Lead Stories

Trump downplays the need to check AI development

President Donald Trump on Sunday played down the need for his administration to check the development of artificial intelligence, saying he worried about ceding America’s edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology. While acknowledging the need for some regulation, Trump provided no specifics about potential rules and attributed warnings about the technology moving too quickly and with little oversight to “negative forces” he did not identify, though industry pioneers have raised such concerns. “We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that ... shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen,” Trump told reporters during a weekend trip to Ireland. “But whoever wins with AI wins.”

Asked later Sunday if he was trying to minimize the risks from AI, Trump said, “I’m not downplaying,” adding that artificial intelligence is “going to be more good than bad, but by a lot.” Speaking with reporters during the flight back to Washington, he repeated his earlier comment regarding the stakes for “whoever wins AI.” The Republican president spoke a day after Dario Amodei, CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, said the industry should put the brakes on its fast-moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Other tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, publicly agreed with Amodei. Asked by a reporter if the industry should slow down or be regulated, Trump said after watching a golfer tee off in the Irish Open at his resort in Doonbeg that the United States is leading China in the development of AI and “frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins.” Chinese President Xi Jinping is due at the White House later in September to meet with Trump, and AI likely will be among the items they discuss.

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How Jasmine Crockett's support down ballot could help mobilize Dems

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett has pledged for months to help Democrats this November by getting involved in lesser-publicized downballot races. The former U.S. Senate hopeful appears to now be making good on that promise, announcing a slate of endorsements this month, including Letitia Plummer, the Democratic nominee for Harris County judge. While Crockett doesn’t plan to campaign for the party’s Senate nominee and her former foe, James Talarico, her local endorsements could go a long way in helping him and other statewide candidates generate the kind of mass turnout they’ll need to overcome decades of GOP dominance. Crockett’s support could especially help shore up support from a portion of Black voters — a longtime cornerstone of Democrats’ coalition.

An August poll conducted by Texas Southern University found that a majority of Black voters surveyed felt the Democratic Party had at least somewhat taken their support for granted. Michael Adams, a political scientist at TSU, described Crockett’s strategy as a kind of “reverse political coattails” that could help ease some of the tension that’s bubbled in the wake of her primary defeat. “Some people may call it sour grapes. What she's suggesting is the opposite,” Adams said. “In Harris County, which is one of the largest reservoirs of Democratic votes, if Jasmine Crockett can increase the turnout of Democrats here, It certainly will help Talarico.” Crockett has said she plans to campaign for Plummer, as well as two other Black Democratic county judge candidates, but has yet to outline what that will look like on the ground. She did not respond to a request for comment. To really turn out voters, Crockett will need to take the same grassroots approach to mobilizing voters that saw her appearing everywhere from churches to inner-city clubs during the primaries, said Nancy Sims, a political science lecturer at the University of Houston. Appearing alongside Plummer’s image on mailers and promotional images will only go so far.

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Republican candidate Bo French's xenophobic posts disparaging non-white UT students draws backlash from own party

What was supposed to be a moment to celebrate a dramatic comeback win has instead set the stage for a different kind of showdown — one within the Texas Republican Party. Republican Texas Railroad Commissioner candidate Bo French is facing backlash after a post on X calling attention to a group of University of Texas fans at the Saturday night game against Ohio State. The post drew 17 million views — and sharp criticism from members of his own party. "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, going on to claim Americans have been displaced by foreigners. Bud Kennedy, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, said the post fits a familiar strategy for French. "This is nothing new," Kennedy said. "I think in some ways people are giving him what he wants, which is notoriety."

Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said the message behind French's post was unmistakable. "The message here is that the student body at the University of Texas, in Bo French's view, ought to be less Asian," Wilson said. "And presumably whiter than what it actually is." Wilson said the post has opened a rift within the Republican Party just weeks ahead of a critical midterm election. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn called the post "intolerant" and "racist," and several Republican leaders across the state have called on French to delete it. Kennedy said the backlash stems from a contradiction with the party's recent messaging. "All of the rhetoric we've heard from the White House and the convention in Dallas last week is that the Republicans are proud to be the party that ignores race — that doesn't apply DEI or racial quotas," Kennedy said. "This seems to be at complete odds with that." Gov. Greg Abbott also weighed in, though has not demanded an apology from French. "That is not my message. A selective picture of Longhorn fans celebrating our biggest home victory-ever-actually shows a way that Texans unite. We all support our college football teams. The way we win the state is the same way we win football games. We unite under the brand of Texas. That doesn’t mean that Texas cannot also lead in having the toughest immigration laws of any state in America and freezing H1B visas at our universities.”

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Democrats have midterm momentum. Here’s what risks tripping them up.

Democrats are grappling with several liabilities that risk impeding the momentum they have gained to retake control of Congress. New opportunities have come on the map for Democrats as President Trump has become increasingly unpopular because of the war with Iran, tariffs and the high cost of living. Nonpartisan analysts say the party is favored to win the U.S. House and has a shot at a narrow majority in the Senate. Yet Republicans still have a significant financial edge, and Democrats have work to do to persuade voters to support them in states they need to win. Republican party committees and super PACs are far outraising their Democratic counterparts. As of July, the Republican National Committee had more than $130 million on hand compared with just $16 million for the Democratic National Committee. Trump’s super PAC, for which Democrats don’t have a comparable entity, had $403 million on hand.

“I think it’s hilarious that anybody would count us out at this point in the campaign,” said South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who leads the Republican Senate campaign arm. “We will have the resources to be successful. We have done a good job of candidate recruitment.” Democrats are now competitive in states Trump won easily in previous cycles. Alaska, Iowa, Ohio and Texas are all rated as “tossup” Senate races by the nonpartisan Cook Political report. It is a victory for Democrats to even be competitive in such GOP strongholds, said Amy Walter, the report’s publisher and editor in chief. But voters in those states and other Republican House districts in play still view Democrats with skepticism, she said. Individual Democratic candidates, particularly in Senate races, have outraised their Republican counterparts in most cases. “This is the kind of environment when a political scientist would say, ‘You have all the elements for a wave,’” said Walter. Still, there are opportunities for Republicans “to not get completely wiped out.” The GOP sees a chance to win open Senate seats in Michigan and New Hampshire held by Democrats who aren’t seeking re-election. Polls suggest far more voters disapprove than approve of Trump. Republicans have even lost their edge in many polls as the party best equipped to manage the economy. In theory those things make these midterms look worse for Trump than when Democrats swept into the House majority in 2018. Yet this time around, Democrats hold a slightly narrower lead on the generic ballot, just over 6 percentage points compared with the 8 percentage points in 2018. And Democrats are just as unpopular as the opposing party. Some 59% of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, compared with 58% with an unfavorable view of the Republican Party, according to a Pew Research Center survey released in May.

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State Stories

James Talarico's 'censored' Kimmel interview surpasses Trump address

U.S. Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico's campaign is touting the viewership of the Austin-area Democrat's appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" after host Jimmy Kimmel said the interview was moved online because of what he described as threats to the show, ABC and its affiliates, according to the late-night host. JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Talarico's campaign, noted on X that the interview’s YouTube views were more than double the number of viewers who watched President Donald Trump's speech on Fox News during the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. As of Saturday afternoon, the roughly 20-minute late-night appearance, which was moved to YouTube and not broadcast, had racked up 6.3 million views. Trump's convention speech Wednesday drew in 2.5 million viewers on Fox News, ahead of MS NOW's 1 million and CNN's 441,000 in the same period, according to Reuters.

Those figures measure television viewers, while the Talarico interview’s figure represents YouTube views. Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that his speech beat the viewership of the NFL's opening night, featuring a showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. The president wrote that his address was "far bigger, better, and more important than anyone thought possible," and that the "overall numbers [of viewers] beat the NFL," without providing evidence to back his claims. While viewership for the NFL's opening night wasn't immediately available, it averaged 18 million viewers per game last season, and last year's opener drew close to 28 million. "Try to censor James Talarico at your own risk," Ennis wrote, referring to what he described as threats from the Federal Communications Commission. Kimmel referenced the dispute with the FCC when opening the segment that featured the Democratic Senate hopeful, describing the commission's "targeting" of the show, despite it hosting numerous candidates, including Trump himself. "He was on this show two times, but now I guess he doesn't like me anymore or the First Amendment," Kimmel said.

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Trump can’t stop insulting his own candidate in Texas. Why?

Republicans’ hopes of holding their Senate majority might hinge on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton more than anyone else. And President Donald Trump seemingly can’t stop insulting him. Trump has repeatedly made the case for Paxton — whom he endorsed over the safer candidate, incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn — in recent days. And over and over, he’s thickly layered it in insults directed at the way Paxton looks, dresses and speaks. Trump then assures any listeners that Paxton, despite how he presents, is actually a fantastic attorney general. It’s both bizarre and entertaining, in a vintage Trump way — before American politics seemed to get heavier under the weight of controversial wars, more severe partisanship and increasing political violence. But it all begs the question: What on earth is Trump doing? Does he really think this helps his candidate? Is there any strategy behind it?

It all started on September 2, when Trump alluded to Paxton being a bit of a slob no fewer than three separate times: “Some people don’t like the way he dresses,” Trump said at a travel industry event at the White House, “or some people don’t like the way he interviews or talks.” He added at a Rose Garden event with fellow Republicans: “You might not love his look, you might not love his television interviews, but he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps. … And that speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great.” “I know guys that are very impressive. Everyone says, oh, they’re great, they’re great, wow. But they were lousy at their job,” Trump added on Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s podcast. “This is sort of a little bit the opposite, to be honest with you.” Trump continued ragging on Paxton on successive nights of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas this week. On Wednesday, the president made it clear — in case there was any doubt — that he personally didn’t have much regard for how Paxton presents. “Some may not like the way he dresses,” Trump said before slipping in a laugh line: “I don’t.”

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Giants' offense rolls over the Cowboys to give coach John Harbaugh a 28-20 win in his debut

Several months before coaching his first game for the New York Giants, John Harbaugh told fans he wanted to build a team that could beat the Dallas Cowboys. It took one game to accomplish that feat. Jaxson Dart connected with Isaiah Likely for two touchdowns and Devin Singletary on another, Cam Skattebo ran for one in his first game back from injury and the Giants opened the season by rolling over Dallas 28-20 on Sunday night in Harbaugh's New York debut. It's just one victory, but it was a promising start of a new era. “We took steps in that direction,” Harbaugh said. “I think we’re on our way.”

Dart made one smart throw after another, mixing in a series of well-timed runs to keep the defense off balance. He finished 23 of 29 for 230 yards passing, plus 54 rushing, including a couple of slides and a dive to avoid the unnecessary hits that punctuated his rookie year. “Just seeing his arm talent, just seeing how he takes over the game — using his legs, making the right decisions, knowing the coverages,” No. 1 receiver Malik Nabers said. “He was not backing down. He was not going to lose, and I was right behind him.” Likely made eight catches on eight targets for 78 yards in his New York debut after following Harbaugh from Baltimore, extending the training camp trend when he was consistently Dart's top option. Nabers, playing for the first time since going down with a torn ACL in his right knee 350 days ago, had six catches for 69 yards. “He's just a guy where no matter what the coverage is, no matter who they put out there on him, you have all the confidence in the world that he's going to make a play,” Dart said. Back on the field more than 10 months since breaking his right fibula and dislocating his right ankle in gruesome fashion, Skattebo rumbled for 81 yards on 18 carries. After getting in hot water for doing a backflip earlier this summer, Skattebo brought back his signature celebration after running into the end zone untouched for the Giants' first points of the season.

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Texas is trying to punish its way out of a prison overdose crisis

D’Mitri Davis, 36, met his younger brother Dominique Judge for the first time in 2024, when they were both in prison. The two were living at the French Robertson Unit in Abilene when they were coincidentally enrolled in the same adult education course. They were unaware of the family connection until a chance conversation in class. “Whose last name is Davis?” Judge asked, after glancing at classwork stacked at the front of the room. Judge had been adopted, but he’d met his biological dad in 2018. His dad told him that Judge had a half-brother in prison, so every time the 24-year-old met someone with that surname, he wondered if they were related. Davis was skeptical. He’d grown up in Galveston with his mom and his sister, the only sibling he knew. He took a harder look at Judge only when the younger man mentioned being from Beaumont. As an adult, Davis, too, had finally connected with his dad, who had fathered “a whole football team” somewhere in southeast Texas.

Though Davis had a darker complexion and more facial hair than Judge, Davis noticed a nebulous family resemblance. “When I looked in his face, I saw my dad,” he recalled in a June interview. Davis offered up his ID badge, which showed the full name he shared with his father. Judge, already convinced, began jumping up and down, saying: “That’s my brother! That’s my brother!” After their lucky meeting, the two grew close. Judge had been struggling, feeling overwhelmed by the weight of his 25-year sentence. No one on the outside would take his calls. Feeling unmoored, he’d started using drugs, which were seemingly everywhere in prison. “I lost hope, and I didn’t have a family at the time,” Judge told the Texas Observer. Meeting his brother gave him something to hold onto and helped him ease off on the drugs. Their encounters made Davis think about his own choices. He’d been dealing in Galveston when he was busted and sent to prison. He wasn’t using inside, but he’d stayed in the game. Prisons are full of people like Judge, who are vulnerable to addiction, and Davis, who have backgrounds as dealers. The rate of substance-use disorders is nearly six times higher among prisoners than in the free world, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Texas Department of State Health Services.

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How data center construction is impacting west Texas homeowners at ground zero

Rusty Towell, a professor at Abilene Christian University, has lived on his northwest Abilene property for over two decades. “We picked this spot because we wanted a little property, but we want to be close to town and close to ACU,” Towell said. “We bought this property and we built the home. Then we built the second home, so now I live out here with my parents.” Towell said as recently as a year ago he had also been talking to his kids about building them homes on the property as well. “They like the idea of their children growing up next to grandma and grandpa,” Towell said. Those plans, however, are now changing.

“Just a little bit to the north, there was this idea of bringing in a little data center to do some Bitcoin mining … five years ago that was sort of the plan,” Towell said. “Then the AI boom, took off and all of a sudden it turned into Stargate.” Towell said the project has now grown to his property line. “Now I’m 200 feet from the data center,” he said. With the proximity to the data center came noise and trucks. “There’s a lot of construction noise that happens, and depending on what they’re doing, it can be around the clock,” Towell said. “The road that they used to have, a couple of cars a day on it now at times has a thousand semis going up and down it every day. It’s a very, very different life out here now.” There are also lights flooding the area to the north of his property, Towell said.

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Houston-area school districts seek $137M from voters as deficits grow

Five Houston-area school districts are asking voters for a combined $137 million in new revenue this November to shore up multi-million dollar budget deficits driven by declining enrollment, inflation and rising insurance costs. Voters in Cy-Fair, Channelview, Huffman, La Porte and Spring ISDs can expect to see a voter-approved tax-rate increase, or VATRE, measure on the Nov. 3 ballot. At least two other Houston-area districts considered holding a tax-rate increase election but opted not to. Clear Creek ISD's board discussed the idea but did not move forward, according to Community Impact, and Aldine ISD’s board declined the measure in a split vote. While the districts are all asking voters for different tax rate increases, one thing unites them: They are running out of options to pay for rising costs.

Enrollment declines have put pressure on revenue, while inflation has risen since the pandemic. Some districts have already closed schools to bring costs down, but closing schools isn't always a viable solution to solve enrollment and budget issues. “I do think it's notable — almost more notable than that these districts are going out for a tax rate election — is that they didn't for this long,” said Amanda Brownson, deputy executive director of policy and research at the Texas Association of School Business Officials. “They really tried to hold out as long as they could.” The latest batch of districts asking voters for more revenue follows at least four other Houston-area districts that put a similar proposal on the ballot in the last two years. Alief ISD and Montgomery ISD passed tax-rate increases in 2024, while Spring and Magnolia ISDs' elections for higher tax rates failed the same year. Spring ISD is trying again for a tax rate increase this year, while Magnolia ISD is not. Magnolia held a successful bond election earlier this year, which did not increase the tax rate, and leaders said in meetings they wanted to keep that promise, according to Community Impact.

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Parents say they won't support closing failing Austin ISD schools to avoid state takeover

Mayor Kirk Watson is urging parents from two middle schools to ask the state to close the campuses to avoid a total takeover of the Austin Independent School District, but some parents have already said they won't sign a petition because they have fought for resources for years and have felt ignored. "Why do we need to sacrifice Webb and Burnet?" Vanessa Gamez, a parent and PTA member at Webb, said. "We have nothing to lose if the TEA takes Austin ISD. Nothing to lose. Right now we don't have voice, nobody listened to us. Many years ago we made recommendations and tried to help at the school, and what happened? Nothing." In his weekly newsletter, Watson said Webb and Burnet middle school parents have the power to act, instead of "waiting for something to happen," after the two schools received their fifth consecutive failing F ratings from the state.

Those accountability ratings triggered a state law that requires Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to intervene and appoint a new superintendent and board of managers or close the two schools. Watson is asking for the latter and arguing that AISD schools have made progress overall. He said this plan helps empower families that will be the most impacted by a takeover. "This is the only way that there is some control over their destiny as opposed to having something done by the state to them," Watson told KUT News. "If there's a takeover with the school district, I think it is reasonable to assume that it's likely that those schools will be closed." According to the Texas Education Code, if parents of a majority of students of the school that received five consecutive failing grades present the commissioner with a written petition to close the campus, he is required to do so. The code says parents would have to present the petition to the superintendent for validation by Oct. 15. The superintendent must submit it to the commissioner no later than Dec.1. KUT News has reached out to the Texas Education Agency but has not heard back.

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Texas health department requests additional funding to support local departments, maintain programs

Texas Department of State Health Services, or DSHS, said it needs additional funding to meet expectations of state policymakers and to maintain critical public health infrastructure. On Friday, DSHS officials presented the agency’s legislative appropriations request to state officials ahead of budget discussions during the 2027 legislative session. The agency asked for more than $230 million in additional funding beyond the agency’s base budget — including funding to support local agencies, maintain programs and hire additional staff. Imelda Garcia, interim DSHS commissioner, said the additional funding doesn’t cover anything new or “fancy.” “It is about the meat and potatoes of core public health functions and maintaining the operations and the mandates we’ve been directed to do,” she said.

Garcia said the agency is seeing higher costs to complete core functions, like disease monitoring, infectious disease treatment and disaster response. In addition to funding to maintain several IT and data systems that play a key role in disease management and response, DSHS is asking for more support for local health departments as federal cuts threaten services. DSHS has already been preparing to lose federal COVID-19 grants, but now it’s worried about another program expected to end soon. The agency’s CFO, Christy Havel Burton, said the Public Health Infrastructure Grant, or PHIG, will stop at the end of November 2027. “PHIG in particular has been a critical source of funding for the local health departments,” she said. “The end of the grant will be significant for the field.” Havel Burton and Garcia said they’re worried about what this means for disaster response and infectious disease monitoring throughout the state. Garcia said DSHS already has to move money around to ensure public health officials are able to respond to crises.

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Texas has a new plan to better include young children with disabilities in classrooms

Texas is trying to do a better job of including young children with disabilities in classrooms alongside their peers. Federal law already requires schools to educate children with disabilities alongside children without disabilities whenever appropriate. But that doesn't always happen in preschool and childcare classrooms, and a new state plan is trying to understand why, and what Texas can do about it. The Texas Early Childhood Inclusion Plan for 2026–2030 was developed jointly by the Texas Education Agency, Texas Health and Human Services Commission and Texas Workforce Commission. In a bi-partisan effort, state lawmakers directed the agencies during the last legislative session to identify barriers to inclusion and recommend ways to address them.

More than 1,200 families, educators, childcare providers and others participated in a statewide survey. More than half pointed to a shortage of trained specialists — including special education teachers, occupational therapists and speech therapists — as one barrier to inclusion. The plan calls for more teacher training, smaller classes and better coordination among programs. It also asks the state to explore additional funding and financial incentives to recruit and retain early childhood educators and specialists. For young children, inclusion doesn't necessarily look the same from one classroom to another. Federal special education law requires children with disabilities to be educated in the “least restrictive environment.” The appropriate setting depends on the needs of each child. For a preschooler, that could mean attending a regular pre-K classroom with additional support, receiving services in a community childcare center or Head Start program, or spending some or all of the day in a specialized classroom. Steven Aleman, a senior policy analyst with the nonprofit Disability Rights Texas, said the recommendations in the state's plan aren't particularly new. “[They] are pretty sound and pretty basic recommendations about best practices,” Aleman said. The harder part, he said, is putting those practices into place -- and funding them. “If we're going to try to, for instance, reduce ratios, which would be so much more important, especially for young children, especially children with disabilities, then I think you could start to arrive at some estimates or projections about what it would take to help,” Aleman said.

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: Can Texas Republicans stand up to to racists in their own party?

Thank you, Sen. John Cornyn, for standing up for Texans. On Sunday morning, Texas’ senior senator took to social media to call out Bo French, a fellow Republican and the statewide candidate for railroad commissioner, for his unabashed racism. Here’s what happened: As the Longhorns celebrated an incredible come-from-behind win to defeat top-ranked Ohio State, French made it clear he cared more about the color of Longhorn fans’ skin than the content of the scoreboard. “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” French posted on social media with a photo of Longhorns cheering in the stands — students clad in burnt orange and cowboy hats, who looked to be of South Asian descent. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” Cornyn was having none of it.

“This is the Republican nominee for statewide office,” he posted in response. “Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.” To their credit, several other Republican politicians followed Cornyn’s example. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said French’s post crossed the line and told him to delete it. Rep. Lacy Hull, a Houston Republican running for reelection, also called on French to delete the post and stood up for the students. “This post breaks my heart. I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans.” As we write this, Republican Reps. Jared Patterson, Jeff Leach and Matt Shaheen have also issued similar statements. That’s a good start. Here’s the next step: Republicans need to tell their voters not to support French for railroad commissioner. This wasn’t an isolated incident. French has a long history of racism and it isn’t going to stop unless voters make sure he loses.

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‘Why are you taking her?’ ICE arrests surge in El Paso region as families feel the impact

Sonia can still hear her daughter’s frightened voice crying out over the cellphone speaker, “What do I do?! What do I do?! Do I open it?!” “Roll down the window! Roll down the window, now!” she heard men shout in the background. The booming sound of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers knocking forcibly on her daughter’s car window sent them both to tears. It was that May 22 phone call that changed everything. Sonia was on a call with her daughter, Sofia, who was leaving work during an evening shift break when she was blocked by several black vehicles emblazoned with “ICE” in gold letters. She was quickly surrounded by uniformed, masked officers pointing guns toward her on the street just outside her Central El Paso workplace.

Sonia rushed to the scene. Sofia exited the car and was swiftly handcuffed. In a moment of grace amid the chaos, Sonia said, when she arrived, officers allowed her to hug her daughter before taking her away. “I had every emotion possible – anger, fear, sadness, guilt – a lot of guilt,” Sonia said in Spanish. She’d brought her daughter from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso to trick-or-treat on Halloween 25 years ago. But following a family medical emergency, they never left. “It wasn’t our intention to stay, but things happened and we found ourselves building a life here. (Being arrested) wasn’t something we thought about much – until recently with all this happening.” El Paso Matters agreed to use pseudonyms for the women, who fear retaliation for telling their story. Sofia was among the nearly 3,500 people who were apprehended by ICE in the El Paso region this year through Aug. 5 – roughly as many as in all of 2025, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by El Paso Matters. The program, an initiative of the University of California, Berkeley, collects federal data through the Freedom of Information Act.

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National Stories

Tech stocks shudder in response to calls to slow A.I. progress

Technology stocks around the world fell on Monday, after a chorus of senior executives at artificial intelligence companies called for slowing down the rapid pace of development of the transformative technology. Futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell nearly 2 percent ahead of the open of trading in New York. Nvidia, Alphabet, Meta and other companies at the forefront of the A.I. build-out posted declines premarket. South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index, which is heavily influenced by two chip suppliers for A.I. data centers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, fell more than 3 percent. Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, fell 1.2 percent. Japan’s main stock index also declined, with SoftBank, a major tech investment firm, shedding more than 10 percent. In Europe, semiconductor stocks like ASML of the Netherlands and Infineon of Germany fell sharply.

The tech industry has been the engine powering global markets to repeated new highs in recent years as advances in A.I. have moved faster than investors initially expected. Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, published a long blog post on Saturday calling on industry leaders to slow A.I. development for fear of losing control of rapidly advancing models at the so-called frontier of development. Those models, he wrote, have already begun to build the next generation of artificial intelligence, in what is known as “recursive self-improvement.” That raises the risk that the technology will become an autonomous cybersecurity threat, even threatening “serious economic disruption.” “A race to the bottom, spurred by commercial incentives, can make these risks more acute,” Dr. Amodei said. As one remedy, he said he would hire third-party “evaluators” who would “verify adherence to safety practices and commitments.” The post was endorsed by Elon Musk, who runs Space X, which also houses his A.I platform, x.AI; Sam Altman, who co-founded OpenAI; and Demis Hassabis, the co-founder of Google DeepMind. “I agree with Dario,” Mr. Altman said, adding that he would also hire third-party “evaluators” to oversee OpenAI’s safety practices.

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‘Pod Save America’ is in the wilderness too

The hosts of “Pod Save America” skipped their usual programming after then-President Joe Biden faceplanted in his debate with now-President Donald Trump. Instead of outlining an optimistic view of Democrats’ chances, the former Obama administration staffers taped an episode called “A Brutally Honest Debate Recap” about whether the 81-year-old incumbent was fit to run against Trump at all. The break from party orthodoxy upset some Democratic bigwigs. That included Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Rob Flaherty, who sent a fundraising pitch to supporters after the episode aired, throwing out a veiled insult at “self-important Podcasters” who doubted Biden’s ability to win. At some point over the course of more than a thousand podcast episodes, though, “self-important” turned into just “important,” no qualifiers.

Now, Democratic operatives widely agree that a candidate’s appearance on the show is unequivocally good for any campaign. A sit-down with the “Pod Save” crew is practically a required stop for any 2028 hopeful, whether to draw attention in a digital environment where people’s focus is getting harder to earn, or to attract organizers and donors who could fuel groundwork IRL. “Pod Save” ranks among both Spotify’s and Apple Podcasts’ most popular shows in the U.S., and consistently sits among the top 25 podcasts in terms of reach in Edison Research’s quarterly metrics rankings since Trump’s second election. How Democrats use it to hash out their ongoing, heated intraparty debates over wokeness, foreign policy, health care and other issues could play a major role in where the party ultimately lands. Still, in 2024, the podcasters got their way, but their team fell short: Biden dropped out and Trump won. This prompted reflection from the party, as well as from the podcasters. “I want to do some personal soul-searching, and the party to do soul-searching to fix this, and to do better next time,” Tommy Vietor, one of the hosts, said at the time. Nearly two years later, Vietor doesn’t have much to say about the results of that search.

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Kennedy Center could close as early as Tuesday, warns of bankruptcy, documents show

Leaders of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, installed by President Donald Trump, say the center is on the brink of bankruptcy and argue that putting the president’s name on its facade — and thus ensuring his fundraising efforts — may be the only way to avoid imminent and “certain fiscal collapse,” according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. The bleak assessment is laid out in a 57-page packet distributed to the center’s board of trustees ahead of a special meeting Tuesday, when the Trump-led board is scheduled to consider two resolutions aimed at addressing twin crises confronting the national performing arts center: one financial, the other physical. Center officials say they could be unable to make payroll or pay routine maintenance contracts “within a matter of weeks” and argue that publicly recognizing Trump could secure his help raising enough money to keep the institution afloat.

Center officials are also recommending that the board close its main building immediately, warning that remaining open would endanger lives. Board approval, which seems likely, means the center could close as early as Tuesday. The presentation makes clear that Trump’s support hinges on getting public credit for his involvement. The financial resolution says Trump has offered to “raise the necessary funds to keep the Center from bankruptcy” while the building undergoes a sweeping renovation. But it says Trump is unlikely to provide “fundamental oversight” of that project or lead a financial rescue without “appropriate recognition” of his role. Together, the two proposals represent a remarkable new phase in Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, which has been engulfed by financial turmoil, leadership upheaval and litigation since he installed himself as chairman last year. Trump and his allies have repeatedly portrayed his leadership — and his name — as essential to rescuing the institution, even as ticket sales and fundraising have plummeted under their stewardship. Trustees are being asked to choose among 10 texts that could be placed on the building’s exterior beneath its name, including one reading: “Renovation Restoration and Endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a Kennedy Center trustee who has sued to keep Trump’s name off the building, blasted the new proposal.

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Tracking Trump’s projects and plans reshaping DC so far this term

President Donald Trump has aggressively moved to leave his imprint on the nation’s capital in the year and a half since he returned to office. The famed Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been drained, painted blue, filled again, and drained again. An entire wing of the White House is gone, demolished to a pile of rubble, while construction on a much larger 90,000-square foot replacement is rapidly underway. And the latest: Trump said recently the new helipad on the South Lawn is complete. Sites around town are being scoped out for new, splashy monuments. The president’s name has been added to several buildings in the nation’s capital, including the US Institute of Peace and the Kennedy Center, although it’s since been removed from the latter (though plans show his name may again be added back). And Trump has touted the repair of Columbus Fountain, in front of Union Station, as “the most magnificent possibly of all,” among a number of fountains repaired around the city.

Dulles International Airport, the Washington-area travel hub in Northern Virginia, is also up for a $22.5 billion renovation. Its unusual passenger transport system between gates and planes — the so-called people movers — are set to be replaced. The president — reverting to his roots as a builder and developer — has blown through regulatory hurdles, sparking legal challenges to several of his projects. And while he’s secured millions in private donations, some efforts are also racking up millions at the taxpayers’ expense. Public opinion is largely not on Trump’s side. Americans, for example, have overwhelmingly opposed his ballroom project and his proposed triumphal arch. In Trump’s view, though, construction is the foundation of his legacy, according to sources familiar with his thinking. Trump’s plans for a new White House ballroom began in 2010, with an offer to the Obama administration to build one that would replace the tents used for large state dinners. After ruminating on the idea for 15 years, Trump moved quickly upon entering office for a second time to make it a reality. After he hired an architect and drew up plans, the excavators began tearing into the East Wing in October 2025 to make way.

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How your mail carrier ended up at the center of the midterms battle

The U.S. Postal Service for years has endured one headache after another, from declining mail volume and financial shortfalls to uneven leadership. Now it is facing a uniquely daunting challenge at the center of American politics. Under a set of White House-ordered regulations unveiled last month, the Postal Service wants to press ahead—in time for the midterms—with new controls on mail ballots, used by nearly a third of American voters. President Trump has long criticized mail voting as compromised, even as there is no documented evidence of widespread fraud tied to mail ballots. The requirements include an approval process for the design of ballot envelopes and the launch of an online portal for states to upload information about voters who will receive them.

Postal workers will be tasked with verifying that the mailings match the lists of voters that the states would have to provide—and ultimately, whether the ballots should go out at all. The regulations have been put on ice by lower-court judges, after two dozen states sued to block them. The Supreme Court could weigh in soon. There are legal questions about whether the Postal Service has the authority to serve as a national ballot regulator when states have the primary constitutional responsibility to run elections. But there are practical questions about whether it is even possible to implement the new rules with the election just weeks away. The first ballots are already in the mail for those who vote in states including North Carolina and Wisconsin. The litigating states said it would be nearly impossible to comply—and they argue it is a pretty sure bet that the Postal Service will struggle, too. “Even if state and local officials were somehow able to implement the new rule perfectly, there is a high risk of technical breakdown, ineptitude, and delay on the part of USPS,” the states said in a legal submission to the Supreme Court.

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Greg Ip: Populist Republicans and Democratic Socialists are starting to merge

(Greg Ip is The Wall Street Journal's chief economics commentator.) June 30 was a bad day for Nobel Prize-winning champions of free markets. That day New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recalled Friedrich Hayek’s put-down of socialists. Then he clapped back: Socialists, he said, would now solve capitalists’ “years of mismanagement.” In an interview the same day, Vice President JD Vance dismissed Milton Friedman as irrelevant “in a world where globalized liberalism has become the sort of status quo of American elites.” That a Democratic socialist mayor and a Republican vice president have found common cause disparaging free-market icons heralds the ascendance of what could be called the Horseshoe party.

“Horseshoe theory” describes the tendency of the political extremes to bend toward each other. Coined decades ago to describe the similarities between communism and fascism, today it captures how Republicans’ populist wing, typified by Vance, and the progressive left, represented by Mamdani, have drawn closer to each and more distant from the center of their own parties. Both extremes disdain free markets and globalization while embracing big, coercive government. They are obsessed with identity; the populist right rails against immigration while the progressive left inveighs against “colonialism” and systemic racism. They are populists who see ordinary people pitted against global elites, including their own party establishments. There’s no formal classification for far right and far left. An individual could have views plucked from either, both and in between. Still, convergence is visible in the strange alliances forming across the country: In the Senate, progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has teamed up with Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio) to raise Social Security taxes on wealthy wage earners. In the House of Representatives, progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) and libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) jointly forced the release of files on Jeffrey Epstein. Right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon backed Democratic socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) in their push to stop data centers. President Trump agreed with progressive Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed that the Senate filibuster should be terminated.

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Lead Stories

Exclusive new poll of Hispanic Texas voters shows a collapse of the GOP’s 2024 coalition in the state

A new survey of Texas Hispanic likely voters, conducted for The Cook Political Report and TelevisaUnivision, finds the Democratic candidates in the state’s Senate and gubernatorial contests leading their GOP opponents by a 2-1 margin with the key voting bloc, as President Donald Trump’s job approval rating in the state has sunk to just 33% with a demographic group that swung hard in his direction in 2024. The poll, conducted August 26 —September 3 by Democratic firm Hart Research and Republican firm OnMessage Inc, also included an oversample of Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley/South Texas, the centerpiece of Trump’s 2024 coalition and the home to three marquee House races (in TX-15, TX-28 and TX-34). In that subsample, Democrats enjoyed a 14 point advantage over Republicans, 53% to 39%, on the generic ballot.

Hispanic voters in Texas understand the important role they play in Texas elections. Seven in ten said they think Hispanics in the state have a lot or some political influence, including 41% who said they have “real political power” in Texas. Moreover, two-thirds said they’d like candidates to conduct outreach in the Hispanic community in Spanish, and 69% said they believe candidates signal that they “want to earn my vote” when they appear on Spanish-language media. Democrats’ strong showing among Hispanics in the Lone Star state is a significant shift from 2024, when Trump carried Hispanic voters by 10 points and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz carried them by three. In this cycle’s Senate contest, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico leads Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton among Hispanic voters by 63% to 30%, including a whopping 73% of self-described independents. And in her race against incumbent GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who won 40% of Hispanics in 2022, Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa leads among Hispanic voters, 60% to 33%.

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Why thousands of Texas students returned school vouchers

Shundelon Ross hoped the seventh school would be the one to work. Her son wandered the hallways, clutching his favorite stuffed animal. He threw high fives to the employees. He stared, mesmerized, at the chickens pecking around the coop. Ross believed a private school would better serve her 5-year-old son, who has autism. Affording tuition became possible after he was approved for a school voucher. That’s why, as they toured First Baptist Academy in Dallas, her anticipation soared. After the visit came the application, then the admission decision.

The Texas Education Freedom Accounts promised vouchers would give students with special needs options beyond public schools. Despite being awarded taxpayer-funded accounts, many families struggled to find a suitable school to spend it on. This means private education is still out of reach for Texas’ most vulnerable children, critics of the voucher program say. “Private does not always mean better,” Ross said. “With more opportunity, comes more work, more heartbreak, more disappointment.” Proponents believe private schools will proliferate and meet demand. The comptroller’s office, which oversees TEFA, plans to survey families to understand why they opted out, and their responses will inform the improvements made to the program, a spokesperson said. It’s also possible parents were unaware of deadlines, considering public school, or moved out of state, he said. While 29,400 applicants with disabilities were deemed eligible, at least 7,400 have since returned their voucher. By early September, a total of 27,500 students left the funds on the table, according to data received through a public records request. The Dallas Morning News spoke to six North Texas parents about the challenges they faced in their private school search.

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Top A.I. leaders call for slowing down A.I. development

Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in a 3,800-word essay on Saturday, just days after one of the company’s employees quit over concerns about the safety of the technology. Top executives of other major A.I. companies quickly signed on to the effort. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI; Elon Musk, whose SpaceX rocket company has been ramping up spending on A.I.; and Demis Hassabis, the chair of Google DeepMind, wrote in social media posts that they agreed on the need for a slower pace. Mr. Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic to focus on securely and carefully building A.I., wrote in his essay that while he believed the technology could bring many benefits, it was advancing at too rapid a pace for researchers to continue safely.

“Over the last few months, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence — not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up,” Mr. Amodei wrote. “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of A.I. models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.” Mr. Amodei has warned about the safety risks of A.I. for years. But his essay amounted to one of the most full-throated calls for urgent action from a leading A.I. company executive to date. He called for independent auditors to check the companies for safety standards and urged global cooperation in creating rules around A.I. development. The appeal for an industrywide pause follows months of escalating concerns across the technology industry as A.I. model development has made significant strides at companies like Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, as well as OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and Google’s DeepMind.

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These are the Trump investigations Democrats plan if they win in November

House Democrats are eagerly preparing to wield a power they do not yet have. Favored to regain the majority in November’s midterm elections — and with little official business to consider in the handful of days left in this session — Democrats’ attention has turned to mapping out an accountability agenda that would pull President Donald Trump, his administration and his family into a harsh spotlight next year. The Washington Post spoke to a dozen Democratic members and staffers poised to run committees should the party retake the House. They said they are preparing sweeping investigations of Trump’s growing wealth in office, his remaking of the federal government and his pursuit of his political enemies. In recent weeks, staffers have connected with outside groups for guidance on how to conduct effective investigations.

These are the priorities now emerging: Democrats are laying the groundwork for investigations of how Trump and his family are getting richer while he is in office. Garcia’s committee launched a running tracker of the Trump family’s profits from cryptocurrency and foreign deals, calculating that Trump pocketed $2.25 billion from foreign payments in the first year of his second term. Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), who would play a key investigatory role as head of the Judiciary Committee for a Democratic majority, has sought more information about investments by 1789 Capital and American Ventures, venture capital firms linked to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Raskin’s investigation would probe companies the Trump sons invested in that got government contracts or favorable policies from the administration. Democrats have slammed Trump for using his clemency power to pardon convicted fraudsters who donated to his campaigns or who maintain close ties to his political circle. Many of those pardoned fraudsters were absolved of the requirement to pay restitution to their victims. One case they’ve flagged for review is that of nursing home executive Joseph Schwartz, who spent nearly $1 million lobbying last year for a pardon, which Trump granted seven months after Schwartz was sentenced for defrauding the government out of $38 million.

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Republican groups rush to Paxton’s aid in Texas after staying on sidelines

A major Republican group booked more than $51 million worth of advertising in the Texas Senate race on Friday to help Ken Paxton, the G.O.P. nominee whose tight race has become a growing concern in the party as it seeks to keep control of the upper chamber of Congress. For months, top Republican outside groups stayed away from Mr. Paxton’s contest, where polls show a close competition between him and a well-funded Democratic opponent, James Talarico. But a flood of outside money suddenly arrived over the last two weeks to help Mr. Paxton amid Mr. Talarico’s rising prospects of winning. The new $51 million investment from Texas PAC, a group affiliated with the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC allied with Senate Republican leaders, adds to the more than $23 million that has already been booked by a half dozen other G.O.P. groups on advertising for Mr. Paxton from Sept. 1 through Election Day.

That gives Mr. Paxton and Republican allies a 5-to-1 spending advantage over Mr. Talarico and Democratic allies, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm. For months, the Democratic side had possessed a clear spending advantage. The approximate total of $75 million doesn’t include all of a $10 million Texas ad buy disclosed by President Trump’s super PAC last week or the $2 million-plus investment in voter contact work from Elon Musk’s super PAC. That Mr. Paxton is abruptly in this position is a twist in the Texas race. After defeating Senator John Cornyn in the primary, with Mr. Trump’s help, Mr. Paxton spent months as a heavy financial underdog, with various Republican groups hoping that at least one would step up to spend in an expensive state that can drain an organization’s coffers. Now, the Republican financial establishment appears to have decided to jump in together to boost Mr. Paxton. When the Senate Leadership Fund outlined its spending plans in April, an investment in Texas was notably omitted. Pressure to spend mounted from fellow Republicans for months. Alex Latcham, the head of the Senate Leadership Fund, said on Friday that its ad buy “affirms our commitment to maintaining the Republican majority.” When Mr. Paxton defeated Mr. Cornyn, who some Republicans argued was the stronger general election option, many in the party braced for a more difficult and expensive general election. Allies of Mr. Cornyn, who is close with many donors and served in Senate leadership, were embittered by the outcome, complicating Mr. Paxton’s path to consolidating support. Some wondered why they should have to rescue a candidate they saw as flawed and didn’t want to nominate in the first place.

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State Stories

Texas Supreme Court blocks Galveston County from using new precinct map in November election

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Galveston County cannot use its newly approved 2026 precinct boundaries for the November general election. In the Sept. 11 opinion, the court states the county cannot "change the lines applicable to an election after the election has begun." The new boundaries, which affect precincts for county commissioners, constables and justices of the peace, were redrawn and approved on June 29 — between the March primary election and the November general election. County officials made the maps effective immediately. A Galveston County constable and two county residents filed an emergency petition asking the Texas Supreme Court to block the new precinct boundaries so they couldn't be used in the November election.

The plaintiffs argued the change wasn’t fair to voters or potential candidates whose precincts changed mid-election year. The court instructed the county to use the same precinct maps from the March 2026 primary election in the upcoming November election and only conduct a general election for offices where a primary election was held. However, Sarah Chen, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said nothing prevents the County from using the map after the general election. Galveston County Judge Mark Henry previously told Houston Public Media that the new map was designed to improve judicial function for the justices of the peace, create opportunities for fiscal efficiencies within the county government and enhance the likelihood of Republican victories in the area.

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Ted Cruz booed during 'College GameDay' appearance at Texas

"College GameDay" panelist Nick Saban has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the "Protect College Sports Act," and the show brought Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on ahead of Texas-Ohio State on Sept. 12 to rally support for the bill. It didn't go as planned. Cruz drew a chorus of boos from the Austin crowd upon his appearance with Rece Davis, and a myriad of jeers throughout his segment. Cruz touched on everything from the Lane Kiffin situation in LSU to Brendan Sorsby's offseason as why the bill should pass, labeling it as "chaos."

Though he didn't conduct the segment, Saban has appeared in advertising spots professing the importance of the bill, as has Colorado head coach Deion Sanders. Cruz sponsors the bill, as does Maria Cantwell (D) out of Washington. Though the crowd petered out a bit toward the end, it obviously wasn't keen on having Cruz on the dais. Cruz spoke for a little under eight minutes. What is the Protect College Sports Act? The Protect College Sports Act is a bipartisan bill meant to wrangle some of the offseason chaos that has permeated college sports since the emergence of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). It allowed student athletes to be compensated by NIL while requiring reporting of agreements over $600. It also bans agreements outside of NIL meant to circumvent fair market value. The bill further places restrictions upon agents, forcing them to be registered with their state, and it allowed for one transfer without losing any eligibility and a second transfer with a year of lost eligibility. It gives five years of eligibility for athletes. "College GameDay" did not give opposition of the bill a platform, with a vote upcoming this week. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) has been one of the more outspoken critics of the bill, writing on his website in May that the antitrust exemption in the bill will keep the athletes underpaid alongside the hard cap.

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Texas makes history with a win it badly needed against No. 1 Ohio State

More than 105,000 were inside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, but more than 405,000 will claim they were there to see something that may never happen again. You can watch college football for the rest of your life and never see what Texas did to Ohio State when the Longhorns scored 21 fourth-quarter points to beat the Buckeyes 24-23. It is the first time Texas beat the top-ranked team in the country in Austin since 1950. Saturday night in Austin for No. 4 Texas against No. 1 Ohio State is one of the times when college football proves it can do whatever it wants, shoot itself in the foot and face, treat the fans like garbage, and it doesn’t matter. There is nothing else like a big-on-big college football game, and we will deal with anything to watch it. “You dream of playing in games like this,” Texas quarterback Arch Manning said.

After the game, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian called it the best win at home he’s enjoyed in his tenure. “I know what football means to this state, and this university, and when you can win a game like this for these people I appreciate it,” Sarkisian said. “Is this the biggest win? I don’t know. This one is special. To beat the No. 1 team in the country in the fashion we did, to represent the name on our chest, means a lot." Sarkisian is fine, and safe, but he needed this. So did Manning. So did Texas. The University of Texas board of regents and UT athletic director Chris Del Conte rescued Sarkisian’s head coaching career with an opportunity that his past said he may never receive; their trust and faith has been rewarded by an era that is better than those of Tom Herman and Charlie Strong. An era that is very good. Not great. Not Ohio State great. Texas under Sark isn’t even Indiana great.

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Teacher prep programs across Texas directed to bar faculty from teaching about the 1619 Project

A new mandate from the Texas Education Agency says teacher preparation programs at both public and private colleges must promise to follow the state’s K-12 anti-DEI law under penalty of perjury. The promise comes with the apparent weight of a legal document. The form obtained by Texas Public Radio required the signature of the leadership of every Educator Preparation Program in the state by September 1, including their full name, birthdate and address. By signing the form, the leaders pledge that their staff will comply with a three-page list of limitations on discussions about race, gender and history. The list is derived from two laws limiting classroom instruction at the K-12 level: the so-called “anti-CRT” law passed in 2021 and Senate Bill 12 in 2025, which has been described as both a “parental rights” law and an anti-DEI or “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Key provisions in the form include a ban on discussion of the 1619 Project, a series by The New York Times Magazine marking the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America, and an edict that slavery and racism can only be described as a “deviation from” or "betrayal" of American values. Although the laws limiting course topics are intended for K-12 schools, the Texas Education Agency form stated that Educator Preparation Programs are required to comply “in the same manner as if the program were a school district.” TEA told Educator Preparation Programs they would need to sign the form in July, stating that compliance was required starting in July 2025 and that, this year, a new agency rule required program leaders to sign an “attestation document” promising compliance. Texas currently has 119 Educator Preparation Programs. They are certified by TEA as the authority overseeing teacher certification in the state. That authority gives TEA some oversight, even with programs located at private institutions. TPR confirmed with a staff member at Trinity University in San Antonio that their Educator Preparation Program had received the form and were required to sign, despite being a private university that had elected not to receive state funding for teacher certification.

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$100 billion pipeline company Energy Transfer will move stock listing from New York to Dallas

Dallas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer and its affiliates, together worth nearly $100 billion, are moving primary stock listings from the New York Stock Exchange to the Texas Stock Exchange, marking one of the biggest wins yet for “Y’all Street.” Energy Transfer, one of the largest oil and gas transporters in the world, announced Thursday it expects its shares to begin trading through TXSE on Oct. 5. The company said the move aligns its "Texas-based legacy with TXSE's technology-driven platform." Energy Transfer LP CEO Kelcy Warren also owns a 30% stake in TXSE Group, the stock exchange's parent company, according to the Wall Street Journal. TXSE Chairman and CEO James Lee called the move a "watershed moment for capital markets."

"The movement of primary listings out of New York and into Texas has begun," Lee said. "This is the beginning of a larger trend that will reshape the broader listings landscape in the United States for decades and position Texas as a global capital markets leader." The NYSE and Nasdaq have a virtual duopoly on stock listing. That means TXSE snagging even one corporate listing away could be seen as a major win. But those exchanges haven’t been idle. The two separately launched NYSE Texas and Nasdaq Texas in response to TXSE. This primary listing comes as Texas tries to beef up its business-friendly environment with institutions like the Texas Business Court, which was created in 2023 to handle complex business disputes. Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil voted this year to move its home from New Jersey to Texas. "Companies across the U.S. are reevaluating where they are headquartered, where they are legally domiciled, and where they list," Lee said. "Texas has built a complete business ecosystem with advantages across all three."

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A Texas LNG plant pumps out chronic, unpermitted pollution, a watchdog finds

A gas export terminal on the Gulf Coast of Texas has routinely violated air pollution permits for years with little consequences from state regulators, according to a report released this week by Oilfield Witness, an environmental watchdog. The Texas-based activist group cited thousands of pages of documents and a month of optical gas monitoring in its 27-page report on Freeport LNG, the nation’s third-largest exporter of liquified natural gas, where an explosion in 2022 caused an eight-month shutdown. Oilfield Witness identified 532 unpermitted emission events reported by the company since 2019, along with more than 200 other permit deviations, but just seven penalty fines levied by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. “The findings in this report paint a stark picture of an out of control operator,” said the report. “This incompetence is enabled by regulators failing to act.”

The report tallied annual emissions more than 100 times greater than established limits. It also found that part of the $14 billion Freeport LNG complex reported emitting a staggering 1,500 pounds of the carcinogen benzene, known to cause leukemia, in 2024—five times more than its larger counterpart down the coast, Corpus Christi LNG. A spokesperson for Freeport LNG, Heather Browne, said in a statement: “Freeport LNG’s unwavering commitment to safety, reliability and environmental stewardship and preservation are at the forefront of our operations. Our electric-drive LNG facility reduces plant emissions by over 90% relative to a typical LNG liquefaction facility, and our facility’s carbon footprint is the lowest of any LNG liquefaction facility in the world.” Freeport LNG is currently expanding with a fourth liquefaction unit in development. Earlier in September, Japan’s state-owned lender announced an investigation into its $2.6 billion financing for the project following complaints from community leaders and environmental groups, Global Trade Review magazine reported on Wednesday. “Japanese financial institutions and companies are deeply involved in the Freeport LNG project,” said Ayumi Fukakusa, executive director of climate, energy, and development at Friends of the Earth Japan, in a press release Thursday. “They should re-examine the environmental and social risks.”

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Morgan Meyer: Why I support the UNT Dallas law enforcement training center

( State Rep. Morgan Meyer represents Texas House District 108 which includes North Dallas, University Park and Highland Park. He is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.) Public safety sits at the core of what we expect from government. Public safety is infrastructure — the foundation that supports a healthy economy, vibrant neighborhoods and strong families. That’s why I was a strong advocate for state funding for the new law enforcement training center at the University of North Texas at Dallas. Today’s officers face a complex set of demands: responding to violent crime, de-escalating tense situations, adapting to new technologies, addressing mental health crises and earning the trust of diverse communities. The quality of their training and their ability to handle the daily demands they face impact us all. With North Texas growing at a remarkable pace, our public safety needs are evolving just as quickly.

The new training center isn’t just for Dallas police cadets; it will serve experienced officers from across the region. This means departments large and small will have access to advanced training and ongoing education that might otherwise be out of reach. That’s why state involvement is appropriate. When a facility serves officers and communities beyond city lines, it becomes a vital part of Texas’s public safety infrastructure. State support ensures North Texas can train the workforce we need to keep up with both our population and our economy. Locating the center at UNT Dallas adds another layer of significance. Placing a major law enforcement training facility on a university campus creates opportunities for collaboration and learning that simply aren’t possible when an academy stands alone. We should encourage more officers to pursue college degrees and commit to lifelong learning throughout their careers. Tomorrow’s law enforcement leaders need to understand not just policing, but the broader criminal justice system they operate within. A university setting helps build stronger connections between policing, criminal justice, behavioral health, public policy, research and community engagement.

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Charging document in decorum case against ex-state Rep. Burnam too vague: defense

The document that serves as the charging instrument for former state Rep. Lon Burnam in connection with his conduct last month at a lectern during a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting is improperly vague and includes an erroneous date for the alleged offenses, the retired politician’s defense attorney argues in a motion seeking the case’s dismissal. The arguments in the motion to quash are similar for each of two offenses, hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct and disrupting a meeting or procession. The charging instrument, known as an information, omits references to the specific acts that the state alleges are the basis for the disruption offense, the attorney, Tiffany Burks, wrote in the motion that was filed on Wednesday.

Charging instruments for offenses in which recklessness is the alleged culpability, as it is in the hindering crime, require specificity, Burks argues. The motion helpfully offers an example of how a hindering information document could have been properly written. The offense date in the information document is off by a year. It alleges Burnam committed the crimes on Aug. 4, 2025. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office has not yet filed a motion in response. Sheriff’s deputies carried Burnam out of the Aug. 4, 2026, meeting after he picked up a microphone during his public comment slot. “The government cannot simply accuse someone of committing a crime and leave the defense to guess what specific conduct supposedly made that person a criminal,” Burks wrote in a statement distributed on Thursday to the press. “Mr. Burnam is entitled to know precisely what the State alleges he did, particularly in a case arising from speech and conduct at a public government meeting.”

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Texas legislature to hold hearings on annexing New Mexico counties

A proposal by two New Mexico legislators to allow three counties along the Texas border to secede from the Land of Enchantment was dead on arrival in Santa Fe earlier this year, but across the border in Texas Lone Star legislators are running with the idea and holding hearings backed by Texas’ Speaker of the House. In January, New Mexico Representatives Randall Pettigrew and Jimmy Mason, both Republicans representing parts of Chaves, Eddy & Lea Counties on the Texas border with New Mexico, introduced a draft of a state Constitutional amendment allowing “three or more contiguous counties” to secede from New Mexico.

Pettigrew said at the time that he introduced the proposal to draw attention to the political differences between those more conservative-leaning counties and the Democratic majority in the legislature and state offices. The New Mexico proposal landed flat in Santa Fe but it appears to have spurred interest in the Republican-controlled Texas legislature. The Texas Governmental Oversight Committee announced this week that it would hold hearings in late September exploring whether to annex Lea, Roosevelt and Eddy Counties. “We didn’t initiate this, state representatives from New Mexico initiated bills to remove themselves – not to become their own state – but to become part of West Texas,” Lubbock State Representative Carl Tepper, who is on the Governmental Oversight Committee, told KCBD. Even if Texas passes a bill, a companion bill would still have to be approved in New Mexico and Congress gets the final say.

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What is KPRC 2 ENOUGH? Inside Houston's new 10 p.m. show

If you've spent any time scrolling social media lately, you may have seen KPRC 2 anchor Stephania Jimenez appearing in ads alongside frustrated Houstonians venting about high bills, missed trash pickup and problems they can't seem to get fixed. The ads all end on the same word: ENOUGH. But what exactly is ENOUGH? The answer starts to take shape Sunday, when KPRC 2 launches a new digital-first accountability series and reworked 10 p.m. newscast built around deeper reporting on issues affecting Houston-area residents. Chron got an early look Wednesday at a portion of the show inside KPRC's studios, where station leaders described the project as a major departure from the familiar rhythm of local TV news.

One previewed episode focuses on Texas' new Education Freedom Accounts program. Reporter Rilwan Balogun examines what happened after one private-school parent said his existing financial aid was reduced once his family qualified for state funding. Balogun said he emailed 287 qualifying Houston-area private schools about their policies, traveled to Austin seeking answers from state officials and went to Phoenix to examine how a similar program has played out in Arizona. Jimenez also interviewed a journalist at KPRC sister station WKMG in Orlando about Florida's voucher program. "We're so focused on breaking news, we're so focused on just what local news has become over the last 20 years," McLaughlin said, describing the development of ENOUGH as a "complete reset." The changes extend beyond what viewers will see on television. News Director Ana Lastra said much of the reporting begins online, where reporters post about subjects they are investigating, ask questions and sift through audience feedback before a finished segment reaches the broadcast. "This is truly digital conversation with the community on the issues that they care about," Lastra said.

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Houston students receive new shoes with help from Olympic champion Carl Lewis

Olympic champion Carl Lewis helped welcome about 100 Houston-area middle school students to a shopping trip for new athletic shoes Thursday at Academy Sports + Outdoors. The event was part of Kicks for Class, a charitable initiative sponsored by the Heil Law Firm and organized by Communities In Schools of Houston. The program provides shoes to students who might otherwise be unable to participate in school sports and team activities. Students from Edison Middle School, Owens Intermediate School, Paul Revere Middle School and Spring Woods Middle School selected and tried on new shoes with help from CIS volunteers. Each school brought 25 students. The event was held in conjunction with Communities In Schools’ national Ready, Set, Learn! Back-to-School Tour and CIS National’s Site Coordinator Appreciation Week.

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National Stories

Kimberley A. Strassel: Trump targets the wrong base

(Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes editorials, as well as the weekly Potomac Watch political column, from her base in Alaska.) “Know your audience,” goes the old line, a maxim to maximize a speaker’s effectiveness. President Trump opened the GOP’s midterm convention Wednesday by speaking for nearly two hours to all the wrong people. Excitement in Dallas’s American Airlines Center was certainly huge. Thousands of loyal supporters donned Trump hats and buttons and pins, waved signs and roared approval throughout the president’s address. Fans traveled hundreds of miles and waited in line for hours, considering “Trump Live” the fulfillment of a bucket list. This is the GOP’s midterm strategy: Triple down on the MAGA base. The impulse stems from polls showing Republicans suffering from a big enthusiasm gap compared with Democrats.

The GOP has internalized the belief that its problem is MAGA loyalists who tune out when Mr. Trump isn’t the main event. So they are running this president as if he’s on the ballot, while the president runs entirely to his most loyal crowd. That’s an incredibly risky midterm bet, based on a potentially fatal misreading of the data. “Bases” are sprawling things, and today’s Republican version can be broadly separated between MAGA enthusiasts—deeply loyal to Mr. Trump—and more-traditional Republicans. Pollster Scott Rasmussen of RMG Research makes that distinction by asking voters the following question: If you had to choose between four candidates of equal character and competence, would you prefer someone who advocated: A) Trump-like policies, B) traditional Republican policies, C) traditional Democratic policies, or D) policies like those of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? The key point coming out of RMG’s most recent polling on that question? That MAGA base—those who answered A—is already fired up. The August numbers show that more than 50% of them are “very enthusiastic” about voting. “Every bit of data we have show the Trump group is just as excited as Democrats,” Mr. Rasmussen says. “This base remains ready to crawl across glass for this guy.”

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The new threat election officials fear: Trump’s federal government

The activists staking out the ballot drop boxes in suburban Phoenix wore body armor and face coverings. With guns at their sides, they recorded residents as they deposited their votes during the last midterm elections. Voting-rights groups sued, and a federal judge put a stop to them, ruling they had to stay at least 250 feet away while armed to ensure voters were not intimidated. Four years later and 100 miles to the south, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover is treating the 2022 incident as a lesson on the importance of moving quickly this fall if anyone — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — tries to interfere with the election’s administration. For her county along the U.S.-Mexico border, Conover has drawn up court papers so she can immediately file litigation to protect the vote.

“When it comes to preparing for elections, we are on overdrive,” she said. In 2022, one of the greatest threats to elections came from activists like the armed men and women looming near drop boxes and questioning America’s voting procedures. This year, Conover and other officials across the nation are preparing for the possibility that the most serious risks may come from President Donald Trump, his agencies and allies — including many now in power at the federal, state and local levels. Election officials are contemplating ideas that once sounded outlandish, such as troops seizing voting machines, the president dictating last-minute election rules or rogue officials blocking the certification of results. For the last year and a half, Trump and his administration have disparaged long-standing voting practices, dismantled federal agencies that protect elections, impounded ballots from past elections, amplified conspiracy theories, threatened to prosecute election officials, tried to limit mail ballots and pushed to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Their efforts have touched on nearly every stage of voting and could affect control of Congress, as Republicans try to retain their slim majority. A Democratic takeover of the House would stall Trump’s agenda, block funding for his initiatives, trigger a flood of investigations and mire his administration in congressional hearings.

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Charlie Kirk’s lieutenant has second thoughts

Five days a week, or sometimes more if news requires it, Blake Neff takes his seat behind a V-shaped plexiglass desk on the set of the Charlie Kirk Show. Directly to Neff’s left, toward the center of the V, sits “Charlie’s chair,” the high-back green leather rolling chair favored by the show’s namesake, the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Following Kirk’s death one year ago during an event at Utah Valley University, his colleagues at the Charlie Kirk Show started filling the studio with a collection of the gifts and commemorative knick-knacks that fans were sending in droves. The tidal wave of gifts eventually tapered off, but the habit of keeping a small pile of items stacked in front of Kirk’s seat persisted, transforming “Charlie’s chair” into a kind of semi-permanent memorial to the show’s departed host.

On a Tuesday morning earlier this summer, Neff, a bespectacled 36-year-old with a clean-shaven head and a naturally nerdy affect, catalogued the contents of that pile for me: a gold and white Trump “47” hat, a pocket Constitution, a gold challenge coin inscribed with a Bible verse and a plush giraffe hand puppet beloved by Kirk’s two children. Neff joined the staff of the Charlie Kirk Show in 2022 as a writer and producer, but since Kirk’s death, he has assumed full-time hosting responsibilities alongside Kirk’s longtime spokesperson Andrew Kolvet. His new role as the public face of the Charlie Kirk Show has come as something of a surprise — chiefly to Neff himself. A self-described “cultivated wordcel” with a passion for elaborate military-historical board games, Neff told me that he never expected to have a permanent on-air presence, having spent most of his career cranking out scripts for more telegenic bosses. But in another sense, Neff’s new gig is just the latest unlikely twist in a career that has been unusually full of them. By his own admission, Neff has become a kind of Forrest Gump of the conservative movement, a little-known figure who, through a combination of dumb luck and sheer pluckiness, has found himself at the center of several pivotal moments in the recent history of the American right. In 2016, while working as an education reporter at the conservative website The Daily Caller, Neff was tapped to serve as the lead writer of the newly created Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight, which Neff helped transform into the leading organ of MAGA-style populism during President Donald Trump’s first term.

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GOP women sound alarm as Lindsay Clancy backlash revives calls to repeal 19th Amendment: ‘Definitely a threat’

Calls to repeal women’s rights to vote are emerging from the online firestorm over the Lindsay Clancy trial, prompting Republican women to warn that the intraparty rhetoric could hurt the GOP. "I think there’s definitely a threat in the Republican Party right now," political and legal strategist Mehek Cooke told Fox News Digital. The online calls to repeal the 19th Amendment come after Clancy’s high-profile murder trial ended in a mistrial, with 11 of the 12 jurors favoring a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. Clancy admitted to killing her three children, but her defense argued that she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

"Convict Clancy. Also Repeal the 19th Amendment!" one user posted on X. "The female jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial are speaking out about their deliberations and disagreements with the sole male holdout. The more they speak the better they make the case for repealing the 19th Amendment," posted another user. Cooke warned that calls to strip women of the right to vote, largely coming from accounts identifying as conservative, risk alienating female voters from the Republican Party. "When you have these fringe activists online talking about repealing the 19th Amendment or alienating women, it really doesn’t help," Cooke said. The calls followed after the case made waves on social media, particularly after hundreds of mostly female Clancy supporters gathered outside a Massachusetts courthouse during the murder trial. The demonstrators rallying behind Clancy argued the case is an example of the lack of understanding of postpartum depression.

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Speaker Johnson says Congress would work to deliver $5,000 checks Trump promised to Americans

House Speaker Mike Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that Congress would “work through” President Donald Trump’s promise to give $5,000 to American adults if Republicans keep the House and Senate after the midterm elections. “I commit that Congress will work through it and find consensus on that, like I have to do everything else,” Johnson said, when asked whether he would commit to carrying out Trump’s promise. Johnson said “it takes some time,” pointing to Republicans’ slim majorities. “I never go out and give big commitments on the front end because I’ve got to work through it, and that’s what we do every single day,” he said. Asked whether he was willing to double down on Trump’s promise to voters, Johnson said: “I’ll work with the president hand in hand, as I do all the time, and we’ll deliver for the American people.”

“That’s the promise,” he added. At Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas, Trump spoke on both nights, making a promise to the American people on Wednesday to issue $5,000 checks called the “Trump dividend” if Republicans do well in the midterms. The move sparked concerns from from Democrats, some Republicans and economic experts. Critics have characterized the president’s promise as an attempt to bribe voters and said that the move would drive up inflation. “So if the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump dividend,” the president told attendees. Asked later whether Congress would need to approve such a disbursement of funds, Trump told CBS News, “We think not,” but added: “I think they will do it if we needed it.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., sidestepped a question Thursday on Fox News about whether congressional Republicans would support such a measure. “Well, that’s a good question. And we’ll cross our bridge when we come to it,” he said. Johnson also addressed the war with Iran, which shows no signs of resolving soon. Congress controls the nation’s funding, but Republicans have largely been willing to provide the administration with requested funds. Asked whether the White House has a blank check to continue the war, Johnson said “no.”

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Trump likes to talk about being friends with pro golfers

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump loves the game of golf. He likes to watch, play and even design courses. He also isn’t shy about his friendships with the pros. Trump is spending the weekend at his golf resort in the village of Doonbeg, Ireland, where he is watching the Irish Open being played there. Irish golfer Shane Lowry held a four-shot lead going into Sunday’s final day of competition. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin was expected to join Trump for the match. Trump’s friend, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, said golf is one of the things the president does for fun. “The president works all day, every day. And there are two things that he does for enjoyment,” Lutnick told reporters recently. “He plays golf on the weekend and he builds. He loves to build.”

Trump has built friendships with some of the pros. He name drops and lavishes praise on them whenever he talks about them. “I have so many friends that are professional, top professional golfers,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s “The Five” earlier this year. He then named Rory McIlroy,Tiger Woods,Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler, among them. He also posts pictures on social media of him with pro golfers after their rounds. Trump has given awards to some and invited them to the White House. Others are helping him redesign Washington-area golf courses. Trump said DeChambeau is among the “great pros.” The two have played together and DeChambeau has appeared at the White House. He celebrated his first U.S. Open title in 2020 at one of Trump’s golf properties in New York. Last year, he was chosen as the chairperson of Trump’s reconstituted version of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, an advisory committee. The South African pro golfer was in the Oval Office in May 2025 as part of the delegation accompanying Cyril Ramaphosa, his country’s president, to a meeting with Trump. Fellow South African golfer Retief Goosen was also part of the group. “Ernie Els is a great golfer. He’s a truly great golfer and Retief Goosen, who’s another really — we call him really a great golfer, too, Ernie, right?” Trump said. “These two guys are fantastic, and we could add Gary to the group, Gary Player. What a group of golfers South Africa has had. There must be something in the water, right?”

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Lead Stories

Kimmel says interview with James Talarico won't air under FCC pressure

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said the agency that regulates television “threatened” the show and that an interview with James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, will not air on television but on YouTube — thus bypassing any control or regulation by the Federal Communications Commission. It’s not the first time a TV show has moved an interview with Talarico to YouTube. The candidate’s appearance on Stephen Colbert’s show in February was moved online over network fears that it would violate regulatory guidance from the Federal Communications Commission on giving equal time to political candidates. Talarico is in a tight race against Republican, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, and has given Democrats hope of winning statewide in the otherwise GOP-dominated Lone Star State.

“For the whole 20+ years of our show, in fact, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem,” said Kimmel on his Wednesday night show, the titular “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” “Something has changed,” he continued, suggesting that Trump’s presidency was that something. “His FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates our local stations, based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.” The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Anna Gomez, the Commission’s sole Democrat, said in a Thursday statement on social media that Kimmel’s decision to keep the interview off-air “shows just how far this Administration’s campaign of censorship and control has gone.” Gomez condemned the latest “intimidation” from her agency — and added that she hopes “courts will soon make clear that the FCC has no place dictating editorial choices or what viewers are allowed to see.” In August, in a further escalation of its battle with the Trump administration, Disney-owned ABC sued the FCC on First Amendment grounds, saying the agency’s demand for early review of its broadcast licenses — years before they were set to expire — posed an “existential threat” to the network.

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Sept. 11 changed the world order. But not for the reason you may think.

When the World Trade Center towers crashed to the ground 25 years ago, they triggered a seismic wave that seemed to smash the world order. It was now “a different world,” President George W. Bush warned Congress. Secretary of State Colin Powell declared: “It was before 9/11 and after 9/11.” Vice President Dick Cheney added: “That day changed everything.” They were right, with a caveat. The attacks were a monumental tragedy. The world order did change. But it was the aftermath—the U.S. response to 9/11, not the terrorism itself—that made the difference. Sept. 11 marked a shockingly successful attack by a stateless and relatively small group of Islamist militants. The U.S., though, launched a massive military response: a War on Terror. It attacked two countries, one uninvolved with 9/11. The rhetoric was so sweeping, Washington borrowed language from World War II and the Cold War. America was now confronting an Axis of Evil.

Consumed by the War on Terror, the U.S. had less capacity to address other global priorities such as the pivotal rise of China and an increasingly hostile Russia. That inattention to shifting global forces was what really changed the world. U.S. leaders were “certainly distracted” and “we continually found ourselves sucked back into the morass of our misadventures in the Middle East,” William Burns, who served in several administrations and later became director of the CIA, said in 2019. “Imagine if a bigger part of the time, energy and resources spent on the Global War on Terror had instead been spent on giving form to an affirmative vision for America’s role in Asia.” “China and Russia have welcomed” the War on Terror, the scholar Robert Kagan wrote in 2008, “because it has distracted the United States’ strategic focus away from them.” Recall America’s standing just before 9/11. It was a time of strength and optimism. The U.S. had won the Cold War and enjoyed international dominance. Its victory over Iraq in the first Gulf War still resonated: a U.S. military so powerful it could crush threats far away, in short order, and with few American casualties. Optimism notwithstanding, warnings still abounded. “Unfortunately, a policy of engagement is doomed to fail,” the scholar John Mearsheimer wrote in his 2001 book, “The Tragedy of Great Power Politics.” “If China becomes an economic powerhouse it will almost certainly translate its economic might into military might and make a run at dominating Northeast Asia.… In short, China and the United States are destined to be adversaries as China’s power grows.”

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Trump wants to hand out cash. Congress and economists seem skeptical

Donald Trump’s pitch to send Americans $5,000 checks should Republicans prevail in the November midterms is drawing scorn from some members of Congress — the very people who have constitutional authority over federal spending. Economists and other political observers are voicing concerns about the potential effects on inflation and the national balance sheet. Taken together, it’s a swift reaction that makes clear that Trump’s dubious election-year gambit is likely little more than another grand promise from a politician with a long history of them. “Donald Trump is a known liar. This is the biggest liar to ever serve in government. Period,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat who was in Dallas on Thursday as part of his party’s effort to counter Republicans’ midterm convention. “The dividend is not happening.”

Trump previously pledged to use savings from the Department of Government Efficiency and revenue from tariffs on foreign imports to distribute payments of $2,000 or more, but none of that came to pass. His latest idea comes as the U.S. economy is reckoning with persistent inflation and rising interest rates, two forces that have politically undermined Republicans after previously helping them reclaim power from Democrats. Trump claimed the payments would be possible because of the economy’s strength, yet consumer sentiment is weak as gasoline prices are increasing because of the war with Iran and wages are struggling to keep pace with inflation. Trump told CBS News Texas in an interview that he doesn’t believe Congress would need to approve his planned payments, though he did not specify how he could spend more than $1 trillion without Congress. “Well, we think not,” Trump said about congressional approval. “I think they will do it if we needed it. But we think not.” Later, when pressed by a reporter at the airport before he left Dallas, Trump denied the $5,000 was meant to turn out the vote even though he originally said the money would be distributed “if the Republicans win.” Instead, he described the payments as a “reward” for citizens who endured Joe Biden’s presidency. “It’s almost a reward for the people having to put up with Biden’s policy,” he said.

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Inside Trump’s aggressive push to build data centers on public lands

President Donald Trump’s directive to accelerate data center development on federal lands is facing public backlash and legal hurdles. Behind the scenes, the Trump administration is pushing full steam ahead and sparking concerns it is prioritizing corporate needs over the public good. The Bureau of Land Management has asked its state directors to identify public land ripe for data center development, according to two people familiar with the request, and those leaders have compiled lists for Interior Department leadership. Interior leadership gave state leaders just three days to produce the lists and told its directors the issue was a top priority, according to a former BLM official involved in the discussions.

The request has encountered several challenges: Bureau lands are typically remote and not near basics like electricity and water, agency staff lack the technical expertise to conduct requisite reviews, and overwhelming vacancies after dramatic staffing losses under Trump have diminished capacity. The directive follows an executive order Trump issued last year to accelerate permitting for data centers, including by identifying federal lands that could accommodate them. As the Trump administration is proposing further cuts to BLM, it has stressed in its most recent budget blueprint that the bureau should refocus its efforts on aiding the building out of data centers for AI. The push also comes after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum held meetings with dozens of technology and energy executives last year, according to a Washington Sun review of his calendar. Those meetings included a conversation with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy last spring about permitting, infrastructure and technology “to support data center growth.” The aggressive push inside the agency, and Burgum’s frequent meetings with industry, has stakeholders fearful that the administration is putting the interests of AI companies first at a time where widespread backlash has made companies desperate for more land to build out their infrastructure. “I’m not against development or progress but I think there are too many questions about this and nobody is asking them,” said Mary Jo Rugwell, a former BLM state director who now serves as president of the Public Lands Foundation. “I think we’re just bending knee to the tech oligarchs and letting them do whatever they need to do.”

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State Stories

Chris Hollins sends strongest signal yet of a 2027 challenge to Houston Mayor John Whitmire

City Controller Chris Hollins sent the strongest signal yet on Wednesday that he could launch a challenge against Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s bid for a second term in 2027. Hollins, the city’s second-highest-ranking elected official, swiped at Whitmire during remarks at a press event in Dallas, where he appeared with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as part of Democrats’ pushback against the ongoing midterm Republican National Convention. While much of Hollins’ short speech was aimed at boosting statewide Democratic candidates, including James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa, he named Whitmire, who he has long clashed with over city finances and other issues, on a list of officials he hoped would be soon unseated.

“We have folks who will do anything that they can to be the lapdog or the doormat of this demented, incompetent tyrant,” Hollins said, referring to President Donald Trump. “We’re stuck for now, for just a couple more days, with Greg Abbott, with Ken Paxton. “We’re stuck for a little bit longer with Ted Cruz, with (Dallas Mayor) Eric Johnson, with John Whitmire,” Hollins continued. “But the day for change is coming.” Hollins did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. In a statement, Whitmire called the controller’s remarks “silly politics that I do not have time for.” The two officials have been at odds since both took office in 2024. From his post as the city’s financial watchdog, Hollins has publicly criticized Whitmire’s actions on the city’s budget woes as inadequate short-term fixes. He also opposed a number of mayoral initiatives, including the city’s settlement with firefighters and its recent $50 million deal to avoid annexing The Woodlands, moves he says significantly raise expenses while cutting off revenue streams. Even so, Hollins’ remarks are a sign that the feud could soon devolve into “open warfare,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.

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Austin-based Rastegar Capital, founded by former Nate Paul associate, embroiled in a string of court battles

Significant cracks are forming around Rastegar Capital. The Austin-based real estate investment and development firm has had multiple properties foreclosed on in recent months, including its West Austin headquarters. The company is also embroiled in several lawsuits, with some alleging millions in unpaid loans and others from investors alleging fraud. Compounding the issue is that the firm has had a revolving door of legal teams representing it in those lawsuits, with at least two withdrawing due to Rastegar Capital not fulfilling its financial obligations, according to court filings. Behind Rastegar Capital is Ari Rastegar, an Austin native who formerly worked for a notable and controversial figure in Austin real estate, Nate Paul.

Rastegar helped open the private equity division for Paul’s World Class Capital in New York in 2012, according to previous reporting, before leaving World Class in 2014 to start his own firm. World Class for years has been legally hammered by investors and lenders, forcing it to shed many properties. In recent years, Rastegar himself made waves in the industry and has been in GQ, Maxim and the New York Post. In 2022, Austin Monthly magazine dubbed him "the king of Austin real estate" and chronicled his business philosophies and extreme health habits that involve him taking more than 150 supplements and vitamins a day. Rastegar declined to comment for this report. Rastegar has previously described his firm as “asset class agnostic,” and the company’s website touts a 3.5-million-square-foot portfolio across 38 cities in 13 states. That portfolio includes a potentially 1,000-home master-planned subdivision called Infinity Square in Kyle, the 600,000-square-foot Inf1nity Park industrial complex in Del Valle and East Austin’s 24,000-square-foot Inf1nity Views office project, among others. The portfolio also consists of older apartment properties and newly planned multifamily developments.

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Trump blamed bathroom breaks for empty seats at Dallas convention

There was plenty of space Wednesday for President Donald Trump’s opening night remarks at the Republican midterm convention, but he suggested open seats were the result of people visiting the restrooms. Early in his remarks, Trump alluded to the unprecedented nature of the two-day gathering, including skepticism that people would be clamoring to attend. “This place is packed. And not only is this packed, this is a big arena, not only is this packed, but you have an equal number of people standing outside,” Trump said of the American Airlines Center. “If anybody would like to give up their seat . . . would anybody like to raise your hand and give up your seat?”

The floor of the sports arena and the lower bowl were mostly full, but some upper-level sections were sparsely populated, with entire rows empty. Organizers and state parties went through different approaches to distributing tickets, from offering high-priced packages to giving away seats to Dallas-area residents. Trump repeatedly called the arena “packed” and predicted news outlets would say otherwise. “The fake news will go around and see that man up there? He's leaving for the bathroom. He'll be back in two minutes,” he said. “They’ll take a picture of his seat while he's gone. And they'll say, ‘Trump did not fill up the arena. The arena was not filled. Look at the seat.’” Trump then made a request that attendees wait until after his speech to heed nature’s call. Article continues below this ad “So please, if you don't mind, don't anybody go to the bathroom,” Trump said. The Republican National Committee on Thursday stood by Trump's description of the arena, called the energy "electric" and emphasized the event’s wider appeal for "Americans watching from home, the families weighing the choice ahead."

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Kelley Shannon: To protect free speech, strengthen Texas’ public information law

(Kelley Shannon is executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, a nonprofit based in Austin. For more information about the organization and its upcoming state conference, which is open to members of the public who register, go to www.foift.org.) It takes time and energy to keep a close watch on our government, but it’s our right as citizens. Really, it’s a duty. Transparency laws, along with liberties protected by the U.S. Constitution, help us do the job. Access to public information and free speech go hand in hand. We can’t effectively speak to and about our government without knowing the facts. Yet freedom of speech and one of the state’s main transparency laws, the Texas Public Information Act, are in the spotlight amid concerns they are being eroded. The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas will explore these topics at its state conference “Tracking the Truth, Safeguarding First Amendment Rights” on Sept. 18 in Austin.

Free expression on college campuses is the focus of the conference’s opening session, featuring former KUT News general manager Debbie Hiott, whose recent firing by the University of Texas at Austin ignited a free speech and transparency controversy. The conference will also include First Amendment experts; a look at access to immigration enforcement information; a keynote address by Garrett Haake, chief White House correspondent for NBC News; and a session on using the Texas Public Information Act. Despite a weakening of the Public Information Act over the years, the 53-year-old law still allows light to shine on government to answer essential questions about how taxpayer money is spent and how government officials make decisions. At its core, as it was written and intended, the law is strong and protects citizens’ right to know. That’s because government information is presumed to be open, unless a legal exemption to disclosure exists. This structure gives power to the people by requiring a governmental body that seeks to withhold information to argue why it should be permitted to do so. In most cases, it must seek a ruling from the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

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Bud Kennedy: Tarrant leaders’ election cut saves dollars. Does it cost GOP votes?

Make this deal with the Tarrant County commissioners. If you have to drive far to vote Nov. 3 or wait a long time, your decision is easy. Vote against every single incumbent on the ballot who made it tougher to vote. Top to bottom. State house to courthouse. There is no other way to get the word across to the ruling Republicans on the Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court. Saving a few pennies by closing 92 voting locations is not worth the service lost, particularly not in a county that has voted solid Republican since 1994. In a county that is getting more Republican with every new Haslet subdivision — and where Republicans’ margin actually grew in recent elections from a 6-point edge to 8 points — there is absolutely no reason to make it tougher for Republicans to vote. Who are Republicans’ most faithful voters?

The elderly. There are more Republican voters over 80 than under 30. It’s clear why commissioners wouldn’t want voting locations at colleges. There aren’t any Republicans there. But cutting so many other convenient neighborhood locations, particularly in older subdivisions and suburbs, makes no political sense whatsoever for the Republican judges and officials at the Tarrant County courthouse. When your county is 54% Republican — with more moving into northwest Tarrant County every day — you should be adding more polling places. Make sure newcomers can easily vote. Yes, Democrats succeeded in a few specific races in recent years. But there was a reason Beto O’Rourke, Joe Biden and Colin Allred carried the county. They won defense workers’ votes against a Republican senator and president who wanted to cut spending at Lockheed Martin.

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Eric Johnson declares Dallas ‘America’s sanctuary city from socialism'

For five minutes on stage, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson had the national Republican Party’s attention Thursday to make a pitch he has been making for years now: Don’t concede major cities to the Democrats. Introduced on stage as “the mayor of Y’all Street,” Johnson touted his record, saying Dallas is an example of what a major city looks like under Republican leadership. Johnson, a Republican in a nonpartisan post, built on his 2024 convention speech in Milwaukee, saying large American cities, governed by Democrats, were in disarray.

Dallas is flourishing because of its pro-business attitude and investments in policing, the mayor said. He drew contrasts with New York City, Seattle and Chicago, referring to Dallas as “America’s sanctuary city from socialism.” “While socialist mayors and governors drive away businesses, here in Dallas we are choosing to build America’s next financial capital, which we proudly call Y’all Street,” Johnson said. Johnson took a prime spot in the lineup, speaking after Robert Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, and before former press secretary Karoline Leavitt. He switched from the Democratic Party in 2023, just months after he was reelected as mayor. He rallied the GOP crowd, detailing how he had abandoned “a political party that was determined to defund the police” and “that embraces tent cities and chaos.” Raucous cheers and applause broke beat after beat as Johnson recounted his reasons. He said he was no longer playing the role of a mayor disillusioned with a political party.

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Harry Styles announces two D-FW dates for 'Together, Together' tour

It might be time for North Texas to disco, occasionally. Harry Styles announced two dates at Arlington's AT&T Stadium for his "Together, Together" tour. The shows will be on April 9 and 10, 2027, and feature Argentine duo Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso as special guests. The As It Was singer had originally eschewed a traditional U.S. tour in favor of a 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden in New York City. His Thursday announcement reversed course, adding 25 new shows and 12 new stops to his tour in 2027, including North Texas. He also added North American dates in Phoenix, Toronto, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago.

The tour, which supports the release of Styles' latest album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, originally included the 30 shows at MSG as well as lengthy runs in Amsterdam and London and stops in São Paulo, Mexico City, Sydney and Melbourne. Fans can buy tickets to the two Arlington shows via presales or the general sale. Tickets will first be available on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 9 a.m. via a ticket presale for American Express cardholders. A fan presale will follow that same day at 4 p.m. before the general sale opens at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

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Ken Paxton celebrated a rise in jobs for women. ‘What. Is. He. Thinking???’

It’s not unusual for presidential administrations to cheer on job numbers, as the White House has been doing since a Friday report. They have celebrated women’s employment, pointing to figures that show that the vast majority of net job growth in August — and since President Donald Trump took office — has gone to women. But when the data was touted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a staunch religious conservative and the Republican Party’s nominee in a Senate race that will help determine control of the chamber, not everyone was celebrating. Some on the right don’t see more women in the workforce as necessarily a good thing. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, American women are leading the way in our economic comeback,” Paxton wrote on X on Labor Day, amplifying a post from the White House about the numbers. “This is what happens when we put hardworking Americans first.”

“What. Is. He. Thinking???” was the response from Megan Basham, an author and reporter at The Daily Wire, the outlet founded by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. “Everything wrong with the conservative establishment is encapsulated in this tweet,” she wrote on X. “It’s tone deaf, it’s [sic] fails to understand the moment we’re in, and it reinforces the feminist longhouse situation that we are all trying to address. Seriously what’s the matter with Republican candidates???” Rebecca Jo Plant, a professor and historian of the American family at the University of California-San Diego, said the backlash to Paxton’s tweet was “sad but predictable.” “Men are struggling in this economy, but it’s not because women are employed. Critics would do better to look at who is actually profiting,” she said, pointing to “the extreme concentration of wealth” in the modern American economy. The response highlights growing tensions over family policy within the conservative movement: with affordability and cost-of-living leading voters’ concerns ahead of the midterms, the White House and Republican candidates are eager to tout any positive economic data about women driving workforce gains.

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Was Grindr really down last night during the RNC convention? A brief investigation.

Even before the RNC midterm convention started, the jokes about Grindr being down because of demand were already a thriving ecosystem on social media. But did it actually happen? For the uninitiated, Grindr is a popular location-based LGBTQ+ dating and social networking app. At the 2024 RNC convention in Milwaukee there were reports of the app being down, and in 2016, Vice reported on an influx of new users around the convention then. Since at least that time, jokes about the app going haywire during conservative-leaning events have proliferated.

Basically, Downdetector says a lot more people than usual reported having problems with Grindr. Grindr’s own status page says there wasn’t an outage. It’s worth noting that at least some of Downdetector’s data is crowdsourced: people can report that a service isn’t working for them, and Downdetector also monitors other online sources for indications of problems. When those reports rise significantly above the normal level, Downdetector flags a potential outage. That doesn’t necessarily mean Grindr itself was down. “It’s important to note that while we can indicate that an issue may be occurring, we don’t diagnose why the issue may be occurring or what may be happening — that is something the service experiencing the issue can only know. The same is true for how many customers are actually impacted,” Raquel Sanz, a spokesperson for DownDetector parent company Ookla, told Snopes last year. And a lot of things can cause an app to stop working for an individual user, including local network congestion. At a large event, overloaded cell service can make a data-heavy app like Grindr slow to load or appear unavailable, even if Grindr itself isn’t experiencing an outage. It’s the old correlation is not necessarily causation thing. In short, some users may have experienced outages during the convention. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the problem was widespread, and the jokes may have created their own sort of feedback loop, with more people checking—and reporting—Grindr problems because everyone was talking about them.

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Elon Musk's Boring Company raises $3B, shattering Austin startup funding record

For the third time this year, the Austin metro's largest startup funding record has been broken. First, it was a $1 billion round for battery energy storage company Base Power, which it raised in 2025 and repeated again this year. Then it was a $1.75 billion investment for drone boat startup Saronic back in March. Now, enter the wealthiest founder of them all: Elon Musk. The tech titan's underground tunnel startup, The Boring Company, on Sept. 9 announced a $3 billion series D funding round. The massive investment was led by the United Arab Emirates and affiliated investment entities. Other investors included Human Capital, Vy Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, A16Z, Temasek, Shamal Holding and Baron Capital.

The company said it is now worth $23 billion. The UAE involvement is perhaps not surprising in that The Boring Co. has teamed up with the entity on its Dubai Loop that intends to build out a nearly 100-mile network of underground tunnels across the UAE. It has also worked on projects at Tesla's gigafactory in the Austin area and a tunnel in Las Vegas. Boring Co. plans to channel some of its massive financing package into hiring. It has over 30 open roles posted to its website for the Austin area, as well as dozens more in other metros, including Dubai, Nashville and Las Vegas. Open roles include engineering, operations and production. The company in 2021 set up its headquarters at the corner of Walker Watson Road and FM 1209. Since then, the site has grown to include the Boring Bodega and the headquarters of social media company X, formerly known as Twitter. It also includes a University of Austin engineering lab and space for an elementary school.

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Two protesters arrested during a counter-protest outside the GOP Midterm Convention, police say

Two people were arrested Thursday during a protest near the GOP Midterm Convention being held at the American Airlines Center, according to Dallas Police. Police say officers were assigned to a protest near McKinney and Payne Streets. During the protest, police say the two protesters assaulted a counter-protester and blocked the road. Police say the victim didn't require medical treatment. Police have not yet released what led up to the assault or the names of the two arrested and the charges they face, but say those details will be released after the two are booked into jail.

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Family sues Fort Worth daycare over alleged child fight club, lawyer says that puts all daycares on notice

You can see how the parents of a 4-year-old boy light up when they describe their youngest of two children. “He’s into sports now, sports, basketball, anything sports, basketball, soccer, football,” Heather Harris said. Richard Harris said his son also has a love for Michael Jackson and practicing how to moonwalk. “He’s walking around now with his Michael Jackson glove. So, he’s just pretty awesome,” Richard Harris said. The Harris family recently watched the movie on Michael Jackson with their two children during their home movie night together. But the couple says there is a disturbing moment involving their son that they are still trying to make sense of. Heather says she made a surprise visit to Arka Montessori Academy of Risinger daycare in Fort Worth on April 27. She told WFAA TV in an exclusive interview that she knew something was wrong when she saw her son.

“I knew from his cry, in the look on his face, that something had happened. And from that point on, I said, I need to see the cameras,” Heather Harris said. The family’s attorney shared surveillance video that he says shows an adult woman, described as a former employee, allegedly instigating a fight involving the 4-year-old. Heather Harris said she immediately called Richard Harris and told him what she had seen. “I was mortified when she showed me what actually happened on the video,” Richard Harris said. The Harrises say they trusted the daycare to care for their son and were shocked by what they said happened. “The trust that I put in this daycare, they failed us,” Heather Harris said. The couple says they believed they had done their homework before choosing the daycare. “Education was big; it was clean. Arka, we thought we hit gold with Arka,” Richard Harris said. Richard shared with WFAA TV that they even allowed their son to do a half day at the daycare to see how he would respond to the new facility, after changing his daycare based on location, after-school care, and their busy work schedules. The 24-7 cameras inside the daycare day rooms, the couple says, also played a huge role in their decision.

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Alaska surrogate asks U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after Texas judge dismisses custody claims

An Alaska surrogate who gave birth to a child with a rare heart defect in Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the multistate legal battle over who has parentage and custody rights over the boy. Anchorage nurse McKenna West asked the high court to pause a California court order from last month ruling the child’s genetic parents — Los Angeles couple Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed — have legal parental authority, and West does not, according to a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday. West fled from Alaska to Texas in July to give birth to the child after his genetic parents asked her to have an abortion. West argues under Texas law she is the legal parent because she gave birth to the child. She also argues Ahmed and Gilkar didn’t properly serve her notice of the parentage case they opened in California court, violating West’s due process rights.

"The California courts stripped away (West’s) rights to the child she carried for 37 weeks as she fought to save his life from those who sought him dead," West's attorneys wrote in the petition. West’s request for a pause comes after Dallas judge Ashley Wysocki dismissed West’s bid for custody over the child earlier this month, upholding the California court’s order. Wysocki previously kept in place a temporary restraining order barring West from seeing the child after a hearing Aug. 25 pending a final ruling. Wysocki also ordered the court records in the Dallas case to be sealed from public view after a request from the court-appointed attorney for the child. An Alaska court in June gave full faith and credit to the California judgment, declaring Ahmed and Gilkar the child's legal and biological parents, according to a court filing obtained by KERA News before the case was sealed in Dallas. Gilkar and Ahmed named the child Rumi, but West and her legal team refer to the newborn as Baby Gabriel. As of Aug. 25, the newborn was in the hospital in critical condition awaiting further treatment after he received the first open heart surgery to treat his hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

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City Stories

Edinburg CISD to solicit forensic audit as district faces $15M deficit

The school board here Tuesday voted to solicit requests for qualifications (RFQ) for an independent forensic audit that sparked a discussion on what the scope of the audit should include. The solicitation for independent forensic audit comes to the board with the district amidst a $15 million deficit in the proposed budget for next fiscal year The board also voted to solicit bids from the general public for a property of about 113.35 acres which initially was slated for the board to vote on a resolution to authorize a sale to Rhodes Development, Inc. for the development of low-income or moderate-incoming housing. The school board voted unanimously for the RFQ for an independent forensic audit, but not before some discussion.

Board member Leticia “Letty” Garcia started the conversation by saying that she welcomes the audit. Garcia’s comments about the audit referenced several years, including criticism of last year’s compensation plan and the process of fixing the emergency situation at Canterbury Elementary which had trace amounts of E.coil after a flood sewage overflow. Garcia took issue that no procurement was used with the situation at Canterbury Elementary and the $700,000 cost for it. Trustee and former board president David Torres said that the process needed to be expedited since the district had parents up in arms to have something done or were lining up to file lawsuits against the district. “It was our duty to move quickly and fast and get this done properly,” Torres said. “This company came and cleaned the problem that were there which were extreme … we moved quickly because if we had not, we would have been sued by like 50-60 parents or more.”

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National Stories

Why so many incumbents lost primaries this year

It’s been a bad year to be an incumbent. Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee’s ouster on Wednesday, the first primary defeat for an incumbent governor in eight years, caps off a primary season that’s seen longtime leaders fall across the map and politicians across both parties struggle to make the leap to higher office. Thirteen members of Congress have lost their reelection bids: seven Democrats and six Republicans, including two GOP senators. At least 16 more who were trying to move from the House to the Senate or take on statewide office have lost primaries: nine Republicans and seven Democrats, including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet who unsuccessfully ran for governor. The upheaval has been driven by a confluence of factors that will continue to dog incumbents through November. Voters are frustrated with both parties’ leadership in Washington. President Donald Trump has targeted some GOP foes as he looks to cement his legacy; Democrats are in the midst of pitched generational and ideological battles. Some members in both parties faced daunting new district lines. Others faced scandals that sank them.

In some races, those factors converged. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) didn’t benefit much from her years in Washington in her Senate bid — and lost her primary to a left-flank rival who yoked her to the party establishment. Caitlin Legacki, who advised Stevens’ bid, said incumbents’ losses this year show voters are simply fed up. “It speaks to the high level of dissatisfaction that voters have with everyone,” said Legacki, who noted the anti-incumbent climate contributed to Stevens’ loss. “It’s a major ‘throw the bums out’ moment.” Democrats disillusioned with their leadership in Washington are taking it out on the party’s rank and file. Progressives picked off more-moderate House members from New York to Colorado. Younger challengers ousted older incumbents from Texas to Connecticut. Local elected officials outran Washington incumbents. And voters have spurned lawmakers seeking higher office from Michigan to Minnesota. Sometimes age was the biggest factor, sometimes it was ideology and sometimes both played a role. Democratic socialists defeated decades-older Reps. Diana DeGette of Colorado and Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York. Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin relied on generational change to topple longtime Rep. John Larson in Connecticut.

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Missouri Supreme Court finds Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was in contempt during redistricting fight

The Missouri Supreme Court found Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was in contempt after a tense and twisting legal battle over whether new congressional districts supported by President Donald Trump can be used in the November election. The state's top judges said Hoskins was in contempt of their order, but he has since corrected his contemptuous conduct and has purged himself of contempt. A written order is expected later in the day on Thursday. The judges ordered Hoskins to appear for a contempt hearing for not following their orders on which election maps to use and for instructing local election authorities to use the Trump-backed districts. Missouri’s battle over its congressional districts has spanned more than a year and spawned confusion over which districts will be in place for voters.

State attorneys representing Hoskins had asked Clark to halt the contempt hearing. But Clark declined to do so. The contempt hearing for Hoskins is scheduled to occur as the U.S. Supreme Court is simultaneously considering a request from redistricting opponents to halt Clark's order favoring the Trump-backed congressional map. Missouri was the second Republican-led state, after Texas, to enact new districts after Trump urged Republicans last year to redraw House districts to their advantage ahead of the midterm elections. The revised Missouri districts target a Kansas City-based seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by shedding parts into neighboring districts and stretching the remainder into rural Republican areas. The goal is to help Republicans win seven of the state’s eight House seats in the midterm elections — a gain of one seat. Redistricting opponents collected hundreds of thousands of petition signatures seeking to force a statewide vote on the new districts. They submitted the signatures in December. But Hoskins waited until August — on the same day as Missouri’s primary — to reject the petition. Hoskins asserted that a referendum petition could not be used for congressional redistricting.

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Missouri set to use old congressional map after Supreme Court rejects Trump-backed one

Missouri is poised to hold its November election with congressional districts passed after the last census, after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday again rejected a new map backed by President Donald Trump that Republicans hoped could help them win an additional seat in the pivotal midterms. The Supreme Court’s decision marked a defining moment in a pitched legal battle that has lasted nearly a year and caused confusion for voters. Citing the court’s latest action, Missouri’s chief election official directed local authorities to use U.S. House districts passed in 2022, as the state’s highest court had ordered. Trump wanted courts to allow the use of his preferred map, which lawmakers approved last year at his urging.

The decision means Missouri could run the November general election with different U.S. House districts than were used in the August primary — an extremely rare situation that could switch the candidate choices for more than a million potential voters, or nearly 1 in 4 voters statewide, according to an Associated Press estimate. No Supreme Court justices publicly dissented from the brief order. It did not detail the court’s legal reasoning, as is typical in emergency appeals. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S. Supreme Court decision. Earlier Thursday, Missouri’s top court convened a hearing on whether to hold Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for not following its orders to use the districts passed after the last census. Hoskins had instead told local election authorities to use the new Trump-backed map, pointing to a competing order from a federal judge on Tuesday that forbade him from using anything other than the new districts.

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25 years later, 9/11 fades from Congressional memory

About 10 hours after a pell-mell evacuation from the Capitol building, more than 100 members of Congress returned to send a message that the republic had withstood the most deadly terrorism attack on U.S. soil. “We, Republicans and Democrats, House and Senate, stand strongly united behind the president and will work together to ensure that the full resources of the government are brought to bear in these efforts,” said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat pledging his loyalty to the Republican president, George W. Bush.

After the remarks concluded at dusk on Sept. 11, 2001, they held hands and sang “God Bless America.” Twenty-five years later, the anniversary will go largely overlooked at the Capitol. Memorial services will be held at the Pentagon and Ground Zero in New York, as well as in southwestern Pennsylvania where a hijacked plane crashed. Twenty-five years later, the anniversary will go largely overlooked at the Capitol. Memorial services will be held at the Pentagon and Ground Zero in New York, as well as in southwestern Pennsylvania where a hijacked plane crashed. The House and Senate are out of session for an extended summer break. Many Republicans are waking up in Dallas after an unusual party convention ahead of the November midterms, a hyperpartisan event in which speakers compared Democrats to the mortal enemy. The House held six minutes of speeches and a brief moment of silence on Sept. 3 honoring the anniversary. “We were a different country then. Our country has changed,” Jane Harman, who retired in 2011 after serving 16 years in the House as a moderate Democrat, told The Washington Sun. “I can’t picture us saying the same things now.”

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9/11 TV specials & documentaries to mark the 25th anniversary: How to watch

The broadcast networks and cable news channels will have special coverage today of the 25th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11. Most of the networks will have reporters and anchors at Ground Zero in New York for special events and observances. In many cases, that programming will continue into the primetime schedule. Here’s a brief rundown, but note that this list doesn’t include the myriad of options on streaming sites. All times are ET. On ABC, Special reports on 9/11 observances will air across “Good Morning America” (7 a.m.) and “World News Tonight with David Muir” (6:30 p.m.). “9/11 Tribute in Light: Live from Lower Manhattan” (8 p.m.) — A look back on 9/11 honors the victims killed, reflects on the lasting impact of the day and commemorates the resilience of the survivors, families, first responders and communities forever. David Muir, Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer “9/11: United We Stand – 25 Years Later” (9 p.m.) — This new documentary, led by Michael Strahan, talks to iconic athletes, entertainers, journalists, first responders and cultural figures who were instrumental in our collective healing about their experiences with 9/11, and how sports, music, comedy and the arts helped Americans rediscover hope, unity and a sense of normalcy.

Special reports on 9/11 observances will air across “CBS Mornings” (7 a.m.) and “CBS Evening News” (6:30 p.m.). “9/11: We Remember” (8 p.m.) – Tony Dokoupil reports from Ground Zero in New York City to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The hour features three stories of survival, loss, and hope. “Daughters of 9/11” (9 p.m.) - Twenty-five years after the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, Elizabeth Miller, Jessica Trant and FBI special agent Frank Pellegrino confront whether the man accused of masterminding the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will ever face justice. CNN special coverage: “9/11: 25 Years Later” (7 a.m.) – Throughout the day, the network’s anchors, correspondents and reporters report from sites impacted by the terrorist attacks 25 years ago to remember the thousands of victims and reflect on how that day forever changed the country. Kate Bolduan will anchor from Memorial Plaza at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan, with Brynn Gingras providing real-time reporting from the commemoration ceremony, as CNN carries the day’s events, honors the victims and examines the attacks’ continuing impact 25 years later.

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Elon Musk threatens legal action over Alex Gibney documentary, calls it a ‘hit piece’

Elon Musk responded to the debut of Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary “Musk,” which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week, by slamming it as a “hit piece” and threatening legal action over claims that he used his Starlink satellites to influence the 2024 presidential election. In the letter, addressed to Jigsaw Productions and dated Sept. 3, Spiro says they tried to contact the team “multiple times” and “requested an opportunity to present the facts in the normal fact-checking process that is the hallmark of ethical journalism. You have refused to engage.” The letter continues: “While we are ardent supporters of the First Amendment, and respect the reporting process, it has become abundantly clear that the motivations behind this piece are not the pursuit of truth, but something far different. This project did not begin as an inquiry. It began with a conclusion.”

“You are on notice, before release, that the insinuation is false, that the material refuting it is public, and that you chose not to be told the rest,” Spiro wrote. “Starlink was not connected to vote tabulation. Election officials in multiple states, independent cybersecurity researchers, and fact-checkers publicly refuted the Starlink vote-rigging claim in November 2024, and nothing since has revived it,” Spiro said in the letter, which was first reported by THR. “Defamation does not require an express accusation.” The letter alleges that the film hinges on “the accounts of witnesses with acknowledged personal grievances against Mr. Musk” and that “nothing in the available reporting indicates that their consequential claims were independently corroborated,” adding that “the people in a position to contradict them were neither unknown nor unavailable. They came to you and asked to be heard, and you refused them, as you refused us. That is not a gap in the reporting. It is a conscious decision to disregard the truth.” The letter says litigation is “reasonably anticipated.”

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It’s time to rein in Mamdani’s Influencer Army

As a mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani employed social-media influencers with great skill and success, and he brought the strategy to City Hall. His administration regularly works with influencers — some of them paid with public funds — to disseminate information about sanitation, public health, or how to navigate New York’s labyrinthine municipal agencies. Asking people with large digital audiences to post timely reminders on their Instagram or YouTube accounts about when to get a flu shot or how to safely dispose of hazardous waste can be an efficient way to connect with hard-to-reach corners of the city: According to Pew Research, over half of all Americans say they regularly get news from social media, including 38 percent of adults ages 18 to 29. But it’s critical that city-government collaborations with influencers are nonpolitical and fully disclosed to the public in compliance with state law.

“Influencers have multiple hats, and so they may be sometimes acting a bit like a journalist but they may also be making money off another campaign,” says Anya Schiffrin, a researcher at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs who recently started a firestorm by publishing a paper examining City Hall’s use of influencers. “What I’d like to see is more clarity and disclosure and transparency so we know exactly what these people are doing and when they’re in journalism and when they’re not.” Team Mamdani has done itself no favors by blurring the boundaries and then refusing to disclose the names of the estimated 250 influencers it regularly collaborates with. Some of the group chats are run on the Signal messaging app, which set off alarm bells about whether pro-Mamdani political campaigning is being indirectly supported with public funds and whether City Hall is hiding or deleting public information that, by law, must be preserved. In some cases, the New York Times notes, the same influencers being paid to advance nonpolitical messages for a city agency are also apparently getting talking points geared toward campaign-style promotion of the mayor and his administration. Some of the influencers may not understand the distinction. (“It’s kind of like our role is amplifying all the good things they’re doing,” one 34-year-old parenting influencer with 169,000 followers told the Times.)

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While Trump goes big in Dallas, Collins goes small in Maine to save her seat

Hours before many of her Republican colleagues and those seeking to join their ranks convened in a hulking Dallas arena for a two-day political rally headlined by President Trump, Senator Susan Collins stood in a 10,000-square-foot recreation center in central Maine on Wednesday and examined the ceiling. Instead of the balloons and klieg lights that adorned the rafters hundreds of miles to the south at Mr. Trump’s extravagant midterm convention, Ms. Collins looked up and saw fluorescent bulbs and water stains that prompted her to ask the town’s manager if the building had a leaky roof. “We did,” the manager, Dylan Lajoie, told her. But, he said, because of a $935,000 grant Ms. Collins had secured in a federal spending bill for the town of Newport, it had been possible to renovate and “refresh” the facility.

This is how Ms. Collins, at 73 seeking her sixth term in the Senate, is working to defend her job in a state that Mr. Trump lost, at a time when Republicans face strong political headwinds because of his flagging approval ratings. To win re-election in November, Ms. Collins, a moderate who has been critical of the president and opposed some elements of his agenda, is deploying the same strategy that has kept her in the Senate for decades. She is keeping her distance from Mr. Trump and her party’s national brand and message, and instead highlighting local issues and how she has used her position in Washington, including as the chairwoman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, to deliver for her tiny state. It is a matter of political survival for Ms. Collins, who is viewed as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent and is facing harsh criticism from Democrats who accuse her of failing to stand up to Mr. Trump even as she often expresses grave concern about his policies and actions. Her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, a former State Senate president, has tried to make the election a referendum on the president and tag Ms. Collins as “a puppet” for him. He has pointed to her voting record as he works to persuade moderate and independent voters who have backed her in the past that she has not done enough to thwart Mr. Trump’s agenda.

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Lead Stories

RNC Midterm Convention: Trump promises Americans $5,000 each if Republicans win midterms, promises a Texas return for Paxton campaign

President Trump used his keynote speech at the first night of the Republican midterm convention to make an unusual promise: If his party keeps control of Congress after November, he will give every American adult a $5,000 “dividend.” The president offered few details on how he would pay for these dividends or how they would work. Trump’s speech, which lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, capped a day in which Republican speakers sung his praises and touted his policy achievements, even as his approval ratings have steadily declined since the start of his second term. Trump is also set to return Thursday to deliver closing remarks. Republicans are hoping the convention will energize voters ahead of the November election, and speakers painted Democrats as too extreme for Americans. In one of the most surprising moments of the convention so far, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman appeared in a video message to praise a bipartisan effort to support the steel industry.

President Trump concluded nearly two hours of remarks by promising to return for the second night of the GOP convention but to keep his subsequent speech short. He also pledged to return to Texas to campaign for Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general who is running for U.S. Senate. "We have to elect Ken Paxton," Trump said. "We have to." Trump received resounding cheers as he spoke of Paxton. Delegates from Texas, sitting just below the VIP luxury box, jumped to their feet. They applauded, waving their white cowboy hats in the air. Trump also repeated remarks he recently made about people not liking the way Paxton dresses or speaks. The president said his analysts told him not to rehash the insults and that it wasn't included on the teleprompter, but he opted to repeat them anyway. He added that after he said the comments, “[Paxton] went through the roof.” "He may not dress right, he may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best looking guy I've ever seen, but you know what he is?" Trump said. "He's the greatest attorney general in America, and he deserves to be your next senator." Trump said the United States has "so many victories because of Ken," such as the border wall.

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Texas Comptroller requests $2 billion to expand school voucher program

Texas Comptroller Don Huffines is asking state legislators to double the private school voucher program to $2 billion. More than 100,000 students are still on the wait list for vouchers, also known as Texas Education Freedom Accounts or TEFA, driving the need for expansion. In its inaugural year, the program received more than 270,000 applications, of which 248,000 were deemed eligible, well exceeding the program’s capacity. "This is the longest school choice waitlist in the country," Travis Pillow, a spokesperson for the program, said in a legislative hearing Wednesday morning. "The comptroller’s office hears constantly from Texas families who are eager to apply when the opportunity becomes available."

Pillow said the program needs another $980 million to satisfy those on the waitlist and another $82 million for the newly eligible siblings of students already enrolled in the program. That's in additionto the $1 billion the legislature allocated last year. As many as 4,000 eligible students are expected to upgrade from home school vouchers valued at around $2,000 to private school vouchers worth roughly $10,000. As such, the program's leaders are also asking for additional funding to cover those students. They're also preparing for changes in how much funding special education students are entitled to, as well as any rise in statewide per-student funding from the state. Vouchers honor 85% of the funding allocated per student in the public education system. The comptroller’s office said it plans to announce the new application window for vouchers in the coming weeks. "The results so far speak for themselves," Pillow said. "TEFA is the largest and most successful year-one school choice program in U.S. history and already the second largest education savings account."

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Iran hackers claim responsibility for North Texas internet outage that affected thousands, AT&T refutes claim

Iranian hackers claimed responsibility for the AT&T outage that left thousands of Texans without internet, TV, and phone services Monday, Sept. 7. The group APT IRAN wrote on its Telegram channel Tuesday that it attacked "telecommunications and other critical infrastructure in Texas" and also took credit for disrupting an unknown water utility in Texas. The claim was first reported by Threat Beat, a publication associated with the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University. AT&T initially said the outage was due to fiber equipment and cable issues. In an updated statement, the company said there is no evidence to support the claim. “We have no evidence to support that claim. Our assessment indicates that attempted cable theft led to the outage. Internet service across Dallas and surrounding areas is operating normally, and we continue to monitor our network and review relevant information," the statement reads.

The AT&T outage was reported Monday morning, with Downdetector showing a significant jump in customer issue reports at about 2:18 a.m., followed by a large increase in reports starting at about 10:30 a.m., WFAA previously reported. Reports of outages peaked shortly before 3 p.m. at 5,990, but quickly dropped, and the outage was mostly resolved by 6 p.m. Monday. "We were just dead in the water," said Terry Snuggs, who lives in Denton County and relies on the internet as a clinical systems engineer for hospitals and their diagnostic imaging equipment. "It's frustrating, especially when not only just the home fiber goes down, but when the cellular data, the backup method goes down with it, you know, everything was out. And that becomes untenable in this day and age." APT IRAN is closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated CyberAv3ngers, according to Threat Beat. It previously claimed that late July attacks on dozens of water systems were "only to warn" of the group's ability to hack critical U.S. infrastructure. The group claimed it attacked water systems in Minnesota, Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey, South Dakota and Arkansas. On Aug. 30, the hackers claimed they would target more critical infrastructure.

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Trust in US government information has declined, new poll finds

Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal government information about elections and politics, foreign affairs or the environment, a new poll finds. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts shows that while mistrust of government information has grown since 2024, it’s also higher than it was at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, underscoring how his recent attempts to dismantle parts of the federal bureaucracy may have affected public confidence in the executive branch, particularly among Democrats.

Those suspicions extend to the results of the coming midterm elections. Only 34% of U.S. adults trust government certifications of election results “a great deal” or “quite a bit,” which is down slightly from 40% in 2024. Certification is a typically routine process in which local and state officials confirm the vote count, but it’s become politicized since Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Trust in government information has also become more partisan since Trump’s first term, the survey found. “It’s pretty hard to trust anything that’s being communicated,” said Shannon Ingram, 46, a Democrat who lives in Maryland, pointing to shifting health recommendations as an example of “questionable” government information she’s seen since Trump regained office. “There is a significant amount of bias, and it comes from the people who are authoring the content.” About 6 in 10 U.S. adults have low trust in information from the federal government about the environment, foreign affairs, elections and politics, abortion or immigration — saying they trust it “only a little” or “not at all.” Mistrust in what the federal government says has risen at least slightly on nearly every topic that was asked about in an AP-NORC/ USAFacts survey from 2019. That includes education — which has risen from 37% in 2019 to 53% now — with a 9-percentage point spike in the last year.

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State Stories

Eric Beach: Why some Trump voters are leaning toward Talarico

(Eric Beach is CEO of Lineage HoldCo and co-founder of the Great America PAC.) When I sat down with candidate Donald Trump in 2015, I walked out of the room and told my wife, “This is the guy.” He did not care about the Republican Party as an institution. He cared about America and the forgotten man, and he had the size and force to make everyone else care too. I believed it enough to put in my own money — money I did not have to lose — and founded Great America PAC with Ed Rollins, Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign manager. We took that step when supporting Trump was still a career-ending decision in Republican politics. That is why I understand what is happening in Texas now. Republicans who have never considered voting for a Democrat are looking at James Talarico for Senate. They know which party he belongs to. They see him talking about concentrated power, wages, housing, health care and the cost of raising a family, while Republicans give them another loyalty test, another accusation of communism and another week arguing about foreign countries.

But a family cannot pay its mortgage with a podcast clip. Talarico is running against Ken Paxton, who beat John Cornyn campaigning as a sledgehammer against Washington. But Paxton, like JD Vance, has an authenticity problem. Both ran as insurgents. Once power was within reach, both became harder to distinguish from the people they promised to challenge. The movement we played a part in has been overtaken by beneficiaries who arrived after the risk was gone. The original Trump coalition was unruly: Ron Paul voters, Tea Party organizers, working families and antiwar conservatives. Trump gave them a place because he saw people the Grand Old Party had stopped seeing. He united and mobilized those groups. The GOP’s technology, donor and influencer class inherited that audience and became an admissions committee. Their entitlement will be the death of the Republican Party.

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Annie Farmer: 3M pages of Epstein files come to Dallas, with survivors who demand answers

(Annie Farmer, a Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivor and victim advocate, submitted the following op-ed in advance of the Republican National Convention happening in Dallas this week.) It was one year ago this week that I went to Washington, D.C., along with a group of Epstein survivors to demand that the federal government provide answers that were long overdue. We pushed Congress to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) to force the Department of Justice to finally give us the information we were seeking. Against all odds, the EFTA passed and was signed into law — yet almost a year later, survivors are still being dismissed and ignored by our government. To this day, we still have questions about improper redactions, incomplete records, and the Department of Justice’s ongoing refusal to follow the law as written. We — survivors and the American people — deserved to be listened to and we deserve answers. Something needs to change. It has been 30 years since my sister, Maria Farmer, bravely made the phone call from her tiny New York apartment to the FBI to report Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their powerful associates.

It has been 20 years since FBI agents came to my door in Austin, after finally following up with my sister on her report, and asked me to recount the abuse I endured at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell when I was 16 years old at Zorro Ranch. They reassured me that Epstein would finally be properly investigated and prosecuted. Instead, he was given an unprecedented sweetheart deal that allowed him to continue abusing women during his sentence. That is why many of my survivor sisters are traveling again this week, this time to Dallas for the opening of The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room and Bookmobile tours. Texas was my home for nearly 20 years, where I got married and started my family. I earned my doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin, worked with veterans at the Houston VA, and started my psychology practice. Along the way, I worked with so many Texans of all ages who have faced their own issues of sexual abuse, assault, or coercion. I know how central these issues are to the safety of Texas communities and the challenges that many victims continue to face when they report these crimes. I also know how tired Texans are of the powerful protecting the powerful and ignoring the cost to those who are more vulnerable.

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San Antonio councilwoman wants to outlaw gas-station slot machines

District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo is taking aim at gas-station slot machines and the legal gray area in which they operate. On Friday, Castillo filed a formal request co-signed by four other members of San Antonio City Council asking its Governance Committee to consider a ban on the controversial gambling machines as soon as possible. “San Antonio should not allow a legal gray area to undermine the intent of our gambling laws. We need to establish a clear rule and enforce it consistently in order to protect our communities,” Castillo said in a statement.

Specifically, Castillo’s request aims to ban the operation of the controversial gambling gear, commonly known as eight-liner machines, within city limits. She also wants to strengthen enforcement and inspection mechanisms to ensure compliance and prioritize community education and reporting on illegal gambling activities. “For too long, eight-liner machines have been used to skirt gambling laws,” Castillo added. “This policy request presents an opportunity to close a loophole that has allowed eight-liner operations to proliferate despite state and local rules and regulations.” The loophole Castillo is referring to opened in 2022, when the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth found that eight-liner machines function as unconstitutional illegal lotteries. The Texas Supreme Court subsequently declined to review the lower court’s ruling in 2024, which effectively solidified the illegality of these machines, Castillo argues. Following the Fort Worth decision, nearly a dozen other Texas cities have banned eight-liners and game rooms. Castillo said her request for council debate will protect law-abiding businesses and provide residents with better information, reinforcing the city’s commitment to safe and healthy communities.

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Texas Republicans rely on AI slop to attack Democratic rivals as midterms draw closer

Facing increasingly tight polling and an apparent inability to make dirt stick on their Democratic rivals, two of Texas’ highest-profile Republican elected officials have resorted to using artificial intelligence to generate phony footage for their attack ads. Lt. Gov. Patrick used controversial AI deepfake technology in a spot that debuted over Labor Day weekend mocking Texas Democrats running this election cycle. Meanwhile, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign debuted an AI-generated ad showing James Talarico reading fake passages from the Bible — an apparent attempt to slam the state rep’s background as a seminarian. The spot was released to coincide with the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas.

“Ken Paxton and his billionaire backers are using AI deepfake videos to literally put words in James’ mouth because they can’t rely on facts to win this race,” Talarico campaign spokesman JT Ennis told the Current. Patrick’s political ad, posted on his social media accounts, featured the likenesses of his Democratic challenger Vikki Goodwin as well as those of Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, also Democrats. The phony clip shows Goodwin playing spoilsport at a University of Texas Longhorns football game as she proposes new taxes, including a soda tax, a brisket tax, a happiness tax and a “nostalgia surcharge.” “They should be chanting taxes instead!” the digitally generated Goodwin is shown saying as the crowd chants “Texas.” Next, the clip shows a phony Gina Hinojosa appearing at Texas Tech to demand a permit for Red Raider fans’ finger guns. Finally, the spot includes fake footage of Talarico at a Texas A&M game eating tofu and asking why the 12th Man has to be so gendered.

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Bexar County spent big modernizing elections. It’s still stuck with a system that ‘destroyed’ voter confidence.

Since replacing a longtime elections chief last year, Bexar County has spent big upgrading the county’s election technology. It’s purchased more voting machines, replaced aging tabulation equipment, added new devices to assist people with disabilities and overhauled its website to deliver results and help voters find the shortest lines. Now as a high-profile Nov. 3 midterm election approaches, Elections Administrator Michele Carew says voters will start to notice some of the improvements, while others won’t be up and running in time for this election. Perhaps most notably, Bexar County’s plan to switch to a new voter registration system — intended to cut ties from a problematic state-run system — won’t happen until January. “We’re wanting to build voter confidence, but TEAM has destroyed the voter confidence that’s in place,” Carew said of the state’s voter registration system. The TEAM system caused a massive registration backlog last year that left voters without a new voter registration card before the March primary.

Carew said in an Aug. 24 interview that it still struggles to present accurate information to voters tracking their ballot — sowing distrust in a system that’s producing fair elections. “Even though we show that we received an application, we mailed them a ballot, the ballot came back, and the ballot was counted, it’s not reflected in TEAM,” Carew said. The switch to a new system was delayed due to a sluggish county purchasing procedures and delays transferring data. Still, Bexar County voters who’ve experienced long lines at the polls and delays in learning the results could see some improvement this year. Bexar County will be operating 20% more poll pads to check voters in for this November’s election, Carew said, thanks in part to a $4 million grant from the Help America Vote Act. That should move lines faster, though the county won’t see a major uptick in the number of polling locations, because the department still lacks the staff and equipment to open them. Voters should also be able to check wait times online before heading to vote — among many other upgrades aimed at updating Bexar County’s antiquated election procedures before a high-profile U.S. Senate race, governor’s race and other contests on the Nov. 3 ballot.

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Council rallies behind San Antonio’s police chief pick. Mayor Jones stays silent.

Acting Police Chief Jesus “Jesse” Salame Jr. was flanked by eight City Council members as City Manager Erik Walsh introduced him as his pick for San Antonio police chief. That included council members Marc Whyte and Misty Spears, who are staunch supporters of increasing the size of the police force, and Teri Castillo and Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who have been critical of department initiatives and want the city to spend more on public health and infrastructure to address the root causes of crime. Despite their differences, they all stood behind Salame, who is a 27-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department, to show their support for his appointment. Notably absent from the Sept. 2 news conference at City Hall was Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones. Her office has not provided a reason for her absence.

Jones and the 10-member council will vote Thursday to confirm Walsh’s appointment of Salame. The mayor’s absence stands out given her silence on whether she supports Salame for police chief. That’s unusual because Jones has established herself as a mayor whose positions are clear heading into a vote, said political consultant Mohammad Rasool, whose communications firm has worked with McKee-Rodriguez and ran former Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda’s 2025 mayoral campaign. “She’s been very public on her positions so there’s no surprise on the dais,” Rasool said. Walsh gave the mayor and council four hours’ notice about the news conference’s time and location, said city spokesperson Brian Chasnoff. Council members Phyllis Viagran and Edward Mungia said scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending. Salame was a close advisor to longtime Chief William “Bill” McManus, who retired in July after leading the SAPD for two decades. Jones privately told Walsh in October 2025 that she had lost confidence in McManus after information about her overnight and weekend police security detail was leaked to KSAT-TV. Jones met with Salame on Sept. 4, according to a post on her official social media accounts, which included a photograph of the two of them sitting at a meeting table inside City Hall.

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This North Texas firebrand got more air time than Ken Paxton at the convention. Who’s Brandon Gill?

Among the sea of high-profile speakers at the GOP midterm convention is a rising star in the Republican party from North Texas who played a prominent role Wednesday: Brandon Gill. The 32-year-old conservative firebrand who represents Flower Mound was given about twice as much time to speak than Ken Paxton, who is in one of the most hotly contested U.S. Senate races in the country. Gill’s speech, like many of his public statements, painted a picture of Democrats as extremists or out of touch. "I think we can all remember the good old days when political debates were about marginal tax rates and government spending," Gill said. "Now we're debating whether toddlers can become transgender, whether men can get pregnant and whether your daughter should have to share a locker room with grown men."

He accused Democrats of allowing millions of undocumented immigrants into the country, though deportations remained high throughout the Obama and Biden administrations. He also falsely claimed Democrats want the Christian faith “dismantled.” He blamed Joe Biden for the economy and praised the policies of the Trump administration. "This November, Americans have a very clear choice,” he said. “It's the mainstream versus the extreme. Our country will not go back to Democrats' woke insanity." That rhetoric puts him squarely in line with President Trump — and Gill represents the future of the Make America Great Again movement, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston. "Brandon Gill has been, at a very young age, one of the many members who's been able to build his identity around this America First wing, rather than the older Texas Republican establishment," Rottinghaus said. "So he's effectively kind of at the vanguard of these next generation of Republican leaders."

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Texas Dems say Tarrant voting site reduction is part of national effort to suppress

Tarrant County’s reduction of voting centers is an illustration of Republicans’ goal to suppress the votes of Texans, Democrats said at a Wednesday morning press conference. The press conference, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said, is the Democrats’ way of showing “the other side of the story” the Republicans would lay out over the course of the two-day midterm convention in Dallas. Five Democrats spoke about the negative impacts of Gov. Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump’s policies, Republicans’ efforts to rig elections and the Democratic candidates’ excellence. On Sept. 2, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court opted to reduce the number of Election Day polling locations by 29%.

Democrat Commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. said removing polling locations is voter suppression and will diminish turnout in Black and Hispanic areas. In 2025, the same arguments were made about the reduction of voting sites for the November election, but there ended up being record turnout. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the cut was part of a country-wide effort to suppress votes. “Republicans know that they can’t win on the merits of their unpopular policies, so they’re working to rig the 2026 election,” Pritzker said. Houston City Controller Chris Hollins, a Democrat, said the decision was necessary for Republicans because Tarrant County is becoming more diverse and is on the verge of electing a Democrat, Simmons, to the top county seat. Simmons said Tarrant County residents are worried about affordability, health care and if their vote really matters. She said the Republicans on Commissioners Court said “your vote doesn’t count” by voting to have 92 fewer Election Day polling locations.

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Data center debate ‘transcends partisan sides’, says Tarrant Commissioner Krause

The debate over data centers “is an issue that transcends partisan sides” and one where the Texas Legislature could set standard criteria for projects while leaving much else to the cities, Tarrant County Commissioner Matt Krause said after hosting a town hall Tuesday night. “We’ve got to have some guardrails,” Krause said in an interview with the Fort Worth Report after hearing from constituents at Precinct 3’s Gary Fickes Northeast Courthouse in Hurst. The town hall’s 23 speakers included some from The Lakes at Marshall Ridge Homeowners Association in Keller, a neighborhood adjacent to a planned data center in Westlake.

A number of the evening’s speakers said they accepted the need for data centers, given the growth in artificial intelligence. However, they added that such developments must include regulations on water usage, power consumption, noise and neighborhood setbacks. They also questioned whether municipalities need to offer financial incentives to attract data centers, and whether developers, operators and public officials can be trusted. Some compared the growth of data centers to a speculative gold rush that could abate, or to the spread of regional malls that are now outdated and being demolished. “I am not against development, but it has to be done intelligently,” said Cate Brennan, a Democrat who is running for the open Texas House 98 seat against Republican Armin Mizani. The district is home to 16 cities, including Grapevine, Keller, Southlake, Colleyville, Euless and Westlake. Krause, a Republican, ran a Q&A session with the crowd after hearing the speakers and acknowledged the need for protections multiple times. “Something new needs to happen,” he told the audience.

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The police-shaped elephant in the budget room

As we approach the end of this scorching summer, the Dallas City Council is nearing the end of a heated budget season. In April, Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert effectively said the city is almost broke, facing a $30 million budget shortfall and a projected deficit of $51 million for the upcoming fiscal year. The key reasons: police and fire overtime, declining sales tax revenue, and ballooning employee health insurance costs (chief among them: GLP-1 drugs). The Council is still in the process of hammering out the final details, but the broad strokes are clear. To balance the budget without increasing property taxes, the city furloughed thousands of employees and is now poised to make layoffs and cuts across a number of departments, including the Dallas Public Library, the Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability, Municipal Courts and Detention Services, and Emergency Management and Crisis Response.

Other proposed changes fall heavily on city employees, including eliminating the preferred provider organization (PPO) plan that the majority of city staff use. Despite these cuts, the city’s general fund budget will increase, “with nearly all of the growth directed to the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue budgets.” The Dallas Morning News editorial board has called for cuts big and small, praising some aspects of the proposed budget while also castigating City Council for other decisions, such as preserving the $700,000 budget for six community pools. The elephant in the room is the Dallas Police Department (DPD) budget, which consumes more than 40 percent of the city’s general fund and will see its funding increase by $65 million to a total of $823 million. But due to a number of structural factors, the creeping police budget has largely remained out of the conversation. “We can’t decrease our police budget,” Councilmember Paula Blackmon told D Magazine. “Then we have the pension, which we also have no ability to raise revenue to cover. And our revenue gains are about as much as our increase for DPD. We live in a police state, a police city.” A quick civics refresher to help you understand what Blackmon means. Here are the four governmental realities that make the cops’ budget untouchable.

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Netflix orders new series based on Larry McMurtry’s ‘Lonesome Dove’

Netflix announced Tuesday, Sept. 8, a new series based on Larry McMurtry’s seminal Western novel “Lonesome Dove.” Teton Ridge Entertainment is also behind the project, after securing rights to the book back in February 2025. Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart will co-showrun the new series. This is the next project from the duo after working on a new adaption of John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” for the streamer, which releases on Oct. 1. “After our singular experience on ‘East of Eden,’ we are thrilled to be teaming with Netflix again, along with Teton Ridge Entertainment, to bring Larry McMurtry’s western classic to life,” Kazan and Stuart said in a joint statement. “We come to this material with love and respect, and can’t wait to hit the trail with Gus and Call and the rest of these beloved characters. Yee-haw.”

McMurtry published “Lonesome Dove” in 1985. The novel follows Woodrow F. Call and Augustus “Gus” McCrae, two former Texas Rangers that embark on one final cattle drive from the fictional Texas town of Lonesome Dove to Montana. The pair renew their sense of adventure on the trip as they face heroes, villains and everything in between. Just a few years after publication, “Lonesome Dove” was adapted into a four-episode miniseries on CBS. Robert Duvall starred as McCrae and Tommy Lee Jones took on the role of Call in the series that was a major event for the network, as some 26 million homes tuned in during its four-day run in February 1989. No casting details have been revealed for the new adaption, or if the series will shoot in Texas like the miniseries. Netflix has also not set a release date for the project. “’Lonesome Dove’ is one of the great American stories, and there was no question we wanted to follow Zoe and Jeb wherever they went next,” Jinny Howe, Netflix head of scripted series, said in a press release. “After ‘East of Eden,’ we know exactly what they’re capable of — the depth of character, the sweep of place, the emotional precision. This material deserves that level of care. In their hands, it’s going to be something extraordinary. We’re excited to partner with Teton Ridge to bring this legendary story to life.”

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James Talarico calls deepfake videos of him ‘lies’ that voters are ‘fed up’ with

Democratic state Rep. James Talarico today characterized campaign ads using AI-generated videos of him as “lies” and asserted that voters are “fed up” with them, one day after his opponent in Texas’ Senate race posted a deepfake video of him. “They are lying about a candidate in this race, and so I think Texans are fed up with these kind of lies in our politics,” Talarico said in an interview with NBC News in Dallas. “They want elected leaders who are going to shoot straight with them about their record and about what they’re going to do for the people of Texas, and so these AI deepfake ads don’t add anything to our civic discourse.” In a video state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign released yesterday, which The Texas Tribune reported will air on Newsmax this week, Talarico is depicted writing with a crayon in a “King James Talarico” bible with audio clips of separate remarks he has made in the past about gender and feminism but spliced together without context.

It’s not the first time Republicans have posted deepfake videos of Talarico. In March, shortly after he won the Democratic nomination for the Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee posted a video of an AI-generated Talarico reading excerpts of previous posts of his on X. At the time, a spokesperson for Talarico told CNN that Republicans were “scared” of him. “While they spend their time making deepfake AI videos to mislead Texans, we are uniting the people of Texas to win in November,” the spokesperson said. In today’s interview, which came after he hosted an event counterprogramming the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas, Talarico also addressed recently resurfaced remarks he made in 2020 calling capitalism an “oppressive system.” “I’ve missed the mark on statements that I’ve made in the past. I’ll be the first to admit that,” he said. “What I was talking about when you listened to my entire comments was not capitalism, but crony capitalism, which is what we have today.” He pointed specifically to the Republican candidates and donors gathering this week in Texas to promote their policy agenda ahead of the midterms, saying, “The only people who succeed in this economy are those who can pay for politicians, like the megadonors who are in that convention center across the street, and that’s what we have to dismantle.” Talarico also spoke about Democrats’ yearslong efforts to win a statewide contest in Texas, addressing hopes from members of his party that he could be the one to “turn Texas blue” in November. “I’m actually not interested in turning Texas blue. I know my party wants to turn Texas blue. The Republican Party wants to keep Texas red. I think the best color for Texas is purple,” he said. “When you have competitive elections, it forces every politician at every level to stay on their toes and compete to serve the people of the state and to operate within the 40-yard lines. Right now, one-party rule leads to extremism and corruption, no matter what state.”

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Local leaders share progress on Kerrville's flood recovery plans

On Tuesday, Sept. 1, at the Kerrville Host Lion's Club Meeting, Todd Bock of the Kerrville Economic Development Corporation and Kelly Hagemeier of Kerr Together gave an update on damage from the July 16 flooding, the economic impact on businesses and new programs to assist in recovery. Despite experiencing two natural disasters in little over two years, both Bock and Hagemeier said that Kerrville was "years ahead" of counties in similar situations. Both attributed that to the creation of Kerr Together, the county's long-term recovery program. "I started my job with the Kerrville EDC on July 1, 2025," Bock said. "Three days later was July 4. Since then, what I've been doing is a balance of flood recovery and our original purpose, which is retaining and expanding businesses in Kerr County."

Hagemeier said that, even though the long-term recovery is working efficiently, the changes in both damage and funding between the 2025 and 2026 have presented unique challenges. "There was more damage this year, especially to businesses," Hagemeier said. "Business recovery efforts are going to be huge." Throughout Kerr County, 123 businesses were damaged by rising floodwaters and 106 of those affected were within Kerrville city limits. The damage was more substantial than in 2025, when fewer than 100 businesses were physically affected and only 22 within Kerrville city limits. Relief for these businesses has been delayed due to a lack of funding for the 2026 flood. "As an example," Hagemeier said. "In 2025, we received millions of dollars through state flood relief donations. This year, donations from the state flood relief fund are at about $150,000." Hagemeier also said that lack of funding has contributed to the housing crisis many Kerr County residents are experiencing. "Almost 50% of the calls I'm taking now are about mold mitigation," she said. "We've tried to get as many people with confirmed cases of mold into safe, temporary housing as we can. But there are some who are still living in their homes or even in their cars."

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National Stories

Ilhan Omar cleared of wrongdoing after overstating assets by millions

A nonpartisan entity charged with reviewing misconduct allegations has cleared Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) of wrongdoing in connection with documents she submitted to Congress that dramatically overstated her wealth. The Office of Congressional Conduct, which reviews allegations concerning House members and staff, made the determination after opening an investigation into Omar earlier this year. The findings, marked confidential, were viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The OCC’s board, in a 5-1 vote, recommended the House Ethics Committee dismiss allegations against Omar that she reported false or incomplete information in potential violation of federal law and House rules.

“The Board recommends that the committee dismiss the above allegation concerning Rep. Omar because there is not substantial reason to believe that Rep. Omar reported false or incomplete information in her financial disclosures,” a report on the case says. A disclosure filed last year showed Omar and her husband had assets of between $6 million and $30 million, a massive rise in wealth from her previous annual filing. That jump triggered questions among Republicans eager to scrutinize a critic of President Trump. But an amended filing addressing major accounting errors in her initial document dramatically dialed back the couple’s assets to just $18,004 to $95,000. The forms don’t require exact values, only broad ranges. Omar’s husband, former political consultant Tim Mynett, is involved with several businesses, including a venture-capital management firm in Washington, D.C., and a winery in Santa Rosa, Calif., her disclosure forms show. Those businesses had previously been listed as worth between $6 million and $30 million. In the amended filing, they were shown as having no value, once liabilities are factored in. The venture-capital firm was listed as generating between $100,000 and $1 million in income, while the winery showed income between $2,501 and $5,000.

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Most data center bans are in metro areas, despite more facilities heading for rural areas

Building data centers is broadly unpopular across the political spectrum, but so far, banning new development is a mostly metropolitan area phenomenon. While more data centers are located in metropolitan areas than nonmetropolitan ones, two-thirds of all new facilities are planned for rural communities. The rural data center boom comes amidst rising backlash to the facilities. Earlier this year, my colleague Sarah Melotte and I mapped rural opposition to data centers. In June, we found that there were 129 groups organized on Facebook who were fighting against data center development in rural areas, compared to 345 groups in metropolitan areas. At the time, the rural groups were representative of around 27% of all of the opposition groups present on Facebook, spanning 43 states. We used data from the Data Center Opposition Report, a coalition of organizations and academics tracking resistance to the facilities. Since June, the coalition has continued monitoring new groups as they emerge. As of August, the researchers have identified 580 local opposition groups active on Facebook, encompassing more than 640,000 members across the country.

It’s still early to identify trends in whether and how local opposition translates into local policy, especially in rural places where development is just starting to ramp up. One reason why there are more bans in metropolitan areas than in rural areas may just be a result of data center development history. Metropolitan areas have long hosted data centers that provide cloud services. But the AI-driven campuses being built now require much more land, energy, and water resources than their 2000s and 2010s-era counterparts. Now, as data center development expands into the countryside, rural communities often face unique barriers to organizing, compounded by news deserts and projects’ lack of transparency. At a national level, hostility toward data centers is quickly calcifying into an election issue ahead of November’s midterms. The sentiment has prompted politicians of all stripes to call for stricter regulation on the facilities, and, in some cases, flat-out moratoriums. Data center-related policies being proposed at local levels of government range from 90-day pauses to permanent bans on the facilities. Of nearly 700 bans we looked at, 25% are in rural areas, as of August 2026. The Daily Yonder uses a county-level definition of rural derived from the Office of Management and Budget.

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Trump’s peace envoy is raking it in

Last year was a very successful one for Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s peace envoy. Not because he managed to broker a lasting truce between Russia and Ukraine, but successful in the way it was also a banner year for Donald Trump: He made a shitload of money. And a lot more than he did the year before Trump returned to Washington, which surely does not point to any sort of brazen conflicts of interest. After learning in April that Witkoff’s net worth increased by some $300 million — to $2.3 billion — from when he started working for the Trump administration, we now have further details on the large sum of money Witkoff, a longtime friend of Trump, made last year. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the businessman turned envoy raked in $107 million in 2025 “from the holding company that owned his share of a crypto venture he and his boss helped co-found, according to a recent financial disclosure report.” To be clear, that crypto venture is World Liberty Financial, and that boss is Donald Trump; in addition to the two men, the company was co-founded by Witkoff’s sons, along with Barron, Eric, Don Jr., and others.

While Witkoff did not specify how much WLF earned him last year — there are other assets in the holding company, like real estate — we do know that the president made more than half a billion dollars from tokens sold by the venture in 2025. In 2024, before Trump returned to office and Witkoff joined the administration, Witkoff’s holding company made $34 million. In May 2025, one of World Liberty Financial’s co-founders claimed that Witkoff was “in the process of fully divesting” from the company, yet three months later, it was still being listed under financial disclosure assets. This past May — as in, a full year later — then–White House counsel David Warrington told Bloomberg that Witkoff was divested from WLF and played no role whatsoever in government business that could impact his financial interests. Strangely, not everyone sees it that way. For one thing, while Witkoff may no longer hold a stake in WLF, his sons are still invested in the company, and one of them, Zack Witkoff, is currently its CEO. For another, there’s the fact that shortly before Trump was inaugurated for the second time, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal, was part of a $500 million investment into WLF, a deal that, per The Wall Street Journal, involved “at least $31 million … slated to flow to entities affiliated with the family of Steve Witkoff … who weeks earlier had been named U.S. envoy to the Middle East.”

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Hunter Biden’s meme coin imploded immediately

On Wednesday morning, Hunter Biden posted to his Substack in a wistful mood, recalling a “warm summer afternoon” when he was 17 spent learning from his father’s operatives around their Delaware pool about “how power is actually won.” Maybe the 56-year-old was feeling nostalgic at the end of summer. Or maybe he was trying to distract from his audience from his other big play today: his meme-coin launch that was going horrifically. Just after 8 a.m. on Wednesday, the former president’s son released his coin, called $LAPTOP, referring to the computer he left at a repair shop in 2020 that created a whole lot of trouble for his family back in 2020. The price, at launch, was $199.51 per coin. If it held, that valuation would have made it the tenth-highest-priced cryptocurrency in circulation. But within the hour, it tanked to around $4. By the afternoon, it had halved again to about $2. There are basically only two reasons to buy a meme coin: You like the celebrity issuing it or you think you can make money as its price inevitably, precipitously declines.

(These coins have no value other than the hype behind them, and hype fades fast in cryptocurrency.) And in the initial hype, at least one person who really loves Hunter Biden or thought they could swindle someone else appears to have lost big: On X, crypto-world figures are accusing Biden of engaging in a rug pull — the industry term for launching a meme coin, then immediately selling off your own liquidity when the price is at its highest, leaving others in the lurch. There is no evidence yet that wallets controlled by Biden or someone close to him actually did such a thing. But he has damaged his reputation in the process. After avoiding the media during his father’s term, Biden has been on a world tour this summer, speaking with everyone from Andrew Callaghan to Tucker Carlson; people seemed to be responding to his populist views and his uncensored tales of fighting his addictions. His meme coin even appeared to be a comment on Donald Trump’s crypto cash grabs, offering free coins to people who lost money on $TRUMP. But the stunt to call attention to Trump’s meme-coin crash has met a similar fate. The Biden and Trump meme coins are both trading just above $2.

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Rhode Island Dem incumbent becomes first sitting governor to lose primary since 2018

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee lost his Democratic primary Wednesday to businesswoman Helena Foulkes, becoming the first sitting governor in the country since 2018 to be denied his party's nomination. Foulkes, a former CVS executive and current Costco board member, defeated McKee in a rematch of their closely fought 2022 Democratic primary, when McKee edged her by just a few percentage points. McKee's defeat Wednesday adds another incumbent to a growing list of officeholders ousted during the 2026 primary season. McKee first became governor in 2021 after Gov. Gina Raimondo left office to serve as Commerce Secretary in the Biden administration. The former Cumberland mayor and two-term lieutenant governor went on to win his first full term in 2022 after narrowly emerging from a crowded Democratic primary that included Foulkes.

The last sitting governor to lose his party's nomination was Kansas Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer. Colyer lost the 2018 GOP primary to then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, backed by Donald Trump at the time, by fewer than 400 votes. Foulkes has spent decades in the private sector, including as a senior executive at Rhode Island-based CVS Health, and later served as CEO of Hudson's Bay Company. She sits on Costco's board of directors. Her 2026 campaign marked Foulkes' second bid for elected office after finishing second to McKee in the 2022 Democratic gubernatorial primary. The rematch centered in part on the candidates' competing arguments over their records and leadership. Foulkes criticized McKee's management of state government, including his administration's handling of the Washington Bridge, which was abruptly closed over structural concerns in December 2023 and remains under reconstruction. McKee defended his administration's record and repeatedly targeted Foulkes' tenure at CVS, suggesting she is an out-of-touch corporate executive and going after her leadership role at the company amid its controversial handling of prescription opioids.

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Mail-in voters weigh flying to vote in person and other backup plans amid uncertainty

For almost a decade, Kelsi Kiper has relied on the U.S. Postal Service to cast her ballots as a voter registered in Texas but stationed out of state with her husband, an active-duty service member. This year, though, to make sure her voice is heard, she's making a backup plan. Kiper hopes she'll be able to exercise her voting rights by mail for this year's midterm general election. But she recently started considering spending around $2,000 to book flights and rental cars so she can vote in person. "It's not something that I think a lot of us in the military are prepared to spend because many military families operate on a single income," Kiper said. "For me, I think that it's important to prioritize the rights that our active-duty members are serving to preserve."

The ongoing legal fight over a Postal Service plan for President Trump's attempt to exert control over federal elections is forcing millions of other eligible voters to navigate the uncertainty with voting by mail for the midterms. For now, USPS is expected to handle election mail as usual. North Carolina and parts of Wisconsin have already started sending out absentee ballots for the general election. That's because U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has blocked USPS from refusing to deliver ballots to voters in states where election officials do not turn over voter lists to the mailing agency and do not have certain specific barcodes on their ballot envelopes. But the Trump administration has asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court to allow those new federal mail ballot requirements for the midterms. Rulings from those courts may come as soon as this week. They could unleash a major upheaval to voting by mail, which was how about 1 in 3 voters cast ballots in the last two federal elections.

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The US is losing its ability to store water when it needs it most

Turn on a hose in Denver this summer and the water likely flows from the Strontia Springs Reservoir. The small manmade lake in the mountains just west of downtown stores the state’s precious snowmelt and distributes it through the dry months when rain grows scarce and farmers are irrigating frantically. But over its 44 years, Strontia has lost much of its storage capacity. Almost one-fifth of the reservoir is now filled with sediment – sand, silt and mud – the hidden vulnerability of America’s water system. Most of the country’s 90,000 or so storage reservoirs are facing a similar problem to some degree. Engineered decades ago to enable development in some of the country’s harshest conditions, these dams are in a self-propelling sediment loop. Climate change is exacerbating drought and wildfires, decimating vegetation that holds dirt in place. More extreme rainfall, meanwhile, is unleashing torrents of water and debris, as happened in the flash flood that killed two people and washed away bridges and trails in the Grand Canyon last month.

The same fossil-fuel emissions intensifying this cycle are crimping water supplies. This winter, the American West got less snow than ever recorded, sapping the Colorado River and driving water levels at the country’s two largest reservoirs to record lows. Last month the federal government ordered California, Arizona and Nevada to sharply curtail the amount of water they draw from rivers and reservoirs over the next two years. Precisely when utilities need to stockpile water to endure longer dry spells, sediment is robbing them of precious space to store it. America’s shrinking water storage threatens to clog billions of dollars in economic activity from hydroelectric power and agriculture. Farmers, in particular, are spending millions each year to pump extra water from wells, which, in turn, inflates prices at the grocery store. At Strontia, for example, a rash of wildfires between 1996 and 2008, scorched the canyon upstream of the dam. Without healthy trees and brush, the steep banks slough sand into the lake in every rainstorm, said Erin Gleason, a dam safety engineer with Denver Water, the city’s utility. Strontia wasn’t big to begin with, she notes, and it’s shrinking at the worst possible time. Denver — like much of the American West — has spent the summer under emergency drought protocols. Yet nearly four days’ worth of Strontia supply is now occupied by a mound of muck large enough to fill 700 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

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Lead Stories

Republicans are hoping ‘Trump-a-palooza’ isn’t only about Trump

President Donald Trump will be at the center of this week’s GOP midterm convention. Many of his fellow Republicans are hoping he doesn’t make it all about him. The parade of lawmakers, candidates, donors and party officials now headed to Dallas for the two-day spectacle are counting on Trump to make a compelling pitch on the national stage before voters hit the polls. According to interviews with dozens of Republicans, they are largely hoping for a two-pronged approach aimed at getting the president’s committed supporters off the sidelines: a focus on what they call Democrats’ extreme positions and the accomplishments of the Republican Congress — most of which are now more than a year old. “Communism vs. common sense,” Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) said in an interview, calling the event a “scene-setter” that should stay laser-focused on “what’s on the line” for voters in the election.

Republicans have reasons to be wary. Trump’s approval ratings are at record lows for his time in office, and many swing-district GOP lawmakers are torn between running from an unpopular president and alienating his base of committed supporters. There is little evidence Trump is content to let rank-and-file Republicans run away from him. The first pair of national midterm ads funded by his cash-rich political operation put Trump at the very center. One ad begins with businessman Dana White extolling Trump as “the toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.” The other is more up congressional Republicans’ alley, with a Trump voiceover running through a litany of tax cuts included in last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Even if not all agree Trump is the party’s best spokesperson at this point, they are eager to see a new effort to promote the tax cuts, which were enacted in July 2025, and want to see them touted anew in Dallas. “It’s incredibly important that we highlight what we’ve accomplished,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said in an interview. “That’s the perfect venue for that.” “It’s a great opportunity for us to brag about what the Republican Party has done the last year and a half,” added Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Texas). “So certainly talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

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Oil hits $100 a barrel as turmoil intensifies in Middle East

The global price of oil reached $100 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time since July as tensions in the Middle East escalated. That’s nearly 40 percent higher than on the eve of the war in Iran. The rise reflects investors’ concerns about how long the war, now in its seventh month, will last; tensions have snarled a large chunk of global oil shipments. Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, briefly surpassed $100 a barrel in July. In the early months of the war, Brent peaked near $120 a barrel. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, is up 41 percent since the start of the war, at $95 a barrel.

Crude oil is the primary ingredient for fuels like gasoline and diesel. Rising oil prices have pushed the average price of gasoline in the United States past $4 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club, while diesel this month hit a record high, surpassing its previous peak set four years ago. Diesel is now nearly $6 a gallon, up more than 55 percent since the start of the war. “The biggest impact of the conflict has been on petroleum products rather than crude oil itself,” Bank of America analysts said in a research note on Tuesday. Such high fuel costs squeeze businesses and households as the cost of transporting goods, growing crops and driving a car get more and more expensive. Volatile energy prices remain one of the biggest wild cards in monthly inflation reports. The next measure of U.S. inflation is set to be released on Friday. Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, oil exports from the Persian Gulf have been greatly curtailed. Iran has used force to keep most ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that before the war carried a fifth of the world’s oil. The U.S. Navy is helping ships navigate the strait, allowing some oil to flow and helping to keep prices from rising more.

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Democrats see a wave. Can they afford to ride it?

Democrats see a wave building. They’ve identified paths to House and Senate majorities that seemed laughable not even a year ago courtesy of an unpopular president, a cost-of-living crisis and a prolonged conflict in Iran. They also see a potential catastrophic problem in their campaign accounts. Interviews with two dozen top Democratic and Republican campaign strategists, party officials and donor advisers described an electoral map, eight weeks before Election Day, as teetering between a district-by-district, state-by-state knife fight and a Democratic landslide. But even the most optimistic Democrats said it’s not clear they’ll have the cash to pull it off. “The money has been slower than anyone anticipated. It’s not at all slow on the candidates’ side, which is maybe the bright spot, but the outside money is not what people expected,” said Bradley Beychok, co-founder of American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC that’s pledged to spend $50 million this cycle. “The money is a five-alarm fire, and the fire starts in September, when the spending gets going, and people are worried.”

Mike Smith, who leads the flagship Democratic House super PAC, said, “We all wish that more people were stepping up and doing larger checks. And would that have a material effect on the battlefield? Yes.” A major Democratic outside group made its own private plea to more than 300 donors and operatives last month. “The next four weeks will determine if we can take advantage of these opportunities, but it requires us to double down on resources now,” according to a copy of the memo, obtained by The Washington Sun. Those concerns — Republicans swamping Democrats with cash and blunting their momentum this fall — only intensified last week, with the start of spending from Elon Musk and MAGA Inc., where President Donald Trump has $400 million stashed. And even though Democratic candidates have held their own in fundraising against GOP counterparts, Republicans hold a significant combined advantage across outside groups and party committees. “You can be a shitty candidate and have a shitty campaign and bad environment, and still win by one instead of nine,” said Corry Bliss, a national GOP consultant who led the party’s premier super PAC in 2018. “Of course people are pissed off, but you only have to win by one in these red states,” and red-leaning districts, “so there’s some wiggle room,” he added.

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KPRC's Harris County judge debate between Plummer, Sanchez crashes

A debate between Harris County judge candidates Letitia Plummer and Orlando Sanchez was postponed Monday night after technical problems on a KPRC live stream disrupted the virtual event. KPRC was set to moderate the debate between Democratic candidate Plummer and Republican candidate Sanchez, who are vying to succeed Democratic Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo when her term ends Dec. 31. The public livestream ran for about 10 minutes before going offline. Plummer said she was unable to hear Sanchez before dropping off the call. "It seems that Dr. Plummer has temporarily left and will come back," KPRC anchor and reporter Stephania Jimenez said shortly after. "And that’s something that we've had to do in order to make sure that everybody can hear everyone."

Plummer's campaign said the stream crashed, and the next two questions were not broadcast after the debate resumed. A producer had already asked the candidates to log back into the call twice due to audio issues, and after sending them a new link, Plummer spent about 40 minutes in a virtual lobby waiting for Sanchez to reconnect, according to her campaign. Plummer's campaign said she remained ready to continue the debate. Jimenez and producers said they were attempting to reach Sanchez's team, and Plummer later learned he asked to debate another day with "no intention of rejoining." Sanchez's campaign blamed Plummer for failing to make the "necessary technical arrangements," saying that caused repeated disconnections. "Because of technical issues, the debate between Harris County judge candidates Dr. Letitia Plummer and Orlando Sanchez has been postponed," Jimenez wrote on Facebook Monday night. "When I get an update, I’ll let you know." Both campaigns have traded blame and expressed interest in setting a new debate date, but none had been scheduled as of Tuesday morning. KPRC's news director did not immediately return a request for comment. The three local organizations that partnered for the event — Houston's chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Menudo Club and the Culture Commission Coalition — said the event would be rescheduled due to the technical difficulties and an "influx of unexpected volume." The new debate date would be announced soon, and organizers would ensure it comes without "further disruption," the groups wrote in a statement.

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State Stories

Texas state leaders aim to crack down on alleged birth tourism, as Trump’s executive order hits legal barrier

Texas Republican leaders are pushing ahead with efforts to crack down on alleged "birth tourism," even as a federal district court has blocked an effort by President Donald Trump to do the same nationwide. A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's August executive order banning the practice last week. The ruling last Wednesday marked the latest defeat for Trump's efforts to curtail or restrict the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which grants U.S. citizenship to virtually anyone born in the United States, regardless of the legal status of the parents. Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term denying automatic U.S. citizenship to anyone whose parents were in the United States illegally. On June 30, the final day of its 2025-26 term, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the definition of birthright citizenship as defined in the Fourteenth Amendment, ruling 6-3 that Trump's order was unconstitutional.

Trump responded by issuing a new pair of executive orders in August. One of these ordered the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take steps to revoke the visas of any noncitizens coming to the U.S. for the purposes of giving birth and gaining U.S. citizenship for their children, as well as to permanently bar such noncitizens from entering the U.S. "What the Supreme Court said is if you’re born on U.S. soil, you’re presumptively a citizen unless there’s some sort of a fiction, some reason why you’re not actually here," said Josh Blackman, a professor of constitutional law at South Texas College of Law Houston. "I think what Trump [was] arguing in this order is that if there’s allegations of fraud, that is you didn’t come here under the right circumstances, it’s as if you were really never here ... I don’t see that that clearly follows from the Supreme Court’s opinion." Judge Deborah Boardman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland agreed. Boardman wrote in her decision, issued last Wednesday, that the Supreme Court's June ruling meant that Trump's August executive order "is almost certainly unconstitutional."

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defends Trump economy at SMU event

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a prelude to the Republican midterm convention in Dallas at a talk hosted by Southern Methodist University. Fielding questions from Dallas developer and Cox School of Business executive board member Ray Washburne, Bessent defended the Trump administration's economic record and made his pitch for why Republicans should keep Congress. "Texas is the lab for the Trump economy," Bessent said. "In the U.S., we have good trade policy, good tax policy, great energy policy, and importantly, deregulation. So I think we're going to see three competing economic visions: the U.S., the growth agenda, .... the European sclerosis model, ... and then the Chinese state model. I think in 20 years we're going to see that it was the U.S. model that won."

A frequent topic in the hour-long conversation was the national debt, which recently hit $40 trillion. Bessent repeated his common mantra that the U.S. could "grow our way out of it" with 3% annual growth in gross domestic product. "I think that we were well ahead of that when the president rightly decided that Iran could not have a nuclear weapon. We'll get to the other side of this Iran conflict, and the underlying economy is very, very strong, and I think re-accelerating," he said. In the second quarter of 2026, U.S. GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.5%, down from 2.1 % in the prior quarter, dragged down by high oil prices from the war in Iran. GDP also grew at about 2% in 2025, as the country dealt with tariffs leveled unilaterally by President Donald Trump and then struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in February. Bessent claimed the federal budget deficit-to-GDP ratio, which currently sits at about 6%, would have been down year-over-year this year, "except the Supreme Court made me give back $180 billion of tariff refunds." Though praising Bessent for a 4.1% unemployment rate, Washburne asked about interest rates, which remain high. Bessent responded by positing that interest rates are the most correlated with energy prices they've ever been, and positioned high energy prices as temporary, potentially a year or two, saying "on the other side of this, I think that the market is going to be oversupplied with oil."

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Longtime Texas politico Ben Barnes is out with a new memoir examining his legacy

Ben Barnes was first elected to the Texas Legislature at age 22. By 26 he was Speaker of the Texas House — and Lyndon B. Johnson was predicting he’d be president one day. Today, Barnes, who went on to serve as Texas’ lieutenant governor, is still something of a political kingmaker at age 88. His new book, “Get It Done: Seven Decades of Lessons from a Political Legend,” reflects on his time in politics. Barnes grew up on a small peanut farm and didn’t have much exposure to politics in his young life beyond his father’s support for Franklin Roosevelt. “Of course, we didn’t have television then. As a matter of fact, we didn’t have electricity at my house until we were in the eighth grade,” he said. “But we would listen to FDR’s fireside chats on a radio.”

Barnes did not think about running for public office as a young person. By the time he was in his early 20s ,he was more focused on his coursework at the University of Texas at Austin. “It was beyond my wildest dreams that I would run for office so young and really, quite frankly, run for office without any money. And that was the most difficult thing,” he said. “I literally knocked on every door in the three counties in Central Texas. And if I had not knocked on the doors, I don’t think I would have had a chance to win.” Barnes said the work ethic he picked up from farm life was key in his early political career. “We had to work or we weren’t going to be able to hang on to the farm — we weren’t going to survive or make a crop,” he said. “So hard work was something I was used to, but I really felt like that this was a chance for me to do something.” He was also influenced by a high school English class in which he read Les Misérables, which introduced him to ideas of justice and revolution. “It was the fact that I realized that you could have a real impact, no matter how old you are,” he said. “Those young teenage children in the streets of Paris made me think that I was maybe 21 and wasn’t too young to run.”

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COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Texas

We are steadily approaching flu season in North Texas, but that’s not the only respiratory illness folks should be vigilant about — COVID-19 infections and emergency department visits are also on the rise. Texas is one of 47 states where COVID infections are growing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state's seeing a moderate increase in emergency room visits related to COVID and wastewater monitoring shows that viral activity for COVID-19 in Texas is "very high." Dr. Trish Perl, a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center who specializes in infectious diseases, recently told NTX Now's Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning that North Texas is in the early days of a "seasonal epidemic."

"What we're seeing right now are positive tests, a few hospitalizations here and there, but it's early on," she said. "I think it's a little early for us to say, 'Is this more severe or less severe?' We just really, at this point, don't have that much information. Even if it seems like it's less severe to me or you, if you're somebody who's immunocompromised, it can be absolutely extremely life-threatening, and so it depends also on your perspective and your underlying condition as to how that may manifest for you." Perl also noted that it’s been hard to track when COVID cases will spike. We know that the fall is flu season and can generally anticipate an uptick in respiratory illnesses, but COVID is not quite as predictable. "Last year, it was more early fall, but prior to that, we had some summer waves," she said. "We have less of a sense of what the sort of classic epidemiology of when we're going to see this is going to be. The current pattern is consistent with last year, and so I think we'll have to wait and see." But Perl said COVID is starting to act like a typical respiratory virus that spreads more in the fall and winter. "We'll just have to really follow it over the next few years to see if the pattern continues in this direction," she said.

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Austin's Red River Cultural District demands city help amid major venue closures

For years, Austin’s Red River Cultural District has thrived with gritty, music-centric bars, crowded streets and an electric nightlife. The area marks a historically significant part of the city as a vibrant live music and entertainment hub. Today, that identity is being threatened. The district’s board of directors released a letter Tuesday urging the city to save Red River. In the letter, the board cited the closing of bars and venues, including Empire Control Room & Garage, Marlow, Koriente and Feels So Good. Valhalla also announced its upcoming closure, and the building housing Elysium and the 13th Floor was recently listed for sale. “One closure is a headline. Two is a cause for concern,” the board said in the letter. “This many, this close together, is a dire warning!”

The letter asks the city of Austin and other stakeholders to enforce zoning rules designed to protect live music spaces in the area, outlined in Austin City Council resolutions. The board also called for cultural-preservation measures. The directors point toward other major cities like San Francisco and Seattle as places with successful cultural-preservation policies. Both cities use antideplacement strategies and development incentives to support local businesses and performing arts venues. “Growth does not have to come at the expense of culture,” the letter said. “Other cities have built policy around that principle. Austin can too.” The Red River Cultural District is urging community members to sign the letter to increase awareness and support. "I will continue to partner with leadership at Red River Cultural District to find resource options that work for our local venue owners and tenants, in addition to working directly with business owners," City Council Member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri, who represents the district, said in a statement. "I highly encourage Austinites to show up and support your local music venues, artists, and creatives. The best part of doing this work is seeing the community, celebration, culture, and history made in our city as a result."

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As Texas expands public pre-K, longtime childcare providers struggle to keep their place

Gwendolyn Sneed points to photographs of children dressed in white caps and gowns on the wall of Good Street Learning Center in South Dallas. "1954, class of 1957 — wall of fame," she said proudly. She's been the director of Good Street Learning Center for more than 20 years. The Baptist church opened the nursery and day school in 1952, when Dallas schools were still segregated. For decades, Good Street has provided South Dallas families a safe place for their children to learn and be cared for. "And look how large those graduating classes were," Sneed said. Decades ago, the school had more than 60 preschoolers. Today, Sneed has just five children in her 4-year-old preschool class. She said enrollment never recovered from the pandemic, and now the nonprofit faces another challenge: the growth of free public pre-K offered by its longtime partner, Dallas ISD.

"It's more like a competition now," Sneed said. "They need seats filled. We need seats filled." Good Street partnered with Dallas ISD in 2008. Sneed said it was because they were already losing 4-year-olds to the district's free pre-K program. "The school district had literally taken children from us when they began enrolling 4-year-olds," Sneed said. "Because we can't compete with free." Under the partnership, the child is enrolled in both Dallas ISD and the childcare center. The district provides a certified teacher, while Good Street offers care before and after the school day for a fee. Families at Good Street can drop children off as early as 6:30 a.m. and pick them up as late as 6 p.m. Today, the district partners with more than 20 childcare centers. Assistant Superintendent Debbie Ramos said the partnerships give families another option. Ramos oversees Early Learning and Centralized Development for the district. "So if they want to go to a partnership center, they have that choice before they're ready for a big school," Ramos said. But the district has also dramatically expanded pre-K on its own campuses. Nearly every Dallas ISD elementary school now offers full-day Pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds.

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Battle over large Gillespie County solar farm heading back to court

Gillespie County and AMPYR Energy USA will soon be back in court in Fredericksburg in a legal battle over development of the 1,100-acre Marshall Springs solar farm and battery energy storage system (BESS) in the heart of the scenic Texas Hill Country. It's a battle over green energy in one of the greenest-looking parts of Texas. The county has taken legal steps against the Long Beach, California-based company over alleged fire and environmental risks at the planned facility, north of Fredericksburg and about an hour's drive northwest of San Antonio. The two sides are scheduled to be back in state district court in Fredericksburg on Sept. 29 for a hearing over the county's request for a temporary injunction, which, if granted, would stop the project until a lawsuit over it could be heard.

A group and website opposed to the project — fightFBGsolar.com — has been working to educate the community about the alleged risks associated with it. Opponent David Baker said while there is only a slim chance of a battery fire, explosions, and a runaway thermal event, just one could be dangerous. "When that happens, they are burning toxic metals, releasing toxic metals and also gases, such as hydrogen fluoride, which is the worst gas is released," he said. "And hydrogen fluoride is very toxic. Can be deadly." Baker also said much of the private property leased by AMPYR Energy USA for the solar farm and battery storage will have to be cleared for installation, creating runoff issues and possible ground contamination. The Fredericksburg City Council passed a resolution to come out formally against the project. Gillespie County commissioners passed a resolution to proactively mitigate "safety and environmental risks" associated with the project. And the Gillespie County Economic Development Commission passed a resolution too—against all utility scale solar and wind projects. Its resolution read the majority of those projects are not really green or environmentally friendly, harm property values, and "generally thwart smart economic growth."

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Ken Paxton whistleblower endorses James Talarico for Senate

A former Texas Ranger who became Attorney General Ken Paxton's top law enforcement official before testifying against him at his impeachment trial endorsed Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico Tuesday in a new campaign ad. "Ken Paxton ended my five decade career because I blew the whistle on his corruption," David Maxwell says in the online spot. Maxwell was one of eight top aides who reported Paxton to law enforcement in 2020, accusing him of abusing the office to help a friend and campaign donor. No charges were ever filed, but the allegations formed the bulk of the impeachment charges brought against Paxton by the Texas House.

Maxwell testified against Paxton in the Senate's impeachment trial in 2023. The members ultimately acquitted Paxton, who had insisted that the effort to remove him from office was politically motivated. Maxwell, who was fired along with several other whistleblowers, sued Paxton's office. Last year, a civil judge in Travis county awarded them $6.7 million to cover lost wages, emotional pain and attorney’s fees. Maxwell's endorsement of Talarico follows a similar endorsement of Dan Cogdell, who was part of Paxton's legal defense team during the impeachment trial. Polls have shown Paxton and Talarico neck-and-neck in the months before the Nov. 3 election. Paxton's campaign didn't respond to a request for comment.

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Federal appeals court denies request to rehear Texas Dream Act case

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied advocacy groups’ bid for a new hearing to defend the Texas Dream Act, a state law that granted in-state tuition rates at public universities for undocumented students. In July, a panel of three judges from the federal appeals court ruled 2-1 that Austin Community College and advocacy groups could not intervene in a lawsuit that ended the Texas Dream Act. The panel said federal law bans colleges from offering benefits to undocumented students unless citizens, including out-of-state residents, are also eligible. In response, the advocacy groups requested an “en banc” hearing, an appeal for the full bench of federal judges to rehear the case. For the case to be reconsidered, at least one judge must request a vote on whether to take up the case again, and a majority of the judges must agree.

None of the judges requested the court be polled on whether to rehear the case, according to Tuesday’s ruling. The denial marks the latest legal blow to the first-of-its-kind state law, which granted students who had lived in Texas for three years before high school graduation in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is representing one of the groups in the case, said he was "disappointed" in the court's denial to rehear what he called a "terribly flawed panel decision." "We are considering our best option to protect the rights of the many Texans who relied upon tuition equity and the Texas Dream Act to pursue higher education," he said in a statement. Undocumented students and advocacy groups have sought to weigh in on the case for over a year after the U.S. Department of Justice sued Texas, arguing the 2001 act violates federal law. Gov. Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton agreed and declined to fight the suit. In a matter of hours, a district court had blocked the law.

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Parents seek to wrest Camp Mystic bankruptcy from Eastlands’ control

Parents whose children were killed in a flash flood at Camp Mystic are asking a federal judge to appoint an independent Chapter 11 trustee to take control of the Texas Hill Country retreat’s bankruptcy case, a remedy that departs from the typical practice of allowing management to remain in the driver’s seat. In a motion filed Tuesday, Camp Mystic’s unsecured creditors committee asked for an independent fiduciary with the power to investigate potential claims against the family who owns and operates the business and to evaluate a potential sale of the camp’s property. The committee also wants someone who can negotiate with the victims’ families and make progress in resolving the bankruptcy cases. Most parents of the 25 children and two counselors killed in the disaster last summer at Camp Mystic 18 miles southwest of Kerrville are suing the camp, three related businesses and several members of the Eastland family who own or operate the private Christian summer retreat for girls.

Those parents are seeking millions of dollars in damages, accusing the defendants of wrongful death and gross negligence, among other allegations. An attorney for the creditors committee — which includes 13 parents whose children died at the camp — said no real progress has been made since Camp Mystic and the other debtors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on June 24. That won’t change while the Eastlands are in control, he said. Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases allow companies a chance to reorganize with hopes of paying their debts while remaining open for business or someday resuming operations. “Eliminating the Eastlands from all decision making is a critical step in moving these cases forward and paving a path to closure for the victims’ families,” Brett Miller, one of the attorneys for the creditors committee, said in a statement. “The Eastlands refuse to acknowledge their obvious conflicts of interest and have run these cases to protect their own interests.” Because the Eastlands currently control the bankruptcy estate that will decide the parents’ claims, the creditors committee accused the family of using that position to shield themselves rather than trying to emerge from bankruptcy. Bankruptcy attorneys for Camp Mystic and the Eastlands did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

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Despite criticism, China Grove doubles down on ICE partnership

Unfazed by outside criticism and potential legal liability, China Grove has reaffirmed that its police officers will continue to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in enforcing immigration law within the city's boundaries, a relationship officials say has generated nearly $200,000 in federal reimbursement. The City Council on Thursday ratified a memorandum of agreement between the police department and ICE, allowing officers to continue assisting the federal agency under Section 287(g) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. The provision authorizes ICE to delegate some enforcement responsibilities to local police and sheriff's deputies. Police Chief Ralph Sramek had already signed an agreement with ICE, and his department had been cooperating with the agency, in some cases alerting ICE when it encountered suspected undocumented immigrants.

The agreement was put to a vote of the five-member council on Thursday on the advice of the city attorney. It was ratified 3-0, with one council member abstaining and a fifth absent. The vote came three weeks after U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar, along with nine state legislators, three Bexar County commissioners and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai — all Democrats — urged China Grove and five other municipalities to withdraw from the Section 287(g) program, saying it led to racial profiling and other civil rights violations. The program permits several levels of cooperation between local police and ICE. China Grove participates under the Task Force Model, in which police perform immigration enforcement during routine police work such as traffic stops. The agenda for the council meeting included a summary of the controversy and listed pros and cons of cooperating with ICE. It said the Task Force Model is "the subject of documented civil-rights concerns involving racial profiling and unconstitutional detention or enforcement practices," and added that "misconduct associated with the exercise of delegated 287(g) authority can result in civil-rights litigation in which the city itself may be named as a defendant.

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Sand Branch, Texas, has no clean drinking water. She's trying to fill the gap.

Days after a large grassfire ripped through four acres of land in Sand Branch, Christina Parks is exhausted. On August 29, brush, trash and debris on a vacant property fueled the blaze, and two nearby structures were damaged. There were no reported injuries, though some residents were forced to temporarily evacuate. After two days of containment efforts by Dallas Fire-Rescue and mutual aid crews from nine neighboring areas, the fire was finally suppressed, according to the department. For Parks, who lives in Sand Branch, it’s another blow to the already struggling community that lacks clean accessible water and makes disasters such as this more difficult to handle. “I’m drained physically and mentally,” she told The 19th. Amid the chaos, she’s once again assumed her role as a community leader. With the assistance of other volunteers and community organizations — some of whom traveled as long as two hours — Parks is taking the steps to care for her neighbors in the immediate aftermath of the fire as she grapples with their ongoing need for basic necessities.

Sand Branch is an impoverished pocket of land tucked away in Seagoville, Texas, roughly 14 miles southeast of downtown Dallas. It has been without safe drinking water for decades, and it does not have a sewage system or even trash collection. Historically, it’s a predominantly Black community. Parks has heard stories about a time when more people lived in Sand Branch — that it was once a happy place. When she first arrived four years ago, more young children like her own 12-year-old daughter had also lived there. But since moving to the unincorporated area, she’s seen families go and seen her neighbors struggle. Some people left to start anew in places where resources are easier to come by. Driving along the thoroughfare, as asphalt highways fade into open plains, the area slowly begins to resemble a scene from a bygone era. Horses freely roam along unpaved trails. Abandoned dogs drift through the community. Some residents have begun installing solar solutions to supplement the lack of streetlights. “It’s like you took a step back in time,” Parks said. She is one of the few residents who is raising a child in the area. In 1998, the Texas Almanac listed a population of 400. Today, residents estimate that those numbers have shrunk to about 150 people. “What you’ll hear the older people say,” Parks said, “is that they’re just trying to wait till we all die so they can have our land. And that’s sad because, if you think about it, why else? Why are there no children? Why is there nothing here?”

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National Stories

At 9/11 tribute, Trump adds new claim to his disputed role after attack

At an event honoring those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, President Trump on Tuesday claimed that two firefighters lifted him up and carried him away from a seemingly unstable building when he visited the area shortly after the terrorist attacks. This was the latest in Mr. Trump’s evolving — and often disputed — account of his actions on Sept. 11 and in its aftermath, when he was working as a real estate developer in New York City. Mr. Trump was watching television the morning of the attacks, which is verifiable from news coverage of that day, but what he did next has long been a matter of debate. He has repeatedly said that he took a construction crew with him to Lower Manhattan and was deeply involved in cleaning up the site, a claim that has been called into question by at least one former fire official who was involved in the recovery effort.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump renewed his claim that he had taken a crew to a building near the site where the World Trade Center had stood shortly after the attacks. He said that two large firefighters picked him up and took him to safety when he observed an unstable building. “I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday during an address from the Ellipse. He went on: “The United States Steel building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is, it creaked a lot. It creaked. It still creaks, but it never came down. And I’ll never forget two firemen. We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big strong guys. And I’m not the smallest guy in the world. They grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here.’ And they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I’m big. They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, ‘Fellas, I can run myself,’ but they were amazing.” There is no evidence backing up Mr. Trump’s claim about the firefighters carrying him to safety shortly after the attack. Almost from the moment the planes hit the towers, Mr. Trump has sought to position himself close to the recovery effort. He has also made a series of questionable and provocative statements to burnish his political brand, notably by sharing a widely debunked claim that Muslims in New Jersey were celebrating after the planes hit.

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Challenge to abortion drug heads back to court ahead of midterm elections

A federal appeals court in Louisiana is set to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a high-profile case that could limit access to a drug used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States. The court action over whether the abortion and miscarriage drug mifepristone can continue to be distributed through the mail and telemedicine appointments, coming weeks before the midterms, is legally and politically thorny for the Trump administration. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised GOP state attorneys general a year ago that the Food and Drug Administration would review mifepristone’s safety. But the effort initially stalled amid sharp Trump administration divisions over how to handle the divisive issue in an election year.

The Justice Department is defending a Biden administration policy on mifepristone on procedural grounds at this stage, but Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing in July that the administration wants to reinstate restrictions on the drug. Previously, patients could only get mifepristone at in-person doctor visits. The state of Louisiana, which sued the FDA last fall to reverse the Biden policy, has now asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to side with it on a procedural issue as the case appears destined to return to the Supreme Court. In its initial complaint, Louisiana argued Biden-era regulators expanded access without properly considering potential safety risks. The state also claimed the policy violated the Comstock Act, which generally bars mailing of abortion drugs. More than 20 interest groups on both sides of the abortion debate have since intervened in the case, along with the drugmakers. After ping-ponging through the court system over the past year, oral arguments will be heard by a panel of three judges — appointees of former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

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Anthropic researcher quits over ‘out-of-control’ AI fears

An Anthropic researcher is quitting the artificial-intelligence industry over fears that the lab and its competitors are racing to build systems they won’t be able to control, a sign of mounting safety concerns within top AI companies. Jacob Coxon, a researcher who specializes in training new AI models by having them consume vast amounts of data, said Tuesday that he is leaving the company because he doesn’t want to participate in an industrywide rush to build AI systems that can improve themselves, worried such systems could spiral out of control and destroy humanity. The 27-year old Brit, who previously studied mathematics, said many of his industry colleagues now use phrases like “crunchtime” and “endgame” to describe the trajectory toward self-improving models.

“We’re on track for a lot of the most aggressive of these scenarios where by the end of next year things could be out of control already,” Coxon said, adding that safety trade-offs are inevitable when companies are competing against one another and Chinese upstarts. Anthropic didn’t immediately comment on the departure. Chief Executive Dario Amodei and other company leaders have repeatedly warned about the risks of rogue AI models, and urged the industry to slow development. Coxon said he left OpenAI earlier this year to join Anthropic because it is known for its model-safety efforts. But even though he found Anthropic’s safety efforts to be earnest, he now believes no company can responsibly develop AI that can outperform humans in a range of tasks, sometimes called artificial general intelligence, absent government intervention or a coordinated industry slowdown. Recent hacks by models from OpenAI and Anthropic, some operating in collaborative swarms of agents, have illustrated how AI systems can adopt nefarious goals and try to conceal them from humans. Once the systems begin to improve on their own, Coxon said, he fears they could advance enough to refuse commands.

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States curb data center tax breaks after AI boom raises costs

Over a decade ago, Ohio lawmakers exempted tech companies from sales taxes on computer servers and other equipment needed for data centers, betting that changes worth millions of dollars would lure much-needed investment to the state. It worked, turning Ohio into one of the leading destinations for data centers. But then the artificial-intelligence boom supersized the tax exemption, pushing it to more than $1.5 billion last year, more than 10 times the original state estimate. Voter outrage after news outlet Signal Ohio reported the scale of the provision prompted Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to pause new applications for the sales-tax exemption in May. Now, some state lawmakers, including Democratic Rep. Tristan Rader, want to repeal the sales-tax exemption and renegotiate past deals with companies such as Amazon.com, Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google that secured exemptions for decades by signing contracts with the state. In several states, the exemptions for tech giants have exceeded $1 billion annually.

“They seem to have more money than God and they’re able to build without the need for these types of incentives,” said Rader, who is proposing new data-center taxes and requirements that developers pay more for power and electrical infrastructure. He represents parts of Cleveland, where locals have pushed back against the facilities, and he hopes the new threats force the companies to the negotiating table. A similar dynamic is playing out across the country, as legislators or governors in more than 10 states, including Illinois, New Jersey and Washington, have slammed the brakes on the tax breaks. The reversals underscore how state leaders who once welcomed the facilities powering the AI boom as an economic engine suddenly treat them like a political liability. Dozens of other states including Texas have proposed similar bills or steps, potentially costing the industry billions in tax benefits. That has the potential to push future projects to states such as Indiana, West Virginia and Wyoming that have retained favorable tax regimes, industry executives and advisers say. Industry advocates are telling state officials that other taxes they pay fund local schools and police departments and that eliminating incentives will force data centers to move elsewhere. Amazon said it has invested nearly $40 billion in Ohio data centers since 2015, creating thousands of jobs, and paid almost $11 million in state property taxes and fees last year. Meta and Google declined to comment, as did DeWine’s office.

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Trump gave $45,000 holiday gifts to Natalie Harp and two other aides

President Donald Trump gave sizable holiday gifts to four White House aides, according to new financial disclosures released by the administration. The gifts of $45,000 each to executive assistant Natalie Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin, and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris as well as a $20,000 gift for director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta were noted in the staffers’ annual financial disclosure forms that were published by the administration last week. Harp, Martin and Harris make $150,000 annually and Nauta is paid $175,000 a year, according to the White House’s salary disclosure report to Congress. A White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Trump “has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including at times employees and aides, both in government and in his time in the private sector.”

The official did not say if any other staffers were given similar gifts from the president, but added that the cash gifts were not related to the “individuals’ official government duties, and therefore are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards.” The disclosures of the gifts were first reported earlier on Tuesday by The Washington Post. Harp is a constant presence by Trump’s side and is known for carrying a portable printer with her so she can print out favorable media coverage and social media posts for the president, who prefers reading important information on paper rather than on a screen. Martin has been working for Trump since his first go-around in the White House. She started in the first term as a White House press assistant and followed the president to Palm Beach, Florida, to help run his media operations after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. She returned to the White House with Trump after his 2024 victory. Earlier this year, Trump appointed Harris to serve on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which has oversight over the president’s White House ballroom project.

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Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show set to end in 2027 after 24 years on air

Next season of ABC’s late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will be the last, Page Six is told. “His contract is not getting extended,” a source familiar with the situation explained. The season begins Tuesday and would wrap up, after 24 years on the air, in May 2027. A spokesperson for ABC Entertainment told us, “[This] information is inaccurate — any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative.” Kimmel takes pride in signing year-to-year deals, which are rare in the TV biz and allow him unusual flexibility. The news comes on the heels of Rosie O’Donnell completing a four-night guest-hosting run on his show that was a ratings success.

O’Donnell was “in her element,” a source told us. So much so that she went viral for mocking her longtime nemesis, President Trump, by performing a parody of the traditional Irish song “Danny Boy” that she called “Donnie Boy.” Kimmel has been fronting the show since 2003, making him one of the longest-running network late-night hosts. Insiders say the move is unlikely to be related to Kimmel’s antagonistic relationship with the Trump administration. Kimmel was embroiled in a nasty feud with Trump earlier this year after he quipped that first lady Melania Trump “had a glow like an expectant widow,” days before a third assassination attempt on the president. An infuriated Trump immediately called for ABC to fire him. He also criticized the late-night host for his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September 2025, which subsequently found him temporarily yanked off the air under Disney CEO Bob Iger. But our sources say new Disney boss Josh D’Amaro wouldn’t be swayed by politics. “He’s not afraid of the administration … Josh isn’t folding,” the TV insider said.

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Lead Stories

Inside GOP’s big-money Dallas events

The Republicans’ “midterm convention” in Dallas begins Wednesday. The made-for-TV event is aimed at boosting GOP base turnout in the midterm elections. But this is also Texas — the Republican Party’s biggest ATM. So there’s a lot of big-money fundraising taking place on the sidelines of the main event at the American Airlines Center. House and Senate Republicans are competing for cash from a small group of big-time GOP donors who can dole out hundreds of thousands — or millions — of dollars. The goal of the party committees and super PACs is to convince the check writers that they’re the best investment to save the endangered GOP majorities on Capitol Hill with just 56 days to go. The White House. First, let’s talk about President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. This convention is Trump’s brainchild, designed to counter slumping GOP ratings, although it’s unclear how focusing even more attention on a widely unpopular president can do that.

Trump posted on Truth Social Monday night yet another promise that oil prices “will drop precipitously” when the United States wins the war with Iran. The war is now in its seventh month. Trump will appear at an RNC roundtable Wednesday. The get-in-the-door price is $250,000. If you want a photo with the president, that will run you $88,600. Vance has his RNC fundraiser Thursday. The roundtable for the VP is $75,000 per person. A photo will cost $35,000. But an event like this, and the confluence of big-money donors, means a lot more to candidates, congressional party committees and super PACs than it does to Trump and Vance. The Senate. The Senate map is increasingly competitive as Trump’s poll numbers sink. Republicans are trying to hold seats in North Carolina, Ohio, Maine, Texas, Iowa and Alaska, and are fighting to flip seats in Michigan, New Hampshire and Georgia. Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP super PAC, has a number of events in Texas, the cycle’s surprise battleground state. SLF has a suite both nights at the convention, as does the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House Republican super PAC. SLF’s brass is participating in the NRSC programming. Alex Latcham, the group’s executive director, will speak at an NRSC “battleground plan lunch” Wednesday.

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Canada imposes new tariffs on U.S. goods, as trade war intensifies

New Canadian tariffs targeting roughly $20 billion in U.S. imports officially snapped into place on Tuesday, the latest escalation in an increasingly costly trade war that has ensnarled two longtime allies. The duties apply to a variety of U.S. goods, including clothing, cheese, metal parts and wood products. The approach is meant to mimic the taxes that President Trump imposed on Canada after trade talks between the two neighbors collapsed in acrimony last month. For now, the economic effects of the tit-for-tat may be limited because the tariffs encompass only a small portion of the annual trade between the United States and Canada. The more pressing concern is a potential cycle of retaliation, one that results in even higher and more exhaustive duties that harm families and businesses on both sides of the border.

In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney has sought to position himself as a bulwark against Mr. Trump’s trade aggression, describing his nation as “at war.” Canadian officials generally have pledged to respond “dollar for dollar” to any U.S. duties. In Washington, the president and his aides have repeatedly mocked their Canadian counterparts and the size of their ally’s economy and military. Mr. Trump has already threatened additional tariffs on auto imports from Canada, and on Friday, he even suggested he could try to halt bilateral trade outright. Then, hours before Canada’s new tariffs took effect, Mr. Trump took to social media to continue his attack. He singled out Bombardier, a Canadian plane manufacturer, claiming there would be “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” Sign up for Your Places: Global Update. All the latest news for any part of the world you select. In doing so, the president accused Canada of blocking “our GREAT American Banks, and Companies,” and he encouraged U.S. consumers to refrain from buying some Canadian goods. “BUY AMERICAN. FLY ON AMERICAN AIRLINERS. ENJOY AMERICAN LIQUOR AND BEVERAGES. SAIL ON LAKE AMERICA,” Mr. Trump wrote.

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Farmers are going broke amid rising gas prices, while the Ag Secretary profits off them

As farmers grapple with soaring diesel and fertilizer prices and the Department of Agriculture yanks support for cheaper, renewable forms of energy, the agency’s chief, Brooke Rollins, is carrying millions in highly profitable oil and gas investments. In disclosure reports filed in July, Rollins indicated that she and her husband, Mark Rollins, an oil and gas industry executive, together hold as much as $2.5 million in fossil fuel investments. At least $1 million of that is in HKN II, a limited partnership with oil and gas interests in the Kurdistan region of Iraq; another $1 million, at least, is in Hillwood Energy New Ventures, which has interests in oil and gas operations in Texas, Rollins’ home state. Rollins also disclosed that she holds between $250,000 and $550,000 in investments in operating companies that own oil and gas assets in Texas. Since the beginning of this year and President Donald Trump’s launch of the war in Iran, oil and gas prices have skyrocketed, and so have industry profits.

Prices for diesel hit record highs this week, while prices of fertilizer, which are manufactured with natural gas and tied to the market, have also spiked this year, hitting an agriculture industry already battered by Trump’s tariffs and increasingly extreme weather events. “Farmers have spent a billion and a half [dollars] just on additional costs for diesel because of the Iran war,” said former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a former presidential candidate who campaigned on progressive climate policies. “American farmers are paying through the nose for this.” Inslee is currently working with Climate Power, a strategy and communications group that’s working to push climate and clean energy policies. According to a Climate Power analysis, the only other top Trump administration official with significant fossil fuel investments is Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who held as much as $320,000 in oil and gas stocks as of the end of 2025. Trump himself has been the biggest beneficiary of his own war.

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As Social Security fund runs dry, some Republicans say it’s time to raise taxes

For decades, Washington has replayed the same fight over taming the soaring national debt: Democrats cite a need for more taxes. Republicans refuse. And anyone who suggests cutting the biggest source of spending — federal retirement benefits — gets attacked. But a coming crisis in Social Security appears to be pushing at least a few Republicans off the GOP’s long-standing pledge never to raise taxes. This summer, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) in proposing to raise the payroll tax cap so people with higher incomes pay more into the program. Now the idea is emerging as an acceptable fix among other GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Tom Cole, the influential chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

“We’ve got too many people who say, ‘Well, we have to stay within the current income level or stay at the current tax rate,’” Cole (Oklahoma) said in an interview. “I’m willing to look at the tax rate. I am willing to raise the amount of income through tax.” The rare GOP concessions on taxes come as lawmakers begin to confront a Social Security shortfall so large and so imminent that the party’s traditional demand for curtailing benefits is unlikely to suffice. In just six years, millions of Social Security recipients will absorb a 22 percent cut in benefits unless lawmakers provide an immediate infusion of nearly $500 billion. “Twenty or thirty years ago,” when the shortfall was far in the future, “you could come up with a straight-faced solution” that solved the problem entirely by cutting future benefits, said Charles Blahous, a senior research strategist at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center who served from 2010 to 2015 as the Republican public trustee for Social Security. Now the problem is so big and urgent, Blahous said, “I don’t think you can look at it with a straight face and not do all of the above.”

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State Stories

Ted Cruz racks up private jet flights ahead of midterms

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has been crisscrossing the country campaigning for Republicans ahead of November's midterm elections. And he isn't flying coach. Through the first six months of the year, Cruz's Jobs, Freedom and Security PAC spent close to $200,000 on private air travel for the Texas Republican, who spent among the most of anyone in Congress on private fights. Cruz spent twice as much as Senate Majority Leader John Thune's Heartland Values PAC, according to analysis of campaign finance records.

The flights come as Cruz attempts to fortify Republicans ahead of a midterm election in which the GOP is trying to hold control of the U.S. House and Senate amid flagging approval ratings for President Donald Trump. The flights appear to comply with federal rules, which largely bar members of the U.S. House from private air travel but not senators. Still, doing so can present a problematic image for politicians, said Bill King, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. "Both parties have the populist problem, where people don't like politicians making a lot of money and cozying up to business interests," he said. Cruz's private jet travel marks a significant increase from last year when his campaign committees spent close to $61,000 on private flights, far behind the $560,000 in flights U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders reported and the $178,000 reported by Thune's PAC. A spokesperson for Cruz declined to answer questions about the purpose of the flights, but Cruz has been eager to tout his efforts to boost the GOP. "In the last decade, there has not been another Republican who’s campaigned for more Senate candidates, more House candidates, more gubernatorial candidates than I have," he claimed on Meet the Press last week. "These are the most consequential midterms we have ever had," he said. "I’m going to be on the road non-stop from now to Election Day. If the Democrats take the Senate and House, we will see the entire Trump legislative agenda grind to a halt." The dates of Cruz's private jet payments largely correlate with a run of campaign appearances ahead of state GOP primaries, which run from March to September.

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TEA is pushing for more third-party groups to run struggling schools. Does it work?

With several public school districts in North Texas and across the state on the cusp of state takeovers, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath has increasingly encouraged them to turn to third-party organizations to run struggling campuses and avoid state intervention. Texas public districts are subject to a TEA takeover if one of their campuses receives five consecutive F grades in the state’s annual A-F Accountability rating system. That gives Morath the ability to name a new superintendent and replace the school board with a Board of Managers, a process that has already played out at both Fort Worth ISD and Lake Worth ISD in the last calendar year. But a Texas law passed nearly a decade ago could put takeovers on hold — and an increased number of districts in North Texas are using it to maintain control of their campuses.

Senate Bill 1882 made it legal for districts to partner with external groups to manage struggling campuses. By doing so, campuses get a two-year exemption from state takeovers, meaning a campus can get up to seven F ratings in a row and still not be subject to a takeover. Everman ISD is the latest Tarrant County district to turn to a third party organization to dodge a takeover. Last month the district announced it was partnering with Third Future Schools, a nonprofit educational management organization, to run two of its schools. One of the schools just received a fourth F grade. In a press conference last month, Morath said more districts should turn to third-party organizations, like Everman did. “What I think some school districts are thinking through is, are there partners that might have specialized or a higher degree of expertise in some areas of curriculum, instructional support, those sorts of things?” Morath said. “I think some districts are doing this. They may be doing this because of accountability issues, but like, if it’s a good idea for kids, you should do it. You should do it today. Period. You shouldn’t wait.”

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Judge declines to halt Texas THC ban, court records show

Possession of products containing delta-8 and other forms of THC are still a state felony after the Texas officials banned the substances earlier this year. A Texas judge has allowed a wide-ranging THC ban to stay in effect after a hearing last week. Delta-9 THC can generally be regarded as “regular THC.” When state and federal lawmakers legalized hemp, they defined it as cannabis with .3% delta-9 THC or less on a dry-weight basis. However, there are other forms of THC that were not originally regulated by state and federal hemp laws. So, manufacturers and retailers began making and selling products with other forms of THC such as delta-8, which exploded in popularity over the last few years. Now, those other forms of THC are banned in the state. A Travis County District Court judge recently ruled this ban can stay in effect as hemp businesses sue the state over it.

This is all the result of a Texas Supreme Court decision over the legality of delta-8 THC stemming from a lawsuit brought by hemp manufacturer Hometown Hero in 2021. That year, the Texas Department of State Health Services said all forms of the substance besides .3% delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis were schedule I controlled substances. Hometown Hero sued over the change. For a time, the ban on these other forms of THC was on pause while litigation was pending. The Texas Supreme Court ruled this year that the state could ban delta-8 and other forms of THC outside of delta-9. The state implemented that ban on July 31, adding other forms of THC to the state’s controlled substances list. Possession of these alternative forms of THC is now a state felony. The Texas Supreme Court decision, however, said trace amounts of these substances are allowed in hemp products. However, the court did not define what it meant by “trace amounts.” That’s why hemp businesses such as SS Distro USA LLC and Topps Distro filed suit against the state. Their attorney David Sergi argued in Travis County District Court that trace amounts must be defined if the state hopes to enforce this restriction, and it must be done through a rule-making process. The businesses hoped a judge would grant a temporary restraining order, putting a halt on the ban. The judge ruled otherwise. The businesses and their attorneys are still seeking halts on the bans in court.

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Federal crackdown hits CDL training schools, including 13 in Texas

More than 100 commercial driver’s license training providers are being removed from a federal registry as part of a nationwide crackdown on programs accused of failing to meet federal requirements, with 13 Texas schools included on the removal list. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the removals last week. Federal officials said they traced more than 5,000 commercial drivers who failed English-language proficiency requirements back to the providers being removed. According to the spreadsheet provided to KVUE by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the 13 entries where training was conducted in Texas are:

ASC Technical Institute LLC, Asere Transport, Brothers CDL Training LLC, CDL Aris Truck LLC, CDL Commercial Trucks Training LLC, Cultural Technical Institute LLC, EP Texas Trucking School, Mountain View Vocational Institute LLC, MT Training Center LLC, One Stop CDL Driver Training LLC, Prime Time CDL, Sun City CDL LLC, and Tony CDL Training. The federal action is part of a broader effort to scrutinize how commercial drivers are being trained before they get behind the wheel. Elyas Aboseid, CEO of Get Drivers Ed, said he supports efforts to hold training programs accountable. “It's our responsibility to make sure who actually is licensed on the road, so I support it,” Aboseid said. Get Drivers Ed is not among the providers on the federal removal list. The company offers the online portion of entry-level driver training nationwide and connects students with partner schools for behind-the-wheel instruction.

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State Rep. Venton Jones, Gregory Scott Jr. are married

Texas state Rep. Venton Jones, Texas House Democratic Caucus whip and vice chair of the Texas LGBTQ Caucus, on Saturday, Aug. 29, issued a statement announcing his marriage to Gregory D. Scott Jr. “With full hearts, immense joy, and deep gratitude, Gregory and I are proud to share that we are officially married. Surrounded by our families, loved ones and community, we have taken this sacred next step to build our lives, our family and our future together,” Jones said in that statement. “From the day I asked Gregory to marry me on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives, our journey has been grounded in the belief that love conquers all, “Jones continued. “In a time when the LGBTQ+ community and our families continue to see our rights and our very existence challenged — often within the halls of government itself — living, loving and celebrating our union openly and unapologetically is an act of resilience. “Gregory and I stand together as living proof that love wins, progress is unstoppable and no amount of hate can erase the truth of who we are,” he said.

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Busy City Council meeting awaits Mayor Guajardo after suspension

Mayor Paulette Guajardo is set to return to City Hall on Tuesday morning following a 30-day suspension. Guajardo was formally reprimanded and suspended Aug. 7 after a four-day hearing over a petition seeking her removal from office. Several major decisions involving Corpus Christi’s water supply were made during her absence. The city returned to Stage 1 water restrictions, and City Council voted 5-3 against moving forward with additional design work for the Inner Harbor desalination project. A busy meeting awaits Guajardo upon her return. The council’s agenda includes an ordinance adopting the city’s budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

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Dallas woman who protested Reagan in 1984 returns to challenge Trump

Mavis Belisle protested President Ronald Reagan’s policies outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas. Forty-two years later, she is preparing to return to the streets, this time to protest President Donald Trump. Next week, Trump and Republicans will gather at the American Airlines Center for the party’s first midterm convention. Demonstrators plan to challenge his administration and its policies, much as they did in when Reagan accepted the GOP's nomination for a second term. “The America that I grew up in hardly exists anymore, but it doesn’t make me want to give up,” Belisle said. “I’m ready to be back out there next week.”

The issues that brought protesters to Dallas in 1984 included Reagan’s military buildup and policies in Central America, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, corporate power, government contracting and gay rights. This year’s demonstrators are organizing around immigration, war, civil rights, economic hardship and concentrated political power. The language and targets have changed. But the question of whether government is serving ordinary people has not. Belisle, 82, an Oak Cliff resident, has spent decades protesting. She helped lead one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Texas history at the Comanche Peak nuclear plant near Glen Rose. She later became executive director of the Peace Farm, a nonprofit focused on nuclear weapons and hazardous waste. In 1984, she recruited and trained demonstrators as a member of the Dallas March and Rally Committee. She rallied against Reagan’s military policies and the defense budget, which she believed contributed to poverty and economic inequality. Organizers worked out of a small office on Ervay Street, not far from the city convention center. The cramped space became a hub for organizing peacekeepers. “By being present at the same time and place that the Republican Party was, we could show those alternatives,” Belisle said. She spent long, hot days that August moving between rallies, marches and a nearby tent city.

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Texas native and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes subject of new shocking documentary

A new documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced Theranos founder who was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for multiple counts of fraud, is set to be released next month. Holmes, who began her prison sentence on May 30, 2023, is seen speaking to filmmaker Nathan Fielder at her home in the trailer for A24’s You Can See Everything, which is expected to hit theaters in October. The clip, released on Sunday, Sept. 6, shows Holmes speaking to Fielder while sitting on a couch. “I’m not that person, I can promise you that. I don’t have anything to deceive you on, of course I’m not deceiving you,” she says in a close-up shot in the teaser. Holmes adds, “I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.”

“Okay. Alright. Okay, good chat … You’re being real right now?” Fielder replies. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Holmes then insists, “I’m always being real,” before the camera panned back to reveal her baby in a bouncer. PEOPLE reported in February 2023 that Holmes had given birth to her second child with her partner, Billy Evans. It’s since been confirmed that the pair had a daughter, named Invicta (Latin for “invincible”), after welcoming their first child, son William Holmes Evans, in July 2021. The trailer’s release came as the documentary’s world premiere took place at the Telluride Film Festival on Sunday night, Deadline reported. The movie was unveiled at a top-secret screening, per the outlet.

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Dallas City Hall relocation debate stalls as August deadline passes without manager's report

The debate over whether to relocate City Hall appears stuck in a public standstill. Back in June, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert explicitly told the Dallas City Council she did not want the City Hall debate to drag on past August. In the same June 10 meeting, council directed Tolbert to return by Aug. 26 with specific information on relocation plans and possible leasing options. August has now come and gone, and Tolbert's report to the council hasn't happened. City staffers did not present any items to council members for consideration or approval by the Aug. 26 deadline. The reasons for the delay are varied, city council members say. One explanation is that estimates to demolish the current I.M. Pei-designed building are coming in higher than city officials expected — "astronomically" high in the words of one council member. If the city exits the site, it could sell the site as is or raze the building and clear the grounds. Creating a blank slate for the site's next incarnation would likely make it more marketable.

In the days since Aug. 26, Dallas Business Journal has repeatedly requested an update from the city on the timeline for City Hall decisions, but has not received a response. When asked where the City Hall process stands, Council Member Paula Blackmon said: "I have no idea." She added that she has asked Tolbert for the report but has not seen it. Council Member Cara Mendelsohn, who like Blackmon opposes moving out of City Hall, told the DBJ on Sept. 3 that she believes City Hall plans are not being presented to council because demolition costs are coming in "astronomically higher" than what city staff anticipated. To date, the city has not released any costs estimates for demolition or moving out of City Hall. Dallas City Council Member Gay Donnell Willis told WFAA in an interview that aired Aug. 30 that the council should get proposals on properties to consider "in the next week or so." She called the process a "thoughtful, exhaustive, public process," adding that the long-term savings of exiting the building could be upward of "hundreds of millions of dollars."

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Board approves $60M for Spurs arena site as McKee-Rodriguez calls vote a 'betrayal'

The city is closer to buying the land for a new San Antonio Spurs arena. The Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) board of directors voted 7-4 to allocate up to $60 million to acquire the former site of the Institute of Texan Cultures at Hemisfair. The city is still negotiating with the University of Texas Board of Regents for the site, and city staff said a deal is likely to close by the end of this year. City staff estimates that the total acquisition costs, including financing, will be $115.7 million. District 2 Council Member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who was appointed to the now 11-member board this week, voted against the measure. Board members Seema Kairam, George Grimes and Joseph Bravo also voted against it.

Just before the vote was taken, McKee-Rodriguez said he requested to join the board to push for more funding for affordable housing projects, which he said is part of why the Midtown TIRZ was resurrected. He called Friday's vote a "betrayal of values." "I think the use of TIRZ dollars for an arena property for the Spurs deviates greatly from the intention of not just the reconstitution, but TIRZ as a whole and the purpose of using these public tax dollars," he said. A TIRZ collects projected future tax growth within a defined boundary. A board then takes applications from public and private developers to partially fund projects. District 1 Council Member Sukh Kaur, who chairs the board, said she backed the measure as an economic development tool and predicted the vote would split along Project Marvel lines. The vote comes as the city weighs extending the Midtown TIRZ lifespan, which expires in 2041. The city's financial team estimates that pushing that further out to 2060 would unlock about $580 million in additional funds for public and private development. The board also voted to earmark $10 million each for expansion projects at the San Antonio Zoo, San Antonio Botanical Gardens and the Brackenridge Park Conservancy. A city council vote on the TIRZ extension is due in the fall.

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Sources: Big 12 withdraws federal suit against Texas Tech

The Big 12 has withdrawn the federal lawsuit it filed against Texas Tech in June, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel on Monday. The suit was intended to allow the league to enforce its own rules amid former quarterback Brendan Sorsby's legal quest for eligibility. All issues related to the suit have been handled internally and the conference is moving forward, sources added. Sorsby was ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA in April after he acknowledged placing more than 9,000 wagers totaling at least $90,000 on professional and college sports over four years. Sorsby was issued a temporary injunction by a Texas court to clear his path to play for the Red Raiders, but when the Big 12 filed in federal court with aims to punish the quarterback and Texas Tech, he withdrew his suit and declared for the NFL supplemental draft, which the league ultimately decided not to hold. He previously said he is preparing for the 2027 NFL draft.

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Central Texas is rejecting Flock cameras. What will Austin do?

At least five more Central Texas cities have moved to end or pause their use of Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader cameras in recent weeks, adding momentum to a backlash against the company — and the surveillance technology it sells — that has spread from local privacy advocates to the governor’s office. The latest wave began Aug. 25 in Pflugerville, where the City Council voted to cancel the city's contract with Flock after a resident requested logs showing which outside law enforcement agencies had searched the city’s data. The following week, after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to stop spending money on Flock cameras, officials in Bastrop, Elgin, Manor and Leander moved to sever ties with the company.

In Austin, officials had already decided to part ways with Flock. But leaders have also not ruled out contracting with another vendor—or rejected license-plate-reader technology altogether. The City Council approved new surveillance-technology protections in April, but in the months since, Police Chief Lisa Davis has not publicly said whether the Police Department will recommend another system. Any new agreement would require council approval. Meanwhile, Austin police continue to receive license-plate data from other agencies, even though the Police Department does not directly access an automated license plate reader database. As other Texas cities move away from Flock, Austin is confronting whether to replace its cameras, regulate its indirect access to the data or abandon the technology altogether. The unresolved question has divided Austin’s elected officials but only three Austin City Council members told the American-Statesman they opposed the use of license-plate-reader technology altogether. Six members, along with Mayor Kirk Watson, said they were open to a different system with tighter controls. (Two other council members did not respond.) "This isn't an all-or-nothing conversation," Watson said in a written statement. "Technology can be used in law enforcement to assist in protecting the public and, at the same time, protect the privacy of our people and avoid unintended negative consequences."

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National Stories

Could Vance’s soccer mom bonus nudge married women back to the GOP?

Every Republican is liable to give you a different answer if you ask them what constitutes their party’s “base.” But from a purely demographic standpoint, it’s indisputable: older, married, working-class white men. The picture of the 2024 GOP electorate from The Associated Press’s now defunct VoteCast (a loss sure to be long lamented) is plain about the party’s core: 84 percent white, 56 percent age 50 or older, 53 percent male, 60 percent without college degrees. That’s not a bad thing for the GOP. There are some problematic policy implications with persuadable voters, like, for example, being too blithe about how things like tariffs and mass deportations would play with the broader electorate.

There are some demographic cliffs out there, too — especially as the college-educated voters become a majority of the electorate in coming years. But if you had to pick a single bloc of the electorate as your core, the archetypal Republican stacks up pretty well against his Democratic counterpart from 2024: an older, college-educated, unmarried white woman. The two base groups are about evenly matched, but neither is sufficient to win elections on its own, so they have to start adding on. For Democrats, that tends to mean, most crucially, nonwhite voters (34 percent of the 2024 Democratic vote) and younger men (21 percent). The Democrats’ misadventure with Kamala Harris speaks to how even small shifts in coalition subgroups like those can cause a party to founder. It’s a lesson Republicans may soon learn themselves. The first and most essential addition to the Republican base is married white women. These voters were about a quarter of Donald Trump’s 2024 total, and as a whole, broke 56 percent in his favor compared with 43 percent for Harris.

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Trump officials strip military language criticizing Confederate memorial

The Trump administration has removed language criticizing a memorial to the Confederacy formerly located in Arlington National Cemetery, part of its ongoing effort to reshape portrayals of the Civil War. The Confederate Memorial, a 32-foot bronze statue commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and unveiled in 1914, was removed from the military cemetery in 2023. Its removal followed a congressional mandate to rid U.S. military property of names and symbols honoring the Confederacy and its leaders. The decision by the bipartisan Naming Commission to remove the statue was based on criticism and backlash over the memorial’s depictions, which included an enslaved woman carrying an infant child of a white officer and an enslaved man following his owner to war.

A Defense Department website and a marker at the memorial’s former site included contextual language describing the sculpture as portraying a “nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.” The website also described the two Black figures as enslaved people, including an enslaved woman depicted as a “Mammy,” and it remarked on how the portrayal of the “faithful slave” helped to shape American pop culture. Now, that language has been removed from the website, and the marker in the cemetery has been replaced by a new sign that omits wording critical of slavery and the Confederacy. The website also formerly featured additional context about the sculpture’s symbolism, including a Latin phrase inscribed on it. “An inscription … construes the South’s secession as a noble ‘Lost Cause,’” the website previously read. “This narrative of the Lost Cause, which romanticized the pre-Civil War South and denied the horrors of slavery, fueled white backlash against Reconstruction and the rights that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (1865-1870) had granted to African Americans.”

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Missouri group asks the Supreme Court to let former district maps stand

A citizens group fighting a Republican-led redistricting effort in Missouri is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a request from GOP state officials to allow new maps to go into effect ahead of the midterms. Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that voters should elect members of Congress from a 2022 map, not the new map passed by the state legislature during a special session in September 2025. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule the state court’s decision. Missouri was one of the first states to take up President Donald Trump’s call to engage in mid-decade redistricting efforts ahead of the midterms. The new map would probably give Republicans seven of the state’s eight U.S. House seats, one more than they hold now, by slicing 11-term Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City district into three parts.

People Not Politicians Missouri, which sued the state over the redistricting plan and the state’s rejection of a petition to put the issue on the November ballot, responded Monday to a petition in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the state high court’s decision.That was the deadline the group had been given by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who covers this region for emergency appeals. “Now that the Missouri Supreme Court has rejected [Hoskins’] gambit, he asks this Court to deliver him the political victory to which he was never entitled under the Missouri Constitution,” People Not Politicians Missouri asserts in the filing. “This Court cannot and should not reward the Secretary’s scheme to outsmart Missouri voters, Missouri law, and the Missouri Supreme Court by granting Applicants the extraordinary relief they seek.” The citizens group — which collected over 300,000 signatures from Missouri residents to force a referendum on the November ballot — accused Hoskins of filing a last-minute appeal “in the hopes of running out the clock on the judiciary’s tolerance for a last-minute reversion to the 2022 districts.” The group argues that the Hoskins’ decision to block its “timely” referendum from the November ballot violated state laws that give “voters the power to suspend legislation through the referendum process.”

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New Hampshire voters pick nominees as Sen. Shaheen’s exit sparks a scramble for key seats

New Hampshire primary voters are choosing candidates for Congress, governor and the 424-seat state Legislature on Tuesday, and incumbents aren’t the only familiar names on the ballot. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s decision to not seek reelection created a cascade of competitive races. Two of the eight Republicans hoping to replace the three-term Democrat are former U.S. senators she previously defeated: John E. Sununu and Scott Brown. The five-way race for the Democratic nomination includes U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, whose departure from his 1st Congressional District seat in turn attracted a crowd of candidates. Shaheen’s daughter, Stefany Shaheen, is among those seeking the Democratic nomination for Pappas’ seat, along with former candidate Maura Sullivan. Several other candidates in top races also are making repeat appearances.

Sununu, who spent six years in the U.S. House and one term in the Senate before being ousted by Shaheen in 2008, has this time focused on themes including affordability for housing, healthcare and energy, holding Congress accountable and constituent service. “I’ve been out of politics for 17 years. I’m not worried about reelection,” he said during a campaign stop last month. “I don’t need an appointment or a job. I don’t need to make anyone happy. I need to do one thing: Stand up for the people of New Hampshire.” Brown previously represented Massachusetts, where he won a special election in 2010 after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy before losing in 2012. He unsuccessfully challenged Shaheen in 2014 and served as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during President Donald Trump’s first term. In a July interview, he said he decided to run again because New Hampshire Republicans have no representation in Congress and because, in his view, his experience as a veteran, lawmaker, ambassador and grandfather is unmatched.

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What to expect in Rhode Island’s state primary

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee faces a tough Democratic primary challenge Wednesday in his bid for a second full term. Ocean State voters will also choose nominees for a full slate of federal, state and local offices. McKee was elected governor by a wide margin in 2022 after first assuming the role in March 2021 when then-Gov. Gina Raimondo stepped down to become U.S. commerce secretary. He now is at risk of becoming the nation’s first elected governor since 2014 to lose renomination and the first in Rhode Island since 1994. His challenger is Helena Buonanno Foulkes, a former longtime executive with Rhode Island-based CVS. She placed a close second behind McKee in the five-way 2022 Democratic primary. She is the niece of former Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut.

A top issue in the campaign has been McKee’s handling and oversight of the reconstruction of the Washington Bridge, which connects Providence and East Providence and carries 100,000 vehicles per day. McKee closed the westbound bridge in December 2023 after authorities discovered critical structural flaws. Authorities then determined in March 2024 that the bridge would need to be demolished and replaced. State officials initially estimated the bridge would be reopened to traffic this year, but that has since been pushed back to Nov. 2028. Campaign ads have also referenced a 2024 joint investigation of McKee by the state Attorney General Peter Neronha and the state police that found that the governor “personally and directly intervened” in the awarding of a multimillion-dollar state contract, but that he did not violate the state’s bribery or campaign finance laws. Neronha endorsed Foulkes in March. McKee meanwhile has focused on Foulkes’ work at CVS and the company’s alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis. Foulkes’ campaign fundraising and spending has almost doubled that of McKee’s, according to state campaign finance records. Independent polling from the University of New Hampshire shows that Foulkes has maintained a lead over McKee throughout the year, although in the latest poll many voters remained undecided.

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Republicans are making Muslims a campaign issue in the 2026 US midterms

Republican Vice President JD Vance called Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim and a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, "very, very evil" at a rally last week, accusing him of defending terrorism because of remarks he made after a March attack on a suburban Detroit synagogue. In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott, in ?a close race for another term, attacked a proposed Muslim-led development and called for an investigation into what he described as efforts to create “sharia courts,” a claim disputed by developers and civil rights groups. In Alabama, ?where Muslims make up less than half a percent of the population, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican running for governor, warned that “the enemy is inside the gates,” referring to what he called radical Islam.

The comments reflect an effort to make Muslims and Islam part of the election debate ahead of the November 3 midterms that will determine whether Democrats can wrest control of Congress from President Donald Trump's Republican Party. Critics say the rhetoric unfairly targets Muslims, while Republicans say they are raising legitimate concerns about security, extremism and the role of religion in public life. Abbott campaign spokesman Eduardo Leal ?said the Texas governor's actions regarding the development were aimed at alleged illegal conduct, not religious beliefs. Muslims number about 5.5 million people in the United States, up from 2.4 million in 2007, according to Pew Research Center. Over the past year, Muslims have gained more political power than at any point in recent memory. New York City elected its first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, ?while El-Sayed could become the first Muslim senator. Last year, Ghazala Hashmi became the first Muslim woman elected to a statewide office when she became Virginia's lieutenant governor.

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EverBank to combine with WaFd in $3.9 billion reverse merger

Florida-based EverBank Financial has agreed to acquire WaFd, a smaller ?bank in the Pacific Northwest, in a $3.9 billion reverse ?merger transaction, ?the ?companies said on Monday. The deal would create a regional bank with some $75 ?billion ?in assets, the Wall Street Journal ?reported earlier on Monday, citing a statement from the companies. Under the deal, EverBank will merge ?into WaFd, with the latter remaining a publicly traded company ?after changing its name to EverBank Financial Corp and trading under the new ticker ?symbol EVBK on the Nasdaq. Upon completion of the ?transaction, EverBank investors will ?collectively own about 59.2% of the pro forma combined company, with WaFd shareholders owning ?the remaining 40.8%. The companies said the merger, ?which is expected to ?close in early 2027, is projected to increase WaFd’s 2027 earnings ?per share ?by roughly 29% and recoup tangible book value dilution in less than two years.

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Copyright September 14, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved