Lead Stories

Supreme Court lets California use new Democrat-friendly congressional map

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new congressional map that will undermine President Donald Trump’s effort to keep control of the House of Representatives, marking a defeat for Republicans who claimed one of the new districts was redesigned based on race rather than politics. There were no noted dissents, and the court did not explain its reasoning. The emergency appeal from state Republicans was the latest to reach the high court tied to an ongoing arms-race-style mid-decade redistricting that Trump initiated to keep the House after the midterm elections.

California redrew its map, which puts five GOP-held seats in play, as a response to a partisan redistricting in Texas that benefited Republicans. Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, don’t get involved in cases dealing with partisan gerrymanders. But state Republicans had argued that racial considerations motivated the redrawing of one district that covers portions of the Central Valley between San Francisco and Fresno. Those allegations were based largely on comments by a mapmaking consultant, Paul Mitchell, who said publicly that he intended to “ensure that Latino districts” were “bolstered” in the 13th Congressional District. The state’s “professed purpose was to pick up five seats in Congress for the Democratic Party to offset the five seats the Republican Party gained in Texas,” California Republicans told the Supreme Court in their emergency appeal. “But those officials harbored another purpose as well: maximizing Latino voting strength to shore up Latino support for the Democratic Party.” The map was ultimately approved by state residents in a referendum in which 64% of voters backed the plan.

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'This job sucks,' overwhelmed DHS lawyer says in court hearing over ICE's response to judicial orders

An exasperated and frustrated Department of Homeland Security attorney declared in a stunning moment in court that her job "sucks," the existing legal process "sucks," and that she sometimes wishes that the judge would hold her in contempt so she "can have a full 24 hours of sleep." Julie Le, who according to public records is a Department of Homeland Security attorney that had been detailed to the U.S. Attorney's office, was called to testify Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minn., about why the government has been nonresponsive to judicial orders regarding people in ICE detention. "What do you want me to do? The system sucks," Le told Judge Jerry Blackwell, according to a court transcript obtained by ABC News. "This job sucks. And I am trying [with] every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need."

A review of federal court records shows that Le had been assigned to 91 immigration cases over the past month -- 88 in Minnesota and three in Texas. Most of the cases are habeas petitions filed by immigrants detained by enforcement officials. Blackwell said the administration has routinely not been following court mandates, ignoring multiple orders for detainees to be released that has resulted in their continued detainment for days or even weeks. "The overwhelming majority of the hundreds [of individuals] seen by this court have been found to be lawfully present as of now in the country," said Blackwell. "In some instances, it is the continued detention of a person the Constitution does not permit the government to hold and who should have been left alone, that is, not arrested in the first place," according to the transcript. Operation Metro Surge has "generated a volume of arrests and detentions that has taxed existing systems, staffing, and coordination between DOJ and the DHS," Blackwell acknowledged, but said that was no excuse for the government's lack of response to court orders.

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Cornyn campaign targets Paxton’s divorce in heated exchange

The spat, like so many these days, began on X. A bruising Republican primary race between U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton erupted Wednesday with the men trading personal insults. Paxton took aim at Cornyn’s relevance. Cornyn’s campaign responded with a taunt over Paxton’s divorce and cheating scandal. In an already bitter race to get the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate, the exchange stood out. The fight unfolded when Paxton posted a story from The New York Times about the extraordinary amount of money pouring into the March 3 race in an effort to save Cornyn, who is seeking his fifth term. Cornyn is by far the best-funded contender in the tight race between Paxton and U.S. Rep, Wesley Hunt, but the race is widely expected to head to a runoff in May.

In a tweet, Paxton shared a snippet from The Times story: “Some establishment Republicans worry that no matter his financial advantage, he will be a serious underdog against Mr. Paxton in the runoff — and that donors’ money would be better spent helping Republicans like Senator Susan Collins of Maine in the fall.” Paxton chimed in with his own thoughts: “Cornyn’s career is done and everyone knows it. He’s stolen $50+ million from races in NC, ME, MI, and GA and what does he have to show for it?” More than an hour later, Cornyn’s campaign fired back: “Ken, when this over, you will have nothing. Which turns out to be the same thing you offered to give Angela in divorce proceedings. This after you cheated on her multiple times.” Angela Paxton, a Republican state senator from McKinney, filed for divorce last year after nearly four decades of marriage, citing her husband’s alleged infidelity among the reasons. Unsealed divorce records revealed that Paxton asked his estranged wife in a response to “take nothing.” Paxton has blamed the divorce on political attacks and public scrutiny. Paxton did not respond to an email for comment from The Dallas Morning News. In an email to The News, Matt Mackowiak, senior campaign adviser for Cornyn, said, “Sen. Cornyn believes character matters. In this primary, character is on the ballot.” This is not the first time Cornyn has poked fun at Paxton’s romantic history. Last year, he posted news that Coldplay would introduce camera-free sections for concertgoers after a CEO was caught on a “kiss cam” with a woman who was not his wife. “Good news for @kenpaxtontx,” he wrote. A month later, responding to Paxton’s instructions to Texas public schools to display the Ten Commandments, Cornyn took another swipe: “Might want to brush up on the Ten Commandments, Ken.”

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After the Minneapolis shootings, Trump says his administration could use 'a softer touch' on immigration

President Donald Trump told NBC News on Wednesday that he believes his administration could use “a softer touch” in its immigration enforcement operations after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens last month in Minneapolis. “I learned that maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch. But you still have to be tough,” Trump said in an Oval Office interview with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas. “We’re dealing with really hard criminals. But look, I’ve called the people. I’ve called the governor. I’ve called the mayor. Spoke to ‘em. Had great conversations with them. And then I see them ranting and raving out there. Literally as though a call wasn’t made.” Trump has been engaged in a weekslong feud with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, two Democrats who have been highly critical of his immigration crackdown in the city and condemned the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, in separate incidents in January.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other high-ranking administration officials had been quick to blame the fatal shootings on Good and Pretti, at several points characterizing them without evidence as domestic terrorists. Video footage of the incidents also contradicted some initial claims that administration officials made to suggest the shootings were justified. Trump’s remarks to NBC News on Wednesday reflect his continued shift in tone as national outrage over the killings takes hold. At a Jan. 20 White House briefing, Trump said that federal agents “make mistakes sometimes.” Earlier Wednesday, U.S. border czar Tom Homan announced a withdrawal of 700 federal immigration agents from Minnesota. Asked by Llamas if that call had come from Trump, the president affirmed that it had. “But it didn’t come from me because I just wanted to do it,” Trump added. “We have — we are waiting for them to release prisoners, give us the murderers that they’re holding and all of the bad people, drug dealers, all of the bad people. We allowed in our country, I say, 25 million people with an open-border policy for four years under [President Joe] Biden, and that group, the autopen group, I call them. We allowed to come into our country people the likes of which no country would accept. And we’re getting ‘em out.” Trump’s claim about 25 million undocumented immigrants, which he has made before, is false. During the Biden administration, 7.4 million undocumented immigrants crossed the border outside of legal checkpoints, according to data from Customs and Border Protection.

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State Stories

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Time for Democrats to replace Hubert Vo in the Texas House

For two decades, a hyper-diverse community on the west side of Houston has been served by Rep. Hubert Vo, whose story of fleeing Communist Vietnam resonated with many voters. In 2007, he was instrumental in the creation of the International Management District that helped invest in public safety and beautification projects that have made the area a commercial destination. Since then, he has struggled to add to that accomplishment. His wins in the Legislature could be called modest at best. In our conversation with him this time, he mentioned the success of the management district several times, repeating himself to a worrying degree. The state Legislature is set to tackle major issues next session, including cuts to property taxes that pay for public schools. Residents in this district deserve and need active representation. We recommend Democratic voters go with current Alief ISD school board president Darlene Breaux to serve District 149 in the House.

As eighth of nine siblings growing up, she nearly fell behind in school due to her struggles with dyslexia. But the determination of one teacher in particular, whose name she still says with reverence, put her on a path that’s led all the way through graduate education and serving on Alief’s school board since 2017. As board president, she’s helped pass more than $520 million in bond projects for technology upgrades, safety improvements, and new career and technical equipment, as well as a new district agricultural facility. At a time when many school districts have struggled to get voters to approve what were once safe bets, Alief’s success signaled an important win: “Our community trusts us,” Breaux told us. Another sign: endorsements from both City Council Members Tiffany Thomas and Martha Castex-Tatum, as well as the AFL-CIO. She has also used her time on the board to understand the needs of the broader immigrant-rich community, like weeknight and weekend ESL classes at district facilities. That’s a collaborative solution that reflects knowledge of the region’s international community.

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No, Buc-ee’s founder didn’t donate $1M to ICE, company says

Buc-ee’s, the iconic Texas-based travel center chain, is flatly denying viral social media rumors claiming the company or its leadership donated to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The speculation, which began circulating on various social platforms in January, prompted a direct response from the company’s legal team Tuesday after the claims gained traction online. What they're saying:

"The claim is entirely unfounded," Jeff Nadalo, general counsel for Buc-ee’s, Ltd., said in a statement to FOX Local. "Neither Beaver nor Buc-ee’s has made any donations to ICE." Despite the traction the claims received, the origin of the controversy remains a mystery. An exhaustive search of public records and social media trends has failed to identify a specific catalyst or piece of evidence that triggered the allegations. Buc-ee’s has often been the subject of internet discourse due to its massive cultural footprint, particularly in Texas, but this specific claim appeared to lack any factual secondary support.

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Texas voucher applications are open. These schools are still left out.

Palm Tree Academy in El Paso hoped Texas’ new private school voucher program would boost enrollment and eventually help the community establish a middle school. The private academy, which has operated for nearly 30 years, is the only full-time school serving El Paso’s small but burgeoning Muslim community, which includes many longstanding Hispanic Muslim families as well as more recent Arab and South Asian immigrants drawn to jobs at local hospitals and universities. But on Wednesday, as families statewide began applying for the state-funded tuition subsidies, Palm Tree was among nearly two dozen Islamic schools that remained blocked from participating in the $1 billion program.

The state comptroller’s office said it has held up a handful of schools over alleged ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group that Gov. Greg Abbott has deemed a terrorist organization. But the move is affecting schools like Palm Tree that say they have never been in contact with CAIR and still have received no information from the state about why they have not been invited to apply. As of Wednesday morning, just three of the roughly 25 accredited Islamic-oriented private schools in Texas had been let into the program: Bayaan Academy in League City; Ameen Academy in Plano and Ilm Academy in Lewisville. After Hearst Newspapers published this story, the schools were removed from the approved list. Now no Islamic private schools appear on the state map. Masoud said he was at a loss on what to tell parents who have been eager to sign up. “Still, no one has done anything to respond to us or to tell us what we need to do to proceed, how to go forward,” Masoud said. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said the agency is still vetting some schools accredited by the nonprofit Cognia over his concerns about possible ties to the Chinese government or CAIR, which is fighting the terrorism designation it calls defamatory and unconstitutional.

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A look at the top fundraisers in San Antonio's congressional races

Out of more than 40 candidates competing to represent Bexar County in Congress, former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixeira, a political newcomer vying to replace U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs), is raising money in a league of his own. Campaign finance reports covering money raised and spent up to Dec. 31 were due Saturday for federal candidates. Teixeira’s indicated that the 45-year-old Bee Cave resident had raised more than $3 million — $545,000 from donors and a staggering $2.5 million personal loan — since launching a congressional bid in August. He’s one of a dozen candidates running for the GOP nomination in the deep-red 21st Congressional District, which drew several other Republicans with connections to state and national donors, including former FEC Chair Trey Trainor, and former Small Business Administration adviser Michael Wheeler.

But the next-highest fundraisers in that race reported having about a tenth as much money to spend on their campaigns as Teixeira, who played 14 seasons of professional baseball and signed a $180 million contract with the New York Yankees in 2008. Self-funding dominated the crowded field of Republicans running to succeed Roy. After Teixeria, the next-highest fundraiser was Wheeler, a financial analyst who has worked at some of the nation’s largest banks. He reported a total of $325,000 raised as of Dec. 31, including a $250,000 personal loan. Similarly, Jason Cahill, who owns his own oil and gas company in Boerne, raised $284,000, including a $250,000 personal loan. After narrowly surviving his 2024 primary runoff, Gonzales appears to be spending big for this year’s four-way race. He’s raised big money from PACs that typically give to incumbents, reported $2.5 million in the bank at the end of 2025 and has been on TV with ads for much of January touting his endorsement from Trump.

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Jon Hagler: Regents have failed to protect TAMU’s independence

(Jon Hagler, a 1958 graduate, received an honorary doctorate from Texas A&M in 2015. He was the lead donor for the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, which annually brings renowned scholars to Texas A&M for a year to collaborate with faculty and students.) A time comes when silence starts to feel like betrayal. That time for me is now, as I watch the board of regents of the Texas A&M University System bow to political pressure and shirk its obligations to preserve academic freedom and institutional independence. Independence is a cornerstone of institutional excellence. I think this is especially true for educational institutions. That is why a mandate for independence is embedded into existing Texas law and into current Texas A&M System policy. But a Dec. 10, 2025 investigative news article in the Texas Tribune exposed how Texas A&M System regents have allowed undue political influence to affect our university in significant ways. More recent reports chronicle how political influence has reached directly into classrooms. Late last year, regents imposed restrictions on how faculty can talk to students about race or gender. Texas A&M then killed an entire set of programs — women and gender studies in the College of Arts and Sciences — and canceled six classes, including a graduate course on ethics, of all things. In an untold number of other classes, faculty and administrators are censoring curricula. One example involves limiting the philosophies of Plato.

I watch these alarming matters closely because I am a proud former student, Aggie class of 1958, who has actively supported decades of efforts — beginning with those of former Texas A&M President Earl Rudder — to transform my beloved alma mater from the small, all-male military college I attended to one of America’s genuinely great public universities. Regents are flouting two provisions of Texas statute. Sec. 51.352 of the Education Code says it is the responsibility of each governing board to “preserve institutional independence and to defend its right to manage its own affairs through its chosen administrators and employees.” Texas A&M System Policy (02.01.2(a)) mirrors that provision. The state’s Education Code goes on to say that each university must “protect intellectual exploration and academic freedom” and “strive for intellectual excellence.” To me, it appears that our regents are failing in their sworn duty to uphold state law. In the Tribune article, Board Chairman Robert Albritton acknowledged that regents have made key decisions in compliance with the wishes of Gov. Greg Abbott or to alleviate other political pressure coming from Austin.

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Todd Little: Data centers are powering Texas’ next era of growth

(Todd Little is executive director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments and a former Ellis County Judge.) Texas is entering one of the most consequential periods of growth in its history, and recent extreme weather underscores why infrastructure investment matters. As freezing temperatures moved across the state in recent weeks, Texas avoided the kind of widespread power outages seen in past storms. Governor Greg Abbott pointed to years of grid upgrades and private sector investment as key to that reliability. Those improvements were supported in part by long-term commitments from large power users, including modern data centers, which give utilities the certainty needed to strengthen generation, transmission, and overall grid reliability. Our state is on track to add and attract several million new residents in the decades ahead. Meeting that growth will require a strategy that strengthens infrastructure, supports long-term economic development, and positions Texas to lead in the industries shaping the future.

A surprising force is helping to meet that challenge: modern data centers. These facilities have become the backbone of the digital economy, but in fast-growing regions across North Texas like Ellis County and Red Oak, they also play a much more immediate role. Local leaders across the region increasingly recognize data centers as critical partners for preparing communities to absorb growth responsibly, not just through technology, but through infrastructure investment. They are emerging as one of the most effective levers for upgrading long-overdue infrastructure and preparing communities for the next chapter of Texas’ development and prosperity. Much of our state’s critical infrastructure was built 50 to 60 years ago. Electric substations, water systems and transmission corridors were never designed for the population and economic footprint that exists today. What our grid needs most is capital investment. Data centers can provide a dependable revenue base that helps unlock those investments. Large facilities provide utilities with financial certainty to build new generation, reinforce transmission, and upgrade the grid in ways that benefit all customers. An analysis by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and The Brattle Group found that states with growing large-load demand have often seen more stable electricity prices, in large part because major users like data center operators help spread the fixed costs of maintaining an aging grid. Already, this model is taking shape in our state. When major operators commit to building in Texas, their long-term, around-the-clock demand allows utilities and local governments to accelerate upgrades that have been postponed for years. Increasingly, operators are turning to a bring-your-own-power approach, pairing new facilities with dedicated generation or battery storage that comes online alongside them.

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And just like that, Anthony Davis isn’t a Dallas Maverick

And just like that, Anthony Davis isn’t a Dallas Maverick. You have to, I guess, appreciate the symmetry in the Dallas Mavericks trading Anthony Davis away during the anniversary week of the Luka Doncic trade that brought him here in the first place. But indeed, the Associated Press, citing an unnamed source, reports that an eight-player trade with the Washington Wizards will bring Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham, and Marvin Bagley III to Dallas, along with two first-round and three second-round draft picks. The Wizards get AD, Jaden Hardy, D’Angelo Russell, and Dante Exum.

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Paxton sues Bexar County over immigration legal services program

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit today against Bexar County, the Bexar County Commissioners Court and county officials, alleging the county unflawfully used taxpayer funds to pay for immigration-related legal services. The suit challenges a Dec. 16 vote by commissioners to approve an additional $566,181 for the county’s Immigration Legal Service Fund, which provides legal representation for immigrants facing federal deportation proceedings. The funding was allocated to American Gateways, a nonprofit legal services organization, that provides free or low-cost, culturally sensitive immigration legal services to low-income immigrants, refugees, and survivors of persecution, torture, and human trafficking. In the filing, the state argues the spending violates the Texas Constitution’s “Gift Clause,” which prohibits local governments from granting public funds to private entities without a clear public benefit.

The lawsuit claims deportation proceedings are civil matters — not criminal — and that individuals are not entitled to government-funded legal representation. “Leftists in Bexar County have no authority to use taxpayer dollars to fund their radical, criminal-loving agenda,” said Paxton. “State funds cannot underwrite deportation-defense services for individuals unlawfully present in the country. This use of hardworking Texans’ dollars is a flagrant violation of state law and the Texas Constitution.” The state is seeking a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction to halt any further payments under the program and block the county from renewing or entering similar contracts Named defendants include Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, all four county commissioners and James “Jim” Bethke, executive director of the county’s Managed Assigned Counsel Office, which administers the immigration legal services program. Bethke is also currently running in the crowded Democratic primary for Bexar County district attorney. His campaign recently received an endorsement from the Texas Organizing Project, a progressive group active in criminal justice reform efforts across the state. In response to the announced suit, Monica Ramos, public information officer for Bexar County, said the county does not comment on pending litigation. The San Antonio Report has reached out for comment from all defendants named in the suit but had not received responses at the time of publication. This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Project Safe Neighborhoods expanding in North Texas to fight violent crime, feds say

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas on Tuesday announced the expansion of the Project Safe Neighborhoods program into Northwest Dallas to combat violent crimes. The program aims to reduce violent crime by utilizing data, intelligence and community engagement, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould said during a press conference. The key partners in this project include the FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; IRS and local police agencies, Raybould said. “We work very closely with the (Dallas police) chief here to pinpoint areas with significant violent crime rates. It combines and leverages federal, state and local law enforcement officials, prosecutors and community leaders to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in our community,” Raybould said.

Northwest Dallas has become a “corridor for organized criminal” activity, Raybould said. Law enforcement agencies said they have seen networks that exploit people, traffic narcotics and illegally move firearms. “Often times, these crimes like drug trafficking and sex trafficking do not occur in isolation,” Raybould said. Traffickers rely on guns for intimidation, control and protection of their criminal proceeds along with drugs to entrap and manipulate victims, launder money and commit various tax crimes, Raybould said. The program also provides support and resources to the victims through specialists who help them through the criminal process by accompanying them to court and notifying them of upcoming events along with mental health and counseling services, Raybould said. He said the goal for Northwest Dallas is to reduce violent crime linked to drugs, guns and human trafficking and increase early victim identification. “Our goal is ultimately, we want people to have a safe and better life,” Raybould said.

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Hutchins city leaders meet to discuss ICE detention center as residents continue opposition

Hutchins city leaders met briefly Wednesday to discuss a proposed immigration facility as residents and local lawmakers gathered to oppose it. The federal government plans to convert a 1 million-square-foot warehouse into a detention center that would house up to 9,500 migrants, as first reported by the Washington Post. Mayor Pro Tem Steve Nichols reiterated the council has not received confirmation or information about the facility. The council took no action Wednesday. “To date, no one from the city has been contacted by the federal officials to discuss any such plans or local impact,” he read from a statement during the special called meeting. “We are not even aware of the need of transfer having been reported to the county for the properties in question."

Nichols told the public they would keep the community informed and “act to protect community interest to the best of our abilities.” The facility would be one of five sites in Texas, according to documents reviewed by the Post. It would be located in an industrial area off of I-45. City leaders and community members have spoken out in opposition to the proposed warehouse since it was first reported. “If you think anybody up here is on board with it, you're in the wrong building,” Mayor Mario Vasquez said during a council meeting earlier this week. Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, lawmakers and activists with the League of United Latin American Citizens held a news conference outside Hutchins City Hall to express their opposition to the detention center. “We should never accept the idea that a small working class city should be forced to host the largest detention center in the nation against its will,” said state Rep. Linda Garcia. “Hutchins has said we did not choose this. We do not want this, and we deserve to be heard.”

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8 Bexar County DA hopefuls debate reform, public safety

Democratic primary candidates for Bexar County district attorney took the stage Tuesday night in a fast-moving debate at the Carver Community Cultural Center hosted by the San Antonio Report and the Greater San Antonio Chamber. Eight candidates clashed over how to fix an office facing staffing shortages, case backlogs and growing public scrutiny over high-profile prosecutions. In a blue county, the winner of the Democratic primary is the odds-on favorite to carry the race in November. Candidates seeking the Democratic nomination include three current prosecutors in the DA’s office: Jane Davis, who oversees the Juvenile Division, Angelica “Meli” Carrión Powers, who oversees the family division, and Oscar Salinas, who also works in that division. Three other contenders are former prosecutors now working in private practice, Veronica Legarreta, Shannon Locke and Meredith Chacon.

The other candidates are James Bethke, who oversees the county’s Managed Assigned Counsel Office, and Luz Elena Chapa, who served on the Fourth Court of Appeals. After incumbent District Attorney Joe Gonzales opted not to seek reelection, several bigger name candidates passed on the race, leaving voters with little time to get to know the long list of candidates before early voting for the March 3 primary starts on Feb. 17. Against that backdrop, many candidates used Tuesday’s debate to attack Chapa, the candidate with the most political experience and connections, but least experience when it comes to prosecuting cases. “I think it’s very important that you realize that someone here is recommending somebody take over this office who has absolutely no experience in being in a DA’s office, or in leading a DAs office, or even trying a case, I think that’s terrible,” Davis said. Davis has spent the past 40 years working under seven different district attorneys and working in every division in the office. “I have done every job in the DA’s office except being the DA.”

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Wildlife refuge, historical sites vulnerable to border wall construction

Long-time environmentalist Jim Chapman points out his favorite trees as he walks among the brush and crunches on the trails of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. Chapman is a board member of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a nonprofit that helps to safeguard thousands of acres of these wildlife tracts along on the U.S.-Mexico border of South Texas. On Tuesday, he greeted other park visitors, examined the vegetation, and even stopped to decipher the species of an animal based on its droppings.

A retired physician’s assistant, the 78-year-old says he loves it here, and he spends plenty of time on the trails and talking with fellow enthusiasts. But he’s worried should a new border wall dissect this national park. “It would keep wildlife that’s in the refuge from getting out and when this becomes absolutely dire is when the river goes into flood,” Chapman told Border Report during a stroll through the 2,000-acre park. “Then everything that can’t fly or swim drowns,” he said. He remembers the 2015 flood when waves of wildlife and trees died from standing water. And if there’s a 30-foot-tall steel border wall built and 15-foot-long buoys put in the river, he says the animals will have no where to escape. His biggest concern is that Congress did not put language into the last summer’s Big Beautiful Bill providing for Santa Ana’s exemption from border wall construction, as it has for annual appropriations bills for the past few years. Other exemptions included La Lomita Chapel; the National Butterfly Center; Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park; the Eli Jackson Cemetery; and other historical cemeteries in the Rio Grande Valley.

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National Stories

Washington Post cuts more than 300 jobs

The Washington Post carried out a widespread round of layoffs on Wednesday that decimated the organization’s sports, local news and international coverage. The company laid off about 30 percent of all its employees, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. That includes people on the business side and more than 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in the newsroom, the people said. The cuts are a sign that Jeff Bezos, who became one of the world’s richest people by selling things on the internet, has not yet figured out how to build and maintain a profitable publication on the internet. The paper expanded during the first eight years of his ownership, but the company has sputtered more recently.

Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, said on a call Wednesday morning with newsroom employees that the company had lost too much money for too long and had not been meeting readers’ needs. He said that all sections would be affected in some way, and that the result would be a publication focused even more on national news and politics, as well as business and health, and far less on other areas. “If anything, today is about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming a more crowded, competitive and complicated media landscape,” Mr. Murray said. “And after some years when, candidly, The Post has had struggles.” Mr. Murray further explained the rationale in an email, saying The Post was “too rooted in a different era, when we were a dominant, local print product” and that online search traffic, partly because of the rise of generative A.I., had fallen by nearly half in the last three years. He added that The Post’s “daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years.”

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Bitcoin briefly drops below $70,000 as sell-off continues

Bitcoin briefly dropped below $70,000 on Thursday amid a broader sell-off of risk assets. The move, which happened around 6:27 a.m. ET, was the first time bitcoin fell below $70,000 since November 2024. Bitcoin bounced off that low and was trading at around 70,453.68 at 6:40 a.m. ET, according to CoinMetrics data. Some market watchers have suggested $70,000 is a key level to watch and a break below that could trigger more falls for bitcoin.

The drop follows a broad sell-off in tech stocks in the U.S. on Wednesday which filtered through to cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, precious metals continue to be volatile with silver plunging again on Thursday and gold under pressure. Liquidations — when traders' positions are automatically sold as bitcoin hits a certain price — continue to weigh on markets. This week, more than $2 billion long and short positions in cryptocurrencies have been liquidated this week as of Thursday, according to data from Coinglass. Bitcoin has been on a steady decline since it hit an all-time high above $126,000 in October. It now sits around 40% off that record high with other cryptocurrencies, including ether and XRP, off by much more. "[The] straight line bull run that a lot of people expected hasn't really materialized yet. Bitcoin isn't trading on hype anymore, the story has lost a bit of that plot, it is trading on pure liquidity and capital flows," Maja Vujinovic, CEO of digital assets at FG Nexus, told CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange."

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'Setting this agency up for failure': Amid staffing crunch, IRS taps employees with no relevant experience to assist during filing season

The Internal Revenue Service is asking seasoned employees without any direct tax experience to perform entry-level tasks of answering phones and processing tax returns, a step impacted staff call unprecedented as the agency scrambles to prepare for filing season. The reassigned workers, who are being detailed out on an involuntary basis, are coming from the IRS human resources and, potentially, the IT departments. Some employees reported that supervisors first asked for anyone who had experience in the front-line fields to consider the roles, but they ultimately chose many individuals with no prior experience working directly on tax issues. The details come as IRS has dramatically slashed its workforce, cutting more than 20,000 employees—or more than 20% of total staff—in the last year.

The divisions seeking internal staffing support have seen similarly significant losses to their workforces and have struggled to rebuild in time for filing season, according to a new report from the IRS inspector general. The divisions in IRS that process tax returns and provide telephonic and in-person customer service, as well as other duties related to filing season, have lost 8,300 workers, or 17% of their staff, the IG found. The IRS division tasked with processing original and amended tax returns has hired just 50 employees in anticipation of the 2026 filing season, or 2% of its authorized level. It can take up to 80 days to train new employees, the IG said, meaning employees hired now may not be ready to assist during filing season at all. Accounts Management, which handles IRS customer service, has hired just 66% of the filing season employees for which it has been authorized.

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Trump withdraws 700 immigration agents from Minnesota deportation surge, thousands remain

The Trump administration is withdrawing some 700 federal immigration enforcement agents from Minnesota, although about 2,000 agents will stay in place, White House border czar Tom Homan announced on Wednesday, a number the state's Democratic leaders say is still too high.In an unprecedented surge, U.S. President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of armed immigration enforcement agents in and around Minneapolis this year to detain and deport migrants, resulting in weeks of feuding with the state's elected leaders, angry and sometimes violent confrontations with residents, and street protests across the nation.

Homan said the deportation campaign was in the interest of public safety. He was partially reducing the deployment because he was seeing "unprecedented" cooperation from Minnesota's elected sheriffs who run county jails, although he did not give more details."Let me be clear, President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country," Homan said at a press conference. "President Trump made a promise. And we have not directed otherwise."Homan also said there had been "a gap" in giving agents body-worn cameras, which he was hoping to fix with Congress. The deportation sweeps, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, have been opposed and denounced since early January by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other elected Democrats, drawing angry insults and unspecified accusations of law-breaking from Trump. Walz and Frey have sued the Trump administration in federal court, demanding the restraining or withdrawal of a federal deployment that was about 20 times the normal number of immigration enforcement agents in the state, outnumbering local police forces.Asked about Homan's announcement, Trump told NBC News: "I learned that maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch. But you still have to be tough."Both Walz and Frey, in separate statements, called Homan's announcement encouraging but insufficient."The drawdown and body-worn cameras are a step in the right direction, but 2,000 ICE officers still here is not de-escalation," Frey said.

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Justice Department under scrutiny for revealing victim info and concealing possible enablers in Epstein files

The Justice Department failed to black out identifying information about many of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and redacted the details of individuals who may have aided the convicted sex offender, prompting an outcry from survivors who accuse DOJ of botching the release of more than 3 million documents last week. A CNN review of the Epstein documents identified several examples of people whose identities were blacked out possibly helping to connect him with women, including redacted co-conspirators in a much-anticipated draft indictment of Epstein from the 2000s. A redacted individual wrote in one 2015 email to Epstein: “And this one is (i think) totally your girl.”

In another 2014 email in the files, a person wrote to Epstein: “Thank you for a fun night… Your littlest girl was a little naughty.” But the name of the individual who wrote that message is redacted. The Department of Justice on Friday released what it said was the last of the Epstein files that it was required to disclose by law, but the documents have prompted widespread outcry about a continued lack of transparency and justice for Epstein’s many survivors. Epstein survivors are up in arms about the mishandled redactions, including blacked out statements that victims made to the FBI. A DOJ official said in a statement that any fully redacted names are of victims. “In many instances, as it has been well documented publicly, those who were originally victims became participants and co-conspirators,” the official said. “We did not redact any names of men, only female victims.” FBI and law enforcement names were also redacted, the DOJ official said.

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Republicans’ political crunch over affordability

Vulnerable Republicans have a big political problem on their hands. The bipartisan Senate negotiations torevive enhanced Obamacare subsidies are all but dead, leaving health care costs skyrocketing for millions of Americans. At-risk GOP lawmakers must now wage a new fight, figuring out if — and how — they can force their party to take up legislation to help Americans dealing with rising costs before the midterm elections. “It’s necessary to do everything on affordability across the board,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told us. “Health care is the most significant piece of it. There’s also housing, there’s food, there’s fuel, there’s childcare, there’s elder care, there’s transportation. It’s all unaffordable right now.” Yet Republicans face numerous hurdles in doing this.Speaker Mike Johnson has a razor-thin margin and faces near-constant revolts from his right flank.

The speaker wanted to spend the early part of 2026 on health care, but intervening events have diverted his focus. The Senate is now consumed with a funding standoff over ICE, and there are a host of other issues that Senate Majority Leader John Thune wants to take up — housing, a farm bill, a highway bill, crypto and more. There’s deep skepticism among Republicans about getting another reconciliation bill done this year, which makes it much harder to see any health care bills passing. Bipartisan efforts on housing and permitting bills — both top priorities for vulnerable House Republicans — are facing problems. The appetite for bipartisan dealmaking will shrink even more as the midterms grow closer. Yet as President Donald Trump’s poll numbers tank and the economy wobbles, at-risk Republicans have no choice but to try whatever they can to push legislative fixes.

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Lead Stories

Texas’s biggest right-wing donor has abandoned Ken Paxton

Since the beginning of his lengthy and oft-scandaled political career, Attorney General Ken Paxton has held one of the most valuable get-out-of-jail-free cards in Texas politics: the seemingly limitless support of Midland oil tycoon Tim Dunn. Whenever Paxton got into trouble, which was frequently, Dunn would be there to bail him out. In turn, when Dunn’s political operation went to war against the Texas Ethics Commission, Paxton, in his capacity as attorney general, refused to defend the agency. For nearly two decades, the Dunn–Paxton partnership seemed unshakeable. But a funny thing has happened in Ken Paxton’s run for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Tim Dunn has disappeared. Dunn and Paxton both made their first big splashes in Texas politics in the same year, 2002, with similar objectives. Dunn, who would soon become the most influential and ruthless political donor in the state, wrote his first substantial political check that year—a $10,000 donation to Free Enterprise PAC, a group that sought to advocate right-wing causes at the Texas Legislature, among them prohibiting “homosexual marriages and adoptions” and requiring “a super majority to increase taxes.” Paxton, a first-time candidate for state representative who closely aligned himself with the religious right, was Free Enterprise PAC’s biggest single beneficiary in that year’s legislative elections.

From that point on, Dunn went from being merely a Paxton backer to his most vigorous defender. In 2015, after a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton for securities fraud, Dunn wrote a heated op-ed in the Midland Reporter-Telegram claiming the attorney general was a victim of a witch hunt against strong conservatives. In 2023, when the Texas House impeached Paxton on articles of bribery and abuse of public trust among other charges, Dunn not only contributed to his defense but helped orchestrate a multi-pronged counteroffensive. Defend Texas Liberty PAC, which Dunn backed, threatened to primary any Republican state senator who voted to remove Paxton from office, and the group gave $3 million in loans and contributions to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who was presiding over the trial. After he was acquitted, Paxton campaigned against some of the key House members who impeached him. Dunn pitched in to fund their primary opponents. But according to multiple sources I spoke with while reporting my recent Texas Monthly feature on the primary battle between Paxton and incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn, when Paxton approached Dunn about backing his Senate challenge, Dunn told him to stay out of the race. One source who is familiar with Dunn’s thinking told me, “Tim sat down and told Ken, ‘I don’t want you to be a senator; I want you to be a good attorney general.’” Dunn apparently saw Paxton’s challenge as a costly and unnecessary drain on resources that would weaken the party for the general election. (The billionaire, who seems to relish conservative internecine feuds and a good Republican primary throwdown, apparently likes Cornyn enough that, so far at least, he hasn’t seen a reason to spend heavily to oust him.)

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Republicans are freaking out about Hispanic voters after a Texas upset

Republicans are in full-out panic mode over their plunging support with Hispanic voters after losing a special election in a ruby-red Texas district over the weekend. On Saturday, a Democrat posted a 14-point victory in a Fort Worth-based state senate district President Donald Trump had won by 17 points in 2024, a staggering swing that was powered by significant shifts across the district’s Hispanic areas. It’s the clearest sign yet that the GOP’s newfound coalition that propelled Trump’s return to the White House may be short-lived. Many Republicans are warning the party needs to change course on immigration, focus on bread-and-butter economic issues and start pouring money into competitive races — or risk getting stomped in November. Polling already showed that Republicans were rapidly losing support from Hispanic voters. But the electoral results were a confirmation of that drop.

“It should be an eye-opener to all of us that we all need to pick up the pace,” U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican from a majority-Hispanic district in South Texas, said in an interview. “The candidate has to do their part, the party has to do their part. And then those of us in the arena, we have to do our part to help them as well.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday that the election was a “very concerning outcome.” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick posted on X that the results should be a “wake-up call for Republicans across Texas. Our voters cannot take anything for granted.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said “a swing of this magnitude is not something that can be dismissed.” Taylor Rehmet, the Democrat who flipped the state Senate seat over the weekend, made huge gains with Hispanic voters amid national pushback to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and widespread economic frustration across demographic groups.

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Flirty emails and chummy photos show how far Epstein reached into business world

Casey Wasserman was in Italy for the Winter Olympics, scheduled to make a presentation to the International Olympic Committee on the progress of the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Peter Attia, the longevity doctor with cult followers and a bestselling book, was days into a new role as a CBS News contributor. And Brett Ratner was promoting “Melania,” his documentary about the first lady—his first film since 2017, when six women accused him of sexual misconduct. All three men had reached—or returned to—the pinnacle of their industries in February 2026. And all three, it turned out, had secrets in the Epstein files. Flirtatious email exchanges between Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell from 2003 were among the files released by the Department of Justice on Friday. Attia’s name appeared more than 1,700 times in the documents, with correspondence showing he maintained a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein through 2019.

Twenty undated photos showed Ratner hanging around with Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse, the two men with their arms wrapped around women whose identities are redacted. These interactions have largely escaped scrutiny. The Epstein saga has generated headlines about people such as former President Bill Clinton and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor whose fame have ensured maximum attention. Clinton, who has been called to testify before Congress, has said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity. Mountbatten Windsor, who was stripped of his royal title, has denied that he participated in sexual abuse. But the files contain millions of pages, and many of the people in them aren’t former royals or former presidents. They are executives, doctors, lawyers, and dealmakers at the tops of their fields. Their now-public messages and photographs reveal just how intricately Epstein spun his web of influence and how he traded on his connections to amass wealth and powerful friends. The files also show that some people sought the counsel and companionship of Epstein—sometimes even after he pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008— associations that some had previously denied and were until now largely hidden. This week, they have had to discuss their secrets. Wasserman and Attia said they regretted their email exchanges and didn’t know about Epstein’s crimes. Ratner said the photos were from 20 years ago, the woman in the photos was his then-fiancé and he didn’t really know Epstein.

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Trump signs bill to end government shutdown and fund DHS for two weeks

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law a massive funding package to end the brief government shutdown that began Saturday. The bill passed the House earlier Tuesday on a vote of 217-214. It passed the Senate last week. The legislation will ensure full-year funding for the federal government through the end of September, with the lone exception of the Department of Homeland Security, which is put on a two-week leash as Democrats insist on changes after federal agents fatally shot two Americans in Minneapolis.

The measure tees up a frantic 10-day window for Congress to negotiate a DHS funding agreement as Democrats demand reforms to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The new deadline when DHS funding will expire is Feb. 13. Earlier in the day, House Republicans voted 217-215 to advance the legislation, a procedural motion for which Democrats provided no help. A vote on the bill was delayed by one day after Democrats privately indicated they wouldn't provide the large number of votes needed to fast-track it on Monday. The procedural "rule" vote provided some drama as the House GOP's one-vote margin showed its challenges. It was held open for an extended period when Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., unexpectedly joined Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., in voting against it. Massie has held his ground against spending bills and was seen as all but impossible to flip. Rose, who complained that the Senate wasn't doing enough to pass the SAVE Act, which mandates proof of citizenship to vote, eventually flipped to "yes."

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State Stories

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Do you want to win or not? Democrats should make Talarico their Senate candidate

If you want to understand why we recommend state Rep. James Talarico in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, you have to remember what it was like to be an Astros fan in 2014. The team was barreling toward its third straight 100-loss season. Seats were empty. Tickets were cheap. Only the most die-hard supporters were paying attention to the last-ros, disast-ros, best days were in the past-ros. Fast-forward three years and a Houston Strong crowd packed Minute Maid Park, roaring through a five-hour slugfest as the Astros toppled the Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series before going on to win the best of seven.How did a perennial loser become a champion? That’s a question Texas Democrats should be asking themselves. The party hasn’t won a statewide race in more than a quarter-century.

The answer, at least in baseball: The Astros did whatever it took to win. They broke with the past. They tore down the roster, invested in young talent, leaned into data, and stopped confusing loyalty with effectiveness. Stop running candidates who excite the base but lose in the general. Give up on the illusion that demographics is destiny. Do whatever it takes to secure the narrow plurality required to win in November. And lean into the metrics. On that topic, the national data is clear: Moderate candidates, if they can make it out of primaries, enjoy a small but notable general election advantage over their more ideological counterparts. And Talarico, 36, is running as an inspiring yet pragmatic reformer. His chief opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, 44, is a prominent member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Meanwhile, nobody really knows what electability looks like in Texas because Democrats remain a generation removed from a statewide win. Still, we see campaigns come closest when they convince some Republicans to cross over — and only Talarico is working to assemble that coalition like Beto O’Rourke did in 2018. Yes, research finds the gap between progressives and moderates isn’t huge. Current polls show Talarico and Crockett as basically tied in a matchup with a Republican. Data sets for elections are relatively small — nowhere near baseball’s 162-game season. And Talarico is hardly a conservative. But Democrats are at risk of letting a potential wave year go to waste. O’Rourke lost by just three points in 2018. A few thousand voters on the margins might decide whether President Donald Trump gets another two years to reshape the federal judiciary with his hand-picked choices.

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Blackstone, New Balance CEOs among top donors to John Cornyn Super PAC

U.S. Sen John Cornyn continues to out-fundraise the rest of the Republican field, while Democratic state Rep. James Talarico reported a slight edge over U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett with a month until the primary election for U.S. Senate. The pro-Cornyn Super PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority reported $7.3 million in donations over the last three months of 2025, leaving the group with $5 million as of Dec. 31, according to campaign finance reports filed Saturday.

Among the PAC's largest donations was $1 million from Stephen Schwartzman, the New York-based CEO of the financial giant Blackstone, and $500,000 from Jim Davis, the Boston-based CEO of the sneaker company New Balance. The PAC also received $450,000 from Dallas investor Trevor Rees-Jones and $250,000 from Texas billionaire Kelcy Warren's pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners. By contrast, Lone Star Liberty, the Super PAC supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's U.S. Senate campaign, reported $2.8 million in cash at the end of the year, following $2 million in contributions in the fourth quarter. The largest donor was Jonathan Knutz, the Houston-based CEO of the medical company Legacy Medical Consultants, who gave $600,000 to the PAC. It's unclear how much outside money is behind U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who has no Super PAC supporting his campaign. Instead, he is relying on a dark money group called Standing for Texas, which does not have to report its finances to the Federal Election Commission. His senate campaign and other fundraising committees raised $1.1 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $1 million for Paxton and more than $7 million for Cornyn.

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Texas opens applications Wednesday for new $1 billion school voucher program

The application window for Texas' new statewide school voucher program will open on Wednesday, allowing families to use public funds to help cover private school tuition and other education-related expenses starting in the 2026-2027 school year. The program, created by Senate Bill 2, establishes Texas Education Freedom Accounts, which provide families with $10,474 per student each year to spend on approved educational costs. Students with disabilities enrolled in approved private schools or in pre-K or kindergarten programs may be eligible to receive up to $30,000. Those expenses can include private school tuition, textbooks, tutoring services and certain transportation costs. Eligible students must be U.S. citizens or lawfully present in the country and qualify to attend a Texas public school, charter school or pre-K program. Parents must be Texas residents.

While any student can apply, the state will rely on a lottery if funding runs out. Students with disabilities from families earning up to about $240,000 a year for a family of four will be prioritized first. Next come students from lower-income households earning about $60,000, followed by families earning up to $240,000. Higher-income families would receive vouchers only if funding remains. Applications will close March 17, with funding notifications sent to families beginning in early April. At least 25% of approved funding will be available in participant accounts starting in July, followed by 50% in October. The remaining funds are expected to be released by April 2027. The voucher program was among the most contentious issues of the 2025 legislative session, drawing opposition from public school advocates and many rural lawmakers who said it would divert taxpayer dollars from already strained public schools. Hundreds of opponents testified against the measure at a Texas House hearing early last year, which was followed by months of protests over the issue. Critics say such programs effectively function as tax breaks for higher-income families. In North Carolina, which has a similar voucher program, a 2025 state report found nearly 90% of voucher recipients were already in private schools after income limits were lifted, with participating families earning nearly twice the typical household income. But supporters, including Gov. Greg Abbott, said the program expands parental choice and gives families more control over their children's education. Abbott made school choice a central priority of the 2025 legislative session, campaigning heavily for lawmakers who supported the measure. And after years of pushing the issue, including multiple special legislative sessions in 2023, Abbott signed the voucher program into law in May 2025, marking a major victory for the governor after repeated failed attempts to pass similar legislation.

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Here's who's spending in San Antonio’s Texas House races

Challengers scored some unusually high-profile endorsements headed into the March 3 primary election, but the five San Antonio state lawmakers facing contested primary races are blowing them out of the water in terms of fundraising. Campaign finance reports covering Jan. 1 through Jan. 22 were due Monday. They indicated that the biggest spender on the Texas House landscape, pro-business group Texans for Lawsuit Reform, seems to be pumping the brakes on its expensive fight with state Rep. Marc LaHood (R-San Antonio). Meanwhile trial lawyers are still pouring in money to help incumbents from both parties, Gov. Greg Abbott is picking sides the race to replace state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) is helping LaHood raise money, and a pro-charter school PAC is helping Democratic state Rep. Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio) in his contested primary.

The only insurgent candidate who rivaled an incumbent’s haul in the last reporting period was Republican Willie Ng, a security company owner who served on the board of Texas’ largest chamber of commerce and is now running against state Rep. Mark Dorazio (R-San Antonio), a member of the GOP’s conservative wing, in Texas House District 122. Ng raised $130,000 in the first three months of January, compared to Dorazio’s $150,000. Much of Ng’s haul came from the Associated Republicans of Texas PAC, which has long been a defender of the state’s more moderate, business-centric Republicans. Dorazio, a former Bexar GOP chair known for his socially conservative views, won a four-way primary to replace former moderate Republican Lyle Larson in 2022. Ng is getting help from the Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s deep-pocketed Texas Defense PAC, which wants to legalize casino gambling in Texas, as well as mail ads and other campaign grassroots services from Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Like other conservatives in that group, Dorazio’s campaign received money for the Texas Trial Lawyers Association PAC in January, plus $100,000 from Texans for Truth and Liberty PAC, which gets most of its funding from a single Houston law firm.

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Gov. Abbott cites youth alcohol arrests to criticize statewide public school ICE protests

On Tuesday morning, Gov. Greg Abbott took to social media to show his continued displeasure with widespread school walkouts protesting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Linking to a story about two minors arrested at a school walkout in Kyle, Abbott shared strong words. “It’s about time students like this were arrested. Harming someone is a crime — even for students,” he said. “Disruptive walkouts allowed by schools lead to just this kind of chaos. Schools and staff who allow this behavior should be treated as co-conspirators and should not be immune for criminal behavior. We are also looking into stripping the funding of schools that abandon their duty to teach our kids the curriculum required by law. More to come.” His complaints, however, conflicts with the Kyle Police Department’s statement on the incident.

“During the demonstration, officers observed a minor in possession of alcohol, resulting in the arrest of two juveniles,” they said on Facebook. “We are aware of concerns that these arrests were related to the walkout activity; however, we would like to clarify that they are unrelated.” The latter portion of the statement was included in the article Abbott shared. “The Governor is still choosing to take this moment of one high school student making a bad decision and trying to use that to attack student protesters across the state,” State Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Hays County, said. “I am sick of Governor Abbott using Hays CISD as a prop in his attack on public schools.” The alcohol-related arrests were one of multiple incidents involving Hays CISD on Monday. The most prominent story was a counter-protester allegedly assaulting students in a viral video. “A grown man picking a fight with teenage girls is an incident I find far more concerning than a teenager having contraband and making a bad decision when a law enforcement officer asked them to get rid of it,” Zwiener said. “I really would like to call on the Governor to help tone down the rhetoric and don’t set up other of his followers to come out and attack teenagers.” Nexstar reached out to Abbott’s office for this story, asking direct questions about the conflicts between his post and the Kyle PD statement and if he had a statement on the counter-protester alleged assault. His team did not return our request for comment.

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One of Austin's oldest Mexican restaurants is closing after almost 40 years

The road once known as Austin’s Mexican Mile is losing another one of its long-time residents. Little Mexico is closing at the end of February after 34 years at that location. Rosa Martinez opened the homey restaurant that serves Tex-Mex and interior Mexican cuisine at 2304 S. First St. in 1994. She opened the original in North Austin in 1986 and moved it just south of Oltorf Road on South First Street for five years before settling the restaurant on the land she purchased in 1992.

“I’m happy and kind of sad,” Monterrey, Mexico native Martinez said Tuesday, fighting back tears between visits with a couple tables of regulars. “These people are like family.” The restaurant has been one of the stalwarts that has kept the old South Austin spirit alive on a street that has undergone massive development over the last decade. The road was once home to Jovita’s, La Mexicana Bakery, which closed in 2022, and El Mercado, which closed in 2025.

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TEA warns sanctions for districts, teachers over anti-ICE walkout absences

The Texas Education Agency warned school leaders Tuesday that it could sanction educators who help student leave class for political activism or take interventions against school districts that don’t follow state attendance requirements. The notice came after Texas students walked out of class in recent days to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. TEA’s guidance also followed calls from two state leaders for investigations into and more information from the Austin Independent School District over its student walkouts. In press release from the agency, a spokesman said that “school systems have been reminded of their duty and obligation to ensure that their students are both safe and that they attend school.”

The guidance released to school districts specified that while it’s “inappropriate for educators to neglect students released onto public streets with no supervision or parental notification,” school districts also shouldn’t “facilitate disruption by encouraging students to leave campus during instructional hours.” Educators who encourage or help students leave class could be reported to the State Board for Educator Certification, which has the final determination on revoking an educator’s license, according to the guidance. School districts that don’t adhere to state attendance laws could be subject to an audit or investigation, and any violations found could trigger sanctions as drastic as a state takeover, according to the guidance. School districts should also notify parents when students may leave school property, according to TEA. The agency noted that students can’t disrupt the learning environment when expressing their speech. In many local districts, like Austin ISD, officials said that the protests weren’t sponsored by the district, and that school officials want students in class during instructional time.

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Hutchins Mayor: ICE doesn’t ‘match what we’re trying to do.’

If the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to convert a warehouse in Hutchins into an ICE detention facility that could hold 9,500 people, it is keeping those plans very close to the vest. So close, in fact, that even the city that will be tasked with providing the facility with water, sewer, and other services doesn’t have any details, officials said Monday night. It’s been about a week and a half since we published our story about the 1-million-square-foot warehouse in Hutchins that the federal government has allegedly purchased for use as a new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. Since then, the news has gained a great deal of attention, especially since Hutchins isn’t the only place the federal agency is considering for potential places to hold people it has detained.

But Monday night, the Hutchins City Council kicked off its meeting by making it clear what the body thought of ICE plans to use an actual warehouse built for Amazon as a “Amazon Prime, but with human beings,” as acting ICE director Todd Lyons said last spring. Mayor Mario Vasquez began by saying that the city has heard nothing from the feds—no confirmation, no paperwork, and no permit applications. The statement began as a word-for-word recital of what was already on the city’s website. But then Vasquez might have gone off script a little bit. “If you think that anybody up here is onboard with it, you’re in the wrong building,” he said. “Nobody up here on this dais is onboard with what they’re trying to put here.” He pointed to new billboards the city just put up proclaiming Hutchins is a “city on the rise.” “This don’t match what we’re trying to do here,” he added. “We are not on board with this thing here.” The crowd that had gathered to speak against the facility erupted in cheers.

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McKinney teacher's desperate plea after husband detained

After meeting at a salsa dancing class in Dallas’s Klyde Warren Park in 2024, Rafael and Heather Alambarrio seemed destined for happily ever after. “Something we really like to do is go to concerts,” said Heather, combing through dozens of photos on her dining room table. The couple married at the McKinney courthouse in June, followed by a reception with friends. “My best friend said something, and it’s just so true. She said, ‘When I think about Rafael, I just think about joy and kindness, and it’s so hard to imagine him in a place like that. You know? It’s so hard to imagine him there',” she said.

The couple had just one final hurdle. In November, they met with U.S. Customs and Immigration to apply for Rafael’s Green Card. He’s a Venezuelan native who came to the U.S. fleeing political persecution in 2023. Heather said the interview went well and that the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services told them to expect it to arrive in 30 to 60 days. But the next day, the White House announced it would pause processing applications for people from 19 countries, including Venezuela. A Department of Homeland Security report from 2023 documents the torture Rafael faced as a result of protests. The Credible Fear Determination interview found, “he was harmed and would be harmed if [he] returned to Venezuela.” Rafael was granted parole as he applied for asylum, but that parole eventually expired. On Jan. 15, the couple reported to the Dallas ICE office for an annual check-in. Heather says Rafael never came back out.

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Christian Menefee outlines priorities after winning 18th Congressional District seat

After securing victory in the race for Texas’ 18th Congressional District, Christian Menefee said his first priority in Congress is to make sure residents finally feel represented again. Menefee, the former Harris County Attorney, was sworn in on Feb. 2, stepping into a seat that has been without full representation for nearly a year following the deaths of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and then Congressman Sylvester Turner. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott did not schedule the first round of voting until November for the Black and Democratic stronghold. Menefee accused Abbott of delaying the election and attempting to weaken the district’s political voice, and he pledged to oppose President Donald Trump’s policies.

“I want people in our communities to know that they have an office that they can go to when they’re having issues with Medicare, the VA hospital, social security, a place that they can go to get their questions answered and their problems solved, whether it be immigration case work or anything,” Menefee said. Menefee won a special runoff election, amassing 68.4% of the vote compared to his Democratic challenger, Amanda Edwards, who received 31.6%, according to results released Saturday night by the Harris County Clerk’s Office. He will have to immediately campaign again for this seat in the Democratic primary against Edwards and U.S. Rep. Al Green, the incumbent representative for TX-9. Menefee and Edwards were the top two finishers out of 16 candidates in this past November’s special election. Since both fell short of the 50% threshold, they had to face each other for the January runoff.

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Ruben Garcia, longtime San Antonio radio voice and TPR's VP of Technology and Operations, dies at 66

Ruben Garcia, Texas Public Radio’s Vice President of Technology and Operations, died on Tuesday, Feb. 3, following a sudden brain aneurysm that struck him on Feb. 1. He was 66. Garcia was hired by Texas Public Radio in 2011 as a production announcer, and soon began working with the engineering department, ascending to VP of Technology and Operations in 2024, where he oversaw broadcast operations, including the station’s automation system and IT. Garcia is also The Voice of Texas Public Radio, heard daily on all stations through many on-air sponsorship and promotional messages, and, of course, the top-of- the-hour time check that you can always count on. Before arriving at Texas Public Radio, longtime San Antonio listeners would have known Garcia’s voice from many commercia

Born in May of 1959, Garcia’s start in the industry began in 1975 while still a teenager in Laredo, at KLAR-AM. He soon worked his way to San Antonio, where one of his early gigs was hosting on KZ100, “The Hot FM.” Ruben’s career took him to Houston for a short time, and back to San Antonio. He worked for KSAQ-FM, and at Cox Radio from the late 1990s through the early 2000s, including stints on Y100 and KONO-FM. Roger Allen, former program director at Cox, recalled that Garcia was “a humble, very nice person” with “a golden voice.” “He was so smooth in his delivery, and so natural,” Allen said. Commercial radio was a fiercely competitive business in the 1980s and 1990s, and according to former colleague Chrissie Murnin, Garcia's “mischievous streak” helped him win the audience on more than one occasion, even if it meant a bit of trickery. Murnin remembered that Garcia, then working the night shift, called a competitor’s DJ on their station hotline, pretended to be the station engineer, and instructed the host to power down the station for maintenance for a few hours, to which the DJ readily complied. Finding dead air on the competitor, the audience would naturally tune in to his show instead, Garcia surmised! Garcia was also known to be handy with tech, said Murnin, who called him “Mr. Fix-It.” Murnin noted he could fix just about anything at the station … and then some, whether it was a lamp, a vacuum. … You get the idea. “It didn’t surprise me that he wound up at TPR as VP of Technology,” Allen said.

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Legal battle continues for death row inmate Robert Roberson

Attorneys for Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson are urging an Anderson County district judge to reject the State’s request for more time to respond in his ongoing post-conviction case, arguing prosecutors have already had months to answer and have repeatedly addressed the substance of his “changed science” claim. In a filing submitted Tuesday, Roberson’s counsel opposed the State’s motion seeking a 60-day extension to file its answer. The defense argued the State has not provided justification for why additional time is needed now, after the court previously allowed roughly four months for the State to respond.

“Counsel for the State offers no explanation as to why, after being granted four months to answer, on the eve of its deadline, the State now seeks yet another two more months simply to answer,” Roberson’s filing stated. “As previously noted, the State has already filed multiple responses to the substance of Mr. Roberson’s changed-science claim.” The latest filings focus on procedure — whether the State should get more time — but they sit within a larger fight over whether Roberson is entitled to relief under Texas law that allows courts to revisit convictions when relevant scientific understanding has changed since trial. Roberson’s case has long drawn attention because it involves contested medical testimony associated with shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma, an injury that critics say earlier diagnostic approaches lacked understanding of the science, often treated as definitive and ignored alternative explanations for the injury.

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Man arrested after fight with Hays CISD students during anti-ICE walkout

Buda police officers have arrested a 45-year-old man following a fight with student protesters near Johnson High School on Monday. Chad Michael Watts, who lives in Kyle, was charged Tuesday afternoon with two counts of assault causing bodily injury. The incident was captured in a now viral video. A man and a student protester are seen getting into a verbal argument that quickly turns physical and results in the man throwing the girl to the ground and striking her repeatedly until other students intervene and pull him away. Video posted to social media shows he then returned to his truck.

Watts was later brought in for questioning by Buda Police. "After further thorough investigation, it was determined that Watts was the primary aggressor in the physical altercation," the department said in a statement. The student, a sophomore, was checked by Emergency Medical Services and chose not to be taken to the hospital. The protest was one of several walkouts that happened Monday in Hays County. Students from Hays High, Johnson High, Lehman High, Barton Middle and Live Oak Academy High schools made up some of the hundreds of students who gathered to protest the actions of federal immigration officers. Students gathered at all four corners of the intersection of FM 1626 and RM 967 during the Johnson High demonstration, holding signs and cheering. Around 200 students walked out of the school and participated in the protest. “Leading up to the [incident], it was very peaceful," sophomore Isabella said. "Nobody was being violent, nobody was like tormenting the people driving by. We were just standing there … hooting and hollering, just making our voices heard. There wasn't really anything, I think at all, that would have prompted a grown man to attack a teenage girl." Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra released a statement on Tuesday afternoon, saying, “No matter one’s political views, an adult bears a clear responsibility to exercise restraint, especially in the presence of children," he said.

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Houston realtors drop plan to add flood risk to Texas home listings

At the last minute, the Houston Association of Realtors pulled the plug on a two-year project that would have published detailed flood risk data on tens of thousands of active home listings across the state. The project would have added flood risk scores to HAR.com, the association’s home search portal and one of the most widely used real estate websites in Texas. But it collapsed late last year after triggering a revolt among members who feared the information could steer buyers away from properties with higher risk scores. “It came out of nowhere at the very end when we were literally about to go live,” said Sam Brody, an environmental science professor at Texas A&M University and director of the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas, whose team developed the underlying tool.

Across the country, major home-search portals have faced mounting pressure over whether to display disaster risk data to prospective buyers. Advocates say clearer disclosure can spare buyers from unexpected financial losses later on. Some agents and sellers have resisted, arguing that risk models are imperfect and can negatively affect home sales. This debate carries particular weight in Texas, experts said, as development pushes deeper into flood-prone areas and buyers often have to rely on outdated flood maps. Wesley Highfield, a senior research scientist at Texas A&M University who also worked on the tool, said fears that greater transparency would disrupt the housing market are often overblown. He added that the tool is still available on his institute’s website under the name Buyers Aware. “In the Houston area, being informed will be less likely to turn away a buyer, but more likely to have a buyer purchase that property with their eyes wide open,” Highfield said. “The effect on the sale price is potentially marginal relative to the expense borne by an uninformed buyer.”

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Philip Cortez recommended in Democratic primary for Texas House District 117

We recommend incumbent state Rep. Philip Cortezin the Democratic Party primary for Texas House District 117, although we acknowledge and are excited by the potential of his lone March challenger. Cortez, a South Side native and former Air Force officer, deeply understands the constituents in this district, which includes parts of the South, Southwest and far West sides, having been a San Antonio City Council member representing District 4 before joining the Texas House in January 2013. Democrats in the Legislature, by virtue of their entrenched status in the minority, face a perpetually steep climb in getting measures passed or defeating those they oppose. Cortez’s longevity continues to be an asset on selected fronts, particularly in his position as chairman of a key subcommittee on veterans’ affairs.

During the 2025 legislative session, he pushed through a $50 million appropriation as an incentive for the U.S. Air Force to build a military cyber campus at Port San Antonio, only to see Gov. Greg Abbott kill it with a line-item veto. We understand that many Democrats fault Cortez for not joining fellow Texas legislators in his party who left the state to break the quorum in an attempt to derail mid-decade redistricting. But we were always leery of that endeavor. And in the end, it proved ill-fated in that it delayed the trial that resulted in a three-judge panel rejecting the new congressional districts, only to have the U.S. Supreme Court reinstate them largely because it was too close to the deadline for candidates to file. Challenger Robert Mihara also impressed us, and if he does not win this primary, we hope to see him seek other ways to bring his considerable talents and varied background to bear.

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Cy-Fair ISD leader challenges Greg Abbott in pointed letter: 'Nothing to hide'

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD leaders say they are following the law — not politics — as the state's third-largest district becomes the latest flashpoint in Gov. Greg Abbott's escalating fight over the Islamic Games and a Muslim civil rights group. Superintendent Douglas Killian wrote a personal letter to the GOP governor late last week, expressing frustration over his demands for Cy-Fair ISD to cancel the Islamic Games of North America at its facilities and saying he needed to clear up "significant inaccuracies related to this situation." According to the letter, which the Chronicle obtained Monday, Killian challenged Abbott's demand directly, saying that it would be illegal for the district to discriminate against the Islamic Games and that the group "is not identified as a foreign terrorist organization."

"If there is an existing legal basis for the edict to disallow The Islamic Games of North America from using CFISD facilities that was inadvertently left out of your correspondence, please provide this citation," the superintendent wrote. Killian said that the district would cooperate with all investigations, but that "CFISD has nothing to hide." The public standoff comes as the attorney general launched an investigation into two Texas school districts and Abbott that demanded schools bar the games from using public facilities over alleged ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights group in the country. The governor has also designated CAIR and its affiliate groups as "foreign terrorist organizations," barring any taxpayer dollars from going to institutions linked to the group. Abbott plans to try and ban the group from operating in Texas. CAIR has since sued the governor over the designation. Cy-Fair ISD leaders previously said that they did not have any plan to lend district facilities to the organization because the registration for any outside group to use district facilities next year opens in August. They also argued the governor's demands could run contrary to a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The superintendent's letter echoed those sentiments.

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Plano Mayor talks AT&T, DART in 2026 State of the City address

In a speech Tuesday, Plano Mayor John Muns highlighted the Collin County city’s momentum and key upcoming considerations, touting AT&T’s planned relocation while pointing to the city’s changing relationship with public transportation as the suburb seeks an exit from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system. Muns’ remarks were part of his annual State of the City address delivered to an audience of about 350 people who gathered Tuesday evening at the Robinson Fine Arts Center. Muns addressed residents, elected officials, city staff and community leaders as he sought to define Plano’s next “chapter of excellence.” Plano has eyed some impressive wins — from claiming AT&T’s headquarters from downtown Dallas to courting the Dallas Stars hockey team for a potential move, the suburb is on an economic development streak that began years prior with wins like Toyota and JCPenney.

“Our growth has been purposeful,” Muns said in his address, from a small farming community to one of the largest cities in North Texas. “Plano’s story has always been about steady progress, not sudden leaps, but intentional steps.” The city of nearly 300,000 residents has also taken center stage in debates around the future of public transportation in North Texas as it leads a possible suburban exodus from DART, the first of now six cities to put membership in the transit agency on the ballot for city residents. In a celebration of Plano’s story of growth, the mayor’s remarks sparked rounds of applause from residents and other elected officials. Muns took office in 2021 and was reelected for another four-year term last May. After decades of big-name corporate relocations and expansions in Plano, AT&T announced plans last month to build its new headquarters at a site that includes part of the former Electronic Data Systems campus in the suburb.

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National Stories

Immigration agents draw guns and arrest activists following them in Minneapolis

Immigration officers with guns drawn arrested activists who were trailing their vehicles on Tuesday in Minneapolis, while education leaders described anxiety and fear in Minnesota schools from the ongoing federal sweeps. Both are signs that tension remains in the Minneapolis area after the departure of high-profile commander Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol and the arrival of Trump administration border czar Tom Homan, which followed the fatal shooting of protester Alex Pretti. “There’s less smoke on the ground,” Gov. Tim Walz said, referring to tear gas and other irritants used by officers against protesters, “but I think it’s more chilling than it was last week because of the shift to the schools, the shift to the children.”

At least one person who had an anti-ICE message on clothing was handcuffed while face-down on the ground. An Associated Press photographer witnessed the arrests. Federal agents in the Twin Cities lately have been conducting more targeted immigration arrests at homes and neighborhoods, rather than staging in parking lots. The convoys have been harder to find and less aggressive. Alerts in activist group chats have been more about sightings than immigration-related detainments. Several cars followed officers through south Minneapolis after there were reports of them knocking at homes. Officers stopped their vehicles and ordered activists to come out of a car at gunpoint. Agents told reporters at the scene to stay back and threatened to use pepper spray. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said agents detained the activists because they hindered efforts to arrest a man who is in the country illegally. A federal judge last month put limits on how officers treat motorists who are following them but not obstructing their operations. Safely following agents “at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop,” the judge said. An appeals court, however, set the order aside.

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Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon

He had decided that the America he believed in would not make it if people like him didn’t speak up, so on a cool, rainy morning in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Jon, 67 and recently retired, marched up to his study and began to type. He had just read about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s case against an Afghan it was trying to deport. The immigrant, identified in The Washington Post’s Oct. 30 investigation as H, had begged federal officials to reconsider, telling them the Taliban would kill him if he was returned to Afghanistan. “Unconscionable,” Jon thought as he found an email address online for the lead prosecutor, Joseph Dernbach, who was named in the story. Peering through metal-rimmed glasses, Jon opened Gmail on his computer monitor. “Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” he wrote. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”

That was it. In five minutes, Jon said, he finished the note, signed his first and last name, pressed send and hoped his plea would make a difference. Five hours and one minute later, Jon was watching TV with his wife when an email popped up in his inbox. He noticed it on his phone. “Google,” the message read, “has received legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.” Listed below was the type of legal process: “subpoena.” And below that, the authority: “Department of Homeland Security.” That’s how it began. Soon would come a knock at the door by men with badges and, for Jon, the relentless feeling of being surveilled in a country where he never imagined he would be. Google hadn’t provided him a copy of the subpoena, but it wasn’t the conventional sort. Homeland Security had come after him with what’s known as an administrative subpoena, a powerful legal tool that, unlike the ones people are most familiar with, federal agencies can issue without an order from a judge or grand jury. Though the U.S. government had been accused under previous administrations of overstepping laws and guidelines that restrict the subpoenas’ use, privacy and civil rights groups say that, under President Donald Trump, Homeland Security has weaponized the tool to strangle free speech. For many Americans, the anonymous ICE officer, masked and armed, represents Homeland Security’s most intimidating instrument, but the agency often targets people in a far more secretive way. Homeland Security is not required to share how many administrative subpoenas it issues each year, but tech experts and former agency staff estimate it’s well into the thousands, if not tens of thousands. Because the legal demands are not subject to independent review, they can take just minutes to write up and, former staff say, officials throughout the agency, even in mid-level roles, have been given the authority to approve them. In March, Homeland Security issued two administrative subpoenas to Columbia University for information on a student it sought to deport after she took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

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Laura Loomer must resume payments to Muslim advocacy group, judge says

A federal judge ordered far-right influencer Laura Loomer to resume her monthly $1,200 payments to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which Loomer was originally ordered to pay in a settlement reached after her failed lawsuit against the Muslim advocacy group. After multiple appeals, the ruling affirms Loomer’s requirement to pay CAIR and its Florida chapter the remaining balance of a nearly $125,000 settlement from a lawsuit the influencer brought against the organization in August 2019, alleging that CAIR Florida had conspired with the social media company then known as Twitter to ban her from that platform. Loomer had stopped the payments in December 2025 after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egypt-based Islamist organization, as foreign terrorist organizations.

The governor had written that providing contract, employment or funds to these organizations would be considered “material support.” On Thursday (Jan. 29), the court denied Loomer’s request to cease payments based on DeSantis’ executive order. Judge Bruce E. Reinhart of the Southern District of Florida, who affirmed previous court rulings on Thursday, said Loomer didn’t prove the order would be enforced nor that she would suffer “irreparable injury” if she resumed her payments. “Plaintiff is required to make approximately three more settlement payments,” wrote Reinhart.”It is not in the public interest to continue expending judicial resources on this case.” CAIR hailed the ruling, saying in a statement that the group used the settlement money for its legal actions. “We look forward to receiving Ms. Loomer’s final payments and using the funds to once again protect American Muslims and our neighbors from hate,” wrote CAIR litigation director Lena Masri.

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Tulsi Gabbard running solo 2020 election inquiry separate from FBI investigation

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week. Her presence at the raid drew criticism from Democrats and former intelligence officials, who questioned why the country’s top intelligence officer with no domestic law enforcement powers would appear at the scene of an FBI raid. But Gabbard, whose role ordinarily focuses on overseeing the intelligence agencies, has played only a minimal role in the criminal investigation, according to three administration officials. “She’s doing her own thing,” one of the officials said.

The parallel investigations into the 2020 election underscore the extent to which it has returned as a priority for the president. And Gabbard being sent to the raid showed the interest on voting machine manipulation claims that Trump has cited as evidence the election was stolen. The review led by the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), authorized on the basis that it is assessing election integrity, has been focused for months on potential vulnerabilities in voting machines and the possibility of foreign interference. As part of that effort, Gabbard has been briefing Trump and senior White House advisers every few weeks. Officials said Trump directed her to travel to Fulton county, Georgia, so she could observe the FBI executing a search warrant on Wednesday. The raid itself was overseen by Andrew Bailey, the deputy FBI director, who was also sent by Trump to Georgia. A copy of the search warrant cited possible violations of federal laws governing the preservation of election records and the procurement of false ballots or voter registrations.

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As school cellphone bans gain in popularity, lawmakers say it’s time to go bell-to-bell

The momentum behind cellphone bans in schools has reached more than half the states, as teachers, superintendents and education experts praise these policies as a way to boost student achievement and mental health, and to rebuild a sense of community that many believe has been diminished by students’ addiction to screens. Now, the question for many states and school districts isn’t whether to remove distracting devices from students each day, but for how long. States that have passed laws requiring some kind of cellphone policy now are considering going further and mandating daylong bans, even for high schoolers. The idea has gotten some pushback from students, but also from teachers and parents who say strict bell-to-bell bans aren’t necessary. Some say they worry about safety in the event of a school shooting or other emergency.

Education experts say the modern push for school phone bans accelerated after the pandemic reshaped how students use technology and interrupted crucial in-person experiences in a classroom. Kara Stern, director of education and engagement for SchoolStatus, a data-collecting firm that assists K-12 districts with attendance and other school issues, said smartphones shifted from being tools of connection during remote learning to sources of isolation once students returned to classrooms. “During remote learning, phones became a primary way kids entertained themselves and stayed connected,” Stern said. “But once schools reopened, phones stopped being a connection tool and started creating disconnection.” Currently, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted some form of statewide restriction or requirement for districts to limit student phone use. Of those, roughly 18 states and the district have full-day bans or comprehensive statewide restrictions (including during classroom and noninstructional time).

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Trump’s chaotic governing style is hurting the value of the U.S. dollar

Fallout from the recent Greenland crisis clipped the U.S. dollar, aggravating a year-long decline that has shaved more than 10 percent off the greenback’s value since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. The dollar is under pressure on multiple fronts. After a long period of U.S. financial market outperformance, many foreign investors are rebalancing their portfolios to reduce excessive exposure to the United States and to capitalize on improving prospects elsewhere.Washington’s failure to address its mounting public debt, including crisis-level annual budget deficits at a time of low unemployment, isn’t helping. But perhaps the key to the dollar’s drop is the ripple effect of the president’s erratic policymaking, including abrupt stops and starts with tariffs and military action against a lengthening list of countries. After more than a year of nonstop upheaval emanating from the White House, many foreign investment managers are exhausted.

“There is a visceral dislike of this kind of policy chaos,” said economist Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “I think the dollar will fall around 10 percent [more] this year.” One sign of the dollar’s ebbing appeal has been a staggering surge in gold prices, up almost 80 percent over the past year. On Friday, the dollar rallied — and gold sank — on news that Trump had nominated Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, to be the next chairman of the nation’s central bank. But the broader trend of dollar weakness remains in place, several economists and money managers said. The president has pushed repeatedly for the Fed to cut its benchmark 3.75 percent interest rate to levels far below what mainstream economists say is appropriate, which would be likely to further erode the dollar’s standing. “We should have the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world. They should be two points and even three points lower,” the president said on Thursday during a Cabinet meeting. The Fed’s policymaking committee left rates unchanged last week. But financial markets expect cuts to resume in June.

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Trump says steel to be 'fully exposed' in Kennedy Center rebuild but 'not ripping it down'

President Donald Trump on Monday elaborated on his plan to close the Kennedy Center and rebuild it, saying that the steel would be "fully exposed"in the process but insisted that, "I'm not ripping it down." When asked by a reporter at an Oval Office photo op whether he wanted to tear it down, Trump said that he will be “using the steel” and “some of the marble” for the renovation. "I'm not ripping it down. I'll be using the steel. So, we're using the structure. We're using some of the marble and some of the marble comes down, but when it's opened, it'll be brand new and really beautiful. It'll be at the highest level,” he said. "The steel will all be checked out because it'll be fully exposed," he said.

He estimated the cost of the renovation at “probably around $200 million.” "And, you know, we're fully financed. And so, we're going to close it, and we're going to make it unbelievable, far better than it ever was, and we'll be able to do it properly. I was thinking maybe there's a way of doing it simultaneously, but there really isn't," he said. Trump said that center would close around July 4, instead of trying to do the renovation around events. "We can do a much better job, probably, in a way, a faster job in terms, you know, because when you do it piecemeal, for instance, they have a play tonight and you can't do anything. You have to pull out everything, and you can't have stanchions all over the place, and people are walking in to see a play. So, we'll be closing it, sometime around July 4th. It's like we'll close it on July 4th in order to do something great for America, and then we're going to build it," he said.

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Lead Stories

Texas Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign roiled as he denies referring to ex-rival as ‘mediocre Black man’

With now just a month to go until Election Day, the Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas has become so fraught that a TikToker’s accusations have roiled the race and prompted a major endorsement in the backlash. The incident started Sunday night when Morgan Thompson posted a video recounting what she says was a comment Texas state Rep. James Talarico made to her in a private conversation in January: that he called his onetime opponent, former US Rep. Colin Allred, a “mediocre Black man.” Talarico’s campaign released a statement from the candidate on Monday calling Thompson’s claims “a mischaracterization of a private conversation,” going on to explain, “I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre — but his life and service are not.”

Thompson acknowledged that she didn’t have a recording and that they had previously agreed to treat their conversation as off the record. But the accusation slammed Talarico’s campaign on Monday, sending aides into a flurry and prompting Allred — who dropped out of the Senate race when Rep. Jasmine Crockett decided to make a last-minute entry — to endorse her in the intense race, despite frustrations he had in December that she had chased him out of the race by getting in. It also renewed the questions about identity politics and electability that have riven the primary and the Democratic Party more broadly. Thompson alleges that Talarico, who is White, said: “I signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable, intelligent Black woman.” Talarico, in his statement denying the exact wording as Thompson relayed it, said, “I understand how my critique of the Congressman’s campaign could be interpreted given this country’s painful legacy of racism, and I care deeply about the impact my words have on others.”

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Trump, in an escalation, calls for Republicans to ‘nationalize’ elections

President Trump called in a new interview for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters. During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, his former deputy F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them. “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state law, leading to a decentralized process in which voting is administered by county and municipal officials in thousands of precincts across the country. Mr. Trump, however, has long been fixated on the false claims that U.S. elections are rife with fraud and that Democrats are perpetrating a vast conspiracy to have undocumented immigrants vote and lift the party’s turnout. Mr. Trump’s remarkable call for a political party to seize the mechanisms of voting follows a string of moves from his administration to try to exert more control over American elections,as he and his allies continue to make false claims about his 2020 defeat. Last week, F.B.I. agents seized ballots and other voting records from the 2020 election from an election center in Fulton County, Ga., where his allies have for years pursued false claims of election fraud. The New York Times reported on Monday that Mr. Trump had spoken on the phone to the F.B.I. agents involved in the Fulton County raid, praising and thanking them. The Justice Department, which has been newly politicized under Mr. Trump, is demanding that numerous states, including Minnesota, turn over their full voter rolls as the Trump administration tries to build a national voter file.

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Shutdown ends today, but it's far from over

The partial government shutdown, all of three days old, is likely to end at some point this afternoon. It was a mostly fruitless exercise, and it sets Congress up for another, more politically charged funding cliff at the end of next week. Later today, theHousewill take up and vote on legislation to fund critical departments such as the Pentagon, State, Health and Human Services, Transportation and others until Sept. 30. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security will be extended until Feb. 13 while the White House and Democrats try to work out a deal — if possible — on new restrictions for ICE and CBP. There’s a real chance that Congress won’t be able to notch a deal, leaving DHS funding in a precarious position for the rest of the year.

In what’s become an-all-too-familiar pattern this Congress, President Donald Trump convincedReps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) to drop their blockade of the funding measure. The pair — close political allies — were threatening to vote against the rule unless Speaker Mike Johnson attached a voter ID bill (the SAVE Act) to the funding package. Trump made clear that wasn’t going anywhere. Anything can happen in the House these days, but clearing Luna’s objection should allow the chamber to adopt a rule and pass the funding package using a simple majority threshold. If and when the House adopts the rule, we expect the five underlying FY2026 funding bills to pass handily with dozens of Democratic votes. But what you should really be focusing on is the mess that this entire process sets up next week, which we recently laid out. In 10 days from now — right up against the Presidents Day recess — DHS funding will run out once again. That’s fine with lots of Democrats, who point out the department got tens of billions of dollars under the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill last year. They think it can keep going for a while if needed, maybe the rest of FY2026.

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U.S. manufacturing is in retreat and Trump’s tariffs aren’t helping

The manufacturing boom President Trump promised would usher in a golden age for America is going in reverse. After years of economic interventions by the Trump and Biden administrations, fewer Americans work in manufacturing than any point since the pandemic ended. Manufacturers shed workers in each of the eight months after Trump unveiled “Liberation Day” tariffs, according to federal figures, extending a contraction that has seen more than 200,000 roles disappear since 2023. An index of factory activity tracked by the Institute for Supply Management shrunk in 26 straight months through December, but showed a January uptick in new orders and production that surprised analysts. The Census Bureau estimates that manufacturing construction spending, which surged with Biden-era funding for chips and renewable energy, fell in each of Trump’s first nine months in office.

The gradual slowdown is in some ways a continuation of decadeslong trends that pulled factory jobs overseas and helped empty out Midwestern cities. In an industry where capital plans and construction timelines extend years into the future, turnarounds also don’t happen overnight. In November, the Federal Reserve slashed estimates for overall U.S. output since the pandemic in an annual revision to metrics for industrial production. “We never got all the way back” from the pandemic, said Josh Lehner, a U.S. economist at SGH Macro Advisors. While auto and chip makers have cut tens of thousands of workers over the past year, stable layoff rates across the sector suggest that the jobs pullback is gradual. Lehner and other economists also say there are signs output has stabilized, if not inched higher, though gains in efficiency could limit the number of new jobs. A White House spokesman noted that manufacturing productivity ticked upward in recent quarters and that workers’ wage hikes outpaced inflation over the past year.

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State Stories

ICE halts "all movement" at Texas detention facility due to measles infections

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement halted "all movement" at a detention center in Texas for families and quarantined some migrants there after medical staff confirmed two detainees had "active measles infections," the Department of Homeland Security said Sunday. The measles cases at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center were detected Friday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News. The ICE facility houses parents and children taken into federal custody over alleged violations of immigration law. It is located in south Texas, roughly an hour drive from San Antonio. "ICE Health Services Corps immediately took steps to quarantine and control further spread and infection, ceasing all movement within the facility and quarantining all individuals suspected of making contact with the infected," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said medical officials were monitoring detainees and taking "appropriate and active steps to prevent further infection." "All detainees are being provided with proper medical care," she added. Before McLaughlin's statement on Sunday, immigration lawyers had reported concerns about a potential measles outbreak at the Dilley center. Neha Desai, a lawyer for the California-based National Center of Youth Law, which represents children in U.S. immigration custody, said she hopes the measles infections at Dilley are not used to "unnecessarily" prevent lawmakers and attorneys from inspecting the detention center in the near future, citing broader concerns about the facility. "In the meantime, we are deeply concerned for the physical and the mental health of every family detained at Dilley," Desai said. "It is important to remember that no family needs to be detained — this is a choice that the administration is making." In 2025, the United States saw the most measles cases in decades. Overall, the nation recorded more than 2,200 measles cases, including 762 people in a West Texas outbreak, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Two young children died and 99 people were hospitalized, according to state data.

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Text messages show Steve Bannon bragged to Jeffrey Epstein about secretly building private border wall near El Paso

Right-wing nationalist leader Steve Bannon boasted to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein about starting a private border wall outside El Paso in 2019 in a way that avoided possible court intervention. In a May 25, 2019, text message exchange with Epstein as the wall was in its second day of construction, Bannon also said he wanted to stay in the background on the effort. Bannon would later face federal criminal charges over the private border wall effort, but was saved from prosecution by a pardon from President Donald Trump in the last hours of Trump’s first term. “I also can’t seem like I’m running trumps nose in his own incompetence,” Bannon said in an exchange replete with typos. Bannon served as Trump’s chief strategist for seven months during the president’s first term in 2017, and is now an influential figure in the conservative nationalism movement.

Bannon has not responded to a request for comment from El Paso Matters. The text message exchange was among the 3.5 million pages of documents released by the Justice Department on Friday in response to a law passed by Congress last year. Identifications other than Epstein’s are redacted in the released documents, but Bannon’s ties to the disgraced financier have been well documented. Details in the exchange match Bannon’s involvement in the private border wall effort that have been detailed in court records. The exchange includes a discussion of the sudden construction of a privately funded border wall in Sunland Park, New Mexico, just outside the El Paso city limits over Memorial Day weekend in 2019. The private wall was built as Trump struggled to expand government barriers in the El Paso region in his first term. “My wall dude — New Mexico – right outside El Paso — in total secret — we go on fox and friends on Monday to release,” Bannon said in the message to Epstein on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in 2019.

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Local leaders push back against potential ICE detention center in San Antonio

Local leaders are raising alarms over a massive East Side warehouse that could eventually become a massive immigration detention center. The nearly 640,000-square-foot industrial facility, the largest of its kind in San Antonio according to property listings, is reportedly being eyed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a potential detention center. While the City of San Antonio says it has not received any official notice confirming the plans, city and state officials say they are closely monitoring the situation, and some are pushing back. State Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, a Democrat whose district includes the East Side, says the scale of the facility alone raises serious concerns. “We’re talking about creating probably one of the largest detention centers in America, and it is wrong,” Gervin-Hawkins said.

A report from The Washington Post indicates ICE plans to renovate several industrial warehouses nationwide to expand detention capacity. Cities in Arizona and Missouri are in similar places right now after the federal government purchased large warehouses. Gervin-Hawkins says while immigration reform is needed, this isn't how she'd like to see things handled. “Building large detention facilities is not the answer,” she said. City officials say if the federal government purchases the property, San Antonio would lose zoning authority over the site. Federal facilities are not required to comply with city zoning rules or permitting requirements. District 2 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran says she does not support any detention center within city limits and worries about what oversight, if any, the city would have. “Once we get that information, of course, we’re going to ask the questions about what we legally can and can’t do,” Viagran said.

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Hutchins City Council, Dallas County Commissioner Elba Garcia come out against proposed ICE facility in Hutchins

Hutchins Mayor Mario Vasquez says the city has not received any official confirmation, paperwork, or contact from the federal government regarding reports that a large warehouse in the community could be converted into an ICE detention facility. These comments came up during a Monday evening city council meeting, which saw several residents speak out against the proposal. Vasquez repeated a statement published on the city's website last Wednesday regarding the proposal, in the city of Hutchins said it hasn't received any official information confirming the proposed warehouse, and that no one from the federal government has contacted it about the proposal.

"There have been no applications for building permits or certificates of occupancy, nor any inquiries related to infrastructure capabilities," the city's statement said. "When and if we have any verified, factual information that we can share, we will certainly do so, as part of our abiding commitment to public transparency and protecting the interests of our community to the best of our abilities." Vasquez added that immigration enforcement falls under federal authority, not municipal control, but said the city would commit to transparency if verifiable information becomes available. He also made clear where he and other council members stand. “If you think that anybody up here is on board with it, you’re in the wrong building,” Vasquez said. “Nobody up here on this dais is on board with what they’re trying to put here.”

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Fort Bend County Judge KP George’s money laundering trial pushed to March

Fort Bend County Judge KP George's money laundering trial will be pushed back to March 10. The top official was initially set to go to trial this month, but his defense attorneys asked for a delay, saying they have additional evidence to review and a member of the defense team was not available during the originally scheduled trial. George faces two felony counts of money laundering. Prosecutors allege he used campaign funds for a down payment on a house and to pay property taxes. The county judge is also facing one misdemeanor charge of misrepresentation of identity, after allegations surfaced that he worked with former staffer Taral Patel to fake racist social media attacks against his own campaign. His trial in that case is scheduled for early May.

George's defense attorneys filed a motion last week seeking to disqualify Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton and his office from prosecuting the county judge's criminal case. In the motion, the defense attorneys claim that Middleton is facing a criminal investigation related to his prosecution of George. The motion does not say which agency is allegedly investigating Middleton or provide any additional details about the nature of the investigation. Jared Woodfill, one of the attorneys representing George, told Houston Public Media that a law enforcement agency interviewed another one of George's defense attorneys about Middleton. Woodfill declined to provide additional details about the alleged investigation.

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Texas dropped ABA law school accreditation after 4 decades. Can it come up with a better system?

Nelson Locke thinks he might have inspired some of this. The 75-year-old lawyer spent three years asking the Texas Board of Law Examiners to admit him to the state bar without requiring him to take the bar exam. The Marine Corps veteran had 20-plus-year careers in retail and mortgages before he graduated from Purdue Global Law School at 61. The board wouldn't waive his exam requirement because Purdue Global is a fully online law program that wasn't accredited by the American Bar Association — or any state bar at the time. “That’s what started this whole thing,” Locke told KERA News in an interview. “Because I realized that — if I can quote from Star Wars — the force was strong here, OK? I was going to achieve my goal, and it was in every fiber of my body.”

Then in April, the Texas Supreme Court announced they’d reconsider whether the ABA should have the final say over which law school graduates can become licensed lawyers. Two months later — after years of Locke’s applications, lawsuits and petitions to the court — justices signed a certificate admitting Locke to the state bar, finding he met the criteria necessary to become licensed without taking the bar exam. And earlier this month, Texas became the first state to end its reliance on the ABA for law school approval, which could allow graduates of non-ABA-accredited schools to become licensed lawyers in the state. “Why do we even have the ABA? Can we have non-ABA schools, and how easily should we allow them to come in? And could there be other accreditation models?” Locke said. “All of those things, those are all arguments we made.” A spokesperson for the Texas Supreme Court denied Locke’s case was connected to the court’s split from the ABA. The Texas Board of Law Examiners declined to comment.

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Texas launches $13M spay, neuter and vaccination program to help pets statewide

Texas is rolling out a $13 million statewide spay, neuter, and vaccination program aimed at reducing pet overpopulation and protecting public health. The new Texas Spay and Neuter Pilot Program is administered by the Texas Department of State Health Services and is now open for applications from animal shelters, nonprofits, and local governments across the state. The program will provide grant funding to support spay and neuter services for dogs and cats, along with vaccinations to help prevent the spread of diseases like rabies, toxoplasmosis, and leptospirosis. All Texas counties are eligible, with a tiered approach designed to reach both urban and rural underserved communities. “This is a historic investment by Texas lawmakers in both animal welfare and public health,” said Texas Humane Legislation Network Interim Executive Director Jaime Olin.

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Elon Musk merges SpaceX with xAI (and X)

Elon Musk is merging two of the companies that he leads, SpaceX and xAI (which also owns X), into one. According to an announcement from Musk: SpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform. This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!

Current advances in AI are dependent on large terrestrial data centers, which require immense amounts of power and cooling. Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment. In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale. To harness even a millionth of our Sun’s energy would require over a million times more energy than our civilization currently uses! The only logical solution therefore is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space. I mean, space is called “space” for a reason. The merger follows SpaceX’s filing with the FCC last week to get approval to launch a constellation of as many as 1 million data center satellites orbiting Earth. The deal also brings SpaceX and X, which is under intense scrutiny and an investigation in the EU because of the nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes generated by Grok, into one company. The combined company of SpaceX and xAI has a valuation of $1.25 trillion, and SpaceX still plans to IPO later this year, Bloomberg reports. SpaceX earned about $8 billion in profit last year, according to Reuters.

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Fort Worth, national adoption organizations call for exemptions to Trump’s travel ban

Mark Melson, CEO of Fort Worth’s Gladney Center for Adoption, says local and national adoption agencies are in a wait-and-see period after efforts in urging Congress and President Donald Trump to provide travel ban exemptions to adoptees was followed by federal guidance allowing some exemptions. “It rectifies it for the moment,” Melson said. The U.S. Department of State issued the new guidance on Jan. 28, stating that children being adopted by U.S. citizens may qualify for an exemption on a case-by-case basis. The move comes after organizations like the Gladney Center and the National Council for Adoption urged families for several weeks to contact their Congress members to advocate for adoptee children from other counties to not be barred from Trump’s recent orders on travel ban and visa freezes.

In June, the administration placed travel bans or restrictions on several countries with exemptions to adoption visas. Another iteration of the order issued in December — and went into effect on Jan. 1 — no longer included exceptions for adoption visas,” both Republican and Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to the U.S. Department of State. The State Department announced mid-January the government will suspend processing immigrant visas of 75 different countries over public assistance concerns, according to the Associated Press. Before the exemption, restrictions made adopting families at the Gladney Center and agencies across the country “gravely concerned,” Melson said. Melson is also on the National Council for Adoption’s board of directors. The travel restrictions brought delays for children who have already been legally cleared to immigrate to the U.S. through the adoption process, he said.

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Tarrant County maintains in court filing it is not responsible for Anthony Johnson Jr.'s death

Tarrant County maintains it is not responsible for the death of Anthony Johnson Jr., who died in jail custody in 2024, according to a court filing Monday. Filed in the U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals, the county argues among several things that the Johnson family have not proved Tarrant County is responsible for any civil rights violations or that jailers lacked proper training that risked the safety of inmates. “[The Johnsons] have wholly failed to plead a pattern of similar violations, much less a pattern arising out of allegedly similarly deficient training, supervision, or discipline,” the court filing read. "[The Johnsons] did not allege specifically how Tarrant County’s policies were defective or how the county should have further trained its officers.”

The filing is part of a lawsuit from the family of Johnson, a Marine veteran who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to his family. He died after detention officers pepper sprayed him and restrained him face-down on the floor of the jail, according to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office and video of the incident. Partially released video footage shows one jailer knelt on Johnson’s back for 90 seconds, while Johnson said he couldn’t breathe. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Johnson’s death a homicide by asphyxiation. Johnson Jr.’s parents sued Tarrant County and 15 detention officers following his death, but U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor dismissed Tarrant County and seven jailers from the suit last year. O’Connor ruled the Johnsons failed to prove the county’s policies and procedures led to Anthony's death and that those six jailers had any responsibility in his death. Two jailers -- Rafael Moreno and Joel Garcia — have been indicted for murder and are awaiting trial.

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Christian Menefee sworn in to U.S. House ahead of key budget, immigration votes

Christian Menefee, who won a special election Saturday to represent Texas' 18th Congressional District, was sworn into office in Washington Monday evening. The first African American to serve as Harris County Attorney, Menefee is taking over the seat of the late congressman and former Houston mayor Sylvester Turner, who died last March while recovering from treatment for bone cancer. In his speech, Menefee highlighted the legacy of Turner, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barbara Jordan and other prominent Black politicians who have represented the district going back decades. "The commitment you have from me is that I will work as hard as I can to live up to their legacy," he said. "I will treat this job with the seriousness it deserves. I will work full days and I will fight as hard as I can to advocate for and protect the people of the 18th Congressional District."

He was sworn-in on the same Bible his mother gave him as a child, according to his campaign. Ahead of the ceremony, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walked down the aisle to hug Menefee and shake his hand, as other Texas Democrats mingled around him. Menefee's swearing in gives Democrats a much needed vote in the U.S. House, where Republicans' majority will now be whittled down to just four seats. And with a critical vote coming this week to end a partial government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson can now afford just one Republican defection if he is to pass the spending bill. "I told everybody, and not in jest, I said, 'no adventure sports, no risk-taking, take your vitamins. Stay healthy and be here'," Johnson said last month, according to media reports.

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See how Annise Parker, Marty Lancton did in fundraising for Harris County judge

Two front-runners have garnered nearly $1 million from Harris County residents, organizations and political donors in the race to build war chests ahead of the November Harris County judge election. Campaign finance reports for elected officials and candidates due Jan. 15 reports detailed contributions and expenditures made across a six-month period from July to December. Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker took the top spot on the Democratic ticket, raising more than $416,000, according to her report. Firefighter-turned-union-leader Patrick "Marty" Lancton led the Republican ballot with more than $500,000 in contributions.

Combined, Parker and Lancton accounted for 76.5% of all contributions made to Harris County judge candidates during the six-month period. While the pair lead their parties in fundraising, two runners-up — Democrat Letitia Plummer and Republican Orlando Sanchez — also received significant support from political donors. Plummer reported $118,160 in contributions, while Sanchez took in $113,156, according to a copy of his report his team provided to the Houston Chronicle. Sanchez’s report had not been published to the Harris County clerk’s website as of Wednesday evening. George Zoes’ campaign finance report was also not available by Wednesday evening. The remaining four candidates trailed distantly behind their party’s lead fundraisers. Matthew Salazar, a Democrat, reported zero contributions during the period. Republican Piney Point Mayor Aliza Dutt took in $42,500, according to her report. The two remaining Republican candidates — Warren Howell and Oscar Gonzales — each reported just a few thousand in contributions.

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National Stories

Greene: MAGA ‘was all a lie’

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said President Trump’s Make American Great Again slogan was a “lie,” saying his first year back in office was focused on obliging wealthy supporters. “I think people are realizing it was all a lie. It was a big lie for the people. What MAGA is really serving in this administration, who they’re serving, is their big donors,” Greene said in a Wednesday interview with radio personality Kim Iversen. “The big, big donors that donated all the money and continue to donate to the president’s PACs and donate to the 250th anniversary and are donating to the big ballroom,” she added.

The former Georgia representative recently resigned from Congress, after airing concerns over the future of health care premiums and the war in Gaza, citing fractures within the GOP and falling out with Trump and MAGA, despite years of loyal support for the president. On Wednesday, she said the people who truly benefit from backing Trump are financial benefactors, telling Iversen: “Those are the people that get the special favors. They get the government contracts, they get the pardons, or somebody they love or one of their friends gets a pardon.” Since the start of the second Trump administration, the president has encouraged wealthy sponsors to provide private contributions for his political endeavors, including the construction of a White House ballroom and the celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. Greene criticized the favoritism for Trump’s wealthy allies and also slammed the president for focusing on foreign policy rather than problems at home in her interview. “It’s the foreign countries. They are running the show here. It’s the major big corporations and what is best for the world. That’s really what MAGA is. We are seeing war on behalf of Israel, we are seeing the people in Gaza, innocent people in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of them completely murdered so that they can build some new real estate development. Money can pour in and everybody can get rich there in the new Gaza,” she told Iversen. “And we’re seeing a whole plan play out, which is really a new world order. It’s a new way of doing business. And that’s the — it’s kind of like the ‘Scooby-Doo’ meme where … they pull the mask off the bad guy,” Greene continued. The former lawmaker alleged that the MAGA movement “isn’t really about America or the American people.”

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Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify as part of the House’s Epstein probe

Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed on Monday to comply with a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee and testify as part of the panel’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Lawyers for the Clintons emailed the committee’s chair, Rep. James Comer, Monday evening to say that the couple would sit for interviews. If the testimony does happen, it will be one of only a few times a former president has been called before Congress. The Clintons have spent months fighting the panel’s subpoena. Oversight Committee Republicans, along with the support of a handful of Democrats, voted on Jan. 21 to hold both Clintons in contempt of Congress for failing to appear before the committee, prompting a last-ditch effort to negotiate terms.

In a letter on Saturday to Comer, which was obtained by The New York Times, Bill Clinton’s lawyer asked that the former president only appear for a four-hour transcribed interview. In the case of Hillary Clinton, lawyers argued that because she never met or spoke with Epstein, she should be allowed to submit a sworn declaration in place of testimony. Comer rejected the offer in a response to the attorneys, calling it “unreasonable” and claiming that the requests amounted to special privileges. “The Clintons’ counsel has said they agree to terms, but those terms lack clarity yet again and they have provided no dates for their depositions,” Comer said in a statement to NOTUS. “The only reason they have said they agree to terms is because the House has moved forward with contempt. I will clarify the terms they are agreeing to and then discuss next steps with my committee members.” A former president has never testified before Congress for a criminal case of this magnitude.

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‘Crisis’: The fallout from Trump’s surprise plan to close Kennedy Center

President Donald Trump’s surprise Sunday announcement that he planned to close the Kennedy Center for two years sent shock waves through the center, Washington and the broader arts world. “I’m not ripping it down. I’ll be using the steel,” Trump told reporters Monday, when asked whether he would demolish the building. “So we’re using the structure, we’re using some of the marble and some of the marble comes down, but when it’s open, it’ll be brand new and really beautiful.” He said the project would cost about $200 million. The center’s staff learned of the imminent closure through Trump’s Truth Social post, which proposed “temporarily” closing the “Trump Kennedy Center” for “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding” starting July 4. Trump added the move is subject to approval by the center’s board, which he chairs.

He posted at 6:21 p.m. Eastern. Staff received no official communication until more than an hour later, when President Richard Grenell sent a copy of the Truth Social post to all employees, along with this brief note: “We recognize this creates many questions as we plan to temporarily close most of our operations. We will have more information about staffing and operational changes in the coming days.” Five people familiar with the board of trustees’ activities, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said at least some board members were blindsided by Trump’s announcement. One of the people was not aware of any upcoming meetings to consider the plan. If a vote does take place, it could follow the example of the unanimous vote to add Trump’s name to the center, which came months after changes to the Kennedy Center’s bylaws ensured only presidentially appointed board members could vote. (The center said that change followed long-standing practice.) Within hours, speculation and fear had spread as the center’s staffers, performing artists and patrons began preparing for an uncertain future. The Kennedy Center had already booked a slate of performances after July 4, including shows of touring productions “The Outsiders,” “Back to the Future: The Musical” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.” Listings remained onlineMonday afternoon. The National Symphony Orchestra, meanwhile, has performed a full season of subscription concerts at the venue since 1971.

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Groundhog Day highlights: Punxsutawney Phil predicts 6 more weeks of winter

Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of wintry weather Monday, a forecast sure to disappoint many after what’s already been a long, cold season across large parts of the United States. His annual prediction and announcement that he had seen his shadow was translated by his handlers in the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club at Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania. The news was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos from the tens of thousands who braved temperatures in the single-digits Fahrenheit to await the annual prognostication. The extreme cold kept the crowd bundled up and helped keep people on the main stage dancing.

Last year, Phil also predicted six more weeks of winter, by far his most common assessment and not much of a surprise during the first week of February. Phil isn’t the only animal being consulted for long-term weather forecasts Monday. There are formal and informal Groundhog Day events in many places in the U.S., Canada and beyond. Along with the many groundhogs, the winter forecasts were credited to an armadillo, ostriches, and Nigerian dwarf goats. Groundhog Day falls on the midpoint between the shortest, darkest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The tradition is rooted in European agricultural life, but the science behind it is questionable at best. In northeastern Illinois, Woodstock Willie, the marmot inspired by the film “Groundhog Day,” had a prediction of his own. Filmed in Woodstock, 61 miles (98 kilometers) northwest of Chicago, the 1993 film was directed by Harold Ramis and starred Bill Murray and Andie McDowell. “Willie looks skyward to the east and behind to the ground and stated clearly in groundhogese, ‘I definitely do not see a shadow!’” Stephen Tobolowsky, who portrayed annoying insurance salesman Ned Ryerson in the movie, read from a proclamation before a crowd. “Spring is coming!”

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Nancy Mace is not okay

Right up until she lit the fire, some of Representative Nancy Mace’s own staff and advisers didn’t know what she was going to say on the House floor in February 2025, let alone that it would be a pivotal moment in her life. That speech now appears to be a before-and-after moment, separating Mace’s once-promising (if often bizarrely colorful) career from the seemingly irredeemable mess it has become. Flanked by a metal safe and an in-home security camera, with Representatives Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida seated behind her, Mace wore a white dress and three necklaces, one with her Congressional member pin and another with a thick cross. She also had crosses on her earrings, but her engagement ring was nowhere to be seen. Mace proceeded to accuse her ex-fiancé, Patrick Bryant, of secretly filming her, physically assaulting her, and engaging in a conspiracy to drug, rape, and film other women. She declared she was going “scorched earth” on Bryant and three of his associates.

Many of her former staffers are inclined to believe her allegations of abuse against Bryant, even if they never saw anything untoward, but the chaotic and highly public fashion in which she has gone after him makes them question her judgment and overall well-being. “She’s not okay,” said a former staffer. “There’s nothing here I can point to and say, ‘Oh, this is normal.’” “Looking at the floor speech and what went on there, it’s very clear that that was the breaking point to me,” the former staffer added. “Because you’ve now gone from standing up for people — whether rightfully, wrongfully, performative or not — you were on this mission, and now this is about you. The whole frame shifted, and she centered herself in it all. That’s when it became apparent to me that this is broken.” A second former staffer told me they had concluded that “she’s deteriorated, and it sucks.” Mace has continued to shed much of her staff, torched her relationship with President Donald Trump, and torpedoed her bid to become governor of her home state of South Carolina. Her erratic behavior burst into view in October when she had a meltdown while going through security at the Charleston airport during the government shutdown.

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Maryland House OKs new congressional map, but Senate will likely prove a roadblock

The Maryland House approved a new congressional map Monday that could enable Democrats to win the state’s only Republican-held U.S. House seat, but leadership in the state Senate has said since October the bill doesn’t have enough support to advance in that chamber — largely due to concerns it could backfire. The Maryland House pushed forward with unusual mid-decade redistricting at the urging of Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in response to redistricting in other states. Democrats now hold a 7-1 advantage over Republicans in the state’s U.S. House delegation. The new map would make it easier to defeat Republican Rep. Andy Harris and enable Democrats to win all eight seats. President Donald Trump launched mid-decade redistricting efforts last summer, when he urged Republican officials in Texas to redraw maps to help the GOP win more seats in hopes of preserving a narrow House majority.

Maryland Democrats spent much of the four-hour debate on Monday criticizing Trump’s presidency. Del. C.T. Wilson, a Democrat who is the sponsor of the bill containing the map’s new boundaries, said the measure is needed “to help ensure that this administration finally has a Congress that puts his power in check.” Republicans who oppose the new map focused on how Harris’ district, which is mostly on the state’s largely rural Eastern Shore, would jump over the Chesapeake Bay to include more Democratic voters to help oust Harris. “It is about nothing except party politics,” Del. Jason Buckel, a western Maryland Republican who is the House minority leader, said. But Del. Marc Korman, a Democrat in the Montgomery County suburbs of the nation’s capital, argued that the district has extended over the bay several times since the 1960s — including once by court order — and five different Republicans still won the seat when it did, including Harris.

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Chaos in Minneapolis exposes an Internet at war with truth

The deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis at the hands of law enforcement have plunged the country into a political crisis much like the one after the police killing of George Floyd in the same city in 2020. Now, though, advances in technology and an erosion of trust are distorting realities, both online and off, like never before. Enormous changes have transformed the internet in the six years since Mr. Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Artificial intelligence tools did not exist for general use in 2020; now they are everywhere. Social media has become even more toxic. Efforts to moderate it have loosened. The influencers behind some of the most pernicious digital lies, who once toiled in the dark corners of the internet, are now emboldened, promoted on major platforms and even mimicked by some of the most powerful people in the country.

All of these forces came together with newfound intensity in the opening weeks of the year. After federal immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, A.I. fakes of the victims spread, genuine videos were viewed with suspicion, a Democratic lawmaker displayed an altered image on the Senate floor and online sleuths misidentified random people as being the agents involved in the shootings. The federal government spread an altered image and backed provably false narratives. Experts fear that Americans are losing their ability to distinguish between fact and fiction — and that fewer people seem to care about the difference. The online churn that now accompanies any major news event obscures the common reference points that once helped guide the country forward. With technology, impudence and apathy all colliding at once, the shock to American attitudes toward reality — and the public consensus required by the democratic experiment — may be a permanent one, experts said. “In moments past, we thought that this online fever would break, and now it is a systemic feature rather than a bug,” said Graham Brookie, the senior director of the Digital Forensic Research Lab, which studies online communities. “This is just how it is right now — we’re all collectively navigating that for the worse.”

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Paris prosecutors raid X offices as part of investigation into child abuse images and deepfakes

French prosecutors searched the offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a preliminary investigation into a range of alleged offences, including spreading child sexual abuse images and deepfakes. The investigation was opened in January last year by the prosecutors’ cybercrime unit, the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a statement. It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges. Prosecutors also asked Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino to attend “voluntary interviews” on April 20. Employees of X have also been summoned that same week to be heard as witnesses, the statement said. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.

A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment. In a message posted on X, the Paris prosecutors’ office announced the ongoing searches and said it was leaving the platform while calling on followers to join on other social media. Related Stories What you need to know about Grok and the controversies surrounding it Malaysia will take legal action against Musk's X and xAI over misuse of Grok chatbot Musk's AI chatbot faces global backlash over sexualized images of women and children “At this stage, the conduct of the investigation is based on a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that the X platform complies with French law, as it operates on the national territory,” the prosecutors’ statement said. European Union police agency Europol ’’is supporting the French authorities in this,? Europol spokesperson Jan Op Gen Oorth told The Associated Press, without elaborating. The investigation was first opened following reports by a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X were likely to have distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system.

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Lead Stories

Texas AG Ken Paxton, GOP officials call on Republicans to ‘fight’ for Tarrant County

Tarrant County’s 2026 elections are poised to be “the most important of our lifetime,” local and state Republican officials said Sunday night after historically red Texas Senate District 9 flipped blue in a runoff election many saw as unwinnable for a Democrat. The night before, voters elected Democrat Taylor Rehmet, 33, to represent the district that includes most of north and west Tarrant County in the high-profile runoff election that drew national attention. Republicans sought to maintain control of the District 9 seat they’ve held since 1991 while observers noted the race could be an indicator of a “blue wave” in Tarrant. The political upset places a renewed emphasis on the March 3 primary election, which sees a near-record slate of Democratic candidates seeking Tarrant County offices.

“We cannot afford to lose what is the most important county in the entire country,” Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare told the crowd. “And last night, we got our butts kicked.” O’Hare was joined at Mercy Culture Church on Feb. 1 by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton; former state senator Don Huffines, who is currently running for the state comptroller’s office; and other GOP candidates. The county’s top elected official urged attendees to get civically engaged and to elect conservatives, warning that Rehmet’s win would energize voters and financial supporters seeking to elect Democrats in Tarrant County. The event was organized by Mercy Culture’s political nonprofit For Liberty & Justice and was billed as a “night of action.” “This is the time to stand up and fight, and this is the time that God calls us to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, and that wall is Tarrant County,” O’Hare said. Rehmet won with about 57% of the vote, according to unofficial returns from the Tarrant County Elections Office. Paxton urged those gathered to support candidates like O’Hare in the coming elections to hold the line in the county so Republicans maintain control.

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‘Spy Sheikh’ bought secret stake in Trump company

Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars, according to company documents and people familiar with the matter. The buyers would pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities. The deal with World Liberty Financial, which hasn’t previously been reported, was signed by Eric Trump, the president’s son. At least $31 million was also slated to flow to entities affiliated with the family of Steve Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder who weeks earlier had been named U.S. envoy to the Middle East, the documents said. The investment was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal who has been pushing the U.S. for access to tightly guarded artificial intelligence chips, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tahnoon—sometimes referred to as the “spy sheikh”—is brother to the United Arab Emirates’ president, the government’s national security adviser, as well as the leader of the oil-rich country’s largest wealth fund. He oversees a more than $1.3 trillion empire funded by his personal fortune and state money that spans from fish farms to AI to surveillance, making him one of the most powerful single investors in the world. The deal marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president’s company. Under the Biden administration, Tahnoon’s efforts to get AI hardware had been largely stymied over fears that the sensitive technology could be diverted to China. Of particular concern was one of Tahnoon’s own companies, the AI firm G42, which had stoked alarm among intelligence officials and lawmakers over its close ties to the sanctioned tech giant Huawei and other Chinese firms. The company said it severed ties with China in late 2023, but concerns persisted. Trump’s election reopened the door for him. In the months that followed, Tahnoon met multiple times with Trump, Witkoff and other U.S. officials, including in a March visit to the White House where the sheikh told officials he was eager to work with the U.S. on AI and other issues, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Country’s largest air pollution permit issued to power plant for data centers in West Texas, developer says

Texas’ environmental regulator issued the largest air pollution permit in the country to an enormous planned complex of gas power plants and data centers near the oilfields of the Permian Basin, according to an announcement from the project’s developers. Pacifico Energy, a global, investor-owned infrastructure company, called its 7.65 gigawatt GW Ranch in Pecos County “the largest power project in the United States” in a press release this week. It’s among a handful of similarly colossal ventures announced during 2025 that have made Texas the global epicenter of a gas power buildout, according to data released Thursday by Global Energy Monitor (GEM).

“Massive fossil fuel infrastructure is being developed, often directly at the source of gas supply, in order to feed speculative AI demand,” said Jenny Martos, project manager for GEM’s Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker. Developer Fermi America applied for air permits in August for 6 GW of gas power to supply data centers at its planned complex near Amarillo. In November, Chevron announced plans to build its first-ever power plant, which would produce up to 5 GW of power for artificial intelligence in West Texas. These are enormous volumes of energy, enough to power mid-sized cities. During 2025, the pipeline of gas power projects in development in Texas grew by nearly 58 GW of generation capacity, according to the GEM report, more than the peak power demand of the state of California. Only China, with 50 times the population and 15 times the land, has more gas power projects in development than Texas, the GEM report said. Nearly half of all upcoming gas power projects in Texas, totalling 40 GW of capacity, are planned to directly power data centers, the report said. “There is just an explosion of these things,” said Griffin Bird, a research analyst who tracks gas plants for the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project in Washington, D.C. “We’re having such a tough time staying on top of new projects.”

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Oil and gas emissions surged as winter storm blasted Texas

Oil refineries, petrochemical plants and gas compressor stations across Texas exceeded pollution limits in late January as below-freezing temperatures blasted the state. Industrial companies reported at least 77 emissions events to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality from Jan. 22 to Jan. 29 — a period covering before and after Winter Storm Fern. Environmental groups and community advocates say Texas lawmakers and regulators haven’t done enough to prevent emissions events from spiking during winter weather events. Some companies with emissions releases during Fern were also big emitters during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, said Grace Tee Lewis, a senior health scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund.

“We need to have a better system of accountability for bad actors who are consistently having releases that are unpermitted,” Tee Lewis said. Counties like Martin County and Midland County in West Texas and Jefferson County and Harris County in the eastern part of the state were among those with the highest number of events. The tally from Fern and is likely to grow after more cold weather hit Texas last weekend. In the eight days before the storm led to increased industrial disruptions, TCEQ data showed fewer than 30 emissions events were reported. TCEQ allows pipeline operators, refiners and petrochemical facilities to request state enforcement discretion for violations that happen in an area covered by a natural disaster declaration made by the governor. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, issued a disaster declaration on Jan. 22 before expanding the declaration to cover 219 of Texas’ 254 counties on Jan. 25. Companies must submit an initial notification within 24 hours after the discovery of an emissions event that goes above a “reportable quantity,” TCEQ spokesperson Laura Lopez said in a statement. A final report is due two weeks from the event of the event, she said.

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State Stories

Measles reported at Texas ICE detention center where Liam Ramos was held

Two cases of measles have been reported at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, raising concerns about the spread of infectious disease inside the ICE detention facility, which faced heightened scrutiny after a 5-year-old boy from Minnesota and his father were held there. Federal immigration officials informed U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, of the measles cases, according to a statement from the congressman’s office. Castro’s office said the notification came shortly after his staff informed ICE that Castro and nine other members of Congress planned to inspect the Dilley facility this week. The visit was subsequently canceled

“Shortly after giving notice that Congressman Castro and nine other members of Congress would inspect Dilley on February 6th, 2026, the Congressman and our staff were notified that there were two reported cases of measles at the Dilley detention center,” Castro spokesperson Katherine Schneider said in a statement. Castro and staff members who visited the facility earlier this week are vaccinated against measles, Castro's office said. On Sunday night, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency, confirmed the measles cases and said officials acted immediately to prevent further spread of the disease by “ceasing all movement within the facility and quarantining all individuals suspected of making contact with the infected." "All detainees are being provided with proper medical care," DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told CBS News. The report of measles comes a day after the release of Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, and his father, whose detention drew national attention. The two were arrested by immigration agents outside their Minneapolis-area home on Jan. 20, transported to Texas and held at the Dilley facility.

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Many Texas prisons are regularly topping 90 degrees. The state is about to defend itself in court.

Texas prisons without air conditioning get so hot in summer that temperatures there would routinely violate state standards for other types of lockups, like county jails, according to a new comprehensive analysis of four years of heat data. The Texas Newsroom and data fellows in the Media Innovation Group at the University of Texas at Austin spent more than a year analyzing temperature readings taken at dozens of state prisons that lack AC. The analysis showed all but one of these state-run lockups reached 85 degrees — the top temperature allowed inside county jails — at some point in each of the last four years, with most prisons consistently hitting 90 degrees and some topping 100. The reporting also found that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is no longer keeping records of what days certain emergency safeguards are triggered during heat waves.

The agency is being sued over the lack of AC in its prisons and will defend itself in a federal trial next month. The plaintiffs, which include advocacy organizations and incarcerated people, want AC installed in all prisons, arguing the current heat levels amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice rejects the premise that conditions inside Texas prisons are unconstitutional. In court, prison officials have defended their heat mitigation policy and said they need time and additional state funding to install more AC. The spokesperson for the prison agency said the policy was recently updated with an eye toward safety and transparency, and that special teams are being dispatched to ensure it is followed. “All changes made in policy were driven with the intent to improve implementation and accountability — not shy away from it,” Amanda Hernandez told The Texas Newsroom.

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Bud Kennedy: Texas Democrats celebrate a historic upset. But they’ve been here before

To Tarrant County Democrats, it was their breakthrough win after 30 years of losing. The crowd in a Fort Worth bar shouted and cheered every update as their candidate pulled off a stunning midwinter upset in a special election runoff in a ruby-red Republican district. Even hundreds of miles away, the headlines screamed about a “Democratic shocker” in Tarrant County. Local Republicans blamed their own no-show voters. The year was 2007. But state Rep. Dan Barrett of Fort Worth lost the next election in 2008. He never cast a single vote in the Texas House. New state Sen.-elect Taylor Rehmet’s voters might not remember. But Barrett does. “I’ve thought about the parallels and the differences,” the Fort Worth lawyer wrote by email Saturday as Rehmet stacked up victories from the Parker County line east to Hurst and Bedford and north to Denton County en route to a 57%-43% upset of Republican Leigh Wambsganss.

“Given that his opponent has made this race a referendum on the felon in the White House” — with a written endorsement from President Donald Trump, which Trump says he no longer remembers — Rehmet “stands a better chance of holding on than I did,” Barrett wrote. Barrett had to work faster than Rehmet. Under Texas’ old election laws, Barrett had only six weeks to organize for a mid-December 2007 runoff election against Republican Mark Shelton. In the first round, Shelton had topped five other Republicans, including now-U.S. Rep. Craig Goldman. But more than 7,000 of those voters didn’t come back for the runoff, and Barrett pulled off a 52%-48% surprise in the heavily Republican district. To the cheering crowd in a Cityview Centre sports bar, it was the greatest moment in nearly 20 years for a Tarrant County Democratic Party that starved while Republicans swept Texas ballots for years under Gov. and President George W. Bush. But that was the end of the cheers. Barrett was sworn into the Texas House on Dec. 31, 2007. He worked on off-cycle committee hearings, which Barrett called “hands down the best part of the experience.”

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Weil opens new Austin office as firm now has three in Texas

When Weil brought intellectual property trial veteran Jeff Homrig back to the firm in August, there was speculation that the notable summer lateral would be its opportunity to open an Austin office. Six months later to the day, it’s official: Weil has a new office in Central Texas, its third in the state, the firm announced early Monday morning in a news release. The new office will offer commercial litigation and corporate practices, with IP litigation serving as its initial focus, according to the firm.

“We are excited to be continuing our investment in this important market by opening an office in Austin – a key destination for IP, tech driven commercial litigation and corporate transactions,” said Weil Executive Partner Barry Wolf in the release. “We are committed to delivering top-tier expertise and client service to companies across the city’s fast-growing tech and life sciences sectors.” After graduating from law school at the University of California, Berkeley in 2001, Homrig began his career at Weil. He returned to the firm to serve as its Co-Head of IP, Technology & Science Litigation practice over the summer, specializing in high-stakes disputes involving technology and life sciences companies. He spent more than a dozen years with Latham & Watkins, where he was the firm’s vice chair of IP litigation in Austin. Before that, he was a partner at Kasowitz in its Silicon Valley office, which he joined after a decade with Weil in Silicon Valley. “Our new Austin office is a cornerstone of our broader Texas strategy,” said Homrig in the release. “We are making significant investments in growth across the region, and Austin’s technology ecosystem and deep talent pipeline make it a natural home for IP and commercial litigators — and, increasingly, corporate dealmakers. We aim to quickly become the go-to firm for these critical matters in this highly competitive market.”

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South Congress reaches tipping point between local and non-local businesses

South Congress Avenue has become one of Austin’s top tourist attractions, and a storefront on the street basically acts as a billboard for operators. A presence on South Congress comes at a steep cost that many large companies can afford, but it makes it more difficult for locals to make the math work, where rents on the street have risen to about $200 per square foot. For years, local operators have felt the heat from being on cool "SoCo" — forcing many longtime mom-and-pop shops to close — and the scales are beginning to tip in favor of the outsiders. Starting at Ego's near Riverside Drive and ending at C-Boy's Heart and Soul near Leland Street, the number of local businesses on the strip is almost the same as national and international names, according to a calculation by the Austin Business Journal, which found 47 local businesses and 48 non-local businesses on the street.

The calculation includes a few incoming high-end businesses, such as Paige and The Butcher's Daughter, which have not officially opened but are confirmed. The count did not include a few outgoing local restaurants because it’s unclear what will happen next in those spaces. Often, when a local exits South Congress, an outsider backfills the space because larger businesses can afford the high rents. The split between local and non-local retailers does not surprise longtime Austinite Michael Portman, co-founder of Birds Barbershop and member of the South Congress Merchants Association. But Portman still believes in the power of locals and their businesses. "I remember (Hotel) San José before it was (Hotel) San José, and that revolutionized our street. A local revolutionized our street," Portman said of the hotel championed by Austinite Liz Lambert, who is often credited with turning South Congress Avenue from a seedy strip to a place to be. "I think that gets lost in the chatter over time, and parking, and look at this new corporation who opened where something beloved used to be. Yes, that's true. It's also true that locals founded the street... we have to be there for it to have its character. We're not going anywhere." But even Hotel San José is no longer local after its sale to Hyatt Hotels Corp., and with it went the Austin Motel, Hotel Saint Cecilia and Jo's Coffee.

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Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission awards record-breaking $21.2M to local parks

A record-breaking amount of Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission grants is set to beautify local parks throughout the Lone Star State. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is awarding $21.2 million in local park grants, that 50 community parks statewide will benefit from — whether it be adding natural trails, kayak launches, piers or playgrounds. These grants, which are allocated to local government entities, are reimbursed on a 50/50 match basis. The grants are awarded in three categories —- urban outdoor recreational grants for populations exceeding 500,000, non-urban outdoor recreation grants for municipalities under 500,000 and small community recreation grants for towns serving fewer than 20,000 people.

San Antonio and Fort Worth are receiving the larger end of grants, with each city receiving a $1.5 million grant. For the Alamo City, the urban outdoor recreation grant will aid improvements at Pearsall Park — enhancing it with a bike track, lighting, shade structures and construction of a track perimeter. The city of New Braunfels received a non-urban outdoor grant exceeding $700,000 for a neighborhood park on Coll Street. The grant will allow for utilities, a pavilion, an accessible playground, shade, a drinking fountain, picnic tables — all on the backdrop of native trees and landscaping complete with irrigation. With the funding, the parks must remain maintained and open to the public.

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Michael Berlanga is a worthy long shot in GOP primary for Texas comptroller

In the Republican primary for Texas comptroller of public accounts, we recommend Michael Berlanga over a field of established politicians, some of whom eagerly profess their intentions to use this office — which ostensibly is the state’s chief financial officer — to pursue social and culture agendas. Berlanga, of San Antonio, is the only CPA in this race, and his take on the comptroller’s role in steering an agenda for the state funding of public education, as opposed to the onus on districts, is refreshing. He’d like to see more discussion about the role the comptroller plays in a system that “has made scapegoats” out of county chief appraisers who are compelled to “increase the local property tax burden” for the sake of “reducing the state’s burden” in funding education.

While we’re not jumping onboard to eliminate school property taxes, we applaud Berlanga’s efforts to engage in a conversation about the Legislature’s responsibility to adequately fund public education and not continually push more financial strain on school districts as part of a “wealth-discriminatory process.” As for the other candidates: Christi Craddick, who is not yet two years into her current six-year term on the Texas Railroad Commission, demonstrated during her first two terms on that body that she is too cozy with the oil and gas industry to be objective. Don Huffines — a former state senator who was the first Republican in his district to lose to a Democrat in decades — continues to search for relevancy after being soundly defeated by Gov. Greg Abbott in the 2023 GOP primary for governor. He has spoken of seeking to apply the concepts of the disastrous federal Department of Government Efficiency to Texas. Kelly Hancock is the interim comptroller, having vacated his seat in the Texas Senate to fill the void when Glenn Hegar became chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. He misguidedly suspended Texas’ Historically Underutilized Business program and has waged a culture war on Muslims under the guise of terrorism by questioning whether Muslim-based schools can be barred from the state’s school voucher program. By contrast, Berlanga said he’s “appalled … that we can use fear to raise the level of attention over Islamophobia.”

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: Texas attorney general, Republican primary candidate recommendation

The contest to replace Attorney General Ken Paxton is one of the most important in Texas this election cycle. The state’s top lawyer is responsible for representing Texas in litigation, monitoring public bond issues, ensuring child support is paid and more. State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, is the candidate most likely to serve the average Texan’s everyday needs instead of using the office the way Paxton has, as a platform for political gain. She gets our recommendation. Huffman, 69, has experience as a prosecutor and criminal district court judge. She was first elected to the state Senate in 2008. Though we haven’t always agreed with her, Huffman has authored many strong pieces of legislation that have made Texas better during her long tenure. Last year, Huffman was a driving force behind Texas’ bail reform meant to protect Texans by keeping violent criminals behind bars.

She was also behind a successful bill cracking down on computer-generated child pornography, as well as legislation expanding funding for the school security allotment. Huffman praised Paxton for “aggressively representing some of Texas’ most important interests,” but noted she would do things a little differently. “I would focus more on keeping Texans safe,” she said. Huffman said “we need to take a hard look” at some of the basic functions of the attorney general’s office, such as child support collection. She also noted there has been a loss of talent at the office. Aaron Reitz, a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz and former deputy to Paxton, is also in this primary. Reitz, 38, described Paxton, who has endorsed him, as “the greatest attorney general in America” in our candidate questionnaire. Reitz’s leadership would likely be a continuation of the current administration, if not a slip in quality even from what Paxton has offered. Reitz is an unabashed bullhorn for the most divisive rhetoric in today’s political arena.

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Running for her constituents

U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson says she’s still awed when she enters the U.S. Capitol Building. She calls it an “awesome, incredible experience” that is even more humbling when she realizes she is one of just 396 women ever elected to Congress, and she is the first LGBTQ+ person ever elected from, not just Texas, but from all of the South. When she puts the history together with the ability to help people in her district, serving in Congress makes Johnson proud — no matter how much the opposition would like to get rid of her. And getting rid of Julie Johnson is something Texas Republicans have made a priority. When they were ordered by President Trump to redistrict halfway through the 10-year census cycle, Johnson’s district was one they targeted. And while the new gerrymandered districts are still being challenged in the courts, The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the 2026 midterm elections to move forward based on the maps in question.

In order to make it difficult, if not impossible, for Johnson to be reelected, the Texas GOP took what had been a fairly safe Democratic seat contained entirely within Dallas County and packed it with Republicans by stretching the district eastward to include parts of East Texas as far as 100 miles away from Dallas County. “Of course it’s frustrating when you see Republican members of Congress bending the knee to an unhinged president,” Johnson said of the redistricting and the GOP’s control of Congress. While she isn’t worried about herself, she is very concerned about her constituents losing benefits. “It’s frustrating to see healthcare being stripped away from so many people,” Johnson noted, saying that Republicans are “trampling SNAP, reducing CHIP.” Because she wanted to continue fighting to protect healthcare, Johnson decided to run for reelection in the newly-drawn 33rd Congressional District that includes Oak Lawn (stripping voters from Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s district) and Oak Cliff (taking voters from Rep. Marc Veasey’s district).

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Texas lawmakers, advocates demand release of Palestinian woman in ICE custody since March

A Palestinian woman from New Jersey who was arrested after her participation in a 2024 anti-war protest remains in federal custody in Texas 10 months later. Now, advocates and Texas lawmakers are demanding Leqaa Kordia’s release. Kordia was detained last March for allegedly overstaying her visa and transported to the Prairieland Detention Facility near Alvarado. She had previously been arrested in 2024 during a protest at Columbia University against Israel’s war in Gaza and is now the last protester still in detention, despite a judge’s recommendation last year to release her while her case is pending. “Our justice system is flawed,” her cousin, Hamzah Abushaban, said during a news conference outside the Prairieland Detention Center Friday morning. “It’s broken.”

Kordia remains in ICE custody even after an immigration judge last April ordered her release upon payment of a $20,000 bond. In August another immigration judge upheld the ruling, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed an automatic stay, according to Texas Civil Rights Project, which is part of Kordia’s legal team. Texas representatives and senators earlier last week wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding Kordia’s “immediate release,” detailing concerns over “inadequate medical care, unregulated temperatures, inadequate and inedible food, lack of halal meals and overcrowding.” Speaking Friday, state Rep. Salman Bhojani, who represents part of Tarrant County, said he had been approved to visit Kordia, but was denied entry. When he showed security staff his email showing the visitation approval, he was told that all visitations were cancelled, he said, because of concerns over possible protesters outside.

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In the Permian Basin of Texas, oil booms — and so does OnlyFans

What is there to do in remote Texas oil country besides pump oil and watch Friday night football? Scroll through OnlyFans, it turns out. OnlyFans viewers in the sparsely populated counties in the Permian Basin spent more per capita than any others in the state, according to an analysis by adult search engine Onlyguider. “We expected the usual urban hotspots — Dallas, Austin, Houston — to lead this year’s spending charts,” said Sam Pierce, Onlyguider’s chief executive. “But the data told a different story.” Loving County — a county bordering New Mexico with a population of 48 people, according to 2024 estimates — topped the list for per-capita OnlyFans spending with more than $13 million per 10,000 people.

Oil field workers come from across the region, often staying in temporary housing communities close to production sites dubbed “man camps.” Aside from any amenities included in these camps, there can be little else for the out-of-town workers to do without traveling to the more populated towns. Because the county has tens of thousands of oil workers passing through, the population disparity led to sky-high per-capita stats. That trend was visible across much of the Permian Basin, with oil-rich counties topping the list for per-capita spending. Others included Upton, Reeves, Glasscock, Reagan, Martin, Midland, Karnes, Howard and Andrews. “The oil business can be lonely,” said Russell Smith, a career oilman whose company, WFX Oil and Gas, focuses on West Texas. “Dudes are on well sites, kind of doing nothing, or they’re out away from everybody for a long time, family and everything. It’s like being in jail.” For overall spending per county, metropolitan areas led the list. The highest-spending counties, in order, were Harris, Dallas and Bexar, home to Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Harris County, which saw the most OnlyFans spending overall, had a per-capita total of $86,433 — almost $13 million less than Loving County. OnlyFans generated over $7.2 billion in global revenue last year. The spending data tells a story about life in the oil field, Pierce said. “These guys are young, rich, bored, and isolated — that’s a perfect storm for digital vice,” he said. “The modern oil boom isn’t just about money — it’s about what people do with it when they’re stuck in the middle of nowhere.”

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Fertitta Entertainment names Nicki Keenan COO, overseeing Landry's

Fertitta Entertainment has tapped a longtime executive to oversee operations across the Landry's entertainment empire as its founder and owner, Tilman Fertitta, continues to serve as United States ambassadorto Italy and San Marino. Fertitta Entertainment on Friday said it has appointed Nicki Keenan as chief operations officer. In that role, she will oversee the Landry's portfolio of restaurants, casinos, and hotels. Keenan has been with the company for more than 20 years, the company said, serving in a variety of roles, most recently as chief revenue officer and senior vice president of sales

"Nicki is a proven leader with deep institutional knowledge of our brands and a long-standing commitment to operational excellence,” said Patrick Fertitta, director of Fertitta Entertainment, in a statement “As we continue to evolve and innovate across all sectors of our business, her strategic vision, passion for hospitality, and decades of experience make her the natural choice to guide our next phase of growth." Fertitta resigned as CEO of Fertitta Entertainment in March 2025 after being confirmed as ambassador. He also resigned from a number of his civic positions once he was confirmed. A spokesperson for Fertitta Entertainment said in an email that the CEO position will remain vacant while Fertitta serves out his ambassadorship. While Fertitta still owns Fertitta Entertainment and its assets, he retains only a passive interest in most of these businesses during his service. An exception is the Houston Rockets: in a March 2025 letter to State Department ethics officials, Fertitta noted that the agency had determined he can recuse himself if and when the embassy is tasked with any basketball-related business.

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Cornyn wants Mexico’s water debt raised during USMCA review

U.S. Senator John Cornyn is linking Mexico’s water debt to the United States with the current review of USMCA. Cornyn has sent a letter to the United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, urging him to bring up the ongoing 1944 Water Treaty issue during the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) joint review. Texas’ senior senator believes this will put more pressure on Mexico to comply with its annual water deliveries to the United States. "Mexico has repeatedly refused to meet its obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty, even when having a sufficient supply. To make matters worse, Mexican agriculture, particularly in the Chihuahua area, which uses water from the Treaty Tributaries, has seen significant expansion," Cornyn wrote.

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National Stories

Trump backs John Sununu in New Hampshire Senate race

President Trump endorsed former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) in New Hampshire’s Republican Senate primary on Sunday. “John is strongly supported by the most Highly Respected Leaders in New Hampshire, and many Republicans in the U.S. Senate and, as your next Senator, he will work tirelessly to advance our America First Agenda,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, giving Sununu his “complete and total endorsement.” The news is a blow to Sununu’s primary opponent, Scott Brown, who served as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand during Trump’s first administration. A University of New Hampshire poll released last month showed Sununu leading Brown 48 percent support to 25 percent among likely Republican primary voters in 2026.

Brown, who also previously represented Massachusetts in the Senate, jumped into the race in June. The former senator faced criticism from Democrats, who have insinuated he is a carpetbagger insofar as he’s running for Senate in New Hampshire as a former Massachusetts senator. “New Hampshire’s Senate seat is one to watch this cycle,” RNC Spokesperson Kristen Cianci said in a statement to The Hill. “The President’s endorsement underscores what a priority this race is and that Republicans are fully prepared to show up in November.” Whoever wins the primary will likely face Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in the general election, which the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates as “lean Democratic.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) currently holds the seat but is not seeking reelection. Recent polling suggested that Sununu would have a better chance of defeating Pappas in a head-to-head match-up. The same University of New Hampshire survey showed Sununu trailing Pappas by 5 points in a head-to-head match-up, while Brown trails Pappas by 10 points.

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Federal data is disappearing

Joy Binion worked for the federal government collecting data on emerging substance abuse trends in emergency rooms across the country. Her work was part of the Drug Abuse Warning Network, which President Donald Trump’s first administration funded at the recommendation of his commission on the opioid crisis. Six months into Trump’s second term, his administration axed the data collection effort entirely, laying off Binion and her division. “They flat out eliminated DAWN, which was actually surprising to me, because DAWN was kind of the Trump administration’s baby in 2016 as they really looked toward fighting the opioid epidemic,” Binion told NOTUS, adding that healthcare providers no longer have a comprehensive resource to learn about the new drugs that could require emergency medical responses

Since retaking office, the Trump administration has transformed how the government collects data, cut access to previously-public data and stopped collecting some data altogether. This overhaul has left significant holes in data on everything from substance useto maternal mortality. NOTUS spoke to 18 data experts and researchers who rely on federal data who said the breadth of information no longer being collected or distributed by the federal government has been nearly impossible to track.Researchers estimate that well over 3,000 data sets have been removed from public access. The current reality is that the federal government is no longer a reliable source of widespread data collection. “The status quo was, the federal government is going to collect and disseminate data and statistics,” said John Kubale, a University of Michigan professor who helps direct the world’s largest archive of social science research data, including sensitive U.S. federal government data. “That is no longer a reasonable assumption.”

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Kennedy Center to close for two years starting July 4, Trump says

The Kennedy Center is preparing for a two-year shutdown starting July 4, President Donald Trump announced Sunday. The temporary shutdown is to allow for construction on the building, which Trump described as “tired, broken, and dilapidated.” “I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” Trump posted in a lengthy Truth Social post Sunday evening. “In other words, if we don’t close, the quality of Construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruptions with Audiences from the many Events using the Facility, will be much longer.”

“Financing is completed, and fully in place” he added, without offering details. Trump said the Kennedy Center closure will last for at least two years “in honor of the 250th Anniversary of our Country.” The decision comes after weeks of performers pulling out of their shows at the storied venue following Trump’s move to fire most of its board and stock it with allies who voted last year to rename the storied arts institution “The Donald J. Trump And The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” “Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music,” Grammy-award winner Béla Fleck said in his announcement suspending his upcoming performance. “I look forward to playing with the [National Symphony Orchestra] another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art.” In addition to the artist cancellations, The Washington Post reported in late October that the Kennedy Center’s ticket sales had significantly fallen since Trump’s leadership takeover, with nearly half of the fall schedule’s tickets unsold by the time of publishing.

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Evangelicals divided over what faith demands as immigration tensions deepen

For years, leaders of the Evangelical Immigration Table have summed up the Bible’s view of immigration in three words: Welcome the stranger. In Bible studies, sermons, videos and other resources, the coalition of denominational and nonprofit leaders has sought to remind churchgoers to see immigrants as their neighbors and people worthy of love and support. They’ve advocated for reforms that ensure America’s borders are secure, keep immigrant families intact and provide a pathway for undocumented immigrants to gain legal status. Zach Szmara, an Indiana pastor and longtime supporter of EIT, said the Bible, not politics, should shape how evangelicals see the issue of immigration. “Evangelicals may have room for disagreement, but we have to start with the fact that we are called to love and welcome immigrants, not view immigrants as threats or burdens,” Szmara told RNS in a recent interview at a church conference in Chicago.

When Szmara founded Immigrant Connection, a church-based network of legal clinics that assist immigrants, in 2014, some churches wanted to get involved, others said it was a good idea, and there was little resistance, he said. Now, he said, critics treat his work as anathema and ask him if he’s lost his faith. Support for immigration reform has become a flashpoint among evangelicals in recent years. Last fall, the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, known as the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, broke ties with EIT, due in part to pushback in the denomination that the group had become too liberal on immigration. The break was notable because Richard Land, a legendary SBC figure who led the ERLC for decades, had been one of EIT’s founders and had long promoted immigration reform. That split highlights tensions among evangelicals over immigration that have grown during the Trump era of mass deportations — including in Minneapolis, the current epicenter of immigration enforcement.

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Bad Bunny wins album of the year at the 2026 Grammy Awards, a first for a Spanish-language album

Bad Bunny won album of the year at the 2026 Grammy Awards for his critically-acclaimed “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” closing out a surprising and history-making night. It is the first time a Spanish-language album has taken home the top prize. “Puerto Rico, believe me when I tell you that we are much bigger than 100 by 35,” he said in his acceptance speech in Spanish, referring to a Puerto Rican colloquialism about the island’s small size. “And there is nothing we can’t achieve. Thank God, thank you to the Academy, thank you to all the people who have believed in me throughout my career. “To all the people who worked on this album, thank you mami for giving birth to me in Puerto Rico, I love you,” he continued. Then he switched to English: “I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland to follow their dreams.”

Harry Styles presented the award — the English singer previously took home the top prize in 2023 for “Harry’s House.” He beat Bad Bunny that year, who was nominated for “Un Verano Sin Ti” -- the first Spanish-language album to be up in the category. Billie Eilish won song of the year for “Wildflower” and used the moment to add her voice to the chorus of musicians criticizing immigration authorities Sunday. “No one is illegal on stolen land,” she said while accepting the award for the song from her 2024 album “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” "(Expletive) ICE is all I want to say.” Immigration was a central theme of the night. The first time Bad Bunny was on stage — after winning the award for música urbana album — he used his speech to share an anti-ICE message, highlighting the humanity of all people. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said, starting out his speech in English to huge applause. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.” Before that, Olivia Dean was named best new artist. “I never really imagined that I would be up here,” she said, receiving her first Grammy while wiping away tears. “I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant. I wouldn’t be here … I am a product of bravery, and I think that those people deserve to be celebrated.”

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Liam Conejo Ramos is back home in Minneapolis

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, arrived back in the Minneapolis area on Sunday morning after being released from a South Texas immigration detention center under a federal court order. The pair boarded a flight from San Antonio to Minneapolis Sunday morning after U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D) accompanied them from the South Texas Family Residential Center, where they had been held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Castro’s congressional office confirmed. “Liam is now back home. With his hat and backpack,” Castro wrote on social media. “Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We won’t stop until all the children and families are back home,” he wrote.

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Lead Stories

Democrat Taylor Rehmet defeats Leigh Wambsganss in Texas Senate runoff

Democrat Taylor Rehmet on Saturday flipped a solidly red district that President Donald Trump won by 17 points in 2024. The union leader from Fort Worth defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss of Southlake in a special election runoff for the vacant state Senate District 9 seat that stretches across northern and western Tarrant County. Rehmet won 57.2% of the vote to Wambsganss’s 42.8%, according to unofficial results. “Tonight, this win goes to everyday working people,” Rehmet, an aircraft technician at Lockheed Martin, told supporters at Nickel City in Fort Worth. Rehmet fills the seat left by Kelly Hancock, a Republican who is now serving as acting comptroller. Hancock had held the seat since 2012 and won by 20 percentage points in 2022. The term expires in January 2027.

Wambsganss, a conservative activist who works for Patriot Mobile, which describes itself as a Christian, conservative cell phone company, had the backing Trump. The president shared his support for the North Texas Republican multiple times in the lead up to the race, as Texas Republicans warned of a possible Democratic victory. Rehmet and Wambsganss will meet again for the seat in November, when they bid for a full, four-year term. It was 12:15 a.m. when Wambsganss acknowledged the “nearly final” results. She called Saturday’s outcome a “wakeup call” for Republicans in Tarrant County, Texas and nationally. “The Democrats were energized,” Wambsganss said. “Too many Republicans stayed home.” Wambsganss said she’d spoken with Rehmet on the phone and congratulated him on the night’s showings but said the November general election dynamics are fundamentally different. “I believe the voters of Senate District 9 and Tarrant County Republicans will answer the call in November,” she said. Earlier in the night, at 10:30 p.m., Wambsganss took to the stage of her election night watch party to announce the festivities were over, but she did not concede.

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Fresh off a victory, Menefee must now face Al Green in March primary

With Saturday’s runoff decided, Texas’ 18th Congressional District will regain representation in Washington — though only briefly before the next campaign begins. Former Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, 37, defeated former Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards, 44, by a 2-to-1 margin, becoming the 12th person to hold the historically Democratic seat. Menefee’s victory ends a yearlong vacancy in the district, but offers little time to govern. He will be sworn in as he launches another campaign in a newly redrawn district with a crowded primary field.

Menefee said he expects to spend only limited time in Washington in the immediate weeks ahead, balancing congressional duties with the demands of another campaign. “Two days at most,” he said. “The next election is in three weeks. I can’t miss the opportunity to meet constituents and voters, but at the same time I can’t miss votes.” Winning the runoff gains the advantages of incumbency — greater visibility, easier access to donors and the ability to point to work done in Congress. But it also brings constraints. House margins are slim, attendance is closely watched, and time spent in Washington is time not spent campaigning on the ground. As the district prepares for yet another election, the challenge for Menefee will be balancing the immediate demands of governing with the realities of a campaign that never stopped.

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They said they weren’t close to Epstein. New documents show otherwise.

They said they didn’t really know Jeffrey Epstein that well. They were disgusted by him right off the bat. They were just drawn to his intellect or love of science or business acumen. They didn’t know about his abuse of women and girls. They deeply regretted associating with him. In the years since Mr. Epstein’s 2019 arrest and death by suicide in a Manhattan jail, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people have hastened to distance themselves from the disgraced man with whom they once did business, dined in lavish settings or flew on private jets. But a slow drip of document releases and other revelations over the last several months — culminating in Friday’s release of nearly three million pages of Epstein-related records — has underscored the depth, intensity and persistence of his connections to the global elite, contradicting or undermining years of careful denials.

So far, at least, the new documents have not fundamentally altered the public understanding of Mr. Epstein or his crimes. Instead, they are replete with chummy exchanges, warm invitations and financial entanglements. Together, the documents show how Mr. Epstein’s connections with people in Hollywood, Wall Street, Washington and fashion thrived even after he became a convicted sex offender in 2008. In some cases, the documents shed greater light on Epstein associates whose connections to him were already known. Others revealed relationships that had remained hidden for years. Elon Musk, among the world’s richest men, once not only denied visiting Mr. Epstein’s island, but framed his decision as an act of principle. In a social media post last September, Mr. Musk wrote that Mr. Epstein “tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED.” But the documents released on Friday suggested that Mr. Musk was at one point eager to visit. “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Mr. Musk emailed Mr. Epstein in November 2012. Mr. Musk wrote Saturday in a social media post: “I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express,’ but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.” On a podcast last year, Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, described being so revolted by a mid-2000s visit to Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan mansion that he decided to “never be in a room with that disgusting person ever again.”

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Judge ordered 5-year-old released, but data shows ICE is detaining more kids

The 5-year-old boy, in a blue knit bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack, was returning from preschool when immigration officers detained him late last month in Minneapolis. A few days later, officers there took custody of a 2-year-old girl after breaking her family’s car window. Liam Conejo Ramos and Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis, along with their fathers, were flown to a family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, an hour south of San Antonio, where detainees face long lines for basic supplies and inadequate medical care, according to people who have been housed there. They are among an escalating number of children swept up in the Trump administration’s enforcement dragnet, which has drawn mounting public outrage over its aggressive tactics and increasingly indiscriminate ramifications. The U.S. government does not provide direct information about children in immigration custody. But federal data on family detention, and independent analyses of child detentions, suggest immigration authorities are increasingly ensnaring the youngest and most vulnerable lives in President Donald Trump’s effort to deport massive numbers of undocumented immigrants.

“There are other options, regardless of what you believe about immigrants, but you do not have to put children in detention,” said Dianne Garcia, a pastor at a San Antonio church that serves an immigrant population. She said authorities are trying to instill fear in families so they choose to leave the country voluntarily. On Saturday, a federal judge agreed that Liam should not be in federal custody. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered him and his father released and lambasted the Trump administration’s “ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.” The numbers are rising quickly. Over the past four months, the average number of people, including children and adults, held each month in family detention has nearly tripled, from 425 in October to 1,304 in January, according to Department of Homeland Security data. An independent analysis by the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization, concluded that at least 3,800 minors under 18, including 20 infants, weredetained in 2025. And ProPublica found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year sent approximately 600 children arrested inside the country to federal shelters built to house minors detained at the border. That is more than the entire number of children detained in federal shelters during the four years of the Biden administration.

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‘WTF’: Pro-gun groups warn vulnerable GOP seats on the line after Pretti response

Second Amendment advocates are warning that Republicans shouldn’t count on them to show up in November, after President Donald Trump insisted that demonstrator Alex Pretti “should not have been carrying a gun.” The White House labels itself the “most pro-Second Amendment administration in history.” But Trump’s comments about Pretti, who was legally carrying a licensed firearm when he was killed by federal agents last week, have some gun rights advocates threatening to sit out the midterms. “I’ve spent 72 hours on the phone trying to unfuck this thing. Trump has got to correct his statements now,” said one Second Amendment advocate, granted anonymity to speak about private conservations. The person said Second Amendment advocates are “furious.” “And they will not come out and vote. He can’t correct it three months before the election.”

The response to Pretti’s killing isn’t the first time Second Amendment advocates have felt abandoned by Trump. The powerful lobbying and advocacy groups, that for decades reliably struck fear into the hearts of Republicans, have clashed multiple times with Trump during his first year back in power. And their ire comes at a delicate moment for the GOP. While Democrats are unlikely to pick up support from gun-rights groups, the repeated criticisms from organizations such as the National Association for Gun Rights suggest that the Trump administration may be alienating a core constituency it needs to turn out as it seeks to retain its slim majority in the House and Senate. It doesn’t take much to swing an election, said Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights. “All you have to do is lose four, five, six percent of their base who left it blank, who didn’t write a check, who didn’t walk districts, you lose,” he said. “Especially marginal districts — and the House is not a good situation right now.” And it wasn’t only the president who angered gun-rights advocates. Others in the administration made similar remarks about Pretti, denouncing the idea of carrying a gun into a charged environment such as a protest. FBI Director Kash Patel said “you cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want,” and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said she didn’t “know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.”

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State Stories

Bud Kennedy: Democrat’s surprise win in MAGA stronghold: What it means for Texas Democrats

A Lockheed Martin union leader’s Democratic Texas Senate victory Saturday in a MAGA-mad North Texas Republican district means nothing. And it means everything. Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet probably won’t ever cast a vote in Austin. The Senate doesn’t meet again until Jan. 12, 2027, after Rehmet and Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss have a more intense November rematch, this time with a U.S. Senate race and Gov. Greg Abbott bringing in GOP votes and money. But no matter the election outcome Saturday, Texas Democrats won. They shocked the entire national Republican Party and forced state Republicans to rally feverishly in the final days — with pleas by President Donald Trump and odious video host Steve Bannon — over a Texas Senate district where Trump won by 17 points in 2024.

Mind you, this is in a part of Tarrant County where no Democrat has won a state Senate seat since 1978. If Republicans can blow a safe district this badly, then Democrats can win almost anywhere in Texas. But Republicans’ problems in the Fort Worth and north Tarrant County Senate seat did not begin and end with the daily White House cliffhanger. Wambsganss, a faith-and-values religious activist, has her own problems that continue to make her a risky Republican nominee. She has a showcase profile, but also a history of dividing Republican voters and picking unnecessary intraparty fights. A different Republican, Fort Worth pastor and state Rep. Nate Schatzline, originally announced he would run for the seat. When he was pushed aside — supposedly by Senate kingmaker Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — the party traded a candidate with unified Republican support in north Fort Worth for a candidate who had already alienated north Fort Worth voters.

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ICE plans ‘mega’ migrant detention center near Dallas

The warehouse has stood vacant for months, a hulking shell of concrete, its doors closed and parking lot empty. Now, it’s on track to become the nation’s largest migrant detention center. Tucked just east of Interstate 45 in Hutchins, population about 8,000, the building could house as many as 9,500 people as part of President Donald Trump’s push to dramatically increase deportations of undocumented migrants. Hutchins Mayor Mario Vasquez said the city had little warning about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to use the warehouse as a holding center before deportation. Vasquez said he’s firmly opposed. “No benefit to it whatsoever,” he said. ICE officials say converting large warehouses into detention centers near major hubs will allow the agency to handle rising arrests more efficiently and avoid shuttling detainees around the country in search of space.

The competing views in Hutchins, less than 10 miles south of downtown Dallas, reflects rising tension across Texas as ICE moves forward with a major four-part expansion. An internal agency document reviewed by The Dallas Morning News identifies, for the first time, the address of the Hutchins warehouse and names three other new centers statewide that together would add at least 20,000 beds. The four facilities would significantly increase ICE’s detention footprint in a state where Republican leaders largely have backed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Establishing more detention facilities will expedite” the federal government’s “work to remove criminal illegals and make our communities safer,” said U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Terrell. “We wouldn’t need to expand detention space if Joe Biden and Democrats didn’t leave our border open for four years.” Critics say the scale of the plan could strain local infrastructure, spread fear among immigrant families and raise health and safety concerns about conditions inside large detention centers. “We should not be housing human beings in a warehouse meant for packages,” said the Rev. Eric Folkerth, a senior pastor at Kessler Park United Methodist Church. He and other members of the Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response rallied last week at the church, warning the massive facility would dehumanize migrants and strain local resources.

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Collin County Democrat-backed candidates win special elections in Frisco and Plano

Residents in Plano and Frisco have elected two new city council members in a special election. Shun Thomas was elected to Plano City Council Place 7 with about 60.4% of the vote as of Saturday evening according to unofficial election results. Julie Holmer gave up the seat to run in the Collin County commissioner precinct 4 race as a Democrat. Thomas, an educational specialist at Children's Health Plano, defeated Colleen Aguilar-Epstein. Plano is one of several North Texas cities that has an election scheduled in May on the potential withdrawal from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit System. Plano leaders have long said the city pays too much into DART for the services it receives and has been leading the charge to cut DART's funding since a 2024 report that said the city contributed $109 million to the agency, while only $44 million was spent within the city. Thomas told KERA in a previous interview the city could’ve collaborated more effectively with DART to find a better solution. “There's so many things that we would need to fix with our relationship with DART and how we collaborate with DART,” she said.

Thomas said she’ll support whatever the voters choose but would prefer to continue working with DART to improve services. In Frisco, Ann Anderson appears to have defeated Mark Piland in the Frisco City Council Place 1 race with about 51% of the vote as of Saturday evening according to unofficial election results. John Keating stepped down from the seat to run for mayor. Piland, who retired as Frisco’s fire chief in 2023, ran for the Place 1 seat in 2024 and lost to Keating. He also ran for mayor in 2023. The Dallas Morning News obtained public records in 2023 that found Piland was investigated for misconduct. The story alleges that Piland had staff alter a mayday report to make the department look better, according to an external investigation. Piland had ordered the report after a firefighter was injured in an apartment fire. Ann Anderson, a member of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce executive board, is the chair of Frisco’s Art and Culture Advisory Board. The next elections in Collin County are the Democratic and Republican primaries. Early voting is scheduled to start February 17.

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Williamson County GOP bans candidate from party events after abruptly confronting opponent

A candidate running for Congress who abruptly confronted one of her political opponents at a Williamson County GOP gala has been banned from future events by the county party. Valentina Gomez is running against incumbent U.S. Representative John Carter in the upcoming Republican primary for Texas’ 31st Congressional District. That district represents various counties north of Austin, such as parts of Williamson, Burnet, and Bell counties. Video Gomez shared on social media shows her walking up to Carter and pressing him with questions during the Golden Age Gala in the ballroom at Kalahari Resorts in Round Rock on Jan. 24. Gomez was also joined by her brother during this incident. “Why are you letting Texas become like Minnesota?” Gomez asked at one point in the video. “Where were you when our soldiers were getting kicked out of the military for refusing the COVID vaccine?”

Carter’s security team stepped in shortly after and removed Carter from the situation. KXAN reached out to Carter’s office on this incident, and they declined to comment. The Williamson County GOP put a statement on the incident and said the video “fails to show the entire interaction, which included a physical altercation instigated by [Gomez].” The videos posted by Gomez are snippets of the entire interaction. KXAN asked Gomez’s team to provide the entire raw video they captured of the incident for more clarity on the situation, and they said the videos posted on social media are “all we have.” Troy Evanovich was about to speak with Carter when Gomez approached. Evanovich said the behavior he saw from Gomez was not appropriate, and the mood of the ballroom drastically shifted following the incident. “What she said or the way things occurred is not how she portrayed it on her Instagram—it was quite the opposite,” Evanovich said. “She threw her purse down and got involved with the bodyguard getting in with her brother physically assaulting [Carter’s] bodyguard—or security detail—as well.”

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Texas governor calls for investigation into student-led protests against ICE

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Friday he is directing the Texas Education Commissioner to investigate student-led protests against recent immigration enforcement actions. The student walkouts happening across the state come less than a week after federal agents were seen on video fatally shooting Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Students at multiple Central Texas schools, including several Austin Independent School District campuses, organized walkouts during school hours on Thursday and Friday. Videos of the demonstrations at Rouse High School in Leander and Austin ISD’s McCallum, Crockett, Akins and LASA campuses have been circulating online.

A group of Rouse High School students and parents hold a rally against ICE operations on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (KXAN ...A group of Rouse High School students and parents hold a rally against ICE operations on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (KXAN Photo/Frank Martinez) In response to one X post, saying, “Austin ISD let kids out of school, with a police escort to, protest ICE at the Capitol” – Abbott responded, “AISD gets taxpayer dollars to teach the subjects required by the state, not to help students skip school to protest.” AISD shared in letters to parents and on social media that the walkouts were not sponsored or endorsed by the school. In the message, the district said it would not stop students from participating and had officers present to assist with security. The district also said any students who missed class or were late would be counted as absent or tardy. “Our students are exercising their right under the First Amendment, and their parents have been notified. No absence will be excused,” the district wrote on X. The 1969 landmark Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District took on the question of whether schools could prohibit students from protesting during school hours. The case looked at a group of students who were suspended when they wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The 1969 decision upheld 7-2 that students retain their First Amendment rights in public schools and found that schools could not censor student speech unless it “materially disrupts” the educational process. “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gates,” Justice Abraham Fortas wrote in the court’s majority opinion. Justice Hugo Black wrote in his dissent, “taxpayers send children to school on the premise that, at their age, they need to learn, not teach.”

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Tarrant County voters at SD 9 polls voice frustration with political extremism

Voters at three of Tarrant County’s busiest election sites were drawn to the polls for the same reason: They’re sick of the extremism. People across the county were casting their ballots on Saturday in a special election runoff to fill a North Texas Senate seat. Voters were picking between Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a veteran, aircraft mechanic and union leader, and Republican Leigh Wambsganss, a Republican activist who worked for phone company Grapevine-based Patriot Mobile, which calls itself a Christian conservative cell phone company. Both candidates said every vote will make a difference and pushed for a strong turnout with door-knocking and phone banking. Voters at the polls on Election Day hoped their ballot would help swing the district blue or keep it red, even if only for a year.

Pablo Tapia said he came out to vote because he knew the race would be tight. Rehmet’s union and military background appealed to the Keller resident, who sees Rehmet as being center politically. “We are really polarized right now, he said. “The real issues are really not on the table.” He pointed to receiving a fair, livable wage as an example. “I feel like he’s trying just to take the noise out of … what I would consider the issues that are not real,” Tapia said. Jeff Mueller, a GOP precinct chair who lives in Fort Worth, sees Wambsganss as a middle of the road Republican — “Maybe a little right.” “Conservative values. Medium of the road, moderate, little of everything,” he said. “We have too extreme on the left, and we have too extreme on the right.”

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A&M cuts Women’s and Gender Studies program

Texas A&M announced the end of the Women’s and Gender Studies program and the cancellation of six courses on Friday, Jan. 30 . The cancellations come as a result of revisions to Texas A&M’s University System Policies 08.01 and 12.01 that went into effect Nov. 13, 2025, prohibiting the instruction of “race and gender ideology” as defined by the revisions. The statement added that the end of the WGST program is due to “limited student interest in the program based on enrollment over the past several years.” However, in a statement to The New York Times, interim President Tommy Williams added that “the difficulty of bringing the program in compliance with the new system policies” also contributed to the decision.

The course review affirms that students pursuing a WGST major or minor will be able to complete their programs, and an email sent to the student body by English professor Laura Mandell, Ph.D., confirmed that “curriculum will continue to be taught for up to six months as a part of this teach out.” Only students currently enrolled in the program will be able enroll in WGST courses as it is phased out. The Spring 2026 course review examined approximately 5,400 courses to ensure compliance with the revised System policies. In addition to the WGST announcement, the review found that six courses were in violation of the policies and cancelled for the spring semester. In an interview with The New York Times, Williams claimed that the review and modification of course syllabi has “restored rigor into some areas where maybe we had had some drift.” He added that “this strengthens academic integrity, it protects our academic standards and, I think, most importantly, it builds trust in higher education.”

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UT fraternity, sorority fight for Texas Dream Act: ‘It falls to us’

A University of Texas student dreamed of being a doctor since she was a little girl. She wanted to connect with people, and as a doctor, treat the whole person, not just the condition. “It sounds cliche, but that’s what I’ve been my whole life. Just a number, just something to be accounted for, but not really a person,” she said. “I didn’t want that to be the situation when I treated patients.” Attending UT, the student excelled in neuroscience and pre-med classes while interning at a faculty lab. She studied for hours in the library with friends, taking breaks to laugh and talk about boys. She was two semesters away from graduation when she learned she might not get her chance to walk the stage.

On June 4, a friend texted her an article, reporting that a North Texas judge had struck down the state’s 25-year-old Dream Act. Over the last quarter-century, the law gave in-state tuition to Texas high school graduates without legal immigration status if they promised to pursue citizenship. The judge blocked the law just six hours after the United States Department of Justice sued Texas. The state declined to fight. As the Trump administration cracked down on illegal immigration, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the quick decision, arguing the law was unconstitutional because it gave special benefits to non-U.S. citizens — even though the act prescribed more stringent residency standards than for other students. NBC News reported that the DOJ coordinated with Texas to kill the act, citing a recording of a Justice Department official. The legal battle changed everything for the student, who used the Dream Act to make higher education affordable in her first three years at UT. The student, who the American-Statesman is not naming to protect her identity, does not have legal immigration status. After the judge’s decision, she saw her Fall 2025 tuition skyrocket from $5,883 to $22,485. She paid what she could, meeting the initial deposit. But after two weeks of classes, she was $17,000 short. She had to withdraw, only recovering some of the initial payment.

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Texas Democratic lawmakers demand reform of ICE at protest

Numerous high-profile Texas democratic politicians spoke at an anti-ICE rally in east Austin on Saturday. This rally is apart nationwide movement protesting recent actions of ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the deaths of Renee Good, Alex Pretti and others. The rally took place at Pan American Neighborhood Park from about 3-4:30 p.m. KXAN saw the entire park packed with protesters.

Speakers at the rally were consisted of: James Talarico, a Texas State Representative, Joaquin Castro, a U.S. Congressman, Greg Casar, a U.S. Congressman and Gina Hinojosa, a Texas State Representative. “It is time to tear down this secret police force, and replace it with an agency that is actually going to promote public safety,” Talarico said to the crowd. “We must prosecute agents who have abused their power.” Talarico, among the other lawmakers, pointed to recent highly publicized incidents, such as a 5-year-old boy and his father who are in custody at a federal detention center in Texas after they were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis. “It is our job to rally through the fear, to march through the darkness, to march through the silence, until we get to the end of this thing,” said Casar.

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Texans' support of flag football 'opens doors' for female athletes

The Houston Texans hosted their third annual Girls Flag College Showcase on Saturday, an event designed to help female high school athletes earn a chance to play flag football at the next level. The showcase was started in 2024 and was the first of its kind in Texas. On Saturday, more than 250 high school girls flag football players competed in drills and games in front of coaches from over 35 colleges, including Division I schools. "It absolutely means everything to me,” NFL Global Flag Ambassador Ashlea Klam said of the event. “Watching all of these girls out here ... being able to just see them with the Texans logo across their chest and saying, 'Yes, the Texans support girls flag football,' it is everything to me. It's a huge reason why girls flag football is being pushed the way it is.”

Klam, former Texans player Cecil Shorts III and Hannah McNair were on site for the event and spoke with athletes and coaches. McNair, who launched the team’s girls flag football program in 2023 as the vice president of the Houston Texans Foundation, was delighted to produce a platform that could alter the lives of young female athletes for the better. “It's generational change,” McNair said. “It provides scholarships to these athletes who may not otherwise have an opportunity to go to college, and the opportunity to play in college as a high-level athlete. It just opens doors.” Athletes from around the globe attended the event in hopes of catching the eye of some evaluators. A team of girls from Mexico traveled up to participate in the showcase's morning session. And Hayden Elyzabeth Kaahanui-Cera, a quarterback in the Class of 2027, flew in from Hawaii to show off her skills in the afternoon. “For me, it’s important (to be here) because this is the pavement to my future,” Kaahanui-Cera said. “This is the pathway, this is the journey that I want to be on. And with this, I’m able to just push and become better at what I’m doing.”

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Goliad Massacre site transferred from Catholic Church to state

The site of the Goliad massacre during the Texas Revolution has been transferred from the Catholic Diocese of Victoria into the care of the Texas Historical Commission (THC). The exact massacre site — at the Presidio la Bahia— has been owned and operated by the Diocese of Victoria since 1982. It has been owned by the Catholic Church as a whole since 1855. The THC assumed operational management of the presidio in 2022. The acquisition ensures long-term preservation and sets the stage for a world-class visitor experience ahead of Texas’ Bicentennial in 2036, according to state officials.

“The Texas Historical Commission’s commitment to this site ensures that the resources here are preserved for the generations that will follow us,” THC Vice Chairman Garrett Donnelly said Wednesday. “It guarantees that the lessons of Goliad, including the courage, sacrifice, and resilience embodied here, will continue to be taught through real encounters that make history tangible.” Texas Army Colonel William Fannin and more than 400 of his men were massacred on orders from Mexican Commander Santa Anna after they surrendered following the Battle of Coleto. The men were executed by the Mexican Army at the presidio at Goliad on Palm Sunday 1836. Fannin's men had first been ordered by Texas Army Commander Sam Houston to reinforce the Alamo, and then, when it fell, to retreat to Victoria. That's when they were caught up in their last battle. The presidio, a National Historic Landmark, was established in 1749 during the Spanish colonial period.

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Tony Box gets our recommendation in Democratic primary for attorney general

With Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton choosing to run for the U.S. Senate, the race to replace him as the state’s top lawyer is wide open — perhaps wide enough for a Democrat to prevail for the first time since 1994. We believe the best candidate in a three-person Democratic primary is Dallas lawyer Tony Box. Box is the only Democratic candidate who has been a prosecutor and investigator, having been an assistant U.S. attorney in Missouri and a special agent in the FBI. He’s also been an officer in the Army, where he commanded tank platoons; a lawyer in the Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps, deploying to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom; and a civilian Defense Department employee in Afghanistan, where he helped that country’s government establish anti-corruption and accountability systems.

All of those assignments are consistent with a promise he made to himself as a teenager — to be of service to others — as he fought to survive being shot in the liver while defending a woman who was being robbed. Box’s considerable résumé speaks to a record of integrity that is a far cry from the incumbent and to a candidate we believe will put Texans and the law above politics. Box faces two opponents in the Democratic Party primary who also impressed us as qualified and dedicated to justice for all. Nathan Johnson, the state senator from Dallas, has been an effective legislator after defeating then-incumbent Don Huffines, flipping a red district. He said he would focus on prosecuting corruption and protecting individual rights, among other goals. Joe Jaworski, who lost in a primary runoff for attorney general in 2022, has practiced law for more than three decades and was mayor of Galveston at a critical time following Hurricane Ike in 2008. A grandson of Leon Jaworski, the special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal and war crimes prosecutor, the younger Jaworski has strong and principled positions on protecting voting rights, reproductive freedom and applying laws equally to everyone. But Box is equally committed to fairness, and his diverse legal public service, including prosecutorial and investigative experience, gives him an edge.

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National Stories

The unprecedented challenge of prosecuting federal agents for killing Renee Good, Alex Pretti

When Antonio Romanucci, the attorney representing the family of Renee Good, was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court he wanted to purchase something to commemorate the honor. In the court souvenir shop, he noticed porcelain turtles for sale. “Why the turtle?” he asked a clerk. The clerk responded, “The wheels of justice turn slowly.” Romanucci keeps the turtle on his desk, directly in front of him, for all of his clients to see. The Twin Cities have erupted this month in the wake of federal agents killing Good and Alex Pretti. Activists and protesters clamor outside federal buildings and Gov. Tim Walz’s office demanding arrests and criminal charges against the federal officers.

Meanwhile, lawyers are looking at the long game and considering the likelihood of a courtroom scenario that has no modern precedent in state history: criminal charges being filed by the state, without the cooperation of the federal government, against federal officers for use of deadly force. If charges are brought, the cases would first focus on arguments over federal vs. state court jurisdiction and whether federal officers have immunity from state prosecution. That’s before any potential trial involving the federal officers who shot and killed two 37-year-old Minnesotans on the streets of south Minneapolis. The legal process could take years to play out. Defense attorney Eric Nelson, who represented former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in his criminal trial for the murder of George Floyd, said anytime a law enforcement officer is charged for killing a citizen, the case occupies a rarified space in society. “They captivate the community,” Nelson said. “They’re political. They’re sociological ... and they are very, very complicated.”

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What a swing House district in Colorado shows about Republicans' immigration fallout in the midterms

Like many Donald Trump voters, Miranda Niedermeier is not opposed to immigration enforcement. She was heartened by initial moves from the Republican president in his second term that she saw as targeting immigrants who were in the United States illegally and had committed crimes. But Niedermeier, 35, has steadily become disillusioned with Trump. Never more so than in recent weeks, when federal immigration officers killed two U.S. citizens during Trump’scrackdownin Minneapolis. “In the beginning, they were getting criminals, but now they’re tearing people out of immigration proceedings, looking for the tiniest traffic infraction” to deport someone, said Niedermeier. She said she is horrified because the administration’s approach is not Christian. “It shouldn’t be life and death,” she said. “We’re not a Third World country. What the hell is going on?”

Trump’s immigration drive in Minnesota, and the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, has resonated across the farms, oil and gas rigs, and shopping centers of Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, a swing seat stretching northeast from Denver. The monthlong turmoil in Minnesota has reinforced the political views of some in the U.S. House district while making others reconsider their own. “He should cool it on immigration,” said Edgar Cautle, a 30-year-old Mexican American oil field worker who said he is a Trump fan but is increasingly distressed by images of immigration agents detaining children and splitting families apart. “It’s making people not like him.” If such sentiments hold until the fall, that could imperil House Republicans who won their seats by narrow margins and could jeopardize the GOP’s full control of political power in Washington. Even a small shift is significant in the 8th District, where Republican Gabe Evans was elected to Congress in 2024 by 2,449 votes out of more than 333,000 cast. His seat is one of the Democrats’ top targets as they push to retake the House in November. Evans is a former police officer whose mother is Mexican American. He has urged the administration to focus on deporting criminals rather than people in the country illegally who are otherwise obeying the law — as Evans puts it, “gangbangers, not grandmas.” In an interview, Evans said he is worried about the assertion by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it can search homes with just an administrative warrant rather than one signed by a judge. He said he looks forward to questioning Department of Homeland Security officials during an upcoming House hearing.

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Trump says feds won’t intervene during protests in Democratic-led cities unless asked to do so

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has instructed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem not to intervene in protests occurring in cities led by Democrats unless local authorities ask for federal help amid mounting criticism of his administration’s immigration crackdown. On his social media site, Trump posted that ‘’under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat Cities with regard to their Protests and/or Riots unless, and until, they ask us for help.’’ He provided no further details on how his order would affect operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DHS personnel, or other federal agencies, but added: ‘’We will, however, guard, and very powerfully so, any and all Federal Buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists.’’

Trump said that in addition to his instructions to Noem he had directed ‘’ICE and/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in this protection of Federal Government Property.’’ Later Saturday night, Trump said to reporters as he flew to Florida for the weekend that he felt Democratic cities are ‘’always complaining.’’ ‘’If they want help, they have to ask for it. Because if we go in, all they do is complain,’’ Trump said. He predicted that those cities would need help, but said if the leaders of those cities seek it from the federal government, , ‘’They have to say, ‘Please.’’’ The Trump administration has already deployed the National Guard, or federal law enforcement officials, in a number of Democratic areas, including Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon. But Saturday’s order comes as opposition to such tactics has grown, particularly in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region. Trump said Saturday night that protesters who ‘’do anything bad’’ to immigration officers and other federal law enforcement, ‘’will have to suffer" and ‘’will get taken care of in at least an equal way.’’

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Democrats to shake up primary map, as 12 states vie to be among the first

A powerful Democratic committee that will determine which states hold the party’s first nominating contests in the 2028 presidential race voted Saturday to advance 12 states that had applied to be in the early group. Iowa had traditionally held the first caucuses, and New Hampshire has long relished its status as the first-in-the-nation primary. But in 2024, Joe Biden’s allies pressed the Democratic Party to move up South Carolina’s primary ahead of New Hampshire to highlight his strength among Black voters. Democrats in Iowa are also still recovering from a botched 2020 process when results weren’t available for days. After steep losses in the 2024 general election, party leaders have said they are ready to completely rethink the early-state lineup. On Saturday, Democrats advanced the 12 states that applied to hold the first nominating contests: Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Over the course of this year, the members of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee will winnow that list to four states — one from each geographic region. The committee is also expected to choose one additional state to hold its contest in the early window. The states that want to be in the early lineup were required to prove their fairness, rigor and efficiency, said Rules and Bylaws Committee Co-Chair Minyon Moore. The intent is to craft “a calendar that produces the strongest possible Democratic nominee for president,” she said Saturday. Party representatives from the 12 states will be invited at a future date to present their arguments to members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee. The early states in the nominating cycle are more likely to have their voters’ issues heard by the candidates vying for the presidential nomination as well as the financial investment that campaigning brings. The shake-up of the map also exemplifies the broader debate among Democrats over how to come back from the political wilderness by winning back young voters, Black and Hispanic men, and other critical blocs who gravitated toward Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Many Democratic strategists and state party officials have told The Washington Post in several dozen interviews in recent months that they believe party’s longtime viability could hinge on the list of early states helping to ensure that 2028 candidates appeal to the key racial and socioeconomic groups Democrats will need to win the general election. States like New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada are all vying to hold the first nominating contest. Party officials from states like Georgia and Michigan have made it clear that they will be satisfied being anywhere in the early rotation.

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Bovino is said to have mocked prosecutor’s Jewish faith on call with lawyers

A day before six career federal prosecutors resigned in protest over the Justice Department’s handling of the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, lawyers in the office had a conversation with Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol field leader, that left them deeply unsettled. According to several people with knowledge of the telephone conversation, which took place on Jan. 12, Mr. Bovino made derisive remarks about the faith of the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, Daniel N. Rosen. Mr. Rosen is an Orthodox Jew and observes Shabbat, a period of rest between Friday and Saturday nights that often includes refraining from using electronic devices. Mr. Bovino, who has been the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, used the term “chosen people” in a mocking way, according to the people with knowledge of the call. He also asked, sarcastically, whether Mr. Rosen understood that Orthodox Jewish criminals don’t take weekends off, the people said.

Mr. Bovino had requested the meeting with Mr. Rosen to press the Minnesota office to work more aggressively to seek criminal charges against people Mr. Bovino believed were unlawfully impeding the work of his immigration agents. Mr. Rosen delegated the call to a deputy. During the call, with a handful of prosecutors listening in, Mr. Bovino complained that Mr. Rosen had been unreachable for portions of the weekend because of Shabbat. Mr. Bovino’s remarks followed his complaints about having difficulty reaching Mr. Rosen. Mr. Bovino’s comments raised judgment concerns, but also a potential legal dilemma for government lawyers. Based on a 1972 Supreme Court decision in a case known as Giglio, prosecutors have an obligation to disclose certain information to the defense that could call into question the integrity and character of a law enforcement officer who is involved in an arrest and called as a witness in a trial. Mr. Bovino did not respond to requests for comment.

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The humiliation of Kristi Noem

When a conspicuous presidential project goes awry—in this case, federal immigration agents killing two protesters in Minnesota—someone typically loses their job. And for much of this week, Kristi Noem’s deportation from the Trump administration seemed imminent. Public confidence in the president’s handling of immigration has been plummeting. And as the secretary of Homeland Security—and the ostentatious face of President Trump’s high-profile ICE and Customs and Border Protection dragnets—Noem has seemed the logical sacrifice. Washington loves a good Cabinet deathwatch, just as Trump loves a good public expulsion. Or at least he used to. By this point in his first term, his “You’re fired” bit had migrated seamlessly from TV to politics: His White House had already bled out a national security adviser (Michael Flynn), press secretary (Sean Spicer), chief of staff (Reince Priebus), chief strategist (Steve Bannon), and secretary of Health and Human Services (Tom Price). But in what can perhaps be called a minor upset, Noem was still in her role by week’s end. Instead, she had been left to twist very publicly in the wind.

In a sense, this marks a subtle shift in Trump’s humiliation methods. Rather than firing officials outright—in a quick and relatively straightforward directive, or a tweet—he now seems to prefer sowing public doubt and maximizing attention upon the ultimate decider of someone’s fate: that person, of course, being himself. For those wearing the putative target on their back, this can surely be agonizing. But Trump seems to rather enjoy this dance. He gets to be puppet master for the whole spectacle—dropping hints, leaving everybody guessing and at his mercy—and all without the hassle of having to find a replacement. At certain points in his second term, various Cabinet secretaries have allegedly been on the outs but then managed to survive. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s name has circulated, especially since Trump sent her a direct message in September—and then accidentally posted it on Truth Social—urging her to be more aggressive in targeting his political enemies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth survived a near miss last year after a group of high-level national-security officials erroneously added The Atlantic’s editor in chief to a private Signal group chat, where Hegseth shared military attack plans. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was replaced over the episode but still wound up remaining in Trump’s Cabinet as ambassador to the United Nations. The lack of high-level turnover in this White House says plenty about the nature of this Trump administration compared with the first.

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Lead Stories

Trump picks Kevin M. Warsh, a former Fed official, as the central bank’s chair.

President Trump has selected Kevin M. Warsh to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, giving the former central bank governor a pivotal role in steering an institution that has faced a barrage of attacks from the administration over its reluctance to more aggressively lower interest rates. In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Warsh, saying “he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best. On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting’ and will never let you down.” Friday’s announcement capped a drawn-out search process to replace Jerome H. Powell, whose term as chair of the central bank ends in May.

Mr. Warsh, who served as a Fed governor between 2006 and 2011, edged out other contenders including Kevin A. Hassett, one of the president’s top economic advisers, and Christopher J. Waller, a current governor. Rick Rieder, a top executive at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, was also a finalist. Mr. Warsh, a conservative economist who was a front-runner to be Fed chair during Mr. Trump’s first term, will need to be confirmed by the Senate. The selection comes at a critical moment for the Fed, whose officials are facing relentless pressure from the Trump administration to provide relief to borrowers while grappling with a weakening labor market and persistent inflation. That dynamic has put the Fed’s primary goals of stable prices and low unemployment in tension with one another, stoking internal divisions about what to do about rates. Mr. Trump’s top criteria for Fed chair was someone who supported significantly lower borrowing costs, which has been the biggest source of tension between Mr. Trump and Mr. Powell, who is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department stemming from his handling of renovations at the central bank’s headquarters in Washington.

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How Gov. Abbott's H-1B visa freeze could impact the Texas Medical Center

Governor Greg Abbott has ordered a freeze on some H-1B visas as Texas launches an investigation into alleged visa abuse. One of the biggest impacts locally could be in Houston's Texas Medical Center, which heavily relies on international doctors and researchers. For many international workers, the H-1B approval is just one step in a long process. Some have already signed contracts, some are finishing training, and others are preparing to move to Houston this year. Now, with the freeze in place for state agencies and public universities, some of those start dates could be delayed.

The H-1B program is for highly-specialized workers, common in healthcare and research, and it requires employer sponsorship. Even after receiving federal approval, workers still have to clear final paperwork and employer start-date requirements before they can begin to work in the U.S. Government data shows that last year, MD Anderson, Baylor College of Medicine, UT Health Houston, and the University of Houston received dozens of new H-1B approvals. These represent doctors, medical residents, and researchers who were expected to fill positions this year. This mostly impacts medical residents, specialty physicians, and research staff, roles that are already difficult to fill at teaching hospitals, like Ben Taub. For hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, that could mean some positions will take longer to fill and put more strain on existing staff. Questions remain whether Texas can pause participation that's created and regulated by the federal government. Legally, states can control their own agencies and hiring decisions, but immigration and visa eligibility are federal matters. That's why some university systems and hospital networks are expected to closely review this order before making long-term changes. In a two-page letter, the directive says that institutions can't file for new H-1B visa petitions without permission from the Texas Workforce Commission. Abbott also asked for agencies and higher education institutions to submit detailed reports of the petitions being filed. It's set to be in place until the next Legislative session in May 2027.

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Senate aims to vote on funding deal before shutdown deadline

The Senate will aim to vote on Friday on an agreement to fund most of the federal government and buy more time to debate new accountability measures for immigration agents, as a midnight deadline looms for a partial shutdown. Senate Democrats said Thursday that Republicans had agreed to their demand to break off funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a larger spending bill after federal immigration authorities killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The agreement would fund DHS at existing levels for two more weeks to give the two parties time to try to hash out a deal to impose new restrictions on immigration enforcement that Democrats are seeking. President Donald Trump said in a social media post that Republicans and Democrats had “come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security.”

“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote,” he added. But the Senate did not begin voting on the agreement on Thursday night. At least one senator, Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), put a hold on the process. Graham has said he wants to protect a measure that allows senators — but not House members — to sue over having their phone records obtained without their knowledge. The current appropriations package would reverse that measure, which was drafted in response to an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Unanimous consent is necessary in the Senate for the chamber to bypass its rules and vote quickly, allowing any one senator to hold up the process. “If you were abused, you think you were abused, your phone were illegally seized, you should have your day in court,” Graham told reporters Thursday. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) blamed Republicans for the impasse as he left the Capitol Thursday night. “Republicans need to get their act together,” Schumer told reporters.

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In some states, a push to end all property taxes for homeowners

It is a goal spreading among anti-tax crusaders — eliminate all property taxes on homeowners. Rising property values have inflated tax bills in many states, but ending all homeowner taxes would cost billions or even tens of billions in most states. It is unclear if lawmakers can pull it off without harming schools and local governments that rely on the taxes to provide services. Officials in North Dakota say they are on their way, using state oil money. Wednesday, Republicans in the Georgia House unveiled a complex effort to phase out homeowner property taxes by 2032. In Florida, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis says that is his goal, with lawmakers currently considering phasing out nonschool property taxes on homeowners over 10 years. And in Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott says he wants to eliminate property taxes for schools.

Republicans are echoing those who say taxes, especially when the taxman can seize a house for nonpayment, mean no one truly owns property. “No one should ever face the loss of their home because they can’t pay rent to the government,” Georgia Republican House Speaker Jon Burns of Newington said Wednesday. These audacious election-year efforts could be joined by ballot initiatives in Oklahoma and Ohio to eliminate all property taxes. Such initiatives were defeated in North Dakota in 2024 and failed to make the ballot in Nebraska that year, although organizers there are trying again. Another initiative in Michigan may also fail to make the ballot. “We’re very much in this property tax revolt era, which is not unique, it’s not new. We’ve seen these revolts in the past,” said Manish Bhatt, vice president of state tax policy at the Tax Foundation, a Washington D.C., group that is generally skeptical of new taxes. Previous backlashes led to laws like California’s Proposition 13, a 1978 initiative that limited property tax rates and how much local governments could increase property valuations for tax purposes.

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State Stories

Reps. Castro and Crockett describe conditions at ICE Dilley detention center

U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio and Jasmine Crockett of Dallas said conditions they observed Wednesday inside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley amount to “inhumanity,” as the two Democrats urged Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and other children being held after recent immigration detainments in Minnesota. Speaking at an afternoon news conference on the steps of San Antonio City Hall, Castro said he and Crockett toured the facility earlier in the day and met for about 30 minutes with Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias.

Castro described the boy as “lethargic,” saying Liam’s father told them the child “has been very depressed,” “hasn’t been eating well,” and has been “asking about his family … and saying that he "wants to go be back in school with his classmates.” Crockett echoed that account, telling reporters that Liam has “gotten depressed … to the extent that he’s stopped eating,” and that his father has been washing the child’s only set of clothes daily and hanging them to dry overnight. She added that Liam’s mother is “currently four months pregnant” and not detained with them. Crockett described in vivid detail what Liam had experienced. “Imagine being a free-willed, loving kiddo. And all of a sudden, one day, you're thrown on a plane. You're sent 1,500 miles away from home. And you don't understand what's going on. All you know is that your friends are gone. You don't have your mom,” she said. “This is the story of Liam. The sad reality of what we found when we went to Dilley was that Liam was not the only one,” Crockett said.

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ICE raids are sparking labor shortages in South Texas, business leaders say

Last month, a concrete company on the Texas-Mexico border filed for bankruptcy, claiming its business had been disrupted by federal immigration raids on South Texas construction sites that were “resulting in acute labor shortages.” The filing by 57 Concrete, which is based in Mission and reports a fleet of more than 220 vehicles and almost 100 employees, comes amid a nationwide crackdown by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that has drawn warnings of economic repercussions for Texas and other border states. The fear among Texas business leader is the raids will leave the state, which has the second highest percentage of migrant workers in the country, without enough labor to build houses, serve meals and pick crops at harvest time.

In the Rio Grande Valley, where undocumented workers have gone back and forth across the border for generations, construction projects began grinding to a halt last summer as ICE raids ramped up, said Paul Rodriguez, the owner of a large real estate firm there and a former top executive at Lone Star National Bank. “I’m talking to individual bankers and they were saying, ‘We have builders having to extend their loans because they can’t complete their projects,’” he said. “I had one individual say ICE showed up at one of their construction sites and took 18 of his guys.” The situation has begun to draw the attention of politicians of both parties in Washington, with U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Monica De La Cruz, R-McAllen, both holding meetings with the construction sector in recent weeks.

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Gov Abbott issues disaster declaration to prevent screwworm fly infestation from spreading into Texas

exas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statewide disaster declaration on Thursday to prevent the potential spread of the New World screwworm fly into the Lone Star State, as he seeks to better protect livestock and wildlife. The governor's declaration allows the Texas New World Screwworm Response Team to use all state government prevention and response resources to prevent the spread of the parasite into Texas. The New World screwworm fly is spreading north from Mexico toward the border it shares with the U.S.

"Although the New World screwworm fly is not yet present in Texas or the U.S., its northward spread from Mexico toward the U.S. southern border poses a serious threat to Texas' livestock industry and wildlife," Abbott said in a statement. "State law authorizes me to act to prevent a threat of infestation that could cause severe damage to Texas property, and I will not wait for such harm to reach our livestock and wildlife," he continued. With his statewide disaster declaration, the governor said the Texas New World Screwworm Response Team "can fully utilize all state government prevention and response resources to prevent the re-emergence of this destructive parasite." Texas officials are prepared to fully eradicate the pest if need be, the governor said. Abbott has taken preemptive action against the New World screwworm threat by directing the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Animal Health Commission to establish a joint Texas New World Screwworm Response Team. The governor also highlighted a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create a new $750 million domestic sterile New World Screwworm production facility near Edinburg, Texas.

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Austin-Bergstrom expands direct flights to include Cayman Islands

Austin travelers will soon have access to nonstop flights to the Cayman Islands. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is partnering with Cayman Airways to offer a seasonal summer service. What you need to know Flights will depart weekly on Sundays, May 24 through Aug. 9. Austin to Grand Cayman: departs at 12:45 p.m. and arrives in Grand Cayman at 3:45 p.m. Grand Cayman to Austin: departs at 8:15 a.m. and arrives in Austin at 11:45 a.m.

Cayman Airways flights will contain 160 seats and an exclusive business-class cabin. The company will provide a variety of free offerings, including in-flight entertainment, standard seat selection, charging ports, a complimentary meal and Seven Fathoms Rum punch for passengers 18 and older. Additionally, the ticket includes a carry-on and one personal item for no additional charge. “By launching nonstop service to the Grand Cayman Islands, we are answering the call from our passengers for more diverse international travel options and easier access to top leisure destinations,” ABIA CEO Ghizlane Badawi said in a news release.

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: In Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, Goodwin has vision, experience

It can be argued lieutenant governor is the most powerful office in Texas. The lieutenant governor sets the legislative agenda by running the Texas Senate, and since 2014 Dan Patrick has flexed the power of this office in extraordinary ways. We expect Patrick to cruise to victory in the Republican Party primary. His influence, fundraising and connection to GOP primary voters are unmatched. The question for Democratic voters is which candidate can pose the strongest challenge to Patrick? Our recommendation goes to state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, who has sharp policy ideas, a compelling vision for Texas and the legislative connections to be an effective lieutenant governor.

Goodwin is running against Marcos Vélez, an organizer and labor contract negotiator for the United Steelworkers union, and Courtney Head, a contracts and privacy manager, for the Democratic nomination. We were impressed with Vélez, whose chief focus would be raising wages for Texans and improving living conditions. He spoke eloquently about why the Democratic Party has struggled to gain traction with many Texas voters, and we can see why his candidacy is garnering so much attention. We were equally impressed with Goodwin, a real estate broker out of Austin, and we put a premium on her legislative experience and broader policy vision. She was forceful about ending private school vouchers, improving women’s health, restoring abortion rights and ensuring precious water resources serve people, as opposed to, say, data centers. We appreciate her call to expand Medicaid, support of the cannabis industry with commonsense regulations, and push to let voters decide whether Texas should legalize gambling. Her campaign website is flush with policy positions and priorities — most such candidate sites are vapid and vague — and this was reflected in our candidate meeting. For those voters who are tired of state leadership that has failed to invest in people — be it in flood mitigation, public education, access to health care, broadband infrastructure, the list goes on — Goodwin offers a compelling vision for what Texas could be under new leadership.

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Dallas-Fort Worth's FIFA base camps remain open as top-ranked nations seemingly look elsewhere

With just over four months until the World Cup kicks off, North Texas' base camps have yet to be publicly declared as any nation's home away from home during the tournament. We learned which nations will play their matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, being rebranded "Dallas Stadium" for the World Cup, back in December. Both Argentina and Japan will play two matches apiece in North Texas. Netherlands, England, Jordan and Austria all play one match. Yet, to date, none of them have picked DFW as their base camp, and some have already planted their flags elsewhere in the U.S., according to reports. Japan plans to stay in Nashville, according to our partners at the Dallas Business Journal.

Argentina, England and Netherlands are all eying Kansas City for their base camps, according to ABC affiliate KMBC. FIFA has yet to make an official announcement for base camp designations, but it is expected within the next few weeks, sources have told WFAA. DFW has four team base camps paired with hotels live on its website: Toyota Stadium and the Westin Stonebriar Golf Resort & Spa in Frisco; Texas Christian University and the Sheraton Fort Worth Downtown Hotel in Fort Worth; the University of North Texas and Embassy Suites by Hilton Denton Convention Center in Denton; and the new Mansfield Stadium with the Hilton Garden Inn Dallas/Arlington South. The Cotton Bowl and SMU are venue specific training sites where teams will be required to train at in the lead up the week of their matches at AT&T Stadium, FIFA Dallas officials told. A report from the Miami Herald says teams are free to secure their own training sites and lodging facilities. There have not been any national teams to announce their selection for a DFW-based site, but sources told WFAA there have been numerous national team visits to these North Texas venues. A handful of the top-ranked nations in the world have already publicly announced their base camp selections: Germany in North Carolina, France in Boston, Uruguay in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, Norway in North Carolina, and Croatia in Virginia. With FIFA's base camp designation seemingly around the corner, the interest in the World Cup continues to build. FIFA announced it received 500 million ticket requests in the latest ticket draw. Fans will be notified of the outcome of their ticket applications by email no earlier than Feb. 5. Less than 1% of the applications submitted will be accepted, WFAA analysis showed. The FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 11, where host nation Mexico takes on South Africa. The first match in DFW will be the Netherlands vs. Japan on June 14.

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Cruezot, Garza join newly formed national coalition of DAs and prosecutors pushing back against federal overreach

Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot is a member of a national coalition of locally-elected top prosecutors who announced today (Wednesday, Jan. 28) the formation of the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, “an effort to hold federal officials accountable when they exceed their lawful authority, especially in states around the country where federal agents are being surged,” according to a press release announcing the project. “The coalition launches amid growing concerns about warrantless entries, unlawful detentions and coercive enforcement tactics by federal agents, and it’s intended to ensure that constitutional limits on federal power are actively enforced through lawful institutions,” the press release explained.

Founding participants include district attorneys from places such as Mary Moriarty from Minneapolis, Larry Krasner from Philadelphia; Jose Garza from Austin; Steve Descano from Fairfax, Va.; Parisa Dehghani-Tafti from Falls Church and Arlington, Va.; Stephanie Morales from Portsmouth, Va.; Ramin Fatehi from Norfolk, Va., and Laura Conover froma Pima County, Ariz. The coalition will share strategies and best practices among prosecutors, provide regular public updates on efforts to rein in unlawful federal conduct and educate the public on what paths are legally available, and coordinate on accountability efforts across jurisdictions, the press release explained. Project participants emphasized that accountability is critical to keeping trust in the legal system, with Creuzot commenting, “Violent crime in this community and others — regardless of who commits it — must be addressed. When a person’s death appears to have been caused unjustifiably, it demands a thorough investigation and, when warranted, prosecution.”

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Bexar County Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez arrested in rare criminal case over alleged courtroom misconduct, vows to fight charges

Bexar County Court at Law Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez has been arrested and booked on charges of official oppression and unlawful restraint stemming from an incident in her courtroom. Speedlin Gonzalez turned herself in Thursday and was booked into the Bexar County Jail. She later posted a $40,000 bond and was released. Through her attorney, she has denied wrongdoing and said she intends to vigorously defend herself. The indictment stems from a December 2024 hearing in which prosecutors say Speedlin Gonzalez ordered defense attorney Elizabeth Russell to be handcuffed and seated in the jury box during a dispute over courtroom procedure.

According to court records, the conflict began after Russell challenged the judge’s handling of the hearing and refused to comply with her instructions. Prosecutors argue Speedlin Gonzalez exceeded her authority by ordering the attorney restrained. Russell later filed a complaint related to the incident, prompting the investigation. Unlawful restraint by a judicial officer is a second-degree felony, which can carry prison time and a fine. Official oppression is a misdemeanor. Special Prosecutor Brian Cromeens was appointed to handle the case after the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office recused itself, citing a conflict of interest. Speedlin Gonzalez has served on the bench since 2019, when she became the first openly LGBTQ judge elected in Bexar County. She oversees the county’s Reflejo Court for first-time domestic violence offenders.

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Parent company of Texas-based Twin Peaks files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Twin Hospitality Group, the parent company of the Twin Peaks restaurant chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The filing came on Monday, almost exactly one year after the company went public in a spinoff from the restaurant group Fat Brands, which acquired Twin Peaks in 2021. Twin Hospitality is still a subsidiary of Fat Brands, which owns chains including Fazoli's and Marble Slab Creamery and also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday. Court filings shed light on how Twin Peaks got over its skis.

John DiDonato of Huron Consulting Services, which is serving as financial advisor to Fat Brands and Twin Hospitality for the Chapter 11 process, said in a motion that Fat Brands' acquisitions had left the companies with "increasingly unsustainable" debt obligations. The companies then struggled to raise money in the markets, he continued, "due to the unfavorable market for restaurant stocks generally and Fat Brands and Twin Hospitality’s stocks specifically." The situation was further complicated, DiDonato added, by legal issues, inflation and "industry headwinds." Similar issues have also taken a toll on one of Twin Peaks' closest competitors. The restaurant chain Hooters, which is also known for its distinctive uniforms as well as its chicken wings, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2025 and soon thereafter closed 30 locations. The company emerged from Chapter 11 status after it was reacquired by its original owners, who promised "a renewed commitment to family" as part of the brand's "re-Hooterization."

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TEA approves 22 of 24 AISD turnaround plans

The Austin Independent School District released new information about turnaround plans it submitted a few months ago. In November, the district had to submit turnaround plans to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for schools that received multiple unacceptable accountability ratings. The plans are designed to prevent the state from taking over and managing the district.

On Thursday, AISD Superintendent Matias Segura addressed the plans in the board meeting, saying that TEA has approved 22 of 24 plans without requiring adjustments. The two schools that were not approved were Widén and Winn elementary schools; they were not rejected, but TEA requested additional details from the schools. The TEA is looking for Austin ISD to provide more details around the plan to support reassigned students and how the district will fund extra supports. The district listed a number of ways it’s offering support, which include: Strengthening classroom instruction, teacher development, active leadership and expanded student support. For both Widén and Winn, AISD will resubmit the revised plans by March 24.

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Bible verses could soon be required reading in Texas public school classrooms

A major effort to bring religious texts back into Texas classrooms has hit a pause, but it is far from over. State education leaders delayed a final vote on a controversial proposal to add Bible passages and other religious readings to English classes from kindergarten through 12th grade. According to reporting from the Houston Chronicle, the proposed law would dramatically reshape reading lists for many students. The plan calls for dozens of new books in some grade levels and would require ten passages drawn directly from various versions of the Bible to be included in the English curriculum for all K-12 grades. Supporters frame the move as a way to expose students to foundational religious and cultural texts, while critics have raised concerns about church-state separation and the potential for religious favoritism.

The Chronicle also reports that parents would likely have the option to opt their children out of reading the religious texts. That could give families some flexibility if they object to the material on faith or personal grounds. However, there is a significant catch: even if students skip those readings in class, the religious passages are expected to be folded into the state’s standardized tests if the plan goes through. That means the material could still influence what appears on high-stakes exams that affect students, teachers and campuses. The timeline for any changes remains several years away. If approved, the mandatory readings would not appear in classrooms immediately. Under the current proposal, the new requirements would take effect in the 2030–31 school year, giving districts time to adjust lesson plans, order materials and train teachers. For now, the delay pushes the final decision into the spring, ensuring the debate over faith, literature and public education in Texas will continue.

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El Paso Bishop Seitz: Immigration crackdown shows 'total disregard' for human rights

In this city that sits along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, immigrant families are being torn apart by the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, said El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz. "People are suffering, and the effects of that suffering will have an impact on our country too, for many years to come," Seitz told the National Catholic Reporter during a Jan. 21 interview at his office in El Paso. Seitz, 72, addressed the federal government's ongoing immigration crackdown, which in recent weeks has prompted widespread protests across the country, especially in Minneapolis, where federal immigration agents have shot and killed two people in the last three weeks.

"I'm horrified by what I see" in Minneapolis, said Seitz, who was appointed bishop of El Paso in 2013 and has been an outspoken advocate for immigrants and a vocal proponent of the Catholic Church's teachings on migration. During his interview, Seitz commented on the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies and their effects on the border community in El Paso. He described his local church's efforts to accompany migrants during difficult times, shared his thoughts on the recent immigration statement from the U.S. bishops' conference and offered a solution for overcoming "a fear of the person we don't know." "I didn't think that the government would even be allowed to go as far as it's gone with all of this. I really thought that the limits on governmental power would prevent this kind of response. And it's very, very concerning. Sometimes it's hard for me to recognize my country," he said. It's hard for him to pick one thing that bothered him about this crackdown. "But, in a general sense, it's the total disregard for fundamental human rights. You know, when we talk about human rights, we're not just talking about the position of some activist. We're talking about something that's very fundamental to the teaching of the church, to the belief of not only the Catholic Church, but Christianity in general, and to people of faith even well beyond Christianity, and that is that human beings have a particular dignity because they are created by God," he said.

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It's more costly than ever to live in Dallas. Can faith-based solutions help make housing more affordable?

What can Dallas learn from Charlotte, a city two-thirds its size, a thousand miles east? The Lab Report’s last twostories examined how churches in North Carolina’s largest municipality are adding rooftops to chip away at its housing shortage. Dallas churches have for years, in fits and starts, talked about developing land they own but don’t need; those in Charlotte are already turning dirt every year. They are putting up apartments and condominiums and single-family homes that are affordable to everyone from restaurant workers to schoolteachers and first responders. Since 2019, the faith-based initiative there has delivered at least 1,500 new units of housing and attracted interest from over 100 places of worship. (And counting.) It’s also helped these congregations find a future beyond the collection plate, literally saving some churches from running out of money as their memberships decline.

It is important that Dallas recognize its challenges—in this case, housing—are not unique. Solving the affordability issue, which includes ensuring that even the poorest Dallasites have dignified access to a quality home, will require many strategies that swim hard against the current. And a good way to identify new paths is by finding them in similar markets where they’ve led to results, like how Charlotte’s faith community mobilized into becoming small-scale housing developers. “Whether you’re a Christian or a Muslim or whoever, it’s a moral imperative that you care about the community and your people in it,” says Linda McMahon, CEO of the Dallas Economic Development Corporation, whose former job leading The Real Estate Council involved advising partners on housing.“The churches, they have the ability to do this. But they don’t really have the support system or the tools to do it.” Locally, housing affordability grows more dire each year. Dallas is rapidly losing stock that is affordable to people considered low-income, who, using the federal government’s definition, make up about 60 percent of our renters. “Affordable” generally means that someone isn’t spending more than one-third of their income on housing. “We’re losing affordable housing faster than we can produce it,” says James Armstrong, the deputy director of Housing and Homelessness for the city of Dallas.

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National Stories

Trump, two sons, Trump Org sue IRS, Treasury for $10 billion over tax records leak

President Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and his family business sued the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department over alleged leaks of their confidential tax information, court records showed Thursday. The plaintiffs seek at least $10 billion in damages, according to the lawsuit in Miami federal court. The civil complaint alleges that the IRS and Treasury failed in their obligation to prevent the leak of those tax records by former IRS employee Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn in 2019 and 2020. In addition to Trump, the plaintiffs are his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization, which the sons run. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team told CNBC in a statement, “The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people.”

“President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable,” the spokesman said. The suit was filed three days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had cancelled all of his department’s contracts with the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in connection with the company’s contractor, Littlejohn, stealing and leaking confidential tax returns. Littlejohn, 40, is serving a five-year prison sentence after having pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of disclosure of tax return information. He admitted to leaking Trump’s tax records to The New York Times, and also admitted to leaking records about wealthy individuals to the news outlet ProPublica. The news lawsuit says that Littlejohn, in a 2024 deposition, admitted disclosing “Trump information [that] included all businesses that he had owned” to the investigative news outlet ProPublica. The suit asserts that ProPublica’s subsequent reporting on Trump’s tax documents falsely claimed that the records contained “versions of fraud.” While that quote does appear in ProPublica’s October 2019 report, it comes from Nancy Wallace, a finance and real estate professor at the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

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'Melania' documentary, helmed by controversial filmmaker, arrives amid national turmoil

When Melania Trump showed up on movie screens in 2001, it was a joke. The former fashion model and her spouse, Donald Trump, then only a real estate mogul, played themselves in the Ben Stiller comedy "Zoolander," about a dimwitted male supermodel. She silently looked on as her husband gushed at an awards show red carpet: "Without Derek Zoolander, male modeling would not be where it is today." The cameo offers a glimpse of the couple, who in 2017 would enter the White House as president and first lady. As they move past the first anniversary of their second stint in Washington, D.C., Melania has largely stayed away from the spotlight.

But this week the first lady is preparing for her close-up. She is center stage as star and executive producer in the documentary "Melania" hitting theaters Friday. Positioned as a companion to her best-selling memoir, "Melania" has been shadowed by controversy since its announcement several months ago. The project marks a comeback attempt by Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner, the director of the documentary, who was exiled from Hollywood in 2017 following charges of sexual misconduct by multiple women, including actor Olivia Munn. He continues to deny the accusations. Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million to license the project, and sources said it is spending around $35 million for marketing and promotion. Melania is skipping the traditional TV talk show circuit, opting for an appearance on Fox News, which featured an exclusive interview with her on Tuesday — her first since returning to the White House. The following day, she rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

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Tulsi Gabbard’s appearance at Fulton County FBI raid raises questions

At a televised Cabinet meeting last August, President Donald Trump turned to his top intelligence official, noting that she had evidence of “how corrupt the 2020 election was,” and asked when she’d produce it. “I will be the first to brief you once we have that information collected,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard replied. Gabbard, who coordinates the nation’s 18 spy agencies, has put “election integrity” and holding former government officials accountable for alleged election interference among her priorities. Trump has long maintained that the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, was rigged. U.S. nationalsecurity officials at the time said they found no evidence of widespread fraud and numerous courts rejected claims of election irregularities as unfounded.

Though her office traditionally focuses on foreign intelligence and adversaries, Gabbard’s unexplained appearance at a warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia, on Wednesday while the FBI was executing a search warrant revealed the extent to which her office has been involved in a domestic criminal investigation. Photographs confirming her presence stunned lawmakers, who on Thursday called for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to urgently brief them on the matter. “My constituents in Georgia, and I think much of the American public, are quite reasonably alarmed in asking questions after the director of national intelligence was spotted bizarrely and personally lurking in an FBI evidence truck in Fulton County, Georgia, yesterday,” Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) said Thursday at an intelligence committee hearing for Trump’s nominee to head the National Security Agency, Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd. Ossoff questioned whether ODNI “is straying far outside of its lane.’’ “Director Gabbard recognizes that election security is essential for the integrity of our republic and our nation’s security. As DNI, she has a vital role in identifying vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure and protecting against exploitation. … President Trump’s directive to secure our elections was clear, and DNI Gabbard has and will continue to take actions within her authorities, alongside our interagency partners, to support ensuring the integrity of our elections,” said ODNI press secretary Olivia Coleman.

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Trump threatens to ground Canadian aircraft and apply tariffs to imports

President Trump threatened to decertify Canadian aircraft and apply tariffs on imports in retaliation for what he described as the country’s refusal to certify U.S.-made Gulfstream jets. In a Thursday Truth Social post, Trump targeted to ground Bombardier Global jets as well as “all Aircraft made in Canada.” He wrote that Canada needed to approve Gulfstream’s G500, G600, G700 and G800 models. Without the approval, he said the U.S. could apply a 50% tariff on imports of Canadian aircraft. A spokesperson for the White House didn’t respond to a request for comment. A Canadian government representative didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for certifying civil aircraft in the U.S., including planes used for commercial flights. An FAA spokesperson referred questions to the White House. Bombardier, based near Montreal, is considered a crown jewel of Canada’s aerospace industry. The company has benefited from decades of government financial support, given Bombardier’s operations and the political heft that the province of Quebec plays in Canadian politics. The company designs, builds and sells two families of business jets, under the Challenger and Global brands. Bombardier said late Thursday it is in contact with the Canadian government, and is seeking a quick resolution “to avoid a significant impact to air traffic and the flying public.” General Dynamics, which owns Gulfstream, declined to comment.

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Florida now accepting public comment on H-1B visa hiring ban

Florida took another step Thursday toward banning all its public universities from hiring foreign workers on H-1B visas. The state university system’s Board of Governors will now take public comments for two weeks on a proposed prohibition on hiring any new employees on H-1Bs through Jan. 5 of next year. The vote from a committee to further the proposal was a voice vote, with no nays heard from any committee member. The proposal will come back to the full board for a vote after the public comment period ends. If enacted, Florida would become the second state to ban the use of H-1B visas at public universities. Texas governor Greg Abbott announced a one-year freeze earlier this week—a move that prompted pushback from faculty.

The state bans come after President Trump placed a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications in September (international workers who are already legal residents aren’t required to pay the fee). The next month, Florida governor Ron DeSantis ordered the state’s universities to “pull the plug on the use of these H-1B visas.” Fourteen of the Board of Governors’ 17 members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. DeSantis complained about professors coming from China, “supposed Palestine” and elsewhere. He added that “we need to make sure our citizens here in Florida are first in line for job opportunities.” Universities use the program to hire faculty, doctors and researchers and argue it’s required to meet needs in health care, engineering and other specialized occupations. Some conservatives contend that the program is being abused.

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Lead Stories

At least 9 dead, mostly children, in Texas as winter storm grips state

At least nine people have died in Texas as a winter storm continued to grip the state Wednesday, with a majority of the victims being children. Among the dead are three young brothers in North Texas who drowned after falling through ice on a private pond near Bonham, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas. The boys, all under 10 years old, were not publicly named by the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office. Police in the Dallas suburb of Frisco also confirmed two teenagers died after a sledding accident linked to the storm. Investigators said the teens, Elizabeth Angle and Gracie Brito, were riding on a sled being pulled by a vehicle when it struck a curb and a tree on Sunday. In Central Texas, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said at least one person died from exposure to the cold over the weekend. A man was found dead in the parking lot of a permanently closed Shell gas station, and officials said the death appeared to be related to the extreme cold.

A Houston police spokesperson told The Texas Newsroom on Wednesday that at least three people were found dead during the cold snap — two under a bridge and another in a park — though investigators have not yet confirmed whether cold exposure was a factor in each case. Beyond the winter storm’s direct effects on Texas, six people tied to a Houston law firm were killed Sunday in a private business jet crash in Maine during snowy conditions. Federal investigators are still working to determine what caused the aircraft to go down during takeoff. Nationally, the storm system has killed at least 50 people, according to reporting from the Associated Press. Fatalities have been linked to hypothermia, traffic crashes and other weather-related incidents. The storm has disrupted daily life for millions across Texas and the country, closing roads, delaying travel and forcing cities to open warming centers as officials urged residents to limit travel and check on vulnerable neighbors. According to FlightAware, nearly 2,400 flights have been canceled at major Texas airport hubs in Dallas, Houston and Austin since Sunday.

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Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady as a defiant Powell resists White House pressure

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady Wednesday, taking a measured, wait-and-see approach to the economy. Sometimes doing nothing is an act of defiance. President Donald Trump has put the Fed and its chairman, Jerome Powell, under intense pressure to lower borrowing costs, despite concerns about inflation. By refusing to cut rates, the central bank’s leaders asserted their independence from the White House. Wednesday’s move comes as Powell and the Fed face a criminal investigation launched by Trump’s close ally Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Powell has accused the White House of using the probe as a pretext to push the central bank to back Trump’s long-sought-after interest rate cuts.

At the same time, the future of the Fed’s independence hangs in the balance at the Supreme Court. Justices are weighing whether Trump exceeded his authority when he moved to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook last summer. As Powell holds the line against the White House’s multi-pronged pressure campaign, Trump is actively preparing to unveil his successor. Powell’s term as chair ends in May, and Trump says he has whittled a list of potential nominees to just a few names. So while there was little suspense around what the Fed would do with interest rates, there is still plenty of drama around the next few hours. In its statement, the Fed said governors Waller and Stephen Miran, both appointed by Trump, dissented. Both governors were in favor of a 0.25% cut. But with no changes to rates, investors were looking for any signs of Powell’s attitude toward cuts later this year.

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Julie Johnson’s flip-flop on congressional stock trading

The debate about banning members of Congress from trading stocks has jumped to the campaign trail. Former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who is in a heated primary against Rep. Julie Johnson, has bragged about how he never traded any stocks during his six years in Congress, Daniel L. reports. — His spokesperson said Johnson’s more of a Johnny-come-lately on the issue. “Colin Allred never traded a single stock while serving in Congress — not because anyone required it, but because he believes public service demands putting the people’s interests ahead of personal gain,” Sandhya Raghavan said in a statement. “Meanwhile, Julie Johnson has actively traded stocks throughout her six years in the Texas Legislature and continued to do so as a member of Congress.” At a Jan. 14 House Administration Committee markup for congressional stock trading legislation, Johnson said she chose to divest, “not because the law required it, but because earning the trust of my constituents demands it.”

But Johnson, who was a successful small business owner and attorney before entering Congress last year, only fully started divesting her holdings in September after a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas), introduced the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which would ban congressional stock trading. Ocasio-Cortez recently endorsed Johnson. Johnson also gained attention last spring for making dozens of stock sales the day before President Donald Trump’s tariff “Liberation Day” which sent stock markets temporarily reeling. Her office didn’t respond to questions at the time about the sales. Her new vocal stance against stock trading in September was a reversal from Johnson’s practice of buying individual stocks the previous month; a spokesperson at the time called it an “ongoing process” to get rid of her holdings. She made almost 350 purchases, sales or exchanges of stock last year, which gave the lawmaker the unwanted distinction of being in the top 2 percent of all congressional traders. Johnson said in a statement to PI that her stock holdings are managed by independent third parties and that her divestment began last March and that she fully divested at the end of last year. “I came to Congress after years as a small business owner and attorney with complex, pre-existing financial holdings,” she added. “The law did not require me to divest—but I chose to do so because earning the trust of my constituents matters more than personal convenience. Divestment is a process, not a moment, and I completed it fully.”

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Talks intensify to avert shutdown as White House and Senate leaders eye last-ditch deal

The White House and Senate leaders are moving closer to a deal to avert a government shutdown but are seeking to resolve final sticking points in eleventh-hour negotiations ahead of Friday’s deadline, according to several sources familiar with the talks. The sources indicated that the White House was moving closer to the Democrats’ demands to split funding from the Department of Homeland Security from a larger funding package in order to give them time to negotiate new policy measures on the deployment of ICE agents across the country. The deal in the works would provide funding for the rest of the agencies in the package through the end of September — including the departments of Defense, Labor, State, Transportation and Health and Human Services.

But it would only temporarily extend funding for DHS. That would allow time for the two sides to negotiate over ICE, after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer laid out a list of demands that he says must be included in final legislation. The two sides are still trying to sort out the timeline for extending funding for DHS, the sources said, underscoring that a deal has not yet been reached. But the fast-moving talks are a clear sign that President Donald Trump and GOP leaders recognize that they need to respond to the public outcry over ICE agents’ harsh tactics following the deadly shootings of two US citizens in Minneapolis this month. Plus, it’s a sign that Trump is eager to avoid the second government shutdown of his second term, after the 43-day shutdown from last fall left him upset about the fallout. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. Earlier Wednesday, Schumer laid out a list of new restraints on immigration enforcement as a condition for Democratic support, including to restrict roving patrols, tighten parameters around warrants for searches and arrests, toughen use-of-force policies and require ICE agents to wear body cameras and remove their masks. Democrats, who have enough votes to sustain a filibuster in the 53-47 GOP-led Senate, say such changes must be in legislation — and that promises of executive action are not enough.

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State Stories

AFL-CIO endorses challengers over incumbents in San Antonio primaries

One of the state’s largest labor groups — typically a formidable ally in Democratic primary races — endorsed challengers over longtime incumbents in three San Antonio-area Texas House races. The move comes as the leaders of the AFL-CIO say their members want change in the candidates they’re sending to a conservative-dominated legislature where Democrats continue to be marginalized from the legislative process. “We heard loud and clear from our delegates was that they want to see their electeds on the front lines with them right now, because working people are under such attack,” said Alejandra Lopez, president of the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. The long list of endorsements nominated local chapters and confirmed over the weekend at the AFL-CIO’s statewide gathering in Georgetown includes:

Robert Mihara, an attorney and U.S. Army veteran running against state Rep. Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio) in Texas House District 117. Attorney Ryan Ayala, a political newcomer who is running against state Rep. Liz Campos (D-San Antonio) in Texas House District 119. And special education teacher Jordan Brown, one of two candidates challenging state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins (D-San Antonio) in Texas House District 120. “The big unions [under the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations] are the teachers, Communications Workers of America and the firefighters. The teachers have a lot of votes there,” said local Democratic strategist Laura Barberena, who isn’t working on any of those races, but stressed the value of the endorsement. “It comes often with money, which of course is a critical component to doing these campaigns,” Barberena said. “And then also other types of resources, like reaching out to their union members across all of the different trades to be able to get them to mobilize in the particular areas that the person is running in.”

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Feds close civil rights investigation into Harvey relief fund distribution

U.S. Department of Housing and Development officials on Wednesday closed what they called a "politically motivated" and "baseless" civil rights investigation into how the Texas General Land Office distributed around $1 billion for flood mitigation. After Hurricane Harvey decimated the region in 2017, HUD sent the GLO $4.3 billion to give to Texas cities for flood mitigation projects. The GLO later created a program that required applicants to compete for funding. Even though the Houston region sustained the majority of the damage, the GLO's process resulted in less-populated areas receiving more money because those projects helped a higher percentage of their residents. Houston and Harris County got $0 from the $1 billion program.

Northeast Action Collective, an advocacy group that works to mitigate flooding issues in north Houston, and Texas Housers, an advocacy group for low-income residents, filed a Fair Housing Complaint that was sent up the chain to the Department of Justice in January 2025. HUD initially found the land office had violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against Houston's Black and Brown residents, adding that the funding process led the agency to participate in “discriminatory actions based on race and national origin" and compounded harm in minority communities. In a news release Wednesday, HUD officials wrote that the claims made by the agency were "baseless and unfounded," and that an investigation revealed the GLO complied with federal standards to create a "race-neutral" fund competition. "President Trump is ending weaponization of the federal government against the American people,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner wrote in a statement. “But the Biden administration politicized enforcement of federal civil rights law and deprived rural communities of essential disaster mitigation funds. This was an affront to all Americans. At HUD, we have a duty to provide all communities, whether urban, rural, or tribal, with timely support in times of need. I am proud to remedy a grievous wrong against the great people of Texas.”

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After tour, Democrats say Liam Ramos languishes in Dilley facility

Hours after touring the Dilley detention center housing 5-year-old Minnesota boy Liam Ramos on Wednesday, San Antonio’s state and federal lawmakers gathered outside City Hall to update the public on his status — and to lay out their limited leverage for stopping such arrests under a Republican-controlled government. Ramos, who was photographed looking tearful in a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack as his father was being detained earlier this month, has quickly become the face of aggressive expulsion efforts that many Republican officials said would only apply to criminals. The child’s family immigrated from Ecuador by claiming asylum at a U.S. port of entry, but he and his father are now being held in a family detention center roughly 80 miles southwest of San Antonio.

“We met with he and his father for about 30 minutes,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro told reporters. “His father said that Liam has been very depressed since he’s been at Dilley, that he hasn’t been eating well …. [he] has been sleeping a lot, he’s been asking about his family, his mom and his classmates, and saying that he wants to go be back in school.” A federal judge said this week that Ramos and his father can’t be deported because they have a pending immigration case that still needs to be adjudicated. But Democratic lawmakers who recently toured the facility said it’s full of children and families who have legal authority to be in the country, and yet are being held for months while the U.S. government tries to make its case against them. They have no idea how long they’ll be there, the lawmakers said, and some report having been offered cash bribes to self-deport.

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Texas DPS troopers teargas protesters outside Dilley migrant detention center

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers in riot gear used teargas to disperse a group of protesters demonstrating in front of the South Texas Family Detention Center immigrant detention center to demand the release of a 5-year-old taken into ICE custody. Members of the San Antonio media along with several elderly demonstrators were affected by the gas, which was used to clear the group of roughly 70 protesters who drove in from other Texas cities. Community organizer Tori Ramierez, who also came into contact with the gas, said she saw DPS personnel arrest at least two protesters during the chaos. Even so, Ramirez told the Current that she’s undeterred and will continue to protest against the Trump White House’s anti-immigrant crackdown.

“Nothing has changed from before we were pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed,” she said between coughs to clear her throat of the chemical irritant. “I’m even more motivated to fight and organize.” The group of roughly 40 DPS troopers deployed the gas after tensions with protesters flared, Texas Public Radio reports. A haze lingered over the area outside the detention center, and protesters helped each other flush their eyes with water, according to the news outlet. The protesters were at the detention center to demand the release of Liam Conejo Ramos, a Minneapolis 5-year-old who’s being held there along with his father. ICE agents detained the pair last week, sparking a national outcry and street protests. On Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, met with Ramos and his father for about 30 minutes. The congressman also said he spoke with some of the other 1,000 or so migrants being held at the center — the only U.S. detention site for migrant families caught up in the White House’s enforcement actions. “His dad said [Liam] hasn’t been himself and that he’s been sleeping a lot because he’s been depressed and sad,” Castro said in a clip posted to social media after the visit. Castro said other parents in the lockup said their children are experiencing anxiety and depression. Some are losing weight due to their deteriorating mental health, the congressman added.

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Charles Victor Thompson had message for victims' families just before he was executed in Huntsville Wednesday

A Texas man who once escaped custody and spent three days on the run after being sentenced to death for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend was put to death Wednesday, becoming the first person executed in the United States this year. Charles Victor Thompson, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CST following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the April 1998 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at the woman's suburban Houston apartment. In his final words, Thompson asked the families of his victims find it in their hearts to forgive him, adding “that you can begin to heal and move past this.”

“There are no winners in this situation,” he said after a spiritual adviser prayed over him for about 3 minutes and shortly before a lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. He said his execution “creates more victims and traumatizes more people 28 years later.” “I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y’all, I love you and that keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first,” he added. As the injection began taking effect, Thompson gasped loudly, then took about a dozen breaths that evolved into three snores. Then all movement ceased and he was pronounced dead 22 minutes later. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the execution brought long-awaited closure to the victims’ families. “This is an incredibly solemn moment when the state takes a life,” Teare said. “But the relief that this is over for them was palpable.” Prosecutors had said Thompson and Hayslip had been romantically involved for a year but split after Thompson “became increasingly possessive, jealous and abusive.” According to court records, Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson came to Hayslip’s apartment and began arguing with Cain around 3 a.m. the night of the killings. Police were called and told Thompson to leave the apartment complex. He returned three hours later and shot both Hayslip and Cain.

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The Texas program closing the gap in American schools

On a chilly day before Christmas, Teresa Rivas helped a tween boy pick out a new winter coat. “Get the bigger one, the one with the waterproof layer, mijo,” she said, before helping him pull it onto his string-bean frame. Rivas provides guidance counseling at Owen Goodnight Middle School in San Marcos, Texas. She talks with students about their goals and helps if they’re struggling in class. She’s also a trained navigator placed there by a nonprofit called Communities in Schools. The idea behind CIS and other “community school” programs is that students can’t succeed academically if they’re struggling at home. “Between kindergarten and 12th grade, kids spend only 20 percent of their time” in a classroom, Rob Watson, the executive director of the EdRedesign Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told me. If America wants kids to thrive, he said, it has to consider the 80 percent. Educators and school administrators in San Marcos, a low-income community south of Austin, agreed. “Tests and academics are very important,” Joe Mitchell, the principal of Goodnight Middle School, told me. “But they are secondary sometimes, given what these kids’ lives are like away from here.” Along with mediating conflicts and doing test prep, Rivas helps kids’ families sign up for public benefits. She arranges for the nonprofit to cover rent payments. She sets up medical appointments, and keeps refrigerators and gas tanks full.

A new study demonstrates that such efforts have long-term effects. Benjamin Goldman, an assistant professor of economics at Cornell, and Jamie Gracie, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, evaluated data on more than 16 million Texas students over two decades, examining data from the Census Bureau and IRS, as well as state records on academic outcomes. They found that the introduction of CIS led to higher test scores, lower truancy rates, and fewer suspensions in Texas schools. The program bumped up high-school graduation rates by 5.2 percent and matriculation rates at two-year colleges by 9.1 percent. At age 27, students who had attended a CIS school earned $1,140 more a year than students who had not. The program’s impact is “quite big,” Gracie told me: Spending $1,000 on CIS increased student earnings at age 27 by $400, whereas spending $1,000 on smaller class sizes increased student earnings by $40. The researchers estimated that every $3,000 in CIS investment would increase income-tax revenue by $7,000. Although contemporary education policy has focused intently on standardized tests, student and teacher tracking, and other accountability measures, the CIS study suggests that the United States could bolster achievement by providing more social support too. “You could have the world’s greatest teacher,” Goldman told me. “It’s only going to matter so much if you’re not actually showing up to school.” Watson said he hoped the study would lead policy makers to finance community-school programs in every low-income neighborhood. “If you care about morals and social justice, there’s something here for you,” he said. “If you care about good fiscal and economic policy, there’s something here for you.”

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DART still considering proposals to stave off withdrawal elections

Dallas Area Rapid Transit board members are still considering how to respond to requests from cities looking to leave the system as a sixth member plans to hold a withdrawal election. Nearly half of DART’s member cities – Farmers Branch, Highland Park, Irving, Plano University Park, and now Addison – could soon vote whether to withdraw from the agency. Some have put forward proposals under which they would cancel the elections. On Tuesday, DART CEO Nadine Lee briefed a board committee on those requests. “The issues around service and funding equity have been around for a long time, but I think what's really striking here is that there are different perspectives on why all of these issues have arisen,” Lee said.

At issue are how the agency will provide funding for each city in the system, and how much money each city needs to contribute to the agency. All 13 currently pay one cent from every sales tax dollar they collect. Lee said pressure on cities’ financial resources is “one of the reasons why we are having a lot of conversations about funding.” one of the reasons why we are having a lot conversations about funding.” DART and city leaders have been in negotiations since September over funding and governance disagreements. Anthony Ricciardelli, who represents Plano on the board, said the city’s proposal is fair to all 13 members and opens the door to new cities joining the agency. “That's what needs to happen for DART to be viable into the future,” he said. “I just hope we don’t write off these negotiations.” Each city has until late February finalize ballots and until March 18 to rescind the withdrawal elections scheduled for May 2. DART will hold a public hearing on March 24 over potential service changes if the elections are successful.

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Former Cowboys coach curses out Hall of Fame voters after Bill Belichick snub

The NFL world was shocked to find out that former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was not elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his first opportunity. Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson went on a tirade on X, decrying the situation. Johnson fired of a series of posts saying Hall of Fame voters should reveal their selections publicly, and called Belichick one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. “I would like to know the names of the [expletives] who did not vote for him .. they are too cowardly to identify themselves,” Johnson posted. Johnson was receptive to creating a new Hall of Fame when propositioned by Barstool founder Dave Portnoy.

Johnson continued tweeting into Wednesday afternoon, saying anyone who voted against Belichick should be purged from the voter rolls. Johnson also pushed back on the idea that Belichick should be punished for Spygate, when the Patriots were penalized for illegally filming New York Jets defensive signals from the sidelines in 2007. Johnson said many teams did it, and it shouldn’t impact Belichick’s Hall of Fame chances. One of Johnson’s former Cowboys superstars, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, called voters who ignored Belichick ignorant. Voices from around the league also denounced Belichick’s snub. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he was shocked Belichick wasn’t selected.

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Texas AG probes North Texas school district over Islamic Games event

State Attorney General Ken Paxton wants two Texas school districts — including Grapevine-Colleyville ISD — to turn over documents related to plans to rent facilities to the Islamic Games of North America for an athletic competition. The information demands are part of “an ongoing investigation regarding the schools’ ties to the athletic group Islamic Games of North America, which hosts events sponsored by a chapter of a designated foreign terrorist organization — the Council on American-Islamic Relations,” Paxton’s office said in a news release Wednesday.

The Dallas-area Islamic Games were scheduled to be held at Colleyville Heritage High School in May, but district officials canceled rental negotiations with organizers. Grapevine-Colleyville ISD said it was made aware of potential ties between Islamic Games and CAIR on Jan. 19. That led to a “severing” of the negotiations over using the facilities. Grapevine-Colleyville ISD spokesperson said the district will “respond accordingly” with the law, regarding Paxton’s request. Paxton is also probing for communications, contracts and documents from Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, located outside of Houston. One of its schools was set to host the event in October. Paxton said that the Islamic Games hosts events sponsored by the CAIR — a claim that the sports festival’s organizers have pushed back on. Gov. Greg Abbott declared CAIR, the country’s largest organization focused on advocating for the civil rights of Muslims, to be a “foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organization” in November. “If school districts are continuing to promote or partner with organizations tied to an [foreign terrorist organization], that ends now,” said Paxton in the news release.

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Coffee chain faces backlash after staff walkout tied to ICE discount debate

A Dallas-based coffee chain is facing backlash after an employee walkout over a first responder discount they believed included U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. White Rhino Coffee has been steadily growing with 200 employees, promoting its 11 Dallas-Fort Worth locations as a welcoming environment for everyone, but Sara Escamilla, the company’s CEO, says the coffee chain is now facing severe online backlash and threats of boycotts. A handful of now-former employees walked off the job in a debate over whether ICE agents were entitled to first responder discounts. “Our first responder discount for a long time has been something very broad, and our shop managers have had autonomy to determine who receives it or not,” Escamilla said.

Margot Stacy, the manager at White Rhino’s downtown Dallas location, quit last week during the furor over the discount. She posted a message about the decision on Facebook: “I was told that these murderous mercenaries are not only welcome at our table but encouraged to patron[ize] our shops by offering them a first responder discount. This put me in a position to either compromise everything I believe in or abandon my team. Considering this call from leadership, I gladly exit my position as shop manager.” However, White Rhino’s leadership insists that ICE agents were never formally included in the first responder discount, and they have now clarified the policy to not include any federal officers. Escamilla says the discount is intended to “reward local heroes, local police officers, firefighters, EMTs.” White Rhino believes the controversy and online backlash will negatively affect its business on top of the winter storm, which forced its cafes to close for nearly a week. “It’s been really difficult. To see so much hate spewed at us has been painful,” Escamilla said. “We want to be a place where everyone gets a seat at the table.”

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New state committee begins work to develop nutrition guidelines, education requirements for Texans

A new state committee has less than a year to produce a report that could have an effect on continuing education requirements for medical providers. The Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee is required to submit a report by September that includes its nutritional guidelines and recommendations. During the 2025 session, the state legislature established the TNAC to examine how nutrition affects health and how “ultra-processed foods” are connected to chronic diseases. The committee’s report would also establish educational requirements around nutrition across all stages of education, from kindergarten to medical education.

“Texas is going to be setting a national momentum around addressing these issues with intention,” Dr. Jaclyn Albin, associate program director for UT Southwestern’s Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency and TNAC chair said Wednesday. “We want to engage as many fellow Texans who are passionate about this work as possible.” The committee’s first meeting this week highlighted the significant tasks they’ve been asked to complete. In addition to developing dietary and nutritional guidelines, it also has to provide education and an “independent review of scientific studies” analyzing the effects of ultra-processed foods on human health. Federal health agencies announced an effort to “address the health risks” of ultra-processed foods last year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services released new dietary guidelines earlier this month that encourage people to “eat real food” and avoid processed food.

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Abbott calls for nation's largest Muslim rights group to be shut down in Texas

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday demanded that Attorney General Ken Paxton move to shutter the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Texas branch, escalating his campaign against the country's largest Muslim civil rights organization. The Republican governor wrote in a letter to Paxton that CAIR, which he last year declared a foreign terrorist organization, is "masquerading" as a nonprofit, and that only the attorney general has the power to police it. "Regardless of the façade CAIR attempts to portray in press releases, CAIR cannot be allowed to use its 'nonprofit' status as a shield for sponsoring terror, advancing radical Islamism in Texas," Abbott said. "Under Texas law, ‘the Texas Attorney General is the only elected official charged with regulating’ nonprofits that may be violating the law, including by examining their records and stripping their corporate charters. You have used these tools before; I urge you to use them now to combat CAIR."

The attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Muslim rights group has said it is anything but a terror organization and has actually helped federal officials thwart attacks, including alerting the FBI to a potential threat against President Donald Trump during his first term. CAIR is suing Abbott over the designation, calling it “unconstitutional” and “defamatory.” CAIR's Texas branch said in a statement that it sees Abbott's drive against them as an effort to "silence critics of Israel's genocide." CAIR is a vocal critic of Israel, accusing the Israeli government of human rights abuses against the Palestinian people, including occupation, ethnic cleansing and genocide. It has also sued Abbott and other state officials, including challenging the governor’s executive order directing universities to institute rules punishing students for criticism of Israel.

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Dallas community leader faces final immigration hearing on Friday

A Dallas community leader who was taken into immigration custody last September will learn this week whether he'll be allowed to stay in the country. For five months, Southern Methodist University graduate and Hunt Scholar Omar Salazar has been waiting for his release from the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, 200 miles west of Dallas. During a news conference Tuesday morning news conference, Salazar’s family members, attorney, friends and lawmakers called for his release ahead of a final immigration hearing on Friday.

Salazar was brought to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 11 years old. He has no criminal history. "He has made the best of his life behind bars by volunteering, and helping other inmates, but it's been hard on him, and it's very hard on Ella, all because of a routine traffic stop,” said his attorney Jacob Monty, referring to Salazar’s wife, who is a U.S. citizen. Omar Salazar was taken into ICE custody after a traffic stop while visiting her in Lubbock. The two married in November. Monty said he expects the judge to rule at Friday’s hearing that deporting Omar to Mexico would cause undue hardship to Ella, a law student. "Imagine what Ella would have to face if she were to have to leave and go with her husband to Mexico. It would devastate her career,” Jacob said. “We believe that's why the judge will find that Omar deserves to stay in the U.S. as a permanent resident, and that's what we're anticipating, but certainly it's within the power of the judge to rule that way.”

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National Stories

Musk's Grok generated 3M sexualized images in just 11 days, analysis finds

Grok, an artificial intelligence tool created by Elon Musk’s xAI, generated an estimated 3 million sexualized images in just days this month, including 23,000 of children, a new analysis found. Conducted by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, the study focused on images generated from Dec. 29 to Jan. 8, the day before X claimed access to the image editing feature had been restricted to paid users. In fact, non-subscribers are still able to edit images and digitally undress people without their consent. Center founder and CEO Imran Ahmed, said Musk has “enabled” creation of such images.

“The data is clear: Elon Musk’s Grok is a factory for the production of sexual abuse material,” he said in a statement to the Austin American-Statesman. “Belated fixes cannot undo this harm. We must hold Big Tech accountable for giving abusers the power to victimize women and girls at the click of a button.” The new report comes with Grok facing condemnation over inappropriate images made without subjects’ consent and investigation and regulatory action under way in the U.S. and around the world. In Texas, House Democrats have called on Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate the issue. Last week, a bipartisan group of 35 attorneys general sent a letter demanding that xAI take additional action to prevent Grok from generating such nonconsensual images. On Monday, the European Union opened a formal investigation to examine whether Texas-based X is fulfilling its obligations under the Digital Services Act, the bloc’s rules for keeping internet users safe from harmful content and products. UK regulator Ofcom had earlier launched an investigation. Several other countries are also investigating. Researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate said it reached its conclusions by analyzing a random sample of 20,000 images from the total of 4.6 million produced by Grok’s image-generation feature during the time studied. Researchers analyzed each of the sampled posts using an OpenAI model to assess sexualized imagery and age. The model was instructed to score the likelihood that the post’s image contained sexualized depictions, photorealistic depictions and minors. Images flagged by the tool as likely depicting a child were reviewed manually to confirm that the person appeared to clearly be under the age of 18. All sexualized images of children were reported to the Internet Watch Foundation.

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Springsteen slams “King Trump’s private army from the DHS” in new anti-ICE song “Streets Of Minneapolis”

With a chant of “ICE Out Now!” Bruce Springsteen wasted no time condemning Donald Trump and the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents in Minnesota. In classic form from the the card-carrying anti-MAGA rock legend and a little audio addition from actual protests, the 4:35-minute “Streets of Minneapolis” calls out “King Trump and his private army from the DHS.” “I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis,” Springsteen said on social media Wednesday morning about “Streets of Minneapolis.” The Boss added in his posting: “It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free, Bruce Springsteen.”

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Iran: Trump warns 'time is running out' for nuclear deal as US military builds up in Gulf

Donald Trump has warned Iran that "time is running out" to negotiate a deal on its nuclear programme following the steady build-up of US military forces in the Gulf. The US president said a "massive Armada" was "moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose" towards Iran, referring to a large US naval fleet. In response, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country's armed forces were ready "with their fingers on the trigger" to "immediately and powerfully respond" to any aggression by land or sea. Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and has repeatedly denied accusations by the US and its allies that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons

Trump's latest warning follows his promise that Washington will intervene to help those involved in the brutal and unprecedented crackdown on protests in the country earlier this month. Demonstrations began after a sharp fall in the value of the Iranian currency, but swiftly evolved into a crisis of legitimacy for the country's clerical leadership. "Help is on the way," Trump said, before later changing his tune and saying he had been told on good authority that the execution of demonstrators had stopped. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says it has confirmed the killing of more than 6,301 people, including 5,925 protesters, since the unrest began at the end of December. HRANA says it is also investigating another 17,000 reported deaths received despite an internet shutdown after nearly three weeks. Another group, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), has warned that the final toll could exceed 25,000.

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3 months after rapidly scheduled arguments, the Supreme Court has yet to decide on Trump's tariffs

When the Supreme Court granted an unusually quick hearing over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, a similarly rapid resolution seemed possible. After all, Trump’s lawyers told the court that speed was of the essence on an issue central to the Republican president’s economic agenda. They pointed to a statement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warning that the “longer a final ruling is delayed, the greater the risk of economic disruption.” But nearly three months have elapsed since arguments in the closely watched case, and the court isn’t scheduled to meet in public for more than three weeks. No one knows for sure what’s going on among the nine justices, several of whom expressed skepticism about the tariffs’ legality at arguments in November.

But the timeline for deciding the case now looks more or less typical and could reflect the normal back-and-forth that occurs not just in the biggest cases but in almost all the disputes the justices hear. Several Supreme Court practitioners and law professors scoffed at the idea the justices are dragging their feet on tariffs, putting off a potentially uncomfortable ruling against Trump. “People suspect this kind of thing from time to time, but I am not aware of instances in which we have more than speculation,” said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The timeframe alone also doesn’t point to one outcome or the other. One possible explanation, said Carter Phillips, a lawyer with 91 arguments before the high court, “is that the court is more evenly divided than appeared to be the case at oral argument and the fifth vote is wavering.” Even if the majority opinion has been drafted and more or less agreed to by five or more members of the court, a separate opinion, probably in dissent, could slow things down, Phillips said. Just last week, the court issued two opinions in cases that were argued in October. All nine justices agreed with the outcome, a situation that typically allows decisions to be issued relatively quickly. But a separate opinion in each case probably delayed the decision.

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FBI agents search election hub in Fulton County, Georgia

FBI agents were seen Wednesday carrying out a search at an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia, a location that became ground zero for concerns and complaints about voter fraud beginning in 2020. Agents were seen entering the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, a new facility that state officials opened in 2023 that was designed to streamline their election processes. It was not immediately clear what the FBI agents were investigating, but Fox News Digital is told the probe is related to the 2020 election. The bureau said in a statement that FBI Atlanta was executing a "court authorized law enforcement action at 5600 [Campbellton] Fairburn Rd." "Our investigation into this matter is ongoing so there are no details that we can provide at the moment," the bureau said.

The Department of Justice did not provide comment. President Donald Trump lost the election in Georgia in 2020 by a wafer-thin margin and claimed various instances of fraud had tainted the results. Those claims did not survive court scrutiny. Fulton, which includes Atlanta and is the state's most populous county, drew significant attention at the time. A machine count and two recounts confirmed that former President Joe Biden had won the state, leading Trump to feud with Georgia's leaders for years. The DOJ sued Fulton County last month seeking access to ballots related to the 2020 election. The county is fighting the lawsuit, saying the DOJ has not made a valid argument for accessing them. Trump's grievances in Georgia were compounded when he and numerous co-conspirators were indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County Superior Court in 2023 over allegations that they engaged in a racketeering scheme involving illegally attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. The case never made it to trial as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from prosecuting it. An independent entity called the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council decided to dismiss the indictment last year, saying it would not be in the interest of the state to continue with the case.

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Greg Bovino was Trump’s rising star. Then he arrived in Minneapolis.

For six months, Gregory Bovino was the tip of the Trump administration’s deportation spear, a spiky-haired Border Patrol agent from the John Wayne school of law-and-order who commanded the rolling immigration raids in Los Angeles, Chicago and other Democratic-run cities that netted thousands of arrests. They also prompted public backlash and complaints from terrified immigrant communities. On Monday, nearly a month into Bovino’s Minneapolis campaign, he was pulled from the field less than 48 hours after referring to border agents who killed a 37-year-old nurse as “victims.” “Operation Metro Surge” was supposed to be Bovino’s most ambitious mission yet, a new kind of urban takeover by federal law enforcement. Instead, it descended into scenes of tear gas, pepper spray and civil unrest on the streets of a proudly progressive Midwestern city.

It culminated on Saturday with the shooting death of Alex Pretti that shook much of the nation. It has also provoked a clash in the White House over the future of President Trump’s signature policy. With Bovino’s removal, some are anticipating an end to the maximalist enforcement strategy he championed alongside his boss, Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security chief. Rather than targeted raids on known criminals, they favored a wide net and aggressive tactics to catch and deport as many immigrants in the country illegally as possible. Minneapolitans cheered the departure of a man some top Democrats described as a “cartoon villain.” One indelible image of Metro Surge was of Bovino, emerging from an SUV into a wintry melee, like a general stepping onto a battlefield, and launching a canister that released green smoke at protesters. Bovino didn’t respond to a request to be interviewed for this story. Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, said Bovino would remain with the government, and called him “a key part of the President’s team and a great American.”

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Amy Klobuchar announces run for Minnesota governor

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota formally announced her campaign for governor on Thursday with a call for unity and decency in her troubled state, which has been roiled by political violence, President Trump’s immigration crackdown and widespread protests after two killings of Minnesotans by federal agents. Ms. Klobuchar, a popular Democrat with a history of winning by double-digit margins, has spent nearly two decades in the Senate as a common-sense centrist with a folksy demeanor and a carefully cultivated history of bipartisanship. Now, with her run for governor, the self-proclaimed “senator next door” is gambling that her message of moving past partisan divides can still work even amid one of the most volatile domestic conflicts of the second Trump administration.

In a gauzy, four-minute video introducing her campaign, Ms. Klobuchar praised the “resilience” of her home state, saying that she would not be a “rubber stamp” for the Trump administration but that she would also seek “common ground” to fix problems in the state. “Now is our moment to renew our commitment to the common good,” said Ms. Klobuchar, speaking directly to the camera. “I’m asking you to look to each other. I’m asking you to look up to the North Star and to see that there is a better future before us.” Her message of togetherness marks a striking contrast to the approach of many fellow Democrats, who have focused on demonstrating to their furious base that they are “fighters” ready to take on the president in the courts, the halls of Congress, protest marches and on social media. Ms. Klobuchar’s campaign may offer an early test of whether a message more focused on restoring calm and consensus can drive Democrats to the polls and expand their margins in battleground areas. She will, however, begin the race as the heavy favorite and is unlikely to face a serious primary opponent. Republicans, who have not won a statewide race in Minnesota since 2006, have grown more pessimistic about their chances in the wake of the unrest.

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ICE ends its surge in Maine, Susan Collins' office says

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge is over. That’s according to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ office, which announced the end of the surge in a Thursday morning press release. “While the Department of Homeland Security does not confirm law enforcement operations, I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the State of Maine,” Collins said in a statement. “There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here. I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the Administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state. I appreciate the Secretary’s willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations and her personal attention to the situation in Maine. ICE and Customs and Border Patrol will continue their normal operations that have been ongoing here for many years. I will continue to work with the Secretary on efforts to end illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and other transnational criminal activity.”

The withdrawal comes amid the fallout from a fatal shooting by U.S. Border Patrol agents over the weekend in Minnesota that left ICU nurse Alex Pretti dead. The bipartisan backlash has raised the specter of another government shutdown as Democrats call for any funding package to exclude money for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. ICE agents had been highly visible in Lewiston and Greater Portland since early last week as the Trump administration sought to arrest at least 1,400 immigrants. While the administration has claimed to be going after the “worst of the worst,” there have been numerous instances of immigrations without criminal records and with lawful permission to be in the country getting caught up in the sweeps, including an 18-year-old University of Southern Maine student, a civil engineer working for a Portland firm and a Cumberland County corrections officer recruit. That’s sparked criticism from public officials such as Gov. Janet Mills, who during a press conference last week called the arrest quota “pretty broad” and questioned whether the agency would find that many criminal fugitives here. She also used the press conference to raise concerns about ICE’s tactics and lack of transparency.

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Copyright February 05, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved