Lead Stories

3 Democratic Texas sheriffs deny endorsing Abbott

Three Democratic sheriffs whom Gov. Greg Abbott said had endorsed him say they have not. Zapata County Sheriff Ramon Montes; Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez; and Webb County Sheriff Marin Cuellar all told Border Report on Wednesday they have not endorsed Abbott. Abbott earlier this week named them in a list of endorsements that included nine other Democratic sheriffs. Cuellar is the brother of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. When Border Report spoke with Sheriff Cuellar on Wednesday, he said, “How can I endorse the governor when he’s supporting my brother’s opponent?” Republican Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, whom Abbott endorsed, is running against Congressman Cuellar in Texas’ 28th Congressional District.

Sheriff Cuellar said no one from the governor’s office called to ask him for an endorsement and he was shocked to see his name on the governor’s list. “I’m not supporting him. How can I support him? And it’s confusing people,” Sheriff Cuellar said. On Wednesday afternoon, a list with names of all those Abbott says endorsed him — including the 12 sheriffs — was amended on his campaign website. Sheriff Cuellar’s name was removed but Martinez and Montes’ names still appeared. Martinez told Border Report: “I want to make it unequivocally clear that I have not issued a political endorsement of Gov. Greg Abbott, and I did not authorize anyone to use my name as an endorsement.” Zapata County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Juan Molina told Border Report that Sheriff Montes “is not endorsing anyone at this time.”

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Transgender group seeks court order to uncover who sent mailers as registered agent drops fake group

A transgender advocacy organization is seeking a court order to uncover who is behind mailers and text messages on the topic that ignited anger and confusion as early voting opened this week in Texas. The mailers, which were sent to some Texas voters and purport to help transgender children with information, have sparked an election mystery, calls for a state investigation and squabbling among conservative influencers and politicians on both sides. Mimi Marziani, an attorney for the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT, called the messages and mailers “dirty, unethical tricks” and said she wants to uncover the identity of the sender by Election Day on Nov. 3. TENT, a state advocacy organization, said it did not print or distribute the mailers and knows nothing about them.

“Someone is spending millions and millions of dollars to induce division and strife among Texas voters,” Marziani said. “And they’re doing so while hiding behind a shell company.” According to the return address, the mailers were sent by the Texas Transgender Student Union from an address in Meadows Place, near Houston. That organization, which is not affiliated with TENT, was formed last month in Wyoming, a state that allows registered agents to create businesses without disclosing the owners. On Thursday, Northwest Registered Agent in Wyoming told The Dallas Morning News in a statement that it is in the process of resigning as the group’s agent. “We have no way of knowing someone’s intent when they’re forming a new company, and Northwest Registered Agent has no knowledge of, or involvement in, our clients’ business operations,” the company said. “We follow all state and federal laws, and we cooperate fully with law enforcement investigations.” The request for the court order, filed Thursday in Austin, asked a judge to compel testimony from the Texas Transgender Student Union and Infobip, a digital messaging company tied to one of the phone numbers that sent the message. It is not clear when the judge will issue a decision. Infobip did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday. Northwest Registered Agent, which is not named in the request for a court order, declined to comment on the petition.

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TWIA moves to dismiss class-action lawsuit over Hurricane Beryl claims

The defendants in a possible class-action lawsuit against the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and others have moved to dismiss the suit filed by three Galveston County homeowners. The TWIA, Hansen Scott Holdings, Ryze Claims Solutions, James Jarasczeski and David DeVilbiss claim the McCarran-Ferguson Act prohibits the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations — or RICO — Act lawsuit filed by Ernestine Bell, Alicia Stuart and David Mohun. The suit was filed in August in the Galveston Division of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. It alleges willful underpayment of claims after Hurricane Beryl, accusing staff of TWIA, the state’s insurer of last resort for Texas’ coastal regions, of conspiring with personnel of Colley-based adjusting firm Leading Edge Claims Service LLC to secretly alter the windstorm damage claim estimates for their homes made by a field adjuster. Those changes resulted in a combined $96,000 less than what the adjuster had appraised for damage to the three homes, the suit claims.

Defendant Hansen Scott Holdings is the successor of Leading Edge, according to the plaintiffs. The McCarran-Ferguson Act established that the authority to regulate the insurance industry belongs primarily to the states. In its motion to dismiss, TWIA also claims that since it did not deny the homeowners’ claims, the only available remedy to challenge the amount of the loss was through appraisal and that the plaintiffs’ attorney, Shaun Hodge, failed to correctly request one. In an email to the Houston Business Journal, Hodge said the plaintiffs’ team anticipated the defendants would raise those issues in a motion to dismiss. “We believe we have properly pled the essential elements for RICO and have ample strong evidence to support our claims,” he said, adding that the facts show that the McCarran-Ferguson Act does not preempt the plaintiffs’ claims.

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Trump excludes Bo French, Nate Sheets from Texas midterm endorsements

President Donald Trump has endorsed just about every statewide and congressional Republican on the Texas midterm ballot by name except for 10. In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump told Texas voters to get out to the polls and vote Republican in every race all the way down the ballot. Then on Wednesday evening, he gave 36 statewide and congressional Republicans his “Complete and Total Endorsement — They will never let you down!” The 10 excluded Republican candidates were Bo French, Nate Sheets and eight U.S. House hopefuls. Trump did not explain why only those 36 candidates were endorsed or why the 10 statewide and congressional candidates were left off of his list in the Truth Social post.

French, who is running against Democrat Jon Rosenthal for Texas Railroad Commissioner, has been criticized multiple times by members of the GOP for discriminatory social media posts. The most recent was one about the demographics of students at the University of Texas. He is the former Tarrant County GOP chairman. Sheets, the Republican nominee for Texas Agriculture Commissioner running against Democrat Clayton Tucker, has been called out by the current agriculture commissioner, Republican Sid Miller, for his various admitted addictions and an inappropriate relationship that ended his career in ministry. Neither Sheets’ campaign nor French responded to a request for comment. The eight U.S. House candidates not named in the president’s endorsement list are all running against a Democrat incumbent or are in a race with no incumbent. They were: Alexander Hale in District 7, Adam Bauman in District 16, Ronald Dwayne Whitfield in District 18, Edgardo Rafael Baez in District 20, Martha Fierro in District 29, Everett Jackson in District 30, Patrick David Gillespie in District 33 and Lauren B. Pena in District 37.

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State Stories

San Antonio attorney Thomas J. Henry endorses James Talarico for U.S. Senate

San Antonio-based personal-injury attorney Thomas J. Henry on Wednesday said he will vote for James Talarico in Texas’ U.S. Senate race — even though he supported Republican Ken Paxton in the GOP primary. In a minute-long video message posted to his social media channels, Henry said his early support for Paxton stemmed from his belief that the candidate’s primary opponent, incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, had been in office too long. However, Henry added that he asked for a one-on-one meeting with Talarico as he became more aware of Paxton’s laundry list of scandals.

“That meeting was extremely valuable because it taught me the values Talarico has: the values for respect, fairness, safety, good economics for Texas, and our country, and a balanced approach to all the issues,” Henry said. Henry’s endorsement comes amid record early-voting turnout in Bexar County ahead of the 2026 midterms. Both Talarico and Paxton will visit San Antonio before Election Day. Talarico will hold rallies on Oct. 24 and Nov. 1, while Paxton will conclude his “Come and Take It Tour” at the Alamo on Nov. 2. Early voting continues through Oct. 30. Polls will reopen on Election Day, Nov. 3.

Read this article at San Antonio Current - Subscribers Only

Bud Kennedy: Tarrant County Republicans may pay for cutting Election Day polling places

If Republicans lose a Texas or Tarrant County election Nov. 3, they have a ready-made list of scapegoats from Washington to Southlake. But as Democrats came pouring in to vote at a rate comparable to 2018 — when Beto O’Rourke brought Democrats their best vote totals in a generation — Republicans began to wonder aloud whether any Tarrant County offices might really flip to Democrats. The worry is real. After the first few days of early voting, those voters who are regulars in the Democratic Party primary made up the largest portion of voters, more than a third. The next largest group showed no party history, and Republicans lagged with about one-fourth of the vote. Nobody I know thinks Democrats will keep that margin up. Republicans will vote. They’ll just wait for the lines to subside.

But that Democratic edge doesn’t even allow for the 6% of Republicans who tell pollsters they won’t vote for U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton, or more who won’t but may not admit it to pollsters. So Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico probably has an inside track in Tarrant County. At least three Republican Texas House seats are at risk. State Rep. John McQueeney‘s district in southwest Fort Worth and Tarrant County has been purpling in recent years, so he has TV ads up now against Democrat Beth Llewellyn McLaughlin. Open seats are at risk of flipping to Democrats in Arlington (Cheryl Bean vs. Democrat Katie O’Brien-Duzan) and in the Mansfield-Burleson area (Ellen Sorrells Fleischmann vs. Democrat Ebony Turner). Democrats would love to flip the county judge’s seat. Personal-injury lawyer Tim O’Hare of Southlake has been antagonistic and sometimes openly hostile while presiding at Commissioners Court. But even if Commissioner Alisa Simmons wins the gavel, the Arlington Democrat will be on the wrong end of 3-2 votes. That is, unless either Arlington Republican Tony Tinderholt or northwest Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez is upset by Fort Worth Democrats Dr. Jared Williams or Nydia Cardenas.

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

Republican Tim O'Hare confident Tarrant County can stay red if GOP base votes

Despite a strong showing from Democrats on the first few days of early voting, Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare is confident his party will win out on Nov. 3. In the first three days of 2026 midterm early voting, Tarrant County voters exceeded the numbers from the last midterm in 2022. At a Metroplex Republican Women club meeting Thursday, O’Hare said the Republican Party expected Democrats to outpace the GOP voters in the first few days. The Democrats turned out more than estimated, he said. “What I think you’re going to see is you’re going to see us catching up over the next several days, and I think you’re going to see us pass, if we all do our part,” O’Hare said at a Republican club meeting. “And here’s the great news: I have never, and I haven’t been here as long as some of y’all, but I have never seen Republicans so engaged, so energetic, working together so well.”

O’Hare is running in one of the most prominent races in Tarrant County this election against Democrat challenger and commissioner Alisa Simmons. The two have dueled on commissioners court a multitude of times since they were elected to their seats in 2022. “There has never been a sharper contrast between candidates for county judge ever in the history of this county, bar none,” O’Hare said Thursday. He added that “the stakes have never been higher,” but many Republicans in the county aren’t aware of that. O’Hare raised alarm bells at a True Texas Project meeting in September, telling attendees his seat could flip blue. The county party has been employing several outreach methods to contact low-propensity voters and remind them to go to the polls. O’Hare said there are more Republicans in the county than there are Democrats, so the issue is one of turnout. “If we don’t do our part, and we see Democrats take Tarrant County, you never get it back,” O’Hare said. “Dallas County never got it back. Harris County never got it back. Are we going to let that happen in Tarrant County? No way.”

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

Counties race to regulate groundwater amid data center boom

A couple of years ago, when Williamson County Commissioner Terry Cook tried to form a local groundwater conservation district, the overwhelming reaction was: “Don’t tell me what to do with my land, my water.” “We got nowhere,” she said. Then came the data center boom. Now, as rural and suburban areas like Cook’s see an explosion of interest from developers of the massive computing centers, many are scrambling to form the voter-approved districts, which manage aquifers and issue permits for groundwater withdrawals. Groundwater supplies the state with half of its water, and nearly all drinking water in rural Texas comes from below ground. But in areas without groundwater conservation districts, or GCDs, landowners are free to pump without limits or disclosure.

That lack of oversight may be a draw for some data center developers. Nearly a quarter of the 630 data centers planned, under construction or operating in Texas are in areas without groundwater conservation districts, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis. The analysis found that nearly a hundred data centers operating or under construction are in areas not covered by GCDs. An additional 61 data centers are planned in these areas, as of October 15. Communities across the state are now rushing to create these districts in order to have some control over groundwater. “There’s been a huge increase in interest,” said state Rep. Cody Harris, a Palestine Republican and the chairman of the committee that oversees groundwater regulation. There are 98 groundwater conservation districts in Texas, covering 70% of the state. Adam Foster, the executive director of the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts, counted at least 10 active efforts to form new districts across the state, including a proposed district spanning 17 counties in northeast Texas. Foster said the growth of data centers across Texas has been the “main driver” of efforts to form new GCDs, as communities worry the large computing centers will drain their aquifers.

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TCEQ closes online permitting system, after watchdogs accuse agency of violating data center pause

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has shut down its online permit application system after watchdog groups accused the agency of approving permits related to data center projects, in violation of a recent directive from the governor. Watchdog groups Public Citizen and FracTracker said earlier this week that the TCEQ had continued to process permits for data centers, despite an order from Gov. Greg Abbott to halt approvals for these facilities until an audit is completed. In particular, the groups identified a handful of construction stormwater permits related to data centers that they said the TCEQ had approved. Public Citizen and FracTracker said after they publicized their findings, the environmental agency suspended at least 17 stormwater and wastewater permits for data center projects.

"TCEQ retroactively suspending construction stormwater approvals in the wake of FracTracker and Public Citizen’s scrutiny means that any clearing, grading and excavation at these sites must stop immediately," Sam Law, researcher and manager of communications at FracTracker, said in a news release. "The confusion surrounding these approvals further proves the need for a moratorium: TCEQ is proving itself incapable of meeting complex regulatory challenges posed by data centers without further study." TCEQ spokesperson Victoria Cann said the watchdog groups identified stormwater permits known as notices of intent, which are approved through "automated authorizations," prior to construction. Cann added that all notices of intent related to data centers have been suspended, along with the agency's online permit application system. "To ensure all applications are thoroughly reviewed by agency staff to determine if they are related to data centers, applications must be physically provided to TCEQ," she said in a statement.

Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only

Harris County Judge candidates face off in debate over ICE, Flock cameras, and the future of the Astrodome

The two candidates for Harris County judge faced off Thursday evening in a debate, tackling issues from immigration and public safety to administrative issues and the future of the Astrodome. The debate, presented by Houston Public Media and in partnership with the Houston Chronicle, N+ Univision 45, and the University of Houston's Hobby School for Public Affairs, brought Republican Orlando Sanchez and Democrat Letitia Plummer head-to-head just before election day on Nov. 3. "As a dentist by trade, I understand the challenges in healthcare," Plummer said in her opening remarks. "As a single mom, I know the challenges that many of us are experiencing, taking care of our families and our children. And being able to spend six natural disasters and our first pandemic with many of you, I know what we need to do to make sure that Harris County moves in a direction where every single person has the opportunity to thrive."

"Back when the county was chock full of money, we had money in the Rainy Day Fund, the county had not raised the property tax rate in 25 years," Sanchez said in his opening statement. "Unfortunately, we’ve seen the tax rate rise precipitously here in Harris County over the last eight years — 60%, and just in the last 36 months by 41%. To me, it’s intellectual dishonesty when you talk about affordability, and you hammer those who can least afford it." Both of the candidates came to something of an early agreement when they stated that county law enforcement officials should not be required to act as immigration officers in partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Sanchez, who immigrated as a child from Cuba with his family, said he was "very sensitive" to the issue of immigration enforcement in Harris County. He recounted a story in which his mother was pulled over by a constable and asked her citizenship status, which Sanchez called "unacceptable." Harris County currently holds a contract with Flock, a controversial surveillance company that uses automated license plate readers. Incumbent Judge Lina Hidalgo has called for the county to reassess its contract. Commissioner Lesley Briones decommissioned the Flock cameras in her precinct. As the contract currently stands, Plummer stated she did not support it. "Right now, with the contract the way that it is, I will rescind it immediately," she said. "As your county judge, we're going to have to make sure that when we bring any AI technology in, although we understand it's necessary to assist with public safety issues, we cannot do it against the privacy of our residents."

Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only

Fort Bend tax assessor federally indicted for allegedly using county funds to pay for her mother’s caretaker

Fort Bend County Tax Assessor-Collector Carmen Turner was arrested on Thursday after she was indicted on federal charges of misusing public funds. Prosecutors said she employed two tax clerks who were tasked with caring for her 81-year-old mother. Turner, a Democrat who was first elected to the office in 2020, faces federal charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and theft concerning programs receiving federal funds. Representatives for Turner did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Federal prosecutors accused Turner of employing two individuals as tax clerks, tasking them "to care for [her] then 81-year-old mother ... who is wheelchair bound and living in an apartment in Houston, Texas," according to the federal indictment.

One of those caregivers, Shemerrylyn Fields, was also indicted for her alleged role in the scheme. As of Thursday afternoon, Fields did not have an attorney listed in her case records and could not be reached for comment. The other caregiver, who was not identified in the indictment, is cooperating with federal authorities, according to U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz. Turner is also accused of employing Victor Ewing, the father of her adult son, as a "department coordinator," tasked with, among other things, managing special projects and providing educational information and training. At the same time Ewing was paid as a full-time employee of the county, prosecutors said he was working in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport as a materials specialist. Ewing, who also did not have an attorney listed in his case record, could not be reached for comment. Prosecutors allege that the three defendants falsified timesheets as part of the scheme. The unnamed individual working with prosecutors said they were instructed to tell anyone who asked that they worked "on the 2nd floor at the Missouri City tax office location," according to the indictment. Though Reitz did not give an official figure, he said his office believes the scheme involved "tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only

El Paso County GOP Chair plans to sue Sacha Baron Cohen: ‘A liar and a pervert’

The chair of the El Paso County Republican Party has said he intends to sue Sacha Baron Cohen over footage of the local politician used in new satirical comedy Ali G: Who Iz I? In the film, Michael Aboud is shown taking part in a training programme with another Cohen character, ex-Mossad terrorist expert Col Erran Morad, who instructs Aboud and fellow Maga sympathisers in self-defence techniques including the wearing, over clothes, of protective plastic buttocks. He also schools them in how to fire bullets from the middle of these buttocks by the repeated up and down manipulation of a rubber penis. Aboud and a fellow student, former preacher and aspirant actor Joshua Loudermilk, are then recruited by Morad to help in a mission to prevent the birth in the US of the baby of a (fictional) South American drugs kingpin.

This involves Aboud and Loudermilk abducting his heavily-pregnant girlfriend and driving her in a phoney ambulance to a remote unstaffed medical facility, where she gives birth (to a lifelike prosthetic). They then abandon her, Morad having placed her live baby in a zipped bag, and drive with it towards Mexico. Loudermilk is later seen attempting to discharge fire from his fake buttocks, while Aboud takes the decision to drop the baby – at that point being dangled from a drone at a substantial height – to the ground to prevent it touching US soil. The actions could not be anything other than extremely serious for a real infant. Until the Guardian contacted Aboud on Tuesday, the businessman was unaware of his participation in anything other than what he believed to be a nonfiction film. In a statement, Aboud called Baron Cohen “and his entire film crew … a bunch of liars [who] deceive people to benefit themselves. They claimed that this would be a documentary about the illegals crossing the border. Then they said they were adding in this self-defence guy from Israel.” He added: “It is my opinion that Sasha Cohen [sic] is a pervert. Plus he talked about how Muslims are all gay because they follow the sex practices of Mohamid [sic]. No one should spend one penny watching anything he produces or appears in. I plan to sue him.”

Read this article at The Guardian - Subscribers Only

Texas Christian University chancellor resigns, university confirms

Texas Christian University (TCU) Chancellor Daniel Pullin is resigning, according to a statement from the college. Pullin notified the university’s chair, Kit Moncrief, of the resignation. In a statement, the now-former chancellor wrote, “I would like to thank the entire Horned Frog family for the support and encouragement during my time at TCU.” Pullin's run as TCU Chancellor has been brief, he was named to the position in June 2025, marking just under a year and a half with the job. Previously, Pullin was also the university's president from February 2023 to June 2025.

In his statement, Pullin added that he thinks TCU is building the model for the future of higher education. “I love our students and couldn’t be more proud of what their futures entail as they graduate and become outstanding TCU alumni,” Pullin said. “Thank you to everyone at TCU. I will always be invested in what TCU stands for.” Victor Boschini, Pullin's immediate predecessor as chancellor and TCU's chancellor emeritus, has been appointed to fill the role effective immediately. “Victor’s proven leadership will ensure our Lead On: Values in Action strategic plan continues to be successfully implemented on behalf of our students, faculty, and our supportive community, while he and our team steward our daily campus life,” Moncrief said.

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Drivers say Carla Wyatt had no insurance during car crash

A pair of Houston residents involved in a four-vehicle wreck that officials say Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt caused last month alleged Thursday that she was driving without insurance at the time of the crash. Amanda Byford and Diamantina Uribe, two of the three drivers involved in the Sep. 18 crash, urged voters to oust Wyatt as they revealed new details about the incident at a press conference with Marc Cowart, the Republican running against Wyatt in the Nov. 3 election. The women said they have not received damages for the crash and have not heard from Wyatt or law enforcement since the incident.

Though officers found no indication that Wyatt was driving under the influence, per a crash report, Uribe and Byford each said they believe she may have been intoxicated and showed no apparent concern that she had been in a car crash. “She looked dazed and confused to me,” said Byford. “She was trying to put the airbag back into the steering wheel column, and I thought, ‘well that’s strange.’” Wyatt also sought to leave the scene immediately despite significant damages to her car. “I got off and checked on her, and she was like, ‘You need to move. I’m running late to a meeting,’” said Uribe. Wyatt initially alleged to police that the three other vehicles had been stopped on Interstate 45, but dashcam footage and a diagram of the crash included in the crash report showed Wyatt aggressively changing lanes and rear ending all three vehicles before coming to a stop. No one was badly injured in the crash, according to the report. The incident was Wyatt’s fourth run-in with the law since her election in 2022. The embattled Democrat was twice arrested for drunken driving, and last December was charged with burglary of a vehicle, though a grand jury later declined to indict her on that charge.

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

How Texas data centers could reverse years of air pollution progress

Data centers will likely make Texas’s air less breathable by reversing two decades of progress on curbing air pollution, according to a report released this week by the Houston Advanced Research Center. The Woodlands-based sustainability nonprofit predicted a range of data center-related pollution outcomes, depending largely on how many are eventually built and what power sources they use. Most of the outcomes are bad for Texans, said Carlos Gamarra, a vice president for HARC and one of the report’s authors. The new data centers would roll back years of reductions in air contaminants linked to increased rates of asthma, heart attacks and cancer. Driving these outcomes is a rush to build data centers as fast as possible to keep up with rising demands for computing capacity for artificial intelligence. The breakneck pace is pushing companies to use dirtier energy sources, primarily natural gas plants, to power their projects, Gamarra said.

“What’s happening with the data centers is they are building with profitability in mind, not so much with sustainability in mind,” Gamarra said. Levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter in the air have dropped dramatically since the start of the century, according to HARC data — upwards of 60% in some cases. The group attributes the improvements to a combination of emissions controls on power plants, stricter vehicle emissions standards and the replacement of dirtier coal-fired plants with natural gas and renewables. But the AI boom could change the tide, HARC said. Data center development in Texas is in flux after Gov. Greg Abbott directed environmental regulators to indefinitely pause data center permitting last month. But in the long term, development is expected to continue. In 2025, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state's grid, estimated Texas would add 24 gigawatts of new data centers by 2031, requiring roughly as much energy as the entire Houston region this year

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Central Texas healthcare is booming. Can the workforce keep up?

Healthcare employment grew by 35,411 jobs in five years across Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties from 2021 to 2026. Meanwhile, nearly $10 billion was invested into the sector by venture capitalists and private equity firms. And the region has dozens of major healthcare projects in the pipeline. Healthcare and its related tech innovations are poised to become one of the region's next major business pillars. But hurdles and bottlenecks pose major challenges to the region reaching its potential. That includes expanding training programs for nurses, as well as limiting turnover. Meanwhile, population growth in some areas is outpacing the establishment of new clinics and resources. Those are a few key takeaways from a new Austin Healthcare Council report that examines a broad spectrum of healthcare and demographic data from recent years.

"Population growth is shifting healthcare demand beyond Travis County, physician and specialty capacity remains concentrated in the urban core, and shortages of faculty, preceptors and clinical placements constrain how quickly the workforce can expand," the report said. "The next stage of development will depend less on whether healthcare continues to grow than on whether capacity, access and talent can keep pace with Central Texas’ population and economic growth." The Austin Healthcare Council is a nonprofit founded in 2016 by local healthcare leaders to help make Austin a global healthcare innovation center by connecting competitors and collaborators across hospitals, digital health, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and academia. Healthcare worker recruitment, training and retention is perhaps the most significant challenge cited in the new report. For example, the report says that Austin Community College, which says it is the area's largest educator for the healthcare workers, has about 9,000 students in pre-health pathways. But its capacity for health sciences slots is only about 1,100. And turnover rates for some roles remain a significant issue. For example, in 2025, turnover rates for nursing assistants came in at 90%. For medical assistants, the turnover rate was 58% and registered nurses were at 41%. The report also shows doctor-to-resident ratios vary from one county to the next. It said Travis County had 5,166 physicians in September 2026, or 371.7 per 100,000 residents, compared with 268.9 across the five-county Central Texas region and 250.5 statewide.

Read this article at Austin Business Journal - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Owning a home comes with a hidden price tag, and it's getting more expensive

The hidden costs of homeownership are rising and have increased by nearly one-third in the last five years as expenses like insurance, maintenance and property taxes take a bite out of homeowners' budgets. A new report by Zillow and Thumbtack found those costs amount to about $16,566 per year, which amounts to roughly $1,380 a month in addition to a mortgage payment. Within the $16,566 total cost, the typical U.S. homeowner faces about $11,171 in annual maintenance, $2,266 for homeowners insurance and $3,129 on property taxes. "Many households focus so much on winning the home and underestimate what it costs to live in it," said Zillow Senior Economist Kara Ng.

"Long after they receive the keys, insurance, taxes and upkeep are recurring expenses to plan for. Since these homeownership costs vary so much by market, home shoppers should run the numbers and understand what they can truly afford before they make an offer." Hidden costs have risen in recent years, with the biggest jump occurring in homeowners insurance premiums, which are up 54% over the last five years. Maintenance costs had the second-fastest growth rate and are up 32% over the past five years, while property taxes grew 19% in that period. Overall homeownership costs increased 3% in the last year but are up 32% over the past five years. The Zillow and Thumbtack analysis found that maintenance costs showed the clearest slowdown, as annual increases in maintenance costs eased in each of the last five years, slowing from 9% in 2022 to 1% in 2026. Insurance is following a similar pattern, with premiums rising just 0.3% between February and June 2026. "The slowdown in maintenance cost growth is welcome news for homeowners managing a lot of competing expenses," said Kendra Sinclair, Thumbtack's home trends expert. "Planning for regular upkeep throughout the year can help prevent bigger repair bills and protect your savings when something unexpected happens."

Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only

Politicians are turning against AI, but your pension is riding on it

The artificial-intelligence boom is driving a wedge through America’s multitrillion-dollar public-pensions system. AI-crazed markets have turbocharged hundreds of state and local public-employee pension funds, whose combined assets have grown from $5.8 trillion in 2023 to $7.3 trillion in June, according to Federal Reserve data. Across 13 of the largest funds that manage their investments in-house, a basket of domestic AI-linked stocks fueled $138 billion in paper gains between the end of 2022 and June, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of securities filings. But while those pensions were racking up AI-fueled returns, officials from many of those same states have begun to throw up barriers to data centers and are criticizing the industry in the final stretch of the midterm campaign. The pushback has left fund managers and boards scrambling to gauge the risks of one of the most polarizing industries in the U.S.

In Pennsylvania, a gubernatorial candidate who sits on the board of a teachers’ pension fund is hammering the incumbent on data-center development. California union representatives are pushing fund managers to account for threats posed to workers and communities. New York state instituted a moratorium on many new data centers, even as pension funds’ AI holdings have surged. “It’s so contradictory,” said Joseph Hernandez, GOP candidate for New York state comptroller. “We’re on both sides of the bet.” In March, New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, trustee of the state’s Common Retirement Fund, urged 18 tech companies including Amazon.com to engage residents and allay concerns around power prices, land use and water consumption. DiNapoli, a Democrat, wrote in a letter that the approach would “protect shareholder value and ensure sustainable growth.” But the backlash has only grown, culminating with the state’s July moratorium on many new projects to study regulation. In a recent hearing with representatives for Meta, Alphabet and other tech firms, New York City Council Member Shekar Krishnan grilled the companies on retirement-fund risks.

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Inside Vivek Ramaswamy’s historic Ohio flameout

The mood at the Vivek Ramaswamy rally was upbeat—confident, even—but the cracks started to show before it began. The town hall in the small Cleveland suburb of Parma was entitled “Pierogis, Pabst, and Patriots,” and there were plenty of all three on hand at the Union House Bar and Restaurant. But we weren’t really supposed to be here. We were supposed to have convened at the Cleveland Harley-Davidson outpost for a “Christians, Bikers & Patriots” campaign event, before a sudden cancellation necessitated a shift to this woodsy sports joint. There was no word on what had gone wrong with the bikers. Still, the energy was real in this crimson-tinged bar, bustling with elderly Ohioans in OSU jerseys and MAGA merch alongside watery tubs of PBR. (Among the T-shirts: a red-ink outline of Charlie Kirk raising his fist, and a Trump-Vance shirt where the year was crossed out and replaced, in Sharpie, with 2028.) Alfred, a 60-year-old Filipino immigrant who was raised in Shaker Heights and works in the Parma public school system, told me he didn’t think, whatever the national narrative, that too many of his fellow conservatives were disaffected with Donald Trump or the current Republican Party.

He loved the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement was operating, and anyway, as devout Catholics, he and his wife would never vote for a pro-choice Democrat like Amy Acton—Ramaswamy’s opponent in the bitter race for the Ohio governor’s mansion. Others I spoke to were similarly unbothered. Mark, a retired Air Force technician sitting at the bar, was planning on attending church that very evening and claimed to be far more concerned about property taxes than Ramaswamy’s Hinduism, one of the many issues that may work against the candidate in this very Christian state. To him, Ramaswamy’s religious objectors were just “morons who say stupid shit.” Once the actual event kicked off, however, even the speakers couldn’t help but strike notes of concern. “If you choose not to decide in this election, you are supporting a cast of characters that wants to take our state in a fundamentally dangerous direction,” said Secretary of State Frank LaRosa, invoking Rush’s “Freewill” as he opened for the guest of honor and promoted his own campaign for state auditor. “The Democrats are feelin’ chippy,” he warned. “But there will be no blue wave. There will be a bright-red Ramaswamy tsunami!” Ramaswamy finally took the stump to raucous applause and harped on his finely honed campaign planks—improving public schools, reducing property taxes and everyday costs, welcoming legal immigrants—while firing some culture-war drive-bys at the evils of “wokeism” and “transgenderism.” Former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel subsequently took the mic and felt the need to emphasize Ramaswamy’s devotion to God. “I’ve been with Vivek at churches all over the state. There’s this band of Christian warriors who are following and supporting Vivek because he supports them,” Mandel stressed. The sentiment proved to be a bellwether for the audience Q&A. An answer Ramaswamy gave condemning sanctuary cities wasn’t enough for a hoarse-voiced attendee who repeatedly interrupted: “Damned immigrants are hurtin’ everybody! We gotta get all of ’em out of here!”

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The oppo mastermind who could take down Roger Marshall

Early in September, a New York Times investigation rocked the Kansas Senate race. The incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, the paper revealed, had sued some 700 patients over his previous, decadeslong career as an obstetrician-gynecologist in rural Kansas; in 81 of the cases, patients had gotten arrested over missed court dates. In an agricultural state already hard-hit by Donald Trump’s tariffs, and in a cycle with affordability as voters’ top issue, the revelation of struggling patients facing legal peril over medical debt — in one case of as little as $101 — changed the map, putting Republicans officially on the defensive in a state that had looked safe only months before. The story was a coup for the paper and veteran health care reporter Sarah Kliff who, as the paper noted, “reviewed thousands of court records and interviewed eight people whom Roger Marshall sued over medical debt.” But many also suspected a particular hand behind the initial tip: Tyson Brody, a 39-year-old opposition researcher and an alum of both the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns, who moved home to Kansas to work for Marshall’s Democratic challenger, Rev. Adam Hamilton.

Brody is “the kind of guy who, forget a skeleton in your closet — he will find every single dust bunny in your closet,” said Caitlin Legacki, a senior fellow at Third Way and a Democratic strategist who has worked with Brody in the past. The Times declined to comment, as did both Brody and the Hamilton campaign. Kliff has said on Kansas City public radio that she will not reveal who gave her the tip, as is standard journalistic practice. But journalists and operatives familiar with Brody’s work think it’s no coincidence that the Hamilton campaign’s oppo game is exploding as it happens to employ one of the Democratic party’s top practitioners of the craft — in his own home state. Marshall has said he treated every patient regardless of ability to pay. But in the weeks since the story ran, polls have tightened, prognosticators have moved the race toward Democrats (the Cook Political report now rates it a toss-up) and millions of dollars have rushed into what suddenly looks like a battleground on the prairie — in a state so associated with conservativism that Democrats use the book title What’s the Matter With Kansas? as shorthand for benighted farmers voting against what liberals see as their own interests. Giddy Democrats and despondent Republicans alike are contemplating the possibility that Kansas could send a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1932. And central to that phenomenon — along with a damaged incumbent and a unique challenger — is the old-fashioned, dark art of oppo research.

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Flashy AI campaign ads use religion to stir emotions and attack candidates

In a recent campaign ad for Ken Paxton, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, his Democratic opponent James Talarico appears to sit at a desk while he scribbles on a Bible page. “I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity,” says the ad’s Talarico before adding that God was a “radical feminist” who “never asked people to worship him,” a reference to Talarico’s liberal Christian views, which have drawn criticism from political opponents. The scene seems realistic and pulls quotes from Talarico’s speeches and his sermons at his Presbyterian church. Yet, it is not an actual clip of Talarico. It was created with artificial intelligence.

The 30-second clip, which has 2.6 million views on X since its release in September, is part of a flurry of AI-generated political ads airing on cable, streaming and digital platforms across the country ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. As AI content spreads online, political strategists have used the technology to create glossy campaign videos. According to a Wesleyan Media Project report released in September, 164 ads generated or enhanced by AI have been released this election cycle, costing $80 million. In some key races, AI has been used to depict candidates’ religious views and convey religious messaging through campaign ads ranging from highly realistic to provocative and eccentric. Layering catchy music, colorful images and provocative captions, the AI campaign ads can elicit strong emotional reactions, said Heidi Campbell, author of “Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority” and a communication professor at Texas A&M University. “Political ads have always tried to get you to respond out of your gut to either like or not like a person,” she said, adding strategists now “use the features of AI to kind of get people to bypass thinking and focus on emotion.”

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Iran threatens wider strikes on economic and civilian targets if U.S. attacks

Iran’s message is stark: If the U.S. and Israel restart their air campaign, Tehran will respond with strikes not only on American bases and warships but on airports, pipelines and other civilian targets in the neighboring countries of the Persian Gulf. The warnings, issued publicly and in private diplomatic communications, are clearly aimed at deterring any attack with tough talk. But they also signal a real threat. Iran retains significant missile and drone stocks and the ability to use them. Analysts estimate Iran has hundreds to thousands of ballistic missiles, and U.S. and regional officials believe it has resumed production of ballistic missiles in limited numbers using stockpiled components and working in underground facilities. In the opening phase of the war, Iran inflicted significant damage on U.S. air bases, embassies and the headquarters of the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain. It also hit energy and industrial facilities in the United Arab Emirates, a major gas plant in Qatar and airports in Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Tehran says it would seek to cause more pain in any new round, at a time when stockpiles of the air-defense interceptors the U.S. and Arab militaries need to absorb any attack have been running down. Israel’s interceptor supplies have also been under pressure. Raising the ante in any new fight would expose Iran’s infrastructure to attack when its economy is teetering. Its missile arsenal and launchers were battered by U.S. and Israeli attacks early in the war—the Pentagon said in September the U.S. had destroyed up to 90% of Iran’s drone, ballistic missile and naval industrial base—limiting its ability to sustain a long exchange. Still, analysts believe it would run the risk. “The consensus in Tehran now believes that deterrence requires imposing immediate, sustained and substantial costs on its adversaries,” said Sina Toossi, an Iran expert at the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank. Yemen’s Houthi militants, working with training and technology from Iran, have hit Saudi Arabian refineries and shut down air traffic to the capital with a series of long range missile and drone attacks that Tehran could replicate. Drones fired from Iraq knocked the kingdom’s East-West pipeline out for days, threatening oil supplies.

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Experts say Venezuela's claim to 300 billion reserve oil barrels is a stretch

A single figure sets Venezuela apart from the rest of the world: 303 billion barrels of so-called proven oil reserves. But experts say the country’s estimate is inherently problematic and far from proven — rooted in exaggerated, aging data from a corrupt government. The number has long been touted by politicians and investors as an important measure of untapped energy potential, most recently by President Donald Trump’s administration in detailing a sweeping deal for the U.S. to take control of some Venezuelan reserves. But a more realistic estimate of the country’s proven reserves — a gold standard metric, representing the amount of oil that can reasonably be extracted under current conditions — is about one-third of what it has reported, half a dozen experts told The Associated Press. They put the likely figure at 60 to 120 billion barrels, a vast amount but not enough for Venezuela to remain the world’s largest holder of reserves.

The distinction is an important one as Venezuela and the U.S. attempt to attract new investment into the country’s dilapidated oil industry, and it suggests that the deal Trump announced in August claiming the U.S. would ultimately control more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves is much less profitable than he asserted. “That’s a funny, funny proposal,” Evanan Romero, a former Venezuela energy official now based in Houston, said of the deal, adding that he believes the Trump administration didn’t fully research the South American country’s claims before wading in. “If the U.S. government called them and asked them to testify to how they did the procedure — well, the whole world will know that that’s a funny number, an absolute lie.” Venezuela’s government didn’t respond to a request for comment from AP. Trump has said that under the deal, the U.S. will control 65 billion barrels of proven reserves — a figure exceeding the entirety of U.S. crude reserves. He’s repeatedly cited the 65 billion barrels number and called the oil deal the biggest in history, a way to refill U.S. strategic reserves and lower gas prices that surged during the Iran war.

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MAHA activists jaded by top ally’s departure from White House

The abrupt resignation of one of the leading Make America Healthy Again advocates from the Trump administration on Thursday is a threat to discourage swing midterm election voters who want reforms to federal food policy. Calley Means, one of the founding figures in the MAHA movement, resigned from his position in the Trump administration on Thursday after reportedly clashing with members of the White House inner circle over delays in advancing food policy reforms central to his agenda. Means’s departure comes as Republicans are struggling nationwide in polls ahead of the elections on Nov. 3. His resignation is likely to spark disillusionment with President Donald Trump and the GOP among MAHA voters who voted for him in 2024.

Kelly Ryerson, a food reform and anti-pesticide activist, told the Washington Examiner that Means’s resignation “is a strong signal that the administration is falling short on their commitments to our MAHA cohort,” but it might not be enough to tip the scales in favor of Democrats. “President Trump is surrounded by smart, shrewd industry players that hold enough power to silence the demands of our diseased population,” Ryerson said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that MAHA voters will run and vote Democrat. It’s more a renewed, deep distrust in the entire political system that continues to leave our kids sick and medicated.” Means was one of the central figures in the summer of 2024 who connected Robert F. Kennedy with Trump, who at the time were rival presidential candidates. After Kennedy was appointed health and human services secretary, Means has been a key adviser to Kennedy, including helping with the revision of the dietary guidelines and negotiations with food companies to remove artificial dyes from certain products.

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Lead Stories

Musk’s move to flood Texas Senate race with cash plays into Talarico’s hand

Elon Musk’s move to spend millions of dollars to support Republican Ken Paxton in his US Senate race is opening up a potent line of attack about money in politics from Democratic challenger James Talarico. Musk’s America PAC has now spent $31.6 million on the Texas race, according to the latest federal filing, on top of the $149 million a different Musk-funded PAC has funneled into the contest. The spending has cemented the world’s wealthiest person as the biggest political donor for the second straight election cycle. As of Wednesday, Musk’s total known spending on the midterms is $369 million. “Elon Musk is trying to buy this Senate seat in Texas,” Talarico said during a recent rally. “In all likelihood, if you’ve seen an attack ad on your TV, that was Elon. If you’ve gotten lies in your mailbox, that was Elon. If you’ve received a text message saying scary things about me, that was Elon too.”

Billionaire-bashing has been fundamental to Talarico’s campaign since its inception. In his launch video in September 2025, Talarico said the wealthy try to divide people over social issues so they can cut taxes for their donors. As Musk has stepped up his political spending — and personal insults directed at Talarico through his social-media accounts — it’s given the Democrat a face for those attacks. Talarico, who maintains a slight edge in recent polls, has framed the political divide as working people versus the wealthy, with an anti-corruption message about getting big money out of politics. Musk has a lot riding on the tight race, which Texas Democrats believe might be their best opportunity to win a statewide election for the first time in three decades and could be key to Democrats’ chances of flipping Senate control. Musk has lived in Texas since 2020, and Tesla and SpaceX — which are studying a mega-merger — are expanding operations in the state. SpaceX is a key contractor for NASA and the US military, and got about one-fifth of its revenue from the federal government last year. Both SpaceX and Tesla are also vulnerable to government regulations on everything from environmental restrictions around rocket launches to fuel-efficiency standards for autos. Besides his financial contributions, Musk is also using his platform on X to bash Talarico, often over unfounded accusations about transgender policy. Musk has said that “Talarico hates Texas” and amplified baseless theories about the Democrat’s health to his 241 million followers. On Facebook and Instagram, America PAC is running digital ads about “Talafreako.” Another ad shows a person putting on makeup with the caption: “He made his plan to vote. Did you?”

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Texas loses 19,000 jobs, prompting Dallas Fed forecast cut

Texas lost nearly 19,000 jobs in September, according to figures published this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, representing the state’s largest monthly net jobs decrease since June 2025. The rough month also helped push the Reserve Bank’s 2026 Texas employment growth forecast downward to less than 1% — a significant drop from recent months and far below the state’s historical average. September’s weak job numbers come as the country faces numerous economic headwinds, including high energy costs, interest rates that continue to weigh on homebuilding and an immigration crackdown restricting hiring in some key industries. “Texas employment declined in September, slowing year-to-date job growth to 0.8%, well below the state’s long-running average of 2%,” Luis Torres, a Dallas Fed senior business economist, said in a statement. “The moderation in job growth is consistent with current labor supply constraints that partly result from sharply lower immigration.”

The September jobs numbers were a major factor behind the bank’s new projection of a 0.9% jobs increase for the year, down from 1.2% a month ago and 2% in July. The forecast is based on an average of four models that include national GDP, oil futures prices and other economic data. In 2025, Texas’ job growth rate was 0.8%, a significant slowdown compared with recent years that economists blamed in part on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which squeezed the state’s labor market, as well as tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty. Early this year, the bank’s model projected Texas employment would grow by 1.1% for the year. “It’s not back to trend growth,” Pia Orrenius, a senior economist with the bank, said at the time. “I don’t think that trend growth is really achievable given the labor supply constraints that we’re experiencing right now.” For much of the year, though, even as soaring fuel prices and lower immigration contributed to a largely stagnant national labor market, in Texas — a state that’s long outperformed the national economy — jobs gains seemed to defy early expectations.

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New $4.2 billion Texas gas pipe to supply fuel for data center

Kinder Morgan Inc. formally committed to building a $4.2 billion pipeline that will haul fuel across West Texas and the Panhandle to help power a data center complex. The project dubbed Permian Link will have a capacity to ship 2.8 billion cubic feet of gas daily across a 434-mile (700-kilometer) expanse, according to a statement Wednesday. Kinder counts an unnamed “A-list hyperscaler” as a major customer for the network, which is expected be in-service in late 2030, the statement said.

The pipeline will capture a “compelling opportunity” by moving cheap Permian Basin gas north to emerging data center clusters in the Panhandle, Kinder Chief Executive Officer Kim Dang said during a conference call with analysts. Permian Link is the latest giant Texas pipeline to reach a final investment decision in recent months amid booming demand for power to run data centers and supply export terminals. While Kinder is looking to accommodate multiple customers with Permian Link, the unnamed hyperscaler is the anchor tenant and “obviously is driving the need for speed,” said Sital Mody, president of natural gas pipelines. Separately, the company greenlit the 470-mile Southeast Connector pipeline that will haul as much as 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas daily.

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Higher deductibles, bigger premiums: Rising healthcare costs hit employees

Corporate America is getting hit by healthcare sticker shock—and companies are passing a greater share of the cost on to workers. The trend is accelerating. New data shows that this year, the average cost of a family health plan crossed $28,000, rising by 5%, according to an annual survey from the nonprofit KFF, which provides the broadest picture of U.S. employer health coverage. The share coming out of employees’ paychecks shot up even faster—to $7,471, an increase of 9% from 2025. Kevin Cole, chief executive of Mid Oregon Credit Union, was stunned when he got the company’s new healthcare cost projection: Mid Oregon was expected to spend 38% more on coverage in 2027. “It was horrific, much worse than I expected,” said Cole.

Cole had to make changes to the health coverage offered to the credit union’s roughly 170 employees. Among those changes: raising workers’ premium payments in tandem with the overall cost increase, raising deductibles and offering a new high-deductible plan. Still, the changes are only expected to bring Mid Oregon’s cost increase down by about 2 percentage points. Next year is likely to be worse, according to health benefits consultants and actuaries. The cost increases for 2027 follow two or three years of steep rises, and the drivers aren’t going away. Hospitals have been able to raise some prices and use artificial-intelligence tools to boost billing. High-cost drugs for an array of conditions, including cancer and weight loss, are driving up spending. Some employers are reacting by dropping coverage for popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs, though some are now helping to fund pretax accounts that workers can use to buy them on their own. Denver-based Cerebral Brewing, which makes its own beer and owns tap rooms, is budgeting for a 20% cost increase on its health plans, which renewed on July 1. The company is also facing cost increases for aluminum and fuel, and it hasn’t raised its overall beer prices.

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State Stories

The Texas Attorney General's race is worth watching

A crucial midterm contest is happening right now in Texas, one that could determine the future of the state and its influence on federal policy and national politics. No, not the U.S. Senate race—though everyone is watching that one, and with good reason. The Republican, Ken Paxton—who has served as Texas’s attorney general since 2015—is an unusually weak candidate, beset by personal and financial scandals and a reputation for using his office for right-wing culture-war fixations, and weighed down by a deeply unpopular president. On the other side is James Talarico, an unusually strong Democratic candidate, fluent in the language of faith and without the cloud of scandal that haunts his opponent. “This is the most competitive election that we have seen in Texas” in decades, James Henson, the executive director of the University of Texas at Austin’s nonpartisan Texas Politics Project, told me. But the race I’m talking about is downstream of that: Who will succeed Ken Paxton? The two major-party candidates vying to be attorney general are Nathan Johnson, a Democratic state senator from Dallas, and Mayes Middleton (“MAGA Mayes,” as his own ads call him), a Republican state senator and GOP mega-donor whose district covers parts of Harris, Brazoria, and Galveston counties.

An October poll from the Texas Politics Project shows a dead heat, with Johnson at 48 percent and Middleton at 47 percent. The Texas attorney general is a very powerful position, one that has frequently been a springboard to higher office—John Cornyn held the job before becoming a U.S. senator, as did Greg Abbott before becoming the state’s governor. The AG is meant to defend the laws of the state, and has certain specific responsibilities, such as enforcing child support and investigating Medicaid fraud. Over the past few decades, however, the role has become something more: a way for ambitious politicians to wage culture wars, cultivate a national profile by taking on right-wing causes, and shape law and policy not just in Texas but nationwide. The attorney general “helps set legal policy across the country,” Justin Nelson, a Democrat who came within a few points of unseating Paxton in 2018, told me. The race between Talarico and Paxton may be capturing everyone’s attention right now, but “when you’re a senator, you’re one of 100,” Nelson pointed out. There’s only one attorney general of Texas. An entire accounting of Paxton’s use of the AG’s office to further extreme conservative causes would take too long. But you get the idea. The Texas AG’s office is the “largest legal power in the conservative movement, nationally, period, end of story,” Adam Piper, who runs the Republican Attorneys General Association, told The Texas Tribune earlier this year. Ali S. Zaidi, the former director of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, told me that “simply removing a Republican” from the Texas attorney general’s office “could have enormous ripple effects across the country for, frankly, generations to come.”

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Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let Big Bend border wall construction continue

The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to allow construction on border walls and other barriers across the Big Bend region of West Texas to continue amid an ongoing legal fight. The administration’s emergency request to the nation’s highest court comes just weeks after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued an injunction blocking border barrier construction — and the use of federal regulatory waivers expediting the project — for the entire Big Bend region. The area, known for its rugged canyon lands and desert vistas, makes up nearly a quarter of the U.S.-Mexico border but has historically seen among the lowest numbers of border crossings in the Southwest. The Center for Biological Diversity, a church preservation group and a local river guide are suing the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection over its border barrier plans for the region.

In the emergency application filed Wednesday, the government called the injunction “baseless” and argued that its border security and operation interests “vastly outweigh any aesthetic, recreational, or cultural injuries” suffered by the plaintiffs. The administration is asking for both a stay of the lower court injunction, which would allow construction to continue, and for the court to “summarily” take up the case and reverse the original injunction order. For now, the judge’s block on construction remains in effect, after Judge Cardone on Tuesday rejected the government’s separate request in the lower court for construction to continue. The Trump administration claims the construction pause is costing over $460,000 a day due to the “scale” of the project. “Workers there had already constructed about three quarters of a mile of border barrier, and temporary field offices, supply yards, a water delivery system, and a temporary concrete batch plant had been installed,” the emergency application read.

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Texas state senator raises concerns about ‘loophole’ in new school voucher program

State Sen. José Menéndez is questioning what he calls a "loophole" in Texas’ voucher program that allows families to receive taxpayer dollars even when their children attend private schools that don’t participate in the program. A Texas lawmaker is questioning a provision in the state’s new school voucher program that allows families to receive taxpayer money even when their children attend private schools that aren’t participating in the program. At a recent Senate Education Committee hearing, Democratic state Sen. José Menéndez of San Antonio questioned how families can qualify for up to $2,000 through a category called “homeschool/other.”

Menéndez raised concerns after reviewing a Facebook exchange in which Travis Pillow, who oversees the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program for the Comptroller’s office, explained that the homeschool/other category isn’t limited to traditional homeschool families. “Basically you’re telling folks, check homeschool or other, you’ll get the money and you can still use whatever school you want,” Menéndez said during the hearing. Pillow explained that families can qualify for the $2,000 award even if their children attend private schools that don’t participate in the voucher program. Instead of tuition, the funds can go toward approved educational expenses, including tutoring, therapy, educational materials and extracurricular activities like karate or piano lessons. “Every dollar that is spent through this program needs to be for an approved and qualified educational expense,” Pillow told lawmakers. Menéndez said the distinction raises questions about accountability, particularly when students move from the private school category into the homeschool/other category. “My concern is that by dropping to the home school it is a big, big loophole the size of a Mack truck to use it for almost anything,” Menéndez said. “And so I think it’s something we need to be thoughtful and careful with.” The hearing was held as lawmakers evaluate the first year of the voucher program and prepare to potentially double its $1 billion budget during the upcoming legislative session.

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Tony Gonzales’ campaign paid wife’s companies thousands after leaving office

Since resigning this spring amid scandal, former U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales has sent tens of thousands of campaign dollars to companies recently created by his wife that don’t appear to have any physical or online presence, according to records reviewed by the Express-News. Between April and September, Gonzales’s campaign and an associated PAC reported paying $54,350 to two companies, Adulting Consulting and Casagrande LLC, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Both businesses were registered with the state after Gonzales stepped down and include the same San Antonio address as Gonzales’s campaign committee, which appears to be a UPS store about a seven-minute drive from Gonzales' house. Gonzales’s wife, Angel, is listed as the manager for each.

Neither company appears to have a website. In their incorporation documents, they each include the same generic business description. Federal law allows former candidates to pay companies that are operated by family members. But the services provided must be necessary, legitimate and billed at standard commercial rates, said Michael Beckel, director of money in politics reform at the nonpartisan group, Issue One. It’s illegal to use campaign funds for personal use. In FEC records, Gonzales’ campaign said the money went toward “data management,” “compliance” and “compliance consulting.” Tony Gonzales is the only candidate whose campaign has reported paying the organizations. In a statement to the Express-News, Gonzales’ campaign said the spending was in compliance with federal law. The statement did not answer questions about the specific services provided by Adulting Consulting and Casagrande LLC. “As the campaign transitions from active status there remain ongoing administrative expenses to include but not limited to compliance requirements, storage, data management, and others,” the statement said. It was unsigned.

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Talarico presses anticorruption agenda, targeting both Paxton and Elon Musk

Democratic state Rep. James Talarico made one of his final swings through the Houston area Wednesday ahead of November's U.S. Senate election, taking direct aim at trillionaire Elon Musk for bankrolling his Republican rival, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Speaking before a crowd at the UH Hilton on the main campus of the University of Houston, Talarico framed the Senate race as a fight against corruption. "Ken Paxton was impeached by his own party, by his fellow Republicans for using his public office — his position of public trust — to enrich himself and his donors at the expense of the people of Texas," Talarico said. "Ken Paxton represents everything that’s wrong with this broken, corrupt system. He doesn’t serve us. He serves himself."

Paxton’s campaign has been dogged by multiple scandals, including his past indictment for felony securities fraud, as well as his 2023 impeachment on charges of abuse of office, which ultimately ended in his acquittal by the Texas Senate. Talarico pledged to pass a raft of anti-corruption measures if elected. Specifically, he advocated for legislation to ban corporate political action committees and super PACs; to bar members of Congress from trading in stocks; to outlaw partisan gerrymandering by state governments; and to enact congressional term limits. As a first-term lawmaker, Talarico would likely have limited power to push for any of these measures. Talarico also took aim at Musk, pointing to the nearly $190 million in donations Paxton received from Musk through the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC tied to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. "In all likelihood, if you’ve seen an attack ad on your screen, that was Elon. If you’ve gotten lies in your mailbox, that was Elon. If you’ve received a text message saying scary things about me, that was Elon too," Talarico said. "Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants our taxpayer dollars. He wants his very own personal United States Senator. He is trying to buy Texas. But on Nov. 3, we are going to send a clear message to the world’s first trillionaire: Texas is not for sale."

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Die-hard Dems face dilemma in Harris County Treasurer race

Can a county official with a boatload of baggage and relatively low name ID get re-elected in November? It’s certainly possible. Since Carla Wyatt was elected Harris County treasurer in 2023, she’s had two drunk-driving arrests, a burglary charge that was later dismissed and a pending case alleging she caused a four-car pileup on Interstate 45. Some might think that Wyatt would sit out the November election and pursue another employment opportunity, but that’s not the case. She’s on the ballot seeking another two-year term and she also brazenly asked in August for a salary increase from $139,547 to $305,000.

Harris County’s Salary Grievance Committee instead recommended a 30 percent raise, which would have hiked Wyatt’s salary to $181,411. Commissioners Court denied the recommendation last month. The court had already voted in February 4-0 to prioritize abolishing the treasurer’s office as part of its legislative agenda in 2027. County Judge Lina Hidalgo was not present for the vote. The action came after Wyatt’s office approved two fraudulent checks totaling nearly $53,000. The funds were recovered, but the incident prompted commissioners to move key fraud-prevention duties out of the treasurer’s office and into the Office of Management and Budget. Texas Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, has said that if Wyatt is re-elected, “it will effectively be a signal for removal.” Tarrant, Bexar, Collin and El Paso counties have all eliminated the treasurer’s office in recent years. The Harris County Treasurer’s Office is similar to a comptroller or controller, responsible for managing bank accounts and public money. It handles the receipt, disbursement and deposit of county funds and keeps records of how money is spent.

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San Antonio City Council curb's mayor’s power over bond picks

In a direct jab at Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, the City Council is curtailing her power over who will oversee San Antonio’s next bond program. Council members voted 7-3 on Wednesday to give themselves the authority to pick and approve the three chairpersons who will guide the city’s 2027 bond process, breaking with precedent. Before Jones, mayors were free to unilaterally name the so-called tri-chairs, who usually are business and civic leaders. Jones had announced her chairs on Monday: Jim Perschbach, president and CEO of Port San Antonio; Jelynne LeBlanc Jamison, president and CEO of the Center for Health Care Services and chairwoman of the San Antonio Water System’s board of directors; and Mario Obledo Jr., chief of government and public affairs at the San Antonio Food Bank. Wednesday’s vote nullifies those appointments.

Council members Teri Castillo, Marina Alderete Gavito and Marc Whyte forced the special meeting by filing a three-signature memo last week requesting that Councilwomen Sukh Kaur and Phyllis Viagran review the mayor’s selections and that city staff draft an ordinance requiring the council to green-light the nominees. But the ordinance sets up Kaur and Viagran to go further than weighing in on Jones’ selections. It gives the two councilwomen the authority to recommend tri-chair candidates, who will then go to City Council for approval. The five council members behind the measure have repeatedly clashed with Jones over a variety of policies and protocols. She has accused her colleagues of ignoring her budget proposals and recommendations for the city’s contributions to Project Marvel, the sports and entertainment district downtown. They, in turn, say she’s been unwilling to hear their feedback and hasn’t sought their support for her initiatives. Jones’ recent proposal to allocate most of the 2027 bond proceeds to Council Districts 1 through 5, the city’s poorest, fell flat.

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Race for Tarrant County judge a barometer of region’s political dynamic, analysts say

After four years sharing the commissioners court dais, Tim O’Hare and Alisa Simmons face off Nov. 3 in the race for Tarrant County judge. O’Hare, the Republican incumbent seeking his second term, has focused his campaign on keeping property taxes low and bolstering public safety. Simmons, a Democratic county commissioner, wants to strengthen county services and has centered her campaign on empowering residents while holding government officials accountable. Both candidates took office in January 2023. Their tenure on commissioners court has been marked by repeated public clashes, as the two held opposing stances on issues including accountability for in-custody deaths at the county jail, local law enforcement’s role in immigration enforcement, last summer’s county redistricting and decorum at public meetings. The race for county judge is also a test of the county’s political dynamic, as O’Hare seeks to maintain and further assert Republican dominance in Tarrant County after the high-profile county redistricting he initiated last summer.

Political analysts told the Fort Worth Report and KERA News that county judge races are not typically the biggest drivers of voter turnout in midterm elections, but national attention on the high-profile governor and U.S. Senate races can generate a trickle-down effect on the down-ballot races. Although Democrats are primed for a good election year in Texas, Tarrant County candidates shouldn’t count on voters sticking to one political party up and down the ballot, said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “This is a distinctively hard year for Republicans across the country and will be in Tarrant County as well,” Jillson said in a phone interview. “How far down the ballot that goes remains to be seen.” National unrest over Republican leadership, combined with Tarrant’s growing and diversifying population, could benefit Simmons’ bid for the countywide seat, Jillson said. Voters who split from their usual party — such as Republicans considering voting Democrat for Senate — typically revert to their political affiliation further down the ballot, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. He predicted an O’Hare win. “Honestly, it’s hard to bet against Republicans, especially down-ballot,” Rottinghaus said.

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Texas wedding venue settles lawsuit over $16K refund after groom dies

A Hays County wedding venue has dropped its counterclaim against a woman who filed a lawsuit this summer accusing the business of refusing to refund her after her fiancée died suddenly, months before the wedding was scheduled to take place. The counterclaim from Posey Meadows against the surviving fiancée was not part of an amended answer filed in the case Tuesday.

An attorney for the woman confirmed Wednesday evening the case was settled and she will be given a refund for the full amount. In a statement, Posey Meadows addressed the latest step in a suit that has brought a flood of negative attention to the venue. “Our thoughts continue to be with Diego’s family and loved ones, and we extend our deepest condolences. Posey Meadows is not pursuing any claim against (redacted) and is not seeking any further payment from her. When we were told of Diego’s passing, we wanted to help. We have always asked for confirmation of the circumstances when making an exception to our cancellation policy. When families have provided it in other difficult situations, we have made exceptions and refunded them in full. Our goal is to treat every family and every client fairly, compassionately, and consistently. In early May, we asked the family for a copy of the death certificate, and they told us they would provide it. While waiting, we wanted to do our part and searched for an obituary, a funeral or memorial notice, and any other public confirmation of Diego’s passing, but were unable to locate anything. We continued checking over the following months. We did not receive a copy of the death certificate until mid-August, after they had filed the lawsuit and after we had responded to it—as we were required to do. Our efforts were never meant to diminish the family’s loss. We regret that the litigation process has complicated what we hoped would be a speedy and compassionate resolution. We are hopeful an agreement will be reached very soon, and we sincerely hope it allows everyone involved to move forward with peace and healing.” An attorney for Posey Meadows, who confirmed she had earlier this week replaced the attorney who filed the counterclaim, told KSAT Wednesday morning the venue had offered to settle the case and is waiting to hear back from the plaintiff’s attorney.

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Saks sought $126 million from Dallas to keep Neiman Marcus downtown

Saks Global asked for $126 million in taxpayer dollars last year to redo — and keep open — the flagship Neiman Marcus store in downtown Dallas, newly released public records show. Saks, which acquired the department store two years ago, said it was going to pursue historic tax credits and city funding to renovate the building, bring the iconic Zodiac restaurant to the ground floor and reconstruct the top seven floors into office space and a “Luxury Accelerator” — a sort of incubator for fashion designers and fabricators. The company, now called Exemplar Luxury Group, asked for money collected in downtown’s tax increment financing zone. It presented the plan to the city over a year before Neiman Marcus permanently closed downtown. The proposal consolidated the retail store on the first two floors of the century-old building, where shoppers could’ve perused the work by the designers upstairs.

Downtown Dallas Inc., the nonprofit that oversees downtown, is working to use historic tax credits to save aging buildings in the city center. Neiman Marcus is one of many fixtures leaving downtown. Saks officials did not immediately respond Wednesday about why the deal didn’t materialize, but in the presentation the company said the project was not “financially viable without the requested incentive.” The city’s economic development officials told The Dallas Morning News the city “indefinitely paused” work on the application after the company filed for bankruptcy in January and didn’t do any “substantive work” reviewing the proposal in the months before the pause. The News received emails, slide decks and incentive documents this week after requesting the records from the city several times. The city attorney’s office requested the Texas attorney general allow city officials to withhold the records, but the AG’s office allowed a partial release. The records show the financial considerations in the fight to keep the store downtown. The city’s Landmark Commission kicked off the process to designate the property as historic and protect the building from demolition in August.

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As Texas Gov. Abbott targets Muslim groups, his PAC receives millions from Muslim oil exec

One of the largest donors to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s political action committee is a Pakistani American Muslim oil executive and philanthropist, who has given nearly $4 million to the PAC since 2025 alone. Over the same period, Abbott has launched investigations of Islamic organizations and escalated anti-Muslim rhetoric. Since 2015, S. Javaid Anwar donated more than $15 million to Abbott’s Texans for Greg Abbott PAC, making him one of Abbott’s top donors, according to Texas Ethics Commission filings. The founder of Midland Energy and Petroplex Energy, two independent oil drilling companies, Anwar has given $3.9 million and made $122,000 in-kind donations, such as providing private plane travel for Abbott, since 2025, filings show. Anwar, who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s, has been a major donor to Republicans, including contributing more than $1 million to Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, according to U.S. Federal Election Commission filings. The White House referred RNS to the Republican National Committee for comment, which did not immediately respond.

Anwar, a Houston resident, also has supported local Muslim groups, serving, for example, as one of the “grand sponsors” of Houston’s largest interfaith Ramadan Iftar since at least 2013, according to the organization’s website. “He’s giving millions to Abbott, to the GOP, to Trump specifically, and they in turn have harmed us in very, very real ways,” said Saleema Gul, a Houston-based activist who is Muslim. RNS made several attempts to reach Anwar. On Friday (Oct. 16), his executive assistant sent an email to RNS, saying, “Mr. Anwar is ill and not taking any meeting request or phone calls at this time.” Abbott has called for state and federal criminal and civil investigations into The Meadow, a proposed Muslim-centered real estate development in a north Texas suburb. In November 2025, he also designated the largest Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American Islamic Relations, a foreign terrorist group in Texas. The three-term governor has repeatedly said he is targeting Sharia law, though interfaith advocates have said his rhetoric has put a target on Muslims in the state. Abbott’s spokesperson referred RNS to Abbott’s campaign, which did not respond to a request for comment. Social media users on the right have also raised objections to Anwar’s donations for different reasons, saying that Abbott’s acceptance of the donations show he doesn’t take the “Islamification” of Texas seriously.

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Georgia GOP candidate Jackson loans $20 million to Texas oil refinery Trump touted

Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson loaned $20 million at 12% interest to a new oil refinery planned for the Texas coast that President Donald Trump has hailed as a major victory in his quest for “energy dominance.” The healthcare billionaire’s loan and ownership stake in America First Refining’s plan to build the first new, major US refinery in half a century were disclosed in a federal tax court hearing earlier this year. Jackson’s ties to the project have become a flashpoint in the contest to decide who will lead the nation’s eighth-largest economy. His Democratic opponent in the Nov. 3 election, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has unveiled ads slamming his role in the fossil-fuel installation as well as his ties to Trump. An Atlanta Journal Constitution poll ranks the race effectively a dead heat.

Trump has been a robust supporter of America First’s proposed fuel-making complex in the Texas city of Brownsville roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Elon Musk’s Starbase launch complex. The refinery will process solely Texas crude when operations begin toward the end of the decade. The White House has been seeking to boost domestic fuel output as wars in Iran and Ukraine spike prices globally ahead of the midterm elections. Retail diesel has soared almost 70% since the US-Iran war kicked off in late February, touching an all-time high of more than $6.50 a gallon late last month. The president is so bullish on America First’s development that the project is listed on the White House website as the single largest investment in US manufacturing and industry, pegging its value at $300 billion. Donald Trump Jr. has praised Jackson for stepping up to help finance the refinery. Jackson’s role in financing the refinery emerged during testimony in his United States Tax Court suit against the Internal Revenue Service over deductions tied to low-budget movie productions. In response to a question about whether any loans made by his investment firm, Jackson Investment Group, have been particularly successful, he alluded to the proposed Brownsville refinery.

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Camp Mystic given firm deadline to restructure how company is run or could lose control

A bankruptcy judge could appoint a trustee if Camp Mystic fails to meet requirements for independent oversight of its Chapter 11 case. After three days of hearings, a Houston-based Bankruptcy Judge gave Camp Mystic a deadline in their Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The Kerr County Camp and other debtors in the case have until September 28 to submit a number of documents, including who they want to appoint as an Independent Fiduciary and how they plan to oversee their Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

If they don't file them on time or Judge Christopher Lopez does not deem them up to standard by November 3, he will appoint a Trustee to oversee the case. Camp Mystic is where 28 people, including 27 campers and counselors, died in the July 2025 floods. Several of the families whose daughters died have asked for the Trustee to be put in place. The ruling comes about two weeks after Judge Lopez ruled the stay is lifted on lawsuits against the Eastland family, who own and operate the camp. Those can resume as of November 9. Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June after pulling their license application to open their doors for the 2026 summer camp season.

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National Stories

Hegseth wanted Eisenhower’s globe for his office. His staff broke it.

It was early this year when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted to move the world. A replica of it, anyway. Two floor globes said to be used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II are housed in the Pentagon, where subsequent generations of Army leaders became custodians of the artifacts, according to people familiar with the globe’s lineage and an accompanying plaque dating them to the 1930s. The historical significance was attractive to Hegseth, these people said, and his staff requested that the secretary’s office become the new home to one of the 30-inch globes. Ordinarily, moving historical items within the building is a deliberate process overseen by trained curators. Instead, Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe. They lost control of the artifact and dropped it, sending the globe crashing onto its base and impaling the fragile shell near Antarctica, according to those familiar with the incident. The resulting gash appears to be several inches wide.

Pentagon officials denied The Washington Post’s request for a photo of the globe or to examine the artifact in person, but The Post separately obtained images of the damage. The Army, in an email to The Post, acknowledged that the globe was damaged and said it occurred during an “attempted move” Feb. 3. Aside from the hole, “the spherical portion of the globe was detached from the metal mounting that allows it to rotate,” spokesman Christopher Surridge said in response to questions. Ultimately, the damaged relic was not relocated, he said. Asked where the movers came from, Surridge referred The Post to Hegseth’s office. Spokespeople for the defense secretary did not respond to a request for comment. The Army office in possession of the globe had expected to consult with experts at the U.S. Army Center of Military History on how to ensure its safe transport and properly document its new relocation to Hegseth’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a previously undisclosed incident that is viewed as an embarrassment within the Defense Department.

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It’s a blue state. It was ground zero for ICE’s brutality. It’s somehow also Democrats’ 2026 weak spot.

With less than two weeks to go before the midterms, the tale is the same as it has been all fall: It’s hard to find anything going Republicans’ way. Look around. While the GOP’s super PACs continue flooding Senate races in red states like Texas, Ohio, Kansas, and Iowa with ads, Senate Democrats’ super PAC is investing in Mississippi. In the House, Republican election groups are retreating from lost causes to defend core seats. But as Democrats put away House districts and Senate races in states like Georgia and North Carolina, one race is swimming curiously against the tide. On the same day that the election handicappers at the Cook Political Report shifted their rating of the Mississippi and South Carolina Senate races in Democrats’ favor, and fellow forecasters at Sabato’s Crystal Ball moved dozens of House races Democrats’ way, Cook made another change.

It moved the Minnesota Senate race, a contest between Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Republican former sports reporter Michele Tafoya, from “Likely Democrat” to “Lean Democrat.” Crystal Ball had made a similar decision the previous week. In other words, forecasters believe Flanagan is still the favorite, but not by much. What’s going on here? Why, in a great environment for Democrats, and in a consistently blue state like Minnesota, is this race looking like a squeaker? It’s not the same as New Hampshire, Democrats’ other misbehaving light-blue state that should be a shoo-in this year but somehow isn’t. In the Granite State, Republicans are running a former senator from the state’s Republican royal family, and Republican outside groups invested substantially, and early, in that race. Senate Republicans’ main super PAC, meanwhile, hasn’t put any money behind Tafoya’s bid; each candidate’s campaign has spent a civilized couple-million dollars each. And it’s not that Minnesota is a runaway train trending redder demographically. It’s dominated by the Twin Cities, and has a high percentage of adults with college degrees, the dividing line on which so much of Trump-era political realignment hinges. Instead, Democrats’ inability to pull away in this race is a matter of candidate quality, and seismic news stories from Minnesota that garnered immense national attention. What sets the race apart, aside from positions here or there, though, is that Tafoya, more than the average 2026 Republican in Trump’s America, has a lot of offensive material to work with. Flanagan is lieutenant to Gov. Tim Walz, who presided over a state welfare fraud scandal of such magnitude that it ended his bid for a third term. Tafoya has made this her central line of attack, arguing that Flanagan should be held accountable for the failures of the administration.

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Trump merchandise stores are closing: 'He has peaked'

When the Trump merchandise store here announced it was closing earlier this year, Wes Alker, a Trump superfan and retired auto mechanic, came by for some nostalgia and the going-out-of-business deals. They included everything from "Trump Won" caps for $9.99 to Trump pool floats for $19.99. Trump stores first emerged during the 2016 campaign. But with the president now in his second and final term, store owners say there isn't as much to fire up the consumer fan base and sales have softened. At least four stores have closed this year. The MAGA Mall, a big online retailer and wholesaler, reports sales of MAGA gear are down 30% compared to a presidential election year when Trump is on the ballot.

"He's no longer a viable business model for entrepreneurs because he has peaked," said Alker, who wore a gray T-shirt with a photo of former President Joe Biden and former Vice-President Kamala Harris which read, "Dumb and Dumber." Trump's lame duck status isn't the only drag on demand. When the Bensalem store closed – it still maintains an online presence – Trump's average approval rating had already fallen from 50 % when he took office to 44 %. Nine months later, when Bill Hays shut down his Trump super store outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, the president's approval rating had fallen five more points. Hays said unpopular policies – such as DOGE's massive government staff cuts – have had an impact. He noticed that instead of immediately putting on their new Trump gear, more buyers asked for bags. "People were not wearing their colors, so to speak, like they did before the (2024) election," said Hays, 80. When Hays opened his store in April 2024, business boomed. One day, he said, there was a line of 80 people out the door and sales hit $200,000 a month. By the time it closed in September, sales had fallen to just $20,000 a month. "After the inauguration, I think a lot of people felt that their job was done," said Hays. "They didn't have to promote MAGA or Trump."

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Vance ‘disgusted’ by Republicans decrying Ramaswamy ad with Acton’s mother

Vice President Vance criticized the response by some Republicans to a campaign ad for Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (R), saying he is “disgusted” by those in his party who pushed back on the video. “I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America,” Vance said at a fraud task force press conference Wednesday. The ad features the mother of Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, who accuses Acton of being a “liar” and saying “my daughter needs help.”

Acton’s brother released a statement and a competing video hours later saying that he and Acton have been estranged from their mother for years because she stayed married to the man who sexually abused Acton at a young age. Acton was removed from her mother’s care at the age of 12, something unmentioned in the Ramaswamy ad. Acton is in a competitive race for Ohio governor, but her lead has expanded in recent polls. Decision Desk HQ, a partner of The Hill, gives Acton a 60 percent chance of defeating Ramaswamy. Vance, a former Ohio senator, again defended Ramaswamy while rallying with him in the Buckeye State Wednesday. “Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar,” Vance said. “Whatever you think about any of the TV advertisements, focus on the substance and focus on the facts.” The personal nature and controversy surrounding the ad led Democrats and some Republicans to condemn it and call on Ramaswamy, who admitted Tuesday that the ad was from his campaign, to change course. Axios reported Tuesday that Ramaswamy’s campaign will now spend $4 million on airing the ad statewide. Vance said at the press conference that he is not concerned about the ad and is only focused on Republicans winning Ohio. “Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern,” Vance said. “What is my concern is who is going to govern the next generation of American government, who is going to win the Senate race in the state of Ohio, who is going to win the governor’s race in the state of Ohio?” “Politics is a tough business,” Vance added. “My message to my fellow elected Republicans is if you actually believe in the things you say you believe in, stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days.”

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Trump pushback, Biden 'disaster' and gender surprise: 5 key moments from Kansas Senate debate

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton sparred over President Donald Trump, immigration, Iran, transgender athletes, artificial intelligence and personal controversies during a contentious Kansas Senate debate Wednesday night. The hour-long showdown came less than two weeks before Election Day as Marshall seeks a second term and Hamilton, a longtime pastor, tries to become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Kansas since 1932. The race has drawn increased national attention as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the Senate, with Trump traveling to Kansas earlier this week to campaign for Marshall â?? a topic touched on during the debate.

The debate wasted little time getting contentious, opening with questions about controversies that have fueled attacks against both candidates. Marshall was confronted with a New York Times review that found his former medical practice sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills. "Every year we gave away $3 to $4 million of charity, but we also had a business," Marshall responded. "We had 300 employees, we had a mortgage payment, we had electric." Hamilton, meanwhile, was questioned about his handling of allegations involving a volunteer at his church's summer camp who was accused of sexual abuse. Hamilton acknowledged that he should have ensured the individual did not return to the camp following an initial investigation. Trump became part of the debate after moderators played footage from the president's campaign appearance for Marshall in Kansas earlier in the week. "And at this election, I'm asking you to pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot. Just pretend," Trump told the crowd. Marshall was then asked whether Trump's support meant Kansans should expect him to back every part of the president's agenda. "No," Marshall responded, saying there had been "multiple times" when he objected to Trump.

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‘There are no people’: Springfield, Ohio, faces loss of Haitian residents

The denizens of this once booming industrial Midwestern city were pining for something to rally people around when they coined the motto: “Speak a good word for Springfield or say nothing.” It was the height of the Depression in 1932 and the slogan sought to inspire unity among those living in a place where the Shawnee once roamed, European immigrants arrived and freed Black families found a home. Now some residents in Springfield, Ohio, say the city’s creed is being put to the test. Since thousands of Haitian residents lost their protection from deportation this summer, dozens have been arrested, scores have lost their jobs and others have either left the country or decided to hunker down at home, out of view. “Help wanted” ads for cooks, dishwashers and babysitters are going unanswered. Haitian residents are limiting their electrical usage as they worry about how they will pay the bills.

“I’m not sure there is precedent in U.S. history for this small a community to lose that much of its workforce and population cloistered at home,” said Tim Voltz, a Springfield resident who helps Haitian immigrants. “The situation is unsustainable.” Ohio’s Miami Valley region had been growing in recent years, after decades of decline that began in the 1950s when factories shuttered and the area’s population shrunk. New immigrants, including people from Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as Haiti, helped boost Springfield’s economy, adding thousands of new jobs. The county health department estimated the Haitian population grew to about 20 to 25 percent of the city over the last decade. Then Donald Trump targeted the city’s Haitians during his 2024 presidential campaign, falsely claiming that most had arrived illegally, were “destroying” the city and were eating people’s pets. The economy began to falter in Clark County, where Springfield is located, losing more manufacturing jobs in 2025 than it had gained the two previous years. Springfield now leads the state in year-over-year job losses. Federal job reports show the city’s labor force lost 1,100 manufacturing, leisure and hospitality jobs, contracting 2.2 percent in 2025. The downward trend has continued this year, preliminary data shows. Many factors, including rising transportation and child care costs, help explain why Ohioans are exiting the workforce.

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Trump's redistricting gave Republicans a head start, now it goes to the voters

Voters across much of the South are casting ballots ahead of next month's midterm elections in congressional districts that were redrawn following calls from President Trump. He said it would help the GOP hold the House, where they currently outnumber Democrats 218 to 214. In state legislatures over the last year, Republicans tilted about eight more seats their way than Democrats did in response. But it's the voters who will decide whether it works. Here's the catch: Republicans redrew districts partly on how people voted in the presidential election in 2024. Now the political mood has changed and many who voted for President Trump two years ago could be voting for Democrats, or not voting, in the midterms. The Republicans could lose many of the districts they targeted.

Usually, states redistrict early in each decade after the census. But Trump called on legislatures to do it now. It set off a chain reaction of political crises across the country that threw legislatures into the national spotlight. Texas Republicans issued arrest warrants for Democratic legislators who'd left the state. The Louisiana governor suspended a primary after thousands of votes were already cast so the lines could be redrawn. In Missouri, the state supreme court found the Republican secretary of state in contempt for sticking with a GOP map that was not legally in effect. In California and Virginia, Democrats won approval in statewide votes for redistricting in response to the Republicans in other states – only to have the courts toss out Virginia's plan. And when the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act this spring, it fueled rushed legislative sessions to draw maps that often ended up weakening the voting power of minority communities. In a few places, Republicans rejected Trump's call to redistrict, including dramatic votes in the Indiana and South Carolina legislatures. But overall, Trump prompted a cycle of mid-decade redistricting unlike any since the 1960s, when courts set the current rules.

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Lead Stories

Texas continued permitting data centers after Abbott’s pause, report finds

Regulators in Texas did not stop processing permits for data center projects when Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a pause last month, according to an analysis of public records released Monday by the oil and gas watchdog group FracTracker. Amid an upswell of public opposition to the booming buildout of digital infrastructure in Texas, Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in a Sept. 21 letter “to halt all permits sought by data centers.” But FracTracker, in collaboration with Public Citizen, identified 35 permitting actions taken by the TCEQ for data center projects in subsequent weeks. “TCEQ has continued reviewing applications and issuing approvals that allow data center development to proceed,” the groups said in a press release Monday. “These actions do not signal an agency trying to pause.” Abbott’s office and the TCEQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Abbott has described his moratorium on data center projects as an opportunity for state agencies to evaluate the facilities’ impact on water resources and grid stability. “No other state agency shall move forward with regulatory approvals related to data centers until this information is acquired,” Abbott wrote in his Sept. 21 letter to TCEQ executive director Kelly Keel. Since that letter, the TCEQ has fast-tracked or assigned engineers to 14 permits, approved stormwater coverage for 11, certified emissions estimates for seven and issued public notice for three, according to permitting documents collected by FracTracker and Public Citizen. The permits regard construction of gas power generation facilities for energy-hungry facilities. All of the largest gas power projects currently proposed in Texas are specifically intended to serve data centers, which are primarily planned to run artificial intelligence. The projects would release tens of thousands of tons of regulated pollutants, according to permitting documents, as well as more than 100 million tons per year of greenhouse gases—an enormous amount roughly equal to the annual emissions of a mid-sized industrialized country.

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Cryptic group behind transgender mailers formed weeks ago in Wyoming

Mailers from a mysterious group purporting to represent transgender students have riled up voters in Texas as early voting gets underway. But the Texas Transgender Student Union that sent the brochures and similar text messages that went out to voters earlier this month appears to have been created just weeks ago — and is registered as an LLC in Wyoming. Texas transgender advocacy groups have denied sending out the material, leading many to believe they may be coming from someone hoping to stir up Republican voters, rather than offer aid to transgender youth as they purport to be doing.

The mysterious group emerged as Republicans have again seized on warnings about Democrats supporting gender-affirming care for children as they seek to boost voter turnout in what appears to be a highly competitive midterm. The group’s “Texas Trans & LGBTQ+ Student Resource Guide” appears to have been sent in recent days to many past GOP voters, including a handful of prominent right-wing influencers who posted images of them on Monday. The brochure looks to be written for students and encourages those considering hormones or gender-affirming care to reach out to trusted organizations before trying to find medication on their own. It includes websites for the Transgender Education Network of Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups. “This was sent to my home. Addressed to the ‘students’ of our family from the “Texas Transgender Student Union,” wrote Sara Gonzales, a conservative commentator with more than 500,000 followers on X. “It coaches minors on what to do if their parents are not supportive of their ‘trans’ identity and walks them through getting emancipated. THIS IS EVIL!!!!!”

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In Texas, extreme surgical errors leave some patients with few options

A Hays County couple is listening as the OB-GYN explains what just happened. It was a miscommunication, he tells them. He thought she wanted to be sterilized. A San Antonio woman undergoes a biopsy, but the hospital workers do more than that. They stick a chemo port into the border of her heart — a chemo port meant for someone else. A Houston woman is rushing out of the doctor’s office, telling her husband she’s too upset to talk. Her surgeon was supposed to remove the cancerous tumor in her breast. He was supposed to, but it’s still there. And it’s grown. A Grand Prairie woman is hunched over in pain. She goes to the emergency room, where a scan shows something inside her abdomen, something that’s not supposed to be there. It’s metal and it’s curved, a few centimeters long. It looks a lot like a surgical needle.

There’s a category of extreme surgical errors called serious reportable events or, more colloquially, “never events.” Wrong procedure. Wrong patient. Wrong site. Unintentionally retained object. They’re called “never events,” but state data reveals Texas hospitals and surgery centers report around 200 errors in these four categories each year. That’s the reported number. The real number, patient safety advocates say, is likely higher. “A never event should never happen,” said Lillee Gelinas, patient safety director at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth. “So you have to ask yourself — we have to keep asking ourselves — why do they keep happening?” The Texans who experience one of these rare and shocking surgical errors may face another surprise if they seek justice through the courts. They may find the law is stacked against them. Texas has aggressive medical malpractice laws, which cap the amount of money that a patient can be awarded for pain, suffering and other difficult-to-quantify impacts of a medical error. There is no cap for medical bills or lost wages. The law’s original intent was to lower malpractice insurance premiums and keep more doctors in state. The caps for county hospitals are significantly lower, and apply to not just pain and suffering, but economic damages as well.

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School choice expansion fuels growth of classical Christian schools in Texas and beyond

Keith Castello spends a lot of time praying about available real estate. Driving in his white pickup under a glaring Texas sun, the classical Christian school administrator points out empty office parks, a shopping mall, and an old church — all locations he is scouting for new Christian schools. Demand is booming, he says. And part of that demand comes from a new state incentive: taxpayer money for kids who attend Christian schools. This summer, Texas began rolling out $1 billion in public funding that eligible families can put toward private education expenses. Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country have approved a cascade of similar programs in the past six years, alarming public school advocates. These programs mean half of school-age children in the United States are now eligible to apply for state money to attend private schools.

In the U.S., most private schools are religious. Securing public money for them raises issues over church-state separation but fulfills a longstanding goal for Christian conservatives, who lobbied for this funding. “I have been praying for 28 years for things that are coming to fruition right now,” said Castello, who is launching three classical Christian schools this fall under his Kyrie Christian Academy brand. Those suburban Texas schools are part of a larger network, the Association of Classical Christian Schools, which has ties to the Trump administration and was founded by Doug Wilson, a conservative Idaho pastor and writer. The schools offer a liberal arts education, with an added emphasis on virtue and a biblical worldview. The annual ACCS conference in June in Atlanta buzzed with talk of the historic shift in school funding, which bolsters a conservative Christian push to remake the education landscape. Critics worry it will drain public schools, which educate students of all religious backgrounds and political persuasions. When students leave their public school, state money allocated to educate each student goes away too. Conservatives are banding together to leverage these expanding taxpayer-funded scholarships.

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State Stories

Greg Abbott won't say if he supports selling state park to SpaceX

Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday declined to say whether he supports selling a South Texas state park to Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the Republican governor’s appointees on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission are reportedly considering. Abbott said he does not know the details of the possible sale of Boca Chica State Park, a beachfront stretch adjacent to Musk’s Starbase near Brownsville. “What I know is that that's not coming up for a vote anytime soon,” Abbott said, before touting his record adding state parks. “No state in America has been adding more parkland than what I've done and what Texas has done,” the governor said. “I want to continue to preserve our parkland in the state of Texas.”

Texas Monthly reported on Friday that the commission planned to consider selling “1,300 acres” in Cameron County during a closed-door executive session at a meeting on Nov. 5. That vote has apparently been delayed, with a spokeswoman for the commission telling the magazine that it “is not considering the sale of the Boca Chica property at its November meeting.” Texas Parks and Wildlife did not immediately respond to a request for more information on Monday. Gina Hinojosa, Abbott’s Democratic challenger in the midterm election, seized on the potential sale as she continues to campaign against “corporate welfare.” Musk has been central to Hinojosa’s framing of the Nov. 3 contest as a fight between everyday Texans and Abbott’s ultrawealthy donors. Musk has given Abbott’s reelection campaign $500,000. “That is the people's beach — that is the working man’s beach in South Texas,” said Hinojosa, who grew up in Brownsville. “It is such a shame that the people of Texas are being sold out. Even our beaches are being given over to Greg Abbott’s biggest donor, or one of his biggest donors.” Hinojosa on Monday filed a lawsuit to force the governor’s office to turn over a batch of communications between Abbott and Musk that Abbott’s office had previously declined to release to the Texas Newsroom, arguing in part that they are of a private nature, not of public interest and potentially embarrassing.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: Jeff Leach questions origins of suspicious transgender mailers in Texas

State Rep. Jeff Leach, who had called for an investigation into a mailer supposedly from a transgender support group that was sent to students and families across Texas, has followed up with a letter expressing concern about “the potential dissemination of misleading information, and the acquisition and use of thousands — if not millions — of Texans’ personal contact information.” Leach’s letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, demands “a thorough investigation regardless of who is responsible, what their political affiliation may be, or which political interests they seek to advance.” “The investigation must follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor,” Leach wrote.

Leach, a deeply conservative Collin County Republican, has a reputation for independence in his party. He helped lead the impeachment against Paxton, serving as a House manager of the case. And he stood with an El Paso Democrat, state Rep. Joe Moody, in pushing back against the planned execution of death-row inmate Robert Roberson, whose guilt has been called into doubt. Leach has long been a staunch advocate of conservative cultural causes. He was an early supporter of Senate Bill 12, known as the Texas Parents’ Bill of Rights, which requires that schools obtain parental consent for participation in clubs and counseling. And he was quick to demand an investigation into the mailer that purportedly gives minor students advice on how to transition and even emancipate from their families. But the authenticity of the mailer quickly came into question. The organization it was supposedly from, the Transgender Education Network of Texas or TENT, almost immediately disavowed having anything to do with it. Far-right influencers had already seized on the mailer as evidence of “EVIL,” as Blaze TV and Texas Scorecard commentator Sara Gonzalez wrote to 518,000 X followers. In the days since it hit mailboxes, it has become the talk of conservative parents angry at its message. But as journalists looked into the mailer’s provenance, it became increasingly suspicious. Its origins are unclear.

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Some Tarrant County voters turned away after arriving too late to vote early in Fort Worth

Some voters at a Fort Worth polling location left disappointed Tuesday after arriving to cast their ballots after early voting hours had ended. At the Como Community Center, voters said they planned their day around voting, only to discover the polls were no longer open. “I planned my day to get out here and vote early,” said Patrick Schell. Crystal Russell came to the center to vote early and said “the line earlier in the day stretched all the way around the building just about.” The confusion came on the second day of early voting for the Nov. 3 election. According to Tarrant County’s early voting schedule, polling locations are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the first week of early voting, Oct. 19-23. Hours expand to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the second week, Oct. 26-30.

Schell said he originally thought polling locations were open until 7 p.m. “I thought I saw 7-7. I’m pretty sure I did on one of the websites earlier today,” he said. For others, the challenge was the wait. Chase Johnson and his son, Harvey, voted Monday and waited about 90 minutes to cast their ballots. “People are ready for change, and that’s something that I am certainly ready for, so yeah, it’s a long wait, but I think it was worth it,” Johnson said. The number of early voting locations in Tarrant County is in line with previous years. However, 92 former polling locations will be closed on Election Day, according to information shared during the reporting. Republican commissioners have argued that reducing the number of polling locations will save taxpayers money. Crystal Russell, who tried to vote at the Como Community Center, disagrees with the decision. “I don’t think they should’ve closed any polling places. It’s wrong,” Russell said. Despite the frustration, she said she planned to try again. “I live right down the street. If I have to walk up here with this thing, I will,” she said.

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Man shot by ICE in Austin federally indicted

A federal grand jury formally indicted Wilber Rafael Garces Perez with one count of Assaulting, Resisting, Impeding and Obstructing a Federal Officer. The indictment alleges he used his sedan as a deadly weapon during a traffic stop. The indictment follows a criminal complaint filed by the Department of Homeland Security that alleged Garces Perez hit an ICE agent with his vehicle while attempting to flee. He was shot by an ICE agent at the conclusion of a pursuit. The DOJ said Garces Perez faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted. KXAN has reached out to Garces Perez’ attorney for comment and will provide an update if a response is received.

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North Texas water group begins work for 2031 plan

The group responsible for creating the Dallas-Fort Worth region’s 50-year water plan has begun preparing for 2031. The statewide water plan is updated every five years, and the Texas Water Development Board is in the process of approving its final version of the 2027 State Water Plan, which estimated avoiding a water crisis in the state could cost as much as $174 billion. The state plan is a combination of the board’s 16 regional planning groups. Each regional plan includes current water needs and supplies, the projected future need for water, the identification and recommended water management strategies (and the costs and impacts of them) and more.

All North Texas counties, such as Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Kaufman, Rockwall and Tarrant are in Region C. The Region C group met Monday to take initial steps in the 2031 planning cycle, which will inform the 2032 State Water Plan. The group voted to rehire Freese & Nichols as its technical consultant and authorized the Trinity River Authority to enter into a contract with the firm on behalf of Region C. Tarrant Regional Water District general manager Dan Buhman was reelected chairman. Jenna Covington, North Texas Municipal Water District executive director and general manager, was elected vice chair. The planning begins with data collection and the comparison of population growth and water need projections to water availability and existing supplies. This will determine where surplus and gaps exist. The state water board is expected to release nonmunicipal water demand projections in March followed by population and water demand projections in June or July. The regional groups can suggest revisions to the findings by the end of next year, and the board is scheduled to consider adopting them as final by April 2028. The group also discussed interregional water planning, which is of importance because Region C borders five other regions — B, D, G, H and I — and there is overlap between more than 50 water user groups across the different boundaries. The regions share some sources of water as well. Collaboration can hopefully help avoid interregional conflicts, like the one declared over the proposed 66,000-acre Marvin Nichols Reservoir that would be constructed in Region D. Members of the two regions agreed to delay the project and work together to conduct studies, including a comparison with Toledo Bend Reservoir.

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4 Dallas petition drives voters should know about

More than 19 million people (a record) are registered to vote in Texas, which isn’t surprising given how many high-profile races are on the ballot. And early voting totals are so far indicative of busy voting centers: Yesterday, the line to vote at Oak Lawn Library around 2:30 p.m. snaked around the block, and there were steady lines at many other polling places, too. On day one in Dallas County, 76,079 cast ballots, up from a little more than 59,000 in 2018. By 11 a.m. Tuesday, 15,259 had cast ballots. But when you pull up to your polling place, you could be asked to weigh in on something that isn’t even on the November ballot, because four different petition efforts are trying to collect enough signatures from registered voters to put their causes on a May ballot. While people with clipboards will also approach you at various events, the grocery store, and other places people gather, one of the best ways to collect petition signatures is to ask people before or after they vote. (They can’t approach you everywhere, though. Texas law requires petition gatherers to remain outside the 100-foot electioneering boundary at polling places.)

An effort is underway to recall Dallas City Council members Gay Donnell Willis and Chad West. Organizers of those efforts—the Neighborhoods First PAC and the Dallas Civic Accountability PAC—will need to collect roughly 9,600 and 6,900 signatures, respectively, to put those items on a May ballot. They have 60 days to do so. The Save Dallas City Hall Coalition is also collecting signatures to place a charter amendment on the ballot that would codify the city’s base of operations as the current City Hall at 1500 Marilla. If the group collects at least 20,000 signatures and the City Secretary’s office verifies that the signers are registered voters living in Dallas, the measure could appear on a May ballot. If it passes, it would take another charter amendment election to move City Hall. And then there is the “stronger mayor” effort, led by three former Dallas mayors: Ron Kirk, Tom Leppert, and Mike Rawlings. It is collecting signatures to put two charter amendments on the May ballot that, if they pass, would increase the mayor’s authority. The measures would not create a fully-fledged strong mayor, but one would increase the mayor’s responsibilities to include hiring and firing the city manager and city attorney.

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Robert Ahdieh closes Fort Worth chapter following Texas A&M campus launch

Robert Ahdieh is heading home to New York City to serve as president of Pace University, but after eight years in Fort Worth, he also feels like he’s leaving home. In 2018, Ahdieh moved to Fort Worth to be dean of Texas A&M Law without a pair of boots, or even jeans, in his closet. In just a few short months, he’ll pack up enough boots to fill a room in his new New York City apartment and leave Fort Worth after spearheading one of its most transformational projects in recent memory — a multi-building Texas A&M campus that could generate billions annually in economic impact. “It would be hard to imagine a profile that could be more easily dismissed than mine. This New Yorker, which is a little suspicious in Texas, Iranian, which is a little suspicious, child of immigrants, a little suspicious, so you put those pieces together, it would have been so easy for the community to have said, ‘okay, this crazy weirdo who’s come to town, he’s got all these lunatic ideas, let’s just look away’,” Ahdieh, who leads the Texas A&M Fort Worth campus, said.

“To the contrary, it wasn’t that at all. I can’t think of a moment in my eight plus years here when I ever felt like ‘the other.'” Ahdieh is leaving Fort Worth for the same reason he came here: an opportunity not just to build something, but put it on a path that continues long after he's gone. With the future of A&M Fort Worth’s campus secure, Ahdieh began engaging in conversations with Pace University around five months ago. “What motivates me is the opportunity to help an institution get to a place that it might not otherwise get to. It’s not that my work [in Fort Worth] is done, but that it’s as natural a moment as any for someone else to step in and take up those roles, take up those responsibilities and move the place forward,” Ahdieh said. “What I see in Pace University is a similar opportunity. This is an institution that has so many of the key ingredients necessary to be impactful and consequential and distinctive in all sorts of significant ways.” Ahdieh will assume the title of Pace University’s ninth president on Jan. 1. Before then, he’ll be soaking up every last bite at Belenty’s Love Mexican Vegan Restaurant — he takes all his visitors there — and 61 Osteria, for which he’ll take the occasional flight back.

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Ed Emmett: My fellow Texas Republicans: Go vote. But vote wisely.

(Ed Emmett is the former Harris County Judge.) I admit that I am an angry Republican. After spending my adult life helping to build the Republican Party in Texas and Harris County, working alongside candidates, officeholders and armies of volunteers, I am disgusted by the self-inflicted damage being done to my party. This damage is not only hurting our candidates during this election cycle, but is undermining our next generation of voters. This damage is being done by candidates for major offices who refuse to address the issues of importance to voters and don't even have the courage to engage in debate with opponents. This sort of candidate is an embarrassment. Making outrageous claims over and over doesn't help the Republican cause.

Super PACs formed by a few billionaires to support certain Republican candidates are spending millions of dollars for negative ads that aim to scare ordinary parents over transgender issues — parents who know their own children and wonder why these billionaires are so focused on issues that don't affect them. Talk shows and social media influencers have become propaganda outlets for bizarre theories and, at times, pure hatred, relying on sources who are truly evil. President Trump seems to be living in his own world, claiming prices are down when they are clearly up, appeasing Putin in a war that he said he would end the first day of his second term, and seeming unable to end the war with Iran that he started. His childish name-calling might appeal to the people at his rallies, but the rest of the public is disgusted. Anyone who dares criticize him is attacked mercilessly, so Republican leaders are silent. As a result, voters view all Republicans as aligned with him. All these things make me angry. I am angry not because of any direct impact on me. I am angry because I know there are many solid Republican candidates for state, county and local offices who are extremely qualified and should be elected or, in some cases, re-elected. These candidates uphold conservative philosophies and ideals, and they’re seeking legislative seats, judgeships and county offices but don't have the money to get their own messages out. Their fortunes are tied to people and forces over which they have no control. Republicans need to turn out for their sake. Hopefully, independents and Democrats will take the time to get to know the candidates as individuals and make an informed decision in each race. A recent television ad featuring State Senator Angela Paxton, who is divorcing Ken Paxton "on Biblical grounds," tells Republicans who are reluctant to support her soon-to-be-ex-husband that they need to turn out and vote for the entire Republican team. I disagree. I, too, urge Republicans who aren't enthusiastic about the top of the ticket to turn out and vote anyway and make sure to vote all the way down the ballot. The solid candidates in down-ballot races need your support more than ever this year. However, for the sake of the Republican Party, let me encourage you to do your research and vote your conscience and principles. Otherwise, we’ll be defined by scandalous characters who seem to have no conscience or principles. Voting for our party’s good candidates will make future elections easier for those dedicated, honorable Republicans who want to serve in public office.

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Gina Hinojosa’s mother said she faced ‘voter suppression’ at Bexar County Elections Department poll site

Crisanta Guerra Lozano was excited to cast a ballot for her daughter, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, on the first day of early voting. However, when Lozano showed up to vote at Bexar County Elections Department headquarters, election workers couldn’t locate her in the system, she said in a video detailing her experience, which was provided to the Current. Lozano, a San Antonio resident and a legal aid attorney, went to the polling site around 10:30 a.m. Monday. In her video, she describes the bureaucratic nightmare that came next. “I was told that I was not on the list, which surprised me,” Lozano said in her video statement, which was recorded by Democratic activist Kathy Vale. Lozano said the surprise came in part because county officials assured her ahead of time that she was cleared to vote.

The attorney had checked online two weeks before the Oct. 5 voter registration deadline and saw that she was no longer registered to vote, though she had lived at the same address for seven years. “I have voted at every single election. I’ve never had a problem,” Lozano said on the video while holding a handmade “Vote for my daughter Gina Hinojosa for Governor” sign. After the online system showed her as unregistered, Lozano went to the Bexar County Elections Department in person and presented her drivers license to re-register. “They took my license and said, ‘You’re fine. There should be no problem,'” Lozano said. However, when Lozano showed up for early voting Monday, the election worker couldn’t find her on the rolls, she said. The worker then sent her to an office in another part of the building. However, a different person in the office assured her that she was registered and provided her with her voter ID number, adding, “You shouldn’t have any problem,'” Lozano said. At that point, Lozano was sent back to the polling room, where she told the election worker that the office was able to locate her in the system and provided her ID number.

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Texas land commissioner treads carefully as Trump border wall advances on state property

Border wall construction in the Big Bend region puts Republican Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham in a bind: back President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda or respond to growing bipartisan opposition to the wall. The Texas General Land Office manages 13 million acres across the state, much of it in far West Texas. Among its holdings are parcels along the Rio Grande that form the international boundary. On GLO-managed land in the Big Bend, the Trump administration plans to build a border wall in Presidio and Hudspeth counties and vehicle barriers in Brewster County. On Oct. 2, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone blocked border wall construction in the Big Bend sector with a temporary injunction. But the federal government isn’t giving up on its plans to wall off much of the Big Bend. U.S. Department of Justice attorneys have asked the judge to suspend the order and plan to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the federal government can continue work to secure right of way and access for border wall construction. GLO land lies squarely in its path. Buckingham is up for reelection in November for a second four-year term, facing Democratic nominee Benjamin Flores. Buckingham has said she supports a “virtual wall” in West Texas and has sent cease-and-desist letters to federal contractors who cleared state-managed land in the Big Bend for construction without authorization. But the GLO has been in communication with U.S. Customs and Border Protection about building border infrastructure on state land, according to a letter the agency sent in response to a public information request from Inside Climate News. The GLO did not respond to requests for comment. “We stand by our assessment and remain confident in our legal authorities to secure the border while preserving the unique landscape of the Big Bend region,” CBP spokesperson Jessica Turner said. “We are working with the Department of Justice on next steps.” Buckingham, who grew up on a ranch near the Texas coast, served in the Texas Senate before running for land commissioner in 2022. Once elected, she quickly established herself as a champion of hardline border security.

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Texas is lobbying for the new U.S. Space Academy. Taxpayers could foot a $100 million bill

Texas space leaders, with bipartisan backing, are campaigning to bring the Trump Administration's new Space Academy to the Lone Star State. If that happens, Texas taxpayers could pay for as much as $100 million of it. In a September meeting of the Texas Space Commission (TSC), a state-level entity that awards contracts and grants to invest in Texas' space industry, the board hypothesized putting up a nine-figure sum as an incentive for Texas to be selected. Three members of the TSC board — Nancy Currie-Gregg, Heather Wilson, and Evan Loomis — are also part of the state-appointed team tasked with drafting Texas' proposal for the Space Academy.

"I think it might be important for the Space Commission board to make very clear that we intend to support this in a significant way," Wilson, who’s also the president of the University of Texas at El Paso, said during the meeting. "And whether it's $100 million, or whatever set aside ... I think it sends a pretty clear message that Texas is in, and I don't think that's a bad thing." The bidding process for the Space Academy has been largely kept under wraps. A spokesperson for the team drafting Texas’ proposal said it was "premature" to arrange interviews with members of the team until the proposal is finalized. Representatives from the TSC did not immediately return a request for comment. Though the conversation amongst TSC board members was non-binding, it does give insight into the push for Texas to host the Space Academy and that taxpayers may be on the hook for a portion of it. The $100 million figure could also be changed, though TSC board members have only suggested that figure. "Is $100 million what we as a group believe actually gets it done?" Sassie Duggleby, another board member, said during the meeting. "Like, is that a big enough stake in the sand to say that we want this?"

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Harris County crushes midterm first-day early voter turnout record

More than 100,000 people cast an in-person ballot during the first day of early voting in Harris County on Monday, shattering the previous record of 63,188 set in 2018. According to the Harris County Elections Department, the county surpassed the 2018 record by 3:30 p.m. on Monday. When polls closed on the first day of early voting, three-and-a-half hours later, the county reported that over 104,600 residents had cast a ballot. This year's Texas Senate race shows some parallels to the 2018 midterm election. In 2018, Democrat Beto O'Rourke ran a tight race against incumbent Senator Ted Cruz. While O'Rourke ultimately lost, it was by a slim margin of just under 215,000 votes.

O'Rourke's campaign was also credited with boosting down-ballot Democrats, including then-Harris County judge candidate Lina Hidalgo, who flipped the county's highest office from Republican to Democratic control. Now, eight years later, Democratic Senate candidate and State Rep. James Talarico is in an even tighter race against Republican candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Recent polling — including one published Friday by the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs — has shown Talarico and Paxton in a statistical dead heat or Talarico in a slight lead. During the 2018 midterm election, 855,711 people cast a ballot in Harris County across the entire early voting period.

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Tarrant sheriff says commissioner’s handling of jail death was ‘irresponsible’

Now that independent investigators found no wrongdoing on the part of the Tarrant County Jail for inmate Mack Greer’s in-custody death, Sheriff Bill Waybourn is calling out Democrat Commissioner Alisa Simmons for spreading false information about the circumstances. Greer, 49, was pronounced dead at 2:42 p.m. on June 17 in John Peter Smith Hospital. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner ruled the death was of complications from a rare brain disease called moyamoya disease. The condition causes the carotid artery inside the skull to narrow or close, depriving the brain of oxygen. Within 24 hours of the death, Simmons held a press conference with the family to demand an outside investigation. Greer’s was the third death in a one-week period.

Before he died, Simmons said she saw him in the hospital with a “misshapen head” and bruises in multiple places. She told the media the day after he died that “he suffered fatal head injuries,” which Waybourn said was incorrect. In an interview with the Star-Telegram Tuesday, Waybourn said the sheriff’s office and the commissioner’s office had had “absolutely zero contact.” Waybourn said Simmons “was so irresponsible” for having a press conference announcing unverified information. Simmons did not respond to an interview request from the Star-Telegram, but explained at a press conference later on Tuesday to Waybourn’s statement that she’d lied by saying families whose loved ones die in the jail reach out to her because the sheriff’s office is so unresponsive. “I work with them to try and get them the answers that they need about their loved one’s death,” Simmons said. “That really is the job of the sheriff’s office, where that person lost their lives. That’s really the job of the county hospital and MHMR, who had the responsibility of taking care of them medically and behaviorally while they were in custody.”

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Dallas County triples security over voter, election safety concerns

As voters set a new all-time record for turnout, election safety worries have prompted Dallas County officials to triple security and install bulletproof glass. Elections administration manager Deatrice Kirk told county commissioners Tuesday that plans are underway to install 2-inch glass in the Dallas County Records administration building. “We will have level 4 security glass put on the front of the building,” she said. “And then we’re going to work to do the side of the building, so eventually everything will be covered. So that will be able to stop a bullet to get us away at that point. That is a part of our budget this year.” The Records Building in downtown Dallas is an early voting location and houses county leader offices.

County administrators say they won’t know the final cost until after the midterm election, but expect the total to be more than what was budgeted for security during the 2024 election cycle. Kirk said the elections department has also increased law enforcement protection. “We have tripled our security for the early voting locations,” she said. “We’re using the marshals, though we have some other entities that are assisting us in different cities.” She said the county marshals will remain on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week on Election Day, Nov. 3, through Nov. 15. “We will have presence in and outside of the building,” she said. “We also have [Dallas]PD that will be assisting us along with the constables. So we have heightened all the security.” Dallas County fire marshals provide security for public, government buildings. Kirk shared the information after Albert Alexander of Dallas voiced concerns during public comment.

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National Stories

Justice Kagan says Supreme Court has damaged democracy with recent rulings

With pivotal midterm elections two weeks away, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Tuesday the high court’s recent decisions on voting and campaign finance have damaged the nation’s democracy. The liberal justice sharply criticized the conservative majority’s rulings this year limiting the Voting Rights Act and loosening campaign finance restrictions during a wide-ranging discussion at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She also faulted a 2019 decision removing the court from oversight of partisan gerrymandering. She spoke to law students during the opening weeks of a new Supreme Court term in which the justices will make consequential rulings on assault rifles, climate change and religious rights. The court could be called upon to issue decisions related to the Nov. 3 elections.

“In all these areas, the court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effects of their rulings on how the political system works,” Kagan said of its rulings on voting. “It has created a democracy that does not work as well as it should.” Kagan said the 2019 decision finding that federal courts should not have a role in policing partisan gerrymandering touched off a “race to the bottom” by both political parties to carve up districts and “depriv[e] masses of citizens” of the right to equality in voting. That decision is “driving people away from the center toward the wings, toward the extremes,” Kagan said. “Making what I think is, unfortunately, a too polarized country even more so.” Over the summer, the court also curbed limits on coordination between political parties and candidates in campaign finance spending. “The people of America look around at this political system and think all this money chasing all these political candidates is a nightmare and they are right,” Kagan said.

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Calling Putin a ‘humanitarian,’ Witkoff thanks him for releasing an American

Praising President Vladimir V. Putin as a “humanitarian,” the Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday thanked the Russian leader in St. Petersburg for releasing an American man held for over four years on what the State Department called fabricated charges. The release came after President Trump made a direct appeal to Mr. Putin to let the 74-year-old teacher, Stephen James Hubbard, return to the United States. Russia had accused Mr. Hubbard of being a Ukrainian mercenary. “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” Mr. Witkoff told Mr. Putin. “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that.” The Russian leader, who started a war of aggression against Ukraine that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, is wanted as a war criminal by the International Criminal Court.

Mr. Witkoff’s remarks came at the start of talks in St. Petersburg, where Mr. Witkoff had come to discuss new variants of a proposed plan to end the war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Mr. Hubbard was released unilaterally by Russia, rather than in a prisoner swap, at a moment when Mr. Putin has scored a succession of victories in winning Mr. Trump over to Russia’s side in the conflict. In the past two weeks, Mr. Trump has announced that the United States will buy Russian diesel fuel and suspend the imposition of sanctions under the Lindsey Graham Act, named for the pro-Ukrainian senator who died this year. Mr. Trump also called on Ukraine to replace President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Putin’s nemesis. Turning over Mr. Hubbard, who was tortured, sometimes starved and placed in the general prison population in a country where he did not speak the language, came at little cost to Mr. Putin. But the move buys him good will with Mr. Trump, who is arguing that he alone has the relationship with Mr. Putin needed to get him to end the war. Mr. Trump telegraphed that he had sought Mr. Hubbard’s release, talking to reporters about it on Tuesday, when the former teacher was still in captivity. But Mr. Trump didn’t mention that Mr. Hubbard was being held because Mr. Putin’s government had sought to take American prisoners for leverage.

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Attack ad featuring Democrat's estranged mother turns Ohio governor’s race even uglier

A controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of the Democratic candidate for governor, Amy Acton, is making its rounds on social media. It claims Acton is lying when she talks about her childhood, when she was sexually abused and homeless, sometimes living in a tent. Though the ad was leaked without information showing who paid for it, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign confirmed to the Statehouse News Bureau that it's their ad, and they’ve launched a $4 million statewide digital buy because it tested well with "persuadable" voters. In the ad, Acton's estranged mother Donna Arthur said none of Acton's claims that she grew up in an abusive environment and that her family was sometimes homeless are true. “She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true," Arthur said in the video.

But Acton and her brother Phillip Stearns fired back. Stearns said in a statement put out by her campaign that his sister is telling the truth. “It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother's husband into a political talking point,” said Stearns in the statement. “After he (Acton's mother's husband) was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core – a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.” "We had all sorts of neglect, abuse and hunger," Stearns said in an Oct. 8 Instagram video reposted on Acton's website after the video was leaked. "We spent almost all of every day in an unfinished basement with a couple of 60-watt bare lightbulbs down there." Acton mentioned her family had lived in a tent in one of her ads. Stearns said of that experience: "For one thing - it was cold."

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‘It really would open the door’: Lawyers see Maduro betting case as test for future prosecutions

The first criminal case centered on prediction-market bets is proceeding toward trial — and white-collar lawyers say it could result in an uptick of prosecutions involving an industry that’s enjoying explosive growth. Prosecutors say U.S. Army soldier Gannon Van Dyke used confidential information about the capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to bet on the rendition through Polymarket. Van Dyke allegedly placed $33,034 in bets, for a total payout of more than $400,000, according to prosecutors. Van Dyke’s lawyers are asking a federal judge to toss the indictment by arguing that a prediction-market bet isn’t a “swap,” and therefore can’t be prosecuted under the Commodity Exchange Act, the federal law that regulates commodity futures, options and swaps. A swap is a financial agreement where parties seek to exchange payments by speculating on real-world outcomes.

If U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett agrees with Van Dyke’s lawyers on that interpretation, it might dissuade prosecutors from bringing similar cases. If, however, Garnett allows the charges to stand, lawyers who are following prediction-market developments say they expect it will unleash prosecutors to pursue additional cases. “Depending on how this case turns out, I think you’re going to see more of them,” said Louis Pellegrino, a former federal prosecutor with the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office who is now a partner at Dentons LLP. “It’s an interesting test case because it’s truly high stakes,” said Pellegrino, who served as a captain in the Army following law school. “There are intelligence issues. There are real-world concerns for troops on the ground and that sort of thing,” he said. “The stakes are a lot higher than something like what dress somebody would wear to the Oscars.” At oral arguments earlier this month over Van Dyke’s motion to dismiss the indictment, Garnett, a Biden appointee, appeared likely to let the case move forward.

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More oil is now coming out of the Persian Gulf than before the Iran war

Persian Gulf oil exports have surpassed prewar levels, as an improvised shipping system under U.S. protection is helping tankers move oil through one of Iran’s fiercest waves of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. Middle East oil flows, including shipments through Hormuz and alternative routes across the region, averaged more than 24 million barrels a day in the week through Oct. 18, surpassing prewar levels of 23.3 million, according to ship tracker Kpler. Preliminary figures show Hormuz oil flows, including offshore transfers in the Gulf of Oman, came to around 14 million barrels a day on average for the same period, or 82% of prewar levels. Oil prices remain high, and benchmark Brent crude has risen in recent days to around $108 a barrel Tuesday.

Traders are concerned the improvement in Hormuz might not be sustainable, particularly if fighting breaks out again. Thinning global inventories leave little margin for error. The operation is also expensive, costs that ultimately flow through to consumers at the pump. Still, the resilience of oil flows marks a shift in the battle over the world’s most important energy chokepoint. Iran can still make shipments dangerous and expensive. But its ability to deter transits has faded, weakening Tehran’s leverage with the U.S. “The big picture is that the system for shipping through a dangerous Strait of Hormuz is now well-established and the risk appetite of those involved in exporting oil has risen,” said Hamad Hussain, a senior commodities economist at Capital Economics. Pipelines across Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also moving oil along different routes. In September, about 40% of the non-Iranian crude shipped out of the Gulf bypassed the strait, compared with 17% before the war, Kpler estimated. The success contrasts with the chokehold on Iran, whose own oil exports have been bottled up by a U.S. maritime blockade. The risk is Iran could try to re-establish its influence by striking harder and potentially drawing the U.S. into another confrontation before the U.S. midterm elections in two weeks.

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Pentagon grants DHS permission to test heat ray weapon for potential use at border

The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern US border, according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN. The heat ray, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a nonlethal weapon that shoots an invisible beam of electromagnetic waves that can reach a little more than half a mile away, according to the US military. The energy beam causes a burning sensation when it comes into contact with the human skin — which Pentagon officials have previously compared to feeling a blast of heat when opening a hot oven. Military officials have said the resulting “tingling effect” lasts between 10 and 15 minutes but also generates “an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect.”

Deploying the heat ray at the US border would be an unprecedented step, even for the Trump administration, which has made border security and clamping down on immigration a top priority. The DHS request did not specify where or how the weapon would be tested and how it might eventually be used, but over the years, there have been internal discussions about potentially using it for crowd dispersal along the US-Mexico border, according to current and former Customs and Border Protection officials. US officials had also considered deploying the system during moments of domestic unrest, including at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term when protests erupted over the murder of George Floyd, according to a former US official familiar with those discussions. The memo authorizes the “temporary loan” of one ADS system for seven months, starting in September, and states that it “shall not be operated by DoW (Department of War) personnel,” appearing to absolve the Pentagon of any responsibility for how the directed-energy system may ultimately be deployed.

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Democrats jump into Mississippi Senate race

Senate Democrats’ top super PAC announced Tuesday it is launching an ad campaign in the Mississippi Senate race as Democrats seek inroads in Republican-leaning states to try to flip the Senate majority. Senate Majority PAC announced a $1.2 million ad campaign in the state through Election Day, beginning with a 30-second spot that boosts prosecutor Scott Colom as a Democrat who will “fight corruption in both parties” and casts GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as a “do-nothing” incumbent. “Senate Majority PAC has been watching this race closely, and it is clear Colom is running a competitive race that has put Hyde-Smith on her heels,” Lauren French, the super PAC’s spokesperson, said in a statement, adding that the group will be advertising on TV and digital platforms.

Senate Majority PAC, which is aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been shifting its focus to deep-red states as President Donald Trump’s approval ratings sink. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win control of the Senate, which means flipping multiple states Trump won handily in 2024. Mississippi is the reddest state the group has jumped into so far — Trump won it by 23 percentage points two years ago. A Democrat has not won a Senate race in Mississippi since 1982. Senate Majority PAC is also spending in Kansas, which Trump won by 16 points, and other states Trump won by double digits in 2024, including Alaska, Texas and Iowa. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, have long touted Colom as a strong candidate. Colom, a district attorney, told NBC News when he launched his campaign last year that Hyde-Smith’s vote to support Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending law, which cut Medicaid funds, spurred him to run. Colom and Hyde-Smith have history from before this year’s Senate race. Hyde-Smith blocked Colom’s nomination for a federal judgeship during the Biden administration. Colom said when he launched his campaign that he had forgiven her. Hyde-Smith, who has Trump’s endorsement, is running for her second full term after she was appointed to the Senate in 2018. She won a full term in 2020 by 10 points.

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Lead Stories

Data centers are the focus of this Austin-area race for Texas Senate

Republican Charles Schwertner, an orthopedic surgeon, has represented Texas State Senate District 5 for more than a decade. In that time, the district, which is home to just over a million people across 11 counties, has seen explosive growth. Schwertner's hometown of Georgetown has seen its population nearly double from about 55,000 to about 107,000. Much of the region's economic growth has come in the form of data centers. Bastrop and Williamson counties, in particular, have seen an influx of these developments under Schwertner's watch, drawing disapproval from many residents. Schwertner's Democratic challenger in the Nov. 3 election, Paul Thomasson, is hoping that disapproval will cost the longtime Republican incumbent a fifth term in the Texas Senate.

"I feel that the Republicans have been in power for over 30 years, and I feel that Austin has degenerated into billionaire governance where the billionaires get what they want and nobody else matters much," Thomasson, a retired pastor from College Station, said. "The billionaires wanted data centers, and they're forced down the throats of everybody in every county across Texas whether they want them or not." Thomasson's campaign website says one his goals is "NO MORE DATA CENTERS." In the absence of an outright ban on such developments, though, Thomasson said he would make sure to "tax" them. Currently, the state gives data centers more than $1 billion in tax breaks each year. Thomasson said he would also like to see local officials have more authority over the developments. "The people of the county have got to have a say and whether or not they're going to be brought in," he said. "Data centers raised everybody's electricity rates ... It lowers their property value. People ought to have a say about whether or not somebody can move next to them and do that." He believes data centers should have to pay for their own electricity and power infrastructure, as well as make an effort to conserve water.

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Hinojosa sues to review confidential emails between Musk, Abbott

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, is suing her gubernatorial opponent in order to review more than a thousand pages of communication between Greg Abbott’s office and Elon Musk’s representatives, which were deemed confidential due to their “embarrassing” and “intimate” nature. “Nobody here is accusing Greg Abbott of having a torrid love affair with Elon Musk,” said Hinojosa in front of the Travis County courthouse Monday morning. “What this is about is we have the world’s only trillionaire getting massive tax breaks from this governor after giving him over $500,000 in campaign contributions.” Abbott, after voting in Del Valle on Monday morning, called the suit an act of desperation from Hinojosa.

“What Gina is trying to do more than anything else is to try to get attention for her and her campaign,” Abbott said to reporters. “This election has slipped through her hands and she doesn’t have any ability to do anything else other than to grasp at straws to get attention.” Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary, called the lawsuit baseless and said Hinojosa is abusing her official capacity as an outgoing lawmaker to generate headlines for political reasons. The suit was filed on the same day early voting for the midterms began. “The lawsuit is baseless and nothing more than an act of desperation,” Mahaleris said in a statement. “Texans see this for what it is: a political stunt.” The documents Hinojosa is after were part of a public records request filed by The Texas Newsroom in 2025. The governor’s office objected to releasing the communications on several grounds, including “the state’s competitive business interests, attorney-client privilege, and deliberative-process privilege,” according to Hinojosa’s lawsuit. In August 2025, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sustained the objections but directed the governor’s office to release some of the requested materials. The governor’s office produced 1,374 pages to the Texas Newsroom, but only around 200 pages were not redacted, according to the lawsuit. Hinojosa wrote a letter to the governor’s office on Sep. 29 requesting to review the redacted information and cited a Texas law that allows members of the legislature to review confidential documents for “legislative purposes.”

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Republican National Committee, far richer than D.N.C., pumps $50 million into midterms

Taking advantage of a recent Supreme Court decision, the Republican National Committee is sending tens of millions of dollars to help the party’s midterm candidates. The long-awaited move adds to the G.O.P.’s considerable financial advantages, especially in Senate races, despite a tough political environment. The R.N.C., which entered September with an enormous $126 million on hand, told The New York Times that it was finishing moving more than $50 million to the groups overseeing the party’s efforts to elect House and Senate candidates. The cash infusion, significantly larger than what Republicans have done in the past, is something that the troubled and financially struggling Democratic National Committee is incapable of doing. The R.N.C. told The Times that it had transferred more than $44 million between mid-August and mid-October to the party’s main House and Senate committees. Many of those transfers will be disclosed for the first time in a campaign-finance filing on Tuesday evening.

The cash was about evenly split between the National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect House Republicans, and its Senate counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee. At least $6 million more is set to be sent to those two committees by Election Day, the committee said. The spending comes as Republicans play defense across the midterm map, devoting resources to states and districts that were once thought to be safely red as President Trump’s low approval ratings weigh on the party’s candidates. The R.N.C. has amassed its huge war chest in part thanks to an aggressive fund-raising effort by Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who has led the party’s finance operation. The party said it raised $18.5 million in September. By Oct. 14, R.N.C. officials said, its $126 million coffers had been drawn down to $76 million, a campaign-finance filing on Thursday will show. Transfers are not new. In the four most recent election cycles, the R.N.C. has transferred between $8 million and roughly $31 million to these party committees.

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U.S. risks losing tech race without energy push, say former Trump, Biden officials

Former officials from the Trump, Biden and Obama administrations are warning that the U.S. is at risk of losing a technological and industrial race with China—unless it adopts a sweeping energy-permitting bill. The U.S. isn’t building energy infrastructure fast enough to remain globally competitive, the officials said in a letter to be sent Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) Among others who signed the letter are former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served in the first Trump administration; former Biden-era Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; and Stephen Miran, former Federal Reserve governor who was appointed by President Trump.

China has made energy infrastructure central to its industrial strategy. By contrast, the U.S. faces lengthy delays in building the transmission lines and energy components needed to power the development of semiconductors, critical minerals and artificial intelligence, the officials argue. The letter was organized by Arnab Datta, director of policy implementation at the Institute for Progress, a think tank in Washington, D.C. “While the United States retains enormous advantages in technology, capital markets, attracting the world’s talent, entrepreneurship, and natural resources, those advantages matter less if a company cannot build a factory quickly enough to reach market or if the infrastructure required to power it takes five, ten, or fifteen years to plan and complete,” the letter said. Said Miran in an interview: “If we don’t have abundant cheap energy it’s just too expensive to manufacture here, and we’d be ceding a massive advantage to our competitors and adversaries” including China. The Senate last month announced legislation to speed up the permitting process that has long drawn complaints from energy developers. It proposes an overhaul of environmental rules, introduces changes aimed at strengthening the electric grid and mandates that data centers pay for all of their associated transmission costs.

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State Stories

Dallas ISD pulls books after Dan Patrick library warning

Last month, Maya Madabhushi walked into the library at Sudie L. Williams Talented and Gifted Academy and found the librarian on the verge of tears. The librarian was labeling and boxing up a stack of books pulled from the Dallas ISD middle school library’s shelves. She explained the books had to be removed because of new state rules around school library collections. She suggested Maya and her friends might like to check out a few of them before she sent them away. Maya, a seventh grader, looked through the stack. Some of them were by two of her favorite authors, Tahereh Mafi and Rick Riordan. Others were longtime favorites among middle school readers, such as Gary Paulsen’s “Hatchet” and Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Many of them had themes related to racial justice or LGBTQ relationships, Maya said.

Maya returned to class. During her next period, she rounded up a few of her friends, and they headed back to the library, where they looked through the stacks. Maya checked out eight books. Some of her friends took a dozen or more. Dallas ISD pulled those books, and hundreds of others, for review in the wake of an August news conference in which Lt. Gov Dan Patrick threatened to crack down on libraries that have “vulgar” titles in their collections. After review, some books may return to the library. Others may be moved to another grade level or removed entirely. In the meantime, the books sit in a district service center off Akard Street in the Cedars neighborhood. “Honestly, it was so heartbreaking to see those books just being taken away,” Maya said. A year after Texas lawmakers passed a bill giving parents and school boards a bigger role in deciding what books are included on library shelves, some policymakers are looking to further limit what they describe as obscene material in schools. Free speech advocates and parents say pressure from officials in Austin is leading districts to pull books from libraries, cutting off students’ access to thousands of literary works.

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Longtime St. David's HealthCare CEO to retire

One of Central Texas's longtime healthcare leaders is preparing to pass the torch. St. David's HealthCare announced CEO and president David Huffstutler will retire in March 2027, setting off a nationwide search for the major employer's next top executive. "Leading St. David's HealthCare has been the greatest privilege of my career," Huffstutler said in a statement. "Together, we have grown to meet the needs of a rapidly changing Central Texas while never losing sight of what matters most: providing exceptional care to every patient every day." The shakeup will mark a major change for the Austin-area's fourth largest employer. According to the announcement, St. David's employs 13,200 people within the region.

Retirement will cap off over four decades' worth of healthcare leadership roles for Huffstutler. Since taking the healthcare system's reins in February 2011, he has overseen St. David's jump from 60 care sites to over 200 Central Texas facilities, including nine hospitals and 13 emergency centers. Last year, Huffstutler told the ABJ that St. David's was focused on providing smaller, more focused facilities in some of the metro's booming regions. Part of that aim included adding more freestanding emergency room and urgent care facilities in medically underserved areas. Just a couple months ago, it acquired 14 urgent care centers throughout the Austin metro, which will operate as St. David's CareNow Urgent Care clinics. The company also recently started construction on its $20.5 million emergency center in Kyle and has initiated the $180 million expansion of its South Austin Medical Center. St. David's is also planning on a new Leander hospital and more expansions for local existing facilities. HCA Healthcare, a national hospital operating partner for St. David's, plans on announcing Huffstutler's successor in the coming months. He will maintain his posts at both St. David's and as president of HCA Healthcare's Central and West Texas Division through next March.

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Some East Central ISD voters got incomplete ballots today. Bexar County blames it on state-run elections system.

On the first day of early voting, East Central Independent School District reported ballot discrepancies involving a tax proposition that would give the district more money from taxpayers. In a mass email to the press on Monday afternoon, district officials said some East Central voters reported not seeing the measure, titled Proposition A, on their ballot, instead seeing an item from a different school district. Bexar County spokesperson John Moreno confirmed the discrepancy and said it’s related to the Texas Election Administration Management system, the state’s central platform to manage voter registrations and elections. The TEAM system caused a massive registration backlog last year that left voters without a new voter registration card before the March primary. Bexar County plans to part ways with the system in January.

“I can confirm this has been resolved for Bexar County and affected less than 1% of our eligible voters,” Moreno said. County officials say the problem did not affect mail-in ballots. For voters who have already cast their votes today, the ballots will be accepted as they are, and voters cannot receive replacement ballots if they have already cast their vote. East Central ISD’s Prop A would only appear on the ballot of voters registered inside the district’s boundaries, and this type of measure would appear near the bottom of the ballot, which is already packed with a buzzy Senate and gubernatorial race, statewide elections, county races and more. East Central ISD specifically highlighted discrepancies in voting precincts 4071, 4087, and 4151, which are near the towns of Schertz and St. Hedwig. Voters in Bexar County can vote at any polling location and find all their applicable races on their ballot. The district is advising voters who have already cast their ballots and believe Proposition A was incorrectly omitted to contact the Texas Secretary of State at 1-800-252-8683 or elections@sos.texas.gov. All residents within East Central ISD boundaries may also file a complaint with the Texas Secretary of State, regardless of whether they have already voted.

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In seventh in-custody death this year, Tarrant County inmate, 41, dies at hospital

A 41-year-old woman who was an inmate of the Tarrant County Jail died on Sunday, Oct. 18, at a Fort Worth hospital, six days after she was booked, according to the county sheriff’s office. The inmate, whom the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office said was Broshundrick McNeal, was booked into custody on Oct. 12 after she was arrested by the Fort Worth Police Department on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of marijuana, and resisting arrest, search or transport. Due to various medical conditions, McNeal was assigned upon booking to the jail’s medical observation area, according to the sheriff’s office. She was under the care of medical personnel until she was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital.

The medical examiner’s office has not released the cause or manner of McNeal’s death, which occurred about 2:15 a.m. There have been seven in-custody deaths at the sheriff’s office this year, according to county records. An eighth person died in June after being taken to JPS, but his death is not included in the count because he had been released from custody before his death, according to the sheriff’s office. All in-custody deaths are reviewed and investigated by Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office jail staff, the TCSO Criminal Investigations Division, an outside law enforcement agency, JPS Medical Staff, The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

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Post-Prairieland: How Dallas activism has changed since the detention center shooting

Many Dallas activists still stand with the group of protesters sentenced to a collective 556 years in prison for their participation in a protest-turned-shooting at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado. The DFW Support Committee, which has nearly 12,000 Instagram followers, often hosts letter-writing events and fundraisers for defendants’ legal fees. Benjamin Song, who also went by the name Champagne and is serving a sentence of 100 years for multiple charges stemming from the incident, including attempted murder, had immense influence on activism in Dallas, specifically militant activism. While support remains strong, militant activism circles feel the loss of influential members and are seeing changes in participation and safety.

“Before, whenever Champagne wasn’t arrested, the John Brown Gun Club was still active, and the Socialist Rifle Association was still active; it was safe,” a local militant activist who goes by the name Doberman said. “There was no self-policing of a community and everyone could voice their anger, voice their frustrations. “Now, after the Prairieland incident occurred, any type of militancy, whether it’s body armor, firearms, even med kits […] people see that and think ‘that person is preparing for violence,’” she added. On July 4, 2025, a group of North Texas activists went to protest at the Prairieland Detention Center, where more than 1,000 people had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and were awaiting deportation. A report of a break-in prompted Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross to respond. He drove toward the facility gates and saw a figure dressed in black running away. Gross got out of the car, yelled for them to stop, and drew his firearm. Then he was shot by Benjamin Song. Ten people were in custody within 24 hours of what law enforcement was calling a planned attack on the detention center. After an 11-day manhunt, Song was tracked to an apartment in North Dallas and arrested on July 15, 2025. Song was sentenced to 100 years in prison, and others received 30 years or more for their role in the incident.

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U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz promises consequences for illegal voting

On the first day of early voting, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Aaron Reitz promised to go after voters who violate federal election law in his division. “I will hunt you down and prosecute you,” Reitz said in a video shared on social media Monday. He spoke directly to the camera, with an image of President Donald Trump behind him and a Bible to his side. The message had a dark tone ahead of what is expected to be an unusually close election cycle in Texas, with Democrats leading or within striking distance in several statewide races. Reitz emphasized in the address that “American elections are for Americans only.” A former deputy to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Reitz helped represent Republicans trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Before he was appointed this year by the Trump administration to serve as U.S. attorney in Houston, Reitz repeatedly accused the Democratic Party of rigging elections and said they will try to do so in the 2028 presidential race. “Dems have rigged and stolen votes for decades because they despise voters and loathe America,” he wrote on X in January, when he was one of several GOP candidates for Texas attorney general. He ultimately lost the Republican primary. Ahead of Monday’s video, Reitz told The New York Times that he would “muster all of my legal and law enforcement troops to ensure that federal law is upheld” in the 2026 election. But he also acknowledged that elections are primarily a state matter, according to the Times. In the video, Reitz said he was dispatching civil and criminal District Election Officers to key polling locations to guarantee election compliance. It’s a common practice for Election Day; during the 2022 midterm election, former President Joe Biden’s DOJ sent monitors to 24 states.

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Early voting draws statewide candidates to ‘battleground’ Tarrant County ahead of Nov. 3

As early voting opened Monday, three of the four candidates at the top of the Texas midterms ballot rallied supporters in Fort Worth, emphasizing the importance of winning Tarrant County to win statewide office. Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Senate candidates Ken Paxton and James Talarico each made campaign stops in Fort Worth, while gubernatorial challenger Gina Hinojosa spent the first day of early voting in Austin and San Antonio. Each of the candidates who made it to Fort Worth were met by throngs of supporters, and each spoke to the key role Tarrant County plays in Texas politics. The candidates’ convergence on Fort Worth was far from coincidental; county leaders and political experts told the Fort Worth Report the attention from the top of the ticket demonstrates that both political parties see the county as pivotal in their success.

“It shows what we’ve been saying throughout this campaign, that Tarrant County really is the battleground county for our state — how valuable, how important the votes are from here,” said Tim Davis, chair of the Tarrant County GOP. That sentiment was shared by Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, who said the candidates’ presence in Fort Worth showed both parties are aligned on the same goal: Tarrant. “It’s very clear to Republicans that they’re about to lose this county. And when they lose this county, they can’t hold on to very much power outside of that. It’ll be very hard for them to hold on to Texas,” Campolo said. “And so they’re sending all their top guns to this county — not just today, but all the days leading up to it.” Tarrant is the largest Republican-held county in Texas. Long seen as a GOP stronghold, the county’s political makeup has in recent years shifted closer to the center, as voters narrowly supported Democratic candidates at the top of the ballot in the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential elections. In the months leading up to early voting, Republican candidates from the top of the ballot to the bottom have spoken candidly of their concern that Tarrant County could flip blue in November. In his 2024 reelection bid, President Donald Trump won Tarrant County with 51.82% of votes. But a runoff election in January to fill Tarrant County’s then-vacant Texas Senate seat showed the county is still up for grabs, as Democrat Taylor Rehmet won by 14 percentage points in the district Trump carried by 17 points.

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As Texas cities pull back on Flock cameras, one Houston man wants more

Fred Woods understands why so many people object to Flock cameras in their community, but his northeast Houston neighborhood has constant problems with drug dealing, vandalism and illegal dumping – and he thinks the cameras can help. “If these can do something about that and bring a sense of security, we need it,” Woods said. While many others want to remove the cameras along Houston streets, Woods wants more of them. Standing at the corner of Homestead and Hopper roads, in the shadow of the community’s one Flock camera, Woods – former president of the local civic club and an active member of several Northwood Manor community groups – can point down the street and recount when the church to the south was burglarized, then north to a vacant market that is now an illegal dumping ground.

Then there is the fence just behind him, dented yet again from when someone driving too fast missed the turn at Hopper and cruised head-on into the iron railing. Three more streets have the same issue – along with problems related to speeding, people fleeing from petty crimes and other situations where police can only do so much and respond after the incident, Woods said. The camera close to Woods and many others are in peril as communities reevaluate their contracts with Flock and other companies. Local and state leaders have turned hundreds off in Texas as concerns about privacy prompt their shutdown. Gov. Greg Abbott rescinded state funding for cameras, including more than 200 in Houston, while cities surrounding Houston and portions of Harris County have covered up their cameras or voided the contracts altogether. Critics note the cameras are always lurking, looking and recording. Woods’ reply is that is exactly what they are meant to do.

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‘Bexar County is the future’: Why both parties are making San Antonio a top priority in this election

In the final days of the 2026 midterm election, state and national figures are swarming San Antonio to rev up local voters who could play an outsized role in a pivotal election. Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico‘s statewide campaign tour will make its last stop here on Nov. 1 — the day before Republican nominee Ken Paxton is ending his 30-stop bus tour at the Alamo. President Donald Trump rallied here earlier this month, weeks after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) visited a Southside VFW.

The moves come as two Democrats viewed as potential 2028 presidential contenders are helping San Antonio-area congressional candidates, and Johnson’s Democratic counterpart, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) will campaign here on Sunday. No part of the country has seen a greater political swing than South Texas in recent years, where Trump set a high-water mark when carrying the state by 13.5% in 2024. Now the GOP hopes to continue that trend to win a number of redrawn congressional districts this cycle — despite poll after poll showing Republicans struggling to hold onto Trump’s coalition. Nowhere is that dynamic on greater display than Texas’ 35th Congressional District, which was drawn to favor a Republican, but could now determine who holds the keys to the speaker’s office next year. “Leaders from across Congress and across the country are all watching what happens right here in this district,” Johnson told supporters at a San Antonio VFW Post in August. “This district is the whole enchilada.”

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If you voted in Harris County on Monday, you're part of a new record

If you voted today on the first day of early voting in Harris County, you were part of a record-breaking crowd. According to Harris County Elections, a new record for turnout for a midterm election was set on Monday, and it didn’t even take a full day to do it. According to a post from the county, there were more than 70,000 voters who had been processed by 3:30 p.m. So with 3.5 hours left in the day, it broke the previous high, which was 63,188, set in 2018. At around 9 p.m., we got the overall unofficial totals for the day. All-in, the county reported 129,454 voters total. That includes 104,660 in-person voters on Monday, as well as 24,794 mail ballots received.

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How Hutto landed Blue Origin, and what it means for the boomtown northeast of Austin

After a decade of missing out on Tesla Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp., among others, Hutto economic development director Cheney Gamboa acknowledged there's a sense of relief in landing Blue Origin? Enterprises LP. "It's no secret that Hutto has been in the finals for so many big projects. It feels really good to win this one and bring it home," Gamboa said. Jeff Bezos' space company made official earlier this month what's been in the works for the last year: Blue Origin is headed to Hutto, where it plans to invest a minimum of $550 million and create at least 2,000 jobs in a 1.3 million-square-foot manufacturing facility it's calling "Constellation Park." The company – which recently disclosed a pre-money valuation of $130 billion – is already moving into two buildings at Hutto Crossing at 148 Parker Way.

Now that it's public, those involved in courting Blue Origin pulled back the veil on how one of the country's largest companies ended up in Hutto. The deal represents one of the region's largest economic development wins of the last half-decade, alongside Samsung? Electronics Co. Ltd. in nearby Taylor and Tesla in eastern Travis County. It started with a request for information codenamed "Project Blue Hub." It evolved into weekend calls, in-person site visits and incentives talks that sealed the deal over competition from Alabama and Florida. It ultimately means the most for Hutto, a city that until now was best known for its hippo mascot. Blue Origin is expected to quickly become the largest private-sector employer in the boomtown that has swelled to 43,000 people — up from 28,000 five years ago — about 35 miles northeast of Austin. City and regional leaders are brimming with excitement about what it means long-term – even if there's more traffic. "People don't see a lot of what it takes to win a project like this," Gamboa said. "But I always reiterate to people that I live here, so I am only going to advocate for a project that I wholeheartedly think is good for this community for the long-term. I recognize concerns. I probably share a majority of them. But this is going to be really good for Hutto for a long, long time, and I'm excited to celebrate with the community various milestones that are yet to come with this project."

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Border wall ‘man camps’ have rapidly spread across the Big Bend with little state oversight.

Driving south to Terlingua on Highway 118 in the Big Bend region of West Texas, it’s customary to see old abandoned cars, wandering donkeys, sun-faded buildings and wide-open vistas in between. But this past summer, locals got an unexpected new neighbor — a sprawling, dusty “man camp” facility designed to house as many as 200 border wall construction workers. “?It kinda looked like the little cottage mining industry we have here, but then they just kept bulldozing and it became something monstrous,” said Emily Greenwood, a resident of the mostly off-grid Terlingua Ranch community, who owns land next to to the development. Construction on the man camp stirred up dust and made way for dozens of RVs, fuel storage tanks, water tanks, storage containers, trucks, industrial lights and heavy machinery, all patrolled by armed security guards. Greenwood, a veteran who plans to start a native plant nursery on her land, said she worried about getting Valley Fever from all the dust the man camp was generating — a lung infection caused by a soil fungus present throughout the Southwest.

She noticed the site lacked public postings about its permits, leading her to file formal complaints with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the agency tasked with protecting public health and managing the state’s natural resources. The man camp’s intended residents would work for Southwest Valley Constructors, a New Mexico firm awarded a $1.7 billion no-bid contract to build border barriers and patrol roads within Big Bend National Park. In total, the Trump administration is planning five separate border barrier projects across the region — the least trafficked along the entire southwest border — for over $7 billion. For residents and tourists, the area man camps have become a constant reminder of the wildly unpopular project that many fear will amount to the destruction of some of the state’s most pristine public and private lands. Construction on border walls and other infrastructure across the Big Bend region has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, who also blocked the Trump administration’s use of federal regulatory waivers allowing the Department of Homeland Security to bypass dozens of environmental, cultural resource protection and public health laws to speed up the project. The Trump administration has asked the judge overseeing the case to allow construction to continue as the legal fight plays out, and indicated it may ultimately try to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The regulatory waivers are crucial to President Trump’s broader push to wall off the entire U.S.-Mexico border, an effort funded by $46.5 billion from Congress. Trump administration lawyers have staunchly defended the border plans for the Big Bend region in court, arguing in one recent filing that Congress gave the head of DHS the “specific authority to waive any legal requirement necessary to ensure expeditious construction.”

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National Stories

Democrats pump $500K into Oklahoma governor's race as map expands further into red territory

The Democratic Governors Association announced Tuesday it is investing half a million dollars to flip the governor’s mansion in Oklahoma — a state the president won by 34 points in 2024. The race between Republican former state Sen. Mike Mazzei and Democratic state Rep. Cyndi Munson is a statistical tie, according to recent polls. That includes an internal Munson poll from Workbench Strategy obtained by POLITICO, showing Mazzei has an edge but within the margin of error. The investment marks an unusually aggressive Democratic play in one of the nation’s deepest-red strongholds and underscores how wide a field Democrats are playing in the final stretch of the midterms. The last Democrat to win the governor’s race was Brad Henry in 2006, but Democrats are betting that the relatively small investment in what is shaping up to be a big Democratic year could be enough to spur an enormous upset. They argue their dollars will stretch further than they do in other states, helping Munson blanket the airwaves with both digital and TV ads.

“Cyndi Munson is a great candidate who has put Oklahoma on the map by running a strong, aggressive, grassroots campaign focused on what Oklahomans care about,” said DGA spokesperson Kevin Donahoe, adding that the DGA believes Munson is “in a strong position” to win. The investment also spotlights yet another Trump-backed Republican winning a bitter primary only to struggle in the general election — a vivid example of why many in the party have been nervous about the president putting his finger on the scale. Trump also picked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and businessman Anthony Constantino for a New York House seat. Both are now struggling in places Trump won easily two years ago. Trump endorsed Mazzei in the August GOP primary runoff over state Attorney General Gentner Drummond, but three Republicans familiar with the Oklahoma governor’s race, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the contest, framed Mazzei as a weaker-than-average candidate.

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Democratic super PAC hammers GOP over trans bathroom focus

A Democratic super PAC is hammering Republicans over their focus on transgender issues as GOP candidates in battleground races invoke culture war issues against their Democratic opponents in the final stretch of the midterm cycle. Progress Action Fund released a new ad on Tuesday, first shared with The Hill and part of an ad buy worth more than $1 million, that portrays a generic Republican congressman tasked with checking whether girls are using a bathroom that aligns with their biological sex. In the 30-second ad called “Republicans In Your Bathroom,” a girl walks into a bathroom stall, screaming when she realizes a GOP congressman is waiting in the stall for her. “I’m your Republican congressman,” the generic lawmaker says to the girl after she asks what he’s doing in the stall. “Now that we’re in charge, I’m checking to make sure there’s no trans people in the wrong bathroom.”

“Bathrooms are private. Don’t you have anything better to do?” she asks. “I won the last election, and this is my priority,” the lawmaker replies. “Now, let’s make sure you’re really a girl.” The ad is scheduled to air on connected TV and streaming services in Texas and Ohio two weeks out from Election Day. Both states are home to competitive Senate and House races that will determine the majorities in both chambers. “Americans want their elected officials to lower gas prices and end the war in Iran, not follow them into the f–king restroom,” Progress Action Fund executive director Joe Jacobson said in a statement. “Republicans are creepy as hell. Democrats need to grow a spine and call Republicans out for their creepy fetish of monitoring children’s bathrooms.” Republican candidates have leaned into transgender issues, particularly the debate into whether transgender girls and women can play on sports teams that align with their gender identity, as a major attack line against Democrats.

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One in three Americans back second execution attempt after failed one, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

One-third ?of Americans think the government should try a second time to put a convicted criminal to death if ?a first execution attempt fails, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after a botched lethal injection in Tennessee. The four-day poll, completed on Monday, showed 39% of respondents thought the government should instead allow convicts to serve life in prison following a failed execution, while 26% were not sure which was a better ?approach. The nationwide survey found minority public support for trying again to execute inmates who survive execution attempts, a question Tennessee now ?faces after Christa Pike, 50, survived two lethal injection attempts last month in Nashville.

The convicted murderer was ?taken to a hospital unconscious following the attempted execution, critically ill and with severe arm injuries after two syringes of ?the caustic barbiturate pentobarbital failed to kill her, marking Tennessee's second botched lethal injection this year. She did not regain consciousness until five ?days later. Most countries around the world, along with 23 US states, have abolished capital punishment. Those US states that still impose it have struggled in recent years to obtain execution drugs, and some have considered other methods, including firing squads. A slight majority of Americans — 55% — continue to support capital punishment for people convicted ?of the most serious crimes, down from 63% who said in a 2017 Reuters/Ipsos poll that they supported the policy. Some 31% of ?respondents in the latest poll said they opposed the death penalty, while 13% either did not know or did not answer the question. The issue ?has ?taken on new significance as courts consider whether states can make a second execution attempt after a failed one.

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JD Vance declines to endorse Netanyahu for reelection

Vice President JD Vance declined Monday to endorse Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection a day after President Donald Trump endorsed the embattled Israeli leader. “The president has the most influential endorsement in American or international political history,” Vance said during an interview with journalist Mark Halperin. “I endorse American candidates, and that’s where I’m focused on the midterms,” Vance said, while traveling Monday to campaign for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley of North Carolina. “So, I’m not getting involved in Israeli elections.” Vance has campaigned for a foreign leader — then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, last spring before the right-wing leader’s party lost that country’s parliamentary election.

Vance’s deference to Trump on Netanyahu comes at an extraordinarily sensitive time for Jewish Americans and the U.S. alliance with Israel. Concerns about antisemitism have surged across the political spectrum ahead of the midterm elections. Republicans have been eager to portray Democrats, notably Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, as hostile toward Jews and Israel, while they deal with their own internal schisms. Vance has faced skepticism from Jewish Republicans about his commitment to Jewish Americans and the U.S. alliance with Israel. Last month, Vance spoke privately in Las Vegas to the Republican Jewish Coalition, a leading GOP group committed to advocating for a strong U.S. relationship with Israel and against antisemitism. Vance left a positive impression on his RJC audience while stopping short of disavowing influential conservative podcast host Tucker Carlson.

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Alberta rejects secession referendum, chooses to remain part of Canada

The oil-rich province of Alberta has rejected the pathway to secession and will remain part of Canada, landing a definitive blow to a fringe but loud campaign which sought support from the US. About three quarters of voters chose to stay in Canada, while one quarter opted to hold a second vote on separation later as of early Tuesday local time, with roughly 45% of polls reporting, according to unofficial results posted by the province. Monday’s result comes amid a rising tide of patriotism and unity in Canada as the country has rallied against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.

The Alberta independence campaign, a grassroots effort led by a handful of vocal separatists, was amplified heavily online, and some of its leaders had met with members of Trump’s administration. The vote had faced concerns of possible foreign interference after Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail reported Republican operatives had assisted top separatist leaders with their independence bid. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the vote to remain means that “Albertans and all Canadians will move forward together with renewed purpose and high ambition” in a statement posted to X early Tuesday. Thomas Lukaszuk, former Alberta politician and founder of the pro-unity Forever Canadian movement, said the result would send a strong message to Trump: “Canada is not up for grabs.” “We are a solid country that’s united from coast to coast to coast and we stick up for each other,” Lukaszuk told a cheering crowd as the results came in.

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Noah Adams, longtime host of NPR's All Things Considered, has died

Noah Adams, a writer, broadcaster, and storyteller who hosted All Things Considered for 18 years, has died. Adams died Friday at his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, according to his wife, Neenah Ellis. He was 84. He guided listeners through major events like Ronald Reagan's landslide electoral victories, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the September 11 terrorist attacks. But to the people who worked alongside him in the newsroom, Adams' journalism shone through in the softer features he reported. Adams would ride trains across the country, or spend days in small towns talking to whoever he came across. He'd ask questions. He'd listen. He'd write down notes and observations. And then he'd produce long, thoughtful radio pieces that helped listeners understand and appreciate the world a little bit better.

"He was always observing," recalled Melissa Block, who produced pieces alongside Adams for years before hosting All Things Considered herself. "He would have a little reporter's notebook and he would be taking notes in shorthand. His writing is almost illegible – it would just be the vaguest sketches of things. But somehow, when we came back, he would capture the character of a place or a person or a town in the most vivid, rich, simple language. It was a complete picture based on his unbelievable powers of observation." Adams, who was born in Kentucky, came to NPR in the mid-1970s, when the network was still new, and still figuring things out. He was private — intensely private — but told people he'd bopped around a series of jobs before falling into radio. He worked construction. He sold cars, as he recounted once in an on-air essay. In 1972, he started working at the public radio station at the University of Kentucky. Three years later, he applied for a job as a production assistant on All Things Considered. For years, the show's staff has begun each morning with a long meeting about the day's news, and what should and should not be included in the two-hour broadcast. Like all meetings, it can be rote or boring, and many staffers can, at times, view it with some cynicism.

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Christiane Amanpour leaving CNN after 43 years

Longtime CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, who began as an entry-level assistant and rose to become one of the most visible correspondents and anchors on TV, reporting from war zones and hot spots for decades, will be leaving the network after 43 years. Amanpour, the network’s chief international anchor, will scale back her daily show, “Amanpour,” on CNN International to once a week at the beginning of 2027, and end it in May, leaving the network the following month. She said in a statement Monday that she looks forward to “interesting new projects down the line.” Amanpour, 68, also will end her PBS show, “Amanpour & Co,” at the end of the year, she said in her statement, shared by CNN. She will continue her podcast, “The Ex Files,” with her ex-husband, Jamie Rubin, a former U.S. diplomat.

“After many months of thought and a few sleepless nights, I have decided to separate from CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!” Amanpour said. She added she would “always be rooting for CNN and maintaining its history of independent journalism. Remember: Always be truthful, not neutral.” Amanpour did not give a reason for her departure, nor did she specifically mention changes at her network. But her exit coincides with a new era at CNN as it comes under a new owner, Skydance. After a yearlong process, Skydance-owned Paramount closed its $81 billion buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery on Oct. 6. The merger unites under one roof two giants in TV news — CBS and CNN. On a personal front, Amanpour has spoken openly about her 2021 diagnosis of ovarian cancer and two later recurrences, calling it “the invisible killer.” She has urged others to “get all the scans that you can.” Amanpour joined CNN as an assistant in Atlanta in 1983. In his own message Monday, CNN’s chief executive, Mark Thompson, wrote that at the time, her promise was not universally appreciated. “Famously, one of her bosses told her back then that she didn’t have what it took to become a foreign correspondent — or to hold any on-air role at all,” Thompson wrote. “Boy, did she prove him wrong!”

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Lead Stories

Trump targets down-ballot Texas Democrats on eve of early voting

President Donald Trump urged support for Texas Republicans on the eve of early voting — and trained his fire on some relatively unknown down-ballot Democrats, a sign of how competitive the midterms have become as voters head to the polls. Trump on Sunday night held a phone rally with Attorney General Ken Paxton, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, state Sen. Mayes Middleton and two congressional candidates, Jace Yarbrough and Eric Flores. “A lot of people say this must be tough making a call like this. It's not because I love these people, I love what they represent, and I love the people of Texas,” Trump said. The president targeted Vikki Goodwin, an Austin state representative running to unseat Patrick, and Nathan Johnson, a state senator running for attorney general against Middleton.

Some recent polls show both locked in close races, despite the two Democrats starting with hardly any name recognition and raising far less than their GOP opponents. No Democrat has won statewide since 1994. Trump accused Goodwin of wanting to “give you a nice high state income tax” and said Johnson “opposes the 10 Commandments in Texas schools.” “Can you believe it?” Trump said. Later in the call, Paxton urged listeners to meet with two or three people a day and urge them to vote. Patrick upped the request when he joined the line. “Every one of you on this call has a cell phone. You may have 50, 100, 1,000 contacts. I want you to send out, you know, cut and paste to everyone on your contact list and say, ‘Are you voting for Republicans in November or early voting?’” Patrick said. “And if they say yes, say ‘Thank you, God bless you.’ And if they say no, call them. They're your friends.”

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Suburban women souring on Paxton could doom him in tight race

here’s something missing in this conservative Houston suburb on the eve of early voting next Monday: Visible support for Republicans, particularly the embattled Senate candidate. In the sprawling Bridgeland subdivision, yard signs appear to favor Democratic state Rep. James Talarico over his rival, GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton. The signage gap matches recent polling, which shows Talarico, a four-term state representative, either tied or several points ahead of Paxton, who has never lost an election in 25 years. Nowhere is that more clear than on Bridgeland’s Inspiration Drive, where voters on both sides of the political aisle say that Paxton, dogged by corruption scandals and accusations of infidelity, has lost support from a crucial segment of the electorate: suburban women. Interviews with these female voters, who tend to outvote men and therefore carry extra sway in growing communities, reveal a combination of apathy toward Paxton’s candidacy and an active shift by some conservatives toward his Democratic opponent.

Republican Tess Eugenio, who works in human resources, said there is a split on her street between the vocal supporters for Talarico and those whom she suspects will vote for Paxton, even if they’re not advertising it. “People don’t want to talk about whether they’re going to vote for him, but they will,” Eugenio, 57, said of Paxton. “The question is, will it be enough?” Across the street, Maria Kostecka, a retired preschool teacher, said female friends and neighbors have approached her expressing enthusiasm for Talarico, especially after she posted his campaign yard sign. “I start to feel like it’s this secret underground club who don’t want Paxton in office,” said Kostecka, 66. She said she’s worried though that people “will stay home because they do not like the choices they have.” In a race that veteran political observers say will be decided by small margins, incremental shifts that eluded Democrats in recent cycles could be building in the suburbs. In 2022, Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke made gains in the suburbs, but in the end, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) still won 60 percent of suburban precincts to O’Rourke’s 38 percent, according to the Texas Politics Project.

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Could Republicans prove the pollsters wrong in the midterms?

Republicans facing a predicted wipeout in next month’s midterm elections are clinging to the hope that opinion polls are underrepresenting support for Donald Trump’s party. On the campaign trail this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson joined other party operatives in questioning whether polling and betting markets, which point to a Republican rout in the House and a possible defeat in the Senate, might not be reaching many conservative voters. “I’m looking right at the camera, and telling you: The polls are wrong,” Johnson told an audience in North Carolina on Thursday. “The polling organisations are admitting over the last few weeks that they have been under-sampling Republicans [and] they are over-sampling Democrats?.?.?.?because Republicans don’t trust pollsters any more,” Johnson said. Polls consistently underestimated support for Trump in the last three presidential elections, leading to his victory in 2016 and 2024. Polling in the midterm elections has been less prone to big misses, however, underestimating Democrats slightly in 2022 and 2018. The sitting president’s party has only managed a net gain of House seats twice in midterms since the second world war.

Yet Democrats’ hopes of winning control of the upper chamber hinge on wins in at least a few states where polling puts them ahead by 3 percentage points or less. If polls are off merely by the margin of error, Republicans could retain all Senate seats in Maine, Alaska, Ohio, Iowa and Texas. “Republicans aren’t as eager to pick up the phone and talk to pollsters about who they voted for?.?.?.?they see it as a much more private matter,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who has worked on national campaigns. “If half of what has been true in the past is true again, then chances are Republicans are going to win in Texas. They are going to win in Iowa. They’re going to win in Maine,” said O’Connell. Republican insiders such as O’Connell are encouraged by the fact that some Senate candidates are polling better than expected in Democrat-held states including New Hampshire and Minnesota. They also hope unpopular candidates such as Texas’s Ken Paxton will be lifted by the fact that more popular Republicans, including the state’s governor Greg Abbott, are also on the same ballot. One strategist for a large Trump-aligned group told the FT that they were enthused by early voting trends in Georgia, which showed that under-35s — who tend to lean Democrat — were “not turning out at the same levels as they were in 2022 and 2024”.

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Trump’s overtures to Putin put Republican candidates in hot seat

President Trump’s surprise diesel deal with Russia and decision to waive sanctions on Moscow have become a headache for Republican candidates with just two weeks to go before the midterms. In interviews and town halls, Republicans are being pressed on why now is the time to go soft on Vladimir Putin. Some of them are breaking with Trump rather than defend his string of Russia-friendly decisions. Diesel prices remain elevated, adding to the challenge in an election heavily focused on affordability. The result is a new political hurdle for Republicans who are uncomfortable with the idea of easing sanctions on Putin’s Russia and have yet to see the hoped-for economic gains. Republicans, who worked to pass a sanctions package targeting buyers of Russian oil and gas just over a month ago, are now questioning Trump’s decision to hold off on implementing it. The move has thrust Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine, which he once vowed to end swiftly after returning to the White House, back into the political spotlight.

Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate candidate locked in a tight race against Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, has said he opposes buying Russian diesel fuel. On Sunday he also made clear that he objects to the president’s decision to pause the sanctions package. “It’s just not where I would be,” Rogers said on Sunday on CNN. “I would have voted for the sanctions bill. If the president has a better idea to get diesel prices down, I’d be for it. I’m just a little skeptical that this will work in the way that the administration wants it to work.” “I don’t think we can give Putin an inch,” Rogers added. Trump defended his recent decisions in a social-media post Sunday, saying he was in the process of “negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine” and didn’t want to do anything that will “drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that Putin has proposed that he, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet next month to talk about Ukraine in an attempt to negotiate an end to the four-year conflict that would favor Moscow. Other Republicans echoed Rogers’s qualms. On Saturday, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who is facing a competitive re-election contest, said he would tell Trump not to buy Russian diesel fuel. Instead, Sullivan called for continued efforts to expand energy production in Alaska and strengthen the U.S. military, which he referred to as “hard power things Putin understands the most.”

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State Stories

Educator misconduct reports triple since new Texas reporting requirements took effect

Since the state tightened reporting restrictions and created liability for school districts regarding sexual misconduct, reports of educator misconduct have tripled. The Texas Education Agency defines misconduct as physical abuse or unlawful acts with minors. This includes threats of violence, sexual acts, inappropriate communications and physical mistreatment. There have been 19,766 reports of misconduct this year, up from 6,456 last year. Of those nearly 20,000 reports, there have been 13,916 investigations and only 1,114 sanctions issued to perpetrators. The TEA did not respond to the request for comment and clarification on why reports have surged this year.

The Educator Misconduct Reporting Dashboard is a transparency tool that provides public information about educator investigations. Required by last legislative session’s Senate Bill 571, the dashboard includes data on reports submitted to the TEA, educator investigations, State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) santions and a “Do Not Hire” registry. “These resources reflect our commitment to transparency and fostering trust in our schools,” TEA Inspector General for Educator Misconduct Levi Fuller said. “The dashboard gives communities access to critical information, while the resource center brings together the tools and guidance school systems need to respond quickly and appropriately when concerns arise.” SB 571 broadened the definition of abuse to include inappropriate communications and failing to maintain appropriate boundaries with students. The law also changed reporting requirements, lowering the window to report abuse to law enforcement from 48 hours to 24 hours. “SB 571 ensures that misconduct is caught early and acted on swiftly, no more ‘passing the trash’ or looking the other way that lets predators reappear in other educational roles or in other schools,” Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) said when the bill passed.

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Thanks to familiar miscues, the Dallas Cowboys are off to their worst start in years

The Dallas Cowboys don’t run the ball well. Their much-hoped-for defensive turnaround hasn’t materialized. Unable to count on either, the Cowboys have hinged their playoff hopes for a third straight season on the right arm of quarterback Dak Prescott. The result? Their worst record through six games since 2020. “The effort is right, the fight is right,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “Mistakes are killing us.” They continued in a 23-13 loss to Green Bay on “Sunday Night Football” that left the Cowboys 2-4. As they chase their first playoff berth since 2023, a lone silver lining has been the dreadful state of the NFC East, where the Cowboys aren’t out of contention thanks to the up-and-down struggles of division-leading New York (3-2-1), a rash of injuries in Philadelphia (2-4) and the regression of Washington (1-3-1).

All four teams in the division have a negative scoring differential, the only division this season to do that. What makes Dallas difficult to count out was seen on the scoring drive that pulled it within 23-13 with 44 seconds to play in Sunday’s fourth quarter, after Prescott led a 13-play, 78-yard drive capped by his scramble away from two tacklers before throwing a touchdown pass on the run. Prescott’s ability, coupled with receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens — their 862 combined receiving yards entering Sunday were second-most by a duo in the league — left Dallas seventh in the league in points scored entering Week 6. Yet what makes Dallas difficult to count on was also on display just four minutes earlier in the fourth quarter. Needing 11 yards on fourth down to continue their drive and cut into a 23-7 Packers lead, Prescott narrowly avoided a sack before lofting a pass that sailed out the back of the end zone, not close to any particular Cowboys receiver. The reliance on Prescott largely paid off to begin this season, as he threw eight touchdowns against just one interception through his first four games. In the last two, though, Prescott has two touchdowns and four interceptions. The latter total doesn’t include an interception Sunday that was negated by a Green Bay penalty for roughing the passer.

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Some Dallas public safety boosters ask voters to ‘bust the bond'

Dallas’ public safety boosters are at odds over a $443 million bond election to fund police and fire projects. One campaign is backed by council member Cara Mendelsohn and Save Dallas City Hall advocates, who are urging voters to reject the bond in order to save the I.M. Pei-designed building. Another effort, which is endorsed by the city’s police and fire associations and a majority of the City Council, says City Hall and the bond are separate issues. The bond package will fund a new police academy; a tactical police training complex; a consolidated evidence room and crime lab; a new downtown fire station; and move 911 operations out of City Hall.

Repaying the bond debt would cost more than $629 million over two decades amid debate about the city’s finances and whether enough was done to secure public confidence in bond proposals. Mendelsohn’s “Bust the Bond” campaign says the program is actually a veiled attempt to move city operations out of City Hall. The group has posted “Bust the Bond” signs throughout the city and has pledged to give any excess money donated to the cause to the Save City Hall organization. “This is a ‘move out of City Hall’ bond dressed up like public safety,” Mendelsohn said in a post advocating for voters to reject the package. She is listed as treasurer of the campaign. Mendelsohn said she would support a bond just for the police academy next year in May. But Dallas’ largest police and firefighter associations say the funding could modernize several buildings that have gone years without repairs and maintenance. “When someone calls 911, every second counts. Modern facilities, as in the proposed New Station 4, reliable emergency communications, and properly equipped firefighters and paramedics are essential to saving lives,” Dallas Fire Fighters Association President Chris Peterson said in an endorsement of the bond.

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El Paso City Councilmember Art Fierro faces four challengers in East El Paso District 6 race

Incumbent city Rep. Art Fierro faces four challengers in the race for the District 6 City Council seat, as the city’s agreement with a Meta data center, a coming property tax increase and rising utility bills have put affordability at the center of the Nov. 3 election. The Eastside district encompasses much of the 79936 ZIP code, including neighborhoods around Marty Robbins Park. Fierro, 64, is seeking a second term on council after serving on the El Paso Community College board and in the Texas House. He won the council seat in 2022 after losing the Democratic primary for his legislative seat to Claudia Ordaz earlier that year. He points to park improvements, street resurfacing and investments in public safety – mostly compensation for firefighters and, soon, police officers – as reasons to keep him in office.

Jesus “Jesse” Moreno, 25, is a former City Council staffer who worked for District 3 Reps. Cassandra Hernandez and Deanna Maldonado-Rocha before recently departing Rocha’s office. A Bowie High School graduate studying economics at the University of Texas at El Paso, Moreno worked multiple jobs while attending school before entering city government through a workforce program. He says his experience handling constituent issues, reviewing budgets and working with city departments would allow him to take office with an accumulated knowledge of city government. Pedro Fernandez Jr., 26, graduated from Americas High School and UTEP, where he studied political science. The son of two Army veterans, Fernandez worked on congressional and statewide political campaigns before moving to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the Western Caucus Foundation, an organization focused on Western land, environmental and energy policy. He returned to El Paso and now works for a staffing agency. Fernandez describes himself as fiscally conservative and politically pragmatic. Claudia Contreras Siller, a care provider for her mother and an animal welfare advocate, and photographer Hector Alba are also on the ballot. Neither responded to multiple interview requests from El Paso Matters. Alba did submit responses to a questionnaire from El Paso Matters.

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Haltom City mayor, first Vietnamese American to lead a Tarrant city, dies

Haltom City Mayor An Truong, who oversaw a commercial and residential building boom in the city, died Friday, Oct. 16, the city announced. He was 78. He died from complications related to cancer, the city said. Truong was elected mayor in 2019, the first Vietnamese American mayor in Tarrant County. His swearing-in ceremony was conducted in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. Born Vietnam, Truong immigrated to the United States when he was 26. He began his career with the Fort Worth Police Department and spent 37 years as an investigator with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. He also served on the Haltom City Council from 2013 until he was elected mayor. “Mayor Truong was a dedicated public servant who always put his community first,” City Manager Rex Phelps said in a statement. “On behalf of the City Council and City staff, we extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends.”

Truong helped lead Haltom City through a significant period of economic growth and development, including attracting H Mart’s seventh Texas store as part of a major mixed-use development at Northeast Loop 820 and Beach Street that is 100% leased. The city also saw major residential growth, including a 412-home subdivision and plans for 1,000 apartments, along with new hotel and recreation developments. City officials projected that development projects would bring thousands of new jobs and residents while generating additional sales tax revenue and allowing the city to lower its property tax rate. The city built a new city hall, law enforcement center, fire substation and senior center in recent years. A renovated North Park opened in 2025. The $4 million overhaul of the 56-acre park included a 4-acre stocked fishing pond with a pier, trails, a new playground, pavilion, amphitheater and improvements to the disc golf course. Truong was born in 1948 and grew up in Vietnam when France occupied the country. He joined the Vietnamese Air Force in 1968 and learned English, so he could come to the United States to become a pilot. He returned to Vietnam, where he fought against the Communists. After the war ended in 1975, Truong and his family came to the United States as refugees and started out in Pennsylvania, where Truong worked in a grocery store. But they did not like the cold weather and moved to Haltom City in 1980. Mayor Pro Tem Kyle Hantz and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Troy Dunn will assume the mayoral duties until further notice, the city said.

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Texas store warns small businesses to watch for fake AI-generated receipts

A locally owned western wear store in Alice is warning other small businesses to be on the lookout after a receipt that appeared to be generated using artificial intelligence was allegedly used to obtain a refund of over $600. Employees at Horseshoes Western Store said the incident involved a receipt for a Consuela purse. Store manager Inez Almaraz said the owners learned about the receipt from a representative connected to the purse brand. She said the distributor refunded the money before the receipt was identified as fake. "We've never had anything or any of this happen, you know, especially with something that we carry, for them to produce or generate a fake AI receipt is something that's just... it's not tolerated," Almaraz said.

Almaraz said employees compared the questionable receipt with a legitimate one and noticed differences in the address, and the paper itself. Angel Ramos, a retail seller at the store, said the document initially appeared convincing. "It looked real. It was shocking but then like, no, if you really look into it closely...it was not the same. There was a lot of little hiccups in it. The papers were different," Ramos said. Ramos said businesses should pay close attention to their records and inventory. "Just be more cautious. Look at your receipts. Pay attention to your systems. Just keep track of your inventory because we didn't carry that purse," Ramos said. Katie Galan with the Better Business Bureau said scammers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to make fraudulent messages and documents more believable. "So, scammers are definitely utilizing AI right now. It's making things much more difficult. It used to be where you could look at an e-mail or a text message and it was very easy to differentiate because you would see all of the grammatical errors and the punctuation and all of that," Galan said. "So, now we don't, have that as much. It's, it's a lot easier for scammers to plug these, these items into AI and then make it, more believable for the rest of us."

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Orlando Sanchez walks a line on GOP extremes, won’t reject hardliners

Republican Harris County judge nominee Orlando Sanchez has run a moderate campaign relative to some of his statewide GOP colleagues, and has tried to distance himself from the most extreme figures in his party – but he has not rejected them outright. In a year when the political headwinds appear to be blowing to the left, Sanchez has touted positive relationships with some local Democrats and hammered traditional conservative talking points on public safety and tax relief. But the former county treasurer and Houston city council member also has said he is “playing for the red team” at a time when the GOP has shifted right, a balancing act experts said may be hard to pull off in “light blue” Harris County. Sanchez said he was “deeply troubled” by GOP Railroad Commission nominee Bo French’s latest racist tweet last month. But he did not join several fellow Republicans in saying he wouldn’t vote for French.

And after far-right firebrand Steven Hotze sent out a text blast last week warning Sanchez’s Democratic opponent Letitia Plummer, who is Muslim, would make Harris County “Sharia County,” Sanchez’s campaign called such attacks “wrong” – but did not reject Hotze’s endorsement. Sanchez’s approach underscores the difficulty he faces this fall, political scientists said, particularly given voters’ apparent discontent with Republican leadership. Taking a firmer stance against the far-right risks alienating hardcore conservatives Sanchez needs to win, they said, but his reluctance to full-throatedly denounce them could leave independents and Democrats – who make up a majority of the electorate – unimpressed. “He’s just in a bad place,” said Renée Cross, a political scientist at the University of Houston. “He’s got to try to balance on that line, and I think it’s especially hard in today’s Republican Party because they are so polarized.” Sanchez appears to understand that he will need a politically diverse coalition of voters to have a chance at winning in November, and that passing a Republican purity test may be antithetical to that goal in this political environment.

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The most annoying neighbor in this San Antonio subdivision is a leaking oil well

In Texas, suburbs have sprung up where oil pump jacks once bobbed. At the Preserve at Medina, a subdivision of brick-and-siding starter homes in southwest San Antonio, students filed off a school bus on a hot afternoon. One child turned down Vesper Branch, a street with a plugged oil well ringed by a heavy black metal fence: “CAUTION flammable gas,” a sign on the fence warned. A faint smell of rotten eggs hung in the air, from low levels of hydrogen sulfide leaking from the well. Only the fence separated the child from the leaking well. Oil hasn’t flowed from the Thompson Callaway Spears #1 well since it was plugged in 2006. But in recent years, the well has vexed Texas regulators and nearby residents. The state has replugged it five times, yet gas continues to leak. Since a housing subdivision rose around the well in the early 2020s, residents have filed repeated complaints.

Soil and air monitoring near the well has detected leaking methane and hydrogen sulfide. In June, contractors told the Railroad Commission, the state’s oil and gas industry overseer, that plumes of methane gas were moving through the soil toward homes in the subdivision, which could trigger an explosion. “We had no idea when we moved here,” said Krystal Solis, who lives across the street with her husband and three children. “No one told us anything.” Plugged wells are usually safe, but several in Texas have failed catastrophically in recent years, including at a Baptist church in the Permian Basin town of Grandfalls. From Canada to Southern California, legacy oil and gas wells have been linked to leaks, fires and explosions in residential areas. Prospective homebuyers rarely know about old oil and gas wells before they buy property. Texas has no statewide laws regulating construction around plugged oil and gas wells. Real estate developers are not required to disclose legacy wells to potential buyers. This means that many people unknowingly end up living near plugged or orphan wells that could present future liabilities.

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It took 3 months to get inside this massive Texas data center — here’s what we saw

As massive data centers rise across the country to power America's artificial intelligence boom, one of the industry's biggest builders is making the case that the benefits extend far beyond the technology inside. During an exclusive tour of Compass Datacenters' sprawling campus in Red Oak, Texas, Fox News Digital got a rare look inside the infrastructure behind the nation's growing appetite for computing. Getting inside took roughly three months' of approvals. Once on site, Fox News Digital passed through six layers of security and suited up in personal protective equipment before entering the facility, where photos and recording devices were prohibited. Beyond the checkpoints, the interior was remarkably clean and surprisingly quiet, with little of the industrial noise one might expect from an operation running around the clock.

Inside, rows of towering server racks stretched across the spotless floor, surrounded by the electrical and cooling systems needed to keep the equipment operating. At Red Oak, Compass uses a closed-loop cooling system that recirculates coolant rather than continuously drawing water to cool the equipment. Compass CEO Chris Crosby, a North Texas native, said the Red Oak campus has not used water for cooling since it began operating. "We haven't used water since inception," Crosby said, noting the importance of conserving the region's resources. "Water is precious in North Texas." Beyond cooling, security is another major consideration for facilities housing vast amounts of computing infrastructure. Crosby the extensive security is not about keeping the facilities secret, but rather protecting the sensitive information and critical infrastructure housed inside. "Hacking is real, attacks on infrastructure are real," Crosby said. "If people knew that a bank or a government was operating at a particular facility, they could infiltrate that facility. So that's why the levels of security are so high at our campuses." The campus, roughly 20 miles south of Dallas, will eventually include 10 data center buildings spanning roughly 2.6 million square feet. A Schneider Electric manufacturing facility and a workforce training center operated in partnership with Texas State Technical College are also located on the campus.

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Durant House’s restoration by Russell Buchanan challenges preservation norms in Dallas

A historic house in Dallas was falling apart. Water damage and years of deterioration had left the modest Victorian-era home on the brink of collapse. Rather than demolishing it, co-owners Shannon Wynne and Casey McManemin partnered with architect Russell Buchanan to reimagine preservation. The result is an approach the team calls “adaptive restoration,” combining preservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse through a “building within a building” concept that Buchanan had previously seen used in Europe. The original reconstructed house peers through large glass paneling on a facade of gray-slatted siding and tailored-aluminum trim—a deliberate juxtaposition. “We wanted to show that preservation means finding a creative way to carry history forward,” Wynne and McManemin said in a statement.

The Durant House was built in 1903 by reputed mason and builder Owen Hughes. Also known for constructing the Praetorian Building—Dallas’s first skyscraper and, at the time, the tallest building west of the Mississippi River—Hughes consistently executed remarkable brick detailing. By 2022, one section of the house’s sidewall had begun leaning six to eight inches away from the structure. Its load-bearing brick walls sat directly on the earth without a conventional foundation. The house was dismantled from the top down, carefully removing shingles, rafters, and framing while preserving the historic materials that could be saved. The original Abilene bricks were removed one by one, cleaned, and stored off-site until the structure was ready to be reconstructed. “Once we understood what was there, there was simply no acceptable substitute for putting it back,” Buchanan said. “The goal wasn’t to create a replica. It was to preserve the actual building and the evidence of the people who built it.”

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Harris County to form working group on Flock oversight

Kevin Newsom is a Harris County taxpayer, and although he describes himself as a “local ne’er-do-well,” he doesn’t appear to present a threat to public safety. But he and most of his neighbors are frustrated and angry that they’re being watched by Flock Safety cameras. “We need to cancel the Flock contracts,” Newsom said during a Thursday meeting of commissioners court. “They are unconstitutional. They are illegal. The Fourth Amendment is the ultimate rule we’re supposed to follow when it comes to surveillance. If we’re talking about rules and regulations concerning Flock, if we’re not following the biggest rule, what hope do we have to follow the smaller rules that you’re proposing today?” Newsom joined dozens of residents who weighed in on the automated license plate readers, sometimes referred to as ALPRs, which have been in place since 2022. Just recently, however, reports surfaced of non-law enforcement employees accessing the system, law enforcement officers abusing the system for personal use, and suspicion that those with access are sharing data with federal immigration authorities.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to direct the Office of County Administration to convene a working group chaired by Sheriff Ed Gonzalez to gather information on automated license plate reader data, access and oversight, and to propose amendments to the county’s contracts with Flock Safety and Vigilant Systems, a subsidiary of Motorola, by February 2027. Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Tom Ramsey voted against it. Both said they support oversight but noted that Gonzalez already has a working group and is prepared to present a policy regarding the sheriff’s office use of license plate readers within a week or so. County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who called the public hearing, expressed disappointment that the license plate reader vendors weren’t present to answer questions. She suggested suspending use of all the devices in Harris County while the working group convenes, but there was some confusion over whether contracts would need to be amended to do so. Also, some of the devices were purchased by neighborhood associations and municipal utility districts, so, although authorized Harris County law enforcement officers can access the data, the devices don’t belong to Harris County. The cameras use artificial intelligence to capture and analyze information about vehicles, including their make, model, color, and distinguishing features such as bumper stickers or dents.

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National Stories

How CBS News’ Middle East war spread to the Upper Midwest

Control of the US Senate for the next two years could come down to how much the news media chooses to focus in the final weeks of the midterms on a tweet sent years ago by the younger half-sister of Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate. In 2012, Abdul El-Sayed’s half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, described “an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early ’70s.” Republicans and members of the media have since pressed El-Sayed, an American of Egyptian descent, to answer whether he has ties to the Islamist movement, which was founded in Egypt and whose offshoots include US-designated terrorist groups. The subject is of particular interest at CBS News, where Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has repeatedly encouraged the network’s journalists to dedicate serious resources to finding a potential link. In recent weeks, Weiss has personally advocated for CBS News journalists to pursue numerous story angles related to El-Sayed’s supposed sympathy towards the Muslim Brotherhood, and was directly involved in a controversial story about his previous posts comparing the COVID-19 death toll to 9/11.

She has discussed the topic on editorial calls, and tasked CBS News’ investigative unit with combing through El-Sayed’s background for a potential link to the organization. The network’s investigative team is set to publish a story in the coming days on the subject, though two people familiar with the reporting said that as of Sunday afternoon, it was unclear whether the story will include new revelations. A year into a new regime at CBS News, some of the daily controversies over Weiss’ management style and relations with the White House that defined the first few months have eased. But the politics of the Middle East and the conflict in Israel and Gaza — and its echoes in American domestic politics — remain red-hot inside the company, as a network leader with strong views on the region’s dynamics has attempted to shape its coverage of stories touching its spiraling conflicts. Rank-and-file staff have clashed with editors installed by Weiss over Gaza, leaking embarrassing internal network discussions about coverage — such as last week, when the media-focused news startup Status and Guardian media reporter Jeremy Barr reported on a clash between CBS News’ London bureau and foreign editor Shayndi Raice. Weiss has taken a particularly hands-on approach to the Michigan Senate race, where campaign rhetoric has revolved around El-Sayed’s Muslim faith, and whether he can win over Jewish voters in the state. The Hollywood Reporter reported last month that Weiss faced criticism internally for “overseeing an article that critics say falsely insinuated Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed had ties to the September 11 attacks.” Some CBS News staff have privately grumbled that Weiss is particularly focused on pursuing theories about high-profile progressive candidates that bubble up on X or in right-leaning news outlets. Weiss also tasked staff with pursuing the theory that Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was in a mental health facility after he disappeared from the campaign trail for over a week in October. He was at home with the flu, journalists from The New York Times confirmed, citing images from Talarico’s home security cameras. (CBS News never gave public credence to the theories and matched the Times’ reporting.)

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Zacharia speaks out after White House press secretary exit: ‘It was an honor’

Katie Zacharia issued her first public statement Friday night after a White House official announced she’d be “transitioning out” of the press secretary post after just five days in the role. In a post on the social media platform X, Zacharia praised President Trump’s leadership, saying, “It was an honor to work for him.” “President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man,” she wrote in her post, which included a picture of herself and Trump in the Oval Office. She continued, “I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to.”

Zacharia’s departure follows the president’s remarks to reporters on Friday that he had advised her to “reconsider” the position. The former political commentator has now logged the shortest press secretary tenure in the position’s history. Her exit also followed a wave of scrutiny over a shaky debut press conference, which lasted 14 minutes and included only three questions from conservative-leaning outlets, as well as skepticism over her legal background. Zacharia, who replaced former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, had presented herself as a lawyer during her TV appearances. When asked by a reporter on Tuesday about which state she passed the bar exam in, Zacharia responded, “When I moved to China.” However, the Wall Street Journal reported later that evening that she had failed the exam, prompting watchdog group Campaign for Accountability to file a complaint with the State Bar of California on Wednesday over her claims that she is a lawyer. In an interview with conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, Zacharia said she “misheard” the question but added that her bar exam results were “inconsequential” because she moved to China with her husband for work after graduation.

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America’s new housing market is all about luxury—and it runs on cash

America’s home-buying market is a house divided. On one side, near-record home prices and the recent surge in mortgage rates above 7% have relegated buyers to the sidelines. In many cities, sales are stagnant and sellers are cutting prices for lower-end and entry-level homes to lure back buyers. On the other is a robust luxury market, where wealthier home shoppers swerve around high rates with jumbo down payments or all-cash purchases. The top third of the market is still buying, and spending enough to push up home prices nationally by more than 4% over the past two years. This dichotomy is playing out across the country. In 33 of the top 50 metro areas, luxury home prices are rising faster or falling slower than starter home prices, according to data from First American Data and Analytics, a real-estate data and economics firm.

In the greater San Francisco area, home prices have surged as the AI boom has brought tech employees new wealth. But just about all of that price growth has come from the luxury market, where prices are up 4.6% year-over-year, compared with a 1.7% decline for the starter tier and a 0.6% decline for the middle tier, according to First American. Around Tampa, Fla., where a surge in new construction after the pandemic raised inventory, home prices in the bottom third of the market—below $305,000—were down 4.1% in August. The luxury-market homes—priced above $471,833—have been able to hold steady at 0.4% growth. The trend in the housing market reflects a growing divergence in the fortunes of the country’s economic classes. Wealth has surged for Americans with steady, high-paying jobs or businesses and stock investments. At the same time, middle- and working-class Americans are locked out of that level of prosperity and struggle to keep up with rising costs on nearly every front. The same trends are shaping the new-home market. Home builders are shifting their focus toward luxury homes, which generate far wider margins than entry-level homes. Many builders have struggled to unload built-up inventories of entry-level homes, compelling them to offer significant incentives in the form of mortgage rate buydowns.

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‘You Can See Everything’ sets Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd review records

We are running out of ways to describe just how critically beloved You Can See Everything is, the mind-bending Elizabeth Holmes pseudo-documentary from Nathan Fielder. Now, we have to add audiences on top of that as well. Just a day after putting up an astonishing score on Metacritic, the dust has settled with two more records across two other sites, one for 2026, one for much longer than that. On Rotten Tomatoes, the website issued a statement that said You Can See Everything was the only 100% certified fresh movie of the year, having more than 80 reviews in. Now, it’s dropped to a 99% because of a single negative review, but the 99% with 101 reviews still seems to be the record for the year regardless. Then, on top of that, you can add the just-in 99% Rotten Tomatoes audience score for the film, matching the critics at near perfection.

There is nothing that matches that. Audiences loved Spider-Man: Brand New Day enough to make it $2.5 billion, but it is still lower with a 97% audience score. Project Hail Mary has a 95%. There are barely any other releases even in this category at all. Continuing with the fan review format, we can head over to Letterboxd, the movie rating site that has become a hobby, sometimes practically a job, for the biggest cinema fans. This record may be the most impressive of any of these, and really for any movie in…many years. You Can See Everything, with a 4.7/5 score, is the fourth-highest reviewed offering on the entire site. It could be considered the highest-scored movie ever, as #1 is a live Radiohead concert and two others, Band of Brothers and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, are TV shows. This is the list sorted by average rating, and not a final calcuation. Many movies are going to have tens of thousands of more reviews in, but right now, among earlier viewers, it has universal, almost unprecedented praise and scores. Those are reviews, however, and the question turns to how all of this will translate into box office results. Positively, is the obvious answer, but we are still asking people to believe that a three-hour documentary about a Theranos scam artist is worth spending more than a full afternoon with. Previously, estimates were for around a $7-8 million opening weekend, though if reviews are this good, and word-of-mouth travels fast as a result, that may prove to be an underestimate. The budget of the documentary, as you might expect, is very low, around $5-7 million.

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Early childhood educators fear tougher working conditions amid Trump proposals

Early childhood educators are sounding the alarm at changes proposed by the Trump administration to loosen regulations on the industry such as staff-to-child ratios. Advocates are on the edge of their seats after the public comment period closed on a proposal from the administration that would take a unified Head Start, a program that serves 700,000 children from low-income households, and create a state-by-state approach for many regulations. But in an industry already plagued by staffing shortages and low pay — educators fear these changes will make the job even more difficult. A survey of almost 4,000 early childhood educators from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) found a majority worry that increasing staff-to-child ratios will make their jobs harder and pose as a safety issue for everyone involved.

Eighty percent say bigger group sizes would make it harder to meet students’ individual needs, and 78 percent said there is greater risk of more people leaving the industry due to burnout. More than half of early childhood educators said they would be likely to leave if the ratios increased. “I think that if they were to try to raise the child to teacher ratio, that it would just completely collapse the industry,” said Tricia Hulsether, a worker at Windy Willow Preschool in Minnesota. “It’s already very difficult to have, especially in an infant room, four to one ratio. If they were to try and raise that, no one would want to work in that room.” “Even at a four to one ratio, we have our administrative staff and our other teachers stepping in just to assist at certain times of the day, and if that was more, no one would want to be in there,” she added. “I think the parents wouldn’t want their child in there either. It wouldn’t just be that the teachers are too stressed. The children are going to be distressed.” The Trump administration’s proposal shifts the responsibility of regulation onto the states, creating vastly different class sizes, education requirements and background checks depending on the area.

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Macron urges calm as France counts the cost of worst unrest in years

President Emmanuel Macron appealed for calm on Sunday, a day after France suffered one of its worst days of unrest in years, with thousands arrested and shops looted or damaged after protests over high prices and declining public services. Fresh ?clashes broke out in Paris and Marseille, where riot police intervened to prevent attempts to ransack businesses. Nationwide demonstrations had erupted into riots on Saturday, with a town ?hall torched, shops pillaged and buildings covered in graffiti as violent groups clashed with police in cities across the country. "Looking at these images, we have all asked ourselves: What was going through their minds? How can French people do ?this to France?" Macron said in a televised address to the nation. "Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it. Tonight, we all feel anger and shame."

Saturday's unrest laid bare the deep anger at Macron, who leaves office in 2027 after a decade in power that has increasingly become defined by social discontent, a weak economy and ballooning debt. Macron said those protesting peacefully had legitimate grievances and their actions should not be confused with those seeking to wreak havoc. He stopped short of declaring a state of emergency, as demanded by some right-wing politicians, but said the government would act to ?allow prefects to ban protests if necessary to protect public buildings ?and local businesses. The government has blamed the violence on what it said were ultra-left groups, as well as criminals it said had instigated the looting. One protester died on Saturday after suffering a cardiac arrest during demonstrations in Paris. Police made 2,400 arrests across France, ?while nearly 1,000 officers were injured, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said. Police again clashed with protesters and fired tear gas at Place de la Republique on Sunday afternoon, and protesters had set fire to piles of bicycles. A Reuters witness said there appeared to be several hundred protesters in the area. A massive clean-up operation took place in cities from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south and ?from ?Strasbourg in the east to Bordeaux in the southwest, where a masked mob invaded the residence of the ?local prefect.

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Lead Stories

In Texas Senate race, Ted Cruz tries to push Ken Paxton across the finish line

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is not up for election this year, but he is campaigning across his home state as though he is. Rather than pitching himself, Cruz is making a spirited case for the Republican Senate bid of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cruz, a conservative firebrand, is trying to rally the party’s base in a year where Republicans fear many of their voters will stay home. He has poured money into supporting Paxton, introduced the attorney general to his large network of donors and even gave him sartorial advice after President Donald Trump mocked the Paxton’s appearance despite having endorsed him. “Unlike President Trump, I’m not going to comment on his wardrobe,” Cruz quipped at a recent Paxton rally in Houston. “I have advised him to go out and buy a bunch of Trump ties and just tie them real long.”

Republicans are facing a uniquely competitive Senate race in a state that Democrats have longed dreamed of turning blue. Paxton, laden with personal and legal scandals, has lagged behind Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in fundraising and most public polls. In a sign of their concern, National Republicans are upping their involvement: Outside GOP groups have invested more than $200 million in ads going into the general election, and Trump and Vice President JD Vance have stumped for Paxton in Texas, including during a national party convention in Dallas. In addition to Cruz’s appearances on the trail, Truth and Courage PAC, a Cruz-aligned super PAC, has spent more than $2 million in ads for Paxton. If Paxton prevails, Cruz’s heavy investment in the race could pay off as he considers a 2028 presidential bid, earning gratitude from fellow Texas Republicans and impressing GOP primary voters beyond its borders. Tying himself so closely to Paxton carries some risk if he loses in a state in which no Democrat has won a Senate race in nearly 40 years. But even if Paxton loses, Cruz will have still stepped up beyond the usual expectations for an incumbent to help his party in the state.

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15,000 Texas voter registrations caught up in backlog after another state software error

A software error has caused another backlog in Texas’ voter registration logs. The glitch caused by “an extra address validation” affected Texans who updated their names and addresses on the state’s government record portal, texas.gov, between Sept. 1 and last week, according to an email sent out by the Texas Secretary of State’s office on Thursday. The Texas Association of County Election Officials, or TACEO, initially estimated more than 5,200 voter registration applications across at least four counties: 3,000 in Bexar, 400 in Hays, 700 in Williamson and 1,100 in Travis. Many of those updated records were still missing voters’ new addresses, TACEO said in an email shared with The Texas Newsroom. As of Friday afternoon, those addresses are now showing up for Texas county election officials, according to an email from the Secretary of State's office.

Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, said the agency sent 15,000 records back to counties. The state's notice, which The Texas Newsroom obtained Friday, says not all Texas counties were affected. Pierce could not confirm which specific counties the software error impacted. She added that the issue was discovered and has been resolved, and voters will still be able to cast a ballot. “Our office has been working with counties, and they have now received the records in time to update the registrations ahead of the start of early voting,” Pierce wrote in an email to The Texas Newsroom. But county officials now have limited time to clear this up. Before early voting begins Monday morning, they must determine which registrations were submitted by the state's Oct. 5 deadline and add those to the Official List of Registered Voters. This latest wrench in the system comes only days after Texas election officials said they cleared an earlier voter registration backlog. That issue, which was caused by an error prompted by a Texas Department of Public Safety software update, impacted more than 500,000 voter registrations submitted since October 2025.

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Texas has been considering selling a beloved state park to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, sources say

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission has been discussing the sale of Boca Chica State Park, Texas Monthly has learned. The deliberations were far along enough that the commission planned to take up the sale of “1,300 acres” in Cameron County during a closed-door executive session at a meeting on November 5, two days after the election, according to a draft agenda of the commission meeting. Two sources familiar with internal discussions of the potential sale said Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the prospective buyer and confirmed that the 1,300-acre property in question is the beachfront state park, which is adjacent to Musk’s burgeoning Starbase facility, near Brownsville. After Texas Monthly inquired about the meeting and Musk as the potential buyer, Stephanie Garcia, a Parks and Wildlife spokesperson, issued a brief statement: “The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is not considering the sale of the Boca Chica property at its November meeting.” As of press time, Garcia had not responded to follow-up questions about the discussions over the sale of the park, Musk’s involvement, why the November 5 agenda had apparently changed, and whether the issue has been tabled indefinitely.

Sources said the item could instead be taken up by the nine commissioners—all appointees of Governor Greg Abbott—at a later date. The move comes as Abbott, Ken Paxton, and other Texas Republicans face unusually close races, with polls showing Abbott’s opponent, Democrat Gina Hinojosa, within striking distance. Musk, the world’s richest man, has pumped a reported $158 million into a super PAC backing Paxton’s flailing campaign. Musk’s own super PAC is also instructing canvassers to tar Hinojosa over her record on transgender issues, according to The New York Times. Hinojosa has blasted Abbott for engaging in “crony capitalism that is enriching multinational corporation CEOs like Elon Musk,” reported Hearst Newspapers. SpaceX recently asked the Federal Aviation Administration to approve an increase in the number of rocket launches per year from 25 to 456 at its South Texas site. “It stinks,” said Luke Metzger, the executive director of advocacy group Environment Texas, of the potential sale. “It looks really bad. [Boca Chica is] very ecologically sensitive, a home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including a lot of endangered species, and so it really needs special protection. This is land that’s probably some of the most sensitive in the entire state.” Texas Parks and Wildlife purchased the land that became Boca Chica State Park in 1994 from The Nature Conservancy. Until 2023, the land was leased to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a unit of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

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The immigration crackdown is making it much harder to build houses

The summer surge in federal immigration raids is hitting the housing market, pushing up labor costs and freezing projects. Nearly two-thirds of builders said immigration enforcement is affecting their labor force, up from 23% in March and 13% a year ago, according to a September John Burns Research & Consulting survey. “We’re almost dead in the water because our workforce is gone,” said Scott Brannock, president of Jacksonville-based Tidewater Homes and the Northeast Florida Builders Association. “We have national builders who are missing projections, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because they have slabs sitting on the ground and no one to frame.” A September survey from the National Association of Home Builders found the cost of labor had increased a median of 4.2% from the previous year. The shortages come as the country desperately tries to drive down sky-high housing costs that have trapped millions of Americans out of homeownership and stalled sales.

Immigration raids have primarily hit trades such as roofers, painters and framers. Meanwhile, the data center build-out in some areas has siphoned off specialized trades, drawing HVAC technicians and electricians with lucrative wages that home builders struggle to match. Immigration-enforcement advocates say that deportations will drive down housing costs by removing competition for housing. They say builders should hire U.S. citizens. “It is an absurd contention that we should stop deporting immigration lawbreakers simply because construction companies want to employ them,” said Matthew O’Brien, deputy executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Last year, immigration arrests had only limited impact on the home-building industry, other than in select pockets of the country, such as South Texas. That changed this summer as the Trump administration scaled up immigration arrests to record levels. Over the summer, the Jacksonville, Fla., area became a hot spot for arrests of residential-construction workers, with some subcontractors estimating 70% of their workforce has been lost. But the immigration crackdown has also started hitting builders in wider swaths of the country. “It seems to have become ubiquitous,” said Jim Tobin, NAHB chief executive.

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Trump's decision to waive Russian sanctions outrages Congress

President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to waive sanctions on Russia days before they were to take effect drew outrage Saturday from members of Congress, which had overwhelmingly passed the legislation in a bipartisan display of American support for Ukraine in the war with Russia. Lawmakers from both parties blasted the executive order late Friday, the latest in a series of steps that the Republican president has taken drawing the United States closer to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Trump recently announced a diesel deal with Putin to import Russian energy in a long-shot effort to curb high gas prices in the U.S. that are roiling the midterm elections on Nov. 3. “I think it’s clear Russia is the aggressor, and we’ve got to do everything we can to put economic pressure on Russia,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in an interview with The Associated Press. “So it’s not the first thing I would be doing.”

“Beyond irresponsible,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on social media, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed hope that the sanctions that were supposed to take effect Sunday targeting Russia’s economy could be revived. “What part of enforcing a law passed 86-11 by the Senate does the President and his advisors not understand?” Tillis said. “It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine.” Ukraine’s president is urging supporters to speak out in defense of sanctions against Russia that President Donald Trump has put on hold. AP correspondent Donna Warder reports. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said “Lindsey would be appalled,” referring to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who worked endlessly on the bill before he died this summer. The bill is known as the Lindsey Graham Russian Sanctions Act. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement that “by giving the Russian economy life support, Trump’s deal with the devil keeps getting dirtier.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Trump is “thumbing his nose” at Congress and “enabling Vladimir Putin to continue his war of aggression.” She urged her colleagues to take action to reverse course.

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State Stories

Barbara Bush donated to super PAC supporting James Talarico for U.S. Senate

Barbara Bush, the daughter of former President George W. Bush, donated to a political action committee that supports state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate for Texas, according to campaign finance records. The 2026 third quarter report to the Federal Election Commission for Lone Star Rising PAC shows a donation from the younger Barbara Bush in the amount of $2,500, dated Sept. 23. "I would imagine that somebody in such a prominent political family, if she wanted to ensure that her contribution was anonymous or not visible, that any number of lawyers that they probably have at their disposal could have told her how," said Andrew Cates, a political attorney and campaign finance expert based in central Texas.

"She didn’t give it to a [501] (c)(4), in which her contribution would have been completely anonymous. She gave it to a PAC that reports all the money in and out." The Bush family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cates said that $2,500 is a drop in the bucket for a campaign that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars raised, but it does have potential symbolic importance. "It’s not like Elon Musk money, obviously," Cates said, "but it is it is interesting and maybe potentially a little bit telling on where the center GOP establishment is leaning and where they feel like the race is headed." Most polling shows the contest between Talarico and his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton to be either statistically tied or with a slight lead for Talarico.

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Texas farmers are worried about the economy. Will they still vote GOP?

Jerry Moody doesn't have any plans to sit out this election, but he's worried some of his neighbors in East Texas might. The 57-year-old chicken farmer said high fuel and fertilizer costs driven by the war in Iran were hitting Texas farmers hard, making him worry that what had been a dependable voting bloc for Republicans might not be so secure. "They're not going to vote for a Democrat but they're concerned about the Republican party," he said. "I still believe in Donald Trump, but I do think that he underestimated the resolve of the Iranian people and this thing has lingered on a lot longer than he thought it would." There's an estimated 400,000 farmers in Texas, a relatively small block of Texas' 18.7 million voters. But they are an important constituency for Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton and other Republicans running statewide in what is expected to be a tight midterm election.

A poll by the Texas Politics Project this week shows Republican candidates still maintain sizable leads in those areas, but any loss of support could hurt them as they seek to overcome Democrats' advantage in urban areas. And in rural Texas, where agriculture is a significant employer, the economic unease is growing. Just 27% of rural residents said they were satisfied with the state of the economy this month, compared with 42% a year ago. "We've had our ups and downs, but this (economy) ranks with the worst ones I've seen," said Russell Boening, president of the Texas Farm Bureau. "I know that people aren’t happy with everything but, maybe looking at the big picture, they’ll stay true to how they normally vote. Or maybe they stay home." The economic concerns among Texas farmers mirror a larger unease among the state's electorate. A poll this week by the Texas Politics Project found the top three issues for voters were inflation, political corruption and the economy - in that order. That's a shift from the 2024 and 2022 elections when immigration and border security were always among the dominant issues for Texas voters. Republicans and President Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 on the pledge to lower inflation. The inflation rate through the end of September was 3.7%, compared to 2.9% in the last year of the Biden administration. "While those issues are top of mind for Texas voters, they're also some of the issues that Donald Trump receives his lowest approval, and highest disapproval," said Joshua Blank, research director at the Texas Politics Project.

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School vouchers and THC divide a Texas House race in Williamson County

Gov. Greg Abbott signed the school voucher bill into law and vetoed the THC ban. Round Rock Republican Caroline Harris Davila voted for both. Now, Chris Jimenez is hoping those votes cost her a third term in the Texas House. The Democrat is trying to turn frustration over public school funding, growing household costs and restrictions on hemp products into a referendum on Harris Davila's record. Harris Davila's campaign is emphasizing her record on cutting property taxes, boosting funding for border security and supporting stricter election laws, among other issues. The election offers voters in House District 52 a pair of candidates with sharply different views and backgrounds. But Jimenez faces an uphill battle against an incumbent candidate with better funding who has territorial advantage in a district drawn to favor Republicans.

A major area of disagreement between the candidates is related to school vouchers. Harris Davila voted for the 2025 law creating education savings accounts that provide public money for private school tuition, homeschooling and other educational expenses. Private school students are eligible for $10,474 this year. State Comptroller Don Huffines said in August that 101,600 students had signed up in the program's first year, with over 100,000 others on a waiting list. More than 5.4 million students are enrolled in Texas public schools. Jimenez wants the state to cancel the voucher program and increase its basic allotment for public schools. "At its root, we're just underfunded," Jimenez said. "We've been underfunded for quite some time." He argues property taxes could be reduced if the state were to pay for a bigger share of public school costs. Another clear divide between the candidates is on the issue of hemp, which is a legal term for cannabis with less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC, the plant's main psychoactive ingredient. Edibles and drinks can remain under that threshold and easily have enough Delta-9 to get people high.

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Can Gina Hinojosa flip Texas?

The afternoon we spoke with Gina Hinojosa, Oct. 2, she had just pulled into her campaign office’s parking lot from a four-day trip around East Texas, toting a suitcase in the rain. “We did Nacogdoches, Lufkin,” she later told us. “Corsicana, Crockett,” her assistant piped in. “And we just came from Houston,” Hinojosa finished. About five minutes later, we were sitting down in the empty East Austin house her campaign has jury-rigged into an office. In the next room, several young campaign workers typed on computers situated on plastic foldout tables. Hinojosa, who sat across from us in a navy blazer and heels, has proven herself to be the most formidable challenger for the governor’s seat that Gov. Greg Abbott has ever faced. For context, Abbott became governor of Texas over a decade ago. That year, 2014, he handily beat former Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis with nearly 60% of the vote, then former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez in 2018 by 13.3 percentage points. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke was Texas Dems’ next best hope in 2022, when he lost by a narrower 10.9 percentage points.

What is different about Hinojosa, Austin’s representative in the Texas House? The recent Oct. 3 New York Times/Siena and Sept. 23 Marist polls are projecting her ahead of Abbott by three percentage points, though other recent polls still have Abbott in the lead. But four years ago, no major polls predicted O’Rourke would win. Those poll numbers are also in spite of Abbott outspending Hinojosa 6-to-1 from July to late September, per Texas Tribune reporting, with Abbott having entered the election cycle with over $105 million on hand. Hinojosa had less than $1 million. We asked Hinojosa: Why is this year different from the previous election cycles? “I am hearing that people want change,” she replied. Hinojosa believes that the boom of data centers across the state has been particularly “eye-opening” for people on all sides of the aisle. “A lot of Texans – a lot of Republicans and Independents – see that this is an example of a governor doing the bidding of moneyed interests, and leaving the people to fend for themselves,” Hinojosa continued. “My theory of the case is: This is who Greg Abbott is. And it makes my critique of him credible.” What has surprised Hinojosa on the campaign trail is what she calls “an opportunity to be post-partisan” in Texas right now. People want their government to improve public schools, improve affordability, to ensure that Texans “have a say in our future, rather than having tech giants decide it for us,” she told us.

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Houston officials tap former Trump aides for homelessness policy consulting

Houston city officials retained a conservative consulting firm this year to assist with Mayor John Whitmire's initiative to address homelessness, the mayor's office told Houston Public Media on Thursday. Red Door Consulting founding partners Scott Centorino and Sam Adolphsen served as assistants to President Donald Trump at the beginning of his current term in office, when they helped write and execute dozens of executive orders, according to the firm's website. On the website, they say the firm's mission is to "help advocacy organizations, businesses, and candidates win with conservative policy." In a statement to Houston Public Media, Centorino said he helps Houston "partner with federal agencies in Washington to reduce homelessness because the city’s leadership is taking a results-driven approach that is evidence-based, compassionate, and community-centered."

"The city has a powerful story to tell — of putting partisanship and ideology aside, just looking at what works, and focusing on results," Centorino wrote. "I’m proud to help the city share that story in Washington." The city issued two purchase orders for the firm’s services this year for a total of $150,000, according to documents obtained through a public records request. Red Door Consulting charged the city $10,000 per month. Joshua Sanders, Whitmire's Director of Intergovernmental Relations, wrote in a document in February that the firm would help "identify and prepare potential proactive legislation, assist in tracking adverse legislation, legislative appropriations, and grant opportunities to support the (the city’s) strategy regarding homelessness." Red Door Consulting lists the city as a client in its lobbying disclosure registration with the federal government, as well as weapons and technology company Axon and the New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association, which opposes offshore wind energy development and supports fishing deregulation. Whitmire has made addressing homelessness a central pillar of his mayoral administration. The lynchpin of his plan — a 222-bed residential treatment center in East Downtown — currently depends on about $40 million in one-time federal funding for its first three years of operation.

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Majority of Burnet, Webb families ask to close their schools, avoid a takeover of AISD

Volunteers have collected enough signatures to request that the state close Burnet and Webb middle schools. The closures could help avoid a full takeover of the Austin Independent School District by the Texas Education Agency. “To hit this kind of goal is overwhelming and satisfying, and it’s for the kids, so the kids and their families have a voice for their school,” Ken Zarifis, a parent and former teacher at Burnet who helped get the signatures, said. “We don't know if it's a big voice, we don't know if it's a little voice, but it's a voice.” After Webb and Burnet received five consecutive failing grades from the state, the Texas education commissioner can appoint a new board of managers and superintendent. Texas law gives parents from the schools with failing ratings the option to ask the commissioner to close their schools instead. A majority of parents from each school had to sign a written request by Oct. 15 for the commissioner to take action.

Even if the schools close, the commissioner could still impose combined sanctions, including appointing a monitor, conservator or board of managers to ensure the district is providing adequate support to low-performing campuses. Yet, the community has hope that the petition will help avoid a more intense intervention. The Austin Council of Parent Teacher Associations was behind the effort to inform parents about the petition and gather signatures. The president of the organization, Crystal Brothwell Hernandez, said she was 100% confident they had surpassed the goal of 299 signatures for Burnet and 174 signatures for Webb. She said the signatures were turned in to district officials before 11:59 p.m. Thursday. The district confirmed receipt of the petitions. The gathering of signatures became contentious after some parents said they felt pressured by having people outside of their community calling, showing up at their homes and outside of Webb. Students from both campuses were sent home with the petition. Some parents said the petition already had their and their children's names, phone number and home address filled out. Karen Peraza said she received multiple phone calls from volunteers asking if she had signed the letter. She finally did when her daughter came home from school with the petition. “My daughter told me they had given it to her. ‘Give it to your mom because this letter is to keep Webb open, and get her to sign it,’” Peraza said. “But I did not translate it because I already felt pressured with so many phone calls.”

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Despite surge in prison overdoses, state agency requests no new treatment funding

From 2020 to 2025, the number of confirmed overdose deaths in Texas prisons rose from just four to at least 131. Despite this surge in fatalities, however, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) did not request any additional funding to expand its drug rehabilitation programs in its recent proposed budget to the Texas Legislature ahead of next year’s session. Instead, the agency asked lawmakers to “maintain current funding levels for rehabilitation and reentry programs such as chaplaincy, reentry transitional coordinators, substance use treatment programs, and the sex offender treatment program” for 2028-29. If that request is granted, funding for these programs would in fact effectively decline due to rising inflation. Further, the same programming is set to be affected by a mandated 3 percent reduction in spending across state departments, though TDCJ has asked for that cut to be reversed. This appropriations request comes after contraband—which includes drugs—entering prisons topped the list of priorities for the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice to address in 2027 and after the Texas Observer published an investigative series showing the consequences of punishing drug possession without robustly funding treatment for incarcerated Texans.

In the request, prison officials did ask for millions of dollars in additional funding for new interdiction efforts—including drone detection technology and more drug-sniffing dogs—as part of a “multi-faceted approach by the agency to combat the introduction of narcotics and other dangerous materials to agency facilities,” as the agency wrote. This follows a longstanding pattern. Funding for agency-led rehabilitation programs—which include mandatory classes for parole and specialized substance-abuse facilities—has not kept pace with inflation in the past decade, and TDCJ hasn’t asked lawmakers for the money to significantly expand these programs, even as need grows and the agency says it is trying to offer programming to more prisoners. (The agency has said it’s ramping up peer-led programs and online resources including a help line and educational videos.) Meanwhile, prisoners are racking up new criminal charges for using or dealing, which is having little apparent effect on the prevalence of drugs inside prisons. The agency is doubling down on punitive efforts, which sometimes include highly publicized inter-agency busts of smuggling rings involving both prisoners and prison staff. “Funding drug interdiction alone is a misguided approach,” Senator Borris Miles told the Observer in October. “The state must also address the ongoing problem of addiction in our prison system through treatment and rehabilitation, in addition to prevention.” Republican Committee Chair Pete Flores previously told the Observer he “support[s] both initiatives [punishment and treatment] and additional funding that will eliminate contraband in our prisons.” Flores did not reply to a request for comment on the agency’s appropriations request.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: We have no recommendation in the race for Texas governor

We have long supported Gov. Greg Abbott as Texas’ leader based on independent, conservative governance that has helped propel our state’s prosperity while keeping taxes in check and advancing important reforms in areas like education. But with each election cycle, we have grown more concerned with Abbott’s deepening embrace of the far right and his increasing refusal to engage as the leader of all Texans. Like so many of his fellow Republicans, he seems to lead now for the MAGA base and social media clicks. We cannot offer him our recommendation this year. Nor can we tell voters that his Democratic challenger, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, is a worthy replacement. Her message mostly consists of blaming billionaires and Abbott for Texas’ woes, rather than offering solutions.

Her two main policy ideas on education and sending $1,500 checks to Texans could do the state great harm. Like so many of the state’s Republican leaders, Abbott has fallen into an echo chamber that he refuses to emerge from. He has shown little willingness to connect with voters or media that might challenge his views. He won’t debate or answer tough questions. His comfort zone is right-wing news channels and social media, and that’s whom he governs for. Abbott totally capitulated to President Donald Trump’s demand for mid-decade redistricting. Texas already had few competitive congressional districts. Now, North Texas has none. When it comes to the U.S. House, democracy has been stripped for vast swaths of the state and replaced with incoherently shaped districts that maximize Republican power and diminish minority representation. He stood by as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have acted recklessly in Texas, including the fatal shooting of one man and the running over of another in Houston. He refused to follow the rule of law and extradite a federal immigration agent to Minnesota. He has demonstrated no interest in supporting the immigrants who boost this state’s economy.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: We recommend James Talarico for the U.S. Senate

Texans have a clear choice in the race for U.S. Senate between a man who is unfit for office based on a long history of corruption and a man of integrity who is well prepared for higher office and who has demonstrated a degree of political independence uncommon in our era of blind partisanship. We supported Republican John Cornyn in every race he ran for Senate. Today, we urge Texans to vote for state Rep. James Talarico, the Democrat, over Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. The effort to undermine Talarico, 37, has focused on painting him as an extremist. Don’t believe it. There are many issues where Talarico is further to the left than we would like. Yet he has demonstrated not only an impressive depth of knowledge but also a willingness to cut against party orthodoxy in the name of bipartisan progress.

If he governs the way he speaks, he will represent an important correction toward moderation. Perhaps most important, Talarico is willing and able to talk to people of every political stripe. He has no fear of taking tough questions from Fox News or engaging with devoted MAGA voters. He meets people where they are. Paxton can’t even perform well in his own echo chamber. He stumbles in softball interviews, the only kind he’ll engage. Having a senator who is willing to have difficult conversations for the purpose of genuine legislative progress is something every Texan should want. Now let’s get into the issues and how Talarico says he would govern. The far left has long resisted teacher accountability. Talarico correctly notes he was “vocally in support of pay for performance.” He helped draft House Bill 3, a major bipartisan effort from the Texas House that increased total education funding and created an incentive program to measure and reward the best teachers in the state. Teachers unions, including one Talarico was a member of, hate these sorts of programs. He understands they can help kids, even as he fights vouchers and calls for much more money for public schools. More money alone isn’t the solution, but Texas ranked 46th among states for average per-pupil spending last year.

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Heavier mail-in ballots raise postage questions in Tarrant County

As voters prepare to cast their ballots in the upcoming election, a longtime Tarrant County voter is raising concerns about a potential postage issue that could affect mail-in ballots. Linda Potts, who has mailed in her ballot in Tarrant County for nearly a decade, said she discovered the issue unexpectedly when she visited the post office to have her ballot manually postmarked. "There's only place stamp here, there's one square," Potts said, describing the space provided for postage on her ballot envelope. This year, Potts said, the ballot is two pages instead of one, making the completed ballot heavier. When she took it to the post office, she was told that a single stamp would not cover the postage and that an additional 29 cents would be required.

"The problem is, if I had not walked my mail-in ballot into the post office to have a manual postmark put on it, I would not have known that it's going to take 29 more cents postage to get it to go through the post office," Potts said. Potts questioned how voters would know whether their ballots had sufficient postage if they placed them in their home mailboxes for pickup or dropped them into a collection box without first visiting a postal employee. "If I put my ballot out in my mailbox to be picked up, or I had dropped it in the drop box out in front of the post office, what happens to all those ballots?" she asked. The postage question prompted an inquiry to Tarrant County election officials about what happens when a completed mail-in ballot enters the postal system without sufficient postage. In a response to the inquiry, election officials pointed to the U.S. Postal Service's election mail guidance, which states that completed absentee voting materials, including mail-in ballots, should not be delayed because of insufficient or unpaid postage. USPS' guidance further explains that it works with state and local election officials on mailing requirements, including postage payments. If a ballot enters the mail stream without the proper postage, USPS says it will deliver the ballot and subsequently attempt to collect the remaining postage from the appropriate election authority.

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ICE pursuit in Houston that broke a man's leg targeted a suspect who died years ago, family says

A federal officer slammed a vehicle into a Houston construction worker and broke his leg while pursuing a man who apparently died years ago, his family said Friday, further calling into question the account given by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The worker, 48-year-old Miguel Parra Hernandez of Mexico, remains hospitalized with multiple leg fractures and needs reconstructive ankle surgery, according to FIEL, a Houston-based immigration advocacy group. At a news conference Friday, the group said the alleged suspect's family had shared documentation proving his death. After the episode Saturday, ICE said in a statement that officers had observed a suspect they were targeting, identified as Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, enter a vehicle with Parra Hernandez. But on Friday, Harris County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre told The Associated Press that Mendoza-Cervantes was not in that vehicle. ICE did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

“ICE is lying,” Cesar Espinosa, FIEL’s executive director, said. “Either somebody is not telling the truth or all of a sudden these two ICE agents have developed a sixth sense and are able to see dead people.” ICE released a photo of a man it identified as Mendoza-Cervantes. But he is actually Jose Hector Jimenez, who died years ago while being pursued by federal immigration authorities as he was trying to reenter the U.S., according to FIEL. The man's daughter provided documents confirming his death, which have been turned over to the district attorney, FIEL said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment. Jimenez’s daughter, Jamie Jimenez, did not respond to requests for comment from the AP. Her husband, Andres Rendon, confirmed to the AP that Jimenez was his wife’s deceased father. Criminal charges against the ICE officer who drove the vehicle are being considered by Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, who has said surveillance footage contradicts ICE’s claim that Parra Hernandez stepped in front of the vehicle. The video shows a black SUV speeding over a median and driving toward a man who is running away. The video does not show the car hitting him — that view is blocked by another vehicle — but it shows the SUV inches from the fleeing man. The video then shows him on the ground.

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Bexar County elections administrator says office is ready for early voting Oct. 19

Michele Carew, the Bexar County elections administrator, says her department is 100% ready for the Nov. 3 election. Early voting runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 30. Early voting polling sites are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday during the first week. During the second and final week, polling sites are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Local early voting sites include some city halls, libraries, churches, community centers and college campuses. Despite concerns about registration backlogs and a lengthy suspended-voter list, Bexar County is prepared for turnout at levels typically seen in presidential election years, thanks to round-the-clock work by county elections staff.

Carew said no one will be turned away from a polling site. "I wanted the community to know our election process is working exactly as it should," she said during a news conference at county election headquarters on Friday. Carew said that her staff has been working "around the clock since June to prepare for this election." Tensions among voters appear to be rising as Election Day approaches. Those tensions were on display during President Donald Trump’s rally at Freeman Coliseum earlier this month. Protesters heckled the president several times, drawing loud responses from his supporters. Deputies escorted 18 people out of the rally. Carew sought to reassure voters that polling sites will be safe places to cast ballots. Election judges and sheriff’s deputies are trained to handle potential disturbances, and the county’s Office of Emergency Management is also involved in election security. Carew also said that, under Texas law, ICE agents are not allowed to enter polling sites. "The main message that we are giving to our judges and to the voters is 'if you see something, say something' because our judges and clerks are inside the polling sites, so if there's something going on outside, that needs to be reported immediately."

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: The worst candidates on the 2026 Texas election ballot

After meeting with candidates for roughly 125 races, it’s clear that plenty of contests pit two qualified candidates against each other — the sort who get three stars on our rating scale. Often we’ll simply encourage voters to stick with a proven incumbent. Races without an incumbent, we’ll highlight a specific skill or policy position that elevates one candidate over the other in a coin toss of a contest. But some candidates deserve extra attention. We're talking about the bottom-of-the-barrel officeholders whose negligence and ignorance cause clear-cut injustices. So if you’re tempted to vote straight-ticket, please first read this list of the worst candidates on the ballot and adjust your selection accordingly.

Ken Paxton (not) for U.S. Senate: We’ve noted in the past that Paxton is one of the most crooked politicians in Texas history. There’s a reason why the attorney general was impeached by his fellow Republicans. Paxton’s campaign has also underscored just how lazy he is, with even Fox News pundits hammering him for failing to work hard enough on the campaign trail. Texas needs a senator who actually works hard in Washington rather than jet to Europe with his mistress or party with fugitives in Dubai and then blame everyone else for his woes. Bo French (not) for Railroad Commissioner: He’s a white supremacist and plenty of key Republicans — like Sen. John Cornyn and Chris Daniel — have said they’re not voting for him. Gov. Greg Abbott once said he would “wreck” Texas oil and gas. Keep in mind that Republicans control all three seats on the Railroad Commission, meaning they can lose this one without sacrificing their majority. Plus, the Democratic candidate is a qualified engineer with decades of experience in oil and gas, not a whacko.

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Texas A&M routs Citadel in sign of life

Six days after scoring just six points in a loss to then-No. 14 Missouri, Texas A&M football returned to Kyle Field looking for signs its offense could turn a corner. The Aggies found some on Saturday, Oct. 17, rolling past The Citadel, 41-0, to improve to 4-3. A&M accumulated 501 yards of total offense, scored touchdowns on all four first-half possessions and recorded its second shutout of the season. “Coming off the field today, we were able to get done what we wanted to get done,” head coach Mike Elko said. With a trip to Alabama rapidly approaching, the question remains whether Saturday’s improvements can carry over against Southeastern Conference competition.

After poor offensive showings against then-No. 10 LSU and Missouri, A&M produced 264 rushing yards against The Citadel, averaging 6.6 yards per carry and converting seven of 11 third downs. Freshman running back KJ Edwards led the rushing attack with 116 yards on 13 carries, including explosive carries of 32 and 34 yards. Sophomore RB Jamarion Morrow added 54 yards and three rushing touchdowns, accounting for three of A&M’s first-half scores. The ground game’s success also provided senior quarterback Marcel Reed with more opportunities through the air. Reed completed 8-of-13 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown before exiting at halftime, connecting with freshman wide receiver Aaron Gregory for a 37-yard touchdown in the second quarter. “We’ve got to find ways to create explosives,” Elko said. “We talk about that a lot. It’s really, really hard, especially in this league, to be that consistent on offense, 12 plays without creating explosives.” However, three third-quarter false starts contributed to stalled scoring drives, with A&M settling for two field goals after four first-half touchdowns. When asked about Reed’s accuracy, Elko acknowledged that the passing game still needed work beyond the quarterback.

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Steve Sarkisian vows an ‘evaluation’ of everything — even Arch Manning

Florida has completed No. 7 Texas’s eight-day spiral from No. 1 to two-game losers, cemented when Gators linebacker Myles Graham strip-sacked Arch Manning with just under two minutes left to help seal their 27-24 road win against Texas on Saturday. The win snapped Florida’s two-game losing streak and dealt coach Steve Sarkisian and Texas a crushing loss for the second straight season. Last year, losing to a Florida team that went on to finish 4-8 kept Texas out of the College Football Playoff. Now, Texas has lost consecutive games to struggling SEC teams. “Everything’s going to be evaluated,” Sarkisian said. Including a quarterback change? “Everything means everything,” Sarkisian said.

Last week, the Longhorns blew a 17-7 lead and lost to Red River rival Oklahoma on a walk-off field goal. Manning threw two costly fourth-quarter interceptions in that one. At home this week, Texas went up 17-3 in the first half against one of the worst defenses in the SEC but scored only 7 more points the rest of the way. Backup quarterback Tramell Jones Jr., making his first college start in place of injured Aaron Philo, threw two touchdown passes, and running back Jadan Baugh ran for 88 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown that put the Gators up 27-17. “I’m proud of him for staying resilient … going back to training camp, when he didn’t win the job,” Florida coach Jon Sumrall said of Jones, who finished 22-of-35 for 155 yards and two TDs. “He stayed steady and responded. He’d miss a throw and he’d come back and make a throw.” Manning had his one moment on the next drive, completing a 62-yard pass to receiver Emmett Mosley after evading pressure, then connecting with WR Cam Coleman for a touchdown that cut the Gators’ lead to 27-24.

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Is a tax increase how Dallas County solves homelessness?

Beneath the Interstate 45 bridge in South Dallas, a new fence largely walls off a field of dirt that extends about 300 yards. The space is quiet this October afternoon, save for a man with a shopping cart and the thrum of commuters overhead. The tents, burn pits, and debris that had been scattered around the concrete pillars are gone. Until May, about four dozen people lived in this longtime encampment off Al Lipscomb Way and Cesar Chavez Boulevard, just two miles south of downtown. Nonprofit service providers spent about eight weeks in the spring building rapport with people sheltered here. They helped them secure vital documents before offering them housing or medical treatment. City crews then cleared and fenced off the encampment known as “Coombs,” named after a nearby street. On Nov. 3, voters will decide whether to fund a countywide expansion of the approach carried out here.

Housing Forward, the agency that coordinates the county’s homelessness response, has proposed a tax increase to scale its street outreach efforts and fund rental assistance, mental health treatment, and a new crisis center to divert some people from jail. If approved, Proposition A would generate about $100 million annually through a 2.4-cent tax per $100 of assessed property value. For a property appraised at $350,000, the new tax would cost the homeowner an additional $84 a year, according to county estimates. Housing Forward CEO Sarah Kahn said 11,000 “households” in Dallas County need help exiting homelessness every year. The organization defines a “household” as anyone — from a single adult to a family with kids — seeking housing stability, who it often tracks through shelter visits or contact with a service provider. Nearly 2,000 are currently experiencing long-term homelessness, while the organization estimates another 9,000 lose their housing every year. With current funding levels, Kahn said Housing Forward can only reach about 60% of them. The ballot initiative narrowly won approval from Dallas County commissioners in August. Commissioners John Wiley Price and Elba Garcia voted against sending the proposal to voters after citing concerns that the tax burden was too steep for families to afford. The two criticized the plan for not including specific performance goals or oversight in how the money is spent. The tax also does not expire.

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National Stories

Vance says in ‘some ways’ US has ‘decisively won’ Iran war

Vice President Vance claimed Saturday that in “some ways” the United States has “decisively won” its war against Iran. “I would say in some ways, we have won decisively, but they’re — the Iranians, the enemy gets a vote here, and they have responded in certain ways. And so, to step back a little bit, why did the president of the United States do this?” Vance told CBS News’s Tony Dokoupil in a town hall. “The president of the United States did this because he believes it is very important, and I think he’s right, I think most people here would agree, even if they don’t agree with all the particulars of the policy, to say Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, cannot have a nuclear weapon,” the vice president added.

Vance’s comments come only a few weeks out from the midterms, in which he and his party are facing rough political territory with issues including the unpopular war in Iran. The conflict has driven up energy prices as the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the oil industry, has been closed amid the fighting The war in Iran is set to reach the eight-month mark in a little under two weeks. According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of gas on Sunday morning was about $4.30, up from about $3.04 last year at the same time. President Trump’s approval rating has also sagged amid the war in Iran, with his rating sitting at 39.8 percent on Sunday morning, according to a polling average from Decision Desk HQ, and his disapproval rating sitting at 58.7 percent.

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Trump's new pitch for Republican candidates — they're really good looking

President Donald Trump has a new pitch for Republican candidates: they’re easy on the eyes. “Look at this beautiful guy,” Trump said at a Saturday rally in Kentucky, referring to U.S. House candidate Ed Gallrein, a former U.S. Navy SEAL with an angular face who stood nearby the stage. “Central casting.” That’s a common refrain from Trump, who owned the Miss Universe beauty pageant and grew his clout on the reality television show “The Apprentice” before entering politics. Aesthetics have long been part of the president’s measuring stick, either as a source of praise or target for ridicule. Now, Trump is deploying his handsomeness appraisals as he boosts Republican candidates in a midterm election which already includes debates over which candidates are more masculine. The outcome will determine whether Republicans keep control of Congress or Trump faces emboldened Democratic opposition in Washington.

Soon after Trump touted Gallrein’s beauty on Saturday, he mentioned Sen. Jon Husted, the Ohio Republican running for reelection, and described him as “a perfect person, good-looking guy.” “I examined his ass,” said Trump, eliciting laughter. “I never did that with a man before. I examined his ass. And then I looked at his shoulders. I looked at his feet. I looked at his hand. I looked at his jawline.” It was a reprise of Trump’s droll assessment from an earlier rally in Ohio, when he also touted Husted’s past as a college football player. Not all Republicans are so lucky, as Ken Paxton has learned. “I don’t really like the way he looks,” Trump said about the Republican Senate candidate in Texas during the party’s midterm convention as Paxton stood nearby grinning. Trump previously said that “it’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it.” He added that Paxton’s conservative record as attorney general “speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great.” Democrats are far from safe from the president’s visual judgments. Trump says Paxton’s opponent, Democratic candidate James Talarico, reminds him of Alfred E. Neuman, the freckled, gap-toothed MAD magazine mascot.

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Retiring GOP congressmember will absolutely not vote for successor in at-risk seat

Retiring Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei said he won’t vote for the Trump-endorsed GOP candidate vying to replace him amid a string of stolen valor and other accusations — and warned that the once-safe Republican seat President Donald Trump won by 14 points is at risk of flipping blue on Election Day. Amodei said in an interview Saturday he would "absolutely not” vote for businessperson David Flippo in Nevada’s 2nd District. “I think the seat’s at risk,” he added, citing a string of stolen valor and financial allegations against Flippo. “You say, well, the president endorsed him,” Amodei added. “It's like, well whoever was advising the president on, ‘Hey, this would be a good place for you to go ahead and weigh in,’ gave him awful advice. The vetting process — quote unquote — must have been nearly non-existent.” Amodei specifically cited a series of allegations against Flippo as disqualifying, for reportedly lying about his military service and also failing to file financial disclosures on time.

“It's just one thing after another. The stolen valor accusations — all that. But you're just sitting here going, ‘What the heck?’” Amodei said. Flippo has said apparent exaggerations about his military service on campaign materials were mistakes by his staff and others. Still, GOP officials have been weighing whether Trump should campaign in the region to help boost Flippo before Election Day, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The district has never been represented by a Democrat. Amodei said he plans to vote early in the coming days and “is looking seriously” at casting his ballot for the independent candidate. Amid the deteriorating landscape, national Republicans are increasingly wary about Republicans like Flippo holding onto seats in once-safe red districts. Trump won the Northern Nevada seat that encompasses Reno and nearby rural counties by double digits in 2024 and Amodei has held it for 15 years. On paper, Democrats should have no business playing there. And, national Republicans are still bullish on their chances of holding onto the seat, arguing it’s safer than other red districts they’re more worried about. But Republicans have watched Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a former Nevada Assembly majority leader, make the race much tighter than comfortable. Limited general election polls have Flippo either up or trailing by several points. The Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. super PAC just dropped its first spending into the district in recent days, looking to boost Flippo who has self-funded a large part of his campaign.

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Always on, always listening: New AI devices are pushing legal limits and could put users in jeopardy

Thomas, 43, wears a pair of Meta’s camera-equipped glasses, a Fieldy note-taking pendant around his neck and a wristband from Amazon’s Bee, all of which record his daily life. A Pittsburgh-based business owner and a livestreamer, Thomas relies on the devices to help him stay organized, pay bills on time and set reminders. “I’m forgetful AF,” Thomas said in an interview. “My life is so crazy that not having to remember to remember is fantastic.” Not everyone is on board with his lifestyle. Earlier this week, a bystander at a local bar noticed his Meta Glasses. “He was like, ‘I don’t feel comfortable,’” Thomas said. “I don’t turn it off, I take it off completely because people don’t really believe it’s off.”

It’s the type of interaction users are increasingly navigating as more tech companies introduce AI-powered, always-listening devices and features, which have been marketed as useful tools to transcribe meetings, keep track of conversations, set reminders and offer personalized recommendations. The latest example of these gadgets arrived Thursday with Amazon’s Bee Frontier wearable and Bee Eclipse, a card-shaped device that attaches to a smartphone. Both devices are designed to record, transcribe and analyze a user’s day. Amazon’s Bee Frontier device can be worn on a wrist or clipped on to clothing. Apple’s latest Apple Watch Series 12, unveiled in September, will have Siri Recap, which “ambiently” takes notes throughout the day and generates summaries of conversations. Another feature called Live Rewind can recap 15 seconds of a conversation via a text transcription. Meta’s popular smart glasses can take photos, capture video and record voice notes or reminders. Startups including Plaud and Pocket also developed card-sized note-taking devices, while Friend offers an AI necklace.

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No Kings draws crowds with focus on early voting

At the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on Saturday, a large inflatable donkey bounced around next to a paper-mache replica of Donald Trump's head. Next to both of them: a sign reading "VOTE EARLY." The donkey, the floating head and the voting sign were all part of the "No Kings: Vote Early" day of action. Thousands of gatherings across the country drew protestors, voters and grassroots organizers to the streets and to voting centers. Organizers said the events were a nonpartisan effort to promote early voting in the midterm elections. The nationwide push to vote marks a pivot for the No Kings coalition, which comprises hundreds of partner organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Black Voters Matter.

"The first three No Kings were designed to send a message," said Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible — one of the major organizations within the No Kings network. "We're done sending a message." Now, he said, they want people to vote. The events looked different across the country. Some were larger marches or rallies, but many were smaller community gatherings such as block parties and cookouts. While some protests, like the one on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, were reminiscent of the first three No Kings rallies — with signs blasting Trump and his administration's actions — other events focused on spreading information to community members on how to vote. Saturday's events all shared similar restrictions, Levin said, including a rule against political endorsements and inviting current candidates to speak. In Golden, Colo., a "Paws to the Polls" event invited people to bring their dogs on a march. Organizers in Everett, Wash., planned a "concert for democracy," featuring an environmental troubadour.

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France counts cost of worst unrest in years

France woke on Sunday to the ?wreckage of one of its most violent days of unrest in years after protests over high prices and public services left one demonstrator dead, hundreds of police injured and nearly 1,800 people arrested. Nationwide demonstrations erupted into riots on Saturday, with a town hall torched, shops ransacked, and buildings covered in graffiti as violent groups clashed with police ?in cities across the country. One protester died after suffering a cardiac arrest during demonstrations in Paris, where police made a record 855 arrests. ?Across France, more than 500 officers were injured, the interior minister said. "It's like a war zone here," said ?Dutch entrepreneur Tije De Boer, who had come to Paris with his children to visit a friend and said the protests forced him to evacuate ?his hotel at Place de la Republique, which suffered major damage on Saturday.

More than half a million people joined marches in scores of cities, marking ?the convergence of a month-long student movement with broader social discontent against rising living costs and declining public services. President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation at 2000 local time (1800 GMT) on Sunday, his office said. While hundreds of thousands protested peacefully, violent fringe groups targeted public buildings, looted luxury boutiques and supermarkets and attacked police ?vehicles and officers. A massive clean-up operation began in cities from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south and Strasbourg in the east ?to Bordeaux in the southwest, where a masked mob invaded the residence of the local prefect. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said several hundred shops had been damaged on Saturday. In ?Paris, smashed ?shop windows, burnt-out bicycles and spray-painted slogans bore witness to a day that began largely with peaceful demonstrations but descended into violence. In Limoges, southwestern France, mayor Guillaume Guerin denounced the chaos after the city's 143-year-old town hall was set ablaze and partially destroyed in an arson attack on Saturday, drawing comparisons to the 2019 fire that devastated Paris's Notre-Dame Cathedral. "There was a clear, premeditated intention to burn down the town hall, and the people inside feared ?for their lives," Guerin told Reuters. ?He threatened to resign if the ?city did not receive the million euros needed to repair the city hall.

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Republicans zero in on cultural issues in campaign’s final stretch

Republicans across the most competitive House and Senate races have settled on a closing pitch ahead of Election Day: Democrats are too extreme to be given control of Congress. It is an effort, pressed in a flood of TV ads and in President Trump’s rally speeches, to urge voters who are angry about gas prices and broader economic conditions to redirect their frustration away from the party in power. To make their case, Republicans are calling renewed attention to a set of cultural issues that hurt the Democratic Party in 2024, among them transgender athletes in women’s sports, border security and the claim that Democrats want socialism. Democrats are trying to blunt the attack by siding with Trump and his party on some of these issues over progressives who first propelled the ideas. “There is no question that crossings are way down, and there is no question it is because of President Trump,” Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor in Texas, said of illegal immigration in a TV interview.

“I don’t support biological men playing women’s sports,” says Annie Andrews, the Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina, in a direct-to-camera TV ad. “No way do we defund the police,” says Roy Cooper, the Democrats’ Senate nominee in North Carolina, in an ad. “You deserve to feel safe, and there’s nothing political about that.” In casting Democrats as out of the mainstream, Republicans are trying to appeal to their voters’ partisan impulses as polls find that many are unmotivated to vote. They also worry that GOP Senate candidates, such as Ken Paxton in Texas and Roger Marshall in Kansas, are drawing lower levels of support than are the party’s gubernatorial candidates. That suggests that some Republicans are backing the Democrat in those Senate races, might skip voting for senator or sit out the election altogether. Democrats have similar problems with their Senate candidates in states such as Michigan. “You can vote for the radical left Dumocrat communists to loot your wealth, raise your taxes by $5 trillion, annihilate your borders,” Trump said at a rally this week in Ohio, in what has become a familiar element of his recent campaign speeches. By contrast, he said, “You can defeat the Dumocrat communists and vote for more money in your pockets…If you want that, you must vote Republican.”

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Lead Stories

Trump says 'if Ken Paxton loses' Texas Senate race, blame Cornyn and Karl Rove

President Donald Trump on Thursday said that if Texas Senate nominee Ken Paxton loses, it will be the fault of incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn and conservative commentator Karl Rove. Trump accused Cornyn and Rove of “doing everything possible to make it hard” for Paxton, the state’s attorney general, to beat Democratic nominee James Talarico. Cornyn lost the Republican primary to Paxton, whom Trump controversially endorsed. “If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump’s preemptive blame-casting came as Texas has surprisingly become one of the most competitive battlegrounds of the 2026 midterm cycle. Most recent polls show state Rep. Talarico maintaining a lead in the low-to-mid single digits over Paxton.

The reliably red state has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988. In 2024, Texans voted for Trump over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by nearly 14 percentage points. Cornyn’s office and Rove did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Trump’s post. Trump’s decision to back Paxton in the GOP primary delivered a major blow to the four-term incumbent Cornyn, whom the president viewed as disloyal. The move was also seen as a major gamble, as Paxton’s history of scandal and opposition within his own party has made him a polarizing figure. Hoping to stave off Democrats’ goal of winning majority control of the Senate, groups backing Republicans have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the Texas contest, making it the most expensive race of the cycle. GOP spending in the race has topped $370 million so far, eclipsing Democratic spending by nearly $235 million, according to AdImpact. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Rove, calling him a “loser” and urging Fox News to stop putting him on air. Rove, who was a senior advisor to former President George W. Bush, “is so bad for the Republican Party, and completely wrong so often,” Trump wrote in a Sept. 14 Truth Social post. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed two days later, Rove said that he would back a Democratic candidate in a different race in Texas, voting blue for just the second time in his life.

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$3M renovation planned for GOP Comptroller Don Huffines' office

A state agency that manages and invests Texas funds plans to spend $3 million renovating Republican Comptroller Don Huffines’ offices, drawing questions about the use of the money as he campaigns against government waste. Records show Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Co. would pay for the renovation of the comptroller’s executive suite, including office space, conference rooms and a work cafe. The renovation in the Lyndon B. Johnson State Office Building in Austin would retain an executive’s private restroom, storage and break area. Documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News through an open records request list nearly $2.1 million budgeted for construction, $280,000 for architecture and engineering, $130,500 for project management and nearly $500,000 for contingencies.

The records do not state why the renovation is needed, what condition the existing offices are in, why the trust company is paying for the project or whether Huffines requested the work. The trust company, a fiduciary that manages and invests funds belonging to the state of Texas or under its control, is listed as the funding agency for the $3 million renovation. Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin, Huffines’ Democratic opponent in November, criticized the proposed use of trust company funds, calling it “highly inappropriate.” “The comptroller is supposed to keep those funds segregated,” she said. “You can’t raid it for operational expenses in the comptroller’s office.” Spokespeople for the comptroller’s office and executives at the trust company did not respond Thursday to a list of questions from The News. As comptroller, Huffines is the sole officer, director and shareholder of the trust company, according to state law. Paul Ballard, who served as the trust company’s CEO from 2003 to 2019, said the trust company’s budget was not used during his tenure to cover comptroller expenses unrelated to the company’s investment operations.

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Most of Ken Paxton’s money can be traced to one man: Elon Musk

If Ken Paxton wins in Texas, he may have Elon Musk to thank. Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person and a Texas resident who has major business interests in the state, sent $158 million in September to a super PAC that immediately flipped that much money to a group backing Mr. Paxton’s Senate bid, according to campaign-finance filings released Thursday. The donations from Mr. Musk, collectively some of the biggest ever recorded in American politics, have allowed Mr. Paxton to remain financially competitive even as he is vastly outraised by his Democratic opponent, James Talarico. Republicans in Texas have grown increasingly worried about the race, one of this year’s most expensive and high-profile contests, fearful of losing a statewide election in Texas for the first time in more than three decades.

Mr. Musk sent the money to Senate Republicans’ top super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, in donations of $75 million on Sept. 9 and $83 million on Sept. 23. Each time, the very next day, the super PAC cut a check of the same amount to Texas PAC, a group that the Senate Leadership Fund had set up to support Mr. Paxton. The money sent to the Texas group was not necessarily Mr. Musk’s, and super PAC officials have said publicly that they were seeking new donations to finance a pro-Paxton operation. But without Mr. Musk’s historic donations, it’s unlikely that such a large amount would have flowed Mr. Paxton’s way. Rarely has an individual donor been effectively tied to such a large commitment for a single candidate. The New York Times reported on Monday about Mr. Musk’s contributions to the Senate Leadership Fund and how they could end up helping Mr. Paxton, but the campaign filings offered more detail on the choreography of Mr. Musk’s donations. Mr. Musk also donated $10 million to a separate pro-Paxton super PAC, money that allowed the group to start running television ads in late August. Mr. Musk, who lives in Austin, and Mr. Paxton, who as the state attorney general regulates Mr. Musk’s businesses in Texas, have been allies in state politics. Mr. Musk has not shown much enthusiasm in public or private about any midterm candidates, rarely posting on X, his social media site, about Republican nominees. But in recent days, he has posted negatively multiple times about Mr. Talarico. On the campaign trail, Mr. Talarico has criticized the political influence of billionaires like Mr. Musk.

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Power struggle erupts in Trump’s White House as midterm losses loom

White House aides, who have kept clashes muted during President Donald Trump’s second term, have begun jostling more openly for power as they brace for widespread midterm election losses and internal upheaval, according to interviews with 20 staffers, advisers and people close to the president. The interviews, most of which were conducted on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel machinations, paint a picture of infighting that has started to resemble the pitched battles of Trump’s first term. Believing that Chief of Staff Susie Wiles might step down after the election, a handful of Trump aides, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, top housing official Bill Pulte and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, have begun angling for the position should it become available. Wiles has given no indication to aides or allies that she plans to leave. Still, high-level White House staffers frequently cycle out of their stressful jobs after 18 months to two years, and Trump had four chiefs of staff, including an acting one, during his first term.

The past week in the White House has been “the new Wild Wild West,” one Trump ally said. The jockeying started in earnest last week after Trump first reached out to Katie Zacharia about joining the administration as the new White House press secretary, a move he made without consulting Wiles, according to four people familiar with the decision. The unilateral action by the president was viewed internally as undermining Wiles, creating the impression of a less-disciplined operation and an unsettled center of power inside the West Wing. For longtime observers of Trump’s inner circle, the friction this week harks back to his first term, when shifting factions of aides and family members vied for power and undermined one another in the process — a pattern this White House has mostly avoided, until now. Compounding the uncertainty is the president, who has told allies he feels frustrated that no one is publicly defending him as vociferously as he would like 18 days before the midterm elections. Trump has embarked on a frenzied schedule of campaign rallies in the final stretch to juice enthusiasm among the Republican faithful, but with a historically low approval rating and growing voter frustration about high prices, he and the Republican Party face major political headwinds.

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State Stories

Republican Marc LaHood rode into office on Abbott’s school voucher train. Now he’s struggling to defend it.

State Rep. Marc LaHood (R-San Antonio) walked into the lion’s den on Tuesday. LaHood was among the roughly dozen Republicans who Gov. Greg Abbott backed over popular GOP incumbents who stood in the way of the governor’s much-desired school voucher program two years ago. Now that early reports on Texas Education Savings Accounts paint an unflattering picture of their success, the first-term lawmaker is struggling to defend them in his first reelection race. “If the ESA program is a bust, I’ll be the first to admit. ‘Hey, I was wrong. How do we fix it?'” LaHood told a crowd of about three dozen NEISD parents on Tuesday. “I want to fix things, and transparency is how we get there. But that applies to both sides.” Texas House District 121 on San Antonio’s North Side hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1981, but LaHood is now in a fiercely contested reelection race against Democrat Zack Dunn, who is getting help from state and national Democrats.

The only general election debate of that race was held Tuesday, hosted by North East ISD Council of PTAs and Raise Your Hand Texas at the Piper Bass Memorial Student Center, where nearly all of the questions were about school vouchers. “I could not be more anti-ESAs, anti-voucher scams,” Dunn said at the debate. “This is a billion dollars that was taken away from our public education system, and it was given to private institutions.” North East ISD has identified 16 schools that it could close in the wake of dropping enrollment and lack of funding, and Dunn and LaHood — a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, respectively — paced the podium area with their passionate takes. Afterward the debate, NEISD leaders and PTA organizers said they were stunned by some of LaHood’s comments. For example, they said, families of students with disabilities have had well-documented problems finding private schools that will accept ESAs, but LaHood said he needed more data before weighing in on the issue. “I want to know how many children and families with disabilities actually applied for the program,” LaHood said. ” … Some of my closest friends have children with severe disabilities, so for me, it’s personal — I want to make sure they’re prioritized, but I don’t want to [go off of] a soundbite.”

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Hinojosa stages empty lectern at Texas governor’s mansion amid Abbott debate snub

Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa (D) spoke next to an empty lectern in front of the Lone Star State’s governor’s mansion Thursday after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) did not accept her debate invitation. “I guess the governor is a no-show, which is not surprising because he has been a no-show for Texans for years,” Hinojosa said after Abbott did not appear at the event. The Democratic nominee accused the governor of shutting down the street in front of the executive residence where she originally planned to host the debate. “If Greg Abbott’s not man enough to debate me then he doesn’t deserve to be the governor of Texas,” Hinojosa told the crowd. Texas Democratic Party spokesperson Jacob Long slammed the Republican governor for his refusal to debate the Democratic challenger in a statement Thursday afternoon.

“The contrast in this race could not be more clear,” Long said. “Gina Hinojosa is traveling the state, hosting more than 150 public events and meeting directly with thousands of voters in their homes and in their communities. The only people who seem to have access to Greg Abbott are the billionaire donors lining his pockets.” At one point during the Thursday event, independent gubernatorial candidate Jenn Mack took the stage and stood behind the second lectern, according to a video clip shared online by a local Fox 7 Austin reporter. “You came to debate Abbott on his record, and I came to debate both of you on your records,” Mack said, eliciting loud boos from the crowd. Mack was later escorted away from the podium by an officer and another man. Abbott’s campaign criticized this moment in a social media post, sharing a video of Mack’s removal from the stage. “The misogyny shown toward a candidate who came to debate proves how insincere and hypocritical Gina Hinojosa is,” the campaign said in a statement. Additionally, the Republican’s reelection campaign accused the event of not being a “sincere attempt to debate,” pointing to the fact that the empty lectern — a standing podium only reachable by stairs — was inaccessible to Abbott, who uses a wheelchair.

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Trump says the border is secure. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott keeps declaring an emergency.

Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott repeated a claim he’s made for the past five years. He stated that the number of people crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally “posed an ongoing and imminent threat” across the state. In doing so, he renewed a border security disaster proclamation that has greatly expanded his powers without going through the state Legislature. Abbott’s declaration stands in sharp contrast to the numbers reported by the Trump administration, which says the drop in the flow of migrants crossing the border has been unprecedented and has reached historic lows since it took over in January 2025. Yet, since Abbott first declared an emergency at the border during the Biden administration in 2021, he’s renewed or amended the proclamation at least 69 times — 21 of those during Trump’s tenure.

The Republican governor, who is running for his fourth term next month, has consolidated power like no Texas governor before him, building on his predecessors’ efforts to strengthen what by design is supposed to be a “weak governor” state as the constitution limits what can be done without legislative approval, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune have reported. One of the methods he’s used to do that is issuing executive orders and disaster declarations that allow him to shift funds, suspend regulations and award no-bid contracts at times of emergency. Since January 2025, two of the top agencies involved with border enforcement — the Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department — have awarded more than $5 million in noncompetitive contracts citing the emergency for items like a Ford F-150, rifles and apartments, state records show. “I think it’s unprecedented,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “I don’t think that there is a similar example, certainly not as to the length of the emergency, and certainly not after the emergency has seemed to pass.” Abbott’s office did not respond to specific questions for this story, including about the noncompetitive contracts, but Deputy Press Secretary Madeline Waschak said in a written statement that the governor has been clear that border security is an ongoing priority.

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Texas senator plans to file legislation to address emergence of cychlorphine

As concerns grow about cychlorphine, a drug about 10 times more potent than fentanyl, one state senator wants to make sure dealers are punished properly. According to the latest data from the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office, there are two cychlorphine deaths on record, and they both occurred this year, one in April and one in July. Both cases were marked as “accidental” deaths. The victims were 18 and 22 years old. This year, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sounded the alarm on cychlorphine, temporarily designating it as a Schedule I drug. When this happens, harsher federal penalties are available for those found dealing or in possession of said drug. That designation is set through Aug. 27, 2028.

Schedule I drugs are defined as having no accepted medical use in the U.S., compared to Schedule II drugs, which have accepted medical uses, but are flagged for their high potential of abuse and dependence, according to the DEA. Fentanyl, for example, is a Schedule II drug. The enhanced federal penalties only come into play, however, if a case is charged on the federal level. In Texas, State Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston), told KXAN in a statement “I continue to work with law enforcement and prosecutors as the illicit market shifts from fentanyl to newer synthetic opioids. Our statutes have to keep pace.” Family of teen hopes ‘more awareness’ prevents future fentanyl deaths Huffman was pivotal in the passage of a 2023 law that made murder charges possible for fentanyl dealers in cases that meet certain criteria. “Next session I will file legislation to tighten the intent standard, so a dealer who knowingly delivers a drug laced with a synthetic opioid cannot hide behind a claim of ignorance when that drug causes a death,” she said in a statement. The next legislative session begins in January. “A public safety issue, always has a lot more support than something that just comes out of the blue from an interest group,” said UT professor Randy Erben, who formerly worked as the legislative director for Gov. Greg Abbott. “There’s a lot concern about the drug problem, especially among younger people. And so an expansion of the definition to prohibit more dangerous or harmful drugs is probably going to receive a better reception.” Medics in Austin have said cychlorphine overdoses can require more than two doses of Narcan to reverse. Fentanyl, by comparison, typically takes one or two.

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Jason Vaughn: I believed in Ken Paxton. Here are three reasons why I can’t anymore.

(Jason Vaughn previously served as policy director for Texas Young Republicans.) In 2014, I dove headfirst into Texas politics. I had moved to the state two years earlier and was quickly drawn to the conservative grassroots — what some might call the liberty wing of the Republican Party. But for me, it wasn’t about factions. It was about conviction. About protecting life, defending children and standing up for the vulnerable. That’s why I launched Pro-Life Texas. It wasn’t an organization — just a network to share information and rally around pro-life candidates. One of the first I supported was Ken Paxton. He was running for attorney general and had served in both the Texas House and Senate. Everyone I knew praised him. He spoke our language: courage, faith, conviction. I helped decorate the stage on runoff night. I even snapped a photo — Angela Paxton cradling his face, smiling, surrounded by their kids. The campaign made it his Facebook banner. I believed in them. I believed in him. That was 11 years ago. I couldn’t feel more differently now. Three reasons explain why.

Ken Paxton didn’t make a one-time mistake. He had a years-long affair. Angela, now a state senator herself, stood by him through it all. She stood by Paxton even as his mistress was called to testify at his impeachment trial and, although deemed unavailable, planned to plead the Fifth so as not to incriminate herself. She stood by him even as staff were allegedly pulled into covering it all up. Through humiliation and betrayal, she stayed. Until now. Angela recently filed for divorce on biblical grounds, i.e. adultery. I don’t celebrate divorce, but I admire her strength. What disgusts me is how some in our movement have turned on her. I have seen her called disloyal, selfish and many more vile things — all because she finally said “enough.” If our political cause demands that women endure emotional abuse and public humiliation to keep a man in office, what exactly are we fighting for? According to testimony from Paxton’s former chief of staff Katherine “Missy” Cary, Paxton held a meeting after being confronted about the affair and repented with Angela by his side. Then he privately asked some of those same staffers to help him keep it going. But that wasn’t all. Inside the attorney general’s office, staff raised red flags about Paxton’s dealings with real estate investor and donor Nate Paul — including pressure to intervene in Paul’s legal matters and decisions that ignored expert advice. These staffers weren’t political enemies. These were trusted conservatives.

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Chamber fights to keep commercial traffic at El Paso border crossing

Leaders with the El Paso Chamber of Commerce are calling on local, state and federal officials to stop the closure of commercial traffic at the Bridge of the Americas, saying this will push El Paso back economically and environmentally. Ricardo Mora, president and CEO of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, was joined by Royal Jones, CEO and president of Mesilla Valley Transportation, and Paul Dipp, president of Economy Wholesale Grocers, for a news conference on Wednesday.

“This modernization of Bridge of the Americas should be a major opportunity for El Paso. Instead, the current plan will set us back both environmentally and economically. Nobody wins here,” Mora said. “Some local and state officials pushing this plan do not seem to care about the irreversible damage that will be caused to our economy, and we do. We will not stand for it.” This comes after the Chamber commissioned and funded a study by the Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness at UTEP about how much the commercial traffic ban at BOTA would affect El Paso. According to the study, about $2.3 billion would be lost in economic output, over 9,500 jobs would be lost and $601 million would be lost in labor income in El Paso County, between 2028 and 2036. “Bridge of the Americas is the region’s only toll-free port of entry. That is very important for commerce in this community. BOTA handled $12 billion of two-way truck trade in 2025 alone. And yet, we’re closing commercial traffic,” Mora said. Mora added that 10.9% of commercial trade could go to other border regions, making El Paso less competitive and even causing some companies to relocate. He emphasized that in just one year, El Paso will lose $36.6 billion. Additionally, BOTA ranks second among major U.S.-Mexico border points of entry in both truck export value and commercial crossing growth. “In total, regardless, this is a mistake. Our community needs to wake up,” Mora said. While construction has not started, the work is expected to start by mid-2028.

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Bud Kennedy: Who’s not supporting Ken Paxton? A lot of good Texas Republicans

The revenge of John Cornyn is nearly complete. Two weeks from an election that could change Texas, the silence of Cornyn’s and George W. Bush’s past voters rings loudly statewide. Their Republican Party — the party has run Texas for 24 years — is gone. In its place are swindlers, grifters and online “influencers” using the party as a racketeering front. Two weeks before a telling Texas election, look at the Republican leaders openly refusing to vote for one or more candidates: • Cornyn, a nine-time winner in November, isn’t supporting Paxton. He also says he definitely will not vote for racially divisive downballot candidate Bo French of Westover Hills. • Bush has not said specifically how he’s voting. But he took part in a Dallas event to raise money for six other Republican senators, leaving out Paxton. His nephew, George P. Bush, lost to Paxton in 2022 for attorney general. But that was a tiny runoff where Paxton was actually the choice of only 3% of Texas voters.

Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, former Texas House speaker and six-time November winner, told Texas Monthly he can’t vote for Paxton or French at all. He also may not vote for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who runs the Texas Senate and the state with an iron fist. Fort Worth state Rep. Charlie Geren, winner of 13 elections since 2000, openly shared a post on X from Democrat James Talarico’s campaign. Geren shared more posts criticizing Paxton for lax prosecutions and also for spending $2 million on out-of-state travel. Geren was one of the Texas House prosecutors who were shut off when Patrick rigged Paxton’s impeachment trial in the Texas Senate. Ten-year Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, a Republican leader since 2000 and for most of her career the most popular officeholder in Tarrant County, told KTVT/Channel 11 she won’t vote for Paxton and will skip that line on the ballot. Earlier, she had texted a Star-Telegram reporter that Paxton is “corrupt and immoral.” Former Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley is a different case. For years, he has criticized the West Texas Republican power clique and now openly backs many Democrats. This year, he outright endorsed Talarico. Whitley also said he’ll vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal over French for the open seat on the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas. Whitley also said he’ll vote for Democrat Sarah Eckhardt over Comptroller Don Huffines. The most telling number is in the recent Texas Politics Project poll. A total of 8% of likely Republican voters say they definitely plan to vote. But not for Paxton or French at all. They remember when Republicans were winners.

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Michelin Guide uses AI to write Dallas reviews

The Michelin Guide became the world’s most famous and prestigious restaurant rating system by building a secretive judging process. Chefs never know who inspectors are, let alone when or whether they will come to dine. Restaurant inspectors’ identities are closely-kept secrets, as is the process by which Michelin decides on ratings and writes its guides. But a secretive process only works if it is founded on trust. On October 8, Michelin updated its Texas guide, adding five new restaurants in the Dallas area. An analysis by D Magazine, including consultation with detection software and academic experts, shows that most or all of Michelin’s new Dallas entries were written by large language model (LLM) software, commonly known as AI. Asked for an interview to address the matter, Michelin responded with the following statement:

“All Inspector notes appearing on the MICHELIN Guide website and app are developed collaboratively by the Inspection team based on their firsthand dining experiences. AI is not used in the writing of these reviews.” In answer to follow-up questions, Michelin clarified that AI is also not used in the editing process and sent an additional comment: “It’s worth noting that the MICHELIN Guide has its own editorial team of which the restaurant text editor is a part.” Michelin stated that it typically does not describe its restaurant writeups as “reviews,” instead using such terms as inspector notes, restaurant texts, and restaurant descriptions. Michelin declined requests to interview Guide leadership and declined an opportunity to review the evidence before publication. This investigation began shortly before Michelin’s October 8 announcement, when a local chef texted me the Guide’s recently rewritten description for Sushi Kozy and asked, “Do you think this is AI generated?” I pasted that text into the AI detector Pangram. Pangram is specifically known for minimizing false positives; it claims a false positive rate of only 1 in 10,000 and its accuracy has been confirmed by third-party teams of researchers. It immediately flagged Michelin’s description: “100 percent of this text is AI.” I emailed Michelin on October 1, asking if the company has an AI policy and naming Sushi Kozy as the description under investigation. Michelin did not respond.

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Why AISD trustee candidates are competing for a board that faces state takeover

Sarah Dille would much rather be a real Austin ISD trustee – with full voting power on the school board and oversight over the district’s governance. “I have always thought about running for the board at some point in my life. It’s always been something that I’ve wanted to do,” she told the Chronicle. But now two AISD campuses – Burnet and Webb middle schools – have received five consecutive F scores, and some form of state intervention is required by the Texas Education Agency. As soon as mid-December, the state agency could decide to take over management of the school district – just as they have in Houston and Fort Worth. Five seats on the school board are up for election in November. But despite being chosen by Austinites, the board could lose its voting power and authority mere months later and be replaced with TEA-appointed managers.

Dille, a former AISD Teacher of the Year, AISD parent, and UT education professor, decided that she was going to run for the South Austin District 6 seat anyway. Twelve other individuals have also stepped up to run for the board this year. “I believe in public schools so fully that if there’s any fire I’m going to run toward, it’s going to be one that’s in protection of what it means to be a democracy, a part of the community,” Dille told us. “I knowingly got into this understanding that I could be elected and not have voting power. But I got into it anyway, because I’m willing to do the work even if I don’t have voting power.” Jessie Neufeld, a lawyer, AISD parent, and co-founder of ATX116 – a group that works to connect campuses across the district – was hesitant to run at first. “I thought about it for a really long time,” Neufeld remembered. It was when TEA rejected AISD’s 1882 partnership application, which would’ve staved off the possibility of takeover for another two years, that Neufeld started to believe that takeover was likely. “And I felt like the work I had been doing in advocacy and through ATX116 to build community, build awareness, build coalitions – I thought, ‘This work can apply to being a pushed-out trustee in a really unique way,’” Neufeld said.

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Harris County Flock reports shows gaps in oversight, transparency

Harris County officials do not fully understand the extent to which Flock Safety cameras have been deployed throughout the county, according to an Office of County Administration report released Wednesday. The report confirmed that Harris County — like many other jurisdictions nationwide — is home to an interconnected system composed of potentially thousands of surveillance cameras installed by various organizations and government agencies that is near-impossible to quantify. Who can access those cameras and for what purpose is governed by a patchwork of policies, the report stated, with some agencies strictly regulating access and others having no policy at all. “We still lack information on where the cameras are in Harris County, which agencies have access to them and if immigration officials have access,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a Commissioners Court discussion of the report at the court’s Thursday meeting.

County leaders have some information on the cameras managed by the 13 county departments or offices that have access to the Flock network. Commissioners voted 3-2 to direct county staff to compile a list of recommendations on how departments should regulate access to the data produced by the automatic license plate readers and present the ideas to the court in February. Commissioners Tom Ramsey and Adrian Garcia voted against the plan, citing concerns about bureaucratic slowdowns and a potential overlap between those efforts and a similar process spearheaded by the sheriff’s office that’s currently underway. Six of the county’s eight constables refused to provide Commissioners Court with any information on the cameras they administer, and no county law enforcement agency provided camera locations. No elected law enforcement officials attended Thursday’s meeting. Hidalgo said they cited concerns over vandalism if the cameras’ locations were made public, though there was no indication that information would become public. She also said Flock Safety has not provided a map of active cameras in the county, as required as part of its contract with the county, which the court renewed earlier this year. Only the sheriff’s office and constables of precincts 2 and 8 gave a count of the cameras they administer. Most county law enforcement agencies said they had policies governing access to Flock systems, but only the Fire Marshal’s Office and the constables in precincts 2, 7, and 8 provided them, according to the report.

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Gina Hinojosa has a promise for Fort Worth schools if elected Texas governor

Democrat Gina Hinojosa would end existing state takeovers, like the one in the Fort Worth school district, if elected as Texas governor, she told reporters Thursday, Oct. 15. Hinojosa, an Austin state representative who is facing Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for governor on Nov. 3, has made supporting public schools a top priority while on the campaign trail. Firing Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath on “Day One” in office is a campaign pledge, as is stopping state takeovers. On Thursday, Hinojosa was asked if she could — and would — take any steps to direct the TEA to end existing takeovers, if she wins. Her response was short and definitive. “Yes, and I will,” Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa was addressing reporters near the Texas Governor’s Mansion in Austin, where her campaign had two podiums set up as she presses Abbott to debate her. The candidates haven’t debated, but Hinojosa has accepted invitations and proposed terms, according to her campaign. A mobile billboard was parked in view of the event, airing negative ads about Hinojosa. Abbott has maintained his time is better spent on the campaign trial in communities than debating. Morath announced in October 2025 that the Fort Worth School District’s board of trustees would be removed and replaced with state appointees. The decision came after the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade Center received its five consecutive failing scores in Texas’ A-F accountability ratings. When that happens, per state law, the commissioner must either close the campus or take over the district. The campus in question had already been closed and merged with another by the time the takeover was announced, but Morath said many of the district’s schools were struggling. Hinojosa elaborated on her position on state takeovers while answering another question at Thursday’s event.

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Tarrant County commissioner: Most critics speaking at meetings are paid

Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez told a constituent that most of the people who speak out at meetings are paid by political organizations, according to a recording of the conversation. Since the three Republicans on the Commissioners Court began to redistrict commissioners precincts in April 2025, more residents have become fixtures at the government meetings. Each month, roughly a dozen are consistently in the audience, though the number swells depending on the agenda. Many of those same people address the commissioners during public comment to say their two cents on the decisions being made that day. In a Sept. 29 private meeting with retired Oklahoma City news anchor Jack Bowen, Ramirez said he thinks many of them go to Fort Worth City Council meetings too.

“So it’s an organized political organization that most of these folks — when I say most, probably 75% — are actually paid by the political organizations that they show up to voice their causes for,” Ramirez said on the recording. He said they are not ordinary citizens just wanting to voice their opinions but political activists organizing “to turn Tarrant County Democratic.” In a statement to the Star-Telegram, Ramirez didn’t outright say if he does or does not believe it to be true. “There is a clear difference between residents exercising their right to address their government and professional political activists whose livelihood depends on generating controversy,” the statement said. “Whether through podcasts, newsletters or social media, political outrage can be profitable. Commissioners Court should remain focused on serving taxpayers, not becoming a platform for organized political grandstanding.” In a conversation with the Star-Telegram, Bowen said he decided to meet with Ramirez as his constituent because the commissioner rarely speaks in meetings. Bowen wanted to know Ramirez’s perspective about how Commissioners Court has become a spectacle with people being ejected (and arrested) from meetings and disputes between elected officials on the dais.

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Despite tough talk from Abbott and Paxton, Texas penalties for data center violations are light

In recent weeks, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have adopted increasingly tough rhetoric against data centers, promising to crack down on hundreds of facilities that failed to disclose required information about their water use over the past five years. But the law that Texas political leaders are invoking carries a maximum fine of just $500 — a potentially negligible penalty that’s just a blip for large companies. Data centers use millions of gallons of water a year to run their facilities and cool their servers. Under state law, facilities that fail to complete required water-use surveys can be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine, and barred from certain state funding and environmental permits. But some experts say those consequences have significant limitations, raising questions about whether the state has the tools to force compliance from an industry expanding rapidly across Texas.

State officials don’t know whether misdemeanor penalties have been issued against data centers, and the facilities aren’t eligible for state funding. Increasing fines for Class C misdemeanors in the Water Code would require state legislation. Lawmakers do not convene in Austin for the 2027 legislative session until January. “The governor is like, ‘Let’s enforce the laws on the books that weren’t being enforced.’ That’s not much in the way of incentive,” said Kathryn Guerra, who leads a watchdog campaign at the environmental nonprofit Public Citizen. “If those are the laws that we already have and nobody’s enforcing them, the data centers know.” Abbott’s office defended its enforcement crackdown by saying that the water board, along with other agencies including the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, will work together. “No other state agency will approve data centers until the Public Utility Commission, ERCOT, and the Water Development Board have the information they need to make informed decisions,” said Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary. Mahaleris added that the governor has recommended that data centers pay for their own electric infrastructure, use less water-intensive cooling technologies and add power generation to the state’s power grid.

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A debate over canceling a Veterans Day ceremony highlights lack of representation in a Texas congressional district

The San Antonio Veterans Advisory Commission floated canceling Fort Sam Houston’s Veterans Day ceremony at a meeting last month and it was immediately met with outcry from veterans. Organizers announced this week that this year’s ceremony will continue as scheduled. Next year is a different story, said the cemetery’s director. Fort Sam Houston Cemetery director Gerald Lefler said at a follow-up meeting Monday that no changes would be made to VA ceremonies this year in honor of the 250th anniversary of the country. But he said they are still thinking of canceling next year’s event given that a separate San Antonio ceremony has both outside help in putting it on and higher attendance, and Fort Sam still holds a Memorial Day ceremony every year. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which manages the cemetery, considered canceling the ceremony each of the past two years, but separate efforts by then-U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a U.S. Navy veteran, saved it.

In 2024, the VA, citing low-attendance, sought to consolidate and cut costs by discontinuing the Fort Sam Houston ceremony, and move to only having one event at the San Antonio National Cemetery. A congressional letter led by Gonzales convinced the agency to keep both ceremonies. Then, during the government shutdown of 2025, the ceremony almost didn’t happen, until Gonzales and his office organized it themselves. Both times, local veterans objected to the proposed cancellations. Gonzales resigned from Congress in April following sexual misconduct allegations, and his office currently sits vacant. During the debacle, leaders emphasized the impact of a lack of congressional representation for the roughly 800,000 people in the district, with U.S. census data indicating that more than 56,000 veterans and military personnel are residing within. “There’s a big gap where veterans aren’t getting support,” said Maira Alejandra Carrier, an Army veteran who is San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ representative on the commission. While congressional representatives do handle legislative matters, a core part of their duties is responding to constituent inquiries.

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Taiwan to fund $4 billion Texas complex for AI, Nvidia partners

Taiwan plans to raise billions of dollars to develop industrial parks in the US that would build a base for a comprehensive supply chain for Nvidia Corp. and other AI hardware makers in the country. The initiative is starting with a complex in Texas that would cost as much as $4 billion to build, according to Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin. The facilities would help smaller suppliers that are essential to the operations of Nvidia’s main production partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and AI server assemblers including Foxconn Technology Group to set up shop in the US, Kung said.

Each complex would run between $2 billion and $4 billion to build, and the government is planning “more than one” site on US soil, Kung said in an Oct. 12 interview with Bloomberg News. The Taiwanese government is partnering with the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association, which will be responsible for raising required funding to develop the complexes, he said. “We are going to establish a long-term, sustainable supply chain there that can also be joined by American firms and local workers, and not just Taiwanese companies,” Kung said. Companies like TSMC, Foxconn and Wistron Corp. provide essential hardware for data centers and are critical to the success of US AI chipmakers including Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and cloud service providers such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. These Taiwanese manufacturing titans depend in turn on lesser-known partners that make a wide range of parts from chip packaging substrates to cooling modules — everything that’s required in an AI data center.

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National Stories

3 children, 1 teacher killed in shooting at Bend, Oregon, elementary school, police say; suspect dead

Three children and a teacher were killed, and two others were critically wounded, in a shooting Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, authorities said. The suspect, a 16-year-old male, was shot and killed by a bystander, Bend police said. The children killed were ages 5, 8 and 11, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said at a news conference Thursday night. Two others, a 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher, were taken to St. Charles Medical Center with critical injuries. No names were immediately released. Krantz said officers were called to the school just before 1 p.m. on a 911 call from a person who said they had been shot at several times while in their vehicle by a suspect with a long gun. Emergency dispatchers then received dozens of 911 calls that the suspect had entered the school.

The shooter forced his way into the school by "shooting at locked doors," Krantz said. When officers arrived at the school within three minutes of the first 911 call, they discovered that the suspect had been killed by a bystander, Krantz said. "An officer reported that the suspect had been shot by a community member who had seen the suspect enter the school and pursued him into the school and engaged him," Krantz told reporters. After officers entered the building, Krantz said, they found the four deceased victims. Officials would not say exactly what type of weapon was used in the attack or how many rounds were fired. Multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News the suspect used a shotgun, and The Associated Press cited a law enforcement official briefed on the incident as saying it was a pump-action shotgun purchased by his mother. There was no word on a motive. Police could also not say if the suspect had a connection to the school. No details were provided on the bystander who shot and killed the suspect. Authorities evacuated the school and transported all students and staff to a nearby church where they could be reunited with their families, Krantz said.

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Sullivan, Peltola trade verbal blows, accuse the other of lying during ‘Debate for the State’

Alaska’s top two candidates for U.S. Senate disparaged and frequently interrupted each other during ‘Debate for the State" Thursday night. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and his challenger, Democratic former Congresswoman Mary Peltola, traded barbs over affordability, Alaska’s energy future and accused each other of lying. The night was tense before the debate even started, with dozens of Peltola and Sullivan supporters waving signs for their candidate outside the Alaska Public Media studio.

Loren Baxter was holding a sign in support of Sullivan. Baxter said he worked in missile defense in Alaska. “I appreciate his stand on that and the military perspective, and also on a lot of the work he's done as far as trying to repeal a lot of the executive orders that were done under the Biden administration,” Baxter said. Multiple supporters of Peltola declined to be interviewed. Several said the campaign staff told them not to speak to reporters. During the debate, Sullivan repeatedly alluded to a New York Times piece that featured former Peltola staffers alleging she subjected them to angry outbursts and derogatory terms for gay people and people with disabilities. Peltola said she's worked to maintain respect among her staffers. “I do not think that this election is about me on my worst day, and I found so many of these allegations concerning and outright fabrications or mass exaggerations of the truth,” she said. Sullivan was asked why he didn’t condemn President Donald Trump for disparaging women and people with disabilities as harshly as he condemned Peltola’s remarks. “I have denounced the president's language on these kinds of issues,” Sullivan said. Pressed for an example, Sullivan said he spoke up when Trump insulted Fox News personality Megyn Kelly in 2015. After the debate, Sullivan added that he also pushed back when Trump insulted the late Sen. John McCain.

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AI runs into its next big obstacle: Insurance

A string of artificial-intelligence safety incidents is exposing a gaping hole for the fast-growing industry: the lack of available insurance. Rogue agents have hacked into websites. AI chatbots have been accused of encouraging suicides and murders. An agent submitted fake unsolved murder tips. The latest episodes add to existing lawsuits AI companies face alleging chatbot harm and copyright violations when models are trained. The seemingly limitless possibilities of artificial intelligence to change the world also include a wide-ranging capacity for harm that could leave companies that produce or use AI legally vulnerable. The biggest AI companies are racking up potential legal liabilities running into the tens—if not hundreds—of billions of dollars, as AI adoption spreads through the economy, according to insurers specializing in AI risks. Some industry officials have even called for the U.S. government to provide a liability backstop.

AI companies have the usual corporate suite of traditional insurance policies, such as general liability and cyber-insurance, brokers said. But the industry’s phenomenal rate of growth means AI-related claims have the potential to outpace the limits on that coverage, according to AI and insurance industry insiders. “There’s too little capacity in every aspect of the risk that is being created by the AI capital boom,” said Nick Studer, chief executive of Marsh Risk, the insurance brokerage arm of professional-services firm Marsh. “But that is changing.” A few insurers sell coverage specifically for AI risks, including from agents. But the policy limits are small compared with the potential exposure of the AI giants. Reinsurer Munich Re offers a policy to cover errors by AI models with limits of up to $50 million, according to a spokesman. Startups are hoping to fill the gap, and insurance companies more broadly see AI down the road as a new opportunity for offering specialty products. Rune Kvist, a former Anthropic employee, is a co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company, which has backing from Lloyd’s of London’s insurance marketplace.

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Democrats are happy to focus on Trump in campaign ads

President Donald Trump says he wants voters to pretend that he’s on the ballot in this year’s midterm elections. His rivals are doing their best to help his case. Democratic candidates and their allies have spent more than $163 million since Sept. 1 on television advertising that mentions the president, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from AdImpact, which charts media spending. That includes airing ads that reference Trump on broadcast, cable and streaming nearly 180,000 times, the data shows. Republicans, meanwhile, have run ads that talk about the president just 16,000 times, at an estimated cost of $11 million, over the same period. It’s a noticeable silence about the party’s dominant yet unpopular leader. Many of the Democrats’ ads accuse Republican opponents of siding with the president over voters, particularly on issues like tariffs and the Iran war, which they blame for jacking up costs.

The ads include one from the campaign of Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for reelection and has spent nearly $3 million on a Trump-focused ad attacking his rival, Rep. Mike Collins, for his close relationship with the president. “Mike Collins voted for Trump’s war in Iran, sending gas prices through the roof. He voted for Trump’s tariffs, sending grocery prices soaring. And Mike Collins voted with Trump to double health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians,” it says. “Mike Collins sides with Donald Trump and makes you pay more.” Republican National Committee spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre said Democratic messaging reflected the party’s hollowness instead of its strength. “Democrats are lighting money on fire talking about President Trump because they have no agenda other than investigation, obstruction and impeachment,” she said. “Trump Derangement Syndrome isn’t a policy platform, it’s a $160 million way of saying you have nothing to offer to the American people.” Another ad from the House Majority PAC, a super PAC dedicated to electing Democrats to the House, opens with a middle-age woman standing over her kitchen stove and talking about how her family is “barely getting by” before she expresses her disappointment in Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who is one of Republicans’ vulnerable incumbents. “He used to be independent. But now it seems like he’s in lockstep with Donald Trump. It really bothers me,” she says, adding, “Congressman Fitzpatrick is not for us anymore.”

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After booting 760K off ACA health plans, the Trump administration adds some people back

Late last month, the Trump administration announced that it had cut 760,000 people from the Affordable Care Act rolls, claiming fraud and improper enrollments and touting billions in potential taxpayer savings. Not all of those kicked off were fraudulently enrolled, KFF Health News has learned. Insurance industry sources said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has reinstated a small number of people whose coverage should not have been canceled. More could follow in the coming weeks if enrollees discover they are uninsured when they go to use their coverage. Still, the sweep was long overdue, say supporters such as Brian Blase, whose Paragon Health Institute has supplied many of the sometimes controversial findings cited by those who allege widespread enrollment fraud in the ACA.

But other policy experts question how many legitimate consumers were caught in the dragnet, perhaps because they failed to open a letter from their insurer or answer a phone call. Questions continue to swirl, even as a second phase of the anti-fraud effort is underway. An additional 419,000 sign-ups are being scrutinized. Insurers must let CMS know how many of those enrollees don't respond to outreach efforts by "around mid-to-late November, after the midterm elections," said David Merritt, senior vice president of external affairs at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. He confirmed that some BCBS members are among those who have been reinstated. He also said that CMS has an expedited review process for those who discover they have been improperly disenrolled. Overall, however, the administration is providing few details about the cancellations, such as how robust the outreach was to those it targeted, how long it takes for people to get reinstated after discovering their coverage was wrongly canceled, and how many such cancellations have been reversed. "It may be true that some of those enrollments were not authorized, but it can be equally true that people got lost in the shuffle and have a valid enrollment. Without more information, it's almost impossible to tell," said Katie Keith, a director of the Center for Health Policy and the Law at Georgetown Law. "That they are not being very transparent is telling too," she said of the administration.

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On the campaign trail, JB Pritzker courts farmers like he's running for president

The town of Shirley, Illinois, population 135, is an unlikely place for a campaign stop. Yet billionaire Democrat JB Pritzker traveled there to spar with his opponent in his bid for a third term as governor of the state in the November midterms. At Funk Farms, ?a 200-year-old corn, soybean and livestock operation there that was once represented by young lawyer and future president Abraham Lincoln, he extolled the virtues of farming. “Agriculture drives an enormous part of Illinois' economy. We've got to do ?all we can to weather the storm and get Washington to take a different course,” Pritzker said at the August event.

Pritzker's visits to farms across Illinois reflect a broader Democratic effort to capitalize on farmer frustration over lost export markets and rising costs tied to President Donald Trump's tariffs and war with Iran. But analysts see his trips as largely an effort to cultivate a rural profile before a possible 2028 run for the White House, given he does not need farmers to win in November. A Republican has not won statewide office in Illinois since 2014, and most political forecasters give Pritzker a solid lead over Republican candidate Darren ?Bailey, a third-generation soybean farmer and former state lawmaker whom he defeated by about 12 percentage points in 2022. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt hotels fortune, also boasts a campaign war chest that dwarfs Bailey's. It was recently replenished with $65 million ?of his own money. “He’s auditioning,” said Brian J. Gaines, a political science professor at the University of Illinois. “He’s not banking on Illinois farmers but if he finds something that works, he’s going to ?keep it in his pocket because he’s thinking about the presidential contest to come.”

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Susan Collins and Troy Jackson clash in final Maine US Senate debate

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson faced off Thursday night in their final debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election, clashing over immigration enforcement, the war in Iran, campaign finance, and several other issues facing Maine voters. The race for Maine's U.S. Senate seat could have major implications beyond the state, potentially helping determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the chamber in Washington, D.C. The candidates exchanged sharp criticism throughout the evening, with several moments standing out: A protester interrupts: An audience member interrupted Collins' response to a question, shouting about AI data centers and climate change. Collins suggested the protester supported Jackson, prompting a heated exchange between the candidates.

Campaign finance sparks accusations: Collins challenged Jackson's claims that he does not benefit from corporate PAC money, while Jackson questioned Collins' ties to Trump and his administration. Immigration enforcement divides candidates: Jackson criticized Collins' votes to fund ICE, while Collins called for reforms, including restrictions on enforcement in sensitive locations and improved agent training. The war in Iran: Jackson called for U.S. troops to return home, while Collins argued Trump should have had a better plan and emphasized the need for energy independence and negotiations. Gun control and climate change: Both candidates discussed potential restrictions on assault weapons and disagreed over how Maine should address energy costs and reliance on fossil fuels.

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Copyright October 23, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved