Lead Stories

U.S. Supreme Court rules that Trump can't deploy Texas National Guard to Illinois

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against President Trump on Tuesday, refusing to reinstate, for now, Trump's ability to send National Guard troops into Illinois over the objections of its governor. The administration argued in its appeal in October that it needed to federalize the National Guard to stop what Trump has said is unremitting violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at detention facilities in the Chicago area. But two lower courts ruled against Trump's claim that the protests in the Chicago area constituted a "rebellion or danger of rebellion" against the United States government that the president has the right to put down.

The court's action is one of only a handful of such "emergency docket" cases in which the conservative court has ruled against Trump since he began his second term as president almost a year ago. Many legal experts thought this emergency decision would take days or weeks, not months, as ended up being the case. It's unclear why it took so long. "At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois," the majority wrote in its brief opinion. The court wrote that the president failed to explain why the situation in Illinois warranted an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act that limits the military's ability to execute laws on U.S. soil. It's the first time the highest court has weighed in on the controversial deployments. While the decision does not set precedent, it brings some clarity about the president's power to deploy federal military resources.

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Major release of Epstein documents contains mentions of Trump and Mar-a-Lago subpoenas

The latest batch of files related to the investigations of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein disclosed hundreds of references to President Trump and contained two subpoenas sent to Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s residence in Florida, where, he once said, Mr. Epstein “hired away” an employee. The new documents — nearly 30,000 in all — also include different versions of Mr. Epstein’s will; blacked-out pages of tax returns for Ghislaine Maxwell, a confidante of Mr. Epstein’s who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021; and internal communications from the Manhattan jail where Mr. Epstein died. The partly redacted subpoenas sought employment records as part of the federal criminal case against Ms. Maxwell. Mr. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Mr. Epstein or Ms. Maxwell. The Justice Department said in a statement that some of the newly released material contained false accusations, without specifying which claims it believed to be untrue.

Most appearances of Mr. Trump’s name in the files that were released on Monday by the Justice Department came from news reports and other documents, but some dealt directly with the relationship between the one-time friends. One email, sent by an unidentified federal prosecutor in 2020, during Mr. Trump’s first term, alerted the recipient that Mr. Trump had flown on Mr. Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware),” though those trips have since become public knowledge. The names of the sender and the recipient are redacted, but the prosecutor wrote that they were sending the email for “situational awareness” and that they “didn’t want any of this to be a surprise down the road.” Ms. Maxwell received a series of letters from a sender she referred to as “Andrew,” which offer a number of identifying details that match those of Prince Andrew, who was recently stripped of his royal titles and evicted from the mansion where he lived because of his ties with Mr. Epstein.

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Texas billionaire Robert Brockman's heirs to pay $750 million in biggest-ever U.S. tax-fraud case

The estate of the late billionaire Robert Brockman has reached an agreement to pay $750 million in back taxes and penalties, settling a civil suit that stemmed from what the government had called the biggest U.S. tax-fraud case ever filed involving an individual, according to a U.S. Tax Court filing Tuesday. The Internal Revenue Service had been seeking $1.4 billion in the case, a figure that included interest. Counting only back taxes and penalties, it had been seeking $993 million. It isn’t clear from Tuesday’s filing how much interest the estate might have to pay. Brockman, a Texas automotive-software entrepreneur, was indicted in 2020 on tax-fraud charges, accused by the government of using a web of offshore entities to conceal more than $2 billion in income from the IRS. He used encrypted computer servers and fishing-related code names to communicate with those running his offshore empire, the government alleged.

Much of the money Brockman allegedly hid stemmed from his investments in private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners, which he helped launch as an early backer of the firm. Vista CEO Robert Smith previously settled his own related tax-evasion case with the government. Brockman, who denied the allegations, died in 2022 at age 81, while awaiting trial on criminal charges stemming from the alleged fraud. A Houston tax lawyer who allegedly advised both Brockman and Smith died by suicide on the eve of his own criminal trial. A parallel civil case continued in tax court after Brockman’s death. In the settlement, Brockman’s estate agreed to pay $456 million in back taxes and $294 million in penalties for tax years between 2004 and 2018. Brockman was known for his penny-pinching ways, staying at budget hotels and eating frozen dinners in his room while visiting one of his company’s offices, according to a former executive. He had an antigovernment streak and didn’t approve of the IRS, telling former associates it was a corrupt organization that unfairly targeted taxpayers.

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ERCOT says power grid is prepared for winter

The weather outside is far from frightful this Christmas week, but winter still carries echoes Texans haven’t forgotten. Nearly five years after a devastating, nearly weeklong freeze, grid officials say the chances of blackouts this season are low, though not eliminated. ERCOT, the state’s power grid operator, has projected about a 1% chance of ordering rolling blackouts in January and February, a last-resort move to keep the system from failing when demand overwhelms supply. The outlook is improved from recent winters, though a 2021-style freeze would again push outage risks sharply higher. That’s when an extreme winter storm blanketed the state in snow and ice for days. It overwhelmed power plants, fuel supplies and equipment, forcing grid managers to cut electricity to prevent a grid collapse. Millions of Texans lost power, many for days. More than 200 deaths were later linked to the prolonged cold and loss of heat. Billions of dollars in economic damage were reported statewide.

After years of reforms and investment, ERCOT says the grid is better positioned, even as it forecasts a colder winter than the last four years but warmer than average overall. Independent analysts largely agree. “Looking at the numbers that ERCOT put out, it looks pretty good,” said Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist for the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin. “But there’s always a chance that something goes awry.” The Christmas Day outlook offers little hint of that. Thursday in Dallas is expected to be near-record mild, with highs in the upper 70s. Still, uncertainty remains over the coming months, with volatility in polar weather patterns making winter conditions harder to gauge, according to a Dec. 9 ERCOT report. Officials cited recent instability in the Polar Vortex, an Arctic stream of cold air that can push south when it weakens. ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said at a recent ERCOT board meeting that while renewable energy generation — mainly solar power — has grown rapidly in recent years, its unavailability during the hours of highest winter demand creates a vulnerability. “Winter still represents the higher risk period in the ERCOT market, because fewer of these resources that are being added are available during the winter peak periods, which tend to be in the mornings, before the sun rises, or in the early evenings, right after it sets,” Vegas said. The rise in battery capacity over the last two years is perhaps the most significant factor affecting grid stability. The storage capacity of large-scale batteries has nearly quadrupled since December 2023, and recently overtook coal power.

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State Stories

Federal judge blocks Texas app store age verification law from taking effect in the new year

A Texas federal judge temporarily blocked a new state law requiring adults and minors to verify their age before downloading apps or making in-app purchases Tuesday. Senate Bill 2420, scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, passed almost unanimously in this year's legislative session. Also known as the App Store Accountability Act, the law would require adults to verify their age before downloading any app, and minors would need parental approval before downloading apps or making in-app purchases. Parents would have to prove their identity and give consent with each download. Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, or SEAT, and two high school students under 18 sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — whose office would enforce the law — in October to stop it from taking effect. Plaintiffs argued the law would put content-based restrictions on speech, replacing parents' freedom to moderate their kids' internet access.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman of Austin sided with the plaintiffs in a preliminary injunction order Tuesday, finding that the law is likely unconstitutional. But Pitman also acknowledged the importance of efforts to curb children's use of devices, social media and games that can interfere with their real lives. "These consequences are substantial, and the Court recognizes the broad support for protecting children when they use apps," Pitman wrote. "But the means to achieve that end must be consistent with the First Amendment." Adam Sieff, one of the students' attorneys, said in a statement the law was Texas' latest attempt to censor the students and regulate their households, and he lauded Pitman for blocking it. “App stores allow anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection to access the accumulated sum of virtually all recorded human knowledge and expression," Sieff said. "Banning students like SEAT’s members, M.F., and Z.B., from accessing these massive libraries without parental consent, just because the government thinks that’s what their parents ought to want, has never been a constitutionally permissible way to protect kids or support families.”

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Texas Republicans propose new property tax cuts as campaign season kicks off

Texas has the seventh highest property taxes in the country — a sore spot for homeowners. Lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican, worked to address the issue during the 2025 legislative session by increasing the homestead exemption. With the approval of Texas voters in November, homeowners will get an additional $40,000 added to their exemption, while citizens with disabilities or over the age of 65 will get an additional $60,000. That’s a big deal — and Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, says the reception has been great. “The seniors are stopping me in my district through Austin, because they had about a thousand dollar savings and over half of them are not paying any additional property taxes for schools at this point,” Bettencourt said.

For most property taxpayers in Texas, the homestead exemption is what ends up saving them the most money. That exemption applies to someone’s primary residence and reduces how much of the property’s value they’ll pay taxes on. Lawmakers have been patting each other on the back and touting their successes heading into an election year. But the battle is far from over, with many homeowners still complaining taxes are too high. Bettencourt recognizes that. He says this year’s move is just another cut on top of the pile that lawmakers have been working on for years. “What the state has been doing since 2019 is to dramatically ramp up how much money is being budgeted for property tax relief," Bettencourt told The Texas Newsroom. “We’re now at $51 billion, which is well into 20% of the state's budget.” Estimates from the state claim the average Texas homeowner will save around $1,700 on their property taxes each year due to the growing homestead exemption. But that isn’t the case for everyone, with some still seeing high tax bills. Shannon Halbrook, who handles fiscal policy research for nonpartisan policy group Every Texan, thinks that while it’s great to cut taxes, lawmakers must be mindful of the overall cost to the state. “We need to be asking ourselves how much we can afford to keep cutting them,” Halbrook said.

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Two candidates for Texas Supreme Court denied access to GOP ballot

Two would-be candidates for the Texas Supreme Court have been denied access to the Republican primary ballot after separate courts on Monday upheld the state GOP's decision to reject their applications because they lacked the required petition signatures. The rulings pave the way for Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock and Justice Brett Busby to run unopposed in the March 3 election. Former Supreme Court Justice Steve Smith had filed to challenge Blacklock and David Rogers, a member of the city council in the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, had planned to oppose Busby. Under state GOP rules, candidates for the Supreme Court must submit at least 50 valid signatures from qualified voters from each of the state's 15 appeals court districts. The party ruled that neither candidate had met that standard in at least some of the districts.

The pair filed separate lawsuits challenging the state party's authority to determine how candidates gain access to the primary ballot. The Texas Supreme Court shot down Smith's challenge, saying his arguments were "threadbare" and that had he not waited until the final day for filing his candidacy, he might have been able to satisfy the party's requirements for ballot access. Neither Blacklock nor Busby participated in the ruling, which was unsigned. In the other case, state District Judge Amy Clark Meachum of Travis County last week temporarily paused the party's decision denying Rogers' request for access to the primary ballot, but on Monday affirmed the GOP's right to set its own rules on such matters. The Supreme Court's ruling was another in a series of political setbacks over the past two decades for Smith. In 2002, Smith won a special election to fill out the final two years of a vacated seat on the high court, defeating an establishment Republican in the primary who had been appointed by then-Gov. Rick Perry. Two years later, Smith was defeated in the primary. He lost a comeback bid in 2006. A decade later, he came in third in a four-candidate GOP primary field for a seat on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Rogers, who has served on the Pflugerville City Council since 2020, was a deputy staff attorney for Smith during his time on the Supreme Court. Rogers also managed Smith's successful campaign in 2002.

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An oil tanker seized off the coast of Venezuela has arrived near Galveston. Now what?

An oil tanker seized by the United States near Venezuela earlier this month is now close to the Gulf Coast. An online marine traffic tracker on Monday showed the tanker located about 40 miles from Galveston, an island south of Houston. According to the Greater Houston Port Bureau, the tanker is too large to enter the Houston Ship Channel. Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, said the tanker was likely sent to the Galveston area because of its oil infrastructure.

"It's the closest harbor (that's) closest to oil infrastructure on the Texas Gulf Coast," he said. "It's pretty easy to get that oil onto shore." Hirs said the oil will have to be unloaded to smaller tankers, but what happens after that remains to be seen. The larger tanker, known as the Skipper, was seized on Dec. 10 amid escalating tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. It’s a conflict that has implications for the oil industry in Houston and beyond. "I think that's up to maritime law where the oil will go, what the disposition of the tanker will be," Hirs said. The U.S. Coast Guard referred Houston Public Media to the White House for more information about the tanker's offloading process. The White House did not immediately respond to questions. The U.S. announced over the weekend that it had seized a second tanker recently departing from Venezuela.

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City of El Paso’s drone program not grounded, but future expansion unclear under FCC ban

The city of El Paso’s drone program could be grounded from expansion under a new federal rule that blocks the sale of new foreign-made drones – including those produced by China-based DJI, the city’s supplier. The Federal Communications Commission on Monday said it will ban new models of foreign-made drones from entering the U.S. market, stating that while the aircraft can enhance public safety, criminals and terrorists “can use them to present new and serious threats to our homeland.” The move follows a mandate in last year’s federal defense bill requiring a national security review of Chinese-made drones. The FCC’s decision effectively prevents U.S. cities, agencies and private operators from purchasing or importing new drones produced in foreign countries, according to an FCC fact sheet.

The ruling could have implications for the future of the city’s drone program, as the airport as well as police and fire departments rely on DJI drones for some public safety operations and airport monitoring. The FCC’s new guidelines also broadly covers critical components, which could affect the city’s ability to repair its fleet already in use. “At this time, the ruling does not require the city to immediately suspend existing drone operations. The city’s drone program remains focused on public safety, and we will continue to comply with all applicable federal guidance and requirements,” city spokesperson Laura Cruz-Acosta said in an emailed statement to El Paso Matters. The guidelines do not prevent consumers such as the city of El Paso from continuing to use the drones they previously purchased, nor does it prevent retailers from selling models previously approved through the FCC’s equipment authorization process, according to the agency.

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Harlingen mayor denies involvement in campaign mailer as more questions arise

Mayor Norma Sepulveda is denying involvement in a political mailer displaying newly elected Commissioner Delia Cavazos-Gamez’s police records in a dismissed case. Instead, Sepulveda is claiming she requested the police report and mug shots to determine Cavazos-Gamez’s “fitness” to continue serving on two city boards. “I had nothing to do with any campaign mailer and neither did the city,” Sepulveda said in a Facebook post. Sepulveda said she didn’t consider residents serving on city boards to be “private citizens in that role.” “When serious concerns arise that could affect fitness to serve, it would be irresponsible not to look into them,” she said in her post. “That type of review is not political. It is part of responsible oversight. When matters are resolved, the review ends.”

Sepulveda declined to speak on the record with the Valley Morning Star. On Tuesday, Sepulveda did not respond to another request for comment as to whether she has checked on other board members’ backgrounds. Meanwhile, Robert Drinkard, an attorney with the law firm of Denton, Navarro, Rocha, Bernal and Zech, who’s representing Cavazos-Gamez, is calling on the city commission to investigate concerns stemming from the campaign mailer. In the city’s Nov. 5 election, Cavazos-Gamez, a nurse sitting on two city boards, defeated former Commissioner Richard Uribe, whom Sepulveda supported, by 55.7% of the vote in the race for the city commission’s District 1 seat. Last week, Uribe strongly denied connection with the mailer, which did not include the producer’s name. As the election’s early voting period opened in late October 2025, a campaign mailer was sent to homes in District 1 displaying images of Cavazos-Gamez’s police report and mugshots stemming from a Jan. 9, 2024 incident at her home in which police arrested her for alleged “assault bodily injury family violence.” About four months later, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case, Drinkard said.

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Cincinnati's second-largest private company relocating headquarters to Texas in 2026

Greater Cincinnati’s second-largest private company is moving its corporate headquarters to Houston. RelaDyne, an international distributor of industrial lubricants and the largest such firm in the U.S., will move to Houston effective Jan. 1, 2026. The firm was formerly headquartered in an office in Sycamore Township, Ohio. But few, if any, local RelaDyne employees are expected to relocate outside the region, according to CEO Eric Royse. The company’s recently announced expansion of its Hebron facility, according to Royse, will in fact increase its corporate presence in the region, albeit south of the river and with an incentive deal that reduces its income tax burden. A $5 billion company with more than 4,000 employees, RelaDyne was headquartered in Greater Cincinnati only in a titular sense, Royse told the Cincinnati Business Courier, a sister publication of the Houston Business Journal.

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ACA subsidies: Texas law could protect against biggest cost hikes

Americans who receive health insurance through the Affordable Care Act are bracing for steep premium spikes because of Republicans' decision not to extend subsidies. But the effects may not be as dramatic in Texas, thanks to a four-year-old state law that gives the state's insurance department more control over pricing. Public health experts say the little-known state law has resulted in lower premiums on some of the Texas plans sold on Healthcare.gov and could help people maintain their health insurance at close to what they're spending now.

For instance, in Harris County, a 40-year-old single adult earning $37,500 a year who is enrolled in a mid-level silver plan is set to see the premium more than double to $252 a month next year after tax credits have been applied. But they have the option to switch to a gold plan with better coverage for just $164 per month, or a bronze plan with a higher deductible and lower-cost sharing for $37 a month, according to analysis by the non-profit Texas 2036. "Sticker prices get the headlines but the prices people pay are staying relatively stable," said Alex Mendoza, a policy advisor at Texas 2036. "There are zero or low cost plans for a lot of Texans." Early data suggests Texas customers could already be figuring out how to maintain an affordable plan. According to data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 17% more Texans signed up for Affordable Care Act plans this year through the first month of enrollment, which began Nov. 1. That's compared to an increase of 7% nationwide, according to analysis by the health news service Becker's Hospital Review.

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Neiman Marcus parent reportedly considers bankruptcy

Saks Global Enterprises, facing limited options ahead of a more than $100 million debt payment due at the end of this month, is considering Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a last resort, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The company is also weighing additional ways to shore up liquidity, including raising emergency financing or selling assets, the people said, asking not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Separately, some Saks lenders have held confidential talks in recent days to assess the company’s cash needs, according to other people familiar with the matter. Those discussions have focused on a potential debtor-in-possession loan, a form of bankruptcy funding.

Saks raised billions of dollars from bond investors late last year to finance a bold turnaround plan centered on the acquisition of Neiman Marcus, betting that scale would revive the struggling luxury retailer. Instead, the deal deepened the company’s debt burden and failed to resolve long-running issues with vendors, many of whom halted shipments amid missed payments, accelerating losses. In June, Saks persuaded creditors to provide hundreds of millions of dollars more as part of a debt deal that reshuffled repayment priorities, creating multiple tiers of bondholders with differing claims on the company’s assets. Even those securities have since plunged, underscoring concern among investors that the turnaround effort is running out of time. “Together with our key financial stakeholders, we are exploring all potential paths to secure a strong and stable future for Saks Global and advance our transformation while delivering exceptional products, elevated experiences and personalized service to our customers,” a representative for Saks said via email. PJT Partners, which is advising the company, declined to comment. The tie-up with Neiman last year was intended to create a multibrand luxury giant powered by the technology of new high-profile investors, which included Amazon.com Inc. and Salesforce Inc. But by May, bondholders were already facing paper losses of more than $1 billion as the plan stumbled.

Read this article at Bloomberg - Subscribers Only

Prairieland ICE shooting trial pushed to February

The federal trial of nine people charged for a July 4 shooting at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Alvarado was moved to Feb. 17 due to attorney scheduling conflicts, according to court records. Court documents allege about 11 people gathered outside the Prairieland Detention Center, setting off fireworks and spray painting building structures and property. Correctional officers called 911, and Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross arrived at the scene, issuing commands to people who began fleeing on foot. Then a person in a green mask allegedly opened fire on Gross and correctional officers, according to court records, which alternately describe Gross as being hit in the neck or upper back. Authorities say he's since returned to work following his injury.

Eighteen people in total have been arrested in connection with what defendants said was a protest and noise demonstration, facing a mix of state and federal charges. Four of them — Benjamin Song, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda and Savanna Batten — pleaded not guilty in Fort Worth federal court earlier this month. Defendants Autumn Hill, Zachary Evetts, Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto and Daniel Sanchez Estrada pleaded not guilty in the weeks before and waived their arraignment hearings. Prosecutors brought a second superseding indictment Dec. 10 against the nine defendants going to trial with no significant changes. The defendants once again pleaded not guilty. The U.S. Attorney's Office called the indictment against the nine defendants the first in the country against a group of "violent Antifa cell members." The label has held extra weight since President Donald Trump designated the "antifa" ideology a domestic terror threat in September.

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NXP is putting its longtime US HQ on market in Austin

NXP Semiconductors NV is putting its 155-acre Oak Hill campus — which has served as its longtime U.S. headquarters — on the market as it scours the area for a new office space, several sources told the Austin Business Journal. The Dutch semiconductor company has enlisted the help of CBRE Inc. to list the 1.5 million-square-foot campus at 6501 William Cannon Blvd. for sale, sources said. The campus was originally built in 1984 for Freescale Semiconductor, which was acquired by NXP in 2015, and has been used for office, research and development and manufacturing. It makes chips used in cars, mobile phones, communications infrastructure and other products. The property was most recently appraised at $43 million, according to Travis Central Appraisal District.

NXP also has a 960,000-square-foot office and manufacturing space at 3949 Ed Bluestein Blvd. that was built in 1974, according to its website. In a statement, NXP officials said the company is "exploring options for a new office space driven by the need to modernize and create a vibrant environment that enhances how we work and engage." The company is considering locations based on traffic patterns, talent density, geographical growth trends in Austin, and where employees live, officials said, adding that they have communicated that to local employees. "NXP is committed to building a workspace in Austin that fosters greater collaboration, drives innovation, and enhances the overall team member experience," the statement said. Sources confirmed to the ABJ that NXP (Nasdaq: NXPI) is indeed known to be searching in the market for an office location. CBRE's Trey Low is handling the marketing of the Oak Hill site for sale. CBRE executives couldn't immediately be reached for comment. The move comes amid a series of changes for NXP. The company, which does both design and manufacturing, in October reported $3.17 billion in revenue during the third quarter, which was down 2% year-over-year. The company on Dec. 10 announced it was planning to shutter a Phoenix-area manufacturing facility and shut down part of the business, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.

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National Stories

Poll finds every major political figure underwater in approval, with Powell and Rubio at top

A new Gallup poll highlighted the polarized state of the United States, finding that no national political figure has neared 50% approval. A Gallup poll conducted from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15 found that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was the highest-rated national political figure at 44%, followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 41%. The duo were the only two who had an approval rating above 40%, with the rest ranging from 28% to 39%. The most unpopular figure was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who had a 28% approval rating. His Republican counterpart, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), came in not far ahead at 34%.

Responses were heavily polarized along political lines. Vice President JD Vance ranked as the single most popular figure in his party with a 91% approval rating, even surpassing President Donald Trump among Republicans, who gave him an 89% approval rating. Vance’s overall approval rating was 39%; however, it was weighed down by heavy disapproval from Democrats, who gave him just a 5% approval rating. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were all closely clustered in approval ratings, ranging from 35% to 39%. Rubio’s status as the second most popular political figure bodes well for his future political ambitions, surpassing the popularity of the 2028 presidential nominee favorite — Vance. However, the vice president’s unparalleled popularity among Republicans would disadvantage him in a primary, with Rubio trailing his approval at 84%.

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ICE documents reveal plan to hold 80,000 immigrants in warehouses

The Trump administration is seeking contractors to help it overhaul the United States’ immigrant detention system in a plan that includes renovating industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time, according to a draft solicitation reviewed by The Washington Post. Rather than shuttling detainees around the country to wherever detention space is available, as happens now, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aims to speed up deportations by establishing a deliberate feeder system, the document says. Newly arrested detainees would be booked into processing sites for a few weeks before being funneled into one of seven large-scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be staged for deportation.

The large warehouses would be located close to major logistics hubs in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri. Sixteen smaller warehouses would hold up to 1,500 people each. The draft solicitation is not final and is subject to changes. ICE plans to share it with private detention companies this week to gauge interest and refine the plan, according to an internal email reviewed by The Post. A formal request for bids could follow soon after that. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said she “cannot confirm” The Post’s reporting and declined to answer questions about the warehouse plan. NBC and Bloomberg News previously reported on ICE’s internal discussions about using warehouses as detention centers. The full scope of the project, the locations of the facilities and other details contained in the solicitation have not been previously disclosed or reported. The warehouse plan would bethe next step in President Donald Trump’s campaign to detain and deport millions of immigrants,which began with a scramble to expand the nation’s immigrant detention system, the largest in the world.

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Federal judge blocks Trump administration's Homeland Security funding cut to Democratic states

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to reallocate federal Homeland Security funding away from states that refuse to cooperate with certain federal immigration enforcement. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy’s ruling on Monday solidified a win for the coalition of 12 attorneys general that sued the administration earlier this year after being alerted that their states would receive drastically reduced federal grants due to their “sanctuary” jurisdictions. In total, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency reduced more than $233 million from Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. The money is part of a $1 billion program where allocations are supposed to be based on assessed risks, with states then largely passing most of the money on to police and fire departments.

The cuts were unveiled shortly after a separate federal judge in a different legal challenge ruled it was unconstitutional for the federal government to require states to cooperate on immigration enforcement actions to get FEMA disaster funding. In her 48-page ruling, McElroy found that the federal government was weighing states’ police on federal immigration enforcement on whether to reduce federal funding for the Homeland Security Grant Program and others. “What else could defendants’ decisions to cut funding to specific counterterrorism programming by conspicuous round numbered amounts — including by slashing off the millions-place digits of awarded sums — be if not arbitrary and capricious? Neither a law degree nor a degree in mathematics is required to deduce that no plausible, rational formula could produce this result,” McElroy wrote. The Trump-appointed judge then ordered the Department of Homeland Security to restore the previously announced funding allocations to the plaintiff states. “Defendants’ wanton abuse of their role in federal grant administration is particularly troublesome given the fact that they have been entrusted with a most solemn duty: safeguarding our nation and its citizens,” McElroy wrote. “While the intricacies of administrative law and the terms and conditions on federal grants may seem abstract to some, the funding at issue here supports vital counterterrorism and law enforcement programs.”

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Missouri voters sue to block GOP gerrymander until referendum vote

Missourians filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking a court to stop the state from using its new congressional map until voters have the chance to approve or reject the measure in a referendum. It’s the latest development in an escalating battle over a string of efforts by GOP state officials to place hurdles in the way of the referendum over the gerrymander. Missouri lawmakers passed a gerrymandered congressional map in September at President Donald Trump’s behest. Missouri is one of three GOP-controlled states that redrew maps this year to help Republicans rig the 2026 midterm elections. Earlier this month, opponents of the gerrymander turned in more than 300,000 petition signatures supporting a referendum vote, a move that historically has triggered state officials to pause the legislation being challenged.

But Missouri Republicans – as part of a relentless effort to thwart the referendum – have defied precedent, insisting the new map is in effect until the vote takes place. Now, two voters who signed the petition are fighting back in court, arguing that state officials are denying them their state constitutional right to approve or reject legislation through a referendum. Both voters are residents of Missouri’s fifth congressional district, the seat targeted in the gerrymander. They are represented in the lawsuit by the ACLU of Missouri and the law firm Perkins Coie. Candidates will begin to file for a place on the Missouri primary ballot starting in February, and the referendum vote likely won’t be held until November. Gerrymander opponents point out that if state officials are allowed to use the new map until the referendum is held, they will in effect have circumvented the referendum process, at least for 2026, by enacting the gerrymander without voters having an opportunity to stop it. In the latest lawsuit, voters argue Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and Attorney General Catherine Hanaway are implementing a “transparent ploy” to force the use of the new map “until it is too late.”

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DHS gives Santa ICE makeover in deranged Christmas video

The Department of Homeland Security has taken its holiday-themed campaign for mass deportations to new lows with a video that turns Santa Claus into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Under the direction of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the department has attempted to glamorize its raids by creating glossy videos, which have sometimes earned the ire of musicians whose work is used as soundtracks. Even a former DHS chief of staff under Trump has called them “creepy,” “stupid,” and “wildly irresponsible.” The latest offering is unlikely to change the agency’s reputation. “AVOID ICE AIR AND SANTA’S NAUGHTY LIST!” the official DHS X page posted on Monday alongside a video of Santa working for ICE.

The cringeworthy artificial intelligence-generated clip shows Saint Nick suiting up for an evening on the ICE beat, cuffing arrestees, booking them at a grim-looking processing facility and loading people onto a plane to be deported. It ends with the message, “Merry Christmas.” The video also served as the department’s latest effort to popularize its CBP Home app, a rebranded version of the Biden-era CBP One platform that signals intent to deport and, if approved, gives travel assistance and financial support. “Self-deport today with the CBP Home app, earn $3,000 and spend Christmas at home with loved ones. Holiday incentive is valid through the end of 2025,” the rest of the X message from DHS read. It comes after Noem, 54, used an appearance on Fox & Friends to urge “illegal aliens” to leave voluntarily using the app—or face arrest and removal. “If you voluntarily want to go home now… we will give you $3,000," she said. She added on X that people ”should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will not return."

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19 states sue to block White House plan to end gender-related care for minors

A coalition of 19 states on Tuesday sued to block the Trump administration’s plan to strip federal funding from hospitals providing gender-related care for minors, a policy that would effectively shut down any health care providers that failed to comply. That plan, announced on Thursday by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would cut off all Medicaid and Medicare payments — which make up a major share of hospital revenue — to any facility that provides minors with gender-related treatments in the country. Part of the underpinning of that plan is a declaration by Mr. Kennedy that gender-related treatments for minors “fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care.” In the suit, the states argue that the declaration is unlawful and a government overreach.

“Secretary Kennedy cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online,” Letitia James, attorney general of New York, one of the states in the lawsuit, said in a statement on Tuesday. “And no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors’ offices.” Gender-related treatments for minors — which can include puberty-blocking drugs, hormone therapies and, in rarer cases, surgeries — have been fiercely debated in other countries but are endorsed by most medical groups in the United States. Mr. Kennedy, in his announcement last week, referred to such treatments as “malpractice.” Mr. Kennedy drew on a report issued by his agency last month that concluded that the benefits of medical intervention were uncertain and that the risks, which could include irreversible changes, were more known. Authors argued that psychotherapy, an intervention that is also supported by little evidence, had fewer risks.

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Lead Stories

Top Heritage Foundation officials flee to Mike Pence’s nonprofit Advancing American Freedom as think tank fractures

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s political group is poaching top officials from the conservative Heritage Foundation amid growing ideological fights within the conservative movement and backlash at the think tank. Pence’s Washington-based group, started in 2021 and called Advancing American Freedom, is slated to hire about 15 of Heritage’s employees including several of its prominent leaders, the group’s officials said. In an interview, the former Republican vice president told The Wall Street Journal he had long admired the Heritage Foundation but sees the group now “abandoning its principles.” He said the foundation had “fallen” because it had embraced elements of isolationism, stopped backing Ukraine in the war with Russia, supported some tariffs and backed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary, among other things.

“Why these people are coming our way is that Heritage and some other voices and commentators have embraced big-government populism and have been willing to tolerate antisemitism,” Pence said. Among those joining AAF are John Malcolm, the head of the foundation’s legal and judicial studies center, Kevin Dayaratna, the head of the foundation’s data analysis center and Richard Stern, the director of the foundation’s economic policy studies institute. AAF said it is bringing on about a dozen other staff members. Malcolm is taking seven members of his center’s team. In a statement, Heritage’s chief advancement officer, Andy Olivastro, was critical of some staffers who have decided to leave, accusing them of disloyalty. He said Malcolm and another staffer last week were “terminated for conduct inconsistent with Heritage’s mission and standards.” “Our mission is unchanged, and our leadership is strong and decisive,” Olivastro said. “Heritage has always welcomed debate, but alignment on mission and loyalty to the institution are non-negotiable. A handful of staff chose a different path—some through disruption, others through disloyalty.”

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Dick Weekley: Texas trial lawyers are the new Republican power brokers

For decades, America’s personal injury lawyers were a predictable political force. They funded Democrats, funded liberal causes, fought lawsuit reform, and built their fortunes in places where the courts treat ligation as an industry. From California to Illinois to New York, they have poured millions into the left’s campaign coffers to preserve a system where suing is a business strategy, not a last resort. But they are engaged in something more insidious, too. In Texas, the plaintiff’s bar hasn’t changed its goals. But, as they have done in other states, they have changed their strategy. The same trial lawyers who once bankrolled Democrats are now spending heavily to influence Republican primaries in Texas, hoping to buy influence where voters least expect it. This isn’t a partisan conversion. It’s an infiltration. A charade. This year, two of Texas’s most prominent Democratic trial lawyers — Kurt Arnold and Jason Itkin — have begun writing six-figure checks to Republican candidates in key primaries. They recently funded their PAC with a $10 million donation that is now being used to influence GOP races.

They’ve discovered they don’t need to win general elections to block reform — they only need to shape who gets on the ballot. By posing as allies of the right, they can protect their legal privileges while claiming to defend Texans’ rights. And for the moment, the tactic appears to be working. Several Republican House members who joined Democrats to weaken a major lawsuit-reform bill in Texas during its 2025 regular legislative session later received a campaign contribution from that same PAC. Arnold & Itkin’s namesake partners have long donated millions to Democrat candidates and causes – including more than $1 million to a George Soros–linked PAC that ran ads calling on voters to “Stop MAGA Republicans.” Yet now they happily fund Republicans in Texas, so long as those Republicans promise not to rein in lawsuit abuse. It’s a cynical but effective inversion, and one that must be stopped. In blue states, trial lawyers often prop up Democrats who block reform in the name of equity. In Texas, they prop up Republicans who block reform in the name of populism. The language changes, but the goal is the same: Keep the lawsuits flowing. Consider the irony. The MAGA base is rightly wary of foreign influence. Banning the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign entities from buying Texas land was a prudent step the Legislature took last regular session. Yet many of the same candidates who supported that measure have stayed silent on those same actors’ financing of lawsuits against U.S. companies.

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Inside the Bari Weiss decision that led to a ‘60 Minutes’ crisis

Earlier this month, after President Donald Trump blasted “60 Minutes” for interviewing Marjorie Taylor Greene, correspondents noticed a change behind the scenes. “Bari Weiss got personally involved,” specifically with stories about politics, a source at the program told CNN. It was her prerogative as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News, and some conservative critics of the CBS newsmagazine would probably say it was necessary. But her presence prompted concern among “60 Minutes” journalists — and perhaps now the program’s viewers are finding out why. Over the weekend, Weiss sparked a crisis inside “60 Minutes” by shelving Sharyn Alfonsi’s report about Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

Alfonsi said in an internal memo that “the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship.” Weiss, who reports directly to Paramount CEO David Ellison, pushed back by saying the story was “not ready.” Weiss also said in a statement, “I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.” In the meantime, there is a sudden surge of audience interest in the prison, known as CECOT, and the allegations of abuse there. Human Rights Watch said last month that “many of these abuses constitute torture under international human rights law.” Let’s walk through the timeline of how this controversy unfolded. Alfonsi’s story, titled “INSIDE CECOT,” was many weeks in the making. Weiss first screened the segment on Thursday night, two CBS News sources told CNN. She had some notes for the producers, but the story moved forward. In total, the story “was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote in her memo. “It is factually correct.” Come Friday, the staff thought the story was ready to go. Alfonsi taped her introductory remarks. Executive producer Tanya Simon gave CBS News PR the green light to publicize the segment. “60 Minutes” segments are announced in advance, usually on Fridays, for promotional purposes. And that’s why the next turn of events generated so much turmoil inside the network news division.

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Texas Jewish voters alarmed by James Talarico’s Israel rhetoric

Jewish leaders in Texas are growing increasingly concerned about Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s comments on Israel, with four members of the community telling Jewish Insider that without concerted outreach from Talarico, they’re likely to back Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in the Democratic primary. Their frustrations came to a head after Talarico accused Israel of war crimes in response to a general question on foreign policy at an event last week. “I will use every bit of financial and diplomatic leverage that this country has to end the atrocities in Palestine,” Talarico vowed to do if elected. “I will not use your tax dollars to fund these war crimes. I will vote to ban offensive weapons to Israel.” He also said he’d refuse to accept support from AIPAC.

“I refuse to be complicit in the death and destruction in Gaza, and I will never use your tax dollars to support the killing in that part of the world, and it makes me sick to my stomach to see what’s happening,” Talarico said. “I hope in this campaign here in Texas we can send a crystal clear message to the rest of the country that we are done being complicit.” The Texas state representative, who has studied to become a minister, said that the Gaza conflict “weighs on my heart as an educator, as someone who works with kids.” “God is screaming at all of us in Gaza, as we speak,” he said. In response to a later question about “what it means to protect all people, rather than only Palestinian people,” Talarico said that “all people are created in the divine image … which means every person has equal worth.” “We shouldn’t be empowering people like [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu who are waging war against civilians. And that is not a reflection on the Israeli people because many of you know that we have seen historic protests in Israel from Israelis against their government and against Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet,” Talarico continued. Art Pronin, who leads the Meyerland Area Democrats Club, a largely Jewish Democratic group in the Houston area, told JI he’s known Talarico for years and the candidate has spoken to the Meyerland Democrats group. Pronin has repeatedly expressed concerns to Talarico directly and to the campaign about his Israel rhetoric, to little effect.

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State Stories

Comptroller wants some Islamic schools out of Texas voucher program

Texas acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock is seeking to block certain schools from the state’s new private school voucher program, alleging they have ties to the Chinese government and to a Muslim advocacy group that Gov. Greg Abbott recently declared a terrorist organization. Hancock has not named the schools or said how many may be impacted. But in a letter this month to Attorney General Ken Paxton he asked whether he could disqualify applicants that are “based at an address that have hosted publicly advertised events” organized by the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights group in the nation. He raised concern about another school that “may be owned or controlled by a holding group” linked to the Chinese government.

“The people of Texas deserve the highest assurance that no taxpayer dollars will be used, directly or indirectly, to support institutions with ties to a foreign terrorist organization, a transnational criminal network, or any adversarial foreign government,” Hancock wrote on Dec. 12, asking for an expedited ruling on whether the schools should be excluded. While an attorney general’s opinion is not legally binding, the state could use it to justify barring schools from the program. Hancock declined provide more details but said in a statement that the request "does not prejudge any institution or presume any outcome." About 30 Muslim schools operate in Texas, most of them clustered in the Dallas and Houston areas, according to voluntary federal surveys. Some are affiliated with local mosques and community centers. The move comes as Republican state leaders are increasingly speaking out against Muslim groups. Abbott launched a regulatory blitz earlier this year to stop a planned Muslim community in North Texas, and last month he designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations. CAIR has sued to overturn the designation and accused Abbott and others of amplifying Islamophobic rhetoric. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The group’s Texas chapter said in a statement that it often hosts “know your rights” events when requested by students or school staff. It said penalizing schools for those events would raise “serious First Amendment concerns.”

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Texas Senate race reflects Republican shift against Afghan refugees

Welcoming Afghan refugees used to be a rare point of unity for Republicans and Democrats. But in the aftermath of a deadly shooting last month, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and his GOP challenger, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, are abandoning their past support for resettling Afghan nationals, many of whom helped the U.S. in its longstanding war against the Taliban. Cornyn, a Republican who once touted his work on a 2021 law that smoothed out the vetting process for Afghan allies seeking special visas, has since deleted his office’s press release celebrating the effort. Hunt, who when asked about visas in 2024 told NOTUS that “we should be loyal back” to all of the Afghans “who were loyal to us,” recently introduced legislation to shutter a visa program for Afghans who worked for U.S. forces.

The shifting positions come as the two men are vying with Attorney General Ken Paxton for an endorsement from President Donald Trump, who has recently made the Afghan community a top target in his bid to crack down on immigration. Republicans have been divided over how to respond to an attack last month in Washington D.C. that left one West Virginia National Guard member dead and another in critical condition. The man accused of carrying out the attack is an Afghan refugee who previously served in a CIA-backed paramilitary unit in Afghanistan. Trump has lashed out at Afghans and frozen all pending immigration benefit requests, including for visas, green cards, work permits and citizenship. He also ordered the federal government to review green cards issued during the Biden administration. But others, including the George W. Bush Presidential Center and Rep. Michael McCaul, have urged officials not to turn their backs on Afghans, saying they are in danger at home because of their work with U.S. forces. “The credo in the military is ‘No man left behind,’ and we promised them that we will protect them,” McCaul said in a video with Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, head of refugee advocacy group AfghanEvac, on Dec. 11. “Yet we failed in that duty.”

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DART board chair on withdrawal elections and North Texas transit's 'new shiny' future

Randall Bryant is a lifelong Dallasite who grew up in the Hamilton Park neighborhood of North Dallas. Riding the Red Line train to the Dallas Zoo with his family is one of his earliest memories of Dallas Area Rapid Transit. "From then on ... I was an avid user of the system growing up," he said. He was appointed to lead the DART board of directors in October, becoming the youngest board chair in the agency's 42-year history. He previously served with the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce and the Dallas Citizen's Council. His appointment to the DART board comes during a pivotal time: Four of the 13 member cities have called May elections to let voters decide whether or not to keep DART running in their city.

What do you think is behind this push to call withdrawal elections from DART? "We're at the point where state statute allows these cities to contemplate withdrawal elections every six years. This just so happens to be the sixth year. And it's good governance, I believe, for them to think about all the options for them. I'm not against them for that. I think we don't necessarily share the exact same viewpoints on what the outcomes should be, and I think it's up to us to continue to show the value of transit for those leaders and for the residents. And figure out, you know, what solutions that we can develop that works for each other," he said. What do you say to city leaders and also residents who say DART isn't good enough? "We've built out a system that the first 25% of the penny that comes to DART, that first 25% goes to debt. That's $2 billion for a new Silver Line, right? That's 476 new busses that we've just purchased. That's in two or three years from now, replacing our entire light rail vehicle fleet, right. We have to maintain state of good repair. That keeps us in due bounds with the federal laws, but also keeping high quality, technologically driven products on the market that attracts our customer base. That's where the first 25% of our funds goes to," he said. "Transportation Plano's new proposal to DART could keep the city from leaving the agency. Plano's proposal would eliminate regular bus routes in the city but keep rail, including the new Silver Line."

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At least six among victims of Mexican Navy plane crash off the coast of Texas

At least six people were killed when a Mexican Naval plane crashed in Galveston Bay off the Texas coast on Monday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The office of the Secretary of the Mexican Navy said on X Monday evening that the aircraft, with eight people on board, was conducting a medical support mission in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation. Rescue crews, in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard, recovered the bodies of six deceased individuals, with search and rescue operations ongoing for the two remaining individuals on board. The Coast Guard said in a press release that watchstanders at its Houston-Galveston sector received a call at roughly 3:17 p.m. CST reporting a plane crash west of the Galveston Causeway. Information from flight-tracking site FlightRadar24 shows that the plane departed Merida Airport at 12:48 p.m. CST and was scheduled to arrive at Scholes International in Galveston at 3:45 p.m. CST.

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Texas camps add flood sirens after Camp Mystic tragedy

As windchimes sang on a foggy December morning, it was hard to imagine the chaos that flooded Camp Mystic nearly six months before. A Fourth of July Weekend Britt Eastland will never forget. “We’re just grateful for all the prayers and support that a lot of people have been giving us,” Eastland said. “And, we’ll continue to pray for all of all the families affected.” 25 campers and two counselors at Mystic’s main camp site along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County were killed by swift waters. The flood also took the life of Eastland’s father, Richard ‘Dick’ Eastland. The 70-year-old was Mystic’s owner and camp director for more than 50 years. “It can be very healing to come back, to be with our friends in the outdoors and continue to learn about Christ and to have a great experience,” Eastland said.

In his heart, Eastland knew his dad would want to see his legacy live on. “It’s a family decision whether or not they feel comfortable sending their daughters back to camp mystic,” Eastland said. “And, we respect that.” As a direct result of the tragedy, Texas legislators passed the Youth Camper Act which calls for camps to have an emergency system that doesn’t require the use of internet. Eastland heard about a man who was installing flood sirens at camps down stream and decided to give him a call. That man was Ian Cunningham, a former navy and commercial pilot. He created River Sentry after learning about the Kerr County Floods. “We started researching floods,” Cunningham said. “You know, and the difference between floods and flood tragedies. If you kind of get into it, you start to see some common elements that keep appearing. The flood tragedies happen at night. 80% of them have to do with sleeping.”

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Tarrant County Jail inmate dies after being found unresponsive in her cell

A 40-year-old Tarrant County Jail inmate died Sunday, according to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. The woman was found unresponsive in her cell. Lifesaving measures were administered by medical staff from JPS Correctional Health before she was transported to JPS Hospital for treatment. She died later Sunday afternoon, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The woman has been imprisoned in the jail since Aug. 3 after she was arrested by Arlington police on robbery charges, officials said. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine her cause of death and release her name. Deaths in the jail are investigated by Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office jail staff, the TCSO Criminal Investigations Division, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, an outside law enforcement agency, JPS medical staff, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, according to the news release. More than 65 inmates from the jail have died since 2017, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA reported.

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Lamar Hunt, CEO of Kansas City Chiefs, will move to Kansas, leaving Missouri fans heartbroken

The state of Missouri is losing its third NFL franchise and the second in the past decade, and the decision by the Chiefs on Monday to depart their longtime home at Arrowhead Stadium for a new domed facility in Kansas may hurt the most. The Chiefs announced their intention to move after Kansas lawmakers approved a bond package earlier in the day to help pay for the new facility. It will be built near Kansas Speedway and a retail district known as The Legends in Kansas City, Kansas — only about 30 miles from Arrowhead Stadium, but a distance that has perhaps never felt so far. “Years ago as a kid, my family was homeless for a while and we lived in a motel not too far from the stadium,” said Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, shortly after the team’s announcement. “I knew we struggled, but I believed nothing was cooler than living within a stones’ throw of what I thought then and today is the greatest stadium in football.

“Like a lot of parents in Chiefs Kingdom, my single mother scraped some money together to get me to Arrowhead for my first game — 300-level upper deck for a 30-7 preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills in 1993. I’ve been hooked ever since.” Missouri lawmakers had been desperately trying to keep the Chiefs with their own funding package. They held a special legislative session in June backed by Gov. Mike Kehoe that authorized bonds covering up to 50% of the cost of new or renovated stadiums, plus up to $50 million of tax credits for each stadium and unspecified aid from local governments. Lucas also had been working with local lawmakers in recent days on a counterproposal to keep the Chiefs in Missouri. “We understand our very fair but very responsible financial offer of taxpayer support was surpassed by an even more robust public financing package in Kansas,” he said. “The Chiefs have a business to run and today made a business decision. We wish them well.”

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Moody's downgrades Corpus Christi's credit rating over water supply concerns

Moody's Ratings downgraded the City of Corpus Christi's credit rating on Thursday, citing the city's urgent need to secure more water and the narrow window in which to do so. The credit rating agency lowered the city's General Obligation and sales tax revenue ratings from Aa2 to A1, and its utility rating from Aa3 to A1. A credit rating works like a report card for a city's finances. When the rating goes down, it becomes more expensive for the city to borrow money for projects like fixing roads or building water infrastructure. Those higher costs typically get passed on to residents through increased utility bills or taxes. Moody's pointed to the region's water shortage as the main concern. According to the rating agency's analysis, the city's own projections show water demand will exceed available supply by April 2027.

The rating agency noted that ongoing drought conditions along the Texas Gulf Coast and substantial industrial water consumption continue to threaten the long-term water supply. Moody's also observed that multiple city administrations have faced difficulties implementing strategies to expand the water supply, and the lack of significant rainfall to refill Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon reservoirs has sped up the emergency timeline. According to a city press release, "The rating agency specifically highlighted the potential for curtailment of industrial operations, a key component of the regional economy, should water supply solutions not be successfully implemented." The city's two main reservoirs are currently 10.6% capacity, according to the city. City Manager Peter Zanoni said the city is working aggressively to address the water shortage. "While we acknowledge Moody's decision to downgrade our credit ratings, we want to assure our residents and investors that the City is fully committed to aggressively addressing the need for water supply diversification," Zanoni said in a statement released Friday.

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Reclassification of marijuana could lead to larger studies on medicinal uses

President Donald Trump is directing his administration to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to Schedule III, a move that medical professionals say will lead to larger clinical studies on the medical uses of the drug. “Americans deserve access to the best medical treatments and research infrastructure in the world,” Trump said in the opening line of his executive order issued last week. “Yet decades of federal drug control policy have neglected marijuana’s medical uses. That oversight has limited the ability of scientists and manufacturers to complete the necessary research on safety and efficacy to inform doctors and patients.” Schedule I drugs are considered to have no safe and accepted medical use and come with a high risk for abuse, according to the Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP). In Texas, marijuana, heroin, and crack cocaine are Schedule I.

Schedule III substances are considered to have less of an abuse risk than Schedule I and II and also have safe and accepted medical uses in the United States, according to TSBP. Dr. David Rabin, a board-certified psychiatrist in neuroscience, explained changing the classification from Schedule I to Schedule III will really open up the scientific research of marijuana. “The reclassification to Schedule III allows it to actually be used as, number one, a therapeutic for patients, and, number two, it unlocks the ability to do large-scale research studies,” Rabin explained. Rabin specializes his studies on trauma and addiction. He views marijuana as a medicine and is happy with the decision by the president to reclassify it as such. “It’s one of the most powerful tools in our toolbox for treating chronic pain, PTSD and many other challenging chronic illnesses that we have struggled to treat in our field with other tools that we have available,” Rabin said. The biggest area of research in Rabin’s eyes is to compare plant-based cannabis to opiates and other pain medications. The president’s executive order mentions 1 in 4 American adults are experiencing some form of chronic pain as the country deals with a rise in opioid overdoses in the past decade. Rabin said some studies suggest cannabis users with a chronic illness report using less opiate medication.

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Catching up with Pete Marocco

You remember Marocco. He was the face of the Montgomery J. Bennett-funded organization called Dallas HERO that convinced Dallas voters to change the city charter, producing results that we still haven’t worked through yet. Also, he was caught on camera inside the Capitol on January 6. Then he was appointed as the Director of Foreign Assistance at the State Department and Deputy Administrator for USAID, an organization that he gutted, costing an untold number of lives (which is ironic, given that he holds a graduate degree in international human rights law from the University of Oxford).

Over the weekend, the Washington Post published a story about Marocco that will eventually require its own entry on his Wikipedia page. The headline: “Inside the 17-year Lawsuit Between a Trump Official and His Interior Designers.” And the subhead: “Pete Marocco helped dismantle USAID in weeks. But for nearly two decades, he has been embroiled in a legal ‘boondoggle’ in Tallahassee.” If you hit a paywall and don’t want to use one of the many free websites that will get you around it, here’s a taste of the story: It began as a run-of-the-mill contract dispute over costs that Marocco said were inflated for work at two properties he owned and the possession of furniture and decor, such as a camel sculpture and an abalone lamp. The case was almost settled early on for $25,000 and an apology over the phone. Instead, it ballooned into a legal epic. “I’ve never heard of a commercial civil case like this that’s this long. Ever,” said David Hoffman, a professor of contract law at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School who reviewed the legal docket. “Even though it started off petty, it has now become like a grand opera.”

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Keller City Council ‘uninvites’ pastor whose church hosted Kel-So Pride from delivering opening prayer

The Rev. Alan Bentrup, pastor at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church which sits on the border between Keller and Southlake, this week was unceremoniously “uninvited” to deliver the invocation to open the Keller City Council meeting last week. And Keller’s right-wing Republican Mayor Armin Mizani did not any hateful mince words in explaining why. “Delivering the opening prayer before Keller City Council meetings is a privilege, not a right,” Mizani, who is running for a seat in the Texas House, told Dallas Morning News. He said that the council would not “elevate an individual to lead us in prayer who offended a large majority of our residents by recently welcoming children to attend an event that exposed them to male drag performers,” Mizani declared. “We will not apologize for or equivocate on this decision.”

Mizani was referring to the fact that Rev. Bentrup’s church hosted the first-ever Pride Kel-So festival in October. The event featured a B-52s cover band and an age-appropriate drag show, drawing a crowd of about 700 attendees. St. Martin-in-the-Fields hosted the Pride festival after a woman told the pastor that if such an event had existed when her son was younger, he might not have died by suicide, according to DMN reports. Members of the church’s board of directors voted unanimously in favor of hosting the festival on church property. But apparently for Mizani, deciding who is and who isn’t holy enough to pray for the city was less about actual Christian principles and more about riling up the right-wing voters he hopes will send him to Austin next November by declaring on social media that festival organizers obviously had “an agenda aimed at exposing children to inappropriate, highly sexualized content.” For his part, Bentrup noted on Facebook that over the past year his church has donated $80,000 to food pantries, homeless shelters and refugee ministries, accounting for more than 15 percent of the church’s annual budget. He wrote, according to DMN, “We do this because we believe in loving and serving our neighbors with no agenda beyond compassion. If offering a prayer grounded in love, dignity, care and respect for all people disqualifies someone from praying for this city, then we should ask what ‘community values’ really mean here.

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Trump administration targets Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande

The Trump administration has suspended federal funding to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande pending the outcome of an investigation into alleged “incomplete and inaccurate” record keeping by the faith-based agency. The ongoing review also could result in a period of debarment disqualifying the organization from receiving federal funds for six years, the Department of Homeland Security warned in a Nov. 20 letter to Sister Norma Pimentel, a nun and executive director of the Catholic nonprofit. The organization responded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency funds in question were used as intended to aid immigrants delivered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Each arrived with CBP authorization to undergo immigration proceedings in designated locations in the U.S.

“Those on the front lines of our humanitarian outreach know the work we do truly helps to restore human dignity,” Pimentel said. “I take very seriously every single dollar entrusted to us.” Taking fire from conservative Christians and right-wing politicians is nothing new for Pimentel and her agency, which operates numerous assistance programs in the region, including a migrant respite shelter in McAllen, Texas. She was a target of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2024 investigation into faith-based migrant shelters in the state, which he accused of being human trafficking and immigrant smuggling operations. The inquiry was part of Operation Lone Star, the sweeping anti-immigration campaign of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is Catholic. In 2022, Judicial Watch and the conservative group CatholicVote accused Catholic-affiliated agencies, including Pimentel’s organization, of helping the Biden administration lure immigrants across the border.

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Two more bodies found in Houston bayous, bringing yearly total to 33

Houston police recovered two dead bodies Monday from two different local bayous. Their discovery means there have been 33 bayou-related deaths in the city this year, nearly matching last year’s total of 35. Both of the bodies found Monday were discovered by police at around 9:30 a.m. They were the first bodies recovered in more than two months as bayou-related deaths have garnered heightened attention this year — with six having been discovered during an 11-day period in September, when local officials tried to dispel public concerns about the possibility of a serial killer. One of the bodies found Monday was located in the Buffalo Bayou, near the 100 block of Crawford Street in downtown Houston.

A spokesperson from the Houston Police Department (HPD) said an individual had called 911 after seeing the body in the bayou, at which point the police department's dive team responded. The other body was found near the Brays Bayou, at the intersection of Texas Spur 5 and Old Spanish Trail. An HPD spokesperson said the body was not found in the bayou itself, but rather on the rocks near it. When a Houston Public Media reporter visited the scene, HPD Sgt. Michael Cass said the body was so significantly decomposed that investigators could not determine the person's age or "much about it at all, at this point." "Right now, face value, there’s not a lot that we can see or determine from the body," Cass said. A spokesperson for HPD, in a subsequent phone interview with Houston Public Media, was not able to immediately identify why the body was decomposed if it was not in the water. The Harris County medical examiner's office will conduct autopsies and work to determine the identities of the two bodies.

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National Stories

Watch the 60 Minutes CECOT segment

The segment apparently aired on Canada’s Global TV app and was shared by this Bluesky user @jasonparis.bsky.social. Watch the segment below. Click "Read More at Quorum Report" to check it out.

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US strikes another alleged drug-smuggling boat in eastern Pacific

The U.S. military said Monday that it had conducted another strike against a boat it said was smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one person. In a social media post, U.S. Southern Command said, “Intelligence confirmed the low-profile vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” Southern Command provided no evidence that the vessel was engaged in drug smuggling. A video posted by U.S. Southern Command shows splashes of water near one side of the boat. After a second salvo, the rear of the boat catches fire. More splashes engulf the craft and the fire grows. In the final second of the video, the vessel can be seen adrift with a large patch of fire alongside it.

Earlier videos of U.S. boat strikes showed vessels suddenly exploding, suggesting missile strikes. Some strike videos even had visible rocket-like projectiles coming down on the boats. The Trump administration has said the strikes were meant to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. and increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. At least 105 people have been killed in 29 known strikes since early September. The strikes have faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are indeed drug smugglers and say the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings. Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard has stepped up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s escalating campaign against Maduro.

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DHS increases offer to $3,000 for undocumented migrants who leave by end of 2025

People living in the United States illegally can receive a $3,000 stipend and a free flight home if they sign up to voluntarily leave the country through the federal government’s CBP Home app by the end of the year, the Department of Homeland Security said. Under the program, DHS says individuals who self-deport using the app will also qualify for forgiveness of certain civil fines or penalties related to previously failing to leave the country. The department is temporarily increasing the previously announced financial incentive from $1,000 as part of what it described as a holiday push to encourage voluntary departures.

Since the start of the year, 1.9 million migrants have voluntarily self-deported and tens of thousands have used the CBP Home app, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a statement. The CBP Home app allows users to submit their information electronically and coordinate their departure without being taken into custody. The government covers travel costs and provides the stipend once the individual completes the process. The agency said people who do not voluntarily depart could instead face arrest or formal deportation, as well as be banned from returning to the U.S. The announcement comes as immigration enforcement and border policy remain central political issues heading into the new year. DHS did not specify how the $3,000 payments will be distributed or how many people it projects will participate before the deadline. The DHS said the incentive is only for the end of the year, with the department returning to its original policies at the start of 2026.

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Trump unveils a new class of Navy battleship named after himself

President Donald Trump on Monday said he will oversee the development of a new class of Navy battleship — named after himself. The move was cast in part as an effort to give the nation’s stagnant shipbuilding industry a shot in the arm, but also will upend the Navy’s ship-naming norms and thrust presidential politics firmly into the program from its genesis. The announcement follows a flurry of recent actions by Trump to rebrand existing institutions to include his name, including the U.S. Institute of Peace and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Trump, speaking alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, said the new warships will have “guns and missiles at the highest level,” along with hypersonic weapons, electric rail guns and lasers. The first battleship, to be called the USS Defiant, will be part of a broader effort to build a modern “Golden Fleet” of warships, Trump said, indicating that he will play a leading role in the program. “The U.S. Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I’m a really aesthetic person,” Trump said. The Navy said in a news release after Trump’s announcement that the vessel “will be the most lethal surface combatant ever constructed” and triple the size of a current Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, which is about 505 feet long and weighs about 9,000 tons. That would be smaller than existing aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, vessels that commonly carry Marines at sea. A logo unveiled for the new ship class depicts Trump in the moments after a July 2024 assassination attempt, fist held high. The Trump-class naming, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would defy the Navy’s long-standing — if unevenly applied — traditions of naming aircraft carriers after presidents and battleships after states. Almost all of the service’s current carriers are named after former commanders in chief, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship in a class of aircraft carrier that is expected to include other ships named after President John F. Kennedy, President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. Typically, a class of warship shares its name with the first vessel in that class.

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Car payments now average more than $750 a month. Enter the 100-month car loan.

The price of new cars and trucks in the U.S. has increased 33% since 2020, and consumers are piling on interest as they stretch out loan terms to eight, nine and nearly 10 years. David Kelleher, who runs a Dodge and Jeep dealership in Glen Mills, Pa., 27 miles west of Philadelphia, said many American families can’t comfortably take on a new-car payment these days. “We don’t have $300 monthly payments any longer in new vehicles,” he said. “It’s a thing of the past.” The average price of a new car broke the $50,000 barrier this fall, according to Kelley Blue Book. That is up from less than $38,000 in early 2020 before the pandemic hit. As sticker prices marched higher, so did monthly payments. For a few years, car shoppers were undeterred. Many needed new vehicles after putting off buying during Covid when supply chains were upended and dealer lots were empty. Others, feeling flush, opted for luxury vehicles at much higher price points.

Fast forward to November of this year and the average monthly payment for a new car was estimated to be $760, according to J.D. Power, an industry-research firm. The hefty cumulative inflation is starting to weigh on consumers, and now some Americans are falling behind on their car payments. The struggle to keep monthly payments in check is so tough that the typical 48- to 60-month car-loan term has given way to 72-month terms, and longer, industry officials say. In the third quarter, a third of all buyers took out loans that stretched at least six years, or 72 months, according to Experian data. A year ago, 29% of buyers did so. The volume of loans with 85 to 96 months to repay, or up to eight years, rose as well to 1.61% of car buyers through October. Some loans now reach 100 months, or more than eight years, especially for the purchase of larger pickups, Experian data show. One problem is that automakers aren’t making models with a sticker price under $30,000, which, in theory, should present a real opportunity for the car companies, said Heath Byrd, chief financial officer of Sonic Automotive, a publicly traded dealership chain. He recently told investors and analysts that until buyers have better options, affordability will become an even bigger problem.

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US cities gird for World Cup rush hour

American cities are scrambling to build bus systems from scratch, overhaul rail lines and ensure trains don’t catch fire as they prepare to welcome soccer fans to next summer’s World Cup. The tournament, which spreads matches across 16 North American cities in three countries, will be a test of U.S. mass transit — from robust to barely existent — as transportation agencies still struggling to recover from pandemic-era changes are forced to gear up for the global games. Nowhere is what transit planners call the “crush load” likely to be as much of a challenge as the 450-mile stretch shared by local commuter railroads and Amtrak. That stretch owns the tracks connecting three Atlantic Seaboard cities hosting 21 of the matches.

“If there’s a linchpin that will determine the success or failure of the event, it is the functionality of the Northeast Corridor and Amtrak’s willingness and preparation to handle challenges,” said Kris Kolluri, the head of New Jersey Transit, which will rely on Amtrak’s system to run trains to eight games, including the final. “Failure to do that could be catastrophic.” Even as the White House takes a central role in World Cup planning, the federal government does not appear likely to assist transit operators struggling with preparations. Any new funding is paused at this time, and Congress does not expect to be moving shortly. Millions of visitors who arrive in the United States for the 39-day tournament hoping to travel carelessly across the country will encounter the full gamut of public transit. “I think this is a great opportunity for America to show the rest of the world that we do have trains,” said Roger Harris, president of government-backed Amtrak. Visitors can take Amtrak passenger trains from some of the American cities hosting World Cup matches to the two in Canada. But travelers can’t take Amtrak anywhere in Mexico, including the three cities that will have matches. Harris is not yet sure how many more passengers to expect across Amtrak’s vast system: There will be World Cup fans flocking there, but also normal commuters who may tend to stay home, so it could end up being a wash. The New York region, which will host the World Cup final, has the country’s largest and most impressive set of interlocking transit networks. But it’s also balkanized and byzantine.

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Trump administration abruptly recalls over two dozen career ambassadors

The Trump administration has recalled more than two dozen career diplomats from ambassador positions and other senior posts around the world as it works to enforce adherence with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, current and former U.S. officials said. The directive has infuriated State Department personnel who say it will leave key embassies without critical leadership and may effectively end the careers of many ambassadors who will have only 90 days to find new jobs in the department, a tall order during a moment of limited high-level positions. “To remove these senior diplomats without cause or justification sends a dangerous message,” the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats, said in a statement. “It tells our public servants that loyalty to country is no longer enough — that experience and oath to the Constitution take a back seat to political loyalty.”

A senior State Department official said, “This is a standard process in any administration. An ambassador is a personal representative of the president, and it is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the ‘America First’ agenda.” Beginning last week, a targeted group of ambassadors in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe received phone calls from Washington directing them to vacate their posts by mid-January, said officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel decisions. The communication offered no explanation for the recall and included at least two dozen career diplomats who had served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, these people said. All of the recalled ambassadors received their latest promotion under President Joe Biden. Career diplomats serve at the pleasure of the president, but they are usually allowed to complete their assignments of three to four years regardless of a change in the presidency. That differs from politically appointed diplomats, such as donors or friends of presidents, who are usually recalled immediately when a new president takes office. The Trump administration’s recall will have diplomats uprooting their lives much faster than many had expected. And when these ambassadors finish their assignments, they have just 90 days to find a new position or they must retire.

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Lead Stories

The economy survived 2025, but many Americans are reeling

After a chaotic year filled with trade wars, market gyrations and the longest government shutdown in history, the U.S. economy has, once again, proved more resilient than many forecasters feared. But “resilient” isn’t quite the same thing as “good.” Many Americans are entering 2026 worried about their jobs, stressed about their finances and unconvinced that things will improve in the new year. The flow of official economic data resumed last week after a prolonged delay caused by the government shutdown. The reports were muddled by technical quirks related to the shutdown, but on balance they suggested the economy remained stuck in the same uneasy limbo it was in before the data blackout began. Job growth was decent in November, but unemployment rose. Retail sales were solid, but wage growth slowed. Inflation cooled, but remains elevated. That mixed picture is far better than the dire forecasts of last spring, when many economists warned that President Trump’s tariffs would lead to runaway inflation, a recession — or both.

Instead, data this week is expected to show that gross domestic product, which measures overall economic output, grew at a robust pace in the third quarter. Full-year data, when it becomes available early next year, is likely to show that output, adjusted for inflation, grew at about a 1.5 percent pace in 2025, a downshift from 2024 but far from a recession. A gradual deterioration, though, is still a deterioration. In surveys, Americans overwhelmingly say they are struggling with the cost of living and do not believe the economy is working for them — an impression borne out by data showing that consumer spending is being driven by a relative handful of rich households. Mr. Trump tried to shift that narrative in a combative — and often misleading — prime-time speech last week in which he blamed his predecessor for economic problems and promised that a “Golden Age” was just around the corner. Many forecasters do expect a rosier backdrop next year. But the problem for Mr. Trump is that few of the larger economic problems that pushed voters away from the incumbent party in 2024 have improved, and some have gotten worse. Tariffs haven’t caused a spike in inflation, but they have pushed up prices for some consumer products. Homeownership remains out of reach for many Americans. Child care is still broadly unaffordable, electricity bills are rising and health care premiums are set to rise for millions of families when insurance subsidies expire at the end of the year.

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Poll shows Gina Hinojosa leading Democratic primary field in race for Governor

In March, Texas Democrats will choose a candidate who will likely face Gov. Greg Abbott in next November’s election. Abbott does face a challenge in the Republican primary, but he is expected to easily earn the party’s nomination. The Democratic primary appears to also have an early favorite. New polling shows State Rep. Gina Hinojosa holding a commanding lead over other Democrats in the race. The poll comes from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University. They polled 1,600 likely Democratic primary voters. The results show 41% say they intend to vote for Hinojosa. Houston businessman Andrew White, who’s the son of former Governor Mark White, was the next closest candidate at 6%. Former congressman Chris Bell polled at 5% support. “I don’t take anything for granted,” Hinojosa said. “It is a feeling of satisfaction to know that my work over almost a decade has been appreciated by Democrats across this state,” she added.

A former Austin school board president, Hinojosa has been a vocal proponent for public schools in her time at the State Capitol. She was one of the leading voices against the Education Savings Account plan backed by Governor Abbott. “I have fought hard for our public schools. I have fought hard for working Texans. And what the polling shows is that people have noticed and people appreciate it, and I’m just so grateful for that,” Hinojosa said. The poll also found 42% of likely Democratic primary voters say they’re not yet sure how they’ll vote. That has White, Bell, and Bobby Cole, a firefighter and farmer in the race, making their pitch to sway those undecided voters. White says he’s running as an “independent Democrat.” He described that as “a Democrat who will unite progressives and moderates together and invite independence into our party.” White pointed out that it has been more than 30 years since a Texas Democrat has won a race for statewide office. He said his business background sets him apart from previous candidates who have run and lost.

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RFK Jr. wants states to ban junk food. No one knows what counts.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s long-heralded food stamp reform is coming Jan. 1, but everyone’s confused about how to implement it. Eighteen states have adopted restrictions on using food aid to purchase soda and other processed foods, prompted by the Health secretary’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. The bans vary widely from state to state, and the absence of detailed guidance has left local officials, retailers and participants of the nation’s largest anti-hunger initiative struggling to determine which foods are still allowed. The Agriculture Department, which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and oversees states’ plans, has yet to offer definitive enforcement guidelines and did not give a timeline on when it would provide guidance on the bans. Some states have already announced implementation delays amid a rush to define what’s banned.

“It’s just a classic government operation where they’ve thrown this out there, and well-meaning though they may be, it’s caused mass confusion, and it’s making some retailers question whether they’re going to stay with the program or not,” said Joe Lackey, president of the Indiana Grocery and Convenience Store Association. Kennedy’s push for SNAP restrictions has won support from members of both parties and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. But the bans are expected to place a heavy burden on retailers and local economies already bracing for other changes to the nutrition program that serves 40 million Americans. Retailers could be required to ban as many as 120,000 food and drink items depending on the state, according to an estimate from the National Grocers Association. That could impose hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance costs for retailers each year, because the lists must be continually updated as manufacturers introduce new products and propose reformulations, said Stephanie Johnson, NGA’s vice president of government relations and political affairs.

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Gov. Greg Abbott endorses Marty Lancton for Harris County judge

Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed firefighter-turned-union-leader Patrick "Marty" Lancton for Harris County judge Friday. Lancton formally launched his bid for the Republican nomination for judge at an August kickoff event that drew support from local conservative power brokers. Abbott joined a chorus of local Republican voices backing Lancton's bid for the county's chief executive position, including Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale. The Texas governor said Lancton was a "proven advocate for working families," in a post published to his campaign's X account Friday afternoon. "A native of Houston, Lancton is a decorated firefighter and proven advocate for working families," the post read. "He has earned a reputation for putting principle before politics and people before power. Marty has built a career defined by courage, integrity and results."

The endorsement came after Abbott announced his plan to spend $25 million to turn Harris County "dark red" in 2026. Lancton was a key figure in securing a $1.5 billion settlement for Houston firefighters following a nearly decade-long contract dispute that began under former Mayor Sylvester Turner's administration. “I’m grateful for Governor Abbott’s support and his confidence in our campaign. Harris County deserves leadership that is focused, collaborative and prepared to keep our communities safe while managing growth responsibly. I look forward to working with leaders at every level to deliver real results for Harris County families," Lancton said in a statement. Lancton is the first Republican candidate for Harris County judge to receive public support from major conservative figures. McIngvale, the owner of Gallery Furniture and a financing tycoon for local Republicans, said he endorsed Lancton because of his promise to reduce property taxes and make Harris County safer. It's a message that state Republicans are eager to jump on. Part of Abbott's plan to flip the state's largest county, which in recent years has been dominated by Democrats, is centered on key conservative issues including bail reform, crime and property tax relief. Lancton previously said his ability to build and maintain relationships with state and local officials was part of what distinguished him from other candidates. "Relationships mean that you can work with your regional partners, your cities within the county, your state partners to get the resources that Harris County needs," Lancton said. Lancton faces a number of other conservative candidates also vying for the party's nomination. The primaries will be held in March and the general election in November.

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State Stories

Afghan refugees in Texas say Trump’s latest crackdown could leave them homeless

U.S. officials rushed Mohammad Nabi onto a plane out of Afghanistan so quickly in 2021 that he didn’t have time to bring his passport, his wife or his eight children. More than four years later, the former medic and security guard for a CIA-run military base works at a Tyson Foods factory near San Antonio and hopes to one day reunite with his family in Texas. But his path to permanent residency has suddenly stalled. Nabi learned on Friday that his long-awaited interview for a green card had been canceled without notice or explanation, 10 days after the Trump administration froze immigration benefit requests indefinitely for Afghan nationals. “There is no option to go home” without documents or fear of reprisal from the Taliban, the 54-year-old said through an interpreter. The wait for clarity has been excruciating.

“For five years, his kids are calling every single day, saying, ‘Come home, Daddy!’” his friend, former combat interpreter Habib Rehman, said. Nabi is among thousands of Afghan refugees trapped in legal limbo, unable to move forward and unable to go back to the country they fled after President Donald Trump’s response to a shooting last month that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition. The man accused of carrying out the shooting last month in Washington, D.C, is an Afghan refugee who previously served in a CIA-backed paramilitary unit in Afghanistan. The freeze applies to asylum, visa and green card applications, adding an indefinite waiting period to a process that has already taken years for many refugees. It also means legally-present refugees cannot renew their work permits, prolonging unemployment for some and throwing others into joblessness. Many could soon see their temporary humanitarian parole status expire. “If this situation continues, we'll all be homeless, and we cannot go back to Afghanistan… they will kill us,” Azimjan Kadwal, another Afghan refugee in San Antonio, said through an interpreter on Saturday.

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Ken Paxton’s pending divorce hangs over U.S. Senate bid

Attorney General Ken Paxton has framed the country’s politics as a battle between good and evil. His Senate bid now faces a more earthly test: whether Texas voters will look past allegations of infidelity and personal troubles. That question surfaced recently at the University of Texas, where Paxton and a former top aide in the attorney general’s office, Aaron Reitz, spoke at a Turning Point USA event. A student asked whether moral lapses should weigh in evaluating candidates. Paxton had already left the event, and Reitz, his chosen successor for attorney general, took it on, saying: “People are imperfect, and so, you know, I’m not going to disqualify somebody politically or for fitness for office because they struggle with a certain thing in their private life.” He said questions of conduct “may matter more or less” depending on context, adding moral defects matter less when a leader is helping defeat an enemy.

The exchange laid bare the fault line in Paxton’s campaign: private turmoil colliding with a political identity built as a defender of traditional family values. Now, the Texas Republican primary may show whether loyalty and ideology prevail over concerns about a candidate’s behavior. Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, filed for divorce in July after 38 years of marriage. She accused him of adultery, citing “recent discoveries” and “biblical grounds” for the split. Friday in Collin County, a judge approved an agreement by the Paxtons to withdraw their initial opposition and unseal divorce records sought by media organizations as Ken Paxton campaigns for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn. Angela Paxton alleged infidelity in the divorce filing, which Ken Paxton denied in a separate response. Releasing the files now, rather than pressing to keep them closed, removes a potential distraction for Paxton ahead of the March primary. The Paxton campaign declined to comment last week, pointing instead to a post on X after the divorce filing in which he said the couple decided to “start a new chapter” after years of political scrutiny, and asked for prayers and privacy.

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State agency injects $25 million into trail project along DART Silver Line

A trail connection running along the recently opened Silver Line has received a $25 million donation from the state. The Texas Transportation Commission awarded Dallas Area Rapid Transit with the multimillion-dollar donation for the construction of the third phase of the Cotton Belt Trail project, the Regional Transportation Council announced Dec 18. The donation is part of a statewide initiative focused on enhancing active transportation infrastructure as part of the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside Program, according to the announcement. The funding is part of a $55 million total investment the state agency awarded to transportation projects seeking to improve mobility and increase trail access in North Texas. In addition to the $25 million grant, the Transportation Commission also provided $30 million to six trail projects in the Metroplex including Trinity Forest Spine Trail and the Midtown Dallas Shared Use Trail.

The Cotton Belt Trail stretches 26 miles from Plano to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and runs along the Silver Line, which opened on Oct. 25. The trail project seeks to serve as an essential “east-to-west connector” and provides DART users with a safe biking and walking option across several communities. Phase two of the development is currently underway and focused on 11 miles from western Addison to the Shiloh Road Station in Plano. Meanwhile, the third phase of the trail project will develop biking and walking access to Addison, downtown Carrollton and Cypress Waters as well as three stops along the DART Silver Line. Construction on a third phase is scheduled to begin by mid-2027. Kevin Kokes, a program manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments’ Land Use and Mobility Options team, expressed appreciation for the state's financial support in a statement. "By improving connections to employment, housing, education facilities and recreational opportunities, these projects help build a stronger, more accessible future for everyone," he said.

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Supreme Court declines to hear Austin's petition in marijuana decriminalization case

Austin’s attempt to keep in place a local ordinance limiting low-level marijuana enforcement has likely ended more than three years after city voters adopted it. Residents passed the “Austin Freedom Act,” or Proposition A, in May 2022. The two-part ballot measure prevented local enforcement of some drug-related misdemeanors including marijuana possession, and also banned Austin police from executing “no-knock” search warrants. Attorney General Ken Paxton sued several cities including Austin over similar marijuana enforcement policies last year, claiming they conflicted with Texas drug laws. While Austin’s ordinance was initially upheld in district court, an appeals court sided with the state’s request for an injunction to block it earlier this year. The city then petitioned the Texas Supreme Court to review its case. The court denied that request Dec. 19, maintaining the earlier appellate court outcome. The city didn’t respond to a request for comment about the case as of press time Dec. 19.

The Austin Freedom Act landed on the city's May 2022 ballot following a public petition campaign. That process allows residents to petition the government to enact policy if enough registered voters sign on in support. Government officials may then either adopt the measure outright or call an election to decide the issue, but can’t reject or modify the proposed initiative. Despite some support on the City Council dais, officials declined to pass the act themselves and instead left it to a public vote. Proposition A then won more than 85% support, and council members certified the election results, putting the ordinance into effect. Attorneys for Austin contended that while marijuana remains illegal in Texas, council members didn’t have discretion over whether to enact the voter-backed ordinance through the election canvass. They also said the recent court decision “undermines the power of initiative" for residents. “Per the court of appeals, city councilmembers must decide whether an initiated ordinance is preempted before deciding whether it passed, and only if it is not preempted can it perform the ministerial duty of canvassing the election returns to determine whether voters approved it. That is topsy-turvy,” they wrote. “Questions of the validity of a law are decided after a law passes, not before.” State attorneys argued the marijuana measure was clearly preempted under Texas law, and that the relevant election and policy procedures are separate.

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Rockets owners expand talks to buy, move Sun

Houston Rockets ownership is in substantive talks with the Connecticut Sun over the potential purchase and relocation of the WNBA franchise, sources told ESPN this week. The discussions have been described as "positive," and Rockets ownership has improved its offer to a number the Sun might find acceptable, a source close to the situation said. The source said that while a formal offer has been discussed, the parties have not signed an exclusivity agreement and there has not been a decision on the future of the franchise. The WNBA previously indicated strong interest in a return to Houston. At the league's three-team expansion announcement in June, commissioner Cathy Engelbert specifically highlighted Houston and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta as "up next" and "the one we have our eye on." The Sun have been owned by the Mohegan tribe since 2003, when they bought and relocated the franchise from Orlando, Florida, to Uncasville, Connecticut. A sale to Rockets ownership would mark the latest example of the WNBA moving toward having more teams with NBA owners.

The Sun launched a process to explore investment options over a year ago, initially seeking to assess opportunities for a limited partnership sale that would help fund an infrastructure build. Earlier this year, Houston was among the groups that expressed interest in buying the Sun outright, eventually raising its offer to $250 million, the amount that Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia paid in an expansion fee earlier this year. In early July, Sun ownership reached a deal to sell the team for a record $325 million to a group led by former Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca that would have moved the franchise to Boston. The WNBA effectively blocked the deal from progressing any further, holding firm that "relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams" and that cities that have already gone through the expansion process have priority over Boston. The WNBA then offered to buy the Sun for $250 million, which would have allowed it to facilitate a sale to a market of its choice. There was a belief at the time that the league was looking to move the Sun to Houston after Houston did not get an expansion team in June. Sun ownership has more recently explored a potential opportunity where funds affiliated with the state of Connecticut could be used to buy a minority stake in the franchise. But those talks have slowed, sources told ESPN.

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Fort Worth’s Mercy Culture announces expansion with new churches in D.C., California

As Mercy Culture prepares for national growth, the Fort Worth church is launching two new campuses, its first expansion outside of Texas. The church will plant a campus in Orange County, California, and another in Washington, D.C., founders and lead pastors Landon and Heather Schott announced during a Dec. 7 service, sharing the church’s vision for the future. Also in D.C., Mercy Culture opened a prayer house across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court for church leaders, congregants and elected officials to pray for the nation. The Fort Worth megachurch is known locally for its overt political activity, including the creation of an online training academy to prepare Christian conservatives to run for public office or get engaged in local government.

The church’s expansion into the nation’s capital sets its leaders up to establish Mercy Culture as an influential force in politics, said Eric McDaniel, a government professor who researches the intersection of race, religion and politics at the University of Texas at Austin. “They’re trying to make sure they are becoming an institution in American politics,” McDaniel said. “So you can think of them being very successful in the representative aspect of American politics, because they’re making sure that they are finding ways to make sure their voices are heard, and having something there in D.C. where you can regularly interact with elected officials, you can regularly interact with bureaucrats, that is a key aspect of representation.”

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TEXRail expansion moving forward with revised $33M contract

Plans to expand a popular Fort Worth passenger rail line are progressing. Trinity Metro isn’t quite ready to start building its 2.1-mile extension from downtown to the Medical District but it is taking steps forward. The agency’s board authorized early-work contract amendments for a construction manager at risk — a consultant who will manage the project from design to completion while monitoring costs. The contract with Fort Worth Transit Partners was first approved in June 2023. A nearly $33.1 million revised contract now includes an updated contingency fee for potential cost increases. Richey Thompson, Trinity Metro chief engineer, said the revised contract is essentially the beginning of the expansion project. “I’m excited to be here today — finally,” Thompson told board members Nov. 17. “Today’s item is basically the initial step for Trinity Metro to start the construction and completion of the TEXRail extension project. … We’re getting closer.”

Thompson said the contract will be essentially split into two phases — the first phase covers long-range procurement items under the Guaranteed Maximum Price such as steel acquisition and special track work while the second will cover remaining items. The 27.2-mile TEXRail line — which had a near 12% increase in ridership during 2025 — is exceeding the expectations of agency officials. Rich Andreski, president and CEO of Trinity Metro, said the transit agency seeks to be the “preferred choice for simple, safe and innovative mobility services” as total system ridership exceeded more than 8 million trips in 2025. “Yes, we do move people on various services, but it is really about powering our economy, providing access to jobs and other (opportunities) in Fort Worth and Tarrant County,” he said. With some leadership changes in 2025, projects are moving along quicker, Andreski said. “We’ve made substantial progress on our TEXRail to the Medical District extension project,” he said.

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Improvements start at Loop 1604-US Highway 90, west of San Antonio

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has started construction on the U.S. 90 Expansion project in West Bexar County. The 7.6 miles on U.S. 90 project, from Loop 410 to SH 211, aims to enhance safety, curb congestion and improve connectivity. According to a TxDOT news release, major improvements include: Expanding the U.S. 90 main lanes from a four-lane divided highway to a six-lane expressway with continuous frontage roads; A new flyover ramp connecting westbound U.S. 90 to northbound Loop 1604; Upgrading intersections at Loop 1604, Montgomery Road and Hunt Lane; Constructing turnaround bridges at SH 211, Loop 1604 and Montgomery Road; Installing a roundabout at Ray Ellison Boulevard/Hunt Lane Building sidewalks, auxiliary lanes and shoulders.

"The U.S. 90 Expansion is more than a construction project. It’s an investment in San Antonio’s future," said TxDOT San Antonio District Engineer Charles Benavidez, P.E. "By enhancing safety and cutting commute times, we’re creating a safer and more connected transportation network that will improve quality of life for generations to come." TxDOT reports that by 2045, traffic will double to an estimated 150,000 drivers traveling through the corridor each day. The $473 million US 90 Expansion project will be done in two phases. Phase I improvements to US 90, between I-410 and Loop 1604, began this year and is expected be completed by 2030. Phase II improvements to US 90, between Loop 1604 to SH 211, is expected to begin in 2027 and be completed by 2031.

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Glenn Rogers: Republicans don’t have to choose between loyalty and integrity

“I think they’re terrified to step out of line and get a nasty Truth Social post on them,” U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl this month. Once a supreme loyalist to President Donald Trump, Greene is now singing like a canary. She said she suspects many of her GOP colleagues’ unshakeable loyalty to Trump comes largely out of a fear of defying him. After disagreeing with the president on releasing the Epstein files, Greene was labeled a traitor by Trump and has reportedly received death threats directed at her and her son. She has announced her resignation from Congress and has been on nearly every media channel to tell the world her story: top Trump lieutenant turned exiled outcast. Now, she may be wondering, “Is there a place for me in today’s political environment?” To Greene, who deservedly has been labeled as “wacky” by Trump, I send a hearty welcome to the Davy Crockett Club, where members are not intimidated by authoritarian rulers and “wear no man’s collar.”

As she suggests, and as I witnessed in the Texas House of Representatives, Republicans are publicly as loyal to Trump and party leadership as possible, but privately many are in disagreement. I must admit, I found myself trying to walk this line during my campaigns and tenure in the Texas Legislature. One veteran politician gave me a piece of advice before my brief sojourn into Republican primary politics: “Vote as far right as you can stand, while holding your nose.” After a group of rural Republicans, including myself, voted to remove school vouchers from an omnibus school finance bill in 2023, we were branded as “RINOs” by Trump on Truth Social. For that single issue, Trump endorsed our opponents and millions of out-of-state dollars were used to campaign against us in 2024, spreading lies and false information about us throughout our respective districts. It is not just loyalty to Trump that keeps our elected officials chained. Its loyalty to Gov. Greg Abbott; its loyalty to the megadonors and their “scorecards.” Those in high places of power, often operating from behind the curtain, rule by fear. And the terrified public servants, many who entered the political arena with pure hearts and good intentions, are the tools with which the elites keep a firm grasp on their dominion.

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Harlingen commissioner launches probe into political mailer; emails name mayor, city manager

Newly elected City Commissioner Delia Cavazos-Gamez has hired a law firm to track the source of a campaign mailer displaying police records stemming from her arrest in a dismissed case. Attorney Robert Drinkard, with the law firm of Denton, Navarro, Rocha, Bernal and Zech, has obtained emails sent by former police Chief Michael Kester showing he gave Cavazos-Gamez’s police report and mugshots to City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez, apparently on Mayor Norma Sepulveda’s behalf, in October 2024. “These documents raise concerns that the confidentiality interests of a private citizen and her family were singled out by person(s) of authority in Harlingen’s government and then ultimately used against that citizen for political reasons,” Drinkard said in a statement. In the city’s Nov. 5 election, Cavazos-Gamez defeated former Commissioner Richard Uribe, whom Sepulveda supported, by 55.7% of the vote in the race for District 1’s city commission seat.

On Wednesday, Uribe strongly denied any connection with the campaign mailer. ”I want to be absolutely clear that I had no knowledge of, and no involvement in, the obtaining, publication or circulation of any police report or mugshot relating to my opponent,” he said in a statement. “I do not know how that material was acquired, who distributed it or why it was released and I had no role in it whatsoever.” As the election’s early voting period opened in late October 2025, a campaign mailer was sent to homes in District 1 displaying images of Cavazos-Gamez’s police report and mugshots stemming from a Jan. 9, 2024 incident at her home in which police arrested her for alleged “assault bodily injury family violence.” The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case on May 20, 2024, Drinkard said. The police report, which a police department clerk apparently printed out at 10:33 a.m. on Oct. 25, 2024, appears to be the same police report whose image was displayed on the campaign mailer. The mailer did not include the producer’s name. ”Discovering the way in which my records were requested and gathered by people of authority within the city and then later used in this terrible ad has been heartbreaking for me,” Cavazos-Gamez said in a statement. “It most profoundly hurt me to see my family’s names so callously included in this negative ad. This should not be dismissed as simply ‘politics,’ and it appears to be something far more dark.”

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Austin ISD prepares to reassign nearly 4,000 students ahead of 10 school closures

At a Dec. 18 board meeting, Austin ISD officials unveiled the district's transition plan to reassign thousands of students and staff following the closure of 10 campuses, outlining timelines to enroll students and place staff at new campuses. (Chloe Young/Community Impact) Austin ISD will soon begin reassigning thousands of students and staff to different campuses next school year. At a Dec. 18 board meeting, AISD officials shared the district’s transition plan for 10 campuses that are slated to close this summer. In January, the district will begin surveying families and staff about which schools they would like to attend or work at next fall.

On Nov. 20, the AISD board of trustees voted to close 10 campuses next school year—seven of which have consecutive failed state ratings and three of which have schoolwide dual-language programs that will relocate. The closures come as AISD works to intervene at low-performing schools, lower a mounting budget shortfall and address an ongoing decline in enrollment. In total, 3,796 students will be reassigned, and 6,319 vacant seats will be eliminated. The plan is expected to save around $21.75 million in costs for the district. AISD will complete the following enrollment process for students next school year: Jan. 12-23: The district will ask families to rank which schools they would like to attend through a survey. Jan. 23-Feb. 6: District staff will process survey responses and conduct lotteries to assign transfer students to campuses. Feb. 9-13: Families will be notified of their informal school assignment by email.

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Uhland restricts mayor’s financial authority after felony arrest

The Uhland City Council passed a resolution to suspend Mayor Lacee Duke’s financial authority at their first meeting since Duke’s felony arrest on Dec. 4 by Texas Rangers. She is accused of misapplying $250,000 of city money. Council members agreed they couldn’t immediately strip Duke of all her financial responsibilities because of ongoing city business matters that require her sign off, so the city appointed a finance committee to oversee check signatures in the meantime, according to city officials at the meeting. Duke appeared self-assured as she led the meeting in front of a packed chamber and divided constituency – several residents raised signs calling for her ouster while others donned red lapel pins supporting her continued leadership. “No,” Duke flatly responded, when asked by Council Member Mary LaPoint if she would resign her post.

Thursday’s agenda contained a raft of agenda items meant to strip Duke of essentially all her authority and involvement in city finances and meetings. The council opted to confine restrictions on Duke to financial matters. They did not limit Duke’s ability to preside over meetings or access the city’s facilities. In a statement read aloud, Duke positioned herself as a victim who had been attacked for trying to expose wrongdoing. “I don’t bend to corruption and criminals or miscreants, and that may cause you not to like me because you appear to get your power from controlling, diminishing and breaking people like me, but I won’t be broken,” Duke said. “You can stand on my neck or put my body behind bars, try to keep me from speaking these truths, but the truth will still be known, and that appears to haunt you.” City Council Member Guadalupe Garza set all the agenda items for the evening that could have stripped Duke’s authority. She also posted items intended to prompt reviews of city spending, salaries and credit card use. Garza said the city is in a “financial crisis.” All spending needs to be reviewed, and the city should consider altering salaries. Garza and the council agreed the city needed fewer credit cards and stricter oversight of spending. Duke needed to be excluded from financial decisions, Garza said, because of her pending felony-level charges. Taking that action would reduce risk and exposure for the city and “for the mayor herself,” Garza said.

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State district judge from Fort Worth in line to become Waco’s new federal judge

A state district judge from Fort Worth is in line to succeed U.S. District Judge Alan Albright as Waco’s new federal judge. Chris Wolfe, the current judge in 213th State District Court in Tarrant County and a former federal prosecutor, has been recommended for nomination to the Waco federal court bench, according to Albright. Wolfe, a graduate of Baylor University and Baylor Law School, was recommended for the job by Texas U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and is expected to be nominated by President Donald J. Trump. If nominated, he must be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Albright said should be a mere formality for Wolfe. “I’m very confident he will be confirmed and become the next judge here in Waco,” Albright said. “He is a double-degree Baylor guy and will be very good for Waco. I’m very happy for Waco.”

Wolfe has been a state district judge in Fort Worth since 2018. Before that he served as deputy branch manager of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth and was an assistant U.S. attorney for 15 years. Wolfe didn’t immediately return a request for an interview Friday. Waco is in the sprawling Western District of Texas, which covers a large portion of the state, including El Paso, Midland-Odessa, Austin, San Antonio, Alpine, Pecos and Del Rio. Albright, Waco’s lone federal district judge since 2018, moved back to Austin, where he took over a federal court vacancy in the Austin division. “I loved being a Waco judge. It’s been the greatest honor of my life,” Albright said. Albright garnered national attention by inviting lawyers to file their patent law cases in his court. Soon, a fourth of the nation’s intellectual property cases were filed in the Waco division.

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Bellaire police chief announces retirement while on paid leave for investigation into 'employment matter'

Onesimo Lopez, Jr., announced his retirement from the Bellaire Police Department on Saturday. He had been serving as the police chief for five years until he was placed on paid administrative leave in late November. When Lopez was initially placed on leave, city officials said the issue wasn't related to public safety and stressed that there was no impact on community safety or police services.

“Chief Lopez was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into an employment matter,” the city said. “This matter does not relate to public safety, and there is no impact on community safety or police services.” City leaders emphasized that the move was standard procedure during internal reviews and “does not imply any wrongdoing.” On Sunday, both Lopez and Bellaire PD posted to social media to announce the retirement. "We extend our thanks to Chief Lopez for his service and his contributions to the safety and well-being of our residents," Bellaire PD's post read, in part. Lieutenant Shane O’Sullivan is going to serve as the acting chief of police for the time being, and the search for a new leader will begin in the coming weeks. Lopez announced that his retirement was effective Friday. "I leave knowing that I acted in accordance with my conscience, my oath, and my belief that public service must always be grounded in principle even when that commitment comes at personal cost," the social media post read, in part. Lopez said he feels like he's leaving early, saying "so much more needs to be done," and he feels that "the job is half-finished."

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National Stories

‘60 Minutes’ pulled a segment. A correspondent calls it ‘political.’

In a move that drew harsh criticism from its own correspondent, CBS News abruptly removed a segment from Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes” that was to feature the stories of Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to what the program called a “brutal” prison in El Salvador. CBS announced the change three hours before the broadcast, a highly unusual last-minute switch. The decision was made after Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, requested numerous changes to the segment. CBS News said in a statement that the segment would air at a later date and “needed additional reporting.” But Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who reported the segment, rejected that criticism in a private note to CBS colleagues on Sunday, in which she accused CBS News of pulling the segment for “political” reasons. “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote in the note, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

“It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” Ms. Weiss said in a statement late Sunday: “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.” Sunday’s unusual events have once again placed “60 Minutes” at the center of a media and political fracas. Ms. Weiss was appointed in October after David Ellison, the owner of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, acquired her independent news and opinion site, The Free Press. Mr. Ellison’s acquisition of Paramount earlier this year was approved by the Trump administration after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit that President Trump had brought against “60 Minutes.” Mr. Ellison is currently making a hostile bid to outmaneuver a rival company, Netflix, and acquire the media behemoth Warner Bros. Discovery. He has been courting Mr. Trump’s support for his bid, but the president has used recent episodes of “60 Minutes” to suggest he is displeased with Mr. Ellison’s stewardship of CBS.

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Justice Department restores Trump photo to public database of Epstein files

A photo of U.S. President Donald Trump that had been removed from the cache of Jeffrey Epstein files released by the Department of Justice was restored on Sunday after officials determined none of Epstein's victims were in the image, the department said.The photo showing a desk with an open drawer containing a photo of Trump with various women was flagged by the Southern District of New York for review to protect potential victims. "After the review, it was determined there is no evidence that any Epstein victims are depicted in the photograph, and it has been reposted without any alteration or redaction," the Justice Department said, opens new tabon X on Sunday.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier on Sunday his office removed the photo because of concerns about women in the photo. “It has nothing to do with President Trump,” Blanche said during a Sunday morning appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker."

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Four ICE detainee deaths in four days spark alarm as arrests grow

Four people in immigration detention have died over a four-day period this month, increasing concern among advocates and some members of Congress over detention conditions. One death took place Dec. 12, another two took place on Dec. 14 and the fourth on Dec. 15, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news releases. “Four detainee deaths in one week is a red-hot crisis,” said Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project. “There is no question in my mind that this represents a clear deterioration of medical care and the worsening conditions in ICE detention.” The recent deaths bring total detainee deaths to 30 in 2025, the highest number since 2004, when 32 people died in ICE custody. This year’s total includes two detainees who were killed after a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility. At least two others died this year, according to ICE, but not in immigration detention.

Nearly 66,000 people are in detention, according to ICE data, a record high, and the Trump administration is seeking to spend $45 billion to expand immigration detention after receiving an infusion of cash from Congress. The rise in detention deaths also coincides with more limited oversight measures. The Trump administration said in March that it would close two watchdog agencies that oversaw detention centers and investigated detainee complaints. The Department of Homeland Security later reversed course, but lawyers for immigrants and nonprofit advocacy groups assert that deteriorating conditions at some locations are festering unchecked. ICE recently claimed in a news release that “in-custody deaths this past year average less than 1% — this is the lowest in ICE history.” ICE did not provide additional details for how it reached that number, but immigrant advocates emphasize that detention should not be punitive and have expressed alarm at the rising tally of deaths, which has surpassed annual detention deaths during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Deborah Fleischaker, who was acting chief of staff at ICE under President Joe Biden, said the increase in the number of deaths raises questions about the quality of detention but also added “it doesn’t provide you the full answer without knowing more.”

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I drove 700 miles through California’s absurd new congressional district

On a recent Sunday morning, I wandered dazed among the hordes of well-heeled holiday shoppers at the Marin Country Market in Larkspur, California, self-conscious as always of my mangy appearance and the condition of my beat-up, stolen-then-recovered pickup truck, which I parked sheepishly in the furthest corner of the lot. Here, in Marin County, the holiday pony rides were wrapping up for the weekend. Enormous Koi fish swam in a fountain between a Birkenstock store and a SoulCycle. Families decked out in “quiet-luxury” athleisure milled about. Luxury SUVs formed a traffic jam at the entrance to the parking lot, and a little boy, his face covered in hot chocolate, pointed at a white Rivian with his eyes wide. “That is not our Jeep,” the boy said to his mom, who nodded approvingly. Just a few weeks earlier, this county, a paradisical, mostly suburban community sitting across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, voted over 80 percent to support Proposition 50, a partisan redistricting of California’s congressional districts that would advantage Democrats — and combat a similar effort taking place in Texas that would advantage Republicans.

In part due to the support of Marin, a deeply Democratic county with a population of about 260,000, Prop 50 passed. In the days since, the ballot measure has been touted as a key win over President Donald Trump, a stepping stone for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political ambitions and a sign that the national mood is turning. It also means new representation for millions of Californians, and a series of severely distorted districts that aim to capitalize on the state’s Democratic voting base in urban centers. Partisan redistricting has long been part of the fabric of California politics for decades, dating back at least as early as 1951, when Republicans losing political power in the growing state carved up California to concentrate the Democrat vote in just a few districts. In the 1970s and 1980s, Phil Burton, a congressman from San Francisco, was legendary for drawing bizarre maps that favored Democrats, calling one freakish map “my contribution to modern art.” And by the new millennium, the gerrymander was so entrenched in California that, in 2004, not a single incumbent in California lost their election. The process might have continued unabated. But in 2010, the state’s voters rallied around a ballot measure sponsored by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that created an independent citizens’ commission. For 15 years, that commission has drawn maps without a partisan skew. Then, with Prop 50, voters chose to suspend it — temporarily installing newly drawn districts that heavily favor Democrats, potentially helping the party grab up to five more seats in Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Perhaps the most extreme example of the newly enshrined gerrymander is CA-02, a massive, hatchet or flag-shaped district that links Marin, one of the wealthiest counties in the country, with the remote, isolated high desert of northeastern California.

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What we know about U.S. interceptions of oil tankers in Venezuela

President Trump’s drive to crack down on vessels moving oil from Venezuela, an escalating part of his pressure campaign against the government of Nicolás Maduro, took an unusual turn over the weekend. In the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard tried to intercept a tanker called the Bella 1, which officials said was not flying a valid national flag, making it a stateless vessel subject to boarding under international law. U.S. officials had obtained a seizure warrant for the Bella 1 based on its prior involvement in the Iranian oil trade, but officials said the ship refused to submit and sailed away.

Ship-tracking data showed the Bella 1 had been en route to load Venezuelan crude oil and was not carrying cargo. The vessel has been under U.S. sanctions since last year for transporting Iranian oil, which the authorities say was used to finance terrorism. The Bella 1 had not yet entered Venezuelan waters and was not under naval escort. The cargo it was scheduled to pick up had been purchased by a Panamanian businessman recently put under sanctions by the United States for ties to the Maduro family, according to data from Venezuela’s state oil company. U.S. forces approached the Bella 1 late on Saturday. But it refused to be boarded, instead turning and creating what one U.S. official described as “an active pursuit.” By Sunday, the Bella 1 was still fleeing the Caribbean and was broadcasting distress signals to nearby ships, according to radio messages reviewed by The New York Times and first posted online by a maritime blogger. The vessel was traveling northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, more than 300 miles away from Antigua and Barbuda, the messages showed. By Sunday evening, Bella 1 had sent over 75 alerts.

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Nicki Minaj makes surprise appearance at TPUSA conference marred by MAGA infighting

The first major Turning Point’s AmericaFest since the assassination of the organization’s founder, Charlie Kirk, was marred by bitter infighting and several high-profile surprise appearances — including a sit-down talk with Nicki Minaj and a phone call from President Donald Trump. “Hello everybody, I want to be with you, but I’ll be with you soon,” the president said Sunday on a call from Mar-a-Lago. “We won in a landslide, and we’re going to continue to do it, and I just want to thank everybody. You got out there and they voted and pressed doorbells, and I just want to thank you all.” But the real headline-grabbing appearance of the weekend came when rapper Nicki Minaj made a surprise appearance at the event, walking out hand-in-hand with Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, to a cascade of sparklers and thunderous applause.

Minaj, clad in a modest purple turtleneck, sat down with Kirk for a 15-minute conversation in which she commended the leaders in the White House, suggested white women have been the victims of reverse discrimination and doubled down on her opinions about transgender youth. “This administration is full of people with heart and soul, and they make me proud of them. Our vice president, he makes me ... well, I love both of them,” Minaj said referring to JD Vance and Trump. “Both of them have a very uncanny ability to be someone that you relate to.” Minaj, who has flirted with conservatism in recent years after being critical of the first Trump administration, recently appeared alongside U.S. representatives at a United Nations event to support Trump’s claims of Christians being persecuted in Nigeria. Speaking Sunday, Minaj said she doesn’t hear criticism about her recent support of the Trump administration. “We’re the cool kids,” she said to Kirk. “The other people, they’re the ones who are disgruntled, but really they’re just disgruntled with themselves.” “That it’s OK to change your mind,” Minaj said is the legacy she wants to leave behind for her family and fans.

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Immigration crackdown creates fault lines among Baptists

When federal agents descended on Louisiana this month to pursue their aggressive deportation campaign, a group of Roman Catholic priests privately brought the Eucharist to the homes of immigrants too worried to step outside. But Lewis Richerson, the pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, planned to take an opposite approach. “I would not knowingly extend communion to an illegal immigrant who is visiting our church,” he said. “That person would be in sin by being in this country illegally, and Christians should obey the law of the land.” Instead, the main way he would minister to them would be “to help them submit themselves to the authorities,” he said. “They should absolutely deport themselves.” Mr. Richerson’s church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with about 12.7 million members.

For years, the denomination has supported immigration reforms, especially given its extensive missionary work and theological commitments to helping “the least of these,” as Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew. But while Catholic bishops this year have repeatedly rebuked the Trump administration over its deportation actions, Southern Baptists are contending with an increasingly loud contingent in their ranks that, like Mr. Richerson, supports the immigration crackdown. Even as many rank-and-file churches continue to support immigrant ministries, signs of fracture are emerging. In April, leaders of 13 Southern Baptist ethnic groups came together to ask the denomination’s leaders “to stand firm for religious liberty and speak on behalf of the immigrant and refugee,” and to request that the Trump administration consider penalties other than deportation. At the Southern Baptists’ annual convention in June, the topic was largely absent. Delegates considered resolutions with positions on abortion, pornography and sports betting, not immigration. But delegates also held a vote on dismantling the Southern Baptists’ public policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which has spearheaded action on immigration for the convention.

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Lead Stories

Divorce files detail Angela Paxton’s claims against AG Ken Paxton

Newly released files in Attorney General Ken Paxton’s divorce lay out a sharper picture of the breakup between Paxton and his wife, Angela, who blames him for the marriage’s collapse and seeks temporary control of key assets and a “disproportionate” share of the couple’s estate. In the records a judge unsealed Friday, Ken Paxton, who is running for the Senate, denied her allegations that he committed adultery and asked that Angela Paxton “take nothing,” standard language in a divorce response, his lawyer said. Angela Paxton, a Republican state senator from McKinney, filed for divorce in July in Collin County, saying the couple separated in June 2024 after nearly four decades of marriage. In her petition, she asks the court to grant a divorce on grounds that the marriage is “insupportable,” partly because of his infidelity.

The disclosures offer the first and most extensive look at the claims and defenses in the case involving two high-profile elected officials. The dispute adds personal detail to a statewide race already shaped by questions of character as Paxton campaigns for higher office. The divorce case records were released Friday after legal wrangling between the Paxtons and several media organizations and a government watchdog group that sought access to the documents. The conflict tested how far Texas courts can shield family-law filings involving elected officials. Dow Jones & Company Inc., The Washington Post, Hearst Newspapers, ProPublica, The Texas Lawbook, Texas Newsroom, The Texas Observer and The Texas Tribune, joined by the Campaign for Accountability, argued that because Ken and Angela Paxton are elected constitutional officers, the need for transparency is heightened. The coalition argued that records involving finances or conduct are of legitimate interest to constituents. Angela Paxton initially asked that the case be sealed, and Ken Paxton joined her in the request. But late Thursday, the couple unexpectedly agreed to make the files public just hours before the two sides were scheduled to argue before a judge in Collin County District Court as to whether the records should remain sealed.

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Takeaways from the Justice Department’s Epstein files release

The Justice Department released thousands of files related to sex offender and accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in a much-anticipated document dump Friday. The documents are the result of Congress forcing the Trump administration’s hand. The administration had initially promised extensive disclosures on Epstein but then, in July, abruptly changed course. Congress ultimately last month passed a bill requiring the administration to release the files, after a bipartisan revolt. The documents are not everything the Justice Department has; it said Friday it will continue rolling them out in the coming weeks. But they give us our biggest glimpse to date of what the administration initially decided not to release.

After months of the administration stepping on its own toes and making it look like it had something to hide, it did itself few favors with its rollout. For one, the Justice Department didn’t release all the documents, as was required by the deadline Friday, 30 days after Congress passed its law. And secondly, the documents carried extensive redactions — and for more reasons than the law prescribed. The redactions were also inconsistent, with the same content being redacted in one instance but not in another. In some cases, the redactions included whole pages and even whole documents, as was the case with 119 pages of grand jury testimony. Democrats cried foul, as did Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who helped lead the Epstein discharge petition effort. The Kentucky Republican said the document dump “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law.” A few key points: it was a tough deadline — 30 days to comb through thousands of documents and, in some cases, redact sensitive information. There is also no enforcement mechanism in the law, so it’s not clear what recourse Congress could have. (Two Democrats on key committees said they would examine “all legal options.”)

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The Trump administration has all but stopped reuniting detained migrant children with families

The Trump administration has virtually stopped releasing undocumented children in federal custody to their parents and other relatives. That's according to data obtained by The Texas Newsroom and The California Newsroom, immigration attorneys around the country and officials inside the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the agency tasked with caring for those children. The Administration for Children and Families, which oversees ORR, said via email that earlier this year, it put in place "enhanced vetting policies" for adults who will care for the children after their release. The goal, it said, was to better protect children from harm. But it said the office "has not issued a moratorium" on releases to those adults. However, sources with knowledge of the office's directives contradict that claim, saying ORR leadership began issuing verbal orders to staff in early November to stop releasing kids to their relatives until further notice.

Who are the children stuck in federal custody? These are kids without legal immigration status — from toddlers to teenagers — who were apprehended crossing the border without a parent or legal guardian or were separated from them during arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The children are then handed over to ORR, which usually places them at shelters it oversees around the country. There are about 2,400 kids in ORR custody right now. Texas has the largest share of kids in ORR care — 35% — in the U.S., with more than 800 kids across 44 shelters. Most of these children came to the U.S. to join their parents or other family members, who immigration officials call sponsors. ORR must vet those adults before the kids can be released to them. Attorneys say many of these kids are fleeing violence, persecution or abuse in their home countries, and they plan to apply for an immigration status that protects them from being deported back to those situations.

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Turning Point’s annual gathering turns into a gripefest

Since 2021, Turning Point USA’s annual gathering, AmericaFest, has featured a star-studded roster of conservative influencers and politicians who have been virtually unified in their focus on a common foe, one that Charlie Kirk, the group’s co-founder, called the “woke” left. But this weekend in Phoenix, speakers at AmericaFest have scarcely mentioned Democrats and other liberal foils. Instead, some of the most prominent right-wing leaders in the country have been criticizing members of their own movement, accusing them of being “frauds,” “pompous” and a “cancer.” Driving the enmity have been some of the most explosive and unresolved issues confronting the MAGA movement: resurgent antisemitism, the prevalence of conspiracy theories and the rise of the concept of “heritage Americans” and what that concept — considered by some to be a thinly veiled racist dog-whistle — means for nonwhite conservatives.

Notably, in the wake of the revolt against left-wing “cancel culture,” there have also been questions about what kinds of ideas might be grounds for cancellation within conservatism itself. It has been a snapshot of a powerful movement in an uncharacteristic state of discord just three months after the assassination of Mr. Kirk, a gifted communicator who had helped construct a big tent under which American conservatives of many stripes could coexist in the Trump age. Without Mr. Kirk, the movement’s boldface names have appeared to be jockeying this weekend to influence the direction of the MAGA movement at a time when its most towering figure, President Trump, is in his second term. For some true believers, it has been hard to watch. On Saturday, Benny Johnson, a podcaster, pined for a time just a few months ago when conservatives were unified in grief and purpose after Mr. Kirk’s killing. “I’m sick of the division. I am calling it out,” he said, as he flashed photos from the memorial service held for Mr. Kirk. “Don’t let them steal this from us. We have to recapture this!” The first sparks came on Thursday night, with a blistering speech from Ben Shapiro, a founder of the media company The Daily Wire, who bemoaned the “frauds” and “grifters” in the movement, and went on to savage by name a roster of powerful right-wing figures.

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U.S. oil blockade of Venezuela pushes Cuba toward collapse

Cubans are going hungry, suffering from spreading disease and sleeping outdoors with no electricity to power fans through the sweltering nights. A quarter of the population has fled during the island’s most prolonged economic crisis. And it’s about to get worse. The U.S. is ratcheting up pressure on Havana’s key benefactor, Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which has kept the Communist-ruled nation afloat with cheap oil. Now Venezuelan oil exports are at risk thanks to a partial blockade targeting sanctioned tankers—the kind that carry about 70% of the country’s crude. One tanker that the U.S. has already seized was en route with almost two million barrels of Venezuelan oil. The blockade adds to a U.S. pressure campaign on Maduro that also includes a major military buildup in the Caribbean, airstrikes on boats allegedly connected to Venezuelan drug trafficking and threats of bombing the country itself.

Were Venezuela’s oil shipments to stop, or sharply decline, the Cubans know it would be devastating. “It would be the collapse of the Cuban economy, no question about it,” said Jorge Piñón, a Cuban exile who tracks the island’s energy ties to Venezuela at the University of Texas at Austin. Venezuela has been vital for Cuba’s economy since 1999, when then-President Hugo Chávez described the two countries as bound together “in a sea of happiness.” Cuba deployed sports trainers, doctors and counterintelligence agents to Venezuela, the latter to root out traitors who might overthrow Chávez. Venezuela responded with 100,000 barrels of oil shipped to Cuba daily. The heavily subsidized oil shipments have fallen to 30,000 barrels a day. Agents from Cuba’s vaunted intelligence service remain in Venezuela, where they have worked to purge disloyal military officers and government officials, helping ensure Maduro remains ensconced in power. Cuba’s deep reliance on Venezuela means Cuba’s Communist government is doing all it can to prevent Maduro—who trained in Cuba as a young man—from being forced from office in his greatest challenge after nearly 13 years in office. That means ensuring he is always surrounded by security and loyal aides, with no one carrying cellphones or other electronic devices.

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State Stories

Texas legislators oppose Trump order to block state AI laws

An executive order by President Donald Trump may bring Texas into conflict with the federal government over a new state law regulating the use of artificial intelligence. Trump signed an executive order last week that threatens to cut off federal broadband funding to states that pass AI regulations the federal government deems “onerous and excessive.” Texas, which has passed one of the most comprehensive attempts to regulate AI in the country, was appropriated up to $3.3 billion through the federal broadband program to expand broadband across the state. A bipartisan group of legislators is working to defend the state law, set to take effect Jan. 1, arguing that an unregulated AI industry risks harming children and consumers. “All of the Texas actors are going to say we want Texas to be a leader in AI, and I am one of those,” said state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney. “I want Texas to be a leader in AI, but you know what, I don’t want Texas to be a leader in AI generated child porn.”

Paxton, who previously worked as a school teacher, pointed to the rise of the internet during her career and the challenges that has posed for both teachers and parents. Reports on the use of the technology to generate child pornography and chat bots that have encouraged people to commit suicide motivated Paxton to speak out about the need for reasonable regulation of the technology’s use in Texas, she said. Paxton led a group of 16 state senators — including eight other Republicans and seven Democrats — in writing a November letter to U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn urging them to support Texas’ law and advocate against any federal attempt to restrict state AI regulations. “If an AI moratorium is put in place, our important work on preventing child pornography, protecting data privacy, preventing discrimination, and holding Big Tech accountable in Texas will be rendered moot,” the letter said. “Surely we can all agree that these kinds of state protections do not interfere with legitimate innovation and are reasonable and appropriate.” State Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat and her party’s caucus chair, rejected the idea that an executive order could be used to preempt state law, arguing that only Congress has that power.

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Unemployment claims in Texas declined last week

Initial filings for unemployment benefits in Texas dropped last week compared with the week prior, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday. New jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 15,890 in the week ending December 13, down from 19,853 the week before, the Labor Department said. U.S. unemployment claims dropped to 224,000 last week, down 13,000 claims from 237,000 the week prior on a seasonally adjusted basis. Rhode Island saw the largest percentage increase in weekly claims, with claims jumping by 46.8%. Georgia, meanwhile, saw the largest percentage drop in new claims, with claims dropping by 50.4%.

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911 calls, video related to fiery death of Rep. Gonzales’ staffer to remain sealed, AG’s office rules

911 calls, police reports, and video related to the fiery death of Regina Santos-Aviles, a congressional staffer for U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, will not be released, according to a ruling from the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Santos-Aviles died on Sept. 14 after catching on fire in her backyard alone, the Uvalde Police Department previously confirmed to KSAT Investigates. The Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled her death a suicide. The Uvalde Police Department, which is investigating her death with the Texas Rangers, does not believe anyone else was involved. In September, KSAT and several other news agencies requested records from the city of Uvalde about the investigation.

On Dec. 19, records show the Attorney General’s office sided with the city, allowing the records to remain private. The ruling cited two different exceptions: one that allows law-enforcement agencies to withhold records if releasing them could interfere with a criminal investigation. The other allows the state to keep information confidential when another law requires it. In an Oct. 24 letter to the attorney general’s office, an attorney representing the City of Uvalde stated the investigation into Santos-Aviles’ death would soon be closed without any criminal charges being filed. The Daily Mail and multiple national outlets have reported that Gonzales and Santos-Aviles were having an affair, which they say began after she joined the office in 2021. Gonzales has repeatedly refused interviews and questions from KSAT since her death, most recently refusing to answer questions in November. In October, Javier Guerra, an attorney who then represented Santos-Aviles’ husband, Adrian Aviles, told KSAT Investigates that Aviles worried about the release of records related to his wife. Bobby Barrera, who Aviles has since retained to represent him, shared the following statement with KSAT on Friday about the ruling: “I’m so happy that the AG’s Office has recognized that this is a private family tragedy. Public disclosure would have obviously just been used for adverse political purposes.” KSAT Investigates asked Uvalde police for an update on their investigation on Dec. 18 and has yet to hear back. Uvalde PD previously said they are working with the Texas Rangers on the investigation.

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TEA weighs Beaumont ISD governance takeover following crucial discussions

Beaumont Independent School District officials are awaiting a decision from the Texas Education Agency after meeting with state leaders in Austin to discuss the district’s future governance. District officials met with the TEA on Wednesday to discuss the appointment of a new board of managers and a conservator as part of a potential state takeover. During the meeting, BISD also formally asked the agency to reconsider assuming control of the district. BISD District 1 Trustee Joe Evans said Superintendent Dr. Shannon Allen later shared details of her conversation with Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

According to Evans, Allen said Morath listened to district leaders, acknowledged incremental improvements and expressed respect for the work being done by the BISD team. District officials expect a decision from the commissioner within the next two weeks. If the TEA proceeds with the takeover, the transition to a board of managers could occur sometime between March and June. As of now, 24 community members have submitted applications to serve on the board of managers, including former BISD principal Dr. Belinda George.

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LGBTQ+ candidates line up for Texas Dem primary

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling just days before the candidate filing deadline turned Texas elections upside down. The ruling allows Texas to use redrawn congressional district maps designed to put five additional Republicans into Congress. Among the Democrats targeted in the redistricting battle that took place in the Texas Legislature was Rep. Julie Johnson, the first LGBTQ+ person elected to Congress from the South. Instead of trying to retake District 32, which has been redrawn to include a large swath of Republican East Texas, she filed to run for the newly-drawn District 33, which is entirely in Dallas County. Facing Johnson in the primary is Colin Allred, who represented District 32 before Johnson. Instead of running for reelection to his seat in 2024, he ran for Senate against Ted Cruz. This year, he had been running for the Democratic nomination to face Sen. John Cornyn.

But when Rep. Jasmine Crockett was redistricted out of her own district and decided to run for the chance to face Cornyn, Allred dropped out of that race and filed to face Johnson. Two other candidates will be on the primary ballot facing Johnson and Allred — Carlos Quintanilla and Zeeshan Hafeez. Normally that would indicate a runoff is likely, but in her bid for her current District 32 seat, Johnson won more than 50 percent of the vote with 10 other candidates on the ballot. Of the 14 Dallas County seats in the Texas Legislature, only Venton Jones is being challenged in the Democratic primary. That may be because when Crockett filed for Senate, Jones was expected to run for her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the first Texas legislator who is openly HIV-positive and was the first legislator to propose to his husband on the floor of the House. In the primary, he’ll face Amanda Richardson and Justice McFarlane. Jessica Gonzalez filed for re-election to her state House seat. The chair of the LGBTQ caucus is unopposed in the primary and in the general election. State Sen. Molly Cook is running for re-election. She’s the first out lesbian to serve in the Texas Senate. All state representatives are up for re-election including LGBTQ+ reps Erin Zwiener, Mary Gonzalez, Ann Johnson, Jolanda Jones, Christian Manuel, Josie Garcia and Lauren Simmons as well as Dallas County’s Jessica Gonzalez and Venton Jones.

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‘No one has considered them’: Families fight schools over special ed services

When Ryan Ben Alaya was in fourth grade, things seemed to be going well. He was doing well in his classes, his teachers described him as bright and motivated, and he loved going to school. But the following year, when Ryan started fifth grade, things changed, said his dad, Hakim Ben Alaya. Ryan’s teachers said he was being physically aggressive in class. Ryan told his parents that teachers physically restrained him in his chair. At one point, Ryan was suspended five times in a span of 10 school days. Ryan is what education researchers call a twice-exceptional student — he’s been identified as gifted, and he’s been diagnosed with autism. His individualized education programs, or IEP, states that he’s supposed to be in a regular classroom. But Ben Alaya says he worries school officials inflated his son’s disciplinary data in an effort to move him to a more restrictive classroom setting than he needs.

Under federal disability rights law, school districts are required to place students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment possible. But parents in North Texas schools say that doesn’t always happen. The parents of three students with disabilities in three separate districts told the Star-Telegram that school officials have pressured them to allow their kids to be placed in more restrictive environments, including self-contained special education classrooms. But a special education expert said school districts that are trying to decide where to place a student with disabilities have a certain amount of leeway to consider other factors, including how that student’s presence in the classroom affects other students. Ryan was a fifth-grader last year at W.A. Porter Elementary School in Birdville ISD. Early in the school year, Ben Alaya learned that teachers and aides at the school were using physical prompting, a technique in which a teacher physically guides the student’s hands when teaching them a new skill. It’s a common practice for educators and parents working with kids with autism, but Ryan’s family had communicated to school leaders that strategy caused emotional distress for Ryan. Teachers were also removing Ryan from class frequently, which also made him upset, Ben Alaya said.

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Lake Worth ISD trustees, Texas education leaders review takeover plans

Lake Worth ISD leaders met with Texas officials behind closed doors in Austin to discuss the state takeover of the 3,200-student district. Education Commissioner Mike Morath convened Lake Worth trustees at the Texas Education Agency headquarters Friday afternoon for an informal review of the incoming board of managers, conservator and superintendent appointments. Board President Tammy Thomas and trustees Cindy Burt and Mac Belmontes met with Morath eight days after the state took control of the small district along the northwest border of Fort Worth. The intervention followed nearly a decade of low academic performance, including five consecutive F’s at Marilyn Miller Language Academy, which triggered the takeover. Trustees were expected to recite their turnaround plans for students’ academic success.

Thomas said there were no decisions made, but she and the other trustees appeared upbeat as they prepared to head back to Tarrant County. “It went wonderful,” Thomas said after the meeting. “Of course we’re not going to get a decision today. But we had a wonderful meeting. We didn’t expect a decision today. We talked about the situation, and we all have the children in our best interests.” Morath, who was not available for comment after the meeting, did not signal his next steps or when they are likely to be expected. Lake Worth ISD manager applications are due Jan. 31. The delegation injected an element of holiday goodwill by presenting the commissioner with a red tin of assorted sweets made by Thomas and a Christmas card signed by the three trustees. “We will just await his decision,” Thomas said. “We’re all going to go home and get ready for Christmas.”

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David Brockman: A light the darkness cannot extinguish

The editor of this publication wasn’t exaggerating when he called 2025 “this frankly awful year”: Things are dark, and likely to get much darker. Our politics nationally and here in Texas is now firmly in the grip of a narrow, petty tribalism that feeds on enmity. Each day brings new horrors; scrolling through social media inevitably becomes doom-scrolling. The loudest voices work to divide us, inflaming distrust, demonizing (sometimes literally) those who disagree and dehumanizing those regarded as different. Meanwhile, those seeking a more compassionate and just society seem feeble. As our nation spirals into a nightmarish darkness, there’s an understandable temptation to despair—even as the work of compassion, justice, and solidarity is more urgent than ever. But how can we fend off that temptation, especially when it sometimes seems as if the darkness is all there is? I, too, struggle with this question. One answer I’ve found in my work as a religion scholar is an affirmation common to several religious traditions. Precisely because it transcends religious boundaries, it can speak to all of us.

It testifies—in the words of my own tradition, Christianity—to a light that “shines in the darkness,” a light the darkness cannot overcome, a light of compassion, beauty, justice, and love. The darkness, it says, is never all there is. Indeed, the light is closer than we realize. Like Christianity, Hinduism attests to a light the darkness cannot overcome. In the annual feast of Diwali (reminiscent of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights), Hindus celebrate the victory of light over darkness by lighting candles throughout their homes. As my Texas Christian University colleague Antoinette DeNapoli has explained, Diwali “celebrates the victory of goodness over evil, or truth over falsity, or knowledge over ignorance.” One need not be Hindu to appreciate setting aside a time each year to celebrate these values. For its part, the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah points to sparks of infinite light scattered throughout the world. This teaching is rooted in the Kabbalists’ elaboration on the biblical creation story, according to which these sparks are “held captive within every object, every event,” as Tzvi Freeman writes. It is up to us to release them from their captivity through the work of “repairing the world”— tikkun olam—which includes acts of social justice, compassion, and kindness. Again, one need not subscribe to the specific myth to appreciate the basic insight here. No matter how deep the darkness, sparks of light, beauty, and joy surround us—in, say, a baby’s smile, a lover’s touch, a refugee family’s safe arrival in a place of sanctuary, the first drops of rain on dry earth, a fragile monarch butterfly pausing its 3,000-mile migration to sip nectar from a blue mistflower. These simple beauties hint at a “more than” that transcends the ugly tribalism that consumes our current moment. “When we perceive beauty,” Freeman writes, “it is because we have found [a] window to the infinite.” When we let these joys radiate out in acts of kindness to all our fellow beings, we truly are “repairing the world.”

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Harris County reveals what it would take to bring the Astrodome back to life

Harris County has received cost estimates for two potential futures for the Astrodome: a $752.6 million renovation or a $55 million demolition. County officials released the figures Friday as part of ongoing efforts to determine what to do with the iconic but vacant structure at NRG Park. The renovation option would restore the Astrodome to basic operational functionality, addressing necessary improvements like plumbing and HVAC systems to allow safe occupancy. However, the approach does not include full historic preservation or upgrades to meet modern venue standards, and the facility would still not be suitable to host large-scale collegiate or professional sporting events. The estimated cost is $752,576,133. The demolition option would tear down the structure, clear debris, and leave the below-grade area in its current condition until a future use for the site is identified. That option carries an estimated price tag of $54,966,318.

Interim County Administrator Jesse Dickerman said the figures show the county cannot proceed alone. "These cost estimates illustrate that it will not be financially feasible for Harris County to renovate the Astrodome without significant private investment," Dickerman said. The Astrodome, approximately six miles southwest of downtown Houston, last hosted a scheduled event in 2002. The facility lost its certificate of occupancy in 2009, and the ground level has since been used for storage. Kirksey Architecture prepared the renovation and demolition studies at the request of Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation. The studies were based on visual site assessments and available documents. The renovation study envisions a facility with capacity for 60,000 seats that could accommodate small college division football, high school football, and floor events such as basketball, tennis, wrestling, and pickleball. The facility could also be used by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo for concerts and rodeo-related activities.

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Texas politics: See the gifts power players got in 2025

As the holiday season arrives, it’s worth looking back at some of the political presents — both wanted and otherwise — that landed in the laps of Texas leaders over the past year. Texas House Democrats handed out one of the biggest gifts of 2025, and it went to a Republican. On the first day of the legislative session in January, 49 of the chamber’s 62 Democrats joined 36 Republicans to elect Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock as speaker. Burrow's rise followed one of the most publicly contentious speaker races in recent memory and came at the expense of Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield. GOP leaders had hoped to unite their 88 members behind a single candidate and shut Democrats out of the process. When Cook failed to secure enough Republican support, the outnumbered Democrats suddenly found themselves with outsized leverage.

What did the Democrats get in return? If not an empty box, it was something pretty close. Under House rules adopted at the start of the session, the longstanding tradition of awarding Democratic lawmakers some committee chairmanships was scrapped. Republicans also passed legislation allowing providers of so-called abortion pills to be sued and approved a measure requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools, which Democrats warned would further blur the separation of church and state. For Burrows, the gift of the gavel appears to be one that will keep on giving. Despite early complaints from Republicans that he lacked caucus backing, Burrows now looks well positioned to retain the speakership if the GOP holds the House after the 2026 midterms. And for Republicans who backed him over Cook, Burrows does not appear to be an electoral albatross heading into primary season. Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, delivered a lump of coal to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in June when he vetoed his fellow Republican's signature legislation — a near-total ban on intoxicating hemp-derived products that would have wiped out much of a multibillion-dollar industry that has boomed in the state. Democratic state Rep. James Talarico received a different kind of gift when conservative podcaster Joe Rogan invited him on for a 2½-hour conversation in July, introducing the Austin lawmaker to a national audience of millions and burnishing his bipartisan credentials. When Talarico officially launched his U.S. Senate campaign weeks later, he looked every bit like Texas Democrats’ chosen candidate for 2026, raising $6 million in a matter of days. But that shine dimmed somewhat in December, when U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, entered the race.

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Johnson County sheriff gets 'first and last warning' after accusations he violated bond conditions

Indicted Johnson County Sheriff Adam King can continue serving in his position in a limited capacity after Texas Rangers say he violated his bond conditions at least 13 times amid his ongoing sexual harassment case. During a court hearing Friday, Ranger Patrick Garcia provided photos and video footage from the Johnson County Sheriff's Office that show King walking into the bathroom without an officer and appearing to make contact with two employees with whom he was specifically ordered not to have contact. "The employees and those impacted by this case are scared," Garcia said. "They're nervous about being at work and around the facilities. Some have expressed frustration and being upset about the conditions, and it has impacted, from what they've expressed, their ability to work comfortably in an environment without having worry or anxiety."

Another photo shows a man — purportedly King — with his back towards the camera in a meeting King was not authorized to attend, but King's attorneys and a witness disputed he was the man in that meeting. Garcia said he was provided the footage by an employee from the sheriff's office. Judge John Weeks denied a request from King's attorneys to amend his bond conditions so he could work without restrictions. But Weeks also denied a request from the Rangers to revoke his bond altogether. "This is your first and last warning," Weeks told King. The sheriff was initially on paid administrative leave after his first indictments in August, but has since been allowed to return to work with restrictions after his bond conditions were adjusted. Part of King's restrictions include having a chaperone with him at all times, not having any contact with his accusers, and not performing background checks on sheriff’s office employees.

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Texas marijuana leaders welcome federal reclassification

A new executive order signed by former President Donald Trump is changing how marijuana is classified at the federal level, but it does not override Texas’ existing state laws. The order moves marijuana from a Schedule I drug a category reserved for substances considered to have no accepted medical use — to a Schedule III drug. The change loosens federal restrictions on medical research involving marijuana. Industry leaders in Texas say the move is a positive step, even if it does not immediately affect operations in the state.

“It’s great to see that we are finally taking a common-sense approach here,” said Nico Richardson, CEO of Texas Original. Texas Original is one of a limited number of companies licensed to grow and distribute medical marijuana under Texas law. “We’re one of three licenses, and we’re the largest,” Richardson said. Richardson added that support for medical marijuana has grown among some Texas lawmakers, with recent legislation expanding the types of medical marijuana products allowed for patients. “We’re waiting on this approval so we can sell medical vaporization products to patients in Texas as well,” Richardson said. However, not everyone in the cannabis space sees the federal move as a clear win. Some recreational hemp sellers around San Antonio worry that formal changes at the federal level could eventually lead to tighter regulations and costly licensing requirements that could push smaller businesses out of the market. “What we need in this economy is for the regular business owner to participate in this industry with regulation,” said Warren Murtha, owner of Bexar Wellness. For now, both medical marijuana producers and hemp retailers say they are taking a wait-and-see approach as lawmakers consider potential changes at both the state and federal levels.

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Trump rescheduled marijuana. What does that mean for Texas?

President Donald Trump on Thursday reclassified marijuana under federal law with a new executive order, a change that would not fully legalize weed products but would recognize their medical uses. In Texas, that could mean lower taxes and a more profitable business model for the state’s medicinal marijuana companies, which have been struggling to gain a toehold. “We’ve been fighting for legitimacy for over a decade, and this moment puts some wind in our sails,” said Jervonne Singletary, a spokesperson for goodblend, an Austin-based medical cannabis company. Trump’s order moves marijuana from Schedule I to the less restrictive Schedule III, grouping it with controlled medical substances like ketamine, steroids and some opioids. The rescheduling process began under former President Joe Biden and was playing out at federal agencies, but will be accelerated under his executive order.

Rescheduling is not the same as legalization, and marijuana will still be illegal under federal law with existing penalties intact. But the move marks the most significant change in U.S. marijuana policy in years, allowing more avenues to research the drug and potentially opening the door to more cannabis-derived medical products. Trump highlighted the issue’s strong public support in opinion polling and said his administration had received many calls from Americans living with chronic health issues. “Hopefully this reclassification will help many of those patients live a far better life,” Trump said at a press conference Thursday. Downgrading cannabis remains controversial with many elected Republicans. U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, led two dozen House GOP lawmakers in urging Trump to keep marijuana on Schedule I, as did nearly half of Senate Republicans. Many effects of the order aren’t entirely clear, as an array of state and federal agencies will be required to respond to the change. In Texas, the change could help boost medical marijuana businesses. Working with a Schedule I substance has long prevented the medicinal marijuana industry from taking typical business exemptions on their federal taxes.

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National Stories

‘Don’s best friend’: How Epstein and Trump bonded over the pursuit of women

Jeffrey Epstein was a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.” He and Donald J. Trump also had “no formal relationship.” They went to a lot of the same parties. But they “did not socialize together.” They were never really friends, just business acquaintances. Or “there was no relationship” at all. “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.” For nearly a quarter-century, Mr. Trump and his representatives have offered shifting, often contradictory accounts of his relationship with Mr. Epstein, one sporadically captured by society photographers and in news clips before they fell out sometime in the mid-2000s. Closely scrutinized since Mr. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell during Mr. Trump’s first term, their friendship — and questions about what the president knew of Mr. Epstein’s abuses — now threatens to consume his second one. The controversy has shaken Mr. Trump’s iron hold on his base like no other. Loyal supporters have demanded to know why the administration has not moved more quickly to unearth the convicted sex offender’s remaining secrets.

In November, after resisting months of pressure to release more Epstein-related documents held by the federal government — and facing an almost unheard-of revolt among Republican lawmakers — Mr. Trump reversed himself, signing legislation that requires their release beginning this week. Mr. Epstein had a talent for acquiring powerful friends, some of whom have become ensnared in the continuing scrutiny of his crimes. For months, Mr. Trump has labored furiously to shift himself out of the frame, dismissing questions about his relationship with Mr. Epstein as a “Democrat hoax” and imploring his supporters to ignore the matter entirely. An examination of their history by The New York Times has found no evidence implicating Mr. Trump in Mr. Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of minors. But the two men’s relationship was both far closer and far more complex than the president now admits. Beginning in the late 1980s, the two men forged a bond intense enough to leave others who knew them with the impression that they were each other’s closest friend, The Times found.

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Democrats second-guess DNC decision to end autopsy of losses to Trump, GOP

Democrats say they’ve finally found their footing. And the Democratic National Committee (DNC) says it agrees. Democrats are winning again. So why would they put out an autopsy report that talks about how they lost? The party, says DNC Chair Ken Martin, needs to move forward, not look back. That’s the position Democrats find themselves in as 2026 inches closer and they eye the midterm elections. “My party loves to gloss things over,” one top Democratic strategist said. “We love to say, ‘Nothing to see here. We’re good.'” “And that’s how we lose elections,” the strategist added. Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons shared that sentiment. “The people who volunteered, donated and voted deserve to know what went wrong,” he said. “The DNC should tell them.”

Democrats have spent the last year trying to find their way out of the political wilderness. They have grappled with what went wrong and questioned not only how they could have allowed President Trump to win a second term but also how they could lose control of both the House and the Senate in the process. But in recent weeks, they have notched key gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia. They won a redistricting battle in California. They even emerged victorious in the mayoral race in Miami, something that hasn’t happened in nearly three decades. Trump is also helping their cause, Democrats say, by mishandling the Jeffrey Epstein files, raising tariffs and mishandling the economy. That’s why his own approval ratings have dipped since the beginning of the year, they say. “The Democratic Party is going into the new year with the wind at its back,” said Democratic strategist Anthony Coley, who argued “disarray” in the GOP is helping his party.

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Fed’s Beth Hammack is inflation-wary and prefers holding rates steady into the spring

Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said she doesn’t see any need to change interest rates for several months after the central bank cut rates at its last three meetings. Hammack has opposed recent rate cuts because she is more worried about elevated inflation than the potential labor-market fragility that prompted officials to lower rates by a cumulative 0.75-point over the past several months. Hammack wasn’t a voting member on the rate-setting committee this year but will become a voter next year. “My base case is that we can stay here for some period of time, until we get clearer evidence that either inflation is coming back down to target or the employment side is weakening more materially,” she said in an interview Thursday with The Wall Street Journal’s “Take On the Week” podcast. Hammack said a favorable inflation reading for November released last week likely understated 12-month price growth due to data-collection distortions created by the government shutdown in October and the first half of November.

While the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the consumer-price index was up 2.7% from a year earlier in November, estimates that adjusted for the data-measurement difficulties “puts it closer” to the 2.9% or 3.0% figure that forecasters had broadly anticipated, she said. “While it’s great to get this official BLS data back, I do take it with a grain of salt,” she said. Hammack’s concern about lowering interest rates centers on her view that the so-called neutral level—which neither spurs nor slows the economy—is higher than widely believed and that the economy is primed for solid growth next year. The neutral rate can’t be directly observed, though it can be inferred from how the economy is faring. “It feels to me like we’re maybe a little bit below” her estimate of the neutral rate, meaning the Fed’s policy could be, on net, providing stimulus, she said. Hammack suggested the Fed didn’t need to change its benchmark interest rate, currently in a range between 3.5% and 3.75%, at least until spring. By then, she said, it would be able to better assess whether recent goods-price inflation was receding as tariffs are more fully digested through the supply chain. The former Goldman Sachs executive said she is hearing from business leaders that higher input costs, including those due to tariffs, could lead them to make larger price increases in the first quarter. That is concerning, she said, given how inflation has been “stuck around this close-to-3% level for the better part of…18 months.”

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125,000 left without power in SF after massive PG&E outage

More than 100,000 customers in San Francisco were left without power due to a massive PG&E outage on Saturday. PG&E first reported an outage in the Inner Sunset affecting just under 15,000 customers around 9:40 a.m., which was followed by outages at around 10:10 a.m. affecting the Richmond, Presidio, and Golden Gate Park areas, and parts of downtown San Francisco that affected thousands more. BART said trains would not run through the Powell Street, Civic Center and Van Ness stations due to the power outage. Video shared with KTVU showed the BART stations in the area darkened, with tollgates and escalators not functioning. BART later announced about 7:10 p.m. that the Powell Street station was reopened. The Cvic Center station was reopened about 25 minutes later.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said traffic lights in the area would likely be affected. Images from bystanders in the city showed intersections snarled with traffic and automated vehicles struggling to navigate the streets without the presence of traffic signals. Waymo released a statement announcing that it would suspend its services during the power outage. "We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work," Waymo said. PG&E's outage map showed that – as of about 4:15 p.m. – nearly 125,000 users in San Francisco were without power, comprising more than 30% of the utility company's customer base in the city. At about 6:15 p.m., San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie released a video statement advising people in the city to stay inside if possible in order to stay safe during the power outages. "We still have many traffic lights out, we have a lot officers," Lurie said. "[We have] law enforcement officers, traffic enforcement officers out at intersections. But we got rain coming and its nighttime."

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How the Supreme Court’s mail-in ballot ruling could affect voters

The Supreme Court is set to decide this term whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day. The case centers on a law in Mississippi, but a total of about 18 states and territories accept such late-arriving ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Should the court rule that all ballots nationwide must be received by Election Day, it could lead to the rejection of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of ballots in the future, affecting a swath of American voters in rural and urban areas. In 2024, at least 725,000 ballots were postmarked by Election Day and arrived within the legally accepted post-election window, according to election officials in 14 of the 22 states and territories where late-arriving ballots were accepted that year. (Four of these states — Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio and Utah — have since changed their policies and will accept only mail ballots that arrive by Election Day.)

Another roughly 104,000 mail ballots were rejected nationwide for arriving after the deadline, according to a federal report on election data. The roughly 725,000 ballots represent a sliver of the total number of mail ballots cast in the 2024 election across the 14 states and territories — about 24 million, according to federal election data. Nonetheless, 725,000 voters constitute nearly the population of a congressional district, a significant number to be potentially left uncounted. Of course, a decision by the court eliminating late-arriving ballots would not effectively cause 725,000 votes to be left uncounted. Voter education efforts by election officials, and potential changes in policies and procedures, would most likely help the vast majority of voters avoid having their ballot rejected based on the court’s ruling. But education and policy changes can go only so far. During the 2020 election, the State Supreme Court in Pennsylvania, a top political battleground, ruled that ballots postmarked by Election Day should be counted if they arrived within three days after the closing of polls. Roughly 10,000 ballots arrived and were counted in those three days, according to the secretary of state at the time.

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The 20-something billionaires ushering in a betting bonanza in Trump’s Washington

Wall Street’s newest whiz kids were up against the full force of the federal government a year ago. Now, with President Donald Trump in charge, Shayne Coplan and Tarek Mansour — the messy-haired, 20-something billionaires behind the betting platforms Polymarket and Kalshi — are riding high. Coplan’s Polymarket is returning to the U.S., one year after federal agents raided his apartment as part of a probe into whether the company was illegally operating domestically. And Mansour’s Kalshi has beaten back the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, its chief regulator, in a fight over election betting. Both are now expanding further into politics and sports while drawing big-name backers like Donald Trump Jr. and the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company.

The companies, known as prediction markets, take online bets on everything from elections to details of Taylor Swift’s wedding to the return of Jesus Christ. That trading then generates odds showing the likelihood of a particular event happening, such as who will win the 2028 presidential election. (Vice President JD Vance’s odds are currently at around 30 percent, the highest of any contender on Polymarket and Kalshi.) Once a fringe corner of finance, prediction markets could eventually become a trillion-dollar industry, according to Mansour, making online bets pervasive in everyday life. This raises questions about the potential for insider trading and other risks that come with gambling on everything and anything. As the biggest players, Polymarket and Kalshi stand to benefit the most. The story behind the comeback of these two companies offers a window into what it takes to get ahead in Trump’s Washington, where few have seen their stars rise so far so fast.

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Lead Stories

US says price increases eased last month but data may be distorted and Americans aren't feeling it

At a time when Americans are frustrated and angry over the high cost of living, the government released a report Thursday showing that inflation had cooled unexpectedly in November. But economists quickly warned that that last month’s numbers were suspect because they’d been delayed and likely distorted by the 43-day federal shutdown. And most Americans have not felt any let up in the high prices they are paying for food, insurance, utilities and other basic necessities. The Labor Department reported Thursday that its consumer price index rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier. Yet, year-over-year inflation remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Americans, dismayed by high prices, handed big victories to Democrats in local and state elections last month.

The inflation report was delayed eight days by the shutdown, which also prevented the Labor Department from compiling overall numbers for consumer prices and core inflation in October and disrupted the usual data-collecting process. Thursday’s report gave investors, businesses and policymakers their first look at CPI since the September numbers were released on Oct. 24. Consumer prices had risen 3% in September from a year earlier, and forecasters had expected the November CPI to match that year-over-year increase. “It’s likely a bit distorted,’’ said Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG. “The good news is that it’s cooling. We’ll take a win when we can get it.’’ Still, Swonk added: “The data is truncated, and we just don’t know how much of it to trust.’’ By disrupting the economy – especially government contracting – the shutdown may have contributed to a cooling in prices, she said. Shoppers walk around the Somerset Collection mall, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Troy, Mich. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)1 of 2 | Shoppers walk around the Somerset Collection mall, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Troy, Mich. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun) People shop at the Somerset Collection mall, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Troy, Mich. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)2 of 2 | People shop at the Somerset Collection mall, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Troy, Mich. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun) By PAUL WISEMAN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO Updated 10:59 AM CST, December 18, 2025 Leer en español Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit WASHINGTON (AP) — At a time when Americans are frustrated and angry over the high cost of living, the government released a report Thursday showing that inflation had cooled unexpectedly in November. But economists quickly warned that that last month’s numbers were suspect because they’d been delayed and likely distorted by the 43-day federal shutdown. And most Americans have not felt any let up in the high prices they are paying for food, insurance, utilities and other basic necessities. The Labor Department reported Thursday that its consumer price index rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier. Yet, year-over-year inflation remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Americans, dismayed by high prices, handed big victories to Democrats in local and state elections last month. The inflation report was delayed eight days by the shutdown, which also prevented the Labor Department from compiling overall numbers for consumer prices and core inflation in October and disrupted the usual data-collecting process. Thursday’s report gave investors, businesses and policymakers their first look at CPI since the September numbers were released on Oct. 24. Consumer prices had risen 3% in September from a year earlier, and forecasters had expected the November CPI to match that year-over-year increase. Related StoriesGovernment will release September jobs report next week, ending data drought from federal shutdownGovernment will release September jobs report next week, ending data drought from federal shutdownUS retail sales rose slightly in September, adding to months of big gainsUS retail sales rose slightly in September, adding to months of big gainsFed's preferred inflation gauge stayed elevated in September as spending weakenedFed's preferred inflation gauge stayed elevated in September as spending weakened “It’s likely a bit distorted,’’ said Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG. “The good news is that it’s cooling. We’ll take a win when we can get it.’’ Still, Swonk added: “The data is truncated, and we just don’t know how much of it to trust.’’ By disrupting the economy – especially government contracting – the shutdown may have contributed to a cooling in prices, she said. Kay Haigh, global co-head of fixed income and liquidity solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, warned that the November numbers were “noisy ... The canceling of the October report makes month-on-month comparisons impossible, for example, while the truncated information-gathering process given the shutdown could have caused systematic biases in the data.’'

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Economic anxiety has Texas manufacturers and retailers on edge

The latest tranche of Texas Business Outlook Surveys from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas was released the last week in November. The outlook self-described — at least among the Texas manufacturing, services and retail sectors surveyed — is not one of unbridled optimism. Some 310 businesses responded to the survey, which includes five “special questions” aimed at the measuring the economic pulse of Texas business. The survey was taken between Nov. 10 and Nov. 18. For reference, the federal shutdown officially ended Nov. 12. The special questions were specific, relating to revenue and employment. The answers, mixed at best, leaned negative.

The first question was simply about earnings: How has your firm’s operating margin, defined as earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) as a share of total revenue, changed over the past six months? Only 21% of respondents answered that their EBIT had increased slightly or significantly. Only 2% of that 21% cited a significant increase in EBIT. About a third (33%) said their EBIT was unchanged, while 47% said it had decreased, with 13% saying their pre-tax and interest earnings had decreased “significantly.” That’s worse than November 2024, when 36% reported declines EBIT, and on a par with 2022 (49%) and 2023 (48%) during the worst periods of the post-pandemic inflation. Asked what they expect from the next six months, 29% of respondents said they expect a decline in EBIT. That’s a higher negative than 2024, when only 18% said they expected a decline.

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MAGA infighting erupts at Turning Point USA Conference

Members of the MAGA faithful gathered here Thursday to kick off Turning Point USA’s America Fest, the largest meeting for the organization since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot to death on a Utah college campus in September. Despite that somber backdrop, the event quickly devolved into a spectacle of MAGA infighting. Ben Shapiro, the first speaker after widow Erika Kirk, ripped into those who would take the same stage in the coming hours and days. He called out conservative commentators, blasting Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon as “frauds and grifters.” “The conservative movement is in serious danger,” Shapiro said, arguing the danger is not just on the left, but “from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.”

He called Bannon “a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein” ahead of the imminent release of files related to the late convicted sex offender, while praising President Donald Trump and his administration’s handling of the issue. Trump pushed to stop Republicans in Congress from voting to release the files, though he signed the legislation once it was passed. Both Bannon and Trump appear in photos with Epstein that were released by House Democrats. Shapiro particularly focused on Carlson — both for elevating Owens’ conspiracy theories about Kirk’s murder and for his recent interview with far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who has repeatedly pushed antisemitic tropes. Carlson, a former Fox News host, now hosts his show on X and routinely garners millions of views. “The people who refused to condemn Candace’s truly vicious attacks — and some of them are speaking here tonight — are guilty of cowardice,” Shapiro said, adding later: “If you host a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse like Nick Fuentes … you ought to own it.”

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Paxtons agree to unseal records in divorce case after media challenge

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, Angela, have agreed to unseal their divorce case after a group of media organizations requested the records be made public. According to an order signed by the Paxtons’ lawyers, the couple has agreed that the court can “restore full public access to the case file.” The judge presiding over the case must sign off on the order for it to become official. A hearing is scheduled for Friday morning. State Sen. Angela Paxton filed for divorce in July alleging adultery. Soon after, she asked for the court record to be sealed. A previous judge handling the case agreed and put all of the records under seal. Ken Paxton supported the decision, saying the press was attempting to unfairly invade his personal life.

Eight media organizations, including The Texas Newsroom, and nonpartisan nonprofit the Campaign for Accountability, filed requests to unseal the records. The media group argued Paxton’s divorce records should be public because he is an elected official running for office who has faced repeated allegations of corruption. The attorney general’s finances, which are a subject of the divorce case, have been central to the misconduct allegations against him. While he has been charged with multiple crimes during his decade in statewide office, Paxton has never been convicted. Paxton is now challenging John Cornyn in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

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State Stories

ERCOT CEO: Data centers must turn off ahead of rotating outages

An unprecedented surge of data centers could be coming to Texas, prompting concerns over how the state’s power grid — which infamously suffered deadly blackouts in 2021 — will keep up with the breakneck demand. According to Pablo Vegas, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, residents don't need to be alarmed: A new state law requires data centers to disconnect in phases at the grid operator’s discretion during a severe grid emergency. “If a data center connects onto our grid and the grid gets tight, they have to turn off before we (have rotating outages),” Vegas said in a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle. As Big Tech companies race to develop artificial intelligence, a huge pipeline of data centers — some planning to use as much electricity as entire cities — are seeking to come to Texas, attracted to the state’s plentiful land and relatively cheap energy for industrial customers.

As a result, near-term electricity demand is expected to grow magnitudes faster in Texas than anywhere else in the country, according to an Energy Department analysis. Even if many of the data centers proposed for Texas aren’t ultimately built, ERCOT has forecasted that electricity demand across its system could increase 70% by 2031. “It's really been just something that we've never experienced before in the history of ERCOT,” Vegas said. The Trump administration has embraced Big Tech’s AI push, arguing that the United States has to outcompete adversaries such as China in developing the potentially transformative technology. Recently, Gov. Greg Abbott appeared alongside Google’s CEO as the tech giant announced $40 billion in AI-related investments across the state, which would make Texas home to more Google data centers than anywhere else in the world. But in welcoming data centers, Texas leaders — particularly Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — have also raised concerns about how the influx could jeopardize the state’s power grid. Those concerns manifested in Senate Bill 6, a law Abbott signed in June that received some pushback from the data center industry.

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Business owners search for solutions after termination of HUB program

As the year comes to a close, Jessica Scanlon, founder of Hot Dog Marketing, can already cross one item off of her 2026 to-do list: renewing her Historically Underutilized Business program status. After Comptroller Kelly Hancock abruptly announced in early December that the program would no longer provide benefits to women- and minority-owned businesses, business owners and local advocates have raised concerns, unaware of how they are going to move forward. The HUB program was initially designed to uplift businesses owned by marginalized communities and has now been altered to exclusively support veterans. Hancock announced that the program has been narrowed to strictly support veterans with an impairment connected to their service, and will be renamed the Veteran Heroes United in Business program. Only 31% of veterans in the nation have a service-connected disability, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Over 15,000 Texas businesses have now had their status revoked. According to the comptroller’s fiscal year 2025 semi-annual report, which was released in May, of the 15,762 companies that were registered under the program in FY25, a mere 485 are owned by disabled veterans. Of those 485, none are owned by female vets. Since 1999, the HUB program has served as a gateway for small businesses to play a role in substantial state-funded projects that are usually executed by larger, out-of-state companies. Through the HUB directory on the comptroller’s website, prime contractors can find Texas businesses that specialize in certain areas needed to complete their projects. For contracts greater than $100,000, prime contractors are required to submit a HUB subcontracting plan that demonstrates that they have made a “good-faith effort” to incorporate small businesses in the project. “I’ve been kind of telling people the HUB program is not a DEI program; it’s a small-business accelerator program,” Scanlon said.

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Another Texas school district voted to close schools, what’s going on?

Multiple school districts in Central Texas have had to make tough decisions following declining enrollment, increased costs and years of no state funding increases. Now we are seeing more and more districts make tough decisions impacting students and families. On Wednesday, more than 60 people signed up to share their concerns about Leander ISD’s consolidation and closure plans. “Closing a school without a student focused plan raises serious concerns,” said one of the many parents who spoke at the meeting. Parents, teachers and students lined up to speak to the Leander ISD School Board. “I am not going to begin to understand why we would ever consider closing an A rated school,” said another parent at the meeting. The Leander ISD School board ended up voting to close Faubian Elementary and they could discuss further closures in the coming years.

Leander ISD is not the only district in Central Texas dealing with consolidations and budget deficits though. Austin ISD approves final school consolidation plan, will close 10 schools Last year, facing a budget deficit, Eanes ISD’s board of trustees voted to close Valley View Elementary School and put a halt to the district’s Spanish immersion program to save money. Fast forward to this year and Austin ISD, the largest district in Central Texas, announced the closure of 10 schools and many program moves. “If we don’t make these decisions then we will not move ourselves to get to a balanced state which is something I believe in,” said Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura. School closures are happening across the state, with Fort Worth ISD moving forward with a plan to shut down 18 schools over the next several years and San Antonio ISD has had closures as well. Amidst these closures some parents say they will leave their districts for private schools, charter schools or other districts nearby. Some of the issues schools are facing include declining enrollment, increased costs to operate, budget deficits and competition from charter and private schools.

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Brianna Aguilera's family announces next step in independent investigation

The parents of Brianna Aguilera have revealed their next steps in their search for answers in the Texas A&M student's death. Her mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, told PEOPLE that the family plans to conduct a second, independent autopsy once the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office has completed its own investigation. The medical examiner will determine Aguilera's official cause and manner of death within 60 to 90 days after her death. Rodriguez and the family's legal counsel, Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, did not respond to requests for comment from the San Antonio Express-News on the independent autopsy.

Austin police have said the 19-year-old Laredo native, who fell from a 17th-floor apartment near the University of Texas campus in the early morning of Nov. 29, died by suicide. She became intoxicated at a Texas A&M-versus-Texas tailgate the evening before and argued with her boyfriend over the phone before the fall, police allege. Investigators contend that Aguilera struggled with suicidal thoughts, citing a deleted suicide note police found on her phone dated just days prior to her death. "My daughter was not suicidal," Rodriguez previously said. "I know my daughter better than everyone." Buzbee has said there are "serious and disturbing questions" about Aguilera's death. He believes it would have been difficult for Aguilera to scale the 44-inch balcony railing when she stood at 5 feet, 2 inches and had nothing to climb on. He claims witnesses who heard arguing at the apartment building before she died were not interviewed by police. A supposed suicide note police said they found deleted from her phone was just an "essay," according to the attorney. He slammed the Austin Police Department, saying police lack the legal authority to rule her death suicide without a completed autopsy. If police do not reopen the case and assign a different investigator, Buzbee plans to send a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott requesting an independent investigation by the Texas Rangers. His firm has compiled 30 to 40 pages of evidence to submit for consideration to the Texas Rangers, he said. Amid false reports of a homicide suspect, the Austin Police Department has said that her death "remains an active death investigation and is not being investigated as a homicide."

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San Antonio City Council approves moving May municipal elections to November in narrow vote

The San Antonio City Council approved moving the city’s elections from May to November of odd years in a 6-5 vote. San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones began a push to move the election date last month after she became aware of a change in state law that would allow cities to move May elections to November if a city council passed a resolution. The city had until December 31 to approve the resolution. Multiple voting rights groups had expressed support for the measure saying elections in November would gain a higher turnout.

However, concern was drawn by some council members over local school districts that partnered with the city’s May election and the decision would force districts to change their elections as well. The decision is a monumental shift in the city’s election process that includes adding a one-time, six-month extension to the terms of council members in 2029 and changing inauguration dates from June to December. Who voted Yes: Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran, District 4 Councilman Edward Mungia, District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan, and District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears. Who voted No: District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito, District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez, and District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte

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Dallas company won’t answer questions about White House ballroom

Dallas-based engineering giant AECOM, a lead contractor on President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom, has declined to provide information sought by Senate Democrats, citing secrecy provisions in its contract with the administration. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called the company’s refusal to answer questions “entirely unsatisfactory” and said Democrats are weighing additional steps to force disclosure. “We’re going to pursue as much facts and evidence as we can,” Blumenthal told The Dallas Morning News. “And we’re reviewing other ways that we can demand more information and also highlight and elevate this issue for the public.” The fight turns on whether contractors on a privately funded White House project have to answer to Congress. Trump picked AECOM as one of the primary firms to engineer the ballroom, the major new build on the site of the East Wing after its demolition in October.

Trump repeatedly has defended the project, arguing the White House needs a larger space for major events, including during a Hanukkah reception Tuesday night. He also noted that a judge had declined, for now, to block construction on what has become one of his signature projects. Trump has pegged the ballroom at $400 million, roughly double early estimates. “Who else but in our country would sue to stop a $400 million beautiful ballroom that people have been after?” he said. “The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years.” The Adelson family, casino magnates, major Republican donors and owners of the Dallas Mavericks, are among the private contributors backing the project. Miriam Adelson attended Tuesday’s White House event. Democrats argue the public deserves full transparency about how the ballroom is being financed and whether donors with federal business stand to benefit. Blumenthal, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and other Democrats wrote to the White House in October seeking a complete accounting of the ballroom’s financing and the terms under which donations were accepted.

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Who enforces Texas’ new parental rights law? Houston judge raises question while weighing legal challenge

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others were in a federal court Thursday in Houston, seeking a preliminary injunction that would block Texas from enforcing four key provisions of Senate Bill 12. The expansive "parental rights" law was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott this summer. In part, it effectively bans all programming related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), prohibits employees from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation and bars student clubs based on gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools. The law also requires schools to take disciplinary action against employees who provide health services against the wishes of students' parents or guardians. That aspect of SB 12 has sparked confusion among school nurses and districts across the state.

A key question raised by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Eskridge, who did not immediately issue a ruling Thursday after hearing arguments for more than three hours, centers around who exactly is charged with enforcing the new law. Attorneys for two of the defendants, Katy ISD and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, argued they should not be included in the suit because they are not enforcers of consequences for not following SB 12. When asked in court who the defendants thought the enforcer would be if not Morath or the three districts that were sued, Katy ISD attorney Christopher Gilbert said it was a good question and speculated it might be Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. "I am surprised to hear that that is a good question for the court to ask," Eskridge said. The lawsuit was filed in August by the ACLU, Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and others against Morath and three school districts: Houston ISD, Katy ISD and Plano ISD. This lawsuit attempts to stop four specific aspects of SB 12 from going into effect statewide, characterized by the plaintiffs as the GSA club ban, the inclusivity ban, the social transitioning ban and the ban on discussion of LGBTQ+ identities.

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Austin reaches four-year, $63 million deal with city's firefighters

After months of back-and-forth, Austin has OK'd a four-year labor contract with the Austin Firefighters Association. The hope is that the $63 million deal will boost recruitment at the Austin Fire Department by increasing wages and adjusting staff schedules. Those schedule adjustments are intended to prevent gaps in service amid a hiring slump and burnout among firefighters. The firefighters union said yes to the tentative deal Wednesday night with 72% of members approving the contract. The Austin City Council passed it unanimously Thursday, capping off a contentious contract negotiation. Outgoing AFA President Bob Nicks said the deal maintains a four-person requirement for shifts, a key sticking point in the negotiations for the union.

"I think this agreement is a good deal for labor and management," he said. "It wasn't easy getting here." The city and the AFA previously agreed on a deal back in October ahead of the citywide vote on Proposition Q. The budget proposal in Prop Q would have covered some gaps in AFD's overtime budget. But the ballot measure's failure pushed the city to propose reducing staff on AFD shifts to save money, prompting the union to walk away from the bargaining table last month. After the fallout, the union put together a petition to amend city law to require that four-person standard, but has agreed to drop that effort as a condition of the contract. Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax said the deal resolved months of heated negotiation — and addressed concerns for both sides.

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Dallas prepares to be the broadcasting hub for FIFA World Cup 2026

FIFA World Cup 2026 will come to the Dallas-Fort Worth area next summer, but media will start moving into the International Broadcast Centre in Dallas next month. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is on track to deliver the broadcast center by January 14, said Rosa Fleming, Director of Convention and Event Services. That's when around 2,000 broadcast media representatives will be able to move in their equipment. The broadcast center will be operational on May 27, ahead of the Dallas-Fort Worth matches. Sixteen North American cities are hosting the World Cup, but there will be only one broadcast center. All 104 matches will be broadcast out of Dallas.

Fleming said Dallas stood out from the rest because of the city's hospitality and its downtown life which includes public transportation options. The convention center has one million square feet of exhibit space, three ballrooms, 88 meeting rooms, a 9,816-seat arena, and a 1,750-seat theater. It is also next to a 1,000-room hotel, the Omni. Arlington is one of the host cities, with nine matches coming to AT&T Stadium. It's being referred to as as Dallas Stadium by FIFA, despite objections from locals. Argentina, England, Japan, Austria, Netherlands, Croatia, and Jordan are the teams playing in June. Brett Wilkinson, Public Affairs Specialist, called the lineup a "dream draw." "We've got some of the most popular soccer teams in the entire world with some of the best fan bases," Wilkinson said. "So we're really positioned for Dallas to just be really kind of the center of FIFA World Cup 2026." Dallas City Council approved $15 million for convention center construction to make the broadcast center a reality.

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Defendants in Camp Mystic wrongful death lawsuit respond, ask for case to be moved to Kerr County

The defendants in lawsuits brought by the families of Camp Mystic attendees, who died during a July 4 flood, filed a motion on Dec. 12 to have the Travis County cases moved to a Kerr County court. The parents’ lawsuits argue that the camp and its owner were negligent in preventing the flood-related deaths of their children. KXAN reached out to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for their responses to the motion. In the defendants’ motion to transfer venue, their attorneys wrote that Travis County is an improper venue because the camp is in Kerr County, and that “all relevant events” happened there.

“Potential witnesses include camp staff members who reside in Kerr County and local Kerr County officials. Furthermore, a site visit may be necessary so that the factfinder can see and appreciate the layout of the property and its elevations and the extent of the flood’s damage,” the motion states. The motion also denies the plaintiffs’ claim that Mystic Camps Family Partnership, Ltd. and Mystic Camps Management, LLC “had any employee, much less employees with decision making authority, in Travis County on July 4, 2025, the date of the catastrophic flooding giving rise to this lawsuit.” Both businesses are registered in Travis County. “These entities exist purely for estate planning purposes of Willetta Eastland and Richard Eastland as a means of passing on the legacy of their life’s work to their children,” the motion states. One of the lawsuits specifically points to Willetta and those business entities for establishing venue. According to the Dec. 12 filing, neither she nor any other defendant were in Travis County at the time of the flood.

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Special prosecutors appointed in case to remove Keller ISD trustees

Special prosecutors will evaluate whether Keller ISD trustees violated state open meetings laws — and whether those alleged violations warrant removal from office. A judge appointed a district attorney and special prosecutors to represent Texas in a dispute brought by a north Fort Worth group of homeowners seeking the removal of Keller ISD trustees. The appointment, formalized in a Dec. 8 court order, names Johnson County District Attorney Timothy M. Good as lead counsel for the state in a lawsuit alleging that several Keller ISD trustees violated the Texas Open Meetings Act while pursuing a now-abandoned plan to split the district in two. Good also deputized a team of special prosecutors, including Fort Worth attorney Dee J. Kelly Jr., to assist in the case.

“This is very good news for us,” Cary Moon, a former Fort Worth City Council member and chairman of the Heritage Homeowners Association legal task force, said during a press conference this month regarding updates to the case. “As I said, we’ll have our day in court.” The lawsuit targets board President John Birt, trustee Heather Washington and outgoing board member Charles Randklev, alleging they conducted Keller ISD business outside public view through closed-door meetings, encrypted messaging and improperly approved consultants, all in violation of state transparency laws. Keller ISD declined to comment on the litigation, citing pending legal action. Birt, Washington and Randklev did not respond to requests for comment. The suit stems from a failed proposal to split Keller ISD along Denton Highway, a plan that sparked months of public backlash, student walkouts, multiple lawsuits and the resignation of former Superintendent Tracy Johnson.

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Here’s the city’s 30-year funding plan to resolve a $3 billion pension shortfall

Dallas will lock in rising annual payments for its police and fire pension system through 2030, then shift to a funding model tied to investment performance under a new 30-year plan to close a $3 billion shortfall. Plan details: The city will ramp up funding and will stick to the money it budgeted in the first five years. In 2024, the city paid $202 million. This year, they’ll pay $220 million. This will continue until 2030 when “actuarially determined contributions” kick in. That means that after the five-year ramp up, the city’s yearly contributions will become flexible. They will be dependent on how the pension system’s investments perform.

If the pension system is able to raise more money through investments, then the city gets to contribute less. If it doesn’t, then the city will pay more. The city has set caps on how much it’ll pay in a single year in case it finds itself in the midst of an economic downturn, and that cap is only applied on about 15% of the money the city is supposed to pay. What it means: The city will give about $288 million to the pension system in 2030. A majority of those payments – about 85% – is aimed at paying off the liabilities the pension system has accumulated so far, and those are fixed dollars the city will pay regardless. The remaining dollars, which are subject to caps, will pre-fund benefits for active employees based on the city’s projected number of officers. That portion of the plan is designed to ensure first responders currently in service receive the benefits they were promised. Those dollars, about $37 million, are expected to fluctuate with investment gains and losses. If they exceed the cap, set at 5% above or below projections, the city would spread the additional costs over as long as 20 years or until Jan. 1, 2053, whichever comes later.

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National Stories

‘Execution was abysmal’: Trump economy speech doesn’t meet GOP hopes

‘Execution was abysmal’: Trump economy speech doesn’t meet GOP hopes In private, some Republicans worry after Trump’s primetime economy speech that changing voter perceptions may be a slog. President Donald Trump speaks during an address to the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool) President Donald Trump speaks during an address to the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool) | AP By Eli Stokols 12/18/2025 05:49 PM EST As soon as President Donald Trump finished delivering his primetime address to the nation Wednesday night, he asked his senior aides how he did. “They all responded with some version of ‘great’,” a journalist inside the White House Diplomatic Room for Trump’s speech later shared in a pool report. And on the airwaves and across the internet, Trump’s usual defenders gushed about the speech. But offline and away from the cameras, many Republicans on Wednesday were far less ebullient about the president’s attempt to improve his dismal numbers on the economy — and increasingly downbeat about what that may mean for their party’s chances in next November’s midterm election.

“It’s the right idea to talk about the economy more, but the execution was abysmal,” said one Republican operative who served in the first Trump administration and, like others interviewed for this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly without fear of retribution. “He’s a very effective salesman when his heart is in it or when he’s on the attack. But the ‘I feel your pain’ speech — he just doesn’t have that club in his bag.” Trump’s speech instead focused on the border and men playing in women’s sports, issues that played well in 2024 but have seemed less salient in elections this year. White House deputy chief of staff James Blair told POLITICO last month that Lt. Gov Winsome Earle-Sears, who lost her race for Virginia governor, talked too much about transgender issues. “It’s not even in the top five issues, according to voters,” he said at the time. Few Republicans will criticize Trump directly. But his schedule over the last few weeks — with several speeches ostensibly focused on the economy — indicate that the White House understands that they are losing the messaging war on affordability. And Trump’s decision to lay it all at the feet of former President Joe Biden could, according to critics, reinforce the belief that the administration is stuck in 2024 rather than planning for 2026.

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Trump move to dismantle climate agency blows up Senate funding deal

A potential deal to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded that Congress stop President Trump’s efforts to dismantle a key climate agency. A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations over passing a five-bill package of appropriations bills before Christmas said that Trump’s attempt to break up a premier weather and climate center based in Boulder, Colo., was like a “stick of dynamite” that exploded any chance of a bipartisan breakthrough on spending. Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) objected to moving forward with the so-called minibus spending package that, if enacted into law, would result in 85 to 90 percent of the federal government being funding through September of 2026.

“We need to fix this problem,” Bennet said, explaining his opposition to moving forward with the spending package. “We’ll have to work together. We’ll have to work together to figure out how do this. “We have to find a way together to fix this problem,” he added. Bennet said that his Republican colleagues know how critical the center is to providing scientific analysis of weather patterns. “Everybody on that floor knows what an excellent job [it] does,” he said, pointing to the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) made a herculean effort to get the spending package passed before Christmas and it looked earlier in the day as the Senate might be on track to clinching a deal after conservative GOP senators dropped their objections to the bill. But Bennet and Hickenlooper took the lead in bringing the package to a dead halt by objecting to an agreement to set up date and amendment votes on the Senate floor. They were infuriated by the Trump administration’s announcement Wednesday that it plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, a leading research institution specializing in climate science.

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Democrats say the release of the Epstein files won’t be the end of the story

The Department of Justice is expected to drop the Epstein files by Friday at midnight in order to comply with the legal deadline. Democratic lawmakers have been fighting for this moment — forcing Congress to pass a law compelling the DOJ to release the files, pushing out documents obtained by the Oversight Committee and keeping the disgraced financier and sex offender in the news. Democratic lawmakers say they’re waiting with bated breath for the files. And they say what happens next depends on what they read. “There’s so many different things that could happen,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. In a brief interview with NOTUS Tuesday, he said it was a possibility the Trump administration would continue to conceal information. President Donald Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Despite Trump’s campaign promise to release the Epstein files, his administration withheld their release until Congress passed bipartisan legislation to force it. Democrats say they believe Trump doesn’t want the files to be released because they could reveal new information about his relationship with Epstein, with whom he was associated before they had a falling out in the early 2000s. A recent release of never-before-seen photos from the Epstein estate from House Democrats on the Oversight Committee last week showed Trump with Epstein, furthering speculation as to why Trump would want to keep the files private. “Ideally, they release everything. I highly doubt that’s going to happen,” Garcia said. “But post Friday, everything has to be on the table. And so the legal approach absolutely has to be on the table, and then the Senate’s already talking about that. So we would like to see what actually happens. And so I think we’re preparing ourselves. Our team’s ready. We’re ready to review what comes out. Everyone knows, everybody’s going to be working for the weekend, and we’re ready to go.”

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Kennedy Center board votes to rename to ‘Trump Kennedy Center’

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to rename the storied arts institution the “Trump Kennedy Center,” an unprecedented change for the U.S. presidential memorial that drew swift condemnation from Kennedy family members and Democratic leaders. The Kennedy Center confirmed the vote in an email to The Washington Post. The law establishing the building designates it as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to name the institution The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” said Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, in an email. “The unanimous vote recognizes that the current Chairman saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction.”

The name change is now reflected on the center’s website. The White House rapid response account on X posted a new logo. “The Trump Kennedy Center shows a bipartisan commitment to the Arts,” Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell wrote on X.Officials did not cite an authority for the board’s ability to change the institution’s name, and critics called the move illegal. President Donald Trump joined the board meeting virtually, which was held in Palm Beach, Florida, and remained until the end of the call, when he thanked members for their vote, according to an attendee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. The vote comes after months of Trump repeatedly joking about the name change, including at the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month. It follows a year of upheaval at the center, after Trump overhauled the institution in February, sparking a wave of firings and resignations. Ticket sales have fallen sharply in the center’s three largest venues, according to an October analysis by The Post. “I was surprised by it. I was honored by it,” Trump said of the voteat an executive-order signing Thursday afternoon. “... We saved the building.”

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How 2025 changed research and what's ahead

Ask just about any federally funded researcher to describe 2025, and they use words like chaotic, demoralizing, confusing, destabilizing and transformational. “It’s been a very destabilizing year [that’s made] people question the nation’s commitment to research,” Heather Pierce, senior director for science policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges, told Inside Higher Ed. She expects 2026 to be a year of rebuilding and standard setting. Speaking of the National Institutes of Health, which calls itself the world’s largest public biomedical research funder, Pierce said the research community is expecting more major regulation and written policy changes in 2026, which will shed more light on how grants will be funded, how much the federal government will invest in the research enterprise and what priorities will emerge from this administration.

If the administration’s attacks on federally funded research in 2025 are any indication, the federal government of 2026 will likely be just as willing to advance its conservative ideological agenda by controlling universities through the nation’s research enterprise. And while the administration may not let up in the new year, courts stymied some of its most sweeping changes in 2025 and may continue to be an obstacle in the new year. Soon after President Donald Trump started his second term in January, the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Education and numerous other federal agencies that collectively send billions in research dollars to universities, began freezing and terminating hundreds of grants. Many of the targeted grants—including projects focused on vaccines, climate change, and health and education disparities among women, LGBTQ+ and minority communities—were caught in the crossfire of Trump’s war against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and so-called woke gender ideology. Not only would the terminations lead to the loss of jobs, staff and income, a lawsuit filed by a group of NIH-funded researchers in April predicted that “scientific advancement will be delayed, treatments will go undiscovered, human health will be compromised, and lives will be lost.”

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DOJ vowed to punish those who disrupt Trump's immigration crackdown. Dozens of cases have crumbled

The federal agent described her wounds as “boo-boos.” Nevertheless, the Department of Justice aggressively pursued the alleged perpetrator. They jailed Sidney Lori Reid on a charge of felony assault, accusing her of injuring the agent during a July protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Washington, D.C. When grand jurors thrice declined to indict the 44-year-old on the felony, prosecutors tried her on a misdemeanor. Body camera footage played at trial revealed that Reid had not intentionally struck the agent. Instead, the agent had scratched her hand on a wall while assisting another agent who had shoved Reid and told her to “shut the f—- up” and “mind her own business.” It took jurors less than two hours to acquit the animal hospital worker.

“It seemed like my life was just going to be taken away from me,” said Reid, who spent two days in jail and worried she would lose her new job and apartment. “It broke my heart because this is supposed to be a good and fair country and I did not see anything surrounding my case that was good or fair at all for anybody.” Reid’s case was part of the Justice Department’s monthslong effort to prosecute people accused of assaulting or hindering federal officers while protesting the Republican president’s immigration crackdown and military deployments. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered prosecutors to charge those accused of assaulting officers “with the highest provable offense available under the law.” In a recent statement, Bondi pledged that offenders will face “severe consequences.” The Justice Department has struggled to deliver on that commitment, however. In examining 166 federal criminal cases brought since May against people in four Democratic-led cities at the epicenter of demonstrations, The Associated Press found: Of the 100 people initially charged with felony assaults on federal agents, 55 saw their charges reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed outright. At least 23 pleaded guilty, most of them to reduced charges in deals with prosecutors that resulted in little or no jail time. More than 40% of the cases involved relatively minor misdemeanor charges, a figure that appears to undermine Trump’s claims that many of those accused are domestic terrorists. All five defendants, including Reid, who went to trial so far were acquitted.

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Suspect in Brown, MIT professor shootings found dead in NH

The man believed to be responsible for the mass shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island and the shooting of a professor in Massachusetts was found dead in New Hampshire Thursday. A shooter dressed in black killed two people and wounded nine others in a classroom at Brown University on Saturday during final exams. Law enforcement sources confirmed Thursday that authorities were investigating a possible link to the Brown shooting and the killing of an MIT professor in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday. Federal officials said Thursday night that they could confirm the death of "the Brown University and MIT professor shooter," adding "there's no longer a threat to the public" in a news statement. Law enforcement sources from Massachusetts and New Hampshire tell NBC10 Boston the suspect in the Brown University shooting has been found dead.

Authorities announced the death of 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. They also said he is believed to be responsible for the deadly shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor in Brookline. Brown students Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov were killed in the shooting Saturday, which injured nine other people. Two days later, on Monday, MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro was shot at his Brookline home. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said Neves Valente and Loureiro are believed to have known each other. "Investigators identified the vehicle that he had rented in Boston and then drove to Rhode Island," Foley said. "The vehicle was seen outside of Brown, and there was security footage that showed a person who resembled him." She added that financial investigations linked Neves Valente to the car and hotels he stayed at. "There was security footage that captured him within a half-mile of the professor's residence in Brookline," Foley said. "And there is video footage of him entering an apartment building in the location of the professor's apartment, and then later that evening, he is seen about an hour later entering the storage unit wearing the same clothes that he had been seen wearing right after the murder." FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said that Neves Valente is believed to have attended the same Portuguese university in Lisbon as Loureiro. Brown University President Christina Paxson added that Neves Valente was enrolled in physics classes at the school between 2000 and 2001, and that he would have attended classes in the Barus & Holley building, where the shooting took place.

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Lead Stories

U.S. crude oil closes at lowest level since early 2021 as looming surplus weighs on market

U.S. crude oil prices fell nearly 3% on Tuesday to close at the lowest level since early 2021, as a looming surplus and possible peace agreement in Ukraine weigh on the market. West Texas Intermediate fell 2.73%, or $1.55, to close at $55.27 per barrel, the lowest since February 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Global benchmark Brent lost 2.71%, or $1.64, to settle at $58.92. U.S. crude has shed about 23% this year in its worst performance since 2018, while Brent is down about 21% for its worst year since 2020. U.S. gasoline prices have fallen below $3 per gallon to the lowest level in four years in a boost to consumers ahead of the holidays, according to the drivers' association AAA. Falling oil prices could signal a slowing economy. U.S. job growth totalled 64,000 in November but declined by 105,000 in October. The unemployment rate hit a four-year high of 4.6%.

The oil market is under pressure this year as OPEC+ members have rapidly ramped up production after years of output cuts. Investors are also pricing in the possibility of lower geopolitical risk as President Donald Trump pressures Ukraine to accept a peace agreement with Russia. The threat of supply disruptions has loomed over the oil market since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Kyiv has launched repeated drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure this year. The U.S. and its European allies, meanwhile, have targeted Russia's crude industry with sanctions. Ukraine's attacks on oil infrastructure and U.S. sanctions on Russian oil companies would likely be lifted relatively quickly in the event of an agreement, said Jorge Leon, Rystad Energy's head of geopolitical analysis, in a note to clients. "This would significantly reduce the risk of near-term Russian supply disruptions and allow a sizeable volume of Russian oil currently stored on water to return to the market," Leon said. Russian oil stored on water is currently estimated at around 170 million barrels, according to Rystad. The end of U.S. sanctions on Russia would also change the incentives for OPEC+, Leon said. The group would likely resume a strategy to retake market share through higher production after recently pressing pause on that approach, he said.

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Trump gives a partisan prime-time address insisting the economy is stronger than many voters feel

President Donald Trump delivered a politically charged speech Wednesday carried live in prime time on network television, seeking to pin the blame for economic challenges on Democrats while announcing he is sending a $1,776 bonus check to U.S. troops for Christmas. The remarks came as the nation is preparing to settle down to celebrate the holidays, yet Trump was focused more on divisions within the country than a sense of unity. His speech was a rehash of his recent messaging that has so far been unable to calm public anxiety about the cost of groceries, housing, utilities and other basic goods. Trump has promised an economic boom, yet inflation has stayed elevated and the job market has weakened sharply in the wake of his import taxes. Trump suggested that his tariffs — which are partly responsible for boosting consumer prices — would fund a new “warrior dividend” for 1.45 million military members, a payment that could ease some of the financial strains for many households.

The amount of $1,776 was a reference to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “The checks are already on the way,” he said of the expenditure, which would total roughly $2.6 billion. Related Stories Trump's speech on combating inflation turns to grievances about immigrants from 'filthy' countries Trump to visit Pennsylvania to highlight efforts to curb inflation as high prices squeeze Americans Trump, like Biden before him, finds there's no quick fix on inflation Presidential addresses to the nation carried on network television are traditionally less partisan than rally speeches, but Trump gave a condensed version of his usual political remarks. Flanked by two Christmas trees with a portrait of George Washington behind him in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room, Trump sought to pin any worries about the economy on his predecessor, Joe Biden. “Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said. “We’re poised for an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen.”

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Hidalgo, critical of top Democratic county judge candidate, undecided on endorsement

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s admonishment of a top candidate vying for her seat could reflect a contentious shift in the county’s Democratic Party. Her comments opposing former Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s bid for county judge come on the heels of top Texas Republicans vowing to turn the state’s largest county red, and after Hidalgo said in a series of press conferences she would refrain from endorsing a candidate for her job. Hidalgo, a Democrat, announced in September that she wouldn’t seek reelection next year, and her two-term stint as the county's top elected official will end in December 2026. Parker, who was favored in a recent survey for the position in next year’s Democratic primary election, was the subject of a social media post by Hidalgo on Tuesday in which she was referred to as “Kim Ogg 2.0.”

Kim Ogg previously served as the district attorney and has openly called for more GOP leadership in Harris County. Sign up for the Hello, Houston! daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox. Hidalgo overall received the lowest net-approval rating based on job performance of any elected Harris County official included in the survey — including all county commissioners, District Attorney Sean Teare, and acting County Attorney Christian Menefee. In an interview with Hello Houston on Wednesday, Hidalgo elevated her condemnation of Parker by suggesting her political beliefs fail to align with the Democratic Party. She said Parker supported the state takeover of the Houston Independent School District and endorsed Ogg. Ogg pushed back in a statement of her own, calling Hidalgo’s remarks reflective of her tumultuous tenure as county judge.

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Ted Cruz questions ‘mafioso’ FCC chief Brendan Carr

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr faced tough questioning Wednesday in his first Senate testimony since suggesting ABC’s network licenses could be pulled after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Sen. Ted Cruz, who called the hearing as chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, joined Democrats in criticizing Carr’s “dangerous” comments at the time, saying the federal regulator sounded like a “mafioso.” On Wednesday, Cruz pushed Carr on the agency’s obligation to respect Americans’ free-speech rights, saying government can’t be in the business of arbitrating truth and opinion. He paired his questions with criticism of Democrats, saying they have previously targeted Fox News and attempted to censor social media content that Cruz described as accurate about COVID-19 and election fraud.

Broadcasting stations that transmit over public airwaves have licenses requiring them to operate in the “public interest, convenience and necessity,” which was the basis for Carr’s saber-rattling over Kimmel’s monologue. “So long as there is a public interest standard, shouldn’t it be understood to encompass robust First Amendment protections to ensure that the FCC cannot use it to chill speech?” Cruz asked Carr. The FCC chief agreed with Cruz before pivoting to echo the criticisms of Democrats pressuring Fox News. Cruz moved on to other topics, but Democrats on the panel were far from done with the issue. One after another quoted Cruz’s “mafioso” comments to bolster their own scathing criticism of Carr’s comments on Kimmel and ABC. “You are not reinvigorating the public interest standard, you are weaponizing the public interest standard,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told Carr as he asked repeatedly whether the FCC chief regrets his statements.

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State Stories

Texas environmental agency struggles with backlogs after years of budget cuts, study finds

The Texas Commission for Environmental Quality has struggled to keep up with enforcement claims amid years of cuts to the state environmental agency's budget,according to a recent study. When adjusted for inflation, TCEQ’s budget was cut by roughly one-third between 2010 and 2024, even as the number of regulated industrial facilities in the state increased, according to an analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project. The agency in 2010 had a budget of $539 million. The agency most recently worked on a $407 million budget in 2024. That reduction coincides with a case backlog TCEQ faces. As of August, the agency reported a backlog of 1,480 enforcement cases.

In some cases, claims remain untouched for several years, said Kathryn Guerra, a former TCEQ employee who now works as an agency watchdog with the nonprofit group Public Citizen. “Historically, the agency's own enforcement policy was to hold enforcement cases for several years,” said Guerra, who also worked with EIP for their Texas analysis. “And that unfortunately created for the TCEQ a really extensive backlog of pretty complex cases. In one instance, very recently, we saw an enforcement case go before the commissioners for approval, that was 10 years of enforcement action.” According to the TCEQ, of the 9,198 complaints filed in 2025, just 6% of claims were investigated within five days. Nearly 55% of claims took a month or more to address. That could leave some communities without recourse, said Andrew Quicksall with SMU’s environmental health and compliance quality program. “It's like any other sort of enforcement or investigation that you may do,” Quicksall said. “Eventually things get backlogged to a point where you can't address them. And we have those problems where we have environmental claims that go without investigation because the backlog is so large.”

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Texas Secretary of State office's tech woes muddle candidate lists

Weeks after an untimely technology upgrade at the Secretary of State’s office sent counties into a panic over backlogged voter registrations, local party leaders and elections officials say the same update has muddled the state’s candidate-tracking portal as well, leaving them with incomplete lists as they start to assemble the March 3 primary ballot. Republicans and Democrats run their own primaries in Texas, but lean on the Secretary of State’s office as a centralized source of candidate information. Thanks to a series of hangups this year, including a drawn-out legal fight over the congressional maps and a new reporting system at the Secretary of State’s office, local party officials say the state’s candidate portal has been experiencing delays, and complete candidate lists still aren’t finalized.

A Secretary of State spokeswoman said Monday candidates for the primary file with the parties, whose officials enter their information directly to the portal. Between the state and local parties, she said, they should have complete lists to work with for their party primary elections in March. County-level candidates file at their county party office, meaning local party chairs have those full records in-house. But candidates for multi-county districts or statewide races file with the state parties, which saw a rush of last-minute filings and shuffles between races as the Supreme Court ruled on the congressional districts just days before the deadline. On Monday, Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Michelle Lowe Solis and Republican Party of Bexar County Chair Kris Coons met with the Bexar County Elections Department to review a sample ballot based on records from the Secretary of State’s candidate portal. But many candidates believed to have filed for office, particularly congressional candidates on the Republican side, were still missing from the list.

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Texas State canceled Black history exhibit, citing anti-DEI climate

(Update: Shortly after this report published, university spokesperson Jayme Blaschke told the American-Statesman that Texas State University will consider bringing the Black History 101 Mobile Museum to campus for future Black History Month programming.” He declined to specify when and how the university will consider the museum. Khalid el-Hakim, the founder of the museum, said he has not heard from Texas State University.) Texas State University officials may be reversing course after previously uninviting a Black history exhibition from campus, citing the state’s anti-DEI law, Texas' climate and topics covered by the museum. Civil rights organizations called the move viewpoint discrimination and urging the university to bring the mobile museum to campus.

Khalid el-Hakim, the founder and curator of Black History 101 Mobile Museum, a 30-year travelling exhibit of lesser-taught Black history from ancient Egypt to present day, said a Texas State University official approached him October 14 about bringing his exhibition to campus for Black History Month. But on October 28, the official reversed course, saying supervisors did not approve the museum to be on campus. In the second email, a director of campus activities informed el-Hakim that “after reviewing this with supervisors and the leadership team, the Black History 101 Mobile Museum was not approved to be on campus … due to SB -17, the current climate of our State, and certain topics covered as part of the museum,” according to a screenshot of the email. In a letter sent Tuesday to Texas State University President Kelly Damphousse, the Texas chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and San Antonio-based nonprofit Intercultural Development Research Association argue that the cancellation wrongly cites state law, which does not bar diversity in teaching. The groups contend that the university’s decision contributes to a “broader pattern” of suppression of race in education.

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Austin United PAC sues city over review of petition

The Austin United PAC is suing the city after a petition to block the expansion of the convention center was rejected. According to KVUE, the political action committee claims Erika Brady, the Austin city clerk, unlawfully rejected the group’s petition. The petition needed at least 20,000 signatures to leave the decision to expand the Austin Convention Center up to voters next May. It allegedly received about 1,000 more than what was needed, but Brady said the city was confident it received less than that. Brady was tasked with validating the signatures. Austin United PAC told KVUE that the city violated state law by not disclosing how the petition was reviewed. The group argues that the funds put toward the convention center’s expansion should instead be used for the city’s culture, arts and parks.

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A Democrat is running in every state and federal race on Texas' 2026 ballot, a first for either party

A Democrat is running in every state and federal race on the Texas ballot next year, the first time in modern state history that either party has fielded a full slate of candidates, according to the Texas Democratic Party. The complete field is the result of a recruitment campaign run by a network of the state’s top Democratic groups and politicians, including Texas Majority PAC, the Texas Democratic Party, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former state Sen. Wendy Davis. Together, the groups recruited 104 candidates to fill every congressional, state House and state Senate seat up for election in 2026. The effort also ensured that a Democrat is running in every statewide judicial and State Board of Education race. “No Republican gets a free ride in Texas,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder said in an interview. “If you are a Republican and you want to hold public office in this state, you’re going to have to fight us for it.”

The push to run a candidate for every seat — no matter how red-leaning — comes as Texas Democrats look to capitalize on turnout and backlash to the Trump administration. The theory, Democratic organizers said, is that running candidates everywhere will not only maximize the party’s chances of flipping down-ballot seats, but also increase Democratic turnout and engagement in areas that top-of-the-ticket candidates may not be able to reach — potentially creating an upstream effect to boost statewide Democrats. “Even the most relentless statewide candidate is never going to talk to every voter that they need to,” Texas Majority PAC Director Katherine Fischer said. “We need a network of talented, compelling Democratic communicators across the state to clearly communicate the message that Republican leadership has failed us, and that Texans should consider voting differently this cycle and in the future.” Of Texas’ 38 congressional districts, Republicans currently hold 25, with a new gerrymandered map engineered to hand them an additional three to five seats. The GOP also dominates the state Legislature, controlling 88 out of 150 Texas House seats and an 18-to-11 majority in the state Senate (where two red-leaning districts currently sit vacant). All statewide offices, including both U.S. Senate seats, are held by Republicans.

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"Traveling" housing finance corporations were banned. One Dallas neighborhood wonders what's next.

The Dallas Central Appraisal District made a decision earlier this month that sent a lot of people scrambling. It quietly added nearly $3 billion worth of value back to the county’s tax rolls by denying 120 requests for tax exemptions. This is a wonky matter with significant financial implications. The problem started with a loophole in state law that allowed obscure public housing entities to forgo paying taxes on apartment buildings they acquire in other cities, sometimes hundreds of miles away, so long as they priced some units at rates affordable to lower-income tenants. The cities losing the taxes had no say in these decisions; oftentimes, they didn’t even know the deals were happening. The properties were removed from the rolls with no public discussion as to whether the affordable units provided were worth such significant tax breaks.

This practice began in 2021 and has picked up considerably in recent years. In May, the Texas Legislature passed a bill making this illegal and Dallas’ chief appraiser proceeded to blast away the exemptions. The appraisal district’s review board upheld the decision during a hearing early in December. DCAD clawed back an impressive amount of money; it equals a little under 2 percent of the county’s total taxable commercial value, and about three-quarters—$2.2 billion—of this haul is in the city of Dallas, in every Council district, spread across 75 complexes. (The other properties are in Carrollton, DeSoto, Duncanville, Farmers Branch, Garland, Grand Prairie, Irving, Mesquite, and Rowlett.) In Dallas proper, their tax bills will total about $50 million annually after the appraiser’s decision, according to an analysis by the board of the Dallas Housing Finance Corporation. This should be great news for city coffers. More money for police and fire and schools and Parkland Hospital and Dallas College, just after City Hall navigated a nearly $37 million shortfall in its last budget. But there will be unintended consequences. State lawmakers also left a mess for local officials like Council member Kathy Stewart, whose Lake Highlands district has far more of these properties than any of her colleagues. She worries that a wave of foreclosures and defaults could destabilize one of the city’s densest geographies, where aging apartments may sink into disrepair and quality of life concerns begin to spread as they did following the 2008 recession.

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Historic downtown Houston building newly renamed in honor of Sylvester Turner

Harris County officials and family members of Sylvester Turner, the late former Houston mayor and congressman, gathered at a 20-story building in downtown Houston on a foggy Wednesday morning for a renaming ceremony. Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a fellow Democrat and political ally of Turner’s, opened the ceremony by discussing the building's history and how that history exemplifies the changes Houston has undergone over the last three-quarters of a century. Ellis said the structure at 1010 Lamar St. used to serve as the Sackowitz building — a high-end clothing store — in the 1950s. "This building has such a rich history — opened, as I mentioned, in 1950," Ellis said. "Early on, until the mid-’60s, African Americans and Hispanics could buy clothes from Sackowitz, but you couldn't come in and try them on. ... So I was thinking, shortly after Sylvester passed, what would be the appropriate honor? This building just made sense. It's important."

The building will now be known as the Harris County Sylvester Turner Administration Building and will soon be the new offices of the county attorney's office, auditor’s office and department of equity. Turner died March 5 at the age of 70. A native Houstonian, Turner was born in 1954 and grew up in Acres Homes, a predominantly Black suburb. His death came just a couple months into his term as the representative of Texas' 18th Congressional District, which has since remained vacant as a runoff election to determine his successor is scheduled for Jan. 31. He was the mayor of Houston from 2016 to 2024. Harris County Engineer Milton Rahman also spoke at Wednesday’s event and said the building will serve a fitting purpose in honor of Turner. "That tells you this represents the value[s] justice, equity and fairness," Rahman said. "Those are going to be the departments that Harris County holds very close to [its] chest — the values we carry. That's going to be this building." Ashley Turner-Captain, Turner's daughter, shared an anecdote from her father about how the skyscrapers of downtown Houston inspired him as a young man. "I get to tell my son the story of his pop-pop getting on that bus, coming into downtown from Acres Homes, dreaming and being inspired [by] these big buildings and now this building — one of the tall buildings — is dedicated [to] his pop-pop," Turner-Captain said. "I think that's just an amazing way to honor him."

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SEC steps in after California blocks Sable Offshore's pipeline permit

Just a day after a California board dealt Sable Offshore a serious blow when it blocked a permit for Sable’s pipeline, the federal government stepped in with a Hail Mary for the embattled Houston oil company. According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing made public Wednesday evening, Sable Offshore’s contested pipeline connecting its Santa Ynez Unit to an onshore facility in California has been reclassified as an interstate pipeline. The move seemingly revokes the state and Santa Barbara’s authority over the pipeline and permitting process and instead gives it to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, an arm of the Trump administration.

Sable previously asked the administration for its support in its fight with California regulators. Energy Sec. Chris Wright signaled support for the project in October, criticizing the state in a post on X for “blocking oil production off California’s coast.” But the administration has yet to publicly comment on the Wednesday move. The company spent the better part of a year working to fully restore operations off the coast of California at a cluster of offshore oil fields known as the Santa Ynez Unit. Its efforts have been gridlocked in state courts, culminating with the 3-1 vote Tuesday from the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors that rejected Sable’s permit. The cluster of oil fields in question was the site of a nearly 140,000-gallon oil spill in 2015 that killed marine wildlife and caused millions in damages to the local environment and fishing industry. State officials and environmentalists have said the company and the pipeline could cause massive environmental damage if allowed to come back online. Sable acquired the unit from Exxon Mobil last year and restarted oil production in May — almost a decade after the oil spill. It bought the assets knowing the network of pipelines that feeds the crude to California refineries had not been permitted to open.

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Robert Roberson ‘is still in peril,’ death row opponents say. But there is hope.

Last year, Robert Roberson came within hours of dying before a legislative subpoena forestalled his execution date. This year, he was a week away from execution when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay in October. Whether 2026 will arrive with better news is still very much up in the air. The same month that the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled, Roberson’s lawyer, Gretchen Sween, set the wheels in motion for a potential hearing to go over evidence she’d like to introduce should her client get a new trial. The Texas Attorney General’s office responded as well, arguing that Sween’s request for a status hearing was unnecessary and that its attorneys wouldn’t be available for much of December and January.

Roberson was convicted in the 2002 death of his toddler daughter, Nikki, with evidence that relied heavily on a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. For some time, his lawyers and the Innocence Project have argued that he deserves a new trial for a variety of reasons, with the biggest being that most experts now believe that shaken baby diagnoses are based on “junk science.” His attorneys argue that this is the case; Roberson’s conviction runs afoul of a 2013 Texas state law addressing convictions based on disputed or disproven science. In November, the New Jersey Supreme Court became the first state to prohibit prosecutors from introducing evidence suggesting a shaken baby diagnosis. Earlier this month, a large group of anti-death penalty advocates and faith leaders announced the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty. Roberson’s case was on their minds, with Innocence Project founder and attorney Barry Scheck commenting on the bipartisan effort to save Roberson, along with the attention of the faith community (including the detective who arrested Roberson, Brian Wharton, who is now a Methodist minister in Onalaska). ”It was quite moving and extraordinary to see these Republican legislators go to prison and pray with Robert,” Scheck said before acknowledging that “Robert is still in peril because he has become a political football in Texas.”

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Bexar County joins other municipalities to self-fund flood systems

While state dollars for flood safety still have yet to be dispersed, Bexar County is joining other Texas counties that experienced deadly flooding this summer in forging ahead with its own self-funded plans. The San Antonio River Authority is working on a regional network of sensors that it believes will bring Bexar County residents some of the most advanced flood detection technology in the country, eventually allowing them to automatically close vehicle crossings before cars can get into dangerous situations. Bexar County Commissioners budgeted $20 million for the so-called NextGen flood warning system in August, and approved the release of the first $2.4 million of that money Tuesday.

“We surveyed all of the roughly 200 gauges within Bexar County to make sure that elevations are accurate, and we’ll have that data final roughly by the end of December,” River Authority General Manager Derek Boese said Tuesday. “That information is really important, making sure the model is as accurate as possible.” The move comes as the state has set aside $50 million to help flood-prone counties fund flood warning systems in the wake of an unusually deadly summer for both San Antonio and the Hill Country. Bexar County was named one of the qualifying counties for such funding, but the money has been slow to come and is aimed primarily at flood sirens, which Boese said typically aren’t effective in urban centers. “We think that there are better solutions to warn people, which would be a combination of emergency alerts via text message, getting emergency managers out as early as possible so they can block roads, the gate systems, the warning lights, all of those things,” said Boese, who noted he’s still hopeful the state funds can be used to support their other initiatives.

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Lockheed Martin rolls out the red carpet for Finland’s first F-35 jet

Government officials and military leaders from all over the world gathered on Tuesday at a hangar inside the Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production facility in Fort Worth to roll out the first in a series of F-35A Lightning II jets for Finland’s military. In 2021, the Finnish government ordered 64 of the jets from Lockheed Martin in a nearly $10 billion deal. The order will be distributed over several years, with the first jets being delivered in 2026. Finnish pilots will be trained in Arkansas. An individual F-35A costs roughly $80 million to produce. In 2025, Lockheed Martin will deliver between 170 and 190 of them. The fifth generation fighter jet, sleek and enormously expensive, was a target of billionaire Elon Musk in 2024 when he advocated to cut the program’s federal spending as part of his role in the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency. The jet has been assembled in Fort Worth by Lockheed Martin since 2004.

Lockheed Martin has a $17.7 billion payroll in Texas, and the F-35 production facility in Fort Worth employs roughly 19,200 people, according to the company. The program has contributed $7 billion in local economic benefits, according to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, and supported over 30,000 jobs in the greater Fort Worth economy. “Today, we celebrate Finland’s first F-35, an aircraft that represents the cutting edge of technology, advanced mission capability and complete air dominance,” said Chauncey McIntosh, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager of the F-35 Lightning II program in remarks to the audience. “In an increasingly contested world, this aircraft strengthens national defense, deepens NATO integration and enhances allied readiness across all domains.” The F-35 program includes roughly 20 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, and the Netherlands. Finland fully joined NATO in 2023, motivated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after decades of political neutrality. This year, Russia has slowly expanded its military presence along Finland’s border.

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National Stories

House GOP passes narrow health care package, with key Obamacare subsidies set to expire

House Republicans on Wednesday approved a narrow package designed to lower health care costs for some Americans in the coming years – marking a win for leadership even as some of their own members complain it falls woefully short of tackling rising prices in 2026. Speaker Mike Johnson and his team were aggressive in pushing their health care plan to the floor this week, vowing it will be the first step of a major GOP agenda on lowering costs next year. They are specifically ignoring, however, the issue of the expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies that were passed during the pandemic to help people afford premium costs. Those tax credits will expire at the end of the month, spiking premiums for tens of millions of Americans next year.

The House GOP package, instead, would allow small businesses — as well as self-employed people — to band together across industries to buy coverage through association health plans in an effort to lower premiums. It would also, once again, provide federal funding for the cost-sharing subsidies that lower-income Obamacare enrollees receive to reduce their deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for care. House Republicans would also require pharmacy benefit managers, which act as middlemen between drugmakers and insurers or employers, to provide employers with data on the price of drugs, the rebates they receive from manufacturers and other operations. The House voted 216-211 to send the measure to the Senate, which is not expected to vote on it before lawmakers leave town for the holiday recess. The last-minute health care push from GOP leaders comes at a fraught moment for the party: President Donald Trump is striving to show he is making progress to lower costs for everyday Americans. But his own members are attacking Johnson and other GOP leaders for ignoring the looming Obamacare subsidies cliff, which would raise costs for tens of millions of Americans starting in January.

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Trump administration prepares sweeping crackdown on leftist networks

The Trump administration is embarking on an expansive effort to root out what it sees as rampant left-wing domestic terrorism, raising concerns among some security experts and lawmakers that broad categories of Americans’ political speech could come under surveillance. Thursday marks a first deadline, set earlier this month in a memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi, for all federal law-enforcement agencies to “coordinate delivery” of their intelligence files on “Antifa” and “Antifa-related” activities to the FBI. Bondi has tasked the agency with using those files to draw up lists of Americans and foreigners to investigate as part of a campaign directed by President Donald Trump against what his administration views as a growing threat of political violence by the American left. “Left-wing organizations have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, and more,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “The Trump Administration will get to the bottom of this vast network inciting violence in American communities.”

Critics warn that the plan signals an impending crackdown on political dissent under the banner of counterterrorism — one that could land large numbers of liberal activists on government watch lists and chill Americans’ First Amendment right to protest the administration’s policies. Bondi’s Dec. 4 memorandum, which was first reported by journalist Ken Klippenstein and later confirmed by the Justice Department to The Washington Post, listed “anti-Americanism,” “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Christianity,” “opposition to law and immigration enforcement,” “radical gender ideology,” and “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality” as some of the political agendas espoused by the individuals who might merit investigation. The memo says the government will pursue people “with a willingness to use violence against law-abiding citizenry to serve those beliefs,” making no mention of violent extremism animated by right-wing or other viewpoints. Citing the phrase “Hey Fascist! Catch!” inscribed on a bullet casing of Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, Bondi wrote: “Violence against what extremists claim to be fascism is the clarion call of recent domestic terrorism.” On Monday, the lead federal prosecutor in Los Angeles credited the administration’s new focus on left-wing crime for the arrest and charging of four alleged members of the leftist Turtle Island Liberation Front, who prosecutors say were plotting to bomb multiple L.A. locations on New Year’s Eve.

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How a top-tier surrogacy agency became an FBI target

The FBI is investigating a prominent surrogacy agency that shuttered abruptly earlier this month, leaving desperate parents-to-be out of tens of thousands of dollars and surrogates missing payments as their pregnancies progressed. The agency’s owner, Megan Hall-Greenberg, 49, effectively disappeared — she deleted her social media accounts, and clients and employees say she hasn’t replied to their messages since Dec. 3. Last week, FBI agents descended on Hall-Greenberg’s home and the Camas, Washington, headquarters of Surro Connections, which was founded in 2010 and billed itself as a top-tier surrogacy agency with clients around the world. A neighbor said he saw FBI agents escort someone from the home into a car but wasn’t sure of the person’s identity. Agents have also interviewed Surro Connections’ former employees, who abruptly lost access to their company email and records systems a day before it shut down.

One of them, Sarah Shaffer, was the agency’s marketing manager and lead surrogate coordinator. She estimates that some 150 families may have had money in the company’s in-house escrow system, totaling between $2 million and $5 million. “Some intended parents had just funded a night before this happened,” Shaffer said, adding: “A lot of them have taken out savings to be able to afford this journey.” In interviews, three intended parents and six current and former surrogates — two of whom are pregnant — described a sense of total shock after Surro Connections unexpectedly collapsed. Mariana Klaveno, 46, had transferred more than $66,000 to the agency’s in-house escrow for an embryo transfer, which was planned for next month. But then, her surrogate (also known as a gestational carrier) told her that something was wrong. “‘Other surrogates aren’t getting paid. Everyone’s freaking out. Everyone says to get a lawyer,’” Klaveno recalled her saying. “And then come to find out that no one can get a hold of Megan … and none of the intended parents can access the supposed escrow account that we were assured was safe.”

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Measles outbreaks won't end in 2025 as cases mount in Utah, Arizona and South Carolina

As measles continues to spread in the United States, it’s likely that the outbreaks that broke records in 2025 will continue into the new year. In South Carolina, 168 people, mostly schoolchildren, are in quarantine. Most of the state's 138 cases confirmed since September, nearly all in unvaccinated people, have been centered in Spartanburg County in the northwestern part of the state. “As we identify new cases, and if those cases have susceptible contacts, that’s a new 21-day quarantine period,” Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist for the state Department of Public Health, said Wednesday at what has become a weekly news briefing.

That is, anyone who is unvaccinated and therefore vulnerable to measles exposures occurring now will be in quarantine through the holidays. According to NBC News data, the K-12 vaccination rate for measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) in Spartanburg County was 90% for the 2024-25 school year, below the 95% level doctors say is needed to protect against an outbreak. Bell said the vaccination rate has been falling for several years, similar to other areas in the United States. Based on NBC News' investigation, The Vaccine Divide, in the states collecting data for the MMR vaccine, 67% of counties and jurisdictions have immunization rates below 95%. Bell said at the briefing that there was no indication the South Carolina outbreak was spreading yet to nearby states, such as North Carolina. Since the latest surge in cases, which began in late summer in the bordering areas of southwestern Utah and Arizona and, more recently, in South Carolina, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken a low profile, with nearly all public outreach about the nationwide outbreaks coming from local and state health departments.

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Hegseth overhauling chaplain corps, targeting ‘new age’ concepts

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday he is overhauling the military’s chaplain corps, which provide religious and spiritual support to members of the armed forces and their families, saying he intended to target “new age” concepts. “In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism, chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers. Faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care,” Hegseth said in a post on the social platform X. “If you need proof, just look at the current Army Spiritual Fitness Guide. In well over 100 pages, it mentions God one time. That’s it. It mentions ‘feelings’ 11 times. It even mentions ‘playfulness,’ whatever that is, nine times. There’s zero mention of virtue. The guide relies on new age notions,” he added.

Hegseth later added that he had “a directive right here that I will sign today to eliminate the use of the Army Spiritual Fitness Guide, effective immediately.” “These types of training materials have no place in the War Department. Our chaplains are chaplains, not emotional support officers, and we’re going to treat them as such,” he added, using the Trump Administration’s preferred name for the Department of Defense. Hegseth, no stranger to pushing for change at the Pentagon, told the military’s top officers earlier this year that he did not want to see “fat generals and admirals” or overweight troops anymore. “Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” Hegseth said. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands around the country and the world.” “It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are,” he continued.

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16 states sue Trump administration again over billions in withheld electric vehicle charging funds

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration for what they say is the unlawful withholding of over $2 billion in funding for two electric vehicle charging programs. A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Seattle is the latest legal battle that Democratic-led states are pursuing over funding for EV charging infrastructure that they say was obligated to them by Congress under former President Joe Biden, but that the Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration are “impounding.” “The Trump administration’s illegal attempt to stop funding for electric vehicle infrastructure must come to an end,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a release. “This is just another reckless attempt that will stall the fight against air pollution and climate change, slow innovation, thwart green job creation, and leave communities without access to clean, affordable transportation.”

President Donald Trump’s administration has been hostile to EVs and has dismantled several Biden-era policies friendly to cleaner cars and trucks in favor of policies that align with Trump’s oil and gas industry agenda. Transportation Department officials did not immediately respond to request for comment. The Trump administration in February ordered states to halt spending money for EV charging that was allocated in the bipartisan infrastructure law passed under the previous administration. Several states filed a lawsuit in May against the administration for withholding the funding from the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program for a nationwide charging buildout. A federal judge later ordered the administration to release much of the funding for chargers in more than a dozen states. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later issued revised guidance intended to streamline funding applications for states and make charger deployment more efficient. At least four states — Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, and Wisconsin — have announced awards under the vehicle infrastructure program, according to Loren McDonald, chief analyst at EV data firm Chargeonomics, who tracks the state awards.

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Dan Bongino confirms he’s quitting as FBI Deputy Director

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is leaving the bureau and appears to be headed back to his old right-wing podcast. On Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump confirmed rumors that Bongino was clearing out his desk at FBI headquarters in Washington. Asked by a journalist why Bongino is leaving the bureau, the president responded, “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.” Bongino confirmed the news shortly after in a post on X, writing: “I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January. I want to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose.” Earlier in the day, a person close to Bongino told NOTUS that the law enforcement official had always intended to leave after a year on the job — particularly after addressing some personal fixations.

For example, Bongino had long used his popular conservative political show to question mainstream media narratives and complain about the lack of government transparency over the jail cell death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the unsolved case of the D.C. pipe bomber. The Department of Justice is now days away from releasing the Epstein files. And the FBI recently arrested a man it accused of planting those bombs that didn’t go off — thanks, in part, to a team effort led by Bongino. Another source familiar with Bongino told NOTUSthis week that his media company, Silverloch Studios, has told at least one person that the current FBI employee would be returning to the company in the new year. Though he saw personal accomplishments, Bongino’s exit comes after a tumultuous time at the agency. It was initially rocked during the height of the Epstein files saga and at times pitted against the DOJ as Americans, including Trump’s own base (and some of Bongino’s old audience) searched for whom to blame over the lack of perceived transparency. Over the summer, there were questions about whether he — clearly frustrated — would stay in his role.

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Lead Stories

Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles unloads of Trump, Vance, Bondi and others in explosive interview

Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple had Washington abuzz, following the release of a two-part, 11-interview story with several administration officials — most notably, White House chief of staff and longtime Trump adviser Susie Wiles. In strikingly candid interviews, the famously careful Wiles laid into several current and former Trump officials, revealed parts of the inner workings of the administration’s brain trust and discussed her unvarnished thoughts about everything from DOGE to deportations: President Donald Trump has an "alcoholic's personality." Vice President J.D. Vance has been "a conspiracy theorist for a decade." Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought is "a right-wing absolute zealot." Former senior adviser to the president Elon Musk is an "odd duck." And she tossed the blame of the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein files at Attorney General Pam Bondi's feet. Bondi “completely whiffed” on the files’ release. “First, she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk,” Wiles said. And here's what stands out: “I hear stories from my predecessors about these seminal moments where you have to go in and tell the president what he wants to do is unconstitutional or will cost lives. I don’t have that,” Wiles said.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in the world right now that could do the job that she’s doing,” Rubio told me. He called her bond with Trump “an earned trust.” Vance described Wiles’s approach to the chief’s job. “There is this idea that people have that I think was very common in the first administration,” he told me, “that their objective was to control the president or influence the president, or even manipulate the president because they had to in order to serve the national interest. Susie just takes the diametrically opposite viewpoint, which is that she’s a facilitator, that the American people have elected Donald Trump. And her job is to actually facilitate his vision and to make his vision come to life.” It’s been a busy year. Trump and his team have expanded the limits of presidential power, unilaterally declared war on drug cartels, imposed tariffs according to whim, sealed the southern border, achieved a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, and pressured NATO allies into increasing their defense spending.

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Texas’ energy market redesign could leave battery developers in limbo

Texas has witnessed the country’s most dynamic grid battery expansion in recent years, thanks in large part to its famously competitive energy markets. Now, a wonky rule change could undermine batteries’ role in the grid. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas instituted new rules on Dec. 5 called ?“real-time co-optimization plus batteries,” or RTC+B. The idea is to allow ERCOT to reassign power plants between two major categories of grid activities: ancillary services, the rapid-response actions designed to keep the system stable and outage-free; and energy, the bulk delivery of megawatt-hours for consumption. On paper, RTC+B sounds agreeable, and other grid operators in the country have been co-optimizing markets for years. ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said the update would bring greater efficiency and reliability to the system. He even called it ?“the most substantial enhancement to the Real-Time Nodal market design since its inception in 2010.” ERCOT leadership has promised more than $1 billion of wholesale market savings each year from the update.

But a major storage developer active in ERCOT is sounding the alarm about the risks these new rules create for storage operators — and initial metrics from Day 1 of RTC+B are consistent with what you’d expect if a bunch of battery owners pulled out of the ancillary service market because of uncertainty. The problem, according to Aaron Zubaty, the concerned storage developer, is that power plants can now be reassigned unpredictably between ancillary services and energy. That uncertainty, plus additional stipulations around minimum state-of-charge levels for batteries to be chosen for ancillary services, could limit batteries’ ability to compete in those markets, where they had become a dominant force. Zubaty runs Eolian, which built one of the first 100-megawatt energy storage plants in ERCOT in 2021 and is now building what would be Texas’ biggest battery. He stopped bidding his merchant battery fleet into the day-ahead ancillary services markets when RTC+B took effect. “Storage is definitely in a different risk world than it was before RTC+B, because of added duration requirements that changed previously negotiated rules, which may not have been widely understood,” Zubaty said. RTC+B enforces new requirements for the level of charge that batteries need in order to be dispatched for each ancillary service, which now happens every five minutes (these services used to be procured by the hour).

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'Kim Ogg 2.0': Hidalgo denounces Parker's bid for county judge

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called on Democratic voters to reject former Mayor Annise Parker in a post made on Facebook Tuesday. Hidalgo labeled Parker, who announced in June her intent to run for Harris County judge, “Kim Ogg 2.0” in a subsequent post made on X. She said Parker, who was the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, would “follow John Whitmire’s playbook” in capitulating to President Donald Trump. “Harris County simply can’t afford another power player who treats the role like a political chessboard. Another individual who runs on the Democratic ticket and governs as a Republican,” Hidalgo wrote. “Today, I want to send a clear message to Democratic primary voters in Harris County: Annise Parker doesn’t represent our values.”

Hidalgo did not explicitly endorse another candidate, but went on to list a number of alleged grievances she believed Democratic voters were not aware of. She accused Parker of inviting the state takeover of HISD, and failing the party by endorsing former District Attorney Kim Ogg and refusing to support her 2022 campaign for reelection. Parker said in a statement that her focus was on fighting attacks from the Trump administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — not partisan squabbling. "My record of public service — stable, responsible, drama-free leadership — speaks for itself. These questions have all been asked and answered," Parker said. "I’m running to fight Donald Trump and Greg Abbott, not to engage in Democratic infighting." Parker previously told the Houston Chronicle in a live interview that her 2022 endorsement of Ogg was part of her mandate as CEO and president of the Victory Fund, a political action committee that funds LGBTQ+ candidates. She added that, since losing the 2024 Democratic primary to District Attorney Sean Teare, she thought Ogg had "lost her mind a little bit and gone hard right."

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Trump targets defense giants' shareholder payouts as cost overruns mount, sources say

The Trump administration is planning an executive order that would limit dividends, buybacks and executive pay for defense contractors whose projects are over-budget and delayed, according to three sources briefed on the order. President Donald Trump and the Pentagon have been complaining about the expensive, slow-moving and entrenched nature of the defense industry, promising dramatic changes that would make the production of war equipment more nimble. Industry groups have been on high alert about the closely-held proposal, which is tied to a Treasury Department initiative, two of the sources said. Reuters could not determine exactly how the order would compel defense firms to enact any restrictions. The sources, who declined to be named because the information is confidential, said the language of the order could still change. A White House official said: "Until officially announced by the White House, discussion about potential executive orders is purely speculation."

Share buybacks are common among defense firms, and several pay a dividend. Lockheed in October, for example, raised its dividend for the 23rd year in a row, to $3.45 per share. At the same time, it authorized the purchase of up to $2 billion of its shares, raising the total amount promised for repurchases to $9.1 billion. Lockheed's F-35 fighter jet, one of the most expensive U.S. defense programs, has been plagued by rising costs and delays. Many big defense programs take much longer to deliver a product than initially promised and at a far higher price. The $140 billion Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program that will replace aging Minuteman III missiles, designed and managed by Northrop Grumman, will be years behind schedule and 81% over budget, the U.S. military said last year. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth unveiled sweeping changes in November to how the Pentagon purchases weapons, allowing the military to more rapidly acquire technology amid growing global threats, in accordance with an executive order signed by Trump in April. That restructuring will have direct authority over major weapons programs to eliminate bureaucracy.

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State Stories

Former candidate Jolanda Jones endorses Amanda Edwards in 18th Congressional District runoff

Ahead of the runoff election for the vacant seat in Texas’ 18 Congressional District, former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards garnered a key endorsement from the third-place candidate in November’s special election. State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, endorsed Edwards, as opposed to acting Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, who received the most votes Nov. 4. Edwards and Menefee will go to a runoff on Jan. 31. "This race is too important to sit on the sidelines, and this moment demands leadership that understands our district, respects voters, and is ready to serve immediately," Jones said in a Tuesday news release from Edwards’ campaign.

"After campaigning across Texas' 18th District and listening to our communities, it's clear who is prepared for this moment. That's why I'm proud to endorse Amanda Edwards for Congress. Our district deserves representation, and our democracy requires participation. I encourage those who supported me — and everyone who cares about the future of Texas 18 — to show up and vote." Jones, before becoming a state representative, served on the Houston ISD board of trustees as well as the Houston City Council. "Jolanda Jones has never backed away from a fight for our community, and I'm deeply honored to have her support," Edwards said in a news release. "Together, we're building a people-powered movement to lower costs, protect our freedoms, and deliver real results for the families of TX-18. Women across this district are stepping up, organizing, and leading at this moment, and this endorsement reflects the growing unity behind our campaign. I'm ready to keep building on this momentum and fighting for a future where every Houston family can thrive."

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Ted Cruz says Trump can 'speak for himself' on contentious Rob Reiner post

U.S. Sen Ted Cruz distanced himself from President Donald Trump's unfounded comments that the death of film director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, were the result of their past criticism of him. The Texas Republican told a reporter on Monday that "mental health is an issue that doesn't know partisan lines" — a reference to Reiner's son Nick, who has been charged with murdering Rob and his wife, Michelle. The family had previously talked openly about Nick's struggles with addiction. "I think every family in America has dealt with mental health and dealt with addiction, and I grieve that in this instance, it appears to have cost Rob Reiner and his wife their life," Cruz said, according to the Huffington Post.

Earlier on Monday Trump, who Rob Reiner had previously called "mentally unfit" to be president, posted on Truth Social that Reiner's death was the result of his disdain for Trump. "A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS," he wrote. "A man and his wife were murdered last night. This is NOT the appropriate response," Jenna Ellis, a former Trump lawyer who is now a conservative radio host, wrote on X. "The Right uniformly condemned political and celebratory responses to Charlie Kirk’s death. This is a horrible example from Trump (and surprising considering the two attempts on his own life) and should be condemned by everyone with any decency." Cruz, a known movie buff, has called Reiner's 1987 comedy The Princess Bride his favorite film. During an interview on the television show Extra in 2015 — ahead of his presidential campaign — Cruz acted out a scene from the movie, prompting applause from host Mario Lopez. "That was a one man show," Lopez said.

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Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson: Republican Mayors Association to play role in 2026 elections

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the Republican Mayors Association, a group he launched after he switched from being a Democrat, could help the GOP make gains in the 2026 midterms by attracting urban voters. “For a long time, the Republican Party has basically conceded that Democrats are going to be dominant in our major cities and use them more as foils to talk about,” Johnson said in a CNBC interview that aired Monday. “But what we’re realizing now is that there are a lot of votes in these cities, and they actually impact the statewide races, and particularly swing states. It becomes very important in presidential years.” This comes nearly a week after the city of Miami elected Eileen Higgins, a Democrat, instead of a candidate backed by President Donald Trump in Florida, a red state.

Johnson said he wanted his association and the Republican National Committee to get involved early in scores of mayoral races in the top 300 cities where there may be an overlap in a key congressional race. “In Miami, the Democrats were really early involved in that race, and it paid off for them, and they outspent us 19 to one in that race,” he said. “We can’t let that happen,” he continued. The midterms next year have the potential to shift the levers of power, and Johnson, who has typically cast himself as opposed to policies that call for more government regulation, said affordability would remain relevant to the GOP. “To a certain degree, people are forgetting that we do live in a free market economy, at least ostensibly, and prices of things are determined by the market,” he said, adding that supply and demand determine prices, and there was a growing feeling that the government can play a greater role in setting prices. “That, to me, is a little bit concerning,” he said. Republicans, he said, will have to be careful about how they respond to it. “If we go down that road, I think that we’re sort of playing to the socialist game here, and if we don’t, we appear not to be sensitive to the issue,” he said.

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Bobby Pulido responds to GOP’s claims he urinated on Trump’s Hollywood star

Supporters of President Donald Trump are pissed. Grammy-winning Tejano artist and congressional candidate Bobby Pulido has drawn the ire of opponents after claims that he urinated on Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame recently circulated online. On Dec. 1, U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, shared a story from Fox News on her Facebook page that accused Pulido of defacing Trump’s star. “Bobby Pulido exposed his genitals to urinate on a tribute to President Trump in one of the most crowded public spaces in America, where thousands of women and children pass by at all hours — then tried to hide it,” De La Cruz’s post read. “As a mother, I find this DISGUSTING. If he’s unfit to perform at a quinceañera, he has no business in Congress. SHARE THIS RIGHT NOW!”

The story, which was published on Nov. 26, references a video that Pulido had posted on his Instagram account nearly 10 years ago. The video has since been deleted, but the story included a screengrab showing Pulido standing over Trump’s star and allegedly urinating. The video was originally shared on May 28, 2016 with a caption that read, “when you gotta go, you gotta go.” When reached for comment, Pulido appeared to not be desvelado about the accusations. “You can’t deface anything with water. It was a joke,” Pulido told MyRGV.com. “It was a water bottle. It was water. I would never expose my genitals anywhere public. I’ve had 30 years of my career, never having a scandal, never having been arrested. Actually, there was a police officer that was there, and I told them, ‘Hey, we’re just taking a picture, doing a joke.’” Pulido, who launched his campaign for Texas’ 15th Congressional District in September, has denied that he actually urinated on the president’s star. He is seeking the Democratic candidacy in order to challenge De La Cruz for the seat she has held since 2022. De La Cruz officially filed for reelection on Monday, Dec. 8. “Fox News is already trying to hit me,” Pulido said. “(De La Cruz) embellished this thing saying that I exposed my genitals, which is slanderous, because I wouldn’t do that. They’re trying to do this instead of focusing on what they’re going to do for the people that she represents. They’re going back to a 9-year-old joke that I made.” He said that he recently removed the video because he “knew they were gonna twist it around.”

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Texas is suing all of the big TV makers for spying on what you watch

Texas is suing five of the biggest TV makers, accusing them of “secretly recording what consumers watch in their own homes.” In separate lawsuits filed on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims the TVs made by Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL are part of a “mass surveillance system” that uses Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to collect personal data used for targeted advertising. ACR uses visual and audio data to identify what you’re watching on TV, including shows and movies on streaming services and cable TV, YouTube videos, Blu-ray discs, and more. Attorney General Paxton alleges that ACR also captures security and doorbell camera streams, media sent using Apple AirPlay or Google Cast, as well as the displays of other devices connected to the TV’s HDMI port, such as laptops and game consoles.

The lawsuit accuses Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL of “deceptively” prompting users to activate ACR, while “disclosures are hidden, vague, and misleading.” Samsung and Hisense, for example, capture screenshots of a TV’s display “every 500 milliseconds,” Paxton claims. The lawsuit alleges that TV manufacturers siphon viewing data back to each company “without the user’s knowledge or consent,” which they can then sell for targeted advertising. Along with these allegations, Attorney General Paxton also raises concerns about TCL and Hisense’s ties to China, as they’re both based in the country. The lawsuit claims the TVs made by both companies are “Chinese-sponsored surveillance devices, recording the viewing habits of Texans at every turn.” Attorney General Paxton accuses the five TV makers of violating the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which is meant to protect consumers from false, deceptive, or misleading practices. Paxton asks the court to impose a civil penalty and to block each company from collecting, sharing, or selling the ACR data they collect about Texas-based consumers. Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Vizio, which is now owned by Walmart, paid $2.2 million to the Federal Trade Commission and New Jersey in 2017 over similar allegations related to ACR. “This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful,” Paxton says in a statement. “The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.”

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TSTC Waco's star is on the rise with new funds, facilities

This has been a banner year for the Waco-based Texas State Technical College system. In February, TSTC opened its $17 million WorkSITE job training center in Waco’s main industrial park, with funding assistance from McLennan County and the city of Waco. In November, Texans approved a constitutional amendment creating an $850 million endowment for capital needs in the 11-campus system. Now construction is wrapping up on a $72 million Construction Trades Center on the Waco campus, a gleaming contrast to some of the surrounding 1950s buildings that date back to the site’s previous life as James Connally Air Force Base. As the provost of Waco’s TSTC campus, Beth Wooten is in the thick of that growth. She has been a TSTC administrator for 14 years and now is in charge of the academic program at the flagship campus.

"I’ve told folks recently that I believe the trades are now. It is our time, and so it’s a really, really exciting time for TSTC, not just in Waco, but at all of our campuses across the state," she said. "We’ve never had this opportunity in our 60 years to be able to plan with confidence for capital expansion and deferred maintenance projects. SWe will not receive our first distribution until spring of 2027, so we are currently in the planning phases. We have 11 campuses across the state and that endowment will go to support all 11 campuses. … The endowment portion along with our traditional (state) funds that we will also receive will be $45 (million) to $50 million, is what we’re thinking on an annual basis."

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Brian Gaar: A moment With Rob Reiner that meant everything

The year was 2015. I was not in a good place. I had quit my lucrative (ha) job in newspaper journalism to enter the equally lucrative world of local television, hosting a late-night comedy show on The CW in Austin. It was exhilarating, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was the host and one of three writers, working long hours as we cobbled together a daily program. After hours, I sold ads for the show too. We were all burned out, or at least I was. Living your dream is hard. One night, I was asked to host a comedy show at Cap City Comedy Club in Austin. It was a showcase of TV journalists who were attempting standup for the first time, appropriately called “The Funniest Reporter in Texas.” Good luck, I thought. Doing standup is one of the hardest things in the world, because it’s so obvious when you fail. When you succeed, you can’t imagine doing anything else. When you bomb, it’s unbearable.

At the time, I was about eight years into comedy. I happily accepted the job because I needed the ego boost (and the $50). It turned out to be one of those nights that I’d never forget, as trite as that sounds. While my life had been hectic and hard, the show was magic. All of the reporters had great sets, and I was on my game. (“Don’t date your cameramen, ladies!” I warned the participants. The room exploded in laughter.) I got off stage, exhausted but happy. Then I saw Rob Reiner. He was approaching me with a big smile. “Great job!” he said, extending a hand. I couldn’t believe it. The director of “This is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally,” and “The Princess Bride” liked me. I was floating. Was this what heaven felt like? “Hey thanks!” I replied, mentally noting every detail so I could remember this moment forever. Of course, he wasn’t talking to me. You know that old trope of thinking someone’s talking to you, but they’re really addressing the person behind you? That’s what happened. Reiner’s grandson had been one of the participants, and he was congratulating him. Reiner looked at me, slightly annoyed. “Not YOU, you’re a pro,” he snapped. Somehow, life had gotten even better. No, he wasn’t talking to me, but Rob Reiner thought I was a pro. At comedy. I asked him later if we could get a photo, and he graciously accepted. It’s one of my favorite memories, ever.

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Replace Lake Worth ISD trustees but keep superintendent, board president urges state

Lake Worth ISD board President Tammy Thomas wants to ask the state for a trade: Remove the school board but keep Superintendent Mark Ramirez. “This school board will gladly walk away,” Thomas told the Fort Worth Report after the board’s Dec. 15 meeting. “This school board will gladly let a board of managers and a conservator come in if they will trade us and let us keep Dr. Ramirez.” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced a state takeover of the district Dec. 11, ordering the appointment of a state board of managers and a conservator and directing TEA officials, including himself, to select a new superintendent. The action followed years of low academic performance in the 3,200-student district, including five consecutive failing state academic accountability ratings at Marilyn Miller Language Academy, which triggered the intervention.

Monday’s meeting was the first since the state’s decision. It came amid uncertainty over how quickly control will be stripped from locally elected trustees and how long Ramirez, who has led the district since May, will remain in his role during the transition. Ramirez confirmed after the meeting that he will not be a candidate to remain superintendent once the state appoints new leadership, a decision he said came from TEA. “I’m disappointed because of the work we’ve started here,” Ramirez said. In a call with reporters last week, Morath did not explain why Ramirez would not be considered to remain as superintendent once the state installs new leadership. Instead, the commissioner praised Ramirez’s short tenure in Lake Worth, calling him “a very skilled leader” who has made “many, many changes” since arriving in May. The district’s elected trustees waited too long to make a leadership change, he said. “If they had taken steps to bring Dr. Ramirez in five years ago, I highly doubt we’d be having this conversation,” Morath said.

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Research shows Texans want to feel heard, participate more amid rapid business growth

Texas has grown rapidly in recent years, and data indicates that development is not slowing down. The Lone Star State gained about 168,000 jobs from September 2024 to September 2025, leading the nation in job growth, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Texas is attractive to businesses looking to relocate or expand their operations due to its tax incentives and grants, lack of a personal income tax and roughly 200 higher education institutions, business leaders said during a Dec. 10 summit held in College Station by industry network YTexas. Amid “global volatility” due to inflation and tariffs, “Texas could, in many ways, be a safe haven for those not necessarily looking to escape the global volatility, but rather be on firmer ground... [with] the ability to land and expand and have this runway of opportunity to move in and continue to grow,” said Dean Browell, the chief behavioral officer for Feedback, a digital ethnographic research firm.

Feedback studies what people are saying online “unprompted” by analyzing comments and discussions on social media sites and forums. The firm conducted a study looking at the attitudes of business leaders, entrepreneurs and residents surrounding Texas’ economic growth, which Browell presented at the Dec. 10 summit. As businesses of all sizes continue to move to Texas, local governments and associations also need to “support the ones that are already here,” Browell said. Feedback’s October study found that long-term Texas residents want to live in growing communities with strong education systems and plentiful job opportunities. That growth, however, can lead to rising property taxes and living expenses before residents begin feeling the benefits, Browell told Community Impact in a Dec. 11 interview. He said some Texas residents, including those in fast-growth areas such as the Greater Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas, are “paying for that growth on the front end, while at the same time enduring infrastructural woes because much of the promised infrastructure to support that growth hasn't necessarily come to fruition as fast.” To thrive in Texas, businesses need access to a skilled workforce, reliable infrastructure, affordable real estate and accessible health care, Browell told summit attendees Dec. 10. Businesses also look for state and local support such as tax incentives, federal opportunity zones and the chance to collaborate with others through business associations or local initiatives.

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Chuck Neinas, a key architect and adviser over decades of college sports, dies at 93

Chuck Neinas, the onetime Big Eight commissioner whose media savvy and dealmaking helped turn college football into the multibillion-dollar business it is today, died Tuesday. He was 93. The National Football Foundation announced Neinas' death, with its president and CEO Steve Hatchell calling him “a visionary in every sense of the word.” A cause of death was not disclosed. From 1980-97, Neinas was executive director of the College Football Association, an agency created by several big conferences that sought to wrest control of their TV rights from the NCAA. Two key members, Georgia and Oklahoma, sued the NCAA over TV, and a 1984 Supreme Court ruling in their favor effectively made the CFA a separate business from the rest of college sports. It gave Neinas a key seat at the negotiating table.

He brought home deals worth billions in the 1980s and ’90s, and those huge contracts set the stage for today’s industry, currently highlighted by a TV deal worth $7.8 billion for the College Football Playoff. After the CFA disbanded in 1997 — with conferences taking their TV rights into their own hands and the Bowl Championship Series, the precursor to today’s playoff, about to start — Neinas founded a consulting firm that helped schools create policies and hire athletic directors and coaches. He was CEO of Ascent Entertainment Group, which owned the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and their arena when they sold to Liberty Media Group in 2000. But his passion was college sports. He served as interim commissioner of the Big 12 from 2011-12, solidifying that conference during one of many surges of realignment by adding TCU and West Virginia. In a 2014 interview with The Associated Press, Neinas envisioned a future that looks much like today as he pondered lawsuits against the NCAA that would eventually lead to players being paid. “There is a need for some changes,” Neinas said. “The auto industry is always trying to improve their model. College athletics should do the same. But the basics are still sound.” Born in Wisconsin, Neinas was a longtime Colorado resident and was living in Boulder at the time of his death. After working as a play-by-play man for Wisconsin football and basketball, Neinas got a job with the NCAA, where he served as an assistant executive director from 1961-71. He became commissioner of the Big Eight Conference in 1971 until moving to the CFA. During his Big Eight tenure, Neinas chaired the committee that recommended the NCAA withdraw from the U.S. Olympic Committee. That led to a major reorganization and the passing of the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act that governs the Olympics in the U.S. today.

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Connally ISD expresses frustration over state takeover

Connally Independent School District, just north of Waco, is one of the three additional school districts the state will now manage. The district’s director of communications, Michael Donaldson, says they knew the takeover was coming, with two of its schools having earned five consecutive failing ratings, which is the trigger for the state takeover. He is still upset because he says the state recognized the improved educational outcomes the district had made since hiring a new superintendent in 2023. “We simultaneously are being told that we’re making the correct decisions that are going to produce results, but because of the letter of the law we are losing the authority to be able to make those decisions still because we simply ran out of time,” said Donaldson.

Under state law, Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath can close a campus or appoint new leadership if a district is deemed failing. Miguel Solis, president at Commit Partnership, an education think tank, says the threat of a takeover holds districts accountable to their students. “Oftentimes the things that are holding kids back from getting that result that they, that they aspire to are the systems and structures of the school district,” said Solis. District takeovers have increased since the inception of a 2015 law that gives the TEA the authority to do so. The takeovers happening around the state are majorly affecting districts with students from a lower socioeconomic status. The Texas State Teachers Association blames state leadership for putting districts in situations to fail. “The three districts that were taken over last week, all three of them had 80% or more of their student enrollment were low-income kids. Kids who were sometimes too hungry or too sick to go to school or to listen in class, and yet the state of Texas expects them to pass a high stress standardized test,” said Clay Robison, a spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association.

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Austin faces accelerated funding, design deadline for I-35 cap and stitch project

City of Austin officials now face a 2025 deadline to define the scope of several cap and stitch projects that could reshape traffic and neighborhoods across the city. In an update delivered to the Austin Mobility Committee Dec. 4, city officials were confronted with a revised timeline from the Texas Department of Transportation for its I-35 Capital Express Central project. This new schedule introduces a complex set of financial pressures and risks for the city's cap and stitch initiative, a plan to construct land bridges over the expanded I-35, which is intended to heal the decades-old divide created by the interstate, according to city officials. The update presents a bit of a paradox: while the construction of key city-funded elements has been delayed by three years, the deadline for committing the remaining millions of dollars to the project has been unexpectedly moved forward, forcing difficult decisions on an accelerated timeline.

In May, Austin City Council approved an advance funding agreement with TxDOT for up to $104 million to fund the roadway support elements for three downtown caps and two northern stitches, using $41 million from a state infrastructure bank loan and $63 million from certificates of obligation. However, TxDOT would be requesting the first substantial payment for the decks themselves in May 2026, under a schedule meant to spread costs over several years, with much larger “balloon payments” due in the final years of construction, when the actual bridge decks are built, city staff said. TxDOT has made the decision to split the massive I-35 overhaul into two primary phases. The first, an "advanced construction package," is scheduled to go to bid in 2027 and will include work on overpasses like the MLK Jr. Boulevard bridge and utility relocations. The second, the "ultimate construction package," which contains the city's cap and stitch elements, will not go to bid until 2029. This means the construction of the city-funded foundational roadway elements and the cap decks themselves has been pushed out three years, from an anticipated 2026 start to 2029.

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Beaumont ISD to appeal TEA takeover decision, officials say

Beaumont Independent School District officials announced Tuesday they will appeal the Texas Education Agency’s decision to take over the district. A BISD spokesperson said the district plans to appeal the takeover after the TEA confirmed it will assume control of Beaumont ISD due to failing academic ratings at two campuses—ML King Middle School and Fehl-Price Elementary—for five consecutive years, meeting the legal threshold for state intervention. Beaumont ISD will become one of eight school districts currently under state control. Previously speaking alongside members of the board of trustees, Allen said she strongly disagreed with the decision and believed the district’s recent academic efforts were not fully considered by the agency.

“I disagree with this decision. I was very disappointed and frustrated with the decision based on the most recent visit we had, based on the work that we've done. The innovations, the effort, the energy, the intensity of Beaumont ISD implementing so many initiatives,” Allen previously said at a press conference on Dec. 11. State law allows the TEA to intervene when at least one campus receives failing ratings for five straight years. In Beaumont ISD, that threshold was reached at two campuses. Allen previously told 12News in September that academic improvement was underway, noting fewer schools were receiving failing grades. District leaders said they believed TEA Commissioner Mike Morath’s September visit suggested a more limited action, possibly the closure of Fehl-Price Elementary. Morath said a single-campus closure would not resolve broader academic challenges within the district. “In Beaumont ISD, you have two different campuses that reached five years of chronic F status, but you actually have well over half the district that is a D or F campus, and only about 30% of kids that are on grade level,” Morath said. “So it's really a systematic inability to support effective academics.” Dr Allen believes the state's decision is the wrong one. "We have done a massive amount of work" said Allen. "I'll be present. I'm gonna continue to work and lead and work and lead until the last day for me to work and lead."

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Tourism taxes tapped to fund Austin homeless services; millions generated amid convention center closure

A new tourism district created to offset the impacts of the convention center's multiyear redevelopment is showing strong early returns. (Ben Thompson/Community Impact) Nearly $1 million in local tourism revenue was directed toward homeless services this fall, representing the first seeding of a stand-alone reserve for Austin's homelessness response. That financing comes as widening tourism promotion efforts during the Austin Convention Center's redevelopment show strong early returns. "If you look no further than this most recent budget, we all know we don’t have enough funding to support a lot of critical services, homelessness included. And so we need to find other ways to pay for this," council member Ryan Alter, who first proposed the homelessness endowment, said in an interview. "By leveraging visitor taxes like we’re doing here, we are allowing for that critical work to be done without increasing our reliance on property taxpayers.”

City Council voted to create the House Our People Endowment, or HOPE, fund back in 2023. Alter presented the concept as a dedicated funding source for homelessness programs that could expand, and take outside investments, over time. The HOPE fund had yet to receive financing until a Dec. 11 council vote to transfer $942,845 in revenue from Austin's new Tourism Public Improvement District, or TPID. The district was set up late last year to support tourism activity and hospitality bookings amid the convention center's multiyear closure, and related impacts to major events in town. The city's overall fiscal year 2025-26 budget already includes millions of dollars for various homelessness initiatives. From the December transfer, $500,000 will be used for homeless navigation services with the remainder yet to be allocated. Housing and shelter programs could also be supported by HOPE funding that's expected to grow to several million dollars annually in the future, Alter said. "It was always envisioned as part of this [TPID] agreement that some of the money would be used for this purpose. And quite frankly, having fewer people on the streets improves tourism," he said of the HOPE transfer. "When people come to Austin and walk around, they want to feel safe and feel like they’re in a vibrant city. And if you have a large homeless population, people don’t feel that way.”

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National Stories

‘Extremely demoralizing’: Republicans respond to the bombastic Wiles interview

White House aides and allies on Tuesday rushed to publicly defend Susie Wiles after a jaw-dropping interview in Vanity Fair had her pointedly criticizing the president and many in the Cabinet. Most of the critiques were batted away as “inside jokes” or part of a “hit piece” from the media but privately those inside the White House and others close to the president were aghast that the West Wing so fully cooperated with the story. “Why Vanity Fair?” wondered one White House official, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the fallout. “They’ve never been remotely good to us.” They added it was “very, very odd.” President Donald Trump Tuesday afternoon said his chief of staff retains his full confidence, telling the New York Post “she’s done a fantastic job.”

Still, the more than 10,000-word Vanity Fair spread, based on 11 interviews over the course of a year, glossy photo-spreads and on-the-record quotes from Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had many of Trump’s allies scratching their heads, wondering why the very top of the administration would participate in the interview. And how could Wiles, lauded for her political acumen and loyalty, have miscalculated so badly? The interview was “extremely demoralizing,” said a person close to the White House. A second person close to the White House said simply: “So far … WTF.” A third person close to the White House said they’ve known Wiles for decades and was “very surprised” that she participated. After publication, Wiles called the story a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” but did not deny she made the comments. The piece lands as the Trump administration grapples with a host of bad headlines: the unemployment rate is up and Trump’s approval ratings are down. Election losses and GOP underperformance has top Republicans worried about a potentially disastrous midterm election and there is growing fear on the right about a land war in Venezuela.

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House GOP will not allow amendment vote to extend ObamaCare subsidies

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said there will not be an amendment vote on extending expiring ObamaCare enhanced subsidies as part of a House Republican health care bill this week, in a move that is infuriating moderate Republicans who had been pushing to go on the record about the subsidies. Johnson said at a press conference Tuesday that about a dozen Republican members in competitive districts are “fighting hard to make sure that they reduce costs for all of their constituents.” “Many of them did want to vote on this ObamaCare COVID-era subsidy the Democrats created,” Johnson said. “We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), one of the members who had been pushing for a vote to extend the subsidies that expire Dec. 31, fumed at the decision as he emerged from a House Republican Conference meeting Tuesday morning. “I think it’s idiotic not to have an up-or-down vote on this issue,” Lawler said, adding: “It is political malpractice.” “I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bulls---,” Lawler said. Responding to Lawler’s comments, Johnson noted he recently campaigned for him in New York and said Lawler “fights hard for New York, as every Republican in this conference does for their districts.” Johnson said members worked on a potential amendment through the weekend, and while “everybody was at the table in good faith,” and “agreement wasn’t made.” Negotiations between moderates and GOP leadership on an amendment to extend the subsidies hit a roadblock over the weekend as GOP leaders and other conservatives said any language extending the expensive subsidies would need to be paired with spending cuts, The Hill previously reported.

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Why lawyers buy so many billboards

When San Fernando, California, attorney Arvand Naderi is walking around town, it’s not unusual for random people to greet him enthusiastically. But they don’t say hello. Instead, many shout out the phrase, “Guns n’ dope!” To which Naderi knowingly responds, “Don’t lose hope!” The exchange may seem odd to the uninitiated. But alongside a picture of his face, the catchy couplet (“Guns n’ Dope? / Don’t Lose Hope!”) has been plastered on one of his firm’s billboards off the 118 freeway in neighboring Pacoima for seven years, turning him into something of a local celebrity. Since the criminal defense attorney started advertising on billboards ~10 years ago, he estimates he’s purchased ~50 of them. He says he spends $100k+ on billboard advertising a year. Naderi’s ads may be unique, but his reliance on billboard advertising to build his firm is not. The American Tort Reform Association, a lobbying group that advocates for caps on award damages and changes to current civil liability laws, estimates that in 2024 attorneys spent $541m+ on out-of-home and outdoor ads, a category that includes billboards as well as space on buses, subways, and other public areas.

This is an increase of $70m compared to 2023 and nearly $200m from 2022. Morgan & Morgan, the country’s largest personal injury firm, reportedly spends a staggering $350m annually on marketing alone. So why are so many law firms, from single-attorney practices to firms with thousands of employees, investing so heavily in billboards? As our world is increasingly lived online, advertising has shifted along with it. The business intelligence firm Research and Markets reports that in 2024 the value of the global digital marketing industry was $410B, and is projected to reach $1.2T by 2033. Billboards, on the other hand, are stubbornly, laughably low-tech. They’ve barely changed since the first ones appeared in the US in the 1860s. They’re also not cheap. In Los Angeles, for example, billboards range from $5k to $9k a month (and far more in iconic, highly touristed places such as Sunset Boulevard). So what explains their massive appeal today? The first reason is competition. According to the American Bar Association, in 2024 there were 1.3m practicing attorneys in the United States, a ratio of one attorney to every 260 Americans. While the number peaked in 2019, with 1.352m practicing attorneys, since 2000 this cohort has grown, on average, by 1% a year. “If you do not advertise, you will get eaten by people like me,” says Brooke Goff, a personal injury attorney in Connecticut.

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New court filings give a behind-the-scenes look at Trump’s East Wing demolition

A bevy of new details surrounding the Trump administration’s decision to demolish the East Wing of the White House were revealed this week in court filings, as part of a case filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeking to pause construction on the sprawling ballroom project. President Donald Trump’s pet project was initially pitched as a renovation of the structure, which traditionally was home to office space for the first lady and her staff. But it quickly ballooned in scope and is now estimated to cost upward of $300 million — though Trump said that number had increased to $400 million Tuesday night at a White House Hanukkah reception. A memo, filed by the White House on Monday evening in response to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s lawsuit, included declarations from various National Park Service officials and an environmental assessment conducted by the NPS determining that there would be “no significant impact ” on the surrounding environment.

It also provided the first public estimate of the project’s timeline, which is projected to be completed sometime in the summer of 2028 — just months before Trump is set to leave office. White House officials in the filing called for the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that any halt to the project would amount to a national security risk. The filing did not explain the specific national security concerns, but it has long been known that an emergency operations bunker lies below the East Wing. Instead, the administration only offered to share classified details with the judge in a private, in-person setting without the plaintiffs present. The White House also argued in its response filed Monday that the president has the authority to modify the White House, asserting that he is not subject to normal statues. “Plaintiff’s claims concerning demolition of the East Wing are moot because the demolition has already occurred and cannot be undone,” Department of Justice officials wrote. “The President possesses affirmative statutory authority to alter and improve the White House — authority that expressly overrides other laws.” Earlier this month Trump added a new architect to his construction team, after the original project leader reportedly aired concerns about the scope and size of the ballroom.

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Warner rejects Paramount’s hostile bid, saying Netflix deal still superior

Warner Bros. Discovery recommended shareholders reject Paramount’s unsolicited all-cash bid for the company Wednesday, saying it believes Netflix’s proposal for its studios and HBO Max streaming service is still superior. Calling the Paramount offer “illusory” in a letter to shareholders, Warner again raised concerns about the credibility of the equity being offered by Paramount and questioned the structure of the Ellison family’s commitment to funding the deal. Paramount CEO David Ellison and his father Larry, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, are majority shareholders in Paramount, along with RedBird Capital. Netflix earlier this month agreed to pay $72 billion, or $27.75 a share, in cash and stock for Warner’s studio and HBO Max streaming business after the entertainment company splits itself in two.

Paramount then went hostile with its $77.9 billion proposal to acquire all of Warner. Paramount has been arguing that its offer is a better deal for shareholders and more likely to pass regulatory muster. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that a rejection from Warner was imminent. In its letter, Warner said the Ellison family is using a revocable trust to fund the deal and that documents provided by Paramount about the commitment “contain gaps, loopholes and limitations that put you, our shareholders, and our company at risk.” The Netflix merger, on the other hand, is fully backed by a public company with a market cap of more than $400 billion and with an investment-grade balance sheet, Warner said. “The terms of the Netflix merger are superior,” Warner said in its letter. “The [Paramount] offer provides inadequate value and imposes numerous, significant risks and costs on [Warner].” Paramount’s hostile bid is at $30 a share, though the company has also told Warner this offer isn’t its “best and final” proposal, a signal it could increase the bid. Warner shares closed Tuesday at $28.90.

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Turning Point’s student membership keeps growing

Three months after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the footprint of the right-wing youth organization he founded continues to grow on college campuses. This week, Turning Point USA chapters at both Indiana University Bloomington and the University of Oklahoma reported membership surges. According to the Indiana Daily Student (IDS) and Indy Star, IU’s chapter says its membership has tripled this fall, from 180 to 363. At the University of Oklahoma—which put an instructor on leave after the Turning Point chapter accused them of “viewpoint discrimination”—the group’s membership has grown from 15 to 2,000 over the past year, NBCreported. Those increases follow other local media reports about new chapters and membership growth at scores of other universities across the country, including the University of Missouri, and Vanderbilt and Brigham Young Universities. Within eight days of Kirk’s death, Turning Point said it received messages from 62,000 students interested in starting a new chapter or getting involved with one.

“I think that our club has kind of become a beacon for conservatives,” a Turning Point chapter member told IDS, Indiana University at Bloomington’s campus newspaper. “So, after his death, more people showed up, more people got involved, and it was really nice to kind of see a scene in the way people wanted to get involved.” Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012, with the mission of “to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.” He gained notoriety in conservative circles by traveling to college campuses across the country, challenging students to prove wrong his conservative stances on topics such as race, gender, abortion and immigration. On Sept. 10, Kirk was speaking to a crowd at Utah Valley University when a gunman fatally shot him in the neck. After his death, Trump and his allies moved to canonize Kirk as an exemplar of civic debate—and called to punish anyone who publicly disagreed. Numerous colleges and universities have since suspended or fired faculty and staff who criticized Kirk for his political views. Although some faculty and students have objected to new Turning Point chapters, the students growing the organization insist they’re committed to considering all perspectives. “You have a place here, you'll always have a place here,” Jack Henning, president of Indiana University’s Turning Point chapter, told IDS. “We don’t discriminate against any viewpoints at all, we debate them. That’s what American democracy was built upon.”

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What we know about the fatal stabbings of Rob and Michele Reiner and the case against their son

Two days after Hollywood director Rob Reiner and producer Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their home, their grown son, Nick Reiner, was charged with the first-degree murder of his parents. Many aspects of the case are still uncertain as authorities keep details close in an active investigation. But the deaths of the two Hollywood fixtures have upended the entertainment industry as colleagues, friends and fans pay tribute to their legacy. Here’s what we know about the case against Nick Reiner and what comes next.

Prosecutors charged Reiner, 32, with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of his parents. The charges include a special allegation for allegedly using a knife, and the case rises to a “special circumstance first-degree murder case” as there were multiple murders, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Tuesday at a news conference. Conviction on the charges carries a penalty of life in prison without parole or the death penalty, Hochman said. His office hasn’t decided if it would seek the death penalty and would take the “thoughts and desires of the family into consideration,” he said. Executions in California have essentially been halted since 2006, with a moratorium on the death penalty since 2019. Cases that involve family members are among “the most challenging and the most heart-wrenching” due to the “intimate and often brutal nature of the crimes involved,” Hochman said. Reiner is being held without bail ahead of an arraignment, the district attorney’s office said. He is going through medical screening, a standard procedure, Hochman said.

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Trump orders blockade of all 'sanctioned oil tankers' entering and leaving Venezuela

President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Venezuela on Tuesday by announcing that he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” entering and leaving the South American country. “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before." He then added that he is "ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela," arguing that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government is using oil revenue to finance illicit operations, including "drug terrorism."

The U.S. has sanctioned three of Maduro’s nephews and repeatedly conducted deadly military strikes against boats from the Caribbean that it alleges are carrying drugs. Venezuela’s government released a statement Tuesday accusing Trump of “violating international law, free trade, and the principle of free navigation” with what it called “a reckless and grave threat.” It added: “On his social media, he assumes that Venezuela’s oil, land, and mineral wealth are his property.” The statement said of Trump’s post: “Consequently, he demands that Venezuela immediately hand over all its riches. The President of the United States intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our nation.” Maduro’s government plans to denounce the situation before the United Nations, the statement said. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview for part of a two-part profile published Tuesday by Vanity Fair that Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”

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Next Fed chair in ‘no-win scenario’ as selection process draws to a close

It was always going to be one of the Kevins. At least that was the impression among many across Wall Street and Washington when it came to President Trump’s selection for the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Mr. Trump had hinted for months that he wanted his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, for the job. But Mr. Bessent kept declining the offer. That placed Kevin A. Hassett, a longtime loyalist and economic adviser to Mr. Trump, and Kevin M. Warsh, a former Fed governor who had been in spitting distance of becoming chair during the president’s first term, in leading positions to take over for Jerome H. Powell in May. The decision comes down to who Mr. Trump believes will be more successful in delivering the substantially lower borrowing costs that he has long struggled to get from the Fed under Mr. Powell.

Mr. Trump, who elevated Mr. Powell to chair in 2017, appears haunted by that decision. He has made it clear that this time he wants someone more malleable who will take his advice. That prerequisite creates a credibility problem for whoever is selected, one that will be difficult to escape. A chair who is seen as beholden to the president risks eroding the public’s confidence that the Fed is making decisions in the best interest of the economy, not the White House. If that crumbles, borrowing costs could move higher, not lower as the president wants. “Anyone who gets the job is damaged goods,” said Andy Laperriere, headof U.S. policy research for Piper Sandler. “You’re either going to be the guy who succeeds in getting what the president wants, which will not bode well for your treatment in the history books,” Mr. Laperriere said, “or you’re going to be the guy who doesn’t get what the president wants, and he’s going to probably turn on you.”

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Copyright December 26, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved