Lead Stories

Graham Platner ends U.S. Senate campaign in Maine

Graham Platner, the populist political newcomer who Democrats had hoped could flip a critical U.S. Senate seat in Maine, ended his campaign Wednesday night after a woman he previously dated publicly accused him of sexual assault. “We believe for the movement to continue, it can’t be me and for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations,” Platner said Wednesday night. The development, a month after Platner won the Democratic nomination to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, injects fresh chaos into Democrats’ uphill battle to retake the Senate in November. Democrats need to win four seats held by Republicans, and hold their own, to win control of the chamber.

Democratic Party leaders have until July 27 to decide on a new standard-bearer in one of the marquee races of the midterm elections, as Collins tries to hold on for a sixth term representing a state that Democrat Kamala Harris won by 7 percentage points in 2024. The selection process remains unclear — but jockeying to replace Platner began before he even dropped out. Several candidates have already publicly expressed interest in running, while Platner allies urged Democrats to choose a new nominee who aligned with his politics and Platner privately sought influence over the decision. Democratic unease about Platner had been growing for months. The 41-year-old oyster farmer faced an escalating series of scandals since launching his challenge to Collins last summer, including old social media posts dismissive of sexual assault, a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol that he later had covered up, sexually explicit text messages he sent to other women after he married in 2023, and allegations of physical violence by ex-girlfriends. Nevertheless, many high-profile supporters — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) — initially stood by Platner. He attributed the revelations about his behavior to poor mental health and post-tramautic stress from his service in the Marine Corps and denied any violence.

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Pulido responds to reports about former accordionist

Grammy Award-winning Tejano music star and Democratic congressional candidate Bobby Pulido is responding to reports about a 2018 school benefit concert he performed at with a former bandmate who is a registered sex offender. The performance in question occurred on May 24, 2018 at a fundraising event for Harwell Middle School in Edinburg. At the time of the performance, Frankie Caballero played the accordion for Pulido’s band. Prior to the performance, Caballero had been convicted of a felony offense of indecency with a child on May 8, 2014. He was released from prison in 2017. According to Pulido, he first met Caballero in 1995 when he was recruited to join his band for the recording of his debut album.

“He used to play with a group called Grupo Mazz, who I was a big fan of,” Pulido recalled. “When I was starting my career, I wanted my music to be accordion driven, and I was a very big fan of his work with Grupo Mazz’s ‘Polkitas del Tigre,’ so I reached out to him early ’95 or mid-’95 around that time to record my first CD. And then he joined the band and he was gigging with me.” Pulido said that Caballero was a member of his band for about a year before being let go in 1996 for what he described as substance abuse issues. He said that following Caballero’s departure from the band in 1996, he did not have any communication with the accordionist until 2017. He said he had no knowledge of criminal history in the 21-years between Caballero’s tenures with his band. “All my musicians that I’ve ever worked with have never been employees, they’re contract labor,” Pulido said. “So it’s not a traditional custom to do a background check on somebody. That’s just not something anybody in the industry does.”

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Relatives of Houston man fatally shot by ICE agent describe him as ‘hard-working family man’

The day after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston's East End, his son spoke about his father's dedication to his family and said he did not deserve to die. "He was a hard-working family man who never wanted his name to be known by anyone outside of his family," Ronaldo Salgado said at a news conference Wednesday morning. "He wanted nothing else in life but to provide for his wife and see his sons become great people." In a statement Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said an agent shot Araujo at approximately 6:50 a.m. Tuesday during a "targeted enforcement operation.” According to DHS, Araujo was from Mexico and did not have legal status in the U.S.

Federal officials claimed Araujo attempted to evade arrest and tried to run over an ICE agent with his vehicle, prompting the agent to shoot Araujo in self-defense, DHS said. In light of other fatal shootings by ICE officers during the second term of President Donald Trump, whose administration has ramped-up enforcement of immigration laws, local elected officials and civil rights groups have called for independent investigations into the shooting of Araujo. So has his family. "You [could] find him every evening after work, resting on his porch, listening to music, petting his dog," Salgado said. "I am deeply heartbroken to see that the man who taught me the value of hard work, family values, and education will no longer spend an evening on that porch. … He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE.'" Araujo had lived in the United States for over 30 years and was working his way through the process of obtaining legal immigration status, according to his family.

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What AI companies want for the millions they're spending on elections

AI executives and companies are betting that spending millions in the 2026 midterm elections will allow them to influence AI bills being developed in Congress. As of the end of June, the two biggest artificial intelligence political action committees have dropped at least $44 million into 40 House and Senate candidates, per a CNBC analysis of Federal Election Commission data. That’s an early taste of how the groups will spend the more than $200 million they’ve raised on the rest of primary season and into the general election, according to fundraising totals provided by groups.

The spending by the burgeoning AI industry makes it an increasingly powerful player in the Washington influence space. The companies — through their PACs — are setting themselves up to shape how the first national legislation to regulate AI use takes form. Brad Carson, who heads Public First Action, a nonprofit organization with several PACs, said he’s seen more bills introduced and discussion around AI legislation, especially as concerns about the capabilities and risks of powerful AI models like Mythos and Claude Fable have come into the spotlight. While any legislation is unlikely to cross the finish line this year, given the limited number of days lawmakers are in session, both parties have signaled AI will continue to be a priority in coming years. “They have a lot of benefits. They have a lot of dangers. And you can’t just release them into the wild with no government concern,” Carson told CNBC. “Everybody from the right to the left, from pro-Trump to anti-Trump recognizes that.”

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State Stories

Mayor Whitmire: No Houston police involvement in fatal ICE shooting

More than 24 hours after a federal immigration enforcement officer fatally shot a man in Houston, Mayor John Whitmire said the Houston Police Department was not involved in the incident. "I wish it was something that we just didn't have to deal with, but I do recognize the good training of HPD and the policies of Chief [Noe] Diaz that there was no involvement of HPD," he said during a city council meeting on Wednesday. In his first public remarks on the shooting, Whitmire also labeled the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as "brought to us by our federal officials," calling for communication with the Texas congressional delegation.

Whitmire also spoke about a "chase that ICE was involved in" two days prior that did not involve the Houston Police Department. On Tuesday, an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Houston resident whom federal authorities have said was a Mexican citizen without legal status in the U.S. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security alleged he was attempting to evade arrest and "weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer." The shooting has sparked an outcry from immigration advocacy organizations and elected officials. Other Houston City Council members spoke about the shooting on Wednesday, with some calling for an independent investigation of what led up to the shooting and how ICE responded to it. Council member Joaquin Martinez, who serves the East End area where the shooting took place, stressed that HPD was not involved in the shooting, saying it is "important to ensure that we're not conflating the two [agencies]."

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Women share surrogacy stories as Texas lawmakers weigh new regulations

A Texas Senate committee hearing Wednesday centered on examining the potential exploitation of surrogacy in Texas and was met with mixed responses as women shared personal stories with lawmakers. The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services took up an interim charge from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, which asked state senators to, "examine the unethical and foreign interests exploiting the surrogacy and fertility industries in Texas." Public testimony included women who have had children through surrogacy. "When I look at my son, I see the greatest blessing in my life. A deeply loved, little Texas boy whose life was made possible through ethical gestational surrogacy," Miriam Shahab told lawmakers during a public comment period on Wednesday.

Shahab explained she and her husband used surrogacy after learning she would be unable to carry a child herself. Women who served as surrogates themselves also shared stories about why they chose to do so, and urged lawmakers to consider the impacts of any future regulation. "I am here because I watched my sister struggle with infertility for years," Whitney Scheibner, a gestational surrogate, told lawmakers. "I ask that any future legislation be narrowly tailored to address exploitation while preserving access to safe, ethical fertility treatment." Another former surrogate, Christian Ross, shared a much different experience with the committee. She explained that after contracting with a surrogacy agency in California, she became pregnant with a donor embryo belonging to a foreign couple. She said she was misled about who the couple was, however, and the child ended up in the foster care system in England. "It ruined my life, and likely, that baby's life as well," Ross said.

Read this article at CBS Austin - Subscribers Only

Employee of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo detained at Conroe ICE facility

A 43-year-old worker from Houston was one of multiple employees who were taken into custody after an ICE agent shot and killed a man from Mexico in Magnolia Park on Tuesday, according to family members and an immigration attorney. Daniel Tirado Pantoja was one of the workers detained after the shooting that killed his boss Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, his attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said. U.S. officials have described the shooting as an act of self-defense after Araujo allegedly rammed an ICE vehicle following an attempted traffic stop and tried running over an officer.

Family members have rejected any notion that the shooting was warranted, and local leaders have pressed for an independent investigation. "They were just men going to work to provide for their families," Tirado's stepdaughter Juana Degollado said. "That's all they were doing. They were not committing any crimes." Monserrat Cardoso, the stepdaughter of Tirado, told the Houston Chronicle Tuesday that she believes ICE agents racially profiled the men when they attempted to pull them over. “They just saw a couple of Hispanic men going to work, so they decided to chase them down and follow them,” she said. “They were targeted because they're Hispanic men.” Degollado, a 27-year-old Houstonian, said Tirado has lived in Texas for 30 years, had a clean record and was in the process of getting his green card. He's been married to her mother for 12 years and has a teenage son who's a U.S. citizen, she said. He's now in custody at ICE's Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Balderas-Ibarra said. He he hopes to visit Tirado on Wednesday and believes his arrest constituted racial profiling.

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One of Austin's best restaurants, Michelin-starred Olamaie, to close

One of Austin’s most celebrated restaurants of the 21st century will soon turn out its lights permanently. Olamaie, the Southern fine dining restaurant from chef-owner Michael Fojtasek will serve its final meal on July 19.

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Commissioner Brett Yormark has intense interaction with Texas Tech media member at Big 12 media days

The Big 12 kicked off media days for the 2026 college football season in the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Tuesday. To open Big 12 Media Days, commissioner Brett Yormark delivered a 15-minute address about the state of the conference heading into the 2026 football season. Some highlights included the announcement of a partnership with Monster Energy that includes jersey patches and on-field logos, and the reiteration of his stance on College Football Playoff expansion and sports gambling. Following the address, Yormark fielded questions from media members regarding items in his address and other topics of importance across the Big 12. Sean Dillon of Rockin' Pregame asked Yormark a question about the league's treatment of Texas Tech over the last year, which evolved into an intense altercation between the two.

"Let me come closer, stand up. Ask that question again, and I'm going to give you the answer I want to give you," Yormark told Dillon. "Texas Tech got fined for tortillas, and tortillas were banned outright," Dillon repeated. "Oklahoma State has paddles that were given a noisemaker exemption back in 2012. (Brendan) Sorsby never played a snap for the Red Raiders, and yet there's a lawsuit. Cincinnati has yet to be touched. You're selling "greater than 12," why should Texas Tech fans believe it?" "No, I didn't say greater than 12, you misquoted me," Yormark responded. "I said we're going forward as 16 strong, and that's my answer to your question, but thank you for that question." Texas Tech is being painted as a new villain by many in college athletics. Now that paying for players is fully legal and players can transfer at will, Texas Tech is taking full advantage of the resources it possesses. Billionaire oil CEO and Red Raiders booster Cody Campbell is using the transfer portal to assemble the best teams possible, creating a competitive advantage no other Big 12 program boasts. The second incident Dillon referred to involved the Red Raiders' efforts to circumvent the coming NCAA punishment of quarterback Brendan Sorsby for his gambling habits, which the Big 12 sued them over in June. In addition to the lawsuit, other Big 12 athletics directors threatened to not play Texas Tech if Sorsby remained on the team. The Sorsby incident is not isolated; Yormark and Texas Tech have quarreled over other matters in the past year. In April, Campbell and Yormark got into a social media spat over the league's decision to schedule Texas Tech's game against Houston on a Friday night, a night that is important for the state's rich high school football tradition. Yormark responded to Campbell's complaint by saying Campbell does not control the Big 12. That provoked a response from Campbell that involved bringing back the banned tortilla-throwing tradition that the Big 12 banned in October of 2025.

Read this article at Sports Illustrated - Subscribers Only

One of Austin's best restaurants, Michelin-starred Olamaie, to close

One of Austin’s most celebrated restaurants of the 21st century will soon turn out its lights permanently. Olamaie, the Southern fine dining restaurant from chef-owner Michael Fojtasek will serve its final meal on July 19. The only restaurant named No. 1 in the city by the American-Statesman on three separate occasions (first in 2017) was the first Southern restaurant in America to earn a Michelin star, joining six other Austin restaurants that received stars in the influential food guide’s inaugural 2024 Texas edition.

“I'm sad. I'm incredibly grateful to everyone that's come through those doors and for all the contributions. When you open a restaurant, you want to accomplish all these things, you want to live forever and making it 12 years is pretty impressive,” Fojtasek said. "I'm really proud of this team and what we’ve accomplished." Dallas native Fojtasek, who returned to Austin to open Olamaie with co-executive chef Grae Nonas in 2014, after working in celebrated restaurants in New York City and Los Angeles, said the economics of running the restaurant in a difficult Austin market became untenable. He pointed to the dreadfully slow summer months — Olamaie’s sales are currently down 40% from March — as one of the biggest challenges. “I think everybody's out of town, especially the people who can afford to dine in the types of restaurants we're talking about,” Fojtasek said, referring to upmarket restaurants like his. “It’s been a hard business forever. I think that the general population thinks the more expensive things are, the better the margins are, and unfortunately, the more expensive things are, oftentimes the margins are worse.”

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

One state under whose God?

If Texas is, as its pledge of allegiance states, “one state under God,” this begs a question. What God? Whose God? For many Texans, it’s undoubtedly the Christian God, because (so they say) we’re a Christian nation. They can point, for instance, to the 190-foot-tall “Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ” near the Panhandle town of Groom, or the Ten Commandments monument recently installed at the Tarrant County Courthouse in my hometown of Fort Worth. (Not to mention the Ten Commandments poster now required to be displayed in Texas public school classrooms.) But that’s far from the only answer.

Last year, my spouse Eleanor and I traveled to Houston to visit the multifaith Rothko Chapel. We also stopped by the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in nearby Sugar Land to check out the recently erected statue of the Hindu god Hanuman. Truly Texas-sized at 90 feet of shimmering bronze, it’s breathtaking. And just up the road, at a Buddhist temple, stands a slightly less gargantuan statue of Quan Am, the “Goddess of Compassion,” 72 feet tall. During our visit, Eleanor and I rubbed shoulders with South Asian and East Asian Texans and visitors from overseas, drawn to these spectacular icons of religious devotion. Attracted by economic opportunity, Asian Texans have brought their religions with them—just as the Spanish brought Catholicism in the 1500s and Anglo-Americans imported Protestant denominations after independence from Mexico. Yet when we arrived at the Sri Ashtalakshmi gates, we had to stop and have our trunk inspected by a security guard. The temple, we learned, had ramped up security in the face of hostility from local Christians. A pastor had proclaimed Hanuman a “demon god,” and ex-Senate candidate Alexander Duncan asked on X why “a false statue of a false Hindu god [is allowed] to be here in Texas? We are a CHRISTIAN nation.” Of course, there’s a simple and very American answer to Duncan’s question: religious liberty, constitutionally guaranteed. But that apparently makes little difference to those who embrace what University of North Texas historian Joseph L. Locke terms “militant Christian faith.”

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Mark Cuban goes to court for records on Dallas Mavericks' Valley View arena deal

Mark Cuban has taken his increasingly public dispute with Dallas Mavericks majority owner Patrick Dumont to court, accusing his business partner of shutting him out of the team's plans for a new arena and other lucrative development opportunities. A new court filing alleges Dumont engaged in “adversarial business practices” and asks a Dallas County judge to force the Mavericks' ownership to disclose details about its planned Valley View arena development, financing and corporate structure. Cuban believes he still has a right to be involved in the Mavericks’ business opportunities, despite selling his majority stake in the team to Miriam Adelson and Dumont, her son-in-law, the filing shows.

The billionaire businessman filed a petition in Dallas County this week to review the contract to buy the former Valley View mall site to build a new basketball arena. Cuban also requests details on how the arena project will be financed and to see the corporate structure behind the team’s real estate deal. The Adelson and Dumont families declined to comment. Cuban’s attorneys also did not respond to a request for comment. Cuban’s petition escalates what has been more than two years of dysfunction between the Mavericks’ largest shareholders and possibly complicates the team’s plans to build an arena at the site. The court filing details Cuban’s allegations, including what he called Dumont’s push to “gain leverage” over the Dallas Stars to seek control of the American Airlines Center. Cuban said Dumont’s dealings also shut him out of any development opportunities related to a new arena or casino development.

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In major move, Fort Worth Zoning Commission votes against data center restrictions

After a discussion that lasted more than two hours, the Fort Worth Zoning Commission voted 7-4 at its July 8 meeting to recommend denial of a sweeping and controversial proposal that would bring data centers into the city’s zoning code and establish development standards for them. The proposed zoning rules are part of a larger package of rule changes aimed at protecting residents from the potential impact of data centers, while still ensuring the city can capture some of the economic benefit of new development. The Fort Worth City Council is expected to weigh both the zoning rules at its meeting on Aug. 11 after council members received a briefing on the proposal from Fort Worth Assistant City Manager Jesica McEachern in June.

The proposed zoning rule changes include prohibiting cryptocurrency mining and changing certain development standards. Commissioners took issue with several aspects of the proposal, including that 250-foot setback, language that would allow data centers in all of Fort Worth’s industrial zoning districts, and considered whether it was simply too soon for them to make a sound decision. Several hours after the meeting began, as the sun began to sink toward the horizon, commissioner Jacob Wurman raised his hand for a point of order. “We spent four months deliberating the Stockyards amendments, and we’re going to do this in five minutes,” Wurman said. “I do feel like we’re being asked to do this rather quickly … it just feels a little bit under the gun.” Commissioners weighed voting to continue the item to a later meeting to allow more time to process the information presented by McEachern and residents who spoke, but ultimately voted to deny recommending that the city council approve the proposal.

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North Texas AI boom fuels electrician shortage

Dalton Andrews is wiring his way into North Texas’ AI future one motor control board at a time. Inside CEC Facilities’ apprenticeship school in Irving, the 31-year-old electrical apprentice walks through a control panel he built for a statewide skills competition, tracing wires and relays as if explaining his own career pivot from odd jobs into one of the region’s fastest-growing trades. CEC Facilities, an electrical contractor that builds infrastructure for data centers and other large industrial projects, created CEC University to train the electricians.

North Texas’ race to build AI infrastructure is colliding with a shortage of skilled workers. Economists and business leaders warn labor shortages in skilled trades could hinder North Texas’ ability to expand data centers and advanced manufacturing capacity fast enough to meet demand. The Texas Workforce Commission projects the Dallas, Tarrant and North Central workforce regions will need nearly 3,000 additional electricians by 2032, a roughly 15% increase from 2026 staffing levels. In the Dallas region alone, the state projects roughly 1,035 electrician openings annually, driven less by explosive growth than by retirements and worker turnover. The shortage extends beyond electricians. Welders, HVAC technicians, plumbers and other skilled trades are also needed to build and maintain North Texas' fast-growing infrastructure economy, contractors and workforce leaders say. Data centers, semiconductor plants and advanced manufacturing campuses all require large numbers of specialized workers. Yet older workers are retiring faster than younger people are entering the field. "This boom is definitely increasing the demand for craft workers within the industry," said Matt Terry, president of construction at Dallas-based TDIndustries. "The core of that business is heavy mechanical, heavy electrical, and heavy controls." Terry said data centers and other high-tech industrial projects require large numbers of pipe fitters, welders, plumbers and HVAC specialists, intensifying what has long been a shortage of experienced craft workers. Companies are responding by expanding apprenticeships, internships and partnerships with schools to recruit and train the next generation of tradespeople.

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Tarrant County reports cases of foodborne parasite causing explosive diarrhea

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating cluster cases of a parasitic illness across 17 states, including Texas. Tarrant County has reported fewer than five cases of the sickness, called cyclosporiasis, this year. The illness is caused by eating food or drinking water that may have feces in it. When ingested, the parasite causes explosive diarrhea that lasts roughly one week but can last up to a month. Symptoms may seem to subside and then return one or more times. While cyclosporiasis may cause hospitalization, it is not considered life-threatening.

Typically, the parasite is acquired by people who ate or drank water outside the U.S., but 100 of the 145 nationally documented instances were people who had not recently travelled out of the country. Kennedy Sam, a spokesperson for the Tarrant County Public Health Department, said none of the reports received over the past month seem to be connected to an outbreak. “Cases of foodborne illnesses like cyclospora often increase during the summer, so we encourage residents to wash their hands with soap and water before handling or preparing food, and to thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables before cooking or eating,” Sam said. “We advise anyone experiencing symptoms of foodborne illness to contact their healthcare provider for guidance.” According to the CDC, Texas has between 11 and 30 known cases. New York, which has the most reported cases, has seen between 31 and 80 cyclosporiasis instances.

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Texas looksmaxxing influencer Connor Murphy drowns after jumping in lake to avoid cops: reports

Texas looksmaxxing influencer Connor Michael Murphy has drowned in Thailand after he was seen acting erratically and jumping in a lake to avoid cops, according to local reports. Murphy — who has 2.36 million subscribers on YouTube — was pulled from a lake Tuesday near his rental home in Samut Prakan, around 16 miles south of Bangkok, the Bangkok Post reported. The 32-year-old self-proclaimed “giga chad,” or alpha-male, had earlier sparked alarm with his erratic behavior as he argued with a security guard at the estate, according to the report.

The chiselled content creator tried to flag down a car to get a ride, but the guard told the driver not to let him into the vehicle. Murphy then shouted at the guard and rolled on the ground — then fled the scene when cops arrived. He then jumped into the 32-foot-deep lake before disappearing under the water, according to local media. Divers searched the water for around 30 minutes before finding his body around 66 feet from the bank. There were no signs of assault and investigators suspect he died from drowning, the reports stressed. His 22-year-old girlfriend said she had no idea what caused the outburst — but claimed he had previously splattered paint in the property while she was sleeping. The furniture and decor had been damaged, Thai outlet ThaiRath reported. Murphy had been renting the home for around two months. He last posted on YouTube six days before his death, where he claimed he was “absorbing the spirit of Elon.” He previously uploaded a video titled, “A Day in the Looksmaxxing Life of Mandibleus Zygomidus,” which racked up just shy of 120,000 views. Just last month, he shared a now-chilling video where he was “mirin the view” from the rental home, which overlooked the lake. The US Embassy in Thailand has reportedly been notified of his death.

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National Stories

Trump declares Iran ceasefire 'over.' So what happens now?

President Donald Trump says he believes the ceasefire with Iran is over. He says he’s not sure he wants a deal anymore and says the U.S. should “finish the job.” But he also insists that continued attacks do not mean a return to war or long-term action. The confusion and uncertainty in Trump’s mixed messaging and his approval of back-to-back military strikes leave major questions about what comes next in the conflict, just weeks after difficult diplomacy to reach even an initial deal between the longtime adversaries. The whipsawing rhetoric could be a strategy to increase the pressure on Tehran to stop attacking ships transporting oil and natural gas in the Strait of Hormuz and bend to U.S. demands on its nuclear program — something Trump has tried before.

Whether it is a negotiation tactic or a signal of an escalation in fighting, mediators are scrambling to save the interim deal and the actions risk further inflaming tensions — which could spell problems for Republicans in November’s midterm elections if gas prices stay high. Trump warned Wednesday that a new round of U.S. attacks was coming, even as he attempted to shrug off suggestions of a return to full-scale war. Hours later, the military announced it was carrying out new attacks on Iran that were meant to “further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.” “Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” Trump said earlier. “We’re not looking for a long time.” A regional intelligence official involved in the mediation efforts said the conflict had reached a critical stage as mutual mistrust rises. But high-level communications are happening around the clock to salvage the ceasefire, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate behind-the-scenes negotiations.

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Security precaution led Trump to use old Air Force One in leaving Turkey

President Trump flew out of Turkey on Wednesday night on the old Air Force One instead of his new Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8 as a security precaution related to the resumption of hostilities with Iran, according to people briefed on the plans, who said the change came at the urging of the Secret Service. The swap deepens questions about whether the new plane, which the president had pressed to be ready as soon as possible, was retrofitted with sufficient security measures over the last year. Lawmakers and some officials have raised concerns about whether the expedited timeline allowed for the addition of an advanced missile defense system and other modifications used to protect the president. In a statement, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said that “the new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.”

“As the president has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal — including distraction and misdirection — to address those threats,” he added. But people briefed on the new plane’s capabilities, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, said the new plane does not have all the features of the older plane. The switch in the president’s aircraft when he departed Turkey was a precautionary measure made at the advice of the Secret Service and not because of a specific threat, they said. Mr. Trump, who has marveled at the luxury touches of his new jet, flew on it on Monday night to go to Turkey for a NATO summit. After his arrival, the conflict with Iran reignited, and the United States launched a series of strikes against that country while Mr. Trump and NATO leaders were about 1,000 miles away in Ankara.

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DOJ issues nationwide threat to prosecute local election officials

The Department of Justice sent a letter to dozens of state and local election officials threatening to prosecute them if any noncitizens are found to have voted in the upcoming midterms, sharply escalating the Trump administration’s attacks on local election oversight across the country. The letter was signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, a staunch Trump ally who is serving as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights division. It’s the latest in a series of attempts by President Donald Trump’s administration to exert control over state-run elections.

Trump has pushed for Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID verification when voters cast their ballots. The SAVE America Act received bipartisan pushback from lawmakers and is currently at a standstill in the Senate because it lacks the support needed to advance the bill. The president’s efforts to crackdown on states’ administration of elections have also faced multiple courtroom losses, which prompted Department of Homeland Security officials to consider using grant funding allocated to states — and the threat of withholding it — to “advance core national security priorities.” “Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s SVRL [State Voter Registration List] or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability,” Dhillon wrote in the letter. It’s unclear how many officials were targeted by the administration. Election workers have five days to respond to the Justice Department with plans to comply with the federal, state and local election laws. The Justice Department confirmed in a statement that it sent letters to officials of all states and Washington, D.C., “asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections.”

Read this article at NOTUS - Subscribers Only

How Northern Virginia became ‘Data Center Alley’

“Faithful Servant, now at Peace,” reads one heart-shaped headstone in Tippets Hill Cemetery. But in the background of this final resting place, there is an incessant whirring sound and a shrill beep that blares again and again. That’s because the small, historically Black burial ground in Loudoun County, Virginia, is surrounded on all sides by data centers. The cemetery’s few parking spaces had construction vehicles parked in them when NOTUS visited in early June. The cemetery — and Northern Virginia at large — didn’t always look like this. At the turn of the century, there were a handful of data center campuses in Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties — a region now known as data center alley.

Today, those counties are home to more than 300 data centers. Almost 200 more are expected to go up in the coming years. Loudoun specifically has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. But that title may be in jeopardy. Public sentiment towards data centers has soured, with opponents pointing to rising household utility bills and environmental concerns. Politicians are weighing how to balance constituent demands with a behemoth industry those same constituents rely on for cloud computing and county revenue. “Virginia has our biggest concentration, but as the old saying says, ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,’” a senior executive at a data center company told NOTUS. “Based on what happened this year, it’s further emphasis that we clearly have to spread our business around. Our customers are going to be looking for the lowest cost of occupancy — that’s just math.” A big part of Northern Virginia’s appeal is its geography. Loudoun County’s proximity to D.C., CIA headquarters and the Pentagon made it an early hot spot for the technology contractors that intelligence agencies and the military have increasingly depended on since World War II, said Ali Fard, an assistant architecture professor at the University of Virginia who wrote a book about “grounding” cloud computing.

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Judge orders E. Jean Carroll be paid $5.8 million from Trump case

The writer E. Jean Carroll can collect $5.8 million held in escrow since a jury found that President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed her, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed but were denied an emergency order to block the payment from being made. Trump deposited the money in an account shortly after a jury ruled against him in 2023. The U.S. Supreme Court recently let the civil verdict stand, clearing the way for Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to release the money. The initial $5 million award has grown with interest. The jury found Trump attacked Carroll in 1996 in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store, and defamed her after she described it publicly in a 2019 memoir, during his first term as president. Trump called her allegations false and said “ she’s not my type ” in an interview.

Trump’s lawyers said Wednesday they would continue to appeal and accused his political opponents of using the legal system against him. They argued in appellate papers that Kaplan’s decision shouldn’t be allowed to take effect because Trump has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. Late Wednesday, Judge Eunice C. Lee of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their request to stop the money from being transferred to Carroll. “It is time for this case to come to an end,” Carroll’s lawyers wrote in a filing with the appellate court. “Carroll has waited more than three years for a jury’s verdict to be paid,” they wrote. “She should not have to wait any longer.” The jury had reached its verdict — in a trial that Trump did not attend — after Carroll testified that their flirtatious and friendly chance encounter at the department store turned violent. Trump insisted he never knew Carroll, now 82, a former advice columnist. He accused her of trying to sell books at his expense and of having political motives. Carroll sued Trump after New York changed its laws to give sexual abuse survivors a fresh chance to sue over attacks that happened in the distant past. Trump “has been stalling this case for years,” Kaplan wrote in a memorandum detailing his decision. “It is time for him to ‘do equity’ and pay the judgment.”

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To justify his arch, Trump cites a 1925 plan. That vision was very different.

President Donald Trump wants to build a towering triumphal arch at Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout tucked inside Washington’s boundaries, arguing that it carries out a century-old congressional vision for the site. “People pass that circle, they say, why isn’t something built here?” Trump said in the Oval Office in May. The plan Congress authorized in 1925 called for a new bridge spanning the Potomac River and a pair of columns at its westward side, near where Memorial Circle is today. The bridge was built, but the columns never were. “This large empty space directly contradicts the original vision,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is helping oversee the project, told a federal commission reviewing the proposed arch designs in April.

The Justice Department has also repeatedly argued that Congress’s past support for columns gives them authority to build a structure there now. “Neither the underlying Congressional authorization to build the columns — nor the discretion to modify column design — have expired,” Trump administration lawyers wrote in a court filing last month. The National Capital Planning Commission, a federal agency reviewing the project, is set to review and potentially approve the administration’s arch plans in a hearing Thursday. But the 166-foot-tall columns that Trump and his deputies cite to press their case differ significantly from the 250-foot-tall monument they plan to construct, which would more dramatically alter pedestrians’ views and reshape the historic skyline near the Lincoln Memorial. The century-old discussions and plans “are now being used as some sort of justification for the monumental arch,” Priya Jain, who chairs the heritage conservation committee at the Society of Architectural Historians, said last month at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission. “But historic renderings and descriptions show clearly how materially different they are,” Jain added.

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A Florida airport is officially renamed for Trump. What does he stand to gain?

It's official: President Donald J. Trump International Airport is open for business. The South Florida facility was called Palm Beach International Airport for over half a century until Thursday, when a months-old state law took effect, adding the airport to the growing list of places and things that now bear President Trump's name. Trump flies in and out of this airport relatively often, as it's mere miles from his oceanfront estate, Mar-a-Lago. The lifelong New Yorker declared Palm Beach his permanent residence in 2019, and travels there regularly from the White House. More than 8 million passengers fly through its airport each year, on over a dozen airlines.

"Florida, get ready to take the exit for President Donald J. Trump International Airport," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on X earlier this week, alongside a photo of an updated airport sign on the interstate. Separately, a 4-mile stretch of the main road linking Mar-a-Lago to the airport was renamed for Trump in January. The Federal Aviation Administration authorized the name change to take effect Thursday, meaning it now officially identifies the airport as "DJT" instead of "PBI." The airport said in an online FAQ that the transition — including updates to signage, branding and public-facing materials — "will occur in phases." For example, passengers should still search "PBI" when booking flights and checking bags, until the International Air Transport Association (IATA) code changes on August 18. The airport says ownership and operations will not be affected, describing it as a "branding change only."

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How Mitch McConnell’s absence complicates the Senate’s business and war funding

Sen. Mitch McConnell’s current health condition and ongoing absence threatens to complicate the U.S. Senate’s return to business next week. Congress is returning from recess on Monday and faces a limited number of days left before the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government for fiscal year 2027. McConnell (R-Kentucky) plays a crucial role as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Republicans and Democrats on the committee have been at a stalemate that began over disagreements about defense funding. If the two sides can’t come to an agreement, Republicans will likely need McConnell’s support to advance any spending bills out of the committee amid Democratic opposition.

The Trump administration has requested Congress provide an additional $87.6 billion in supplemental funding for the Pentagon and other agencies, largely to cover needs related to the war with Iran, which reignited this week. McConnell, 84, leads the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over that military spending. He has not cast a vote on the Senate floor since June 11. He was admitted to the hospital on June 14. While members of Senate leadership said they have since spoken to him, McConnell’s office has offered limited details about his condition and he has not been seen publicly. Democrats have refused to support the increase in defense funding Republicans have put forward without a comparable boost for domestic programs. That disagreement is part of the reason the committee, which normally advances these measures on a bipartisan basis, has not yet advanced any legislation for fiscal year 2027.

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Lead Stories

Ken Paxton vowed to crack down on “illegal voting.” He may have violated Texas election law.

Two weeks before this year’s primary elections, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the creation of a tip line for the public to report people or groups suspected of voter fraud. “Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of a thriving republic, and with the authority granted to my office by the Legislature, we will stop at nothing to uncover and stop any illegal voting activity,” Paxton said in a February news release announcing the tip line. The announcement linked to guidance from his office about election laws in Texas, which included a requirement to be a U.S. citizen, a prohibition on collecting mail ballots on behalf of others and a warning that “it is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records or to establish a residence for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election.”

“You must register to vote using the address where you reside,” the attorney general’s guidance stated. Despite his own warnings, Paxton appears to have used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years, including in May’s runoff that made him the Republican nominee for U.S. senator, according to records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. State Sen. Angela Paxton said in a 2025 divorce filing that Paxton, whom she accused of adultery, moved out of their Collin County home a year earlier. But Paxton continues to list the home’s address in the northern Dallas suburb on his voter registration. Angela Paxton declined to be interviewed. A source close to the Paxtons said the attorney general has not moved back into the home since leaving. It is unclear where Paxton has lived for the past two years, but reporting by ProPublica and the Tribune has linked him to a home in neighboring Denton County since February. Three election lawyers told the news organizations that Paxton may have violated the same Texas laws his office cautioned about in its news release. ProPublica and the Tribune reached out to Paxton’s campaign on June 3, 15 and 25, asking why he remained registered to vote in Collin County when he appeared to no longer live there and about his connection to the Denton County property.

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Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's son speaks on ICE deadly shooting in Houston

The son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Houston, issued a statement on social media Tuesday night, saying "my father did not deserve this." Earlier that morning, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot the Mexican citizen in the city's Magnolia Park neighborhood after he allegedly refused multiple commands and tried to run over an officer in his car, an agency spokesperson said. They alleged Araujo was trying to evade arrest during a "targeted enforcement operation." "My father, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a hardworking Mexican man, was the man killed this morning by ICE in the East End," Ronaldo Salgado said on Facebook.

"My father has been in this country for nearly 35 years, working in construction to provide for myself, my two brothers, and my mother. He was in the process of obtaining his work permit through the legal process. He was on his way to work, picking up his workers. My father did not deserve this. Please respect my family's privacy during this time. There are a lot of videos and pictures out there of my father's final moments that I do not wish to see." Araujo's death has been followed by calls for an investigation into the shooting by advocates, local leaders and community members. Some have compared the shooting to Renee Good's death in Minneapolis when an ICE officer shot at her for allegedly attempting to drive over him in her car. Salgado said he will speak Wednesday at 10 a.m. at a news conference at the Greater Coalition for Justice at 150 West Parker Road in Houston.

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Reitz slated to be next US Attorney in Texas’ Southern District

Aaron Reitz, a former Trump administration official and top lawyer for the state of Texas, is set to be the next US attorney for the Southern District of Texas. Reitz has been chosen to lead the office, sources familiar with the move told Bloomberg Law on Tuesday. He will replace current acting US Attorney John Marck, who was confirmed June 24 as a federal judge in McAllen, Texas. The Southern District of Texas is anchored by Houston and includes a large area covering the state’s southern border. Reitz, a partner at Hance Scarborough LLP in Austin, didn’t respond to a request for comment

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Gov. Greg Abbott directs state agency to investigate South Texas hospital over birth tourism

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday directed the state’s health and human services commission to investigate whether a South Texas medical facility is advertising to attract international patients who want to give birth in the U.S. “American citizenship is not for sale and Texas will not permit our healthcare system to be used as a magnet for birth tourism,” Abbott said in the letter addressed to Stephanie Muth, the executive commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The commission has referred the matter to the agency's inspector general, said spokesman James Rivera.

Birth tourism is the idea that pregnant women are traveling to the U.S. to give birth so their children receive U.S. citizenship. The letter asks the commission to look into Mission Regional Medical Center in Mission, Texas, after reports surfaced on social media last week that the medical facility ran advertisements in Spanish showing how much it would cost to deliver a baby at the hospital. Kathleen Avila, spokesperson for Mission Regional Medical Center, said in an email Tuesday that to eliminate any “unintended misunderstanding,” the advertising material is no longer being used. The hospital will cooperate with local and state officials, she added. “Like hospitals across the country and throughout the region, we share information about the healthcare services we provide,” Avila said. “We do not support or facilitate any unlawful activity and work to comply with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations.”

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State Stories

Petition seeks removal of Cheryl Bean from school board after offensive posts

More than 1,100 people have signed a petition seeking the resignation of a Texas House candidate as the chair of a fine arts charter school after she posted a racially coded meme last week. On July 1, Republican Cheryl Bean posted on Facebook an AI-generated illustration of WNBA player Sophie Cunningham on a boat with her Indiana Fever teammates, posing similarly to the “Washington Crossing the Delaware” painting. In the image, Cunningham is pointing forward, referencing a June 22 game when she pointed dramatically at Phoenix Mercury player DeWanna Bonner after a physical altercation with Cunningham’s teammate Caitlin Clark. Bean is running for House District 94 and is the board chair of the Texas Center for Arts and Academics, which governs two public charter schools, one in Fort Worth.

By 11:30 a.m. July 1 the post was deleted. Bean did not respond to questions from the Star Telegram. The petition on change.org was started on July 5. The petition cites a pattern of offensive posts from Bean. “When the individual serving as Board Chair publicly shares or amplifies content that many members of the community reasonably perceive as discriminatory or demeaning toward protected groups, confidence in the Board’s ability to provide fair, inclusive, and ethical leadership is compromised,” the petition said. It continued: ”For these reasons, we respectfully call upon Cheryl Bean to resign as Chair of the Texas Center for Arts + Academics Board of Directors and from the Board entirely. If she chooses not to resign, we call upon the TCAA Board of Directors to take appropriate action to remove her from her position as Chair and from the Board entirely, and to ensure its leadership reflects the standards of respect, accountability, integrity, and inclusion expected by the students, families, educators, and community it serves.”

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Defense lawyer charged with murder after fatal shooting in Houston

A criminal defense attorney was charged Monday with murder after he told authorities he shot a former client during a confrontation, according to court records. Michael Driver, 45, is accused of shooting Jesse Reyes in the 1600 block of Vassar Street in Boulevard Oaks on June 27. Driver called police to report the shooting and flagged down officers arriving at the home. Driver told police that he shot Reyes, 48, whom he described as his roommate and body guard, during a fight, court records show. Three veteran defense attorneys representing Driver — Dick DeGuerin, Jed Silverman and Neal Davis — characterized the shooting as self-defense.

Driver previously represented Reyes in a criminal case stemming from allegations that Reyes wielded a gun during a March home break-in, Davis said. Driver withdrew from the case in May, court records show. Reyes, a tattoo artist, also lived at the Vassar Street property, according to his financial affidavit. The two men had been friends for several years when they got into an argument at the home, Davis said, adding that Reyes owned the weapon, not Driver. Jules Johnson, the attorney who took over Reyes' case, said his client appeared dismayed by Driver's decision to step down. Driver is due in court Wednesday. Driver is the brother of a Harris County prosecutor, Stephen Driver, who is running for a criminal court judicial seat as a Republican. Harris County prosecutors previously recused themselves from handling a misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charge against Michael Driver in 2019 after disclosing that he had a relative in their office. The case was later dismissed. The state is expected to hand the case over to Fort Bend County prosecutors to handle in their place because of the same conflict. Ahead of that decision, prosecutors filed paperwork to hold a hearing to deny Michael Driver's bail, citing his criminal history that consists of three misdemeanor charges from May 2023 in Austin.

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'There's no path to fix this' | State lawmakers gearing up for new attempt to ban consumable THC products

State lawmakers appear to be gearing up to take another run at cracking down on THC in consumable hemp products. The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services met on Tuesday to listen to testimony about THC, mental health and homelessness services. THC is the chemical in marijuana that gets users high. Small amounts of it are in consumable hemp, which has become a booming industry in this state. The 2025 legislative session was dominated by a monthslong fight over efforts to rein in the industry. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wanted to ban the sale of consumable hemp products with THC. State lawmakers passed a bill doing so, but Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed it, citing concerns about its constitutionality, and put it on the call for both special sessions. However, state lawmakers could not agree on what to do, so they gaveled out in September without taking any action.

On Tuesday, State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), who carried Senate Bill 3 in 2025, said he does not believe there is a path to regulate THC other than to truly eliminate it. Hemp products are widely sold across Texas in a range of forms, from oils to edibles, often marketed for health and wellness. Perry said he plans to file a bill to ban the products in 2027. "I don't want to see another family with a kid in the basement that's not articulate because they drank a THC beverage, or they smoked something from a vape that they didn't know what was in it, or it's 100 times what it was supposed to be,” Perry said. “There's nothing good from this stuff. There's no virtue in it." Perry said he is at the point where he does not believe taxpayers can't afford the cost of the issues he says come from THC. “We're at our breaking point financially. I'm at my breaking point from a conscience level,” Perry said. “I don't know, as a society, how we can allow this stuff to perpetuate itself in the name of profit. I don't know how these industries live with themselves, or look at themselves in the mirror every day, knowing what they're doing.”

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Data center dismay: 800 residents back petition to remove Granbury city officials

Citizens of Granbury presented a petition with over 800 signatures to Granbury City Council members Tuesday night, calling for a vote of confidence to remove the city manager and city attorney. The petition came on the heels of a controversy regarding the rezoning of the Knox Ranch land to industrial for a data center. City Manager Chris Coffman and City Attorney Jeremy SoRelle were unaware of the petition until it was presented at the meeting. Jacob Herbold, a resident of Granbury and organizer of the petition said it does not only call for the removal of Coffman and SoRelle but also of all council members but Angela Parker. They are requesting the removal because of the City Council members’ choice to vote yes on the rezoning of the Knox Ranch land.

Herbold said that they knew that Coffman wasn’t being transparent about what the land would be used for, and they still voted yes. Daniel Piatt, the first of the citizens presenting the petition to speak, noted some of the concerns in the petition regarding “documented contradictions” about the Knox Ranch annexation and Project Patriot. In January the city annexed Knox Ranch, which straddles Meadow Road. Piatt said that when the land was originally annexed in January the city acted like it didn’t know what it would be used for, but then documents showed that Coffman had been working with the Project Patriot. The Project Patriot is a power plant/data center project from the Dallas-based Bilateral Energy LLC. In July, Bilateral Energy received a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to build the power plant, according to previous Star-Telegeram reporting.

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Texas Gov. Abbott creates 'teacher-driven' commission to improve public education

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is creating a new commission meant to guide public education in the state. The Texas Classroom Commission will be made up of current and retired teachers and tasked with developing recommendations ahead of the 2027 legislative session for classroom instruction, teacher support and educational outcomes. “Texas teachers know what their students need to succeed," Abbott said in a statement announcing the new commission Tuesday. “The Texas Classroom Commission will bring together exemplary public school educators to identify innovative solutions that help students succeed, improve the learning environment in classrooms, and strengthen our schools."

Abbott named former Dallas and Richardson ISD math educator Courtney Boswell MacDonald to run the “teacher-led initiative.” She currently chairs the State Board for Educator Certification. Abbott said the goal of putting teachers at the center of shaping the future of public education will “ build on Texas’ success and ensure our state becomes the national leader in the education of our kids..” In a statement, Mary Lynn Pruneda, director of education and workforce policy at the research policy group Texas 2036, called the commission a “critical opportunity to learn from and partner with educators” to get more students reading and doing math at grade level. Recent results from the state’s standardized STAAR tests showed high schoolers made gains across subjects, but reading scores for students in middle and elementary schools have stalled.

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Season 3 of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is its best

They got me again. Every summer since America’s Sweethearts first dropped on Netflix, I think to myself, eh, maybe I’ll watch that. Maybe I’ll be too busy reading a book or something. But eventually, I find myself engulfed in the DCC charm offensive, obsessively clicking “Next Episode” and fully absorbed in who is and isn’t making the iconic squad. There are times you can actually feel the emotional manipulation (scoring Savanna’s segment about her nearly life-long goal of becoming a DCC to The Monkees’ “Daydream Believer” practically guarantees she’s headed for hurt), but I love the ride regardless. Books can wait when Emily A.’s fate hangs in the balance. I do agree with some critics’ complaints that this season’s structure followed the past two’s a little too rigidly. And I always struggle to buy that creator Greg Whitely has the control he claims. But it simply does not matter when the stars of your show have this much charisma and talent.

Which leads me to why I think season 3 is actually America’s Sweethearts’ best: The cheerleaders don’t have to prove themselves anymore. If season 1 set out to convince viewers that Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are elite athletes that deserve more respect, and season 2 set out to prove that those athletes deserved their 400 percent pay increase (and then some!), season 3 is finally free to revel in the interpersonal dynamics of the most famous cheerleading squad on the planet. It could almost be a hang show if it weren’t for the insane rigors of DCC life. The steep increase in fame has also shifted things for better and for worse. It was notable to me in Whitely’s interview with D Magazine last month that the season 3 auditions were the first ones held after America’s Sweethearts’ debut. (There’s a great discussion between Kleine and former DCC Kat about the difference between the old CMT show veterans and the “new Netflix girls.”) The exposure flooded the talent pool with less typical DCC hopefuls (cruise performers, bendy TikTok stars), setting up a dichotomy of collegiate dancers versus technical dancers that I would have loved to have seen explored more. But instead, we have to focus on the bummer fact that the internet is now obsessing over training camp cuts and microscopic performance flaws, while being generally weird about a group of attractive young women. Jenna, who had one of my favorite comeback girl stories ever, says, “It’s as if you take all of your deepest insecurities and thousands of people are like, ‘Agree! Agree! Agree!'” One upside of fame, however, is that some cheerleaders (at least the ones heavily featured on the show) are able to ditch demanding 9-to-5 jobs in favor of filming a few brand deals a week. DCC director Kelli Finglass, who admits the organization used to fight the pursuit of influencerhood, says it “has shifted the whole culture of the program.” Good!

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S.A. clergy call on elected officials to ensure free, fair elections

A coalition of San Antonio faith leaders is calling on local elected officials to ensure all voters have access to the polls in the upcoming midterm elections. Leaders from the Archdiocese of San Antonio, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Temple Beth-El, Masjid Bilal Ibn Rabah of San Antonio and other congregations, demanded “free and fair elections” as the Trump administration tries to remake local and federal elections. “Every eligible voter should be able to vote,” said Brother Chris Markert, a bishop’s associate at the Southwestern Texas Synod, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “Every voter should be confident that their vote will be counted, and no one should have to approach the ballot box under the shadow of coercion, fear, disruption, intimidation or violence.”

“To be very clear, this is not about partisanship,” Markert said. “It is about peace, truth and protecting the public trust.” The news conference, staged near San Fernando Cathedral downtown, was one of many held Tuesday as part of “Faith in Us,” a national clergy initiative formed in Minnesota last month to protect immigrants and voter access. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement in that state. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens during the crackdown. Clergy across the country are calling on elected officials and elections administrators to sign a letter opposing efforts “to prevent eligible voters from voting and that dilute voter’s power to choose their elected leaders.” San Antonio-area faith leaders and their congregants will ask Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, City Council members, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and County Commissioners to sign, said Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact, an interfaith public policy organization. They also want Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew to sign.

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Democrat Gina Hinojosa wants to send $1,500 to every Texas household

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Austin Democrat running against Gov. Greg Abbott, made her first major economic pitch Tuesday, saying she would push to send a $1,500 check to every Texas household if elected in November. Hinojosa billed the proposal as relief for Texans struggling to make ends meet. She said she would issue a proclamation declaring affordability an emergency on her first day in office and call on lawmakers to approve pulling $17 billion from the nearly $27 billion in the state’s rainy day fund to spend on the checks. “People are struggling. People need help. It’s an emergency situation,” Hinojosa said in an interview, pointing to statistics showing the state leads the nation in bankruptcies and rates of uninsured.

“My agenda is to put money in your pocket. Texans know how to spend money better than the government. That’s our money. It’s there. It should go to Texans.” The announcement comes as Democrats have focused on affordability in the run-up to the midterms, which are expected to be bruising for Republicans as voters have soured on President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy. Public polling has shown Hinojosa within single digits of Abbott, even as many voters say they are still unfamiliar with her. Abbott's campaign did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. It’s not the first time a politician has made promises for the rainy day fund, which draws money from excess oil and gas taxes. Tapping into the reserve fund requires the support of two-thirds of lawmakers in the House and Senate, both of which are controlled by Republicans — and likely to remain in GOP hands. The Legislature has mostly dipped into the ballooning fund to pay for water projects, disaster relief and public education, according to the Comptroller. Hinojosa argues there is more than enough money in the fund to send some back to taxpayers. The state’s reserves have grown from $6 billion in 2013, the year before Abbott took office, to an expected $27 billion by the end of this fiscal year. The Comptroller’s office has projected the fund to grow by at least $2.5 billion per year, as well.

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Who pays for Brownsville's industrial and tech boom?

In 2014, SpaceX moved to Cameron County, Texas, seeking low-cost land, a skilled workforce, and a strategic Gulf Coast location. In return, the county, historically one of the poorest in the nation, gave Elon Musk, the world’s first trillionaire, a 10-year property tax abatement. Now, another technology company, the Austin-based Saronic Technologies, which will manufacture AI-powered autonomous warships for the U.S. Navy, is seeking a 95 percent property tax abatement over 20 years in exchange for setting up a $3.2 billion shipyard at the Port of Brownsville, called Port Alpha. The rapid expansion of industry in the region, including liquid natural gas pipelines, the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket testing site, a proposed oil refinery, autonomous warships, and other military defense production, is taking a toll on the environment and quality of life, say residents.

Residents are also questioning whether multi-billion-dollar companies should be receiving tax breaks in a region where many households are barely getting by. This growing concern was reflected in two contentious hearings last month over the Saronic tax abatement. At the final hearing on June 16, residents filled the Cameron County Commissioners' courtroom to give public comment ahead of the commissioners' vote. At least 40 people submitted written statements expressing their disapproval or testified at the hearing against the tax abatement. Several questioned subsidizing companies that profit from the war industry and whether handing out a tax break to Saronic, recently valued at $9.25 billion, which received a $392 million contract from the U.S. Navy was necessary. “Does a company worth billions of dollars really need a tax abatement?” a resident, Desto Huerta, said at the hearing. “These corporations don’t do anything but exploit the land, its workers, and your constituents. The least they can do is pay their fair share of taxes.”

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Holley Digby: How students can thrive even during the summer

(Holley Digby is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the Director of Mental Health and Wellness for Communities In Schools of South Central Texas.) My office is on the first floor directly below the Mill Street Youth Center. During the school year, the building is relatively quiet until about 4 p.m. when school lets out. But come summer, the building comes alive. I don’t know all of their summer programming, but judging by the steady parade of footsteps, laughter and the occasional enthusiastic thud, I can confidently say they aren’t spending the day in a quiet game of bridge. And I absolutely love it! The extra energy overhead is a reminder of something I see throughout our community this time of year: children attending camps, participating in programs, building friendships, learning new skill, and simply enjoying being kids. When my children were young, our summers were filled with camps, swim team, Schlitterbahn and the constant search for missing goggles. Those months brought plenty of fun and freedom and were wonderful years full of adventures and connection. But like many families, we also experienced the challenges that come with summer – long days, less structure, and the loss of routines, opportunities, and resources that school naturally provides.

This week, I was reminded just how much support and structure school provides for many students and families when a mother from one of our local elementary schools called to discuss her daughter. She shared that during the school year, her daughter received counseling services through Communities In Schools, had made tremendous progress, and she was worried about her losing that momentum over the summer. As we talked, it became clear that her daughter’s progress had been shaped by a network of support and experiences at school. A counselor had taught her strategies for managing stress and anxiety. Teachers encouraged her growth. Daily routines provided predictability, and opportunities to interact with peers helped her practice social skills and build confidence. Together, these experiences helped to create the positive momentum her mother feared might fade over the summer. Her concern was that all of those supports would suddenly pause for the summer. As we talked through ways to help maintain that momentum, I was reminded how fortunate we are to live in a community rich with resources and opportunities for families. Whether a family needs a summer camp, counseling services, food assistance or help meeting basic needs, our community is fortunate to have organizations working to support children and families all year long.

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Advocates say Judson hair policy could be discriminatory against Black students

The board of trustees for the Judson Independent School District approved a change to the district dress code at the end of June that advocates say could be discriminatory against Black students. Judson’s dress code has been updated to say, “Hair must be neat and clean” and that “Hairstyles and/or hair colors that are considered by school administration to be distracting and/or disruptive to the educational environment are prohibited.” The policy previously said, “Student hairstyles must be groomed appropriately and may not be a distraction to the educational environment.”

Advocates with both Texas Appleseed and the Intercultural Development Research Association said the policy is vague and open to subjective interpretation that could lead school administrators to punish Black hairstyles like locs. “What are we defining as neat and clean, and who specifically within the district is making this determination?” asked Princess Jefferson, a fellow with Texas Appleseed. “Is it other people of color, is it other Black people specifically? Because if the answer is no, then once again we are putting, particularly Black students, in a position where the cultural characteristics of our hair are wildly unrepresented and unconsidered.” Judson ISD serves a higher number of Black students than many Bexar County school districts. About 21% of Judson students are Black, according to state data. Census records show that about 8% of people in Bexar County are Black. Before the board voted on the policy change, IDRA sent an email to trustee Laura Stanford raising concerns.

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Austin could become a 'Book Safe Harbor' as censorship fights escalate

As book bans surge across Texas and the country, Austin’s Library Commission is urging the City Council to take a formal stand against censorship by declaring the city a “Book Safe Harbor,” a move supporters say could strengthen protections for what remains on public library shelves. The proposal lands amid an intensifying political fight over who decides what people, especially children, can read. In Texas, battles over books have transformed school board meetings, county commissioners courts and the state Capitol into recurring flashpoints over race, gender identity and sexuality. That fight reached new ground this year when Texas lawmakers passed SB 13, shifting some power over public school library collections away from librarians and toward elected school board members and parents, a change critics say could accelerate book removals.

While schools have been the front line of the battle, advocates warn public libraries could be next. For example, in 2025, Texas House advanced HB 3225, which would have limited kids’ access to sexually explicit books in public libraries. While the bill didn’t ultimately pass, censorship efforts are driving a growing push for “Book Safe Harbors” local ordinances meant to preserve access to books. Austin’s Library Commission passed their recommendation Monday, urging the Austin City Council to consider designating the city a Book Safe Harbor. The goal is to “defend the right to read at an ordinance level,” said Liz Garton Scanlon, an Austin-based children’s book author who is part of the Texas leadership team of Authors Against Book Bans. After the organization encouraged the creation of Book Safe Harbors in local municipalities, Garton Scanlon brought the idea to the Library Commission. Book bans weren’t on her radar when she began writing children’s books 20 years ago, but over the past five years, she has observed the issue intensifying dramatically. She said one of her most popular books, All the World, ended up on a Pennsylvania challenge list, though the effort to ban it was ultimately unsuccessful.

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National Stories

How redistricting squeezed House Democrats’ fundraising

Redistricting already reshaped the House map for the 2026 midterms. But for House Democrats, it means fewer incumbents are paying dues to the party’s campaign arm, and some are worried it could cause a cash crunch. Every year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee designates a group of vulnerable Democrats as “Frontliners,” giving them extra financial support to help them retain their seats, as well as debate-preparation help and legislative and communications guidance. Unlike other members of the caucus, this group is also exempt from paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in dues to the DCCC because they’re expected to devote most of their resources to their own reelection campaigns. After the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act by making racially drawn districts illegal this spring, state Republicans raced to remove majority-Black districts. Those efforts pushed some Democrats into red districts, lowering their chances of being reelected.

On top of that, the mid-cycle redistricting crunch has bulked up the number of Frontliners and other non-dues-paying members, multiple sources told NOTUS. Louisiana Rep. Cleo Fields is still undecided about whether he will run in what is now a Republican-leaning district after state lawmakers eliminated his district. But he has stopped paying his dues to the campaign arm, even after fulfilling more than a third of his $275,000 quota. “Conditions have changed. The district has changed, obviously, which means that I got to, you know, focus a lot more on self,” he told NOTUS about paying dues. One Frontliner, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told NOTUS that “the field [of vulnerable members] is spreading thinner, thinner, and so now the dues that members pay here, you know, don’t go directly to frontliners like me. They go to the DCCC to decide what they do with that.” Initially, Democratic leaders designated 26 Frontliners. That list dwindled to 21 after Maine Rep. Jared Golden’s decided not to seek reelection and California voters approved a ballot measure to redraw the state’s maps to counter Republicans’ redistricting efforts in Texas.

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NATO unveils billions in arms deals to prove its firepower as Trump again demands Greenland

President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted that the United States should be in control of Greenland rather than NATO ally Denmark, renewing tensions in Europe even as the trans-Atlantic military alliance was announcing billions in arms deals at a summit in an attempt to appease the mercurial U.S. leader. Trump called the semiautonomous island “an important part” for the United States, as he repeated the false claim that it’s surrounded by Chinese and Russian ships and said he won’t let Greenland be threatened. “That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.

The NATO alliance was founded on the principle that its 32 members will defend each others’ territory and not threaten to seize it. At the summit, European countries and the alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, were already working overtime to address another longstanding Trump complaint: that European allies do not spend enough on their own defense. Separately, Trump announced that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Turkey that were issued after Ankara purchased a Russian missile defense system that led to the country being kicked out of the F-35 fighter jet program — in a nod to his warm ties with summit host Erdogan. Turkey’s purchase in 2019 of Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems sparked years of tensions, despite the warm personal relationship between Trump and Erdogan dating back to the U.S. president’s first term. Legal hurdles remain before Turkey could be fully admitted back to the U.S. F-35 program, but the removal of sanctions issued under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act would help ease that process. Regaining access to the F-35s is a top goal of Erdogan.

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Trump’s biggest roadblock to selling jets to Turkey may be Republican lawmakers

Congress is already pushing back on President Donald Trump’s plans to lift sanctions on Turkey and potentially sell the country F-35 fighter jets. Lawmakers from both parties warned Tuesday that Turkey’s possession of the S-400 Russian air defense system still poses the security concerns that prompted Congress to restrict F-35 transfers so long as Turkey possesses the system. The opposition is also being fueled by past clashes between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and countries that have diaspora communities in the U.S. — and allies on Capitol Hill — including Israel, Greece, Cyprus and Armenia.

“If used in proximity to the F-35,” Turkey’s S-400 “could reveal to Russia how our stealth technology works,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) said in a statement to NOTUS. Lifting the sanctions “would be tantamount to handing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin the blueprints to our technology.” Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a member of the House Republican Israel Caucus, said the F-35 transfer ban must remain in force so long as Ankara retains the S-400. “Selling one of America’s most advanced fighter jets to Turkey is not in the best interest of the United States,” Lawler said in a statement to NOTUS. “It risks compromising critical technology and sends the wrong message to our allies in Europe and the Middle East.” Lawler had already released a bipartisan letter last week with five other Republicans opposing Turkey’s return to the program.

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Trump orders halt to US trade with Spain over NATO spending, Iran

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered an immediate halt to all trade with NATO ally Spain, escalating tensions over defence spending and the Iran war, despite European Union rules requiring trade negotiations to be conducted as a single bloc. During a NATO summit in Ankara, ?which European leaders had hoped would put a lid on rifts within the military alliance, Trump instead ?reignited the dispute with Spain. He also irked another NATO ally Denmark by reiterating that his ?country should control Greenland. Denmark promised to defend every inch of its territory.

It was the second time Trump has ?instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt commerce with Spain over its refusal to commit to NATO's new defence spending ?target of 5% of GDP. However, after his first such promise in March, trade between the two countries continued normally. "Spain doesn't agree to anything, and you shouldn't carry them," Trump told NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who later tried to soothe the tension by saying ?that Spain "made a huge step last year" raising its spending to 2%, although he added that "there are still issues ?we have to solve". "I don't want to do any trade with them, alright?" Trump said, turning to Bessent, who replied: "Yes, sir." Trump ?then added, "Take ?it immediately. Don't even talk to them. They're hopeless. They're bad people ... They make so much money with us, and we're going to see that they make a lot less." The office of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who leads a minority leftist government, said in a statement it was treating Trump's statements as "business as usual" and did not ?intend to change the "excellent" relations ?it enjoyed with Washington. It pointed ?out that Spain had a trade deficit with the U.S. and that economic ties were forged by private companies rather than governments, adding that as part of the customs ?and trade union, individual EU members could not be singled out. Trump has repeatedly expressed ?frustration with Spain ?after Sanchez, a Socialist, refused to let the U.S. use its airspace or bases on its territory for the Iran war. Washington jointly operates with Madrid two key military bases in southern Spain for naval and air operations. Spain is the ?world's ?largest olive oil exporter and also sells auto parts, steel, and chemicals ?to the United States, although analysts consider it to be less vulnerable to Trump's threats of economic punishment than other European economies.

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Here’s who could replace Platner if he drops out of Maine Senate race

All eyes have turned to a handful of Maine Democrats who could take the mantle as Graham Platner, the party’s current Senate nominee, faces growing pressure to withdraw from the marquee race over a sexual assault allegation. The latest allegation, which adds to a string of other controversies around the political newcomer’s bid, prompted the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm and other former backers of Platner, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), to withdraw their support and call for Platner to step aside. If Platner drops out by Monday, Maine’s Democratic Party could still field a new candidate ahead of November, even though the primary has passed. The state party would then have until July 27 to choose its replacement candidate. Here’s a look at some of the Maine Democrats floated as potential replacements for Platner:

Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger who was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, is openly considering a bid to replace Platner. Jackson filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a Senate exploratory committee on Tuesday. He previously told the Bangor Daily News he believes he is the “best person” to fill Platner’s shoes. Platner, however, endorsed Jackson in the governor’s race, which could become a liability for Jackson should he choose to run for the upper chamber. Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Nirav Shah, who finished second to Democratic nominee Hannah Pingree, a former Maine House speaker, in the governor’s race, offered himself for consideration in a Tuesday social media post. Shenna Bellows, who as secretary of state will likely be front-and-center for procedural changes if Platner drops out, is another potential contender. A former state senator and executive director for the Maine branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Bellows has served as the state’s top election official since 2021. She was heavily involved in ballot initiatives around same-day voter registration and marriage equality — and she’s the first woman to hold the office in Maine.

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Measles outbreak confirmed at Arizona immigration detention center

Federal officials have confirmed seven active cases of measles at an Arizona immigration detention center, prompting quarantines and restrictions on visitation. The measles outbreak affects the Florence Detention Center, which includes Florence Service Processing Center and short-term holding facility Florence Staging Facility, an unnamed spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a Tuesday email to the Arizona Daily Star. Both facilities are run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which also handles medical and mental health care there. "ICE Health Services Corps immediately took steps to quarantine and control further spread and infection, ceasing all movement within the facility and quarantining all individuals suspected of making contact with the infected," the statement said. "All non-legal in-person visitation is currently suspended to protect the health and safety of the detainees, the staff, and the community."

Several ICE detainees suspected of coming in contact with someone with measles were held in quarantine last week at Eloy Detention Center, but no cases have been confirmed there, according to a spokesman for CoreCivic, the private for-profit prison company that operates both Eloy and the Florence Correctional Center. "CoreCivic follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measles protocols, including testing, quarantine, and monitoring procedures for individuals who may have been exposed prior to their arrival at our facilities, including our Eloy Detention Center and Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex," CoreCivic spokesman Ryan Gustin said in an email. "Based on the results of these protocols, we can report that there are currently no confirmed measles cases at either of these facilities." Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Arizona, conducted an unannounced oversight visit to Eloy July 2 and reported hearing from staff that several detainees were in isolation for possible measles exposure.

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World Cup Daily recap: Argentina, Messi produce late magic; Switzerland sneak past Colombia

The quarterfinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup are now set, as the final two spots were decided Tuesday. The day began with Argentina embarking on a remarkable comeback against Egypt, fighting back from two goals down to win 3-2. In the late game, Colombia fell to Switzerland in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw.

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McConnell speaks to Republican leaders as speculation swirls about his health, remains hospitalized

The Senate’s top two Republicans have spoken individually to Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, according to aides, as the former GOP leader remains in the hospital more than three weeks after being admitted for undisclosed health issues. Aides to McConnell have declined to release any information about his condition, fueling speculation about his prognosis and whether he will be healthy enough to be at the Capitol when the Senate returns to Washington next week after a two-week recess. McConnell, 84, is retiring at the end of his term in January. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he had spoken with McConnell by phone on Monday and that the two had a “lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security.”

As leader, Thune is generally kept up to date on illnesses and absences in his conference as he has to navigate vote counts and his narrow 53-47 majority. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Senate Republican, had a 20-minute conversation with McConnell on Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman. The two discussed Senate races ahead of the midterm elections, the Supreme Court and other topics, the statement said. “Senator McConnell was fully engaged and is eager to get back to the Senate,” said Barrasso spokeswoman Kate Noyes. Another McConnell ally, Republican strategist Scott Jennings, posted on X that he had also talked to McConnell for 20 minutes on Tuesday, and that “he’s still recovering in the hospital.” Jennings said they spoke about politics, foreign policy “and even a little bit of Senate history.”

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Lead Stories

The Platner-induced headache for Schumer

In order for Senate Democrats to take the majority on Election Day, everything needs to go exactly according to plan. It’s not. Graham Platner, the untested 41-year-old oyster-farming darling of progressives, is no longer a viable Democratic candidate to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) this fall, putting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in an incredibly difficult position. After Politico and CNN both reported that Platner allegedly sexually assaulted Jenny Racicot, the DSCC and Senate Majority PAC said they’d no longer support his campaign. Republicans have already announced that they will spend $42 million in Maine defending Collins. Platner will have no backing from the Senate Democratic political machine.

Party leaders believe Platner will drop out of the race as soon as today, possibly even this morning. That would give Democrats just three weeks to find a new challenger to take on Collins. Much of the discussion about possible replacements for Platner is currently focused on other failed 2026 candidates. Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, epidemiologist Nirav Shah, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former congressional candidate Jordan Wood are all options, according to multiple sources. Jackson released a statement saying he believes Racicot and urged Platner to get out of the race. “There is no place in our politics for sexual violence,” Jackson said. “Not in our party, not in any party. Graham Platner must withdraw from this race today.” Retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden would be the top choice of many Democrats. But the four-term lawmaker has made clear he wants to leave Congress at the end of this year. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, whom Platner decisively defeated in the Democratic primary, is extremely unlikely.

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Push to regulate Texas data centers crimped by calendar

Top Texas leaders, including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, want to slap more restrictions on data centers. But because the Texas Legislature isn’t expected to meet again until early next year, the state likely can’t do much to set limits on a new surge of data centers that’s expected to come online by late 2032. The issue is one of procedure — and timing. Next April, regulators at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, are expected to approve plans to allow a new wave of data centers — known collectively as “Batch Zero” — to connect to the Texas grid. Many of the data centers in Batch Zero have been in the works for years; some already are being built. State officials expect them to use a lot of energy.

All told, ERCOT estimates projects that meet Batch Zero requirements could request a combined 100 gigawatts of power, equal to the juice needed to power 25 million homes. To put that in perspective, there were 12.6 million homes in Texas as of 2024, according to the census. Not all Batch Zero projects will receive the full amount of power they’re requesting when they first come online. Some experts believe the actual power usage of Batch Zero projects will be closer to 20 to 50 GW. Still, it’s a lot of power. And these projects were set in motion at a time when there were few rules governing their construction and operation. That means that unless Texas legislators convene soon for a special session — or pass laws that apply retroactively, which carries its own risk — there’s little they can do to impose building requirements on these new data centers. That includes requiring setbacks or mandating water-efficient cooling techniques, said Chris Kirby, a partner at the Balch & Bingham law firm, who represents data center clients. Without a special session, Kirby said, April or May 2027 is probably the earliest a new data center guardrail bill could go into effect — and that would require a two-thirds vote in both statehouse chambers to expedite the law.

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Belgium ends Team USA’s World Cup run after political firestorm

The U.S. national team came into this World Cup with every conceivable home advantage. The Americans enjoyed automatic qualification and a gentle group as co-hosts. They encountered raucous, star-spangled crowds wherever they went. And, when necessary, they could count on a game-changing assist from the Oval Office. Even after presidential intervention helped the team’s top scorer back into the lineup, however, the U.S. couldn’t overcome its latest challenge on the field: the country of Belgium, the fifth-ranked team in Europe. On Monday evening, the Belgian Red Devils swept into Seattle and brought the American World Cup campaign to an untimely end with a 4-1 defeat in the round of 16. The U.S. had been playing to reach its first World Cup quarterfinal since 2002. But that detail was easily forgotten over the previous 24 hours as a stunning series of events placed the U.S. at the center of a global soccer firestorm.

“I think we were not good enough today,” U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “We don’t need to find another excuse.” American striker Folarin Balogun had seen his suspension for an earlier red card lifted on Sunday, after President Trump spoke with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, prompting outrage and astonishment from a Belgian team that argued the U.S. was being given preferential treatment. FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, denied a Belgian appeal on Monday morning. And by kickoff later that afternoon, Balogun was walking out of the tunnel alongside his teammates. U.S. supporters gave him the loudest reception of any player when he was introduced while the Belgian fans booed. Some even waved red cards in the air. Unfortunately for the Americans, that was one of the rare occasions that Balogun electrified the crowd. He had no goals, and just three shots. His greatest contribution was drawing the foul that led to Malik Tillman’s free kick goal to make it 1-1 in the first half. That proved to be the last gasp for the American attack. Two minutes after they tied the game, Charles De Ketelaere headed home his second goal of the match to put the Belgians back on top.

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Toyota to move Tacoma production to Texas in $3.6 billion U.S. expansion plan

Toyota will spend $3.6 billion to bring production of its top-selling midsize pickup, the Tacoma, back to the U.S. by 2030, the Japanese automaker said Monday. The company plans to build a second assembly line for the Tacoma at the San Antonio plant where it currently assembles larger pickups and SUVs, adding 2,000 jobs, it said. Making more vehicles in the U.S. will help Toyota, the world’s top-selling automaker, defray a hefty tariff bill in its largest market. The company also needs more domestic capacity as it struggles to keep its U.S. dealers stocked with vehicles, said John Murphy, founder of advisory firm Murphy Automotive Partners. Toyota currently builds the Tacoma in roughly equal numbers at plants in Guanajuato and Baja California in Mexico. The Baja plant’s production will move to San Antonio when the expansion is complete in 2030, while the Guanajuato plant’s output will continue unaffected, the company said.

Toyota declined to comment on its plans for the Baja plant following the Tacoma’s exit. The Tacoma, launched in the mid-1990s, has long been the dominant seller in the midsize truck space. Its sales consistently dwarf those of competitors like the Ford Ranger and Chevrolet Colorado. The San Antonio plant previously assembled the Tacoma from 2010 to 2021, when the truck was fully moved to Mexico. The company already assembles its larger Tundra full-size pickup truck and Sequoia SUV in San Antonio, producing just shy of 200,000 vehicles annually. The plant currently employs about 3,700 people. The Tacoma line will add about 150,000 trucks to the plant’s annual output. Despite its extensive U.S. manufacturing presence—its popular models like the Camry, Corolla and RAV4 are made in America, among other locations—tariffs on parts, components and vehicles imported from Japan have sent Toyota’s profits sliding. The company’s North American division swung to a loss in the year ended in March after taking a 1.38 trillion yen, or about $8.5 billion, hit to operating income from U.S. tariffs. Murphy, the auto industry analyst, called that “bonkers.”

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State Stories

Supreme Court lets Texas restrict minors' access to app stores for the time being

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a Texas law prohibiting minors from downloading apps without their parent's consent to go into effect. Multiple organizations had sued the state, arguing that the law violates children's freedom of speech. But in an unsigned, unexplained order, the high court allowed Texas to enforce the law as lawsuits continue in lower courts. Texas enacted its App Store Accountability Act in 2025. The law requires app stores to verify all users' ages, and it prevents children under age 18 from downloading most apps without parental consent. Texas told a lower court that legislators enacted the law in order to keep minors from seeing "harmful" material.

Challengers argued that such a broad law is plainly unconstitutional under a variety of Supreme Court precedents, holding that children do have substantial free speech rights. Texas responded in its filings that the law regulates only "commercial speech" and so is less constitutionally protected. Nonetheless, the law has only a few exceptions for apps made by emergency services and the companies that oversee college entrance exams. Children must get parental approval before downloading all other apps, such as Instagram, library apps, and the apps of news organizations. A lower court initially blocked the law from going into effect, writing that the law "prohibits minors from participating in the democratic exchange of views online." But in June, a panel of judges on the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the law. On Monday, the Supreme Court left the law in place, at least for now. The law now returns to the lower courts for further litigation Utah, Louisiana, and Alabama have passed similar laws. This is not the first time the Supreme Court has dealt with a law banning children from accessing content online. Last year, the court upheld a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify users' ages. But the court has long treated children's access to pornography differently than other access questions. Monday's app store ruling does not necessarily mean that the law is constitutional — only that the law can be enforced while lawsuits make their way through the lower courts. That said, the court's refusal to intervene at this point is at least a tentative signal that favors the law.

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SpaceX president pledges stock to new Trump Accounts, with ‘bit more emphasis’ on Texas kids

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Monday she would donate a portion of her company stock to Trump Accounts for more than 2 million children in areas with lower average household income. The effort will place “a bit more emphasis” on children, between 11 and 17 years old, who live near her central Texas home, Shotwell wrote on X. Shotwell lives in Jonesboro, a rural community near a SpaceX facility that tests rocket engines, according to Forbes. “We have been fortunate in our careers and hope this gift encourages the next generation to continue the journey of enabling humanity to live and fly amongst the stars,” Shotwell said on X. SpaceX, which is based in Starbase outside of Brownsville, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shotwell owned nearly 12.7 million SpaceX shares when it became a publicly traded company last month, according to public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Her shares were worth roughly $2 billion during Monday’s trading. President Donald Trump celebrated the launch of Trump Accounts, a new federal savings program for children under the age of 18, by ringing a bell from the Oval Office to open trading on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange Monday morning.

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Trulieve files plans for Texas medical cannabis dispensaries

A major medical marijuana company is preparing to debut in three cities in the Lone Star State, marking a significant expansion in the small number of businesses allowed to dispense cannabis in Texas. Florida-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp. has filed renovation plans for storefronts in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. It already operates more than 250 dispensaries nationwide and announced in December that it had received conditional approval for a state Dispensing Organization license. “We are excited to be selected for a coveted Texas Dispensing Organization license and we look forward to working with regulators as we complete the licensing process,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said at the time. “Pending necessary approvals, we plan to provide patients compassionate care and expanded access to high quality medical cannabis products.”

The Texas projects include a $250,000 build-out of a 4,060-square-foot space in Austin, a $200,000 build-out of a 1,324-square-foot space in Dallas and a $200,000 build-out of a 2,753-square-foot space in San Antonio, according to filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The Austin and San Antonio projects are scheduled to start July 20 and wrap up Sept. 11, while the Dallas project began June 22 and is expected to be finished Sept. 4. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Information in the state filings is preliminary and subject to change. Texas created the Compassionate Use Program in 2015, initially allowing low-THC medical cannabis for patients with intractable epilepsy. Lawmakers have since expanded the program to include conditions such as multiple sclerosis, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer and chronic pain, but recreational marijuana remains illegal in Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety now lists just three active dispensary organizations and says it will issue 12 additional licenses under House Bill 46, passed in 2025. The Texas expansion comes after Trulieve reported first-quarter net income of $2.3 million on revenue of $287 million. The company also recently proposed reincorporating in Delaware from British Columbia, saying the move would better align its structure with its U.S. operations.

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Tesla leases Austin region's largest ever speculative industrial building at 682K sq. feet, sources say

What's believed to be the Austin region's largest speculative industrial building is off the market. Tesla Inc. has leased the 682,000-square-foot industrial building that is under construction at the Austin Hills Commerce Center at 11801 Decker Lake Road, about five miles from the company's gigafactory, several sources told the Austin Business Journal. It is unclear what Tesla, which has diversified well beyond carmaking, has planned for the Austin Hills Commerce Center building. Missouri-based Sansone Group broke ground on the building in March and it's expected to completed by January. The project, which is being co-developed with Iowa-based Principal Asset Management, will be the second phase of Austin Hills Commerce Center just off State Highway 130. Eventually, that project will total 1.4 million square feet.

The building is listed as "leased" on an updated brochure for the site. While it does not mention Tesla by name, Elon Musk's electrical vehicle company already occupies a nearly 300,000-square-foot building at the sprawling industrial park that is located on 134 acres in northeastern Travis County. All in all, Tesla already has nearly 2.2 million square feet of space leased throughout the Austin market, according to data provided by CoStar, which tracks real estate data throughout the country. The new lease would push Tesla to nearly 2.9 million square feet of industrial leases – easily making it among the biggest industrial tenants in the region. That presence expands outside of Austin and is in suburbs like Kyle and Taylor. Tesla also has over 10 million more square feet in the Austin area that it owns and built itself. In fact, the building continues. Next to the Tesla Gigafactory, Tesla is building a new factory that Musk said will make "not just Tesla’s biggest product, but the biggest product ever" — Optimus humanoid robots.

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Eckhardt says Huffines would politicize comptroller's office

Democratic comptroller nominee Sarah Eckhardt took aim at Republican rival Don Huffines during a recent appearance on Lone Star Politics, accusing him of wanting to politicize the office and questioning his judgment and experience. Eckhardt, a state senator from Austin, said the office, which oversees state finances and certifies the state budget, should serve taxpayers rather than political agendas. Huffines, a former state senator from Dallas who will become comptroller Aug. 1 after Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him to fill the vacancy, has pledged to run government lean and protect taxpayer dollars. Lone Star Politics has invited him to appear on the program.

Eckhardt called the comptroller “the most powerful statewide position that most people have never heard of” and said it should not be used to reward political allies or punish opponents. She accused Huffines of wanting to “weaponize the office” to advance conservative cultural priorities instead of serving all Texans. She criticized Huffines' plans to shrink state government through a Texas version of the federal Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. She said Texas is already among the nation's lowest-tax, lowest-spending states. “It is not time to DOGE state government,” she said. “It is time to invest in Texans.” Eckhardt contrasted her record as a prosecutor, Travis County judge and state senator with Huffines' business background, saying she had managed billions in public assets and cut taxes while maintaining services. She said Huffines is “best known for billboards and having secretly purchased the Epstein ranch,” before asking: “Who can you trust with your hard-earned tax dollars?” The Huffines campaign has said his family purchased property listed in a New Mexico public auction and that the sale's proceeds benefited Epstein’s victims.

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Daniel Wong sues Fort Bend County attorney over authority to remain interim county judge

The legal battle over who has the authority to serve as Fort Bend County's interim judge escalated Monday when Daniel Wong filed a lawsuit against Fort Bend County Attorney Bridgette Lawson-Smith, seeking to validate his interim appointment as judge and stop what his legal team calls a politically motivated effort to remove him from office. “I did not seek this lawsuit. I sought to do the job the district court entrusted me to do,” Wong said in a July 6 statement. “The people of Fort Bend County deserve certainty, stability, and a government focused on serving the public — not political disputes." Wong is the GOP nominee for county judge and will face Democratic nominee Commissioner Dexter McCoy in November's election. Wong was appointed to the role in April by a Galveston County district court judge after embattled Fort Bend County Judge KP George was suspended based on a civil lawsuit filed by a resident.

The civil lawsuit was later dismissed on June 17, after George was sentenced to five years of probation and 180 days in county jail for money laundering. George was first elected as a Democrat in 2018. He switched parties last year as he planned to seek a third term in office. However, he placed last in the March Republican primaries. In the 58-page lawsuit filed in Fort Bend County's 240th Judicial District Court, Wong claims his appointment is still in effect, unless it is vacated by another court. The lawsuit also cites a law from the Texas Constitution called the “holdover provision,” which is a statute that allows appointed and elected officers to continue their duties in office until a successor is found. Wong’s lawsuit attempts to address several arguments Smith-Lawson and her office previously raised. In a June 25 letter to Wong’s attorney, Chris Hilton, Smith-Lawson argued that since the civil lawsuit against George was dismissed on June 17, the order appointing Wong as interim county judge was no longer valid.

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Catholic legal aid group for immigrants nears collapse as US withholds funds

For 40 years, a ministry of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso has provided legal assistance to hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Now, the ministry, Estrella del Paso, says the Trump administration’s refusal to pay more than $765,000 owed in reimbursements is pushing the organization to the edge of collapse. The lack of reimbursements since December 2025 has eaten up Estrella del Paso’s cash reserves and may force it to close altogether, said Melissa Lopez, the executive director of the nonprofit, formerly known as Diocesan Migrant Refugee Services. An April 2025 preliminary injunction by a California federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s plans to defund legal services for unaccompanied children. Shuttering Estrella del Paso would mean tens of thousands of immigrants would lose legal services, she said.

When asked what that would mean to people who rely on their legal assistance, Lopez gave a one-word answer. “Deportation.” “The system is so rigged against people right now that, without legal representation, they are very much at risk of being deported. That risk is high as it is, but in the case of not having any legal representation, that risk goes up exponentially,” Lopez said. Health and Human Services officials haven’t responded to a request for comment from El Paso Matters. A California federal judge has scheduled a July 16 hearing on a request by Estrella del Paso and other nonprofit providers of legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children to hold HHS in contempt of court for allegedly violating her injunction. The Trump administration has argued in court that government payments for legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children are discretionary, not mandatory. Serving over 40,000 people a year, Estrella del Paso is one of the largest providers in the nation of legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children and the largest provider of nonprofit immigration legal services in the El Paso region, Lopez said. “Frankly, there aren’t enough private attorneys to do the work that we do,” Lopez said. “We cover a huge portion of the work that has to be done in this region, and so, without Estrella, I think people would go without legal representation.”

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4 energy companies join ‘DExit’ movement, redomicile in Texas

Dallas-Fort Worth just claimed another slate of victories in the corporate exodus from Delaware. Four energy companies officially redomiciled from Delaware to Texas on Monday: Energy Transfer LP, Sunoco LP, SunocoCorp LLC and USA Compression Partners LP. All are major players in the oil and gas industry, and they announced the moves together on July 2. They each already call Dallas home, in a way. Their respective corporate headquarters are already located here. By redomiciling, they are changing the jurisdiction where their companies are registered to do business — effectively aligning the geography of their physical and legal footprints.

Though the changes are effective in both Delaware and Texas as of Monday, they are not considered effective for market purposes until July 13, in accordance with New York Stock Exchange guidelines that require 10 days of advance notice. The NYSE ticker symbols for each of the four companies will remain unchanged: ET, SUN, SUNC and USAC, respectively. The companies did not give a reason for their respective migrations in a joint news release. Representatives did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication. They join a growing contingent of corporate behemoths abandoning Delaware over the last year in search of greener pastures — which many have found in the Lone Star State. Delaware has been the nation’s corporate capital for over a century, thanks to a well-established legal system that offered stability through decades of precedent and jury-less rulings at the nation’s premier business court, as well as favorable tax and privacy policies.

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Texas took this Dallas couple's newborn baby for 3 weeks. A judge says their rights were violated

A Travis County judge ruled the state's child welfare agency violated the constitutional rights of a Dallas couple whose newborn daughter was temporarily taken into state custody for week after a hospital visit three years ago. Temecia and Rodney Jackson sued the Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency that houses Child Protective Services, last year. The parents say the department put them on the Central Registry — a public abuse and neglect database — without a clear way to appeal and get themselves removed. Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy ruled late last month two sections of the state administrative code used in the Jacksons’ case impair or interfere with the family’s constitutional due process rights.

One section states DFPS can label an investigation into alleged abuse as “unable to determine,” which means investigators could not rule out abuse or neglect, but the subject of investigation isn’t completely cleared of wrongdoing. The Jacksons argued the Central Registry process and the “unable to determine" label didn’t give the parents an opportunity to appeal the determinations and defend themselves. “That is a denial of procedural due process,” said Charelle Lett with the ACLU of Texas, which is helping represent the Jacksons in court. “And this court agreed that the Jacksons are entitled to that, and so is every other Texan that comes through this system.” KERA News reached out to DFPS for comment and will update this story with any response. CPS took baby Mila into custody after Baylor Scott and White Doctor Anand Bhatt reported the Jacksons for alleged medical neglect in 2023. Bhatt diagnosed 3-day-old Mila with jaundice during a routine postpartum checkup and believed she needed treatment in the hospital.

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Austin social services budget cuts target transportation, legal aid

Austin budget officials are proposing to phase in millions in planned cuts to the city’s social safety net spending over two years, with the steepest reductions aimed at programs such as transportation, legal services, basic needs and community planning. In a Thursday memo to Mayor Kirk Watson and City Council members, Austin Budget and Organizational Excellence Director Kerri Lang said a previously announced $16.8 million reduction to Austin’s $74.2 million social services contract portfolio should be spread out over the next two fiscal years. That would mean a $6 million to $8 million cut in the 2026-27 budget, followed by an additional $8.8 million in the 2027-28 spending plan, according to the memo.

The proposal comes days before City Manager T.C. Broadnax is expected to deliver a pared-down budget proposal to Austin City Council that must account for a $26 million projected deficit. The 11-member council may make amendments to that plan as it sees fit before adopting a final budget in late August. Broadnax zeroed in on social service spending late last year after Austin voters rejected Proposition Q, the council-backed tax rate election that would have raised property taxes to help fund a slew of initiatives, includingsocial services. In late February, City Council directed his office to develop a standardized rubric to help decide how to spread the cuts across services for Austinites in need. Thursday’s memo outlines much deeper reductions to certain categories of spending while noting staff are still refining recommendations. The preliminary plan would largely spare behavioral health, homelessness services and clinical services from the largest percentage cuts, while imposing steeper reductions on smaller categories. Transportation services could be reduced by up to 38%. Basic needs and legal services could each be cut by up to 35%. Family services could be reduced by up to 34%, while workforce development and HIV services could each face cuts of up to 32%. The city is also proposing to eliminate one service category entirely: community planning, which covers community-led planning efforts, civic engagement and neighborhood capacity building in historically underinvested areas. Staff identified it as a lower-priority investment area and proposed cutting its $251,431 budget by 100% in fiscal year 2026-27.

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Final Prairieland federal defendant sentenced to 6 years in prison, amid shooting's anniversary

The last defendant facing federal charges in connection with last year's Prairieland ICE detention center shooting was sentenced to six years in prison Monday. It comes just two days after the anniversary of an event that made national headlines as the first case of the Trump administration targeting "antifa" as domestic terrorism in federal court. Susan Kent, 24, was part of a group that met at a hotel in Cleburne to plan getting Benjamin Song away from the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado. Song was convicted in March for nonfatally shooting an Alvarado police officer outside Prairieland the night of July 4, 2025. He hid out in a sunflower field until the next day. Kent cooperated with prosecutors and testified at trial that she met Song through the Socialist Rifle Association, a left-wing firearm club. Kent said other defendants were part of an "antifa" cell.

KERA News reached out to Kent's attorney for comment and will update this story with any response. Antifa — short for "anti-fascist" — is an ideology, not a single organization of which one can be a part. For some, it’s become an umbrella term for far-left-wing beliefs like anarchism, socialism or communism. It’s also been associated with anti-Trump and anti-ICE beliefs in recent years. President Donald Trump designated the ideology a domestic terror threat in September. Kent testified she wasn't an anti-fascist, she said, but a libertarian who believed U.S. immigration policies needed reform. Kent also testified she went to a "gear check" at the home of defendants Autumn Hill and Meagan Morris' home in Dallas July 3, 2025. There, she said, Song had the group review photos of Prairieland. The group decided to bring guns to the detention center but find nonviolent ways to protest, she said.

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Matador Resources joint venture strikes $752 million deal for Delaware Basin Assets

In a $752 million agreement, San Mateo Midstream will acquire the operating subsidiaries of Cardinal Midstream Partners. San Mateo is a joint venture between Matador Resources Company and Five Point Infrastructure. Cardinal is a portfolio company of EnCap Flatrock Midstream. The acquisition is expected to expand San Mateo’s designed natural gas production capability to one billion cubic feet per day. San Mateo will also expand its gathering systems to over 800 miles of pipeline. The acquisition is expected to increase San Mateo’s customer base and revenue generation from third-party customers. Cardinal’s assets are expected to complement San Mateo’s existing natural gas gathering and processing systems, enabling easier movement of natural gas through the Northern Delaware Basin in New Mexico and West Texas.

Cardinal has a cryogenic natural gas processing plan complex in Loving County, with a capacity of 320 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. In addition, Cardinal has 145 miles of low-pressure and high-pressure natural gas gathering pipelines. “We believe that the integrated nature of the San Mateo and Cardinal infrastructure will create additional opportunities for San Mateo to pursue third-party volumes in the future,” said Brian J. Willey, San Mateo’s chairman of the board and the executive vice president of Midstream for Matador. “By connecting Cardinal’s natural gas gathering and processing assets to San Mateo’s existing natural gas system, San Mateo will have the ability to move natural gas throughout the northern Delaware Basin—north to south or south to north—creating better flow assurance and system flexibility that we believe few midstream providers can match.”

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Dallas County blocks release of autopsy report of Afghan asylum seeker who died in ICE custody in March

Dallas County is refusing to release the full autopsy report of an Afghan asylum seeker who died in ICE custody at Parkland Hospital in March, despite multiple public information requests. John Creuzot, the county's district attorney, has asked state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, to block the report's release, citing an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal's death certificate says he died from anaphylaxis and asthma as the result of an adverse drug reaction and ingestion of methamphetamine. It does not explain when the methamphetamine, an illegal drug, was ingested. Paktiawal, 41 at the time of his death, had no known allergies, according to his family, which said he did not use illegal drugs.

"My family has waited months to understand how my brother died, and we’re still waiting for [an] answer," Naseer Paktiawal, his younger brother, said. "Whatever they say on that certificate, whatever they put it on there, that’s not true, and that’s not what my brother deserves." According to AfghanEvac — a nonprofit that assists with the resettlement of Afghans who allied with the U.S. — an independent forensic pathologist hired by Hazeer’s family found “nothing remarkable” in his “underlying health for a man his age.” When the independent exam took place, Nazeer had already been embalmed, so no blood remained for toxicology testing, according to AfghanEvac. Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, known among family and friends as Nazeer, fought alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan for more than a decade before being resettled in Texas in 2021, after Kabul fell to the Taliban. He was seized by ICE outside his home near Dallas on March 13 and was dead less than 24 hours later. He leaves behind a wife and six children, all of whom his brother, Naseer, is now caring for in addition to his own family.

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Report: Family of migrant who died at Camp East Montana files lawsuit

A migrant detainee who died at Camp East Montana earlier this year told staff there that he was not getting the care he needed for his mental health issues, according to a report published in the Washington Post earlier this week. Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban national, died at Camp East Montana on Jan. 3. An autopsy report released by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Lunas Campos died from from asphyxia caused by neck and torso compression, with the manner of death ruled a homicide. The family of Lunas Campos has also filed suit against the guards and company that was running the facility at the time of his death. According to the Post, the family is seeking $1 million in damages.

Lunas Campos, who suffered from bipolar disorder and anxiety, had complained about not getting the right dosage of antidepressants, expressed suicidal thoughts to staff and reported giving himself a black eye by hitting his head against the wall, records obtained by the Washington Post show. Three months before he died, guards found Lunas Campos with a sheet tied around his neck, the Washington Post reported. Staff discussed moving him to “a higher level of care for mental health treatment,” but never did, the Washington Post reported. Lunas Campos’s struggles with mental health, the details of which have not been previously reported, provide context for the chaotic events surrounding his death on Jan. 3. What took place in his final moments, behind the walls of a privately run detention center, is the subject of conflicting accounts, with a witness claiming the 55-year-old Cuban immigrant was choked to death by guards and the Department of Homeland Security alleging he had been trying to take his own life and was killed in an ensuing struggle.

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National Stories

NATO showcases big arms deals in Ankara before summit with Trump

NATO leaders began unveiling arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars in Turkey on Tuesday, driving home the message that they ?are heeding U.S. calls to spend more to defend Europe before a summit with President Donald Trump. To upbeat tunes and slick videos at a defence industry forum in the capital Ankara, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced a series of initiatives, inviting a roll-call of representatives from NATO members to join the stage. The sum of various deal values was projected onto a screen. "We can do more when we do it ?together. And we must do more of it," Rutte said. "NATO allies are joining new multinational procurement coalitions. This really helps us get more of what you need ?across a range of capabilities." The deals, which had been mostly kept under wraps to make a splash at the summit, included European ?countries buying surveillance drones from U.S. company Northrop Grumman

The U.S. is also in talks with Germany and other nations about establishing joint ?production in Europe of missiles that are in high demand for the defence of Ukraine, a source told Reuters. The move followed growing concern in Washington about the capacity of U.S. ?weapons manufacturers to meet demand, as both the war on Iran and the war in Ukraine depleted U.S. arms stocks. Rutte also said NATO allies will invest more than $40 billion in the next five years in their anti-drone capabilities. The announcements add weight to Trump's frequent criticism of Europe for insufficient defence contributions and over-relying on the U.S. to defend them through NATO, which has protected the continent since the early ?years of the Cold War. Trump reinforced the message in a video previewing his visit on Truth Social, urging Europe to spend more on its own defence.

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FIFA’s red-card committee hits back after fury over Trump intrusion

FIFA’s disciplinary committee, the body that lifted American striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension ahead of Monday’s U.S.-Belgium game, defended its decision in a statement released hours before kickoff in Seattle — but didn’t explain the rationale for making it. In the 13-paragraph statement, the committee explained the body’s rationale for reconsidering Balogun’s suspension. The review came after President Donald Trump called FIFA chief Gianni Infantino last week to call for the soccer boss to take another look at the decision, after Balogun received a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Said suspension of the implementation was decided considering all of the specific circumstances surrounding the incident and evidence available,” the committee said, referring to the lifting of Balogun’s one-game ban. “The FIFA Disciplinary Committee (as any other FIFA judicial body) is independent as provided by the FIFA Statutes and the FIFA Disciplinary Code.” The committee also argued that by not overturning Balogun’s red card entirely, but instead merely suspending his one-game ban, it had applied a “much more balanced measure.” Soccer pundits had widely criticized the referee’s decision to send Balogun off during the last-32 encounter, but commentators, European politicians and soccer officials rounded on the move to let Balogun play against Belgium. Earlier Monday, UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, said that FIFA’s decision “crossed a red line,” adding that it was “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”

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Conservative fight against license renewals for ABC stations heats up

A group of prominent conservative organizations has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny license renewal requests from the eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC, accusing the network of political, racial and sexual bias and supporting the Chinese communist party. The petitions come after the commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, took the nearly unprecedented step of requiring the network, a frequent recipient of attacks from Donald Trump, to apply several years early to maintain its ability to broadcast in markets around the country. While Carr has said the early license renewal process stems from an FCC investigation into ABC’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, petitioners are free to include a variety of grievances against the network and concerns about whether ABC is operating in the public interest.

The petitions – part of an open process that allows anyone to argue that ABC is not fit to hold publicly owned television licenses – came from groups like the Center for American Rights, which has played a significant role during Carr’s tenure atop the FCC agency as an initiator of complaints against major broadcast television networks. In a petition to deny filed last Monday, the group said the stations were not being operated “in the public interest” in part because ABC’s programs “show a consistent and overt partisan bias”, citing the group’s past complaints about late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and the network’s moderation of a 2024 presidential debate, among other concerns. “ABC ignores long-standing Commission precedents and principles protecting the integrity of the news,” the group wrote. “ABC engages in explicit racial and gender discrimination. ABC cozies up to the Communist Chinese Party and airbrushes over religious and ethnic cleansing. ABC fails to respect this Commission’s rules.” The organization lobbied the FCC to deny ABC’s renewal requests and to call the matter for a hearing, “because the Petition and accompanying materials raise sufficient questions [about] whether ABC is operating in the public interest or remains worthy of the public trust”.

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Inside Trump’s ideological fight with the Smithsonian

Coming from the leader of almost any other major museum, the comments made around the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary by Lonnie G. Bunch III, the head of the Smithsonian Institution, would have seemed almost self-evident truths. The Smithsonian’s mission, Mr. Bunch told CNN last week, is to “?give you questions and answers that will make you understand the complexity of who we are as a nation” using “the best nonpartisan scholarship we have.” On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said the institution was like the glue that holds the nation together. “Red states, blue states — whatever your politics, you come to the Smithsonian,” he said. But after more than a year of intense pressure from President Trump and his allies over what they term “improper ideology” in the Smithsonian’s presentation of American history and culture, Mr. Bunch’s comments amounted to a public glimpse into a far less diplomatic, behind-the-scenes battle for control of the institution.

The inside story of the fight for control of the Smithsonian underscores how Mr. Trump has tried, with varying degrees of success, to impose his own view of American history, erase “wokeness,” influence which artists are worthy of exhibits and oust top leaders of the institution. Mr. Bunch spent much of the past year seeking to fend off or mitigate escalating demands from the administration to address what a White House report, issued on Saturday amid the July 4 festivities, characterized as a drive that “has moved the museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.” The blistering report focused on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. It followed a March 2025 executive order from Mr. Trump, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Mr. Bunch, the first Black secretary of the Smithsonian, has largely avoided engaging publicly with Mr. Trump’s criticisms. Without mentioning the president, he told CNN on Friday: “It scares me when people aren’t brave enough to face their history. And in some ways you have to face it anyway.”

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Meet 'Project 2029' — and its war on the annoyance economy

Imagine no more annoying robocalls. No more spam texts. No more hidden fees. No more jumping through hoops to cancel subscriptions or file an insurance claim. A group of Democratic policy veterans believes that daily annoyances like these have become a real economic problem. They even have a name for it: "the annoyance economy." Taking it on is one plank in a broader governing agenda they're assembling for a future Democratic president. They're calling it "Project 2029." Sound familiar? If you followed politics at all in 2024, you probably heard about Project 2025. Released by The Heritage Foundation, it laid out a conservative policy blueprint for a second Trump administration. Democrats attacked the project nonstop as extreme, and Trump distanced himself from it on the campaign trail.

But what had looked like an election liability became a governing asset: The Trump administration came into office with a ready-to-go policy agenda and quickly began pursuing many of Project 2025's proposals. That experience apparently left an impression on the other side of the aisle. Project 2029 aims to give a future Democratic president a similarly ready-to-go governing blueprint. And I recently learned that a former classmate of mine, Chad Maisel, is the executive director of the effort, so I called him up. Maisel previously served as a special assistant to President Biden on the White House Domestic Policy Council. "I think the lesson from Project 2025," Maisel says, "is just the importance of preparation." He wants a future Democratic president to "have a bookshelf full of really bold, transformational ideas" that are ready to be deployed on their first day in office. Project 2029 is still in its early stages. They'll be releasing proposals on a rolling basis over the next year or so. Much of what they've previewed so far is what you'd probably expect from Democrats in today's economy: ideas to lower child care costs, make health care and housing more affordable, reduce energy bills, protect kids online.But the Project 2029 proposal that immediately caught our attention was the one to take on the annoyance economy. The annoyance economy is a catch-all term referring to a slew of frustrating business practices that waste our time and money. Think hidden fees that appear only at checkout. Jumping through hoops to cancel a subscription.

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As Israel becomes Democratic litmus test, Jewish progressives warn about a tilt into antisemitism

Rep. Becca Balint helped Sen. Bernie Sanders craft and lead efforts to cut US arms sales to Israel, wrote an op-ed calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide” and has stood proudly with fellow progressives for two decades. But Balint was wincing last week as she stood on the steps of the Capitol, recounting the warning she gave her congressional staff. “I know at some point there will be a day of reckoning, because I still believe that Jews should have a homeland,” the Vermont Democrat told CNN. “There will be people, I think some of my own supporters, who will turn on me, because I still believe in a two-state solution. I still do. I still believe that Israel should be safe and secure. I believe that the Palestinians have been so ill-treated for so long and deserve a safe and secure homeland. I do not believe Israel should be dismantled.”

Balint described being “shaken to my core” watching the video of Scott Wiener, the California state senator running for retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat, recently being hounded out of a transgender rights event with angry shouts including, “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel, you piece of sh*t!” She described a familiar ache. Like the people who tell her that homophobia doesn’t exist and then ask her what it means that she’s a lesbian. Like the House Democratic colleague she wouldn’t name who she says came to a bipartisan antisemitism taskforce meeting and said, “I didn’t really think there was any antisemitism anymore, because all the Jews are rich.” Like the people who accuse Jewish politicians of having dual loyalty. For many liberals, longtime policy priorities like universal healthcare or stopping climate change are now intertwined with opposing Israel. An ascendant faction of the left argues there’s no such thing anymore as “progressive except for Palestine” — a phrase that took off in the years following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and the ensuing war in Gaza — and sees opposition to Israel as a Democratic litmus test.

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U.S. agencies seized more than 600 drones near World Cup sites

U.S. agencies have seized over 600 drones near FIFA World Cup venues and fan zones since the start of the tournament on June 11, the Transportation Security Administration said on Monday. On match days, all aircraft operations, including drones, are prohibited within a radius of three nautical miles and up to 3,000 feet (914 meters) above ground level around the stadiums unless specifically authorized by air traffic controllers. The FBI said drones have been seized from restricted airspace across all 11 U.S. host cities. The FBI said that 130 drones had been seized in Miami alone, and over 70 in Dallas during five matches. The Federal Aviation Administration has barred drones from flying over matches and related fan gatherings across the United States.

At fan gatherings, drones are barred within a one-nautical-mile radius and up to 1,000 feet above ground level. Drone operators who enter restricted airspace without approval can face fines of up to $100,000, along with criminal charges and confiscation of their drone, the FBI said. The FBI has teams stationed around World Cup stadiums to detect and disable unauthorized drones. Cristobal Torres Alvarez, a 40-year-old Mexican national, was charged last week with flying a drone in restricted airspace around Dallas Stadium ahead of a match. In 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to bolster U.S. defenses against threatening drones, and the Homeland Security Department has installed new counter-drone defense systems at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. There have been numerous drone incidents in prior years over major U.S. sporting events. In 2025, a man pleaded guilty after he was charged with violating defense airspace by flying a drone over a National Football League playoff game in Baltimore.

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The Hill prematurely publishes McConnell obit

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has not passed away, at least according to current news reports — but The Hill accidentally published an article clearly intended to be embargoed until he has. The article in question, screenshotted and posted to X ahead of its removal, was titled, "A lookback at Mitch McConnell's time in the Senate," but was prefaced by an all-caps warning to site editors, saying, "DO NOT USE." McConnell, a decades-long titan in the Senate who previously served as Republican Leader, has been in the hospital for weeks, after he was reportedly discovered "unconscious and unresponsive" in his home, given CPR for cardiac arrest, and taken by advanced emergency support team.

Few details have been released publicly about his condition since then, although some sources have insisted he is "recovering." This comes after Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer with close ties to the White House, alleged with no evidence that sources told her McConnell is "officially brain dead," something that no other source has corroborated. This is not the first time in the last few weeks that a major story was erroneously published and retracted. NPR's Nina Totenberg came under fire last week after publishing an article announcing the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who as of this writing has not retired.

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Lockheed Martin is covering the cost of Trump’s White House helipad

President Donald Trump said on Monday morning that an American company owned by Lockheed Martin would take on the cost of building a helipad at the White House, one of the president’s many construction projects across Washington as he moves to leave his imprint on the nation’s capital. He singled out Sikorsky, the manufacturer of the fleet of Marine One helicopters used by the White House for decades, as the reason such a project was needed in the first place — arguing that the company’s new, more powerful aircraft had torn up the historic South Lawn and sent chunks of sod flying to the doorstep of the Oval Office. He claimed that the donation, which Lockheed Martin confirmed in a statement to NOTUS, was made because the company felt bad about the damage.

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Lead Stories

Texas Senate polls give Ken Paxton and James Talarico reasons to worry

If the political truism that anyone trying to get elected to public office had best run scared — or run unopposed — still holds true, two recent polls in the Texas race for U.S. Senate suggest that both candidates are entering the final four months of the 2026 campaign with much trepidation. Both the Times/Siena Poll and one by the Texas Politics Project show Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico in a dead heat. The Times shows the race tied at 47-47, and the Politics Project, an arm of the University of Texas, gives Paxton the edge by just 1 percentage point. Those numbers should worry any Texas Republican.

Two years ago, Donald Trump carried Texas by 14 percentage points en route to his return to the White House. Two years before that, Paxton buried his Democratic opponent in his bid for a third term as Texas attorney general by a comfortable 10 points as Republicans kept alive their winning streak in statewide elections that began in 1998. Adding to Paxton's nail-biting is the nosedive in Trump's approval rating in the nation's most reliably Republican large state. In 2024, Trump beat Democratic nominee Kamala Harris 56% to 42% in Texas. The Politics Project poll that came out in late June shows Trump less popular in Texas now than Harris was 18 months ago. Trump announced last week that he plans to come to Dallas in September for an unusual midterm meeting of the Republican National Committee. No doubt that will excite Republicans, which would likely help Paxton. But because Trump is sitting at 43% approval and 51% disapproval in Texas, his appearance in Dallas could end up energizing more Democrats than Republicans.

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Treasury has an internal report warning about the dangers of an AI bubble

A draft report inside the Treasury Department is set to warn of the risks posed by the artificial intelligence market, likening key aspects of it to the dotcom bubble that upended the U.S. economy when it burst in the early 2000s. The document, the existence and contents of which have not been previously reported but was obtained by NOTUS, is a significant departure from the Trump administration’s public tone, which has focused on encouraging unrelenting investment to unlock exponential growth. Career Treasury analysts found that AI firms are more deeply entrenched in the U.S. economy than their dotcom predecessors and pose significant risk to the entire system if financial conditions change, productivity goals are missed or various choke points stymie growth. A downturn in the AI market would send shockwaves throughout the entire economic ecosystem, the analysts wrote.

The report concluded that the AI bubble’s popping would lead to less of an immediate crash than the U.S. economy experienced with dotcoms in the early 2000s. But the analysts predicted that companies would cut back, investors would lose confidence, and the economy would grow more slowly should the industry falter. Stock markets, private credit markets, companies financing data center buildouts, cloud providers, chip manufacturers and utilities would all feel the effect, according to the report. The report was prepared by Treasury analysts for Secretary Scott Bessent, Federal Reserve Board Chair Kevin Warsh and various federal financial regulators and offers a rare glimpse of how the Trump administration is examining the risks posed by AI. It has been completed for weeks and is awaiting formal approval before reaching its intended audience, which is eventually expected to include the public. The report stresses that AI companies maintain some fundamental differences from the businesses that dominated the dotcom boom of the late 1990s, which was defined by speculative excess and an overreliance on debt financing. Many of the top AI companies, by contrast, are more mature, profitable and maintain healthier balance sheets, which could blunt the impacts of the “bubble” bursting — or if it bursts at all.

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FIFA lifts US star striker Balogun’s red card suspension at World Cup after Trump calls Infantino

U.S. President Donald Trump intervened on behalf of star U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, whose red-card suspension was lifted in a decision that allows him to play in a World Cup match against Belgium on Monday. A single red card can completely change a World Cup match. Here’s why it’s the most feared punishment in soccer. Produced by Nandini Gupta Balogun, the American leader with three goals in the tournament, received a red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemovic of Bosnia-Herzegovina in a 2-0 round of 32 win on Wednesday, triggering an automatic one-game suspension. FIFA announced Sunday that the suspension had been lifted for the round of 16 match, an extraordinary move that triggered praise from Trump and outrage from Belgium’s team. It appeared to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup didn’t result in a suspension.

Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the game asking FIFA review the red card, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump said in a statement on social media. The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said it was “astonished,” and Belgium coach Rudi Garcia mocked FIFA’s action. “I didn’t know that in the offices of FIFA the fifth of July was the first of April in Europe,” Garcia said through a translator in an April Fools’ Day comparison. “The Belgian federation does not defend itself, it does not protect the national team. She defends football in general, she defends her integrity, her ethics. I think it’s the first time in the history of the World Cup that there is this kind of decision.” Garcia wouldn’t respond when asked about a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport or whether he thought Trump impacted FIFA’s action. “In order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at this FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament, the RBFA is investigating all potential options,” the Belgian federation said in a statement.

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Anti-incumbent mood sweeping country in troubling sign for GOP majorities

A sour, anti-incumbent mood is sweeping across the nation on its 250th anniversary in what political analysts say is an especially troubling sign for Republican control of the House and Senate, given President Trump’s slumping approval rating. Rising voter anger with the status quo has hit both parties, with eight House incumbents — five Democrats and three Republicans — losing primary races this year in addition to two GOP Senate incumbents, Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.) and John Cornyn (Texas). Republicans on Capitol Hill fear the antiestablishment mood could cost them control of the House and perhaps the Senate as well. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott (S.C.) has warned Senate GOP colleagues privately “about how bad polling is, currently, for Republicans and how bad the president is losing ground among all groups,” said a senior Republican aide.

Senate Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton (Ark.) also shared polling with Senate Republicans at a recent lunch meeting that showed independents moving in large numbers away from the GOP and toward Democrats, according to a GOP senator who attended the presentation. Whit Ayres, a prominent Republican pollster, warned that Trump’s slumping approval rating is a red flag for Republican prospects, citing political trends over recent decades. “We know that the party in power tends to lose House seats in a midterm election, but the number of seats lost is highly correlated with the president’s popularity. When presidential job approval is above 50 percent, the average loss of House seats for his party is 14. When it’s below 50 percent, the average loss of House seats for his party is 32,” he said. Ayres said there is “a lot of variation around those numbers” and that with “extreme redistricting,” mid-decade redistricting and growing polarization among voters, GOP losses may be limited. “But there are very few people at this point who are predicting that the Democrats will not gain seats in the House,” he added.

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State Stories

For Central Texas flood survivors, recovery is 'storm after the storm'

Reminders of the family Terry Traugott and Sherry McCutcheon’s lost in last year’s Central Texas floods are everywhere in their Manor home. Their momma’s pink cane, covered with dirt they can’t yet wipe off. The burnt-out living room light bulb because their brother, Gary, always changed it. An incomplete puzzle their mother worked on. The sisters can’t finish it without her. On July 5, 2025, McCutcheon and Traugott lost their momma, Betty Massey West, 84, and brothers, Doug West, 54, and Gary Traugott, 60, when a raging flood in northwest Travis County destroyed their family home and claimed their lives.

The sisters spent the day with their mom on July 4, eating Chinese food and drinking Diet Cokes, sharing memories and watching fireworks through the rain on their way home. “The last day she spent with us. It was so weird, it was like magic. I felt love so thick, almost like you could cut it,” McCutcheon said. “I didn’t want her to leave.” Hours after the sisters dropped their mom at home, water from Big Sandy Creek poured into the house. In the historic July 5, 2025, flood, 18 people in Central Texas died, including 10 in Travis County. A day before, a devastating flood killed more than 100 people in Kerr County, about 130 miles west of Austin. One year later, almost no one in Travis County has begun to rebuild. Roads and river banks are weaker than before July 5, 2025, and families are living in temporary housing closer to the flood zone as they wait for permit approval, insurance awards, safety measures and state and federal aid, multiple survivors told the American-Statesman. Despite new emergency state legislation that requires counties to install warning sirens and flood gauges in flood-prone areas, the community is without those resources. It could be until 2027 before the county installs them.

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Austin bolstering its semiconductor ecosystem with bulk of state TSIF grants

KoMiCo Technology Inc. executives for years have been waiting for a decision on an application through the federal CHIPS and Science Act. That is all while its biggest customers, like chipmakers Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Texas Instruments Inc., were approved, allowing them to building large fabs in Taylor and Sherman. That’s complicated things at a long-planned 40,000-square-foot expansion at KoMiCo’s longtime facility at 201 Michelangelo Way in Round Rock, where the company is expected to be ready to service those large chipmakers and a wealth of other customers. It has instead been forced to pivot, securing $750,000 from the city of Round Rock and $2 million from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund to accelerate that buildout. “We’re not like them,” said Ulysses Schussler, the company’s technical sales director, referring to Samsung and TI. “Our pockets are not as deep. It really takes a lot to commit the amount of capital needed to support those factories.”

The Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund – along with the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium and TSIC executive committee – was established back during the 2023 legislative session. It provides funding to companies engaged in semiconductor research, design and manufacturing. It is already proving to be a lifeline for many companies in the Austin area – and further strengthening the metro's reputation as a semiconductor hub. The fund has awarded $458.9 million in grants to 28 different entities statewide, including direct semiconductor manufacturers, parts and materials suppliers and educational institutions, as of June 25, according to data compiled by the Austin Business Journal. The vast majority of that amount – roughly $358 million, or 78%, spread across 18 grants – has gone to Austin-area companies so far, according to an ABJ data analysis. That number nears 80% when you add in two grants awarded to companies in Killeen, increasingly part of the Austin area. Houston-area entities have only received about 11% of total grant award money. Lubbock-area companies have gotten around 4.3% and Dallas-area companies 4.1%, according to an analysis of that data.

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Data center developer donates millions for Ellis County animal shelter, college as pushback grows

As concerns grow around the influx of data centers being built across Texas – including from the state’s governor – one company in Ellis County is trying to better its relationship with the community. Compass Datacenters recently made a $15 million donation for a new animal shelter in Ellis County after the SPCA ended its contract there last year. "One of the things we always try to do in communities is if there's a need for any infrastructure, we always want to kind of know about it as a long-term neighbor and so there was an immediate need," said Chris Crosby, founder and CEO of Compass Datacenters. The county approved the donation last month. It comes as Compass is planning to build another facility in the town of Red Oak, where the Dallas Morning News reported the developer has been expanding its footprint in recent years.

Many residents questioned whether the donation was made with “strings attached.” At a commissioners meeting last month, Waxahachie resident Susie Hall said she understands the need for a shelter but didn’t agree with the county relying on a data center. “I hate to think that we're going to be obligated to Compass because there will be something they're going to want in return," Hall said. Ellis County Judge John Wray said the donation does not come with any obligations. "There is no strings attached," Wray told KERA." We understand it, this is the first time our county to my knowledge has entered into a community benefits agreement with a gift of this nature." Last week, Compass also donated a $12.6 million, 40,000-square-foot building to Texas State Technical College to expand the school’s Mechanical, Electrical, IT Data Center Pathway Program, which prepares students for careers in the data center industry. "We’ve watched students come into this program with no background in the field and walk out ready to start careers that will support their families for decades,” Chancellor Mike Reeser said in a statement. “That’s what happens when a curriculum is built around what employers need. This new facility means we will be able to give even more people the same life-changing opportunity.”

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New CDC data suggests Houston and suburbs new COVID-19 hotspot

Houston is now roughly six years removed from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But recent data suggests COVID might be surging once again in the Bayou City. Recent data released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) last week showed one in 264 Americans are currently "actively infectious" with COVID-19, with 186,000 new daily infections nationwide. A large portion of those infected are not "actively infectious," per the CDC, with less than one percent of reported cases deemed actively infectious across more than 40 of the 50 states across the U.S. That's not the situation in Texas, however. The CDC data shows Texas, Nevada and the territory of Guam have the most actively infectious cases as a share of the cases in a given state.

Portions of Central Texas show a 2.4 percent to 3.5 percent active infectious rate, a rate deemed "high" by CDC data. That share grows in Houston, Galveston and portions of East Texas, where there is a "very high" active infectious rate of more than 3.5 percent. Guam, parts of northern Nevada and small pockets of both California and the East Coast are the only other areas nationwide showing an active infectious rate over 3.5 percent. Mike Hoerger, an associate professor of psychology and psychiatry at the Tulane Cancer Center, wrote on X he is encouraged by decreasing levels of active infections in California and Hawaii. He's conversely concerned with the COVID levels in Fort Bend County, which he notes is "right next to Houston." CDC data showed COVID infections are growing in three states (including Texas) and declining in 34 states nationwide. The Houston Health Department and Rice University collaborated to produce a City of Houston SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Monitoring Dashboard, which tracks the likely incidence of COVID across local communities through wastewater testing. COVID levels rose in the northern Houston suburbs via data tracked on June 22, while the rest of the county remained stagnant.

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Life after the flood: How a Texas father’s loss spurred a quest to protect others

From Matthew Childress' home in Houston you can hear the bells at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, the same church where his daughter Chloe's funeral was held on July 12 — about a week after she lost her life in catastrophic flooding in the Texas Hill Country. For Childress, the funeral was overwhelming. He stood in front of a packed house in the church and told the crowd how he imagined Chloe and her fellow Camp Mystic counselor, Katherine Ferruzzo, were helping others as the floodwaters overtook their cabin. "Chloe was not just my hero. She was an actual hero," Childress said. "I know she was leading those children with Katherine by her side. Following the counselor policies, doing everything they could in their power when it got bad to lead those girls to safety. "She wasn't just my hero," he added. "She was their hero." Since then, he's turned his grief into action — advocating for public safety legislation and emergency warning systems in Texas and elsewhere.

As he heard the church bells ring in April, Childress paused. "It's beautiful," he said. Chloe was set to spend a month at Camp Mystic, having returned for the first time as a counselor. Instead, Matthew and Wendie Childress drove from Houston to the Hill Country after the flood and identified Chloe's body at a funeral home in Kerrville on July 5. Since then, Matthew said he's been oscillating between different stages of grief. "It could be a picture, it could be an action, it could be driving by a restaurant that you went to, but we live in this world every single day that I find myself just shaking my head, saying, ‘I can’t believe I find myself here,'" he said. In the months since Chloe's passing, Matthew, Wendie and other families who lost loved ones at the camp have immersed themselves in the work to make sense of their losses. They've pushed for state investigations and new legislation in Texas and across the U.S., along with filing lawsuits against the camp in hopes of preventing other families from experiencing a similar tragedy.

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Study finds Texas cities can impact weather patterns, storm intensity

A recent study out of Texas A&M found that cities have a role in shaping weather patterns. The findings, published in the science journal Nature earlier this year, show thunderstorms are more likely to develop and strengthen over large urban cities like Dallas and Houston, while cold fronts potentially weaken as they move across urban areas. “Cities appear to have an impact on rainfall systems and that impact depends on the type of system,” said state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, a co-author of the study. The key way cities affect weather is through temperature, Nielsen-Gammon said. Urban areas tend to hold on to heat longer because of the density of pavement and large buildings, known as the “heat island” effect.

“That presumably accounts for how it is that we saw more thunderstorms developing over cities than over the surrounding countryside,” Nielsen-Gammon said. “[The air is] just a little bit more unstable over the cities.” Researchers used radar data of more than 40,000 storms recorded between 1995 and 2017 to put together a three-dimensional picture of the atmosphere around Austin, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. “All four cities exhibit a higher frequency of isolated storms compared with their rural counterparts, with 7–16% increases in three inland cities,” read the study. In the Dallas area specifically, Nielsen-Gammon said researchers found that heat trapped in paved areas tends to amplify the heat island effect. “You've got these places where there's lots of evaporation in the rural areas with the reservoirs and the farms and so forth compared to the urban areas, where things tend to be a bit drier,” Nielsen-Gammon said. He added that continued population growth in major cities like Dallas and Houston only amplify the intensity of certain storms. “We're able to actually see that different types of storms are actually affected differently,” Nielsen-Gammon said. “That explains some of the different results that have appeared in previous studies.” Results from the study can help improve weather forecasting, flood mitigation and emergency preparedness in major cities.

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Delays in federal research funding hit Texas universities

The Trump administration is delaying tens of millions of dollars in federal research grants to some of Texas' biggest universities. While many institutions said they hope to eventually receive approval for the money, the administration's plans remain unclear amid a larger overhaul of the system by which grant applications are evaluated. Experts warn the holdup is leaving some universities to put research plans on hold. "The problem is uncertainty. These universities are trying to plan," said Dr. Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which represents scientists and researchers. "How many graduate students is the University of Texas or A&M going to accept? You base that on how much grant money you're going to get."

Texas A&M University in College Station saw direct grants from the National Science Foundation drop from $11.7 million over the first nine months of the 2025 fiscal year to $2.4 million over the same period this year, according to federal data compiled by the non-profit Grant Witness, which tracks federal research spending. In Houston, Rice University's NSF funding dropped from $14.1 million to $4.2 million over the same period, and the University of Houston's funding declined from $7.6 million to $2.8 million. National Institutes of Health funding going to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston dropped by 26% to $73 million this fiscal year. And Baylor College of Medicine has received $125 million in grants so far this fiscal year, down from $147 million the previous year. Those delays reflect a nationwide trend, with NSF awards down 39% so far this fiscal year and NIH awards down 24%, according to federal research spending tracker ScienceSpending.org. Those two programs represent close to one third of federal research dollars, with the rest largely coming from the Departments of Defense and Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Sen. Kolkhorst reflects on Guadalupe River flood legislation one year after deadly disaster

One year after the Guadalupe River floods killed 138 people across approximately four counties, state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-District 18, said Texas has made significant legislative progress on camp safety and flood warning infrastructure — but that more work remains. The July 4, 2025, floods killed 119 people in Kerr County alone. Twenty-five campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic were among those killed. Kolkhorst said the most prominent legislation to emerge from a special session following the disaster was Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1, known as the Heaven’s 27 Acts. “Those legislations really focus on camp safety,” Kolkhorst said. “Some common sense things that we put in law that are requirements now.”

She said the bills require camps to designate a muster spot, ensure counselors are trained, prohibit cabins in floodplains, and file evacuation plans with every county where a camp operates. Evacuation plans must also be provided to parents. “SB1 and HB1, very good bills that are being looked at across our nation as the new standard for camp safety,” Kolkhorst said. Kolkhorst said Senate Bill 5 set aside $50 million for rain gauges and sirens distributed as grants to counties. She said Kerr County received eight sirens and rain gauges, six of which had been installed as of May 15. The remaining two were still being installed at the time of the interview. She said the initial funding prioritized counties included in Gov. Greg Abbott’s disaster declaration, an area she described as Flash Flood Alley — a wide swath of Texas counties. Kolkhorst also said the legislature set aside $28 million for meteorological equipment designed to better predict what she called “rain bombs.” She said the equipment, which will be unique to Texas, is still being built and would fill a gap in weather monitoring between Del Rio and Brownsville. “So much progress made, but still a lot needs to be done in making sure that we warn people properly,” Kolkhorst said.

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Why are Republicans suddenly for Ibogaine?

A few years ago, former Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry traveled to Mexico to take a psychedelic. During his youth, Perry experienced three concussions and has dealt with mild insomnia and anxiety since his early 20s – around the same time he began serving in the Air Force. After years of his own research and having been evaluated by a neuroscientist who told him he had mild atrophy, Perry decided to leave the country and undergo psychedelic-assisted therapy, hoping to alleviate some of his health conditions. The hallucinogen was ibogaine – a psychoactive compound extracted from the Tabernanthe iboga plant and a Schedule I substance in the U.S., which meant he had to leave the country to legally pursue the treatment.

Studies have shown that the substance can help reduce opioid dependence and produce “long-term positive psychological outcomes,” specifically for individuals with traumatic brain injuries. However, there are serious risks that come with consuming the substance. Without suitable screening and expert supervision, evidence shows that taking the substance can result in cardiac arrest. He told the Chronicle that his experience with the substance took him on a “journey through outer space.” During his mental excursion, he saw different Mesoamerican emblems, hieroglyphics, and a satanic figure. “[It] was just a fascinating coursing through the universe and seeing a lot of things,” Perry said. After Perry returned home, the same neuroscientist conducted two sets of scans on his brain – one just a week after the treatment and another six months later. There was progress. “A neurosurgeon, who was a respectful skeptic initially, who has become a complete believer in this medicine, look[ed] at my before and after scans and said, ‘Your atrophy is gone. Your brain looks like a 40-year-old individual’s brain,’” Perry said. The now 76-year-old told us that he no longer battles with the mild cases of insomnia and anxiety that he had to manage for about 50 years while in the Air Force and later serving in multiple positions within the Texas government. “I don’t suffer from those,” he explained. “I don’t have to deal with those anymore.”

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ICE detained Iranian Christian who taught preschool at Houston church

Zahra Razavinik, an Iranian immigrant who has lived in the United States for nearly three decades, is part of a team of teachers at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church who encourage preschool children to develop their “God-given gifts.” Federal immigration officials have deemed her a threat to national security and sent her to the El Valle detention center in Raymondville. She’s been detained since January, despite her lack of criminal history and efforts to relocate to a country that will grant her a visa. “She cannot go back to Iran. Keep in mind the country conditions over there,” Razavinik’s attorney, Misbah Chaudhry said. “Right now, it's open war between Iran and USA.” What’s just as concerning, Chaudhry added, is that Razavinik, 66, is a Christian.

“It's a fundamentalist government over there, very conservative,” she said. “She is a liberal and because of her religious activities, she has no option to go back.” It’s unclear how the current conflict between the United States and Iran could impact Razavinik’s fate. The United States and Iran came to an agreement this month to cease hostilities. Chaudhry doubts conditions for people like Razavinik will improve. Christians in Iran continue to be arrested and imprisoned in the aftermath of the June 2025 12-Day War with Israel, human rights groups have reported. Last year, authorities in Iran arrested more than 250 Christians on charges related to their religious beliefs, an increase of more than 80%, according to Article 18, a London-based nonprofit that advocates for religious freedom in Iran. More than 40 Christians were still serving sentences at the end of 2025, and at least 16 others remained in pre-trial detention, the report states.

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North Texas-affiliated White Nationalists march in Washington amid 250th anniversary celebrations

A large group of masked men wearing the markings of a well-known white nationalist group marched with flags and chanted “reclaim America!” in Washington on Saturday morning, as the capital city prepared for the main events celebrating the United States’ 250th birthday. The march, through neighborhoods around the U.S. Capitol, was brief, though bystanders posted scores of videos on social media. The group left the city sometime before 11 a.m., the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement. The group of apparently several hundred people wore tan baseball hats marked with the logo of the white supremacist group Patriot Front, which includes a ring of 13 white stars, a reference to the first American colonies. They carried various flags, including the Confederate battle flag.

“M.P.D. recognizes the rights of individuals to peacefully express their views and remains committed to maintaining public safety and security for D.C. residents and visitors,” a police spokeswoman said in a statement. Patriot Front, which has long called for the United States to be turned into a white ethno-state, has a history of staging high-profile demonstrations, almost always in the same uniform of dark shirts, khaki pants, work boots and white face masks. “This definitely looks like Patriot Front,” said Mary McCord, a former assistant attorney general for national security under presidents Obama and Trump. She said the logo on their hats, which includes imagery resembling fascist symbols of Italy in the 1930s, was consistent with the group, as was the clothing. The group — which broke away from another white nationalist organization, Vanguard America, in 2017 after the bloody “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. — has employed the same tactics in different cities. Demonstrators often show up in public spaces in rented U-Hauls, spilling out onto the streets for a flag-waving march before piling back into the trucks and disappearing. Two summers ago, hundreds of Patriot Front members descended on Nashville, carrying upside-down American flags and causing a major uproar in the city.

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Eric Bronner: I’m a veteran. Closing Texas GOP primaries betrays conservative values

(Eric H. Bronner is a Navy veteran, Naval Academy graduate, lifelong independent voter, and founder of Veterans for All Voters, a national nonpartisan nonprofit.) Last month at the Texas GOP convention in Houston, Gov. Greg Abbott pledged to ensure that “only Republicans vote in Republican primaries.” He framed the proposal as an election-integrity measure. I understand why that line draws applause in a political party’s convention hall. I understand that party identity matters to many Texans. Principles matter. Private associations matter. But Texas primary elections are not private meetings. They are taxpayer-funded public elections, run under long-established rules set by the Texas Legislature. That is why Veterans for All Voters, the nonprofit I founded, filed an amicus brief in federal court: In Hunt v. Texas, we support the position taken by Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson.

As a nonpartisan veterans group, we oppose closed primaries in blue states, red states and anywhere else where party insiders try to wall off public elections from the public. Nelson, a Republican appointed by Abbott, will likely leave office this month. She rightly defended state law and opposed the GOP’s lawsuit to close the primaries. In an age when too many officials take cues from party elites before they read the law, she did the job that every Texan needed her to do. Now Texans should watch closely. The next secretary of state should be chosen for fidelity to the law, steadiness under pressure and a willingness to serve every Texan. A successor chosen to fold the state’s hand in court would send a very different message. The chief elections officer of Texas serves all voters. You don’t want them to be an errand-runner for party bosses. In Texas, voters do not register by party. They show up, choose one primary, and participate in that party’s contests for that election. They cannot vote in both primaries. Closing primaries would replace that simple system with additional registration and paperwork burdens on all voters and costly upgrades to the state's voter registration systems. Conservatives should be the first to reject that government overreach and unnecessary expense.

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National Stories

Trump says he overruled plan to cancel Mall celebration amid weather evacuations

President Donald Trump said Sunday he personally overruled a recommendation to cancel the July Fourth “Salute to America” event on the National Mall after approaching storms forced a chaotic evacuation of hundreds of thousands of revelers and triple-digit heat cast a sweltering pall over much of the day. The president — who took the stage just after 11 p.m. Saturday after a more than three-hour delay in the planned programming — on Sunday declared the event a rousing success in a Truth Social post. “When I heard that it was cancelled, I immediately overturned that decision,” he wrote. He congratulated law enforcement officials for quickly rescreening people who wanted to return once the storms passed. Still, the crowd who witnessed his speech and the fireworks show was less than half than those who had arrived earlier in the day, Trump said.

A senior White House official said Sunday that “all the entities involved” had recommended calling the festivities off altogether after storms forced the exodus from the Mall. “When POTUS heard this, he told all involved to invite everyone back in and the speech would take place, even if it meant waiting until 2 a.m.,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. In the end, Trump got the July Fourth rally and pyrotechnic show he wanted. And much like the event itself, which effectively supplanted earlier plans for Washington’s July Fourth celebrations that had been in the works for years, it happened primarily through his own sheer force of will. A spokesperson for Freedom 250 — the White House-led organization that put together Saturday’s event — did not respond to questions about Trump’s account of a recommended cancellation. Those involved in the planning acknowledged that the weather had presented challenges throughout the day, strained the patience of revelers, and drawn questions from critics about whether officials had adequately prepared for a weather forecast that days before the event had called for high heat and a strong chance of dangerous storms.

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DOGE self-deleted on July 4th. The grand experiment fell apart long before that.

President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting commission that once plunged the government into chaos is nearing its destiny — becoming a former federal initiative. Up for debate: how and when the end will truly come for the Department of Government Efficiency, which triggered thousands of federal employees to leave their jobs and voided billions of dollars in government contracts. Trump’s January 2025 executive order creating DOGE also established a July 4, 2026, sunset. “A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift” to America on its semiquincentennial birthday, the president said when he announced the commission. But DOGE didn’t really deliver on that promise, said Elizabeth Linos, a Harvard Kennedy School public policy and management professor, as did others who spoke to POLITICO about DOGE’s dramatic efforts over the past 18 months. Instead, it resulted in a near-immediate loss of expertise and live-saving programs but cost savings nowhere near the $2 trillion once promised.

Looking long term, Linos said that “effectively, DOGE told the American people that they can’t trust government to protect their data, to use their data and technology for good.” “That has really long-lasting effects on our ability to rebuild trust in government or even convince the next generation of talent to enter government to begin with,” she said. DOGE claims it saved $215 billion, or $1,335.40 per taxpayer, with its cuts, which included slashing duplicative software licenses, canceling diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, grants as well as ending leases for underused office space. That’s a pittance to the federal budget, which is now about $7 trillion each year. The effort faded relatively early too as tech mogul Elon Musk clashed with government officials and left DOGE in May last year. What comes next is not clear. “President Trump was given a clear mandate to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government,” said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle. “He has made significant progress in making the federal government more efficient to better serve the American taxpayer.”

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The company processing ICE's medical payments hasn't paid out a dime

The company hired to process payments to health providers caring for people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s custody has so far paid zero dollars for those services. Acentra Health, the Virginia-based company that signed on in October to process the payments, has pushed back the timeline for doing so by several months and most recently said it would start reimbursements later this year. Those payments are meant to go to dentists, pharmacies, emergency departments and others for providing offsite care for immigrants. This means that health care providers are seeing immigrants in ICE detention without getting paid. And it’s raising concerns that if the money doesn’t come through, immigrants will stop receiving treatment.

“I think the question goes to ICE,” said Deborah Fleischaker, acting ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration. “Is this acceptable? Are they meeting the terms of the contract? Why are you continuing with them? How long are you going to go without having these claims processed before you can’t find people to provide medical care?” The contract is worth millions. As of June 4, Acentra Health had received $44.6 million of the $67.5 million contract, which is set to end on July 31, according to a federal government contracting database. ICE did not respond to a NOTUS inquiry. In a contracting document, ICE said that payment processing was essential to ensure proper care for detainees. “ICE’s ability to pay for medically necessary offsite care has been compromised since ICE has no system in place to process or pay medical claims,” the November document states. “It is an absolute emergency for ICE to immediately procure claims processing support because lack of this support will delay critical medical care for IAs such as dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, chemotherapy, etc.”

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After America’s 250th, Trump will test how far he can push NATO allies

Fresh off a week of star-spangled celebrations of America’s 250th, President Donald Trump departs for Turkey on Monday to meet with fellow leaders of NATO. They hope he wouldn’t declare independence from them. Trump has long been skeptical about NATO and European allies, asserting that the alliance the United States forged after World War II to fend off the Soviet Union has been taking advantage of Washington’s largesse. Deep into his second term, the president by now is now well acquainted with the theatrics of NATO gatherings, reveling, according to his associates, in the drama of threatening fellow leaders and watching them scramble to keep him happy. The strains increase every year, with Trump’s popularity sinking in Europe after he threatened to seize Greenland in January and sent energy prices spiking with his attack on Iran. The president has fumed that European allies didn’t do enough to help Washington in its war. And in recent days, he has renewed complaints about their defense spending, though he has successfully driven big increases.

Now, the alliance will again attempt to weather Trumpian pressure, by flattering him where possible and avoiding unnecessary confrontations. Trump is scheduled to arrive in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Tuesday and will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before having dinner with fellow NATO leaders that evening. The substantive meeting will be Wednesday morning, which diplomats have kept short to minimize potential disruptions. Afterward, Trump plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa before holding a news conference and returning to Washington, according to White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. The president’s grievances have already subsumed much of NATO’s business. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte laid the foundation last month, praising the president’s stewardship and delivering a presentation in the Oval Office of what he called the “Trump trillion,” with poster boards in golden, “Art of the Deal”-style lettering boasting increases in Europe’s defense spending over the last decade.

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Paul Pelosi allegedly involved in hit-and-run in California

The husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was involved in a hit-and-run in California that left a parked car with “major” damage authorities said Saturday, and he could face misdemeanor charges. Paul Pelosi was driving his brown convertible Friday in Yountville, a town in the heart of wine country, when he struck a legally parked car on the side of the road, briefly stopped and then drove away, the Napa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. No injuries were reported. A witness saw the collision and called 911. Shortly afterward sheriff’s deputies found Pelosi with damage to the front of his car on a road roughly a quarter of a mile away. He reportedly told officers he knew he hit something but was not sure when or what caused the damage.

Pelosi, 86, did not have any alcohol in his system, according to the statement. The sheriff’s office referred him to the Department of Motor Vehicles for a process to determine whether he may continue to drive — something that officials say is common for older drivers. Pelosi was not arrested, and because no one was injured, the sheriff’s office recommended a misdemeanor charge for fleeing the scene of an accident. A staffer for Nancy Pelosi did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Paul Pelosi pleaded guilty in 2022 to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence in Napa County and was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation. However, he served only two days in jail and received good conduct credit for two other days, leaving just one day to serve in a work program at the courthouse. As part of his probation, Pelosi was required to attend a three-month drinking driver class and install an ignition interlock device, which forces drivers to provide a breath sample to prove sobriety before the engine will start. He also was ordered to pay about $5,000 in victim restitution for medical bills and lost wages, along with nearly $2,000 in fines. That same year he was attacked and severely beaten with a hammer at the couple’s San Francisco home.

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Democrat Mallory McMorrow suspends her Michigan Senate campaign

Michigan Democrat Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign for the U.S. Senate on Sunday, abruptly reshaping the party primary just a month before the election and leaving a two-person contest between moderate Haley Stevens and progressive Abdul El-Sayed. McMorrow’s exit comes after many Democrats increasingly viewed her as a long shot for the nomination. It also creates a fresh dynamic in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races, forcing Democratic voters into a direct choice between Stevens, a mainstream congresswoman backed by much of the party establishment, and El-Sayed, supported by many progressive movement leaders. The binary choice will be on full display Tuesday, when Stevens and El-Sayed are set to face off in a televised debate. During a May debate, El-Sayed repeatedly went on the offensive against Stevens, who mostly declined to engage directly with him.

McMorrow’s departure could also prompt influential Democrats in the state to announce their support for Stevens because of concerns about El-Sayed’s electability in a general election. Some had stayed on the sidelines because of relationships with McMorrow. The seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is one that the party must hold if it hopes to reclaim the Senate majority in this fall’s midterm elections. The primary winner is expected to face Republican Mike Rogers, who lost to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024. McMorrow made the announcement in a statement and video posted online Sunday, which came after ballots have already gone out. “Today, I’m announcing that I am suspending my campaign for United States Senate,” McMorrow wrote. “And I’m doing it with a deep, deep sense of gratitude,” she said. “For our thousands of volunteers, for everyone who donated what you could — building a campaign with zero corporate PAC dollars. For my staff, who built this team up from nothing. I thank you.”

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ITV and Sky reshape British TV landscape with $2.1 billion deal

Sky ?has agreed to buy the broadcast channels and streaming service of Britain's ITV for £1.6 billion ($2.13 billion), creating a British champion ?with the scale to compete with global players like Netflix, Amazon and Disney. Sky CEO Dana Strong said the deal, announced on Monday and confirming a recent Reuters story, was a "defining moment", one of the biggest in the history of British broadcasting. It will now face scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers.

The combination of Britain's biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster ?and the pay-TV company Sky would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, but the rise of YouTube and the ?streaming giants, has left traditional companies exposed. The merger of the public ?service channels of ITV, and the leading pay-TV business of Sky, founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1989, would account for more than 70% of ?the UK television advertising market, analysts have said. Strong said the deal would deliver "outstanding British programming" in a rapidly changing world. "ITV will remain a public ?service broadcaster at the heart of British life, and we’re excited about the future we can build together," she said. To satisfy regulatory concerns, Sky may be forced to relinquish its third-party ad sales contracts, for example for Paramount-owned Channel 5, as the 70% television ad share includes those contracts.

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Lead Stories

Abbott appoints election denier lead 'election integrity' policy and firebrand as comptroller

A Texas state representative who believes the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump will lead election policy as a senior adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott. State Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Fort Worth Republican, resigned from the Texas House on Thursday to accept the new role developing policy and legislative strategy related to election integrity, according to a statement from the governor’s office. The two-term representative is among the most conservative members of the state House and a pastor at the Fort Worth mega church Mercy Culture. He does not have previous election administration experience.

He also annouynced on Thursday that Don Huffines will lead the comptroller’s office, elevating a one-time political nemesis to the post Huffines is seeking in the November election. The move comes after acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock — who Huffines beat in the March GOP primary — announced he was stepping down at the end of the month. Hancock is a close ally of Abbott’s and the governor backed him over Huffines in the primary. On Thursday, the governor said Huffines is the right man for the job, which includes overseeing the state’s finances and the rollout of the state’s new private school voucher program, a key policy priority for Abbott. The appointment is effective Aug. 1. In recent weeks, Schatzline was floated to replace Secretary of State Jane Nelson, who announced her retirement in June.

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Trump got the Senate candidates he wanted. How much will he spend to help them?

President Donald Trump reshaped this year’s U.S. Senate map by sidelining some Republican incumbents and promoting loyalists to replace them. Now the question is whether he’ll put his money where his mouth is. With four months to go until November’s elections, it’s still unclear how much MAGA Inc., the country’s largest political war chest with $382 million in the bank as of last month, plans to spend on key races. The silence has persisted even as Senate Republican leaders have urged Trump’s team, both privately and publicly, to pick up the tab for the president’s decisions. Front and center is Texas, where Trump successfully endorsed fiery conservative Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, a choice that some Republicans grumble has turned a safe election into a toss-up that will drain resources away from other battlegrounds.

Democratic nominee James Talarico, a state lawmaker, has made Paxton’s history of corruption allegations a central target of his campaign. “The president picked Paxton, and he’s got $350 million dollars,” Cornyn recently told Semafor. “I think he can spend his money.” Another challenge has emerged in North Carolina, where Sen. Thom Tillis declined to run for reelection after feuding with Trump last year over healthcare spending. Trump backed Michael Whatley, his former handpicked chair of the Republican National Committee, to run instead, and Democrats hope to flip the seat with former Gov. Roy Cooper. Some in Republican campaign leadership are expecting MAGA Inc. to pitch in for Whatley in North Carolina, where the state’s several metro media markets can be pricey. Republicans will likely be able to count on generous support from well-funded official party committees, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this week should be allowed to make unlimited direct contributions to candidates’ campaigns. But even that sum falls short of what Trump has stockpiled in MAGA Inc. Even though the president is constitutionally barred from running again, he began raising money shortly after winning a second term, and he’s regularly held fundraisers at his resort properties where tickets cost $1 million per person.

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Immigrant arrests surge to 10,000 in 5 days as ICE clamps down

Federal immigration officials have detained more than 10,000 people in the last five days, a major surge that has stemmed from a push within Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase arrest rates. Agency leaders in recent days ordered top ICE officials to focus more of their officers’ efforts on picking up immigrants they want to deport, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with federal officials. ICE officers have arrested people at check-ins with immigration authorities, during traffic stops and on the street. The push has apparently yielded results, with recent arrest numbers roughly doubling from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year. ICE officials were told that the White House wanted an increase in arrests, according to three officials with knowledge of the conversations.

One of the officials said that it was unclear how long the pace could continue, but that ICE officials had been told that 2,000 arrests a day was the new standard for enforcement. The surge has occurred without the fanfare of highly visible operations last year, in which officials announced their intentions ahead of time to target cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, and send officers pouring into the streets. Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, pledged to mount a quieter enforcement campaign following the chaos of a monthlong operation in Minnesota, where federal officers killed two U.S. citizens. The rise in arrests suggests that President Trump is determined to meet his pledge of mass deportations, a goal that is popular among his conservative supporters but that has fueled a political backlash amid the administration’s heavy-handed tactics. The Trump administration has promised more aggressive actions, particularly after the Supreme Court in recent days expanded the president’s power to set federal immigration policy, but undercut his effort to eliminate birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants and visitors.

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CPS Energy must pay nearly $400M over 2021 winter storm charges

A Bexar County judge ordered CPS Energy to pay nearly $400 million to two natural gas suppliers, rejecting the utility’s claim that prices charged during the February 2021 winter storm were unconscionable. State District Judge Laura Salinas ruled that Houston Pipe Line Co. LP and Oasis Pipeline LP charged market prices during the storm, that the contracts were enforceable and that CPS breached them by failing to pay the full invoices. Salinas found the prices charged by the subsidiaries of Dallas-based Energy Transfer LP were consistent with prevailing market prices and with prices paid by other buyers during the storm.

The judge awarded the two companies virtually everything they sought, including $263.7 million in unpaid gas charges, $119.1 million in prejudgment interest and $9.4 million in attorneys fees. In the five-page ruling issued Thursday, the judge also included court costs, post-judgment interest and additional attorneys fees if they prevail on appeal. In an emailed statement, CPS Energy said it is considering its appellate options. “CPS Energy is disappointed by the court’s decision, which will cost this community more than $390 million and may effectively end a key legal safeguard against grossly unfair treatment for essential services like natural gas during the next statewide disaster,” it said. Energy Transfer spokesperson Vicki Anderson Granado said it was pleased with the ruling. “The message is clear: CPS Energy must pay its bills just like everyone else,” she said. “The bills sent to CPS were for their many natural gas purchases and reflected the terms agreed to at that time based on market conditions. CPS failed to prepare appropriately for the winter storm season, and they put the interests of their customers at risk. We had no choice but to file suit to get CPS Energy to honor its contracts.”

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State Stories

Texas House candidate for Fort Worth area district posts racially coded meme

A Republican candidate for a Fort Worth area Texas House district posted and then deleted a racially coded meme on her campaign Facebook page. On July 1, Cheryl Bean posted on Facebook an AI-generated illustration of WNBA player Sophie Cunningham on a boat with her Indiana Fever teammates, posing similarly to the “Washington Crossing the Delaware” painting. In the image, Cunningham is pointing forward, referencing a June 22 game when she pointed dramatically at Phoenix Mercury player DeWanna Bonner after a physical altercation with Cunningham’s teammate Caitlin Clark. In the image, the Black players are wearing floaties while none of the white players are. “IYKYK A little humor for the day,” Bean wrote in the post on Cheryl Bean for Texas.

Bean is running for House District 94 in the Nov. 3 election. The district covers central Arlington, northeast Fort Worth, Hurst and parts of Bedford. The seat is held by Republican Tony Tinderholt, who announced his retirement in June 2025 and is now a candidate for Tarrant County commissioner. She is also the board chair of the Texas Center for Arts and Academics, which governs two public charter schools, one in Fort Worth. Several comments referenced why only the Black players have floaties and none of the white players do. “So the Floaties basically trying to say we can’t swim. Because from my angle I can see who doesn’t have them on,” one person wrote. Others laughed at the detail. “Not the black girls with floaties on” another person wrote with a laughing and cemetery emoji. “Okay Sophie looks fantastic but I noticed only the black women are wearing floaties. I think this made me laugh even more,” another wrote. “Why all the black ladies got water wings?” said another. By about 11:30 a.m. Thursday, the post was deleted.

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Dallas GOP convention could cost up to $40 million

The Republican extravaganza planned in Dallas this fall could cost as much as $40 million, but it remains unclear how much of the cost will fall on taxpayers, the event’s co-chair said. The first-of-its-kind midterm convention — dubbed the “Trump-a-palooza” — will be privately funded by donors, but whether Dallas will receive reimbursement for police, fire, traffic control and other public services needed to host the event at the city-owned American Airlines Center is up in the air. The potentially hefty price tag comes as Republicans are fundraising ahead of what is expected to be an expensive midterm election in November. The U.S. Senate race between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic Texas House member James Talarico is already costly.

Dallas developer and prominent Republican donor Ray Washburne told The Dallas Morning News that he has not seen a final budget but expects the two-day event to cost between $30 million and $40 million. Washburne, the event’s co-chair, estimates about 20,000 people would attend each night. City officials didn’t respond Thursday to questions about whether Dallas has committed funding, personnel or other public resources to the Sept. 9 and 10 convention. The city also didn't say whether it has developed preliminary cost estimates. A nonprofit host committee, which will include people from the area, is expected to be announced next week. That committee will cover some costs for hosting the event, according to Rick Gorka, who identified himself as a convention spokesman. The number of GOP donors in Dallas may have helped attract the event, said Tami Brown Rodriquez, the former chair of the Dallas County Republican Party.

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‘TEXAS’ street mural near UT covered overnight

The city of Austin covered the “TEXAS” street mural on Guadalupe Street in front of the University of Texas at Austin campus overnight with a mixture of gravel and oil, according to Jeff Stensland, the public information officer for Austin Transportation & Public Works. The mural's removal, first reported by The Daily Texan, UT's student newspaper, occurred between 3 and 6 a.m., Stensland said. The removal came after Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Transportation to eliminate “non-standard surface markings, signage and signals” in October. The mural was first installed in May 2024 to celebrate the Longhorns' joining the Southeastern Conference. In May, the Texas Department of Transportation rejected the city of Austin’s appeal to preserve the street art. Austin removed multiple other street murals early Thursday morning. Cities across the state have removed their murals to comply with Abbott's directive. In Houston, Montrose's rainbow crosswalks were removed in October.

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State senator plans to challenge San Marcos’ data center ban, says city lacks legal authority

Less than a month after San Marcos became the first city in Texas to ban data centers citywide, one state lawmaker says he plans to challenge the ordinance, arguing the city does not have the legal authority to enact it. In a statement to KXAN, State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said the city’s zoning amendment conflicts with state law. “They should not use zoning to ban anything everywhere in the city of San Marcos because that’s not lawful under the state of Texas guidelines. A ban doesn’t work here, and this will get challenged.”

The San Marcos City Council approved the ordinance in June after months of discussion over the potential impact of data centers on the community. City leaders cited concerns over the facilities’ high water demand, land use and long-term effects on the city’s natural resources. In response to Bettencourt’s comments, the City of San Marcos said: “City Council provided initial authorization to update the Development Code in August 2025. As part of the process, City staff conducted public hearings, had meetings with the development community and held an open house to gather input and comments on the draft code. The draft was presented to the City Council, which reviewed staff recommendations and made amendments before adopting the updated code at the June 16, 2026, meeting.” Some locals who supported the ban said they expected the decision to face opposition but hope the city stands by it. “I think that’s very frustrating. If the city and the people within the city decide that this is what we want here, they should listen to that,” said Aimee Lewey. “Of course there’s going to be some pushback. The biggest thing with these data centers is it’s taking away not only our clean water that we need to live, but also these beautiful environments like the school that we have,” said Sylvia Ellis, San Marcos resident.

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Tarrant GOP’s election strategy focuses on $3.5M in donations, unified campaign

“One big beautiful campaign” and $3.5 million are the keystones to success for Tarrant County Republicans in the midterm elections, Tarrant’s GOP Chair Tim Davis said. On Wednesday, Davis outlined his vision at an Arlington Republican club called the Freedom Fighters. Davis was frank with the roughly 20 people in attendance, saying the November election will not be an easy victory. Anyone who thinks so is naive, Davis said. “Everything we have, we have to earn,” he said. “Everything we have, we have to fight to keep, and that’s going to be true in November.” Heavy-hitting positions on the ballot include the U.S. Senate seat, five U.S. Representative seats and a number of statewide offices.

Tarrant County’s Republican candidates will have the most integrated campaign than ever before and the party will raise $3.5 million to support them, Davis said. An integrated campaign will ensure that the candidates’ values, efforts and messaging are aligned up and down the ballot. “We don’t need to have 40 judges running around doing different things, we need to do that,” he said. “We need to be the quarterback for that at the party, and that’s what we’re working hard to do.” The staggering goal of $3.5 million will fund advertisements and voter research, Davis said. Much of the campaigning will be volunteer driven. On Saturday, the Tarrant County GOP swore in new precinct chairs. Davis said they are fired up to do the hard work until the election. “They get the fight that it’s going to take, they get the work that it’s going to take, they get the time that it’s going to take, the treasure it’s going to take for us to hold this great state and keep electing people like [State Board of Education member] Brandon Hall, keep electing people like Governor Abbott,” Davis said. “I keep saying Senator Paxton already. I hope I’m not jinxing it.”

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Texas Rep. Nehls says struggling Americans may not work hard enough

It's not unusual for politicians to be accused of being out of touch. One Texas congressman didn't do much to change that perception when he was asked about affordability. In a video shared online by MeidasTouch's Pablo Manríquez, Texas Rep. Troy Nehls was asked about the current affordability crisis Americans are facing with increased costs from the gas station to the grocery store.. Rather than immediately answering the question, Nehls pivoted to his own Fourth of July plans. "Affordability? What are you talking about?" Nehls asked before bragging about his upcoming Fourth of July plans in Texas.

"I'm gonna get me a couple of big lobster tails," he continued. "I'm gonna get me some nice ribeyes, I'm gonna sit in my backyard with my family, my neighbors, and we're going to be enjoying the fourth, celebrating 250 years, the birthday." Nehls eventually returned to the question of affordability by arguing that recent increases in energy prices were temporary and tied to ongoing conflict in the Middle East. "Everybody understands, you're gonna see a little increase in energy prices because of Iran. I mean, come on, people aren't stupid," he said. "But I think in the end, the short-term increase in some of the costs of energy, you know, gasoline and stuff, is temporary, but President [Donald] Trump has made it very clear to these companies, don't be gouging, no price gouging."

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Texas among hardest hit by explosive diarrhea parasite

Texas is nearly a nationwide leader in one statistic, per the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), though it isn't a mark worth celebrating in the Lone Star State. The CDC reports 145 people across the United States contracted the the parasite Cyclospora between May and its June 16 report, with 11-to-30 of those individuals residing in Texas. CDC data reports New York as the nation's leader in Cyclospora with 31-to-80 cases. Texas and Illinois are the only other states with more than 10 reported cases nationwide. The symptoms of Cyclospora aren't pretty. The CDC notes the most common symptoms as: watery diarrhea, loss of appetite, weight loss, cramping, bloating, increased gas and nausea.

Cyclospora can often be contracted by eating or drinking contaminated food or water during travel outside the United States, though the CDC has not confirmed the specific source of Cyclospora in the 145 reported cases nationwide. Cyclospora cases can be treated via antibiotics, though symptoms can last for as long as a month if not immediately treated. Individuals who contracted Cyclospora range from 17-years-old to 89-years-old, per the CDC. The onset of Cyclospora resulted in 20 hospitalizations as of June 16, but no deaths to date. 2026 is far from the first time Cyclospora has emerged in the United States. A 2019 Cyclospora outbreak emerged via imported berries and herbs from Mexico, while 2018 saw 400 people get infected with Cyclospora via tainted salads at McDonalds. The CDC reports "investigations to identify potential sources [of Cyclospora] are ongoing."

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South Texas congressman trying to get border wall exemptions reinstated

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, says he’s working with Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee for exceptions to be put in the 2027 Homeland Security budget bill to exempt certain landmarks in the Rio Grande Valley from border wall construction. If approved, Cuellar says border wall exemptions that Congress had previously given to these landmarks — Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park; La Lomita Chapel; SpaceX; historic cemeteries; the National Butterfly Center and Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — would once again apply.

“It’s not final. We got to make it final But I did get language in the bill to say that those exceptions that we got for the Valley – SpaceX, Butterfly Center (La Lomita) Chapel, all that – you can’t use appropriated dollars and you cannot use Big Beautiful Bill dollars, or reconciliation,” Cuellar told media Thursday. The measure isn’t expected to be voted on for months, however, by Congress. If passed, it likely will be too late to prevent border wall construction at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has told Border Report the agency plans to begin border wall construction starting this month. Funds for the border wall are paid through the $46.5 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Trump last 4th of July, which had no exemptions written into the legislation.

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CapMetro employees threaten to go on strike

After a 10-month negotiation process, CapMetro workers and transit subcontractor Keolis are still at odds over desired wages, time off, and better training. After rejecting the company’s most recent offer, the union representing CapMetro workers, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, announced Tuesday, June 30, that 99.5% of its members have voted to authorize a strike. Brent Payne, president for ATU Local 1091, said that a strike is now “highly likely.” The disputes between the union and Keolis have resulted in months-long negotiations about how to move forward. In May, the union asked workers to not take overtime shifts after Keolis stalled negotiations. Though the contract was “maybe 60%” complete, Payne said that the offer did not meet all of the employees’ requests, resulting in the workers declining the deal.

“The best and final that they gave us still didn’t have benefits for my UT shuttle operators. They work full-time hours, meaning they work 40-hour workweeks, but they do not give them any kind of benefits,” Payne said. “We’re not close on a couple of issues.” Payne told us that the subcontractor’s final offer also did not include overtime pay for administrative employees, and offered a 12% pay increase over three years, coming up short of the union’s ask for 14% over the same period. According to the union, over 75% of CapMetro workers can’t afford to live in Austin. “Our members feel very strongly that everybody should have the same benefit package,” Payne said. The union has also pointed out the need for better training and adequate time off that is standard for transit workers across the industry. With a potential strike around the corner, Payne said that Austinites who typically use the public transportation system will likely be impacted. “We cover everything from big bus to all maintenance and UT shuttle operations. That’s everything in fixed route,” Payne said. “I would say a strike would severely disable the city of Austin.”

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New Houston charter school for dropouts raises red flags for critics

Over the last decade, Texas has approved a steady beat of new charter schools — four per year, on average. But for the second time in 30 years, just one charter district made it through the state’s lengthy application process, as the State Board of Education approved a new charter operator at last week's meeting. Critics already questioned creating new charter school districts as public school enrollment falls and charter schools close due to low performance. But now they say the proposed school raises financial concerns, too. The new charter plans to send public taxpayer dollars to an out-of-state, for-profit company with private equity backing to operate its Texas schools. Charter schools can be run by nonprofits — like YES Prep, KIPP and other flagship networks — or by private companies.

In both cases, they receive public funding and operate with more flexibility than traditional public schools. Charters educated about 446,600 Texas students in the 2025-26 school year and just over 99,000 students in the Houston region, according to state data. Patti Everett, an independent education policy researcher, told the State Board of Education last week that if they approved the charter’s management structure, it would represent a “paradigm shift” for charters in Texas. “This application raises many, many red flags, conflicts of interest, and it sets precedents that I think should give us all pause, even if you generally support charter schools,” Everett said. “The idea that taxpayer dollars would go to investors instead of to students, especially at-risk students, is a concerning precedent.” The new charter, Texas School for Dropout Prevention, Inc., has a contract with a private company, Second Mile Education, to operate the school, alongside an independent board and superintendent. Second Mile, which operates 27 schools across the United States, is owned by the private equity firm Satori Capital. The charter school applied last year for Texas approval but didn’t make it to the final rounds. The State Board of Education, whose members are chosen in partisan elections, approved the new charter application in a 9-5-1 vote last week, with board member Pam Little, a Republican from North Texas, abstaining. The vote was mostly along party lines. However, one Democratic representative voted for the charter, Staci Childs from Houston, and one Republican representative who voted against it, Evelyn Brooks of Frisco.

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Driver overrode Tesla's autopilot seconds before crashing into Katy-area home, killing woman: Docs

A bond has been set for the man who was behind the wheel of a Tesla that crashed into a Katy-area home, killing a woman, according to court records. The alleged driver, 44-year-old Michael Butler, now faces a manslaughter charge. He went before a judge on Thursday morning, where his bond was set at $150,000. Online records show that as of Thursday morning, Butler is still in Harris County jail. According to authorities, the crash happened on June 19. Surveillance video shows Butler's Tesla barreling into the home on Blooming Park Lane in Katy. Court documents state Butler was working as a DoorDash driver at the time of the incident. Butler allegedly told investigators that the last thing he remembered was operating the car on Highway 6 and in full self-driving mode.

Butler reportedly said the car was on autopilot and then he "passed out." Records alleged Butler denied feeling ill earlier in the day and has no history of seizures. He also tested negative for seizures, stroke, or heart attack, and no alcohol or street drugs were found in his system. As a result of the crash, 76-year-old Martha Avila was killed. Her family told ABC13 they were cooking dinner and she happened to be in the front playroom of the home when the Tesla plowed through. At the time of the crash, investigators said Butler claimed his car was in self-driving mode, but Tesla since disputed that and claimed he overrode the feature. Updated court records state that investigators downloaded the crash data, black box, and received consent to search Butler's phone. They reportedly found that Butler used full self-driving mode for multiple DoorDash locations before the crash with no issues. Investigators accuse Butler of overriding the self-driving mode by using the accelerator just before the crash and rolling through a stop sign.

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"Weird" and "ironic": Detained San Antonio mariachi records national anthem for ICE

A San Antonio mariachi musician who was brought to the U.S. at age four and is facing possible deportation under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" Thursday for a July Fourth observance at the federal detention center in South Texas where he is being held. Hebert Kaleth Ibarra Castro, 20, said he agreed to be recorded singing the national anthem even though he considered the request "weird" and "ironic." “They can treat us this way and lock us up and chain us up like animals, but still request for us to sing a song that speaks about a land that is free,” he said in a phone interview from the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, 55 miles southwest of San Antonio.

Hebert was taken into custody June 25 after police pulled him over for speeding in China Grove, a small city 12 miles east of San Antonio. When he showed the officer a Mexican driver's license, local police contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents interviewed Hebert and determined he was in the country illegally. His performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" grew out of an effort to mark Independence Day for detainees at the ICE facility. The center held a contest in which detainees created Fourth of July-themed handkerchief arrangements. Winners received a goodie bag with Cokes, chips and cookies. Staff members at the facility also wanted someone to sing the national anthem, and Hebert said one of them asked him if he would do it. Many of his fellow detainees do not know English, much less the anthem, so he agreed, he said. On Thursday afternoon, Hebert stood beside a poster of the American flag and a display of detainees' red-white-and-blue handkerchief arrangements and belted out "The Star-Spangled Banner," according to his wife, Marisol Pantoja, who spoke to him by phone afterward and received a detailed account.

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Hill Country flood relief fund distributes $82 million one year after disaster

In the days after floodwaters tore through the Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025, donations poured in from across the country. The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country quickly launched a relief effort, directing millions of dollars toward emergency assistance for survivors and affected communities. Like many across the Hill Country, the foundation’s CEO Austin Dickson lost loved ones in the flood. He said the anniversary has been a reminder of both the grief that remains and the progress the community has made. “You can be in grief and you can also be hopeful at the same time, and that's very much where I am personally,” Dickson said. “I'm hopeful because there's been so much generosity towards our community, and the Community Foundation has been able to translate that into results.”

The flood killed more than 130 people across the Hill Country and destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses and public spaces, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in Texas history. Now, one year later, the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country has raised $150 million for recovery efforts. Founded in 1982, the local nonprofit has so far awarded about $82 million to help families rebuild their lives, Dickson said. “We've moved really quickly and very deliberately and very systematically to make sure as many people as possible get the help that they need,” he said. The first phase of recovery focused on meeting immediate needs. Within 45 days of the flooding, the foundation distributed $15 million to more than 50 local nonprofits, Dickson said, providing direct financial assistance to survivors and crisis support. But as those emergency needs eased, the organization's priorities shifted to long-term recovery.

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National Stories

How a fertilizer shortage caused by the Iran war could affect U.S. food prices

When the war with Iran started, one of the top economic concerns globally was the slowdown of oil shipments. But there was another critical export that got stuck in the region when hostilities began: fertilizer. Before the war, around one-third of the world's fertilizer transported by sea passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to UN Trade and Development. The waterway has become a shipping chokepoint in recent months. With the strait closed, fertilizer shipments from the Persian Gulf slumped and prices rose, affecting countries all around the world that import fertilizer. The war also created a global shortage of natural gas, a key component in nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing.

It caused a massive headache for U.S. farmers who were hit with higher fertilizer prices and limited availability just as they were deciding what to plant for the upcoming growing season. But the costs borne by farmers don't necessarily get passed on to consumers, and food system experts say they're unlikely to have a major impact on the retail prices of fruit and vegetables. "Consumers are going to see higher food prices come September to January, once harvests start coming in, and the few months thereafter," said Chris Barrett, a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell University. "Very little of that is going to be directly attributable to fertilizer." That's because food inflation is generally driven by larger factors affecting multiple parts of the food supply chain, such as fewer workers and high fuel costs. About one-third of the fertilizer used by U.S. farmers is imported, according to The Fertilizer Institute, an industry trade group. TFI Vice President of Public Affairs Christopher Glen said little of that comes through the Strait of Hormuz.

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Instant replay just cost Team USA its top goalscorer at the World Cup

Over the first four games of the World Cup, U.S. striker Folarin Balogun was nothing short of a revelation. But shortly after he gave the U.S. the lead against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, Balogun became the focus of attention for a different reason. The referee went to the cameras for a replay review that left everyone from U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino to NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes in total disbelief. Balogun was ejected for accidentally stepping on an opponent’s ankle. And even though the Americans survived with only 10 players to beat Bosnia 2-0, the implications going forward are enormous: Balogun, the team’s leading scorer, is now suspended for the team’s round-of-16 clash against Belgium.

“For me, never it’s a red card,” Pochettino said. “It was a normal action in football that happened by accident. But it’s not intentional.” The moment was the soccer equivalent of an NFL wide receiver juggling a pass in a playoff game and nobody agreeing whether or not it was a catch after an endless delay for review. In this instance, the stoppage lasted several minutes as Brazilian referee Raphael Claus and the Video Assistant Referee team studied Balogun’s cleat landing on top of Tarik Muharemovic’s leg. Afterward, Claus reached into his right pocket and had a bright red present for Balogun. “Man what…” Mahomes posted on social media. U.S. fans immediately pointed to the parallels with a similar incident earlier in the tournament involving Lionel Messi against Algeria. On that night, in Kansas City, Messi lunged for a ball and raked his studs on the calf of an Algerian defender.

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MAGA base stays quiet after Trump reports billions in personal gains

President Trump’s $2.2 billion in personal earnings during his presidency has been met largely with silence from his MAGA base, which has been increasingly willing to revolt against policies they view as an abandonment of his promises to put everyday Americans first. Far-right members of Congress, prominent media pundits and grass-roots activists have criticized Mr. Trump’s war with Iran and openly broken ranks to demand the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. They have accused him of prioritizing his own interests over the needs of the voters who elected him to office. But few far-right voices aligned with Mr. Trump have criticized him over the scale of his personal haul, reported this week, or the conflict inherent in his status as a major cryptocurrency industry operator and its top policymaker.

Some described his earnings as a validation of the business acumen they have long admired in him. “Nobody who voted for Donald Trump — a guy with skyscrapers with his name on it, with a plane that has his name on it — is suspect of him making money,” Joe Borelli, the former New York City Council Republican leader and managing director of Chartwell Strategy Group, a lobbying firm, told CNN. “He made his whole career talking about how much money he makes.” Mr. Trump earned about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, new mandatory financial disclosures show. A significant portion of that came in 2025, when an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates bought nearly half of the Trump family’s main crypto company, World Liberty Financial. He also collected hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of his $TRUMP memecoin and World Liberty’s sale of its own digital tokens.

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Top elections to watch this July

After a busy stretch in May and June, the elections calendar is quieting down. Only one state is holding its regular primaries in July. It just so happens that this one state, Arizona, is hosting a string of primaries that showcase the extent of the Republican Party’s rightward drift. Arizona conservatives have spread false conspiracy theories about voter fraud since Donald Trump’s defeat here in 2020, and officials who fanned those flames are still running for office all these years later. Many Republicans who tried to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss will be on the ballot in the GOP’s July 21 primaries—including a fake elector. Plus, a former MAGA sheriff is running for Congress, and the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus is looking to grow its ranks by backing candidates in a dozen legislative districts and working to kick Republican incumbents off of the state’s utility commission.

Also on the menu: Anger over Trump’s immigration crackdown has spilled into municipal elections. That is notably the case in Mesa, which has closely partnered with ICE for a long time; elsewhere, local elections are revolving around the fate of immigration detention centers. Candidates are debating housing and data centers as well. And far from Arizona, Republicans are choosing their nominee for South Dakota governor in a runoff and Georgia voters are choosing a new member of Congress. Burned by a series of statewide losses after they nominated far-right figures, some of the Arizona GOP’s establishment hoped to nominate Karrin Taylor Robson for governor this year; they got Trump to endorse her, a move that seemed to seal the deal. But Trump blew up their plans two months later by also endorsing U.S. Representative Andy Biggs, former leader of the federal Freedom Caucus. Earlier this spring, Warren Petersen, the Republican president of the Arizona Senate, handed records related to the 2020 election to the FBI. This drew a strong rebuke from Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, whom Petersen is now challenging; Mayes accused Petersen of continuing to fan false conspiracy theories about Trump’s loss in the presidential race that year.

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Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital after medical episode, his office says

Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader. McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said. “Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month. The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.” POLITICO has not independently verified the dispatch call. The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.

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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding set for Friday at MSG

Today will be a fairytale. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding is slated to take place Friday at Madison Square Garden, where the couple’s closest friends and family — and several hundred more — will attend what is expected to be an elaborate event inside the iconic New York venue. Many of the details surrounding the pending nuptials are still unknown, but a city permit obtained by The Associated Press shows that Friday’s wedding event is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and could last until 4 a.m. the next morning. A law enforcement official briefed on security plans had previously told the AP that a smaller rehearsal dinner would be held Thursday night.

A tented area shielded guests from view as they were dropped off Thursday evening. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the events publicly. The wedding is the latest development in the superstar singer and football player’s relationship, which has continued to thrill and fascinate millions around the world — particularly the Swifties, the pop star’s enormous and ardent fan base — for the past three years ever since the pair first started dating. Key questions remain over how Swift and Kelce have transformed MSG into a wedding venue fit for a billionaire and the star tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, as well as who may perform and who will officiate. Trucks and crews have been going in and out of the venue for days, setting up tents and whisking massive materials inside, setting off more speculation about MSG’s makeover. And while fans have seen Swift wear wedding dresses in plenty of music videos over the years, many also remain eager to see what looks she will unveil at the wedding.

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Planned Parenthood set to regain federal funding as GOP ban expires

Planned Parenthood will regain access to federal funding on Saturday, one year after Republicans were able to cut its clinics off from Medicaid. Last year, Republicans were successful in using the party-line One Big Beautiful Bill Act to achieve their long sought-after goal of defunding Planned Parenthood. But the complicated Senate rules involved in passing the bill meant the ban only lasted one year instead of 10. Come July 4, Medicaid will once again cover non-abortion care at Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide. Medicaid is prohibited from paying for almost all abortions under the longstanding Hyde Amendment, but conservatives sought to put Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions out of business by withholding all federal funding from those clinics. They argued women can receive the same non-abortion care elsewhere.

While the ban did not completely devastate the organization’s finances and drive it to financial ruin like many GOP lawmakers had hoped, Planned Parenthood clinics suffered. “Tens of thousands of patients have been denied access to services like cancer screenings and birth control and STI testing and treatment. These are things that just can’t be undone,” said Nora Walsh-DeVries, vice president of political and legislative affairs at Planned Parenthood Action Fund. The law forced the closure of 30 clinics, according to a new report from Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In September 2025 alone, Planned Parenthood provided healthcare services at no cost to 100,000 Medicaid patients, covering an estimated $45 million in health costs. Keeping that up was “deeply unsustainable” and not something every affiliate could manage, Walsh-DeVries said.

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Lead Stories

Texas Governor’s Office asked for broadband rules that help Musk’s Starlink

The Texas office responsible for distributing over five billion dollars in state and federal money to expand rural broadband faced allegations of “favoritism” and offering “sweetheart” deals at a recent hearing of the State Senate’s Business and Commerce Committee. At the June 24 hearing, lawmakers suggested the Texas Broadband Development Office was changing rules and giving special treatment to companies that offer broadband via “low earth orbit,” or LEO, satellites. According to testimony, some of those changes came at the suggestion of the office of Governor Greg Abbott.

Currently, Elon Musk’s company Starlink is the only one in Texas offering residential broadband via low earth orbit satellites at scale, though the Amazon Leo service has also been applying for grants in the state, according to industry monitors. “I'll just say it bluntly, favoritism and transparency are real big concerns that have been brought to my office,” committee chair State Senator Charles Schwertner said. At the hearing, lawmakers criticized how the office has approached a range of its duties, from awarding grants to communicating with applicants to identifying where in Texas there is the greatest need for expanded broadband access. The allegations of favoritism started early in hearing when Schwertner questioned Broadband Development Office director Bryant Clayton about changes his department made to the way it disburses grant money to companies offering low earth orbit broadband service.

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Diocese of Brownsville calls nun’s detainment ‘wildly disturbing’

As questions remain unanswered about how a nun on her way to Mass in McAllen ended up detained by immigration officials, Bishop Daniel E. Flores said Monday that the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement protocols are “wildly disturbing and need to be reformed.” Sister Leticia Ugboaja, also known as Sister Letty, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Sunday morning while she was walking to Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen. Ugboaja would go on to be released from the Raymondville detention center later that same evening after Valley congressional delegates spoke with DHS.

“There are many questions remaining about the circumstances surrounding Sister Letty’s arrest and detention,” Flores said in a statement. “For now, it is clear that Homeland Security enforcement protocols that make it possible for a religious sister, or anyone, to be detained and handcuffed while peacefully walking to church on a Sunday morning are wildly disturbing and need to be reformed.” Following her release, Sister Letty was seen leaving the detention center in her nun garments while being greeted by Sister Norma Pimentel, according to footage from Telemundo 40. In addition to her volunteer work as an extraordinary minister of holy communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville said Sister Letty also works as a registered nurse at South Texas Health System McAllen. She previously served as a certified nursing assistant for 10 years at DHR Health in Edinburg.

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Feds release preliminary report on deadly Oak Cliff gas explosion

An investigative report released Wednesday determined the portion of the gas line that was hit before last month’s deadly explosion in Oak Cliff had not been marked as required before drilling began at the site. It's not clear why the struck line was not marked, a step designed to prevent drillers from hitting underground utility lines. The report, issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, is preliminary, and investigators say it could take more than a year to finish its probe into the cause of the disaster. The finding adds a key detail to a growing fight over responsibility, as residents and relatives of those killed press legal claims accusing Atmos Energy of not repairing repeated leaks, not replacing aging plastic pipe and not properly marking underground gas lines.

The gas utility has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing: “Third parties are responsible for the harms alleged in Plaintiffs’ petitions,” lawyers wrote Monday in a court filing. Dallas Fire-Rescue crews were responding May 28 to a reported gas leak at The Clyde apartments on East Ninth Street near Patton Avenue when the building exploded and caught fire. Three residents — Sylvia Collins, 79; Marisol Pérez, 37; and her 18-month-old son, Erik Pérez Sanchez Jr. — were killed. The NTSB report said at least six others were hurt. Previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News revealed a third-party contractor, Barba Drilling, had been hired to drill for a soil analysis at the site in preparation for future construction. A request to locate and mark utilities was required before drilling could begin. ECS Southwest, LLP, the engineering consulting firm that hired the driller, submitted that request. ECS said in a statement it could not provide further details during the NTSB investigation. Barba did not respond to an emailed request for comment. It’s unclear how the NTSB determined the line locations. In a statement, the agency said the investigation “has involved close coordination with all parties involved, including utility companies. Investigative activities have included the review of records, photographs, diagrams, and witness interviews.”

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How Trump made over $1 billion last year in Crypto, overshadowing real estate

The real estate mogul has become the billion-dollar crypto man. President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure report showed he took in about $1.2 billion last year from various crypto holdings, overshadowing a real estate business that brought him fame and helped propel him to the nation’s top office. Whereas it took decades for Trump to amass his various properties, the rise of crypto in his portfolio was done in just over a year, a stunning development sped along by his own friendly policies toward the industry and help from billionaires and other actors with important business before the presidency. Running over 900 pages, the mandatory annual report showed Trump struck several other new veins of wealth last year, raising questions about whether he is profiting from his high office.

He took in tens of millions from new property holdings in foreign countries eager to please a man with power over where to deploy the U.S. military and how much to charge in tariffs. And he got tens of million more suing media companies worried they could lose their broadcast licenses or not get deals approved by his regulators. Ever the salesman, Trump even made big money off the smallest of things, pulling in millions by slapping his name on Bibles, guitars and watches — the latter alone bringing in $4.7 million. Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling “governance tokens” and “stablecoins” and other crypto assets. Another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face. Both the tokens and the meme coins have plunged in value since his sales, partly because they are so difficult to value. Governance tokens, for instance, confer to holders only the power to vote on certain management policies at a company, not equity stakes, and so typical valuation measures don’t apply.

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State Stories

Corpus Christi City Council votes down federal funding application for Inner Harbor desalination project

The Corpus Christi City Council voted 5-4 Tuesday against allowing the city to apply for up to $120 million in federal funding for the Inner Harbor desalination project — the latest in a series of failed votes on the roughly $1 billion proposal. The grant was a part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART Desalination Grant Program. Council members Roland Barrera, Mark Scott, and Everett Roy brought the motion forward. It would have authorized Corpus Christi to seek up to $120 million in federal grant funding for the project. Opponents of the motion argued the city would likely receive only a fraction of that amount. Council member Eric Cantu said the full figure was not guaranteed. "$120 million — that's not the case, we don't even know what we're going to get."

Council member Carolyn Vaughn echoed that concern, taking issue with how the funding figure had been characterized publicly. "The Mayor gets on Facebook and she does this and if we don't do this we're going to turn down $120 million — that's not the case. No one is going to get $120 million. There's $120 million to go around, they're going to pick 10 groups to get it," Vaughn said. Mayor Paulette Guajardo, who traveled to Washington, D.C. to pursue the federal funding, argued that seeking grant money before construction is standard practice for large infrastructure projects. "It is standard practice to go after grant funding before it's being constructed. This is the way large infrastructure projects work," she said. The five council members who voted against the motion said there is still not enough information to move forward on the project. Council member Kaylynn Paxson questioned how the council could support an application without firm details in hand. "How are we going to say yes to applying for something that we don't have firm information for?" The vote follows a failed vote on September 3, 2025, and a delayed vote on June 3. Barrera said the outcome Tuesday came as no surprise. "I mean I already knew where this was gonna go anyway because it's been that way for the last 18 months." One piece of information the council is seeking is additional study on how the Inner Harbor facility could affect marine life in the bay. City Manager Peter Zanoni said the city plans to give scientists who opposed the far field study an opportunity to review its findings.

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The Pentagon’s flu vaccine policy change created an ‘epidemiological time bomb’ at Lackland

In April, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth changed Pentagon policy to make flu shots voluntary for all military personnel, declaring that mandatory influenza vaccines “weaken our war-fighting capabilities.” Within weeks, recruits at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio started getting sick. The virus burned through boot camp, and by June 24, according to a statement from Congressman Joaquin Castro, 275 people had been infected. The Air Force confirmed one trainee died June 12 due to a “medical emergency,” though officials did not specify whether it was flu related. The speed with which this all happened was not a surprise, according to Dr. Luis Ostrosky, chief of infectious diseases at UT Health Houston. The April policy change created an “epidemiological time bomb.”

“Military settings are prime for transmission,” Ostrosky said. “When you have an introduction of a highly communicable disease in a congregate setting like this, it’s just going to spread like wildfire.” Secretary Hegseth argued the voluntary policy would pose no threat to military readiness. But Ostrosky says the outbreak demonstrates the opposite. He explained that even young, otherwise healthy recruits can be bedridden for days or hospitalized with influenza. “It ends up affecting our readiness for combat at a time when we’re having several conflicts throughout the world,” he said. San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, a Democrat who previously served as Undersecretary of the Air Force, drew a direct line between Hegseth’s decision and the outbreak at the base. “Regardless of whether you want to believe it, science is a thing. It’s really unfortunate that we’re playing politics with people’s public health and with things like vaccines.” While a guest on TPR’s The Source, she said this puts the nation’s overall health in a precarious place. “Not only are we dealing with cuts to public health, but we are also dealing with the misinformation around basic concepts in public health, and there are real consequences of that.”

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Ninth Prairieland defendant sentenced to 50 years in prison, 6 who pleaded guilty get 2-15 years

The ninth person convicted in federal court in March for the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside a North Texas ICE facility was sentenced to 50 years in prison Wednesday. Six others who pleaded guilty in connection with the shooting received sentences ranging from just short of two years to 15 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor handed down the prison sentence for Ines Soto, 42, who was arrested near the Prairieland Detention Center the night of July 4 along with his wife Elizabeth Soto and eight others. Following the sentencing hearings, the Sotos’ son Estevan Soto read a letter from his father. In his statement, Ines Soto called the weight of Wednesday’s sentences “crushing” but said he was not surprised.

“The government has shown it’s willing to separate loved ones across borders, cage people in squalid detention centers, bring violence into loving neighborhoods and gun people down in the streets,” Estevan Soto said, reading the letter. “Their attempts to bury people in prisons falls right in line with these horrible acts.” Soto and about a dozen others gathered outside the ICE facility, chanted and shot off fireworks in a display they said was meant to support those detained inside. At least two people damaged cars and spray-painted structures within the property. Shooter Benjamin Song fired at Alvarado Police Lieutenant Thomas Gross, hitting the officer in the shoulder soon after he arrived at the detention center. Gross was released from the hospital within the next 24 hours. Song’s attorney and supporters contend Song fired at the ground as suppressive fire once he saw Gross draw his weapon. Soto was involved in Signal group chats planning the noise demonstration outside Prairieland in the days leading up to July 4, according to copies of the messages shown during trial. Prosecutors also showed evidence alleging the Sotos operated a printing press from their Fort Worth home.

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Galveston County commissioners approve new precinct map despite criticism from residents

Galveston County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to adopt new precinct boundaries for elected commissioners, constables and justices of the peace. The decision comes as the county continues to defend itself against claims that its previous map weakened the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters. The new lines take effect immediately and notably change the boundaries of Precinct 3, which has been at the center of the debate since commissioners radically shrunk the precinct's boundaries in 2021. It had been the county’s one precinct in which non-white voters represented a majority.

Even though Black and Latino residents combine to make up nearly 40% of the Galveston County population, people of color no longer made up the majority of a single precinct with the map approved in 2021, according to previous Houston Public Media reporting. While the newly drawn lines change the boundaries of Precinct 3 once again, Galveston County resident Lucille McGaskey said the new map still does not fairly represent minority voters. "The redrawn lines will not give a minority candidate a fair shot. They drew the lines for them to pick the politician. This is not for the people to pick the politician," McGaskey told Houston Public Media after Monday's vote. The move by Galveston County leaders comes about two months after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bans raced-based gerrymandering. The court’s decision, in a Louisiana case, makes it harder to bring voter discrimination claims against electoral maps. Throughout roughly two hours of public comment ahead of the Galveston County commissioners' vote Monday, residents expressed concern about the idea that the redrawn maps essentially decide the representatives for many residents.

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Dallas City Hall named to World Monuments Fund’s ‘Irreplaceable America’ list

Dallas City Hall has been recognized as one of 10 heritage places included on the World’s Monuments Fund (WMF) “Irreplaceable America” list. The list highlights significant locations across the United States, ranging from landmarks and colonial buildings to Indigenous heritage sites, that face urgent preservation needs. Dallas City Hall, designed by I.M. Pei, was built following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as part of an effort to rebrand the city and look toward the future. In addition to being named to the Irreplaceable America list, Dallas City Hall has also been placed on endangered lists by Preservation Texas and Preservation Dallas. As uncertainty remains over whether the building will be renovated or demolished, its inclusion on the Irreplaceable America list comes at a pivotal moment.

“Dallas City Hall is irreplaceable as a major civic anchor in downtown Dallas,” said Zaida Basora, vice president of the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition and executive director of AIA Dallas, in a press release. “Not only is this an architecturally and historically significant building, but it has all of the elements to serve as a catalyst for the kind of development and revitalization that the southern area of downtown Dallas needs.” The nationwide open call for nominations resulted in 75 submissions. Nominations were evaluated based on cultural significance, urgency of conservation needs and the potential community benefit of preservation.

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What Trump's Great American State Fair got right and wrong about Texas

Walking into the Texas booth at President Donald Trump's Great American State Fair, the first thing you notice is a welcome blast of Texas-style air conditioning. Washington is in the midst of its first big heat wave of the summer. But inside Texas' booth on the National Mall this week, it is dark and cool, with Selena and Willie Nelson playing on a jukebox in the corner and visitors mingling around replicas of Big Tex and the Alamo. This is the version of itself that Texas wants to present to the country, a fun, lively oasis where NASA sends astronauts into space and people bury Cadillacs in the ground for the sheer spectacle of it. There's plenty that the state's tourism officials missed. There are no blue bonnets or barbecue — save a brief flash of brisket in a video — no replicas of oil rigs or breakfast tacos.

Doug Latham, a South Carolinian who was stationed in Texas while serving in the Air Force, thought they'd done an okay job, except for one thing. "The size of Texas. There's no way you can comprehend that," he said. To be fair, there's only so much you can say with a modest-sized room of identical dimensions to the 39 other states participating in the fair — 11 states declined Trump's invitation. Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for the Governor's Economic Development and Tourism Office, which organized the booth, said the aim was to give visitors "a real taste of what makes our state exceptional." While Florida focused on their citrus industry and Arizona on the state's natural beauty, Texas's booth seemed to focus on its quirks and ingenuity. You can watch a video of musicians performing at the Austin City Limits music festival while checking out a scaled-down version of Amarillo's Cadillac Ranch before walking inside a replica of a NASA spacecraft.

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Rural Texas is losing Affordable Care Act access coverage even as statewide enrollment rises

Recent headlines have highlighted rising Affordable Care Act (ACA) plan enrollment in Texas, but statewide gains mask uneven trends across different communities. While overall enrollment in Texas increased by about 5%, enrollment fell more than 3% in rural areas and dropped roughly 5% in exurban counties, or metropolitan counties where at least one-third of residents live in rural-designated census blocks. Across the country, ACA Marketplace plan selections fell by more than one million people to 23.1 million in 2026, the largest year-over-year decline since the marketplaces were created over a decade ago. Actual enrollment is expected to drop even further because many consumers may not pay their premiums or may cancel coverage during the year as higher costs, following the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, make plans less affordable.

With enhanced premium tax credits expiring, average monthly costs for ACA Marketplace enrollees rose 58% in 2026, leading many consumers to choose cheaper plans with higher out-of-pocket costs and pushing deductibles up by more than $1,000 on average—the largest jump in the marketplace history. “Rural enrollees may be shifting to lower tier plans that require more out-of-pocket costs or dropping healthcare coverage altogether because of recent Marketplace changes,” said Alexa McKinley Abel, director of government affairs and policy at the National Rural Health Association (NRHA). “Increases in ACA premiums combined with recently finalized regulations that incentivize enrollment in bronze and catastrophic plans will lead to higher healthcare costs for rural populations, and ultimately less access to care. These costs may come in the form of paying the higher premiums themselves, less generous coverage leading to higher out-of-pocket costs, or expensive medical bills for those who are no longer insured.” Texas remains an outlier nationally, posting enrollment growth even as Marketplace sign-ups fell across the country. Still, signs of the national affordability squeeze are emerging in rural parts of the state, where rising premiums are coinciding with sharp enrollment declines.

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Austin’s million-dollar home boom spills into Texas Hill Country

Three years ago, Jen Bachman noticed a woman who had started coming in twice a day to the cafe she owns with her husband in Wimberley, Texas, a small town about 45 miles southwest of Austin. The woman, Linda Nelson, said she’d made all her husband’s meals for over 40 years, and now that he’d died, she never wanted to cook again. Bachman made a coffee mug emblazoned with “Linda” for her to use, and hung it on the wall between Linda’s meals. She started doing the same for other regular customers, and now there are around 1,500 personalized mugs at Wimberley Café. Demand for the mugs got so strong that Bachman limited hanging them on the walls to customers who ate there at least five times a week. She’s up to making around 25 new mugs a month, and is running out of wall space. “There are so many people here now, I can barely keep up,” she said. Wimberley is one of several small towns ringing Austin to the west that have exploded with growth over the past six years.

The surge started as a reaction to Austin’s pandemic housing boom, when waves of remote workers and big-tech companies like Tesla and Oracle moved there. There were 729 Austin homes sold for over $1 million between January and April of this year, compared with 262 for that same period in 2019, according to Unlock MLS. People looking for less-expensive homes and more space moved out to nearby towns like Wimberley, Dripping Springs and Spicewood. These areas are part of Texas Hill Country, a region of farm and ranch towns that have long attracted city dwellers looking for a rural getaway. An hour’s drive or less to Austin, these towns are now seen as good spots for weekend homes and, in some cases, for commuting. Median home prices, and the number of homes sold over $1 million, in these towns soared between 2019 and 2023, according to Unlock MLS. Prices have started to soften over the past two years, but they are still significantly higher than they were before the pandemic. “Austin just keeps getting bigger and more expensive. The luxury market has spread out to these areas,” said Vaike O’Grady, market research adviser for Unlock MLS.

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TCEQ fines Freeport LNG for alleged air pollution, record keeping violations

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has fined one of the country's largest liquefied natural gas exporters for alleged air pollution violations dating back to 2019. The TCEQ said Freeport LNG, located south of Houston along the Gulf Coast, failed to keep its air pollution below the state's regulatory limits and maintain proper records. However, the state agency also agreed to defer part of Freeport LNG's fines and issued a new permit late last year that increases the amount of air pollution the company is allowed to produce. Freeport LNG paid $103,240 in fines, even as it denied allegations that it exceeded its air pollution limits and failed to meet the TCEQ's record-keeping requirements.

Environmental advocates expressed frustration that Freeport LNG received what they view as a minor punishment for repeated violations. "The fines are too small to get their attention," said Melanie Oldham, director of the nonprofit Better Brazoria County Clean Air and Water. Freeport LNG declined a request for comment from Houston Public Media. In TCEQ enforcement documents, Freeport LNG denied the agency's allegations. The TCEQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning. In enforcement documents, state environmental regulators said Freeport LNG has taken steps over the last five years to comply with TCEQ regulations. The TCEQ has agreed to waive an additional $25,810 in fines if Freeport LNG complies with the agency's enforcement order. State environmental regulators said Freeport LNG exceeded its allowed emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds. According to the TCEQ, the company released 14.33 tons of unauthorized nitrogen oxides, 118.53 tons of unauthorized carbon monoxide emissions and 7.31 tons of unauthorized VOC emissions.

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Texans voice opposition to data centers as couple's lawn message takes flight, the industry sharpens its pitch

A majority of Texans oppose having a data center built in their community — and a Red Oak couple has cut their answer into the lawn for anyone flying overhead to see. A new University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll found 56% of Texas voters opposed to local data center construction, with opposition climbing to 62% in rural areas. Only 29% said they were in favor. The survey of 1,200 self-reported registered voters was conducted June 5–12 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percentage points. In Ellis County, Deanna Tiffany said her husband cut "No more data centers" into the grass at their property, big enough to read from the air. "I don't want them in my neighborhood," she said.

Joshua Blank, research director at the Texas Politics Project, said the industry has noticed. "Surely they're aware that they're fighting an uphill battle with public opinion, and they're making a greater effort to try to show that they're not as costly to the communities as they appear," Blank said. Companies are responding to concerns about how much power and water data centers consume. Microsoft and Chevron last week signed a 20-year agreement for Chevron to build a co-located natural gas power plant — Project Kilby — to provide dedicated electricity to a Microsoft-operated data center in West Texas. Google, which already operates data centers in Ellis County, announced a $10 million Texas Water Impact Fund earlier this month for water stewardship and infrastructure projects in communities where it builds. A new advocacy group is also entering the conversation. The Texas National Security Council, a recently launched public-interest nonprofit, has brought on former Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw as its public face. He frames the buildout as more than an economic question. "It's a national security imperative. If we lose the race for AI, and frankly, it is a race with AI with China right now. It compromises our capability, our military capability, tenfold," McCraw said. Still, McCraw said the industry has not done enough to bring residents along. "They just need to be more proactive in terms of talking to the communities themselves, plain and simple," he said. For now, more rural couples appear to be landing where the Tiffanys have. "Makes me proud. I'm fighting for my community," Tiffany said.

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Another man has died after being in Tarrant County Jail custody — the fourth death in 2 weeks

Another man has died after being in Tarrant County Jail custody — the fourth death in less than two weeks, raising more questions from family members. The family of Victor Runnels, 61, told reporters Tuesday they still do not know what medical emergency led to him being taken from the jail to John Peter Smith Hospital and said they received few answers from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. Runnels’ relatives called for transparency and an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. “We want to know why,” Rogers said. “Why are we not afforded those answers?” Runnels was pronounced dead at 4:46 p.m. Friday at JPS, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s website. He was released from custody at the jail at 4:18 p.m. that same day, court records show.

Family members said they were notified he was in the intensive care unit by a family member before arriving after Runnels’ passing. According to the family, they were not informed he was transported to JPS. Runnels’ sister, Vicky Rogers, said the family is seeking justice and accountability. “I deeply, deeply love my brother,” Rogers said. “For this to happen to him, we must have answers. I want justice and accountability for my brother. I’m not going to rest in peace without it.” Runnels was arrested June 11 over a parole violation, according to court records. The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office says it will not be investigating the death, as it doesn’t match the criteria of an in-custody death. “The Texas Commission on Jail Standards reviewed the case and formally determined that it does not meet the criteria for an in-custody death,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Every day, people arrive at our jail already sick, struggling with addiction, or dealing with long-term untreated medical conditions. Unfortunately, there are cases where an individual’s illness is so advanced that there is no curative treatment available. We remain committed to ensuring that every person in our custody is treated with professionalism, dignity, and the highest standard of care.”

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National Stories

‘The battle line has been drawn’ around Virginia’s data centers

For decades, the world’s densest cluster of data centers has grown in Northern Virginia with little scrutiny and generous incentives. That changed this spring, when state lawmakers seriously considered taking away a key tax exemption that saved the state’s data centers $1.9 billion last year and doesn’t expire until 2035. For a while, it looked like Virginia would have its first-ever state government shutdown over whether to sunset the incentive early. Policymakers ultimately reached a compromise to avert a shutdown — and send a warning shot to the industry — by signing off on a budget Monday containing the first-ever statewide tax on data center energy consumption. Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger praised the initiative. “Virginia has a responsibility to make sure the data center industry is paying their fair share for the energy they use,” she said in a Monday evening address. “But this is only the beginning.”

Even activists and lawmakers who have been pushing for years to rein in Northern Virginia’s data center industry were surprised by how quickly cracks appeared in the foundation of what felt like a stable relationship. Northern Virginia is home to more than 300 data centers. About 200 more are expected to go up in the coming years. Loudoun County, specifically, has the world’s highest concentration of data centers, relying on the industry for almost half its property tax revenue. But Virginia voters have quickly soured on the issue. A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll of more than 1,100 found just 35% would be comfortable with a new data center going up in their community, putting pressure on politicians to effectively choose between the interests of their constituents and those of the data center operators whose business they depend on. “The battle line has been drawn around that question in Virginia,” said Brennan Gilmore, executive director of Clean Virginia, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on political corruption and utilities in the state. “And folks are lining up on either side of it.”

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U.S. beats Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 to advance to round of 16 and keep its World Cup dreams alive

Folarin Balogun scored his third goal of the World Cup before being sent off with a red card in the second half, and Malik Tillman converted on a free kick to give the 10-man United States a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday night that advanced the Americans to the round of 16. Balogun dominated the first half with his 45th-minute goal, 14 minutes after he put the ball in the net but was called for offside. The Americans had to scramble down a man after his foul against Tarik Muharemovic in the 64th minute. Star Christian Pulisic had a goal disallowed for offside in the 78th minute, and Tillman helped seal the win when he curled in a free kick from from just outside the box in the 82nd, a shot off diving goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj’s right hand.

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Frustration mounts as GOP infighting derails House

Republicans are growing increasingly frustrated with the infighting that has brought work in the House to a halt and caused Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to send lawmakers home early for the second week in a row. Republican rebels are fuming over a voter ID bill and what they say is a broken promise from leadership to vote on border legislation by Independence Day. But those defectors are getting increasing heat from not only their colleagues, but from the president whose policies they claim to be fighting for. While hosting a group of Republican lawmakers for dinner Tuesday evening at the “Rose Garden Club” at the White House, President Trump turned to Johnson and asked if it was members of the House Freedom Caucus who tanked a procedural vote that would have teed up major funding and defense legislation.

Johnson, according to a source at the dinner, responded to Trump that some of the 13 lawmakers who voted down the rule were in the Freedom Caucus. Trump said that was “stupid” and that Republicans should stick together like the Democrats. Trump dubbed the rebels part of the “3 o’clock caucus” in an apparent reference to the kind of members he gets asked to call in the wee hours of the morning to help sway them on a vote, as he has previously publicly complained about. Trump said there were nine members of the 3 o’clock caucus, but he didn’t specify who the nine were, the source said. Punchbowl News first reported Trump’s remark at the dinner. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who is not a Freedom Caucus member, was the most visible of the 13 rebels this week. She had called for the annual defense authorization bill to include her amendment attaching the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, legislation pushed by Trump that would require voter ID to cast a ballot and proof of citizenship for voter registration. It has passed the House multiple times.

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States considering charging employers with Medicaid-covered workers

New Jersey is launching a new fee on companies whose workers have Medicaid health coverage instead of being covered by their employers. Other states are considering it, too. Democratic lawmakers and governors see it as a way to help pay for the joint federal and state insurance program that covers low-income residents as federal policy changes are expected to make the program more expensive for states and may lead to a reduction in the number of people with coverage. Proponents also say it’s about fairness because employers benefit from having some lower-income workers with taxpayer-funded health coverage. Business groups object. So do some liberal policy organizations.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a measure Tuesday night to charge employers that have at least 50 workers covered by Medicaid, and the state budget she approved earlier in the week counts on raising $145 million this year from the program. Under the plan, companies will be billed for each employee and employees’ dependent receiving Medicaid, the joint state-federal insurance program. The fees per person would start at $325 a year for companies with 50 to 249 Medicaid beneficiaries and top out at $725 annually for employers with at least 500 recipients. A bill passed this week in California doesn’t impose a charge now, but it does direct the state administration to present lawmakers options for doing so next year. Finishing the job would fall to the successor of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is leaving office in January. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has made an employer charge part of his election platform. State Sen. John Laird, a Democrat who sponsored the California proposal, said the big tax and policy law President Donald Trump signed a year ago was a major factor in the need for action because it could prompt the state to spend more on Medicaid to plug holes left by federal changes.

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Vatican excommunicates bishops of breakaway traditionalist sect

The Vatican on Thursday said it had excommunicated top clerics in an archconservative Catholic sect with thousands of adherents in the United States and Europe for ordaining renegade bishops in defiance of the Holy See, triggering the most serious schism in decades within the world’s largest Christian faith. Pope Leo XIV had pleaded directly with the sect, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), not to move forward with the consecration of four traditionalist bishops, a move that, under church law, carries the penalty of automatic excommunication. In an extraordinary act of defiance, the group moved forward on Wednesday. By Thursday morning, the Vatican announced the excommunications — signaling the limits of Leo’s willingness to a accommodate traditionalists who reject modern church teachings.

The Vatican’s statement, issued by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, came with a stern warning to priests and parishioners associated with the society. “As regards the lay faithful, those who formally join the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X … are to be considered schismatic and excommunicated,” Fernández declared in a letter published Thursday. In recent years, both conservatives and liberals have tested the Vatican by pushing the boundaries of official doctrine — moves that have threatened to create rifts in the church of 1.4 billion Catholics. Founded in Switzerland in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who opposed modernizing changes in the church a decade earlier, SSPX claims more than 700 priests and a half million members worldwide. Many will now have to choose between SSPX and the Catholic Church.

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C.I.A. reorganization prioritizes cyberoperations

John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, announced on Tuesday that the agency was reorganizing to ensure that it can adopt technology faster and further develop offensive cyberoperations division. He promised that the agency would use new technology more aggressively and take “smart risks,” even as it prioritized human decision making and oversight of artificial intelligence and other innovations. The changes are intended to strengthen the C.I.A.’s ability to collect intelligence by gaining access to additional computer networks or communications, or even just locating additional potential human sources. The overhaul, Mr. Ratcliffe said, is an acknowledgment that in the modern world, digital borders are as important as physical borders.

In his first major address as C.I.A. director, Mr. Ratcliffe said artificial intelligence is raising the stakes in America’s competition with its adversaries, since the new technology is itself a transformative weapon. “In conversations with many of the president’s other national security and economic security advisers, we’re talking about the impact of these frontier A.I. models,” he said. “It would be, as we’ve talked about, not misplaced to refer to their capabilities as akin to digital nuclear weapons.” To improve its collection, both through human spies and eavesdropping on communication networks, “more C.I.A. officers are going to have to become just as comfortable with handling lines of code as they are with handling human assets and sources,” Mr. Ratcliffe said. In a brief interview after the speech, Mr. Ratcliffe said the capabilities of the new generation of artificial intelligence model had promoted hard thinking about cyberdefenses and cyberoffensive operations. “These capabilities, it is fair to say, surprised everyone in terms of what that iteration was capable of versus what was predicted about where A.I. was going to go.”

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Trump administration seeks to stomp out all fires quickly, reviving policy that has been discredited

The deaths of three U.S. government firefighters in a Colorado wildfire are casting a spotlight on the Trump administration’s creation of a new federal fire service and its revival of a previously discredited policy to stomp out all wildfires quickly. One of the killed firefighters worked for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, established this year without customary congressional approval by drawing personnel from four agencies within the Interior Department. The victims were part of an elite, helicopter-based crew that got trapped Saturday in a fast-growing wildfire near the Utah border as they attacked the blaze on the ground. Five firefighters, including the ones who died, tried to shield themselves by deploying tentlike emergency shelters as flames overran their position. The two survivors were hospitalized with burn injuries.

The consolidation of thousands of personnel into the fire service has sown confusion among some firefighters about who their bosses are and what their responsibilities should be, according to former government officials. And the administration’s focus on “full suppression” of new fires marks a sharp reversal from a decades-long trend toward embracing flames as a tool — to burn off old vegetation and growth that acts like fuel and lessen the risk of catastrophic blazes being stoked by a warming planet. The changes benefit private fire aviation companies that are key to hitting blazes fast. Federal officials have not released details on the circumstances preceding the weekend deaths, including the firefighters’ objective at the site where they were overrun. “The question is, why were they attacking that fire in the first place?” asked Timothy Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter and cofounder of the advocacy group Firefighters United For Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “What was actually at risk? If it was a bunch of shrubs on remote mountaintops, what was the real risk that justified putting those firefighters at risk?”

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Colorado Governor Polis fires officials who opposed freeing election denier

Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado on Wednesday fired two members of his clemency board after they spoke out against his decision to commute the prison sentence of the election denier Tina Peters. The board members, Hannah Seigel Proff and Azra Taslimi, had objected to Mr. Polis’s decision in May to release Ms. Peters from prison after pressure from President Trump. After the commutation, Ms. Proff and Ms. Taslimi revealed that the board — appointed by Mr. Polis — had twice voted unanimously to reject Ms. Peters’s application for a shortened sentence. Mr. Polis, a Democrat, has the final decision, and overruled the board.

The board normally operates in secret, and does not disclose the pardon and commutation recommendations it makes to the governor. Ms. Proff and Ms. Taslimi said they had been compelled to pierce that veil of secrecy in Ms. Peters’s case. On Wednesday, they said they had paid the price. They received a letter from the governor saying they were being dismissed for violating the board’s confidentiality standards. “You breached the required duty of confidentiality by publicly divulging board members’ votes,” Mr. Polis wrote to each of the women, who shared the letters with The New York Times. Ms. Peters, a former county clerk in conservative western Colorado, had been sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted in 2024 in a plot to tamper with voting machines under her control in an attempt to show that the 2020 election had been rigged against Mr. Trump.

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