Formulate a plan for repairing City Hall’s most critical issues. This plan should include at least two potential plans for phasing in repairs over the span of a decade. Create funding strategies for remaining at City Hall and leaving. All of this means that there will be more votes (and probably more marathon meetings) to come over the next few months. Subsequent briefings will most likely go before the entire Council though, instead of through committees first.

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Bombastic activist now in Democratic runoff for redrawn South Texas congressional district

A San Antonio activist known for spinning dubious left-wing conspiracy theories on TikTok not only made it to the runoff in Tuesday’s Democratic primary but earned more votes than a well-funded opponent backed by party PAC money. Colorful candidate Maureen Galindo took home 30% of the vote in the Democratic primary for Texas’s recently redrawn 35th Congressional District. She’ll now face Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia, who garnered 27% of the vote, in the May 26 runoff. Galindo, a sex therapist and self-proclaimed professional astrologer, has amassed a loyal following on TikTok for her diatribes, which include accusing the Express-News of colluding with “millionaires and billionaires” to facilitate human trafficking and claiming billionaire Graham Weston is “underwriting” the San Antonio Current.

In another tirade, Galindo shared a conspiracy alleging Opportunity Home, San Antonio’s local housing authority, was skimming off the top by leasing public housing units on Airbnb. None of those claims has proven true. After the 35th District was redrawn by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee initially wrote it off. After all, the once reliably blue district held by progressive U.S. Rep. Greg Casar was rejiggered to include rural, red-leaning counties southwest of San Antonio, meaning it would have supported Trump by at least 10 points in the previous presidential election.? However, with concerns about AI data centers on the rise in rural Texas, the DCCC changed its tune in December, adding the 35th to its list of “districts in play.” “Knowing their record of broken promises has turned voters against them, Republicans are attempting to save their microscopic majority by trying to diminish the power of voters of color in Texas,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement. “Democrats will not let their cynical power play go down without a fight. The DCCC will work to ensure the people of Texas’ 35th District have the representation they deserve.” Although Garcia quickly became the Democratic establishment’s choice, earning an endorsement from the Blue Dog Coalition — a moderate group within the party — that didn’t carry him to an easy win. Instead, Galindo led the pack in Tuesday’s contest. Still, it’s unclear how long her moment in the spotlight will last as Democratic voters take a hard look at their runoff choices.

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Six San Antonio-area judges fall in Democratic primary upsets

In an election night filled with dramatic upsets and unexpected results, six San Antonio-area incumbent judges fell to Democratic primary challengers. Judicial races typically don’t get much attention on a crowded ballot with higher-profile races, and many voters who typically don’t vote in primaries were drawn out this year in frustration with President Donald Trump. Among the judges who were swept out were William “Cruz” Shaw, a popular former City Council member who lost his primary reelection to a juvenile district court in Bexar County, falling to Raymond A. Villareal, a former staffer in the Attorney General’s office who recently wrote a vampire novel and took 52% of the vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. “I have no clue what happened. I didn’t see my opponent at all during the campaign trail. He doesn’t practice juvenile law,” Shaw said Wednesday.

Other judges who lost their seats faced more clear problems with voters. For example County Court at Law No. 10 Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, who is under suspension for handcuffing a defense attorney in her courtroom in 2024, took just 35% in her two-person primary. Speedlin Gonzalez was defeated by challenger Alicia “Ali” Perez, an immigration lawyer who co-founded the immigrants’ rights group SA Stands. In County Court at Law No. 14, incumbent Carlo Rodriguez Key lost to an earlier-career Democratic primary challenger, Audrey Martinez, who he has accused of not living in Bexar County. Martinez owns a home in another county, and Key sued to try to keep her off the ballot using drone footage from an investigator, according to KSAT. But Martinez says she lives in a different home on her parents’ property in Bexar County, and she took 63% of the vote on Tuesday night.

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Texas House District 41 runoff has hopeful candidates broaden their messaging

The Republican and Democrat primaries for the hopefuls to fill the shoes of longtime state Rep. Robert “Bobby” Guerra are not over yet. With no candidate surpassing 50% of the vote in the Texas House District 41 primaries, both parties are headed to runoffs to decide who will be on the ballot in the race to replace Guerra. Democrats Julio Salinas and Victor “Seby” Haddad, as well as Republicans Sergio Sanchez and Gary Groves, leaders in their respective primaries, have their sights set on May, waiting to witness the culmination of their campaign efforts this primary season.

Salinas, a young former legislative director and aide in the Texas House of Representatives, narrowly came out on top against Haddad, earning just 23 more votes than the McAllen City commissioner and businessman. On the other side of the aisle, Sanchez, a former prosecutor and founder of his own law firm, took the lead over Groves, precinct chair in the Hidalgo County Republican Party, and “Trump Train” political organizer, with a margin of 344 votes. Early voting kicks off for these top vote-getters on May 18 and will run through May 22. Runoff election day is slated for May 26. On a quiet Wednesday, after the hustle and bustle of a particularly energizing primary night Tuesday, candidates from both sides of the aisle reflected on the lessons their campaigns have taught them, and anticipated what was to come.

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Sarah Rumpf: Trump’s meddling threatens to crumble decades of GOP dominance in Texas

(Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media.) Texas Republicans have enjoyed decades of political dominance in the Lone Star State, holding key statewide offices and a majority in the state legislature since the 1990s, but cracks seem to be forming in the foundation of the GOP’s control — and they trace back to meddling by President Donald Trump. Texas has had Republican governors since 1995, lieutenant governors since 1999, attorneys general since 1999, majority control of the state senate since 1997 and state house since 2003, as well as every seat on the Texas Supreme Court since the late 1990s. The Democrats who have attempted to offer a challenge to Texas’s one-party rule have racked up headlines — think State Sen. Wendy Davis’s pink-sneakered filibuster of an abortion bill and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s (D-TX) glossy magazine covers — but don’t seem able to rack up enough votes to win.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has faced some of the toughest fights but still fended off his Democratic opponents, defeating O’Rourke 50.9% to 48.3% in 2018 and Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) 53.1% to 44.6% in 2024. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) annihilated the Democrats each time he has run, beating Davis 59.27% to 38.90% in 2014, former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez 55.81% to 42.51%, and O’Rourke 54.76% to 43.86% in 2022. Enter Trump. To be perfectly and bluntly clear: Democrats still face an uphill battle in statewide races in Texas and the vast majority of legislative and congressional districts. Abbott is all but certain to be re-elected and Republicans should maintain control of the state legislature, Attorney General’s Office, and other statewide offices. But Trump’s actions and interference have shifted the position of the chess pieces on the board, if not tilted the entire board itself, giving Democrats a chance at finding paths to victory that were not possible in prior election cycles — and making the president himself more vulnerable than he has been in years.

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Wichita Falls school district avoids takeover by state, officials say

After years of determined measures to avoid a takeover by the state, Wichita Falls ISD will remain independent with its superintendent and locally elected School Board. The Texas Education Agency "will continue to tightly monitor" WFISD's progress through appointing a conservator and other conditions the district agreed to as part of an agreement, a TEA spokesperson said Thursday. The TEA's decision came down this week, and the School Board invited several prominent community members and local leaders to be on hand as they announced it Thursday morning.

Had the state opted to enact a takeover, the School Board and Superintendent Donny Lee would have faced dismissal as the state appointed a board of managers to assume the day-to-day operations of running the district. “We’ve received word from the Texas Education Agency that the WFISD will not be under state control,” Lee said, pausing as the room applauded the statement after the meeting, “and will be able to continue operating under a locally elected school board. To say the least, we are thrilled with this news.” In a prepared statement at the WFISD announcement, state Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, noted the severity of the academic failure that brought the entire situation about, but he also referenced the agreement with TEA. “As far as the past is concerned, and I quote [TEA Commissioner Mike Morath] as well," Frank said after the meeting, “in a school system where there is an individual campus that is failing for five years in a row, that is not just a minor accident. That is academic neglect."

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Most Hidalgo County Democrat primary winners won’t face Republicans in November

Unofficial Hidalgo County primary election results showed some local races winning by large margins, some coming down to the wire and many being uncontested. And the vast majority of Democrats who prevailed in their primary elections are running unopposed in November, meaning they’ve essentially been elected or reelected. The uncontested primary races include incumbents such as Hidalgo County District Attorney Toribio ‘Terry’ Palacios, County Judge Richard F. Cortez, District Clerk Laura Hinojosa and County Clerk Arturo Guajardo Jr.

Palacios and Hinojosa, however, are facing Republican opponents in November. Lydia Elizondo is challenging Palacios while Maricela “Mari” De Leon is challenging Hinojosa. District judges that ran unopposed include Juan Zamora in the 206th state District Court, Marla Cuellar in the 275th State District Court and Noe Gonzales in the 370th state District Court. County Court-at-law judges that ran unopposed include Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Gonzalez in Court-at-Law No. 1, Jaime ‘Jay’ Palacios in Court-at-law No. 2, Arnoldo Cantu Jr. in Court-at-law No. 5, Albert Garcia in Court-at-Law No. 6 and Omar Maldonado in Court-at-Law No. 8. County Court-a- Law No. 4 saw Katherine Garcia Perez beat out longtime incumbent Fred Garza with 36,334 votes to 23,493 votes. For County Probate Court Judge No. 1, Joanne Garica ran unopposed. County Probate Court No. 2 judge results showed Aissa Garza won the primary with 40,345 votes to longtime incumbent Larry Esparza’s 18,251 votes.

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City of Point disbands police department, Mayor alleges "thousands" of dollars in unpaid taxes and misappropriated funds

According to a letter posted on the city website and on the front doors of City Hall, the city of Point's police department is shutting down. The letter, signed by Mayor Angela Nelson, states that the city is facing a "substantial financial shortfall." According to the letter, the city’s payroll tax obligations were not being consistently paid. Nelson wrote that payroll tax payments were made on and off over time, leading to significant penalties and interest from the IRS. The mayor writes that more than $300,000 is owed to the IRS and warns that the IRS could potentially seize city-owned assets, including property and vehicles.

The letter also alleges that a “former employee” misappropriated $200,000 from the city’s general fund and actively concealed the activity. Nelson wrote that funds were taken from the general fund to cover payroll, and it does not appear to be for personal gain. With the city struggling financially, Nelson says officials are now making difficult decisions. “I am deeply saddened to have to make this decision...” Nelson wrote. She added that “…the situation has become so dire that the City of Point will not be able to meet all of its current payroll obligations past this week.” Effective March 6, all members of the Point Police Department — including the chief, officers, and other staff — are being eliminated. The mayor wrote that when a new city council takes office in May, officers may be able to apply for reinstatement. All city-owned police property — including vehicles, firearms, uniforms, and tactical gear — must be returned by 4 p.m. on March 6.

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National Stories

House votes to let Trump's Operation Epic Fury continue in Iran

The House of Representatives narrowly voted to allow President Donald Trump to continue Operation Epic Fury in Iran on Thursday. A bipartisan resolution led by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., failed to pass after four Democrats joined most Republicans in sinking it, 212 to 219. The legislation was aimed at blocking Trump from using the Armed Forces in the joint U.S.-Israeli operation in Iran, which would likely force the strikes to grind to a halt. The Trump administration, as well as the majority of Republicans in Congress, have insisted that the president has acted within his authority so far and are hopeful he will continue to do so.

But Democrats, along with Massie and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, are largely skeptical. Both Republicans voted in favor of the measure. The Democrats who voted against reining in Trump's war powers include Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and Greg Landsman, D-Ohio. "The Ayatollah was not a president. He was a religious leader from a region notorious for radical Islamists and the United States and Israel turned him into a martyr," Massie said during debate on the resolution. "If Congress wants war, then the speaker should hold a vote to declare it." Davidson said Wednesday, "The moral hazard posed by a government no longer constrained by our Constitution is a grave threat." Other Republican lawmakers said they were concerned that handicapping the operation now could do more harm than good. "I think the president is well within his legal authorities to conduct this operation," Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. "I think any effort to stymie that would actually jeopardize our national security and jeopardize our troops."

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DOJ releases missing Epstein files related to a woman who made an allegation against Trump

The Justice Department on Thursday released previously unseen documents from the Epstein files that included new summaries and notes from interviews the FBI conducted with a woman from South Carolina who made allegations against the late sex offender and President Donald Trump, according to an NBC News analysis. In a series of 2019 interviews with the FBI, the woman said she was a sexual assault victim of Jeffrey Epstein. She also alleged that she was assaulted by Trump in the 1980s when she was between the ages of 13 and 15. The newly released interviews describe the allegations in detail. They include how the woman says her mother was blackmailed by Epstein and that for years after the alleged abusive from the disgraced financier she received physical and verbal threats that she believed were directed by Epstein.

She also told the FBI that Epstein “drove her and/or flewher to either New York or New Jersey” where she went to a “very tall building with huge rooms” where she said Trump sexually assaulted her according to the FBI interview summaries. The woman initially contacted federal law enforcement shortly after Epstein was arrested in 2019 with a lengthy description of how he assaulted her on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, when she was 13 years old in or around 1984, according to a summary of the FBI interview that was previously released by the Justice Department. The FBI determined that the woman’s initial allegations against Epstein were significant enough that the FBI followed up with her for three additional interviews. However, the fourth conversation was abbreviated. The newly released documents do not include information about whether the agents considered the allegations credible or if they did additional work to verify or disprove the claims.

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Fears mount at CNN and CBS News over merger, consolidation

Paramount's $111-billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery will put two of the most storied journalism brands — CNN and CBS News — under one roof. The combination has been proposed before with the aim of consolidating news-gathering costs. Those plans fell apart largely over who would be in control. But if the Paramount-Warner transaction is approved by regulators, CNN and CBS News would be forced into potentially rocky marriage where they would have to sort out leadership roles, personnel and editorial direction. It's still too early to determine what those moves would be and how widely they would be felt.

Last week CNN Chief Executive Mark Thompson told his troops to avoid "jumping to conclusions about the future." But what is certain is that every permutation would be scrutinized closely due to the fraught relationships both CNN and CBS News have with the Trump administration. "There have been many conversations over the years about combining CBS News and CNN," said Jon Klein, a digital media entrepreneur who previously held leadership roles at both organizations. "But this time, it's different. The business case always made sense — but today you've got the overlay of the political agenda." Before Paramount prevailed in its bid for CNN's parent, Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison's father Larry Ellison reportedly discussed changes to the network with Trump. For years, Trump has made CNN a major target of his "fake news" claims and impugned many of its journalists.

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Judge blocks DeSantis' terrorist label of Muslim group

A federal judge blocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ move to designate a Muslim civil rights organization as a terrorist group in the state, calling the governor’s attempt politically motivated and unconstitutional. Two months ago, DeSantis, a Republican, issued an executive order declaring the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the largest Muslim civil rights groups in the United States, as a foreign terrorist organization and directed Florida agencies to deny government benefits to CAIR or those who support it. The group and its state chapter then sued DeSantis in federal court. Mark E. Walker, U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Florida, ruled on Wednesday (March 4) that the executive order violated the organization’s First Amendment rights.

Alex Lanfranconi, DeSantis’ communications director, criticized the judge, writing in an X post: “Judicial ethics bars a federal district judge from continuing the troubling trend of using his judicial office to make a political statement at the expense of a party before him.” The court’s injunction allows CAIR-Florida to continue its work without government retaliation while the lawsuit plays out. CAIR has more than 20 chapters across the U.S., and its work includes advocacy and legal efforts. Hiba Rahim, interim executive director of CAIR-Florida, said the judge’s ruling stopped a “targeted attack on the Muslim community.” During litigation, Rahim said, the group’s civil rights chapter did not stop its operations, calling the executive order “completely fallacious.”

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Strict new Kansas law forces trans drivers to hand over their licenses

Ray, a transgender man in rural Kansas, needs a valid driver’s license for work.So when the statelegislature invalidated transgender residents’ licenses last month, he immediately went to the department of motor vehicles. The clerk behind the counter seemed as confusedas Ray was about the new law, which requires trans people to change the gender designation on their licenses back to their birth sex. “It says we can’t change it again,” the clerk said, according to a video of the exchange Ray posted to TikTok. “No, it says you must change it again,” said Ray, 29, a telecommunications worker and wheat farmer, who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used out of fear of harassment. “I would be happy to keep it, but that’s not what I’ve been told.”

On Friday, a judge in Douglas County is expected to decide whether to place a temporary restraining order on the highly restrictive law, passed Feb. 18 by the Republican-led legislature. The law invalidated driver’s licenses and birth certificates for anyone who had changed the gender markers on their IDs from their birth sex. Two transgender Kansans sued the state on Feb. 26, the day the law took effect, saying it violates their constitutional rights. The driver’s license invalidation went into effect immediately, with no grace period. The new law also includes a bathroom provision that allows Kansans to sue other citizens if they are “aggrieved” by someone of the opposite sex using a public restroom — a movethat LGBTQ+ advocates argue is a “bounty” and opens up the state to wide-ranging legal challenges.

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GOP Congressman calls top Pentagon official’s testimony ‘gross’ and ‘disingenuous’

Rep. Mike Turner, a Republican from Ohio, tore into a top Department of Defense official during a fiery hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, calling his testimony “gross” and “disingenuous.” The contentious exchange underscores Republicans’ wariness about the Pentagon’s decision-making process as it begins a war with Iran, marking a potential schism between the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill that could affect how the conflict is carried out. Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of defense for policy, appeared in front of the committee to talk in part about the release of the National Defense Strategy in January, a document outlining the Trump administration’s general defense policy and posture.

However, lawmakers quickly became annoyed with Colby’s answers. When Turner asked if the Trump administration applies NATO’s Article 5 security guarantee to all of the alliance’s countries, Turner snapped at Colby’s lengthy response, saying, “It’s a yes-or-no question.” “What’s been so difficult, and what’s really kind of gross sitting here listening to you, is that the chairman has said that he feels like you’re dishonest,” Turner said. “You have been so disingenuous. Every time you answer a question, you feel this need to just continue on in these clarifications that are really very unnecessary. These clarifications that you give make us all concerned about your commitment to the truth.” Turner went on to express worry that Colby and other Pentagon officials were unilaterally making decisions without consulting the White House. “You say, ‘Our decisions are aligned with the president,’ as if you’re reinterpreting the president’s decision-making. I want to know about the president’s decision-making, not your interpretation about being aligned,” Turner said. “Because up here, we’re losing confidence as to whether or not Mr. Colby is going into a room and trying to decide whether or not he’s aligned with the president, or whether or not President Trump is making decisions, because we’re all comfortable with President Trump’s decision. We’re not comfortable with Mr. Colby’s.”

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Anthropic says it will fight new Pentagon move as CEO apologizes for leaked memo

Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei has apologized for a leaked memo in which he questioned the Trump administration’s motives for declaring his artificial-intelligence company a supply-chain risk and severing its government relationships. But Amodei said Anthropic would challenge the designation in court, saying, “We do not believe this action is legally sound.” The Defense Department on Thursday formally notified Anthropic’s leadership that the company and its AI tools present security threats, a senior Pentagon official said. The action, normally reserved for businesses from foreign adversaries, marked the latest escalation of a weekslong feud between the startup and the Pentagon. The Pentagon wants Anthropic to let it use AI in all lawful-use cases, while the company is fighting for explicit guarantees that its technology won’t be used in autonomous weapons and for mass domestic surveillance.

The official said the military wouldn’t allow a vendor to insert itself into the chain of command and put members of the armed services at risk by restricting the lawful use of a critical capability. While Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that he would issue the supply-chain risk notice, both sides had continued talking in hopes of finding a deal, people familiar with the matter said. “I want to end all speculation: there is no active @DeptofWar negotiation with @AnthropicAI,” Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said Thursday on X. He was using the unofficial name the Pentagon has revived for the Defense Department. The move could have far-reaching consequences for Anthropic partners and investors, including Lockheed Martin, Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google. It is one of the first times the supply-chain risk designation has been applied to a U.S. company, a move that some warn could have a chilling effect on other businesses wanting to do business with the government.

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Lead Stories

Tony Gonzales admits affair with aide Regina Ann Santos-Aviles

After dodging questions about it for months, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales on Wednesday acknowledged having an affair with Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, a member of his congressional staff who later took her own life. "I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment and there was a lack of faith,” Gonzales said on “The Joe Pags Show,” a nationally syndicated San Antonio-based podcast hosted by conservative commentator Joe Pagliarulo. “I take full responsibility for those actions.” The admission comes as Gonzales seeks a fourth term representing Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. He finished second to challenger Brandon Herrera in Tuesday’s Republican primary, forcing a runoff in May.

Gonzales, 45, a married father of six, told Pagliarulo he had reconciled with his wife after the 2024 affair. “I've asked God to forgive me, which He has, and my faith is as strong as ever,” he said. “When you make mistakes like this, it's never easy. It humbles you, but it's important to kind of work through it all.” The congressman said he had “absolutely nothing to do" with Santos-Aviles' suicide in September 2025. Santos-Aviles, 35, who was married herself and had a young son, set herself on fire in her backyard in Uvalde. She died the next day. Police said they found no evidence of foul play and closed their investigation in November. The bipartisan House Ethics Committee voted Wednesday to establish an investigative subcommittee to examine whether Gonzales engaged in “sexual misconduct” toward a congressional staffer or “discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges."

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Talarico looks like the usual Texas Democratic nominee. He won with a very different type of campaign.

He was a pastor in training quoting Scripture on the campaign trail who has called President Trump a “child of God.” She was a bomb-throwing, anti-Trump, self-styled “warrior” who once called Governor Greg Abbott “Governor Hot Wheels.” Can I make it any more obvious? This was a race largely of style, not substance, and the Democratic voters in Texas have put their faith in state Representative James Talarico over Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett to represent the party in the 2026 U.S. Senate election. In November, Talarico will face either incumbent Senator John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton, who have advanced to a GOP runoff election that will be held May 26. The campaign between Talarico and Crockett was hotly contested and at times flat-out ugly—perhaps in large part because of the stakes. As soon as Democrats got wind that Paxton, a candidate for whom “flawed” would be a kind descriptor, was running on the Republican side, they practically began salivating. This could be it, they reasoned: the first chance in three decades to actually turn a statewide Texas seat blue. More than that, it could provide a path for control of the upper chamber: Democrats need to gain four seats in the Senate to win the majority, and Texas is one of the few Republican holds potentially vulnerable to flipping. Now, how to stick the landing?

Talarico’s political ascent has been greatly helped by a knack for showmanship. While in the statehouse, he displayed a cunning eye for viral moments—his team expertly chopped his grillings of Republican opponents on the House floor and in committee hearings into clips all but guaranteed to do numbers on TikTok or Instagram. They did, and he cemented a reputation, aided by his biblical literacy, as a rising star adept at challenging the Christian nationalist faction of the GOP. “I feel like I’m kind of prepared for this kind of landscape, because I know how to get people’s attention, and, most importantly, I know what to do when I have it, usually,” Talarico told me last year, ever the former theater kid. “And I feel like that is the X factor in politics.” Last summer, he got everyone’s attention with an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. His multihour discussion with the Trump-voting comedian whom other Democrats have shied away from was a good indication of what he planned to do with the nation’s attention, and of what kind of campaign he planned to run once he announced his Senate bid. He has peddled a message of unity, consciously crossing party lines to court voters in red counties and appeal to independents and moderates. His public faith—present even in his campaign slogan, “It’s time to start flipping tables,” a reference to Scripture—has been an advantage on this front.

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Republicans say the NRSC isn’t taking the midterms seriously

For Sen. Tim Scott’s birthday last year, the executive director of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, Jennifer DeCasper, required all of her staff to take time off work and board a rented bus. They were going to surprise Scott, the organization’s chairman, at the airport. DeCasper had the group make a banner and signs celebrating their boss, and the whole event was filmed. DeCasper had staff edit the video and then posted it on her personal X account. The video, which was widely circulated and ridiculed among GOP senators and consultants, is indicative of what Republicans believe this year’s National Republican Senatorial Committee has become: unserious. NOTUS talked with over a dozen Senate GOP aides, strategists and other sources with knowledge of the NRSC.

They described an organization that has devolved into dysfunction. Both senators and the White House are growing more incensed with the campaign arm by the day, the sources say. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. While Republicans have a litany of complaints about how the NRSC is being run this cycle, the majority of their grievances land at the feet of two people: Scott and DeCasper. President Donald Trump’s team has been upset with NRSC leadership since before the current Congress began, two sources told NOTUS. They believed they were not properly read into hiring decisions at the committee, and they continue to be upset that some at the NRSC routinely appear to veer off message, the sources said. Senate Republicans and campaign consultants say they don’t think Scott is taking his job seriously, either, sources said.

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Trump mulls Noem firing

President Donald Trump has quietly asked Hill Republicans if he should fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the latest sign of her tenuous standing inside the West Wing, according to multiple Republicans who have spoken with the president. Even Speaker Mike Johnson speculated about the potential for a change at the top of DHS during a recent House Republican elected leadership retreat in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Trump dialed up some GOP senators after Noem testified in front of the Senate and House Judiciary panels on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Those appearances were marked by extraordinarily bitter exchanges between Noem and Democratic lawmakers, especially over Trump’s harsh immigration crackdown.

But some of the most notable exchanges, especially in the Senate hearing, were with Republicans. Trump was said to be especially upset about Noem’s response when Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) pressed her Tuesday about a government-funded ad campaign that Kennedy said only served to boost her own personal name recognition nationally. The $220 million contract for the ad campaign was awarded to a firm run by the husband of former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. The ads were filmed in October at Mount Rushmore. Under questioning from Kennedy, Noem said repeatedly that Trump personally approved the controversial ad blitz featuring her in the lead role. This has so angered Trump that Noem’s future at DHS may be at risk, we’re told. Kennedy: “The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently?” Noem: “Yes sir, we went through the legal processes …” Kennedy: “Did the president know you were gonna do this?” Noem: “Yes.” Kennedy: “He did?” Noem: “Uh huh, yes.” More from Kennedy: “They were effective in your name recognition. To me it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot.”

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State Stories

Creuzot concedes to Givens in Dallas County district attorney primary

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot conceded Wednesday in the Democratic primary to former felony court judge Amber Givens, a shocking upset for the two-term chief prosecutor. In a statement, Creuzot thanked supporters, voters and his family, and congratulated Givens on her victory. “While the outcome was not what we had hoped for, I am proud of the work my team accomplished and the important conversations we advanced about justice, accountability, and public safety in Dallas County,” he said. Givens, who resigned from the 282nd District Court in December to challenge Creuzot, had been widely viewed as the underdog in the race.

Creuzot raised far more campaign money, collecting about $420,000 in contributions compared with roughly $20,000 for Givens. And he had the backing of Democrats locally and across the state. Givens also faced scrutiny last year after the State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued two sanctions, which she is appealing. A trial on the charges was held last week before a Special Court of Review at the state Supreme Court, but it could be several weeks before the three-judge panel issues a decision. As of early Wednesday afternoon, Givens had not yet released a statement on her win and didn’t immediately respond to a message from The Dallas Morning News seeking comment. Creuzot, a retired judge, campaigned on his record and highlighted changes he said reshaped the office. In his statement, he said the primary provided an opportunity to engage residents and highlight issues affecting the criminal justice system. “This is not the end of our work,” he said. “I remain committed to serving the people of Dallas County and ensuring justice, fairness, and accountability remain at the forefront of our community. I am grateful for the support and engagement of so many residents who made their voices heard at the polls.” Creuzot also congratulated Givens as she prepares to take over the office. No Republican filed in the primary. “Our democracy works best when we all participate,” he said. “I congratulate my opponent and wish her well as she takes on this important role in Dallas County.”

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Audit: Austin 'may not be able to' justify hundreds of millions in recent consultant spending

A recent audit found recurring issues with a sample of Austin's recent third-party general service contracts. (Ben Thompson/Community Impact) A new city audit revealed issues with Austin's frequent use of third-party contractors, including unclear justifications and reporting on work that recently cost nearly $300 million in less than three years. “The city may not be able to show why consultant services were needed or how they were used," Audit Manager Keith Salas said.

Contracting with consultants is common in Austin, with Salas noting that "virtually all" city departments are spending on third-party support. The practice grew increasingly expensive in the less than three-year period covered by the March audit, which looked at data from fiscal year 2022-23 through late FY 2024-25. Annual citywide consulting costs rose by more than $20 million, or about 25%, in that span. Annual consulting expenses surpassed $100 million for the first time with two months still remaining in FY 2024-25. Austin Energy and the economic development department each made up more than 20% of Austin's overall third-party spending on general services in the audited period. Those two departments alone spent nearly $125 million of the $279.3 million total used for consultants over that time.

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Marty Lancton fails to make runoff despite dwarfing opponents in fundraising

Patrick “Marty” Lancton, despite boasting major endorsements and a war chest that dwarfed his opponents', was dealt a surprise defeat Tuesday after he failed to secure a place in the Republican runoff for Harris County judge. While early polling pointed to a likely runoff between Lancton and Orlando Sanchez, Republican businessman Warren Howell managed to edge the political newcomer out. Lancton, a firefighter-turned-union-leader, held a narrow lead over Howell in early voting tallies, but an election day surge propelled Howell to second place by just a few hundred votes, according to unofficial election results. “Party primaries are unpredictable,” said Nancy Sims, a political science lecturer at the University of Houston. “It’s a family feud. Grassroots voters might support this aunt over that uncle or vice versa. Money certainly matters, but it can also be easily overcome at the grassroots level.”

Although the results of the primaries have yet to be certified, Lancton congratulated his two opponents and thanked supporters in a Wednesday morning statement. “We built this campaign from nothing," Lancton said. "It was an idea rooted in service to our community. Thank you to the countless volunteers and to the tens of thousands of voters in Harris County that believed in our mission." Howell in a Wednesday statement, said he was honored to have made the runoff, and had done so "against the odds." "To the supporters of the candidates who did not advance, I want to say this: you care deeply about the future of Harris County, and your voices are important," Howell said. "I invite you to join us. Together, our campaign is building a coalition of voters who believe county government should be accountable, efficient, and focused on its core responsibilities." Lancton raised more than $637,000, which placed him atop the GOP field in fundraising. He was also endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who joined him at a February campaign event, and Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, a major Houston-area Republican financier. Howell's and Sanchez’s war chests combined barely eclipsed a fourth of what Lancton raised in the lead up to the primaries. The duo relied heavily on their own pocket books to fund their races, each providing their campaigns with more than $200,000 in loans. Lancton took in more than ten times what Howell received in political contributions, according to campaign finance reports.

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Texas judge declines to close Camp Mystic but bars construction on campus hit by flooding

A Texas judge declined Wednesday to fully close Camp Mystic — the tragic epicenter of the July 4 floods that inundated the Texas Hill Country last year — but prevented the part of the camp where the deadly flooding occurred from being altered. State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble heard evidence in a packed Travis County courtroom in a temporary restraining order and injunction request filed by Will and CiCi Steward, the parents of 8-year-old Cecilia "Cile" Steward, a camper who died in the flooding. Gamble granted a temporary injunction barring the all-girls summer camp along the Guadalupe River from altering or remodeling any structure where campers were housed during the tragedy.

She also ordered that the old Guadalupe grounds, where the fatal flooding occurred, be sealed off, including the commissary, the rec hall and the main office. However, areas outside of those grounds can proceed with construction. Twenty-five girls, two counselors and Camp Mystic's owner were killed in the historic flooding in Kerr County that swamped the camp. Cile’s body has not been recovered. Over 130 people in the region died in the catastrophe. The Stewards, who filed a lawsuit against the owners of the camp and the request for a restraining order last month, had asked that Camp Mystic not reopen this summer to campers and that construction and remodeling be halted to preserve evidence at the site. In their filing, the Stewards argued that remodeling and construction are already underway, even as the search for their daughter’s body continues.

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Jasmine Crockett returns to D.C. facing new questions after defeat

A day after falling short in Texas’ Democratic Senate primary, Rep. Jasmine Crockett was back in Washington, returning to the Capitol and facing new questions about what comes next. Pressed by reporters Wednesday about her plans, she offered little beyond a short answer before climbing into a waiting vehicle. “I am going to continue to serve,” she said before stepping into the car and closing the door. Crockett has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent years, moving quickly from a state legislative seat to Congress. There, she built a national profile as a bare-knuckled political brawler who unapologetically confronts Republicans. She has repeatedly demonstrated her skill at producing viral online clips, including the “Crockett Clapbacks,” as she calls them on branded campaign merchandise.

After President Donald Trump called her out, she fired back repeatedly and later used a sizzle reel of those insults as the background track for her Senate campaign’s launch video. But a fundraising surge for her Senate race never materialized, and she lost the primary Tuesday to state Rep. James Talarico of Austin. Talarico ran a campaign focused on arguing he could attract independent voters and soft Republicans, a strategy he said could revive Democrats’ fortunes statewide. Crockett struck an upbeat tone Wednesday about the outcome. “It was an exciting election,” she said. “It’s clear that Democrats are poised to win in November, and so we’ve just got to keep the energy up.” She was critical of Republican-driven changes to voting locations that caused chaos on Tuesday. “We also have to make sure that the terrible tactics of the Republicans don’t cost us votes and disenfranchise voters as we saw in Dallas County,” she said. “This is something that needs to be fixed.”

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What's really at stake in November

Good morning and congratulations. You made it through the primary elections. Your phone should stop vibrating through your pocket any day now—except for, maybe, the voters who will return to the polls in the May runoff to determine candidates like attorney general. The Dallas results came late: The county GOP’s decision to hem voters into their precincts on Election Day led to widespread confusion that prompted a district judge to keep the Democratic polls open until 9 p.m. That decision got shot down by the Texas Supreme Court, which ordered ballots from voters who got in line after 7 p.m. to be held as conditional until a future ruling—it’s still unclear how polling places separated those voters. The horserace of politics isn’t necessarily our bag, but policy certainly is. Particularly how that policy manifests in communities of all sizes, whether countywide, a neighborhood, or a single block or apartment complex.

The fight over whether to extend tax credits that made Affordable Care Act plans cheaper led to the federal government’s longest shutdown in history last fall. Congress failed to renew those enhanced subsidies, and healthcare affordability debates have only intensified since. In 2026, monthly premiums doubled or tripled for some people. A January poll by KFF, a nonpartisan health research group, found that 66 percent of respondents ranked healthcare affordability as the nation’s top economic concern—above utilities, food, and housing. The Trump administration has proposed new rules for Affordable Care Act plans, but policy experts doubt these changes will meaningfully reduce the cost of care for the most vulnerable. The uncertainty over funding, coupled with the deepest cuts to Medicaid in 60 years, left some of North Texas’ safety net entities, including Parkland Health, adjusting on the fly. When The Lab Report spoke with Parkland’s top financial officials in the fall, the health system was bracing for a $130 million loss from cuts to a single program (Medicaid DSH) this fiscal year. Early last month, Congress eliminated the scheduled cuts to that program until 2028. While the policy whiplash continues, many families are still contending with higher health insurance costs and economic anxieties that are expected to play a large role in the voting booth this election season.

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Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Karen Molinar ousted amid TEA takeover

Superintendent Karen Molinar will be ousted from her position as leader of the Fort Worth Independent School District during the impending state takeover. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced the decision on Wednesday but fell short of naming a new person who will take her place. A Texas Education Agency spokesperson confirmed to the Star-Telegram that the selection will be announced at the same time as the new board of managers, who will replace the current elected school board amid the state takeover of Fort Worth ISD. Morath said the announcement will be made “in the coming weeks” after he conducted a nationwide superintendent search for candidates that included Molinar.

“Dr. Karen Molinar is a student-centered leader of integrity, and I want to thank her for her nearly three decades of service to Fort Worth ISD, its students, educators and families. This decision is not a reflection of Dr. Molinar’s leadership but made with consideration for the scope of changes and improvements needed to better serve all students in the district. These needs require specialized leadership that can rapidly improve the trajectory of the district,” Morath said in a statement. “Throughout her tenure, Dr. Molinar has remained steadfastly focused on improving student outcomes. Her leadership has helped lay a solid foundation that the new superintendent and Board of Managers — to be announced in the coming weeks — can build upon and ensure that all schools in Fort Worth ISD reflect the highest expectations and supports for all students,” he added. In a statement, Molinar said she entered the role of superintendent understanding the range of challenges and opportunities to improve district deficiencies and academic progress for students.

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A green new victory lap in Texas in unlikely race

The Invest In Tomorrow Coalition PAC, a pro-green energy spending group, told us yesterday it found a proof-of-concept for its plan to use relatively small amounts of money for campaigns aimed at making life difficult for a list of Freedom Caucus members the group sees as particularly anti-clean energy. The first target was Rep. Chip Roy, the second-place vote-getter in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general who is now in a runoff.

Invest In Tomorrow placed paid ads on MAGA-friendly platforms like Rumble and Truth Social, highlighting Roy’s votes to certify the 2020 election and the times Trump has been mad at him. The group says they are among the first Democrat-supporting PACs to put paid spots on these platforms. One especially memorable ad featured a “teen girl” voiceover calling out Roy for voting no on some efforts to release the Epstein files. The campaign was run by Tusk Strategies and cost around $650,000. The biggest single funder was Chris Larsen, co-founder of Ripple. Ad impressions suggest a runaway success at turning Trump supporters off Roy, a strategist involved told us. Roy had his problems with MAGA and the right wing coming into the primary already, but it appears his team noticed the PAC’s ads, too — he posted about the group’s spending in the final days before Tuesday’s primary.

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McLennan County Democrats hopes “rejuvenated” by primary;

McLennan County’s primary elections on Tuesday favored Republican incumbents and well-funded candidates, while the biggest surge in Democratic turnout since 2008 left local party leaders bullish on their November chances. While the winners plot their course to the general election, two local Democratic races are headed to runoffs May 26, with no majority winner Tuesday. The U.S. House District 17 contest is set for a rematch between Casey Shepard and Milah Flores. McLennan County Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace race will feature incumbent LucyAnn Sanchez-Miramontez and Leslie Edwards.

Republicans will have two runoffs of their own on May 26. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is locked in a drama-rich brawl with former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which will determine who challenges Democratic Texas Rep. James Talarico in November. Meanwhile, Paxton’s empty Attorney General seat has wrought a primary run-off race for his replacement featuring Mayes Middleton and Chip Roy. But other than the sheer increase in local Democratic turnout, the state and local races concerning Waco area residents produced few surprises.

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Amid questions about format, should UIL championships be shaken up?

Interest in women’s basketball is at an all-time high in the United States, and not just because young WNBA stars such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and the Dallas Wings’ Paige Bueckers have become celebrity icons on and off the court. The WNBA has skyrocketed in popularity, setting a record for paid attendance in 2025 by exceeding 3 million fans. The women’s NCAA Tournament is also in vogue, as it had its third-highest attendance ever in 2025 while the national championship game between UConn and South Carolina produced the third-largest television audience since 1996, peaking at 9.9 million viewers on ABC.

Dallas-area coaches say high school girls basketball is growing in Texas as well, but attendance figures for the University Interscholastic League’s state championship games at the Alamodome in San Antonio have been declining since the pandemic. With this year’s state finals being held Thursday through Saturday, coaches who have teams playing at the Alamodome have voiced their desire to either move the event elsewhere, possibly to Dallas-Fort Worth, or have rotating sites. The UIL hasn’t ruled out the possibility of playing the boys and girls state finals at separate locations someday, including D-FW. “Ever since they moved the state tournament to the Alamodome, the crowds have been very small compared to what they used to be in Austin. People don’t go as much,” Argyle coach Chance Westmoreland said. “The Alamodome is a football stadium. It’s not a basketball arena. What they really should do is move the boys tournament to Dickies Arena and then the girls tournament they should play like in Waco at the Baylor area. I think that would be a more central location.” The boys and girls state finals are held over three days each in back-to-back weeks in March. The UIL has discussed playing the two events at separate sites to provide more options beyond the Alamodome.

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Tarrant County Democratic leaders forecast energetic election season in Tarrant County heading out of primaries

Tarrant County’s primary elections saw unusually high turnout, with Democrats out-mobilizing Republicans for the second time in recent years and outpacing their party’s statewide turnout. High turnout in the March 3 primaries can be a strong indicator of voter interest and momentum as attention shifts to the general election in November, political experts and local officials say. Just under 26% of Tarrant’s 1.3 million registered voters participated in the March 3 primaries, according to unofficial returns from the county elections office. About 56% of those voters cast ballots in the Democratic primary. “People are going to turn out in November,” said Keith Gaddie, a political science professor at Texas Christian University. “Angry voters are motivated voters. And right now, Democrats are really angry. That’s why you got the turnout you’ve got.”

Historically a GOP stronghold, Tarrant County has shown occasional signs of trending purple, with voters supporting a handful of Democrats at the top of the ballot during recent elections. Political analysts have long hailed the county as a “bellwether” for national elections but more recently agreed either party could win under the right circumstances. So, has a “blue wave” washed over Tarrant? While it’s too early to tell, the “stars really aligned” for Democratic wins this year, said Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “If Democrats don’t produce a blue wave in this cycle and don’t make major gains in Texas in this cycle, then I think they’re not going to for the foreseeable future,” Wilson said. The primary turnout is a hopeful sign for Democrats, he said, but likely not an indicator of a “slam dunk electoral rampage” for Nov. 3’s general election, which consistently has higher turnout than March elections. Statewide, about 52% of the nearly 4.3 million Texas primary voters cast ballots in the Democratic primary’s U.S. Senate race while 48% did in the GOP primary, according to unofficial results. Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, attributed her party’s turnout to well-coordinated block walking and door knocking to mobilize people to the polls. She believes Democrats also were energized by the “tactics and antics” of local Republicans such as County Judge Tim O’Hare, who did not return a request for comment.

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Spring Branch ISD removes Ramadan display at Bunker Hill Elementary School

A Ramadan display at Bunker Hill Elementary School was removed Monday after Spring Branch ISD said it violated a policy on maintaining political and religious neutrality across the district. “Because the display was religious in nature, campus leaders were directed to remove it,” Spring Branch ISD said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. A spokesperson for the school district said a parent complained about the display. The Parent Teacher Association’s cultural awareness committee set up the Ramadan display, said the committee’s chair, Casey Kaf Alghazal. The school has had decorations for the Islamic holy month in the past, she said, but not as large as the display put up this year.

Its removal comes as some Muslims feel discriminated against after Islamic schools have been barred from participating in Texas’ private school voucher program. Speaking for herself and not on behalf of the committee, Kaf Alghazal said the request to remove the Ramadan display felt politically motivated. The committee has worked on other holiday decorations including for Hanukkah, Christmas, and, alongside the Ramadan decor, Easter. She said she had also offered to buy materials for a nativity around Christmas, but that no one had taken her up on it. “My kid felt seen. That’s all it was supposed to be — for every kid to feel seen,” said Kaf Alghazal, who is Muslim. “Bunker Hill wanted that. Spring Branch doesn’t want that.” The Harris County chapter of Moms for Liberty — a national conservative group that says it’s dedicated to parental rights and “the survival of America” — posted photos of Bunker Hill’s Ramadan display late last week on social media. The three-slide Instagram post showed the school’s lobby decorated with signage that said “Ramadan Mubarak,” as well as the use of a crescent moon; the crescent moon and star are generally recognized as Islamic symbols.

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NATO air defenses shoot down Iranian missile headed toward Turkey

Iran’s military denied on Thursday that it fired a ballistic missile toward Turkey, after the Turkish defense ministry said NATO defenses in the Mediterranean had intercepted the missile. Turkey’s defense ministry said on Wednesday that the missile was detected to have been launched from Iran, directed toward Turkish airspace, and flew over Iraq and Syria. A statement published by Iran’s state news broadcaster said “the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran respect the sovereignty of the neighboring and friendly country, Turkey, and deny any missile launch toward that country’s territory.”

A senior U.S. military official and a Western official said it was aimed at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, a NATO member that hosts American troops and those from other allied countries. Incirlik hosts a sizable U.S. Air Force contingent, but Turkey has said that it would not allow its airspace to be used for attacks on Iran. Both officials said the Iranian missile was shot down by an interceptor missile fired from a U.S. warship in the eastern Mediterranean. The senior U.S. official added that it had been shot down shortly before midnight Eastern Standard Time Tuesday by an SM-3 interceptor launched from the U.S.S. Oscar Austin. Remnants of the interceptor fell in Turkey’s south-central province of Hatay, near the border with Syria, injuring no one, the Turkish ministry statement said. Iran has launched missiles and drones at neighboring countries that host U.S. military facilities and personnel in retaliation for the American and Israeli air campaign against Tehran.

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Texas leaders link state’s growth to child care, skills and adaptable workers

Four influential voices delivered a clear message about what Texas needs to support its economic future. Texas can keep growing only if it continues investing in people, from child care workers and high school students to midcareer adults and second-chance job seekers. The remarks came Wednesday during the 30th anniversary celebration for Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas. The luncheon brought together business, education and government leaders who have spent decades building a regional workforce system that now spans 14 counties. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas economist Pia Orrenius delivered a keynote address on Texas’ long-term growth, followed later by a conversation with Texas Workforce Commission Chair Joe Esparza and Governor’s Office economic development official Terry Zrubek. Phedra Redifer, executive director of Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas, grounded those big picture themes in the realities of the region.

Orrenius, a vice president and senior economist at the Dallas Fed, set the scene with a long view of Texas growth. She showed that for decades the state has consistently added jobs and expanded its economy faster than the rest of the country, even as it cycled through recessions, oil busts and a pandemic. Texas’ outperformance did not happen by accident. Over time, the state shifted from an economy anchored in “cotton, cattle and oil” to what Orrenius described as a modern industrial powerhouse. The state layered in high-tech industries, a growing transportation and logistics sector, advanced services such as finance and insurance, and a reinvented energy mix that includes leading positions in wind and solar alongside oil and gas. Orrenius said the state’s real advantage has been its ability to adapt. Texas diversified its industries, capitalized on its central geography and ports, and attracted workers from other states and countries. Even within energy, she noted, technology has radically changed production, allowing Texas to become the top oil producer in the world while employing far fewer people in traditional drilling. But Orrenius also warned that some of the tailwinds behind that story are fading. Population growth, especially from migration, is slowing sharply after record highs. Texas also consistently lags behind in the national share of younger workers with college degrees. Meanwhile, many people are voicing uncertainty about the rapid spread of artificial intelligence.

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‘Fed up with the status quo’: How a 26-year-old unseated eight-term Texas lawmaker

In one of the biggest upsets out of Tuesday’s primaries, a 26-year-old from Grand Prairie unseated eight-term Texas Rep. Chris Turner. But the way Junior Ezeonu sees it, perhaps his win in House District 101 shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise. “I just feel that in this moment that we’re living in, we need change across the board within the Democratic Party,” Ezeonu said in a Wednesday morning interview. “I think we need a new generation of leaders. Young, bold progressive leaders that are ready to fight back against the insanity that we’re seeing from the right.”

Democratic voters in the southeastern Tarrant County district, which includes parts of Arlington, Grand Prairie and Mansfield, chose Ezeonu over Turner, 53% to 47%. There are no Republican candidates in the November election. Ezeonu is a political consultant and serves as mayor pro tem in Grand Prairie, where he’s served on the City Council since 2021. He who moved to America from Nigeria and has lived in the district since he was 2 years old. He said he went to school in Arlington and has worked retail in the district and as a substitute teacher in the Mansfield school district. “I think that helped me appeal to the voters, being that I’m a young progressive guy, but I’m also homegrown,” Ezeonu said.

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Marathon meeting over Dallas City Hall resolution

Amid calls for increased transparency from more than 100 members of the public earlier Wednesday, the Dallas City Council debate on a resolution extended into early morning hours Thursday, with few people remaining in attendance. The council was split 9-6 on a number of amendments to the resolution, with council members Mendelsohn, Paul Ridley, Laura Cadena, Paula Blackmon, Adam Bazaldua and Bill Roth voting as a block to slow down momentum to explore other potential sites for city hall.

The city council was considering a resolution directing city manager Kimberly Tolbert to explore move 311, 911 and emergency operations to another location, and to explore options to both relocate other city staff to a new government location and the redevelopment of the current city hall site. Tolbert said during a debate that started around 5 p.m. and lasted more than seven hours that no final decision on the future of Dallas City Hall would be made, no matter how the council voted on the resolution. "We have not identified locations," Tolbert said. "We don’t have a financing plan for anything that’s currently on the table, whether it’s the renovation of city hall or whether it’s to go to a different location.”

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Thousands of Dallas County ballots are being held as a legal fight unfolds

The confusion experienced at polling places across Dallas County during the primary election has now triggered a legal and political battle over thousands of ballots that remain unresolved. According to the Dallas County Elections Department, more than 2,300 provisional ballots were cast and will remain on hold as the dispute plays out. "The Texas Supreme Court told us to keep them set aside," Nicholas Solorzano with the Dallas County Elections Department said. "For right now, they're safe, they're secure. They are labeled, and we know where they are."

"I got this in the mail, and I scanned the QR code, so I know I was at the proper place," she said. Election officials say they spent about one million dollars attempting to inform voters about a new rule governing the primary that was established by Texas Republicans. "We sent a mailer to the residential households. We sent a text message to over 700,000 Dallas County residents. We've been running ads for the last three to four weeks," Solorzano said. Even with those efforts, more than 2,000 provisional ballots, including some cast by Republican voters now sit unresolved while legal challenges move forward.

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National Stories

Justice Dept., under pressure from Trump, fails to build autopen case against Biden

The Justice Department, after calls by President Trump to investigate former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., scrutinized whether Mr. Biden and his aides broke the law in using the autopen to sign presidential documents, but was ultimately unable to move forward with making a case, according to three people briefed on the matter. The department’s failure to build a criminal case against Mr. Biden and his aides is the latest example of its increasing inability to follow through on Mr. Trump’s demands and bring indictments against those he wants to be criminally targeted. Some of those cases were rejected by grand juries, some were rejected by judges and some, like the autopen case, were abandoned by prosecutors.

But the fact that prosecutors even pursued the matter to begin with reflects the degree to which Mr. Trump has sought to use the levers of government to undermine Mr. Biden’s presidency by seizing on an unsubstantiated theory: that the pardons Mr. Biden issued in his final months in office were invalid because he did not have the mental capacity to consent to them. The autopen investigation was led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which is run by a longtime Trump ally, Jeanine Pirro. The inquiry was quietly shelved in recent months, around the time that prosecutors under Ms. Pirro sought and failed to secure an indictment in a different case: one against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged Mr. Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse to follow illegal orders. In that case, a grand jury refused to issue an indictment, a once incredibly rare action in the federal court system, but one that has become more common as the Trump administration pushes the limits of the criminal justice system.

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'Blankies,' ICE tactics and luxury jets: Top moments from Noem's House testimony

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem forcefully defended her department’s immigration enforcement policies Wednesday before Democratic lawmakers — part of a heated and contentious House Oversight Committee hearing that, at times, grew deeply personal. The hearing is the second in back-to-back DHS oversight hearings centered on the agency's actions on immigration enforcement and Noem's leadership of the department, and comes as members of Congress remain deadlocked on how to proceed with fully funding the sprawling federal agency. Here are the top moments from the action-packed hearing.

Some Democrats on the panel zeroed in on the responsibilities Corey Lewandowski has assumed as a special adviser for the Department of Homeland Security. Rep. Sydney Kalmager-Dove, D-Calif., cited a Wall Street Journal report from last month, that said President Donald Trump allegedly rejected Lewandowski's request to be Noem's chief of staff "due to reports of a romantic relationship" between the two. Both Noem and Lewandowski have denied reports of an affair. Kalmager-Dove asked Noem, point-blank, about the nature of their relationship. "This person has no experience running anything close to the Department of Homeland Security, or even advising someone in your position," Kalmager-Dove said, noting his role as a special government employee has extended a "well beyond the allowed 130-day" period.

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Shipping has collapsed through vital strait of Hormuz

Traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping strait has reached a near standstill amid the war between the US, Israel, and Iran. Just two bulk carriers and a small container ship were observed traversing the waterway on Tuesday. All were leaving the Persian Gulf, not entering. The Strait has descended into a digital fog. Signal jamming and a widespread disabling of position-reporting transponders has hindered satellite tracking and made it more difficult to monitor traffic through the waterway. But understanding what, if anything, is moving is critical in assessing the impact of the conflict on oil, gas and other commodity markets.

The Persian Gulf nations are vital to global supplies of crude oil, fuels, natural gas and fertilizer feedstocks. And almost all of the region’s output has to pass through Hormuz, making it a choke point for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, and half of the global seaborne trade of sulfur. The effective closure of the waterway is already leading countries like Iraq to shut in production, helping to send oil prices up by 14% since the weekend and natural gas to the highest since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It’s also left sulfur traders scrambling for alternative supplies for the fertilizer and nickel processing industries. Ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show traffic has plummeted by well over 95%, with major crude carriers and LNG tankers avoiding the route. The few ships still moving are leaving the Gulf with location transponders turned off, a common practice in conflict zones.

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Taxpayer dollars flood pregnancy centers. Oversight hasn't followed.

The patient came in with a belly full of blood, Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung recalled. Her pregnancy was ectopic, no longer viable, and could have killed her if left untreated. But when she went to a mobile pregnancy help center offering free care in an RV in St. Louis, she was told the pregnancy could be saved. By the time she saw Zahedi-Spung days later, her fallopian tube had ruptured. In North Lauderdale, Florida, Ieshia Scott was pregnant and in the throes of postpartum depression. She thought she’d arrived at an abortion clinic. She told the staff she might hurt herself if she had another baby. They told her God would give her strength. A woman and her partner in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, went to a pregnancy help center by mistake. When they made it to a Planned Parenthood clinic across the street, the pregnant patient handed Dr. Kristin Lyerly a copy of the sonogram. But the scan was not of her uterus. It was her bladder.

All three patients had gone to crisis pregnancy centers, organizations that advertise free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds but dissuade women from pursuing abortions and contraceptive options. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ended national abortion access in June 2022, the centers have seen an infusion of taxpayer dollars in many Republican-led states. But medical experts have urged lawmakers to reconsider the state support, as the centers can endanger public health by “causing delays in accessing legitimate health care,” according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. States Newsroom conducted a 50-state investigation examining state and federal budgets, as well as the tax records of these organizations, finding that while the magnitude of public funding for them is growing, oversight is not. Twenty-one states funneled nearly a half-billion dollars, or $491 million, of taxpayer money to crisis pregnancy center organizations between fiscal years 2022 and 2025. That figure does not include millions some states diverted from federal programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and it does not include multimillion-dollar tax credit programs launched after federal protections for abortion rights were overturned. Nearly $1.3 billion in local, state or federal government grants were awarded to 1,259 crisis pregnancy centers in total between 2019 and 2024, according to States Newsroom’s analysis of tax records. The actual figure may be higher, as digital records are not comprehensive or entirely up to date.

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U.S. submarine launches its first torpedo in combat since World War II

For the first time since World War II, a torpedo launched from a U.S. Navy submarine struck a vessel in combat, sending the Iranian frigate Iris Dena to the bottom of the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka. The submarine, which the Pentagon has yet to identify, carried out the attack on Wednesday. Later that morning, the Defense Department released a video of a single torpedo detonating under the Iris Dena’s stern, sending a large plume of water skyward. The frigate’s hull can be seen tearing apart along its port quarter above the waterline. At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the sinking “quiet death,” while Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke about it more dispassionately, saying the torpedo achieved “immediate effect.” Sri Lankan officials said they had rescued 32 Iranian sailors from the Iris Dena, which is believed to have had a crew of 180.

The Navy referred questions about the submarine attack to U.S. Central Command. According to the U.S. Navy’s History and Heritage Command, the last American sub to fire a torpedo at an enemy vessel was the U.S.S. Torsk, which sank a 750-ton Japanese vessel on Aug. 14, 1945. That ship, a patrol escort called the CD-13, was off the Japanese port of Maizuru when it spotted the Torsk via sonar. According to a Navy history of the engagement, the American submarine fired one torpedo in response, dived to 400 feet and launched a second torpedo. Both weapons struck the CD-13, killing 28 of its crew members. Since then, U.S. submarines have carried out some of the nation’s most dangerous and sensitive intelligence-gathering missions in enemy waters. Navy subs have carried torpedoes in hostile waters throughout the Cold War to the present. And even though American subs had not been using torpedoes to sink ships from 1945 until the current war with Iran, they have regularly contributed to combat operations ashore. The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine U.S.S. Louisville became the first to launch a land-attack missile in combat when it launched a Tomahawk missile at an Iraqi position during Operation Desert Storm, according to U.S. Submarine Force Pacific.

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Epstein files: House committee subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi

The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi for a deposition on the Department of Justice's handling of its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and its compliance with a law requiring all documents related to the notorious sex offender to be made public. The 24-19 vote by the committee came after growing criticism of the DOJ for failing to release all of the Epstein files, and reports that it has removed from public view tens of thousands of documents that previously were made public. The motion to subpoena Bondi was introduced by Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, who blasted the DOJ earlier Wednesday over its suppression of many Epstein files.

"AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not," Mace said in a post on X. "The Epstein case is one of the greatest cover-ups in American history," Mace wrote. Mace also posted a YouTube video showing her entering the motion at the Oversight Committee. In addition to Mace, four other Republicans joined most of the panel's Democrats in voting to subpoena Bondi, who is a Republican: Lauren Boebert of Colorado; Pennsylvania's Scott Perry; Tim Burchett of Tennessee; and Michael Cloud of Texas. CNBC has requested comment from the DOJ. The DOJ, under the Epstein Transparency Act passed nearly unanimously by Congress last year, was required to publicly release all of its files on Epstein and his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. After making more than 3 million documents public in late January, the DOJ said it would not release the rest of the Epstein files, which total more than 2.5 million documents. Since then, media outlets have reported that the DOJ had removed the files from public view. Some of the files withheld had included memos and notes about FBI interviews, including those of a woman who has alleged that President Donald Trump sexually abused her when she was a minor. Trump has never been charged with wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has said he was unaware of his former friend's criminal conduct. CBS News reported on Tuesday that "as of late February, the Justice Department has taken down more than 47,000 files comprising about 65,500 pages."

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States move to limit access to H.I.V. treatment

Tens of thousands of Americans are losing access to treatment for H.I.V. as nearly 20 states impose restrictions on assistance programs and several others weigh such changes. The states, led by both Democrats and Republicans, are tightening requirements for people benefiting from Ryan White AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, or ADAPs, according to an analysis released on Monday by the health research group KFF. The programs help pay for H.I.V. medications or provide them free to some people, and pay insurance premiums for others. H.I.V. medications suppress the virus to undetectable levels, eliminating the chance of spreading it to others. Interrupting treatment may lead to an increase in new infections and in AIDS cases. Moreover, some people may try to extend their supplies by alternating days or sharing their pills with others. If the virus replicates in people with only partial protection, it can become resistant to the medications. People living with the virus may then pass the resistant virus on to others.

The biggest change took effect in Florida on Sunday, when officials cut off benefits for at least 16,000 residents living with H.I.V. The state also will no longer cover Biktarvy, the most widely prescribed H.I.V. medication. On Friday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services opened a special enrollment period allowing Floridians who lose financial support for insurance premiums to choose a new plan. The period ends April 30. ADAPs support roughly 25 percent of the 1.2 million people living with H.I.V. in the United States. The programs had a 30 percent surge in enrollment from 2022 to 2024, in part because states were removing people from Medicaid after keeping them on during the pandemic. ADAPs are funded by Congress through the Ryan White federal H.I.V. program. The programs are contending with rising costs as H.I.V. drugs become more expensive even as health care subsidies have expired, sending premiums soaring. At the same time, funding for the programs has remained flat for more than a decade.

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Lead Stories

Talarico beats Crockett; Cornyn, Paxton move to runoff in heated Texas Senate race

Texas’ bitter, big-money Senate primary left Republicans fractured Tuesday night as Democrats fought for an edge, all in a showdown that could help decide control of Congress. Sen. John Cornyn was leading the GOP field with Attorney General Ken Paxton close behind, but neither secured a majority, setting up a May rematch and weeks of renewed attacks. U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt finished a distant third. On the Democratic side, state Rep. James Talarico of Austin beat U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, after pushing rival strategies for a party shut out of statewide office for more than three decades. He secured 53.2% of the votes, according to the Associated Press.

Already the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history, it has topped $125 million in ad spending, and the national parties are watching closely for clues about turnout, messaging and momentum ahead of the midterms. In the three-way Republican brawl, Cornyn stressed experience and electability, Paxton ran on his MAGA loyalties and Hunt cast himself as a younger, conservative alternative. With more than three-fourths of the expected statewide vote counted, Cornyn remained slightly ahead of Paxton. Signaling an aggressive runoff fight ahead, Cornyn said late Tuesday that the race comes down to character. “I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything we’ve worked so hard to build,” he told reporters in Austin. He warned Paxton would be “an albatross around the neck” of Republican candidates in November.

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Crenshaw loses in major upset to Toth, Gonzales and Herrera set for runoff

In a surprise upset, state Rep. Steve Toth defeated U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Houston Republican, in Tuesday’s GOP primary election, ousting one of the state’s most recognizable GOP congressmen. Toth, the owner of a local pool cleaning company who is considered one of the most conservative members of the Texas Legislature, carried a wide margin of the vote. The already Republican-leaning district, which includes Montgomery and Harris counties, was redrawn last year to be more conservative. "Big thanks to the voters of Congressional District 2. I will work hard for all of you,” Toth wrote on X late Tuesday night. The Associated Press called the race shortly after midnight.

A spokesman for Crenshaw said he would not comment on the election result tonight. The contest was widely seen as Crenshaw’s toughest since being elected to Congress in 2018, after he failed to secure the endorsement of President Donald Trump. In a race rocked by scandal, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) is now headed to another primary runoff with YouTuber Brandon Herrera. Herrera held Gonzales under 50% in their 2024 primary as well, when the incumbent was facing major pushback for crossing the aisle on votes supporting same-sex marriage and gun safety. This year Gonzales has much bigger problems, after text messages indicated he’d been having an affair with a staff member who later died by suicide. Since then some of his Republican colleagues in Congress have been calling for him to resign. With 193 of 371 precincts reporting just after 1 a.m., Gonzales was at 43.03% of the vote to Herrera’s 42.24% in a four-way GOP primary.

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Don Huffines wins Texas GOP comptroller race, will face Sarah Eckhardt

Former state Sen. Don Huffines won the GOP primary for comptroller on Tuesday, making the conservative firebrand the Republican nominee to lead an agency with vast influence over the state’s finances, as well as the new private school voucher program. Huffines defeated acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who was endorsed and supported by Gov. Greg Abbott, and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick. State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin won the Democratic primary. She has campaigned on watchdogging the state budget and opposes the private school voucher program.

Huffines ran on a promise to “DOGE” the state government and is a favorite of the Republican grassroots. The Dallas businessman's campaign was boosted by endorsements from President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, as well as broader name recognition from Huffines’ 2022 run against Abbott, in which he called the governor “weak” and “a coward." Though Huffines has largely dropped his antagonism on the campaign trail, emphasizing that he is “excited” to work alongside Abbott, his win is nonetheless a blow to the governor, who spent millions boosting Hancock. Capturing the comptroller’s office would give Huffines a powerful bully pulpit to go after state agencies as well as control over Texas’ finances. The comptroller also oversees the voucher program, which Abbott spent considerable funds and political capital to push through the Legislature last year. Hancock has run the $1 billion program’s rollout since becoming acting Comptroller in June. Huffines is also a voucher proponent, but he has so far declined to say if he would run the program differently. Craddick enjoyed strong backing from the oil and gas industry, which she currently regulates. She spent relatively little compared to her rivals and will retain her seat on the Railroad Commission, where her term expires in 2030.

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'Mass confusion': How election day went awry for Dallas County voters

It’s Tuesday — election day in Dallas County — and an hour has passed since polls opened for a pivotal set of primaries. At Fretz Park Library on the north side of the city, roughly 90 voters have come and gone. Yet, if the poll workers had to guess, only 15 ballots had been cast. “Most people don’t know their precinct numbers,” one worker said, “and they don’t know that their party’s not even here.” For the first time in nearly a decade, voters were required to cast ballots at their assigned neighborhood precinct instead of a universal voting center, a change imposed by the county’s Republican party in December.

Allen West, chair of the county GOP, said he pushed for separate primaries to reduce the opportunity for voter fraud, an exceedingly rare occurrence in the U.S. Despite efforts from Democratic leaders to maintain the status quo, state law only allows countywide voting on election day if both parties agree. Check-in tables, workers and voting machines were divided by party, and red and blue arrows directed voters to opposite sides of the room, leaving them no choice but to pronounce affiliation. Election navigators were assigned to direct voters to the correct precinct if they showed up at the wrong location. Hundreds did. By sundown, concerns of voter disenfranchisement from lawmakers and election experts had come to fruition. Frustrated residents struggled to navigate shifting poll sites, downed websites and long, winding election lines – others gave up entirely. After an emergency extension and an intervention from the state’s Supreme Court, Dallas County – a stronghold for Democrats – became ground zero for a voting rights dispute with implications well beyond its borders. “If the goal of the Republican Party was to make voting more difficult, they have succeeded this day,” said County Commissioner Andrew Sommerman, who is running for a second term.

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State Stories

Democratic Rep. Chris Turner trailing in House District 101 seat in Arlington

Incumbent Chris Turner is trailing challenger Junior Ezeonu in the early results for the Democratic nomination for House District 101. Ezeonu, a member of the Grand Prairie City Council, is leading with 53% of the vote. Turner has 47% of the vote. The early results are a surprise for Turner, who has represented House District 101 since 2013. House District 101 covers parts of Arlington, Grand Prairie and Mansfield, and is home to 199,000 people, according to state data. Ezeonu, 26, is a political consultant who has been on the Grand Prairie City Council since 2021. He told the Star-Telegram that his top three priorities if elected would be to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, fund public schools, and make homeownership affordable.

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Bexar incumbents fend off challengers. Voucher architect Jorge Borrego to defend Lujan seat. Runoff for HD 125

In an unusual primary election, Bexar County state lawmakers who have little to fear in most reelection races faced primary challengers backed by influential outside groups. As of Tuesday night, however, all five incumbents in contested primaries cruised easily to reelection, including state Rep. Marc LaHood (R-San Antonio), who faced one of the most expensive legislative primaries in Texas history. LaHood, a criminal defense attorney, was part of a group of lawyers in the House Republican Caucus — including House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) — that bucked powerful business interests on their priority legal reform legislation near the end of his first term. He faced a GOP primary challenge from David McArthur, a business consultant backed by the powerful Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC (TLR), which wanted to punish LaHood and root out trial lawyers within the Republican Party.

But LaHood fended him off easily Tuesday, with 73.6% of the vote to McArthur’s 26.4%. In another Northside race, Texas House District 122, the lawsuit reform group backed challenger Willie Ng over state Rep. Mark Dorazio (R-San Antonio), a member of the GOP’s conservative wing who had voted against their priority bills. Dorazio held him off with 74.63% of the vote to Ng’s 23.57%. Texans for Lawsuit Reform did have one big victory in this area, in the open House District 118 race, where it spent big to help former Texas Public Policy Foundation staffer Jorge Borrego defeat trial attorney Desi Martinez in the GOP primary to replace state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio). Borrego took 52.51% to trial attorney Desi Martinez’ 26.98% in the GOP primary for Texas House District 118. A third Republican candidate, coffee company owner, Joseph Shellhart, took 20.51%. Borrego, 30, is a former legislative staffer who most recently worked on education policy for the Austin-based think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). Democrats are headed to a runoff in the race to replace retiring state Rep. Ray Lopez (D-San Antonio) in Texas House District 125. SAISD teachers’ union leader Adrian Reyna got 39.06% of the vote, while former Bexar County Constable Michelle Barrientes Vela took 34.43%. Lopez’s former chief of staff Donovan Rodriguez took 15.33% and Carlos Antonio Raymond took 11.18%.

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Rep. Roy and Sen. Middleton headed to runoff in Texas AG race

Rep. Chip Roy will advance to a runoff in the race to replace Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He will face state Sen. Mayes Middleton, who led Roy by a double-digit margin with three-fifths of the vote counted. The competitive primary turned into a fealty test to President Donald Trump. Reitz and Middleton slammed Roy for breaking with Trump in the past and calling for Attorney General Ken Paxton to resign after he faced charges of bribery and abuse, while brandishing their own MAGA bona fides. Trump made no endorsement in the race.

Roy — the House Freedom Caucus policy chair who has represented Texas’ 21st congressional district since 2019 — earned a reputation in Congress as a true conservative ideologue. He has led in polling and fundraising and has been endorsed by well-known conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and fellow Freedom Caucus representatives. But Mayes’ apparent first-place finish indicates that he begins the runoff as the favorite. It remains to be seen what the president, who once called for Roy to face a primary challenge, might do in the runoff.

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Nate Sheets beats three-term Ag Commissioner Sid Miller in stunning upset

In a stunning upset, beekeeper and businessman Nate Sheets unseated three-term Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in Tuesday’s Republican primary. As of Wednesday morning, Sheets had 53% of the vote, compared to Miller’s 47%. Sheets, a 56-year-old Navy veteran, had the backing of Gov. Greg Abbott in a rare internal GOP dustup with an entrenched incumbent who was endorsed by President Donald Trump.

“Texans are ready for new leadership,” Sheets wrote in a victorious post on X, “and we are ready to get to work.” During the campaign, Sheets accused Miller of using the state department’s resources to post flattering information about himself on social media. Texas law bars the use of state resources for political campaigns and prohibits government officials from using public funds for political advertising.

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Goodwin headed to runoff with Johnson just shy of majority

Two Democrats vying for the chance to unseat Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in November were heading for a runoff late Tuesday as returns showed state Rep. Vikki Goodwin with just under half the vote. The four-term state representative entered the three-way race as a frontrunner but was stymied after garnering only 49% of the vote with nearly three-quarters of statewide votes counted. That all but guarantees a rematch with Houston labor leader Marcos Vélez, who held second place with 31% of Democratic primary votes. Political newcomer Courtney Head, a San Antonio-based software executive, gathered 20% of the vote.In the Democratic primary for Texas attorney general, State Sen. Nathan Johnson is hovering just below the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff, sitting at 49% as more votes come in. If he doesn’t cross that mark, he is likely to face former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski in a runoff.

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Texas Rep. Gina Hinojosa wins Democratic nomination, will face Gov. Greg Abbott in November

The race to decide who will be the Lone Star State’s next governor is set. Gov. Greg Abbott easily won his Republican primary on Tuesday. In November, the incumbent will face off against Democrat Gina Hinojosa, an Austin-area Texas House member. A win for Abbott would put him on track to becoming the longest serving governor of Texas. For Hinojosa, a win would break the 30-plus year streak of Republicans holding the office. However, defeating Abbott won’t be easy. He has everything an incumbent gubernatorial candidate could dream of: More than $100 million in campaign cash on hand, strong name recognition, and the backing of the current president. “She’s up against probably one of the most formidable Republicans in the nation, the most well-financed Republicans in the nation — probably the most comfortable incumbent Republican in the nation,” said Alvaro Corral, a political scientist at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “I think the odds are very much stacked against her.”

But it’s a battle Hinojosa believes is necessary. “Our fight right now is against the billionaires and the corporations who are driving up prices,” Hinojosa said during her October campaign kickoff event in her hometown of Brownsville. She thinks right now is the time to strike. Abbott’s approval ratings have seen sporadic dips lately, but that alone may not be enough to unseat him. Tuesday night, the governor mostly ignored his Democratic opponent, instead taking to social media to congratulate a slew of successful Republicans he’d backed in their primaries. Rather than campaigning for himself, Abbott has spent most of his recent time and money attacking the Democratic candidates in the Senate race. “He’s in such a position — sort of above the fray — that he can sort of go on the attack against the Democratic Party in general to try and help Republicans down ballot,” Corral said.

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Menefee leads Green, Garcia survives primary from former Rep. Johnson

Fresh off the heels of his special election victory in the 18th Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee took an early lead in his bid to stay in the seat beyond this year. Menefee led longtime U.S. Rep. Al Green in the Democratic primary, according to early voting results released Tuesday by the Harris County Clerk’s Office. Election Day results in the redrawn Houston district, which historically favors Black Democrats, were still being tallied. Menefee, 37, received 48.75% of the early vote compared to 43.13% for the 78-year-old Green, who has represented the 9th Congressional District since 2005. He switched to the 18th after Texas Republicans undertook a rare mid-decade redistricting last summer in order to help the GOP win up to five additional seats in the November midterm election.

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, the only Latina to ever represent Houston in Congress, defeated fellow Democrat Jarvis Johnson in Tuesday's primary election. During her election night watch party at Esther's Cajun Café & Soul Food, Garcia expressed excitement about her lead, but spent time during her speech criticizing U.S. involvement in Iran and talking about affordability issues. “I'm just like you all. I go to the grocery store, too. And we feel it,” Garcia said. “So people are feeling it in the pocketbook, and the last thing they wanted us to do is get involved in a war that's just gonna cost us more and more and more.” Garcia promised not to vote for “one more penny for this war.” She added that she also wouldn’t vote for “one more penny for ICE.”

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Cook and Lowe declare victory, Bean likely avoids runoff and Mizani leading in open seat

State Rep. David Cook has declared victory in the Republican primary for the Texas State Senate in District 22. Cook, the former Mansfield mayor, has 68% of the vote, with Jon Gimble at 24% and Rena Schroeder at 8%, according to unofficial returns. Keller Mayor Armin Mizani has a strong lead over former Tarrant County GOP Treasurer Fred Tate in the Republican primary for state House in District 98, according to unofficial results. Mizani has 54.3% of the vote, Tate holds 42.49% of the vote, and Zee Wilcox, a small business owner who spent much of the last few months in a legal battle to add her name back on the ballot, is trailing behind with 3.3, with 50 of 199 vote centers reporting.

Cheryl Bean, a business owner, is leading in the Republican primary for the Texas House in District 94, according to unofficial results. Bean has 54.5% of the vote, with Jackie Schlegel, director of Texans for Medical Freedom, at 24.7% and Susan Valliant at 9.5%. In the Democratic primary, Katie O’Brein Duzan, vice president of marketing at Veeva Systems and TCU alumna, is running uncontested. She will face the winner of the Republican primary during the general election in November. Republican incumbent Texas Rep. David Lowe has declared victory in the race for the GOP nomination for state House District 91. Lowe has 64% of the vote to challenger Kyle Morris’s 36% with 20 of 199 vote centers reporting. Lowe faces Democrat Yisak Worku in the Nov. 3 election.

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Hopper, Evans, Patterson leading Texas House of Representative primaries

Andy Hopper, Julie Evans and Jared Patterson remain leading in their respective Texas House of Representatives primary races. Hopper, the District 64 incumbent, is leading in the Republican primary with 14,042 votes, or 71.48%, while challenger Lisa McEntire has received 5,604 votes. In the District 64 Democratic primary, Evans has received 5,629, or 53.1%, while Christie Wood has garnered 4,972 votes. Patterson has received 8,569 votes, or 55.7%, in the District 106 Republican primary, holding a lead over Larry Brock and Rick Abraham, who have garnered 5,535 and 2,066 votes, respectively. The winner will face Joe Mayes, who is running unopposed in the District 106 Democratic primary, for the state seat in November.

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Allred, Johnson expect runoff in newly redrawn Dallas congressional primary

Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred and incumbent U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson expect to face each other again in a runoff after neither secured enough votes Tuesday to win outright in the Democratic primary for a newly redrawn, Dallas-based congressional seat. The race was triggered by a state-drawn shakeup of Texas’ congressional lines that forced the two North Texas Democrats into the same district, making the race for the 33rd District one of the most closely watched intraparty contests. The outcome in Dallas and other House districts across the state carries stakes beyond Texas, testing boundaries Republicans drew last year to protect their slim majority in Washington. The results of the matchup were delayed after Election Day disruptions at Dallas County polling places forced a two-hour extension of voting times. The change, ordered by a judge at the county Democratic party’s request, was later stayed by the Texas Supreme Court.

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Bo French, Jim Wright headed to runoff for RRC

Former Tarrant County GOP Chairman Bo French, who has come under scrutiny for offensive comments targeting religious groups and for inflammatory social media posts, has advanced in the Republican primary for the Texas Railroad Commission, heading to a May runoff against incumbent Jim Wright. In his social media post announcing his campaign, he wrote he was running for the commission to ”defend Texas, stop the Islamic invasion and defeat the left.” “Just like I expect my elected officials to stand up for the values of Texans, that’s what I plan to do in office,” French told The Dallas Morning News late Tuesday evening. “My position is a reflection of the voters in Texas who are concerned about this.”

Wright, who has served as chair of the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry since 2025, faced four Republicans in the GOP primary: oil worker Hawk Dunlap, engineer Katherine Culbert, consultant James Matlock and French. Wright and French were neck-and-neck as results came in Tuesday with nearly a third of the vote each and almost 80% of expected votes counted. But neither received a majority of the vote. Primary runoffs take place May 26. Wright’s campaign did not immediately respond to a phone call requesting comment Tuesday night. Wright, a a fifth-generation South Texas rancher, said he’d seek to uphold high environmental and safety standards if reelected, while ensuring regulations don’t interfere with innovation and job creation. French has faced backlash from other Republicans for using slurs for people with disabilities and gay people. Last summer, Republican leaders denounced French and called for him to resign from his post leading the Tarrant County Republican Party after he posted a social media poll on whether Muslims or Jews posed the “biggest threat to America.” Just a month later, French singled out a Muslim state House member, asking federal officials to denaturalize and deport state Rep. Salman Bhojani, who was born in Pakistan and is a U.S. citizen.

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Mark Teixeira clinches District 21 Republican primary

Mark Teixeira appears to have won the Republican primary for the 21st Congressional District with 61.3% of the vote as of 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Texas Secretary of State's website. Teixeira, a former Major League Baseball player, is one of 12 Republican candidates running for the seat currently occupied by Republican Chip Roy. District 21 includes parts of Hays and Bexar counties, and all of Real, Kerr, Kendall, Gillespie, Comal, Blanco and Bandera counties.

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Runoff likely as Julio Salinas leads in the Texas House District 41 Democratic primary race

Early voting results show Julio Salinas is leading in the Democratic race for the Texas House District 41 race. Incumbent Bobby Guerra currently holds the seat but chose not to run for re-election. There are three Democratic candidates on the ballot. Salinas has 4,716, or 37.4 percent of early votes, while Haddad has 4,693, or 37.2 percent of early votes. Also on the ballot is Eric Holguín who has 3,117, or more than 25 percent of early votes.

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Terri Leo Wilson wins GOP primary for House District 23

State Rep. Terri Leo Wilson seemed certain of a Republican primary win for Texas House District 23 late Tuesday when she held a big lead over former Mont Belvieu City Manager Nathan Watkins in a race marked by relentless attack advertising. Wilson late Tuesday held about 64 percent of votes, compared with about 36 percent for Watkins, according to incomplete, unofficial election returns. The results remain unofficial until county officials complete the required canvass and formally certify the totals later this month. House District 23 spans most of Chambers County and portions of Galveston County and has leaned strongly Republican in recent cycles, making the GOP primary the decisive contest in most election years.

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Republican incumbents prevail in Collin and Dallas counties

The fiercest legislative primary fights Tuesday in North Texas were inside the GOP. In Dallas County, two moderate GOP incumbent representatives faced challengers after being censured by their own county party. In Collin County, several Republican state House members were fending off rivals running to their right. Republican Morgan Meyer, first elected in 2014, gained a decisive edge over attorney Sanjay Narayan in a district that includes the Park Cities, Oak Lawn and Preston Hollow. Narayan criticized Meyer for backing renewable energy expansion and for being censured by the Dallas GOP last year.

Republican Angie Chen Button, who has represented the district covering parts of Dallas, Richardson and Garland since 2009, comfortably beat her three primary opponents by securing 72.4% of the votes as of 4:16 a.m. Two Republicans were seeking to represent the district that covers most of McKinney and parts of Frisco and Celina. But incumbent Keresa Richardson came out on the top with 67% of the votes as of 4 a.m. Richardson, who was elected in 2024, was up against former state Rep. Frederick Frazier. Both supported eliminating property taxes. Republican Rep. Jeff Leach, first elected in 2012, beat Matt Thorsen with 64.3% votes as of 4:16 a.m. in a district that includes parts of Plano, Allen, McKinney and Melissa. Leach has highlighted his conservative record, including legislation barring Shariah in Texas courts. He also served as a House impeachment manager during Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2023 trial, a role he has defended amid backlash from activists. Three Republicans are competing for the nomination to run against incumbent Democrat Mihaela Plesa, who was unopposed in her party’s primary. George Flint, a former district judge and Collin County Republican Party Chair, who had a significant edge in votes over his opponents, emphasized eliminating property taxes and securing the border in his campaign. Jack Ryan Gallagher, an attorney, said he would attract companies to North Texas, improve public schools and partner with local law enforcement if elected. Michael Hewitt, an attorney, said he would gradually lower property taxes and work to keep Texas a business-friendly state.

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Bud Kennedy: It’s John Cornyn or Ken Paxton vs. James Talarico. Trump holds the key

Everybody won in the U.S. Senate primary in Texas. Texas Republicans rallied behind struggling U.S. Sen. John Cornyn to send him to a runoff against bullish challenger Ken Paxton. They also won the right to brag over Dallas County’s disorganized Democratic election officials. Texas Democrats nominated a powerhouse fundraiser and Senate challenger in state Rep. James Talarico. They also got to complain, “The Republicans robbed us of our votes!” Mostly, both parties picked up another ton of campaign fodder for November — as if they didn’t have enough already in a Senate race that has already cost more than $100 million. That was the ultimate outcome on an Election Night when Democratic voters swamped the party’s polling places and Republicans efficiently reduced three statewide elections to a final two candidates for a May 26 runoff.

Now, all eyes are on the White House. President Donald Trump will pick whether Cornyn or Paxton wins the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. His endorsement is worth an estimated 10 percentage points in the polls. With Cornyn’s resilient showing, Trump might be expected to make a fiscally prudent decision and endorse the candidate who won’t need a $200 million campaign to overcome a Texas-sized wagonload of personal baggage. But when does Trump ever do what’s expected? Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proved he’s closest to Trump’s ear when Trump issued late endorsements for comptroller candidate Don Huffines and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. Huffines surged to win the Republican nomination outright and a November matchup against Austin Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt. Miller was losing to Collin County challenger Nate Sheets but won Election Day voting, indicating Trump’s endorsement simply came too late.

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Both parties face runoffs in new 35th Congressional District

In one of the most competitive races on the U.S. House map this year, both Democrats and Republicans are headed to a May 26 runoff. The new 35th Congressional District is ground zero in the Trump administration’s effort to squeeze more Republican lawmakers out of Texas in 2026, turning a solidly blue Austin-to-San Antonio district into a potential GOP pickup on San Antonio’s Southeast side. The GOP-led legislature drew the district for state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), 63, who flipped a blue Texas House district that’s entirely within TX35’s boundaries. But at the last minute, his dominance in an 11-way Republican primary was upended by President Donald Trump endorsing a different candidate, Carlos De La Cruz, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran whose sister is U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Edinburg).

“We’ve had multiple conversations with the White House and D.C. leadership, [and] we laid out our case … [that] I was the one to be able to get us past a general election against whoever the Democrat is,” De La Cruz said in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t like to say anything disparaging about my my potential opponents, but the bottom line is, they put us side by side, and they made the decision that they made.” De La Cruz took 26.8% in the GOP primary, to Lujan’s 32.98%. Gathered with family at his campaign headquarters on Tuesday, Lujan said he still believes he’s the better candidate. “I have a tough race. It’s a new district,” he told the Report. “I’m the first and only Republican to ever win this [state House] seat in the history of Texas. And then I won the reelection, which was even tougher. And then now this new district, so I’m used to being in tough races.” Democrats originally wrote off this district, which under new boundaries would have supported Trump by more than 10 percentage points in 2024. One of their largest PACs published a report saying it’s out of reach for this election cycle, and efforts to recruit a high-profile candidate fell short.

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County Stories

For Harris County Judge, Parker likely headed to runoff against Plummer for Democrats; Sanchez, Lancton headed to runoff

By late Tuesday, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker held a substantial lead in her bid for the Harris County Judge’s seat in the Democratic primary election, according to initial results. But she was not quite in a position to avoid a runoff. Parker received 48.6% of the vote during the early voting period, compared to former Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer’s 37.5%, according to incomplete returns. Matt Salazar, the only other Democratic candidate on the ballot, had received 14%. If either candidates fail to gain 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to a May 26 runoff election.

In the six-candidate Republican primary, former Harris County treasurer Orlando Sanchez led the race with 25.9% of the early vote, and Houston firefighters union leader Marty Lancton was running second at 22.4%.The two primary winners will compete in the November general election for the right to be the chief executive of the third-largest county in the United States.

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Nirenberg declares victory in Bexar County judge race

Ron Nirenberg is a big step closer to holding one of the San Antonio area’s most powerful elected positions — once again. The former mayor declared victory Tuesday evening in the Democratic primary against incumbent County Judge Peter Sakai. Sixty-two percent of Bexar County's 120,000 early voters chose Nirenberg, according to unofficial results. Sakai trailed by nearly 30,000 votes. "Tonight, you elected me as your Democratic nominee for Bexar County judge," Nirenberg said as supporters cheered at Backyard on Broadway, a patio bar and restaurant. Nirenberg said that if he's elected county judge, he plans to appeal to people who "don't trust that government is worth their time."

"If we want to restore that faith, we have to start right here at home, at the local level. Because hope comes from government that keeps its promises and it's the steady, quiet — proof that even in it's worst times, Bexar County will be at its best," Nirenberg said. "And today we have taken a massive step toward making that promise a reality." About 150 people sipped beer and ate pizza as Nirenberg spoke. His wife, Erika Prosper Nirenberg, stood to his right, and his teenage son, Noah, was on FaceTime watching his dad speak at the podium. Sakai spoke for just over one minute as his supporters gathered at La Fonda in Alamo Heights. He stopped short of conceding, saying, "It ain’t over till it’s over." "I just again want to say thank you to all of you who have been a part of this journey," said Sakai, 71. "We will continue on. No matter what the outcome, I will respect the voters and the decisions they made today." Nirenberg is set to face conservative activist Patrick Von Dohlen in the November general election. Von Dohlen, a three-time City Council candidate known for his staunch position against abortion, is the lone Republican running for the position. Bexar County voters have not elected a Republican county judge since 1998.

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National Stories

Tensions flare as lawmakers question Iran war’s costs, risks and strategy

Tensions flared as questions mounted at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday over the Trump administration’s shifting rationale for war with Iran as lawmakers demand answers over the strategy, exit plan and costs to Americans in lives and dollars for what is quickly becoming a widening Middle East conflict. Trump officials made their case at the Capitol during a second day of closed-door briefings, this time with all members of the House and Senate ahead of a looming war powers resolution vote intended to restrict Trump’s ability to continue the joint U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran. “The president determined we were not going to get hit first. It’s that simple,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a testy exchange with reporters at the Capitol.

Rubio pushed back on his own suggestion a day earlier that Trump decided to strike Iran because Israel was ready to act first. Instead, he said Trump made the decision to attack this past weekend because it presented a unique opportunity with maximum chance for success. “There is no way in the world that this terroristic regime was going to get nuclear weapons, not under Donald Trump’s watch,” he said. The sudden pivot to a U.S. wartime footing has disrupted the political and policy agenda on Capitol Hill and raised uneasy questions about the risks ahead for a prolonged conflict and regime change after the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. At least six U.S. military service personnel have died so far. The situation has intensified the push in Congress for the war powers resolution — among the most consequential votes a lawmaker can take, with the war well underway — as administration officials are telling lawmakers they will likely need supplemental funds to pay for the conflict. It comes at the start of a highly competitive midterm election season that will test Trump’s slim GOP control of Congress. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer left the closed hearing, saying he was concerned about “mission creep” in a long war.

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Key moments from Kristi Noem’s Congressional testimony

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, where she fielded questions about deportation quotas, her spending on TV ads and the Trump administration’s immigration operations in Minneapolis. Here are some takeaways: North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis said Homeland Security had been “a disaster” under Noem’s leadership, characterized by imprecise immigration enforcement in the pursuit of arbitrary deportation targets. “We just want numbers. We want 1,000 a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day because numbers matter, right?,” the senator said. “No, they don’t matter. Quality matters, not quantity, quality.” Tillis held up a letter from the DHS Office of Inspector General outlining 10 instances in which investigators said they were misled or blocked from pursuing investigations under Noem’s leadership. “That is stonewalling, that’s a failure of leadership and that is why I’ve called for your resignation,” he said.

Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy accused Noem of putting President Trump in a “terribly awkward spot” when Homeland Security spent $220 million on a TV-ad campaign that featured her prominently warning immigrants in the U.S. illegally—in English—to “leave now.” When Noem said the ads had effectively pressured unauthorized immigrants to leave the country, Kennedy shot back that the ads were “effective in building your name recognition.” The Wall Street Journal has previously reported the ads rankled many inside the administration because they thought the campaign was more focused on Noem than the administration’s message and signaled her own presidential aspirations. Noem told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Trump asked her several times to run the ads, which are still airing, and denied she improperly funneled most of the ad spend to a company run by the husband of her former spokeswoman. “It’s hard for me to believe, knowing the president as I do, that you said, ‘Mr. President here’s some ads I cut and I’m going to spend $220 million running them,’ that he would have agreed to that,” Kennedy said.

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U.S. takes military action in Ecuador against ‘terrorist organizations’

The United States and Ecuador have launched joint military operations against “designated terrorist organizations” in the South American country, the Pentagon said on Tuesday night, in what appeared to be a major expansion of the U.S. military’s unilateral strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific that the Trump administration has accused of carrying drugs. U.S. Special Forces soldiers are advising and supporting Ecuadorean commandos on raids across the country against suspected drug shipment facilities and other drug-related sites, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The Americans are not believed to be participating in the actual raids, but are helping the Ecuadorean troops plan their operations, and are providing intelligence and logistics support, the official said.

In a 30-second video released by the military’s Southern Command, a helicopter is seen taking off in early morning or dusk, flying over an area, then picking up soldiers. The U.S. official said the video depicted the first in what was expected to be a series of raids across the country, some with U.S. advisers assisting nearby, some with Ecuadorean forces only. In this instance, involving mostly Ecuadorean forces, the official said, it was unclear what the mission’s objective was or whether it was successful. “The operations are a powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism,” the United States Southern Command said in a statement, which did not provide other details about the operations. The White House did not immediately comment on the military activity. In a visit to Ecuador last September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly implied that the United States and Ecuador might conduct joint strikes. Across Latin America, cartels have battled each other and authorities to produce cocaine and smuggle it to the United States. Ecuador, the world’s largest exporter of the drug, does not produce it, but serves as a trafficking route for criminal groups operating in Colombia and Peru.

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S&P puts Paramount on negative credit watch

Paramount Skydance has been put on a watch by S&P Global for a possible credit rating downgrade after the studio prevailed against Netflix with a $31 per share bid to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery. The ratings firm has revised its outlook for Paramount to negative, while affirming its BB+ credit rating, on grounds Paramount will see its debt load likely grow beyond a red line for a possible downgrade. “While the company has yet to provide complete details around how it will finance the transaction, which we estimate will cost $111 billion (including the assumption of WBD’s debt and a one-time $2.8 billion termination payment to Netflix), we believe the purchase will increase its leverage well above our 4.25x downgrade threshold for the current rating,” S&P said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ratings firm’s caution assumes Paramount will have to take on substantial debt to acquire WBD and, while investing for growth, will also have to bring down its interest expense and borrowings. “We note that S&P Global adjusted leverage, which includes our adjustments for operating leases and restructuring charges and is net of cash, as of Dec 31, 2025 was 4.8x. PSKY has offered WBD’s shareholders a daily ticking fee starting after Sept. 30, 2026, until the transaction closes, which could add $650 million each quarter in additional costs to the transaction,” S&P added in its commentary. The ratings firm has a wait-and-see attitude toward Paramount to show operational and financial performance improvements over time. “If (Paramount) successfully completes the merger and integration, we would likely view the pro forma company more positively because it would have an enviable collection of marquee IP and the largest library of film and television content in the world. This would provide the company with the content and library to compete in the global streaming space and potentially help offset the declines in its linear TV business,” S&P argued.

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Congress is poised to pass its first major housing bill in more than a decade

A bipartisan pair of senators unveiled a new housing package this week that combines House- and Senate-passed legislation, putting Congress’ first major housing bill in more than a decade on a path to final passage in both chambers. The bill, spearheaded by Sens. Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, passed a key procedural hurdle Monday night and would include provisions from the Housing for the 21st Century Act. Both chambers have now passed separate housing packages, a rare spot of bipartisan agreement in a deeply polarized Congress. A final Senate vote on the combined package could be scheduled as soon as next week, a Senate aide told NOTUS. From there, the bill would need to clear the House before heading to the president’s desk.

Scott and Warren released the bill, called the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, on Monday, right before the Senate successfully advanced the measure in an 86-4 vote. “This week, the Senate is set to vote on housing affordability legislation, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, and my colleagues and I stand ready to deliver it to President Trump’s desk, fulfilling the promise he made to Americans at the State of the Union,” Scott, the chair of the banking committee, said in a statement. Before that happens, the legislation would need to clear several hurdles, including procedural votes in the Senate to adopt the new package. It would also need to gather the support of lawmakers in the House. NOTUS previously reported that lawmakers in the House are eager to work with the Senate to get housing legislation passed. And the top lawmaker on the House Financial Services Committee signaled last week that the two chambers plan to work closely to get it done.

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Following Iran strikes, Trump floods news outlets with one-on-one calls

Since the United States and Israel launched a joint strike against Iran on Saturday, President Donald Trump has taken a blitz of calls, often dubbed “exclusives,” with a list of eager reporters. Among the many interviewers: Natalie Allison of The Washington Post, Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times, Kristin Welker and Peter Nicholas of NBC News, Jake Tapper of CNN, Bret Baier and Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News, Jonathan Karl and Rachel Scott of ABC News, Barak Ravid of Axios, Michael Scherer of the Atlantic, Nikki Schwab of the Daily Mail, Jon Levine of the Washington Free Beacon, Mychael Schnell and Laura Barrón-López of MS NOW, Steven Nelson of the New York Post, Connor Stringer of the Telegraph, Dasha Burns of Politico, and Libby Blanca Alon of Israel’s Channel 14 News.

Although Trump has been known to occasionallycall reporters or sometimes pick up his cellphone when they call, the poststrike media offensive differs from the traditional executive office playbook.Presidents often make the case for military action to the public in a White House speech, a news conference or by sending administration officials to lay out the administration’s message on Sunday talk shows. In 2013, President Barack Obama sent Secretary of State John F. Kerry to all five major Sunday shows to make the case for Congress authorizing military intervention in Syria. The White House described the calls as offering intimate access to the president. “President Trump is the most transparent and accessible President in American history,” White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly wrote in an statement to The Post. “The American people have never had a more direct and authentic relationship with a President of the United States than they have with President Trump.” But Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, said the array of direct interviews offers Trump an opportunity to relay his talking points without being subjected to a cross-examination.

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Democrat flips Republican Arkansas House seat in special election

Democrat Alex Holladay is projected to win the special election to represent Arkansas’s House District 70, edging out Republican Bo Renshaw, according to Decision Desk HQ. The race was seen as a pickup opportunity for the Democrats after Holladay, in 2024, narrowly lost his bid to unseat Republican incumbent Carlton Wing, who eked out a 50.97 percent victory. But Wing resigned in September to become the executive director of Arkansas PBS, giving Holladay another opportunity to vie for the seat. Democrats’ successes in 2025 races had given the party hope for a better chance in this special election.

Holladay’s victory does not change control of the state’s lower legislative chamber, where Republicans have held a 80-19 majority. But the Democratic pickup could matter for appropriations bills, which require a 75-percent supermajority vote from both chambers. The margins especially matter this year, as Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) faces GOP backlash to her controversial push to build a 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County, despite local reporting suggesting resistance. The governor lost her bid to schedule the special election for June 9, which would have been after the fiscal session in April. The seat is in north Pulaski County and includes part of Sherwood and North Little Rock. Holladay is projected to represent the district during the fiscal session and finish out the term.

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Classified report finds Kristi Noem created security vulnerabilities at airports

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for months failed to appropriately respond to the findings of an internal watchdog that one of her biggest changes to airport security—allowing passengers to pass through screening checkpoints with their shoes on—is creating “significant” security risks, according to a letter from the inspector general reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and officials familiar with the matter. In July, she announced the change with great fanfare, granting the shoes-on policy to passengers even if they weren’t enrolled in the Transportation Security Administration’s precheck program. The announcement to eliminate what millions of travelers view as a nuisance was one of Noem’s most politically popular moves to date. But a classified November report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, the agency’s top watchdog, found that some of the TSA full-body scanners that most airline passengers pass through can’t scan shoes, according to people familiar with the report’s contents.

The report determined Noem’s policy move had inadvertently created a new security vulnerability in the system. Some White House officials have been made aware of the report. When the secretary’s office was briefed on the report, officials there gave it a higher level of classification and blocked it from being publicly released, people familiar with the matter said. A spokeswoman for the department disputed the inspector general’s claims and said Noem had appropriately responded to the findings. Many homeland-security officials said Noem’s handling of the inspector general report fits a pattern in which she has ignored or played down national-security concerns. In another instance, her office published photos of a secret government facility, publicizing a site meant to house the president in emergencies, officials said. Officials across the department have complained that Noem places priority on her public image and political standing in a way that jeopardizes her sprawling department’s core mission. In recent weeks, DHS has come under scrutiny, following two shootings of U.S. citizens by immigration agents. The Journal detailed earlier this month how Noem has attempted to burnish her personal stardom, staging a headline-grabbing immigration crackdown while retaliating against rivals and dissenters.

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Mary Ellen Klas: Can state election officials trust the White House?

(Mary Ellen Klas is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, she has covered politics and government for more than three decades.) After federal officials said last week that they didn’t plan to station immigration agents at voting locations during the midterm elections, secretaries of state from across the country had two reactions: relief and skepticism. In public comments and interviews, they said they were happy to see that the Trump administration appeared to be tamping down speculation that it would send ICE agents to polling places in the name of “verifying” voters. But they were not sure whether to believe it. “What we heard in the meeting is in stark contrast with what we're seeing in real life,” Steve Simon, Minnesota’s Democratic secretary of state, told me after the highly publicized virtual confab, which brought together state and federal officials. The meeting was called by the FBI and attended by officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and other federal agencies.

Secretaries of state from all 50 states and members of their staff were invited. But what should have been a routine conference call to hammer out how state and federal partners will work together throughout the election cycle instead left elections officials with new doubts. Simon’s skepticism was echoed by Democratic secretaries of state in Maine, Colorado and Arizona. Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams acknowledged the news on social media, but as with other Republican election officials, was notably silent about whether the comments were reassuring. On the eve of the first statewide primary elections of the midterm cycle on Tuesday, the fact that many state officials don’t trust their federal partners is a remarkable development. The US Constitution requires states to run elections. States establish rules and guidance and rely on the federal government for some funding and support. But states leave it to county officials to operate the mechanics of every election and count the votes. The brilliance of this decentralized system is that it makes it nearly impossible for a bad actor to hack the elections.

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Lead Stories

Autopsy reveals new details in self-immolation suicide of Tony Gonzales aide

Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, the congressional aide who had an affair with her boss, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, was legally intoxicated when she set herself on fire in her backyard in Uvalde, according to an autopsy report obtained by the San Antonio Express-News. Santos-Aviles, 35, had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.094 grams per deciliter, according to the five-page report from the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office. After lighting herself ablaze on the evening of Sept. 13, 2025, Santos-Aviles was flown to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where she died the next morning. It is illegal to drive in Texas and all other states with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 grams per deciliter or higher.

There is no evidence Santos-Aviles drove while intoxicated that night, but the toxicology results suggest her judgment may have been compromised. At a blood alcohol level of 0.08 — less than what was in in her system — “judgment, self-control, reasoning and memory are impaired,” and it is “harder to detect danger,” according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the hours before she soaked herself with gasoline and ignited the fluid with a handheld lighter, Santos-Aviles went to an Applebee's restaurant in Uvalde with longtime friends and members of their family, according to reports by police investigators. A member of the family told police Santos-Aviles had one alcoholic drink at the restaurant, and afterward she and another person stopped at a liquor store and purchased tequila, police reports state. Santos-Aviles drank some of the tequila at the friends' home. Because she had been drinking, one of the family members drove her to her own house at 8:15 p.m., police records state. She left her car behind.

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Texas primaries could test whether Latino support for GOP is holding after 2024 gains

Ongoing primary elections in Texas could be a first look at whether Latino swing voters, who are increasingly influential in state elections, are sticking with the Republican Party. These voters were key in President Trump's reelection in 2024 and helped Republicans win in parts of the state where they have historically struggled, mostly along the southern border. Those gains also played a key role in how Republicans reshaped the state's congressional lines at Trump's urging last year. Three out of the five seats that the Republicans drew to favor their party rely on continued support from Latino voters. Yet there have been some recent signs that Latinos in the state, as well as nationwide, are beginning to back away from the Republican Party. And primaries could provide another picture on where that support currently stands.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said Latinos are mainly a young population that is expanding Texas' pool of new voters. And they are also a voting bloc that is not consistently aligned with either major political party. "The Latino electorate has emerged as the biggest swing vote in Texas because they are willing to side with either party," he said, "depending on the kinds of issues that are presented by the candidates." The economy and immigration were top issues that drove many Texas Latinos to support Trump in 2024. But lingering high prices and cost-of-living issues could become a liability for Republicans in power. "There's a sense that the Republicans have squandered a situation where they were likely to get the Latino vote on their side for several election cycles," Rottinghaus said. Daniel Garza works as president of the LIBRE Initiative to mobilize Latino voters to support conservative candidates. He believes the economy will continue to be the deciding factor in whom these voters support.

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Iranian drones hit the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia, while hundreds are reported dead in Iran

Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital with a drone early Tuesday as it kept hitting targets around the region, while the United States and Israel pounded Iran with airstrikes in what U.S. President Donald Trump suggested was just the start of a relentless campaign that could last more than a month. The attack from two drones on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire” and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry, and the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound. It followed an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, which announced Tuesday it had been closed until further notice. The U.S. State Department also ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Kuwait, as well as Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates as a precaution. The expanding conflict has so far killed hundreds of people, the vast majority in Iran.

Across Iran’s capital, explosions rang out throughout the night into Tuesday, with aircraft heard overhead. It was not immediately clear what had been hit. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site had sustained “some recent damage,” though there was “no radiological consequence expected.” Natanz earlier came under attack by the U.S. in the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June. In Lebanon, Israel launched more strikes on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia group. Explosions could be heard and smoke seen in a southern suburb of Beirut. Israel also said its soldiers were “operating in southern Lebanon.” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the Lebanese army was evacuating some of its positions along the border. The expansion of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the intensity of the Israeli and American attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the lack of any apparent exit plan portend a possibly prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences. Iran has hit many countries deemed safe havens in the Mideast in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli strikes. Recent targets include two Amazon data centers in the UAE and a drone impact near another in Bahrain that caused damage, the company said Tuesday. Iran has also hit energy facilities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and attacked several ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes, sending global oil and natural gas prices soaring. “The Strait of Hormuz is closed,” declared Iranian Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, threatening to set fire to any ships attempting to transit. “Don’t come to this region.”

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Epstein’s New Mexico ranch gets scrutiny at last. It may be too late.

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s most secretive and least scrutinized former properties is not an island. But it might as well be. His palatial 30,000-square-foot New Mexico mansion sits on a ridge overlooking thousands of acres of southwestern land he named Zorro Ranch. A sea of tufted grass, prickly cholla cactus and cracked arroyos, the sparsely populated high desert south of Santa Fe is a land where the nearest neighbors are miles away and most everyone minds their own business. Some of the financier’s victims have said they were trafficked there, famous figures visited, and Mr. Epstein mused about turning Zorro into a headquarters for outlandish genetic engineering experiments. And yet, New Mexico leaders say there has never been a thorough investigation of the criminal activity that may have occurred at the ranch during the 26 years the convicted sex offender owned it.

A state-led inquiry into Mr. Epstein’s actions was taken over by federal prosecutors in 2019, and then apparently fizzled, according to New Mexico officials and recently unsealed records. Last month, lawmakers in New Mexico, spurred by the Justice Department’s latest release of Epstein documents, voted unanimously to change that, impaneling a bipartisan four-member “truth commission” in the State Legislature, equipped with subpoena power, to probe the sordid history of Zorro Ranch. The state’s attorney general also announced he would reopen an investigation his office had closed shortly before Mr. Epstein’s death in 2019. “We need to find out how he was able to operate without any accountability,” said Andrea Romero, a New Mexico state representative from Santa Fe who is leading the truth commission. “We have to understand what allowed this to happen.” That won’t be easy. Since Mr. Epstein’s death, the property has changed hands, potentially complicating the state’s investigation. The new owner, a Dallas real estate magnate and former state senator named Don Huffines, is running for comptroller of Texas, an inopportune moment for investigators, though he has said he would cooperate with law enforcement.

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State Stories

A third victim has died from the Buford's shooting, Austin Police say

Austin Police have identified three people killed in Sunday's shooting at a bar on West Sixth Street as investigators said they were still working to determine why the shooter opened fire. The shooting at Buford's bar early Sunday left four dead, including the suspected shooter, and as many as 13 others wounded. At a news conference on Monday, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis named two victims: 19-year-old Ryder Harrington and 21-year-old Savitha Shan. Late Monday, APD released the name of a third victim who has died: 30-year-old Jorge Pederson. Davis had stated earlier at the press conference that a person hospitalized from the shooting was expected to be taken off life support later that day.

Before APD updated on Pederson's condition, Austin-Travis County EMS had said 14 people were hospitalized and three of those victims were in critical condition. Police identified 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne as the man who allegedly fired into the bar from a vehicle before exiting the car and shooting into crowds near the popular bar. Officers responded within a minute of receiving the first 911 call, police said, and fatally shot Diagne early Sunday morning. In a news conference Monday, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson praised the speed of the city's first responders, but he also praised the people of Austin for supporting one another amid a traumatic event. "I want to also say how proud I am and how the people that are this city have reacted with such great compassion," Watson said. "We're all mourning together and grieving as a group, but we're seeing tremendous compassion and love coming out of the people of Austin." APD is investigating the incident along with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Chief Davis said Monday that Diagne was wearing a shirt related to Iran. On Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned against potential attacks stemming from U.S. actions in Iran.

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71 Texas lawmakers call on Congress to pause immigration after the Sixth Street massacre

A group of 71 Texas lawmakers asked Congressional leaders to pause immigration in the wake of the deadly massacre on Sixth Street in Austin over the weekend. The FBI suspects Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old naturalized citizen originally from Sengal, opened fire into Buford’s Bar on Sixth Street killing two people and wounding 14 others. Police shot and killed Diagne on the street during his rampage as he wore a sweatshirt with the words “Property of Allah” printed on the front. “Terrorists do not care about party affiliation,” wrote state Rep. Cole Hefner, R-Mount Pleasant, and chairman of the Texas House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs. “While Americans on both sides of the aisle disagree—sometimes fiercely—on policy, we share far more in common with one another than we will ever share with radical Islamic extremism.”

The 71 Texas lawmakers, all Republican, listed four demands in their letter to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Minority Leader, Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune, and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. First, they asked Congress to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Democrats refused to approve funding for DHS after masked federal agents participated in a violent roundup of people in Minneapolis that left two Americans dead. “Budgetary obstruction and political gamesmanship that starves DHS of the resources it needs is not a negotiating tactic, it is a national security failure,” the Texas Republicans wrote. Second, the Texans asked Congress to immediately freeze all H-1B visas and called for a “comprehensive audit of existing visa holders and their current status is completed.” Third, the Texans demanded Congress pause all immigration until proper vetting protocols are established.

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$100 a barrel? How the war in Iran could affect oil and gas prices in Houston

Oil prices could surge to $100 a barrel if war with Iran continues, delivering a boost for Houston’s oil industry and pain at the pump for American consumers. The conflict is choking off oil and gas tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for 15% of the world’s oil supply and 20% of natural gas cargoes. Oil prices surged 13% since Thursday, leveling out around $71 in Monday afternoon trading. Just how much the price of oil could jump and how much impact Houston will feel depends on how long the conflict hampers global oil trade.

“If the reduction in tanker traffic continues for a week or so, it will be historic,” Jim Burkhard, S&P Global’s vice president and global head of crude oil research, said in a statement. “Beyond that it would be epochal for the oil market with prices rising to ration scarce supply and impacts in financial markets.” Gasoline prices will likely begin to rise Monday or Tuesday, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. Fuel pump prices will continue to rise over the next week to reflect the jump in oil prices that occurred over the weekend, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. “The biggest impact is going to be on diesel prices, which have increased by about 25 cents per gallon,” Lipow said, noting much of the world’s diesel supplies come from the Middle East. The conflict in Iran and the associated surge in oil prices add to the seasonal price swing already underway. The geopolitical incident coincides with seasonal shifts that push up fuel prices each year as refineries undergo spring maintenance while they transition to more costly fuel blends for the summer season, limiting output and pushing up prices at a time when the weather warms and consumers start driving more.

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Texas’ $10M bitcoin investment slips into the red amid crypto price dive

Boosted by a pro-cryptocurrency Trump administration, digital coins spent most of last year soaring to new heights. Bitcoin, the world’s most popular digital currency, skyrocketed from below $70,000 before the 2024 election to above $126,000 in October, an all-time high. But this year, amid broader geopolitical turbulence, economic uncertainty and growing pessimism around alternative investments, crypto has been in a nosedive, falling to a recent low below $64,000 — wiping out its entire run up from Trump’s second term. Other popular cryptos, including Ethereum, have also been plunging, and some analysts have been warning much steeper drops could be coming. “The crypto bubble is imploding,” Mike McGlone, a senior strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote recently on LinkedIn.

Early Monday, Bitcoin posted something of a rebound, pushing back near $70,000, although the digital coin was still off more than 20% year-to-date. The recent tumble means Texas taxpayers are also in the red. Last year, as part of a broader, yearslong push to transform the state into a “crypto capital,” Gov. Greg Abbott signed a high-profile bill establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” — essentially a new state investment fund, controlled by the Texas comptroller’s office and funded with public dollars that would buy and potentially sell crypto. In late November, the office made the fund’s first first purchase, buying around $5 million of a Bitcoin ETF, or exchange-traded fund. On Dec. 15, the state made another $5 million purchase of the same ETF, the comptroller’s office recently told The Dallas Morning News. Texas made its first purchase when Bitcoin was trading at around $91,000, and the second when it was trading around $87,000. The purchase prices mean that as of early Monday the state’s $10 million cumulative investment was valued around $7.8 million.

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Recent report shows data centers may negatively impact Texas’ water supply

Texas is home to 464 data centers, with over 70 additional sites under development, and the increasing water demand for these facilities is expected to continue to rise, according to a newly released report. In a state plagued by drought and a rapidly growing population, many people are concerned that these data centers are not disclosing how much water they plan to use. Using energy forecasts used at data centers, the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) estimated that Texas uses 8 billion gallons of water annually. Vice president for water and community resilience and the report’s author, Margaret Cook, emphasized the need for transparency between data centers and communities.

"It’s important because we don’t have a whole lot of information about this," Cook said. "It’s a big phenomenon. It’s influencing a lot of communities, and community members don’t feel like they have enough information about these large water users coming into their community." Without knowing the facilities’ true impact, Cook said it's more difficult to create a state-wide water strategy. Increases in water usage are often tied to data center upgrades. Cities that build new pipelines or wells for these facilities could see an influx of taxpayer dollars. According to Cook, data centers may share information during negotiations, but often under a non-disclosure agreement. "They could be providing normal water rates, but they’re not accounting for the additional water supply and additional infrastructure that they’re going to need in the future, that this data center is adding to their community’s burden," Cook said.

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Houston rodeo begins its 94th season. Here’s how it’s addressing public safety

Monday kicked off the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, one of the most highly anticipated and highly attended local events of the year. This year’s rodeo comes on the heels of a deadly shooting in Austin that has prompted security concerns statewide. A shooting in Austin left two dead and injured 14 others, after a man allegedly fired a gun from his car into a downtown bar. The shooter, identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, allegedly exited his car and shot into crowds before being killed by police. The rodeo does not have a clear bag policy and permits small purses or backpacks to be brought into NRG Park. Prohibited items include fireworks, laser pointers, or other weapons in general.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo does not allow firearms, whether open carry or concealed, according to the rodeo's website. Security at the rodeo includes the use of a body wand, checking bags at entrances, and random bag checks within NRG Park. “The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is committed to providing a safe, family-friendly environment for our community," a spokesperson for the rodeo said in a statement. "The safety of our guests, volunteers, staff and participants is our highest priority. We work year-round with law enforcement partners to implement and continuously evaluate comprehensive security measures, supported by state-of-the-art technology. We are focused on delivering a secure and welcoming experience at this year’s Rodeo.” In a statement on Saturday following the shooting, Governor Greg Abbott said he directed the Texas Military Department to send service members across the state, as well as increasing patrols at "vital energy facilities, ports, and along our border." Firearm bans at major events have drawn scrutiny in the past. The State Fair of Texas issued a ban on firearms after a 2023 shooting, prompting a lawsuit from the Texas Attorney General's office which was ultimately dismissed by a Dallas County judge.

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The Texas Senate primary ad wars have been expensive and the ads predictable.

$121 million is a lot of money to spend on five people. But that’s how much has been spent in the Democratic and Republican primaries for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by veteran Sen. John Cornyn. He is in a contentious primary against Attorney General Ken Paxton and Congressman Wesley Hunt. And has been running advertisements touting his re-election since last year. Cornyn and outside groups have spent nearly $65 million supporting the incumbent, with Hunt trailing at $11 million and presumed frontrunner Paxton’s total at $3.6 million. And we’re not even in the expected runoff. On the Democratic side, the leading candidates are Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett of Dallas and State Representative James Talarico of Austin. Talarico and his allies have spent around $18 million in his run while Crockett’s so far spent about $4.5 million.

Introductions are everything, and Cornyn mastered it in 2008 when he rolled out his tongue in cheek advertisement “Big John” at the 2008 Republican Party of Texas convention. It was a knock off of a Jimmy Dean commercial, where a man with a low tenor voice extolls the virtues of Cornyn. Dressed as if he’s a ranch hand, the senator – then running for his second term – is described in the narrator’s deep, crooning voice as a fighter for Texas who delivers for his state. “He rose to the top in just one term, kept Texas in power, made lesser states squirm—big John … big, bad John,” he says. Career defining as it may be, it was instantly mocked by the political press mocked. Nonetheless Big John easily defeated his Democratic opponent former State Representative Rick Noriega of Houston that fall in Texas. Paxton kicked off his campaign implying support from President Trump, although the president has actually withheld an endorsement in the race, most recently calling all three candidates “good guys.” But the insinuation in the ad pulls from past comments made by Trump supporting Paxton. At one point, Trump calls Paxton “a really talented guy.” In another, Trump says, “I wish I had him in the White House!” The advertisement has one message, and that is “Trump/Paxton.” Paxton speaks only once, at the end, with the disclaimer “I’m Ken Paxton and I approve this message.”

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North Texas officials discuss how to plan for region's water future

Dozens of North Texas officials are voicing their worries, ideas and dreams about the area’s water resources, as a regional influx of businesses and residents ramp up pressure to address looming scarcity concerns. On Friday, experts and decision-makers participated in a water workshop at the University of Texas at Arlington as part of Vision North Texas 2.0, a revamped public-private-academic partnership. The event brought together representatives from water utilities, regional groups, municipalities, consulting firms and more to discuss the region’s long-term water supply, infrastructure, growth pressures and resilience challenges. North Texas’ population is expected to surge to more than 12 million by 2050. That raises the stakes for the group, which is working to address regional growth while enhancing economic vitality, quality of life and long-term sustainability across 16 counties.

This was the first in a series of workshops that will have different themes, but leaders said beginning with a look at the state of water in the region made the most sense. “Our region is growing at a pace that few parts of the country can match,” Ming-Han Li, dean of the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs, or CAPPA, at UT Arlington, told the crowd. “That growth comes with extraordinary opportunities and responsibilities.” No one is bringing water with them, Li said, before posing questions to the group on how leaders can anticipate future drought rather than react to it. “How can we build a future when water is not a constraint but a catalyst for the thriving, equitable and resilient region we aspire to create?” Li said. CAPPA is a Vision North Texas 2.0 partner along with the North Central Texas Council of Governments, Urban Land Institute Dallas-Fort Worth and the North Texas Commission.

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Iranian drones hit the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia, while hundreds are reported dead in Iran

Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital with a drone early Tuesday as it kept hitting targets around the region, while the United States and Israel pounded Iran with airstrikes in what U.S. President Donald Trump suggested was just the start of a relentless campaign that could last more than a month. The attack from two drones on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire” and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry, and the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound. It followed an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, which announced Tuesday it had been closed until further notice. The U.S. State Department also ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Kuwait, as well as Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates as a precaution.

The expanding conflict has so far killed hundreds of people, the vast majority in Iran. Across Iran’s capital, explosions rang out throughout the night into Tuesday, with aircraft heard overhead. It was not immediately clear what had been hit. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site had sustained “some recent damage,” though there was “no radiological consequence expected.” Natanz earlier came under attack by the U.S. in the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June. Related Stories As Mideast conflict widens, US says attacks on Iran will last weeks and intensify US and Israel pound Iran as Trump signals willingness to talk to new leaders after Khamenei's death What to know about the new US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

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US moving pregnant immigrant girls to Texas to avoid providing abortions, critics say

All unaccompanied immigrant children who are pregnant, many by rape, are being moved to a single facility in Texas in order to avoid providing abortion services in a significant human rights violation, critics say. As detainees are frequently moved across state lines quickly, often to red states like Texas, pregnant people are facing challenges accessing reproductive health care in detention centers. Unaccompanied minors who lack immigration documentation are at high risk for trafficking and other forms of harm, so they fall under the care of the office of refugee resettlement (ORR), which previously had facilities across the country capable of caring for children under the age of 18 who are pregnant. Since July, more than a dozen pregnant children have been moved to a single facility in the small town of San Benito, along the south Texas border. The children kept in Texas are as young as 13, and about half are pregnant because of rape, according to a joint investigation by the Texas Newsroom and the California Newsroom.

In Texas, abortion is banned in nearly all circumstances, including rape and incest. “It’s a choice to ensure zero abortions,” said Jonathan White, a former top official working with children’s programs in the ORR under the Obama and Trump administrations. When a pregnant child is moved to Texas, “as long as she is in Texas, she can’t access an abortion – without a federal official needing to deny her an abortion”, he said. The move amplifies existing concerns about reproductive healthcare in immigration detention centers, including allegations over the lack of appropriate healthcare for pregnant people, separation of nursing parents and infants, and forced sterilization in immigration facilities. The “total disregard” for the rights of pregnant and nursing detainees is a “dramatic violation” of international law and public health practices ensuring consensual medical treatment, said Diana Romero, professor and director of the Center on Immigrant, Refugee and Global Health at the CUNY graduate school of public health. Forcing any individual to carry a pregnancy to term is an “egregious” violation of rights, and relocation from other locations around the country to states with more restrictive abortion laws “adds a whole other layer of concern”, Romero said.

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Brian Babin backs Houston’s bid to host major global space event

Houston is in the running to host the 80th International Astronautical Congress. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has submitted a bid to host the event in October 2029 — just months after the 60th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, a Texas Republican and chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, has written a letter backing the AIAA.

“Hosting the (International Astronautical Congress) in the United States would provide a valuable opportunity to reinforce global collaboration at a time when international cooperation in space is essential to scientific discovery, economic growth and the peaceful use of outer space,” Babin wrote in a letter on Monday to the International Astronautical Federation, which organizes the event. “It would also underscore the United States’ commitment to open dialogue, international partnership, and the advancement of a safe, sustainable and innovative space ecosystem.” The International Astronautical Congress is the world’s largest global space congress. It attracts governments, space agencies, industry leaders, researchers and students from around the world, according to a news release from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). AIAA has previously hosted six of these global space events, including the 2002 event in Houston. It estimates the 2029 congress could generate $35 million in economic impact for Texas and attract more than 13,000 delegates from over 80 countries.

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Ryan Patrick: Texas should follow Florida’s lead in acting on litigation reform

(Ryan Patrick is the CEO of Texans for Lawsuit Reform and previously served as US attorney for the Southern District of Texas, a Texas district court judge, and a law firm partner in private practice.) From the ‘90s to early 2000s, Texas was the undisputed leader in civil justice reform. The question now is whether it intends to lead again by modernizing how medical damages are presented to juries or accept the consequences of falling behind as litigation costs spiral. Reestablishing fairness and transparency in medical damages is the clearest place to start. Insurance markets across the US are sending increasingly clear signals about how states price litigation risk. Florida, once described as a “judicial hellhole,” finally responded in 2023 by modernizing its civil justice systems and curbing inflated medical damages. Texas, meanwhile, hesitated. Florida’s experience shows how quickly capital markets respond when the rules become fair and predictable. When litigation risk falls, competition returns. Texas is now testing the opposite hypothesis: What happens when reform stalls?

The answer is hitting Texans in their wallets and difficult budget conversations around the dinner table. Insurance rates in Texas are climbing at one of the fastest paces in the country. Texans now pay the fourth-highest combined home and auto insurance costs nationwide, with homeowners rates rising 19% in 2024 and auto insurance premiums jumping 25% in a single year. But insurance rates aren’t the only things rising in Texas. In 2024, Texas led the nation in “nuclear verdicts,” or jury awards exceeding $10 million. This creates a parasitic cycle where excessive verdicts feed off insurance pools, which reappear as higher premiums for families and businesses. As insurers absorb outsized jury awards, they respond by raising liability premiums for employers, who in turn pass those added costs along to consumers through higher prices and reduced services.

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County Stories

Pretrial set to start for 2 former Tarrant County jailers indicted in Anthony Johnson, Jr.'s death

The pretrial for two former Tarrant County Jail officers indicted for murder in the death of Anthony Johnson, Jr. is set for Tuesday morning. Joel Garcia, 49, and Rafael Moreno, 39, were among several jailers that responded to an altercation with Johnson, a Marine veteran whose family says was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Partially released video footage from April 21, 2024, shows jailers pepper spraying Johnson in the face while restraining him face down on the ground. Moreno knelt on Johnson’s back for about 90 seconds, and Johnson can be heard saying he can’t breathe. Garcia, who was Moreno’s supervisor, recorded the incident on his phone. Johnson died after the altercation. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a homicide by asphyxiation.

Rafael Moreno and Joel Garcia were fired in May 2024, reinstated after the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said they were incorrectly dismissed, then fired again. Both were indicted for murder in June 2024 and arrested a few days after, court records show. Daryl Washington, attorney for the Johnson family, told KERA News Monday he expects the trial will start sometime this year. “The family is anxious,” Washington said. “Their son was wrongfully taken away from them. And they want answers.” KERA News reached out to Garcia and Moreno’s attorneys and will update this story with any response. For nearly two years, the Johnson family has demanded accountability from Tarrant County and its staff. They filed a federal lawsuit against the county and 15 jailers, including Garcia and Moreno, for their son’s wrongful death.

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City Stories

Henry S. Miller III, RIP

The family of Henry S. Miller III announced this morning that Miller, who is credited with developing West Village and for his work in Highland Park Village and Preston Royal Village, died Saturday. He was 79.

“Long before mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly urban districts became standard in American cities, he imagined a Dallas where shopping, dining, living, and public life could coexist seamlessly—and brought that vision to life with West Village,” an obituary accompanying the announcement said. West Village opened in Uptown in 2001. Miller’s father and the family purchased Highland Park Village in 1976, working to bring in new tenants and revitalize the center over time. That also meant maintaining a movie theater and a grocery store there at a loss, the family says, because he felt the shopping center belonged to the neighborhood. The family sold Highland Park Village in 2009. Miller is survived by his children, Kathryn Miller Rabey and her children Nicholas, Maximilian, and Olivia; Henry S. Miller IV and his wife Lydia, and their children Henry, Jack, Owen, and Mimi; Michael Alexander Miller and his wife Lindsey, and their children Layton Garrett, Miles, and Samuel; and Alexander Lewis Miller. Henry is also survived by his sisters, Patsy Miller Donosky and Jacqueline Miller Stewart and a large extended family. He was preceded in death by his brother, Vance C. Miller.

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Houston’s 1940 Air Terminal Museum announces abrupt closure in midnight post

The 1940 Air Terminal Museum, a longstanding tribute to Houston's aviation history, has closed because it was no longer economically sustainable, according to its president. The museum is adjacent to Houston's Hobby Airport. Karen Nicolaou, president and director of The Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society, the nonprofit that operates the museum, said she hopes the closure is temporary as a workable financial solution is sought. "The museum has ceased operations at this time," according a Facebook post. "Thank you to everyone who has contributed."

More than 50 people commented on the closure online since the announcement, which was posted at midnight on Monday, with many wondering what happened, if the closure was temporary and what will happen to the building and exhibits. The Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society nonprofit leases space in the old terminal building for the museum. She said the building is owned by Houston Airport System which reports to the city of Houston and the mayor's office and it is governed by federal aviation regulations. On March 6, 2019, the Houston Municipal Terminal Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places and is a recognized piece of history by the city of Houston. As a nonprofit that leases the building, she said they face restrictions on where they can get their funding and how they use the space. The final blow, Nicolaou said, was Facebook's refusal to let the group pay to promote their raffle fundraiser on the platform because the company considered it gambling. The board of the nonprofit hosted a raffle for a 1928 Ford Model A in December 2025 and had held a raffle the previous year as well. The group also tried raising money through GoFundMe pages and other methods before the closure. She said the raffle makes up over 50% of their budget and they've been doing the raffle for 10 years. The museum's website lists major benefactors for the museum which include United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Texas Preservation Trust, The Strake Foundation, The Houston Endowment and others.

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National Stories

Lawmakers: Israeli plan to attack Iran dictated Trump’s decision on strikes

Senior lawmakers in both parties said Monday that the Trump administration’s decision to launch bombing and missile strikes across Iran this weekend was largely dictated by Israel’s plan to attack Iran with or without U.S. support. Senior administration officials told Republican and Democratic lawmakers at a classified briefing on Capitol Hill that the Israeli plan to strike Iran pushed the United States to take preemptive action to protect U.S. troops stationed at bases throughout the Middle East, whom the Pentagon believed would have been targeted by retaliatory strikes. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who serves as vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee attended the briefing, said the decision to initiate a massive military assault on another country because of pressure from a U.S. ally put the nation in “uncharted” territory.

“This is still a war of choice that has been acknowledged by others that was dictated by Israel’s goals and timeline,” Warner told reporters at the briefing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine provided the briefing to lawmakers Monday afternoon. Warner said he supports Israel, but he questioned the decision to put American lives at risk when an imminent threat may be directed at an ally instead of the United States itself. “Israel is a great ally of America. I stand firmly with Israel. But I believe at the end of the day when we are talking about putting American soldiers in harm’s way and we have American casualties and expectations of more, there needs to be the proof of an imminent threat to American interests. I still don’t think that standard has been met,” he said. Warner argued if the military operation against Iran “was being driven by imminent security threats from Iran against America, I think we would have had better planning.”

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Solar power’s newest friends: MAGA influencers

Environmentalists and solar power proponents have found a pair of surprise allies: Katie Miller and Kellyanne Conway. Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Conway, the polling guru who led President Donald Trump’s first campaign, raised eyebrows this month when they publicly touted the clean energy source that has come under fire from the Trump administration. According to a confidential strategy memo obtained by POLITICO, their advocacy is aligned with a campaign by members of the nation’s largest renewable energy lobby group to MAGA-fy solar power — technology that Trump once derided as “a blight on our country.”

The memo distributed earlier this month shows the American Clean Power Association launched the “American Energy First” campaign to engage Conway and conservative influencers like Miller “to amplify the benefits of solar energy” and “note the harm that could result from reckless trade policy.” The memo lays out a strategy to leverage recent Conway-driven polling data — commissioned by American Energy First and conducted in December — showing solar power was popular with Trump’s base. “As part of the campaign, ACP is working with a series of conservative influencers to secure opinion media placements authored by conservative columnists, former Republican lawmakers, and other credible Republican voices in conservative outlets,” the memo says. The campaign will expand in the coming weeks, it states, “with the release of polling data from a Trump aligned firm, paid media partnerships with podcasts like the Katie Miller Pod (Steven Miller’s wife), as well as advertorials and sponsorships with right-of-center publications like the Washington Reporter, The Dispatch and The Federalist.”

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Tariffs confound small businesses again

President Trump’s whipsawing trade policy last year destabilized many American businesses. His new push to replace the system with a different batch of duties has bewildered companies all over again. Since the Supreme Court invalidated many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs last month, his administration has vowed to use other legal authorities to rebuild the program. Almost immediately, Mr. Trump wielded an unproven legal provision to enact a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on U.S. trading partners and threatened to raise the rate. The haphazard rollout has introduced a tangle of unknowns for companies. A new tariff system could upend months of business decisions, and many companies are bracing for prolonged uncertainty. They are also considering whether and how to seek refunds on tariffs they paid — and, if they receive them, whether they would return any money to customers.

Peter Furth, whose company, FFF Associates in Stamford, Conn., imports fig paste from Turkey and Spain, said Mr. Trump’s tariffs had driven up costs and destroyed his cash flow. Mr. Furth has been passing on the additional costs to his customers, which include Mondelez, the maker of Fig Newtons; Nature’s Bakery; and J&J Snack Foods. He said he believed he had a contractual, and moral, obligation to return any tariff refund to customers. “I owe it back to them,” he said. “It’s very simple.” Smaller businesses like his have been particularly unmoored by the latest shifts in trade policy because, as during last year’s tariff chaos, they lack the legal and financial resources to weather unpredictability smoothly. “The level of uncertainty is crazy,” said Matt Weyandt, a co-founder of Xocolatl Chocolate, a craft chocolate maker in Atlanta. Mr. Weyandt, whose company sources cacao beans from countries including Peru, Nicaragua and Tanzania, is trying to establish whether exemptions on foreign agricultural products previously enacted by the Trump administration still stood, to no avail, he said. He was intrigued by the prospect of seeking a tariff refund, he said, but had no idea how to go about it.

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Trump, who campaigned against 'endless' wars, enters Iran with no end date

To win the White House in 2016, Donald Trump first had to get by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two past presidents inextricably linked with U.S. wars in the Middle East. Attacking the Bush family dynasty — and its legacy — became a feature of Trump’s campaign. And that meant doubling down on criticism of the Iraq War that President George W. Bush had led the United States into under the premise of finding weapons of mass destruction that never materialized. “The war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,” Trump responded, when asked at a Republican presidential debate in February 2016 if he still believed, as he said he did in 2008, that Bush should have been impeached for it.

“We can make mistakes,” Trump added. “But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq.” The moment was one of many in Trump’s long history of denouncing forever wars and promising, as president himself, to keep the U.S. out of the sorts of foreign entanglements that could lead to them. But one year into his second term, Trump has ordered military action in multiple countries, including the January strike on Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro. And now with the war in Iran, Trump has plunged America into its most significant conflict since the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — without any congressional approval. “President Trump’s courageous decision to launch Operation Epic Fury is grounded in a truth that presidents for nearly 50 years have been talking about, but no president had the courage to confront: Iran poses a direct and imminent threat to the United States of America and our troops in the Middle East,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an emailed statement. “The rogue Iranian Regime under the evil hand of the Ayatollah has killed and maimed thousands of American citizens and soldiers over the years — and that ends with President Trump.” Trump’s successful 2024 campaign to return to power was predicated in large part on how he hadn’t started any wars in his first term. “My entire adult lifetime has been shaped by presidents who threw America into unwise wars and failed to win them,” Trump’s future vice president, JD Vance, wrote for The Wall Street Journal in a January 2023 guest column endorsing Trump’s 2024 bid.

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America’s billionaires continue to flock to Wyoming

At his childhood home in Nebraska that lacked the comforts of television and air conditioning, Joe Ricketts learned that honest work and neighborly values were keys to success. After graduating college, he persuaded friends and family to lend him $12,500 in seed money for what became Ameritrade, the investing firm that would go on to disrupt the Wall Street trading establishment and put Mr. Ricketts on a path to riches. By 2015, his wealth had grown to $1 billion, and even that stunning figure now feels like a quaint memory, as the powerful elixir of rising stocks and falling taxes that has minted new billionaires across the country has catapulted Mr. Ricketts’s personal net worth to $8 billion. Along the way, Mr. Ricketts found new community in and around Jackson, Wyo., a playground for the rich. For some things, he has been celebrated: He has donated to research on conservation of red squirrels and American beavers. He contributed $1 million to building a hospital. He has taken pride in building a herd of white bison.

But lately some of his neighbors have come up against the raw power of Mr. Ricketts’s financial muscle. Many of them fought against a plan he advanced a few years ago to turn his ranch into a resort for wealthy tourists, proposing to bypass regulations that limit construction during the brutal winter months to protect local wildlife. Then, when community opponents dug in, Mr. Ricketts simply acquired a different piece of land — a $9 million parcel that officials had hoped to turn into public land that could benefit everyone. “There is not much we can do to rein that in,” said Luther Propst, a county commissioner in Teton County, home to Jackson and the mountain outposts that surround it. The Jackson Hole region has long been a refuge for the rich, but an explosion of new affluence has allowed a growing cadre of extraordinarily wealthy people to dominate both the local economy and Wyoming state politics. Teton County is not merely the richest county in the country, per capita, by far; it is a window into America’s near future, as the country enters a new gilded age, one in which millionaires are turning into billionaires overnight. It is not merely the majesty of the Teton Range and the winding Snake River that have made Jackson Hole a destination for the ultrawealthy. Unlike states like Washington and California, which are moving to tax millionaires and billionaires, Wyoming has helped the rich hold on to their wealth. In 2022, the county assessor went to the state Legislature to support a bill closing the loopholes that allowed wealthy landowners to claim agricultural tax exemptions even when their large spreads were hardly working farms. But lawmakers declined to make the change.

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Republicans back Trump’s war on Iran

Republicans on Capitol Hill are about to give President Donald Trump a major boost — a green light to conduct a war against Iran without worrying about Congress, at least for now. The House and Senate are on track this week to vote down a pair of bipartisan war power resolutions aimed at limiting Trump’s ability to conduct the Iran campaign. Rank-and-file Republicans are prepared to back Trump, giving them co-ownership of a conflict that’s already unpopular with Americans. The Senate is likely to vote Wednesday, with the House set to vote on Thursday. The House and Senate will receive separate briefings on Iran this afternoon from top administration officials.

In the Senate, previous GOP skeptics of Trump’s unilateral war-making authority say they’re comfortable with the president’s efforts on Iran. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) waffled on a Venezuela war powers resolution in January before ultimately voting against it. But Hawley said he’d oppose this Iran war powers measure, which is led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). The Missouri Republican cautioned that he might change his mind if Trump deployed ground forces during the Iran conflict. “I’ve always said that committing ground troops would be something, I think, that would require immediate congressional authorization. But that doesn’t seem to be in the immediate horizon,” Hawley said Monday night. Two Republicans who supported the war powers push on Venezuela — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — were noncommittal on Iran. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who eventually opposed the Venezuela resolution despite deep reservations, said he’d withhold judgement until after today’s Senate briefing.

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Lead Stories

FBI investigates Texas bar shooting that killed 2 and wounded 14 as possible terrorist act

A gunman wearing clothes with an Iranian flag design and the words “Property of Allah” killed two people and wounded 14 early Sunday at a Texas bar, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The FBI is investigating the shooting, which erupted a day after the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran, as a potential act of terrorism. Police in Austin shot and killed the gunman, who used both a pistol and a rifle to carry out the attack, police said. The shooting happened outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden just before 2 a.m. along Sixth Street, a nightlife destination filled with bars and music clubs and only a few miles (kilometers) from the University of Texas at Austin.

Nathan Comeaux, a 22-year-old senior, had spent the evening there with friends and said the bar was “full of college students, probably mostly UT kids, shoulder to shoulder, hundreds just enjoying their nights.” The suspect drove past the bar several times before stopping and shooting from the window of his SUV at people on a patio and in front of the bar, according to Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis. He then parked, got out with a rifle and began shooting at people walking along the street before officers rushed to the intersection and shot him, Davis said. Three of the injured were in critical condition Sunday morning, she said. The gunman was identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. Comeaux had left the bar to grab pizza at a food truck across the street about 10 minutes before the first gunshots were fired. No one around the pizza truck understood what was happening, he said, with some thinking the noise was fireworks or a loud motorcycle.

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War spirals in Middle East as explosions heard across region

Iran’s top official said Tehran “will not negotiate” with the US. Explosions have been heard in Gulf cities including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, while Israel and Hezbollah are trading blows as the conflict widens. Here’s a look at the war in maps and charts. Fighter jets down: Three US fighter jets were accidentally shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses in an apparent “friendly fire incident,” according to the US military. All crews have been recovered and are in a stable condition. Videos geolocated by CNN showed a fighter jet crashing in Kuwait and a pilot parachuting to the ground.

Americans killed: President Donald Trump acknowledged there could be more US casualties after three US service members were killed in Kuwait. Global shockwaves: The war has disrupted air travel, hit US-friendly Gulf states usually regarded as safe, and hindered the flow of oil. Countries looking to evacuate their citizens also face major challenges. At least 555 people have been killed in Iran since the joint US-Israeli strikes began, according to the Red Crescent Society.At least 168 students were killed in a strikeat a girls’ elementary school, according to Iranian state media, with another three students being killed in separate attacks in the capital and northern Iran, state media said. A Chinese national was also killed in Iran, China’s foreign ministry said. At least 10 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in Israel since it began military operations against Iran, according to Magen David Adom. Nine of the fatalities were reported from the city of Beit Shemesh, where a missile hit a bomb shelter. Three US service members were killed in a suspected drone strike early Sunday in Kuwait, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Prior to this, Kuwait’s health ministry said separately that one person had been killed in Iranian strikes.

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Iran gives Democrats a new opening on energy prices

Democrats on Saturday seized on President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran as a new front in their energy affordability campaign. Crude prices had already begun climbing on Friday in anticipation of military action in Iran, a major oil producer that also sits at the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for fossil fuel shipments. After House Democrats gathered last week for a retreat to hammer out their midterm messaging strategy, Trump’s strike on Iran may give them a fresh line of attack. “Americans are demanding help with the cost-of-living crisis, but President Trump would rather start another war, potentially driving up energy prices, than listen to them,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

When Trump launched an operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, some Democrats said he was putting the nation at risk to take over that nation’s oil. The Iran situation is different. Democratic critics say the president launched what he called “major combat operations” without enough consideration of energy prices. Roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz. During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Trump exaggerated the drop in gasoline prices, saying they were “in some places $1.99 a gallon.” The U.S. average sat at $2.98 on Saturday, according to AAA. A protracted war could send prices higher, especially if Iran blocks oil tankers from accessing the Persian Gulf. Ships are already avoiding the area. “Destabilizing Iran is not cost-free. Iran has the capacity to disrupt oil shipments in the Persian Gulf, activate proxies across the region, and trigger refugee flows that would immediately affect Qatar, the UAE, Turkey, and others,” said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.).

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China emerges as big winner from Supreme Court's tariff ruling

Global trade has been upended again after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, with U.S. trading partners and businesses around the world grasping to understand the system that replaces them. A new flat global tariff of 10% paid by U.S. importers took effect Tuesday, lower than the 15% that Trump said he would implement days before. Under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, the 10% tariff can remain in place for 150 days without congressional approval. China is the “biggest winner” from the Supreme Court ruling, with an effective U.S. tariff rate now much closer to that of other countries, said Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at French investment bank Natixis.

Among other benefits, China’s lower tariff rate reduces the incentive for companies to shift production to other countries in Asia, at least temporarily. But the whiplash has created overwhelming uncertainty for key U.S. allies and some of Washington’s biggest trading partners, many of whom had already announced or were nearing trade deals with the U.S., some having offered major concessions with the aim of securing favorable rates under Trump’s now-defunct tariff regime. In Asia, Trump administration officials had rushed to conclude deals in the weeks before the court ruling, with Indonesia agreeing to a 19% tariff rate only a day earlier. The tariff ruling also comes just weeks before Trump’s upcoming trip to China, where he hopes to maintain a delicate trade truce with the world’s second-biggest economy. Those who stand to lose the most include Japan and Taiwan, both of which had previously pledged hundreds of billions in U.S. investment in exchange for a tariff rate of 15%. Singapore and Australia also stand to lose since they already had a relatively favorable tariff rate of 10%.

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State Stories

Abbott activates Texas military in case of retaliation after U.S. attacks Iran

Gov. Greg Abbott deployed troops and heightened cyber security measures Saturday to protect Texas from potential retaliation following the United States' strikes on Iran. The Texas Military Department will increase patrols at the southern border, ports and energy facilities and boost cyber security capabilities as part of "Operation Fury Shield," according to the agency. There has been no publicly reported threat against Texas, but the action comes amid a global fallout from the U.S. and Israel's attacks on Iran on Saturday, which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Texas stands with President Trump," Abbott wrote on social media. "His message to Iran is clear aggression toward America and our allies will no longer be tolerated."

“We will deliver such devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg," Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said in an address Sunday, according to the Associated Press. President Donald Trump responded from his social media platform Truth Social early Sunday, saying Iran suggested they would "hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before." "THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!" Trump's post states. Operation Fury Shield will involve the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety, Abbott said. He said they would guard against "lone wolf" or cyber attacks.

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Houston LULAC council cancels 2026 Cinco de Mayo parade over ICE concerns

A Houston council of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) announced Friday that it canceled this year’s Cinco de Mayo parade due to "growing concerns surrounding [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] activity." In a news release posted on social media by a representative of LULAC District VIII, it said the parade committee and district leadership voted to cancel the 2026 parade out of an "abundance of caution." The annual parade was originally scheduled to take place on the morning of Saturday, May 4, in downtown Houston.

"The safety of our children and their parents remains our highest priority," the local LULAC council said in its statement. "LULAC District VIII is not willing to put any child, family member, volunteer, or participant at risk for a parade — no matter how meaningful or celebrated the tradition may be. While Cinco de Mayo is an important cultural celebration that honors heritage, pride, and community unity, no event outweighs the responsibility we have to protect our families." The LULAC council said the cancellation applies to this year's event only and that the organization looks forward to "bringing the parade back next year under conditions that allow our community to gather freely, safely and without fear." "We understand the disappointment this may cause to participants, sponsors, schools, and community partners who have supported this event year after year," LULAC District VIII said. "We share that disappointment. However, leadership requires making difficult decisions when circumstances demand it."

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Tom Luce and David Leebron: Texas at 190: The next decade will define what comes next

(Tom Luce is founder and chairman emeritus of Texas 2036. David Leebron is president and CEO of Texas 2036.) For nearly two centuries, Texans have built, risked, welcomed and dreamed. We have grown because people believed this was the place where ambition meets opportunity and hard work pays off. Today, Texas marks its 190th birthday and begins the final decade before its bicentennial. This year also marks 10 years since Texas 2036, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives and opportunities of all Texans, was founded. That symmetry makes this a moment both for urgency and reflection. It challenges us to think beyond the next election or news cycle. The data and trendlines tell us Texas will continue to grow. The real question is whether opportunity grows with it.

Over the past decade, our state’s growth has outpaced nearly every large state in the nation. Our population now exceeds 31 million. Our economy exceeds $2.7 trillion. Nearly one in 10 Americans lives here. In North Texas, corporate relocations, workforce expansion and infrastructure investment reflect both the promise and the pressure of rapid expansion. Ten years ago, as Texas approached its 180th birthday, families were arriving, jobs were multiplying and investment was accelerating. So were the pressures. Water supplies tightened. Infrastructure strained to keep pace. Many students graduated without clear pathways to high-demand careers. Health care costs rose for working families. The challenge was not growth itself. It was whether we would prepare early enough to ensure more Texans could move forward with confidence, or whether inadequacies in infrastructure, education, health and housing would stifle their ambition and dreams.

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Harris County commissioners will prioritize abolishing the county treasurer’s office next year

Harris County commissioners voted unanimously late Thursday to strip the county treasurer’s office of key functions and pursue dissolving it altogether. The move was made amidst legal troubles for County Treasurer Carla Wyatt. The treasurer’s office will be stripped of its ability to operate Positive Pay — an automated alert system that detects fraud payments. Commissioner Adrian Garcia said the action to remove functions of the office was due to concerns that were found. The operation will be taken up by the county’s Office of Management and Budget, which will also absorb full-time staff members of the treasurer’s office in the process. Recommendations of the reassignments will be brought back to commissioners court on March 19.

“I want to make sure that we keep things moving forward in this county,” Garcia said. The action was recommended by Harris County Auditor Michael Post and discussed in a closed-door executive session during the Thursday meeting. The four county commissioners unanimously approved the motion as Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo was absent. Garcia also made a motion to prioritize the office’s abolishment by the Texas legislature when it next convenes in 2027. Because the position of county treasurer is elected, a move to abolish the office entirely would require majority approval from Texas and county voters in an election cycle. The action follows more counties that have sought to eliminate county treasurer offices. Texas voters in 2023 voted to dissolve the Galveston County Treasurer’s Office shortly after former treasurer Hank Dugie was elected on a campaign to abolish his own office. In Harris County, the treasurer is responsible for handing the county’s finances and transactions at the direction of the commissioners court.

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Feds challenge effort to return Austin-raised college student who was wrongfully deported

The federal government is challenging a court order to repatriate Any López Belloza, a college student who was deported after trying to board a flight to Austin last November. The Trump administration admitted last month that it wrongfully deported the 19-year-old Honduran-born college student, but this week it argued the Massachusetts federal court doesn't have jurisdiction over the case — and that it would deport her again if she were to return to the U.S. The government's filing complicates the return of López Belloza, who's enrolled at Babson College near Boston. In a call Friday, López Belloza's attorney Todd Pomerleau said federal agents had been in touch with her via WhatsApp, offering a flight back to the U.S. without guaranteeing she wouldn't be immediately deported back to Honduras.

"All they have to do is let her in and leave her alone," Pomerleau said. "She has a green card application pending, and yet they want to continue to torment her. They want to fly her back here to engage in a charade to then separate her from her loved ones again." Pomerleau called the tactic a ploy to bring his client back to the country and deport her without giving her a day in court. KUT News reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment on Pomerleau's allegation but has not heard back. López Belloza said she was angry about the lack of movement on her case and that "no one should have to feel this powerless." "All I'm asking is for honesty and fairness," she said. "I'm asking to be treated like a human with rights and whose life matters, and to be allowed to keep building the life I have worked so hard for in the United States."

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A Texas student turns abandoned school into mosque in 45 days

On the first night of Ramadan,worshippers stood shoulder to shoulder on rows of blue prayer rugs beneath the glow of string lights in a former elementary school gym in Lubbock, Texas. Just weeks earlier, the building had been abandoned and in disrepair. Mohamad Altabaa, a third-year medical student at Texas Tech University, and his physician friend bought the former Arnett Elementary School in January with an ambitious goal: open a mosque and community hub in 45 days, just in time for Ramadan. “It was in horrible condition,” he said, noting the building had been unused since a church sold it in 2024. “But I just had a feeling like we need to purchase it and turn it into a community center, to do good in the community.” After purchasing the building, Altabaa took to Instagram to share the renovation process through a nine-part witty video series featuring volunteers and crews hauling debris, opening an underground water main and tackling a steady stream of odd jobs.

“I just bought an elementary school, and that’s kind of crazy,” Altabaa said at the start of each video, all of which have since gone viral, with more than 1 million views and 100,000 likes on one video alone. What followed was a burst of grassroots support that grew beyond the West Texas city. Young professionals from across the state and country came over several weekends to clean, paint walls, cut grass and prepare the center. Hundreds more donated to the renovation costs. And on Feb. 14, less than two months after Altabaa and his friend purchased the building, the Unity Center opened. Unlike many mosque projects in the United States that rely on large donors and community elders, the Unity Center was mostly powered by students and young professionals. “It’s pretty much just young people under 30 years old,” said Aditee Zinzuwadia, a Texas Tech University student who helped coordinate flights, hotels, rides and meals for 30 out-of-town volunteers during opening weekend.

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Council votes to begin ongoing, third-party audits of Austin's operations and services

Austin officials authorized continuous third-party audits of citywide operations and services, a process partly prompted by the outcome of last year's Proposition Q tax rate election. Mayor Kirk Watson, who's promoted a civic performance review since election night in November, said City Council's unanimous vote for the concept Feb. 26 will make Austin better. “It’s a major step in an effectiveness, efficiency and innovation agenda for our city," Watson said. "We don’t know of any other city that’s doing it this way where it’s a systemic, citywide, ongoing, independent efficiency assessment or audit. And never before has Austin done this."

The city auditor's office is now tasked with starting up the ongoing "comprehensive efficiency assessment" program. City Auditor Jason Hadavi will oversee the initiative, to be handled independently by an external consultant. The audit will analyze Austin's overall city government organization, public programs and services, third-party contracting practices, and financial comparisons to peer cities. Public progress reports will be made at least semiannually, and all project recommendations, results and other information will be posted online. As improvements are suggested throughout the review, city management and department leaders will have to detail how those changes will be made—or why they disagree. City employees will also be able to share feedback on possible improvements along the way. Given the broad scope of a citywide assessment, Hadavi previously said a multiyear process would likely yield the best results. The work is set to repeat indefinitely into the future, although the council-approved ordinance calls for at least three-year gaps between each full audit cycle.

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Supreme Court will hear arguments over law banning drug users from owning guns stemming from Texas case

In early August 2022, federal agents arrived at the suburban Texas home of Ali Hemani, a former high school football player whose family had come under scrutiny because of its ties to Iran. During a search of the family’s house, Mr. Hemani told agents that he kept a handgun locked in a safe. He also told them that he used marijuana “about every other day,” pointing them to about 60 grams of marijuana in the house. Agents also found cocaine in his parents’ closet. Months later, the F.B.I. arrested Mr. Hemani, accusing him of violating a federal law that bars drug users and addicts from owning or possessing guns. On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether Mr. Hemani’s arrest violated the Second Amendment. The case, the second major gun rights dispute before the justices this term, has also sparked interest because the law is the same statute used to convict President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter in 2024.

The case may give the court an opportunity to clarify how to apply a test the justices set out in a 2022 landmark Second Amendment ruling. It requires courts to analyze whether gun laws align with the country’s “history and tradition” of firearms regulation to determine if they are constitutional. Lower courts have struggled with how to apply the test. The question before the justices involves the constitutionality of a section of the Gun Control Act of 1968, legislation enacted as a response to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The law aimed to create a broad framework to keep guns away from people whom Congress deemed irresponsible and dangerous. The section of the statute used in Mr. Hemani’s case, which was amended in the 1980s, bans gun possession by anyone who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.” The case has scrambled typical political alliances. The Trump administration is defending the law. It has been supported in briefs by Everytown for Gun Safety, a group backed by former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a Democrat, along with leaders of several Democratic-led states, including California, Hawaii and Massachusetts.

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City of Plano denies Dallas City Councilmembers' claim that it's presented a formal offer for Dallas Stars to move there

In an interview for Sunday's Inside Texas Politics, Dallas City Council Member Chad West said he'd been told that Plano made a formal offer to the Dallas Stars for the hockey franchise to move to Collin County. The offer, according to West, included a non-binding "Letter of Intent" that was presented to the Stars. "My understanding, and I'm not at the negotiating table for the city," West said, "is that there is a letter of intent that's been presented by Plano to the Stars. The Stars have that. They haven't signed anything."

On Thursday, Plano city officials would not directly address it and said "if any letter or document exists, it would have to be retrieved through an open records request. However, all requests related to economic development activities are routinely withheld under the Public Information Act and will require a ruling from the Attorney General." But on Friday, Plano issued a statement denying that it issued such a letter to the Stars. "For the past year, the City has been in earnest discussions with the Dallas Stars regarding a potential arena district at The Shops at Willow Bend," Plano said Friday. "We want to clarify to the Plano community that no such offer has been made." The Dallas Stars declined to comment on this story.

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Nirenberg fundraising surges in final stretch of county judge race

In their final fundraising reports before the March 3 primary election, former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg more than doubled incumbent Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai‘s haul. The two well-known Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination, with the winner an odds-on favorite to carry the blue county in November.

Between Jan. 23 and Feb. 22 — roughly the month leading up to early voting —Nirenberg raised $168,000, spent $211,000 and reported $305,000 on hand. Sakai raised $76,000, spent nearly $200,000 and reported another $340,000 on hand. That’s including a big fundraiser he held at Mi Familia on Feb. 17. There are no contribution limits on county-level campaigns, and the same handful of donors continue to prop up both Nirenberg and Sakai’s fundraising reports. In total, Nirenberg has raised about $577,000 for the race, to Sakai’s $506,000. That includes money raised on three reports covering July 1 through Feb. 22.

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Texas LNG applied for a $160M tax break with Point Isabel ISD, group says

The Point Isabel school board will hold a public hearing Monday about Texas LNG Brownsville LLC’s application for a state program that would limit how much the district can raise taxes on the company’s property for up to 10 years. The meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Port Isabel Early College High School Lecture Hall and is open to the public, according to a special meeting notice posted Feb. 24. “Texas LNG is considering investing approximately $4 billion to construct and operate a Liquefied Natural Gas facility at the Port of Brownsville,” according to the school board meeting agenda. The Point Isabel ISD superintendent and school board vice president declined to comment on the hearing. The board president did not immediately respond for comment.

The natural gas company applied for the state comptroller’s Taxable Value Limitation on Eligible Property, a program that would limit a property’s assessed value under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act. The project is seeking a $160 million tax abatement from the school district, according to the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, which opposes the application and will be attending the public hearing Monday. Laguna Madre communities don’t want Texas LNG because the fossil fuel facility would release toxic pollution and harm the local economy and beach tourism, Bekah Hinojosa, the organization’s co-founder, said in a news release. “We should not be taking money meant to educate Texas school children and redirecting it to finance corporate projects,” Valley Interfaith leader Rosalie Tristan said in a statement shared in the release. According to Hinojosa, other organizations like Border Workers United as well as residents of Laguna Madre will also be in attendance. During the meeting, the liquefied natural gas company will show a presentation. The public comment period will take place after. Then, the school board will have a closed session to discuss the proposal. Finally, they will reconvene openly to discuss and potentially vote on the application.

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National Stories

How talks between Anthropic and the Defense Dept. fell apart

Minutes before a 5:01 p.m. deadline on Friday, Emil Michael, the Department of Defense’s chief technology officer, was fuming. For weeks, Mr. Michael, a former top executive at Uber, had been negotiating a $200 million artificial intelligence contract with the A.I. company Anthropic for the Pentagon. The talks had hit obstacles as the agency demanded unfettered use of Anthropic’s A.I. systems, while the company countered that it would not allow its technology to be used for purposes such as the surveillance of Americans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had set the Friday deadline for a deal and the two sides were close. The only thing that remained was agreeing on a few words about the issue of lawful surveillance of Americans, multiple people with knowledge of the talks said.

Mr. Michael, who was on a call with Anthropic executives, demanded that the company’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, get on the phone to hash out the language, the people said. But Mr. Michael was told that Dr. Amodei was in a meeting with his executive team and needed more time. Mr. Michael was unhappy with that answer, the people said. He also had an ace up his sleeve: On the side, he had been hammering out an alternative to Anthropic with its rival, OpenAI. A framework between the Pentagon and OpenAI had already been reached. So when the Friday deadline passed, the Department of Defense did not give Anthropic more time. At 5:14 p.m., Mr. Hegseth announced that he had designated Anthropic as a security risk and that it would be cut off from working with the U.S. government. “America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech,” he posted on social media.

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Congress returns to address Trump’s Iran attacks

Lawmakers are wrestling with how to respond to President Trump’s massive attack on Iran that eliminated many of the regime’s top figures, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The administration briefed congressional leaders before carrying out the strikes, and the White House is planning to brief legislators in both chambers this week. But that hasn’t tamped down backlash from critics. Many Democrats and some Republicans are expressing outrage at the president’s decision to go forward with military action without congressional authorization. House Democrats were already planning to force a vote on a war powers resolution this week to restrict Trump’s authority before the strikes began.

The Senate is also set to debate and vote on a war powers resolution sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). The resolutions are all but certain to fail, with nearly all Republicans and some Democrats opposed. Trump would also use his veto if any such resolution came to his desk. But The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports the debate will give Democrats a platform to argue Trump’s order to attack Iran was illegal and demand he provide an exit strategy. “The president seems to have no plan for the aftermath, and it looks like Iran is now poised to choose a new leader from the current regime,” Kaine told reporters. The Iranian government quickly named its interim leadership Sunday after confirming Khamenei’s death. Khamenei served as Iran’s leader for more than 35 years after the death of the regime’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini.

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Hunkered at Mar-a-Lago, Trump makes his club a makeshift Situation Room

As gala-goers in gowns and tuxedos were dancing the night away inside Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom Friday evening, a very different scene was unfolding on the other side of the rambling estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Out the gilded doors, past layers of security and behind a set of black curtains, the country’s top national security officials were convening in anticipation of a long night. The CIA director, the secretary of state and the secretary of defense had all slipped in earlier, unseen by the crowd sipping cocktails by the pool. So had the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose map of the Middle East showing the locations of American assets — along with Iranian targets — was set up on an easel.

By the time President Donald Trump touched down, the space was running as a makeshift Situation Room from which he would oversee the start of a sustained attack on Iran. First, though, the ballroom summoned. “Have a good time, everybody,” Trump called out to the black-tie crowd gathered for a charity gala after briefly jerking his arms around to his anthem, “God Bless the USA.” “I gotta go to work.” Behind the black curtains, photos released by the White House showed Trump, tieless and wearing a white hat emblazoned with “USA,” watching the unfolding action, which would include the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Through most of Sunday, those images and two taped videos — the first announcing the extraordinary operation, in which Trump’s face was half obscured by the hat, and the second addressing Khamenei’s demise and the deaths of three American service members — were all the public saw of the president. He did not deliver a live formal address or convene a televised news conference.

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The war against PDFs is heating up

When Adobe introduced the portable document format (PDF) in 1993, a consultant from Gartner called it “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard in my life”. Users would have to twiddle their thumbs waiting for the megabyte-sized files to download over their dial-up internet, then wait again for their PCs to render them. The software-maker’s board wanted to kill the project. But as sharing digital files became essential, the PDF triumphed—particularly after the Internal Revenue Service, America’s tax authority, started using it for its forms. Today more than 2.5trn PDFs float in the ether. But will the format survive the ai revolution?

PDFs still have drawbacks. They are a pain to view on a smartphone. Copying data from them is fiddly. Software tools that read screens for blind people struggle with PDFs. The file type, which Adobe relinquished control over in 2008, is also a vehicle for malware: a fifth of email-based cyber-attacks utilise PDF attachments, according to Check Point, a cyber-security firm. Lately another source of criticism has emerged. The large language models underpinning generative AI are often bamboozled by PDFs, reading a page set in columns from left to right rather than top to bottom, say, or getting confused by headers and footers. Trouble parsing PDFs is one of the reasons AI chatbots occasionally “hallucinate”, generating nonsense. Enter the disrupters. Startups such as Factify are on a mission to build a new file type that is better suited to the technology. Matan Gavish, its boss, talks of his “megalomaniac” vision of displacing the PDF. Yet Duff Johnson, head of the PDF Association, protector of the format, argues that the fault lies not in the file type but in ourselves. He contends that there is no reason developers cannot build bots that are able to use PDFs. The AI assistant embedded in Acrobat, Adobe’s PDF reader, is designed to do precisely that, notes Leonard Rosenthol, the software firm’s PDF guru. Google, a leader in AI, has rolled out a tool for developers using its Gemini models that makes it easier to ingest PDFs. The format’s reign is not over yet.

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Cuba faces ‘zero hour’ as Trump, Rubio put squeeze on regime

Cuba’s communist government is facing a breaking point in its battle for survival under pressure from President Trump, whose energy quarantine against the country is aimed at collapsing the regime. The consequences are hitting the population of 10 million people hard, with the U.S. fuel blockade exacerbating a decades-long economic crisis, disrupting access to water and worsening food and medicine shortages. “There’s a number of epidemics rippling through the population right now, repression is increasing as the regime feels cornered, and they are not signaling any willingness to negotiate with the United States,” said Sebastián Arcos, interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

“These people are really, really bad guys, and they have shown this capacity to survive difficult crises,” he added. “I don’t think they can survive this one.” Trump on Friday suggested the U.S. could achieve a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, perhaps mirroring America’s approach to Venezuela, where the military took out its leaders but kept the regime largely in place while demanding greater economic cooperation. Analysts aren’t convinced that such a path exists for the hard-line Cuban regime, which has been fighting against U.S. threats for six decades. “What’s going to happen in Cuba is much more difficult to divine than Venezuela,” Arcos said. “Cuba is a unified ideological leadership, where any deviation from the dogma is severely punished, and no one, therefore, is willing to risk that unless the United States escalates.” Jorge Piñon, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Energy Program with the University of Texas in Austin, said time is running out for the Cuban regime to make a deal or risk an even graver humanitarian crisis on the island.

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X is drowning in disinformation following US and Israeli attack on Iran

Minutes after Donald Trump announced that the US and Israeli governments had launched a “major combat operation” against Iran in the early hours of Saturday morning, disinformation about the attack and Tehran’s response flooded X. WIRED has reviewed hundreds of posts on X, some of which have racked up millions of views, that promote misleading claims about the locations and scale of the attack. Elon Musk’s social media platform is a verifiable mess: In some cases, alleged video footage of the attack shared in posts on X are actually months or years old. In several posts, video footage of apparent attacks have been attributed to incorrect locations. A number of images shared on X appear to be altered or generated with AI. Other posts attempt to pass off video game footage as scenes from the conflict. X did not respond to a request for comment. Under Musk’s stewardship, X has become a haven for disinformation, especially during major breaking-news events.

At the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, and more recently during anti-immigration enforcement protests in LA, the platform has drowned in inaccurate and faulty posts. Almost all of the most viral posts reviewed by WIRED on Saturday came from accounts with blue check marks, meaning they pay X for its premium service and could be eligible to earn money based on how much engagement their posts generate, even if the content is false. While some posts with disinformation have a community note appended beneath them to correct the record, they remain up on the site, and it’s unclear how many people viewed them before the notes appeared. One video posted by a blue-check-mark account claimed to show ballistic missiles over Dubai; the clip actually showed Iranian ballistic missiles fired at Tel Aviv in October 2024. The post has been viewed over 4.4 million times. One of the most viral clips shared on X in the hours after the attack claims to show an Israeli fighter jet being shot down by Iranian air defense systems. The video has been shared by dozens of accounts, including one post that has been viewed more than 3.5 million times. The provenance of the video is unclear, but there have been no credible reports of any Israeli jets being shot down over Iran on Saturday.

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Khamenei killing shatters Iran's order, triggers high-stakes succession race

The assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has plunged the Islamic Republic into its most perilous crisis since the 1979 revolution - confronting it with war on its own territory, an unresolved succession, and mounting internal strain. Despite the shock of Khamenei's killing, five regional officials and analysts cautioned against assuming rapid collapse. Iran's political order, they said, was ?deliberately constructed to avoid reliance on a single leader, dispersing authority across clerical institutions, the security apparatus and power networks. "The Iranian system is bigger than one man - removing Khamenei could harden the regime rather than weaken it," said Danny ?Citrinowicz of the Atlantic Council.

"Iran was built to survive the loss of a leader," added Ali Hashem, a research affiliate at Royal Holloway, University of London. "The danger is not a vacuum. It's whether war and pressure push the system past the point where that resilience holds." At the centre of that resilience is the ?elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), long regarded as Iran's true centre of gravity. The balance of power now hinges on whether the Guards emerge weakened by battlefield losses and internal frictions - or more entrenched, closing ranks around a harder, more security-driven approach to governance. "The real question is whether Khamenei's death takes the air out of the IRGC - the force that actually runs Iran - or whether they close ranks and harden," said Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. "If rank-and-file officials decide there is no future here, I'm not sure even the Guards can keep the regime together."

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Copyright March 09, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved