Lead Stories

John Cornyn stands by criticism of Ken Paxton as unfit for office

Sen. John Cornyn will support the “Republican ticket” in November, but he said Monday he still believes Attorney General Ken Paxton is a crook who is unfit for office and will put the seat at risk in November. “I stand by everything I said during the whole campaign,” Cornyn told reporters as he returned Monday to the Capitol where he has represented Texas for nearly a quarter century. Cornyn lost to Paxton by a wide margin in last week’s Republican runoff, the end of a year-long primary battle featuring brutal attacks between the two rivals. Cornyn and his allies spent heavily on ads hammering Paxton over alleged personal and professional misconduct.

Paxton, who has denied wrongdoing, ran a campaign that leveraged his support among the conservative grassroots. He focused on criticizing what he said has been Cornyn’s disloyalty to President Donald Trump, who endorsed Paxton in the final days of the runoff. Paxton faces Democrat James Talarico, a state representative from Austin, in the general election. Paxton is expected in Washington this week to meet with leading Republicans and raise money for what is likely to be an expensive campaign. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Talarico has shown he can galvanize his base and raise massive amounts of money – including $27 million in the first three months of 2026. Raising money could be a challenge for Paxton, who was vastly outspent in the primary. Cornyn has functioned as a kind of gatekeeper to many deep-pocketed Republican donors in Texas. He said Monday he will look to help with races in states such as Maine, Alaska and Michigan.

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Ballroom? Weaponization funds? Battleships? The Trump losses keep piling up

President Donald Trump is suddenly taking losses from his own friends and allies, especially on Capitol Hill. GOP lawmakers are bucking Trump on his White House ballroom, shelving plans to spend $1 billion to secure the new facility and other areas of the presidential compound. The “Trump battleships” are steaming into a wave of skepticism at the House Armed Services Committee as lawmakers prepare to mark up the FY2027 defense authorization bill this week. (All puns intended.) The House may vote this week on a discharge petition for a Ukrainian aid bill that Trump is certain to oppose. Several dozen House Republicans could back the measure anyway. And after Trump — bogged down in negotiations to end the war with Iran — said Israel had agreed to halt its military assault against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared he’d continue IDF operations in the southern part of the country. Trump reportedly yelled at Netanyahu over the offensive.

Most prominently, Republicans are also in the process of killing Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, a direct rebuke to the president. Trump and Hill Republicans are trapped in a dangerous paradox. Trump’s political endorsement is worth more than ever in GOP primaries, yet his legislative agenda and fixation on personal projects are growing more toxic heading into the fall campaign season. As more Republicans move past their primaries, they’re suddenly finding it advantageous to oppose him. Senate Republicans remain far short of the votes needed to begin floor consideration of their $70 billion reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol. GOP leaders will make a decision today about whether it’s possible to pass the bill this week, but that’s looking increasingly unlikely. At least a dozen GOP senators said Monday that the White House’s attempt to quell the uproar over Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund wasn’t enough to win their support for advancing the immigration-centric package — something that should unify them. In a statement, the Justice Department vowed to honor a federal judge’s approval of a temporary restraining order that paused the fund until June 12. But the statement said nothing about how the administration would handle the fund beyond that deadline.

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Abbott campaigns against Talarico as he tries to lift Texas GOP ticket

In the days after the primary runoff, Gov. Greg Abbott was urgently working to mend fences among the state’s fractured GOP and sounding the alarm to supporters that they need to take this cycle seriously. He called on Republicans to back the entire party slate — even candidates he had campaigned against in the hotly contested primaries. “This year is unlike any other, and we MUST unite,” Abbott wrote in a fundraising memo. It is the latest example of how the Republican governor has cemented himself the leader of the state party as he has amassed a campaign war chest unlike any seen before. In a campaign cycle that is widely expected to be bruising for Republicans, as voters have soured on President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy and war in Iran, Abbott will likely be relied upon more than ever.

The governor is already setting the tone for the GOP. Abbott faces state Rep. Gina Hinojosa as he seeks a record fourth term in the governor's mansion. But since March, he has focused his fire on James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, and rarely, if ever, mentioned his own opponent. The Republican governor has said Talarico “doesn’t share Texas values,” “needs to learn the definition of ‘humanity’” and suggested the Austin Democrat “could win in Minnesota, but not in Texas.” “Talarico can run for U.S. Senate. But he can't run from his record,” Abbott wrote in a recent post on X. It’s part of a strategy aimed at lifting an entire GOP ticket with at least a couple statewide candidates who Democrats think they have a real shot at beating — including Attorney General Ken Paxton right at the top. By focusing on Talarico, Abbott avoids drawing attention to his lesser-known opponent, while making the case to voters that Democrats on the ticket are too extreme. Talarico “is a piñata that is just such an easy target,” said Dave Carney, Abbott’s political consultant. “He is the leader of their band of misfits and they are just totally out of step.”

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Democrats fret Graham Platner could cost them — and not just in Maine

Graham Platner’s latest scandal has Democrats questioning whether the once-hyped candidate could end up weighing down their midterm chances. Platner is all but certain to be Democrats’ Senate nominee to face Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)after next week’s primary, with Gov. Janet Mills having suspended her campaign in April. But the litany of potentially damaging stories keeps growing, with new reporting over the weekend that Platner exchanged sexual text messages with other women while he was married. The revelation, which follows scandals related to his offensive old Reddit posts and his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol, are leading some Democrats to question whether Platner undermines their credibility in going after Republicans on issues of moral character. Even as Democratic senators publicly defend him, strategists worry whether Platner will be able to keep withstanding the ongoing drip of revelations about his controversial past — and about what might come out next.

“Up until now, the things that have come out, most Mainers have been pretty forgiving — enough to force out a sitting governor in a primary,” said Chuck Rocha, a longtime Democratic strategist who is advising multiple Senate campaigns but is not involved with Platner’s bid. “The thing that bothers me about Graham is every week it seems like it’s something else. … I worry because I have the scars of trying to beat Susan Collins for many cycles.” In Maine, where Democrats are also hoping to hold onto the GOP-friendly 2nd Congressional District and the governor’s mansion, strategists fret that the Senate candidate — who has appeared on the campaign trail with other Democrats this spring — could harm more than he helps come November. “Is he going to be an albatross to run with? Absolutely,” said one Maine Democratic strategist, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “He’s going to lose. All these polls showing him up against Susan Collins — people forget that the voters who decide this race make their decisions in the last two weeks.”

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State Stories

Nate Cohn: A blue Texas may be more than a dream for Democrats

Could Texas really turn blue in 2026? While it’s tempting to be skeptical, a blue Texas is increasingly easy to imagine. It’s even easier to imagine after Ken Paxton’s victory over John Cornyn, the incumbent senator, in the Republican primary runoff on Tuesday night. That’s partly because Mr. Paxton, the state attorney general, has distinct political liabilities. He’s faced investigation, indictment, impeachment and a messy public divorce. But there’s another reason Democrats might pull off a statewide win for the first time in three decades: demographics. Texas is one of the most diverse states in the country, and national polls show Democrats surging back in support among young and nonwhite voters — and especially Hispanic voters.

On paper, these national demographic trends ought to send Texas racing toward the left and into contention. Add in Mr. Paxton’s nomination and you can start to see how Democrats could flip Texas this fall. After a decade of big talk from Democrats about Texas, it’s understandable that people could harbor some doubt about flipping the nation’s largest red state. Judging by presidential election results, Democrats barely made any progress at all: President Trump won Texas by almost 14 percentage points in 2024. But beneath the state’s stable Republican voting record, extraordinary demographic shifts have put Texas Republicans in a much more vulnerable position. To an extent few would have imagined a decade ago, Texas’ status as a reliably Republican state now depends on elevated levels of support among Hispanic voters. In the latest national polls, Mr. Trump’s gains among Hispanic voters have vanished — and the Republican grip on Texas is in danger as a result. The latest New York Times/Siena poll is representative: It shows Democrats ahead by 30 points, 54 percent to 24 percent, among Hispanic registered voters nationwide. That’s better than Joe Biden’s margin in 2020 and getting close to Hillary Clinton’s margin in 2016.

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U.S. House Democrats target Texas AG Ken Paxton over ActBlue lawsuit

The top Democrats on three U.S. House committees are going after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, accusing him of ignoring consumer complaints about the Republican organization WinRed's online fundraising tactics, while filing a lawsuit against the site's Democratic counterpart ActBlue. The lawmakers — U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Robert Garcia of California and Joseph Morelle of New York — have demanded his office turn over any documents related to complaints about WinRed's use of a pre-checked box to draw repeated campaign donations from donors without their knowledge. "While you have done nothing to investigate dozens of such complaints from Texans about being defrauded by WinRed, the platform used to process campaign contributions to Republican candidates and political committees, your office has opened an investigation into an unrelated entity, ActBlue, which processes donations to Democratic candidates and causes," the lawmakers said in a letter to Paxton, who on Tuesday became the Texas Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.

The letter cites a May 12 report by Hearst Newspapers that 27 complaints had been filed with Paxton's office against WinRed, a platform he and other Texas Republicans use to raise campaign funds. Several complainants told Hearst that they had received no acknowledgement from the attorney general's office, despite some saying that the fundraising platform had siphoned much of their life savings from their bank accounts. The letter, signed by Raskin of the House Judiciary Committee, Garcia of the Oversight and Government Reform and Morelle of the House Administration Committee, asks Paxton to turn over complaints and related internal communications by June 8. However, because Democrats are in the minority in the House, they have no formal power to force compliance by Paxton or his office. Paxton's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The letter comes as the Texas race for U.S. Senate shifts into high gear. Talarico, a state representative of Austin, has acknowledged that his remarks might come off as "cringy," and has hammered Paxton over his 2023 impeachment by the Texas House on grounds that he used the attorney general's office to help a campaign donor. Hearst Newspapers found that Paxton's office had received dozens of complaints over recent years about WinRed from Texans, or family members on their behalf, who suspected the pre-checked box had allowed the platform to continue charging them for months, or even years. One donor said $15,000 had been taken from her account without her knowledge; another said nearly $11,000 had been taken from his account before he had noticed the missing funds.

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At largest rally yet, James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa up attacks on opponents

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa joined James Talarico on the campaign trail Monday evening in Plano for the only time on his “The People vs. Ken Paxton Tour.” The event touted over 4,000 attendees — the most yet at any of Talarico’s rallies. During her 15 minutes with the microphone, Hinojosa drove home two points: Governor Greg Abbott is corrupt and public schools are overdue for proper government support. Hinojosa was elected to the Texas House in 2016 to represent part of Travis County, though she never meant to run for anything. She was a mom who was angry about her son’s school being shut down.

“I was compelled to run for the school board to save our neighborhood schools. I ran, I won. We saved our schools in that fight for our public schools,” Hinojosa told the cheering Plano crowd. “That took me to the House, where I’ve been fighting Greg Abbott’s corrupt agenda for our schools and for our state ever since.” Hinojosa will be on the Nov. 3 ballot against Abbott, the 10-year Republican incumbent. She’s running because the promise of Texas she was raised knowing is not the reality Texans are living today. The last time Talarico rallied in the area was February, before he beat Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic bid. A few hundred people were in Dallas’s Longhorn Ballroom under the disco ball that night. The first bill Talarico said he would draft as senator would be an anti-corruption bill to achieve six main goals. The bill would overturn the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commissioner supreme court case that allows corporations and other outside groups to spend an unlimited amount of money on elections. It would also ban super PACs, bar politicians from insider trading, create term limits, overhaul the supreme court and end all gerrymandering. Talarico said the next action would be to “unrig this economy” in order to make the American Dream attainable again. Trickle-down economics is theft, he said. The theory suggests that financial benefits to corporations and the wealthy would ultimately benefit the working class.

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

Drilling company sought clearance to drill four locations near Oak Cliff apartment complex before explosion

The City of Dallas, with the help of Austin Street Center and multiple other agencies, began moving the former residents of The Clyde Apartments to new temporary housing on Monday while a clearer picture emerged of the events that led to last Thursday's deadly explosion and fire. "I'm still waking up thinking it's not what it is. But it's real," said Aleya Montana, who lost two dogs in the blast and subsequent five-alarm fire that destroyed the two-story structure and killed three residents. Montana is among the families in 19 apartment units temporarily housed at the Comfort Inn & Suites on Inwood Road in Dallas. With the help of Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul, the Red Cross, and Mission Oak Cliff, Austin Street Center is finding new apartments in the same general area of Dallas with 6-months free rent.

At the site of the explosion on E. 9th in Oak Cliff, Atmos Energy crews are still working to repair the gas line and restore service to the entire block, which remains closed between N. Denver St. and N. Patton Avenue. Most of the apartment debris has been piled into a corner of the lot where the building used to stand. The charred remains of the drilling rig suspected in the deadly explosion sit in a southeast corner. Online records from Texas811 show that "ECS" - Engineering Consulting Services - got clearance to drill soil tests at four specific GPS locations. As previously reported on WFAA, the current owner of the property was in discussions to sell the site for a larger development. The soil testing was being conducted at the request of the prospective buyer. Of the four drill locations identified, evidence of previous drilling can be found in the parking lot of the adjoining "Bonnie" apartments, a round asphalt patch surrounded by red spray paint that clearly denotes "ECS." Texas 811 records also show that at 12:57 pm Thursday that a "nicked" gas line with leaking gas was reported at the GPS location in front of The Clyde Apartments: BARBA Drilling identified as the contractor. The four soil test drill sites are identified by GPS as 1: 32.748976, -96.81924, 2: 32.74852, -96.81914, 3: 32.74911, -96.81973, and site 4: 32.74920, -96.82001. Online records show that "damage to gas line took place" a "nicked" gas line at GPS 32.74852, -96.81914, directly in front of the apartment complex.

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Most Texas companies are using AI — and some say it’s decreasing their need for workers

Texas executives say certain business tasks are being replaced by artificial intelligence, and 10% of the companies across the state using AI attribute it to a decreased need for human workers, according to a new survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The survey results, which were published in late May and came as part of a supplemental feature to the Dallas Fed’s widely watched monthly business outlook surveys, were based on responses from more than 300 executives across the state and offer rare insight into how the new AI reality is unfolding in one of the world’s largest economies. The survey also showed that two-thirds of Texas businesses are using AI to at least some degree, with executives overwhelmingly reporting productivity gains from employees who do.

“I think the big question in terms of the labor market is, ‘Is AI automating or augmenting workers?’ ” said Emily Kerr, a senior business economist at the Dallas Fed. “ ‘Is it replacing or enhancing workers?’ That’s like the big, open question. And from our survey over the past couple years, as we’ve been asking about this, the answer continues to be both.” The Dallas Fed survey’s release comes at a seemingly pivotal moment for the world-changing technology. Three-and-a-half years since the public release of ChatGPT, AI has remade stock markets, led to broad GDP gains and rearranged aspects of daily life for millions of people around the world. Yet in recent months so much exuberance has given way to what’s been dubbed an “AI backlash,” prompted largely by fears about widespread job losses as some corporate executives cite the technology for manpower reductions. Last month, days after Meta cut 8,000 workers as part of a larger pivot to AI, the pope published a 42,000-word encyclical calling for the technology to be “disarmed.” Big name tech founders have been getting booed at commencement speeches. A flurry of polling has shown Americans are increasingly more AI-pessimistic than optimistic.

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Laura Miller: Dallas must go strong mayor

I have seen City Hall inside and out. I have witnessed the best and worst of public service. I have both admired many of the people I wrote about and served with, and I have testified against others in criminal court and the court of public opinion. I have worked with the city’s most selfless business leaders and others who would suck the marrow out of their mother’s bones if it made them another dollar. I have marinated in this dysfunction for 40 years. And I have three conclusions: First, the council-manager form of government doesn’t work anymore. Second, our 14-1 City Council configuration, ordered by a federal judge in 1991 to increase minority representation, no longer works. Third, as a direct result of this, developers have filled the vacuum and are currently running our city. They build wherever they want, whenever they want to, no matter how inappropriate. They do it by flattering the people inside City Hall and by demonizing the ones outside of it. And the current sports arena pursuit is only the most brazen example.

We need wholesale change. AT&T is leaving downtown Dallas for Plano, and it’s not just the homelessness, lack of police presence, and general unresponsiveness to the company’s needs that sent it fleeing. Buried in the mountain of 5,000 emails released to the public several months ago was one from AT&T CEO John Stankey to the city manager, Tolbert, who was trying to convince him to stay: “My concerns transcend the immediate issues and moment, and extend to the ongoing and cyclical nature of our challenges with effective/sustained governance of the City … ,” he wrote. I will make my case for restructuring Dallas’ government with anecdotes. I have thousands of them, all neatly stacked in boxes containing dated reporter notebooks, scrapbooks, and old newspapers going back to 1983. They’re in my attic, where a pest control man recently removed a mother raccoon and her six babies. Digging through those notebooks, I chose carefully for this article.

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How the Dallas Mavericks' arena decision changes the fight over City Hall's future

The Dallas Mavericks announced Monday they're heading to North Dallas — leaving Downtown — ending months of speculation and clearing the way for what supporters and critics alike say could finally be an honest conversation about the future of Dallas City Hall. The team confirmed it has entered into an option agreement for 104 acres at the former Valley View Mall site near Preston Road and LBJ Freeway, where it plans to build a new arena and entertainment district. The announcement landed the same day the city published a long-awaited repair study showing what it would cost to keep City Hall standing — somewhere between $531 million and $611 million in construction costs alone, with 20-year occupancy costs climbing to roughly $1.5 billion.

The two issues had become inseparable in recent months, with some prominent voices pushing to demolish City Hall and hand the downtown site to the Mavericks. District 7 Councilmember Adam Bazaldua said that debate was never clean. "What we were initially given was meant to have a sticker shock, a shock value, and it did it," he said of an earlier repair estimate that drew headlines with figures as high as $1.4 billion. "What it wasn't was an honest discussion." With the Mavericks gone from the conversation, Bazaldua says the building can finally be evaluated on its own terms. "Now we can talk about City Hall just being City Hall," he said. Not everyone agrees repairs are the right call. "Say Yes to Downtown," a consortium of business owners and civic groups, has argued the site represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to re-energize the urban core.

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Denton sued by Texas over upcoming ‘Big Gay Swim Day’ at city pool

The Texas Office of the Attorney General sued the city of Denton last week, seeking to have a court prevent a “Big Gay Swim” event from being held at a city swimming pool. The lawsuit arose from a statement in the event’s online description, which said the pool would have “gender neutral changing rooms” during the event. However, the organizers removed that statement after the city notified them about the state law. “Prior to any action by the Attorney General, staff proactively took all necessary measures to ensure full compliance with state law in advance of PRIDENTON’s rental of the Civic Center Pool on June 7, including informing the organizers that certain elements of their advertising conflicted with state law and advising them of the requirement to comply,” the city said in a Monday afternoon statement.

The event’s hosts, Denton-area nonprofits PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton, released a joint statement Monday. In it, the groups called the lawsuit “frivolous.” They also noted that they removed any mention of restrooms from the event’s promotional material on May 21 after a conversation with city officials. “We removed this language from all posts and advertisements about this year’s events, in compliance with these expectations,” the groups’ statement says. The statement also criticized SB 8 for lacking “guidance regarding its enforcement while assigning severe penalties for perceived violations.” “This legislation gives license to harass and surveil any person who does not present or conform within the narrow limitations of an oppressive gender binary,” it says. “Ken Paxton’s history of protecting predators instead of prioritizing the safety of children is well-documented and does not align with this lawsuit’s alleged motivation.” Inside a child sex abuse case that Paxton’s office offered a plea deal of 1 day in jail The lawsuit could mark the first legal test of SB 8’s standard of “every reasonable step.”

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Houston Rockets: Former coach Rick Adelman dies at 79

Former Houston Rockets coach Rick Adelman died at 79 Monday, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced. A cause of death was not specified. He ranks 10th all time among coaches in wins, with a career regular-season record of 1,042-749. Only four other coaches — Pat Riley, Gregg Popovich, Jerry Sloan and George Karl — coached more games and had a better winning percentage than Adelman, who took the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA Finals twice and also was head coach in Sacramento, Houston, Minnesota and Golden State. Adelman was drafted by and played two seasons, 1968-70, with the San Diego Rockets. He coached the franchise — since moved to Houston — from 2007 to 2011.

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Bexar County election takeaways: GOP purges moderates, Democratic centrists skate by

A still-raging U.S. Senate primary between Republicans John Cornyn and Ken Paxton fueled big upsets all the way down-ballot in last week’s runoff elections. Meanwhile, Democrats didn’t have a big-ticket race on the ballot and saw a return to normal among their voters, who rejected some of the potentially problematic candidates who advanced from the March primary. Republicans’ U.S. Senate race was rocked by a last-minute Trump endorsement for Paxton, but Cornyn’s 28-point loss was still quite shocking considering that national Republicans broke spending records trying to help him over the line. “I think the margin in that race surprised everyone, including me,” said San Antonio political strategist Kelton Morgan, who got his start working for Arizona Republican John McCain.

The result was a number of losses for moderates in GOP primaries all the way down the ballot — from Trump-backed Carlos De La Cruz‘s win over state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) in the 35th Congressional District, to a longtime incumbent knocked out by his far-right challenger in a race to serve on the state’s Railroad Commission. Just three months ago, Democrats were in a similar position. A divisive matchup between U.S. Senate hopefuls James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett rocked that party’s March primary and fueled many surprises and upsets in races down-ballot. But Democrats’ Senate nomination was decided outright in March, yielding a much smaller turnout and more predictable choices in last week’s Democratic primary runoffs. “Democrats had many low-information voters turn out in the first round,” said San Antonio Democratic strategist Bert Santibañez. “Whereas, the Democrats who showed up for a runoff without there being a top-of-ticket highlight, they’re going to be more queued-up on the candidates, so you’re going to see a lot more informed decisions.” On Tuesday, Democrats on the West Side, for example, overwhelmingly chose labor-endorsed Adrian Reyna over a former Bexar County Constable with a long history of scandal in reliably blue Texas House District 125.

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SpaceX wins another $4.16B for Golden Dome satellites

SpaceX has landed another multi-billion deal with the U.S. Space Force — this time it’s $4.16 billion to build a satellite network to spot enemy attacks as part of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense project. The contract came days after Elon Musk’s space firm got a $2.29 billion contract to build a satellite data network for the military, also for the Golden Dome system. The new deal eclipses that one as the company’s largest military satellite contract to date and comes weeks before the Starbase-based company is set to go public in what could be the largest-ever initial public offering.

The work in both cases will likely go to SpaceX subsidiary Starlink, which provides satellite internet service around the world and is the company’s biggest moneymaker. Starlink already operates Starshield, a secure network for the U.S. government and military. The newest deal calls for SpaceX to create a system to “sense and track airborne targets from space” by 2028 as part of a program called the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator program. It’s to include “space-based sensors, secure and rapid communication links, and resilient ground processing,” the Space Force said. It’s meant to augment the network of airplanes, drones and radars that are always watching for threats but that are more at risk from new weapons systems. “By focusing these capabilities to the space domain, we are providing the Joint Force with sustained battlespace awareness of contested airspace,” Space Force Col. Ryan Frazier said in a statement.

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Cathy McHorse, Austin child care advocate, dies at 57

Cathy McHorse, an Austin educator whose advocacy helped reshape early childhood policy and laid the groundwork for the passage of a landmark child care funding initiative, died May 23 after suffering a sudden brain bleed. She was 57. For more than 30 years, McHorse worked as a teacher, nonprofit leader and policy advocate, becoming one of Central Texas' most influential voices on early childhood education. Friends, colleagues and elected officials described her as a humble but determined force whose expertise and persistence helped push the needs of young children and working families from the margins of local policy debate toward the center of it. "Cathy was an amazing human being," former Austin City Council member Alison Alter said. "Her brilliance, sweetness and humanity touched people."

Born May 15, 1969, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, McHorse grew up in Rockville, Maryland. She earned a bachelor's degree from Duke University in 1991 and moved to Austin with Edward McHorse, who she married the following year. She earned a master's degree in early childhood special education from the University of Texas in 1993, a credential that would anchor a career spent arguing that children’s earliest years deserve far more public attention and investment. She began her career teaching special education at Graham Elementary School in Northeast Austin before stepping away from the classroom in 1996 to raise the couple’s three children. From 2007 to 2011, she worked as a math and reading intervention specialist at Highland Park Elementary School where she also served on the PTA. Her work later shifted to advocacy. At United Way for Greater Austin, where she worked from 2017 to 2023, McHorse emerged as one of the region's leading experts on child care and early childhood development.

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Texas ‘detransition clinic’ to offer surgery, counseling, fertility treatment

The nation’s first “De-Transition Clinic” will provide a multidisciplinary array of medical treatment, including surgery, fertility counseling, psychotherapy and speech pathology to patients who have received gender transition care before the age of 21, according to a previously unreleased settlement agreement with the Texas state attorney general’s office. The agreement between State Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, coordinated with the Justice Department, ended a three-year investigation into the hospital’s treatment of transgender youth. Under the terms of the settlement, announced last month, the hospital will pay $10 million to the state to resolve allegations of improper billing to the state’s Medicaid program, ban five doctors from practicing at the facility and “permanently and irrevocably cease providing ... any sex-rejecting procedures.”

The 10-page settlement, obtained Monday by The Washington Post through a public records request to the attorney general’s office, details how the detransition clinic must be run. Under the agreement, Texas Children’s, the nation’s largest pediatric hospital, will create its detransition clinic within 90 days of the settlement. Its “multidisciplinary services” — provided at no cost for five years — will include a patient navigator to coordinate care across departments, endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, psychiatry, speech pathology and social work to assist with insurance and legal name changes. Care will be provided to patients who have received gender transition care before age 21, and obstetric-gynecology care for those over age 21. “The detransition clinic will formalize the supportive, multidisciplinary services we already deliver to all patients who need our care,” Texas Children’s said in a Monday statement. “This simply provides structure and a name for the services we currently provide.” The agreement requires that the hospital’s medical staff amend their bylaws within 90 days to require that staff and prospective appointees be evaluated on compliance with the new ban on “sex-rejecting procedures” and that anyone who violates it automatically relinquishes their position, according to the agreement.

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National Stories

Scott Pelley accuses CBS News boss of ‘murdering’ ‘60 Minutes’

CBS News faced a fresh wave of turmoil on Monday after Scott Pelley, the “60 Minutes” correspondent, laced into the show’s newly hired executive producer during a staff meeting and accused Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, of “murdering” the longstanding Sunday news program. In an extraordinary exchange, Mr. Pelley, his newscaster’s baritone sometimes shaking in anger, told Nick Bilton, the new executive producer, that he had “slender” qualifications for his new job and questioned the network’s commitment to the future of the program, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. The 10 a.m. gathering, held at the program’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, was intended as a formal introduction to Mr. Bilton, a tech journalist and filmmaker who was appointed last week as part of a major shake-up at “60 Minutes.”

CBS fired Tanya Simon, the previous executive producer, and her deputy, along with Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, two of the show’s correspondents — an event that Mr. Pelley referred to as “Black Thursday.” Mr. Bilton, who had never worked in traditional broadcast news, opened Monday’s meeting by trying to assuage the anxieties of staff members who believed he might fundamentally change the decades-old DNA of the country’s top-rated news program. “For me, the journalism is the journalism,” Mr. Bilton said, according to the recording. “That is why I am here. That is why we are all here.” He added: “The rumors people are spreading, that I’m going to turn the show into 60 one-minute episodes, that it’s going to be like TikTok, that is not changing. The show is going to stay exactly like it is for now.” He also warned that the broadcast television industry that incubated “60 Minutes” would soon be obsolete. “Broadcast is an ice cube that is melting, OK?” Mr. Bilton said, saying the show had to adapt. “Bari loves this institution,” he added. “She loves ’60 Minutes.’” At that, Mr. Pelley interrupted. “She is murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” the correspondent said. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”

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Inside a big primary day

Today is a huge primary day, spanning six states: California, New Jersey, Montana, South Dakota, New Mexico and Iowa. Both parties will land nominees in key House districts. Democrats will settle a contentious Senate battle in Iowa. The large field vying to replace former Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her San Francisco-based seat will winnow down to two. Today will also settle a host of questions. Will a mysterious super PAC successfully meddle in the Democratic primary for Rep. Tom Kean’s (R-N.J.) seat? Can the DCCC get its preferred candidate to take on Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.)?

Here’s what we’re tracking. California. The California gubernatorial primary is the most important race of the day, with former Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) in a strong position to advance to the general election. Republican Steve Hilton and billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer are battling to finish in the top two. House Democrats are eager to flip the 22nd and 48th districts, but they have bitter primaries in both seats. In the Central Valley, the DCCC is backing state Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains over progressive Randy Villegas, a move that has angered Latino leaders. One of them is likely to join Valadao in the top two. Real Change PAC, a mysterious pop-up group with ties to the GOP, has spent some $650,000 to try to thwart Democrat Rebecca Bennett in the 7th District primary and boost her rivals, Tina Shah and Brian Varela. Bennett is likely still the favorite to take on Kean. Trump endorsed Kean on Monday night despite the GOP lawmaker’s mysterious absence from public view for months. And in the open 12th District, a crowded field is competing to replace Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.). The top contenders are surgeon Adam Hamawy and organizer Sue Altman. State Rep. Josh Turek and state Sen. Zach Wahls are facing off in the Democratic Senate primary for a chance to take on Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) in the general election. Turek has had millions of dollars in outside help and is the favorite here. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) faces a right-wing primary challenge but is expected to survive. And there’s a crowded Iowa GOP gubernatorial primary, but Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) got Trump’s endorsement and is in the driver’s seat.

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Federal appeals court rules that Trump’s trans military ban appears discriminatory

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., said Monday that the Trump administration’s transgender military policy appears motivated by "the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group," delivering some of the strongest appellate criticism yet of a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s campaign against transgender rights. Writing for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Judge Robert Wilkins concluded that key portions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's policy likely violate the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection because they appear rooted in hostility toward transgender people rather than legitimate military concerns.

"The sharp contrast to the Mattis Policy ... appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender," wrote Wilkins, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. "As such, at this preliminary stage, I conclude that the Hegseth Policy is both arbitrary and based upon animus." The remarks came in a fractured ruling that partially upheld and partially narrowed an injunction against the policy. The court preserved protections for the named transgender plaintiffs currently serving in the military while allowing enforcement of portions of the policy affecting prospective recruits. But the most striking aspect of the 107-page opinion was Wilkins' repeated focus on what he described as evidence that the administration's policy targets transgender identity itself. The judge opened his opinion by recounting language used by Trump and Hegseth to justify the policy.

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Israel and Hezbollah trade new attacks despite Trump promise of de-escalation

The Israeli military launched deadly new strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday after reporting attacks from Hezbollah overnight, despite President Donald Trump saying both sides had agreed to de-escalate after Iran threatened to pull out of peace talks. Trump said Monday night that he had spoken with both sides and that they agreed “all shooting will stop” after Tehran signaled that Israel’s intensifying military operations in Lebanon could derail efforts to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Talks with Tehran were ongoing, Trump said. The Lebanese Embassy in Washington said Hezbollah had accepted the terms of a U.S. proposal for a “mutual cessation of attacks,” which would also block Israel from attacking Beirut. Its threat to do so had sparked panic in the Lebanese capital, after the U.S. ally’s deepest incursion into its neighbor in 26 years.

But despite the claims of a renewed ceasefire, clashes continued Tuesday morning. Israel continued to launch its own strikes on Lebanon, with the Lebanese Civil Defense agency saying on its Facebook page Tuesday that six people had been killed in an Israeli strike on Monday night in the village of Marwaniyeh in southern Lebanon. It was not clear exactly when that strike was launched. Lebanon’s civil defense said Tuesday that one of its centers, in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, had been subject to “direct targeting as a result of a hostile Israeli airstrike.” It said the building was damaged, along with equipment inside of it. The Lebanese Army later reported that two soldiers had been moderately wounded as a result of being targeted by an Israeli hostile drone in Nabatieh. The Israeli military told NBC News that it had launched at least one strike in Nabatieh, but said it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

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This GOP congressman is running unopposed in Tuesday’s primary. He’s been missing from Washington for nearly three months

GOP Rep. Tom Kean is running unopposed in his primary on Tuesday, seeking a third term in one of the nation’s most competitive seats. But voters haven’t seen or heard directly from Kean in months — and it’s still unclear when he might return to work on Capitol Hill. Kean has yet to offer a date for his return to House Speaker Mike Johnson and his team, who have been navigating their reed-thin margins without him since early March, according to three GOP leadership sources. The New Jersey congressman said in late April on social media that he’s dealing with a “personal medical issue,” without specifying what it is, and said he would be back “very soon.” Late last month, he told The New Jersey Globe that he’d be back in the “next couple of weeks.”

His absence, though, is now increasingly rattling House Republicans. Kean’s colleagues say they are worried about his health — and how the unexplained absence could complicate the GOP’s ability to hold onto a critical swing seat in an already difficult midterm cycle, according to multiple sources. Some Republicans, too, are frustrated by what they see as a massive public relations failure, sources say, with the congressman’s team unable to answer specific questions about his return — and then drawing national scrutiny for the lack of responses. Multiple aides in Kean’s office did not respond to requests for comment from CNN. Kean has spoken privately to Johnson since his last vote on March 5. But if the speaker or others in leadership are aware of Kean’s medical condition, they have not disclosed it to their colleagues or their own staff, sources said. Kean’s absence has mystified many of his House Republican colleagues. Some have been privately raising questions about what happens if Kean is forced to drop out of the race after the primary. Under New Jersey law, a post-primary vacancy would be filled by the state’s GOP county committee leaders. (Kean told the Globe last month that he is planning to run for reelection.)

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The Trump Administration is taking a strict approach to Medicaid work requirements

The Trump administration signaled Monday it’s taking a muscular approach to one of its signature and most controversial health initiatives: new work requirements that could force millions of low-income people off Medicaid. The new regulation — anxiously awaited by states who are due to implement the work requirements Jan. 1 — takes a stricter stance on verification and exemptions than state officials and patient advocates had hoped for. Administration officials said they sought to minimize enrollee paperwork and ensure everyone eligible for a work exemption receives it, while closing the door to fraud. “We’re forgiving but we’re not foolish,” Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, said at a press briefing.

The regulations, while weedy, will affect how many millions of Americans could drop off Medicaid under a raft of new requirements included in President Donald Trump’s tax bill that congressional Republicans passed last year. Starting next year, those on expanded Medicaid — about 20 million people who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty line — will have to work, go to school or volunteer at least 80 hours a week to remain qualified for the program. They can be exempted if they’re pregnant, disabled, medically frail, in substance-abuse treatment or are full-time caregivers for a family member. “If your condition significantly impairs your ability to engage in work … then you are likely not subject to the work requirements,” Dan Brillman, the director of Medicaid, said at the briefing. Patient advocates had been especially concerned about the details around the medical frailty exemption — what qualifies and how people must prove they are medically frail before being allowed to enroll.

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Anthropic files to go public in blockbuster year for IPOs

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence lab recently valued at nearly $1 trillion, said Monday it has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, setting up a blockbuster year for IPOs. The filing could put the company behind the Claude AI model on a path to go public this fall. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to stage what is likely to be the largest IPO ever next week. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Anthropic’s chief rival, OpenAI, was preparing to submit its own IPO filing imminently. Banks have told both Anthropic and OpenAI that whoever makes it to market first will get to define the new industry and have first dibs on the large pools of cash eager to back new AI companies. If both file initial paperwork with regulators around the same time, either would still have a chance to stage an offering before the other.

Anthropic said in a blog post that its plans will depend on market conditions and other factors. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a CNBC appearance Monday that he didn’t think there was a race to go public. “We will do it when it makes sense,” he said. The year could end up being the biggest ever for money raised through IPOs if Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX all make their debuts. SpaceX is aiming to raise as much as $80 billion or more in an offering next week. It had a valuation of $1.25 trillion after its combination with Musk’s AI company xAI, and could see its valuation rise further. Anthropic has recently emerged as a front-runner in the AI wars after a period of staggering growth. The company, founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI employees including Anthropic’s now-CEO Dario Amodei, was once a scrappy underdog that investors were uncertain could pull ahead of the ChatGPT maker. That changed with the release of hit products like its AI-coding tool Claude Code, which became a viral hit across Silicon Valley and helped position Anthropic as a real competitor to OpenAI.

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Pentagon bans journalists from press office, designating it a classified space

The Defense Department has designated its press office a classified space and banned journalists from accessing it to meet with the public affairs officers who have traditionally answered their questions. The change in security status, which took effect in recent weeks, was confirmed by four people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the nonpublic matter. While Pentagon reporters are still largely barred from the building, as litigation over the agency’s press rules continues, the change would have an outsize impact on them upon a possible return — restricting access to a space they have for years been able to walk freely.

People familiar with the change said it was driven in part by a shift that moved Pentagon speechwriters into the public affairs office. The office will be equipped with SIPRNet, the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, so personnel can use the tool without decamping for a separate secured room. “The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility,” acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez said in a statement to The Washington Post. “These speechwriters routinely handle classified material and require SIPRNet access,” he said. “As a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space,” he added. “Access to the office of the Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and to the Press Secretary remains available by appointment only.” The move comes amid a months-long legal battle over whether journalists should have unescorted access to unclassified spaces in the Pentagon. Members of the media traditionally have been allowed to access public spaces in the Defense Department, talking to sources and attending regular briefings.

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Lead Stories

Data centers need water. Could Texas oil companies help?

Thirsty data centers are cropping up all over Texas, as the state contends with a water shortage so severe that entire communities are running dry. But data center developers in parched areas of the state may end up banking on a little-known solution from Houston’s oil industry: oilfield wastewater, known as produced water. Deals involving the treated wastewater are already taking shape behind closed doors. After reaching a $43 million land deal for a power plant to support data center operations in an undisclosed location, Texas Pacific Land Corp. said it was “in talks” to supply the project with treated oilfield wastewater.

Using the waste stream as a water source is a solution that not only allows data center development to move forward more freely in Texas as water supplies dwindle, but could also solve an existential problem for oil companies. Their oilfields are drowning in wastewater. The longstanding practice of injecting this water underground has turned into a critical problem for Houston's oil companies as a rash of earthquakes, leaking wells and toxic geysers prove the wastewater they are sending underground is not staying put. State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, is aiming for a “twofer,” as he advocates for cleaning and reusing the wastewater for data centers and agriculture, and for recharging drying rivers – instead of injecting it underground into “pore space.” “Texas is out of water in some areas today,” Perry told a packed ballroom at the Produced Water Society Conference in Sugar Land in February. “Oil and gas industry will be out of pore space in two years. For those that are familiar, we can't inject anymore.” The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, charged with developing treatment and testing standards for oilfield wastewater, has yet to finalize a permit process for its release into rivers or for irrigating crops. But data center use could leapfrog this stalled process.

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Republican Party of Texas expects $600 million to be spent on campaigns in Texas

Now that the bruising primaries are over, both major political parties in Texas are trying to unify as early as possible before November. For Republicans, it’s repairing the rift between supporters of U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton and John Cornyn, who lost to Paxton in the GOP runoff. Paxton will face Democrat James Talarico in November. “We always have very brutal primaries. I mean, this is not a new thing,” Abraham George told us on Inside Texas Politics. “But, you know, at the end of the day, they will look at Talarico and go, well, there’s no way we can get behind that guy,” Abraham George is chairman of the Republican Party of Texas.

He tells us the state party has had conversations with both camps in an effort to mend fences and transfer support. George tells us that because Paxton won, and he needs all the support he can get, he’s ready to work with everyone. And George expects Cornyn to eventually get behind Paxton because he understands how dangerous Talarico is as an opponent. “We should take him seriously. I mean, he is probably more dangerous than Beto (O’Rourke),” George said. “He’s a weird, weird dude. But I’ll tell you the truth, he is very charismatic for a lot of people, very beta male, which helps with a great group of people. And so, we are taking him seriously.” The chairman tells us the GOP is focused on two areas of the state: South Texas, where Republicans are trying to keep the border counties they flipped during the last election. That cost the party millions, and it is already trying to raise more this cycle. They’re also paying closer attention to Harris County. George says GOP candidates have been performing better there in recent elections, and they’re looking to move the needle even more this cycle. George says Governor Greg Abbott, who is on the ballot against Democrat Gina Hinojosa, has promised to spend $20 - $25 million in Harris County alone. And those dollars will be just a drop in the bucket compared to the overall spending expected in Texas as both national Republicans and Democrats invest in the state. “We were told by RNC (Republican National Committee) a couple of days ago, a few days ago, we’re expecting about $600 million total spent in Texas between Democrats and Republicans. That’s a lot of money,” George explained.

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Records link soil analysis to nicked gas line at Oak Cliff blast site

Sparse but chilling details in an alert sent Thursday show that the firm overseeing a soil analysis at the site of a deadly Oak Cliff apartment explosion earlier this week reported a drilling company damaged a gas line near the building. Texas811 records reviewed by The Dallas Morning News indicate the damage was caused by a rig boring for soil samples. ECS Limited, a national engineering consulting firm with an office in Carrollton, reported the issue. Austin-based O-SDA Industries had plans to buy the Oak Cliff property to build low-income housing for seniors. Megan Lasch, the company’s president, said she hired ECS to provide a geotechnical report, in which engineers analyze soil, rock and groundwater conditions before designing foundations.

An ECS Limited spokesperson told The News in an email that none of its employees were on site at the time of the explosion. They declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation. Authorities have connected the explosion to a gas leak but have not provided further details. The records said the line was damaged with a drill rig by Barba Drilling, and a charred truck at the scene was registered to Barba Drilling Co. Manuel Barba, listed in records as the company’s manager, did not respond to phone calls, text messages or voicemails seeking comment. Officials said three people were killed and at least five others were injured in Thursday’s blast at The Clyde apartments in the 400 block of East 9th Street, near Patton Avenue. The tragedy is the worst gas explosion in the city since 2018, when a leak and subsequent explosion in northwest Dallas claimed the life of a 12-year-old girl. “This is absolutely catastrophic,” said Geoff Henley, a Dallas attorney representing the current property owner, who was not involved in the digging work. “A variety of things had to go wrong for this to happen.”

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Iran and US trade strikes, Kuwait comes under fire as diplomacy drags on

Iran and the United States said they had both carried out strikes on military targets, and each accused the other of acting aggressively as ?diplomatic efforts to end three months of war drag on. The U.S. military said it had at the weekend struck Iranian air defences, a ground control station and two drones that were threatening ships after "aggressive Iranian actions", including shooting down a U.S. drone over international waters. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday it had targeted an air base used by the U.S. in response to an attack on southern Iran. It did not ?identify the base, but Kuwait activated air defences on Monday and denounced Iranian missile and drone attacks, which it said were undermining efforts to reduce tensions in the ?region.

Oil prices, which have risen sharply since the start of the war, gained more than 3% on Monday after ?the strikes. Tensions were also fuelled by Israel ordering troops to move further into Lebanon against Tehran-backed Hezbollah, in a conflict that was reignited by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. The ?U.S. and Iran have sporadically exchanged strikes since a ceasefire took effect in early April, while Pakistan has been mediating efforts to secure a more durable agreement. An exchange of strikes ?last Thursday was described in similar terms by each side. The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. It has also caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global supply route for oil and liquefied natural gas. In a late-night social media post, U.S. President ?Donald Trump did not mention the exchange of hostilities, repeating his assertion that Iran "really wants to make a deal". He berated critics, including what he described as "seemingly unpatriotic Republicans", for negative “chirping” about ?negotiations to end the conflict. "Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!" he said.

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State Stories

Abbott: Texas GOP will help raise what Paxton needs to beat Talarico

Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Republicans’ most prolific fundraiser, says Senate nominee Ken Paxton will have no trouble raising the money he needs to win in November. But Abbott made clear Paxton won't be on his own. Get the latest political news, analysis and policy decisions shaping Texas and the nation. The governor said well-funded Republicans up and down the ballot will help ensure Democrats don't "hijack" Texas. “We're all going to come together and make sure we have the resources capable of winning this election cycle, just like we have for more than 30 years now,” Abbott said Thursday at an event with law enforcement officials in Arlington. In the GOP Senate race, incumbent John Cornyn outspent Paxton nearly 2-to-1, funding a barrage of negative ads and attacks against him. Still, Paxton won the runoff Tuesday in a landslide and now heads into the general election against Democrat James Talarico, a state representative from Austin.

Questions remains about whether Paxton, whose legal troubles and personal controversies have bitterly divided the GOP, can raise what's needed for what could become one of the nation's most expensive Senate fights. Talarico pulled in $27 million in the first quarter of 2026, the largest first-quarter haul ever reported by a Senate candidate in any state during an election year. And he said Thursday his campaign had collected more than $3 million in the first 24 hours after Paxton clinched the nomination. Article continues below this ad Even in victory, Paxton was looking ahead to November and asking for donations. “I know how critical it is for our party to come together, and that's what we must do now,” he said. “Without a shadow of a doubt, I will be the Democrats' No. 1 target in November.” Abbott cannot directly transfer money from his sizable campaign account, which topped $100 million earlier this year. He can donate to other statewide and legislative races, but federal law prohibits money raised in state races from going directly to Senate candidates.

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Energy giant switches on first phase of $1.1 billion Texas solar farm set to power AT&T and Toyota

Sequoia Solar, in Callahan County, Texas, has officially brought its first 400 megawatts of capacity online. That first phase is now operating, while a second 415-megawatt phase is due online before the end of the year. Together, the two phases will bring the project to 815 megawatts, placing it among the continent's largest solar developments, according to Electrek. Power from the project is being sold under long-term purchase agreements to AT&T, Toyota, PepsiCo, and Donaldson Company. The project's launch also reflects a broader shift across the energy sector. Even companies with long ties to fossil fuels are investing more in renewable energy as utilities and major businesses look for stable, long-term sources of cleaner electricity. Texas is at the center of that growth, as solar and battery projects continue to spread while statewide electricity demand rises.

Adding hundreds of megawatts to the grid can help meet rising electricity demand and ease strain on power systems, especially in fast-growing states such as Texas. Solar can also make energy costs more predictable over time because sunlight is free and not subject to the same fuel-price swings as coal or gas. For companies like AT&T, that translates into lower operating costs and less pollution tied to their operations.

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Meta data center expected to become city of El Paso’s largest property taxpayer

The artificial intelligence data center that Meta Platforms Inc. is spending $10 billion to develop in Northeast El Paso will be the city’s biggest property taxpayer when the campus is fully built. The city of El Paso estimates Meta’s data center will pay around $15 million a year in city property taxes alone – not including what it may pay to other taxing entities. El Paso Electric is currently the city government’s biggest taxpayer, paying about $4 million last year, according to Robert Cortinas, the city’s chief financial officer and deputy city manager. “We’re talking about a large influx of property tax dollars in the very near future,” Cortinas told El Paso Matters.

The city and county governments in late 2023 awarded economic development incentives to Meta. Those consisted mainly of an 80% break on property taxes for 35 years. The city also committed $12.5 million to repair the road infrastructure immediately around the data center. That $12.5 million is the biggest outlay so far of an $80 million fund El Paso Electric committed to the city in exchange for City Council’s support of the utility’s 2020 sale to a J.P. Morgan-owned investment fund. The main reason the city courted Meta to establish a data center here, Cortinas said, was to increase local tax revenue from a multi-billion-dollar private investment that would lower the tax burden on existing El Paso property owners. The city recognized the project wasn’t a massive job creator, Cortinas added.

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Georgetown poised to expand water supply as city plans for long-term growth

The city of Georgetown is taking another step to secure its future water supply, announcing plans in May to significantly increase the amount of groundwater available to the city. Georgetown city leaders signed a term sheet with Recharge Water LP that would provide up to 34,800 acre-feet of groundwater per year, sourced from the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer in Bastrop and Lee counties. Georgetown Mayor Josh Schroeder called the agreement a major milestone, as cities across Central Texas face growing concerns about water availability. “Water is one of the major issues in Central Texas,” Schroeder said.

If finalized, the agreement would span 30 years and is expected to begin delivering water to the city by 2031. There are also options for two additional 30-year terms according to the city. KXAN reached out to the Texas Water Development Board on the impact the agreement would have on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer and will update this story if a response is given. The move comes as Georgetown faces rising demand driven by population growth. City data previously projected a need for tens of thousands of additional acre-feet of water annually to meet long-term demand. To address that gap, voters earlier this month approved a plan to sell off portions of the city’s water utility outside city limits, a move leaders say could reduce overall water demand by about 60%. City officials say the combination of reducing demand and securing new groundwater will help cover most of Georgetown’s future water needs.

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CDC finds that most of those hospitalized with measles in West Texas were children or pregnant adults

A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that more than 90% of the people hospitalized during the first two months of the 2025 measles outbreak in West Texas were children. More than half were under the age of four. Of the five adults who required hospital care for measles during that period, four of them were pregnant. Two of them delivered their babies while they were in the hospital for measles, and both babies tested positive for measles within two days of birth. The CDC gathered this information from the available medical records of 54 of the 60 people who were hospitalized between January 20 and March 18, 2025. More than 70% of those hospitalized during these two months had pneumonia. Nearly 70% had hypoxia. 70% required supplemental oxygen. Four children were admitted to the intensive care unit; two required intubation and mechanical ventilation, and one child died. All of the people included in this report were either unvaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The West Texas measles outbreak continued through August 18 of that year. Of the 762 people with confirmed infections between January and August 2025, 99 were hospitalized. Another child died, bringing the total number of people killed by measles during the outbreak to two.

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Dallas builder shutting down, laying off 150-plus as bankruptcy, misconduct allegations roil owners

About 150 employees of a Dallas-based specialty construction company appear to be collateral damage in a legal battle between an out-of-state private equity firm declaring bankruptcy and its founders accused of financial misconduct. In a WARN notice dated May 19, Auzmet Architectural notified the state that it would be laying off 152 workers at its 1444 North Cockrell Hill Road headquarters. Most would be separated from employment immediately, with a select few assisting with wind-down until mid-July, the notice said. Auzmet designs and builds custom facades for buildings and has provided services at Dallas’ First Baptist Church, Atelier Flora Lofts, Ross Tower and more. The company has several ongoing projects in the city, notably Uptown’s under-construction Bank of America Tower at Parkside, and it is unclear what will happen to those projects.

On May 22, Auzmet, alongside owners Illinois Avenue Partners and a host of IAP’s other subsidiaries, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. A few months ago, IAP sued departed founders Richard Gifford and Michael Winton alleging a “pervasive scheme of financial misconduct, manipulation of IAP’s books and records, self-dealing, and concealment of company liabilities and financial status.” “The magnitude of Winton and Gifford’s malfeasance is substantial and has been debilitating to the Company,” reads the complaint, filed in Delaware Chancery Court in January. Winton and Gifford founded IAP, headquartered in Philadelphia, around 2018, and the firm initially targeted small custom signage companies and other commercial real estate contractors, according to the complaint. IAP then acquired Auzmet in 2021, its first major acquisition and the largest company in IAP’s portfolio by far, seeking outside investment to do so. The lawsuit then alleges that though the revenue of IAP’s portfolio companies couldn’t support additional acquisitions, the pair continued to seek outside investment and debt financing to acquire more companies while representing to IAP’s board and lenders that its portfolio companies’ financials were strong. Winton and Gifford then approached the board multiple time for cash infusions, citing cash shortfall emergencies, unexpected due to IAP’s purportedly strong financials, the lawsuit says. They also allegedly took out two loans totaling more than $1 million to fix cash problems and make payroll that they never disclosed to the board.

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Austin Pets Alive! gets $10K donation, pet beds

Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) received a $10,000 donation and 30 pet beds on Thursday. The donation was from Robert Thiele, an Amazon delivery driver and owner of Clark Courier Services, which was named in honor of his late bulldog, Clark, who passed away this spring after a battle with cancer. “I named Clark Courier Services after Clark because just like our drivers, he delivered smiles every single day. In a world full of best friends, Clark was the bestest,” said Thiele.

According to Amazon, the donated pet beds were given a second life through Amazon Re:Turn, which repurposes textiles from customer returns that could not be resold or donated. As a surprise for Thiele, APA! unveiled memorial plaques dedicated to Clark on shelter kennels, which were inscribed with his name and the words “forever delivering.” “Our Delivery Service Partners are local, small business owners embedded in the communities they serve. Robert’s been delivering in Austin for nearly seven years, and he’s not just moving packages. He’s showing up for the people, the pets, and the neighborhoods around him. That’s what this program is about,” said Emma Crowley, Amazon spokesperson. “Today, we got to give a little back to someone who has and will continue to give so much to others.”

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Sudden death playoff decides winner of Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial

Russell Henley birdied the final four holes, including in a sudden death playoff, to win the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday at Colonial Country Club. Henley tracked down third-round leader Eric Cole to earn his victory. Henley shot 3-under 67 in the final round to finish at 12-under 268. Cole shot even-par 70 in the final round. After the win, Henley talked about when he knew he’d have a chance to pull off the victory. “When I made it the putt on 17,” he said. “I knew that I had a chance to put a little pressure if I played 18 well, and so just seeing those putts go in. Just kept fighting, and just got a little bit of momentum, and hard to believe I’m sitting here.”

It was the sixth win of Henley’s career and his first since winning the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida. Henley talked about what it took to get the win, and how he kept his momentum heading into the playoff hole. “I was still kind of running on pure adrenaline at that moment,” he said. “I was glad I got to go hit a few balls off one tee while I was waiting, just to kind of swing my arms a little bit and just kind of try to get into a little bit of a rhythm, because I was very excited. So that was huge for me, and then just continued on into the last hole, and, yeah, crazy finish. I’m just over the moon.” For Henley, a Georgia native, it was his fourth top-10 finish of the season and his first since finishing third at the Masters.

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ACA enrollment is dropping nationwide, but not in Texas.

Cuts to federal subsidies for health insurance are driving people across the country to drop plans they bought through the Affordable Care Act marketplace — but not in Texas. A recent report by the think tank KFF found that 4.2 million Texans signed up for health insurance this year through the ACA, known as Obamacare, 5% more than last year and one of the largest increases in the country. It comes as the number of enrollees nationwide declined 5% to 23.1 million. States including Arizona, Oklahoma and North Carolina saw declines of 15% or higher. The upheaval in healthcare plans follows a decision by congressional Republicans last year to cut federal spending by letting expire what are known as enhanced premium tax credits.

Those credits were created during the COVID-19 pandemic to further lower premium costs for low-income families, while also expanding access to working-class families who had not qualified for subsidies when the original Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. The difference in Texas seems to be a bipartisan law passed in 2021 that gives the state's Department of Insurance the power to limit how much insurance companies raise rates on certain plans bought through the ACA marketplace. So while costs on middle-tier "silver" plans might have increased sharply in Texas, premiums for so-called gold and bronze plans have stayed relatively stable. The bureaucratic maneuver is known as "silver loading," said Alec Mendoza, a policy advisor with the non-profit Texas 2036. "Our preliminary data showed 75% of enrollees in Texas are still eligible for low cost plans and the numbers bear that out," he said. "We've been preaching for people to go and shop around." Texas is one of nine states to see enrollment increase this year for one reason or another. Some states like New Mexico and Massachusetts chose to help make up the loss of federal subsidies for their residents. Others, like Texas and Louisiana, not only have "silver loading" laws but also more uninsured residents because the state didn't expand access to Medicaid.

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Houston police add officers after major pay raise, matching U.S. trend

A year after Mayor John Whitmire secured city council approval of nearly $1 billion in police raises over five years, the Houston Police Department has more officers in its ranks than at any time in the last two decades. Whitmire and police union leaders have praised the uptick, tying it to improved morale and the lucrative new contract, but experts say rising staffing levels are a trend in law enforcement agencies across the country. “Our new contract appears to be bringing people in,” said Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, in a previous interview with the Houston Chronicle. He declined to comment for this story.

But public safety agencies nationwide are reporting improved staffing numbers – including departments that haven’t handed out 36.5% in raises to officers, as Houston did. “We’re seeing incremental increases the last few years, things are stabilizing,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington D.C.-based police think tank. “Overall, staffing is better than it has been in years.” Seven of the 10 biggest Texas police agencies saw an increase in officer headcounts between 2024 and 2025, state data show, led by Fort Worth. HPD’s headcount reached 5,364 in March. That’s the highest in at least 20 years, according to city records. The department actually recruited more officers in its 2024 fiscal year – before the raises were approved – than in the last fiscal year or as of April in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, city data show. But the number of officers leaving the department has dropped significantly, from 269 in 2024 down to 149 as of April in the current fiscal year, records show. That dynamic also is nationwide, Wexler said: Recruiting is improving at the same time that retirements and resignations are slowing. Still, Wexler praised the data out of Houston specifically, saying the officer headcount is the best in 25 years.

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Marvin Forland, who helped build San Antonio medical school, dies at 93

Dr. Marvin Forland, a founding faculty member of the UT Health San Antonio medical school, has died at age 93, university officials announced Thursday. An internist, nephrologist and educator, Forland established what was then the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio — now the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. He helped shape the school from its earliest years “as a community devoted to forming humane and morally serious healers,” officials with UT Health, the academic health center of UT San Antonio, said in a release. Forland died Tuesday while in hospice care.

A native of northern New Jersey, Forland served in the military in the Renal Branch of the Army’s Surgical Research Unit at Brooke Army Medical Center and on the faculty at the University of Chicago School of Medicine. He returned to San Antonio in 1968 to help build the new medical school. The push for a medical school arose from public health needs in San Antonio, including care for indigent residents and demand for specialists, he told the Express-News in 2015. “Polio in ’49 and ’50 was a major problem and received a lot of national attention,” Forland recalled in an interview. “Tuberculosis and diarrhea diseases in children were far, far greater problems. So there were a lot of public health needs.” The opening of the medical school “provided a whole new tier of expertise,” he said.

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How the Spurs have arrived at the NBA Finals, well ahead of schedule

Late Saturday night, Keldon Johnson stood inside a still-buzzing visitors locker room in Oklahoma City, surveyed the bedlam surrounding him and tried to fathom the unfathomable. Atop his head, the Spurs forward was wearing one of his trademark Stetson cowboy hats. Almost everyone else in the room – starters, benchwarmers, G Leaguers and team staffers – had donned crisp black ballcaps bearing the Spurs’ logo that proclaimed the next stop in the team’s magical mystery tour of a season: “2026 NBA Finals.” “This is one of the most emotional, rewarding nights I’ve ever been a part of,” said Johnson, the only player in franchise history to endure six seasons without a playoff berth. “Starting with last year, coming in this year, believing in ourselves. It takes a village to be where we’re at.”

One season after finishing with the third-worst record in the Western Conference, two seasons after posting a second consecutive 22-win campaign, the Spurs are headed to the Finals for the seventh time in franchise history and first time since 2014. The Spurs face the New York Knicks, in a rematch of the 1999 Finals that produced the first of five title banners hanging in the Frost Bank Center rafters. Game 1 is Wednesday in San Antonio (7:30 p.m., ABC). Supposedly too young, too callow, too inexperienced for any of this, the Spurs got here by knocking off defending champion Oklahoma City in Game 7, on the road, by way of a brutally professional 111-103 victory Saturday. It was the type of triumph authored by a defiant team bent on bucking basketball history, in no mood to wait its turn. “Words like competitiveness, resolve, togetherness, execution, habits,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “They don’t give a damn about the word ‘experience.’ ”

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National Stories

Why it matters if OpenAI or Anthropic wins the IPO race

In the bitter rivalry between AI heavyweights OpenAI and Anthropic, it will mostly be who has the best technology that determines the ultimate victor. But which one of them gets to its public offering first matters a great deal, too. The window for initial public offerings is decidedly open, with a receptive market. Cerebras, an AI-chip company, rose 68% on its first day of trading last month. Only digital-design platform Figma’s absurd 250% rise last year was bigger for a company valued at more than $10 billion at listing in the past five years, according to FactSet data. Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to follow up this summer in what may well be the largest IPO in history—with a targeted valuation of $1.5 trillion. That will add more heat to the IPO cauldron. This is all the more reason for OpenAI and Anthropic to try to be the first big artificial-intelligence-model developer to go public.

There are some clear advantages to being first out of the gate. Just as importantly, there are major disadvantages in being second. Academic research has shown that IPOs tend to come in industry clusters, and that companies listing later in a cycle don’t tend to perform as well. That stands to reason, given that higher-quality companies with deeper moats tend to go public early, triggering a barrage of followers that might not be as strong. And even in a hot market, there isn’t an infinite amount of money to go around. Investors may rotate out of other stocks to pile into SpaceX, then do more reshuffling to make bets on OpenAI and Anthropic later this year or next. The one that goes first is likely to gobble up more of the increasingly scarce capital. And both OpenAI and Anthropic are looking for sky-high valuations. Anthropic raised money recently at a valuation approaching $1 trillion. OpenAI was last valued in March at $852 billion.

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DHS backs off its demand for Green-Card applicants to leave US

The Department of Homeland Security said that highly qualified and skilled green-card applicants will see no noticeable impact from a controversial policy announced last week that most people seeking permanent legal residency would have to apply from outside the US. The clarification, which appeared aimed at reassuring employers and immigrants that the process won’t become restrictive, came in a statement Saturday, which said the guidance issued last week by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services merely reiterated longstanding law and policy. At the time, a USCIS spokesperson said immigrants temporarily in the US who wanted green cards “must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.” This would have changed the decades-long practice of allowing immigrants sponsored by relatives or employers to remain in the US while waiting for green cards.

The latest DHS statement suggested that the requirement to apply from outside the US would not affect those who can serve US national interests or provide economic benefits, and that the policy won’t prevent any qualified person from obtaining a green card. Immigration lawyers said they received many worried phone calls after the initial USCIS statement from clients worried that the Trump administration was trying to restrict legal immigration. The new rule is “another way to try to deport people I believe are not deportable,” Elizabeth Goss, an immigration lawyer in Boston, said of the earlier policy. “It’s another way to force people out.” At the same time, DHS said that some applicants will need to begin the process in a US embassy or consulate outside the US. It won’t impact any current permanent legal residents, DHS added. The statement was reported earlier by the New York Times and CBS News.

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Blue states pitch 100 percent tax on Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization’ payouts

Democratic state leaders around the country have an unusual strategy to stymie President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion settlement fund for people who claim they were wrongly investigated by the government. Their plan: Tax the payouts at 100 percent. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has endorsed the idea, saying, “It’s an action we look forward to taking.” State legislators in New York and Wisconsin are crafting bills on the topic. And Democratic candidates are rallying behind the tactic in blue states. “The slush fund is a blatantly corrupt theft of taxpayer dollars, and we need to do everything we can to stop it,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) said in an interview with The Washington Post. Bennet is the leading Democratic candidate for governor in Colorado. “I actually think this won’t wear well with Republicans or Democrats in America,” Bennet said of the politics of Trump’s fund.

The issue is particularly relevant in Colorado, where Gov. Jared Polis (D) recently granted clemency to Tina Peters, a former county clerk who helped secretly copy voting machine hard drives in an effort to bolster Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance said it was “reasonable” that Peters “get some compensation” from the fund. The Trump administration drew backlash from Democrats as well as some Republicans when it announced this month that it was establishing a fund to pay people who claim they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted, echoing the president’s claims of a “weaponized” justice system. Trump agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax records in exchange for creating the $1.776 billion pool of money. A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving ahead with the fund as critics question how the money will be distributed and worry that it will go primarily to Trump allies. Democrats in Congress reacted to the fund with outrage but have limited options to respond while they are in the minority. At the state level, however, Democratic officials have more options to try to block the payments. In California, Assembly Budget Committee Chair Jesse Gabriel (D) said Democrats are planning to put a tax on the payouts in the state budget. “That money belongs to taxpayers, and we’re going to make sure it stays with taxpayers,” Gabriel said.

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Mexico's Sheinbaum accuses U.S. of political interference after DOJ indicts Mexican domestic officials

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum launched her strongest criticism to date against what she says are blunt U.S. attempts to interfere in Mexican domestic politics. What had been a recurring theme in her recent speeches became on Sunday a rallying cry to stir up her supporters at a rally in Mexico City, where she claimed that since the deaths of two CIA agents on April 19, efforts by U.S. authorities and far-right groups to destabilize her government have intensified. The most serious attempt at intervention to date, according to her, came days after that incident when the Department of Justice indicted 10 Mexican officials — including Rubén Rocha Moya, the governor of Sinaloa state — on charges of alleged drug trafficking offences.

“An incident of this magnitude is unprecedented in our bilateral relations,” she said. “Is this really a legitimate, genuine interest in helping Mexico? Or are we perhaps seeing sectors of the U.S. far right positioning themselves ahead of their 2026 elections?” The president assured that Mexico is open to and committed to maintaining security cooperation in order to prevent drug trafficking, but this does not mean that the U.S. can determine who is guilty of a crime or not. “When pressure is applied to our institutions from outside, when it becomes accepted that another country can intervene in matters that are the responsibility of Mexicans, we’re no longer talking about cooperation; we’re talking about interference,” said Sheinbaum. The case involving the 10 indicted individuals has become the main point of tension between Sheinbaum and President Donald Trump’s administration, as it marks the first time a U.S. authority has requested the arrest and extradition of a sitting, elected Mexican official.

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Federal transportation board pauses proposed Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway merger

The Surface Transportation Board is pausing a decision on an $85 billion merger between Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway. The federal agency — which regulates the nation’s railroads — announced its unanimous decision May 28 to allow both companies to submit more information, including the merger’s potential effect on competitiveness, by July 27. Board officials said the railroads provided incomplete information when the application was first submitted and that a revised application didn’t fix the problem. The revision, submitted April 30, included an environmental review. Public comments about the application are considered in the completeness of the revised application, according to the agency.

“The board finds that there are several aspects of the revised application that are unclear or underdeveloped,” the agency said in a news release. Additional information is required “so that the board (can) thoroughly evaluate — and the public has an adequate opportunity to comment on — whether the transaction is in the public interest,” the agency said in a news release. The merger, if approved, would create a single-line railroad across the country, linking the East and West coasts. On May 18, Eric Gehringer, Union Pacific’s executive vice president of operations, told attendees of the 22nd Annual Southwestern Rail Conference that the federal agency was expected to make a decision on the proposed merger by early 2027. Gehringer said the merger would not create a behemoth railroad company. “I’m not going to integrate the two railroads right away,” he said at the Hurst event. “We’ll have a plan, it will be well thought out. We’ll have all of the changed management in place and we will make one adjustment after the next in line with safety, in line with service, in line with growth. We’ll make sure those changes, as we make them, demonstrate the outcome that we expected. If we have to adjust, we’ll adjust.”

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Hard-liners balk at GOP’s failure to enshrine anti-transgender laws

GOP hard-liners who promised voters they’d use their new majority in Washington to enact anti-trans legislation are increasingly frustrated their leaders don’t seem to share the same commitment. A record number of bills that would roll back access to health care, sports participation and military service for transgender individuals have been introduced over the last year and a half after Republicans spent tens of millions of dollars campaigning on the issue in 2024. The party has struggled, however, to get more than a handful to President Donald Trump’s desk, and some Republicans worry the weak showing could deflate red state voters come November as the GOP fights to keep control of Congress.

These members are now looking toward legislative packages — like the annual defense policy bill or party-line budget reconciliation bills — as their last chance to codify restrictions on the trans community this year. But leaders are still not making the issues a priority, they say. “It just amazes me that they aren’t listening on this issue, I really don’t understand that,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a recent interview. Hawley has failed to convince leaders to attach a provision in the current immigration enforcement-focused reconciliation bill that would defund Planned Parenthood, which offers gender-affirming care he called “risky” and “dangerous” for children. While he successfully zeroed out Medicaid funding for the health care provider in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — one of the few anti-transgender measures Congress has enacted — that provision will expire in July, upping the pressure to get it reauthorized. “I’ve absolutely been telling [leaders] I want this in the next bill because taxpayer money shouldn’t be funding transgender treatment for minors,” added Hawley, who is now looking ahead to the potential third reconciliation bill the party could advance later this year.

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'At what point does it make sense to ditch a gas car for an electric vehicle?'

Rising gasoline prices have some Americans thinking about buying an electric vehicle. It's a big financial decision, especially since Republicans ended federal subsidies last year worth up to $7,500. Guadalupe Higuera, 30, of Phoenix, Ariz., bought his Chevrolet Equinox EV before that incentive ended. But he still wonders if it was a smart choice. Higuera responded to NPR's request for questions about reducing your climate impact and saving money. "At what point does it make sense to ditch a gas car for an EV?" he asked. "Does it make sense to replace it at a certain age or mileage? Or do we just drive it until the wheels fall off?" Higuera says his question is motivated by both saving money and reducing his contribution to the greenhouse gases that are warming the climate.

After investigating his question, the answer, as far as climate pollution is concerned, is clear: it makes sense to switch to an EV now. On saving money, the answer is more complicated. But Higuera concludes that switching to an EV was a good financial choice, too. One reason Higuera questioned his decision was that nothing was wrong with his previous car, a 2016 Jeep Wrangler. And his family has owned an auto repair shop, north of downtown Phoenix, since before he was born. So, he grew up with the idea that it's wasteful to get rid of a car that still runs fine. "I remember having that conversation with my parents [and] my older brother, before I got my current car," Higuera says. "And they're like, 'your car — we can keep fixing it. It's still good. There's nothing wrong with it.'" Americans are keeping their vehicles longer. The average age of cars and light trucks on the road increased to 12.8 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Often, a big factor in deciding whether to get a new car is repair costs, according to AAA. And not everyone has the benefit of getting the family discount for repairs, as Higuera does. There are lessons for everyone considering an EV in answering Higuera's question. We set out to compare the costs of keeping his Jeep with buying his EV. And we used a tool that calculated typical repair costs (not his family discount), so the comparison can be useful to others.

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Cory Booker admits Graham Platner 'has questions to answer' following latest scandal

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., admitted to having "concerns" on Sunday over the latest scandals surrounding Graham Platner, the presumptive Maine Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate. While appearing on ABC's "This Week," Booker was asked about the latest scandal plaguing Platner's campaign after it was reported that Platner had sent explicit messages to at least six women despite being married. "Do you have concerns with the weight of all these controversies that it may jeopardize Democratic hopes to get that Senate seat in Maine?" host Jonathan Karl asked Booker.

"Yes, I have concerns," Booker said. "That guy has questions to answer, and that’s what campaigns are for." Booker then pivoted to discussing his concerns over the Democratic Party failing to take back the Senate in 2026. "I know that so much is riding on Democrats taking control of the Senate," Booker said. "That this election, if we do not get the votes necessary to take care of the House and the Senate, we will continue to have an out-of-control president." Platner’s campaign confirmed the text exchanges to Politico following a report from the Wall Street Journal that claimed his wife, Amy Gertner, told a campaign aide about the texts after he launched his senate bid as they began looking into potential political liabilities. After the story went viral, Gertner released a five-minute video statement defending her husband and his campaign. "So it makes me really angry, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there's a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip, instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on — like healthcare and education and childcare," Gertner said.

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Lead Stories

Texas Democratic chair calls for party to abandon GOP House Speaker Dustin Burrows

Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder is calling on members of his party in the state House to drop their support of Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows, who won the gavel with mostly Democratic support last legislative session over an insurgent candidate favored by the hard-right. In a nod to the wave of conservative policies Burrows subsequently green-lit, Scudder authored a resolution “condemning the Shameful Leadership of Speaker Dustin Burrows and Declaring No Future Democratic Support for His Speakership.” The measure was submitted in March to the Dallas County Democratic Party, Scudder’s home base, and is set to be considered by the broader state party at its convention next month. Burrows’ leadership, the proposal reads, “caused profound harm to millions of Texans across this vast state” and “stands in direct opposition to the Democratic values that define our party across Texas.”

“The Democratic members whose votes gave him the gavel must now acknowledge the consequences of that decision and must be held to account,” the resolution continues. “No Democratic vote should be cast for Dustin Burrows for Speaker of the Texas House in the next speaker election.” Burrows won the speakership last year after a bitter power struggle within the Texas GOP, whose hardline faction had sought to shift the chamber further to the right and elevate a rival speaker candidate who vowed to strip all power from the House’s minority party. Most Democrats went for Burrows, who promised to protect the chamber’s independence and the minority party’s voice. He then presided over perhaps the most conservative legislative session in modern Texas history, overseeing the passage of long-sought GOP priorities that had previously died in the House, including a school voucher program championed by Gov. Greg Abbott and a “bathroom bill” aimed at transgender people initially pushed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. In the resolution, Scudder faults Burrows for having “betrayed the very coalition that elevated him to power, weakened the independence of the Texas House and surrendered the authority of the speakership to the political agenda of” Abbott and Patrick. He also said Burrows “quickly discarded the bipartisan governing traditions that helped place him in power” when the GOP majority voted to ban Democrats from chairing committees.

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Why the internet won't stop talking about James Talarico's girlfriend

Less than a week after the May runoff election, the Texas GOP and much of the internet are still slinging mud, and now James Talarico's girlfriend has become the latest target—much to the chagrin of the internet, and perhaps his girlfriend as well. After conservative commentators and media outlets spent days speculating about Talarico's relationship status, attention shifted to his girlfriend, Brianna Menard, who was recently identified in a New York Post story that placed unusual emphasis on the fact that she's vegan. To some talking heads, that apparently became a political talking point. The internet, however, has largely responded in typical fashion: by pointing out she appears to be a relatively normal person and joking that critics are grasping at straws.

Others have drawn comparisons between Talarico's seemingly normal relationship and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's headline-making personal life, which would put most soap operas to shame. Last week, conservative commentator Tomi Lahren posted an Instagram reel saying, "James Talarico claims he has a girlfriend. You wouldn't know her though, she goes to a different school ??" Meanwhile, one Facebook user in a Talarico supporters group posted: "Ken Paxton divorce trial begins June 24 at Collin County Courthouse in McKinney. Anyway, here's a pic of James Talarico and his girlfriend." Most online reactions have focused less on politics and more on the fact that people seem to be talking about her at all. "So relieved that James Talarico has an attractive girlfriend, otherwise he clearly would not have been qualified to be a senator from Texas," one X user joked. The internet arguably hasn't talked this much about a couple since Megan Thee Stallion and Klay Thompson, and we all know how that turned out. For the record, Talarico has also pushed back on claims that he's vegan. "Ken Paxton is throwing everything he has at us," Talarico wrote in a recent post on X. "I'm an 8th generation Texan — I've been eating BBQ since before Ken Paxton's first indictment."

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How James Talarico is working to win over Black voters who strongly backed Jasmine Crockett

At James Talarico’s first rally after Ken Paxton became his opponent in their US Senate race, one of Texas’ most prominent Black leaders, Rodney Ellis, acknowledged he had supported Talarico’s opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, in their hard-fought Democratic primary. “That was then, this is now,” Ellis said on Wednesday. “There’s too much at stake to be petty.” It was a notable vote of confidence from Ellis, a Harris County commissioner and former state senator from Houston. Yet it also showed how Talarico is still building inroads with Black voters nearly three months after they overwhelmingly favored Crockett, a bloc that the state representative desperately needs if he wants to have any chance at a historic breakthrough for his party in Texas.

After losing to Talarico, Crockett called on Democrats to unite behind all their nominees. But she has not campaigned with Talarico yet, and her team made clear in a new statement to CNN that she believes Texas Democrats have considerable progress to make if they want to end Republican rule. The statement, from Crockett spokesperson Karrol Rimal, said it would be “foolish to underestimate” Paxton and that there is “still a long road ahead to November.” “Tough decisions will need to be made about where Democrats are prioritizing their spending – do they invest in a Texas longshot or double down in states where they’ve won statewide such as Alaska and Georgia?” the statement said. “Texas Democrats have nominated a slate of candidates where the top three spots are filled with lawmakers from Austin. They’ll have to do a lot of work outside of Central Texas and to resonate with constituencies across our state which is one of the largest and most diverse in the world.” The statement added that Crockett still believes turning Texas blue “lies in energizing the Democratic base,” including voters of color. Democrats “can chase disaffected Republicans all day but there simply is not enough of them to change the outcome,” the statement said.

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Republicans are gutting southern Dem districts. Dems might front-load the South in its 2028 primaries to respond.

Democrats are weighing whether they can use their 2028 primary calendar to try to rebuild their party’s strength in the South amid aggressive GOP gerrymanders. As Democratic National Committee members meet in D.C. this week to discuss which states will lead the next presidential nominating contest, the GOP push to dismantle majority-Black districts and dilute Democrats’ power across the South is ratcheting up the selection stakes. Some members are now advocating for two southern states to make the cut as the Callais ruling adds fresh urgency to Democrats’ long-running debate over how to amplify the voices of Black voters who have long been the party’s backbone. “As we consider how we draw the map for 2028, we need to also take into consideration the impact of the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act,” Donna Brazile, a longtime Democratic strategist who sits on the Rules and Bylaws Committee that runs the state selection process, said in an interview.

“I’m also of the view that if we can have maybe two southern states, maybe this is time to rebuild the Democratic Party across the South,” she added. “The fact that we only could play in one or two southern states last presidential cycle — that is just not acceptable.” Brazile, a Louisiana native who twice served as acting DNC chair, is also pushing each of the 12 states jockeying for positions in the early window on what steps they’re taking to protect voting rights and access. At least one southern state is guaranteed a spot in the early lineup given the RBC’s regional approach to the 2028 calendar. But there are four regions and up to five slots, leaving one spot as a true wild card. Multiple RBC members on Wednesday expressed an openness to having two states from the South in the early window, as a way to both bolster the party’s standing with Black voters and better align with the nation’s population shifts. “It would be really important to send a message that the South is a real battleground,” said Susan Swecker, a RBC member and former Virginia Democratic Party chair. Prioritizing two states from the South, she said, would send a “strong message to [President] Donald Trump and his cronies that we’re not going to take it anymore.”

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‘Why are we talking about this?’: Democrats are furious that the Bidens won’t go away

Democrats want to move on from 2024. The Bidens won’t let them. Former first lady Jill Biden put a glaring spotlight back on the debate that ended her husband’s political career while promoting her new memoir. Former President Joe Biden is drawing attention again to his audio interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur as he sues the Justice Department to prevent their release. And his scandal-ridden son Hunter Biden, whose past Republicans repeatedly weaponized on the campaign trail, is making headlines again — this time for appearing on a podcast with flame-throwing conspiracy theorist Candace Owens. Jill Biden’s stunning admission this week that she thought her embattled husband was having a stroke on the debate stage in June 2024 stood in stark contrast to her positive spin and staunch defense in the moment. And it ripped open barely healed wounds from Democrats’ disastrous effort to hold the White House, setting off a fresh round of backward-looking fingerpointing less than a week after the party’s botched autopsy of the 2024 presidential election.

Leading Democrats say it’s an unnecessary distraction as they push to keep their party focused on a critical midterm — and what voters truly care about. “We don’t need to be distracted by what the DNC says about the autopsy. I don’t need to be distracted about anyone’s book,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, told reporters on the sidelines of a Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington on Thursday. “What I need to do is to focus on making a difference in the lives of people. And that’s what I think they’re getting really frustrated about, is all this nonsense. I don’t think the average Democratic voter, honestly, particularly in New Mexico, gives a damn about that book or the debate anymore.” Lujan Grisham, who sat on the national advisory board for the 2024 Biden-Harris campaign, stressed that she didn’t mean “any disrespect” to Jill Biden and later said she is a “big Joe Biden fan.” Still, Jill Biden’s confession that she was “frightened” by her husband’s debate performance landed with a thud among former Biden White House and campaign staffers who were told in the moment to treat the then-president’s halting and haphazard debate performance as little more than a blip.

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State Stories

Texas data center developer sues Hill County over moratorium

A Texas data center developer is suing Hill County and local elected officials who recently voted to pass a yearlong moratorium on data center and power plant construction in unincorporated areas. In the more than 60-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court, RCM Hill LLC argued the moratorium is illegal and unconstitutional and that the county commissioners knew so before enacting it.

The developer asked a judge to declare the moratorium void and block its enforcement, alleging liabilities and damages could total at least $100 million. RCM Hill spent nearly a year-and-a-half and $1 million to acquire contractual rights to buy more than 800 acres in Hill County at a price tag surpassing $80 million with the intention of developing a 1,235 megawatt data center, according to the lawsuit. The company said the moratorium is “causing and will continue to cause immediate and irreparable harm” by either delaying or “sinking” its development known as Project Aquila. The defendants include Hill County, County Judge Shane Brassell, and County Commissioners Jim Holcomb and Larry Crumpton as defendants. Brassell, Holcomb and Crumpton voted in favor of the moratorium in a 3-2 vote on May 12, despite raising questions before the vote about whether county governments have the legal authority to temporarily suspend projects. This was the first county-level moratorium of its kind in Texas and drew national attention.

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1.9 million Texans voted in Tuesday's runoff elections, shattering state records

More Texans voted in the Tuesday runoff elections than in any previous runoff election in state history. The red-hot GOP Senate primary, combined with a slate of statewide Democratic races, lured 1.9 million voters to the polls for what are typically tragically low-turnout affairs. The number shattered the previous voter turnout record in 2022 when both parties had competitive statewide runoff battles. Just over 1.4 million Texans voted in that race. The Republican primary runoff on Tuesday was the main driver of the record turnout. Almost 1.4 million people voted in the Republican battle between Sen. John Cornyn and Ken Paxton. That surpassed the previous record of 1.1 million in 2012, the battle that launched U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's career in politics. Cruz knocked off then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to secure his first GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

For Democrats, who had statewide battles for attorney general and lieutenant governor on Tuesday, over 550,000 people voted, well short of their previous record set in 2020 when Democrat MJ Hegar defeated State Sen. Royce West for the U.S. Senate nomination. Nearly 1 million voters cast ballots in that race. Still, despite the record-breaking numbers, the turnout was just 10% of the state’s 18.7 million voters. That is vastly lower than the 24% turnout in the March primaries and the 61% of voters who cast ballots in the November 2024 presidential election. All voters are eligible to vote in the primary runoffs, but still, few do. Texas doesn’t register voters by party, allowing anyone to vote in the primaries and runoffs regardless of past voter history. The only prohibition is that voters who cast a ballot in one primary in March couldn’t switch in May to the other party's primary runoff. The time of the late-May election is likely one of the big culprits behind low turnout in runoffs. Before 2012, Texas runoff elections were held in April, the month after the initial primary elections. But the state pushed them to late May so there was enough time to send and receive overseas and military ballots.

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Lina Hidalgo spars with commissioners over Flock surveillance contract

A contract renewal for Harris County’s network of license plate-reader cameras drew criticism from residents and sparked a dust-up between County Judge Lina Hidalgo and her colleagues on Commissioners Court Thursday. Commissioners voted to renew a roughly $860,000 annual contract with Flock Safety Group during a brief but contentious meeting. Dozens of residents criticized the item, with some labeling the technology “fascist.” Hidalgo, who abstained from the vote, sparred with commissioners over what she viewed as a failure to adequately discuss residents’ concerns.

Thursday's meeting was a procedural gathering, intended for commissioners to approve mundane items without discussion. When residents objected to the Flock item, Hidalgo tried to allow discussion on the contract, a motion that initially was voted down. "I represent all the voters in Harris County, unlike my colleagues, and I oppose a lack of discussion," Hidalgo said. The commissioners are elected in precincts, whereas the judge is elected countywide. Among residents’ criticisms were concerns about mass surveillance and the security of the data the cameras gather, as well as the perceived risk that the information could be used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. “When corporations and the government come together to surveil neighbors and communities, especially low-income Black and brown communities, it is abhorrent, it is vulgar and it is inherently fascist,” resident Sara Rehman told the commissioners. Law enforcement agencies nationwide can grant each other access to their system of Flock cameras that they can then use to search for license plates that might be connected to a crime. But Maj. Anthony McConnell of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office pushed back on residents' concerns, saying ICE doesn't have a contract with Flock and that the sheriff's office must approve outside agencies' requests to access local cameras.

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San Antonio Spurs knock off the defending champs, will play the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals

The San Antonio Spurs went into Oklahoma City and knocked off the defending champs on their home court in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals on Saturday. They’ll play the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, which begin on Wednesday, a rematch of the 1999 Finals – the last time the Knicks had a chance to win the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. The Spurs outlasted the reigning champions, Oklahoma City Thunder 111-103 in a tense deciding game. “Back in October, we knew we had a chance to be pretty good,” said head coach Mitch Johnson after the game to the NBC broadcast. He praised his team for “giving themselves to each other, to the program, and everything that we’ve done. Oklahoma City’s a helluva organization, and what a series.”

He alluded to the youth of his team, in their first playoff run since 2019, when he said it wasn’t experience that got them to the Finals. “There’s been a lot being talked about, just words like competitiveness, resolve, togetherness, execution. … I don’t give a damn about the word experience,” he said. Led by Victor Wembanyama, who finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, the Spurs clinched a spot in the Finals for the first time since 2014. It was the kind of dramatic Game 7 that a classic series deserved – one that saw both teams eke out close wins and run away with blowouts as the Spurs and Thunder established their matchup as the premier rivalry in the NBA right now. The physical, rollicking deciding game in OKC on Saturday showed that it might be the rivalry to watch in the league for years to come. The Spurs came out of the gates hot, quickly taking a 14-point lead, leaving the raucous Continental Coliseum crowd stunned.

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Texas Supreme Court orders Dallas judge to stop requiring masks in her courtroom

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ordered a Dallas County judge to stop requiring people to wear face masks in her courtroom despite the judge’s rare autoimmune disorder that she says puts her at high risk of infection. In an advisory order issued Friday afternoon, justices wrote that state and federal law does not allow Dallas County Court at Law No. 1 Judge D'Metria Benson to impose a mask mandate in her courtroom. The court said the policy is “an unfair and unduly burdensome imposition” on people in her court, which violates a state rule on judicial administration. That's despite Benson saying she put the policy in place because she’s immunocompromised, and her doctor advised the mask mandate.

"The Court has carefully considered Judge Benson’s responses and expresses its sympathy for her health challenges," justices wrote. "Nevertheless, the facial visibility of courtroom participants is an essential feature of a properly functioning justice system." The order was prompted by Dallas attorney Scott Frenkel submitting a complaint May 4 to Judge Ray Wheless, who oversees administrative issues in a judicial region that includes Dallas County. The complaint — first obtained and reported by the Texas Lawbook — alleged Benson has a standing order requiring people entering her courtroom to wear masks and "divulge intimate information about their health." Benson put her policy in place March 2, 2023, just after the Texas Supreme Court ended its emergency order allowing judges to impose mask mandates, the Texas Lawbook reported. Frenkel was allegedly not allowed inside Benson’s court to represent clients in two different cases — including in a trial — because he declined to wear a mask. Wheless told the Texas Supreme Court he had cautioned Benson against such a policy. According to the letter, Benson herself wasn’t wearing a mask, the Texas Lawbook reported. Frenkel's attorney Brian Hail told KERA News Benson has been seen at large gatherings outside the courtroom without a mask.

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‘Tonight we pray for Oak Cliff’ — Neighbors gather at vigil for victims of apartment explosion

Hundreds of neighbors gathered, with their fists held high to honor the victims of a gas explosion at an Oak Cliff apartment earlier this week, including longtime activist Sylvia Collins. Collins is one of the three people killed in the explosion, outgoing Democratic U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson confirmed online. The names of the two others have not been shared publicly. Collins served as a Democratic Party chair and was a champion of many causes in the community. A post on the Dallas County Democratic Party's Facebook page Thursday ndescribed her as "a tireless advocate for our community."

“Sylvia is one who we knocked on doors with, we walked the pavement with, and she's one that was there to serve our people. In whichever progressive campaign that you put in front of her, she lit up the room and she held her fist high, fighting for justice,” said Ramiro Luna, co-founder of Somos Tejas. “That was always the image that I'm always gonna take with me whenever I think of Sylvia. She reached for the sky, and today she's in the sky. She's in the heavens, and I know she's still organizing looking down with us.” Several leaders at the vigil outside W.H. Adamson High School shared their condolences with all of the victims, deceased and displaced. They also encouraged others to show up and help their neighbors, just as Collins would have. State Rep.Cassandra Garcia Hernandez fought back tears while giving a tribute to Collins. “We can't just let a week pass by and think that just showing up here today was us doing our duty,” Garcia Hernandez said of her mentor and friend. “We have to continue to keep showing up for each other. "

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ICE agent accused of shooting man and filing false report arrested in Texas

A federal immigration agent accused of shooting a man during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis — then falsely claiming he was attacked by men armed with a shovel and broom — was arrested in Texas on Friday. Christian Castro is accused of firing his service weapon into a Minneapolis home on January 14, striking a man in the leg. Prosecutors say Castro later lied to investigators, claiming he opened fire after being attacked by several men. Castro was charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of filing a false police report last week. He was taken into custody in North Texas on Friday.

According to court records, Castro was attempting to arrest Alfredo Aljorna after a vehicle pursuit ended outside of Aljorna’s Minneapolis home. Aljorna’s roommate, Julio Sosa-Celis, was standing outside the home holding a snow shovel when the chase came to an end. After a brief struggle, the two men ran inside the house, where four adults and two children were present, according to court records. Prosecutors allege Castro then raised his gun and fired a shot through the front door. “Mr. Castro fired his service weapon at the front door of the home knowing there were people who had just run inside that presented absolutely no threat to him or anyone else,” said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty last week. The bullet struck Sosa-Celis in the leg, according to court records. Castro later told investigators he was attacked by three men wielding a shovel and a broom for several minutes, according to court records. Federal prosecutors subsequently charged Aljorna and Sosa-Celis with assaulting a law enforcement officer based on that account. But prosecutors say surveillance footage contradicts this claim. According to court records, the video shows Sosa-Celis dropping his shovel before Castro reached the home and that it remained on the ground throughout the incident. Federal prosecutors later dropped the charges against both men about a month later. The shooting was one of several controversial encounters involving federal immigration agents during the administration’s enforcement surge in Minneapolis. Earlier that month, ICE agents fatally shot two people in separate incidents, triggering widespread protests and calls for investigations into the agency’s use of force.

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South Texas farmers face new concerns after heavy rains follow prolonged drought

For 72-year-old San Patricio County farmer Charles Ring, watching the weather comes with the territory. "The only reason I would stop what I'm doing is so I wouldn't have to get up in the morning and look at the weather," Ring said. Ring's family has farmed in San Patricio County since the mid-1800s, giving him decades of firsthand experience with South Texas' unpredictable climate. But even he was surprised by the dramatic shift from severe drought conditions to recent heavy rainfall. "Been dry forever, and then all of a sudden it comes up to 17 inches of rainfall," Ring said. "The water ran through the barn. That's only happened three other times I can remember." The rapid change has created a new challenge for local farmers who spent months struggling to establish crops in dry conditions.

"We fought trying to put seed in dry ground trying to reach moisture to get a crop up," Ring said. "Then trying to get the water off before the crop dies." According to Alicia Jimenez with Texas A&M University-Kingsville, drought conditions followed by intense rainfall can create significant problems for agricultural producers. "One, we had drought. Then we had water that rained fast and removed all of the nutrients," Jimenez said. "Eventually, because we had about four to five days of rain, we had that soil oversaturated with water and we don't have those nutrients anymore." Both Ring and Jimenez said the timing of rainfall is critical for crop production. "I can have a huge cotton crop, corn crop, sorghum crop and lose it all in a rain like this," Ring said. "Thank goodness it came now instead of during harvest, and that's still a possibility." While the recent rainfall may provide some relief from drought conditions, Ring said farmers remain at the mercy of the weather as the growing season continues. For South Texas producers, the challenge has shifted from finding enough moisture to making sure crops can survive too much of it.

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Study: Kindergarten-ready students do better in school, but Bexar County is behind

Children who are kindergarten-ready will probably be proficient in math and literacy by the time they take the STAAR in third grade. This is according to a new study, with a special focus on Bexar County, that shows the direct correlation between kindergarten readiness and third-grade success. “Every dollar invested before kindergarten entry produces greater academic gains than the same dollar spent on reading intervention after kindergarten,” the report states. “This is not merely a correlation.” Early Matters San Antonio and UP Partnership, two local groups who advocate for more investment in education, commissioned the study and released the report on Thursday, along with the call on state, city and school district officials to invest more in early education.

The study followed 66,800 students across randomly selected Texas schools, comparing their kindergarten readiness scores with their math and reading STAAR scores in third grade. Upon entering kindergarten, Texas requires students to take early learning assessments that track literacy and numeracy — that’s how “readiness” is measured. Boosting readiness isn’t just about enrolling kids in preschool. Early childhood experts want to expand the number of early learning programs for infants to 3-year-olds. This would get more children kindergarten-ready, which then sets them up for success in third grade, advocates say. Third grade is a big deal for educators because it’s one of the more consistent indicators on how students will perform for the rest of their academic journeys. Kindergarten-ready students outperformed similar students by 22 points in reading and 21 points in math. They also showed smaller, but significant, gains in attendance. In practice, this means only about 4 out of 10 students without kindergarten readiness would be proficient in math and reading in third grade, compared to more than 6 out of 10 students who were kinder-ready.

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San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones gifted premium tickets to Spurs-Thunder Game 6

As the San Antonio Spurs forced a Game 7 against the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday night, photos obtained by KSAT Investigates show Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones sitting just rows away from the action. Viewers could catch glimpses of Jones sitting in the lower level behind Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson. KSAT rewatched the broadcast and saw that the seats were empty during the first half of the game. “The tickets were gifted to her in accordance with the City’s ethics and gift rules,” Jones’ acting chief of staff, Andrew Fuentes, told KSAT Investigates Friday. Tickets to get inside the Frost Bank Center for Thursday night’s game started at approximately $220, according to ticketdata.com. Tickets for the lower-level came with a price tag of at least $1,130.

KSAT Investigates asked Fuentes who gifted the Spurs tickets to Jones and who attended the Thursday night game with her. KSAT also asked if Jones had been given tickets or attended any other Spurs games during the 2026 NBA Playoffs. Fuentes has yet to answer those questions. KSAT has called, emailed and texted him to follow up. This story will be updated when Fuentes sends a response. The city’s ethics and gift rules state that a city official or employee should not accept any gifts that “reasonably tends to influence or reward official conduct.” The rules also state that a city official or employee may not accept any gifts from anyone doing business or hoping to do business with the city, lobbyists, public relations firms or anyone seeking zoning changes or other development approvals from the city. Last year, KSAT Investigates found that the city spent $20,000 on VIP tickets for council members and their guests to attend the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four at the Alamodome. KSAT also uncovered other perks given to city leaders, including tickets to several A-list concerts and sporting events.

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Republican election judge assaulted Democratic judge, Tarrant County Dems say

A Tarrant County Democratic election judge says she was assaulted by a Republican election judge while working at her polling place for the primary runoff election Tuesday morning. When the Democratic election judge, who has run her polling location for 15 years, arrived at the polls Tuesday morning, she found that a Republican election judge had removed the official seal from and opened the Democratic voting equipment, according to a news release from the Tarrant County Democratic Party. The seal on the voting equipment is used to show it has not been tampered with after leaving the elections office. Because the Tarrant County Republican Party votes to hold separate primaries, Democratic and Republican election workers have different sets of election equipment.

According to the news release, when the Democratic election judge confronted the Republican judge to inform him he was wrong in his actions, he forcefully poked her in the neck and shoved her. The Tarrant County Republican Party declined to comment on the situation. The release from the Democratic Party did not identify the election judges, the polling location, or the municipality it is in. Following the incident, the Tarrant County Democratic Party sent advocates to check on the Democratic judge, the release said. The advocate called the police, who took statements from all parties involved, but no charges have been filed. “A day which was otherwise calm and marked by bi-partisan efforts to run a smooth primary runoff election was marred by an act of violence and unacceptable election equipment tampering,” said Allison Campolo, Tarrant County Democratic Party chair, in the news release. The release from the Democratic Party said the party does not believe the Republican election judge’s actions represent all the Republican election judges in Tarrant County and called on voters, poll workers and elected officials to “promote an environment of peace and fairness.” “We are fortunate enough to have a dedicated Tarrant County Elections Office that holds election workers to the highest standards, as well as a tri-partisan ballot board that carefully and digitally counts mail-in and provisional ballots,” Campolo said.

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Texas parents want more childcare flexibility, time with kids, survey says

Parents want more time with their children, and most are also unsatisfied with their current work and childcare schedule, according to a new national survey that includes insights from Texas parents. The National Parent Survey released this week shows a 2026 snapshot of what parents’ work, parental leave and childcare arrangements look like, and what their ideal scenarios would be. The survey included responses from almost 5,500 parents from every U.S. state with children under 6 years old. Money is the main barrier that’s preventing this quality time with children; more than half of the respondents earn under 200% of the federal poverty level, or just under $55,000 for a family of three. The survey was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago on behalf of New America’s New Practice Lab. New America is a left-leaning policy think tank based in D.C.

“Too many parents are forced to choose between showing up for their kids and making enough to provide for them. There is a gap between what families actually say they need and the public policies we are offering to support them in raising their kids,” said Tara Dawson McGuinness, executive director of New America’s New Practice Lab. Some of the findings of the survey include: 72% of parents surveyed want more quality time with their children, such as traveling, playing and enjoying the outdoors; 52% of parents said lack of affordability to do such activities and working longer hours to support their household both get in the way of quality time; 59% of parents took six weeks or fewer of paid or unpaid parental leave after the birth of their youngest child; 55% said they wanted more parental leave time; 54% of parents said money is the top obstacle that’s preventing them from accessing their ideal childcare arrangement. “Higher wages are the single most-requested change that parents say would improve their ability to have their ideal work situation, making it easier to manage their time, care for their families and do more of what matters to them,” according to the survey. Texas experts said the survey emphasizes the importance of asking parents what they need and then using those insights to create solutions, especially for childcare. “The survey makes clear that childcare is a real challenge for families. Parents need options. We’re glad the (Texas) Legislature has taken steps in the right direction, including the childcare funding they approved last year. But there’s clearly more work to do. We’re hopeful that more policymakers are realizing that affordable childcare should be a priority,” said Stephanie Rubin, CEO of policy nonprofit Texans Care for Children.

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Pete Gallego: Cornyn's loss is a cautionary tale

In his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy warned against trading one form of tyranny for another. “Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.” On Tuesday night, the establishment wing of the Republican Party found out once more what that feels like. John Cornyn, the 23-year incumbent U.S. senator from Texas, lost his Republican primary runoff to state Attorney General Ken Paxton — a man impeached by the Republican-controlled Texas House on bribery and corruption charges just three years ago. The margin was not close. The message was not subtle. Formed from the Tea Party — fed and groomed for years by the party’s leaders — the tiger of Trumpism turned on another of its loyal keepers.

It is worth remembering what things looked like before any of this began. Under President George W. Bush — first as governor, then as president — Texas Republicans understood something important: you govern by building coalitions, not by stoking grievances. When I was in the Texas House in the 1990s, Democrats and Republicans argued hard all day, sometimes bitterly, but they knew that governing required the other side. Bush drew bipartisan support. That wasn’t weakness; it was the source of his strength. With the rise of the Tea Party, politicians like Bush were considered too willing to govern across the aisle and to acknowledge that the other side even existed. What the Tea Party wanted was a different kind of Republican — one who fought, inflamed, and never compromised. Republican politicians obliged. They fueled the movement and rode the wave, telling themselves they were at the head of the Tea Party and could control its direction. They were wrong. At some point, the Tea Party movement became the Trump Party. The transformation did not happen by accident. The Tea Party’s energy was real — rooted in frustration with government spending and a sense that Washington had stopped listening. But GOP politicians provided the amplification. They embraced the rhetoric and calculated that a more energized base meant bigger margins. What they did not calculate was that movements have their own momentum. The question stopped being “are you conservative enough?” and became “are you loyal enough?” Those are very different tests, and the second one has no floor. Donald Trump did not create this dynamic. He inherited it, recognized it and mastered it. The GOP establishment had already spent a decade building the engine. He simply got behind the wheel and stepped on the gas.

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National Stories

Is JD Vance the 2028 front runner? Trump has questions.

In recent conversations with aides and allies, President Trump often interjects with a question about his vice president: Does JD Vance have what it takes to go all the way? He usually answers his own question: He’s not so sure. It is not that Mr. Trump is abandoning Mr. Vance. He involves him in major decisions, has given him high-profile opportunities to position himself for 2028 and trusts the 41-year-old vice president to wage partisan warfare on his behalf. In a cabinet meeting this week, Mr. Trump compared Mr. Vance to Eliot Ness, the mob-busting federal agent, for working to ferret out fraud in mostly Democratic controlled states. Mr. Trump has long conducted running focus groups on his closest aides, and appears to enjoy needling them and keeping them off balance as a way of asserting his dominance. Several people in the president’s inner circle have been subject to his quasi-public questioning of their performance and their future.

But when it comes to Mr. Vance, the stakes are higher. As the default front-runner for the Republican nomination and would-be inheritor of the president’s political movement, Mr. Vance’s fortunes ride to a substantial degree on the enthusiasm of the support he gets from Mr. Trump. And Mr. Trump’s regular polling of people on whether they prefer Mr. Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio has become one of the most closely watched early indicators of how power in the Republican Party might pass to the next generation. When he conducts those polls in private, Mr. Trump often compares Mr. Vance’s performance to his own achievements. He has told several allies that Mr. Vance has never won a tough race without his help. (Mr. Trump’s endorsement got Mr. Vance over the finish line in a tight race for an Ohio Senate seat.) He has brought up the number of vacations Mr. Vance has taken as vice president. (Mr. Trump does not generally take them.) He has repeatedly mentioned the vice president’s initial opposition to starting a war with Iran and has done so in front of Mr. Vance. (“I’m more of a peace person than you are — but I had to do it,” he has said to him.) The president has also questioned his decision to send a Vance-led delegation to a negotiation session in Pakistan that failed to end the war. Mr. Trump, always keenly attuned to the optics of the presidency, has zeroed in on moments when Mr. Vance might not look the part. He has repeatedly brought up a moment from last spring, when Mr. Vance fumbled Ohio State’s national football championship trophy on the White House South Lawn. (Mr. Trump has said he is happy it wasn’t him.)

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Factions inside the Trump administration wrestle over how to handle AI

President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to scrap an AI executive order on May 21 has exposed a rift within the White House on how to regulate the emerging technology. There are three main camps in the West Wing, per two senior White House officials, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal dynamics. The first, which includes former AI czar David Sacks, favors less regulation to help the industry compete against China. It was Sacks who called the president last week and derailed the EO at the last minute due to industry concerns that the order could be too onerous for the relatively nascent industry. On the go-slow side: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his undersecretary Emil Michael, a former Silicon Valley executive. They are pushing for greater barriers to Mythos-type models, according to the senior White House officials, over concerns that the technology could be used by rivals such as China. Hegseth and Michael are among the “AI hawks who are afraid of it, who think that it could be exploited for nefarious purposes, who want to make sure that we do everything we can to make sure it [doesn’t] go to China,” the first senior White House official said.

Then, according to the White House officials, there’s the middle ground camp involving chief of staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who have pushed for a regulatory framework in which AI companies voluntarily provide the U.S. government first glance at its new models. These disparate camps underscore the degree to which Trump administration policy is being shaped in real time, trying to respond to a rapidly-developing technology. Despite the chaos of Trump’s last-minute decision, the order doesn’t appear dead – at least not yet. Now administration officials have another chance to make the case that their viewpoint should win the day. The executive order that Trump almost signed called for a voluntary oversight system for AI companies to consult with the U.S. government on their latest models. It offered a framework for the federal government to preview the products before they are released to the public without the burden of a mandate. “It wasn’t government telling these companies what they could and couldn’t do, but it requested that the U.S. government get a first look at any new models, just to be sure that they couldn’t be exploited by bad actors,” the first senior White House official said.

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Trump suggests canceling music performances at the ‘Great American State Fair’ after several artists back out

President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested canceling planned performances by musicians for the Great American State Fair later this summer in Washington, after several artists pulled out of the event. “We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social Saturday afternoon. “Cancel it,” Trump said, before launching into a separate criticism of a federal judge who on Friday temporarily blocked his planned closure of the Kennedy Center. Trump is slated to speak at the opening ceremony for the fair in June as part of the United States’ 250th-birthday celebrations. Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for the Trump-backed Freedom 250 group behind the event, said Saturday that the president would “personally kick off this historic celebration” on June 24.

Trump had posted on Truth Social earlier Saturday that he would look into hosting an “America is Back” rally at the “same time, same location” after multiple recording artists pulled out of a series of concerts meant to take place during the fair, scheduled for June 24 to July 10 on Washington’s National Mall. “I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance ... so I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!” Trump wrote in his post. A person familiar with planning for the event said Trump was always expected to headline a July Fourth event at the fair, and now he’ll do the opening ceremony too. Freedom 250, a public-private partnership backed by the Trump administration that is organizing events to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, last week announced a slate of artists that would perform on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during this summer’s Great American State Fair.

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Pentagon chief says U.S. ready to restart strikes on Iran if no deal

The U.S. is ready to restart attacks on Iran if a deal cannot be reached, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ?said on Saturday, as negotiators from Washington and Tehran worked ?to bridge major differences blocking an agreement. "Our ability to recommence if necessary...we are more than capable," Hegseth said in Singapore. "Our stockpiles are more than ?suited for that, both there and around the globe, ?so we're in a very good place," he added. Hegseth, ?speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier forum for defence leaders, ?militaries and diplomats, said the U.S. has not turned its back ?on the Asia-Pacific region despite being engaged in conflict with Iran.

"We can do two things at one time. We're super-charging our defence industrial base so ?that we're building 2X, 3X, 4X the munitions very soon ?to ensure that all of our (operations) plans are properly funded throughout the world," ?he ?said. The Pentagon chief said President Donald Trump was "patient" and wants to make a "great deal" that ensures Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. On Friday, Trump said he would meet in a secure ?White House room ?to make a "final ?determination" on a proposal to end the Iran war, which would extend an early-April truce for ?another 60 days, giving negotiators time to forge ?a ?permanent end to the conflict. The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in ?Iran and ?Lebanon, and caused global economic pain ?by pushing up energy prices due to Iran's effective closure of the Strait of ?Hormuz.

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Graham Platner’s wife flagged sexually explicit texts to his Senate campaign

Days after Graham Platner announced his Maine Senate bid, his wife informed the campaign about a potential political problem she had previously discovered on the oyster farmer’s phone: sexually explicit texts with several women, according to people familiar with the matter. Amy Gertner, who married Platner in 2023, told the campaign about messages she had found early in their marriage in the spring of 2025. In late August, as some aides were conducting opposition research on their own candidate, Gertner disclosed the texts to a campaign aide to make sure they didn’t pose a risk to her husband’s nascent campaign, those people said. The campaign had been preparing for a major rally over Labor Day weekend last year with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was set to officially endorse Platner at the event. Aides ultimately decided the texts were a private matter that was being handled by the couple in marriage counseling, a campaign official said. The rally proceeded as planned, with thousands in attendance.

In a statement provided by Platner’s campaign, Gertner said she believed she was confiding in an aide she considered a friend. “We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren’t easy,” she said. “And we came through it, not in spite of how much we’ve been through, but because of how much we love each other and the life we’ve built. Our marriage today is stronger than ever before.” “I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and the worst days of my life. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.” The previously unreported deliberations last year over sexually explicit texts discovered on Platner’s phone come as the veteran has exploded onto the national political scene, kindling Democratic hopes that they can unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins and gain control of the Senate. Platner has recently faced disclosures about controversial posts from his now deleted Reddit account. They have included comments from his account playing down sexual assault and crude posts about sex workers and masturbation. Platner has already admitted to having covered up a Nazi-linked tattoo.

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A new ‘Wounded Bear Caucus’ in the Senate means more trouble for Trump

The congressional recess is typically a cooling-off period that helps ease tensions between the White House and Capitol Hill. But this time, Senate Republicans are staying just as hot. GOP aides characterized the mood as one of raw fury at President Trump over how he has treated senators, after he kneecapped Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s re-election bid while reaching a controversial deal to benefit himself and supporters. They see Trump’s behaviors as potentially paralyzing most action in the Republican-led Congress for the rest of the year and bruising the party’s efforts to hang on to the Senate in the midterm elections. “The president does not understand functionally that you cannot get things done unless you have some sense of unity with the people who you must work with,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) in an interview. Cassidy lost his primary after Trump endorsed an opponent.

Senate Republicans have continued to make clear to the White House that they won’t act on a $70 billion, multiyear immigration-enforcement package until the Trump administration changes or cancels a $1.8 billion fund created to compensate people claiming that the federal government weaponized the legal system against them. If Democrats remain united, Trump can afford to lose only three GOP votes on any partisan measure—and more than half of the conference has expressed opposition to the fund, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump’s top aides have discussed whether he should kill the fund in exchange for getting the immigration-enforcement funding passed, according to people familiar with the matter. A federal judge on Friday directed the administration to pause efforts on the fund while she weighs a legal challenge to it. Even if the standoff over the fund is resolved, Trump also faces an expanded group of intraparty foes with little to lose in crossing him on contentious policies such as the war in Iran or pet projects including his White House ballroom. Within the business community and among some Senate Republican aides, the expectation is that all legislation outside of the most basic functions such as funding the government this fall and setting defense policy is on hold, caught up in the new dynamic between the Senate and the White House. The tension could stall work on measures that include housing legislation and permitting reform.

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Karen Bass appears to liken Spencer Pratt to Trump amid tightening LA mayoral race

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her challengers spent the final weekend before Election Day crisscrossing the city as a surprisingly competitive mayoral race heads toward a likely runoff. Bass, who is seeking a second term, is up against former reality star Spencer Pratt and city council member Nithya Raman in Tuesday’s primary election. Recent polling has shown a competitive race as no candidate is expected to receive more than 50% of the vote. The top two finishers would then advance to a November runoff. On Saturday, Bass — who is backed by high-profile Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — stopped at Yosemite Recreation Center in Eagle Rock.

She was seen serving tacos while wearing an apron bearing the slogan "Common Sense and Carne Asada." During an Instagram livestream Saturday, Bass also took aim at Pratt. "You have a failed reality TV star who wants to be famous," she said while speaking with two actresses before appearing to reference President Donald Trump. "We know what it means if you put somebody who is a reality TV star in a seat of power." Pratt spent part of Saturday criticizing Raman on X, including attacking her recent campaign advertisements. In a video posted to Instagram, Raman pointed to a recent poll and urged supporters to vote. "After millions of dollars of spending against us, we are still here and we are still competitive," she said.

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Lead Stories

Tilman Fertitta set to acquire Caesars in $17.6 billion deal

Tilman Fertitta's Fertitta Entertainment is set to acquire Caesars Entertainment in a $17.6 billion deal that will yield one of the nation's largest casino, hotel and restaurant empires. The companies said Thursday morning that Fertitta Entertainment has agreed to pay $31 in cash for each outstanding Caesars share, amounting to approximately $5.7 billion, while also assuming about $11.9 billion in outstanding debt. The acquisition will significantly expand and diversify Fertitta's already sprawling holdings, giving the Houston billionaire an expanded coast-to-coast network of restaurants, casinos, resorts, hotels, aquariums and other entertainment destinations, including eight locations on the Las Vegas Strip.

This is an all-cash deal, the companies said. The $31 share price represents a 49% premium over the share price Caesars traded at on Feb. 25, the last trading day before rumors about a possible acquisition surfaced. The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the companies noted, and includes a "go-shop" period through July 11, during which competing offers may be entertained. The companies described Fertitta Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment as "iconic and highly complementary platforms." Tilman Fertitta's Fertitta Entertainment, headquartered in Houston, began with a single seafood restaurant in Katy in 1980. It has grown into one of the nation's largest private companies, with about 47,000 employees and encompassing more than 600 restaurants, resorts, hotels and casinos, including Landry's, Morton's, Saltgrass Steak House and the Golden Nugget casino chain. Caesars, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, traces its roots to a single bingo club founded in that city in 1937. It opened its famous Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip in 1966, and has grown to operate more than 50 resorts, including the Harrah’s and Circus Circus brands as well as Caesars. Caesars does not currently have a presence in Texas, where casino gambling is limited to Native American reservations. The acquisition will mean that Houston consumers who participate in the Caesars Rewards program can use those rewards in Fertitta's existing network of restaurants and other destinations in the region.

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At least 3 dead including child, multiple injuries in Dallas apartment explosion, officials say

Dallas Fire-Rescue said an explosion caused a massive apartment fire in Oak Cliff. DFR confirmed that three people have died and crews have moved from rescue to recovery mode. Crews were responding to a reported gas leak around 12:47 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, at a two-story apartment complex called The Clyde, located at the intersection of Patton Avenue and East 9th Street, Dallas Fire-Rescue said. While en route, the explosion occurred, according to DFR. During a Thursday 8:30 p.m. press conference, Dallas Fire-Rescue Public Information Officer Jason Evans said three people, including a child, were killed. Two adult females and one child were found in the debris.

At least three people were taken to the hospital by paramedics, and one of them is in critical but stable condition, officials said. Two of them are expected to be released tonight, Evans said. Two other victims took themselves to the hospital and have since been released. There could be more victims, depending on the number of people home at the time, officials said. Some individuals have been accounted for, but the total remains unclear. Emergency crews will be on scene overnight using tools to dig through the debris in search of more victims, Evans said. Reports indicated a construction crew may have been working in the area before the explosion. City of Dallas officials said no city crews were actively working at the time. In a statement, Atmos Energy said that a construction crew unrelated to the company damaged a natural gas pipeline. "At 12:51 p.m., the fire department reported to Atmos Energy that a construction crew unrelated to Atmos Energy damaged a natural gas pipeline near 409 E. 9th Street in Dallas. Atmos Energy technicians are onsite working with Dallas Fire Rescue and other emergency management personnel. Natural gas service in the immediate area is off, an investigation is ongoing, and Atmos Energy crews remain on site to provide support." More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene, DFR said.

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Exxon warns oil inventories will hit dangerously low levels in weeks, forcing prices to shoot higher

Exxon Mobil warned Thursday that oil inventories will fall to record low levels in coming weeks, forcing prices to spike and curbing demand. “We’re approaching unheard of inventory levels,” said Exxon Senior Vice President Neil Chapman at a conference hosted by Bernstein in New York. “I mean really, really low levels,” Chapman warned. “You can debate whether that’s going to hit, those really low levels, in two weeks or three weeks. Once you get to that point, then you’ll see price shoot up.” The price of physical Brent oil cargoes will spike to $150 to $160 per barrel when inventories hit all-time lows in coming weeks, the executive said. “When the price gets to a certain level, demand destruction brings it back into balance,” he said.

Brent futures for July delivery, the nearest contract, closed under $94 per barrel Thursday as investors once again held out hope for a settlement between the U.S. and Iran that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s closure of the strait has cost the market more than a billion barrels so far, the largest oil supply disruption in history, according to the International Energy Agency. Oil stockpiles have mitigated the impact so far, but that “can’t last forever,” Chapman said. The IEA warned earlier this month that inventories are being depleted at a record pace. The organization’s members agreed in March to release a record 400 million barrels to lessen the impact of the supply disruption. Oil industry executives have warned for two months that the crude futures market is not reflecting the scale of the disruption triggered by the war in the Middle East. “I don’t know, whether it’s two to three weeks or three to four weeks,” Chapman said. “What I’m really saying is, once you get to the minimum inventory levels and all-time low inventory levels, there’s only one way to go. That’s the situation.”

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Dell inks $9.7 billion Pentagon contract after Trump acquires stock

Government ethics watchdogs are sounding the alarm after the Pentagon announced that the U.S. tech company Dell has been granted a $9.7 billion government contract, pointing to stock transactions that suggest President Donald Trump potentially stands to gain financially from the deal. Trump has repeatedly praised the company at public events, and government disclosure forms show that on Feb. 10 Trump’s portfolio acquired stock in Dell Technologies valued between $1 million and $5 million. Nine days later, at a rally in Georgia, the president encouraged supporters to “go out and buy a Dell computer.” Three additional purchases of Dell stock, all valued at or below $50,000, followed in March. Over the spring, Trump continued to praise Dell at public events, most recently giving the company a shout-out during a White House Rose Garden luncheon.

Less than three weeks later, Dell’s stock surged in response to this week’s announcement that the Defense Department has awarded the company’s federal subsidiary a major contract to oversee the procurement of Microsoft software for the U.S. military. The Pentagon announcement said Dell’s work “will streamline and consolidate software acquisition across the [Defense Department], the Intelligence Community, and the Coast Guard.” Dell has a long-standing partnership with Microsoft and is a major buyer of Microsoft Windows PC licenses. The company’s founder, Michael Dell, has appeared at White House events during Trump’s second term and sits on the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dell’s family foundation pledged more than $6 billion last year to help fund “Trump accounts,” which will seed investments for 25 million American children. “This absolutely does ring alarm bells with regard to conflicts of interest,” said Greg Williams, director of the Center for Defense Information at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight. When asked about the potential conflict of interest, the White House responded with a statement praising Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, for their contributions to the Trump accounts.

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State Stories

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Talarico for Senate: Texans deserves more than crooked Ken Paxton

The contest is set. The storyline, straight out of Hollywood. It’s as if, as President Donald Trump likes to say, the candidates came from central casting. An avowed lout versus a man who doesn’t just resemble a Sunday school teacher, but who practices politics like the seminarian he is. Ask Ken Paxton’s own supporters about his infidelities and indictments. Ask about that stolen $1,000 pen. Or how he fired his employees after they reported him to the FBI for corruption, prompting a whistleblower lawsuit that stuck taxpayers with a $6.6 million bill. Oh, and ask about that impeachment that, though it did not end in conviction, was led by members of his own party. Paxton voters know their guy reeks of moral rot. That he somehow earned millions while in public office. That his office delivered sweetheart deals in cases of child sexual abuse. His supporters know all that because his runoff opponent, Sen. John Cornyn, just spent tens of millions of dollars making sure that they know.

Paxton won anyway. As one man at a Paxton rally told a reporter, “We’ve got bigger fish to fry.” The fish to be fried aren’t just Democrats but anyone who shows the slightest disloyalty to Trump. Or even a hint of bipartisan pragmatism. This one’s an easy call. The Houston Chronicle editorial board rejects Paxton’s self-serving depravity and his loyalty to Washington politics at the expense of everyday Texans. And we enthusiastically endorse his Democratic opponent, James Talarico. Talarico, 37, is a former middle school teacher from Central Texas. In 2018, he flipped a Republican state House seat. While serving in the House, he studied for a master’s degree in divinity from a Presbyterian seminary. He looks like a grown-up Opie from the Andy Griffith Show. If his vibe were any more retro — any more earnest, any more squeaky-clean — he’d be in black-and-white, filmed at Desilu Studios. He is exactly what our state and our country need right now.

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Texas Education Agency rejects Austin ISD's plan for failing schools

The Texas Education Agency rejected a partnership proposed by the Austin Independent School District to buy the district more time to avoid a state takeover. In a letter sent to Superintendent Matias Segura on Thursday, the TEA denied the district's request to hand over three middle schools to an outside provider to run them under what is known as an 1882 agreement. In March, the district proposed partnering with the Texas Council for International Studies to run Burnet, Dobie and Webb middle schools as charter schools. The three campuses have received four consecutive unacceptable grades from the state's accountability system. A fifth failing grade could trigger a total takeover of the entire district, with the TEA replacing the school board with a board of managers.

The letter sent to Segura explains the operating partner must comply with three criteria: have at least three years of experience before taking over a campus; have managed multiple campuses for multiple years; and have significantly improved the academic performance of campuses. The TEA says TCIS only meets two of those three criteria, and it "does not qualify as an operating partner with the capacity necessary to successfully turn around campuses." The TEA argues TCIS has failed to prove a track record of improving campuses' academic performance. TCIS has managed 16 campuses in San Antonio ISD, Longview ISD and Edgewood ISD. However, only five out of those campuses had a D or an F rating before being operated by the non-profit. AISD Superintendent Segura said in a written statement to families on Thursday evening that the district remains confident that TCIS is capable of lifting student outcomes. "While this response is disappointing, I want to assure you that this is not the end of the process," Segura said in the statement. "TEA has explicitly invited Austin ISD to submit additional information to support and reinforce our application, and we fully intend to do so."

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‘Not yet’: Austin mayor comes out staunchly against 2026 bond

During Thursday’s Austin City Council meeting, Mayor Kirk Watson voted down two items relating to a potential 2026 bond and, for the first time publicly, came out against asking voters for more money at the end of the year. Watson said while he’s not against building parks and community spaces — which the bond could largely focus on — he doesn’t feel the city is following its own financial policies, and doesn’t think voters are ready for another tax hike. “I believe the better course is to continue rebuilding trust … and come back in a stronger and more responsible position in 2028,” Watson said.

Watson pointed to the failed tax rate election in November and noted the city’s financial position hasn’t gotten better since, nor has the pinch on taxpayers. Watson said he compromised on last year’s tax rate election ask, but was unwilling to do that again with a bond just seven months later. “Our leaderships sometimes means saying ‘yes’, but our leadership sometimes also means being willing to say ‘not yet,'” Watson said. During Thursday’s meeting, a majority of the Austin City Council voted to move forward with the bond process. The body will take up specific bond proposals in July. “What we have asked staff to do through this item on Thursday is take some of your recommendations, take some ideas that we have and want you to kind of flesh out further and give us all those choices come July to decide what rises to the top,” Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter said. Mayor Watson and Austin City Council Member Marc Duchen voted no on moving that process forward. Council Member Krista Laine abstained from voting and Council Members Natasha Harper-Madison and Vanessa Fuentes were absent from Thursday’s meeting.

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Cy-Fair ISD officer repeatedly used hogtie restraint on fifth grader

One Monday afternoon in October 2023, a Cy-Fair ISD police officer tracked down a fifth-grader who had run away from his school for students with behavioral challenges. The boy had left campus before. But this time when he wouldn’t get in the police car, the officer took an unusual step. He cuffed the boy’s hands, shackled his ankles and bound them together behind his back using a controversial technique known as a “hogtie,” according to internal district records obtained by The Houston Chronicle and The New York Times. Then, the officer left the boy face-down in the backseat of his car for nearly 20 minutes. The hogtie technique has been linked to breathing-related deaths, and many city police departments across the country have banned it. “He couldn’t move his arms. He couldn’t move his legs. He couldn’t roll over,” said Colleen Potts, an attorney with Disability Rights Texas who worked with the boy’s family. “He was in the backseat of a vehicle. That’s terrifying to think of.”

The district’s general counsel, Marney Sims, said the episode prompted Cy-Fair ISD to ban hogties and provide additional training for officers on how to work with students with disabilities. “We’re not perfect,” Sims said in an interview. “If we don’t own the mistakes we make, and make them learning opportunities, then there’s no growth.” Still, the 2023 case, reported here for the first time, illustrates what can happen when school police officers use aggressive techniques to restrain children, and how children with disabilities are often particularly vulnerable. The child had a history of hitting, biting and spitting, among other challenging behaviors, according to the records. However, when students with disabilities act out, it's often a sign they need more support, not police intervention, said Shannon Rosson, director of a resource center for parents of children with disabilities. "That behavior is communication," she said. The hogtie incident stands out as an unusually dangerous and harsh treatment of a student, even as a recent New York Times-San Antonio Express-News investigation revealed the broad scope of school police officers’ use of force on students statewide.

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'Lighter days': Exonerated men to get $35M settlement in Austin yogurt shop murders case

The Austin City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a record $35 million settlement with the three men — and the family of a fourth — who were wrongfully accused of murder in the 1991 yogurt shop killings. One of those men, Michael Scott, told the American-Statesman that his share of the record settlement — nearly $10 million — would give him something he hasn’t experienced much in the past four decades: “lighter days.” “That’s the best way I can put it,” Scott said shortly after the council vote. “It gives me an opportunity to go make happy memories with my family and my daughter.” Scott was arrested alongside Robert Springsteen, Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce in 1999 after investigators zeroed in on the four young men as suspects in the killings of four teenage girls at a North Austin "I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt" shop. Scott and Springsteen falsely confessed to the crimes.

Though the path through the criminal justice system from that point was different for each man, they and their families described at an exoneration hearing in February how the wrongful accusations derailed their lives. Scott and Springsteen were the only two to face trial. Both were convicted of capital murder, with Scott receiving a life sentence and Springsteen sentenced to death row. Their convictions were overturned in 2008 after appeals courts found that their confessions were obtained improperly. Both men were released from prison the following year. Under the terms of the settlement approved Thursday, Scott and Springsteen will each be paid $9.85 million by the city while Welborn will be paid $4.85 million. Though Welborn was not indicted in the killings, he has said that the false accusations upended his life, making it harder to hold down employment and build lasting relationships. Members of Pierce’s family will be paid $10 million. Pierce spent three years in the Travis County Jail before prosecutors dropped charges against him. At a February exoneration hearing, Pierce’s daughter, Marisa Pierce, testified that her father never recovered from his incarceration. He was killed by Austin police officers in 2010 following a traffic stop, which his daughter described as “the result of a justice system that actively hunted” her father. In a written statement, she and Pierce’s widow, Kim Pierce, said words could not “encompass the depth of grief and injustice” they have felt since their father and husband was wrongfully accused of the killings.

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National PAC says Rep. Julie Johnson's runoff loss means less LGBTQ+ voices in Congress

A national LGBTQ political fundraising committee says U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson’s loss in this week’s Democratic runoff diminishes the community’s representation in Congress. Johnson was the first only LGBTQ+ person elected to federal office from Texas and from the South when she was first won a seat in Congress in 2024. She lost Tuesday’s primary run off against former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred to be the Democratic candidate for Texas’ 33rd Congressional district. Allred won the nomination with more than 50% of the vote. Equality PAC said in a statement that without Johnson, "Texas — and likely the entire South — will lose openly LGBTQ representation in Congress.”

“Many in our community remain deeply hurt by Colin Allred’s decision to challenge one of our own,” the statement said. "As he moves forward, he bears a responsibility to help heal those divisions and rebuild trust with the communities impacted by this race.” Lee Daugherty, a community organizer and owner of Alexandre’s, a popular bar in Dallas’ Oak Lawn neighborhood, said Johnson being the first openly gay congressional representative from a Southern state “meant something.” “That is historic,” Daugherty said. “The community hates to lose.” He blamed the Republican-led move to redistrict the state’s congressional map mid-census for pushing Johnson into a primary against her predecessor. District 33 was redrawn during the 2025 legislative session. It covers parts of Dallas, Irving, Grand Prairie, Farmers Branch and Cockrell Hill. It also includes parts of Fort Worth, Arlington, Forest Hill, Haltom City and Saginaw.

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‘Same hate and vitriol.’ Treatment of Muslim principal compared to segregation

A mix of educators, interfaith leaders and community activists gathered Thursday to protest the reassignment of a newly appointed Fort Worth Independent School district principal who is Muslim. Shayma Alzubi was announced as the principal of Western Hills High School last week, but the school district reassigned her days later after online backlash over her old social media posts about the Black Lives Matter Movement and Sharia law and Pro-Palestine pictures she posted. A news conference was held at the Islamic Unity Center, 1205 Country Club Lane, in east Fort Worth, on Thursday morning. Nearly a dozen speakers criticized FWISD over its handling of the matter.

The DFW chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the online backlash was an “anti-Muslim witch hunt” toward Alzubi, who was shown on FWISD’s Facebook announcement in a hijab, an Islamic headscarf. Mustafaa Carroll, CAIR-DFW executive director, said he has been a civil rights activist since the 1960s and described the use of bigoted conspiratorial smears toward an entire religion or racial group as a threat. He said the situation represents a clear parallel to the past and reflects another phase of segregation. “I’ve seen all this before, the same language, the same lame excuses, the same hate and vitriol, and the same responses given by government institutions to exclude qualified, upstanding teachers like Ms. Shayma Alzubi,” Carroll said. “Therefore it is incumbent upon us to all call for the immediate reinstatement of Ms. Shayma Alzubi to the position of principal of Western Hills High School.” Carroll says CAIR is talking with its legal team about possible legal action to have Alzubi reinstated. Carroll noted that CAIR received 8,683 anti-Muslim bias complaints nationwide in 2025, the highest single-year total since the organization recorded since its first civil rights report, covering 1996.

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Bud Kennedy: If Ken Paxton wins Senate race in Texas, blame Trump’s pal Dan Patrick

Dan Patrick wanted to win. Ken Paxton is able to run for U.S. Senate for one reason: because Texas’ power-hungry lieutenant governor did not want Texas House Republicans to win a Capitol struggle and remove Paxton as state attorney general. No lieutenant governor in Texas history has held the entire state in an iron grip like Patrick, the most dominating official in state government and also the most stubborn. Three years ago, 60 Republicans in the Texas House voted to send Patrick and the Texas Senate 20 reasons to remove Paxton, an insolent and irresponsible state attorney general who used his office for personal gain and fired employees who turned him in. On May 27, 2023, Paxton was impeached. Three years to the day later, he woke up celebrating his nomination to run for U.S. Senate against Austin Democrat James Talarico.

State Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, is a former child trafficking prosecutor from Houston who was vice chair of the House impeachment team accusing Paxton. She did not hesitate when I asked whether anything kept prosecutors from successfully making their case. “Oh, absolutely,” she said. “Dan Patrick.” Instead of having a Texas Supreme Court justice preside over the trial, Patrick made himself judge. His strong-arm tactics began with the trial rules. The rules — invented totally out of thin air by a special committee under Patrick’s thumb — gave the lieutenant governor “near total control” and reduced the Senate to a “largely powerless and silent jury” under Patrick’s control, Austin Sen. Sarah Eckhardt objected right away in a complaint that turned out to be prescient. Patrick, obviously annoyed that the House sent the Senate this hot potato, undermined the effort every step of the way. For example, his committee wrote a rule that the accusations must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s the standard for a criminal trial, not for deciding whether to fire a selfish executive. “This is our third impeachment in Texas history, and if you go back and look at the other two, you know, [Patrick] made himself the ultimate judge on what could and couldn’t be heard,” Johnson said.

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Wall Street gets new crypto rival after Texas bank completes regulatory pivot

A forty-year-old Texas bank is stepping onto the national stage to challenge Wall Street’s push to get a grip on the digital asset industry. United Texas Bank (UTB) secured approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to convert from a state-chartered financial institution into a nationally chartered bank on May 15, Scott Beck, the president and CEO of the firm, told CoinDesk on Wednesday. The conversion move, Beck added, is to position his crypto-friendly bank as the primary bridge between the cryptocurrency industry and traditional financial institutions and to provide digital asset services he said the UTB has years fully delivering, while “Wall Street continues to tiptoe.”

The conversion granted by the OCC came with two conditions that Beck said have now been met. “Those conditions were satisfied as of today, May 27,” he said. Since 2024, the UTB operated under a Consent Order with the Federal Reserve, which related to its Bank Secrecy Act and compliance infrastructure. “Rather than viewing that as a setback, we treated it as a mandate to build something exceptional, and we did. The result is UTB PRISM SENTINAL, our proprietary BSA/AML compliance platform,” he said. The milestone makes the UTB one of the first banks in the U.S. to successfully complete an OCC conversion since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act 15 years ago, Beck added. He said the conversion also uniquely positions UTB as a bridge between crypto firms worldwide into the U.S. banking system, access that very few banks today are willing to give. "The concept for United Texas Bank is a centralized value hub," said the chair of UTB, a bank he himself said is unknown nationally, but widely sought out by crypto firms.

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Blanche does not rule out Oath Keepers founder for $1.8B fund

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Thursday that anyone can apply to a new $1.8 billion Justice Department “weaponization” fund, and wouldn’t rule out Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes as someone who could receive a payout. Rhodes, a Texas resident and leader of the far-right militia, was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and sentenced to 18 years in prison, one of the longest sentences handed down in the case. President Donald Trump commuted Rhodes' sentence on his first day back in office as part of a sweeping clemency order benefiting Jan. 6 defendants.

The fund for people improperly targeted by the government is open to anyone who applies, said Blanche, who has faced growing questions from both parties about the fund since signing a memo establishing it. “Some people believe that, not just with January 6 but in all kinds of areas, that there was a punishment that was not normal, that was atypical of the crime that was committed,” he said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News during a visit to Dallas, adding, “that’s something … I would expect the commissioners to take into account.” He said appointed commissioners would set the rules for how claims are reviewed and who receives money, including what weight to give a person’s sentence or the conduct in their case. Ed Tarpley, an attorney for Rhodes, said Rhodes hasn’t decided whether to seek money from it. He said they were taking it “one day at a time” while awaiting a ruling on the Justice Department’s request last week to dismiss Rhodes’ indictment. “We’ll make a decision once we get the ruling from the court on the DOJ motion,” Tarpley said of the fund in an interview Thursday.

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Talarico kicks off statewide tour as Texas Senate race with Paxton heats up

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and State Rep. James Talarico are already launching attacks against each other as the Texas Senate race begins to take shape following Tuesday’s primary election. Just hours after Paxton officially secured the Republican nomination, Talarico announced he would begin what he called “The People vs. Ken Paxton Tour,” traveling across Texas through June 1. Paxton also quickly responded online, signaling what could become a lengthy and closely watched campaign ahead of the November general election. Both campaigns released attack ads shortly after the primary results. One Paxton campaign ad targeted Talarico, saying: “This is Texas. This is not. Are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.”

Meanwhile, a Talarico campaign ad criticized Paxton, saying: “Remind us all, what is Attorney General Paxton accused of doing? The list is really long: bribery, dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy.” Political science professors at Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas at Austin said the race is already drawing attention because of the candidates’ sharp political differences and Paxton’s dominant primary victory. “The margin was a surprise to me,” Cal Jillson, an SMU political science professor, said. Sean Theriault, a political science professor at UT Austin, said Republicans rallied behind Paxton after receiving support from President Donald Trump. “The Republicans got the candidate they wanted. Boy, that margin last night was really big,” Theriault said. “And so now we have a Donald Trump-endorsed MAGA Republican candidate versus James Talarico, who's been in the state legislature and has been making some waves.” The campaign season ahead is expected to feature more aggressive messaging from both sides. One Talarico campaign ad says: “Our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat and a lock on the door.” A Paxton campaign ad also describes Talarico by saying: “He's always been on the edge of sort of criminal activities.” Theriault said Talarico may try to appeal to voters outside the Democratic base.

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Al Green tells AIPAC to 'crawl back into your hole'

U.S. Rep. Al Green lashed out at the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee Thursday after the group accused him of being "anti-Israel" in a social media post cheering his election defeat. Green, a Houston Democrat, has opposed U.S. support of Israel in its three-year conflict with Palestinians in Gaza. In his statement Thursday, he accused Israel of "genocide." "I am not anti-Israel; I am anti-sending any more of hardworking American’s tax dollars to Israel," he said in a statement. "AIPAC, which has not denounced the genocide in Gaza, seems to perceive every person who denounces the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and especially children under the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu as anti-Israel."

AIPAC, a powerful lobbying group in Washington, wrote in a social media post earlier this week that Green was "one of the most outspoken anti-Israel voices in Congress." The post congratulated U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee on his victory over Green in the Democratic runoff for Houston's 18th Congressional District. Green, who is serving his eleventh term in Congress, is one of a number of Democratic and Republican members who oppose U.S. support for Israel's military, including U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. In his statement Green said AIPAC had "become persona non grata" before telling the group to "crawl back into your hole." He signed off: "Sincerely, your unbought, unbossed, unafraid, unelected, liberated Democrat.”

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One student dead, another injured in incident at Uvalde college campus

One student died and another was injured in an incident Thursday at Southwest Texas College's Uvalde campus, officials said. "The College is confirming that an incident occurred on the Uvalde campus earlier today that resulted in the death of one student and injuries to another," school president Hector Gonzales said in a statement. "Emergency responders arrived promptly, and the injured student was transported for medical care." The statement provided no details about the incident or the identities of those involved "out of respect for the students and their families." School officials said they are fully cooperating with law enforcement. "The safety and well-being of students, employees, and visitors remain a top priority," Gonzales' statement said, adding information will be made public "as appropriate."

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Crypto lobby unseats Texas lawmaker. What’s next for Coinbase’s legislative push.

The industry poured millions of dollars into a Texas primary campaign that ultimately unseated a veteran congressman who has opposed the so-called Clarity Act, a bill setting rules for crypto firms. But that campaign cash still might not be enough to get the crypto-friendly bill over the finish line. Last year, Texas lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional map, leading to the primary clash between Democratic incumbent congressmen Al Green, who has served since 2005, and Christian Menefee, who took office this year. Menefee won the election on Tuesday, bolstered by $5 million in spending tied to the crypto political action committee Fairshake. Green had voted against crypto-friendly bills and said the industry sought to “control” Congress with its campaign spending. Stand With Crypto—a Coinbase-backed grassroots group that rates lawmakers’ crypto support—gives him an “F” rating.

“Rep. Green’s defeat proves that anti-crypto hostility carries real electoral consequences, making him the first Democratic incumbent this cycle to lose his seat,” Fairshake spokesman Geoff Vetter said in a statement. “Fairshake was the difference-maker in this race, and we will continue to aggressively back leaders like Rep. Menefee across the country.” Fairshake, Coinbase, and other industry players are pushing hard this year for the Senate to pass the Clarity Act, which, among other things, would put most crypto trading under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Digital assets firms and banks have fought over the bill for months. Earlier this month, a Senate committee advanced the bill on a bipartisan vote, significantly raising its chances of passing the full Senate. The House passed its own version of the bill last year, but would have to vote again after the Senate’s revisions for it to reach President Donald Trump’s desk. Now, the bill’s main enemy is the clock and Congress’s jam-packed schedule this year. In addition to the crypto legislation, the Republican-led Congress hopes to pass a major housing bill, an extension of federal surveillance powers, and funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol, among other priorities. Congress’s time will be especially limited after the August recess, when many lawmakers’ attention will turn to the November midterm elections.

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National Stories

Iran, US reach deal to extend ceasefire, pending Trump's approval

The United States and Iran reached ?an agreement on Thursday to extend their ceasefire and lift restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, sources told Reuters, though U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to approve ?it and Iranian state media said it had not been finalized. According to four sources familiar with the matter, the agreement would extend the truce for another 60 days and allow traffic to flow through the strategic waterway while negotiators tackle difficult issues such as Iran's nuclear program. If approved by leadership in Washington and Tehran, it would amount to the biggest step towards peace since the conflict began on February 28. News of the possible agreement came after a round of tit-for-tat attacks between the two ?countries, the latest such incident since the ceasefire took effect in early April.

Trump has not yet approved the deal, the sources said. Iran has yet to comment on news of the proposed ?deal, which was first reported by Axios. Iran's Tasnim news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, said the text of the agreement had not been ?finalized or confirmed. "We're not there yet, but we're very close and we're going to keep on working at it," U.S. Vice President JD Vance told reporters in Washington. "I can't guarantee that we're going to get there, ?but right now I feel pretty good about it," Vance said. The Trump administration has several times said a deal to end the fighting was close, only to have Iran dispute or downplay the claims. The deal would ?specify unrestricted shipping through the strait and would require the U.S. also lift its blockade of Iranian ports. The U.S. would also lift some sanctions on Iranian oil sales. The reports prompted oil prices to fall on hopes of a potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supply.

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Trump administration prepares for proposed $250 bill with the president’s face on it

The Treasury Department is preparing to print $250 bills with President Donald Trump’s face on them and is just waiting for Congress’ green light, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday. Bessent said that as secretary, he has “two mandates” for currency: “At present, no living person can be on U.S. currency, and the currency must say ‘In God We Trust.’” Bessent added there is proposed legislation on Capitol Hill to “change the first requirement so that a living person, Donald J. Trump, could be on a $250 bill.” “At Treasury we prepare things in advance, so we have prepared in advance that if the legislation is passed, but we will stick to the law,” Bessent said while leading Thursday’s White House press briefing. The Washington Post was first to report on the plans to put Trump’s likeness on a $250 banknote.

Bessent compared adding Trump’s face to the currency to the upcoming festivities for the country’s 250th anniversary and said the issue “bifurcated” from the growing affordability crisis as Americans struggle to buy gas and groceries. “I don’t think that there’s anything untoward about having the president of the United States, the person who was president of the United States on the 250th anniversary bill,” Bessent told reporters during the briefing. The proposed legislation, introduced last year by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., was referred in February 2025 to the House Financial Services Committee, where it has remained since. Legislation would have to be approved by the House and Senate before it could be signed into law by Trump. David Snider, a spokesperson for Wilson, said in an email that the congressman has spoken multiple times with Financial Services Committee Chair Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., about moving the legislation forward. Snider added that Wilson had spoken with Bessent and Trump about their support on the bill “on multiple occasions.”

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More workers are raiding their 401(k)s as average balances fall, Fidelity says

Financial pressures pushed more savers to tap their retirement accounts in the first part of 2026, new data shows — potentially locking in losses during the early weeks of the Iran war. Amid severe market volatility earlier this year, the average 401(k) balance fell by 4% to $141,000, according to first-quarter data released Thursday from Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest provider of 401(k) savings plans. The average individual retirement account balance was also down 4% to $131,380 in the first quarter, Fidelity found. The drop was due to the outbreak of the Iran war, which sparked a stock selloff, according to Kirsten Hunter Peterson, vice president of workplace thought leadership at Fidelity Investments. “Luckily, a couple of months later, we are trending in a much better direction,” she said, referring to recent market highs.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the S&P 500 lost 5.1% in March for its worst monthly performance since 2022. The Dow dropped 5.4%, snapping a 10-month winning streak. The Nasdaq declined 4.8%. Markets have since rebounded from earlier losses. As of Wednesday’s close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up roughly 5.3% year to date, while the S&P 500 rose nearly 10% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 14.8%. However, more savers also tapped their accounts to free up cash during this time, which experts say is a sign of underlying financial strain. The share of workers with an outstanding loan at the end of the first quarter of 2026 was 19.2%, up slightly from 18.8% a year earlier, according to Fidelity. About 2.4% of workers took out a new loan from their 401(k) in the first quarter, up from 2.3% in 2025. The share of workers taking a hardship withdrawal, which is broken out separately, also rose year over year to 2.5% from 2.3%, Fidelity found. A hardship withdrawal can be taken from a retirement plan without paying an early withdrawal penalty for an “immediate and heavy financial need,” according to the IRS.

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Blue Origin rocket blows up on Florida launchpad during test

A rocket built by the Jeff Bezos-owned space company Blue Origin blew up on the launchpad in Florida on Thursday night. The explosion occurred at about 9 p.m. during a test being conducted in advance of an upcoming launch. “We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test,” Blue Origin reported on social media. “All personnel have been accounted for.” The test was to fire the seven engines in the booster stage, while keeping the rocket firmly held down on the launchpad. Flames began rising up the sides of the rocket and a massive explosion enveloped the launchpad.

The fireball badly damaged the launchpad and surrounding equipment at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It is the only launchpad that Blue Origin has for its 322-foot-tall New Glenn rocket, which is named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. Repairs will most likely take months, at the least. The rocket had been set to carry 48 satellites for Amazon’s internet constellation, Leo, an acronym for “low-Earth orbit.” Leo is a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink network. The Amazon satellites were not onboard. “It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it,” Mr. Bezos wrote on social media. “Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.” Mr. Bezos’ billionaire space competitor, Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, expressed sympathy: “Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly,” he wrote on X. The failure will affect NASA’s moon plans, which already include little margin for error.

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Nvidia is investing billions into this emerging technology that could change the AI industry

Nvidia has committed at least $6.5 billion into companies developing photonics technology in the past three months, as the company races to invest in solving one of the major bottlenecks to the rollout of AI. Photonics, the use of light to transmit data, is an emerging technology considered to be a more efficient alternative to the current process of transferring data using electricity. Electrical data transfer consumes more energy — a factor which is increasingly seen as a blocker to the broader deployment of AI. Since the beginning of March, Nvidia has announced $2 billion investments into Lumentum, Coherent and Marvell, all of which are developing photonics tech. The chip giant also said it would invest $500 million into Corning to develop advanced optical connectivity solutions, and participated in optics startup Ayer Labs’ $500 million Series E funding round.

“Photonics represents a way for Nvidia to scale their AI infrastructure without the energy costs that staying with electrical and copper will incur,” Alvin Nguyen, senior analyst at Forrester, told CNBC. “By investing in photonics companies, Nvidia is making sure that advancements in photonics continue and it will prevent them from hitting a scalability and performance wall that will occur if they remain on electrical and copper.” Photonics can be used in AI infrastructure by using light to move data between graphics processing units (GPUs), memory, networking chips, servers and data centers, instead of relying only on electrical signals running along copper. While copper is the main connectivity standard today because of its lower cost and high reliability, photonics will become more prominent in AI infrastructure over time, Brian Colello, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, told CNBC. “Nvidia’s roadmap of next generation AI rack-scale solutions will require an increasing amount of optical connectivity to process the exponentially rising bandwidth with new models and higher usage,” he said. The chip giant has already made some photonics tech available as part of its networking solutions offering, with the company announcing tools that it said will enable AI factories to connect millions of GPUs across sites while drastically reducing energy consumption and operational costs.

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Bari Weiss names Nick Bilton to lead CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ in major shake-up

In a bid to remake the country’s top-rated news program, Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, on Thursday unveiled an overhaul of “60 Minutes,” replacing the show’s executive producer with a tech journalist and firing two of its on-air correspondents. Ms. Weiss named Nick Bilton, a former New York Times technology columnist and a filmmaker who has directed and produced documentaries for HBO and Netflix, as her pick to lead the 58-year-old Sunday show. Mr. Bilton, who has never worked in traditional broadcast news, will replace Tanya Simon, who had been at the show for more than three decades. CBS News also fired Cecilia Vega, the program’s first Latina correspondent, and Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons was pulled off the air abruptly last year by Ms. Weiss, who requested more reporting. It aired in full at a later date. Draggan Mihailovich, the executive editor of “60 Minutes,” was also fired, as was Matthew Polevoy, a senior producer.

Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist with no prior experience in television, has made major changes at CBS since being appointed last year by the tech scion David Ellison. She has named Tony Dokoupil to helm “CBS Evening News,” hired new on-air contributors and personally booked some guests for interviews, a departure from the industry norm. But the overhaul at “60 Minutes” is by far the largest gamble of Ms. Weiss’s tenure. The program remains appointment viewing for millions every Sunday night, and its viewership this season rose 9 percent from the year prior, according to Nielsen. Ms. Weiss’s handling of “60 Minutes” has led to internal turmoil. Her decision to hold Ms. Alfonsi’s segment set off a firestorm, though it eventually ran with additional comments from the Trump administration. This week, Ms. Alfonsi told The Times that CBS was no longer separating editorial independence from corporate interests. Mr. Bilton, 49, will start his position with a staff already anxious about how the long-held traditions of “60 Minutes” might change. In a joint interview with Ms. Weiss on Thursday, he said that his experience in documentary film and TV was in keeping with the founding ethos of the program, which he called “the most important news brand in American life.”

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Chambers of commerce are at a crossroads. Some are closing. Some are shaking things up.

On April 23, the Texas-based Brush Country Chamber of Commerce announced it would be closing its doors in one week's time. The Frio-Nueces Current highlighted a withdrawal of funding from both the city of Cotulla, Texas, and the La Salle County government, with both having allocated local tax revenue to help fund the organization. It also noted that at the group's final board meeting, just 10% of its 80 members showed up. Last year, the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce abruptly announced its closure. A months-long investigation by the Baltimore Business Journal found the organization had become mired by a number of issues. It had pulled back services and resources and had its nonprofit tax exemption revoked. It also had reduced the size, frequency and variety of its events. CEO Brent Howard blamed the creation of additional business interest groups in the region for creating more competition.

Those chambers in Maryland and South Texas are not alone. A review by The Business Journals of news reports since 2024 found 17 chamber of commerce closures that had drawn coverage. For those organizations that have continued to operate, financial headwinds have emerged. Chambers across the country are teetering on the edge of a financial cliff, with revenue growth failing to keep pace with inflation, according to an analysis of 4,813 chamber of commerce organizations and 22,290 Form 990 financial documents filed by those nonprofit chambers with the Internal Revenue Service from 2019 to 2024. Median revenue for those chambers of commerce was about $195,000 in 2019, growing to about $222,000 in 2024 — a 13.8% increase that falls behind the more than 20% inflation rate seen during the same time. Expenses grew at a slightly higher rate than revenue, 14.1%, during the time period. The share of chambers operating at a deficit inched up too, from 42.9% in 2019 to 45.2% in 2024. Net income dropped from a median of $2,691 in 2019 to $2,323 in 2024. The smallest chambers have been hit particularly hard, as 53% of chambers with less than $50,000 in annual revenue ran a deficit. That compares to 38% of organizations above the $1 million revenue threshold.

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Lead Stories

The paper trail linking a Houston-based fuel trader to a notorious Mexican cartel

Ikon Midstream, a Houston-based petroleum trader whose offices were raided last month by U.S. authorities, is under investigation in Mexico in connection with fuel smuggling, according to three Mexican security sources with direct knowledge of the matter and four Mexican government security documents viewed by Reuters. The probe is part of ongoing investigations into maritime shipments of petroleum products that were brought to Mexico from the U.S. and Canada in an alleged scheme to evade a hefty tax due on these imports, the documents and sources said. Ikon Midstream is among the “central pieces” in a suspected scheme linked to one of Mexico’s most powerful crime groups, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and Mexico’s attorney general’s office has opened an investigation into the company “based on testimonies, documents and surveillance,” according to one of the documents.

Mexico’s attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The Texas trader’s export of diesel aboard the tanker Torm Agnes is being scrutinized for potential cartel links, as is Ikon Midstream’s purported relationship with a suspected CJNG-related trucking company that helped offload the vessel’s cargo in the ports of Ensenada and Guaymas, according to the security sources and the document. Two of the documents laid out the operations and players in the alleged racket. Among them, Ikon Midstream was allegedly a supplier of petroleum products that moved through a complex web of importers, transporters, distributors and facilitators in Mexico. The other two documents contained summaries of the probes. The four documents were created in March and April and their authenticity was confirmed by the security sources. Asked to comment about the investigations, Ikon Midstream Executive Director Rhett Kenagy said in a May 12 email to Reuters that there was “not a single shred of documentation to back any of it up” and that the company was “not going to respond to accusations grounded in hearsay.” Homeland Security Investigations, the primary transnational investigative agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, executed a criminal search warrant at Ikon Midstream’s Houston offices on April 14, a DHS spokesperson told Reuters in an April 17 statement. “This is related to an ongoing investigation into criminal activity,” the statement said. DHS did not elaborate, and it did not comment on whether it was coordinating with Mexican authorities.

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Ken Paxton looks to unify GOP, raise money for general election

The Texas Senate brawl roared into the next round Wednesday, with Republicans trying to heal and Democrats smelling opportunity. Ken Paxton's allies already were working to repair party fractures after the Trump-endorsed attorney general steamrolled Sen. John Cornyn to capture the party’s Senate nomination. Democratic Senate contender James Talarico, meanwhile, was courting disaffected Republicans and independents, warning that Paxton represents a broken and corrupt political system. And Paxton’s campaign, looking to the faceoff with Talarico, moved quickly to air a new attack ad accusing him of pushing a liberal agenda out of step with Texas. Even President Donald Trump weighed in, pledging to campaign for him in Texas and deriding Talarico as too extreme.The rapid escalation showed

Texas shifting from a divisive primary to a high-stakes general election centered as much on the candidates’ personalities, backgrounds and ethics as policy. To win in November, Paxton needs to bring together the different parts of the GOP, including the traditional Bush-era Republicans whose preferred candidate he just walloped. A victorious Paxton said Tuesday night he wants to earn the support of Texans who didn’t back him in the first round. “The future of Texas and the future of America is on the line and I intend to do everything I can to expand our movement,” he told supporters in Plano. Cornyn, in his concession in Austin, said he would support “the Republican ticket” this fall but avoided explicitly endorsing Paxton. It’s difficult to imagine Paxton and Cornyn sharing a stage anytime soon, given the two men have spent the past year sparring viciously. Cornyn and his allies spent massive sums to publicly excoriate Paxton as an unethical crook and wanton philanderer, spotlighting allegations Paxton has denied.

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Republicans are poised to finish this year’s redistricting war 10 seats ahead of Democrats

The coast-to-coast battle to gain an edge in November’s elections through partisan gerrymandering is racing to its conclusion – with Republicans poised to finish with as many as 10 seats ahead of Democrats through redistricting alone. The GOP kicked off the fight last year in Texas, changing boundaries for US House districts in the hopes of improving the party’s chances of surviving a blue wave this fall, with Democrats responding in turn. The US Supreme Court’s blockbuster decision last month to gut one of the remaining pillars of the 1965 Voting Rights Act further supercharged redistricting efforts across the South, prompting several Republican-controlled states to move election dates and eliminate districts with sizable Black populations. The moves could be a major boon in efforts to protect House Speaker Mike Johnson’s razor-thin majority ahead of the midterm elections.

But regardless of the outcome in November, the mid-decade redistricting battle has likely altered American politics permanently – fueling a growing appetite to redraw lines for partisan advantage every election cycle, rather than every decade after the census, as is traditional. “There is no normal,” said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Marymount’s law school who runs the “All About Redistricting” website. He pointed to the high court’s string of election-related rulings in recent years, including a 2019 opinion declaring that federal courts could not police partisan gerrymanders, as helping pave the way for the extreme actions now taking hold. “The Supreme Court has effectively announced that the adults have left the room,” he said. “What you see is what you get when you reward bad behavior, which is a lot more bad behavior.” With primaries well underway around the country, both parties now have run out of battlegrounds on which to wage new redistricting fights this year. But they are gearing up for even more aggressive gerrymanders in the 2028 election cycle.

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Corpus Christi gets drought reprieve as rains, promise of strong El Niño offer hope

Recent rainfall in South Texas has pushed back the projected date of emergency water restrictions in Corpus Christi by three months amid growing hope that a powerful global climate phenomenon this year could wash away the region’s historic drought. Lake Texana, the smallest of Corpus Christi’s three reservoirs, rebounded from record lows last month when it received its first inflows in eight months. Worst-case projections in mid-April showed the lake going dry by summer. New projections show it should last at least until early next year. “We are pleased to share the positive news,” Nicholas Winkelmann, chief operating officer of Corpus Christi Water, said last week.

It’s one small step in a regional water crisis that has developed over decades. But the short bridge that recent rains provided goes a long way to helping the region narrowly avoid disaster, local water planners say. Expectations of a powerful “super El Niño” event this year suggest that intensely wet weather could return to the Coastal Bend region this fall, potentially putting water into the region’s largest reservoirs, which have fallen to critical levels. El Niño is a cyclical climate pattern driven by warm currents in the Pacific Ocean that shift jet streams and weather worldwide. Typically, El Niño has brought cooler and wetter weather to the Gulf Coast in late fall and winter. This year, record warm water in the Pacific Ocean could produce the strongest El Niño pattern in a century. Forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center indicate “increased probabilities of a strong to very strong El Niño possible this fall.” Earlier this year, water planners in Corpus Christi worried their reservoirs could empty before El Niño appeared to save them. The recent boost to Lake Texana significantly lowers that likelihood, according to John Michael, an engineering firm executive who has spent 44 years working on water infrastructure in the region.

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State Stories

Camp Mystic nurse regains limited nursing license as flood allegations remain unresolved

The Texas Board of Nursing has reverted the emergency suspension of Camp Mystic chief health officer’s nursing license, replacing it with a limited license that allows her to continue practicing under strict restrictions. The agreed order, signed on Tuesday, comes a week after the board temporarily suspended Mary Elizabeth Eastland’s license over her response to last summer’s catastrophic Hill Country flood that killed 25 campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic, where she had worked for 16 years. More than 130 people died throughout the region.

Under the order, Eastland can still work as a nurse in Texas, but she’s prohibited from providing direct patient care. She must also notify current and future employers about the disciplinary action and complete a state-approved nursing ethics course within a year. In a statement on Wednesday, Camp Mystic attorney Joshua Fiveson said Eastland “has no intention of again serving as a camp nurse,” but was grateful the board allowed her to continue practicing under a limited license. “The families of all those lost to the July 4, 2025 flood will forever remain in Mrs. Eastland’s heart and prayers,” Fiveson said. State regulators allege Eastland abandoned campers and staff as floodwaters rapidly rose, evacuating herself and her children without helping others at the camp, and failed to ensure Camp Mystic had proper emergency plans before the July 4 flood.

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How did 'underdog' Letitia Plummer upset Annise Parker in the runoff?

Despite Annise Parker outraising, outpolling and outperforming Letitia Plummer in the March primaries, the former Houston City Council member took a surprise victory Tuesday, earning the Democratic nomination for Harris County judge by a narrow margin. Parker, a former three-term Houston mayor, blamed the combination of low countywide turnout driven by voter fatigue and high turnout among Plummer's base, drawn to the polls by other contests on the ballot. Experts agreed, in part, but suggested the race's broader dynamics — the candidates' age gap, and the perception of Parker's establishment politics against Plummer's progressivism — also spurred the upset. The March election saw Parker come within four points of avoiding a runoff and securing the nomination outright.

Two polls conducted by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs also pegged Parker as the likely winner, with a double digit lead over Plummer. But Plummer's 51% to 49% victory Tuesday bucked both the results of the March primaries and both polls. Political experts and Parker herself pointed to turnout driven by a runoff between U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green in the 18th Congressional District and voter fatigue elsewhere in the county as factors in the upset. “The 18th Congressional District race drove the vote — in particular, the Black vote,” said Michael Adams, a Texas Southern University political scientist. “I think they turned out in force to support Plummer.” It's a theory that's at least partially supported by voter data, which showed precincts in the district generally swung in favor of Plummer. Some precincts in south Harris County also reported higher turnout that ultimately played in Plummer's favor.

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How Al Green’s half-century in Houston public office ended

U.S. Rep. Al Green was defeated Tuesday in the Democratic primary runoff for the reconfigured 18th Congressional District, a turning point for one of Houston’s longest-serving political figures after two decades in Congress and nearly 50 years in elected office. Shifting political maps have played a decisive role in Green’s career: first in creating the district that sent him to Washington, and now in reshaping the one that voted him out. The changes reshaped the electorate and set up Green’s primary contest against U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee.

Menefee, the former Harris County attorney, recently won a special election to finish the late Sylvester Turner’s term in the old 18th District. With his victory over Green on Tuesday, he is now the favorite to win a full term in the 18th’s new boundaries this November. “I didn’t move to the 18th. The 18th moved to me,” Green said repeatedly on the campaign trail. Tuesday capped a chaotic few years in the district: U.S. Rep Sheila Jackson Lee and then Turner, a former Houston mayor, both died in office. As voters went months without representation, the district was redrawn. Residents were ultimately asked to vote in four separate elections for the same seat — including a rare contest that pitted two sitting members of Congress against each other. It was a prior redistricting cycle that took Green to Washington. Texas in 2004 overhauled its congressional maps, and Green resigned from a 26-year tenure as a Harris County justice of the peace to run in the newly drawn, Democratic-leaning 9th Congressional District in southwest Houston. Green, 78, will remain in office until January. Speaking to reporters on election night, he said there is still work to do. “This is moving to another chapter in life for me,” he said. “I plan to continue to have a career associated with service.” Menefee, 38, campaigned on his record as county attorney litigating against state and federal officials and emphasized a more digitally engaged, coalition-building approach tailored to the newly drawn district. Menefee said on election night that he and Green should never have been pitted against each other. “Congressman Green, brother, I want to give you your flowers,” Menefee said. "I want to thank you for your service to people across Houston and Harris County."

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Stephen Miller calls Talarico ‘transgender.’ Democratic Party fires back: ‘Shut up you ugly f***’

This donkey can kick. Things are already getting as spicy as a habañero between State Rep. James Talarico, Texas’ Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, and national figures in the Republican party. And national Democrats are rushing to their candidate’s aid armed with a bushelful of expletives. Following Tuesday’s punishing Republican primary runoff to determine Talarico’s opponent in November’s general election, top Trump advisor Stephen Miller took off the gloves and delivered a cheap shot. “The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate,” the architect of the White House’s virulent immigration policies said in a tweet.

In response, the Democratic Party’s official social media accounts fired back a blistering — and similarly lowbrow — five-word response: “shut up you ugly fuck.” No asterisks, no self-censorship. Full on F-bomb. Forgive us, Democrats, we were unfamiliar with your game. After years of rolling over and playing dead, the Dems’ response was more than a little surprising. It’s worth noting that fiery clapbacks on X and bold policy are two totally different things, so take it for what it is: some social media manager feeling froggy. But a Democratic Party that seems a little less uptight is probably heading in the right direction. Still, buckle up as Talarico faces off against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in November’s general election. It will only get bloodier.

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Texas companies win, lose NASA moon contracts

NASA unveiled new contracts on Tuesday as part of its push to build a moon base, awarding work to one Texas company while passing over another firm based in Houston. Central Texas-based Firefly Aerospace will deliver NASA’s aerial scouts – propulsive drones built off the technology developed for the Ingenuity Mars helicopter – to the moon. But Houston’s Intuitive Machines will not continue its work on an unpressurized vehicle for astronauts to drive. NASA selected California-based Astrolab and Colorado-based Lunar Outpost to build these Lunar Terrain Vehicles. The announcements came as NASA continues the momentum started by its Artemis II astronauts who flew around the moon last month and seeks to meet President Donald Trump’s mandate to build the first elements of a permanent moon base by 2030.

“In the time since Artemis II, we’ve been extremely active,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during Tuesday’s event. “We've been reviewing feedback from the Ignition events, speaking to industry, addressing supply chain challenges, having the tough conversations with those failing to meet expectations and offering NASA's assistance to solve problems.” Firefly Aerospace, headquartered outside of Austin in Cedar Park, received a $75 million subcontract to deliver the MoonFall drones that are being developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The company’s Blue Ghost lander made a soft lunar touchdown in 2025. For this MoonFall mission, Firefly Aerospace will use a version of its Elytra Dark spacecraft – which is designed for orbit, not landing on the moon – to carry the drones to the moon's orbit. It will slow down and release them about 30 miles above the South Pole, where the drones will then land themselves. These drones are expected to take propulsive hops around the moon’s South Pole in 2028 to scout the area, capture images of hard-to-reach places and evaluate radiation levels, among other things.

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Texas factory output was growing fast. Now, the Dallas Fed says it is slowing to an average pace.

Texas manufacturing growth cooled in May as factory output shifted to a more moderate pace, according to the latest Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The survey’s production index, which is a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, dropped 10 points to 9.4 this month. Data from the Dallas Fed suggests this reading reflects an "average pace of output expansion". Several key measures showed signs of slower growth in May. The capacity utilization index plunged 15 points to 5.2, the shipments index fell eight points to 7.4, and the new orders index dipped four points to 6.4.

The general business activity index edged up three points to 0.4, and the company outlook index came in at 0.3. Both near-zero readings indicate "no change in activity" or outlook compared to April. Local manufacturers also experienced shifting financial pressures. Raw materials prices jumped six points to 42.7—marking an eight-month high—while finished goods prices eased. Meanwhile, the local labor market remained static. The employment index was unchanged at 0.2, signaling "no change in payrolls" from last month, while hours worked moved down to 1.8. Despite the current deceleration, Texas executives expressed optimism for the second half of the year. The future production index was little changed at 36.8, showing that "expectations are for increased manufacturing activity six months from now". The Dallas Fed collected data for the report between May 12 and May 20, with responses from 75 of the 114 Texas manufacturers surveyed.

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Thousands of Texas educators flagged for misconduct, criminal history

A new tool from the Texas Education Agency, or TEA, shows thousands of incidents of alleged misconduct by Texas educators were reported since 2025. The Educator Misconduct Reporting dashboard launched this month to give Texans some transparency into the state’s efforts to protect students. It was created as part of Senate Bill 571, which expanded reporting requirements for misconduct at Texas schools. The dashboard is divided into four sections: Misconduct reports, educator investigations, State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) sanctions, and Do Not Hire registry. “Because cases may move through multiple stages over time, these views together provide a picture of how educator misconduct cases progress,” the TEA’s website says. This dashboard contains data collected from September 2025 to April 2026. The dashboard is updated regularly, according to the TEA.

According to TEA, the misconduct reports tab shows monthly totals sent to the agency by referral type. Each case is evaluated based on its facts and circumstances, but misconduct cases can range from endangering students, to theft and fraud. TEA has received 13,390 misconduct reports since September 2025, averaging over 1,600 per month. The number of reports more than doubled compared to fiscal year 2025; this may be due to the new requirements under SB 571. Referrals collected by TEA in the 2025-2026 school year included superintendent reports (75.3%), the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (13%), parents and community members (11.2%), and the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education Certification (0.6%). The dashboard also tracks active investigations. These the TEA breaks down by allegation type and stage of process. It also combines multiple reports about an incident into a single investigation. TEA has had 9,724 educator investigations between September 2025 and April 2026. 78.5% of these cases involved direct harm to students, while 21.5% involved “indirect harm.”

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Travis County area organizations propel next generation’s shift to trade work

In a parking lot on the campus of Austin Community College’s Riverside campus on an April afternoon, eight teams of Central Texas high school students are constructing their own small structures. They’re participating in a design-build competition sponsored by ACC and the Construction Industry Education Foundation. Just across the lot, applied technology students take classes in fields like building construction, welding, and HVAC technology. In a time when many college-age adults harbor resentment against the failed promises of a four-year degree, and as the threat of AI looms over entry-level, white-collar jobs, the relative stability and pay of blue-collar work is becoming increasingly attractive to those figuring out their next step. A May 2025 survey concluded that – largely due to financial stability – 42% of Gen Z respondents are either employed in blue-collar occupations or are pursuing the route, and 37% of those individuals hold a bachelor’s degree.

The growth of ACC’s skilled trade programs reflects the study’s findings. Its trade programs have grown by more than 17% over the past year, according to the university. Jam-packed with students, the highly desired courses often fill up within hours of opening, according to Troy DeFrates, dean of Design, Manufacturing, Construction & Applied Technologies at ACC and former welding student at the college. “We’re out of space right now, so I think we need to expand,” he said. As demand continues to rise, the college is intending to do just that. Last month, ACC purchased a 560,000-square-foot facility for its new Southeast Austin campus, making additional space for its workforce training programs and the university’s Infrastructure Academy. The academy launched in 2025 in collaboration with the city, ACC, and Workforce Solutions Capital Area, a nonprofit supporting individuals in their search for local jobs. The academy is intended to help properly prepare students to meet the growing demand for workers for large-scale construction efforts like the I-35 and light rail expansions and the convention center redevelopment. The rapid, controversial emergence of data centers in Texas is also driving demand for skilled labor.

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Arrests under Texas’ controversial SB4 law begin in Rio Grande Valley

Two men were arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety in Hidalgo County on Sunday under the state’s controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 4, or SB4. Yeison Misael De Leon Perez, 27, and Josue Walter Torres Ojeda, 36, were charged with illegal entry from foreign nation under the law. The arrests come after Texas passed SB4 in November 2023 which grants local law enforcement the ability to arrest a person suspected of entering the country illegally. The law is currently the subject of litigation, but as of May 14 the law is partially in effect, according to the ACLU.

The bill overlaps with federal statutes criminalizing unlawful entry and reentry. Hidalgo County District Attorney Toribio “Terry” Palacios said Wednesday morning that state troopers have to see a person crossing the Rio Grande in order to make the arrest, which is what occurred Sunday. “There was enough probable cause to arrest them and they did get arrested,” Palacios said, adding that they are unsure how to handle the case as of right now, saying that if they are a first time offender they may be given probation. As of right now, Palacios said there were two arrests associated with that charge over the weekend. Legal challenges SB4 faced were similar to arguments made in Arizona v. United States where the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. has “broad, undoubted power over the subject of immigration” and states “may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.” Earlier this month, the Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and ACLU filed a lawsuit against parts of the bill arguing the law is unconstitutional because immigration law is exclusive to the federal government.

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Gus Bova: They’re mostly Anglo. They’re largely from Austin. And they just might have a shot.

At long last, Texas Democrats have their statewide slate. On Tuesday, the easy victories of Austin state Representative Vikki Goodwin for the lieutenant governor nomination and Dallas state Senator Nathan Johnson for attorney general completed the team that will attempt to take advantage in November of what seems to be the most promising year for Lone Star liberals in at least four cycles. So, here are some reasons that might be a bad thing. First, this is a very white slate. Goodwin and Johnson join Austin state Representative Gina Hinojosa for governor and Austin state Representative James Talarico for senator in November’s top four ballot slots. That means three of the highest-profile quartet are Anglo. And, for the four remaining statewide executive-branch positions up for election—comptroller, land commissioner, agriculture commissioner, and railroad commissioner—all are Anglo save for Benjamin Flores, the land commish hopeful who adds a second Hispanic surname to the octet.

Texas, by way of reminder, is a plurality-Latino state that also has the largest total Black population of any state (and which just saw a bruising March Senate primary that fractured along racial lines). This is also—maybe you already noticed the trend in the honorifics—a very Austin-centric lineup. Three of the top four slots are held by state reps from the capital city—the bluest of Texas’ blue cities. The would-be comptroller, furthermore, is Austin state Senator Sarah Eckhardt. Texas, by way of reminder, is home to two mega-populous metros—and they are Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. (There’s also a booming metro to the south, by the name of San Antonio.) On the other hand, here are some counterpoints. By the standards of Texas Democrats, this is a highly qualified electoral offering. All four of the top candidates are currently sitting state legislators. And seven of the eight statewide executive aspirants hold state- or city-level elected office. In terms of experience—and willingness to risk something to run—this is a massive upgrade over any other recent election. It’s also possible that none of the above quibbling matters a whit. Because perhaps the best news for the Texas Democratic Party was delivered Tuesday courtesy of Republican voters.

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What happened with Fort Bend County elections?

Fort Bend County officials have downplayed a technical error that caused all 76 Fort Bend County vote centers to temporarily stall on Tuesday, maintaining that people were still able to cast ballots in primary runoffs and the integrity of the election was not compromised. Elections Administrator Chase Wilson, who was appointed to the position late last year and took office on January 1, told reporters on Tuesday that a “bad file” was uploaded into the voter check-in system and the glitch could be attributed to human error. During the temporary shutdown, voters were allowed to cast provisional ballots, although many were deterred by the long lines and left polling centers without voting.

The outage occurred around 2:30 p.m. and service was restored around 5 p.m. with about two hours to go before the polls closed. While some public officials referred to the system glitch as a problem with voting machines, Wilson clarified that the problem occurred with the check-in software. He said checks and balances are in place, but some data is uploaded manually and “unfortunately this appears to be an oversight.” “Roughly at about 2:30 p.m., we received reports that voters were unable to check in at polling locations,” he said. “We quickly identified the issue and it appears to have stemmed from a clerical user error in our office. The standard procedure for updating our poll books at the polling locations is to export a file that gets remotely transmitted to the locations. Unfortunately when this upload was completed, the incorrect file was chosen and uploaded into the system.” The uploaded file was from a May 2 city council and school board election and it caused almost every poll book in the county to become “non-functional,” Wilson said.

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Texas finalizes the deal on its second-largest state park

Texas’s biggest state park is and probably always will be Big Bend Ranch, whose 311,000 acres sit across from Big Bend National Park. The state’s second-biggest, however, has long been out of reach to Texans: The 39,000-acre Chinati Mountains State Natural Area, even though the property was acquired in the nineties, still isn’t open to the public and won’t be unveiled until at least 2032. Close behind, at 37,000 acres, is Devils River State Natural Area, which is notoriously difficult to access. But that’s all about to change. Texas Parks and Wildlife announced the acquisition of a whopping 54,000 acres of land around 125 miles west of San Antonio, which will become Silver Lake State Park and Texas’s second-largest state park to date.

The property is situated between Uvalde and Rocksprings in Edwards and Kinney Counties, near the southern edge of the Edwards Plateau ecoregion—think limestone cliffs, grassy plains, rolling hills of live oak and Ashe juniper, and winding creeks lined with cottonwood trees. The West Nueces River courses through the land, making it the only state park to host a stretch of that waterway. The park’s namesake is a thirty-acre spring-fed lake, which is home to a population of bass, perch, and greenthroat darters. White-tailed deer, javelinas, turkeys, and doves have been spotted on the property. Parks and Wildlife has not yet set an opening date for the park, but the department plans to host public hunts there starting this fall. “The thing that impressed me was its ruggedness. I know if I go out there a hundred more times, I’ll continue to discover new things. Around every corner is a surprise,” says Greg Creacy, the natural resources program director for Texas State Parks. “It’s diverse, it’s large, it’s unfragmented. You get a sense of wildness and wilderness. We’re crazy excited about it.”

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Dallas built and sold more homes than any other U.S. city last year, data shows

Dallas is No. 1 in the country for new-home construction, according to new data from Consumer Affairs. Despite census data showing that Dallas County is shrinking, a study from Consumer Affairs reported that the city of Dallas added the highest number of newly built homes in 2025. In fact, Dallas moved up to the lead spot on the list of cities leading the country in new home construction, surpassing Houston. Consumer Affairs attributes the growth to a surge in new-construction sales, the study states. In 2025, the city issued 11,327 building permits and about 3,000 new construction homes were sold, according to Consumer Affairs.

The surge may be because in April 2025, the city updated its residential housing code in an attempt to alleviate the city's housing shortage. The new code allows buildings of up to eight units and three stories to be permitted under a modified version of the International Residential Code. The new policy makes it easier and more cost-effective to build new, dense housing within the city. Dallas surpassed Houston, which is No. 2 on the list. However, it's No. 1 for the number of new construction homes sold in the first two months of 2026. Austin and San Antonio are also in the top ten.

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County Stories

Judicial turnover continues, but this Democratic incumbent hung on

A rush of nontraditional primary voters wiped out six Democratic judges in the March primary, while a seventh incumbent, Judge Cesar Garcia in County Court at Law No. 10, was pushed to a runoff from his three-way race. On Tuesday, Democrats’ voting patterns seemed to return to normal for the primary runoff. Meanwhile, Republicans were still eager to root out moderates across the board, including a race to fill Judge Bert Richardson’s seat on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In a Democratic primary runoff with far lower turnout and fewer exciting races than the March primary, Garcia held off challenger Shannon Roberta Salmón to keep his County Court at Law No. 10 seat. He did so with a resounding 65% of the vote, and does not have a Republican opponent in November. Garcia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Of the six Democrats who upset incumbent judges in the primary, one of them, Alicia Perez, will be sworn in to her new position on Wednesday. Perez defeated then-Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez for the Democratic nomination in County Court at Law No. 13 in March. County Commissioners are now appointing her to take over early after Speedlin Gonzalez resigned to avoid punishment from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. A second insurgent Democrat, Audrey Martinez, faced a lawsuit from the incumbent she beat in the primary for Court at Law No. 14. Judge Carlo Rodriguez Key alleged that Martinez doesn’t meet the eligibility requirements because she doesn’t live in Bexar County — giving ousted judges hope that one of them might be able to return if Democratic precinct chairs had to select a replacement. This month Martinez was cleared for the November ballot, however, after a judge dismissed Key’s case. Key will remain in the role until the end of his term. Martinez, who doesn’t have a Republican opponent in November, told the Report she was “grateful this matter is now behind me.”

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City Stories

Following conservative backlash, Fort Worth principal reassigned over BLM, Sharia law social media posts

A Fort Worth school district principal was reassigned just days after she was announced as principal of Western Hills High School following backlash over old social media posts about the Black Lives Matter movement and Sharia law. Shayma Alzubi had been announced as principal in a now deleted Facebook post. The district said in a statement that she has been reassigned to another position, but did not say what her new position was. According to the statement, the district was made aware of multiple social media posts made by Alzubi that did not align with the district’s social media policies or expectations.

The statement said that the district was in compliance with a state law that prohibits teachers from discussing widely debated topics with a political bias, and that the administration ensures all issues of public policy or social affairs be explored objectively and in a manner free from political bias. Following the initial announcement of Alzubi as principal of Western Hills, Tarrant County conservative activist Carlos Turcios posted on X screenshots of Alzubi’s previous social media posts. One post explained the meaning of Sharia Law and said it was a moral and religious framework for Muslims. In another post from 2021 Alzubi shared a graphic calling for the Fort Worth school district to vote for a mask mandate. Turcios called her posts “pro-Palestinian” and “supportive of Sharia Law. “ The Texas for Palestine group posted a flyer calling Alzubi’s reassignment part of an “online anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate campaign.” Alzubi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the Fort Worth school district website, Alzubi was previously an assistant principal for ninth grade at Southwest High School. Prior to that, she was an assistant principal at Arlington Heights High School. As of around 10:30 a.m., Alzubi’s profile on the website had been deleted.

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National Stories

New Fed report warns of ‘remarkable’ increase in households skipping meals due to food costs

There’s been a “remarkable” increase over the past few years in Americans struggling to put food on the table, and that’s likely contributing to record-low consumer sentiment readings, new Federal Reserve Bank of New York research showed Wednesday. The New York Fed updated a 2020 analysis on the disproportionate financial effects of the pandemic with newly collected data from its closely watched Survey of Consumer Expectations. Researchers found that a greater share of Americans have become more “food insecure” than they were in May and June of 2020 and are dipping into savings to cover expenses, struggling to access food, have kids who missed meals, or are receiving food donations or federal nutrition assistance.

“We find a remarkable increase in food insecurity, particularly among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children,” New York Fed researchers wrote Wednesday. Those same groups also reported increases in pessimism regarding their financial well-being. While not necessarily causal, the association between rising food insecurity and increased pessimism points to a potential explanation as to why US consumer sentiment has been in the dumps despite economic data remaining fairly resilient, if not quite strong, researchers noted. Income and wealth inequality have long persisted in the US, but Americans’ economic experiences and outcomes have become increasingly uneven in recent years. This dynamic, frequently referred to as a “K-shaped” economy, is defined by a widening inequality in how lower- and higher-income Americans spend, earn and build wealth. Those in the top half of the K have seen their household finances and wealth enriched by soaring stock prices, equity in their home and a refinancing boom that lowered mortgage payments and padded their piggy banks.

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‘It’s a loophole’: Shut out from most gambling, 18-to-21 crowd rushes to prediction sites

When Andrew needed money for a flight with friends to Greece this summer, the 18-year-old high school senior turned to prediction markets. With a $500 cash advance from his credit card company, Andrew sat in a Starbucks for more than six hours, trading on live tennis matches on Kalshi. He left with a $2,200 profit. Andrew continued using Kalshi to supplement wages from a part-time job, funding golf with friends and dates with his girlfriend. But after a scare where he nearly lost $1,000 on an NBA game, he deleted the app and swore he’d never return. But he later re-downloaded Kalshi, and the cycle started again. He turned a $1,300 cash advance into $3,000, according to screenshots reviewed by CNN. When he tried to withdraw his winnings at 3 a.m., he got an error message. Unable to get his funds out, he decided to keep betting. And this time, within hours, it was all gone.

“I didn’t know what to do. I started spiraling,” Andrew, who asked that he not be identified by his full name, told CNN in an interview. “In the moment, you’re just going, going, going. It’s like tunnel vision.” An 18-year-old like Andrew could place these wagers due to a legal technicality that treats prediction markets differently than traditional sportsbooks, which are 21+ in most states. Addiction experts and state regulators say this has opened the door to an emerging public health crisis. Under current US law, prediction sites are not considered gambling. Rather, they’re financial markets that offer “event contracts,” which makes them available to anyone over 18. They are regulated just like futures trading over the price of soybeans – but instead of focusing on commodities, users speculate on the outcomes of elections, sporting events, awards shows and more. Despite new steps prediction markets have recently taken to prevent problematic trading, including among the 18-to-21 cohort, there are still widespread concerns from state regulators, members of Congress and addiction specialists.

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Ball State settles with ex-employee for $225,000 over Charlie Kirk posts

Ball State University in Indiana has agreed to pay $225,000 to a former administrator who was fired for her Facebook post accusing Charlie Kirk of spreading fear, the latest legal settlement awarded to a worker dismissed for criticizing the conservative activist after he was assassinated. “As a public university, Ball State cannot fire an employee for protected speech made as a private citizen,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which sued on the administrator’s behalf, said in a statement this week announcing the settlement. Employers in several states have also settled with or reinstated workers.

Scores of people — health care workers, lawyers, journalists, waiters and waitresses — were fired or faced other repercussions for their negative comments about Mr. Kirk, igniting a debate over how far employers can go in restricting employees’ political expression that occurs outside the workplace. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said it was tracking 13 lawsuits in federal court from people who had been disciplined or terminated for their comments about Mr. Kirk. The Ball State case involved a health care administrator for the university named Suzanne Swierc (pronounced “swirtz”). She became one of many Americans targeted in a campaign by Mr. Kirk’s followers, including Vice President JD Vance, to expose and retaliate against those who had spoken critically of Mr. Kirk after his assassination last fall on a Utah university campus. “If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends,” she wrote on her Facebook page several hours after he was killed. Her post expressed disdain for Mr. Kirk’s loyal fans but also condemned his death as the kind of violence she said was too common in American politics.

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Months after feud with Bari Weiss, Sharyn Alfonsi is out at ‘60 Minutes’

CBS News journalist Sharyn Alfonsi is departing “60 Minutes,” months after a high-profile clash with CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss. While Alfonsi is still technically employed at CBS News, she said in a statement that her contract expired Saturday, ending a decade-long tenure at the network’s flagship program. “This was not a routine corporate transition; it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting,” she said in the statement. “It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.” Alfonsi, who joined “60 Minutes” in 2015, became the center of a newsroom firestorm in December when Weiss intervened to delay her segment on Venezuelan migrants detained at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, citing the need for an on-camera interview with a Trump administration official — even though the administration declined to participate. In an email to producers, Alfonsi accused Weiss of handing the administration a “kill switch” over the network’s reporting.

The segment eventually aired in January with minimal changes and without the administration interview Weiss had sought. Instead, Alfonsi narrated a short addendum to the report, which included additional details, disclosures and written statements from the government. In a statement, Alfonsi said that she and her representation were met with “absolute silence from network executives” since the editorial dispute over the CECOT story. “In the coming days, network leadership may attempt to hide behind corporate euphemisms like ‘modernization’ and ‘restructuring’ to explain away my departure. Don’t be misled,” she added. Alfonsi said that CBS management has abandoned its mission of fearless and independent reporting, choosing “access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it.” The New York Times first reported the news of Alfonsi’s departure Wednesday. CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Kuwait says it faced a missile and drone attack, with Iran war ceasefire shaky

Kuwait said it was targeted with a missile and drone attack Thursday, another challenge to the shaky ceasefire in the Iran war following strikes by both Washington and Tehran. Kuwait’s military made the announcement, without providing further details on what had been targeted. Iran said hours later that it launched an attack in the region, but it did not say exactly what was targeted. Kuwait, a close ally of the U.S., repeatedly came under fire from Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq during the war. The announcement comes as the Middle East is on the edge. U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed confidence that his administration is making headway in negotiations with Iran to end the war, but the talks remain in flux.

Trump is looking for an agreement that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz — through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas once passed. He is also seeking to get Iran to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium while the Islamic Republic wants economic sanctions to be lifted and frozen assets to be released to aid its shattered economy. The war has been unpopular in the U.S., and Iran’s closure of the strait has sent oil prices skyrocketing, driving up fuel prices around the world. As the negotiations continue, there have been several challenges to the ceasefire in recent days. On Monday, the U.S. said it conducted what the Pentagon called “defensive” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran. U.S. officials said late Wednesday in Washington that forces launched more strikes on Iran, shooting down four one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the strait and hitting an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone. The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard via the state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged the attack around Bandar Abbas International Airport and said it launched its own retaliatory attack on the air base that launched the assault. It did not elaborate on the target and it wasn’t clear whether that was the attack that Kuwait announced.

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Justice Department launches criminal investigation into Trump accuser E Jean Carroll, reports say

The new criminal case is looking into whether Carroll lied when she said in a 2022 deposition that she received no outside funding for her civil lawsuit against Trump, a source told CBS. It was revealed in legal papers first filed by Trump's lawyers in 2023 that the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, had helped to pay for some of Carroll's legal fees and expenses.

The issue was brought up during the case's appeal, and the court found that Carroll had "plausibly represented" in her deposition "that she had forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained". The "additional discovery... showed that Ms Carroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs," the US Court of Appeals for the Second District continued in a 2024 ruling. The new investigation is being led by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, one source told CBS. CNN, which first reported the story, reported that while Carroll's deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll's legal fees, Hoffman, has a non-profit organisation based in Chicago. The BBC has also approached Hoffman's non-profit for comment. Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who personally represented Trump in the appeal cases against Carroll, is recused from the case, a source told CBS.

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Massie visits Greene in Costa Rica for fishing and ‘spicy’ political talks

After Representative Thomas Massie, an outspoken Republican critic of President Trump, lost his seat in a closely watched primary last week, he brushed off questions about his future political aspirations by saying he was going to run — back to his off-the-grid Kentucky farm. But as Mr. Massie pondered his future, and recovered from the most expensive House primary in recent years, he set a heading this week for sandier horizons, flying to Costa Rica. Waiting for him when he landed was a familiar Trump antagonist from the Republican Party: former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Ms. Greene, who maintains a house in the Central American country, arrived there earlier this month for a two-week birthday trip, her fiancé, Brian Glenn, said in an interview.

In recent days, Ms. Greene invited Mr. Massie and his wife, Carolyn, to hop a last-minute flight to join them at the house, and the congressman arrived on Tuesday, Mr. Glenn said. In an image that Mr. Glenn posted on Instagram, Mr. Massie and Ms. Greene stand shoulder to shoulder as they smile broadly at the beach, their partners at each of their sides. The group spent Wednesday fishing, Mr. Glenn said, as they celebrated Ms. Greene’s 52nd birthday. “We had a good time out on the water,” said Mr. Glenn, adding that they had some “spicy” conversations about politics. Mr. Massie needed a “break” after his bruising campaign, Mr. Glenn said. “We’re happy to provide a break.” On Wednesday night, Mr. Massie posted a video on social media showing him and Ms. Greene smiling and laughing while fishing. The visit has brought together two longtime friends who have faced a backlash from Mr. Trump over their criticism of the war with Iran and the government’s handling of files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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Trump’s new green card policy sparks confusion

When President Donald Trump’s administration announced last week that it would require green card seekers to apply from their home countries instead of in the U.S., immigration attorney Flavia Santos Lloyd’s phone began ringing off the hook with clients worried about the implications for them. Lloyd wasn’t sure what to tell them, but she knew the confusing new policy would slow down applications. “It has a chilling effect because we have some cases that we were going to proceed and I can tell already, we should wait and see what’s going on,” she said. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that foreigners in the U.S. who want a green card will need to leave and apply in their home country, barring some unspecified exceptions.

The announcement, which potentially affects hundreds of thousands of green card applicants a year, was the latest immigration policy unveiled by Trump’s Republican administration to stun and confound lawyers, advocates and immigrants. It’s also part of a pivot by the administration to target legal pathways to immigration, after focusing since last year mostly on migrants in the U.S. illegally. “This is simply an attempt to try to limit and scare people away from the legal immigration process,” immigration attorney Charles Kuck said, adding that he expected legal action against the change. “This is a scare tactic.” As worried immigrants and their employers flood immigration law offices with questions, it’s unclear what the effect will be, what exceptions might be allowed and how the policy will play out on the ground. Some green card seekers were already facing questions about why they should be allowed to apply from the U.S.

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Lead Stories

Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in Texas Republican U.S. Senate primary

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated veteran U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP runoff Tuesday, toppling the four-term incumbent in a fierce duel that centered on who was more loyal to President Donald Trump. Paxton will now face off against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in the November election, setting up what is expected to be one of the most competitive general elections in Texas since the 1990s. During a victory party at his campaign headquarters in Dallas, Paxton described his win as sending “a Texas-sized message to Washington.” And he thanked Trump, who endorsed Paxton midway through early voting after promising to get involved much sooner.

“We just proved this senate seat doesn’t belong to Washington. It belongs to you the hardworking men and women of our state,” he said. “Tonight is not the end of a campaign. It’s the beginning of the fight to protect every value we hold dear." The outcome also marked what could be the end of a long political career for the 74-year-old Cornyn, who was seeking his fifth term in the U.S. Senate. Early results show Paxton led Cornyn in almost every major county in a race that saw high participation, with early voting returns more than tripling the early ballots cast in 2024. Speaking in Austin on Tuesday night, Cornyn said while his campaign “came up short,” he would support Paxton in the general election in November. “I’ve said throughout this race I trust the voters of Texas,” he said. “They’ve made their decision and I must respect it.” Two of the best-known figures in Texas politics, Paxton and Cornyn had attacked each other mercilessly since the longtime state attorney general launched his campaign to unseat the 74-year-old incumbent last April. The race pitted the state’s more traditional, business-friendly Republicans against Paxton’s grassroots, Make America Great Again supporters, a test for a party under the leadership of President Donald Trump. Cornyn and the super PACs supporting him, including groups led by former Gov. Rick Perry and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, greatly outspent Paxton, with more than $88 million in advertising buys over the past 12 months.

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Allred defeats Johnson in runoff, Menefee defeats Green in redrawn U.S. House seats

Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred beat incumbent U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson in Tuesday’s runoff for a newly drawn North Texas district in a race that turned the onetime Democratic allies against each other. Vote returns showed Allred besting Johnson by more than 9 percentage points, a victory the Dallas Democrat called a "clear message." "They redrew the maps to make us disappear, but this community showed up anyway and made its voice heard," Allred said in a statement late Tuesday. "That is who we are." The intraparty fight — one of the most closely watched this cycle — for the Dallas-based District 33 stems from a Republican-led redrawing of Texas’ congressional map aimed at maintaining the party’s narrow majority in Washington. Allred, the former NFL linebacker and three-term congressman, previously vacated his seat to run unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2024.

In another newly drawn seat in Houston, U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee beat U.S. Rep. Al Green, according to a race call by the Associated Press. According to early voting results released by Harris County, where the bulk of the newly redrawn 18th District is located, Menefee received 70.4% of nearly 24,000 votes cast. The district also includes parts of Brazoria and Fort Bend counties. A countywide technical problem in Fort Bend caused voting delays Tuesday. Nonetheless, Menefee’s early voting lead in Harris County was enough for him to declare victory. Back in Dallas, speaking Tuesday evening at their election watch parties, neither Allred nor Johnson treated their race as settled. The Associated Press didn't call the race for Allred until after 10 p.m. Allred addressed reporters and supporters at a local union hall in Old East Dallas about two hours after polls closed. He said his party, going forward, must go about "unrigging” the system, stand with working people and defend the “idea that diversity is a good thing.” Also in Old East Dallas, addressing reporters at Times Ten Cellars, Johnson said her team was waiting for the remaining ballots to be counted. Whatever the outcome, the Farmers Branch Democrat said, she would work to elect other Democrats on the ballot. She also had curt words for the Republican-led redistricting effort that made her current district more favorable to the GOP. "Redistricting is a bitch," Johnson said. “Tonight belongs to the people of this district,” Menefee said in a Tuesday night statement. “You have shown up over and over, and every single time, you have chosen to fight for a better future for our communities. I do not take that for granted for one second. This is your victory, and I will spend every day in Washington making sure it means something.” Green and Menefee were pitted against each other in a rare race between two sitting congressmen. The matchup was a result of the redrawn congressional maps approved by the Texas legislature last year at the behest of President Donald Trump. The left-leaning District 18 was redrawn to include portions of Green's prior district, the 9th Congressional District, pitting Democrat against Democrat.

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Oil giant BP ousts new chairman over ‘conduct’ and shares slide

BP has ousted its chairman over what it called serious concerns related to "important governance standards, oversight and conduct." The departure was abrupt and unexpected, with Albert Manifold having been appointed to the position late last year. "Albert has helped bring a welcome focus and pace to BP's transformation,” Amanda Blanc, senior independent director, said in a statement Tuesday. “However, the board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action."

BP’s board named Ian Tyler as interim chair, effective immediately. BP, based in London with its North American headquarters in Houston, is a "supermajor," one of the five largest oil production and exploration companies in the world when measured by revenue and profit. Manifold, who had been the top executive at Dublin-based global building materials company CRH for 10 years, became the chair at BP in October. BP was looking for someone to revamp the oil giant and went with an industry outsider in Manifold, who had made major strategic changes at CRH. After a new focus on renewable energy at BP in 2020, by 2025 the company was seeking a return to its roots. BP’s hard reset was criticized by environmentalists, as well as some shareholders. CEO Murray Auchincloss said last year that optimism over opportunities in renewable energy was misplaced, with the company moving "too far and too fast." Changes in leadership at BP in recent years has been tumultuous. CEO Bernard Looney resigned in late 2023 after BP determined that he had misled the company over his past relationships with colleagues.

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With late lead in runoff for railroad commissioner, Bo French looks toward November

As Bo French held a razor-thin lead in the Republican primary runoff for Texas railroad commissioner, he thanked his supporters and looked toward November after Decision Desk HQ declared him the winner. With 87.62% of polling locations reporting, French had 50.7% of the vote and incumbent Jim Wright had 49.3%. The three-member commission oversees the state’s oil and gas industry. “I am deeply grateful for the support of TX Republicans across our state,” French posted on X at around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday night. “Our campaign focused on defending oil and gas, and putting America First—and that’s exactly what I will continue fighting for as we turn our attention to radical Democrat Jon Rosenthal.”

A spokesperson for Wright’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. French focused his campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, and has been a part of a growing section of conservatives warning of a perceived “Islamification” of Texas. He resigned as chairman of the Tarrant County GOP and announced his candidacy in November 2025 in a post on X, where French has made many inflammatory posts. Established in 1891, the Texas Railroad Commission has jurisdiction over the nation’s hub for oil and gas production. In addition to regulating production, the commission also oversees “pipeline transporters, natural gas and hazardous liquid pipeline industry, natural gas utilities, the LP-gas industry, critical natural gas infrastructure, and coal and uranium surface mining operations,” according to the commission. Three commissioners serve staggered six-year terms. Wright is the chairman of the commission. In June 2025, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for French’s resignation as chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party after French made a social media post asking his followers whether Jews or Muslims were the “bigger threat to America.” French deleted the poll, saying “some people clearly misunderstood the intent,” and said he regretted posting it. French and Wright were sent to a runoff after the March 3 primary, in which French received 31.75% of the vote and Wright received 32.1%. The winner of Tuesday’s runoff election will face Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, of Cypress, on Nov. 3.

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State Stories

It’s Johnny Garcia vs. Carlos De La Cruz in San Antonio’s highly contested 35th Congressional District

After much hand-wringing and money spent by national Democrats, Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia easily fended off family therapist Maureen Galindo in the expensive, late-breaking primary runoff for Texas’ 35th Congressional District on Tuesday night. Galindo’s controversial views surrounding U.S. involvement in Israel thrust the little-watched race into the national spotlight — at the same time her low-budget campaign suddenly received a surge of money from Republicans trying to boost a weaker nominee for November. The newly redistricted San Antonio-area seat was meant to cushion Republicans’ razor-thin U.S. House majority this November, with the conservative Texas Legislature drawing themselves what looked to be a slam dunk.

But Democrats have been winning some races in red territory since then, and both parties wound up with tougher-than-expected primaries that could affect their chances in November. The new district seemed tailor-made by the Texas Legislature for state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), who flipped a blue Texas House district that’s entirely within TX35’s boundaries. Then the day before polls opened in the March primary, President Donald Trump and House GOP leaders swooped in to endorse retired Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz, whose sister U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Edinburg) currently represents some of the district’s more rural parts. Shortly after 9:45 p.m., De La Cruz declared victory in the Republican primary from his party at Retama Park in Selma. He was joined by his mom, sister and daughter.

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Michelle Gutierrez Cohen defeats incumbent Ruben Becerra in Hays County judge Democratic runoff

Michelle Gutierrez Cohen has defeated incumbent Ruben Becerra to be the Democratic candidate for Hays County judge in November. Unofficial results from Tuesday's runoff show Gutierrez Cohen, the Precinct 2 county commissioner, received 58.31% of the vote. Becerra received 41.69%. "Hays County has spoken. And the voters are ready for a change," Gutierrez Cohen said on her campaign's Facebook page. "You made a little girl who grew up in Section 8 housing and whose family came to Hays County with the dream of owning land have the honor of becoming a County Commissioner. And now, you are giving me the chance to lead as your County Judge. I will not let you down." Becerra, who has served as Hays County judge since 2019, conceded the race in a text message to KUT News.

"I ran a campaign entirely on my record, and I'm proud of that record. I'm proud of how I ran my race, and I'm grateful I gave it everything I had and left it all on the field," he said. "And now, I'm at peace seeing the baton passed to someone else." Gutierrez Cohen, who lives in Kyle, has served as Precinct 2 county commissioner since 2022. During that time, she's focused on public health, working to find funding for the county’s mobile vaccine clinic, which offers flu and COVID-19 shots for residents. If elected county judge, Gutierrez Cohen said she hopes to continue working on issues related to public health as well as create a strategic plan to reform criminal justice procedures in the county. She also said she intends to make water use and preservation a priority. Gutierrez Cohen will face Republican Geoffrey Tahuahua in November.

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Hubert Vo loses Texas House seat after two decades in office

Longtime state Rep. Hubert Vo lost the Democratic primary for his southwest Houston district on Tuesday, ending his 22-year run as one of the state Legislature's few Asian members. The party’s nominee will instead be Darlene Breaux, the president of the Alief ISD school board, who narrowly beat Vo in the March primary and forced him into a top-two contest. Breaux easily won the runoff on Tuesday, making Vo one of the few Democratic incumbents ousted this cycle, along with Chris Turner of Grand Prairie.

Upon his election in 2004, Vo was just the third Asian person to join the Texas House and remains the only Vietnamese American elected to the Legislature, often recounting his personal story of fleeing communism in his home country. His district, which includes much of Alief along with parts of Katy, is home to a significant population of Vietnamese immigrants as well as many Black and Hispanic residents. Vo has rarely faced serious challenges, running unopposed in the Democratic primary for eight of his eleven terms. He has touted an expansion of the economic prospects for southwest Houston through his creation of the International District taxing authority, and most recently served as vice chair of the Texas House’s Committee on Insurance. Breaux has served as a school board member since 2017 and picked up endorsements from major Democratic groups, including the Texas AFL-CIO.

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Labor activist Adrian Reyna declares victory in Democratic runoff for Texas House District 125

Labor activist Adrian Reyna declared victory after taking a strong lead for the Democratic primary race in Texas House District 125. Reyna has 80.83% percent of the early vote with Michelle Barrientes Vela taking 19.17% Neither took more than half of the vote during an open Democratic primary in March, forcing the two into a rematch Tuesday night. “I look out in this moment, a room full of faces that have been there from my childhood, who are there when I wake up in the morning, who have been there for me every step of the way of this campaign of my entire life,” Reyna said addressing a crowd gathered at Sari Sari, a Filipino restaurant in his district.

“Let’s finish this thing in November.” The crowd at Sari Sari was full of Reyna’s family, labor activist friends and school coworkers. His parents, who had a major part in shaping Reyna’s path to politics, were also in attendance. The winner on Nov. 3 will replace state Rep. Ray Lopez, 79, a longtime representative of Texas House District 125 who chose to retire this year instead of running for reelection. This district contains a large chunk of San Antonio’s West Side and is considered a Democratic stronghold, even after Republicans went through with redistricting at President Donald Trump’s request to give the GOP more seats. While Democrats in Bexar County outvoted Republicans during the original March primary, they were left without a high-interest statewide race in the runoff. Early voting numbers in Bexar county show fewer voters showed up for the Democratic primary runoff compared to voters in the Republican runoff.

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Julio Salinas, Gary Groves win nominations for House District 41 midterm race

Julio Salinas is the Democratic nominee who will be on the ballot in the Texas House District 41 midterm race in November. Unofficial results show that Salinas carried a majority of votes, totaling 3,349, with 84% of precincts reporting. Haddad received 44% or 2,680 votes. Salinas will go against Republican nominee Gary Groves later this year to determine who will succeed Guerra in the House District 41 seat. The House District 41 race has become one of the more prominent races in South Texas after incumbent Bobby Guerra (D) announced his retirement in October 2025. Guerra has represented House District 41 since 2012. Texas House District 41 represents parts of Mission, McAllen, Edinburg, Pharr, San Juan, and Lopezville.

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Wall Street Journal Editorial: The Ken Paxton Republicans

Republican voters in Texas on Tuesday chose Ken Paxton as their Senate nominee, and now they can spend $100 million or more trying to salvage the seat and keep their Senate majority in November. The Texas Attorney General rode a last-minute endorsement from President Trump to defeat incumbent John Cornyn, a stalwart but softer-spoken conservative. Mr. Paxton is known for his polarizing style, ethical travails and lousy political judgment, but he won over Mr. Trump with his fealty and bombast. Mr. Paxton represents the serrated edge of the Texas GOP, for which “owning the libs” is the highest political value. He’s a conservative culture warrior on gender and race. But when it comes to economics, he’s staked out a record of anti-business populism that is little different from that of progressive Democrats.

Most notably, he’s in bed with the trial bar, and it’s not a one-night-stand. The Texas Tribune reported last year that Mr. Paxton’s AG office has approved 13 contingency-fee contracts with plaintiff firms. The firms are hired to bring cases against businesses that often settle to avoid costly and long-term litigation. In 2024 Meta, the Facebook parent, settled a Paxton lawsuit for $1.4 billion even as it described the suit as without merit. The Texas Tribune says Keller Postman, a plaintiff-law partner of Mr. Paxton’s AG office, billed $97 million for litigating the claim. Mr. Paxton and his plaintiff partners have gone after the owner of Tylenol on dubious claims of medical harm; Colgate-Palmolive for fluoride in toothpaste despite decades of its safe use; and Google for alleged violations of data privacy. He and his trial-bar pals are also investigating Mars for alleged “toxic dyes” in Skittles and M&M’s, and Kellogg’s for the same in Froot Loops. He’s hired Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee for a lawsuit claiming that BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street conspired to buy shares in coal companies to advance a green agenda. That’s right. He says they invested in the CO2-heavy fuel to serve the climate-change cause.

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Donald Trump-endorsed Alex Mealer wins Republican primary for Texas’ redrawn 9th District

Alex Mealer won the Republican nomination for Texas' newly redrawn 9th Congressional District, according to unofficial returns, beating state Rep. Briscoe Cain in Tuesday’s primary runoff election. Mealer’s win puts her in pole position to replace U.S. Rep. Al Green in Congress. The south Houston district currently held by Green, a Democrat, was redrawn by Texas Republicans to shift farther east and as far north as Liberty County, making the territory newly ripe for Republicans hoping to flip the seat in November. Mealer secured President Donald Trump’s endorsement, allowing her to align herself most closely with the face of the Republican Party. Cain was endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Mealer on Tuesday night thanked Trump for his "strong support" during the campaign, eliciting whoops from dozens of supporters at O'Neals On The Water in Baytown. She said Tuesday's results were just a "first step," but that the victory had put her in a "great position" to win in November.

"Now we focus on November, making sure we win this nomination, and then I have a chance to actually use this office for what it should be, and that's public service," Mealer said. "That's why I'm motivated, to make sure you have a representative that's going to work with your local leaders and deliver real results for this district." Both Mealer and Cain attempted to position themselves as loyal followers of Trump’s conservative agenda, hammering issues of immigration, economic growth and national security throughout their campaigns. Cain, a Deer Park resident who has represented the area in the Texas Legislature for nearly a decade, emphasized his deep roots in the southeast Houston area and attempted to paint his opponent as a “political opportunist” backed by well-funded donors from out of state. Mealer, who narrowly lost a bid for Harris County judge in 2022, positioned herself as a more effective champion for conservative issues than Cain, and drew heavily on her experience in the U.S. Army and oil and gas industry. Mealer will face Democratic nominee Leticia Gutierrez, an environmental justice advocate with Air Alliance Houston, in the general election in November.

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Letitia Plummer wins Democratic Harris County judge nomination

Former Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer upset Annise Parker 51% to 49% to win the Democratic nomination for Harris County judge Tuesday, according to unofficial results. On the Republican side, longtime Houston-area politician Orlando Sanchez defeated political newcomer Warren Howell by a wide margin. As the chief executive of the county, the county judge is responsible for managing the Office of Emergency Management and presides over gatherings of Harris County Commissioners Court, which controls funding for infrastructure projects, county departments and elected offices. The Democratic tallies were a marked reversal from March, which saw Parker, a former Houston mayor, come within four points of avoiding a runoff and securing the nomination outright.

Political experts and Parker herself pointed to turnout driven by a runoff between U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green in the 18th Congressional District and voter fatigue elsewhere in the county as factors in the upset. “While I didn't think my opponent could beat me, low turnout absolutely could,” Parker said earlier Tuesday evening during brief remarks to news media at Birdie's Den, where her supporters gathered to watch the results roll in. Plummer’s performance also bucked two polls published by the Hobby School of Public Affairs ahead of the election. Both pegged Parker as having a comfortable double-digit lead. Plummer said Tuesday night that her campaign had "surpassed every single expectation.” “We have done the work, we have met the people where they are, we have listened to what they want, we are giving what they need and we're giving them hope," she told supporters at the Cactus Cove bar in Timbergrove. The Hobby polls showed Parker ahead, but also showed Plummer enjoying more support from Black voters, and these residents played a key role in Tuesday’s outcome, said Michael Adams, a Texas Southern University political scientist. Voters in Congressional District 18, which for decades has been home to many of Houston’s historically Black neighborhoods, repeatedly have fought voter fatigue in their efforts to secure stable representation, Adams said. Parker’s campaign also did not prioritize Black voters in its turnout efforts, he said. “The CD18 race drove the vote — in particular, the Black vote,” Adams said. “I think they turned out in force to support Plummer.” Another factor could be perceptions of Parker as an older, establishment politician, Adams said. Parker served in city government for 18 years, leaving office at the end of 2015. The first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, Parker built a reputation as a grounded, fiscally responsible Democrat. She centered her campaign on a back-to-basics approach focused on disaster preparedness, financial austerity and a promise to fight back against policies implemented by the Trump administration.

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GOP Texas voter on CNN rails against Trump after endorsing Ken Paxton: ‘He’s ruined my Republican Party’

A man complained to CNN that President Donald Trump had “ruined” the Republican Party for him — and that was why he was voting for incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) over the president’s endorsed candidate, state Attorney General Ken Paxton. CNN Correspondent Arlette Saenz spoke to voters in front of a Plano, Texas, polling station on Tuesday. Among them was a cross-armed Rodney Hall, who said he was voting for Cornyn “primarily because he’s not supported by Trump.”

“I think he’s ruined my Republican Party, I think he’s divided America. I think he’s bad news,” Hall continued. “And I still lean Republican, so I voted for Cornyn.” A moment earlier, Saenz heard from a woman named Gena Tatum, who was on the opposite end — she was voting for Paxton because of Trump’s endorsement. Tatum said she was “torn” on Paxton versus “Cromin” — Saenz jumped in to correct her and say it was “Cornyn” — but that Trump’s endorsement was the “deciding factor.” “I like who he backs,” Tatum said. Those interviews happened as Texans were choosing between the two candidates in the GOP primary runoff. Trump officially endorsed Paxton last week.

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Ted Cruz says senators were ‘screaming’ at Todd Blanche during ‘anti-weaponization’ fund briefing

Screaming, yelling and accusations of self-dealing. That’s how Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday described a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that’s drawn bipartisan opposition. On his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” the Texas senator described the meeting as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.” “Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said. “My guess is there’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed.” Senate Republicans met with Blanche on Thursday to discuss the fund, which ultimately derailed a vote on a Republican bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, NBC News previously reported.

Cruz said several of his GOP colleagues felt that they could not politically defend the fund because it appeared as though President Donald Trump “cut a deal with himself.” “There were multiple senators yelling at the attorney general, saying this feels like self-dealing,” Cruz said. “I got to tell you, the Republican senators were pissed — people were the entire meeting. They were screaming at the acting attorney general, and he was trying to lay out the legal basis,” Cruz said, adding “the legal basis is quite sound.” The Justice Department did not immediately respond to request for comment on Cruz’s characterization of the meeting. The fund was announced Monday after Trump said he would drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, along with other claims of damages related to a 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago and the Russian collusion scandal connected to the 2016 presidential election. Justice Department officials said Monday that the fund came “in exchange” for Trump dropping those claims and would involve a “systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”

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Democrat Nathan Johnson to run against Republican Mayes Middleton for Texas AG in November election

Democrat Nathan Johnson and Republican Mayes Middleton appear to be headed for a battle over who will be Texas' next attorney general in the November election. Johnson, a state senator from Dallas had almost 60% of the vote in the Democratic runoff shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday , with about 34% of statewide polling locations reporting. And Middleton, a state senator representing the 11th district, had picked up about 56% of the vote in the Republican primary. The Associated Press called the Democratic contest for Texas AG for Johnson and the Republican contest for Middleton Tuesday night. The winner in November will replace Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who outdistanced incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff election Tuesday. Johnson was opposed by former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy unsuccessfully opposed Middleton in the runoff.

Much of the GOP runoff for the AG nomination focused on who’s the true MAGA candidate. Texas became the lead advocate for President Donald Trump’s agenda in the courtroom under Paxton’s leadership. Middleton’s campaign ran several ads dubbing him “MAGA Mayes.” Middleton frequently pointed to Roy’s past criticisms of the president during the campaign. Roy previously said in a press release that Trump’s conduct during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol during President Joe Biden’s inauguration was “clearly impeachable” but called the Democrats’ articles of impeachment flawed and voted against it. “Our voters are just not going to forgive someone that has spent ten years fighting against the president like Chip Roy has,” Middleton said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March. Roy told KERA via email after Middleton’s remarks his actions in Congress show he’s committed to advancing Trump’s agenda. Roy told CBS News ahead of the runoff election people on the left fear having him as AG. “There's a lot of folks who would like to see me not be attorney general because they're afraid of what I would do to advance a conservative agenda for the people of Texas,” he said.

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Montserrat Garibay wins Democratic runoff for Austin House seat

Montserrat Garibay has won Texas House District 49's Democratic primary runoff. Incomplete results as of 9:40 p.m. showed Garibay with 61.27% of the vote over Kathie Tovo with 38.73%. State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, will vacate the Austin-based seat to run against Gov. Greg Abbott in November. She was first elected to the Central Austin district a decade ago. Tovo congratulated Garibay on her win in a statement. “Congratulations to Montserrat on her victory after a hard fought campaign. I wish her the best,” Tovo said. “I’d like to thank my supporters for their dedication and efforts. Now it is time to focus on defeating Republicans in November.” Early in the evening, Garibay was optimistic at her election watch party at Lima Croilla, a Peruvian restaurant.

“The block walks, the phone banks, the poll-greeting, and to see the numbers are looking good, we’re excited,” Garibay said. “But, I think it’s an opportunity to reflect, in my opinion, on the fact that when you bring a diverse group of people together, we can really dream big, and I think tonight is an example of that.” Garibay’s supporters crowded into the restaurant, grabbing drinks and Alfajores cookies as early votes trickled in. Chants of “labor for Montserrat” broke out as she took photos with voters and members of her campaign. Tovo’s watch party, hosted at La Mancha Tex-Mex Tavern, had started to disband by 9 p.m. Garibay and Tovo emerged as the two top contenders from a crowded contest in the March primary. Garibay led, but neither candidate received a majority of the votes needed to win outright, forcing them into a runoff.

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‘My voice is not going to go anywhere’: Chip Roy falls in tough AG race

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) was gunning for a comeback that fell short on Tuesday — sidelining a whip-smart conservative policy architect who Democrats have long feared. This year Roy gave up a safe red congressional seat to run for Attorney General, only to finish a distant second in the primary to self-funding state Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) who spent an astounding $15 million on his campaign. A late infusion of cash from a single GOP mega-donor pulled the race back online in the final stretch, but Roy chose to take in the results at a small private gathering where he declared defeat around 9 p.m. on Tuesday. In the final throes of the race Roy traveled the state on a breakneck campaign tour to undo the damage of millions of dollars in attack ads.

He argued with conservative influencers online, got help from his friends in the House Freedom Caucus and held campaign rallies with many of the conservatives whose careers he’s influenced in his decades of work in Texas Republican politics. By the time he reached San Antonio last Monday, Roy told supporters the efforts appeared to be working. But he stressed the need to get home to Texas regardless of the outcome of the Attorney General race. “I’m one of those who believes we need to cycle through people in Congress,” Roy said. “I’m a husband and a father who needs to be home. … I think I’m doing the right thing.” He also vowed it wouldn’t be the last time voters would hear from him. “Post-cancer, post-surviving stage three Hodgkin’s lymphoma, I’m kind of a ‘put-me-in-coach’ kind of guy, … I can promise you, my voice is not going to go anywhere,” Roy said. Middleton will face Democrat state Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas), who won his party’s nomination in a similarly heated — albeit far lower-budget — Democratic primary runoff on Tuesday night. As for Roy’s congressional seat, Republicans have rallied around former MLB Player Mark Teixeira as their nominee to Texas’ deep red 21st Congressional District.

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County Stories

Jared Williams wins Democratic runoff for Tarrant County commissioner

Former Fort Worth City Council member Jared Williams defeated nonprofit executive Amanda Arizola in the Democratic Party primary runoff for Tarrant County Commissioner, Precinct 2. Williams recieved 59.83% to Arizola’s 40.17% with all 95 voting centers reporting, according to unofficial results from Tarrant County. Williams said he was proud of what his campaign has built together with neighbors across Precinct 2. “This election is about building a Tarrant County where every resident can thrive,” he said in a phone call with the Star-Telegram. Arizola, who began her campaign in December 2025, said in a text message to the Star-Telegram she always knew the race would be an uphill battle.

“Still, we ran a spirited race and made it to a runoff despite no weekend voting and an election that fell around a major national holiday. There’s still so much work to do in this county to address voter suppression and improve access to the ballot box for everyone,” she said. Williams will face Republican former State Rep. Tony Tinderholt in the Nov. 3 general election with the added challenge of running in a district redrawn in 2025 to favor Republicans. The old map largely consisted of the southeast quadrant of Tarrant County, while the new map wraps around south Fort Worth to include the southwest section of the county up through the Fort Worth’s Ridglea North neighborhood. Arizola pointed to her record bringing result-based community programming as vice chair of the JPS board as the main differentiator between her and Williams, in a Star-Telegram candidate survey. Williams pointed to his government experience delivering results and bringing a “people-centered vision for county government” as his main differentiator. He centered his campaign on cost of living, improving county services, and protecting the rights of citizens at commissioners court meetings.

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Luz Elena Chapa wins razor-thin Bexar County DA Democratic runoff

Former Fourth Court of Appeals Justice Luz Elena Chapa narrowly defeated longtime prosecutor Jane Davis on Tuesday night in the Democratic runoff for Bexar County district attorney. She is now positioned to lead one of Texas’ largest criminal justice offices as a political outsider. With all vote centers reporting late Tuesday night, Chapa defeated Davis 50.84% to 49.16%, a margin of only 934 votes, in the race to replace outgoing District Attorney Joe Gonzales, who opted not to seek reelection after two terms. “I’m very proud to be the choice for Bexar County Democrats again,” Chapa said in a statement to the San Antonio Report. “It was a close race, but every vote has been counted and we have won. I look forward to carrying the Democratic Party banner in November and being Bexar County’s next District Attorney.”

Under Texas law, candidates may request a recount if the margin falls within certain thresholds and the requesting campaign agrees to cover associated costs. Late Tuesday night as the final votes came in, Davis political consultant Laura Barberena said they likely would not request a recount but the campaign had not yet definitively decided. Tuesday’s result marks a major shift for a district attorney’s office that, under Gonzales, became one of Texas’ most closely watched experiments in progressive prosecution. But unlike Gonzales’ 2018 campaign, which was fueled by national justice reform groups and centered heavily on bail reform and decarceration policies, Chapa built her campaign around change, management reform and restoring confidence inside an office she repeatedly described as dysfunctional. Chapa, 52, faced months of criticism from opponents who argued she lacked the background necessary to oversee one of the state’s busiest district attorney’s offices. “I’ve never maintained that I was a former prosecutor,” Chapa told the San Antonio Report earlier this month. “I’ve owned the fact that I’ve been an outsider.”

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National Stories

‘Slush fund for crooks’: GOP lawmaker faces criticism over ‘anti-weaponization’ fund, Epstein files and Trump at town hall

GOP Rep. Mike Flood said President Donald Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund should not be used for rioters who were at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, during a town hall in his district Tuesday where he was repeatedly pressed on his support of the president’s agenda. The Nebraska congressman, who is no stranger to contentious town halls, faced a barrage of critical questions over the controversial $1.8 billion fund at the event, which comes as lawmakers are back in their home states after a revolt by Senate Republicans over the fund stalled Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda in Washington. Throughout the event, Flood attempted to tout his efforts to be bipartisan, defending Trump in certain areas while not being afraid to, at times, create distance from the leader of his party and his administration.

Asked to respond to the “anti-weaponization” fund, which was announced as part of a settlement to resolve a $10 billion civil lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS, Flood was careful to say he has not signed off on the effort and said there needs to be restrictions on who can receive the funding. “I have never approved that. I do not think one penny of any fund should ever go to any January 6 insurrectionist that was in the Capitol,” Flood said Tuesday to applause from the audience. “I want to be very clear: I do not think we should be creating a fund for people that commit physical violence against law enforcement.” The fund came up repeatedly in questions from attendees, as did other issues ranging from the war with Iran to Trump’s White House ballroom project. “Iran war, White House ballroom, security for the White House ballroom, immigration enforcement, Trump arch … the reflecting pool renovation, slush fund for crooks and the farm bill. How do we pay for all this?” one person asked.

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Supreme Court sides with Trump in fight tied to speech curbs on immigration judges

The U.S. Supreme Court sided on Tuesday with President Donald Trump's administration in a dispute involving a free-speech challenge by federal immigration judges ?to a U.S. government policy restricting what they can publicly say about immigration. The court's ruling did not address the legality of the policy's speech restraint, which was originally ?implemented in 2017 during Trump's first term as president, and appeared to leave the door open for an association representing the judges to continue pursuing their legal challenge in a lower court.

Trump's administration appealed to the justices after the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered findings on whether his firings of the heads of agencies overseeing federal worker complaints had stripped these agencies of the independence from White House control that Congress had intended. Such a ?finding, the 4th Circuit said, might entitle the immigration judges to their day in court, rather than channel the dispute into agency proceedings, as Trump's administration argued for in ?its appeal. The Supreme Court, in an unsigned ruling, reversed the 4th Circuit's decision and returned the case to that court for further proceedings. The ?justices faulted the 4th Circuit for basing its ruling on an argument that had not been raised by the National Association of Immigration Judges, violating what is known as the "party-presentation" principle. Acting Attorney ?General Todd Blanche welcomed the court's ruling in a social media post.

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Alabama appealing to Supreme Court after House map deemed unfair to Black voters rejected

Alabama has filed a notice that it will appeal a three-judge district court’s ruling blocking the use of a Republican-favored congressional district map to the U.S. Supreme Court. Attorney General Steve Marshall filed the notice in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama this morning. Marshall had said the state would immediately appeal the ruling.

The three-judge court for the Northern District of Alabama found that the map passed by the Legislature in 2023 violated the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment by intentionally diluting the influence of Black voters. The judges blocked the state from using the map for an August 11 special primary authorized by the Legislature and Gov. Kay Ivey. The primary is for congressional districts 1, 2, 6, and 7. Republicans hope to use the Legislature’s map to flip District 2 back to the GOP, won by U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, two years ago. Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statement about the ruling and the appeal. “Alabama’s redistricting battle continues after federal judges temporarily blocked use of our 2023 congressional map,” Ivey said. “I fully support Attorney General Marshall appealing this unsurprising decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, and I remain hopeful they will allow Alabama to move forward with our August 11 Special Primary Election. “I will continue to say: Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best.”

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GOP-controlled SC Senate kills 2026 redistricting push despite Trump pressure

The South Carolina Senate killed a proposed congressional map for the 2026 election as thousands of voters went to the polls Tuesday, rebuking pressure from the White House to create seven reliably Republican districts. With a record number of primary voters casting their ballots around the state Tuesday, the Senate’s Republican supermajority could not muster enough support to limit debate and force a final vote on a new congressional map. “The deadline has passed, voting has begun,” said state Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson. “It is time to conclude the matter.” Senators voted 26-18 to “continue” the redistricting bill and adjourned without taking up amendments or giving it a final vote, effectively ending the effort for the year.

The Senate is scheduled to return to Columbia on June 10, the day after the June 9 primary, to finish work on the budget and bills that have been sent to conference committees. The House, where all seats are up for reelection this year, has not set a date for a return. The General Assembly spent eight days of a special session, and hundreds of thousands of state dollars, on the failed attempt to redraw the state’s congressional maps. The vote to reject redistricting occurred twelve days after the end of the regular legislative session. While several Republicans opposed rushed middecade redistricting from the beginning, many more jumped ship on the effort by Tuesday. Twelve Republicans joined all 12 Democrats to oppose limiting debate Tuesday. On Saturday, only seven Republicans voted against invoking cloture, a procedure to cut debate short. State Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, has opposed the effort since the Senate first voted not to take up redistricting after the end of the legislative session. He spoke against the hasty process of trying to adopt a new congressional map this year and made the final motion to quash the legislation.

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Trump declares himself in perfect health after physical exam

U.S. President Donald Trump, who turns 80 next month, said "everything checked out perfectly" after ?having his physical on Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, following a year of public attention on apparently ?minor health issues. Trump offered no details of the physical in a brief Truth Social post saying he had completed his six-monthly exam. Trump frequently casts himself as more energetic and fitter than Joe Biden, his Democratic predecessor who left office last year at age 82 after facing questions about his fitness for the job.

Still, recent photographs showing ?a blotchy neck rash have added to questions about Trump's health, following images in July 2025 of swollen ankles and a ?bruised hand concealed with makeup. Trump, whose birthday is June 14, became the oldest person to assume the presidency ?when he began his second term in January 2025. The visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was Trump's third in 13 months. Trump ?maintains an active golf schedule, but joked about his relative lack of exercise at a recent Oval Office event where his health secretary, Robert ?F. Kennedy Jr, said the president walks nine miles (14.5 km) every time he goes golfing. "When I am not using the cart," Trump said. White House physician Sean Barbabella has said Trump is using a common cream as "a preventative skin treatment" to address the neck rash, but he has not given details of the condition being ?treated. After the photographs of the president's legs and hands were published last July, Barbabella said in a letter that the ailments were benign and ?that there was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease.

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Trump administration proposes NDAs for all federal workers

The Trump administration is planning a government-wide nondisclosure agreement that would bar federal workers from sharing a wide array of “confidential government information,” according to a draft notice posted to the Federal Register on Tuesday by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The draft notice, which will be published Wednesday and stay open for a 30-day public comment period, uses an expansive definition of privileged information, beyond typical classified and unclassified designations. Under the terms of the draft, employees would be blocked from sharing “non-public, confidential, or proprietary information” or “any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available and should not be disclosed under applicable law.”

Agencies can decide whether to adopt the NDA, according to the draft. In the draft notice, OPM cited a number of high-profile leaks, including “unauthorized disclosures” that it said were made to the New York Times and The Washington Post about the U.S. raid in Venezuela in January that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. The notice said the leaks “put the lives of members of the armed forces at risk, leading news organizations to delay ‘publishing what they knew to avoid endangering U.S. troops.’” Ask The Post AI Dive deeper New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn previously disputed that the publication had sensitive information about the mission that required it to delay its story. “Contrary to some claims, however, The Times did not have verified details about the pending operation to capture Maduro or a story prepared, nor did we withhold publication at the request of the Trump administration,” Kahn said in a January explainer on the Times’s website.

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House Democrat: Platner’s tattoo should be ‘disqualifying’

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) refused to back Democrats’ leading candidate in the Maine Senate race, citing Graham Platner’s controversial tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. “I’ve been clear about Graham Platner. I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying,” Auchincloss, who is Jewish, told CNN’s Boris Sanchez on Monday. “I hope Maine voters agree with me,” he continued. “I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner’s brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country.” The candidate said he covered up the chest tattoo after receiving criticism that it resembled a Totenkopf, a symbol adopted by Adolf Hitler’s troops in Nazi Germany.

Platner explained last October that he was not aware of this link and first heard about it from “reporters and D.C. insiders.” “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed,” he added at the time. The Senate hopeful has also faced criticism over posts he made several years ago on the social platform Reddit, where he called himself a “communist” and police officers “bastards.” Platner told “Pod Save America” in an episode last fall that the posts were intended to “get a rise out of people” and did not reflect his true beliefs at the time. The U.S. Army veteran-turned-oyster farmer is widely expected to win the state’s Democratic primary on June 9, after which he will compete in the November election against incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). When asked whether he could support Platner to oust the GOP senator, Auchincloss said “values and principles always come before party.” “We saw Republicans forget that lesson with Donald Trump in 2016 and how much damage it’s done to the country,” he said. “I will never forget that lesson.” Auchincloss’s comment drew pushback from Saikat Chakrabarti, a Democratic candidate for California’s 11th House District.

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Biden sues Justice Department to block release of audio recordings

Former president Joe Biden sued the Justice Department on Tuesday, seeking to block the Trump administration from releasing the recordings and transcripts of his private interviews with a ghost writer who was helping to write his memoir. The lawsuit argues that releasing the recordings would reflect an abandonment of the Justice Department’s “obligations to safeguard sensitive and highly personal law enforcement information.” The Justice Department informed Biden it plans on June 15 to provide the material to a congressional committee and a conservative think tank that had filed a public records request, according to the lawsuit.

The conversations Biden had with writer Mark Zwonitzer occurred in 2016 and 2017, in the years after Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer and as he was contemplating a run for president. The Justice Department obtained the recordings during a 2023 special counsel investigation in which former attorney general Merrick Garland directed a probe into whether Biden, who served as vice president from 2009 to 2017, mishandled classified materials in the years before he became president. Special counsel Robert Hur determined after an extensive investigation that while Biden carelessly handled sensitive material, no chargeable crime was committed. The current legal battle stems from a public records request lodged by the conservative Heritage Foundation in 2024 for those recorded conversations. They reportedly include Biden reading from notebooks chronicling his time in office that investigators determined contained classified information.

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Lead Stories

Texas voters to settle marquee Senate, key statewide runoffs for both parties Tuesday

Voters on Tuesday will settle a marquee U.S. Senate runoff and a slate of other statewide office nominations that could reshape power inside America’s biggest red state and elevate the next generation of Texas political leaders. At the center is the Republican showdown between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who have bombarded each other over ethics, loyalty and character in one of the state’s ugliest fights in years. The contest has drawn national attention and more than $125 million in advertising by the candidates and their allies, making it the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history. The winner will face the Democratic nominee, James Talarico, a state representative from Austin. Tuesday’s runoff ballot stretches beyond the Senate race. Democrats and Republicans also are picking nominees in congressional contests and statewide runoffs, including lieutenant governor and attorney general.

In the Republican Senate race, Cornyn, who finished first in the March primary, is betting GOP voters still value his experience and electability. He has portrayed Paxton as unfit for office, hammering him over his impeachment by the GOP-led Texas House, other legal troubles and allegations of adultery. Paxton’s nomination, Cornyn said, could hand Democrats an opening in November. Paxton, meanwhile, has cast Cornyn as a weak, do-nothing Washington insider disconnected from President Donald Trump and the party’s MAGA base. Paxton also has played up Trump’s late endorsement, saying it shows who the president trusts to aggressively support his agenda. Most state Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have stayed out of the divisive fight. Voters in both parties also are deciding who will replace Paxton, who is leaving the AG’s office after 11 years whether he wins the Senate runoff or not. The office is one of the state’s most powerful, in charge of defending state agencies and laws. It also has been a political springboard. Both Cornyn and Abbott served as attorney general. State Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston, who finished first in March, is backed by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin has lined up support from Sen. Ted Cruz and many House conservatives.

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A ‘vegan’ and ‘Tala-freak-o’: GOP prepares a furious general election messaging blitz against Talarico

In one of his first rallies since winning President Donald Trump’s endorsement in his Senate race, Ken Paxton told the crowd he wanted to try something new. The Democratic nominee, James Talarico, Paxton said, would be the “most radical US senator from Texas, maybe in the whole country, ever, so I wanted to test a few nicknames tonight and see if you can help me.” The suggestions from the audience started flowing as Paxton passed the mic around. “Low-T Talarico.” “Tofu Talarico.” “Tala-freak-o.” “Soy boy!” a man yelled out unprompted. The food references came from an already burgeoning Republican talking point — that Talarico is a vegan, which he isn’t.

Yet Paxton brought it up repeatedly, delighting a packed crowd of supporters inside a suburban Houston barbecue spot as waiters shuttled back and forth from the kitchen with heaping plates of brisket, sausage and ribs. “We know that James Talarico would never come here because he doesn’t eat any of that stuff,” Paxton said. “We never had a US senator who didn’t eat meat, especially Texas barbecue.” Talarico was, in a word, “unqualified” to represent Texas, according to Paxton. The scene showed how Paxton is already pivoting to the general election ahead of Tuesday’s primary runoff with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton — and Trump — are previewing a furious wave of attacks and mockery for Talarico, as Republicans prepare to rally around the scandal-scarred state attorney general and work to keep the spotlight on the Democrat instead. As Paxton spoke at Midway BBQ in Katy, TVs in the room showed Fox News replaying Trump’s comments earlier in the day declaring that Talarico “can’t get elected as a vegan in Texas.” Trump also called Talarico “a weird — a weird — candidate,” a comment that quickly made it into an ad from a pro-Paxton group. Republicans have also repeatedly brought up Talarico’s 2021 comment during a state legislative debate that “modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.” One of the patrons at Midway BBQ took the mic to call Talarico “six-gender Jimmy.”

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Former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman released early from jail

Former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman was released early from jail for good behavior. Hoffman, 49, began serving a 60-day jail sentence on April 27 for sexually abusing a young boy.

He pleaded guilty April 16 to indecent assault and displaying harmful materials to a minor, both Class A misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. His trial on first-degree felony continuous sexual abuse of a young child charges ended in a mistrial in June 2025 after jurors deadlocked 7-5 in favor of finding him guilty. The Attorney General’s Office reduced the charges in exchange for his guilty pleas. Visiting Judge Roy Sparkman doubled Hoffman’s original 30-day plea deal to 60 days at sentencing. Hoffman, who has since moved to Nebraska, is under a lifetime protective order prohibiting him from contacting the victim. He is not required to register as a sex offender based on the misdemeanor charges to which he pleaded guilty.

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Some of Texas’s oldest barbecue joints close as meat prices skyrocket

If the Texas barbecue industry had an alarm, it would be the spreadsheet that Russell Roegels uses to track the price of brisket. On a recent morning, sitting at a quiet table in his suburban restaurant, he pointed to the number at the top of the column: $5.56. That’s the price he pays for a pound of the most important item on any barbecue menu in Texas. Over the past year, that number has risen 28 percent, a reflection of the spiking meat prices that have dented the pocketbooks of average grocery store customers nationwide. Inside the kitchens of Texas’s more than 3,000 barbecue purveyors, whose very existence depends on a plentiful and affordable supply of quality beef, the effect has been close to cataclysmal. Roegels, 53, grew up working at a barbecue joint and has run his own since 2001, serving some of Houston’s elite and their friends, including former president George H.W. Bush, NFL veteran Gary Kubiak and former Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte. He used to be able to offset the high wholesale cost by selling other meats and side dishes.

But this year he realized that wasn’t enough. So Roegels made the risky decision to raise the price he charges customers for brisket by $2, to $35 a pound — a 6 percent increase — and hoped his clientele wouldn’t defect. “This is as bad as it gets,” he said of escalating beef prices. “Everybody’s at risk these days: You’re one bad week from closing.” Roegels isn’t exaggerating. The culinary crisis driven by skyrocketing meat prices has contributed to the closures of some of Texas’s beloved barbecue joints: Brett’s BBQ Shop to the west of Houston, known for its barbacoa tacos; Kirby’s BBQ to the north with its signature increasingly expensive oak-smoked brisket; Sabar BBQ, with its Pakistani fusion sausage, in Fort Worth; Wright On Taco & BBQ in East Texas. Owners and experts predict the closures will worsen this summer and continue for years, potentially reshaping the nature of Texas barbecue, which has drawn acclaim for its distinct regional varieties and craft-style preparation, winning Michelin stars for what was once considered gas-station fare. The reasons for the spiking prices are various, says Emily Williams Knight, president and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association. Inflation, tariffs, meatpackers’ pricing, and a national cattle herd at its smallest in 75 years because of drought, labor shortages, high operational costs and dwindling ranch land have all played a part. And with the threat of screwworm looming just across the border, experts warn that the herd could be even further depleted in years to come.

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State Stories

Trump endorsed Ken Paxton in Texas. But John Cornyn isn't going quietly.

After receiving a coveted Senate endorsement from President Trump last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took an early victory lap. Paxton released an ad touting the endorsement before quickly pivoting to one targeting Democratic nominee James Talarico. He asked his rival in the Republican primary, longtime Sen. John Cornyn, to stop the negative attack ads for the final days of the ugly race. Cornyn responded with a definitive no. “Judgment day is coming for Ken Paxton,” Cornyn told reporters in Houston last week. Conventional political wisdom considers Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement of Paxton to likely be a final blow in what was already a difficult battle for Cornyn. If true, the longtime senator is going down swinging, in a battle he has said from the beginning was largely motivated by his disgust for Paxton.

At his own rally in San Antonio, Paxton said: “We’ll have Tuesday and then we’re going to have a little race with James Talarico,” before testing out derogatory nicknames for the Democrat. He challenged the crowd, as he does at every rally, to name one of Cornyn’s accomplishments in office. Paxton and Cornyn are in a runoff for the party nomination, after neither won 50% of the vote in an initial March primary. Tuesday’s runoff election will be the latest test of the president’s power, as he has used the political muscle of his MAGA base to push out dissenting voices in the Republican Party. While Paxton’s campaign celebrated the endorsement, Cornyn’s campaign put out a press release listing all the headlines that called Paxton a gift to Democrats in the general election. James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said he thinks the endorsement will give a final boost to Paxton. Old-school party stalwarts loyal to Cornyn may not like to admit it, Henson said, but polling and other data shows Paxton more in line with the party’s electorate. “Paxton’s alignment with Trump and the Trump era is a better fit for where the base is right now,” he said. “If Cornyn winds up pulling this out, it’ll be because he dug it out with superior resources and campaigning.”

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Ebola concerns reach Houston as global outbreak intersects with World Cup travel

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the Houston area is prepared and not in a state of alarm as officials monitor the global Ebola outbreak ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Hidalgo shared an update Monday, emphasizing that local, state and federal agencies are working to stay ahead of any potential risks while keeping the public informed. “We are OK,” Hidalgo said. Hidalgo said the county is building on its experience from COVID-19 and past Ebola cases, working closely with health leaders to refine protocols. “The World Health Organization declared a public health emergency over the current Ebola epidemic in the DRC and surrounding countries. The DC currently has 101 confirmed cases, although the suspected number of cases is much larger at around 900,” Hidalgo said.

She is also pushing for better coordination at airport screening areas and more detailed data on incoming travelers. Hidalgo said seven Harris County residents who recently traveled to Uganda arrived back in the area over the past few days. All were screened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at Washington Dulles International Airport before traveling to Houston. None tested positive for Ebola, and none are showing symptoms. Officials expect more travelers from affected regions to arrive in the coming weeks, especially as the World Cup approaches. Houston is on the front line working to prevent Ebola exposure. Starting Tuesday, May 26, IAH will serve as the third screening point for US citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries. The CDC said returning travelers will be escorted to a designated screening area where they will complete a questionnaire about their travel history and symptoms. They'll have their temperature checked and be observed for signs of illness.

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Immigration courts are using a new tactic to speed up deportations. Dallas is next.

Immigration courts inside the Justice Department are drastically accelerating immigrants' hearings and bunch them together with the goal of issuing more deportation orders. The new and unprecedented tactic was shared with NPR by immigration attorneys and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a trade association that tracks trends in these courts. Immigrants are now being scheduled for massive master calendar hearings — or "mega masters" — that include 100 or more people at a time. That's up from two or three dozen people at a time that had been typical before for a first hearing. For many immigrants, this is their first appearance in court to try to make their case to be able to stay in the U.S. Attorneys say these new hearings largely target people without lawyers representing them. Those who show up late, or not at all, are receiving removal orders, further truncating the already-limited due process available to immigrants.

"The major concern is that [since] this is going to be a group of people without attorneys, that they're not going to have gotten proper notice," said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, practicing policy counsel at AILA, adding that courts often lack enough seats for hearings with so many people at once. "So it's almost like they are being designed to increase" how many people get deportation orders automatically, she said. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency that runs the immigration courts at DOJ, did not respond to a request for comment on this new strategy. Lawyers said the practice had started in the Chicago, Boston and Chelmsford, Mass., courts and is soon to start in the Dallas Immigration Court. The effort comes as President Trump seeks to deport a million people a year — much higher than the 600,000 people the administration deported in 2025. Trump has also complained about the backlogs of millions of cases inside immigration courts, pointing to courts as an obstacle to rapid deportation.

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Inside the Texas ranch where big-city professionals go to get dangerous

Though I have almost certainly deserved it on numerous occasions, I have never been punched in the face. My lone fight was a short-lived scrape on an elementary school playground with a snot-nosed kid whose name escapes me. It resulted in a draw, I’m proud to say, and my chubby cheeks were left bruise-free. During my 43 years, I have never owned a gun nor felt the need. Maybe I’m privileged, or maybe I’m just lucky. When I mentioned all of this to Travis Miller, an affable mountain of a man and a professional bodyguard, he said another word comes to mind: “naive.” For as long as he can remember, his world has been defined by danger. He grew up in a rough Philadelphia neighborhood, and threats were everywhere. His only way out was via the football field, where he battled his way to a college scholarship. Now in his mid-thirties, Miller protects demanding, high-net-worth clients, a job that requires him to not only think about danger, but also to exude it. We were chatting beside a luxury swimming pool on the back patio of an upscale ranch house, part of a seven-thousand-acre property an hour and a half southeast of Dallas.

Here, surrounded by giant live oaks and rolling savannah, Miller’s company, Genesis Security Solutions, was putting on its first-ever retreat to teach “tactical leadership training,” which, I would soon learn, is corporatespeak for “how to handle guns and kill people.” I had come here out of curiosity, but also to carry out an experiment of sorts, one that had been arranged over the phone months earlier. At the time, I’d asked Miller if he could turn me—a soft-bodied man who tears up listening to humpback whale vocalizations on YouTube and gets excited researching new types of organic seeds for his backyard bird feeder—into a dangerous individual. “Absolutely!” he’d responded. The event had drawn around twenty professionals of all backgrounds, between thirty and sixty years of age, and cost $5,000 a head. Ever since Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan in 2024, Miller and other “executive protection agents” say, business is booming. Miller attributes the demand to increasing wealth inequality, political unrest, and multiple attempts on President Trump’s life. “Many people—whether they’re a billionaire businessperson or a corporate executive or an ordinary person dealing with a stalker—have realized that they want to take control of their safety and the safety of their loved ones,” he told me. “That might mean hiring someone like me, but it could also mean learning how to become dangerous on their own as well.”

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Austin takes another stab at density bonus program promoting affordable housing construction

Cranes are already a defining feature of Austin’s downtown skyline, but Austin City Council members on Thursday approved sweeping new development rules aimed at sparking more housing construction and making it easier for developers to build taller projects. While Austin’s housing market has cooled from the sharp price spikes seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, city leaders and housing advocates say affordability remains a top concern as the region’s population continues to climb. Over the years, the city has adopted strategies to encourage more housing construction, including density bonus programs, a zoning tool that allows developers to build larger, taller projects than normally permitted in exchange for “community benefits,” such as affordable units, sidewalks or green space.

But the programs have faced ongoing criticism from both housing advocates and neighborhood groups, who argue the rules either do too little to encourage construction or allow projects that don’t deliver enough affordable housing in return. The overhaul creates a more manageable, citywide version of the density bonus program that city leaders say will be more effective at producing more housing and affordable units. It replaces Austin’s short-lived, controversial DB90 density bonus program, which gave developers a 90-foot height bonus in exchange for adding affordable housing, but led to taller buildings than some neighbors wanted and less affordable housing production than some hoped for. Still, some housing advocates remain wary that the new one will be successful in helping developers break ground, while opponents worry the new rules go too far. “Two steps forward, one step back,” said Greg Anderson, a longtime Austin housing advocate. “What was sad about last night is that we lost real potential for better zoning categories.” The approval followed a year-long review and revision process. Under the new rules, developers will be able to seek an additional 15, 30, 45 or 60 feet of height depending on zoning rules, the type of housing in a neighborhood and how close the site is to those houses. “This new tool has a range of options,” Council Member Ryan Alter told the Current. The 15-foot intervals better meet the scale and needs of the neighborhood, resulting “in much better outcomes for everybody.”

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ActBlue refuses donations for Texas Democrat accused of making antisemitic comments

Texas congressional candidate Maureen Galindo was cut off from a major Democratic fundraising platform and political action committee after a series of antisemitic remarks sparked widespread backlash within the party. ActBlue is no longer processing donations for Galindo, who is competing in a May 26 Democratic runoff against Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia in Texas’s 35th Congressional District. Galindo has been embroiled in controversy over antisemitic comments. Most recently, she wrote in an Instagram post saying that she intends to write legislation to “turn Karnes [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”

“It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists,” Galindo added, accusing Garcia of being “paid by Zionist terrorism and trafficking.” She has also previously said that Jews run Hollywood and worship the “synagogue of Satan.” Democratic lawmakers and candidates have spoken out against Galindo’s comments. Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who are Jewish, said they would force a vote to expel the Democratic candidate “every single day” the House is in session if she wins the Texas seat. “Maureen’s insane, antisemitic views — including putting Americans in concentration camps — have no place in our Party or country,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

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Austin teen released from ICE detention

Twenty days of detention by federal authorities came to an end last week when Austin high school senior Luis Fernando Cabrera was released to his family just weeks before graduation. “It feels awesome to be with my friends and family again,” Cabrera said in Spanish in an interview with Capital Tonight. “And I’m also thankful for all the support I had from the beginning.” The 18-year-old was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) following a traffic stop earlier this month. Cabrera was on his way home from a closing shift at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen when he was pulled over for an expired vehicle registration and then taken to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center.

Speaking outside his church during a celebration for his return on Sunday, Cabrera said there were times he doubted whether he would return to Austin. “It wasn't easy. I thought they were going to deport me,” he said. “I'd never been locked up before. I'd never had handcuffs on me, on my feet and on my hands. I don't know, I think a little bit longer, and I might have gone into a depression.” He also said the conditions at the detention center were inadequate for housing people for long periods of time. “The food is something that can't sustain a person inside. The times when they feed you are also not ideal for when one should eat,” he said. “And the hygiene… they give you used clothing and well, that's not adequate for a person who isn't a criminal.” Cabrera, who was born in Mexico to Honduran parents, came to the United States without authorization when he was 11. His parents say they fled political violence in their home country after being threatened by a legislator there, and Cabrera has a pending asylum case dating back to 2019.

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Jason Villalba: How Texas cities should get ready for the Opportunity Zone Program 2.0

(Jason Villalba served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives. He leads the Texas practice and the governmental relations group at FBT Gibbons LLP in Dallas, and is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation.) Some of the most consequential decisions in Texas government happen without a press conference. The redrawing of the federal Opportunity Zone map, scheduled to be completed in Austin this summer, is one of them. The Opportunity Zone program, created in 2017, gives investors significant federal tax benefits for placing capital gains into projects inside designated census tracts. The first round of the program, launched in 2018, channeled roughly $100 billion into the selected communities. Version 2.0 of the Opportunity Zone program, made permanent last July under the One Big Beautiful Bill, will attract similar sums to be invested over the next 10 years. This summer, Texas will nominate approximately 600 new tracts for the program . The office of the governor, through its Economic Development and Tourism office, will make the final selection. The deadline for local jurisdictions to submit their nominations is June 26, less than six weeks away. The next opportunity to revise the map will not occur until 2036, a decade away. Time is of the essence for city halls around North Texas.

The state will not weigh nominations in a vacuum. It will weigh them against one another. The tracts that receive the benefit will be the ones whose sponsoring cities arrive with a clean demonstration that the tract qualifies under the new federal eligibility rules, documented local commitments such as council-approved tax incentives, economic development corporation participation and an identified project sponsor prepared to deploy capital in the first two years after designation. Much of North Texas is well-positioned to participate in this process. Cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, and Arlington have the staff, the standing relationships, and the institutional heft to command attention at the Capitol and the governmental infrastructure necessary to compete for the investment. Some of our suburban and exurban communities, however, do not have the necessary resources or preparation processes in place to fully capitalize on the opportunity. Smaller cities in the area, the ones now absorbing the region's growth in Ellis, Kaufman, Rockwall and the outer reaches of Collin and Denton, have the qualifying tracts, the necessary developers, and are exactly the kinds of communities the Opportunity Zone program is intended to support. But, they do not often have the bandwidth to assemble a competitive nomination in six weeks while doing everything else a small city has to do.

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3 San Antonio Republicans fight to hang on in Trump’s GOP

By Tuesday night, three San Antonio Republicans could be the next to fall over their disagreements with President Donald Trump. The result would be a bench wiped clean of moderates — at the same time the party faces unusually tough November races. Trump has been on a tear against fellow Republicans who’ve bucked his power, fueling decisive primary upsets for U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and a slate of Indiana state lawmakers all earlier this month. Now headed into Texas’ primary runoff, such disagreements threaten to end the careers of three local incumbents who remained popular in this area, and are some of the only Republicans in the state with general election skills in their DNA. The new 35th Congressional District seemed drawn specifically for state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), a popular retired firefighter who flipped a Democrat-held state legislative district within its boundaries.

But Trump upended Lujan’s smooth-sailing congressional bid the day before voting started in the March primary, backing little-known U.S. Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz, who he now faces in a runoff. “They were supposed to stay out of it,” Lujan said of the White House’s decision — which he believes could jeopardize efforts to hold a seat Democrats are targeting in November. On Tuesday, Trump also rocked U.S. Sen. John Cornyn‘s (R-Texas) expensive reelection race, endorsing Attorney General Ken Paxton as runoff votes were already being cast. Now the president’s top political aides are attacking attorney general hopeful U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) on social media as well, as Roy scrambles to defend his record. All three Republicans put much effort into building GOP power in stubbornly blue Bexar County. But in a year where some believe the whole state could be in play, they say the repercussions of their losses could go much further. “Democrats are energized because they see the first opportunity they’ve had since 1994 to elect a statewide Democrat … and Ken Paxton would hand it to him on a silver platter,” Cornyn told supporters Monday.

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Colonial PGA event loses winners of 13 majors, including big-name Dallas stars

The field for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club will be missing some big names, including two stars from Dallas. Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer and a former Highland Park and University of Texas standout, did not enter the Fort Worth PGA Tour event. Jordan Spieth, a Dallas native who also played at UT, joined Scheffler in skipping the event. Both have been fixtures at Colonial during their careers. Then the event lost two more major winners with the withdrawals of Brooks Koepka on Sunday and Wyndham Clark on Monday. Clark won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on Sunday at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney. Those four players have won a combined 13 majors: Koepka (five), Scheffler (four), Spieth (three) and Clark (one).

Scheffler and Spieth cited the PGA Tour’s hectic schedule that sandwiches in both Metroplex events amid majors and other signature events, the Dallas Morning News reported. “It’s just a rock and a hard place for myself and Scottie and guys who are local, who grew up here,” Spieth said after his round at the CJ Cup on Friday. Despite the departures, the Charles Schwab Challenge still boasts a solid field with seven of the world’s top 20 players: No. 9 J.J. Spaun, No. 12 Russell Henley, No. 13 Ludvig Aberg, No. 15 Robert MacIntyre, No. 16 Justin Thomas, defending champion No. 17 Ben Griffin and No. 20 Hideki Matsuyama.

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For Judge Barbara Lynn, ‘you must be present to win’

“I have many golf trophies that I picked up at the Dallas Bench Bar Conference when the real winners were not present,” Judge Barbara M. Lynn tells me, with plenty more pride than shame. She spent her career fighting for what’s hers. And when you do that for a half-century, maybe you get in the habit of taking all that and then some when opportunity presents itself. “I took the position ‘Must be present to win,’?” she says with a smirk. “So I have all these golf trophies.” She’s terrible at golf, but her bookshelves tell a different story. Lynn is admittedly overcompetitive. “Any game. Cards, board games. Any game of any kind,” she says, “I want to win. And there have been many examples of me trying to engineer victory.”

If you’re trying to win a charity golf tournament, why learn to be a good golfer when all you really need to do is drink a bunch of gin martinis at the winner’s podium long enough to accept trophies on behalf of everyone else? Finding loopholes in the system was necessary for Lynn as she fought to enter a male-dominated field, and it’s a required skill for any good lawyer. You can tell she takes joy from the creativity the job requires. It’s become such a part of her personality that she can’t turn it off. If you drink every time you see the word “first” when you read the Wikipedia entry on Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, you’ll be in a bad way within the first paragraph. She Kool-Aid Mans through every brick wall built in front of her. Her instinct is to take charge. Even during our conversation, there were a couple of times when I was ready to just hand her the interview and let her take over. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m doing now?” she says when I think the interview is over. Sure, it is technically “asked” in question form, but it is clearly not a question. Like your mom asking you if you’re about to take out the trash, and you know all the way down to your feet that the only answer is “Yes, ma’am. I’m on it.” It’s amazing how confident you think you are until a super-friendly lion with really fashion-forward statement glasses is facing you.

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National Stories

Trump to visit Walter Reed for the third checkup of his second term

President Donald Trump plans to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday for a medical and dental checkup, according to a White House official. This is the president’s third in-person doctor’s visit in a little over a year. He went to Walter Reed twice last year, in April and October. He also visited his dentist in West Palm Beach twice this year — first in January and then again earlier this month for a follow-up. Trump, who will turn 80 next month and is the oldest person to assume the presidency, routinely asserts that he is in excellent health, even as rumors about his health circulate. He made his promised vitality and energy a major part of his campaign for re-election, mocking his rival as “Sleepy Joe Biden.”

But moments of apparent drowsiness and a noticeably bruised hand, which the White House has blamed on him shaking hands and taking aspirin as a blood thinner, continue to spark questions. The president was revealed last year to have chronic venous insufficiency, after he was examined for mild swelling in his legs. Trump told The Wall Street Journal during an interview published in January that “aspirin is good for thinning out” his blood and he doesn’t want “thick blood pouring through [his] heart.” His October visit was initially described by the White House as a scheduled follow-up, but Trump later told reporters that he had undergone an MRI. The exam was eventually revealed to be a CT scan of his heart and abdomen. “President Trump agreed to meet with the staff and soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in October. In order to make the most of the President’s time at the hospital, we recommended he undergo another routine physical evaluation to ensure continued optimal health,” Dr. Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, said in a statement to NBC News. “As part of that examination, we asked the President if he would undergo advanced imaging — either an MRI or CT Scan — to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues. The President agreed, and our team of consultants performed a CT Scan. As we revealed in the post-examination report, the advanced imaging was perfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities.”

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Trump thinks bigger on Mideast as Iran framework brings criticism

President Trump expanded the scope of his diplomatic ambition over the holiday weekend, seeking not only an end-of-war agreement with Iran but also a pact to normalize relations between Israel and the broader Middle East. The normalization push could give Trump a way to cast any limited cease-fire and shipping pact as a larger regional success story instead of a climbdown, after defense hawks in his own party warned that a bad deal could tarnish his legacy. Trump also threatened to restart major hostilities. “Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all—Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before—And nobody wants that!” Trump posted on social media on Monday.

Negotiations with Iran have yet to produce a final deal despite White House claims of major progress, while Middle Eastern partners such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar are privately pushing back against Trump’s insistence that they join the Abraham Accords and establish diplomatic relations with Israel. Tensions rose on Monday as the U.S. sank two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships attempting to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by launching surface-to-air missiles at U.S. planes, prompting American attacks on missile launchers near Bandar Abbas, a U.S. official said. “U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” said Col. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the command. The Trump administration is working toward a potential agreement with Iran that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. easing or ending its blockade on Iranian shipping, potentially ending one of the most significant disruptions to global energy supplies in recent history. The talks, however, leave unresolved thornier questions, including whether Iran would agree to major limits or dismantlement of its nuclear program—a longstanding Trump demand—and whether Tehran would receive broader economic incentives as part of any cease-fire arrangement.

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The stock market and consumer vibes are saying very different things

Americans are in a decidedly bad mood. The stock market is decidedly not. This isn’t how it usually works. Instead, high stock prices have historically been associated with happy consumers, and vice versa. Here’s a look at what’s going on. Just how bad is sentiment? American attitudes just hit a milestone of sorts. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its index of consumer sentiment fell to the lowest level ever recorded in 70-odd years of surveys. Sentiment was already low at the start of this year, but it fell sharply after the Iran war began at the end of February and sent gas prices sharply higher. Until this year, the previous lowest level was in June 2022, when inflation was running at the highest level in decades. Friday’s sentiment reading was 10% below even that number.

“Prices remain extremely high, labor markets have unambiguously weakened in the last four years, and now we’re in the middle of a war,” said Joanne Hsu, director of consumer surveys for the University of Michigan. “I don’t think the fact that we’re lower than June 2022 should come as a surprise to anyone.” Just how good are stocks? But if you look at the stock market, you would never imagine sentiment to be that low. Also on Friday, the S&P 500 notched its eighth consecutive week higher, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record close for the second day in a row. And it isn’t just that stocks are high. They also appear really expensive. The S&P 500 is clocking a valuation of 40.8, as measured by its cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio. That’s a metric popularized by Yale University economist Robert Shiller, who won an economics Nobel in 2013 for his work on asset prices. The only other time it was above 40 in the 145 years of Shiller’s data was in the years just before and after the peak of the dot-com bubble in early 2000. The year 2000 was also when the Michigan sentiment index reached all-time highs. It has never approached even close to those levels since then.

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Trump Tower in Georgia to be built on land part-owned by son of US sanctions-hit leader

A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records. The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu. According to official records, the Fund Cartu is solely owned by Cartu Group JSC which, in turn, is 35% owned by Uta Ivanishvili, the eldest son of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire politician who is honorary chair of Georgia’s ruling party.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely recognised as the de facto leader of the Georgian government, was put under US sanctions by the Biden administration in 2024 for “undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation”. Uta Ivanishvili, who is not under sanctions, owned 100% of Cartu Group JSC until 2024 but reduced his shareholding to 35% when his father, who is Georgia’s richest man, was subjected to US economic restrictions. It is not possible to identify the remaining 65% ownership of Cartu Group JSC today, as individual shareholdings of under 5% can be held anonymously. Under the sanctions regime, US citizens are prohibited from conducting business, processing payments, or providing services to Bidzina Ivanishvili personally without authorisation but there is an exemption relating to businesses controlled by him.

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How business casual blew up the Libertarian National Convention

Live free or die, but would it kill you to wear a tie? That was the essence of Ben Weir’s plea ahead of the biennial Libertarian National Convention in Grand Rapids, Mich. In a May 15 post on X, Weir, 36, declared that he’d had it with the wacky costumes, which have long been a staple of political party conventions but seem particularly popular among do-what-thou-wilt libertarians. No more using a boot for headwear, as one convention mainstay named Vermin Supreme did. No more see-through clothing to promote government transparency. Weir, who is running for Merrimack County sheriff in New Hampshire and couldn’t attend the convention, wrote that he was calling on the party’s national committee to establish “a baseline professional dress standard for participation in official proceedings.” His proposal called for business casual attire, neat facial hair and closed-toe shoes.

Perhaps the two major parties can allow their members to deviate from business casual, since they control the overwhelming majority of elected offices. A Republican or Democrat in a Dr. Seuss costume isn’t going to inadvertently hand the White House to the U.S. Pirate Party (which, yes, is real). Third parties don’t have that luxury. “We’ve been a party for over 50 years and we’ve never gotten a single federal candidate elected,” said Weir, who describes himself as a “punk/alternative guy” with tattoos and a nose ring. He isn’t against personal style, in other words. But when the biggest news out of your convention is a very big guy in a very small thong, your base probably won’t grow much. “I think a lot of libertarians are only libertarians because it gives them the mental freedom pass to break rules and be as crazy as they want to be,” Weir said. He’d rather the party focus on ideas that could appeal to swaths of Americans, such as abolishing taxation and expanding personal liberties.

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Pope Leo compares AI threat to biblical ‘Tower of Babel’

Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence “threatens to normalize an anti-human vision” and said that the concentration of immense digital power in the hands of a few private actors must be countered. The pontiff’s encyclical letter—a text that is poised to define Leo’s papacy—reads like a sharp warning to Silicon Valley executives and humanity more broadly about the future of civilization as new technologies rapidly advance. The risk, he said, is that humans will be reduced “to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.” Leo used two biblical images to describe the choice humanity faces. “The primary choice is not between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem,” he wrote. In the Bible, the Tower of Babel symbolizes a top-down, grandiose project where decisions are driven by pride, profit and a push for homogenization, the pope suggested in his text. In the rebuilding of Jerusalem, diverse people worked together to rebuild the ruined walls and established a fraternal coexistence within them, he added.

Leo’s encyclical has been long-awaited by policymakers, business leaders and different faith groups who see the Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination, as a source of ethical guidance on tech policy. In so doing, the pontiff is specifically calling out the private actors who are building the AI systems that will transform society. “Leo sees the challenge of AI as a choice about its design, and about who gets to make those choices,” said Vincent Miller, a professor of theology at the University of Dayton, Ohio. The encyclical is inspired by the church’s thinking about what it means to be human, and draws on 2,000 years of moral and social teachings. It is also the product of a decadelong dialogue between the Vatican and Silicon Valley on the ethical and social challenges posed by AI. Conversations with scientists, political leaders and teachers led Leo to a disturbing conviction, the pontiff said Monday. “Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed, freed from the logic that turned it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,” he said. “It must be at the service of all, and of the common good.” At the presentation of the encyclical, Leo was accompanied by Christopher Olah, a co-founder and safety researcher at AI firm Anthropic, which has tried to position itself as a proponent of AI safety. It is a central player in the AI landscape, showing rapid growth in its business and emerging as a flashpoint on questions of AI safety and national security.

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America’s schools face a reckoning on digital devices

Just a few years ago, America’s public schools were rushing to get every child a laptop. Los Angeles middle school teacher Anna Soffer remembers it well: “The idea was that technology is the future, so we need to put tech in every child’s hands.” Now, the conversation has flipped. After pouring billions of dollars into laptops, tablets and learning apps, many schools are facing a digital reckoning. Classrooms have become saturated with screens, and a growing number of parents, teachers and school districts are saying it is time to scale back. “The Chromebook is just a world of distraction,” says Soffer, who teaches 6th?grade English and history. She favors pen-and-paper assignments but is required to use laptops and online apps for certain activities. “Every day, I’m battling, ’Who would you rather listen to, Ms. Soffer or Minecraft?’”

The Los Angeles Unified School District, where Soffer teaches, recently became the first major school district to say it will stop giving devices to its youngest students. It is part of a new screen-time policy taking effect in the fall across the country’s second-largest school system. A sweeping resolution passed last month by the Los Angeles school board requires the district to eliminate devices until second grade; set daily and weekly screen limits for all higher grades; block YouTube on school devices; and ban the use of devices at lunch and recess in elementary and middle school. The district will also audit its education technology contracts, which the teachers union says amount to $1.6 billion. The Los Angeles crackdown is adding momentum to calls for reform emerging around the country. In many cases, parents lobbied a few years ago for school cellphone bans, which have now become the norm. Realizing phones weren’t the only classroom distraction, they pivoted to a new target: school-issued devices.

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Copyright June 02, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved