Lead Stories

‘I just had the flu’: James Talarico shoots down conservative speculation about his absence from the trail

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico addressed his recent absence from the campaign trail Sunday, saying it was nothing but a “nasty case of the flu.” “I was in bed, drinking lots of liquids. Unfortunately, the campaign made me work from home, so I didn’t even get full days off. But I didn’t want to be out on the trail, and I didn’t want to get anyone else sick. It’s important, I think, for leaders to be responsible in these moments. And I’m glad to be back. I’m feeling much better,” he told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth in an interview. Talarico returned to the campaign trail Friday; his last in-person event in the state had been Sept. 26, and on Sept. 30, he spoke at a forum virtually, saying he wasn’t feeling well.

In his absence, some conservatives speculated that he was taking a break for mental health reasons. One right-wing influencer falsely claimed Talarico was receiving treatment at the Lindner Center of Hope, a facility in Ohio. Asked about those theories, Talarico said, “The internet’s doing its thing.” “That’s not true,” Talarico said. “I just had the flu, and I feel much better. But it’s a good reminder that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.” The Lindner Center also shot down the speculation Sunday, posting on social media: “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.” Republicans latched on to Talarico’s being off the trail in the final weeks of the campaign, and even some Democrats admitted to NBC News that his absence was less than ideal in the tight Senate race. State Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico’s Republican opponent, called for him to show “proof of life” with a picture of him and a newspaper showing the date. President Donald Trump, stumping for Paxton in San Antonio on Wednesday, highlighted Talarico’s absence and urged him to debate Paxton. Asked about Trump’s comment Sunday, Talarico said he agreed. “I agree with President Trump. I think Ken Paxton should debate. The president’s saying he should debate. Fox News has said he should debate. The people of Texas have said he should debate, and I think it’s mysterious that Ken Paxton hasn’t responded to a request for a debate in 85 days,” Talarico said. “Ken Paxton has asked for proof of life for me. I’m asking for proof of spine from him,” he added. So far, no debates are scheduled. Talarico has accepted debate invitations from multiple media outlets, but Paxton hasn’t done the same.

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Inside Elon Musk’s $276 million midterm rescue mission for Republicans

Elon Musk has quietly funneled more than $276 million into Republican groups and his super PAC since the start of July, building a huge turnout operation to help the party battle headwinds in the midterm elections. The staggering amount of money makes Mr. Musk, the richest person in the world, by far the largest known donor in the midterms. Representatives for Mr. Musk supplied the previously unreported figures on his political giving to The New York Times before a federal filing deadline on Thursday. In an effort to save Republicans’ Senate majority, gave a total of $158 million this summer to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing the party’s candidates for the chamber, according to his team. In sum, that is one of the largest political donations in American history, and more than the group’s Democratic rival raised from all of its donors that quarter.

Mr. Musk has also built a major Republican turnout operation through a super PAC he founded in 2024, America PAC. He donated over $76 million this summer to the group, which in turn spent that much on building a sprawling canvassing program to try to turn out hard-to-reach Republican voters. The group is active in seven Senate battlegrounds and nearly three dozen House races. Mr. Musk has already given far more money, about $366 million, to federal committees during the 2025-26 election cycle than he did during the 2024 election, when he laid out roughly $290 million to help return President Trump and Republicans to power. He has given even more in undisclosed donations during both elections, according to people briefed on the giving. The latest torrent of spending has helped give the Republican Party a financial advantage in the midterms, as well-funded outside groups like Mr. Trump’s powerful super PAC flood the airwaves with advertising in the final weeks. No Democratic billionaire is spending nearly as much as Mr. Musk, and money remains a central worry for the party in an otherwise favorable political environment.

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Texas lawmaker threatens legislative action against Kinder Morgan and PUMPCO over pipeline subsidence

State Rep. J.M. Lozano is putting Kinder Morgan and one of its contractors on notice after touring a South Texas property where the landowner says continuing ground subsidence along a natural gas pipeline right-of-way has created dangerous conditions for workers, livestock and farm equipment. Lozano, who represents District 43, joined landowners and others for a field tour of the Knolle Dairy Farms property, where the group inspected sinkholes, depressions and areas where participants said the ground was hollow beneath their feet.

During the tour, participants used physical probes and referenced earlier ground-penetrating radar surveys that they said showed low-density soil and underground voids in some areas. At one location, a probe was pushed roughly five to six feet into what participants described as hollow or soft ground. "Kinder Morgan needs to rectify this problem very quick, um, preferably before next session starts, um, and PUMPCO needs to revise. Their operations, and next session I'm gonna be requesting a list from those two companies of every employee that worked on this property in my district. I'm gonna make sure that if they have any certification with the state of Texas that they're up for review. I'm gonna make sure that those companies themselves are up for review in the state of Texas," Lozano said. Lozano also said he wants Kinder Morgan leadership to see the conditions firsthand. "I understand that the, uh, vice president of Kinder Morgan is interested now in what's going on. I don't want him interested. I want him on a plane flying down here to look at this firsthand and to snap a finger and get it solved," Lozano said. Lozano warned that the issue could become a legislative matter if it remains unresolved. "And it's gonna be a rude awakening for them if this problem is not solved by the time next session begins," Lozano said.

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How data centers are pushing up US power costs

Data centers have become a defining political issue in the run-up to the US midterm elections. The giant, windowless warehouses have drawn fierce backlash across the country as people worry about how much power and water they use, as well as the noise and heat they produce. Voters squeezed by higher electricity bills have focused their ire on data centers, which can require as much power as a small city to support artificial-intelligence systems. Local opposition blocked or delayed at least 120 projects worth almost $200 billion in the first half of this year, according to research group Data Center Watch. Those cost-of-living pressures have become a liability for Republicans as they seek to hold on to both chambers of Congress in November. President Donald Trump had promised to slash electricity prices by 50% if he was reelected to the White House.

Between January 2025, when Trump took office, and July of this year, the latest date for which data is available, the national monthly average price of electricity for residential users rose by 15% in nominal terms, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration. Zooming out, power prices have been climbing more rapidly in recent years after a long stretch of relatively small increases. They were nearly 40% higher across the first seven months of 2026 than the same period in 2019. The picture varies by state over that time frame. The largest jump in residential prices has been in Maine, at around 90%, followed by California and New York at closer to 70%. At the other end of the scale, the increase has been much more modest in Iowa and Nevada, where average prices have risen by less than 15%. Data centers need vast amounts of power to run thousands of chips and the cooling systems that prevent overheating. A large facility with a 1-gigawatt capacity can use about as much electricity as 800,000 homes, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. As data centers rapidly spring up across the US, Bloomberg forecasts their share of national electricity consumption could roughly double to 12% by the end of the decade, rising to 20% in 2035.

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State Stories

Rep. Peña-Raymond addresses pulling out gun during Capitol hearing

Texas state Rep. Richard Peña-Raymond displayed a handgun during a House Committee on Governmental Oversight hearing examining violent crimes that have not been prosecuted. He explained he was thinking about a threat made against him at the Capitol a few years earlier. “A lot of the focus was on Travis County, where they weren’t prosecuting the cases. And we’re trying to get to understand that better. Why? And whether we need to do something in the legislature,” Peña-Raymond said. Peña-Raymond said he reported the threat to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which handles Capitol security, and forwarded it to the Travis County attorney’s office. He said the office’s first assistant declined to pursue charges without explaining why. “What you do is you carry one of these. And I just pulled it out. I didn’t show it to the audience, but there was the camera above… I was showing it to my committee members, saying, this is what you do, you carry one of these,” Peña-Raymond said. He said he and other lawmakers have licenses to carry. Peña-Raymond said the hearing could shape legislation next session, including a proposal to give the Texas attorney general more power to prosecute violent crime cases when county district attorneys decline to act.

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Kimberly Crouch: Camp Mystic should have reopened. I blame Dan Patrick.

(Kimberly Crouch lives in Hunt, Texas.) I am heartbroken that Camp Mystic will not open its gates this summer. It is especially tragic for the 800 girls and young women who had looked forward to returning to their beloved and sacred place to mourn, accept and grow into their grief surrounded by their similarly suffering friends. I was once one of those campers. Camp Mystic has long been important to my family: My sisters, my niece and I shared a total of 44 years of Camp Mystic experience. And better than most families, we understand the alacrity and horrific power of the July 4 flood. One of my sisters and my niece also lost their lives that night — not at Camp Mystic, but at the vacation home my parents built in 1976, three miles downriver from Camp Mystic’s site on the Guadalupe.

I understand why the camp’s owners, the Eastland family, decided not to reopen this year. Sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor. But I am deeply saddened by how their situation became untenable even for the brave and true of heart. I blame grandstanding Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and his pandering minions at the Texas State Legislature for this tragedy piled on tragedy. The fact is, the directors of Camp Mystic did an amazing job in the chaotic early-morning hours of July 4. No rational individual could have predicted or planned for the speed and size of the flood. The water rose an incredible 40 feet, probably more in places — flooding land far outside the 100-year flood plain. Authorities didn’t send a truly urgent-sounding warning until after 4 a.m. — a full hour after Dick Eastland’s watch stopped working as floodwaters swept away him and his carful of girls Those of us who live along the banks of the Guadalupe understand its power. My sisters and I knew — or thought we knew — how high the river might go in any potential flood. We were wrong.

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"The numbers don't lie": Investors sue over millions poured into Baker Hotel restoration

They shared a dream of bringing one of North Texas' most iconic hotels back to life. For decades, the historic Baker Hotel stood boarded up in downtown Mineral Wells, a reminder of a time when tourists and celebrities flocked to the city for its famous mineral waters. The effort to restore the hotel brought together investors who believed they could help revive the landmark — and the community around it. Among them were retired Air Force veterans Porfirio and Jennifer Dubon, who say they invested more than $1 million of their savings in the project. "When we finished the tour, we were hooked," Porfirio Dubon recalled of their visit to the hotel in 2021. But the vision that once united the investors has now divided them.

The Dubons are among a group of investors suing developer Randy Nix, accusing him of putting his own financial interests ahead of theirs. The lawsuit raises questions about millions of dollars in loans, mounting interest charges and a restructuring agreement the investors say was never honored. Nix strongly denies the allegations. "The allegations are completely baseless. The court system is going to prove that quickly," Nix told WFAA. At the center of the lawsuit are two loans totaling $3 million made to the Baker Hotel project by Nix and another developer. The loans carried a 15% annual interest rate. According to the lawsuit, the developers agreed to convert those loans into ownership interests as part of a restructuring plan in early 2023. That conversion would have eliminated the loans and stopped additional interest from accumulating. Instead, the investors allege the developers broke that promise, resulting in approximately $1.8 million in additional interest charges they say should never have accumulated. "They took our money. They didn't convert their loans," Porfirio Dubon said.

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Texas attorney general’s office opens investigation into American Bar Association

The Texas Office of the Attorney General opened an investigation into the American Bar Association, an organization of lawyers and law students that provides accreditation to law schools, including UT’s School of Law, Sept. 30. According to a news release from the Texas Attorney General’s office, the investigation will examine whether the ABA’s accreditation requirements have “unlawfully restricted competition” for the accreditation of law schools or increased the cost of attending law school. Christopher Roberts, the executive director of marketing and communications at UT Law, wrote in an email that UT Law does not anticipate changes in its accreditation status.

In the news release, the Texas Attorney General’s Office alleges the ABA used its authority over law schools to inflate faculty salaries, create expensive accreditation requirements and exclude schools who challenge the ABA’s views. The Office also wrote that the ABA imposed “unconstitutional racial and gender preference requirements” on ABA accredited law school admission and hiring processes. “There must be competition and a fair playing field when it comes to law school accreditation, or else we risk inflated costs for students, unfair restrictions, and illegal discriminatory practices,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the news release. “My office will investigate whether the law school accreditation process has been used to unlawfully limit competition and burden students and institutions. No organization should be permitted to use its position of influence to violate our antitrust laws.” The Daily Texan reached out to an ABA spokesperson and a spokesperson for the Accreditation Council for Legal Education responded and wrote that the Council will work with the Attorney General’s Office to respond to their inquiry. The Council operates separately from the ABA. The Texas investigation comes after several national conflicts with the ABA. In April 2025, the ABA filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice for limiting the ABA’s funding. This September, a panel that advises the U.S. Department of Education on accreditation did not reach a decision on whether the ABA should retain federal recognition for accreditation. Previously, those interested in practicing law in Texas would have to attend an ABA-accredited law school to take the Texas bar exam. The bar exam is a test used to determine whether someone can legally practice law. In January, the Texas Supreme Court ended the requirement to attend an ABA-accredited school before taking the bar exam.

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Texas student says she lost ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ role over concerns about drag law

A Texan high school student says she was removed from the role of Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors after district officials raised concerns about Texas legislation targeting sexually oriented performances. In a written statement, Ana Mota says she earned the role after auditioning alongside other students at South Grand Prairie High School in Grand Prairie, TX. Five days later, she says, she was informed that the district and its legal team would no longer allow her to play the character because of concerns involving Senate Bill 12. The 2023 law referenced in Mota’s statement has faced significant constitutional challenges. On August 25, U.S. District Judge David Hittner issued a judgment declaring SB 12 an unconstitutional restriction on speech and barring the Texas attorney general from enforcing it.

The 2023 law referenced in Mota’s statement has faced significant constitutional challenges. On August 25, U.S. District Judge David Hittner issued a judgment declaring SB 12 an unconstitutional restriction on speech and barring the Texas attorney general from enforcing it. Mota also argues that removing her because she is female constitutes sex discrimination under Title IX. That is her allegation; the materials available for this report do not establish a legal finding concerning the district’s actions. The district’s explanation has not been independently verified. Questions remain about which specific legal provisions officials relied upon and whether the original production and casting could be reinstated. Mota is asking for both.

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: For State Senator, District 4: Sen. Brett W. Ligon

Voters in Senate District 4 will experience a bit of déjà vu when they go to the ballot box this November. That’s because they already voted in May in a special election to fill the seat left vacant after Brandon Creighton was appointed to head the Texas Tech University System. And the results were decisive: 75 percent went for former Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon. We think the voters had it right in this heavily red district that includes all of Chambers County and most of Montgomery County as well as small parts of Jefferson, Harris and Galveston County. A longtime prosecutor, Ligon, 58, campaigned on locking up habitual offenders. As district attorney, he occasionally made headlines, like when he criticized a judge’s decision to give former Vikings player Adrian Peterson a reduced probation in his child abuse case. He earned a reputation as an aggressive prosecutor, especially on child abuse cases, an issue he testified on at the Legislature before he was even elected.

Ligon did not meet with us, unfortunately. But we still believe this conservative district is well served by a conservative fighter like Ligon. His challenger, Democrat Ron Angeletti, 52, said he “stepped up because no one else did.” He already lost in the special election and likely will again in November, but he said he felt compelled to speak for the portions of this large and varied district that don’t align with the conservative talking points in Austin. On school vouchers, for example, Angeletti opposes the use of public dollars without public scrutiny. He’s got a child and grandkids in public schools and told the editorial board, “Parents should have that choice and opportunity,” but that he did not believe vouchers were the “solution.” As a special education advocate, he’s particularly concerned about whether students with special needs are actually being served by these vouchers that were supposed to help them. He’s a gun owner who supports responsible gun ownership and he wants to make sure corporations are paying their fair share of property taxes, too. These sorts of common-ground policies may help him appeal to folks on the fence. In fact, his own neighbor assumed he was Republican before he started campaigning for the seat. So far, that campaign has been grassroots with volunteers and without even a traditional campaign manager. There’s a lot to like in his platform, but conservative voters in the district already have a clear choice in Ligon.

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Ag Commissioner nominee Clayton Tucker angry about alleged bus stunt

With November's midterm elections approaching, a Texas candidate is demanding an apology after his opponent's campaign bus allegedly blared its horn outside his parents' home. Clayton Tucker, the Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner, is calling on Republican opponent Nate Sheets to apologize after a bus from Sheets' campaign allegedly stopped outside Tucker's parents' home in Lampasas and repeatedly honked for several minutes. Tucker's campaign said his parents were home at the time and that several people witnessed the alleged incident. Tucker condemned it and called on Sheets to "take responsibility for the conduct of his campaign."

"I signed up to run for public office, and I know politics can get ugly. But my elderly parents didn't sign up for any of this," Tucker said in a news release Saturday. "I am Nate Sheets' opponent. My parents are not. If Nate has a problem with me, he can say it to my face. Better yet, he can get on a debate stage and face me." Sheets' campaign team did not immediately respond to Chron's request for comment Sunday. In a post about his bus tour Sunday morning, Sheets wrote, "Great event in Liberty County last night! The bus is rolling out to the next stop. Honk if you see us!" As of Sunday, Sheets had not publicly commented on the allegation. Tucker's campaign said it had reported the incident to local law enforcement and would leave any determination of possible legal violations to authorities. "I don't care if you're a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. We ought to agree that our families and neighbors should be left out of this kind of foolishness," Tucker said in the release. "My parents deserve to live in peace without being dragged into a political campaign they never asked to be part of." Tucker also called on Sheets to apologize to his parents and their neighbors. "If he wants to come after me politically, I'm right here. Leave my family alone," Tucker said.

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Bush v. Gore attorney threatens to sue Mansfield ISD if trustees change school board elections

Lawyer Andy Taylor has spent nearly 40 years drawing political maps and fighting them in court. Now, he’s ready to challenge Mansfield ISD. Taylor, who represented George W. Bush in Florida’s 2000 presidential election recount, warned trustees Oct. 7 that he will file a lawsuit if they change how voters elect the school board. Trustees are considering electing each of the seven members from a set area instead of districtwide. Trustees will decide before the end of the year whether they will pursue the change and roll it out for the May 1, 2027, election. Board President Jandel Crutchfield emphasized no decision has been made. Taylor, who was retained by concerned residents, told trustees that they are rushing a process that requires detailed analysis and community feedback.

“There’s no way you can do that between now and the end of this year,” Taylor said. Trustees backing exploration of the change say a bigger risk is doing nothing. Crutchfield pointed to Lewisville ISD as an example. The North Texas school system switched to single-member districts after a candidate lost and filed a lawsuit claiming the Lewisville school board did not fairly reflect student demographics. More than half of Mansfield ISD’s roughly 35,000 students live outside the namesake city, according to the district. One-third live in Arlington where three Mansfield ISD campuses are rated as D’s. A district survey found about 40% of 1,060 respondents said they don’t feel their community is represented on the school board. Another 40% of respondents said they do. The survey also found 36% of respondents disagreed that at-large trustees effectively represent the community, while 39% agreed.

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Jose Martinez: I objects to photo in Rep. Hickland's political ad

(Jose Martinez lives in Temple.) A political ad that Hillary Hickland has is false and misleading. She has a photo of me and a friend, Rodrigo, appearing to support her, when we do not. This was at a restaurant in Harker Heights where she had a sort of town hall and a number of people there chatted with her for two or three minutes. She came over to our table and in fact argued with us for almost half an hour, particularly about vouchers. We told her we did not agree with her about that or much of anything else that she said. She is using that photo to make it appear we support her and/or that she converses with all kinds of folks. The reality of that situation belies the perception of the photo.

Also, it was not even the sweet manner of conversation portrayed in the photo, since in arguing about vouchers, which my friend and I oppose, she had the gall to tell, with a smile, a constituent of hers, Rodrigo, that he could not understand about children or vouchers since he was not a parent. Simply put, there are parents who do not understand children and there are those who are not parents who understand children. My friend and I were appalled at what she said and she quickly exited the restaurant. I am publicly pointing this out because she needs to delete that photo which many have already seen and which she is using and wherein she has portrayed a false and misleading message and still is doing so. Contacting her campaign only privately would not correct nor undo the public damage already done.

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Garnet Coleman funeral: Houston leaders honor former lawmaker

Hundreds of mourners gathered at a downtown chapel on Friday to remember longtime state Rep. Garnet Coleman as a “political giant” of Third Ward and greater Houston. Coleman died Sep. 25 at age 65. He had long dealt with serious health complications from diabetes. A stalwart advocate for healthcare and affordable housing issues, he retired from politics in 2022 as one of the most senior lawmakers in the state Legislature after 15 terms representing much of downtown, Montrose, Midtown, and Third Ward, where he grew up. The succinct, hourlong ceremony was held under the gothic trusses of Christ Church Cathedral, part of the historically Black St. James Episcopal congregation of which Coleman was a lifelong member.

“His specific and focused attention on the people of Third Ward is legendary, but the public servant behind those things was a man who worked to establish connections across the aisle with anyone who would work with him,” said the Rev. Victor Thomas. The solemnity was punctuated by laughter as Thomas recounted Coleman’s courtship of his wife, Angelique. Among the politicians present were Mayor John Whitmire, former Mayor Annise Parker, U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Lizzie Fletcher and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, as well as a bipartisan group of more than a dozen state lawmakers and members of Houston City Council. No officials gave remarks, allowing Coleman’s long list of legislative accomplishments to speak for him, from increased funding for mental health, HIV/AIDS services and children’s health insurance to the 2017 Sandra Bland Act, a sweeping civil rights law. Coleman also will lie in honor at the Texas Capitol from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 22 before his burial at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin at 2 p.m.

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: For State Representative, District 146: Lauren Ashley Simmons

When Lauren Ashley Simmons was a young mother, still in college and struggling to make ends meet, she felt proud that she’d finally been able to buy her son a bedroom set. Then she came home from class to find her belongings strewn outside their apartment. They were being evicted. In the mess, she saw it: his brand new headboard, broken in half. “There is nothing that makes you feel like more of a failure in life than when you can’t even keep a roof over your kid’s head,” she told the editorial board, her voice cracking. That young woman has gone on to become one of the most impressive young lawmakers in the Texas House. Simmons, 39, just finished her first term. In that short time, she has quickly become a critical voice for the long overlooked people of not just House District 146 but of Houston and Texas.

Still a renter herself, Simmons filed a bill that would prevent landlords from holding onto application fees even after they’ve rejected you, a bill that would stop landlords from having standing contracts with towing companies that roll the parking lots day and night exploiting their own tenants, and a bill that would require landlords to at least respond in writing within two business days when tenants ask for repairs. Simmons knows how impactful these bills would be for renters because she has compelling personal experiences and stories from constituents to back them up. Sadly, none of these bills made it. But in her first term, Simmons gained experience and relationships that make it more likely she’ll succeed in the future. In fact, she’s already had some success. She brought home money for parks and for Texas Southern University. And she got bills passed. After the governor vetoed a sickle cell registry bill right before she got in office, Simmons revived the bill and got it signed and enacted. The effort was personal. She is a mother of a young daughter with sickle cell. Though there have been blockbuster breakthroughs and expensive new treatments unveiled, the disease still has low awareness around it and a registry is the first step in ensuring better care for those who suffer from it without access to costly and intensive therapies. Simmons also secured $1 million for the registry. Next session, Simmons wants to go a step farther. As part of a cohort of bipartisan state lawmakers across the South, Simmons learned about rare diseases advisory councils, which strengthen cooperation and research across healthcare institutions. She wants one in Texas. But she said she’s gearing up for a bigger fight over school vouchers. “Every amendment that we tried to put in this bill, even Republicans who tried to put some type of guardrails, all of them got shot down,” she said. “We know that they're going to continue to try to put more and more money into it, and now you know the comptroller signaled that he wants $2 billion.”

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National Stories

Trump is griping he should win the Nobel for settling eight wars, which he hasn’t done

Again, President Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. Again, he keeps complaining about his non-victory at length. Again, his griping is centered on the false claim that he “settled eight wars.” Trump made his case at a New York rally on Friday, hours after the prize was awarded to South African jurist Navi Pillay. Declaring that there is now “an indelible stain on the country of Norway” and that the victor should have been “the United States of America, represented by me as your president,” Trump said the key evidence he and the US were wronged is “the eight wars that I’ve already settled.” At one point in the address, he claimed, “We should have had eight Nobel Prizes, for each war.” Let’s ignore the hyperbolic call for eight prizes. Let’s temporarily leave aside the pertinent fact that he started an ongoing war with Iran, has threatened that country with annihilation, and declared in this very speech that “either they give us everything or they don’t exist any longer.”

Let’s talk first about this: the “settled eight wars” list on which the president is hanging his complaint – a complaint he posted again on social media in a nearly 600-word missive after the rally and again on Saturday morning – is not actually a list of eight settled wars. CNN and many others have repeatedly noted the big problem with his list: it includes two wars that didn’t happen at all and three wars that either never ended or have resumed. In other words, five of the items on Trump’s eight-item list are either total nonsense or clearly flawed: 1) Trump said again Friday that one of the wars he settled was “Egypt and Ethiopia over the dam.” But Egypt and Ethiopia didn’t fight any war over the major Ethiopian dam project that is opposed by Egypt; rather, they have had a long-running diplomatic dispute on the issue. Their relations remain tense. 2) Trump’s list also includes some sort of supposed situation between “Kosovo and Serbia,” but they too were not at war during his presidency. In neither the rally speech nor the social media post did the president explain what he was talking about. 3) Trump claimed in the speech that he settled a war between Rwanda and “the Democrat Republic of the Congo.” (He referred to the Democratic Republic of Congo using the pejorative shortening of “Democratic” usually deployed by critics of the Democratic Party.) But the war involving Rwanda and the DRC has not ended despite a peace agreement, brokered by the Trump administration last year, that was not signed by the M23 rebel group.

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Is universal basic income the answer to A.I.-fueled job losses?

One morning in December 2024, Mikole Weeks, then 35, received a phone call with surprising news. She had been chosen for an experimental program called guaranteed basic income, and it came with cash: $1,330 a month for an entire year, with no strings attached for how it could be spent. “It felt like another chance to turn my life around,” said Ms. Weeks, a single mother and a part-time house cleaner in Santa Cruz, Calif. Only it did not turn out to be quite that simple. For decades, people have debated the merits of guaranteed income programs, also called universal basic income, as an alternative or complement to traditional welfare. Driving the efforts is the idea that the most effective way to improve people’s lives is to give them cash and let them spend it how they want. The concept resurged in popularity a decade ago, driven by fears of automation and rising wealth inequality. Proponents argued that permanent payments would raise the standard of living for those on the margins, and ultimately lift millions off welfare.

Critics contended that giving people money unconditionally would deter them from working in the first place. In the age of artificial intelligence, these programs have again become a hot topic. Tech titans including Elon Musk, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic have hailed basic income as a solution to A.I.-fueled job losses. In April, Mr. Musk posted that “universal HIGH INCOME” was the best way to deal with unemployment caused by the powerful technology. In June, Dr. Amodei suggested a tax on A.I. companies as one way to fund these payments. Across Silicon Valley, experimental guaranteed income programs have quietly taken off. Google began funding six different initiatives in 2022 as part of a $50 million donation to nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area, saying basic income could be a novel way to prevent homelessness in one of the nation’s most expensive locations. Each program has hundreds of participants who receive around $1,000 a month, and academics study the results. State and federal tax laws limit the lengths of the programs and the payment amounts. The studies have found that most basic income programs improve short-term employment and mental health while reducing food insecurity. But while data from these efforts has been closely tracked, less is known about the individual journeys of participants. In October 2024, after The New York Times contacted two social services providers that received Google’s funding, the organizations offered reporters the chance to follow basic income recipients in real time. The Times ultimately shadowed three people, including Ms. Weeks, to better understand their guaranteed income experiences, from their first payments through last month. All of the program participants, including the ones The Times followed, were previously homeless and transitioning off a housing stipend that paid for a portion of their rent, and many received the payments on top of other social assistance like food stamps. The Times’s findings mirrored the academic studies. For all three recipients, the instant benefits of basic income were clear: They had breathing room for groceries, rent and other expenses. But the success of the payments in another area — giving people more free time and opportunity in the long term — was mixed. “It’s a lot to ask of someone to get their life together in 12 months, when a lot of these issues are structural or systemic,” said Jennifer Loving, who runs Destination: Home, a nonprofit that administers basic income programs in Silicon Valley. “And the world around them isn’t getting cheaper.”

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Judge orders Trump administration to cancel taxpayer-funded TV ads

President Donald Trump must cancel any remaining television commercials paid for with millions of dollars in taxpayer money to promote his political message, a federal judge ordered Sunday night, even as the administration said the ad campaign was coming to an end. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon in New York sided with a coalition, including the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause, that challenged the ads as an illegal misuse of funds. She told the administration to cancel any remaining ads, including any set to air Sunday night, in granting a temporary restraining order. “Defendants shall not enter into, renew, or expand any agreement authorizing the development, creation, dissemination, placement, or airing of the challenged advertisements” during the two-week duration of her order, the judge said.

Asked for comment, the White House referred to an Oct. 5 social media post from Trump in which he defended the taxpayer-funded ads as “rather standard” but, amid backlash, said he would pay for them from his political fundraising. In a court filing late Saturday, the Justice Department argued that the temporary restraining order was unnecessary because “the alleged offending conduct will end tomorrow.” The Department of Homeland Security tapped $20 million in taxpayer money for the ads. Legal experts have suggested that violated a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda” and potentially other laws. “We are pleased the court acted swiftly to prevent more taxpayer dollars from being used for such blatantly unlawful political propaganda,” the plaintiffs said in a statement issued by Democracy Forward, the nonprofit legal organization that represents them. “There is no legal justification — and no precedent — for the president to use the machinery of the government and funds set aside by Congress for other uses to influence electoral outcomes that further his own agenda.”

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Takeaways from first S.C. Senate debate between Darline Graham, Annie Andrews

Sen. Darline Graham (R-South Carolina) clashed Sunday night with Democrat Annie Andrews in their only scheduled debate for the red state’s unexpectedly competitive Senate race. Graham, who was appointed to fill the seat of her brother, Lindsey Graham, after he died in July, stood by President Donald Trump, who elevated her from obscurity, and cast Andrews as a “radical liberal.” Andrews, a pediatrician, presented the incumbent as unqualified and tried to appeal to independents and Republican voters she needs to win in a GOP stronghold, which last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1998. In September, the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election prognosticator, shifted the race’s rating from “Solid” to “Likely” Republican. Republicans have increased spending to protect Graham, and Trump recently weighed in by attacking Andrews using an anti-transgender slur.

Graham, who never held office and kept a low profile before her appointment, entered the general election with skepticism from some in the GOP base. Despite receiving Trump’s endorsement, Republicans questioned her — and her late brother’s — MAGA credentials. She said during a primary debate that she was “not that informed on national security” when asked about Taiwan policy, an answer that opponents seized upon as evidence she is ill-equipped for the job. The debate, hosted by South Carolina ETV and Public Radio, is the only scheduled general election debate, and Graham has rebuffed Andrews’s demands for more. Libertarian Kasie Whitener also participated in the Sunday debate. Andrews referenced Graham’s foreign policy fumble in a primary debate as she criticized the senator’s voting record on the war in Iran. “South Carolina, if your surgeon said that appendectomy aren’t really his thing, would you still hand him a scalpel? No,” Andrews said. “So why would we hand Darline Graham a full term in the U.S. Senate? She is unserious and unqualified.” Graham countered that her answer showed she was honest with voters.

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Trump tells cheering crowd: ‘I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap’

President Donald Trump spoke before an adoring crowd in Tennessee Saturday, telling his fans, “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap.” Trump questioned why he was even in Tennessee since Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) were doing so well in their U.S. Senate and governor races, respectively. “What am I doing in Tennessee?” Trump asked. “So, three times I won the election, the big election three times. I got screwed the second time because they cheated. They cheated. We cannot let that happen again. “But, I said, ‘You know sometimes it’s nice to go to a place where you don’t have to be, but you are there to say thank you to the great people that elected you three separate times,” he said.

Trump then told the story of a “friend” who has stage fright and asked him, “How do you go in front of all of these people every day in, day out?” “I said, ‘You know, for me it’s easy because there is such love in these rooms,” Trump said to cheers and applause. “It’s true,” Trump said as the crowd broke into chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump!” “Thank you,” Trump said. “No, it’s true. No, there’s such love,” he said as someone yelled, “We love you!” “It’s like, like, I mean, it’s amazing. When you stand up here, it’s just like, the love,” Trump marveled. “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap. ‘Oh, I love you so—’ It’s true. “But we don’t say the stupidest things, we say things of common sense. We say things that make sense, and probably are mostly conservative. But it’s not really conservative, it’s the things of common sense.We want to have a border, we want to have low taxes, we want to have a great military. We want to have, you know, all of the different things. It’s like seven, eight, 10, five, four — it’s just things that are common sense.”

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U.S. restrictions on Chinese drones are leaving police departments in the lurch

For hours, bullets tore through the home, hitting neighboring houses and cars. Inside, a man wanted by police for allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend was holed up with his new girlfriend. As the SWAT team prepared to enter, Kevin Fennessy with the Ocean County Sheriff's Office tried something new first. He sent in a tiny assistant: a small drone equipped with a camera. From a safe position outside, Fennessy slowly piloted the device through a blasted-in window, while he and other officers watched on a monitor. The video, viewed by NPR, showed hallway walls and furniture riddled with bullet holes. As it entered a back bedroom where the couple had holed up, footage showed the man's body on the floor. He had killed himself. With the drone still hovering above the macabre scene, police deployed two flash bangs into the room. The woman rushed out and surrendered.

The incident, which happened about three years ago, sticks in Fennessy's mind when he considers the value of his department's drone program, which he heads. "No one's hurt. Everyone's safe," Fennessy says. "Forty-one times they shot out the house at us. But at the end of the day, we were able to clear the house." New Jersey's Ocean County Sheriff's Office is one of an estimated 6,000 law enforcement agencies across the country that now have drones, used for search and rescue, fire and traffic crash investigations, and tactical response, according to the Law Enforcement Drone Association. It's an organization that advises, trains and certifies police across the country on their drone programs. Ocean County's entire fleet is from DJI, a Chinese manufacturer of drones. LEDA estimates that about 80% to 90% of law enforcement agencies flying drones use DJI devices. China controls a vast majority of the global drone market, and it's the dominant source for the minerals and raw materials needed to build them, researchers say.

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Nobel prize in economics awarded to Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford

Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford were on Monday awarded the Nobel prize in economics for work that underpins the models used by central banks and governments. The U.S.-born pair were jointly awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, a prize established by Sweden’s central bank in 1968, for their research into the “microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation.” They will split the 12 million Swedish kronor ($1.19 million) prize. Hall and Woodford have “significantly improved our ability to implement effective stabilisation policy,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. “On the basis of these models, well-timed fiscal and monetary policy measures can reduce the economy’s peaks and troughs.” Hall, born in California, is a professor at Stanford University, while Massachusetts-born Woodford is a professor at Columbia University. “With them, we are better equipped to deal with shocks in the economy, such as energy crises or sudden changes in how much households consume,” John Hassler, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a statement.

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Lead Stories

James Talarico returns to Senate campaign trail in Texas after 10-day absence

James Talarico made his first public appearance on Friday after nine days off the trail, showing up at a music festival in downtown Austin to shake hands, greet supporters and put to rest what had been days of speculation about his whereabouts and well-being. In a short interview with The New York Times, Mr. Talarico said that he had been sick with “a nasty case of the flu” and had been “home sick in bed.” “Everybody should get the flu shot,” Mr. Talarico said before heading off to greet festivalgoers at Austin City Limits in Zilker Park, as music swirled from a nearby stage. He said he had more events planned over the weekend in Dallas. Mr. Talarico last held an in-person campaign event on Sept. 29, at a fund-raiser in New York City, his second there in two days.

A day later he appeared virtually before a Hispanic business group, conducting his talk from a hotel room. He had come down with a cold, he told the audience, which he had intended to speak to in person. His opponent in the Senate race, Ken Paxton, has been hammering Mr. Talarico over his absence for days, suggesting that Mr. Talarico was hiding some underlying problem that he did not want to divulge. On Wednesday, at a rally with President Trump, Mr. Paxton led the crowd of thousands in a chant: “Where is James Talarico?” Sign up to get J. David Goodman's articles emailed to you. J. David Goodman is a Houston-based reporter covering the people and politics of Texas. Mr. Talarico’s campaign said for days that the candidate has been recovering from the flu, and that he would return to the campaign trail this weekend. A spokesman for the campaign, JT Ennis, said that Mr. Talarico had held “more than 100 public events” and shaken “tens of thousands of hands” before getting sick. In the interview on Friday, Mr. Talarico said there was no truth to any rumors that were spreading on the internet about his absence, including one that he had been receiving some sort of mental health treatment. “Just a reminder not to believe everything you read on the internet,” he said.

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Oklahoma stuns No. 1 Texas in last second in Red River Rivalry

In 122 years of the Red River Rivalry, Oklahoma had never beaten a No. 1 Texas team. Until Saturday. And it took every bit of scrap and scrape the Sooners could muster to do it. John Mateer connected on two key throws on the winning drive, and the Sooners scored on offense, defense and special teams to shock the Longhorns 27-24, reclaiming the Golden Hat trophy after two consecutive losses in the always-unpredictable series. "It was really a classic game of two really good programs in an incredibly intense environment," Sooners coach Brent Venables said. "I think both sides would say it wasn't always pretty. It didn't always go our way, but it went right according to script."

The Sooners (3-2, 1-1 SEC) blocked a punt for a touchdown and Arch Manning threw two fourth-quarter interceptions -- one of which Peyton Bowen returned 42 yards for a score, the quarterback's first career pick-six -- as Oklahoma clawed back despite mustering 238 total yards. Manning's second interception, Courtland Guillory's first as a Sooner, came at the Oklahoma 39 with 19 seconds left. "It was crazy," Guillory said. "In a game like this -- I say the biggest rivalry in college football, then I'm from Texas, so that makes it even bigger to me -- man, it was an amazing feeling that my first pick was in a big-time moment like that to help my team win." With the score tied 24-24, the Sooners turned Mateer loose instead of playing for overtime. The offense was struggling, and Mateer had been the subject of fans' ire with six turnovers in the past three games. The scrutiny began, in many ways, at this game last year after a scorching early-season start in which he was a Heisman Trophy candidate before injuring his thumb. He had surgery and rushed back to play in this all-important game but threw three interceptions and was sacked five times in a 23-6 loss.

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The crew of virtually unknown donors powering the rise of the New Left. One we found lives in Texas.

In Michigan this year, a new super PAC vowing to fight pro-Israel money chipped in more than half a million dollars to help progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate bid. Its funders: a crew of virtually unknown political donors, many of whom had never given to politics before last year but have since donated up to $1 million each. In New York, billionaire Alex Soros cut checks directly to progressive politicians, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Those donations are part of the millions of dollars that Soros and his father, George, plan to give to Democratic causes this year. And in Philadelphia, nearly a million dollars in TV advertising paid for by outside groups is boosting Democratic socialist Chris Rabb, highlighting his endorsement from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and his willingness to fight for Medicare for All. The left flank of the Democratic Party raises and spends only a fraction of what many Republicans and the Democratic establishment do on elections. But as the far left gains momentum, supporters are working to expand their funding.

Even the Democratic Socialists of America, which is funded exclusively by membership dues and relies largely on volunteers, has been experimenting with raising more money. Another group that focuses on identifying and helping progressive candidates, Justice Democrats, said its goal is to remain competitive in races where opponents can use funding advantages to sometimes overwhelm progressives with ads. In past elections big donors to progressives were generally older, wealthy hippies or successful Hollywood players. The emerging group skews younger, is often South Asian or Middle Eastern, and works in fields such as technology and medicine. Sathvik Kaliyur, CEO of a fundraising firm called NWF Strategies whose clients have included Mamdani and El-Sayed, said his goal is to make it easier for candidates who don’t come from money to run for office. American Priorities has used its funds to support progressives who criticize Israel, including more than $1 million to help elect Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, two DSA-backed candidates who won New York congressional primaries. The ads themselves didn’t mention Israel or the Palestinian territories as an issue: Instead, they stressed affordability and that the two women were “Mamdani-endorsed.” One of the group’s funders, Texas entrepreneur Sam Mahrouq, said he supports efforts that “encourage a balanced American foreign policy and oppose corruption, discrimination, endless wars and excessive special-interest influence.”

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Trump sticks with his tariffs even as voters turn against them

Maybe President Donald Trump really does believe that “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the dictionary. Despite higher prices, criticism from trade experts and displeasure among voters, Trump holds fast to his belief that imposing the highest import duties on U.S. trading partners since the Great Depression is a winner. A recent poll suggests that is a big gamble with less than a month before the Nov. 3 midterms. Most U.S. adults disapprove of his trade policies, with more than 64% saying he has gone too far with his latest tariffs, compared with 58% in January. A look at the political, legal and economic challenges to the Republican president’s approach to trade.

The United States has set taxes on imports from most countries in the low double digits, although the rates have gone up and down because of legal setbacks as well as Trump’s habit of changing them seemingly on a whim. In the biggest round last year, Trump levied what he called “reciprocal” tariffs and other duties on dozens of countries. He cited a 1977 law that he said allowed him to act without congressional approval in an economic emergency. After the Supreme Court struck that down in February, Trump turned to an array of other trade laws to accomplish his goals. The primary one he is using now, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, allows him to impose tariffs on countries that he believes are engaging in unfair trade practices, such as not adequately enforcing a ban on forced labor. The new duties range from 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 economies, including big U.S. trading partners such as the European Union, India, Japan, Canada and Mexico. Trump is taking a sledgehammer to a relatively open global trading system that many mainstream economists think has benefited the U.S. enormously. It has helped boost growth, keep prices low and make U.S. businesses more competitive and often dominant in global industries.

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How Trump’s revenge campaign descended into turmoil

Joseph diGenova, the man assigned by the White House to lead the investigation into those who investigated President Trump, was walking out of Chuck’s Seafood near the beach in Fort Pierce, Fla., and toward his Tesla last month when his cellphone buzzed. It was his boss, Attorney General Todd Blanche. And he was spluttering mad. Mr. Blanche had been cautiously supportive of Mr. Trump’s decision to call Mr. diGenova, 81, out of retirement in April to kick-start the so-called grand conspiracy case, the Justice Department’s most expansive effort to pursue people the president considers his enemies. Now the attorney general, having soured on Mr. diGenova, was livid that he had lashed out at two prosecutors sent from Washington to help move the case along. Mr. Blanche ordered him to his office on Sept. 11 — or else, according to people briefed on the exchange.

Assuming he would be fired, Mr. diGenova quit, dealing the latest blow to a troubled investigation central to the president’s vengeance agenda. More trouble was to come. Soon after, a top diGenova deputy, Kurt Olsen, also quit. It turned out he had failed a polygraph test about his contacts with foreigners, which imperiled his security clearance, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mr. Olsen said he complied with all requirements regarding foreign contacts and had not resigned over his clearance, but declined to say more. Still, the dual departures laid bare months of dysfunction. They also offered fresh evidence that Mr. Trump’s demands for revenge have divided the Justice Department, diverted resources from other investigations and continued the erosion of the principle that politics must be kept strictly separate from federal law enforcement. A New York Times examination of the inquiry, based on more than 20 interviews with current and former officials, found that it was star-crossed from the outset.

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State Stories

More than 1,200 Southwest Airlines flights delayed after software outage

Southwest had to delay over 1,200 flights Friday morning after a software outage. Southwest Airlines delayed over 1,200 flights nationally on Friday morning after a thirty-party software for checking baggage and boarding passengers went offline. A spokesperson for the Dallas-based airline told KERA in a statement the software, Amadeus, is back up and running as of 12:30 p.m. Friday. “Due to the early hour, we were able to minimize the effect on the operation the rest of the day,” the spokesperson said. The 1,200 delays account for 27% of all the airline’s flights, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. About 40 flights were cancelled. Dallas Love Field, where Southwest is headquartered, had about 95 delays and 7 cancellations.

Lauren Rounds, a spokesperson for Dallas’ aviation department, said in a statement Southwest had experienced an “intermittent, internal network outage as of this morning, impacting boarding pass printing and mobile app scanning.” The airline has had more serious software troubles in the past. In 2022, 16,500 flights were cancelled during a winter storm after the airline’s technology struggled to keep up with scheduling and crew coordination. The following year, the airline had to halt all departures for an hour after a network firewall failure.

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: All three Republicans superior in Texas 15th Court of Appeals races

In the upcoming general election, Texas voters for the first time will choose the justices on the state’s newest appellate court — the only appellate court with statewide jurisdiction and one whose creation itself sparked controversy and litigation. We’re talking about the 15th Court of Appeals, which the Texas Legislature created in 2023, assigning it jurisdiction to review three types of civil cases: Those brought by or against the state, state agencies and state officials or employees regarding their official conduct, with narrowly crafted exceptions, such as cases involving family law, personal injury, employment discrimination, eminent domain and about a dozen other types of litigation. Appeals from Texas’ business courts that deal with business disputes valued at more than $10 million. Challenges to the constitutionality or validity of state laws or rules when the attorney general is a party.

While the other 14 courts of appeals are geographically based with jurisdiction over assigned counties — the 4th Court of Appeals includes Bexar County, for example — the 15th Court reviews these types of cases regardless of where they originate. That led to opposition from those who viewed its creation as a way to steer cases away from what is considered a more liberal 3rd Court of Appeals, which includes Travis County. A lawsuit from Dallas County challenged the constitutionality of the 15th Court. The Texas Supreme Court in August 2024 rejected that challenge, and the new court began its work on Sept. 1, 2024, which brings us to this election. The 15th was launched with three justices — a chief justice and two designated as Place 2 and Place 3 — appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott. While two more justices will be appointed in 2028 and 2029, the first three are up for reelection this year. We recommend the three incumbents: Chief Justice Scott Brister, Justice Scott Field in Place 2 and Justice April Farris in Place 3, who are Republicans. All are highly qualified — with decades as jurists in district and appellate courts between them before they were appointed. And in our meetings with the candidates, all were thoughtful and engaging.

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San Antonio city council members prep for legal action on proposed ICE facility as they launch studies on its impact

The City of San Antonio’s legal team could soon take action regarding a proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said ICE and the Department of Homeland Security missed a Sept. 30 deadline from the City of San Antonio to submit more information about a planned processing center on the East Side. Now, city leaders are pushing for legal action to make sure ICE’s facility gets the proper environmental assessment and local permits. City Attorney Andy Segovia would be the one to take any legal steps, Jones told reporters after a council meeting Thursday. “We think we are in a good spot here, and look forward to the city attorney’s recommendation shortly,” she said. It’s the latest step the city has taken after community members began rallying against a proposed ICE processing center on the East Side.

ICE purchased a 640,000-square-foot warehouse on 542 SE Loop 410 Access Road for $66.1 million at the beginning of the year. Local residents and critics of federal immigration policy have raised concerns about conditions at similar facilities, which hold ICE detainees who face deportation proceedings. On Oct. 3, hundreds marched through the East Side to protest ICE’s deportation policies and the proposed processing center in San Antonio. ICE has filed cases to deport more than 4,400 Bexar County residents since President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. City officials wanted clarity on the facility’s environmental assessment and impact, as well as its plans for local permits, before ICE started to renovate the Eastside warehouse. They were alarmed when the agency signed a contract with GardaWorld Federal Services in August to do work at the proposed facility, and gave DHS until Sept. 30 to respond to its questions. Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) said signing that contract before taking other preliminary steps paved the way for legal action. The proposed facility is in his district. “What we’ve seen succeed in other cities is the federal government taking an action that demonstrates that, whether it’s construction or operation of a facility, that it is going to happen. And so for us, to me, the contract with GardaWorld signifies an action,” McKee Rodriguez said.

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In hotly contested TX35, candidates debate affordability, immigration and tariffs’ impact on business owners

In their first and likely only forum, the two candidates in a surprisingly competitive San Antonio district made similar appeals to voters 11 days before the start of early voting. Republican nominee Carlos De La Cruz and Democratic nominee Johnny Garcia both acknowledged the affordability issues motivating their newly redrawn Congressional District 35 voters this election. They drew on their respective backgrounds in the military and law enforcement at the Thursday forum hosted by the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and moderated by Texas Public Radio, and even showed some willingness to break from their parties’ leaders in an appeal to the moderate nature of the district. De La Cruz was fresh off a visit from President Donald Trump in San Antonio to boost his candidacy, a nod to how critical the race for the newly created district is to the GOP’s delicate House majority.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) dubbed it the “whole enchilada” of the midterm elections when campaigning in San Antonio earlier this summer. District 35 shifted drastically after Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting effort drew incumbent Greg Casar (D-Austin) out of its lines. Casar instead opted to run in a different district, leaving the seat open. The majority of the district’s eligible voters are Hispanic, a group that swung for Trump last cycle, and one that Democrats are hoping to make inroads with this cycle. Trump carried the district by 10 percentage points last election. Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy, emphasized his San Antonio upbringing and working class background, often speaking Spanish to make his points. He said voters’ economic struggles were the genesis of his campaign. “People in this district were sold on a false promise that things would be fixed on day one, but here were are, nearly two years, and we’re still feeling the same pinch and squeezed,” Garcia said. Retired Air Force veteran De La Cruz focused on his military and border enforcement background. “My community, I know, wants a safe and secure border,” he said. “They want safe communities. They do not want any sort of defund the police nonsense.”

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Hinojosa taps into Texas high school football with latest ad

Regardless of where Texans reside on the political aisle, ads on both sides have begun running ad nauseam as Election Day nears. Most of the United States got a taste of Texas politics last weekend with a mass media blitz for Ken Paxton. In Texas, gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa is trying to add another big group to her coalition with less than a month until Election Day: voters who put the state's greatest export above all: high school football. Hinojosa tapped former Aledo High School coach and athletic director Tim Buchanan for her most recent ad, simply titled "Coach." In the ad, Buchanan reveals he voted for Abbott the prior three times he ran for governor, but was breaking from him this time.

"I know how to read a scoreboard," Buchanan said, later adding, "I'm getting off the sidelines for Gina Hinojosa. Gina’s running for governor to take on the billionaires and always put our kids first." Buchanan's bona fides helped establish a state dynasty. The school, located just outside of Fort Worth, has captured state titles in football in three different divisions since 1998 and was the crown jewel of 5A Texas football from 2014 to 2023, taking home seven state titles. Eight of the school's 12 state titles came under Buchanan's leadership. Given how much Texas has entered the public consciousness through a hotly contested Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton, Hinojosa and Abbott have kept their ads relatively aligned with their respective campaign stances. Hinojosa has frequently attacked Abbott over his administration's championing of the school voucher program and data centers. Abbott has countered with Hinojosa's property-tax voting record, calling her "High Tax Hinojosa" in recent social media posts.

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Angela Paxton knows exactly what she’s doing

Throughout Ken Paxton’s seemingly centuries-long campaign for Senate, the attorney general has been a punching bag for not only his opponent, Democrat James Talarico, but also late-night talk show hosts, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Texans who might vote for him, and the president of the United States. Recent polls show Paxton down as much as six points in his race against Talarico, a shocking number in a state that hasn’t seen a Democrat win a statewide seat since 1994. Politicos blame “candidate quality”—i.e., it can be a difficult thing, precedent aside, to elect a man who’s been impeached, indicted, and had multiple affairs detailed in the press. Republicans, in other words, need a Hail Mary. Enter Angela Paxton. The Texas state senator, who filed for divorce from Ken on “biblical grounds” (adultery) a little more than a year ago, stars in an ad released over the weekend addressing “the elephant in the room,” in which she essentially urges Republicans to hold their noses and vote the ticket, regardless of who the Senate candidate is. “Either we hold every Republican seat or we hand the future of Texas to the other team,” she says, encouraging viewers like a football coach at halftime. In the thirty-second spot, she never names her soon-to-be ex-husband.

The move has been roundly criticized. The Dallas Morning News editorial board called it “hard to watch” and “a tortured 30-second sports metaphor.” The Talarico campaign quickly jumped on the opportunity to push back: “My team isn’t any political party. My team is Texas,” Talarico said in a statement. Over on X, commentators trotted out Madeleine Albright’s “special place in hell” line to condemn Angela and called the ad “sad” and “desperate.” This is a familiar role for Angela Paxton, whether real or performed: that of long-suffering helpmate, a mother and wife who puts her own needs—her dignity, even—aside for the good of her family, party, and country. But the woman on-screen during that short ad doesn’t come across as meek or embarrassed, or as someone easily coerced by misguided campaign staffers. Rather, Angela Paxton gives the impression that she knows exactly what she’s doing. A source told The New York Times that she agreed to film the ad as long as she could write the script. And she knows her audience. What she produced was based on talks she’s already been quietly giving at small gatherings, confabs of women in whom real electoral power resides. Those Texas Republicans know her; many have been her.

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Trump can’t stop talking about vomit and Texas barbecue

This year’s midterm mudslinging has largely focused on substantive topics such as corruption and affordability. When it comes to the U.S. Senate race in Texas, however, President Donald Trump has an additional issue he’d like the electorate to consider: vomit. The vomit in question supposedly belongs to Democratic candidate James Talarico — “Tofu Talarico,” to Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose party has spent months trying to make the alliterative nickname stick. In at least nine separate interviews and speeches, Trump has painted a visceral scene in which the current state representative throws up after eating barbecue. “He wants to eat a piece of lettuce. ‘A little piece of lettuce, please,’” Trump said at a San Antonio campaign rally Wednesday night. “He’s sick because he’s been forced to eat meat for political reasons, and he’s throwing up all over the place.”

Usually, as Trump describes in the fabricated scenarios, Talarico politely ducks out of public view to regurgitate his food. The president has been repeating a similar story since Sept. 2 at a Rose Garden dinner — where Republican lawmakers gorged on prime-aged beef burgers, no less. There, he said that Talarico “eats meat and he goes outside, and he throws up all over the place.” Trump, who has diagnosed Talarico with a sort of barbecue-induced bulimia — not yet recognized by the DSM-5 — is probably riffing on the allegation that Talarico is a closeted vegan. Though, until Wednesday night, Trump mostly pronounced the term “vay-gan” while telling these stories. (He credited the first lady for correcting him.) “James is not and has never been a vegan,” a Talarico campaign spokesperson said in an email. Crowds at the campaign stops typically laugh intermittently when Trump talks about imagined vomit. But all of Trump’s retching rhetoric offended one Texas GOP operative’s Southern sensibilities.

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Fort Worth ISD board president responds to student petition over scripted lessons

The president of the Fort Worth ISD state-appointed Board of Managers has responded to a student petition against scripted lessons that’s garnered more than 1,500 signatures online. Board of Managers President Pete Geren shared a statement on Thursday evening saying he’s glad to see growing student engagement, hopes to see more moving forward and that the concerns raised by students have been received by the board. His response comes after dozens of Fort Worth ISD students, spanning from second grade to 12th grade, published an open letter calling on district leaders to fix scripted lesson plans that contain errors and to loosen the reins on classroom rules teachers and students have been subjected to amid a state takeover.

“Regarding the information, insights, and opinions shared in the petition, they are valuable and timely. Those issues are in front of the board now. I am thankful that we have heard from thousands of residents on the topics addressed by the student petitioners over the last few months, but too few students. Thank you to all who shared their voices with us,” Geren said in a statement, referring to the district’s recent community listening sessions that gathered feedback and informed proposed district goals and guardrails. Students say scripted slideshows teachers are required to use in the classroom “are often wrong” and sometimes don’t match the accompanying learning guides, according to the letter. Students also said they have seen what appeared to be an AI-generated image in a slideshow for French class. “Education should be about exploration. We want to go to school to connect with people, discover things, and learn. We want to feel inspired when we walk into a classroom,” students wrote in the letter. “We can’t now, because the rigidity of the new lesson plans and rules makes it almost impossible to explore new ideas, and the dullness of slides and pointless tasks pushes students farther away from learning.”

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: We recommend Democrat Katie O’Brien Duzan for Texas House 94

State Rep. Tony Tinderholt of House District 94 is taking a run at Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons' seat. Simmons’ district was redrawn to favor a Republican, and she is now trying to unseat County Judge Tim O’Hare. In this game of electoral musical chairs, two candidates are vying to take Tinderholt’s place. On the Republican side, business owner Cheryl Bean is touting her party’s record on affordability and fiscal conservatism. On the Democratic side, marketing executive Katie O’Brien Duzan told us she’s focused first on her district and that she isn’t “a culture wars person.” In this race, we recommend O’Brien Duzan.

District 94 encompasses parts of Hurst, Bedford, Arlington and Euless. Its borders were redrawn in 2021. Tinderholt has won by a comfortable margin in two general elections since then. In an effort to flip the district blue, O’Brien Duzan, 44, said she has been knocking on doors, asking people in District 94 what their priorities are. She said most are chiefly concerned about affordability and public education. O’Brien Duzan favors reforms to the commercial property tax appeals system so that “large corporations can't game their appraisals down while homeowners absorb the difference,” she wrote in the Voter Guide. She wants to ease the burden on local property taxes by raising the basic allotment for schools using the state’s surplus. O’Brien Duzan said she is against an expansion of the state’s voucher-like Education Savings Account program that pays private school tuition for some Texas students. On teacher pay-for-performance, though, she broke slightly from what we usually hear from her party. O’Brien Duzan said she thought the program could be beneficial, though reserved judgement since it is still early in implementation across the state.

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Austin American-Statesman Editorial: No recommendation for Texas House 73: Both options fall short

On many issues, from border security to gun rights, state Rep. Carrie Isaac is aligned with the conservative voters of House District 73, which covers Comal and western Hays counties. But people of all political stripes need water. And on that front, Isaac, a Republican from Dripping Springs, did her district a serious disservice last year in lobbying Gov. Greg Abbott to veto Senate Bill 1253, a measure to help manage the shrinking Trinity Aquifer in western Hays. The broadly supported, bipartisan bill would have given the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District more power and resources to regulate groundwater pumping requests by new users — a key step to protect the water supply for the long term. As Texas Monthly reported, Isaac pushed back with falsehoods that the bill would tax people’s groundwater and impose mandatory metering. It is also notable that Isaac’s chief of staff previously worked for the parent company of the private utility accused of overpumping that aquifer.

Abbott’s veto, which Isaac urged, leaves a portion of Hays County less equipped to manage the community’s precious and dwindling water resources. We cannot recommend Isaac, who did not meet with us, for a third term. Isaac’s Democratic challenger, Merrie Fox, is a retired teacher and principal from New Braunfels who demonstrated a sincere commitment to addressing water issues and supporting public education. Unfortunately, as president of the Riverside Pride Board, Fox oversaw inadequate vetting of a drag-show performer invited to a 2025 Pride event marketed as family-friendly, despite having a similar issue with a different performer at the group’s 2023 event. (Amid the 2025 controversy, organizers uninvited the performer, moved the event to a smaller venue and dropped the drag show.) We wish District 73 voters had other options on the ballot. We hope in two years they will.

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Austin asks for feedback as it considers rules for large water users

Dozens of residents walked between displays about water conservation, reuse, and consumption Monday, Oct. 5, at the city of Austin Permitting and Development Center, as Austin Water officials asked them to consider one question: How should the city manage its largest water users? The city’s water wonks presented some possible answers. “Tonight, we’re having an open house where we’re really seeking our community input and feedback on some new policies and procedures that we’re considering for high-impact water users,” said Shay Ralls Roalson, director at Austin Water. The discussion comes after City Council passed a resolution in July, aimed at addressing the impacts large water users have on the city’s utility.

City Manager T.C. Broadnax must present recommendations to the Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee by Dec. 9. The first report on large users’ water consumption is due by May 2027. At the open house, Austin Water proposed implementing new requirements for developments that use or are projected to use more than 85 million gallons of water a year. They also suggested that large water users produce detailed conservation plans, annual reports, and water budgets, which would limit the amount of water a customer could use. Under the proposal, if customers were to exceed those budgets, they would face higher rates. The utility is also considering requiring large users to update their conservation plans every five years and set five- and 10-year goals. As Austin prepares for growth and drought and data centers continue to be constructed throughout the state, the Oct. 5 discussion is part of the early steps the city is taking to regulate developments within city limits. Austin Water’s draft defines a “high-impact water user” as one or more commercial buildings, including industrial and manufacturing facilities, that uses or is projected to use more than 85 million gallons of water a year. The calculation would include both drinking and non-drinking water.

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Texas’ space industry is booming. Now it needs the workers to build it.

CesiumAstro needs another 500 people to build communication satellites in Central Texas. The company launched its first operational satellite this month and is preparing to build hundreds more at its headquarters outside of Austin. Finding and training people to work there is among the company’s top priorities, said Shey Sabripour, founder and CEO of CesiumAstro. “One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as we scale CesiumAstro isn’t about technology, manufacturing or even fundraising. It’s talent,” Sabripour said in a statement. “Raising capital is challenging, but finding and developing the workforce required to support the next generation of space innovation is even harder.”

The U.S. space economy could add 300,000 high-paying jobs over the next decade and generate $428 billion in economic value, according to a report from the Space Workforce Incubator for Texas, or SWIFT. This need for workers is already being felt across Texas as NASA pushes toward the moon and the commercial sector – benefitting from cheaper rocket launches and advanced technologies – launches more hardware into space. Community colleges, universities, Texas’ Congressional delegation and the Texas Space Commission are racing to create a workforce that will ensure the state’s space legacy continues. It’s not an easy task. Space companies struggle to forecast how many workers they’ll need. High school students don’t have a clear path to becoming an industry tradesperson as there aren’t national certifications. Hiring can fluctuate, leaving community colleges unable to have year-round cohorts of students, and workers are being courted by other fast-growing sectors, such as semiconductor and advanced manufacturing. “As an industry, we are just racing to get to the next thing,” said Elaine Ho, associate administrator for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement. “We are focused on the mission, on the next requirement, on the next deliverable, and workforce tends to be that secondary thought.”

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National Stories

Justice Dept. is investigating TV networks over Trump pool coverage

The Justice Department is investigating whether the major television networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — violated federal antitrust laws when the group briefly suspended their pooled coverage of President Trump, according to six people with knowledge of the department’s action. Officials from the Justice Department contacted networks on Friday and demanded communications and materials related to the White House TV pool, the people said. The pool is a longstanding system where the networks share the responsibility of providing footage of the president and distributing it to other news outlets. Last month, the networks collectively suspended their pool footage of Mr. Trump for several days after the president barred CNN journalists from the White House grounds, which prevented CNN from participating in the pool. Video footage of some major events, including Mr. Trump’s greeting of President Xi Jinping of China, was not carried by any major news station.

In a statement on Saturday, a Justice Department spokeswoman, Emily Covington, described the five networks as having “proudly boycotted covering White House events.” “Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” a core antitrust law, Ms. Covington wrote. “The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.” The inquiry by the Justice Department is a profound escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing battles with the White House press corps. It also follows a pattern of the Trump administration using the levers of government against its perceived foes in the media. The Justice Department has subpoenaed reporters from The New York Times and seized a laptop from a Washington Post journalist. Officials at the Justice Department have discussed a potential investigation into the TV networks for at least a week, according to another person familiar with their deliberations. The investigation, which is still in its early stages, is being overseen by the department’s civil division, led by Stanley Woodward, the associate attorney general and a former White House lawyer.

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AM radio is disappearing from cars. Congress wants to stop that

Chances are the last time you listened to a traditional radio was in a car. Maybe you tuned in to a ballgame, a local news report, or a weather or traffic update. Maybe there’s even a talk or music station you’ve listened to for years, if not decades. In a car, it can be as simple as just tapping a button — much easier than finding it on your phone. Broadcasters are fighting to make sure that doesn’t have to change. Legislation passed in the House last month that would require all new cars to have an AM radio. Backers of the bill say the century-old tech is critical to ensuring all Americans still have a way to access emergency information. Radios have been standard equipment in cars since before most of today’s drivers were born.

The overwhelming majority of vehicles do include them. But automakers like Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo have been removing AM radios from some newer models over the past few years, especially electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, since EV motors affect the sound. “EVs and AM broadcasting technologies don’t always mix,” said John Bozzella, CEO of industry trade group Alliance for Automotive Innovation, during congressional testimony in April 2024. “The high-voltage electrical systems in EVs generate electromagnetic interference…. distort AM radio signals, affecting the listening experience for drivers and passengers. In other words: really staticky.” Auto industry research finds that drivers rarely listen to analog AM radio, instead tuning in to streaming and satellite radio or digital AM and FM broadcasts. But the National Association of Broadcasters, who represent the radio stations, argues there are serious safety reasons to keep analog AM radio in cars. Fewer and fewer American households have a traditional radio in their home, which can be an important source for emergency warnings during events like hurricanes, wildfires or terrorist attacks. That’s because some emergency situations can disrupt cell service, or a rush of usage can overwhelm networks, blocking phone alerts.

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Threats of political violence have America’s elected officials living in fear

In January, a caller began leaving threats in the voice mail inboxes of members of Congress: “I want to see their throat cut from ear to ear.” Another caller left a blunt threat for a U.S. senator: “I’m going to murder you, and I’m going to start with your children.” A state attorney general received this three-word missive: “Bang, bang, bang.” Serving in public office in the United States is dangerous. From state and local government to Congress, an unending river of violent threats is washing through the mailboxes, offices, voice mail and texts of those who govern the nation. Thousands of public servants are living, working and, in the final weeks of election season, campaigning in a state of fear. And it’s getting worse, officeholders said in dozens of interviews.

An investigation by The New York Times examining hundreds of records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, court documents and law enforcement logs has found that, over a two-year period from 2024 to August of this year, thousands of violent threats inundated the lives of elected officials in unprecedented ways. Some threats were vague; some were frighteningly specific. They promised torture, stabbing, rape and murder. They aimed at Republicans and Democrats alike, and at a range of officeholders from county clerks to United States senators. They targeted spouses, parents, siblings and children. At least 44 governors, as well as their staff and families, have been subjected to violent threats over the past two years, The Times’s investigation found. That’s also true of at least 70 of the nation’s 100 senators, and at least 185 members of the House of Representatives — nearly half the body. More than half of the country’s secretaries of state, most of whom serve as their states’ chief election officers, have received threats of violence. Actual violence also spiked during that period: assassination attempts against Donald Trump, the killing of Charlie Kirk, the assassination of a legislative leader and her husband in Minnesota, the firebombing of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in Pennsylvania. For many elected officials, the escalation is a grim testament to the toxicity of violent rhetoric and how it can shake the country’s democratic institutions.

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Trump announces Katie Bailey as new chief of White House-Hill relations

President Donald Trump announced the next chief for the White House’s Capitol Hill strategy on Saturday night, picking Katie Bailey, a former Republican Hill staffer. Bailey will replace James Braid in the role of director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, which oversees nominations and confirmations of Cabinet roles, relationships on Capitol Hill and the White House’s legislative priorities. Braid’s last day is Tuesday. Bailey has served as deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs since the beginning of the summer. She formerly worked for Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana and former Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and served in roles on multiple committees. Trump commended Bailey for assisting with the confirmations of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, saying she has “already delivered strong results.”

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4 killed after Isaias crashes into US Gulf Coast

Isaias peeled off hotel and condominium rooftops and facades along the Florida Panhandle before charging north Saturday, dishing out torrential rains and the threat of flash floods and tornadoes across the Southeast. At least four deaths were linked to the storm, including two people killed when trees fell onto homes in Florida and Alabama. Forecasters warned that flooding could stretch into the Appalachians. Isaias came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane Friday near Destin, Florida, a Gulf Coast vacation spot filled with high-rises and tourist shops. The storm weakened overnight but remained dangerous. Despite warnings of storm surges ahead of the storm, several major routes along the coast were open by daybreak Saturday and free of downed trees and power lines typically seen after major hurricanes.

Within the first hours after landfall, nearly 900,000 customers were without power, mostly in Florida and Alabama. Hurricane-force winds in the Florida Panhandle blew the roof off a Pensacola hotel, and the city’s mayor said the airport “took some damage.” The storm flattened a boathouse in Destin and ripped away part of the facade of a high-rise in Panama City Beach. A worker in a condominium parking lot swept piles of the building’s insulation while others put back beach chairs that had been tossed about. In Florida’s Escambia County, Sheriff Chip Simmons said a woman was killed when a tree fell on her home and a man died of carbon monoxide fumes from a generator running in his garage. Four of the man’s family members, ranging in age from 4 to 72, were treated but expected to survive, the sheriff said. Nearby in Gulf Breeze, Jayme Mitich wiped tears away Saturday as she surveyed the damage to her apartment. Her living room was soaked and covered in insulation.

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Erie, Pennsylvania shooter killed 8 people, then himself, police say

A 45-year-old man shot and killed eight people in Erie, Pennsylvania, ?including a pregnant woman and two children, then apparently shot himself to ?death, authorities said on Saturday at a press conference where they revealed details of the previous evening's shooting. The shooter, who has yet to be identified, died of an apparent self-inflicted wound before officers arrived on ?the scene, said Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah. "Some scenes stay with you long ?after you leave them. This is one of those tragic scenes," Lorah ?said. Police have yet to establish a motive, Lorah said. He said eight of the nine ?who died in the shooting were family members, and one was a family friend.

Lorah said ?after the shooter entered the home, he came out of the house and shot two women who appeared "distressed" and were pacing back and forth seeking assistance from neighbors. Police found the suspect on the second floor ?of the home on Perry Street, Lorah said. Erie Mayor Daria Devlin said the police ?department "arrived at a horrific scene, faced unimaginable circumstances, and carried out their duties with courage and professionalism." "They too ?are ?members of this community, and they too will carry the weight of what happened last night," she said. Earlier, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said in a statement on X that he had spoken with Mayor Devlin and had offered support following "the tragic mass shooting." Shapiro has ?long advocated for "common sense ?gun safety," and pushed ?the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2024 to pass gun reforms, including universal background checks and restrictions on ghost guns, which are homemade ?guns that lack serial numbers and cannot be traced. Several of ?Shapiro’s proposals have ?stalled in the state legislature. There have been more than 400 mass shootings in the US in 2026, according to data compiled by Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting ?as one ?in which four or more people are shot, excluding ?the shooter. The last recorded mass shootings in Pennsylvania took place in July in Philadelphia, according to the ?data.

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GOP lawmakers reject US-Russia diesel deal, Trump’s Zelensky comments

Several Republicans voiced objections to the Trump administration Russian diesel deal and President Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine needed a new leader. When asked about the deal, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said on Friday he supported the president’s decision but he doesn’t “support his decision to import it from Putin. Vladimir Putin is a butcher. He’s a butcher of his own people. And he’s a butcher of the good people of Ukraine.” “He [Putin] will never be our friend. So the president is doing everything he can to get diesel prices down. But you know what’s going to bring diesel prices down? An end to the war in Iran,” he continued. A reporter pressed former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who appeared alongside Kennedy while campaigning for Michigan’s open Senate seat, on whether he agreed with the president’s decision.

“No, not in importing it from Russia. I’ve actually called for a temporary export ban just to try to give some relief while farmers are out harvesting,” Rogers stated. The deal would permit Russia to supply 300,000 tons of diesel to the U.S. and the global marketplace amid growing pressure to address concerns over mounting energy costs due to global fuel shortages during the U.S.’s military operations against Iran and the Russia-Ukraine war. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) unveiled a bipartisan bill on Saturday that he says would block Trump from lifting sanctions, called the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) already signed on as a co-sponsor though it is unclear who the Democratic sponsor on the bill is. “[Ukrainian] President Volodymyr Zelensky has the overwhelming support of the United States Congress, he has the overwhelming support of the American people, and he has the overwhelming support of the Ukrainian people,” Fitzpatrick wrote on social media.

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Pentagon revises US military death toll in Iran war up to 21

The Pentagon revised the number of U.S. service members killed during the war with Iran to 21, adding two previously uncounted deaths to its casualty database amid mounting scrutiny over the conflict. The two additional deaths were classified as noncombat-related, according to multiple reports. They included Maj. Sorffly Davius, 46, an Army National Guard officer who died March 6 after experiencing a medical emergency in Kuwait, and an unidentified Navy sailor whose death in September was ruled a suicide. The updated figures, published Friday in the Defense Casualty Analysis System, also show 865 U.S. service members have been wounded since the war began Feb. 28. Davius’s death had previously been acknowledged by the military but was not reflected in the Pentagon’s public casualty figures.

The revision comes weeks after the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon had undercounted American military deaths in the Middle East. Some officials told the outlet that at least 22 service members had died, while another placed the figure at 23. Not all were directly connected to combat operations against Iran. War Secretary Pete Hegseth disputed the outlet’s findings at the time. The Pentagon’s latest figures separate casualties into two different categories. Operation Epic Fury, the initial campaign against Iran, accounts for 15 deaths and 417 wounded. A second category, labeled “overseas operations,” includes six deaths and 448 wounded since July 7. The distinction emerged after the Trump administration classified the Iran war as an “overseas operation” in July. At the time, a ceasefire between the United States and Iran collapsed. The administration declared Operation Epic Fury was over in May. The New York Times reported in July that four service members had been removed from the initial casualty tally, reducing the death count from 18 to 14. The Pentagon subsequently restored those deaths under the separate overseas operations designation as criticism mounted over its casualty reporting practices. The latest update also includes the previously uncounted death of Sgt. Davin Seibel, who died in a May training accident in Iraq. His death was classified under Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign against the Islamic State, bringing the total number of U.S. military deaths in the Middle East since February to at least 22.

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Lead Stories

Talarico’s 12-day absence from trail becomes fodder for GOP in Texas Senate race

James Talarico has been absent from the campaign trail over the past 12 days as the Texas Senate race enters a critical stretch, prompting Republicans to open a new line of attack on the Democratic nominee. At a campaign rally in San Antonio Wednesday, Texas attorney general and GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton led the crowd in a chant about his opponent’s whereabouts. “Where is James Talarico?” Paxton prompted the crowd to ask. Paxton’s campaign has also drawn attention to the topic in social media posts in recent days, and President Donald Trump has jumped into the debate on Truth Social, describing Talarico as “MISSING IN ACTION.” Talarico’s campaign said the Texas Democrat has been getting over being sick.

“James looks forward to being back out this weekend after recovering from the flu,” said JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Talarico’s campaign, on Thursday. “It’s been 83 days since James challenged Ken Paxton to come out of hiding and answer Texans’ question in a debate, which even President Trump called on him to do last night. Ball is in Paxton’s court.” Talarico revealed his flu diagnosis September 30 when he spoke virtually with the United States Hispanic Business Council, an event he was supposed to attend in person. “I was starting to feel kind of under the weather a few days ago and last night it got so bad that I went to the urgent care here in Dallas, and I was diagnosed with the flu,” Talarico told the crowd gathered in Edinburg, Texas, over video conference. “I’m running a fever, and I’m at my most contagious right now, and I guess I’ve been shaking too many hands on the campaign trail and so I want to keep everybody safe.” Talarico’s last public appearance in Texas took place on September 26 when he held a press conference on suspending the federal gas and diesel tax and ending the war with Iran.

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Why this election could be more complicated for Democrats than polls suggest

The party out of power typically makes gains in midterm elections. With President Trump unpopular and gas prices stubbornly high, both parties expect Democrats to win seats. Will it be a blue wave, though? And if so, will it be strong enough to flip both chambers of Congress? Not all waves have the same gravitational force. In 2006, when President George W. Bush and Republicans faced a backlash over the Iraq War, Democrats flipped 31 seats in the House and five in the Senate, winning both chambers. Mr. Bush called it a “thumpin’.” In 2018, in Mr. Trump’s first term, the wave was even larger in House races, with Democrats flipping 41 seats. They failed to win control of the Senate, however, and actually lost two seats to Republicans.

Signs are now piling up that another Democratic wave may be coming. Many officials in both parties privately say that they expect Democrats to win back the House, and that the main question is how many seats will change hands. The Senate, long seen as easier for Republicans to hold, now appears to be a tossup. Polls suggest that the party is playing defense even in states Mr. Trump won by double digits two years ago. Election forecasting is a dangerous business — Republican fortunes could still turn around — but history is often a useful guide. That is why officials in both parties wonder if these midterms will look like 2006, when Democrats flipped both chambers, or 2018, when Republicans were wiped out in House races but picked up two seats in the Senate. “All these races that are showing we’ve got a two- or three-point lead or it’s a tossup, we could end up losing all of them by two points,” former President Barack Obama said on Wednesday at a fund-raiser for Senate Democrats. “It’s within the margin of error.” Democrats currently face challenges that did not exist in those earlier midterms. Republican redistricting gains have narrowed the House battleground. The party also has a significant cash advantage. Most of this year’s battleground Senate races are in states Mr. Trump won easily in 2024. The country has only grown more polarized. And the Democratic Party’s brand remains diminished, with liberal voters mistrustful of its leaders.

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Inflation on many everyday items was entirely due to tariffs, NY Fed says

The cost of many everyday items would have declined last year and early this year without President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to the New York Federal Reserve. The cost of 67 categories of goods was 2.9 percentage points higher as of February thanks to tariffs, according to a paper from a team of researchers at the central bank’s New York arm. Without the levies, the team found that prices for the products they studied would have pulled back by almost 1%. The New York Fed’s report offers the clearest evidence yet of the impact of Trump’s tariffs — a core policy of his most recent campaign and second term in the White House — on consumers’ wallets. Economists had widely expected his levies to push up prices, though the precise effects had been hard to estimate due to the changing nature of the policy and the lack of transparency on how companies set their prices.

“The Trump administration has consistently maintained that the cost of tariffs will ultimately be borne by foreign exporters who rely on access to the American economy,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement to CNBC. The researchers didn’t say which 67 types of goods they evaluated. For each percentage point increase in the average tariff, the team said that consumer goods prices were higher by roughly a quarter of a percent a year later. Annual price growth in the dozens of goods they tracked peaked at the start of 2026, according to the report. But consumers are still expected to pay elevated prices into 2027 as a result of the policy, it said. Roughly two-thirds of the tariff-related price impact has directly come from the levies themselves, according to the New York Fed’s report. The remaining increase was driven by knock-on effects, such as U.S.-based companies that use imported parts and materials in their products. “Tariffs have a larger and more drawn-out impact on consumer prices than the direct effect alone would suggest,” the study’s three authors, Mary Amiti, Sebastian Heise and David Weinstein, wrote. Trump argued that companies could absorb the increased cost from tariffs rather than pass them down to shoppers in the form of price hikes. The New York Fed team said that around 26% of last year’s tariff increases ended up trickling into higher prices. The Supreme Court in February struck down many of Trump’s tariffs, resulting in billions of dollars in refunds to retailers. The White House has vowed to push forward with levies through alternative measures, and products imported from many countries now often face tariffs of about 10%. In many cases, that is significantly less than what they were under the earlier round of tariffs.

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U.S. budget deficit jumps to nearly $2 trillion

The U.S. budget deficit climbed to nearly $2 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the Congressional Budget Office, deepening the federal government’s persistent red-ink trend. The $1.993 trillion deficit was 12% above the 2025 level in nominal dollars, reaching the highest level since 2021. The U.S. spent $7.4 trillion last year, up 6%, and it collected $5.4 trillion in revenue, up 3%. The deficit also stayed high as a share of gross domestic product, the metric that economists watch closely. Although the final fiscal 2026 GDP number hasn’t been released yet, budget experts expect the deficit to surpass 6% of GDP, compared with 5.8% in fiscal 2025.

CBO’s preliminary full-year deficit reading shows the country’s finances stuck in an unusual rut that alarms policymakers but hasn’t moved them to change course. Six-plus years into an economic expansion, the U.S. is running annual deficits normally seen only during recessions and wars. This year’s jump in bond yields makes the fiscal trajectory even more challenging, because it drives up annual interest costs on the $32 trillion publicly held debt. The Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress took several steps to reduce red ink since gaining full control of Washington in early 2025. They shrank the federal workforce, curtailed clean-energy tax breaks, let some healthcare subsidies expire and lowered food-stamp enrollment. But President Trump’s hoped-for surge in tariff revenue didn’t happen fully because the Supreme Court ruled that he overstepped his legal authority, forcing the government to issue refunds and pushing net tariff collections below 2025. And Republicans increased deficits by expanding immigration-enforcement spending, extending expiring tax cuts and cutting taxes further.

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State Stories

Firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, Pentagon says

The firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, the Pentagon said Thursday, a stunning revelation about plans for the first military execution in more than 65 years after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had described it as being “public.” The Army announced this week that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3 after Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009. Hegseth, speaking to the conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice on Wednesday, said, “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.” Officials in the Pentagon clarified Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed and that more details would follow.

The revelation from Hegseth about the public nature of the execution — let alone one as violent as a firing squad — has raised further questions about how the death penalty is carried out in the U.S., especially after the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee. Hasan could choose to resist execution and file a habeas petition — a legal request to review the legality of a detention — in civilian court, which could significantly delay the execution, experts said. “It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School specializing in military law. Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert and law professor at Fordham University, said livestreaming an execution could make the process “much more transparent” and inform the public about all that capital punishment entails. Those are benefits that she said would be useful at a time when Pike's botched execution has raised fresh questions about the manner by which criminal defendants are put to death for their crimes. “I think it could possibly be a good idea because it would be transparent and the public would be fully aware that it’s happening,” she said.

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Cypress residents analyzed nearly 500 water bills. Here’s what they found

A Cypress neighborhood is raising questions about Aqua Texas’ interim water and wastewater rates after residents say their bills have increased significantly despite similar water usage. One Aqua Texas customer and their neighbors collected 491 billing statements from 57 households, covering April 2024 through September 2026. The customer transcribed the statements and checked the calculations against the totals printed on the bills. The bills show significant increases for the same amount of water used before and after Aqua Texas’ interim rates took effect on March 9, 2026. For a standard 5/8-inch household meter, the bills reviewed showed: 5,000 gallons: $138 to $172, a 25% increase. 10,000 gallons: $172 to $257, a 50% increase. 15,000 gallons: $206 to $370, an 80% increase. 20,000 gallons: $239 to $482, a 101% increase. For a 1-inch meter, 20,000 gallons increased from $300 to $634, a 112% increase. Liz M., an Aqua Texas customer in Cypress, said she noticed a dramatic change in her bills despite relatively consistent household water use.

“Well, it’s been an uproar, to be honest," she said. She said she was seeing bills increase even when her household's consumption remained similar. “We’re talking, 4,100 gallons, 4,500 gallons to $600.” Another customer said her bills showed a similar pattern. “We have a 5/8" meter, and I look at the bills. It was similar every year. It wasn’t changing a lot, the consumption of gallons, but price is going crazy.” The residents' review also found a significant change in wastewater charges. Under the previous rates, the group said none of the 282 statements it reviewed included a per-gallon sewer charge. Since the interim rates took effect, all 152 full-month statements reviewed charged $5.25 per 1,000 gallons for sewer based on 100% of the water used. The highest verified bill in the data was $808.56 for 27,300 gallons of water on a 1-inch meter in September 2026. Of that amount, $306.61 was attributed to sewer. Aqua Texas filed its statewide rate case with the Public Utility Commission of Texas in 2025, seeking to increase its annual revenue. The company says the interim rates reflect infrastructure investments made to improve reliability, water quality and service. Aqua Texas says it has invested nearly $700 million in infrastructure between 2004 and 2024 and that the current case represents its first statewide base-rate change in 20 years. The company also says the new tiered rate structure is designed to encourage water conservation. Texas faces increasing pressure on water supplies and more frequent drought conditions, according to Aqua Texas. The interim rates took effect March 9, 2026, but the rate case has not been finalized. Texas state Rep. Cody Harris has asked the PUC to stop the rate change, writing that the case has raised “serious concerns” among members of the Texas Legislature about protecting Texans and the regulatory framework governing investor-owned utilities. Customers say they want more clarity about how the new rates are calculated and what is driving the increases. “The fluctuations in the amount of water usage year over year, month over month, doesn’t make any sense.” Aqua Texas said the interim rates are subject to refund once the PUC issues a final order. The PUC has not yet scheduled a hearing to vote on the final rate case.

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After Garces Perez has surgery to remove bullet, Austin lawyer questions Dell Seton

Eleven days after being shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez finally had surgery to remove the bullet in his upper back last Thursday, Oct. 1, according to one of his attorneys, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. Garces Perez had told press during a Sept. 21 press conference that the bullet hadn’t been removed during his Sept. 20 visit to the hospital because it was too close to his spine. Austin’s Dell Seton Medical Center had released Garces Perez into ICE custody only four hours after being shot with the bullet still in his body. Now, Dell Seton’s actions on Sept. 20 are being questioned by Austin-area Catholic advocates and the founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, attorney Jim Harrington. In an Oct. 5 letter, after Garces Perez’s bullet had been removed, they asked the hospital why Garces Perez was released into immigration detention before his medical treatment was fully completed.

“We are also concerned that, if Dell Seton was unable or unwilling to continue his care, he was not transferred to another appropriate medical facility or medical professionals who could do so. Instead, ICE transported Mr. Garcés-Pérez to the Pearsall detention center, which is not a medical facility,” they wrote. On Sept. 22, an Ascension Seton spokesperson wrote to the Chronicle and other outlets that “established procedures and policies related to interactions with law enforcement” were “strictly followed” by the hospital that day. “We find that response troubling. If the circumstances surrounding Mr. Garcés-Pérez’s release were indeed consistent with standard procedures, then we believe those procedures themselves warrant careful review,” the letter’s co-signers continued, demanding that Dell Seton and Ascension Seton explain “what policies govern the treatment, discharge, and transfer of patients who are in ICE custody or who may be taken into ICE custody.” Just a day before his surgery to remove the bullet from his back, last Wednesday, Sept. 30, Garces Perez appeared in federal court in Austin under a new criminal charge: that Garces Perez had used his vehicle as a “dangerous and deadly weapon,” hit an ICE agent with his side mirror, and attempted to hit the agent a second time before being shot on Sept. 20, per the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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CPS Energy drops rate hike request citing 'financial pressures' on customers

CPS Energy, the city-owned power utility, has decided to drop its quest to increase rates through approval from the San Antonio City Council. But efforts to do so again, may resume next year. With San Antonians already facing higher grocery bills and gas prices, CPS Energy decided the time wasn’t right to ask customers to pay more. "We decided to defer a rate review at this time," said a statement from the utility. "We recognize the financial pressures facing our customers and will continue to implement efficiencies and cost-saving measures while maintaining safe, reliable service." "We have deferred two rate reviews and will revisit the need for our next rate increase in mid-2027. In the face of 20% cumulative inflation over the past five years, CPS Energy continues to hold the line on costs for our customers.

Rate support continues to be necessary to improve infrastructure for our community," the statement said. CPS Energy has said rapid population growth, energy demand and aging infrastructure are among the main reasons a rate hike will be needed in the near future. The San Antonio City Council on Dec. 7, 2023, approved a rate increase of 4.25% by CPS Energy. It went into effect on Feb. 1, 2024, and is the last rate hike on record. Texas Public Radio reached out to CPS Energy for a comment on its rate plans but did not get an immediate response. The utility has undergone some changes at the top this year. Frank Almaraz was recently named the president and CEO of CPS Energy, replacing Rudy Garza. CPS Energy has assistance programs, like the Casa Verde Weatherization Rebate Program and Affordability Discount Program (ADP). They are designed to support low-income and vulnerable residents. The utility reports that those in need can contact the customer service line at 210-353-2222 for energy bill assistance, payment plans, and additional information about customer programs. CPS Energy calls itself the nation’s largest public power, natural gas, and electric company with 970,000 electric and 390,000 natural gas customers in San Antonio and parts of seven nearby counties. They assert their energy bills rank among the lowest of the top 20 largest U.S. cities.

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Ted Cruz calls JD Vance ‘insecure’ as pair quarrel over presidential ambitions

Pop the popcorn, political junkies. Looks like the fight over who gets the 2028 Republican presidential nomination is already getting ugly. In comments to Politico, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took aim at JD Vance for suggesting the senator is already ginning up his next political bid. Cruz blasted the veep as “insecure” and denied he’s doing anything but helping his own party get ready for the midterms. “In my experience, people engage in political bomb-throwing when they’re feeling insecure,” Cruz told Politico. “So he’s welcome to make whatever comments he likes. I’m going to keep focusing on the midterms and helping us win on Election Day in the next 30 days.”

Cruz made the remark in response to an NBC News interview last week in which Vance accused the senator of launching a White House bid instead of helping the GOP retain control of both houses of Congress. “It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance said. “At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.” However messy things get between the two, some political observers said they’ll likely put aside their differences once one lands the GOP nomination. After all, during the 2016 presidential contest, Cruz blasted President Donald Trump as a liar and philanderer before helping phone-bank for him. For his part, Vance labeled Trump “America’s Hitler” before becoming his 2024 running mate. “While Vance and Cruz may be butting heads now, I suspect they’ll eventually kiss and make up,” Guardian columnist Arda Mahdawi wrote. “They are pragmatists, which is a polite way to say soulless opportunists.”

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Bud Kennedy: Who’s to blame if Ken Paxton loses to James Talarico? Paxton has an idea

The big question this fall is not whether Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, Bo French or TIm O’Hare will lose. They’re all in elections that are too close to call. James Talarico, Gina Hinojosa, Jon Rosenthal and Alisa Simmons are pushing them like no Democrats in 30 years. But no matter whether those Republicans lose, other Democrats will get elected across Texas. At least two local Texas House seats in Fort Worth, Arlington and Mansfield — maybe three — are on the verge of flipping to Democrats. That’s not only thanks to Talarico. Democratic thank-you notes also go to all the disenchanted Republicans who wanted to re-elect Sen. John Cornyn, Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright and Comptroller Kelly Hancock in the March primary instead of trashing them in favor of Paxton, French and now-Comptroller Don Huffines.

Over and over, Texas Republicans chose MAGA insurgents over sitting officials who had a combined total of 15 election victories. Is it any wonder this election is close? I’m not going to say that either Paxton, Abbott, French or O’Hare will lose to Talarico, Hinojosa, Rosenthal or Simmons. But some Republicans are already assigning pre-blame. You might even say that Paxton himself has already pinned the tail on an (elephant?) donkey. On Sept. 24, speaking in Washington to would-be donors, Paxton said President Trump’s off-year midterm Republican National Convention “dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped.” The words were caught on audio leaked to The New York Times. Other guests verified them. The same day, according to Politico, Paxton also said his campaign is “all coming — you know — from D.C. I don’t control message.” And the online Axios news site had more choice Paxton audio. “It’s the war,” he said in the same talk. “It’s gas prices. It’s diesel. ... I don’t know what’s behind some of the decisions.” Notably, he did not blame Gov. Abbott forcing school vouchers onto rural schools, or welcoming 600 data centers. Both discouraged many faithful Republicans. More notably, Paxton did not blame Paxton.

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GOP super PAC quietly launches, then removes, outlandish smear against Talarico

For weeks, major Republican-aligned super PACs have been attacking James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, on trans issues. Since September 6, Talarico’s opponents have spent an astonishing $37 million on these trans attacks. This includes over $30 million, mostly on broadcast ads, from Texas PAC, a super PAC created by Senate GOP leadership; over $4 million on streaming ads from MAGA Inc., President Trump’s super PAC; and $1.3 million on digital ads from America PAC, the super PAC created by Elon Musk. Several of these ads falsely claim that Talarico supports “taxpayer-funded sex changes on kids.” But Talarico never voted for such a policy and publicly supports a national ban on such procedures. This attack against Talarico has been rated “false” by PolitiFact. (In practice, such surgeries almost never occur.)

On Tuesday, Texas PAC launched a new digital-only ad on Meta platforms. In the ad, a woman named Miriam, who identifies herself only as “a mom of five,” looks into the camera and accuses Talarico of supporting putting “parents in jail if they do not support surgically transitioning their children.” “If you care about your children, do not vote for James Talarico,” Miriam concludes. Popular Information obtained the ad through the Meta Ad Library. It’s notable that Texas PAC, which has spent the vast majority of its dollars on broadcast ads, is running this ad on a digital platform. This allows Texas PAC to micro-target the ad to voters it believes may not closely scrutinize its claims. Digital ads, in general, also attract less media attention. The ad is not posted on the Texas PAC YouTube page or featured on its website. The new attack on Talarico is more outlandish than previous attacks, but equally false. The bill had nothing to do with surgeries or criminal proceedings. The claim that Talarico supports jailing parents who do not permit their children to receive gender transition surgeries is completely baseless. The woman who appears in the ad is Miriam Evans, a Republican activist in the Dallas area. She is a board member of Protecting Texas Children, a right-wing advocacy group that promotes “a Biblical view of gender and sexuality as stated in Genesis 1.” A recent post by the group celebrates that a “quiet rebellion is taking shape across Texas as communities increasingly reject Pride Month proclamations in favor of family-centered values.” Evans regularly speaks about her efforts to similar groups, including Moms for Liberty and local Republican Party chapters. Evans did not respond to calls or text messages seeking comment. Texas PAC did not respond to a phone call and email. About two hours after Popular Information reached out to Evans and Texas PAC about the ad, it was made “inactive” on Meta’s platforms.

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The border counties that swung to Trump are now short of workers. They may swing back.

Across his two businesses in this once-booming border town, David Reyna sees signs of ramped-up immigration enforcement everywhere. Fewer customers are coming to his lumberyard. Even fewer people are calling his upstairs real estate business. And the house he is building? It is stalled, a set of concrete slabs and wooden planks untouched for months. “We didn’t think this administration was going to crack down on undocumented workers that hard,” Reyna said, but “it is completely devastating the local construction industry. It’s grinding it down to a halt.” That slowdown has been weighing heavily on the 50-year-old as this slice of South Texas could determine control of Congress this fall. The Rio Grande Valley is carved up into three highly competitive House contests, all of which could be key in next month’s midterm elections. The region is also pivotal in unusually competitive races for Senate and governor.

Voters like Reyna, a second-generation Mexican American, helped Trump flip this overwhelmingly Latino area for the first time in generations, in part due to the president’s promise to lower the cost of living and secure the border. Trump rallied for GOP candidates in San Antonio on Wednesday. But here, in a part of the country that depends on illegal immigrant labor to fuel the economy, a different part of Trump’s immigration agenda — his effort to deport people already in the United States — has come into conflict with his economic agenda. And interviews with more than two dozen business leaders, local officials and economists suggest what polls show: Republicans may suffer as a result. A sharp uptick in arrests by federal agents has taken undocumented immigrants out of local labor forces that depend on them, from construction sites in new subdivisions — building permits are down sharply across the state — to shrimping boats on the Gulf Coast. A ban on commercial driver’s licenses for some immigrants has left the trucking industry hurting, too. The effects have been severe enough that some business owners traveled to Washington earlier this year to warn Trump administration officials that raids on construction sites could lose them the midterm elections.

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Sheriff reports 18 protesters escorted out of Trump's San Antonio rally

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has released more details about protests inside Freeman Coliseum during President Trump's GOP rally on Wednesday. Trump was heckled by protesters on a few occasions, and he heckled right back to cheers from the partisan attendees. "You know many of these protesters are paid. You know that, right?" the president asked the large crowd. "And they'll have this perfect shirt on, made by the best printer money can buy. I love how they all have the same exact signs. All beautiful pink and blue and purple, and all different colors," he said. "And they have perfect, made by the same printer, very expensive signs. They don't make these signs. They don't make these signs. These are paid protesters. They are paid by enemies of our nation."

The sheriff's office said it escorted 18 individuals out of the coliseum for disruptive behavior. No arrests were made on the inside. Outside of the venue, two criminal trespass warnings were issued, but again, no arrests were made. Hundreds of protesters lined up across the street from the coliseum. Inside the coliseum, protesters heckling Trump were drowned out by shouts from the crowd and chants of "USA! USA!" The sheriff's office said in a statement to Texas Public Radio that it's also reviewing videos of the rally. "The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has been made aware of videos that have surfaced regarding several disturbances that occurred inside the venue during the rally. We are investigating all reports and videos accordingly," the statement said. The statement also said that anyone who thinks they were victimized during the rally should call the sheriff's office at 210-335-6000. The president spoke for nearly two hours at the event, with 6,800 people in a limited-seating configuration. The coliseum can fit just under 12,000 people. Trump held the rally to boost support for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton and Republican Congressional candidate Carlos De La Cruz. The East Side event began shortly after Trump's 5 p.m. arrival aboard Air Force One at Joint Base San Antonio–Kelly Field, on the far West Side.

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‘He’s trying to divide’: What Bo French’s racist posts mean for him, Republicans and American politics

When the No. 4 University of Texas Longhorns beat No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes in a 24-23 upset on Sept. 12, Texas Railroad Commissioner hopeful Bo French didn’t join other Texans in celebrating the victory. Looking at photos of the post-game festivities in the stands, the former Tarrant County GOP chair saw a problem in the sea of burnt orange shirts: the faces of the celebrating students, cheering and smiling, were brown. ?“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” he wrote in a post on X. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” As state and national condemnation followed, French doubled down on his initial comments with other posts. “Like body-cams expose criminals, social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners,” French wrote in the post. “It’s everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine.”

Now, French’s post, and his history of similar hateful rhetoric on social media, could have real effects on his campaign for an office that has only been held by Republicans for decades. But it’s not just French who could be impacted. The ripple effects could also extend beyond French’s campaign, testing Texas’ GOP coalition at a time when Republicans were already concerned about voter turnout and enthusiasm this election. “Most Republicans look at what Bo French did and say that it was repugnant, it shouldn’t have been done,” University of Houston political science researcher and professor Brandon Rottinghaus said. “But not all of them said he should step down from the race or in the past when he’s made such comments to remove himself from politics.” French did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story. Rottinghaus said the biggest overarching effect of French’s rhetoric is changing what voters view as acceptable from politicians. “The Overton window is shifting on this,” Rottinghaus said. “The more to the extreme candidates talk about these issues, the more likely that the next generation of candidates upcoming will talk about those things in the exact same way.” That could happen regardless of the outcome in French’s race, but a win would signal to other politicians that more overtly racist rhetoric is acceptable to voters. Political linguist David Beaver agreed it will have effects on both political discourse and daily behavior of Texans and Americans at large. Beaver, a professor at Universitat Graz in Austria and professor emeritus at the University of Texas, studies how the linguistics used in politics shapes discussions, mindsets and political behavior.

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Parker, Collier say Fort Worth ISD takeover leaves key questions unanswered

Mayor Mattie Parker paused, seeking the right word. Fear came to mind first, but she said that’s not the word. What she has heard from Fort Worth ISD parents as a result of Texas taking over the 60,000-student district in March is more complicated. Anxiety. Parker and state Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, each discussed the takeover Wednesday during an event hosted by The Texas Tribune at Texas Christian University. Both said the state’s takeover process leaves key questions unanswered. “I always knew it was going to be a difficult transition, and that’s understandable,” Parker said.

FWISD needed change, Parker and Collier said. The state needs to give school districts enough time for a locally led turnaround, Collier said. But the legislator noted it shouldn’t be too much time. Intervention happens when a school or a district receives five straight F’s in the state’s academic accountability system, which is mostly based on STAAR. The threshold triggers a consideration by the Texas education commissioner on whether to either close down a failing school or replace a locally elected school board and superintendent with state appointees. Collier sees a flaw in the law: Elected trustees are sidelined the entire time without any power. She is proposing a bill that creates a continuity board that allows for a smooth transition of power from the state-appointed board of managers back to elected trustees. “What if the board of managers don’t do well? Why do you keep them in place?” Collier said. “They said that they were supposed to evaluate the progress of the school (district) within two years. If you haven’t done anything, you just need to give it back.”

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Nakeenya Wilson: 'The numbers have names': Delaying maternal death report waters down severity of lives lost

(Nakeenya Wilson is a founding member of the Maternal Health Equity Collaborative and served as community advocate on the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee.) The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee has delayed releasing this year's report. This has happened before. I know how all this works. For three years, I attended meetings as the appointed community advocate on the MMMRC. I logged into the Maternal Mortality Review Information Application system and reviewed cases of mothers who died bringing life into this world. We called them Maria, to remind ourselves that the numbers have names. We held great reverence for reviewing the facts of each case, determining cause of death and preventability, and making recommendations to reduce future losses. We learn from loss. Loss should gain something.

The state's joint biennial report on maternal morbidity and mortality is a formal way to do this. It goes beyond death certificates and the number of maternal deaths alone. It tells the collective truth of the women who died, identifying trends in their experiences before, during and in the 12 months after pregnancy ended. The review examines possible changes at the patient-family, provider, facility, system and community levels, and recommends what can be done differently to save pregnant and postpartum women in Texas. When I began my tenure on the committee, we were several years behind on case cohort review. The 2020 report was published while review of the cohort was still underway. Releasing it by the Sept. 1 statutory deadline made its findings available to inform policy decisions. Then September 2022 came. The draft was complete in the summer and was set to meet the deadline. On the day it was to be shared in the quarterly meeting, Department of State Health Services announced that it would not be released. My colleagues and I sat on the dais stunned.

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: He's already done this job well. Republican Chris Daniel for Harris County District Clerk

Put this one in the two solid choices bucket. Voters should be relieved to have a choice between qualified attorneys who understand how the Office of the Harris County District Clerk affects the end users — lawyers and their clients. Delays matter in criminal and civil matters. A delayed protective order, for example, could put a child at risk. A late publication of a ruling could make an appeal all but impossible to file on time. We’re endorsing Chris Daniel, 44, because has done the job before, and he did it well. This Republican was elected district clerk in 2010 at age 27, reelected in 2014 and then lost during the 2018 blue wave. During his two terms, he got done what had long been planned — ushering the court’s paper record-keeping system into the 21st century and making them more accessible to the public. His successor’s record, according to both candidates and our own conversations with practicing lawyers, has over the years including delays, dead links and a broken website.

“My goal is to once again step in there, clean up the mess, and bring it right back to ship,” Daniel said. Trained as an engineer, he attended law school at night to better understand his job. Lawyers who practice in the Harris County courts told us the office under his leadership got judges’ orders out in a timely manner. He was dedicated to transparency and even made it so you could get a U.S. passport at the downtown courthouse. We also admire that, after some cajoling, he told us he wasn’t voting for openly bigoted Bo French for railroad commissioner — and that was before French made national headlines for racist comments about University of Texas students. “I guess I'll just skip that race,” he said after we shared background on French. Daniel also said he wasn’t voting for the Democratic candidate, state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, because his tenure in the Legislature hasn’t been good for Jersey Village, where Daniel grew up. That’s fine. Overall, we’d encourage voters to take it as a sign of good faith that Daniel is the right sort of politician to run this largely ministerial office.

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Blue Origin announces expansion in Texas, creating 2,000 advanced jobs

On Oct. 8, Blue Origin announced it is expanding its footprint with a new state-of-the-art manufacturing campus in Hutto, Texas, named Constellation Park. The 1.3-million-square-foot multi-facility complex will serve as a central production hub for several of the company’s satellite and communications programs. “Texas has long understood what it takes to lead in space exploration,” said Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp. “We’re proud to grow our footprint here in Texas, tap into the world-class talent this state has to offer, and help ensure America remains the leader in space innovation.” Constellation Park will support manufacturing for TeraWave, Blue Origin’s satellite communications network, which delivers up to six terabits per second of symmetrical data anywhere on Earth, according to the press release. The facility will also expand production for Quartz, a global communications network featuring 3.7-meter aperture antennas that enable S-band and X-band connectivity.

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National Stories

ICE agent shoots man during arrest attempt in New York neighborhood

A federal immigration agent shot and wounded a man in a largely residential section of New York City on Thursday, eliciting swift rebukes from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who accused the Trump administration of “terrorizing our city.” The shooting happened about 4 p.m. in the Marble Hill neighborhood, as agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, tried to arrest the man while he was in a car with a 5-year-old boy believed to be his son in the back seat, Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, said at a news conference late Thursday night. Ms. Tisch said that a preliminary investigation had determined that at least one ICE agent had fired seven rounds at the car, striking the man, whom she identified as Oscar Belgal, 28, in the neck below the left ear. The child was not injured and was in the care of a family member late Thursday, she said.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the shooting had occurred as the agents tried to arrest an undocumented immigrant with a criminal record. The statement did not name the man or indicate why the agent fired at the car or if he knew there was a child in it. Mr. Mamdani, speaking at the news conference, called the shooting “an outrage.” “Tonight, a 5-year-old child sits traumatized and terrified,” the mayor said. “Tonight, millions of our neighbors are wondering whether they will be safe on our streets, in our schools, at their work sites.” Mr. Mamdani said he had spent two hours on the phone with President Trump and Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, trying unsuccessfully to negotiate the release of Mr. Belgal, who was taken to a nearby hospital after the shooting. Instead, the mayor said, ICE agents put Mr. Belgal in an unmarked vehicle and whisked him away. The target of the ICE operation was in the United States illegally from the Dominican Republic and had been convicted of grand larceny, the Homeland Security Department statement said. Ms. Tisch said Mr. Belgal had a grand larceny conviction and a drug case pending against him.

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Former ICC judge Navi Pillay wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize

Navi Pillay, a former ICC judge who oversaw a UN report that concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, ?won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday "for her efforts to promote peace and international law". This year's Nobel Peace Prize underlined the importance of maintaining an organised international order, the committee said in its citation. "The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack," it said. "We see a ?shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice. Whenever might overtakes ?right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence."

Born in Durban, in South Africa's Natal province, in a ?family of Indian Tamil origin, Navi Pillay, 85, has been a judge on several international courts, including the International Criminal Court and ?the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She was also chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory that concluded last ?year that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed the report as "scandalous". She has also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 1967 she became the first woman to start a law practice in Natal and the first non-white woman to serve on South Africa's High Court. Pillay held ?states and national leaders accountable and brought hope to victims of violence and conflict, and demonstrated a firm moral compass in her ?long career, said the committee. "A common thread runs from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service ?as a ?judge in some of the key international court cases of our time," said the citation. The Hague-based ICC has been the target of an escalating campaign by US President Donald Trump, who last month urged countries to leave it. Washington has already imposed targeted sanctions on several prosecutors and judges at the court and, according to sources, is considering wider sanctions in retaliation for the targeting of Israeli leaders. The committee was not directly criticising ?Trump by rewarding Pillay, according ?to Haakon Gjerloew, acting director ?of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. "I think it's generally rather a promotion of an international legal world order. Of course, he might react to someone who has been part of the ICC, but it's ?not a direct attack on Trump," Gjerloew said. The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this ?week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. Venezuelan ?opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won in 2025. The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 12 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million, is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded

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Trump throws his weight behind credit-card legislation most feared by banks

A credit-card bill that could dent banks’ profits and erode Visa’s and Mastercard's dominance has a new champion, and he sits in the Oval Office. President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and some top lieutenants on the campaign trail have endorsed a long-stalled legislation that would give merchants the option to choose a different card network to process transactions when their customers use a credit card. The legislation has the potential to upend the system of billions of dollars in fees that drive the credit-card industry, which means the president’s support has merchants salivating and some bankers concerned.

Large merchants have advocated for the bill for years, arguing it would lower the fees they pay when customers use a card and allow them to pass the savings onto consumers. Banks say that the fees are what power credit-card rewards, like cash back and travel points, and that passing the bill would force them to change those programs consumers love. The Credit Card Competition Act was originally introduced in 2022 with bipartisan support from Sens. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R., Kan.). When he was a senator, Vance added his name as a co-sponsor. Trump and others have picked it up as part of efforts to talk about affordability issues with the public. The bill aims to add competition to the card networks that connect the consumer’s bank to the merchant’s and move the payments, an industry dominated by Visa and Mastercard. Currently, a card issuer (like a bank) partners with a network for each card, determining the rails that will be used to move the payments. The network determines the fees that are charged each time a card is used, but the money is mostly pocketed by the issuer. Under the bill, each card issued by a major bank would be required to support at least two networks, including smaller competitors, allowing merchants to choose a network that charges a lower fee.

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‘You’ve hired half the Third Reich’: Key moments From the Georgia Senate debate

Senator Jon Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent, and Representative Mike Collins, the Republican challenger, faced off Thursday night in the first debate in the battle for Georgia’s Senate seat. The pressure was on Mr. Collins, who lags in the polls, to show that he is still in the fight to represent a state that President Trump carried in 2024. The two-term congressman’s polling numbers have looked so dismal that some Republicans have shifted resources away from the race. Mr. Collins held his own against the more polished Mr. Ossoff on Thursday, but the zingers of the night came from the incumbent. Mr. Ossoff asked Mr. Collins at least eight times to explain how President Trump’s tariffs have helped Georgians. We counted. The question was at the core of the incumbent’s strategy to hold Mr. Collins accountable for his voting record over the last year. In addition to tariffs, Mr. Ossoff returned time and again to Mr. Collins’s support for the war in Iran and his vote to pass Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which included cuts to Medicaid and health insurance premiums.

In many of the most heated moments of the debate, Mr. Collins returned to one of his favorite attacks against Mr. Ossoff: that he comes from a wealthy family. Mr. Collins called Mr. Ossoff a “trust fund kid who’s never had a job in his life” and who does not care about gas prices because he “wants you riding on mass transit.” Mr. Ossoff — whose primary holding is a blind trust worth between $1 million and $5 million, according to his financial disclosures — did not engage with the jabs for most of the debate. But in his closing argument, he returned fire at Mr. Collins for portraying himself as an everyday trucker when in reality he owns a trucking company worth as much as $25 million, according to his financial disclosure report. In one of the zingers of the night, Mr. Ossoff accused Mr. Collins of hiring “half the Third Reich,” referring to the Republican congressman’s history of hiring aides who have espoused white nationalist and antisemitic views. In another attack line that immediately circulated on social media, the Democrat also slammed Mr. Collins for reposting a video in 2024 of white male students taunting and jeering at a female Black student with racist and profane remarks. “If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery,” Mr. Ossoff said, “Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club.”

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Trump announces 'historic' enrollment of 70 million children into Trump Accounts

President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed what he called the "historic" enrollment of 70 million American children into his Trump Accounts, calling them “a step to ensure every American child has a fair shot at the American Dream.” The administration announced that beginning on Oct. 1, the Treasury Department automatically enrolled 60 million children under age 18 in the president’s signature investment accounts in addition to the 10 million whose parents opted into the accounts following their official release on July 4. “With automatic enrollment now complete, every American child under the age of 18 has a Trump Account in their name, making it easier than ever for families to participate,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement.

According to the administration, $2.2 billion has been deposited into the accounts since their release on July 4. The Treasury Department pledged to pour a one-time $1,000 seed contribution for each child born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028. Children born outside of that range will not receive the seed contribution from the Treasury — but their family members and acquaintances are able to deposit money into the accounts. Several corporations — including Uber and Nvidia — and philanthropists — such as Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, who seeded the program with a $6.25 billion contribution, also donated to the accounts. Trump, encircled by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, and the Dells, predicted, "So if all goes well, which I think it will, they'll end up being quite rich by the time they're 18 and then 21." Trump said in January when he announced the initiative that a number of major U.S. companies pledged to match the federal government's initial contribution for eligible employees' children, including Charles Schwab, Robinhood, SoFi, Uber, Charter Communication and BNY, and that several others had agreed to make contributions.

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Kimberly Guilfoyle associate says when she asked him for $100K, it was "quid pro quo"

Businessman Eric Deters said he has "no doubt it was pay to play," claiming Kimberly Guilfoyle, now the U.S. ambassador to Greece and ex-fiancee of Donald Trump Jr., asked him to wire $100,000 to pay her American Express bill in exchange for her help with the Trump administration ahead of Guilfoyle's Senate confirmation hearing. In an interview with CBS News, Deters said Guilfoyle should "lose her ambassadorship" over her alleged behavior, after texts between the two of them from last July were published in the Wall Street Journal. "It was quid pro quo," Deters told CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang Thursday. Deters said he never gave her the money. "Unfortunately for Kimberly Guilfoyle, at that time, at that moment in time, I didn't have $100,000 to spare to give to Kimberly Guilfoyle, or I actually would have been a dumbass enough to do it."

Deters said he made up an "excuse" that his wife wouldn't go along with it. White House officials were told that the text messages between Guilfoyle and Deters were authentic, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. Some Trump aides expressed displeasure about Guilfoyle's actions, they said. The Wall Street Journal first reported this week that Guilfoyle allegedly reached out to Deters days before her congressional hearing to become a U.S. ambassador, saying she needed $100,000 to pay off her American Express credit debt in a way that wouldn't be publicly visible. "It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express that's all that will show," Guilfoyle wrote to Deters on July 3, according to screen shots of texts provided to CBS News. "I have been officially announced honey please I need you to get this done for me today," she wrote, punctuating the message with a prayer-hands emoji. Her confirmation hearing took place on July 9. She sent him "American Express Instructions" in a PDF document.

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Sparks fly as Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers face off in first Michigan Senate debate

The two candidates battling for Michigan’s open Senate seat tangled here Thursday over the war in Iran, gas prices and tariffs in a debate that often veered into mean-spirited sniping. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed sought to portray his Republican rival, former Rep. Mike Rogers, as a weak-willed loyalist to President Donald Trump who has recently changed his positions on certain issues out of political necessity. Rogers tried to frame El-Sayed as a “con man” who is making promises he cannot pay for without raising taxes or other costs. Each repeatedly taunted the other over real estate — a home Rogers has in Florida and property El-Sayed’s wife owns in the United Arab Emirates. The debate, hosted by NBC affiliate WOOD of Grand Rapids, became so punchy at times that moderator Rick Albin pleaded for the candidates to rein in their attacks.

“I’d like to be a part of the debate, too,” Albin interjected at one point. Michigan’s Senate race is one of the most competitive and closely watched in the country, and the results could help determine partisan control of the chamber. Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election. Backed by progressive luminaries such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., El-Sayed emerged from a nasty primary against Rep. Haley Stevens, who positioned herself as a more moderate Democrat. Since then, Republicans eager to win a Senate seat in the state for the first time since 1994 have tried to paint El-Sayed as an extremist. The debate opened with Albin asking both candidates whether, at a time of high gas prices related to the war with Iran, they would support a pause on the federal gas tax. Both said they would support a pause, but the question led into a deeper discussion about the conflict. Rogers, who initially supported the war, recently said he wants it to end swiftly.

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USS Lincoln returns home after long deployment

After more than 10 months at sea, thousands of sailors Thursday poured out of the the USS Lincoln on San Diego Bay to thunderous cheers, streaming tears and emotional hugs, marking a homecoming that included new dads who met babies born while they were away on a historic deployment supporting the Iran war. The reunion followed an emotional rollercoaster for families who described crying and losing sleep after hearing reports of supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among the crew during the deployment that spent a record 265 days of uninterrupted time at sea. Many said they only could communicate with family via the occasional email or rare WhatsApp calls. Abel Ramirez, 20, was glad to have that all behind him. He walked off the carrier with a big grin, overjoyed that his first deployment was over.

“It feels amazing,” he said while headed out to search for his parents who traveled from Texas. “There was a certain point when I never thought I would come off.” Cassity Garduque, 14, waved as her mom in her sailor uniform frantically waved back from the top deck after the ship docked at the pier. “It feels really overwhelming,” she said about being seeing her mom again. “She missed most of my seventh grade and my birthday.” She added that she’s happy her mom won’t be eating ramen almost every day and can celebrate with her now. Capt. Daniel Keeler, the ship’s commanding officer, said most of the crew was on their first deployment and that the issues they faced were normal for such a long deployment, adding everyone had access to four meals a day. “It’s a floating city as you can see and at any moment there might be a clogged toilet,” he said. The Navy initially downplayed any problems during the deployment, and President Donald Trump commented in August that the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment was “not nearly long enough.” Navy leaders eventually acknowledged there were some issues aboard. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew out to the Lincoln on Wednesday to give the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive. Hegseth told the crew that “what makes the U.S. military and the U.S. Navy and all these sailors different is that you adapt and that you’re resilient and you overcome — you finish the mission nonetheless.”

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Lead Stories

Texas Latino lawmakers clash with national Democrats in a call over the gubernatorial race

Latino Democratic leaders are renewing calls for the Democratic Governors Association to invest more heavily in Texas after a New York Times/Siena College poll showed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa narrowly leading Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The poll released Saturday found Hinojosa ahead of Abbott by three points, a result within the poll's margin of error. It comes as Hinojosa continues to face a huge financial disadvantage against the three-term Republican governor. Abbott's reelection campaign and his Republican allies are outspending her by roughly 10-to-1. More than 70 Latino Democratic leaders from across the country sent a letter this week urging the DGA and its chair, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, to invest $10 million in the Texas governor's race. The New York Times first reported on the letter, which CBS News has confirmed.

Beshear, a potential 2028 presidential contender, has been constrained by the DGA's commitments to first protect incumbent Democratic governors seeking reelection, though some of those incumbents are currently in strong positions. In a statement, Beshear called Hinojosa a "great candidate" and said the DGA is "currently investing by paying expenses and providing staff, with more to come." "My goal as chair of the DGA this year is to win as many races as we can and that's exactly what we're doing by going on offense and expanding the map," Beshear said. Julián Castro, who served as secretary of housing and urban development in the Obama administration, renewed the push Saturday following the release of the New York Times poll. Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio and a 2020 presidential contender, took to social media to call for the DGA and Beshear to support Hinojosa "in a real way." "How much more evidence" of Hinojosa's "strength in Texas" will Beshear and the DGA "have to see before they support her in a real way?" Castro wrote. "She can win!" The renewed pressure comes as Democrats increasingly see the Lone Star state as competitive in the closing weeks of the campaign, even as Hinojosa continues to face a substantial spending disadvantage — what some Republicans are describing as a "firewall" — in a state that President Trump won by nearly 14 points in 2024.

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FCC considers allowing more political robocalls before midterms

The Federal Communications Commission is considering a request by a conservative group to loosen rules on political robocalls, including those with artificial intelligence-generated voices, before November’s midterm elections. Federal law currently bans most robocalls to cellphones unless the caller gets consent beforehand. The petition calls for a waiver that would allow political groups to use artificial or prerecorded voices in unsolicited wireless calls. The Republican-led FCC advanced the request for public comment and could rule on it as soon as late October. Consumer advocacy groups warn the proposed change could trigger a surge of unwanted, partisan and potentially misleading automated calls in the critical final days of the election, which will determine which party controls Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term.

The potential perils became evident two years ago during the presidential primary season when thousands of voters in New Hampshire received a robocall with an AI-generated voice of then-President Joe Biden. The call suggested voters should forgo casting a ballot in the primary and “save” their votes for the general election. Under the waiver request before the FCC, some state and federal laws protecting against deception and voter intimidation would continue to prohibit certain misleading election-related messages. But granting it could weaken a major deterrent for bad actors, said Tim Harper, who leads the elections team at the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology. Such a ruling close to Election Day would open “a huge opportunity for abuse during a period where harm has outsized impact,” he said. “Campaigns will use this technology to target voters in deceptive ways.” The Club for Growth, a right-leaning economic policy group seeking the change, said it could help political organizations better communicate with potential voters, including in more languages, and improve polling accuracy by helping groups reach more voters. It calls current federal rules outdated and argues they dampen freedom of speech.

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Mexico’s Sheinbaum is getting fed up with playing nice with the U.S.

President Claudia Sheinbaum began her workday at dawn last week by grilling Mexico’s top security and intelligence officials. She wasn’t happy. Inside the ornate National Palace, Sheinbaum confronted some of her most trusted aides over their plans to freeze the local bank accounts of former Mexican officials linked to a state governor from Sheinbaum’s ruling party. The U.S. Treasury was about to target those former officials with sanctions for allegedly accepting bribes to protect the Sinaloa cartel’s drug-smuggling operations, said people familiar with the discussion. To Sheinbaum, her security chiefs were going beyond the close cooperation with American law enforcement that has been the hallmark of her two-year tenure by taking for granted that the U.S. had solid evidence linking the former officials to drug cartels, these people said.

She was unusually harsh with Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, a confidant who has guided her policies throughout her political career, the people said. Sheinbaum said that the U.S. measures were part of an effort to destabilize Mexico and her government, they added. In the end, Sheinbaum consented to freeze the former officials’ accounts. Refusing to do so would have likely strained relations with the U.S. Spokespeople for Sheinbaum and García Harfuch declined to comment. The episode reflects the harsher tone that Sheinbaum is taking toward American efforts to fight drug trafficking on her country’s soil and the Trump administration’s targeting of her leftist party, Morena. In recent weeks, Sheinbaum has criticized the U.S. at mass rallies and public events, citing the northern neighbor’s insatiable demand for narcotics and defending Mexican sovereignty as President Trump has repeatedly said that Mexico is run by cartels. “We Mexicans don’t want interference, interventionism, or violations of our territorial integrity,” she said before tens of thousands of supporters in Mexico City’s central Zócalo square late last month. She has also confronted state governors from opposition parties who want to strengthen security cooperation with the U.S.

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Trump makes last-minute pitch in San Antonio after upending the GOP map

President Donald Trump’s supporters started lining up at 2:30 p.m. for a last-minute campaign rally at San Antonio’s Freeman Coliseum on Wednesday evening. Trump was in town rallying support for two candidates who owe their political careers to the president, and are now facing tougher-than-expected races in red territory this November. Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Ken Paxton is trailing Democrat James Talarico in recent polls — a nightmare scenario for national Republicans trying to defend a large number of incumbents on the Senate map this year. Trump endorsed Paxton over U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) just as voting started in their primary runoff, after national Republicans had already spent tens of millions of dollars protecting Cornyn. Meanwhile Carlos De La Cruz, the GOP nominee in Texas’ 35th Congressional District, is in a tough race for a district that was drawn specifically to elect a Republican.

Now weeks out from the election, Trump is working to excite his supporters for both hand-picked candidates in a state he won overwhelmingly just two years ago — amid GOP apathy without him on the ballot. Wednesday’s rally was Trump’s fourth time in Texas in six weeks, and his PACs are now some of the biggest spenders in Texas races as the GOP fights to hold onto its majorities in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. “I’m very proud of [Paxton], and I think he’s going to be an unbelievable senator,” Trump told the crowd after being interrupted multiple times by protesters. “… We also need to collect a proud 20-year Air Force veteran to Congress, Carlos De La Cruz.” Outside of the Freeman Coliseum, supporters winding through the security weren’t particularly interested in either of the down-ballot candidates. They came decked out in Trump T-shirts, hats, earrings and even costumes — and many said they were there to see one man only. “This is a historic event for us here in San Antonio,” said Jesse V., a 32-year-old from Comal County, who asked to withhold his last name because of his left-leaning employer. “I’m super excited to support the greatest president. This is my first rally.”

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State Stories

Incoming DART CEO Nathaniel Ford named in Florida spending probe

Incoming Dallas Area Rapid Transit CEO Nathaniel Ford Sr. is among those whose communications are being sought by Florida investigators examining contracts and spending at the financially troubled Jacksonville Transportation Authority, which he previously led. The Florida attorney general’s office subpoenaed agency records, including communications like emails and texts involving Ford, his spouse and the owner of a consulting firm. The subpoena seeks records from the agency from 2023 to 2025, including tuition reimbursement records, payments for massages and murals, card statements and ridership reports for the authority’s controversial autonomous vehicle program.

JTA officials confirmed on Sept. 29 they had received the subpoena from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s Office of Statewide Prosecution, nonprofit Florida news outlet Jacksonville Today reported. The investigation comes as the Jacksonville public transit agency faces a nearly $40 million budget shortfall and layoffs affecting roughly 200 employees, Florida news outlets reported. The authority said it is “prepared to fully cooperate” with investigators in a statement reported by local media. Ford is scheduled to start as DART’s president and CEO on Oct. 26 after leading the JTA for 13 years. A DART spokesperson said Ford and DART Board Chair Randall Bryant did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday night. Bryant said earlier this year his agency had secured “one of the most talented, sought-out transit executives” in hiring Ford, pointing to his decades of experience serving as CEO of transportation agencies in Atlanta, San Francisco and Jacksonville. Ford’s hire was controversial among DART’s board, who voted 9-6 in his favor this summer. Some touted his decades of experience leading transit agencies and others cautioned against his history.

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ICE arrests in the Austin area have risen over 300% since start of Trump's second term

Immigration and Customs Enforcement received renewed scrutiny and media attention across the nation following the shooting of Wilber Garces Perez on Sept. 20 in North Austin. But the effects of ICE's presence in the Austin area increased months before the shooting, following a statewide and national trend. Arrest numbers, provided by ICE to the Deportation Data Project, show a marked increase starting around the start of President Donald Trump's second term. The number of ICE arrests that result in detention has risen by 308% from January 2025 to July 2026. In March 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced "Operation Take Back America." "The Justice Department has taken numerous steps to empower prosecutors and law enforcement operating in Districts around the country to protect their communities," Blanche's memorandum said.

From January to July of 2025, the first six months of President Trump's second term, there were 2,844 arrests with detentions in the Austin area. This year, there were 4,817 over the same period. Arrests spiked during May through July of 2026. Since October 2022 — the earliest available data — the days with the highest numbers of arrests were mostly in May, June and July of this year, with 15 of the 20 highest days of arrests taking place during those three months. On June 27, 2026, 83 people were arrested and detained, the most of any day since October 2022. "In President Trump’s first year back in office," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson responded over email, "more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations." DHS also called into question the validity of the data and analysis, which was provided by ICE through a public information request and processed by the Deportation Data Project.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: Angela Paxton’s ‘whole team’ ad gets politics totally wrong

Political ad season is always cringe worthy. But state Sen. Angela Paxton’s ad calling for people to support “the whole team” was hard to watch not only because of how debasing it was for her personally, but because of the way it pointed up why American politics is broken. The ad features the senator in a dark business suit wearing a Texas-shaped necklace. She faces the camera, sitting before the stairwell of what appears to be a home. She promises to talk about “the elephant in the room.”

Then, she says nothing at all about the elephant in the room, her estranged husband, Attorney General Ken Paxton. She is totally silent on the man she is divorcing on “biblical grounds,” which everyone understands means marital affairs. The ad doesn’t deliver on what she promises, because she has nothing whatsoever to say about a genuine concern every voter should have — the lower-than-low character of Ken Paxton. To us, that doesn’t just include infidelity. It includes his vile abuses of his office; his decision to chase off or fire conservatives of conscience in the attorney general’s office, the allegations of bribery, the interference in a federal investigation, the mysterious wealth he’s gained while in office. We could go on. Sen. Paxton encourages us to ignore all that because nothing is more important than the Republican “team” winning in November. But there is something more important. Elections aren’t about parties, or they shouldn’t be. No less than Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill in 2017 to eliminate straight-ticket voting. Why? Because it’s bad for democracy. Elections should be about the individuals we decide should represent us in important public offices. Voters have an obligation to look at every person running, to weigh their positions and their character. Because both matter.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: For Senate District 9, we recommend Sen. Taylor Rehmet

Democratic incumbent Taylor Rehmet has had little time to prove himself in Texas Senate District 9. He earned the seat in a special election early this year, making national headlines when he defeated challenger Leigh Wambsganss, who was endorsed by President Trump, in a traditionally Republican stronghold. Rehmet, 34, and Wambsganss, 59, meet again in this race, trying to earn four full years representing the district that spans part of Tarrant County — a large swath of Fort Worth plus suburbs including Southlake, Keller, North Richland Hills and Haltom City. Though Rehmet hasn’t had the chance to gain traction in Austin — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick refused to give him a committee assignment this year — he and his office have been busy talking to constituents, learning about the district’s needs and drafting legislation. We recommended him in the January special election runoff, and we recommend him again over Wambsganss in this race.

Rehmet, a U.S. Air Force veteran, machinist and union leader, is more poised now while retaining the pragmatic approach that won over voters eight months ago. He speaks about affordability in a sophisticated way, addressing artificial intelligence surveillance pricing tools at grocery stores and junk fees from leasing offices. He acknowledges the growing appetite for lower property taxes but doesn’t make broad, unrealistic promises to eliminate them. Instead, he proposes that the state take on a larger share of funding public schools, evaluating corporate tax incentives to possibly shift some of the burden off homeowners. He offers nuance in his discussion of the Texas Education Agency takeover of Fort Worth ISD, specifically noting progress made under former Superintendent Karen Molinar before she was ousted by the state. There are positions we don’t agree with, including his staunch opposition to private school education savings account programs and to Senate Bill 840, designed to encourage more affordable housing. But Rehmet does show a willingness to work across the aisle to serve the best interests of his constituents and his target group — everyday working Texans. Wambsganss, chief communications officer for Patriot Mobile, is campaigning on concerns shared by both parties, including data centers and postsecondary education, while also focusing on culture war issues that don’t affect most Texans. She writes that “Texas must come before party politics” while also warning that Rehmet “has aligned himself with an extreme agenda.” She did not make herself available to be interviewed. We’d like to see Rehmet serve a full term, hopeful that his sensible approach and willingness to listen and learn serve District 9 well.

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: We recommend Rep. Mano DeAyala for reelection

Mano DeAyala hasn’t been in office long but he’s already fought off Democrat challenges and members of his own party to represent House District 133. The attorney was accused of being a RINO after his vote to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton but he still won his primary handily. This time around, he was unopposed by fellow Republicans, but will have to face a serious contender in Democrat Josh Wallenstein, a lawyer who has previously run in Democratic primaries for Harris County Department of Education Board of Trustees and state representative. We still believe DeAyala is the right pick for the red district that includes the Energy Corridor and three of the small “villages” out that way. But we hope that feeling the pinch of a Stanford-educated, Texas-born lawyer who has worked in anti-corruption will push DeAyala toward bills that boost school funding and away from bills like SB 17 that restricted property purchases from foreign entities and some individuals or his anti-SLAPP bill that would have made it harder for successful defendants in libel and defamation lawsuits to recoup legal fees. That last one was shelved — thank goodness.

We want to see the DeAyala who worked across the aisle with Democratic Rep. Ann Johnson to add much-needed civil district courts to Harris County. Who helps author bipartisan bills that make mail-in ballots easier to read for people with low vision. Who has helped bring back flood infrastructure dollars for his district and even boosted Houston’s efforts to improve its aging water infrastructure. We believe those are the bread and butter issues his constituents care about. Meeting with us in person, he aptly defended that record against critiques from Wallenstein. Both candidates had compelling lived experience relevant for the job. Wallenstein’s own son was in Houston ISD when it was taken over by the state. It wasn’t a good experience. Fully funding public schools from the state is his alternative to the dueling property tax relief plans currently on the table for the governor and lieutenant governor. And we especially liked his reminder that much of the district rents and that they deserve some relief, too. “I’m running so that I can represent everybody, homeowners and renters,” Wallenstein, 53, said, adding that he wouldn’t be beholden to any party. DeAyala, 50, meanwhile, grew up in the district, as did his wife. “It’s an area that I know very well and I can represent very well.” He touted the Legislature’s $8.5 billion school funding bill last session, which didn’t even adjust the basic per-student allotment to meet rising inflation. “Is there more to do? Yes,” DeAyala said. Still, his vision for public education dollars emphasized tying funding to classrooms and classroom outcomes. This was a tough call, but ultimately we think his experience as an incumbent offers the best way to deliver for the district, and Wallenstein failed to convince us otherwise.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: We recommend Rep. Matt Shaheen for reelection

House District 66 covers a fast-growing portion of Collin County, spanning parts of Celina, Frisco, Plano and Prosper. As the region continues to add residents, questions about school enrollment, transportation, traffic, housing and maintaining the quality of life that has drawn residents and families to the area will be top of mind. We recommend Republican Matt Shaheen for a seventh term in Austin over a less experienced Democratic candidate, Sandeep Srivastava. Shaheen, 61, lives in Plano and has represented the district since 2015. He has established himself as a serious and engaged legislator. During the last legislative session, he chaired the House Committee on Elections and also served on the House Committee on Higher Education.

Following House Democrats’ quorum break in August 2025, Shaheen authored a bill that prohibits state lawmakers from raising political funds while absent from the Legislature for the purpose of breaking a quorum. This is the kind of policy work that has defined much of his tenure in Austin. Shaheen strikes us as sincere in his effort to represent a solidly conservative district, and he is not beholden to the increasingly inflammatory rhetoric that has plagued some parts of his party. He issued a statement last month condemning Bo French’s remarks targeting University of Texas at Austin students and told us French’s comments “fall below the standards of the Republican Party. It’s just not helpful at all.” Shaheen spoke knowledgeably about his legislative priorities — maintaining Texas’ strong economy and focusing on workforce development. He also pointed to a strong resume of work in the Legislature on issues ranging from combating sex trafficking to supporting Texas’ Education Savings Account program. We don’t agree with Shaheen on every issue. He didn’t support Senate Bill 840, a housing bill passed last year that this Editorial Board has supported. SB 840 helps address the state’s housing shortage by allowing apartments to be built in commercial districts by right in certain large cities. But Shaheen has a proven track record. We appreciate that he is a conservative who is true to his word and is committed to governing in a pragmatic, measured way. We aren’t confident that his opponent is ready to serve the district in Austin. Srivastava, 58, hasn’t held any previous positions in public office. He previously ran for Plano City Council and twice for Texas’ 3rd Congressional District. His desire to serve strikes us as genuine, but he offered few concrete policy proposals for how he would address the district’s most pressing challenges. Matched against Shaheen’s experience in the House and five years as a Collin County commissioner, Srivastava is not yet prepared for the demands of the Legislature. We recommend voters choose Shaheen.

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Texas childcare centers face soaring insurance costs as insurers leave the market

Spend a few minutes in a room full of toddlers and it's easy to understand why running a childcare center comes with risks. At Happy Days School in Garland, toddlers chase balloons across a small classroom as director Delia Merritt reminds them to share and keep their hands – and teeth – to themselves. "No, ma'am," Merritt gently scolds the 16-month-old baby who bit her classmate. No one is hurt, but it's the kind of thing Merritt and her staff worry about. "With insurance going up the way it is ... as far as the liability numbers, it makes it really, really hard," Merritt said. Playground injuries, falls, transportation, and even Texas weather have always made childcare centers expensive to insure. But insurance agent Samantha Phillips said those everyday risks aren't the reason the industry has reached a tipping point. Phillips specializes in insurance in the childcare industry.

She said that happened as states began giving survivors of childhood sexual abuse more time to seek justice. In 2019, Texas lawmakers doubled the window for certain childhood sexual-abuse lawsuits from 15 to 30 years. The change was intended to give survivors more time to bring a case. But Phillips said it also had an unintended consequence for insurers: They could face claims tied to policies written decades earlier. "What happened as an unanticipated ripple effect that nobody could have predicted was the amount of claims and the amount of old expired insurance policies that ended up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in nuclear verdicts as a result," Phillips said. With no way to predict how many more claims could surface, Phillips said some insurers simply stopped covering childcare centers. "We saw a mass exodus of insurance carriers leave the industry," Phillips said. "They were just trying to cut their losses." There are only two traditional insurance carriers left in Texas. So, providers like Merritt are left with fewer choices and, in some cases, much higher bills. In 2023, Merritt said Happy Days paid about $30,000 for insurance. The next year, the quote jumped to $40,000, even though the center hasn't filed a claim in seven years.

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Houston ISD loses roughly 9,000 students, more than twice its projection

Houston ISD lost roughly twice the number of students district leaders had initially projected to lose. In June, officials projected approximately 4,000 students would leave the district and crafted their budget to withstand the roughly $50 million dollars it would lose in state funding tied to student enrollment. However, at a Texas Senate Education hearing Tuesday, state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles said the number of students who left was closer to 10,000. Enrollment in the district has been steadily declining for years. This is not the first time the district's projections have fallen short of reality. For the 2024-2025 school year, the district's projections were short by roughly 1,200 students when the district lost nearly 8,000.

Miles insisted that despite the enrollment losses, his reforms and the district's model were financially stable. "You just have to be very fiscally responsible, and you cannot pay for all things," Miles told lawmakers. "You cannot have all things. You have to pay for your leverage points." Last year the district cut hundreds of positions in its central office and closed or consolidated 12 schools to help offset the losses. In September, district administrators began what they described as an annual "campus leveling" process directing some schools to cut staff, reassign employees and ask school leaders to slash spending in response to student losses. Education experts warned enrollment declines could be exacerbated this year by the state's new voucher program, which gives families the opportunity to leave public schools and take state education funding to private schools. A report released last week from the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency said more than a 1,200 Houston ISD students used vouchers to leave the district for private school or homeschooling options.

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American-Statesman Editorial: Buckingham deserves another term as Land Commissioner

With more than 13 million acres of public land in its portfolio, the Texas General Land Office is the largest owner of mineral rights in the state. It uses the funds generated by oil and gas leases to provide disaster relief, administer some veterans benefits and supplement state school funding via the $61.5 billion Permanent School Fund, among other duties. If it’s doing its job right, the average Texan is none the wiser. “We roll up our sleeves every single day and make Texans’ life better, and most people don’t even know that we exist,” Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham told our Editorial Board. We recommend Buckingham, the Republican incumbent, for a second term given her effective management of the office. The eye surgeon and former state senator from Travis County is on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Buckingham has successfully managed the vast responsibilities of this job: overseeing the transfer of billions of dollars to public education each biennium; helping more than 7,400 families buy homes through the veterans mortgage program; and operating and maintaining 10 nursing homes and five cemeteries for veterans. Importantly, unlike many Republican officials, Buckingham stood up this summer for Texans and against federal border wall construction efforts in the Big Bend region. Buckingham sent a cease-and-desist letter in July to Customs and Border Protection after a federal contractor improperly cleared a stretch of state-owned land in Presidio County. Buckingham demonstrated a commitment to defend land that belongs to all Texans, even if it meant challenging her party’s president. “There are places that a wall makes sense, and there are places that it just doesn’t,” Buckingham told us. “So we want to do what’s right for Texas in the various geographic areas.” At the same time, we disagreed with her decision in November 2024 to offer 1,400 acres in Starr County, about 35 miles west of McAllen, to the incoming administration of President Donald Trump for “deportation facilities.” Ultimately the state built a stretch of border wall there.

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UT symposium explores AI’s growing role in future of health care

Some of the biggest names in health care, technology and research gathered at the University of Texas this week to discuss how artificial intelligence is already changing the way patients receive care and how hospitals operate behind the scenes. The two-day UT Real Health AI Symposium brought together leaders from across the UT System to share lessons learned from using AI in health care, while also examining the challenges and limitations that come with the rapidly evolving technology. “Can we organize care around a person’s health over time?” asked Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti, vice president for medical affairs at UT Austin and dean of Dell Medical School.

That question helped frame discussions throughout the conference, which focused on improving patient outcomes, strengthening trust and finding ways AI can make health care more effective and accessible. Tech and health leaders say AI is increasingly being used across health systems for everything from administrative support to clinical decision-making. “Today’s really a reflection of our UT system coming together to share lessons learned on the use of AI,” said Jim Buntrock, chief data officer for Dell Medical School. “It ranges from adoption of AI to some of the results and learnings from using AI, but also acknowledging some of the limitations that might be happening.” Buntrock said one of the biggest areas of opportunity is reducing administrative work for doctors and nurses, allowing them to spend more time with patients. “Reducing some administrative burden for physicians, ambient listening that can help transcribe the care and patient interaction, so reducing some of that administrative toil on the care team, but increasing that interaction with the patient,” he said. Health leaders at the symposium also discussed how AI could help hospitals better manage patient flow, monitor supply inventories and identify meaningful patterns hidden within large sets of health data.

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Rep. Rich McCormick and Rep. Beth Van Duyne break up

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... the Georgia congressman and Texas congresswoman called it quits -- although it's unclear exactly when. However, we're told there's no bad blood between the two. We reached out to McCormick ... who tells us, "I have a great relationship with her and will continue to strive to be the best friend I can be." We also reached out to Van Duyne ... so far, no word back. In late July, Charlie asked the duo if it was "tricky" having a relationship in DC as they walked side-by-side after a series of votes. McCormick told us ... "Relationships are tricky to begin with, right? But DC makes it easy." Back in May 2024, Rep. Van Duyne confirmed to the Daily Mail she and McCormick were "happily" in a relationship. No word on what led to the split.

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National Stories

Michigan’s Mike Rogers says trade war with Canada needs to end

Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers called for an end to the “tariff war” with Canada in a new campaign advertisement released Wednesday, another break from the Trump administration weeks before the midterm elections. Rogers’ ad comes as Republican campaign groups across the country have entered triage mode in an effort to salvage GOP control in an unfavorable political environment. “Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war now,” Rogers said in the advertisement, which is part of a coordinated spend between his campaign at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He added, “as Michigan’s senator, I’ll bring both parties together to lower your prices.” Each year, Michigan does roughly $80 billion in trade with Canada, according to the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

The new video comes weeks after he put out another advertisement breaking with President Donald Trump, publicly calling for the war with Iran to end “quickly.” In both commercials, Rogers said that prices are too high and neither mentioned the president by name. The latest ad is a shift from his previous positioning on trade with Canada. Last month, Rogers said that some of the tariffs imposed on Canadian goods are needed, as the state’s manufacturing sector has been gutted by cheap foreign imports in the past. “President Trump is right to put America first — and tariffs are necessary, but are not a one-size-fits-all solution,” Rogers previously said in a press release. But, he also said he has the pull to end the trade war threatening Michigan. During a press conference in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump downplayed the suggestion that Rogers was breaking with him. “I viewed him as saying that he thinks Canada should make a deal,” Trump said. “Canada has been ripping off our country for many, many years.” Rogers’ and Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Hillary Clinton endorses her first candidate of 2026

Hillary Clinton endorsed her first candidate of the 2026 election cycle this week. The former first lady and secretary of state endorsed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat, in her Senate run against Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter and commentator. Clinton announced the endorsement on Tuesday, her first midterm endorsement for a House or Senate candidate. “Peggy Flanagan has spent her career fighting for children and families, from the Children’s Defense Fund to the Lieutenant Governor’s office, and she’s delivered for them,” Clinton said in a statement. “I know she’ll be that same champion in the Senate, and I’m proud to endorse her.”

Clinton also criticized President Donald Trump amid rising prices. “Donald Trump has made it harder for families to afford childcare, groceries, and health care for their kids. His tariffs and war in Iran are driving up prices, and his budget ripped health care and food assistance away from children so billionaires could get another tax cut,” she said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Flanagan said she was “honored” to have Clinton’s endorsement. “Secretary Clinton has spent five decades fighting for those families, and I’m honored to have her support as we take that fight to the United States Senate,” Flanagan wrote. Several high-profile politicians have endorsed Flanagan, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Clinton began her career at the Children’s Defense Fund, where she worked as a staff attorney and chaired the organization’s board. Between 2001 and 2009, she served as a U.S. senator for New York, and she ran for president in 2008 and 2016. Flanagan previously served as the head of Children’s Defense Fund in Minnesota, where she co-chaired a campaign to raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation. “Long before she was First Lady, Senator, or Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was knocking on doors for the Children’s Defense Fund, making the case that every child in this country deserves a fair shot. That same work shaped me,” Flanagan said in her statement.

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‘Head on a guillotine’: ABC says Trump’s threats are already swaying coverage

ABC programs are already tempering their election coverage ahead of the midterms to avoid angering President Donald Trump, a lawyer for the broadcast company told a federal judge on Tuesday, but any possible reprieve is still likely weeks away. ABC is accusing FCC Chair Brendan Carr of threatening to impose a corporate death penalty on its eight stations in the nation’s largest TV markets by hauling in its licenses for a review years ahead of schedule. That’s forcing the Disney-owned network to second-guess how it covers the midterm elections for fear of angering the administration, ABC’s lawyer told a federal judge in Washington Tuesday, a consideration seeping into decision-making around whether to air presidential speeches and what the political line-ups should look like on daytime shows like “The View.” The bigger stakes, though, could be the lead-up to the 2028 presidential election as any decision from U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan could affect how all broadcasters weigh the president’s mood in covering politics.

ABC, the broadcast home of Jimmy Kimmel, has stood out for its pushback from many media companies facing pressure from the administration, and a court victory — or defeat — could have sweeping influence over what the network airs. The outcome could be a bellwether for other national networks, which have faced similar threats from Trump and Carr over their coverage. “We sit with our head on the guillotine,” said Beth Wilkinson, a lawyer for ABC, during Tuesday’s hearing. “We are watching everything we do.” The case is a major test of Carr’s authority, and comes after Trump called on the FCC to yank the licenses of media companies he says are biased against him and engaged in allegedly misleading coverage. Carr’s targets as chair have included ABC’s hosts on “The View” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” — frequent critics of the president. Carr has also previously criticized coverage by CBS’ “60 Minutes” and programming from NBC, raising fears his behavior could sway editorial choices there as well. This summer, Trump also called for ABC and NBC to lose their licenses for not airing one of his speeches. ABC’s critics like Daniel Suhr, the conservative lawyer heading the Center for American Rights, downplayed the harms alleged Tuesday, accusing the network of trying to avoid an FCC’s investigation into whether Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices constituted discrimination. Carr has argued that he called in the ABC licenses due to frustrations getting documents in that probe.

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SEC warns activist investors after climate push at Exxon Mobil

The US Securities and Exchange Commission warned asset managers and activist investors about their reporting obligations following a shareholder campaign in 2021 to remove Exxon Mobil Corp. directors over their record on climate. The SEC’s guidance stems from an investigation into the contentious activist investor push that year that successfully changed the oil company’s board of directors. The agency said it probed but chose not to to pursue an enforcement action against members of a group called Climate Action 100+, adding it had “serious concerns” about the conduct of the group and other participants. Asset managers and investors who join groups need to make sure they’re complying with SEC rules on shareholder engagement, the regulator said in a report on Wednesday.

The agency said shareholders have the right to express their views but anyone owning more than 5% of a public company must disclose their plans and other information if they seek to change or influence control of the company. The SEC also said it probed whether the climate group and its members pressured BlackRock Inc. and State Street Corp. — two major investors in Exxon — to support group-backed matters submitted to a shareholder vote. The investigation didn’t conclude that BlackRock or State Street agreed to vote proxies in certain manners or shared their proxy voting intentions with those associated with the group. Vanguard Group Inc. never became a member of the group, the SEC said. Climate Action 100+, which is supported by the Boston-based nonprofit group Ceres, said it has always operated within US securities law and supports investors as they assess the climate risks of companies they choose to invest in. “Engaging with companies on how they manage those risks and assessing director performance is a long-standing, lawful part of responsible investing. To be clear, the SEC report did not find that Climate Action 100+, Ceres, or any investor violated the law,” said Michael Boudett, general counsel of Ceres, in a statement.

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Canadian poet Anne Carson wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. Carson, 76, is celebrated for works that often cross the boundaries between poetry, fiction and scholarship. She has also translated ancient Greek literature and has been a professor of classics for more than 30 years. The Nobel Prize is awarded for a lifetime's body of work and is regareded as the most prestigious award in global literature with the winner receiving 12 million Swedish kronor (£900,000, $1.2m).

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Whistle-blower says I.R.S. leaked his tax records in retaliation

An Internal Revenue Service investigator sued the agency this month, claiming officials illegally leaked his confidential personnel records to federal prosecutors to punish him for years of whistle-blowing on the agency’s failure to tackle tax dodging. Brian J. Visalli, a 24-year I.R.S. veteran, specializes in investigating complex offshore tax shelters. He has publicly criticized the agency, writing articles about its unwillingness to aggressively target schemes that multinational companies use to skirt their taxes. He contributed to two reports published by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration: one on conflicts of interest within the I.R.S. and the other on the agency’s refusal to investigate advisers who design and sell aggressive tax strategies. He says the I.R.S. is using relatively small mistakes in his personal tax return to retaliate against him.

The suit claims the I.R.S. illegally disclosed his employee and tax information to Justice Department prosecutors to discredit and fire him. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois. The I.R.S. did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Visalli’s investigations included one into Malta pension plans, a tax-dodging strategy used by wealthy Americans. To fight the crackdown, promoters of the scheme hired Ken Kies, a lobbyist who last year became the top tax official in the Treasury Department under President Trump. In the past year, Mr. Visalli has written articles in Tax Notes, a trade publication, criticizing the I.R.S.’s record on pursuing multinational tax dodgers. He attacked his employer for failing to use a 2010 law requiring transactions that generate tax benefits to have “economic substance.” He said the agency suffered from “institutional cowardice.” The refusal to invoke that law “represents a fundamental abdication of the I.R.S.’s responsibility to protect the fiscal foundation of American government from sophisticated tax fraud masquerading as legitimate business planning,” he wrote. The agency has turned tax enforcement “into a negotiation in which the government starts from a position of weakness and retreats from there.”

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Trying to execute Christa Pike again would push into uncharted legal territory, experts say

After Christa Pike survived Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her, the unsettled question of whether the state will try again could push Tennessee into uncharted legal territory, experts say. Pike, 50, suffered burns and blisters to her arms and her prognosis remains uncertain after executioners tried to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital, her legal team said Wednesday. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. Although other states have moved forward with attempting to execute inmates a second time, in those cases, the first try had been halted before any drug actually began flowing.

Outgoing Republican Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions in Tennessee and ordered an outside review of the failed Sept. 30 attempt to put Pike to death. His office did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on whether the state would try again to execute her. Death penalty experts say it’s hard to know what will happen if the state decides to move forward with a second attempt. “Whether or not it would be lawful for the state of Tennessee to attempt to execute her again is a complex question that will take significant time, attention and analysis of her defense team, the prosecution team, the state government in Tennessee and multiple state and federal courts,” said Stephen Johnson, a criminal defense attorney in Tennessee who is president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Pike regained consciousness almost six days after the failed attempt to kill her. Her legal team had believed she was brain dead, but after she woke up, she was aware of what happened and was “angry and confused,” her lawyers said Wednesday.

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Lead Stories

Talarico steps off Texas Senate campaign trail after flu diagnosis

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico has stepped off the campaign trail after being diagnosed with the flu. Talarico disclosed his illness Sept. 30 at a virtual forum sponsored by the United States Hispanic Business Council. He had been scheduled to attend the Rio Grande Valley event in person but said he was diagnosed the night before at a Dallas urgent care facility. His last public appearance was Sept. 28 in New York, where he attended a fundraiser hosted by actor Robert De Niro. Talarico, a state representative from Austin, faces Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I guess I’ve been shaking too many hands on the campaign trail, and so I want to keep everybody safe,” Talarico said at the Hispanic Business Council event. “The best thing to do was to put safety first and put everyone’s health first.” Talarico’s campaign on Tuesday acknowledged the break in events. It comes less than two weeks before early voting starts Oct. 19, in advance of the Nov. 3 election. “After holding more than 100 public events and meeting with tens of thousands of supporters, James came down with the flu but will be back on the trail soon,” Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News. At least two events have been scrapped, an Austin fundraiser Tuesday and a Monday event aimed at turning out Black voters in Central Texas. Ennis said Talarico has kept a busier schedule than Paxton, who drew attention this summer for taking a European vacation around the July Fourth holiday. “Ken Paxton has spent this campaign hiding from everyone — running away from reporters and ducking repeated offers to debate James Talarico, even on FOX News,” Ennis said.

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PUC sues Paxton’s office over release of data center records

The Public Utility Commission of Texas is asking a Travis County judge to block the release of information showing where data centers and virtual currency mines operate, saying those details could aid terrorists. The lawsuit filed Monday pits the state agency responsible for regulating utilities against Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office over the scope of Texas’ public-records law and the state’s protections for critical infrastructure. At the center of the dispute are two seemingly basic geographic details: the county where a facility is located and the regional water planning area in which it sits. The PUC argues that those details are “privileged information” and become sensitive when combined with other information collected through its survey of the industry, including electricity demand, actual electricity consumption, projected peak demand, water consumption, water sources, cooling technology and the utilities and infrastructure serving a facility.

The commission is not asking the court to declare the entire survey confidential. Instead, it wants the court to rule that the two geographic fields are exempt from disclosure under the Texas Homeland Security Act, which is meant to “protect against homeland security threats and hazards . . . and prevent significant criminal and terrorist attacks.” The lawsuit does not represent a final ruling on whether the information ultimately must be released. But it does come as Texas officials are seeking more information about the state’s data center industry. Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered state agencies to conduct additional reviews of data centers seeking to connect to the state’s electric grid, including reviews of electricity and water use, cooling systems and other information. He has also directed the Texas Water Development Board to take enforcement action against data centers that fail to comply with required water use reporting. In 2025, Texas lawmakers directed the PUC to collect information about water and energy consumption at data centers and virtual-currency-mining facilities to better understand the growth of the industry. The effort reflects a growing concern among state officials and Texans about the resources required by large computing facilities. Data centers can consume enormous amounts of electricity because of the thousands of servers operating inside them. Depending on their cooling systems, they can also require substantial quantities of water to help keep their servers cool during operation.

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Gov. Greg Abbott spent $141 million only to be neck-and-neck with Democrat Gina Hinojosa

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s reelection campaign has churned through $141 million this year to end up running neck-and-neck in the polls with Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat who’s largely run on a shoestring budget, the latest campaign filings show. Abbott, a Republican seeking a historic fourth term in office, had only $17 million in cash on hand at the end of the most recent reporting period. That’s a far cry from the $106 million war chest he had at the start of the current election cycle. Of his total spending this year, $74.1 million came during the latest reporting period, which ran July 1 to Sept. 24, documents show. Despite his hefty spending, polls released this month, including a New York Times-Siena College survey, show Hinojosa, an Austin state representative, with a narrow lead. Others show the pair nearly tied.

That comes even though Hinojosa’s campaign spent a meager $17 million in her bid for the governorship, according to the Washington Post. The closeness of the race isn’t lost on Abbott, who told backers at a fundraiser over the weekend that he’s “having trouble sleeping at night knowing what’s at stake in this election.” Abbott told reporters this week that he also won’t be able to attend President Donald Trump’s rally Wednesday in San Antonio because of a scheduling conflict. Some political observers speculate Abbott is trying to save face by not campaigning with Trump, whose approval rating is hanging around 37%. That ties George W. Bush in 2006 for the worst presidential approval rating heading into a midterm election. ? Texas Democratic Party Spokesman Jacob Long said Abbott’s in ability to pull ahead of Hinojosa even though he’s massively outspent her shows Texans are ready for change. “They know that four more years of Greg Abbott means more data centers, fewer public schools, and higher property taxes,” Long said in a statement. “He can duck debates, flood the airwaves, and turn his back on Trump all he wants, but no amount of money can change his record of selling out Texas to his billionaire donors.”

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The S&P 500 hits a new record high, powered by tech—and not much else

The AI trade is propelling stocks to new heights—and it is dragging the rest of the market along for the ride. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite blew past new closing records on Tuesday, the latest leg of a rally that has powered through everything in its path, from the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise rates for the first time in three years to a monthslong war that lifted oil prices to $100 a barrel. Increasingly, the market is running on one engine: a familiar cast of tech companies that are building out (and benefiting from) the AI revolution. Nvidia, whose grip as the dominant supplier of chips that power AI has made it the world’s most-valuable company, has jumped 4.5% in the past week to a new all-time high. Meta Platforms is up 24% since Aug. 13, when the S&P 500 had its previous high.

Just about everything else is going down. Shares of healthcare firms, banks and consumer staple companies are declining. So are small-cap stocks. And blue chips, like the Dow industrials. The yawning gap between the market’s biggest winners and other stocks is growing larger. Less than half of the stocks in the S&P 500 closed above their 200-day moving average on Tuesday, Dow Jones Market Data shows, a figure that has steadily declined since August. The AI powerhouses have grown so vast, and the momentum behind AI’s build-out so relentless, that many investors now see these stocks as immune to the effects of higher interest rates, analysts said. The hope is that eye-watering earnings forecasts will keep propelling tech names forward, even with higher rates and a cooling economy bearing down on the rest of the market. “People look around and say ‘Which areas of the market can weather this?’” said Keith Lerner, chief investment adviser for Truist Advisory Services. “Tech is almost seen as defensive in some ways.” Big tech companies—particularly AI “hyperscalers” including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta—have been traditionally known as cash-rich and relatively debt-free companies that can keep growing even when borrowing costs rise.

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State Stories

Federal judge strikes Texas AG’s effort to end Harris County’s misdemeanor bail reform decree

A federal judge has denied Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s effort to shutter Harris County’s misdemeanor bail reform decree, which stemmed from a lawsuit that argued Houston-area defendants charged with low-level crimes were penalized for being unable to afford cash bail. In a 40-page opinion Monday, United States District Judge Lee Rosenthal ruled that the attorney general’s office exceeded the amount of time it has to make certain arguments in the case, therefore making its legal challenge to vacate the consent decree moot. "The court's decision today ensures the Consent Decree will continue to protect the physical liberty of tens of thousands of people every year,” Travis Fife, an attorney who represented Harris County in the case, said in a statement. “Vacating the Consent Decree would have been disastrous for taxpayers, public safety, and presumptively innocent people accused of crimes.”

Since 2019, the bail reform decree, referred to as the ODonnell Consent Decree, has given most misdemeanor defendants the opportunity to be released from jail before trial without first paying cash bail. The decree was created after Maranda Lynn ODonnell filed a lawsuit in 2016 arguing she had been penalized for being unable to afford cash bail. ODonnell had been arrested for driving without a valid license that year and was held in the Harris County Jail for several days because she was unable to post bail. In August 2025, one day after President Donald Trump issued a federal executive order seeking to end cashless bail for people who are accused of violent offenses or pose threats to public safety, Paxton filed a motion to intervene in the ODonnell case and vacate the consent decree. During arguments held last month, attorneys who represented the AG’s office argued that the case should be moved from federal court to state court, urging Rosenthal to abstain from overseeing the case. In his opinion this week, Rosenthal ruled that the office failed to make those arguments in a reasonable time frame.

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Austin’s ACL mudfest becomes a political fight over Zilker Park

After weekend downpours turned Austin City Limits Music Festival into a swampy “mudfest,” it seemed like just about everyone had something to say. Drone photos showed Zilker Park’s green grass giving way to brown mud — stark before-and-after images quickly spread across social media and fueled the backlash. Soon, the muddy music festival had become a political flashpoint. Progressives focused on the strain on the environment and the park. Conservatives pointed to the mud as evidence of what they saw as mismanagement in Texas’ liberal capital. Austin music critic Andy Langer said the muddy aftermath reignited long-running tensions with environmentalists, who have criticized ACL’s environmental impacts on Zilker Park and the park’s closure during festival’s setup and breakdown.

While those concerns mainly came from the left, Langer said, the right also seized the moment to argue more broadly that Austin’s government is incompetent. “It's almost the same argument, but they're using it for different purposes,” Langer said. Environmental advocate Robin Rather, who works with Rewild Zilker and often critiques the city, said she supported moving the festival to another location to protect the park from long-term damage. She called the issue “the heart of the whole problem,” and said she worried about the park’s soil health and water protection. Matt Mackowiak, who previously led the Travis County Republican Party, said he thought the organizers had no plan for the heavy rain and that Austinites were right to want changes before next year. “Zilker Park belongs to all of us,” he said in a statement. “Anything that materially harms it should be of concern to all of us.” Under the city’s current agreement, C3 Presents, which organizes the festival, is responsible for repairing damage the festival causes to Zilker Park, including damage to plant life. The city’s parks director determines whether damage occurred, how much repairs will cost and whether the festival is responsible for paying.

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Trump visits San Antonio for rally with Paxton, De La Cruz

President Donald Trump will stop in San Antonio Wednesday afternoon to drum up support for two Texas congressional candidates as the Republican Party works to hold its majority in both chambers. Carlos De La Cruz, the Republican nominee for the redrawn 35th Congressional District, will speak at the rally at the Freeman Coliseum on the East Side. So will Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s running in a close race against Democrat James Talarico for Republican John Cornyn’s U.S. Senate seat.

That Trump would need to stump for the party nominee for the 35th District wasn’t part of the thinking when Texas lawmakers redrew the Democratically-held seat in 2025 to favor a Republican candidate. Under the new lines, Trump would have won the district by 10 points in 2024. But a lot has changed since then as Trump’s war on Iran has pushed up gasoline prices and his tariffs on imported goods have driven up costs at the grocery store. The president’s approval rating is at a record low, and he has fallen out of favor with many Hispanic voters who helped him win back the White House in 2024. About 54% of the 35th District’s voting-age population is Hispanic, up slightly from 51% under the previous boundaries. The district is now anchored on San Antonio’s Southeast Side and includes 26% of Bexar County, and all of the reliably red Guadalupe, Karnes and Wilson counties. De La Cruz, an Air Force veteran, faces Bexar County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia in the Nov. 3 election. Both are first-time candidates who are relatively unknown to voters. Trump is expected to speak at 6 p.m., with programing to start at 4:30 p.m. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. and tickets are required to enter the Freeman Coliseum. Deputy Joshua Hamby, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said there will be a significant law enforcement presence around the coliseum and advised drivers to avoid the area due to congestion and expected delays. “Road closures will occur intermittently as needed,” Hamby said.

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Advocates call out Monica De La Cruz for refusing to back DACA bill

U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz recently launched a campaign ad featuring the wife of an immigrant protected by an Obama-era policy, thanking the South Texas congresswoman for assistance as the family navigated “a broken immigration system.” “We reached out to Monica De La Cruz. She helped with my husband’s immigration case,” Stephanie Villarreal says to the camera. De La Cruz has made a point of spotlighting her work on behalf of families swept up by the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown. But in Washington, she is among the Republican holdouts on a bill with some bipartisan support aimed at protecting families like the one in the ad. Immigrant rights groups and Democrats said De La Cruz has so far refused to be the final signature they need to force a vote in the GOP-led House.

The legislation would codify safeguards for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which grants immigrants brought to the U.S. as children an opportunity to legally work and remain in the country. Villarreal’s husband, Juan Chavez Velasco, is a DACA recipient who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as he tried to visit their daughter in the neonatal intensive care unit earlier this year. “If it is true that DACA is an issue that she deeply cares about, as we were told by her legislative team, and if it is true that she wants to be a champion for people with DACA, the Dream and Promise Act should have been a very simple sign-on for her,” said Dani Marrero Hi, deputy director of LUPE Votes, which is a political advocacy group encouraging people to contact De La Cruz and ask her to sign the discharge petition. De La Cruz’s office said she doesn’t sign on to efforts to force floor votes as a general policy, and is cosponsoring a different bill giving some protections to DACA recipients.

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Bo French uproar exposes a Texas GOP fight over who belongs in the party’s ‘stables’

Republican strategist Karl Rove called for the GOP’s “stables” to be cleaned after Railroad Commission candidate Bo French disparaged the racial makeup of students celebrating a University of Texas football victory. French’s supporters agree the party needs cleaning. They just think Rove has identified the wrong people to throw out. That dispute frames the uproar over French and what kind of conservatism defines the Texas GOP. Does his provocative rhetoric fall outside the party or reflect the America First movement that displaced its old guard? That divide was already on display this year when Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated longtime Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary with support from hard-right conservatives.

In Dallas, conservative talk radio host Mark Davis put it bluntly: “The stables in Texas were cleaned on May 26,” the day Paxton defeated Cornyn. To insurgents seeking a wholesale party takeover, Cornyn was precisely the kind of Republican who needed to go. Now French, who narrowly defeated GOP incumbent Jim Wright for a seat on the oil and gas regulatory agency, is at the center of that fight, with some Republicans concerned his inflammatory views could drag down the party’s ticket in November. Several prominent Republicans condemned French after he posted a photo Sept. 13 of students celebrating a Longhorns victory and suggested, without evidence, that they were in the country illegally. “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” French wrote. The citizenship status of all the students is unknown, but at least two pictured have said they are U.S. citizens. French did not respond to a text message. Last month, however, he told Davis that his post was not racist and that “most people in the America First movement think we ought to be prioritizing Americans.” French said he had nothing against the students personally but asked, “Are we going to have policies to prioritize Americans … or are we going to have policies that prioritize foreigners?”

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Two key groups launch Latino voter turnout operation in South Texas

Latino voters are upset about the cost of living and immigration enforcement operations, according to polls and interviews. Whether they actually show up to vote in November — and in what numbers — is another question. Getting Latinos to the polls next month is a central push of two of the largest Latino advocacy organizations in the country, the Voto Latino Foundation and the Hispanic Federation, according to plans first shared with NBC News. This week, the groups are launching a six-figure get-out-the-vote operation that specifically targets Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where they estimate that nearly 316,000 Latinos who could vote did not participate in the 2024 election. In 2024, Latino voters in the Valley made history when a majority backed Donald Trump. Since then, many key figures have come out opposing Trump’s policies, including his economic plans and how the administration is carrying out deportations.

In addition to those who sat out in 2024, the advocacy groups say nearly 500,000 Texas Latinos have turned 18 in the last two years and are now eligible to vote. On Saturday, the groups will host a community town hall in Edinburg called “Juntos en el 956,” where organizers will assist residents with making plans to vote and answer questions. Claudia Lopez, a social media personality in the Rio Grande Valley who focuses on South Texas politics, will moderate the town hall. Another televised town hall will follow in cooperation with Telemundo, and an end-of-the-month rally to promote voter turnout is in the works. Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, said he believes educating Latinos about their voting rights and hearing their concerns is central to improving turnout. “When we do this right, we are going to see a correlation in the participation of Latinos on Election Day,” Miranda said. Talking to voters, he said, the group will encourage people to vote early and, for those already registered to vote, to check ahead of time that nothing happened with their registrations.

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Texas ordered dangerous gas pipes removed 25 years ago. One was linked to a recent Lake Dallas home explosion.

Texas ordered gas companies to remove a dangerous type of natural gas pipe more than 25 years ago. Yet earlier this year, the same type of pipe was linked to a home explosion in Lake Dallas that left a woman severely injured. The discovery raised a troubling question: Did the Texas Railroad Commission ever ensure utilities complied with its order to remove the plastic pipe, known as Poly-1? For months, CBS News Texas has sought answers from the state's three elected Railroad Commissioners, who oversee pipeline safety in Texas. The commissioners declined multiple interview requests. When a reporter approached them after a recent public meeting in Austin, they left without answering questions. Records reviewed by the CBS News Texas I-Team indicate that Poly-1 pipes were still being found in the system years after the state-imposed deadline.

The commission's only response came in an email from an agency spokesperson. Asked what actions the agency took to verify the pipe had been removed, the spokesperson wrote: "Because this is part of an ongoing investigation, we are unable to comment at this time." Efforts to replace Poly-1 pipe accelerated after an explosion in Garland on Jan. 28, 2000. The blast destroyed a home and killed 80-year-old Albert Holbert, his wife, Lillian Holbert, and her 83-year-old sister, Callie Hickerson. Investigators traced the explosion to a Poly-1 pipe. By then, the early-generation plastic natural gas pipe, installed in the 1970s, had developed a history of cracking and leaking. In some cases, those failures led to explosions. After the Garland disaster, the Railroad Commission ordered the utility TXU Gas to identify and remove all remaining Poly-1 pipe from its system. When TXU missed an initial deadline, the commission assessed a penalty, imposed new deadlines and ordered the company to provide progress updates. But nearly three years after those deadlines passed, officials reviewing the case for the Railroad Commission reported the work was "not yet completed." TXU later sold the system to Atmos Energy in 2004.

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Former TCU, Alabama and Texas A&M football coach Dennis Franchione dies at 75

Dennis Franchione's head coaching career lasted from 1985 to 2015, he won the Iron Bowl and the Lone Star Showdown, but it was his three years at TCU that were his greatest contribution to the sport. The coach whose tenure gave birth to a new era of growth and prosperity for TCU, and the city of Fort Worth, died on Tuesday at the age of 75 in Austin after a decade with cancer. Family members confirmed the news this morning. He was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his kidney in 2016, and cleared that. In 2021, he was given a more dire cancer diagnosis, but after treatment was in full remission. According to family friends, the cancer returned earlier this year, and he was moved to hospice care in October.

He most recently returned to TCU as a guest of coach Sonny Dykes to attend a spring football game in 2022, which unofficially ended any remaining bad feelings from members of the community toward Fran. For a long time, some members of TCU’s fanbase could not get over how he handled his exit from the school after the end of the 2000 regular season. Franchione said later in life that his greatest coaching years were those spent at TCU. Before he was hired by TCU after the 1997 season, Fran had successful runs at Pittsburg State, Southwest Texas State (now Texas State) and New Mexico. He arrived at TCU to replace coach Pat Sullivan, who in his final season with the school finished 1-10. The football team was bad, morale in the athletic department was terrible, and the school was in the first phase of a massive effort to catch up to the rest of higher education, and NCAA athletics.

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El Paso ISD among four Texas school districts selected for state spending review

The Texas Comptroller’s Office has included El Paso Independent School District among four institutions picked for “a detailed review” to examine if they spend state funds in compliance with state law. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requested a review process in August to ensure that districts spend state funds on students, classrooms and teachers and not on more administration or what he called “non-instructional bureaucracy.” Comptroller Don Huffines said in an Oct. 5 news release that his office was committed to providing a clear assessment of how the state’s education dollars are used. The office also will review the Austin, Prosper (north of Dallas) and Barbers Hill (east of Houston) school districts. “This review is an important step to ensure transparency, accountability, and the responsible use of public funds,” Huffines said.

EPISD officials in an emailed response late Tuesday pointed to the recent academic gains in TEA accountability ratings and how it reflects on the district’s commitment to student success and directing resources to the classroom. The district’s email mentioned its combined efforts to reduce expenses such as 326 central-office and non-campus positions, eliminated vacancies, reassessed contracts, streamlined operating expenses and stronger financial controls. Additionally, the spokesperson pointed to the Financial Budget Dashboard and the district’s Financial Stability Plan as the district’s latest efforts to be transparent and improve efficiency. It is unknown when EPISD was informed about the upcoming review and which departments might be involved in the comptroller’s review. EPISD last school year spent just about 11% of its budget on leadership and general administration, according to Texas Education Agency data. The Ysleta Independent School District also spent about 11% on leadership and administration, while the Socorro Independent School District was at about 10%.

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Republican incumbent fundraising keeps outpacing Democrats ahead of Tarrant County midterms

As the November midterm elections near, Republican candidates for Tarrant County office continue to outperform many of their Democratic opponents’ campaign fundraising, with County Judge Tim O’Hare leading the way in cash raised and spent. Among the candidates for county government, Republican incumbents far outraised and outspent their Democratic challengers in the races for county judge, county commissioner and district attorney. Further down the ballot, Democratic fundraising outpaced the Republicans in the races for district clerk and county clerk. Campaign finance reports published Oct. 5 detail candidates’ financial activity from July 1 to Sept. 24. Candidates for the county commissioners court, district attorney, district clerk and county raked in more than $1 million, cumulatively, from a range of contributors that includes political action committees, investors, real estate developers, local elected officials and other candidates on the ballot.

O’Hare, who is seeking his second term, has more than $836,000 in available campaign cash as of Sept. 24. He reported raising about $415,000 over the tracking period and spent about $290,000, primarily on consulting services and canvassing. Alisa Simmons, the Precinct 2 county commissioner challenging O’Hare for the countywide judge seat, maintains a campaign war chest of about $247,000. Over the reporting period, she raised about $286,000 and spent nearly $75,000, largely on consulting, phone-banking and campaign signage. The latest campaign finance reports detail an uptick in fundraising over the last two months for both Simmons and O’Hare. In the first six months of the year, O’Hare raised about $314,000 and Simmons raised about $111,000. From July to late September, O’Hare’s largest cash donation, $100,000, came from Texans United for a Conservative Majority, a political action committee led by West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. Other PAC contributions include $10,000 from the National Cutting Horse Association’s Texas Events PAC, $1,500 from the Frederick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County and $750 from Responsible Government.

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: Carla Wyatt convinced us: Eliminate the Harris County treasurer

In the state of Texas, the county treasurer is a bit like a governmental appendix. It’s a vestigial office that doesn’t do much and you only think about it when something goes wrong. Four years with the scandal-plagued Democratic incumbent, Carla Wyatt, 56, has made one thing clear: Harris County needs a treasurer-ectomy. It is time to get rid of the office. Harris County commissioners agree. They unanimously voted in February to pursue dissolving her office, which is meant to oversee county payments but has no real power. That bipartisan coalition also voted to strip Wyatt of most of her authority and transfer staff from the treasurer’s office over to the county’s Office of Management and Budget following recommendations by County Auditor Michael Post. Here’s the thing, county treasurers have astray far too often, and from both major parties in different parts of Texas. They have undermined taxpayers’ trust in government instead of safeguarding it.

Now we have to wait for the Legislature to approve a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Harris County treasurer, like lawmakers did for Galveston County in 2023, and for voters statewide to approve the amendment. Until then, Harris County voters should support Republican challenger Marc Cowart, 59. He’s a longtime Republican operative who didn’t have much in the way of specifics for improving the office. We’re wary of his time working for politicians with their own troubling records, including former Fort Bend County Judge KP George, who was convicted of money laundering, and Bob Wolfe, a justice of the peace who essentially leverages his court as a lucrative wedding chapel. Cowart also doesn’t agree with plans to eliminate the treasurer position. Nevertheless, he did tell us he wants to restore “dignity” and “competence” to the office. The incumbent has set a low bar. Since she first took office in 2023, Wyatt has been twice arrested for drunken driving, twice violated bond conditions, and was charged with burglary of a vehicle, though a grand jury declined to indict her. Most recently she was cited after causing a four-vehicle crash on Interstate 45. Dash camera video of the incident makes it look like she’s an automotive pinball bouncing against cars. In meeting with the editorial board, she seemed to have no concern about how she was threatening the safety of other drivers on the road or putting herself at risk. “Car accidents happen every day,” Wyatt said. She seemed oblivious to all of these criminal charges. When we asked about the car crash, Wyatt told us: “I haven’t seen what you’re describing.” It felt reminiscent of reports that she once told an officer that she thought she was “in heaven” before being arrested on DWI charges. Wyatt also told us that, in spite of all of this, she is still getting behind the wheel of her car. That makes us worry for her wellbeing — and everyone else’s. Overall, she demonstrated an uncanny calm and, admittedly, professional demeanor when talking about her time as treasurer with the editorial board, which felt discordant with her record.

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Harris County leaders gave elected officials raises before a tax hike. Will it matter in November?

Political analysts are projecting an abysmal election cycle for Republicans, but the elected Democrats who run Harris County appear to be doing everything in their power to erode their advantage. Commissioners recently voted to raise most county elected officials' salaries to $305,000, then approved the highest county property tax rate in decades at a time when polls show affordability is a key concern for voters. Republican challengers for county office also have finished within single digits of Democratic incumbents in each of the last two election cycles. It’s a recipe that should spell trouble for local Democrats in November. But experts said the backlash to President Donald Trump’s policies and GOP U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton’s lack of popularity likely will overshadow local issues, protecting county Democrats.

“Salary increases that are in principle funded by tax increases is like the kiss of death for most candidates,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston. But, he added, “In the current cycle, with the Democratic wave likely coming, I don’t think these issues are going to knock anyone out.” Harris County has seen this dynamic before — the 2018 Blue Wave that swept Democrats into power throughout county government coincided with Trump’s first midterm election. That election saw a 27-year-old Lina Hidalgo unseat then-County Judge Ed Emmett, a moderate Republican who enjoyed crossover support from some Democrats. That 2018 Democratic sweep reversed a long-running trend in Harris County that saw Republicans post gains in midterm elections. Democrats have since expanded their advantage through a 2021 redistricting effort that saw their 3-2 Commissioners Court majority grow into a 4-1 supermajority following Democratic Commissioner Lesley Briones’ 2022 election. Yet that governing position has given the Democrats a record to defend. Hidalgo is not seeking reelection, but the three Democratic commissioners — Briones, Adrian Garcia and Rodney Ellis — all voted to pass the county’s highest property tax rate in decades last month. The same three Democrats voted alongside Commissioner Tom Ramsey, the court’s lone Republican, to raise most county elected officials’ salaries to $305,000.

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County Stories

Fired Dallas County chief arrested on theft, official oppression

Former Dallas County Fire Marshal Assistant Chief Zack Masri turned himself in to police Tuesday after being accused of theft and official oppression by the Texas Rangers, his legal counsel said. Masri bonded out of the Wylie jail on Tuesday after posting a $15,000 bond, according to his lawyer Mark Lassiter. The arrest comes four months after Masri was fired from his county job following a series of alleged infractions that include: pointing a gun at a colleague in a “joking” manner, calling female co-workers “bitches” and ghost-writing an email defending his office before having a county commissioner send it, according to personnel records obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

Wylie Police Sgt. Donald English confirmed Masri’s arrest, but the arrest warrant issued by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office that provides details of the alleged incidents was not immediately available Tuesday evening. Lassiter told The News that Texas Rangers from the Texas Department of Public Safety were leading the investigation into Masri and that his client is not guilty of the accusations. “While we understand the process, we look forward to proving Zack's innocence,” Lassiter said, declining to comment further. It is unclear if Masri's charges are tied to his June 8 termination, but they are related to his time as a county employee. English said Masri was charged with three counts of misdemeanor abuse of official capacity, which relates to a public servant violating a law relating to their office, according to the Texas penal code. Masri was also charged with misdemeanor theft of property of $100 to $750 and felony theft of property between $2,500 and $30,000, according to English. Masri, 40, worked for the Dallas County Fire Marshal's Office for nearly six years and was responsible for overseeing its building security division, which has come under scrutiny for testing the limits of its power.

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National Stories

In first Maine Senate debate, Sen. Collins seeks to distance herself from President Trump

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins distanced herself from President Donald Trump during her first Maine Senate debate with Democrat Troy Jackson, arguing she has maintained her political independence by repeatedly voting against Trump’s agenda and saying that she’s “not exactly his favorite senator.” Democrats are trying to flip the Maine Senate seat as they work to win control of the Senate. President Trump lost the state in 2024, giving Democrats hope of defeating the five-term moderate Republican, who has been targeted by Democrats in previous elections and survived. During the hourlong debate, Jackson focused largely on attempting to connect Collins to Trump. He kicked off the night by pointing out she cast a critical vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee who eventually helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

Collins supports abortion rights and said Kavanaugh assured her it was settled law, but she has said recently that she does not regret her vote to confirm him. “Would you trust her to pick the next Supreme Court justice?” asked Jackson, a former state lawmaker and logger. He also repeatedly brought up her procedural vote to advance the president’s 2025 tax and spending bill — though Collins ultimately broke with her party to vote against it. Collins countered that she has voted against Trump more than she did Joe Biden when the Democrat was president, and has pushed back against Trump on tariffs, immigration enforcement and the war in Iran. “I voted against my party more than another other senator on either side of the aisle,” Collins said. The attention on Trump comes as only 31% of U.S. adults approved of how the Republican is handling the presidency, according to a September AP-NORC poll. That’s well below where his approval stood when he took office last year.

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Congress killed the penny — now it's coming for the 13-cent nickel

It's common sense that common cents are getting less use in Americans' daily lives. Congress already took action to eliminate the lowest rung — the penny — and now another coin collecting dust in people's wallets could be on the chopping block next. The House and Senate both passed bills earlier this year aimed at eliminating the penny once and for all. The bipartisan Common Cents Act was unanimously approved in each chamber, but has yet to get President Donald Trump's signature to become law. It followed the Treasury Department announcing last December that the U.S. Mint would no longer produce pennies, which at the time cost more than three times their value to make.

Now, lawmakers want the administration to act on another portion of their bill, which would direct the Treasury to study the potential of making the nickel with cheaper materials than are currently used. "If it costs 13 cents to make a five-cent coin, Washington should fix the problem instead of wasting more taxpayer money," House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital. "My bill gives Treasury a path to make nickels at a lower cost without disrupting how Americans use them. It is a simple reform that saves money and brings a little more common sense to government. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who led the bill in the Senate, told Fox News Digital, "More and more Americans are paying with credit cards, debit cards, and stablecoins for everyday purchases that once would have been made with cash or coins." "The half-cent coin was retired when it was no longer needed, and the penny has now reached that same point. It’s my hope that we can find a cheaper way to produce the nickel so that it remains economically viable for years to come," Lummis said. Nickels are produced at a loss to taxpayers of roughly eight cents per coin, according to the latest data. They are currently made of a mixture comprised of 25% nickel and 75% copper.

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Justice Dept. turns to partisans and conspiracists to fill depleted ranks

A former prosecutor forced off a high-profile murder case for peeking at the defense team’s strategy documents. A onetime gambling executive who promoted conspiracy theories about the Las Vegas massacre in 2017. A Florida activist who once served 20 days in jail for hacking a local elections system. They are among the 130 lawyers who have recently joined the Justice Department’s short-staffed civil rights division as the Trump administration has struggled to fill the depleted ranks of a unit that was once a magnet for legal talent. Since early 2025, upward of 300 nonpolitical career employees, representing decades of experience, have left the division after its leader, Harmeet Dhillon, repurposed it to pursue President Trump’s agenda.

As a consequence, the division has opened its doors to recruits, many of them conservatives, some with education and work histories that might have disqualified them from being hired in the past, former officials said. Some have left a trail of hyperpartisan, conspiratorial and, in some instances, bizarre statements, according to an examination of about a dozen recent hires based on court records, social media posts and interviews. Department officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, said they have rejected nearly as many applicants as they have hired, 126. Any ideological tilt in the career ranks, they added, reflected the Trump-era applicant pool, which includes conservative activists and recent law school graduates. Ms. Dhillon praised the quality of the new lawyers, and said she was revamping a division that had been dominated by liberals for far too long. “For years, the civil rights division recruited from a narrow pipeline of progressive activists and called it excellence,” she said in a statement.

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Nobel chemistry prize goes to pair who solved mystery of 'mirror image' molecules

Scientists Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai won ?the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving a long-standing riddle of asymmetric "mirror image" molecules, a discovery hugely important for pharmaceutical manufacturing, the award-giving body said ?on Wednesday. Soai, 76, is Japanese, and Kagan, 95, is French, and their work built on a discovery by the 19th century French chemist Louis Pasteur. "This is the most exciting day in my life, I am very glad to share this prize with professor Henri Kagan," Soai said, speaking by phone to the Nobel Prize press conference, adding he had been out shopping when receiving the news. The Nobel committee was still trying to ?contact Kagan to inform him of the award. The chemistry Nobel, always the third prize to be awarded during Nobel week, followed those for medicine and physics announced on Monday and ?Tuesday.

Many of the molecules essential to life exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like left and ?right hands. Yet living organisms almost exclusively use only one version, a phenomenon known as "homochirality" – from the Greek word for hand – that has puzzled chemists for more than a century. This ?year's prize was awarded for discoveries that showed how chemical reactions can be driven to favour a single molecular mirror image, work that has been key for chemists who design reactions for ?the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. "The left-handed version of the drug can have one effect, and the right-handed version can have another effect, and then we need methods for selectively preparing them," Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said. "In developing such methods the findings of this year's laureates are important. They provided powerful tools for that," he said. The first link in the chain in ?solving the problem was work by Pasteur, who died before the Nobel Prizes were first awarded. He was looking at tartaric acid, important in the production of wine, and noticed that ?bacteria only ferment one of the two forms of tartaric acid – that which is naturally found in grapes. With the other there is no fermentation. That proved that some substances occur in two forms and that ?they have ?different properties, sometimes very damaging to health.

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Israelis mourn on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 as Palestinians grapple with war it sparked

Israelis gathered Wednesday to commemorate the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 people, saw 251 taken hostage and sparked a devastating war in Gaza that has left much of the territory in ruins and its 2 million people living in dire conditions. In southern Israel, families mourned at intersections, bomb shelters and the site of a music festival that the militants overran three years ago in the deadliest attack in the country's history. It is the first anniversary since all the hostages, living and dead, were returned, marking a new stage of grief. For Palestinians, the anniversary brings another day of misery after an Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people.

Most Gaza residents live in vast, squalid tent camps, with large parts of the strip's cities reduced to rubble. More than half the territory remains in the hands of the Israeli military. Despite a ceasefire deal reached nearly a year ago, Israeli strikes continue almost daily. For the region, the day highlights a startling transformation over the past three years. Israeli troops occupy a large chunk of southern Lebanon in their conflict with the Hezbollah militant group, which began firing on Israel in 2023 in support of Hamas. Iran and the United States are locked in a confrontation that has seen attacks across Gulf Arab countries and has shaken the global economy — a conflict that Israel helped launch and that the Gaza war paved the way for, even if they weren't directly connected. Near the town of Reim, where the music festival was underway when militants attacked, families gathered around photos of their killed relatives. Hundreds of people paid their respects to the more than 350 people killed in and around the festival site. Videos from that day showed militants gunning down fleeing revelers, shooting the wounded at point-blank range and ambushing those seeking refuge in nearby bomb shelters. On Wednesday, survivors' relatives hugged at 6:29 a.m. — the exact time the first rockets were launched three years ago — as explosions boomed in nearby Gaza.

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How does Susan Collins keep winning?

National Democrats, who’d effectively let Collins walk to victory in 2014, wanted her seat in the worst way this time. The Democratic candidate, state House Speaker Sara Gideon, and her outside affiliates raised more money than could even be spent on a political campaign in Maine. Democrats’ heavy-handed assault seemed to be working: Collins did not lead in a single public poll for the entirety of 2020. While not celebrating prematurely, Democrats had reason to be cautiously optimistic that they might finally catch their white whale. “Sara was leading every private poll that she had,” too, former Rep. Tom Allen, who lost to Collins in 2008 and is a friend of Gideon’s, told me. Collins’ team didn’t know what was coming, either. “I don’t think anybody had a firm bead on what the result was going to be,” Lance Dutson, a Maine Republican strategist who worked on Collins’ 2008, 2014, and 2020 campaigns, told me. “There was definitely some concern.”

Six years later, Collins again is in a competitive election—albeit against a very different kind of opponent—in a bad political environment for Republicans. National Democrats, again, have their sights trained on flipping her seat. Collins has led in only a few polls this year. Here we go again. How, then, does Susan Collins do it? How, in a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican for president since 1988, has she been able to survive the ever-closing-in walls of nationalized politics and polarization, where the quality of individual senators matters less to voters than which party controls the Senate? And, despite it being perhaps the worst political environment for Republicans that she’s ever run in, can she do it again? If you’ve tried to watch a YouTube video in Maine over the past few months, you have probably been asked to thank Susan Collins. The millions of dollars in ads run by a dark money group tied to Senate Republican leaders follow a similar structure. You like water? Collins secured millions to protect Maine’s water. Hospitals? Millions to expand them. You hate diabetes? She has a long and thorough career securing money for diabetes research. The ads, for a while, encouraged viewers to “call and thank Senator Collins” and “tell her you appreciate all she is doing for Maine.” Perhaps recognizing that it was a bit tin-eared to encourage voters to call and thank their public servants for doing their jobs, the more recent ads now encourage viewers to “call and tell” Collins to keep fighting for these interests.

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The inescapable Hasan Piker

By 8:30 p.m. on day one of the Socialism 2026 conference, Hasan Piker was tired and hungry and ready to leave. He had flown to Chicago from L.A. that morning, moderated a panel, interviewed an academic about her forthcoming book Confronting Zionism, broadcast everything live per usual, and now wanted to go to Au Cheval, a restaurant in the West Loop with a famous hamburger. “Let’s see if we can get in,” he said, looking down at his phone. It was a Friday night in September. While he tried to find a table, Piker commented that the organizers of the conference had not given him a tote bag. “Which is the craziest thing because everybody has totes here. This is tote central.” He had been presented with other gifts, including a Democratic Socialists of America hat designed to look like a White Sox hat, another one that said SATAN’S SCHOOL OF GAY COMMUNISM, and a vintage tie clip in the form of a USSR locomotive. People at the conference, which was taking place at a Hyatt, were treating him like a visiting dignitary. Piker, 35, who is six-foot-four, was wearing a royal-blue suit and tasseled brown loafers.

He used to dress in streetwear, but as his profile exploded this year, he started wearing jackets and ties. “It’s respectability politics to a certain degree,” he explained. “I’m not going to change my commentary or my worldview, but maybe I can change the immediate way you receive it.” The last time I’d seen Piker, in August, the socialist livestreamer was filming in the VIP section of Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s election party on the night of the Michigan Senate primary. Now he was speaking at a literal socialism convention, an event I had imagined would channel the energy of the ascendant American left. That turned out not to be the case. It was late summer in Chicago, but there would be no rerun of the ’68 DNC, no latter-day yippies disturbing the peace and parading livestock around town and getting bludgeoned by the cops on Michigan Avenue. The conference, put on by the book publisher Haymarket, was niche and dryly academic. Organizers required attendees to wear a KN95 or N95 mask, an anachronistic rule that literalized the conference’s airless aspect. The whole event was unnervingly quiet as people trudged silently to panels or carried on muffled conversations. Piker was conflicted about the masks. “lmao. woke 1.0,” he wrote when I first texted him about the rule.

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Lead Stories

Ken Paxton Texas Senate campaign sees fundraising surge

Ken Paxton’s campaign announced Monday that it raised $18 million in the third quarter of 2026, about double what it raised in the previous three months. It was a flex by the attorney general, who had faced a significant fundraising disadvantage against Democrat James Talarico since Paxton won the Republican Party’s nomination in May. But as the Nov. 3 election nears, Paxton has seen campaign donations swell. Monday is the last day to register to vote, and early voting begins Oct. 19. Campaign spokesman Nick Maddux said in a statement more than 160,000 donors have given to Paxton. “Republicans from all corners of Texas have given to the campaign because they know what’s at stake,” Maddux said. While a new high for Paxton’s campaign, it was still less than the $30 million Talarico’s campaign raised in the second quarter of 2026.

Talarico’s campaign had not released its latest fundraising numbers Monday and had no comment on Paxton’s third-quarter total. But the campaign pointed to leaked audio from a lunch hosted by lobbyists in Washington in which Paxton said he had “never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign,” according to Politico. “Ken Paxton is a puppet,” Talarico said on X. Paxton’s campaign told Politico that he was referring to laws that prohibit campaigns and candidates from coordinating with PACs, preventing Paxton from controlling their messaging. Paxton recently announced a $20 million ad buy leading up to the election. It’s his campaign’s largest ad buy this election cycle. However, it remains dwarfed by the money spent by PACs supporting Paxton, which have spent nearly $200 million flooding the zone.

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Election officials work to clear voter registration backlog say Texas TEAM system makes that harder

At 6 p.m. a few days after the state sent Randall County election administrator Shannon Lackey a backlog of 3,388 of voter registration records, she was still at her desk, processing them after a full day of work. She planned to stay late and get as much done as she could, then keep working from home. Lackey, whose department has five employees, isn’t expecting overtime pay or compensatory time off to make up for the extra work caused by the state error. The most frustrating part, she said, was that the state’s voter registration and management system, known as TEAM, was making it harder to get through the backlog. “I just got a message saying ‘an error occurred’,” Lackey said while on the phone with a Votebeat reporter. “I cannot tell you how many times I get that message, ‘an error occurred,’ so I’m just clicking. Nothing’s happening. I can’t work right now.”

She said her only choice is to push through. “I have to get this done” she said, but “how are we going to fix it? And if it’s not fixable, where do we go from here? Because this is unacceptable.” Local election officials across the state have raised concerns about TEAM since the state rolled out a long-awaited upgrade more than a year ago. Now they must use the system to resolve a backlog of hundreds of thousands of voter registration records and updates state officials sent them due to a software error with the Texas Department of Public Safety web portal. Many say the issues with TEAM are making the backlog harder to resolve at a critical time. State officials discovered the error just weeks before today’s deadline for Texans to register to vote in time for the critical midterm elections. Election officials are already contending with the typical high volume of voter registration applications delivered in person and by mail at the last minute in the coming days. Some better-resourced and larger county election departments have been able to quickly resolve their backlogs with help from outside vendors, but they’re also still reporting problems interacting with TEAM.

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Republicans fight red-state midterm chaos with hundreds of millions in late money

Republicans are swamping House and Senate races with an unprecedented flood of late ad spending as the party tests whether hundreds of millions of dollars can buy it some reprieve from the eroding political environment that’s threatening longtime Republican states and districts. Since the start of September, Republicans have made more than $700 million worth of new advertising bookings in congressional races alone, according to an NBC News analysis of data from AdImpact, a political ad-tracking firm. That’s new money on top of what had already been committed to those races in ad reservations made over the summer. By comparison, Democrats booked more than $430 million in new ad reservations across those races last month.

The disparity is greatest in the battle for the Senate majority, where almost 7 of every 10 newly booked advertising dollars are coming from Republicans. That’s led by a massive, late investment in the Senate race in Texas, where Democrat James Talarico is threatening a longtime Republican seat and the GOP has poured in almost $150 million in new ad dollars to back up its nominee, Ken Paxton. The gap is smaller in the House, where a bit less than 6 in 10 of those new ad dollars are coming from the GOP. Democrats still have a number of advantages in their corner, including President Donald Trump and his party’s eroding standing among voters, Democrats’ own well-funded candidates, and help from outside groups. Candidates can take advantage of a rule that allows them to buy television ads at cheaper rates than outside groups, too. But the color of the outside money flood shows how Republicans, increasingly on defense in both the House and the Senate, are able to lean on their financial advantage in hope of defying political gravity, as party bastions like Texas and even Kansas look more competitive than usual.

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They’re the most hated thing in America. A strange new industry has cropped up to change your mind.

One sweltering morning in early August, data center executives gathered in a Northern Virginia conference center to talk about why nobody likes them. The panel, convened by the trade publication Data Center Frontier, featured industry leaders who sat onstage and shook their heads in bewilderment at the anti–data center movement presently engulfing communities across the country. As recently as a year or two ago, they said, a new data center could be quietly constructed without so much as a peep from concerned residents. Now, entire states were passing bans to keep them out. The panelists tossed out possible reasons for the American public’s disdain: Data center developers have been too secretive and seem shady to the average townsperson. Anti–data center Facebook groups are rife with misinformation about water usage, an issue that’s more complicated than detractors suggest. Companies have made a habit of waltzing into town and executing their plans without listening to community concerns. “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason,” chided one energy-industry executive.

During the first three months of 2026, U.S. data center opponents stopped or delayed 75 projects worth almost $130 billion, roughly equal to those blocked in the entirety of 2025. The 840-plus anti–data center groups across the country represent a new, surprisingly bipartisan national consensus: A Gallup survey conducted in March found that 71 percent of Americans would oppose a new A.I. data center in their area. This is sobering news for tech executives, but it has opened a new avenue of business in another industry: public relations. A growing number of PR consultants are styling themselves as experts in getting data centers built without provoking opponents. They advertise strategic counsel on responding to community resistance, recruiting landowners to sell their lots for development, and trying to win over residents before opposition groups even have a chance to form. Often, they attempt to intervene quietly, behind the scenes, hoping that once-resistant communities will start to soften, maybe without realizing why. Until the last year or two, there was no need for this specialty. For decades, data centers were the small, unobtrusive, unlabeled buildings on the outskirts of town, doing the invisible work of keeping the internet afloat without straining the power grid or bearing the weight of our anxieties about technological change. But the advent of A.I. has made the buildings exponentially bigger, louder, and closer to places where people live.

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State Stories

Whitmire administration will pull bid for $150M federal grant as council questioned its ICE implications

Mayor John Whitmire’s administration will withdraw a $150 million grant application to a controversial federal program after the Houston Chronicle reported Monday that the city had submitted the paperwork last month, unbeknownst to city council. Houston’s bid for the Model Cities Initiative, run by the U.S. Department of Justice, was pulled twice from the council agenda last month as Whitmire said his office was pressing the DOJ to clarify the program’s guidelines, while council members and residents raised concerns that the funding might force the city to more closely cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The council has spent months this year debating the role Houston police play in ICE actions. But the grant application had been submitted weeks before in order to meet the program’s Sept. 1 deadline, the mayor’s office said.

Council Member Amy Peck, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, said Friday that the mayor’s staff told her the council would be asked to approve the funding if it came through. At least three other council members said they were unaware of the city’s submission. Two said they thought the Whitmire administration had decided not to apply, especially after his office told Houston Public Media last week that the city was “not taking any action… at this time” on the grant. Whitmire said late Monday afternoon he would withdraw the application in part because his staff erred in not securing council approval before submitting it. “In the effort to ensure the application was submitted on time, staff prematurely submitted it before the required council approval was secured,” Whitmire said in a statement. “Due to that error and current lack of clarification on the program’s guidelines, the city of Houston is withdrawing its application.” In an earlier Monday statement, Whitmire said the city had applied with the goal of supporting its efforts to combat homelessness, violent crime and domestic violence.

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‘Fishing expedition’: Eastland family responds to search warrants in Camp Mystic criminal investigation

The Eastland family is responding to the criminal probe into their role in the deaths of 25 campers and two counselors following deadly floods at Camp Mystic in July 2025. The Texas Department of Public Safety executed 14 search warrants last month, mostly against the Eastland family, who owns the Kerr County summer camp. Those court documents show the lead criminal investigator requested access from Apple, Inc. to their electronic data, including browser history, call logs, emails, GPS, and photos. Texas Ranger Brant Johnston is looking at five criminal charges, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, injury to a child, abandoning or endangering a child, and deadly conduct.

Six members of the Eastland family filed motions in Kerr County District Court, asking for a hearing on multiple issues, calling the search warrants a “fishing expedition.” The family wrote, “We can only assume this is a fishing expedition by Ranger Johnston regarding speculation as to admissions he believes to exist in the aftermath of the flood event itself, and to attempt and prove something by the non-existence of information, which is to prove a negative, which should not be an acceptable form of credible evidence in a criminal investigation.” KXAN reached out to DPS for a comment but has not yet heard back. In their filings, the Eastlands claim the time frame in which the investigator is asking for their data — July 3 through July 4, 2025 — is “overbroad” and they point out it could include information that’s protected by attorney-client privilege. “The warrant’s date range encompasses not only the July 4, 2025, flood but also potential post-incident communications generated while Movant and Camp Mystic, LLC potentially faced related civil claims, regulatory inquiries, and other investigations,” the document said. The family, therefore, is asking the court to stop investigators from reviewing the returned electronic data and to, instead, appoint an independent person or team who will take a look at and filter the evidence for investigators. According to the response, the Eastland family is requesting information on who has already seen the returned electronic data and what they have seen.

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These energy companies put Oklahoma City on the map. Now they’re moving to Texas.

An NBA basketball team. An Olympic rowing facility. The state’s tallest skyscraper. All were lavished on this mid-American city by two oil-and-gas companies and their leaders over decades of investment to lure top talent. Now, the partnership has run into a Texas-shaped wall. Devon Energy and Expand Energy —the successor of Chesapeake Energy—said in back-to-back announcements this year that they were moving headquarters to a more desirable location: Houston. Just like that, Oklahoma City is losing its two largest public oil-and-gas companies, with market values of about $52 billion and $20 billion, respectively. The abrupt exits have frazzled some of the city’s elder statesmen, chagrined politicians—and prompted some chief executives to make not-so-subtle digs at their former neighbors.

The companies have said they would maintain a large presence in Oklahoma City, but some officials fear that will dwindle over time. “We should be asking why Oklahoma keeps building energy companies only to watch so many of them eventually move south,” said state Sen. Dusty Deevers. The corporate migration carries extra sting because the companies were by far the top corporate boosters in Oklahoma City. They erected sprawling campuses and upscale strip malls—and even helped turn a moribund river into an Olympic water-sports venue. The drive from the airport to the city center is studded with signs celebrating the Oklahoma City Thunder, which won its first NBA championship two seasons ago. The departures are the latest sign that a frenzy of oil-and-gas mergers is consolidating the energy industry in Houston. Devon announced its departure after inking a deal to merge with Houston-based Coterra Energy. Chesapeake merged with Southwestern Energy, which was based in north Houston, two years ago and changed its name to Expand. Oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron both based in the Houston region, have acquired rivals once based in New York, Denver and Irving, Texas and centralized corporate functions in Houston. “People don’t understand that locating in Houston is like moving a film company to Hollywood,” said Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt.

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Dorazio still the right choice in Texas House District 122

We recommend incumbent state Rep. Mark Dorazio in his bid for a third term representing Texas House District 122. While we don’t agree with Dorazio, a Republican, on a number of issues, our recommendation is broader than tallying issues on a score sheet. It’s notable that in a majority-Republican district, Dorazio outperformed President Donald Trump during the 2024 general election, garnering 58.1% of the vote in his election versus Trump’s 54.9% in the presidential race. Given the open race in House District 118 and the tough challenge that Republican state Rep. Marc LaHood faces from Zach Dunn in District 121, Dorazio could be one of two Republicans in San Antonio's statehouse delegation, along with state Sen. Donna Campbell, whose district includes northern Bexar County.

We give credit to Dorazio for his opposition to the controversial Guajolote Ranch development, the proposed 2,900-home project with plans for a sewage plant that would discharge up to 1 million gallons per day of treated wastewater into Helotes Creek. Dorazio reached his position after he took the time to understand the characteristics of the karst formations that comprise the area under Helotes Creek. “I’m not against development,” he said. “But I’m for good, commonsense development.” The administrative rules by which the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality operates favor permit applicants such as Municipal Operations LLC, the company that developer Lennar Corp. has engaged to operate the proposed wastewater treatment plant. Nevertheless, Dorazio’s support was more than symbolic. When his constituents reached out with concerns, he invested time and energy to understand them, and we’re confident he will continue to listen, even to those who disagree. While we recommend Dorazio, we also are impressed by his Democratic opponent, Dr. Shelly Nickels. Given that’s she’s a physician and medical director with Methodist Hospital, it’s unsurprising that she’s well-versed on healthcare. We agree with her call for expanding Medicare in Texas and blocking the Texas Republican Party’s goal to ban IVF treatment.

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Zack Dunn our choice to represent Texas House District 121

In a race that includes a one-term incumbent, we recommend political newcomer Zack Dunn for state representative in Texas House District 121. Dunn, the Democratic candidate, rose above state Rep. Marc Lahood in our meeting with two candidates. While Dunn was sharp on policies and district issues, LaHood was unfocused and often came across as either unaware or unengaged. Should he win, LaHood needs to sharpen up ASAP.

In our meeting, Dunn called for better funding for public schools and referred to the state’s new private school voucher system as a “terrible waste of taxpayer dollars.” He supports removing tax breaks as part of a measured approach to dealing with data centers, and he opposes Gov. Greg Abbott’s call to undo CPS Energy’s status as the sole provider of electricity in San Antonio. Devastating fatal flooding rocked this district on June 12, 202 Meanwhile, LaHood was underwhelming and scattered. He was remarkably disengaged regarding Abbott's proposal for CPS, and he occasionally rambled well off topic. When the subject was border security, he started talking about the war in Iran and threats from Russia and China. He expressed no urgency to address the infrastructure needs in this district, which was rocked by fatal flooding on June 12, 2025. While Dunn is the Democrat, he was far more aligned with this district's former Republican state Reps. Joe Straus and Steve Allison. He’s best suited to represent District 121.

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Texas pediatricians face Paxton investigations for vaccinating children

It was a bustling Monday morning at a little pediatrician’s office in central Texas. Children with rashes, fevers and runny noses cycled through exam rooms decorated with butterflies, planets and colorful maps. The doctor, who had been treating kids in the community for 20 years, was delighted when a woman she had cared for as a child came in with her newborn. Until recently, she had planned to continue her practice for years to come. But this year, she has begun to reconsider amid the stress and legal costs of defending herself in a statewide investigation by Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, who has accused doctors, drug companies and insurers of conspiring to push parents into vaccinating children. She agreed to be interviewed and allowed a reporter to visit her practice but asked to be identified by her middle name, Rachel, to protect her from retaliation.

In December, Dr. Rachel received a letter from the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division demanding her vaccine purchase records over the past 10 years. “The division believes that you are in possession, custody or control” of material, “involving potential misleading or deceptive acts regarding incentives associated with the administration of childhood vaccines,” it said, adding that such acts could be in violation of the state’s deceptive trade practices law. The letter also requested her practice’s vaccine policy, and said that it would not be sufficient to cite the childhood vaccine schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr. Paxton has also implicated the nation’s largest organization of pediatricians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, in the alleged conspiracy over the workaday task of protecting children from polio, measles, meningitis and more than a dozen other dangerous and sometimes life-threatening diseases. “I will ensure that Big Pharma and Big Insurance don’t bribe medical providers to pressure parents to jab their kids with vaccines they feel aren’t safe or necessary,” he said when announcing the investigation in January, describing his efforts as working “alongside President Trump” and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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Lawmakers hear from women’s health experts on hormone health and menopause

The Texas House of Representatives subcommittee on Maternal Health, Menopause and Access to Evidence-Based Medicine had their second interim hearing Monday where they focused on issues regarding hormone health and menopause. The subcommittee was established in August to extend discussion of women’s health concerns beyond childbearing years into midlife. A panel of OB/GYNs and menopause specialists delivered testimonies at the hearing and shared their concerns with the subcommittee. A common concern was that physicians often fail to treat root causes of menopause symptoms and instead opt to treat the symptoms themselves. Many menopausal and perimenopausal women seek medical care from multiple providers before being directed to a menopause specialist.

“A recent study found that 60% of women say their clinician dismissed their symptoms, also found that 40% got no guidance on treatment. The treatments exist, but the training is lagging,” said Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a board certified OB/GYN and certified menopause specialist. “Women arrive with a sleeping pill from one doctor, an antidepressant from another, and a referral to a cardiologist for heart palpitation, and nobody asks them about their periods. They treated each symptom on its own, and the cause never really gets named.” Haver also discussed the lack of comprehensive menopausal training in medical schools. “I got almost no menopause training in my residency. I got six one-hour lectures in my second year of training and no clinics, no clinical experience whatsoever,” Haver said. Dr. Jennifer Friedman, an OB/GYN and clinical associate professor at Texas A&M University Family Medicine Residency Program, emphasized the need for menopause education in Texas during the hearing. Friedman created a formal menopause gynecology elective and curriculum at the Texas A&M Family Medicine Residency in 2022 and believes that more physicians need to be trained in menopausal care to adequately address the needs of the population.

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: Blame this Democrat for the HISD takeover, but still reelect him.

Here’s how octogenarian Harold Dutton thinks about retirement and passing the torch to the next generation: “Why don’t you get a torch and light it on mine?” Dutton once wanted to retire from the Texas House. He had a successor, a staffer he’d trained up over the course of a decade. But she died tragically in 2023. Other candidates challenged him, even fellow Democrats, but voters just kept picking him. This year, yet again, he made it through a contentious primary — even though opponents attacked him for having written the bill amendment that launched the controversial state takeover of Houston ISD. We’ve been critical of the takeover, too, but even we think he remains the best candidate to represent this north Houston district.

How could anyone defend the HISD takeover, you ask? Even now, as enrollment craters and funding challenges have even well-performing campuses facing painful cuts? Dutton always reminds us that HISD failed children in his district for years. He wrote the provision that enabled the takeover with the intention of forcing the district to pay attention to its most troubled schools. And he doesn’t regret it. “For the most part it’s all been positive,” he insisted. When he visits schools, Dutton said, he hears good reviews. “Mr. Dutton, we don’t have nearly as many fights as we used to have,” he said he heard on his recent stop at Wheatley High School, his alma mater and the chronically failing campus that triggered the state takeover. But perhaps some of the criticism and concerns — the “noise,” as state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles dubs it — has finally broken through to Dutton. “Is it perfect?” he asked rhetorically. “ Is it where I’d like for it to be? Well, probably not.” A better answer would be, definitely not. Even three years in, Wheatley’s much-lauded A rating came with a big asterisk. As was the case for many high schools across the district, Chronicle reporting revealed, Wheatley’s score was boosted by questionable online college prep courses that even the state education agency is wary of and is mostly phasing out. Still, Dutton said, “I arrive at the conclusion that says we’re far better off than we were at the time this began.”

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: Voters should back this 'all gas, no brakes' Democratic staffer

If you want to feel excited about Houston, talk to Odus Evbagharu. His view of our city and our future is so buoyant that you can’t help but feel a little lighter after hearing it. “My parents came to this country on a penny and a promise,” Evbagharu told the editorial board. And the country welcomed them. His family found a home in Houston. He attended Cy-Fair ISD schools and then the University of Houston. No matter what side of town he was on, he said, he felt the openness that made this region great. “There’s really a lot more that unites us,” Evbagharu said. “I’ve seen it firsthand: People would come to our house eating fufu, jollof rice — white people.” His friends from college would ask him to bring back food from home. “People can barely say my last name and they’re like, ‘Hey go run for office.’”

Though Evbagharu, 34, is a first-time candidate, he’s also a behind-the-scenes politico. He was chief of staff for Jon Rosenthal, the outgoing state representative for House District 135, which includes northwest Houston, Cypress and Jersey Village. (Rosenthal is leaving this seat to run for a spot on the Texas Railroad Commission.) Evbagharu also runs his own political communications business. And after extreme right-wing candidates took over the school board at Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, cutting chapters out of state-approved text books, he helped moderates win back the majority. With all that experience, it’s not surprising that, when you ask how he’d accomplish political goals in Austin, he doesn’t just talk abstractly about his pro-smart growth platform or talk convincingly about on-the-ground issues.. He says that he’s already been meeting with representatives from both parties. “I’m all gas, no brakes,” he said in his self-assured way. “I’ll be effective come January.” Evbagharu wants to partner with County Commissioner Lesley Briones, for example, to boost her sidewalks initiative — a critical issue in an area that saw school bus routes cut. He thinks a strategic approach to adding new, regulated data centers could help lower local property taxes. He welcomes AI into classrooms with guardrails so students don’t miss out on learning important skills.

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A Ken Paxton campaign rally at a Houston music hall sparked a fight over what venues stand for

When White Oak Music Hall hosted a campaign rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton, the backlash was swift. The August event faced extensive criticism from indie, punk and underground music scenes — communities built on diversity and inclusion. Punk in particular has a history built on LGBTQ+ intersectionality and anti-establishment ethos. Hosting a politician whose career is defined by anti-trans legislation, aggressive border crackdowns and far-right ideology was seen as a direct betrayal of the safe-haven ethics that keep the local scene alive. White Oak management posted, then quickly deleted, a statement defending the decision, calling itself a “neutral forum” and pointing out that it previously hosted Democrats Beto O’Rourke, former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and judges Ravi K. Sandill and Manpreet “Monica” Singh.

Online reaction was so negative that the venue turned off comments on social media. White Oak management did not respond to a request for comment. The fallout from August’s Paxton rally has shown surprisingly long legs. Hermanos Gutiérrez, an instrumental duo with almost 4 million monthly Spotify listeners, announced in mid-September that they were moving their Oct. 21 show to 713 Music Hall “due to issues with the venue and concern from our fans.” Viral singer Novulent canceled his Aug. 8 show day-of after learning of the Aug. 5 Paxton rally, stating the band “does not support his hatred and bigotry at all.” After failing to secure another venue, Mannequin Pussy and Wednesday opted to keep a Nov. 12 date on White Oak’s outdoor stage but said the venue will donate its facilities fee to the Montrose Center and Houston Immigrant Legal Services Collaborative and drop its merch cuts.

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AIM Media Texas Editorial Board: Deportations in Valley have taken a major toll; policy changes needed

The recent crackdown on immigration has affected our entire country, but probably the areas most affected are those along the border such as the Rio Grande Valley, where immigrants comprise a larger percentage of the population. Local officials, advocates and observers note that the effects are widespread, and affect virtually everyone in our communities directly. Recent data detail how the removal of thousands of Valley immigrants — many of them longtime residents and even business owners — affects us all. They also show the need that new policies are needed, or existing policies should be changed, to deal with them. Information from the Deportation Data Project and the Caminos Institute indicate that since 2022, immigration officers have detained more than 13,000 Valley residents, and more than 86% of them have been deported. They include both illegal and legal residents.

Nearly 70% of those removals have been men and the median age is 36. In simple terms, most of the people our community has lost have been part of our workforce. The effects have been obvious in several elements of our economy, particularly in housing, construction and agriculture. This means fewer homes and other buildings are being constructed and renovated, driving up local home prices and making it more difficult for home and business owners to make repairs and upgrades that can improve living conditions, lower utility costs or recover from storm damage. Valley farmers report they can’t hire enough workers for their fields, and some produce hasn’t been harvested because of the worker shortage. Local shrimpers for years have reported difficulty finding enough capable workers work their trawlers; some have even stayed in port because they can’t operate. Reduced harvests mean less produce in the stores, which drives food prices up.

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Why Taylor Sheridan signed on with NBCUniversal after years at Paramount

While he's best known for his work on TV now, Taylor Sheridan got his big break as a screenwriter for the big screen. Working on movies reportedly played a big role in the Fort Worth-based creative signing a lucrative film and TV deal with NBCUniversal. NBCU Entertainment chair Donna Langley said at a recent event that she opened talks on a deal with Sheridan by talking about films first. "That’s how it started, and then we just got to talking and one thing led to another," Langley said at Bloomberg’s Screentime event in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.

His move will follow a long and successful stint with Paramount that included popular TV shows like Landman, Lioness and Tulsa King, among others. The film part of Sheridan's NBCU deal is expected to take effect this year while the TV component will start once his Paramount deal runs out in 2028, per Variety. Additionally, Langley hinted at the ongoing merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. as playing a role in her studio's ability to pull Sheridan away from his longtime home. "There’s just a moment to kind of look around the marketplace and see if there’s a competitive advantage," she said. Sheridan is set to return to the big screen in May with F.A.S.T. starring Brandon Sklenar, who played Spencer Dutton in the Yellowstone prequel 1923. Sheridan is also reportedly co-writing a script for a movie based on the popular Call of Duty video game.

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Trump orders firing squad for gunman who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas

President Donald Trump has ordered the use of ?a firing squad to execute the former US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in ?a 2009 shooting spree the gunman later described as retaliation for US wars in the Muslim world, the Pentagon said on Monday. Putting former US Army Major Nidal Hasan to death by Army firing squad was approved by Trump at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on ?X. Parnell noted that Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" — God is greatest in Arabic — during the attack, which killed 12 unarmed active-duty soldiers ?and a retired serviceman, and wounded 32 others.

The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place ?of the execution, Parnell said, adding, "Judgment day for Hasan has finally come." Death by firing squad was one of several forms of capital ?punishment the Trump administration recently added to permissible forms of execution for the gravest of federal crimes, along with electrocution and gas asphyxiation. The ?number of federal execution options was expanded in part because of increasing difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections, which have also proved challenging to carry out for other reasons at times. Plans by the state of Tennessee to execute a woman for the first time in more than 200 years went awry ?last week when prison personnel botched an attempt to administer a lethal injection, leaving the death-row inmate, Christa Pike, alive but unconscious and ?hospitalized on life support. Pike's lawyers had previously urged that the Tennessee Department of Correction to consider an alternative to lethal injection, such as hanging or ?firing squad, ?in anticipation of the trouble executioners faced in establishing a sound intravenous line.

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Johnson County Commissioner Bailey pushes back on Abbott tax message

Commissioner Rick Bailey pushed back this week against Gov. Greg Abbott’s criticism of local government spending, arguing that state mandates, population growth and rising costs are driving much of Johnson County’s increased property tax burden. His comments followed the Johnson County Commissioners Court’s recent adoption of a property tax rate of 41.7 cents per $100 of valuation for the new fiscal year, up from 38.9 cents the previous year. County Judge Chris Boedeker said inflation and current economic conditions contributed to the increase. “Other banner items that led to the [increase] came about because our health insurance coverage costs are going to increase by about $2 million per year,” Boedeker said. “We’re also anticipating decreases in our jail lease revenue numbers of about $3 million in the coming year.”

Historically, the county has generated revenue by leasing jail space for inmates from other jurisdictions. As Johnson County’s own inmate population has increased, however, fewer beds have been available to lease. Bailey added that the new tax rate, like last year’s, includes a 1-cent increase related to $60 million in transportation bonds approved by voters two years ago. Bailey, who has frequently criticized what he views as attempts by state leaders to erode local control, then turned his attention to Abbott’s recent property tax proposals and messaging. “The vicious attack that our governor is putting out needs to be addressed,” Bailey said. “It’s basically smoke and mirrors, if you will. “There’s so many things in Abbott’s messaging that are really deceiving to the state of Texas, and I’ll call him out on it, and I plan to do so.”

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National Stories

The mighty American consumer is crashing through inflation and driving growth

Happy hour at Chicago’s Bar Roma was buzzing this past week as locals poured in for $10 cocktails and $11 bruschetta. Kathleen Harper and her husband would normally share a few appetizers, but tonight they were splurging on the $50 tasting menu. “After a long day—I work from home—I like to just get out of the house,” said Harper, who sells fraud-protection services. “Business has been good,” she added, “because fraud, unfortunately, is up.” Harper said she worries about the health of the economy and rising prices for gas and groceries, but feels secure enough to enjoy a good happy-hour deal. Decisions like that across the economy show America’s appetite for consumption is expanding. Americans are spending more on food, travel, couches, Halloween decor and most anything else they want or need—pushing through inflation and their own gloomy feelings about the economy.

The dollar amount spent by U.S. households rose by 6.1% in the 12 months through August, up from annual growth of 4.3% at the end of last year, the Commerce Department reported. Economic growth for the second quarter of 2026, the most recent data available, was revised upward this past week, fueled by consumer spending and business investment. “For all the talk about AI data centers, the main engine of growth for GDP in the United States has been broad-based consumer-spending growth, which I think is tied to a broad-based, stable labor market,” Austan Goolsbee, head of the Chicago Fed, told journalists after an economic forum this past week. Hiring slowed last month, though the unemployment rate remains low. Spending is rising because prices are climbing and Americans are buying more stuff. Just over half the spending increase in the year through August owes to the persistent inflation that has frustrated many shoppers: Consumer prices were up by about 3.4% over that period. But inflation-adjusted spending climbed by 2.6%, too, extending a streak of steady growth over the past five years.

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Why Trump is so ticked off sbout Daylight Saving Time

Changing daylight saving time has obvious appeal for Donald Trump. Many Americans hate switching their clocks twice a year, so ending that practice could win the president rare bipartisan praise and boost his dismal job-approval ratings ahead of the midterms. Despite growing momentum around the issue, legislation to make daylight saving time permanent keeps stalling in Congress. This gives Trump an opportunity to show off his dealmaking skills and taunt political foes like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi for failing to get the bill over the finish line. Plus altering the way millions of Americans experience time has the sort of kinglike vibe Trump enjoys. So will President Trump finally end this biannual ritual? Can he even do that? And why did he post a GOP senator’s phone number? Here’s an explainer, which we’ll keep updated, on Trump’s clock-switching stance. Perplexed? You’re in good company.

Under the current system, in addition to changing our clocks, making up for lost sleep, and adjusting kids’ nap schedules, we’re expected to waste precious time remembering the difference between two not very obvious terms. Basically, standard time is the one most people in the United States use in the winter months. Each year, we “fall back” to standard time on the first Sunday in November. Then we “spring forward” to daylight saving time on the second Sunday in March. This is pretty confusing, as “standard” only lasts about four months. During the other eight months, we’re on daylight saving time. Even more confusingly, a lot of people refer to it as “daylight savings time,” plural, though that is grammatically incorrect. Oh, and two states, Arizona and Hawaii, don’t observe daylight saving time at all. It’s a mess! As with any bill passed by Congress, the president must sign the changes into law. And obviously, Trump has a tremendous amount of sway over the Republicans, who currently control both the House and Senate. For many years, he seemed to be confused, just like the rest of us. In 2019, he tweeted, “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” But weeks after winning reelection in 2024, he announced on Truth Social that he’d be working to do the opposite:

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Trump says his Super PAC will pay for pro-Trump ads instead of taxpayers

President Trump said he plans to pay for controversial pro-Trump television ads using funds from his MAGA Inc. super PAC rather than the federal government, following lawmaker criticism that the spots might violate federal law and were an improper use of taxpayer money. The advertisements, which predominantly feature the president and promote the administration’s policies, started airing on national television last month and were paid for by federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats and some Republicans questioned the use of federal dollars for the ad campaign, which the White House has defended as public service announcements. “The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday evening.

This is a rather standard thing to do but, rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.” The White House said MAGA Inc. would pay for the ads moving forward. MAGA Inc. didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It was unclear if the PAC would repay the U.S. government for the money already spent or just pay for ads going forward. Trump personally pushed for the ads and has been involved in their creation, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The ads have drawn public scrutiny because they include the unusual disclaimer “paid for by the U.S. government.” Critics say the ads might violate laws including the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive-branch employees from using their jobs to promote political causes. One of the ads begins with Trump saying a frequent line he uses on the campaign trail: “Together we will defeat communism, Marxism in America once and for all.” The ad follows with dozens of images of the president at White House events. Playing in the background is a choir singing “Love Me.” Trump ends by saying “America will never be a communist country” and in small letters at the bottom of the screen it reads, “Paid for by the U.S. government.”

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Democratic mayors in red states launch new group to counter MAGA and far-left extremes

A group of 15 Democratic mayors governing in Republican-dominated states are building a new political operation that aims to influence national politics as a center-left alternative to both the MAGA movement and what they describe as "far-left dysfunction" from groups like the Democratic Socialists of America. The organization -- Blue Cities/Red States -- is led by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and will launch next week in Miami with a kickoff event hosted by its mayor, Eileen Higgins. The founding mayors lead cities including Atlanta, Jacksonville, Boise, Tulsa and Memphis -- governing more than 7 million Americans across 11 red and purple states, according to a memo for the new coalition.

In an interview with ABC News, Bibb said he hopes these mayors will emerge as a kind of testing ground for a post-2024 Democratic message. He suggested that the party can rebuild trust among voters by zeroing in on things such as public safety, affordability, economic growth -- things that these mayors often govern on, up against Republicans at times, Bibb said. "As Democrats talk about closing the credibility gap, these 15 mayors have been closing that gap in their cities -- without the cover of a Democratic governor or a Democratic-led legislature," Bibb said. Higgins, who was elected as Miami's mayor in December as the first Democrat to serve in 28 years, also emphasized the group's focus on working against the political extremes. "Working for a more united states is a core theme of Blue Cities/Red States, and we do this by pushing back against extremism and promoting a more practical brand of leadership that focuses on results over rhetoric," Higgins said. "This includes balancing the need to stand up for your community against harmful policies but also finding compromise solutions that deliver results."

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Oil is flowing from Hormuz again—just not diesel

Ships are ferrying almost as much crude oil out of the Strait of Hormuz as they were before the Iran war. But they are barely moving any barrels of the fuel the world needs most: diesel. For now, the distinction is paramount in American politics. President Trump’s team has explored a long list of options to arrest the skyrocketing price of diesel fuel, which factors into the cost of groceries, gadgets and just about everything else moved on semitruck beds. The national average for a gallon of diesel hit a record $6.53 late last month. In California, where supplies are increasingly tight and fuel taxes are higher, diesel reached a historic high of $8.44 a gallon. “Consumers don’t buy crude oil. They buy gasoline, jet fuel and diesel,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. “As a result of missile and drone strikes in the Middle East, several large refineries have been damaged. The world finds itself short of refined products.”

The recovery in oil flows out of the Strait of Hormuz won’t fix the problem anytime soon. As of Saturday, the seven-day average for crude-oil cargoes clearing the critical waterway between Iran and Oman reached 10.3 million barrels a day, or 76% of the prewar baseline, according to the latest available data from market intelligence firm Kpler. But cargoes of oil products like gasoline and diesel came to 1.3 million barrels a day, accounting for only 11% of the overall flows—the rest was unrefined crude oil. Before the war, refined products typically represented more than 20% of the oil cargo passing through the strait. Trump on Monday unveiled an executive order aimed at bringing fuel prices lower. The U.S. will temporarily permit highway use of dyed diesel, a tax-exempt fuel typically used for farming. That move will defer a federal tax of 24.4 cents a gallon on diesel through the end of the year. The administration is putting pressure on its allies abroad. The Group of Seven major economies on Friday agreed to release 100 million barrels of crude oil and fuel from their emergency stocks.

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Meet the Fox News correspondent leading the fight for press freedom at the White House

Even Fox News, one of President Trump’s preferred media outlets, isn’t exempt from his go-to term for any woman he dislikes. “She can be so nasty,” was how Trump recently described the conservative-leaning network’s senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich. Never one to hold back, the president has also had harsh words for her spouse, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a moderate Republican congressman. “Her husband votes against me all the time,” Trump once said. “Can you imagine?” The double-barreled attacks don’t bother Heinrich, who as president of the White House Correspondents Assn. is leading the fight against Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico. When Trump delivered his insult at the WHCA’s dinner in July, Heinrich just shrugged and smiled. “You don’t get into journalism to be well liked by the subject that you’re covering,” Heinrich said in a recent phone interview.

“As long as I’m doing my job, which is to get the story and tell it fairly and fully, the rest of it is not really my business to care about. It’s probably not the last time I’ll upset him. The president still takes my calls.” Heinrich’s durability is being put to the test as she delivers the public and private messaging on the latest battle with the White House over press freedom. Trump banned the three outlets from the White House grounds due to what he believes is their constant negative coverage. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to block the move, calling it viewpoint discrimination and a violation of the outlets’ 1st Amendment rights. But the administration continues to prevent CNN from serving in the press pool that follows the president at all times. More court hearings are ahead. Over the last 10 days, Heinrich has issued public statements condemning the ban, monitored the legal proceedings and held back channel conversations with the White House in an effort to get Trump’s decision reversed. It’s a second job on top of covering the president and co-hosting a weekend program “The Sunday Briefing.”

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Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Francis Halzen for work on neutrinos

Francis Halzen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for his work on a project at the South Pole that has helped discover high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. Who is the winner? Mr. Halzen is a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was born in 1944 in Tienen, Belgium. Why did the committee say he received the prize? The Nobel Committee praised Mr. Halzen's “vision and scientific leadership” at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a research project at the South Pole that he directs. The project — which the committee said involves “a cubic kilometer of ice that is equipped with light sensors” — was designed to capture neutrinos, bountiful but elusive subatomic particles that could give astronomers a new look at the universe.

Mr. Halzen first presented his vision for capturing neutrinos at the South Pole in 1988, the committee said in a statement, and IceCube was finished in 2011. “Researchers soon discovered the first high-energy neutrinos and, a few years later, could publish their discovery of neutrinos that must originate far outside our solar system,” the statement said. Mark Pearce, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in the statement that Mr. Halzen had “provided us with a fantastic instrument” and that his “tenacity and scientific vision has paved the way for a new kind of astronomy.” What did he say about winning? Mr. Halzen called the award “a great surprise.” Addressing the news conference in Stockholm by phone from Italy, he emphasized that his work was the result of a “large collaboration” with other researchers.

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Dennis Hastert, longtime House speaker who served time in prison, dies at age 84

Dennis Hastert, whose congressional legacy as the longest-serving Republican House speaker was later fouled by allegations that he had molested high school athletes during his prior career as a teacher and wrestling coach, has died, a coroner said Monday. He was 84. Hastert, who was speaker from 1999 until 2007 and spent more than a year in prison later in life, died Saturday of natural causes at his home while receiving hospice care, according to Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell. When he was sentenced in 2016 to more than a year behind bars, the former history teacher became one of the highest-ranking American politicians ever ordered to prison. In the late 1990s, Hastert was a little-known Illinois lawmaker with a reputation for congeniality that had helped him ascend the ranks of congressional leaders.

When Newt Gingrich lost support because of ethics violations and the GOP’s poor showing in an election, Republicans elected Hastert to succeed him. In his first weeks on the job in 1999, he presided over the House while the Senate conducted then-President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. After the GOP reclaimed the White House, Hastert helped pass then-President George W. Bush’s legislative agenda. In 2015 he was accused of evading banking regulations as part of a plan to pay hush money to conceal unspecified “prior misconduct.” Nearly a year later, prosecutors said Hastert’s alleged misconduct involved the sexual abuse of teenage boys on his wrestling team in Yorkville, a small town west of Chicago. Prosecutors said Hastert sexually abused at least four team members during his coaching career, which lasted from 1965 to 1981. The person Hastert was paying, identified in court papers only as Individual A, said the abuse occurred in a motel room when he was 14 on the way home from wrestling camp. Hastert allegedly touched other wrestlers in a locker room after saying he would give them massages. Two wrestlers said Hastert performed sexual acts on them. Prosecutors also described a recliner where Hastert often sat in the locker room with a direct view of the stalls where the boys showered.

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Lead Stories

Campaign ‘all coming from DC,’ Paxton says

Ken Paxton is less than a month out from the conclusion of a D.C.-outsider campaign for a Texas U.S. Senate seat that he privately admitted is being run by Washington. “I’ve never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and, like, what issues are going to matter because it’s all coming — you know — from D.C.,” Paxton said during a small fundraising event last month, according to an audio recording obtained by POLITICO from a person in the room who does not support Paxton, and verified by another attendee. “I don’t control message or what we’re doing.” The lunch, hosted Sept. 24 in Washington by Chris Brinson and Susan Hirschmann of the D.C.-based lobbying firm Williams & Jensen, was attended by about a dozen people including Scott Kopple, VP of government relations at defense contractor BWXT.

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Democrats lead governor races deep in Republican territory, polls show

One month until Election Day, voter dissatisfaction with the economy, concerns about political extremism and frustration with President Trump have Democrats within reach of flipping four Republican-held governorships, opening a wide lead in Iowa and an expanding advantage in Ohio among likely voters, according to new polls by The New York Times and Siena University. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican fixture in the state for decades, is now narrowly behind his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa. The Democratic candidate also has an advantage in the race for governor of Alaska. The only place surveyed where the Republican is ahead in the campaign for the governor’s office in Kansas, now held by a retiring Democrat. The polls also show Democrats with an advantage in the Senate in these states, with Democrats ahead in Texas and Alaska, and with the edge in Ohio, while the races in Kansas and Iowa are neck-and-neck.

While national attention has fixated on the fight for control of Congress, governorships will be important heading into a wide open presidential election in 2028. Not only will governors influence the electoral process, they will help shape the redistricting wars that are likely to spill into 2027 and beyond. The polling results underscore how Democrats have been able to push into states that have traditionally favored Republicans, as voters have soured on Mr. Trump amid frustration over the economy, rising gas prices and a deeply unpopular war in Iran. Still, the polls show that even as many of the Republican candidates for governor are at a disadvantage, they are outrunning the difficult political environment. Mr. Trump’s approval rating stands at just 40 percent across the five states. In four of five states surveyed, the Republican candidates for governor are doing better than the president’s approval ratings. Democrats, meantime, are boosted by broadly well-liked candidates who are, for the most part, seen as more politically moderate than their Republican opponents. In Texas, for example, just 28 percent of voters worried that Ms. Hinojosa was too far to the left, compared to 45 percent who were concerned Mr. Abbott was too far to the right. Gov. Abbott was expected to have an easy path toward re-election in a state that hasn’t put a Democrat in the governor’s office since Ann Richards, who served one term before losing to George W. Bush in 1994.

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What to expect from the Supreme Court this term

The nine justices of the Supreme Court open a new term Monday with a wide range of tough cases—and few friends. President Trump has renewed his periodic attacks on the justices’ integrity. Leading Democrats, eyeing the 2028 election, are embracing proposals to blunt the court’s conservative bent by adding more members. Among the public, the court’s approval rating is underwater. And there are signs of friction between the high court and the lower courts it supervises. Amid these tensions, the justices are venturing into cases at the front lines of politics and culture. In the coming months, they will take up climate change, gun control, the role of religion in public life and the rights of parents whose children are transgender. They also will resolve the legality of two core pieces of Trump’s deportation agenda.

The high court’s previous term revolved around Trump-related fights. The justices struck down the president’s global tariffs and his bid to end birthright citizenship, drawing ire from Trump even as the court used temporary emergency rulings to greenlight many of his other policies. So far, this term centers more on the sorts of traditional culture-war schisms that have defined the court’s shift to the right over the past two decades. Opening day starts with a bang. On Monday, the justices—minus Samuel Alito, who has recused—will consider whether local governments can sue oil companies for damages to their communities allegedly caused by climate change. Dozens of such lawsuits are percolating around the country, threatening the energy industry with billions of dollars in potential liability. The court in November and December will hear arguments on guns, religion and transgender minors. One case tests whether states and localities can ban AR-15s and similar semiautomatic guns—or whether the Second Amendment gives people the right to own a weapon that the challengers describe as “the paradigmatic American rifle.” Another case asks whether Colorado can withhold public money from religious preschools that don’t agree to accept children from LGBTQ households. A third case is about when parents have legal standing to challenge a state law that protects the ability of transgender children to access gender-affirming care.

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Republicans and Democrats find a unifying target: Pharmacy benefit managers

Amye Joseph says America's political polarization has made it an "interesting time" in her Tennessee household. She and her husband, Charlie, have been married for 35 years. She's a Republican. He's a Democrat. But their shared disenchantment with profit-driven healthcare has provided a unifying target: pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs. The Josephs' frustration is focused on CVS Health. The conglomerate, which reported $400 billion in revenue last year, includes a major health insurer (Aetna), one of the country's dominant PBMs (CVS Caremark), and America's largest retail pharmacy chain (CVS Pharmacy). "We hate CVS. I'm going to be straight-up," Amye Joseph said. She laments the lack of face-to-face interaction with pharmacists, prices that seem to rise without explanation, and pressure from the couple's CVS Caremark drug plan to use CVS stores instead of their local pharmacy.

"They're not even a middleman," she said. "They're a money grab for CVS." PBMs were conceived as a way to manage prescriptions and hold down costs. But these middlemen have become bipartisan punching bags, accused of sucking up profits at the expense of employers, governments, and patients. And while healthcare debates still divide Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., taking on PBMs has become a unifying cause in an era of widespread frustration over rising healthcare costs. In recent years, every state has imposed restrictions on PBMs. The Josephs' home state of Tennessee, where the GOP has a lock on state government, is among a growing number looking to outlaw companies that own PBMs from also owning brick-and-mortar pharmacies, as CVS does. That's aligned conservative, business-friendly Republicans with Democrats, who are traditionally more open to government regulation. This legislative push reflects a feeling even in the GOP that the market for prescription drugs is being gamed, said Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit think tank that tracks drug pricing. "Republicans are looking at this issue, saying, We know what competition is supposed to do, and it isn't happening," said Ciaccia, a critic of the PBM industry. "This is not a free market."

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State Stories

Data centers promise big financial returns. Should that outweigh other determining factors?

To Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, the debate over data centers starts with the boom in capital investment and property tax revenue the developments promise to the state. Creating regulatory guardrails on issues such as water usage and power are necessary but shouldn’t risk the potential return, Christian told the Fort Worth Report after appearing on a data centers panel Sept. 26 at the Texas Tribune’s annual TribFest conference in Austin. “I think you can learn from previous problems from data centers that have shown problems in the past,” said Christian, who doesn’t regulate data centers but has increasingly spoken on related questions about natural resources. “And what you do as an educated public is you fix the problems, you regulate to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But you don’t stop and turn down billions, billions of free market dollars.”

Data centers — and their massive potential economic return — have careened into the intersection of the free market and community concerns about their environmental impact. The Texas Legislature is set to take up the debate over regulation in the 2027 session. The accompanying statistics highlight the choices and problems data center developers and operators face. Demand nationally for development of data centers — the buildings that house the digital infrastructure necessary for processing daily transactions worldwide for everything from paying water bills to buying airline tickets — is surging, according to research by the JLL commercial real estate firm. Seventy-nine percent of Americans support U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence, but only 14 percent support “data centers in our community,” according to research by JLL, Gallup and Reuters published by JLL in August. JLL declined a request by the Report for an interview for this story. Communities are experiencing the conundrum. In Fort Worth, property tax revenue makes up about 60% of the city’s general fund budget, which pays for most basic city services. But residential revenue — 63% of the tax base, compared to commercial — has turned soft in recent years because of protests and litigation, plus the Tarrant Appraisal District’s policy of reappraising every two years. Fort Worth struggled to close a $94 million budget shortfall for 2027 as a result.

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As prediction markets spread in Texas, therapists warn about gambling addictions

Jessica Steinman fell hard for a gambling addict. They met when the Austin woman had just moved to Los Angeles in June 2011. She passed him her phone number while dining at a 24-hour restaurant where he had worked as a host. He called her the next day. Their relationship progressed quickly. He moved in. She covered the rent, his daughter’s preschool, vacations, dinners and other expenses. He spent his money on sports betting and at the local casino — entire paychecks. After three years of trying to “fix him,” she finally ended it. He had borrowed roughly $85,000 from her, she said, money that he never paid back.

Today, Steinman is an addiction therapist who moved to Austin in August to help serve the growing Texas population of people — like her ex-partner — harmed by gambling. Texas has become a target of sorts for those who see the state as woefully unprepared to handle the explosion of online betting. “I would argue that we have the most demand in Texas,’’ said Sam DeMello, a recovering gambling addict and Boston tech entrepreneur. DeMello launched a digital gambling support platform that has doubled its number of users over the last six months. Hundreds live in Texas — and primarily North Texas. Problem gambling has been traditionally dismissed as an issue that can be fixed by willpower and moral conviction. A growing number of clinicians such as Steinman are raising concerns that excessive gambling can be more lethal and difficult to overcome than more well-researched addictions such as substance abuse or alcoholism. In young people, gambling disorders can create a dangerous rewiring of the brain, experts say, that is impossible to reverse without targeted support. And no matter the age, the disorder reports the highest rate of suicide attempts resulting in death among all addictions, experts say. What’s most troubling is that Texas, unlike more than a dozen other states, contributes no state money for prevention or addiction services, addiction experts say. The federal government spends billions annually on substance use. It dedicates no money to addressing gambling addiction.

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East Texas Water Institute launched

The future of East Texas’ water resources is promising with the Sept. 24 launch of the East Texas Water Institute (ETWI), a new regional initiative designed to expand the information, expertise and partnerships available to communities as they plan for generations to come. The initiative is a joint effort of the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, Stephen F. Austin State University and Angelina College. “Water is our greatest resource. It’s a throughline connecting nearly every part of East Texas’ future – our health, economy, land and communities,” Charlie Glover, president and CEO of the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, said. “A thriving East Texas for all will depend on how well we work together to steward this resource, strengthen regional capacity and ensure communities have the tools and partnerships needed to plan for the future.

“This won’t be an ivory tower on a hill, but a base camp in the pines, a resource now and for the future,” Glover said. The T.L.L. Temple Foundation is endowing the institute’s executive director position, making a long-term investment in the leadership and capacity needed to sustain the Institute’s work across East Texas. Dr. Drew Gholson was appointed as associate vice president and executive director of the Institute. He most recently served as an associate professor and director of the National Center for Alluvial Aquifer Research at Mississippi State University. Gholson brings a wealth of credentials and experience to the table. He holds a bachelor of science degree in rangeland ecology and management, a master of science degree in water management and hydrological science, and a doctorate in soil science. Having been raised on a cow/calf operation in Iowa Park, Texas, Gholson said he grew up knowing the importance of water.

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East Texas town hall meeting held to prepare for legislative session

A little over a hundred people attended a Sept. 25 town hall meeting to discuss subdivision and industrial high-load development in rural Polk County and throughout East Texas. State legislators, legislative candidates, real estate professionals, property owners’ association leaders, volunteer fire chiefs, first responders and other community stakeholders were invited to the town hall meeting because each group sees a different part of the issue. The purpose of the meeting was to bring those perspectives together, explain plainly what current Texas law allows and does not allow counties to do, discuss how those limitations affect rural communities, and identify practical changes that will support responsible growth while protecting property owners and taxpayers.

“Many roads across the county were built before state law granted counties the authority to enforce minimum engineering standards. When Tropical Storm Edouard brought heavy flooding, these older roads, never constructed to withstand such conditions, were severely damaged or destroyed outright. Because they are privately owned and not part of the county-maintained road system, the county cannot lawfully use taxpayer funds to repair them,” County Judge Sydney Murphy said. “The result is that residents can be left without dependable access to their homes, and school buses, emergency medical services, fire departments, and other first responders may have difficulty reaching them. Recent legislative changes have further eroded the authority counties rely on to oversee new subdivisions. Stripping away local enforcement will only invite more substandard development, repeating the very mistakes that created this problem in the first place,” Murphy said. “We cannot use taxpayer funds on private roads. It creates an access problem because when the roads aren’t built to specs, the access gets worse. In Polk County, the problem that is created is people cannot get in and out during emergency management situations,” she said, as she recounted a situation in which first responders had to haul a patient on a stretcher between to four-wheelers because the ambulance could not get down the road.

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David French: The ‘God Gap’ is narrowing in Texas

Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, a 16,000-member congregation, stepped to the microphone at the Republican Party’s midterm convention last month and issued what sounded like a declaration of a religious cold war: “The beliefs of James Talarico are certainly wrong. But they’re more than wrong. The beliefs of James Talarico are blasphemous. They are evil, and they are not beliefs that any true Christian could support. Ever.” Talarico is running for Senate in Texas, and he has a chance to be the first Democrat to win a Senate election in the state since Lloyd Bentsen defeated a Republican congressman named Beau Boulter in 1988. Republicans are worried, and as a consequence their rhetoric is getting wilder and wilder. According to Talarico’s critics, he’s a heretic. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing who will lead God’s people astray. President Trump calls him “Talafreako,” and he’s apparently so dangerous to Republicans that, as The Wall Street Journal reported last month, right-wing podcasts are mentioning Trump less and less while attacking Talarico more and more.

He’s young, he’s polished and he is, heaven forbid, a seminarian (on leave from his studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary). Talarico is running one of the most faith-forward campaigns in the country, along with other Democratic candidates like Adam Hamilton in Kansas (a pastor running for senator) and Rob Sand in Iowa (running for governor). Democrats have run a version of this playbook before. The Rev. Raphael Warnock has prevailed in two Senate elections in Georgia, winning a partial term in a 2021 runoff against Kelly Loeffler and then a full term in 2022, against a MAGA favorite, Herschel Walker. Democrats nationwide are trying to close the “God gap” that has been the Republican Party’s not-so-secret weapon since the 1970s and the advent of Ronald Reagan. Talarico’s Christian faith, though, is more liberal than the Christian faith of many Republicans. It’s more liberal than mine (which isn’t hard). But for many fundamentalists, Talarico’s theology makes him the wrong kind of Christian. And to some, no Christian at all. His opponent is Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, whose wife is divorcing him for infidelity and who was impeached by the Republican-led Texas House of Representatives for misconduct that included bribery, obstruction of justice and disregard of official duties. (The Texas Senate acquitted him.) Trump calls him “the greatest attorney general in the United States of America.”

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Save Dallas City Hall group launches 60-day petition process for charter amendment election

The Save Dallas City Hall Coalition officially has filed notice to launch a citywide petition drive that, if successful, would add a proposed charter amendment to the May 2027 ballot. That charter amendment would designate the I.M Pei-designed building as the seat of city government, unless otherwise decided by the voters. The notice was filed Friday morning That started the clock to get around 20,000 signatures from registered Dallas voters within 60 days. “People are tired of backroom deals and misplaced priorities,” Chris Bowers, Save Dallas City Hall Coalition attorney, said in a statement. “They want City Hall focused on the things that truly matter to their families and neighborhoods, like stronger police and fire services, safer parks, better roads, and a prosperous economy that creates opportunity across our city.”

Bowers added that the petition gives Dallas residents a way to “stand up, get involved and make their voices heard.” The coalition said in a press release that petition-signing events will begin immediately, with volunteers collecting signatures throughout Dallas starting Friday. The petition drive launched a year after the city council was first told that the building had millions of dollars in deferred maintenance and staff proposed relocating City Hall elsewhere in downtown. That briefing sparked strong debate in later months on whether the city should stay and repair the building or move elsewhere and use the land at 1500 Marilla Street for economic development opportunities. That debate sparked the creation of the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition, which has grown from a grassroots effort to an organized 501(c)(4) nonprofit that issued a number of legal notices to the city prior to filing a lawsuit last month. The group is made up of residents, neighborhood and business leaders, preservation advocates, architects, current and former elected officials, and other community stakeholders. The group has attracted support from community leaders like former Dallas mayor Laura Miller, Dallas County Commissioner Elba Garcia, attorney Ben Abbott, and Pei’s daughter Liane Pei. Liane Pei spoke during the coalition’s press conference outside of City Hall last week. “My father loved Dallas,” she said at the press conference. “He designed the City Hall and its plaza not for private interests, but for you, the people of Dallas, to conduct business, gather, celebrate, mourn, raise your collective voice in civic protest, and simply be together. It is your house.”

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As anti-Hindu rhetoric grows, Texas Hindus rethink public celebrations

For close to 15 years, Seema Ashar has hosted a celebration for Ganesh Chaturthi, a Hindu festival celebrating its namesake deity, inviting about 100 friends into her Irving, Texas, home. “It’s a very good thing to bring Lord Ganesh to your house, it gives you a lot of positive, strong vibes,” said Ashar, who has lived in Texas since 2003. Hindus around the world celebrate the god known for removing obstacles in their homes, neighborhoods and temples every August or September. But for some in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, this year’s celebrations felt different. In recent months, a wave of anti-Hindu and anti-Indian sentiment has swept across Texas. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, home to the second-largest Indian American community in the United States, has emerged as one of the major flashpoints, with much of the backlash targeting immigrants. The climate caused some local Indian Americans to call on others to celebrate Ganesh more discreetly out of fear of attracting unwanted attention.

Others said that as celebrations have become increasingly large and loud amid the influx of immigrants, concerns about disturbing neighbors were valid. Ashar grew up in Coimbatore in southern India, where she saw a statue of Ganesh on “every street corner” for holidays. At her celebration last week, visitors gently swayed, chanting shlokas, or devotional hymns, while the rhythmic thudding of the tabla, or drums, enveloped her home. Along the walls, handmade lotus flowers made of purple and pink construction paper decorated a shrine for an idol of Ganesh. However, Ashar said as some celebrations have become more public, with some Hindu immigrants having parties in the streets, she was concerned about noise. “I enjoy all these events,” Ashar said. “I enjoy celebrating your culture, religion, whatever your faith is, but everything has a limit. You cannot disturb other people, and it’s getting wilder and wilder every year. You have to respect everybody around you.” The area has experienced a surge in immigration from India in recent years, attributed to the state’s booming technology and health care sectors. Today, about 270,000 Indian Americans live in the area, according to Pew Research Center. The majority of the community’s growth is concentrated in Frisco, Allen and Plano, which has sparked fierce debate in local city councils over the increasing number of temples, supermarkets and salons catering to the immigrant community.

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Amazon clears first water hurdle for $10B data center near Houston. Bigger obstacles remain.

Amazon’s plans to build a nearly 3,000-acre data center campus in Wharton County cleared a key hurdle recently when regulators approved groundwater permits needed for parts of the $10 billion project outside of Houston. The permits, which were hotly contested by Wharton County residents, would allow Amazon to tap into millions of gallons of groundwater a year for its office buildings and fire protection at the data center campus. The Coastal Bend Groundwater Conservation District issued the permits Sept. 8. The permits don’t include the millions of gallons in surface water Amazon is expected to need to cool the campus’ data center buildings, which could span more than 1.9 million square feet. Water is a central flashpoint in the national debate over the new wave of data centers powering artificial intelligence.

Heat-generating computer equipment in the facilities often require an enormous amount of water, electricity, or both, for cooling. As public criticism of data centers mounts, Gov. Greg Abbott has said that the facilities must reuse their own water and that companies could face criminal penalties for failing to disclose their water use. On Sept. 21, Abbott told the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to pause issuing permits for data centers until state agencies complete ongoing audits of the facilities. Amazon has said it would comply with Abbott’s water requests, disclose how much water it uses and avoid using groundwater to cool the data centers. The tech giant has also pledged to use technology to minimize its water use and fund regional water replenishment programs. Facing public pressure, the company has launched efforts to reach out to residents in the Boling area, which is located about an hour from downtown Houston. It has doubled the number of full-time positions the project is expected to create to 300 and established a Wharton County Community Fund with an initial donation of $200,000 that could support STEM education, veteran programs, housing and other local initiatives. It has held public events for Boling-area residents to answer questions about the campus.

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Ryan Alter’s Prop Q push, governing approach shape District 5 race

Last fall, Council Member Ryan Alter made an urgent case for Proposition Q. The former Capitol staffer and Harvard Law graduate argued the city needed the measure’s money to sustain services and help vulnerable residents. Prop Q would have raised Austin’s property tax rate by more than 20%, adding about $300 a year to the average homeowner’s city tax bill, to generate roughly $110 million for homelessness programs, parks, public health, public safety and other city expenses as Austin faced a historic budget shortfall. Voters resoundingly rejected the measure, with about two-thirds voting against it. Afterward, Alter said he had fought for Prop Q because it “wasn’t just a policy debate; it was a lifeline for many in our community,” warning that residents could fall behind or into homelessness without resources to help them.

Nearly a year later, Alter is asking District 5 voters to reelect him to a second term. He faces three challengers: David Weinberg, an environmental and voting-rights advocate who led the Texas League of Conservation Voters for six years; Liz Brink, a union electrician; and former reality TV star Farrah Abraham. Brian Smith, a political science professor at St. Edward’s University, said Weinberg is Alter’s most serious challenger and that they share similar progressive ideologies. One of their biggest differences appears to be over the best way to approach policies like Prop Q. Weinberg says polling and regular outreach should guide major decisions, and while Alter acknowledges that he misread residents’ financial strain and says he is not looking to raise taxes again, he also contends that elected officials must sometimes take unpopular steps to make progress. Brink, a fiscal conservative, said she wouldn’t have supported Prop Q. “The taxpayers of Austin should not be thought of as ATMs,” she said.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: We recommend Morgan Meyer in the race for Texas House District 108

State House District 108 contains some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Texas, including the Park Cities, Preston Hollow, Bluffview and parts of Uptown and East Dallas. Southern Methodist University sits inside it, as does NorthPark Center and the urban oasis of Turtle Creek. Morgan Meyer has represented the district since 2015. He has been an effective lawmaker, able to parse the intricacies of property tax proposals and public education funding — and to listen sympathetically as parents testified about losing their young daughters during last year’s flash flood tragedy at Camp Mystic. He has earned another term in office. Meyer, a Republican, has lived in the district for almost three decades. He received his undergraduate degree from SMU and his law degree from Washington and Lee University. He leads the House Ways and Means Committee, a powerful committee that has jurisdiction over bills concerning local and state taxes and property tax appraisals.

Texas homeowners may not know his name, but Meyer is one of the legislators they should thank for significantly cutting their property tax bills. While the House and Senate have often taken different approaches to lowering homeowners’ taxes, members of both chambers have agreed to raise the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $140,000 since early 2023. Lawmakers boosted the exemption for disabled homeowners and those age 65 and older to $60,000. The state increased its share of public school funding to help offset the revenue lost by local school districts. Meyer also led the successful effort to significantly increase the exemption for business personal property tax, which is a tax paid on the value of a company’s inventory and equipment. His challenger is Democrat Allison Mitchell, an entrepreneur who grew up in the district. As the mother of a child with developmental disabilities, she said her priority is ensuring that the state adequately funds public schools. She strongly opposes the new educational voucher program. Mitchell is smart and clearly capable of leadership, but she does not match Meyer in this race. Here are some other reasons we recommend Meyer: He strongly denounced the overtly racist rhetoric of Bo French, the GOP candidate for Texas Railroad Commission. His campaigns are positive and focus on relevant issues. He is not given to grandstanding. He rejects the idea that every bill must reflect a partisan viewpoint. That’s worth cheering in this day and age.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: We recommend Angie Chen Button in the race for Texas House District 112

House District 112 voters have a choice between two thoughtful candidates who clearly care about serving their communities. We were impressed by Democratic challenger Zach Herbert, a Marine Corps veteran and attorney who is qualified for the job, but ultimately Republican incumbent Angie Chen Button has earned another term. Button, 72, has represented the district that includes northern Dallas, Richardson, Garland, Sachse and other cities since 2009. She brings valuable leadership experience and has long been one of the Legislature’s most pragmatic Republicans. An immigrant who arrived in the United States from Taiwan, she attended the University of Texas at Dallas and served on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board before assuming her seat in the Legislature.

Button’s story represents the best of an immigrant achieving the American dream — the kind of story GOP leaders used to celebrate before the party began embracing rhetoric against immigration, even the legal kind. Article continues below this ad Button chairs the House Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee and is a senior member of the Ways & Means Committee. She has focused on affordability, backing tax relief for individuals and businesses while also ensuring Texas remains economically competitive. We wish Button would be more willing to take firmer positions. Some of our questions were met with assurances that the Legislature was “looking into” an issue or that there was a process underway, rather than a clear statement of what she would suggest moving forward. Voters deserve direct answers, particularly from experienced incumbents. But Button deserves credit for demonstrating some degree of independence that is increasingly uncommon within today’s Republican Party. She voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2023 and drew three primary challengers this year, all running to her right. And at the end of our interview, she said she would not vote for her party’s nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, Bo French. French made comments on social media last month attacking the racial diversity of University of Texas football fans celebrating after the team’s win against Ohio State.

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: No Recommendation for agriculture commissioner, but at least Sid Miller is done

Weeks before early voting begins, the closing argument for the two major party candidates for agricultural commissioner is that the other one fails to meet the literal qualifications for the job. Democrat Clayton Tucker, a rancher, progressive activist and secretary of the Texas Farmers Union, is asking state GOP leadership to declare Republican Nate Sheets ineligible for the election because he lacks the qualifications outlined in the Texas Agricultural Code. The campaign for Sheets, founder of Nature Nate’s Honey, the bestselling branded honey in the nation, countered by alleging that it’s Tucker who is all hat and no cattle. Still, when it comes to important issues such as ensuring food safety by removing pesticides and chemical products, seeing that children have access to nutritious and filling meals, and opposing farm monopolies, the candidates are fairly similar.

In our interviews, both approached the office with seriousness. Either would be an upgrade to the incumbent, Sid Miller. We were impressed with Sheets' knowledge of how to eradicate the new world screwworm fly, his ideas for addressing concerns about data centers through dividends and water recycling, and his passion for limiting pesticides in the food chain. We would have recommended him, but we were disappointed with his answer to our question about a racist social media post by Bo French, the Republican candidate for railroad commissioner. The infamous post targeted minority University of Texas students celebrating at a football game. “I think he chose a poor way to express a sentiment that a lot of people have and are frustrated with the results of our H-1B immigration policy here in Texas,” Sheets said, before adding he didn’t agree with French and conveyed that to him in a private text message We believe him, but we wish that answer had been stronger. We also think it’s weak and naive for Tucker to ask the opposition party to disqualify its nominee. Beyond this, Tucker's policy ideas are mushy. His call for a two-year moratorium on data centers is unrealistic. His support of a toxic bait system to combat screwworm is antiquated. After multiple discussions, our opinion team remains split on this race and can offer no recommendation. At least both candidates are better than Miller.

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National Stories

The US said China was priming a trade superweapon. Then it vanished.

Four years ago, the United States warned that China was poised to unleash a trade superweapon: a state-backed digital dragnet that would rapidly expand across the globe and give Beijing unprecedented insight into the flow of international cargo. The LOGINK platform promised to streamline global shipping by providing a digital system to exchange logistics data from customs authorities, ports and third-party transport services, replacing paper processes. Instead, the venture suffered a stunning reversal, reported here ?for the first time. Its flagship global partnerships have stalled, it dropped out of an international maritime association, and it has become mired in domestic lawsuits over unpaid bills, according to interviews with more than 20 shipping industry insiders and officials, as well as a Reuters review of legal ?filings.

When a reporter visited LOGINK’s operations hub in the coastal city of Wenzhou in September, the offices appeared abandoned: lights off, reception bare, computer cabling stripped out. Calls and emails to LOGINK went unanswered. China’s transport ministry declined to answer questions. The ministry in June, however, issued a policy document calling for the system to be connected to more domestic data streams. LOGINK's international retreat is a setback for Beijing, which has been engaged in a battle with Washington to control the physical infrastructure and technologies underpinning global shipping, a sector that carries 80% of world trade. The platform's decline will be welcomed by the US, which contributed to LOGINK's reversal in fortunes by "naming and shaming" those who used the system, said Randall Schriver, chair of a US Congress commission that issued a report on LOGINK in 2022. Reuters could not establish ?why the platform championed by China’s cabinet as a “key project” abruptly went dark and spiraled into financial and legal troubles. The timing of its retreat, however, coincided with US efforts to pressure allies and organizations that had made tentative steps to collaborate with LOGINK as it pushed for global expansion.

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AI is supercharging political ad wars. But viral doesn’t mean victorious

Artificial intelligence is dramatically lowering the cost of political advertising, allowing campaigns to churn out attack ads, memes and other targeted messages at a pace that would have been prohibitively expensive just a few years ago. In the political ad wars, campaign operatives can now use generative AI to produce in minutes or hours what once required days by a team of writers, voice talent, video shoots and production teams. The shift is turning political creative from an expensive campaign asset into something much more affordable and closer to disposable content, potentially giving candidates and outside groups the ability to flood voters with more messages.

While the exact number is difficult to identify, the ad-tracking firm AdImpact had identified 29 campaign ads in federal and gubernatorial contests that disclosed using AI content, as of two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Wesleyan Media Project, which also counted ads that did not make AI disclosures, has identified at least 164 AI-influenced ads this cycle. But the jury is still out on whether the use of AI for campaign messaging can help produce the ultimate objective: an election victory. "It certainly allows you to produce more content in varying styles and more cost effective," veteran Republican consultant Jesse Hunt told Fox News Digital, as he pointed to the creative and economic appeals of using AI in political advertising. Democratic strategist Chris Moyer said that "AI gives campaigns more tools for less cost. So there is a democratizing of the tools that campaigns used to have to spend valuable resources on....You can get access to things with a smaller budget." Will Ritter, a longtime Republican ad maker and media and political strategist, told Fox News Digital that the creative advertising and political strategy agency he co-founded, Poolhouse, "went from last cycle doing basically doing nothing with AI to most of our ads now have some AI component."

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Soldiers and families press Army leaders after deadly Iranian drone strike

On a sunny, cloudless morning on March 1, the day after President Donald Trump started the war against Iran, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan was coordinating critical Army supplies out of Port Shuaiba in Kuwait. In an instant, a drone crashed through the ceiling and exploded, killing Marzan, who had served in the military for 36 years. The force flung soldiers into the air, fragments of sheet metal and glass shards impaling them. The tin roof was peeled back “like opening up a sardine can,” one soldier recalled. Six soldiers were killed and dozens were injured in the deadliest known strike on U.S. troops since Operation Epic Fury commenced on Feb. 28. For many, the attack at Port Shuaiba has receded into memory as the war nears its eighth month. But to those there that day and their families, it showed the cost of a hastily drawn conflict. The planning had apparent flaws, and commanders did not take intelligence reports of the Iranian threat seriously enough, leaving wounded soldiers questioning Army leadership and the military medical system.

That warning went unheeded, the soldiers say. Some also said higher-ranking officers pushed for an all-clear to be called, but it’s not certain from their accounts who ultimately made the decision to move soldiers out of a safer space in nearby bunkers. The wounded also would later say their serious injuries were not treated promptly or adequately in the weeks following the attack. “We have the right to know what really happened,” Marzan’s widow, Tina Marzan, told the AP. “If somebody messed up, those people need to be held responsible.” Battlefield conditions are inherently chaotic and assessments drawn by those involved are often in tension. The AP’s account of the attack is based on interviews with 13 soldiers, primarily officers, serving in key positions of responsibility there or familiar with high-level briefings leading up to the strike. Along with several Gold Star families — the military’s designation for relatives of a soldier killed while on active duty — many are raising their concerns publicly for the first time and calling for the Army to reconcile what they say are failures of preparedness.

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Democrats are struggling to beat Susan Collins. You can (still) blame one man.

Democrats hoping to retake the U.S. Senate have been enjoying a run of good luck. With Election Day barely four weeks away, polls show the party’s candidates leading in North Carolina, Georgia, and even Texas. Michigan, which looked iffy after a divisive primary that pitted centrists against progressives, seems increasingly winnable. Political forecasters have shifted races in deep-red Kansas and South Carolina toward Democrats, too, even though both remain long shots. And Donald Trump’s approval ratings continue to sink, creating formidable headwinds for any candidate with an R next to their name. But then there’s Maine. In the Pine Tree State, Democratic former state Sen. Troy Jackson appears to be struggling in his bid to unseat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. A gold-standard poll last month found Collins leading Jackson by 3 points, triggering a mini-freakout among Democrats. Conducted by the New York Times and Siena University in partnership with the local Portland Press Herald newspaper, the survey was notably worse for Jackson than others taken before and since.

But polls generally show a close race, a major letdown in a state that went for Kamala Harris by 7 points in 2024 and where the Democrat running for governor this year remains comfortably ahead. Collins is the only Republican senator up for reelection in a state that Harris won. That means a Jackson loss would hugely complicate Democrats’ path to reclaiming the Senate, forcing the party to bank on winning far more conservative states. So what’s going on? Some blame Jackson’s lack of charisma and mealymouthed speaking style. Others say consultants have transformed his campaign into a Washington-run effort ill-suited to a political moment that favors outsiders. Still others point out that Collins has repeatedly managed to get reelected, Maine’s blue-state status be damned. And some think the Times/Siena/Press Herald poll may be off, making things look more dire for Jackson than they really are. Yet if Jackson really is losing, it could also be because there’s a specter haunting his candidacy like something out of Stephen King. That specter is Graham Platner, Democrats’ original Senate nominee in Maine, whose gravel-voiced populist rhetoric caused national donors, progressive pundits, and 156,000 primary voters to swoon. Despite weathering a series of scandals—including revelations that he’d spouted offensive views on Reddit, gotten a Nazi tattoo as a drunken Marine, received significant financial support from his well-heeled father, and cheated on his wife shortly into their marriage—Platner was forced to drop out in July after an ex-girlfriend accused him of sexual assault. (He denies the allegations.) Those scandals left Maine Democrats with little choice but to replace Platner on the ballot. After holding meetings around the state at which voters nominated delegates, the party overwhelmingly picked Jackson at a statewide convention in late July.

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Family of Epstein victim appears in ad targeting Republican

A Democrat running for Congress in a competitive Colorado district released an ad on Monday that features the family of Virginia Giuffre, one of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent victims. The ad is squarely pointed at Representative Jeff Crank, criticizing him for blocking the release of federal files related to Mr. Epstein and accusing him of refusing to meet with Ms. Giuffre’s relatives. “Jeff Crank covered up Epstein’s crimes to protect Donald Trump,” says Sky Roberts, the brother of Ms. Giuffre, who died by suicide last year. “He has no business being in Congress.” Mr. Roberts and his wife, Amanda, who is also featured in the spot, are constituents of Mr. Crank, a Republican who is facing a tough re-election race against Jessica Killin, an Army veteran and former congressional aide to Democratic lawmakers.

Mr. Epstein and his crimes have emerged as a major issue in this year’s midterm races, as candidates across the country hammer their opponents over their positions on releasing the files and their ties to donors and supporters associated with him. A New York Times analysis identified at least 35 congressional races with TV or digital ads that mentioned “Epstein” since January 2026. Many featured candidates running against what they called the “Epstein class.” But the ad in Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District is unique because it features testimony from family members of one of Mr. Epstein’s most well-known victims. Speaking directly to the camera, the couple say they have repeatedly asked to see Mr. Crank but were refused. The spot concludes with an image of their meeting with Ms. Killin. “When he had the chance to expose the truth and release the Epstein files, he repeatedly voted to cover them up,” Ms. Roberts says in the ad. Mr. Crank did not sign onto the bipartisan discharge petition that helped forced a vote on the release of the files, and he voted to block consideration of the Epstein Files Transparency Act on the House floor. In the final vote, however, Mr. Crank joined nearly every member of the House to approve the legislation.

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Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded for discoveries in neuroscience

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for their discoveries in neuroscience. The three scientists researched light-gated ion channels, a type of proteins, to establish the field of optogenetics, a pioneering technique that uses tiny lights to activate discrete groups of neurons in the brain, said Abdel El Manira, a member of the Nobel Committee that awarded the prize. The discovery has illuminated how specific circuits function in the brain and provides clues for the treatment of conditions such as blindness, depression, addiction and dementia.

Dr. Karl Deisseroth is a professor of bioengineering and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. He and a team developed tiny optical fibers that activated neurons in the brain and elicited specific behaviors for the first time, Professor El Manira said. Dr. Peter Hegemann is a professor of experimental biophysics at Humboldt University in Berlin. He discovered a protein that converts light into an electrical signal, Professor El Manira said. Dr. Georg Nagel is a professor of plant physiology at the University of Wurzburg in Germany. Alongside Dr. Hegemann, he discovered that the proteins contained a light-gated ion channel, which generates an electrical signal when exposed to light. Professor El Manira described it as “the switch” that allows neuroscientists to activate the protein. The discovery has enabled neuroscientists to link nerve cells in the brain to specific behaviors, said Anna Wedell a professor of clinical genetics at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and an adjunct member of the Nobel awarding committee. “Before, we had an anatomical map of the brain,” Professor Wedell said. “Now we can generate functional maps, and we can also understand how different cells speak to each other across the brain.” She described the discovery as heralding “a completely new dimension of understanding of the function of the brain.”

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21 states sue EPA to reinstate climate pollution rules for power plants

More than 20 states, including North Carolina, New York, California and Pennsylvania, as well as several cities, are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its repeal of most greenhouse gas emissions standards for coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. The agency’s proposal would also thwart future administrations from reinstating the rule. The state attorneys general, all of them Democrats, filed the lawsuit Oct. 1 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs are asking the court to review the proposed rescission. In a press release, New York Attorney General Letitia James said the coalition is arguing that the administration’s actions are “clearing the way for millions of additional tons of greenhouse gas emissions that will worsen extreme heat, deadly storms, flooding, and wildfires.” The coalition includes Washington, D.C., Chicago, Denver and New York City.

The EPA told Inside Climate News it does not comment on pending litigation. “We applaud Attorney General Jackson’s leadership in protecting our air quality and safeguarding public health,” said Jeffrey Robbins, executive director of the nonprofit CleanAIRE North Carolina, of North Carolina’s Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “Joining this lawsuit sends a clear message: North Carolina will not stand by while federal rollbacks force our families to pay higher costs at the pump for dirtier air. Our health should not be secondary to fossil fuel industry profits.” Duke Energy operates five coal-fired power plants in North Carolina and 17 fueled by natural gas. In announcing the proposed rule, the agency argued that it lacks the legal authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the largest stationary sources of the pollutants. That’s not true, said John Broderick, an assistant attorney general in the New York Environmental Protection Bureau, during an Oct. 1 EPA public hearing on the proposed rule. The agency not only has the authority, Broderick said, it has a “statutory duty to regulate greenhouse gases from power plants.” He called the EPA’s move “a blatantly unlawful attempt to undermine the Clean Air Act.”

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Copyright October 12, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved