Lead Stories

DHS says ICE officer shot and killed woman in Minnesota

An immigration agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, an act President Donald Trump and top administration officials insisted was self-defense and local Democratic officials said proved the dangers of the latest immigration enforcement surge. The shooting happened during protests over the 2,000 immigration agents deployed to the state this week. A DHS spokesperson framed the shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer as “defensive shots” fired by an agent “fearing for his life,” and claimed personnel were injured but expected to recover. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters the shooting was in response to “an act of domestic terrorism.” She said ICE officers were attempting to push their vehicle out of the snow when “a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.”

Later, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the “woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.” “It is hard to believe he is alive,” the president wrote. DHS did not answer additional questions from NOTUS. The FBI is investigating the incident, Noem said in a Wednesday evening press conference. Videos purportedly depicting the incident from multiple angles appear to show two agents exiting a truck to confront the woman, telling her to “get out of the fucking car.” One agent grabbed the driver-side door and pulled on the door handle. As the driver reversed and began to turn, another agent appeared to be in front of her vehicle. That agent is seen firing off three shots as the person starts to drive away. The agent who fired the shots remains standing. The car crashes soon after.

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Trump team works up sweeping plan to control Venezuelan oil for years to come

President Trump and his advisers are planning a sweeping initiative to dominate the Venezuelan oil industry for years to come, and the president has told aides he believes his efforts could help lower oil prices to his favored level of $50 a barrel, according to people familiar with the matter. A plan under consideration envisions the U.S. exerting some control over Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, including acquiring and marketing the bulk of the company’s oil production, people familiar with the matter said. If successful, the plan could effectively give the U.S. stewardship of most of the oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere, when factoring in deposits in the U.S. and other countries where U.S. companies control production. It could also fulfill two of the administrations’ primary goals: to box Russia and China out of Venezuela and to push energy prices lower for U.S. consumers.

Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of lowering oil prices to $50 a barrel, his preferred level, two senior administration officials said. But oil prices are already low, with the U.S. benchmark hovering around $56 a barrel Wednesday, and Trump has struggled to persuade U.S. oil-and-gas producers to crank out more crude and help him accomplish his political goals. Many companies see $50 a barrel as a threshold below which it becomes unprofitable to drill, and a sustained period of low oil prices could decimate the U.S. shale industry, which has been a key backer of the president. “The American energy industry and most importantly the American people and the Venezuelan people are going to hugely benefit from the president’s control of Venezuela’s oil, which was previously used to fund Maduro’s illegitimate narcoterrorism regime,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. PdVSA didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment. The company confirmed in a statement posted on social media that the U.S. and PdVSA have been holding negotiations for the sale of crude oil volumes, with those talks based on a commercial transaction. Trump and his team began privately engaging with the newly established Venezuelan government with the goal of taking control of their oil supply within days of U.S. forces capturing President Nicolás Maduro.

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Nearly 50 House Dems back Julie Johnson

op House Democratic leaders and some 40 other House Democrats endorsed Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas) Thursday in her primary against former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas). House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu and DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene all backed Johnson. Among her other endorsers: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). Check out the full list here. This race will be a brutal battle in what is already a particularly fractious Democratic primary season. Scores of younger candidates are primarying longtime incumbents, arguing for generational change.

In Congress, Allred was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the New Democrat Coalition. Not many CBC members are on Johnson’s endorsement list but both Schneider and Stanton are leaders of the New Dems. Allred’s eleventh-hour decision last Decemberto exit the Senate race and challenge Johnson for Texas’ 33rd District sent shockwaves through the Democratic Caucus. Johnson replaced Allred in the House only to see that district erased under the GOP’s gerrymandered map. But Johnson had declared for the vacant 33rd District before Allred jumped in.

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Abbott: Dallas leaders at fault for AT&T’s downtown exit

Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday that Dallas leaders were responsible for AT&T’s decision to relocate its headquarters from downtown Dallas to Plano, blaming what he called the city’s failure to fully fund and staff its police department and “contain a homeless problem” downtown. Abbott, a Republican, made the remarks while taking questions from reporters at the Fort Worth Police Officers Association headquarters, where he appeared alongside Tarrant County officials and police union leaders — including the Dallas Police Association — to accept their endorsement in his race for a fourth term. “It’s the responsibility of local leaders to fully fund local law enforcement,” Abbott said in response to a question about voter-approved charter amendments requiring the police department to boost officer staffing. “Because Dallas did not do that, AT&T is now moving out of downtown Dallas.”

City and police spokespeople declined to rebut Abbott directly, instead deferring to the city’s previous statement that AT&T described the relocation as a preference for a suburban campus, not a judgment on public safety or city leadership. Police boosted downtown patrols last summer, and data through Dec. 28 shows an 11% dip in total reports of violent crime in the central business district. The same period saw a nearly 10% decrease in total reports of nonviolent crime, with reports of burglary of a motor vehicle up 22%. The city and private partners also moved to close downtown homeless encampments and housed more than 250 people, according to Housing Forward, the region’s lead agency serving unhoused residents. Abbott’s remarks sought to turn AT&T’s move into a referendum on the city’s public safety approach, as he warned the state would review whether the city’s police funding decisions comply with a 2021 law restricting cuts to police budgets.

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State Stories

Texas A&M blocks Plato readings on gender ideology in philosophy class

A Texas A&M professor has been told not to teach certain writings from Plato, a staple in introductory philosophy courses, because they may violate the university system's new rules against “advocating” race or gender ideology, or topics concerning sexual orientation, in core classes. “Plato has been censored,” said Martin Peterson, who clarified that he was speaking not on the university’s behalf, but as an individual. Peterson learned the decision Tuesday in an email, which was viewed by the Houston Chronicle. Philosophy department head Kristi Sweet told him that the directive stemmed from the Texas A&M System’s new policy. The email also directed him to remove course modules on race and gender ideology.

Peterson and other instructors have previously expressed concerns about the rules, particularly that the university would broadly interpret “advocacy” and ban topics outright. “My personal opinion is this is a clear violation of academic freedom," said Peterson. He also chairs the campus' committee on the principle, which holds that professors have the right to research and teach the topics they choose, so long as they are relevant to their expertise and their respective courses. The university and system did not return requests for comment by the time of publication. In November, the A&M Board of Regents passed a sweeping rule banning race, gender ideology "advocacy" in lessons without a university president's approval. The new policy came on the heels of a national controversy over a viral video of a professor teaching about gender identity in a children's literature course. That professor was later fired, and the university president resigned. Under the new rule, professors were told they needed their president’s approval for courses and any material that “advocate” race, gender or sexual identity-related topics. By mid-December, however, the regents narrowed it, saying advocacy on those topics was not allowed in any core curriculum class, but professors could be granted exceptions on a “limited” basis in non-core or graduate-level courses.

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Austin yogurt shop murders suspect tied to Kentucky cold case

After 27 years without answers, police in Lexington, Kentucky, have brought Linda Rutledge’s family closure. Kentucky detectives believe the 44-year-old woman’s death in 1988 is linked to Robert Eugene Brashers, the accused killer in the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders case. The cold case dated back to November 1988, when the Lexington Fire Department was dispatched to the Nixon Hearing Aid Center on Malibu Drive. Heavy smoke plumed from the business as firefighters arrived, but inside, they made a grueling discovery. Rutledge, who was 44 at the time, had been shot multiple times in the head. Investigators said her body was found in the back hallway of the hearing aid center.

“Over the past 27 years, detectives and investigators continued working on the case, reviewing notes, reentering evidence, following up on leads and tips, and researching how new technologies could help further the investigation,” Lexington police said in an update on Jan. 7. In July 2025, Lexington detectives were contacted by the Austin Police Department in Texas after being alerted to a match in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). According to a press release, the .380 shell casing that was recovered from the Nixon Hearing Aid Center was a match to one that was found in Austin in December 1991 after the “yogurt shop murders.” The Kentucky State Police Forensics Lab examined the spent shell casings from Austin and Lexington. Investigators said it was determined that the shell casings came from the same firearm.

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2025 State Fair of Texas review focuses on attendance, security and affordability

A 2025 State Fair of Texas recap from fair officials this week revealed a troubling drop in the event’s attendance. An area of focus was the 2 million people who attended. It was the lowest attendance numbers since 2021. Some of the attendance drop was due to high school students not being given tickets in 2025. Mitchell Glieber, president of the State Fair of Texas, spoke to city council members on the challenges the event faced in 2025. "The difficulty is finding what percentage is responsible for what. First economic factors, inflation and the labor market. Things like groceries and dining out," Glieber said.

He told council members they faced multiple hurdles this year - inflation, weather and in his words concerns about immigration enforcement. "The state fair controls admission and parking, outside of that vendors control food and beverage prices and games. We will be looking at that in our senior management meeting. That will be our priority going into 2026 is to do a deep dive into everything related to pricing at the state fair," Glieber continued. Aside from attendance — a big area of focus was security. Following a shooting at the 2024 fair, security measures were increased. "We had drone tech that was available to us in real time," Glieber said on improved security. "We did attempt a harder approach on that front (bags changes). So I can’t say enough about law enforcement and DFR."

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What to know about Texas oil and gas’ $27B tax impact in 2025

The Texas oil and gas industry paid a near-record $27 billion in state and local taxes last year, the Texas Oil and Gas Association said Wednesday in its annual tax impact report. The tax impact, down 1% from the record-breaking $27.3 billion the previous year, amounts to roughly $74 million per day toward state and local services including public schools, roads and emergency response. “Texas energy remains productive, reliable and the cornerstone of the Texas economy, and is globally essential, even in volatile markets,” TXOGA President Todd Staples said Wednesday during a media call.

The industry’s tax contribution declined slightly to $27 billion in 2025 from $27.3 billion the year before as market conditions deteriorated. Texas school districts received $2.6 billion last year in property taxes from the industry, compared with $2.92 billion in 2024, TXOGA said. Counties received an additional $1 billion in 2025; they received $1.03 billion in 2024. The state’s largest oil companies, based in Houston, announced a series of layoffs that rattled the industry. But oil and gas industry employment increased in 2025 compared to the prior year, TXOGA said. The industry employed more than 495,500 Texans last year — up slightly from 492,000 in 2024. “You've had some declines in the service industry side, but you've seen significant expansions in pipeline construction and in LNG construction,” Staples said. “So on balance, it's been positive for the year, and we think it'll be positive as the world's population continues to grow and the demand for oil continues to grow as well.” Average annual wages also increased to $133,095 a year compared with $128,255 in 2024, TXOGA reported.

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Uvalde trial to resume after judge rejects mistrial motion

A judge on Wednesday denied a defense motion for a mistrial in the case against a former Uvalde school district police officer charged over the law enforcement response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting. Defense attorneys for Adrian Gonzales argued the trial was compromised by testimony from Robb Elementary teacher Stephanie Hale that included details not previously disclosed during pretrial interviews. Hale testified Tuesday that she had seen someone who matched the description of the shooter — a man dressed in black with a rifle — on the south side of the school, which put him in closer proximity to the defendant. Defense attorney Nico LaHood has argued Gonzales was not close enough to the shooter to stop, delay or distract the mass shooter.

The objection halted testimony Tuesday evening and prompted arguments outside the presence of the jury. Presiding Judge Sid Harle ruled the disputed testimony did not warrant a mistrial. “It was negligent, and I don't believe what was testified to in front of the jury resonated enough to significantly affect your trial strategy. But what I am going to do is exclude her testimony,” Hale said. The defense objected again, arguing Hale’s testimony was so emotional that it was unlikely the jury will be able to ignore what she said. “We will go with whatever remedy the court decides that we can decide it. However, we do not believe that it's a sufficient remedy, and mistrial would be the opinion,” said defense attorney Jason Goss. Harle said that the statements did not fundamentally change the nature of the evidence against Gonzales and could be addressed through cross-examination and limiting instructions to jurors. The trial is being held at the Nueces County Courthouse following a change of venue from Uvalde due to concerns about pretrial publicity and the ability to seat an impartial jury. Gonzales is charged with 29 felony counts of abandoning or endangering a child. Prosecutors allege he was among the first officers to arrive at Robb Elementary School but failed to confront the gunman despite hearing shots and receiving information about the shooter’s location. Gonzales has pleaded not guilty.

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Mystery seeds from China: What Texans need to know

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is again warning Texans about mysterious packages of seeds being sent from China. Unsolicited packages of unidentified seeds began arriving in 2020 and continue to be sent to people across the state. The Texas Department of Agriculture is urging Texans who receive unsolicited seeds not to open the package, not to plant the seeds, and not to throw them into the trash, where they'll end up in a landfill.

Since February 2025, the TDA said it has collected 1,101 seed packages sent to more than 100 locations across the state. The TDA said the seeds could pose a serious threat to the state's agricultural and environmental safety. Although these deliveries may seem harmless at first glance, authorities insist they could conceal a much greater threat: the potential introduction of invasive species that could impact crops, gardens, natural ecosystems, and even the food supply chain. “At a glance, this might seem like a small problem, but this is serious business,” said Miller. “The possible introduction of an invasive species to the state via these seeds poses real risks to Texas families and the agriculture industry. We need everyone to report these packages when they arrive so the contents may be gathered and disposed of properly.”

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Houstonians spend more of their money on transportation than residents of any other major city, data show

Houstonians spent more of their incomes on transportation than residents in most of the other major urban areas in the country between 2023 and 2024, according to a new report from the federal government. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported residents in the greater Houston area allocated almost 20% of their spending on transportation, nearly 3 percentage points higher than the national average. That's also a higher percentage than any of the other 21 major metropolitan areas measured in the new BLS report, including Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. Greater Houston residents are also spending marginally more on housing than the average American. Houstonians spent 33.9% of their budget on housing, compared to the nationwide average of 33.2%.

Dallas-Fort Worth area residents similarly spend more of their budget on transportation and housing, though not in such disparate proportions as Houston. In terms of spending on transportation, DFW is second only to Houston. "Individuals are moving into the Texas Triangle from other parts of Texas just because that has become a very, very high economic spot over the last 10, 15 years," said Edward Leps, an economist at BLS. "I mean, it’s always been a very bustling area in terms of economies." Though greater Houston residents are spending marginally higher shares of their incomes on housing, some other major U.S. cities are spending more, like Honolulu (36.9%), New York (38.2%) and Miami (40%). Houston residents’ average income during 2023 and 2024 was $105,800, about $2,800 higher than the national average. Yet, Houstonians are spending roughly $7,500 more in expenditures than the average American. One other key disparity between Houston and the national average in spending is entertainment. While the average American spent 4.6% of their budget on entertainment, Houstonians dedicated 6.1%. In certain categories, though, Houstonians are spending less of their money than the average American. That includes food, healthcare and education.

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Houston ISD’s proposal to shutter magnet programs sparks community outcry

Dozens of parents gathered in a Heights High School performance hall Tuesday night to ask questions and voice their concerns over Houston ISD's proposal to sunset several magnet programs across 10 different high schools in the district. "This plan has not had any community input and this meeting was only added when we made an uproar," said Latrice Ferguson, president of the Heights High School PTO. In December, HISD's state-appointed board of managers first introduced the idea to close several on-campus magnet programs, including graphic design, entrepreneurship and automotive courses, and instead shuttle affected students to the Barbara Jordan Career Center.

Parents first read about the proposal online in the December board meeting agenda, just days before the board was scheduled to discuss and vote on the closures. During the public comment portion of that meeting, several parents, students and teachers spoke out against shuttering the magnet programs, which offer specialized instruction and career training. "This isn't improving access. It's taking away opportunities and destabilizing schools," Micah Gabay said at the board meeting. "When these programs disappear, success becomes harder not because students are trying less but because the tools that help us succeed are gone." The board ultimately postponed a vote until Jan. 15 while expanding the proposed list of on-campus magnet program closures from three to 10. HISD also added a week of community information sessions aimed at addressing concerns and getting feedback.

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Austin airport’s new terminal will have 26 gates; Southwest, Delta will be AUS’ anchor tenants

The new terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport will feature 26 gates, with Southwest Airlines serving as the anchor tenant, the airport announced Wednesday. Delta Air Lines will become the anchor tenant in the existing Barbara Jordan Terminal. After months of negotiations, the airport and various airlines have signed new use and lease agreements, which determine the rates, fees and charges that airlines must pay AUS to use the airfield and terminal areas, including runways, gates, ticketing and baggage areas. The agreements will be in effect for the next decade. The agreements “provide the necessary financial foundation” for revenue that will fund the airport’s expansion project, including a new terminal — known as Concourse B — a new arrivals and departure hall, redevelopment of the existing terminal and another new separate facility, called Concourse M.

“This is about preparing our region for long-term growth,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said at a press conference Wednesday morning. “It’s about strengthening our economy and ensuring that Austin remains connected to the world in a way that reflects who we are and where we’re headed as a people and as a city.” Seven airlines signed the new agreements: Southwest, Delta, United Airlines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, FedEx and UPS. Airlines that use airport facilities but do not have signed agreements pay per use, as is standard industry practice. In total, 32 new gates will be added to AUS, with construction expected to be complete around 2030. The city’s Aviation department will seek additional spending authority from City Council, as the anticipated budget has increased from $4 billion — when only 20 new gates were planned — to more than $5 billion. Watson said that money will not come from taxpayers; rather, it’s money that comes from the operation of the airport. “The airlines are key to what it is we’re doing, and it’s wonderful to have partnerships with these airlines,” Watson said. “These airlines believe in Austin, Texas, and they’re willing and demonstrating that willingness to invest here. They’re willing to do that through workforce development, through community engagement and long-term commitments to this airport.”

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SpaceX, Blue Origin likely competitors for California launch site

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin may soon be sparring over a stretch of land along the California coast that the Space Force wants to see turned into a launch site for massive rockets. Officials at the sprawling Vandenberg Space Force Base about 150 miles north of Los Angeles have asked for proposals from space firms to build a launch complex for so-called heavy or super-heavy spacecraft on a desolate stretch at the base’s southern tip. Both Starbase-headquartered SpaceX and Kent, Washington-based Blue Origin are expected to submit bids to develop the future site for their giant rockets — Starship and New Glenn respectively.

Though it could be the first West Coast site for either of the vehicles, a competition over launch infrastructure wouldn’t be the first for the two billionaires and their space companies. Starship currently launches from its base in South Texas, but SpaceX is building launch facilities in Florida, as well. In 2013, Blue Origin balked at SpaceX’s plans for an exclusive lease for Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, a historic pad previously used for the Apollo and Shuttle programs. The Government Accountability Office denied the protest and NASA awarded a 20-year-lease to SpaceX for the site. Since then, SpaceX has retrofitted 39A for Falcon 9 rockets and has built a Starship launch tower at the site, which is part of the company’s plans for the giant spacecraft’s growing footprint. While SpaceX builds and launches the 400-foot-tall Starship at Starbase — where it has a manufacturing facility, test site and two launch towers — it’s also building another Starship factory, or Gigabay, at Kennedy, as well as two additional launch towers at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

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Former Texas football star Jordan Shipley hospitalized with severe burns after ranching accident

Former Texas star and NFL player Jordan Shipley was hospitalized after he suffered "severe burns" during a ranching accident, his family said Tuesday. The former Longhorns star was airlifted to a hospital in Austin, Texas, and was in critical but stable condition, the family said in a statement provided by the university. "Jordan was involved in an accident this afternoon near his hometown of Burnet. The machine he was operating on his ranch caught fire, and although he managed to get out, it was not before sustaining severe burns on his body in the process."

"He was able to get to one of his workers on the ranch who drove him to a local hospital," the statement continued. "He was then care-flighted to Austin, where he remains in critical but stable condition." Shipley was a star receiver at Texas from 2006-09, when he finished his career as the all-time leader in receptions (248) and ranked second in yards (3,191) and touchdowns (33). A two-time All-American, Shipley also served as a special teams player, returning 30 punts for 375 yards and three touchdowns. He also returned 19 kickoffs for 468 yards and one touchdown. Shipley was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft and had 79 receptions for 858 yards and four touchdowns over three seasons with the Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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Texas Senate primary pits white Social Gospel against Black Church tradition

The stage is set for a Democratic Senate primary in Texas with one candidate who is trying to convince fellow Texans to love all their neighbors and one who refuses to turn the other cheek. James Talarico is easygoing and noncombative. He has a smile to melt hearts. A Presbyterian minister, he embraces a Christian language of love and acceptance. He is a Social Gospel Christian. Jasmine Crockett is the trash-talking Democrat who loves to take on President Donald Trump toe to toe. Combative, in your face, she stands in the Black prophetic tradition and is a member of a Baptist church. Talarico and Crockett combine two of the most powerful religious spirits in American life: the white liberal Christian tradition rooted in seminary and scholarship, and the Black prophetic tradition rooted in activism and action. Now Democratic voters in Texas will have to choose between the two. Talarico currently is a state Democratic lawmaker. He says, “I really wanted to show up not as the politician, but as the pastor.”

People are hungry, he told the crowd, “for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of fear, not a politics of hate, not a politics of violence, but a politics of love.” He stands in the apostolic succession of Harry Emerson Fosdick, Walter Rauschenbusch, Washington Gladden, William Sloane Coffin and Will Campbell. As a Presbyterian he stands in the tradition of clergy in his denomination who were stalwarts in the Civil Rights Movement: J. Randolph Taylor, then pastor of Church of the Pilgrims in Washington, D.C., and Eugene Carson Blake, stated clerk of the UPCUSA and chairman of the NCCC’s Commission on Religion and Race. He was unrivaled as an American church leader in racial justice and as a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Crockett is the daughter of a Baptist preacher from the Progressive National Baptist Convention. She speaks the justice language of the Baptist denomination formed in 1961 to advocate for Civil Rights, but she doesn’t talk like a preacher. Her uphill battle is as complicated as that of women in every generation. Anne Richards is the last woman elected to a statewide office in Texas. She won the 1990 election for governor but only served one term after she was defeated by George W. Bush. How many pundits think Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 because a toxic masculinity edged her out at the finish line? How many people were not voting for Trump but voting against Clinton? Same with Kamala Harris, only with race throw into the equation.

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$1B fraud on the backs of North Texas car buyers: ‘What are we going to do?’

Jazelle Gee felt excited after she bought a 2019 Honda Civic at Tricolor Auto in Fort Worth — and relieved she finally had a reliable ride after her last vehicle was labeled as a hazard. The car wasn’t perfect. The inside smelled like marijuana and the front seat had a cigarette burn, Gee said. But Tricolor Auto and its sister brand, Ganas Ya, made car ownership possible for many who couldn’t qualify for traditional auto loans. Tricolor, one of the largest used car companies in Texas, marketed specifically to Hispanic people with its in-house financing. Then came an unexpected bombshell.

Irving-based Tricolor Holdings filed for bankruptcy in September, listing 26,688 creditors. The company suddenly went dark, not responding to some 60,000 customers with outstanding car loans. In December, the CEO and other top executives were indicted in federal court on allegations they committed a nearly $1 billion fraud scheme on the backs of customers’ loans. “I wasn’t even surprised at all because the company had just seemed shady from the very beginning,” Gee told the Star-Telegram. “It’s hard to be shocked, but I was shocked by the number of people they victimized. I didn’t know they were as big as they were.” The collapse of Tricolor Holdings, based in Irving with 1,500 employees at its peak, is stunning in how prosecutors allege top executives brazenly deceived banks and asset-backed securities investors. Secret recordings detailed in the indictment describe how Tricolor leaders financed their business by lying about inventory and their customer base. When the scheme began to unravel, and Tricolor’s lenders grew suspicious, executives privately suggested they could blame the banks for ignoring the “red flags” of their fraud — like how banks fell victim to Enron in 2001 — to get them to settle quietly. “Enron obviously has a nice ring to it, right?” CEO Daniel Chu was recorded telling his team. “That Enron case is (expletive) perfect, I think.”

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National Stories

CIA advised Trump against supporting Venezuela’s democratic opposition

A highly confidential CIA assessment produced at the request of the White House warned President Trump of a wider conflict in Venezuela if he were to support the country’s democratic opposition once its president, Nicolás Maduro, was deposed, a person familiar with the matter told The Times. The assessment was a tightly held CIA product commissioned at the request of senior policymakers before Trump decided whether to authorize Operation Absolute Resolve, the stunning U.S. mission that seized Maduro and his wife from their bedroom in Caracas over the weekend. Announcing the results of the operation on Sunday, Trump surprised an anxious Venezuelan public when he was quick to dismiss the leadership of the democratic opposition — led by María Corina Machado, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate who won the 2024 presidential election that was ultimately stolen by Maduro.

Instead, Trump said his administration was working with Maduro’s handpicked vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who has since been named the country’s interim president. The rest of Maduro’s government remains in place. Endorsing the opposition would probably have required U.S. military backing, with the Venezuelan armed forces still under the control of loyalists to Maduro unwilling to relinquish power. A second official said that the administration sought to avoid one of the cardinal mistakes of the invasion of Iraq, when the Bush administration ordered party loyalists of the deposed Saddam Hussein to be excluded from the country’s interim government. That decision, known as de-Baathification, led those in charge of Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons to establish armed resistance to the U.S. campaign. The CIA product was not an assessment that was shared across the 18 government agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, whose head, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, was largely absent from deliberations — and who has yet to comment on the operation, despite CIA operatives being deployed in harm’s way before and throughout the weekend mission. The core team that worked on Absolute Resolve included Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who met routinely over several months, sometimes daily, the source added. The existence of the CIA assessment was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Signs have emerged that Trump’s team was in communication with Rodríguez ahead of the operation, although the president has denied that his administration gave Rodríguez advance notice of Maduro’s ouster. “There are a number of unanswered questions,” said Evan Ellis, who served in Trump’s first term planning State Department policy on Latin America, the Caribbean and international narcotics. “There may have been a cynical calculation that one can work with them.” Rodríguez served as a point of contact with the Biden administration, experts note, and also was in touch with Richard Grenell, a top Trump aide who heads the Kennedy Center, early on in Trump’s second term, when he was testing engagement with Caracas.

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U.S. reduces number of warships near Venezuela after Maduro raid

The fleet of U.S. warships assembled in the Caribbean Sea during the run-up to Saturday’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has begun to thin, officials said Wednesday, though the Trump administration is expected to continue military operations in the region. The shift includes the relocation of the USS Iwo Jima and the USS San Antonio to waters north of Cuba in the Atlantic Ocean, defense officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the movements. At least one of the vessels could return to its home port in Norfolk in coming weeks, one official said. The vessels remain assigned to U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in much of Latin America, and could be moved into the Caribbean again if required, a second official said. The moves reduce the number of U.S. troops in the Caribbean by a few thousand, to roughly 12,000, and come as it remains unclear whether President Donald Trump will deploy any ground forces to Venezuela to stabilize security there. He has left the door open to the possibility, while officials say that any such deployment would be temporary and focused on protecting oil infrastructure.

Still, the vessels’ shift to the Atlantic underscores that their principal mission has been completed and indicates that the Trump administration may rein in the number of ships it keeps in the region as it balances multiple national security priorities. Select Air Force assets — including Special Operations CV-22 aircraft used for combat search and rescue and MC-130s needed for aerial refueling — also have departed, a third U.S. official said. Both airframes were used to support the Maduro raid, that official said. Spokespeople for U.S. Southern Command and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment. The naval buildup began over the summer, with a three-ship task force led by the Iwo Jima among the first to be dispatched. The vessel, carrying Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, deployed with the San Antonio and the USS Fort Lauderdale, which was still in the Caribbean as of Wednesday. The buildup expanded significantly in October, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and several associated warships to redeploy from European waters to the Caribbean.

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House to vote on renewing ACA subsidies as a potential deal takes shape in the Senate

Against the wishes of House Speaker Mike Johnson, the House of Representatives is set to vote Thursday on a measure that would renew enhanced health insurance subsidies that expired at the end of last year. The three-year extension is expected to pass the House, but it may not go far in the Senate, where a similar measure failed in December. A bipartisan group of senators, however, say they are close to a deal on a compromise bill for the Affordable Care Act subsidies. While the debate over health care costs absorbed much of the oxygen in Congress in the final weeks of 2025, the rush to take action on the lapsed subsidies is now happening as members find themselves grappling with questions about the direction of U.S. foreign policy following President Trump's actions in Venezuela.

That includes an expected vote in the Senate on Thursday on a resolution to block U.S. forces from further engaging in hostilities against Venezuela without congressional authorization. Thursday's votes are part of a whirlwind start to the new year for lawmakers. Adding to their to-do list is a fast-approaching Jan. 30 deadline to fund the government or risk a partial shutdown. Republican leadership for weeks refused to allow a vote on extending the subsidies. Then just before the holiday recess, four swing-district Republicans joined with Democrats to force a vote on extending the subsidies for three years through what's known as a discharge petition. The once rare legislative tool allows 218 or more rank-and-file members to sidestep the speaker and force a vote. A procedural motion Wednesday to set up that final House vote won support from nine Republicans. But even many backers acknowledge a clean three-year extension is unlikely to pass the Senate. The hope has been that success in the House would recharge bipartisan negotiations in the upper chamber, and there are signs that may be happening. A small bipartisan group of senators have been negotiating this week, and several of them have told reporters they are nearing a deal. "We're in the red zone," said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, on Wednesday. "But that does not mean a touchdown. It could mean a 95-yard fumble."

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US seizes Russian-flagged tanker, another tied to Venezuela as Trump widens oil push

The U.S. seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, one sailing under Russia's flag, as part of President Donald Trump's aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas and force Venezuela's socialist government to become an ally. After capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a Saturday military raid on Caracas, the U.S. is escalating its blockade of vessels that are under sanctions and going to and from the South American country, a member of the OPEC oil producers group. The White House also said it plans to roll back some of the sanctions Trump placed on Venezuelan oil in 2019 during his first term. A weeks-long chase across the Atlantic ended on Wednesday morning when the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. military special forces, bearing a judicial seizure warrant, apprehended the Marinera crude oil tanker, which had refused to be boarded last month before switching to Russia's flag, officials said.

With a Russian submarine and vessels nearby, the seizure risked more confrontation with Russia, which has condemned U.S. actions over Venezuela and is already at odds with the West due to the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment on what is a public holiday in Russia. "It was a fake Russian oil tanker," U.S. Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on Fox News. "They basically tried to pretend to be a Russian oil tanker in an effort to avoid the sanctions regime." Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard also intercepted a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil, the Panama-flagged M Sophia, near the northeast coast of South America, the U.S. officials said, in the fourth seizure in recent weeks. The tanker was fully loaded, according to records of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA. The Marinera, formerly known as the Bella-1, was empty of oil, but the U.S. says it and the M Sophia belong to a "shadow fleet" of tankers used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. "The only maritime energy transport allowed will be that consistent with American law and national security," Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff, said in a statement. "There is unlimited economic potential for the Venezuelan energy sector through legitimate and authorized commercial avenues established by the United States." Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that the Marinera crew had made "frantic efforts to avoid apprehension" and "failed to obey" Coast Guard orders, and so faces criminal charges.

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ownership announces it's shutting down paper in May

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's owners announced Wednesday the paper will be shutting down in a few months, citing financial losses. Block Communications Inc. announced it will cease publication on May 3. The paper is printed on Thursdays and Sundays and says on its website the average paid circulation is 83,000. A couple dozen union members returned to work at the Post-Gazette in November after a three-year strike. More than five years ago, the newspaper declared it had reached a bargaining impasse with the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and unilaterally imposed terms and conditions of employment on those workers. The paper was later found to have bargained in bad faith by making offers that were not intended to help reach a deal and by declaring an impasse prematurely.

The announcement that Block was shutting it down came on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court declined the PG Publishing Co. Inc.'s emergency appeal to halt an National Labor Relations Board order that forced it to abide by health care coverage policies in an expired union contract. Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, said the paper's journalists have a long history of award-winning work. "Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh," Goldstein said. The union said employees were notified in a video on Zoom in which company officials did not speak live. The Post-Gazette said Block Communications has lost hundreds of millions of dollars over two decades in operating the paper, and the company said it deemed "continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable." The Block family said in a statement it was "proud of the service the Post-Gazette has provided to Pittsburgh for nearly a century." A phone message seeking comment was left Wednesday at Block Communications headquarters in Toledo, Ohio. The paper traces its roots to 1786, when the Pittsburgh Gazette began as a four-page weekly, and became a leading advocate for the abolition of slavery in the 19th century. It went through a series of mastheads and owners before 1927, when Paul Block obtained the paper and named it the Post-Gazette.

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US will exit 66 international organizations as it further retreats from global cooperation

The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the U.N.'s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the U.S. further retreats from global cooperation. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organizations, agencies, and commissions, following his administration’s review of participation in and funding for all international organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, according to a White House release. Many of the targets are U.N.-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labor, migration and other issues the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and “woke” initiatives. Other non-U.N. organizations on the list include the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. Trump’s decision to withdraw from organizations that foster cooperation among nations to address global challenges comes as his administration has launched military efforts or issued threats that have rattled allies and adversaries alike, including capturing autocratic Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and indicating an intention to take over Greenland. The administration previously suspended support for agencies like the World Health Organization, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO. It has taken a larger, à la carte approach to paying dues to the world body, picking which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and those that no longer serve U.S. interests. “I think what we’re seeing is the crystallization of the U.S. approach to multilateralism, which is ‘my way or the highway,’” said Daniel Forti, head of U.N. affairs at the International Crisis Group. “It’s a very clear vision of wanting international cooperation on Washington’s own terms.” It has marked a major shift from how previous administrations — both Republican and Democratic — have dealt with the U.N., and it has forced the world body, already undergoing its own internal reckoning, to respond with a series of staffing and program cuts.

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Trump Administration endorses ‘real food’ — and saturated fats — in new dietary guidelines

The Trump administration announced dramatically transformed federal dietary guidelines on Wednesday, suggesting new limits on ultra-processed foods and endorsing the consumption of saturated fats in red meat and dairy products for the first time in decades. The changes to the dietary guidelines will shift standards for school lunches, food stamps, military food programs and prisons. They endorse the increasingly standard nutrition guidance to eat whole foods over processed ones, but also contradict widely accepted nutrition advice to limit saturated fats. “These are the foundation to all federal food programs in our country. These new guidelines are going to update the food that is served to America’s children in our public schools,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing, adding that the guidelines will also shape how food stamp programs are designed.

During the press conference, both Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins emphasized that people should “eat real food,” an idea widely endorsed by nutritionists and doctors as accessible, straightforward nutrition advice. Both Kennedy and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary spent significant time in Wednesday’s press conference defending the consumption of saturated fats. Both said the standard medical advice to avoid saturated fats had contributed to the rise in processed foods consumption. “We are ending the war on saturated fats,” Kennedy said. The American Heart Association is among the many medical establishments that recommend people limit their consumption of saturated fats because decades of research show that the consumption of saturated fats can increase cholesterol and risk of heart disease. “Today marks the beginning of the end of an era of medical dogma on nutrition. For decades, we’ve been fed a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural, healthy saturated fats,” Makary said. Makary is the author of a book that challenges existing guidance about saturated fats.

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Lead Stories

Texas teachers union sues state over social media investigations

A new lawsuit is putting a spotlight on how Texas handles teachers’ private social media activity. The Texas American Federation of Teachers announced Tuesday it is suing the Texas Education Agency, alleging the agency unlawfully investigated educators for posts made on their personal social media accounts and violated their First Amendment rights. “It was, in fact, a witch hunt in many cases,” said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT. Union leaders say the state went too far by launching investigations into teachers’ private social media activity rather than helping with conversations about current events inside the classroom. National AFT President Randi Weingarten said the posts at issue were made outside of school hours and not in an educational setting.

“We’re not talking about in this case what happened in classrooms,” Weingarten said. “We’re talking about school teachers when they were not in classrooms, in private on their own social media, commenting on a matter that everyone in the country and the world saw.” The lawsuit names the Texas Education Agency and Commissioner Mike Morath. It challenges a TEA policy issued last September that instructed school districts to report posts reacting to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The union says the policy unfairly targeted teachers and led to widespread investigations. “They don’t lose their rights to do that because they teach,” Weingarten said. According to the lawsuit, public school teachers and other employees do not surrender their First Amendment rights simply because they are public servants. The complaint alleges that actions taken by TEA under Morath violated those rights and chilled protected speech. The union argues the policy was vague and discouraged educators from engaging in conversations about current events. Capo said the impact of the investigations continues to affect educators statewide.

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Trump still fuming about Cuellar’s ‘disloyalty’ weeks after pardon

President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed the Republican running against U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, making clear he expected the Laredo Democrat to switch parties or leave the U.S. House after pardoning him of corruption charges. “I never assumed he would be running for Office again, and certainly not as a Democrat, who essentially destroyed his life even with the Pardon given, but he did,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “And now, despite doing him by far the greatest favor of his life, 20 years of FREEDOM, I am fighting him for his seat in Congress.” Cuellar filed for reelection as a Democrat minutes after Trump granted him and his wife a full and unconditional pardon on Dec. 3. The pair faced prison sentences of up to 204 years each for roughly a dozen charges, including money laundering, conspiracy and bribery.

While Trump declined to endorse the Republican challenging Cuellar in the days immediately following the pardon, he said Tuesday that he supports Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina. “Tano’s views are stronger, better, and far less tainted than Henry’s,” he wrote. “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” The district is seen as one of several in Texas that Republicans need to flip to maintain their slim majority in Congress in this year’s midterm elections. Last year, the GOP-led state Legislature redrew Cuellar’s district to make it more winnable for a Republican. Trump nonetheless asserted that he would have pardoned Cuellar again if given the chance, repeating the contention that the Laredo Democrat was targeted for bucking his party on border security and other issues. Cuellar is the only anti-abortion Democrat in the U.S. House and often joins the GOP on key votes. Cuellar “truly deserves to be beaten badly in the upcoming Election, but (is) not somebody who should be serving a 20 year jail sentence,” Trump wrote.

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After Venezuela, Trump’s cartel threats put Mexico on edge

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is dismissing talk of a U.S. “invasion” of her country. Privately, some Mexican officials and business leaders are concerned that President Donald Trump’s threats may soon become reality. A worst-case scenario, some fear, is a U.S. strike that results in civilian casualties and throws the country into political and economic chaos. Trump’s rhetoric, including his suggestion over the weekend that Washington may have to “do something” about cartels that are “running Mexico,” is reviving fears in Mexico City that the United States may act unilaterally against Mexico — particularly after the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.

“Mexico should indeed be concerned, and Mexico is going to have to thread the needle very carefully,” said Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. “I don’t think it’s likely that there will be a unilateral use of force by the U.S. on Mexican soil — but does that mean it won’t happen? Absolutely not.” The concerns have grown even as bilateral relations are at a high water mark, driven in part by close cooperation on border security and Trump’s warm words for Sheinbaum, whom he called a “terrific person” as recently as Sunday. But despite the public assurances from Sheinbaum and Trump’s apparent affection for her leadership, business leaders reliant on peace and stability are increasingly anxious. They worry about the Trump administration’s hostile posture as it treats drug trafficking and border security as core national-security threats that can be tackled with military force. “Setting aside personal judgments about what happened in Venezuela, this action increases concerns about the potential for unilateral action against Mexican cartels,” said Pedro Casas Alatriste, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico.

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Denmark and Greenland seek talks with Rubio after the White House says again it wants the island

Denmark and Greenland are seeking a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over the strategic Arctic island, a Danish territory. Tensions escalated after the White House said Tuesday that the “U.S. military is always an option,” even as a series of European leaders rejected President Donald Trump’s renewed calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland, citing strategic reasons. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned earlier this week that a U.S. takeover would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance. “The Nordics do not lightly make statements like this,” Maria Martisiute, a defense analyst at the European Policy Centre think tank, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “But it is Trump, whose very bombastic language bordering on direct threats and intimidation, is threatening the fact to another ally by saying ‘I will control or annex the territory.’”

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Frederiksen in a statement Tuesday reaffirming that the mineral-rich island “belongs to its people.” Their statement defended the sovereignty of Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark and thus part of NATO. Trump has floated since his first term the idea of acquiring Greenland, arguing that the U.S. needs to control the world’s largest island to ensure its own security in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic. This weekend’s U.S. military action in Venezuela has heightened fears across Europe, and Trump and his advisers in recent days have reiterated the U.S. leader’s desire to take over the island, which guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America. “It’s so strategic right now,” Trump told reporters Sunday. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, have requested the meeting with Rubio in the near future, according to a statement posted Tuesday to Greenland’s government website. Previous requests for a sit-down were not successful, the statement said.

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State Stories

AG Paxton's use of outside counsel Norton Rose Fulbright bills Texas $156 million in Google win

Norton Rose Fulbright says it’s owed $156.5 million from the state of Texas after taking on Google and securing a $1.375 billion settlement in a pair of anti- privacy lawsuits, according to invoices obtained by Bloomberg Law Monday. The global firm rang up the bill through a high-dollar contingency fee agreement as outside counsel for Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). In May, Texas announced it had reached a settlement with the tech giant for tracking Texans’ personal location and maintaining their facial recognition data, both without consent. Norton Rose billed $77.3 million in the biometric case, which includes $5 million in reimbursable expenses, and $79.2 million in the location case, which includes $2.79 million in expenses.

The requested payment is equal to 11.3% of the state’s total recovery. The firm is offering the state a discount of $150,000 in each case “to promote the expedited payment of this statement,” according to documents Bloomberg Law obtained through a public records request. The payout will also cover fees for Norton Rose’s subcontractors in the litigation, including Cotton Bledsoe Tighe & Dawson PC, Crenshaw Dupree & Milam, Cullen, Carsner, Seerden and Cullen LLP, and Walker Keeling LLP. Paxton’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday, nor did Joseph Graham Jr., a Norton Rose partner who led the litigation against Google. The extraordinary fees are the result of large contingency contracts that offered $3,780 an hour to top lawyers at Norton Rose. Paxton has justified the hourly rates in past cases against tech companies as incentive to outside firms who stand to get nothing if Texas loses. In 2024, Texas secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta for abusing users’ facial recognition data—the most ever obtained from a suit brought by a single state. In that case, outside lawyers with Keller Postman and McKool Smith billed Texas a combined $136 million. In the Google litigation, Norton Rose billed for nearly 36,000 hours in the location case and about 31,000 hours in the facial recognition case. Both cases began in 2022 and fees continued through the fall of 2025. The contract called for partners and shareholders to bill $3,780 an hour—which factors in their usual hourly rate of $945 multiplied by four. Senior associates billed an hourly rate of $2,600, associates $1,900, and paralegals $800. Google is represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Scott Douglass & McConnico LLP, and Kelly Hart & Hallman LLP.

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University Park leaders vote to hold DART withdrawal election

Rapid Transit should keep running in their city. During a city council meeting Tuesday evening, leaders voted unanimously to call a withdrawal election. It's the fifth member city to do so; Farmers Branch, Highland Park, Irving and Plano will also hold elections this spring. Addison City Council discussed it but ultimately voted against the measure. "While I understand and believe in the value of safe, clean, and reliable regional public transportation, I'm concerned about DART's model and DART's model in particular about how it applies to University Park," said council member Phillip Philbin.

He and other city leaders say the city contributes too much in sales tax revenue while getting little in return for DART services. Paige Reudy, spokesperson for University Park, said in a statement to KERA prior to Tuesday's meeting that the city has been in ongoing discussions with DART about the value of transit within the community and its overall sales tax contribution. The agency gets a penny for every sales tax dollar from each of its 13 member cities, including University Park. “These conversations date back to 2015, which resulted in the Transit Related Improvement Program (TRIP) that provided a partial reimbursement of the City’s sales tax contribution,” Reudy said. “Given the financial hurdles facing all cities in Texas, the City of University Park continues to evaluate the value gained by membership in DART.” A report from the consultant Ernst & Young showed that University Park contributed more than $6 million to DART in 2023 while the agency spent $1.8 million on services in the city. It's one of several cities that contributed more that year than they received in services.

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Uvalde trial takes dramatic turn as key witness changes testimony

The trial of a former Uvalde school district police officer accused of child endangerment in the Robb Elementary shooting took an unexpected turn Tuesday after testimony from a teacher prompted defense objections and halted proceedings for the day. The shooting on May 24, 2022 killed 19 children and two teachers. Stephanie Hale, a former teacher at the school, testified that she saw the gunman on the south side of the campus — the same area where former Uvalde CISD officer Adrian Gonzales was located. Defense attorneys immediately objected, arguing Hale’s testimony differed from statements she gave to a Texas Ranger during a 2022 legislative investigation. The jury was dismissed until Thursday while attorneys prepare arguments on motions related to the testimony. Judge Sid Harle is scheduled to hear those arguments Wednesday, without the jury present. The defense has raised the possibility of a mistrial.

Gonzales faces 29 counts of abandoning or endangering a child: one count for each child who was inside the classrooms. Prosecutors allege Gonzales failed to confront the shooter despite being among the first officers on scene. The first day of the trial in Nueces County began with a pretrial hearing to determine what evidence and testimony could be presented, followed by opening statements. Special prosecutor Bill Turner told jurors that Gonzales, a veteran officer, arrived before the shooter entered the school and had a duty to engage. “We’re not asking Adrian Gonzales to commit suicide,” Turner said. “He was trained to go to the corner of a building and distract, delay, and impede the gunman while help is arriving. So why are we here? When a child is in danger and calls 911, we have the right to expect a response.” Defense attorneys delivered a longer opening statement, walking jurors through a second-by-second timeline of events using aerial images of the campus. Attorney Nico LaHood argued Gonzales acted based on the information available to him and should not be held responsible for the massacre.

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Dallas County braces for precinct-only primary day voting

Voting in Dallas County may become more difficult on the March 3 primary day. That’s because the county Republican Party is requiring precinct-based voting on that day for its voters, a move that under state law likely forces Democrats to abandon countywide vote centers as well. County officials on Tuesday openly fretted about the confusion the abrupt change could bring for voters, who have been accustomed to casting ballots at any location for seven years. “The logistics continue to be a nightmare,” said County Commissioner Elba Garcia. Because early voting falls under the purview of the elections department, the shift will not apply to that period that begins Feb. 17, when Texans start picking nominees for federal, state and local offices.

County Elections Administrator Paul Adams told the Commissioners Court Tuesday that an operational contract Republicans finalized Dec. 31 consents to Democrats using countywide voting on March 3 only if they get written approval from the secretary of state, which he said is unlikely. Adams said he is preparing a robust outreach campaign to launch in February to alert voters to the coming change. The prospect of forcing voters back to precinct-only polling locations alarmed some county leaders. “I’m not on the ballot,” said County Commissioner John Wiley Price, “but this is the most important election that I’ve seen in my 41 years as an elected official, and I’m worried about everybody else on the ballot because I just don’t need confusion.” In late 2025, the GOP moved to hold a separate primary from Democrats to hand-count ballots and utilize precinct-based voting on March 3. Republicans abandoned the hand-count plan on Dec. 30 after failing to recruit enough workers but affirmed its decision to hold precinct-based voting on primary day.

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Attorney Tony Buzbee continues investigation, files lawsuit in Texas A&M student’s death

Attorney Tony Buzbee continues to claim that Austin police bungled their investigation into the death of Brianna Aguilera, claiming that new witnesses put her death in a new light. Aguilera, a 19-year-old Texas A&M student, was found unresponsive near an Austin apartment complex last November hours after the Texas vs. Texas A&M football game. Austin police said she was declared dead that night and their investigation so far found no proof of foul play, and evidence points to suicide.

In an early December press conference, APD Lead Homicide Detective Robert Marshall said, “Aguilera was found on the ground with injuries consistent with a fall from a higher floor.” Police Chief Lisa Davis previously said in that press conference that the department typically does not speak publicly about suicides, but misinformation online prompted the update. However, Aguilera’s family claims that the death wasn’t a suicide and have questioned Austin police’s methods of the investigation. Buzbee, who represents Aguilera’s family, said at the Tuesday press conference that an investigator worked over 200 hours on the case and found a witness who claims that she overheard arguing and yelling from the apartment next door to hers, which is where a party that Aguilar attended. Dannah Rodriguez said at the press conference that around 12:30 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 28, she heard several people yelling from the balcony of the apartment. She also said Austin police have not interviewed her or asked her for a statement.

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Watson calls for long-term vision, fiscal discipline for Austin in state of the city remarks

Mayor Kirk Watson outlined several of his stated accomplishments since returning to office, as well as his hopes for Austin's future, during a Jan. 6 state of the city speech downtown. Looking ahead to his final three years in office, Watson framed his approach around balancing short-term needs with longer-range plans to build on civic improvements and avoid potential pitfalls down the road. "Austin is... a remarkably successful city. Most of our greatest challenges are a result of success," he said. "The truth of the matter is we’re not really managing decay. But I will tell you, we can. We can find ourselves managing decay within a 5-year or a 10-year or a 15-year period if our short-term focus becomes all we focus on, and we don’t carry out a long-term vision."

Watson reflected on the start of his first term this decade and his campaign goals of stabilizing City Hall and putting affordability first. A push for stability advanced in part due to Winter Storm Mara in early 2023, and related government leadership changes. He also credited streamlined development regulations and broad zoning reforms for making Austin a "national model" in land-use discussions. Other updates he highlighted from the last few years included advancing Austin-Bergstrom International Airport's expansion and the "phenomenal economic development coup" of expanding Southwest Airlines' local presence, and securing deals with the city's three main public safety labor associations. Austin's agreements with groups representing emergency medical services, fire and police personnel improved political relationships and will help stabilize those departments for years, Watson said. However, he also noted significant hiring gains, a major hope from the latest police labor debate, haven't yet materialized.

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Nate Paul's Lake Travis marina could exit bankruptcy this week

Nate Paul may get some good news this week. After more than six years of lawsuits, criminal prosecutions and foreclosures, one of his properties may emerge from bankruptcy. A case involving WC Paradise Cove Marina is scheduled to go before Judge Christopher G Bradley Wednesday morning. The judge could decide if a financing deal that would pay off the company’s existing debts is enough to dismiss the case, allowing the property to exit bankruptcy. The Lake Travis property and Marina entered Chapter 11 on Oct. 7.

Paul’s World Class Holdings, once a staple of Austin properties, began to crumble after his office was raided by the FBI in 2019. Before that, he was hailed as a sort of wunderkind once highlighted in the pages of Forbes magazine, which said the then-30 year old “Paul is the biggest buyer and owner of land for development in the city.” He was charged with numerous federal crimes, accused of making false statements to banks and other lenders, inflating the value of or his ownership stake in properties to obtain loans. At one point he claimed to own 100% of Silicon Hills Campus LLC — the site of a former 3M office in Northwest Austin, using the claim to secure a $64 million loan. In reality, he only owned 9%. His alleged bribery of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made him a household name across the state. Paul was accused of giving Paxton money to delay foreclosures on the investor’s properties and delay investigations. Paul would plead guilty to one felony in exchange for house arrest instead of a prison sentence and a $1 million fine. He is still under the sentenced five-year supervised release.

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Texas becomes first state to end American Bar Association oversight of law schools

Texas is now the first state in the U.S. to eliminate American Bar Association oversight of its law schools, ending the state's 42-year-long reliance on the national organization. The Texas Supreme Court issued an order Tuesday finalizing a tentative September opinion, asserting the ABA should "no longer have the final say" on which law school graduates can take the bar exam — a requirement to becoming a licensed lawyer in each state. "The Court advised that it intends to provide stability, certainty, and flexibility to currently approved law schools by guaranteeing ongoing approval to schools that satisfy a set of simple, objective, and ideologically neutral criteria using metrics no more onerous than those currently required by the ABA," reads the order signed by all nine justices.

The change means law school graduates who want to practice in Texas are no longer required to attend an ABA-accredited school. The power to approve those law schools now rests solely with the state's highest civil court. In the absence of national guidance, however, the Texas Supreme Court stipulated in Tuesday's order that it intends to preserve graduates' ability to use Texas law school degrees in other states and out-of-state law degrees in Texas. The court also doesn't anticipate immediate changes to the current list of approved law schools and could return to relying on a different multi-state accrediting entity in the future. The ABA, a voluntary professional association for lawyers, has accredited law schools across the country since 1923. That means schools must comply with the ABA's standards for its faculty, curriculum and facilities, provide adequate resources for student support, demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion and have successful bar passage rates among graduates. Not all law schools are ABA-approved. The Texas Supreme Court decided which law schools would satisfy law licensure requirements until 1983, when the court gave that responsibility to the ABA.

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Black Wall Street reborn: How a modern movement is building collective Black economic power

When people hear the phrase “Black Wall Street,” many think first of Greenwood, Oklahoma, the once-thriving Black economic hub destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. But for a growing network of Black entrepreneurs in Houston and beyond, Black Wall Street is not only history. It serves as an active blueprint for collective economic power and survival in a system that has long denied Black communities equal access to capital and opportunities. Founded in 2015, the modern Black Wall Street movement was built on the idea of collaboration over competition, said Martel Matthews, co-founder and chief operating officer.

Drawing inspiration directly from Greenwood, the founders envisioned a digital ecosystem where Black business owners could share resources and scale, especially as commerce increasingly moved online. “We had that same passion and wanted to connect us as business owners across the Black diaspora,” Matthews said. “We saw the world moving, with the internet, social media, Instagram, TikTok.” That lack of access remains one of the primary reasons Black Wall Street remains significant today. Black entrepreneurs, Matthews said, often start with less capital, fewer connections, and limited generational business knowledge, barriers rooted in decades of exclusion. Creating a space explicitly designed to counter those disadvantages is not about exclusion, he emphasized, but equity. Frank Perkins II, CEO and co-founder of Black Wall Street, traces that mission to his own experience trying to locate minority-owned vendors while working in government contracting. At the time, Black businesses were largely invisible within traditional chambers of commerce. Rather than accept that gap, Perkins helped build a platform to close it. “We wanna circulate our dollars in our community,” Perkins said. “Not only does it help the business owner, but it helps the infrastructure, provides tools and knowledge for our kids that are going up behind us, and provides jobs.” That emphasis on sustainability surfaced repeatedly throughout Black Wall Street’s 10th anniversary Legacy Weekend in Houston. Speakers described entrepreneurship as more than a hustle culture, comprising a long-term strategy for generational wealth and self-determination.

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Court dismisses pastor's lawsuit alleging Tarrant County judge violated free speech rights

A U.S. district judge has tossed out a federal lawsuit from a Fort Worth pastor claiming Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare violated his First Amendment rights during a public meeting in December. The suit, filed Dec. 15 by Bishop Mark Kirkland, claimed O’Hare violated his freedom of speech and expression rights. According to a court filing Dec. 31, the suit was dismissed because Kirkland’s attorney was not based in the same district the suit was filed in. It claims Kirkland was given a notice of this requirement two weeks prior but did not file a response in time. Requirements listed for the Texas Northern District state an attorney not residing or maintaining an office in the district must designate local legal counsel for their clients.

Kirkland requested the courts reconsider and reopen the case without his legal counsel that same day, arguing the failure to respond in time was “due largely to the holiday season, Counsel’s vacation and a busy court calendar.” That request was denied Monday, according to court records, but also states Kirkland can refile the case. CJ Grisham, Kirkland’s attorney, told KERA News Tuesday he plans to refile the case with local counsel. “It was just a minor oversight,” Grisham said. “But it’s not fatal to the case and it’s just a small procedural hiccup.” The suit came after Kirkland was removed from a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting Dec. 9. O’Hare had previously shushed residents in attendance for clapping after a speaker addressed the court during a portion of the meeting designated for public comments.

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He was sentenced to death. Rob and Michele Reiner loved him like a son.

Less than 36 hours before they were killed last month, Rob and Michele Reiner sat in a Los Angeles theater watching “Lyrics From Lockdown,” a one-man show about race, justice and mass incarceration in America. The show focuses on Nanon Williams, who is serving his 34th year in a Texas prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit — and who, over the past decade, quietly forged a remarkable relationship with the Reiners. Rob, a famed director, and Michele, a photographer, producer and activist, had come to love Williams, 51, like a son, emailing him almost daily. They had invited him to live with them if he ever got out of prison. Their daughter, Romy, called Williams her big brother. “He became like family,” Romy said in a statement to NBC News.

The Reiners’ bond with Williams, which has not previously been reported, was built on ideals that animated much of Rob’s work — love, chosen family, compassion and redemption. After being charged with murder at 17, Williams had spent his entire adult life behind bars, much of it in near-total isolation. The Reiners lived in a world defined by film premieres, public platforms and near-constant access to power. The connection they discovered was as profound as it was unlikely. The Reiners were “an integral part of my life,” Williams told NBC News in an interview from prison last week. “They became a part of me.” On the last Friday evening of the Reiners’ lives, Dec. 12, words that Williams wrote from prison about survival were read from a Los Angeles stage. Williams’ mother and sisters were in the audience, along with the woman he’d fallen in love with and married from prison. The Reiners were on a double date with their dear friends, Billy Crystal and his wife. Romy came, too.

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Keller backs off ‘sharia law’ ban but makes clear it doesn’t want an EPIC City

A proposal by Keller’s mayor for the city to reject sharia law was revised before a City Council vote Tuesday to remove mention of Islam and instead affirm that the Constitution and Texas law “are the sole sources of legal authority” in the Fort Worth suburb. The modified resolution was adopted by the council after it made clear that the city did not intend to impede on people’s rights to practice their faith. The language in the final version also echoed Texas House Bill 4211, which bans residential property developments like EPIC City, a large community proposed by an Islamic group near Dallas. Mayor Armin Mizani, who is running for Texas House District 98, had sought to make Keller the first city in the nation to codify a ban on Islam’s legal system.

In a social media post Monday, Mizani said there should be no competing legal system like sharia laws or courts in Keller or Texas. “The United States Constitution secures freedom of religion as a foundational right for all citizens, meaning each of us is free to worship as we deem appropriate,” Mizani said. “However, the protections of the First Amendment do not permit the creation of insular communities such as those proposed here in the DFW area and elsewhere across the nation, that reject local, state, or federal law, or that seek to impose cultural or religious law as their superior legal framework.” Critics have called Mizani’s effort a political maneuver to help his campaign ahead of the Republican primary for the Texas House seat. Other GOP candidates are Fred Tate, a Colleyville businessman, and Zdenka “Zee” Wilcox, a small-business owner in Southlake. On Tuesday night, council members spoke about why the wording of the resolution was changed and why they supported the revised version.

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Arlington's Handitran, On-Demand transit prices going up after council approves fee increases

The price per ride for Arlington’s Handitran and On-Demand services is going up after the council voted 8-1 Tuesday to approve a fare increase. Handitran offers low-cost rides to Arlington residents who are elderly or disabled while Arlington On-Demand, previously known as Arlington Via, acts as the city’s version of public transit with fares for rides subsidized by the city. The change, which goes into effect March 2, will see Handitran rides increase from $2 to $3 and the maximum price of an On-Demand ride go up to $8 from $5. The minimum price for an On-Demand ride will stay the same at $3. Council member Nikkie Hunter, who represents District 3, was the sole vote against the increase. Arlington city staff told the council the move is necessary as costs increase. The programs are subsidized by a mix of city money and federal grant funding.

The vote came after several people, many of whom said they use Handitran, asked the council to reject the increases. They told the council that, especially on a fixed income, it is difficult to keep up with price increases. Since the service is largely used to make medical trips, some expressed concerns that elderly residents would miss appointments and see declining health because of the increase. Others spoke in favor of the increase, saying they know prices are going up across the board and the increase isn’t too dramatic. The decision by council also ends a monthly pass for Handitran, which offered unlimited rides for $55 a month. The weekly pass for On-Demand, which allowed four rides each day for $25 a week, will also end. That comes with a change in the way fees will be collected. Instead of paying for each ride individually, Arlington’s Director of Transportation Alicia Winkelblech said the city will transition to a credit system. The change to a credit system would see riders asked to buy bundles of credits in-app to exchange for rides. Winkelblech said the more credits bought, the less they’ll cost per credit.

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National Stories

The US has tried to acquire Greenland before – and failed

On the heels of the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has ramped up his rhetoric around his desire to acquire Greenland, once again raising the prospect of military intervention, sparking fears across Europe and widespread condemnation. But while American expansionism has regained steam under Trump, the idea of the US controlling the self-governing Danish territory long predates the current president. Greenland, a vast island of 836,000 square miles, occupies a strategic geopolitical position, sitting between the US and Europe and astride the so-called GIUK gap – a maritime passage between Greenland, Iceland, and the UK that links the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s also home to rich deposits of natural resources, including oil, gas and rare earth minerals, making it even more strategically important. US interest in Greenland dates back to the 19th century, when then-Secretary of State William H. Seward, fresh off the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, floated the idea of buying Greenland and Iceland from Denmark. While the sale never materialized, the US continued to eye the world’s largest island at multiple moments throughout history, at one point discussing a possible swap with Denmark for US territory in the Philippines. In 1946, following World War II, during which the US took over the defense of Greenland, President Harry Truman offered Denmark $100 million in gold for the island, though Denmark rejected the bid.

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How the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ reinforces Xi’s vision of power in Asia

Just hours before American commandos seized President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in a daring raid, a senior Chinese official had met the Venezuelan leader at the presidential palace, a show of support for one of Beijing’s closest partners in the Western Hemisphere. The speed with which U.S. forces acted afterward to capture Mr. Maduro sent a blunt message to Beijing about the limits of its influence in a region that Washington treats as its own. China now risks losing ground in Venezuela after Saturday’s assault in Caracas, despite decades of investment and billions of dollars in loans. But the assault also reinforces a broader logic that ultimately favors President Xi Jinping’s vision of China and its status in Asia: when powerful countries impose their will close to home, others tend to step back.

The White House has framed the Maduro operation as part of an updated Monroe Doctrine, or as President Trump describes it, the “Donroe Doctrine.” A globe carved into spheres of influence — with the United States dominating the Western Hemisphere and China asserting primacy across the Asia-Pacific — and where might makes right, regardless of shared rules, could benefit Beijing in a number of ways. Stephen Miller, a top aide to Mr. Trump, articulated this doctrine in an interview with the CNN host Jake Tapper on Monday. “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he said. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” It could keep the United States and the brunt of its military forces away from Asia. And it could undercut Washington’s criticism of Beijing when Chinese forces elbow their way across contested waters of the South China Sea and menace Taiwan, the island democracy China claims as its own.

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Baywatch reboot boosted by Hollywood's $750m tax credits program hoping to save industry jobs

After 27 years, it is finally time to fill the empty lifeguard stands. In 2026, beleaguered California entertainment industry workers will see the return of what was once a major local employer: the TV show “Baywatch.” A planned Fox reboot of the beach drama, which filmed in California in 1999 before it picked up its rescue buoys and moved to Hawaii, became one of 17 TV shows to receive an award from California’s recently expanded film and television tax credit program. Twenty-eight films, including a Snoop Dogg biopic, an Ang Lee Western and Michael Mann’s long-awaited “Heat” sequel, also received the credit, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in November. California has been losing business to production hubs in regions with generous tax incentives, including New Jersey, which has recently become an East Coast production hot spot.

In October, Paramount signed a 10-year lease to build a studio there. Lionsgate, the studio behind the “Hunger Games” franchise, and Netflix also began construction on compounds there in the last year. California officials hope the new tax credit, which more than doubled from $330 million to $750 million in 2025, will help them reverse what has been a brutal, yearslong slowdown in production in Hollywood’s home state. “Workers are going to be getting back to consistent employment in California in 2026,” said Colleen Bell, executive director of the California Film Commission, the state agency that administers the film and TV tax credits. “Grips, electricians, costume designers. We had to sound the alarm. Something bold and urgent needed to be addressed.” The Hollywood workforce endured an intense shock when the Covid-19 pandemic halted production in 2020. The 2023 actors and writers strikes, the 2025 Los Angeles County wildfires and an overall contraction in studio spending as the streaming bubble popped all worsened the problem. Even with the tax credit boost, California entertainment workers will face new challenges in 2026, including the prospect of a merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and either Netflix or Paramount Skydance, a major industry consolidation that would be likely to result in more lost jobs.

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JPMorgan cuts all ties with proxy advisers in industry first

JPMorgan Chase’s asset-management unit is cutting all ties with proxy advisory firms effective immediately, amping up the pressure on an industry that recently has come into the Trump administration’s crosshairs. The unit, among the world’s largest investment firms with more than $7 trillion in client assets, has to vote shares in thousands of companies. This coming proxy season, it will start using an internal artificial-intelligence-powered platform it is calling Proxy IQ to assist on U.S. company votes, according to a memo seen by The Wall Street Journal. The bank will use the platform to manage the votes and the AI also will analyze data from more than 3,000 annual company meetings and provide recommendations to the portfolio managers, the memo said, replacing the typical roles of proxy advisers.

JPMorgan thinks it is the first large investment firm to entirely stop using external proxy advisers, which provide much of the industry’s plumbing, the memo said. It previously had said it would stop using advisers for vote recommendations, relying on its in-house stewardship team instead. The firms, such as Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, offer research, advice, and voting infrastructure to investment firms that need to cast thousands of shareholder votes each year. Their voting recommendations have long drawn the ire of corporate CEOs and other critics who claim they hold undue influence on shareholder votes and have business models that create conflicts of interest. In December, an executive order from the Trump administration called for securities and antitrust regulators to probe proxy advisers. JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has been one of the most outspoken critics, telling an industry gathering last spring that proxy advisers are “incompetent” and “should be gone and dead, done with.” ISS and Glass Lewis effectively form a duopoly in advising institutional investors on corporate-governance matters. Large investment managers have dedicated teams to research and make proxy voting decisions, but smaller firms often rely more heavily on adviser services. In a statement on last month’s executive order, ISS said that it doesn’t dictate or set corporate-governance standards and its sophisticated institutional investor clients make their own decisions. Glass Lewis, meanwhile, recently said it would no longer offer its “benchmark” voting recommendations to clients starting in 2027, referring to the firm’s main vote recommendations that are distributed broadly, focusing on tailored advice to individual clients instead.

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The data center rebellion is here, and it’s reshaping the political landscape

One float stood out among the tinsel and holiday cheer at the annual Christmas parade here: an unsightly data center with blinding industrial lights and smoke pouring out of its roof, towering menacingly over a helpless gingerbread house. This city bordering Tulsa is a battleground, one of many across the country where companies seeking to build massive data centers to win the AI race with China are coming up against the reality of local politics. Sand Springs leaders were besieged with community anger after annexing an 827-acre agricultural property miles outside of town and launching into secret talks with a tech giant looking to use it for a sprawling data center. Hundreds of aggrieved voters showed up at community meetings. Swarms of protest signs are taking root along the rural roads.

“It feels like these data center companies have just put a big target on our backs,” said Kyle Schmidt, leader of the newly formed Protect Sand Springs Alliance. “We are all asking: Where are the people we elected who promised to protect us from these big corporations trying to steamroll us? The people who are supposed to be standing up and protecting us are standing down and caving.” From Archibald, Pennsylvania, to Page, Arizona, tech firms are seeking to plunk down data centers in locations that sometimes are not zoned for such heavy industrial uses, within communities that had not planned for them. These supersize data centers can use more energy than entire cities and drain local water supplies. Anger over the perceived trampling of communities by Silicon Valley has entered the national political conversation and could affect voters of all political persuasions in this year’s midterm elections. Many of the residents fighting the project in Sand Springs voted for President Donald Trump three times and also backed Gov. J. Kevin Stitt (R), who implores tech firms to build in his state.

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Gabbard MIA on Venezuela operation, amid tensions with Trump policy

President Donald Trump’s top national security advisers in recent days have outdone one another, publiclyextolling his bold decision to launch the risky military raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. But one key figurehas been largely absent from public view: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran who for years has spoken out against costly U.S. interventions abroad, waited more than three days before commenting publicly about Operation Absolute Resolve. Her usually busy feeds on X, where she maintains official and personal accounts, were abnormally quiet until she issued a terse statement Tuesday afternoon. She has been missing in action from Fox News and other conservative broadcasts, where she’s been a frequent guest championing Trump’s priorities and excoriating his perceived enemies in a way previous intelligence chiefs avoided.

“President Trump promised the American people he would secure our borders, confront narcoterrorism, dangerous drug cartels, and drug traffickers,” she wrote Tuesday on her official X account. “Kudos to our servicemen and women and intelligence operators for their flawless execution of President Trump’s order to deliver on his promise thru Operation Absolute Resolve.” Gabbard’s comments in support of the operation diverge sharply from the sentiments she expressed seven years ago, explicitly warning against a Venezuelan intervention. Her 2019 social media posts have recirculated endlessly in the last few days, often accompanied by snarky comments. “The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders--so we have to stop trying to choose theirs,” Gabbard, then a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, posted on X (then Twitter), in January 2019.

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Election deniers think Maduro’s capture will expose plot to steal 2020

When President Donald Trump authorized an overnight military action Saturday in Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro, he said the goal was to bring the Venezuelan leader to the United States to stand trial on drug trafficking charges — and to take control of the country’s oil fields. But some prominent far-right figures — as well as a top U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) official — are suggesting Trump actually captured Maduro for another reason: Because the Venezuelan strongman has key evidence to support a fringe conspiracy theory that his country helped voting machine companies rig the 2020 election. Even Trump himself appears to be flirting with the conspiracy. The president has posted several videos on social media promoting false claims about Dominion voting machines since Maduro’s capture.

“Dominion was bought by a Republican company. Maduro was captured & is sharing evidence w/federal prosecutors,” Rogan O’Handley, a notable conservative commentator and lawyer, posted on social media Monday. “President Trump is posting videos about Dominion election rigging & says 2020 election fraud will be exposed in 2026. Yeah I’d say the dominoes are being lined up.” Sean Davis, the founder and CEO of the right-wing news outlet The Federalist, pushed a similar line. “It’s gonna be wild when Maduro tries to plead to lesser charges by proffering evidence that the 2020 election was stolen,” he wrote on social media. Ed Martin, a Trump loyalist and prominent election denier who heads the U.S. Department of Justice’s vague “weaponization” task force, reposted Davis’ message. Even Alex Jones, the notorious far-right conspiracy theorist and political commentator, joined the fray, echoing similar talking points on his show Sunday night. “It’s about Venezuela being the base of election fraud,” Jones said. He further explained that Trump captured Maduro to force the Venezuelan leader to hand over evidence that he colluded with Democrats to help steal the 2020 election. “Folks, when this house of cards starts falling perfectly this year, the 250th anniversary of this country, what a present,” Jones added. “And Trump intends all of this to be going and done by July 4th.”

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Lead Stories

What President Trump's plan to rebuild Venezuela's oil infrastructure means for Texas

Energy stocks dipped before climbing on Monday, fueled by hopes that the Trump administration plans to tap into Venezuela’s massive oil reserves. Experts in the oil industry caution that the process will take years and billions of dollars in investments by oil companies. Gas prices and jobs in the Texas oil industry are expected to remain unaffected by the capture of deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces. Many North Texas drivers have noticed a recent drop in gas prices.

“I have,” said Adriel Blanchard. “Especially with my truck, because it’s usually it'd be like $65-$70, but since the gas prices went down, it's probably like 50. So it does save me a lot of money.” Patrick De Haan, head petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said the drop in prices has not been impacted by Maduro’s capture or the escalation of U.S. presence in the region. De Haan said it will take time to see if and how the Texas oil industry or prices are affected by President Donald Trump’s plans to access Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world. “Venezuela right now is a dead country,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We have to bring it back and we're going to have to have big investments by the oil companies to bring back the infrastructure, and the oil companies are ready to go. They're going to go in, they're going to rebuild the infrastructure.” De Haan said several questions remain. “Will U.S. sanctions be eased on Venezuela? Will Venezuelan authorities welcome U.S. investment? The number one thing I'm looking at here is who's going to lead the country,” he said. “The biggest question is, will there be another hardliner in Venezuela? Will they be aligned with Maduro? Will there be a fresh start for Venezuela in which the doors are open for investment?” Economist Juan Carlos Martinez said he is watching comments from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio closely.

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Venezuela braces for economic collapse from U.S. blockade

Even before American forces blasted their way into Venezuela’s capital and seized President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, the nation was already facing dire economic prospects. The partial blockade imposed by the United States on Venezuela’s energy exports was expected to shutter more than 70 percent of the country’s oil production this year and wipe out its dominant source of public revenue, according to people briefed on Venezuela’s internal projections compiled in December. The Trump administration’s decision last month to begin targeting tankers carrying Venezuelan crude to Asian markets had paralyzed the state oil company’s exports. To keep the wells pumping, the state oil company, known as PDVSA, had been redirecting crude oil into storage tanks and turning tankers idling in ports into floating storage facilities.

This strategy merely bought the company some time before it ran out of storage for the pumped oil its unable to sell. TankerTrackers, a shipping data firm, estimated late last month that Venezuela had enough spare storage until the end of January. But production could collapse swiftly after that, the people briefed said. If the blockade held, the Venezuelan government expected national oil production to collapse from about 1.2 million barrels per day late last year to less than 300,000 later this year, said the people briefed — a drop that would significantly reduce the government’s ability to import goods and maintain basic services. The people had access to the projections and discussed them on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Maduro’s capture has only added more uncertainly to these projections. Oil tankers on a U.S. sanctions list will continue being blocked from leaving or entering until the Venezuelan government opens its state-controlled oil industry to foreign investment — presumably giving priority to American companies — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday on “Face the Nation” on CBS News.

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Florida’s school choice headache: Millions of unused dollars

Florida’s aggressive expansion of school choice has left more than $400 million in taxpayer-funded education vouchers sitting unused, exposing major cracks in the state’s booming program. Some 500,000 students across Florida, which hosts the nation’s largest school choice effort, have accepted education vouchers toward home or private schooling. But thousands of these students, for one reason or another, aren’t using the money — leaving a staggering $400 million lingering in their accounts. This massive sum, clocking in at $100 million more than Florida spends annually on school safety, is one of several revelations recently unearthed by shocking state audits, issues lawmakers are attempting to rectify in 2026.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars have been sitting unspent in so-called scholarship accounts where they could have been funding our public schools,” state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) said during a December Appropriations Committee hearing. “We should be putting all of these mind-blowing graphics and numbers on a giant posterboard so that these billions of dollars can be DOGE’d, but we are not. Because under this taxpayer-funded school vouchers scheme, the funding did not follow the student, as we were told.” School choice is exploding in Florida since the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature two years ago passed its “universal” policy allowing all students, regardless of income, to claim education vouchers averaging $8,000. While the program has proven to be extremely popular among parents and students, instantly opening the voucher flood gates spurred rapid growth that the state and scholarship-administering organizations have struggled to manage.

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For many Jan. 6 rioters, a pardon from Trump wasn’t enough

In the first hours of his second administration, President Trump sought to wipe away all trace of the attack on the Capitol by granting amnesty to nearly 1,600 people implicated in the riot stoked by his lies about a stolen election. They answered with a collective cry of gratitude. And why not? The pardon proclamation saved them, opening prison doors and ending all of the criminal prosecutions related to the Capitol attack. Even more, it gave a presidential stamp of approval to their inverted vision of Jan. 6, 2021: that those who assaulted the police and vandalized the historic building that day were victims, and those who spent the next four years using the criminal justice system to hold them accountable were villains. But nearly a year after Mr. Trump’s sweeping proclamation asserted that he had cleared the way for “a process of national reconciliation,” many recipients of his clemency remain consumed by conspiracy theories, angry at the Trump administration for not validating their insistence that the Capitol attack was a deep-state setup and haunted by problems from both before and after the riot.

“Being pardoned doesn’t make these families whole,” Cynthia Hughes, a prominent advocate for the Jan. 6 defendants, wrote on social media recently. “Many are barely holding on mentally, emotionally, and financially. To pretend otherwise is a lie.” In the five years since the Capitol was stormed, no new facts have emerged to undermine the basic findings of congressional and Justice Department investigators that many of the rioters acted in the misguided belief, pushed relentlessly by Mr. Trump, that he had been robbed of victory in 2020 — and that in attacking the Capitol they not only injured about 140 police officers but also struck at a cornerstone of American democracy: the peaceful transfer of presidential power. Even so, Mr. Trump has long maintained that the rioters endured horrible, even illegal, mistreatment during their prosecutions. And yet if that is true, some pardoned rioters are now asking, then why haven’t their persecutors been thrown in jail? And if the rioters are martyrs to a righteous cause, as the president and his allies have often said, then why haven’t they been made whole through financial reparations?

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State Stories

Andrew White suspends latest campaign for Texas governor, endorses Gina Hinojosa

Houston-area businessman Andrew White suspended his campaign for governor of Texas on Monday, citing a lack of campaign contributions as the leading factor. White, a Democrat and the son of the late former Gov. Mark White, made the announcement in a video shared on X. "We just haven't raised the money that we needed to raise to be successful," White said. "So instead of fighting this fight against [State Representative] Gina [Hinojosa], I think it's better for me to just step aside and let Gina save her resources so she can beat Greg Abbott in November." White said he plans to vote for Hinojosa, a Democrat who represents Austin in the Texas legislature.

Hinojosa is vying to take on Abbott, the Republican who is seeking a record fourth term as governor, in November’s general election. "I am incredibly grateful to Andrew White for his leadership and for this show of support," Hinojosa said in a news release. "It takes incredible courage to enter the ring and run for statewide office in Texas, and it takes even more to step down when you know what's at stake. I am humbled and honored to have his endorsement." There are several other candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, including former Houston-area congressman Chris Bell, who made an unsuccessful run for governor in 2006. Early polling indicates Hinojosa has a sizeable lead by more than 30 percentage points over any other Democratic candidate. White previously ran for governor in 2018 but lost in the Democratic primary runoff to Lupe Valdez. Abbott defeated Valdez that year in the general election to win a second term as governor. White’s father, the late former Gov. Mark White, served from 1983-87.

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AT&T is leaving its longtime Dallas HQ for a new North Texas location

AT&T, one of North Texas's biggest employers, is moving its headquarters from Downtown Dallas to Plano, the company announced. In a message to AT&T employees, CEO John Stankey said the company will construct its new company headquarters at 5400 Legacy Drive in Plano. The new corporate campus will span across 54 acres and give the company enough room to consolidate all its Dallas-Fort Worth administrative space into one location, according to the announcement. The company currently has three campuses in Dallas, Plano and Irving. The company currently employs about 10,000 employees at its global headquarters in Dallas, according to the City of Dallas' Office of Economic Development.

AT&T is also the biggest Fortune 500 company headquartered in the city and the second-biggest in North Texas at No. 37, trailing only Irving-based McKesson (No. 9). "The nature of the company and our work have both evolved significantly since we moved our headquarters to Dallas in 2008, but what hasn't changed is our belief and confidence in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as the right place to operate a thriving multinational corporation," Stankey said. The move is a major blow to the economic health of Downtown Dallas, according to a recent study commissioned by Downtown Dallas Inc., WFAA previously reported. The company's global headquarters has been in downtown Dallas since 2008, after it relocated its headquarters from San Antonio. The study found that property values downtown would decrease 30% if AT&T left, representing a $2.7 billion drop in property value and $62 million loss in property taxes for the city of Dallas.

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Here’s what we know about the Houston attorney representing Nicolás Maduro’s wife in federal court

A Houston-based attorney is representing Cilia Flores, the wife of ousted Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by the U.S. during a military operation in Venezuela over the weekend. The couple, along with Maduro’s son and other Venezuelan officials, face criminal charges in New York. Mark Donnelly of the Parker Sanchez & Donnelly law firm in Houston is representing Flores against the charges of drug trafficking and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, according to federal court records in the Southern District of New York. Flores and Maduro appeared in court Monday in New York, where both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. ABC News reported that Donnelly was next to Flores in court and that Flores told Judge Alvin Hellerstein that she is "completely innocent."

"We look forward to reviewing and challenging the evidence the government has," Donnelly wrote in an email Monday to Houston Public Media. "While we would love to present our side now, we will wait to do so in court at the appropriate time. The first lady is aware that there is a long road ahead and is prepared." Donnelly did not provide details about how he became involved in the defense of Flores in a case that has international political implications. Donnelly is an attorney who specializes in white-collar criminal defense, according to his profile on the law firm's website. A Houston native, Donnelly previously worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, serving as the senior advisor to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, according to the law firm. He also ran the Southern District's fraud division for more than two years. Before joining the DOJ, Donnelly was a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney's Office for eight years, prosecuting cases ranging from DWI to capital murder and ultimately becoming a chief felony prosecutor. In 2023, Donnelly was among the lawyers who assisted in the Texas House's investigation into Attorney General Ken Paxton before his impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, where Paxton was acquitted.

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4 Democratic judicial candidates withdraw after ballot challenge

Four judicial candidates withdrew from their 2026 election bids after incumbent judges and other Democratic opponents filed lawsuits alleging their candidacy filings contained forged signatures and other irregularities. Allison Mathis, a candidate for the 180th District Court; Anna Eady, a candidate for Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 3; Angela Reese Mckinnon, a candidate for 295th District Court; and Velda Faulkner, running for the 190th District Court, all withdrew from their races last week, Harris County Democratic Party Chair Mike Doyle said. A judge on Monday ordered the removal of three candidates from the ballot.

While the challenges levied against Faulkner and McKinnon were largely built on procedural issues — including, in Faulkner’s case, failing to list the name of the office she sought on her original filing — those brought against Mathis and Eady alleged the pair’s election filings contained signatures that were “forgeries or fraudulent,” according to Eady's opponent, defense attorney Carlos Aguayo, in his complaint against the Harris County Democratic Party. Mathis and Eady used the same worker to collect signatures to file their candidacy, records show. Mathis, a criminal defense attorney, stood by the circulator's work. Eady, also in private practice, could not be reached for comment. The complaints from Aguayo and Morales, who hired the same lawyer to file similar pleadings, alleged Jaivan Smith, a signature collector for judicial candidates seeking a place on the primary ballot, personally forged dozens of signatures on behalf of both Eady and Mathis. Complaints challenging the filings noted alleged similarities between Smith’s handwriting and that of dozens of purported residents who pledged their support for the Democrats. “The petition pages circulated by Jaivan Smith exhibit massive systematic handwriting irregularities, including near identical letter formation, slant and stroke patterns across multiple signed entries appearing on the same petition pages,” read the complaints. “These observable similarities … strain credulity as to whether each purported signatory personally affixed his or her own signature.”

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Mayor Eric Johnson predicts 'flood' of companies will move from NYC to Dallas in new interview with New York Post

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a new interview that he expects Dallas to rival New York City as the country's top financial hub and argued a "flood" of people and companies could leave over fears of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's policies. Johnson, a former Democratic state representative who made national headlines as mayor in 2023 after he switched parties to join the GOP, made the prediction in an interview with the New York Post that was published the same day AT&T CEO John Stankey announced the telecom giant will move its global headquarters from Downtown Dallas to Plano. "What was already a trickle is going to turn into a flood of individuals and companies who have called New York home for a long time, moving to Dallas,” Johnson told the New York Post

"You’re talking about an environment where they’re talking about trying to find new ways to tax people, compared to one where we’re trying to push down the one tax we’ve got, and we don’t have an income tax." The Post reports Dallas has added 100,000 finance jobs in the last 10 years and has become the second-largest financial services hub in the U.S. Many financial firms have also made moves to increase their presence in Dallas and Texas in the last year. The New York Stock Exchange recently launched NYSE Texas, Nasdaq recently announced plans for Nasdaq Texas, a new dual-listing venue that builds on Nasdaq's expansion in North Texas, and Goldman Sachs and Scotiabank are making big investments here. "It’s not inconceivable at all that within a certain number of years, people look back and go, ‘Do you remember back when New York was the financial capital of the United States? Isn’t that weird?'” Johnson added in the interview with the Post.

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One of oldest restaurants on South Congress closing after almost 30 years

Another piece of cherished "Old Austin" is set to disappear from the dining landscape. Vespaio, the Italian restaurant that has operated on South Congress Avenue since 1998, long before the street became Austin's centerpiece entertainment destination, will close in February, the owners announced Monday on Instagram. "When we took ownership in 2018, our goal was to carry its legacy as long as we were able to continue to serve the wonderful people of Austin and beyond," the owners wrote. "As South Congress continues to evolve, we felt like this was the right moment to close this chapter on our own terms."

Owners Daniel Brooks and Ryan Samson will also close the neighboring Chapulín Cantina, which they have operated in the space previously inhabited by Vespaio sister restaurant Enoteca since 2022. Brooks and Samson purchased the Italian restaurant from founders chef Alan Lazarus, Scott Bolin and Claude Benayoun in 2018. The current owners did not respond Monday to questions from the American-Statesman about the future of the space but wrote on Instagram that, "We fully trust the next phase of this building will not only be successful but will continue to create a place where our beloved Austinites and visitors will come to." Brooks and Samson opened the casual Italian restaurant Vespa Rossa in Dripping Springs in the summer of 2025. The restaurant’s name — which means “red wasp” in Italian — nods to Vespaio, as does its casual Italian menu of pizza, salads and pasta.

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Screwworm nears Valley as counteracting Edinburg facility still in planning phase

A parasitic fly whose larvae burrows into the flesh of living animals has been confirmed in a bovine about 197 miles south of the Rio Grande Valley in Tamaulipas, which is the first case in the Mexican state. On Saturday, Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Health, Safety, and Quality (SENASICA), reported an active case of New World screwworm in a 6-day-old calf located in Tamaulipas. Meanwhile, a facility in Edinburg slated to counteract the spread of the parasite has yet to officially hit its construction, nonetheless, design phase. The U.S. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) describes the screwworm as a “devastating pest,” underlining the serious threat the species poses on livestock, pets, wildlife, occasionally birds, and in even rarer cases, people.

According to the USDA, the screwworm, which is endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and countries in South America, has not been officially confirmed in the U.S. However, this latest incident is the closest confirmed case of screwworm since the USDA began tracking the parasite in Mexico — within 400 miles of the U.S. border — in mid-2024. In 1966, the USDA eradicated screwworm from the United States and again, in 2017, eliminated a small outbreak from the Florida Keys, using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) — a scientific attack on the species’ reproduction capabilities. With this method, a large number of screwworms are bred, then the males are sterilized using radiation and released into the wild. Since the sterile male flies can no longer produce offspring, no viable eggs are produced, resulting in the collapse of the screwworm population over time. Last June, USDA officials announced an $8.5 million plan to build a sterile fly dispersal facility at Moore Air Base in Edinburg. When completed, it will be the only one in the U.S.

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McAllen police search for man assisting suspect who killed Abbott appointee

As the investigation continues into the shooting death of a prominent Mission businessman, McAllen police on Monday have identified a Pharr man who allegedly assisted in driving the suspect out of the country. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Leonel Perez Delgado, 61, who investigators believe intended to hinder the arrest, harbor or conceal Reynaldo Mata-Rios, 60. Mata-Rios is accused of shooting and killing Eddy Betancourt — who was the vice chair of the Hidalgo County Appraisal District Board of Directors and an appointee of Gov. Greg Abbott for the Texas Facilities Commission — on Dec. 27.

Police said investigators found images from the day after the murder, Dec. 28, of Mata-Rios crossing through an unidentified U.S.-Mexico port of entry in a red truck. Delgado was identified as the driver of the truck. Both men are wanted by police, with Mata-Rios being described as 6-feet tall, weighing 195 pounds with brown hair, brown eyes and his last known address is in Pharr. Delgado was described as 5-feet, 8-inches tall, weighing 225 pounds with gray hair, brown eyes. His last known address is also in Pharr. According to the initial news release, McAllen police were dispatched at about 3:51 p.m. on Dec. 27 to a business located in the 800 block of North Ware Road after a 911 call reported a person lying on the floor and not breathing after possibly being shot.

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Abbott directs agencies to increase anti-fraud measures for Texas child care programs

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants state agencies to implement new “strong anti-fraud measures” to a program designed to help low-income families pay for child care. The call for increased scrutiny follows the Trump administration’s decision to freeze federal funding to Child Care Services programs due to a viral video claiming widespread fraud in Minnesota. In a letter sent Monday to the heads of the Texas Workforce Commission and Health and Human Services Commission, Abbott directs the agencies to identify “high-risk providers” participating in the program and conduct additional site visits. “Texas’ percentage of improper payment rates is 0.43 percent, compared to Minnesota’s approximately 11 percent according to the most recently available federal data,” Abbott wrote in the letter. “However, more can be done to protect Texas children and taxpayers.”

He also directs the agencies to review data to address potential fraud in the program, ensure all providers are “accurately and verifiably” reporting the number of children enrolled, conduct reviews of the oversight processes and enhance access to the online portal and hotline so people can report fraud. Texas’ Child Care Services program, overseen by the TWC, provides financial aid for child care for eligible families, according to the agency’s website. The Trump administration froze federal funding after a conservative YouTuber posted a viral video claiming without evidence that there is widespread fraud in Minnesota daycare centers run by Somali Americans. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced states may require payment based on “verified attendance rather than enrollment alone,” as well as paying providers after care is delivered. HHS also said states will no longer be "steered towards contracts over parent-directed vouchers.”

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NASA’s new administrator isn’t certain Space Shuttle Discovery is coming to Houston

Days after being sworn in as the head of NASA, Jared Isaacman indicated uncertainty regarding the move of the Space Shuttle Discovery from Washington to Houston. Congress allocated $85 million as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” to move Discovery from its current home in the Smithsonian to Space Center Houston, the nonprofit visitor's center of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In order to do so, the Smithsonian estimated it would need far more money. The national museum also warned that such a move could do irreparable damage to the space shuttle. Speaking in late December during an interview on CNBC, Isaacman said those factors could inhibit relocating the space shuttle.

"My job now is to make sure that we can undertake such a transportation within the budget dollars that we have available and of course most importantly ensuring the safety of the vehicle," he said. "And if we can't do that, you know what, we've got spacecraft that are going around the moon with Artemis II, III, IV, and V. One way or another, we are going to make sure the Johnson Space Center gets their historic spacecraft right where it belongs." Though officials in both Washington and Houston are preparing for Discovery's relocation, the allocation only makes reference to a "space vehicle" being moved to Houston. Under the definition used by the federal government, that means any vehicle that flew in space and carried astronauts — a label that applies to more than just Discovery. Texas' two Republican senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, have led the effort to move the space shuttle to Houston, which they called its "rightful home." Both voted to confirm Isaacman to his position as the head of NASA. Representatives for Cornyn and Cruz did not immediately return requests for comment Monday. In a December post on X, Cornyn said he supported Isaacman's nomination, citing "his commitment to bringing Space Shuttle Discovery to [Space Center Houston] where it belongs."

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Jury selected from hundreds in trial testing accountability after Uvalde shooting

A jury has been selected in the trial of a former Uvalde school district police officer charged in connection with the law enforcement response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting. On Monday, more than 400 potential jurors were questioned about their knowledge of the failed police response to one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. From that pool, 12 jurors and four alternates were selected for the trial. Opening statements are set for Tuesday morning. The trial was moved from Uvalde to Nueces County, where it is being held in Corpus Christi, after a judge determined it would be difficult to seat an impartial jury in Uvalde. During jury selection, presiding Judge Sid Harle acknowledged that, given the case’s national attention, there was likely no one in the pool who had not already heard about the shooting.

Former Uvalde CISD officer Adrian Gonzales faces 29 felony counts of abandoning or endangering a child for his alleged inaction during the response. Prosecutors say Gonzales failed to “engage, distract, or delay the shooter” and did not follow his active-shooter training to confront the gunman. Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Several victims’ family members are expected to attend the trial in Corpus Christi, including Manuel Rizo, the uncle of 9-year-old fourth grader Jackie Cazares, who was killed in the attack. “We're going to hope that the prosecution – the district attorney and the people who owe this to their constituents – do their job, and do a damn good job of it,” Rizo told TPR. News Uvalde school shooting trial moved to Corpus Christi David Martin Davies , October 7, 2025 Former Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales' trial—connected to the Uvalde Robb Elementary School shooting—is moved to Nueces County and is set to begin on Jan. 5, 2026. The Cazares family is one of 21 families who sued the City of Uvalde over the shooting, which killed 19 students and two teachers. Hundreds of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responded to the scene, but federal and state reviews later described the response as a failure, citing a delay of more than an hour before officers confronted the gunman.

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University Park, DART leaders debate future of regional transit

University Park council members and Dallas Area Rapid Transit leaders had a tense debate over funding, services and governance Monday, with high stakes for the future of the imperiled public transit agency. The University Park leaders will vote Tuesday on calling an election to leave DART next spring, potentially joining Highland Park, Irving, Farmers Branch and Plano in seeking an exit from the state’s largest public transportation system. Addison council members also considered ordering an election but could not reach an agreement on the move. Leaders have cited concerns about costs, a one-cent sales tax levied in each of DART’s 13 member cities, the agency’s governance structure and the quality of services in their decisions to call withdrawal elections.

Past DART Board Chair Gary Slagel, who represented the Park Cities as well as Addison and Richardson on the governing body, urged University Park council members to have patience Monday, pleading with the leaders to work with the agency. “The way the region’s growing, we’re going to need to have transit,” he told the council members, adding that reform is still needed. “We can’t put the burden on 13 cities.” Slagel, DART Board Chair Randall Bryant, DART CEO Nadine Lee and other representatives met with University Park’s five council members in the special work session. Of high priority for the council members was DART’s debt and the service the agency provides their city. Council member Phillip Philbin pointed out growing debt and dwindling services as concerns in paying into DART. University Park contributed $6.9 million in sales tax to DART in the 2023 fiscal year, according to the transit system’s data. That year, the firm Ernst and Young found DART allocated $1.8 million in expenses to the city. “Our contribution far exceeds the value we receive,” Philbin said to DART leadership Monday. “There are no light rail stations in the city of University Park. There are no computer rail stations in the city of University Park. … I’m trying to make the numbers make sense.”

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Why the Fourth Court of Appeals is a political battleground

In a county where Republican elected officials have all but gone extinct, a regional appellate court that most residents have never heard of is becoming one of the most hard-fought political battlegrounds. Last election cycle, the San Antonio-based Fourth Court of Appeals elected three new Republican judges at a time when the local GOP had completely given up on trying to flip the county’s district court bench seats. Now another big contest is shaping up for an opening in its chief justice position this year, drawing a Republican recruit who has already been elected twice to a statewide bench seat, Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Bert Richardson. “He was going to retire, and I’m saying, ‘Oh, I don’t think so — we’ve got this amazing job on the Fourth Court of Appeals,'” said Republican Party of Bexar County Chair Kris Coons. “We won the three [seats] there this last year … and now we have a very good shot [at the chief justice spot] too.”

Richardson is the only Republican running, and will go up against the winner of a heated Democratic primary that could ensure the GOP gains a seat next year no matter who wins the chief justice race. Democrats are now in the minority on a court they once dominated, having lost three of their most experienced members in unsuccessful reelection bids last cycle. Now Chief Justice Rebeca Martinez (D) is retiring instead of running for reelection in 2026 and the first Democrat to raise her hand for the job was newly elected Fourth Court of Appeals Justice Velia Meza (D-Place 2), whose move out of her current role would likely result in a Republican being appointed to her seat. Meza was a district court judge in her second term when she defeated a fellow Democrat to win her seat in 2024. She has four years remaining on her current term after November, meaning Gov. Greg Abbott would need to choose a replacement, or she can continue serving in her existing role if she loses.

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City Stories

Dallas Landmarks Commissions approves of internationally recognized church rainbow stairs

In an unanimous vote, the Dallas Landmark Commission approved an exception for Oak Lawn United Methodist Church to keep its rainbow steps as a temporary art installation for three years. The vote followed two hours of speakers from around the Dallas area speaking in favor of the proposal. No one came to Dallas City Hall to voice any opposition.

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National Stories

This Jan. 6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It's nowhere to be found at the Capitol

Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day is nowhere to be found. It's not on display at the Capitol, as is required by law. Its whereabouts aren't publicly known, though it's believed to be in storage. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has yet to formally unveil the plaque. And the Trump administration's Department of Justice is seeking to dismiss a police officers' lawsuit asking that it be displayed as intended. The Architect of the Capitol, which was responsible for obtaining and displaying the plaque, said in light of the federal litigation, it cannot comment.

Determined to preserve the nation's history, some 100 members of Congress, mostly Democrats, have taken it upon themselves to memorialize the moment. For months, they've mounted poster board-style replicas of the Jan. 6 plaque outside their office doors, resulting in a Capitol complex awash with makeshift remembrances. "On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021," reads the faux bronze stand-in for the real thing. "Their heroism will never be forgotten." In Washington, a capital city lined with monuments to the nation's history, the plaque was intended to become a simple but permanent marker, situated near the Capitol's west front, where some of the most violent fighting took place as rioters breached the building. But in its absence, the missing plaque makes way for something else entirely — a culture of forgetting. Visitors can pass through the Capitol without any formal reminder of what happened that day, when a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the building trying to overturn the Republican's 2020 reelection defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. With memory left unchecked, it allows new narratives to swirl and revised histories to take hold.

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2 GOP senators caution Hegseth on punishing Kelly

Two high-profile Republican senators on Monday warned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth against reducing Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) military rank or pension as punishment for filming a video with several other Democratic lawmakers urging service members not to follow unlawful orders. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has jurisdiction over the Pentagon’s budget as chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, said it’s not “appropriate” to target Kelly’s retired rank or pension because of the video urging members of the military to defy orders they view as unlawful. “I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Collins said Monday of the proceedings Hegseth announced earlier in the day against Kelly, a retired Navy captain who flew 39 combat missions as a naval aviator and four space missions as an astronaut.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called the Pentagon’s censure of Kelly “ridiculous,” even though he strongly criticized the Democrats’ video urging service members to ignore orders they view as unjust or illegal. “That video was rage bait … but my gosh, he is a U.S. senator who operates in a political world,” Tillis said, according to a reporter for HuffPost. “I think it has a chilling effect on speech, and I’ve got a real problem with it. And I think Hegseth overreached,” Tillis warned. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that Kelly will have a chance to defend himself during what he said would be an “adjudication process.” “My understanding is that there’s an adjudication process and I think we should let the adjudication process work its way through,” he said. Asked if the disciplinary proceedings are appropriate given Kelly’s position as a senator and member of the Armed Services panel, Rounds said, “I think we’ll let the process play out.”

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Trump administration to freeze social-service funds in more Democratic states

The Trump administration said Monday it was expanding its freeze on social-services funding to California, Colorado, Illinois and New York over fraud concerns, according to senior administration officials. The government last week cut off Minnesota’s federal child-care funds following allegations of fraud involving the state’s social-services system. There is no indication the other Democratic states had similar allegations. The officials confirmed that the Department of Health and Human Services will freeze taxpayer funding in the four states from the Child Care Development Fund, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and the Social Services Block Grant program that allows states to tailor services to its population. The New York Post earlier reported the new funding freeze over fraud concerns. President Trump reposted the report on social media.

“To use the power of the government to harm the neediest Americans is immoral and indefensible,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.,) in a statement. “This has nothing to do with fraud and everything to do with political retribution that punishes poor children in need of assistance.” Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, dropped his re-election bid Monday in the wake of the fraud scandal. He has said the Trump administration was using the investigations into the fraud as an excuse to cut federal assistance programs. HHS previously said it had sent Minnesota about $185 million a year in child care-funding. Federal prosecutors allege that over several years, dozens of people siphoned public money from Minnesota’s social-services operations. The Trump administration has put a spotlight on the fact that most of the alleged defendants are of Somali descent. Dozens of defendants have already been convicted since the fraud cases began in 2022, under the Biden administration.

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US cuts the number of vaccines recommended for every child, a move slammed by physicians

The U.S. took the unprecedented step Monday of cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for every child — a move that leading medical groups said would undermine protections against a half-dozen diseases. The change is effective immediately, meaning that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now recommend that all children get vaccinated against 11 diseases. What’s no longer broadly recommended is protection against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis or RSV. Instead, protections against those diseases are only recommended for certain groups deemed high risk, or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making.” Trump administration officials said the overhaul, a move long sought by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., won’t result in families who want the vaccines losing access to them, and said insurance will continue to pay.

But medical experts said the decision creates confusion for parents and could increase preventable diseases. States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines. The change comes as U.S. vaccination rates have been slipping and the share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high, according to federal data. At the same time, rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising across the country. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the overhaul was in response to a request from President Donald Trump in December. Trump asked the agency to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising U.S. guidance accordingly. HHS said its comparison to 20 peer nations found that the U.S. was an “outlier” in both the number of vaccinations and the number of doses it recommended to all children. Officials with the agency framed the change as a way to increase public trust by recommending only the most important vaccinations for children to receive.

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Mark Kelly vows to fight Hegseth’s demotion ‘with everything I’ve got’

Sen. Mark Kelly said Monday that he plans to fight Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plans to have him demoted and censured over a video in which the retired Navy officer advised troops to defy any illegal orders given by the Trump administration. “If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it,” Kelly posted to X on Monday. “I will fight this with everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government.”

Hegseth announced Monday morning that Kelly, one of five veteran lawmakers who participated in the video instructing troops not to follow illegal orders, would receive a retired grade reduction — effectively a demotion in rank — and a reduction in pay over his comments. “As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice,” Hegseth said in a post on X Monday morning. Kelly and Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who is also featured in the video, formed a legal defense fund in early December to prepare a fight against what Trump equated to sedition “punishable by death.” “Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way. It’s outrageous and it is wrong,” Kelly added. “There is nothing more un-American than that.”

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Corporation for Public Broadcasting votes to shut down

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funded NPR, PBS and hundreds of local radio and TV stations across the United States for more than a half-century, said on Monday that its board of directors had voted to dissolve the organization because Congress cut off its federal money. The vote formalized plans announced last year to wind down operations after lawmakers voted to strip more than $500 million in annual funding from the organization. Executives have been emptying the corporation’s coffers in recent months by making grants to public media organizations. After the federal funding ended, executives at the corporation discussed putting the organization into hibernation, keeping it alive in case Congress eventually voted to restore its federal appropriation. But in a statement on Monday, the corporation said that allowing the organization to lie dormant could have resulted in “political manipulation or misuse,” threatening the independence of public media.

“C.P.B.’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks,” Patricia Harrison, the president and chief executive of the corporation, said in a statement. The end of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, founded in 1968, begins a new era in public media, with local stations across the United States fighting for survival. Donations from listeners are up, and philanthropists have stepped in, but the long-term future of public TV and radio is far from certain.

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Gov. Tim Walz abandons re-election bid as fraud scrutiny intensifies

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he’s dropping his bid for a third term as he responds to a fraud crisis in state government, a stunning turn for his once-ascendant political career. Walz’s exit from the 2026 governor’s race came less than four months after he announced he would seek re-election, but also as he became the face of one of the largest social services fraud scandals in the state’s history. His decision set off a scramble to find a candidate to replace him at the top of the ticket, in a Minnesota election year that’s shaping up as a political free-for-all.

Republicans had called for Walz to resign or drop his re-election bid in response to the sprawling crisis, and a growing number of Democrats had privately expressed concerns about Walz’s viability for a third term. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, long the Democratic Party’s top performer in statewide elections, was said to be giving strong consideration to running for governor. Walz’s decision is a political victory for President Donald Trump, who led a Republican campaign to cast Walz as inept and corrupt. In recent weeks, the Trump administration launched more than a half dozen investigations into fraud. State Republicans worked closely with a conservative influencer to produce a video accusing Somali Minnesotans of running fraudulent day care centers. The video went viral and put a hot spotlight on Walz’s stewardship of state money. Democrats, some of whom were already uncomfortable with Walz’s bid for an unprecedented third term, became louder in their criticism.

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Lead Stories

Trump plunges the U.S. into a new era of risk in Venezuela

President Trump’s declaration on Saturday that the United States planned to “run” Venezuela for an unspecified period, issuing orders to its government and exploiting its vast oil reserves, plunged the United States into a risky new era in which it will seek economic and political dominance over a nation of roughly 30 million people. Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago private club just hours after Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, and his wife were seized from their bedroom by U.S. forces, Mr. Trump told reporters that Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Mr. Maduro’s vice president, would hold power in Venezuela as long as she “does what we want.” Ms. Rodríguez, however, showed little public interest in doing the Americans’ bidding. In a national address, she accused Washington of invading her country under false pretenses and asserted that Mr. Maduro was still Venezuela’s head of state. “What is being done to Venezuela is a barbarity,” she said.

Mr. Trump and his top national security advisers carefully avoided describing their plans for Venezuela as an occupation, akin to what the United States did after defeating Japan, or toppling Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Instead, they vaguely sketched out an arrangement that sounded like a mix of economic coercion and a guardianship over the country: The United States will provide a vision for how Venezuela should be run and will expect the interim government to carry that out in a transition period, under the threat of further military intervention. By Sunday morning, with Mr. Trump’s repeated declaration that the administration would “run” Venezuela ricocheting around foreign capitals, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, complained that people were “fixating” on the president’s declaration. “It’s not ‘running’” he said, clearly distancing himself from Mr. Trump’s words. “It’s running policy, the policy with regards to this.” He maintained that rather than administer the country’s operations, it would be enough to keep a quarantine on oil shipments until the post-Maduro government acted the way Washington demanded.

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Wall Street expects the market to keep rallying in 2026 despite lofty valuations

Wall Street is betting that falling interest rates and strong corporate earnings will be enough to eke out yet one more year of stock-market gains. It’s going to be close. After posting double-digit percentage increases for three straight years, from 2023 through 2025, the S&P 500 and other major U.S. indexes enter year four of their rally with stretched valuations on many big stocks and a cloudier economic picture. There are enough positives to give investors and analysts hope, but some worry there isn’t enough to keep up the pace of 2025. “We probably have an OK market, but certainly not what we’ve seen in the last couple years,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide. The S&P 500 surged 16% last year, with a resilient economy, renewed interest-rate cuts and artificial-intelligence fervor propelling the benchmark index to 39 records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 13% while the Nasdaq composite jumped 20%.

Wall Street analysts and strategists have predicted the party will continue in 2026. Bank of America expects the S&P 500 to reach 7,100 by the end of this year, a 3.7% gain from the 2025 closing level. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs expect the benchmark index to reach 7,500 and 7,600, respectively. Their bullishness, in light of the past gains, is reason enough to be cautious, some investors said. The S&P 500 surged roughly 80% from the start of 2023 through New Year’s Eve, a torrid pace that will be hard to maintain under most circumstances, they said. “It behooves investors to at least offer a little skepticism when there is such a broad consensus that everything will go well,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. The current rally is getting old, at least compared with past market cycles. Should the S&P 500 rise in 2026 for a fourth-consecutive year, it would be the longest such streak since 2007, when the benchmark completed a five-year run. In the index’s history, there have only been five streaks of four or more consecutive years of gains, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

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Trump Super PAC raised more than $100 million in recent months

President Trump’s team raised more than $100 million for a super PAC in the second half of 2025, with much of the money coming from wealthy people and corporations with issues before the administration. The haul by MAGA Inc., detailed in a campaign finance report filed on Thursday night, reveals how aggressive fund-raising has continued for a political operation that revolves around Mr. Trump, giving the organization over $300 million ahead of this year’s midterms, it said. The donor list highlights the eagerness of deep-pocketed interests to endear themselves to a lame-duck president who has demonstrated a keen interest in fund-raising and a willingness to use his office to reward financial supporters and punish critics. The biggest donations were $12.5 million each from Greg Brockman, a co-founder of the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, and his wife, Anna Brockman; and contributions totaling $20 million from the parent company of Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency trading platform that has lobbied the administration. Leaders of the fast-growing A.I. and crypto industries have courted Mr. Trump and gotten favorable treatment.

Other donors included a nursing home entrepreneur seeking an ambassadorship, a vape-maker, a pro-cannabis group and a woman whose father was seeking a deal from prosecutors to settle charges that in 2020 he bribed Puerto Rico’s governor at the time. Second-term presidents, barred by the Constitution from running again, usually begin winding down their own fund-raising after their inaugurations, focusing instead on boosting their parties’ committees and candidates ahead of the midterms and other elections. While Mr. Trump has often mused about seeking a third term, he seemed to acknowledge this fall that he could not. But emboldened by the record-breaking sum of nearly $240 million raised by his inaugural committee, he tasked his associates with raising money for other groups and causes dear to him. Those include not only MAGA Inc. and an affiliated political nonprofit group called Securing American Greatness, but also the construction of a new White House ballroom, nonprofits organizing festivities for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence and a presidential library.

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Big Tech won in Texas — but the age-verification fight is just getting started

A legal setback for Texas’ attempt to impose age restrictions on app stores has kicked off a 2026 showdown over free speech and parental consent that seems destined for the Supreme Court. Alongside artificial intelligence, the effort to keep kids away from harmful online content is shaping up to be a pivotal conflict for Big Tech in 2026. The issue is increasingly intertwined with efforts to regulate AI, amid rising concerns over cases of chatbot-induced psychosis in children. A federal judge on Dec. 23 moved to pause a Texas law that forces app stores and developers to verify the age of their users and require parental consent for each purchase, explaining that it likely violates the First Amendment. Despite the ruling, Silicon Valley giants, including Google and Apple, are expected to fight hard against similar legislation in Republican-led states around the country because of the vast legal liability it imposes on app stores and developers.

In Texas, Utah and Louisiana, parent advocates have linked up with conservative “pro-family” groups to pass laws forcing mobile app stores to verify user ages and require parental sign-off. If those rules hold up in court, companies like Google and Apple, which run the two largest app stores, would face massive legal liability — and speech advocates fear the First Amendment rights of children would be undermined, especially for LGBTQ youth seeking online resources. California has taken a different approach, passing its own age-verification law last year that puts liability on device manufacturers instead of app stores. That model has been better received by the tech lobby, and is now competing with the app-based approach in states like Ohio. In Washington D.C., a GOP-led bill modeled off of Texas’ law is wending its way through Capitol Hill. And more states are expected to join the fray, including Michigan and South Carolina.

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State Stories

Trump’s Venezuela strike splits Texas Senate candidates

Texas Republicans and Democrats running for the U.S. Senate have split sharply over President Donald Trump’s military operation against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, an early flashpoint over foreign policy and presidential authority. The GOP candidates praised the strikes as decisive action to take down a criminal regime. The Democrats condemned it as reckless, accusing Trump of executive overreach and ignoring domestic needs. The mission also stirred unrest among anti-intervention conservatives and drew criticism from congressional leaders left out of advance notice. Trump bypassed Congress, saying lawmakers couldn’t be trusted to keep the plan secret. In Texas, the major Republican Senate contenders backed the capture of Maduro and his wife, casting it as a show of U.S. strength and deterrence.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn, seeking a fifth term, offered “kudos” to Trump, arguing Maduro was not only an illegitimate president but also the head of a drug trafficking network involving senior Venezuelan officials. Cornyn cited Maduro’s federal indictment in New York on narco-terrorism charges and tied the Venezuelan leader to Iran, Hezbollah and sanction-evading “ghost fleets” linked to Russia, Iran and China. Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is challenging Cornyn in the March 3 GOP primary, also offered support. He reposted a statement from Vice President JD Vance asserting Trump had offered diplomatic off-ramps and followed through when they failed. Paxton added his own endorsement: “Strong work.” U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston, another Republican contender who highlights his Army service, called the operation “extraordinary” and a “masterstroke” of Trump’s presidency. Hunt said Venezuela had become a narco-terrorist enterprise and criticized what he described as past interventionist failures that cost lives and trillions of dollars. The leading Democratic Senate candidates condemned the move as unconstitutional and reckless. They said it contradicted Trump’s own promises about foreign intervention and ignored priorities at home.

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Brendan Sorsby, the nation’s top transfer QB, commits to Texas Tech

Brendan Sorsby, an ex-Cincinnati quarterback and the nation’s top portal player, will play in Lubbock for the 2026 season. His NIL deal with the Red Raiders is worth $5 million for the 2026 season, according to On3’s Pete Nakos. Sorsby was the Red Raiders’ first official visit Friday before taking a visit to LSU. After leaving Lubbock without a commitment, Texas Tech scheduled a visit for Ex-Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt. On3 reported that Leavitt was dealing with travel delays on Sunday afternoon, preventing him from arriving in Lubbock at his expected time. On3’s Pete Nakos and Steve Wilfong then logged a prediction for Texas Tech to land Sorsby. Minutes later, On3 announced LSU was going to host Leavitt on a visit.

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'Four games away from being world champions.' Why Texans are a playoff force

All season long, the Houston Texans have developed a reputation as a resilient bunch — a team that overcame a rough 3-5 start before turning themselves into one of the AFC’s most dangerous teams. On Sunday, in their 38-30 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, the Texans added to that reputation. They trailed the Colts 30-29 with 2:39 left before their offense, littered with mostly backups, led a game-winning field goal drive to win their ninth consecutive game. A fumble recovery and return for a touchdown from defensive tackle Tommy Togiai on the final play added six points for good measure. At this point, winning tight games is no longer a mystery for the Texans. It’s become an expectation. Seven of their nine wins to end the season have come by eight points or fewer. “What I’m most proud of is our guys find a way to finish,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “A two-minute (drive) you need to close it out, we can go do that.

“We’re not shying away from any of those moments.” The Texans finished their regular season 12-5, tied for the most wins in franchise history. The last time they did that was in 2012 when they were 12-4 and entered the playoffs as a No. 3 seed. This year, they are a No. 5 seed and will visit the Pittsburgh Steelers at 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 12 in the wild-card round. Before Sunday’s slate of NFL games began, there were at least six different scenarios that could have played out for the Texans. And this was considered the best-case scenario considering the struggles of those two teams. Had they lost, the Texans would have dropped to either a No. 6 or No. 7 seed and would have faced either the Broncos, Patriots or Jaguars on the road. Winning ensured they’d be a No. 5 seed at least. There was also a small chance Houston could have won the AFC South had the Jaguars lost to the Titans. But that dream was over by the end of the second quarter when the Jaguars, who went on to win their first AFC South since 2022, went up by 24 points. Ryans, who caught a glimpse of the score on the video board before heading into the locker room, then decided to rest the majority of his starters in the second half, despite leading by just six points.

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North Texas families left with half-built houses after Fort Worth couple pleads guilty to fraud

Dozens of North Texas families say their dream homes never became reality after a Fort Worth couple collected millions of dollars for custom builds and renovations that were never finished. Empty rooms, half-built homes, and stalled construction sites now stand as reminders for about 40 victims who paid for work they say was promised but never delivered. According to court records, Christopher and Raquelle Judge, owners of Judge DFW LLC, marketed themselves as providers of custom homes, renovations, and interior design services. Investigators say the couple knowingly collected large sums of money from clients without intending to complete the projects.

Fort Worth attorney Joe Tolbert, who specializes in construction law and is not involved in the case, said there is a clear line between poor business practices and criminal fraud. "Criminal is when they spend it on a lavish lifestyle, which we see a lot, personal expenses, which that's criminal," Tolbert said. "It's a complete shame...a customer needs to know what's happening on their house, what's happening with their money." Court documents show prosecutors believe the Judges lured clients through social media with low bids and promises of quick turnaround times. One couple in Decatur paid as much as $364,000. In total, investigators say losses reached about $4.8 million across at least 24 projects. "It appears they were just pocketing the money and not doing anything with it," Tolbert said.

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Texas lawmaker stuck in Caribbean after Venezuela strikes ground flights

After the U.S. airstrikes in Caracas grounded all flights in and out of the Caribbean, a lawmaker from Texas was left stuck on an island north of Venezuela. State Rep. Venton Jones (D-Dallas) said he and his partner were waiting to hear further about when they'll be allowed to return home.

Jones posted to X, formerly Twitter, Saturday morning after the news broke of the U.S. operation in Venezuela. As a result of military activity, no planes are allowed in or out of Venezuela or the nearby islands for the time being. Jones and his partner were apparently visiting Sint Maarten, an island adjacent to Anguilla, when their Saturday plans to fly back to the U.S. were stalled by the strikes. Jones later said hotels and flights were already at capacity for the holidays, and he expects the travel ban to cause major delays for at least a week.

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Jerry Jones talks possibility of ‘dramatic’ offseason moves for Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys have one last game to get to on Sunday afternoon, but a thorough evaluation process will take place as soon as the team returns to Frisco on Monday morning. A large part of that process will be evaluating how to improve defensively after a season that was derailed by defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus’ group that sits at the bottom of the NFL in most defensive metrics and statistics. However, the buck doesn’t stop with Eberflus, according to owner Jerry Jones. At the end of the day, there could be a reality where it doesn’t even include him. “I can make the case that we haven’t had a satisfactory defense for five or six years,” Jones said. “[It’s] everything. I think you can look back relative to decisions we made three years ago, five years ago and look at why we made some of the decisions we made on coaches. What did we expect from them relative to what we’re doing with our personnel?”

“That’s why it’s inaccurate to put this on the evaluation of Eberflus. It really is. I don’t want it to sound like it’s as simple as evaluating Eberflus. It’s much broader than that.” The Cowboys are heading into a pivotal offseason after putting together one of the league’s best offenses. Jones agrees with that notion. Even after a calendar year that has seen the team trade away Micah Parsons and trade for George Pickens and Quinnen Williams, Jones could be looking at similar sizable moves. “I think we can do some things to maybe make as dramatic a difference as we have could in a long time,” he said. “You can take that either way you want to do it. You can take it because you’re as dissatisfied as you’ve been in a long time. You can say do you really want to evaluate. The good news about this is in many ways, it’s the same motions that you’re evaluating on our staff and how we play defense.” Jones pointed to even when things were going better defensively, notably under defensive coordinator Dan Quinn from 2021 to 2023, that they still had issues stopping the run. Decisions that were made then play into the evaluation as much as decisions they make now. “We need to look at the decisions we’ve made on defense over the last several years,” he said. “We need to approach some things differently. That’s the only way you can address this out of internal things we’re looking at.” How long the process will take wasn’t exactly determined by Jones, but he did indicate that they will have to move quickly based on the timeline of dominoes falling around the league. “It starts first thing tomorrow,” he said.

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Sid Miller: A tremendous year for Texas agriculture

Texans are known for hard work, grit, and a love for the land that feeds and clothes the world. This year, that spirit was on full display. We focused on real results for real Texans. This year was not without its road bumps. To put it bluntly, this year gave Texas agriculture challenge after challenge. This has been one of the toughest stretches in recent memory for Texas agriculture producers. Farmers and ranchers across the state faced rising input costs, global market disruptions, and lingering inflation brought on by the Biden administration. Texas Gulf seafood continues to combat devastating trade imbalances. We've had a farm bill that needs updating, leaving our producers with out-of-date support and crop coverage. That’s just a start. It’s a long list. Despite these headwinds, Texas agriculture rose to the challenge with new innovations and record crops. Through it all, the Texas Department of Agriculture worked tirelessly alongside our producers, advocating for their interests and ensuring they had the tools and support needed to keep feeding, clothing, and fueling the world.

There are several key victories to celebrate. One of our most significant roles was in standing up and protecting Texas livestock and crops from serious biosecurity threats. From invasive pests to dangerous animal and plant diseases, the Texas Department of Agriculture worked tirelessly to find solutions. We faced the Cotton Jassid, Rice Delphacid, Citrus Greening, Equine Herpesvirus, Pasture Mealybug, Red Flour Beetle, and New World screwworm, to name a few. It’s another long list that we’ve faced head-on that would have had devastating consequences for our ranchers and for our national food supply if left unchecked. Thankfully, Texas farmers and ranchers know that when the stakes are high, they can count on us to have their backs. That is why we strengthened our vital biosecurity enforcement, worked hand in hand with the Trump administration and our state partners, and responded quickly to deliver the public key information. We remained vigilant, and I am proud to say that Texas has led the nation in biosecurity response. When foreign nations failed to honor their obligations and left our producers without precious water, or when disasters struck and damaged vital infrastructure, our agency stood firmly behind Texas agriculture.

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Attorney says Harris County treasurer’s behavior was ‘unusual’ but had ‘no intention to commit a theft’

The attorney for Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt, who is accused of breaking into a vehicle, speaks on her behavior during the time of the crime after her first court hearing Friday. Wyatt has been charged with burglary of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor. Documents allege she was found sitting inside a vehicle outside a lounge and bar called Forget Me Not and refused to leave. Attorney Christopher Downey agrees Wyatt’s behavior was unusual but says she did not commit a crime.

Downey says during the hearing, there was not enough information for the judge to decide if they case should move forward. Wyatt’s next hearing has been set for Jan. 26, where they will come back and determine her case. “I’m confident that once we do that, that everybody will understand that there was absolutely no intention to commit a theft. And that this was a circumstance where, although some unusual behavior occurred, no criminal behavior occurred,” Downey said. He said Wyatt was seated in a car that belonged to someone else, but under the criminal code, that, in itself is not an act of theft. “It’s very important to understand that—the act of theft only occurs when you commit behavior with the intention to commit a crime and that didn’t happen in this case,” Downey said.

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Why North Texas motorists often pay more for toll roads than those in Houston

Driving on Houston’s Loop 8, you could pay anywhere from 50 cents to $1.50 for a pass through or on an exit ramp, depending on whether you have an EZ TAG that provides you with a 10% discount versus the pay-by-mail option. In North Texas, however, you could pay a bit more, depending on the gantry and where you are headed. In some cases, if you want to avoid traffic, some toll rates could be as high as $24 on a set of managed lanes in the Tarrant County area. There’s an explanation for the wide range of prices. Here’s how we try to break it down for you. There is primarily one major toll road entity in Harris County. Houston toll roads are collectively run by the Harris County Toll Road Authority, which was established in 1983.

In contrast, there are a variety of different toll roads in North Texas with different tolling structures and they are run by different governmental agencies and private companies. Some of the toll roads, such as TEXpress lanes built within an existing highway, have “managed lanes,” which go up and down in price depending on the amount of traffic in the non-tolled lanes. This often leads to fluctuating prices in North Texas. The toll road in Harris County is the most financially sound in the land. HCTRA holds the highest bond rating of any toll road in Texas, a rating that also is at the top of toll road operators in the nation. It has a strong financial position and operating results. It also reported long-term liabilities of just under $3.3 billion. North Texas Tollway Authority, on the other hand, owes $9 billion in debt, or three times more debt than HCTRA. NTTA is using much of its surplus to pay off its debt, unlike HCTRA. It had reduced its debt by over $1 billion in the last four years, records show. NTTA is still growing. It has a much larger footprint and also started later in 1997. It appears to be still in more of a growth mode than HCTRA and it is already quite a bit larger than HCTRA. HCTRA is constrained by the Harris County boundaries and likely pretty close to being built out. A lot of people in North Texas are delinquent on tolls, prompting officials to look for ways to pursue violators. To pay off its debt, NTTA officials say it needs to actively pursue those who don’t pay their tolls. In 2012, it reported that its unpaid tolls had reached $300 million.

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Jasmine Crockett wears Republican insults as badge of honor in U.S. Senate race

Less than a month after entering the Democratic race for U.S. Senate, Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has emerged as the favorite — among Republicans. President Donald Trump has branded her as "low IQ." U.S. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana has suggested she's hearing "voices in her head," and Vice President JD Vance has poked fun at her appearance and her public image. "Oh Jasmine Crockett," Vance said in a mocking tone in December at the annual convention for the conservative organization, Turning Point USA, in Phoenix. "The record speaks for itself. She wants to be a senator, though her street-girl persona is about as real as her nails."

While some detractors within the Democratic Party have said Republicans see the outspoken and unabashedly liberal Crockett as easier to beat in the general election than state Rep. James Talarico of Austin, the one-time public defender who set aside her law practice to enter politics says the GOP has painted the target on her back out of fear. "The (polls) are clear that I am the clear front-runner to make it through this primary," Crockett, 44, said at a holiday season virtual news conference. "It also tells me that they are very nervous. Instead of waiting, they want to attack right now to see if they have the ability to drive up the unfavorables on me to the extent that maybe they can help Talarico make it over the hump." A native of St. Louis and the daughter of a Methodist minister, Crockett took a circuitous route to prominence in Texas politics. She attended parochial schools in Missouri and later earned a bachelor's degree in business from Rhodes College in Memphis, a private institution affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. She had planned to become a certified public accountant, or perhaps an anesthesiologist. But instead, Crockett switched her focus to the law on the advice of a Rhodes professor who had recruited her to join the school’s mock trial team. After earning her law degree from the University of Houston, she moved to East Texas and worked in the Bowie County public defender's office. Then in private practice, she represented people arrested during Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Dallas.

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Debates over convention center continue following Austin United PAC lawsuit

Austin City Council members Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, and Mike Siegel held a town hall in mid-November, two weeks after the defeat of Proposition Q, the proposal to increase property taxes to pay for public safety, social services, and other city needs. The Council members told the crowd that they had heard the will of the voters. It was time to take a hard look at spending. Robin Rather, an informed citizen who regularly attends meetings of this kind, took the mic to ask a question, hoping to better understand why city leaders can’t move money from some of the ambitious and expensive projects the city has approved over the last five years. The projects she had in mind included the “cap and stitch” plan to beautify I-35, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. They included Project Connect, the plan to bring a metro rail system to Austin, at a cost of between $5.8 billion and $10.3 billion, though much of that figure may be covered by a federal grant. They also included the creation of a new convention center, which is well underway and projected to cost over a billion dollars. Rather said she knew that these endeavors are capital improvement projects – infrastructure projects like a highway, a building, or a train station – and that the funding for such projects comes from its own pot of money.

That money is prohibited, by law, from being used for the city’s ongoing expenses, things like paying its police officers or maintaining its parks. The costs for such ongoing services are paid through the city’s General Fund. “It’s not that we think these projects come from the General Fund,” Rather said. “We know they don’t. But they come from somebody’s money somewhere, and they take time, attention, and somebody’s taxpayer money from the things that we all understand are super important: EMS, public safety, mental health, parks – all the important things that are way, way more on voters’ minds.” The money to build Austin’s new convention center is coming from revenue received by the recently demolished center and from the state’s Hotel Occupancy Tax, which must, by law, be used to promote tourism. In 2019, Council approved an increase in the Hotel Occupancy Tax to tear down the old convention center and build a new one. In 2023, it approved two contracts worth $1.6 billion for the design and construction of the new facility. In February of this year, the city posted renderings of what the new convention center will look like once it’s complete.

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Dallas County sues Trump administration over public health funding cuts

Dallas County has sued the Trump administration, seeking to restore millions of dollars in public health grants that were cut last year, funding that other states and counties have recovered in similar lawsuits. The lawsuit, filed Dec. 5 in federal court in Washington, challenges the Department of Health and Human Services’ decision in March to rescind more than $11 billion in COVID-era grants that Congress had allocated to states and local governments. Dallas County says the cuts wiped out funding for programs that extended beyond the pandemic, including immunization clinics for a variety of illnesses, laboratory testing, disease surveillance and public health staffing.

HHS declined to comment on the lawsuit, pointing instead to a previous statement saying the COVID-19 pandemic is over and that the department is redirecting resources toward chronic disease and broader health priorities. County officials argue the administration lacked the authority to claw back money appropriated by Congress, and that lawmakers intended the grants to strengthen long-term public health infrastructure and guard against future outbreaks, not expire when the COVID-19 emergency ended. Federal judges have already accepted similar arguments in other suits. A coalition of 23 Democratic-led states won a court injunction in May that restored some funding while their cases continue. A separate lawsuit by Harris County and local governments in Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri also resulted in a June ruling ordering HHS to reinstate certain funding to those jurisdictions, including about $20 million for Harris County. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who issued that ruling, also is presiding over Dallas County’s case, filed against the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CDC Acting Director Jim O’Neil.

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National Stories

Maduro is set to make his first appearance in a US courtroom on drug trafficking charges

Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York. Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S. The couple will be brought from a Brooklyn jail to a Manhattan courthouse just around the corner from the one where President Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.

As a criminal defendant in the U.S. legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime — including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers. But he’ll also be nearly — but not quite — unique. Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state. Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriegaunsuccessfully tried the same defense after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.

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‘It’s going to change everything’: A Supreme Court case could rock campaigns this year

The Supreme Court is expected to deliver a major ruling as soon as this spring on a campaign finance case that would fundamentally change how federal campaigns are funded. Party leaders aren’t waiting for the justices’ decision before figuring out how to take advantage of the potential new rules. Even before the year began, Democrats and Republican strategists began sketching out how the SCOTUS ruling — which could allow for nearly unlimited coordination between party committees and individual candidates and give big donors more influence — would affect their operations. It’s causing them to rethink on-the-ground strategies, staffing decisions and how TV and digital ads are funded.

In interviews, they described what they said could be the biggest set of changes to how elections operate since 2010’s Citizens United decision, which paved the way for the advent of big-spending super PACs. “No matter what side you’re on, it’s going to change everything,” said a national Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the implications of a yet-to-be-decided court case. Court observers say it’s likely that justices will effectively remove restrictions on coordination between the party committee and campaigns. If they do, strategists and campaign finance experts said it would likely lessen the influence of small-dollar donors — whose contributions rarely exceed a few hundred dollars — and instead empower larger donors able to give tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. That shift could influence the core of how campaigns operate, even causing some to reduce usually robust operations aimed at enticing smaller donors.

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Gov. Tim Walz calls impromptu news conference amid questions about his future

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will hold an impromptu news conference at 11 a.m. on Jan. 5 as he faces intense scrutiny for fraud in the state’s welfare programs and questions about his political future. Walz’s office issued an unusually vague advisory late Sunday, Jan. 4, about the news conference, saying only that he will “discuss news of the day.” The DFL governor, who announced in September he would seek a third consecutive term, has faced national criticism over fraud in the state’s Medicaid program, including from several Republicans in Minnesota who’ve called for him to resign or drop his bid for re-election. At the same time, a growing number of DFL elected officials and activists have privately expressed concerns about Walz’s viability for a third term, with the chatter becoming even louder since President Donald Trump’s administration has put Minnesota’s fraud crisis under the spotlight.

Nearly a dozen Democrats who spoke to the Minnesota Star Tribune in recent weeks said they thought Walz should not seek re-election, including several who compared his run for a third term to President Joe Biden’s doomed 2024 campaign. A group of DFL state senators had been requesting a meeting with Walz in the past couple weeks to voice their concerns to him directly and start a private discussion about the path forward, according to multiple people familiar with the effort. “There’s always sort of gossip and rumblings,” said Sen. Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth. “I’m not a part of the group that’s talking actively about this.” Sen. Matt Klein, DFL-Mendota Heights, declined to comment on the senators’ request for a meeting with the governor while not dismissing that an effort was underway. “We don’t discuss internal caucus politics with the media,” Klein said.

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Pope Leo XIV calls for 'rule of law' and respect for human rights after US captures Maduro

Closing his his weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday (Jan. 4), Pope Leo XIV addressed the United States’ arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, expressing concern for Venezuelans and calling for the Venezuelan Constitution to be respected. “The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration,” the pope said, according to Vatican News, the Catholic Church’s official news agency. He urged the world to guarantee “the sovereignty of the country, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each and every person, and working together to build a peaceful future of collaboration, stability, and harmony, with special attention to the poorest who are suffering because of the difficult economic situation.” The Vatican also relayed a statement from Venezuela’s Catholic bishops, who asked God “to grant all Venezuelans serenity, wisdom, and strength. We stand in solidarity with those who were injured and with the families of those who died. Let us persevere in prayer for the unity of our people.”

On Dec. 2, talking to reporters on the papal plane as he returned from his visit to Turkey and Lebanon, the pope raised the question of a U.S. invasion of Venezuela as U.S. Navy warships were gathered in the Caribbean. “It is better to look for ways of dialogue — even pressure, economic pressure,” the pontiff said, “but seeking another way to bring about change, if that is what they decide to do in the United States.” In the United States, few religious leaders have spoken out about the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham who heads the humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, wrote on X on Saturday morning: “I’m sure the people of Venezuela are breathing a huge sigh of relief that this evil dictator, Nicolás Maduro, is gone. Incredible work by our brave military who executed this strategic mission last night.” Graham praised President Donald Trump as a president who “doesn’t just talk, but takes action,” adding, “Pray for President Trump and his team to have wisdom from God as they assess what the next steps need to be.” The evangelical Christian leader ended his post with a hashtag “Peace Through Strength.”

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Gabbard’s 2019 warning that Venezuela strike would be disastrous goes viral

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has gone viral on social media after an X post from seven years ago denouncing possible military action in Venezuela resurfaced. ? Gabbard’s resurfaced post follows the arrest of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The couple will face U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. “The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future,” she wrote in 2019. “We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders— so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.”

In another post, the former Congresswoman noted U.S. history of successfully ousting authoritarian leaders, but struggling to build long-lasting democracy. “Throughout history, every time the U.S. topples a foreign country’s dictator/government, the outcome has been disastrous,” Gabbard wrote. “Civil war/military intervention in Venezuela will wreak death and destruction to Venezuelan people, and increase tensions that threaten our national security.” ? In that post, Gabbard also added a clip of an interview with Fox News in which she criticized the first Trump administration for what she considered “an increased saber rattling and tensions” pushing the U.S. to send in the military to “wage yet another wasteful counterproductive regime change war… under the guise of humanitarianism.” Gabbard, at the time, was a Democratic representative from Hawaii. As a veteran of the Iraq war, the now-DNI has long opposed U.S. intervention in foreign countries. Gabbard made those comments during Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis in 2019, as U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido was on the brink of toppling Maduro’s regime. Following the arrest of Maduro and Flores, Gabbard’s post has regained notoriety, leading users to deem it “didn’t age well.”

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Zohran Mamdani called President Trump to criticize Venezuela strikes

Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, called President Trump on Saturday to personally object to strikes the United States had conducted in Venezuela and to the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro. “I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act,” Mr. Mamdani said at an unrelated news conference on Saturday, adding that he told Mr. Trump that he was “opposed to a pursuit of regime change, to the violation of federal and international law.” The mayor declined to characterize the president’s response when pressed by reporters. His aides said that Mr. Mamdani had initiated the call earlier on Saturday afternoon and that it was “brief.” “I registered my opposition, I made it clear and we left it at that,” Mr. Mamdani said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the call. The remarks — and an earlier written statement — were the first time the mayor, a left-leaning Democrat, had clashed with Mr. Trump since taking office on Thursday. But it raised the possibility of more conflict in the days ahead after Mr. Maduro arrives in New York to face federal drug and weapons charges in Manhattan. Mr. Mamdani has profound differences with the president, and has called him a “fascist.” But after the men had an unexpectedly cordial meeting at the White House in November, Mr. Mamdani had been careful not to directly stoke Mr. Trump’s ire — including in his inaugural address this week. Mr. Mamdani sought on Saturday to play down how the call might affect that relationship. “The president and I have always been honest and direct with each other about places of disagreement,” he said. “New Yorkers have elected me to be honest and direct and always to do so with the understanding that my job is to deliver for the people who call this city home.”

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Dimon’s $770 million windfall shows how banking is great again

For nearly 15 years, Jamie Dimon, the bank chieftain, has carried around what might as well be a talisman when he sees regulators, elected officials and journalists. At just the right time in meetings, he breaks out a single-page printout that he calls a “spaghetti chart.” On it, Mr. Dimon’s underlings have crammed, in tiny type, a comically complicated flowchart meant to represent the various laws and regulations to which his company, JPMorgan Chase, is subject. The theatrics have finally worked. The Trump administration is not just taking apart regulations but attacking whole regulatory agencies that date back to the 2008-9 financial crisis and were meant to keep banks from giving in to their worst impulses.

Regulators have also made it easier for banks to peddle in risky assets again, like cryptocurrency, and President Trump paused enforcement of foreign anti-bribery rules. The deregulatory bonanza alone makes it the best time in a generation to be a banker. But there’s more! Falling interest rates and a permissive set of antitrust overseers are helping reverse a lull in the lucrative business of arranging mergers and acquisitions, as the $100 billion bidding war between Netflix and Paramount for Warner Bros. Discovery shows. Once imperiled real estate loans look steadier, thanks to the rebound of in-office work. Stocks are near record levels, the bond market had its best year since 2020, and gold and silver have soared — all of which feeds the trading businesses that keep Wall Street’s profit machine humming. In other words, as analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods recently put it, there is “something for everyone.”

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Trump amplifies conspiracy theories on killing of Minnesota lawmaker

President Donald Trump is amplifying baseless social media posts that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had been part of a conspiracy to kill Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman last year over a day care fraud scandal in the state that’s been spotlighted by right-wing influencers. Hortman, a Democrat, was serving in the Minnesota Capitol when she and her husband were killed in June by a gunman impersonating a police officer. Vance Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, Minnesota, has been indicted by the Justice Department on federal murder charges. In the video Trump shared Saturday night, an unnamed narrator claims without citing any credible facts that Walz, also a Democrat, directed Boelter to assassinate Hortman because she voted against “a multibillion-dollar money laundering fraud” — a reference to a years-long welfare fraud investigation over day care centers in Minnesota that has been amplified in recent weeks.

The video was one of several conspiracy theories Trump shared Saturday related to the Minnesota fraud scandal. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the president’s posts. The video references a vote Hortman made in June, when she crossed party lines to vote with Republicans to cut access to the state’s health care benefits program for undocumented immigrants over the age of 18. Her vote was part of a deal with Republicans in the state’s split legislature to pass a budget. The video falsely claims that Walz opposed the bill, even though the governor signed the measure. The bill was not linked to any of the allegations being investigated, where prosecutors say scammers brazenly stole from safety net programs for day care services they never provided. Walz slammed Trump for sharing false allegations as “dangerous, depraved behavior” that could lead to more political assassinations.

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Copyright January 08, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved