Lead Stories

Private jet linked to Houston law firm crashes in flames at Maine airport with eight aboard

A private jet crashed in flames as it was taking off from a Maine airport with eight aboard, the U.S. aviation regulator said, but their fate and identities were not immediately known. Sunday's crash of a twin-engine turbo-fan jet Bombardier Challenger 600 at Bangor International Airport happened at about 7:45 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, adding that it planned to investigate. Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here. Few details were available, but a government official briefed on the matter told Reuters there was a significant fire after the crash.

Light snow had started falling at the airport before the crash, weather reports showed, but authorities gave no immediate indication that weather played a role in the accident. A winter storm warning covered most of Maine, including Bangor, the state's third-largest city. The plane had arrived in Maine from Texas, the government official said. The company listed as its registered owner shares a Houston address with Arnold & Itkin, a personal injury law firm. FAA records show the craft went into service in April 2020. The FAA said it would investigate the crash along with the National Transportation Safety Board.

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Cruz trashed Trump and Vance in secret recordings

Ted Cruz trashed President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in conversations with GOP donors last year, explosive leaked recordings allege. The Texas senator, expected to run for president in 2028, slammed Trump’s tariff crusade and said he even threatened his staff with immediate firing if they used the phrase “Liberation Day” to refer to the day the sweeping taxes were announced, reports Axios. Cruz, 55, told donors he and other senators expressed their tariff disgust with Trump in a lengthy phone call, warning it would tank the economy and lead to his impeachment. The call pushed past midnight and “did not go well,” Cruz told donors, with Trump “yelling” and “cursing” at the lawmakers.

Cruz claims that he received an especially explicit response from the president that night. “Mr. President, if we get to November of [2026] and people’s 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20% at the supermarket, we’re going to go into Election Day, face a bloodbath,” Cruz told Trump, according to the recording. “You’re going to lose the House, you’re going to lose the Senate, you’re going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week.” Trump allegedly responded bluntly: “‘F--- you, Ted.’” The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Cruz’s office did not deny the contents of the recordings in a statement to Axios. Still, Cruz’s office claimed that he is still “the president’s greatest ally in the Senate and battles every day in the trenches to advance his agenda.” Axios reports that the recordings were “nearly 10 minutes in total” and came from conversations in “early and middle 2025.” The site said the recordings were provided by a “Republican source.” It is unclear which donors Cruz was speaking to.

Read this article at Daily Beast - Subscribers Only

Massive winter storm dumps sleet, freezing rain and snow around much of US

A massive winter storm dumped sleet, freezing rain and snow across much of the U.S. on Sunday, bringing subzero temperatures and halting air and road traffic. Tree branches and power lines snapped under the weight of ice, and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the Southeast were left without electricity. The ice and snowfall were expected to continue into Monday followed by very low temperatures which could cause “dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts” for days, the National Weather Service said. Heavy snow was falling from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, while “catastrophic ice accumulation” threatened from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

“It is a unique storm in the sense that it is so widespread,” weather service meteorologist Allison Santorelli said in a phone interview. “It was affecting areas all the way from New Mexico, Texas, all the way into New England, so we’re talking like a 2,000-mile spread.” President Donald Trump approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states by Saturday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had rescue teams and supplies in numerous states, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. In New York, communities near the Canadian border saw record-breaking subzero temperatures, with Watertown registering minus 34 degrees Fahrenheit and Copenhagen minus 49 F, Gov. Kathy Hochul said. As of Sunday morning, about 213 million people were under some sort of winter weather warning, Santorelli said. Hundreds of thousands of customers were without power according to poweroutage.us, with Tennessee and Mississippi hit especially hard. Some 12,000 flights were canceled Sunday and nearly 20,000 were delayed, according to the flight tracker flightaware.com. Airports in Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, North Carolina, New York and New Jersey were among those impacted.

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Senate Democrats vow to block DHS funding, risking another shutdown

Senate Democrats signaled Saturday that they would be willing to shut down much of the government rather than vote for a package that includes funds for immigration enforcement, following another deadly shooting in Minneapolis. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Democrats wouldn’t vote to advance a broader package needed to fund federal agencies if the current measure funding the Department of Homeland Security is included. Democrats are demanding constraints on DHS’s immigration enforcement activities and more oversight. “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling—and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer said in a statement. He said the DHS bill “is woefully inadequate” to rein abuses by immigration officials. Republicans control the Senate 53-47, but 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation.

Schumer’s statement came after many Senate Democrats—including some who broke with the majority of their party in November and voted to reopen the government—issued angry statements Saturday saying they wouldn’t support a bill funding DHS, the agency that includes the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Enough is enough,” said Sen. Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.), who last year was one of eight Democrats to join Senate Republicans in voting to end the shutdown. “I have the responsibility to hold the Trump administration accountable when I see abuses of power,” she said in a social-media post. The statement from Schumer raised the prospect of a partial government shutdown when funding for the federal government expires at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 31, since the Homeland Security funding is wrapped into a broader package covering about $1.3 trillion in annual spending. Senate Democrats are expected to hold a caucuswide call on Sunday. Heading into the weekend, many Senate Democrats had wanted to avoid another shutdown. But the deadly shooting of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis by a U.S. Border Patrol officer changed the dynamic, aides and lawmakers said, uniting the party in taking a hard line. The Trump administration has surged border-control officers into the city as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration, sparking protests and physical confrontations.

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State Stories

Talarico, who now disavows AIPAC, attended group’s event in 2019

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for Senate in the state, has disavowed AIPAC and pledged not to take support from the group on the campaign trail. But in late 2019, he attended an AIPAC event alongside a major donor to his campaign, according to a contemporaneous Instagram post about the event posted by an AIPAC supporter. The post has been circulating online in recent days, driving discussion in progressive circles. Since mounting his Senate bid, Talarico has vowed not to accept support from AIPAC or J Street, and has faced criticism from some in the Jewish community who believe he is singling out AIPAC in particular.

“I refuse to be complicit in the death and destruction in Gaza, and I will never use your tax dollars to support the killing in that part of the world, and it makes me sick to my stomach to see what’s happening,” Talarico said at an event last year. “I hope in this campaign here in Texas we can send a crystal-clear message to the rest of the country that we are done being complicit.” Asked for comment on Talarico’s attendance at the AIPAC event, campaign spokesperson JT Ennis said, “James has been clear on his position on what is happening in Israel and Gaza. If anyone has questions on where James stands, they should look at his record, his extensive public comments, and the issues page on his website.” Talarico has vowed to support efforts to ban some weapons sales to Israel and accused Israel of war crimes. The same AIPAC supporter who shared the post with Talarico in 2019 was a major donor to his 2020 campaign; Talarico posted repeatedly on X about the donor offering to match up to $10,000 in donations to his campaign. Talarico has also faced scrutiny on the campaign trail for accepting donations for his statehouse campaigns from a pro-gambling super PAC, Texas Sands PAC, funded by prominent pro-Israel GOP donor Miriam Adelson. The Texas state representative is one a growing number of Democratic candidates who previously affiliated with or sought support from AIPAC but have since disavowed the group on the campaign trail amid increasing progressive hostility toward the pro-Israel organization, including Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Deborah Ross (D-NC), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), former New York Assemblyman Michael Blake and Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss.

Read this article at Jewish Insider - Subscribers Only

Tarrant polls closed Sunday; turnout heavy in Fort Worth area SD 9 runoff

Polling places in Tarrant County will be closed Sunday due to the inclement weather, according to the Tarrant County Elections Department. The runoff between Republican Leigh Wambsganss and Democrat Taylor Rehmet has already brought out thousands of voters. The two are vying to represent much of the county until the winner of a general election in November takes office in 2027. Early voting ends Jan. 27; Election Day is Jan. 31. The winner of the election will fill the seat vacated by Kelly Hancock, who left the state Senate to become acting comptroller.

Over 24,000 voters cast their ballots in the first two days of the early voting period, according to Tarrant County Elections Administration. In contrast, about 12,000 showed up for the first two days back in November. Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig had previously said the county would keep all 22 of the early voting locations open over the weekend, though the individual sites may be closed by the owners. The county will post information about closures on its website or Facebook page.

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

Lawsuit asks for early voting extension in CD-18 race after freeze closures

A pair of voting rights organizations filed a lawsuit Sunday seeking an emergency court order to extend early voting in Harris County past Tuesday after severe weather forced the closure of polling locations in the runoff election for Texas' 18th Congressional District. The Harris County Elections Department closed all early vote centers for the CD-18 special runoff election on Sunday and Monday, citing hazardous winter weather. In a statement, the department said the closures were a precaution to protect voters and election workers as freezing conditions affected the region. Early voting was slated to end Tuesday, and Election Day is Jan. 31.

"The safety of voters, election workers, and staff must come first," Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth said in the statement, adding that the decision was made in coordination with state and local emergency management officials. The clerk’s office said it would continue to monitor conditions and provide reopening plans as weather improves. The Harris County Clerk’s Office has not yet responded to a request for comment regarding the lawsuit. The suit was filed by Houston Justice and Pure Justice, two Houston-based advocacy organizations, against Harris County, the Harris County Commissioners Court, the county clerk, and members of Commissioners Court in their official capacities. The plaintiffs are asking a district judge to order additional early voting hours later this week to compensate for the lost voting time. The Texas Civil Rights Project is representing the two organizations.

Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only

Mayor Johnson mum as Cornyn fights to hold Senate seat in GOP primary

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson stood beside Sen. John Cornyn this week to tout World Cup security plans, while remaining neutral as Cornyn heads into a heated Republican primary. The incumbent Texas senator later said he was comfortable with that, arguing public officials in nonpartisan roles like mayors often avoid weighing in on contested primaries to avoid alienating supporters. He’s faced attacks from Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who have accused him of straying from the GOP’s agenda. Cornyn has argued that his voting record aligns with President Donald Trump’s policies. Johnson previously said he avoids endorsing candidates in partisan races while serving as mayor, though after switching parties in 2023, he took a more overtly political role, founding the Republican Mayors Association and publicly backing Trump during the 2024 campaign.

“Typically, I would say public officials don’t like to get involved in contested primaries because they’re going to disappoint some of their own supporters if they choose sides,” Cornyn told The Dallas Morning News after the FIFA discussion Thursday at Dallas police headquarters. “Mayor Johnson is my friend. I support him, but I’m happy to duke it out with Paxton and Hunt and then we can continue to work together,” he added. Neither Johnson nor his office responded to requests for comment Friday morning. Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker took a different approach, endorsing Cornyn in October. Her predecessor, Betsy Price, who served as mayor from 2011 to 2021, also endorsed him. Thursday’s discussion of FIFA security and public-safety planning came weeks after downtown Dallas — a focal point for visitors during the international tournament’s run — was pulled into a political fight, with Gov. Greg Abbott seizing on AT&T’s planned relocation to Plano to criticize Dallas leaders’ approach to police funding and efforts to address homelessness. Abbott, who is also running for reelection, made the comments at a Jan. 6 political event in Fort Worth alongside Tarrant County elected officials and police union leaders.

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Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins left for Costa Rica ahead of winter storm

As Dallas County awoke to icy snow on Saturday, County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins shared National Weather Service warnings to his constituents on X about “life threatening cold” and potential for power outages. By then, Jenkins was much warmer, after he and his family boarded a plane to Costa Rica on Friday before the storm hit back home, according to a photo posted by KDFW-TV (Channel 4) in Dallas. The county judge is the local government’s head of emergency operations during disasters. Gov. Greg Abbott declared Dallas and 133 other counties under a disaster on Thursday as the storm approached. The weather conditions Saturday in San José, the capital of Costa Rica: mostly sunny, with a high of 77 degrees.

Chief of staff Lauren Trimble said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News Jenkins’ trip “was scheduled months ago,” and he ensured emergency operations and coordination were in place during his travel. She declined to say when Jenkins, a Democrat, will return or whether he considered canceling his trip as the storm developed. She said the county’s readiness and emergency operations are fully staffed, and Chief of Emergency Services Scott Forster is overseeing the response. “The county’s full focus is on keeping people safe and services running,” Trimble said. “Dallas County’s experienced teams are ready to respond as conditions change and (Jenkins) will continue to get regular updates.” In Jenkins’ absence, Trimble said, she is empowered to sign emergency orders, but Abbott’s disaster declaration “makes that unnecessary.” Jenkins was not the only Texas official to generate attention over out-of-state travel plans as the winter storm approached. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz drew scrutiny after being photographed on a plane to Laguna Beach, California, ahead of the winter storm. His office called it “pre-planned work travel,” and Cruz posted on social media to say he returned on Friday. Cruz, a Republican, left the state in 2021 during a deadly winter storm to take his family to Cancun, a trip he later called a mistake after intense backlash.

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What is a microschool, and why are they expanding in Texas?

A new education model called microschooling is gaining popularity nationally and is expected to gain traction in Texas with the rollout of private school vouchers. Focused on maintaining small class sizes and providing a tailored learning experience, microschools typically enroll fewer than 100 students per campus. Some campus operators turn homes into schools, while others find small spaces in strip malls or former small businesses. There are four kinds of microschools: independent microschools, microschool networks, partnership microschools and public microschools, said Don Soifer, CEO and Founder of the National Microschooling Center. His center is a nonprofit focused on growing the movement across the country.

Independent microschools are typically run by a former educator and, as their name suggests, are operated independently by that educator. Microschool networks include companies like Primer and KaiPod, which run campuses or provide curriculum for local operators across multiple states. Partnership microschools are often operated by a founder or educator in conjunction with another company, such as a city, church or employer. Public microschools are open to the public for free, just like neighborhood schools. As Texas rolls out its Education Freedom Accounts, or TEFAs, which use taxpayer funds to subsidize private school tuition, the number of microschool campuses is likely to grow in the coming years. The program will give up to about $10,500 to qualifying families to cover the cost of private school tuition. Students with disabilities may qualify for closer to $30,000 annually. This funding could help families who have traditionally enrolled in public schools seek other options.

Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only

Son of Arlington man detained by ICE dies from rare disease

The son of an Arlington who was arrested by immigration authorities in October has died from a rare disease, and his family is begging for ICE to release his father so he can attend his son’s funeral. Wael Tarabishi, the son of Maher Tarabishi, died at around 2 p.m. Friday in the intensive care unit at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, according to a press release. He had Pompe disease. Maher was arrested on Oct. 28 by immigration agents. Before his arrest, Mahel was the primary caretaker for Wael, who had a rare disease that left him unable to move or breathe on his own. Wael was hospitalized on Dec. 24 for a stomach infection, according to his family.

Wael’s family signed a “do not reuscitate” order on Friday, begging ICE to release Maher so he could be with his son in his final hours. According to the family, Maher’s attorney has filed to reopen his client’s asylum case because his previous lawyer was practicing law without a license. Hours before Wael’s death, the family said, the attorney met with an ICE official to ask for Maher’s release, but that request was denied. Maher ‘s family has previously told the Star-Telegram that Maher, a Jordanian national, came to the U.S. in 1994 on a tourist visa that has since expired. Maher has been applying for asylum since then, and he was arrested during a routine check-in at the Dallas immigration field office — a trend that advocates say has increased since President Donald Trump took office last January. “We call on every congressional representative that represents Texas to take action to the fullest extent of their capacity to ensure that Maher gets the opportunity to properly mourn his son and grieve with his family, as is his human right to do,” a representative for the Tarabishi family said in a statement.

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

North Texas immigration attorney says burnout, hate make job harder

For immigration attorneys like Jaime Barron, the work never stops. The 51-year-old North Texas lawyer says he’s been averaging 65 hours a week with very few days off since President Donald Trump took office last year. Barron, who’s originally from Veracruz in Mexico, began practicing immigration law during President Bill Clinton’s administration. He launched his own firm, Jaime Barron PC, in 2000. Barron told the Star-Telegram that the current administration’s focus on deportation and the frequent changes in how laws are interpreted have made the past year “really painful psychologically” for those in his profession. “It’s hard dealing with all this,” he said.

Trump entered his second term in the White House promising “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.” The Department of Homeland Security announced Sept. 23 that two million undocumented immigrants had been removed or self-deported since Inauguration Day. Officials insist that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents target primarily “criminal illegal aliens,” but Barron says many arrested by ICE have no criminal background. A recent Dallas Morning News analysis shows that 62% of the 12,000 arrested in North Texas and Oklahoma between January and October 2025 have never been convicted of a crime. “As an immigrant, as a lawyer, I have a personal stake,” Barron said. “I get angry every day.” The high-stakes environment is hard on immigration attorneys and paralegals. Many are reporting high levels of stress and burnout, and some are leaving the profession altogether. Barron said everyone expresses the pain they’re going through differently. Staff have access to a therapist if needed, and the firm’s 40 attorneys are all on a WhatsApp group chat where they can talk about their experiences. The firm is also hiring more lawyers to work in deportation defense. “Right now, what’s different is that the relationship with ICE/Homeland Security is soured because the administration just doesn’t want us to communicate,” Barron said. Previously, attorneys could contact the Department of Homeland Security and negotiate the release of immigrants in deportation proceedings who didn’t have a criminal record. It was a help to the government, Barron said, because it lowered the amount of cases and allowed them to focus on individuals they considered a legitimate threat.

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Dallas Mavericks narrow choices for new arena

The Dallas Mavericks have narrowed their focus to two locations in the city of Dallas for their new arena, but a decision may not be made until July 1. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday, Mavericks CEO Rick Welts said, “We have identified, with the city, two city of Dallas locations that we are focusing all our time and attention on now, and hoping to bring one of them to success.” The two locations the Mavericks have zeroed in on are downtown and the Valley View Center property, a sprawling 110-acre site at the corner of Preston Road and Interstate 635. The land where City Hall resides is one possible downtown location, but the city is still having conversations on whether to preserve or demolish the I.M. Pei-designed structure.

No decision on the site for a new arena is imminent for the Mavericks, who plan to move into a new facility when their lease with the American Airlines Center expires in 2031. Welts had previously said the team planned to announce the location of a new arena by the end of March. That timeline has changed. “Right now, our hope is somewhere around July 1, the end of the NBA season, that we are in position to be able to make a decision,” Welts told The News. “But a lot of that is out of our control, out of the city’s control. I’ve been out there saying first quarter [of the year] before. We are not going to make first quarter. Another two or three months after that,” he added. “We want to open in 2031. That means we’re on the clock. Sounds like a long time, but for a 50-acre mixed-use entertainment district, an arena, public gathering places — we’re on the clock.”

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Congressman tries to cut pay of ICE prosecutor with racist X account to $1

As a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill works its way through Congress, Congressman Marc Veasey, a Democrat who represents part of Dallas, introduced an amendment in committee Wednesday aimed to reduce the salary of James Rodden, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assistant chief counsel who acts as a prosecutor for ICE in immigration court in Dallas, to $1. In February of last year, the Texas Observer reported that Rodden operates a white supremacist X account named GlomarResponder, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details that the Observer matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation. Three members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Veasey, wrote letters to ICE and DHS demanding information and investigation. In response, ICE sent a letter to Veasey stating it would address the matter and that such internal investigations can take up to 120 days, but it has otherwise not provided any information.

Veasey’s amendment came a week after the Observer reported that Rodden, who was apparently pulled from federal immigration court schedules following the Observer’s reporting last February, had returned to immigration court in Dallas. “[Rodden’s] statements are disgusting, and they are dangerous, and regardless of if you are a Democrat or a Republican, they should be disqualifying for anyone entrusted with power in the United States government,” Veasey said during Wednesday’s House Rules Committee hearing. “If Congress does nothing, if the committee does nothing, then we’re sending the message that this type of behavior is tolerable, that accountability is optional, and that white supremacy can continue to be subsidized with taxpayer dollars.” The GlomarResponder account has over 17,000 followers and has routinely posted hateful statements. In addition to posting that “America is a White nation,” that “‘Migrants’ are all criminals,” and that “All blacks are foreign to my people,” plus apparent praise of Adolf Hitler, the account has also made posts that evoke anti-immigrant violence: “Nobody is proposing feeding migrants into tree shredders,” the account posted in March 2024. “Yet. Give it a few more weeks at this level of invasion, and that will be the moderate position.”

Read this article at Texas Observer - Subscribers Only

This Texas Democrat is running straight at the working class

Someone watching the first 15 seconds of Marcos Vélez's 2-minute video announcing his plans to run for statewide office could be forgiven for assuming the first-time candidate is a Republican. The footage is heavy on industrial Texas — hard hats, work sites and sweat equity — and the narration centers on the bonds of a multigenerational blue-collar family. Vélez also fits the bill for the sort of candidates Texas Republicans like to showcase. He is biracial — Puerto Rican and Black. His formal education ended with a high school diploma. He volunteers in his community, plays ball with his kids in the backyard, and he likes to hunt. But the back end of his video, and the text on his campaign website, flip that assumption on its head.

Vélez is a Texas Democrat running an uphill race for lieutenant governor, launching his first political campaign at age 40. And from the outset, he is aiming his message not only at Republicans, but at his own party. Vélez’s campaign is built around two arguments. One is aimed at working-class voters like him, arguing that Republicans have failed to deliver on promises to tame inflation and jump-start the economy. The other takes direct aim at national Democratic leaders, whom Vélez argues have drifted away from blue-collar voters and ceded that ground to Donald Trump. The one-time refinery worker, who showed up each day in a hard hat, said national Democrats have gone out of their way to alienate people who punch time clocks and take their showers after work. "When I started working in the refinery, this was mid-2000s, most of your guys in their 50s and 60s were Democrats. They were blue-collar, Reagan-esque Democrats," Vélez said in an interview last week. "They voted for Obama, even though the bulk of them were white conservative men. And then you saw them drift to Trump in 2016. And now, they are entrenched with Donald Trump. You can't peel them away."

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

Not long after Prop Q's defeat, Austin leaders could ask voters for a tax increase in bond package

Just a few months after Austin voters rejected a property tax rate increase, city leaders are again considering going to voters for help to pay for city projects including park improvements and public safety needs with a bond package. Austin City Council Member Krista Laine fears it might be too soon to ask voters for more money after Proposition Q's defeat in November. She said the city could benefit from taking more time to get their ducks in a row. “What we need to do as a city is not just talk about but deliver savings that come from increased efficiencies that allow us to fund our priorities," Laine said. "The work has been ongoing. But our voters, it's not enough for them to hear us say that, they have to see it begin to happen.”

Over the next several months, the Austin City Council will be weighing whether to put the bond before voters and how much to ask for. The initial nearly $4 billion project list includes addressing space constraints at the Austin Animal Center, expanding library branches and renovating public safety facilities. Redesigning the Sixth Street entertainment district, parkland improvements and adding more emergency shelter space for people experiencing homelessness could also be part of the deal. But that list will have to be whittled down. City staff are recommending a bond package totaling no more than $750 million to minimize the impact on taxpayers. Kim Olivares, the city’s financial services director, said right now the average homeowner — a resident with a home valued around $495,000 — sends about $450 of their annual tax money toward the city’s debt. That will increase as the city uses more previously approved bond dollars to do projects. A new bond would add to that tax burden.

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National Stories

From Davos to Minneapolis to D.C., Trump is facing sharper pushback

Anders Vistisen, a member of the European Parliament from Denmark, stepped up to the microphone this past week in the Parliament’s vast chamber, where matters of European statecraft and diplomacy are usually debated in solemn and often dry tones. “Let me put this in words you might understand, Mr. President,” Vistisen said. “F--- off.” Vistisen’s sharp language reflected a trend that is increasingly noticeable, from the conference rooms of Davos, Switzerland, to the halls of the Federal Reserve to the streets of Minneapolis: President Donald Trump’s adversaries are pushing back against him with renewed force. The change is partly rhetorical and partly substantive, but underlying it is a sense that seeking to placate Trump has proved ineffective in the first year of his second term and that counterpunching is the better option. That was evident this week in Davos, where the world’s financial and political leaders gathered under the cloud of Trump’s threat to take over Greenland, a Danish territory.

European leaders, who have spent a year seeking to appease Trump in ways large and small, this time sharply criticized his Greenland gambit and threatened an array of aggressive trade moves in response. The president backed off his threat of military action and punitive tariffs — at least for now. The shift has been clear in other venues as well. When the Justice Department served Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell with subpoenas related to a renovation project, Powell responded with a defiant video emphasizing the importance of “standing firm in the face of threats.” Powell’s tone for much of the past year had been far more accommodating. On Thursday, former special counsel Jack Smith vigorously defended his efforts to prosecute Trump, telling a congressional committee that the president “willfully broke the very laws that he took an oath to uphold.” When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth censured Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona), a retired Navy officer, for appearing in a video saying service members do not have to obey illegal orders, Kelly hit back with a lawsuit. When Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky), a Trump ally, subpoenaed former president Bill Clinton and his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in the Jeffrey Epstein case, they refused in a fiery letter, saying: “Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its people and its principles, no matter the consequences. For us, now is that time.” On Wednesday, Comer’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress, with several Democrats joining the Republican majority.

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Minnesota CEOs issue joint letter urging de-escalation in Minnesota after shooting

More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies including Target, Best Buy and UnitedHealth signed an open letter posted on the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce website on Sunday calling for state, local and federal officials to work together, as businesses grapple with how to address tensions in the state and across the country following two fatal shootings by federal agents amid a massive immigration enforcement operation that has spurred protests. “With yesterday’s tragic news, we are calling for an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions,” the open letter reads. CEOs that signed the letter included 3M CEO William Brown, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening, Target incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke, UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Helmsley, and others.

Before the letter, most of the biggest Minnesota-based companies had not issued any public statements about the enforcement surge and unrest. But the issue has become more difficult to avoid. Over the past two weeks protesters have targeted some businesses they see not taking a strong enough stand against federal law enforcement activity, including Minneapolis-based Target. Earlier in January a Minnesota hotel that wouldn’t allow federal immigration agents to stay there apologized and said the refusal violated its own policies after a furor online. Meanwhile, the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities cited devastating economic impacts in a lawsuit filed this month imploring a federal judge to halt the immigration operations. The lawsuit asserted that some businesses have reported sales drops up to 80%. “In this difficult moment for our community, we call for peace and focused cooperation among local, state and federal leaders to achieve a swift and durable solution that enables families, businesses, our employees, and communities across Minnesota to resume our work to build a bright and prosperous future,” the letter reads.

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NFL play-offs: Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots win to reach Super Bowl 60

The Seattle Seahawks will face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 60 after claiming a thrilling victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. The NFC Championship game was a shootout in Seattle, with Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold and Rams counterpart Matt Stafford both throwing three touchdown passes before the hosts held on for a 31-27 win. Meanwhile, defences dominated the AFC Championship game as the Patriots ground out a 10-7 win in a blizzard at the Denver Broncos. Quarterback Drake Maye, Stafford's main rival for this season's Most Valuable Player award, ran in New England's only touchdown as they secured a record-extending 12th Super Bowl appearance and their first since Tom Brady led the franchise to its sixth NFL championship in 2019. This year's NFL title decider will be a rematch of 2015, when the Patriots beat the Seahawks 28-24 to deny them back-to-back Super Bowl wins. This is the fourth time Seattle have reached the NFL showpiece, with their solitary championship coming in 2014. Super Bowl 60 takes places on Sunday, 8 February in Santa Clara, California, at the home of the San Francisco 49ers.

Read this article at BBC - Subscribers Only

Health insurance is now more expensive than the mortgage for these Americans

Millions of Americans are starting to see their monthly health-insurance bills rise, a new pressure point for a nation still frustrated with the high cost of living. Many of those facing the most substantial dollar increases are middle-income Americans who buy health insurance through the marketplaces set up by the government’s Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Expanded subsidies for those insured under the ACA expired on Dec. 31—the central battle in last year’s record-long government shutdown. That shutdown ended with no resolution on the subsidies, and lawmakers haven’t passed legislation to revive them. Now, the newly calculated insurance bills are coming due, and Americans are having to figure out how to pay up, or go without.

Lenny and Mandee Wilson, who are 47 years old and live in Charleston, W.Va., paid $255 a month last year for a low-end ACA plan. Late last year, they learned their bill would be going up to $2,155 a month, a sum nearly triple their monthly mortgage payment of about $760. The Wilsons each squeezed in one last checkup before the end of 2025 and are now going without insurance. They are planning to put the money they used to spend on their premiums into an emergency fund. They will avoid any preventive care and hope their modest savings can cover any medical costs. Their ACA insurance wasn’t “the greatest plan, but it gave us some coverage and made sure we wouldn’t go bankrupt if something happened,” said Lenny Wilson, who co-owns an IT business. His wife, Mandee Wilson, makes pottery. Living without health insurance feels precarious. “If we step off the ladder wrong and make a trip to the ER or have to spend the night in the hospital for any reason, that would pretty much wipe us out financially,” Lenny said.

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NASA is about to send people to the moon — in a spacecraft not everyone thinks is safe to fly

When four astronauts begin a historic trip around the moon as soon as February 6, they’ll climb aboard NASA’s 16.5-foot-wide Orion spacecraft with the understanding that it has a known flaw — one that has some experts urging the space agency not to fly the mission with humans on board. But NASA remains confident it has a handle on the problem and the vehicle can bring the crew home safely. The issue relates to a special coating applied to the bottom partof the spacecraft, called the heat shield. It’s a crucial piece of hardware designed to protect the astronauts from extreme temperatures as they’re descending back to Earth during the final stretch of their moon-bound mission called Artemis II. This vital part of the Orion spacecraft is nearly identical to the heat shield flown on Artemis I, an uncrewed 2022 test flight. That prior mission’s Orion vehicle returned from space with a heat shield pockmarked by unexpected damage — prompting NASA to investigate the issue.

And while NASA is poised to clear the heat shield for flight, even those who believe the mission is safe acknowledge there is unknown risk involved. “This is a deviant heat shield,” said Dr. Danny Olivas, a former NASA astronaut who served on a space agency-appointed independent review team that investigated the incident. “There’s no doubt about it: This is not the heat shield that NASA would want to give its astronauts.” Still, Olivas said he believes after spending years analyzing what went wrong with the heat shield, NASA “has its arms around the problem.” Upon completing the investigation about a year ago, NASA determined it would fly the Artemis II Orion capsule as is, believing it could ensure the crew’s safety by slightly altering the mission’s flight path. In a statement to CNN on Friday, NASA said the agency “considered all aspects” when making that decision, noting there is also “uncertainty that comes with the development and qualification of the processes of changing the manufacturing process of the Avcoat ablator blocks.” Basically, NASA said, there’s uncertainty involved no matter which course of action it takes. “I think in my mind, there’s no flight that ever takes off where you don’t have a lingering doubt,” Olivas said. “But NASA really does understand what they have. They know the importance of the heat shield to crew safety, and I do believe that they’ve done the job.”

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“We’re not trying to recreate social media”: How Minnesota’s Star Tribune navigates a local crisis

The biggest news organization in Minnesota is trying to serve as the sober counterweight to hysterical social media posts, swarming videos, political conflict, and public statements that contradict observable facts. “There’s lots of rumor and chatter and confusion, and, there’s also just bad and incomplete reporting, that’s flying around lots of outlets,” Minnesota Star Tribune editor and senior vice president Kathleen Hennessey told Semafor. “Not all of it is malicious, and some of it’s just strange. You cannot be an informed person and just sort of scroll through social media, it’s distorting and it doesn’t add clarity, I don’t think. Ultimately, that’s what journalism is in for. You, you need to shed some light and bring true understanding.”

In recent weeks, the 157-year-old newspaper has been the central hub of local information amid a massive immigration enforcement operation that has repeatedly turned deadly. Since the federal government deployed immigration and border patrol agents to Minnesota, the paper has turned to focus much of its journalism on the unfolding enforcement and activism from local citizens. In a telephone call on Saturday, Hennessey estimated that 50 of the paper’s 200 journalists are covering the story daily, doing everything from tracking protests and monitoring immigration enforcement action to covering the significant business impact on the city. A major focus of the paper’s energies has been the details that are left off of viral short form video clips and widely-shared Instagram stories. Hennessey said the paper has spent a lot of time every day chasing “ghosts” and trying to make sense of viral images, sifting through rumors circulating on social media. She also noted that the paper is checking facts and building on video clips from national media and independent content creators who have swarmed Minnesota in recent weeks.

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Lead Stories

US declares power emergency in Texas as storm boosts demand

The US Energy Department declared a power emergency in Texas Saturday as a massive winter storm was set to test the state’s electric grid with ice, snow and temperatures forecast to be in the teens and single digits. The order, signed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, authorizes the state’s grid operator to deploy backup generation at data centers and other major facilities, “due to a sudden increase in demand, a shortage of electric energy, a shortage of facilities for the generation of electric energy.” “This extreme level of demand raises a significant risk of emergency conditions that could jeopardize electric reliability and public safety,” the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc., wrote in requesting the emergency action Saturday.

More than 175 million people will face snow, rain, sleet and ice through the weekend as record-breaking cold across the central and eastern regions fuels the season’s largest winter storm. In Texas, nearly 50,000 customers were out of power as of 11:19 p.m. New York Time, according to tracker PowerOutage.com. The storm is set to be one of the biggest tests of the state’s electric grid since the deadly collapse during a freeze in February 2021 that killed more than 240 people and paralyzed the entire state. The Energy Department warned grid operators on Friday to be prepared to make backup power available ahead of the storm, including from datacenters, an usual move for facilities that do not usually provide power to the grid. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator — which manages a power grid that stretches from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast — lowered its energy-emergency alert level to 1 late Saturday. It was at EEA2 earlier in the day in an effort to shore up reserves as conditions worsened. EEA2 is usually triggered as operating reserves continue to decline and means MISO is facing an energy shortage and needs to reduce demand. PJM Interconnection, another big US grid, asked the Energy Department for an order allowing all generators in its 13-state footprint to operate at maximum capability beyond emissions limits as soon as possible, according to a letter Saturday evening. It said it already provided up to 3 gigawatts during neighboring grid MISO’s emergency level Saturday.

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US storm leaves 670,000 without power, forces thousands of flight cancellations

More than 670,000 customers in the U.S. as far west as New Mexico were without electricity and almost 10,000 flights were canceled on Sunday ahead of a monster winter storm that threatened to paralyze eastern states with heavy snowfall. Forecasters said snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously frigid temperatures would sweep the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday and into the week. Calling the storms "historic," President Donald Trump on Saturday approved federal emergency disaster declarations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.

"We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, the Department of Homeland Security said. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, at a news conference on Saturday, warned Americans to take precautions. "It’s going to be very, very cold," Noem said. "So we'd encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together." "We have utility crews that are working to restore that as quick as possible," Noem added. The number of outages continued to rise. As of 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) on Sunday, more than 670,000 U.S. customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with more than 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and New Mexico. Major U.S. airlines warned passengers to stay alert for abrupt flight changes and cancellations.

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AG Bondi demands access to Minnesota voter rolls after fatal Border Patrol shooting

Just hours after federal immigration officers shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi seized upon the incident to demand access to Minnesota’s voter rolls, directly tying the Trump administration’s quest for voters’ unredacted personal data to its aggressive immigration raids across the state. In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz (D) Saturday, Bondi blamed state and local leaders for the unrest ignited by the Trump administration’s expansive immigration enforcement operations. She claimed that Walz could “restore the rule of law” by complying with a list of demands, including giving the Department of Justice (DOJ) the state’s voter registration records. “Allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960,” Bondi said in the letter, which was first obtained by Fox News.

The letter adds the state’s unwillingness to share voting data to a litany of grievances the Trump administration has leveled against Minnesota, which range from the local Democratic leaders’ rejection of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) actions to a longstanding welfare fraud scandal. Bondi’s other demands included sharing Minnesota’s data on Medicaid and supplementary food assistance with the federal government, ending “sanctuary policies” and supporting and collaborating with ICE. This would allow the government to investigate fraud and curb “crime and violence” in the state, the attorney general claimed. In sum, Bondi’s letter represents a major assault on Minnesota’s sovereignty, demanding that it forfeit its ability to make and enforce its own laws and maintain its voter rolls without oversight from the executive branch, which does not have authority over elections. Earlier this week, Minnesota rejected the DOJ’s demand for data on its same-day voter registration and vouching system. Minnesota leaders described the request as an unlawful federal attempt to intrude on sensitive voter information and the state’s authority.

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Gun activists bridle at suggestion that pistol justified killing

Some high-profile gun rights activists and groups bristled on Saturday at government officials’ claims that federal agents may have been justified in killing a Minneapolis man during a protest because he was carrying a pistol. The right to bear arms in public has been a mainstay of the gun rights movement. On Saturday, a Los Angeles federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, became a magnet for outrage when he wrote on social media that “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you. Don’t do it!” Gun Owners of America, one of the country’s largest gun advocacy groups, said in its own posting that it condemned his “untoward comments.”

The group said that “federal agents are not ‘highly likely’ to be ‘legally justified’ in ‘shooting’ concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm. The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting — a right the federal government must not infringe upon.” The gun group also accused “the Left” of “antagonizing” immigration agents. The exchange could point to political fissures between the gun rights movement and President Trump, who is generally seen as an ally. And it already is sparking debate within a movement that has long warned against government overreach. The National Rifle Association referred to federal agents as “jackbooted government thugs” in a 1995 mailer. But in a statement Saturday night, the N.R.A. put blame for the shooting on Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and other “radical progressive politicians.” It said their “calls to dangerously interject oneself into legitimate law-enforcement activities have ended in violence.”

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Key takeaways from Crockett vs. Talarico Democratic US Senate debate

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and Texas State Representative James Talarico took the stage at the Texas AFL-CIO COPE convention on Saturday afternoon to debate for the first time since they both launched their bids for the U.S. Senate. The Dallas-area civil rights attorney and former San Antonio-area school teacher are the top two contenders for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. Since the Democratic primary field became set in early December, two different polls have shown a different story. Here are three key takeaways from Saturday’s debate.

Almost the entire debate focused on substance. Both candidates refrained from personal attacks. However, there was an early moment when it could have gone in a different direction. About 10 minutes into the debate, moderators asked Talarico, “you have said that your campaign is shaped by two commandments, ‘Love God.’ ‘Love thy neighbor.’ But a lot of Democrats want a fighter. So why do you think that your approach is the right one to get you to Washington?” Talarico responded by saying he has been a fighter for Texans in the State House. “We need a proven fighter for our schools, for our values, for our constituents in the halls of power in Washington D.C.,” Talarico said. “I think we need a teacher in the United States Senate.” In a response, Crockett painted herself as a fighter. “James and I served in the State House together. He’s actually been elected longer than I have been elected,” Crockett said. “Yet he’s not as known right now because I have engaged in these fights and they have been right there on the front lines where people could see me out front.”

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State Stories

Austin dispels rumors of ICE presence at warming centers

The city of Austin on Saturday evening addressed online rumors claiming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were staging in the area. City officials said they contacted regional ICE representatives, who assured them the agency is not operating at warming centers or cold weather shelters. Officials also said ICE is not bringing in personnel from outside the area or housing them in local hotels.

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Schools tied to 'terrorists' or 'enemies' can be denied vouchers, Paxton says

Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday partially sided with acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock in his push to ban some private schools from the state's new voucher program over alleged terrorism or foreign ties. Paxton confirmed in a non-binding opinion that the state comptroller “unambiguously” has the authority to block or remove schools from the program if they violate other state laws, including the support of transnational criminal networks or terrorist activity. But he declined to weigh in on the specific schools Hancock is targeting, saying only the comptroller’s office could determine whether a school can be disqualified. "Your inquiry improperly shifts the responsibility of making these factual determinations to the Attorney General," Paxton wrote. "Our office has no greater statutory role in deciding who qualifies for the TEFA program than we do in dictating which private schools are accredited in Texas."

Hancock asked Paxton to weigh in last month, alleging that certain unnamed schools that applied to the tuition-support program have ties to the Chinese government and the Council American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group that Gov. Greg Abbott recently declared a terrorist organization. CAIR has disputed the designation and is suing to overturn it. In a statement Saturday afternoon, Hancock said he appreciated Paxton’s support and that his opinion “makes clear that Texas will not tolerate taxpayer funds being diverted to bad actors.” The opinion is legally nonbinding but could be used to justify barring certain schools. Conservative opponents of school choice have long criticized the voucher program for its potential to direct tax dollars to Islamic schools. Hancock has not said he plans to block all Islamic schools from the program, though none have been publicly admitted so far. The effort to bar the unnamed schools has already created broader ripple effects within the program, as hundreds of other schools, including Christian and Jewish institutions, have also seen their invitations to sign up delayed by over a month. Parents are scheduled to begin signing up for the program on Feb. 4.

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Protest breaks out at Dilley immigration detention facility holding 5-year-old Liam Ramos

A protest broke out Saturday at the South Texas family detention complex in Dilley, about 70 miles south of San Antonio, after guards abruptly ordered attorneys to leave while detainees — many of them children — poured into open areas of the facility chanting “Libertad,” or "Freedom," according to an immigration attorney who witnessed the event. Immigration attorney Eric Lee said he was at the Dilley facility for a confidential visit with clients — an immigrant family of six, including five children — when guards began shouting for everyone in the waiting area to leave, citing what they described as “an incident.” As the Michigan-based attorney walked toward his car, he said he heard what sounded like “hundreds of children” shouting, with voices he described as "high-pitched" and "urgent." He said he could see children streaming from dormitory areas behind a chain-link fence and chanting “Libertad."

Lee said clients he later spoke with told him the protest was triggered by concerns over the treatment of Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old who was taken into custody with his father in Minnesota earlier this week and transferred to the Dilley facility. Lawmakers and advocates are calling for the child’s release, while the Department of Homeland Security disputes claims about how the boy was taken into custody and faces criticism over access to the facility. School officials in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, have said federal agents took the child from a running car in the family’s driveway and directed him to knock on the door of the home — an action the superintendent described as “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.” The Department of Homeland Security has disputed that account, saying agents did not target the child, were focused on apprehending the child’s father—whom DHS said fled on foot—and attempted to have the child’s mother take custody of the boy. Lee described Saturday’s action inside the facility as a peaceful demonstration, not a riot, and said the show of solidarity carried risk for detained families. Lee said the protest unfolded against what he described as harsh day-to-day conditions inside the Dilley detention center. He characterized the facility as “a horrible, horrible place,” alleging that drinking water is “putrid” and often undrinkable, and that meals have contained “bugs,” dirt, and debris.

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Anti-abortion Texans rally at the Capitol despite frigid temperatures

As temperatures inched toward freezing on Saturday afternoon, people in knit caps and raincoats gathered for the Texas Rally for Life in Austin, holding signs that read “Let Life Live” and “Pray to End Abortion.” While turnout appeared lower than in previous years, the annual event still drew a crowd as elected officials, activists and clergy members stood on the Texas Capitol steps to cheer the anti-abortion movement's gains in the state. “I think I've been at this event pretty much every year that I’ve been governor. Never have I seen a weather challenge like this,” said Gov. Greg Abbott to the crowd. “But I'm so proud and heartened to see that it's not dampened your spirit.” Similar events happen across the country each year around the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.

For decades, these rallies brought together members of a movement that hoped to see that decision reversed. In 2022, it was, and the federal right to abortion ended. Now, events like the Texas Rally for Life celebrate the anti-abortion movement’s political successes. Over the past five years, the state has instituted multiple overlapping abortion bans and pioneered a new civil enforcement mechanism for cracking down on those who “aid or abet” abortion seekers. “Because of your decades of advocating for life, abortion is not legal in our state,” Abbott said Saturday. The governor also touted bills passed during last year’s state legislative session, including a new law that aims to penalize the practice of out-of-state doctors providing abortion pills to women in Texas and a statute that prevents local governments from using taxpayer money to support travel and logistics for women seeking abortions.

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Debate clips: Talarico on ICE: 'take that money back'

Democrats Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico differed more on style than substance in their first debate for U.S. Senate in heavily Republican Texas, though they distinguished themselves somewhat on the future of ICE and impeachment of President Donald Trump. Crockett, an outspoken second-term U.S. House member, and Talarico, a more soft-spoken four-term state representative, generally echoed each other on economic issues, health care and taxes. Both called for a “fighter” in the role. Crockett, who is Black, said she was better positioned to attract disaffected Black voters, while Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who often discusses his Christian faith, suggested he could net rural voters unhappy with Republicans.

Both candidates condemned the shooting of a man in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers Saturday, and ICE’s heavy presence in the city, though Talarico was more adamant about cutting funding to the agency. Both said they support bringing impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, under whom ICE serves. But Crockett was less specific about cutting their funding. “We absolutely have to clean house,” she said. “Whatever that looks like, I’m willing to do it.” Talarcio more specifically said of ICE funding, “We should take that money back and put it in our communities where it belongs.”

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Debate clips: Jasmine Crockett: ICE agents in Minneapolis are ‘turning us into Nazi Germany’

Texas congresswoman Jasmine Crockett compared the actions of federal agents in Minnesota, where an agent shot dead a man Saturday, to “Nazi Germany” during a Democratic debate for the U.S. Senate. Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are the leading candidates in the Democratic primary, hoping to win in March and be on the ticket in November for Sen. John Cornyn’s seat. The two Democrats took the stage in Georgetown, north of Austin, shortly after federal immigration agents in Minneapolis had shot 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive-care nurse for a VA hospital. The shooting came just weeks after Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer in the same city. The Saturday killing was recorded by bystanders from different angles, showing a group of federal officers tackle Pretti as he appeared to be using a phone to record them.

Pretti was legally carrying a handgun, according to Minnesota authorities, and was shot multiple times after he was on the ground. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters that the fact that Pretti carried a weapon “looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement,” contradicting video evidence of the encounter. At one point during Saturday’s debate, the moderators asked Crockett and Talarico about how they’d balance their feelings toward ICE while also representing Texans who support deporting undocumented immigrants. “As it relates to the enforcement that we see right now, let me be clear: They are supposed to do immigration and customs enforcement,” Crockett said. “Not going after U.S. citizens. Not going after people that are documented. That is not what they are supposed to do, but that is what they’re doing. They are turning us into Nazi Germany by saying they’re going to go door to door.” She continued, “They’re going after people because of their accent or the color of their skin, because this Supreme Court gave them carte blanche ability to do so. So all we want ICE to do is to do what ICE was created to do, and unfortunately, that’s not what they are doing.”

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South Texas Builders Association is now getting national media attention

About an hour after the Rio Grande Guardian met with Mario M. Guerrero, CEO of South Texas Builders Association, a national TV news crew with CBS was slated to meet him. Guerrero said the national network showed interest in the group after watching STBA’s livestream on Facebook two days before. The livestream featured STBA’s Immigration Enforcement & Construction Industry Impact Symposium, held at McAllen Convention Center. Watching the livestream, CBS reporters would have heard about the huge concerns South Texas builders have with the current ICE raids at construction sites. So many workers are being rounded up that projects are blowing up, leaving some firms close to bankruptcy. “We have a national CBS news crew that is actually on their way right now. They're about 30 minutes out from McAllen. They're going to be coming in, and they're going to be doing a broadcast on STBA, the South Texas Builders Association, and they're supposed to air it out by the end of the week on a national level,” Guerrero told the Guardian.

“They're going to be speaking to different people in the organization that were at that symposium yesterday. They told me personally that they were actually listening throughout the whole meeting, which is very humbling, because we're not advocating for destruction, we're not advocating for hate, we're advocating for peace, and we're advocating for love, and we're advocating for our community. If anybody says anything different, they obviously don't understand the words I'm saying.” Guerrero acknowledged he has been getting hate mail from across the country, for challenging the actions of the Trump administration when it comes to immigration enforcement. “We keep advocating for peace and love in our community. And unfortunately, the reality is that everything that's happening is already affecting our economy. And it’s going to have a massive effect on our local economy if we're not able to bring some sort of peace to the construction industry.” Another builder that spoke at the symposium was Efrain Gomez, Jr., president of Gomez 3 Construction. Indeed, Gomez served as moderator of the discussion.

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Austin company to forgive $6.9M in debt for disabled vets AG says it scammed

An Austin company has agreed to provide almost $6.9 million in debt relief to disabled veterans the state alleged were deceptively charged for assistance in navigating the disability benefits claims process. VA Claims Insider LLC, also known as VACI, is prohibited from collecting any debts incurred by veterans who were misled into believing its services were free as part of an agreed final judgment entered into with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The office said Friday the company also will forgo collecting any qualifying debts incurred for the past nine years. The estimated total of the debt forgiveness is just under $6.9 million.

“Disabled veterans are our nation’s heroes who put their lives on the line for our country, and no company will be allowed to pose as a legitimate VA service in order to scam and deceive them,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “This judgment ensures that disabled veterans are protected from VACI’s fraudulent VA assistance scheme and will not be held responsible for illegitimate debts.” Paxton had sued VA Claims in 2023 in state District Court in San Antonio, alleging the company had engaged in “false, misleading, and deceptive acts.” The company agreed to the judgment “solely for the purpose of settlement” and did not admit any wrongdoing or violation of state consumer protection laws, the court filing says. Judge Cynthia Marie Chapa signed the judgment Jan. 15. Jeff Eller, a VA Claims Insider spokesman, said in an email there “is no fraud” and that the company “will continue to actively fight any accusation of fraud.” He added that the company “welcomes the settlement with the State of Texas and looks forward to continuing its service to U.S. military veterans who are exploring their eligibility for increased disability benefits. As the only VA disability education company focused on educating veterans who seek to prepare and file their own claims, the work that VA Claims Insider does changes veterans’ lives for the better,” he said. VA Claims has entered into a permanent injunction that bars it from committing certain acts, including advertising as “free” any educational or consulting services to veterans when and if those services are not free.

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End of an era: David Taffet retiring from host of longest running LGBTQ radio show in country

In era is coming to an end for LGBTQ+ North Texas. After 35 years as a co-host on Lambda Weekly, David Taffet is retiring following a Parkinson’s diagnosis a year-and-a-half-ago. And he’s looking for someone to replace him. Lambda Weekly, the longest-running LGBTQ+ radio show on the air anywhere, airs each Sunday from 1-2 p.m. on KNON 89.3, North Texas’ public radio station. Taffet first joined the show in 1989. “In 1989, I was writing travel articles for Dallas Voice, and Bill Travis — who was the Lambda Weekly host at the time — asked me to come on each week to do a travel spot,” Taffet recalled this week. “Usually, the piece was recorded and then played on the air. So I usually wasn’t even in the studio when it was broadcast.”

Then Alonzo Duralde joined Travis as the show’s cohost until 1992, when both men left the show on the same day — Travis to move to San Francisco and Duralde to move to Los Angeles. Steve Walters stepped in then to take over as host. “Steve had radio experience, but his first day at Lambda Weekly, he was just really nervous,” Taffet said. “I went into the studio to see if he wanted me to keep doing the travel spot, and he was so nervous, I asked him if he wanted me to stay. He said yes, so I sat down and we just spent the hour talking about whatever. “At the end of the hour, I asked if he wanted me to come back the next week, and he said yeah. So I became his cohost,” he added. “That way, he had someone to talk to. We got gay newspapers from all over the country back then, from all over the world. And we would read the articles and find things to talk about. And we would fill in between the segments with music.” Before long, Taffet said, he and Walters started inviting guests to join them on the show each week, either for a short segment or for the whole hour, “and they would just join our conversations about whatever garbage we were talking about that day.” Walters left the show in 1998, and Cathy Tipps stepped up as Taffet’s new cohost. The two started advertising for a third cohost, and that’s when, in about 1999, Lerone Landis joined the show. Shortly after, Tipps left, and “that’s when Patti [Fink] came along. She came on first as a guest. Then Lerone and I asked her to come on as a cohost,” Taffet said.

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Sister Norma Pimentel’s shelter in McAllen, Texas looks different now

For as long as Sister Norma Pimentel can remember, the shelter she runs in the border city of McAllen, Texas, has been crowded with thousands of migrants fleeing natural disasters, violence, authoritarian governments and poverty. But ever since President Trump retook the White House and embarked on aggressive immigration enforcement that has all but sealed the U.S. border with Mexico, her shelter, steps away from a bus station, looks quiet. “We have not seen a single migrant in months,” Sister Pimentel said last month. “We are completely empty.” She pointed to a vacant kitchen, a deserted children’s play area and a bare floor that less than two years ago was filled with makeshift beds. At the height of the migrant surge during President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration, shelters along the border quickly became overwhelmed by the flood of migrants, some having received up to 1,000 people a day.

At Sister Pimentel’s shelter, the Humanitarian Respite Center, the emptiness was so palpable recently that the voices of the workers and volunteers and a Christmas song echoed throughout the desolate rooms. The migrant slowdown is happening from Texas to California. The number of individuals seeking to cross the Southwest border has dwindled to an average of 245 a day from a peak of about 10,000 to 12,000 encounters a day during Mr. Biden’s administration, according to government data. Sister Pimentel is well known globally for migrant advocacy and was included in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020. Her shelter became an epicenter of the immigration debate, and received some backlash for its work. “The question back then was that some people viewed Catholic Charities as inviting people to come over,” said Javier Villalobos, the mayor of McAllen, a registered Republican. “That’s not necessarily true, but some people viewed it this way.” With no migrants to house, the staff and volunteers at Sister Pimentel’s shelter have pivoted to help residents of McAllen, one of the poorest cities in America, with a population of about 150,000.

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Sen. Cornyn targets Texas AG Paxton. Talarico spotlights insulin costs

Candidates in the U.S. Senate primary in Texas are taking their messages to the airwaves. For incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, that means taking aim at his biggest threat in the Super Tuesday primary on March 3: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn's campaign launched on Thursday, Jan. 22, with a digital ad entitled "Same Lawyer. Radical EPIC City. Ken Paxton's Record Exposed." The ad alleges that Paxton "talks tough on radical Islam, but the record shows he's soft on the issue." A voiceover in the ad blasts Paxton over the fact that the attorney in his impeachment proceedings "is the same lawyer defending the radical Islamic (East Plano Islamic Center) City project," which will bring "Sharia Law in Texas." In fact, the EPIC project, situated about 40 miles from Dallas, has nothing to do with "radical" Islam or "Sharia Law." The project is a planned community that will feature more than 1,000 residential units, a K-12 school, a community college and commercial shopping facilities.

The Department of Justice closed its investigation into the project last year after affirming that the developers would comply with the Fair Housing Act. The ad also criticizes Paxton for sending "over two-and-a-half million dollars to organizations resettling Afghan refugees into Texas" after U.S. troops withdrew from the country. It's unclear, however, how such an allegation ties into Cornyn's attacks on radical Islam, as the Afghan nationals who resettled in the United States did so after assisting U.S. troops in their war against the Taliban. While Cornyn lobs largely unsubstantiated allegations against his primary challenger, state Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate in the U.S. Senate race, used his airtime to tackle kitchen-table issues, specifically the cost of the diabetes medication Insulin. In the ad, which launched Friday, Jan. 23, in major markets across the state, Talarico recalls his own Type 1 diabetes diagnosis and how the "how the sky-high cost of insulin motivated him to take on Big Pharma …" "When I was 28, I almost died," Talarico, D-Austin, says in the ad. "I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. When I picked up my first Insulin prescription, it cost me $684. I couldn’t afford that. Most Texans can’t either." Talarico then details how that experience led him to introduce and pass legislation in the Texas House of Representatives to cap Insulin prices at $25 for patients on state-regulated healthcare plans. The law took effect Sept. 1, 2021, and aids approximately 16% of Texans. "I know what it means to fight for my life," he says as the ad concludes. "I approve this message because, in the Senate, I’ll fight for yours."

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Heartbreak, confusion, prayer: A typical day at ‘the tent’ by Dallas’ ICE office

The air was frigid and windy on a January morning as Sandra Avalos scanned Empress Row in Dallas for cars entering and exiting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. Avalos, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, helps erect two tents each morning outside the parking lot for the field office. A stack of papers listing the rights of detainees sits on tables inside the tents, and boxes of donated stuffed animals and clothes are on the ground nearby. Since President Donald Trump took office for the second time last January, enacting a sweeping immigration agenda and deporting more than 605,000 people, Avalos and about 60 others like her have become a constant presence outside the ICE building. They’re part a nationwide group working to protect the rights of immigrants.

The Dallas field office, where a gunman killed two detainees and injured another in September, serves as a processing center for detained migrants, an administrative office for some Department of Homeland Security and ICE employees, and a location for check-in appointments. These check-ins are meant to give ICE a way to monitor people who have been released during the course of their immigration cases. Volunteers who stand outside each morning try to advise people of their rights, obtain contact information for a loved one in case they are detained, and troubleshoot the myriad problems that come up during these check-ins. These advocates — a mix of church members, seasoned activists and some who have never been a part of any movements — take shifts at the tent throughout the week. Across the Metroplex, many of these advocates who focus their efforts on immigration have reinvented themselves to become de facto scholars of immigration policy and the inner workings of acquiring legal citizenship in the United States. The tent has been part of a larger movement to monitor immigration agents at field offices and courthouses across the country. One of the biggest tasks each day is to keep track of who goes into the field office — and who does not come back out.

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HUD Secretary, Gonzalez, clash over ICE raids

Scott Turner, the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, says there are plenty of Americans willing and able to replace immigrants in the construction industry. Turner clashed with U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen during a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. “We have plenty American people for American jobs, and that's my concentration. I would say that to have migrants to do these jobs, I believe, is a slap in the face for the American people. We need to increase the trades in our country. We need to bring back manufacturing in our country,” Turner said response to a question from Gonzalez. Gonzalez said he agreed with Turner that the U.S. has to bring back manufacturing but said that is not going to happen overnight. “We have a labor shortage,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez began the exchange by telling Turner he wanted to address housing affordability in the U.S. “We have to be honest about that, because, while we talk about immigrants, 30% of construction workers in this country are immigrants. And in Texas, about 40% of construction workers are immigrants. And in your city of Dallas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, San Antonio, that number goes up to about 60% depending where you are.,” Gonzalez said. Gonzalez said he had met recently with the South Texas Builders Association. “We had a very candid conversation about the labor shortage that we're suffering in Texas and across the country. Just last year, it was shown that we would have had 400,000 homes less built in this country if it had not been for immigrant labor,” Gonzalez said.

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NTSB investigating Waymo over robotaxis passing stopped school buses in Austin

The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into Waymo’s operations in Austin after its robotaxis were found to have illegally passed stopped school buses in the city. The independent U.S. investigative agency said it’s looking into 24 documented instances of the autonomous ride-hailing company’s vehicles failing to stop around Austin ISD buses as required by Texas law. “Investigators will travel to Austin to gather information on a series of incidents in which the automated vehicles failed to stop for loading or unloading students,” an NTSB spokesman said in a statement.

Waymo, the the driverless ride-hailing company owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc., said it welcomed the opportunity to show the NTSB its approach to safety. The investigation comes after the school district this year launched a new school bus safety campaign that’s netted thousands of violators. In January, it approved a contract with AlertBus, an AI-powered program that automatically issues $300 fines based on footage from cameras attached to the stop arm of a bus. The system enforces a state law requiring other vehicles to come to a complete stop when a school bus is stopped with its stop-arm extended and red lights flashing. Other vehicles may not proceed until the bus begins moving again, a requirement intended to protect students getting on or off a bus. Since the start of the school year in August, the district has recorded Waymo’s robotaxis illegally passing a stopped school bus at least 24 times. Several of those incidents came after the company said it had issued a voluntary recall of its vehicles to address the issue with a software update and met with district officials.

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National Stories

US airlines and airports brace for a brutal travel day amid massive winter storm

A massive winter storm set the stage for a brutal travel day Sunday, with airlines warning of widespread cancellations and delays at some of the nation’s busiest airports. Widespread snow, sleet and freezing rain threatened nearly 180 million people — more than half the U.S. population — in a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, the National Weather Service said Saturday night. After sweeping through the South, forecasters said the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) of snow from Washington through New York and Boston. More than 13,500 flights have been canceled across the U.S. since Saturday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.

About 9,600 of those were scheduled for Sunday. Aviation analytics company Cirium says its data shows that Sunday will be the highest cancellation event since the pandemic, with over 29% of all U.S. departing flights axed. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport warned travelers on its website of widespread flight cancellations. Nearly all of its departing flights scheduled for the day — 414 flights, or 97% — have been canceled. Significant disruptions were also expected at major airport hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Atlanta, home to the nation’s busiest airport, as well as New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. American Airlines had canceled over 1,400 flights for Sunday, according to FlightAware. Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines each reported about 1,000 cancellations for the day, while United Airlines had more than 800. JetBlue had more than 560 canceled flights, accounting for roughly 70% of its schedule for the day.

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Protesters demand immigration agents leave Minneapolis after man is shot and killed during crackdown

Democrats demanded that federal immigration officers leave Minnesota after a U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigid streets and increasing tensions in a city already shaken by another shooting death weeks earlier. Family members identified the man who was killed as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who protested President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city. After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal officers, who wielded batons and deployed flash bangs. A federal judge has already issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting, after state and county officials sued. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the suit filed Saturday is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect. A court hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St. Paul. “A full, impartial, and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is non-negotiable,” Ellison said in a statement.

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which are named in the lawsuit, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday. Another federal judge previously ruled that officers participating in the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities, including when these people are observing the agents. The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Gov. Tim Walz, officials said. Guard troops were sent to both the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off with demonstrators daily. Information about what led up to the shooting was limited, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him.

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Witnesses say they begged ICE agents not to detain Minnesota 5-year-old after father's arrest

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents refused to allow 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos to stay at his Columbia Heights home with family after being detained, observers said, despite people in the home, neighbors and school officials begging them to do so. Those who saw the federal agents detain Liam Tuesday pushed back against claims this week by ICE and Vice President JD Vance that the child was abandoned by his family after the boy and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were detained on their way home from school. Neighbors and Columbia Heights school officials say they pleaded with agents to let the child enter the home to join his mother or to stay with a neighbor or school leader after agents took the father into custody. They also say that they did not see Conejo Arias flee the scene and leave his son in the cold as ICE officials maintain.

“There was ample opportunity to be able to safely hand that child off to adults,” said Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights School Board who said she was at the scene and among those who offered to take Liam to his family or back to school. “There was another adult who lived in the home that was there saying, ‘I will take the child. I will take the child.’ Somebody else was yelling … that I was there and said, ‘School is here. They can take the child. You don't have to take them.’ And mom was there. She saw (through) the window, and dad was yelling, ‘Please do not open the door!’” ICE officials say the father and son are together at an ICE residential family facility in Texas. Marc Prokosch, the lawyer representing Liam and his dad, said he had still not had direct contact with them. ICE says the father is in the country illegally but Prokosch says that’s not the case.

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GOP Sen. Cassidy breaks with Trump over deadly shooting by Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., called for a full investigation after a federal agent fatally shot a man who was allegedly armed in Minneapolis on Saturday, calling the incident "incredibly disturbing." Cassidy joined a chorus of Democratic lawmakers raising questions following the shooting death of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex J. Pretti, who was killed by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday. Pretti allegedly confronted officers during a Department of Homeland Security operation in south Minneapolis and was carrying a gun, according to the agency. "The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing," Cassidy said in a post on X. "The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation."

Cassidy added that "we can trust the American people with the truth." The Louisiana Republican's comments were seemingly at odds with members of his party, including President Donald Trump, who said in a post on Truth Social following the shooting that federal agents "had to protect themselves" because of the lack of support from local police in Minneapolis. "This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go—What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?" Trump wrote in the post. "The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves—Not an easy thing to do!" Last week, Trump pledged his endorsement for U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow if she entered the GOP primary in Louisiana, challenging Cassidy, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2015. Letlow launched her Senate bid days later.

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Dems cool to Duffy’s IndyCar Grand Prix

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is pushing to host an IndyCar race on the National Mall in August as part of the America250 celebration, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort. The race would start at the Supreme Court and cover a full lap around the National Mall, including the Lincoln Memorial. “Pit Row” would be by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Organizers are targeting Aug. 21 for the event. There’s only one problem: Congress has to approve legislation to make it happen. That seems increasingly unlikely since Democrats aren’t thrilled about the idea.

Congress needs to pass a bill for the race because there’s a ban on advertising on the Capitol grounds. IndyCar vehicles are famously adorned with lots of ads. The Grand Prix idea has made its way to aides of the Big Four — Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Democrats are worried about the strain it would place on both the U.S. Capitol Police and area roads. Plus, Democrats feel as if Republicans haven’t been helpful to them. Why should Democrats assist Republicans with this if the GOP has refused to hang any plaque honoring the victims of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, one aide said to us. Several Democrats told us that it seems absurd for Congress to OK an IndyCar race in D.C. when lawmakers won’t even extend health care subsidies for millions of Americans.

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Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse dedicated to helping others, friends and family said

Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old man killed by federal immigration agents Saturday, worked as a nurse treating sick veterans, according to family, friends and colleagues – a reflection of his deep desire to help others, they said. Pretti worked as an Intensive Care Unit nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center for around five years, according to a co-worker who asked to speak anonymously. “Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world,” his parents, Michael and Susan Pretti, said in a statement. “Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact.”

Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, Chief of Infectious Diseases Section at the Minneapolis VA, wrote on Bluesky that he was “a good, kind person who lived to help.” Drekonja said Pretti supported critically ill veterans at the hospital. The co-worker said Pretti researched how to prevent veterans from dying from colon cancer. Pretti was fatally shot while immigration agents wrestled him on the ground in Minneapolis; the Department of Homeland Security said officers took a handgun from Pretti at the scene and fired in self-defense. CNN analysis of video shows a federal agent removed the gun just before the shooting. “The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted,” the agency said in a statement. Minneapolis police have said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit, and court records show he had no charges in the state, only traffic and parking infractions. His parents, in their statement, disputed DHS claims that he was a threat to agents when he was killed. They said he was seeking to protect a woman near the agents at the time. “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the parents said, adding that “he was a good man.”

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Gambling industry found bankrolling swing district congressional members

Vulnerable members of Congress who rely on the gambling industry to fund their campaigns are pushing legislation that the industry wants passed, a Washington Examiner review of campaign finance filings has found. Reps. Susie Lee (D), Steven Horsford (D), Mark Amodei (R), and Diana Titus (D) — all from Nevada — have thrown their support behind legislation that would allow gamblers to deduct 100% of losses from their tax bills, revising a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that reduced the deduction to 90% of losses. Restoring the full deduction has been a major priority of the gambling industry, which has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaigns of those representatives since 2020.

Lee took the most from the gambling industry, accepting nearly $400,000 over the past four electoral cycles. She was closely followed by Amodei, who received well over $300,000, then by Horsford, who took almost $300,000, and Titus, who raked in around $200,000, according to a Washington Examiner review of records from the lawmakers’ primary campaign accounts, their victory funds, and their leadership PACs. Top executives from MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts reportedly met with representatives from the American Gaming Association — the trade group responsible for representing the interests of casinos and other parts of the gambling industry — in December to drum up support for a gambler’s tax break. Lee, Horsford, Amodei, and Titus, who ultimately fulfilled their request, have all accepted large donations from executives working for the three casino operators as well as the AGA. Casino executives and PACs representing the three operators that pushed for the legislation contributed roughly $140,000 to Lee, $95,000 to Horsford, $85,000 to Titus, and $83,000 to Amodei since 2020. The AGA, meanwhile, gave Lee $3,000, Titus $5,500, Horsford $6,000, and Amodei $5,000 over the same period. Amodei, Horsford, and Lee all represent swing districts, making campaign dollars even more valuable to them, given the difficulty of retaining their seats.

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Lead Stories

5 years after Uri, here’s why Texas leaders say state is better prepared for upcoming freeze

A far-reaching winter storm is expected to bring below-freezing temperatures, wintry precipitation and “dangerous ice” to Texas beginning Jan. 23, according to the National Weather Service. As residents brace for days of potentially hazardous conditions, state leaders said Jan. 22 that the Texas power grid “has never been stronger” and will withstand the storm. Nearly five years earlier, Winter Storm Uri blanketed Texas, devastating a power grid that was unprepared for the historic February 2021 storm. Nearly 250 people died during prolonged power outages across the state, Community Impact reported. State officials said Jan. 22 that they are prepared for the dayslong storm and will ensure issues from 2021 do not occur this year. “The power grid system we have today is completely different than the power grid system we had back then,” Gov. Greg Abbott said during a Jan. 22 news conference in Austin. “We have abundant power [and] the reliability of it has never been better.”

Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 134 of Texas’ 254 counties, telling reporters that the northern two-thirds of the state—from San Antonio to the Panhandle—will be impacted by the storm. The Dallas-Fort Worth area may be the hardest-hit, officials said, with Community Impact reporting that sleet and below-zero wind chills will reach the region as soon as Jan. 23. “This is a severe winter storm that will impact most of the state of Texas,” Abbott said. “The severity of it is not quite as great, and the size of it is not quite as great as Winter Storm Uri. That said, people would be making a mistake if they don't take it serious.” Officials said they do not expect a repeat of the widespread power outages that occurred in 2021, emphasizing that changes have been made in recent years to harden the grid against extreme weather and secure backup power supplies. Some Texans could see “local, isolated” outages due to fallen tree branches or ice on power lines, Abbott said. Local and state agencies are preparing for the freeze by treating roadways, setting up warming centers, monitoring water supplies and making additional power supplies available. Texas Department of Transportation crews began treating roads early in the week to prevent ice from accumulating, with falling temperatures and wintry precipitation—including sleet and freezing rain—expected in parts of the state Jan. 23 through the weekend. TxDOT will be at “peak operations” in the coming days, with approximately 5,000 personnel operating hundreds of vehicles and equipment across Texas, Executive Director Marc Williams said.

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Natural gas prices soar as U.S. braces for Arctic blast

Natural-gas prices have jumped 63% this week in response to forecasts calling for some of the coldest, snowiest weather in years to freeze the country from the West Texas desert to the Great Lakes. The forecasts have stoked fears of a repeat of the deadly winter storm that froze Texas in 2021 and left millions of people without electricity for days. Energy producers and utilities are preparing for the worst. The Energy Department late Thursday ordered grid operators to be prepared to take extraordinary steps to tap in to backup power generation. Subzero temperatures are in store for Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit starting Friday. New York and Washington, D.C., are expecting to be buried in snow by the end of the weekend.

The big concern in energy markets is for Texas and other parts of the southern U.S., where uncommonly cold temperatures threaten to ice some of America’s most prolific oil-and-gas fields and wreak havoc on the power grid. Prices for electricity this weekend are already surging in Texas. The biggest gains in natural-gas prices have been for near-term deliveries. Futures for February delivery of the heating and power-generation fuel had their biggest three-day percentage gain on record. Futures settled Thursday at $5.045 per million British thermal units, up from $3.103 at the end of last week. The arctic blast has the potential to be felt in energy markets for a long time. Traders are anticipating a big chunk of U.S. production will become blocked in frozen wells when heating demand is highest, necessitating a huge drawdown of domestic stockpiles to keep furnaces and boilers running. They are betting the incoming weather will be cold and persistent enough to change the outlook for domestic supply, which a week ago appeared headed for another glut that depressed prices and pinched producers.

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5-year-old boy taken by ICE in Minneapolis being held with father in Texas; used him as ‘bait

A 5-year-old child and his father arrested by federal immigration agents in Minnesota this week are now being held in a South Texas detention facility, their attorney said Thursday. Lawyer Marc Prokosh said the child, Liam Ramos, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were sent from Minneapolis to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley on Tuesday. The facility, run by private contractor CoreCivic, was closed in 2024 by the Biden administration, but reopened under the Trump administration last March. It can hold up to 2,400 people.

Minnesota school officials have said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Ramos and his father in their driveway as they were coming home from school on Tuesday. They alleged the child was used as “bait” to lure his mother and others out of the home. News reports about the incident have since gone viral. The Department of Homeland Security has denied that it targeted the child. The agency claimed the father fled on foot as officers tried to arrest him and agents “remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.” “Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the agency, in a public statement. “This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement. Parents can take control of their departure and receive a free flight and $2,600 with the CBP Home app.” At a press conference in Minneapolis Thursday, school officials disputed DHS's account. Mary Granlund, the president of the school board, said she was on her way to get her children from school when she heard a commotion and saw people at the home. "I got out of my car and came around the corner, I heard, 'What are you doing? Don't take the child,'" Granlund said. She said the mother, who was in the house, told officers there were people who could care for Ramos. When they saw Granlund, she said, someone said "school is here, they can take the child. You don't have to take them."

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Texas sheriff Martin Cuellar, brother of Rep. Henry Cuellar, indicted on fraud charges

Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar was arraigned on federal embezzlement charges in Houston on Thursday morning. The South Texas sheriff, along with his former first deputy, Alex Gutierrez, is accused of theft or bribery related to the use of government-funded cleaning supplies, which were used for COVID-related disinfection work from 2020 to 2022. Cuellar and Gutierrez are accused of using the sheriff office's staff and resources to run a for-profit business, Disinfect Pro Master, according to the Justice Department. The men, along with another former sheriff's office employee, Assistant Chief Ricardo “Rick” Rodriguez, opened a disinfecting business in April 2020 and entered into agreements with local businesses that lacked cleaning services and supplies, authorities said.

Prosecutors allege sheriff's office employees handled the company's day-to-day to operations and conducted some of the disinfecting work on the clock. The company allegedly got a $500,000 contract to clean facilities at United Independent School District, a 40,000-student school district in Laredo. The cleaning was done "almost entirely" with county employees, according to prosecutors. Cuellar and the other men received $175,000 for their part in the business, according to the indictment. Cuellar, 67, and Gutierrez, 47, were indicted in November. The case was ordered unsealed on Thursday. Charging documents weren't immediately available. Both men pleaded not guilty and were released on bond. Officials said during the Thursday hearing that the indictment was connected to a 2023 FBI raid of the sheriff's office. Cuellar said at the time that the raid focused on Rodriguez. Rodriguez has already pleaded guilty for his role scheme, according to the Justice Department. In a written statement, Cuellar's lawyer, Eric Reed, denounced the charges, calling them "baseless and driven by false narratives and assumptions fueled by politics and rivalries." "The whole truth is that Sheriff Cuellar's actions were entirely lawful even if the conduct of other was not," Reed said. "The charges relate to the COVID-19 pandemic and the relentless fight by first responders and others to stop its spread." Reed said Cuellar helped lead an effort to prevent COVID infections in the Webb County jail, as well as in churches, nursing homes, daycare facilities, among other places.

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State Stories

John Whitmire announces he will seek a second term as Houston mayor

Houston Mayor John Whitmire will be running for re-election, or so he indicated during a roughly hour-long conversation with Houston attorney Tony Buzbee. "I will run for another term as mayor, and plan on serving two four-year terms," Whitmire told Buzbee. "I think it takes that long at least to correct some of the mistakes and get us back on the right path and finish some of my reorganization." Whitmire broke the news during the latest episode of Buzbee's podcast, "Swimming with the Sharks," uploaded on Wednesday. The much-anticipated podcast release shines a rare light on Whitmire's roughly first two years sitting at the city's helm. The mayor is notably selective about which media he speaks with, which he himself noted in the conversation.

Chron contacted Whitmire's office for further comment but did not receive a response by publication. Whitmire's office has not responded to Chron since August 2025. Recently, when attempting to contact the mayor's spokesperson at City Hall, a Chron reporter was told the spokesperson and the mayor would remain unavailable to Chron for "a while." Whitmire and Buzbee discussed the controversial Houston Police Department pay raises, Whitmire's attention to rectifying the unhoused "issue," public safety and road and drainage conditions. The mayor reflected on his time in elected leadership, having served in the Texas House and the Texas Senate for nearly four decades before pursuing a mayoral bid. Whitmire's tenure has been characterized as contentious by some Houstonians. He regularly receives backlash for his approach to uprooting road projects, has lost the eligibility to receive future endorsements from his party, and, more recently, was criticized for the lack of transparency regarding HPD's cooperation with ICE, among other issues.

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Texas orphaned oil wells hit 20-year high, topping 11,000 statewide

Chronicle The number of orphaned wells across Texas reached over 11,000 at the end of 2025, breaking a 20-year record, according to the latest data from the state. So-called orphaned wells are oil and gas wells that are not actively maintained and have no operator on file with regulators, meaning the responsibility to clean up after and plug them lies with the state. Roughly 2,000 new wells joined the list over the last year, bringing the total of known orphaned wells to 11,123, according to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry.

Because of the continued consolidation of the oil and gas industry, increased production costs, and lower crude prices – the price of oil fell roughly 20% over the last year – companies are more likely to go bankrupt or dissolve, leaving unplugged wells behind for the state to fix. The number of orphaned wells across the state is likely to grow even further as a result. "While there has been a recent increase in these populations due to various external factors such as operator bankruptcies and aging wells, we are in the process of taking significant actions to increase our well plugging efforts," said Bryce Dubee, a spokesman for the Railroad Commission. The Railroad Commission earlier this month opened the "largest solicitation for well plugging and related services in our agency’s history," Dubee said, applying more than $350 million in federal funding and $100 million in state funding toward well plugging projects.

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Immigration enforcement debate prompts disruptions at lengthy San Antonio City Council meeting

San Antonio City Council chambers were packed Thursday as residents crowded into a more than seven-hour meeting focused on the city’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The meeting was recessed multiple times after disruptions from the audience. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called for order at least three times, urging attendees to allow all speakers to be heard. “We are here to listen,” Jones said. “We also want to make sure every speaker, regardless of their viewpoint on the spectrum, is treated with respect.” The meeting was intended as a public briefing and listening session on how often the San Antonio Police Department works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. City officials said that cooperation occurs only in limited circumstances required by state or federal law.

According to data provided by SAPD, the department made roughly 51,000 arrests last year. Of those, 111 involved ICE detainer requests — when federal authorities ask local law enforcement to hold someone for pickup by ICE. Police said 49 of those cases involved Class C misdemeanors, while 62 involved Class B or higher offenses. Police Chief William McManus repeatedly emphasized that SAPD does not enforce immigration law. “I want to be very, very clear on this,” McManus told the council. “SAPD does not enforce immigration laws. We do not arrest people for immigration violations. We are not enabled to do that by law, and we do not have that jurisdiction.” Deputy City Manager Maria Villagomez added that out of roughly 1.8 million calls for service last year, only 258 incident reports included the word “immigration,” and most of those involved no federal action. McManus said SAPD participates in joint task forces with state and federal agencies primarily to share resources.

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Dallas City Council puts tougher restrictions on proposed bullet train to Fort Worth

The Dallas City Council this week placed more restrictions on where a proposed bullet train connecting the city to Fort Worth can be built. City leaders voted unanimously Wednesday to restrict above-ground rail in parts of West Dallas including Harold Simmons Park. The resolution re-affirms and expands a 2024 resolution opposing “new aboveground passenger rail lines” through the Central Business District, Uptown, and Victory Park. “It is important because it sets parameters for such rail development should it ever come to pass, which at this time seems problematic in light of the Congress just this week reaching a deal to defund $928 million in high-speed rail grants,” said District 14 council member Paul Ridley, referring to a recently passed spending deal.

The council also gave the go-ahead to the North Central Texas Council of Governments executive board to approve a $500,000 grant to study high-speed rail between Fort Worth and Houston. Even with the grant, Ridley said the planning process could have implications for future alignments through Dallas. Speaking to the NCTCOG board Thursday, Dallas City Council member Cara Mendelsohn reiterated the council's opposition to any above-ground rail going through downtown Dallas. "We have to do projects that are a win for everybody, and downtown Fort Worth and Arlington do not get below-grade treatment and Dallas gets seven stories up," she said. As part of the study, the council wants NCTCOG to evaluate upgrades to the existing Trinity Railway Express system “in lieu of a whole separate new high-speed rail right of way at a great additional expense,” Ridley said Wednesday. He said upgrading the Trinity Railway Express would be cheaper for the community heading west to Fort Worth.

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How a lawsuit by Ken Paxton gave Beto O'Rourke hope when it comes to politics

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton unwittingly gave Beto O’Rourke hope by suing him. It started over the summer, after O’Rourke donated $1 million to Texas House Democrats who had fled the state to try to stop the Republicans’ redistricting plan. In court documents, Paxton, a Republican from Collin County who is running for the U.S. Senate, argued O’Rourke was "operating a misleading financial-influence scheme" to help Texas House Democrats commit an illegal act. During an exclusive interview on the Texas Take Podcast, recorded live at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin, O’Rourke said it was a frivolous case that shouldn’t have had a shot. Still, his political action committee shelled out $400,000 to fight it in a legal system with judges appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, whom O’Rourke ran against in 2022.

Ultimately, O’Rourke and Powered By People won. He said the verdict, delivered in September, shows that some things remain nonpartisan. “Not only did that feel good because it removed us from this frivolous legal jeopardy, but it felt good that regardless of party difference, there's something that still binds us together, and that's the United States Constitution,” O’Rourke said. But Paxton did succeed in one key way. The $400,000 lost to legal expenses became money that Powered By People couldn’t use on voter registration and turnout - the group’s core mission. “It was to bleed us dry of the resources we needed to support our volunteers out in the field,” O’Rourke said. “But lo and behold, we fought him toe to toe.”

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Austin council members unanimously back new expense guidelines for their offices

City Council members voted to update policies governing their offices' spending, one of several financial and operational reforms they're pursuing in the wake of last year's failed tax rate election. Officials first suggested revising Austin's council spending policies in the fall, and have since been developing a new outline of allowable expenses and transparency measures. The updated policy unanimously approved Jan. 22 lays out various allowable expenses for council offices, as well as related financial reporting, staff training and enforcement standards. Officials' spending on items like office supplies, travel, hospitality, software, conferences and gifts are now outlined in the city's rulebook. All relevant city employees will now receive annual training on the policy, and public reports on all council office spending will be published online every year going forward.

Mayor Kirk Watson, who first suggested the spending reforms after the November election, said the update consolidates and clarifies past guidelines while moving Austin's rules more in line with other Texas jurisdictions. "This will help safeguard public confidence and offer greater clarity on permissible and impermissible use of funds," he said. "When we reviewed the council spending policies, we found a bunch, a lot, a whole lot of decentralized administrative bulletins and governing policies. So this kind of ... brings those together.” A city analysis of local practices versus others across the state found Austin City Hall to be an outlier in terms of how officials' remaining funds are handled year-to-year. No other Texas cities allow council offices to carry any of their leftover budgets across fiscal years, and state senators are permitted limited office rollover. The draft version of Austin's new expense policy would have capped rollover budgets at $50,000, but that limit was removed through an amendment from council member José Velásquez who said offices need to maintain flexibility to better serve constituents. "While we all receive the same amount of funding, our communities have very different needs. Some examples of those are interpretation and translation services, and meeting with organizations and community leaders that serve monolingual Spanish speakers and immigrants," he said. "With regard to equity, I believe each council office better understands their communities’ individual needs rather than the body as a whole."

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Texas data centers could consume 161 billion gallons of water annually by 2030

Texas data centers could consume up to 161 billion gallons of water annually by 2030, according to a white paper released Wednesday by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC). Existing data centers in Texas consume an estimated 25 billion gallons of water each year for electricity generation and cooling systems, and their demand on the Lone Star Stater’s valuable natural resources is only going to grow, the report cautions. Considered the most rapidly growing data center market in the country, Texas is experiencing a boom in construction of the facilities with many more on the way.

“Texas is no stranger to industrial booms, having ridden waves of oil, gas, and manufacturing, but the data center surge presents a unique challenge that requires immediate attention,” HARC President and CEO John Hall said in an emailed statement. “Our analysis makes one fact unavoidable: When we talk about data centers, we must talk about water. We have a rare window to shape how this industry grows and how Texas prospers. We can either plan now with foresight and transparency, or we will be forced to react later with our backs to the wall.” By 2030, data centers could potentially represent up to 2.7% of the state’s total water use. What’s more, HARC’s white paper cites critical planning gaps as bureaucratic blind spots in addressing this new problem of the rapidly accelerating digital age. The Texas State Water Plan, the primary tool for funding water infrastructure, relies heavily on historical data. As such, HARC argues, the plan doesn’t currently account for the future growth of data centers, leaving local communities to manage water security without adequate state-level support.

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Wall Street’s Texas move gains steam as NYSE Texas hits 100-company milestone

NYSE President Lynn Martin joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss the launch of a new tokenized securities platform, a potential IPO surge in 2026 and why U.S. capital markets remain unmatched globally. The New York Stock Exchange’s quiet expansion into Texas is gaining rapid traction, with NYSE President Lynn Martin revealing that more than 100 companies have already dual-listed on NYSE Texas in under a year — a milestone that underscores Wall Street’s accelerating pivot toward the Lone Star State’s pro-business climate. "NYSE Texas, which we announced February of last year, brought it live March 31 of last year, and now have more than 100 dual listings on NYSE Texas in less than a year," President Lynn Martin told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo at the World Economic Forum on Thursday. "It’s going great," she continued.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump blasted plans to expand the New York Stock Exchange to Dallas, calling the move "unbelievably bad" for New York and a failure of city leadership. "Building a New York Stock Exchange in Dallas is an unbelievably bad thing for New York. I can't believe they would let this happen," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. He added that the move posed a "big test" for New York's newly inaugurated mayor, Zohran Mamdani. The New York Stock Exchange has said the Dallas expansion — a fully electronic equities exchange based in Dallas — is intended to broaden its footprint and better serve companies in the South and Southwest, not to replace its New York operations. NYSE Texas launched in March 2025 and continues to operate alongside the main exchange. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson predicts big firms will quit working in the Big Apple on 'Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street.'

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See who has the edge in CD18 runoff fundraising between Menefee and Edwards

With early voting underway and Election Day approaching in the runoff for Texas’ 18th Congressional District, campaign finance reports show the two campaigns are financially competitive heading into the final days. Through the most recent campaign finance reporting period ending Jan. 11, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee reported raising $2.23 million for the special election, compared to $1.74 million raised by former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards. Menefee also reported higher overall spending, roughly $1.8 million versus Edwards’ $1.4 million, but still entered the final stretch with $388,739 in cash on hand. Edwards reported $280,566.

The bulk of both candidates’ fundraising came from individual donors. Menefee reported $2.09 million in individual contributions, while Edwards reported $1.66 million. Contributions from political committees made up a relatively small share of each campaign’s total, with Menefee reporting $138,550 from committees and Edwards reporting $55,350. The runoff election is being conducted by the current 18th Congressional District boundaries and caps a special election triggered by the prolonged vacancy of the seat after the death of Sylvester Turner earlier last year. Both runoff candidates, Menefee and Edwards, have also filed to run in the March Democratic primary for the newly redrawn CD 18. That race includes longtime representative Al Green, who previously represented Texas' 9th Congressional District, which now makes up a significant portion of the new 18th.

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Former ‘Lone Star Law’ game warden turns himself in after felony indictments

A former Texas game warden, once featured on Animal Planet’s “Lone Star Law,” was back in jail Wednesday after turning himself in following multiple felony indictments. Justin Charles Eddins, 47, of Jasper, was held at the Jasper County Jail on bonds totaling $100,000 for charges of false statement to obtain property or credit, more than $30,000 but less than $100,000; harvesting standing timber, more than $20,000 but less than $100,000; and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair, according to a press release. Eddins was indicted in October 2025 after he was charged with making a false statement to obtain credit, according to indictment documents received by KLTV. The indictment states Eddins made the false documents between March 2022 and November 2023 in an attempt to obtain loans amounting to between $150,000 and $300,000. Eddins was released Wednesday after his lawyer, Bill Morian, posted bail, according to Jasper County Sheriff Chuck Havard.

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Glenn Rogers: Go ahead; close public schools

Gov. Greg Abbott is following up his scorched earth removal of pro-public education Republican legislators with a plan to eliminate school property taxes, a move that could effectively dismantle the public school system as it currently exists. The endgame for the theo-oligarchs who control Texas state politics is complete dominion over what they call the Seven Mountains: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government. Dominion over the education mountain is top priority and requires privatization and elimination of Texas public schools. But I have a few questions. First, if public education is as irredeemably broken, wasteful, ideological, incompetent and dangerous as some politicians insist, why not pull the plug now? Not a slow and gradual death, but overnight closure of every public school. Just shut the doors.

After all, we have heard for years that public schools are failing children, indoctrinating, mismanaging funds and producing poor outcomes. If that is all true, why keep them open one more day? Why subject another child to such a vile system? Then, what happens after schools close? Here’s what: 5.5 million Texas students do not go anywhere. Parents — many of whom work hourly jobs or hold positions that do not come with flexibility — suddenly must answer a basic question: Where does my child go? Employers feel it immediately. Hospitals, construction sites, factories, restaurants, small businesses — everyone feels it. Gone, too, are special education services, speech therapy, behavioral support, school meals, transportation, counselors, dyslexia specialists, nurses and bilingual support. What about structure and predictability? Where will children be expected to show up, learn, interact and receive supervision for the bulk of the day? We received a glimpse of this nightmare during the pandemic. Remember how quickly we decided that school closures were catastrophic for kids? Remember how we said (correctly) that schools are more than buildings, more than instruction, more than test scores? Remember how we watched learning loss grow, mental health concerns skyrocket and parents reach a breaking point?

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Bud Kennedy: One Texas Republican loses Greg Abbott’s support over ‘criminality’

Texas’ political season has been like a slow-developing TV plot so far, but Republicans finally have a cliffhanger. Somewhere way down the March 3 primary ballot, deep beneath races that won’t be decided until the May 26 runoff, cowboy Sid Miller is desperately gripping the reins and at risk of being bucked out of his job as Texas agriculture commissioner. Yes, I know. The race for agriculture commissioner is not must-see TV. Miller, a grinning Texas slickster straight out of a Taylor Sheridan drama, is known for wearing a big western hat, riding in rodeos and flashing a toothy smile as bright as the halogen headlights on a cattle truck. Miller has been agriculture commissioner for 11 years. Seems like 50.

Maybe you remember when he declared war on lab-cultured meat. Or on affirmative action. Or on those crazy little seeds Amazon delivers from China. Gov. Greg Abbott has noticed. Abbott, usually cautious, issued one of his most blunt endorsements, backing Collin County Republican challenger Nate Sheets against Miller. Sheets, a creator of the “I Am Second” evangelical Christian video campaign, is also the beekeeper and founder behind Nature’s Nate Honey. Abbott took Miller behind the barn. Texans deserves an Agriculture Commissioner with “zero tolerance for criminality,” the governor posted. On his X.com campaign account, Abbott called Sheets a “principled leader” focused on promoting Texas agriculture, which is the commissioner’s primary job. That was after Miller told an East Texas campaign forum in Mineola: “Our governor — for 10 years, I’ve been trying to get him on the farm. Hadn’t got him there yet.” The governor’s “criminality” line did not refer directly to Miller. Abbott was talking about Miller’s political consultant, Todd M. Smith. Smith ran Miller’s campaigns for 25 years. He was behind Miller’s often-vulgar social media posts. In 2024, Smith pleaded guilty in a bribery case. He was put on a two-year probation after the Texas Rangers said he solicited $55,000 in exchange for licenses to grow hemp. So what did Miller do? He rehired Smith.

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Can Texas enforce immigration law on its own? Judges hear legal challenge.

The fate of a Texas law that makes it a state crime to enter the country without authorization could hinge on whether an immigrant advocacy center has a right to challenge the legislation, and if border enforcement is solely the federal government’s responsibility. Texas' Senate Bill 4 was passed in 2023 and makes unauthorized entry into Texas a state crime. The bill also makes unlawful presence in Texas a felony if a person has been denied entry or previously ordered removed. The bill was scheduled to go into effect in March 2024 but has been placed on hold after a federal district judge ruled in February 2024 that it conflicts with federal law and violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday in New Orleans after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the court to reconsider the pause on the legislation. Most of the arguments centered on whether El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, will face harm and has standing to sue. The law was also challenged by the Biden Justice Department, but the Trump administration’s Department of Justice later dropped the lawsuit against Texas. The state of Texas argued in a court filing that Las Americas relied on a flawed theory to convince the court that it would suffer harm because it would need to divert resources to represent immigrants detained under the provisions of SB4. Texas’ argument focused largely on a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. In that case, the high court determined that the alliance didn’t have legal standing to sue the FDA. “The alliance argued the … governmental action impaired its ability to provide services and achieve its organizational mission. The Supreme Court held that argument does not work,” Texas Solicitor General William Peterson told the court. “I urge the court to resolve the case on standing grounds.”

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National Stories

The House passed all 12 spending bills asserting their control

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed its 12th and final funding bill for the fiscal year — a productive pivot showing Congress can govern after months of legislative turmoil in the chamber. The House managed to pass all of its funding bills just months after a stand off on a spending package forced the longest government shutdown in history. Lawmakers are one step closer to avoiding another shutdown by the Jan. 30 funding deadline, pending action by the Senate and president. Lawmakers applauded in the chamber as the final package passed, while the Appropriations Committee’s chair and ranking member, Reps. Tom Cole and Rosa DeLauro, took a photo together on the House floor. The productive few weeks of churning through spending bills and passing them with bipartisan votes came after months of partisan fights that gridlocked Congress.

House leaders couldn’t move forward with their agenda, and Republican leadership faced its own members using procedural maneuvers to force votes on issues they worked to avoid, like releasing the Epstein files and renewing health care subsidies. Even the lawmakers who negotiated the spending bills were surprised. DeLauro posed a rhetorical question to reporters Wednesday night: “I don’t believe that anyone thought that by Jan. 30 we would get to pass all the appropriations bills. Am I right?” she said. “We are.” The House approved the two final sets of appropriations bills Thursday. The first, funding for the Department of Homeland Security, passed 220-207 with help from seven Democrats: Reps. Jared Golden, Henry Cuellar, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Tom Suozzi, Laura Gillen, Vicente Gonzalez and Don Davis. Rep. Thomas Massie was the sole Republican ‘no.’ A shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis had threatened the bill’s prospects for the last two weeks, though Republicans were confident it would ultimately squeak through. The second package garnered more bipartisan support in a 341-88 vote. It included funding for several departments: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Defense. Two dozen Republicans, mostly budget hawks, opposed the bill. House appropriators have been deep in negotiations over the past few months trying to come to bipartisan deals that could acquire support from both parties and be signed by the president, with some appropriators and their staff working over the holiday recess. Cole has said that keeping negotiations at the subcommittee level allowed bills to move forward without fights requiring leadership to step in. Many senior Republican appropriators and Speaker Mike Johnson gave Cole credit for getting the bills passed at a news conference Thursday evening.

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Jamie Dimon issues rare CEO criticism of Trump’s immigration policy: ‘I don’t like what I’m seeing’

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday that he disagreed with President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration, offering a rare public rebuke by a U.S. corporate leader of one of Trump’s signature policies. Dimon, speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, initially praised Trump’s moves to secure the borders of the world’s largest economy. Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border fell to the lowest level in 50 years for the period from October 2024 to September 2025, the BBC reported citing federal data. But Dimon, who has long advocated for immigration reform to boost U.S. economic growth, also made an apparent reference to videos of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers rounding up people alleged to be undocumented immigrants.

?I don’t like what I’m seeing, five grown men beating up a little old lady,” Dimon said. “So I think we should calm down a little bit on the internal anger about immigration.” It’s unclear if Dimon was speaking about a specific incident, or more broadly about ICE confrontations. In the first year of his second term, Trump has overhauled U.S. immigration policy with a focus on mass deportations, tightened asylum access and ramped-up spending for ICE personnel and facilities. Among a torrent of new policies that changed the landscape for seeking American citizenship, the administration also rescinded guidance on where ICE arrests could happen, leading to raids at schools, hospitals and places of worship. Unlike during Trump’s first term, American CEOs have mostly avoided public criticism of his policies. Wall Street analysts have speculated that business leaders fear retribution from the Trump administration, which has sued media companies, universities and law firms, and instead choose to appeal to the president out of the public spotlight.

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Sharyn Alfonsi, Scott Pelley’s jobs are on the line after pushing back against Bari Weiss’ CBS News shakeups: sources

Call it Game of … Microphones? “60 Minutes” correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Scott Pelley’s vocal pushback against CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss’s moves to shake up the outlet have put the duo at risk of being fired, The Post has learned. Both veteran correspondents could get the boot as Weiss, who has run the network since October, works to revamp “60 Minutes,” said sources with knowledge of the matter — who compared the ongoing intrigue to “Game of Thrones”-style drama. “It’s going to be a war,” a network insider told The Post. “They don’t think their s–t stinks,” the person said of the “60 Minutes” staff.

CBS News is willing to buy out contracts of talent and executives, sources said. Alfonsi’s is up in a few months. It could not immediately be learned when Pelley’s contract is set to expire. The correspondents did not respond to requests for comment. CBS News did not immediately comment. Alfonsi irked Weiss by fighting the boss’ efforts to strengthen a recent report on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, while Pelley has put a target on his back for a drumroll of commentary criticizing CBS News’ new leadership, sources said. Weiss is overseeing all the important political and cultural stories produced by the network — including “60 Minutes,” sources said, noting that the exec now takes part in a new Monday meeting with the show’s executive producer Tanya Simon. That’s a sharp departure from the “60 Minutes” tradition of operating as a kingdom unto itself for decades, when the show’s executive producer was the only person overseeing the show’s journalism. “CBS News is allergic to changes – especially ‘60 Minutes’ people,” said the network insider.

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Rollins: Viral meal costs remark meant to describe ‘more robust plate’

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday that comments she made last week suggesting Americans could get a nutritious meal consisting of a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a corn tortilla, and “one other thing” for just $3 were meant to describe a “more robust plate.” Rollins clarified her remarks after being asked by a reporter whether she was being “a little bit flip” about the cost of groceries. “No, and well, I regret that I didn’t make it sound like a more robust plate because that is what I mean to make it sound like,” Rollins told reporters outside the White House.

“A really big piece of chicken. And when I said a piece of broccoli, I meant like big. … I’m a mom of four, and I cook broccoli a lot. For me, that’s a big head of broccoli, a baked potato, etc., a couple pieces of bread,” she said. Rollins’s remark on meal prices came during an interview on NewsNation last week, where she addressed concerns over whether the White House’s new dietary guidelines meant it would become more expensive to maintain a healthy diet. “We’ve run over 1,000 simulations,” Rollins told anchor Connell McShane last Wednesday, insisting the Trump administration was not asking people to spend more on their diet. “It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, you know, a corn tortilla and one other thing,” she continued. “So, there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money.”

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TikTok finalizes deal to keep operating in the U.S.

TikTok officially established a joint venture that would allow it to keep operating in the U.S., the company said Thursday, resolving a yearslong fight to address Washington’s national-security concerns. Under the terms of the deal negotiated by the Trump administration, the popular video-sharing app will be operated by a new U.S. entity controlled by investors seen as friendly to the U.S. Its data-management and algorithm-training on American users will be overseen by Oracle, the cloud-computing giant that has safeguarded its U.S. data for years and has close ties to the Trump administration. The deal was negotiated to comply with a law passed in 2024. President Trump delayed the implementation of the law a year ago after starting his second term to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. He signed a series of executive orders to extend the deadline for completing a deal until it was met Thursday.

“I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok!” Trump said in a social-media post Thursday night. He thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping “for working with us and, ultimately, approving the Deal. He could have gone the other way, but didn’t, and is appreciated for his decision.” Trump and TikTok’s investors and allies pushed the deal through despite lingering concerns among lawmakers and security hawks that China could still influence the new entity through TikTok parent ByteDance, which owns almost 20% of it. “The majority American owned joint venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for U.S. users,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in an internal note to employees announcing the news. Chew’s deputy Adam Presser will lead the new entity, which was created after securing approval from the U.S. and Chinese governments. The board members include Chew, Oracle executive Ken Glueck and several investors. Oracle, private-equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will each own 15% of the new entity while existing TikTok investors own about 30%. Other notable investors include Vice President JD Vance’s former firm Revolution and tech executive Michael Dell’s family investment office.

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Judge skeptical of Trump's arguments he has proper authority to build White House ballroom

A federal judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration's claims that it has the proper authority to continue construction on the East Wing site that was demolished last year. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon heard arguments Thursday on a motion brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to block the ongoing construction of the East Wing until the Trump administration goes through the appropriate approval processes, which it alleges the Trump administration has ignored. Friday's arguments focused primarily on two issues: whether the president can unilaterally renovate the White House and whether he can do it with private funds that were transferred to an office under his authority, rather than with funds appropriated by Congress.

Tad Heuer, an attorney representing the Trust, argued the law requires express approval from Congress to execute a project as significant as the 90,000 square-foot East Wing renovation. Congress provides the White House with a modest annual budget for the "repair, alteration, and improvement" of the building. The administration contends this authority encompasses the East Wing overhaul. Leon responded that the Trump administration's view is a "very expansive definition," later adding that "there's been an end-run around this oversight from Congress." Leon pressed senior Justice Department official Yaakov Roth, on whether "ripping down the East Wing" is similar to previous White House renovations, like the tennis pavilion added by Mr. Trump in his first term, or the swimming pool added in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. Roth argued it was akin to those projects. "Come on. Be serious," Leon snapped.

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Data center lobbying is booming as tech and energy giants face ‘affordability’ backlash

Dozens of Silicon Valley giants, utility providers and other companies stand to earn a fortune from the nation’s artificial intelligence boom. And according to new lobbying disclosures reviewed by NOTUS, these special interests together spent big money late last year to score favorable treatment from federal lawmakers and regulators on what’s fast becoming a central issue of the 2026 midterm elections: the proliferation of data centers that undergird AI’s existence. Energy demand from data centers has increased in recent years, leading to soaring prices and increasing threats of blackouts. Energy experts have raised doubts about whether the nation’s power grid can withstand data center demand — particularly as President Donald Trump attempts to stymie renewable energy development and generation.

Hand-wringing over the proliferation of data centers — which has played a huge role in recent U.S. economic growth — has already hit Congress. Members of both parties are now publicly weighing the economic benefits of the construction boom against the risks to the power grid and costs to energy consumers, with some on the left calling for at least temporary limits on data center construction. Edison Electric Institute was one of the nation’s biggest lobbying spenders last quarter. The investor-owned association of electric companies poured $2.33 million into its lobbying efforts in an attempt to influence “data center issues generally,” among other issues. “EEI engages with policymakers to advance policies that support responsible data center development, protect everyday Americans from cost shifts and strengthen the grid for American families and businesses,” Jeremy White, an Edison Electric Institute spokesperson, wrote to NOTUS. American Electric Power, a large investor-owned utility in the Midwest, spent $360,000 during the fourth quarter of 2025 to lobby Congress, the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, partly on data center matters.

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A judge just ruled a New York City district unconstitutional, possibly handing Democrats another seat

A judge has ruled that the boundaries of one of New York’s Congressional districts is unconstitutional, throwing a wrench into the 2026 midterm elections. Supreme Court Judge Jeffrey Pearlman of Manhattan issued a ruling Wednesday that says the boundaries of New York’s 11th District — which currently covers Staten Island and a small part of Brooklyn — was drawn unlawfully and needs to be redone. He ordered that a special Independent Redistricting Commission convene to complete a new map by Feb. 6, just over two weeks from now. Before becoming a judge, Pearlman has worked for major New York Democrats including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

The 11th Congressional District is currently represented by Republican Nicole Malliotakis, who is the only Republican member of Congress in New York City. A redrawn district could include more blue parts of the city, upsetting what is now a fairly safe seat for the GOP. John Faso, a representative of attorneys representing Rep. Malliotakis in the case, called the decision “judicial lawmaking run amok.” “It is contrary to plain language in both state and federal constitutions. The case will definitely be appealed,” he said. Malliotakis is not named as a plaintiff or defendant in the case, but joined as an intervener in late October arguing to keep the district lines as they are. The Board of Elections and Gov. Kathy Hochul, both named as defendants in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by THE CITY. Neither did attorneys Andrew Celli and Bennet Moskowitz, who are representing Staten Island voters as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

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Lead Stories

Inside Trump’s head-spinning Greenland and tariffs u-turn

When President Trump arrived in the snow-covered Swiss Alps on Wednesday afternoon, European leaders were panicking that his efforts to acquire Greenland would trigger a trans-Atlantic conflagration. By the time the sun set, Trump had backed down. The about-face followed days of back-channel conversations between Trump, his advisers and European leaders, including NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, according to people close to the talks. The Europeans, who stood united in their opposition to Trump acquiring Greenland, employed a mix of enticements, such as offers to boost Arctic security, and warnings, including about the dangers to the U.S. of a deeper rupture in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. After a meeting with Rutte on Wednesday, Trump called off promised tariffs on European nations, contending that he had “formed the framework of a future deal” with respect to the largest island in the world.

The exact contours of the framework are still in flux, but negotiations are expected to center on several areas, according to officials in Europe familiar with the discussions. They include a potential U.S. agreement with Denmark about stationing forces at bases in Greenland and expanded European efforts to boost security around the Arctic. The U.S. could receive a right of first refusal on investments in Greenland’s mineral resources—a veto aimed at preventing Russia and China from tapping the island’s wealth—and in exchange Trump would take tariff threats off the table, the officials said. Speaking to reporters, Trump called the framework “really fantastic,” but offered few details. He said he assumes Denmark, which controls Greenland, had been informed about the potential deal. The White House declined to comment on the details of the proposed framework and a Trump administration official said the scope of the negotiations hadn’t been set in stone. “If this deal goes through, and President Trump is very hopeful it will, the United States will be achieving all of its strategic goals with respect to Greenland, at very little cost, forever,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

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Ahead of this weekend's freeze, Texans are asking: Where's Ted Cruz?

Ahead of an Arctic blast forecast to bring plunging temperatures, "hazardous cold" and ice to areas across Texas this weekend, some Texans are asking a familiar question: Where is Sen. Ted Cruz? The Texas senator faced heavy backlash in 2021 after constituents discovered he had flown to Cancun for a family vacation during a devastating winter storm that left an estimated 246 people dead and most of the state without power. So when an eagle-eyed X user spotted Cruz on a flight to Laguna Beach, Calif., on Tuesday, attention quickly turned to whether history might be repeating itself.

Is the senator fleeing the storm for sunnier climes once again? Not the case, a spokesperson for Cruz confirmed to the Statesman. "Senator Cruz is currently on pre-planned work travel that was scheduled weeks in advance," the spokesperson said in a statement. "He will be back in Texas before the storm is projected to hit." Cruz returned early from his Cancun trip in 2021 after widespread criticism, saying at the time that he initially planned to “work remotely” but reconsidered as the situation worsened. "From the moment I sat on the plane, I begin really second-guessing that decision," Cruz said after his return to Texas. "As it became a bigger and bigger firestorm, it became all the more compelling that I needed to come back."

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Trump 2.0 shakes up K Street power balance

President Donald Trump has upended business as usual in Washington, and the lobbying industry is no exception. The District’s reigning lobbying firm from 2024, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, was dethroned in 2025 by Ballard Partners, the firm run by Trump ally Brian Ballard that counts White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bondi among its alumni. Ballard Partners made more than $87.6 million in 2025, according to a NOTUS analysis of federal lobbying disclosures — a more than 350% increase from the $19.3 million in federal lobbying revenue it earned in 2024. No lobbying firm has ever cracked $80 million in federal revenue in one year until Ballard Partners did last year.

“We are exceptionally honored to be in the company of the many respected firms we have long admired. Our success is due to the tireless work of our partners and staff who go above and beyond every day to deliver results for our outstanding clients,” Brian Ballard, president of Ballard Partners, said in a statement to NOTUS. Some on K Street are skeptical that a Trump-tied firm can sustain its momentum if Republicans lose control of the House or Senate later this year, and certainly, if they lose the White House in 2028. But Ballard said the firm is “doggedly committed to growing a fiercely bipartisan firm that is built to thrive in Washington’s dynamic political environment for decades to come.” Bipartisan firms have been able to absorb much of the shock of the transition from the Biden administration to Trump’s second term. Several lobbying firms that thrived in 2025 are Republican-only, though. CGCN, a Republican firm filled with former Trump administration alumni, nearly doubled its federal lobbying revenue from $9.7 million in 2024 to more than $18.9 million in 2025.

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Abbott endorses challenger against incumbent Ag Commissioner Sid Miller

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday endorsed Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller's Republican primary challenger, initiating a rare intraparty dustup with an entrenched incumbent who has strong ties to President Donald Trump. Abbott, who is seeking a record fourth term and is heavily favored in the upcoming primary, said on social media that he is backing political newcomer Nate Sheets, because he is "committed to fighting for the best interests of Texas agriculture, upholding the rule of law, and restoring integrity" to the office Miller has held since 2015.

"Texans deserve an Agriculture Commissioner who is focused on promoting Texas Agriculture, with zero tolerance for criminality," Abbott said in the post. "Nate Sheets is the true conservative champion for the job and is the leader we need to keep Texas the global powerhouse in agriculture." Miller, who was elected agriculture commissioner the same year Abbott won his first race for governor, has proven to be both a colorful and controversial statewide officeholder. He has been a champion of the Texas hemp industry and pushed back against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's full-court press to ban products containing THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis that is derived from hemp. Last year, Miller rehired his longtime friend and political aide Todd Smith shortly after Smith pleaded guilty to commercial bribery charges that he’d solicited tens of thousands from farmers seeking licenses to grow hemp in the state. It's unclear if Abbott's statement was a reference to the incident.

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State Stories

Cuban detainee in El Paso ICE facility died by homicide, autopsy shows

A Cuban immigrant’s death in an El Paso detention center this month was ruled a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the county medical examiner’s office. The detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, became unresponsive while he was physically restrained by law enforcement on Jan. 3 at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility called Camp East Montana, the report said. Emergency medical workers tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. The autopsy listed the cause of death as “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.” The report also described injuries Mr. Lunas Campos had sustained to his head and neck, including burst blood vessels in the front and side of the neck, as well as on his eyelids.

The determination by the medical examiner’s office does not necessarily indicate criminal culpability. It is a classification of how a person died, not a legal determination of guilt. Mr. Lunas Campos’s death has brought renewed scrutiny to the detention center this month after The Washington Post reported the episode last week. His family has asserted that he was killed by the facility’s guards, citing a witness who said he saw guards choking Mr. Lunas Campos to death. The family is preparing a wrongful-death lawsuit, according to their lawyer, Will Horowitz. “He was being abused and beaten and choked to death,” Jeanette Pagan Lopez, the mother of two of Mr. Lunas Campos’s children, told The New York Times last week. On Wednesday, Ms. Pagan Lopez said she had not yet seen the autopsy report. Federal officials have offered a different account of how Mr. Lunas Campos died. In a Jan. 9 news release, they said he died on Jan. 3 after experiencing medical distress, but after the Washington Post article published, they described his death as a suicide.

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Jury acquits former Uvalde school officer in first criminal trial tied to Robb Elementary shooting

A Nueces County jury on Wednesday acquitted former Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales of all charges in the first criminal trial tied to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers. As the verdict was read, several family members of the victims sat in silence, visibly emotional, some covering their faces as they wiped away tears. “It’s been an emotional roller coaster since day one. We prepared for the worst,” said Javier Cazares, who lost his 9-year-old daughter, Jackie, in the shooting. “We had a little hope, but it wasn’t enough.”

Jesse Rizo, the uncle of Jackie Cazares, said he respected the jury’s decision but believes it sends a troubling message to law enforcement in future situations. “If you’re an officer, you can stand by, stand down, and do nothing while people are executed, killed, slaughtered, massacred,” Rizo said. “Is that the message you sent today?” The verdict ends the first attempt to hold a law enforcement officer criminally responsible for the delayed police response to the massacre, in which nearly 400 officers waited more than an hour to confront the gunman. Prosecutors had argued Gonzales, one of the first officers on scene, failed to act quickly enough to stop or delay the shooter. Defense attorneys said Gonzales never saw the gunman and acted reasonably given the limited information available to him at the time. During closing arguments earlier Wednesday, attorneys on both sides told jurors their verdict would send a message to law enforcement officers across Texas — though they disagreed sharply on what that message should be.

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UH removed its student government. Can they budget $25M in student fees?

Two state lawmakers and a group of University of Houston students are questioning whether the university followed state law when it approved a $25 million student fee budget last fall without a functioning student government. The controversy involves the Student Fees Advisory Committee, which UH students view as their most direct way to affect change on campus. It sets the budget for millions of dollars in student fees each year, funding campus services like health care, veteran support and career advising. While previous debates have centered on subsidies for athletics, the committee became a flash point again last year after UH administrators dissolved the Student Government Association, which state statute holds responsible for making student appointments to the advisory committee.

Instead of waiting for a new student government this spring, UH officials convened a group of current and former student leaders to conduct interviews and appoint new members to the advisory panel, a university spokesperson said. That work-around got the attention of state Rep. Penny Morales Shaw, D-Houston. She wrote a letter to UH Chancellor Renu Khator on Nov. 25, saying she worried that the appointments were improper and "undermined student authority." "The statute reflects the Legislature's belief that students should have a meaningful voice in decisions affecting the more than $25 million in annual student service fees at UH," Morales Shaw wrote. "While I deeply respect UH's autonomy in managing its affairs, I want to ensure we're on the same page regarding the statutory requirements for student representation." State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, also wrote a letter to the student chair of the committee, urging her not to sign the 2027 budget recommendations until it was clear UH was following the law. The student chair did not respond to requests for comment.

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'Call a Republican': Phone connects liberal San Francisco with conservative Texas

An old pay phone in San Francisco's Mission District is connecting people in the majority Democratic city with people in Abilene, Texas, a majority Republican city. The phone is called the Party Line; it was installed over the weekend in front of tattoo studio Black Serum in San Francisco and in front of a bookshop in Abilene. In San Francisco, users are encouraged to "call a Republican." In Abilene, they're asked to "call a Democrat." Tech startup Matter Neuroscience is behind the social experiment. The company is focused on boosting happiness and believes people fundamentally enjoy talking. The idea is to encourage conversation between people who may be different away from social media.

Christopher Renfro, who works a few doors down from where the phone is installed in San Francisco, decided to pick it up and give it a try on Tuesday. "Hey, this is Chris from San Francisco. Who am I speaking with?" Renfro started the conversation. Renfro said the man on the other line was on a date and had just had wood-fired pizza for lunch. They talked about their jobs and the cities they lived in. Politics never came up, but Matter Neuroscience told the San Francisco Chronicle that's the point. Renfro said it was a good experience. "I think as long as you're just trying to be nice, respectful and see where they are in the world, it's pretty easy to have a conversation with anyone," he said.

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Farrah Abraham says she’s running for Austin City Council. Is she eligible?

Reality TV star Farrah Abraham made headlines last week when she announced her bid for the District 5 seat on the Austin City Council. But is she eligible to run? City code requires council candidates to have lived continuously in Texas for at least 12 months and in the district they seek to represent for at least six months before the filing deadline. Abraham filed a campaign finance report last Thursday listing a mailing address in District 9. In a statement to the American-Statesman, Abraham said data indicating that her address was not in District 5 was outdated. She said the city confirmed her council district after what she described as confusion surrounding her initial mayoral announcement. Abraham initially announced a run for Austin mayor on TMZ before learning the next mayoral election is not until 2028.

“The current map for 2031 is correct that I do indeed live in district 5 and have triple checked via Ai legal binding accurate maps,” Abraham said. She added that she hopes to advocate for the use of artificial intelligence on Austin city websites “to help other candidates stop misinformation to get me disqualified.” “I have provided what was legally stated to me by city officials who approved my documents to move forward and that is proper fact checking,” she said. “If I was not in the zip code then I clearly would not have my docs updated and wait two years for Mayor.” On Tuesday, Abraham posted on Instagram that the address she listed, on Harwin Lane, is in Council District 5. Her post included an image of a council district map with what appeared to be a search of the address and the text, “Definitive Answer: [Street number] Harwin Lane is District 5.” The Statesman located Harwin Lane on the city's Council District Map and found that the street is entirely within District 2.

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Gov. Greg Abbott demands Cy-Fair ISD cancel Islamic Games event

Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to Cy-Fair ISD leaders Wednesday demanding that they cancel a sporting event with the Islamic Games of North America scheduled for later this year, citing alleged ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which Abbott recently declared a "foreign terrorist organization." "You cannot invite such dangers through the front doors of our schools," he wrote. "Radical Islamic extremism is not welcome in Texas — and certainly not in our schools." The move comes after the Dallas-area Grapevine-Colleyville ISD canceled a similar event on Tuesday, saying that they had learned that CAIR New Jersey was a sponsor of a related event at one point, according to news reports.

The Islamic Games describes itself as the "premier Muslim sports and athletic event in North America," with over 8,000 athletes participating in games held across the U.S. and Canada last year. It says its mission is to promote unity and community development and is "open to any individual or team regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion." Abbott ordered Cy-Fair ISD to "preserve all records and communications concerning this event" and demanded leaders cancel the event within seven days of receiving the letter or face an investigation by the Texas Education Agency and potential legal action by Attorney General Ken Paxton. He added that he would direct Paxton to file "injunctions to halt public school districts from hosting events sponsored by designated terror organizations like CAIR." Cy-Fair ISD leaders did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the event, which is scheduled to take place at Bridgeland High School in October. In his letter to Cy-Fair ISD leaders, Abbott cites a link to a snapshot of the Islamic Games' website from Nov. 16 — two days before his terrorist organization designation of CAIR — using the Wayback Machine, an online archive that collects snapshots of websites. CAIR New Jersey is listed among the slate of event sponsors on the archived page, but it is no longer on the live site.

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3 Prairieland shooting defense attorneys fined $500 each for ‘frivolous’ evidence motions

A federal judge in Fort Worth fined three defense attorneys in the July 4 Prairieland Detention Center shooting case Jan. 14 for filing “frivolous” motions attempting to obtain evidence from prosecutors. After a hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman ordered Patrick McLain, Brian Bouffard and Bradley Sauer — attorneys for defendant Zachary Evetts — to pay $500 each for their “sharp-elbow drafting” of repeated motions in the case, in what he said were violations of state rules for attorney conduct. The motions accused the government of stonewalling Evetts’ attorneys as they attempt to obtain and review evidence ahead of the Feb. 17 trial in the case. The prosecution and defense are legally required to share all evidence that will be presented at trial with the other side in a case.

Pittman’s order also accused the attorneys of falsely casting doubt on the prosecutors’ integrity and misrepresenting communications between the parties. In one of their motions, Evetts’ attorneys omitted an email from the government responding to one request — explaining that the defense counsel’s demands for evidence were moot or sought materials outside the scope of criminal rules for discovery. Evetts’ attorneys say the omission was a mistake. McLain, Evetts' lead counsel, told KERA News in a phone call Tuesday that while he and his co-counsel stand by the accuracy of their requests for Pittman to enforce the rules of discovery against the government, as outlined in a scheduling order, his team respects the judge’s authority. “We are, of course, going to honor his decision, and we're going to proceed forward to trial, ready to advocate on behalf of Mr. Evetts and argue for his acquittal on the charges against him in this case,” McLain said.

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To save district from takeover, Austin ISD will likely cede control of three middle schools

Three struggling Austin middle schools will likely come under the operation of charter schools after a detailed review of testing scores and projections showed the schools are unlikely to improve enough to avoid a district takeover. Austin ISD board members are expected to vote later this month on whether to seek the charter partnerships and relinquish control of Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools as part of a scramble to maintain control of the district. At a board meeting Thursday night, Superintendent Matias Segura confirmed the schools were showing meaningful academic gains but not enough, or at least fast enough, to escape Texas’ accountability clock. Without dramatic improvement this year, the campuses could trigger a chain reaction that allows the state to close the schools or seize control of the entire district.

Under Texas policy, if any of the three schools receive a fifth failing accountability rating after this year’s standardized tests, the state education commissioner could order the campuses closed or overtake the district entirely, replacing elected trustees with a state-appointed board of managers and diminishing local input on district decisions. Test scores weigh heavily in the accountability ratings. Segura told board members the district relied on an internal data review as well as an analysis by a technical partner, Steady State, which showed especially strong academic growth at Burnet and Dobie. “In reality, that great work is leading to improvement, and we’re excited to share some of that, but we also recognize that there are lots of challenges with the types of growth we need in the time period that we have,” Segura said after commending teachers and staff at the three schools, which he said he visited recently. Trustee Arati Singh highlighted double-digit gains in reading and math scores among seventh and eighth grade students at Dobie and Burnet middle schools. “I don’t know if I have really seen these kinds of gains,” Singh said. “Thank you to the staff of our schools for doing this and the students and our families for really focusing in. I wish we could continue this trajectory.”

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Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial Board: Taylor Rehmet for Senate District 9

Everything about the special election for a Tarrant County seat in the Texas Senate is unusual — the timing, the first-time candidates for state office and, increasingly, the potential outcome. Democrat Taylor Rehmet led the first round of voting despite the fact that District 9, covering much of north and west Tarrant County, is solid Republican turf. That was largely because two Republicans split the vote. But Rehmet came close to winning outright, and he’s got a chance to pull off an upset in the runoff against Republican Leigh Wambsganss. That would be the best outcome for Fort Worth. It’s not that the winner here, whose term will end in early 2027, will sway important legislation. It’s likely that Rehmet or Wambsganss won’t cast a single vote in the Senate, which doesn’t meet this year, until after one of them is elected to a full term in the fall.

A Rehmet victory, though, would send an important message to the Texas and Tarrant County Republican parties: Enough. Rehmet, a union leader and aircraft machinist, has focused his campaign on economic and quality-of-life concerns. We don’t agree with him on any number of specific issues. But he’s more in tune with everyday voters’ concerns: the price of groceries, the availability of reasonably priced housing, the quality of public schools and the length of their commutes. He’s not bucking his party on social and cultural issues. But he seems to recognize that they eat up far too much of our political oxygen as serious economic issues stack up. And if Rehmet, 33, should pull this off, it will be a clear signal to the GOP that it is in danger of going too far to the right and ignoring the needs of Texans beyond the narrowest Republican base. By nominating Wambsganss, a 58-year-old Southlake resident, the party embraced its conservative id. She’s a long-tenured and successful activist who, until launching this campaign, was an executive at Patriot Mobile, the Christian-themed cellular company, and a leader in its political activities. Texas Republicans need a jolt, a reminder that they should prioritize the biggest concerns of Texas families: education (not just school vouchers), health care (not just restrictions on abortion and gender care) and housing (not just cutting property taxes).

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Austin candidates raised $140K heading into 2026 City Council elections this November

Mid-January campaign finance reports offer an early look at Austin's 2026 City Council contests, as candidates for five seats raised almost $140,000 and had nearly $800,000 on hand heading into the new year. This November's local ballot will feature elections for half of Austin's 10 geographic council districts. The District 1 seat will be open for the first time in eight years, as council member Natasha Harper-Madison reaches her term limit and isn't running for re-election. Any challengers in districts 3, 5, 8 and 9 are expected to face incumbent candidates; District 8 council member Paige Ellis is also reaching her limit of two consecutive terms but will petition her Southwest Austin constituents to allow her to run for a third.

Two people have filed so far in the race to succeed Harper-Madison and represent portions of Central and East Austin in District 1. Candidate Steven Brown raised almost $6,000 from more than two dozen people and spent less than $200, leaving him with just over $5,500 heading into 2026, while Alexandria Anderson reported no fundraising, campaign spending or cash on hand. Sitting council member José Velásquez doesn't yet have any challengers in District 3, which covers portions of South and East Austin. Velásquez drew more than $27,000 in donations from over 100 people last year while reporting just under $1,400 in fundraising expenses, leaving him with more than $32,000 on hand for his upcoming campaign. South Austin's District 5 race has three candidates so far, with David Weinberg and Farrah Abraham challenging incumbent council member Ryan Alter.

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Texas Supreme Court to hear suit from over 50 cities saying telecom providers get illegal discounts

Texas Supreme Court justices will decide whether two state laws are giving unlawful discounts to cable and telecommunication service providers, resulting in millions in lost revenue for dozens of cities across the state. The court granted the state’s request to review the case in which both the trial court and the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals ruled two laws passed by the Texas Legislature in 2017 and 2019 capping costs for providers are unconstitutional. Justices will hear arguments in the case March 5. “The (Texas) Constitution says you can’t give public property away for free,” Bob Heath, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, told KERA News. “That’s exactly what’s going on here.”

KERA News has reached out to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for comment and will update this story with any response. State lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1004 in 2017, allowing wireless network providers install network nodes in public rights-of-way — like roads — and cities to charge the providers an annual $250 right-of-way rate per node. The nodes are typically installed on street lights or utility poles 30-40 feet above the ground, enabling 5G wireless services. Two years later, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1152. Instead of requiring companies providing both cable and telecom services to pay cities to deliver both services, the law allowed companies to only pay whichever charge was higher. Texas argued the laws incentivize technology improvements, provide uniform regulation, reduce consumer costs and eliminate “double taxation” for utility companies. The laws passed as providers started rolling out 5G wireless technology and asked federal and state officials to streamline the process.

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County Stories

Tarrant County Juvenile Board removes lawyer. Some say it was a political move

A local lawyer who is running for a district judge seat was removed from a list of court-appointed attorneys by the Tarrant County Juvenile Board. Some say it was driven by politics. Brian Willett, a Democrat , was not approved for a list of attorneys a court can assign to represent juveniles whose families can’t afford one, during a Tarrant County Juvenile Board meeting on Wednesday. Willett, who is running for the 323rd District Court seat, which hears child welfare and juvenile delinquency cases, is hoping to unseat Judge Alex Kim, a Republican and the chair of the Tarrant County Juvenile Board.

“I think it’s totally political, because I’ve been on the list from the very beginning in 2002 when it first opened and never had a problem,” Willett told the Star-Telegram. “The only thing that’s changed since then is I decided to run against one of their candidates, and now, all of a sudden, it’s an issue.” Willett was not present during the meeting and heard about the news hours later. Judge Christopher Taylor, a Republican who presides over the 48th District Court, said he wanted to personally remove Willett from the approved list of attorneys and vote on Willett separately. Judge Don Cosby, a Republican who presides over the 67th District Court, questioned if it was a political move. “Are we doing this for political reasons?” Crosby asked. “I don’t want to be part of something, that is hurting somebody for political reasons.” Taylor said he has “personal issues” with Willett and will abstain from the vote.

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City Stories

Crosswalks and intersection in University Park will keep SMU theme

As you may have heard, late last year, Gov. Greg Abbott, who gladly enforced an edict from U.S. Transportation Secretary/former MTV Real World roommate/Airport Sartorial Choice Critic/Human Jock Jams CD/champion lumberjack/speed climber Sean Duffy, ordered that all “non-standard surface markings, signage, and signals” have to go. That would especially include rainbow crosswalks and anything related to Black Lives Matter. As Tim pointed out yesterday, Dallas learned that the state denied the city’s appeal to keep its crosswalks, which are funded by local merchants in Oak Lawn, not taxpayers. In October, Fox 4’s Steve Noviello asked why nobody was talking about the SMU Mustang intersection in University Park.

After Dallas got its final verdict, we reached out to Paige Ruedy, the University Park community information officer, to ask about the roadway markings, which feature the Mustang within the intersection, surrounded on four sides by decorative crosswalks. We pointed out several examples where seemingly innocuous decorative crosswalks were believed to be out of compliance with the state order and had been removed. “Has anyone at the Governor’s office or TxDOT confirmed that the SMU crosswalk is in compliance?” we asked. “After review of the documents, we believe all intersections within the City are in compliance with the Governor’s order,” Ruedy told us. “Our assessment focused on intersections in University Park specifically and did not involve comparisons to other cities.” Noviello’s question was a good one, because other cities with decorative crosswalks that have nothing to do with any controversy at all were also required to yoink their crosswalks. Corpus Christi had to get rid of two, including one that honored Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Lubbock also had to remove its Buddy Holly crosswalks, for Pete’s sake. The city posted a photo of the intersection under construction last September.

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National Stories

IRS head announces a shake-up on the eve of the 2026 tax season

Days before the 2026 tax filing season begins, the head of the IRS announced a shake-up Tuesday, saying the personnel and operational changes are intended to improve taxpayer service and modernize the agency. The timing of the announcement coincides with a critical moment for the agency, as the IRS prepares to process millions of tax returns while simultaneously implementing major tax law changes under the tax and spending package President Donald Trump signed into law last summer. There are new tax relief provisions for tips and overtime, and new deductions for qualifying older Americans. In a letter addressed to the agency’s 74,000 employees and viewed by The Associated Press, Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano announced new priorities and a reorganization of IRS executive leadership.

Notably, Gary Shapley, the whistleblower who testified publicly about investigations into Hunter Biden’s taxes and served just two days as IRS Commissioner last year, was named deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation division. Guy Ficco, the head of Criminal Investigation, is set to retire and will be replaced by Jarod Koopman, who will also serve as chief tax compliance officer alongside Bisignano. Joseph Ziegler, another Hunter Biden whistleblower, was named chief of internal consulting, the letter said. Bisignano said in the letter that he is “confident that with this new team in place, the IRS is well-prepared to deliver a successful tax filing season for the American public.” The June National Taxpayer Advocate report to Congress warned that the 2026 season could be rocky after a series of mass layoffs last year brought on by the Department of Government Efficiency. “With the IRS workforce reduced by 26% and significant tax law changes on the horizon, there are risks to next year’s filing season,” said Erin M. Collins, who leads the organization assigned to protect taxpayers’ rights. Bisignano, who was named to his job in October, also serves as the commissioner of the Social Security Administration. His main priorities for the IRS in 2026 include enhancing customer service, improving tax collections and safeguarding taxpayer privacy. The IRS expects to receive roughly 164 million individual income tax returns this year, which is on par with what it received last year. The average refund amount last year was $3,167, according to IRS data. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said on several occasions that the effects of Republican tax law will result in bigger refunds in 2026.

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Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge's warrant, memo says

Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches. The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities. The shift comes as the Trump administration dramatically expands immigration arrests nationwide, deploying thousands of officers under a mass deportation campaign that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis.

For years, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups and local governments have urged people not to open their doors to immigration agents unless they are shown a warrant signed by a judge. That guidance is rooted in Supreme Court rulings that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval. The ICE directive directly undercuts that advice at a time when arrests are accelerating under the administration’s immigration crackdown. Related Stories Oglala Sioux president walks back claims of DHS pressure, member arrests What to know about the warrants most immigration agents use to make arrests Judge refuses to block new DHS policy limiting Congress members' access to ICE facilities The memo itself has not been widely shared within the agency, according to a whistleblower complaint, but its contents have been used to train new ICE officers who are being deployed into cities and towns to implement the president’s immigration crackdown. New ICE hires and those still in training are being told to follow the memo’s guidance instead of written training materials that actually contradict the memo, according to the whistleblower disclosure.

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Ghislaine Maxwell to be deposed by House Oversight Committee next month

Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Wednesday that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed by his committee on Feb. 9 -- though her attorneys have indicated Maxwell will invoke her privilege against self-incrimination and decline to answer questions. Comer's remarks came during a House Oversight hearing in which members were weighing whether to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for failing to respond subpoenas calling for them to testify about Epstein. "I agree we need to hear from Ghislaine Maxwell," Comer said as Democrats pressed him on why the committee is not pursuing contempt of Congress charges against Maxwell or Attorney General Pam Bondi as they are doing for the Clintons, who refused to appear for subpoenaed depositions earlier this month.

"We've been trying to get her in for a deposition," Comer said of Maxwell, who was convicted for sex trafficking and other offenses in 2021. "Her lawyers have been saying that she's going to plead the Fifth, but we have nailed down a date, Feb. 9, where Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed by this committee. Now, her lawyers have made it clear that she's going to plead the Fifth. I hope she changes her mind, because I want to hear from her." Maxwell, 64, is currently serving a 20-year sentence. A lawyer for Maxwell had attempted to persuade Comer not to proceed with the planned deposition, arguing that it would serve "no other purpose than pure political theater and a complete waste of taxpayer monies," according to a letter sent to the Committee chairman this week. "If the Committee proceeds now, Ms. Maxwell will invoke her privilege against self-incrimination and decline to answer questions. That is not a negotiating position or a tactical choice; it is a legal necessity," wrote attorney David Markus, citing Maxwell's recently filed petition challenging her conviction in federal court in New York.

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Health insurance CEOs to appear before House committees as premiums soar

The CEOs of five major health insurers are set to face a grilling from members of Congress on Thursday as House Republicans seek to place blame for rising health care costs. The back-to-back hearings before the Energy and Commerce and the Ways and Means committees come after Republicans allowed enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire at the end of last year, a move that led to sharp premium increases for millions of Americans. Congress has few immediate plans to address the lapse in the tax credits. The House and the Senate have yet to reach a deal to lower skyrocketing health insurance premiums. And with the Senate out this week and the House set to go into recess next week, the odds of passing a bill anytime soon are very slim, experts say.

“Insurance companies are an easy target because they make people miserable through prior authorization review and in many other ways,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group. The CEOs of UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health Group, Cigna Health Group, Elevance Health and Ascendiun are set to testify. President Donald Trump and Republicans are facing criticism from voters about the cost of living, including health care. Last week, Trump rolled out his long-awaited health care plan, which included a proposal to redirect funding used for ACA subsidies into health savings accounts. The plan offered few details and drew criticism for largely restating ideas Trump has previously floated. Many of the proposals need congressional approval, raising questions about how quickly — or whether — they can be implemented. Trump’s plan is not expected to be the focus of Thursday’s hearings. Instead, they are expected to be the first in a series to examine the “root causes” driving higher health care prices, committee Chairs Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Jason Smith, R-Mo., said in a statement. Thursday’s hearings will also take aim at the ACA, which Republicans say is a major driver of higher health care costs. “The ACA mandated coverage for individuals regardless of underlying health conditions and largely prohibited plans from underwriting plans at the individual level,” a hearing document says, “effectively increasing health care access and affordability for the unhealthiest Americans but also driving up health care costs for healthier Americans.”

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DOGE employees shared Social Security data, court filing shows

Employees with the Department of Government Efficiency who were detailed to the Social Security Administration last March shared sensitive data through a nonsecure third party server, in violation of agency security policies, the Justice Department disclosed in a court filing. The Social Security Administration does not know what data was shared on the server or whether it still exists there, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 16 formal correction to statements that Social Security Administration officials made to a federal court in Maryland last spring. But the disclosure about the third-party server confirms concerns among career government employees and data security experts that DOGE’s chaotic access to sensitive government data risks sharing this data broadly and without knowing what data was exposed or who has seen it.

Last August, the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer, shortly before resigning, filed a whistle-blower complaint over DOGE employees’ activities, saying they had shared a crucial database on a private server. The Justice Department’s filing addresses the period last March at the height of the conflict between career Social Security officials and DOGE over the sharing of sensitive information. The Justice Department’s “corrections to the record” identified sworn statements that senior agency officials made asserting that the agency revoked DOGE employees’ access to sensitive data, statements the department later found to be false, though federal lawyers said the officials did not know they were false at the time. According to the Justice Department, the inconsistencies were revealed through an internal agency review last fall. The agency notified Justice Department lawyers about its findings on Dec. 10. The department filed corrections to the court more than a month later. The Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Data centers are becoming a political problem

Lawmakers in Washington often insist data centers, which require thousands of acres and enormous amounts of energy, are a municipal issue. But residents organizing against their construction say candidates up and down the ballot will have to answer for their concerns — especially if those politicians are going to campaign on affordability. “This absolutely plays into affordability,” said Christine Le Jeune, a founding organizer of Great Lakes Neighbors United in Wisconsin. “People are concerned about rapidly rising energy prices.” Le Jeune’s group launched a petition to recall the mayor of Port Washington, a Wisconsin town on Lake Michigan where construction began last month on a $15 billion data center to service OpenAI and Oracle through the Stargate project backed by President Donald Trump.

The recall effort is one of the bolder actions in a wave of local protests against data centers sweeping Wisconsin and the country. Le Jeune said Mayor Ted Neitzke failed to take up residents’ concerns that they will end up “on the hook” for data centers’ energy usage into consideration when he went ahead with the Stargate plans. Neitzke did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers feel insulated from the grassroots resistance threatening local elected officials. “It’s going to be more a challenge in gubernatorial races and state races, because that’s where those decisions are made. We don’t have as much, in fact very little to do with it at a federal level,” Rep. Mark Pocan said. That may not last long.

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DHS launches 'Operation Catch of the Day' enforcement action in Maine

The Department of Homeland Security has now picked another state on which to focus its immigration enforcement action: Maine. On Wednesday, DHS launched "Operation Catch of the Day" -- an operation targeting criminal illegal migrants in the state, according to a DHS spokesperson. Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin singled out Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and "her fellow sanctuary politicians" for prompting the need for the federal immigration crackdown in Maine.

"We have launched Operation Catch of the Day to target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in the state. On the first day of operations, we arrested illegal aliens convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child," McLaughlin said in a statement. "Under President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem, we are no longer allowing criminal illegal aliens to terrorize American citizens." It was not immediately clear how long DHS plans to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Maine or if the Customs and Border Protection agents currently operating in Minneapolis will move to Maine. Mills, who has had previous run-ins with President Donald Trump over the past year, is running for the U.S. Senate. In a statement released on Monday, Andrew Benson, the U.S. attorney for the District of Maine, said people have the right to protest, but not turn to violence, and seemed to indicate a DHS operation was coming.

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Lead Stories

Forecasters warn of a 'potentially catastrophic' storm from Texas to the Carolinas

With many Americans still recovering from multiple blasts of snow and unrelenting freezing temperatures in the nation’s northern tier, a new storm is set to emerge this weekend that could coat roads, trees and power lines with devastating ice across a wide expanse of the South. The storm arriving late this week and into the weekend is shaping up to be a “widespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas,” said Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “I don’t know how people are going to deal with it,” he said. Forecasters on Tuesday warned that the ice could weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages. “If you get a half of an inch of ice — or heaven forbid an inch of ice — that could be catastrophic,” said Keith Avery, CEO of the Newberry Electric Cooperative in South Carolina.

The National Weather Service warned of “great swaths of heavy snow, sleet, and treacherous freezing rain” starting Friday in much of the nation’s midsection and then shifting toward the East Coast through Sunday. Temperatures will be slow to warm in many areas, meaning ice that forms on roads and sidewalks might stick around, forecasters say. The exact timing of the approaching storm — and where it is headed — remained uncertain on Tuesday. Forecasters say it can be challenging to predict precisely which areas could see rain and which ones could be punished with ice. An extremely cold arctic air mass is set to dive south from Canada, setting up a clash with the cold temperatures and rain that will be streaming eastward across the southern U.S. “This is extreme, even for this being the peak of winter,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said of the cold temperatures. When the cold air meets the rain, the likely result will be “a major winter storm with very impactful weather, with all the moisture coming up from the Gulf and encountering all this particularly cold air that’s spilling in,” Jackson said.

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Determined to grab Greenland, Trump faces tough reception in Davos

U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to ramp up his push to acquire Greenland when he descends on Davos on Wednesday, facing down European opposition to his plans in the biggest fraying of transatlantic ties in decades. Trump, who marked the end of a turbulent first year in office on Tuesday, is expected to overshadow the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in the Swiss mountain resort, where global elites chew over economic and political trends. Trump told a news conference on Tuesday that he would have meetings about the Danish territory of Greenland in Davos and was optimistic that an agreement could eventually be reached. "I think we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we're going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes. We need it for national security," he said.

NATO leaders have warned that Trump's Greenland strategy could upend the alliance, while the leaders of Denmark and Greenland have offered a wide array of ways for a greater U.S. presence on the strategic island territory of 57,000 people. "You'll find out," said Trump, who has linked Greenland to his anger at not receiving a Nobel Peace Prize, when asked how far he is willing to go. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent further stoked the war of words being played out with Washington's allies on Wednesday when he called Denmark "irrelevant". "Denmark's investment in the U.S. Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant," Bessent said in Davos when asked whether the issue could spark a sell-off in U.S. Treasuries by investors in Europe, such as pension funds in Denmark and elsewhere. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte declined to comment on the tensions, but said work was going on to bolster the Arctic. "President Trump and other leaders are right. We have to do more there. We have to protect the Arctic against Russian and Chinese influence," he said during a panel discussion. "We are working on that, making sure that collectively we'll defend the Arctic region," Rutte added.

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Kendra Scott, Yeti, Valero and other Texas firms sue U.S. over tariffs. But don't ask them about it.

Even in deep red Texas, companies wanting to stay in the black are taking on President Donald Trump’s tariffs. More than a dozen companies across the state, including well-known drinkware purveyor Yeti Holdings Inc., jewelry designer and manufacturer Kendra Scott and the marketing arm of Valero Energy Corp., have challenged the president’s use of executive action to upend global trade. The broad range of companies fighting the cost-warping import taxes demonstrates how Trump’s chaotic trade war has disrupted all aspects of the economy, a Texas trade expert says. “It’s everybody. It’s not just one sector. They’re widespread,” said Raymond Robertson, director of the Mosbacher Institute of Trade, Economics and Public Policy at Texas A&M University. “It’s incredibly widespread. And it’s really unprecedented in scope.”

Despite their publicly filed lawsuits, most Texas companies reached last week either declined to comment or simply did not respond. Though many publicly traded companies have told investors and spoken privately about the fact tariffs are increasing costs, harming consumers and increasing uncertainty, few business leaders are willing to publicly speak out, Robertson said. They fear retaliation from the White House. “The president has not hesitated to target individual companies,” he said. “There was really a deafening silence from the business community.” The Texas Association of Business, long an advocate for free trade, now makes no mention of the issue on the “Federal Priorities” page of its website. As recently as December, it had listed free trade as one of its priorities. The bulleted entry on that document previously said: “Oppose tariffs that disrupt economic development, particularly those affecting key trading partners like Mexico and Canada whose supply chains are strongly connected to the Texas economy.” The “About Us” section of the website still stresses sensible trade policies as a core principle, and an association spokesperson emphasized that free trade remains a policy priority. He cited a letter the association sent to the U.S. Trade Representative in December pushing for strengthening the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement — negotiated during the first Trump administration but which the president last week called “irrelevant” — and decrying tariffs.

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Rep. Crockett releases poll showing her with a 13 point advantage in US Senate Democratic primary

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State Stories

Cuellar: Minnesota shooting has stalled my efforts to get South Texas builders an audience with ICE

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said Renee Good’s killing in Minnesota has caused a delay in organizing a meeting between the Department of Homeland Security and the South Texas Builders Association. Cuellar met with STBA leaders at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen late last year. At the meeting, leaders with the trade association voiced concerns about ICE raids at construction sites. They said they are losing too many workers and projects. Cuellar had a lot of sympathy for the builders and told them he would try and set up a meeting in Washington so they could voice those concerns directly with DHS. But, the shooting death of U.S. citizen Renee Good by an ICE agent has put everything on hold, Cuellar said.

“I've talked to the ICE director twice. He says he'll give me somebody that can sit down with business. Because, look, if they want to get rid of criminals, that's one thing, but when they start going after the work side, that has an impact on our economy,” Cuellar told the Rio Grande Guardian. “But I have been in contact with the South Texas builders. I've talked to some of the folks in Laredo, I've talked to some of the folks in San Antonio, and we're hoping that we can have something but the ICE Director, Mr. Lyons. He told me that he will set something up. But as you know, this ICE shooting, the Minnesota shooting, complicated things on that, but it's at the top of my radar.

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Grapevine-Colleyville ISD denies Muslim sports competition use of school

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD ended negotiations with a national nonprofit Muslim athletics competition for use of a high school to host the games after a public outcry from Texas politicians. The Islamic Games athletic event was scheduled at Colleyville Heritage High School on May 9-10. The organization was in negotiations for a rental agreement with the school district. But over the weekend, state lawmakers and local leaders posted on social media that the organization’s sponsors had ties to the Council on American Islamic Relations, which Gov. Greg Abbott designated a foreign terrorism organization in November.

The school district told the Star-Telegram in a statement that officials learned Monday “that an organization listed as a sponsor of the Islamic Games in North Texas has been declared a Terrorist Organization by the Governor of Texas.” The district spokesperson said state law bars any governmental entity from entering into a contract with such a group. “Thus, GCISD provided notice that it is severing the negotiations for the use of District properties for the 2026 Islamic Games,” the spokesperson said. Despite numerous attempts, the Star-Telegram could not immediately reach the organizers of Islamic Games for comment. According to its website, Islamic Games is a “premier Muslim sports and athletic event in North America, dedicated to promoting physical excellence, unity, and community development” to youth. It started in 1989 in Queens, New York. In 2006, the games were rebranded and relaunched in New Jersey. The program is geared towards leagues, Islamic centers, sports academies, organizations and Muslim schools. The games travel from city to city hosting competitive team and individual sports that include boys and girls soccer, tennis, basketball, volleyball, cricket, flag football, track and field and archery. Other locations hosting competitions this year include Chicago, Houston, Michigan, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

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Court hears arguments on Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms

A federal court is currently deliberating whether Texas can mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, a decision that could significantly impact the national conversation on religious symbols in public spaces. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing arguments in lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of laws in Texas and Louisiana that require schools to display donated posters of the Ten Commandments. The central issue is whether these laws infringe upon the First Amendment's establishment clause, which prohibits government endorsement of religion.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the law last summer, prompting legal challenges from groups like the ACLU, which argue that the law effectively turns public schools into religious institutions. "The right to decide which religion, if any, to follow, and which religious beliefs to follow, is reserved for individual people, families, parents, children-- and they are not for state legislatures and governors to decide," the ACLU stated at a press conference. Conversely, Texas Values, a conservative advocacy group, held a press conference urging the court to uphold the law. "This should be an easy case for the Court of Appeals," said Texas Values President and Attorney Jonathan Saenz. "We're glad that the entire court is taking a look at this because we know that is just another way of acknowledging how important the Ten Commandments are to the historical and traditional foundations of American law and policy." All 17 active judges on the Fifth Circuit are hearing the case, and the outcome could potentially lead to a U.S. Supreme Court review, given its history of ruling on church-and-state issues.

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Prosecution and defense rest in trial of former Uvalde school police officer

The trial of former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer Adrian Gonzales entered its final phase Tuesday in Corpus Christi, with both the prosecution and defense resting their cases after days of emotional and at times contentious testimony. After a recess at the Nueces County Courthouse, Presiding Judge Sid Harle informed jurors that both sides had concluded their presentations. The jury was then dismissed for the day as attorneys prepared for closing arguments and the case moved closer to deliberation. Gonzales is charged with 29 counts of abandoning or endangering a child for his actions during the May 24, 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were killed. He has pleaded not guilty.

Much of the testimony focused on Gonzales’ location and actions in the early minutes of the attack, and whether he had an opportunity to move into the school building and confront the gunman. Prosecutors argued Gonzales was among the first officers on scene and failed to take action that could have disrupted the shooting. Their case relied on timelines built from body-camera footage, radio traffic, and witness accounts. Several witnesses played central roles in shaping the state’s case. Robb Elementary teacher Stephanie Hale testified about what she said she saw near the school during the early moments of the shooting, placing the gunman close to the building. Her testimony prompted immediate objections from defense attorneys and briefly halted proceedings while the judge considered a mistrial request. The motion was denied, though portions of her testimony were later excluded and jurors were instructed to disregard them. Witnesses provided harrowing accounts of the Robb Elementary shooting, detailing the lockdown procedures and efforts to protect students while waiting for police intervention. Another key moment came from testimony by Melodye Flores, who told jurors she saw Gonzales outside the school and observed him pacing near the building rather than moving inside. Prosecutors cited her account as evidence Gonzales had an opportunity to act. Defense attorneys questioned the reliability of eyewitness accounts from inside the school, citing the chaos and stress of the moment.

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Dallas pushes to keep majority vote on DART board amid withdrawal election discussion

Dallas leaders say they don't want to give up the city's voting power on Dallas Area Rapid Transit's board amid discussions over withdrawal elections by neighboring suburbs this spring. The city's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted Tuesday to give the city manager's office authority to negotiate the number of Dallas representatives on the DART Board — but pushed to keep a majority or near majority of the seats. During the meeting, assistant city manager Dev Rastogi shared the latest updates on the DART withdrawal elections called by five member cities, including discussions between Dallas city manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and DART officials.

Transportation DART calls public hearings on potential impacts of withdrawal elections Pablo Arauz Peña , January 14, 2026 If cities vote to leave DART, service could end at more than a dozen rail stations and bus stops. A proposal by the agency would expand the board from 15 directors to 20, with Dallas' representation shrinking from 8 to 5. That could potentially reduce the city's voting share from 53% to 40%, but not all committee members agreed. "I think that since DART is really an important part of our Dallas economy, that we really have to have robust and extensive representation," said District 11 council member William Roth. "I'm not sure that 40 percent is enough, because I think we really are the dog, not the tail here." District 12 council member Cara Mendelsohn called it "poor governance" to potentially reduce the city's majority on the DART board.

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5 years before Anthony Johnson Jr.’s death in the Tarrant County Jail, indicted guard watched another man get knelt on in jail

Lt. Joel Garcia filmed Anthony Johnson Jr. as he lay handcuffed face-down on the floor of the Tarrant County Jail — and another jailer knelt on Johnson’s back. The altercation with Johnson in 2024 wasn’t the first time a Tarrant County jailer knelt on someone who was already handcuffed. It wasn’t the first time Garcia watched that happen. And it wasn’t the first time the prisoner later died. A KERA News investigation found Garcia was there when another jailer knelt on a prisoner named Derick Wynn, in 2019. Wynn was also face-down on the floor, in handcuffs. He became unresponsive, and he died soon after. Both deaths occurred more than two decades after the U.S. Department of Justice published warnings against the dangers of kneeling on people who are restrained. Johnson’s death — eventually declared a homicide by asphyxiation — was another scandal for a jail that has spent years under intense scrutiny.

Local activists and elected officials have criticized the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, for a spike in deaths, as well as allegations of mistreatment and neglect of vulnerable prisoners. Sheriff Bill Waybourn condemned Johnson’s treatment at a press conference a month after his death, where he showed reporters Garcia’s cell phone video. “Once he’s restrained, the knee should have never went on the back,” he said. Wynn’s death five years earlier did not get the same level of public scrutiny as Johnson’s. A medical examiner blamed Wynn’s death on mixed drug intoxication. It’s unclear whether the doctor who performed the autopsy took the restraint into consideration. The sheriff’s office refuses to answer questions about Wynn’s death. Spokesperson Laurie Passman provided a written statement that denied any wrongdoing and claimed “a knee properly placed to control a combative individual” is different than kneeling on someone. “There is no indication noted by the investigator that the technique was done improperly, nor does the medical examiner rule that as a contributing factor in his death,” Passman said. The sheriff’s office’s training documents, also obtained by KERA News, say new jailers should not be taught to place a knee on someone’s upper back — for safety reasons.

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Saying it was at fault, Lake Worth school board won’t fight TEA’s takeover

The Lake Worth school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to not appeal a decision by the Texas Education Agency to take over the struggling district. Board members voted to not fight the TEA takeover and waived the school district’s ability to ask the State Office of Administrative Hearings to review Commissioner of Education Mike Morath’s decision to remove Superintendent Mark Ramirez and all current members of the school board. Board president Tammy Thomas said trustees did not act fast enough to hire Ramirez as superintendent when the search began for the district’s new leader in September 2024, and they must be held accountable for doing so. Ramirez was not hired until May 2025.

“From my perspective, the fault that the district is in lies in the hands of this board,” Thomas said before the vote Tuesday night. “We were slow, very slow, in appointing a new superintendent while we had a school board election going on. Everyone is paying the price of the decisions that this board made, and now the board is going to be held accountable. I can only apologize for the board not doing our job.” Thomas also said if the appeal process allowed her and fellow board members to convince the TEA to reconsider their decision to remove Ramirez from his post, then she would vote to appeal and “pack her bags for Austin in a heartbeat.” But that seems to be out of the question, she told attendees before the board’s vote. Board member Mary Coker spoke in agreement with Thomas against appealing the takeover before the unanimous vote. “After consulting with our district lawyers, it looks like, even if we feel it really won’t, it would just be a delay and a cost, and we feel like that money can be better spent on our students and on our lawyers.”

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Texas water crisis demands new thinking across agriculture

Agricultural irrigation accounts for about 50% of Texas’ water demand, and the dynamics of a rapidly growing population, increased industrial activity and limited state government funds to create new sources of water require that all users seek ways to conserve the state’s most important resource. Speakers at the 2025 Texas Plant Protection Association Conference’s opening session, recently held in Bryan, offered management, research and policy options to enhance water conservation statewide. Dana Porter, associate head of Texas A&M University’s biological and agricultural engineering department and conference speaker, said irrigation strategies and emerging technologies will play a key role in conserving water while minimizing the effects of drought on Texas cropland. “The key to realizing the benefits of these options includes understanding the operation — assessing field and crop conditions, selecting proper tools and using them correctly,” Porter said.

Precision irrigation will be a key, she added. Available practices and tools include: improved management of surface irrigation, pressurized irrigation systems, improved nozzle packages, advanced irrigation controllers and automated tools, irrigation scheduling and variable-rate irrigation systems. She said surface irrigation management should include contour farming and land leveling as well as residue management and conservation tillage. “Drip irrigation is a good idea on cotton in West Texas,” Porter said. “We’ve seen a high rate of adoption of a lot of technologies, including low-pressure center pivots. In the Texas High Plains, about 85% of the irrigated acreage is under center-pivot systems. Microirrigation has also taken off but is not a good fit for everyone.”

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Fort Worth council member says commitment will not waver following DWI arrest

After his arrest on a DWI charge over the weekend, Fort Worth city council member Michael Crain said his commitment to the city “will not waver.” The District 3 council member was stopped on Chisholm Trail Parkway by a DPS trooper for a traffic violation at about 10:20 p.m. Friday night. The trooper suspected Crain of drunken driving and arrested him. He was booked into the Tarrant County Jail early Saturday morning on a DWI charge, a Class B misdemeanor. Crain posted a $750 bond Saturday afternoon and was released. In a statement, Crain said he regrets the concern and uncertainty his arrest caused for the people he cares about and serves.

“I want to sincerely apologize to my wife and children, the residents of Fort Worth and my colleagues for the distraction this has caused,” Crain said. “I regret the concern and uncertainty it has created for the people I care about and serve.” Because it is an ongoing legal matter, Crain said he would not go into details. He said he would respect the process and cooperate as it moves forward. A city of Fort Worth spokesperson said they are aware of the situation, but had no comment for the same reason. Crain, 53, joined the City Council in May 2021 for his first two-year term. His district covers parts of far west and southwest Fort Worth, including the area around TCU. “To the residents of District 3, please know that my commitment to you and to the city will not waver,” Crain said in his statement. “While this is a difficult moment, my responsibility to serve you has not changed and I remain focused, as always, on the work ahead and serving as your representative on the City Council.”

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Groups demand immediate closure of Camp East Montana following 3rd in-custody death

A coalition of Texas and New Mexico immigrant rights, legal advocacy, and faith-based organizations is demanding the immediate closure of Camp East Montana following the third in-custody death at the detention center, it was announced in a news release. The coalition said it condemns the death of Victor Manuel Diaz — a 36-year-old undocumented migrant from Nicaragua — as it’s the third death connected to this detention center, “underscoring a deadly pattern of abuse, neglect, and impunity that has defined the facility since its opening.” Diaz died on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Camp East Montana. He was pronounced deceased at 4:09 p.m., and his death was a presumed suicide, according to ICE. However, the official cause of his death remains under investigation.

The announcement of Diaz’s death comes just days after The Washington Post reported last week that 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos’ death — the second detainee who died at the detention center — could be ruled as a homicide. The coalition said that Lunas Campos “died from asphyxiation after guards choked him to death, and that federal authorities subsequently are threatening to deport key witnesses to the incident, raising grave concerns about accountability and efforts to suppress evidence of abuse at the facility.” Additionally, Francisco Gaspar Cristobal Andres was the first detainee held at the Fort Bliss immigration facility to die. The 48-year-old man from Guatemala was taken to the hospital on Nov. 16 and died on Dec. 3 of “suspected natural causes.” The coalition is now calling on the Trump Administration to “immediately reverse course and demand that Congress act to end this cycle of abuse and impunity.” “Camp East Montana must be closed without delay, and a full, independent investigation into all detention facilities must begin now. Failure to act will continue to cost lives,” read the news release.

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Parents call for accountability in Celina ISD investigation

The Celina ISD Board of Trustees met for the first time since releasing additional information from the third-party investigation into former Moore Middle School teacher William Caleb Elliott. At the Tuesday, Jan. 20, regularly scheduled board of trustees meeting, several parents spoke during public comment and condemned the board’s lack of urgency, accountability and information released regarding the investigation. William Caleb Elliott, son of Celina High School football Coach Bill Elliott, was arrested on Oct. 3, 2025, and charged with multiple crimes after allegedly recording boys in the middle school locker room. Bill Elliott had been on leave since October 2025. On Jan. 14, Bill Elliott announced his resignation from the district. Subsequently, former Moore Middle School Principal Allison Ginn announced her resignation.

The district currently faces four lawsuits stemming from William Caleb Elliott's alleged filming. An 85-page release of additional information was made public on Friday, Jan. 16. The report says the independent investigators hired by the district found no indication of a coverup and determined that claims suggesting district officials were aware of William Caleb Elliott's sexual misconduct before his arrest were not supported by interviews with school staff. Investigators also discovered “systematic issues and failures” in the district’s athletic department, along with Moore Middle School. Additionally, investigators discovered "a large amount of cash" in a safe in Bill Elliott's office. Documents state the money allegedly came from doctors who performed physicals on student-athletes paid for in cash, who then "donated" the cash back to the athletics department. At the board meeting, several parents expressed their disappointment following the district's further release, with several calling for districtwide change of practices and leadership. Multiple parents called for Celina ISD Superintendent of Schools Tom Maglisceau to step down, with several accusing him of refusing to act while aware of the ongoing situation.

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1 year since measles cases found in Texas, US still seeing surge of infections with elimination status at risk

One year ago, health officials confirmed that cases of measles were cropping up in a small town in western Texas. Soon, the virus had spread to neighboring counties in Texas. Other states began reporting their own measles outbreaks, including Utah and South Carolina. By the time 2025 ended, more than 2,200 cases had been confirmed, the highest number reported in the U.S. in 33 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. also saw its first measles deaths in more than a decide including two among unvaccinated school-aged children in Texas and one among an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico. It's unclear if the cases in Texas that were confirmed on Jan. 20 are linked to those in other states; if so, it would mean the U.S. has seen a year of continuous transmission.

If it's determined that the U.S. has experienced 12 months of continuous measles transmission, it could lead to a loss of the country's elimination status that was earned in 2000. Measles would once again be considered endemic or constantly circulating. "Back in the year 2000, the United States was declared free of measles. We had eliminated measles from our shores, and that was an incredible achievement for public health," Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and acting director of the CDC during former President Barack Obama's administration, told ABC News. "The fact that we've seen measles at incredibly high levels over this past year is concerning." The loss of status is determined by the Pan American Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations that oversees international health in the Americas. An independent body of experts established by the PAHO -- known as the Measles, Rubella, and Congenital Rubella Syndrome Elimination Regional Monitoring and Re-Verification Commission -- meets at least once a year to monitor and re-verify measles and rubella elimination among countries in the region.

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National Stories

Prosecutor who brought James Comey and Letitia James cases steps down

Lindsey Halligan, the former Trump White House aide who went on to spearhead short-lived criminal cases against a pair of the president’s perceived adversaries, is stepping down from her Justice Department position. Halligan’s departure was announced Tuesday night by Attorney General Pam Bondi, capping a fraught four-month tenure during which she served as the driving force behind the Justice Department’s prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. A former personal lawyer for Trump, Halligan was installed as the top federal prosecutor in eastern Virginia after her predecessor was forced out. Soon after, she almost single-handedly secured indictments against Comey and James that the president had demanded. Both cases were later dismissed by a judge who ruled she was unlawfully appointed. The Justice Department has appealed those rulings.

Her departure came as the federal judges of eastern Virginia increasingly questioned the legitimacy of her role within the Justice Department. Earlier on Tuesday, the chief judge of the federal district court in eastern Virginia issued an order soliciting applicants to replace Halligan, noting that her interim appointment expired after 120 days and that the Senate hadn’t voted to confirm her. Another judge separately excoriated Halligan for continuing to identify herself as U.S. attorney, despite the November ruling that found her appointment unlawful. “In short, this charade of Ms. Halligan masquerading as the United States Attorney for this District in direct defiance of binding court orders must come to an end,” wrote Judge David Novak, a Trump appointee who was confirmed in 2019. Novak also criticized the tone of a recent filing, cosigned by Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in which Halligan accused him of abusing his power. That response, Novak wrote, “contains a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show and falls far beneath the level of advocacy expected from litigants in this Court, particularly the Department of Justice.”

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US bishops break further with Trump, this time on foreign policy

With President Donald Trump ratcheting up economic threats against U.S. allies as part of his campaign to take Greenland, after the administration's comments that military action is "always an option," U.S. bishops are offering stark warnings against the administration's recent foreign policy actions and threats, including a rare joint statement from three senior church leaders. On Monday, Jan. 19, three Catholic cardinals — Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., and Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey — amplified an address given Jan. 9 by Pope Leo XIV to the Vatican's diplomatic corps. "We renounce war as an instrument for narrow national interests and proclaim that military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy," said the cardinals, each of whom were staunch allies of Pope Francis and were present at the conclave that elected Leo.

"We seek a foreign policy that respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance." Though the cardinals did not specifically mention the recent U.S. incursion in Venezuela, or President Trump's increasingly bellicose rhetoric toward Greenland, they offered one of the stronger challenges to the president's second term foreign policy aims and promised to continue highlighting the issue. Over the weekend, Trump said in a text to the leader of Norway that he no longer feels "an obligation to think purely of Peace" because he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, adding, "The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland." In their statement, the three U.S. cardinals targeted the self-interested foreign policy they said aims to upend efforts to bring about peace. "Our nation's debate on the moral foundation for American policy is beset by polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests," the cardinals said. "Pope Leo has given us the prism through which to raise it to a much higher level. We will preach, teach, and advocate in the coming months to make that higher level possible." The cardinals' statement represents another step in the seemingly widening gap between U.S. bishops and Trump, who heavily courted and won over U.S. Catholics during his 2024 campaign.

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1 year into Trump's second term, a consumer watchdog agency is 'hanging by a thread'

Lisa Rosenthal's career gives you a sense of the scope of the watchdog duties at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For 13 years as an attorney there, she helped victims of predatory payday loans, trained staff to go after abusive practices at financial institutions and supervised teams working on everything from the student loan market to auto financing to debt collection. But in early 2025, she says, she was told to stop all work. "We were in this very bizarre situation. The offices were closed. We weren't on leave," Rosenthal said. "We're just sitting at home, staring at our computer screens, not able to do work."

One of the priorities of the Trump administration during President Trump's first year back in office has been a dismantling of the agency. In 2025, CFPB employees faced orders to halt work, as well as attempts by the administration to cut their funding and lay off the majority of the staff. Congress created the CFPB in 2010 after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers against fraud and predatory practices. The brainchild of Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the agency took on the consumer protection duties of other agencies, put them under one roof and acquired new supervising and rule-making powers. Overall, the agency reported that as of Jan. 30, 2025, it had returned $19.7 billion to consumers since its creation. But the agency's conservative critics have long accused the CFPB of overreaching, punishing small lenders and harming businesses. And now one of those critics runs the agency. Trump named Russell Vought, who also directs the Office of Management and Budget, as the CFPB's acting director in February 2025.

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The Trump administration says it’s safe for Venezuelans to return home. María Corina Machado says it’s not.

When the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela last year, officials said that the departments of Homeland Security and State had determined there had been “notable improvements” in areas like the economy and crime that allowed for Venezuelan migrants “to be safely returned to their home country.” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, reiterated that conclusion in early January, shortly after the ouster of Nicolás Maduro: “The great news for those who are here from Venezuela with Temporary Protected Status is that they can now go home with hope for their country.” But Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters that’s not the case. “What I want is to return to Venezuela soon,” Machado told reporters in the U.S. Capitol after leaving a closed-door meeting with House Foreign Affairs Committee members Tuesday evening.

“It is not safe for anyone to be in Venezuela right now, we all know that,” she added, answering in Spanish after NOTUS asked whether she was safe to return there. She was quick to note that she wants to return and plans to as soon as she is able to do so: “No one has ever said or thought that the fight for freedom is without risks, that’s the truth.” Machado, who lived in hiding in Venezuela due to fear of prosecution from the Maduro government, escaped the country in December with help from Grey Bull Rescue, a rescue company. “Our objective, and I want to insist on this, is we want the Venezuelan people that were forced to leave to come back home, and that’s going to happen once we have democracy in Venezuela,” she said later in English as she stood alongside Republican Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez. Following Maduro’s capture, the Trump administration has not offered a clear timeline as to when elections will take place in Venezuela. In a classified briefing earlier this month, lawmakers asked administration officials for specifics on the U.S. plan for Venezuela in the aftermath of Maduro’s ouster but were not given any additional details, as NOTUS previously reported.

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Despite some bipartisan opposition, Maryland redistricting panel approves new Congressional map

The Maryland Redistricting Commission voted Tuesday to recommend new borders for congressional districts in the state, the latest Democratic state to retaliate against partisan maps drawn by Republicans in several other states across the country. Maryland is currently split into eight congressional districts represented by seven Democrats. The proposed map by the commission would likely ensure a full Democratic sweep across the state. “The vote by Maryland’s redistricting committee is another important step toward ensuring a fair national congressional map ahead of the midterm election,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement. “Arrogant and corrupt Republicans started this battle. Democrats will end it. We will ensure that there is a free and fair midterm election in November.”

U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, the chair of the redistricting panel, also celebrated the move in a statement Tuesday night, saying that the state “has a responsibility to lead with urgency” due to similar Republican efforts to redraw maps in their party’s favor across the country. Not all of the commission’s Democrats are on board, however. Senate President Bill Ferguson has spoken out against the commission and its new congressional map, calling it “a flawed process has delivered a flawed product.” “The Governor’s Commission recommended a map today that is objectively unconstitutional and jeopardizes Maryland’s existing map,” Ferguson said Tuesday in a statement. “Further, this map fails the governor’s own test. It breaks apart more neighborhoods and communities than our existing map, and it fails the constitutional requirement of one person, one vote.”

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Vance to visit Minneapolis as tensions over immigration operations escalate

Vice President JD Vance will visit Minnesota on Thursday, a person familiar with the plans told NBC News, underscoring the White House's increased focus on the state. The trip, which will include remarks in Minneapolis and a roundtable discussion with local leaders and members of the community, comes amid escalating political tensions over the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence there. An ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, during a confrontation with officers almost two weeks ago. President Donald Trump, Vance and other top U.S. officials have said the shooting was justified. Democrats, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have disputed their assertions.

They also have found themselves pulled into a federal investigation into whether state officials conspired to impede law enforcement in the administration's immigration operations. The Justice Department has sent subpoenas to Walz, Frey and other state leaders, according to a document reviewed by NBC News and a person familiar with the investigation. The trip was first reported by MS NOW. Vance has taken a lead role in the White House response. At a White House news briefing this month, he claimed Good had been “brainwashed,” suggesting without evidence that she was tied to a “broader, left-wing network.” Vance has also been vocal about an ongoing fraud investigation involving allegations of misuse of welfare funds in Minnesota's Somali community. He has criticized Walz, his Democratic opponent for vice president in 2024, and at this month's briefing he announced the creation of a position to tackle fraud probes there and in other states. Minnesota has been a particular fixation for Trump, who has long sought to flip the state to Republicans. The GOP hasn't won a statewide race there in two decades.

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Lead Stories

Karl Rove warns that Texas is turning against GOP as Hispanic support for Trump craters

Legendary GOP operative Karl Rove warned that Texans are turning against the GOP as Hispanic support for President Donald Trump craters during a recent appearance on Fox News. During a Saturday afternoon appearance on The Journal Editorial Report, host Gerry Baker first asked Rove about Trump’s unpopularity on the issue of immigration, which caused Rove to note that the administration’s numbers had “actually began declining well before the incident last week in Minneapolis,” a reference to the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent. The longtime strategist argued that Americans tend to be “forgiving” of illegal immigrants who have “kept their nose clean and are contributing to the economy,” and that Trump had fumbled the ball by not traveling to south Texas to celebrate his success at securing the border.

“These ICE tactics seem to make-, have particular concerns, understandably, for Hispanic voters. Hispanic voters, again, source of tremendous strength for Trump in the election 2024. You know the numbers he got, what, over 40% of the Hispanic vote? He’s now registering way, way below that in approval ratings among Hispanics. How much of a problem is that for the GOP?” followed up Baker. “Big, because this is a variable group whose movement into the Republican column in 2024 helped elect Donald Trump to a second term and helped Republicans hold the Senate and the House. But no, it’s a problem. And you know, we’re going to see it here in Texas. You can just see the support for Republicans in Texas diminishing, despite the fact that initially there was enormous support for the action in securing the border,” answered Rove. “These were communities that were being hard hit. Their hospitals, their food kitchens, their community safety, all of these things were being adversely affected by this vast flood of illegals coming across the border, and the fact that the president stopped it and stopped it without a new law-, all we had was a new president, but he got it done.

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RFK Jr. is bringing the GOP and the trial bar together

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s demonization of food and pharma has put the Trump administration on the wrong side of its traditional allies in industry – but opened a path to a new alliance with a longtime GOP nemesis: lawyers representing consumers who say they were harmed by companies. Kennedy’s moves, from his disparagement of Tylenol and ultraprocessed food to his broadsides against vaccines, have lawyers who assemble aggrieved plaintiffs to sue deep-pocketed companies envisioning the sort of cases that turn attorneys into Hollywood heroes and billionaires. They’re citing Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement to buttress their personal injury tort suits. It’s another example of how President Donald Trump’s populist approach to politics, enhanced by his partnership with Kennedy, has turned longtime political relationships on their head.

“The pendulum has swung some in a pro-consumer, pro-plaintiff direction,” said Ashley Keller, a founding partner at Keller Postman, whose firm is spearheading a Texas suit against Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, the manufacturers of Tylenol. The suit plays off Kennedy and Trump’s move last year to caution pregnant women against taking the pain reliever. Citing data that showed a correlation, but not causation, they warned that it increased the risk for childhood autism. Business groups, who have long relied on GOP allies for “tort reform” to limit lawsuits and damages, are reckoning with the shift too. “The sort of traditional alliances that we think of in the Republican Party, things have really changed,” said Erica Klenicki, the National Association of Manufacturers’ vice president and deputy general counsel for litigation. “There’s maybe not as many allies for tort reform as there used to be.” Lawyers behind major settlements against companies told POLITICO that Kennedy’s sweeping anti-corporate agenda targeting food, chemical and pharmaceutical companies, along with rising public skepticism of industry, is creating a tailwind for the tort system to take on corporate power. Signs of a new legal opportunity emerged earlier this month when Kennedy removed four childhood vaccines from the routine schedule – a move lawyers say could increase litigation against drugmakers.

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Trump jabs European leaders over Greenland as Davos becomes emergency summit

President Donald Trump’s demands to take over Greenland, reiterated in an overnightbarrage of social media posts, are transforming this week’s annual gathering of the global elite into an emergency diplomatic summit, as European leaders prepared to use the president’s arrival here Wednesday to de-escalate the spiraling crisis. Europe may not have a home-field advantage in Davos. The United States is seeking to dominate this year’s World Economic Forum by sending its largest and most senior delegation in history. Meetings with senior Trump officials are among the most sought-after engagements in town, as European leaders, already reeling from U.S. tariff policies, find themselves once again navigating a ruptured relationship with the White House.

Over mulled wine and canapés, early-arriving guests tried to predict whether Trump’s visit would aggravate or avert the simmering conflict with Denmark, the NATO ally that controls Greenland. But 4,000 miles away from the parties in this Swiss Alps ski town, Trump went on an overnight social media tear that signaled little interest in reconciliation. He bashed Britain for handing over sovereignty of an island colony in the Indian Ocean and shared what appeared to be private messages from European officials. French President Emmanuel Macron, in one text, told Trump that they are aligned on Syria and Iran, but he does “not understand what you are doing on Greenland.” Macron also offered to set up a Group of Seven meeting after the Davos forum. The authenticity of the message was confirmed by a French official close to Macron who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. In his posts, Trump also disparaged Britain for “planning to give away” the island of Diego Garcia, the site of a U.S. military base and the largest of the Chagos Islands. Britain in 2024 said it would cede sovereignty over the archipelago to Mauritius, with the U.S. and Britain retaining operational control over the base.

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Americans are the ones paying for tariffs, study finds

Americans, not foreigners, are bearing almost the entire cost of U.S. tariffs, according to new research that contradicts a key claim by President Trump and suggests he might have a weaker hand in a reemerging trade war with Europe. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his historic tariffs, deployed aggressively over the past year as both a revenue-raising and foreign-policy tool, will be paid for by foreigners. Such assertions helped to reinforce the president’s bargaining power and encourage foreign governments to do deals with the U.S. Trump’s claims have been supported by the resilience of the U.S. economy, which recorded relatively brisk growth and moderate inflation last year, even as growth in Europe and other advanced economies remained sluggish.

The new research, published Monday by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a well-regarded German think tank, suggests that the impact of tariffs is likely to show up over time in the form of higher U.S. consumer prices. The findings don’t mean that the tariffs are a win for Europe—on the contrary. German exports to the U.S., which have rocketed in recent years, have contracted sharply in the past year. The German research echoes recent reports by the Budget Lab at Yale and economists at Harvard Business School, finding that only a small fraction of the tariff costs were being borne by foreign producers. By analyzing $4 trillion of shipments between January 2024 and November 2025, the Kiel Institute researchers found that foreign exporters absorbed only about 4% of the burden of last year’s U.S. tariff increases by lowering their prices, while American consumers and importers absorbed 96%.

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State Stories

Texas AG Paxton issues anti-DEI opinion on MLK, Jr. Day

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued legal guidance on Monday morning, declaring many diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in public and private spaces unconstitutional. For several years, Republican state lawmakers have pushed to phase out diversity programs in state government. Now, the private sphere may be next. On Monday, people attending the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade celebrated gains made after the Civil Rights Movement, such as affirmative action and diversity recruitment and hiring efforts. Also on Monday morning, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton laid out a 74-page memo arguing that those very programs were unconstitutional and constituted race-based discrimination. It supported Governor Greg Abbott’s earlier efforts to end the practice of boosting contracts to Black, Hispanic, and women-owned businesses through the Historically Underutilized Business Program.

“There is a prohibition in the Constitution to discriminate on the basis of race or sex. And that doesn't mean that if you're Black or Hispanic or a woman or a man or white or whatever, you're going to be denied access," said Gov. Abbott in an earlier interview with NBC DFW. But Paxton also went further, stating that race-based hiring, promotion, mentoring, and training programs may also violate state and federal law. He wrote: “The race- and sex-based public sector preferences discussed in this opinion cannot survive strict scrutiny and are therefore unconstitutional. Furthermore, a large body of DEI practices in the private sector triggers liability...” "The opinion also poses a real threat to the corporate community by inviting lawsuits and unwarranted hostility toward institutions that have attempted, however imperfectly, to broaden opportunity in workplaces that still do not reflect full equality for Black and Brown Americans," wrote Gary Bledsoe, President of the Texas NAACP, responding to the AG memo. “We've never lived in a colorblind society, and you can't ignore color," said Texas Rep. Venton Jones, D - Dallas.

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HB 7 is now law, but Texans are still accessing abortion pills

Though living in a state with a near-total abortion ban, Texans can be prescribed and mailed mifepristone and misoprostol pills by out-of-state medical providers, making at-home medicated abortions possible. Last summer, Texas lawmakers tried to close off that access to abortion medication for good when they passed House Bill 7. As of Dec. 4, HB 7 is in effect, allowing private citizens to sue any individual who makes, distributes, mails, or prescribes abortion pills to a Texan patient. Rather than incriminating the patient themselves, the law prosecutes those helping the patient access the pills – whether that be the parent of a pregnant teenager, a spouse, or their medical provider. But post-HB 7, the reality is that Texans are still accessing abortion pills due to the reproductive care shield laws in states like Massachusetts, New York, California, and Colorado that legally protect their medical providers’ rights to serve patients over telehealth, regardless of where the patient lives.

At the end of October, New York’s shield law held up against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to prosecute a New York doctor. One out-of-state group serving Texans is the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, whose five clinicians prescribe and mail abortion medication to pregnant individuals in their first trimester for a suggested fee of $5. Two-thirds of patients requesting abortion medication cannot afford the full $75 cost of the care, according to MAP. MAP also offers abortion medication in advance as “period pills” for higher fees, a practice where the pills are taken by someone who thinks they might be pregnant but didn’t take a test. “For some patients, not knowing is something that they value,” Angel Foster, a leader at MAP and medical provider, told the Chronicle. “They know they don’t want to be pregnant, but they don’t want to know if the pills caused an abortion or not.” Since HB 7 took effect in Texas, “We haven’t changed anything about our practice,” Foster said, adding that, in December, the same month HB 7 became law, MAP saw its largest monthly patient volume yet – over 3,000 patients. About a third of the organization’s patients reside in Texas.

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Abbott expands call for stronger anti-fraud investigations to include Texas Medicaid

Gov. Greg Abbott directed state officials to investigate potential Medicaid fraud in Texas and implement additional anti-fraud measures. In a letter sent Friday, Abbott directs the head of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General to “proactively address fraud, waste and abuse” in Medicaid programs after the Trump administration identified potential fraud in other states. The letter outlines actions for the agencies to take – including additional reviews of services identified by the Trump administration. Several of the measures focus on the insurance companies that facilitate Medicaid programs – known as Managed Care Organizations, or MCOs.

Abbott instructs HHSC the OIG to ensure the organizations have a fully staffed Special Investigations Unit to complete legally required investigations into fraud. The state will also provide training to those investigative units to improve their ability to find and prevent fraud. MCO policies for services that are considered at a higher risk for fraud will go through a targeted review by the state. Abbott also directs state officials to “complete a targeted utilization review of autism services” and provide a report in June. “During my tenure as Governor, Texas has policed the Medicaid program and proactively combatted fraud,” Abbott wrote in the letter. “But we will strengthen our efforts to further protect taxpayers, preserve access for eligible Texans, and maintain the integrity of Texas’ Medicaid Program.” The letter was sent less than two weeks after Abbott sent a letter to the heads of the Texas Workforce Commission and HHSC, directing them to implement anti-fraud measures in a program designed to help low-income families pay for childcare. That letter was sent after the Trump Administration choose to freeze federal funding to Child Care Services programs due to a viral video claiming widespread fraud in Minnesota. State agencies are expected to provide a progress report to Abbott by March 15.

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Led by Texas, New Hampshire, U.S. states race to prove they can put bitcoin on public balance sheet

Led by Texas and New Hampshire, U.S. states across the national map, both red and blue in political stripes, are developing bitcoin strategic reserves and bringing cryptocurrencies onto their books through additional state finance and budgeting measures. Texas recently became the first state to purchase bitcoin after a legislative effort that began in 2024, but numerous states have joined the "Reserve Race" to pass legislation that will allow them to ultimately buy cryptocurrencies. New Hampshire passed its crypto strategic reserve law last May, even before Texas, giving the state treasurer the authority to invest up to 5% of the state funds in crypto ETFs, though precious metals such as gold are also authorized for purchase. Arizona passed similar legislation, while Massachusetts, Ohio, and South Dakota have legislation at various stages of committee review.

Despite much of the legislation being largely sponsored or co-sponsored by Republicans, the adoption of crypto at the state level is not expected to strictly fall along party lines. The 2024 election cycle was the first time that the cryptocurrency industry played a major role in lobbying in both state and national elections. In fact, it was the largest corporate donor in an election cycle, with support given to candidates on both sides. It is already amassing a war chest for the 2026 midterms. Congress is currently debating a crypto market structure bill, and state-level politicians are as much out to prove that they, and their states, won't be left out of the digital assets boom. Justin Marlowe, a public policy professor at the University of Chicago, sees the state-level trend as largely one of signaling at present. "If you're a governor and you want to broadcast that you are amenable to innovative business development in the digital economy, these are relatively low-cost, low-risk ways to send that signal. That's why we've seen leaders across the ideological spectrum and all over the country take tangible steps in this direction," he said. Where the state-level crypto efforts can be described as "bigger steps" — Marlowe cited Texas, Arizona, and Florida, as examples — he said it has helped to acknowledge the growing political power of crypto advocates in these states.

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State Fair of Texas Rodeo paused for the upcoming 2026 season, officials say

The State Fair of Texas has made the decision to pause its rodeo for the 2026 fair season, officials say. In a statement released on Sunday, the State Fair says it evaluates its entertainment, attraction, and exhibitor offerings annually to ensure a balance of tradition and innovation while remaining financially responsible. The affordability of experiences for families remains the top priority, officials say. "Our support for the Texas equine industry remains strong, and we hope to welcome events like these back when conditions allow," the State Fair says. The release urges participants in the rodeo and equine events to monitor their email for further communication. This is not goodbye, it's so long for now, according to the State Fair.

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Greater:SATX wants to attract more corporate HQs by 2030

How will San Antonio’s economy grow by 2030? Greater:SATX, an organization that works with local governments and businesses to bring more jobs to San Antonio and the surrounding region, is trying to answer that question with a new five-year plan. That includes attracting new companies and supporting workforce development, said President and CEO Sarah Carabias Rush. But over the next five years, Greater:SATX will also try to bring more corporate headquarters to town. “We will lean in harder and more specifically in headquarter recruitment,” Carabias Rush, who was named CEO last year, said in a December interview. Companies like Valero, H-E-B and USAA have headquarters in San Antonio, but other cities in Texas are ahead of the Alamo City. Austin, Dallas and Houston all have more Fortune 500 company headquarters, according to Fortune Magazine.

AT&T, for example, left San Antonio for Dallas in 2008. The company plans to move its headquarters again to Plano in 2028. Other company’s have struggled after establishing headquarters in San Antonio — DeLorean Motor Company had to withdraw from city and county tax incentive projects in 2024 when it was unable to deliver on its end of the agreement. Carabias Rush said company headquarters bring high-paying jobs that tend to have ripple effects in an economy. Business executives employ others or pay for more services and may be more involved with local philanthropy. Attracting those opportunities is hard, Carabias Rush said. It takes time and specific, targeted sales. “You have to solve the problem they’re facing. No one is going to pick up and move a headquarters for no reason,” she said.

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Halt on visas will not impact tourist visas for World Cup, expected to be a boon for Texas

The U.S. State Department will stop issuing immigrant visas for 75 countries for an undetermined time beginning Jan. 21. The suspension applies to U.S. immigrant visas for foreigners seeking to live in the U.S., but it does not impact short-term visa applications for students or tourists, including soccer fans wishing to travel to the U.S. for the FIFA World Cup 2026, according to the department. Local immigration attorney Haim Vasquez represents people across the state of Texas seeking immigrant and non-immigrant visas and spoke with NBC 5 about the impact on those seeking to live in the U.S. and those only wanting to visit.

“We are talking about people who have been 'in the line,'” said Vasquez about the 75 countries impacted by the suspension. “This is only for the people who are outside the United States who are applying to get that Green Card granted at the consulate and who might have been waiting for over a decade in many cases to obtain the Green Cards. This does not have anything to do with immigration issues at the border or people who don't have immigration status inside the U.S.” People living in the following countries are impacted by the suspension of immigrant visa applications: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Yemen. According to the State Department, "The State Department will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates. The freeze will remain active until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people. The pause impacts dozens of countries – including Somalia, Haiti, Iran, and Eritrea – whose immigrants often become public charges on the United States upon arrival. We are working to ensure the generosity of the American people will no longer be abused." Vasquez questions what data the government used to compile and justify the countries on the list.

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Valley cities: We need direct connectors between Anzalduas Highway and I-2

The lack of direct connectors between FM 396 (Anzalduas Highway) to I-2 will hinder Anzalduas International Bridge’s expansion into a fully operational commercial port of entry. And until they are built there will not be a seamless movement of commercial vehicles. This is the view of the cities of McAllen, Mission, Granjeno, and Hidalgo. The cities, working with the Anzalduas International Toll Bridge Board of Trustees, have passed resolutions urging the Texas Department of Transportation to build the connectors. Finding the funding for the direct connectors was also a top priority for the cities of McAllen and Mission during the last legislative session.

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Third immigrant detainee at facility in El Paso has died, ICE says

A third undocumented immigrant detained at a sprawling tent camp in the Texas desert has died, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Sunday, in the third such death in 44 days. Camp East Montana on Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso, is one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country, with 2,903 detainees as of Jan. 8, according to ICE data.The facility is a soft-sided tent-style structure, which ICE increasingly favors over brick-and-mortar buildings as it ramps up immigration enforcement.

ICE identified the detainee as Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, from Nicaragua, who first encountered ICE officers in Minneapolis. He was pronounced dead at 4:09 p.m. Wednesday after contract security staff members found him “unconscious and unresponsive” in his room, the agency said in a news release. “He died of a presumed suicide; however, the official cause of his death remains under investigation,” ICE said in the release. ICE did not immediately respond to an email asking why it presumes Diaz died by suicide. In recent months, members of Congress have raised concerns about safety at the facility, which opened in August. President Donald Trump has pushed for mass deportation of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and his administration has dramatically increased ICE detentions. Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, a Camp East Montana detainee from Guatemala, died at The Hospitals of Providence East, a general hospital in El Paso, on Dec. 3. In a Dec. 5 news release, ICE said that his cause of death was pending but that “medical staff attributed it to natural liver and kidney failure.”

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Austin city workers brace for layoffs

Does City Manager T.C. Broadnax believe that Austin is employing too many workers? Carol Guthrie, a longtime leader of the union representing the city’s employees, AFSCME Local 1624, fears he does. Guthrie told the Chronicle last week that she is in communication with a city employee who said that Broadnax expressed this opinion during a meeting in the fall with the leaders of the city’s 45 departments. Guthrie said the employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, told her that Broadnax made the comment as he discussed the city’s ongoing effort to consolidate the services offered by different city departments, known as the Shared Services Optimization process. “First, he said there won’t be any layoffs,” Guthrie said. “Then, in this meeting, he said that the city is bloated. They have about 1,500 to 2,000 too many employees.” The city of Austin employs about 13,500 people.

If the allegation Guthrie relayed is true, it would mean that Broadnax believes that one out of every nine city workers is unnecessary. A city spokesperson told the Chronicle that the city manager denies describing the city workforce as bloated, but that he “has said in various meetings that the city has 1,500 to 2,000 more employees than peer cities of similar size.” The spokesperson added that the city manager has also said that “the city is not an employment agency and that we are a customer service organization.” Broadnax described the Shared Services Optimization process and other city initiatives promoting efficiency in a memo last November. The goal of the project, led by the department of Budget and Organizational Excellence (BOE), is to reduce the duplication of services in different departments so that the services can be delivered, in the words of Broadnax’s memo, in a “more consistent, customer-centered, and cost-effective” way. Broadnax added in the memo that BOE will examine the services offered by departments like Human Resources, Development Services, Financial Services, Fleet Mobility Services, and others. Regarding the possibility that the process could lead to future layoffs, the city spokesperson said that BOE is committed to keeping the initiative transparent and inclusive. “No decisions have been made about roles, reporting lines, or organizational structure,” the spokesperson said.

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After a prison cat fundraiser went viral, Texas officials put his caretaker in solitary confinement

Just days after a fundraiser to save a sick stray cat at a Central Texas women’s prison raised nearly $11,000, Texas prison officials placed the incarcerated woman who cared for the cat into solitary confinement — despite the fact that she did not organize the fundraiser or receive any of the money. Sonya Reed, a 53-year-old woman incarcerated at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, was moved into administrative segregation, also known as solitary confinement, during an internal investigation into a GoFundMe created by her daughter, Kitti Reed, last month to pay for veterinary care for a beloved prison cat named Orange Julius. The Barbed Wire previously published two stories about OJ and the comfort he has provided Sonya, precipitating more donations and an outpouring of internet support — but did not identify her until now as a precaution in order to protect her from backlash from prison officials.

“They really rely on those cats for emotional support,” she previously said, adding that the generosity from strangers has been overwhelming. “These animals don’t see their mistakes. They’re just a constant.” “Not only are these women kind of shunned by society because they are in prison, but even more so the cats,” she said earlier this week. “I didn’t know so many people cared about them.” But that positivity quickly soured. The younger Reed said she has now agreed to speak publicly — and to allow her mother’s name to be used — in hopes that public attention would protect her. “The more eyes on this, the better,” she said. “When something is under scrutiny, there’s less chance of anything untoward happening.” According to Reed, her mother was first pulled in for questioning about the fundraiser and told she was not in trouble. She was questioned twice, returned to her housing area, and then placed in isolation the following day. “We still don’t have any straight answers from the prison about it,” Reed told The Barbed Wire.

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Births in El Paso County drop 5% in 2025 as long-term population shifts deepen

The number of births to El Paso County residents declined again in 2025, the 15th time in the past 20 years that births have dropped, according to state data. The preliminary number of births last year to El Paso County residents – 10,279 – was 5% lower than the updated preliminary numbers for 2024. The revised 2024 numbers showed a slight increase over births in 2023. The plummeting birth rate in El Paso County has had profound effects on school enrollment. The number of children attending El Paso County schools topped 180,000 as recently as the 2012-13 school year; countywide enrollment almost certainly will drop below 160,000 this year.

ecent birth trends suggest enrollment will fall below 140,000 in 2031-32, a decline of more than 40,000 students in two decades. Put another way, it took 13 years for the first enrollment decline of 20,000 students; the next drop of 20,000 students could take only six years. This trend will increase pressure on school districts to close campuses and cut jobs. Over the coming two decades, the decline in births likely will dramatically alter everything from the composition of the workforce to demands on natural resources to the need for housing. The number of births to El Paso County residents dropped by 24% between 2015 and 2025, a decline that’s more than twice the national rate. El Paso’s population is significantly younger than the nation as a whole – a median age of 33 years vs. the national median of 39 – which makes the rapid birth rate decline even more unusual.

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National Stories

Fed Chair Powell to attend Supreme Court argument on Cook case

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will attend the Supreme Court’s oral argument Wednesday in a case involving the attempted firing of Fed governor Lisa Cook, an unusual show of support by the central bank chair. The high court is considering whether President Donald Trump can fire Cook, as he said he would do in late August, in an unprecedented attempt to remove one of the seven members of the Fed’s governing board. Powell plans to attend the high court’s Wednesday session, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s a much more public show of support than the Fed chair has previously shown Cook. But it follows Powell’s announcement last week that the Trump administration has sent subpoenas to the Fed, threatening an unprecedented criminal indictment of the Fed Chair.

Powell — appointed to the position by Trump in 2018 — appears to be casting off last year’s more subdued reponse to Trump’s repeated attacks on the central bank in favor of a more public confrontation. Powell issued a video statement Jan. 11 condemning the subpoenas as “pretexts” for Trump’s efforts to force him to sharply cut the Fed’s key interest rate. Powell oversaw three rate cuts late last year, lowering the rate to about 3.6%, but Trump has argued it should be as low as 1%, a position few economists support. The Trump administration has accused Cook of mortgage fraud, an allegation that Cook has denied. No charges have been made against Cook. She sued to keep her job, and the Supreme Court Oct. 1 issued a brief order allowing her to stay on the board while they consider her case. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook, he could appoint another person to fill her slot, which would give his appointees a majority on the Fed’s board and greater influence over the central bank’s decisions on interest rates and bank regulation.

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Trump threatens 200% tariff on French wines as Macron reportedly snubs ‘Board of Peace’ seat

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose 200% tariffs on French wines and champagne after French President Emmanuel Macron was reported to be unwilling to join his “Board of Peace” on Gaza. When asked for a response by a reporter in Miami about Macron’s stance, Trump dismissed the French leader’s influence and said he would use trade penalties as leverage. “Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” Trump said. “So you know, that’s all right. What I’ll do is, if they feel like [being] hostile, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes, and he’ll join. But he doesn’t have to join.” Macron’s five-year presidential term is due to end in May 2027, and under French law, he cannot run again for a third term.

The Board of Peace is a global body endorsed by the United Nations Security Council in November last year, established to oversee the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Invites to various world leaders to be on the board have been sent, including to Russian President Vladimir Putin, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump also reiterated his plans to control Greenland, downplaying the likelihood of resistance from Europe. “I don’t think they’re going to push back too much,” he said. “We have to have it ...They can’t protect it.” Referring to Denmark’s historical claims over Greenland, Trump said the Danish leaders were “very good people,” but argued that a centuries-old presence did not confer ownership. ?[Just] because the boat went there 500 years ago and then left, that doesn’t give you title to property.” It was not clear what “boat” Trump was referring to.

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Tillis eyes new blockade over Greenland, tariffs

In his 348 days left in office — yes, he’s counting — Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) could end up becoming the biggest headache for Senate GOP leaders and the White House. The North Carolina Republican is the deciding vote on all four of his committees, having exercised that leverage a few times already since announcing last year that he won’t seek reelection, including most recently with Federal Reserve nominees. During an hour-long interview over Danish smørrebrød, Tillis said President Donald Trump’s push to grab control of Greenland — and use tariffs to punish allies who oppose the effort — is likely to be his next target. “It’s about to come out on a grand scale,” said Tillis, who’s in Davos this week. “The straws are dropping on the proverbial camel’s back.” While Tillis hasn’t yet decided what he’ll target or how, he’s teasing a much more expansive effort. In addition to blocking certain nominees in committee, Tillis noted he could also derail packages of nominees on the floor by demanding individual roll-call votes.

Tillis said he could also withhold his votes on the floor and, if a few others join him, grind the chamber to a halt. We sat down with Tillis shortly after he and other lawmakers participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at a memorial for Danish troops, who died in battle, including on the United States’ behalf in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tillis got especially emotional and told us that Trump’s threats amount to the “betrayal of a friend.” For these lawmakers, the trip was a reminder of how Congress has ceded so much of its authority to the executive branch that it’s become difficult to actually reassure U.S. allies of lawmakers’ ability to rein in the president. “Even though you’ve given certain authorities away, that doesn’t mean that with the right cooperation, the Article I branch still can’t be as assertive,” said Tillis. “It just requires people to come out of the shadows.” ‘Balls and strikes.’ The liberated Tillis is already blocking Department of Homeland Security nominees over Secretary Kristi Noem’s months-long refusal to testify before the Judiciary Committee. Tillis has also vowed to block Fed nominees in the Banking Committee amid DOJ’s targeting of Fed Chair Jay Powell.

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Supreme Court weighs Hawaii’s ‘default’ ban on guns on private property that’s open to the public

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday over a Hawaii law that bars people from carrying guns onto private property without the explicit approval of the property owner, a measure intended to reduce guns in retail stores and other businesses open to the public. The case is the latest gun rights dispute to reach the high court after its conservative majority adopted an expansive view of the Second Amendment in a blockbuster 2022 ruling that established that the Constitution protects the right to bear arms outside the home. The current case, Wolford v. Lopez, concerns a law Hawaii, passed in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court decision. It says that if a conceal carry license holder wants to bring their firearm on private property that is open to the public, they must get express consent from the property owner – such as verbally or with a sign.

Gun control groups have framed the dispute as a property rights case – rather than a Second Amendment dispute – arguing there is a longstanding tradition of property owners being able to set rules about what is carried onto their property. All the Hawaii law does, they say, is flip the “default” legal position from one in which people are presumptively permitted to carry guns into stores to one in which they are prohibited from doing so. “Since our founding as a nation, private property rights have been foundational to American identity and embedded throughout our system of government and our Constitution,” said Douglas Letter, chief legal officer at the gun control group Brady. Four other blue states – California, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland – have similar regulations, though the challengers contend that Hawaii’s is the most extreme. A trial court blocked the Hawaii statute, but an appeals court panel sided with Hawaii and the full US 9th Circuit of Appeals – over the vigorous dissent of several members – refused to rehear the case. The law, however, is still on hold for the Supreme Court appeal.

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Prediction market sites are taking over Washington

Before White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt takes the podium for press briefings, users on Polymarket and Kalshi place their bets, hoping to cash in on their predictions about when the briefing will start, how long it will last and what Leavitt will say. Words and phrases like “ICE,” “narco-terrorist,” “Biden,” and “radical left” are popular picks, with thousands of dollars being put up every time she takes the podium. Users have placed about $33,000 on whether the UFC will host a fight at the White House by the country’s 250th anniversary, $85,000 on what President Donald Trump will say in his State of the Union address, and $372,000 on which Cabinet secretaries will be out by the end of the year. Earlier this month, Leavitt made headlines for ending the briefing seconds before users could cash in bets that it would last longer than 65 minutes.

There were two places in Washington where bets weren’t coming in — at least on WiFi. Polymarket and Kalshi are inaccessible on the “White House Press” WiFi network. They are also restricted on the House of Representatives’ WiFi network, although not the Senate’s. Prediction markets have become a multi-billion-dollar industry, expanding from wagers on sports to political minutiae. As popularity surges, lawmakers and government institutions are taking steps to limit access and prevent misuse. But experts say the current attempts at regulation don’t go far enough. Legislative efforts to regulate the integrity of the markets became a top priority for lawmakers after an anonymous user on Polymarket wagered thousands of dollars that the United States would capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, hours before it happened and hours before the public became aware of the plan. The user made more than $400,000.

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Judge, wife shot and wounded at home in Lafayette, Indiana

A manhunt continued Monday after a judge and his wife were shot and wounded in their home in Lafayette, Indiana. Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly, were shot at their home on Sunday, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush said in a statement. The shooter was still at large Monday night. Lafayette Police said they responded to the home on Mill Pond Lane on Sunday afternoon and found the two victims, who received medical treatment and are in stable condition. Police said Steven Meyer suffered an injury to his arm and Kimberly Meyer had an injury to her hip. "This remains an active and ongoing joint investigation" involving local and state police, the county sheriff's office, county prosecutors and the FBI, Lafayette Police said Monday.

According to a recording of the emergency dispatch operator, the caller said there was a knock on the door, someone told them we have your dog, and then a shot came through the door. Police said shell casings were recovered at the scene. Tippecanoe County Sheriff Robert Goldsmith told CBS News there will be extra security at the courthouse for the foreseeable future. He said they aren't aware of any threats against the judge or others in the courthouse. Kimberly Meyer said in a statement that she and her husband have "great confidence" in the Lafayette Police investigation and thanked all the agencies involved. "We are also incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community; everyone has been so kind and compassionate," she said. "We would especially like to thank the medical personnel who provided care and assistance to us following the incident."

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US officials probing Minnesota ICE protest that disrupted church service

The US justice department has said it is investigating protesters who disrupted a Sunday service at a Minnesota church because they believe a pastor there works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Video showed protesters inside the church chanting "ICE out" and "Justice for Renee Good", the woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month. Justice department officials accuse the protesters of "desecrating a house of worship", say they will investigate them for civil rights violations. President Donald Trump has called them "agitators and insurrectionists". Anti-ICE protests continue in the state against Trump's immigration crackdown

The Pentagon has reportedly put 1,500 soldiers on standby for possible deployment. On Sunday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed to exercise the "full force of federal law" against the demonstrators who interrupted the service at the Cities Church in St Paul, which neighbours Minneapolis. Later on Monday, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said on X that the justice department "will pursue federal charges in this case". Protesters say that one of the church's eight pastors, David Easterwood, is a local ICE official. Easterwood was not leading the service on Sunday. A person by the same name is identified in ACLU court filings as the acting director of the ICE St Paul field office, according to reporting by the Associated Press and the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper.

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More than 60 quit Heritage over Roberts' failure to condemn antisemitism

More than 60 senior staff members, fellows, and trustees have departed the Heritage Foundation in the wake of the crisis ignited by President Kevin Roberts' support for Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson, Newsmax has learned. The departures signal deepening turmoil at one of Washington's most influential conservative think tanks. In the past week, Andrew Hale, a senior Heritage policy analyst, exited the foundation.v "I can roll with policy changes, but what I can't roll with is a tolerance or an overlooking of antisemitism or any form of bigotry," Hale told Jewish Insider. When reached for comment by Newsmax, a Heritage spokesperson declined to confirm the number of departures since October.

Late that month, Roberts posted a video statement on X defending Carlson after the commentator aired a widely criticized interview with Fuentes, a far-right figure known for white nationalist and Holocaust-denying views. In the video, Roberts said the think tank would not "cancel" Carlson for the interview, framed Carlson's critics as part of a "venomous coalition" trying to silence him, and stressed that Heritage would stand by its friends even amid backlash. Roberts has said he is Carlson's close friend, and it was later disclosed that Heritage had sponsored the host's podcasts for nearly $1 million. The video rapidly sparked internal and external backlash. Senior staff, fellows, and Jewish partners criticized the refrain that Carlson should not be distanced and flagged the "venomous coalition" phrase as especially harmful, given concerns about antisemitism. Within days, Roberts apologized in a follow-up video and at an all-staff meeting, saying he "made a mistake" and regretted his choice of words. But he never clearly explained what he was apologizing for or criticized Carlson for his antisemitic statements.

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Republican governor disinvited from Greenland dog sled race after Trump’s tariff threats

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, was disinvited from attending a dog sled race on the island following a weekend of saber rattling from the president as he aggressively pushes for U.S. acquisition of the semi-autonomous Danish territory. The Greenland Dog Sledding Association (KNQK) said in a release on Sunday that it “has been informed that the tourist company that invited Governor Jeff Landry from the United States has withdrawn its invitation.” “This is reassuring for KNQK, and we take note of it,” the release added. It did not name the company in question that had taken the action.

Trump renewed his first-term push to acquire Greenland shortly after being sworn back into office, and vowed in his address to Congress last year: “One way or another, we’re going to get it.” Trump escalated his threats Sunday morning in a text message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, saying that he was pushing to acquire Greenland, at least in part, because he did not win a Nobel Peace Prize. He said the snub had freed him to no longer “think purely of Peace.” “Why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?” Trump wrote in the message to Støre. “There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.” On Saturday, Trump announced tariffs against eight European countries that sent troops to Greenland in recent months, including Britain, France and Germany.

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Lead Stories

Trump links Greenland threat to Nobel Peace Prize snub, EU eyes trade retaliation

U.S. President Donald Trump linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought "purely of Peace" as the row over the Arctic island on Monday threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe. Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, threatening punitive tariffs on countries which stand in his way and prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures. The dispute is threatening to upend the NATO alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades and which was already under strain over the war in Ukraine and Trump's refusal to protect allies which do not spend enough on defence. It has also plunged trade relations between the EU and the U.S., the bloc's biggest export market, into renewed uncertainty after the two sides painstakingly reached a trade deal last year in response to Trump's swingeing tariffs.

In a written message to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere that was seen by Reuters, Trump said: "Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America." The Norwegian Nobel Committee annoyed Trump by awarding the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize not to him but to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. She gave her medal last week to Trump during a White House meeting, though the Nobel Committee said the prize cannot be transferred, shared or revoked. In his message, Trump also repeated his accusation that Denmark cannot protect Greenland from Russia or China. "... and why do they have a 'right of ownership' anyway?" he wrote, adding: "The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.” Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs from February 1 on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the U.S. is allowed to buy Greenland.

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‘60 Minutes’ story held for lacking interview with Trump official airs without one

In December, CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss shelved a “60 Minutes” story about the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. The reason, Weiss told staff: The segment didn’t have an on-camera interview with a Trump administration official. On Sunday evening — four weeks later — the story aired with minimal changes and without an on-camera interview with a Trump administration official. The segment included a new introduction that said: “Since November, ‘60 Minutes’ has made several attempts to interview key Trumpadministration officials on camera about our story. They declined our requests.”

At the end of the 16½-minute report, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi narrated a new 2½-minute coda that included the U.S. government’s denial of requests for records regarding the Venezuelan deportees imprisoned at CECOT, a written response from the Department of Homeland Security and an update from a federal judge’s recent ruling, among other notes and disclosures. Weiss’s decision to abruptly pull the segment last month after the network had approved and promoted it prompted accusations of censorship from within the network, including from Alfonsi, and from outside critics. In an email to staff reviewed by The Washington Post, Alfonsi described last month’s decision to kill the segment as “corporate censorship.” “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient,” she wrote in the email. “We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.” In a Dec. 22 meeting, Weiss told staffers that she held the story because she thought it wasn’t ready, according to a person who attended the meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity to share nonpublic comments. “This is ‘60 Minutes.’ We need to be able to make every effort to get the principals on the record and on camera,” Weiss said, according to that person. “To me, our viewers come first, not a listing schedule or anything else, and that is my North Star, and I hope it’s the North Star of every person in this newsroom.”

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Is Trump losing Joe Rogan, America’s most important swing voter?

In February 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson famously lost Walter Cronkite when the renowned news anchor told Americans he could no longer accept the president’s assurances about the war in Vietnam. This week, President Trump may have lost Joe Rogan for the prosecution of his own war—this one on immigration. Outwardly, at least, the “most trusted man in America” may bear little resemblance to Rogan, the world’s most popular podcaster. One is scarcely imaginable without a coat and tie, the other tends toward muscle t-shirts and hoodies. But in one regard, they overlap: As Cronkite was in his time, Rogan is now an essential barometer of national sentiment in a fractured and suspicious age. “He’s the weathervane,” Doug Schoen, a political consultant who advised Bill Clinton and is now a regular analyst on Fox News, said of Rogan.

The three-hour audience he provided Trump on the eve of the 2024 election, and his subsequent endorsement, is regarded by many as a pivotal moment in that contest. Certainly, Trump seemed to think so, inviting Rogan to the Oval Office. Earlier this week, though, the podcaster recoiled when faced with the particulars of Trump’s signature campaign promise to undertake the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in American history. In particular, Rogan appeared shaken by the death of Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman who was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent under contested circumstances. “It just seemed all kinds of wrong to me,” Rogan told Kentucky Senator Rand Paul during the tail end of a nearly three-hour discussion in his Austin studio that aired on Tuesday. “She didn’t seem mentally healthy but does that mean she should be shot in the head? Is there no other way to handle this?” Later, Rogan would invoke the Nazis when describing the masked and militarized ICE agents roaming Minneapolis streets. “Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?” he asked. It is hard to say whether Rogan’s misgivings will moderate Trump. On Thursday, with Minneapolis’ wintry air clouded with tear gas and the shriek of whistling anti-ICE protesters, the president threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military.

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Trump’s immigration crackdown faces growing disapproval from voters

President Trump is facing signs that his immigration crackdown is losing popularity with American voters as fallout grows from the fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer this month. Recent polling has found Trump’s approval on immigration at a low point and shown that even some Republican voters are critical of immigration officers’ approach. The poll numbers come as some high-profile figures on the right have criticized ICE in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting, underscoring the potential political liability for the party as it heads into the midterms. “This is the kind of political issue that can get out of control,” Republican strategist Jason Cabel Roe said.

Immigration has long been one of the president’s strong suits, and he won his second term partly on the promise of tough border policies and mass deportations. But his administration’s aggressive moves have drawn sharp pushback from the left, prompted protests throughout the year and now appear to be dragging down his approval numbers. A new Reuters/Ipsos survey found American approval of Trump’s immigration approach at its lowest point since he returned to the White House. In an AP-NORC poll, just 38 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s immigration enforcement, down from a 49 percent high this spring. And a majority of voters in a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS said ICE’s actions are making American cities less safe. The polls come after ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month, marking a major flash point in Trump’s immigration crackdown and sparking protests across the country.

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State Stories

Houston ISD delays state requirement that would limit uncertified teachers

The Houston ISD state-appointed board of managers voted Thursday night to delay new state requirements that would have banned uncertified educators from teaching core subjects, including English language arts and reading, math, science and social studies, in public schools by the 2027-2028 school year. Last summer, the Texas legislature passed House Bill two, which put limitations on uncertified teachers in core classrooms. Specifically, it requires reading and math teachers for kindergarten through fifth grade to be certified by this fall, and by the next school year, districts can't have any uncertified teachers for English, math, science and social studies across any grade level. A recent study from the University of Houston reported uncertified teachers make up nearly 20% of the teacher workforce in Houston ISD. Uncertified teachers made up just .3% of teachers in the district seven years ago.

Toni Templeton, one of the report's authors, says the spike in uncertified teachers accelerated under the state takeover. "Right before the takeover, Houston ISD had about 100 uncertified teachers district-wide, and in the first year of the takeover, that number increased tenfold to a little over 1,000 district-wide, and in the second year of the takeover, that number doubled," Templeton said. "So, that increase is signaling to us that the district is really working with a much less certified and less experienced teaching population." For now, HISD is free to continue hiring and using uncertified teachers until the 2029-2030 school year. That's because the board voted to become a district of innovation just six months into the state takeover back in 2023, which allows the district to submit exemptions from state requirements to the Texas Education Commissioner. The agency does not have the authority to approve or disapprove of a district's submitted plan. Uncertified teachers are those who have not completed an educator preparation program or passed a state certification exam, but many have a background in the subject they are teaching. Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers and vocal critic of the state takeover of Houston ISD, said that's not enough. "I know how to cook, but I can't teach cooking," Anderson said. "It's more than just spewing out content. It's more than just telling people what information is. You have to be able to connect with the child. The district cited "statewide shortages of certified teachers and increased certification requirements" as part of its rationale for the delay. They say they will provide more support for uncertified teachers and expand partnerships with Educator Preparation Programs, and commit to having zero uncertified teachers in core subject areas by the 2029-2030 school year.

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Mistakenly deported college student details how her life turned upside down

As she sat on a deportation flight headed to Texas, Any Lucia Lopez Belloza kept asking herself why. She was a college student with no criminal record and no reason to believe she was at risk of being sent back to her native Honduras. “It just shocked me. I don’t know, like I was numb,” Lopez Belloza told The Associated Press on Friday in a phone interview from Honduras, where she's staying with her grandparents. The 19-year-old freshman at Babson College was detained at Boston’s airport on Nov. 20 as she was preparing to fly home to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported two days later, returning to Honduras for the first time since she was 8. Although the government has apologized for a federal immigration employee mistakenly deporting her even after a Massachusetts judge ordered that she remain in the U.S., her future is unclear.

Lopez Belloza and he mother were ordered deported several years after arriving in the United States. Although the government says she missed multiple opportunities to appeal, Lopez Belloza said her previous attorney told her there was no removal order, and she never would have tried to fly home in November if she'd known about it. She was able to make a phone call to her family before being loaded onto a plane to Texas, her last stop before leaving the country. “I was numb the whole plane ride. I was like, ‘If this is it, then this will be it,’ Lopez Belloza said, even as she kept hoping for a reprieve. "Why is this happening to me? I just kept questioning myself. Why is it happening to me?” But as she boarded the flight for Honduras, Lopez Belloza admitted her mood darkened. She started to consider that the life she had — living in a college dorm in a wealthy Massachusetts suburb, earning a business degree so she could open a tailoring shop with her father — might be over. “I guess this is where my dreams are gone," she recalled thinking. "Because in Honduras, if you want to dream big, it’s like you have to have a lot of money. You have to be rich. But in the United States, dreams are possible. You can make them happen.”

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Ted Cruz once joked Trump would 'nuke Denmark.' Now he backs taking Greenland.

Maybe Sen. Ted Cruz knew something more than the rest of us a decade ago when he suggested that if Donald Trump were elected president, he might, on a whim, wage war on one of the United States' loyal allies. "I don’t know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the button," the Republican senator from Texas said on Feb. 3, 2016, just two days after he had bested Trump in the Iowa caucus. "We’re liable to wake up one morning and Donald, if he were president, would have nuked Denmark." It's fair to assume that Cruz was using hyperbole and sarcasm to question the temperament of the then-untested Trump as both men competed for the Republican presidential nomination. It wouldn't be the last time Cruz threw sharp elbows at Trump before ultimately being vanquished by the real estate tycoon and reality TV star who was elected president — twice.

The reason the "nuke Denmark" line appeared destined to be a one-and-done jab was rooted in its absurdity, which Cruz used to emphasize a point. For one thing, Denmark is a loyal member of NATO, America's most enduring military alliance, and sent its troops to be part of the U.S. response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York. For another, Denmark is a tiny peninsula in the North Sea about the size of Maine. It has no reputation for belligerence and, to illustrate the limits of its modern military might, sought to remain neutral in World War II but was invaded and conquered in a single day by Germany in 1940. If Denmark were a person who had just fallen victim to violence, neighbors might describe him as friendly enough but largely unknown — the sort of fellow who kept his lawn trimmed and handed out good treats to kids on Halloween. But fast-forward nine years and 50 weeks since Cruz's sarcastic take on how Trump might approach foreign policy and the exercise of military power. Soon after his second inauguration, Trump began beating the drum for the United States to take Greenland, a vast Arctic island east of Canada, roughly 500 miles from the North Pole, and a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. That talk receded for a time, but in recent weeks the president has renewed his desire to take control of the world's largest island that is not its own continent.

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Trump says Mamdani facing ‘big test’ from NYSE’s Texas trading outpost

President Donald Trump called a New York Stock Exchange equities trading outpost in Texas “an UNBELIEVABLY BAD THING” for New York and a “big test” for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took office earlier this month. “I can’t believe they would let this happen,” Trump said in a post on the Truth Social site issued late Sunday in the US. The New York Stock Exchange said in February 2025 it would reincorporate its NYSE Chicago operations in Texas and launch a fully electronic exchange in Dallas, pending regulatory filings. NYSE Texas opened for business in March, well before Mamdani became the mayor of New York. The president’s media venture, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., was among the first companies to show its intention to list on the New York Stock Exchange’s upstart site in Texas.

The bourse is trying to shore up its competitive position ahead of the launch of the rival Texas Stock Exchange, which has won approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and expects to begin trading in 2026. Led by software maker Oracle Corp., as well as oil and gas giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., Texas is the headquarters of more NYSE-listed companies than any other state, representing more than $3.7 trillion of market value, according to a statement in March from the exchange. During the mayoral election campaign in 2025, Trump repeatedly assailed Mamdani — a democratic socialist who won on a progressive platform — as a “communist,” urging voters to reject his candidacy and threatening to pull government funding from New York, the president’s hometown. The two struck a friendly tone during a White House meeting in November, telling reporters they spent most of the discussion focused on the cost of rent, groceries and utilities.

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Austin housing market’s slowdown signals ‘healthier, more sustainable’ outlook

The Austin metro’s home sales and prices should remain flat this year, which experts say is a welcomed sign as the market normalizes. Home sales slowed last year in the metro, according to Unlock MLS's year-end market report. In 2025, 29,383 home sales were recorded, marking a 3.2% decrease from the year before, the data shows. Those decreases suggest a move toward predictability in the local housing market, Unlock MLS Research Advisor Vaike O’Grady said in a statement. “2025 wasn’t a year defined by urgency,” O’Grady said. “It was defined by adjustment.” Despite retaining the title of Austin’s highest-selling community, the Liberty Hill neighborhood Santa Rita Ranch saw sales slow in 2025. A recent John Burns Real Estate & Consulting report found the North Austin development sold 483 homes compared to 634 in 2024.

The year presented an adjustment period for buyers and sellers alike, O’Grady said. Experts have said some sellers in 2025 were still pricing homes based on what they would have sold for years prior. Price points normalized in the Austin metro at a median home price of $435,000, marking a 2.4% fall from the year prior. Travis County was the only region to see a slight increase in pricing at $508,000. Austin should move closer to long-term stability in 2026 as affordability improves, according to the report. Last year closed out with 2,514 homes sold in the metro in December, a 1.9% increase from December 2024. “As the year went on, sellers recalibrated, buyers reengaged and the pace of the market continued to normalize,” O’Grady said. Mortgage rates are expected to hover around 6% this year – another positive sign for the market. According to Freddie Mac, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged at 6.06% during the week of Jan. 15, lower than any week in 2025. “That’s not a slowdown, it’s the foundation of a healthier, more sustainable market,” O’Grady said.

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Clean energy is pushing North Texas' uptick in domestic manufacturing

gray and yellow vests, stationed at different points along seven parallel half-mile-long manufacturing lines. The staff works alongside robots — some of which blare “The Imperial March” from Star Wars at full volume as they cruise through the crisp, bright factory — and large, boxy machinery to make 20,000 solar panels a day. The advanced technology manufacturing facility, about 20 miles south of downtown Dallas, opened last year and employs 1,200 people. Operations have ramped up to 24 hours a day. “What can we say? We’re bullish on American solar,” Russell Gold, T1’s executive vice president for strategic communications, told The Dallas Morning News in a recent email.

The company is investing $1 billion in the state of Texas and in domestic manufacturing, including G1 Dallas and its forthcoming G2_Austin, a 5-gigawatt solar cell manufacturing facility being constructed in Rockdale. The latter is expected to begin production later this year. “Honestly, we couldn’t think of any other place we would rather be building right now,” Gold said. “Texas has got a great workforce, it’s got a great business environment and it’s got really good energy prices, which are all important.” Nationwide, manufacturing has stumbled under the weight of macroeconomic headwinds like tariffs and stubborn inflation. Yet in North Texas, the sector has recently experienced a noticeable surge in domestic manufacturing, as other companies also place bets that the region — and state — can support these kinds of facilities and jobs at a rapid pace. Some experts and manufacturers say the alternative energy industry has particularly acted as a catalyst for the uptick, as the region’s population continues to multiply and data centers move in to support the artificial intelligence boom.

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Report: USC 'in contact' with ex-TCU HC Gary Patterson about DC gig

Lincoln Riley could turn to a Dallas-area icon as he looks to fill USC’s defensive coordinator vacancy. According to On3’s Pete Nakos, USC and former TCU head coach Gary Patterson have been “in contact” regarding the defensive coordinator role. The gig opened up late last month when D’Anton Lynn left for Penn State. Patterson has worked in several coaching roles throughout his career. He was notably the defensive coordinator at TCU from 1998-2000 before taking over as the school’s head football coach. Patterson served as TCU’s head coach for 22 seasons, leading the program to a 181-79 mark. He played a key role in the program’s jump from Conference USA to the Mountain West, and, eventually, the Big 12. The former head coach last worked as a consultant at Baylor in 2024. Before that, he served as a special assistant to Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian in 2022. On Wednesday, it was announced that Patterson would enter the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame later this year.

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Austin movie buffs say Alamo Drafthouse's new mobile ordering policy has lost the plot

In what feels like a complete 180 to loyal Alamo Drafthouse patrons, phones will soon be required to order food, drinks, or request service before and during film screenings. The policy change is in sharp contrast to the pre-movie PSAs the dine-in theater chain has been showing for decades. Just a few weeks ago, Dolly Parton joined the lineup of actors, directors and politicians who have told moviegoers to “Turn them phones off!” before the lights went down. Starting mid-February, instead of pressing a button and scribbling food and drink orders on paper, guests will place orders through the company’sapp before and during the movie. The days of raising an order card to alert staff of talking or texting will soon be gone. Ironically, all tattling on others for inappropriate phone usage will need to be reported using a phone.

Julian Singleton, an Austin-based film critic and frequent Alamo Drafthouse patron, called the move a “complete reversal of the Alamo Drafthouse brand.” “That's why [people] choose Alamo over other brands," Singleton said. "They know that regardless of distance from them, regardless of type of movie they're going to see, regardless of any day of the week, they know that once those lights go down, no phones will be out, and it's just going to be a completely immersive experience." In a press release, Alamo Drafthouse said the new system will be more efficient and cause less disruptions mid-movie. An Alamo Drafthouse spokesperson said the app has “dark-screen technology” designed to work at a low-brightness level to prevent distractions, and that talking, texting or scrolling on social media will still be strictly prohibited. But Austin movie buffs are unconvinced. A petition asking Alamo Drafthouse leadership to reinstate analog ordering has more than 1,300 signatures. A post about the new ordering system on Austin’s subreddit received over 1,000 upvotes, as well as hundreds of comments calling the changes “devastating” and “genuinely terrible.” Singleton has several gripes with the change. Poor cell signal could make ordering online a pain. Placing an order through your phone might make it difficult for folks with dietary restrictions to customize orders. He also said forcing phone usage on guests is bound to cause distractions. “If I turn on my phone, it doesn't pull up a dark screen," Singleton said. "It'll pull up a giant bright picture of two of my dogs.”

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The most valuable college football program is the Texas Longhorns

If the Texas Longhorns were sold on the open market like a professional team, the program could fetch more than $2 billion, according to a recent study. Dr. Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus, valued the Longhorns at $2.2 billion in his latest list of college football programs. Texas is the only program in the country to be valued at more than $2 billion, and the top two programs are both from Texas. Texas A&M comes in at No. 2 with a valuation of nearly $1.59 billion. Ohio State ($1.55 billion), Louisiana State ($1.54 billion) and Michigan ($1.46 billion) round out the top five in Brewer’s analysis that takes current industry trends, revenue and cash flows, along with economic shifts to estimate what the programs could be sold for.

Brewer told the Wall Street Journal that the value of the programs has never been higher, saying valuations were up 46% over last year due to revenue sharing by schools with players and the transfer portal that creates free player movement. It’s helping create more interest in the sport, Brewer said, because it’s creating a larger number of potential championship teams. “Even though they’re paying players and it’s more expensive, it’s also worth more,” he said. He used Indiana as a prime example of how increased parity in college football contributes to higher program values. The Hoosiers’ value increased by nearly 68% year-over-year as they’ve gone from one of the worst programs in Division I to playing for the national championship seemingly overnight. It’s causing revenues and television ratings to rise, he said. Fifteen programs were valued at over $1 billion, eight coming from the Southeastern Conference. Georgia came in at No. 7, Alabama at No. 9, Oklahoma at No. 11, Tennessee at No. 13 and Auburn at No. 14. According to Brewer’s analysis, the Longhorns brought in $298 million in revenue, easily the most of any program, and $80 million more than Texas A&M. The Dallas Cowboys topped Forbes’ NFL valuation list at $13 billion, followed by the Los Angeles Rams at $10.5 billion. The Cincinnati Bengals were last on the list, valued at $5.25 billion.

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Does Harris County need a treasurer? Some counties have nixed the position.

Following the December arrest of Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt on a misdemeanor burglary charge, commissioners briefly discussed potentially reducing her duties at a Jan. 8 meeting. While they ultimately decided to take no action, similar discussions have played out in dozens of counties across Texas: The county treasurer position is considered obsolete by some officials, and has been abolished in 10 counties. Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey, who added the item to the Jan. 8 agenda, said he was a longtime supporter of abolishing the county treasurer's office.

“For many years, I have supported eliminating the county treasurer’s Office and consolidating its functions within the county auditor’s office, given the overlap in responsibilities," Ramsey said in a statement. "Until any structural change occurs, it is the County’s responsibility to ensure the statutory duties of the Treasurer’s Office are being fully and appropriately carried out. That is why I requested the discussion on last week’s agenda.” A flurry of legislation throughout the 1980s saw the office abolished in nine counties, the largest of which being Bexar County. More than 30 years later, Galveston County followed suite and abolished the position in 2023. Critics of the county treasurer, such as Republican Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, argue the office is an antiquated position that has long outlived its usefulness. "In the 1830s, people were trading with gold, silver and probably even Confederate money for that matter. They did not have the systems we have today," Henry told the Houston Chronicle. "It's generally an unnecessary office because we don't do things the way we did 250 years ago." Responsibilities assigned to the office of the county treasurer include: submitting monthly and quarterly reports to state and county officials, processing jury payments, opening and closing bank accounts, recording deposits and processing payments. Henry said these functions were easily assigned to other Galveston County officials, such as the county clerk.

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Why Houston now has one of the largest supplies of homes for sale in the US

The Houston housing market entered 2026 with one of the largest supplies of for-sale homes in the country, giving buyers leverage like they haven’t had in years. With roughly 40,000 single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums for sale, Houston had more active listings than any other major U.S. metro for at least the third consecutive month as of November, according to Homes.com. Houston ranked ahead of similarly sized metros such as Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Miami and Philadelphia. While Homes.com hasn’t yet released national data yet for December, local figures suggest Houston ended 2025 with historically high levels of inventory. It’s a dramatic shift from the pandemic-era days of tight supply and bidding wars. Now,sellers face a very different reality: far fewer buyers willing to take the plunge. Redfin estimates there are roughly 20,000 more sellers than buyers in the Houston market.

After hitting record high levels in the summer, active listings in Houston eased but remained elevated. Listings were 16.5% higher year-over-year in December, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. “That inventory has piled up, but it’s slowing down in terms of how quickly it’s piling up,” said Chen Zhao, head of economic research at Redfin. Even so, Houston continues to stand out nationally on supply. In December,Houston outpaced other large U.S. metros with about 38,800 single-family homes for sale, according to Redfin. That’s roughly 9,000 more homes than Atlanta, the next biggest market for single-family inventory. Houston has long been a major market for homebuilders, and some economists have suggested that new home construction could be contributing to the region’s supply surge. Local data, however, suggests the picture is more complex. About 24% of active listings in Houston were newly built homes in December, a smaller share than before the pandemic, according to multiple listings data from HAR. Although MLS data does not capture every new home for sale, the figures still suggest that new homes are not the major driver for high inventory levels. Houston homebuilders did ramp up construction during the pandemic, but not nearly at the rate that builders did in Austin and Dallas, said Lawrence Dean, CEO of Community Builders Advisory Services.

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Millennial generation knocking early in Texas Senate race

The Texas Senate race is a generational showdown. Millennials are storming a Boomer political stronghold and hoping voters are ready to trade long resumes for fast legs. Take Wesley Hunt, for example. The 44-year-old Republican congressman from Houston isn’t running against Sen. John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton as much as he’s running against time. Hunt said he’s a better choice in the March 3 GOP primary because he’s nearly two decades younger. “It’s time for the next generation to step into the fray and lead moving forward,” he said last week in Dallas. As for the Boomers, Cornyn, 73, is seeking his fifth term as senator, and Paxton, 63, decided to try for higher office after three terms as state attorney general.

Hunt is part of a crop of youth movement in both parties, testing whether Texans looking over the Senate field want experience or are eager for a handoff. Millennials already are king on the Democratic side. The two leading candidates vying for their party’s Senate nomination are U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, 44, of Dallas, and state Rep. James Talarico, 36, of Austin. While the Senate contest may become a referendum on time, what’s clear is the nex-gen candidates are giving up coveted seats in Washington and Austin. That cohort is playing a shorter political game. For many, politics is a chapter, not a career, making even long-shot campaigns part of a broader professional arc.

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Albert Huddleston's energy firm sells assets for $5.2 billion

Aethon Energy Management LLC has agreed to sell its Haynesville Shale assets in Texas and Louisiana to Mitsubishi Corp. in a $5.2 billion deal. The deal announced on Jan. 16 will see Tokyo-based Mitsubishi acquire all equity interests in Aethon III LLC, Aethon United LP and related entities and interests from Dallas-based Aethon Energy Management and its existing stakeholders. Investors in Aethon include Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and RedBird Capital Partners, according to the announcement. Including $2.33 billion of debt, the total value of the transaction actually grows to $7.53 billion. Rumors of a potential deal began to emerge last summer. For Mitsubishi, the deal marks the Japanese company's entry into the U.S. shale gas business, from upstream ownership through domestic sales and export of produced gas. The deal, the largest in Mitsubishi's history, is expected to close in the first quarter of Japan's fiscal year, between April and June.

Aethon’s shale gas assets are primarily located in the Haynesville Shale formation, spanning Texas and Louisiana, and currently produce roughly 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, or the equivalent of about 15 million tons per year of liquefied natural gas. Haynesville is a major source of natural gas for the growing southern U.S. market. Aethon’s natural gas is currently sold in the U.S. southern market, and part of the volume is being considered for export as liquefied natural gas to Asia, including Japan, as well as to Europe. Aethon, founded by Albert Huddleston in 1990, has grown to become one of the largest gas companies in North America. The private equity firm has deployed more than $9 billion in its 35-year history, raised more than $1.5 billion across its four major funds and completed more than 15 transactions. Huddleston, a billionaire businessman, remains the firm's CEO while his son, Gordon, is president. "We look forward to working alongside Mitsubishi in exploring opportunities that align commercial performance with responsible energy development," Gordon Huddleston said in a statement.

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National Stories

Josh Shapiro writes that Harris team asked if he had ever been an Israeli agent

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, a prominent Democrat who was a top contender to serve as former Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024, offered his most detailed accounting to date of the vice-presidential search process in his new memoir, which was obtained by The New York Times. In short: He suggests that it was far uglier than is commonly known. In Mr. Shapiro’s book, “Where We Keep the Light,” the governor is measured in describing his interactions with Ms. Harris herself. But Mr. Shapiro, who is Jewish, details a contentious vetting process in which Ms. Harris’s team focused intensely on his views on Israel — so much so that at one point, he wrote, he was asked if he had ever been an agent of the Israeli government. “Had I been a double agent for Israel?” wrote Mr. Shapiro, describing his incredulous response to a last-minute question from the vetting team. He responded that the question was offensive, he wrote, and was told, “Well, we have to ask.”

“Have you ever communicated with an undercover agent of Israel?” the questioner, Dana Remus, a former White House counsel, continued, according to Mr. Shapiro, who recounted, “If they were undercover, I responded, how the hell would I know?” Mr. Shapiro wrote that he understood that Ms. Remus was “just doing her job.” But the fact that he was asked such questions, he wrote, “said a lot about some of the people around the VP.” Ms. Remus and a representative for Ms. Harris did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday night. The vetting process unfolded as emotional debates over the Gaza war convulsed the Democratic Party, threatening to tear it apart. Mr. Shapiro, an outspoken critic of what he saw as antisemitism on college campuses amid the Israel-Hamas war, wrote that he faced skepticism of that record during vetting. When Ms. Harris asked if he “would be willing to apologize for the statements I had made, particularly over what I saw happening at the University of Pennsylvania,” he replied that he would not, he wrote.

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Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza to require $1 billion payment for permanent membership

Members of President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” the committee that will oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, will receive a permanent seat if they pay $1 billion, according to a US official. All funds raised will go toward rebuilding Gaza, the official said, adding that “there will not be exorbitant salaries and massive administrative bloat that plagues many other international organizations.” While there is no requirement to contribute funds to the board, members who do not make a $1 billion payment will have a three-year terms, the official told CNN Sunday.

The Trump-chaired board will include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Leaders of several nations subsequently confirmed they were invited by Trump to join the board, which Trump has touted as the “the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled.” Bloomberg first reported on the $1 billion buy-in. The panel is a key step in the United Nations-backed American plan to demilitarize and rebuild Gaza, which was ravaged by two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Members will each be given a defined portfolio “critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success,” the White House said Thursday. The board has no representative of the Palestinian Authority, a Hamas rival that runs parts of the occupied West Bank and is expected to eventually be handed control of Gaza after completing extensive reforms. Trump’s foreign policy envoy Steve Witkoff, deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel and son-in-law Jared Kushner are also members, along with billionaire businessman Marc Rowan and World Bank head Ajay Banga. Under the US plan, the day-to-day governance of Gaza will be handled by a Palestinian technocratic committee. A separate “Gaza executive board” that will support governance includes officials from Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and some members of the “Board of Peace” and the technocratic committee. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he opposed the inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in key roles on the board, stating the board “was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy.” Israel has tried to prevent Qatar and Turkey from having any role in the future of Gaza, repeatedly accusing them of supporting and funding Hamas.

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Trump vs. Thune: POTUS blows up La. Senate race

President Donald Trump has blown up another Senate GOP primary, throwing Republicans into turmoil and giving Senate Majority Leader John Thune a blistering headache. Trump’s decision to endorse GOP Rep. Julia Letlow – who isn’t even formally in the Louisiana Senate race — over incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.) puts the president at loggerheads with Thune, meddling in a safe Republican state. Thune has endorsed Cassidy, and the pair were in Baton Rouge together last week. All signs indicate that Letlow is going to get in the race following Trump’s pronouncement. Several Senate GOP and White House sources say Letlow wanted the endorsement and made clear she wouldn’t get in the race without a public nod from Trump. The 44-year-old Letlow was elected in 2021 after her husband died from Covid-19 shortly before taking office.

Trump gave Thune a heads-up Friday night, telling the GOP leader that he was likely to back Letlow, according to two people briefed on the phone call. Thune said that would endanger the president’s legislative priorities, such as health care and confirming a new Federal Reserve chair, and noted Cassidy’s role as HELP Committee chair. Thune has his own politics to play and will surely stick by Cassidy. But Trump clearly didn’t care about Thune’s entreaties. Retribution. This is all part of Trump’s obsession with revenge. Cassidy voted to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Even though Cassidy supported Trump’s controversial nominees — notably Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS secretary — Trump hasn’t let that go. The Senate Leadership Fund, Thune’s super PAC, hasn’t endorsed in the race. SLF has no plans to get involved, a source familiar with its decision-making told us. The seat will stay red anyway, and SLF doesn’t want to get in a spending war with the constellation of pro-Trump political entities during the GOP primary. Now that Letlow is getting in, the race is thrown into flux in more ways than one. Seeing that there’s a fractured field, does former Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) jump in too? Will the other candidates in the primary – former Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), state Sen. Blake Miguez and state Rep. Julie Emerson – stay in? Then there’s the 68-year-old Cassidy, who was elected to the Senate in 2014 after three terms in the House.

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Inside Minnesota hospitals, ICE agents unnerve staff

The arrival of thousands of federal immigration agents has altered life in Minneapolis and St. Paul in ways large and small, including in the corridors of hospitals serving the Twin Cities. The sheer presence of the agents, sometimes in uniform, sometimes in plainclothes, has been enough to unnerve health care workers, who were already straining under conditions some have compared with those of the coronavirus pandemic. In interviews, nurses, doctors and other health care workers said the crisis conditions brought on by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown are wearing down overworked and understaffed medical institutions, and deteriorating patients’ trust in what are supposed to be safe havens. “Any medical center or hospital is supposed to be a place of healing,” said Dr. Brian Muthyala, a physician at the hospital systems Hennepin Healthcare and M Health Fairview. “It is a place where people go when they are at their most vulnerable, when they are hurt or scared or in need of care, and any presence that disrupts that environment is harmful.”

Officials with the Homeland Security Department said that they do not conduct operations in hospitals. “We go in if there is an active danger to public safety,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an agency spokeswoman. Health care workers, however, describe a different reality, saying agents have broken hospital protocol, refused to provide documentation and, in some cases, gotten into shouting matches with doctors and nurses. Over his 20 years as an emergency medicine physician, Dr. Robert LeFevere said, he had encountered law enforcement officers coming in with shooting victims and other patients. “But federal agents barging into patient care areas trying to question or detain patients — I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Dr. LeFevere, who works at Regions Hospital, a few blocks from the State Capitol in St. Paul. Health officials for three of the state’s major health systems, which oversee medical centers and clinics where agents have been spotted, declined to comment on federal activity in their hospitals, but stressed that they do not help enforce immigration laws and that federal officers are expected to follow the law and medical facilities’ safety protocols.

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FEMA is getting rid of thousands of workers in areas recovering from disasters

Thousands of workers across the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will lose their jobs this year, according to multiple people who attended personnel meetings that supervisors held in the last week. FEMA supervisors warned that workers with multiyear contracts that are set to expire this year will not see those contracts extended, even if they are actively working on rebuilding efforts in places that recently suffered disasters. Some divisions within the agency stand to lose half their workers if current policies stay in place for the rest of the year, those with direct knowledge said. They all requested that NPR not use their names because they were told they would be fired for speaking to the press. FEMA and the White House did not respond to questions about why employees are being let go or how the cuts will affect the agency’s ability to respond to disasters.

President Trump has repeatedly stated that he believes FEMA is ineffective and should be eliminated as it currently exists, although the administration has not released a long-awaited report on specific reforms. “I think it’s irresponsible,” says Michael Coen, who served as FEMA chief of staff under the Biden and Obama administrations. “I think it’s going to adversely affect FEMA’s ability to respond and help communities recover.” The Washington Post originally reported on plans to cut about 50% of the agency’s workforce. The FEMA employees who are set to lose their jobs fill a wide variety of positions. Unlike other federal agencies, FEMA relies on a large number of workers on two-to-four-year contracts. That’s because Congress wanted the agency to be able to dial up the number of workers to meet demand after major events and reduce it during quieter periods.

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White House warns CBS: Air Trump interview in full, or ‘we’ll sue’

It was an aside, caught on camera, that said a lot about the uneasy business of conducting journalism today. Moments after President Trump finished taping a 13-minute interview on Tuesday with the “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil in Michigan, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, approached Mr. Dokoupil and his colleagues to convey a message from the president. “He said, ‘Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,’” Ms. Leavitt said in an even tone, according to a recording of the exchange obtained by The New York Times. “Yeah, we’re doing it, yeah,” Mr. Dokoupil responded. Ms. Leavitt replied: “He said, ‘If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.’” In 2024, Mr. Trump did sue CBS over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview — and the network’s corporate parent paid $16 million to settle the case, even though many legal experts said it had little merit.

Some of the CBS personnel who were there absorbed Ms. Leavitt’s remarks as being in jest, according to a person familiar with their thinking. CBS News aired the full unedited interview that evening, which the network said was its plan all along. “The moment we booked this interview, we made the independent decision to air it unedited and in its entirety,” CBS News said in a statement on Saturday. Ms. Leavitt, reached for comment, said: “The American people deserve to watch President Trump’s full interviews, unedited, no cuts. And guess what? The interview ran in full.” Not long ago, the notion of a White House press secretary’s casually threatening a lawsuit if a journalist does not obey her orders would be shocking. But Mr. Trump has made abundantly clear that he is serious about pursuing legal or regulatory action against media outlets whose coverage displeases him. The president regularly sues news organizations, including The Times, and his Justice Department on Wednesday searched the home of a Washington Post reporter and seized her laptops and other devices.

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Trump’s suspension of naturalization ceremonies leaves hopeful citizens in limbo

President Trump’s decision to suspend naturalization ceremonies is leaving residents across the country in an unusual position, now stuck in limbo after they were on the verge of gaining U.S. citizenship. Critics say the pause is the Trump administration’s latest form of collective punishment for migrants, who have seen their hopes of citizenship dashed following the deadly shooting of a National Guard member in Washington, D.C. On Thanksgiving, Trump said he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” in response to the shooting. The next week U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services suspended naturalization ceremonies for citizens of the 19 countries covered by the travel ban. It’s a list that’s since grown, as the president in December expanded the list to 39 countries.

In some cases, immigrants have already passed the citizenship test, only to be blocked from taking the oath that makes their naturalization official. “People are just somewhat confused and concerned that, although they sort of went through the process, with the exception of the actual ceremony, that now at the 11th Hour, on the ninth inning they’re gonna be disqualified and not allowed to be officially sworn in,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.). Espaillat, who is a naturalized citizen himself, said his office has been flooded by those dealing with the uncertainty. “They’re in limbo and I’m sure there’s a lot of stress. And they may feel they are Americans, but in actuality, they’re not, until they take that oath.” The U.S. typically naturalizes about 800,000 new citizens per year, the bulk of which are from Mexico, India and The Philippines. “Naturalization candidates have been pulled from their scheduled citizenship ceremonies. I know this to be true because it happened to my constituents, who have reached out to my office,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on the floor this week. “They are rightfully upset that the Administration has stopped them—individuals who are already approved for citizenship—from taking their oath of allegiance to this country.”

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