Lead Stories

Trump team examines what oil as high as $200 a barrel would mean

Trump administration officials are examining what a potential spike in oil prices as high as $200 a barrel would mean for the economy, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign senior officials are studying the possible fallout from extreme scenarios for the Iran war. Modeling of how damaging a bigger jump in oil prices could be to growth prospects is part of regular assessment done during times of strain and is not a prediction, according to the people, who asked not to be identified commenting on matters that aren’t public. The effort is aimed at making sure the administration is prepared for all contingencies, including a prolonged conflict, they said.

Even before the war began, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed concern that the conflict would boost oil prices and damage economic growth, the people said. Senior Treasury officials have communicated worries to the White House about swings in oil and gasoline prices for several weeks, some of the people said. White House spokesman Kush Desai called that account “false,” saying, “While the administration is always evaluating various pricing scenarios and economic impacts, officials are not examining the possibility of oil reaching $200 per barrel and Secretary Bessent has not been ‘worried’ about the short term disruptions from Operation Epic Fury.” Bessent, he said, has repeatedly “conveyed both his and the administration’s continued confidence in the long-term trajectory of the American economy and global energy markets.” Oil prices have jumped since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, with West Texas Intermediate up about 30% at $91 a barrel. Brent crude is up almost 40% over the same period, trading around $102.

Read this article at Bloomberg - Subscribers Only

Special election shocker has Florida Republicans nervous about redistricting

Florida has been viewed for months as the potential capstone of a GOP redistricting campaign, but now Sunshine State Republicans are growing wary after the dramatic flip of two legislative seats in the state — including one where President Donald Trump votes. Republicans already hold a commanding 20-8 edge over Democrats in the Florida House delegation, and some in the GOP — including Gov. Ron DeSantis — believe they could pick up as many as five more seats with a rare mid-decade redraw of district lines. Some Florida incumbents are now warning in stark terms it could backfire. “I think the Legislature needs to be very cognizant of the fact that if they get too aggressive … you could put incumbent members at risk,” GOP Rep. Greg Steube said. Some seats that Republicans previously won by eight or nine points, he said, could instead have only a four- or five-point GOP advantage — putting them in reach for Democrats in a wave election.

DeSantis, citing a state Supreme Court decision from last year and a potential ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, has already called a special session of the state Legislature in April to push ahead with new lines. So far there have been no official maps produced or any signs that lawmakers have started working on them. Republican anxiety has only grown further after Democrats notched surprising wins in special elections Tuesday, including a Palm Beach County district that contains the Mar-a-Largo resort where Trump lives and votes. While many in the GOP have brushed off the Democratic gains there and in other states as anomalies, private qualms are growing among the incumbents whose seats could be put at greater risk due to redistricting. “We keep saying these are kind of one-off things that haven’t gone our way,” said one Florida House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly. “But I’m not seeing any of the one-offs that are going our way.”

Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only

Jury in Los Angeles finds Meta, YouTube negligent in social media addiction trial

A jury in Los Angeles determined on Wednesday that Meta and Google's YouTube were negligent and failed to warn users of the dangers associated with using their platforms, in a case that could have repercussions across the social media landscape. The personal injury trial commenced in late January in LA Superior Court. A young woman identified as K.G.M., or Kaley, alleged that she became addicted to apps like Instagram and YouTube as a child. Deliberations began Friday, March 13. Jurors ultimately ruled in favor of the plaintiff, who claimed that Meta and YouTube's negligence played a "substantial factor" in causing mental health-related harms. Compensatory damages were assessed at $3 million, with Meta on the hook for 70% and YouTube the remaining 30%. Punitive damages amount to an additional $3 million, with $2.1 million to be paid by Meta and $900,000 by YouTube.

"Today's verdict is a historic moment — for Kaley and for the thousands of children and families who have been waiting for this day," attorneys representing the plaintiff said in a statement after the verdict. "She showed extraordinary courage bringing this case and telling her story in open court. A jury of Kaley's peers heard the evidence, heard what Meta and YouTube knew and when they knew it, and held them accountable for their conduct." A Meta spokesperson said in a statement, "We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options." "We disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal. This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. It's one of several trials taking place this year that experts have characterized as the social media industry's "Big Tobacco" moment, comparing it with the 1990s, when tobacco companies were forced to pay billions of dollars for lying to the public about the safety and potential harms of their products.

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Texas retains its export crown while AI boom drives imports higher

Texas is continuing its lead as the largest export state in the U.S., according to new study. Global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings tracked imports and exports for all 50 states and found that global shifts in tariffs and supply chains have deepened disparities between states and across industries. Imports in Texas grew roughly 4% from 2024 to 2025, likely driven by machinery imports related to artificial intelligence and data center investment. Fitch found that states benefiting from AI-related capital, like Texas, saw stronger trade momentum than other states, particularly those tied to the auto industry, which is heavily exposed to tariffs.

Imports of machinery, excluding electrical equipment, rose 25% nationally year over year, while electrical machinery and electronics imports rose 6%. These industries represent demand for equipment needed to manufacture chips and support AI infrastructure, like data centers. Texas has become a hotspot for data center development, with the industry expanding rapidly across commercial real estate. That growth comes as the Trump administration and tech companies push to compete with China in artificial intelligence, with the state’s share projected to grow 142% through 2028. In Texas, machinery imports rose from $93 billion to $129 billion, a roughly 39% increase. Electrical machinery and electronics imports rose 8%. Other states with significant data center growth saw increases in overall imports as well, with Arizona and Nevada seeing a 36% and 92% rise respectively. The Lone Star State also saw increased exports in electrical machinery and electronics, up 8%, and in non-electrical machinery, up 26%.

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State Stories

Senate hopeful James Talarico responds to pastor who wants him killed: 'I still love you'

After the pastor of Trump Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Nashville church said on a podcast that he wants Texas Democrat James Talarico dead, the U.S. Senate hopeful has responded with a message of love. Evangelical Pastor Brooks Potteiger, who’s been described as Hegseth’s closest spiritual adviser, repeatedly attacked Talarico last week on the podcast Reformation Red Pill, HuffPost reported. The show is hosted by congregant and former pastoral intern Joshua Haymes. “I pray that God kills him,” Haymes said of Talarico, who represents the Austin area in the Texas House. “Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ. If it would not be within God’s will to do so, stop him by any means necessary.”

Potteiger concurred, adding, “We want him crucified with Christ.” On the podcast, Haymes also said that he puts Talarico in the category of “public enemies,” or those you “are not called to love.” However, rather than answering hate with hate, Talarico — a Presbyterian seminarian — responded with a message of love. “Jesus loves. Christian Nationalism kills,” Talarico said Wednesday in an emailed statement. “You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you. I love you more than you could ever hate me.” The 36-year-old Talarico, who’s running for Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s seat in the upper chamber, is a former San Antonio schoolteacher who planned on becoming a pastor before entering the political arena.

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Jodey Arrington: Here’s how we put America on a path to fiscal balance

The sirens are blaring. Our government now spends more than $1 trillion a year on interest payments just to service our national debt, which will surpass $40 trillion this year. Ray Dalio, among the most successful investors and global macroeconomic thinkers of our time, warns our economy is barreling toward a “debt-induced heart attack.” As our fiscal condition worsens, Washington is busy staging shutdowns and showdowns while the arteries of our economy constrict in front of our very eyes. Instead of spending and borrowing our way to cardiac arrest, this moment calls for medicine. Congress needs to achieve meaningful deficit reduction, but without a universal standard, “meaningful” tends to mean whatever is politically expedient in the moment. Every fiscal conservative’s goal is a balanced budget — rightly so.

When I came to Congress in 2017, balancing the budget required identifying $5.8 trillion in savings. Ambitious, but achievable. Today, that figure has nearly tripled to over $16 trillion. The goal posts keep moving because Washington keeps spending. While Washington may not yet have a plan, there is a clear, economic life-saving target we should pursue: reducing federal budget deficits to 3% of GDP. When nominal economic growth averages around 3% to 4%, deficits held near that level allow debt to stabilize relative to the size of the economy, rather than outpace it. That is why economists and fiscal watchdogs resoundingly point to the 3% threshold as a useful benchmark for fiscal sustainability. Framed this way, the debate stops being about unrealistic ambitions and abstract promises of fiscal responsibility and focuses instead on reasonable debt targets and practical strategies to achieve them. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent endorsed the 3% standard shortly after President Trump was re-elected. Dalio has made the case for it. So has Warren Buffett. A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced a resolution limiting deficits to 3% of GDP by 2036 as our fiscal north star. On Thursday, the House Budget Committee is leading the effort to achieve this benchmark and will examine a healthy process for achieving the 3% deficit-to-GDP target by fiscal year 2036.

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15 minutes from start to finish: How traffic stops turn into ICE busts in Austin

Early in the morning of July 31, 2025, Gabriel Martinez-Segura and four other men got into a white Chevrolet van and headed to a construction job in East Austin. At around 7:08 a.m., just after they crossed over the Longhorn Dam, their van caught the attention of Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Ricky Cotto. He later said it looked like their front license plate was not in the right place. Within 15 minutes of Cotto noticing the misplaced plate, all five occupants of the van were in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Now, The Texas Newsroom has obtained body and dash cam videos from that morning on Town Creek Drive, and is sharing them for the first time. The records shed light on the tactics, language and technology used by police in Texas to quickly sweep people into deportation proceedings. They also reveal that Texas Department of Public Safety special agents broke state police rules by wearing face-concealing masks during the operation.

Experts who have reviewed the images say they raise questions about the erosion of trust between officers and the general public amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. They also highlight the quick and nearly invisible way the vast majority of people are detained and deported in places like Texas, where state and local law enforcement officials often partner with federal immigration agents. “We might not have the big kind of [ICE] occupations that we see in Minneapolis, Chicago, LA, but we are doing that type of disappearance at a much larger scale,” says Kristin Etter, director of policy and legal services at the Texas Immigration Law Council. “You just don't know it because it's happening quietly.” In response to questions from The Texas Newsroom about DPS agents wearing masks, the Texas Department of Public Safety says “each agent will be counseled, and their chain of command will be making it clear face coverings should not be worn on duty unless for reasons outlined in the attached policy.” A Department spokesman declined a request for an interview with Officer Cotto, who did not wear a mask during the operation.

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Dallas to receive $211M under new funding agreement with DART

Dallas city leaders signed onto an agreement with Dallas Area Rapid Transit that will give the city back more than $200 million. The city council voted to approve DART’s offer for a return in sales tax contributions during a meeting Wednesday. It’s part of the agency’s General Mobility Program that was put together after months of negotiations between DART and its 13 member cities. “I'm happy to close the chapter of feeling like we have to be at the defense in order just to deliver something positive with transit for our residents,” said District 7 council member Adam Bazaldua. DART board members last month approved the new funding structure, created as a way to resolve some member cities' concerns with the agency's spending and governance. While the agreement frees up millions of dollars for cities, the money must be used for transportation-related projects.

District 12 council member Cara Mendelsohn questioned DART’s criteria for what projects qualify for funding. “I disagree that [the criteria] is sufficient,” Mendelsohn told city staff. “I think it is purposely vague to our detriment.” District 14 council member Paul Ridley encouraged council members to support the agreement. “I know it's tempting to micromanage the agreement from our perspective, but that's a very difficult thing to do,” Ridley said. “If we choose not to execute this agreement then we're kissing away $211 million and we're throwing a monkey wrench in the works, basically.” The council’s vote to approve the agreement comes as DART’s CEO Nadine Lee plans to step down after four years leading the agency. More DART member cities are expected to sign onto DART’s agreement except for three – Addison, Highland Park and University Park – that opted to hold withdrawal elections in May.

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Austin’s I-35 cap-and-stitch vision faces uncertain funding future

Austin officials are weighing plans to fund a series of public decks over I-35, after the highway is expanded and lowered below street level. (Ben Thompson/Community Impact) The outlook for Austin's ambitious plans to cover stretches of the redesigned I-35 with public amenity decks remains unclear due to the high costs of constructing the project, which city staff advised not to fund as of this spring. “Everything that we put money into that is aspirational affects us now, and we don’t have the same flexibility that we once had under different conditions," council member Krista Laine said.

The Texas Department of Transportation's multibillion-dollar Capital Express Central will widen I-35 and lower interstate lanes below street level from downtown to North Central Austin. Many locals and city officials have been opposed to TxDOT's highway expansion, and viewed a "cap and stitch" program—a series of public decks covering the roadway that could hold parks, playgrounds, small buildings and other features—as a key city response to the state project. Since outlines for larger caps and smaller stitches were first developed years ago, cost projections climbed while the amount of proposed deck coverage was scaled back. The city also lost a more than $100 million federal grant that was expected to support its largest proposed cap downtown. Austin's plans are separate from The University of Texas at Austin's own cap and stitch initiative to extend its campus over I-35 from 15th to Dean Keeton streets. City Council committed last year to pay TxDOT $104 million to add structural supports along I-35, which are needed for any future decks to be built. But no funding has yet been set aside for the development of caps and stitches or public amenities. That main portion now exceeds $600 million, and the structures are also expected to cost about $9 million annually to maintain once they're in place.

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Lacy Lakeview considers using wastewater to supply proposed data center

A proposed data center in Lacy Lakeview is raising questions about water usage, with officials saying the facility could require millions of gallons each day to operate. Now, city leaders are considering an alternative source: treated wastewater. Energy Systems Group, or ESG, presented a plan to council members that would use a process called “sewer mining” to capture wastewater already leaving the community and reuse it instead of relying on drinking water. The system would use advanced membrane technology to remove bacteria, viruses, and other pollutants, producing high-quality reclaimed water that could be used to cool the data center.

Project leaders say the goal is to meet the data center’s needs without tapping into the city’s existing water supply. “We’re not taking groundwater or drinking water,” said Randall Nelson. “We’re taking something people consider waste and turning it into a resource.” According to ESG, the facility could process about two million gallons of water per day. Officials say the system would be compact, enclosed, and designed to minimize noise and odor. They also say the project could create new revenue for the city by selling excess treated water and reducing costs tied to wastewater management. But the proposal drew concern from some residents. Community members questioned ESG’s experience with data centers and raised environmental concerns, including the use of chemical additives and the potential for thermal pollution that could impact local ecosystems. “It will have chemical additives such as biocides and corrosion inhibitors,” said Carla Garcia. “The plants and fish can’t handle it.” Despite those concerns, council members approved a Project Development Agreement, allowing ESG to move forward with studying the project in more detail. That includes evaluating costs, environmental impact, design plans, and potential funding sources like grants and low-interest loans. City leaders emphasized the agreement does not mean the project is finalized, but rather gives them the information needed to decide whether to move forward. The proposal is still in the early stages, with more details expected as the study progresses.

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Ted Cruz asks Senate to withhold his pay during partial shutdown

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz , R-Texas, has asked for his salary to be withheld until the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is over. “Due to the Democrat’s [sic] Shutdown, I’ve asked the Financial Clerk of the Senate to hold my salary,” Cruz tweeted Tuesday. To prove he’d actually done that, he even attached an image of the letter he sent to Senate Financial Clerk Ted Ruckner on his very own senatorial letterhead. In the letter, Cruz advised Ruckner to hold his salary check “for pickup” until the shutdown ends.

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Galveston County residents to weigh in on proposed desalination plant in Texas City

The Bayshore Town Square community group, based in Galveston County, asked residents to join a public meeting at the Bacliff Volunteer Fire Department Thursday evening to discuss a proposed desalination plant near Galveston Bay. "We encourage you to share this event and bring your friends and family so they understand what is happening in our community," the flyer, which was posted on social media, states. Canadian-based utility company, EPCOR Utilities Inc., is seeking a permit to build a desalination plant that would help with water security in the region.

The plant would remove salt and minerals from seawater to produce 24.5 million gallons of drinking water a day to the region that's home to nearly 8 million residents, according to the utility company. Sign up for the Hello, Houston! daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox. EPCOR filed a discharge permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in October 2025, which is a required step for the state's approval to develop and operate the seawater desalination facility near the south shore of Galveston Bay. Some nearby residents, though, have expressed concerns about the impact that discharge from the plant could have on marine life. "Spent most of today meeting with Galveston Bay shrimpers and oystermen, the last of a breed. They [are] very concerned about the proposed desalination debacle and its impact on our Galveston Bay," one person commented on a community group Facebook post for those who reside in the Bacliff and San Leon areas.

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Meet Hemisfair's new CEO Melissa Robinson

The winding path of Melissa Robinson’s professional life is not unlike the tree-lined sidewalks that park visitors tread from the gathering spaces at Aro de Abrazos through Civic Park to the water features and play area of Hemisfair. Robinson was named CEO of the Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation in March, having served on the leadership team since 2022, and previously as a member of the HPARC board of directors. She succeeded HPARC’s first CEO Andres Andujar, the man who led the park’s development from 2011 to 2025, during which the city worked to transform Hemisfair from an overlooked and neglected former world’s fair site to a burgeoning urban park with green space, residential development and more recently a luxury hotel. During that time, Robinson said her own path to Hemisfair was being drawn less by intention than a personal trait for wonder.

“I look back sometimes in my career, and [think], wow, what an amazing, natural progression that I really didn’t have any hand in particularly scripting,” Robinson said. “I think that’s a testament to my curiosity and lifelong quest for learning.” The California-born Robinson “fell into” the construction industry, starting out in a temp job as an accounts receivable bookkeeper, then went to work for Granite Construction in Reno, Nev., while in college. Later, her path led to Zachry Industrial in San Antonio in 2005, where she worked from through 2009 as a financial reporting manager before being laid off during the economic downturn. Robinson’s next step took her to “the other side” of the industry — real estate development. A role as chief financial officer with the development firm Bitterblue is where she learned commercial real estate development.

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Texas State professor claims university is firing him for a speech made in 2024

A Texas State University professor alleges he is being wrongfully terminated from his position after online backlash over an off-campus speech he made nearly two years ago. In a lawsuit against Texas State leadership, philosophy professor Idris Robinson claims he was placed on administrative leave in June 2025 after a video surfaced online of a 2024 presentation he gave at an anarchist event in North Carolina titled, "Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance.” Robinson was placed on leave after clips of the speech were shared by an Instagram account, accusing him of inciting violence. "This is not academic freedom. This is incitement to violence. Texas State University must act," the post read.

The lawsuit claims that soon after he was placed on leave, he was notified that his contract would not be renewed with the university and that his employment would end in May 2026. "At no point did he encourage or direct anyone to engage in violence," the motion claims. This week, attorneys representing Robinson filed an emergency motion, requesting a preliminary injunction by a U.S. District Court in Austin to block his termination. "Texas State University does not discuss active litigation," a spokesperson for the university told CBS Austin in response to a request for comment. The Texas State Board of Regents recently upheld the firing of another professor, Thomas Alter, in the fall. Alter was fired after remarks he made at a virtual conference held by a socialist group. "After a thorough review of the facts, as well as information provided during Dr. Thomas Alter’s due process hearing, the Board of Regents has voted unanimously to uphold President Damphousse’s decision to summarily dismiss Dr. Alter and revoke his tenure," the Texas State University System said in November.

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What San Antonio police reform advocates want in new union contract

San Antonio police reform advocates have a long list of changes they want to see in the new employment contract that the police union is hammering out with the city. But they could wind up disappointed, judging from the first two days of negotiations, which have largely focused on wages and benefits. The city and the San Antonio Police Officers’ Association will meet Thursday, the third time since contract talks kicked off in late January. The goal is to have a new contract in place before the City Council votes on a new city budget in late September, the same month the union’s current contract expires. So far, city negotiators haven’t proposed any significant changes to how officers are disciplined when they engage in misconduct.

That was a major focus of the previous contract negotiation, which wrapped up in 2022. Now, an arbitrator can only reverse the police chief’s decision to fire an officer if the chief fails to show the officer’s conduct was detrimental to the department. Previous disciplinary measures against an officer can also be considered when imposing new discipline. Those changes stemmed from pressure to rein in bad cops in the wake of a Minneapolis police officer’s May 2020 killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man whose death ignited nationwide protests against police brutality. “The reason that the city focused so hard on arbitration was because of community demand,” said Ananda Tomas, executive directive of Act 4 SA, a police reform group. She said that demand was evidenced by the nearly 49% of voters who in May 2021 supported stripping SAPOA of its right to collectively bargain with the city for an employment contract that establishes wages and benefits, in addition to disciplinary procedures. Act 4 SA grew out of that campaign.

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This is what it takes to keep the Dallas County Jail from overflowing

In the years since the pandemic, the Lew Sterrett Justice Center has attracted more attention for its failures and challenges than any triumphs and progress. The county jail, Texas’ second largest, neared 100 percent capacity last fall, requiring emergency beds to house the inmates. A botched transition to new court software in 2023 forced courthouse clerks to hand-carry files to the jail multiple times a day. County officials say they are short 187 jail guards. More people are dying behind bars now than in recent history. Others have languished even when their sentences were complete; the county faces four federal over-detention lawsuits and has paid out at least $220,000 to defendants in other cases. Somehow, county commissioners say things could still be worse. Since 2023, a team has operated largely away from public view, performing manual work that is critical to keeping the jail from overflowing. This Jail Population Management team, or JPM, is a middle-man of sorts between the many levers of the criminal justice system. Its responsibilities sometimes even include alerting the jail’s administrators to court orders so they know who to release and when.

The stakes are high, and costly: The jail generally costs taxpayers about $25 million to operate each month; jailing a single person is $95.58 a day. This team’s work helps the county avoid paying millions to an outside entity to hold inmates elsewhere, an act of last resort that recently cost Harris County $38 million. By its very nature, the jail is in a difficult position. Dallas County doesn’t have authority over the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles—or the elected sheriff or top prosecutor or judges who run the courts. “Other than setting the budget,” says Commissioner John Wiley Price, “We’re pretty much at their peril.” The most the county can do, Price says, is keep tabs and nudge the assembly line forward. “This is not just an expensive $25 million gated community,” he says. “This is a small city that requires 24/7 management.” The dozens of decision-makers in that small city log on at least once a month to a Microsoft Teams meeting. On a Friday morning in March, about 70 people watched LaShonda Jefferson,assistant director of the county’s criminal justice department, recite numbers that told the story of the jail. Dallas County’s average daily jail population: 7,088. Total beds: 7,499. Felony cases: 63 percent of those jailed. Misdemeanors: 4 percent. Those awaiting transfer: 33 percent. Average length of stay: 45 days. Cost to operate the jail in the shorter month of February, excluding medical services: $18,968,233. “We’re continuing to see an uptick in our book-ins coupled with slower release rates,” Jefferson said, then presented another series of datapoints, followed by another. Attendees make up Dallas’ sprawling criminal justice apparatus: county commissioners, judges, prosecutors, sheriff’s deputies, corrections and parole officers, public defenders, hospital managers, pre-trial supervisors. All play a part in how the jail operates and whether there is enough space to hold the people who are arrested each day. Many of them—representing administrative, legislative, and judiciary powers—also operate independently. Jefferson is at the center of this web as the leader of the Jail Population Management team, a small group that works to break down silos, spot trends and unnecessary holdups in the jail, and improve communication between these stakeholders.

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Light rail network partner UNS, formerly UNStudio, opens U.S. office in Austin

UNS, formerly UNStudio, has opened its first official U.S. office in Austin, Texas, where it’s been active since 2023 designing a new light rail network for the fast growing city in tandem with HKS, Gehl, and the Austin Transit Partnership. Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos started what was UNStudio (United Network Studio) together in 1988. The practice is headquartered in Amsterdam and operates offices in Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Shanghai, and now Austin. “The U.S. is a market where we’ve realized some of our most impactful work, and we’re excited to continue this trajectory from Austin—a city that has experienced remarkable growth and design in recent years,” van Berkel said in a statement.

The Austin light rail project by UNS entails the construction of 15 stations spread across 10 miles of rail network. After achieving federal approval early this year, construction is slated to begin on the network in 2027 and conclude in 2033. Outside Austin, another ongoing project in the U.S. by UNS is a masterplan in Washington, D.C. for Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus. Previously, in 2009, UNS designed a temporary pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park, built to commemorate the Burnham Plan Centennial. In 2024, the firm completed a renovation of the Jewish Museum in New York City. Frans van Vuure, managing director of the UNS Austin office, affirmed “Austin’s strong culture of innovation makes it an ideal base for our US operations.” “Establishing a presence on the ground allows us to better support local projects, build meaningful partnerships and apply our international experience to the complex challenges and opportunities shaping the built environment across the United States,” vans Vuure added.

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National Stories

DHS funding deal on shaky ground as Trump and Democrats both decline to embrace it

After weeks of halting talks, a new proposal is materializing on Capitol Hill that aims to fund critical parts of the Department of Homeland Security as travelers across the country deal with long lines and missed flights at airports experiencing TSA officer shortages. But despite optimism from top Senate Republicans, President Trump and Senate Democrats have yet to embrace the emerging framework. For more than a month, Republicans demanded an agreement to fund DHS in its entirety. Funding for the department lapsed in mid-February amid anger over the agency's handling of immigration enforcement. GOP leadership previewed a plan Tuesday to fund the majority of the department, minus Immigration and Custom Enforcement's enforcement and removal operations division.

But the GOP plan failed to clear an initial procedural vote on Wednesday, as most Democrats say they are unwilling to approve any additional funding for ICE without significant reforms to rein in the tactics of immigration officers after two U.S. citizens were killed in Minneapolis earlier this year. Trump is also not sold on any deal that does not include an unrelated overhaul of federal elections known as the SAVE America Act. "I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump said Tuesday. That's as the DHS shutdown has now lasted 40 days, and federal employees who handle airport security, disaster response and cybersecurity go without pay. "We are really concerned about our security posture and what the long term impacts of this shutdown is going to have on the workforce and our ability to carry out this mission," Ha Nguyen McNeil, the TSA acting administrator, said during a House hearing on Wednesday.

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T.S.A. tipped off ICE agents before arrests at San Francisco airport

The woman and her 9-year-old daughter were walking through Terminal 3 at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday night, heading to their gate to fly to Miami to visit a relative, when a stranger in plainclothes approached. “Angelina?” he asked. “Sí,” she responded. Minutes later, Angelina Lopez-Jimenez was on her knees, crying, as two immigration agents were handcuffing her in front of her daughter, according to video footage that went viral this week. Government documents obtained by The New York Times explain the events leading up to the tense scene, including the exchange between the agent and Ms. Lopez-Jimenez.

The documents shed new light on how the Transportation Security Administration is sharing with ICE officials the names and birth dates of travelers believed to have been ordered out of the country by a judge. That has made it easier for the Trump administration to detain and deport undocumented immigrants as they pass through airports. Ms. Lopez-Jimenez, 41, a native of Guatemala, and her daughter, Wendy Godinez-Lopez, were flagged by T.S.A. officials on Friday when they showed up on a passenger list for a Sunday flight from San Francisco to Miami. The agency then tipped off Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the documents. Ms. Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter were living in Contra Costa County, Calif., on the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the congressman for that region, John Garamendi. She had no criminal history, though she entered the country illegally. Democratic officials recoiled this week at the detention. Mr. Garamendi, a Democrat, said that it was the latest example of how the Trump administration was rounding up mothers and children instead of focusing its immigration enforcement on dangerous criminals.

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CBS News ratings headed for historic lows 6 months into Bari Weiss’ tenure at top

CBS News’ flagship programs are reportedly on track to hit historic lows six months into the tenure of editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who’s overseen layoffs, sinking morale and newsroom turmoil. With the first quarter winding down at the end of the week, “CBS Evening News” is poised to see its worst audience numbers for any January-through-March period this century, according to data cited by the Status newsletter. The Tony Dokoupil-helmed show has reportedly sunk to an average of 4.3 million viewers, down 7% from last year, with viewership in the coveted 25-54 demographic down 18% to 541,000.

Things are no better at “CBS Mornings,” which has been averaging just 1.8 million viewers — down 13% year over year — while its viewers in the 25-54 demo plunged 28% to 268,000. Those figures would mark the show’s worst quarter ever. The competition at ABC and NBC have seen their audiences grow. ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” reportedly drew an average 8.7 million viewers for the quarter, up 8% — though it dipped 5% in the 25-54 demographic to about 1.1 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News with Tom Llamas” notched a 6% increase in its total audience — averaging 7 million — as well as a 7% bump in the key demo, to more than 1 million viewers, according to figures obtained by Status. Muir, meanwhile, has solidified his hold on first place in the nightly news race. ABC’s flagship news show has widened its lead over Llamas and NBC to roughly 2.3 million viewers per night, marking its biggest advantage in nearly six years, according to Nielsen data.

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At Pentagon Christian service, Hegseth prays for violence 'against those who deserve no mercy'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, hosting his first monthly Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the Iran war began, prayed Wednesday to have “every round find its mark.” “Every month it is fitting to be right here,” he told the gathered civilian employees and uniformed military personnel. “All the more fitting this month, at this moment, given what tens of thousands of Americans are doing right now.” He read a prayer he said was first given by a military chaplain to the troops who captured then-President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation,” Hegseth prayed during the livestreamed service. “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

Hegseth frequently invokes his evangelical faith as head of the armed forces, depicting a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes with military might. “I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed,” he read from the Psalms on Wednesday. During the expanding Iran war and global conflicts, Hegseth’s Christian rhetoric has drawn renewed scrutiny, including his past defense of the Crusades, the brutal medieval wars that pitted Christians against Muslims. Statements of faith are common in American public life, across political parties and religious traditions. Pentagon aides and Hegseth’s defenders pull examples from history, such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s support of giving Bibles to troops. Hegseth regularly cites George Washington, who pushed to establish the military chaplain corps. Hegseth often goes beyond standard calls for God to bless the country or its troops. Last week, he asked Americans to pray for service members “in the name of Jesus Christ.” On Wednesday, he again prayed in Jesus’ name.

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First Lady selling $600 Freedom necklaces online

Melania Trump is selling a gold necklace, and people can’t believe the price. The first lady has her own website where she sells White House memorabilia like Christmas ornaments, jewelry and collectables. Fans can also get a copy of her memoir, Melania, which came out in 2024, or they can learn where to stream her newest documentary. The 2026 film Melania was released in theaters in January, grossing $16.7 million against a $40 million budget. It received a 11% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, though it has a 98% from fans. The film was teased by Comedian Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars, where he poked fun while presenting the award for Best Documentary.

The Gold Vermeil Vote Freedom necklace is $600 on MelaniaTrump.com. The necklace is described as a limited edition, gold vermeil necklace celebrating Lady Liberty. It comes with a thick gold chain with a large round pendant featuring an illustration of the Statue of Liberty with the word “Liberty” above her. It can also be customized with engraving. The necklace is apart of the Vote Freedom collection, which features three necklaces. They include the Gold Vermeil for $600, a Gold Plated necklace for $175, and a Sterling Silver for $550. The necklace has spurn mix reactions, with many surprised by the high price tag. Ana Navarro, one of the hosts of The View, posted about the jewelry on Instagram. “Oh My God. Like really. Oh My God,” she said. “Add a $600 necklace to the $90 Christmas ornaments and the memoir book and the piece-of-s--- NFT’s.” She continued: “Oh, and the $250k to speak to gay Republicans. Basically, only time Melania shows her face is to extract money from poor suckers. Seriously, how can people supposedly so rich, be so miserly?” Navarro added that she “should be First Lady of Home Shopping Network. #tacky” On X, people slammed the necklace, not only for its price, but for its design. “Melania Trump wants you to send her $600 for this ugly necklace. The gift never ends,” an account said.

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World Cup teams finalize US base camps as host cities prepare for global crowds

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup just three months away, cities across the United States are racing to finalize training facilities that national teams will call home during the global tournament. Among them is Kansas City, which will serve as the base camp for defending champion Argentina national football team, a major win for the region as it prepares to welcome both players and tens of thousands of international fans. Base camps are critical to World Cup operations. They serve as home headquarters where teams live, train and recover while traveling between match sites throughout the competition.

"From private practice fields to player recovery rooms, these facilities are designed to support some of the biggest names in soccer," said Alan Dietrich, who has worked closely with organizers. Local leaders have spent more than a year pitching their cities to international teams, hoping to showcase not just athletic facilities but the broader community. "We started actually over a year ago with countries beginning to visit," Dietrich said. Tourism officials say the opportunity extends far beyond the sport itself. Hosting a base camp allows cities to introduce themselves to global audiences and build long-term international relationships. "We knew that the World Cup was going to be kind of our first chance and probably our biggest chance to be engaging these international markets," said Devin Aaron with Visit KC.

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USDA cancels $300 million program to help farmers buy land amid anti-DEI push

The Agriculture Department is cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from a program aimed at helping farmers buy and retain land, three people familiar with the decision confirmed to POLITICO on Tuesday. The Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, awarded roughly $300 million to about 50 projects across the country for five-year contracts beginning in 2023. Nonprofits, tribal governments and other organizations applied for the funding to address land access issues for underserved farmers — including access to capital, market expansions, succession planning and efforts to prevent land loss. The projects were especially targeted to address land access issues facing Black farmers, immigrant farmers, Indigenous farmers, veterans and other underrepresented groups.

According to one of the cancellation letters shared with POLITICO, USDA determined that the program “involved discriminatory preferences based on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” as well as “wasteful spending.” The letter also cited a March 2025 directive from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins directing USDA to review existing grants to ensure they do not promote DEI and are “free from fraud, abuse and duplication.” “USDA will prioritize unity, equality, meritocracy, and color-blindness in furtherance of the Department’s mission,” Farm Service Agency Associate Administrator Steven Peterson wrote in the March 23 letter. Peterson said in the letter that the grants are discriminatory, do not align with congressional intent and have “unacceptably exposed taxpayers” to waste.

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Lead Stories

Trump and Republican National Committee lean toward Dallas for unusual 2026 GOP midterm convention

President Trump and the Republican National Committee are strongly considering Dallas as the site of an unusual midterm convention later this year, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. Republicans are working to finalize the plan as they seek to rally their voters in the face of political headwinds. Some details must still be finalized, including the exact dates, and officials said formal paperwork still needed to be signed. But Trump advisers who are looking to parade their candidates and rally the base are close to settling on Dallas over other options, which had included Las Vegas, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to share private planning information. The party is targeting a date after Labor Day to try to maximize early-voting momentum.

Political parties typically hold conventions once every four years, only when nominating a presidential candidate and formalizing their platform. But Mr. Trump has pushed for a major gathering before this year’s midterm elections to motivate his supporters at what is expected to effectively amount to a major rally for the party. Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Republican National Committee, said in a statement that “while there has been speculation in the media about the location and date, no contracts have been signed.” “The upcoming Midterm Convention is happening because of President Trump’s leadership, vision, and unwavering commitment to the America First movement,” she said. The R.N.C. took steps at its winter meeting to clear the way for a convention-style event this year. Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, said this month at the party’s retreat in Florida, “I can’t wait for the midterm convention that we’re going to have before early voting starts in the fall where we parade all of our stars across the stage and we talk about all the great things we’ve done for the American people.” He added, “This is a midterm like none other.”

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City Council votes 5-3 to advance removal process for Mayor Guajardo; mayor responds

The Corpus Christi City Council voted Tuesday to move forward with setting a meeting to discuss procedural steps tied to a petition seeking the removal of Mayor Paulette Guajardo. In a 5-3 vote, council members agreed to set an agenda item and date to review preliminary and procedural matters required for a potential removal hearing. That next meeting is expected to take place April 14. The vote does not remove the mayor but rather advances the process under city procedures. Council members Carolyn Vaughn, Eric Cantu, Gil Hernandez, Kaylynn Paxson and Sylvia Campos voted in favor of moving the petition forward, while Roland Barrera, Everett Roy and Mark Scott voted against it. The petition, originally filed in August 2025 by six residents and backed by three council members, is tied to concerns over the mayor’s response in the Homewood Suites investigation.

The vote followed hours of public comment at City Hall, with residents weighing in both support and disapproval of the effort to remove the mayor. “It’s unfortunate that we have a process in place where five or six people you know can sign a piece of paper to remove a mayor or a council member,” Mayor Guajardo said. Councilman Mark Scott is among those who voted against advancing the petition. “Especially after we have spent four or five hundred thousand dollars investigating that issue, and to have found that there’s nothing there,” Scott said. Scott added that the council should focus on more pressing concerns, such as the region’s water crisis. “I don’t know that council, after all this money we have spent, should be the ones to initiate a request to the ethics commission. I just assume getting back to work on water, which is what the citizens want us to do,” Scott said.

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Paxton asks Abbott to replace 'incompetent loser' acting comptroller

Texas AG Ken Paxton is calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to replace the acting comptroller, who he called an "incompetent loser," over a letter regarding Paxton's handling of a case related to Islamic schools in the state. Paxton said in his Tuesday statement that Abbott ought to remove Kelly Hancock and put Don Huffines, who won the recent GOP primary for the seat, in his place until the general election. What they're saying: "Kelly Hancock is a Never Trumper and an incompetent loser who's an embarrassment to the position of Chief Clerk that he holds," Paxton said in a Tuesday night post to X, formerly Twitter. "To protect Texans' tax dollars, I am officially calling for Governor Abbott to immediately replace him with the person Texans actually voted for to be Comptroller, Don Huffines. Kelly Hancock was rejected by Texans because he failed to do his job. He failed to take me down during impeachment, and his career is over. It's time for him to be fired."

Hancock was Abbott's pick for comptroller, but fell short of the Republican nomination for the role on March 3, when Huffines, a candidate further to the right than Abbott on the political compass, won by a wide margin. Huffines is set to represent the GOP in the general election in November. Don Huffines, a former Texas state senator currently campaigning for state comptroller, is facing scrutiny over his family’s 2023 purchase of the New Mexico ranch formerly owned by convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. What we don't know: Neither Hancock nor Abbott released a response to Paxton's request at the time of publishing. Paxton's charged comments came after Hancock sent a letter to his office that, among other things, took jabs at his handling of a case related to Islam in Texas. Hancock's letter puts a large amount of blame on Paxton for an Islamic school in Houston being temporarily eligible for the new state school voucher program. He asked Paxton to highlight the school's alleged ties to a group GOP leaders have labeled as terror-aligned, take steps to strip the school's corporate charter, and take further action against the allegedly terror-related Muslim Brotherhood group.

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Saudi leader is said to push Trump to continue Iran war in recent calls

Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing President Trump to continue the war against Iran, arguing that the U.S.-Israeli military campaign presents a “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East, according topeople briefed by American officials on the conversations. In a series of conversations over the last week, Prince Mohammed has conveyed to Mr. Trump that he must press toward the destruction of Iran’s hard-line government, the people familiar with the conversations said. Prince Mohammed, the people familiar with the discussions said, has argued that Iran poses a long-term threat to the Gulf that can only be eliminated by getting rid of the government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel also views Iran as a long-term threat, but analysts say Israeli officials would probably view a failed Iranian state that is too caught up in internal turmoil to menace Israel as a win, while Saudi Arabia views a failed state in Iran as a grave and direct security threat. But senior officials in both the Saudi and American governments worry that if the conflict drags on, Iran could deliver ever more punishing attacks on Saudi oil installations and the United States could be stuck in an endless war. In public, Mr. Trump has swung wildly between suggesting that the war could end soon and signaling it would escalate. On Monday, the president posted on social media that his administration and Iran had held “productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities,” though Iran disputed the idea that negotiations were underway.

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State Stories

‘It’s go time’: New FWISD leaders share message of urgency to put students first

The new, state-appointed superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District — alongside other district and city leaders — shared a message of urgency and transparency with a student-first approach on Tuesday morning. Shortly after Texas Education Agency officials announced Superintendent Peter Licata has assumed the leadership position during a state takeover, alongside nine state appointees for the Board of Managers, he addressed the media to emphasize his focus on meeting children’s basic needs so they are prepared to learn, while noting his plans to be accessible and transparent during his tenure in Fort Worth ISD. Licata, who most recently served as superintendent of Broward County Public Schools in Florida, also shared plans for professional development and accountability for teachers. “This is an opportunity for me to bring my skill set to a place that deserves the best,” he said.

Students testing at grade-level proficiency is “the lowest form of acceptance,” he said, noting that he wants students to excel above that level. Licata called the Fort Worth school district’s performance data “depressing” and “offensive.” Licata acknowledged there would be “upper-level changes and reduction immediately,” and a new organizational chart for district administrators is underway. He doesn’t anticipate the staffing changes will be noticeable on campuses “right now.” Principals will be more hands-on, staying outside of their office during the school day and worrying about paperwork later, Licata said. Teacher vacancies will be filled, and observations of teachers will have “real-time feedback” to make sure they are maximizing a lesson to its full potential, he said. “We’re going to put our best generals in our toughest battles, and we’re going to reward them for it,” Licata said. During the press conference at Reby Cary Youth Library in east Fort Worth, Mayor Mattie Parker also presented four members of the Board of Managers: Luis Galindo, Courtney Lewis, Rosa Marie Berdeja and Pete Geren.

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After 20 years of resistance, Trump is walling off the Rio Grande Valley

About 10 miles upstream from the mouth of the Rio Grande, along a quiet bend of the river near a historic Civil War battle site, Mexican fishermen in overalls casting their nets into the water are a familiar sight. Brown pelicans sometimes follow fishing boats hoping to catch a snack. The sound of water splashing along the riverbank from the wake of a boat is oddly comforting. But these days, as far as the eye can see along the natural border, small white buoys are sporadically placed marking a “restricted area” and declaring the river as property of the federal Department of Defense, part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to militarize the region. Small signs are wrapped around the buoys here, east of the border city of Brownsville. And these warning signs are only one small indicator of the vast change about to sweep through the river. More than a year into Trump’s second stint in the White House, fast-paced border barrier construction has been steadily proceeding through areas of the Rio Grande Valley both on land and in the river itself.

Last year, Congress appropriated nearly $47 billion for border barrier construction, encompassing both 30-foot-tall steel fencing and river barrier made up of larger orange buoys to deter crossers, and including surveillance technology. This is a historic investment in finishing the barrier in the Valley—which spans about 150 miles by car and 275 river-miles from Cameron County upriver through Hidalgo and Starr Counties and currently hosts disconnected stretches of both federal- and state-built border fencing. It’s a region that’s historically been difficult for wall-building presidents to conquer due to varying terrain and the fact that the riverfront land is held by private landowners often with complicated claims dating back centuries. But the Trump administration’s present plans to add another 90 or so miles of new and replacement wall would finish sealing off the region from the Brownsville Ship Channel all the way up to Falcon Dam, completing the job that George W. Bush and Barack Obama started. From trucks loaded up with the orange buoys—measuring 15 feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide—driving through the pothole-ridden streets of Southmost in Brownsville to shipments of steel border wall bollard panels hauled down Valley highways, the rapid spending of these taxpayer dollars is displayed all around the region.

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Southern Dallas selected by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company for high-tech tunnel

A major southern Dallas development has been selected for a high-profile infrastructure project led by Elon Musk’s tunneling venture, The Boring Company, according to a newly released announcement. The University Hills development has been chosen to host a mile-long underground tunnel, known as the “University Hills Loop,” which will connect the community directly to the University of North Texas Dallas DART Station. The project was selected from 487 submissions as part of the company’s “Tunnel Vision Challenge,” with 16 finalists competing nationwide. University Hills joins two other winning proposals — in New Orleans and Baltimore — announced by The Boring Company on social media.

The loop is an underground tunnel where electric vehicles travel at high speeds, allowing riders to bypass surface traffic. The concept is designed to improve connectivity and reduce congestion. University Hills is a 280-acre, $1 billion mixed-use development led by Hoque Global. Plans include hundreds of homes, multiple phases of development and a walkable town center. The tunnel would create a direct, multi-modal link between the development and the broader North Texas transit network. “It is an honor to be recognized … as the winning project,” Hoque Global CEO and Founder Mike Hoque said in the release. He added the project highlights how “emerging infrastructure solutions can strengthen access to transit, jobs, and opportunity.” “UNT Dallas is pleased that this innovative tunnel will increase access to and from our campus and the region. It symbolizes the continued growth of southern Dallas through technology, collaboration and forward-thinking and will strengthen the community surrounding the university," said UNT Dallas President Dr. Warren von Eschenbach.

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DART CEO Nadine Lee is resigning

Nadine Lee, who was hired as CEO of Dallas Area Rapid Transit in 2021, told the transit agency’s board Tuesday night that she will not renew her contract. “I have informed the board that I will not be seeking an extension to my contract,” Lee said in an interview with D Magazine. “I will be leaving at a time to be determined.” Being the CEO of a large transit agency was never going to be easy. But running one like DART, a regional provider for 13 member cities that shuttles hundreds of thousands of daily riders, is especially difficult. Nothing proved that more than the last 18 months or so. First, Lee and her executive team narrowly avoided state legislation that she contended would have “killed” the system. After the session ended last year, Lee led the agency through a revolt by nearly half of its member cities that sought to claw back a portion of the sales tax revenue that accounts for the majority of DART’s funding. Six of those cities scheduled withdrawal elections for May.

But in February, the improbable happened: Thanks to a great deal of persuasion and flexibility, DART struck a deal that prompted three cities—Plano, Irving, and Farmers Branch—to cancel those elections. (University Park, Highland Park, and Addison will have measures to withdraw on their May ballots.) Why now? Lee says that the days of transit and city leaders staying in the same job for decades are a thing of the past. “I actually just came from a conference with transit CEOs across the country, and I think all of us acknowledged that the average tenure of a CEO in transit is five to seven years,” Lee says. “It used to be that it was 10 to 20 years.” Lee was hired away from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority nearly five years ago, where she oversaw METRO’s $2.1 billion Better Bus Initiative. She also helped develop bus rapid transit projects in Denver. To understand why she’s leaving, Lee says, it’s important to remember why she was hired in the first place. At the time of her hiring, DART had spent the better part of three decades building one of the largest light rail systems in the country. It wanted to redesign its bus system to improve frequency and reliability. At the time, the Silver Line rail from Plano to DFW Airport and a since-scuttled downtown D2 subway link were the last vestiges of the rail build-out that preceded her.

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Texas Hill Country wine executive arrested on DWI, weapon charges

A prominent Texas Hill Country wine executive was arrested Saturday and charged with driving while intoxicated and unlawfully carrying a weapon, jail records show. John Rivenburgh, who grew up in San Antonio, is listed as a past president and "member at large" for Texas Wine Growers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting "the integrity of Texas Wine by making wines solely from grapes grown in the Terroir of Texas." According to his biography page, "You can't throw a rock, or shall we say a wine bottle, in the Texas wine world without hitting a winery or vineyard that Rivenburgh has been of influence." Rivenburgh has also served as a delegate for the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, as well as served in two presidencies under Texas Hill Country Wineries.

From January 2015 to December 2021, he was a member of the Texas Wine Advisory Council for the the Texas Department of Agriculture, where he was "very active in leading legislation to advance and protect the Texas wine industry." Currently, the Texas Hill Country wine executive's "Rivenburgh Wine" brand includes the Wine Incubator, Kerrville Hills Winery, and Hill Country Spirits, his LinkedIn page says. The Kerrville Police Department arrested Rivenburgh on-site Saturday, charging him with DWI after authorities found his blood-alcohol level to be 0.15% — nearly twice the legal limit in Texas. He was booked into Kerrville's main jail, where he was held on a $3,500 surety bond for his DWI charge and a $1,500 surety bond for his unlawful weapon charge.

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Connally ISD, now under state control, cancels bond plans as it seeks to shrink its footprint

Connally ISD is moving forward with consolidating its elementary school campuses after canceling a $5.9 million bond election for May that would have helped with the transition. Connally ISD trustees called the bond election on Feb. 12 during a special meeting, then voted two weeks later to cancel it based on new projections of enrollment and savings from the school consolidation. The consolidation plan comes after a drop in elementary enrollment and the failure of three bond elections meant to replace the aging Connally Elementary School. The district is also in the process of being taken over by a state-appointed board and conservator due to years of failing grades at two campuses.

The plan, which conservator Andrew Kim supports, will close Connally Elementary School at 300 Cadet Way. Its fourth- and fifth-graders will be moved to Connally Primary School, about two miles north in Elm Mott, which now houses grades first through third. Connally Primary School will also be the new home for grades prekindergarten through kindergarten, which now attend the Connally Early Childhood Center next to Connally Elementary. That facility will continue to house day care programs. The $5.9 million bond would have included funds to enhance and expand the Elm Mott campus, adding portable buildings, repairing and adding roads, replacing school buses and replacing some heating and air conditioning units. But continuing elementary enrollment decline could make some of those improvements unnecessary. For now, the early childhood center and elementary school have a combined 459 students and the primary school has 437, which would mean a combined elementary population of about 900. The primary school campus has a capacity of about 800 students.

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Wait times at IAH shrink after day of TSA delays

ICE officers patrolled Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport for a second day Tuesday morning as security screening wait times exceeded four hours again during the sixth week of the partial government shutdown. By Tuesday evening, travelers at Bush Airport saw some relief as wait times shrunk to less than 20 minutes, while Hobby Airport consistently stayed under 10 minutes, according to the Houston Airport System. TSA worker staffing levels have dropped due to a pay freeze during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which has dragged into day 38. Transportation Security Administration security checkpoints at Bush Airport were again reduced to two terminals — A and E — and TSA PreCheck and CLEAR were closed for a second straight day. Some ICE officers helped direct passengers through security screening while others stood to watch or patrol.

Bush Airport notched the longest TSA waits in the entire country during each of the past two days, according to the New York Times and CNN. More than 400 TSA agents have quit since the shutdown began, DHS confirmed Monday. AP reported that figure reached at least 458 on Tuesday. There are only enough TSA agents to staff a third to half of the airport's 37 screening lines, said Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, in a video message on Tuesday. "I want you to know we see it," he said. "We see the families arriving early and waiting for hours. We see missed flights. We see missed moments, weddings, vacation, time with loved ones. I see the frustration in the eyes of the airport employees."

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LaGuardia crash ‘the very kind of catastrophe’ Rep. Doggett fears could happen in Austin

When asked about the fatal crash between a plane and fire truck at LaGuardia Airport, Congressman Lloyd Doggett minced no words in his response: “It’s the very kind of catastrophe that I fear we could have here in Austin.” Doggett has long worried air traffic controller staffing shortages in Austin could leave our city susceptible to something similar. For years, we have spoken to Doggett about those shortages and his push to get those positions filled.

Air traffic controllers are not hired by the airports themselves but rather are federal positions. They are therefore outside of the purview of AUS. “With only half of the number of air traffic controllers for which we are certified {at AUS} … very same situation as LaGuardia this morning in terms of a shortage,” Doggett told KXAN. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy addressed that general concern in a news conference in New York on Monday. Duffy said LaGuardia’s air traffic control tower is well-staffed, only four vacancies short of their goal. He also said six or seven people are in training. Still, he urged Congress to move forward with additional funding for air traffic control. “We are modernizing our system. But we can’t fully modernize it until Congress gives us additional money. It’s not a partisan issue. Both Democrats and Republicans agree, but they have to have the will to finish the funding,” he said. Meanwhile, Doggett says Austin has more than two dozen trainees in the pipeline, a significant step in the right direction, but one that won’t be an immediate fix. “Some of these trainees take up to two years to get trained and some of them don’t make it, and so I’m hopeful that this situation is to be corrected but I’m concerned that we’re in the same air traffic control situation as LaGuardia,” Doggett said.

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Water in this Austin suburb comes out brown, leaving residents with high bills and ruined appliances

Tyler Croft started having water problems right away after he and his wife moved to the Austin’s Colony neighborhood in far East Austin two years ago. First, it was the dishwasher. Cups and plates came out caked in white residue. Then, they noticed the taste; it was chalky and bitter. Once, while grabbing a glass of water, Croft turned on the tap and it came out brown. “That was the first sign that we knew we had to get something installed,” Croft said. He installed a water softener system under the kitchen sink. Then, after he noticed his skin was getting dry and his newborn daughter started developing eczema, he put filters on the showerheads. Next came a bigger water softener system out in the garage.

All told, Croft said he’s spent about $5,000 on softener and filtration systems to make the water in his home “acceptable.” That’s on top of the cost of the water itself. Water issues in the neighborhood have persisted for decades. Residents have long complained of bad tastes, ruined appliances and high water bills. People in the Austin’s Colony neighborhood are outside of the service area for Austin Water. Instead, they are served by a for-profit company called Texas Water Utilities (TWU). The company serves small pockets across 32 counties in Texas — neighborhoods similar to Austin’s Colony that are just outside a city’s service area. Before turning on the tap, the company charges Austin’s Colony residents a $59.39 base fee for water — more than seven times the cost of Austin Water’s base fee — and a $79.19 base fee for sewer services. Croft showed KUT News his water bill from February. The total came out to $221.79. The cost of the water he actually used was less than $40.

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Top HISD official hired to lead Fort Worth ISD in new takeover

A top Houston ISD official is joining Fort Worth ISD as second-in-command as the Texas Education Agency prepares to take over the North Texas school district. Daniel Soliz, an HISD area division chief, announced Tuesday he was "humbled and honored" to join as "deputy superintendent, chief of schools," hours after the TEA appointed a new superintendent to lead Fort Worth ISD. Soliz's appointment signals Fort Worth ISD will likely implement many of the reforms HISD has adopted since its state takeover in 2023.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced in December that Fort Worth would lose its democratically elected school board and its hired superintendent because of years of failing ratings at a single campus. With more than 70,000 students, Fort Worth ISD is the second-largest district to undergo a takeover. HISD is the largest. "Together, under the leadership of Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata, we will improve outcomes for all students," Soliz wrote on LinkedIn. Some of Fort Worth's business leaders toured Houston schools in December with HISD's state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles. They said then that they felt encouraged by HISD's approach to instruction. "The bold systemic changes led by Superintendent Miles are positively changing the trajectory of the lives of children," visiting Fort Worth business chambers said in a joint statement in December. "We are inspired by and appreciative of the thousands of educational leaders in Houston who are implementing new practices elevating the standards for all students."

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Lake Worth ISD names acting superintendent amid state takeover

Following the resignation of its superintendent amid an imminent takeover by the Texas Education Agency, Lake Worth ISD has named a new acting superintendent. The district's assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. Trent Dowd has been appointed to serve in the role. Dowd will remain in the position until the TEA commissioner names a new superintendent. In a statement, Dowd said he is honored to serve as acting superintendent and emphasized that the district "will remain steadfast in its mission and vision, keeping students at the center of every decision." The previous superintendent, Mark Ramirez, announced his resignation at a board meeting in early March. His last day was March 13, less than a year after he joined the district in May of 2025.

In December of last year, the TEA announced it would be taking over operations of the district after all but one of its campuses received failing grades. In a letter to Lake Worth ISD's superintendent and board of trustees in December, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath wrote that he was ordering the appointment of a board of managers and a conservator to oversee the district after TEA conducted an analysis of district data and vetted its systems, leadership and student results. "Unacceptable academic performance in a single year represents significant academic weakness – typically less than one-third of students in those campuses reach grade level and less than one-half of students on those campuses demonstrate a year’s worth of academic growth," Morath wrote. "When that unacceptable performance continues for multiple years, the children in those campuses develop significant academic gaps. Multi-year unacceptable ratings represent a school district’s most fundamental mission failure and a complete inability to take necessary action to provide a high quality education for students."

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Pete Hegseth’s pastor says he wants James Talarico to die

The pastor from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s home church in Tennessee said last week on a podcast that he wants James Talarico to die, referring to the Texas Democratic state representative and Presbyterian seminarian who regularly discusses his Christian faith in his current bid for U.S. Senate. Brooks Potteiger, an evangelical pastor who has been described as Hegseth’s closest spiritual adviser, repeatedly attacked Talarico on the podcast “Reformation Red Pill.” The show is hosted by Joshua Haymes, a former pastoral intern at Potteiger’s church. After referring to the Texas Democrat as “a wolf,” a “demon,” and “a snake,” the two talked about what they hope becomes of Talarico. “First and foremost, we pray that a man like this would be cut to the heart,” Haymes said. He said he puts Talarico in the category of “public enemies,” or those you “are not called to love.”

“This is where you have imprecatory psalms. This is where you pray strongly,” he said. “The psalmist is not shy. God, destroy them. Make them as dung on the ground.” “I pray that God kills him,” Haymes said. “Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ.” Potteiger concurred. “Right, right,” he said. “We want him crucified with Christ.” Haymes repeated that he wants “death and new life” for Talarico. “And if it would not be within God’s will to do so, stop him by any means necessary,” he said. At one point, the podcast host said Talarico “is the kind of guy you pray imprecatory psalms against. And I mean that actually.” An imprecatory psalm is a biblical song or prayer that invokes God’s judgment, curses or destruction upon enemies. “Yep,” Potteiger said in response.

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National Stories

The DHS deal is on the rocks

Senate leaders are hitting more snags as they try to reach a deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. Senate Democrats are demanding additional concessions after Republicans struggled to get President Donald Trump on board with a framework for the potential agreement — one that the president hasn’t even yet publicly endorsed. Senate Republicans claim Democrats are moving the goalposts on a proposed deal to fund all of DHS except for ICE’s enforcement operations. GOP leaders say the proposal already includes some changes both parties agreed on in January, such as tens of millions of dollars of additional funding for body cameras and other concessions.

“I didn’t go down there and spend two hours with the president to get him to where a deal was, to only have it changed” by Democrats, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “We can’t function that way.” Democrats insist their position hasn’t changed. Any immigration enforcement funding must include new restrictions. Chief among these are a ban on face masks for federal agents and changes to warrant procedures, they said. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are already making preparations for the second step of the process — a party-line reconciliation bill that would fund ICE enforcement and a whole host of other GOP priorities, including elements of the SAVE America Act. GOP members of the Senate Budget Committee held a meeting Tuesday night to begin gaming it out, even as some Senate Republicans are skeptical it’ll actually work. DHS latest. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Democrats would send a counteroffer with additional reforms to ICE. As of this morning, that counteroffer hasn’t been sent yet.

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Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

A jury on Tuesday found Meta violated New Mexico law in a case accusing it of failing to warn users about the dangers of its platforms and protect children from sexual predators. The jury found Meta liable on all counts, including for willfully engaging in “unfair and deceptive” and “unconscionable” trade practices, and ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages. Meta for years has faced concerns about risks to kids and teens on its platforms from parents, whistleblowers, advocates and lawmakers. Tuesday’s decision marks the first time the company has been held accountable in a jury trial for those issues. A Meta spokesperson said the company “respectfully” disagrees and plans to appeal the decision.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta in 2023 for allegedly creating a “breeding ground” for child predators on Facebook and Instagram, claims that the company denies. The jury’s award was smaller than the billions in damages New Mexico had sought, but a later portion of the case to be presented directly to the judge could also force Meta to make changes to its platforms and pay additional penalties. The case is part of a wave of legal pressure Meta and other social media platforms are facing over the safety of young users. As jurors in New Mexico state court delivered a verdict, jurors in Los Angeles are considering a separate case against Meta and YouTube accusing them of intentionally creating addictive features that harmed a young woman’s mental health. Social media giants are also facing hundreds of other cases from individuals, school districts and state attorneys general — some of which are set to go to trial later this year. Closing arguments on Monday followed a six-week trial that included testimony from Meta executives and former employees-turned-whistleblowers. Details from the attorney general’s undercover investigation into child sexual exploitation on Meta’s platforms, which led to three arrests, were also discussed in the courtroom.

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Trader made nearly $1 million on Polymarket with remarkably accurate Iran bets

A trader made nearly $1 million since 2024 from dozens of well-timed Polymarket bets that correctly predicted US and Israeli military actions against Iran, according to an analysis shared with CNN. The bettor won a staggering 93% of their five-figure wagers about Iran, even though the events they predicted were unannounced military operations. The trader had a pattern of prescient bets, including hours before Israeli strikes in October 2024 during its tit-for-tat conflict with Iran, hours before US airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, and hours before the joint US-Israeli surprise attack in February, which started the current war.

The findings from Bubblemaps, an analytics company that tracks blockchain transactions, highlight the rising concerns about the potential for insider trading on some prediction markets, where users can wager on everything from sports to elections to warfare. “All of this is strong signaling of insider activity, based on the amount they made, the markets they bet on, the timing of their trades, the success rates of these trades, and the fact that they are connected on-chain,” Bubblemaps CEO Nick Vaiman told CNN. “This is pretty suspicious in my book.” It isn’t clear whether the trader flagged by Bubblemaps is an insider, and the accounts they used are anonymous and can’t be publicly traced to a specific person. The bets were placed on Polymarket’s international site, which is out of the reach of US regulations. Polymarket didn’t respond to CNN’s multiple requests for comment.

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Democrats flip Florida state House district that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Democrats delivered a blow to Florida Republicans and flipped a state House seat in President Trump’s backyard, according to Decision Desk HQ. Democrat Emily Gregory, a health fitness small business owner, defeated Trump-backed Republican Jon Maples, a financial adviser, in a race for the open Florida District 87 state House seat, which includes part of Palm Beach County and the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort. As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Gregory garnered just more than 51 percent of the vote, while Maples had just less than 49 percent backing with more than 95 percent of the vote in. Gregory and Maples faced off in the contest after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) tapped Republican Mike Caruso in August to become the county clerk and comptroller. Trump voted by mail in Tuesday’s election.

Although Caruso last won the seat by double digits and Trump won the district by roughly 9 percentage points in 2024, former Vice President Kamala Harris did win Palm Beach County by less than a point in the last presidential election. The district is shared by Reps. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) and Brian Mast (R-Fla.) in Congress. National groups and figures waded into the race before the special election, including Trump. Rep. Byron Donalds (R), a candidate for Florida governor, appeared alongside Maples during the campaign, while Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) also backed the financial adviser. Meanwhile, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) backed Gregory, and retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman — a candidate for Senate in the Sunshine State — held a virtual fundraiser for Gregory while Frankel endorsed the Democratic candidate. DLCC Chair Heather Williams applauded Gregory’s win in a Tuesday social media post. “Mar-a-Lago’s state House district just flipped from red to blue, which should have Republicans worried about their chances this November,” she said. “A Trump +11 district in his own backyard shouldn’t be in play for Democrats, but tonight proves Republicans are vulnerable everywhere.” This isn’t the first win for Florida Democrats in the last few months. In December, Florida Democrats notched a win when Democrat Eileen Higgins beat Republican Emilio Gonzalez to become the first Democratic Miami mayor in decades.

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AIPAC is shaking up its political operation

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is quietly searching for a new general counsel and director of political operations, according to private communications reviewed by NOTUS. A position description, marked “CONFIDENTIAL” and dated March 2026, was shared with at least one potential candidate by Allison Rosner, the managing director at the Washington executive recruitment firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, which AIPAC has hired to conduct the search. The powerful pro-Israel advocacy group is looking for someone “capable of enabling assertive yet compliant political engagement while safeguarding the Organization against unnecessary legal or reputational risk,” according to the executive summary of the role. It’s “not a traditional general counsel role.”

The environment is “closely scrutinized.” And “political sophistication” is a must — especially as the bipartisan organization is facing waning influence among Democrats. Philip Friedman, AIPAC’s current general counsel and director of political operations, is retiring after more than 30 years with the organization, a source familiar with his plans told NOTUS. AIPAC declined to comment Tuesday on personnel matters and its job search. Friedman earned around $708,000 from AIPAC and affiliated organizations between October 2023 and September 2024, according to the group’s latest nonprofit tax return filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The job description simply said compensation is “commensurate with experience.” AIPAC had 24 job openings on its website as of Tuesday afternoon — none of which are for the general counsel and director of political operations role. AIPAC has long boosted politicians on both sides of the aisle who support a strong relationship between Israel and the United States — and unapologetically attacks those who question it. But the organization is facing significant political turbulence.

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North Carolina Senate leader and architect of state's conservative transformation Phil Berger concedes primary loss

North Carolina government's most influential politician, Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger, conceded the primary race for his seat to Sam Page on Tuesday, shaking the power structure in the ninth-largest state and likely soon ending Berger's preeminence as the state's top conservative architect. Berger had trailed Page, the Rockingham County sheriff, in their March 3 primary by only 23 votes. He has been Senate leader since 2011 when Republicans took full control over the General Assembly for the first time in 140 years. President Donald Trump had endorsed Berger for reelection, praising him for his policy accomplishments. Trump's endorsement came several weeks after the legislature redrew the state's U.S. House district map in an attempt to flip a Democratic seat as part of the president's redistricting campaign to retain GOP control of the U.S. House in this year's midterm elections.

Unofficial results on primary election night showed Page leading Berger by just two votes out of more than 26,000 counted in the 26th Senate District that includes part of Greensboro and neighboring areas. Page's lead expanded as elections boards in the two counties composing the district reviewed provisional, absentee and other ballots. Later recounts were conducted and Berger's campaign filed formal protests yet to be resolved. But Berger gave up after a hand recount of a small portion of the ballots Tuesday morning showed no change in Page's razor-thin lead. Page will now advance to the November general election in the GOP-leaning district. He said Berger called him Tuesday to concede. "I thank him for wishing me the best moving forward," Page said in a statement. "Now it's time for our community to come together and focus on winning in November." Page was outspent by Berger's campaign by more than 50-to-1 through mid-February. That doesn't include several million dollars that a pro-Berger independent expenditure group spent on mailers and advertising.

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Democrats’ quest for relatable white dudes finds new candidates

As the world waits to find out if Texas state Rep. James Talarico is the next Jon Ossoff or just another Beto O’Rourke, Democrats’ quest for relatable white dudes continues. Of course, whether Talarico can make a go of it in the Texas Senate race is mostly out of his hands right now. He’s very glib but very green, and if the Republicans can free themselves from the quagmire of a primary and end up keeping Sen. John Cornyn, it will be hard for Talarico to outrun his past positions and cringey rhetoric — the stuff about the nonbinary God, the moral imperative to reduce meat consumption for climate change, etc. The only available counterattack for Talarico against Cornyn would be to say that he’s too close to President Trump, which would actually help reunite the GOP and motivate base voters after a primary in which Cornyn’s rival, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, has been attacking him for being insufficiently close to Trump.

A race with Cornyn looks like a dead end. If it’s Paxton, there’s a path for Talarico to win against a radical candidate who even his supporters know is an ethical nightmare. Would it be worth $150 million to Democrats to keep that path open when then the party is short on cash with lots of other races to run? Only thence would come the young pastor’s time of testing. There are other notable contestants in the party’s Star Search for the youngish, white males who can lend credibility to the claim that Democrats are capable of reaching out beyond their electoral sweet spots of college-educated women and Black voters. The trick is finding candidates who are both relatable to the voters who Democrats very much need to add to their coalition and who the base will actually accept. Democrats don’t need any more Tim Walz fiascos. The Minnesota governor delighted Democratic women as a kind of Howard Cunningham character. He looked like an old sourpuss, but right below the surface he was just bursting with love (and progressive policies). This, of course, hit a false note with the very voters the Harris campaign needed to reach. Real outreach requires risk, but the Walz pick was tokenism of the same kind that Republicans often do with Black candidates: nonthreatening and uncomplicated.

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Lead Stories

'When will it end?’ The ‘elevator pitch’ oil executives and diplomats are making to the White House in Houston

The Trump administration is sending its top energy officials to Houston this week to meet with oil industry executives and foreign dignitaries — and they can expect to get an earful as its war in Iran has sent their industry into upheaval. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, National Energy Dominance Council Executive Director Jarrod Agen, FERC Chair Laura Swett and other administration officials will be in the midst of the largest gathering of energy industry officials in the world this week. The annual CERAWeek confab comes nearly a month into the U.S.-Israel-Iran war and the all-but-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s main thoroughfares for Middle East oil, fuel shortages in Asia and the destruction of huge parts of the region’s natural gas fields and export plants.

If there’s one message the industry wants to deliver to the administration, according to interviews with half a dozen energy industry executives and foreign diplomats planning to attend the event, it’s this: People need to know when the conflict that is already causing major damage to their world order will end. “Generally in the elevator pitch, people are going to say, ‘Look, we need to know duration, and we need to know infrastructure possibilities. We need to make sure that the uncertainties are as limited as possible,’ said Frank Maisano, a senior principal at Bracewell, an energy law firm. “The events in Iran have just kind of overwhelmed what anybody was thinking this year might be about.” Wright met with a group of energy industry executives outside the conference hall Sunday evening, two people familiar with the meeting said. A DOE representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The chaos caused by the war led the CEO of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco to skip the conference this year, Reuters reported. Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods, who has also been a featured speaker at the conference in previous years, will also not attend this year, a person familiar with the plan said.

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Stephen Miller asks why Texas pays to teach undocumented children

Stephen Miller raised the idea of ending public education funding for undocumented children in a closed-door meeting with Texas lawmakers in Washington last week, a move that would challenge a decades-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent, according to two people who were in the meeting. Mr. Miller, President Trump’s hard-line immigration adviser, cited gridlock in Congress as he encouraged the state lawmakers to pass conservative legislation on immigration and other issues that are crucial to Republicans, hoping such action would spur on other red states and federal lawmakers. Republicans have been bracing for the possible loss of control in the U.S. House after the 2026 midterm elections, elevating the importance of state legislatures to the Trump administration as it looks to push its agenda on health, immigration and the economy.

“He sees conservative states like Texas and Florida can be partners with the federal government,” State Representative Tom Oliverson, the chairman of the Texas House Republican Caucus, said in an interview on Monday. “We can be a place where some of those ideas can be tried out because they’re difficult to do at the federal level.” On immigration, Mr. Miller asked why the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature had not passed a bill last year that would have funded public education only for children who are citizens or “lawfully present in the United States.” Doing so would break with the Supreme Court precedent set in Plyler v. Doe, a 1982 decision that determined that states must pay for the elementary school education of all students regardless of immigration status. “There’s a lot of people that believe that that ruling has some pretty faulty logic associated with it,” Mr. Oliverson said. Ending public school funding for undocumented students in Texas would be a major reversal that could be replicated by other red states with large immigrant communities. While federal law bars collecting of immigration data about children in schools, studies in Texas have estimated the number at more than 100,000 students, out of more than 5.5 million schoolchildren in the state.

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‘Petty, partisan politics.’ Tarrant Dem rips Patrick over committee seat snub

A Fort Worth Democrat who received national attention for flipping a historically red seat didn’t get a committee assignment for the months leading up to 2027 legislative session, a decision he described as petty partisan politics that silences Senate District 9 in Tarrant County. On Monday afternoon, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced which senators would fill committee vacancies, following recent membership shakeups. Lawmakers aren’t currently in session but typically hold hearings in the interim to study policy topics in preparation for when they next convene. Newly sworn in Sen. Taylor Rehmet wasn’t among the senators named on the lieutenant governor’s latest list of committee appointees.

“After months of SD-9 having no voice in the Texas Senate, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has chosen to silence our district even further by refusing to assign me to any committee,” Rehmet said in a statement. “This decision reflects the kind of petty, partisan politics that too often stands in the way of delivering results for working families.” Patrick’s office did not immediately return a request for comment when contacted about Rehment’s committee membership absence earlier in the day. The lieutenant governor endorsed Rehmet’s special election opponent Leigh Wambsganss, a Republican from Southlake who he’ll face again on the November ballot. “While I am disappointed, I remain fully committed — and as energized as ever — to using every tool available to improve the lives of my constituents,” Rehmet said. “My office has already begun research and policy development on all committee topics, and although we are being denied a formal seat at the table, I will continue working every day to ensure Texas works the way it should for working families. “

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How Texas became ground zero for AI data centers reshaping the energy industry

A California-based company is planning a new type of ranch in the heart of West Texas, measured not in herds of cattle, but in gigawatts of electricity. At the site in Fort Stockton, Pacifico Energy wants to construct a private grid — roughly the size of Ireland’s — exclusively for data centers that train artificial intelligence models. Few other states could accommodate a country-sized grid. But Texas boasts open land and ample natural gas. This makes the state attractive to a growing number of companies like Pacifico that are sidestepping yearslong grid connections by building their own power plants — one of the quickest ways for data centers to get online. This speed is crucial to tech companies as they compete against each other to develop the most cutting-edge AI. According to Cleanview, a company that tracks data center projects, Texas has more proposals to circumvent the power grid than any other state.

“You see a massive movement of these big data center campuses, all coming towards Texas,” said Aman Joshi, chief commercial officer of Bloom Energy, which provides on-site power generation to data centers. Most data centers, even the ones building their own power plants, still want to ultimately connect to the Texas power grid, where it’s faster to get online than grids elsewhere. But an unprecedented data center backlog is forcing even Texas to slow new grid hookups. So, more companies like Pacifico are turning toward developing self-sufficient power islands as they wait for the grid to catch up. The resulting flood of both on-grid and off-grid data centers is why Texas is emerging as the fastest-growing data center market. It could have more data centers than anywhere else in the world by 2030. Many data center developers who want to bypass the grid say using natural gas is the best way to do so. Compared to other energy sources, gas can most readily provide data centers power all the time, which is important because many of them host online systems for critical services such as banks, hospitals and first responders. That makes Texas — the country’s largest gas producer — one of the most attractive places for AI data center complexes.

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State Stories

Houston airport's only 2 TSA checkpoints pass 4-hour waits after ICE arrival

Travelers at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport saw lines of more than four hours at the TSA security checkpoints in Terminals A and E, Houston airport officials warned Monday afternoon, as the partial government shutdown persists. The TSA lines continued to grow at Terminals A and E, the only two terminals open on Monday afternoon, after federal immigration agents arrived at both Bush Airport and William P. Hobby Airport in the morning. The Houston Airport System urged travelers to contact their airlines because they could miss their Monday evening flights. President Donald Trump had announced over the weekend that he would deploy ICE to U.S. airports on Monday.

TSA has been without funding for more than a month while Congress is deadlocked over immigration enforcement policy. Hundreds of TSA officers have quit, unable to afford basic expenses like food, rent, gas and child care, said Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. A group of ICE officers gathered at baggage claim in Bush Airport's Terminal A, where a Houston Airport System staffer appeared to direct them toward their assignments shortly after 8:45 a.m. "Monitor the line, maybe spread out, maybe half upstairs," the airport staffer told the agents before the group disbanded. Later, at least three ICE agents stood alongside the winding TSA line on the top floor of the busy terminal. ICE agents maintained a quiet presence along the edges of the standard screening security line at Bush Airport's Terminal A. Some guided passengers between different segments of the twisting line. Others stood to the side and watched. ICE officers at Hobby Airport walked casually back and forth without engaging with waiting passengers or airport staff.

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Explosion at Valero refinery in Port Arthur prompts shelter-in-place for west side residents

An explosion and large plume of smoke at the Valero refinery in Port Arthur prompted officials to order west-side residents to shelter in place, while nearby Nederland reported no impact from the incident Monday. The shelter-in-place was issued for the west side of Port Arthur from Stilwell West to South of 73. Pleasure Island and Sabine Pass are included in the shelter-in-place. Antonio Mitchell with the Port Arthur Fire Department confirmed an incident at the Valero facility. "The type of incident is unknown at this time," Mitchell said not long after the explosion as his crews headed to the scene. Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephens said the incident may have involved a heater unit. No injuries have been reported, and no evacuations have been ordered. Officials are monitoring air quality in the area. All personnel have been accounted for.

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NTSB says TSA holdup in Houston slowed expert heading to deadly LaGuardia crash scene

Travelers across the country are feeling the brunt of the government shutdown in the form of exceptionally long TSA lines, and Houston is among the hardest hit, with waits stretching to four hours or more at Bush Airport Monday. Those long lines didn’t just frustrate passengers. They also slowed the federal investigation into a deadly overnight crash between an Air Canada jet and an emergency vehicle at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. During a news conference on Monday, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy was speaking to the media about the investigation and how the agency had trouble getting its team together. That included one person who was stuck in a security line in Houston.

“We have one our ... air traffic control specialist who was in line with TSA for three hours until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through so we can get her here," Homendy said. "So it's been a really, a really big challenge to get the entire team here and they're still arriving as I speak right up until about, I think the latest I saw was midnight, maybe 1 a.m. tomorrow morning." Homendy also mentioned that a ground stop at Newark and the closure of LaGuardia most of Monday also played a role in how quickly the team could start investigating the crash that killed two pilots and left many others injured. The airport delays come as Transportation Security Administration staffing levels continue to drop during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

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Muna Javaid: Texas made progress on kids’ mental health — but more must be done

(Muna Javaid is the senior policy associate for child protection at Texans Care for Children.) As policymakers and parents look for ways to help Texas kids with mental health challenges, it’s important to remember that the solutions will look different for each child and family. The right mix for a particular child could include more exercise, limits on screen time, stable housing, therapy or other changes in their lives. However, the critical population of kids with the most complex mental health challenges will need more intensive services. In 2023, the Texas Legislature took a key step to figure out how to support these kids with acute challenges and ensure that parents desperately seeking help can find the services they need. During that session, lawmakers directed the Statewide Behavioral Health Coordinating Council to develop a strategic plan to guide the state’s work on mental health and substance use challenges among Texas kids.

The council released the Strategic Plan a few weeks before the Legislature convened for its 2025 session — providing a road map for state leaders to help parents support their children through these challenges. Legislators had to move quickly to react to the recommendations in the new Strategic Plan. How did they do? That’s the question we tackled in our recent report. We compared the recommendations in the Strategic Plan to steps the Legislature took last year. Our analysis shows that lawmakers made meaningful progress in 2025. Sen. Lois Kolkhorst and Sen. Royce West, Rep. Brooks Langraff and Rep. Ann Johnson, as well as other legislators, came together to build on the Legislature’s history of bipartisan cooperation on mental health. They provided funding for new mobile youth crisis outreach teams, improved access to Multisystemic Therapy, expanded the workforce through the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (TCMHCC), and moved the ball forward in other ways. At the end of the day, the Legislature fully or partially implemented eight of the 31 recommendations in the state’s Strategic Plan for children’s mental health. We appreciate those steps forward.

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Border wall plans changed to avoid Big Bend Ranch State Park

Federal officials said Monday that border walls are no longer being planned for a stretch of Big Bend Ranch State Park in West Texas, a shift from earlier indications that walls could be built along the Rio Grande on the park’s western edge. A spokesperson for the Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector told Marfa Public Radio on Monday that there are “currently no plans for border wall construction” within the state park. The news comes after federal authorities briefed Big Bend area officials on border wall plans at multiple meetings in recent days. The update about the state park no longer being targeted for border wall building was first relayed to Presidio County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler by Big Bend Sector Chief Patrol Agent Lloyd Easterling on Sunday evening.

The change had not been reflected on the Trump administration’s map of “Smart Wall” projects planned across the U.S.-Mexico border as of midday Monday. In an interview, Hisler said that Easterling told her it might take a couple of days for the section of wall in the state park, a 5.6 mile stretch, to be removed from the map. A physical wall in the state park would have cut off access to the popular Hoodoos Trail and jeopardized river access for local outfitters. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Physical border walls are still being pursued across the Big Bend region, including from the towns of Ruidosa to Redford. It’s not clear whether the removal of wall plans in Big Bend Ranch State Park is final, as the Smart Wall map has continuously changed in recent weeks without advanced notice. Federal border authorities have over the past week met with officials in Presidio and Brewster counties for a briefing on the project. As of a Friday morning meeting in Presidio County, wall plans for the state park were still on.

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Supreme Court declines to review Texas press freedom case

The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a case testing a Texas law allowing law enforcement to arrest reporters who obtain information from government employees. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the decision not to hear the case. "This case implicates one of the most basic journalistic practices of them all: asking sources within the government for information. Each day, countless journalists follow this practice, seeking comment, confirmation, or even 'scoops' from governmental sources," she wrote. "Reasonably so." In 2017, Laredo, Texas, journalist Priscilla Villarreal, also known as "La Gordiloca," was arrested for publishing news stories about a border agent's public suicide and a car crash. She was arrested because she fact-checked her stories with information voluntarily provided by a police officer.

"This was a blatant First Amendment violation," Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. "No reasonable officer would have thought that he could have arrested Villarreal, consistent with the Constitution, for asking the questions she asked. Such an arrest is plainly inconsistent with basic First Amendment principles." The Texas law had never been enforced before Villarreal's case. The law makes it a felony to solicit from public officials information that has not previously been publicly disclosed. After a Texas court judge held that the statute was unconstitutionally vague, Villarreal sued both the prosecutors and police officers responsible for her arrest. When law enforcement officers appealed, a panel of three 5th Circuit federal appeals court judges ruled for Villarreal, asserting: "If the First Amendment means anything, it surely means that a citizen journalist has the right to ask a public official a question, without fear of being imprisoned. Yet that is exactly what happened here: Priscilla Villarreal was put in jail for asking a police officer a question. If that is not an obvious violation of the Constitution, it's hard to imagine what would be."

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Children ‘continue to suffer’ at Texas immigration detention facility, attorneys allege

Months after handwritten letters from detained children drew national attention to the conditions at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a new court filing says conditions at the same Texas facility have not improved — and that the federal government has filed a starkly different account with the same court. Attorneys who represent all children in federal detention — and who have visited Dilley nine times since the facility opened last April — submitted the filing on March 20. Children there “continue to suffer,” the filing states, with nearly 600 held for more than 20 days during December and January. The latest publicly available Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, from early February, shows 900 people have been detained at Dilley, though The New York Times has since reported that the number of detainees there has dropped significantly: The federal government has been quietly releasing families from Dilley, MS NOW recently reported.

The filing describes inadequate medical care for the children, inability to sleep due to lights being left on at night, children feeling hungry, exhausted and persistently ill, lockdowns, guards confiscating and destroying children’s drawings during aggressive room searches and mental health deterioration, including panic attacks, suicidal ideation and one suicide attempt. The suicide attempt, first reported by the Associated Press, involved a 13-year-old girl who tried to cut her wrists with a plastic cafeteria knife after guards took away her drawing materials. The teenager was deported to Colombia last month after nearly two months in confinement, according to the AP story, which was attached to the court filing. AP reported that the eighth grader stopped eating after finding a worm in her food, at times did not received her anxiety medication and had a breakdown when a lockdown was imposed and a guard blocked her from joining her mother and sister. The government’s account of Dilley — the only federal family detention center in the nation — was starkly different.

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From Colorado to Texas: How strategy, legislation and training aim to tackle classroom violence

From a teacher shot by a 6-year-old in Virginia to an assistant principal in North Texas who lost her eye, violence in classrooms is forcing schools and lawmakers to confront a difficult question: what actually works to keep educators safe? KSAT Investigates has spent the last two years looking for answers — examining what other states are doing, pressing Texas lawmakers and tracking efforts closer to home aimed at preventing injuries and supporting teachers. In Colorado, a statewide survey released in 2024 revealed more than half of teachers who responded said they had been physically hurt by a student — a number that surprised even those tasked with improving school safety.

“I was shocked,” said Christine Harms, director of the Colorado Office of School Safety. “Not only because of how many teachers have suffered this, but how many times this happens in elementary schools.” That data led to the creation of a state task force focused on solutions. The group developed what it calls a “roadmap for action,” which includes increasing staff training, improving school culture and investing more funding — something leaders there believe could have the greatest impact. Harms said one of the most important steps other states can take is gathering better data. “Doing a survey like that in Texas would probably be really helpful,” she said, “not only with educators, but also with parents, because we need their cooperation as well.” In Texas, lawmakers acknowledge the issue — but differ on how to address it. “I don’t know that there is an easy, clear-cut answer,” said State Sen. Donna Campbell. State Rep. Diego Bernal said more needs to be done. “I think the state could do more. It’s not doing enough,” he said.

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Texas schools should remove references to Cesar Chavez from curriculum, TEA says

The Texas Education Agency said Monday that students are no longer required to learn about Cesar Chavez in light of recent allegations that he sexually abused women and girls. Several districts, including Austin ISD and Houston ISD, have already cancelled or renamed days celebrating Chavez planned for the end of March. But the labor rights leader is also found in Texas’ statewide standards for social studies in at least two grades and could be part of questions found on the STAAR exam. That requirement will now be waived, TEA said, because of a state law that says teachers cannot be compelled to discuss controversial current issues.

“School systems in Texas should eliminate, modify and otherwise alter any learning activities, individual lessons, and ancillary materials to remove references to Chavez,” the agency wrote in a letter to school districts. The move comes after Gov. Greg Abbott last week said the state would no longer observe Cesar Chavez Day and several cities have canceled celebrations in his honor. For over a decade, fifth graders have been required to identify Chavez’ accomplishments and contributions to the labor rights movement, among other civil rights leaders. High school United States history classes have included references to Chavez as well as Dolores Huerta, another labor rights leader who was among the women who said Chavez abused her. The allegations were first reported in a New York Times investigation last week. The agency also said it expected the state’s ongoing revision of the social studies standards to further remove references to Chavez. Those standards are currently being reviewed by the State Board of Education and are likely to go into effect in 2030.

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How the FIFA World Cup is reshaping North Texas

The 1994 FIFA World Cup in Dallas, and across the United States, did more than introduce a global tournament to an emerging soccer market. It reset the trajectory of the United States’ sports economy, accelerating pro leagues, stadium development, media intrigue, and the commercial viability of the game on American soil. Now, after more than a decade of planning, the FIFA World Cup will finally return this summer to DFW. It will be the largest tournament in the competition’s history, but its influence is already being felt. Hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investment, venue modernization, transportation upgrades, and private development have begun reshaping North Texas. What is unfolding is not merely a series of matches. It is the foundation of a permanent soccer economy. The 1994 World Cup marked a turning point for American soccer.

DFW—plus Lamar Hunt and family—stood at the center of that launch. The Dallas Burn were formed as a founding club, and Hunt emerged as one of the league’s most influential architects, underwriting both its vision and its survival in its most fragile years. What began as a 10-team experiment in 1996 has since matured into a continental enterprise. Three decades later, MLS now spans 30 clubs across the U.S. and Canada, with expansion fees reaching $500 million and valuations soaring north of $1.2 billion for elite franchises. The Dallas Burn, now FC Dallas, became more than a founding MLS franchise. Over three decades, the club, now run by Lamar’s sons Clark Hunt and Dan Hunt, helped cultivate a regional soccer ecosystem that extends well beyond the top flight, laying the infrastructure for youth development, professional pathways, training facilities, and community-anchored clubs that now stretch across the region. It is in these lower tiers of the pro pyramid that a city truly becomes a soccer city—where neighborhoods adopt colors, where fan groups form identities, and where investors place long-term bets not on TV contracts, but on civic belonging. London, one of the great cradles of the global game, supports roughly 17 men’s professional clubs across a metropolitan population of about 15 million, along with nearly as many women’s teams. DFW, with roughly half the population and a far more crowded sports marketplace, may never reach that level of saturation. But that has not deterred local club owners from trying.

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National Stories

Volume in stock and oil futures surged minutes before Trump's market-turning post

S&P 500 futures and oil futures flashed an unusual burst of activity early Monday minutes before a market-moving social media post from President Donald Trump. At around 6:50 a.m. in New York, S&P 500 e-Mini futures trading on the CME recorded a sharp and isolated jump in volume, breaking from an otherwise subdued premarket backdrop. With thin liquidity typical of early trading hours, the sudden burst stood out as one of the largest volume moments of the session up to that point. A similar pattern was observed in oil markets. West Texas Intermediate May futures also saw a noticeable pickup in trading activity at roughly the same time, with a distinct volume spike interrupting otherwise quiet conditions.

Roughly 15 minutes later, at 7:05 a.m., Trump said on Truth Social that the U.S. and Iran had held talks and that he was halting planned strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure. That announcement prompted an instant rally in risk assets, with S&P 500 futures soaring more than 2.5% before the opening bell. West Texas Intermediate futures dropped nearly 6% following the announcement. The timing of the earlier volume spikes across both equities and crude caught the attention of traders, particularly given the absence of an obvious catalyst at the moment they occurred. Early-morning futures markets are typically less liquid, which can make short bursts of buying and selling more noticeable than during regular trading hours. Still, the trades raised some eyebrows because whoever purchased a large amount of stock futures and sold or shorted crude futures at that moment made a lot of money just minutes later. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the CME Group declined to comment. Algorithmic and macro-driven strategies can also generate rapid flows across asset classes without a single identifiable catalyst in early trading.

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Senate confirms Markwayne Mullin as DHS Secretary

The Senate on Monday voted to confirm Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma as the new head of the Department of Homeland Security, after he pitched himself as a change from Kristi Noem’s leadership style. Mullin was confirmed 54-45, with Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico voting along with most Republicans to confirm Mullin. The Trump administration is hoping that the new face of the embroiled department will make inroads with Democrats amid ongoing shutdown negotiations. In his confirmation process, Mullin tried to address Democrats’ concerns over the department’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement, attempting to strike a softer tone than his predecessor.

In his hearing, Mullin said he regretted his statements in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by immigration agents in Minnesota earlier this year, in which Mullin called Pretti a “deranged individual.” Mullin also said that with him in charge, immigration officers would largely not enter homes without a judicial warrant. He said he would get rid of a Noem policy where any spending of $100,000 or more required secretary sign-off, which delayed disaster aid,something that many senators had been asking for. Following the vote, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told NOTUS she hoped Mullin would prioritize the FEMA grants that had been delayed under Noem. “I’d like to see him help unlock some of the funding resources that have been held up in the FEMA sector,” Murkowski said. “We’ve already talked about it, and I just had an opportunity to congratulate him and tell him that I know he’s going to put 110% of himself into this and I wished him well.” Mullin also pledged to be more responsive than his predecessor, an issue that many lawmakers had complained about. The new DHS secretary will step into his role at a department that has been shut down for more than a month over Democrats’ demands that more guardrails be placed on federal immigration agents. Mullin has not been far from the negotiations — he had been working on a DHS funding deal with Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey for weeks before his appointment to lead the department, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

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Inside the path to funding DHS

For the first time in more than a month, there’s optimism that the Senate and the White House can finally find a path to reopening the Department of Homeland Security. Key Senate Republicans returned from the White House late Monday with a noticeably upbeat demeanor over the state of the talks with President Donald Trump, who had just rebuffed a GOP-backed off-ramp. The framework under discussion would fund all of DHS except for ICE’s migrant removal operations, and could eventually include some reforms that Democrats have been demanding. Republicans would then try to fund the rest of ICE via a party-line reconciliation bill. GOP leaders would also try to use reconciliation to enact elements of the SAVE America Act, which mandates photo IDs and citizenship verification for federal elections. Trump has called this bill his top legislative priority.

This framework is similar to the outlines of an agreement that Senate Majority Leader John Thune discussed with Trump on Sunday — a strategy that the president rejected. Trump has insisted on tying the SAVE America Act to DHS funding, complicating matters even further. Thune said this was “not realistic.” It’s too early to say whether this DHS framework will satisfy Senate Democrats. There are several key details that still need to be ironed out. But many Democrats pointed to what they see as a sense of urgency to get something done, especially as nightmarish TSA security lines cause chaos for millions of air travellers. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), a key negotiator who attended the White House meeting with Trump, said she planned to be “working through the night” to try to “land this plane.” We’re told that appropriators are actively discussing a path forward and were exchanging legislative text last night. Another important dynamic: Senators are eager to leave Washington at the end of the week for the scheduled two-week recess, especially after being forced to stay in town all weekend. And Democrats have long been pushing to fund non-ICE portions of DHS, such as TSA, the Coast Guard and FEMA. “This is significant movement,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said of the potential off-ramp. “We have a dispute about ICE practices. We don’t have a dispute about funding TSA. We don’t have a dispute about funding the Coast Guard or FEMA.”

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RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz have a plan to save rural health care. Here’s the catch.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team want to Make Rural America Healthy again. He has suggested that AI nurses could save dying rural hospitals. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said robots could give ultrasounds to women and touted how AI avatars could help. And President Donald Trump’s administration is infusing $50 billion over five years to improve rural health, with some states proposing to use the money for drones to deliver lab samples or prescriptions. The rural health care industry has long faced tight budgets, doctor shortages and challenges reaching patients in remote areas. But even as Trump officials pitch advanced technology to close these clinical gaps,rural health providers are worried that much of it is being oversold.

And the one-time $50 billion injection the administration has promised for innovation, they argue, won’t make up for theestimated $137 billion in Medicaid dollars rural areas are expected to lose over the next decade due to cuts from what Trump called the “big, beautiful bill,” according to an analysis by health policy research and news organization KFF. The challenges are daunting, said George Pink, a senior research fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nearly 200 rural hospitals have closed or converted into facilities with fewer services in the last 20 years, as patients have became more likely to be uninsured or rely on Medicare and Medicaid, which have lower reimbursement rates than private insurance. But rural providers are also happy to see money invested into confronting the challenges they face to operate, experts said. “There’s a healthy amount of skepticism and caution,” Pink said of the CMS infusion, noting also “there’s optimism that the money will be helpful in transitioning, or in helping rural hospitals meet the challenges that they’re going to be facing over the next few years.” In a statement, CMS vowed that the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation fund would close access gaps.

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The Trump-inspired realignment of the conservative think tank world

President Donald Trump has reshaped nearly everything about Washington– including the groups clamoring to influence policy. Three new groups – the America First Policy Institute, American Compass and Advancing American Freedom – have formed since 2020, seeing an opening to create a home for their type of conservative policy that didn’t exist with the GOP old guard, like the Heritage Foundation. The battle for lasting influence is on, and who ends up on top in this new realignment of conservative think tanks will not only determine who is most influential in Trump’s second term but could also mold the shape of conservative policy in the post-Trump era. The three new groups are working to drive policy in the future by building on Trump’s brand, expanding on what Trump has built, or looking to counter the direction the GOP is moving in.

“The modern American conservative movement is— in terms of the political ecosystem— not as old or as mature as the modern American liberal movement, going all the way back to Woodrow Wilson,” Heritage President Kevin Roberts said. It is “the natural order of things, you would see additional organizations come into the fold as there is this political realignment personified and led by Donald Trump.” Some trace the origins of the three groups and the resulting policy realignment back to 2017, when the GOP failure to repeal Obamacare exposed the fractures in Washington’s conservative policy circles. The White House organized dinners with various think tanks following the failed effort, said Marc Short, Trump’s first director of legislative affairs and chairman of AAF’s board. “If you remember, there were parts of the Freedom Caucus that labeled the repeal effort ‘Obamacare lite,’” Short said, recounting the way Republicans were not able to come together on whether – or how – to replace the Affordable Care Act. “So we began organizing these dinners with the president and many members of the conservative movement.”

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Job losses, falling ratings, consolidation: What's behind the decline in local TV news

Ellina Abovian, a veteran correspondent for KTLA-TV, was recently on assignment covering a story about Los Angeles International Airport when she received a message that every media business professional dreads. She was asked to see her boss at the station when she was done. At the meeting, she was told she would be losing her job after 11 years. "I was totally blindsided," said Abovian, 40. "There was no indication." The Glendale native was among several longtime KTLA personalities who were laid off amid a wave of cuts at outlets owned by Nexstar Media Group in Los Angeles and other cities. They included midday anchors Glen Walker and Lu Parker along with veteran meteorologist Mark Kriski, who first joined the station in 1991.

The layoffs prompted an outpouring of support for the journalists among Los Angeles TV viewers, who saw them as friends and neighbors. Abovian said she received more than 20,000 messages of support. “I had no idea that people felt so strongly," Abovian said in an interview. "For people to say, 'I loved hearing your voice,' and remember all these little moments. ... It's sad because you have these people in your living room every day.” Once the primary source of community news and information, local TV news stations are struggling with their own tough story, one marked by declining ratings, stagnant revenue growth and rapid shifts in how media is consumed in the internet era. Broadcast TV stations have long had the highest profit margins in the media business. But the financial model that sustained that growth has steadily eroded in recent years. Streaming — which now accounts for more than 40% of all viewing — has pulled consumers away from traditional TV, putting pressure on outlets to control costs so they can remain financially viable. More than 2,000 TV stations nationwide still provide a vital role in communities, delivering as much as 12 hours a day in programming, live sports and local news to every household in the U.S. But they are now faced with an aging audience that isn't being replaced by younger viewers who prefer streaming platforms and social media.

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Democrats grow wary of AIPAC’s role in elections

A growing number of Democrats who were once supportive of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) are condemning the political powerhouse as the pro-Israel group and its affiliates have turned increasingly divisive in elections. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), once a donor to AIPAC who is Jewish, condemned the group after Tuesday’s primary elections, saying it “really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of.” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who’s enjoyed support from Jewish groups, including AIPAC, also said last week he would reject spending from the pro-Israel group moving forward. The rebukes reflect some Democrats’ increased frustrations as AIPAC-aligned groups have waded into competitive elections and as popular opinion on the political powerhouse and Israel, writ large, has rapidly declined.

“I have no doubt that if I would run for reelection, they’d oppose me,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told The Hill. “I don’t know what’s happened to that organization.” Outside spending flooded a handful of Illinois congressional races for the March 17 primary, with several industry and lobbying interests pouring in money to tip the scales of safely Democratic House seats. Three groups, two of which were bolstered by contributions from a super PAC linked to AIPAC, spent heavily to boost four candidates in the Prairie State, with two of their four preferred candidates winning their primaries. The third group, reportedly tied to the pro-Israel group, has not yet filed its campaign finance filing. But allies of these groups posit that the real mark of success on primary night was to make sure that no “squad” members won their elections in Illinois. They say, too, that they want the most pro-Israel candidates in Congress.

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Iran pours missiles into Israel and mocks Trump's talk of joint control of strait

Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said there had been "very good and productive" talks aiming at halting the conflict raging across the Middle East. Three senior Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump appeared ?determined to reach a deal, but that they thought it highly unlikely that Iran would agree to U.S. demands in any new round of negotiations. After Trump's Truth Social comment on Monday, Iran ?said no talks had yet been held. Iran's embassy in South Africa posted an image on X showing a child's pink steering wheel placed on a car dashboard in front of the passenger seat, apparently mocking Trump's idea, aired to reporters, that he could control ?the Strait of Hormuz alongside Iran's supreme leader.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke to Trump less than 48 hours before their countries began the war, was expected to convene a meeting of security officials for talks on Trump's bid for a deal with Iran, two senior Israeli officials said. A Pakistani official has said direct talks may be held in Islamabad this week. The U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28 after saying they had failed to make enough headway in talks aimed at ending Iran's nuclear program, even though mediator Oman said significant progress had been made. The crisis has escalated across the Middle East. Iran has attacked countries that host U.S. bases, struck ?key energy infrastructure and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for a ?fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas. On Tuesday, Iranian missiles triggered air raid sirens in Israel's biggest city, Tel Aviv, where gaping holes were torn through a multi-storey apartment building. It was not immediately clear if the damage had been caused by a direct hit or debris from an ?interception.

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Lead Stories

At least one winner emerges from Iran war: U.S. natural gas exporters

U.S. gas exporters are emerging as among the biggest beneficiaries of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, as governments in Asia scramble for alternatives to Middle Eastern fuel. Asia, more reliant than other regions on fuel that passes through the Strait of Hormuz, is staggering from Iran’s effective closure of the key chokepoint and from Iranian strikes on gas facilities in the Persian Gulf, in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli attacks. Demand here is surging for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, much to the approval of the Trump administration, which is seizing on shortages to push U.S. gas sales even as it demands that other governments step in to open the strait. “We need to sell energy to our friends and allies so they don’t have to buy from adversaries, so they don’t have to be dependent on sources of energy that can be controlled,” U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said last week in Tokyo, where he announced $57 billion in energy deals with providers in Asia. “This has been part of President Trump’s energy dominance policy since Day 1.”

The turbulence in energy markets is just one aspect of rising global anxiety over the political and economic instability resulting from the continuing war. Stock markets in Asia fell sharply on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei closing down 3.5 percent and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index finishing 6.5 percent lower. Though the tech manufacturing hubs of Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have spent years trying to lower their reliance on Middle East gas, U.S. LNG had often been considered too pricey and shipped from too far-off to be a viable alternative. That began to change last year when Trump pressed these governments, threatening them with tariffs, to lower trade deficits with the U.S. With the damaging of Qatari gas infrastructure, the shift is set to accelerate. Because near-term U.S. gas export capacity is limited, however, these cargoes have come at a premium, promising a windfall for gas companies like Cheniere and Venture Global, which have seen their stock prices soar. Executives at both companies have made major donations in support of Trump. Cheniere rejected a request for comment. Venture Global did not respond. “High prices for security purposes — we have to take this,” Kuan-ting Chen, chair of the Taiwan legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, said in an interview Thursday.

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Texas and Louisiana face financial, regulatory barriers in scaling up carbon capture and storage

Texas and Louisiana are both primed for a vast carbon capture and storage network, but regulatory and financial challenges in the states could slow down development along the Gulf Coast. When Louisiana achieved regulatory authority over Class VI carbon dioxide injection wells, which are otherwise regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, the state was already far surpassing Texas in permit applications. But after the state received too many applications, Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order in October putting a pause on all new Class VI well permit applications as the state worked to keep up.

“The executive order urges the department to focus on prioritizing the over 30 permits that have already been filed,” Meghan Thacker, vice president of federal and state affairs at the Consumer Energy Alliance and former Capitol Hill staffer, told the Houston Business Journal. “(For) each permit, I think the executive order states that it takes over 2,000 hours to review and so in order to be efficient, he wanted to make sure that all of these applications were done in the right way and in the most thorough way possible.” Although Texas had fallen behind Louisiana in its pace of applications, Southeast Texas has all of the things a CCS network needs: good geology, carbon dioxide pipeline infrastructure, and facilities emitting the carbon dioxide that can be captured. “We have the concentrated industrial market in both states, so we're able to capture really pure, concentrated forms, streams of CO2 at these facilities. And then we have the geology that is really looked at as some of the best in the world for storing CO2. So we are able to capture from the industrial facilities, we're able to transport it through our existing system, and then we have really good storage opportunities onshore and near shore in Texas and Louisiana,” Scott Castleman, a representative of the Gulf Coast CCS Alliance, told the HBJ. Texas has since received its own primacy over Class VI wells, and the state could learn from Louisiana’s troubles as it moves forward with its applications.

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Trump's changing course on Strait of Hormuz strategy raises questions about US war preparation

At war with Iran, President Donald Trump is cycling through an increasingly desperate list of options as he searches for a solution to the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. He has jumped from calls to secure the waterway through diplomatic means to lifting sanctions and now escalating to a direct threat against civilian infrastructure in the Islamic Republic. Trump and his allies insist they were always prepared for Iran to block the strait, yet the Republican president’s erratic strategy has fueled criticism that he is grasping for answers after going to war without a clear exit plan. On Saturday came his latest attempt, via an ultimatum to Iran: Open the strait within 48 hours or the United States will “obliterate” the country’s power plants.

Trump’s aides defended the threat as a hard-edged tactic to press Iran into submission. Opponents framed it as the failure of a president who miscalculated what it would take to get out of a geopolitical mire. “Trump has no plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, so he is threatening to attack Iran’s civil power plants,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass, adding: “This would be a war crime.” Related Stories Trump's mixed messages on Iran: 'Winding down' the war and easing sanctions but adding more troops Trump says that he's asked 'about 7' countries to join coalition to police Iran's Strait of Hormuz Trump side-stepped diplomacy on his way to war in Iran. Now, he's asking China and others for help “He’s lost control of the war and he is panicking,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., responding to Trump’s post. Over the course of about a week, Trump has repeatedly shifted his approach on the crucial waterway for global oil and gas transport. There is growing urgency for Trump as soaring oil prices rattle global markets and pinch American consumers months before pivotal midterm elections.

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Growing frustration with Chuck Schumer spurs talk of replacing him

Sen. Chris Murphy was dining with progressive activists at a French restaurant in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood when the conversation about how to advance their legislative priorities turned to a thorny question: what to do about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. To the surprise of some attendees, the Connecticut Democrat—a rising star in the party’s left flank—responded that some lawmakers had been doing informal counts to see whether enough votes existed to remove the New York Democrat from his leadership position, according to people familiar with the mid-February dinner. Murphy explained that Schumer had enough backing to remain as leader. But the disclosure stood out nonetheless, because it revealed that frustration inside the Senate had reached a high enough level that some Democrats were actively contemplating how to oust Schumer. Murphy is among a group of senators and top advisers who have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Schumer’s leadership, according to people familiar with the conversations.

That group includes Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has been initiating conversations with other senators to gauge frustrations with Schumer, some of the people said. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota has also been active in discussions about her frustrations with Schumer, and her advisers have spoken with other Senate staff about different scenarios to challenge Schumer’s leadership, other people said. In an interview, Murphy said he is frequently asked about Senate leadership, but he doesn’t have a count of who would vote to remove Schumer and doesn’t recall mentioning one. “Could someone infer from that that someone was keeping a count? Maybe, but that’s not what I meant,” Murphy said. “I meant that he has the support of the caucus.” He said he still supports Schumer. In more than four dozen interviews with Democratic senators, candidates, current and former congressional aides, activists and advisers, many said the concern about Schumer’s leadership was widespread. Meetings between Democratic chiefs of staff on Senate business often veer into airing discontent with Schumer and how to pressure him to step aside as leader after November’s elections, according to attendees and others familiar with the discussions. Murphy, Warren and Smith are part of a batch of senators dubbed “Fight Club” who are particularly incensed by Schumer’s approach to the midterms. This group of progressives believes that Schumer favors centrist candidates in some key races and is disregarding the enthusiasm a new crop of outsiders is stoking. The senators maintain a Fight Club chat on Signal where they have discussed how to counter Schumer’s preferred candidates, according to people familiar with the conversations. The existence of the group was reported earlier by the New York Times.

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State Stories

Houston airports see highest TSA callout rates in the nation, straining security lines

Travelers at Houston airports are facing significant delays as staffing shortages among TSA officers persist amid the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, federal officials said. New data released by the Department of Homeland Security shows absenteeism among Transportation Security Administration officers has surged nationwide, with callout rates topping 11.5% on Friday, March 21 — the highest recorded during the shutdown. In Houston, the numbers were even more severe. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), 42.4% of TSA officers reportedly called out, while at William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), that figure climbed to 47.4%, among the highest rates in the country.

Federal officials say the staffing shortages are contributing to long security lines and extended wait times for travelers, particularly during the busy spring break travel period. According to DHS, TSA officers have now gone without pay for the third time in six months, creating financial strain that is impacting attendance. “Many TSA officers cannot pay their rent, buy food, or afford to put gas in their cars — forcing them to call out sick from work,” the agency said in a statement. Over the past week, TSA callout rates have remained above 9% nationwide, with more than half of those days exceeding 10%, officials said.

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A 20-million-year old water supply may help save Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi is turning to water that has been trapped deep underground for hundreds of millions of years as the region struggles through worsening drought. With lakes dropping and the water supply tightening, the City of Corpus Christi has started pumping about 4.5 million gallons of groundwater a day into the Nueces River from its newly activated western well field. The water then flows downstream to the O.N. Stevens Water Treatment Plant. State officials allowed the move under emergency permits approved by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. City leaders say the project could eventually deliver much more water if conditions continue to worsen.

Water officials recently took 3 News' Michael Gibson to the dusty site where the groundwater is being pumped hundreds of feet from underground formations. The wells were built to reach deep layers of the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers. Nick Winkelmann, the chief operating officer for Corpus Christi Water, said the wells target groundwater that sits far below the shallow aquifers that are typically replenished by rainfall. Each well reaches an average depth of about 515 feet. City Manager Peter Zanoni said hydrogeologists believe the water being tapped has been trapped in that geologic layer for extremely long periods of time. According to Zanoni, the water has likely been sitting in those formations for hundreds of millions of years, meaning it does not recharge quickly like shallow groundwater.

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Suspected meteorite crashes into Houston woman's home amid citywide reports of 'boom'

Following reports of a loud "boom" and houses shaking the Houston area on Saturday, a woman says a potential piece of the answer may have been what crashed through her roof. Social media was buzzing with questions about a noise sounding like thunder or an explosion shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday. The Brenham Fire Department said they responded to reports of a possible explosion, but they did not find proof that one happened. Some speculated whether the noise came from a meteor or a sonic boom. As the questions continued, a woman contacted FOX 26 claiming a meteorite crashed through her roof. Sherrie James says she contacted the Ponderosa Fire Department for help. Fire Captain Tyler Ellingham confirmed that he responded to James' call. The captain's team found what they say is an unusual rock. Since there was no construction or trees nearby, the fire department believes the rock is a part of the alleged meteor that was heard around Houston.

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Paxton's lawsuit over Bexar County immigration program dismissed

A Bexar County judge on Friday dismissed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit challenging the county’s immigration legal services program, bringing an end to weeks of legal battles before any court could hear the merits of the case. In Bexar County’s presiding court, 408th Civil District Court Judge Angelica Jimenez granted the county’s motion to dismiss filed earlier this week, ruling the case is moot after the remaining funds tied to the program were already distributed. In a filing to the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday, the state acknowledged that outcome, saying because the payments had been distributed the courts could no longer grant the relief originally requested. In legal terms, a “moot” case means there is no longer an active dispute for a court to resolve and any ruling would have no real-world effect.

The lawsuit, filed in early February, targeted more than $556,000 in county funding for legal representation for low-income residents facing deportation proceedings. The program contracts with the nonprofit American Gateways to provide those services. From the start, the case centered on timing, with the lawsuit filed less than 30 days before the contract was set to expire and its first district court hearing coming just eight days before that deadline. Attorneys for the state repeatedly argued courts needed to intervene to temporarily block the remaining funds from being released, warning that once the final payment was made, there would be “nothing left to enjoin” and the case would effectively be over. Despite multiple attempts, the state was unable to secure emergency orders blocking the payment. The 15th Court of Appeals declined to stop the funding, and a subsequent request to the Texas Supreme Court was filed but not ruled on before the case was dismissed. “The Court no longer has subject-matter jurisdiction over the dispute,” a spokesperson for the county’s civil division said in a statement following the motion to dismiss. “There is no longer a live controversy between the parties.”

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How the Prairieland 'Antifa' verdict threatens the anti-Trump resistance

Late last week, federal prosecutors notched a victory in an unprecedented and controversial trial that sought to tie alleged members of “Antifa,” a decentralized anti-fascist movement, to domestic terrorism. A Tarrant County jury returned a mixed verdict for nine defendants, who were accused of a variety of crimes stemming from a July 4 “noise demonstration” outside the Prairieland immigrant detention center in Alvarado and the nonfatal shooting there of a police officer. Prosecutors argued the defendants constituted a “North Texas Antifa cell” that shared anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and anti-government beliefs—and that all nine played a role in the shooting that occurred, despite several government witnesses, who took plea deals, testifying at trial that they were surprised when the protest turned violent and that they and the other defendants did not belong to the purported Antifa group. The defendants said the protest, which involved setting off fireworks and acts of vandalism, was intended to show solidarity with migrants in detention at Prairieland.

Benjamin Song, Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Autumn Hill, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto were convicted on felony charges of providing material support to terrorists, rioting, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and use and carry of an explosive (the aforementioned fireworks). Daniel Sanchez Estrada was convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record, and along with his wife, Rueda, was also convicted of conspiracy to conceal documents. Song, the alleged shooter, was also convicted on one count of attempted murder and other gun charges, while Hill, Evetts, Morris and Rueda were acquitted of the attempted murder and discharging a firearm charges. “I think this is the worst-case-scenario verdict,” said Luis, a member of the DFW Support Committee, a group working to support the Prairieland defendants, who requested that the Texas Observer use only his first name for fear of reprisal. Even had the shooting never occurred, Luis said, the verdict suggests the jury would have convicted the defendants anyway for actions that are common to many protests. The case represents the federal government’s first use of material support for terrorism charges against alleged Antifa members. Experts say the outcome will give the Trump administration the green light to take a more aggressive stance against left-wing activity and further politicize the use of domestic terrorism laws.

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Annise Parker denies backing City Council candidate who used her image in mailer

Former Mayor Annise Parker clarified Thursday that she has not made an endorsement in the ongoing District C Houston City Council race after candidate Nick Hellyar’s campaign sent out a mailer with her picture on it. Parker wrote on X Thursday afternoon that she had received calls about a Hellyar campaign text message and a mailer that she “did not authorize” and of which she “had no advance notice.” The mailer in question shows seven photos of current or former elected officials and community leaders who have endorsed Hellyar on one side, with their names listed. On the other side is a photo of Hellyar and Parker standing side by side, without Parker’s name listed.

Beside the photo is a block of text that reads, “We need a fighter on City Council! As a member of the community, Nick Hellyar has fought for LGBTQ+ rights his whole life. District C, home of Houston’s largest LGBTQ+ community, has never been represented on City Council by one of their own.” Parker’s post said the mailer and text included a quote of hers from a previous Hellyar campaign, but none of the statements on the mailer are attributed to an individual. Asked to clarify, Parker said she had “nothing else to say about the issue.” Hellyar said he has made clear on the campaign trail that Parker is not endorsing him whenever the topic comes up, and denied using a Parker quote in his campaign materials. “She is the head LGBT leader in the region and having a picture with someone that leads a movement is very common,” Hellyar wrote in a text. Early voting in the April 4 special election is underway and runs through March 31 in Montrose, Meyerland, the Heights, Oak Forest and other neighborhoods. Outgoing District C council member Abbie Kamin resigned to run for Harris County Attorney. Parker, too, is seeking county office. She will compete in next month’s Democratic runoff for County Judge.

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Budget cuts at SAISD could cut food drives, slow maintenance and freeze police hires

Planning for a budget reduction for the fifth year in a row, top leaders at San Antonio Independent School District laid out their proposals for budget cuts this week. Overall, district leaders identified $19.3 million in budget reductions, including 224 positions, most of which are already vacant positions, though roughly a quarter of the positions are filled and those could be subject to layoffs. While the proposals could reduce SAISD’s budget deficit — about $45.9 million — by half, it would mean the loss of programs, slower response times for customer service calls and maintenance requests and even larger student-teacher ratios. “This is not a new challenge,” said Superintendent Jaime Aquino, who’s set to retire in January of next year. Within the past four years, SAISD has reduced its budget by $46 million; this included the elimination of 352 positions.

The budget cuts proposed on Monday would go into effect for the 2026-27 school year. While looking for ways to cut the budget, Aquino said the district focused on eliminating positions not directly tied to student outcomes, trying to minimized disruptiveness, reducing contracted services and redirecting resources to the district’s academically struggling schools. Every SAISD department head identified potential cuts for the next school year. SAISD’s Police Department could have one the largest percentage in budget reductions by about 17.4%, cutting its current $6.1 million budget by about $1.07 million. The department would eliminate 15 vacant positions that were budgeted for a couple of years ago but were never filled. SAISD Police Chief Johnny Reyes said the cuts would “streamline command structure, allowing for a more robust focus on community-based policing and incident prevention.” Cutting positions in other departments, vacant or filled, would also mean longer wait times for technology repairs, IT service tickets and maintenance requests. District leaders also proposed a slimmed down custodial department, potentially cutting 58 — 35 filled and 23 vacant— district-wide custodial positions and two campus-based custodians. Doing so would move the district’s cleanliness standards to the minimum required for most schools.

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Houston suburb makes bold bet to become Texas' next Silicon Valley

Sugar Land isn't just building more homes—it's now trying to build the companies that fill them. The city recently launched the "Sugar Land Starts Innovation Fund," a new incentive program aimed at attracting startups as part of a broader push to turn the fast-growing suburb into more than just a place where people live. The fund offers performance-based incentives to companies that commit to bringing jobs and long-term investment to Sugar Land, targeting industries like life sciences, technology and advanced manufacturing, according to the city's announcement. "By focusing on revenue-generating startups and performance-based incentives, we are creating a clear pathway for innovative companies to scale while reenergizing existing office space," Colby Millenbruch, Sugar Land's business recruitment manager, said in a statement.

To qualify, startups must already be generating revenue or have significant financial backing. Their average salaries also must be at least $61,000, and the company must agree to relocate employees to Sugar Land for at least three years. The move reflects a broader shift taking shape across the Houston region. Suburbs like Sugar Land aren't just growing residentially—they're trying to become job centers in their own right. For years, Sugar Land has been known as one of the Houston area's more affluent suburbs, built around master-planned communities and corporate campuses. Now, city leaders are trying to expand that model by attracting companies that allow residents to live and work in the same place. That push comes as the Greater Houston Area continues to expand. As Chron previously reported, suburban areas like Sugar Land, Katy and Cypress have seen steady development as buyers search for more space, even amid affordability pressures.

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Stars officially clinch fifth straight trip to Stanley Cup playoffs

For the fifth consecutive season, the Dallas Stars are heading to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Dallas officially clinched its spot on Sunday night with the Utah Mammoth beating the Los Angeles Kings in overtime. The Stars are the second team in the NHL to land a playoff spot, joining their Central Division rival Colorado Avalanche. Dallas had a chance to seal their berth with a point earlier on Sunday against the Vegas Golden Knights but lost 3-2 in regulation, necessitating some help from Utah to clinch.

Sealing their playoff spot is the latest accomplishment for a Stars team that has been among the best teams in the entire NHL all season. In their first season under Glen Gulutzan, the Stars have maintained the level of regular season success they had under Pete DeBoer. The only playoff mystery left for the Stars to solve over the final few weeks of the regular season is their seeding. If Dallas fails to catch Colorado in the Central Division standings, it likely will face Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs. Tracking down the Avalanche in the standings could give Dallas home ice advantage throughout the playoffs, given the fact Dallas and Colorado currently have the two best point totals in the sport. The Stars, who have 97 points with 12 games remaining, will also have a chance over the final weeks of the regular season to set a new franchise points record. That record is owned by the same team that won the franchise’s only Stanley Cup, as the 1998-99 Stars went 51-19-12 with 114 points.

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Will The Woodlands get free underground tunnels? We'll find out Monday

Will The Woodlands get an unground tunnel, courtesy of Elon Musk’s company? We should find out Monday. That’s when a winner will be announced in the “Tunnel Vision Challenge” -- a competition for underground transportation funded by Musk’s The Boring Company. The Woodlands is one of 16 finalists to get the tunnels free of charge. That's out of 487 entries. The winner will be announced from this list of finalists, which was released March 3. The list includes five Texas projects.

The Woodlands’ proposal -- backed by the township’s board -- calls for two parallel 12-foot-diameter tunnels connecting major destinations using electric vehicles. Proposed stops include Waterway Square, The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and Town Green Park, with potential expansion to Hughes Landing. Officials say the goal is to provide a zero-emission transportation option to improve mobility during peak periods and major events. If selected, The Boring Company would pay for tunnel construction, with additional infrastructure costs to be negotiated. Final details -- including tunnel depth and scope -- would come later. So, how deep would these tunnels be? Chris Nunes, chief operating officer for The Woodlands Township, said that'll be determined if The Woodlands’ proposal is selected. Next steps then would be the team going back to the board with proposed agreements, a permitting strategy, scope of the project, and any funding needed.

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A Texas reckoning over César Chávez's legacy after abuse allegations

In Texas, César Chávez has long been remembered as a towering figure in the fight for farmworker rights, a labor leader whose organizing helped reshape working conditions for some of the country's most vulnerable workers, including thousands in the Lone Star State. Now, that legacy is being fundamentally reexamined. The shift follows reporting by The New York Times that outlined years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse tied to Chávez, including claims that he engaged in sexual misconduct with women and girls connected to the farmworker movement during the 1960s and 70s. That reckoning is already having broad effects across Texas — and the response has been swift.

On Wednesday afternoon, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he directed state agency heads to stop observing César Chávez Day and plans to work with lawmakers to remove the March 31 holiday from state law during the next legislative session. In a social media post, Abbott also said the allegations "dismantle the myth" of Chávez as a figure worthy of official state recognition. This came just hours after organizers in cities including Houston, San Antonio and Austin called off long-running César Chávez Day marches and events, many of which have drawn thousands of attendees in past years. In South Texas, leaders with La Unión del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, said they wouldn't participate in any Chávez-related events this year, calling the allegations "shocking and disturbing." In a statement, the organization, which represents more than 8,000 farmworkers in the Rio Grande Valley, called the allegations "indefensible" and said LUPE is working with other groups to create a confidential, independent process for people who say they were harmed to come forward and potentially seek accountability or reparations.

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National Stories

Why Iran does not appear ready to give in, despite heavy losses

As the war in Iran enters its fourth week, with U.S. operations increasingly focused on global energy flows, Tehran is rebuffing efforts to identify a diplomatic off-ramp from the war launched by the United States and Israel, according to officials in the region. Instead, Tehran is escalating attacks on its neighbors, betting it can ratchet up global economic pain faster than the Trump administration can relieve it with military force, according to an Iranian diplomat, two European diplomats stationed in the region and a senior Arab official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media on sensitive details. Iran’s unwillingness to capitulate is wrapped up in the power it exerts over the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s fuel shipments transit, that Tehran has largely closed, roiling energy markets. President Donald Trump gave Iran a 48-hour deadline on Saturday to reopen the critical waterway, threatening to “obliterate” the country’s power plants if Tehran doesn’t comply.

By partially closing the strait, Iran is seeking to “make this aggression super expensive for the aggressors,” according to the Iranian diplomat. “We are alone against the biggest military superpower of the history,” he said. Iran’s leaders see their ability to control the strait and withstand the U.S. and Israeli onslaught as a short-term victory, the Arab official and European diplomats said. But as the war expands, with Iran’s critical infrastructure increasingly threatened, the country’s leadership is also deeply concerned about their ability to recover in the long term, they said. “As long as the regime is there, they can create terror in the region, they terrorize international markets with the oil and gas prices. Yes, that’s what winning is for them,” said one of the European diplomats, who is based in the Persian Gulf. “They don’t feel any pressure to negotiate.” So far, the conflict’s economic fallout for the United States and its European allies has been “moderate,” by the diplomat’s assessment, not reaching the dire level that would increase pressure for talks on the U.S. side. However, rising energy prices are causing concern in Washington.

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Covid gave us hybrid work. The Iran War might give us a four-day week—and this time, experts say it could stick

COVID-19 gave us hybrid work. The Iran War might give us a three-day weekend. That’s because, as Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Pakistan move to a 4-day work week because of the war in Iran, experts say we’re the closest we’ve ever been to a permanent shorter workweek. It started in Asia, but now major governments around the world are once again mandating that workers stay home to save on fuel and survive an energy crisis as the war in the Middle East threatens vital oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. What began as an emergency measure in the developing world is now spreading globally. Sound familiar? We’ve been here before: The last time the world was forced to shift en masse—the pandemic—the changes we thought would be temporary became permanent. Hybrid work didn’t die when offices reopened. Instead, it reshaped how we work.

Now, with governments reaching for the same lever again, experts say something similar could happen with a four-day workweek. But it’ll come with major consequences for those who can’t take their jobs home, like drivers, baristas, window cleaners, pet sitters, and more. Although Brits and Australians are being urged to work from home, Dr. Wladislaw Rivkin, Professor in Organisational Behaviour at Trinity Business School, told Fortune that a global three-day weekend currently looks unlikely—at least not at the click of the government’s fingers. That’s because a permanent restructuring of how work is organized is a far heavier lift than an overnight shift to working from a makeshift home office. “I do not see this as a model for the U.S. and U.K., at least in the long term, because the current sharp rise in fuel costs is temporary,” Rivkin says. Professor Roberta Aguzzoli at Durham University Business School says she wouldn’t rule out the West moving to shorter workweeks to save fuel, but she argues better infrastructure should minimise that need.

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Iran threatens to 'completely' close Strait of Hormuz and hit power plants after Trump ultimatum

The United States and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region. Iran said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial to oil and other exports, would be “completely closed” immediately if the U.S. follows up on President Donald Trump’s threat to attack its power plants. Trump late Saturday set a 48-hour deadline to open the strait. Israeli leaders visited one of two southern communities near a secretive nuclear research site struck by Iranian missiles late Saturday, with scores of people wounded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “miracle” no one was killed. Netanyahu claimed Israel and the U.S. were well on their way to achieving their war goals. The aims have ranged from weakening Iran’s nuclear program, missile program and support for armed proxies to enabling the Iranian people to overthrow the theocracy.

There has been no sign of an uprising, nor of an end to the fighting that has shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors. The war, which the U.S. and Israel launched Feb. 28, has killed over 2,000 people. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike that killed a man in northern Israel, while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called Israel’s new targeting of bridges in the south “a prelude to a ground invasion.” “More weeks of fighting against Iran and Hezbollah are expected for us,” said Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin. Meanwhile, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates said early Monday their air defenses were dealing with missile and drone attacks as air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain. Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world, while claiming safe passage for vessels from countries other than its enemies. Roughly one-fifth of global oil supply passes through it, but attacks on ships have stopped nearly all tanker traffic.

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When voters worry about ‘affordability,’ many point to health care

Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat who was swept from the House in 2010, in large part because of his vote for the Affordable Care Act, is trying for a comeback this year — but far from running away from that vote more than a dozen years ago, he’s embracing it. “What’s aged politically even better than my support for the A.C.A.,” Mr. Perriello said, “was the fact that I was pushing right to the end for it to be stronger.” “When I got kicked out of office,” he added, “I kept fighting for things like Medicaid expansion in Virginia.” A Democrat embracing this issue might not seem like a novel concept; the party has been more trusted on health care for a while now, though the public hasn’t often seen it as a top issue. But in 2026, Democrats like Mr. Perriello have a new script on health care that could prove more potent. It’s affordability, not access. And polls show that when voters say that affordability is their biggest concern, for many, they’re talking about health care.

“Health care costs are out of control,” said Shawn Spencer, 48, of Greene County, Va. “I don’t have insurance, so I’m paying a boatload when I need care.” Such concerns are particularly acute for working-class white voters, such as Ms. Spencer, whom Republicans will need to win in November. The costs of health care and housing ranked nearly even as top affordability concerns for the group, in a recent New York Times/Siena University poll. Ms. Spencer voted for President Trump and considered herself more of a Republican, she said, but feels as if party leaders have not shown that they care about health care costs. “At this point I would vote for the party that can help me afford to stay healthy,” she added. In 2009, the nascent Tea Party movement urged voters to “pack the halls” as members of Congress returned home for summer recesses, and they did. Angry constituents mobbed town-hall meetings shouting, “Kill the bill!” One analysis of the Republicans’ 2010 landslide calculated that “yes” votes on the Affordable Care Act in swing districts like Mr. Perriello’s cost Democrats 25 seats, which would have been enough to hold the House. But the act cut the uninsured rate nearly in half by 2023, to 7.9 percent of Americans down from 14.4 percent in 2010, largely through an expansion of Medicaid.

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Doubts from key Republicans on surgeon general test MAHA’s political power

The nascent Make America Healthy Again movement got one of its biggest wins last spring: Casey Means was selected to be the nation’s top doctor. But more than 10 months later, the controversial surgeon general pick has yet to assume the position advising Americans on how to improve their health. Her nomination has stalled as some Republicans question her stance on vaccines, her medical credentials and her pushes against the medical establishment. Means probably cannot afford to lose the support of a single Republican on the Senate Health committee, which has yet to schedule a vote to advance her nomination to the full Senate. The panel’s chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), repeatedly pressed Means on her views on immunizations during a late February hearing — questions she largely dodged — and Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) afterward publicly said they still have questions.

Murkowski earlier this month told reporters she still has “strong reservations” about Means’s nomination. On Friday, Murkowski said she didn’t “have anything new.” The stagnation sets up a test of the political power of the MAHA movement and its champion, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Means wrote the book widely considered the bible of the MAHA movement, “Good Energy” with her brother, Calley Means, a top White House adviser on health issues. While she honed her message on the importance of healthy food — talking points that Kennedy has tried to amp up as the midterms approach — she is getting tangled in his prior controversial stances on vaccines and other aspects of the MAHA movement, which has tried to galvanize supporters to call on reticent senators. If her nomination makes it out of committee, she can only afford to lose the support of three Republicans on the floor with every Democratic senator likely to oppose her and all senators voting. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), who is not seeking reelection this year, told The Washington Post that he was leaning toward voting against her.

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Pilot and copilot killed in collision between jet and fire truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport

Two people were killed and several others badly hurt when an Air Canada regional jet struck a fire truck on a runway while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, officials said. The pilot and copilot were killed in the late Sunday night collision, which crushed the nose of the aircraft, while around 40 passengers and crew members were taken to area hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most have since been released from treatment, authorities said Monday. Two Port Authority employees who were traveling in the fire truck also suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

The pilot and copilot were both based out of Canada, Garcia said during a news conference. The airport will remain closed until at least 2 p.m. Monday to facilitate the investigation, which is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board. The fire truck was traveling across the runway to respond to a separate incident aboard a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odor,” said Garcia, who deferred additional questions about the sequence of events leading up to the crash to the NTSB. There were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard the aircraft, a Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada, according to a statement from the airline. The flight originated at Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, the major airport serving Montreal. Photos and videos from the scene showed severe damage to the front of the aircraft, with cables and debris hanging from a mangled cockpit. Nearby, a damaged emergency vehicle lay on its side. Stairways used to evacuate passengers from the aircraft were pushed up to the emergency exits on the jet, a Bombardier CRJ. The impact left the jet with its crumpled nose tilted upward.

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Lead Stories

The new weapons of global power are oil, rare earths and microchips

Iran’s move to choke off the Strait of Hormuz and turn crude oil into a weapon of war marks a new phase in the 21st-century competition for global power—one that will be defined by the control of critical raw materials and energy. In the face of a withering campaign of airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel, Tehran has launched an asymmetric counterattack, using energy supplies as a cudgel on a scale unseen in decades. Iran has effectively paralyzed the Strait of Hormuz, a passageway where a fifth of global oil supplies usually transits. On Wednesday, it struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan, the site of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant, in retaliation for a strike on an Iranian gas field. The war has unleashed havoc in global markets, pushing up oil prices by around 50% since the start of the conflict. European natural gas prices have roughly doubled. The strike on Ras Laffan led President Trump to call for a de-escalation.

It is a stunning reminder of the centrality of energy to the global economy, and further evidence that the roots of military and economic power are shifting from software and information back to hard, physical resources—from oil to rare-earth metals and industrial capacity. The risk for nations that don’t have them span from soaring inflation and economic downturns to hampering the build-out of artificial intelligence and the militaries of the future. Last year, China used its control of roughly 90% of the world’s supplies of rare-earth magnets to checkmate the U.S. in trade negotiations. By cutting off access to metals used in cars, weapons and electronics, Beijing forced U.S. factories to idle and Washington to soften its demands. “Great-power competition has returned to basics: who controls the physical resources that modern economies and militaries run on,” said Alice Gower, a partner at Azure Strategy, a political-risk advisory firm in London. “Energy, critical minerals and industrial capacity are leverage, not just economic assets.” For decades, Western consensus held that geography was fading as destiny. In this view, the winners of the 21st century would be defined less by control of territory and raw materials than by command of capital, technology and global networks. Yet the recent weaponization of supply chains has offered a stark reminder that rather than erasing physical geography, the era of hyperconnectivity has turned it into a possibly more potent weapon.

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As Big Bend area border walls move forward, local landowners gear up for a fight

As the Trump administration's plans for border walls in the rugged Big Bend region of West Texas advance, landowners in the path are struggling to understand how the plan could impact their homes and livelihoods. Amid a lack of details from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), advocates are rushing to help landowners with legal aid in sparsely-populated rural areas along the Rio Grande, where local residents have started receiving government letters threatening the seizure of land for the project. David Keller, with the newly formed advocacy group No Big Bend Wall, led a landowner meeting earlier this month in Redford, a small community outside of Presidio on the Texas-Mexico border.

Border wall plans have never progressed this far here before. In recent weeks, locals opposing the wall have rushed to form a landowner coalition, coordinate legal access and educate landowners on their rights. Keller, who lives in Redford, said letters seeking landowner authorization for border wall construction are stoking fear and anger. "?Most of them don't have attorneys on file," he said. "Most of them…English is not their first language, and this is written in coercive language." He's been urging his neighbors not to sign anything and to lawyer up. "We're all in this fight together and we gotta have each other's backs, man," Keller said at the recent landowner meeting. "And if you know people that you feel are gonna sign, you know, talk to 'em and try to get 'em not to." Local farmer Esteban Mesa has a property in Redford that backs up to the Rio Grande. Mesa and other farmers pump water directly from the river to their fields. He said a border wall would cut off access to his pump, making it impossible to irrigate. "?I know that they're not gonna – with the way this valley is – they're not going to be putting a gate at every property owner's property," Mesa said.

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US and Iran trade threats of expanding war after strikes near sites tied to nuclear programs

Iran and its ally, the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group, stepped up pressure on Israel on Sunday, with intense attacks on the country’s north and south after the United States and Iran threatened to widen their targets in the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week. As Israel came under renewed fire, top Israeli leaders traveled to the Negev Desert, home to the country’s main nuclear research center and the site where Iran’s barrages struck two towns on Saturday, shattering apartment buildings and injuring scores of people in Arad and Dimona. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured Arad and said it was a “miracle” no one was killed there. He claimed Israel and the U.S. were well on their way to achieving the war’s goals and implored the international community for support.

Earlier, President Donald Trump warned the United States will destroy Iran’s power plants if Tehran fails to fully open the Strait of Hormuz in 48 hours. Iran’s parliament speaker said if the U.S. follows through on its threat, Tehran would retaliate against American and Israeli energy and wider infrastructure in the region. The developments signaled the Iran war, which the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28, was moving in a dangerous new direction, despite Trump’s mention last week he was considering “winding down” operations. The war that has killed hundreds of people, rattled the global economy and sent oil prices surging. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike Sunday that killed a man in northern Israel while Gulf Arab states — including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — said they were working to intercept new Iranian strikes. Iran has practically closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint connecting the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s supply passes. Attacks on commercial ships and threats of further strikes have stopped nearly all tankers from navigating the strait, compelling some of the world’s largest oil producers to make cuts because their crude has nowhere to go.

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Corpus Christi’s water shortage threatens billions in investment, city leaders say

Corpus Christi’s water crisis is no longer just about drought restrictions or conservation, city leaders have said it is now threatening the region’s economic future and is costing the Coastal Bend billions of dollars in lost investment. Major companies that once showed interest in building in Corpus Christi are now putting projects on hold or walking away because the city cannot guarantee a long term water supply. City officials said the economic impact is enormous. Corpus Christi City Councilman Roland Barrera said the city has already missed out on massive projects tied to industries that require large volumes of water. “I have heard numbers as high as $20 billion,” Barrera said.

Many of the successful projects secured by the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation were landed before 2020 when the city still had excess water capacity to offer new industry. That advantage has largely disappeared said the councilman. Barrera said one example involved interest from Google, which explored building operations in the region but required about three million gallons of water per day. “That’s the type of project we’re talking about,” said Barrera. To try to boost supply, the city has drilled new wells along the Nueces River. Even with those wells, officials said it may not be enough to meet long term demand. Some projections show local reservoirs could approach critically low levels as soon as next year if drought conditions continue. City leaders are also pushing forward with plans to build a seawater desalination plant, which could provide a more reliable water source in the future. However, until a long term supply is guaranteed, companies remain cautious about making large investments in the area.

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Robert Mueller, former FBI director and special counsel in Trump-Russia probe, dies

Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who led the historic probe into alleged collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government, has died. He was 81. “With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away last night,” his family said in a statement Saturday. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.” His family announced last August that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2021. For years, Mueller was highly trusted on both sides of the aisle: When he was selected as FBI director by President George W. Bush just days before September 11, 2001, he was unanimously approved, and earned full support again when he was asked to stay past his 10-year tenure by President Barack Obama. He served in the role for 12 years, becoming the longest-serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover.

His reputation for integrity was a key factor in his selection to handle the politically sensitive investigation into Trump. But by the time the investigation concluded in the middle of Trump’s first presidency, views of Mueller, as was the case with so much else in the American political landscape, were largely divided along party lines. Ultimately, the investigation into Trump produced mixed results. Investigators uncovered dozens of secret and often high-level contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, despite both sides denying there were any. The probe also highlighted how Trump eagerly capitalized on the Kremlin’s election-meddling and that his campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.” However, Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. He also made the controversial decision not to charge Trump with obstruction even though he had the evidence he needed, saying he was prohibited from even considering it because Trump was the sitting president at the time.

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State Stories

Texas school district bans books by US presidents

Aschool district in Texas has banned approximately 1,500 books from its libraries, including titles by former U.S. presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, the literary nonprofit group PEN America reports. The book removals took place in New Braunfels, a fast-growing city of about 100,000 people located 30 miles northeast of San Antonio. The city’s school district has banned or restricted hundreds of titles, including Obama’s A Promised Land, Clinton’s My Life, and Bush’s 41: A Portrait of My Father. Other memoirs or biographies banned by the district include former first lady Michelle Obama’s Becoming and The Light We Carry; Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala; Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton; Matthew Perry’s Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing; Britney Spears’ The Woman in Me; Cicely Tyson’s Just as I Am; and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey.

The bans also targeted novels including Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, and Tommy Orange’s There There. The books were banned in accordance with the Senate Bill 13, which requires school libraries to remove titles deemed “indecent” or “profane.” Laney Hawes, a co-founder of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, said in a statement, “The latest slate of book bans from SB13 confirms what many Texas parents have been saying for years: The culture wars are ruining our kids’ education. Texas has produced world class authors, scientists, leaders; it’s as though our state legislators want to put that in jeopardy.”

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John Moritz: Texas GOP base is aging fast — and still calling the shots

Old people rule! That could be the slogan of both political parties in Texas, based on an Austin political researcher's deep dive into the data on which voters powered the record-breaking turnout in the March 3 primaries. But the slogan would be a lot more true, and potentially a lot more worrisome, for one of the two major parties. The numbers crunched by Derek Ryan, founder of Ryan Data and Research, show that nearly 55% of the ballots cast early and on the same day in the recent Democratic primary came from voters 50 and older. By contrast, voters 30 and under accounted for just 14% of the turnout in a primary that nominated 36-year-old James Talarico, who would become the youngest U.S. senator if he wins in November.

But the age gap is even more yawning on the Republican side, according to Ryan's analysis, which uses data from the Texas Secretary of State's Office, the Texas Legislative Council and other sources. Voters 50 and older made up 78% of GOP primary turnout, and those over 70 accounted for one-third of the total. That means just 22% of the Republican vote came from people 49 and younger. And if you just look at the under-30 subset, it comprised just 4% of the party's total vote. That would appear to be a shaky foundation for building a Texas Republican Party of the future. Republican turnout was also anchored by voters who show up for the primary cycle after cycle. More than three of every four GOP voters had never wandered over to the Democratic side during the nominating process. A tiny sliver of the turnout — around 3% —had at least some history of going back and forth from primary to primary, but the large majority of that group has tended to side more often with Republicans than with Democrats.

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How these Texas influencers are trying to turn viral fame into votes

At the Williamson County Republican Party’s annual fundraising gala in January, congressional candidate Valentina Gomez approached U.S. Rep. John Carter, shook his hand and thanked him for his service. A video Gomez posted on X shows her accusing the congressman she was challenging in the GOP primary of allowing Texas to become “like Minnesota.” She demanded to know why 200 mosques had been built during his 22 years in office. After Round Rock police told her to leave, Gomez claimed she was “almost arrested” for asking questions. (Party officials said her brother, who manages her campaign, shoved a member of Carter’s security detail.) For most candidates, being ejected from a party gala — and subsequently banned from future county GOP events — would be a disaster.

For Gomez, a far-right influencer with a massive online following, it was the intent: a made-for-social-media confrontation that generated attention and algorithmic reach. The video was viewed more than 180,000 times on the social media platform X, where Gomez has hundreds of thousands of followers. Gomez lost to Carter in the primary, drawing just 10% of the vote. But Gomez still raked in ad revenue from her posts on X, where she has earned tens of thousands of dollars. In federal disclosures, she listed “triggering liberals on X” as her only source of income aside from rental revenue on a home she owns in St. Louis. Gomez says her approach represents the future of politics. “I get attacked because I have the largest platform in American politics and I don’t rely on fake news media like yours to get my message in front of voters,” she said in an email to Hearst Newspapers. “I changed the game of politics by speaking the truth, saving children, and catching pedophiles.” She is part of a wave of influencers who have gone from using their platforms to push those already in office to running for office themselves. They include Republican congressional nominee Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber with 4.2 million followers, and Austin City Council candidate Farrah Abraham, the former “Teen Mom” star who went viral after learning in a live TMZ interview that she was ineligible to run for mayor until 2028.

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Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico courts Jasmine Crockett voters in Dallas

Texas Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate James Talarico made an appeal to voters of Rep. Jasmine Crockett at a Dallas County Democratic Party convention in Southern Dallas. Talarico’s speech comes as Democrats try to build up their coalition after a fierce Texas Senate primary election that was the most expensive primary in American history and drove record turnout. “I did not generate this historic turnout on my own. I did it with my friend and your champion, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett,” Talarico told the crowd at the Inspiring Body of Christ Church. “To the congresswoman's supporters: I know I wasn't your first choice, but I hope to earn your trust and earn your support.” His comments came after Eve Williams, a local business owner, told attendees to vote for Talarico if they voted for Crockett in the primary.

“Some stood with Jasmine, others stood with Talarico, and that's exactly how democracy is supposed to work,” Williams said. “Primaries are where we compete, but November is where we decide. And if you don't make that shift from competition to coalition, we lose more than an election. We lose momentum. We lose representation.” The convention was the first ever countywide Dallas County Democratic Party inaugural convention follows massive statewide Democratic turnout. A March 19 internal poll for Talarico’s campaign shows him narrowly beating either of his potential Republican candidates, Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who will face off in a May 26 runoff election. Dallas County's Republican Party does not have plans to host a similar local convention, but encourages its members to participate in local events and the Texas GOP Convention in Houston June 11-13.

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Ami Mizell-Flint: Lawmakers must put children, parents before Big Tech

(Ami Mizell-Flint is an affiliate leader with the National Alliance of Mental Illness in San Angelo.) More than 4 million U.S. children suffer from a serious mental disorder. Given the prevalence of those disorders, we need fundamental changes to our systems to improve outcomes for our children. Most importantly, we must ensure parents are equipped with tools and resources to keep their children safe and healthy. One area where parents are lacking safeguards is the digital world. Children and teenagers are experiencing more negative encounters online than ever before. A 2024 Heat Initiative study discovered 200 apps in a 24-hour period with inappropriate content — ranging from dieting apps, violent, or sexual games, beauty filters and anonymous chat forums — that were rated suitable for children on the app store.

Even when the content isn't suitable for vulnerable age groups, the “age-appropriate” ratings tell parents otherwise. Legislative action is necessary to provide parents with proper guardrails over their children’s access to the digital world. The federal App Store Accountability Act, which recently advanced out of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, would do that. Now's the time for Texas’ congressional delegation to stand with Texas parents, fight for a safer online future for children and support the App Store Accountability Act. The act tackles online dangers at the source: app marketplaces that sell unsuitable content and bind minors to contracts without parental oversight. Today, every dangerous application is only a few taps away, making harmful content far too accessible to minors. This legislation places power back in parents’ hands. The act would require app stores to obtain verifiable parental consent before minors can download apps or make in-app purchases. It would also ensure app age ratings accurately reflect in-app experiences. The act also encourages meaningful conversations between parents and teens about the content they consume and the apps they use.

Read this article at Galveston County News - Subscribers Only

Texas had one of its warmest, driest winters ever — raising concerns about climate trends

Texas is emerging from a winter that stood out for its heat and lack of rain, ranking as the warmest and driest on record for several parts of the state. While the season included brief arctic outbreaks, it was dominated by temperatures that frequently climbed 10 degrees above normal. Statewide, this season was among the top two warmest ever recorded across the United States. According to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, the winter of December 2025 through February 2026 was also the 11th driest and third warmest on record for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with climate records dating back to 1898. While the season was defined by heat, it was also marked by intense volatility.

Dr. Yunyao Li, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at UT Arlington, said the winter saw "sharper swings between mild conditions and extreme events." Temperatures were consistently above average in December and February, while January provided a brief, intense dip in overnight lows. Miles Langfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said a strong La Niña season was the primary atmospheric factor driving the heat. A La Niña occurs when sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, off the coast of South America, are cooler. "Cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific often shift the jet stream northward, allowing for more mild conditions over Texas," Langfeld said. Despite the general warmth, Langfeld said these patterns do not offer total immunity from the cold. Even during La Niña years, the state can see significant arctic outbreaks, such as the winter storm in January, or the historic February 2021 freeze.

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Honorary Texan Chuck Norris dies at 86

Martial arts star Chuck Norris, who fought his way to fame in such 1980s action movies as The Delta Force, Code of Silence, and a trilogy of Missing in Action films, has died. He was 86. In a fight, Norris tended to lead with his right…foot. He all but trademarked a roundhouse kick that villains never seemed to see coming. He'd plant a heel in someone's gut, spin once to knock him off balance with a boot to the chest, spin again to catch the guy's shoulder with his instep, maybe throw in a punch just to vary the rhythm, and finish him off with a high kick to the head. It was art, and widely imitated, but it did not kick off his career at first.

He was knocking around martial arts competitions and teaching celebrity clients in Hollywood, including Priscilla Presley, Bob Barker, and Donny and Marie Osmond, when his pal Bruce Lee gave him his break in films by inviting him to play one of many villains in 1972's The Way of the Dragon. The film fetishized Norris' hairy chest opposite Lee's smooth one, and he gave a little smirk when he flattened Lee with a roundhouse kick early on. But it was Lee's film, and by scene's end, Norris was toast. That could've been it, if one of Norris' celebrity students, Steve McQueen, hadn't suggested he take acting lessons. Norris did, and scored the leading role of a put-upon trucker in Breaker! Breaker!, an action flick shot in just 11 days. It made money, and in a string of indie hits that followed, Norris established himself as America's first homegrown martial arts movie star. At which point, Hollywood studios came calling with bigger budgets, and titles like Forced Vengeance, Silent Rage, Lone Wolf McQuade, and Invasion U.S.A. In that one, Norris played a mercenary combatting a Soviet-led terrorist army that lands in Florida at Christmastime, taunting foes with lines like, "If you come back in here, I'm gonna hit you with so many rights, you're gonna beg for a left."

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City of Austin says new $1.48 million website will make services easier to use

The city of Austin launched a new website that city leaders hope will make it easier for people to use. The updated site went live Thursday morning. City officials said users will be able to more easily access information, including links to pay utility bills and citations, adopt a pet and submit 3-1-1 requests. In total, the city has budgeted $2.52 million to the website overhaul, with $1.48 million for the initial redesign and another $1.04 million for refining updates or addressing issues that arise over the next two years. Yasmin Wagner with the city’s communication and engagement department said the city has known for a while that an update was needed, but it took time to get the funding and resources in place.

“The look and feel and functionality have become outdated, inconsistencies appear throughout the site, and it's weakening our brand recognition, usability of the site and user’s trust in the site as well,” Wagner said. The website's architects removed about 16,000 pages, taking the total number down to 1,300. By streamlining the content available and improving the search function, the city said users will be able to more easily find information about city news, council meetings and recycling and trash schedules that were previously hard to find. Updated ADA accessibility, translation features and city forms are also included on the new site. Wagner said visitors to the website will be able to provide feedback and inform updates. Roxanna Meneses, IT manager for Austin’s Technology Services Department, said the new website comes with data analytics to show staff what pages people visit and where issues might be occurring. City officials said Thursday's launch has gone smoothly, although staff are still working out kinks. This is the first major overhaul of the city’s website since 2012, but not the first step in refreshing the city's image. Last fall, the city unveiled a new $1 million logo and rebrand initiative that was met with community backlash from residents and city leaders who questioned the city's spending habits as it continues to struggle with budget constraints. Many residents were also critical of the logo.

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Inside the charter network that may take over San Antonio campuses

During a schoolboard meeting earlier this week, Hirsch Elementary School parentsconfronted San Antonio Independent School District leaders and trustees about the possibility of handing day-to-day operations at their children’s campus to a charter network with no campuses in town. “As a parent, you worry about whether your child will be understood, included, and supported in this classroom; the teachers at Hirsch didn’t just do the bare minimum. They went above and beyond,” Savannah Longoria, a mother of two Hirsch students, said. “They showed compassion, patience and understanding during a very difficult time for our family.” But to stave off a potential state takeover of the district and improve poor academic results that could trigger the elimination of local control, SAISD’s board could vote Monday for charter network Third Future Schools to run Hirsch and two other SAISD campuses starting next year.

In the past three years, Hirsch scored two Fs and a D on the state letter grade system. Third Future has a track record of quickly improving academic improvement — something that is especially important when repeat years of academic struggles can mean a campus closure or district takeover. But critics worry that a narrow focus on test scores and academic rigor will replace a more holistic approach to students' classroom time. “Our children are not experiments, and our school is not a project to hand over to an outside organization,” Longoria said. “My children are supported. They are learning, and they are happy, and I ask that you listen to the parents who trust in the teachers and staff already serving our children.” The San Antonio Independent School District and Edgewood ISD boards will vote next week on handing over control of four campuses to Colorado-based charter school operator Third Future. Both districts face an end-of-month deadline to pick a charter school provider if they want to forge such an agreement and buy their struggling schools more time before facing state consequences.

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East Texas vape shop sues DSHS to block new hemp rules scheduled to take effect March 31

An East Texas vape shop is suing the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), challenging new rules for hemp retailers that are set to take effect on March 31. That lawsuit echoes what many local hemp retailers have felt in recent weeks: that these new rules and fees could devastate the Texas hemp industry. This stems from new regulations DSHS adopted earlier this month that revise testing and packaging requirements, amend record-keeping standards and tack on much heavier licensing fees.

DSHS implemented these new rules and fees in response to an executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott last year. After bills to ban or regulate hemp products containing THC failed to become law, he directed state agencies to come up with new rules to regulate them to address concerns that some of those products are dangerous and marketed to children. So DSHS increased licensing fees to $10,000 per year for product manufacturers and $5,000 per year to retailers starting on March 31. The retailer that filed the lawsuit claims it'll make it harder for small businesses to stay open. In their lawsuit, the retailer "Boomtown Vapor" claims that the new rules contradict a state law passed in 2019 that allowed for hemp containing a low amount of THC to be grown in Texas. That law specifically mentioned testing for Delta 9 THC, and the retailers argue that DSHS's new rule about testing for Total THC defies that. The retailers also say the licensing fees will be double from what they were before and are arbitrary.

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Gatesville City Manager says major fire originated at the Gatesville Messenger, ruled out criminal activity

Dozens of fire crews battled a major fire on the west side of the Square in downtown Gatesville on Monday night, according to the Gatesville Police Department. On Wednesday March, 18, 2026, the Gatesville City Manager Brad Hunt told KWTX the fire originated at the Gatesville Messenger on Monday night and that they have ruled out criminal activity as a cause. As of Tuesday evening, U.S. Highway 84 was reopened and traffic returned to normal. Three minor injuries have been reported in firefighters due to smoke inhalation, according to Gatesville City Manager Brad Hunt.

Hunt confirmed officials received the call at 6:50 p.m. on Monday. The Gatesville Volunteer Fire Department responded immediately and called for additional assistance after the fire broke out, Hunt said. “They’ve done an amazing job to keep people safe,” Hunt said. Gatesville Police Chief Jeff Clark said U.S. Route 84, also known as Main Street, would be closed through downtown and had been expected to remain closed overnight Monday and potentially into the following day due to the instability of buildings along the route. Clark said the road would reopen once the buildings are safe enough for traffic to pass through. Traffic was being diverted at Lutterloh on the east side and Levita Road on the west side, according to the Gatesville Police Department. Drivers and residents were urged to avoid the downtown area. Four businesses have allegedly been affected: Gatesville Messenger, Freedom Bail Bonds, Davidson Chiropractic and Leaird’s Furniture. The structures involved are believed to date to around 1900.

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Texas A&M eliminated by Houston in the second round of March Madness

After defeating Saint Mary's in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Texas A&M was eliminated by Houston in the round of 32, as the Cougars notched a dominant 88-57 win over the Aggies on Saturday night in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Texas A&M kept the game within reach through the first few minutes of the contest, but Houston's physicality was a major mismatch and proved too much for the Aggies to stop. The Cougars ended the first half of play on a 24-2 run for an 18-point lead. From that point forward, it was all Coogs. Emmanuel Sharp led the way for Houston with 18 points, followed by Chris Cenac Jr. with 17. Kelvin Sampson had four players record double-digit points, while shooting 44% from the field as a team in their win over the Aggies.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M guard Josh Holloway had a team-best 12 points, going 4-of-6 from the field and going a perfect 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. Houston's 19 offensive rebounds and 18 second-chance points led to the rout of Texas A&M at the Paycom Center, as the Cougars advance to the Sweet 16 to play the winner of Illinois-VCU. It was a season to remember for first-year head coach Bucky McMillan, who had just one scholarship player on the roster when he was named the new head coach for the Aggies in April of 2025. McMillan renovated and recruited to build a team full of transfers, committed to representing Texas A&M and running one of the most explosive styles of basketball in the country. After being picked to finish 13th in the SEC during the preseason, the Aggies performed outstandingly through conference play to finish tied for fourth in the league standings and earn the opportunity to compete in the NCAA Tournament.

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TCU’s Sweet dream is over as it falls to No. 1 Duke in NCAA tourney

TCU men’s basketball’s quest for the program’s first Sweet 16 trip came to end Saturday, as the No. 9-seeded Horned Frogs fell 81-58 to overall No. 1 seed Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. “I’m certainly proud of our team, proud of how we handled some adversity today and still had the lead with 16 minutes left,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We certainly had a lot of adversity early on in the game and into the second half, but just proud of how they battled.” After trailing by four at halftime, TCU (23-12) started the second half hot, briefly taking a 40-38 lead thanks to a 6-0 run. The teams exchanged blows, and the game was tied at 44 with 13:56 remaining. But that’s when the game turned. Duke (34-2) went on a 24-6 run over the next seven minutes as fouls quickly began to stack up on the Horned Frogs.

TCU went over four minutes without scoring at one point. It didn’t help that third-team All-Big 12 forward Xavier Edmonds played just two minutes in the second half due to foul trouble. The junior center fouled out with six minutes remaining. “Obviously we had some challenges,” Dixon said. “Guys had foul trouble. Our rotation wasn’t what we wanted it to be. I think our defense wasn’t the way we wanted it to be. But the rebounding sticks out. I think we were not physical enough to come up with the rebounds. Having guys not available was a big factor. We had the lead, but things didn’t seem to go our way after that.” Sophomore forward Micah Robinson led TCU with 18 points. Duke advances to face the winner of Sunday’s game between No. 4 seed Kansas and No. 5 St. John’s in the Sweet 16.

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National Stories

‘Good, I’m glad he’s dead’: Trump’s insensitive comments about the dead hit a new level

For years, President Donald Trump has offered crass and insensitive comments about people who died — especially his foes. But on Saturday, he explicitly celebrated the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller, writing, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.” As a special counsel, Mueller probed Trump and his 2016 campaign as the leader of the Russia investigation during the president’s first term. “Robert Mueller just died,” Trump posted on social media shortly after the death was first reported. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” While it was the culmination of a yearslong series of such comments by Trump, it was hardly an isolated incident.

In 2017, one of the first big controversies of Trump’s first term was his insensitive alleged comments to the widow of a soldier who had just died. Trump was accused of telling the widow that her husband “knew what he signed up for.” And while Trump claimed it had been a “very respectful conversation,” the White House eventually?seemed to tacitly confirm the comments. After John McCain died in August 2018, Trump in early 2019 resumed his yearslong attacks on the former Arizona senator. He criticized the Republican for killing Trump’s health care law, saying, “I never was a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.” Trump also falsely claimed the recently deceased had graduated “last in his class” and falsely accused him of sharing the “Steele dossier” with the FBI before the 2016 election. In late 2019, Trump attacked another legislative foe who died that year — longtime Rep. John Dingell — by suggesting the Michigan Democrat was “looking up” from hell. Dingell’s widow, Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, responded: “I’m preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love. You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder.”

Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only

Immigration agents deploying to airports under border czar as TSA staffing falls short

President Donald Trump said Sunday border czar Tom Homan will be in charge of deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports on Monday, with Homan telling CNN the agents will assist with security at entrances and exits to ease TSA workload amid a partial government shutdown. “This is about going to helping TSA do their mission and get the American public through that airport as quick as they can while adhering to all the security guidelines and the protocols,” Homan said on CNN’s “State of the Union with Dana Bash.” Long security lines have been seen at airports around the country as TSA officers have quit their jobs or called out sick as they continue to work without pay.

“We’re simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise, such as screening through the X-ray machine. Not training that, we won’t do that,” Homan said. “But there are roles we can play to release TSA officers from the non-significant roles, such as guarding an exit so they can get back to the scanning machines and move people quicker, and we’re just simply helping our fellow officers at TSA.” Asked about logistics and numbers regarding deployment of ICE officers, Homan said planning discussions are happening Sunday in coordination with the heads of ICE and the TSA. “I’m currently working on the plan now of execution, working with the Director of ICE and the administrator of TSA, the acting administrator. So we’ll put together a plan today, and we’ll execute tomorrow,” Homan said. Homan added that details can be expected later Monday. “Hopefully we’ll have all those answers here by this afternoon, but we’re working on it when we when we deploy tomorrow, we’ll have a well thought out plan to execute,” Homan said.

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How Amazon is bringing fast delivery to rural America

A little past noon, Amazon.com driver Matthew Norton pulled his Ford F-250 pickup up alongside the Bitterroot River. He removed a small package and stashed it in a drop-box at the foot of a crude bridge with a sign: Private Bridge, No Trespassing. Norton and his pickup are part of a $4 billion investment by Amazon to push its signature speedy delivery further into the rural recesses of the U.S. In dozens of thinly populated regions across the country, Amazon is building new delivery hubs to deliver packages in around two days. That might not seem especially rapid at a time when the e-commerce giant is introducing one-hour delivery in some areas, but residents of some far-flung Montana hamlets were used to waiting up to a week for their orders.

The effort helps Amazon reduce its reliance on the U.S. Postal Service, a relationship that has become rocky following a dispute over contract terms. Amazon says it aims ultimately to have 200 rural delivery hubs serving around 13,000 ZIP Codes covering around 1.2 million square miles of America—an area the size of Texas, California and Alaska combined. Delivering packages within Amazon’s signature two-day frame means drivers contend with backcountry challenges such as bighorn sheep on the road, dangerously high winds in mountain passes and roads that are impassable during parts of the year. Norton says many of his customers are regulars. “They order online, because they don’t have many stores and their closest grocery store is an hour away.” Amazon currently operates around 560 delivery stations across the country, of which around 160 are in rural areas, said Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL International, a supply-chain consultancy that monitors the e-commerce company’s logistics network. At its current pace of constructing around 40 to 50 new delivery hubs a year, Wulfraat estimates that Amazon will be able to ship packages to every U.S. ZIP Code in four years.

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Cuba's deputy foreign minister says its military is preparing for possible 'military aggression' from the U.S.

Cuba’s deputy foreign minister on Saturday said that the nation’s military is involved in ongoing preparations for “the possibility of military aggression” from the U.S., adding that it would be “naive” for Cuba’s leaders to ignore the possibility of conflict with the U.S. “Our military is always prepared, and in fact, it is preparing these days for the possibility of military aggression,” Carlos Fernández de Cossío told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday. He added, “we would be naive,” not to consider the possibility of conflict “looking at what’s happening around the world.”

Fernández de Cossío said the country’s leaders “truly hope that it doesn’t occur. We don’t see why it would have to occur, and we find no justification whatsoever.” His comments come amid an escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Cuba following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of that nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro, who had a close relationship with Cuba’s leadership. During a press conference following the operation, U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that military intervention in Cuba could be next, with Rubio saying at the time, “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.” In January, the president signed an executive order threatening to impose tariffs on goods from countries that sold or provided oil to the country. Residents of the island have suffered daily power outages amid the U.S. blockade. Power grids in the country collapsed Saturday, leaving the country without electricity for a third time in March. On Saturday, Fernández de Cossío said the oil blockade is the result of the U.S.’ aggression against Cuba and it “cannot be sustained forever.”

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U.S. judge rules against Pentagon restrictions on press coverage

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has blocked a Pentagon policy that sought to limit what journalists are able to report about the U.S. military, ruling in favor of The New York Times in a case that raised fundamental questions about the freedom of the press. The Pentagon policy, unveiled last September, required media organizations to pledge not to gather information unless officials from the Department of Defense formally authorized its release. The policy extended beyond classified information, and included a prohibition on reporting even unclassified material without the approval of Pentagon officials. The policy prompted widespread condemnation from press freedom groups, and led multiple news organizations to forfeit their Pentagon press passes, rather than comply. NPR is among the organizations that turned in its press passes, but has continued vigorous reporting on the Pentagon.

The rules also spurred a lawsuit from the Times, which filed suit in December against the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. In its suit, the Times said the Pentagon policy violated the First Amendment and would "deprive the public of vital information about the United States military and its leadership." In the ruling late Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman sided with the Times, writing that the First Amendment was designed to empower the press to publish information in the public interest "free of any official proscription." "Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation's security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech," Friedman wrote. "That principle has preserved the nation's security for almost 250 years. It must not be abandoned now." In a statement, a Times spokesperson said the ruling marked a welcome enforcement of the free press' constitutionally protected rights. "Americans deserve visibility into how their government is being run, and the actions the military is taking in their name and with their tax dollars. Today's ruling reaffirms the right of The Times and other independent media to continue to ask questions on the public's behalf," said the statement from spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander. Parnell, the Pentagon spokesman, responded to the ruling in a statement posted to social media, saying the department planned to challenge the order. "We disagree with the decision and are pursuing an immediate appeal," he said.

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‘Tax resistance’ gains attention amid ICE protests, Iran war — and IRS penalties could follow

Chicago attorney Rachel Cohen owes more than $8,000 in federal income taxes — but has intentionally left that balance unpaid. "I'm not paying my federal income tax this year," Cohen said in a widely viewed TikTok video from March 2 about her decision. The 31-year-old community organizer filed her federal tax return, which shows a balance due of $8,830, according to a tax document reviewed by CNBC.But Cohen said she deliberately chose to withhold payment of that bill as a protest against immigration detention, including ICE facilities, and U.S. strikes on Iran launched without congressional approval. While voicing resistance to taxes is legal, refusing to pay taxes owed can violate federal law and lead to serious penalties.

"It's completely OK to be unhappy and be dissatisfied with our government," said Josh Youngblood, owner of The Youngblood Group, a Dallas-based tax firm. "But not paying taxes, or engaging in tax fraud or evasion, is not the answer." In addition to penalties and interest that start accruing immediately on their past-due balances, tax protesters can face "long-term consequences," such as wage garnishment, a tax lien on property or even jail time, according to Michele Frank, associate professor of accountancy at Miami University. Federal courts have a long track record of siding with the Internal Revenue Service in cases involving tax resistance, routinely dismissing these claims as frivolous and, in some instances, imposing additional penalties. Cohen told CNBC she is fully aware of the potential risks and that speaking openly about the decision could attract additional scrutiny from federal authorities. Her protest is directed at federal spending priorities, not taxation itself, Cohen said. She paid about $3,000 in Illinois state taxes, according to a tax document reviewed by CNBC, and said she sees value in how those dollars support state and local services. Cohen said her decision is personal and not something she is encouraging others to do, but hopes it pushes people to reflect on whether their actions match their beliefs.

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Paul Farhi: How Will Lewis lost the Washington Post

( (Paul Farhi is a prominent American freelance journalist and media analyst specializing in news media, journalism ethics, and political coverage, based in Washington, D.C.. Formerly a longtime media reporter at The Washington Post (1988–2023), he now contributes to outlets like The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and the Columbia Journalism Review.) When the bad news broke, Will Lewis wasn’t around for it. As hundreds of Washington Post employees gathered in front of phones and laptops for a Zoom meeting in early February to learn their fates, the Post’s chief executive and publisher didn’t appear on their screens. Instead, the announcement that more than 350 journalists would lose their jobs was left to executive editor Matt Murray. Afterward, Lewis made no statements and granted no interviews. Murray said later that Lewis “had a lot of things to tend to today.” The mass layoff—amounting to nearly half of the Post’s vaunted newsroom—translated into a broad disfiguring of the publication. The paper vaporized its sports and book sections, halved its network of foreign bureaus, and reduced its Metro section—where its history-making Watergate coverage had begun—to a skeleton. Every staff photographer was laid off. Among the casualties was Martin Weil, a beloved Metro reporter who’d worked at the paper since Lyndon Johnson was President. Weil was notified in a form letter delivered via email. Past and present Post employees trained their anger and disappointment on the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s multi­billionaire founder.

Former executive editor Martin Baron blasted the world’s fifth-­richest man for neglect, abandonment, and worse. Some of Bezos’s decisions, Baron wrote, were “gutless” and reflected “moral infirmity.” The paper had been losing money for several years, yes, but critics argued that Bezos could afford to lose money—literally for centuries—to maintain the paper’s newsgathering. He was now worth around $250 billion, ten times as much as he was when he bought the Post in 2013. Back then, he promised to provide “runway” (read: hard cash) for growth and experimentation. The new cuts would instead make the paper’s newsroom smaller than when Bezos first stepped in—smaller even than Politico, cofounded in 2007 by two former Post reporters. Lewis received his share of the rage and blame, too. Hired by Bezos in early 2024 to reverse declining readership and revenues, the 56-year-old newsman turned media executive had plainly failed. The Post lost a reported $100 million in 2024, Lewis’s first year, and even more in 2025. Lewis was unable to stanch the bleeding, despite previous buyouts and layoffs. Dozens more star journalists had left on their own, disappointed and disgusted by what they saw as his fecklessness. Only a few months into his tenure, Lewis had retreated into a kind of sullen isolation. When Post reporters landed important scoops—such as the revelation in late November 2025 of the Pentagon’s “double tap” strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat—he couldn’t muster up an attaboy or use it as a peg for collective encouragement, a tradition for the paper’s publishers. For a brief period, Lewis had even stopped talking to Murray, whom he’d handpicked to lead the news operation. “As far as the newsroom is concerned, he’s a nonentity,” a veteran reporter said in early January. “We haven’t seen him in months. He’s a ghost.” Lewis, who hasn’t given an on-the-record interview in more than two years, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment on this article. Nor did Murray or three of Lewis’s top business deputies. A Post spokesperson offered limited information in response to submitted questions.

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Lead Stories

The bond market is flashing a signal not seen since before the 2008 crisis

Troubling developments unfolded in the U.S. bond market on Thursday that had some investors drawing comparisons with the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. The current problems start with rising oil prices as a result of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, which is raising the risk of stagflation and the prospect of a 2026 interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Brent crude the global oil benchmark, briefly blew past $119 a barrel on Thursday as attacks escalated on oil-and-gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. West Texas Intermediate crude-oil futures briefly crossed $100 a barrel. But even as oil prices have spiked and stock prices come down, Treasurys, often seen as a haven during times of market unease, haven’t rallied on a continual basis.

Instead, fears that the war in the Middle East could morph into a full-blown energy crisis pushed the policy-sensitive 2-year Treasury yield above the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate target on Thursday. Bond yields move inversely with prices and rise during selloffs. Thursday’s bond-market selloff caused the Treasury yield curve to exhibit what traders describe as a “bear-flattening” pattern. This actually began back in early February. Typically, the pattern emerges when bond traders are bracing for a difficult economic environment ahead. The confluence of these three developments — oil above $100 a barrel, a 2-year yield above the fed funds rate, and a bear-steepening dynamic in the bond market — is making some investors nervous. The last time all three things unfolded simultaneously was in the late spring of 2008, according to Bloomberg data. About four or five months later, Lehman Brothers collapsed, ushering in the most acute phase of the 2008 financial crisis. The S&P 500 declined 38.5% that year. Widespread mortgage defaults also resulted in many Americans losing their homes. The current environment includes both similarities and differences to that troubling time. Whereas the 2008 crisis was triggered by the bursting of a housing bubble and the subsequent collapse of the subprime mortgage market, investors are currently focused on the continued war with Iran, which began on Feb. 28, as well as signs of increasing stress in the private-credit industry. Already, investors have been impacted by twin declines in stocks and bonds, which amount to a double-whammy for anybody holding their retirement savings in a 60-40 portfolio.

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‘Rage turnout’ ahead? Democrats are hopeful their primary bump fuels midterms

A turnout surge in the 2026 Democratic primaries continued this week in Illinois, as the party’s voters again cast ballots in far greater numbers than they did in the last midterm election. It’s a boomlet already reshaping the Democrats’ many intense primary contests — and boosting confidence among party strategists that Democrats could benefit from a big turnout wave in November’s general election. “Nobody shows up to a parade for losers,” said Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist. “And the enthusiasm we’re seeing in Dem primaries vs. the lack of enthusiasm we’re seeing in Republican primaries is a pretty strong signal.” Parties traditionally enjoy a turnout boost in midterm years after they lose a presidential election. But Democratic operatives say they’ve been pleasantly surprised with the level of engagement in this year’s primaries, especially when the party’s image is at historic lows.

In Tuesday’s Illinois primary, the Senate race saw a nearly 50% increase in participation compared to the last midterm election in 2022, jumping from 860,000 votes to a projected 1.28 million votes when all ballots are counted. The increase was even larger in some House races. Illinois’ 8th Congressional District saw a 63% increase relative to 2022, from 43,000 votes to a projected 70,000 votes. The 9th district saw a 71% hike, increasing from 77,000 in 2022 to 132,000 this week. Democrats offer a lot of explanations for why turnout has so significantly increased this year. But at the center of it, most of them say, is a visceral anger at President Donald Trump, motivating even voters who normally avoid politics to become involved. “I think there’s a strong likelihood of a rage turnout this year,” said Aviva Bowen, an Illinois-based Democratic strategist who worked on some of the contested House primaries in Chicago this week. The comparisons aren’t perfect. The Illinois Senate race in 2022 was an uncontested romp for Sen. Tammy Duckworth, for example, while this year’s contest featured three prominent candidates in a tight battle for the nomination.

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Irving-based Nexstar closes $6.2 billion acquisition of TEGNA

The FCC and DOJ approved the $6.2 billion acquisition of broadcaster TEGNA by fellow television operator Nexstar Media Group. A release issued Thursday by Nexstar states in part: "Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST), today announced that it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA Inc." That announcement came after the approval of the transaction by the federal agencies. The proposed acquisition was announced in August 2025. “The FCC has been focused on empowering broadcast TV stations to serve their local communities, consistent with their public interest obligations. Today’s agency decision does exactly that as both the record and Nexstar’s enforceable commitments demonstrate," FCC chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement. "For too long, the FCC stood by while newspapers closed by the dozen in communities all across the country. Those trusted sources of local news and information shuttered while the FCC dithered. If you care about local news, you should care about the future of local broadcast TV stations."

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ICE raids adding to falling enrollment at RGV school districts

Ongoing ICE raids are impacting Rio Grande Valley school districts, forcing hundreds of U.S.-born students out of the country while straining tight budgets. Across the Valley, educators struggling to curb years of falling enrollment are pointing to months of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids as a growing factor behind dropping student numbers. As part of a formula, the Texas Education Agency is paying Valley school districts about $6,200 a year for each student in classrooms. In Weslaco, the school district’s enrollment’s dropped from 16,305 to 16,028 during the last year, Superintendent Richard Rivera said, blaming much of the loss of 277 students to what he describes as “the immigration scare.”

“I have been a superintendent for about 30 years and this is the most I’ve ever seen a district losing for this reason,” he said in an interview. Of the students leaving the country, many were born in the United States, Rivera said. “It affects them deeply,” he said. “They were born here. They’ve adjusted here. Most are elementary kids. Most of them have been successful. They‘ve learned the language and were doing well in school. All of a sudden life is shattered. Now they are starting a new life. It’s going to impact their life.” For school districts, the students’ losses are eating into strained budgets reeling from years of falling enrollment amid the federal government’s cuts in Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Funds, or ESSER funds, aimed at helping school districts through the coronavirus pandemic. “It affects the district — the budget,” Rivera said of the latest factor behind dropping enrollment. “We’re overstaffed with these students gone. Now, as people resign or retire, we don’t fill the positions.”

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State Stories

Williamson County GOP votes to return to countywide voting for May runoff

The Williamson County Republican Party has voted to return to countywide voting for the primary runoff set for May 26, a representative for the county confirmed. The party must amend their election contract with the county before the change can be finalized. Connie Odom, the communications director for Williamson County, said a meeting for that purpose is set for March 24. During the initial primary elections in early March, Williamson County voters had to visit assigned precincts to cast their ballots on Election Day, a change from previous elections when voters could stop by any polling place in the county.

The change led to confusion on Election Day. Some voters faced long lines and two- to three hour long waits. A judge ordered two polling places to stay open for three extra hours, and election officials did not finish counting votes until the next day. Both Democrats and Republicans must agree for countywide polling places to be available during primaries. The shift to assigned voting locations came at the request of the Williamson County Republican Party. The GOP in Dallas County also chose to make the shift. State Democrats said they anticipated issues ahead of the election. "For more than two months, Democratic Party leadership has been warning Republican leadership every step of the way that a disaster was impending, but they refused to listen," the Texas Democratic Party said in a statement on Election Day. "Now, voters all across Dallas and Williamson Counties are being denied ballot access, being turned away at the polls, and facing outrageous wait times at their polling locations."

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Harris County commissioners table resolution seeking to condemn Lina Hidalgo after rodeo dispute

Harris County commissioners punted a proposed resolution on Thursday that would have condemned Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s recent actions at the Houston rodeo and called for her resignation. Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s resolution would have recognized the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s accomplishments and condemned Hidalgo for an incident in which she was removed by security from a rodeo concert last week at NRG Stadium. The delay comes after a rule change in February that moves resolutions from Harris County Commissioners Court’s regular bi-weekly meetings to business court meetings. Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a Democrat who directed the regular court meeting on Thursday because of Hidalgo’s absence, said Ramsey would have to make a motion to suspend the recent rule change in order to read the resolution.

No other commissioner seconded Ramsey’s motion to temporarily suspend the rule change — which kicked the item to the next business court meeting on March 31. Ellis also suggested pausing the discussion until Hidalgo, who is in Europe on a trade mission, returned to commissioners court. “Just from the timing of it all, I think reading it here, and we can certainly talk about it again when she returns, her having missed the last three meetings, I’m not sure when she’s coming,” Ramsey said. The dispute between Hidalgo and security personnel at the rodeo happened after she and four other guests attempted to access the chute area — a premium seating area in NRG Stadium closest to the concert stage — without proper credentials. Hidalgo claimed she was threatened with arrest, shoved by security personnel and escorted out of a rodeo concert. Rodeo officials disputed her claims and said they were “very disappointed” in Hidalgo’s actions. The event’s board of directors also voted to strip Hidalgo of her role on the board, which was tied to her elected position as county judge.

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Escobar denies ICE claims that staffer posed as detainee's attorney at Camp East Montana

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso is pushing back against allegations from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement involving a member of her staff. According to a report by Fox News, Benito Torres, a senior caseworker on Escobar's staff, allegedly lied at least 11 times about being an attorney for detainees at Camp East Montana in Fort Bliss and brought cellphones into the facility. The acting ICE director, Todd Lyons, said he informed Escobar about the staffer in a letter dated Thursday. Escobar, however, denied the claims. “I have every reason to believe these allegations are unfounded,” Escobar said. “I stand proudly by the members of my team who have demonstrated nothing but dedication and integrity to serving our nation and our community.”

In his letter to Escobar, Lyons wrote, "The available evidence demonstrates your staffer... misrepresented himself as counsel for detainees in ICE custody, violated clear detention standards and security protocols prohibiting the use of cellphones inside ICE facilities, improperly met with multiple detainees, and falsely claimed to ICE personnel such use had been approved by the agency." Fox News' report features an image of a sign-in log that shows the staffer allegedly claiming to be a "lawyer" visiting a "client." The letter also states that during that visit, the staffer admitted he was not an attorney after he was confronted by a facility staff member after they became aware of someone passing a phone to multiple detainees.

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Sen. John Cornyn: Force members of Congress to wait in TSA lines

Sen. John Cornyn wants to make sure members of Congress wait in the same airport security lines as everyone else. As a weekslong stalemate leaves Transportation Security Administration agents working without pay, Cornyn has introduced a bill to outlaw preferential screening treatment for members of Congress. Cornyn said the change would put lawmakers on equal footing with travelers and restore “democracy” to airport security lines. “Nobody should be above the rules and regulations imposed on the American people, and a member pin on your lapel should not give you carte blanche to skip airport screening lines while everyday Americans are forced to patiently wait their turn,” Cornyn said.

The bill includes exceptions for programs such as TSA PreCheck and in cases of security concerns, he said. The proposal, which would have to clear both chambers, a slow process, comes as security lines have been growing at airports nationwide. That’s been blamed on a partisan impasse over Homeland Security funding that includes TSA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies. Sen. Ted Cruz, Cornyn’s home state Republican colleague, offered a proposal in 2024 that would have made it easier for rank-and-file members of Congress to get airport escorts. Supporters said that proposal would only have applied to federal lawmakers facing credible security threats, which have spiked in recent years, but the idea was blocked after opponents said it could be abused. Public criticism at the time focused in part on Cruz’s widely derided decision to take his family to Cancun during a deadly February 2021 winter storm.

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Proposed policy would enable Harris County employees to advocate for higher wages through a labor organization

Harris County could soon become one of the first major jurisdictions in Texas to establish a policy enabling labor organizations to advocate for higher wages and improved working conditions for government employees. The worker consultations policy — proposed by Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis — is set to be discussed and considered during a commissioners court meeting on Thursday. Though Texas law prohibits public employees from collective bargaining, the local program could make it easier for county workers to file grievances related to pay, workplace conditions and terminations.

Under the policy, nonsupervisory employees in certain county departments could also file group grievances and request representation by labor organizations to lodge complaints. Harris County’s five-member commissioners court, which currently includes four Democrats, would retain final authority over personnel policies and recommendations. “This policy that we have creates a consultation process between county workers and county leadership,” Ellis said. “It gives workers a seat at the table to raise workplace concerns about wages, hours, promotions and working conditions. It creates a clear process so workers can make their case when problems arise. “ If the proposal receives approval by commissioners on Thursday, interested county workers could select a labor organization to represent them. An organization would be established as an agent when it receives support from 20% of eligible employees. If multiple organizations qualify for the title, employees would vote in an election to select one sole representative, according to the proposed policy.

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Chuck Norris, 86, rushed to the hospital in Hawaii after medical emergency

Chuck Norris was reportedly rushed to a hospital in Hawaii after suffering a medical emergency. The “Walker, Texas Ranger” alum, 86, was on the island of Kauai when the incident occurred, TMZ reported Thursday. However, the nature of the incident remains unclear. Norris bounced back immediately as insiders told the outlet that he is in good spirits. A rep for Norris wasn’t immediately available to Page Six for comment. The martial artist proved he’s still in great shape as he celebrated his birthday on March 10 with a private outdoor boxing lesson. “I don’t age. I level up,” he said in a video shared via Instagram. “I’m 86 today! Nothing like some playful action on a sunny day to make you feel young.”

“I’m grateful for another year, good health and the chance to keep doing what I love,” Norris continued. The actor expressed his gratitude to the “best fans in the world,” concluding, “Your support through the years has meant more to me than you’ll ever know.” The “Way of the Dragon” star often shares his workouts online, and recently posted a photo of himself flexing his bicep while hitting the gym in November. “Here’s a photo I took several months ago,” he captioned the snap. “Progress isn’t measured by perfection, but by the courage to keep going.” Norris reassured his 2.8 million followers that he was “still setting goals, pushing forward and choosing discipline over comfort.” “No matter your age, keep striving for the best version of yourself,” he added. The “Invasion U.S.A.” star also posts footage of himself horseback riding, hiking and weight lifting.

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Northside ISD has nearly $200 million in 2022 bond project 'on hold'

Nine school improvement projects totaling nearly $200 million from Northside Independent School District’s2022 bond issue are “on hold” with no indication of when the projects will be built. Just four years after its nearly $1 billion bond election,San Antonio’s largest school district intends to seek voter approval in November on a bond package for security upgrades and other improvements. Northside’s Building Committee got an update Wednesday on the $198.47 million in projects that were approved nearly four years ago but have not since been executed. Superintendent John Craft told a panel of trustees he wants to “be careful in not putting millions and millions of dollars into these facilities and then having to come back in a very short amount of time (and saying), 'Well, we really need more science labs.'

The delayed projects were slated for elementary campuses across the district and meant to replace outdated school facilities and upgrade HVAC and ventilator systems. “I will still stand fast in saying by holding just a little bit until we have really clear visioning as to what needs to happen at the campuses, we’re going to be better off in the end,” Craft told board trustees who will soon nominate community members to serve on a Citizen Bond Committee. This committee will help shape the district’s ask to voters in an anticipated November election.The district is considering whether to ask voters Nov. 3 for a 3-cent increase to its tax rate, which is currently at $1.0049 per $100 valuation of property. Northside officials arealso studying the potential for a $400 million bond issue to target priorities in a facilities wish list that exceeds$2 billion in value. Craft emphasized that the nine schools with projects on hold are not “on the fringe” or at risk of closure. As Northside ISD grapples with a looming budget deficit and declining enrollment now at about 97,600 students, district officials have emphasized the need to “optimize” operations, something that may eventually result in campus closures.

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San Antonio, Medina County continue to attract data centers

The San Antonio area, and a booming Medina County to the west of the Alamo City, continue to attract Amazon and Microsoft Data Centers. Recent filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation show Microsoft plans to construct two additional data centers at its location on County Road 381 in the community of Rio Medina at a cost of $52 million. Work on both additions starts this spring and should be completed within a couple of years. Combined, they will cover nearly half-a-million square feet.

Meanwhile, similar filings find Amazon is expanding its data center presence in the San Antonio area with two of the facilities, both each well over 100,000 square feet. One will be built on the Southeast Side on Donop Road at a cost of $65 million and the other is planned on the West Side on Northwest Crossroads at a cost of $25 million. Their completion dates fall within the next two or three years. The demands such centers place on water for cooling and on electricity for power have become concerns for local residents, especially the demand on water in a time of drought. They are also known to be noisy to live around. The San Antonio City Council may formally address local policy for the industry this year. San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones told Texas Public Radio in February that such data centers are not going unnoticed at city hall. "We know these things are coming," she said. "That doesn't mean they can show up wherever they want to. We certainly have some say in that. And we want to make sure we are thinking about impact on utilities. And we're also thinking about what makes the best place in terms of location in the city."

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Texas judge issues restraining order against utility district involved with Islamic development

The acting board of directors for a North Texas utility district has been stopped in their tracks by a judge after the state accused them of illegally acting in support of a controversial Islamic development. The temporary restraining order issued Thursday follows a lawsuit from the attorney general's office, accusing the utility district of helping East Plano Islamic Center developers duck state regulation.

The TRO was issued by a district court in North Texas on Thursday, enjoining the Double R Municipal Utility District No. 2A of Hunt and Collin Counties ("Double R MUD") from taking actions in their board meeting scheduled for Friday, March 20. The defendants in the TRO, referred to as the "purported directs," are now barred from taking up or deciding on most of the agenda items they had planned. Those defendants, named as Yaneli Molina, Hatim Mahmoud Yusuf, Nadeem Ashraf Khan, Asim Hussain Khan, and Faisal Abbas, are accused of breaking portions of the Texas Water Code. The order says they "did not own taxable property within Double R MUD’s geographic boundaries as they existed prior to the purported annexation of lands on September 12, 2025." According to a previous state lawsuit, the MUD was inactive until September 2025, when developers involved in the Meadow, previously EPIC City, allegedly "engineered the takeover" of the district rather than creating a new one for the development. Paxton claimed this was to avoid state regulation, calling the actions "highly unusual."

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UNT cuts and consolidates 85 degree programs, certifications amid $45 million deficit

The university will begin eliminating and consolidating 85 degree programs and certificates in response to its current $45 million deficit. University President Harrison Keller and Provost Michael McPherson sent an official notice to students via email on March 19 stating the majors, minors and certificates that will be phased out or merged with others. “As the university addresses financial challenges, the difficult decision was made to begin the process of closing or consolidating a selection of academic programs,” said Melisa Brown, senior director of university relations, in an email to the North Texas Daily. “Programs were selected after a thorough evaluation of many factors, including student demand and enrollment trends, time to value, resource efficiency, and alignment with our university’s mission.”

Linked in the notice was the university’s Academic Programs Update that listed every upcoming degree program elimination or consolidation. It states “the most substantial change” is the Department of Linguistics merging with the Department of World Languages. With the merger of the two departments alongside other cuts, the College of Information recorded 15 total degree program changes. That is the second most among the university’s impacted colleges behind the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which saw 34 changes. Linguistics senior Sage Smith said they learned of their department being phased out in the email sent to all university students. Smith said when they opened the email, they were not expecting to see that their program will not exist in three years. “It just makes me really sad and disappointed,” Smith said. “So, just seeing that a program that means so much to me and to my friends, peers and my professors is just really upsetting. The university added the M.S. in Linguistics in the 2024-25 school year and it has since been removed in the recent department merger. Smith said they had planned to get their graduate degree at the university as it was one of the few universities in the state to offer the M.S. in Linguistics rather than only an M.A. The impacted programs will no longer accept new enrollments, though currently enrolled students will be able to complete their degrees. As for eliminations, there are 25 undergraduate minors and 21 graduate and 21 undergraduate certificates, three master's degree programs and the undergraduate Latino and Latin American Studies major.

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Rep. Julie Johnson demands answers in death of her constituent in ICE custody

Rep. Julie Johnson visited ICE’s Dallas field office on Monday, March 16, to demand answers regarding the death of Mohammed Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, who lived in her district. Paktiawal was an Afghan immigrant who worked with U.S. forces since 2006 in Afghanistan. He and his family were evacuated when the U.S. pulled out of the country. He died at Parkland Hospital a day after ICE had taken him into custody. “Paktiawal has a known criminal history including an arrest by local authorities for SNAP fraud, a felony, on Sept. 16, 2025,” ICE wrote in a press release. “He was arrested a second time for theft on Nov. 1, 2025.” Paktiawal lived in Richardson and was the father of six.

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Anderson County lands $16 billion gas power project in White House, Japan deal

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Thursday announced the building of a $16 billion natural gas generator to be located in Anderson County. This announcement was made during Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to the White House and is one of three new energy infrastructures in a $550 billion investment package pledged by Japan in October.

This natural gas-fired power generation hub operated by NextERA Energy Resources, is to have a capacity of up to 5.2 gigawatts of natural gas-fired generation, capable of serving up to 5 GW of large-load demand. In a statement on social media, Rep. Cody Harris, (R-Palestine) who was in Washington,D.C. for the meeting, said this project would bring 3,000 long-term, high paying jobs to the community and enable local taxing entities to slash property taxes. “This will be a massive investment in House District 8 which will have a multi-generational impact,” he stated. “Very exciting day for our area.” According to County Judge Carey McKinney, the Anderson County Commissioners Court had their first meeting with NextERA energy Tuesday and received preliminary information about the project. “We are still in the development stages, and we are going to have some more meetings and get more information, and talk about what this will do for the county,” McKinney said. The project is located in Precinct 2 Commissioner Rashad Mims portion of the Bethel Community which is split between Precinct 2 and Precinct 4.

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At 40, The Wittliff Collections remains a true Texas treasure

In the heart of Texas State University’s campus, on the seventh floor of the Alkek Library, resides a Texas-size treasure known as The Wittliff Collections. Stepping off the elevator, a polished sea of saltillo tile leads visitors through a labyrinth of exhibitions, where vestiges of the state’s artistic history and heritage shine like crowned jewels. Spanning literature, photography, music, and film, The Wittliff has become a world-renowned research archive, library, and rotating gallery space dedicated to preserving and sharing the cultural and creative legacy of Texas, as well as Mexico and the American Southwest. Despite this international reputation, however, many Texans remain unaware of the creative riches safeguarded in this San Marcos institution. “I think everyone should know about The Wittliff, yet I’m always surprised not everybody does,” says Carrie Fountain, The Wittliff’s literary curator and the 2019 State Poet Laureate. “We don’t want to be the best kept secret in Texas.”

Now, thanks to a monumental exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of The Wittliff, a new generation of Texans and travelers can come to know this revered site. The Spirit of The Wittliff in 40 Objects—on view through 2026—reveals 40 of the archive’s most unique and captivating objects that embody the collections’ storied soul, which originated from its founder and namesake, Bill Wittliff. Forty years ago, the late writer, photographer, and celebrated screenwriter of Lonesome Dove founded the Southwestern Writers Collection with his wife, Sally, after acquiring the literary estate of writer and folklorist J. Frank Dobie, including boxes of his personal papers, diaries, correspondence, and memorabilia, like his desk. Since donating their Southwestern literary manuscripts to the university in 1986, the archives have expandedto include the Southwestern and Mexican Photography Collection and the Texas Music Collection. Today, it comprises more than 500 collections, with writers like Sandra Cisneros, Larry McMurtry, Taylor Sheridan, Elizabeth Crook, and Stephen Harrigan, and musicians Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson among the many to have their works contained here.

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National Stories

US weighs military reinforcements as Iran war enters possible new phase

President Donald Trump's administration is considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its operation in the Middle East, as the U.S. military prepares for possible next steps in its campaign against Iran, said a U.S. official and three people familiar with the matter. The deployments could help provide Trump with ?additional options as he weighs expanding U.S. operations, with the Iran war well into its third week. Those options include securing safe passage for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a mission that would ?be accomplished primarily through air and naval forces, the sources said. But securing the Strait could also mean deploying U.S. troops to Iran's shoreline, said four sources, including two U.S. officials.

Reuters granted the sources anonymity to speak about military planning. The Trump administration has also discussed options to send ?ground forces to Iran's Kharg Island, the hub for 90% of Iran's oil exports, the three people familiar with the matter and three U.S. officials said. One of the officials said such an operation would be very risky. Iran has the ability to reach the island with missiles and drones. The United States carried out strikes against military targets on the island on March 13 and Trump has threatened to also strike its critical oil infrastructure. However, given its vital role in Iran's economy, controlling the island would likely be viewed as a better option than destroying it, military experts say. Any use of U.S. ground troops - even for a limited mission - could pose significant political risks for Trump, given low support among the American public ?for the Iran campaign and Trump's own campaign promises to avoid entangling the ?U.S. in new Middle East conflicts.

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Trump invokes Pearl Harbor in front of Japanese prime minister to defend Iran attack secrecy

In an apparent awkward moment at the Oval Office on Thursday stateside, U.S. President Donald Trump referenced Pearl Harbor in his first meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after her landslide electoral victory. When asked by a Japanese reporter on why the U.S. did not inform allies such as Japan before carrying out the attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, the U.S. president said it was to maintain the element of surprise. "Who knows better about surprise than Japan ... Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" Trump was referencing the surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1941, which saw the deaths of over 2,400 personnel and drew the U.S. into World War II. Takaichi appeared to draw a deep breath and lean back in her seat with an uneasy expression.

Trump said that the surprise attack on Iran had helped the U.S., adding that it "knocked out 50% of what we anticipated" in the country within the first two days. During the meeting, Trump praised Japan for "stepping up" to assist in efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz, "unlike NATO." Before the meeting, Japan, as well as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands had released a joint statement expressing their readiness to "contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait." Trump had called on Japan and other countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, but Takaichi had reportedly said Monday that there were no plans to dispatch naval vessels to escort boats in the Middle East. Her office also said in a post on X that there was "no specific request from the United States to Japan for the dispatch of vessels." Japan's prime minister on Tuesday said that the government was considering what could be done within the framework of the country's law. Japan's Self-Defense Forces are governed by its pacifist constitution, that renounces war and the threat or use of force for settling international disputes. Trump had taken aim at NATO allies earlier this week, saying that the alliance was "making a very foolish mistake" by not getting involved in the war. In response, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius reportedly said on Monday that "This is not our war, we have not started it," a stance that was also adopted by French President Emmanuel Macron. Subsequently, Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that "we have declared that as long as the war continues, we will not participate in ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait ?of Hormuz, for example, by military means," according to Reuters.

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Woman charged with murder after allegedly taking abortion pills, going to hospital

A Georgia woman has been charged with murder after going to the emergency room with severe pain she experienced after allegedly taking abortion pills at home. Alexia Moore delivered a 22- to 24-week-old fetus “with cardiac activity” in December, according to an arrest warrant, which cited Moore’s medical records. The newborn, a girl, died within an hour. Police questioned Moore, 31, in the hospital and charged her this month with felony murder — the first such charging, abortion advocates said, since Georgia instated a six-week abortion ban after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In the arrest warrant, police alleged that Moore’s pregnancy was “well beyond six weeks.” Other states have charged women who have abortions with murder or attempted murder since Roe’s fall in 2022, but few of those prosecutions have advanced far. In a similar case in Georgia, prosecutors in 2015 dropped a murder charge against a woman who took abortion pills.

“This is just yet another attempt to criminalize abortion by avoiding the actual limits of the law,” said Karen Thompson, legal director of the abortion rights advocacy group Pregnancy Justice. Moore is being held in jail in Camden County, Georgia, according to jail records. The Georgia Public Defender Council’s Brunswick Judicial Circuit office, which is representing Moore, declined to comment. Moore was transported to the Southeast Georgia Health System Camden Campus in late December after complaining of abdominal pain, according to an arrest warrant. She told medical staff that she was pregnant and took misoprostol pills to terminate her pregnancy, the warrant alleges. She also allegedly took oxycodone, a painkiller. A hospital security guard allegedly told officers from the Kingsland Police Department details of Moore’s pregnancy and abortion, according to a police report. In addition to murder, police also charged Moore with possession of a Schedule II controlled substance and possession of dangerous drugs.

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Father of service member killed in Iran war said he never told Pete Hegseth to 'finish' the job

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met privately Wednesday with the families of six service members who died in the Iran war and, in a press briefing the next morning, said the message he got was consistent and supportive. “What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, ‘Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done,’” Hegseth said. One of the people he met at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware was Charles Simmons. His 28-year-old son, Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, was among the six crew members killed when their refueling plane crashed in Iraq last week. Simmons recalled his exchange differently. “I can’t speak for the other families. When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about,” he told NBC News in an interview Thursday.

Simmons said he spoke separately to Hegseth and President Donald Trump at Dover and was grateful for the warmth that both men showed him. He and Hegseth spoke mostly about Tyler, his impressive service record and the speed with which he had advanced in the military, Simmons recalled. He said he told the defense secretary, “I understand there’s a lot of peril that goes into making decisions like this, and I just certainly hope the decisions being made are necessary.” Asked if he said anything to Hegseth or Trump about the need to keep fighting the war, Simmons said, “No, I didn’t say anything along those lines.” A 60-year-old music teacher in Columbus, Ohio, Simmons told NBC News that he has “questions” about the war and isn’t able to draw “definitive conclusions when I don’t have all the data.”

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From Bush to Obama to Trump, White House faith office persists at 25 years

Influenced by a prominent pastor and a layman who led a prison ministry, George W. Bush in his first presidential administration embarked on an ambitious goal: to partner the federal government with faith-based groups. The concept already existed during the Clinton administration through a federal welfare reform provision known as “charitable choice” that permitted religious organizations to receive government funding if they allowed their beneficiaries to receive social services without religious coercion. But Bush codified it with what was initially called the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House that included 11 Cabinet-level departments. “Government can hand out money, but it cannot put hope in a person’s heart or a sense of purpose in a person’s life,” became a Bush mantra.

In his 2010 memoir “Decision Points,” the former president credited Tony Evans, then the pastor of a predominantly Black church in Dallas, and Chuck Colson, Watergate felon-turned-evangelical advocate for prisoners, with helping him see the value of faith-based programs receiving government support. Now, 25 years later, all the Democratic and Republican presidential administrations that have followed included some form of the so-called White House faith-based office. Though some critiqued the office as inappropriate mixing of church and state, Bush argued in his memoir that “government need not fear religion” even as it “should never impose religion.” The Republican president aimed to create a nonpartisan initiative, choosing Democrats as the first two leaders appointed to direct the office: John DiIulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor, and Jim Towey, a former lawyer for Mother Teresa.

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Judge rules that R.F.K. Jr. overstepped on transgender care

A federal judge in Oregon ruled on Thursday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overstepped his legal authority when he declared last December that providers of gender-transition medical treatments for minors “do not meet professionally recognized standards.” The decision, a setback for the Trump administration, gives temporary relief to hospitals, clinics and health professionals who provide such treatments. In the weeks after Mr. Kennedy issued his written declaration, the Department of Health and Human Services indicated that it would investigate institutions that continued to prescribe medication to minors for gender transitions and would potentially bar them from receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funds. Twenty-one states, all led by Democrats, had filed a lawsuit over Mr. Kennedy’s issuing of the 12-page declaration, claiming that the statement interfered with the power of states to regulate the practice of medicine within their borders.

The declaration states that it “supersedes” statewide or national standards of care and that “sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors.” The states asserted that the federal government had attempted to unilaterally establish a national medical standard, violating the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires federal agencies to act within the bounds of authority delegated to them by Congress. The federal government countered that the states had failed to show they were harmed by Mr. Kennedy’s declaration, because no individual providers of gender-transition care have been barred from receiving Medicare and Medicaid at this point. In court documents, the federal government’s lawyers characterized Mr. Kennedy’s declaration as a “non-binding policy position” and likened it to an opinion piece in a publication: “Secretary Kennedy, just like anyone else, is entitled to articulate his opinion on the safety and efficacy of emerging and controversial medical practices,” the lawyers wrote. Gender transition treatments have been banned in 27 Republican-led states, but they are legal in the states bringing the lawsuit, which include Oregon, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. In some of those states, health care institutions that fail to offer the treatments may run afoul of state anti-discrimination laws.

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Inside JB Pritzker’s power play in Illinois’ Senate primary – and what it means for a 2028 run

The Illinois state troopers’ code name for Juliana Stratton, the lieutenant governor and the new Democratic nominee for US Senate, is Sprinter. Their code name for JB Pritzker, the governor who put his political capital and upward of $10 million behind getting her there, is Believer. There was Believer outside a school on the corner of 24th Street and South Millard on a Tuesday morning that had warmed up to 19 degrees. Carefully standing on the legal side of the blue cone that marked the boundary for electioneering, Pritzker talked up his candidate to each voter who passed or the preschool teachers who popped out to ask for selfies, even after Stratton had already headed back to the car. There were many doubters of Stratton’s chances, people who cited her seeming discomfort on the campaign trail, the huge campaign donations collected by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and the candidacy of Rep. Robin Kelly potentially splitting the Black vote.

“A lot of people have suggested that this election tonight was personal to me,” Pritzker, his voice hoarse from the final stretch, said as he introduced Stratton. “And I’m here to tell you all: They’re right, it was.” What played out in Tuesday’s Senate primary was more complicated than Stratton’s win being good news for Pritzker, though he can walk onto a future presidential debate stage and say he stood by the person who’d supported him for years, now on track to be only the sixth Black woman in the Senate ever. With many assuming Pritzker is at most a year away from launching a 2028 presidential campaign, this race was an early demonstration of what kind of larger operation he might run, with even eager “Pritzker for President” boosters worried he and his inner circle need to sharpen up ahead of a campaign when he won’t be the front-runner on his home turf. Pritzker and his aides push back on over-indexing on the Stratton campaign, but they argue it shows what he might carry forward into a presidential campaign: loyalty to those loyal to him among fellow politicians and operatives, a willingness from a hotel fortune heir to put his money to use, strength among less reliably blue voters and success despite early chatter about underperforming.

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The women leading the farmworker movement won’t let it be defined by Cesar Chavez

Monica Ramirez has spent much of her life spotlighting the pervasiveness of sexual violence against women farmworkers. She, like many in that movement, considered civil rights leader Cesar Chavez an icon. Since allegations came to light this week that Chavez sexually assaulted women and girls as young as 12 — including fellow movement leader Dolores Huerta — Ramirez and the larger farmworker community have been left reeling. Now, they’re trying to reconcile how this man who so many revered — whose name is on streets, schools and even a holiday — could perpetrate the violence that has plagued women farmworkers for decades. The community has been “shaken to its foundation,” said Ramirez, the founder of Justice for Migrant Women, a civil rights organization focusing on farmworker and migrant women. She and other leaders are now trying to push forward the farmworker movement and continue the work that many women — not just Chavez — spearheaded.

“The farmworker movement is a leaderful movement, and women have always been part of that leadership,” Ramirez said. But their work has often been made invisible, sometimes by the very men who stood beside them in building worker power for Latinx people in the United States. “In order to have a movement, in order to have a boycott, in order to organize any kind of action, it’s often women who are helping to organize the meetings, helping to bring their compañeras,” Ramirez said. Chavez was one of the most revered figures in the Latinx civil rights movement. The labor leader cofounded what became the United Farm Workers union alongside Huerta, and was most known for a series of strikes and protests that grew unionization efforts across California. After Chavez’s death in 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2014, former President Barack Obama designated his birthday, March 31, as a federal holiday to celebrate his legacy, which many states had already marked. Now, many of those celebrations are being canceled or renamed after a bombshell, yearslong investigation published by The New York Times Wednesday found evidence of a pervasive pattern of sexual abuse perpetrated by Chavez. Two women said Chavez sexually abused them for years as girls, when the organizer was in his 40s and had already become a powerful global figure. Ana Murguia said Chavez first assaulted her when she was 13; Debra Rojas was 12. In the years following the abuse, both suffered from depression, panic attacks and substance abuse.

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Lead Stories

Texas GOP lawmakers head to Washington for White House meeting

Close to 100Texas Republican state senators and representatives are scheduled to visit the White House Thursday for a meeting with members of President Donald Trump's cabinet. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, of Lubbock, and state Rep. Jared Patterson, of Frisco, who chairs the House Local & Consent Calendars Committee, are among the lawmakers set to attend the meeting. “It is an honor for the Texas Republican delegation to be invited to the White House to engage directly on the priorities shaping our state and nation under President Trump’s leadership," Burrows said in a statement. "Texas continues to lead with policies that expand freedom, strengthen opportunity, and drive prosperity—playing a defining role in America’s success."

The lawmakers are set to meet with are Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler. The White House has not said what they are planning to discuss with theTexas legislators. But a White House spokesperson said such meetings are not unusual as the administration looks at how states are "advancing President Trump’s policies." Article continues below this ad The visit comes as the Trump administration is trying to find ways to reduce costs on American families ahead of a midterm election where Republicans are defending slim majorities in the House and Senate. In the aftermath of the U.S. attack on Iran earlier this month, oil prices have jumped more than 30%, driving upnot only fuel prices but the cost of everything from food to air travel. Also among those expected to attend the White House meeting Thursday is state Sen. Bryan Hughes, of Tyler, who visited the White House in December for a summit on "stopping illegal immigration, deregulating energy, making our streets safe, ending woke extremist policies like DEI, and growing our economy," he wrote in a post on X at the time. "Texas is leading the nation on most of these issues, and this event provided some great ideas that we’ll get started on as soon as we get home to Texas," he wrote.

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Two Islamic schools approved for Texas school choice program after judge's order

The Texas Comptroller's Office has approved two Islamic private schools from North Texas to take part in the state's taxpayer-funded school choice program. The move comes one day after Houston federal judge Alfred Bennett ordered the state to consider the schools' applications – a step the schools say Texas had previously refused to take. Records from the comptroller's office, which oversees the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, show Excellence Academy, a private Islamic school in McKinney, has now been approved to participate. By Wednesday afternoon, the school appeared on the state's website of participating schools. Ehsan Sayed, a board member and graduate of Brighter Horizons Academy in Garland, told CBS News Texas on Wednesday afternoon that they had just learned the state had also approved their school.

"It's a big relief," Sayed said. "We were excited about the vouchers program when it was first even mentioned, years ago, by the governor, because it would really give our parents and families an opportunity to help with their private education." Sayed said his school has been around since 1989 and now has 1,200 students in its K-12 program. "It's a typical private school with all the subjects, all the wonderful recreational and after-school activities, with the addition of the religious curriculum and classes. And so, as you mentioned, we've been around for over 30 years, graduated hundreds. I want to say almost 800 alumni from the school to date. Just normal and everyday Texans." Sayed and other schools and parents sued the Texas Comptroller's Office. Their attorney, Maha Ghyas, told CBS News Texas that as many as 30 Islamic schools in Texas were blocked from taking part in the application process, which she said violated the Constitution and freedom of religion. "We believe it was on the basis of the Islamic faith that the school teaches."

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Resignation of top intelligence official exposes bitter MAGA-influencer divide

When Joe Kent resigned his post this week as the White House’s chief counterterrorism officer over his opposition to President Trump’s Iran war he appeared to be out of touch with MAGA world. But Kent’s antipathy for Trump’s Iran strikes—for which he blamed Israel and its lobbyists—has chimed with one vital constituency: an isolationist faction of leading influencers and stars of the conservative podcast arena where so much MAGA discourse transpires. Chief among them is Tucker Carlson, who hailed Kent on a live podcast on Wednesday evening, saying he hoped his resignation would be the “beginning of the long overdue truth telling.” Carlson also echoed Kent’s assertion that Israel was driving U.S. foreign policy. The White House has maintained that the war has widespread backing.

For a president who has enjoyed the adulation of conservative podcasters and celebrated their electoral influence, the criticism might prove uncomfortable. Nor is Carlson the only one now clashing with the administration over the war and the U.S.’s once-sacrosanct relationship with Israel. Megyn Kelly, the onetime Fox News personality who now has her own online platform, has also questioned whether the war is “good for America”—as has Candace Owens, another popular influencer who supported Trump in 2024 and has become a vociferous critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I don’t know how he cannot see how his base, his actual base, is reacting right now,” Owens said of the president during an interview on Wednesday. Kelly and Owens are among the many dissenting podcasters who invoke the late Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was close to Trump and credited with bringing a younger generation into the MAGA fold. Kirk argued against going to war with Iran before he was assassinated last September. Their criticism has prompted aggressive pushback by a band of pro-Israel MAGA rivals.

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Federal Reserve maintains rates and watches risks from Iran war

The Federal Reserve held rates steady for a second straight meeting, but Jerome H. Powell, the central bank’s chair, leaned into the uncertainty of the moment with the Iran war dragging on, energy prices surging and the labor market sending mixed signals. He repeatedly said it was too early to tell how the conflict would affect inflation and unemployment, although he acknowledged that the U.S. economy was still on relatively solid footing. According to projections released alongside the rate decision on Wednesday, most officials still expect at least one quarter-point cut this year even though they forecast a bumpier path to 2 percent inflation. Mr. Powell, downplaying how informative these forecasts are at the moment, noted that several policymakers said that if there were ever a meeting to skip releasing economic projections, “this would be a good one, because we just don’t know.”

The high degree of uncertainty from the war only adds to the complicated situation the Fed finds itself in as it contends with its goals of low, stable inflation and a healthy labor market now in tension with one another. “We are balancing these two goals in a situation where the risks to the labor market are to the downside, which would call for lower rates, and the risks to inflation are to the upside, which would call for higher rates, or not cutting anyway,” he said. Mr. Powell acknowledged that no policy action was off the table, and suggested there was still a path to cut so long as some progress was made on reducing inflation. “If we don’t see that progress, then you won’t see the rate cut,” he said. Mr. Powell, whose term as chair ends on May 15, provided some details about his future at the Fed. If no chair is confirmed before then, he said he would stay in the top job on a temporary basis. Though he can technically stay on as a governor until 2028, Mr. Powell said he would not leave the central bank so long as the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into renovations of the Fed’s headquarters continued. Mr. Powell declined to stay whether he would stay if the investigation was dropped.

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State Stories

Texas-led Congressional ‘Sharia Free America’ caucus membership is surging

Republicans in Congress are engaging in increasingly extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric, with little pushback from their own leadership. If anything, more lawmakers are seeking to join the chorus. But some in the party are beginning to wonder, is a renewed crusade against “Sharia law” actually what Republican voters are demanding? Since its founding in December, the Sharia Free America Caucus has ballooned in size from its two co-founders to 55 members as of this week. More are expected to join. The membership includes Rep. Andy Ogles, who recently said Muslims “don’t belong in American society.” Rep. Randy Fine, who said he’d choose dogs over Muslims, is a member, too. The caucus drew early support from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who recently shared a photo of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani alongside one of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and wrote that “the enemy is inside the gates.”

Membership has grown in recent months to include more mainstream Republican lawmakers like Reps. Monica De La Cruz, who is in a vulnerable seat this midterm cycle, and Mike Kennedy, who isn’t known for having a loud online presence. The founders of the caucus said the group is dedicated “to counter the alarming rise of Sharia in the United States.” “A lot of people have a heightened awareness that, look, those that are that radicalized, that’s problematic,” Rep. Randy Weber of Texas, who told NOTUS he’s joining the caucus in the coming days, said. “We’re trying to make sure we’re drawing attention to it, and we’re trying to prevent it.” “Actually, maybe there’s a third thing that we’re gonna do: Punish those who perpetrate that kind of evil on us. Those three things,” Weber continued. “No Sharia law. ’Cause I don’t know how much you know about Sharia law, but they can be pretty rough on the ladies.” Some lawmakers focused on Sharia law, however, admit their attention is outpacing their constituents’ concern, framing the movement as being more about “prevention” than any issue at hand. While multiple lawmakers told NOTUS they do hear from constituents about it, few were able to point to a specific situation driving that outreach.

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Police: Former judge Baird crashed car, showed signs of intoxication

Veteran Austin defense attorney and former judge Charlie Baird was arrested Tuesday night on a charge of driving while intoxicated after allegedly causing a crash in South Austin, according to a police affidavit. Baird, 71, was booked into the Travis County Jail at 12:59 a.m. Wednesday and later released on a $3,000 bond, jail records show. According to the affidavit, Austin police pulled Baird over around 10:30 p.m. after he crashed his vehicle into another car while attempting to turn left onto Menchaca Road from Slaughter Lane. Investigators allege Baird failed to yield to a driver crossing Menchaca, causing the collision.

Before the crash, a 911 caller reported that a driver matching Baird’s description was traveling on the wrong side of the road, ran a red light and struck curbs, the affidavit states. The arresting officer wrote that Baird showed multiple signs of intoxication, including a strong odor of alcohol, watery and glassy eyes and difficulty standing without assistance. The officer also noted that Baird “had no recollection of being involved in a collision,” according to the affidavit. “I just had too much to drink at my crawfish eatery,” Baird said. “Everyone’s safe, no one got hurt and we’re just going to go through the process from here.” Baird said he had been at Crawfish ATX in South Austin before being pulled over. He said he declined to provide a breath sample and that officers obtained a blood sample to test his blood alcohol level. He said he has not received the results. Baird declined to comment on the affidavit’s allegations and said he has not decided whether he will represent himself. Baird is a longtime figure in Texas criminal law. He served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 1991 to 1999 and later as judge of the 299th Criminal District Court in Travis County from 2006 to 2010. Since leaving the bench, he has worked as a criminal defense attorney in Austin and has frequently appeared in local media as a legal analyst. As a trial judge, he was known for emphasizing rehabilitation and alternative sentencing and presided over proceedings that led to the posthumous exoneration of Tim Cole.

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Texas Education Agency asks judge to dismiss suit alleging violation of educators’ free speech rights

Attorneys for the Texas Education Agency asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the agency – and its top leader – of weaponizing their investigative authority to silence educators’ protected speech. The lawsuit was filed earlier this year by the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers, after the TEA launched investigations into hundreds of complaints accusing educators of making “inappropriate” social media posts about the shooting death of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. In the latest filing, attorneys for the agency said a letter Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath sent to every superintendent in the state two days after Kirk’s death, instructing them to report educators who made “inappropriate” comments about Kirk, was taken out of context by the teachers’ union.

Morath said in the letter that the agency was made aware of some educators posting and sharing “reprehensible and inappropriate” content about Kirk, and told superintendents that any additional instances of “inappropriate content” should be reported to the agency. Morath later added educators found to have incited violence with their comments could face losing their teaching certification. Texas AFT said in its lawsuit that the investigations into educators were unlawful and that Morath’s letter had a “chilling effect” on its members’ political speech and presented a First Amendment concern. “[Morath] simply asked for referrals for investigation of anything the superintendents believed was not within the ethical boundaries for a public-school teacher of Texas’s children to publish to the world. Nothing more, nothing less,” Morath’s attorneys wrote in the filing. KXAN reached out to TEA for additional comments on the motion. A TEA spokesperson said “it can’t comment on pending litigation.”

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The fight to stay home: How a Texas lawsuit could upend disability care

In his homeschool curriculum, 12-year-old Luke Lunday is learning about Section 504, a cornerstone of disability rights. Championed by disability rights activist Judy Heumann, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is responsible for what’s known as the integration mandate, which requires that people with disabilities have access to services in their homes and communities, rather than an institution. It enables Luke, who has a rare genetic disorder and requires the daily aid of a nurse, to live at his Trophy Club home with his parents. A lawsuit filed by the state of Texas is challenging this cornerstone of disability rights; advocates say it could eliminate the kinds of services that people like Luke rely on for basic needs.

The end result of the suit, disability advocates say, is that people with disabilities could be at greater risk of being institutionalized, and might lose the right to receive services in their homes and communities. In its lawsuit, Texas v. Kennedy, Texas argues that updated rules for Section 504 are unconstitutional, and that the integration mandate “exceeds statutory authority and conflicts with federal law.” The state argues that the updated rule “creates a regime that is impossible for any State to fully comply with.” Disability rights groups throughout the country have voiced their opposition to the lawsuit. The Arc of Texas, which advocates for Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, sent a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton in February asking him to withdraw from the suit. The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. “We have expectations about [people with disabilities] living in the community, being part of the community, having supports,” said Claudia Center, the legal director for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. “This is an attack on that whole foundational understanding.”

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Texas officials are watching hotel demand closely as the World Cup kickoff approaches in three months.

Officials from the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau confirmed Wednesday that FIFA has dropped some rooms from its reserved hotel blocks ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Brent DeRaad, President & CEO of Arlington CVB, told NBC 5 he is still optimistic that the city's hotels "will fare well with FIFA groups and individual travelers." “Group room blocks are preferable due to a longer length of stay, but our hotels will adjust as needed to fill their rooms with FIFA fans," DeRaad said in a statement. Arlington is not the only host city seeing FIFA return room inventory.

Hoteliers in the San Francisco area reported "very lackluster" demand for reserved room blocks, according to Forbes. Demand for hotel room space is one of several indicators tourism officials in North Texas say they are tracking closely. Officials with Visit Dallas say they are seeing "encouraging demand" for hotels so far, with the average daily rate for rooms in June and July up 46% and 47%, respectively, compared to the same time in 2025. Additionally, international bookings into DFW International and Dallas Love Field are up more than 100%, officials say, reflecting that travelers are starting to plan for the World Cup. "We expect Dallas hotel performance to grow as the tournament approaches, as the majority of bookings will likely occur much closer to the event once teams, match-ups and ticket allocations are finalized," a spokesperson said. Arlington hosts its first of nine matches on June 14 at AT&T Stadium, renamed Dallas Stadium during the World Cup due to corporate sponsorship considerations. Tourism officials in Frisco say they are tracking demand closely too. A spokesperson for Visit Frisco said the officials there said two additional World Cup ticket allotments are still to come, and the city will learn which team will call FC Dallas stadium home as Team Base Camp on March 31. "We are optimistic that this will induce increased room demand," Kelly Walker with Visit Frisco said.

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Was Texas key to the Live Nation-Ticketmaster illegal monopoly settlement?

The criticism began immediately after the Justice Department announced terms of the settlement it had reached with with entertainment behemoth Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary, which it had accused of illegally monopolizing the live entertainment market. From Democratic senators to industry insiders, detractors came down hard on the deal. The federal government since 2024 had been seeking the breakup of what it calls a monopoly but came up short. Instead, the agreement would make Live Nation divest its assets in 13 amphitheaters — including the Germania Insurance Amphitheater in Austin. It would allow any ticketing company to operate and ticket at those 13 venues, create a $281 million settlement fund for states and, most importantly, force the end of exclusive ticketing deals with hundreds of other venues.

But while the federal government may be satisfied, many states’ attorneys general are not and the nearly two-year-old trial resumed Monday in a Manhattan courtroom. About 30 states are continuing the fight on their own to break up the company from Ticketmaster, which controls 80% of major concert venues’ primary ticketing. Texas isn’t among them. Though it joined the Justice Department suit in 2024, it now is among a handful of states that have reportedly expressed concerns about the agreement but are assessing options. Ironically, Texas may have been where the DOJ sought to leverage its power to flip a key witness — and where things fell apart. For now, though, if federal Judge Arun Subramanian approves the deal with the Justice Department, it will enter into a consent decree that the court will enforce. At that point, Live Nation will have 30 days to divest its interests in the 13 amphitheaters and end exclusive deals for Ticketmaster for the hundreds of other venues nationwide. It would be the third time since 2010 that antitrust enforcers have entered into a deal with Live Nation over its conduct in the live events market.

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United Methodist Church and SMU resolve legal dispute

United Methodist leaders and Southern Methodist University announced an agreement March 18 that ends their long-simmering legal dispute over the university’s ties to the denomination. Under the agreement, SMU has filed amended and restated articles of incorporation that provide clarity around its governance — and most critically, preserve its historic and ongoing relationship with the denomination’s South Central Jurisdictional Conference. Both institutions also affirm their shared commitment to the university’s mission and jointly agree to dismiss pending litigation.

“The board of trustees, the university, and I are pleased we have reconciled with the SCJC, and we very much look forward to a collaborative and enhanced relationship into the future,” Jay C. Hartzell, SMU’s president, said in a joint statement with the jurisdictional conference. He began his tenure at SMU last year when the lawsuit was already pending. The Rev. Derrek Belase, chair of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference’s Mission Council, offered a similar sentiment. The Mission Council — consisting of bishops, other clergy and lay people — makes decisions about the operations of the jurisdiction between conference meetings. “I am grateful for the spirit of collaboration shown throughout this process, and especially for the thoughtful engagement of President (Jay) Hartzell and Provost Rachel Davis Mersey as we worked toward this agreement,” Belase said. “These conversations have not only helped us address important matters but have allowed us to begin imagining what the future of this relationship can look like.”

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Texas can begin enforcing drag ban amid ongoing lawsuit

A Texas law banning some drag performances in public spaces goes into effect today, though a lawsuit challenging it is ongoing. State lawmakers passed Senate Bill 12 in 2023, restricting “sexually oriented performances” in public spaces or in front of children. A federal court declared the law unconstitutional, but after a lengthy court battle an appeals court last month ruled the state can enforce it. Brian Klosterboer, an attorney with the ACLU of Texas, which brought the lawsuit, said the law's wording is confusing. “That is still unconstitutionally vague and problematic because what is considered sexual or erotic is often in the eye of the beholder,” he said. According to Klosterboer, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled family-friendly drag shows such as the Woodlands Pride and Abilene Pride Alliance – the two plaintiffs in the case – are not affected by SB12.

SB12 is not limited to drag performance but any performance that someone can deem sexual, he said. “From a Shakespeare play to the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, this could have a dramatic and chilling effect on the performing arts all across Texas,” Klosterboer said. The penalties for an individual performer can be a year of jail time with a fine up to $2,000. Venues that host these shows can face a fine up to $10,000. According to the ACLU of Texas, “criminal penalties also do not apply on public property if the performance is “at a time, in a place, and in a manner that could [not] reasonably be expected to be viewed by a child.” Klosterboer said many businesses are already canceling performances because of fear of inadvertently violating the law and that the fines could be catastrophic. Supporters of SB12, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have said it’s a “major victory for Texas kids.” Critics say it portrays all drag performances as sexual or obscene. Klosterboer said the ACLU will continue the case in court. “We’re hopeful that we can get future court decisions that’ll protect even more types of drag shows,” Klosterboer said. “All of those very family-friendly, PG drag shows can still go forward.”

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Little news about Dallas Mavs, Stars in City Hall emails

Widespread speculation has tied Dallas City Hall’s future to new arena plans for the Dallas Mavericks, but a trove of city emails over the past year shows virtually no discussion linking the downtown site to the Mavericks or Stars. Instead, more than 5,000 pages of messages reviewed by The Dallas Morning News largely reflect routine outreach, event invites and one pointed warning from City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to the Stars hockey team over lease disputes. City leaders are weighing whether to repair, relocate or redevelop the aging I.M. Pei–designed City Hall, a decision with long-term implications for downtown. Consultants estimate $329 million in near-term repairs and more than $1 billion over 20 years to fully modernize the building. At the same time, the Mavericks are exploring sites for a new arena ahead of their 2031 lease expiration at the American Airlines Center, including downtown. That overlap has stirred talk that City Hall could become part of a larger redevelopment deal.

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The emails contain no detailed exchanges about arena negotiations, no plans tying a new venue to the City Hall site and no evidence of internal talks about demolishing the building for that purpose. Representatives for Tolbert didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Mavs, in a statement, said the team has been “exploring a long-term arena solution in Dallas” and has met with the city manager’s office to “evaluate opportunities and gather information.” A Stars spokesman on Wednesday declined to comment. Sparse contact with the Mavericks: The only direct touchpoints between City Hall leadership and the Mavericks appear in two undated calendar-style emails referencing a meeting and a lunch between Tolbert and Mavericks CEO Rick Welts. Neither includes an agenda or follow-up. The meeting invite also was also sent to Mark Boekenheide, senior vice president of global real estate development for Las Vegas Sands Corp. The company is owned by the same family that owns the Dallas Mavericks. Another email from a Mavericks official to Tolbert last year says the city manager and Welts had a meeting set for May 8. But it’s unclear if that meeting happened or is one of the ones referenced in the email invites.

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Dallas Mavericks CEO seeking 50 acres downtown for arena, but ‘time is not on our side’

Mavericks CEO Rick Welts says the team still wants a downtown arena, but with no land, no talks with City Hall and no design, the project remains in its earliest stages. The updates came during an interview with former Mayor Tom Leppert and Kyle Waldrep on the Intersections podcast released online this week. Among the highlights: Welts said the team needs roughly 50 acres, and “right now there aren’t 50 acres available downtown,” a limitation that effectively narrows the field for any urban site.

While he reiterated that downtown would be ideal, he emphasized it “is not the only place in Dallas we can build,” keeping options outside the core in play. The team previously has identified the former Valley View Mall site as a possibility. The Mavs lease on their current home, American Airlines Center, runs through 2031. For all the attention on a potential City Hall redevelopment, Welts said the Mavericks have not even begun substantive talks with the city. “We haven’t even been able to talk to the city about what that deal would look like,” he said, adding that the arena itself has not yet been designed, another sign the effort is still conceptual. Welts described a broader mixed-use vision for any 50-acre site, anchored by a new arena, team headquarters and a practice facility. Beyond that, he pointed to other elements tied to the development, including a training complex that “probably would include a medical facility run by a medical company you’re very familiar with.” He also cited interest from Live Nation in building a 4,000- to 5,000-seat venue and in having a four-star hotel connected to the arena so performers and players could move between the two without leaving the building. Welts said dense, urban locations deliver the greatest payoff, saying such projects “are incredibly successful in a dense environment” and can serve as a catalyst for surrounding development. But he also signaled urgency, noting “time is not on our side.” He said that while a downtown site like City Hall is “a very viable option,” the team has no control over it and cannot negotiate unless it becomes available.

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The present danger of foster care in North Texas

After observing foster-kid caseworkers—often inadequately trained, overwhelmed, and tardy to proceedings—during about 40 court hearings in Dallas County this month, it was no surprise the state acknowledged in a court filing Monday that children are in peril. Since the nonprofit Empower won the contract in February 2023 to provide case management services for nine local counties, including Dallas and Collin, its systemic failures have created what the legal filing calls “an imminent danger to the children under conservatorship.” The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services cites the deaths of two children and hospitalization of a third as among the reasons for a court to appoint an outside receiver to oversee Empower’s work on behalf of kids living in foster care in those counties. According to the filing, the children who died were three weeks old and two months old; the age of the hospitalized juvenile was not disclosed, nor were the counties where the incidents occurred.

No cases of the magnitude detailed by the state came to light during my time in a Dallas County courtroom. But in at least half of the proceedings I watched, Empower fell short of meeting educational, medical, or therapeutic needs and of offering appropriate services to the children’s caregivers, whether that be a foster home or kinship placement. Small but pernicious problems emerged each day I sat in Judge Delia Gonzales’ Child Protection and Permanency Courtat the George Allen Courts Building in downtown Dallas. Gonzales’ questions to caseworkers revealed months-long gaps without action on vital items such as securing birth certificates or foster-home licenses. Her queries about the status of crucial paperwork led to prolonged silences as caseworkers and their supervisors searched their phones for records. Hearings often turned into tutorials delivered by the judge to Empower employees on how to process forms or where to secure benefits. Other times Gonzales and her staff tried to troubleshoot problems that should have been resolved before the court date. When all else failed, the judge issued formal orders to ensure a caseworker provided options for basic services that families had repeatedly asked the contractor to help with. She ruled several times that “no reasonable effort” had been made on a case, which can delay Empower’s access to federal funds.

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Gov. Abbott says Texas will stop observing César Chávez Day amid abuse allegations

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the state will no longer observe César Chávez Day, citing newly surfaced allegations of sexual abuse against the late labor leader. In a social media post on Wednesday, Abbott said he has directed state agency heads to stop observing the March 31 holiday, which honors the civil rights leader’s role in organizing farmworkers and advocating for labor protections. The holiday is recognized as a federal commemorative holiday and is observed in several states, including Texas. Abbott said he plans to work with lawmakers to remove it from state law “altogether” during the Texas Legislature’s next session in 2027.

“Reports of the horrific and widely acknowledged sexual assault allegations against Cesar Chavez rightfully dismantle the myth of this progressive hero and undermine the narrative that elevated Chavez as a figure worthy of official state celebration,” Abbott said Wednesday. The move follows recent reporting by The New York Times that outlined years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse tied to Chávez, including allegations involving two minors. The allegations have already sparked backlash across Texas, with organizers canceling César Chávez Day events in cities like Houston, San Antonio and Austin. Some advocates and officials have also raised the possibility of renaming streets across the state that bear his name.

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FEMA awards $65 million to Houston for public safety ahead of FIFA World Cup

Three weeks after the city's host committee for the FIFA World Cup signed onto a letter expressing concern about possible delays in funding, Houston was awarded $65 million in federal dollars this week to cover public safety initiatives tied to the massive sporting event. Mayor John Whitmire's office confirmed the award to Houston Public Media on Wednesday, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced $625 million in public safety grants for the 11 host cities across the U.S. A spokesperson for Whitmire said the approximately $65 million for Houston will be used for overtime, personnel, technology and equipment for the police and fire departments, as well as "regional law enforcement agencies working for the FIFA World Cup."

In late February, Politico reported host cities penned a letter to the White House's FIFA task force emphasizing "the importance of finalizing and resolving any administrative concerns regarding the distribution of FIFA World Cup security grants" amid the ongoing partial government shutdown. A spokesperson for Houston's host committee confirmed local officials signed onto the letter but otherwise did not immediately comment on the situation. A spokesperson for the White House FIFA task force said, in a statement to Houston Public Media, "Host cities have received guidance and are receiving support from FEMA throughout the reimbursement process." In a press release, FEMA senior official Karen Evans said, "The 2026 FIFA World Cup is expected to be the largest sporting event in history, so it must also be the most secure." According to Governor Greg Abbott's office — which will oversee the grant program — the state is slated to receive $116 million from FEMA, on top of a previously awarded $30 million to address threats posed by drones. The first match in Houston between Germany and Curaçao kicks off on June 14. On the same day, the Netherlands and Japan will face off in Dallas. The Houston Police Department expects about half a million people from the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Curaçao, Uzbekistan, Cabo Verde, Saudi Arabia and other countries to flood the city in June and July.

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National Stories

Mullin's testimony is giving new life to DHS shutdown talks

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, pledged at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that DHS would revert to the practice of requiring judicial warrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter homes and businesses under his leadership. That’s a change from outgoing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure and fulfills a key demand from Democrats, who remain in talks with the White House to reopen DHS. The shutdown entered a second month with little sign of movement. Democrats continue to insist that reforms of ICE and Customs and Border Patrol be included in any funding bill to reopen the agency. “I have made it very clear to the staff,” Mullin said, “that a judicial warrant will be used to go into houses or to place of businesses unless we are pursuing someone who enters into that place. I have not minced words with that and I haven’t changed my opinion on that.”

But Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who asked Mullin for his stance on the use of warrants during the hearing, told NOTUS that change isn’t likely to be enough to convince his party to shift their position on the shutdown. Mullin and the White House would have to fulfill the rest of the Democrats’ demands, which include prohibiting ICE officers from wearing masks and an end to roving patrols, for Blumenthal to vote to fund the agency, he said. He added that he expected the rest of the caucus to agree. Any DHS funding bill needs 60 votes, mandating some bipartisan support. “It’s one of the reforms that we’re seeking but by no means all of the basic changes in policy and practices that are necessary for this agency to be lawful,” Blumenthal said, adding he “doesn’t know” if Mullin will help negotiations proceed at a faster pace. A senior White House official said that Mullin’s stance on judicial warrants is proof that he will lead the department differently than Noem, and the shift on the issue was blessed by the White House itself.

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Are College Republicans OK?

Over the past few weeks, a growing contingent of far-right campus Republicans have encountered pushback to their extremist views—including from other conservative students. Earlier this month, The Miami Herald exposed hundreds of racist, homophobic, sexist and antisemitic messages written by some college Republicans at Florida International University in a group chat they referred to as “Nazi Heaven.” The Florida Federation of College Republicans (FFCR)—a moderate organization affiliated with the National Federation of College Republicans—condemned the messages as “sickening, abhorrent and completely unacceptable” and said “such rhetoric does not reflect the values of the party.”

Last week, a group called the Georgetown University College Republicans wrote in a now-deleted post on X that “Muslims have no place in American society. Their religion is incompatible with our Christian Nation.” The university is investigating; leaders of the group said the post was made without their permission and “was inconsistent with the values of our organization.” And last Saturday, the University of Florida announced plans to deactivate the UF College Republicans at the request of the FFCR, which alerted university officials to a 2025 picture of a UF College Republicans member making a Nazi salute. In a statement, the university said it “emphatically supported its Jewish community and remains committed to preventing and addressing antisemitism and other forms of discrimination.” But the UF College Republicans wrote on X that because they’re not affiliated with the FFCR—they are instead a member of the separate College Republicans of America—the state organization doesn’t have the authority to deactivate the group, and they accused the entity of a pattern of lying “to silence christian [sic] conservative groups on campus.” On Monday, the UF College Republicans filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging that it violated the club’s First Amendment rights and engaged in “viewpoint discrimination” when it deactivated the club “to silence” and “chill its future speech.”

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Intel chief Gabbard declines to say if Iran posed an 'imminent threat' to U.S.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declined to say if Iran’s nuclear program presented an “imminent threat,” deflecting questions from lawmakers about whether U.S. intelligence backed up White House statements on the rationale for starting the war. Gabbard’s congressional testimony Wednesday at an annual hearing on worldwide threats came a day after a top deputy, Joe Kent, resigned in protest over the Iran war, saying that the Tehran regime posed no imminent threat and the joint U.S.-Israeli air campaign was unnecessary. Kent and Gabbard, both military veterans, had found political common ground over their opposition to foreign military interventions and “regime change” wars like Iraq and Afghanistan. Gabbard has not publicly endorsed the decision to go to war, staying mostly silent on the U.S.-Israeli air campaign that began on Feb. 28.

Her appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee took place as the war entered its third week, with no clear end in sight. The White House has offered shifting rationales for launching the offensive, and Iran has retaliated, essentially shutting down a critical passageway for commercial shipping. The conflict has triggered a spike in gas prices, creating political problems for President Donald Trump at home ahead of the congressional midterm elections in November. Gabbard's reluctance to offer a full-throated endorsement of the president’s decision to wage war on Iran, unlike other Cabinet officials, raised fresh questions about her standing in the administration. In her opening statement, Gabbard omitted language included in her written remarks saying that Iran had not tried to rebuild its uranium enrichment capability after U.S. air strikes in June. “Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability,” her prepared remarks read, according to her written statement posted on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s website. That assessment appeared to contradict Trump, who has said Iran was working to rebuild its nuclear program.

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After Trump’s Interior Secretary transferred thousands of staff to his office, chaos followed, former workers say

One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, the Department of the Interior is in turmoil, hobbling many of the agencies overseeing the country’s public lands and waters. Not only has Interior lost some 11,000 employees, or more than 17 percent of its workforce, it is also reeling from a drastic centralization of personnel: Last May, almost 5,500 staff from the department’s component agencies were moved into the office of the Interior secretary, Doug Burgum. That shift has created a hostile work culture, made staff less efficient and broken important lines of communication, former Interior employees say. According to an Inside Climate News analysis of federal workforce data released by the Office of Personnel Management, almost 1,800 workers have left Burgum’s office since the reorganization—the vast majority opting to retire or quit.

As a whole, the federal workforce shrank by about 12 percent in the first year of the second Trump administration. Some parts of the government, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, which shed 24 percent of its employees, have suffered bigger losses. But Burgum’s reorganization is unique, with wide ripple effects. Under an order signed on April 17, Burgum confirmed plans to absorb administrative staff from Interior’s component agencies, including workers responsible for human resources, training, information technology, contracting and communications. The Inside Climate News analysis shows sudden staff losses in the next month at agencies including the Bureau of Reclamation; the U.S. Geological Survey; the Bureau of Land Management; the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement; and the Fish and Wildlife Service that correspond to the swelling of Burgum’s own staff. The stated goal was efficiency. “This unification effort will accelerate technology advancements and enhance the Department’s ability to deliver on our core mission,” Burgum’s order said. But Interior staff reorganized into Burgum’s office who later left say they encountered a hostile, inefficient work culture designed to push people out. Russell Vought, the powerful director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, said in a private speech between Trump’s two terms that “we want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected” by going to work, ProPublica reported in 2024.

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FBI investigating Kent over allegedly leaking classified information

The FBI is investigating Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned earlier this week over opposition to the U.S. ongoing war with Iran, over allegedly leaking classified information, The Hill’s sister network confirmed on Wednesday. The agency’s probe was underway before Kent, a top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, announced his resignation from the post on Tuesday, arguing that Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the U.S. and urging President Trump to change course regarding the Middle East conflict, a source told NewsNation. The FBI declined to comment when reached by The Hill.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced Kent’s comments around the decision to launch strikes against Iran on Feb. 28 as “insulting and laughable.” “I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “When I read his statement I realized it’s a good thing that he’s out, because he said Iran is not a threat.” Semafor first reported on the existence of the probe into Kent, who on Wednesday sat for an interview with right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson, who similarly has voiced opposition to the U.S.’s war against Iran. “The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” Kent told Carlson. “Which we knew would set off a series of events, meaning the Iranians would retaliate.” The president, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top U.S. officials have argued that hitting Iran was necessary because Tehran posed an imminent threat to American national security. “That just simply did not exist,” Kent told Carlson during the wide-ranging interview.

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Detained pregnant people are entitled to full medical care. They say it’s not happening.

Amanda Isabel Fanego Cardoso was about 11 weeks pregnant when she was detained last September, then transferred between five immigration facilities over several months. Because her medical care was so limited, she said, it was only after her release this February that she learned she had developed potentially life threatening pregnancy-related conditions. Cecil Elvir-Quinonez was about eight weeks pregnant and still breastfeeding her 5-month-old when she was detained in January. She received emergency room care on January 6 after experiencing heavy bleeding and cramps in federal custody. The next day, she was transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana, where, though her bleeding continued, she received no follow-up medical attention or prenatal visits, according to her family. A pregnant woman in Minnesota was pulled over by immigration officials on her way to work in January. While detained, she developed abdominal pain, according to her lawyer. She, her husband and two children were sent to a Texas detention facility that did not have an OBGYN on staff.

Government detention standards say that when pregnant people are detained, they should receive comprehensive health care, including routine prenatal visits, specialized follow-ups if needed, prenatal vitamins and proper nutrition and exercise. But court documents and interviews with pregnant detainees and immigration attorneys across the country paint a different picture: Pregnant people in detention facilities say they are receiving sporadic medical visits and slow or limited medical care even when they experience bleeding, pain and other complications that could threaten their pregnancies. Some who have received medical visits say they were not given test results. Allegations of improper medical care for pregnant people are piling up. The 19th has spoken to two women who were pregnant while detained and four attorneys whose clients were pregnant while detained, and reviewed court records related to another similar case from last summer. A new report suggests that lack of medical care is endangering pregnant immigrants, who suffer complications in detention and do not receive timely treatment. For a report published Wednesday from two advocacy groups, the Women’s Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights, researchers traveled to Honduras to spend a week interviewing recently deported people, including three women who were “visibly pregnant” and four who said they were recently postpartum.

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Copyright March 27, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved