Lead Stories

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

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

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

Read this article at Votebeat - Subscribers Only

Former Houston State Rep. Garnet Coleman dies at 65

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

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

Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only

Texas Republicans splinter as MAGA candidates test party limits

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

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

Read this article at Bloomberg - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Bloomberg - Subscribers Only

State Stories

Rising diesel prices impacting school districts

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

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

Read this article at KXAN - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only

As crime falls, Texas eyes addiction treatment behind bars

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

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

Read this article at Texas Politics - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Inside Climate News - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at KERA - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at KERA - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at The 19th - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only

Talarico challenges Paxton to debate on Fox News

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

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

Read this article at KXAN - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only

City Stories

Dog’s Head detractors bark back with lawsuit

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

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

Read this article at Austin Chronicle - Subscribers Only

National Stories

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

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

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

Read this article at News from the States - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at BBC - Subscribers Only

The rise of the almost-premium credit card

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

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

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

South Asians face surging racism in America

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

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

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Gothamist - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only

Lead Stories

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

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

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

Read this article at Votebeat - Subscribers Only

Angela Paxton to Texas women: Vote Republican despite candidate flaws

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

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

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Texas turning blue may hinge on Democrats harnessing data center opposition

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

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

Read this article at CNBC - Subscribers Only

State Stories

Why Texas could become epicenter of America’s housing downturn

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

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

Read this article at Newsweek - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Texas Monthly - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at CandysDirt.com - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Variety - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at KRIS - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at KERA - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only

Joel Pinckney: His car is still sitting there

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

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

Read this article at Welcome to Hell World - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Hormuz supply crisis to change LNG market forever

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

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

Read this article at Oil Price - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only

China hawks seethe as Trump rolls out red carpet for Xi

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

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

Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only

Trump welcomes Xi to Washington looking for a trade win

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

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

Read this article at Reuters - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Lead Stories

Virtual border wall makes 'most sense' for West Texas, land commissioner says

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said she believes a virtual border wall makes "the most sense" for much of West Texas in a meeting with the Houston Chronicle's editorial board this week. The Republican politician's comments represent a rebuttal of the Trump administration's plans to construct a physical barricade across much of that region, which have drawn widespread opposition from landowners and Republican and Democratic politicians alike. "The bottom line is there are places where physical barriers make sense, and there are places where they don't. And we just want the solution that's best for Texas," Buckingham said in the interview. "I think especially when you get to West Texas, a virtual wall, in my opinion, makes the most sense for most of that area."

In July, Buckingam sent a cease and desist letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection after one of the federal agency's contractors was discovered to be clearing state-controlled land without permission. But in the middle of a reelection campaign, Buckingham has largely avoided making public statements on the topic. The General Land Office did not respond to a request for comment on whether Buckingham planned to resist the Trump administration's efforts to build a border wall across the more than 13 million acres of land the state agency controls, most of which is in West Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has also appeared to question the logic of a physical border wall in West Texas, telling the New York Times earlier this year that "rugged, isolated areas like Big Bend are great opportunities to deploy technology to aid in securing the border.” Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it was pausing construction on vehicle barriers and access roads in Big Bend National Park amid protests within the park and pushback from Republican politicians, including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

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

Trump weighs diesel export ban as fuel prices soar

President Trump said Tuesday he is considering restricting diesel exports in an effort to curb soaring fuel prices, an idea that is quickly gaining traction with more Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. “I’ve called for that, too. I said, ‘Let’s not send out the diesel.’ We make a lot of diesel. I’ve called for it—I’ve called for it with my people,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. is “examining” a diesel export ban and “whether it’s feasible in the overall refining capacity and whether a full or partial ban would work.” Trump said the decision would be coming “fast, one way or the other.” The idea of implementing an export ban on diesel used in trucks and farm machinery has gained support with some Republicans who are facing tough elections this November, including Senate candidates in Iowa, Michigan and Alaska.

In the U.S., diesel prices have vaulted to new records in the wake of the missile strikes that have crippled fuel-making facilities in the Middle East and Russia. The national average for a gallon of diesel reached $6.53 Tuesday, up nearly a dollar over the past month, according to Dow Jones Energy. America produces more fuel than it consumes, and refiners have historically shipped large amounts abroad to chase higher prices. Commercial diesel inventories in the U.S. have dropped 11% since the start of the war with Iran, while exports of the fuel are up 31% on a weekly basis, according to the Energy Information Administration. Speculation has swirled for weeks that Trump officials would consider a temporary ban on some fuel exports, but the administration repeatedly denied it would resort to that measure. The oil industry is strongly opposed to any export ban, given U.S. fuel makers are likely to lose the trust of some overseas buyers and lose money. Trump’s openness to potential restrictions is sure to send the industry scrambling. Industry lobbyists who had checked in with the administration in recent weeks had felt that there was no appetite to enact a ban, according to people familiar with the matter. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Jarrod Agen, the executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council, have all been opposed to the idea, according to an administration official.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Federal judge orders Texas to air-condition its prisons

Texas must fully air-condition its prisons by the end of 2029, a federal judge ordered on Tuesday, saying the lack of cooling in most lockups in the sun-blasted state violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman was a major victory for prisoners’ rights advocates, who have complained for decades about poor conditions behind bars. In his 150-page order, Judge Pitman, of the Western District of Texas, said that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which operates the country’s largest prison system, had “failed to act with reasonable urgency or commitment to install air-conditioning.” “In a state where outdoor heat indexes exceed 130 degrees, inmates in Texas prisons are suffering — and in some cases dying — in extreme heat every summer,” Judge Pitman wrote. The decision came nearly six months after the case went to trial, one of the most extensive attempts to mandate that a state cool its prisons. The suit was initially brought by one inmate, but several advocacy organizations representing people incarcerated in prisons statewide joined.

Texas oversees an inmate population of about 140,000, and close to two-thirds live in areas without air-conditioning, according to the state prison agency’s website. Heat readings from inside state lockups have regularly topped 100 degrees in recent years, and the state received nearly 15,000 inmate grievances related to heat over the past three summers, court records said. Texas prison officials have acknowledged that 23 people had died from heat-related causes between 1998 and 2012 and that high indoor temperatures have caused staff illnesses and injuries. But they emphasized in court filings that they have worked to add more air-conditioning each year and that they take certain measures during the hottest months, including allowing inmates access to cool respite areas and conducting wellness checks.The plaintiffs presented evidence of additional heat deaths more recently. Climate experts also testified at trial that they expected Texas to have increasing temperatures and more heat waves in the future. In his order, Judge Pitman, an Obama appointee, asked the state to submit status reports to the court every six months, describing their progress on installing air-conditioning. The first report, due on March 22, 2027, must describe the state’s plan to complete installation, as well as how much funding officials will request from the Texas Legislature. The judge said that “financial considerations” would not be a legitimate reason for failing to comply with his order.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

The FBI anti-corruption squad was circling Susan Collins — until Trump got in the way

In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C. For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising. Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap. Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor, Navatek. A year earlier, Collins had helped their company land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine. Now, seated at a coffee shop not far from the U.S. Capitol, Reed asked them for a $500,000 donation. Government contractors are banned from making political contributions. More consequentially, for the company to offer donations to Collins in exchange for an official action, or for Collins to accept, would constitute criminal bribery.

Read this article at ProPublica - Subscribers Only

State Stories

The Texas trader at war with his electric company over power poles

Salem Abraham made his fortune trading stocks and commodity futures from the high plains of the Texas Panhandle. The self-described data junkie now has a new obsession: the wooden poles that carry power lines. Ever since an aging pole snapped in high winds about 60 miles from his ranch and sparked what ballooned into the biggest wildfire in Texas history, Abraham has been studying the metal tags nailed on poles that indicate when they were last inspected. Over the past two years, he has driven hundreds of miles crisscrossing the region, through back alleys and along highways to tally the condition of poles. He also fought in court to get the inspection records for poles along more than 200,000 miles of electric distribution lines in eight states served by Minnesota-based utility Xcel Energy. “I’m just trying to figure out a puzzle here,” Abraham said. “And when there’s data involved, I’m pretty good at figuring out the puzzle.”

His hypothesis is simple: Abraham thinks the records will show Xcel was negligent in Texas and had fallen behind in inspecting its equipment ahead of a February 2024 disaster that killed two people and 15,000 head of cattle. Xcel has said its equipment was likely involved in igniting the blaze, but the utility disputes that it was negligent in maintaining and operating its infrastructure. Abraham has a personal connection to this fight. He lost an estimated 3 million to 4 million trees at his ranch near his hometown of Canadian, in what became known as the Smokehouse Creek Fire. “I can’t get my trees back,” he said. “We’ve got a bigger problem, which is this is everywhere. The world needs to know this is dangerous, and it’s going to get worse.” The skirmish in this remote corner of Texas is part of a bigger conflict confronting utilities and their customers across the country. America’s electric grid is under mounting strain. Much of the infrastructure was built in the years after World War II and is ill-equipped to meet the soaring power demands of the AI era. Extreme weather conditions are wrecking equipment and challenging reliability. Wildfires such as the one in Texas are becoming more common and are no longer restricted to the West Coast and Hawaii. Utilities, regulators and lawmakers are grappling with how much money to invest to prevent fires—and how to make restitution when their equipment sparks a blaze.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Texas comptroller fires dozens of employees, casts it as end of 'wasteful spending'

The Texas comptroller’s office terminated 41 employees after agency leaders were ordered to submit lists of the people they’d let go first. The terminations, which have not previously been reported, come as Republican Comptroller Don Huffines is campaigning on shrinking the size of the state’s government with his own version of the federal government’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Huffines is running against Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin. Multiple agency leaders received a script laying out the mechanics for the firings around the Labor Day weekend, according to a copy of the document reviewed by The Dallas Morning News. Agency directors were instructed to take the employee’s badge, not allow them to return to their desk and not apologize.

“Don’t say you are sorry or get into a discussion about it,” the document said. “Simply state, ‘The decision is final, and your recourse can be found in the termination letter.’” Huffines has made a series of staffing changes in his first month and a half in office after Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him to replace Kelly Hancock, who had been serving as the state’s acting comptroller since last summer. The Dallas businessman and former state senator defeated Hancock in March’s Republican primary. Myko Gedutis, vice president for the Texas State Employees Union, which represents about 8,000 state workers and retirees, criticized the firings and said employees who’ve given their careers to public service deserve better treatment. “Firing state workers en masse – with instructions to do so crassly – is clearly a decision based on political ideology not business needs or what is best for Texas taxpayers,” Gedutis said. The website for Society for Human Resources Management, a professional association of HR workers, includes a page on handling terminations including guidance to “not apologize.”

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

Who’s investigating the Austin ICE shooting? Here’s what we know

At least three agencies are now investigating Sunday’s ICE shooting in north Austin, as questions remain about what led federal immigration agents to shoot a Venezuelan food delivery driver. On Sunday, federal immigration agents shot 28-year-old Venezuelan national Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in north Austin while he was working as a food delivery driver. Outside of that, few details have been confirmed about what led to the encounter between Garces Perez and ICE agents.

According to DHS’s initial statement, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is leading the investigation with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assistance. Austin police and the Texas Rangers are also conducting their own review, creating multiple reviews into the same shooting. “I think DHS is 100% capable of doing it fully and fairly without (FBI assistance),” Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) President Mathew Silverman told KXAN on Monday. FLEOA represents all sorts of federal law enforcement officers, including ones who work at DHS. “It just seems that FBI does have their hand in a lot of this stuff and FBI also has the resources and abilities to be able to do things a lot quicker.” However, several Democratic elected officials and immigrant-rights advocates have expressed skepticism of the federal government investigating previous ICE shootings this year. That skepticism has emerged elsewhere in Texas. In August, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said federal officials failed to provide any information on the July 7 fatal ICE shooting of 52-year-old Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston.

Read this article at KXAN - Subscribers Only

Kavita Pallod Sekhsaria: Texans have real reasons to be worried. Indian Americans enjoying football isn't one of them.

(Dr. Kavita Pallod Sekhsaria is a board member of the Hindu American Foundation and a psychologist.) This past weekend, I found myself at The University of Texas’ football stadium to cheer on the Longhorns as they took on the UTSA Roadrunners. Memories quickly flooded back about the heat my friends and I endured as students at the games, the frustration of entering campus right after the glorious title win in 2005, and the fun nights after big wins. But walking onto campus and striding up to the stadium 15 years after I graduated felt different. And it was abundantly clear why: I now had my kids with me. My 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter were decked out in Longhorn gear, absolutely buzzing with excitement, and it felt like everyone noticed. I’ve always felt a sense of belonging and comfort in Austin, but seeing the warm smiles and encouragement for bringing my kids into the Longhorn family was palpable.

So, I shared a photo of myself and my friends at the game with the Hindu American Foundation, where I serve as a board member. Feeling so secure on the ground was something I wanted to share with my fellow brown-skinned Longhorns, knowing we’ve all felt confused, hurt and angry at the sentiment we’ve all seen online about whether we belong in the stands. Just a week earlier, a candidate for state railroad commissioner, Bo French, shared a racist post on X about the diversity in the stands at the Longhorns’ stadium. After, we enjoyed the game and put away our phones. The man behind me accidentally poured beer on my shoulder, and we both laughed. Another fan teased us for the number of pretzels we’d bought for our group of 19. We cheered our boys on and booed the refs into reviewing a call. We celebrated the 30 points and griped with each other about whether quarterback Arch Manning looked hesitant and why we weren’t scoring more. All of us fans cheering on the team in our section didn’t know much about each other, but we knew what mattered. We were wearing burnt orange, and we wanted the same thing. Walking out, my kids were still talking about the fireworks, still holding onto the day. Then, I glanced at my phone and saw that the photo I shared was attracting vitriol on the HAF account. Commenters posted memes about Indians eating cow dung. People said they could imagine how bad the picture smelled. My face was marked with demonic symbols. They attacked every facet of us that was visible.

Read this article at Religion News Service - Subscribers Only

American teen who posted ‘ICE raid’ videos sees mother deported

The mother of an Edinburg teenager who earlier this month was arrested by immigration agents and posted about it on social media, was arrested outside her work and deported on Monday. Luis Ochoa, 17, told Border Report that his mother, Teresa Ochoa, 31, was arrested at 5 a.m. outside Carmelita’s Restaurant in Alamo, Texas, where she worked as a cook. Luis was standing outside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in Edinburg where his mother was being held Several hours later. He was rocking back and forth and nervously fidgeting with his phone, worried about his family’s future.

The Edinburg High School senior tried to go in and see her and retrieve some documents he said she had but he and his lawyer, Carlos Moctezuma Garcia, were not allowed. A couple of hours later, the teenager learned that his mother had been deported back to Reynosa, Mexico. He says he is the oldest of four and has two younger brothers and a 5-year-old sister. He says he is worried about how his stepfather will care for them. “She did not sign nothing but she still got thrown,” Ochoa told Border Report. He says CBP had asked her to voluntarily deport but she had refused. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, in response to questions from Border Report, confirmed and arrest and deportation: “On Sept. 21, ICE arrested Teresa de Jesus Ochoa Briseno, an illegal alien from Mexico, during a targeted operation in Alamo, Texas. During the arrest Ochoa Briseno repeatedly refused lawful commands from ICE officers and was warned repeatedly about her failure to comply. Ochoa Briseno was arrested without further incident. She was issued a final order of removal and was returned to her home country on Sept. 21.”

Read this article at Border Report - Subscribers Only

Amidst South Texas drought, McAllen desal bids to determine need for another water rate increase

McAllen is working to diversify its water portfolio amid persistent South Texas drought conditions by developing a brackish groundwater desalination facility. But if the final cost exceeds current estimates, water users in McAllen could see a second rate increase in a handful of years. McAllen Public Utilities Director Mark Vega said he does not expect another rate increase — in addition to the extra $14 a month residents have paid since last October — will be necessary. The city should have a clearer picture when the production wells go to bid next February. “The more contractors that we can attract to bid this project, the better that will bode for us,” said Vega.

Sergio Espinosa, an engineer/hydrologist with Carollo Engineers — a water-focused environmental engineering and consulting firm partnering with McAllen for the desal facility — said the team is trying to attract local contractors while also “trying to make sure (McAllen) gets the best bang for our buck.” In a Sept. 14 project presentation to the city commission, Vega repeatedly stressed that the current estimates are preliminary, meaning final construction cost is uncertain at this time. The most recent estimates put the raw water production wells at $35,785,000; raw water yard piping and electrical facilities at $10,194,000; desalination plant and related facilities at $121,567,000; and the deep injection wells at $15.2 million. This equals a grand total of $182,745,000 for the construction of the project. When asked how close bids must come to estimates for last year’s rate increase to remain sufficient, Vega said there is no single threshold because savings or overruns can balance across phases. He added that the city would have a clearer sense of whether the project is on budget after the second phase is bid — likely around 2028.

Read this article at MyRGV - Subscribers Only

Why Ken Paxton has started talking about the trailer he grew up in

Attorney General Ken Paxton recently started doing something new on the campaign trail – talking about his childhood. At his earliest events in major cities, his stump speeches were short and to the point, often focused on his economic plan. But earlier this month at Willow Park Baptist Church in Parker County, he spoke about penny-pinching while growing up on Air Force bases where his dad was stationed. “For part of my childhood we actually lived in a white trailer parked outside of the base, with no air conditioning,” he said. “I might add, it was pretty hot.” The pivot comes as Paxton has faced criticism from his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, that he’s profited from public office and is out of touch, and as polls show Republicans in Texas have yet to fully coalesce behind Paxton.

A Democrat hasn’t won statewide office in Texas in decades, but in the final stretch of the important race, polls continue to reflect a neck-and-neck contest for U.S. Senate. Recently, Paxton has spent the majority of his time campaigning in Republican strongholds surrounded by rural constituencies, including Lubbock, Longview, Bryan and Corpus Christi. Some in these rural areas say Paxton’s more humanizing approach can help him win over the Republican voters who remain unconvinced in a key part of the GOP electorate. Paxton has rarely opened up about his private life, which has at times been the subject of controversy, and even more rarely talked about his past, outside of passing mentions of his kids and grandkids. In recent speeches, including at the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas, he’s talking about his upbringing. “We counted every dollar because it was not always easy. Washington talks a lot about working families. I was definitely raised in one,” Paxton said in Parker County. “These are the kind of people that I grew up around.”

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

Summit Midstream to proceed with Double E pipeline

Summit Midstream has made the final investment decision to proceed with the mainline compression expansion project on the Double E Pipeline. The decision came after a successful open season and is supported by a new long-term firm transportation agreement with a major shipper. The expansion is expected to enter service in late 2028. “We had high expectations, but we were surprised to the upside,” Heath Deneke, president, CEO and chairman of Summit, said. The level of interest was about two times the amount of capacity available, more than anticipated, he told the Reporter-Telegram. The open season resulted in 550 million cubic feet per day of new long-term take-or-pay commitments. The long-term take-or-pay transportation agreement with the major shipper covers 200 million cubic feet per day, bringing Double E's total contracted firm capacity to about 2.2 billion cubic feet per day.

Deneke said the company is in discussions with multiple shippers to subscribe the remaining 450 MMcf per day of capacity. Deneke said there are a number of pipelines taking natural gas out of the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast for export as liquefied natural gas. What is lacking is in-basin infrastructure to move natural gas to the Waha hub or downstream, he said. “The key to unlocking growth as producers drill and develop their inventory, the most important constraint in expanding production is not just price but physical infrastructure,” he said. The expansion will include installation of a bi-directional mainline compressor station, increasing the pipeline's forward-haul capacity to Waha by 900 MMcf per day. Deneke said the company is excited about opportunities emerging from data center development in Texas and New Mexico. Those centers are attracted by the low-cost, abundant natural gas supply and are looking for supplies from the Waha hub, he said. Another opportunity is connectivity with additional pipelines, he added.

Read this article at Midland Reporter-Telegram - Subscribers Only

Tarrant decorum policy challenged in new lawsuit against the county, O’Hare

In a lawsuit filed Monday, Sept. 21, four Tarrant County residents claim the Commissioners Court decorum policy violates the First and 14th Amendments as well as the Texas Constitution. Plaintiffs Reed Bilz, Katherine Godby, Elizabeth Miller and Karla Palomares say defendants Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare and the county have “created a culture of fear and chilled protected speech” with the decorum policy. Each are regular attendees of the monthly commissioners court meetings. Their complaint asks the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to condemn the policy as unconstitutional and bar its use. Created under O’Hare’s leadership, the decorum policy prohibits personal attacks, impertinent, profane, obscene, or slanderous remarks as well as threatening, disruptive or unruly behavior.

The policy has been used to eject 14 people from meetings in 2026. Most of the time, those kicked out receive a criminal trespass warning. Two men who were kicked out twice this year were arrested and charged with disrupting a meeting and disorderly conduct. O’Hare and the county did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A political science professor and a First Amendment expert both told the Star-Telegram the policy was concerning because of its vagueness. Leah Nesbitt, a spokesperson for the county judge’s office, said in August that O’Hare has a duty to maintain an orderly meeting for the public’s benefit and efficiency’s sake. She also said the sheriff’s office decides who is arrested. “The Commissioners Court Decorum Rules exist to allow as many voices as possible to be heard at meetings in an orderly manner,” Nesbitt said. “Every large county in Texas has a decorum policy, many of which are more strict than Tarrant County’s. These rules do not silence passionate or critical voices. Maintaining order is necessary to serve all constituents efficiently and effectively.”

Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only

RRC Commissioner urges oilfield operators to report theft

Oil and gas regulator Wayne Christian on Tuesday urged Texas oil and gas operators to report petroleum product and property theft, citing testimony before the Texas Senate Committee on Natural Resources from RRC staff, industry leaders and law enforcement officials serving on the State Task Force on Petroleum Theft (STOPTheft). The testimony underscored the need for more data to combat the growing economic impact of theft and reinforced the importance of continued coordination through STOPTheft. “It has become clear that increased reporting of oil theft by industry is essential to identifying trends and quickly gathering available evidence,” Christian said. “While industry participation is critical, we must also continue to work to restore confidence that when an oil theft is reported, justice will be served.”

Texas Alliance of Energy Producers President, petroleum economist and STOPTheft appointee Karr Ingham shared a preliminary industry estimate indicating that oilfield theft has a staggering $4.3 billion economic impact on Texas. According to data from the Texas Comptroller, 92.7% of Texas oil and gas companies qualify as small businesses or microbusinesses, making them especially vulnerable to theft-related losses. Christian emphasized that smaller oil and gas operators often face greater difficulty absorbing the financial burden caused by stolen oil, equipment and other critical assets. These losses place considerable strain on their operations and threaten the continued viability of many small producers. “We must remain vigilant and continue working together to protect the strength of our oil and gas industry while keeping energy affordable for every Texan,” Christian said. “We are not just talking about stolen oil. Criminals are stealing equipment, vehicles, materials and other property that our producers need to keep operating. The combined cost of these losses continues to put significant pressure on smaller operators, who are less able to absorb these costs.”

Read this article at Odessa American - Subscribers Only

Pastors for Texas Children names new leader

Pastors for Texas Children has named Holly Gaskill Bandel executive director, succeeding founder Charles Foster Johnson, who is focusing on expanding the national network. Founded in 2013, Pastors for Texas Children works to connect congregations with local schools, educate faith leaders on public education issues and advocate for policies that serve the common good of Texas children, families, and communities. This Texas model now has spawned Pastors for Children, a national organization dedicated to planting state affiliates across the country. “The work we began in Texas has demonstrated the power of pastors and congregations standing together for children and their public schools,” Johnson said. “Pastors for Children will take that witness beyond Texas, building a network of state affiliates and ensuring that the voices of faith leaders who believe in strong public schools are heard in Washington.”

Bandel brings more than 25 years of pastoral leadership, nonprofit experience and community engagement to her new role. She has been involved with Pastors for Texas Children since 2018 and has extensive experience building partnerships between churches, public schools and communities. Bandel currently serves as pastor of First United Methodist Church in Sachse, Texas, a Dallas suburb. Previously, she served as executive associate minister at First United Methodist Church Dallas, where her responsibilities included mission and community ministries, public education advocacy and school partnerships. Her ministry career also includes leadership positions at Stonebridge United Methodist Church, Creekwood United Methodist Church, First United Methodist Church Plano and Anna United Methodist Church. “I have seen firsthand what happens when congregations build genuine relationships with their neighborhood public schools,” Bandel said. “Our schools are at the heart of our communities, and supporting the children, educators and families they serve is an important expression of our faith. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead Pastors for Texas Children and to work alongside clergy and congregations across Texas in this important ministry.”

Read this article at Baptist News Global - Subscribers Only

Jeffress goes after Talarico again on national TV

James Talarico’s beliefs “disqualify him from being a Christian,” according to Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas. Jeffress, a frequent Fox News contributor, was interviewed Friday, Sept. 18, by Carly Shimkus on Fox and Friends First. The segment ostensibly was about the influence Mainline Christians could have in swaying the midterm elections toward Democrats but Jeffress quickly dismissed Mainline Christians as irrelevant dinosaurs. “If Democrats win in November — and they could win in November — it’s not going to be because of the influence of Mainline Protestants,” he said. “I mean, simply put, Mainline Protestants are just about extinct in America today.”

Attendance at Mainline churches has been “dropping like a rock” and Mainline Protestants are “running for the exits” because “they’re tired of the woke theology instead of biblical content coming from their pulpits.” Jeffress then correctly stated that about 10% of Americans today are Mainline Protestants but he then overstated the share of Americans who are evangelicals — claiming that’s 30% of the population when, in fact, Pew Research Center says it is about 23% of the population. Mainline Protestants are “not concerned about what the Bible says,” Jeffress asserted, while saying evangelicals vote their biblical values. Jeffress is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump. That led him to repeat his attack on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, echoing what he said the previous week at the GOP Midterm Convention in Dallas. Jeffress contends Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, “appears to be such a wonderful follower of Jesus Christ” but is not. “His policies, his beliefs, religious beliefs, contradict those of Jesus Christ completely and you can certainly say James Talarico’s beliefs don’t disqualify him from being senator here in Texas but they do disqualify him from being a Christian.” The only examples he gave of Talarico’s “un-Christian” beliefs are his support for LGBTQ people, his failure to condemn all forms of abortion and his belief that there’s more than one way to faith in God.

Read this article at Baptist News Global - Subscribers Only

Camp Mystic under investigation for manslaughter, other criminal charges

Camp Mystic, the girls’ summer camp where 28 people died in July 2025 during flooding in the Hill Country, is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, who may be pursuing criminal charges against the camp. Fourteen search warrant affidavits were filed and executed against the family and staff members that run the camp last week. KUT News obtained one of the affidavits, which was filed against Tweety Eastland. Eastland's husband, Dick, was one of the 28 people that died last year. According to the affidavit, the Rangers have probable cause to believe the camp's leaders committed criminal offenses, including: manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, injury to a child, abandoning or endangering a child and deadly conduct.

"These offenses were committed against child campers—including both deceased victims and surviving campers of the flood event," Brant Johnston, an investigator with the Texas Rangers, wrote in the document. The affidavits sought to allow the Rangers to investigate electronic data from Tweety and other members of the Eastland family, as well as members of the camp's staff. It was approved by a Kerr County state district judge Thursday. The Rangers first began investigating Camp Mystic in March after it was revealed that hundreds of complaints were made against the camp. More than a dozen families are also suing the camp and its leaders for negligent behavior leading up to and during the Fourth of July flood.

Read this article at KUT - Subscribers Only

City Stories

Lewisville High School students gifted laptops by tech companies

Students from Lewisville High School were gifted refurbished laptops from AT&T and nonprofit Compudopt, which they will be able to keep even after graduation. The laptops were passed out to students Wednesday by State Senator Tan Parker at Lewisville High School. Originally, AT&T and Compudopt donated the refurbished laptops to Communities in Schools of North Texas, which then offered to give the laptops to local students. School districts often hand out laptops to students, which they can take home to do work, but must then return at the end of the year or before graduation.

The students who received these laptops will get to keep them, with the companies recognizing the benefits of students having a laptop to use in college or for work. “I feel very blessed because this helps us out in many ways,” said America Martinez, a senior at Lewisville High School, to the district. “Being able to keep this after we graduate is a blessing. It’s nice to see that other programs care about our education.” AT&T partnered with Compudopt and Human I-T to host 10 laptop distribution events at retail stores nationwide. The events helped collect 1,000 laptops that could be refurbished and donated to students. In addition to helping out students across the nation, the program is also part of AT&T’s effort to decrease retail e-waste through a campaign that has already recycled more than 10,000 pounds and $1 million worth of electronics from customers. “Our Retail E-Waste Campaign shows what’s possible when our customers take a simple action that creates meaningful impact,” said Mylayna Albright, the vice president of corporate responsibility at AT&T. “By recycling old devices, customers are helping reduce e-waste while putting laptops directly into the hands of students and families who need them. It’s a powerful example of how environmental responsibility and digital access can work together to help more people get connected and prepared for the future.”

Read this article at Cross Timbers Gazette - Subscribers Only

National Stories

US judge dismisses Michigan climate lawsuit against oil companies

A US judge on Tuesday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit in which Michigan accused four major ?oil companies of colluding to forestall competition in ?renewable energy, including electric vehicles, a decision in line with prior rulings in similar cases. US District Judge Jane Beckering in Grand Rapids rejected ?the lawsuit filed in January by Michigan Attorney ?General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, against BP, Chevron, Exxon, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute.

The judge said antitrust ?laws protect against none of the injuries for which Michigan ?sought a remedy, except for energy overcharges. "The distance is too great between the alleged conspiracy and Michigan’s and its residents’ overcharges to find ?that the conspiracy proximately caused the overcharges," Beckering said. The ?complaint said the companies sought to "restrain the emergence of electric vehicles and ?renewable ?primary energy technologies in the United States." Other judges have rejected similar climate lawsuits including in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico and South Carolina. A lawyer for Chevron ?previously called ?Michigan's lawsuit “baseless as ?demonstrated by multiple related court dismissals." Chevron and the other companies have been fighting for years ?against lawsuits by state and local governments ?seeking to ?hold them responsible for climate change, many of which remain pending. The Trump administration has taken a series of actions to ?make ?it easier for automakers to avoid ?building electric vehicles and make them more expensive for consumers to buy, reversing ?Biden administration policies.

Read this article at Reuters - Subscribers Only

What is Trump TV? White House launches 24/7 stream amid president's ban on some media outlets

The Trump administration has launched a streaming channel, dubbed Trump TV, days after President Donald Trump banned several media outlets from the White House. The White House announced the channel on Monday, advertising it as a place to watch his administration's "biggest moments." "TRUMP TV IS STREAMING NOW. 24/7, updated in real time, with top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place," the White House said in its official X account Monday. "Not every big moment has made it on your TV, now it can." While it has been branded as a 24/7 channel with real-time updates, the account has dug into the archives. As of Tuesday morning, Trump TV was streaming old White House events with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

White House spokesperson Kaelan Dorr announced the channel on Monday, calling it a place for the "administration's greatest hits, unfiltered." "The press, in some cases, reported inaccurately or not at all on the Administration’s many record breaking accomplishments on behalf of all Americans.. Trump TV is a 24/7 livestream of the Administration’s greatest hits, unfiltered," Dorr said on X. "All on the White House YouTube Channel and Official App." It's unclear how extensive the channel’s programming will be, as the White House YouTube page already livestreams most of Trump's speeches, events and the White House press briefings. The ban on reporters from the three news outlets, which began over the weekend, marked a clear escalation of Trump’s long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage he finds objectionable. They were also the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States, where the government is constitutionally forbidden from restricting the press.

Read this article at KVUE and Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Zelenskyy to seek offramp for years-long Russia war in UN speech after Trump reveals peace deal is close

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to address the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday as President Donald Trump presses for an end to Russia’s war and Kyiv seeks to shape the emerging diplomatic push after more than four-and-a-half years of conflict. Zelenskyy’s speech comes the day after he met with Trump in New York, where the two discussed finally putting an end to the war. Trump said that he believes a deal can be reached, though he did not disclose what that agreement would involve. "We’re working very closely with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, and we will get that one done," Trump said, adding that an agreement would happen "more quickly than people understand."

The Ukrainian president has said he is bringing "concrete security proposals and de-escalation measures" to New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) gahtering. His government is also seeking additional air defenses, support for Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and help protecting food exports through the Black Sea. The meeting with Trump came as Russia and Ukraine appeared to be weighing a possible pause in attacks on energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy has said Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy sector, critical infrastructure and food exports should stop, followed by matching de-escalation steps from Kyiv. Trump has also urged Ukraine to halt its strikes on Russian oil refineries. Ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy, he called the campaign "a serious hit against the Russians," but added, "It’s also a serious hit on the price of diesel." In his U.N. address on Tuesday, Trump said he could use new tariff authority against buyers of Russian energy "if necessary" to bring the war to an end. "This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended. The whole World suffers as 25,000 people, mostly soldiers, are being killed each month. What a shame!" Trump said.

Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only

Trump defends war against Iran in speech at United Nations

President Donald Trump said U.S. and Iranian officials met Tuesday, an unexpected engagement that came even as he threatened in his address to the U.N. General Assembly that he may “annihilate” the Islamic Republic if a deal isn’t reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war. Trump told reporters that his chief envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, met for about three hours with the Iranian officials on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders but he offered few details about how the discussions transpired or the substance of the exchange. “It was a very good meeting,” Trump said. The president later added that the Iranian officials were “not the highest level, but it’s something.”

Witkoff said in a posting on X that the talks were conducted through mediators who shuttled between the U.S. and Iranian teams. He added that he was hopeful the effort “will prove constructive and promising.” The engagement comes after months of U.S.-Iran communications languishing following the collapse of a short-lived ceasefire that was brokered in June. U.S. and Iranian negotiators met separately with Qatari and Pakistani mediators in Doha in early July for indirect talks. Earlier Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump is open to meeting with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, while he’s in New York for the General Assembly. “This is a president that will meet with anybody for the most part, because he believes that engaging with people is important if you’re going to solve problems,” Rubio said on NBC’s “Today” show. “It doesn’t mean you’re going to end up agreeing with them, but it’s important.” Trump also met Tuesday with leaders and senior officials from Gulf Cooperation Council nations — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates — as well as Jordan to discuss the way ahead with the war in Iran.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Missouri's congressional map heads to US Supreme Court again

The fight over Missouri’s congressional map returned to the U.S. Supreme Court for a third time late Tuesday, after an appeals court ordered the revival of new districts backed by President Donald Trump. The new map was drawn to help Republicans gain a U.S. House seat in the pivotal midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. The Supreme Court has twice blocked efforts to use it in November. The latest emergency appeal comes after an unusual federal appeals court ruling that ordered a last-minute return to a GOP-friendly map even after the Supreme Court halted such a move. The justices had left in place a Missouri Supreme Court decision requiring the state to use its previous map. The state court ruled that the new districts could not take effect unless voters approved them in a statewide referendum.

The U.S. Supreme Court gave supporters of the new map until midday Wednesday to respond to the latest appeal. The dispute has caused confusion for over a million potential voters who could be shuffled among districts. Absentee voting already is underway in Missouri using districts adopted in 2022, after the last census. The new congressional map backed by Trump significantly reshapes a Kansas City-based district held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Republicans hope the map could help them win seven of the state’s eight House seats — one more than they currently hold. Missouri’s redistricting battle has been the longest and most complex among roughly a dozen states that sought to change their U.S. House districts over the past year. Districts are usually redrawn at the start of each decade, after a census. But Trump spurred a spate of mid-decade redistricting last year when he urged Republican-led states to redraw districts to gain an edge in the midterm.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

John Fetterman’s party of one

The GOP’s first-ever midterm convention needed a Democrat. The two-night production at the American Airlines Center in Dallas in early September was built around the case that the Democratic Party has been captured by socialism, and the organizers wanted someone from inside the party to help make it. Naturally, John Fetterman, the glowering senator from Pennsylvania who had gone from progressive celebrity to his party’s biggest headache, was at the top of their list. Convinced by Dave McCormick, Pennsylvania’s Republican senator and one of his few friends in Washington, Fetterman recorded a 64-second unscripted video outside the steel mill in Braddock, where he served as mayor for 13 years, that aired at the convention. He called himself “a commonsense Democrat” who would “reject the extremes and socialism” and promised to work with Trump to protect Pennsylvania steel.

Fetterman’s appearance revived a question that has followed him through his ever-growing estrangement from much of the Democratic Party: Was he preparing to leave it altogether? “I’m a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party,” he said afterward, adding that if Democrats took control of the Senate in November, “I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on.” But the speculation persisted, amplified by the creation of an X account by anonymous former staffers who threatened to divulge damning details about the way Fetterman runs his office. By last week, Fetterman was shouting at reporters in the Capitol, “I’m not going to be a Republican! Why can’t you guys just wait till the midterms? And if I turn a Republican, then I’ll be a liar.” The same day, the Washington Examiner reported that Fetterman had attended a retreat at the Murdoch family ranch in Montana in July. Tré Easton, Fetterman’s former legislative director, takes the senator at his word about his Democratic identity. “I haven’t bought into the party-switching thing,” Easton told me. And why would Fetterman switch? If Democrats end up with a 51-49 margin after the midterms, “he is the most powerful Democrat in the Senate if he stays a Democrat.” And if he switches? “There goes all of his novelty.” Last month, a New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena poll found that just one in five likely Democratic voters in Pennsylvania views Fetterman favorably, compared with four in five Republicans. Still, Fetterman holds an F rating from the National Rifle Association, passionately supports same-sex marriage and trans rights, and votes with Democrats most of the time — which means joining the GOP will likely result in a primary challenge, too.

Read this article at New York - Subscribers Only

How Trump has cracked down on dissent since the killing of Charlie Kirk

The very public murder of Charlie Kirk on a Utah campus last September sent convulsions of grief through the political right. Within days, the Trump administration began transforming the slain prophet of young conservatives from a martyr to a cause. “The last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in heaven was, he said, that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence,” Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff, said three days after the killing. “And we are going to do that.” The message Mr. Miller described quickly turned into policy. Now, a year later, it is clear how bright a line of demarcation the period after Mr. Kirk’s death has become in the efforts by President Trump and his allies to target Americans they see as “the enemy within.” The administration’s nearly exclusive crackdown on left-leaning organizations and activities has ushered in a pitched battle over political dissent and free speech.

Officials have taken a governmentwide approach to scrutinizing citizens and organizations opposed to Trump policies. Tax agents have examined nonprofit groups. Investigators have looked into the books of labor unions. Prosecutors have brought charges against anti-ICE protesters, asserting that a leftist conspiracy is provoking political violence on the streets. These efforts came together this year in Minnesota, the scene of heated protests in response to the government’s aggressive immigration sweep. Federal investigators infiltrated neighborhood watch committees, church meetings and an environmental group in an operation that surveilled hundreds of ordinary people. Ultimately, 15 protesters were charged with conspiring to impede immigration enforcement as members of the far-left movement known as antifa, but prosecutors did not accuse them of any violent acts beyond kicking an ICE vehicle and sideswiping another. When Paul Kirk-Davidoff, a meat cutter and union organizer in Minneapolis, saw in court files that undercover agents attended a meeting he had set up last February about resisting ICE, he said: “First I laughed, then I thought this is scary.” From the start of his second term, Mr. Trump has wielded power to punish those he views as opponents, including law firms, universities, pro-Palestinian activists and news outlets, three of which he banned last week from the White House. But after the Kirk killing and assassination attempts on the president, Mr. Trump and his allies have recast the effort in existential terms.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

Republican senator calls for Judiciary Committee to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden

Utah Republican Sen. John Curtis is calling on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ranking Member Dick Dubin, D-Ill., to subpoena both Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden as part of an investigation into "the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit, preferential treatment or access by domestic and foreign interests" that Curtis is urging the senators to open. Curtis' letter comes after he posted a video on X Friday saying that reports that Donald Trump Jr.'s two-day wedding afterparty in May had been funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin "stink" and are "corruption." He promised further action on the topic.

President Donald Trump said last week that his son had repaid the oligarch for the afterparty costs, though no evidence of that alleged repayment has been publicly offered. "As I understand it, he paid them back. He didn't want to have that, so I hear he paid them back. A person that he knows pretty, I guess a friend of his, gave him a wedding party. That's very common," the president said. "The country should not have to accept one standard for the family of a Republican president and another for the family of a Democratic president. Nor should congressional oversight begin and end when control of the White House changes hands," Curtis writes in the letter. "I therefore respectfully request that the Senate Judiciary Committee launch an investigation into the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit, preferential treatment, or access by domestic and foreign interests," Curtis' letter continued. "As part of that investigation, I urge the Committee to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden to testify regarding their past business dealings, relationships with foreign individuals and entities, gifts, or other benefits they have received, and any instances in which their relationship to the President was invoked or understood to provide value."

Read this article at ABC News - Subscribers Only

Lead Stories

Man shot by ICE agent speaks from detention as bullet remains lodged near his spine

The Austin DoorDash delivery driver shot during an encounter with federal immigration agents on Sunday remains in custody and says the bullet is still in his body, lodged near his spine. 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez spoke by phone during a news conference Monday afternoon from the Pearsall Detention Facility. His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, translated portions of his remarks, describing his physical condition and treatment following the shooting. “He’s saying that he’s in a lot of pain, that they did not take out the bullet because it was close to his spine, but that they had him in a very cold room without a bed,” Wilber said during the phone call.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed Wilber was in federal custody pending removal from the country. In a statement, DHS said he entered the United States illegally. However, U.S. Rep. Greg Casar said Wilber entered the country legally through the now-discontinued CBP One program. His attorney acknowledged that he later missed a court date, resulting in a removal order. Wilber’s wife, Elizdar, told their attorney that she wanted to spend Sunday with her husband, but he chose to work to earn money for the family. According to Elizdar, she received a phone call from Wilber telling her he had been shot and was in pain, but she was given little information about where he was being treated. She said hospital security personnel told her her husband was not there. Supporters at Monday’s news conference said the family’s experience has only added to the uncertainty surrounding the shooting and Wilber’s detention. “This is about a wife and a mother that is suffering,” Casar said. “This is about a husband and a father who is in pain without pain medication in a prison in the desert right now.”

Read this article at KXAN - Subscribers Only

Much of Trump’s promised midterm election spending has yet to surface, new filing shows

President Donald Trump’s flagship super PAC grew its $400 million-plus war chest again in August, even as Republican candidates press him to put more of it to work with six weeks to go before the 2026 midterm election. MAGA Inc. ended August with about $415.8 million in cash after modest spending, more than $12 million above the $403.5 million it held at the beginning of the month, according to a Federal Election Commission filing posted late Sunday. The super PAC took in more than twice as much as it spent in August, reporting raising about $23.7 million while spending $11.4 million. Among those replenishing its coffers were cryptocurrency billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who contributed $10 million combined; NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who gave $2 million; and venture capital firm Trousdale Ventures CEO Phillip Sarofim, who gave $1 million.

That left MAGA Inc.’s cash pile still growing just days before Trump said on Sept. 4 he planned to deploy $400 million to $500 million from MAGA Inc. to help Republicans in November. Yet, more than two weeks later, MAGA Inc. itself has publicly disclosed only a fraction of that amount in spending. The FEC’s reporting requirements generally require disclosure within 48 hours when independent expenditures reach $10,000 for a political race. So far in September, the super PAC has reported about $15 million in spending in the Texas Senate race. However, a much larger Trump-linked advertising blitz is instead being booked through two super PACs created Sept. 1: No Going Back PAC Inc. and Safety & Affordability PAC Inc. The groups have reserved at least $126 million in advertising — about $98.5 million from No Going Back and $27 million from Safety & Affordability, according to AdImpact data and federal filings. No Going Back PAC also shares a treasurer, address and phone number with MAGA Inc. The spending follows months of public pressure from Republicans who questioned why Trump’s massive political war chest remained largely on the sidelines.

Read this article at CNBC - Subscribers Only

Wall Street is growing skeptical of the data center boom

The backlash against data centers that is shaping elections and kitchen table debates across the country is now spilling onto Wall Street. Companies that house the data centers or supply them with energy and land for construction were expected to dominate the initial public offering market over the coming months, feeding investors’ seemingly insatiable appetite for everything related to artificial intelligence. But some investors are voicing increasing skepticism about the growth expectations for data centers and the risks associated with their build-out, forcing industry executives and their advisers to recalibrate their plans to raise tens of billions of dollars in public markets. SB Energy, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank that has proposed to build the largest data center project in the world in Ohio, had originally planned its I.P.O. for this month.

But the offering has been delayed, as investors question the company’s sought-after valuation of $50 billion or more, according to interviews with four people familiar with the deal’s marketing efforts. So far, bankers have struggled to find enough buyers of SB Energy stock within price ranges the company and its bankers had sought. SB Energy’s struggles to win over investors come as Holtec, a company serving the nuclear energy industry that is looking to supply power for A.I., said last week that it was pausing its I.P.O. plans indefinitely, citing several factors that have “impaired investor confidence in the market for new public offerings.” Holtec pointed to the “uncertainty of data center development” as the primary reason for the postponement, according to a company release. Holtec Nuclear owns and operates one main nuclear power site and builds small nuclear reactors that can be used to power data centers. The company, which had planned to start trading on Nasdaq last week, was seeking to raise as much as $900 million at a valuation of up to $10 billion.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

New Texas rules require deposits for data center grid connections

Texas’ utility regulators are requiring new data center and other large industrial projects to pay up when asking to hook up to the state’s grid. The Public Utility Commission approved new rules aimed at weeding out speculative projects in an effort to get a better handle on how much energy demand is expected to grow. The rules require developers to provide a security deposit of $50,000 per megawatt of requested capacity before the state will even begin an interconnection study of the project’s application. In addition, developers will have to pay a $100,000 study fee.

Commissioner Kathleen Jackson called the security deposit requirement “a huge, heavy lift,” that will help the grid meet the unprecedented energy demand forecast by the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. ERCOT is projecting demand growth to quadruple by 2032, driven by industry and residential growth and increasingly severe weather. “This is a tremendous work product,” Jackson said. “It really will help to position us to do the kind of things we know that we need to do for the grid for reliability as well as to be able to accommodate the large amount of load that’s coming.” The goal of the new rules is to continue supporting growth while taking steps to offset the costs of expanding infrastructure to meet projected demand when a developer reserves substantial amounts of grid capacity but then abandons a project. The new rules for large industrial projects also require developers to demonstrate that they control the project site, whether through ownership or leasing. Developers will be required to share more details, such as load-ramping schedules and expected water usage.

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

State Stories

George W. Bush and Cornyn leave out Paxton as they raise cash for Senate candidates

Former President George W. Bush and Senator John Cornyn, two top Texas Republicans, are rallying conservative donors behind the party’s Senate candidates — except for the one running in their own state, Ken Paxton. Mr. Cornyn is hosting a fund-raiser on Monday evening in Dallas for six Republican nominees in battleground states, according to an invitation to the event that was obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Bush, listed on the invite as a “special guest,” is attending the event, his spokesman confirmed. The event will benefit Maintain the Majority, a new joint fund-raising committee supporting the Senate candidates, who are defending Republican-held seats in Maine, Ohio, Alaska and Iowa and looking to flip seats in Michigan and New Hampshire. An email sent to attendees on Sunday and viewed by The Times also said that Michele Tafoya, the Republican nominee for Senate in Minnesota, was a late addition to the event.

But Mr. Paxton, the Republican nominee in Texas, who defeated Mr. Cornyn in a costly and bitter primary, was not included. His campaign declined to comment on the fund-raiser. The fund-raising omission of Mr. Paxton is another escalation in the standoff between old-guard Bush Republicans and the fiery insurgent wing represented by Mr. Paxton, President Trump and their allies. And it comes as the parties battle for cash and advertising time in the Texas Senate race, one of this year’s top contests. Mr. Paxton has badly trailed his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, in campaign fund-raising, but super PACs tied to Mr. Trump and Senate Republicans have come to Mr. Paxton’s aid, reserving more than $80 million in outside advertising in Texas. Mr. Paxton, the state attorney general, has long been a polarizing figure among Texas Republicans. He was impeached by the Republican-dominated Texas House on corruption charges in 2023, though he was acquitted in the State Senate, and he pushed to oust Republican lawmakers and judges who disagreed with him in his party’s primaries in 2024. This year, Mr. Cornyn and establishment Republican donors spent more than $130 million on advertising backing the senator and bashing Mr. Paxton in their contentious primary. (Mr. Bush chipped in $5,000 for Mr. Cornyn.) In the months since, Mr. Cornyn has continually criticized Mr. Paxton’s character and campaign.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

Harris Co. Judge Lina Hidalgo said she won't vote for fellow Democrat, Commissioner Lesley Briones

After losing the budget battle, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is eyeing the November elections and said she won't be supporting one of her democratic colleagues. Last week, after one of the largest tax rate increases in recent county history passed, Hidalgo encouraged people to vote. "As the composition of the court changed, I'm afraid it has put the county down a problematic financial path," Hidalgo said. "I hope people get out and vote on November 3rd." At the time, ABC13 asked Hidalgo, a Democrat, if that meant she was advocating for republicans. She told ABC13 to circle back. On Monday, ABC13 did. Not only did Eyewitness News learn who she won't vote for, but also the efforts she made to try to block the tax rate vote. Hidalgo isn't on the ballot this November, but it doesn't mean she's shying away from those who are. "I'm going to get in that voting booth, and you better believe I'm not going to vote for Commissioner Briones," Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo wouldn't say if she's voting for Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones' Republican opponent. Hidalgo said she won't support Briones over her blocking a proposal to have voters decide whether to fund childcare programs and how the commissioner has spent other money. ABC13 reached out to Briones' office after our interview. They pointed us to her campaign team. ABC13 didn't receive a response. Last week, commissioners approved a $3.1 billion budget that budget officials said will increase the average homeowner's property taxes by around $190 a year. The three Democratic members of the court approved the tax rate. Commissioner Tom Ramsey, the lone Republican, did not. During the vote, Hidalgo walked away. Four years ago, Ramsey and a former Republican commissioner didn't show up for the tax rate vote. Knowing this, Hidalgo said she hoped Ramsey would do something similar to deny a quorum, making a vote on the tax rate impossible. "At some point, I passed him a note," Hidalgo recalled. "My note said, 'Have you spoken to anyone else about the tax rate vote? If not, can you and I speak?' He said, 'I did speak to somebody about it.' The thing is, it's not lawful for more than two of us to speak about a topic." ABC13 reached out to Ramsey's office regarding the note and whether he considered a quorum break with Hidalgo. ABC13 didn't receive a response.

Read this article at ABC 13 - Subscribers Only

Internal GOP poll shows Republicans getting annihilated in Trump +17 Texas district

Polls have been looking grim for President Donald Trump and Republicans as the midterm elections have loomed ever closer, but a new internal poll from a Texas legislative district is a five-alarm fire for the GOP. The polling numbers for President Donald Trump and the GOP have been brutal as his second term has progressed, with Americans’ views on his handling of the economy and immigration — topics on which he had previously outpolled Democrats — taking a dive. The president’s war in Iran has been another issue dragging down his polling, specifically because of its impact on gas prices. Republican woes are even evident in Texas, threatening to shatter decades of GOP majority control.

In the Texas Senate race, scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is lagging badly behind Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D) in both polling and fundraising. Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the primary with Trump’s endorsement, but it required a runoff, burned through campaign funds, and put a spotlight on the series of scandals, lawsuits, a bitter divorce from his state senator wife, and other controversies that have dogged Paxton for years. Texas State Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D) has long been viewed as much more of an underdog against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who, unlike Paxton, does have a substantial fundraising lead, plus far higher name recognition from years as governor and previously as the state’s attorney general. But several recent polls have shown Hinojosa within the margin of error with Abbott. And one district in particular is looking like a bellwether for Republicans’ fate in Texas and nationally this November: Texas State Senate District 9, which covers parts of Tarrant County including a large portion of Fort Worth. The district already rattled GOP nerves this January when it flipped blue for the first time since 1991 in a special election runoff that Democrat Taylor Rehmet won, defeating Republican Leigh Wambsganss by over 14 points. In 2024, Trump won Texas SD 9 by 17 points, making Rehmet’s win an upset. But a January primary runoff has far lower turnout than a November general election with multiple races drawing major media attention, so was this race an outlier? A new poll reported by Quorum Report editor Scott Braddock may shed some light on that question.

Read this article at Mediaite - Subscribers Only

Ken Paxton donations tied to Chinese real estate investment firm

Ken Paxton and his allies have spent millions this election cycle on ads that accuse his Democratic U.S. Senate challenger, James Talarico, of helping Chinese investors buy up Texas land. But before unleashing the attacks, Paxton’s campaign took in $40,000 from donors who work for companies that facilitate the exact kind of Chinese investments he has criticized, according to a review of campaign finance documents by Hearst Newspapers. The donations, all made before the most recent June 30 filing deadline, were far from the largest to Paxton’s campaign. They are significant, however, given how heavily he and the GOP at large have gone in on making Chinese influence a marquee issue in the race.

A spokesperson for Paxton did not address questions about the donations, but said in a statement that the attorney general has spent “more than a decade fighting the Chinese Communist Party’s influence and protecting Texas from foreign threats, including suing CCP-aligned companies.” “Meanwhile, James Talarico picked a side, and it was decidedly pro-Chinese Communist Party and anti-Texas,” the spokesperson, Madison Cercy, said. Most of the donations are linked to a U.S.-based real estate development company called Wan Bridge, which solicits foreign investors for its housing developments in Texas. Cofounder Ting Qiao donated nearly $30,000 to Paxton and PACs affiliated with him from June of last year through April. Danting Li, a cofounder and the company’s chief operations officer, donated just over $10,000 through two donations last year. Both are based in Texas, according to their social media profiles. A third donor, John Chiang, works at a U.S. development firm that contracts with Wan Bridge, along with a U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese company connected to the Communist Party of China.

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

Judge dismisses Burnam's request seeking to remove Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare

A petition to remove Republican Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare from office was dismissed Monday morning by a district court judge. The ouster request was filed by former state Rep. Lon Burnam, who O’Hare’s campaign called a “radical activist,” after he was kicked out and arrested for disturbing an Aug. 4 Commissioners Court meeting. Judge James Johnson, of the 431st Judicial District Court, dismissed the petition because the facts presented by Burnam were not “sufficient to constitute official misconduct or incompetency,” according to the legal document. Burnam has a related lawsuit against O’Hare and the county in federal court as well as a request to dismiss the charges placed against him for disrupting a meeting and disorderly conduct.

The 73-year-old was ejected from the Commissioners Court meeting by O’Hare for picking up the public comment microphone during his allotted minute. Burnam did so as a form of protest because O’Hare kicked out another speaker, Base Mego, shortly before for picking up the microphone as a soothing tactic. Mego has autism and claimed he had gotten prior permission to hold the microphone. O’Hare said Mego was granted the ability to use a handheld microphone after the fact.” When O’Hare told sheriff’s deputies to remove Burnam, he laid on the floor and the deputies had to carry him out by his limbs. The Monday dismissal does not require O’Hare to respond to the filing, as requested by Burnam. O’Hare’s campaign called the decision a win for the county judge. Burnam’s defense attorney, Tiffany Burks, did not respond to the Star-Telegram’s request for comment. Burks is running against Republican District Attorney Phil Sorrells for his county seat in the November election.

Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only

Kerr County businesses struggle to recover eight weeks after flooding without state or federal aid

More than eight weeks after floodwaters swept through parts of the Hill Country, some Kerr County businesses are still trying to recover without state or federal assistance. For many owners, reopening has meant relying on savings, grants and community support to keep employees working. Texas Power and Controls, a generator company on Goat Creek Road near Interstate 10, was among the businesses hit hard when nearby creek water rose rapidly and became a raging river. Kathryn Stafford, the company’s office manager, said the damage has been difficult to watch, especially for her boss, who is determined to keep the business going. “I’ve been with the company for almost two years now, and it’s just heartbreaking to see how hard this hit him,” Stafford said.

Eight people depend on the company’s survival. To avoid taking chances with another flood, the business moved out of its damaged location and shifted operations. “We moved a lot of stuff out of here, whatever we could save,” Stafford said. “We used my home for about a month to put the office, to set us up to try to get us back going so that way we could get our guys back out as soon as possible.” Texas Power and Controls is one of dozens of local businesses damaged in the July flooding. The Kerrville Chamber of Commerce said 119 Kerr businesses were damaged, including 102 within city limits. Of those, 25 were destroyed or had major damage. For many business owners, recovery has been slowed by the lack of state and federal money. Stafford said Texas Power and Controls was able to secure a grant, but before that, the company was struggling. “There has been nothing,” Stafford said. “We were barely thinking that we would be able to make payroll.” Texas Power and Controls received a grant through LiftFund, a nonprofit distributing $5 million to businesses affected by the flooding. The Kerrville Chamber of Commerce has also provided money to 32 of the 70 businesses that applied for assistance. “All of us are in it together, so we’re going to keep pushing forward,” Stafford said. Some businesses have used savings to reopen while waiting for possible state or federal help. Others remain closed and may not be able to reopen. One way the community can help is by supporting affected businesses through purchases or by becoming clients as recovery continues.

Read this article at KSAT - Subscribers Only

Texas bishop denounces ICE shooting in Austin, says people ‘living in terror and fear’

After a man was shot and wounded by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 20, Bishop Daniel E. Garcia denounced the shooting and called for “a viable immigration policy that respects the rule of law while recognizing the dignity of every person.” The individual who was shot was delivering for DoorDash at the time of the encounter with ICE, his lawyer said. A video obtained by CNN showed officers cutting off the man’s shirt after the incident, revealing a bullet wound in his back.

In a Sept. 20 statement, Bishop Garcia, who leads the Diocese of Austin, said he was “deeply saddened and disturbed” by the shooting. “We find ourselves in a time in this country and city, when people are living in terror and fear because of the increased activity of ICE agents on our streets. Many people are often being detained only due to the color of their skin or the language they speak,” he said. “Today the credibility of a federal agency that is supposed to protect us has been weakened by incidences such as the one that took place today. “I ask the faithful of the Diocese of Austin to pray for this man who was shot, his family, for all those who have been affected, all who have been involved and for our entire community,” Bishop Garcia continued. “As an investigation begins, let us pray that the Federal, State and City authorities will be transparent and honest about what occurred this afternoon, so that confidence in our governmental entities may be strengthened, not weakened.” Austin city officials have called for an independent investigation of the incident.

Read this article at OVSNews - Subscribers Only

An old idea with new drive: Takeaways from the alliance uniting ATX-SATX region leaders

What began at a barbecue joint on San Antonio’s East Side only months ago progressed Friday to hosting its inaugural event with representation from 13 counties covering over 11,000 square miles and a population of 5.4 million. In the Student Union at Texas State University-San Marcos, a spectrum of disparate needs coalesced around a single goal: collaborating as a mega region under the banner of the Central Texas Alliance. On issues ranging from light rail to water, civic, business and academic leaders met to form a consensus and commit to working together.

Formed earlier this year to support the Austin-San Antonio corridor, the Alliance seeks to enable the region’s leaders to act with one voice. The upcoming 90th Texas Legislative Session was on all their minds. A year ago, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros published “The Austin-San Antonio Megaregion: Opportunity and Challenges in the Lone Star State,” with authors Robert Rivard and David Hendricks. The book outlines how projected growth will put demands on housing, energy and water resources, mobility infrastructure and the workforce along the I-35 corridor. Texas is considered the fastest growing economy and population in the nation. The Austin-San Antonio corridor, with a population of 5.3 million, is on target to add 3 million more residents by 2050, according to census data. As a region, Austin and San Antonio are catching up to Houston in the share of jobs, said Roberto Coronado, senior vice president and senior economist of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Unlike other major metropolexes in the state, the rapidly growing region is not served by one entity that works to develop consensus around priorities for the region, despite previous attempts. Until now. “This was a concept in a book in February,” said the nonprofit’s CEO, A.J. Rodriguez. After an unexpected meeting with Cisneros while at Reese Bros Barbecue, he accepted the charge to lead the Alliance.

Read this article at San Antonio Report - Subscribers Only

Democrat drops out of Texas House election for north Tarrant seat, citing eligibility

Democrat Ericka Lomick announced Monday that she is suspending her Texas House campaign for a northern Tarrant County seat, seemingly clearing the way for Republican Alan Blaylock’s victory in November. Lomick made the decision after a political action committee supporting Blaylock questioned her eligibility as a candidate, accusing her of “federal convictions, unpaid taxes and deceptive statements.” Without confirming or denying the accusations, Lomick said in a statement that she wanted to “allow the people of HD 93 to elect someone who can serve the district without the burden of defending against attacks that would threaten to derail the business of the people.”

Last week, the Protect and Serve Texas PAC published records showing Lomick was indicted and pleaded guilty to three federal felonies: mortgage fraud conspiracy, bank fraud related to a mortgage fraud scheme and money laundering conspiracy. “After careful consideration, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for House District 93,” Lomick said in the statement. “Although this was not an easy decision, I am convinced that it was the right one for the people of HD 93.” Lomick appears to have since deleted her campaign accounts on social media. She did not return requests for comment. Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said via text message that Lomick notified the party of the plan to suspend her campaign, and the party was assessing the situation. Campolo declined to comment further, deferring questions to Lomick’s statement.

Read this article at Fort Worth Report - Subscribers Only

State Rep. Gary VanDeaver to step down after decade in Texas House

After serving public office for more than a decade, State Rep. Gary VanDeaver, announced his resignation, effective at the end of day Monday. In a letter directed to the citizens of House District 1, VanDeaver (R-New Boston) wrote he delivered his resignation letter to Gov. Greg Abbott notifying him of the decision. “Serving in the Texas House has been one of the great honors of my life,” the state representative wrote. VanDeaver wrote that his reasons for leaving before his term expires in January is “two-fold.” “First, the constituents of HD1 remain the priority and this decision will provide the opportunity for my successor to be better positioned to serve the great people of HD1,” he wrote. “Secondly, this decision will allow me to better prepare for life after the legislature as I continue to search for ways to make Texas a better place.”

VanDeaver went on to thank his staff and the friendship and support of “so many others.” A retired lifelong educator, VanDeaver was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2015 after working for several school districts in Northeast Texas. VanDeaver ran in the 2024 Republican primary against Chris Spencer and Dale Huls, eventually winning in a run-off against Spencer with 53.5% of the vote while Spencer received 46.3%. Last December, VanDeaver announced he would not seek re-election to a seventh term, stating he would serve out the remainder of his term until Jan. 1, 2027. Spencer won the 2026 Republican primary against Josh Bray with 50.9% of the vote opposed to Bray’s 49.1%. He faces Democratic candidate Sean Huffman in November. He was one of few Republicans to oppose the statewide school voucher program and one of five representatives censured by the Republican Party of Texas for opposing its priorities and supporting then-Texas Speaker Dade Phelan. “May God continue to bless the great state of Texas!” he concluded in the letter.

Read this article at KLTV - Subscribers Only

American exec teases new gates, restaurants at DFW Airport's Terminal A

American Airlines Group Inc. plans to open 10 new gates at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport's Terminal A before the end of the year, adding new restaurants, shopping and passenger amenities as the carrier continues expanding at its largest hub. The Fort Worth-based airline on Sept. 18 provided an update on the terminal's ongoing construction during its Forever Forward online video series. Derrick Proffitt, managing director of customer care, said the 10 gates will open before the end of the year, with Terminal A becoming the busiest for the airline at DFW Airport. Currently, Terminal C is the busiest for American.

Proffitt also teased some of the new concessions planned for the expanded terminal. Alongside familiar brands such as McDonald's and Auntie Anne's, travelers can expect a P.F. Chang's and Chick-fil-A, as well as "really cool local Dallas and Fort Worth flavors coming into the terminal as well," he said. Those additions will join a lineup that includes Mesero, Ciao & Go, Salad and Go, Mozart's Bakehouse, Olivella's Pizzeria and Minute Suites, Dallas Business Journal previously reported. "When this opens, our team members and customers are going to want to come to this terminal just for the concessions and the shopping," Proffitt said. Proffitt said the new gates are being "built with the customer in mind" and will have a "modern feel" with "open, bright and airy comfortable seating" similar to Terminal C's newly opened gates. DFW Airport and American in June opened the first phase of a $3 billion expansion at Terminal C. American has also improved the roadway leading into Terminal A for improved traffic flow, Proffitt said.

Read this article at Dallas Business Journal - Subscribers Only

Texas Stock Exchange CEO explains luring $115 billion in corporate listings during monumental week

The Texas Stock Exchange's recent week of achievements and announcements felt a lot like a watching a football team rack up touchdowns on its way to a victory. Between Sept. 10 and Sept. 18, several companies currently trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq announced plans to transfer their listings to the upstart Texas Stock Exchange with $115 billion in combined market capitalization. It started with a slew of energy companies, including Energy Transfer LP and Sunoco LP, followed by Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. and Origin Bancshares Inc. Dillard's Inc. capped the week on Sept. 18 when it announced its planned transfer, a $10 billion corporate listing on its own. TXSE also hosted two bell-ringing ceremonies to celebrate key achievements. First, Dallas-based Texas Capital became the first company to establish primary listings in Texas on Sept. 16 after transferring two exchange-traded funds to the new exchange. The following day, on Sept. 17, Dallas-based Westwood Holdings Group Inc.'s Salient Enhanced Power & Infrastructure ETF became the first new ETF launched on TXSE.

All together, the monumental week shows how far TXSE has come in a relatively short period of time as it seeks to disrupt the status quo of the U.S. capital markets. And TXSE is just getting started. In another analogy to football, TXSE CEO James Lee said the "transfer portal is full." He said during a Sept. 17 interview with Dallas Business Journal to expect a "steady series of announcements that will run through the end of the year and all the way through the spring" across in Texas and the country. "This is not just a Texas exchange with Texas adoption with Texas companies," Lee said. "All through the rest of this month in October, you're going to see movement from around the country towards the Texas Stock Exchange. ... You're just seeing a little bit. This is the tip of the iceberg." The new Dallas-based exchange, a subsidiary of TXSE Group Inc., publicly launched in 2024 and received regulatory approval in fall 2025. It has raised more than $275 million in funding from Wall Street giants like BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Kelcy Warren, a billionaire who is tied to the oil companies that are moving their listings to TXSE, owns a 28% stake in the exchange, according to a federal filing.

Read this article at Dallas Business Journal - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Trump heads into a week of diplomacy, hampered by a lack of allies

When President Donald Trump treks out to Joint Base Andrews to greet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, it will be as a leader who increasingly stands alone as he engages with his biggest geopolitical counterpart. A decade ago, Trump swept into his first term with a sharp approach to China. He abandoned years of a strategy in which Washington and its allies deepened trade with Beijing and hoped that greater political openness would follow. Trump said China was a strategic rival and needed to be confronted more directly, and Europe and other allies moved in his direction. In his second term, though, Trump has eased his rhetoric on China while setting his sights on allies. Canada is unsettled about his rhetoric about turning it into the 51st state.

Europeans rushed troops to Greenland this year amid fears of a potential U.S. effort to take the Danish territory by force. Taiwan has worried about a possible shift in long-standing U.S. policy supporting it. Those allies have been forced to change their calculations about Washington. And as Trump has alternated between wooing Xi with trade deals and blasting him with tariffs, he has found few countries lining up to join him. Those strains will be very much at the center of attention as Trump dives into a week of international engagement capped by a day of meetings with Xi on Thursday. “We get along well. We’re doing very well with China,” Trump told reporters Friday. “I would say others maybe not so well, but we’re doing very well with China. And President Xi and I have a good relationship.” The diplomacy will begin in New York, where he is scheduled to speak Tuesday to the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only

Mamdani and Trump advance giant housing plan in friendly Gracie Mansion meeting

Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted President Donald Trump on Monday at Gracie Mansion, where they discussed funding for counterterrorism security and the planned Sunnyside Yard housing development, along with immigration enforcement. In a wide-ranging meeting convened by the mayor while the president was in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly, the pair focused on the city’s success — despite their differences. “Each time the president and I speak, it is about the same topics: how to improve the lives of New Yorkers and how to use the power of government to take on the cost of living crisis, to grow our economy and to build a better, stronger New York,” Mamdani said as he stood alongside Trump in the backyard of Gracie Mansion after their meeting.

“I have said time and again that I will work with anyone, no matter what party they belong to, no matter how much we may disagree on other topics,” the mayor said. The president praised New York’s democratic socialist mayor, saying he’s “off to a start” toward being a “great” mayor. They acknowledged their differences, particularly over immigration. During their meeting, which was also attended by the mayor’s and president’s chiefs of staff, Trump agreed to ramp up consultations about funding for Sunnyside Yard, which could bring up to 12,000 new homes built over a 190-acre Queens railyard. “We’ve agreed to set up a new level of that conversation between our housing and operations team at City Hall and the White House team,” Mamdani said. The project, Trump said, is “going to need a lot of federal approvals and probably some federal money to do it. But it’s always been a great location.”

Read this article at The City Reporter - Subscribers Only

Apartment landlords have a $2 trillion debt problem that is only getting worse

Few investors are feeling more pain from rising interest rates than America’s apartment landlords. These property owners face a bill of more than $1.8 trillion in debt over the next decade. From this year to 2028, about $757 billion of those loans are coming due, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is the most of any commercial real-estate sector. Nearly $300 billion of those loans are maturing in 2026 alone. This follows a record-setting 2025, when $310 billion in loans came due, the highest the sector had seen in a single year since the Mortgage Bankers Association started tracking. Another $223 billion is due next year. Now, after the Federal Reserve raised rates a quarter point and with bond yields rising, that debt is about to become a much bigger burden. Landlords are having to refinance when borrowing rates are roughly twice the level of five years ago, when many of these loans were made.

When apartment-mortgage rates tumbled to historic lows of around 3% in 2020 and 2021, multifamily buildings were the hottest investment in commercial real estate. Office and retail properties suffered after urban downtowns were hollowed out by remote work. The lodging business took a hit when travel activity drooped during the pandemic, while soaring operating costs and plunging occupancy rates caused hundreds of senior housing facilities to close. Apartment rents, meanwhile, were surging at double digits nationwide. Multifamily became a refuge for real-estate investors amid the doom spiral in other sectors. “There was a sense of relative euphoria,” said Mike Wolfson, Newmark’s managing director for multifamily capital-markets research. “But things turned very quickly.” New apartment construction flooded the market, mostly concentrated in the Sunbelt region. Cities such as Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta and Austin, Texas, were inundated with new luxury apartments and not enough people to fill them. Fast forward, many of the same apartment landlords riding high are now preparing to sell at a loss, hand back the keys to their lenders or reconfigure their balance sheets to shoulder millions more in mortgage payments after refinancing.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

How David Ellison ended his stalemate with California

Earlier this month, there were few signs that California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison were moving any closer to resolving their differences. Paramount and the coalition of states Bonta was leading in an antitrust suit seeking to block the company’s $81 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery were having on and off settlement negotiations, but little progress had been made, according to people close to the discussions. The clock was ticking for Ellison. He had spent a year fighting for the merger and was staring down the prospect of costly fees the company had agreed to in order to clinch the deal. Paramount would have to pay $650 million a quarter to Warner shareholders, or $7 million a day, starting Oct. 1 if the deal wasn’t closed.

Bonta was under pressure, too. Paramount, the studio behind “The Godfather” and “Titanic,” had threatened to leave its home state, which would be an economic and symbolic blow to a city already suffering from a leaner Hollywood. Paramount held talks with officials in Tennessee, people familiar with the discussions said. In conversations with the attorney general, California Gov. Gavin Newsom reiterated concerns that losing Paramount would hurt the state’s economic engine. Newsom was concerned Bonta would lose at trial and at times acted as an unofficial mediator between the two sides, people familiar with the matter said. Then, last week, Ellison made his biggest concession yet: to spend at least $1.5 billion more on domestic production over five years, people familiar with the offer said. He flew between Los Angeles and Northern California to meet with Bonta, his staff and other attorneys general to complete settlement terms, from the editorial independence of CBS and CNN to allocating money for entertainment worker benefits and the potential sale of cable channels.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Sylvester Stallone reveals what he said to Trump after surprise Hollywood ambassador appointment

Sylvester Stallone revealed that he was blindsided when President Donald Trump announced his appointment as a special ambassador to Hollywood. Days before his second inauguration in January 2025, Trump shared a post on his platform Truth Social in which he named Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as "Special Envoys," describing the role as a way for the three actors to serve as his "eyes and ears" in Hollywood and advise him on efforts to bring film and television production back to the U.S. During a recent interview with The Sunday Times, the 80-year-old "Rocky" star recalled that he found out about the appointment while watching television.

"I was watching TV one night, and they go, ‘So Stallone and Mel Gibson and Jon Voight will be …’ And I went, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Excuse me? Really?’ Because if they had asked me in the beginning, I would have said, ‘This is not possible,'" Stallone said. Stallone told the outlet that he was hesitant about taking on the role because he didn't believe it was feasible. When asked if he had reservations after Trump's announcement, Stallone said, "Yes. Yes, because Hollywood, I guess it’s like feudal states." "They have their little kingdoms," he continued. "You don’t go in and tell six studios how to do things. And Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, we’re kind of do-our-own-thing people. No, it won’t work." The "Tulsa King" star recalled that he later explained his reasoning to Trump. "I said thank you and ciao, because it’s impossible," Stallone said. "Hollywood works, and it will evolve." "It’s corporate, and corporate people won’t want to hear me tell them about finance," he added. In his original post on Jan. 16, 2025, Trump wrote, "It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California." "They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!" he continued. "These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!"

Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only

Republican support for Trump’s handling of war in Iran shows cracks in new CNN poll

Americans’ opposition to the war in Iran has hardened, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, with almost two-thirds saying the US is not winning the conflict and more saying President Donald Trump isn’t doing enough to end it. Americans have never held positive views about the war, and nearly seven months after it began, broad majorities say the conflict has hurt US interests, has not been worth the costs and that the president lacks a clear plan to handle it. The findings come as Trump prepares to address the United Nations and meet with Gulf leaders about the future of the Iran war. They also come as he is confronting a metastasizing crisis with the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

Overall, 29% of US adults approve of Trump’s handling of foreign affairs, a new low in CNN polling across both of his terms as president, while 71% say they disapprove. More see his foreign policy decisions this term as harming America’s standing in the world rather than helping it. Only 26% say they approve of the president’s handling of the situation in Iran, down from 33% a month after the war began. Much of the decline in approval of his handling of Iran comes among Republicans. Views among Democrats and independents have been steadily negative throughout the conflict. In March, though, 73% of Republicans approved of the way Trump was handling it. Now, that figure stands at 60%. Among Republican and Republican-leaning adults, approval of Trump’s handling of Iran dips into negative territory among those younger than 45 (53% disapprove) and those who say they are not members of the Make America Great Again movement (54% disapprove). Republicans are also less positive now than they were earlier this year about the impact of Trump’s foreign policies more broadly: About half of Republicans now say that his decisions have helped the US’ standing in the world, down 13 points since March.

Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only

Democrats fume after Jared Golden endorses a Republican in a key race

Democrats are fuming at outgoing Rep. Jared Golden of Maine after he deepened the rift between himself and his party by endorsing a swing-district House Republican. In an op-ed published Monday, Golden endorsed Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York) for reelection, calling him one of the most bipartisan members of Congress. It’s bad news for Democratic candidate Cait Conley, who is heavily backed by House Democrats’ campaign arm. Some Democrats were swift to condemn the choice. “Doesn’t sound like a Democrat to me. And his voting record doesn’t show he’s a Democrat either,” said one House Democrat who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. Golden often votes with Republicans. Another said Golden was undercutting Conley.

“It’s a winnable seat that he’s helping to make more difficult,” the second House Democrat told The Washington Sun. “Also what is he doing to help us elsewhere?” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries released a statement dismissive of Lawler, the endorsement and Golden, but did not say Golden would face any sort of punishment. A spokesperson also did not say whether the Maine congressman would face any consequences for breaking with the party. “Mike Lawler is a partisan hack and Trump sycophant who Cait Conley will defeat in November. In desperation, he is peddling an 11th hour endorsement from a retiring Congressmember who represents an out of town district more than 400 miles away,” Jeffries said. “This smoke and mirrors ploy will do nothing to change the outcome of the race. The election will be decided by the people of Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley.” Lawler’s seat is one of the most coveted by Democrats as they look to regain the majority in November. Golden is already on thin ice with the Democratic Party: In September alone, he helped advance two procedural votes with Republicans along with Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Washington). Golden is retiring, but Gluesenkamp Perez is still running for reelection.

Read this article at Washington Sun - Subscribers Only

Lead Stories

Tarrant lawmaker plans Texas data center transparency legislation

A Fort Worth-area Texas lawmaker plans to introduce legislation on a hot button topic: data centers. After co-authoring laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence within state and local government agencies, state Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, is crafting bills relating to the fast-growing technology hubs. Public outcry around the data centers has led the Fort Worth City Council to vote for a moratorium, and Gov. Greg Abbott has introduced a temporary moratorium. Though he did not provide any specifics, Parker said at the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Leaders in Government series on Sept. 17 that the legislation will be informed by his experience during the Barnett Shale natural gas drilling growth in the early part of this century. Then, Parker was representing communities in north Tarrant and Denton counties.

“One of the bills I will carry next session will be a framework that is based on historical experience with other industries,” he said. That initial experience with the oil and gas industry setting up drilling sites in populated areas was not good, he said. “They came in arrogant, out of touch, tone deaf,” he said. “They were not paying attention to local interests.” Parker said he worked with the oil and gas industry to change that behavior and get them involved with and answering community questions. Parker also authored an amendment to a bill requiring oil and gas companies to publicly disclose the chemicals used in fracking. Parker said he plans to write data center legislation that establishes public discussion and transparency requirements. “I don’t mandate things on business,” he said. “It will incentivize them. I will encourage good behavior, and that’s what we did at that time (during the Barnett Shale).” While Parker works on plans to file a bill when the Texas Legislature meets starting Jan. 12, he also made clear he believes data centers are key to the future success of the state.

Read this article at Fort Worth Report - Subscribers Only

ICE officer shoots Venezuelan man delivering food in Austin, lawyer says

An ICE officer shot and seriously wounded a Venezuelan man Sunday afternoon as he was delivering food in Austin, Texas, his lawyer said. The man was taken to a local hospital and was “in serious but stable condition” after being shot in the torso, Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said at a news conference earlier. The White House referred NBC News to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. A spokesperson for the DHS, the federal agency to which Immigration and Customs Enforcement belongs, said in a statement late Sunday that the man was stable and was in federal custody pending removal from the U.S. Immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch identified him as Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, 28, and said he was an asylum seeker who entered the country through a parole program.

“Today at 12:30, Wilber called his wife to tell her that he had been shot,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said in an interview. “And he was yelling in agony, and the call cut off. That was all she knew.” The DHS spokesperson said Garcés Perez entered the country illegally under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal, adding that Homeland Security Investigations, with help from the FBI, will lead an investigation into the shooting. The shooting occurred around 1 p.m. in North Austin. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Sheridan Nolen said the agency received a request for assistance from ICE for a vehicle pursuit involving a blue Toyota Corolla. A social media video verified by NBC News captures the sound of tires screeching followed by a person exiting a dark-colored SUV as a blue sedan is stopped next to it, both vehicles facing one another. At least three gunshots are heard as the person approaches the sedan and runs up to it as it slowly lurches forward. The video shows the person standing next to the sedan’s driver’s side as it stops in front of an intersection. The sedan also appears to be damaged on the passenger side.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Trump decries Democrats as ‘communists,’ even as he looks to impress China’s communist leader

Communism, President Donald Trump says, is the greatest threat the U.S. has ever faced. This summer, citing similarly grave concerns, he took the rare step of delivering a primetime address to the nation, accusing China of “sinister election meddling” in 2020 and reviving his yearslong push to dispute his loss in that year’s election. Even as Trump seeks to decry Democrats as communists ahead of November’s midterm elections, he is rolling out the red carpet this week for Chinese President Xi Jinping, the leader of the world’s most powerful communist country. The state visit comes as the president himself has increasingly directed his administration to take large stakes in private companies to try to stimulate the economy — something even some Republicans decry as corporate socialism. The contradictions between Trump’s words and actions risk muddying Republican attack lines on Democrats.

“I do think that we’re not offering a clear contrast,” said Marc Short, who was chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence and worked in Trump’s White House in his first term. During the recent Republican midterm convention in Dallas, the president repeatedly branded Democrats as communists, even proclaiming, “It’s going to be a communist country if they win.” “In state after state, the Democrat establishment has been overthrown and replaced by crazed lunatics and radicals,” he said, adding, “America has beaten communism before, and we will beat it again.” That’s a reference to candidates aligned with democratic socialists who won Democratic primaries in Michigan, Colorado, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. Trump and other Republicans argue it shows the party is too extreme, although they exaggerate many of the political realities. It is a way to shift the narrative in the face of a series of drags on the popularity of Trump and his party with Election Day looming. Those include an increasingly unpopular war in Iran, concerns about inflation remaining high and Trump’s approval ratings retreating to near historic lows.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

A shortage of oil tankers is threatening to keep gas prices high

The Iran war has created a new shortage on the oil market. This time the scarce commodity isn’t just crude—it is the ships that carry it. Drone attacks that shut Saudi Arabia’s bypass pipeline earlier this month have forced more crude back through the Strait of Hormuz and onto a tanker fleet already stretched thin. The impact has spread worldwide, as longer voyages and shuttle runs around Hormuz tie up ships and push the daily rate of hiring oil tankers to records. The squeeze adds another cost to a war that has been disrupting energy supplies across the globe. Fewer available tankers are slowing oil deliveries just as record shipping costs squeeze refiners’ margins, threatening to keep fuel prices high even if global crude prices fall. That could add fresh pressure on U.S. gasoline prices before November’s midterm elections.

“What matters for refiners is the delivered cost of the crude, and that includes freight,” said Adi Imsirovic, a former energy trader, and lecturer at the University of Oxford. “The price at the pump includes all of it and the consumer has to pay the full price.” The sudden supply crunch among oil supertankers—known as very large crude carriers, or VLCCs—has boosted the cost of hauling oil through the strait to the highest on record. Earlier this month, the cost of hiring an oil supertanker to load inside the Persian Gulf and transit the Strait of Hormuz topped $1 million a day, according to maritime-intelligence firm Windward. That works out to $26 a barrel, or roughly a quarter of the crude’s value based on the current market price. Normally, shipping costs are a fraction of the value of a crude cargo. The tanker shortage extends beyond the Middle East. Rates around the world, such as those for the West Africa to China route, are also surging. Globally, average daily earnings for a VLCC reached $651,107 Thursday, nearly doubling from a week earlier, before Saudi’s bypass pipeline, known as the East-West Pipeline, was shut, according to Clarksons Research.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

State Stories

Vikki Goodwin accuses Dan Patrick of violating Texas deepfake law

The Democratic candidate for Texas lieutenant governor filed a police report on Saturday accusing the Republican incumbent, Dan Patrick, of violating a state law that makes it a crime to produce deepfake videos of political candidates near an election. The filing centers on two ads released by Mr. Patrick this month that used videos generated by artificial intelligence to depict the Democratic candidate, Vikki Goodwin, describing her policies in words she never said. “Although the ‘person’ in the video appears to be me, it was not actually me,” Ms. Goodwin, an Austin-area state representative, wrote in an affidavit accompanying the report. “This outrageous behavior by an elected official is criminal.”

Political campaigns around the country have leveraged A.I. to generate attack ads against rival candidates in the 2026 midterm elections. But the filing appeared to be among the few instances of a candidate seeking criminal penalties in response to an A.I. attack. It was unclear whether Mr. Patrick’s ads were covered by state law, which bars the use of A.I.-generated deepfake videos within 30 days of an election. The ads were posted on Mr. Patrick’s social media accounts during the first two weeks of this month — more than 30 days before Election Day in November. Sign up to get J. David Goodman's articles emailed to you. J. David Goodman is a Houston-based reporter covering the people and politics of Texas. In the affidavit, Ms. Goodwin argued that the videos violated the law because they remained online within 30 days of the start of early voting. Allen Blakemore, a campaign spokesman for Mr. Patrick, stood by the video on Saturday, saying it was “an obvious parody produced to entertain.” “No reasonable person could view it any other way,” Mr. Blakemore said. “Furthermore, we have not published or distributed any of these parodies within 30 days of the election.”

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

‘We will send hundreds of millions’: Patrick pushes desalination during Corpus Christi visit

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick brought his reelection campaign to Corpus Christi, where he addressed the city’s ongoing water crisis ahead of his November matchup against Democrat Vikki Goodwin. Patrick stopped at the Valero refinery to meet with workers and outline several of his priorities for another term in office. During the visit, Patrick called for a desalination plant in Corpus Christi and criticized the city’s elected leaders for rejecting proposals intended to address the water shortage.

“We need a desalination plant here in Corpus Christi,” Patrick said. “I don’t know the politics of your local government, but I don’t know why they keep voting that down.” Patrick said the state is prepared to provide Corpus Christi with hundreds of millions of dollars to help address the crisis, but the city must approve a project. “The state of Texas, I want to be very clear, we have said we will send hundreds of millions of dollars to Corpus (Christi) to help you through this water crisis, but we need a local government that says 'yes',” Patrick said. “They’re turning their back on this money that can address these water issues you have right now that’s turning into a crisis.” The water crisis was among several local and statewide issues Patrick discussed during the campaign stop as he made his case for another four years in office.

Read this article at KIIITV - Subscribers Only

Democrats challenge Gov. Abbott's TV ad on property tax cuts

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is appearing in a television ad touting property tax cuts and drawing criticism from Democrats. In the ad, Abbott names local property tax reductions a top campaign goal as he seeks reelection to a fourth term to potentially become the longest serving governor in Texas history. "Number 1 is to slash your property taxes, whereas the Democrats, they want to increase your taxes," the governor says in the television ad, airing frequently as Election Day approaches on Nov. 3. But the Democratic nominee for governor, State Representative Gina Hinojosa of McAllen, questioned why the governor has not acted already to cut taxes. "Greg Abbott has had 12 years to lower Texans' property taxes and is lying that he's going to tackle (the issue) with less than two months until the election," she said in a statement to Texas Public Radio, which looked into the merits of the ad.

"His plan, like his terrible ad, makes no sense. Texans need real relief. As governor, I'll reduce property taxes by eliminating billions of taxpayer dollars Abbott has given to his corporate donors that have undermined our economy, our schools, and working families," the statement said. Precinct 2 Democratic Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, a former state representative, did not respond directly to the governor's ad, but earlier this month, he said the county spends a lot of local property taxes on state mandates to which the state attaches little or no funding. In other words, the state orders local programs or services to be implemented, and then we pay for it locally — with property taxes. "85% of our general fund appropriations has legislatively directed services or necessary support costs, so that's significant." Rodriguez said during budget talks among county commissioners at the courthouse. The largest portion of local property tax bills are for schools. The state and federal government combined pay about one-half of local education costs, while local property taxpayers must pay for the other half, according to the organization, Raise Your Hand Texas, a public schools advocacy group. To be more exact, 47.7% of school funding is paid for locally, 38.6% is funded by the state, and 13.7% is funded by the federal government.

Read this article at Texas Public Radio - Subscribers Only

Drug toxicity caused Tarrant County Jail detainee's death in April, medical examiner says

A man who died in Tarrant County Jail custody in April was ruled an accident caused by drug toxicity, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office ruled. John Barr, 36, died April 19 at John Peter Smith Hospital after he was found unresponsive is his cell. Barr's death was listed as an accident from fentanyl, methadone and methamphetamine toxicity. A custodial death report sent to the Texas Attorney General's Office listed Barr's death as a drug overdose and may have been experiencing medical problems. Laurie Passman, a spokesperson for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, told KERA News Barr self-reported that he had "substantial amounts of drugs" already in his system when he was booked into the jail and placed on a detoxification protocol under medical supervision.

"The cause and manner of death listed in the autopsy report and custodial death report do not indicate that Mr. Barr obtained or ingested drugs while in the custody of the Tarrant County Jail," Passman said. "Based on the information available, it would be inaccurate to conclude that the presence of these substances resulted from access to drugs while incarcerated." Jail records show Barr was booked into the jail April 16 over a parole violation. He was arrested in 2022 on a charge of possession of a controlled substance — heroin — of more than four grams and less than 200 grams, according to court records. All in-custody deaths are investigated and reviewed by Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office jail staff, the TCSO Criminal Investigations Division, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, an outside law enforcement agency, JPS medical staff, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The Haltom City Police Department is investigating Barr's death as the outside law enforcement agency.

Read this article at KERA - Subscribers Only

Jail accountability stalls in Texas Legislature

In 2024, Jaleen Anderson was transferred from the Harris County Jail to the LaSalle Correctional Center in Olla, Louisiana, where he died from a seizure and complications with cardiovascular diseases. The next year, Erik Carlson, who was also transferred from Harris County, died there from an untreated strep infection. They were two of four Harris County jail inmates who were transferred to and died in an out-of-state facility since 2022. On March 19 of this year, the Harris County Commissioners Court debated a $38 million contract to send more than 1,000 people in Beaumont and Louisiana through 2027. Before the vote Erik’s mother Kim Carlson begged them to not send another dollar to “the people that killed our sons.”

The contract was approved. But, according to Senator Borris Miles, D-Houston, a contract that size “should come with a very high level of transparency and accountability for the people being held under it.” Those deaths and lack of scrutiny prompted him to file Senate Bill 2289 during the 2025 legislative session. Miles said he filed a bill “focused on something Texas could realistically require.” Under current law, once a Texas detainee is transferred out of state, Texas agencies have no jurisdiction over them. The bill would have given the state slightly more oversight by requiring counties to annually report the number of prisoners transferred out-of-state and who died to the Commission on Jail Standards, which oversees jails in the state. The commission would then send a summary to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker and the legislative committees that oversee it. Miles told the Texas Signal he filed it because Texas has no way to learn about a death in another state. "There was no clear mechanism for Texas to receive and track that death, and the state had no jurisdiction to investigate what happened,” he said. It was one of three bills aiming for more accountability from county jails.

Read this article at Texas Signal - Subscribers Only

Mark Z. Barabak: The worst, most vile candidate in Texas isn't who you might think

(Mark Z. Barabak is a political columnist for the Los Angeles Times, focusing on California and the West.) In the second week of the college football season, in a clash of titans, the University of Texas scored 21 unanswered points to surge past Ohio State in the fourth quarter and win, 24-23. The comeback, Gov. Greg Abbott decreed, was the greatest home victory in more than 130 years of Longhorn football. A screen grab of one celebratory moment showed a group of students ecstatic beyond belief. They were clad in the university’s signature burnt orange. Two wore cowboy hats. One flashed “Hook ‘em Horns,” the university’s proud hand signal. To see the picture earlier this month was to witness pure, untempered joy. But Bo French, the Republican candidate for Texas Railroad Commission, saw something different.

Most of the students were darkly complected and apparently of South Asian heritage. French posted the photo and wrote on X, “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” He followed with a second post, doubling down on the racist “Great Replacement” theory. “Like body-cams exposed criminals, social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners,” French spewed. “It’s everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine.” In many places, French’s unapologetic, unvarnished bigotry would be disqualifying. But given Texas’ strong Republican leaning he stands a better-than-even chance of being elected in November to the state Railroad Commission, which, despite its name, oversees Texas’ vast oil and gas industry. The hateful gibe was perfectly in character. “In some ways in Texas this is old news,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, who teaches political science at the University of Houston. Last year, as chairman of the Tarrant County GOP, French posted an online poll asking, “Who is a bigger threat to America?” The choice on offer: Muslims or Jews. Speaking in March at a political conference, he urged President Trump to round up and deport every Muslim in the country, calling the Islamic faith subversive and a clear and present danger to America.

Read this article at Los Angeles Times - Subscribers Only

It’s raining boxes: Amazon drones overwhelm a Texas suburb

The sound came out of nowhere. It began as an unnerving high-pitched hum, like a mosquito flying around a dark room at bedtime, and it grew louder as it drew closer. A family lounging in a backyard pool in Richardson, Texas, just north of Dallas, couldn’t help but notice it. “There’s another one coming this way!” shouted Eric Anderson from his pool float, pointing to an area above a tall line of trees. His 9-year-old daughter, Isla, removed her swim goggles for a clearer look at what could be a scene from science fiction. Within a minute or so, an 83-pound drone with six blue arms and whirring propellers appeared in a corner of the sky before zipping over nearby houses, looking like a cross between a mechanical dragonfly and an X-wing fighter, and buzzing like a battalion of bees. The drone’s mission: delivering an Amazon package.

The single cardboard box of cargo held a maximum of five pounds and was loaded into the drone at Amazon’s distribution center less than a mile from the backyard pool. It could have been bound for anywhere within a seven-and-a-half mile radius of takeoff. Richardson city officials gave Amazon zoning approval to start the drone delivery service in December as part of the company’s nascent Prime Air program. It promises customers tens of thousands of items — nail trimmers for pets, ankle bracelets, handcrafted, razor-tipped bread lames for scoring sourdough — in as little as 30 minutes. The delivery could be free or cost up to $4.99. The Federal Aviation Administration, which governs U.S. airspace, gave Amazon clearance to fly its drones. Now many other parts of the United States can expect their own drone deliveries, a welcome convenience for some, but an invasion for others. Last month, Amazon announced that Prime Air deliveries would expand to 500 towns and cities by the end of the year. Other companies are also using drone deliveries, and the F.A.A. has forecast that by 2030 the number could explode to more than 3.5 million, up from the current number of 897,000 registered drones.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

Texas adds new solar panel protections as homeowners report higher bills, costly contracts

Texas homeowners considering solar panels have new protections as some customers report unexpected costs, long-term contracts and electric bills higher than promised. When a solar sales team showed up at Craig McKinney's Waxahachie home last year, he was intrigued. "They said, 'I think that we could get rid of your electric bill and all you would have to pay is for this — would you be interested?'" McKinney said. He says as a husband and father of four, every dollar counts. So, he asked for more information about their leasing program. "They sent over a contract to me to kind of start with that... and I'm not the smartest with all those, so what I did is I ran it through ChatGPT, seeing if I could get some help with that," said McKinney. "And it looked at it and said 'Hey, what they're saying makes a lot of sense.' So, I went with it."

He said that's when the problems began. "They said, 'Oh, we looked at the house, and we realized you're not going to get enough panels on here to get the electricity out, but don't worry, we got a backup plan,'" McKinney said. McKinney says that backup plan included installing batteries and switching to a new electric company that offered free nights, which is when he was told to charge them. But he says instead of getting rid of his bill, he's now paying even more. "So what's happening is we're paying our normal electric bill at $300 a month, plus paying our bill to them at $320 a month, and so now we're paying $620 a month," said McKinney. "So frustrated! So mad!" All this comes as Texas is putting new protections in place. As of Sept. 1, residential solar retailers and salespeople generally must be registered with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, or TDLR. The state can also act against companies or salespeople who violate the rules. Other protections, including a five-business-day right to cancel most residential solar contracts, have been in effect since last year. "I think there probably needs to be even more protections," said McKinney. McKinney is trying to get out of his lease, but says so far, he has been unsuccessful.

Read this article at CBS News - Subscribers Only

Texas's new plastic roads could solve a big problem with heatwaves

Texas may have found a novel way to make its roads more resistant to damage from blistering heat. Even better, the method could give discarded plastic a new purpose, reducing how much of it ends up in landfill while we continue to look for other, better ways to dispose of it. The process involves mixing plastic into asphalt to make the road material more flexible and heat-resistant, creating a mixture that's less likely to crack in extremely hot conditions. Texas needs a solution as roads face increasing risks from extreme summer heat. Temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, while the asphalt can get even hotter. As temperatures rise, asphalt softens, making the surface of the road more vulnerable to the pounding of heavy vehicles.

The stress can cause the softened road to deform, causing cracks and ruts. During the record-breaking heat of 2023, parts of Texas saw temperatures rise to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, with the extreme conditions causing roads to buckle and crack. The idea to mix recycled plastic into asphalt is the work of researchers at the University of Texas in Arlington (UTA). The team is already testing the material in sections of UTA parking lots, and also on a stretch of road about a mile long in Rockwall, a city near Dallas, where it's using around 4.5 tons of recycled plastic. The process involves cleaning and shredding the plastic before mixing it into the asphalt at high temperatures. It then melts and bonds with the asphalt binder, a thick, sticky substance called bitumen. The processed plastic replaces around 8% to 10% of the bitumen, creating a mixture that helps the asphalt better withstand extreme heat and heavy traffic. Promisingly, the test road in Rockwall has been holding together well, remaining damage free on days when temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but it's still too early to know how the material will perform over many years. UTA's team has also helped implement and evaluate a road made with asphalt and recycled plastic in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Built in 2023, the road has been exposed to hot temperatures and plenty of traffic. During a prolonged period of extreme heat in 2024, the road held up well, while other comparable roads suffered damage.

Read this article at BGR - Subscribers Only

Outlet mall owners ask Texas Supreme Court to axe mass shooting lawsuit

The largest mall owner in the nation urged the top court in Texas to throw out a lawsuit by victims of a 2023 mass shooting, but at least one justice was skeptical Wednesday. The victims and their families claim the owners of the mall — an open-air shopping center in Allen, Texas, called Allen Premium Outlets — failed to protect against the massacre, which took the lives of eight people and injured seven others. Although the motive of the shooting has never been confirmed, authorities say the shooter, 33-year-old Mauricio Martinez Garcia, had expressed white supremacist and neo-Nazi views and committed the massacre while wearing a tactical vest embroidered with a “RWDS” (“Right Wing Death Squad”) patch. In their August 2024 lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue the mall’s owners — real estate giant Simon Property Group and a pair of corporate affiliates — were negligent by staffing a single unarmed security guard to protect the entire 611,000-square-foot property.

Simon Property Group operates over 200 malls and outlet centers across the U.S., making it the largest mall owner in the country. Byron Henry, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the Texas Supreme Court that the owners of Allen Premium Outlets were on notice about the risk of shootings involving multiple victims because their other properties had previously experienced them. But the owners’ attorney, Monica Latin, urged the court to rule that the owners did not have a legal duty to protect against the mass shooting. For over 30 years, she said, the Texas Supreme Court has “confirmed the foundational rule that property owners have no general duty under Texas law to protect against third-party acts on their premises, especially criminal acts, and that the exceptions to that general rule are and should be limited.” Justice Debra Lehrmann questioned whether mass shootings should be held to the same standard as other crime. “This is a completely unique, different thing that our country, unlike most countries, has to deal with, it seems,” she said.

Read this article at Courthouse News Service - Subscribers Only

Texas data center leaders say shale boom offers lessons for industry

As the data center industry booms in Texas, industry leaders said they can look to the shale revolution for helpful comparisons, especially when it comes to the importance of educating and working with the communities they’re building in. Business executives, experts, academics and students explored this juxtaposition Thursday evening during Energy Night at Southern Methodist University hosted by the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity and the Lyle School of Engineering. The panels included wide-ranging conversations on energy storage, geothermal energy, data center growth and more.

“The shale boom really brought about a change in the Texas economy, and it brought new jobs and investment along with it, but that also brought with it questions from the communities about how can they share in those in those local benefits,” said panel moderator Molly Ward, former global energy and sustainability sourcing and supply manager at Apple. “While data centers are not the same as oil and gas operations, a lot of the questions that the industries face are really similar, such as who bears that cost, what’s driving this spike in growth, how can local communities benefit, how can [companies] earn trust while also addressing legitimate concerns.” Josh Levi, president of Data Center Coalition, also set the stage for the hourlong discussion describing the moment society is in as interesting, exciting and challenging. He talked about key factors driving the need for the digital infrastructure build out and growing data center demand, including serving the 5.5 billion people online, 45% of which he said came online since 2018. At one point, he pulled out a piece of paper and read off statistics. Every minute, he said, this amount of computing happens: About 251.1 million emails are sent, 18.8 million texts are sent, 362,962 hours of Netflix is streamed, 16,000 videos are uploaded to TikTok, 138.9 million reels are played on Facebook and Instagram, 229 million meeting minutes are recorded on Microsoft Teams, and 1.15 billion steps are stored, accessed and cataloged.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

If Texas schools must offer voter registration, why are so few teens signed up?

An obscure state law requires Texas high schools to give eligible students an opportunity to register to vote. But voting-rights groups say many schools don’t bother. New data from a national nonprofit advocacy group shows Texas and Bexar County lag behind much of the country in the percentage of 18-year-olds registered to vote. Research published Aug. 11 by The Civics Center, which trains students and educators to run nonpartisan high school voter registration drives, found only 29% of roughly 420,000 18-year-old Texans are registered to vote — down 13 percentage points from 2022 and below the national average of 42%. “Texas is one of very few states that declined,” said Laura Brill, founder and CEO of the nonprofit that was created in 2018 and is based in Los Angeles.

It's a timely issue, with an Oct. 5 registration deadline looming for the Nov. 3 midterm and local elections in Texas. The group published an online map of Texas showing voter-registration rates of 18-year-olds by county. While rural counties such as Pecos, Andrews and Lavaca had rates above 90%, only 35% of Bexar County residents who are 18 were registered as of May 5. Other urban counties also posted rates below the national average with Dallas County at 27%, Harris County at 38% and Travis and Tarrant counties at 39%. “Texas is one of the most difficult states in the country in which to register to vote,” leaving an onus on schools and local advocates to guide teens through the process, Brill said. Aside from being one of seven states without online voter registration, Texas doesn’t let teens apply to vote until they’re 17 years and 10 months old. Teens in other states can pre-register at 16, then begin voting when they’re 18. Texas also doesn’t have automatic voter registration as other states do for teens applying for driver’s licenses. In another requirement that most other states don't have, Texas mandates deputy voter registrars take a test through their county, Brill said.

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

Attorney busts ‘biggest misconception’ in Karmelo Anthony filing that could be key in track meet murder case

A 75-page court filing detailing alleged threats, gun photos and violent text messages tied to convicted Texas killer Karmelo Anthony appears at first glance to be a roadmap of evidence prosecutors planned to present at trial. But a veteran Texas criminal defense attorney says one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the document is that jurors were never guaranteed to see any of it. Fox News Digital recently obtained the filing, which prosecutors submitted before Anthony's murder trial under Texas Rule of Evidence 404(b). The filing has taken on renewed importance because Anthony's bid for a new trial focuses on an alleged pretrial agreement governing character evidence. Anthony argues confusion over that agreement affected his decision not to testify, while prosecutors dispute that claim.

The notice catalogs dozens of alleged prior acts prosecutors said they may seek to introduce, including allegations that Anthony stalked his girlfriend hours before fatally stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a Frisco high school track meet on April 2, 2025. Prosecutors also cited text messages in which Anthony allegedly said he was "on the verge," posed with firearms, made violent threats and repeatedly discussed fighting. The filing also includes allegations that Anthony talked about committing robberies, buying firearms and extended magazines, selling narcotics and threatening multiple people, including his then-girlfriend, in text messages spanning several years. Prosecutors also cited screenshots they said represent only portions of larger conversations and noted the alleged prior acts were separate from the charged offense. To some readers, the filing might appear to be a blueprint of the prosecution's case. But appearances can be misleading. Tiffany Burks, a partner at Texas law firm Varghese Summersett and a former prosecutor, said that's not how Rule 404(b) works.

Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Trump says his planned arch would also become a 'military complex'

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the massive arch he wants to build between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery would become a “top grade Military Complex” able to host drones and snipers while storing ammunition. It is one more example of how Trump is insisting that his initiatives to beautify the White House and D.C. are also serving a defensive purpose. Trump has been calling the new White House ballroom a “military complex” and arguing it is necessary for national security purposes. The Pentagon said it had no information beyond the president’s statement. Trump’s announcement also comes as the arch, like his other projects, faces legal challenges. Though the arch has received early approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were all tapped by Trump, a group of three veterans and an architectural historian sued, saying the project needs to be approved by Congress.

“The President’s belated efforts to manufacture a national security justification for this project do nothing to cure its fundamental illegality,” Nicolas Sansone, one of the attorneys representing the litigants, said Sunday. “Congress has not authorized the arch and unless and until Congress does so, the project should not be permitted to move forward.” The president said in a social media post that he had agreed, at the “strong request” of the military, to convert the planned 250-foot-tall memorial arch “into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch, to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.” The arch is proposed for a circle adjacent to the Memorial Bridge, which is a heavy-traffic area as one of a handful of connecting bridges between the nation’s capital and Northern Virginia. Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat who represents a district that includes Arlington County and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church, called out the potential dangers of Trump’s plan given the arch’s proximity to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Trump ramps up bid to dismantle International Criminal Court

The Trump administration is preparing to impose sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court, according to officials, a sharp escalation in Washington’s efforts to dismantle the institution after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The sanctions would forbid most transactions with the ICC after a grace period of six to seven months, according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal and U.S. officials. That could potentially cripple the court by prohibiting it from conducting transactions in U.S. dollars, cutting it off from much of the global financial system. It is unclear when a final decision and announcement might come, though some U.S. officials said the move could be finalized as soon as this week during the United Nations General Assembly meeting or in the following days. A State Department spokesman wouldn’t preview any sanctions decisions but noted Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s view that the ICC poses a threat to American sovereignty.

The Treasury Department declined to comment. The International Criminal Court didn’t respond to a request for comment. The U.S. already has sanctioned a number of ICC officials in its assault on the court. They include the former Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, whom the ICC ousted in July over sexual assault allegations against him; the president of the ICC, Tomoko Akane, and several other judges; the court’s two deputy prosecutors; and the lead prosecutor in the case against Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. Khan has denied any sexual misconduct. The Trump administration is now preparing sanctions that are expected to be far more punitive, officials said. They would apply to a range of transactions with the ICC rather than individual officials. The measures would exempt transactions related to communications services, according to the documents. European nations and other major backers of the court such as Japan have pledged to protect the ICC from the Trump administration’s onslaught, but it’s unclear how they plan to do that. The European Union could require the bloc’s banks to continue working with the court. Rubio in July said the administration was preparing a wide-ranging campaign against the ICC, saying it would dismantle the court “brick by brick” if necessary.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Trump gets caught in a dilemma over a Saudi plea for military help

For two weeks, the question of whether to yield to pleas from Saudi Arabia and order the U.S. military to strike targets in Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis has bedeviled President Trump. A decision to go forward could open another front in the war against Iran that Mr. Trump started but has been unable to end as it spreads economic shock around the globe. The president had wavered for weeks over the Saudi appeals for help in fighting the Houthis, who took advantage of the instability in the Middle East and reignited their war with the kingdom this summer. But things came to a head on Thursday: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader and a major ally in the Iran war, called the president to implore him, again, to step in to help blunt the rapidly advancing group, administration officials said. Mr. Trump had met with advisers just the day before and told them he did not favor strikes.

But after speaking with the Saudi crown prince, he reversed himself and told the Pentagon to prepare for airstrikes against the Houthis. But by midday Sunday, the president appeared to have reversed himself again. There would be no U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis — at least not for the time being, according to administration officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss military planning. The White House press office declined to discuss Mr. Trump’s deliberations for the record. A senior administration official would say only that “the U.S. has a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and we will always defend our allies.” Sign up to get Maggie Haberman's articles emailed to you. Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent reporting on President Trump. Most of the president’s inner circle was either deeply skeptical or outright opposed to joining the Saudi fight against the Houthis, especially given the existing strains facing the U.S. military in the war with Iran, according to a senior administration official. Mr. Trump’s decision to pull back from, or at least delay, striking Houthi targets came as commanders had approved target lists, troops were loading bombs onto U.S. warplanes selected for the missions and the wave of attacks was just about to begin, according to two people briefed on the operation.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

The Sydney Sweeney football ad is making people mad for the wrong reason

Everyone needs hobbies, and one of mine is getting annoyed at everything Sydney Sweeney does. Oh, is it your hobby too? Makes sense—it’s our new national pastime, and I’m pretty sure Sweeney likes it that way. The only thing is, I’m finding it a little hard to be annoyed by her latest stunt. Sweeney is starring in a new ad campaign, because she is always starring in a new ad campaign, and she is naked in it, because she is often naked. This time it’s for a company called Novig, a previously little-known sports betting app that is counting on this new marketing push to get its name out to the masses. (Sweeney herself is an equity holder.) The way Novig has chosen to differentiate itself from Kalshi and Polymarket is to emphasize that it is an app for betting on sports and sports alone, meaning you can’t use it to bet on wars, death, or politics.

So it follows that in the ads, Sweeney is nude and surrounded by sports equipment—in one shot, she covers her breasts with two footballs, and in another, her substantial underboob peeks out of a set of shoulder pads while one football has been repurposed to cover her crotch. It’s more cheeky button-pushing from the 29-year-old actress who previously caused a stir with her American Eagle ads and her gig selling Dr. Squatch soap and body wash. Sweeney has developed a playbook for pissing us off, and the Novig ad sticks to it: 1) Find a company that targets the masses or men specifically. 2) Deliver some suggestive lines in trademark purr-meets-mumble. 3) Do this while wearing very little. 4) Profit. We should probably all stop taking the bait (and, to be fair, far fewer people seem as outraged about this as they were about the jeans, thank goodness), because she’s mocking us at this point. This woman is straddling a basketball hoop! Instead, people are mad again, but this time for a more specific reason than Sweeney’s general trollery. The charge is that the campaign is insulting to women in sports. Accomplished professional female athletes have accused the ads of sexualizing women’s bodies in the athletic realm, the exact thing they’ve been fighting against for decades. But this is a bit of a reach: At no point does Sweeney represent herself as a “woman in sports” in the ads. There’s a case to be made that she is objectifying all women, everywhere, and go ahead and make it, but it seems to me that female athletes have no more reason to be offended than the rest of us.

Read this article at Slate - Subscribers Only

Stocks rise on AI optimism; lower oil helps bonds

Global stocks rose on ?Monday, recovering some poise, as evidence of booming AI demand lifted tech shares and oil retreated on reports that more supply was leaving ?the Gulf than previously thought despite the ongoing conflict. The bond market, which last week endured a sixth straight weekly selloff in the face of rising interest rates and a persistently high oil price, rallied, with European debt leading gains.

South Korean data showed exports for the first 20 days of this month hit a record high, thanks to surging demand ?for chips. S&P futures gained 0.6%. Some of the concern that rattled investors last week about global central banks possibly embarking on a ?hiking cycle subsided, as the oil price edged back towards $100 a barrel, from highs last week above $109. "Maybe things got a little bit apocalyptic last week, and they're just ?easing off. But obviously the direction of travel in oil prices is still higher, this is just a minor correction," IG chief market strategist Chris Beauchamp said. "Then again, ?the AI demand was cited overnight as the reason why tech stocks have bounced, so the ongoing themes just keep coming back to the fore ... it's just the sort of the dance where one narrative prevails over the other for the time being," he added. On the geopolitical front beyond the Middle East, US President Donald Trump will attend the United Nations General Assembly this week, ahead ?of a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Read this article at Reuters - Subscribers Only

The crypto industry targets Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a top Democratic Senate candidate

The cryptocurrency industry, furious at Democrats for blocking the passage of a major business-friendly bill last week, is beginning to wage war on the party’s midterm candidates. The industry’s main super PAC, Fairshake, which is backed by some of the richest people in Silicon Valley, is starting to unspool a planned $30 million advertising campaign against former Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat running again for the chamber, the group told The New York Times. The push is by far the crypto industry’s most aggressive move yet in the midterms, and it could have significant implications for the Ohio Senate race, one of this year’s top contests for control of Congress. Fairshake spent $41 million on advertising in 2024 to target Mr. Brown, a progressive critic of the industry who was then the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. He lost, and many Republicans credit the crypto industry for helping them win.

Fairshake has cast itself as a bipartisan super PAC, and it supported some Democrats in the 2024 elections. But with Republicans in control of Washington, the industry has enjoyed a light regulatory touch and warm relations with party leaders. President Trump has also pulled in more than $1.4 billion from his family’s crypto businesses in his first year back in office, raising a host of ethical concerns. After Democrats last week blocked the Clarity Act, which would have shielded the crypto industry from a regulatory crackdown under a future Democratic administration, Fairshake’s overall spending in this year’s general election is expected to lean heavily toward Republicans. The group said it would soon announce additional spending in both House and Senate races, in support of both Democrats and Republicans. Fairshake is one of the most financially powerful interest groups in the midterms. Along with two affiliated groups, the super PAC has a war chest of $120.4 million, according to federal filings released on Sunday. Both parties have been watching closely to see how much Fairshake spends on the November elections.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

MS NOW, CNN and Politico are suing Trump and senior officials over White House ban

Three news organizations — MS NOW, CNN and Politico — are suing President Donald Trump and several top administration officials for blocking reporters’ access to the White House, alleging that the ban constitutes viewpoint discrimination that violates the First Amendment. The news outlets on Monday are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to immediately block the ban and restore both press credentials and access to the affected journalists. On Saturday, reporters for each of the news organizations, including MS NOW, attempted to enter the White House and their badges were confiscated. “The President banned CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, and the individual reporters covering the news for those media organizations, in disregard of the most basic guarantees of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause,” the lawsuit says.

“He did so expressly for the improper purpose of retaliating against Plaintiffs for past news coverage because he deemed it ‘negative’ and chilling future reporting about him and his administration’s policies and actions.” “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the complaint continues. The lawsuit marks the first formal action taken in response to Trump’s announcement Friday that the three news organizations would be barred from the White House, citing coverage that he claims is unfair to him. The ban marks a sharp escalation in the administration’s ongoing offensive against the news media, including the firing of journalists leading the military’s independent newspaper, unusual reviews of broadcast licenses by federal officials and previous moves to bar reporters from other news outlets from the White House and Pentagon in which litigation is ongoing. MS NOW, CNN and Politico announced the lawsuit Monday in a joint statement. “This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the statement read.

Read this article at MSNOW - Subscribers Only

Lead Stories

Behind Trump’s public confidence, his private view of midterms is sobering

In interviews and speeches, President Donald Trump has maintained that midterm politics don’t affect his decisions on Iran, that the war has been worth the cost, and that he would do it all over again despite Republicans bracing for defeat in November. But in some private conversation with advisers, Trump has signaled that he understands his decisions on the war have contributed to the especially poor political environment his party faces — making the president more intent on helping Republicans mitigate the expected losses. Trump in recent weeks has become sober about the gravity of the political situation, listening intently as he is presented with often discouraging polling, according to four people with knowledge of his recent comments, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That shift has prompted him to take more action on the midterms — pledging to stump for candidates and opening his war chest in competitive races, for example — although it remains to be seen how effectively Republicans can gain ground over the next six weeks.

Trump has long dismissed unfavorable polls, fastening his attention on surveys that present him in an artificially positive light. He often says that negative surveys are fake and not to be believed. Increasingly, however, he has accepted his team’s polling that shows his and his party’s poor standing with voters, his advisers say. Several of Trump’s advisers said they had become “increasingly blunt” with him, as one put it, and that in recent weeks he was listening to them about the electoral reality the GOP faces. It didn’t always translate to a good mood for Trump. The president, who faces his lowest approval rating of his second term, has focused much of his attention this year on a war with Iran that has sharply raised oil prices and on construction projects in Washington to cement his legacy. That came even as he failed to meaningfully lower prices, which he pledged to do while he campaigned in 2024. “He definitely feels like some of his decisions have led to the dynamics where he’s unpopular and things aren’t looking great for the midterms,” one of the people said. A second person who confirmed Trump has subtly acknowledged some degree of responsibility for the situation noted that he has made similar remarks in public. Another person in frequent communication with Trump about the midterms, however, pushed back on the notion that he has accepted any blame, saying he feels strongly that his not being on the ballot this year is the biggest problem the GOP faces.

Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only

French calls backlash ‘shocking,’ links his disparaging posts on UT fans to Trump, GOP leaders

A week after attacking a group of University of Texas football fans as “foreigners” who displaced Americans, Bo French said Saturday he was shocked by the backlash and that his remarks echoed President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders on immigration and culture. At a "Take Back America" conference in Grapevine, French, the GOP nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, renewed his defense of his social media posts widely condemned as racist, a characterization he denies. "The outrage was shocking to me," he said. "These are things that Donald Trump has been talking about. These are the things leaders in our party have been talking about."

French’s comments Saturday widened his public explanations since Republicans and Democrats condemned him for posting a photo of jubilant Longhorns fans celebrating a fourth-quarter comeback victory over top-ranked Ohio State. The students were largely of South Asian descent. "I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it," he wrote on X. "The problem is now obviously worse than anyone imagined." In a follow-up post, he said the photo showed foreigners taking the place of Americans. Two students pictured told The Dallas Morning News they are U.S. citizens. One said he is a Texas resident who pays in-state tuition. On Saturday, French warned that cultural erosion threatened Texas and the country. He also said that in the past 40 years, no group had been "discriminated against more than the young, white male." Some in the crowd of about 100 clapped and stood while French spoke at the gathering hosted by the Eagle Forum, a conservative advocacy group founded by activist Phyllis Schlafly in 1972.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

Texas construction firms facing labor squeeze

Blaine Beckman remembers his elementary and middle school teachers telling him and other students that if they didn’t get good grades, they could end up working in construction. Beckman, now the president of San Antonio general contractor company Nunnelly, had an internal battle when he first discovered his passion for construction. “Even though I loved the feeling it gave me, I thought I didn’t want to be in construction or be viewed as a construction worker,” he said. “I wanted to get my four-year degree and be a doctor because that’s what I thought success was, not construction.” This stereotype is a major factor why the industry is struggling to find skilled trade workers. The Associated General Contractors of America recently released its annual Construction Workforce Survey results, which revealed that labor availability is the construction industry’s central challenge in Texas. The association represents more than 28,000 companies, general and specialty contractors, and subcontractors.

The United States historically has invested more in college prep than vocational training, particularly following the 1983 A Nation at Risk report, which spurred school districts to replace hands-on vocational classes, like shop, with computer labs and academic requirements. Most say hiring has become harder, with electricians and pipefitters/welders being especially difficult to recruit. Half of the respondents said available candidates are not qualified to work in the industry, and the labor shortage is leading to project delays. They’re also competing against data center projects, which are offering higher wages and pulling workers from housing, infrastructure and conventional commercial projects. Firms are responding with higher pay, expanded training, digital recruiting and school partnerships. “We need to get more people exposed to the trades earlier,” said Lauren Mandel, president of the San Antonio AGC. “We need to get to students in middle school and let them know that construction careers aren’t just jobs to move on from. There are incredible ways to build a career in the construction industry, whether you start off as a laborer and move your way up to a superintendent or a leadership role.”

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

Federal judge pauses Texas Republicans’ bid to close primaries

A federal judge on Friday afternoon paused a bid by Texas Republicans to restrict participation in the GOP’s primary elections to voters registered with the party. While Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a U.S. district judge based in Amarillo, stopped the effort, he wrote in his order that he expects the state’s Republican Party to succeed in closing its primaries during the upcoming Legislative Session. “Prominent Texas politicians support similar legislative action,” Kacsmaryk wrote, later adding that his decision to put the lawsuit on hold is “because the Texas Legislature may soon amend the law challenged here.” A year ago, the Republican Party of Texas sued then-Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, challenging her to limit eligible Republican voters during primary elections. Currently, any Texas voter can cast a ballot in GOP primaries.

Crossing party lines during primaries is a tactic some use to sway who their party’s opponent is during general elections. For example, Houston City Council Member Joe Panzarella received sharp criticism earlier this year during his campaign after it was revealed that he voted in the 2016 Republican primary despite being Democrat. Panzarella defended his decision to cast his ballot in the GOP primary as a “protest vote” against Donald Trump, according to the Houston Chronicle. The Republican Party in its lawsuit argued that the state’s open primaries violate their First Amendment right to choose party leaders. Republicans have been trying to close primaries for years, but urgency to do so intensified in 2024 when two incumbent state representatives viewed as moderates — former House Speaker Dade Phelan and Gary VanDeaver — held off challengers in their primary races by fewer than 800 votes. Some Republican leaders claimed Phelan and VanDeaver only won because they’d received votes from Democratic- and independent-leaning voters. Gov. Greg Abbott made clear at the Texas Republican Convention in June that he wants to make sure that “only Republicans vote in Republican primaries.” Nelson took heat from Republicans when she said changes to election laws has to be done through the state Legislature. Many lawmakers urged Abbott to fire her. She stepped down in June, and her successor, Robert Howden, said in a legal filing in August that he’s going to defend the state’s open primary system. Although Kacsmaryk wrote that it’s likely that lawmakers next year will pass legislation to close the state’s primaries, it’s not certain. “Texas’s current primary system may be distinct from a pure open primary anyways, because voting in a Texas primary does entail some level of party affiliation,” he wrote. The state’s next primary election for all parties is in 2028.

Read this article at Texas Tribune - Subscribers Only

An era of low interest rates and low inflation could be over

President Donald Trump has renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve after it hiked its benchmark interest rate Wednesday, but the Fed matters less than broader economic trends when it comes to longer-term borrowing costs, economists say. The economy is growing steadily despite being hit with repeated shocks — and may even be accelerating — while inflation remains stubbornly high. And big tech firms are borrowing huge amounts of cash to plow into data center construction while the federal government is still running large yearly budget deficits. All these trends point to higher interest rates regardless of what the Fed does, analysts say. As a result, the low interest-rate, low-inflation world that lasted for nearly 15 years after the Great Recession is over and a higher-priced, higher-rate world is taking its place.

Mortgage rates fell into the 3% range in the 2010s and even lower during COVID-19, but such deals are long gone. The average 30-year mortgage rate reached 6.95% last week, the highest in more than a year and a half. Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax consulting firm, said that a big reason for the change is a shift from the pre-pandemic economy in which consumer and business demand was weak, to the current economy in which healthy consumer and business spending is colliding with supply shocks and bottlenecks. In addition to higher oil and gas prices because of the Iran war, the AI buildout has struggled with an insufficient supply of computer chips, electronic equipment, and workers to put it all together. “We’ve undergone a structural transformation of the economy,” Brusuelas said. “The regime change in inflation and interest rates is the outcome.” The shift, in many ways, returns the economy to where it was before the financial crisis in December 2007 that lasted through June 2009. But even after the downturn ended, consumer and business spending remained weak. Millions of Americans in the 2010s focused on paying down outsized mortgages and credit card debt instead. Businesses saw few investment opportunities, and many big tech firms such as Alphabet’s Google and Meta’s Facebook piled up cash.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

State Stories

Paxton kept close to alleged child abuser long after the allegations surfaced, taking money from him

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has spent more than a decade cultivating a political alliance with Paul Pressler, the once-revered Southern Baptist power broker who was accused by at least eight men of sexually abusing them, and with the two men most closely tied to covering for him. Even after the allegations became public, Paxton kept taking their money, kept using their endorsements, and kept standing by them. Pressler was one of the architects of the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention in the late 20th century and a mentor to a generation of Texas Republicans, including Ted Cruz and Paxton himself. But behind that reputation, according to Texas Monthly’s investigation, “abundant suspicions” about his relationships with young men circulated for decades, beginning in the late 1970s when he was quietly pushed out of a church youth ministry after an alleged incident at his home. Those suspicions became public allegations in December 2017, when Duane Rollins filed a lawsuit claiming Pressler began raping him in 1979, when Rollins was 14 and Pressler was a sitting justice on Texas’ 14th Court of Appeals, and continued abusing him two to three times a month for the next quarter century. According to the Houston Chronicle, the suit alleged the abuse took place in Pressler’s home study with his wife, Nancy, “usually on the premises.” At least seven other men came forward with similar accusations once the case was filed.

Paxton had already built a close political relationship with Pressler well before any of this became public. In November 2013, Paxton’s campaign touted Pressler’s endorsement as coming from a “respected conservative icon” across Texas, and Paxton personally said he had “admired and respected” the judge “for so many years.” A year later, after winning his race for attorney general, Paxton named Pressler to his transition advisory team. The relationship didn’t end when the allegations became public. Campaign finance filings with the Texas Ethics Commission show Pressler and his wife donated to Paxton’s campaigns in 2016, 2017, and again in 2018 and 2022, the latter two coming after Rollins’ lawsuit was filed and receiving national attention. Nancy Pressler also gave to Paxton’s campaign in 2022 and to the “Stand with Paxton” PAC set up to defend him during his 2023 impeachment. In total, records show the Presslers gave Paxton roughly $1,600 across the two accounts. The lawsuit against Pressler was ultimately settled in December 2023, with the Southern Baptist Convention, its Executive Committee, and First Baptist Church of Houston all named as defendants alongside Pressler himself. In a statement announcing the confidential settlement, attorneys for the SBC cited “the horrendous nature of the abuse allegations” as a chief reason for resolving the case rather than going to trial. Weeks later, the SBC’s own outside counsel, Gene Besen, went further, calling Pressler a “monster” and a “dangerous predator” whose “actions are of the devil.” Pressler died in June 2024 at 94, his death covered by the Associated Press and by the New York Times under the headline “Paul Pressler, Disgraced Christian Conservative Leader, Dies at 94.”

Read this article at Meidas Touch - Subscribers Only

Austin ISD appeals two failing school ratings in bid to avoid takeover

The Austin school district has appealed the failing ratings of Webb and Burnet middle schools to the Texas Education Agency, according to TEA spokesman Jake Kobersky, making a last attempt to change the grades that have put the district at risk of state intervention. The appeal of the schools’ 2025-26 ratings is the district’s latest move to avoid a state intervention, which the two schools triggered after receiving their fifth consecutive failing ratings. And the margin is narrow: Burnet fell one point short of a D, while Webb fell two points short. If an appeal raises the schools to a D, it would break the campuses streaks of failing ratings and remove the schools’ trigger for mandatory intervention. The stakes are unusually high. If either school’s fifth consecutive F becomes final, state law requires Education Commissioner Mike Morath to either close the campus or appoint a board of managers to replace Austin ISD’s superintendent and elected school board. But if TEA grants an appeal and changes both schools’ ratings, the district could avoid the intervention, including a possible full takeover of the district, triggered by this year’s grades.

Preliminary data showed Burnet Middle School received an overall score of 59 and Webb a score of 58. That puts the schools one and two points, respectively, below the 60 overall score required to get a D rating. Districts typically file appeals based on the data used to rate schools, Superintendent Matias Segura told Austin Current in August. State standardized testing scores play a large role in how schools are rated, though other factors such as college and career readiness also factor into the calculations. If TEA determines an error was made in assigning the schools’ ratings, the agency can change them. For Burnet and Webb, even a small change could be significant. TEA declined to provide more details on the appeal, including when Austin ISD submitted it and the specific grounds on which the district is challenging the ratings, because the process is ongoing. The deadline for districts to appeal ratings was Sept. 11. Austin ISD confirmed the district appealed the ratings of both schools but declined to provide further details. The appeal comes as Mayor Kirk Watson has joined AISD supporters in calling for the school district to remain independent as the threat of a state takeover looms. Earlier this month, Watson called on parents of Burnet and Webb to form a Parent Petition for Action asking the state to close the campuses rather than take over the district.

Read this article at Austin Current - Subscribers Only

Former Dallas mayors Rawlings, Leppert and Kirk seek more power for mayor

Three former Dallas mayors plan to launch a campaign to put more power in the mayor’s hands, saying that City Hall’s divided leadership leaves no one clearly accountable for its failures. Mike Rawlings, Tom Leppert and Ron Kirk want the next mayor to select and remove the city manager and city attorney, subject to City Council approval and other checks. While their plan gives the mayor more authority, it should not be considered a “strong mayor” form of government like in Chicago, New York or Houston, where the mayor has broader, more sweeping powers.

Their proposal, which the three outlined Thursday in a joint interview with The Dallas Morning News, also would give the mayor responsibility for submitting the city budget and the power to veto individual spending items. The former mayors said they plan to gather the 20,000 signatures needed to put the proposed charter amendments before voters in May 2027. If approved, the changes would take effect Jan. 1, 2028, after the current mayor leaves office. The effort would mark a major change in the city’s governing structure and revive a defining Dallas debate: Should the city’s public face also have the power to lead City Hall? “We've got a great city and we can have a great future,” Kirk said. “But you've got to have really aggressive, thoughtful leadership out selling this city every day” and to do that, “the businesses you're talking to have to believe the mayor has some reasonable ability to make those commitments and be able to follow them up.” Under Dallas’ council-manager system, the mayor presides over the City Council but has no independent authority over the city manager or daily operations.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

Inside West Texans’ relentless fight against Big Bend border wall contractors

For several days this summer, the rumor in the tiny West Texas hamlet of Sanderson, a 643-person community 125 miles east of Big Bend National Park, was that contractors had descended upon the area to begin constructing a border wall. Nobody knew who they were or what they looked like, but almost everyone in town was on the lookout for the alleged interlopers. That included the manager at the Desert Air Motel, who noticed that four men had booked separate reservations for the same dates at the quaint, retro-style lodge, which beckons travelers along U.S. 90 with a vintage sign promising “Refrigerated Air.” Like undercover cops trying to appear nonchalant at a high school keg party, the men didn’t remain inconspicuous for long. They drove white pickup trucks, wore heavy construction boots, and seemed to make a show of holding up the “No Big Bend Wall” flyers stacked on the motel’s front desk and snickering about them, according to employees.

During check-in, when the front desk clerk politely asked the men if they were helping build a border wall, the crew denied any involvement before eventually admitting that they had been contracted to build a four-to-six-foot-high vehicle-barrier system along the Rio Grande in Terrell County. The motel’s affable owner, Sara Ryza, later confirmed that the crew included the CEO of Fisher Sand & Gravel, a North Dakota construction company that has won multiple high-profile federal and private contracts to build barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The manager canceled the men’s reservations and asked them to leave the premises. More than a month later, Ryza has no regrets about that decision. (Fisher Sand & Gravel did not respond to a request for comment about the incident.) “We worked so hard to try and put Sanderson on the map as a destination for tourists exploring the Big Bend region,” Ryza told me during a recent tour of the renovated motel, which was built in 1960 and still has original vintage pink tiles in its bathrooms. “We just can’t accept money from anyone associated with the border wall and contribute to what we feel is the destruction of our community and our tourism economy––the same one that we’ve been fighting so hard for.” Construction may have been paused in Big Bend National Park, unleashing a flurry of headlines and social media celebration, but the region remains in a state of hypervigilance and paranoia, not unlike a coastal community preparing for a churning hurricane on the horizon.

Read this article at Texas Monthly - Subscribers Only

‘We punted’: San Antonio approves first tax increase without mayor’s support

Facing a major budget deficit and a struggling economy, the San Antonio City Council approved a 3.9% property tax increase Thursday — the city’s first in more than three decades. The 7-4 vote largely split members along socioeconomic lines, with wealthier Northside districts opposing the 3.9% increase and members from less affluent districts voting in favor. Initially, nearly all council members balked at raising taxes when inflation is already putting so many residents in a financial strain. But weeks of reviewing alternate budget scenarios led a majority to believe that more spending reductions — on top of the $90 million worth of cuts already planned over the next two years — would hit most vulnerable residents too hard. “[In] the conversations I’ve had [with residents] … it’s actually been the most humble among us who have been the first to say, ‘yes,'” said Councilman Edward Mungia (D4), whose Southside district is among the poorest.

“…That’s a stark contrast with those who have had the most, I’ve heard from people today who own more than one parcel of property, saying that they can’t afford that.” This year slowed economic growth left many Texas cities and counties in a similar boat, looking high and low for cuts to balance their budgets. In San Antonio, that meant a public reckoning over some big recent economic development investments, including whether to help fund a new Spurs arena, led by Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones. A deeply divided council still never found consensus on a different approach, however, and City Manager Erik Walsh told them this week that they’d run out of time. The city is legally obligated to pass a balanced budget every year, and voting down the rate hike would delegate an additional $75 million worth of cuts to city staff. Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8), who was considered a swing vote on the tax hike, said that was a bridge too far, and ultimately split with other Northside members to approved the increase. “These right-sizing initiatives do not cut to the bone … [but] if the property tax increase were to fail, it would fall to the city manager’s office,” said Meza Gonzalez. “I believe that amounts to an abdication of my responsibilities. … I really want my colleagues to recognize that decision.”

Read this article at San Antonio Report - Subscribers Only

David Brockman: The state’s Bible-only reading list is a disservice to Texas kids

Should Texas public school students learn about the Bible? Yes, they should—but not in the way Texas education officials are going about it. In June, Texas became the first state to require all public school students to read religious texts, as part of a newly approved list of nearly 200 readings—from “Hickory Dickory Dock” to Hamlet—mandated for all Texas public school students, Kindergarten through 12th grade. But what makes the new list especially controversial is that all of its religious readings come solely from a single text: the Bible. The list excludes texts sacred to faith traditions other than Christianity and Judaism—despite the fact that about one-third of Texans belong to neither of those religions. This requirement that students read only the Bible, as I also argued in a recent report for Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, does a tremendous disservice to students, parents, and teachers.

The “Bible-only” list doesn’t meet the need to learn about the major religious traditions that make up Texas and the nation today. It could impair public schools’ ability to serve a religiously diverse population. Worse, it threatens to turn non-Christian and non-religious Texans into outsiders in their own public schools. The list, which takes effect in 2030, was developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), and, after contentious public hearings and some revisions, was approved by the State Board of Education in June. In all, the mandate includes 14 biblical selections—about one Bible passage for every 13 required texts. Among the many selected passages are readings about Jonah and the Whale (Grade 1), Moses and the Burning Bush (Grade 5), eight of Jesus’ Beatitudes (Grade 7), full chapters from Ecclesiastes and Lamentations (Grade 8), and 16 chapters from Job (High School). That’s a lot of Bible—even when spread out over twelve grade levels. TEA justified the biblical content by citing a 2007 statute requiring schools to offer an “enrichment curriculum” incorporating “religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature.”

Read this article at Texas Observer - Subscribers Only

‘The Life of the Party’ documentary explores women in Texas GOP

Geanie Morrison, Sarah Davis and Mayra Flores each made their entrances to Republican electoral politics at pivotal points in the modern history of their party in Texas. Morrison's ascent to the Texas House in 1998 came the same year George W. Bush was reelected as governor with 69% of the vote on a message of "compassionate conservatism," which would underpin his image when he sought and won the presidency two years later. Davis was among the roughly two dozen Republicans who swept into office in the wave of 2010, when her party emerged with 101 seats in the 150-member Texas House. Flores' victory in a 2022 special election for a congressional seat was the harbinger of the Republican tide that two years later would fracture the Democrats' grip on politics in the Rio Grande Valley.

Their stories provide the anchor for a documentary being released this week called "The Life of the Party," which examines the place of women in Texas Republican politics and how their role has evolved over the past three decades. The documentary by filmmakers Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris neither promotes nor denigrates the Texas GOP. "Rather than advocating for a party, candidate, or political position, the campaign uses the stories in the film as a jumping-off point for three simple calls to action: vote thoughtfully, encourage women to lead, and talk to someone you disagree with," the filmmakers said in a news release. When Morrison and Flores launched their political careers, each was well inside the mainstream of where the Texas Republican Party was at the time. The 1998 election established the GOP's continuing grip on every statewide office, and although Democrats would retain control of the Texas House, it was clear that the business-minded wing of the Republican Party was setting the agenda. By the time Flores sought her congressional seat 24 years later, it was clear that the mercurial political style of Donald Trump had supplanted the Bush brand of pragmatic government.

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

Cody Campbell promised retribution. Now Texas Tech football has to deliver

Cody Campbell might have finally written a check he can't cash. After an offseason laden with off-the-field drama, Texas Tech is 2-0 as it begins Big 12 play against Houston on Sept. 18. The Red Raiders, following a bit of a scare against Oregon State, have a bone to pick with their conference-mates after trying to add Brendan Sorsby via transfer after it was discovered Sorsby had a gambling addiction dating back to his time at Indiana, when he bet on games he was around the team for. As a result, a protracted battle between Texas Tech and everyone else commenced. The college football world at large — other schools, pundits, and fans alike — said Texas Tech shouldn't add Sorsby. And Texas Tech dug its heels in each time, with a big band striking up for a video that ran north of 20 minutes in which AD Kirby Hocutt and coach Joey McGuire were joined by other Texas Tech staff to explain the Sorsby situation.

That video was widely derided, and Texas Tech and Sorsby parted ways less than a week later following a lawsuit from the Big 12 against Texas Tech (that lawsuit has since been dropped). Campbell, however, wasn't going to let sleeping dogs lie. In the Paramount Plus documentary "The Program," which chronicled Texas Tech's offseason, Campbell said of the drama: “Looking back on it, I know that Texas Tech and I handled everything with integrity, and we did things the right way. I think this is something that could have been handled much more privately. We’re not going to forget about that, and I don’t think they’ll forget about it either when we’re up by 40 and still throwing the ball in the fourth quarter. That’s where the retribution will come.” Campbell, who serves as chairman of the Board of Regents through January 2027, is one of the most prominent boosters in college athletics.

Read this article at USA Today - Subscribers Only

Texas ICE agent pleads not guilty to lying to FBI charge in Minnesota shooting

A federal immigration agent who shot and wounded a man in north Minneapolis this winter pleaded not guilty in federal court in St. Paul on Friday to charges of lying to the FBI. On Friday morning, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright set Christian Castro's bond at $75,000 with conditions, including that he not break any laws and only travel between Minnesota and Texas. Castro must also stay in his residence from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and go through a mental health evaluation. Wright ordered the parties to submit a motion to designate the case as complex and the proposed schedule for the case by Oct. 2. Castro, 52, is also facing state assault charges for the shooting on Jan. 14. Castro is accused of firing through the closed door of a home and injuring Julio Sosa-Celis, an immigrant from Venezuela, after a car chase involving Sosa-Celis' roommate Alfredo Aljorna.

The judge overseeing the state case set Castro's bond Thursday at $200,000 with conditions that include pre-signing a waiver of extradition, surrendering his passport and electronic home monitoring. He's also not allowed to talk with other ICE agents. Prosecutors in the state case argued that Castro was a flight risk due to numerous phone conversations he had in prison with a Mexican resident about potentially purchasing property there. Castro posted bail and was released from the Hennepin County jail by Thursday evening. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed that the federal agent was assaulted by men with a broom and shovel and charged Sosa-Celis and Aljorna. That narrative fell apart and charges were dropped against the two men after footage emerged from a Minneapolis surveillance camera on the street. After being released from Texas jail, Castro was indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of lying to the FBI. Castro was arrested in downtown Minneapolis by state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents on Wednesday. His attorney said Castro had planned to surrender to state authorities. But Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said on Thursday that Castro hadn't followed directions. State Attorney General Keith Ellison said on Thursday that he was dropping a lawsuit against the state of Texas over Abbott's failure to extradite Castro.

Read this article at Minnesota Public Radio - Subscribers Only

Unable to shop due to ICE fears, colonia residents benefit from strangers’ kindness

On a particularly humid Thursday morning, Ana Carolina “Caly” Fernandez drove a U-Haul truck full of provisions down the street of a colonia, where she would be delivering food to one of the most impoverished areas in the Rio Grande Valley. With the current immigration enforcement and constant roaming of ICE vehicles among colonia streets, many residents have feared simply stepping outside their home. Although some residents have compared the fear and isolation to that caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, one resident believes the current situation is worse than before. One person, Mira, who has lived in the colonia of around 165 residents for about 24 years, shook her head with sadness in her eyes as she spoke of life in the colonias.

“The situation is sad, the depression of wanting to go outside and you can’t,” Mira, who’s full name is being withheld to protect her identity, said in Spanish. “It’s like the pandemic or worse because at least before you could still step outside with a face mask,” she added. “Now you can’t.” Mira spoke softly as she explained that she’s rarely left her home since the crackdown on immigration began. “They come here often, that’s why we have our gates and everything closed,” Mira said. Despite an H-E-B location being only seven minutes from the community, many of the colonia residents are too scared to leave their homes for basic necessities, or they have no means of transportation. This is where Fernandez and the House of Love and Justice have become a saving grace for residents. Colonia residents waited outside their homes to greet Fernandez with a smile as she made her way into the community. The men gathered around the truck to collect the heavier boxes while Fernandez, her grandson Saul and Maria Treviño, a promotora de Salud, helped organize the fruits and vegetables across two tables.

Read this article at MyRGV - Subscribers Only

National Stories

U.S. childcare costs are astronomical. More families are turning to grandparents

A few years ago, when Stacia Bourne and her husband would talk about having a second child, the conversation often turned to money. "We were thinking we couldn't afford it," said Bourne, a University of Delaware psychology professor who lives in Maryland. Their first child, George, was born in 2020 and started daycare when he was 2. "The cost for childcare for him is about the same as our mortgage," Bourne said. The prospect of taking on the expense of another child gave the couple pause when deciding whether to grow their family. That was until Bourne's mother, Mary Jo Galusha, 67, made an offer: If Bourne wanted to have another baby, Galusha said, she'd retire and relocate from Idaho to the East Coast to help provide childcare. Several months later, her phone rang. "I got a call that Stacia was expecting and that I better start planning on retiring," Galusha recalled with a laugh.

She retired from her job as a schoolteacher, packed up her belongings and drove cross-country in her red Volkswagen Beetle. The grandmother of five now lives in Newark, Del., and has since traded in the VW Bug for an SUV in order to fit two car seats in the back row more easily. Robin, who was born in late 2024, spends around 30 hours a week in Galusha's care while Bourne and her husband work. "It's a joy," Galusha said. "It's like magic to watch them grow up." Grandparents helping to take care of their grandchildren is nothing new. But the surging cost of childcare in the U.S. has made familial support even more critical for some parents who need childcare and may not otherwise be able to afford it. According to the group Child Care Aware of America, the average annual cost of childcare for children under 5 in the U.S. in 2025 was $13,184. In some cases, even higher childcare costs can rival the price of rent or college tuition. Families that are unable to shoulder those expenses or find open seats at daycare facilities are increasingly leaning on older generations for help, said Nicole Jorwic, chief program officer at the national caregiving group Caring Across Generations. "The reality is that because this country hasn't invested in a childcare infrastructure that is flexible and affordable and reliable, grandparents are filling in the gaps that the service system leaves behind," she said.

Read this article at NPR - Subscribers Only

President Trump says he will ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House

President Donald Trump said Friday that he was barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage and “fake news,” and threatened that more such media bans could be coming — the latest salvo in the president's increasingly aggressive response to media coverage he finds unfavorable. Like many of Trump's other confrontations with news organizations — some of which are playing out in the legal arena — this threat has potential First Amendment implications. There was no immediate indication, though, that he was following through. Trump wrote on his social media site that effective immediately, “I am banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico “from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” Minutes later, speaking at an event in the Oval Office, Trump was asked to explain his statement.

“Because they’re fake news,” he said. “You get so tired of reading and seeing fake news. When you look at CNN, it’s just fake. That’s why their ratings are no good. When you look at MS NOW … , it’s fake news.” “And when you look at Politico ... the stories they wrote are fake. So there’s a lot of news and there may be others to join them, and maybe they can get better," he said. "But our country has to have honest news.” He gave no further details on how the ban would be implemented. Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were still on the White House grounds as of late Friday afternoon with no signs of being removed. CNN denounced the move, saying it stands behind its White House team and their “fair and accurate reporting.”

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Farm-state Republicans are having a cow over Trump's beef imports as Election Day approaches

Farm-state Republicans don’t support President Donald Trump’s move to import cheap beef — but they’re still getting grilled for it. Trump’s plan to combat sky-high beef prices by introducing discounted, tariff-free foreign beef has been widely condemned by ag-state Republicans who are concerned it will undercut the domestic beef industry and hurt ranchers, a normally reliable constituency. And their opponents see an opening to paint Republicans as unconcerned about voters’ pocketbook concerns. “Our ranchers and our farmers keep getting kicked in the teeth, and we have politicians that keep telling us that everything’s great, that we’re the hottest country,” Dan Osborn, an independent running for Senate in Nebraska, said in an interview. “And to be quite frank, I’m pretty pissed off about it.”

Osborn’s state is one of the top four top cattle-producing states — along with Texas, Kansas and Iowa — all of which have more-competitive-than-expected Senate races this cycle. And Trump’s controversial plan to remove tariffs from 300,000 metric tons of imported beef, sold at 25 percent below current market prices, is doing Republicans no favors. Osborn’s campaign went on air with a pun-filled ad this week in which he says the import plan is “selling out American farmers and ranchers,” and blasts Congress for being “too chicken to stand up to the corporations who bought them off.” The campaign says it plans to spend at least six figures airing the spot. It’s the first major spending from a campaign focused on the beef import plan. But it plays into a larger economic argument Democrats are pushing to break through with farmers and ranchers: Trump and Republicans have turned their backs on rural America, as a worsening farm crisis and spiking fuel and fertilizer prices pinch agricultural communities. “It’s part of a wider frustration,” said an adviser to one of the farm-state GOP senators, granted anonymity to speak openly. “I don’t think it sways anyone’s vote, but it isn’t a great look. … It isn’t fun for me to read the headline. It’s frustrating.”

Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only

Even in reliably red Kansas, Republican enthusiasm is fading

At the Kansas State Fair’s Senate debate, incumbent Republican Roger Marshall was on home turf. His town is a short drive for friends and supporters. And the fair serves as an exaltation of farmers, the conservative base that has helped the GOP win every Senate race in Kansas since 1932. Yet when Marshall stepped to the microphone last weekend, hundreds of those gathered at an outdoor pavilion booed, hissed, and jeered. “Liar!” attendees shouted from the bleachers when Marshall suggested gasoline was cheaper under President Trump than under previous presidents. Supporters of his Democratic rival, Adam Hamilton, easily outnumbered and outshouted Marshall’s backers. Kansas State Fair debates are notoriously boisterous, with both Democratic and Republican campaigns busing in supporters who give as good as they get.

But the lopsided showdown was unusually bad, some Republicans privately admitted afterward. The thrashing laid bare a growing anxiety among GOP officials and strategists nationwide that Democrats are fired up for November, while many Republicans aren’t. With Election Day approaching, Republican worries about voter enthusiasm are spilling beyond swing states into red bastions such as Kansas, Texas, Alaska, Ohio, Iowa and Nebraska. Trump’s approval rating sits near record lows, and frustrations are growing over the state of the economy, tariffs and the war in Iran. At stake is control of Congress: Democrats need to pick up just three seats to retake the House and four to win back the Senate. “If Republicans don’t turn out, we’re in a world of hurt,” warned Danedri Herbert, chair of the Kansas Republican Party. Herbert urged national Republican groups to pour more resources and money into Kansas before it is too late. “Kansas gets overlooked a lot because we are reliably red,” she said, “but this is a weird cycle.”

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Republicans see bright spot in New Hampshire with Sununu

A political family dynasty, a strong Republican governor and an influx of GOP cash threatens to put Democrats on defense in New Hampshire as Republicans see a prime pickup opportunity in the marquee Senate contest. Republicans nabbed a recruitment win with former Sen. John E. Sununu (R) running against Rep. Chris Pappas (D) for retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s (D) seat, and Cook Political Report shifted the contest in the GOP’s favor last week. Republicans are also investing heavily in the state, including the MAGA Inc.-aligned No Going Back PAC, which has already reserved over $10 million in the New Hampshire Senate race, according to The New York Times. The GOP says they feel optimistic New Hampshire’s electorate could buck political headwinds facing the party and elect Sununu, whose brother and father both served as governor in the state.

Yet, they concede the Granite State — which went for former Vice President Kamala Harris by 3 points in 2024 — is not impervious to President Trump’s poor approval ratings and national issues like the high cost of living. “If we continue to see high costs and, you know, a war that is very unpopular, it’s going to be a tough environment for Republicans,” longtime Republican strategist Jim Merrill said. “I’d say given all of that, John Sununu is the very best person at this moment to maybe do something that no one expects,” he added. A win in New Hampshire for Republicans would mark a serious win for the party as it looks to hold control of the Senate and cushion its majority in November. On the trail, Pappas has leaned into his track record in Congress and his local roots, including working at his family-owned Puritan Backroom restaurant — which famously claims to have invented chicken tenders. The House Democrat, like Sununu, is looking to nationalize the race too. “John Sununu’s record of supporting Donald Trump’s disastrous agenda that’s driving up costs and hurting Granite Staters stands in stark contrast to Chris Pappas’s record of fighting for New Hampshire,” Pappas campaign manager Rachel Petri said in a statement.

Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only

How President Trump broke the Kennedy Center

A storm brought down a five-foot piece of ceiling plaster at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts this month and its leadership sprang into action. One thing they did not do was repair the damage. Instead staff members left the mess on the carpet for nearly two weeks, posting photos on social media with commentary like “the place is falling apart and @realDonaldTrump wants to fix it.” They measured plaster shards and mapped the “debris field” like investigators after a plane crash, for a 55-page briefing for the center’s board about the building’s decay. No one was injured but Mr. Trump claimed online that a security guard had narrowly avoided “certain death.” Less than two hours later, his allies on the board voted to close the center, citing safety concerns. Mr. Trump’s threats this past week suggest that saving face, not lives, better explains why he shuttered the Kennedy Center on Tuesday for what officials said would be a temporary closure. The president, who is the center’s chairman, first announced in February that it would close for two years of renovations.

Democratic lawmakers on the board said it was an excuse to avoid the humiliation of plummeting ticket sales and fleeing artists. Since then Mr. Trump has fought to add his name to the memorial to a slain president, drawing multiple court injunctions. When a judge denied him again last week, the president made his priority clear. He decreed that the closing would take place immediately but that the renovation would not begin until courts — potentially the Supreme Court — allow his name on the building front. Then, as heavy construction fencing went up around the building, he went further. “The Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” he said, arguing that his name on the center would help lift it out of physical and financial turmoil. “Because frankly if we don’t do that it’s going to close, it’ll end up being ripped down.” On Friday night, a large crowd of demonstrators locked arms to form a human chain around the building in protest of Mr. Trump’s efforts to close the center amid fears that he might ultimately bulldoze it.\ The closure is the apotheosis of the wreckage and chaos created in the less than two years since Mr. Trump’s takeover of the center, once a bipartisan global model of public access to the arts.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

Ed Sheeran calls situation in Gaza 'catastrophic and unjustifiable' as he opens solo concert

Ed Sheeran opened a concert Saturday with comments about Gaza after controversy swirled around his tour and supporting acts withdrew in solidarity with opener Macklemore, who was dropped after making pro-Palestinian comments onstage. Sheeran began the concert alone on stage with no opener, but was joined by other musicians later in the show. Sheeran said he wants his music and shows to be about unity and humanity, not politics. But he said the attacks in Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, were horrific and what is happening in Gaza “catastrophic and unjustifiable.” “I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet,” Sheeran said during his performance at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

The comments before a nearly full stadium came after a tumultuous week that began with rapper Macklemore, Sheeran's original U.S. opener, being dropped in response to exclaiming “Free Palestine” during a Sept. 5 show in New Jersey. Sheeran has said he was not responsible for the decision, which came at the urging of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. His company owns a stadium where Sheeran’s tour was scheduled to play on Friday. Within hours of Sheeran’s statement Tuesday, his supporting acts withdrew. Sheeran has performed many songs solo during his Loop Tour concerts, but was joined for several songs at each stop by the Irish folk band Beoga before they dropped out in support of Macklemore. Macklemore was replaced by Danish band Lukas Graham and Irish singer Aaron Rowe before they backed out, and Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year before he too dropped out this week. Before Saturday's show, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators congregated outside the stadium. Hillary Steinberg, 34, said she got concert tickets a year ago but wound up getting a refund and attended the demonstration instead, disappointed that Sheeran did not take a stand.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Lead Stories

Texas Democrat sees a fundraising surge following opponent’s racist posts

Republican Bo French’s racist social media posts targeting South Asian university students have resulted in a fundraising windfall for his Democratic opponent in Texas’ railroad commission race. State Rep. Jon Rosenthal told The Washington Sun on Thursday that he’s raised around $150,000 — major dollars for a Democrat in what is normally an under-the-radar race — after French posted a photo of a crowd of South Asian students at the University of Texas-Austin football game celebrating the school’s comeback win Saturday, saying, “the problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” The comment drew national attention to the race. Rosenthal said his phone began “ringing off the hook” Sunday morning after the posts went viral and brought in a slate of new donors for him.

“For me, that’s monumental,” Rosenthal said. “It’s good to have the resources for the campaign, but certainly it’s even better to have the moral support and feel like people are with me.” The Railroad Commission of Texas is a crucial regulatory agency: Commissioners, who are elected statewide for staggered six-year terms, no longer directly oversee the state’s railroads but rather its powerful oil, natural gas and utilities industries. A Democrat hasn’t served on the panel since 1999. Rosenthal said the new influx of money will allow him to travel more throughout Texas in hopes of flipping people who supported French’s primary runoff opponent, Jim Wright, who lost by 14,800 votes in May, or less than one percentage point. The state representative also hopes to put spots up on AM radio and increase digital advertising across new counties. “There’s no avoiding that this will be, in some part, a referendum on Bo French and his brand of politics,” Rosenthal said. “It does make this an opportunity to change the direction of politics in the state — and maybe even in the country.”

Read this article at Washington Sun - Subscribers Only

Weeks before the midterms, almost everything is getting more expensive

Mortgage rates close to 7%. Gas prices near their highest levels since 2022. A Federal Reserve interest-rate hike for the first time in three years. Everything from buying a house to filling up your gas tank now costs more than even a week ago—putting affordability back in the spotlight just before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. “If you’re the average American household, you’re probably wondering, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. A robust economy driven in part by President Trump’s tax cuts, reduced regulations and historic AI spending has boosted growth and investment. But tariffs and the data-center build-out have also added to inflation. The war with Iran has set off an energy shock that is raising prices for gasoline, diesel and heating oil.

The unemployment rate stands at a low 4.1%. Thanks in part to a gravity-defying stock market, the Federal Reserve reported that household net worth hit $186 trillion in the second quarter of this year—a gain of $26 trillion from the fourth quarter of 2024. A stronger-than-expected August retail sales report this week showed consumer spending remains strong. “Consider the geopolitical landscape of shocks and uncertainty, and you begin to appreciate the resilience of the U.S. economy,” Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said Wednesday in explaining the decision to raise interest rates. The yield on 10-year Treasurys—a critical driver of long-term interest rates for consumers and businesses—crossed 5% for the first time since 2023 this week. It closed just below that level Thursday. Futures markets indicate there is about a 50% chance of the central bank raising rates again at its October meeting, a week before Election Day. Most Fed officials project one rate increase by the end of the year. Consumer prices were up 3.4% from a year earlier in August, extending five years of price pressures on Americans.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Why Democrats are starting to feel bullish about a midterm wave

Democrats’ wary optimism about the midterms gave way to growing confidence this week. The party has seen strong post-Labor Day polls in key battlegrounds — and even in traditionally red areas. Recent escalations in the war in Iran, including an attack on a major pipeline in Saudi Arabia, mean the rising gas prices bedeviling Republicans will not be going down anytime soon. Republicans have not been able to bring prices under control more generally. And President Donald Trump’s unpopularity is at near-record levels. Considering all this, Democrats now think conditions are right for the party to retake control of the House and possibly the Senate later this year. “If the election were held today, we would win the majority,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Schumer said he felt “considerably more bullish” about Democrats’ chances of retaking the Senate than he did a few months ago. He described the environment as uncannily similar to 2006, when discontent with the war in Iraq helped Democrats recapture the Senate and the House. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Massachusetts) said Democrats’ recent momentum is driven by their focus on the economy, with voters believing that the party understands the financial pain they’ve felt in the years since Republicans swept into unified control. “That is what is driving these polls,” Clark told The Post on Thursday. Still, Democratic fears remain. Democrats need at least four more seats to take the Senate majority and would have to win at least two in states Trump carried by double-digit margins in 2024. Republicans are seeking to blunt any Democratic gains by flipping Democratic-held open seats in Michigan and New Hampshire, where polls show competitive races. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted its rating of the Senate contest in New Hampshire from “Lean Democrat” to “Toss Up” this week.

Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only

Warren Buffett steps down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, after more than 60 years guiding the firm that turned him into a household name for millions of investors worldwide. Buffett was named chairman emeritus effective immediately, with his son Howard G. Buffett taking over as chairman, Berkshire said in a statement Friday. “As Chairman Emeritus, Mr. Buffett will remain a member of the Board of Directors and will continue to offer his valued judgment and perspective,” Berkshire said. The announcement comes just eight months after Buffett stepped down as CEO of the conglomerate he built into a trillion-dollar company.

“Father Time always wins,” Buffett wrote Friday in a letter to Berkshire’s shareholders. “He has, however, been generous with me. He has given me the opportunity to see Berkshire reach a point where I am more confident than ever about what lies ahead.” At 96 years old, Buffett had still appeared in interviews with CNBC as recently as July. However, his voice sounded weak of late. Buffett noted in the letter that he has “served Berkshire since 1965.” Since Buffett started to use Berkshire Hathaway as his primary investment vehicle in the 1960s, the company’s share price had risen more than 5,500,000% by the time he retired as CEO. By comparison, the return for the S&P 500 over the same period is a mere 39,000%. Under Buffett’s leadership, Nebraska-based Berkshire thrived at the intersection of Wall Street and Main Street, with investments in industries ranging from railroads and insurance to candy and ice cream. Even in the last two months, Buffett was still a highly active investors. In July, Buffett told CNBC that he initiated an investment in Alphabet by Berkshire. In the interview, Buffett said he “made a mistake” by not investing in the tech giant earlier. The investment is now worth more than $27 billion and ranks as Berkshire’s fifth largest holding. He was replaced as CEO by Greg Abel, his longtime lieutenant.

Read this article at NBC News - Subscribers Only

State Stories

After Medicaid funding standoff, feds approve $12B for Texas

The state of Texas will receive nearly $12 billion in federal healthcare funding, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office announced Thursday, restoring withheld funds that were costing Texas hospitals millions per day. Since Sept. 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began withholding billions in Medicaid funding over legal questions about Texas’ provider tax system. The withheld funds, according to a report from the Texas Hospital Association, were costing Texas hospitals $27 million per day.

The billions in restored Medicaid funding came after months of negotiations with the federal agency, according to Abbott’s office. The governor’s office in early August wrote a stern letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the situation. In the letter, Abbott criticized the lack of clarity in the federal agency’s requirements on taxing, and he also said the state would be willing to collaborate on changes to the tax system. While the funding shortfall was ongoing, hospital advocates warned that if it continued, rural hospitals would be particularly hard hit and might be forced to cut back on their services. “This funding is a major victory for Texas patients,” Abbott’s Thursday statement said. “Emergency rooms will stay open, rural families will retain local care, and Texans will have access to the treatment they need. I thank CMS and the Trump Administration for helping ensure Texans get the medical care they need.”

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

Ken Paxton investigates Taylor AI data center parkland dispute

Hope was dwindling for a group of Taylor residents after City Hall and the courts rejected their attempts to halt an artificial intelligence data center planned on land donated to the city for a public park. On Thursday, Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, said his office had opened an investigation into the development. The 87-acre tract off East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was deeded to the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation for a future public park in 1999. But after changing hands several times with no park development, the land was eventually designated for data center development. Paxton said his office will determine whether the 1999 deed’s park restriction was legally modified or terminated before Blueprint Data Centers purchased the property. The office said it will seek court intervention if its investigation finds that the tract is required to remain a park.

“I will not allow any person or entity to disregard the rule of law or obligations owed to the public,” Paxton said in a statemen. “If the Taylor data center development is unlawful, I will do everything in my power to stop it and hold those who have violated the law accountable.” Pamela Griffin and other Taylor residents first raised concerns about the project last year after Griffin learned the property next to her home was slated to become the site of Blueprint’s proposed $1 billion, 135,000-square-foot project. Taylor approved the project in 2024. “I’m coming up here begging for a whole year, asking y’all to stop this data center because it’s going to harm human lives,” Griffin told Taylor City Council in July. “Do you all care about human lives?” Residents also filed a lawsuit against Blueprint to halt the project, but last year a state District Court judge struck down the residents' request, seemingly clearing a path for the development. The residents have appealed and filed additional suits against Blueprint. HALT, a grassroots anti-data center group in Taylor, said Thursday it was “overjoyed that there is intention to investigate.” The group said it is confident Paxton will find merit to take action on the property. The City of Taylor said Thursday that it was aware of the investigation and plans to cooperate with the attorney general’s office.

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

Bud Kennedy: Why won’t Fort Worth, Tarrant leaders speak up against Bo French?

Bo French hates Texas. But he has oil money and a cadre of trash-talkers behind him, so most Fort Worth leaders are too gutless to criticize him. There is no other way to explain the events of the last week, when a spoiled son of Westover Hills went on his latest public tirade and was met with loud pushback across America — but mostly embarrassed silence in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. This time, the Republican candidate to regulate the oil industry on the misnamed Texas Railroad Commission complained about some of Texas’ top college students — just because they don’t look like him. French posted a photo on X.com of a crowd of happy Indian-American students. They were wildly cheering the University of Texas Longhorns’ come-from-behind football victory over the No. 1 team in the country.

His comment: “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. ... The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” French explained later in so many words that he was referring to residency status, not race. Children of immigrants here on work permits are counted as residents up to age 21, meaning they count toward the state requirement that UT admit 90% residents in each freshman class. But when reporters found students in the photo, the first two identified were both American citizens. About one-third of U.S. college students are first- or second-generation immigrants, but a majority are American citizens. In other words, what French saw was mostly a section of cheering American college football fans, because a lot of the smartest kids in Texas and America today are Indian-American and Asian-American. He thinks that’s all wrong. Then, Fort Worth leaders sat in near-complete silence. They shook their heads and tut-tutted the French family’s wayward boy just as if he were a curly-haired brat wreaking havoc in the grand ballroom at a blue-blood country club. Look, Bo French is not a TCU frat boy anymore.

Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only

Ted Cruz pushes back on calls for government testing of AI models

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is working behind the scenes to block a proposal that would require advanced artificial intelligence technologies to undergo federal testing before they are released to the public, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations. The Texas Republican has warned the measure, being pushed by Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, would hurt U.S. companies and give a leg up to Chinese competitors, according to the person, who asked to not be not be named because they weren't authorized to speak about closed-door discussions. Instead, he is pushing for a broader requirement that AI companies take steps to prevent their models from developing "advanced threat capabilities," and that they disclose to the federal government any active or imminent security breaches.

Cruz, who leads the powerful Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee, is involved in negotiations with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Senate Majority Leader John Thune on a bipartisan response to warnings from a former Anthropic employee this month that AI models are growing dangerously advanced. Cantwell, a ranking member on the commerce committee, has been arguing publicly that pre-deployment testing is necessary to try and stop up-and-coming AI models from developing dangerous capabilities like creating a deadly virus or hacking into nuclear weapons systems. "Meaningful legislation would require the most powerful AI models undergo testing by scientists and experts at our national laboratories to assess whether they could enable sophisticated cyberattacks or aid the development of biological or nuclear weapons," she told reporters earlier this week While Cruz called openly last week for "guardrails" to protect against catastrophic risks, he has also suggested that AI developers are already incentivised to police themselves. "If any company sells a product that causes massive harm, they’ll get sued into oblivion," he wrote on X Wednesday. "That’s how companies go broke and rich people become poor people."

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

Poll shows Social Security reform could sway Texas voters

Growing concerns about the viability of Social Security may emerge as a deciding factor this midterm election, according to a nonpartisan poll conducted among voters in states with competitive Senate races, including Texas. According to the newly released survey by Peter G. Peterson Foundation, candidates with a plan to reform Social Security are more likely to do well among voters in battleground states such as Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Across the country, 91% of voters support Social Security reforms, according to the survey. In Texas especially, about 57% of voters vs. 49% overall, and want lawmakers to prevent benefit cuts by reforming the program.

Democratic firm Global Strategy Group and Republican firm North Star Opinion Research conducted a phone and text-to-web survey on behalf of the foundation. They spoke to 2,500 voters in key Senate battleground states, including 500 voters in Texas, between August 20 and August 27. By 2032, Social Security’s primary Trust Fund is projected to run dry if the program continues to pay out more than it receives in income. If Congress doesn’t act sooner, the program will become insolvent, causing an automatic 22% cut in retirement checks for current and newly retired Social Security beneficiaries across the U.S. In Texas, this would reduce each retirement check by nearly $500, according to a June analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal policy think tank. Yet pollsters found half of Texas voters (49%) were unaware of the impending Social Security benefit cuts and more than 89% of voters said lawmakers should talk about it more. Once they were made aware, nearly all respondents (91%) said it was important for lawmakers to have a plan to reform Social Security to prevent cuts.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

As Texas rejects heat safeguards, thousands of workers are getting sick in extreme temperatures

On July 22, UPS driver James Francis Edelen III was rounding out his usual delivery route when Houston’s extreme summer heat caught up with him. After nearly 10 hours on the road on the hottest day of Houston’s summer, Edelen’s hands cramped as he made stops at an apartment complex. He struggled to shift gears and grip the steering wheel. Soon his arms and legs were cramping, too, and he felt dizzy and nauseated. That day, Houston temperatures climbed above 100 degrees for the first time this year, with a heat index – a measure of how it feels, accounting for humidity – surpassing 115 degrees. City data show that at least 95 people were treated locally that day for heat-related illnesses.

Across the country, over half a dozen states — including California and Colorado — now require employers to implement measures to protect workers such as rest, water breaks and access to shade. But Texas, one of the hottest states in the country, not only lacks statewide heat-safety standards but also blocked cities from adopting their own. Experts and advocates said that lack of protection leaves workers especially vulnerable. “Every worker needs to get some training. Every worker should have access to rest, water and shade,” said Barrak Alahmad, a senior research scientist at Harvard University. “Right now, we're saying, ‘Employers, you're responsible for this.’ We're basically just handing workers over to be at the mercy of employers.” Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows Texas has recorded 1,720 heat-related workplace injuries and illnesses between 2023 and 2024, the latest available years of data, averaging about 860 a year. This marks a 60% increase in injuries compared to 2021 and 2022. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that the actual number could be up to seven times higher due to misidentified and unreported cases. In the most extreme cases, workplace heat exposure can be fatal. The same labor data has recorded eight deaths between 2023 and 2024. OSHA states that the actual number of heat-related fatalities could be up to 14 times higher.

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

Mayor says $27M question looming as data center takes Harlingen offer to Cameron County

A $27 million question’s hanging over the area as a developer launches construction of a 1,100-acre data center project between Harlingen and Rio Hondo. Days after offering Harlingen $20 million along with $7 million to fund a drainage project, Fluidstack took its proffer to Cameron County, Mayor Norma Sepulveda said. “I was told they’re getting a $27 million investment,” she said Wednesday in an interview. Meanwhile, Fluidstack’s decided not to respond to questions surrounding any negotiations with county officials. After county officials granted the company a worksite permit late last week, Fluidstack launched construction of the project’s $4 billion first phase in the area of Gomez Road and FM 1595, about 4 miles southwest of Rio Hondo in Harlingen’s northeastern outskirts.

About a week earlier in Harlingen, Kate Franko, Fluidstack’s head of public affairs, requested city commissioners allow the company to discharge stormwater into a major canal draining Valley International Airport, which flooded during the historic March 2025 storm. While the company offered the city $20 million to help fund infrastructure projects, Fluidstack also offered to fund a $7 million project aimed at widening the 90-foot canal running four miles from the airport to the Arroyo Colorado. In response, commissioners, facing months of residents’ opposition to data center projects, requested Fluidstack hold a town hall meeting to respond to concerns while fielding questions surrounding the company’s project. “While the city was still engaged in that process, Cameron County moved forward with permitting that provided Fluidstack an alternative drainage option,” Sepulveda said in a statement Wednesday. “The county was aware of the approximately $7 million in drainage improvements being discussed at the site. They were also aware of the proposed $20 million investment in Harlingen infrastructure.”

Read this article at MyRGV - Subscribers Only

Texas AG commissioner calls for gas tax pause

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller urged Gov. Greg Abbott to temporarily suspend the state’s 20-cent-per-gallon gasoline and undyed diesel tax as gas prices remain above $3. On Wednesday, Miller called on the governor to temporarily suspend the state’s tax on gasoline and undyed diesel. We don’t control the price of oil, but we control the taxes we put on it,” Miller said. “Governor Abbott has the tools to act. There’s no excuse for sitting around and watching our farmers, ranchers, truckers, and families bleed money at the pump. Texas producers and Texas families can’t wait any longer.

In a press release, Miller urged Abbott and other state lawmakers to take action and provide relief to Texans while fuel prices continue to rise. “High diesel prices are a tax on everything,” Miller said. “They raise the cost of growing food, hauling freight, running a business, and putting groceries on the table. Every penny matters, and Texas shouldn’t be piling another 20 cents on top of the pain.” Miller continued, “If other states can step up when their people are getting crushed at the pump, Texas sure as hell can. Texas is the energy capital of America. We ought to be leading the charge on fuel tax relief, not watching from the sidelines.” Abbott was on his campaign trail in Amarillo on Wednesday, talking to residents about his “Affordability Agenda,” which aims to reduce costs for insurance, college, housing, and energy. There was no mention of plans to bring down the cost for Texans at the pump during his campaign stop.

Read this article at KTSM - Subscribers Only

Iran says hackers launched a cyberattack on a massive oil tanker bound for Galveston

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating a cyberattack targeting an oil supertanker that was traveling through the Gulf toward Galveston last month. A specialized team of Coast Guard and FBI officials boarded the VL Prosperity in the Gulf on Aug. 21 after authorities learned that the South Korean-managed vessel’s computer network had been compromised, Coast Guard officials said. Iranian state media reported that hackers took control of the tanker’s navigation and propulsion systems and disabled its communications for about 30 hours. U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed those details. Rear Adm. Amy Grable, who leads the Coast Guard’s Cyber Command, said the incident highlights the potential dangers of cyberattacks targeting vessels at sea.

“Of course we’re worried about a collision, an explosion,” Grable said. Grable said malicious computer code is becoming increasingly accessible to hackers and warned that similar incidents could become more frequent. “Especially with the advent of artificial intelligence, that’s sort of accelerating the rate at which we need to take action,” she said. The VL Prosperity left Egypt on Aug. 1 bound for Galveston and was reportedly hacked near the Strait of Gibraltar. The Coast Guard said the ship’s crew and shore-based corporate staff played an important role in responding to the cyber threat. “The captain, crew and shoreside corporate staff were critical partners in helping to ensure the threats were mitigated,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. The Coast Guard and FBI intercepted the tanker before it reached Galveston. Officials have not said how close the vessel was to land when agents boarded it. Coast Guard officials are now urging vessels at sea to remain vigilant and request cybersecurity assistance when needed.

Read this article at KHOU - Subscribers Only

U of Austin won’t seek ABA Accreditation for new law school

The University of Austin, a five-year-old institution founded by CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss and others, says it won’t seek the American Bar Association Accreditation Council’s recognition for its legal program. UATX, which first accepted students in fall 2024, doesn’t yet have institutional accreditation, though it’s seeking it. The institution’s announcement comes after the Education Department recommended last month that the ABA Council lose federal recognition to accredit law schools, meaning its accreditation wouldn't unlock federal student aid for those schools. Some Republican-controlled states have also targeted the ABA Council, which has received criticism for its past support of diversity, equity and inclusion. Earlier this year, the Texas Supreme Court allowed lawyers who haven’t graduated from ABA Council–accredited schools to practice in the state.

In a lengthy Substack post Thursday, UATX General Counsel Adam Biggs condemned the ABA. “The ABA is a private trade association that has spent seventy years making sure no one builds a law school that doesn’t conform to its exact vision for legal education,” Biggs wrote, adding that the “model it enforces is expensive and outdated, and it stifles anyone who tries to build something different.” He said UATX will partner with the conservative Federalist Society in its undergraduate legal education, supporting courses “that go further into the Constitution’s text, history, and tradition, taught by judges, practicing lawyers, and scholars.” He criticized ABA standards in detail, including requirements for tenured positions. He said the standards also “make creating [legal] clinics largely unavoidable.” “Students working real cases sounds good, in the abstract,” Biggs wrote. “Yet it is the most expensive way to teach anything. A professor teaching Property reaches hundreds of students. A clinical professor works with about eight.”

Read this article at Inside Higher Ed - Subscribers Only

Arch Manning to 'learn' from Holly Rowe controversy, Sarkisian says

Days after Texas football star Arch Manning ignited a social media firestorm by laughing at an AI-generated video of his coach Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe, Sarkisian said, “Arch recognizes he made a mistake, and it's an unfortunate one.” “Nowhere do we condone domestic violence or violence against women,” Sarkisian said Thursday during his weekly Zoom meeting with reporters. “Nothing in our program says that. I think if (Arch) could take it back, he would. He has since apologized to Holly. He's made a public apology, and our goal is that we can move forward and him be the guy that that we all know that he is and what he represents.”

The fake video after the Longhorns' 24-23 comeback win over Ohio State spoofed a postgame interaction between Sarkisian and Rowe, ending with the journalist being struck in the face. A reporter asked Monday if Manning had seen any online videos that had been posted about Saturday night's postgame scene at Royal-Memorial Stadium. Manning said he had seen an AI-edited video about the abrupt interview between Sarkisian and Rowe. After his response received some laughter and goading from media members, Manning smiled as he asked: "Y'all seen that one? That's a good one. Of him slapping Holly Rowe? Yeah, it's hilarious." Manning apologized for the comments Tuesday and Sarkisian addressed the matter for the first time Thursday. The ensuing uproar criticized Manning for making light of violence against women, Sarkisian for blowing off interviews with Rowe and fellow ESPN sideline reporter Laura Rutledge, and a roomful of reporters who chuckled at Manning’s response. On Tuesday, Manning issued an apology to Rowe on his Instagram account.

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

Pete Hegseth Texas trip to include Austin startup, Texas A&M game

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is visiting Austin on Friday, with his visit coming just days after the U.S. House postponed a vote on his impeachment. Hegseth will speak at Austin-based Saronic Technologies Inc., a critical commercial partner for the U.S. military. His visit comes roughly two months after the defense startup announced its $3.2 billion South Texas shipyard for the manufacturing of its autonomous military ships and drones. In July, the U.S. Navy used three of its sea drones to attack an Iranian naval base in the Strait of Hormuz — the first known U.S. use of such craft in combat. The same type of vessel was used to rescue the pilots of a U.S. Apache helicopter that had been downed near the strait — also a first.

Late last year, Saronic landed a $392 million production contract for its 24-foot-long Corsair vessels. The speedboats, which cost about $1 million each, can travel more than 1,000 miles and carry payloads of up to 1,000 pounds at speeds of up to 35 knots. Corsairs were used in both the recent attack on Iran and last month’s pilot rescue. Hegseth will also stop by Capital Factory, the Austin-based venture capital firm and startup incubator that helped propel Saronic and other local tech companies such as Apptronik and Firefly Aerospace. He also will administer the oath of enlistment to new recruits at the Austin Armed Forces Reserve Center. Afterward, Hegseth will go to College Station to tour the Veterans Resource Center and deliver remarks to the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University. He plans to attend the Texas A&M’s game against Kentucky on Saturday afternoon. His stops in Texas are part of what he is calling his Arsenal of Freedom Tour, which is taking Hegseth across the country to “rebuild the U.S. defense industrial base and boost domestic manufacturing.” On Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson sent U.S. House members home early for their recess ahead of the midterm elections. But the early dismissal also avoided an impeachment vote for Hegseth over his handling of the U.S. war with Iran.

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

National Stories

RFK Jr. says anti-vaccine activists have a friend in the White House

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave the keynote address Thursday at a conference of an anti-vaccine activist group he once chaired, telling the hundreds in attendance that they had a friend in President Donald Trump’s White House. It was Kennedy’s first time appearing at the Children’s Health Defense conference since he became secretary. Kennedy took leave from the group when he launched his bid to become president in 2023, but his speech Thursday served as a sort of homecoming, offering him a platform from which to hail the administration’s steps to scale back vaccine guidance and reassure the activists in attendance that he was working to turn their priorities into policy.

“Let me be clear: You have a strong and steadfast friend in the White House. We’ve accomplished in 19 months things that would have seemed unthinkable two years ago,” he said. The speech, peppered with questions about long established vaccine safety, also highlighted how once fringe views on vaccines have been given a prominent pulpit under the Trump administration. Kennedy boasted about the administration’s moves to downsize the childhood vaccination schedule and reshape a key vaccine advisory board — steps that have since been halted by a judge. Kennedy lauded Trump for pushing ahead with attempts to overhaul vaccine guidance, including an executive order last month calling for spacing out the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, against medical groups’ recommendations. That executive order and now Kennedy’s keynote speech at the Children’s Health Defense conference mark a pivot by the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, who earlier this year had appeared to be moving beyond vaccine efforts and toward a less contentious agenda on healthy food ahead of November’s midterm elections. HHS promoted the speech on its social media channels.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Blanche’s political campaigning breaks an ethical norm going back to Watergate

Attorney General Todd Blanche has repeatedly participated in campaign events and spoken in partisan terms about the coming midterm elections since his confirmation last month, despite criticism that he violated a longstanding Justice Department principle of steering clear of electoral politics. This week he waded again into those waters — twice. Since August, Mr. Blanche has come under fire for making campaign-tinged public appearances and comments. Last month, at a rally-style event on Long Island, he praised Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor of New York. Last week, Mr. Blanche delivered remarks at the Republican Party’s midterm convention. On Tuesday, he stood at the White House podium and disparaged Democratic lawmakers while invoking the coming election, dismissing their concerns about artificial intelligence as “nothing but an effort to influence the midterms.”

And on Wednesday, Mr. Blanche spoke at a campaign rally for Michael Whatley, the Republican Senate candidate in North Carolina. Echoing his convention speech, he portrayed crime rates, which continued a long-term downward trend to reach new lows in 2025, as “President Trump and Vice President Vance delivering on a promise.” Worries about the Justice Department abandoning its long-held commitment to appear apolitical in order to maintain institutional credibility may seem beside the point. Since January 2025, dozens of judges have viewed its representations with suspicion, eroding the traditional bonds of trust, known as the “presumption of regularity,” that the courts typically grant the department. The second Trump administration has also unabashedly destroyed the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from the White House in investigative decisions. Early on, Mr. Blanche’s predecessor, Pam Bondi, declared, “We are so proud to work at the directive of Donald Trump.” Last September, after Mr. Trump publicly demanded that she charge several perceived adversaries, the department pushed through short-lived indictments of two of them. Still, Mr. Blanche is dismantling another post-Watergate principle: that Justice Department leaders stay away from partisan politicking.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

How Bessent, America's bond salesman, cornered Japan on big spending

When Japanese finance minister Satsuki Katayama called Scott Bessent for help to support the cratering yen in June, her U.S. counterpart's response was familiar: If Tokyo wanted assistance, it had to get its fiscal house in order. For months, Treasury Secretary Bessent had told Katayama and other officials privately that Japan should rein in its massive fiscal spending and that its central bank ?needed to raise interest rates, according to three people familiar with the situation. Make sense of global markets with the Trading Day newsletter. Sign up here. The Japanese worried that inflation stoked by the weaker yen would hurt Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi with voters. Bessent was more concerned that a sell-off in Japanese bonds could spill over to U.S. debt, the ?people said. Katayama's call for Washington's help in a coordinated yen-buying spree enabled Bessent to press his case.

He urged Japan to first address fundamental factors driving down the yen — a reference to Takaichi's big spending plans — and avoid any "inconsistency" between monetary and fiscal policies, two of the people said. In short: overhaul the policies that counter the Bank of Japan's fight against inflation. The June 22 call, the details of which haven't been previously reported, helped set the stage for massive joint intervention by Washington and Tokyo in late July, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. This account of the interactions between Japan and the U.S. shows how Bessent used Washington's leverage over currency and Treasury markets to extract policy concessions from a key ally — forcing Takaichi to navigate the competing demands of ?voters and her most important security partner. "Bessent has run out of patience with Japan," said David Boling, managing director for Japan at The Asia Group, a consultancy. The U.S., he said, wants a stronger, more stable yen, less risk of Japanese selling of Treasuries, and policy that looks more credible to markets ?on inflation and fiscal stability.

Read this article at Reuters - Subscribers Only

The quiet campaign to stop Kamala 2028 is growing louder

On Wednesday, LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic Party megadonor Reid Hoffman threw cold water on the prospect of a 2028 presidential campaign from former Vice President Kamala Harris. “I think it would be a very challenging path for her and it’s going to be a very noisy field,” Hoffman said when asked at a Politico event in Washington, DC, whether Harris should run again. His statement comes the same week CNN aired an interview with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who told Jake Tapper (while fly-fishing?) that he would not run for president if Harris did so — a curious move from someone who swung through South Carolina barely two weeks ago, and who has long been treated as a presumed frontrunner for 2028. Taken together — and thinking back to our America, Actually episode on the question of whether Harris will run — I think you’re seeing the early stages of what I’d call a light public pressure campaign.

Read this article at Vox - Subscribers Only

A scorned Trump gathers bulldozers for the Kennedy Center

Fall nears. The trade wars continue to rage. The Iran war drags ever onward. The midterms are coming. And what is Donald Trump doing to drag the country out of the several, concentrically deepening holes he has dug for America, the Republican Party, and himself? The answer, of course, is: preparing to demolish the Kennedy Center, rather than let anyone else have it. Washington’s official federal performing arts venue will not make it to the end of Trump’s term. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s certainly what the president wants everyone to think. He’s signaling his next move so openly at this point that he might as well be using semaphore flags.

To recap: Trump has long betrayed a quietly deep obsession with the world of the theater arts — which he no doubt associates with the New York of his youth. He is, famously, equally as obsessed with Kennedy family glamour — why, he even found his own collectible Kennedy to add to the administration! — and desperately wants to associate his own (decidedly grubbier) name with a national martyr. Therefore, it was perhaps inevitable that he would take a heavy hand with the Kennedy Center — the federally owned and directed performing arts venue for the nation’s capital, named for the slain president in 1964, prior to opening. It was one of the shiniest baubles in (what he regards as) his personal presidential treasury to play with and admire. Nobody expected him to try to slap his name on it, however. Nobody expected him to be that crude or lawless. The building is named by statute; renaming it anything else is not optional, unless approved by Congress. Trump doesn’t care: His openly stated philosophy is to put his own name (or Trump-like “stamp”) onto everything he possibly can while still president. “Nobody else will,” he says, correctly. So he installed his faithful myrmidons on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, who “voted” to rename it after him. Bookings immediately vanished — no artist in America with any profile would ever recover from ratifying such an imperial ego-grab with their presence — and when the courts ordered him to remove his name, he instead erected a scaffolding to permanently prevent the world from seeing the title of the venue without his name on it.

Read this article at National Review - Subscribers Only

Environment, health groups sue over Trump move to wipe out climate rules for power plants

Environmental and public health-focused organizations are suing the Trump administration over its move to wipe out most climate regulations on coal and gas power plants. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Clean Air Council, Clean Wisconsin and the Environmental Defense Fund filed the suit on Thursday. The move comes just days after the administration finalized its move to gut the nation’s climate rules for coal and gas plants, eliminating the vast majority of rules that the Biden administration said would prevent 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon emissions through 2047, the equivalent of taking 328 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year.

That’s because existing coal and new gas plants will no longer have to prevent 90 percent of their carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere. As the electric sector makes up a quarter of the U.S.’s total planet-heating emissions, that move could be one of the Trump administration’s most consequential climate rollbacks. The administration estimated that it could save $310 billion. The groups that sued Thursday said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a legal responsibility to limit planet-warming emissions, and that not doing so would have significant health consequences. “Repealing these standards without a replacement is an abdication of EPA’s legal responsibility to protect public health and the environment,” said Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at NRDC, in a written statement. “The Clean Air Act and Supreme Court precedent demand that the EPA address climate pollution from the largest industrial source in the nation. The EPA’s legal reasoning is fatally flawed, so we are going to court.” “Emissions from power plants drive climate change, and climate change is a health emergency,” said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association. “Measures that clean up power plant emissions also clean up other lung-harming pollutants at the same time. EPA has the authority and the responsibility to protect people’s health from air pollution.” The EPA declined The Hill’s request for comment on the lawsuit. When it put forward the rule, the agency said that its move was a money saver. “For over 15 years, the Obama and Biden administrations implemented a war on coal to destroy reliable and affordable energy. The Trump Administration has come in to protect American energy and to make sure you can afford to keep the lights on,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only

Democrats keep pressure on Hakeem Jeffries to punish rogue members

House Democrats aren’t letting rogue members off the hook for bucking their party. They hope Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries won’t either. “Obviously, there’s got to be” punishment for the two Democrats who twice this month bucked their party to advance a slate of Republican priorities, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said in an interview. “Otherwise, then,” he said, “it’s open season.” Democrats are watching closely how — and if — Jeffries doles out consequences for Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington who have twice provided the decisive votes for GOP procedural measures this month.

Jeffries and his leadership team condemned the two members when they first defected two weeks ago, slamming a “breach of trust” warranting a “serious response” but have yet to inflict any public consequences. On Tuesday, they defied leadership a second time, infuriating House Democrats and resurrecting questions about how leadership plans to keep its caucus in line — especially if they have a slim majority next term. “We have to all be united, and I think it’s pretty simple,” said one House Democrat who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “If there’s not [a punishment], I find it hard to see a path forward in the majority, which we’re all pushing for.” Asked if leadership should punish the two aisle-crossers, Rep. Troy Carter pointed to his time as minority leader of the Louisiana state Senate: “When I had members that did not work within the confines of the philosophical views of our party, I took them off our caucus.” “I don’t want to second-guess anybody’s timing, but I will tell you that these things cannot allow to fester,” he added. “We have to have a strict message: Either you’re with the team on those fundamental issues of governance or you aren’t.”

Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only

Copyright September 25, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved