Lead Stories

Mike Miles expects HISD’s state takeover to end after this school year

Houston ISD’s state takeover could end after the 2026-27 school year, state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said Tuesday. Miles, appointed as superintendent by the state in June 2023, said he believes the district has nearly met all the criteria needed to end the state takeover. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath is expected to decide whether to begin the transition back to local control in June 2027. Miles' comments echo what Morath told reporters in August: that he expected the takeover to end “relatively soon.” “We always wanted to work quickly to get out of the intervention strategy,” Miles said on a Hello Houston radio appearance. “I think the official end may be the end of this school year, and then the commissioner will determine what sort of transition period there will be.”

To exit the state takeover, HISD must improve three areas: accountability ratings, board governance and special education compliance. Since the intervention began in June 2023, HISD’s number of D- and F-rated schools has dropped from 121 to 13. HISD students have since seen improved passing rates in almost every STAAR tested grade and subject. But many high schools have also seen ratings improve, in part, due to enrolling students in online college-prep courses — courses which the state has since discredited. Miles said HISD enrolled students in the courses to keep them from taking remedial courses in college, not to boost ratings. He said the district was not alone in the widespread use of college-prep courses statewide. "We're using what is allowed in our high schools to help kids so that they don't have to take remedial courses in college, and almost every high school in the state is using it," Miles said. Miles told the radio program that the district still had “some work to do” to improve special education compliance before ending the takeover. In the 2026-27 school year, the district also began to consolidate some special education services, which has drawn both state scrutiny and a federal investigation. While the district could begin its transition out of the state takeover after the 2026-27 school year, Miles has a contract for four more years until 2030. On the first day of school, Miles did not commit to staying through the transition to an elected board, saying "anything can happen." “The new school board — when that happens — they’ll want their own superintendent, I think,” Miles said Tuesday. HISD's state-appointed board of managers recently approved their annual evaluation and undisclosed bonus for Miles. He is eligible for up to $231,000 in addition to his base pay of $462,000.

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

The death of government transparency in Texas

Last fall, Texas A&M University was in the midst of a firestorm. State Representative Brian Harrison of Midlothian, a brash right-wing social media power user, had posted a video to X that a student had recorded of a professor discussing gender identity during a lecture. Harrison included a letter to Governor Greg Abbott demanding that she and university President Mark Welsh be immediately fired. Within two weeks, the professor and Welsh had been pushed out, and Texas A&M, which had cycled through four presidents in five years, was once again in search of a leader. With a colleague at The Texas Tribune, I set out to understand how the flagship public university in a system that educates 175,000 students across twelve campuses had reached such a point. We started by filing public-information requests for records from the school’s regents, chancellor, and other top officials, seeking texts and emails, as well as memos, calendars, and voicemails—all of which are supposed to be accessible to the public. We soon confirmed that system leaders had been talking extensively. But many crucial messages that we knew existed were nowhere to be found.

In one instance, we obtained a thread of texts among a few of the regents that referenced other messages between Abbott and Jay Graham, the vice chair of the board, about Harrison’s post. But our probe for those records yielded nothing. University staff told us that they could “only produce records that exist as of the date of the request.” It seemed that everyone involved had deleted their copies of the conversation. Eventually, a top official with the Texas A&M system provided us with clarity; they said the regents, wary of public-information requests, were accustomed to using a work-around: “Read it and delete it.” Though destroying public records before the mandatory retention period expires can be a crime under state law, enforcement is rare, leaving officials free to routinely violate the foundation of the once robust Texas Public Information Act. A generation ago, our lawmakers, journalists, and engaged citizens considered transparency and openness to be bedrock principles of our state’s government. Laws enacted in the seventies secured the public’s right to know how state officials wield their authority. For decades these laws had served as a point of state pride: Texas boasted of offering some of the most transparency-friendly rules in the United States. The TPIA spells out its foundational philosophy in the preamble: “The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.” These transparency laws led to revelations of some of the worst cases of malfeasance in the state. They also prompted the creation of regulations that have benefited taxpayers. After the Austin American-Statesman used over one hundred records requests to uncover more than 450 unreported child sex abuse incidents across Texas day care facilities, legislators passed a slate of new laws regulating the industry. And after the Houston Chronicle filed three hundred public-information requests and found that the Texas Education Agency had pushed districts not to identify students with disabilities, denying children services they were legally entitled to receive, the U.S. Department of Education took federal action, and the Legislature tightened its policies. But over the past two decades, governmental bodies, with the help of the courts, have degraded Texas’s public-transparency apparatus piece by piece, nearly hollowing it out.

Read this article at Texas Monthly - Subscribers Only

Three takeaways from Bill Gates’s 5,784-word warning on AI: ‘There is no plan’

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates issued a stark warning about AI’s risks to employment and the human condition, saying that companies were barreling ahead with the technology with no larger plan for the massive upheaval it would cause. “Even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history,” he wrote in a 12-page essay published to his personal website Wednesday. “Right now, we are not preparing for it. I don’t see evidence that leaders, experts and communities are confronting the challenges adequately.” The message is more sober than Gates’s 2023 essay on AI, when he wrote he was as excited about this revolution as the internet and PC rollouts. Though Wednesday’s missive highlighted AI’s immense potential for good—citing developments in energy, medical care and agriculture—he stressed how badly things could go if the transition is mismanaged. “There is no plan to ease the entry into the AI era,” he wrote, calling for more regulation of the technology.

Here are three of his main points: AI will hit both white- and blue-collar jobs quickly. Much of his essay focused on jobs, noting that entry- and midlevel jobs are most at risk of being eliminated. He argued that AI will soon also affect blue-collar work, and the breadth and speed make it different from other workplace transitions. While the move from agriculture to office work took generations, sectors like law, customer service, software and manufacturing will feel AI’s impact over the course of a decade. When AI can produce error-free work, “it will be able to function on its own without a human checking in on it, and companies will have every economic incentive to let it,” Gates wrote. A society with many more jobless people will need a stronger social safety net, he said. When factories closed, many locals saw more opioid deaths: “Imagine similar pressures on both white-collar and blue-collar workers nationwide.” Critical thinking is more important than ever—and at risk. Gates stressed the risk of cyberattacks on the grid, hospitals and banks. Fraud and surveillance will be widespread. AI will also enable governments to use deadly force without a human’s input, Gates wrote.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

‘Honeymoon’s over’: Warsh under pressure as Fed weighs raising rates

Three years before taking over as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin M. Warsh recounted an exchange he once had with a hero of his, Paul A. Volcker, the celebrated central banker. Mr. Volcker, who navigated the Fed through one of the worst bouts of inflation in the 1970s and 1980s, told Mr. Warsh, then a governor, that the central bank’s job boiled down to two primary responsibilities. The first was getting interest rates “about right.” The second was to “make sure you look like you know what you’re doing.” Those duties are top of mind as Mr. Warsh prepares for his first address as chairman to the world’s leading economic policymakers in Jackson, Wyo. His speech, scheduled for Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern, is the biggest draw of the three-day conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

It will offer Mr. Warsh the most powerful perch yet to articulate his own framework for thinking about the economy, the policy choices in front of the Fed as it contends with elevated inflation and how he is assessing seismic changes — such as new sources of productivity gains from artificial intelligence — that could alter the country’s growth prospects in the years ahead. Those details have been intentionally sparse, reflecting Mr. Warsh’s inclination to guard his preferences. One of the only things that Mr. Warsh has made unequivocally clear is that he is committed to getting inflation down after five years of the central bank’s overshooting its 2 percent target. And even then, he has spoken only obliquely about the possibility of raising rates to get there. The lack of specifics on where Mr. Warsh stands on a number of fundamental issues has caused confusion both inside and outside the Fed, overshadowing his broader ambitions to enact sweeping change at the institution. Resolving this does not require Mr. Warsh to provide specific guidance about the Fed’s policy moves in September and beyond, as he is staunchly opposed to doing. But a slight change of tack is required to begin to reset the narrative after a rocky start. “You won’t accomplish anything if you are unwilling to tell people how you think the economy works,” said Anil Kashyap, an economist at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. “You have to have a mechanism that you think explains why if you’re going to do something differently, it’s going to turn out better. And that means you need to pick a lane on various issues.” “The honeymoon’s over,” Mr. Kashyap added.

Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only

State Stories

Greg Abbott has ‘serious doubts’ ICE agent in Texas jail is a fugitive

Gov. Greg Abbott has “serious doubts” that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of shooting a man in Minneapolis is a fugitive whom he is legally bound to return to Minnesota, as officials there have requested, according to court filings in the case. The officer, Christian Castro, was arrested in Texas and is being held in Cameron County. He could be released from jail as soon as Wednesday under Texas law, which sets a 90-day limit on the detention of fugitives awaiting extradition. Minnesota officials last week sued to force Abbott to sign his extradition papers before then. A judge is hearing arguments in the case Tuesday. The Republican governor said in court filings this week that Castro appears to have been ordered by the federal government to return to Harlingen, where he lives and is usually stationed, after the January shooting. Castro was sent to Minneapolis during President Donald Trump’s deportation surge there.

Abbott said he directed the secretary of state last month to investigate whether Castro qualifies as a fugitive under the law. The governor says he is waiting on the findings before deciding whether to authorize the extradition — which Minnesota officials sought months ago. “While the Governor has serious doubts that Mr. Castro qualifies as a fugitive, the Governor has not yet received a report from the Secretary and so has not made a decision concerning Minnesota’s request,” the court filings say. “Minnesota rushed to file this lawsuit, claiming (incredibly) that an ICE agent subject to ongoing federal investigations — and who never bothered to post bond — was somehow a flight risk.” At a press conference last week, Abbott said he wouldn’t respond to Minnesota's request "at all" until officials there admitted fault in a series of unrelated fraud cases involving government programs. Those cases do not involve Texas. Minnesota says the extradition matter is pressing. The state is seeking a temporary restraining order to keep Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino from releasing Castro until Minnesota authorities have him in custody.

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Medicaid and SNAP enrollment delays in Texas

New data from the state's Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) show that Texas families are facing growing delays as they wait for the state to process their applications for Medicaid health insurance and SNAP food assistance. The data show an increase from 2,000 delayed Medicaid applications in January to 183,000 in July. "Texas families should not have to delay health care because the state can't process their Medicaid applications on time," said Diana Forester, Director of Health Policy at Texans Care for Children. "We urge state leaders to step up for kids who are home sick from school and pregnant women who need prenatal care."

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Gina Hinojosa calls Tarrant County ‘ground zero’ in fight for the American dream

Gina Hinojosa outlined her vision for Texans to reclaim the American Dream to over 300 people during her rally in Fort Worth on Tuesday. The Democratic nominee for governor spoke about her plans to reform the public education system, make healthcare and electricity more affordable and combat data centers. During the 2022 midterm elections, Gov. Greg Abbott won Tarrant County with just over 51% of votes. Hinojosa called Tarrant County “ground zero” for this election. “The whole world is watching Tarrant County,” Hinojosa said. The county’s voting patterns have long been seen as a indicator of what will happen in Texas and national elections.

Taylor Eowers is a public school teacher with a son who has special needs. Eowers said his family is probably about to get kicked off of Medicare. “A candidate who can bring both public education and children’s healthcare into the mix has 100% got my vote,” Eowers said. Fort Worth ISD is one of eight school districts across the state that has been taken over by the Texas Education Agency due to consistent failing accountability ratings. “We need to include parents, include the community as part of the solution when our schools are struggling,” Hinojosa said, adding that she is against the state taking over public schools. Hinojosa said school districts face challenges due to underfunding, focusing on testing and the “teacher exodus” that has happened under Abbott. In the first three months following the state takeover, nearly 800 teachers resigned from Fort Worth ISD. “We will save Texas schools because there can be no American dream without strong public schools,” Hinojosa said.

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

Tensions flare at Fort Worth City Council meeting over $10B data center

New details have been announced about Fort Worth’s proposed $10 billion data center project — including its developer — after a tense meeting drew both ire and support for the project. At its meeting on Aug. 25, the Fort Worth City Council approved an amended site plan for a data center project in the city’s southeast edge, near Forest Hill and Everman. Fort Worth-based energy consortium Black Mountain has been attached to the data center, but on Tuesday, a representative from the Virginia-based data center developer EdgeConneX announced that the company is the developer and operator. “We’re not a crypto-mining operation, and we’re not a speculative developer looking to ride the data center wave,” Todd Workman, a representative from EdgeConneX, told council members.

Workman said that EdgeConneX has started outreach efforts to get local students involved with careers at the data center. A council vote on the plan was postponed after residents — and some City Council members — expressed confusion and hesitation over the plans for the development. Zoning cases for the land were initially approved by the City Council in 2025. The site plan that was approved on Tuesday includes four buildings, plus a substation that would only power the data center. Throughout the year, just about any meeting regarding data centers in Fort Worth has drawn hours-long public comments from residents and activist groups, and attention from state representatives and candidates for statewide office. That was still the case on Tuesday, as dozens of people came to speak against the data center. “I think we’re moving too fast,” said Sue Weston, the owner of the historic Weston Gardens. The data center’s footprint is adjacent to her property. Weston told the city she does not believe enough environmental assessments on the data center have been completed.

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Dallas caps property tax rate, bucking hikes in other Texas cities

While other Texas cities have decided to increase taxes to balance their books, Dallas officials aren’t going to do that. The City Council voted 8-6 to cap the rate at 69.78 cents per $100 of taxable value. They agreed with City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert’s budget recommendation, indicating officials could seek deeper cuts. Dallas has pursued tax rate cuts for 11 years straight, forgoing more than $200 million in revenue. Tolbert’s $5.6 billion proposal offers a slight 0.10 cent decrease to its current rate, inspiring robust debate about whether it was enough or even necessary. The final budget will be adopted Sept. 16.

Council members debated whether to increase or lower the cap for more than an hour. Some said a lower property tax rate helps residents and makes the city more competitive to lure businesses. But several have pushed back saying a cut in the city’s tax collections also means neighborhood services will need to be pruned. Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement that the council’s vote Tuesday showed “sound fiscal discipline and a serious commitment to keeping Dallas competitive, pro-growth and affordable compared with other major Texas cities.” Mayor Pro Tem Jaime Resendez and council members Laura Cadena, Adam Bazaldua, Paula Blackmon, Cara Mendelsohn and Paul Ridley voted against the cap. Council member Bill Roth was absent when the vote was taken. Tuesday’s move makes Dallas an outlier among major Texas cities. Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth have either approved or proposed raising their property tax rates. Houston is keeping its property tax rate flat.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

Anthropic may make another huge footprint outside Austin

Fresh off its huge data center lease in Milam County northeast of Austin, Silicon Valley-based Anthropic PBC is in talks to occupy a gargantuan data center development on the east side in Bastrop County. While no agreement has been finalized, the artificial intelligence company has been working with Washington, D.C.-based BlackChamber Partners LLC and Dallas-based Pacifico Energy LLC on what's been described as a 2,842-acre gas-fired electric generation facility to support a major data center development in the Cedar Creek area, several sources told ABJ. Public documents indicate that at full buildout the power plant would deliver 710 megawatts of "site-rated redundant power using simple cycle natural gas turbines" that will support 490 megawatts of informational technology load.

Translation: A roughly 500-megawatt data center is in the works. Details aren't made public, but for perspective, such data centers often measure in the millions of square feet. Anthropic is largely known for its language learning model called Claude. It recently signed what could amount to a $16.1 billion data center lease at Riot Platforms Inc.'s campus in Milam County near the former Alcoa Corp. plant. BlackChamber and Pacifico last week pulled a tax abatement request filed with Bastrop County. They withdrew another request for property tax abatements from the Bastrop Independent School District through the Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act, or JETI. The decision to pull those applications was led by Anthropic, which cited a desire not to pull money from the local community, sources said. The company is said to be working with local officials on a list of community priorities to partner on ahead of potentially leasing the property. The project is located at 382 Earl Callahan Road.

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Ross Fire explodes to 50,000 acres in Palo Pinto County; ‘We’re throwing everything at this’

A wildfire that broke out Monday along Highway 180 near R.D. Bell Road in Palo Pinto County, known as "Ross Fire," has grown to 50,000 acres with 12% containment as of 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. Highway 180 and Highway 254 are closed near the scene as crews battled the flames. Officials said spot fires are popping up about a mile north of the fire. Palo Pinto ESD 1 said the fire grew to over 18,000 acres in just 12 hours, and by 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, had grown to over 50,000 acres. Additional air assets arrived on scene Tuesday morning to assist the over 100 firefighters already on the scene to battle the blaze.

At least five structures are known to have been destroyed by the Ross Fire. Officials said additional damage assessments are expected to be conducted Tuesday. Firefighters have been working throughout the night to protect structures from the raging fire, Danny Watkins, chief of the Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District, said in a video posted to Facebook. "The primary objective for the day is structural protection because of the fire conditions and the fuel load; we're going to engage where we can, but the homes are the first priority," Watkins said. "The fuel load and the weather conditions, it's kind of been the perfect storm where we just haven't been able to contain it. We're doing everything we can; we're throwing everything at this and still having minimal effect." The city of Graford is on high alert due to the fire, according to Palo Pinto officials. Graford ISD and Perrin-Whitt CISD have canceled school due to the fire, officials said.

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SB 12 — ‘the drag ban’ — again ruled unconstitutional

Texas’ drag ban — Senate Bill 12 passed in the 2023 Texas Legislature — has once again been ruled unconstitutional, according to numerous reports. A federal judge in Houston ruled Tuesday, Aug. 25 — for the second time — that Senate Bill 12, the so-called Texas drag ban which came out of the 2023 legislative session, is unconstitutional. Today’s ruling once against pauses enforcement of the law, which had gone into effect in March. U.S. District Judge David Hittner of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found that the ban is an unlawful restriction on speech that violates the First Amendment. He also issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the law.

Brian Klosterboer, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas which represented the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in a statement that Hittner’s ruling on Tuesday “confirms that the Legislature’s attempt to ban drag performances was unconstitutional from start to finish. “Drag has a rich history as a refuge of joy and liberation for countless Texans, and it’s not going anywhere,” Klosterboer continued. “This law stifled free expression across our state and made people afraid to engage in or attend drag shows and other performances. But all Texans — no matter our gender or background — are guaranteed the right to free expression. “We celebrate this victory and remain committed to stopping state officials from targeting LGBTQIA+ Texans and making our state less free and fair,” he said. SB 12, passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2023, was part of a wave of “drag ban” laws that swept across the country. The Texas law prohibited “sexually oriented performances” on public property or in the presence of minors under the age of 18. It allowed for businesses hosting such shows to be fined $10,000 and for performers in those shows to be charged with misdemeanor offenses.

Read this article at Dallas Voice - Subscribers Only

Ex-Democratic Texas rep turned Republican anti-trans activist appointed judge in Houston

After a whirlwind few years that saw her anger Democrats, switch parties, get appointed to a state prison board and join the American chapter of an international anti-transgender group, former Texas state representative Shawn Thierry has a new gig: Houston judge. On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he had appointed Thierry as judge of the 515th Harris County Judicial District Court. Thierry's appointment is effective Sept. 1, with her term expiring Dec. 31, 2028. The 515th District Court was one of five new courts created last legislative session to address a backlog of civil court cases. "I look forward to serving on the bench with integrity, fairness, and respect for the rule of law," Thierry wrote in a statement on X.

Abbott's office noted in a press release that Thierry currently serves on the Texas Juvenile Justice Board, which Abbott appointed her to in 2025. She is a graduate of Howard University and holds a JD from Thurgood Marshall School of Law and, the press release notes among her many distinctions, "a former volunteer with the Houston Food Bank." But Abbott's office did not mention some of Thierry's more recent work. Thierry was originally elected as a Democrat in 2017 to represent Texas House District 146, which includes Houston's historically Black Sunnyside neighborhood, replacing outgoing Rep. Borris Miles, who now serves in the Texas Senate. Thierry mostly flew under the radar until the 2023 legislative session, when she broke ranks with her party to vote for several bills opposed by LGBTQ+ advocates and allies. Thierry was one of 12 Democrats to vote for a bill that would have taken books deemed sexually explicit out of Texas schools. She also voted to ban transgender athletes from competing on college teams that align with their gender identity.

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More than 500,000 people across Central Texas don’t have enough food to eat

Texas has the highest population battling food insecurity in the country, with over 6 million residents in the state struggling to access food consistently throughout the year. That’s about 1 in 5 households, according to Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks. Central Texas’s food insecurity rate decreased after 2020, but has increased each year since 2021. In 2024, just over 17% of the population in the region—more than 500,000 people—didn’t have enough to eat and didn’t know where their next meal would come from. Experts say a lack of access to enough food can lead to negative impacts on physical and mental health and affect other parts of life, from work and school to relationships.

Every year, Feeding Texas releases a Map the Meal Gap study to show food insecurity levels in counties across the country, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The nonprofit uses data like unemployment numbers, cost of living, access to nearby grocery stores and more to measure food insecurity. The 2026 report released this summer highlighted food insecurity from two years prior. In Central Texas, the food insecurity rate in 2024 varied by county, with Williamson County at the low end showing 14.6% of its population dealt with food insecurity, while Caldwell County had the highest at 19.9%. Many households who do deal with food insecurity do not qualify for federal food assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In Texas, about 47% of the population that is food insecure does not meet eligibility requirements for SNAP, whether that’s because a household’s income is higher than the threshold for the program or for other reasons. In Central Texas, more than 40% of those facing food insecurity do not qualify for SNAP, but that figure does vary by county. Broken down by demographics, 34% of the region’s food insecure population is Black, 23% is Hispanic and 12% is white. Data on Asian Americans and Native Americans was not available.

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What Texas’ childcare cuts could mean for Dallas families on the waitlist

Texas wants Dallas County to provide childcare support to 1,604 fewer children per day, which could keep families on the waitlist longer. The Texas Workforce Commission set Dallas County’s target at 11,516 children served per day for the 2027 Board Contract Year. That is down from the 13,120 target the agency approved for the current contract year. The number is a target for the average number of children served each day. It is not a confirmed count of individual children who will lose care or an annual count of families receiving help.

ChildCareGroup, which manages the Child Care Financial Scholarship program for Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas, has not received formal guidance on final service levels for the coming program year, CEO Tori Mannes said. But Mannes said there are no plans to remove current scholarship recipients from the program. As children leave because a parent no longer needs care or no longer meets eligibility requirements, fewer children will be enrolled from the waiting list, she said. In an Aug. 11 discussion paper, TWC reported it updated the current-year targets effective with the July performance report to give local workforce boards a way to gradually reduce enrollment before the new contract year. In June, TWC approved ending a staff-retention strategy after agency staff said it could not show whether the program reduced turnover. The commission also ended a planned $25 million childcare-expansion initiative that had not yet been awarded. Staff said the money should instead support more children amid long waitlists. In July, the commission redirected another $29.76 million in quality funds not needed to meet state quality earmarks into direct care.

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Grapevine-Colleyville school board drops effort to keep legal fees hidden from public

The Grapevine-Colleyville school board voted last night to dismiss three lawsuits filed against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that aimed to block the release of records that district parents have long demanded be made public. All three lawsuits were related to invoices for legal fees the school district paid to attorney Tim Davis and the firms he worked for while he served as the school board’s counsel. In 2024 and 2025, Rachel Wall, a Grapevine-Colleyville parent, requested the unredacted invoices from the district under the Texas Public Information Act. The Star-Telegram did the same in 2025. The school board, represented by Davis, initially sought to withhold those records, arguing they were protected by attorney-client privilege. The Texas Attorney General’s Office, however, ruled that fee details were not privileged and ordered the district to release the invoices.

The board then sued Paxton to keep the invoices from becoming public. As reported in June, there had been little movement in those cases. Davis parted ways with Grapevine-Colleyville earlier this summer, leading to speculation that the school board would abandon its legal fight to withhold the unredacted invoices. In July, a spokesperson for the school district said the school board was in the process of reviewing the documents. All along, Wall has argued that taxpayers are entitled to see how district money is being spent in the name of transparency. She said Grapevine-Colleyville paid Davis and his firms upwards of $600,000 over the course of four years. On Monday, the school board passed three motions to dismiss the lawsuits. In each instance, the vote was 6-1, with Trustee Shannon Braun the lone dissenting vote. There was no public discussion prior to the votes. School board president Dalia Begin did not immediately respond to a text message requesting comment on the board’s change of heart regarding the invoices. Braun did not immediately respond to a voice message asking for insight into her reasons for opposing the motions. The Keller school board, which Davis also represented, filed a similar lawsuit against Paxton last year to block the release of unredacted legal invoices. A spokesperson for Keller did not immediately respond when asked if the board had considered abandoning its legal challenge.

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

The NBA investigated a team employee's sexual misconduct claim. Did they talk to her?

According to Joshua Primo’s therapist, the San Antonio Spurs rookie flashed his penis nine times during their private sessions. Though she said she reported her claims to Spurs management, the team didn’t issue any consequences until cutting him months after they ended her employment as the team’s performance psychologist. That’s what Dr. Hillary Cauthen alleged in her November 3, 2022, lawsuit against Primo and the team, spurring the National Basketball Association to launch an investigation. The league’s inquiry, ironically, led commissioner Adam Silver to compliment her former employer. Silver told the press that the Spurs—who publicly disputed Cauthen’s “accuracy of facts, details and timeline” before reaching a settlement—“handled the situation in a very responsible way.” But, he also acknowledged that the league was pursuing “safeguards” to ensure situations like Cauthen wouldn’t happen again.

Nearly a year after Cauthen’s lawsuit, the NBA suspended Primo for four games for “exposing himself to women” after finishing a probe that “consulted with relevant experts.” eyeblack learned that according to Cauthen’s attorney, the NBA’s decision was news to her. Literally. Tony Buzbee, the lawyer who represented Cauthen in her case against the Spurs, told eyeblack that NBA never contacted her about joining its probe, nor did Silver or any official inform her about those promised safeguards. “The league never even asked to speak to her,” said Buzbee. “We made her available, [the NBA] never responded.” Buzbee’s claim, if true, marked the second time in the last three years that the NBA was publicly criticized for ending an investigation without interviewing the woman who made the complaint. Buzbee cited Cauthen’s press conference announcing the suit, where she articulated her desire to “protect those that suffer in silence” and “help organizations develop a culture of care,” as a clear example of her desire to participate. “Maybe, if they are performing an investigation, and I’ve stated publicly that my client is available to speak, they should make an effort to reach out?,” Buzbee said.

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Dr. Summer Rose: 5 tips to help parents recognize if their student is struggling during back to school season

(Dr. Summer Rose is a clinical psychologist and CEO of Communities In Schools of the Dallas Region.) Kids are back in school, and as that first day excitement fades and schedules become routine, parents and teachers may begin noticing early signs that a student is struggling. Maybe they're suddenly reluctant to go to school, their grades or attendance begin slipping, their behavior changes, or they start withdrawing from friends and activities. Those changes can be easy to chalk up to an adjustment period, but they can also be critical clues that something more serious is happening.

One bad grade or bad morning is not reason for concern, Dr. Rose says. Look out for patterns that are cause for concern. Be curious before you become punitive. Dr. Rose says while it's easy to take technology away when grades slip, dig deeper to see if there's larger issue at play. Don't forget about the adjustment period. During back to school season, kids are just getting back into a strict routine. If your student still isn't adjusting well after a few months, Dr. Rose says it's worth having a conversation with them about underlying stressors. It's normal for students to experience summer learning loss, and the first month of school is usually the time to "catch-up." Dr. Rose says teachers should monitor students' progress throughout that first month, and let parents know if their student may require extra support. Teachers are a great resource into how your child is doing in the classroom. Some students at home present themselves to be on top of their game, but that may not be the reality for them in the classroom. Check in with educators on your students' progress these first few months.

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National Stories

Dolly Parton, country music superstar whose songs spoke to millions, dies at 80

Dolly Parton, a rhinestone-studded, rags-to-riches daughter of Appalachia who for six decades ruled country music — and much of pop culture — with an outsize personality and down-home wit that enshrined her as one of America’s most cherished originals, died on Tuesday in Nashville. She was 80. Her death was announced by her family. A spokesman said that she died after a brief battle with cancer and that she had been admitted to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville on Friday. Concerns about Ms. Parton’s health arose last year when she postponed a Las Vegas residency, and intensified to the point that she took to social media in October to announce, “I ain’t dead yet.” This May, she canceled the residency but said that she had responded well to treatment after her immune and digestive systems had, as she put it, “got all out of whack” in recent years.

From her hardscrabble beginnings to glittering stardom, Ms. Parton’s life was the stuff of make-believe. With her voluptuous figure, sparkly stage costumes and blond bouffant wigs, she was likened by the writer Chet Flippo to the Big Rock Candy Mountain, the Depression-era symbol of abundance. Her songs spoke to millions, confronting privation and loss even as they radiated possibility and hope. She was, quintessentially, a uniter of people. In 2019, The New York Times ran a story with the headline “Is There Anything We Can All Agree On? Yes: Dolly Parton.” Ms. Parton cannily exploited — and transcended — rural stereotypes and kitsch to fashion a folksy chic entirely her own. (“A country girl’s idea of glam,” she called it in the song “Backwoods Barbie.”) In the process, she became an international celebrity who headlined stadium tours, starred in Hollywood movies, built a business empire and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone. Her at times girlish soprano notwithstanding, she was anything but the “dumb blonde” invoked in the title of her 1966 single. “I’ve created this and played it up — the makeup, the whole persona,” Ms. Parton said, alluding to her plastic surgeries as well as her colloquial “Dollyisms” in a 2002 interview with The Times.

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Trump’s pick for open House seat in Kentucky scrubs president from campaign website

President Trump’s pick to replace Republican Rep. Andy Barr (Ky.) in the House has completely scrubbed the president from his campaign website. Former state Sen. Ralph Alvarado’s (R) campaign website no longer features an image of the candidate next to Trump with them both giving a thumbs-up and shifted from branding himself as a national leader in the “America First” movement to an “independent” focused on healthcare. The scrub of his website was first reported by NBC. Alvarado and the White House did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment explaining the change.

An archived version of Alvarado’s website says he “was one of President Trump’s earliest supporters, and now he’s stepping up to fight alongside him in Washington to fire up the economy, secure our border, and stop the woke agenda.” It touted the former state senator as the only Latino to speak in support of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Now statements on the website focus on healthcare and lowering costs. “Healthcare isn’t a talking point to me — it’s been my life’s work. In Congress, I’ll work with both parties to fight for affordable healthcare, lower costs, and practical solutions that help Kentucky families,” a quote from Alvarado on the campaign website’s landing page says. His statement comes as healthcare premiums increased after lawmakers decided not to renew Affordable Care Act subsidies and as the Trump administration pushes changes to the vaccine schedule for school-age children. Democrats say Alvarado’s shift in rhetoric shows that he’s “two-faced.” “He is a two-faced, corrupt politician who has shown he is willing to say anything to deceive Central Kentuckians just to try and get elected,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Eli Cousin told The Hill. “Alvarado scrubbing his website to try and paper over his real record is just the latest sign that he is feeling the heat and knows that this race is a true toss up,” Cousin added. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the seat vacated by Barr as “likely Republican.”

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FEMA crew broke law by skipping homes with Trump signs, federal watchdog says

A crew of Federal Emergency Management Agency staffers working on the response to Hurricane Milton in 2024 violated the law and agency policy by skipping nearly a dozen homes displaying signs supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, a federal watchdog said Tuesday. The new report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that the decision by a crew with the agency’s Disaster Survivor Assistance program “eroded public trust in FEMA’s ability to treat everyone impartially, offer unbiased and consistent assistance, and ensure equal access to resources and tools.”

Back-to-back hurricanes hit Florida within two weeks of each other in late September and early October 2024, prompting emergency declarations and federal assistance. FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance crews canvassed 744,288 homes and other sites in response, according the report, and did not contact “555,374 locations for reasons such as private property signs or safety concerns.” During FEMA’s hurricane response, which was unfolding during the last few weeks of the pivotal election, a FEMA crew lead instructed team members to avoid homes with Trump signs due to safety concerns. The same crew bypassed those 11 homes in Florida, according to survey notes obtained by the inspector general’s office. At the time, the crew leader did not feel safe given the heightened tension and “was looking for ways to define safety. People were not getting good guidance, so she made her own way,” said a former senior FEMA official with direct knowledge of the situation. After several FEMA workers filed a complaint, the agency started its own investigation and officials referred the complaint to the Office of Special Counsel and DHS’s inspector general office.

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Pennsylvania reports first 2 US measles deaths in 2026

Two unvaccinated Pennsylvania residents have died after being infected with measles, the first U.S. deaths this year related to the contagious virus. State health officials announced the deaths Tuesday. They did not reveal any details about the people who died, other than that they lived in Lancaster County, west of Philadelphia. “My deepest sympathies are with the loved ones who are facing this unimaginable loss,” said state Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen. “Because measles was largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for more than three decades, people are not familiar with this disease and don’t fully understand the potential severity of the illness.” The U.S. has now seen five measles-associated deaths in the last two years — more than the combined total of reported deaths over the previous three decades — and is enduring its worst year for measles since 1991.

With 2,777 cases as of Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this year already has surpassed 2025’s measles count. In November, international health officials will meet to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles-free status. The U.S. eliminated local measles spread in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, which have fallen in recent years to below the 95% coverage needed to prevent outbreaks. The measles surge has coincided with moves by President Donald Trump’s administration to scale back childhood vaccinations, based on concerns — unfounded, according to scientific studies — about vaccine safety. Trump earlier this month signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations. He also advocated separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different shots, and administering all childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible. Doctors have raised concerns that Trump and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are stoking confusion and hesitancy.

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In headache for Republicans, second Dan Sullivan advances in Alaska Senate race

A candidate with the same name as Alaska’s incumbent U.S. senator advanced Tuesday to the general election in what will be one of the most closely watched races in the country this fall. Dan J. Sullivan, who goes by Dan Sullivan, was among the top four finishers after the Aug. 18 primary and moved on to the November matchup, which is a ranked choice contest. The incumbent, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola also have advanced. The challenger Sullivan, a retired teacher from the island community of Petersburg, sued for a spot on the ballot and succeeded after a judge invalidated a decision by a top state elections official who said he had filed his candidacy with an intent to confuse voters.

The allegation was driven by claims raised by the senator and his GOP allies. The state Supreme Court ultimately ordered Dan J. Sullivan eligible for the ballot. While the challenger sought to appear on the ballot as Republican Dan J. Sullivan, the Division of Elections listed him as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. The senator was listed as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican and incumbent. A call seeking comment from the challenger was not immediately returned Tuesday, and emails to campaign staff for the senator also were not immediately returned. President Donald Trump endorsed Sen. Sullivan for reelection and called the other Sullivan’s candidacy an attempt to trick voters. Dan J. Sullivan criticized the incumbent for embracing Trump’s endorsement and said the president was “more interested in raising tariffs on our allies than in lowering the cost of groceries, housing and energy.” It was too early to determine who would fill the fourth and final slot in the Senate general election race. The Senate race was one of three major contests on Alaska’s primary ballot, which also featured races for the state’s lone U.S. House seat and governor.

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MAGA influencer outed as a Pentagon employee in bizarre turn after botching ‘scoop’ from State Dept.

Jennica Pounds, who is more well-known as MAGA influencer DataRepublican on social media, was outed as a special government employee of the Department of Defense Monday. Pounds’s Pentagon employment came to light after a bizarre incident in which she claimed she was being “set up” by the deep state — but it was revealed she merely botched a “scoop” she was being handed by a State Department official. Up until June, Pounds was a member of the credentialed Pentagon press corps. She had not disclosed her new gig with the Pentagon.

The story began to blow open on Friday, Aug. 21, when the X account for the far-right outlet AF Post wrote, “Jennica Pounds, aka Data Republican, a Department of War employee, alleges that Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers is attempting to ‘entrap’ Pounds by providing her with information to ‘leak’ under the guise of offering her a ‘scoop.'” Per AF Post, Pounds also believed the “Deep State” — or Rogers — was “trying to set her up to commit a crime, in this case claiming Rogers is trying to entice her to leak sensitive information.” “It’s not okay when the Deep State sets you up to commit a crime,” Pounds wrote in a now-deleted thread. “I have never been more angry in my life.” On Monday, AP Pentagon reporter Konstantin Toropin posted on X, “The Pentagon confirms – ‘Ms. Pounds serves at the Department of War as a Special Government Employee.'”

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Trump nabs crucial primary wins in South Carolina, Oklahoma

President Trump notched two critical wins in South Carolina and Oklahoma on Tuesday, with Sen. Darline Graham (S.C.) and former state Sen. Mike Mazzei (Okla.) clinching the GOP nominations in their respective primary runoff races. The Republican contests for South Carolina Senate and Oklahoma governor served as another key test of the president’s influence in the GOP as several of his gubernatorial and House picks have fallen short in their primaries this cycle. Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) by nearly 5 percentage points while Mazzei eked out Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond by about half a point, according to Decision Desk HQ. Graham, who was appointed to serve the remainder of her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.), term in the upper chamber, faced growing questions around her lack of political experience after a gaffe on the debate stage last week.

But Trump’s endorsement carried both her and Mazzei across the finish line, underscoring the president’s firm grip on the party in key contests ahead of the November midterms. Trump had ripped Mazzei’s opponent in the days ahead of Tuesday’s contest. Graham pulled it off in South Carolina — helping Trump avoid an embarrassing primary loss. Trump threw his political weight behind the incumbent and visited the state last week to rally alongside Graham. His super PAC MAGA Inc. also invested $827,000 in the contest, marking the group’s largest investment so far this election cycle. Graham’s win is particularly notable given the president’s initial gubernatorial pick — South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette (R) — lost. He had also backed Attorney General Alan Wilson in the race, but the outcome prompted questions about whether South Carolina Republicans would buck the president’s endorsee again. Trump came out on top in a tight Oklahoma governor’s GOP runoff with Mazzei’s victory over Drummond. Drummond narrowly led Mazzei in the initial June primary runoff. The race took a nasty turn, with Mazzei releasing a drug test this week after public pressure from Drummond, who did the same. In the days ahead of the runoff, Trump also hammered the attorney general, calling him a “fake Republican.” Drummond, a rancher, opposed a Trump-backed aluminum plant in the state and in recent days has slammed the president’s decision to import beef and tariff Canadian goods.

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Lead Stories

Supreme Court allows Trump to pursue mail voting limits, for now

A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to restrict mail-in voting before the midterm elections. In an emergency opinion, the justices said President Trump could proceed with implementing an executive order he had signed, which directed the U.S. Postal Service to help decide which voters should receive mail-in ballots. Under the executive order, the Department of Homeland Security will also create lists of U.S. citizens that the administration believes could be used to monitor voter rolls for noncitizens. The decision means the administration can move ahead with planning for restricting the use of mail ballots even as a lower court continues to weigh the legality of Mr. Trump’s executive order. But with a little more than two months until Election Day — and considerably less time before early voting begins in many states — it remains unclear whether the White House’s rules will be in effect for a midterm election in which control of both chambers is at stake.

Additional legal action is a near certainty with the plan’s fate not yet final. A separate injunction by the same lower court complicates matters. That court action prevents the postal service from implementing some parts of the executive order. That case could also soon be headed to the justices. Monday’s order from the Supreme Court was unsigned, as is typical in such emergency rulings. The majority wrote that it agreed with the government’s argument that it should be able to move forward with its plans, finding that the Trump administration was “likely to suffer irreparable harm” unless the justices lifted a freeze that had been imposed by lower courts. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warning that the majority “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections.” The majority said the states that challenged the president’s order could not demonstrate that they were sufficiently harmed by voting rules that had not yet taken effect. The justices cautioned that their order was preliminary and not a final decision about whether the administration’s order “will necessarily be lawful” once the plans are complete. “On that score, time will tell,” the majority said in the 10-page, unsigned order. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has been receptive to some, but not all, of the administration’s broad claims of executive power. In this case, the majority said that the provision of Mr. Trump’s order that required creating lists of U.S. citizens was “an internal directive from the president to a subordinate” and so far imposed no obligations on the states.

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Can counties stop data centers? Ken Paxton won’t say.

Attorney General Ken Paxton has called data centers a “complicated issue” that should be decided “by local communities.” But when two rural counties asked his office early this year if they could halt local data center construction, it was not quick to weigh in. Six months later, it still hasn’t. The attorney general’s office had 180 days to issue a legal opinion or delay the matter, according to state law. The office wrote to Hood County Attorney Matt Mills on Monday notifying him it would "need more time to review the law, complete our analysis, and finalize the opinion." “I predicted long ago that I wouldn't hear back until after the election in November,” Mills said.

Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate, on Monday rolled out a campaign proposal that endorses new rules on where data centers can be built and calls for prohibiting Chinese technology from being used in them. He is the latest candidate to wade into the data center fracas, joining other GOP candidates who have sought to quell a brewing backlash among rural voters. But Paxton's plan is silent on one of the biggest questions fueling the data center debate in Texas, the ability that counties have to do anything about the centers cropping up across the state. Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, has called for them to be given the power to keep data centers out. His four-part plan includes federal legislation to hold data center companies criminally liable if they empower AI chatbots that could be harmful to children and backs a federal proposal to cut regulations to speed up power so new data centers don’t raise electricity costs.

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Farmers struggle to get basic services from depleted Agriculture Dept.

Mary and Zachariah Ben, farmers in New Mexico, believed they were on the verge of buying the property of their dreams last fall: 47 acres, with enough cropland to grow heirloom corn and a processing facility to expand their organic baby food business. But the low-interest loan they secured from the Agriculture Department to make the purchase in Aztec, N.M., was on hold for months, first during the government shutdown that lasted until mid-November and then as federal workers left the agency in droves. Only half a dozen loan specialists who could help process their claims remained in the entire state, the couple learned, leaving them in limbo indefinitely and the seller impatient to know whether the agreement would ever go through. Zachariah Ben, who along with his children is a member of the Navajo Nation, ultimately turned to private lenders instead, and the family absorbed more than $200,000 in interest as a result. “At least we got the land because we could have also lost that, and we would have if we had to wait” on the Agriculture Department, Mary Ben said.

The experience of the Bens, whose aim of providing organic and shelf-stable options for young children appears to align with some of the Trump administration’s stated goals, is not unique. Across the country, farmers and rural residents describe struggling to obtain the basic services the Agriculture Department is meant to offer, including loans and grants, technical assistance and financing for housing and utilities. Sharp attrition under the Trump administration, largely through voluntary resignations and dismissals by the Department of Government Efficiency, have left many of the Agriculture Department’s local offices with skeletal staffing — and, in some counties, with no one at all. The ripple effects of the Agriculture Department’s depleted work force illustrate how the Trump administration’s mission of shrinking the federal bureaucracy has undercut a competing priority: delivering for farmers, a core political constituency. Strained government resources also risk posing additional challenges for a farm economy that administration officials have described as “dire,” increasing barriers to entry for new farmers who need more assistance, impeding assistance to producers already facing tough economic conditions, and hampering basic services and government aid in the most remote and poorest places. “All these practical things that make the wheels go around in a community were facilitated by U.S.D.A., and it was with staff who knew how to navigate and had the trust of the local community,” Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee on rural development, said in an interview. “It’s something that was working, was working well, and was very cost-efficient. And now it is being demolished.”

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A relentless heat dome is expanding from Texas to California, challenging records

The states of Texas and Oklahoma are no strangers to extreme heat during summer. So when temperature records are being challenged in these notoriously hot places, it catches a meteorologist’s attention. On Monday, Dallas tied its hottest overall day on record, with an average temperature of 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit. It reached a blistering 109 degrees during the day after a low of just 86 degrees. By the time August is said and done, high temperatures in Dallas may end up reaching or exceeding 100 degrees on 27 out of a possible 31 days — just one day shy of the record, set in 2011. And the heat dome that has produced these extremes is showing no signs of letting up — at least not until early September. “Check on your Texan friends,” Dallas-based meteorologist Pete Delkus wrote Monday on X, while sharing a chart that showed triple-digit temperatures predicted for another two weeks straight.

In Oklahoma City, where it soared to a daily-record-tying 108 degrees on Monday, temperatures have reached the century mark on 18 days this month. The August record of 20 days, set in 2011, is within reach. Meanwhile, near Chickasha, Oklahoma, about 35 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, it reached 115 degrees, making it the regional epicenter of Monday’s heat. Through the end of August, about 98 million people across the United States — mostly from the Southwest to the southern Plains and Texas — could face major or extreme risks for heat-related impacts, according to NOAA’s HeatRisk. At those potentially dangerous heat levels, people without access to effective cooling or hydration are particularly vulnerable. In the days ahead, the core of the heat will shift farther west, becoming centered over New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California, where numerous temperature records are expected. Continuing a pattern seen with most heat domes this summer, nights will bring little or no relief from the day’s extreme heat — and the number of overnight low temperature records are expected to outnumber daytime high temperature records. “It will probably not drop below 70 degrees almost anywhere in Southern California at any point for several consecutive days,” said Swain, when discussing the potential for “record-shattering” overnight warmth.

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State Stories

Dallas to pay nearly $2 million on security for Republican midterm convention

Dallas will pay an estimated $1.8 million for police officers to provide security at the midterm Republican convention in September, city leaders were told Monday. Large conventions, not to mention ones that feature the president, generally require a police presence that can drive up overtime pay costs for the city, which is facing an overall $30 million budget shortfall. Kevin Oden, director of the Office of Emergency Management and Crisis Response, told the city council’s finance committee the Department of Transportation and Public Works is expected to spend $14,000 for the event. There’s no cost estimate yet for Dallas Fire-Rescue.

“Our focus between now and Sept. 9 is to continue doing that planning work everyday, make sure the city is prepared, whittle down our costs to get exactly what we know this thing’s going to be and then seek reimbursement or grant opportunities,” Oden said. Cost estimates are changing by the day as planning continues, Oden said. The estimate comes as overtime pay for Dallas police is projected to hit $2.7 million over budget for fiscal year 2026. Dallas police work to secure events whether they get reimbursed or not. For example, the city does get regular and overtime pay reimbursement for security when leaders of Congress are in town. That's not historically been the case for people protected by the Secret Service, Assistant Chief Mark Villarreal said during a city council briefing earlier this month. "As far as Secret Service protectees, never in the history have we ever received any type of reimbursement from the Secret Service," Villarreal said. At Monday's meeting, City Council member Chad West raised concerns with the costs related to the upcoming event. “I very much think we need to welcome this convention to the city just like we do all conventions,” West said. “But I do have real concerns on nonpayment given what has happened across the country for similar events.” The convention will take place at American Airlines Center on Sept. 9 and Sept. 10 — just a few months before midterm elections. Republicans hope to rally voters as they fight to hold onto their slim majority in Congress. But they face challenges. President Donald Trump’s approval rating is at 33%, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. That will likely affect Trump’s ability to get votes for Republican Congress members during the Nov. 3 elections. The President’s party also historically loses seats in Congress during the midterms.

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Buc-ee’s CEO signals expansion shift away from blue states that ‘don’t appreciate’ chain

Buc-ee’s CEO suggested recently that the Texas-based travel center chain may be done looking into blue districts, saying some communities do not appreciate what the company brings while conservative states offer business-friendly and family-oriented values. Arch "Beaver" Aplin III, the company’s president and co-founder, made the comments during the grand opening of Buc-ee’s newest location in Benton, Arkansas on August 17. The chain is known for its expansive gas stations, famously clean restrooms and in-house food offerings. "We have a lot of opportunities. We're growing. We're building in a lot of places. But when you find a conservative business-friendly state with a phenomenal workforce, it makes a difference," Aplin said.

Aplin criticized states that he said do not appreciate what Buc-ee’s brings to their communities, suggesting the company would rather focus its expansion efforts elsewhere. "I'm starting to realize life's too short to try to build in places that people don't appreciate what you're bringing, versus a place like this where people do appreciate what you are building," he said. Conservative states typically promote business-friendly and family-oriented policies that align with Buc-ee’s values, Aplin said. "That leadership, that concept, that idea of conservative, business-friendly, family-oriented concept works so much better if it trickles down from the very leadership from the top at the governor's office, at the congressman, at senator, at the mayor, the representatives," he said. Aplin pointed to Benton as an example of the approach, saying the city’s business-friendly environment helped pave the way for Buc-ee’s newest location. "What we found when we got here into Benton was a business-friendly town," he said.

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Texas Gov Greg Abbott releases end-of-summer playlist, raises eyebrows

Around this time each year, there's often a debate over the "song of the summer." In 2026, Gov. Greg Abbott has thrown his hat in the ring. Abbott released an end-of-summer playlist on Friday, playing into the debate with the caption "Texas is the song of every season." The playlist features 16 songs with Texas-themed titles. The first is Ella Langley's smash-hit "Choosin' Texas," which is many people's "song of the summer" and has spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Beyond that, the selection includes a mix of modern hits and classics like George Strait's "Amarillo by Morning" and Marty Robbins' "El Paso."

It also includes North Texas artists like Fort Worth singer Leon Bridges, whose collaboration with Khruangbin "Texas Sun" made the cut alongside Dallas rapper BigXThaPlug's "Texas." The inclusion of BigX raised eyebrows on social media with several commenting to express skepticism that the governor listens to his music. "I’m 100% sure that Abbott is not jamming to Bigxthaplug but that’s ok," one commenter wrote. Some commenters shared songs they thought should have been on the list, while others suspected artificial intelligence was used to make it. "Hey AI make me list of songs that have Texas in the title so I can seem like common folk for election season," one commenter wrote. The playlist recalls the musical selections regularly released by former President Barack Obama since his final years in office. Abbott's summer playlist arrives in the midst of his re-election campaign for governor. The Republican is facing off against Democrat state Rep. Gina Hinojosa this fall. The Hinojosa campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Council Member Paige Ellis falls short of signatures needed to secure place on ballot

Austin City Council Member Paige Ellis’ petition to run for a third term was rejected by the city clerk, according to the city of Austin. The council member did not secure enough signatures. Austin City Council members can serve two consecutive terms. To run for a third, council members need to get a certain portion of eligible voters in their district to sign off. Those signatures are then filed with the clerk for verification. If the clerk finds there are enough valid signatures, the candidate is put on the ballot. In a statement provided to KXAN by Ellis’ campaign, she expressed gratitude to her team and constituents, while also making note of milestones during her tenure, such as the 2020 Active Mobility bond for improving sidewalks and bike lanes, as well as an effort to place a dog park in Circle C.

“Over the past six months, my campaign ran an exhaustive signature collection drive, where I personally knocked on thousands of doors, visiting all kinds of voters through all kinds of Texas weather,” Ellis’ statement to KXAN stated. “I feel so fortunate that our community has repeatedly and warmly welcomed me into their homes, our parks, our restaurants, and so many other places.” Ellis believed she had the necessary signatures from 5% of qualified voters in her district that would have moved her petition forward and kept her run for a third term alive. “Our campaign verified our petition against two voter files before submission, and our internal count showed a healthy cushion above the 3,044 signatures required,” the statement said. “Tonight, we have been informed by the City Clerk’s office that the petition fell 62 signatures short.” The campaign noted that Ellis respected and accepted the city clerk’s result, and would be working to understand what happened that lead to the number of signatures falling short of the minimum number needed. “On behalf of me and my entire team, it has been an honor to serve the people of Southwest Austin, and I look forward to continuing to connect with this city in new capacities, whatever those may be,” Ellis said in the statement.

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Patients face long-term consequences after JPS Health Network outage

A network outage due to detected “suspicious activity” at the John Peter Smith Hospital system lasted almost two weeks, and some patients are facing lasting consequences. JPS Health Network continued to operate under a “controlled network downtime” that started on Aug. 3, the hospital communicated through social media. While the health system’s hospital, clinics and other locations remained open, online services and phone lines were affected. Under the controlled network downtime, doctors, nurses and other staff used established manual procedures to provide care while technology systems were unavailable.

Many people on social media expressed frustration over not being able to access charting portals, scheduling, prescriptions and other critical care. Some also said the outage was affecting payroll for care providers. Other concerns reported on social media involved not being able to get prescribed critical medication without an original paper copy of the prescription. While the hospital did not directly communicate that, many community members said they learned that only after arriving at the pharmacy to receive their medications. JPS also takes care of inmates’ medical needs at the Tarrant County Jail. When asked about delays inmates might have faced during the outage, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said that is something JPS has to answer. It is unclear how much financial impact the outage had and the long-lasting impacts. While JPS’ core network was reported to be restored on Friday, Aug. 14, some social media users reported not being able to access online charts. JPS has said that patients should be able to log into MyChart as of Aug. 16.

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Texas screwworm outbreak: U.S. reopens border to Mexican cattle

As the U.S. begins reopening its southern border to cattle from Mexico, the flesh-eating parasite that caused the closure more than a year ago has not been eradicated — and there still isn’t an adequate supply of the sterile flies needed to stop it. The opening Monday of a cattle port in Arizona, an attempt by the Trump administration to reduce record-high consumer beef prices, comes as both the United States and Mexico are still fighting the spread of New World screwworm. “We have enough to slow it, not to eradicate it,” said Adm. Michael Schmoyer, director of the New World Screwworm Directorate, a unit within the U.S. Department of of Agriculture created to coordinate the federal response to the flesh-eating larvae that can infest and kill cattle and other animals.

The directorate’s challenge is simple math. During the last major outbreak in the mid-1960s, about 500 million sterile flies were released each week to prevent the screwworm fly from maintaining a self-sustaining population. Since the current outbreak began in early June with the first confirmed case in Zavala County, only about 700 million sterile flies had been released by Aug. 12, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. As of Sunday, the U.S. had 46 cases — all but one in Texas — with two cases active in Terrell and Val Verde counties. The last confirmed new case was reported Aug. 16, also in Texas. In Mexico, screwworm is still spreading, with 82 active cases in the state of Chihuahua as of Aug. 18. Monday’s reopening of a crossing in Douglas, Ariz., comes as the USDA says the spread has slowed enough to allow imports to the U.S. market, where consumers have seen beef prices jump 12% from a year ago. The price increases come as supply has declined because of a U.S. cattle herd that has been shrinking for five years and now is the smallest in decades.

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Tarrant County meeting arrests raise First Amendment concerns

Individual rights experts and political scientists are raising questions about the Tarrant County Commissioners Court decorum policy that led to the arrest of two people. Former state Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth was carried out of the Aug. 4 court meeting by sheriff’s deputies after he picked up the microphone during his allotted one minute. EJ Carrion of Fort Worth was kicked out of the meeting for cursing and then arrested a week later on a warrant issued by the county. Notably, both had been kicked out of a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting once already this year. Both were released on a personal recognizance bond within a day of being booked into the county jail system. They are also facing criminal charges that could mean up to 18 months in jail and $6,000 in fines.

The charges are hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct, a Class A misdemeanor, and disrupting a meeting or procession, a Class B misdemeanor. Brennen VanderVeen, an attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said he believes there are unconstitutional provisions within the county’s decorum policy. The Philadelphia-based foundation was founded as a non-partisan group and has challenged both Democrats and Republicans on First Amendment issues across the country. The Tarrant County decorum policy prohibits personal attacks, impertinent, profane, obscene, or slanderous remarks as well as threatening, disruptive or unruly behavior. Leah Nesbitt, a spokesperson for County Judge Tim O’Hare, said the policy exists to allow as many voices as possible to be heard at meetings in an orderly manner. She pointed to the fact that every large county in Texas has a decorum policy, and many of them are stricter than Tarrant County’s. “These rules do not silence passionate or critical voices. Maintaining order is necessary to serve all constituents efficiently and effectively,” Nesbitt said.

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Wayne Dolcefino returns to Houston radio on KSEV

Former investigative reporter and media consultant Wayne Dolcefino is returning to his radio roots with a new morning role on conservative talk station KSEV-AM (700). The longtime television reporter will join radio host Craig Collins weekdays from 7 to 9 a.m. to talk about politics, culture and Texas news, according to an Aug. 18 announcement from the station owned by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

The new program, "KSEV Mornings with Craig Collins and Wayne Dolcefino," will replace Chris Salcedo's morning show as Salcedo leaves the station after 14 years. For Dolcefino, the role marks a return to radio after a career that made him one of Houston's best-known investigative reporters and, more recently, a media and political consultant. "I'm doing this because I enjoy doing it," Dolcefino said. "There's a lot of things I want to get off my chest, and you never make money in radio. You just do it because you like talking to folks, so that's what I'm doing." Dolcefino started his journalism career in radio after leaving the University of Texas to take a full-time job at a radio station in Austin. He later moved to Houston to work at KTRH-AM (740). The award-winning journalist is best known for his nearly 27 years at ABC13, where he covered local corruption and public spending. During his broadcasting career, Dolcefino received 30 Emmy Awards. Dolcefino said he returned to radio in recent years by filling in on Salcedo's KSEV morning show. Dolcefino said he hopes to talk more about politics on the conservative show, as well as "the change that's happening in Texas, and how we fight it." "I'm doing it to because I think it's trying to use whatever voice I have, personality, to show people that they've got they've got an important choice to make about where we're going," Dolcefino said. "I call it a fun thing because I started in radio," Dolcefino said. "That was kind of my first love. Still love it actually."

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Evan Mintz: Talarico is trying to win moderate voters. Why isn’t Paxton?

(Evan Mintz is the editor of opinion and community engagement for the Houston Chronicle.) The impossible happened last week in Texas politics, or at least the improbable: The Cook Political Report rated the Senate race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton as a toss-up. Texas Republicans have won every statewide race since 1994, so, much like Cabo Verde in the World Cup, even a tie can feel like a win to the long-suffering Democrats. Cook's assessment of the race relies on polls that show the candidates running tied, but it also points to Paxton’s “personal and ethical vulnerabilities.” Not many GOP candidates were impeached by their fellow Republicans due to rampant corruption.

At the same time, Cook's Jessica Taylor notes that Talarico can be “appealing to disaffected Republicans.” That’s not by accident. The “soft-spoken Seminary student,” as Taylor describes him, has made earnest efforts to distinguish himself from the national Democratic brand, reach across the aisle and expand his electoral coalition. For example, Talarico has been criticizing the Biden administration’s failure to secure the border since before the primary election. “If we don't keep people safe, the government has failed in its most basic function,” he told the Houston Chronicle editorial board at the time. Putting space between himself and the unpopular former president may have been a risky gambit during the partisan primary, but it’s paying off in the general election. Talarico even went out of his way to applaud President Trump for supporting a gas tax holiday to deal with high prices at the pump — a bad policy, but smart politics for a Democrat in a red state. To put it bluntly, Talarico has tried very hard to present himself as the more moderate choice in this race. It has been working. Polls regularly show that Talarico has an overwhelming advantage with independent voters. So what about Paxton? For decades, Texas Republicans just had to show up to win a statewide race in November. The electoral math was easy — Texas had more Republican voters than Democratic. But with a tight race, Paxton might benefit from trying to moderate on the issues and expand his coalition beyond the hard-right base that delivered his primary victory over Cornyn.

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Rep. Al Green wants to impeach Trump — again

Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas is trying to impeach President Donald Trump, even though the lame-duck lawmaker knows he doesn’t have the votes. Green, who lost his primary runoff in May, cited immigration agents’ fatal shootings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in his 27-page resolution to impeach the president for high crimes and misdemeanors. “He is abusing the powers of the presidency by operating United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as his vicious, quota-driven, unaccountable paramilitary police forces, transgressing with anonymity and secrecy, assaulting people, committing and covering up unjustified killings of civilians,” Green’s articles of impeachment state.

Green has attempted to impeach Trump multiple times in both of the president’s terms, including three times last year for what the congressman said was Trump undermining judicial independence, over the war with Iran and for accusing several Democratic lawmakers of behavior the president said was punishable by death. The White House scoffed at Green’s attempt. “The brave men and women of ICE and CBP put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists,” said White House spokesperson Lauren Bis, “Al Green should be thanking President Trump and our law enforcement for delivering the largest decrease in violent crime in American history.” The House impeached Trump twice in his first term: in 2019 for withholding military aid for Ukraine and in 2021 after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The Senate voted to acquit him both times. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a CNBC summit in June that impeaching Trump wasn’t a focus for his party if Democrats take the majority after the midterms.

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Sarah Silva: I'm a New Mexico lawmaker. Project Jupiter developers should leave

(Sarah Silva, a Democrat, represents District 53 in the New Mexico House of Representatives, which includes Chaparral, the east side of Las Cruces and White Sands Missile Range.) I’m serious. As an early supporter of this project because of the jobs and infrastructure it promised, I’m fed up with the dishonesty, broken promises and threats. The final straw for me is Oracle’s recent suggestion that it may try to connect Project Jupiter to the El Paso Electric grid. A company official first suggested this publicly in June and spun it as a good thing for us. (It is not). Then, last month at a meeting of the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners, Oracle Executive Vice President Mahesh Thiagarajan was asked what would happen if the state rejected Project Jupiter’s proposal to power its data centers with fuel cells. I’ve formally opposed that plan because it would emit more than 10 million tons of greenhouse gases every year. That is too much.

Thiagarajan said the grid was the only other option. When one county commissioner pushed back, Thiagarajan said there is no other way to power the data centers. If neither was acceptable, he suggested the developers might abandon the project. That came days after I met with Thiagarajan and asked him to come up with a new power plan that includes renewable energy. He agreed to consider it. Instead of getting back to me, he delivered his ultimatum to the county commission. Connecting to the grid would break a promise that Oracle and Stack Infrastructure, the primary developers of Project Jupiter, promote on the project’s website: “Powered by its own independent energy system, Project Jupiter will protect local ratepayers,” the pledge states. I believe connecting to the grid would also violate Project Jupiter’s legal agreements with the county. To protect you from paying higher utility rates, county commissioners included language requiring Project Jupiter to “power itself with an onsite microgrid” instead of connecting to El Paso Electric’s system so that it “will not impact existing customers’ power reliability or costs.” Connecting to our grid creates the unacceptable risk that you will end up paying for the electricity to run data centers for billionaires.

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Wife of Army sergeant at Fort Bliss is deported to Honduras

The wife of an active-duty U.S. soldier was deported Monday to her native Honduras, according to her family and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty U.S. military service member to be deported under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Associated Press has found more than 50 cases in which immediate family members of U.S. troops were placed in federal immigration detention after the Trump administration rolled back protections for military families. In some instances, DHS has released military spouses following media attention and advocacy by congressional leaders. Villafranca-Trejo’s husband, Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, said he has been struggling to manage his military duties since she was detained July 11 outside a Walmart near Fort Bliss, Texas, where he is stationed.

Since then, he’s had to care for their 6-year-old daughter without his wife’s help. Instead of training in the mornings, he takes his daughter to first grade, and he said he has already had to postpone a planned assignment at another base. “I don’t know if I will be able to continue with this,” Turcios Juarez told AP of his Army career. “I have to make a plan to make sure I can still fulfill my military responsibilities — but also take care of my family.” DHS confirmed Villafranca-Trejo’s deportation, saying she had “received due process.” Villafranca-Trejo, who has no known criminal record and entered the U.S. in 2016 at age 18, was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2017 after failing to appear at a hearing, according to DHS. Villafranca-Trejo’s husband said she had not received a notice for the hearing she missed and did not realize she had been ordered deported until they went to apply for her green card after marrying in 2022. Originally from Honduras, Turcios Juarez became a U.S. citizen in 2024 after enlisting two years earlier.

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5-year-old boy and father will be deported after ICE arrest on way to Austin soccer game

Victor Martinez Nieto, the father of 5-year-old Liam Tadeo, has chosen to be deported to Mexico with his son, rather than risk the child being separated from his family by immigration officials, according to their lawyer. The father and son were pulled over and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in North Austin on Aug. 16, while on their way to a children's Sunday soccer game. The pair’s detention was captured on video. It sparked calls from Congressman Greg Casar, D-Austin, and others for Liam’s release and the closure of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, where the two have been since their arrest. But Martinez Nieto’s lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, says her client has decided to return to Mexico with Liam, rather than risk losing custody of his son.

“Victor, facing the possibility that he will be separated from Liam, ... is deciding to depart voluntarily with his son because the alternative is that Liam could be placed into [Office of Refugee Resettlement] custody as an unaccompanied child,” she said. “Children can be held in this system for months or even years at a time. It's a really bad experience for children and the family is just not willing to risk Liam being held alone,” she said. In a public statement shared with KXAN News last week, the Department of Homeland Security said, “Parents have a choice if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administrations’ immigration enforcement." Lincoln-Goldfinch says that Liam’s family in Austin, including his mother, was not given the option of having Liam released into their custody. She said Liam’s mother, who lives in Austin, is figuring out how to reunite with her son. “In a heartbeat, she lost both her husband and her child. And her number one main priority is her son and his well being,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said. KUT News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on these developments.

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Trump's border wall may bring down a 110-year-old church in West Texas,

Out in Far West Texas, a heavy bronze bell once tolled, calling congregants from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to worship at a small adobe church. The bell and the Catholic church in Ruidosa are hallmarks of an era when Mexican and American border communities lived as one. But nearly three generations ago, parishioners moved away from the tiny town. One of the church’s twin towers toppled. The bell disappeared. Local volunteers have begun restoring the church, El Corazón Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesús. They view it as one of the last vestiges of a shared history along a southwestern landscape that is as Indigenous, Spanish and Mexican as it is American. Fortifying its walls and twin towers means that perhaps the bell could ring again.

Now their work faces a new danger: President Trump’s border wall. The church is one of dozens of historical sites across the Southwest threatened by the construction. In Arizona, portions of a 1,000-year-old etching in the earth have been bulldozed. In Texas, work is endangering ancient cave murals and landmarks on the Underground Railroad. “If you value a people’s worth and contributions, then you preserve their history in textbooks and curriculums,” the historian Trinidad Gonzales said. “You would preserve these physical markers.” Trump administration officials say the wall will go up yards away from the church and help deter violent drug traffickers in one of the most remote parts of the Chihuahuan desert. Preservationists, though, warn that the relentless vibrations of the construction threaten the church’s fragile structural integrity. To historians and border residents, the administration’s construction plans, alongside a campaign to deport thousands of immigrants, amount to uprooting centuries of Mexican and Latino American history and presence. The 110-year journey of the church and its bell is a story of displacement and migration, of being lost and improbably found, and of artists, historians and community residents who have gone to great lengths to bake and haul adobe bricks, bail the bell out of a Marfa jail and reclaim a piece of lost past.

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National Stories

Trump-backed candidates have lost 10 primaries. South Carolina is the next test.

The next big test of President Donald Trump’s now-strained endorsement power takes place Tuesday in South Carolina, where Republicans are voting in a runoff to elect a Senate nominee after the sudden death of Lindsey Graham. Trump backed Sen. Darline Graham, the late senator’s sister, for a full six-year term after the state’s GOP governor appointed her to temporarily fill the role shortly after Graham’s death last month. She faces Rep. Ralph Norman, a longtime conservative firebrand in the state and a House Freedom Caucus member whose campaign has shown signs of momentum despite the president’s support for Graham.

Unlike in the state’s gubernatorial primary in June — when Trump initially endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who ultimately failed to gain traction with a majority of GOP voters — this time, the president is motivated to get his candidate over the finish line. He wants to mitigate his recent shaky endorsement record after his candidates suffered losses in at least 10 primary races this year, including high-profile defeats in Iowa, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Wyoming. “I think she’s great. I asked her to do it. I got her into this whole thing,” Trump said Monday night during a tele-rally for Graham, letting out a small chuckle. “I have to make sure she gets in, because there will be nobody better.” In June, Trump issued a last-minute dual endorsement of both Evette and her runoff opponent, Attorney General Alan Wilson, who won the primary election. Trump did not visit South Carolina to try to boost Evette. This time, Trump did visit the state, traveling on Friday to campaign in a primary for a seat that is widely expected to remain safely red this fall. His aligned super PAC, MAGA Inc., also doled out more than $825,000 over the weekend for get-out-the vote calls and texts on Graham’s behalf — marking the first time this year his political operation has deployed its large reserves of cash. The travel and spending reflected the Trump team’s concern about notching a win in a primary runoff they expected would be close.

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A third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched were written by AI, study finds

Over one-third of web pages published after the release of ChatGPT show signs of being written by AI, according to a new study from Pew Research released on Thursday. The report corroborates other studies that detail how much of the web’s newer web pages are now either written by or “substantially edited” by AI, the firm says. It also arrives shortly after internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare reported that bot web traffic had overtaken human web traffic — a milestone that was reached sooner than the company had estimated. Pew’s data, however, is focused not on who or what is browsing the web, but on what is being browsed. And apparently, much of it is bots reading web pages written by other bots.

To compile the report, Pew said it used the Common Crawl web archive to collect nearly half a million English-language web pages from the past five or so years, starting a couple of years before ChatGPT’s November 2022 release. Pew then used Open Pangram’s technology to detect how many were likely written or heavily edited by AI. In a random sample of 10,000 web pages collected in July 2026, around 10% showed “significant signs of AI authorship,” Pew said. However, Pew pointed out that a random sample like this would inevitably include older web pages — ones published before AI writing tools even existed, and therefore couldn’t have been AI written. To get a better sense of how much of the web is now being written by AI, Pew filtered out the older web pages and focused only on those published after the release of ChatGPT. In this same snapshot with the older pages removed, signs of AI authorship were found in over one-third (35%) of the pages. Drilling down into domains themselves, Pew found that URLs with a .com domain showed signs of AI authorship at around 10x the rate of a .edu or .gov domain (both of which were around 1% AI authored). In addition, .org domains had only a 4.6% rate of AI authorship. Of course, this analysis is not perfect. Pangram, like other AI-detection tools, can misclassify pages as AI written when they weren’t. But at scale, the data is likely at least directionally correct. In addition, Pew found that other supposed tells of AI authorship had also increased over the years, like the use of em dashes, Oxford commas, and phrasing like “it’s not X, it’s Y,” among other things.

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Paramount-WB Deal could cost LA 4,500 film and TV jobs and $2.8 billion, study finds

The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger could result in the loss of nearly 4,500 film and TV jobs in Los Angeles County over the next three years when the two companies combine their operations, according to a new analysis by CVL Economics and the Department of Economic Opportunity exclusively obtained by TheWrap. The report also estimates that a total of 10,360 “job years” could be at risk, including 2,661 indirect jobs at small businesses that support production — such as prop houses, printers, transportation companies and other vendors — and 3,204 induced jobs that exist because film and TV workers spend money in the local economy — including restaurants, retailers and service providers. A “job year” is defined as one job sustained for one year and measures the total volume of work that could disappear over time. For example, one job lasting three years equals three job years.

Overall, the economic impact of losing these jobs would be $1.26 billion in wages, $2.78 billion in economic value, $4.06 billion in total business output and $547 million in tax revenue, including $78.6 million in local taxes — most of which (63%) comes from property taxes. Los Angeles County’s creative economy supports more than 312,000 workers, including approximately 171,155 entertainment sector jobs. The direct jobs at risk account for nearly 9% of the 52,016 film and TV jobs California has already lost since 2022 — and almost all those losses (99.6%) occurred in Los Angeles County. CVL and DEO said the losses would occur due to slate consolidation that would result in fewer buyers and fewer greenlights and reduce the overall number of unscripted/talk shows and related opportunities for Los Angeles–based crews. They also warned that about 895 creators hold exclusive deals with the two companies and that if development shrinks, these creators and their crews will lose work. If the two companies merge, the decisions they make about where to film their shows could dramatically affect how much production stays in California, CVL and DEO said. The high cost of living in L.A. County and California, combined with stronger incentives out of state and abroad, also contribute to work shifting out of the state and country.

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Tornado Alley’s on the move and creating new risk concerns, modeler says

The peak of tornado season may be behind us, but the eastward expansion of what has been traditionally known as Tornado Alley into more populated areas may continue raising insurance risk for some time. Record tornado activity in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin this year drove elevated claims and increasing risk because of population exposure. Increased losses in new areas weren’t from raw tornado counts across the U.S., but from increased risk exposure, according to one industry catastrophe modeler. Illinois led all states in tornado activity in this year, with 220 confirmed tornadoes through the end of July. Indiana and Wisconsin also set record-high numbers.

Weather experts say the tornado alley shift — beyond areas like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas — is due to a warming climate that helps transport warmer and more-humid air farther north and east than in the past. Illinois saw its third distinct spike in five years, and the year’s volume already exceeds 2024 and 2025 combined, with average severity up by a factor of four since 2022, according to Verisk. The 2026 Illinois surge has been concentrated, driven mainly by occurrences in June and July, and by strikes in Cook, Kankakee and Coles counties. Kankakee saw unusually high severity with a $104,000 average estimate, according to Verisk data. Wisconsin experienced an even sharper spike, up 672% year-over-year, but that spike is due largely to a single concentrated event in Winnebago County in July the data show. “The Tornado Alley’s kind of expanding or shifting a bit eastward, and so I think as we think about that from an insurance perspective and think about ‘What does that mean for insurers,’ I think one of the largest concerns is there’s a lot more population as you move eastward,” said Tory Farney, vice president of Verisk Weather Solutions. Their data show the numbers of tornadoes aren’t going up, but the losses have tended to be worse when they strike.

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White House crops Natalie Harp out of Grand Prix content

As we’ve learned in recent weeks, Natalie Harp rarely leaves the president’s side, and Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix was no exception. What was odd was that even though Harp was clearly among the president’s entourage, she was mostly invisible in the White House social media coverage of the race. The administration has been trying to do damage control as public scrutiny over the relationship between the president and Harp intensifies, and it seems that not even an appearance by the reclusive first lady or mountains of media intrigue can convince her to leave his side for any length of time.

In broadcasts of the event, Harp was clearly visible among Trump’s guests. In the president’s suite she was spotted standing behind and to the right of Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, who has reportedly found herself at odds with Harp over her increasingly controversial relationship with her husband. Shocking. Someone in the press office, it seems, is trying to lower the temperature. A clip of Trump waving the starting flag for the IndyCar race held on the National Mall on Sunday was oddly cropped. Half of the Fox Sports logo was missing, the first lady had an arm almost entirely cut out of the frame. Zoom out and the full picture shows Harp hovering just beyond the first lady’s shoulder. Cameras also captured the first lady standing up and leaving her suite shortly after Harp arrived and approached the president, lingering behind him as he spoke to another guest. Harp, a 35 year aide to the president, has over the last few years become one of the most powerful — if least known — figures within Trump’s inner circle. She shares control of his social media, is his confidant and informant, travels with him virtually everywhere, and acts as a gatekeeper for his time and attention. Her status as a background character in the attention-hungry MAGA universe ended this summer, as reports emerged of the deep — passionate to the point of concern — devotion that she holds for the president. ‘Last week, The Daily Beast and Michael Wolff published two letters written by Harp and reportedly left in the president’s personal quarters — alarming the Secret Service.

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Iran vows to retaliate after US widens sanctions

Iran pledged to fight back against expanded U.S. sanctions aimed at isolating its economy, expressing confidence that major trading partners would resist Washington's pressure campaign. Almost six ?months into a conflict the U.S. has struggled to resolve, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled the measures on Monday but stopped short of the most punishing sanctions. While he said countries that continued trading with Iran risked being forced out of the dollar-based financial system, he declined to give a timeline or identify which may be targeted, saying he would give them time to comply with the new directive.

"Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?" he said when asked why the ?measures had not gone further. The Treasury Department did announce new sanctions on 60 individuals, entities and vessels, but the list did not feature any of the Chinese financial institutions suspected of facilitating ?Iran's oil trade. "We want to make clear here today that no one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions," Bessent said in response to a question ?about Chinese banks. China has been the biggest buyer of Iranian oil for several years, although the U.S. blockade of Iran's ports has cut Iranian oil flows to China since Washington renewed it in mid-July. Experts say Washington is ?wary of Chinese retaliation for any sanctions on its banks ahead of expected talks next month between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with any curbs on China's exports of critical minerals especially sensitive. China ?said on Tuesday that its cooperation with Iran is conducted within the framework of international law and should not be interfered with or disrupted. Oil prices fell for a second day as traders brushed off the impact of the sanctions, although market participants remained wary of Iran's continued ability to disrupt shipping.

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GLP-1 boom could reshape restaurant bars as diners cut back on alcohol

The rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs could be changing more than what Americans put on their plates, as restaurants increasingly look to wellness drinks and other alternatives to traditional alcoholic beverages. The National Restaurant Association's new 2026 Restaurant Beverage Trends report found growing interest in a wider range of drink choices, particularly among younger consumers, as restaurants experiment with everything from wellness and energy drinks to smoothies, lemonades and alcohol-free cocktails. Chad Moutray, chief economist at the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association, told Fox News Digital that the growing use of GLP-1 medications is one of several health trends restaurant operators are watching.

The report, which was conducted by the National Restaurant Association and is based on surveys of consumers and restaurant operators across the country, found that health is already influencing some Americans' decisions about alcohol. Among adults surveyed who said they don't drink alcohol, 25% cited health reasons. That figure climbed to 34% among Gen Z nondrinkers. Several trends are converging as younger consumers become more health-conscious and GLP-1 medications become more widely used, Moutray said. "I think you're seeing a lot younger folks who are, in general, wanting to be healthier. You have the Make America Healthy Again movement, which is also driving some of this trend," he said. "You have people drinking energy drinks and health drinks and all those things. And then you add to that the GLP-1 notion, where if you're taking one of those drugs and your appetite is more suppressed, you're not going to drink as much alcohol." Restaurants are already preparing to broaden their drink selections.

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Democrats hash out trans rights message in Massachusetts debate

Democrats have another chance to test their messaging about transgender rights that the party has struggled to make plain. Two Democrats vying for the party’s Massachusetts Senate seat will face off Thursday in their final debate before the state’s Sept. 1 primary. Laws banning transgender women from participating in female sports surfaced as a key difference between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton in their debate earlier this month and led to a contentious exchange. The events represent one of few opportunities for national Democrats to publicly debate an issue Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars attacking their support in the past several election cycles.

Markey is looking to question Moulton’s commitment to trans rights given his post-2024 election stance that Democrats’ support of trans athletes was out of touch with voters. Moulton at the time cited not wanting his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.” Gallup polling after that election found that 69 percent of U.S. adults — including about four in 10 Democrats — believe that transgender athletes should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth sex. Still, Moulton in the Aug. 3 debate apologized for those comments and tried to defend his LGBTQ+ record. Lanae Erickson, senior vice president at center-left think tank Third Way, said part of the reason Republicans’ attacks have landed so well is “because Democrats were afraid to talk about” it. “At this point, every person in America has a viewpoint on transgender participation in sports. It’s incumbent on Democrats to be able to speak about this issue authentically and not evade it,” Erickson said. “In a way that opposes blanket bans, but leaves room for people to have questions about the rules.”

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Lead Stories

For Republicans, Dallas convention is both rally and rescue mission

President Donald Trump's Republican Party is increasingly viewing its first-of-a-kind midterm convention in Dallas next month as crucial to regaining momentum at a time when opinion polls show voter frustration over the economy and the Iran war, according to party officials, donors and ?convention planners. When Republicans announced the convention earlier this year, some strategists dismissed it as a distraction as campaigns entered the final stretch. They questioned the need for a national gathering with no ?official party business. Now, after months of negative headlines tied to the war and rising living costs, party officials see the September 9-10 gathering as their best opportunity to rally voters behind Trump's agenda as Democrats mount a serious challenge to Republican control of both houses of Congress in the November 3 election. Some Republicans, however, remain skeptical it can meaningfully shift voter sentiment.

The party officials said the event offers a platform to refocus voters on Trump's tax cuts, immigration policies and other achievements. Organizers plan to spotlight Americans they ?say have benefited from those policies while portraying the Democratic Party as increasingly dominated by socialist ideas and activists, according to a source familiar with the planning. The party plans to put Trump at the ?center of the convention, a tactic some strategists warn could backfire by drawing attention to a president with a low approval rating who has repeatedly urged Americans to ?endure the economic costs of the Iran war. Republican National Committee spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre said the convention would rally voters behind Trump's agenda, including efforts to lower drug prices, cut taxes and secure the southern border with Mexico. "President ?Trump turns out voters like no other candidate, and this convention will provide the momentum needed to expand our majorities in November," Baldassarre said in a statement. It remains unclear which congressional candidates will speak ?during the two-day event. Advisers to three campaigns in competitive districts told Reuters they had yet to be informed whether their candidates would be offered speaking slots. Reuters contacted representatives for Republican candidates in 37 competitive U.S. House races and eight closely contested U.S. Senate races to ask whether they planned to attend the convention and deliver a speech.

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Texas conservatives are ‘breaking rank’ and pledging to vote Democrat

Twyla Lowry plans to do something this November she could not have imagined doing even a few months ago: She’s going to vote for a Democrat. That would be Gina Hinojosa, running to prevent Republican Greg Abbott from winning a record fourth term as governor. Hinojosa, 52, has a fairly standard platform of Democratic issues — end state school vouchers, and lower health care, grocery and utility costs. She has even promised to send every Texan $1,500 from the state rainy day fund. But for Lowry, a retired social worker and special education teacher in this Central Texas city of about 100,000, all that matters is that Hinojosa wants to impose a moratorium on data center projects and Abbott doesn’t. “He’s pushing for them. Everything’s so shady,” said Lowry, 56, who had voted for Abbott all three times.

Lowry, a conservative Christian and lifelong Republican, said she’s not switching parties. In fact, she plans to vote for Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in his race for U.S. Senate. But her willingness to split her ticket for even one race is a sign the Texas political landscape — at least this cycle — is scrambling in unprecedented ways that could result in surprising statewide wins for the Democratic Party. A recent Fox News poll showed Hinojosa, a lawyer and state legislator based in Austin, within a point of Abbott, a sign of weakness in a state where the GOP usually boasts a nine- to 12-point advantage. This week, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the governor’s race from “solid” to “likely” Republican. The picture in the U.S. Senate race to replace John Cornyn is even tighter, according to Cook, which lists the contest as a “toss up” between Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. This wouldn’t be the first time polls have given Democrats reason to hope for an upset, only to be disappointed on Election Day. And Texas Republicans have shown a reluctance to split tickets over the past several decades. Republicans control the levers of power in Texas, and a Democrat hasn’t won statewide office since 1994. Texas last elected a Democratic governor in 1990 (Ann Richards) and a Democratic senator in 1988 (Lloyd Bentsen). But now some conservatives and right-leaning independents say they plan to vote Democrat in protest, dissatisfied with how the GOP is handling issues such as data centers, water, electricity, schools and the economy.

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Homeland Security made a big claim about noncitizen voting. Now it can’t prove it.

A month after the Trump administration declared without evidence that thousands of noncitizens had illegally registered to vote in Nevada, officials with the Department of Homeland Security were unable to substantiate the claim. The administration claimed to have identified 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in four states, including an exact number of 15,903 in Nevada. But during a meeting last week with state election administrators, Homeland Security officials said they had identified just 185 potential noncitizens in the state so far, according to emails as well as recordings of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. The federal officials said they were still considering 14,000 names for further review, according to one of the emails. In the virtual meeting, federal officials told Nevada that the nearly 16,000 they had originally identified represented “the ceiling” of potential noncitizens.

But the list the Homeland Security Department shared with Nevada is incomplete — it doesn’t even include names — and is nearly impossible to verify, according to files released by the secretary of state’s office. Nevada officials have requested more information, but the department has not yet offered it. Unproven claims that large numbers of noncitizens have voted in elections have been at the core of President Trump’s political message and central to his justification to enact the SAVE America Act, which would require people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Democrats and voting-rights advocates say the legislation is aimed at tipping the scales in this year’s midterm elections for Republicans, in part by making it more difficult for some eligible Americans to cast ballots, notably younger voters and people of color, who tend to vote for Democrats. To determine that the Department of Homeland Security had not verified Mr. Trump’s accusations, The Times examined 16 emails as well as recordings of a video call obtained from the Nevada secretary of state’s office through a public records request. At the time of Mr. Trump’s accusation, the department specified that it had found noncitizen voters registered in four states: Nevada, California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. “We are releasing the results of a stunning investigation by the Department of Homeland Security,” Mr. Trump said, implying falsely that the government had found solid evidence.

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Can Texas trust its water planning process? Report calls for changes

Earlier this year, officials in Corpus Christi warned the city was months away from a water emergency. Supply levels had dropped to the point that officials were making hurried plans to implement surcharges and water use reductions that would have impacted roughly 500,000 people and the energy industry in the region. Flooding rain earlier this summer brought relief, for now. But the way the situation played out is raising questions about the state’s water planning process. A new report from nonprofit Texas 2036 is now calling for changes in the process. Jeremy Mazur, Director of Infrastructure and Natural Resources Policy at Texas 2036 will discuss the report Monday at a field hearing of the Texas House Natural Resources Committee. He noted that the state’s water planning process was created nearly 30 years ago. Mazur describes it as a “bottom-up process.”

“Regions across the state identify long-term water supply needs, available supplies, and potential water shortages, but also recommend the water supply strategies and projects such as reservoirs and desalination facilities needed to meet those anticipated shortages,” Mazur explained. The regional plans are rolled into the state water plan prepared by the Texas Water Development Board. The report says the long-term planning process did not project the shortage that pushed Corpus Christi to the verge of a water emergency. Mazur said the data used in the process needs to be reevaluated to reflect current conditions. “I think one of the big factors is that these plans focus on what’s called the drought of record, which is a historic long-term drought,” Mazur said. He noted that the Coastal Bend region that includes Corpus Christi endured several droughts of record in the decades since the water planning process was created. “This radically affected the water supply projections within the plans. And so the water supply projections in the earlier plans were projected a lot more water availability than what actually happened to be the case when the drought from this year, which they suspect to be historic and very severe, really decimated the available water supplies in the region,” Mazur said. The report recommends ways for the Legislature and the Texas Water Development Board to strengthen the planning process, including stress testing for worse droughts and better data verification. “The lessons learned from our report is not that the plans or the planning process is bad, but it can certainly be perfected with better data and better planning objectives to better identify what we need to do to build the water infrastructure for a drought-prone and growing state,” Mazur said.

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State Stories

John Moritz: Talarico’s age-old problem: Young voters may not decide Texas race

As he sought to perfect his messaging ahead of entering the race for the U.S. Senate in the summer of 2025, Democrat James Talarico began road-testing a line that still finds its way into nearly every stump speech and cable news appearance more than one year later. "The biggest divide in our politics is not left vs. right," Talarico has told audiences from Amarillo to Edinburg, "it’s top vs. bottom." It's catchy, memorable and designed to cast the Democrat as an ally of everyday Texans while suggesting his adversaries are in bed with billionaires. And it's also incomplete. Largely overlooked inside the charts and crosstabs that explain polling results in the U.S. Senate matchup between Talarico and Republican nominee Ken Paxton is the yawning gap that divides young and older voters. Put simply, Talarico decisively leads among voters ages 18 to 49, while Paxton rules among those who are eligible for senior discounts.

In short, the election is very much old vs. young. And as counterintuitive as it might sound, that should worry Talarico and his strategists over the next 10 weeks leading to the Nov. 3 election. Here's why: In the 2018 midterm election, which was the best election cycle Democrats have seen this century, 56% of the votes cast were by Texans 50 and older. The rest were from voters in their 40s and younger, according to stats compiled by Texas political data analyst Derek Ryan. That trend grew even worse for younger voters in the midterms four years later. In 2022, voters 49 and younger accounted for just 41% of total Texas turnout. Much of the horse-race speculation in the matchup between Talarico and Paxton has fixated on whether the Democrat has done enough to energize Black voters or whether the Republican can make the same inroads among Latinos as Donald Trump did two years ago. If you're a Democrat, you like what you're seeing in polling. Many surveys have shown Talarico performing as much as 20 percentage points better this summer than Democratic Senate nominee Colin Allred was polling in 2024. Talarico is also outpolling Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' performance from this time two years ago. Harris and Allred are Black, and virtually no one in 2024 was sounding the alarm that Black Texans were falling out of favor with the Democrats.

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Texas oil and gas regulators will no longer have to accept public comment at open meetings

The three elected officials who regulate the oil and gas industry in Texas hold an open meeting each month in Austin to vote on matters from pipeline violations to permit renewals. Members of the public can register to speak for up to three minutes at the end of each meeting. People often travel hundreds of miles from South Texas, the Permian Basin and the Gulf Coast for the opportunity to speak directly to the officials who have the final say in oil and gas regulation in Texas. The commission does not accept public comment over the phone during these meetings. This week the commissioners adopted a new public participation policy by a 2-1 vote. The new policy will remove the public comment agenda item at monthly meetings. Going forward, commissioners can individually request a public comment agenda item. If no commissioner makes a request, there will be no guaranteed public comment.

The new policy includes other changes, including more frequent “listening sessions” where residents can bring issues to commission staff. However, the commissioners do not attend these sessions. The new policy was not circulated to the public before Commissioner Wayne Christian introduced it Tuesday. It appeared that the other two commissioners had not read it beforehand, as they quickly paged through a printout while sitting on the dais. The policy was not read into the record prior to a vote. Commissioner Christi Craddick voted against the new policy, saying she thought people should have the opportunity to speak at open meetings. The motion carried with votes from Commissioners Christian and Jim Wright. Virginia Palacios, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog Commission Shift, has provided public comment at almost every open meeting since 2021. Palacios registered to give comment on the proposed policy, but the commissioners did not call on her. She spoke during the general comment period after the commissioners’ vote. “You just approved an agenda item on public participation without allowing public participation,” Palacios said. Craddick cut in to remind her that public comment cannot address items that were already posted and voted on. “You are not to speak about things that were posted,” she said. “I wanted to point out the irony,” Palacios responded.

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Suit says FCC targeted Houston's ABC13 over James Talarico interview

When ABC took the rare step of suing the Federal Communications Commission over the early review of its broadcast licenses, it thrust Houston's ABC affiliate, KTRK/ABC13, into the spotlight. In its lawsuit, filed in federal court last Tuesday, the TV giant says the Trump Administration’s review of eight ABC-owned local news stations is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. ABC also says the FCC repeatedly singled out ABC13 as part of its probe, including demanding thousands of pages of documents on the local station's hiring practices and internal communications. The FCC scrutinized activities at ABC13 far beyond any other ABC-owned station, according to the lawsuit. The FCC’s scrutiny has included ABC13’s decision to air an interview from “The View” with State Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for Senate in Texas against Republican Ken Paxton.

“It is noteworthy that many stations in KTRK’s market aired interviews with select candidates prior to the recent primary election without provoking any apparent interest or inquiries from the Commission,” ABC13 wrote in a May FCC filing defending its decision to air the interview. KTRK News Director Keaton Fuchs referred questions to a spokesperson for ABC’s parent company, Disney, who declined to comment. In FCC filings this spring, ABC13 claimed to be the leading station by audience share in the Houston media market. "Suing the government is always a dangerous thing," Jim Speta, a telecommunications law professor at Northwestern University, said. "Given that ABC has made that decision, it seems to me that it has decided to stand up and fight." ABC’s suit asks Judge Loren AliKhan of the District Court in the District of Columbia to halt early license reviews initiated by the FCC, saying they pose an "existential threat" to the company. "The Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts," the lawsuit claims. In a statement, the FCC described ABC’s lawsuit as an attempt by Disney to halt an investigation into diversity, equity and inclusion practices the agency says may be discriminatory.

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Exxon turns to automated drilling in the Permian in push for higher oil output

In rural west Texas where oil rigs and pump jacks dot the sparse flat ?landscape, an ExxonMobil contractor sits in a small office on a drilling rig, using controls on a screen to operate robotic ?machinery and move tall steel pipes weighing roughly 2,000 pounds. This work would usually require human overseers standing on the rig floor, the most common location for accidents on a rig.

Exxon, the largest oil producer by volume in the U.S., operates more than 30 drilling rigs in the Permian Basin, two of which are automated rigs with robotic equipment. By 2028, the company ?aims to transition half of its fleet to automated rigs to reduce the need for workers to perform potentially dangerous work and increase ?efficiency to drill wells faster, an executive told Reuters. The Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. ?oilfield, revolutionized energy markets two decades ago when development of the shale basin turned the U.S. into one of the leading oil-producing countries. But the relatively ?quick decline rate of shale wells has prompted drillers to develop more technologies to extract the oil. Some in the industry are also concerned about when the ?Permian's production could begin to decline. Exxon plans to grow its Permian production by almost 40% to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030. By contrast, rival oil major Chevron plans to hold production steady at about 1 million boepd, focusing instead on free cash flow.

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The Texas activist putting the Ten Commandments back into American classrooms

The vault lies inside a grassy hill, next to the rolling Texas prairie. In the windowless room, climate controls ensure the humidity remains constant, while a suppression system stands ready to snuff out fires. A bulletproof steel door guards the contents. One recent August afternoon, a burly security guard pried it open, and David Barton, a sprightly 72-year-old conservative political activist, strolled inside to his prized collection: tens of thousands of founding-era American documents and artifacts he values at millions of dollars. Barton darted among glass cases and rattled off the highlights of his trove: a Revolutionary War-era shot flask, a 1795 handwritten prayer proclamation from Samuel Adams, and what he says is a lock of George Washington’s hair. A former math and science teacher with no academic training as a historian, Barton has used this vast collection to position himself as the intellectual architect of a movement advancing a conservative agenda in policy and education. “I own the stuff,” Barton said. “So I know more about this history than most of the professors.”

Writing books and speaking in state legislatures, he champions a controversial narrative: that America’s founders established a Christian republic and wanted the church to influence the state. The “separation of church and state,” he argues, is a myth. Now, bolstered by a favorable political climate and Supreme Court rulings, Barton’s stature is rising. He and his nonprofit have helped facilitate legislation in more than a dozen states to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. He also helped craft social-studies curricula for the nation’s second-largest statewide public-school system, advises hundreds of state lawmakers, and helped the White House plan exhibits for America’s 250th anniversary. “David is one of the most impactful individuals in the faith arena that I have ever met,” said former U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, of Virginia. “When David speaks, people really are going to listen because they know most of the time he’s going to be right.” Many historians and academics accuse him of twisting history to fit his agenda. “He is a very accomplished collector, but that does not make one an expert, a scholar, or historian, no more than collecting stamps would make me a postal worker,” said Mark A. Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University. In 1988, he founded WallBuilders, named for a biblical passage in which the Jewish people rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. The goal: teach the public that America was “overwhelmingly rooted in Christian ideology.” He quit his job and spent more than a decade crisscrossing the country with his family in a 15-passenger van, visiting churches, civic clubs and military bases to propagate his theory, while home schooling their three children. “We called it van school,” his wife, Cheryl, said.

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What Texas' surging wealth, new Dallas hub mean for Goldman Sachs in Lone Star State

There's perhaps no greater symbol of how far Dallas has come as a financial center and the wave of wealth that has flowed to the region than the new Goldman Sachs building rising on Field Street next door to Victory Park. The 800,000-square-foot building, located on 3 acres on the southeast corner of the North End development, represents a roughly $700 million investment by New York-based Goldman in North Texas. Expected to open in 2028, the campus will serve as a regional base for the financial giant, housing more than 5,000 employees across a wide range of functions and roles. While Dallas-Fort Worth's ascendance as a financial hotspot was already well underway, many financial and commercial real estate insiders point to Goldman's decision in 2022 to build a hub in Dallas as a tipping point. The campus broke ground the following year, before the "Y'all Street" term was a part of the daily vernacular.

Since that time, the Texas Stock Exchange was formed and launched, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq set up local arms and other financial behemoths like Scotiabank followed Goldman's lead by setting up a regional headquarters. Morgan Stanley could be next. For Scott Mueller, managing director and head of private wealth management for the Southwest region at Goldman, the wealth wave the region has experienced has exceeded everyone's expectations, save for maybe Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. "He was very bullish," Mueller said of the mayor. "But I think the way things have played out has really been remarkable, and it's a little bit of lightning in a bottle, right? There's changes that happen like this around the world or around our nation every so often and it so happens that one of them is happening here in Dallas and in North Texas right now." Mueller worked at Goldman for years before serving a stint as Oklahoma's secretary of commerce and workforce development. He returned to Goldman in 2022. In his role, he oversees a seven-state region that includes Texas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, part of Arkansas and part of Louisiana.

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Tony Buzbee buys $15.5 million Houston mansion just to tear it down

Prominent trial attorney Tony Buzbee is expanding his River Oaks footprint after buying a mansion listed for $15.5 million in one of Houston’s priciest purchases in July. Buzbee wasn’t drawn to the 15,000-square-foot mansion for its design. Instead, he plans to demolish the entire structure at 1708 River Oaks and donate the materials, worth about $4 million, to Habitat Humanity, Buzbee said in an email. “I’ve never liked that house and over the years have made several attempts to acquire it,” Buzbee said. The former mayoral candidate already owned a 12,000-square-foot home next door at 1722 River Oaks. Buzbee listed that property for sale at $27.5 million in 2022, but eventually pulled it from the market in 2024, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.

“I never wanted to leave the street. I love this house,” he said of his current home. “We just wanted more space.” Now Buzbee and wife, Frances, plan to combine both parcels into a single 2-acre compound, he said. They hope to build an English garden and pool house in the place of the demolished home. “More green space is always good,” he said. Buzbee’s new property wasn’t the only high-profile luxury purchase in July. One of the most expensive homes to hit the market in Texas this year, 603 W Friar Tuck, also sold last month. Originally listed for $14 million, the Memorial-area estate was owned by Houston surgeon Richard J. Andrassy, a professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, the Chronicle previously reported. The asking price was later slashed to $6.15 million, according to HAR.

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Texas Space Summit in San Antonio postponed until 2027

Organizers have scrubbed Texas’ first-ever space summit just a few months before it was to occur in San Antonio. The conference on the state’s booming commercial space business had been set for Sept. 21-23 at the Henry B. González Convention Center, but it was pushed to sometime in 2027. Jeff Webster, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said he made the call earlier this summer. The chamber is hosting the event. “I thought we’d have good, but I wanted kick-ass,” he said. “So, we decided to give ourselves more breathing room and extended time.” The Texas Space Summit will happen in San Antonio next year, he said, but no dates have been set.

“I wanted this to be such an out of the park, great experience, and we had great momentum,” he said. “We had great speakers lined up, but it wasn’t to where I wanted it to be. “I think we quasi-rushed it because we really gave ourselves a year to really work up to it.” Webster said the Texas Space Commission and the space companies were good with the delay. “SpaceX was in the middle of their IPO and Blue Origin had stuff going on, and NASA had Artemis,” he said. “The industry people and the suppliers— it’s been a crazy year for them — so, I think we actually end up providing plenty of time for them to breathe.” Planning for the summit began last summer. The space commission committed to holding it in San Antonio after the chamber offered to host the event. Space commission Chair Gwen Griffin, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and Webster held a news conference at Brooks in November 2025 to announce the summit. At the time, the event was expected to attract more than 2,000 attendees with a budget of between $1.1 million and $2.1 million. Now the budget is closer to the lower amount, Webster said.

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Writer sues Taylor Sheridan, claims 'Yellowstone' was built from her rejected pitch

Writer and entertainment journalist Lauren Salkin filed a federal copyright lawsuit accusing "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan and a long list of studios and producers of building the hit series from a television project she pitched to his representatives years before it premiered. The suit, filed Aug. 21 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, names Sheridan, Paramount, 101 Studios, Elevate Entertainment and others as defendants, according to the complaint. According to the complaint, Salkin spent more than a decade developing "Sovereign Nation," a drama about tribal governance, casino politics and a fight over reservation land. By late 2016, she had a completed pilot script, show bible and pitch deck, along with a commitment from director Rodrigo García, and had filed materials with the U.S. Copyright Office, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that Salkin's agent and manager submitted those materials to Sheridan's management company, Elevate Entertainment, in late 2016 and January 2017. On Feb. 1, 2017, Elevate responded in writing that Sheridan "thanks you very much for your interest" but was "unavailable for TV projects," the complaint says. Paramount announced "Yellowstone" as its first scripted series roughly three months later, and the show premiered on the Paramount Network in June 2018. Salkin's suit argues the shows share "specific expressive choices," including a tribal casino serving as the center of political power in both stories, a confrontation staged in a tribal chairman's casino office over expanding development beyond reservation land, and shared reliance on trust-land status, an absence of zoning restrictions and a 99-year lease as the mechanism driving that expansion. The complaint also alleges that Salkin's pitch deck, submitted before "Yellowstone" was announced, proposed actors Danny Huston and Gil Birmingham for roles built around casino politics and land development. Both actors were later cast in "Yellowstone" in what the lawsuit calls "materially parallel structural roles."

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Texas governor's summer playlist includes unfortunate error

What's your song of the summer? Your bop of bops? Could it be the classic record "Texas Sun Krugbhagin"? That's apparently what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has at the top of his Spotify Repeat Rewind playlist right now, even if there are like three things wrong with writing "Texas Sun Krugbhagin." The leader of the Lone Star State posted what he's calling his "2026 Summer Playlist" on Friday afternoon, claiming that "Texas is the song of every season." Whatever that means. Anyway, it's a real playlist you can find if you click through Abbott's Facebook linktree. It's 19 songs, most with "Texas" in the title, which totally doesn't mean anyone was Google searching "songs with Texas in the title."

The playlist is mostly country flavored, spanning from the 1959 Marty Robbins classic "El Paso" to current No. 1 song that will never die, "Choosin' Texas" by Ella Langley. Because country music is all people listen to here I guess, right? But there are a few non-country songs on the list, including "Texas" (duh) by BigXthaPlug, the Dallas rapper who was just charged with driving while intoxicated, marijuana possession of less than two ounces and unlawful possession of a firearm. The presence of his "Texas" on the playlist leads one to wonder if Abbott also pours drank inside his lemonade until it looks like a Pepsi. But let's go back to "Texas Sun Krugbhagin," which is actually supposed to be "Texas Sun" by the Houston band Khruangbin and Atlanta singer Leon Bridges. It's honestly incredible that Khruangbin became Krugbhagin in the Facebook post. Not sure how that could've even happened. Anyway, that's a good song, but we should note President Barack Obama already included it on his 2020 summer playlist.

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Barratry or lawful marketing? Loncar Lyon Jenkins’ civil trial begins

An unknown number lit up Barry Marshall’s phone two days after a driver crashed into his pickup truck near Stephenville. After Marshall answered the sixth call, a man offered to refer him to Loncar Lyon Jenkins attorneys to handle the case. A contract with the firm, owned by Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins and former state Sen. Ted Lyon, was in his inbox minutes later. In a lawsuit filed last year Marshall alleges he never asked to be contacted by the law firm or a lead generator after his April 2024 crash, accusing them of a type of unlawful solicitation that is rampant across Texas. An attorney representing Loncar Lyon Jenkins alleged Marshall clicked an online link to invite the referral, making the contact perfectly legal. A jury in Erath County this week will weigh whether the law firm and its middleman crossed the line in a rare civil trial concerning how prominent personal injury lawyers find clients.

It’s illegal for attorneys or their intermediaries to initiate contact with crash victims within 31 days of an accident to drum up business. But law firms are permitted to use lead generators to refer clients who are seeking legal help — as long as they are not making the first move. Social media has fueled a new climate where lead generators are increasingly using deceitful tactics indistinguishable from unlawful solicitation, causing law firms to get tangled in allegations of barratry, said Waco personal injury attorney Vic Feazell. “They’re cyber ambulance chasers,” Feazell said in general about barratry. “It gets worse every day and it's bad not only for the legal consumer but it's bad for the legal profession.” Barratry is so widespread lawmakers last year upped the civil penalty from $10,000 to $50,000. But cases can be difficult to prove, and defendants look to cut their losses, so lawsuits are usually dropped or settled before getting to a jury. Barratry is also a criminal offense in Texas, but prosecutors rarely pursue charges, leaving allegations to be litigated in civil lawsuits if at all.

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National Stories

Nvidia is spending $6 billion to build a powerful U.S. alternative to Chinese AI

Nvidia is planning to use a $6 billion deal it struck this week to build one of the world’s most powerful open-weight AI models, one that would compete with Chinese heavyweights like DeepSeek and Kimi K3, according to people familiar with the matter. The chip giant’s licensing deal with the AI startup Poolside is also set to present a direct challenge to frontier U.S. AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic, since open-weight models are generally far cheaper to operate and allow easy customization. Although Nvidia counts big labs like OpenAI and Anthropic as some of its closest partners, the move reflects Chief Executive Jensen Huang’s efforts to position Nvidia for success in multiple AI battlegrounds simultaneously, ensuring the company is able to hold on to its dominant market position.

Poolside, which was founded in 2023 by Eiso Kant, a software developer, and Jason Warner, the former chief technology officer of GitHub, sent a letter to shareholders Thursday announcing a dramatic restructuring of its business. Nvidia will invest $1 billion in the company at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion, and more significantly, will pay $6 billion to license Poolside’s technology and hire the bulk of its engineers, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Poolside’s founders wrote that the Nvidia deal was meant to secure a future where artificial general intelligence, or humanlike computer reasoning, “would not be a closed technology controlled by few but one built by many out in the open.” The startup’s leadership—including Kant, Warner and operations executive Margarida Garcia—won’t join Nvidia and will continue working on unspecified research projects. The deal was first reported by Newcomer, an independent tech newsletter. More than 100 Poolside employees, including engineers, will join Nvidia and will work on the chip-designer’s Nemotron project—an effort to develop open-weight models that Nvidia debuted in 2023—according to people familiar with the matter. The Poolside engineers will help improve Nemotron’s largest and most sophisticated models under development, these people said.

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‘The writing on the wall’: Trump’s staff departs ahead of possible turmoil

President Donald Trump heads into the second half of his term with key vacancies among his senior White House staff. That means whoever comes off the bench must contend with the possibility of a Democratic-controlled Congress, a slew of subpoenas, a lingering war in the Middle East and an open Republican presidential primary. James Braid, the top liaison to Congress, this week announced his exit. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she would depart the week before. Replacements for either have not been announced. President Donald Trump heads into the second half of his term with key vacancies among his senior White House staff. That means whoever comes off the bench must contend with the possibility of a Democratic-controlled Congress, a slew of subpoenas, a lingering war in the Middle East and an open Republican presidential primary. James Braid, the top liaison to Congress, this week announced his exit. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she would depart the week before. Replacements for either have not been announced. Though it’s not unusual for staff to depart around the midterms, Trump’s desire to run the country through a handful of close, fiercely loyal aides means each loss is more impactful than in a White House where power and responsibility are more diffuse. These departures don’t guarantee a tougher road for the administration, but they inject a dose of uncertainty at an already tenuous time, when the president is facing a slew of challenges — both foreign and domestic.

“I think people are seeing the writing on the wall and thinking Republicans probably aren’t going to have the House, might not have the Senate either, and things are going to be stalled,” said an official who served in Trump’s first term, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “People are thinking, ‘what are my post administration business prospects? Is it worth taking these hits every single day, being part of these battles, and how does that hurt my prospects when I go to the private sector?’” the person said. The president is also losing two key legal hands as he girds for an onslaught of congressional oversight and potential litigation if Democrats take control on the Hill. Trump announced Friday that his pardon attorney and longtime ally Ed Martin would leave for the private sector, coming on the heels of a similar announcement regarding White House counsel Dave Warrington.

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Sullivan endorses Sullivan against Sullivan in Alaska

Three Dan Sullivans are wading in on Alaska’s Senate race but only one Dan Sullivan has earned the support of a former lawmaker with his namesake. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-Alaska) was endorsed by former Anchorage Mayor Dan A. Sullivan (R) last Tuesday as he prepares to face off against Dan J. Sullivan and Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) in November. “As the OG Dan Sullivan, I urge Alaskans to vote for Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan. He’s been great for Alaska,” the former mayor of Anchorage wrote in a Facebook post last week. The post comes after Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign faced legal challenges, as Dan S. Sullivan and the National Republican Senatorial Committee accused him of launching a Senate bid to create confusion for voters seeking to elect the incumbent lawmaker.

Carol Beecher, a registered Republican and the director of the Alaska Division of Elections, attempted to remove Dan J. Sullivan from the primary ballot and disqualify his campaign, citing his logo’s similarities to the incumbent senator’s. However, Dan J. Sullivan challenged the measure in court, and in June, Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled that Dan J. Sullivan could remain on the ballot for the state’s primary on Aug. 18. Republicans Dan J. Sullivan and Dan S. Sullivan advanced to Alaska’s general nonpartisan election in November alongside Democrat Peltola (Alaska), who Dan. J. Sullivan has said he voted for twice in previous elections. The race is considered a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report while Decision Desk HQ has Peltola favored to win due to her past success in statewide races and status as a moderate Democrat who hires Republican staffers on the Hill. Some Republicans have accused Dan J. Sullivan of being a Democratic plant and entering the race to siphon votes away from the incumbent senator with the same name. Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, has denied those accusations.

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Man arrested by US immigration agents as son waits return from USS Lincoln

When Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities, his son was entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy — a vessel that set a U.S. military record for uninterrupted time at sea, stirring concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among soldiers. Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, was arrested after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic, according to his wife, Argelia Aviles. She said her husband, a handyman in Key West, Florida, has a permit to work in the United States. Originally from Nicaragua, he has lived in the U.S. for 19 years. “He dedicates himself only to work so he can put food on the table at home. He is a good father. He loves his children with all his soul,” said Argelia, 47.

Aviles’ arrest comes as the Trump administration rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, detaining at least dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops. At least six family members have been deported and one self-deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track. One spouse, the wife of a U.S. soldier who spent more than a month in federal immigration detention, was removed from a deportation flight to Brazil after the AP’s reporting. One of the military’s most highly advertised immigration benefits is “military parole-in-place,” which allows the spouses, children and parents of active-duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status from within the country. Not everyone qualifies: those who overstayed visas or who already applied for legal status at the border, for example.

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Baby Boomers are smoking more pot. Their neighbors are fuming.

Senior citizens are at a record high for getting high. For Fiorella Terenzi, it’s been…not cool, man. The 64-year-old astrophysicist started to notice wafts of marijuana coming into her home from a nearby unit in her Miami-area high rise. Her neighbors, a married couple in their 70s, told her it was medical marijuana used in small amounts. Terenzi wasn’t buying it. She set out to stop the fumes. To argue her case, she held a piece of toilet paper by the crack in their front door to test the skunky draft and found it strong enough to make the tissue “wave like a flag.” She placed multiple calls to police but said officers were reluctant to knock on the couple’s door late at night. She had intense conversations with the neighbors that felt straight out of high school.

“It was actually always that kind of smirk,” Terenzi said. “Like, ‘Oh, come on. If you’re stoned, it’s cool.’” Seniors are among the fastest-growing demographics for marijuana use in the U.S., taking the drug to manage pain, fall asleep and have fun. But it’s not all bliss. Tensions are rising as the scent perfumes senior centers and retirement communities. Some elderly adults blame secondhand pot smoke for a host of medical problems, from depression to headaches to breathing issues. There are social pressures, too, with a number of baby boomers saying their peers make them feel like narcs and nerds if they complain. About 10% of respondents to a recent study of marijuana use by seniors in New York said they use cannabis to “fit in,” said Joseph Palamar, a professor at NYU Langone Medical Center who co-wrote the report. “If Edna is the one that has the gummies, then it might be like, ‘Oh, I want to be cool like Edna. I don’t really want it, I’m scared, but she’s the cool one and I feel like I have to try it now,’” Palamar said. Many senior pot smokers are loud and proud. San Antonio grandmother Sandra Bomar, 63, who goes by “Stoner Granny” online, posts pot memes on Facebook to her like-minded community. One recent item features a doctor in a white coat and the line, “In my professional opinion, you should smoke a fatty.”

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Democrats are on the verge of picking another 80-year-old

Ed Markey’s campaign knows he is old. He is the oldest senator Massachusetts has ever had and the oldest Senate Democrat seeking reelection in the midterms. He has served in Congress since before his primary challenger, 47-year-old Rep. Seth Moulton, was even born. So at a rally earlier this month, his allies don’t try to hide the fact that Markey is an 80-year-old man, nor can they. Rather, they paint his age as battle-hardened experience, in a move that would have made Ronald Reagan proud. “You tell me a time that’s more important for us to have someone in Washington … that knows the issues, knows every relationship down there, and has the experience to fight the fight,” says Massachusetts state Sen. Michael Moore before a crowd of young families, even younger students and a handful of senior citizens in this post-industrial college town.

Moore’s talking points, along with the claps and cheers coming from the crowd, feel off-key at this moment in American politics. More than ever before, people are frustrated with the notion that Washington is ruled by aging politicians, including those who struggle to do their jobs amid declining health. The monthslong absence of Mitch McConnell, the 84-year-old former Senate GOP leader still recovering from a fall and hospitalization, is only the latest reminder. And, of course, there are the six lawmakers who have died in the current Congress. Democrats, it seems, should be particularly hostile to returning their old leaders to power. This is a party still traumatized by Joe Biden’s presidency — the questions about his mental faculties, his frailty in public and the collapse of his 2024 presidential campaign after his debacle of a debate with Donald Trump (himself now an 80-year-old). The party establishment also appears to be facing its own tea party uprising, with growing calls for generational change: Seven Democratic House incumbents have lost primaries so far, six to candidates who are younger. But much of the party’s insurgent energy is coming from the left — and that might be what saves Markey. Unlike other long-serving Democrats who have been felled by democratic socialists, Markey is a progressive facing a more moderate rival.

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California cancels talks with Paramount over Warner Bros. merger

California’s attorney general has canceled a meeting with representatives of Paramount that was scheduled for Monday to begin discussing a settlement of the state’s lawsuit seeking to block Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Rob Bonta, the attorney general, called off the meeting late Sunday, accusing Paramount of acting in bad faith. In a statement to The Times, Mr. Bonta accused Paramount of leaking details of a meeting the parties held on Friday. “Not only did Paramount leak the alleged substance of settlement discussions, but they misrepresented these discussions, demonstrating a lack of good faith,” Mr. Bonta said in the statement. “As soon as Paramount stops playing games and engages sincerely, my office is happy to meet again.”

A spokeswoman for Paramount did not have immediate comment on Monday morning. The Monday meeting was supposed to be preliminary, and there was never any assurance that it would lead to meaningful negotiations toward a settlement. But the possibility that the two sides could begin moving toward an agreement was seen as something of a breakthrough after Paramount threatened to leave California and Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed a preference for settling the case. Paramount’s proposed $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. would create a media giant, combining two major movie studios, multiple streaming services and the news outlets CNN and CBS News. The company, headquartered in Hollywood, would also be a major employer in Los Angeles. Last month, California led a group of 12 state attorneys general in suing to block the deal, arguing it would create a company with outsize market power in cable television and movie studios. Mr. Bonta had previously said he would be willing to accept only structural remedies to resolve the lawsuit, which would typically mean requiring the companies to sell off parts of the combined business. Executives are often reluctant to hive off parts of a newly merged company because they have already made financial assumptions about the combined operations.

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Lead Stories

As Flock battles public scrutiny, other police surveillance companies see an opening

Dozens of people crammed into a conference room for a gathering at a public library in Washington, D.C. The topic? Automated license plate readers, such as the ones sold by Flock Safety, a company facing major backlash from residents in communities across the country who find themselves deeply unsettled by privacy concerns. On Monday, members of DeFlock DC, a grassroots group dedicated to ending all contracts between the Metropolitan Police Department and Flock, explained to the group how these controversial cameras work and where they are located throughout the city. But as Loreal Hawk, a member of DeFlock DC, told the group gathered, automated license plate readers are neither new nor unique to Flock. Competitors such as Axon, Motorola Solutions and Verkada, offer similar products to law enforcement agencies, and have for years.

Flock has been the target of much of the public's ire, but its rivals have largely avoided it. Now, some of those competitors are trying to cash in on Flock's fall from grace. More than 130,000 automated license-plate readers, or ALPR's, can be found in cities and towns across the country, according to the crowdsourced database DeFlock.org. The cameras take images of the backs of cars. Law enforcement has increasingly turned to this tool to help solve crime. "The Flock ALPR technology has captured the public's attention" and spurred a realization that "maybe we don't want to be surveilled all the time," said Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University. But now, he said, Flock is the one that has "the target put on its back." Flock CEO Garrett Langley regularly posts on social media extolling the benefits of his company's tech, often noting that communities are safer because of it. Flock was credited with helping to track the suspect in last year's Brown University shooting, which killed two students and injured nine other people. License plate readers are only one piece of a growing police surveillance industry. Many law enforcement agencies use integrated tools such as facial recognition, gunshot detectors, predictive policing, drones and real-time crime centers that pull all this information into one central hub used by investigators. Ferguson, who is also the author of Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance, says in his view, those integrated systems raise far more red flags for privacy than license plate readers alone. Yet, they've drawn almost no large-scale public protest.

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Greg Abbott asks DOJ to investigate Muslim airport accommodations

passengers at Texas’ biggest airports, requesting on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate the matter. “Airports can no more offer Muslim-only bathroom spaces than they can maintain white-only bathrooms,” Abbott wrote to Justice officials. “Your office has authority to investigate and put a stop to these discriminatory practices.” Abbott threatened last week to pull state funding from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston over their ablution stations, saying they amounted to religious discrimination.

The stations are used by Muslim passengers who perform ritual washings before their daily prayers. Abbott also asked the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to review the facilities and “take appropriate corrective action.” DFW Airport responded by canceling a plan to install additional washing facilities. The plan had created an uproar among conservatives online and was seized by Abbott and other Republicans who have been campaigning against Sharia law, accusing Muslim groups of having ties to terrorists and entertaining right-wing conspiracies of an Islamic takeover. “Ten Commandments = good. Muslim foot washing rituals = bad. Next question,” U.S. House Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound wrote on social media after Abbott’s initial letter. IAH Airport has had the stations in place since 2024. DFW Airport appears to have had them since 2019.

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US and Canada fall deeper into a trade war with new tariffs

The United States and Canada, historic allies along an undefended border, fell deeper into a trade war Saturday marked by angry recriminations and new tariffs that are expected to raise prices for products in both countries. Each side blamed the other for the collapse of negotiations in Washington late Friday, leading the U.S. to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods and Canada setting Sept. 8 as the start of its retaliatory penalties. President Donald Trump’s import taxes will hit about 5% of what Canada ships to the United States every year, ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors. Prime Minister Carney said Ottawa would respond with targeted tariff protection for industries exposed to the new U.S. duties, including some steel products. He also mentioned the dairy, appliance, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics sectors.

No further talks were planned. Whatever the eventual outcome, a loss of trust seems one of the earliest casualties. Carney accused Washington of using “economic integration as a weapon” and said “its signature was written in pencil.” Resorting to the language of battle, he said his country had been “attacked” by the new American tariffs. “You’re at war when you get attacked,” he said, adding that Canada had the reserves, resilience and plan to respond. But to Trump’s chief trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, the U.S. was compelled to act after a year of retaliation by its longtime partner. “We’ve said enough, and so we’ve taken countermeasures. Our interest is in protecting American workers and protecting American supply chains,” the U.S. trade representative told “Fox & Friends Weekend.” Carney said Canada had been willing to drop remaining retaliatory tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos if the U.S. substantially lowered its own, and to encourage provinces to restore U.S. alcohol sales. But he said Washington’s final demands went too far. “They asked too much and offered too little,” Carney said.

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Jeffries and Kushner meet privately as midterm attacks fly

Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, met privately in recent weeks with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and top outside adviser, and discussed potential areas of common ground, according to five people with knowledge of the meeting. The rare engagement was held in a private space in New York City, offered up by a mutual friend of the two men, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting and a third who was briefed on it. They and others were granted anonymity to discuss a meeting about which they were not authorized to speak publicly. Through aides, neither man would comment on the session, which was described by one person with knowledge of it as a broad conversation on a range of topics. Still, its timing underscored that those around Mr. Trump were well aware of the likelihood of a Democratic-led House, and trying to foster as much of a working relationship as possible before any change.

Mr. Jeffries is in line to be the speaker, were Democrats to win the majority. Democrats and the president have been savaging each other on the campaign trail with increasing fury as the midterm elections approach, and as Republicans are fighting to retain their thin House and Senate majorities. Mr. Trump has called Mr. Jeffries a “thug,” and at a May campaign event referred to him as a “low IQ” person who had inspired him to deride Democrats as the “Dumocrats.” Mr. Jeffries routinely suggests that Mr. Trump is not only extreme but corrupt, vowing that Democrats would “hold the crooks accountable” if they won control. The private get-together was described by one of the people as a catch-up for Mr. Kushner and Mr. Jeffries. The two men have stayed in touch since they worked together on a criminal justice bill midway through Mr. Trump’s first term. During the recent meeting, the pair discussed housing, immigration and the high cost of living as potential areas of common ground. Mr. Kushner suggested that Mr. Jeffries should meet with the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, two people with knowledge of the meeting said. The likelihood of any compromises between the White House and Democrats on those issues seems remote. Mr. Trump this year refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill in part because he said it was “Warren centric,” referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, its top Democratic champion. And he has repeatedly expressed openness to a deal with Democrats on immigration, only to back away from any such agreement. He successfully lobbied Republicans to abandon a bipartisan border security bill in 2024. White House officials and an aide to Mr. Kushner did not respond to messages seeking comment.

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GOP lawmakers criticize Trump’s beef import plan amid blowback from ranchers

House and Senate Republicans on Friday criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend tariffs on ground beef imports, with lawmakers from agricultural states decrying the impact Trump’s decision will have on farmers. Nebraska’s GOP senators, Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, said in separate posts on X that Trump’s decision was unwise. “I’m extremely disappointed by this decision from the White House,” Fischer wrote. “We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers. Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry.” Ricketts wrote: “I appreciate the Administration’s work to lower grocery prices. Short term policy shifts do not equal long term solutions. Flooding the market with lower quality beef compromises Nebraska farmers and ranchers.”

The president announced Friday on Truth Social that “the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff. We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.” Trump did not say which companies that import beef had agreed to this commitment or what countries would supply the meat. Explaining his decision, the president pledged that this deal “will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again.” Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., also cited the hardships American cattle farmers would face as a result of the president’s decision and referred to conversations he’s had with Trump about this issue. “The President’s heart is in the right place on wanting lower prices for the American people, and beef prices have been impacted by the Mexican screwworm,” Sheehy wrote on X. “But the reality is this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”

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State Stories

Immigration enforcement adding to workforce shortages in Texas restaurants, report finds

A new report from the Texas Restaurant Association finds that immigration enforcement is contributing to ongoing workforce shortages facing restaurants across Texas. The association surveyed about 50 restaurant operators across the state for its latest report. According to the research, 36% of operators said they have lost employees because of immigration enforcement, while 28% said they are seeing fewer job applicants or fewer people accepting job offers. The report also found that some restaurants are seeing a decline in customer traffic because people are afraid to be out in public.

Kelsey Erickson Streufert, Chief Public Affairs Officer for the Texas Restaurant Association, told KVUE that the findings show the issue is affecting a significant portion of the industry. “Those are pretty significant numbers,” Streufert said. “That tells us that a really sizable portion of Texas restaurants are feeling one or more impacts because of our immigration enforcement activities.” Streufert said about 20% of the restaurant workforce is foreign-born, many of whom have work authorization. “Immigrants are really critical at every stage of our food pipeline,” Streufert said. “Food costs, as I mentioned, have already gone up 35% since the COVID-19 pandemic. And we've got a study that shows they're going to go up an additional 14.5% if we stick to our current immigration policy playbook.” At L’Oca d’Oro in Austin, co-owner Adam Orman said the restaurant industry has faced significant challenges over the years. Orman has worked in the restaurant industry for nearly 30 years, including through the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. “I've seen restaurants deal with a lot of adversity,” Orman said. Now, he said immigration enforcement is creating another challenge for restaurants. “More than half of our employees have been impacted by immigration enforcement over the last year and a half,” Orman said.

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Pressure increases for Texas to allow treated drilling waste into rivers and rangeland

Elected officials and industry leaders warn that Texas is at the “precipice” of running out of underground space to dispose of the nearly 1 billion gallons of wastewater that oil and gas production generates every day in the Permian Basin. The toxic wastewater, known as produced water, is usually injected underground into disposal wells. But these wells have increased underground pressure, triggering earthquakes and blowouts. Instead of underground injection, the oil industry is now seeking alternatives to treat and reuse produced water. Industry experts made clear last week, at a legislative hearing in Austin and a conference in Midland, that a lack of disposal space could soon constrain oil production in the Permian Basin.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is developing two permitting programs for re-using treated produced water. The agency began accepting permit applications to discharge the treated wastewater into rivers in 2024 but has yet to issue any permits. The agency released a proposed rule earlier this year to allow treated produced water to be applied on land for irrigation or rangeland restoration. In public testimony last week, Commissioner Jim Wright of the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas, emphasized the urgency of providing alternatives to disposal wells. “Continued delay could restrict oil and gas development across the Permian Basin,” he said during a Texas Senate hearing. “I respectfully urge TCEQ to finalize and issue workable permits as soon as possible.” While political pressure mounts on the TCEQ to issue permits, pilot projects using treated produced water are ongoing. Researchers are still gathering data to publish more peer-reviewed papers that will inform the permitting programs.

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‘A life well lived’: Funeral service for U.S. Rep. Kay Granger held in Fort Worth

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger’s legacy as a leader in North Texas and Washington was honored at a Saturday funeral service. The pews of First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth were filled with family, friends and former colleagues as Rev. Danny Tenney delivered a homily outlining the congresswoman’s life’s work — her impact as a teacher who would eventually rise in the ranks of Congress, breaking barriers along the way. “Let us celebrate a life well-lived,” Tenney said, leading guests in prayer. “Let us celebrate a life now lived in perpetual presence.” Granger died peacefully, surrounded by family members, on Aug. 2 following an “aggressive late battle with Alzheimer’s,” according to her obituary.

Her casket sat at the front of the church, draped with an American flag. An organist played “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” during a processional at the start of the ceremony. Granger, remembered as tough but fair, joined Congress in 1997, representing Texas’ 12th Congressional District. She held the office for nearly three decades, climbing the ranks in Washington to eventually become the chairwoman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. She was the first Republican woman to hold the leadership role — adding to her accolades of serving as Fort Worth’s first female mayor and the first Republican woman to represent Texas in the U.S. House. Much of her time in Congress was marked by her focus on the defense industry and Fort Worth, including her work around the Central City Flood Control Project, often called the Panther Island project. Granger announced she wouldn’t seek re-election in November 2023. Near the end of her time in office, it was reported that she was experiencing health challenges.

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Travis County DA's Office announces new indictment against former Texas Lottery Commission, former executive director

The Travis County District Attorney's Office has announced a new indictment against the entity formerly known as the Texas Lottery Commission and its former executive director, Gary Grief, for abuse of official capacity. Back in April, Grief was indicted by a Travis County grand jury, but the charges were dropped three days later. However, shortly after that, a grand jury again indicted Grief and the commission, alleging intentional misuse government of resources, "including property, services, personnel, or assets in their custody." The initial indictment against Grief stated that the misuse involved the Lotto Texas drawing on April 22, 2023.

The DA's office said, "The Texas Government Code required the Commission and the Executive Director to promote and ensure integrity, security, honesty, and fairness in the operation and administration of the lottery." The office added that the commission's alleged conduct was authorized by Grief. In February 2026, the Public Integrity & Complex Crimes Division of the DA’s office received the case from the Texas Department of Public Safety for review. On Friday, Aug. 21, the DA's office said the second April 2026 indictment wasn't public until Grief appeared in court on Aug. 21. Grief was never arrested and instead appeared in court on summons, so the indictment was effectively sealed. "Our office will hold accountable powerful actors who violate our state laws,” Travis County District Attorney José Garza said. "We thank the grand jury members who heard the evidence and the law and decided that their conduct was unlawful."

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Texas juvenile prisons were on 'full lockdown' for days after officer's assault, state says

Youth prisons across Texas were on lockdown for several days beginning last week, according to an email sent to families and guardians of children in Texas Juvenile Justice Department custody. That was because of an “exceptionally brutal” assault by youth on a correctional staffer and another at a halfway house, TJJD Executive Director Shandra Carter told board members at their meeting Friday. “I want to be unequivocally clear: this is not punishment, and inherently it is not a violation of youth rights,” Carter told board members.

Carter said an officer she referred to as “JCO Hernandez,” a woman, was hospitalized after an assault by a boy at the Gainesville State Juvenile Correctional Facility. The boy was sent to TJJD after violating probation for stealing his mother’s gun, Carter said. He had been at the facility for two weeks. Carter said the incident occurred on a Friday but didn’t specify when. There was nothing in his record that indicated he was a high risk or highly violent youth, Carter said. The boy was moved to a maximum security unit in Mart, near Waco, and will remain there. JCO Hernandez has been discharged from the hospital, Carter said. “It’s evident that the youth in TJJD, and in our county detention facilities, are becoming more violent and more aggressive,” said board chairman Manny Ramirez, who is also a Tarrant County commissioner. All five TJJD secure facilities are under “lockdown, shutdown and slowdown” procedures on an individual dorm basis, Carter said, with the “lockdown” phase being the most strict and the “slowdown” phase being the least strict.

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Five-year-old picked up by ICE in Austin, sent to Dilley detention center alongside dad

A five-year-old boy and his father were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Austin on Sunday, Aug. 16, according to a GoFundMe post from the family. “My son is only five years old; he was supposed to start kindergarten this week, and instead he is being held in an immigration detention center. He should be in school, playing soccer and at home with his family. I am asking ICE to release Liam and his father immediately so that our family can be together again,” Liam’s mother said in a statement posted by FWD.us.

Patricia Resendiz said in the GoFundMe that she is the aunt of Liam. She wrote the boy, Liam Tadeo, is being held at the Dilley processing center alongside his dad. That facility is near San Antonio, and advocates have previously called for its closure. It’s the same location where another five-year-old boy, also named Liam (Conejo Ramos), was sent after he and his father were detained in Minnesota. That case sparked significant outcry nationwide. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson confirmed ICE arrested Victor Martinez Nieto, the father, during a traffic stop in Austin. He is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. DHS said ICE has arrested the man before, in late 2025 in Hutto. “He accepted voluntary departure and was removed from the country on February 12, 2026. Martinez Nieto illegally reentered the country at an unknown time and place after being removed,” the DHS spokesperson said.

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Data centers want to be sustainable, panelists say. Transparency also in demand

University of Texas at Arlington computer science and engineering assistant professor Mohammad Atiqul Islam has observed misinformation spread about data centers, particularly about how the supercomputer hubs work and their technology. That’s why he wants to see more transparency from those representing the data center industry, including details on their impact on natural resources. “It is bringing a lot of economic activity” to Texas, Islam said of the industry. “We want to have that, but we have to think about what are the consequences of having data centers.”

This was one of the points Islam joined other panelists in making at Thursday’s event, Informed Discussion: Data Centers in Fort Worth, hosted by the Fort Worth Report and moderated by local government editor Scott Nishimura. TCU Ralph Lowe Energy Institute executive director Nikki Morris and journalist and Concept Elemental founder Jennifer Warren joined Islam as panelists. They each answered questions about data center demand, the state’s economy, the electric grid, and pushback from residents and local governments as interest in the topic booms in North Texas. Texas houses 26 gigawatts of existing and under-construction data center power capacity, according to a report from Fort Worth Inc. Morris referred to this power demand as “in the queue” — projects pending connection to the state’s electric grid. She said those numbers are tentative. “Under half of those projects will ever be connected,” Morris said. “They’re not going to be connected tomorrow.” While a pause is needed to assess those demands, Morris reassured attendees that Texas is successful when it comes to providing substantial infrastructure, energy sources and land to meet those demands.

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Hurricanes routinely threaten the Texas coast. But mass evacuations pose risks of their own

Maya Hart’s hand stung as she gripped her Dodge Ram’s stick shift. She winced in pain and slammed on the brakes — a routine the 45-year-old mother had mastered in the 24 hours since she and her family began driving north from Galveston Island. She looked in the rearview mirror to steal a glance at her daughters and grandson, who sat baking in the Texas heat in a car of their own. It was mid-September 2005 and Hurricane Rita was rapidly closing in on the Texas coast. A barrage of alarming news reports, paired with a dearth of directives from disaster management agencies, had created a wave of collective terror. Rita was already the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico, known for supercharging hurricanes with its warm, flat waters. Nobody wanted to suffer a repeat of Hurricane Katrina, which had ravaged the Gulf Coast just weeks before.

“It was all the hype on television,” Hart, now 65, told Public Health Watch. “Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, this doomsday scenario. People were panicking, thinking of Katrina. The roads just swelled up.” Hart didn’t know it at the time, but she was caught in one of the largest — and arguably worst-executed — mass evacuations in American history. In a span of four days, more than 3.5 million Southeast Texas residents swarmed the roads, creating bumper-to-bumper traffic that spanned miles, clogging highways and city streets. Even inland communities north of Houston had begun evacuating in fear of a far-reaching storm, leaving residents from the most hurricane-vulnerable communities like Galveston stuck behind a growing tide of cars. As the hours passed, stalled drivers began to worry that the storm would hit them then and there, with nowhere to go and no shelter to seek. Others ran out of gas, food and water, leaving them exposed to the suffocating Texas elements. Tensions rose and some people began fighting. Many suffered — and even died — from heat-stroke and dehydration. A bus carrying residents of a nursing home caught fire and exploded, killing 24 of its elderly passengers. In total, 107 people died during Hurricane Rita’s evacuation, far more than the six Texans killed by the actual storm.

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Texas court reduces Alex Jones' payment to Sandy Hook families to $1.5 million

A Texas appeals court drastically reduced the amount of money Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones owes to victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. The Third Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the $50 million previously awarded to two Connecticut families targeted by Jones' Infowars platform was an overstep, reducing the amount owed to $1.5 million between the two parties. Jones consistently called the 2012 shooting that left 20 schoolchildren and six adults dead a hoax. He repeatedly called families "crisis actors" on his Infowars platform and Jones' supporters harassed Sandy Hook families for years. Jones later said a "form of psychosis" led him to push the narrative that the shooting was a ploy by the government to restrict gun rights.

The families successfully sued Jones for defamation in 2022 and he filed for bankruptcy shortly after. A Connecticut judge also sided with families, ordering Jones pay $1.4 billion in damages. Friday's ruling in Texas does not impact the Connecticut case. The ruling ends a back-and-forth over legal damages in Texas courts for now. Jones has been repeatedly knocked by a bankruptcy court in Houston and a Travis County court for failing to provide evidence throughout the proceedings, and families successfully pleaded the Travis County judge award more than Texas' $750,000 cap on damages in 2023. The Third Court's ruling Friday said that plaintiffs didn't prove their damages should exceed the state's cap on damages, reducing the money owed to $750,000 to each family. Jones' assets — including his Infowars platform — have been tied up in his bankruptcy case for years. A court ordered Jones shut down Infowars in May. The satirical publication The Onion effectively took over the brand to parody Jones last month after years of trying to acquire the brand. Onion CEO Ben Collins told KUT's Austin Signal the goal of the takeover was to mock Jones' brand of brash misinformation and provide some money to Sandy Hook families.

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Shut out of special education, this Texas family is fighting back

In March 2020, Courtney and Spencer Morey moved to Aledo, Texas, a rapidly expanding suburb of Fort Worth, because of the stellar reputation of its schools. But about three years later, when their daughter Annie, who has Down syndrome, was supposed to start preschool, she was denied the education that is guaranteed to her by law under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), even though no one from the school had ever met her. I met the Moreys on an unusually warm afternoon last spring. Dressed in white shorts, a sleeveless red sweater, and modest jewelry, Courtney waved me into her well-air-conditioned SUV, and she and I drove to pick up Annie from KinderFrogs, an early-intervention program for children with disabilities on the campus of nearby Texas Christian University. Annie has attended KinderFrogs ever since the district’s requirements for an assessment of her special-education needs—including an IQ test—prevented her from enrolling in its preschool program. When we reached the Texas Christian University campus, Courtney pulled up to KinderFrogs’ beige stone building, where children sat cross-legged outside on a shaded patio as teachers helped them gather their oversize backpacks.

As Courtney tried to coax a few more bites of ice cream into Annie’s mouth before it turned to soup, she told me that Annie was born with a heart defect that required complicated surgery when she was 4 months old. She went into cardiac arrest during the surgery and was without oxygen for 52 minutes. Afterward, she spent nine days on the highest form of life support. “The doctors didn’t expect her to live,” Courtney told me, fear still catching in her throat. The memory of those traumatic early weeks of Annie’s life are why the family has brought a case against the Aledo Independent School District. “Annie didn’t fight so hard to live so some school district could limit her potential,” Courtney explained. Although they had moved to Aledo because of the good reputation of its schools, Courtney and Spencer were later warned about the district’s approach to special education. “We started to hear from other parents who had gone before us,” Courtney said. Most of them were unsuccessful at getting their children with disabilities into mainstream classrooms. “Inclusion was what we wanted for Annie,” Courtney said, meaning that they wanted their daughter to learn in a general-education setting rather than a segregated, special-education classroom. But the Moreys knew that first they would need to work with teachers and school administrators to write an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, for Annie. The IEP would be based on an evaluation of Annie’s development and provide a plan for the support and accommodation that she would need in order to learn alongside the other students in a mainstream classroom.

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City Stories

What’s with the 6th Street billboard calling out Alamo Drafthouse?

Love it or hate it, the change in how to order food at Alamo Drafthouse movie theatres is a hot topic. Hot enough that celebrities, fans and film critics have addressed it, and a billboard went up near downtown Austin. Yes, a billboard. In mid-July, a billboard reading “MAKE DRAFTHOUSE GREAT AGAIN BAN SMARTPHONE ORDERING” went up on West Sixth Street near Winflo Drive.

Earlier this year, Austin-based movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse replaced its pen-and-paper food ordering system with a mobile-based system. The change drew criticism from staff and movie-goers alike, as well as celebrities and film critics. In January, before the change even rolled out, Austin Film Critics Association (AFCA) President Jon Partridge called it “a gross self-inflicted wound.” Former Austinite and “Lord of The Rings” star Elijah Wood posted about the system change on X in June, calling the food ordering experience “truly awful.” As much criticism as the move has drawn, some folks don’t mind the change and have even gone as far as defending it. During a KXAN editorial meeting discussing it, at least two people said they liked the mobile ordering system. One Reddit user posted in the Alamo Drafthouse SubReddit that the change “has not had a negative impact on the movie experience.” But the billboard doesn’t just call out Alamo Drafthouse. It rotates through three different messages at once, and the messages are changed out pretty frequently. The billboard rotates through different messages, each marked with the Howdy.com branding. But what is Howdy.com, and who’s deciding what messaging goes up?

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Residents question if La Marque mayor should remain in office after indecent exposure allegations

La Marque Mayor Keith Bell was arrested Friday after the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office said he was seen exposing himself inside an office building in Angleton. The sheriff’s office said that around 9:30 a.m. on August 21, someone walked into the lobby area of the building and saw bell “with his genitalia out self-gratifying in an office chair.” Bell, 53, was booked into the Brazoria County Detention Center on an Incident Exposure charge. He bonded out Saturday, according to jail records. The arrest has prompted questions among some La Marque residents about whether Bell should remain in office. Bell also serves as the city’s emergency management director and is a local pastor.

“It’s just crazy hearing about it,” La Marque resident Trina Jackson said. “I have kids. And I wouldn’t want my kids to see that or anybody else’s kids, but like I said, it’s unfortunate.” La Marque resident L’Tanya Ivory added, “We look up to you. You’re in this position and you do something like that. Do that at home.” The possibility of a recall election is one potential next step, according to KHOU 11 political analyst Brandon Rottinghaus. “The likely provision here is that the mayor is going to be subject to a recall election, because voters are likely pretty unhappy about this,” Rottinghaus said. Rottinghaus said the La Marque city charter allows any citizen to initiate a recall by gathering signatures on a petition. “What it says is that if 51 percent of voters from the prior election have certified that they think that mayor should be removed, then that process can move forward. That election will go to voters, and voters will have to decide if they think the mayor should be removed or not,” Rottinghaus said.

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National Stories

Trump’s visa ban on 75 countries struck down by federal judge

The Trump administration must resume processing visas for people from 75 countries that the government deemed likely to become a “public charge,” a federal judge in New York ruled Friday, curbing one of the latest efforts to restrict legal immigration pathways to the United States. The halt to visa processing began in January, affecting dozens of countries in every corner of the globe. It was meant to limit visas for people the government said would probably rely on public benefits for their basic needs, long a complaint from President Donald Trump. But U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, an appointee of President Joe Biden, ruled that the policy “represents a direct abrogation” of consular officers’ exclusive, congressionally granted authority to determine if someone is eligible for a visa.

Vargas also said the nationality-based visa ban, which applied to all nationals of the 75 countries no matter their income or economic status, ignores antidiscrimination protections in federal immigration law. Vargas’s order came in response to a lawsuit from two nonprofit groups and 11 individuals: six people whose family members’ visa applications had been rejected under the freeze, and another five who had filed work-related petitions to come to the United States. Amaha Kassa, executive director of African Communities Together, one of the groups that sued, welcomed the ruling against a policy that he said lacked solid evidence or rationale. “The decision on whether [someone should] receive a visa should be an individual decision,” he said. “It shouldn’t be based on profiling on stereotypes of certain countries.” The State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it was not clear if or how soon visa processing would resume. The January policy did not affect visas that had already been issued. Nor did it apply to nonimmigrant visas, such as those granted to students and tourists, but otherwise prevented consular officers from issuing visas on work or family grounds.

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IndyCars to race through the capital for Freedom 250 event

Public roadways in Washington, DC, have been converted into an IndyCar speedway for an event hosted by Freedom 250, a nonprofit backed by President Donald Trump. It took an extensive, two-month process to erect safety barriers and viewing areas along the track, which drivers will navigate at speeds up to 180 miles per hour. The race is the latest in a series of marquee events celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. The events have dovetailed with Trump’s efforts to remake Washington, DC, through major construction projects at the White House and across the capital.

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Trump discloses 1,000 stock trades in June

President Trump’s investment accounts continued to actively trade individual stocks in June, revealing they made more than 1,000 transactions, according to his latest government disclosure. The White House said Saturday that the president has no role in the trading, which it said is handled by independent managers that use computer models that automatically replicate stock indexes. There were more than 550 purchases and more than 450 sales revealed in the latest filing released Saturday. Among the largest stock trades were purchases of at least $1 million worth of each Berkshire Hathaway, Visa and Mastercard. These are all companies that the Trump accounts have previously traded.

Those purchases were made on June 18, the same day his accounts sold more than $1 million worth of Meta Platforms and Motorola. That was a day after the president signed an interim peace deal in Versailles, France, to end the conflict with Iran. Trump’s accounts have been active buyers and sellers of individual stocks he returned to the White House, raising concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest. He made big bets on tech stocks in the first quarter, though some of his biggest investments in June were financial institutions. Earlier this year, a 900-page filing revealed the accounts had made more than 21,000 trades last year. Trump made more than $2 billion in 2025, largely from his investments in crypto ventures. The investment accounts are in a revocable trust overseen by Donald Trump Jr. “Neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in an email. “All investment decisions are made entirely by independent managers.”

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Anthropic market debut could break SpaceX IPO record: media

The market debut of artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic, a chief rival to OpenAI, could break the record set by SpaceX, US media have reported. Elon Musk's space company went public in June at a value of $1.77 trillion and raised $85.7 billion in its blockbuster initial public offering, the largest in history. Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI models, "expects to match or beat the size" of SpaceX's deal, according to Bloomberg. The company's bankers have told potential investors it could seek to raise "more than $100 billion" in its IPO, which could put the company's value at $2 trillion, The New York Times reported Friday, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of the talks.

That would more than double the five-year-old company's previous valuation at $965 billion, reached in its last funding round in June. Only a handful of companies including Apple, Microsoft and chip maker Nvidia have surpassed the $2 trillion mark. Anthropic declined AFP's request for comment. After filing to go public in June, the company could reveal its public offering prospectus in the coming weeks, the Times reported, with shares possibly listed in the autumn. Anthropic could then beat OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, to market. That company is hoping to list its shares in 2027. Founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei and other former executives at OpenAI, Anthropic has positioned itself as a safety-focused alternative in the AI race. Claude Code, its coding assistant for developers, has become one of its most popular products, helping push its projected annual revenue to $47 billion.

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USPS publishes rule to restrict mail voting if courts lift injunctions

The U.S. Postal Service published a 95-page final rule late Friday that would stop delivering mail ballots in states that refuse to share voter registration data with the federal government, but the rule cannot take effect unless courts lift existing injunctions blocking it. The Nov. 3 midterm elections are now less than three months away. The rule, which will be formally published Aug. 26, requires states to provide USPS with the names and barcodes tied to their mail-in ballots for federal elections. Under the rule, USPS would review every ballot envelope for compliance and would not deliver ballots in states that do not comply.

USPS said it is issuing the final rule now so it could take “immediate effect” if courts lift the injunctions currently blocking it. The agency said it "will not take actions to implement the rule specifically for the 2026 election" unless injunctions are lifted. The rule carries out a March 2026 executive order signed by President Donald Trump. Courts have largely blocked the order this summer. Last week, a federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction blocking USPS from implementing the order for the November midterms, finding the executive branch “has no authority to regulate elections” and that the order was causing “irreparable harm” to voters. A separate ruling has blocked the order in about two dozen states. The Supreme Court is reviewing the issue and will decide whether the Postal Service can put in place the new restrictions on mail-in voting. Trump signed the executive order after years of pushing unsubstantiated claims that mail-in voting enabled widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

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Forget Mar-a-Lago Face. The real symbol of right-wing politics is the cinched waist.

On a warm evening in May, Lauren Sánchez Bezos walked the red carpet at New York’s legendary Met Gala wearing a sculpted, midnight-blue satin gown with a plunging neckline. The dress code for the party was “Fashion Is Art,” and Sánchez Bezos and her designer, Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry, drew inspiration from the museum’s famous John Singer Sargent portrait “Madame X,” a 19th-century painting of an American socialite posing in a sultry black gown. The painting had at one point sparked scandal for the form-fitting sexiness and bejeweled straps of its dress, and Sánchez Bezos suggested Roseberry take it up a notch: “Let’s do a waist,” she told him. Roseberry complied — snugly binding her abdomen in a corseted style that visibly laced up her back. The cinched waist looked familiar on Sánchez Bezos, harkening back to the many outfits she wore during her extravagant Venice nuptials in June 2025, including a tight-laced, corseted wedding gown that could have been pulled straight from the Victorian era in which the real Madame X resided.

And she is hardly alone. “The tiny, tortured waist has returned as a bodily preoccupation,” The New York Times reported last fall, “ready to eclipse voluminous breasts and buttocks as areas of obsession, manipulation, distortion and angst.” But the waist is not simply a matter of fashion. It is, increasingly, a statement of values. We’ve reverted “to a sense of what a woman should wear and look like that is restrictive,” historian Stephanie Coontz, who has studied the prevalence of the hourglass shape in modern culture, told me. The idea is that clothing should “show off your body and your fertility and your sexuality more than anything else about your personality.” For powerful women on the right, the uniform has become severe, as exemplified by the nipped-waist dresses worn by Kimberly Guilfoyle and Ivanka, Lara and Melania Trump. This trend is, in fact, an old story. Fashion, like politics, is cyclical, and in periods of conservatism, the cinched waist tends to reign. It has previously been correlated not only with patriarchy and threats to women’s rights but also with rising authoritarianism. Since the start of the second Trump administration, there has been a lot of chatter about “Mar-a-Lago face” — the artificially enhanced lips, chins and cheeks common among MAGA women.

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Lead Stories

Elon Musk is expected to point his money machine at Texas politics

Elon Musk is expected to spend big to boost Republicans in the midterms this November, according to Trump officials briefed on the matter. The precise amount could change, but the officials expect Musk to spend around $100 million to $200 million with a focus on voter turnout in key races, including Texas, where the fate of Republican nominee Ken Paxton could determine which party controls the US Senate. The planned cash injection—or any in-kind contribution relating to voter turnout—would be a boon for Paxton, who has been vastly outraised in contributions. According to the latest FEC filings, James Talarico had raised roughly $69 million compared to Paxton's $9 million. While an endorsement from President Donald Trump carried him to victory, Paxton lagged behind in contributions throughout a bruising primary against Senator John Cornyn that resurfaced past scandals, and has fared little better since becoming the nominee.

To date, neither of the two largest national GOP entities have committed to spend on Paxton. The Senate Leadership Fund is run by allies of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who supported Cornyn, while MAGA Inc has not released its spending plans. Democrats in close races have generally outraised their Republican counterparts this cycle, so Paxton is not unique in being behind in fundraising. Numerous candidates are relying on national party committees and outside groups to make up the difference. Musk’s projected spend adds to the Republican National Committee’s $128 million war chest, while the Democratic National Committee is $2 million in debt. The two main GOP super PACs for House and Senate races have $380 million, compared to Democrats’ $116 million. MAGA Inc has about $400 million on hand; there is no Democratic equivalent. A spokesperson for America PAC declined to comment on the group’s spending plans. The New York Times earlier reported that Musk had authorized his PAC to spend at least $100 million for the 2026 midterms. But Musk's track record in setting up voter turnout operations has been mixed.

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How a failed project could help solve the world’s biggest energy need

The sci-fi-worthy machine soaring 120 feet tall in the hills outside Lynchburg had been all but left for dead — a $400 million experiment that collapsed as the energy economy shifted and the financial prospects for next-generation nuclear technology soured. The faux eight-story reactor in Lynchburg, built to mimic a nuclear plant but run on electricity so engineers can safely monitor and tinker with it, languished a decade unused on a Liberty University engineering campus. Now, with the AI build out exploding across the country, a pair of engineering wizards with a nuclear start-up and SpaceX pedigree see in it a lucrative solution to one of the country’s most vexing challenges: powering the proliferation of data centers. They are betting that they can leverage a forgotten test facility started in 2009 as a launchpad to build the small, more nimble nuclear reactors that the industry has been promising for decades could create cheap, reliable energy.

Billions have been spent developing such reactor designs since the 1960s. Not a single one of them is operating in the U.S. commercial market. Plenty of experts predict this will be yet another nuclear flop done in by spiraling costs, community safety concerns and engineering glitches. “We are now living in about the fifth supposed ‘nuclear renaissance’ in the U.S.,” said David Schlissel, a longtime nuclear consultant to consumer and environmental groups. “The industry keeps claiming they have new designs that will be cheaper and faster to build. It keeps turning out not to be true.” But in the frenzy to find power, plans for futuristic technologies that were abandoned years ago are on the ascent. Investment capital is flooding in. Deals are being inked. Silicon Valley is promising big paydays for whatever start-ups can solve their immense challenge of finding enough energy to feed modern data centers. “We’re standing on the shoulders of giants here, right?” Ben Kellie, the former SpaceX engineer from Alaska who co-founded Applied Atomics, said inside the Lynchburg facility housing the small-reactor project, known as mPower. “We’re starting with something that had $400 million in investment put into it, and significant time and effort. That’s a leg up.” One of the other two co-founders, Paul Keutelian, was also a high-level engineer at SpaceX.

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U.S. workers are paying more for healthcare, and next year will be worse

Surging healthcare costs are walloping U.S. workers, and they will only worsen next year. For 2027, employers may be facing the biggest health-insurance increase in at least two decades. Americans with workplace coverage are expected to spend an average $5,297 this year on healthcare, $388 more than 2025, according to a new estimate from benefits-consulting firm Aon. The spending represents a combination of payroll deductions for premiums and out-of-pocket charges like deductibles and copays. The burden is likely to grow significantly next year, when U.S. employers expect their healthcare costs to go up by 11.1%, according to a new survey from WTW, another big benefits consultant—the steepest rise in more than 20 years. That would represent the fifth year of escalating increases, according to WTW. “Employers are telling us that this is utterly unsustainable,” said Jeff Levin-Scherz, population-health leader at WTW.

Expensive cancer treatments and wide adoption of weight-loss drugs are among the factors pushing up spending. At larger companies, the rapid rise has moved decisions around health benefits from the domain of human-resources executives into the C-suite, said Mike Pasterick, North America health-solutions leader at Aon. “We’re seeing a lot of interest now from the finance organization and even the CEO and the board.” As companies are forced to pay more for insurance, their workers, who typically pay a share of the premium, are seeing their own costs rise roughly in tandem. That means more dollars are held out of their paychecks each month. At Paul Wissmach Glass Co., which employs 35 people in Paden City, W.Va., co-owner Jason Wilburn said he has been hit by double-digit premium increases each year since his family bought the company in 2021. Health-insurance expenses now consume about 5% of the firm’s revenue—more than its profit margin. This year, the company raised the biweekly payroll deduction for a single worker to $50, from $40. Though the employer is still paying about 90% of the total premium, a few workers decided to drop their coverage when their costs went up.

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Election officials prepare for nightmare scenarios: Ballot seizures and violence

Election officials across the country are war-gaming every move they think President Donald Trump might make to interfere in the midterm elections — scenarios that range from ordering federal agents to seize ballots and voting machines to sending immigration agents to polling locations. “I have no idea what’s next, and I don’t think anybody does,” said a senior Republican election official, one of several granted anonymity to discuss the administration’s actions against states and threats against election workers. “We’re just not creative or devious enough to come up with what might be coming.” As the president continues to spread lies about the 2020 election, the Justice Department is dispatching 1,000 monitors to watch midterm voting, and his most loyal MAGA-sphere allies are calling a federal election takeover necessary because, as one put it, “we’re in a revolution right now.”

Earlier this year, Trump said “we shouldn’t even have an election” and expressed regret for not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in 2020. More recently, he left the door open to declaring a national emergency to gain control over the elections this November. Five top election officials in different states told MS NOW that state officials and election administrators are in active conversations with local law enforcement, state attorneys general and legal advisers about how to respond if federal agents attempt to raid a polling site and seize ballots or machines — breaking the chain of custody for ballots and potentially throwing an election’s results into doubt. If federal agents arrive at a polling location with a search warrant in hand, a state’s only apparent immediate response is to sue and seek an emergency stay from a court. If federal agents try to seize ballots or disrupt voting based on a national emergency declared by the president, state officials are actively talking to local law enforcement about their options to respond, said the election officials.

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State Stories

Talarico rips Paxton’s data center donors — but he’s in bed with them too

Democratic Texas Sen. candidate James Talarico has accepted millions from donors tied to the data center industry while accusing his opponent Ken Paxton of selling Texans out on the issue. “He’s taken nearly half a million dollars from data center companies and then he turns around and protects those companies at our expense,” Talarico said during an interview Aug. 13 with MS NOW. (RELATED: Cornyn Aide Takes Job With Talarico: REPORT) Paxton has received roughly $400,000 from data-center-connected donors, according to a NOTUS report, which cites Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, including reports filed by several political action committees. Talarico, a Texas state representative, has received more than $11 million from donors with ties to the industry, according to FEC records.

He has rolled out his own proposals for regulating data centers ahead of the 2026 Senate race. Some of Talarico’s largest financial backers have connections to the data-center and AI industries, including Reid Hoffman, his largest individual donor, according to a Texas Tribune report. Hoffman has contributed $10 million to the Lone Star Rising (LSR) PAC supporting Talarico, according to FEC filings. Hoffman is also a major Microsoft shareholder, with billions of dollars invested in the company, which operates and continues to expand data centers across Texas and the country. Microsoft announced in July 2025 plans to invest $80 billion in AI data centers and infrastructure, including major projects in Texas, four of which are in San Antonio. Hoffman has also publicly advocated for expanding U.S. data-center capacity and energy infrastructure to remain globally competitive. Stephen Mandel, founder and managing member of Lone Pine Capital, has also contributed roughly $500,000 to Talarico-affiliated groups, including LSR PAC, according to FEC filings. Mandel’s investment portfolio includes companies tied to the data-center boom, including Talen Energy, which provides power for data centers, and Teradyne, which designs and manufactures advanced industrial robotics for the biggest tech companies. Tench Coxe, a director at Nvidia who serves on several of the company’s committees, also has ties to the AI and data-center industry. Nvidia promotes the expansion of AI data centers and has been involved in projects in West Texas and Fort Worth.

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Texas appeals court rules on defamation claims against Robert Morris, Gateway Church

A state appeals court on Wednesday, Aug. 19, granted a motion to dismiss nearly all of Cindy Clemishire's defamation claims against her abuser, Robert Morris, the church he founded and the elders who served on the church's board when the abuse came to light. "The ruling issued late Wednesday by the Texas Court of Appeals has deeply troubling consequences for survivors and victims of childhood sexual abuse," said state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, in a statement to WFAA. He represents Clemishire and now vows to take her case to the Texas Supreme Court. "If allowed to stand, it effectively grants religious organizations sweeping immunity from civil accountability -- even when they are alleged to have knowingly concealed, enabled, or protected child sexual predators -- simply because those actions occurred within a religious institution," Leach added.

The appeals court ruling on Wednesday sides with Robert Morris' and Gateway Church's arguments that the courts do not have jurisdiction to rule on the defamation claims because it would require them to violate the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine that prevents the courts from delving into church discipline and ecclesiastical government. The suit was brought by Clemishire and her father, Jerry Clemishire, against Morris, his wife and church leadership, claiming they knowingly spread false statements to cover up decades-old abuse and protect the church's public image. The defamation claims stem from allegations by Cindy Clemishire, who said Morris began sexually abusing her at her Oklahoma home on Christmas Day in 1982, when she was 12. Clemishire has accused Morris of continuing the abuse for several years. "We are pleased that the Court of Appeals has dismissed the case against Gateway and the Independent Elders," Attorney Ron Breaux, who represented Gateway Church, said in a statement. "As the Court’s opinion confirms, this case was never about Gateway. While Gateway grieves and laments Robert’s child sexual abuse of Cindy, that abuse happened 20 years before Gateway was founded. Its current elders did not know of Robert’s crimes until Cindy told her story, at which point they immediately conducted an investigation and acted to ensure that no one complicit in hiding Robert’s past remained in Church leadership."

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Why abortion opponents in Texas are turning their attention to banning surrogacy

Anti-abortion activists and lawmakers in Texas are pressing to limit or even outlaw surrogacy, a new step toward restricting major forms of infertility treatment. Surrogacy, though far from common, has entered the national spotlight this summer, the result of an explosive case in which an Alaska woman named McKenna West — who had been hired to carry a pregnancy for a California-based couple — traveled to Texas to seek medical care after refusing to have an abortion. She gave birth in Dallas last week. West has sought custody of the newborn and alleges that the baby’s parents tried to force her to terminate the pregnancy after doctors discovered a fetal anomaly called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a devastating heart condition that requires multiple surgeries after birth and that can still be fatal. The couple disputes West’s account, saying in court filings that she had agreed to terminate the pregnancy but then changed her mind and cut off contact with them.

The newborn — whom the couple named Rumi — is now in the custody of his parents and has received surgery in Texas. Anti-abortion activists have referred to the child publicly as “baby Gabriel.” Disputes like this are rare. Still, the case has become a lightning rod for national anti-abortion activists, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who intervened in the case on behalf of West to argue that the child must receive life-sustaining treatment in Texas, even though court records indicate his parents sought for him to receive care in California. (Paxton, who has frequently allied himself with social conservatives, is in a competitive race to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.) West has secured representation from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent anti-abortion legal group. Abortion opponents have argued that the case underscores a need to outlaw surrogacy entirely. Surrogacy, which data suggests has become more common in recent years, is typically pursued by people who cannot give birth, such as people who cannot safely carry a pregnancy and some queer couples.

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Secretary of Energy tours Exxon and HP drilling rig, addresses crowd at Bush Convention Center

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited Midland on Monday to mark what the Energy Department calls the “Great American Energy Comeback.” Organized by the Permian Strategic Partnership, Wright toured an Exxon and HP drilling rig early in the morning before heading to a rally at the Bush Convention Center. The United States led the world in oil and natural gas production, according to the department. Wright said the world’s growing energy demand requires expanded production. “We have a billion people that live wonderful lives like us, and 7 billion more who want it, the only road from here to there is massively more oil and gas, growing of coal, growing of all energy that’s affordable, reliable, and secure, it’s one of the things I’m proudest of the Trump administration,” Wright said.

Wright also addressed pushback on new energy projects like data centers, saying it comes down to choice. “So when we hear things demonized and people are trying to scare your neighbors and your friends against new technologies and new progress, let’s be skeptical about that, let’s listen about that, and let’s drive progress in our country,” Wright said. “We don’t need a data center in every community, that’s not necessary at all, people don’t want them, no problem, don’t do it, this is a choice,” Wright said. “But let’s look at that choice rationally. This is going to bring more benefits than it’s going to cost, let’s lean in on it.” U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, also spoke at the rally, praising the region’s role in the industry’s future. “The future starts right here, it’s in Midland, it’s in Odessa, it’s in the Permian Basin all in this great region, we’ve got the resources, we’ve have the technology, and most importantly, the people of the Permian Basin are making this story better and better every single day,” Pfluger said.

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Studies say Austin-San Antonio passenger rail requires $13 billion or a route Union Pacific resists

A passenger rail link between Austin and San Antonio, long dreamed about by local officials and commuters who would rather watch YouTube than white-knuckle it between semi-trucks on I-35, is now being presented with two very different paths forward. But the cheaper of those two paths is already running into the same obstacle that helped kill the last serious effort: Union Pacific says its freight railroad still doesn't have capacity for any more passenger trains beyond the extremely limited existing service. Amtrak's slow rolling Texas Eagle runs only once a day, and even that service arrives on schedule just 56% of the time. The other option would build an all-new, mostly elevated railroad starting at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and following State Highway 130 to Interstate 10. That avoids Union Pacific but bypasses the biggest population centers between Austin and San Antonio. It also comes with a much heftier price tag: $13.5 billion.

The two choices are laid out in separate studies released this summer, both prepared by engineering firm HNTB. TxDOT published a study in June that considered adding passenger trains to the existing Union Pacific corridor. This week, Travis County released the study on whether a new railroad could be built along SH 130 and I-10. The 62-page report cost almost $125,000. At a high level, engineers found either concept could work. But the studies also exposed the tradeoffs that have prevented Austin-San Antonio passenger rail from becoming a reality, despite millions of dollars spent on studies and planning. On paper, the Union Pacific option is more affordable. TxDOT studied running up to eight round trips a day between Austin and San Antonio, with stops in New Braunfels and San Marcos. The most ambitious scenario would require almost $1.9 billion in new tracks, signals, stations and other infrastructure. Annual operation and maintenance costs could top $61 million. But that study came with an major limitation: Union Pacific declined to participate. So TxDOT had to make assumptions about how passenger and freight trains could use the railroad by relying on federal data and "engineering judgment." Union Pacific is now making clear it disagrees with the premise of the study.

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Brandon Herrera says he's a millionaire. His filings don't show it.

With less than three months before Election Day, Republican congressional candidate Brandon Herrera still hasn’t filed a financial disclosure report that accurately reflects his income. The popular YouTube creator and gun manufacturer, who has repeatedly called himself a millionaire, vowed in early July to refile his paperwork with the U.S. House clerk after the outlet Punchbowl News flagged that it listed his earned income as just $80,000 in 2024. Herrera has also previously said that joining the U.S. House, which comes with a $174,000 salary, would be a “90+% pay cut.” At the time, his campaign manager, Kimmie Gonzalez, told Punchbowl that his team was “working to submit a revised financial disclosure report within the coming weeks.”

Gonzalez said this week that the previous filing was done by a friend of Herrera’s, and Herrera is now using the services of the Washington, D.C., law firm Holtzman Vogel. “The friend just did not have the experience needed for this level of reporting,” Gonzalez said. “The updated report will be out soon. I don't have a date. I don't have a timeline, but it will be out soon.” Herrera is running to succeed former U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, who stepped down this year amid backlash over an affair he had with a staffer who later died by suicide. The district, which includes San Antonio, Uvalde and a large swath of West Texas, leans Republican but Democrats see an opportunity to flip the seat. Herrera is required by law to file a financial disclosure, but as a candidate, he’s not mandated to refile it if discrepancies arise. Doug Spencer, a law professor at the University of Colorado who specializes in campaign finance regulation, said it’s rare for a candidate’s past filings to be called into question by the committee once they take office.

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Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee sues CenterPoint after lineman's death

The family of a 28-year-old Texas City lineman who was fatally shocked while working on CenterPoint Energy’s electric system is suing the utility, alleging his crew had been told the lines were de-energized when they were actually live. Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee announced Aug. 20 that he had filed the lawsuit on behalf of Ryne Cooper’s family. Cooper died Aug. 11 while working on CenterPoint’s system, according to records provided by Buzbee. The lawsuit alleges CenterPoint and Cooper’s employer, Power Contracting LLC, failed to follow basic safeguards for high-voltage work, including accurately identifying and de-energizing lines and confirming they were safe before the crew began working. CenterPoint said it does not comment on pending litigation.

Cooper, 28, and his crew were working on lines they had been told were de-energized but were instead live, the lawsuit alleges. While setting new poles, Cooper operated a switch and came into contact with an energized line, according to the lawsuit. Three crew members were injured while trying to pull him away, including one who remained hospitalized, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit claims CenterPoint was negligent and grossly negligent for failing to "exercise reasonable care with the extraordinary dangers of high-voltage electricity, including the duty to accurately identify and de-energize its lines before representing them as dead, to issue accurate maps, switching orders, and clearances, and to maintain its switching equipment in safe working condition." Power Contracting LLC, an electrical infrastructure contractor affiliated with Pike Corporation and Cooper’s employer, was hired by CenterPoint Energy and is also named in the lawsuit. In an email, Buzbee said he has sued CenterPoint "far too many times for far too many widows."

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HPD says Flock vandalism stalled attempted child kidnapping probe

Houston police said Thursday night that vandalism of Flock license plate cameras hindered their investigation of an attempted child kidnapping. At a community meeting at a downtown police station, Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz said the department received a report Sunday that a man had tried to lure a third-grade student into his car at Memorial Elementary's SPARK Park. Officers have yet to identify a suspect and are unable to track the car he was driving because three nearby license plate cameras had been cut down. "Unfortunately, some person that's not really cool with the license plate reader technology chose to cut the three down," Diaz said. "We're kind of hindered by that, but we're still working on it."

The case adds to Houston's escalating debate over automated license plate readers. Critics have raised privacy concerns about the technology, while law enforcement officials say the cameras can provide valuable evidence in criminal investigations. Flock cameras automatically photograph passing vehicles and record license plate information that police can search during investigations. Cameras across Houston have recently been cut down or spray-painted. Diaz said officers canvassed the area around Memorial Elementary on Sunday and contacted Houston ISD about the attempted kidnapping. He also said residents in the area have declined to share footage from their home security cameras, further hindering the investigation. Police ask anyone who may have seen a man driving a red sedan around Memorial Elementary on Sunday to contact them.

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Harris County committee recommends $40,000 pay boost for treasurer, despite effort to eliminate position

Despite commissioners vowing to eliminate her position, a Harris County committee established to field elected officials’ salary complaints voted to give County Treasurer Carla Wyatt a $40,000 pay raise. The recommendation will go before Harris County Commissioners Court for a final vote on her salary increase. Wyatt, a 24-year veteran of the county, asked the nine-member salary grievance committee for a 119% pay increase Thursday to bring her salary from $139,000 to $305,000 — about $50,000 more than she had originally requested in an official grievance filing.

Wyatt’s request, which was quickly struck down by the committee made up of community members, would have brought her pay in line with recent raises approved for other elected officials, including the county and district attorneys. County commissioners also approved major pay boosts for each of the eight elected county constables earlier this month. With a final upcoming vote on the county budget, they will also be paid $305,000 — higher than the U.S. vice president’s salary. Wyatt said she serves the same number of residents as other county officials who received pay boosts, and pointed blame at the court for not increasing her pay to match theirs. “I have been here, I’m a countywide elected official, the people of Harris County put me here, and so I plan to continue to serve them in this capacity,” Wyatt said Thursday. “I don’t intend to be disrespected.”

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Suzanne Bellsnyder: The voucher numbers are in. Rural Texas isn’t surprised.

I’ve spent two decades in and around the Texas Capitol, working with Republican officeholders who believed in school choice as part of a larger accountability system. That’s exactly why the first numbers on Texas’ billion-dollar voucher program should trouble conservatives, not just critics. The newly appointed Texas Comptroller has released data showing who is using Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), also known to the rest of us as vouchers. The results won’t surprise those of us in rural Texas. Well, well, well. You don’t say. Participation is concentrated in urban areas where private schools exist, and many of the students slated to receive the money were already attending private school or being homeschooled.

A program sold as an escape route for children trapped in failing public schools is functioning largely as a taxpayer subsidy for choices families had already made. “No Texas child should be trapped in a failing school or forced to attend a school that is unable to provide the services they need,” Comptroller Don Huffines said. That was the pitch. But approximately 70% of students who had joined the program or still had pending invitations were already attending private school or being homeschooled. Senate Bill 2, passed in 2025, created the program, and lawmakers appropriated $1 billion for its first year. The standard private-school award is $10,474. More than 274,000 students applied, and approximately 101,600 had confirmed participation by August 13. To be fair, supporters can point to several outcomes as wins. Four in five participants in the annual report came from households earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level—about $66,000 for a family of four—and nearly one-fourth had a documented disability.

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Westlake mayor defends data center on Keller border but admits it’s a 'tough situation'

It doesn’t feel good to be called a bad neighbor, Westlake Mayor Kim Greaves said Tuesday. But that was the accusation made over and over during a fiery meeting on Monday by one Keller resident after another. Greaves told WFAA it was “terrible.” “There’s no other word for it,” he said. “I feel bad for the situation. But this issue is really around, does the town of Westlake have a right for economic development the way we see fit inside our own borders?” Westlake was about to approve a development agreement with PowerHouse to build a 1.1 million-square-foot data center on a parcel of land on Highway 377.

The center would be more than 3,000 feet from homes in Westlake. But just 500 feet from homes in neighboring Keller. It's a discrepancy Greaves says Keller bears some responsibility for, because he says Keller rezoned the adjacent land, allowing homes to be built beside property they have no control over. “There’s unintended consequences when you take a piece of land that was industrial commercial, you change that, next to another town that is industrial commercial,” Greaves said. “And we’ve been very consistent last three administrations that that is the beginning of the Alliance corridor.” The Alliance corridor is a massive tech and logistics hub in Tarrant County. “It’s just a terrible situation, but should we be penalized for our economic development for decisions they made years ago?” Greaves asked. Tuesday night, Keller’s city council unanimously approved authorizing special counsel for the city to “take all steps necessary to take legal action” to try to stop the data center from being built. “We find no joy in this decision, but are confident exploring every legal avenue is in the in best interest of Keller and our residents,” Keller Mayor Ross McMullin said.

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Blue Origin appears to have homed in on a site in Hutto

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Enterprises LP appears to have squared in on a site for its potentially game-changing project in Hutto. Public documents tie the company for the first time by name to the project in Hutto, a small-but-booming suburb about 35 miles northeast of Austin. It has been described as a more than $850 million project that could create 2,000 jobs – and span at least 1.3 million square feet of manufacturing, research-and-development, warehouse and logistics space. It also now appears, based on those same documents, that Blue Origin is eyeing the Hutto Crossing development for at least a portion of the project. The 118-acre development is owned by a joint venture of Dallas-based Velocis, Austin-based Ironwood Realty Partners LLC and California-based MBK Industrial Properties.

That's all according to an Aug. 20 special meeting agenda for the Williamson County Commissioners Court. The commissioners at that meeting unanimously approved an incentives agreement with entities tied to Blue Origin and the Hutto Crossing development team. The project was previously referred to in executive session discussions as "Project Speed Racer." The agreement, which was discussed primarily in executive session before being voted on publicly, is related to the "construction and operation of approximately one million square foot of industrial research space in Hutto, Texas for research, development, inspection, testing, and manufacturing related to the aerospace and defense industry," according to the county documents. County Judge Steven Snell said he's excited about the "potential partnership if the deal comes home." He said the incentive is contingent on a $674 million investment in real and personal property, and the creation of 2,000 jobs at full buildout. Those full-time positions would come with an average salary of $88,000. It includes an initial lease and the potential to build another site in the future. The County opted to match Hutto's incentives, which have not been publicly disclosed.

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Concerns about the New World screwworm have put Texas pet adoptions on hold

Adoptions are on hold for thousands of dogs and cats in Texas, potentially putting the animals at risk of being euthanized, because of efforts to stop the spread of the New World screwworm, an insect that has crossed the border from Mexico into the United States for the first time in 60 years. The flesh-eating parasite threatens the nation’s $113 billion beef industry, prompting federal officials to close the border to cattle movements. Because the screwworm also can infect pets, most states have restricted the movement of animals from infested areas of Texas, leading to crowded conditions in state shelters that rely on adoptions to other regions of the country. “It’s thrown a wrench into things, for small rescues as well as the bigger shelters,” said Mia Bendixsen, executive director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network, which promotes animal welfare laws.

The screwworm can lay eggs that hatch into flesh-eating larvae in the wounds or mucous of any mammal, and of the dozens of infections in southern Texas and southeastern New Mexico, several have been in dogs. Forty-four states have restricted the movements of pets from infested areas, creating a hardship for shelters from Texas that typically send thousands of animals to other states each year. In an AP interview, the shelter director for the Houston Humane Society, Aaron Grady, says the New World screwworm outbreak is complicating the annual flow of dogs and cats from Texas to other states. In Corpus Christi, the Gulf Coast Humane Society couldn’t get rescued dogs into New York state for weeks, causing the shelter’s animal population to climb from around 325 to nearly 450.The shelter, which sends about 500 dogs a year outside Texas, created more space in outdoor exercise areas until New York again allowed dogs from Texas — if a veterinarian first certified that each one wasn’t infected with the screwworm. She added that if her shelter doesn’t have space to take animals from municipal shelters, “then they have to euthanize more animals.”

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National Stories

California draws more startup investment than all other 49 states combined

California is in the midst of a record-shattering investment wave, fueled by the artificial-intelligence boom in Silicon Valley. Companies based in the Golden State have drawn around $366 billion of venture capital since the beginning of the year, according to data provider PitchBook. That’s more than three times the amount of venture funding that has gone into the other 49 states combined, and nearly double California’s previous record, set in 2025. New York state ranks a distant second in venture-capital investment, with $27 billion in deals announced so far this year. California’s funding keeps coming despite the threat of a billionaire tax that detractors, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have warned could scare off investors.

Thus far, at least, investments in the biggest AI companies are keeping the frenzy going while the state’s billionaire class waits to see if voters back the new levy in November. The capital pouring into AI has supercharged housing prices in San Francisco and created a new class of millionaires overnight. But the boom is reverberating beyond the tech-centric Bay Area: the money has also helped ease the state government’s chronic budget deficit by helping push income-tax revenues well above forecasts. In May 2025, California’s finance department projected $126 billion in personal-income tax revenues for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Actual income taxes instead generated around $147 billion, as AI enthusiasm fueled a soaring stock market and boosted compensation for tech workers. Future initial public offerings of young AI companies that are raising venture funding today will produce additional tax revenue from capital gains. The windfall hasn’t solved California’s long-term budget challenges but has given state leaders some unexpected, near-term flexibility.

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As USS Lincoln heads home, mental health experts tally the stressors of life at sea

The USS Abraham Lincoln — which has been participating in U.S. military operations in the war with Iran — is now on its way home. The roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard that ship have spent a grueling nine months at sea with little relief. Reports have emerged of deteriorating conditions — and of deteriorating mental health, including apparent attempts by crewmembers to jump overboard. The Navy has not confirmed those reports and NPR has not independently verified them. "A small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life," Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said in a statement last week. Experts say while the physical circumstances are difficult, a lack of careful and consistent messaging from leadership at the highest levels also contributed to the crews' mental distress.

The USS Lincoln is like a small city, according to Armen Kurdian, a retired U.S. Navy captain who served aboard the aircraft carrier in 2005. The labor aboard the carrier, he says, can be uniquely physical and difficult. "?It takes a toll on your body," says Kurdian. "The plane captains are out there on the flight deck — you know, these 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds lugging these 100-pound chains on their backs in 120-degree weather." He describes dehydration and exhaustion as pilots have to take off and land on the carriers, sometimes at night and in bad weather, and "then just being mentally prepared to go fly because lives are at stake." In the off-hours, Kurdian says there is little to no privacy, with people sleeping in crowded quarters. While difficult, these conditions can be bearable, he adds. But experts say once uncertainty is thrown into this equation, it can push people to their mental brink.

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The Democrats’ one neat trick to try to win a Senate majority

The battle for the Senate in 2026 comes with some fascinating wrinkles: In a trio of races — Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota — the Democrat has dropped out to help an independent try to win in a red state. But this strategy has already been attempted in a handful of Senate races in recent years, and it has yet to actually work — at least at the federal level. So … could it this year? It remains unlikely. But history suggests it’s worth it to keep trying. It at least gives Democrats a better shot of depriving Republicans of seats in states where a Democratic nominee probably wouldn’t have a chance at winning. In fact, when this setup has been tried, Republicans have had some of their worst Senate results in recent history in those states.

The big examples of this strategy in recent years have been the independent candidacies of Kansas’ Greg Orman in 2014, Utah’s Evan McMullin in 2022 and Nebraska’s Dan Osborn in 2024. Osborn, a Navy veteran and union organizer, is trying again in 2026. He’s joined in Idaho by Todd Achilles, a former state House member, and in South Dakota by Brian Bengs, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who previously ran for Senate as a Democrat. Osborn’s race two years ago was arguably the most successful use of this strategy to date in a Senate race. While he lost, he held GOP Sen. Deb Fischer to a considerably lower share of the vote (53%) than President Donald Trump took on the same ballot (59%). Osborn’s 7-point loss was also significantly closer than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ 21-point loss. Fischer’s performance was also the worst for a Republican in Nebraska since Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson last won the state 20 years ago.

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Progressive overcomes AIPAC opposition to win race to replace Swalwell

Aisha Wahab, a progressive Democratic state senator, defeated Melissa Hernandez, a moderate Democrat, in a special election to replace Eric Swalwell in California, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Swalwell abruptly resigned in April amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Ms. Wahab was widely seen as the front-runner to represent California’s 14th Congressional District, after she won the June primary for the race with 43 percent of the vote. But this week’s election results were far tighter, and the race was too close to call for two days as local officials continued to count ballots until Thursday. In the closing days of the race, several super PACs — including two with ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — spent millions on advertisements on television and social media targeting the district’s voters in the suburbs east of San Francisco.

United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC, spent roughly $2.5 million, primarily denouncing Ms. Wahab. Neither candidate had made foreign policy central to their campaign. But the race became the latest in a string of Democratic primaries that pitted candidates from the more progressive faction of the party against those from the establishment wings in a kind of proxy battle over Israel. This month, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan after AIPAC spent $32 million in an attempt to defeat him. Dr. El-Sayed won in part by making criticism of the group central to his campaign. Ms. Wahab’s victory is another sign of the committee’s weakened influence in Democratic primaries, even through its constant heavy spending. Another super PAC that spent nearly $300,000 to support Ms. Wahab was specifically created to counter AIPAC money.

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Federal government thins the herds of wild horses in Colorado

A helicopter swooped through the bright blue sky, as a pilot scanned the high desert below for wild horses running through the dusty sagebrush, about an hour's drive west of Meeker, Colorado. A small group of reporters and horse lovers watched from the cover of wizened trees, about a mile from a pen that would trap the horses. Horse advocate Robyn Smith spotted the first group of the day. Through her high-powered camera lens, she watched about half a dozen horses of various colors galloping together. "It makes me happy they're living their best life," said Smith, a retired architect who has traveled across the West to photograph wild horses. "And it's just such a beautiful thing to see when you're just wild and free like that."

But she knew what would come next. Soon the helicopter was hovering above the horses, including a baby. They ran away from the loud buzz and toward the pen, just out of view. Scenes like this are common across the American West. The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the U.S. Interior Department, oversees both wild horses and the public rangeland they call home across 10 Western states. When the agency determines there are more horses than the land can support, it removes a set number. For this gathering event in rural Colorado, about 1,000 are slated for capture. Most of the gathered horses will end up in controversial long-term holding facilities that some horse advocates equate with prisons. As Smith watched the horses gather in the pen, she clicked her camera's shutter in rapid fire and started to cry. She explained that once captured, the horses will be separated. The BLM reunites particularly young foals with their mothers. Otherwise, none of the horses will likely be together again. "That's a family. That's a family out there," Smith said through tears. "It's a family broken."

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As local news dies, white nationalists see an opening

As economic pressures gut local newsrooms across the country, white nationalist figures see an untapped opening: stepping into media deserts where there are few journalists left to sound the alarm. “Local media has been dying all over America, which means that there’s essentially no real way to hold local governments accountable—and they can do whatever they want,” Kevin DeAnna told an invitation-only gathering of approximately 50 white nationalists in Rome. Breaking into a broad smile, he excitedly added: “You should be fantasizing about this. This is a good thing.” DeAnna, a prolific propagandist who has operated under a variety of pseudonyms and who has called for turning the country into a White ethnostate, celebrated the decline of local media earlier this year during an annual retreat hosted by the white nationalist Counter Currents publishing house.`

“So, if you wanna get the most bang for your buck, activate rural America—‘cause that’s where White people are,” DeAnna argued in a video that was just recently posted online. “And these are White people that are not voting. These are White people who are angry and who are radical and have no one talking to them.” DeAnna’s remarks were part of a “Pitch to a Billionaire” panel during the Rome retreat that focused on how white nationalists could solicit funding from the world’s wealthiest people. Ironically, the white nationalist figure met with tech billionaire Peter Thiel in 2016, according to reporting by BuzzFeed and the Southern Poverty Law Center. “DeAnna’s work under the pseudonym ‘Gregory Hood’ drew upon foundational white nationalist and neo-Nazi texts that have inspired numerous acts of domestic terrorism,” SPLC senior researcher Hannah Gais wrote.

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'I heard you missed me': Melania Trump turns heads in patriotic Rose Garden look for major announcement

First lady Melania Trump made a memorable return to the White House Rose Garden Thursday, greeting the crowd with a playful five-word message before an announcement filled with patriotism and horsepower. "I heard you missed me. Here I am," Trump said as she took the podium, as the crowd — including President Donald Trump — erupted in laughter. The first lady stood before a wall of American flags in a crisp sky-blue oversized Michael Kors shirt with the collar popped and a vivid red Dior pencil skirt, echoing the patriotic setting. She completed the look with red Manolo Blahnik suede pumps.

And Trump's clothes weren't the only thing turning heads. Sitting nearby was an IndyCar decked out in red, white and blue and carrying the branding of the first lady's "BE BEST" and Fostering the Future initiatives. Trump couldn't resist giving the machine her own review. "Look at this incredible race car," she told the crowd. "Gorgeous and powerful." The car brought horsepower to the White House grounds just days before IndyCar drivers are set to roar through the nation's capital for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. Six-time IndyCar Series champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon joined Trump alongside 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi, Graham Rahal and Scott McLaughlin. IndyCar President Doug Boles said the cars will blast through the capital at speeds exceeding 180 mph, passing the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument and racing around the National Mall. He described the event as a "massive and very fast spectacle" marking America's 250th birthday.

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Lead Stories

'We are not a bunch of woke Marxist liberals here': Rural voters scramble Texas election

Rural voters may not stop the spread of data centers, but they could stop Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The Republican is bleeding support from small towns as he seeks a fourth term because of two late-emerging issues: power-hungry tech campuses and a planned $33 billion electric transmission build-out. Pushback against Abbott points to larger fears about losing rural identities, but also to everyday concerns about construction, pollution and tight supplies of water and electricity. Shawn Nanny, a Republican county commissioner in West Texas, said data centers and power line plans are the “straws that broke the camel’s back” when it comes to Abbott and other Texas GOP leaders. Some longtime conservatives are now considering the unthinkable — voting in November for a Democrat to be Texas’ next governor. And Abbott’s August directive to pause Texas data center grid approvals hasn’t convinced all of them to vote for him.

“They understand the repercussions of that, but you know what I’m hearing is, ‘Yeah, we’ll have a Democrat in there and grit our teeth and bear it, but hopefully we’ll come out of it the following election,’” said Nanny, who lives in Tom Green County. “They’re so upset; they just want [Abbott] out.” The welcoming approach that Abbott’s Texas has taken toward data centers until now makes the rural pushback — and the governor’s retreat — particularly striking as the industry grapples with resistance nationwide. “Rural people feel like they are the ones seeing the brunt of this, and they don’t like it,” said Jim Henson, executive director of the Texas Politics Project. “These issues are starting to bond together a lot of the people against data centers.” Texas has not elected a Democrat as governor in more than 35 years, but analysts say Abbott can’t afford to lose much of his rural support in November. Recent polls released by Texas A&M University and Fox News showed Abbott with a 1 percentage point lead over Democratic challenger state Rep. Gina Hinojosa. Polling from the nonpartisan Texas Politics Project showed Abbott’s approval rating among rural voters plunged from 2018 to 2026 — going from 63 percent to 48 percent.

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Patrick to Texas school districts: 'We're coming for your books'

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued a stark warning for school districts that do not remove books that he believes are offensive. "We're coming for the books. We ask that you do it on your own and remove these books," Patrick said. "Look at what's in your libraries. Don't bury your head in the sand." Patrick, in a news conference Wednesday morning, claimed 80% of school districts in the Lone Star State were not complying with Senate Bill 13. The lieutenant governor suggested that legislation could be filed that would allow for the lowering of a district's accountability score if inappropriate books were allowed to remain on the shelves of school libraries.

"If these books are not off the shelf, we will pass a law that will knock your grade letter down one," Patrick said. Patrick later said that even a single book could be enough to trigger punishment for the district. "You’re damn right that one book is enough to get you degraded by a letter," he said. State school districts, schools and charter schools are given an A-F rating each year. According to the TEA, each rating uses weighted scores for student achievement, school progress and a measurement called "closing the gaps," which looks at progress to goals among racial and ethnic groups, socioeconomic backgrounds and other factors. The total weighted score is then used to determine the overall score. State funding could also be on the table as a potential punishment for those districts. Patrick said the state spends around $90 billion on public education every year and that lawmakers have a responsibility for how those tax dollars are spent.

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Texas-based oil companies among first to sign contracts with Venezuela

Two Texas-based oil companies are among the first to enter agreements with Venezuela, following the United States' capture of President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year. According to Venezuelan state media, SLB and Hunt Oil Company signed contracts with state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) on Tuesday in Houston. SLB is a Houston-based oilfield services company and Hunt Oil Company is an independent exploration and production company based in Dallas.

"Hunt Oil Company wants to play a constructive role in revitalizing and growing Venezuela's oil and gas production," CEO Hunter L. Hunt said in a statement. "We look forward to doing so with our unwavering commitment to train and advance the local workforce, to protect and preserve our surrounding environment, and to bring long-term benefits to the communities in which we will operate." SLB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since Maduro's capture in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has encouraged American oil companies to invest in Venezuela's resources and help ramp up production in the Latin American country. Still, many top U.S. energy executives have remained hesitant to get involved in Venezuela, facing uncertainty about the country's political stability. Addressing U.S. energy executives in Houston this week, Venezuela's oil minister, Paula Henao, touted reforms to her country's oil laws following Maduro's removal. She said country's agreements with U.S. companies offer a chance to evaluate opportunities for investment in Venezuela. "The invitation is that we can sit down, we can evaluate, ‘What is the opportunity in Venezuela?'" she said in Spanish during a speech at the Venezuela Energy Week Houston Showcase on Wednesday.

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After audit scorches TEA, Greg Abbott instead singles out Austin, El Paso ISDs in call for audits into 'administrative bloat'

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday asked Texas’ new comptroller to examine the spending of up to four school districts to root out “administrative bloat” and said he would introduce a bill requiring districts spend at least 70% of their funds in the classroom. Comptroller Don Huffines, whom Abbott appointed last month, said he would comply with the request and announce the targeted districts in the “coming weeks.” But at a campaign stop in El Paso on Wednesday as part of his reelection bid, Abbott mentioned Austin and El Paso ISDs for growing their budgets while their enrollment is declining. “Texans expect that taxes collected from their hard-earned dollars will be spent in compliance with the law,” Abbott wrote in his request to Huffines.

The announcement came on the same day that a long-awaited state audit found Abbott’s Texas Education Agency, which oversees districts, had a “management-heavy structure” that was in violation of state law. The audit, which was requested by lawmakers in last year’s budget, found that TEA has one manager for every 3.5 staffers, while state law requires one manager for 11 staffers. The agency could have sought state approval to get around the requirement, but didn’t do so, auditors noted. Spending and hiring on managers was also out of proportion, auditors found. Between 2021 and 2025, the number of managers increased by 38%, while the number of staffers increased 12%. Over that same period, salary and wage costs for management grew 64%, to $48 million, while staffer costs increased 31%, to $79 million. When auditors notified TEA of the findings, the agency filed an appeal with the Legislative Budget Board, asserting that it “requires a lower management-to-staff ratio to ensure effective management and positive programmatic outcomes,” auditors wrote. “The Agency noted that many managers also have substantial individual contributor duties,” auditors added.

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State Stories

Islamophobia’s rise in Texas: ‘I won’t rest until every Muslim is gone’

Ghulam Kehar rose before dawn in early June to attend the day’s first prayer at his local mosque in Irving, Texas, before heading off for a monthslong deployment with the U.S. Coast Guard. He had been deployed before, but this time was different. He felt apprehensive about leaving his wife and four children behind in Texas, even for a short while. Rhetorical attacks on Muslims by top Texas leaders had become more pronounced, and seemed to be trickling down. At his mosque, the Valley Ranch Islamic Center, and others across the state, congregants and religious leaders swapped stories of ugly comments directed at them while praying in public or sitting in public parks. In recent months, a man was arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat at a major new Islamic center in Houston. Not far away, in Conroe, a woman told Muslim shoppers at a grocery store they were “not welcome in this state or this country” — after losing her job, she received nearly $250,000 from supporters after video of her comments circulated widely.

In McKinney, a Dallas suburb, a woman grabbed a former mayor and stuffed paper with an anti-Muslim message down his shirt during a heated City Council hearing over a mosque expansion. “Leaving them alone in this environment, it would be a little worrisome,” Mr. Kehar said of his family. “It’s just the fear of what’s being spewed out there.” He arranged for his family to join him on his deployment near the Canadian border as soon as they could get there. Mr. Kehar, who grew up in California, is part of a growing number of Muslims who moved to Texas in recent decades in search of good schools, affordable homes and a thriving community of fellow believers. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has been a particularly strong magnet for families like his. Dozens of mosques have opened. Some are expanding. Others, like the glittering DeSoto House of Peace, south of Dallas, aim to provide new anchors for Muslim communities in Texas.

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President Trump is returning to Texas for an RNC fundraiser in Houston

President Donald Trump is making a dash for cash in Texas next week, setting up what would be just his third visit to the state since he he returned to the White House. Trump is expected to headline a fundraiser on Aug. 27 in Houston for the Republican National Committee as it builds its financial war chest for the midterm elections. The exact location hasn’t been announced, and neither have any public events. Typically, the White House tries to arrange political events around his fundraising trips. It’s no surprise the RNC and Trump have targeted Texas for a fundraising run. “I come to Texas twice a month, at least, because Texas is a treasure trove of Republican conservative donors,” RNC Chair Joe Gruters told me in an interview on the Texas Take Podcast earlier this year. “I’m always down there trying to shake the trees.”

That shaking has already included Double Eagle Energy CEO Cody Campbell, real estate developer H. Ross Perot Jr., Midland Energy CEO S. Javaid Anwar, and Tim Dunn, CEO of oil and gas company CrownQuest Operating. They have been the four top Texas donors to the RNC since the start of 2025, giving more than $600,000 each to the national party. Trump’s visit to help raise money in Texas comes as the RNC has already amassed a massive financial advantage over the Democratic National Committee, which was just in Austin last week for its summer meetings. The financial disparity was impossible to miss as DNC Chair Ken Martin told party leaders he wished he had more money to share to boost efforts around the nation. The DNC reported about $16 million in cash on hand in its most recent Federal Election Commission filing, along with more than $18 million in debt. The GOP, meanwhile, reported nearly $129 million cash on hand in its latest FEC filing.

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HISD touted gains. Ratings leaned on courses Texas deemed ineffective

Two years into Houston ISD’s state takeover, state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles touted a major achievement: state ratings showed there were no more F-rated schools in the district. Some of that jump, however, had little to do with Miles’ sweeping reforms or gains in student test scores. One key factor was HISD’s use of a new, rapidly expanding option in Texas’ accountability system: college-prep courses. These are not typical courses that can earn students college credit, such as Advanced Placement or dual credit. These are courses, often taken online, that help students catch up on English and math so they don’t have to take remedial classes in college. In the state’s accountability system, schools that enroll students in college-prep courses can earn credit for producing college-ready graduates, which in turn boosts their A-F ratings. Exclusive data from the Texas Education Agency obtained by the Houston Chronicle shows that without students completing those courses, every high school in Miles’ reform model would have dropped by at least one letter grade in 2025.

The district would have had five D-rated and two F-rated high schools – undercutting Miles’ claim of no F-rated campuses. At schools within Miles’ New Education System – the center of his reforms – students were much more likely to complete college-prep courses. Some students described being enrolled en masse, even when they had already earned college-ready credentials. Several said they rushed through the self-paced coursework, which can take up to a semester, in a few hours. Others said they still had to take remedial classes in college — the very outcome the courses were designed to prevent. In fact, the TEA concluded in 2025 that virtually all college-prep courses failed to prepare students for college-level academics. Most graduates marked college-ready exclusively through college prep still had to take remedial coursework to pass their first year of college, the TEA found. Because of that finding, the state will no longer count most college-prep courses toward school ratings by 2028. The findings cast doubt on the academic progress HISD schools have made under Miles since the Texas Education Commissioner ousted the elected school board in 2023 and installed him to lead the state’s largest school district. The apparent gains from college-prep courses — which the state later deemed ineffective — also raise questions about how the accountability system rewards schools.

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Schlueter defends role as city lobbyist, but biggest critic on Killeen council is unconvinced

The Killeen City Council held a special meeting with Stan Schlueter — a former state legislator who is now the city’s paid lobbyist — Tuesday at City Hall, where there was a heated moment between him and one of the council members. Schlueter outlined some of his credentials, saying his family moved to Killeen in 1948 when the population was approximately 4,000 and Fort Hood was known then as Camp Hood. He earned his degree in business from Baylor University. He said he understood the city was going through “tough times.” “I sent you all some clippings here the last couple of days, so you know many Texans … have to fight the same issues as you are,” Schlueter said. “Some are more critical than some of the things you’re dealing with.”

Several council members brought up issues like data centers — which council members Charles Kimble and Anthony Kendrick said were inevitable in the city — but the main issue was the disabled veterans property tax exemption, which has cost the city millions of dollars in tax revenue since 2007. Councilman David Bass, who has always indicated that he was ideologically opposed to the city having paid lobbyists, told KDH News afterwards that the meeting was a “waste of time.” Bass said he was disappointed that he didn’t see a more concrete strategy being expressed at the meeting. He also said he didn’t think it mattered if they met in a smaller group outside of a public meeting, saying he was “done” with the Schlueter Group. “What I did not just hear is a strategy,” Bass told Schlueter during the meeting. “I heard a lot of words, but I did not hear strategy.” Schlueter responded that reimbursement for the veterans property tax exemption has “a lot of enemies.”

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Houston, Woodlands to consider blocking future annexation in $50M deal

Leaders of The Woodlands Township and the City of Houston next week will consider a $50 million agreement that would end an infrastructure funding pool shared by the two entities and ensure that Houston never annexes The Woodlands. The Houston City Council will consider the amendment to its regional partnership agreement with the township at its meeting on Aug. 26, according to an agenda posted Wednesday. The township’s Board of Directors will consider it during a special meeting later that evening. “The proposed amendment is the result of collaborative discussions between the city of Houston and The Woodlands Township to address the priorities of both organizations,” township officials said in a statement Wednesday. Houston Mayor John Whitmire's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.

According to the proposal, the township would relinquish $22,626,797 to the City of Houston from a regional participation account funded by sales tax revenue, and would pay Houston $9 million in 2027, $9 million in 2028, and a final payment of $9,373,203, in exchange for Houston’s agreement to eliminate the possibility of annexation as long as the terms are met. A regional participation fund is a dedicated pool of money that governments use to co-finance local or cross-border projects. The Woodlands has contributed a portion of its sales tax to the fund since 2007. According to the agreement, those funds could be used for projects that would benefit The Woodlands and Houston, with the city of Houston providing matching funds. The Woodlands is not currently at risk of annexation. The Township Board of Directors originally approved a Regional Participation Agreement with Houston in 2007, preventing Houston from annexing The Woodlands through 2057. The agreement has been amended twice since 2007. In 2017, the Texas Legislature also passed a law that ended forced municipal annexation, requiring an automatic voter referendum before larger cities could annex communities across the state. The new proposal to be considered next week would amend the Regional Participation Agreement again to give it an end date. After 2030, The Woodlands would no longer contribute to the fund and would retain that money. Bailey said there would be no restriction on Houston's use of the $50 million.

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AT&T, a former top sales partner face off in biz court

In a $50 million dispute between AT&T and a former top sales partner, jurors in the Texas Business Court heard opening statements Tuesday morning that told very different stories, framing the breach of contract case as either a display of “corporate greed” or an unraveling scheme of “bribes and cover-ups.” Judge Andrea Bouressa is presiding over the case. Since the Texas Business Court does not have its own space, the weeklong jury trial is taking place in Dallas County District Court Judge Eric Moyé’s courtroom in the George Allen Courts Building.

The dispute stems from AT&T’s practice of contracting with third-party representatives and entities to market and sell its services for commissions. Plaintiff Faisal Chaudhry was an AT&T employee for four years until he left in 2008 to operate Spearhead Networks, which entered a service-provider agreement with the telecom giant in 2010. Plaintiff Chris Percy, who was at AT&T for 26 years and served as a vice president in 2018, coordinated and supervised high-value business sales with providers like Spearhead Consulting. Percy left to join Spearhead Consulting in 2019. In 2022, AT&T received grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California requesting information about Spearhead Networks and several former AT&T employees. Spearhead Consulting renamed itself to Fiberwave in 2023 and became one of AT&T’s largest third-party providers. Percy terminated Chaudhry’s employment. The following year, AT&T ended its contract with Fiberwave, claiming it was due to a Department of Justice investigation into the company and an alleged kickback scheme. In its termination letter, AT&T stated it would withhold payments pending further investigation into Spearhead’s alleged misconduct.

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No more Michelin Guide awards ceremony for Texas.

Hope you didn’t want to party with top chefs this fall. The Michelin Guide will cap its third year in Texas by revealing its new awards in an emailed press release. No ceremony, no afterparties, no dressing up, no weirdly bad free canapes, no shameless plugs for sponsor Sysco. In 2024, Michelin arrived in Texas with exuberance, inviting every single restaurant in the new guide to Houston for a huge shindig. In 2025, they scaled down the party, excluding restaurants that are listed in the guide without stars or Bib Gourmands. This year, we’ll be getting an email on the morning of Thursday, October 8. It’s good to be loved, huh?

Here is the justification in a short news announcement this morning: “As the MICHELIN Guide spans over 60 destinations worldwide, we have evolved our approach and diversified the formats through which we unveil our annual restaurant selection.” Translation: they’re stretched thin and can’t throw parties in every market every year, even with Sysco’s help. Two more Michelin notes. First, a representative for the guide confirmed to me this week that the guide is going behind a registration wall. Users must create free accounts to browse the Michelin Guide website and see which restaurants are recommended or starred. Second, an announcement about future Texas Michelin Guides is expected shortly. Loyal D Magazine readers know that our deal with Michelin will probably be renewed.

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Protesters oppose border construction at Big Bend Ranch State Park

As a former state senator and commissioner of the General Land Office, Jerry Patterson is no stranger to emotional issues that divide Texans into partisan camps. But sitting outside the Texas Parks and Wildlife headquarters in Austin Wednesday, the former Republican elected official found himself allied with about 200 environmentally conscious liberals and small-government conservatives in protesting plans to construct border barriers through state land near Big Bend National Park. "This is not a red-blue thing at all," Patterson said. "This is a swirl. And the longer it plays, the more swirl you're going to see." The demonstrators, mostly quiet and non-confrontational, assembled to oppose any border construction inside Big Bend Ranch State Park — a wide swath of land to the west of Big Bend National Park.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, whose members are appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, heard public comments from the demonstrators at their meeting Wednesday, but were not expected to take action on the matter. Chairman Paul Foster said he generally agrees with concerns expressed about federal plans for the park. “We're working with with CBP, with the federal government, and our objective is to minimize damage to the to the system out there,” Foster said in response to one of the speakers. In May, the Trump administration awarded a $1.7 billion border security contract to a New Mexico company for the construction of patrol roads and the installation of lighting, monitors and other surveillance equipment across Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not disclosed the extent of construction planned for the state park. But the Trump administration is planning a 30-foot border wall that begins near the Madera Canyon Campgrounds in the state park and extends west more than 60 miles to Ruidosa. That wall will cross a small portion of state park land, according to a federal map outlining the administration's plans.

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Paxton pulls out of controversial multistate surrogacy case, restrictions remain

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has removed himself from a multistate surrogacy case in which a birth mother fled to Texas after she said the child's biological parents tried to force her to get an abortion — a claim the couple denies. Paxton, who filed a notice of nonsuit Wednesday after intervening in the case, said in a press release his office is withdrawing after achieving his goal of securing an order from the court forcing a Dallas hospital to treat the baby at the center of the controversial case, who was born with a serious birth defect and is currently recovering after open heart surgery. "My office used every legal tool at our disposal to ensure baby Gabriel was able to receive the life-saving care he needed," Paxton said, using the birth mother's name for the baby.

McKenna West, a surrogate for a California couple, fled from Alaska to Texas this year after she said the couple requested she get an abortion due to the baby developing a congenital heart condition. The biological parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, have named the baby boy Rumi. An attorney for West said he had no comment at this time. If Paxton's withdrawal is granted, it would drop the order that prevented West from taking the baby out of Texas or the hospital. But another Temporary Restraining Order requested by Ahmed and signed by the judge still stands. That order prevents West from making any medical decisions on behalf of the child, exercising any possession of the child, representing herself as the child's guardian or removing the child from the hospital. A hearing to determine if that order should continue to stand is scheduled for Tuesday. Paxton intervened in the case just days before the West was to give birth. At his request, the judge ordered a Dallas hospital to give live-saving care. He also sent a letter to the hospital saying it had a legal obligation to provide care to the baby. The child was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a rare congenital heart defect where the left side of the heart doesn't develop fully about 20 weeks into the pregnancy. The baby's condition after the surgery is unknown.

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Asian-Americans aren't getting a pass from the Trump administration, this Dem leader says

While the federal immigration crackdown has largely targeted the Hispanic community and the recent redistricting rules are threatening to diminish Black voters' power in Congress, don’t think Asian Americans are getting a pass in the current political environment. That was state Rep. Gene Wu’s message at the Democratic National Committee meetings in Austin last week, where he warned Asian American communities that they need to better unite to fight more subtle and pernicious attacks aimed at them. The Houston Democrat said new restrictions on work visas and student visas affecting dozens of countries, attacks on Muslim communities and restrictions on landownership of Chinese immigrants are all examples of laws and policies that target different segments of Asian-Americans that can splinter unified opposition.

“My fear for all of this stuff is, not only is the Asian American community isolated from other communities, but within our own communities we are isolated from each other,” said Wu, the leader of the Texas House Democrats. “The Indian Americans do not see their fight the same as Muslim Americans, and Muslim Americans don’t see their fight the same as East Asians.” Wu said the attacks are all the same in that they aim to reduce Indian, Muslim and Chinese in American society. “It’s all connected,” Wu said in a speech to dozens of other Asian American Democrats. “While they may use different tools, their rationale and end goals are exactly the same.” The Trump administration and advocates of recent policies like restricting student visas and banning some immigrants from land ownership say the measures are needed to bolster homeland security. Critics say it's part of a broader push by the White House to reduce legal immigration into the U.S. Taken all together, the administration’s policies will reduce legal immigration to the United States by as many as to 2.4 million people by the end of Trump’s term in office, according to a report from the National Foundation for American Policy, which studies immigration policies.

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Nicole Humlicek: How teaching handwriting supports brain development

(Nicole Humlicek has spent more than 20 years teaching and leading in public and private education. She currently serves as the principal of The Honor Roll School, an independent P-8 school in Sugar Land, Texas.) A 6-year-old grips a pencil, tongue out in concentration, as she carefully forms the letters of her name. Her brain is quietly building connections. I recently watched a 4-year-old do this. It took him four tries to get the “S” facing the right way. When he finally did, he paused, taking pride in his work. He wasn’t just forming a letter; he was building confidence, strengthening his hand, and learning to persevere. With the ubiquity of screens, time for handwriting instruction has gotten squeezed out of many classrooms. Educators increasingly question whether cursive in particular is worth classroom time in a digital age, but children still benefit from learning it. My home state of Texas was an early adopter in bringing back cursive instruction, and now, at least half the nation’s states have adopted similar requirements. Schools like mine never stopped teaching it because we see its value. Handwriting demands fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, both of which help a child master everyday tasks like tying shoes and zipping jackets.

Over time, that same precision supports more complex skills, from playing instruments to performing surgery. Students will need typing and other digital skills, but that doesn’t mean handwriting should be abandoned. Handwriting, especially in early grades, needs dedicated time. Typing can be introduced later, once students are developmentally ready. We don’t stop teaching reading because of audiobooks; we shouldn’t stop teaching handwriting because of keyboards. Neuroscientists call the brain’s ability to change and adapt neuroplasticity. Experiences shape how the brain develops. When children write by hand, they activate neural networks responsible for language, memory, attention, and learning in ways that typing simply does not replicate. Researchers Karin H. James and Laura Engelhardt at Indiana University put this to the test with young, preliterate children more than a decade ago. Using brain imaging, they found that the neural pathways linked to reading only switched on when children physically formed letters by hand, not when they typed them and not when they simply watched someone else write.

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Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt requests raise with DWI pending

Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt, a Democrat who was arrested three times across two counties in her first term, is seeking a six-figure raise, according to a formal salary grievance she filed with the county. Wyatt requested $250,000 “or more,” which would be a minimum 79% raise over her current salary of $139,547. The treasurer, who is facing a drunken driving charge in Galveston County, requested the raise just months after her office was stripped of a key financial oversight role and amid an ongoing effort to abolish Wyatt’s position entirely. Wyatt did not respond to a request for comment. Wyatt filed her grievance as part of an annual county process that lets elected officials petition a nine-member committee for a raise. The committee will consider her request Thursday.

Wyatt wrote that she is seeking “an amount that fairly and appropriately reflects the statutory responsibilities, fiduciary obligations, scope of authority, workload, and level of accountability associated with the office of Harris County Treasurer.” Wyatt had a dozen staff members working for her office in 2025, according to county salary data. She was one of just a handful of county elected officials whose salaries commissioners left unchanged in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Commissioners voted last week to raise the pay of all elected officials except themselves, the sheriff and the treasurer to $305,000. The committee that hears salary grievances can include several elected officials, as it did in recent years, but commissioners decided Tuesday to select nine residents from the grand juror pool to consider Wyatt's request. Harris County budget director Daniel Ramos said at Tuesday’s meeting she was the only official to contest her salary in the ongoing budget process.

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National Stories

Flock announces changes amid backlash over license plate reader network

Flock Safety, the surveillance technology company increasingly under scrutiny from lawmakers from both parties, civil liberties advocates and citizens across the U.S., announced last week that it is making changes to its platform intended to quell privacy concerns and address documented abuses of its system by some members of law enforcement. The company operates a vast nationwide network of automated cameras that record the license plate numbers and other characteristics of all passing vehicles every day. Thousands of law enforcement agencies in 49 states can search and share Flock’s data across jurisdictions to aid their investigations. Police have credited the technology as an important crime-fighting innovation that has helped locate missing people and track suspects in violent crimes.

But some critics say its pervasiveness amounts to unconstitutional warrantless mass surveillance. Dozens of cities and agencies have nixed their relationships with Flock amid concerns that the data can be accessed for immigration enforcement or used in unauthorized tracking, after a flurry of examples surfaced of law enforcement officers misusing the technology for personal searches. In an interview, Flock CEO Garrett Langley said many of the product changes will make what were once optional guardrails mandatory for its users to implement by Jan. 1. Among them: All law enforcement customers will have to implement an audit tool that’s intended to flag abnormal search behavior. When the system detects abnormal behavior, the user would be locked out pending an internal review, the company said in a description of the changes provided ahead of Thursday’s announcement. Flock, which says its customers own the data that the cameras record, is also shortening the standard data retention window from 30 days to seven. It said it will allow data to be preserved for longer when it is evidence tied to a case number. Law enforcement users will now also be required to enter a code from their records management system tying each search to a specific case before it is run, something Langley said civil liberties advocates have long been calling for. Overrides for emergencies would be automatically flagged for review, the company said. Customers will also be allowed to decide which offense types — such as homicide or arson — outside agencies can search their data for, which would allow a customer to block outside searches related to immigration enforcement, the company said. Langley said that change will give individual cities and departments control to use the system in a manner “consistent with community values.” Critics of the company reacted skeptically to the changes, which they said appeared designed to address the growing bipartisan anger about the cameras but could still leave room for police to abuse the system. The American Civil Liberties Union said in a blog post that the shortened evidence retention window could be “a step in the right direction,” but it characterized the other changes as “retreads” of inadequate safety measures.

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Rainmakers in talks to leave Weil Gotshal amid poaching frenzy

Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a Wall Street law firm known for shepherding companies through bankruptcies and advising top private-equity firms, is facing a wave of partner defections. Two groups that include star lawyers are in discussions to leave for rivals, according to people familiar with the matter, including some of the firm’s highest revenue producers. One group, which includes Christopher Machera, co-head of Weil’s private-equity group and a member of its management committee, is headed to Paul Weiss, they said. Other lawyers, including Brian Parness, a partner in Weil’s private-equity practice whose clients have included Brookfield and TPG, are exploring a move to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, the people said, with some cautioning the plan isn’t final.

It is the latest tremor in the world of Big Law, which is being disrupted by aggressive poaching of rainmakers, the pressure of artificial intelligence and less-loyal clients. Earlier this summer, a team of six litigation partners, including a firm leader, left Wachtell in an almost-unheard-of defection from the marquee firm. Hundreds of partners have made lateral moves this year across the industry. Rivals are luring top talent with pay packages that can stretch to $20 million a year or more. Weil, which has 1,200 lawyers, has also hired partners away from its competitors. The firm said it has added more than 50 lateral partners since the start of 2025. “Weil is on track to achieve both record revenue and profitability in 2026 that will result in a very significant increase in profits per equity partner,” the firm said in a statement. “This is a direct result of the firm’s deliberate growth strategy focused on the practices and markets where it has long been a leader.”

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Board overseeing Dulles Airport approves $15.5 billion to fund Trump renovation

Weeks after President Donald Trump unveiled a massive plan to renovate Dulles International Airport, the board that oversees the airport on Wednesday approved $15.5 billion to help fund the project. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board of directors voted to approve the proposal, which includes $3.75 billion ?to build new underground tunnels and replace the airport’s long-criticized shuttles, dubbed “people movers,” that transport passengers across the tarmac. “We look forward to the construction,” Jack Potter, the airport authority’s CEO, said at the meeting. “We look forward to continued growth at Dulles Airport, and we think we have a very bright future.”

The vote comes after Trump last month announced a more than $20 billion plan to remake Dulles, including building new terminals. The project is part of his broader campaign to remake the Washington region, which also includes a new White House ballroom and a 250-foot triumphal arch. The Dulles renovations will be largely funded through municipal bonds. Potter has said the plan would not require federal funds. In addition to the $15.5 billion, projects outlined in Wednesday’s proposal will also be funded by $4.4 billion already authorized by the MWAA board, bringing the estimated total cost for the projects listed in the proposal to $19.9 billion. At a White House briefing last month, Trump said the airport project would add more than 5 million square feet of new or renovated space, including by completely replacing Concourses C and D, “all while preserving the iconic original terminal.” He said the overhaul was needed because Dulles was in such bad shape. “Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, you don’t want to go and be subjected to this airport because this airport is a terrible place to be,” he said.

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‘Affordability’ is this year’s buzzword. Just not when Trump’s talking.

President Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of families in late July at a high school in Marietta, Georgia. He talked about Venezuelan oil and the war in Iran. He ticked off investment commitments. And he touted provisions in the Republican tax bill — or tried to. “This past filing season, 130,000 tipped workers right here in Georgia saved an average of more than $7,000 on their taxes. And that’s because of no tax on tips. You know, we’re building a tremendous military facility at the White House,” Trump said. “And they’ve been working hard, a lot of overtime.”

The speech in a state that will be pivotal in November was one of a handful Trump has delivered this year, part of what White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in January would be weekly trips across the country to talk to voters ahead of the midterms. Last month, the Pew Research Center asked voters what they most wanted to hear about from candidates. The answer was overwhelmingly cost of living, wages and affordability. More than half of voters think the economy is getting worse, according to a July Quinnipiac University poll. And 58% of those polled disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy. A March report found that nearly half of families do not make enough to cover the basic cost of living in their communities. Only 13% of Americans aged 18-29 believe the country is headed in the right direction, according to Harvard’s youth poll that was conducted last November. But despite overwhelming evidence that affordability is defining the current political moment, the president is often reflexively dismissive of the issue.

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U.S. national debt just passed $40 trillion: How we got here and why

Gross U.S. debt has surpassed $40 trillion, a new milestone in the country’s struggle to control its finances. The country’s “total public debt outstanding” officially hit $40.047 trillion on Tuesday, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday, ticking up from $39.987 trillion a day earlier. Reaching that threshold carries symbolic weight, but isn’t, by itself, economically significant. Most investors and economists care less about raw figures than other measures, like the ratio of debt to gross domestic product, which provides a better sense of an economy’s borrowing capacity. And economists typically focus more on a different measure of government debt—that held by the public—which doesn’t include debt held within the government in Social Security trust funds. That number was $32.266 trillion on Tuesday.

Still, $40 trillion is a big number, likely to at least briefly draw attention to what economists broadly agree is an unsustainable fiscal trajectory. In recent days, rising long-term government borrowing costs—and a sudden reversal Wednesday after the Treasury announced plans to buy back more long-term debt—have underscored the stakes. Here is a look at how we got here and what it means: Debt and deficits haven’t always been a problem in the U.S. Publicly held debt—now approaching World War II levels at about 100% of the country’s annual GDP—was just 31.5% of GDP in 2001 after four years in which the government ran budget surpluses. Wars, the bursting of the dot-com bubble and tax cuts sent budgets off course in the early 2000s. The 2007-09 recession supercharged the trend by draining tax revenues and prompting stimulus programs, as did the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, an aging population has led to increased spending on Medicare and Social Security. But revenues haven’t kept pace, with lawmakers repeatedly passing and extending tax cuts.

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Florida school board at the center of culture wars loses conservative majority

A Florida school board that was at the epicenter of national debates over covid mask mandates and book bans lost its conservative majority this week, a change that some say signals a priority shift among voters. Two Democrat-backed candidates beat out conservatives in Tuesday’s school board election in Sarasota, Florida, flipping the board’s majority. Helmed for the past year by a co-founder of Moms for Liberty — a conservative group that gained a national following with its parents’ rights messaging — the board is moving in a new direction, the winners said. A third Democrat-backed candidate will head to a runoff election against a contender endorsed by Republicans in November. “I really think at the end of the day, regardless of political affiliation, our community was just tired of the culture wars, the political theater and being the center of national attention for all the wrong reasons,” said Megan Tennimon, a former teacher who won election to the board on Tuesday.

While Democrats say the flip indicates voters want to move on from fights over social issues, Moms for Liberty points to conservatives’ wins in other parts of Florida. “Every couple of years someone in the media writes our obituary, and every couple of years parents show up and prove them wrong,” said Tina Descovich, Moms for Liberty co-founder and chief executive. “School boards are ground zero in the fight for parental rights, and last night Florida parents made that clear.” The Sarasota County School Board had been controlled by conservatives since 2022, on the heels of the pandemic. As school board meetings and elections, typically quiet and uncontroversial, became partisan battlegrounds, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) got involved around that time by endorsing candidates, something that governors have rarely done. His involvement in the local races came as he pushed an education agenda that included a ban on teaching young students — and later all students — about sexual orientation and gender identity. Among those who won DeSantis’s support was Sarasota County School Board Chair Bridget Ziegler, first elected in 2014.

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How Wall St. profits when personal injury lawsuits pay out

Personal injury cases like his can take years to resolve, so to support himself, Mr. Anguisaca-Morales turned to a company known as a consumer legal funder. Such firms float cash advances to plaintiffs to cover expenses like rent, food and medical care while their cases go through court. The advance is similar to a loan, except that if a case fails, the plaintiff doesn’t have to pay it back. But most of the time, insurance companies settle personal injury cases, and the plaintiffs repay their advances — plus fees and interest of 35 to 45 percent a year, on average. One woman in New York who said she turned her ankle on a sidewalk, for example, received $76,500 in advances and ended up owing at least $1.4 million to her funder by the time her case settled, court records show.

Behind the scenes, The New York Times found, Wall Street has figured out how to profit from it all. Some of the consumer funding industry’s biggest players are bundling thousands of these I.O.U.s together to create asset-backed securities, the financial products that were made infamous during the 2008 mortgage crisis and have come roaring back. Asset-backed securities allow investors to buy a stake in the future payouts from a pool of debts or assets. Auto loans and credit card balances are routinely turned into securities. Others are spun from less traditional collateral: songwriting royalties, data centers, fast-food franchises — and now, cash advances given to personal injury plaintiffs. For the investors who buy in, a security offers a regular cadence of payouts as lawsuits wrap up and advances are repaid, along with fees and interest. And for a funding firm, it offers a fast track to recouping past advances, and cash to parlay into new ones. Funders say they are leveling the playing field by enabling injured people to take on insurers and other powerful adversaries. “Insurance companies are not exactly the archangel,” said Jack Kelly, managing director of the American Legal Finance Association, a trade group. “If you cut off securitization, you cut off the supply of money to victims.”

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Lead Stories

Texas has now surpassed Virginia for data center construction

Texas has surpassed Virginia as the No. 1 state for data center growth, and the Austin-San Antonio market continues to be a large reason for it, according to newly released data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. It comes as local communities in the area, as well as state leadership, are hearing some constituents' concerns and imposing more stringent requirements on developers, including the implementation of new reporting rules, pausing tax abatements and denying some projects. The U.S. artificial intelligence race resulted in 25 gigawatts of absorption in the data center market during the first half of 2026. That number – which measures how much space was leased or absorbed – was double last year's amount, and more than five times the mark it was two years ago, according to JLL data.

In fact, that amount is showing no signs of slowing down. There are currently 66 gigawatts under construction – enough to power about 50 million homes – around the country, according to the data. Texas leads the way with 26 gigawatts under construction, double that of Virginia, which is widely viewed as the country's largest data center market. That includes 3,476 megawatts in the Austin-San Antonio submarket, which would more than double the current capacity of 3,298 megawatts. All carry a vacancy rate under 1%, data shows. Those projects are ranging from everywhere from Hutto to Taylor to Mustang Ridge, and seemingly everywhere in between. The ABJ has tracked more than 30 projects in the metro, with a primary focus on the north, east and south sides of the Austin area. Curt Holcomb, vice chairman with JLL's global data center solutions practice team, said Northern Virginia has always been the denser market and is continuing to grow. But that area started running into power capacity and grid issues four years ago. That pushed developers and end-users to Texas, which has ample wind, solar and natural gas for power. "The biggest reason why we have so much demand here is that we have the generation capacity to meet demand," Holcomb said. "When I say that, you look at what is being developed on the generation side within ERCOT, and that is in the solar and wind and natural gas side."

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Trump's border plans near Big Bend could hinge on Texas land office

The Texas General Land Office controls more land in Texas than the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined – 13 million acres - most of which is in West Texas and leased out for ranching, hunting and oil drilling to help fund the state's public schools. The office doesn't typically get much attention, but that all changed last month when Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced she had sent a cease and desist letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for clearing ranch lands controlled by her office without their permission, as part of the Trump administration's controversial border security work in and around Big Bend National Park.

Buckingham is a longtime Trump booster who has praised his crackdown on border security. But her letter has drawn attention to the fact that any national border wall would likely traverse GLO land, potentially setting up a standoff with her and President Donald Trump as his immigration efforts extend into one of the most beloved desert expanses in Texas. Earlier this year Buckingham appeared at an event opposing the border wall with one of her political donors, Houston oil magnate JP Bryan. The hotel hosting the event, which Bryan owns, later posted on Instagram thanking Buckingham for "advocating against a physical barrier in the Big Bend region last night." Bryan, who owns ranches inside and outside Big Bend National Park and has ties to Gov. Greg Abbott, said in an interview that Buckingham "has the same concerns I do" about the logic of building a wall through the rugged terrain to the west and east of the park. "I'm all for border security," he said. "It's not about allowing people free access across our borders. It's about not doing something that’s physically insane."

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Google just made it easier for campaigns to send you fund-raising emails

Google quietly rolled out a new program on Monday that will allow candidates, political parties and political action committees to more easily bypass Gmail’s spam filter and send fund-raising appeals to the inboxes of the company’s many millions of email users. The change comes after years of complaints from Republicans that Gmail’s spam algorithm unfairly blocked their committees’ emails more than those of their Democratic counterparts, although those complaints were dismissed in court. For campaigns and PACs that meet the terms of the program, it is expected to route an influx of cash solicitations into Gmail inboxes, helping campaigns raise millions of dollars more in the final sprint to the midterm elections. Google chose not to debut the new program with any fanfare, instead posting an update to its Help Center on Monday.

The company began to reach out to some political committees in both parties on Monday after publishing the change, according to three people briefed on the outreach who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Political strategists in both parties said the new policy could be deeply consequential for candidates — even if frustrating for users in the United States, who are likely to be bombarded with pleas for donations. “Heading into the 2026 elections, Gmail users are going to be flooded with unwanted political spam because Google decided to create a V.I.P. lane for campaigns,” said Kenneth Pennington, a Democratic digital strategist and veteran online fund-raiser. “This is a bad deal for Gmail users and a gift to bad actors in the political fund-raising space.” José Castañeda, a spokesman for Google, said the new program resulted from an effort to provide long-term clarity for both campaigns and users. “This program is designed to connect people with the emails they want to receive while keeping them fully in control of their inboxes,” he said in a statement. “To participate, bulk senders must meet strict security and compliance requirements, ensuring that messages people receive are relevant, useful and verified.”

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The bond market is sounding an alarm. Here’s what it means

The cost for the U.S. government to borrow money hit its highest level since 2007 on Tuesday, the latest in a worrisome series of developments that have rattled global markets and American consumers alike. The sell-off in U.S. Treasury securities — at $31 trillion the world’s largest financial market — comes amid surging public debt in the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada; renewed conflict in the Middle East; and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s intentions. The rise in long-term Treasury yields creates another headwind for the U.S. economy, one that will lift borrowing costs for businesses and consumers as well as official Washington.

The yield, or return, on the 30-year Treasury topped 5.3 percent in early-morning trading Tuesday, marking a dramatic break from the easy-money conditions of the pre-pandemic years, when it dipped as low as 1 percent. Much of the bond market’s unsettling tumult results from basic supply and demand. As governments and corporations jostle for the pool of available investment capital, they are driving the cost of borrowed money higher. Political leaders in the U.S., Europe and Japan must fund ambitious public spending plans, while hyperscalers such as Alphabet and Microsoft need money to build their artificial intelligence networks. At the same time, the collapse of the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire has reignited fears that an interruption in Persian Gulf oil supplies will keep energy costs and inflation high. On Thursday, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, neared $88 per barrel, up from around $72 during the recent pause in hostilities. “There’s a global competition for capital, which is government and private,” said Priya Misra, a bond fund manager for J.P. Morgan Asset Management in New York. “This is going to be a huge problem for the equity market because I think people are not convinced that the entire economy can handle this level of real rates.”

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State Stories

Congressman Fallon on USS Abraham Lincoln concerns: ‘I don’t make much of it’

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) said Monday he does not “make much” of reports that allege crew members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are suffering from declining mental health and supply shortages due to its long deployment. In an appearance on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria” anchored by Cheryl Casone, Fallon, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, responded to the reports and calls for congressional oversight into the physical and mental state of crew members on the ship. “These reports are just that. I haven’t heard anything personally from our office, and I trust the Navy to do this as well. So, I don’t make much of it, to be honest,” he said.

Casone confirmed the congressman was not concerned about the reports but cited the aircraft carrier’s deployment, saying “260 days is a long time, you know, for a deployment.” “There’s no doubt about it,” the lawmaker responded. “When I served, I always prefer to be stateside, if possible, but that’s part of the job: to deploy.” “They did an outstanding job and I’m glad they’re coming back,” Fallon concluded. Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao announced last week that the USS Abraham Lincoln’s deployment, after departing San Diego in November, will end soon as part of a planned rotation with the USS George Washington. The aircraft carrier set a modern-day record when it went without a port call for more than 200 consecutive days of continuous time at sea. The ship was originally intended to return home in May but was redirected to the Middle East in January ahead of the Iran war. The Lincoln gained public attention following reports from news outlets of sailors attempting to jump off the aircraft carrier, as well as the ship’s poor living conditions — which included moldy showers and rotten food. Cao said that the ship’s deployment was extended because the mission “demanded it.” He acknowledged that deployments are “hard,” combat operations make them “harder” and that war is “hell.” President Trump said Monday concerns over members on the ship were “a CNN fake report.” “The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, good period of time. But over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer,” he continued.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott calls for a ban on H-1B visas for public school employees

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday called for legislation banning H-1B visas for public school employees. Abbott made the remarks during a news conference in Austin focused on stopping “foreign influence” in K-12 schools. One step towards that goal is barring the federal temporary work visas that are reserved for high-skilled immigrant workers, the governor said. The legislative proposal follows Abbott’s January directive to state agencies and public universities and colleges to halt new H-1B visas. “Exactly zero Texas public school employees should be here on H-1B visas,” Abbott said.

Additionally, lawmakers should pass legislation that prohibits public schools from taking gifts, money or property from foreign sources, Abbott said. He said schools should also be barred from “entering into partnerships or financial agreements with a foreign source.” “Bottom line is this: Foreign influence of any kind has no place in our classrooms,” Abbott said. The Texas Legislature convenes its next session in January. The proposals are Abbott’s latest policy announcements related to education, as he bids against state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, an Austin Democrat, for governor in the Nov. 3 general election. Abbott has called for increased criminal penalties for educators and school employees who have improper relationships with students. Another policy proposal would limit screen time for students. Texas already bans cellphone use during class. “The less screen time students have, the more time they have with a great teacher, the better they will be doing in school,” Abbott said.

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Minnesota sues Gov. Abbott as ICE agent charged in shooting faces possible release in Texas

Minnesota officials are suing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to force him to approve the extradition of a federal immigration agent arrested in Texas after allegedly shooting a man during a January enforcement operation in Minneapolis and later lying about what happened. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in federal court, accuses Abbott of unlawfully delaying the extradition of Christian Castro, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who has been held in a Cameron County jail since his arrest in late May. "Christian Castro has been charged with breaking the law in Minnesota," Ellison said on Tuesday. "He must face justice in Minnesota."

Ellison is asking the court to require Abbott to sign the warrant needed for Minnesota authorities to take custody of Castro. In a 1987 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that extradition is a mandatory duty and that federal courts can compel governors to comply with it. Under Texas law, a person arrested on an out-of-state warrant can generally be held for up to 90 days while awaiting a governor's extradition warrant. If Abbott doesn't act, Ellison said Castro could be released from custody in Texas as early as next week. The lawsuit also names Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino as a defendant and seeks to prevent Castro from being freed while the extradition dispute plays out. Abbott's office declined to comment Tuesday on "pending extradition matters." Sheriff Trevino also declined to comment. Castro faces four felony counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime in connection with the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.

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Sid Miller: Enough with the Flock cameras. Gov. Abbott needs to put the brakes on Texas mass surveillance now.

Texans believe in law and order. We support officers who pursue criminals, recover stolen property and bring missing children home. But backing law enforcement does not require surrendering our privacy or giving government and private companies the power to record where innocent people travel. That is why I am deeply concerned about the spread of Flock cameras across the United States, particularly in Texas under Gov. Greg Abbott. Flock cameras are automated license plate readers mounted along roads, near neighborhoods and in parking areas. They photograph passing vehicles and use artificial intelligence to identify license plates, locations, dates and times. The cameras can even turn those images into searchable data, allowing anyone with access to reconstruct a vehicle’s movements. Police use these systems to locate stolen vehicles, identify suspects, investigate crimes and find missing people.

Those are legitimate purposes. The problem is that Flock cameras do not photograph only criminals. They photograph everybody. They record the rancher driving to the feed store, the mother taking her child to school, the family going to church, the veteran traveling to a medical appointment and the citizen attending a political meeting. Enough cameras can reveal a person’s routines, associations and private activities. That is the foundation of a mass-surveillance network. The dangers aren’t limited to official government use. In Fort Bend County, Pasadena and Baytown, officers have recently faced discipline or investigation over allegations that they used Flock databases for reasons unrelated to legitimate police work. In one case, a lieutenant repeatedly searched two license plates dozens of times, leading a resident to allege that she was being stalked. Internal policies and audit logs are not enough to protect citizens. Once government can reconstruct a citizen’s movements, the damage may be done before anyone discovers the abuse. And the problem with growing surveillance doesn’t stop with Flock cameras. In March 2026, Abbott’s Texas Department of Public Safety approved an emergency purchase totaling nearly $4.5 million for four specially equipped Chevrolet Tahoes and FalcoNet cellular-tracking technology. The vehicles cost $150,000 each. The rest paid for surveillance systems and related equipment.

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North Texas county shuts down Flock cameras over privacy concerns

A North Texas county has shut down its network of Flock automated license plate reader cameras, saying the technology amounted to warrantless surveillance of residents going about their daily lives. Hood County Constable John D. Shirley announced Saturday that he had finished unplugging and covering the county’s Flock Safety cameras at the request of county commissioners. “These cameras were constantly scanning and recording regular folks just going about their day,” Shirley said in a Facebook post. “That kind of permanent, warrantless tracking doesn’t belong in a free society.” Shirley said residents should not have to wonder whether their movements are being logged and stored. He directed Flock Safety to retrieve its equipment from the county.

The move comes amid growing national scrutiny of Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based surveillance technology company that operates a network of nearly 100,000 automated license plate readers nationwide. In recent months, reports have revealed dozens of cases in which law enforcement officers misused the company’s license plate camera network, in some instances to stalk women. The reports prompted Flock CEO Garrett Langley to issue a public apology. “I apologize. It kills me that [the victim] went through that,” Langley told CBS News. He defended the company’s technology but acknowledged that “we could have done more earlier.” Following the backlash, Flock announced several changes to its system, including reducing the default data retention period for license plate information from 30 days to seven days, requiring a case number for all searches and implementing an automated tool to flag suspicious search activity. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the shortened retention period “a step in the right direction” but warned that the changes could amount to a public-relations move, adding that the true impact would depend on how the company’s long-term storage exceptions are implemented. Critics have also raised concerns about racial and political profiling, non-law enforcement access to cameras and data privacy vulnerabilities. Because most jurisdictions do not require a warrant for police to search a license plate or track someone’s movements over time, some have questioned the constitutional legitimacy of the technology. Flock Safety has not responded to Hood County’s announcement.

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Karl Rove says Texas Senate Race may hinge on Trump spending war chest: ‘Could be a really bad night for Republicans’

If President Donald Trump doesn’t open up the political purse strings soon, Republicans could find themselves having a “bad night” come Election Day, Karl Rove predicted. The Senate race between James Talarico (D) and Texas State Attorney Ken Paxton (R) could hinge on Trump’s willingness to spend, Rove declared Tuesday during an appearance on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino. After first discussing the Michigan Senate race between progressive Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, Perino asked Rove his thoughts on the race in the Lone Star State.

"The state is Republican in nature. But this is an unusual race. You are right. Talarico I think had over $70 million raised and Paxton had $9 million plus. And you are right. The week before the Fourth of July he was in Iceland with his new girlfriend. On July 4th, a day where he could be campaigning at Fourth of July celebrations all across Texas, he was in London. So he needs to get out on the campaign trail and he is not going to change as a fundraiser. So this is going to be one that will depend mightily upon the decision of President Trump to spend or not spend the half a billion plus dollars that he has in his two super PACS Maga, Inc. And Never Surrender. If he does spend he can even it up. If he doesn’t spend this could be a really bad night for Republicans in Texas," he said.

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To dodge TEA takeover, Everman ISD turns failing campus into public charter school

After Charles Baxter Junior High School received a fourth consecutive F grade in the state’s annual A-F Accountability ratings, Everman ISD will turn the campus into a public charter school that will be operated by an outside organization, district officials said this week. Everman ISD is partnering with Third Future Schools, a nonprofit educational management organization, to turn Charles Baxter into a public charter school. The campus will remain as part of Everman ISD, but Third Future Schools will run the campus and its daily operations. Everman ISD’s Townley Elementary will also be run by Third Future Schools. Townley received a D grade in the Texas Education Agency’s 2026 A-F ratings.

Third Future Schools was founded by Mike Miles, who served as CEO until 2023, when he was appointed as the superintendent of Houston ISD when the TEA took over that district. The main perk of turning to Third Future Schools is that it temporarily eliminates the threat of Charles Baxter receiving a fifth consecutive F rating, which would trigger a Texas law that allows TEA to either close the campus or takeover Everman ISD by naming a new superintendent and replacing the school board with a state-appointed Board of Managers. That process played out earlier this year at both Fort Worth ISD and Lake Worth ISD. Since Everman ISD has turned to an outside organization and transformed Charles Baxter into a public charter campus, it halts the potential takeover process. If the campus receives a fifth F in next year’s accountability ratings, it still will not be subject to closure or a takeover.

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Scott Mitchell: Data centers need water. Texas should draw on this untapped source

(Scott Mitchell is CEO at Deep Blue, a water management company in the Midland Basin that transports, treats and disposes of water from oil and gas production.) Following the recent Texas House Natural Resources Committee hearing on data center water consumption, lawmakers, regulators and industry leaders are searching for practical solutions that protect Texas water supplies while supporting economic growth. The conversation has largely focused on freshwater supplies and large-scale consumers. It’s time to add a key question: Where should that water come from? For decades, produced water — the highly saline water that comes up alongside oil and gas from deep underground — was treated as a nuisance, something to dispose of as cheaply as possible. But produced water is not waste. It is a resource with the potential to become a steady, reliable source fully integrated into Texas’ water ecosystem.

Unlike almost every other water source, produced water does not come from aquifers, rivers or lakes. It doesn’t start as drinking water, irrigation water or municipal supply. It comes from oil and gas reservoirs — naturally occurring brine trapped in rock formations alongside oil and gas for millions of years. Treating and reusing produced water adds a new source to Texas’ broader water system. It doesn’t reallocate a finite resource from one user to another. That distinction matters. The Permian Basin alone — one of the most arid regions in the country — generates between 840 million and 1 billion gallons of produced water a day. To put that into context: Midland uses about 25 million gallons of municipal water a day to serve roughly 150,000 people. New York City supplies about 1 billion gallons of water a day to serve 9 million people. Using produced water for industrial needs is an opportunity to preserve more freshwater for community needs. That potential is increasingly being recognized outside the oil and gas industry. In its April 2026 report, “Data Centers in Texas: A Review and Call for Innovation and Regulation,” the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance recommends exploring produced water as an alternative to freshwater: “Data centers should connect with the oil and gas industry to examine partnerships for the treatment and beneficial reuse of produced water within data centers.” The report also recommends creating a higher water rate for data centers to encourage the use of alternative water sources, including recycled produced water.

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Texas Tech University is using A.I. to cut left-leaning content

The Texas Tech faculty meeting began amicably this spring, with offers of refreshments. Then administrators handed out reports, created partly by artificial intelligence, listing the lessons professors needed to stop teaching. “What?” one professor asked. “I don’t even teach those things.” “There are factual errors,” added another. “It’s A.I. slop,” a third said. Texas Tech is using A.I. to ferret out books and other materials that touch on topics like sexual orientation and gender identity. Professors describe the effort as a dystopian academic nightmare, in which ideologues are wielding technology to sideline subject-matter experts. Last month, the American Association of University Professors sued the university, saying the course-review effort is viewpoint discrimination that violates the First Amendment. That is not how the Texas Tech system’s leader, Brandon Creighton, sees things.

Mr. Creighton, a former state lawmaker who has been heading the five-university system since November, is the force behind the effort. He has said there was “quite a bit of garbage in curriculum” at universities. His course-review plan, he said, “will produce the best curriculum in America. I also believe it will be a national model when we’re finished.” Mr. Creighton is tackling two of higher education’s most pressing problems, at least in the eyes of its Republican critics and others who argue universities need to be reformed. Academia needs to rebuild lost public trust as campuses have moved left and to make itself more relevant in the era of artificial intelligence, they say. In an interview, Mr. Creighton fired off a litany of concerns about higher education shared by Republican politicians across the country, saying that diversity, equity and inclusion offices discriminated against Asian students, campus protests often turned antisemitic, and diversity statements — which he has called “leftist loyalty oaths” — sidelined conservatives in faculty hiring. Politics aside, Mr. Creighton has said an A.I.-fueled wave will forever reshape higher education in the years ahead. He said he wanted the campus to be well positioned to take advantage of that paradigm shift by focusing on degrees that employers want and eliminating low-enrollment programs. He touts a partnership with Nvidia to invest in A.I. infrastructure.

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Mayor Watson optimistic about Austin ISD’s future despite potential state intervention

As Austin Independent School District students return to class Tuesday, uncertainty remains over whether the state could step in and take over the district. But Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said recent academic gains should weigh heavily in any decision. Watson spoke Monday during a news conference about school safety near Lamar Middle School and addressed the possibility of state intervention after two AISD campuses received failing accountability ratings for a fifth consecutive year. Under Texas law, the Texas Education Agency can intervene when a campus earns five consecutive F ratings, including potentially replacing an elected school board with a board of state-appointed managers.

AISD Superintendent Matias Segura previously told KXAN Dobie Middle School improved from an F to a D rating. However, Burnet and Webb middle schools received another F, scoring 58 and 59, respectively. Despite those results, Watson pointed to broader progress across the district. “I think that it is undeniable that AISD is making the kind of improvement that we should all want, and that the state of Texas wants,” Watson said. AISD earned an overall B rating this year, its highest rating since 2022, according to Watson. He also highlighted a 42% increase in the number of campuses earning A and B ratings and a roughly 35% decrease in campuses receiving D and F ratings. Watson said those improvements were especially notable among Title I campuses. “When we look at Title I schools, there was a doubling of the A and B-rated schools and again, I think it was around a 36% decrease in D and F-rated schools,” Watson said. According to AISD, 35 campuses improved by at least one letter grade this year. While Watson acknowledged the district must address the challenges at Burnet and Webb, he said the overall trend shows progress.

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CPS Energy responds to Abbott's plan to privatize the SA electricity market

San Antonio leaders and CPS Energy are pushing back against Gov. Greg Abbott's proposal to open San Antonio’s electricity market to private, for-profit providers. Abbott is arguing that competition would give customers more choices and lower their monthly bills. San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has said local energy bills would increase under Abbott's plan. Most Texans in deregulated markets can select a retail electricity provider. San Antonio residents instead receive power from CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipally owned electric and natural gas utility.

Abbott’s office estimates competition could reduce residential electricity bills in San Antonio by an average of 13% and commercial bills by as much as 20%. However, the governor has not released a detailed analysis supporting those estimates. Abbott has also criticized the city’s use of utility revenue for purposes unrelated to providing electricity. The governor's office has called CPS Energy's contribution to COSA's general revenue fund a "slush fund." CPS Energy transfers 14% of its gross revenue to San Antonio’s general fund. The city budgeted approximately $504 million from CPS Energy for fiscal year 2026 — nearly 30% of general-fund revenue. That money supports police and fire protection, parks, libraries, senior services and other city operations. Jones rejected Abbott’s description of that money as a “slush fund,” saying it pays for services that protect the community’s health and safety. She warned that losing the revenue would leave the city searching for replacement funding while confronting a projected budget shortfall. CPS Energy says its not-for-profit structure keeps combined electric and gas rates among the lowest in Texas. Board Chair Francine Romero has also challenged Abbott’s comparison with Houston retail plans, arguing that advertised prices may be temporary or exclude fees. Under current Texas law, a municipally owned utility’s governing body decides whether to participate in retail competition. Forcing CPS Energy’s market to open would therefore require the Texas Legislature to change state law. Abbott said he plans to pursue legislation during the 2027 session.

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Bonnie Kristian: Texas should not define religion down

(Bonnie Kristian is staff editor of Christianity Today.) Religious liberty is for everyone. It is for Christians and Muslims, Jews and Mormons, Wiccans and neopagans and observers of whatever other strange rites people are inventing these days. It is for false religion as well as true, so long as its practitioners do not harm their neighbors. This is a fundamental principle of American society and governance: We may worship (or not) however we please so long as we do not infringe on others’ life, liberty, or property. So what’s going on in Texas? An extensive New York Times article this week documents backlash against a growing Muslim population in the state, particularly in the Dallas–Fort Worth metro. The part of the article attracting the most attention is its report that “one avenue being explored in Texas is to try to use state law to ban or regulate some Islamic cultural practices, such tribunals for marriage and other decisions governed by religious rules, often referred to as Shariah law.”

To be clear: No such law has been passed, and I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think it would survive constitutional challenge. The practices in question operate within these religious communities, have no authority over non-Muslims, and don’t override Texas law. Still, this isn’t just idle talk. Among those advocating for such regulation is state lawmaker Alan Schoolcraft, a Republican from the San Antonio area, who told the Times he aims to restrict Islam in Texas by legally redefining it as something other than a religion and therefore undeserving of standard religious liberty protections. A proposal like this would raise some hackles under any circumstances, but in this case, it comes right after other changes that critics argue unconstitutionally privilege Christianity above other faiths in Texas. The reality here is complicated. The state’s addition of Bible passages to its public-school reading curriculum, for instance, is easily defensible on secular literary grounds. On the other hand, Texas in 2025 passed a bill requiring every public-school classroom to display the Ten Commandments. The law survived initial legal challenge, with an appeals court verdict holding that the requirement is allowed under the establishment clause because it tells no one “what to believe or how to worship,” “punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments,” and is otherwise unlike the historic state-affiliated churches the First Amendment rejects.

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Texas real estate 'fin-fluencer' Tie Lasater settles case accusing him of misleading investors

A Texas financial influencer who touted his ties to rapper Vanilla Ice and “multimillionaires and billionaires throughout the world” as he built a real estate empire that then crumbled — in some cases literally injuring tenants — has settled with state regulators who sanctioned him in June. The Texas State Securities Board ordered Tie Lasater, his brother, Shiloh “Boone” Lasater, and their company to immediately stop raising new investor money. By not fully divulging that their properties had been lost to foreclosure, had receivers appointed to manage them or been the subject of bankruptcy proceedings, the Lasaters were “making offers containing statements that are materially misleading or otherwise likely to deceive the public,” the agency asserted. In court filings, the Lasaters disputed the agency’s claims and said they had made proper disclosures of the company’s history.

In the settlement, they did not admit wrongdoing or pay any penalties. But they agreed to offer a refund to Texas investors in their latest venture. They also agreed to include a detailed summary of their portfolio’s results to any future potential investors in their latest fund. The new disclosure lists nearly a dozen properties in Texas, Florida and Tennessee that have been foreclosed upon. Another half-dozen properties owned by the brothers’ companies have pending foreclosures or forced sales, according to the document. Those include two North Texas multi-family apartment complexes, Villa Gardens in Farmers Branch and The Hive in Dallas, with more than 500 units between them. It also identifies eight multi-family properties for which a receiver had been appointed; four court judgments against the brothers and their companies totaling more than $24 million (some of which they are appealing); and 21 pending lawsuits in which the brothers or their real estate companies are named as defendants.

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City Stories

Why United Methodist Church is suing Highland Park UMC

News that the 110-year-old Highland Park United Methodist Church is being sued by the United Methodist Church’s Horizon Texas Conference has been the talk of several towns this week, but what exactly does it mean? We spoke with Methodist ministers on background, reviewed the suit, examined the denomination’s governing principles known as the Book of Discipline, and read the statements from the Highland Park church to help explain why the suit was filed and what it means. According to the suit, Highland Park UMC changed its bylaws and articles of incorporation in 2022 and again in 2023, removing references to the United Methodist Church, the Horizon Texas Conference, and the Book of Discipline. This was contrary, the suit says, to the procedures outlined in the Book of Discipline.

The new bylaws, the conference says, removed oversight by the conference. The suit also says that the changes were made without informing church members and that the new bylaws remove the rights of church members to participate in decisions “affecting or involving the Church.” Documents from the Texas Secretary of State’s office indicate that the church filed a restatement of formation in 2022, as well as a change to its name, moving from Highland Park United Methodist Church to Highland Park Methodist Church that same year. In 2024, it filed an identical form to change the name of The Grove, a North Dallas satellite campus formerly known as Schrieber Memorial UMC, to Highland Park Methodist Church. All those documents are signed by former senior minister Paul Rasmussen. Horizon Texas Conference Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. said Tuesday that “in recent months” he had become aware of changes Highland Park UMC made to its bylaws. Those changes, the conference says, remove oversight by the denomination and its own members. “Many faithful members may never have known these changes were made,” he said in a video. The conference says Saenz has attempted to come to a resolution on the issue with the church’s leadership since last October, but those discussions broke down. “This lawsuit is not one the Conference brings lightly,” a webpage devoted to explaining the suit says, adding that it was filed “to preserve the ability of congregants to continue worshipping within the framework they have embraced for over a century.” The conference says it is asking the court to find that the church’s moves were contrary to agreed-upon rules set out in the Book of Discipline that pertain to civil law matters like property deeds and the church’s governing documents, and that the church should bring them back into alignment with the Book of Discipline.

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National Stories

Deportations are spiking. Judges say their hands are being forced.

The Trump administration has created a climate of fear among the nation’s immigration judges, firing those who don’t go along with sweeping policy changes meant to boost deportations. The Justice Department, which manages the nation’s immigration court system, is relying on pressure campaigns to bend outcomes to match President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement vision, one current and three recently terminated judges told NOTUS. They also said the department leadership has adopted new strategies to limit their discretion to rule in immigrants’ favor, which has effectively led to more deportations. One current judge, who spoke on condition of anonymity over fear of reprisal, said colleagues were deciding cases with a new understanding that “following the law can risk their job if that law is inconsistent with current policy.”

“There’s also a lot of fear among the immigration judges. The fact that following the law in a court is bravery is a little concerning,” the current judge said, before correcting themself. “That’s a lot concerning.” The Executive Office of Immigration Review, the Justice agency that houses the courts, has fired around 125 immigration judges since Trump took office. Nearly all of them received only an email with a couple sentences explaining that the president was asserting his authority under the Constitution. The firings have continued in recent weeks. Additionally, around 100 additional judges have left with separation incentives or to retire, meaning more than one-in-four has left government. While staff stressed they seek to implement the law in a neutral manner, the firings have effectively pushed judges to grant relief less often. “For most of my colleagues, they’re going to do what they need to do to keep their job,” said Brea Burgie, a Colorado-based immigration judge who was fired in June. “There is the constant stress of, ‘Is this the thing I’m going to do that gets me fired?’ When you’re living with that, the path of least resistance is, you don’t want to lose your job so you just comply,” Burgie said.

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Florida rejects Democratic establishment — and even snubs Trump

Million-dollar fundraising advantages and even endorsements from President Donald Trump did little to sway Florida voters Tuesday as they rattled the state’s parties by opposing candidates backed by the establishment. Newly minted Democratic socialist Angie Nixon scored a massive upset — and notched a win for progressives — by beating retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, who had a huge fundraising edge. And, in another major development, two candidates endorsed by Trump, scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills and former administration official Catalina Lauf, lost their bids for Congress. Taken together, the results show Democratic and Republican voters in solidly red Florida are hungry for change amid dissatisfaction with the economy, an ongoing war in Iran and restlessness over the status quo.

“People are frustrated, frankly, with both parties,” said Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who is a former legislator and chair of the Republican Party of Florida. “They’re frustrated with people not delivering. … They want people to deliver for Floridians. They want people to deliver for Americans.” National Democrats scrutinized states throughout the country during the primary season, looking for every opportunity they could find to pick up seats and flip the upper chamber come November. The one thing they may not have been betting on: A progressive who sorely lagged in fundraising scoring an upset in Florida. But that’s just what they got with Nixon’s win. A state lawmaker and Jacksonville community organizer who recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America — but notably did not have DSA’s endorsement — Nixon ended up handily winning with more than 55 percent of the vote, surprising the state as she’s now positioned to campaign against GOP Sen. Ashley Moody, the former state attorney general appointed to the Senate by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

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Trump’s ICE nominee helped lead one of the nation’s most sweeping crackdowns

A key leader in the enforcement effort has been Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol major recently tapped by President Donald Trump to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Schroyer helped spearhead the Highway Patrol’s effort to train all of its 700-plus troopers to enforce immigration laws and work with ICE to arrest undocumented people, according to the Department of Homeland Security and state officials. He was deputized to make ICE arrests himself last year after completing the 40-hour online training program — a shortened effort that some say does not adequately prepare officers for the fraught world of immigration enforcement. Oklahoma is so rural that many residents must use highways patrolled by state troopers to get to work or run errands.

Tim Tipton, commissioner for the state Department of Public Safety, said the highway patrol is therefore a critical partner in the Trump administration’s mass-deportation effort. “The feds can never get this done on their own. They don’t have the capacity and never will — I don’t care how many people they hire,” said Tipton, who oversees the Highway Patrol and has worked closely with Schroyer. Instead, Tipton said, ICE will need to rely on local agencies to carry out the kind of work Schroyer was involved in. “That’s why I feel like Lance is such a perfect fit.” The Senate has not confirmed an ICE director in over a decade. And there are mounting signs Schroyer would face resistance clearing that hurdle. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has yet to schedule Schroyer’s nomination hearing and would not comment on whether Schroyer has his support.

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How Trump’s ever-present executive assistant became the talk of Washington

Sen. Jon Ossoff didn’t even use her full name. But everybody in Washington knew who he was talking about. At a recent campaign event, the Georgia Democrat argued that President Trump would rather “travel with Natalie” on Air Force One than do the hard work that comes with being commander in chief. The Natalie in question is Natalie Harp, a 35-year-old aide to Trump who has become an object of fascination for both the left and the right. Though she rarely speaks, she is an omnipresent figure at Trump’s side, standing just off camera during Oval Office events, traveling with the president around the country and the world, and tapping out his social-media posts. Videos and photos of her interacting with the president have racked up millions of views online, becoming a new form of Trump-era clickbait.

To Democrats, Harp is one of the president’s chief enablers. For Republicans, she is Trump’s gatekeeper. A well-timed text to Harp can unlock access to Trump, giving well-known lobbyists and fringe figures alike an audience with the most powerful man in the world. Ossoff’s comments about Harp were met with near-unanimous derision by conservatives, a rare moment of comity in a political movement beset by divisions. Some of Ossoff’s critics accused the senator of insinuating that the president and his executive assistant have an inappropriate relationship, a contention that the White House strenuously denies. White House communications director Steven Cheung fired back with a vulgar insult. Scott Jennings, a conservative commentator, accused Ossoff of sexism and called him “a coward,” while Hugh Hewitt, a conservative radio host, attacked Ossoff as “a mean-spirited jerk who traffics in slander.” Trump compared the Georgia senator to Pee-wee Herman. Asked for comment, the Ossoff campaign referred to remarks the senator made in a Monday night interview with MS Now. Harp and other White House aides, Ossoff argued, aren’t telling the president “what he needs to hear.”

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Trump administration moves to allow logging in pristine national forests

The Trump administration on Tuesday advanced a plan to open nearly 45 million acres of wilderness in national forests to road construction and logging, removing protections that had been in place for a quarter century. The proposal by the U.S. Forest Service would repeal the 2001 “roadless rule,” enacted during the Clinton administration to preserve the wild nature of forest land. It comes as President Trump pressures the agency to increase logging and to thin forests to reduce wildfire risk. The repeal would hand a major victory to Republican-led states and industry groups that have argued for years that the prohibitions have hindered economic development. More than a dozen lawsuits have unsuccessfully sought to strike down the rule.

During his first term, Mr. Trump stripped protections from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world, only for the Biden administration to restore them in 2023. This time, the Forest Service is eliminating protections for the nine million undeveloped acres within the Tongass, as well as millions more acres of pristine wilderness across the rest of the United States. “For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities,” Brooke Rollins, the secretary of the Agriculture Department, which includes the Forest Service, said in a statement. Environmentalists said the plan would destroy untouched landscapes, including crucial habitats for migratory species and headwaters for major municipal water supplies. Multiple advocacy groups are expected to sue to block the repeal.

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Megan Degenfelder is 5th Trump-backed governor candidate to lose a primary this cycle

In another setback for President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates, Megan Degenfelder will lose Wyoming’s Republican gubernatorial election, CNN’s Decision Desk projects. Her defeat comes after Trump’s picks for governor in Georgia, Iowa, and Minnesota also fell short in their primaries earlier this cycle. In South Carolina, the candidate he initially backed for governor lost steam ahead of a runoff, leading the president to also endorse her opponent and the eventual winner. This is the third loss for a Trump-backed candidate tonight, after his picks in two Florida congressional races — Rep. Cory Mills and Catalina Lauf — also lost primaries.

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Democrats declare victory in Pennsylvania seat held by Republicans since 1999

Democrats have declared victory in a razor-sharp special election in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, flipping a state House seat that has been held by the Republicans for almost 30 years. Democrat Brandon Dukes is leading Republican Scott Timko by less than 100 votes in the state House's 12th District special election. Dukes has 8,434 votes (50.26 percent), while Timko received 8,346 (49.74 percent), according to unofficial election night returns. Under Pennsylvania law, a recount is automatically triggered for a statewide race if the margin of victory is within 0.5 percent. Chantell McCurdy, the election bureau's director, said it was not immediately clear whether that applies to the special election and that officials were consulting with their legal team, The Butler Eagle reported.

The apparent win adds to a series of Democratic overperformances in special elections across the country, buoying the party’s hopes of winning control of Congress in November’s midterm elections. It comes as Trump’s approval rating has fallen to a record low, even among several key blocs that helped propel him back to the White House in 2024. Dukes, who works as a commercial loan administrator at TD Bank, said he was “ecstatic” and “shocked” following the result, the Cranberry Eagle reported. “I’m still processing this. We just flipped a Trump +18 seat, and we flipped a red seat that’s been red for almost 30 years,” he told the newspaper. “We made history.” Timko, in a speech to supporters on Tuesday night, said "special elections sometimes produce special results,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. “This is not the result we wanted, but let’s not lose sight of the goal. That’s November 3.” Newsweek has contacted Dukes' campaign for further comment via email. Timko could not immediately be reached for comment. Newsweek has contacted the Pennsylvania Republican Party for comment via an email sent outside regular business hours.

Read this article at Newsweek - Subscribers Only

Copyright August 26, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved