Lead Stories

Trump makes his case for Iran war, saying it will end 'shortly' but more strikes are ahead

President Donald Trump hailed the U.S. military’s “unstoppable” prowess in the war with Iran, telling Americans in a prime-time address Wednesday night that the conflict, now entering its second month, will end “shortly” without offering a definite timeline. Delivered on Day 32 and framed as an operational update, Trump’s speech offered the clearest public case yet for the conflict, arguing it is necessary for the security of the free world and laying out a framework that he said would measure American success. “Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track and the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat,” Trump said. “This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future. The whole world is watching."

Still, he said the conflict would continue until the military objectives were "fully achieved." “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” he said. “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.” He also said that if Iran does not make a deal with the U.S., “we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously.” Trump, who launched the war with a recorded video from his Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida, has frequently spoken to the media throughout the conflict. While light on new details, this address may reach a broader audience: an American public who may have been watching the finale of “The Masked Singer," which was interrupted for his first speech to the nation about the war. Trump sought to explain why the U.S. entered the war in the first place, accusing Iran’s theocratic regime of having destabilized the global order for decades and claiming Iran was building its nuclear program at a new location, “making clear they had no intention of abandoning their effort to obtain nuclear weapons.”

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Tension grows as Republicans pursue reconciliation

It took an extra five days, but Speaker Mike Johnson finally caved to Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s plan to end the DHS shutdown. A Truth Social post from Trump on Wednesday set the plan in motion, aligning the two top Hill Republicans after Johnson rejected the Senate-passed bill last week. This measure funds all of DHS minus ICE and CBP, which Republicans plan to address via budget reconciliation. Thune and GOP leaders are expected to use the Senate’s 7 a.m. pro forma session today to trigger a procedural motion to send the Senate-passed DHS funding bill back to the House. But House Republican leadersaren’t committed to bringing members back next week to vote on the Senate-passed measure. They recognize that GOP rank-and-file members hate this bill. That means GOP leaders may wait until the chamber returns on April 13 to pass it.

Yet it seems like an unsustainable position to wait another week. Plus, Johnson has to pass a FISA reauthorization by April 20, and that’s a tough vote too. Reconciliation. Once Congress passes the Senate version of the DHS funding bill, Johnson and Thune will embark on what amounts to a risky legislative experiment: trying to pass a reconciliation bill just months before Election Day. Trump says he wants the package on his desk by June 1. The goal here is to bypass Democrats and lock in three years of funding for ICE and CBP. The price tag will be somewhere between $45 billion and $75 billion. This would keep the agencies on autopilot until Trump’s term ends in 2029, GOP insiders say, even if Democrats win control of the House and/or Senate in November. This is Johnson and Thune making the best of a bad hand. Democrats won’t vote for ICE and CBP spending, and it’ll only get harder for Congress to approve the agencies’ funding if the GOP loses in the midterms.

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State Rep. Erin Zwiener: Silence enables county judge’s ‘bad behavior’

When I was 21, a man punched me in the face. It was at the holiday party of the Forestry Club at the University of Montana. His name was Mike, and he had been flirting with me but also forceful. I told him I wasn’t interested and went back to chatting with my friend. A few minutes later, a fist came out of nowhere and knocked me to the ground. I couldn’t let him hurt me like that without consequences, so after giving the other party attendees a heads up, I called the police. They came, interviewed me, and arrested Mike. He pled guilty to assault and did probation. I was satisfied.But the Forestry Club and that group of friends? Most of them began avoiding me, and I no longer felt welcome at their events. Over the next few months, I floated away from that community entirely. I didn’t realize I’d broken a secret, unspoken rule: Speaking up against a problem often gets you labeled the problem. But we can’t live that way. People do bad things, and we must have the courage to talk about it. Cultures of silence and punishing those who speak up only protect bad actors, those who lie and who treat others with disrespect.

We’ve come a long way from college but not far enough. Recently, an odd game that Judge Ruben Becerra has been playing came to a head. He, in his eighth year in public office, decided to engage on water issues. He brought a proposal to the Commissioners Court on water and data centers that had not been posted publicly or had legal review. Unfortunately, his proposal came with unintended consequences–it would have allowed industrial water users to sidestep the county development process entirely. When the legal team, other commissioners, and I (through a letter to the Court) pointed this out, the judge tabled his own proposal. Then the judge announced a water summit and pointedly said he expected attendance from every Hays County state legislator…except me. The omission stood out to many Hays County residents, because I have been working on water issues consistently and fighting to bring more resources to our groundwater districts. When constituents asked why I was left off, he lied and said I declined to attend. I corrected the record and said I was not invited. Then he publicly invited me, and I said my office would try to participate. My staff RSVPed via an email to both the judge and one of his staffers. But when my staff and I showed up, we were told we weren’t on the list and that the venue was at capacity despite folks inside saying there were several empty seats. The judge’s story for why has continued to change.

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Key justices appear skeptical of limiting birthright citizenship

A majority of the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of President Trump’s efforts to limit birthright citizenship during arguments on Wednesday. Key conservative justices raised doubts about the constitutionality of the president’s executive order that would end automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to undocumented immigrants and some temporary foreign visitors. When a lawyer for the Trump administration suggested that the realities of modern migration required a new assessment of whether the Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who is seen as a key vote, retorted: “It’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.”

Still, in an argument that lasted more than two hours, the chief justice and several other of the court’s conservatives also asked tough questions of a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the legal challenge, making the outcome of the legally complicated and hugely consequential case not fully clear. In an unprecedented move and a signal of the stakes of the landmark case, Mr. Trump attended the first part of the argument, watching from a public gallery as his solicitor general defended the policy. During the A.C.L.U.’s argument, the president abruptly rose from his seat and left the courtroom. After returning to the White House, he posted on social media, falsely, that the United States is the “only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!” The case before the court has enormous stakes, potentially redefining what it means to be an American. A decision to limit birthright citizenship could also have sweeping practical consequences, stripping the promise of citizenship from the estimated 200,000 babies or more born in the United States each year to undocumented immigrants.

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State Stories

As first anniversary of Trump tariffs approaches, Texas small businesses say they’re suffering

Thursday will mark one year since President Donald Trump proclaimed "Liberation Day," imposing tariffs by executive order on virtually all U.S. trading partners. While the Supreme Court has ruled those tariffs illegal, the administration has yet to refund them, and new tariffs are on the way. Small businesses in Texas and beyond say they're feeling the pain. Over the 11-month period ending in January, Texas companies paid $13 billion in tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Even that understates the damage, according to the small business coalition We Pay the Tariffs.

The advocacy organization found Texas businesses paid a total of $26 billion in tariffs imposed directly by the White House without the approval of Congress between March 2025 and this January. New trade numbers, due out from the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday, are expected to drive that total still higher. "One year after Liberation Day, the damage to America’s small businesses goes far beyond what any tariff data can capture," said Dan Anthony, executive director of We Pay the Tariffs. "These businesses have spent the last 12 months not growing, not hiring, not innovating, but surviving. They’ve drained savings, taken on debt, laid off employees and cut product lines just to keep their doors open." All of that is taking a toll on the Texas economy, according to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas late last year. Houghton Horns, a musical instrument store in Keller, near Fort Worth, is one such small business. Kacie Wright, the store's business manager, said that even if the administration refunded the emergency tariffs today, it would not make up for the damage done. "Online sales are down about 40%. So, even if we get refunded, because we’ve had to raise our prices so high to cover these tariffs, that refund won’t cover the lost revenue," Wright said.

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Artemis II launches as NASA shoots for the moon in historic mission

NASA’s historic Artemis II mission to the moon launched Wednesday evening, taking four astronauts into Earth's orbit and on a path toward the world's first crewed lunar mission in a generation, beginning a journey into remarkable, if somewhat familiar, territory. Artemis II launched from Launch Pad 39B at 5.35 p.m. Central Time at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Houston’s Johnson Space Center now manages almost the entirety of the mission until the moment the spacecraft returns to Earth off the coast of San Diego.

Four astronauts — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch; and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — are set to spend 10 days in space, orbiting the Earth once before flying to the moon, around it and back. The mission marks the first time in more than 50 years that humans are attempting to travel to the moon. The rockets were successfully fueled up by the early afternoon, filling the rockets with hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. After much of the countdown went without a hitch, NASA found an issue with a safety system about an hour and a half prior to the beginning of the launch window. In the event of an emergency where a rocket is out of control, the flight termination system allows engineers to send a signal to destroy the rocket to protect public safety. Without assurance that the system works, NASA would have scrubbed the mission. Minutes after discovering the issue, though, NASA indicated it had resolved the issue, which did not significantly impact the countdown. Minutes into the flight, after the Orion spacecraft had separated from its rockets, Orion, which houses the four astronauts, appeared to be following its coordinated plan.

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Mark Cuban tells D-FW businesses to get on board with AI

Roughly three years after the transformational artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT first commanded the world’s attention, one of Dallas’ most famous — and famously opinionated — entrepreneurs has some blunt advice for North Texas’ business community. At an event in Irving on Tuesday, Mark Cuban warned that “if you’re not using one of the large language models … you’re falling way behind.” Cuban went on to draw an analogy between AI and other recent tech innovations, including personal computers and the internet, which also initially drew skepticism before becoming widely adopted. The billionaire investor even recounted being called “an idiot” after founding Broadcast.com, the internet radio streaming he took over in the late 1990s and went on to sell to Yahoo for more than $5 billion.

“There was always a group of people that were first, and always a group of people that were naysayers,” he continued. “And the people that were first typically ended up getting further ahead. I think it’s the same with AI today.” The wealthy Shark Tank star and former Dallas Mavericks majority owner made the comments during Convergence AI Dallas, a two-day AI and business conference hosted by the Dallas Regional Chamber at the Irving Convention Center. The event sold out, with around 1,200 registered guests, Dana Jennings, a DRC executive, told The Dallas Morning News. The high-energy confab included multiple panels and talks — topics included AI and Y’all Street, AI’s impact on the workforce and federal government regulation — as well as promotional booths and technical demonstrations, with sponsors that ranged from Accenture and Aecom to the T.D. Jakes Foundation and SMU’s new Spears Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Now in its third year, the event’s high attendance also hinted at the growing popularity of AI. A couple years ago, recalled Dave Evans, a managing partner at Sentiero Advisors, a Dallas-based AI-focused venture capital fund, it felt impossible to walk a few feet at the event without bumping into someone he already knew. But this year, Evans told The News, he felt like every face was new. “It’s surprising, but it’s also awesome,” he said. “We’ve grown beyond being that more kind of cottage group of ‘AI people,’ if you will, and it’s kind of expanded out.”

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Houston attorneys call out Harris County judge following viral clip of him berating county employee

The president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association is condemning the actions of Harris County District Judge Nathan Milliron — captured in a video that went viral over the weekend — and claiming the judge is now going after a well-known Houston attorney. In a social media video Tuesday, the association’s president, Brent Mayr, criticized the judge. "By now, many of you have seen or heard about this Harris County judge treating a court staff employee in an absolutely inappropriate and humiliating manner," Mayr said. "There is no question that judges should not act like that."

Over the weekend, a clip of Judge Milliron being impolite to an IT employee went viral. "Don't joke around," Milliron said in the video. "Get out of my courtroom... Find his supervisor, Jesus Christ, I'm sick and tired of this bull..." Mayr also confirmed Tuesday that Houston attorney James Stafford had emailed Milliron, asking the judge to apologize to the county staffer. But in response to the email, Milliron ordered Stafford to appear in his courtroom next month. According to Mayr, Milliron accused Stafford of ex parte communication — a one-sided communication between a judge and only one party of a legal proceeding. Mayr told Houston Public Media Tuesday that Milliron's actions against Stafford could be a violation of the lawyer’s First Amendment rights.

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Galveston officials say ‘significant headway’ has been made in unsolved ‘Texas Killing Fields’ case after new arrest

More than four decades after a series of murders along a stretch of Southeast Texas known as the “Texas Killing Fields,” prosecutors say they are making progress—and the investigation is far from over. During a press conference Wednesday, Galveston County District Attorney Kenneth Cusick formally announced charges against James Elmore, 61, who was taken into custody Tuesday following a grand jury indictment. Elmore is believed to have been involved in the murders of Laura Miller and Audrey Cook. Prosecutors allege Elmore helped longtime suspect Clyde Edwin Hedrick conceal the remains of Miller and Cook after their deaths.

“He has made numerous statements, and yes, he’s implicated himself,” said Cusick. Elmore is charged with manslaughter and tampering with evidence in Laura Miller’s murder and tampering with evidence in Audrey Cook’s murder. Both Cook and Miller were found the same day in 1986 in a field off Calder Rd. in League City. The manslaughter indictment reads that Elmore, “prepared a vial of cocaine for Clyde Hedrick to administer to Laura Miller.” Laura’s father, Tim Miller, said Elmore told him over the course of dozens of meetings that Hedrick gave his daughter a “hot shot” that killed her. The two tampering indictments read Elmore observed Laura and Audrey’s bodies being dumped in the so-called “Texas Killing Fields,” but never reported their murders. Hedrick died last week at the age of 72. He was never charged in any of the cases and maintained his innocence until his death.

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Rejected Tarrant GOP delegates deny claims they supported Democrats

Some Tarrant County Republicans who weren’t chosen as delegates to the Texas GOP convention denied claims that they supported Democrats. Most who were not selected at the Senate District 9 convention also opposed the proposed split of the Keller school district. The usually solid red district, which spans northern and western Tarrant County, flipped to the Democrats on Jan. 31 when Taylor Rehmet defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss in a runoff. Zee Wilcox, who had supported former Southlake Mayor John Huffman in the Nov. 3 special election for the Senate seat, said she never supported Democrats, including Rehmet.

“If the GOP wants to win SD9 she [Wambsganss] needs to get out of the race,” Wilcox said. “Huffman was the better candidate.” Wilcox sued Tarrant County GOP chair Tim Davis when she was removed from the ballot in the House District 98 primary because of problems with her paperwork. She regained her spot on the ballot but lost her bid for election. Wilcox said she worked to help elect Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare and other candidates. “I took the heat for them,” she said. Jim Sutton, the SD 9 chair, said in an email to the Star-Telegram that he did not provide any information concerning the people who were not chosen as delegates to the Texas GOP convention, scheduled for June 11-13 in Houston.

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SpaceX has filed confidentially for IPO ahead of AI rivals

SpaceX has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, bringing billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI company closer to delivering the biggest-ever listing. The company submitted its draft IPO registration to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. The filing puts it on track for a June listing, which would make SpaceX the first of what could be a trio of mega-IPOs, ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. SpaceX could seek a valuation in the IPO of more than $1.75 trillion, people familiar with the matter have said. The company acquired Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI in a deal that valued the enlarged entity at $1.25 trillion.

In a confidential filing, companies can receive feedback from the regulator and make changes before the information becomes public. Details of the offering including the number of shares to be sold and the price range are expected to be disclosed in a later filing. A listing for SpaceX would raise as much as $75 billion, Bloomberg News has reported. At that size, it would dwarf the current record holder, Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion debut in 2019. SpaceX is telling prospective IPO investors to expect briefings from company executives this month, people familiar with the matter have said. The so-called testing-the-waters investor meetings would potentially include more detail that would support its valuation target. The company has lined up Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley for senior roles on the IPO, people familiar with the matter have said, and has added more banks to the lineup.

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Without scientific studies, Brownsville is a test lab for CBP river buoys

If the federal government took the time to study in advance what could happen if a floating wall of huge, cylindrical buoys were installed in the middle of the Rio Grande for 536 miles, they haven’t told the public, nor have any technical details been made publicly available. Which leaves the possibility that the government is just going for it, in which case Brownsville is serving as a test lab of sorts, since it’s here that the first 17 miles of buoys are being installed. Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was fired in March, came to Brownsville on Jan. 7 to announce the plan’s launch. DHS waived more than two dozen federal environmental regulations to allow the experiment to proceed.

Hydrologist Jude Benavides told The Brownsville Herald that the lack of information about the so-called buoy barrier system makes it virtually impossible for scientists to model possible scenarios. Normally, for such a massive project, the National Environmental Policy Act would require that environmental and cost/benefit considerations be carefully and methodically weighed, everything proceeding at a snail’s pace, he said. Frustrating? Definitely. But well worth it “99 times out of 100, unless you have an urgent, pressing need … that requires circumventing this kind of stuff,” said Benavides, who teaches for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley but emphasized he was speaking for himself and not the university. Meanwhile, Rio Bravo, Latin America’s name for the Rio Grande, is a more fitting moniker given the river’s extreme nature under certain conditions, he said. “Bravo” in Spanish means valiant or brave, but also wild, savage or fierce. Despite dams upriver, the Rio Grande can “wake up” and quickly rise to artificial levee height given enough rain in parts of the watershed, Benavides noted.

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Chisos Mountains Lodge project at Big Bend National Park suddenly cancelled

A multi-million dollar project to tear down and rebuild the Chisos Mountains Lodge at Big Bend National Park was suddenly cancelled Wednesday just a month before it was set to begin. Park officials did not announce the abrupt change in plans for the project, which was set to begin May 1. The change was noted on the park’s website, which was updated Wednesday afternoon to say the “construction project has been cancelled” and “will not proceed as planned.” The park website also indicated the Chisos Basin area, which was set to close to visitor access for at least the next two years starting in May, will now remain open.

Later Wednesday evening, the park's website was updated to offer an explanation for the change in plans, citing "unforeseen challenges, including design complexities and implementation delays." "Construction costs have risen sharply since 2019, resulting in a substantial budget shortfall. This financial gap now prevents full funding for both the lodge construction and the Chisos Basin water system rehabilitation," the update read. "In light of these developments, the park is reevaluating its finacial resources and exploring alternative strategies to advance construction efforts. The National Park Service plans to reissue a contract soliciation focusing exclusively on the Chisos Basin water system rehabilitation, excluding lodge reconstruction and other facility upgrades. The exact schedule for this re-soliciation is currently being finalized." Spokespeople for Big Bend National Park and the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions about the cancellation. The project – which would have involved a complete teardown and rebuild of the decades-old lodge and restaurant – had already been delayed multiple times over the past year or so. The plan was funded by the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 and also involved a project to replace the Chisos Basin’s aging water infrastructure.

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Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris is free after 6 months in an Oklahoma jail for child sex abuse

The founder of a Texas megachurch who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child in the 1980s was released Tuesday after serving six months in an Oklahoma jail. Robert Preston Morris, 64, was released just after midnight, said Osage County Sheriff’s Capt. Matt Clark. Morris pleaded guilty last year to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child as part of a plea agreement under which he received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months to be served in the Osage County Jail. The abuse began in 1982 when the victim was 12 and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma, with her family, according to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, whose office prosecuted the case.

Morris was the senior pastor of Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, where he led one of the nation’s largest megachurches until June 2024 when — faced with the victim’s allegations — he resigned. He was indicted last year by an Oklahoma grand jury. Morris must register as a sex offender and will be supervised by Texas authorities via interstate compact. He also was ordered to pay his costs of incarceration, including any medical expenses, and restitution to the victim. The victim, Cindy Clemishire, who is now in her 50s, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment, but said in a statement when Morris was sentenced that “justice has finally been served, and the man who manipulated, groomed and abused me as a 12-year-old innocent girl is finally going to be behind bars.” The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Clemishire did. Jeff Leach, a Dallas-based attorney who represents Clemishire, said in a statement they are “heartened to know that he (Morris) still has nearly ten years of probation as well as a lifetime ahead of being publicly registered as a sex offender.”

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East Texas hit hard by gun-related suicides

Discussions involving mental health and firearms can be fraught in Texas, especially in a deeply conservative area like East Texas, where a culture of self-sufficiency and gun ownership runs deep. And it’s costing lives. Of the 4,389 gun deaths in Texas in 2024, more than 63 percent—or 2,779—were suicides, according to records obtained from Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Gun Violence Solutions. East Texas is among the hardest-hit regions in the state. Panola County, which includes the town of Carthage near the Louisiana border, had among the highest rate of gun suicides in Texas from 2020-2024, with 27.1 suicides per 100,000 people, according to state records. Other counties in Deep East Texas—Henderson, Anderson, Cherokee, Van Zandt and Rusk, for example—also had high rates, with gun-related suicides accounting for more than 70 percent of all firearm deaths. At the same time, access to mental health treatment and facilities in East Texas is limited by a sparse number of providers, lack of health insurance among residents, poverty, and transportation problems.

“It is very safe to say that we are in a mental health desert in the state of Texas,” said Steve Bain, Ph.D., a Texas A&M Kingsville professor of counseling who studies mental health care access. “Out of the 254 counties in Texas, only about six of those are not considered mental health provider shortage areas,” Bain said. “In other words, everybody is short mental health, psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, social workers. Everyone is short. You’ve only got six counties who were like ‘Yeah, we’re doing pretty good,’ and most of those are urban counties.” The concentration of gun suicides traditionally is higher in rural areas. Across the nation, 63 percent of suicides in rural areas involved firearms, compared to 50 percent in large metro areas, according to Johns Hopkins research. Even if mental health resources are available in a region, they may be so distant that people won’t have the time, transportation or financial resources to access them, Bain said. And the situation is even more dire for minorities living in Texas, especially those in rural areas. “They fare even worse, in terms of availability and accessibility,” Bain said. “And then you’ve got a culture that says, ‘Well, you don’t talk about your problems.’”

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National Stories

Trump has discussed firing Attorney General Pam Bondi

President Trump has discussed firing Attorney General Pam Bondi in recent days as he grows frustrated with her leadership at the Justice Department and her handling of the Epstein files, according to four people familiar with the conversations. Mr. Trump has floated the idea of replacing Ms. Bondi with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations by the president. Mr. Trump has not made a final decision, and Ms. Bondi’s allies pointed to photos of her and the president traveling to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to dispute the notion that the president is planning to fire her. “Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job,” Mr. Trump said in a statement to The New York Times. A spokesman for Ms. Bondi referred to Mr. Trump’s statement.

But the president has been souring on Ms. Bondi for months. Among his top complaints is Ms. Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files, which has become a political liability for Mr. Trump among his supporters. He has also complained about her shortcomings as a communicator and vented about what he sees as the department’s lack of aggressiveness in going after his foes, according to people who have spoken to him recently. The House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Ms. Bondi last month to compel her to testify about the Justice Department’s investigation into Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019. Her deposition is scheduled for April 14, though she and Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the committee’s Republican chairman, have been working together to avoid the deposition, even though it is unclear whether it is legally possible to withdraw a subpoena. Mr. Trump has also said the Justice Department under Ms. Bondi has not moved aggressively enough to prosecute his political enemies. In September, Mr. Trump wrote a social media post directed at Ms. Bondi in which he grumbled about the lack of indictments.

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Trump’s surgeon general nominee caught in GOP crossfire over MAHA

President Trump’s nominee for U.S. surgeon general appears stuck in the Senate, the latest sign that some Republicans in Congress have reached their limit on the more divisive aspects of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda. While the surgeon ?general wields no direct regulatory powers, the nation’s top doctor has a powerful bully pulpit — one that some in the GOP seem hesitant to hand over to Casey Means, a healthy living influencer with an expired medical license and no plans to renew it. Trump indicated he was open to withdrawing her nomination over the weekend, before the White House swiftly reaffirmed its support for Means, the sister of White House senior adviser Calley Means, an influential figure in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s orbit.

Mark Brewer, professor and chair of the department of political science at the University of Maine, said lawmakers might be getting “gun shy” following poor performances by Trump nominees, but he argued the apparent reluctance to confirm Casey Means likely has more to do with her specific background. “She doesn’t have the appropriate qualifications. She doesn’t really have kind of any public health experience, per se,” said Brewer, echoing criticism from Jerome Adams, a physician who served as surgeon general during Trump’s first term. “If she were to be installed as the surgeon general, I think it would send a message,” he added. “And at least some senators are not interested, it appears, in the message that that would send.” More than a month after her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), there has been no movement on her nomination. And there do not seem to be any immediate plans to bring her nomination up for a vote.

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Border Patrol chief Michael Banks hit with prostitution allegations by agents

The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes, according to six current and former Border Patrol employees who spoke with the Washington Examiner. Banks “bragged” to colleagues while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. Banks’ behavior was said to have been investigated by Customs and Border Protection officials twice, including last year, but the investigation ended abruptly while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in office, leading to more questions.

“I don’t know how he became the chief of the Border Patrol with his character,” a former Border Patrol agent told the Washington Examiner in a phone call, adding that now-53-year-old Banks had personally pushed him to come along on one of the trips. “He’s going to third-world countries to take advantage of poor f***ing women, which disgusts the hell out of me.” Four others said Banks talked freely with his subordinates about his travels and that it was known why he went, making his promotion to the top of the agency last year that much more flabbergasting. “He would tell people that’s why he was going on these trips — he would go there to engage in activities with prostitutes,” a second person said. “So I think those stories are out everywhere, and you can’t put them away or not give it attention because he was the one telling people about these trips. “In our line of work, part of what we do is try to combat the trafficking of females, that is part of our job,” the same person said. “It’s counter to what we do or what we should be standing for. If you’re partaking in those activities, you’re supporting the trafficking and exploitation of women.”

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American commandos join Ecuadorian troops in mission targeting alleged narco-terrorists

American commandos in recent days joined Ecuadorian troops in a joint mission aimed at dismantling a suspected criminal hub operated by an alleged narco-terrorist organization along the country's coast. The operation, dubbed Lanza Marina, focused on a compound believed to serve as a staging ground for high-speed boats linked to Los Choneros, a powerful Ecuadorian criminal organization, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to CBS News under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The two U.S. officials said the American forces worked in advisory roles, assisting and accompanying their Ecuadorian counterparts as they moved against the site, part of a broader effort to curb trafficking networks that rely on fast-moving maritime routes.

The Defense Department has historically used several authorities such as security cooperation agreements and train-and-equip programs to allow U.S. special operation forces to support foreign forces. For instance, "127 Echo missions," referring to 10 U.S.C. § 127e, are commonplace. 127e is the legal authority that allows for the U.S. military to support foreign forces to combat terrorism. While these types of missions are overseen by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, the defense secretary has historically been required to approve these missions and to sign congressional notification letters, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. CBS News exclusively reported last year that President Trump rolled back constraints on American commanders to authorize airstrikes and special operation raids outside conventional battlefields, broadening the range of people who could be targeted. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the reporting by CBS News was accurate.

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Environmental, religious groups take Georgia's PSC to court to stop Georgia Power data center expansion

Several environmental and religious groups are asking a court to review if the state broke the law after it approved Georgia Power’s request for energy-related costs over data centers. In December, the Georgia Public Service Commission allowed Georgia Power to provide 10 new gigawatts of power, mostly expected to go to data centers. According to the group’s petition to the court, it said “the Public Service Commission approved Georgia Power charging customers for an estimated $50–60 billion dollars of electricity-generating resources without first answering the statutorily required question: Will customers need each resource when the resource begins to operate? And the Public Service Commission certified 757 megawatts of new energy resources, enough to power over 150,000 households, without evidentiary support: even Georgia Power’s data shows it is not needed during the relevant time frame.”

follow the law’s protections against a monopoly utility’s unnecessary and uneconomic investments that will be charged to captive customers, and it clearly erred by certifying far more investments than necessary.” When the PSC approved Georgia Power’s request, all of the commission’s seats were held by Republicans. Since then, two Democrats were elected to the board and urged the board to wait until they were sworn in to vote on Georgia Power’s request. In an earlier interview, Georgia Power said it needs to be ready for the future. “The Georgia PSC’s unanimous decision in December not only provides the energy we need to keep energy reliable for a growing Georgia, but delivers savings of more than $100 per year for the typical residential customer. The generation resources were properly approved and certified by the Commission,” Georgia Power spokesperson Matthew Kent said in a statement. “This suit has no merit and is a simple attempt to create economic and regulatory chaos. We don’t think it needs to be reconsidered.” Georgia Power estimates that at least 80% of future demand will come from data centers. “My concern is we’re talking about theoretical contracts with theoretical large load data centers,” Liz Coyle, the executive director of Georgia Watch, said. “But the money to build these facilities is very, very real.” Coyle worries that Georgia Power may be overestimating future demand while committing billions to non-renewable energy sources. She is concerned that if the contracts do not materialize, Georgia Power customers may need to pay more.

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NYC Mayor Mamdani rips ‘unrealistic’ city council plan to balance budget without hiking property taxes

The City Council released its own plan for filling the city’s $5.4 billion budget deficit over the next two fiscal years, mostly through reestimating the city’s revenues and spending – a proposal Mayor Zohran Mamdani said would require cutting city services instead of bringing in new revenue. The savings plan cobbles together $6 billion as an alternative to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “last-resort” proposal to raise the city’s property tax rate by 9.5% across the board. The city is required by law to balance its budget each year, and Mamdani said his plan was made in an effort to balance the budget while drawing down reserves from the city’s savings and reducing services.

The property tax is the one major revenue source the city directly controls, and can increase without the state’s sign-off. Doing so is politically unpopular, however, with property owners of all kinds, so that the last hike came more than two decades ago. “We cannot in good conscience fund the city’s needs on the backs of homeowners or renters, by digging into emergency reserves, or by cutting essential programs,” City Council Speaker Julie Menin said in a statement. In the midst of budget negotiations, Mamdani replied on Wednesday that Menin’s preliminary budget proposal was “unrealistic.” “Double counting previously identified savings, overestimating revenues, and exaggerating debt service savings does nothing to close a deficit,” he said in a statement.

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Ballroom commission changed documents at White House’s request

An independent planning commission reviewing President Donald Trump’s ballroom building softened its own official documentation about the project at the White House’s request, records show. The National Capital Planning Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on the project, the final procedural obstacle to building a 90,000-square-foot structure that would dramatically remake one of the most recognized symbols of American power and democracy. Emails obtained by The Washington Post through a public records request show the commission changed what would become a public FAQ document about the ballroom after a White House staffer asked it to soften language about the commission’s authority over the project.

The commission then released the document ahead of its Jan. 8 meeting to provide information about its role in reviewing federal construction projects, when it would take up the ballroom and whether it had reviewed previous White House projects. The draft included the subhead “Why is the National Capital Planning Commission reviewing the project?” under which itdefinitively stated that the White House sits on federal land — a fact that “requires” federal agencies to get commission approval, according to a Dec. 19 email sent by commission General Counsel Meghan Hottel-Cox. White House staffer Heather Martin requested the addition of a sentence explicitly stating the White House is not a federal agency but had asked the commission to review the project “in the spirit of cooperation.” The commission deleted the entire subhead and the word “require,” softening the explanation of its role to: “Projects located on federal land within the District of Columbia come to NCPC for review.”

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Lead Stories

Trump signs order directing creation of a national voter list, a move already facing lawsuit threats

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and to restrict mail-in voting, a move that swiftly drew legal threats from state Democratic officials ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The order, which voting law experts say violates the Constitution by attempting to seize states’ power to run elections, is the latest in a torrent of efforts from Trump to interfere with the way Americans vote based on his false allegations of fraud. The president has repeatedly lied about the outcome of the 2020 presidential campaign and the integrity of state-run elections, asserting again Tuesday that he won “three times” and citing accusations of voter fraud that numerous audits, investigations and courts have debunked. The order signed Tuesday calls on the Department of Homeland Security, working in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, to make the list of eligible voters in each state.

It also seeks to bar the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to those not on each state’s approved list. Trump is also calling for ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking, according to the executive order, which was first reported by the Daily Caller. Federal funding could be withheld from states and localities that don’t comply. “The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s going on,” Trump said, repeating his false allegations about mail ballots as he signed the order. “I think this will help a lot with elections.” Within minutes of Trump signing the order, top elections officials in Oregon and Arizona, two states that rely heavily on mail ballots, pledged to sue, arguing that the president was illegally encroaching on the right of states to run elections. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state’s vote-by-mail system was designed by Republicans and is now used by 80% of voters. Arizona doesn’t need the federal government to tell it who can vote, and federal data isn’t always reliable, he said. “It is just wrongheaded for a president of the United States to pretend like he can pick his own voters,” Fontes told The Associated Press. “That’s just not how America works.”

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Commissioners pass rodeo resolution, stop short of calling for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s resignation

Harris County commissioners on Tuesday approved a resolution honoring the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo but stopped short of calling for County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s resignation after a dispute at the event led to the revocation of her title as an ex-officio director of the rodeo. Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s original resolution would have condemned Hidalgo, who did not attend the court’s business meeting on Tuesday, for an incident in which she was removed by security from a rodeo concert after attempting to enter the chute area without proper credentials. On Tuesday, Commissioners Lesley Briones and Rodney Ellis voted to pass part of Ramsey’s resolution recognizing the rodeo’s accomplishments but removed a paragraph calling on Hidalgo to apologize and resign for making disparaging remarks about the annual event.

Ramsey, the lone Republican on the five-member commissioners court, voted against the tweaked motion. The other county commissioner, Adrian Garcia, was not in attendance. “When you make unfounded accusations about such a historic organization, there should be something said, you just shouldn’t ignore it and say, ‘Well, it didn’t happen,'” Ramsey said. “Unprecedented removal of Judge Hidalgo’s credentials from attending the rodeo. That’s never happened.” The county owns NRG Park, which is leased to tenants such as the rodeo. Ramsey’s resolution was proposed at the commissioners court meeting on March 19, but the item was tabled after a rule change in February that moves resolutions from the commissioners court's regular bi-weekly meetings to business court meetings.

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Trump berates allies while signaling he will wind down the war

President Trump said that he was considering pulling the United States out of NATO over the war with Iran, as he heaps pressure on allies to manage the fallout of a conflict he signaled he would wind down in two or three weeks. In an interview with Britain’s Telegraph newspaper published on Wednesday, Mr. Trump was asked whether he was reconsidering U.S. membership in the military alliance. “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration.” The remarks came hours after President Trump said that he expected the U.S. military campaign in Iran would be over “very soon” and dismissed Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has jolted global energy markets, as a problem for other countries to resolve.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Mr. Trump again denigrated U.S. allies, chiefly Britain, for not heeding his call for help in securing the strait, through which one-fifth of global oil supplies normally travels, and said that the United States would not come to their aid in the future. Mr. Trump was scheduled to deliver “an important update” on the war in a national address at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Trump told reporters that he had achieved his primary goal of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, though there is no evidence that the United States or Israel has destroyed the country’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel. Earlier Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the U.S. had achieved such control of Iran’s skies that it was flying B-52 bombers directly over Iranian territory.

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Could Dems blow it in Virginia?

In 20 days, Virginia voters will decide if their legislature is allowed to gerrymander the state’s congressional map to turn 10 of the 11 House seats blue for the midterms. Yet despite a high-profile push that includes former President Barack Obama, Democrats are growing increasingly skittish about the referendum. A nonprofit allied with House Democratic leadership upped its investment to $20 million this week. Private polling indicates a tight race within or not too far outside the margin of error, according to sources briefed on the results. Initial early-voting results also raised fresh concerns that Democratic voters weren’t turning out. That disparity is now shrinking. But there are still real concerns about Black voters, particularly because Republican mailers have featured Obama’spast comments disparaging gerrymandering to suggest he doesn’t support the referendum. In fact, Obama has made TV ads in favor of it.

Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger won the state by 15 points in 2025, but overall, the Old Dominion is far more purple than blue. “There’s no equivalence between her win in November and this referendum,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said of Spanberger. “We still have three weeks to go. To think, ‘It’s in the bag,’ would be a fatal mistake. We have to close very strong.” Plenty of Democrats believe they’ll still win the redistricting referendum, yet the margin is too close for comfort. There’s also a massive financial gap in their favor. Virginia Democrats’ pro-redistricting campaign has reported raising $38.3 million compared to Republicans’ $8 million. Some Republicans have privately suggested this signals that Virginia GOP leaders know they’ve lost the referendum and are saving their money for later in the cycle. Dems’ challenge.The Democrats urging a yes vote on this referendum are the same ones who pushed voters to pass a bipartisan redistricting commission in 2020. But that was a lifetime ago politically, particularly before President Donald Trump incited a mid-decade national redistricting battle. Virginia is a pivotal part of the Democrats’ response to the GOP effort. The current Virginia delegation is split 6D-5R. The new map would be an aggressive gerrymander of 10D-1R.

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State Stories

Nueces River Authority's COO alleges executive director misled board, put $30M grant at risk

The chief operating officer of the Nueces River Authority is alleging that Executive Director John Byrum presented inaccurate water sales figures to the NRA board and to Corpus Christi City Council, directed staff not to speak with board members, and jeopardized a $30 million flood mitigation grant through repeated delays. Travis Pruski wrote a letter dated March 27, 2026, to the NRA Board of Directors outlining the allegations. KRIS 6 News has obtained a copy of that letter and verified its authenticity. KRIS 6 News reached out to Byrum, who declined to comment, citing personnel matters. Pruski has served the NRA for more than twelve years, first as a board member and later as its chief operations officer. In the letter, he describes coming forward as a matter of obligation — and said he is aware it may cost him his job.

"I am fully aware that coming forward with this information may carry serious professional consequences, and I accept that without reservation," Pruski writes. "I did not write this letter because it was easy — I wrote it because it was right." The central allegation in Pruski's letter concerns figures Byrum reportedly presented at the August 8, 2025, NRA board meeting. According to the letter, Byrum told the board that 36 million gallons per day of desalination capacity for the Harbor Island desalination plant had been sold and that corresponding revenue was already in the bank. When a board member questioned the number, Byrum confirmed it. Pruski said that he was solely responsible for water sales to customers outside the City of Corpus Christi and that internal tracking records showed only 21 MGD was committed and paid for at that time. The 36 MGD figure, he alleges, was not accurate until November 4 — nearly three months after the board meeting. Pruski further alleges Byrum repeated those figures at Corpus Christi City Council meetings in September and October 2025, and that Byrum's current presentation materials — still used in public settings — contain inaccurate information about partner cities and water districts. "The board made significant financial decisions based on information that did not reflect operational reality," Pruski writes.

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South Congress Hotel will be replaced by a splashy boutique brand

For years, South Congress Hotel has occupied one of the most valuable—and polarizing—pieces of real estate in Austin. It takes up an entire block of an avenue that has become, depending on your perspective, either the city’s most successful commercial corridor or its most disappointingly hyper-gentrified one, a once-scrappy mix of local stores and vintage shops that has steadily, and then swiftly, turned into a luxury shopping mall populated by global brands like Hermès and Nike. The hotel was always meant to be the center of the action, and it opened right at the moment, in 2015, when South Congress began its tip toward modern luxury. And yet, despite the hotel’s location, its retail and restaurant spaces, and its sleek, midcentury-inspired design, it never quite became the scene it yearned to be. Now it’s about to be emptied out and reimagined completely, with new owners and new management with a glamorous track record.

In a deal that quietly closed late last year, the hotel has been acquired by a partnership between the Hyatt corporation and investment firm Timberline Real Estate Partners. The plan: to transform it into the first Texas outpost of the Standard hotels brand. When the property reopens in spring 2027, it will be the Standard, Austin—the brand’s first new U.S. outpost in more than a decade, and a signal that Austin, for better or worse, now belongs squarely in the same cultural conversation as the cities where the Standard built its reputation: Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and London. South Congress Hotel, which reportedly employs 126 staffers, will shut down at the end of May. Nearly all of the existing restaurants and retailers on the property will close, with the exception of the coffee shop Manaña. Hyatt aims to accommodate any affected bookings at its other properties. The hotel was previously owned by New Waterloo, the hospitality group behind the popular Austin restaurants Sway and La Condesa and the new Albert Hotel, in Fredericksburg

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No officers on school campus when shooting happened, sheriff says

There was no police officer on a Hill Country school’s campus Monday when a student shot a teacher and then killed himself, Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds said Tuesday. Hill Country College Preparatory High School in Bulverde typically has a school resource officer provided by the Bulverde Police Department, but that officer had not yet arrived on campus when the shooting happened about 8:30 a.m. Monday, Reynolds told the Express-News. “They came pulling up after,” Reynolds said. “They weren’t on campus yet.”

The student, a 15-year-old boy, wounded the teacher and then shot himself, Comal County officials say. Reynolds has declined to release the name of the teacher and student, citing privacy concerns. Texas law requires all public school districts to have at least one armed security officer — a licensed peace officer, school resource officer or commissioned security personnel — on each campus during normal school hours. Christina Eckert, a spokesperson for Comal ISD, said the district’s contract with the Bulverde Police Department calls for the school resource officer to be on Hill Country College Prep’s campus from 8:55 a.m. to 4:55 p.m. “This tragedy happened at 8:34 before the school day began,” Eckert said. Eckert said the district considers Hill Country College Prep’s school day to begin at 8:55 a.m.

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How Maureen Galindo went from a housing activist to a TX35 runoff

When a new owner started making improvements to Maureen Galindo‘s downtown apartment complex in 2017, she saw an opportunity to put her community psychology training to work. Then a 31-year-old single mom, she’d just finished the courses for a master’s program in Portland focused on improving the health of underserved communities, and moved her three small children to San Antonio where they could live more affordably. Months after moving into their $830 per month apartment, however, a massive public redevelopment project on San Pedro Creek had already started to spur change in the neighborhood, putting Galindo at the forefront of an affordable housing fight that would later become the topic of her master’s thesis — and shape her trajectory for the next decade to come. Last month Galindo shocked political watchers by finishing first in Democrats’ primary for a brand-new congressional district in Southwest San Antonio — outperforming the national party’s favored candidate Johnny Garcia, who she’ll now face in a May 26 primary runoff.

“The reason I got the most votes with the least amount of money in this race is from eight years of grassroots organizing, working with people, empowering people,” Galindo said of the March 3 election results. “[They know that] I’m going to fight for the people and get the millionaires and billionaires who have taken over our political system out of there.” The 35th Congressional District is ground zero in the Trump administration’s efforts to squeeze more Republican seats out of Texas, and both parties now consider it a top target in the battle for control of the U.S. House. But Democratic Party leaders have long believed their chances at holding the redrawn district — which now stretches east to include three counties President Donald Trump won — hinged on finding the right candidate to win back moderates and Hispanic voters that appear to be trending away from the GOP. After failing to land a higher-profile recruit, party leaders have hung their hopes on Garcia, a longtime sheriff’s deputy whose connections to the centrist Blue Dog Coalition and a pro-Israel PAC have made him the best-funded candidate in the race, but also given some local progressives pause. “Trump [carried] this seat by 10.5% and so to win it, there needs to be a candidate who has appeal to a broad, big coalition of voters beyond just the Democratic base,” said Phil Gardner, a senior adviser at Blue Dog Action PAC, which spent $300,000 on TV ads for Garcia in the first round. “Johnny — his life story and his career in law enforcement — is the right match.”

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Fort Worth delays vote on tax break for $1.1B data center as concerns grow

The Fort Worth City Council delayed a vote Tuesday, March 31, on a tax agreement for developers proposing a $1.1 billion data center in west Fort Worth that has stirred fear and confusion in residents, and prompted a larger discussion about how the city navigates the data center boom. Edged Data Centers, a subsidiary of the sustainable infrastructure company Endeavor, plans to develop an AI data center near the intersection of Interstate 20 and Chapin School Road, near the Veale Ranch development owned by Dallas-based PMB Capital. The council first discussed a tax agreement for Edged at its work session on March 10. Fort Worth’s economic development department proposed a 50% break on property taxes for the equipment owned by the developer for 10 years. In exchange, Edged must invest $1.1 billion for the construction of the data center and create 50 jobs with an average salary of $73,000.

Fort Worth District 3 council member Michael Crain, whose district is where the data center would be located, added the following requirements to the proposed agreement: the company will comply with the city’s residential noise ordinance, agree to water limits included in a study performed by Kimley-Horn, provide an annual report detailing its compliance with the tax agreement, and comply with lighting and setback requirements set by the city. The requirements also say that the company must comply with state and federal environmental standards, and — a major demand from residents — it must maintain a website with contact information and post regular updates about the construction process. The property Edged wants to develop was rezoned for medium industrial use in 2025, and a map of the Veale Ranch development designated it for industrial use. Fort Worth’s 2023 Comprehensive Plan officially designated the area as a “growth center.” Developers and representatives from the city of Fort Worth met with residents on March 24 to give an overview of the development and answer questions from residents, who had a laundry list of concerns about the project.

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Third Future nets $11.7M to run two Waco schools

Waco Independent School District will turn over control of South Waco and Dean Highland elementary schools in July to the nonprofit Third Future Schools at an estimated cost of $11.7 million a year. The Waco ISD board approved the contract unanimously with little discussion Monday during a special meeting at Waco High School. The deal is intended to keep the state from taking over the local district due to several years of failing grades at two schools. The deal will affect some 1,800 elementary students, about 14% of Waco ISD’s enrollment of just under 13,000. Waco ISD and Colorado-based Third Future Schools will host a series of meetings on the changes for Dean Highland and South Waco families over the next three months, with the first held Tuesday evening.

The Colorado-based firm will begin April 7 to interview applicants for positions at Dean Highland and South Waco elementaries for the next school year. Current staff at the school have until this Sunday to express interest in applying to be Third Future employees. Faculty and administrators who have an ongoing contract with Waco ISD will be placed at other campuses if they are not hired by Third Future. Third Future is expected to finalize staff selection by April 17, Waco ISD officials said. Representatives from Third Future Schools were present during the board meeting but were not available for interviews. The firm, which runs schools in multiple Texas communities, offers an average salary of $75,000, well above Waco’s average of $63,613. But Third Future Schools are known for highly scripted instruction and extended educational schedules. The two schools will have 184 instructional days, 10 more than other schools in the district.

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El Paso immigrant advocate Dylan Corbett appointed by Pope Leo XIV to Vatican social justice body

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a prominent El Paso immigrant advocate to the Vatican body that promotes the church’s social doctrine on issues such as justice, peace, immigration, health and work. Dylan Corbett, the executive director of Hope Border Institute in El Paso, is among 11 appointees announced Monday to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He was part of a delegation of El Pasoans who met with Pope Leo in October 2025 to discuss the impacts of the Trump administration’s policies on migration, particularly mass detention and mass deportation. “I think my appointment really reflects the Holy Father’s concern for the plight of migrants, the situation of the undocumented here in this country and at the border and in Mexico. And so it’s an honor to be able to help advise him on these issues,” he said in an interview with El Paso Matters.

Corbett worked for the dicastery in Latin America before founding Hope Border Institute in El Paso in 2015. The organization combines research, human rights advocacy, leadership development and humanitarian action in pursuit of justice on the U.S.-Mexico border. He will continue to serve as executive director of Hope Border Institute, but said the appointment to serve on the governing board of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development will involve frequent travel to Rome. El Paso Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz praised Corbett’s selection for the dicastery. “His unwavering commitment to accompanying migrants and advocating for policies rooted in the Gospel and in the church’s social teaching has gone a long way to bring attention to this matter on the U.S.-Mexico border,” Seitz said. “His work has consistently reflected a deep commitment to justice, compassion, and the common good, particularly for those on the margins.”

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Bacliff man indicted in Texas Killing Fields cases of Laura Miller, Audrey Cook

Galveston County prosecutors have charged a Bacliff man in connection to two notorious 1980s Texas Killing Fields deaths that are among the state's most enduring murder mysteries. James Dolphs Elmore Jr. is charged with manslaughter and felony tampering with evidence in the 1984 killing of 16-year-old Laura Miller, county officials announced Tuesday. Miller disappeared in September 1984 after she left home to use a pay phone at a nearby store. Her body was found in February 1986. Laura Miller is the late daughter of Tim Miller, the founder of Texas Equusearch, an organization inspired by Laura's death that is dedicated to finding missing people.

Elmore is also charged with tampering with evidence in the murder of 30-year-old Audrey Cook. Cook, who lived in Houston, disappeared in December 1985. Her body was found in 1986 — though she wasn't positively identified until 2019. The area known as the Texas Killing Fields is a stretch of land along Interstate 45, south of Houston, where the bodies of more than 30 women have been found since the 1970s. In one area along Calder Road in League City, in north Galveston County, four bodies were discovered between 1983 and 1991. The Killing Fields cases have been the subject of countless movies, books and news reports. While the deaths are often talked about as one collective mystery, law enforcement officials have said killings connected to the area are the work of multiple people.

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‘In God’s way’: With $50M, small Austin university to reshape business education

Austin Christian University launched quietly in 2023 in the backyard of a Georgetown church, with two dozen students and a university president just a few years older than some of its inaugural students. Leaders kept the new school quiet intentionally, testing a bold idea internally to see if it had broader appeal. Three years in, the school has 63 students, 15 faculty members, a Lion mascot, and plans for a new building funded by a top Austin-area business leader. Now, it’s ready to share its vision as the “future of Christian business education.” Last Friday, hundreds of community members gathered to celebrate a $50 million gift for a new academic building from Roger Bringmann, a vice president at a California-basedsemiconductor company Nvidia, which is worth more than $4 trillion, and his wife, Lynne.

Bringmann’s investment in Austin Christian University comes as conservative Texas leaders seek to increase religion’s influence in public K-12 schools and reform a higher education system they say is too woke or out of touch. The university is connected geographically, spiritually and monetarily to Celebration Church, a nondenominational megachurch with seven Central Texas and global locations. Speakers at the ACU event outlined their vision to become a global leader in higher education by focusing on business education that goes hand-in-hand with religious conviction. “We’re not just another university,” Connor Champion, ACU’s now 29-year-old president, told Friday’s crowd. “We’re a movement.” In a Georgetown parking lot under the hot Texas sun last week, an enthralled audience applauded Champion’s vision. Their excitement was a feeling Bringmann knew well.

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Silicon Valley company buys former 3M campus in Austin

The former 3M campus in Northwest Austin has been sold. The entirety of the 107-acre campus at 6801 River Place Blvd. was purchased earlier this month by SE Cosmos LLC, an entity which appears tied to Silicon Valley-based SB Energy, according to newly released Travis County property records. Los Angeles-based Karlin Real Estate LLC redeveloped the campus — now named Highpoint 2222 — into a 1.1-million-square-foot life sciences campus. SB Energy was already tied to the property through a site plan application filed with the city of Austin earlier this month. It is further tied to the property through the March 20 special warranty deed, which lists SE Cosmos’ address as one that matches SB Energy’s Silicon Valley address. The SE Cosmos LLC entity was registered in Texas in October.

The connection to SB Energy helps solve the mystery of the tenant that has been referred to in documents as "Cosmos," as part of $610 million in improvements at Highpoint 2222. Neither SB Energy nor Karlin responded to requests for comment before publication. Stream Realty’s Brad Philp is the landlord representative for the property, and referred comment to Karlin. It's unclear who represented SB Energy in the acquisition. SB Energy, which is backed by Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp., is involved with some of the largest energy-related projects in the region. In January, it announced a $1 billion strategic partnership with prominent artificial intelligence company OpenAI. That was part of the AI venture Stargate LLC, which was created by OpenAI, SoftBank, Austin-based Oracle Corp. and Emirati state-owned investment firm MGX Fund Management Ltd.

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Dallas says city following Proposition U, AG Ken Paxton lawsuit should be thrown out

Top Dallas officials have fired back at Attorney General Ken Paxton’s recent lawsuit, denying they’re illegally withholding money from the police and arguing the state’s case is so weak it should be thrown out. In a response filed last week, attorneys representing Dallas, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland said the lawsuit fails to clear basic legal hurdles and that the court lacks jurisdiction over the dispute. Art Martinez de Vara, the attorney representing the two residents who are suing Dallas along with the attorney general, said it’s “disappointing that they won’t just do what the voters have asked them to do and instead are claiming sovereign immunity against the people.”

“Cities aren’t above the residents and we look forward to asserting that in court.” Meanwhile Tuesday, former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings participated in a panel hosted by the Dallas Bar Association, warning that the two 2024 Dallas voter-approved charter amendments Paxton is using to bring his legal challenge against the city reflect deep frustration from voters with city leadership. "The council and the mayor, right now over the last 4 years, created an environment that people felt this was the only way to deal with this issue," said Rawlings referring to Dallas voters' approval of propositions S and U. "They couldn't work it through their representative government and that's what got us into this conundrum."

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Fort Worth ISD’s new state-appointed board holds first meeting amid takeover, promises transparency and improvements

Fort Worth ISD’s newly appointed board of managers held its first public meeting Tuesday night, marking a pivotal moment for the district as state leaders take control following years of failing campus ratings. The meeting introduced an entirely new leadership team — including Board President Pete Geren and acting Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata — both appointed by the Texas Education Agency as part of the state’s intervention. “This board is new — new to everybody in this room,” Geren said. The overhaul comes after Marilyn Miller Language Academy received five consecutive 'F' ratings, triggering the TEA to step in and replace the elected school board with state-appointed leaders. The district currently has 11 failing campuses.

Geren called the moment one of “transformational change” for the district. Licata, who will serve as acting superintendent, struck an energetic tone as he addressed the room. “I’m excited — I’m wired,” he said. During the meeting, Licata introduced a new “theory of action” which includes "excellent academic performance for all students," along with strengthening classroom instruction, excellent talent, enhanced pathways for graduates, and excellent service to students, families, and staff. “We have an opportunity here and we have to take advantage of it, and we will,” Licata said. “Thank you for holding me accountable.” Public comment quickly turned into a call for transparency and accountability from parents and community members.

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Mavs CEO seeks to clarify comments about potential move to Dallas City Hall site

Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts sought to clarify recent comments about the possibility of the team taking over Dallas City Hall during a press conference on Tuesday, March 3. The clarification follows a Dallas Morning News report that Welts, speaking at a sports economics panel Friday, said Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert first approached the Mavericks more than a year ago about City Hall potentially becoming the site of a new arena. “Last week in a panel discussion, I gave a very quick answer that really didn’t capture the context of a conversation that I had with city manager Kim Tolbert,” Welts said following a media luncheon Tuesday.

“In a very long conversation with the city manager, we were discussing a variety of potential sites for a future Mavericks arena. And in that conversation, she told me that it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate City Hall. And it could be that the city would have to consider moving out of City Hall. That really was the summation of our conversation,” he added. According to a city report, Mayor Eric Johnson in August 2025 directed the city’s finance committee to review the condition of City Hall and identify solutions for deferred maintenance. In a statement, Tolbert said she had already directed city staff in May and June 2025 to brief the City Council on the “urgent need to fund repairs to city facilities, including Dallas City Hall.” She added, “It is not breaking news that I have met with the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars about the two teams remaining in Dallas. I have had discussions with officials from both teams about their needs for a modern, fan-friendly arena experience. We have also discussed the future of the American Airlines Center, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, the City’s commitment to downtown, and the Mayor’s recent charge to the Finance Committee related to deferred maintenance at City Hall. Following the March 4, 2026, Dallas City Council meeting, the Council directed me to explore multiple options, including the disposition of the City Hall site. It will be up to the Dallas City Council to decide whether to repair or move out of City Hall. Until the City Council makes that decision, we will continue discussions with the Mavericks on other issues.”

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Judge rejects Johnson Amendment settlement brought by Texas churches, keeping ban on pastors endorsing candidates

A federal judge rejected a settlement that would have lifted an IRS ban on pastors endorsing candidates, saying the court had no authority to approve an agreement, in a surprising end to a decades-long battle. Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas also dismissed the lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters, a Christian communicators group, and two Texas churches that was at the heart of the anticipated settlement. The plaintiffs had argued that the ban on endorsements violated their religious liberty. Under the IRS rule, known as the Johnson Amendment, tax-exempt nonprofits are barred from taking sides in political campaigns. In dismissing the case on Tuesday (March 31), Barker said courts are barred from “providing declaratory relief with respect to federal taxes,” and therefore the court could not approve the settlement, as it required the court to make a decision that affected the plaintiffs’ tax status.

“The Johnson Amendment exempts organizations from taxes if they do not participate or intervene in political campaigns. If credited, then, plaintiffs’ claims would restrain the assessment or collection of a tax based on certain activity,” he wrote. Barker also wrote that it is ”not obvious that the government will ever assess an income tax against plaintiffs or impose any other tax consequence under the Johnson Amendment.” He also wrote that there was a simple solution for churches that wanted to avoid being penalized for endorsing candidates: “Put differently, if the plaintiffs here gave up their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, none of the harms they allege could occur.” Michael Farris, general counsel for the National Religious Broadcasters, said the plaintiffs were surprised by the ruling and planned to appeal the decision. He said the judge’s ruling would require the plaintiffs to violate the law to get their case heard. “We think that is an error,” he said. “I think the judge was trying to do his very best as he understood the law. But I just disagree.”

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National Stories

Kristi Noem responds to husband's 'Bimbofication' fetish photos

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has responded to revelations that her husband, Bryon Noem, frequently engaged in online “bimbofication” fetish content. In a statement to the New York Post, representatives for Kristi Noem said, “Ms. Noem is devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time.” On Tuesday, The Daily Mail reported that Bryon Noem, who has been married to the recently demoted DHS secretary since 1992, has been a frequent participant in online fetish chatrooms, and sent over $25,000 in digital payments to the women he was chatting with.

The Daily Mail obtained a trove containing thousands of text messages, as well as photos of Mr. Noem roleplaying, many of them produced while Noem was serving in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Bimbofication is a roleplaying kink centered around exaggerated hyper-sexual femininity in order to embody stereotypical “bimbo.” Big boobs, big butts, full lips, and no intellect. As author and podcaster Tina Horn writes of bimbofication in her book Why Are People Into That?, “Sometimes, you don’t want to be a fully integrated self during sex … Bimbofication offers a clear delineation between the moaning, cumming, uninhibited sex object you dream of being and the mild-mannered alter ego you have to be the rest of the time.” “You might not want to literally look and act like a dumb blond in bed, but the dumb blond can be a marvelous symbol of something many of us do want to be: someone whose simple existence is dedicated only to being admired and enjoying herself” Horn adds.

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Hillary Clinton 2028? It’s not as crazy as you think

Don’t look now, but Hillary Clinton is headed to New Hampshire. The Granite State’s Democratic Party just announced that the former secretary of state and two-time presidential aspirant will give the keynote address at the McIntyre-Shaheen Dinner in Nashua on April 25. Could it just be a harmless speech? Sure. But the McIntyre-Shaheen Dinner keynote slot is usually reserved for Democrats plotting a White House run — in fact, it was founded in 1959 by supporters of John F. Kennedy with the explicit purpose of boosting his campaign. And in every presidential election cycle since, the eventual Democratic president and vice president have stood at that podium — and nearly every keynote speaker who wasn't already in the White House was angling to get there. At first glance, the idea of another Clinton run sounds crazy.

The former first lady will be 81 in 2028, and the Democratic Party is still smarting over its fatal decision to clear the field for an 81-year-old in 2024. And her designation as the first Democrat to lose a general election to Donald Trump would seem to disqualify her outright — especially at a time when the party is determined to find a fresh face. But not all 81-year-olds are cognitively equal. Former President Joe Biden’s decline was so extreme that it required around-the-clock vigilance on the part of his staff to keep him on script and out of public view whenever possible. It got so bad that staffers dressed in disguise to remain by his side — here’s Megan Hayes, White House director of message planning, dressed as the Easter Bunny, guiding him away from reporters. Clinton, by contrast, has been spoiling for debates in the public eye of late. In mid-February, she appeared at the Munich Security Conference, where she sparred on a panel with Hungarian intellectual Gladden Pappin and others over the Ukraine war. Her remarks were sharp, forceful, and substantive, and she often appeared to get the better of her younger co-panelists.

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A federal office designed to stave off the next financial crisis is being dismantled by the Trump administration

The Trump administration is looking to lay off staff—after already pushing out nearly half of the workforce—at a small federal office with a daunting mission: providing analysis to stave off the next financial crisis. The Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research began President Trump’s second term with 196 employees. It now has about 100 and is looking to get down to 70, according to a current and former employee and documents obtained by Government Executive. OFR leadership informed staff earlier this month that it would institute reductions in force in the coming weeks, after which the office will have shed about 64% of its workforce since last January. “I think it’s scary and concerning,” said one employee still remaining at OFR.

“We are already a small office but we have people who are focused on a number of different areas…that are crucial for the functioning of the U.S. economy.” Trump previously laid off dozens of OFR staff in his first term, though staffing was slowly rebuilt under the Biden administration. Congress initially stood up the office as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to collect data and publish analysis related to potential risks to the financial sector and the U.S. economy. It reports to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a separate entity within Treasury made up of various regulators in government. Congressional Republicans sought to essentially eliminate OFR entirely as part of last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying the office was duplicative and FSOC can conduct its own research. The Senate parliamentarian ultimately ruled the provision could not be included in the bill due to the mechanism lawmakers were using to pass it.

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TMZ has a new obsession: Vacationing members of Congress

Nestled between headlines about Britney Spears (“Spears Sets Sail With Sons After DUI Drama”) and Tiger Woods (“The Only One Driving Is Me!!!”), the celebrity tabloid news outlet TMZ is slamming lawmakers for skipping town as the partial government shutdown stretches into its seventh week. “Lindsey Graham was ineffective talking his colleagues into keeping the government open, but he had a great convo with Mickey Mouse Sunday ... at Disney World!!!” the outlet wrote in one story. It’s the latest instance of the outlet taking an interest in members of Congress. TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin told NOTUS they now have a producer and a photographer circulating Capitol Hill. “TMZ has covered politics for years, but several months ago we decided to amp up our presence and our voice,” he said in a statement.

Over the past few months, TMZ staff has questioned lawmakers on things ranging from Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show to what it’s like to work on the Hill. For the most part, lawmakers told NOTUS they don’t mind a celebrity-centric outlet covering the halls of Congress. Recently, the outlet has devoted particular attention to how members of Congress are behaving during the funding lapse at the Department of Homeland Security. TMZ requested tips on Thursday about sightings of lawmakers who left D.C. without reaching a funding deal, leaving many DHS employees to miss paychecks for at least two more weeks. One was Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, who was photographed at a Las Vegas casino, according to TMZ reporting. Garcia shared the post on X. “Actually I don’t mind what tmz is doing here,” he wrote. “Like the story says my dad has lived in Vegas for 15 years and I had just finished lunch with him. I try to see him whenever I can. And like I said a few days ago, Speaker Mike Johnson should have never sent us all home.”

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Supreme Court rules against Colorado ban on ‘conversion therapy’ for LGBTQ+ kids

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that ban the discredited practice. An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass. Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint.” The First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.” Gorsuch’s opinion drew support from liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

A state could similarly not ban talk therapy designed to affirm a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity, Kagan wrote. “Once again, because the State has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward,” she wrote. In a solo dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that states should be free to regulate health care, even if that means incidental restrictions on speech. The decision, Jackson wrote, “opens a dangerous can of worms” that “threatens to impair states’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.” The decision is the latest in a line of recent cases in which the justices have backed claims of religious discrimination while taking a skeptical view of LGBTQ+ rights. Counselor Kaley Chiles, with support from President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, said the law wrongly bars her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy for kids. Chiles contends her approach is different from “conversion therapy” practices from decades ago, like shock therapy. Her attorneys argued that the ban makes it hard for parents to find therapists willing to discuss gender identity with kids unless the counseling affirms transition.

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Supreme Court weighs Trump's contentious attempt to limit birthright citizenship

Tackling one of President Donald Trump's most provocative policies, the Supreme Court on Wednesday considers the lawfulness of his proposal to limit the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship for people born on U.S. soil. Announced on the first day of Trump’s second term in office as part of his hard-line immigration policy, the executive order at issue would limit birthright citizenship to people who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident. As a result, babies born to temporary visitors who entered the country legally or to people who entered illegally would not be citizens at birth. Trump said Tuesday he plans to attend the oral argument in person, which would be a first for a sitting president.

His executive order upends the traditional understanding of a provision of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment known as the citizenship clause. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States,” the clause states. The clause, ratified with the amendment after the Civil War to provide equal rights to formerly enslaved Black people, has long been assumed by officials at all levels of the government to apply to almost anyone born in the United States, regardless of the legal status of their parents. The few exceptions understood at the time included children born to diplomats and foreign invaders. Trump's executive order was immediately blocked by courts around the country and has never been in effect. Most legal experts predict he faces an uphill battle to win the case. The plan, if it were implemented, would affect thousands of babies born every year across the U.S.

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America now has an EV Rust Belt. High gas prices won’t rescue it.

At first, North America’s biggest auto-parts supplier was thrilled to snag the job of making enclosures for the batteries in General Motors’ new electric pickup. The contract was so big—and promised to be for years to come—that Magna MG 4.30%increase; green up pointing triangle International built a new factory in a Michigan cornfield. Five years later, that million-square-foot plant is mostly empty and losing money, a casualty of America’s messy breakup with electric vehicles. It is one of dozens of now desolate or sparsely used EV parts plants across the country. Now the war in Iran has driven gas prices up so sharply that EV enthusiasts are daring to wonder whether U.S. car buyers are willing to give the vehicles another look. But Magna and its big Detroit customers are forging ahead with plans to roll back EV investments.

It can take years to pivot a factory and supply chain from one type of vehicle to another. And it would take four to six months of higher gas prices for most Americans to reconsider more fuel-efficient vehicles, said Paul Jacobson, GM’s chief financial officer. “We certainly don’t see it today,” he said recently. GM said this week it would idle the Detroit factory where it builds the big electric trucks that Magna supplies, due to weak demand. “The magnitude of uncertainty is unparalleled,” said Magna Chief Executive Swamy Kotagiri, who joined the company as an engineer in 1999 and has run it since 2021. A Magna team recently walked through the St. Clair EV parts factory trying to figure out what equipment might be repurposed. It will take 18 to 24 months, the company figures, to find new customers and get enough production to be profitable again. Shareholders have cheered the decisions by Detroit automakers to scrap their boldest EV dreams—looking beyond $50 billion in charges tied to broken supplier contracts and wasted investments. Many of the hundreds of workers hired and then laid off by Magna in St. Clair have had other job opportunities with nearby factories looking for workers.

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The World Cup is around the corner. Are cities and states prepared?

In June, 11 U.S. cities will welcome millions of fans for soccer’s World Cup. Staging the planet’s most popular sporting event is never easy, but this year the conflict in the Middle East and the congressional impasse over funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are creating additional complications. Officials in the host cities say they are excited to welcome the world and to benefit from the economic activity of soccer’s premier event. New York City, for example, has invested more than $35 million in its preparations, but its host committee predicts that 1.2 million visiting fans will pump $3.3 billion into the regional economy. “We are quite well prepared for the influx, and preparations have been ongoing over the past two years, both in the category of preparedness, but also in the category of how we can make sure every New Yorker benefits,” said Maya Handa, who was appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s World Cup czar earlier this year.

“So we are incredibly excited about the boost that this is going to provide to our hospitality industry. We also are preparing to support small businesses as they experience a surge of customers and visitors.” But an ongoing standoff in Congress over funding for the Department of Homeland Security delayed the distribution of $625 million in federal dollars to help the host cities offset security costs. The conflict in the Middle East, and the fear that Iran will retaliate with a terrorist attack in the United States, has only heightened security concerns. “I’m worried every day about public safety threats,” said Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas, a Democrat. “I also recognize that you can’t control for everything. … We’ll go through a lot of steps to make sure we’re as ready as possible.” In addition to security, states and cities must prepare to face more typical challenges of such events, such as protecting people from extreme heat, upgrading transit systems, and ensuring the welfare of homeless people who might be displaced.

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Hegseth lifts suspension for Army pilots who did fly-by at Kid Rock’s estate

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday announced that the Army crew that flew two AH-64 Apache helicopters near singer Kid Rock’s Nashville, Tenn., estate over the weekend will not face disciplinary measures or an investigation. The military personnel had been suspended for their actions, a spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Tuesday, but that suspension was lifted later in the day by Hegseth. “Thank you @KidRock. @USArmy pilots suspension LIFTED. No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots,” Hegseth said in a post Tuesday on the social platform X. The helicopters, which were from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, flew in the Nashville area Saturday, including near the home of Robert James Ritchie, known as Kid Rock, near a residence he owns and has dubbed “The Southern White House.”

“The personnel involved have been suspended from flight duties while the Army reviews the circumstances surrounding the mission, including compliance with relevant FAA regulations, aviation safety protocol and approval requirements,” Maj. Montrell Russell, an Army spokesperson, said in a statement earlier Tuesday before Hegseth’s announcement. Russell said that because there was an active investigation, which Hegseth has since lifted, it would have been “inappropriate to discuss specific findings at this time,” adding that the Army “takes any allegations of unauthorized or unsafe flight operations very seriously and is committed to enforcing standards and holding personnel accountable.” Rock posted a video of the encounter on the X with the caption, “This is a level of respect that s--- for brains Governor of California will never know. God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her.” The singer, who earlier this year performed at an alternate halftime performance in protest of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show, is an ally of Trump.

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Lead Stories

U.S. gas prices hit $4 a gallon on average

Gasoline in the United States crossed an average of $4 a gallon on Tuesday,a threshold it hadn’t reached since August 2022, continuing a series of nearly uninterrupted increases since the Middle East war began that are chipping away at the spending power of American consumers. Since the end of February, the average cost of regular gasoline has jumped 35 percent, according to data from the AAA motor club. Seeing gasoline at more than $4 a gallon — when it was below $3 a month ago — could push American drivers to change their spending habits. “We have this obsession with gas prices because they dictate a lot of ‘Can we drive? Can we do things we enjoy?’ And now some of that is at risk,” said Patrick De Haan, an analyst at GasBuddy, which also tracks fuel prices. “As we get to a month of increases and prices are much higher,” he added, “the amount of pressure on Americans’ budgets and their spending is going to ramp up.”

For President Trump, who not long ago was boasting about how prices had fallen since he was re-elected in 2024, the highly visible reminder of the war’s consequences is a political burden. “It is the biggest headache for whoever happens to be in power when something like this happens,” said Kate Gordon, a former senior adviser in the Department of Energy who is now chief executive of California Forward, a nonprofit business group. Presidents have little control over gas prices, she added, but this is an unusual circumstance. “Usually, a hurricane hits the gulf and gas prices go up, and then whoever’s in power gets blamed for it,” Ms. Gordon said, referring to the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Trump is “going to get blamed anyway because he’s in power, but also he made the decision to go to war in Iran.” Although the United States isn’t dependent on oil exports from the Middle East — where attacks during the war have hit production and storage facilities — domestic prices have nevertheless surged because of how interconnected global energy markets are. Gas last eclipsed $4 a gallon after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

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Mark Cuban says he regrets decision to sell Mavs to Miriam Adelson

It’s been over two years since Mark Cuban sold his majority stake of the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont. Since then, Cuban has had a change of heart, but not about the sale itself, he said in the latest episode of Intersections, a podcast hosted by former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and entrepreneur Kyle Waldrep. “I don’t regret selling. I regret who I sold to,” Cuban said in a teaser clip released Monday. “I made a lot of mistakes in the process, and I’ll leave it at that.” The franchise has experienced a significant amount of transition over the last two seasons, including an NBA Finals run, former general manager Nico Harrison’s decision to trade Luka Doncic, his subsequent firing and new leadership changes throughout basketball and business operations.

Adelson, controlling shareholder of the Las Vegas Sands, paid $3.5 billion for majority control of the Mavericks in December 2023 with Dumont serving as the team’s governor and final decision-maker. Cuban told Waldrep and Leppert he sold the team he owned for 23 years because of the “big emotional commitment” attached to ownership and his reluctance to the thought of his growing children wanting to work for the team. “I didn’t want that for them. It can be abusive, a lot,” Cuban said. “If fans don’t like what you’re doing or if the team’s not doing well, you’re the worst human being on the planet, and they treat you that way.” Fans have voiced their displeasure for the team’s underwhelming performance throughout the season, most notably during the first 11 games of the season before Harrison’s firing. Since then, the home crowd has remained loyal with its support despite another year with more losses than wins. The Mavericks were recently eliminated from playoff contention and will spend a second consecutive year in the NBA draft lottery, just two years removed from being a championship contender around Doncic.

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GOP’s DHS funding battle turns up the heat on House-Senate Republican civil war

Republicans in the House and Senate are in a battle over how to move forward with funding the Department of Homeland Security after the two chambers took diametrically opposed paths last week in approving bills to fund the embattled DHS. The standoff has left both sides bickering, and there’s a tinge of bitterness, among House Republicans who were surprised by the Senate bill and thought they were being jammed; and Senate Republicans miffed at the House GOP’s outright rejection of their measure. Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide, said the Senate is “trying to bully the House into passing something they don’t want to pass.” “It was a last-minute that they passed in three in the morning through [unanimous consent] and threw it over to the House, expecting that the House would have no choice but to pass the bill and the House said no,” he said.

Senate Republicans are ready to move on from the 45-day standoff by passing as much Homeland Security funding by regular order and taking care of ICE and Border Patrol through a budget reconciliation package, which could avoid a Democratic filibuster. They think the House had the votes to pass the Senate measure, though Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) would have had to have depended on Democrats to get it through his chamber. “I think we sent the bill over there because it was set up so that if some Republicans wanted to vote no, they could have voted no but ultimately we think it would have passed,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Monday. The bill passed by the Senate funded much of DHS, but did not include money for Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of the Border Patrol. The measure’s passage appeared to take many House Republicans by surprise, and they reacted with anger at the end of last week. Johnson quickly signaled he had no intention of moving the bill.

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Trump tells aides he’s willing to end war without reopening Hormuz

President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials said, likely extending Tehran’s firm grip on the waterway and leaving a complex operation to reopen it for a later date. In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said. There are also military options the president could decide on, but they aren’t his immediate priority, they said.

Over the past month, Trump has expressed various opinions in public on how to handle the strait, part of a larger pattern of giving conflicting goals and objectives of the war overall. He has at times threatened to bomb civilian energy infrastructure if the waterway isn’t reopened by a certain date. On other occasions, he has played down the importance of the strait to the U.S. and said its closure is a problem for other nations to solve. The longer the strait remains closed, the more it will roil the global economy and boost gas prices. Multiple countries, including U.S. allies, are reeling from the downturn in energy supply that once flowed freely through the chokepoint. Industries that rely on items such as fertilizer to grow food or helium to make computer chips are suffering from shortages. Without a swift return to safe passages, Tehran will continue to threaten world trade until the U.S. and its partners either negotiate a deal or forcibly end the crisis, analysts say. Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington, called ending military operations before the strait is open “unbelievably irresponsible.” The U.S. and Israel started the war together and can’t walk away from the fallout, Maloney said. “Energy markets are inherently global, and there is no possibility of insulating the U.S. from the economic damage that is already occurring and will become exponentially worse if the closure of the strait continues.”

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State Stories

Nathan Moran: Character and trust should matter to conservatives

I've only been in Congress for three years, but it is easy to see that trust is one thing we need a whole lot more of--trust that our motives are right, even when we don't get it right; trust that we will serve the people instead of serving ourselves; and trust that we each possess the personal character and integrity that has made Texas great for generations. Unfortunately, trust in Congress is dwindling by the day. Why? Because voters have watched time and again politicians who put the preservation of power and position ahead of principles and the people--simply because it serves the interests of their own personal ambitions. And, unfortunately, we have rewarded such behavior with re-election, overlooking depth of character because we are drawn in by the show at the surface. The unending scandals and unethical behavior that seem commonplace today are incongruent with the "wisdom to discern" and "virtue to pursue" that James Madison made clear we needed in those we elect.

So, what's the answer? We The People should do our best to elect men and women to public office who have character, integrity, wisdom, and virtue (or, at the very least, strive to attain it). As Reagan put it, "If we have the integrity to do what is right, freedom will not only survive, it will triumph." So, we should not ignore the integrity of those we elect, nor should we divorce our personal ethical creed from our political vote. If we do, then those we elect will continue to act in their own self-interest, causing more distrust in our government and leading to a greater decline in our personal freedom. I have never endorsed in a Republican primary--from the top of the ticket to the bottom. But, I am compelled in this moment to deviate once from this policy. President Trump needs a U.S. Senator from Texas with both the character and competency to help him finish the job he was hired to do. He needs someone he can trust. And, in my opinion, that man is John Cornyn. John is a man of integrity; a statesman legislator; a steady leader and influencer among his Senate peers; and one who has selflessly dedicated his life to his family and to public service at the local, state, and federal level.

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CPAC cheers question on impeachment hearings for President Trump

It sounded like a simple question. Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference, teed up the audience Friday with a question about impeachment against President Donald Trump. “How many of you would like to see impeachment hearings?” the conservative activist asked on stage in Grapevine. Surprisingly, the question drew loud cheers. “No,” Schlapp said, shaking his head, “That was the wrong answer.” He repeated the question a second time, receiving a mixture of applause and boos. Schlapp laughed and joked that they needed to bring in coffee for participants. The viral clip has been viewed millions of times on X and other social media outlets. Attendees did get one answer correct, at least according to Schlapp. Asking if they agreed Republicans must keep their House majority, he drew loud cheers.

The midterm election was a hot topic at the influential conservative gathering, which wrapped up Sunday. Participants and speakers alike warned Democrats would dismantle Republican victories on immigration and tax policy. Trump skipped the conference for the first time in a decade, but he remains wildly popular among conservatives, evident by the numerous Trump chants and branded apparel at the conference. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March found Trump’s approval rating fell to 36%, the lowest number since he returned to the White House in January 2025. But a February Associated Press/NORC poll showed 86% of conservatives said they approved of the president’s job performance.

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Student shoots teacher at Hill Country College Preparatory, authorities say; suspect dead

Hill Country College Preparatory High School in Bulverde has been secured after a student shot a teacher Monday morning, according to an update from the Comal County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities say a 15-year-old male student shot a female teacher on campus. The unidentified teacher was taken to a San Antonio hospital, but her condition has not yet been released. Deputies say the student turned the gun on himself after shooting his teacher and died at the scene. No other injuries were reported. Law enforcement said the situation was contained, with no ongoing threat to students or staff. The campus was still on lockdown Monday afternoon as investigators continued to process the scene. Officials with San Antonio's field office said it was assisting in the investigation.

Students and staff were transported by bus to Bulverde Middle School to be reunited with parents. Officials say only individuals listed as authorized in school records were allowed to pick up students and needed to present a valid photo ID. "Our focus now is on supporting those affected and continuing to keep our community safe. I want everybody to know our thoughts and prayers are with the teacher and her family," said Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds. The sheriff couldn't say whether the shooting happened inside or outside the school. Reynolds addressed one reporter's question regarding who the gun was registered to. “During the reunification process, that student’s parents and kinfolks were in the reunification line and so that’s partly-part of our investigation and some of the questions were of where the firearm came from.” Reynolds noted investigators are speaking with the teenaged gunman's parents and those who witnessed the shooting. order to "allow time for our families and staff to process and begin healing." She said counselors would be available Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mammen Family Public Library (131 Bulverde Crossing).

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30 miles of pipe could change Corpus Christi’s water future

Corpus Christi is taking a major step toward securing its water future, and it’s happening in the middle of a ranch outside Sinton. City Manager Peter Zanoni was on the Welder Ranch in San Patricio County as the first shipment of massive 48-inch pipes arrived. The pipes, transported by 18-wheelers from South Carolina, will be used to build 30-miles worth of connecting pipeline from this Evangeline water well field to the Mary Rhodes pipeline. City Manager Peter Zanoni says these deliveries mark the beginning of a steady flow of materials that will continue for months. “Shipments will be coming in like this all the way through early September with about 90 percent of all the pipe coming in by July this year,” Zanoni said.

The Evangeline water project is a $400 million investment aimed at boosting the city’s long-term water supply. Once complete, the system is expected to deliver up to 24 million gallons of water per day. Zanoni says the timeline is aggressive, with water expected to start flowing in about 21 months. “With 24 million gallons a day ultimately in about 21 months from November this year, this will be a tremendous boost to our water security,” he said. The project is moving forward despite ongoing opposition from the city of Sinton, which continues to contest the development. Sinton City Manager John Hobson has told 3 News in the past that he knows this project can't be stopped. That's why construction and design are pushing ahead as Corpus Christi faces increasing pressure to secure reliable water sources for future growth. 3News was the only media outlet on site as the first pipes arrived, marking a significant milestone in one of the region’s most critical infrastructure projects.

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FluxPoint Energy enters race to build first new U.S. uranium conversion plant in nearly 70 years

A new Texas-based startup has launched an effort to build what would be the first U.S. uranium conversion facility in more than seven decades to restore a domestic capability it says has become “an unacceptable chokepoint” in America’s nuclear fuel supply chain. FluxPoint Energy made its public debut this week at CERAWeek by S&P Global, announcing plans to convert uranium oxide into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at a Texas facility. Headquartered in Houston and McLean, Virginia, the company was founded by Mike Chilton, an industry veteran who has more than 30 years of experience in uranium processing and nuclear fuel development. “America cannot lead in nuclear energy while relying on foreign-controlled fuel processing,” said Chilton, FluxPoint’s Founder and CEO. “FluxPoint was created to restore a critical piece of our nation’s energy infrastructure—ensuring that U.S. reactors have access to a secure, domestic fuel supply.”

The nuclear fuel cycle typically includes four steps from mine to reactor: uranium is mined, converted, enriched, and fabricated into fuel. Nuclear plant operators typically purchase the yellowcake, then separately purchase conversion services, enrichment services, and fuel fabrication services from different vendors along the chain. In conversion, yellowcake (U3O8) arrives at a processing facility in 55-gallon drums, is reacted with fluorine to produce uranium hexafluoride (UF6), and exits as a gas before being cooled, liquefied, and drained into 14-ton cylinders that solidify over five days and are shipped to enrichment plants. At enrichment plants, the concentration of the fissile isotope uranium-235 is increased to the level required for reactor fuel. The U.S. has just one commercial conversion facility: Metropolis Works in southern Illinois. As previously reported by POWER, Honeywell idled the plant in 2017 amid a global oversupply of UF6 and restarted it in 2023.

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Tarrant County GOP removes delegates who opposed Keller ISD split

Several Republicans who thought they were delegates to the Texas GOP convention in Houston this summer discovered that they were kicked off of the list. Barbara Brewer, who repeatedly spoke out against an attempt to split the Keller school district last year, and Zee Wilcox, who sued Tarrant GOP chair Tim Davis after she was removed from the House District 98 primary ballot, were among those whose names were taken off of the list by the Tarrant County Republican Party. “I’m trying to hold the board accountable,” Brewer said, referring to the Keller school board. “Every time we think we’re moving forward, [Tarrant GOP officials] are doing something like this.” Brewer said when she learned that she was no longer a delegate, she questioned the reasoning behind it.

Tarrant GOP chair Tim Davis did not respond to an email or return a phone call Monday seeking comment. Laura Oakley, executive director of the Tarrant County GOP, said the people who were not chosen as delegates openly supported Democrats, which is why they were not on the list. “No state delegate candidates were removed,” she said. “The only ones who were denied were the ones that didn’t meet the criteria.” Brewer said she followed all the procedures, including voting in the Republican primary and attending her precinct convention. “The only way to remove a delegate is for someone in the precinct to challenge that, and that didn’t happen,” she said. Brewer said that when she protested her removal, people attending the Senate District 9 convention spoke in opposition of Brewer and began reading Facebook posts concerning the proposed Keller school district split.

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Harris County judge grabs internet's attention after confrontation with IT technician

A Harris County judge is drawing widespread criticism, not for a court ruling, but for how he spoke to a courthouse staffer. Video that circulated widely online over the weekend shows Judge Nathan Milliron in a tense exchange with an IT worker who had come to assist with a computer issue in the courtroom. In the video, you can see the judge getting terse as the IT technician seemed to joke that the computer issue was a "false alarm." "No, it wasn't a false alarm," the judge said, who then admonished the staffer, "Don't joke around. I'm serious about this. It was happening. Get out of my courtroom!"

After telling the staffer to get out of his courtroom, the judge can be seen commenting to himself, "Jesus Christ, sick and tired of this (expletive) today." Judge Milliron, who has served on the bench since January 2025, declined to comment on the incident when approached in the courtroom on Monday. He also did not allow cameras inside his courtroom, where he was presiding over proceedings in the 215th District Court. The Harris County District Court Administration confirms that the IT staffer works for that department. Several judges, speaking off camera, described him as helpful and well-liked. They told ABC13 that the young man is called upon often to help judges with a variety of technical issues in their courtrooms, and always strives to just do the job. Retired judge Mike Schneider did not comment directly on the incident, but emphasized that judges are expected to meet a higher standard of behavior. "Judges are required to be patient, dignified, and courteous to everyone. Witnesses, lawyers, anyone in their official capacity," Schneider said.

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Voting rights groups sue Texas over alleged illegal voter purge

A group of voting and civil rights organizations is suing Texas, saying the state used flawed data and unfair methods to flag and potentially remove eligible voters from its rolls. The lawsuit, filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and other organizations, challenges a voter review process launched by the Texas Secretary of State's Office in October 2025. At the time, Secretary of State Jane Nelson said her office had compared the state's voter registration list of more than 18 million registered voters against a federal immigration database — the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE system — and identified 2,724 registered voters as potential noncitizens. Counties were then directed to investigate those voters' eligibility.

It's unclear whether any voters have been removed from the rolls as a result of the state's findings. The Texas Secretary of State's Office declined to comment on Monday. The groups behind the lawsuit argue the state of Texas relied on outdated or unreliable data that can wrongly flag people — especially naturalized U.S. citizens — as noncitizens. A 2025 report from the Brennan Center for Justice found the SAVE database can contain incomplete information and warned that states using it to maintain voter rolls raises concerns about accuracy and privacy, including the risk that eligible voters could be wrongly removed. The lawsuit also alleges the state didn't double-check its own records, like driver's license data, which could confirm whether someone is a U.S. citizen. "Voter purge efforts relying upon faulty citizenship data and conducted outside of the requirements established by Congress risk regulating American citizens born abroad to a second-class status where their right to vote is neither protected nor guaranteed," the lawsuit read.

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Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt’s burglary case to be presented to grand jury

Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt's misdemeanor burglary charge will go before a grand jury, shutting off certain parts of the high-profile case from public view. Wyatt’s case has lingered in court for longer than two months. In January, a probable cause hearing to determine whether enough evidence existed was delayed because a brief winter storm temporarily closed the downtown Houston courthouse. The hearing — which was set to go before Judge Shannon Baldwin in Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 4 — was again rescheduled last week. Chris Downey, an attorney representing Wyatt, said that the Harris County District Attorney’s Office wanted additional time to go through evidence in the case. Recent court records indicate that evidence will now be presented to a grand jury.

The district attorney’s office did not say when the case is set to go before a grand jury, an often uncommon occurrence for misdemeanor cases. The probable cause hearing is set to take place in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center on April 7. “The role of grand juries is especially important in cases involving elected officials,” Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesperson for the DA’s office, said. “They provide independent, community-driven oversight and ensure prosecutors have probable cause that a crime was committed before any charges move forward.” Wyatt, 55, was arrested in December on a burglary charge and accused of breaking into another person's vehicle in a restaurant parking lot with the intent to commit theft. Prosecutors said several people watched as Wyatt searched through items inside a vehicle that wasn’t hers.

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Defending the most vulnerable in San Marcos

Juan Miguel Arredondo believes there’s a spirit of solidarity in San Marcos that sets his Central Texas college town apart, even as right-wing culture warriors seek to force a wedge between neighbors. “When there’s a crisis, Superman isn’t coming,” Arredondo, 34, told the Texas Observer during a phone interview late last year. “We have to save ourselves, and so that’s what we do.” A fifth-generation native of the region, Arredondo served on the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District from 2015 to 2023, and he was again elected to the board in 2024 after a year spent working as the chief of staff for state Representative Erin Zweiner, an outspoken progressive legislator and member of the LGBTQ Caucus. In addition, he’s president and CEO of the United Way of Hays and Caldwell Counties. Beyond those achievements, he’s also the only openly gay member of the San Marcos school board. Arredondo came out publicly in 2017 during Pride month, about two years into his first term.

“I had one of my biggest supporters call me, compliment me on my bravery, and then immediately pivot to say, ‘It’s just so unfortunate that you’ll never get reelected,’” he recalled. “That was the first experience, right out of the gate, of folks’ perceptions of what it means to be queer or gay or LGBTQ in Texas.” Time has disproved that prediction. In 2024, his election was uncontested. Now, when Republican operatives arrive to propose book bans or attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the local schools, Arredondo’s firm but kind presence helps remind his fellow trustees what’s at stake for some of the most marginalized students. “It does not escape me that my colleagues have to have those conversations with an openly gay man next to them, and I think that’s incredibly important because we’re not talking about this in the abstract.” Meanwhile, San Marcos and its families face challenges that are more substantial, and more dire, than a trans student using their preferred pronouns or anything found between the covers of a hardback. “Not once has a family been in crisis because of transgender bathrooms,” Arredondo told the Observer. “It’s families not being able to afford rent or put food on the table, issues with unemployment or lack of access to jobs that pay living wages.”

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Lawsuit against Prosper ISD requests the removal of board leaders, alleging mismanagement, sexual abuse

A lawsuit filed against Prosper ISD requests the removal of board leaders, according to court documents. The lawsuit, filed by two realtors who reside within Prosper ISD, specifically calls for the removal of Board President Bill Beavers, Vice President Dena Dixon, Board Secretary Thomas Van Wolfe, Trustee Jorden Dial, and Trustee David Webb. Court documents say the named board members did not investigate irregularities on a construction contract that cost the district at least $50 to $75 million. The filing claims the contract was investigated by a third-party, which offered to pursue charges at no cost to the district. The lawsuit alleges that Beavers and the board's attorney, Haley Turner, took no action to continue the investigation.

The documents go on to state that in 2022, the board allegedly did not investigate a school bus driver's sexual assault of students, leading to several related incidents later on. The suit says the board was kept in the dark about the bus driver incident until media reports began to share details of the federal lawsuit. It goes on to detail how Superintendent Holly Ferguson and the board "failed to investigate and reform, but rewarded the person responsible for concealment," sharing details of Ferguson's contract extensions and pay raises. The documents say zero administrators were disciplined and zero reforms were implemented, leading to "the predictable result," and shared three separate "failures to report or prevent sexual abuse of students," between August of 2023 and May 2025. When WFAA reached out to Prosper ISD for comment, a spokesperson says, "Filing a lawsuit is something anyone can do. It does not mean the claims made are accurate or substantiated. Prosper ISD will respond to this matter through the appropriate legal channels at the appropriate time." The district added in part, "...we will not stand by silently while dedicated public servants are attacked on social media based on unverified allegations against 5 members of the Board of Trustees," and ended their statement with "We ask our community to let the legal process work as intended before drawing conclusions from a social media post."

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In El Paso, two Catholic sisters follow detained immigrants wherever ICE takes them

On their spreadsheets, down the list on their prayer table and off their tongues after a long day of ministry roll the names — of the man who is slowly but unsteadily regaining his grip on reality after being deported to Cuba, of the woman facing deportation to Brazil after more than a year in detention fighting for asylum, of the son whose mother fell to the floor screaming “take me instead” as he was detained at immigration court. Carlos was the name that launched Scalabrinian Sisters Leticia Gutiérrez Valderrama and Elisete Signor’s pastoral response to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Gutiérrez Valderrama met Carlos on a trip last year to witness the increased immigration agent presence at immigration court, and he looked “like he had won the lottery,” she recalled, when she offered to accompany him. “He was the instrument for us to develop the ministry accompanying migrants at the courts,” Gutiérrez Valderrama told parishioners at a volunteer recruitment event at St. Francis of Assisi Parish on March 5.

There are still days at the immigration court when federal agents, waiting to potentially detain people after court, are staked out by the elevators or leaning on the atrium railing behind family members who nervously await their loved ones. But now, Gutiérrez Valderrama or her court volunteers are always there to sit with them. With the help of about 30 volunteers, since June of last year, the ministry begun by the two sisters has accompanied more than 1,000 people in immigration court, and they’ve accompanied about 300 people in immigration detention each year. When the immigrants finish, if the agents are there, the volunteers are afforded a short time to prepare them to face possible detention — they provide Sharpies to write families’ numbers on their bodies, prompt them to make a plan for their car and childcare and ask if they will share their information so another team can visit them in detention and support their families. Though faith groups across the country are accompanying immigrants in court and detention centers, the integrated system built by the Scalabrinian sisters in the Diocese of El Paso is rare.

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Texas routs Michigan to make Final Four for 2nd straight year

In mid-February, Texas women's basketball coach Vic Schaefer questioned if his team had heart. On Monday, he told the heavily pro-Longhorn crowd at Dickies Arena that his players were "Texas tough." After a two-decade drought ended last season, the Longhorns are going to the Final Four for the second year in a row. No. 1 seed Texas continued what has been a dominant run to the national semifinals with a 77-41 victory over No. 2 seed Michigan. The 36-point margin tied the third-largest ever in the women's Elite Eight.

The Longhorns have won 12 games in a row and now look to add a national championship to the SEC tournament title they won on March 8. They will face fellow No. 1 seed UCLA on Friday in Phoenix (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). No. 1 seeds UConn and South Carolina meet in the other semifinal. It is the second time the Final Four features the same teams in back-to-back years (the other was 1995 and 1996) and the fifth time all four No. 1 seeds have advanced to the women's Final Four. "I'm proud to be included in that group," Schaefer said. "There's going to be four really elite teams with a bunch of really elite players and some great coaches." Last season, the Longhorns reached the national semifinals for the first time since 2003, a breakthrough for Schaefer, then in his fifth year in charge of the program. They are going back after dominating the Wolverines from start to finish in the Fort Worth Regional 3.

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Multiple pros withdraw from Valero Texas Open

This week marks the last chance for PGA Tour players to get some reps before The Masters or their final chance to make it in at the 11th hour. It's a strong field headlined by the likes of Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Aberg in San Antonio, and there have been some changes after three players withdrew on Monday. Pierceson Coody, who withdrew from last week's Houston Open, pulled out with the same back injury that has ended any hopes of making his Masters debut. The grandson of 1971 Green Jacket winner, Charles, finished the week ranked 52nd in the world with only the top 50 qualifying.

Coody has been replaced in the field by Taylor Moore. Nicolai Hojgaard, who was one of four players to qualify for The Masters via the world's top 50, has also pulled out of the Texas Open following his runner-up finish in Houston. He has been replaced by Joel Dahmen. There was yet another WD on Monday with Germany's Matti Schmid being replaced by Sam Ryder. Both Ryder and Dahmen managed to get into the Valspar Championship two weeks ago via the alternates list, too. And later in the day, Gary Woodland withdrew from the event too. These latest withdrawals followed multiple field changes over the weekend, which saw Ryan Gerard, Isaiah Salinda and Aaron Wise all pull out. Matt Kuchar, Justin Lower, Bronson Burgoon and Ryan Palmer were added to the field. The Valero Texas Open is the final route for Masters hopefuls to qualify for Augusta National, with only the winner earning a tee time next Thursday. Brian Harman is the defending champion this week at TPC San Antonio after the left-handed 2023 Open champion won his fourth PGA Tour title here last time out.

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Port of Galveston approves $2.4 billion, 20-year master plan

With the Port of Galveston becoming the fourth busiest cruise homeport in the country, local officials on the island are planning to transform the port over the next 20 years. A newly approved 20-year strategic master plan for the Port of Galveston involves adding new cruise terminals, hotels, and a pedestrian greenbelt to the port over the next two decades. Galveston Wharves Board officials, who operate the port, predict a $2.4 billion investment in the projects. According to Galveston Wharves Board officials, the Port of Galveston has moved almost 3.6 million passengers and 2.9 million tons of cargo annually in recent years. Port director and CEO Rodger Rees said that, with global growth in cruising, officials are predicting the port could almost double its cruise passenger numbers over the next 15 years.

"We now have 46 million people that live within eight hours of this port," Rees said. To meet growing needs at the port, the 20-year plan includes building up to three new cruise terminals, on-site parking garages, and increasing cargo capacity from 3 million tons a year to more than 5 million tons over the next five to 10 years. The plan also includes adding a maritime park, walkways along the waterfront, retail space, up to three hotels near the cruise terminals, and multifamily units along Harborside Drive intended for nearby hospital and port workers. Port officials were originally following a master plan approved in 2019; however, progress came faster than expected. In six years, the port had two new cruise terminals, an internal roadway, expanded cargo facilities, and progress with industrial development on Pelican Island. "We were building our fourth cruise terminal when we were not supposed to have that done until 2030, so what we did was we decided to go ahead and upgrade and do a new master plan," Rees said.

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National Stories

Iran sets giant oil tanker ablaze off Dubai after Trump warnings

Tehran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Tuesday, despite a threat by President Donald Trump ?that the U.S. will obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz. Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had ?been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged. Tehran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Tuesday, despite a threat by President Donald Trump ?that the U.S. will obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had ?been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged. Tehran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Tuesday, despite a threat by President Donald Trump ?that the U.S. will obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had ?been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged. Tehran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Tuesday, despite a threat by President Donald Trump ?that the U.S. will obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had ?been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged.

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Trump urging Congress to come back from recess to fund DHS as shutdown drags on, White House says

President Donald Trump is encouraging Congress to cut short its two-week recess and return to Washington to fund the Department of Homeland Security amid its ongoing partial shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. Lawmakers left the Capitol last week with no deal to fund the department, extending what is already the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. "Has he told leadership that they should cancel recess and come back?" ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers asked Leavitt during Monday's press briefing. "He's said it repeatedly," Leavitt said, adding that the president has said "he'll host a big Easter dinner here at the White House if Congress will come back and fight the Democrats on this issue, which we should do, because, again, [the] Democrat Party is in the wrong here."

Although Trump last week publicly called for Congress to cancel recess, he has not publicly called for lawmakers to return to Washington since they left town Friday. ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment on Leavitt's remarks. More than 40 days into the funding impasse, there was a glimmer of progress last week when the Senate, in the early hours of Friday morning, passed a bill to fund most of DHS except for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But House Republicans rejected the Senate bill, instead passing its own legislation that would fund the entire agency for 60 days. The House and Senate ultimately left town with no compromise, and are currently scheduled to be out for recess until mid-April. Amid the gridlock on Capitol Hill, and as lines and turmoil grew at some of the nation's busiest airports, Trump on Friday signed a memorandum directing DHS to work with the White House budget office to pay employees at the Transportation Security Administration. Some TSA officers received their first paychecks in more than a month on Monday, workers told ABC News.

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Trump plans presidential library skyscraper with two gold statues of himself

President Donald Trump shared the first images of his planned presidential library in downtown Miami, posting a short video Monday night that depicts a skyscraper that appears to be about 50 stories tall and filled with reconstructions of parts of the White House, military vehicles and at least two gold statues of Trump. The 100-second video, which Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, offers a series of views of the planned Donald J. Trump Presidential Library, represented as a gleaming glass and gold structure that would dwarf nearby buildings, topped by a red-white-and-blue spire. The video, which appears to have been created at least partially using images generated by artificial intelligence, shows a library that would be replete with memorabilia, images and messages from Trump’s presidency.

Visitors are depicted navigating a golden escalator — harkening back to the escalator ride that Trump took to the lobby of Trump Tower in 2015 when he announced his campaign for the presidency. It also appears to depict visitors perusing recreations of the Oval Office, parts of the West Wing and Trump’s planned White House ballroom; walking around a plane that appears to be Air Force One, fighter jets and a helicopter inside the building; and attending a party on the skyscraper’s patio. Spokespeople for the Trump library project did not immediately respond to questions about the video. Presidents typically set up post-presidential libraries that are used to house their records and archives. The organizations also serve as highly curated museums, touting the president’s record and offering their interpretation of events that unfolded during their tenures and are funded by private donations. Trump’s planned library would be notably different than his predecessors’ facilities, particularly in its size and scope. Politico reported in December that Trump’s allies were considering a 47-story high-rise building in honor of Trump’s election as the 47th president. The building would tower over other presidential libraries; former president Barack Obama’s planned library in Chicago, which is nearing completion, is 225 feet tall at its highest point. Trump has repeatedly denigrated Obama’s library design.

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Members of Jan. 6 mob sue police who fended off Capitol attack

Members of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 are suing the federal government for tens of millions of dollars in damages, claiming that the “indiscriminate” use of force by police officers repelling the attack caused them physical and emotional injuries. The lawsuit, filed in Florida, takes aim at the conduct of Capitol Police and Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, whose outnumbered officers fended off the mob for hours while members of Congress fled. Among the lead plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit: A.J. Fischer, a member of the Proud Boys who was charged with assault before his case was erased by President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardon. He sued along with Patrick and Marie Sullivan, who described being present in the crowd that day, pelted with pepper balls and afflicted by chemical spray.

The Sullivans were not criminally charged for their conduct on Jan. 6. Fischer and the Sullivans are looking to represent a class of plaintiffs that includes dozens of others present that day on the Capitol’s West Front, the scene of the most violent confrontations between rioters and police. Among those the lawsuit identifies as eligible to join the class, if a federal judge signs off, are others convicted of felony assaults: Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boy who ignited the breach of the Capitol itself when he smashed a window with a stolen riot shield and Christopher Worell, a Proud Boy who unleashed pepper spray at a line of police officers. Also on the list, pro-Trump livestreamer Anthime Gionet, who is better known by his moniker “Baked Alaska,” who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count. Fischer and his allies say the Capitol and D.C. police uncorked a wanton barrage of non-lethal munitions on the crowd, firing recklessly at protesters who were not among those causing chaos or violence.

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The unlikely ensemble leading Trump’s hunt for 2020 election fraud

When a former CIA officer and a Venezuelan fixer flew to Palm Beach, Fla., two years ago to brief top Trump campaign officials on how Caracas had manipulated the 2020 election, their ideas were dismissed as fantastical. Nearly six years after Donald Trump lost that election, these and other once-fringe theories have gained new traction inside the White House, drawing in top officials at the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and intelligence agencies, according to U.S. officials and others involved in the effort. Senior officials across the Trump administration are now hunting for an array of evidence to support Trump’s claim that he defeated Joe Biden—and to bolster the case for new election laws as the president urges Congress to pass the SAVE America Act. That effort is now unfolding on multiple fronts. Attorney General Pam Bondi last week quietly authorized Dan Bishop, a U.S. attorney in North Carolina, to pursue election-related probes across the country, according to a copy of the order reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Bishop, a former congressman who voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 win, will also examine voter-roll data the Justice Department has been collecting from states in an effort to determine whether noncitizens have illegally registered or cast ballots, a department official said. In Atlanta, FBI agents have sifted through thousands of paper ballots confiscated from the main election office there. Federal officials have also seized voting machines in Puerto Rico, locking them in a basement of an intelligence campus in Bethesda, Md., at the behest of the office of Trump’s intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. At the center of many of the efforts is Kurt Olsen, a campaign lawyer who was heavily involved in Trump’s failed “Stop the Steal” fight in 2020 and was tapped to lead the new push at the White House last fall. In recent weeks, Olsen has briefed Trump on a range of allegations, pushed the president to declassify a swath of documents, and asked for up to $10 million in funding to pursue his mandate, administration officials familiar with the efforts said. He has traveled to Florida to meet with Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney in Miami. The probes into alleged improprieties in the 2020 election range from foreign interference to duplicate, fraudulent and missing ballots in states Trump lost. Olsen spends much of his time at the Justice Department, according to administration officials, as prosecutors pursue criminal investigations on the topic in Atlanta, Phoenix and elsewhere, according to people familiar with the matter.

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DeSantis signs bill to rename Palm Beach International Airport for Trump

Gov. Ron DeSantis wasted little time signing a bill that will rename Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump. A little more than a year after the two clashed over the Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis on Monday signed legislation (HB 919) delivered to him earlier in the day, which dubs the West Palm Beach airport as “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.” DeSantis didn’t hold a public bill signing event as he continues to mend fences with Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago Club sits east of the airport.

Trump’s son Eric Trump praised the signing on X, where he thanked DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, bill sponsor Rep. Meg Weinberger, R-Palm Beach Gardens, and “the overwhelming majority in the Florida House!” The House voted 81-30 along party lines in support of the bill. The Senate vote was 25-11, also along party lines. House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, called the measure a misdirection of priorities by state lawmakers. “Instead of working across the aisle with us to advance those bills, Republican leaders decided to prioritize wasting five million of your taxpayer dollars on renaming an airport after the President,” Driskell wrote in a statement on Monday.

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After Pope's remark, White House defends praying for US troops

The White House on Monday defended praying for US troops engaged in the Iran war after Pope Leo XIV warned that God rejects the prayers "of those who wage war." "I don't think there is anything wrong with our military leaders or with the president calling on the American people to pray for our servicemembers and those who are serving our country overseas," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in response to a question about the pontiff's comments. With the conflict in the Middle East stretching into its second month, Pope Leo said during his Palm Sunday homily: "This is our God... A God who refuses war... who does not listen to the prayer of those who wage war."

Leo XIV, the first US-born pope, has repeatedly condemned the war and called for dialogue. But the 70-year-old pontiff has been cautious in his statements since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran that started the war on February 28, refraining from naming any party in his condemnations and appeals for peace. Leavitt and other members of the Trump administration have made an conspicuous display of their Christian faith. At the start of the press conference, she said her team had just finished a "little loud prayer" before the briefing began. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also used quasi-religious language to frame the conflict with Iran, offering a prayer last week at the Pentagon in which he said, "Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. In response to the pope's comments, Leavitt -- who is Catholic, along with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio -- said the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Leaders and troops have prayed "during the most turbulent times in our nation's history, and if you talk to many servicemembers they will tell you they appreciate the prayers," she added. "In fact, I think it's a very noble thing to do." Last week, the pope called for a ceasefire in the Middle East, saying more than a million people had been forced to flee their homes and urging the warring parties to hold talks.

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Lead Stories

Vance wins CPAC’s 2028 straw poll. Abbott and Cruz each get 1% .

Vice President JD Vance is the favorite to earn the Republican nomination for president in 2028, according to a new straw poll taken at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday. Vance earned support from about 53 percent of attendees who participated in the presidential preference poll at the annual gathering in Grapevine, Texas, according to New York Times reporter Kellen Browning. Secretary of State Marco Rubio came in second with 35 percent, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, tied at 2 percent for a distant third place. Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rand Paul (Ky.), Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott each got 1 percent. The other two contenders on the list got no support.

The closely watched straw poll often serves as an early barometer for how GOP voters are leaning, and Vance’s name at the top indicates that conservative Republicans view him as best suited to succeed President Trump and advance the MAGA agenda. Last year, Vance led with 61 percent support among 1,022 CPAC attendees, followed by former Trump advisor and right-wing media personality Steve Bannon with 12 percent. Rubio received only 3 percent support in 2025, a sign his stock is now rising among Trump’s core base. Trump is reportedly skipping CPAC this year — the first time in a decade — as the war with Iran rages on and he faces pressure to tamp down surging oil and gas prices ahead of the midterms. The outcome of Saturday’s straw poll was not unexpected, as Vance and Rubio have widely emerged as the expected GOP frontrunners heading into 2028. Trump is not eligible to run again. Vance has been seen as the heir apparent to Trump since becoming his running mate in 2024, but the president’s recent praise of Rubio’s diplomatic work has introduced fresh speculation over who may carry the party torch once Trump leaves office.

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Russia welcomes arrival of oil tanker in Cuba after Trump softens approach to U.S. blockade

The Kremlin on Monday welcomed the arrival of a Russian-flagged oil tanker to Cuba, saying energy supplies to the fuel-starved island had been discussed with the U.S. ahead of its delivery. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow considered it its duty to help Cuba, according to Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti. He added that Havana needed petroleum products amid a de facto U.S. oil blockade. A Russian oil tanker carrying a humanitarian shipment of 100,000 tons of crude oil reportedly arrived in Cuba earlier in the day. The sanctioned Anatoly Kolodkin vessel was said to be waiting to unload shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had "no problem" with a Russian crude tanker delivering fuel to Cuba. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said: "If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with that, whether it's Russia or not."

The shipment of crude oil is seen as something of a lifeline to the Caribbean nation, which is facing its biggest test since the collapse of the Soviet Union amid a deepening energy crisis. Cuba had been heavily dependent on oil supplies from Venezuela, but it has effectively been cut off since early January when the U.S. launched an extraordinary military operation to depose Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration subsequently threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sent crude to Cuba, prompting the likes of Mexico to halt shipments. The Kremlin has previously shrugged off Trump's tariff threats, pointing out that Washington and Moscow "don't have much trade right now." Cuba's President Miguel Díaz-Canel said last week that the island hadn't received oil shipments in more than three months. The country, which has said it is holding talks with the U.S., has sought to dramatically increase its solar power generation amid the ongoing fuel shortage. The island of roughly 10 million people has faced a series of power blackouts in recent weeks and the United Nations has warned that Cuban hospitals have been struggling to maintain emergency and intensive care services. "Cuba is finished, they have a bad regime and they have very bad and corrupt leadership and whether or not they get a boat of oil it's not going to matter," Trump said Sunday. "I prefer letting it in, whether it's Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and all of the other things that you need," he added.

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Trump says his 'preference' would be to 'take the oil in Iran'

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would like to "take the oil in Iran" and is considering seizing the export hub of Kharg Island, which is responsible for more than90% of Iran's oil exports. In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said his "preference would be to take the oil." "To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people," he said. The interview marks some of Trump's most direct comments about his thinking on what to do with Iran's oil. In an interview with NBC News this month, Trump sidestepped answering whether he had plans to try to take Iran’s oil.

“You look at Venezuela,” he said. “People have thought about it, but it’s too soon to talk about that.” In January, the U.S. captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and proceeded to take more control over the country's oil industry. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night. Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that the U.S. has "a lot of options," including potentially taking Kharg Island, a rare island made of hard coral off Iran. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump said. “It would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while.” Oil prices have skyrocketed around the globe as the war continues, with U.S. crude oil costing over $100 a barrel Sunday. Thousands more U.S. troops are heading to the Middle East, with the USS Tripoli arriving on Saturday as part of a complement of 3,500 troops. But Trump and his administration continue to signal that they are working to negotiate a 15-point proposal to end the war. Trump declined Sunday to offer specific details about whether a ceasefire deal could be reached in the coming days to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway used to move about 20% of the world's oil exports. “We’ve got about 3,000 targets left — we’ve bombed 13,000 targets — and another couple of thousand targets to go,” Trump said in the Financial Times interview. “A deal could be made fairly quickly.”

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K Street: Trump immigration enforcement harms GOP

Most K Street leaders (88%) say the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement will harm Republicans in the midterms. This comes after federal officers shot and killed two protesters in Minnesota in January. Now, the Department of Homeland Security has been shut down since Feb. 14 with no end in sight. More than three-quarters of Republican respondents to The Canvass said President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown would harm the GOP come November. Only 17% of Republicans on K Street said the administration’s deployment of ICE and CBP will help their party. Only a quarter of Canvass respondents said immigration would be in the top three most important issues for voters in the midterms. K Street leaders said that inflation and the economy will be the most important issues to Americans in November. Health care ranked ahead of immigration, with 34%. The Canvass K Street was conducted Feb. 10 – March 2 in partnership with independent public affairs firm, LSG.

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State Stories

Most Texas prisoners live without AC. A landmark trial could change that.

A federal case that is set to go to trial on Monday could force Texas to air-condition dozens of its prisons, as attorneys argue the state is exposing inmates, guards and other staff members to dangerously high temperatures, and say the conditions have resulted in several heat-related deaths. Lawyers representing Texas prisoners are asking that cell temperatures remain between 65 and 85 degrees, a similar range to what’s already required in Texas jails and federal prisons. Nearly 70% of Texas prisoners live without AC, or roughly 90,000 inmates, according to the legal filings, and temperatures in cells routinely climb to above 90 degrees during the summer. The landmark trial will likely center on how quickly and comprehensively Texas must act to cool the second-largest prison system in the country.

The judge presiding over the case has already warned that he plans to order the agency overseeing Texas’ prison system to install climate control in every cell. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman declared in a March 2025 ruling that the plaintiffs had shown they were likely to win at trial. "This case concerns the plainly unconstitutional treatment of some of the most vulnerable, marginalized members of our society," Pitman, an Obama appointee, wrote. The 91-page order said that scorching-hot cells likely violate inmates' Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. His order followed a July 2024 hearing where former inmates described watching eggs cook on concrete cell floors and flooding their cells with toilet water, then lying in it overnight to cool down. The then-chief of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Bryan Collier, also acknowledged in the hearing that heat contributed to at least three inmate deaths in 2023, and that the system struggled with an unusually high staff turnover rate as employees fell ill from heat exposure.

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‘We don’t have time.’ Texas-appointed superintendent sets urgent tone for FWISD

FWISD Superintendent Peter Licata leaned down and placed his hands on his knees to help a Morningside Middle School student connect to the internet. The seventh grader’s laptop wouldn’t load her English assignment. Refresh. Nothing. Then it appeared. “It was three minutes — three minutes of good instructional time lost and then she gets rushed,” Licata said in a hushed tone in the classroom. Moments like that, routine classroom delays, are what Fort Worth ISD’s new state-appointed superintendent says must change quickly. Students don’t have time to waste, he said. Yet he needs time for changes — from bolstering campus leaders to better support their teachers to rethinking the district’s nearly $1 billion budget. “It’s going to take a while to correct the system,” Licata said Friday as he walked around Morningside, a campus slated for a new academic turnaround model. “But we don’t have time.”

The visit was one of the first looks at how Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath’s hand-selected leader is approaching classrooms just four days on the job. Morath picked Licata for leading Broward County Public Schools to its first A in 14 years and eliminated D and F campuses. Licata walked into a C district where 63 campuses improved in 2025 academic accountability ratings but which still has 39 D and F schools, including two middle schools teetering on triggering the state’s intervention law. The state intervened in October after more than a decade of low academic performance, with only about a third of students performing on grade level in reading and math. Improving outcomes will require urgency and a shift in expectations, Licata said. Poverty is not destiny. ZIP codes do not dictate students’ future. Success is possible. “That expectation when that kid walks in the classroom is as high as for every kid in the district,” Licata said. School board President Pete Geren has long seen Fort Worth ISD’s stubbornly low academic performance, particularly in literacy, as a moral failing. Licata shares that view. “He has a passion for the children who are the most economically disadvantaged,” Geren said of the new superintendent. “He’s a kid-focused, student-outcomes kind of person.”

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Dallas ISD voters to decide future of largest bond in Texas history

The Dallas Independent School District is asking its voters to approve the largest bond in Texas history at $6.2 billion. Among other things, the bond would improve safety and security, renovate and modernize all campuses, and build 26 new schools to replace some of the district's oldest campuses. “The average age of those 26 campuses that are gonna be rebuilt is 70 years old. That goes back to LBJ’s presidency. Those campuses could qualify for Medicare today. We’re trying to teach kids artificial intelligence and those campuses, they’re having a hard time with artificial lighting,” Miguel Solis told us on Inside Texas Politics. Miguel Solis is a former DISD Board President and a passionate advocate for the bond. He says more than 100 community members are on the steering committee, providing guidance. And he says there have been more than 65 community meetings.

The bond will be split into four parts: Prop A: $5.9 billion to replace campuses, modernize buildings, increase security, Prop B: $144.7 million in technology upgrades, Prop C: $143.3 million in debt service refinancing, and Prop D: $26.3 million to repair and renovate district pools And it’s important to note that the bond will lead to a one-cent tax increase. “The average price of a coffee across the United States of America is a little more than $3. This one-cent tax increase to the average homeowner is going to be $2.79 a month. Over the course of a year, it’s $33,” Solis explained. “Our bet is that the average taxpayer is going to be willing, possibly, to pay that $2.79 a month because inevitably, more kids getting a better education and better school facilities means the ultimate economic outlook for our community is going to go up because good grades lead to good lifetime opportunities.” Solis says he knows of no organized opposition to the bond.

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New DHS border buoys in the Rio Grande raise concerns

The Trump administration is moving ahead with a new border security project in the Rio Grande — not a wall of steel or concrete, but a floating barrier of linked buoys. The effort known as Operation River Wall, calls for more than 500 miles of buoy barriers in the river along the Texas-Mexico border. The first segment, now being installed near Brownsville, stretches about 17 miles. Federal officials announced the project in January, and public reporting has said the broader plan could total roughly 536 miles. The first section carries a price tag of about $96 million.

The initial construction of the buoy barrier is in a remote part of the Rio Grande near Brownsville that is on the other side of the border wall and in an area that local residents call “No Man’s Land.” Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, stood on the riverbank looking out at the buoys. “This is a gorgeous riverbank,” she said. “And in the middle of our river I see these orange cylinder barrier buoys just floating in the center.” Nearby, more than 100 buoys sat at a staging area. Workers on a raft were linking them together and anchoring them to the riverbed. Each buoy appeared to be about 15 feet long and four to five feet high. Homeland Security has framed the project as a way to deter illegal crossings. But critics say the barriers could create a new problem when the Rio Grande rises.

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A women's prison in Texas conceals a sinister secret: Staff sexual misconduct, accusers say

Tucked in a residential neighborhood of bungalows and crape myrtle trees, the federal women’s prison in Bryan, Texas, doesn’t look like a traditional lockup. The women live in dormitory-style rooms without doors. In khaki uniforms and boots, some of the country’s most high-profile prisoners move freely between buildings for meals, work programs and recreation. But as sprawling and open as Federal Prison Camp Bryan appears, some women and staff whistleblowers say the minimum-security facility conceals a sinister secret: inescapable sexual misconduct, and punishments for those who try to report the abuse. Six women who were incarcerated at Bryan since 2020 told The Marshall Project and NBC News that staff members pressured them into unwanted sex acts in deserted corners where there were no security cameras or witnesses. Two more women said staff members groped them or touched them inappropriately.

“Looking back, I wish I did a hundred things, you know, kick him, scream, cry, whatever,” said Darlene, 32, who alleges a prison chaplain sexually abused her in the chapel and in a closet after months of grooming her with compliments and hugs. Once, she said, he cornered her in a bathroom and reached into her underwear. She said she reported him to a correctional officer and a captain in early 2020 and also spoke to a Bureau of Prisons investigator but doesn’t know what happened to the report. Darlene is one of several women incarcerated at Bryan, who, along with three former staff members, say they faced retribution or threats from prison officials after reporting misconduct against incarcerated women under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal law meant to protect prisoners from abuse. Days after she reported the chaplain, Darlene, who was incarcerated for methamphetamine possession, said she was shipped to a more restrictive facility. Others said they were too afraid to file complaints or didn’t expect that the employees would face consequences after seeing what happened when women had complained.

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On Palm Sunday, First Baptist Dallas announces groundbreaking of new sanctuary

Questions surround the future of downtown Dallas, as posed by First Baptist Dallas executive pastor Ben Lovvorn. But for his church, the future is clear. The church in the heart of downtown Dallas announced on Sunday – Palm Sunday – that construction will soon begin to rebuild the church’s 134-year-old historic sanctuary that was destroyed in a four-alarm fire in July 2024. Nearly two years later, after workers have cleared the hollowed-out structure and stabilized portions that survived the disaster, a new era will begin with a groundbreaking ceremony June 7. On Palm Sunday, congregants and Christians around the world remember the story of Jesus Christ’s entry to the city of Jerusalem, where he was greeted by people waving palm branches. The day marks one week until Easter and the beginning of Holy Week, a period to reflect on the story of Christ’s death and resurrection.

In an interview ahead of Palm Sunday, senior pastor Robert Jeffress reflected on specific scripture that says the whole world will burn someday, but there will be a new heaven and a new earth with Christ. “We’re rebuilding a historic sanctuary,” he said. “And as wonderful as that is, it’s going to be destroyed one day. It’s not going to last forever. But the people who worship in it will last forever.” First Baptist Dallas’ historic sanctuary served as a secondary, but beloved, worship space after its $130 million expansion was completed in 2013. John Paul DeFrank, the managing principal at Beck Architecture and the lead of the First Baptist project, said the goal of the new chapel is to create a space that honors the past with an eye to the future. “It will be very traditional looking in terms of its architecture,” DeFrank said in an interview.

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Austin ISD board hands control of 3 middle schools to outside partner to avoid state takeover

Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools will be run by Texas Council for International Studies next school year, a high-stakes move that avoids a potential fifth failing accountability rating that could trigger a district takeover from the state. After a brief debate over the group’s track record, Austin ISD board members voted unanimously Thursday night to surrender control of the three schools to the nonprofit for the next three school years, ceding day-to-day campus operations in an effort to reset performance. The decision temporarily shields the campuses from immediate state intervention. The vote came days before the March 31 deadline to apply to the Texas Education Agency under the Texas Partnerships program, which allows districts to turn over campus operations to an approved external partner.

Superintendent Matias Segura said the district was fortunate to find a partner that met the district’s expectations, and the search also exposed a need to bring in a technical advisory partner given the urgency of the turnaround effort. He said district leaders visited schools where Texas Council for International Studies already operates as a partner and consulted with TEA to receive feedback about what configurations work and how to ensure the partnerships are successful. “After spending time with the partners and understanding their structure, having conversations with the staff at these schools, meeting with principals, I am confident this partner and this iteration will help us be successful,” Segura said. Final approval could take months, possibly until May or June, Segura said. TEA could still deny the application. If that happens and any of the three schools receive a fifth failing rating, state law requires the education commissioner to either close the school or appoint a board of managers to replace the elected school board, a move that could strip control away from Austin ISD.

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Houston ISD board approves outside management for 4 top-performing high schools, pre-K centers

Houston ISD's state-appointed board of managers approved contracts Thursday night to allow four top-performing high schools as well as prekindergarten centers to be managed by outside organizations. The move is possible under a 2017 law, Senate Bill 1882, which permits partnerships between public schools and other educational organizations, including nonprofits and charter school networks. HISD announced the district would explore the partnerships for highly rated high school campuses back in October. The partnership also could come with additional per-student funding from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The district could use more funding after years of enrollment declines that have resulted in tens of millions of dollars in lost state funding, which is tied to enrollment and attendance.

The district is now cleared to submit an application to the TEA for final approval of the partnerships. If approved, the schools will begin working with nonprofits to have more control over instruction, curriculum, testing, staffing, hiring, evaluations and their academic calendars. The partnerships, which are set to begin for the 2026-2027 school year, are as follows: Kinder High School For The Performing And Visual Arts to be operated by HSPVA Friends, Challenge Early High School to be operated by Friends Of Challenge Early High School, Houston Academy For International Studies to be operated by Friends Of The Houston Academy For International Studies, Energy Institute High School to be operated by Friends Of Energy Institute High School, and Prekindergarten centers to be operated by Collaborative For Children.

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Remembering Austin musician Jon Dee Graham, who died at 67

For some, it began with the True Believers — or the Skunks, if you’re hardcore. The music career of Jon Dee Graham, who died Friday at 67, began when he left his studies at the University of Texas to join the Skunks, where he opened for bands like The Clash and the Ramones. Eventually, Graham left the group to back blues singer Lou Ann Barton before joining the seminal True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo. But his ride was far from over when he left the band right before they split in 1987. He went on to collaborate with John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, Kelly Willis, Patty Griffin and many others.

Still, it was Graham's solo work that connected a lot of fans to his understated yet incredible talent. Hooray for the Moon (2002), The Great Battle (2004) and Summerland (1999) are good starting points, and Only Dead For a Little While (2023) is a damn treasure. KUTX's Laurie Gallardo put it best when she said his songs "connect to the soul in ways you didn’t think possible.” You know the truth of that statement if you’ve ever spent any time with Graham and his music, especially if you ever caught him live at one of his Wednesday residencies at the Continental Club, or any other space he chose to bless with his presence.

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Texas Supreme Court to decide whether Allen mall owner should be removed from shooting lawsuit

The Texas Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments over whether the owner of Allen Premium Outlets should be removed from a lawsuit brought against it by victims of a deadly 2023 shooting. Families of several victims in the shooting sued Simon Property Group and its security contractor, Allied Universal Security Service, in 2024 for allegedly not keeping the property safe. "We thank the Texas Supreme Court for the opportunity to address crucial matters of law and public safety that are raised by this case: Do mall owners who invite the public to gather and spend money at their malls have a legal duty to try to protect those mallgoers from the foreseeable threats posed by mass shooters?" Jeffrey B. Simon, a lawyer representing families of victims, told KERA in an email.

"As we interpret their briefing, Simon Property Group LP, the mall owner, argues that only after there have been one or more mass shootings on a particular property does the mall owner have any legal duty to try to prevent subsequent ones or form a plan to protect the public when they occur." The lawsuit first went before Dallas County District Judge Staci Williams. She struck down a motion from Simon Property Group to dismiss the suit. The company then appealed Williams' order to the Fifth District Court of Appeals, which upheld her decision. Simon Property Group has denied any responsibility for the shooting and argues they can't be held responsible for the actions of Mauricio Garcia, the white supremacist mass shooter. "Tragic as this deadly attack was, those who owned or controlled the Outlets have no responsibility, as a matter of law, for not preventing it," the company's lawyers wrote in their petition for an appeal.

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WNBA returning to Houston after Connecticut Sun reach deal to sell to Rockets owner, AP source says

The Connecticut Sun have reached an agreement to sell the team to Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for $300 million and will move to Houston in 2027, according to a person familiar with the deal. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press on Friday because the deal hasn't been announced publicly. The WNBA Board of Governors still needs to approve the sale and the move. The team will play in Connecticut for the upcoming season before moving to Houston and becoming the Comets again. This will end a 23-year run by the team in New England after the team moved to Connecticut from Orlando in 2003.

Houston was one of the groups that expressed interest in buying the team last year, eventually raising its bid to $250 million — the amount that Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia paid for expansion fees. Now with the $300 million sale price that’s the highest a team has been sold for in WNBA history. The Sun had an offer for $325 million from a group led by Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca that would have moved the franchise to Boston. The WNBA basically blocked that deal from happening by saying that "relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams." The league also went on to say that other teams had gone through the expansion process and had priority over Boston. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said during a news conference to announce the three new expansion teams that Houston was up next.

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National Stories

ICE agents may remain at airports even after TSA agents get paid

White House border czar Tom Homan suggested Sunday that ICE agents deployed to airports may remain there even after Transportation Security Agency officers are paid this week. Speaking to CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Homan said “we’ll see” when host Jake Tapper asked whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will leave airports after TSA personnel are paid. Homan said some of that decision will depend on whether TSA agents “come back to work.” “I’m working very closely with the TSA administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what,” Homan said. ICE agents, he said, “are keeping the security at the airport at a high level, again, because of heightened threat that we’re in right now.”

TSA agents, Homan said, will get paid “hopefully by tomorrow or Tuesday” after President Donald Trump issued an order Friday to use preexisting funds for the paychecks. Trump’s move came after Congress failed to strike a deal to end the shutdown of much of the Department of Homeland Security. “It’s good news, because these TSA officers are struggling,” Homan said about the paychecks Sunday. “They’re sitting there right now, working very hard, not being paid by members of Congress [who are] out on vacation getting paid. It’s ridiculous.” Airports around the nation have recorded lengthy wait lines at TSA checkpoints, and nearly 500 TSA officers have quit during the shutdown. On Friday, lines for security at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport stretched outside and wrapped around the building’s exterior. Wait times have gotten so excessive that some travelers are hiring line-sitters. The president’s emergency paychecks for TSA officers may lessen wait times in the coming days, but it does not solve the issue of the ongoing DHS shutdown, which reached 44 days on Sunday.

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Trump weighs military operation to extract Iran’s uranium

President Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, according to U.S. officials, a complex and risky mission that would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer. Trump hasn’t made a decision on whether to give the order, the officials said, adding that he is considering the danger to U.S. troops. But the president remains generally open to the idea, according to the officials, because it could help accomplish his central goal of preventing Iran from ever making a nuclear weapon. The president has also encouraged his advisers to press Iran to agree to surrender the material as a condition for ending the war, according to a person familiar with Trump’s thinking. Trump has been clear in conversations with political allies that the Iranians can’t keep the material, and he has discussed seizing it by force if Iran won’t give it up at the negotiating table.

Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt have acted as intermediaries between the U.S. and Iran. But Washington and Tehran haven’t yet engaged in direct negotiations to end the war. “It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander-in-chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the president has made a decision,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. The Pentagon didn’t comment and a spokesman for U.S. Central Command declined to comment. On Sunday night, Trump told reporters that Iran must do what the U.S. demands or “they’re not going to have a country.” Referring to Iran’s uranium, Trump said, “They’re going to give us the nuclear dust.” Before Israel and the U.S. conducted a series of airstrikes on Iran in June last year, the country was believed to have more than 400 kilograms of 60% highly enriched uranium, and nearly 200 kilograms of 20% fissile material, which is easily converted into 90%-weapons-grade uranium.

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Trump officials cite white supremacists in bid to end birthright citizenship

Alexander Porter Morse, a Confederate officer during the Civil War and a Louisiana attorney, argued for legalized segregation inthe landmark 1896 Supreme Court case that established the “separate but equal” doctrine and buttressed Jim Crow laws. He is again playing a key role in a monumental case to be argued before the justices Wednesday: The Trump administration has tapped Morse as an authority in its push to upend long-settled law that virtually everyone born in the United States is a citizen. Over a century ago, Morse was among a trio of thinkers who spearheaded a failed effort — steeped in anti-Black and anti-Chinese racism — to erase birthright citizenship. The Trump administration is reviving their arguments to make its case today, some legal scholars say. The administration is citing arguments “built on a racist foundation,” Justin Sadowsky, an attorney for the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA), wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief.

Lucy Salyer, a University of New Hampshire history professor who has written on Morse and others, said she was struck that the Trump administration had chosen to elevate those figures and their ideas: “If you know the history and the broader context of what they were trying to achieve, it does ring alarm bells.” The case, which could redefine who is considered an American, centers on the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” When asked for comment about relying on Morse and his compatriots, the Trump administration pointed to a brief in which it wrote “this Court has repeatedly cited their work in other contexts.” Some legal scholars also argued their stance on birthright citizenship was shared by a number of prominent politicians who did not have racist views. The Trump administration argues the 14th Amendment does not apply to people in the country illegally or on temporary visas. If the high court agrees, and reverses the long-held interpretation, it could render hundreds of thousands of children born to immigrant parents stateless.

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Democrats push Trump administration to tackle insider trading in booming prediction markets

Over 40 Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate signed a letter to top administration regulators and ethics officials on Monday asking for governmentwide training on insider trading in prediction markets. The letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of Government Ethics comes after weeks of increasing scrutiny regarding potential insider trading by government employees using prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi. The letter highlights concerns that federal employees may have used insider knowledge to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit from trades relating to the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the length of White House press conferences. To date, no federal employee has faced federal charges related to insider trading on event-driven news.

“Given the exponential growth in prediction market trading, rising evidence suggesting possible governmental insider trading in prediction markets, and potential confusion surrounding existing law in this area, we ask that the CFTC and OGE issue guidance reminding federal employees of their existing legal obligation to refrain from using their insider governmental information to profit from prediction market trades,” the letter states. The letter notes that federal employees are prohibited by the Commodities Exchange Act and the STOCK Act from entering into futures contracts or similar types of trades using nonpublic information they gain from their government postings. Prediction markets use these contract mechanisms to allow people to bet on whether certain events will happen. The CFTC oversees these types of contracts and is currently seeking public feedback about new regulations that might be required to confront the rise of prediction market betting. The letter, organized by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was signed by senators including Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and representatives including Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Betty McCollum, D-Minn.

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The Final Four is set as UConn stuns Duke to join Illinois, Arizona and Michigan

All that talent at Arizona and Michigan. All that momentum and good vibes at UConn. And somebody has to play the part of the unheralded “little guy.” At the Final Four next weekend, that role belongs, improbably, to Illinois. In a sign of the times, the Illinii — a Big Ten team with more wins in the conference over the last seven seasons than any other program — will pass for something resembling Cinderella when college basketball’s biggest party kicks off in Indianapolis on Saturday. The first challenge for coach Brad Underwood’s team will be stopping a hard-charging UConn juggernaut that came from 19 points down and got a game-winner from the logo with 0.4 seconds left from an Indy native — Braylon Mullins — to make its third Final Four in the last four years.

The last two times the Huskies reached this point, they won the championship. “It’s a UConn culture, a UConn heart,” coach Dan Hurley said. “We believe we’re supposed to win this time of year.” All these teams do. Arizona, led by Brayden Burries, and Michigan, with Yaxel Lendeborg, have up to nine NBA prospects between them. The Wildcats opened as slight favorites — at plus-165 to win the championship, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. That was a shade ahead of the Wolverines, who are plus-180 after their 95-62 romp over Tennessee on Sunday. But, in one of a few strange twists on the odds chart, the Wildcats are 1 1/2-point underdogs to Michigan in Saturday night’s marquee semifinal, a matchup of No. 1 seeds. Illinois is a 1 1/2-point favorite over UConn and, in reality, it’s the Huskies, at plus-550, who are the biggest long shot in Indy. Even so, the fact that Illinois — the flagship university in the nation’s sixth most populous state and a school with an enrollment of nearly 60,000 — feels most like this year’s out-of-nowhere underdog speaks more about the current state of college hoops than the Illini themselves. They are a No. 3 seed — the highest number at the Final Four in two years. (UConn is a 2. Last season, all four No. 1s made it.)

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House Democrats force a floor vote on restoring TPS for Haiti

A Democratic-led discharge petition gained enough votes over the weekend to force a House vote on extending temporary deportation protections for Haitian migrants that the Trump administration has tried to end. Rep. Ayanna Pressley worked to whip support for the bill introduced by Rep. Laura Gillen earlier this year, gaining the support of Republican Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Lawler and Don Bacon. Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was the petition’s final and 218th signature Friday night. The successful discharge petition moved the bill out of the Rules Committee and toward a full House vote. If passed, the measure would extend Haiti’s designation under the Temporary Protected Status program for three years.

“Throughout the nation, Haitians are parents, workers, caregivers, faith leaders, business owners, and children who are deeply rooted in our communities, essential to our economy, and are shamefully at risk of being deported to an island grappling with a devastating humanitarian crisis,” Pressley said in a Saturday press release. “Today we are a critical step closer to saving lives and delivering the protections they deserve.” President Donald Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to halt TPS for more than 350,000 Haitian migrants last year, but a federal judge in February blocked the order from taking effect. “Since taking office, I have fought tirelessly to extend TPS for Haitian recipients after the Administration refused to do so,” Gillen said in a statement. “Bringing this bill to a vote is an important milestone to protect the lives of our Haitian friends and neighbors across the country. TPS has safeguarded law-abiding, hardworking, taxpaying members of our community who came to the U.S. seeking safety.” The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court earlier this month, arguing the conditions on the island no longer constitute the need for protected status. The State Department currently designates the country a “Level 4: Do not travel” risk “due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.”

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Lead Stories

Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations in Iran

The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, U.S. officials said, as thousands of American soldiers and Marines arrive in the Middle East for what could become a dangerous new phase of the war should President Donald Trump choose to escalate. Any potential ground operation would fall short of a full-scale invasion and could instead involve raids by a mixture of Special Operations forces and conventional infantry troops, said the officials. All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive military plans that have been in development for weeks. Such a mission could expose U.S. personnel to an array of threats, including Iranian drones and missiles, ground fire and improvised explosives. It was unclear Saturday whether Trump would approve all, some or none of the Pentagon’s plans.

The Trump administration in recent days has vacillated between declaring that the war is winding down and threatening to amplify it. While the president has signaled a desire to negotiate an end to the conflict, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Tuesday that if the regime in Tehran does not end its nuclear ambitions and cease its threats against the United States and its allies, Trump is “prepared to unleash hell” against them. In a statement responding to questions for this report, Leavitt said: “It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the Commander in Chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the President has made a decision.” Discussions within the administration over the past month have touched upon the possible seizure of Kharg Island, a key Iranian oil export hub in the Persian Gulf, and raids into other coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz to find and destroy weapons that can target commercial and military shipping, officials said. One person said that the objectives under consideration would probably take “weeks, not months” to complete. Another put the potential timeline at “a couple of months.”

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Democrats spend big but face tough fight in Virginia gerrymandering battle

The battle over congressional maps in Virginia, the latest in the nationwide clash over mid-decade redistricting in the lead-up to this year’s midterm elections, is intensifying with a statewide referendum only weeks away. Tens of millions of dollars have poured into the state to fund campaigns for and against the referendum, which takes place on April 21 and will decide whether Democrats can redraw the state’s map to flip as many as four U.S. House seats currently held by Republicans. The vast majority of the money has flowed in on the Democratic side. With early voting already underway, the evidence so far points to surprisingly healthy turnout and a relatively close outcome, potentially much closer than the California vote for redistricting was in November.

The stakes are significant: If Virginians approve an amendment that would allow redistricting, Democrats could fight their way to a rough draw in the country’s gerrymandering war. The Virginia delegation in the U.S. House is currently made up of six Democrats and five Republicans; the map proposed by Democratic leaders would give Democrats an advantage in 10 of the state’s 11 districts. Coupled with the new maps that voters in California approved in November, the new Virginia seats would cancel out most, if not all, of the Republican redistricting gains made last year in states including North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Texas, where President Trump and state Republicans kicked off the mid-decade gerrymandering scramble. Florida Republicans may still redraw their state’s map to give their party more seats, which could lead to a slight Republican advantage heading into the midterms. But the big wild card is that the U.S. Supreme Court could vote to gut a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and if the ruling came in the spring, it would almost certainly set off further rounds of redistricting before November. So far in Virginia, the main Democratic-aligned effort, Virginians for Fair Elections, has heavily out-raised the main Republican-aligned effort, Virginians for Fair Maps. Over $33 million has flowed into Virginians for Fair Elections, mostly from dark-money groups that are not required to disclose their donors.

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Is Trump losing his grip on the stock market? Sustained declines suggest the president’s influence has waned.

President Donald Trump has a reputation for trying to curry favor with investors. But on Friday, some Wall Street strategists were wondering if he might be losing his grip on the market. U.S. stocks tumbled, with the S&P 500 SPX booking a fifth straight week in the red. The index hadn’t fallen for five straight weeks since May 2022, when it tallied seven in a row, according to FactSet data. Investors’ belief in Trump’s eagerness to de-escalate the Iran conflict has kept the stock market from even larger losses in March, Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told MarketWatch. Still, as the conflict drags on, some have started to worry there’s no end in sight.

“Psychologically, it’s draining,” said Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Wealth Management, in a phone interview Friday. “Markets are grappling with the fact that they expected this to be over on short order.” Recently, some have even begun to wonder whether Trump’s ability to reassure investors by telling them what they want to hear might be starting to wane. Markets this week have been whipsawed by developments surrounding the Iran conflict, with investors at times encouraged by progress toward ending the fighting yet unable to shake off worries about Iran blockading the shipment of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz. “The risk is that constant flip-flopping and headline fatigue is starting to seriously undermine the efficacy of the ‘Trump put,’ ” Barclays analysts said in an equity research note Friday. “The situation remains fluid and rather confusing.”

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Nexstar-Tegna deal on ice after judge issues temporary restraining order

A judge late on Friday temporarily paused a planned merger between media companies Nexstar and Tegna, throwing a wrench into plans blessed by President Donald Trump to establish the country’s largest television company. In his 14-day temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley, an Obama appointee, sided with DirecTV, which claimed in a lawsuit filed last week that Nexstar’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna is an endeavor to “drive up the price it can extract from DIRECTV and other distributors,” enact mass layoffs and reduce competition. “Here, the Court agrees with Plaintiff that Defendants’ integration efforts are exactly those that would make it more difficult to divest TEGNA stations, eliminate competition, and result in newsroom layoffs and shutdowns,” Nunley wrote in his Friday ruling.

Eight states — New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia — sued to block the merger in a separate filing on the same day as DirecTV’s. But just hours later, the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger, bypassing a longstanding cap on the number of viewers a broadcaster can reach nationwide and angering some of the president’s conservative media allies. The merger is on pause until April 7, when Nunley scheduled an in-person hearing to divine the future of the potential acquisition. The two companies are barred from further integration until then. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the stalled deal may well draw the ire of the president, who wrote on Truth Social in February that a merger of the two companies would help buttress against “THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks.” “Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar - Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level,” Trump wrote.

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Could parts of New Mexico become Texas? Lawmakers are exploring it

The study ordered last week by House Speaker Dustin Burrows to examine whether Texas could actually gobble up some of the counties on the eastern rim of New Mexico has some political figures seeing red. Burrows, R-Lubbock, is following up on a proposal being floated in the New Mexico Legislature that would allow counties in the state that share a border with Texas to, in effect, switch sides. And it just so happens that every one of those counties voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2024, while New Mexico as a whole gave its five electoral votes to Democrat Kamala Harris by a comfortable 52%-46% margin. Let's make clear from the outset that the annexation by Texas of one or more of the five counties looks iffy at best. It would require a vote of the people in the counties affected — and an act of Congress.

As might be expected, the Democratic leaders in charge of New Mexico are not about to willingly hand over giants swaths of land in their part of the oil-rich Permian Basin, even if it would mean ridding themselves of some or all of the 36,000 voters in those counties who cast their ballots for Trump. “Let me put this into terms Speaker Burrows might be able to understand: Come and try to take it,” New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martínez said in a Friday report by the Santa Fe New Mexican, invoking one of Texas' many unofficial slogans. “New Mexico isn’t afraid of a fight." Burrows' direction to the committee he charged with exploring the matter stopped well short of fighting words. Actually, they were more on the lawyerly side. The panel, he said, should examine the “constitutional, statutory, fiscal and economic implications” of such an annexation. Admittedly, 36,000 votes — plus the 10,000 that went for Harris — is just a fraction of the 11 million Texans who went to the polls in the last presidential election. But the numbers could make a difference on the margins in state legislative districts, especially around El Paso, where Democrats dominate.

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State Stories

Wait times at IAH dip below an hour Saturday morning

As dozens of ice agents arrived in waves around 7 a.m. Saturday at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, travelers faced shorter wait times as the government shutdown stretched into its 43rd day. According to the airport's website, wait times had dropped below an hour as of 8:45 a.m. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday afternoon to pay Transportation Security Administration employees who haven't been paid for weeks during a partial government shutdown. Many of those unpaid TSA agents have quit or called off, leading to hourslong security wait times at airports, including Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Houston Airport Systems, which manages the two major airports, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Texas' Paxton says Cornyn not doing enough for Save America Act

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday criticized U.S. Sen. John Cornyn for not fighting hard enough to pass the Save America Act, which would mandate proof of citizenship when registering to vote and photo identification at polling places. “John doesn’t care about passing it, or he would be insisting that his brothers and sisters in the Senate not be on recess and on vacation for two weeks, when the president is begging them to pass this legislation,” Paxton said Saturday during a breakfast meet and greet he staged at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine. Cornyn’s campaign was quick to react to Paxton, calling him a “liar” and adding that Cornyn is an original co-sponsor of the bill.

“Ken Paxton has lied to his staff, to taxpayers, to his colleagues and to his own family, so it should be no surprise he’s lying here too,” said Matt Mackowiak, a spokesman for Cornyn. Passage of the Save America Act has become an issue in the bruising Senate campaign between Cornyn and Paxton. After finishing a close second to Cornyn in the March 3 primary, Paxton said he would consider dropping from the runoff if the Senate approved the legislation, which would be a longshot because opponents could filibuster to block it. Immediately after the March 3 result, President Donald Trump appeared poised to endorse Cornyn, writing in a social media post that the candidate not getting his backing must drop from the race. After Paxton linked passage of the Save America Act as a potential condition for ending his Senate bid, Trump held off on making an endorsement. Earlier this month Cornyn dropped his opposition to getting rid of the filibuster, an action political analysts say was designed to mollify Trump.

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A war zone, minus the war: One year into the military buildup of the U.S.-Mexico border

On a warm, winter Sunday, the Playas de Tijuana in Mexico is filled with families picnicking. The beach here presses right up against the border wall with the United States. Music blares, teenagers film TikTok videos next to the 30-foot high fence, which is covered in painted murals on the Mexican side—butterflies, faces, human hands reaching out. Looking through the slotted wall to the American side, the beach is barren. On the other side of the wall is barbed concertina wire, and then another tall fence, also ringed with wire. It’s a scene from a war zone, minus the war. In between the two walls, white Jeep pickup trucks with U.S. Marines in full camouflage and battle helmets circle occasionally, watching the beachgoers; as the sun sets, a single Marine slowly walks toward the ocean and back, holding an M-38. But for the most part, the no-man’s-land between the walls is empty.

Days earlier, armed Border Patrol agents in military fatigues unleashed tear gas canisters on protesters in Minneapolis, 2,000 miles northeast from here. Both the Minnesota National Guard and active duty troops were ordered to prepare to deploy to the city in America’s heartland. “We all have been expecting this to happen,” said Jacqueline Cordero, who helps organize humanitarian supply drops in the mountains and desert east of San Diego. “Basically the border spreading to the rest of the country.” It’s been a year since President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, but amid far-flung domestic deployments, dozens of deadly Caribbean boat strikes, and now a war in Iran, the U.S.-Mexico border has in many ways become a forgotten emergency—a military buildup that persists, as others have before it, long after public attention has turned elsewhere. Trump campaigned on the southern border, painting a picture of a region overrun with violent criminals. On Inauguration Day in January 2025, he declared the magnitude of the crisis required a military response. The resulting deployment—more than 20,000 troops in the past year from the most expensive fighting machine on the planet—has no end in sight. “Our job, our role here on the border, is to gain full operational control,” said Lt. Col. Max Ferguson, who directed Joint Task Force Southern Border’s operations through September of last year. “Detect, respond, interdict, and ensure that nobody is doing illegal crossings from south to north into the United States.”

Read this article at The Border Chronicle and The War Horse - Subscribers Only

Travis DA's office accused of withholding key evidence in 2020 protest case

A defense attorney attempting to get a criminal case against an Austin police officer dismissed is now asking a judge to take a step further: examine whether the prosecutors who brought the case violated the law. APD Officer Chance Bretches was indicted in 2022 on charges of aggravated assault with serious bodily injury by a public servant and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public servant due to his use of less-lethal “bean bag” ammunition against protesters during the May 31, 2020, demonstrations outside the Austin Police Department headquarters. A subsequent indictment added additional counts, including deadly conduct and assault.

Bretches’ attorney Doug O’Connell has filed a motion to dismiss the charges, alleging District Attorney José Garza’s office failed to disclose key information that could have supported his defense. The defense also asks the court to initiate a court of inquiry, a rarely used process that allows a judge to investigate whether a public official may have committed a criminal offense. The defense alleges prosecutors held 2023 meetings with city officials about whether the city of Austin itself could face charges tied to police actions during the 2020 protests. The defense argues that information should have been disclosed because it supports their theory that responsibility for what occurred may extend beyond individual officers to broader decisions about training, supervision, and equipment. Instead, the motion alleges, that information was withheld. “For three years, the District Attorney’s Office has hidden evidence that they intended to indict the City of Austin,” the filing states, alleging prosecutors conducted “secret negotiations with the City” while failing to disclose them to the defense.

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As DART struggles, how are other U.S. public transit agencies faring?

Dallas Area Rapid Transit narrowly escaped a slate of six withdrawal elections that could have shrunk the public transportation system significantly this year, exposing challenges the agency faces in providing bus, train and other transit services over a sprawling region. While those struggles were magnified by the consideration of city elections to leave the agency, three of which will go forward May 2, the challenges in funding and governing public transit in North Texas are not unique. “They’re happening everywhere,” said Nadine Lee, DART’s outgoing CEO who has worked for transit agencies in California and Colorado. Transit systems across the country saw a 40% decrease in ridership during the pandemic, said Randy Machemehl, professor of transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Service was reduced and routes were cut in some cases. Ridership has increased since then, but Machemehl said it’s still struggling.

“It didn’t come back very quickly because a lot of the people … had to get to work. So they found another way,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to get those guys to come back.” As agencies recover from that recent blow, issues of regional collaboration, local needs and limited funding have come to a head in sprawling, fast-growing metro areas ill-suited for efficient mass transit. From coast to coast, local governments are grappling with the glaring public transportation question. In the Denver area, the Regional Transportation District serves more than 3 million people over 2,345 square miles — for comparison, DART’s service area spans 700 square miles. Created in 1969 by the Colorado Legislature, RTD is governed by a 15-member publicly elected board of directors and is funded mainly by a 1% sales tax on purchases made within the district. Michael Davies, government relations officer at RTD, said he sees similarities between DART’s situation and Denver’s. Just like in Texas, it’s hard for the Colorado agency to balance regional needs with local ones, especially as cities grow and ask for a clearer return on investment for their tax dollars.

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Ted Cruz prepares for midterm as Texas takes center stage at CPAC

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz warned on Saturday that Democrats would dismantle Republican victories and try to impeach President Donald Trump if they win control of Congress in November. Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Cruz said Republicans have gained historic victories, from a sweeping crackdown on immigration to changes in the tax policy, since Trump took office in January 2025. Democrats, Cruz said, “want to tear this country down.” Cruz was among a slate of Texas lawmakers and politicians to address CPAC, one of the most influential conservative gatherings in the country, on the final day of the conference. They sought to frame Texas as both the nation’s leader and its ideological brainchild. Cruz portrayed the Republican party as a group of blue-collar workers and populists, blasting Democrats as coastal elites who are out of touch with the average American.

The senator did not mention Democrat James Talarico, a Texas state representative who is running to flip the Senate seat currently held by incumbent John Cornyn. Instead, he singled out California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who he joked “should be named Texas realtor of the year.” “Nobody in history has sold more homes in the state of Texas than Gavin Newsom,” Cruz said. Cruz is considered a potential Republican contender to run for president in 2028; Newsom is one of the leading contenders on the Democratic side. In his address Saturday, Cruz repeatedly praised Trump — who skipped CPAC this year for the first time in a decade — on foreign policy, jobs and economic prosperity and national security. “The world is safer when the president is strong and our enemies are afraid,” Cruz said. Republicans could face a difficult landscape in November, with the party in power typically losing seats in the House of Representatives and often the Senate in midterm elections. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March found Trump’s approval rating fell to 36%, the lowest number since he returned to the White House in January 2025.

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Texas on 'different planet' after Sweet 16 blowout win over Kentucky

No. 1 seed Texas advanced Saturday to the women's Elite Eight, about 190 miles from its campus in Austin. But Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks placed the Longhorns in another location. "They were on a different planet today," Brooks said after Texas' 76-54 win at Dickies Arena. "Especially that first quarter. They came out, and they were aggressive. They play right to the rules. The rules allow a certain level of physicality. They play right to it. They don't go over it. They play right to it. "Today, I thought they did a tremendous job of pushing us off of our mark. Their transition was really good. I think it was a combination of their transition offense being really good and our transition defense not being so good. They capitalize on everything."

Texas led 29-11 after the first quarter and 48-26 at halftime. There was no coming back for Kentucky, which lost to Texas 64-53 on Feb. 9 in SEC play. This is the fifth time in the past six seasons that Texas has advanced to at least the Elite Eight. Last season, the Longhorns made the Final Four for the first time since 2003. That accomplishment has carried over to this season. "Experience does help a lot ... you know what's at stake," said Texas senior guard Rori Harmon, who had 11 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals. "You know how to control the game. I can't say we've had this type of urgency throughout the whole season, though, because the urgency has to change when it comes to March." But the Longhorns had enough urgency to finish tied for second in the SEC and beat fellow NCAA No. 1 seed South Carolina in the league tournament championship game. As big of an accomplishment as that was, though, Texas coach Vic Schaefer said the level the Longhorns have played at for their three NCAA tournament wins is something greater. "It is our best basketball of the year," Schaefer said.

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TCU women installed as massive underdogs against No. 1 seed

TCU women’s basketball has been favored in every game of the NCAA Tournament so far, but that won’t be the case in the Elite Eight on Monday. Top-seeded South Carolina (34-3) is an early 13.5-point favorite over No. 3 TCU (32-5) in the Sacramento 4 regional final at 8 p.m. Monday in Sacramento, California. South Carolina is -1000 on the money line — a bet on who will win the game regardless of the point spread — which implies a 91% chance of victory. The total — the combined points scored by both teams — is set at 132,5. The Gamecocks crushed No. 4 Oklahoma 94-68 in the Sweet 16 on Saturday, while TCU pulled away for a 79-69 win over No. 10 Virginia. South Carolina has gone to five straight Final Fours, winning two championships during that run, under coach Dawn Staley. The Gamecocks also won the national title under Staley in 2017. TCU has reached its second straight Elite Eight in the two best seasons in program history.

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Dallas city manager confirms Mavericks meeting after team CEO says City Hall talks started last year

Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert confirmed she met with the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars about the teams' "futures in Dallas" following comments made by Mavericks CEO Rick Welts that the team was approached about the City Hall property more than a year ago. Welts made the comments on Friday during a sports economic panel hosted by the Greater Dallas Planning Council, The Dallas Morning News reported. According to the News, Welts said Tolbert approached the Mavericks “over a year ago” about the possibility of the City Hall site being available for the team’s new arena. The team is expected to leave American Airlines Center after summer of 2031.

“Since being named Interim Dallas City Manager and subsequently appointed to the permanent role, I have met with representatives of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars regarding their futures in Dallas," Tolbert said in a statement. "These discussions have included the teams’ need for a modern fan-friendly arena experience." She added, "Regarding discussions about the future of city hall, the Dallas City Council directed me to explore options, including the disposition of the City Hall site. It is our practice not to negotiate in the media.” Residents have speculated that the Dallas Mavericks could be eyeing 1500 Marilla St. as a potential site for its future arena for months. Earlier this month, Welts told the News there was "no project to talk about until the city would signal to us that there’s something to talk about." Assistant City Manager Robin Bentley told council members this month that the Mavericks have been eyeing downtown, but they have not heard anything from the team. City staff are currently looking into options for redevelopment of the City Hall site, real estate options for relocating or leasing, and repair plans for the current City Hall property. Discussions over the future of City Hall started late last year when city staff revealed the building had millions of dollars of deferred maintenance. A study conducted by the Dallas Economic Development Corporation and engineering consultant AECOM estimate it could cost the city up to $1 billion to fully repair and update the building.

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One detained after 'punches thrown' during Dallas 'No King's' protest, police say

One person has been detained during today's "No Kings" demonstration, according to Dallas Police. Police have not released the name of the individual detained, nor provided details on what led to the arrest. WFAA's helicopter captured video of an incident between demonstrators and counter-protesters during a march in Downtown Dallas. WFAA's Luke Cleary said a witness told him that "punches were thrown" between the two groups. Thousands across the nation participated in the protests, several of which were held here in North Texas.

The first official 'No Kings' protests were held Saturday, June 14, and were organized during a military parade in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the Army, which coincides with Trump's birthday, as the Associated Press reported. Since then, several more nationwide protests have been held. Thousands of people showed up to the many protests back in June, WFAA previously reported.

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‘It’s top tier.’ With $260 million in funding, professional volleyball is booming in Texas — and fans are watching.

On a Wednesday night in February at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, purple foam fingers swayed in the air during LOVB Austin’s third home game of the season. As the inaugural-season champions, the pressure was on for Austin to beat LOVB Atlanta. After a long rally, University of Texas alum Madisen Skinner scored a winning kill for Austin. As the ball hit the floor, cheers erupted from the standing crowd. LOVB, pronounced “love,” stands for League One Volleyball — and it’s making a splash in Texas. The league currently has six teams and began having matches in 2025 in Austin and Houston. It’s one of three major volleyball leagues that have launched recently in the U.S. There’s some serious money involved; in 2024, LOVB reported raising a total of $160 million in funding, including donations from prominent athletes such as NBA player Kevin Durant and the WNBA’s Candace Parker.

The growing number of volleyball fans is a nationwide trend. ESPN reported “more than 1.3 billion minutes watched across ESPN platforms” for the women’s 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament, the highest to date. The sport is also seeing more young players signing up. According to USA Volleyball, 2024 marked a 40% increase since 2013-14 in the number of girls ages 11-18 registered with clubs. “I think volleyball has just been on the trajectory for a while to have a pro league here in the U.S.,” said Audrey Tuttle, marketing and communications manager for LOVB Austin. Both Austin and Houston made sense to have pro volleyball teams: Austin is home to the Texas Longhorns, who have won two NCAA Championships in the past four years, and Houston hosts the Houston Skyline, named the top club in the nation in 2024 by USClubRankings. “Volleyball is huge here in this state, and both teams are very, very competitive,” Tuttle said. “There’s definitely a little bit of a fun rivalry that is going right now.” LOVB isn’t the only volleyball outlet to stake a claim to Texas. Another pro league, Major League Volleyball, has the Dallas Pulse, which began playing this year.

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Austin looks to change zoning rules to allow for smaller, more affordable homes

City of Austin staff will spend the next year exploring how the creation of new zoning districts could add more affordable housing to the market. The resolution approved by Austin City Council on Thursday asks staff to research the zoning districts that would allow for smaller housing options like townhomes, cottage courts and small-scale, multi-unit buildings. This is sometimes referred to as "missing middle housing." The resolution also includes direction to research more mixed-use developments, which combine housing and commercial opportunities.

Council Member Paige Ellis, who authored the resolution, said this builds on the city’s past efforts to expand home-building options in ways that create walkable and transit-focused areas. “Over the past 40 years, less than 1% of the housing built in Austin has been 'missing middle,' and I think they are really good uses of property,” Ellis said. “I think they create walkable neighborhoods and are more environmentally sustainable than some of the other options.” Ellis is drawing from a January study that found Austin’s current housing stock is limited outside of single-family homes or large apartment complexes. That is because the city’s 1984 land development code — the rule book for what and where things can be built — largely supports those two housing types.

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National Stories

Frustrated travelers hear a new message from airports: Don’t get here so early

Maybe Dad was right about getting to the airport early. But it turns out there’s still such a thing as TOO early. Travelers panicked by scenes of never-ending lines at U.S. airport security checkpoints and frustrating tales of missed flights over the past few weeks are now showing up way before their departures. Some airports where the wait times have been manageable say those early birds are only adding to the misery — and in some cases causing other passengers to get to their gate too late. In Ohio, John Glenn International Airport in Columbus is warning passengers against arriving hours in advance, even creating a chart showing when to show up: “90 minutes before departure is all you need.”

The airport says those premature arrivers — reacting to the funding standoff on Capitol Hill that’s creating crowded security checkpoints — are making things worse by creating bottlenecks during peak times. “Arriving too early can actually create longer lines right when we open,” the airport said in a social media post Thursday. “Spacing out arrival times helps keep things moving smoothly for everyone.” In some ways, the airport chaos is turning into a full circle moment for “Airport Dad” — a humorous TikTok and social media take on the dad who always makes sure the family is out the door, parked, through security and positioned at the correct gate well before anyone else, with paper boarding passes in hand. Airline customers aren’t laughing, at least right now. They’re facing record wait times in a jumbled environment — the modern American airport — that can serve up assorted stresses and snafus on the best of days. Amber Campbell said she missed a morning flight this week despite arriving at Baltimore-Washington International Airport more than three hours ahead of time.

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G.O.P. rift leaves Congress with no clear path to end the shutdown

Eight months away from elections that will decide if they keep control of Congress and preserve their governing trifecta, House and Senate Republicans have identified the enemy — and it is one another. A meltdown in relations between the two G.O.P.-led chambers caused the embarrassing collapse on Friday of a Senate-passed proposal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security before lawmakers raced out of town on a two-week recess. It left no clear path for resolving the crisis that has led to airport chaos and workers without paychecks. And with President Trump seemingly cheering on the intraparty squabble from the White House, it also highlighted an undercurrent of tension and division coursing through Republican ranks that has burst to the surface at the least politically opportune time.

The breakdown over homeland security funding left hard-right House Republicans castigating their Senate brethren and ripping Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican majority leader, in particular for cutting what they saw as an atrocious deal with Democrats in order to ease a departure for Easter break. “Thune screwed America and left town,” Representative Andy Ogles, Republican of Tennessee, wrote on the social media platform X. He was just one of many Republicans incensed by what they characterized as a Senate G.O.P. sellout approved without so much as a formal vote in the middle of the night. That was just hours after Mr. Trump told Fox News that the Senate deal was “not appropriate.” “At three in the morning, senators just decided, well, throw in the towel and maybe see what they can cobble together to get out of town,” Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican, said as the House on Friday approved its own plan to fund the entire agency for eight weeks. “That is not the responsible thing to do for this country.”

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Record number of T.S.A. employees called out on Friday

On Friday, more Transportation Security Administration employees called out of work than on any other day of the partial government shutdown. Conditions in airport security lines have deteriorated since Feb. 14, when Congress allowed funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees T.S.A., to lapse during an impasse over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since then, T.S.A. employees have been forced to work without pay, leading thousands of workers to call out and hundreds to quit altogether. With staffing slashed, wait times for security have stretched on for hours at some airports. Lines have spilled outside terminals. Desperate travelers have missed flights. And that was before Friday set a new record.

More than 3,560 T.S.A. employees — above 12 percent of the agency’s work force — called out on Friday, the highest number since the partial government shutdown began, Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. Friday’s call outs broke the record of just under 12 percent that had been set the previous day. “During this time, over 500 officers have quit, and thousands more have been forced to call out because they can’t afford basic necessities like gas, child care, food, or rent,” Ms. Bis said. President Trump signed a memo late on Friday ordering D.H.S. to restore pay to T.S.A. employees. On Monday, the Trump administration deployed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who have not lost pay during the partial shutdown, to help carry out security functions at airports.

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Tiger Woods is facing an uncertain future off the golf course after his DUI arrest in Florida

Tiger Woods got out of jail and into the passenger seat of a dark SUV, his face as vacant as his mug shot as he was driven away to a future again filled with so much uncertainty. The next step legally is facing charges of driving while intoxicated, damage to property and refusal to submit to a urine test, which led to him spending eight hours Friday in the Martin County jail some 15 miles from his home on Jupiter Island, Florida. His manager at Excel Sports, Mark Steinberg, did not respond to a request for comment Saturday on Woods' arrest. As for golf, this comes at a bad time for the sport's most influential player. Woods had said earlier in the week he was trying to get in shape for the Masters on April 9-12, though that was looking unlikely. He turned 50 at the end of last year. “This body, it doesn't recover like it did when it was 24, 25,” Woods said earlier this week.

He also was days away from a decision on whether to be the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain for the 2027 matches in Ireland. Two officials from the PGA of America did not immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. And on April 5, he is scheduled to be in Augusta, Georgia, with Masters chairman Fred Ridley to celebrate a project at “The Patch,” the nickname of a municipal golf course where Woods' design team created a short course to go along with a major upgrade to the public course. Woods also is the central figure as chairman of the Future Competition Committee that is reshaping the PGA Tour model of tournaments. Tour CEO Brian Rolapp predicted meaningful progress this summer. The PGA Tour declined to comment on Woods' arrest. Now everything is on hold while Woods sorts through his second arrest in the last nine years, and his fourth car crash dating to 2009. Woods waited until the summer of 2024 before deciding against being Ryder Cup captain for the 2025 matches in New York. The Associated Press reported in February the PGA of America had a soft deadline of the end of March for him to decide this time.

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Meet the has-beens, never-weres, and felon locked in a Trumpy primary

On a warm January evening in southwest Florida, sitting on a dais with six other candidates in front of a massive American flag, former U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn presented himself to the ladies of the Women’s Republican Club of Naples Federated as the best candidate for Florida’s 19th Congressional District, summoned by the call of one of the greatest political thinkers of the Western world. “The reason I got involved in politics really boils down to a quote by Plato,” Cawthorn explained. “It said that you can either be involved in politics or you’re destined to be ruled by lesser men.” Not Plato verbatim, but close enough for government work. And Cawthorn has worked in government before—representing North Carolina’s 11th District for a single term, from January 2021 to January 2023. It was an eventful but unproductive tenure, befitting a man who boasted to colleagues shortly after he was sworn in, “I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation.” Cawthorn’s congressional service began with a rousing speech to the pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021—he praised their willingness to fight, declared the 2020 election fraudulent, and later voted against certification. It ended with a flurry of bizarre and discrediting moments over the weeks leading up to the GOP primary for his reelection campaign.

That Cawthorn is a viable candidate—indeed, given his name recognition and MAGAworld celebrity status, he’s considered a real contender—says a lot about the contest in this dark red corner of Florida’s Gulf Coast and about the state of the Republican Party in the Trump era. The GOP primary is August 18, and the campaign—or the online campaign, anyway—is well underway. When Republican voters here describe a politician or activist as “ultra-MAGA,” it’s almost always meant as the highest compliment. A local grocery chain serves MAGA beer on tap, and its aisles were packed shoulder-to-shoulder for the “Seed to Table” inaugural party in January 2025. The district’s waterways held some of the first “Trump Boat Parades.” The main country music station calls itself “Trump Country.” “Obviously, it’s a very pro-Trump, pro-MAGA district,” says former Rep. Francis Rooney, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican under George W. Bush and represented the district during Trump’s first term. The seat is currently held by Rep. Byron Donalds, a conservative and Fox News regular, who is giving it up to run for governor. Republican voters in his district speak of him with reverence—and so does Donald Trump. “Byron Donalds would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida,” Trump posted on social media, offering his “Complete and Total Endorsement.” Each of the seven candidates onstage during the January candidate forum made a claim that is demonstrably, provably false. Six are not from the district they seek to serve. Five have run for office in another state. Three have been endorsed by Trump in a previous race. At least three have spent time in jail. Two served in Congress and left in disgrace after scandals. Two have gotten Trump pardons. And one will be the next member of Congress from southwest Florida.

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At 'No Kings' rallies, anti-Trump protesters speak out against ICE 'cruelty,' Iran war

Organizers behind the No Kings protests are forecasting their biggest showing yet on Saturday against the policies of President Trump, energized by issues including the administration's immigration enforcement tactics and the war in Iran. "March 28 will be the biggest protest in US history," the group, which comprises a progressive coalition of activists, wrote on its website. "Find your local No Kings event to make it clear that America rejects the regime's brutality at home and abroad." Organizers have planned more than 3,000 events in cities across the United States, with several more planned abroad, including in Mexico and Canada. This is the third series of nationwide protests organized by the group, which says Trump's actions in office are more akin to those of a monarch than a democratically elected leader.

In response to a request for comment about the planned protests, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson dismissed them as "Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions" and listed what she said were some of the campaign's "major leftist" financial backers. "The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them," said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. The last round of protests, this past October, saw some 5 million attendees spread across about 2,600 demonstrations, according to No Kings. Bill McKibben is the Vermont-based founder of Third Act — a No Kings-affiliated group comprising people who are 60 years old and up. He says intergenerational solidarity is a key part of the movement and that there are many older people willing to take to the streets alongside their younger compatriots. "If you've been to any of the No Kings protests that have happened so far, you'll see a lot of people with hairlines like mine, which is to say, scant," he joked. "People of all kinds are outraged by what's happening in the country right now, but older people have a particular role to play here."

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Kash Patel’s push against Democratic lawmaker raises concerns within FBI

FBI Director Kash Patel is pressing to release a decade-old investigative file involving Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) and a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, recently dispatching agents in the bureau’s San Francisco office to quickly redact the files before they are released publicly despite no evidence of wrongdoing by Swalwell, according to three people familiar with the effort. The potential release is part of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to investigate Swalwell, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and a leading Democratic candidate for California governor, according to the people familiar with the effort. It is highly unusual for the FBI to release case files tied to a probe that did not result in criminal charges. As FBI director, Patel has focused on trying to bring a criminal case against the outspoken Democrat, reassigning multiple agents in San Francisco to work on the matter, the current and former officials said.

FBI leaders have even discussed sending agents to China to talk to the suspected intelligence operative, believing she could have damaging information about Swalwell, according to two of the people familiar with the investigation. The people familiar with the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation that has not been made public. The Chinese woman at issue is Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang, who reportedly courted Swalwell and other California politicians in the United States from 2011 to 2015. She helped with fundraising for Swalwell’s 2014 reelection campaign and even helped place an intern in his congressional office. When federal agents conveyed their concerns about Fang to Swalwell around 2015, he reportedly cut off ties with her and said he helped investigators. Swalwell was not accused of any wrongdoing when the FBI investigated his relationship with Fang a decade ago. In 2023, the Republican-led House Ethics Committee closed a two-year investigation into the congressman, deciding to “take no further action.” Despite that, FBI leaders have recently suggested in internal discussions that the government could try to arrange for Fang to get a U.S. visa in exchange for speaking with FBI agents about the Democrat, according to the three people with knowledge of Patel’s efforts. It would be highly unorthodox to grant a visa to a person suspected of being an intelligence agent for a foreign superpower.

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Lead Stories

Occidental's Hollub, US oil's most powerful woman, prepares to hand over reins, sources say

Vicki Hollub is preparing to retire as chief executive of Occidental Petroleum after her decade-long stewardship of the U.S. oil and gas ?company that made her one of the most powerful women in a male-dominated industry, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.Hollub, 66, plans to make a formal ?announcement later this year, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Richard Jackson, who was elevated to chief operating officer in October, is primed to become CEO upon Hollub's departure, three of the people added.

Her exit would end more than four decades at the Houston-based oil producer, where she became the first woman to become the CEO of a major U.S. oil company. Prior to that, she led Oxy's Permian Basin operations, building the company into one ?of the biggest operators in the nation's largest U.S. oil region.Her tenure has been marked by the mammoth, debt-fueled 2019 acquisition of rival Anadarko Petroleum, completed in part with $10 billion ?in financing from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.There is no firm date set for her retirement, the sources said, who spoke on condition of anonymity to ?discuss private conversations. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has delivered the biggest disruption to energy supplies in history, could reshape her plans, they added.Advertisement · Scroll to continue“We have a strong board with strong ?governance, and we do not comment on speculation,” an Oxy spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Oxy shares rose modestly after Reuters reported on the plans, and were up 4% in Thursday trading. In ?2019, Hollub beat out supermajor Chevron in a fierce bidding war for Anadarko that advanced Oxy's shale business when the fracking boom was in full swing.

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AG Ken Paxton says agency won’t represent comptroller’s office in Muslim school lawsuit

Attorney General Ken Paxton informed Kelly Hancock on Thursday the attorney general’s office would no longer represent the comptroller in an ongoing federal lawsuit regarding access Muslim schools have to the state’s new education savings account system. The letter came less than two days after Hancock wrote to Paxton knocking the attorney general for how the agency allowed a Houston Muslim school into the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program. Paxton called on Gov. Greg Abbott Tuesday to remove Hancock as acting comptroller and replace him with Don Huffines, a Dallas businessman who defeated Hancock in this month’s Republican primary for comptroller. “You have single-handedly destroyed my ability to defend the Comptroller’s office in these cases,” Paxton wrote Thursday.

The comptroller’s office and the governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s letter. Two federal lawsuits, one by a Houston parent and another by a group of schools and parents, were filed against the state over the exclusion of some Muslim schools from the TEFA program. The comptroller is overseeing the new education savings account program signed into law by Abbott last year. Those lawsuits were consolidated March 17 in the southern district of Texas. Last week, a federal court ordered the state to allow Muslim schools to enter TEFA. By law, the attorney general is the state’s lawyer and is supposed to defend challenges to state laws, state agencies and individual state employees in their official capacity. However, Paxton has refused to defend state agencies in the past. In a court filing Thursday afternoon, three attorneys with the Office of the Attorney General filed a motion to withdraw as counsel in the case, characterizing Hancock’s letter as a political attack “designed for embarrassment and shock value.”

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The Senate finally passed a bill to fund most of DHS — except for ICE

The Senate early on Friday agreed to fund the vast majority of the Department of Homeland Security, bringing an end to the partial government shutdown that left most of its agencies without funding for more than a month. Negotiators passed a bill to fund DHS through the end of the fiscal year after days of intense back-and-forth talks. Those discussions took on a new sense of urgency as hours-long security lines became a common occurrence at airports across the country. The bill will still need to pass the House and be signed into law. The package does not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the most hotly contested portion of the spending measure — and only funds a part of Customs and Border Protection. It also does not include any of the reforms to ICE that Democrats have sought dating back to January. Spurred by the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration agents, Democrats said they would not vote for DHS funding without significant changes at the agency.

“Obviously, we’ll still have some work ahead of us, but the good news is we anticipated this a year ago,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters, noting that one of the reasons why they pre-loaded the party’s reconciliation bill last summer with ICE funding is because they anticipated issues on this front. “I still think it’s unfortunate. The [Democrats] wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms,” he continued. “We’re going to have to fight some of those battles another day.” The announcement came in the wee hours of Friday morning as staffers worked swiftly behind closed doors to write the bill late on Thursday. The bill passed by voice vote without any senators objecting. Republicans earlier in the day declared that they had made their “last and final” offer to Democratic leaders, one that included language intended to win them over. Throughout much of the afternoon, Democrats stayed mum on the state of talks, including members who had previously been chief critics of the Republican offers. Democrats came back with a counteroffer that once again included many nonstarters on the Republican side, leading the majority to go to Plan B: the bill that finally emerged and was passed without opposition.

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CPAC draws conservatives to Texas amid Iran war, Republican battle for U.S. Senate nomination

Red MAGA hats, American flag themed clothing, and bedazzled Trump gear fill the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center. Attendees snap selfies as Steve Bannon, former advisor to President Donald Trump, hosts a live broadcast of his program for the network Real America’s Voice. Behind the main stage, “Protect women’s sports” scrolls across a massive video screen. This is CPAC 2026, currently underway in Grapevine, Texas. The Conservative Political Action Conference draws thousands each year and is billed as “the world’s largest and most influential” gathering for conservatives. CPAC is also seen as an indicator of the direction the Republican party is headed.

Among the speakers at this week’s event, which runs through Saturday, are Education Secretary Linda McMahon and former South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, plus a host of conservative media personalities, GOP lawmakers from across the county and, of course, some notable Texas Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott. "It's a chance to actually see — in person — people in the news,” said John Arenz, a North Texas resident, adding he also came to CPAC “to support the conservative agenda.” The conference’s agenda includes a wide variety of issues and hot-button political topics, from the war in Iran to defeating communism to speeches from Republican political hopefuls on the ballot in November. Notably, this is the second time the event has come to North Texas this decade. Dallas County GOP Chair Allen West said CPAC’s return to the state could be seen as a call to action for Texas conservatives — specifically, a call to not let “history repeat itself” during this critical midterm election year.

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State Stories

Houston’s Bush Airport has had some of the worst TSA wait times. Here’s why

Increasingly agitated travelers are sacrificing countless hours and missing milestone events as a partial government shutdown spills into its 40th day and the country loses hundreds of airport security employees. Nowhere is the scene more miserable than at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), where predawn lines this week packed an underground tunnel and forced some travelers to miss their flights — again. “We see the families arriving early and waiting for hours. We see missed flights. We see missed moments, weddings, vacations, time with loved ones,” said Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System. Even more sobering: “We worry conditions will only get worse at airports across the US until Congress ends this shutdown,” Szczesniak said. Houston Mayor John Whitmire called the situation at airports in his city “a total mess” and urged elected officials to find a solution so TSA officers can get paid. “It’s not rocket science stuff. Work out your dispute (and) let these people be paid,” Whitmire said. “In fact, I can’t believe what I’ve learned of how low paid they are. They’re essential workers.”

Here’s why the situation is so dire, why some airports are faring better and why the problems could get worse. Some travelers who missed their flights at George Bush Intercontinental were forced to return to the airport the next day and spend more hours in line. They were among a sea of frustrated passengers that stretched down into a tunnel where a subway tram typically runs. As they waited, a warning blared over the speakers: “Due to the federal government shutdown, TSA wait times are currently exceeding four hours,” the announcement said. “If your flight is departing soon, you may not clear security in time. Please consider contacting your airlines now for rebooking options.” On Wednesday morning, the lines were noticeably shorter. But Wednesdays are typically low-volume days, said Houston Airport System spokesperson Casey Curry. “We are expecting a higher passenger load Thursday and Friday,” she said, in part because of conference departures and NCAA Sweet 16 events. The airport said on X late Wednesday that wait times could reach up to four hours on Thursday, and that CLEAR and TSA PreCheck would not be available. By Wednesday afternoon, the wait time at Bush Intercontinental reached two hours. Curry said she expects traffic to increase Sunday and Monday, when many business travelers fly. Other airports, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, said they expect traffic to pick up during peak travel days Friday through Monday.

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This Christian school won’t take Texas vouchers to ensure 'biblical rule'

One of Houston’s top-rated Christian private schools hosted a rally for Gov. Greg Abbott to promote his school vouchers plan in 2023, but administrators now say if they participated in the $1 billion program, it would amount to “government entanglement” incompatible with the school’s Christian mission. Earlier this year, a Cypress Christian school leader told families in a private video — which the Chronicle obtained after previously reporting on the school’s voucher status — that they would not join the program to retain “biblical rule.” School leaders feared joining the state-funded program could open Cypress Christian to state audits, new testing requirements, or even one day force it to comply with rules on gender or sexuality that conflicted with its religious beliefs.

“Our school bylaws require that every part of CCS, our curriculum and missions, employment, discipline and the way we've informed students must be governed exclusively by biblical doctrine and scripture,” Kris Hogan, Cypress Christian’s culture director, said in the video. “The Texas Education Freedom Account program, while well intentioned, requires something we simply cannot accept, and that is ongoing government entanglement.” Cypress Christian did not respond to a request for comment about the video. The video presents an unusual argument about a program that has been touted as a way to expand faith-based education, particularly among Christian schools, by providing state dollars for families to use on tuition. Private Christian institutions were central to the push for Texas’ voucher program, cheering on the GOP priority as a way to make their services more accessible. The school’s opposition is also notable because Cypress Christian welcomed Abbott for a pro-voucher rally in 2023, when the governor embarked on a statewide tour of more than a dozen Christian schools.It appears to be the only school Abbott visited during his tour that has not applied to the program.

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‘Empty chairs’: New Texas licensing rule hits salons, trades

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has formally adopted a rule requiring professional license applicants to prove legal status in the country, ending hopes among some business owners that exceptions would be made for unauthorized workers already licensed. The rule was adopted unanimously by the agency’s commission during its Tuesday meeting. The commission’s vote mandates that applicants for new licenses or license renewals show proof of legal status in the United States beginning May 1. However, the agency has already required this of applicants since late January, TDLR spokeswoman Caroline Espinosa told the American-Statesman. TDLR manages the licenses for hairdressers, barbers, electricians and HVAC professionals, among others.

During discussion of the rule change, the commissioners appeared convinced that the rule change was necessary to comply with federal law. “I don’t think we are starting a new law. We are just merely doing what the feds are telling us to do,” Commissioner Sujeeth Draksharam said from the dais before the vote. Federal law has barred states from extending public benefits to individuals without legal status since 1996. Until this year, Texas had not enforced that law. About 18,000 TDLR licenses, or 2% of the total, are not currently attached to a Social Security number, indicating the potential number of workers who could be affected by the rule change. It is unclear how many individuals who hold one of these currently unverified licenses would be unable to meet the rule change’s requirement for proof of legal status in the United States.

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University Park says SMU crosswalks won't be removed, despite Gov. Abbott's directive

Dallas took action this week to remove rainbow and Black Lives Matter markings from several crosswalks, after a state directive mandated the change. However, another Dallas suburb says it determined that its decorative crosswalk can remain in place, despite the state order. University Park said in a statement that an intersection featuring the SMU mustang formed with decorative bricks does not violate the directive that prompted Dallas and other cities to remove their decorative crosswalks. Cities across the state removed decorative crosswalks after a directive by Gov. Greg Abbott issued on Oct. 8, meant to "prioritize uniformity and predictability in traffic control devices statewide,” according to the state.

In a letter dated Oct. 8, TxDOT told local officials that the department will enforce state and federal standards requiring uniform pavement markings. The letter cites the U.S. Department of Transportation’s SAFE ROADS Initiative, which calls for intersections and crosswalks to remain “free from distractions,” including political messages, symbols or artwork. According to the letter, cities have 30 days to remove nonstandard markings — including murals, decorative designs or colored crosswalks — unless they receive written approval from TxDOT’s Traffic Safety Division. Jurisdictions that fail to comply could face the loss of state or federal transportation funding. “Governor Abbott appreciates Texas municipalities’ compliance with his directive on roadway safety. Texans expect their tax dollars to enhance roadway safety, not advance political ideologies,” said Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris. All the crosswalks are expected to be removed and replaced by April 28, WFAA previously reported.

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Collin County roundtable highlights growing concerns over rising insurance costs in Texas

Leaders, industry experts, and residents gathered in Collin County to address what one North Texas lawmaker is calling an “insurance crisis,” as homeowners across the region face sharply rising premiums and growing concerns over claim denials. “The number one thing that I constantly hear is affordability. Can I afford the American dream?” said State Rep. Mihaela Plesa, who represents House District 70. Plesa says for many Texans, that dream is slipping out of reach. She points to a combination of rising premiums and an increase in denied claims. Texans pay the fifth-highest insurance premiums in the country. “They're paying into something that when you need it, it isn't there,” she said.

Insurance industry leaders argue there are clear reasons behind the spike. Rich Johnson with the Insurance Council of Texas says the state faces an unusually high level of risk. “We are top five, if not, top 3 in every peril: hail, wind, hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes,” Johnson said. North Texas has seen its share of severe weather in recent years, contributing to higher costs. Johnson also points to rising legal expenses. Johnson calls it 'legal abuse.' “We've seen legal costs really spiral out of control with these nuclear lawsuits and the billboard attorneys up and down I-35,” he said. At the roundtable, residents shared how the increases are affecting their budgets. WFAA polled a few people who are paying significantly more each month for the same coverage — some by as much as $300. “The trajectory things have taken concerns me, makes me want to learn more, or at the very least it's going to taper off a little,” said one attendee.

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Proposed Texas Medicaid rule for children with complex medical needs too ‘narrow,’ advocates say

Texas wants to make it easier for certain children to access services through one of its Medicaid programs – but parents, advocates and medical providers worry the new rule is too narrow. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, or HHSC, published a draft rule amendment that would affect one of the ways Texas families gain access to Medicaid services through the Medically Dependent Children Program, or MDCP, which provides home- and community-based health services to children with medically complex needs. The state said during a public hearing Thursday the change would help children avoid placement in an institution – like a nursing facility. However, Dr. Glen Medellin, a board-certified pediatrician who specializes in palliative medicine, said he was worried the rule may limit providers.

“This has been long overdue and helps our children quite significantly,” he said. “I do have some concerns though about the additional changes in the policy for criteria.” Most people access MDCP through an interest list, which keeps track of which families are waiting for services. Advocates said due to limited availability families can wait 20 years to receive services. Other pathways involve nursing facility placement. “We know through data and through our experience that once a child goes into a nursing facility it is very difficult for them to come out,” said Rona Statman, program director for the non-profit, Every Child. “The longer that they stay in the harder it is to get them out.” Under the change, said Renée Lombardo, HHSC’s long-term supports and services manager, some children would be able to access MDCP services without first going to a nursing home. The rule establishes clinical criteria to determine if a child is eligible for what’s known as a nursing facility diversion slot – which allows children who qualify to forego facility placement ahead of getting services. Lombardo said the slots can reduce the emotional and logistical burdens on families.

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Austin adopts new homeless strategy plan, but leaders aren't sure of the cost

Austin city leaders have approved a new strategic plan to address some of the issues people experiencing homelessness face. David Gray, the city’s homeless strategy officer, said it will act as a road map for addressing homelessness over the next two years. The plan was crafted with more than two dozen community partners and includes adding shelter beds to the system, opening two centers that help coordinate services and increasing collaboration with community partners. “If we want to get people out of our abandoned buildings and out of parks and greenbelts, we need more beds to put them in, and we need more spaces to bring those people inside," Gray said. “And that is exactly why our plan touches on adding more shelter beds, enhancing rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing service delivery and boosting our navigation centers.”

Tony Carter said those are the kinds of services that could help get him and keep him in housing. Since 2019, Carter has been in and out of homeless camps and rapid rehousing all while trying to hold down a job. Rapid rehousing provides the person with a rent subsidy and case management services as they work to become self-sufficient. “If they are going to keep kicking us out [of our camps], we need housing,” Carter said. “Because you are kicking people out that don’t have a place to go. We need the resources, we need permanent supportive housing, and we need a place where we can go get help.” Gray said some of those goals are already underway. The city is working to open a new navigation center, which would help match people with services, in South Austin. The city purchased the property back in October. And several permanent supportive housing units are already set to be opened.

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Hays County wells run drier as aquifers fall to their lowest levels in more than 20 years

In Radiance, a small community in northwestern Hays County, self-sufficiency and community have been tenets of the neighborhood since its founding. It's a place where neighbors take care of their land and one another. “Back in the day, the idea was basically neighbors all working together to have a small community within the Hill Country,” Arturo Rivera said. Rivera has lived in Radiance with his wife Ryan Sage for 10 years. The neighborhood gave them the opportunity to have a barn on their property where they could work on old cars. They call themselves new-age hippies, hunting and gardening while prioritizing the environment.

The neighborhood's founding principles led Radiance to dig its own community well in the '80s. Contaminated surface water led to a second well in 2003. But in 2025, the second well went dry, forcing residents to use the original well with an order to boil all their water for more than six months. Across Hays County, wells are running drier, forcing them to be dug deeper and pushing residents to confront the increasing severity of depreciating aquifer levels. The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District said aquifer and river conditions have not been this poor in the more than 20-year history of the district — including the 2011 drought. Jared Thompson is the owner of The Well Doctor, a well servicing company. He’s watched the impacts of dwindling aquifer levels play out across the region. He said he is especially wary of the well levels in Wimberley and Dripping Springs. “The water level used to come all the way back up to about 500 feet when we had heavy rains. But now we're seeing it staying very low at around 660 to 690,” Thompson said. “That's very concerning.”

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Elon Musk’s Boring Co. explores building a tunnel for a San Antonio theme park

Elon Musk’s Boring Co. wants to build a tunnel for a San Antonio theme park in what would be the first project by the company in Bexar County after the failed bid to build a tunnel to connect the airport with downtown. The company, which is headquartered in Bastrop, said it’s taking on a project proposed by Morgan’s Wonderland, the nonprofit park that’s accessible to people with special needs. The “Morgan’s Wonderland Tunnel” is one of five projects, including one in Dallas, the company said it was pursuing as the result of a recent contest that sought pitches from entities around the country. When it announced the contest in January, it said it would build the winning submission for no charge. It ended up naming three winners, including the Dallas project.

While not one of the three projects designated as winners, the Boring Co. said the Morgan’s Wonderland project and another in Hendersonville, Tenn., “were so compelling” that it is “going to continue to work with the entrants and try to get them built.” Morgan’s Wonderland referred questions about its proposal to the Boring Co., which has not responded to requests for information. The park’s founder Gordon Hartman, a philanthropist and former homebuilder, hasn’t responded to a separate request for comment. The Boring Co. said the next steps include meetings with elected officials, regulators and community and business leaders about the winning sites. It also will begin investigating the soil and subsurface of the potential sites for feasibility. If the projects are deemed to be feasible, the company said it will fund and build them. So far, neither the city’s Public Works nor Capital Delivery departments are involved in the project at the North Side theme park. It would be the first in Bexar County for the Boring Co., but not the first time it’s pitched doing a project in the city. In 2022, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority voted to negotiate with the Boring Co. on a tunnel to shuttle visitors between San Antonio International Airport and downtown.

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Lockheed Martin to 'dramatically' ramp up missile production under new deal with feds

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. will quadruple its production of precision strike missiles to support a new agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense amid the continuing war with Iran. Lockheed, which has a major campus for its Missiles and Fire Control division in the suburb of Grand Prairie, announced March 25 the framework agreement with the department, which has been rebranded as the Department of War. This builds on a $4.94 billion contract the government awarded the company in 2025 to increase production of precision strike missiles to meet growing demand. It has a huge Tarrant County presence, assemling F-35 jets in Fort Worth, while the Grand Prairie facility works on missile defense systems, precision-strike weapons and fire control technology. These missiles are envisioned as the replacement of the Army Tactical Missile System and received production and deployment phase approval from the U.S. Army in July 2025.

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Rep. Greg Casar, Sen. Bernie Sanders file bill to limit threat of sports teams relocating

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Texas and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont filed a bill Thursday that would require owners of professional sports teams such as the San Antonio Spurs to give local communities the chance to buy them before they move to another city. The progressive lawmakers’ snappily named Home Team Act is designed to shield fans from seeing their teams ripped away and to protect municipalities from being leveraged for tax dollars by owners who threaten to relocate, bill author Casar said during a D.C. press conference. “Far too many Americans know the pain of losing a team just so the owner can make a buck,” said Casar, a Democrat whose recently redrawn San Antonio-Austin district previously included the Spurs. “As a child of Houston, I still remember the loss of our Oilers. Those moves are not just a business decision. They leave behind fans who have poured their hearts and souls into teams for decades.”

Casar said the proposal would also strip negotiating power from billionaire owners who use relocation threats to pit cities against each other and wring desperately needed tax money from communities that have supported them for years. “Even when teams don’t actually move, the threat of moving sets off a race to the bottom,” he said. “Billionaire owners pit taxpayers against each other and then extort the government for billions of dollars.” The lawmakers filed their bill mere months after San Antonio voters approved using an array of complicated public financing mechanisms to help build a new $1.3 billion downtown arena for the Spurs. As Spurs Sports & Entertainment lobbied for the plan, franchise leaders declined to say whether they would relocate the team if they failed at the ballot box. SS&E officials declined comment on the bill.

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Johnson County sheriff arrested again on perjury charge in ongoing sexual harassment case

Johnson County's Sheriff has been arrested for a third time in connection to an ongoing sexual harassment case. Jail records show Adam King, 58, was booked in Thursday on an aggravated perjury charge. A bond hasn't been set. King was indicted Wednesday, according to court records. It's the second time he's been indicted for aggravated perjury. In October, he was accused of lying to a grand jury about changing one of his employees' work schedules, Anna Goodloe, after she reported him for sexual harassment earlier last year. That charge was dismissed in December.

"As you know, the previous case was dismissed as being an illegal and unlawful indictment," King said in a statement Thursday. "This is more of the same and is all laughable, petty, and unprofessional." Bill Mason, one of King's attorneys, previously told KERA News the October indictment was unlawful because it was made by the same grand jury who heard King's allegedly false testimony. According to the Texas Constitution, "if an individual is charged with aggravated perjury before a grand jury, the indictment may not be entered by the grand jury before which the false statement was alleged to have been made." KERA News reached out to the Johnson County Sheriff's Office and will update this story with any response.

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National Stories

State savings weaken as budget pressures increase, analysis warns

State rainy day funds — money reserved to cover unexpected expenses and patch short-term budget holes — are declining nationally as states face increased costs, lower tax revenue and federal budget cuts, a new analysis found. The decline follows a period of strong reserves bolstered by federal pandemic aid and higher-than-expected tax collections, the report said. Researchers at The Pew Charitable Trusts found that the number of days that state reserves could cover state operations fell in fiscal year 2025 — the first decline since the Great Recession. State reserve funds will play a critical role in stabilizing state finances as they confront the most widespread budgetary pressures since at least 2020, the researchers said.

Like household savings accounts, state reserves help fund major one-time investments or provide a cushion in times of disrupted tax revenues, including economic downturns. Lower reserves means states could be quicker to cut state services or raise taxes in times of tight budgets. Examining data from a survey conducted by the National Association of State Budget Officers, Pew researchers concluded that the median state in 2025 could fund its operations on reserve funds for 47.8 days — down from a record 54.5 days in fiscal 2024. States last fiscal year held a collective $174 billion in savings, though reserves varied widely. Wyoming, for example, held enough cash on hand to operate for 320 days. But New Jersey’s reserve didn’t hold enough to cover a single day of state operations. The other states with the smallest share of rainy day reserves were Washington, Illinois, Delaware and Rhode Island.

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Middle East conflict drags Nasdaq into a correction

Investors are losing faith in a quick end to the war in Iran. Major U.S. stock indexes slumped on Thursday and oil prices surged past $100 a barrel again as efforts to end the conflict showed few signs of significant progress. As the war drags on, pain in financial markets is mounting: The Dow industrials are on pace for their largest one-month percentage decline since 2022, and the Nasdaq composite is now in correction territory, dropping more than 10% from its last high. The Dow dropped 469 points, or 1%. The S&P 500 fell 1.7%, while the Nasdaq slid 2.4%. Both the S&P and Nasdaq suffered their biggest one-day declines since the war began and closed at their lowest levels since September. Earlier this week, stocks advanced and investors cheered a social-media post from the president saying that the U.S. military would postpone strikes on Iranian power plants. But on Thursday, the mood shifted.

“It just has to do with the growing realization that here we are on Thursday and there’s just a lot of uncertainty about what is happening in the Gulf,” said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. “The markets are trying to figure out, ‘Is there a deal in there somewhere?’” The Dow industrials were roughly flat when President Trump began speaking at a morning cabinet meeting. The president said that he expected that gas and oil prices would have gone up much higher due to the war in Iran, and added that energy prices “have not gone up as much as I thought.” Trump said that he expects prices to increase further. “Maybe it’ll go up a little bit more. It’s all going to come back down,” he said. During the meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added that the American public is prepared to endure “short-term volatility” to achieve five decades of security after the Iranian regime is defeated. Stock declines accelerated throughout the meeting. Trump had set a Friday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial thoroughfare for oil exports.

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After markets rattle, Trump once again punts on following through with threat on Iran power plants

Facing a convulsing stock market, President Donald Trump on Thursday moved to buy himself more time and hold off, once again, on carrying out a threat to obliterate Iran’s energy plants over the Islamic Republic’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said he was delaying taking potential action because talks aimed at ending the conflict are going “very well,” despite the fact that Iran continues to publicly insist it is not negotiating with the White House on a 15-point proposal — delivered by Pakistani intermediaries — to end the war. He said Iran had asked for the grace period. “They asked for seven (days),” Trump said in an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Five” shortly after he announced on social media he would give Iran until April 6 to reopen the strait. “And I said, ‘I’m going to give you 10.’”

Trump publicized his decision shortly after Wall Street closed Thursday, another rocky day with U.S. stocks recording their biggest loss since the war with Iran started. The S&P 500 dropped 1.7%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 469 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 2.4% to fall more than 10% below its all-time high set early this year. Trump first threatened to bombard Iranian energy facilities on Saturday — and almost immediately began vacillating. In his initial threat, he gave Tehran 48 hours to open up the strait, a chokepoint for global oil markets. But he backed off on Monday, saying he would give Iran an additional five days, after Asian markets gyrated. Then, he punted again after Thursday’s shaky markets. This was not the first time Trump has appeared to have been jostled into adjusting policy in the face of market volatility. Last April, after implementing new tariffs that triggered the worst two-day sell-off for the S&P 500 in five years, Trump announced a 90-day halt on the most severe tariffs for all countries except China.

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DHS internal watchdog launches investigation into handling of contracts under Noem, Lewandowski

The Department of Homeland Security inspector general has launched a sprawling investigation into how contracts have been solicited and handled, including the involvement of former Secretary Kristi Noem and her de facto chief of staff Corey Lewandowski, according to two sources familiar with the probe. Noem’s handling of contracts within DHS was one of the main catalysts for her ouster by President Donald Trump earlier this month. Lewandowski’s micromanagement of the department, including his involvement in contracts, was a persistent source of tension with White House officials, CNN has reported. The Office of the Inspector General previously announced an audit into DHS grants and contracts awarded “by any means other than full and open competition during fiscal year 2025,” according to its website.

The inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, complained to Congress in early March that DHS leadership had been obstructing some of his work. One of the sources familiar with the issue said the IG investigation that includes Noem and Lewandowski is separate from the previously announced audit. The source said investigators had ordered dozens of DHS officials to preserve records as part of the new probe. In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the DHS OIG said its office does not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation, and noted that its audit of some DHS grants and contracts is congressionally mandated and required on a yearly basis. It is not clear which specific contracts the IG is investigating. The OIG audit, the spokesperson added, is paused because the team handling the audit was furloughed as part of the DHS shutdown. “Once funding is restored, this audit will be resumed,” the statement said.

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Netflix hikes prices again, impacting all plan tiers

Netflix is hiking subscription prices across all its plans in its first major price increase in more than a year. The plans were disclosed on Netflix’s help page Thursday. The ad-supported tier will rise by $1 per month to $8.99, with the standard plan rising by $2 per month to $19.99 and the premium plan also rising by $2 per month to $26.99 per month. The company also raised the cost of its “extra member” fee by $1, to $6.99 for ad-supported plans and $9.99 for ad-free plans.

Netflix last raised prices early last year, with similar increases. Of course, the platform has been significantly ramping up its content, not only in scripted entertainment, but in live events and sports, not to mention other areas like video podcasts and games. The company says it will spend more than $20 billion in its entertainment offering this year. Netflix executives have long said that they raise prices when they feel they are delivering enough value to justify them. The company has by far the lowest churn in the industry, underscoring its leadership in the space. But it is also, frankly, something of a bellwether for the entire streaming industry, with other services often following in its footsteps, despite the risk of higher churn. The move by Netflix also comes just weeks after it abandoned its pursuit of Warner Bros., opting not to match a higher bid from Paramount Skydance. That deal would have been transformative for the company, but in its stead it will instead pour more cash into its own business, and in its capital return program. “We will continue to do what we’ve done for more than 20 years as a public company: delight our members, profitably grow our business, and drive long-term shareholder value,” co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said when announcing their Warners decision.

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Trump is putting his signature on U.S. dollar bills

The Treasury Department announced on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s signature will be added to an upcoming series of hundred-dollar bills printed this summer in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. “There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. ?Trump than U.S. dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the Semiquincentennial,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

NOTUS reported earlier this month that the Trump Organization had filed several trademarks connecting the president’s name to merchandising and promotional items honoring the country’s 250th anniversary. The president had previously attempted to release a $1 coin bearing his portrait, but the effort stalled as federal law prohibits living individuals from appearing on U.S. coins. The addition of Trump’s signature will be a first for a sitting president, as the name of the U.S. treasurer has appeared on the country’s currency since 1861 and the secretary of treasury’s signature was incorporated in 1914. No other design elements of the bill are expected to change. “The President’s mark on history as the architect of America’s Golden Age economic revival is undeniable,” U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said. “Printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate, but also well deserved.”

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The war in Iran sparks a global fertilizer shortage and threatens food prices

Farmers around the world are feeling the squeeze of the Iran war. Gas prices have shot up and fertilizer supplies are waning due to Tehran’s near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli bombing. The fertilizer shortage is putting the livelihood of farmers in developing countries — already troubled by rising temperatures and erratic weather systems — further at risk, and could lead to people everywhere paying more for food. The poorest farmers in the Northern Hemisphere rely on fertilizer imports from the Gulf, and the shortage comes just as planting season begins, said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program.

“In the worst case, this means lower yields and crop failures next season. In the best case, higher input costs will be included in food prices next year.” Baldev Singh, a 55-year-old rice farmer in Punjab, India, says smallholders — the bulk of the country’s farmers — may not survive if the government cannot subsidize fertilizers when demand peaks in June. “Right now, we are waiting and hoping,” he said. Related Stories Energy fallout from Iran war signals a global wake-up call for renewable energy Iran war has US farmers worried about the cost and availability of fertilizer Energy shock fears rise as the Iran war chokes supplies to Asia. Iran is seriously limiting shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage that usually handles about a fifth of the world’s oil shipments and nearly a third of global fertilizer trade. Nitrogen and phosphate — two major fertilizer nutrients — are under immediate threat from the blockade. Supplies of nitrogen including urea, the most widely traded fertilizer that helps plants grow and boosts yields, are the hardest hit because of shipping delays and the soaring price of liquefied natural gas — an essential ingredient.

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Lead Stories

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

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

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

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Special election shocker has Florida Republicans nervous about redistricting

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

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

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

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

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

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Texas retains its export crown while AI boom drives imports higher

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

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

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State Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lacy Lakeview considers using wastewater to supply proposed data center

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

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

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Ted Cruz asks Senate to withhold his pay during partial shutdown

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

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

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

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

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Meet Hemisfair's new CEO Melissa Robinson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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What San Antonio police reform advocates want in new union contract

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

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

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

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

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

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National Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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First Lady selling $600 Freedom necklaces online

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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