Lead Stories

Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles unloads of Trump, Vance, Bondi and others in explosive interview

Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple had Washington abuzz, following the release of a two-part, 11-interview story with several administration officials — most notably, White House chief of staff and longtime Trump adviser Susie Wiles. In strikingly candid interviews, the famously careful Wiles laid into several current and former Trump officials, revealed parts of the inner workings of the administration’s brain trust and discussed her unvarnished thoughts about everything from DOGE to deportations: President Donald Trump has an "alcoholic's personality." Vice President J.D. Vance has been "a conspiracy theorist for a decade." Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought is "a right-wing absolute zealot." Former senior adviser to the president Elon Musk is an "odd duck." And she tossed the blame of the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein files at Attorney General Pam Bondi's feet. Bondi “completely whiffed” on the files’ release. “First, she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk,” Wiles said. And here's what stands out: “I hear stories from my predecessors about these seminal moments where you have to go in and tell the president what he wants to do is unconstitutional or will cost lives. I don’t have that,” Wiles said.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in the world right now that could do the job that she’s doing,” Rubio told me. He called her bond with Trump “an earned trust.” Vance described Wiles’s approach to the chief’s job. “There is this idea that people have that I think was very common in the first administration,” he told me, “that their objective was to control the president or influence the president, or even manipulate the president because they had to in order to serve the national interest. Susie just takes the diametrically opposite viewpoint, which is that she’s a facilitator, that the American people have elected Donald Trump. And her job is to actually facilitate his vision and to make his vision come to life.” It’s been a busy year. Trump and his team have expanded the limits of presidential power, unilaterally declared war on drug cartels, imposed tariffs according to whim, sealed the southern border, achieved a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, and pressured NATO allies into increasing their defense spending.

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'Kim Ogg 2.0': Hidalgo denounces Parker's bid for county judge

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called on Democratic voters to reject former Mayor Annise Parker in a post made on Facebook Tuesday. Hidalgo labeled Parker, who announced in June her intent to run for Harris County judge, “Kim Ogg 2.0” in a subsequent post made on X. She said Parker, who was the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, would “follow John Whitmire’s playbook” in capitulating to President Donald Trump. “Harris County simply can’t afford another power player who treats the role like a political chessboard. Another individual who runs on the Democratic ticket and governs as a Republican,” Hidalgo wrote. “Today, I want to send a clear message to Democratic primary voters in Harris County: Annise Parker doesn’t represent our values.”

Hidalgo did not explicitly endorse another candidate, but went on to list a number of alleged grievances she believed Democratic voters were not aware of. She accused Parker of inviting the state takeover of HISD, and failing the party by endorsing former District Attorney Kim Ogg and refusing to support her 2022 campaign for reelection. Parker said in a statement that her focus was on fighting attacks from the Trump administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — not partisan squabbling. "My record of public service — stable, responsible, drama-free leadership — speaks for itself. These questions have all been asked and answered," Parker said. "I’m running to fight Donald Trump and Greg Abbott, not to engage in Democratic infighting." Parker previously told the Houston Chronicle in a live interview that her 2022 endorsement of Ogg was part of her mandate as CEO and president of the Victory Fund, a political action committee that funds LGBTQ+ candidates. She added that, since losing the 2024 Democratic primary to District Attorney Sean Teare, she thought Ogg had "lost her mind a little bit and gone hard right."

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Trump targets defense giants' shareholder payouts as cost overruns mount, sources say

The Trump administration is planning an executive order that would limit dividends, buybacks and executive pay for defense contractors whose projects are over-budget and delayed, according to three sources briefed on the order. President Donald Trump and the Pentagon have been complaining about the expensive, slow-moving and entrenched nature of the defense industry, promising dramatic changes that would make the production of war equipment more nimble. Industry groups have been on high alert about the closely-held proposal, which is tied to a Treasury Department initiative, two of the sources said. Reuters could not determine exactly how the order would compel defense firms to enact any restrictions. The sources, who declined to be named because the information is confidential, said the language of the order could still change. A White House official said: "Until officially announced by the White House, discussion about potential executive orders is purely speculation."

Share buybacks are common among defense firms, and several pay a dividend. Lockheed in October, for example, raised its dividend for the 23rd year in a row, to $3.45 per share. At the same time, it authorized the purchase of up to $2 billion of its shares, raising the total amount promised for repurchases to $9.1 billion. Lockheed's F-35 fighter jet, one of the most expensive U.S. defense programs, has been plagued by rising costs and delays. Many big defense programs take much longer to deliver a product than initially promised and at a far higher price. The $140 billion Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program that will replace aging Minuteman III missiles, designed and managed by Northrop Grumman, will be years behind schedule and 81% over budget, the U.S. military said last year. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth unveiled sweeping changes in November to how the Pentagon purchases weapons, allowing the military to more rapidly acquire technology amid growing global threats, in accordance with an executive order signed by Trump in April. That restructuring will have direct authority over major weapons programs to eliminate bureaucracy.

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State Stories

Beaumont ISD to appeal TEA takeover decision, officials say

Beaumont Independent School District officials announced Tuesday they will appeal the Texas Education Agency’s decision to take over the district. A BISD spokesperson said the district plans to appeal the takeover after the TEA confirmed it will assume control of Beaumont ISD due to failing academic ratings at two campuses—ML King Middle School and Fehl-Price Elementary—for five consecutive years, meeting the legal threshold for state intervention. Beaumont ISD will become one of eight school districts currently under state control. Previously speaking alongside members of the board of trustees, Allen said she strongly disagreed with the decision and believed the district’s recent academic efforts were not fully considered by the agency.

“I disagree with this decision. I was very disappointed and frustrated with the decision based on the most recent visit we had, based on the work that we've done. The innovations, the effort, the energy, the intensity of Beaumont ISD implementing so many initiatives,” Allen previously said at a press conference on Dec. 11. State law allows the TEA to intervene when at least one campus receives failing ratings for five straight years. In Beaumont ISD, that threshold was reached at two campuses. Allen previously told 12News in September that academic improvement was underway, noting fewer schools were receiving failing grades. District leaders said they believed TEA Commissioner Mike Morath’s September visit suggested a more limited action, possibly the closure of Fehl-Price Elementary. Morath said a single-campus closure would not resolve broader academic challenges within the district. “In Beaumont ISD, you have two different campuses that reached five years of chronic F status, but you actually have well over half the district that is a D or F campus, and only about 30% of kids that are on grade level,” Morath said. “So it's really a systematic inability to support effective academics.” Dr Allen believes the state's decision is the wrong one. "We have done a massive amount of work" said Allen. "I'll be present. I'm gonna continue to work and lead and work and lead until the last day for me to work and lead."

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Texas’ energy market redesign could leave battery developers in limbo

Texas has witnessed the country’s most dynamic grid battery expansion in recent years, thanks in large part to its famously competitive energy markets. Now, a wonky rule change could undermine batteries’ role in the grid. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas instituted new rules on Dec. 5 called ?“real-time co-optimization plus batteries,” or RTC+B. The idea is to allow ERCOT to reassign power plants between two major categories of grid activities: ancillary services, the rapid-response actions designed to keep the system stable and outage-free; and energy, the bulk delivery of megawatt-hours for consumption. On paper, RTC+B sounds agreeable, and other grid operators in the country have been co-optimizing markets for years. ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said the update would bring greater efficiency and reliability to the system. He even called it ?“the most substantial enhancement to the Real-Time Nodal market design since its inception in 2010.” ERCOT leadership has promised more than $1 billion of wholesale market savings each year from the update.

But a major storage developer active in ERCOT is sounding the alarm about the risks these new rules create for storage operators — and initial metrics from Day 1 of RTC+B are consistent with what you’d expect if a bunch of battery owners pulled out of the ancillary service market because of uncertainty. The problem, according to Aaron Zubaty, the concerned storage developer, is that power plants can now be reassigned unpredictably between ancillary services and energy. That uncertainty, plus additional stipulations around minimum state-of-charge levels for batteries to be chosen for ancillary services, could limit batteries’ ability to compete in those markets, where they had become a dominant force. Zubaty runs Eolian, which built one of the first 100-megawatt energy storage plants in ERCOT in 2021 and is now building what would be Texas’ biggest battery. He stopped bidding his merchant battery fleet into the day-ahead ancillary services markets when RTC+B took effect. “Storage is definitely in a different risk world than it was before RTC+B, because of added duration requirements that changed previously negotiated rules, which may not have been widely understood,” Zubaty said. RTC+B enforces new requirements for the level of charge that batteries need in order to be dispatched for each ancillary service, which now happens every five minutes (these services used to be procured by the hour).

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Brian Gaar: A moment With Rob Reiner that meant everything

The year was 2015. I was not in a good place. I had quit my lucrative (ha) job in newspaper journalism to enter the equally lucrative world of local television, hosting a late-night comedy show on The CW in Austin. It was exhilarating, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was the host and one of three writers, working long hours as we cobbled together a daily program. After hours, I sold ads for the show too. We were all burned out, or at least I was. Living your dream is hard. One night, I was asked to host a comedy show at Cap City Comedy Club in Austin. It was a showcase of TV journalists who were attempting standup for the first time, appropriately called “The Funniest Reporter in Texas.” Good luck, I thought. Doing standup is one of the hardest things in the world, because it’s so obvious when you fail. When you succeed, you can’t imagine doing anything else. When you bomb, it’s unbearable.

At the time, I was about eight years into comedy. I happily accepted the job because I needed the ego boost (and the $50). It turned out to be one of those nights that I’d never forget, as trite as that sounds. While my life had been hectic and hard, the show was magic. All of the reporters had great sets, and I was on my game. (“Don’t date your cameramen, ladies!” I warned the participants. The room exploded in laughter.) I got off stage, exhausted but happy. Then I saw Rob Reiner. He was approaching me with a big smile. “Great job!” he said, extending a hand. I couldn’t believe it. The director of “This is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally,” and “The Princess Bride” liked me. I was floating. Was this what heaven felt like? “Hey thanks!” I replied, mentally noting every detail so I could remember this moment forever. Of course, he wasn’t talking to me. You know that old trope of thinking someone’s talking to you, but they’re really addressing the person behind you? That’s what happened. Reiner’s grandson had been one of the participants, and he was congratulating him. Reiner looked at me, slightly annoyed. “Not YOU, you’re a pro,” he snapped. Somehow, life had gotten even better. No, he wasn’t talking to me, but Rob Reiner thought I was a pro. At comedy. I asked him later if we could get a photo, and he graciously accepted. It’s one of my favorite memories, ever.

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Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson: Republican Mayors Association to play role in 2026 elections

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the Republican Mayors Association, a group he launched after he switched from being a Democrat, could help the GOP make gains in the 2026 midterms by attracting urban voters. “For a long time, the Republican Party has basically conceded that Democrats are going to be dominant in our major cities and use them more as foils to talk about,” Johnson said in a CNBC interview that aired Monday. “But what we’re realizing now is that there are a lot of votes in these cities, and they actually impact the statewide races, and particularly swing states. It becomes very important in presidential years.” This comes nearly a week after the city of Miami elected Eileen Higgins, a Democrat, instead of a candidate backed by President Donald Trump in Florida, a red state.

Johnson said he wanted his association and the Republican National Committee to get involved early in scores of mayoral races in the top 300 cities where there may be an overlap in a key congressional race. “In Miami, the Democrats were really early involved in that race, and it paid off for them, and they outspent us 19 to one in that race,” he said. “We can’t let that happen,” he continued. The midterms next year have the potential to shift the levers of power, and Johnson, who has typically cast himself as opposed to policies that call for more government regulation, said affordability would remain relevant to the GOP. “To a certain degree, people are forgetting that we do live in a free market economy, at least ostensibly, and prices of things are determined by the market,” he said, adding that supply and demand determine prices, and there was a growing feeling that the government can play a greater role in setting prices. “That, to me, is a little bit concerning,” he said. Republicans, he said, will have to be careful about how they respond to it. “If we go down that road, I think that we’re sort of playing to the socialist game here, and if we don’t, we appear not to be sensitive to the issue,” he said.

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Ted Cruz says Trump can 'speak for himself' on contentious Rob Reiner post

U.S. Sen Ted Cruz distanced himself from President Donald Trump's unfounded comments that the death of film director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, were the result of their past criticism of him. The Texas Republican told a reporter on Monday that "mental health is an issue that doesn't know partisan lines" — a reference to Reiner's son Nick, who has been charged with murdering Rob and his wife, Michelle. The family had previously talked openly about Nick's struggles with addiction. "I think every family in America has dealt with mental health and dealt with addiction, and I grieve that in this instance, it appears to have cost Rob Reiner and his wife their life," Cruz said, according to the Huffington Post.

Earlier on Monday Trump, who Rob Reiner had previously called "mentally unfit" to be president, posted on Truth Social that Reiner's death was the result of his disdain for Trump. "A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS," he wrote. "A man and his wife were murdered last night. This is NOT the appropriate response," Jenna Ellis, a former Trump lawyer who is now a conservative radio host, wrote on X. "The Right uniformly condemned political and celebratory responses to Charlie Kirk’s death. This is a horrible example from Trump (and surprising considering the two attempts on his own life) and should be condemned by everyone with any decency." Cruz, a known movie buff, has called Reiner's 1987 comedy The Princess Bride his favorite film. During an interview on the television show Extra in 2015 — ahead of his presidential campaign — Cruz acted out a scene from the movie, prompting applause from host Mario Lopez. "That was a one man show," Lopez said.

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Texas is suing all of the big TV makers for spying on what you watch

Texas is suing five of the biggest TV makers, accusing them of “secretly recording what consumers watch in their own homes.” In separate lawsuits filed on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims the TVs made by Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL are part of a “mass surveillance system” that uses Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to collect personal data used for targeted advertising. ACR uses visual and audio data to identify what you’re watching on TV, including shows and movies on streaming services and cable TV, YouTube videos, Blu-ray discs, and more. Attorney General Paxton alleges that ACR also captures security and doorbell camera streams, media sent using Apple AirPlay or Google Cast, as well as the displays of other devices connected to the TV’s HDMI port, such as laptops and game consoles.

The lawsuit accuses Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL of “deceptively” prompting users to activate ACR, while “disclosures are hidden, vague, and misleading.” Samsung and Hisense, for example, capture screenshots of a TV’s display “every 500 milliseconds,” Paxton claims. The lawsuit alleges that TV manufacturers siphon viewing data back to each company “without the user’s knowledge or consent,” which they can then sell for targeted advertising. Along with these allegations, Attorney General Paxton also raises concerns about TCL and Hisense’s ties to China, as they’re both based in the country. The lawsuit claims the TVs made by both companies are “Chinese-sponsored surveillance devices, recording the viewing habits of Texans at every turn.” Attorney General Paxton accuses the five TV makers of violating the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which is meant to protect consumers from false, deceptive, or misleading practices. Paxton asks the court to impose a civil penalty and to block each company from collecting, sharing, or selling the ACR data they collect about Texas-based consumers. Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Vizio, which is now owned by Walmart, paid $2.2 million to the Federal Trade Commission and New Jersey in 2017 over similar allegations related to ACR. “This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful,” Paxton says in a statement. “The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.”

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Connally ISD expresses frustration over state takeover

Connally Independent School District, just north of Waco, is one of the three additional school districts the state will now manage. The district’s director of communications, Michael Donaldson, says they knew the takeover was coming, with two of its schools having earned five consecutive failing ratings, which is the trigger for the state takeover. He is still upset because he says the state recognized the improved educational outcomes the district had made since hiring a new superintendent in 2023. “We simultaneously are being told that we’re making the correct decisions that are going to produce results, but because of the letter of the law we are losing the authority to be able to make those decisions still because we simply ran out of time,” said Donaldson.

Under state law, Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath can close a campus or appoint new leadership if a district is deemed failing. Miguel Solis, president at Commit Partnership, an education think tank, says the threat of a takeover holds districts accountable to their students. “Oftentimes the things that are holding kids back from getting that result that they, that they aspire to are the systems and structures of the school district,” said Solis. District takeovers have increased since the inception of a 2015 law that gives the TEA the authority to do so. The takeovers happening around the state are majorly affecting districts with students from a lower socioeconomic status. The Texas State Teachers Association blames state leadership for putting districts in situations to fail. “The three districts that were taken over last week, all three of them had 80% or more of their student enrollment were low-income kids. Kids who were sometimes too hungry or too sick to go to school or to listen in class, and yet the state of Texas expects them to pass a high stress standardized test,” said Clay Robison, a spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association.

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Austin faces accelerated funding, design deadline for I-35 cap and stitch project

City of Austin officials now face a 2025 deadline to define the scope of several cap and stitch projects that could reshape traffic and neighborhoods across the city. In an update delivered to the Austin Mobility Committee Dec. 4, city officials were confronted with a revised timeline from the Texas Department of Transportation for its I-35 Capital Express Central project. This new schedule introduces a complex set of financial pressures and risks for the city's cap and stitch initiative, a plan to construct land bridges over the expanded I-35, which is intended to heal the decades-old divide created by the interstate, according to city officials. The update presents a bit of a paradox: while the construction of key city-funded elements has been delayed by three years, the deadline for committing the remaining millions of dollars to the project has been unexpectedly moved forward, forcing difficult decisions on an accelerated timeline.

In May, Austin City Council approved an advance funding agreement with TxDOT for up to $104 million to fund the roadway support elements for three downtown caps and two northern stitches, using $41 million from a state infrastructure bank loan and $63 million from certificates of obligation. However, TxDOT would be requesting the first substantial payment for the decks themselves in May 2026, under a schedule meant to spread costs over several years, with much larger “balloon payments” due in the final years of construction, when the actual bridge decks are built, city staff said. TxDOT has made the decision to split the massive I-35 overhaul into two primary phases. The first, an "advanced construction package," is scheduled to go to bid in 2027 and will include work on overpasses like the MLK Jr. Boulevard bridge and utility relocations. The second, the "ultimate construction package," which contains the city's cap and stitch elements, will not go to bid until 2029. This means the construction of the city-funded foundational roadway elements and the cap decks themselves has been pushed out three years, from an anticipated 2026 start to 2029.

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Replace Lake Worth ISD trustees but keep superintendent, board president urges state

Lake Worth ISD board President Tammy Thomas wants to ask the state for a trade: Remove the school board but keep Superintendent Mark Ramirez. “This school board will gladly walk away,” Thomas told the Fort Worth Report after the board’s Dec. 15 meeting. “This school board will gladly let a board of managers and a conservator come in if they will trade us and let us keep Dr. Ramirez.” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced a state takeover of the district Dec. 11, ordering the appointment of a state board of managers and a conservator and directing TEA officials, including himself, to select a new superintendent. The action followed years of low academic performance in the 3,200-student district, including five consecutive failing state academic accountability ratings at Marilyn Miller Language Academy, which triggered the intervention.

Monday’s meeting was the first since the state’s decision. It came amid uncertainty over how quickly control will be stripped from locally elected trustees and how long Ramirez, who has led the district since May, will remain in his role during the transition. Ramirez confirmed after the meeting that he will not be a candidate to remain superintendent once the state appoints new leadership, a decision he said came from TEA. “I’m disappointed because of the work we’ve started here,” Ramirez said. In a call with reporters last week, Morath did not explain why Ramirez would not be considered to remain as superintendent once the state installs new leadership. Instead, the commissioner praised Ramirez’s short tenure in Lake Worth, calling him “a very skilled leader” who has made “many, many changes” since arriving in May. The district’s elected trustees waited too long to make a leadership change, he said. “If they had taken steps to bring Dr. Ramirez in five years ago, I highly doubt we’d be having this conversation,” Morath said.

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Research shows Texans want to feel heard, participate more amid rapid business growth

Texas has grown rapidly in recent years, and data indicates that development is not slowing down. The Lone Star State gained about 168,000 jobs from September 2024 to September 2025, leading the nation in job growth, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Texas is attractive to businesses looking to relocate or expand their operations due to its tax incentives and grants, lack of a personal income tax and roughly 200 higher education institutions, business leaders said during a Dec. 10 summit held in College Station by industry network YTexas. Amid “global volatility” due to inflation and tariffs, “Texas could, in many ways, be a safe haven for those not necessarily looking to escape the global volatility, but rather be on firmer ground... [with] the ability to land and expand and have this runway of opportunity to move in and continue to grow,” said Dean Browell, the chief behavioral officer for Feedback, a digital ethnographic research firm.

Feedback studies what people are saying online “unprompted” by analyzing comments and discussions on social media sites and forums. The firm conducted a study looking at the attitudes of business leaders, entrepreneurs and residents surrounding Texas’ economic growth, which Browell presented at the Dec. 10 summit. As businesses of all sizes continue to move to Texas, local governments and associations also need to “support the ones that are already here,” Browell said. Feedback’s October study found that long-term Texas residents want to live in growing communities with strong education systems and plentiful job opportunities. That growth, however, can lead to rising property taxes and living expenses before residents begin feeling the benefits, Browell told Community Impact in a Dec. 11 interview. He said some Texas residents, including those in fast-growth areas such as the Greater Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas, are “paying for that growth on the front end, while at the same time enduring infrastructural woes because much of the promised infrastructure to support that growth hasn't necessarily come to fruition as fast.” To thrive in Texas, businesses need access to a skilled workforce, reliable infrastructure, affordable real estate and accessible health care, Browell told summit attendees Dec. 10. Businesses also look for state and local support such as tax incentives, federal opportunity zones and the chance to collaborate with others through business associations or local initiatives.

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Bobby Pulido responds to GOP’s claims he urinated on Trump’s Hollywood star

Supporters of President Donald Trump are pissed. Grammy-winning Tejano artist and congressional candidate Bobby Pulido has drawn the ire of opponents after claims that he urinated on Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame recently circulated online. On Dec. 1, U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, shared a story from Fox News on her Facebook page that accused Pulido of defacing Trump’s star. “Bobby Pulido exposed his genitals to urinate on a tribute to President Trump in one of the most crowded public spaces in America, where thousands of women and children pass by at all hours — then tried to hide it,” De La Cruz’s post read. “As a mother, I find this DISGUSTING. If he’s unfit to perform at a quinceañera, he has no business in Congress. SHARE THIS RIGHT NOW!”

The story, which was published on Nov. 26, references a video that Pulido had posted on his Instagram account nearly 10 years ago. The video has since been deleted, but the story included a screengrab showing Pulido standing over Trump’s star and allegedly urinating. The video was originally shared on May 28, 2016 with a caption that read, “when you gotta go, you gotta go.” When reached for comment, Pulido appeared to not be desvelado about the accusations. “You can’t deface anything with water. It was a joke,” Pulido told MyRGV.com. “It was a water bottle. It was water. I would never expose my genitals anywhere public. I’ve had 30 years of my career, never having a scandal, never having been arrested. Actually, there was a police officer that was there, and I told them, ‘Hey, we’re just taking a picture, doing a joke.’” Pulido, who launched his campaign for Texas’ 15th Congressional District in September, has denied that he actually urinated on the president’s star. He is seeking the Democratic candidacy in order to challenge De La Cruz for the seat she has held since 2022. De La Cruz officially filed for reelection on Monday, Dec. 8. “Fox News is already trying to hit me,” Pulido said. “(De La Cruz) embellished this thing saying that I exposed my genitals, which is slanderous, because I wouldn’t do that. They’re trying to do this instead of focusing on what they’re going to do for the people that she represents. They’re going back to a 9-year-old joke that I made.” He said that he recently removed the video because he “knew they were gonna twist it around.”

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Former candidate Jolanda Jones endorses Amanda Edwards in 18th Congressional District runoff

Ahead of the runoff election for the vacant seat in Texas’ 18 Congressional District, former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards garnered a key endorsement from the third-place candidate in November’s special election. State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, endorsed Edwards, as opposed to acting Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, who received the most votes Nov. 4. Edwards and Menefee will go to a runoff on Jan. 31. "This race is too important to sit on the sidelines, and this moment demands leadership that understands our district, respects voters, and is ready to serve immediately," Jones said in a Tuesday news release from Edwards’ campaign.

"After campaigning across Texas' 18th District and listening to our communities, it's clear who is prepared for this moment. That's why I'm proud to endorse Amanda Edwards for Congress. Our district deserves representation, and our democracy requires participation. I encourage those who supported me — and everyone who cares about the future of Texas 18 — to show up and vote." Jones, before becoming a state representative, served on the Houston ISD board of trustees as well as the Houston City Council. "Jolanda Jones has never backed away from a fight for our community, and I'm deeply honored to have her support," Edwards said in a news release. "Together, we're building a people-powered movement to lower costs, protect our freedoms, and deliver real results for the families of TX-18. Women across this district are stepping up, organizing, and leading at this moment, and this endorsement reflects the growing unity behind our campaign. I'm ready to keep building on this momentum and fighting for a future where every Houston family can thrive."

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Tourism taxes tapped to fund Austin homeless services; millions generated amid convention center closure

A new tourism district created to offset the impacts of the convention center's multiyear redevelopment is showing strong early returns. (Ben Thompson/Community Impact) Nearly $1 million in local tourism revenue was directed toward homeless services this fall, representing the first seeding of a stand-alone reserve for Austin's homelessness response. That financing comes as widening tourism promotion efforts during the Austin Convention Center's redevelopment show strong early returns. "If you look no further than this most recent budget, we all know we don’t have enough funding to support a lot of critical services, homelessness included. And so we need to find other ways to pay for this," council member Ryan Alter, who first proposed the homelessness endowment, said in an interview. "By leveraging visitor taxes like we’re doing here, we are allowing for that critical work to be done without increasing our reliance on property taxpayers.”

City Council voted to create the House Our People Endowment, or HOPE, fund back in 2023. Alter presented the concept as a dedicated funding source for homelessness programs that could expand, and take outside investments, over time. The HOPE fund had yet to receive financing until a Dec. 11 council vote to transfer $942,845 in revenue from Austin's new Tourism Public Improvement District, or TPID. The district was set up late last year to support tourism activity and hospitality bookings amid the convention center's multiyear closure, and related impacts to major events in town. The city's overall fiscal year 2025-26 budget already includes millions of dollars for various homelessness initiatives. From the December transfer, $500,000 will be used for homeless navigation services with the remainder yet to be allocated. Housing and shelter programs could also be supported by HOPE funding that's expected to grow to several million dollars annually in the future, Alter said. "It was always envisioned as part of this [TPID] agreement that some of the money would be used for this purpose. And quite frankly, having fewer people on the streets improves tourism," he said of the HOPE transfer. "When people come to Austin and walk around, they want to feel safe and feel like they’re in a vibrant city. And if you have a large homeless population, people don’t feel that way.”

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TSTC Waco's star is on the rise with new funds, facilities

This has been a banner year for the Waco-based Texas State Technical College system. In February, TSTC opened its $17 million WorkSITE job training center in Waco’s main industrial park, with funding assistance from McLennan County and the city of Waco. In November, Texans approved a constitutional amendment creating an $850 million endowment for capital needs in the 11-campus system. Now construction is wrapping up on a $72 million Construction Trades Center on the Waco campus, a gleaming contrast to some of the surrounding 1950s buildings that date back to the site’s previous life as James Connally Air Force Base. As the provost of Waco’s TSTC campus, Beth Wooten is in the thick of that growth. She has been a TSTC administrator for 14 years and now is in charge of the academic program at the flagship campus.

"I’ve told folks recently that I believe the trades are now. It is our time, and so it’s a really, really exciting time for TSTC, not just in Waco, but at all of our campuses across the state," she said. "We’ve never had this opportunity in our 60 years to be able to plan with confidence for capital expansion and deferred maintenance projects. SWe will not receive our first distribution until spring of 2027, so we are currently in the planning phases. We have 11 campuses across the state and that endowment will go to support all 11 campuses. … The endowment portion along with our traditional (state) funds that we will also receive will be $45 (million) to $50 million, is what we’re thinking on an annual basis."

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National Stories

New court filings give a behind-the-scenes look at Trump’s East Wing demolition

A bevy of new details surrounding the Trump administration’s decision to demolish the East Wing of the White House were revealed this week in court filings, as part of a case filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeking to pause construction on the sprawling ballroom project. President Donald Trump’s pet project was initially pitched as a renovation of the structure, which traditionally was home to office space for the first lady and her staff. But it quickly ballooned in scope and is now estimated to cost upward of $300 million — though Trump said that number had increased to $400 million Tuesday night at a White House Hanukkah reception. A memo, filed by the White House on Monday evening in response to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s lawsuit, included declarations from various National Park Service officials and an environmental assessment conducted by the NPS determining that there would be “no significant impact ” on the surrounding environment.

It also provided the first public estimate of the project’s timeline, which is projected to be completed sometime in the summer of 2028 — just months before Trump is set to leave office. White House officials in the filing called for the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that any halt to the project would amount to a national security risk. The filing did not explain the specific national security concerns, but it has long been known that an emergency operations bunker lies below the East Wing. Instead, the administration only offered to share classified details with the judge in a private, in-person setting without the plaintiffs present. The White House also argued in its response filed Monday that the president has the authority to modify the White House, asserting that he is not subject to normal statues. “Plaintiff’s claims concerning demolition of the East Wing are moot because the demolition has already occurred and cannot be undone,” Department of Justice officials wrote. “The President possesses affirmative statutory authority to alter and improve the White House — authority that expressly overrides other laws.” Earlier this month Trump added a new architect to his construction team, after the original project leader reportedly aired concerns about the scope and size of the ballroom.

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Turning Point’s student membership keeps growing

Three months after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the footprint of the right-wing youth organization he founded continues to grow on college campuses. This week, Turning Point USA chapters at both Indiana University Bloomington and the University of Oklahoma reported membership surges. According to the Indiana Daily Student (IDS) and Indy Star, IU’s chapter says its membership has tripled this fall, from 180 to 363. At the University of Oklahoma—which put an instructor on leave after the Turning Point chapter accused them of “viewpoint discrimination”—the group’s membership has grown from 15 to 2,000 over the past year, NBCreported. Those increases follow other local media reports about new chapters and membership growth at scores of other universities across the country, including the University of Missouri, and Vanderbilt and Brigham Young Universities. Within eight days of Kirk’s death, Turning Point said it received messages from 62,000 students interested in starting a new chapter or getting involved with one.

“I think that our club has kind of become a beacon for conservatives,” a Turning Point chapter member told IDS, Indiana University at Bloomington’s campus newspaper. “So, after his death, more people showed up, more people got involved, and it was really nice to kind of see a scene in the way people wanted to get involved.” Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012, with the mission of “to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.” He gained notoriety in conservative circles by traveling to college campuses across the country, challenging students to prove wrong his conservative stances on topics such as race, gender, abortion and immigration. On Sept. 10, Kirk was speaking to a crowd at Utah Valley University when a gunman fatally shot him in the neck. After his death, Trump and his allies moved to canonize Kirk as an exemplar of civic debate—and called to punish anyone who publicly disagreed. Numerous colleges and universities have since suspended or fired faculty and staff who criticized Kirk for his political views. Although some faculty and students have objected to new Turning Point chapters, the students growing the organization insist they’re committed to considering all perspectives. “You have a place here, you'll always have a place here,” Jack Henning, president of Indiana University’s Turning Point chapter, told IDS. “We don’t discriminate against any viewpoints at all, we debate them. That’s what American democracy was built upon.”

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‘Extremely demoralizing’: Republicans respond to the bombastic Wiles interview

White House aides and allies on Tuesday rushed to publicly defend Susie Wiles after a jaw-dropping interview in Vanity Fair had her pointedly criticizing the president and many in the Cabinet. Most of the critiques were batted away as “inside jokes” or part of a “hit piece” from the media but privately those inside the White House and others close to the president were aghast that the West Wing so fully cooperated with the story. “Why Vanity Fair?” wondered one White House official, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the fallout. “They’ve never been remotely good to us.” They added it was “very, very odd.” President Donald Trump Tuesday afternoon said his chief of staff retains his full confidence, telling the New York Post “she’s done a fantastic job.”

Still, the more than 10,000-word Vanity Fair spread, based on 11 interviews over the course of a year, glossy photo-spreads and on-the-record quotes from Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had many of Trump’s allies scratching their heads, wondering why the very top of the administration would participate in the interview. And how could Wiles, lauded for her political acumen and loyalty, have miscalculated so badly? The interview was “extremely demoralizing,” said a person close to the White House. A second person close to the White House said simply: “So far … WTF.” A third person close to the White House said they’ve known Wiles for decades and was “very surprised” that she participated. After publication, Wiles called the story a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” but did not deny she made the comments. The piece lands as the Trump administration grapples with a host of bad headlines: the unemployment rate is up and Trump’s approval ratings are down. Election losses and GOP underperformance has top Republicans worried about a potentially disastrous midterm election and there is growing fear on the right about a land war in Venezuela.

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Chuck Neinas, a key architect and adviser over decades of college sports, dies at 93

Chuck Neinas, the onetime Big Eight commissioner whose media savvy and dealmaking helped turn college football into the multibillion-dollar business it is today, died Tuesday. He was 93. The National Football Foundation announced Neinas' death, with its president and CEO Steve Hatchell calling him “a visionary in every sense of the word.” A cause of death was not disclosed. From 1980-97, Neinas was executive director of the College Football Association, an agency created by several big conferences that sought to wrest control of their TV rights from the NCAA. Two key members, Georgia and Oklahoma, sued the NCAA over TV, and a 1984 Supreme Court ruling in their favor effectively made the CFA a separate business from the rest of college sports. It gave Neinas a key seat at the negotiating table.

He brought home deals worth billions in the 1980s and ’90s, and those huge contracts set the stage for today’s industry, currently highlighted by a TV deal worth $7.8 billion for the College Football Playoff. After the CFA disbanded in 1997 — with conferences taking their TV rights into their own hands and the Bowl Championship Series, the precursor to today’s playoff, about to start — Neinas founded a consulting firm that helped schools create policies and hire athletic directors and coaches. He was CEO of Ascent Entertainment Group, which owned the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and their arena when they sold to Liberty Media Group in 2000. But his passion was college sports. He served as interim commissioner of the Big 12 from 2011-12, solidifying that conference during one of many surges of realignment by adding TCU and West Virginia. In a 2014 interview with The Associated Press, Neinas envisioned a future that looks much like today as he pondered lawsuits against the NCAA that would eventually lead to players being paid. “There is a need for some changes,” Neinas said. “The auto industry is always trying to improve their model. College athletics should do the same. But the basics are still sound.” Born in Wisconsin, Neinas was a longtime Colorado resident and was living in Boulder at the time of his death. After working as a play-by-play man for Wisconsin football and basketball, Neinas got a job with the NCAA, where he served as an assistant executive director from 1961-71. He became commissioner of the Big Eight Conference in 1971 until moving to the CFA. During his Big Eight tenure, Neinas chaired the committee that recommended the NCAA withdraw from the U.S. Olympic Committee. That led to a major reorganization and the passing of the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act that governs the Olympics in the U.S. today.

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Why lawyers buy so many billboards

When San Fernando, California, attorney Arvand Naderi is walking around town, it’s not unusual for random people to greet him enthusiastically. But they don’t say hello. Instead, many shout out the phrase, “Guns n’ dope!” To which Naderi knowingly responds, “Don’t lose hope!” The exchange may seem odd to the uninitiated. But alongside a picture of his face, the catchy couplet (“Guns n’ Dope? / Don’t Lose Hope!”) has been plastered on one of his firm’s billboards off the 118 freeway in neighboring Pacoima for seven years, turning him into something of a local celebrity. Since the criminal defense attorney started advertising on billboards ~10 years ago, he estimates he’s purchased ~50 of them. He says he spends $100k+ on billboard advertising a year. Naderi’s ads may be unique, but his reliance on billboard advertising to build his firm is not. The American Tort Reform Association, a lobbying group that advocates for caps on award damages and changes to current civil liability laws, estimates that in 2024 attorneys spent $541m+ on out-of-home and outdoor ads, a category that includes billboards as well as space on buses, subways, and other public areas.

This is an increase of $70m compared to 2023 and nearly $200m from 2022. Morgan & Morgan, the country’s largest personal injury firm, reportedly spends a staggering $350m annually on marketing alone. So why are so many law firms, from single-attorney practices to firms with thousands of employees, investing so heavily in billboards? As our world is increasingly lived online, advertising has shifted along with it. The business intelligence firm Research and Markets reports that in 2024 the value of the global digital marketing industry was $410B, and is projected to reach $1.2T by 2033. Billboards, on the other hand, are stubbornly, laughably low-tech. They’ve barely changed since the first ones appeared in the US in the 1860s. They’re also not cheap. In Los Angeles, for example, billboards range from $5k to $9k a month (and far more in iconic, highly touristed places such as Sunset Boulevard). So what explains their massive appeal today? The first reason is competition. According to the American Bar Association, in 2024 there were 1.3m practicing attorneys in the United States, a ratio of one attorney to every 260 Americans. While the number peaked in 2019, with 1.352m practicing attorneys, since 2000 this cohort has grown, on average, by 1% a year. “If you do not advertise, you will get eaten by people like me,” says Brooke Goff, a personal injury attorney in Connecticut.

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Lead Stories

Greg Abbott details plan to turn Harris County ‘dark red' in 2026

Gov. Greg Abbott is prepared to pour $25 million into his effort to turn Harris County — a Democratic stronghold he lost by 10 percentage points in 2022 — “dark red” as he seeks a record fourth term in office, according to details of the plan shared with Hearst Newspapers. As part of that, the Texas Republican is planning to target House Democrats there with messaging on crime, bail restrictions and property taxes, key planks of his reelection pitch. The governor recruited Republican candidates to run in every state House seat in the county, including some where the GOP has not had a candidate on the ballot in years. And he’s hired a consultant based in Houston to help coordinate their efforts. House District 135, an open seat being vacated by state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, who is running for Texas Railroad Commission; House District 137, held by state Rep. Gene Wu since 2013; House District 140, held by state Rep. Armando Walle since 2009; House District 143, held by state Rep. Ana Hernandez since 2005; House District 144, held by state Rep. Mary Ann Perez since 2017; House District 148, held by state Rep. Penny Morales Shaw since 2021; House District 149, held by state Rep. Hubert Vo since 2005.

It is a lofty goal for the governor, who has not won the county since his first gubernatorial run in 2014. And it comes as Republicans are expected to be largely playing defense amid a midterm backlash against President Donald Trump, who drew just 46% of the vote in Harris County last year. “You want to rally your base, but to say they’re going to make Harris County ‘dark red’ — I think that’s a very ambitious plan,” said Renee Cross, senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston. “I honestly don’t see it.” But the investment from the governor’s campaign speaks to how serious it is taking the challenge. Abbott has about $90 million in his campaign account and is planning to spend more than a quarter of it in Harris County. “The effort is county-wide to impact every race,” said Dave Carney, Abbott’s longtime political adviser. “We plan to compete for every voter.” The push comes after Republicans made some gains in 2024. The 46% of the county vote Trump won last year was up from 43% in 2020 and 42% in 2016. The GOP, meanwhile, won 10 judicial seats last year, its strongest showing at the courthouse in a decade.

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CEOs are learning to live with Trump’s turn to state capitalism

Last week Nvidia finally got permission to sell one its most advanced semiconductor chips to China. The catch: The federal government will take 25% of the revenue from those sales. The Nvidia deal says something important about the relationship between business and government under President Trump. His regular intrusions into the boardroom—taking equity stakes, revenue slices or a “golden share”; prodding companies to lower prices or sell drugs through a federal website—are a sort of state capitalism, in which the state doesn’t necessarily own companies, but uses its substantial leverage to steer their behavior. State capitalism is a two-way street. Many businesses, by aligning themselves with Trump’s agenda, elicit better treatment—in their ability to sell to China, the tariffs they pay, how they are regulated, and what mergers are allowed. In other words, state capitalism doesn’t just serve the interests of the state, but of favored capitalists.

Nvidia is, in effect, paying for a license that used to be free, but it hasn’t objected. After all, it’s getting access to a lucrative market that would otherwise be off-limits. In August, shortly after Trump first proposed a 15% cut, chief executive Jensen Huang told an interviewer: “Whatever it takes to get it approved for us to be able to sell in China, is fine with us.” Whether this cozy relationship between the state and selected capitalists is good for the country is another question. State capitalism is neither socialism, in which the government owns the means of production, or laissez-faire capitalism. It’s more of a hybrid, variants of which have long been commonplace outside the U.S. Once popular in Japan and Western Europe, it remains prominent in China, Russia and other countries to varying degrees. In the U.S., taking stakes in companies or commandeering their production was once limited to wars or emergencies such as the financial crisis and Covid. Trump has made it standard practice. “I think we should take stakes in companies,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal last week. “Now, some people would say that doesn’t sound very American. Actually, I think it is very American.”

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Texas AG turned to outside ‘fixing’ firm as office reeled

Days after a simmering office dispute involving his current and former deputies splashed into public view, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office hired an Austin firm that touted its expertise in “fixing sensitive problems.” Weisbart Springer Storm Hatchitt LLP’s June 30 contract called for it to advise on “development and compliance with OAG policies and procedures,” according to a copy of the agreement obtained by Bloomberg Law through a public records request. For the next two months, Paxton’s office paid it more than $25,000. Unlike seven other contracts Paxton’s office engaged in with outside counsel this year, the contract didn’t provide specific expectations, name an opposing party, or describe a dispute. The invoices show work on litigation that wasn’t laid out in the engagement, and the tasks are heavily redacted in invoices provided to Bloomberg Law.

Paxton’s office didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment on the firm’s retention. Weisbart Springer didn’t respond to questions about the work it did. Weisbart Springer is a firm of 10 lawyers that specializes in complex litigation as well as sensitive problems, according to its website. Its attorneys “have successfully extricated individuals and companies from seemingly impossible situations, restored the status quo, and helped to allow individuals to move past traumatic business and personal chapters of their lives,” the site says. At the time of the engagement, Paxton’s office was dealing with two bombshell lawsuits involving high-ranking lawyers who were once aligned as members of his leadership team. One was a claim by former solicitor general Judd Stone that Paxton’s first assistant, Brent Webster, had slandered him. In the other, an executive assistant asserted she’d been harassed by Stone and former division head Christopher Hilton while the three of them prepared to defend Paxton in his 2023 impeachment trial in the Texas Senate. The lawsuit included an email from Webster that said he had been threatened by Stone to the point that he was considering security for his family based on comments Stone made. In their lawsuit, Stone and Hilton said Webster retaliated against them by feeding the email to the assistant to use in hers. Webster did this, they allege, because they launched a corruption investigation into him through a public records request to the AG’s office.

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Former Austin Mayor Frank Cooksey, progressive champion, dies at 92

Former Austin Mayor Frank Cooksey, champion of civil rights and the environment, died early Monday morning, his daughter confirmed. He was 92. "We've lost one of the good guys," posted Judy Maggio Rosenfeld, a longtime broadcast reporter and founder of Judy Maggio Media. "Frank Cooksey truly cared about Austin, its people and its future." A student body president at the University of Texas during the 1950s, lawyer Cooksey rode to municipal office on a progressive political wave that began in the 1970s. Tall and smiling, he served as mayor from 1985 to 1988. "Frank Cooksey’s concerns were always about the well-being of his fellow citizens, all of them," said UT historian Tom Hatfield. "He was their advocate. He was serious about serious issues, like fairness and justice, clean water, adequate food, good housing and effective government. He was an exemplary product of the public schools of Austin."

Cooksey was born June 3, 1933, in Ashland, Kentucky. He lived for seven years in Grayson, Kentucky, where his father owned and operated a department store. The family moved to Austin, where his mother's ancestors had settled since the 1840s. He attended Pease Elementary, University Junior High and Austin High School. He graduated in 1951. Cooksey attended both Baylor University and UT, where he graduated with a degree in psychology in 1955. After working on a master's in international relations, he attended the Union Theological Seminary in New York, then UT Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1962. In all phases, Cooksey joined and led social, scholarly and other clubs. He practiced law for 40 years. Among his postings were as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, an assistant U.S. attorney and special attorney general of Texas. He spent time in private practice in Austin, Houston and Washington, D.C. In 1988, he retired from active practice. That did not slow him down. Cooskey continued to lead legal initiatives at home and abroad.

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State Stories

John Moritz: The lieutenant governor Texas didn’t elect — and didn’t fully honor

The flags over the Texas Capitol flew at full staff last week. That's only notable because former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff died Monday at 89, long after his 15-year career as an elected official, most of it as a state senator representing a rural East Texas district, had come to an end. It's not unusual for the Texas and American flags to be lowered to honor the passing of a prominent leader or to mark a tragedy that shocks the sensibilities of the state. Readers of a certain age and Texas political history junkies of average skill level and above will recall that Ratliff's two-year service as the 40th lieutenant governor came with an asterisk. Unlike the 39 before him and the two who followed, Ratliff was not elected in a statewide vote. Instead, he was chosen in a secret ballot of the Texas Senate to fill the vacancy left when then-Lt. Gov. Rick Perry ascended to the Governor's Mansion after George W. Bush was elected president.

Ratliff's selection by his peers was hardly a fluke. He had served two teams as the powerful chairman of the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee and before that led the chamber's Education Committee, where it fell to him to craft a school finance system that would pass court muster and a divergent assortment of political agendas after the system existing at the time had failed in its constitutional obligation to provide an "adequate" education for each and every child enrolled in Texas' public schools. For that, Ratliff became known as "the father of Robin Hood," the nickname for his plan forcing districts with robust property tax bases to send a portion of their revenue to districts with fewer resources. But it was Ratliff's four years at the head of the Finance Committee that burnished his standing among his fellow senators. Having sway over billions of dollars in state spending is powerful and thankless at the same time. The money available to spend is finite; the demands for at least a share of it are not. That means the Finance Committee chair, in both rich times and lean, has to say "no" more often than "yes" to the endless parade of interest groups and to the very lawmakers the chair must ask to vote in favor of the budget.

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Rep. Marc Veasey drops out of race for county judge

One week after filing, U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth has stepped out of the race for Tarrant County judge. Instead, Veasey said in a statement he is going to remain “laser-focused” on representing Congressional District 33. “At a time when Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are escalating their assaults on our democracy, our rights, and the rule of law, I believe we cannot afford to retreat from the arenas where those fights are being waged most intensely,” Veasey said in the statement.

That leaves Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons and Fort Worth civic advocacy leader Millennium Anton C. Woods Jr. as the only two in the Democratic primary on March 3. Veasey was the last to join the race on the filing deadline, Dec. 8. Before his announcement, he had been expected to place a bid for Congressional District 30 or run for reelection in his freshly redistricted seat. Though the previous map would have been used in the 2026 elections due to a federal judge’s ruling in El Paso, the U.S. Supreme Court determined the redistricted map will be applied. The new map tips the scale toward Republicans in five districts, including Veasey’s. Pulling out of the race wasn’t an easy decision, Veasey said. “But, knowing you can win an election does not mean you should run a campaign,” he said.

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Houston congressman, a celebrity in political circles, now fighting for his job

Sitting in his congressional office turned podcast studio with the curtains drawn, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw ticked off his political enemies one after another: former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, conspiracy theorist Candace Owens and the former Navy Seal and podcaster Shawn Ryan. The list represents some of the most influential voices of the far right wing of the Republican party — the very people voters in his congressional district are paying attention to ahead of what is expected to be a tough primary in March. "They were lying about me, and I'm just not somebody who lets that go," Crenshaw explained. "You could say that's a bad strategy. But I will just not let people lie about me."

Since coming to Washington in 2019, Crenshaw has risen to become one of the most recognizable members of Congress, with a reputation for candor and a penchant for calling out those with whom he disagrees. But after a damaging pair of disclosures last month, both involving drinking, the 41-year-old has again found himself under attack by far-right commentators and politicians with whom he has long clashed. The scrutiny comes as the Houston lawmaker is facing what could be his toughest primary yet. Redistricting meant to shore up Republicans’ strength in Congress may actually hurt Crenshaw, whose district has been sweeping further into deep red Montgomery County. He’s drawn a formidable primary challenger in state Rep. Steve Toth, the owner of a local pool cleaning company who has a reputation as one of the most conservative members of the Texas Legislature. Crenshaw, a former Navy Seal, brushes off criticism as part of the "outrage culture" he has long pilloried. But for those who know him, the recent incidents are reflective of a politician they describe as equal parts inspirational and frustrating. "If he doesn’t like you, he'll tell you and that gets him in trouble," said Christian Collins, a GOP political organizer in Texas who used to work for Crenshaw. "I feel like when you're that big, the adverse side effect is you're living in a fish bowl. Everyone is paying attention to everything you do. Everything he says goes viral."

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Houston news icon Dave Ward's funeral set for this week and it's open to the public

Memorial services and multiple days of remembrance are set for Houston broadcasting legend Dave Ward. Ward, who spent more than five decades delivering the news to Houstonians, died Saturday at the age of 86. According to the Houston Chronicle, Ward died from pneumonia-related complications. Ward began his broadcast career at KTRK in 1966 as a reporter, moving into the anchor chair a year later. He would become one of Houston's most familiar news figures. Our thoughts, of course, are with his family and his colleagues. On Wednesday, Ward will lie in repose from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. at the Crime Stoppers of Houston Dave Ward Building, which is named after him. It's on Main Street. Then on Thursday, a public visitation is planned from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and again from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons Funeral Directors on Bering Drive. Dave Ward's funeral service is scheduled for noon Friday at St. Martin's Episcopal Church on Sage Road. It's open to the public.

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Camp Mystic wants lawsuits over July 4 flood moved out of Travis County

Attorneys for Camp Mystic, the Texas Hill Country retreat where 25 children and two counselors were killed in a flash flood on July 4, are trying to move four lawsuits against the camp from Travis County to Kerr County, where the victims died. A defense motion seeking a change of venue argues that Travis County is not the proper place for the legal fight because none of the events at issue occurred in that county and because the people being sued, as well as potential witnesses, live in Kerr County.

"The case should ... be transferred to Kerr County for the convenience of the parties and, in particular, the third-party witnesses," Jeff Ray, Mikal Watts and other lawyers for Camp Mystic said in a motion filed Friday in state district court. "All relevant events in this lawsuit took place in Kerr County. Potential witnesses include camp staff members who reside in Kerr County and local Kerr County officials." Late Friday night, the Camp Mystic lawyers also filed their formal responses to the four lawsuits brought by families of campers and counselors who died in the July 4 deluge. In those documents, defense lawyers asserted that none of the cabins at Camp Mystic, a nearly 100-year-old Christian overnight camp for girls, had ever flooded before, and that the July 4 storm was "beyond a 1,000-year flood event, completely off the charts, and never anticipated." They also faulted government agencies for failing to install a flood warning system with sirens, despite "recommendations and proposals" for one, and they said Kerr County authorities did not issue an evacuation notice until 5:02 a.m. on July 4, "well after the sudden swell and surge of water had already engulfed the camp and lives were lost." In arguing for a change of venue, the defense attorneys said it might be necessary for jurors to visit the camp to "see and appreciate the layout of the property and its elevations and the extent of the flood’s damage."

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Crockett: People who ‘regret’ voting for Trump are ‘absolutely welcome’ in her campaign

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said any voter, regardless of party affiliation, is welcome to support her campaign to be one of the Lone Star State’s senators. “I’m a Texan, and so at the end of the day, I think people are trying to say it has to be one [party] or the other, and I believe it has to be both. I think that we’re going to see frustration. We’re going to see people that are regretting that they voted for Trump. And those people are absolutely welcome in our campaign,” Crockett said during an interview on MS NOW on Saturday. “My attitude is we need to focus on what matters most to Texans. I can tell you that our farmers and ranchers, they’ve already been feeling the heat before Trump got in there, because the Republicans would not allow for a farm bill to be passed out of the House. He’s only exacerbated their problems. And that’s why there’s record numbers of bankruptcies that are being filed right now,” she continued.

Crockett’s desire to garner voters from both sides comes after announcing her bid for the upper chamber last week, challenging Texas State Rep. James Talarico. He, like Crockett, is a rising star in the Democratic Party. Just before Crockett announced her run, former Rep. Colin Allred (D) dropped out of the Senate race in favor of running for a House seat. Talarico welcomed a bid against Crockett, saying that the Democratic movement is rooted in unity over division. Democratic strategist James Carville said Crockett’s bid broke the “first rule of politics” by making it about herself and not voters. “What wins elections is not sitting there talking incessantly about yourself. Winning elections is not about how many clicks you get or how much overnight fundraising you do. Winning elections is being part of framing issues and understanding where people come from,” he added. “There are a lot of people that said, ‘You got to stay in the House. We need our voice. We need you there.’ And I understand, but what we need is for me to have a bigger voice,” Crockett said at her campaign launch event.

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The state is making a list of transgender Texans. It’s using driver's licenses to help.

The state of Texas has continued collecting information on transgender drivers seeking to change the sex listed on their licenses, creating a list of more than 100 people in one year. According to internal documents The Texas Newsroom obtained through records requests, the Texas Department of Public Safety has amassed a list of 110 people who tried to update their gender between August 2024 and August 2025. Employees with driver’s license offices across the state, from El Paso to Paris to Plano, reported the names and license numbers of these people to a special agency email account. Identifying information was redacted from the records released to The Texas Newsroom. The data was collected after Texas stopped allowing drivers to update the gender on their licenses unless it was to fix a clerical error. It is unclear what the state is doing with this information.

An agency spokesperson did not respond to questions about why the list was created and whether it was shared with any other agencies or state officials. The Texas Newsroom filed records requests in an attempt to find the answers but did not receive any additional information that sheds light on what the state may be doing with these names. In recent years, GOP lawmakers have passed multiple laws restricting the rights of transgender Texans, including two new measures that went into effect this year. One defines “male” and “female” on state documents as being based on a person’s reproductive system. The other, known as the "bathroom bill," bars governments from allowing people to use a restroom at public buildings, parks or libraries that do not match their sex at birth. While it’s unclear how the state plans to enforce the bathroom bill, transgender activist Ry Vazquez told KUT News she was asked to show her ID before using a restroom in the state Capitol earlier this month. Vazquez said she and three other people were then cited with criminal trespassing and banned from the building for a year. Landon Richie, the policy coordinator with the Transgender Education Network of Texas, is concerned that the list the state is keeping will be used to pass more state laws targeting the rights of transgender Texans.

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Katy Murray, DallasNews executive who laid groundwork for milestone Hearst deal, departing after merger

By late spring, acquisition discussions between executives at DallasNews Corporation — the former holding company of The Dallas Morning News and the creative marketing agency Medium Giant — and the global media corporation Hearst Corporation had progressed enough that the North Texas company was ready to open up its financial architecture. But the talks remained highly sensitive. So instead of directing an entire team to take on the financial transparency job, as public companies typically do, Katy Murray, the company’s president and longtime CFO, decided to take on the job herself. She spent months compiling reams of highly detailed company records — everything from historical HR files and subscription records to legal liabilities — in a secure electronic data room.

“It is unheard of that a single executive populates a data room, but it shows you she can do the work of eight people,” said Dallas Morning News publisher and president Grant Moise. “She just said, ‘Let me carry the burden. I’ll carry the work and I’ll carry the emotional burden’ … I mean, that’s pretty rare.” In late September, the deal to sell DallasNews Corporation to Hearst was finalized after shareholders approved a purchase agreement that valued the North Texas company at around $88 million. It was a transaction with major implications for Texas media: The sale — the first in the 140-year history of The News — was conceived to preserve the newspaper’s longtime health in an increasingly challenging era for American print media, and effectively represents a new era for one of the country’s most storied news organizations. The sale also led to a new chapter for Murray, who has held top executive roles at DallasNews Corporation and its predecessor company A. H. Belo Corporation for the past decade. Under the new ownership structure, several local executive roles, including Murray’s position as president, are being eliminated, and a significant portion of The News’ back office responsibilities are moving to Hearst’s headquarters in New York.

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Houston Black farmers lead fight for food justice

When it comes to fighting against food deserts and seeking food justice, Houston-area Black farmers are literally on the front lines. Food deserts are urban areas where affordable, good-quality fresh food is hard to find. In Houston, more than 500,000 residents live in food deserts, many in predominantly Black neighborhoods like Acres Homes and Third Ward. According to a Kinder Institute study, over half (53%) of Black households in Harris County experience food insecurity, and one in five Black residents lack easy access to fresh food.

Some advocates reject the term food desert, preferring food apartheid—a phrase coined by activist Karen Washington to describe the racially and economically driven systems that determine who gets access to healthy food and who doesn’t. Whether one says “desert” or “apartheid,” Black people are catching the short end of the stick when it comes to food access and the illnesses that result. Though only 1.3% of Americans grow food for the rest, Black farmers are disproportionately few. They make up just 3% of all Texas farmers, yet Texas leads the nation with 11,741 Black producers—nearly a quarter of all Black farmers in the U.S. “For me, food justice is about people knowing where their food comes from, being able to see a farmer who looks like them, and having equitable access to fresh food,” said DeShaun Taylor, a licensed midwife who co-owns Taylor Made Farms with her husband, Jazzyyy. “We shouldn’t have to drive from Acres Homes to The Woodlands for a tomato. That’s injustice.”

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Joe Ely, Texas music legend, dead at 78

Joe Ely, a titanic figure in Texas music, has died. He was 78. Ely, who bridged the worlds of country and rock and served as a key figurehead in the rise of Austin as a creative focal point in the 1970s, died at his home in Taos, N.M., from complications of Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease and pneumonia, according to his long-time publicist Lance Cowan. Ely is survived by his wife Sharon and his daughter Marie. Details about any memorial service were not immediately available.

“Joe Ely performed American roots music with the fervor of a true believe who knew music could transport souls,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in a statement to Variety. “His distinctive musical style could only have emerged from Texas, with its southwestern blend of honky-tonk, rock and roll, roadhouse blues, Western swing and conjunto.” Born in Amarillo in 1947, Ely lived briefly in Fort Worth during his childhood, before settling in Lubbock. It was there, in 1971, where Ely formed The Flatlanders, alongside Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. Ely eventually relocated to Austin, and signed with MCA Records, which released his solo, self-titled debut in 1977, and would remain his major label home for 20 years. Ely’s colorful life and career found him crossing paths with everyone from The Clash (Ely famously found himself in England while the influential band was recording its classic London Calling LP) and Stevie Ray Vaughan, to ZZ Top and Linda Ronstadt. In 1999, Ely won a Grammy as part of the supergroup Los Super Seven.

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Reports: Arch Manning returning to Texas for 2026 season

Looks like Arch Manning isn’t done in Austin yet. The Longhorns’ highly-touted quarterback will return to Texas for 2026, according to reports from ESPN and Horns247’s Chip Brown. Manning was eligible to enter the draft after this season, but as a redshirt sophomore he still has two years of college eligibility remaining. Manning’s father, Cooper, told ESPN that “Arch is playing football at Texas next year,” on Monday night. Team officials also told ESPN that the expectation was for Manning to return in 2026. Manning, who entered the 2025 season as the Heisman favorite, had an up-and-down year in his first season as Texas’ starting quarterback. The redshirt sophomore finished the regular season with 2,942 yards and 24 touchdowns passing to go with 7 interceptions. He added 244 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.

Once considered among the favorites to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, Manning’s stock took a hit as he struggled early in the season. His difficulties were especially apparent in a shocking upset loss to Florida when he threw 2 interceptions and took six sacks while completing just 55.2% of his passes. His play improved in the tail end of the season and he closed with several strong performances, leading his team to wins over Vanderbilt and Texas A&M while passing for 1,493 yards and 12 touchdowns with two interceptions while rushing for three more scores. One of those was a highlight-reel 35-yard touchdown against the rival Aggies. Now it appears Manning will be suiting up for the Citrus Bowl against Michigan on Dec. 31 as a precursor to his next season in burnt orange.

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Collin County committee finding it difficult to say what comes after leaving DART

Last week, Alex Wolford wrote about the growing number of suburban DART member cities who are talking about walking away from the transit agency. You should read his deep dive because it’s going to make you smarter, and everyone should take advantage of opportunities to knock a few wrinkles in any smooth patches in the old grey matter. In Alex’s piece, he writes about the Collin County Connects Committee, also known as the C4 committee. It’s the brainchild of the Plano City Council and is tasked with developing whatever comes after leaving DART, provided voters agree in May that the city should. “Our Collin County Connects Committee will be working on an intra-city transportation program that would include senior transit, paratransit, and additional transit for those interested in using the system,” explains Plano City Councilmember Steve Lavine.

The committee met last week, and the Dallas Area Transit Alliance wrote about it. Guys, I don’t think it went well, because the post starts: “Dallas Area Transit Alliance (DATA) commends the efforts of the Collin County Connects Committee to forge a path forward despite numerous roadblocks and a lack of information. The disarray and confusion during the committee proceedings demonstrates what transit riders have known from the beginning: Plano has no realistic plan to replace DART, and attempting to do so would harm thousands who rely on dependable regional transportation every day.” The committee was slated to select and recommend a vendor to provide microtransit options to the city. Instead, the majority decided not to recommend any vendor and urged the city not to move forward with the withdrawal from DART.

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Spurs great David Robinson sues business partner, alleges he committed fraud

San Antonio Spurs legend David Robinson alleges his longtime business partner in private-equity firm Admiral Capital Group LLC has misappropriated millions of dollars. Robinson, Admiral Capital and two affiliated firms are suing New York investment banker Daniel Bassichis, accusing him of fraud, conversion and civil conspiracy, among other claims. They seek more than $34 million in damages. They also want all “traceable profits, earnings, and appreciation” on $18 million they allege was diverted to Bassichis’ Vero Capital GP LLC and a related investment fund, as well as unspecified punitive damages. The lawsuit was filed Friday in the 4th Business Court Division in San Antonio. Bassichis has not yet been served with the complaint.

Robinson started Admiral Capital with Bassichis, a former Goldman Sachs banker, in 2008. Robinson was known as “the Admiral” during his basketball career because he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. He played with the Spurs from 1989 to 2003 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009. Robinson owns 51% of Admiral Capital, while Bassichis owns the rest, according to the suit. Admiral Capital also is listed as the managing member of Admiral Columbus LLC, which holds a portfolio of real estate assets. Bassichis provided an emailed statement in response to the lawsuit. “David and I have known each other for twenty-three years and have shared a long and successful business relationship,” Bassichis said Monday. “In 2022, David stepped down from the business, and I continued as managing partner, overseeing the existing assets and working to grow the business in the best interests of our investors. We are proud of our track record and accomplishments. My team remains extraordinarily dedicated to doing what is best for our investors. “While disputes between partners unfortunately arise, this matter is an isolated business disagreement regarding the wind-down of several assets and related issues, and I am confident it will be resolved quickly,” Bassichis added.

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Dallas County adult probation director out of role amid state audit

Dallas County adult probation director Arnold Patrick “has transitioned out of his role” leading the department, according to an email his deputy sent to employees Friday. The criminal district and county court judges who oversee the Community Supervision and Corrections Department director declined to comment on the nature of Patrick’s departure. Christina O’Neil, chief counsel for the judiciary, told The Dallas Morning News matters involving employees “are confidential and not subject to public dissemination.” But Patrick’s departure comes as the department remains under a state investigation prompted by reporting from The News in October that uncovered how Patrick paid his state advocacy association colleague $45,100 in a contract to vet vendors despite the consultant acknowledging in an email he did not complete the work. The audit by the Texas Board of Criminal Justice’s Office of Internal Auditor is still in process, according to director of communications Amanda Hernandez.

Patrick did not respond to a phone call or text message seeking comment. Marta Kang, deputy director of the adult probation department, is serving as acting director, according to the email she sent employees Friday. “Please know that my focus will remain on collaboration, communication and ensuring we have what we need to succeed,” Kang wrote. In January 2023, Patrick hired Austin-area lobbyist Eric Knustrom to screen and handle vendors doing business with the probation department while the two were also working together in a state advocacy association they created the year prior, emails obtained by The News show. During the year of Knustrom’s contract with the probation department, he missed deadlines and did not perform core duties of the agreement, according to his December 2023 termination letter. Knustrom failed to review vendor applications, provide status updates or share outcomes of client complaints, the letter states. Records show the probation department issued Knustrom five checks totaling $45,100 in 2023. By early 2024, Knustrom had cashed only $12,300 worth of the checks. In May 2024, five months after his contract ended, Patrick asked Knustrom if he was going to redeem the outstanding payments, emails show. Knustrom responded by acknowledging he did not perform all the work he was contracted to do and needed to make up for it.

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City Stories

Former San Antonio City Council staffer arrested for threats toward District 9 office, affidavit says

A staff member for a San Antonio City Council district office has been arrested on a terroristic threat charge, according to an email obtained by KSAT from City Manager Erik Walsh to Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and the city council. Bryan Naylor was arrested Monday, Bexar County court records show. Naylor, who was employed by District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez, allegedly wrote a threatening note toward District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears’ office. Walsh said Naylor was previously employed by the District 9 office. A District 9 staff member was conducting a routine equipment inventory on Dec. 11 when they found a “threatening note affixed under a desk,” Walsh’s email stated. An arrest affidavit for Naylor states the desk belonged to the City Council District 9 chief of staff. The note allegedly included a picture of Naylor with the message, “Die Fascist.”

Walsh said the situation was immediately reported. Spears closed the field office “until a panic button can be installed,” according to the affidavit. According to the affidavit, a staffer reported other staff members “who are all concerned about the note due to previous issues between the old staff and current staff to include extreme animosity directed toward incoming staff by the exiting staff.” The animosity allegedly included leaving the office in disarray, damaging walls and missing equipment. According to the affidavit, the incoming staff also found “life like” replicas of a rat, snake and cockroaches hidden around the office. The staffer reported she was “fearful for herself, all of the staff in the office and the Councilwoman,” the affidavit states, and that Spears and her husband requested police patrols at their home. San Antonio police contacted Naylor at his residence, where he admitted to creating the note. He also admitted to hiding the replicas around the office before to his departure from District 9 and before being hired by the District 8 office, according to the email and affidavit.

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National Stories

Reiners’ son arrested in deaths of his parents

A son of the director Rob Reiner who is being held in his parents’ murders argued with his father at a holiday party the night before the couple’s bodies were discovered on Sunday, according to a person who attended the gathering. The attendee, who asked not to be named to maintain relationships, did not speak to the Reiners at the party and said that it was unclear what the argument was about. The son, Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested on Sunday night and being held in a Los Angeles County jail without bail, the police said. The police said Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. Two people who were briefed on the case but not authorized to speak publicly said they had been stabbed to death.

Police officials said the case would be presented on Tuesday to the Los Angeles County District Attorney as the office considered charges. Based on a timeline laid out by the authorities, it appeared that prosecutors would have until the end of Wednesday to file charges. Rob Reiner, 78, was a popular sitcom actor before directing a slate of beloved films, including “This Is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally …” and “The Princess Bride.” He went on to become a force in California and national Democratic politics, championing gay marriage and other causes. Ms. Reiner, 70, was a photographer and later a producer. Nick Reiner had spoken over the years about his struggles with drug abuse and bouts of homelessness beginning with his teenage years. He worked with his father on a movie, “Being Charlie,” that was loosely inspired by his early life. In part because of that history, the police focused almost immediately on him, according to a person who was briefed by the authorities and spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to speak publicly on the investigation. On Monday afternoon, a private security company was guarding the Reiners’ property, whose entry and driveway gates were adorned with “no trespassing” signs.

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States will keep pushing AI laws despite Trump’s efforts to stop them

State lawmakers of both parties said they plan to keep passing laws regulating artificial intelligence despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop them. Trump signed an executive order Thursday evening that aims to override state artificial intelligence laws. He said his administration must work with Congress to develop a national AI policy, but that in the meantime, it will crack down on state laws. The order comes after several other Trump administration efforts to rein in state AI laws and loosen restrictions for developers and technology companies. But despite those moves, state lawmakers are continuing to prefile legislation related to artificial intelligence in preparation for their 2026 legislative sessions. Opponents are also skeptical about — and likely to sue over — Trump’s proposed national framework and his ability to restrict states from passing legislation.

“I agree on not overregulating, but I don’t believe the federal government has the right to take away my right to protect my constituents if there’s an issue with AI,” said South Carolina Republican state Rep. Brandon Guffey, who penned a letter to Congress opposing legislation that would curtail state AI laws. The letter, signed by 280 state lawmakers from across the country, shows that state legislators from both parties want to retain their ability to craft their own AI legislation, said South Dakota Democratic state Sen. Liz Larson, who co-wrote the letter. Earlier this year, South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden signed the state’s first artificial intelligence law, authored by Larson, prohibiting the use of a deepfake — a digitally altered photo or video that can make someone appear to be doing just about anything — to influence an election. South Dakota and other states with more comprehensive AI laws, such as California and Colorado, would see their efforts overruled by Trump’s order, Larson said. “To take away all of this work in a heartbeat and then prevent states from learning those lessons, without providing any alternative framework at the federal level, is just irresponsible,” she said. “It takes power away from the states.”

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James Woods shares why he stayed friends with Rob Reiner despite political differences

Outspoken conservative actor James Woods on Monday opened up about why he remained friends with Rob Reiner despite his political views following the stabbing deaths of the director and his wife Michele. “When people say horrible things about Rob right now, I find it, quite frankly, infuriating and distasteful,” said Woods in a Fox News appearance. Woods told host Jesse Watters that Reiner “literally saved” his career by rallying behind him to join the cast of “Ghosts of Mississippi,” the director’s 1996 film on the trial of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963.

Woods, who starred as De La Beckwith, went on to earn an Oscar nomination for his supporting role and remained friends with Reiner, a staunch liberal and political activist who championed progressive causes. He recalled people seeing the two laugh and kidding each other at parties, interactions they later asked him about considering their political differences. “I would say, ‘I think Rob Reiner is a great patriot. Do I agree with some of many of his ideas on how that patriotism should be enacted to celebrate the America that we both love? No. But he doesn’t agree with me either but he also respects my patriotism,’” Woods explained. “We had a different path to the same destination which was a country we both love.' And when people would say terrible things to me on social media about him, I said, ‘You got it all wrong.’” The actor’s comments arrive after President Donald Trump’s widely criticized post tying Reiner’s death to “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a take he later doubled down on. A number of critics have since pointed out Trump’s hypocrisy, citing his and the GOP’s criticism of those who made light of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September.

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Trump files $10 billion suit against BBC over documentary

President Trump sued the BBC for $10 billion on Monday evening over the editing in a documentary that the British broadcaster said had left the “mistaken impression” that he called for violent action before the storming of the U.S. Capitol. In a 46-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami, Mr. Trump accused the BBC of defaming him and violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. He demanded $5 billion for each offense. In a statement, the president’s legal team said that the lawsuit was designed to hold the British network accountable for what it described as wrongdoing. “The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election,” the statement said.

The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Trump said last month that he planned to file a $1 billion suit against the BBC for its 2024 documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance?” He later told reporters on Air Force One that he planned to sue for as much as $5 billion. “I think I have to do it,” he said at the time. “They have even admitted that they cheated.” The BBC documentary was broadcast before last year’s presidential election on the network’s flagship “Panorama” program. It received little notice until recently, when The Daily Telegraph, a leading Tory-aligned London newspaper, reported last month that an internal review at the BBC had criticized the way the program was edited. In the documentary, Mr. Trump is shown speaking to the crowd on the Washington Mall on Jan. 6, 2021. The network spliced two clips of the president speaking about 50 minutes apart, leaving the impression that he was urging people to participate in the riot that later broke out at the Capitol. Mr. Trump’s lawsuit cited the internal review at the BBC, which concluded that there had been “a string of incidents that demonstrate serious bias in the corporation’s reporting.”

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US military says strikes on 3 boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean kill 8 people

The U.S. military said Monday that it attacked three boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing a total of eight people as scrutiny over the boat strikes is intensifying in Congress. The military said in a statement on social media that the strikes targeted “designated terrorist organizations,” killing three people in the first vessel, two in the second boat and three in the third boat. It didn’t provide evidence of their alleged drug trafficking but posted a video of a boat moving through water before exploding. President Donald Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

But the Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit. The latest boat strikes come on the eve of briefings on Capitol Hill for all members of Congress as questions mount over the Trump administration’s military campaign. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top national security officials are expected to provide closed-door briefings for lawmakers in the House and Senate. The campaign has ramped up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the U.S. In a sharp escalation last week, U.S. forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration has accused of smuggling illicit crude. Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office. The U.S. military has built up its largest presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. Trump says land attacks are coming soon but has not offered any details on location.

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Trump administration says White House ballroom construction is a matter of national security

The Trump administration said in a court filing Monday that the president’s White House ballroom construction project must continue for unexplained national security reasons and because a preservationists’ organization that wants it stopped has no standing to sue. The filing was in response to a lawsuit filed last Friday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation asking a federal judge to halt President Donald Trump’s project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and a public comment period and wins approval from Congress. The administration’s 36-page filing included a declaration from Matthew C. Quinn, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, the agency responsible for the security of the president and other high-ranking officials, that said more work on the site of the former White House East Wing is still needed to meet the agency’s “safety and security requirements.”

The filing did not explain the specific national security concerns; the administration has offered to share classified details with the judge in a private, in-person setting without the plaintiffs present. The East Wing had sat atop a emergency operations bunker for the president. Quinn said even a temporary halt to construction would “consequently hamper” the agency’s ability to fulfill its statutory obligations and its protective mission. A hearing in the case was scheduled for Tuesday in federal court in Washington. The government’s response offered the most comprehensive look yet at the ballroom construction project, including a window into how it was so swiftly approved by the Trump administration bureaucracy and its expanding scope. The filings assert that final plans for the ballroom have yet to be finalized despite the continuing demolition and other work to prepare the site for eventual construction. Below-ground work on the site continues, wrote John Stanwich, the National Park Service’s liaison to the White House, and work on the foundations is set to begin in January. Above-ground construction “is not anticipated to begin until April 2026, at the earliest,” he wrote. The National Trust for Historic Preservation did not respond to email messages seeking comment. The privately funded group last week asked the U.S. District Court to block Trump’s project. “No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,” the lawsuit states. “And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”

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An ever-larger share of ICE’s arrested immigrants have no criminal record

Immigration arrests under the Trump administration continued to increase through mid-October, reaching rates of more than 30,000 a month. But, rather than the convicted criminals the administration has said it’s focused on, an ever-larger share of those arrests were for solely immigration violations. In 45 states, immigration arrests more than doubled compared with the same period last year, during the Biden administration. The largest increases: There were 1,190 arrests in the District of Columbia compared with just seven last year under the Biden administration. Arrests were also more than five times higher in New Mexico, Idaho, Oregon and Virginia. “The result stands in contrast to the administration’s objective of arresting the ‘worst of the worst,’” said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. Heightened enforcement is likely increasing “collateral” arrests of people found during searches for convicted criminals, he said.

Comparisons between the Trump and Biden administrations were calculated by Stateline in an analysis of data released by the Deportation Data Project, a research initiative by the universities of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles. About 93% of arrests could be identified by state. While more people were arrested this year, a lower percentage are convicted criminals. The share of arrested immigrants who had been convicted of violent crimes has dropped from 9% in January to less than 5% in October. The share under Biden was consistently between 10% and 11% during the same period in 2024. The same trend applies to people arrested solely on immigration violations: Immigration violations alone were behind 20% in April, then rose to 44% of arrests in October, according to Stateline’s analysis. In some states and the District of Columbia, a majority of arrests were for immigration violations alone: the District of Columbia (80%), New York (61%), Virginia (57%), Illinois (53%), West Virginia (51%) and Maryland (50%).

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The Bondi Beach gunmen were a father and son driven by Islamic State ideology, Australian leader says.

The father and son duo suspected of carrying out a massacre at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach on Sunday were “driven by Islamic state ideology,” police say, as Philippines authorities confirmed the pair recently traveled to a part of that country which has long been a hotbed of extremism. The two men are 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who was killed exchanging gunfire with police; and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, who is in custody at the hospital and is expected to face significant charges. Australian counterterrorism official believe the pair underwent military-style training while in the southern Philippines last month, public broadcaster ABC reported on Tuesday.

Two homemade Islamic State flags were found in a vehicle registered to the younger suspect, who was previously assessed by the country’s domestic security agency and deemed not to be a threat, police said. Authorities say the gunmen targeted Jewish Australians celebrating the first night of the festival Hanukkah. The attack, which killed 15 people, is in the country’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years. There is currently no evidence to suggest there were any more individuals involved, police said. The shooting appears to have been inspired by extremist “Islamic State ideology,” according to Australian leader Anthony Albanese. New South Wales police said on Tuesday that the vehicle registered to the younger suspect contained improvised explosive devices – and two homemade ISIS flags. Albanese said the evidence of the flags showed that the “radical perversion of Islam is absolutely a problem” both in the country and around the globe. Authorities believe the two men “weren’t part of a wider cell,” helping them to evade detection, Albanese told public broadcaster ABC. But the younger suspect was previously known to federal security services. The son was investigated for six months by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 2019 “because of his connections with two people who subsequently … went to jail,” Albanese said. But that investigation concluded there was “no evidence” he had been radicalized.

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White Christian clergy running for Congress as Democrats face skeptics in their own party

The Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister and Democratic state senator in Iowa, has beaten Republican candidates in three state senate races going back to 2020. Next fall, she hopes to unseat GOP Congressman Zach Nunn in national midterm elections, too. Garriott said she is motivated by the needs she sees in her district, but also a desire to reclaim what it means to be a follower of Jesus in politics. “Faith has something to say to politics. And what we are seeing labeled as the faith perspective is not faithful to me,” Garriott said. “It does not reflect the teachings in the Scriptures that I read. It does not reflect my values. This is a really important moment for people of faith to be engaged in the public realm.”

When she first ran for state office, Garriott was something of a rarity as a white clergy person seeking office as a Democrat. She will be more rare if she wins next November: Since the 1970s, only three white clergy have been elected as Democrats, two of them Catholic priests: The Revs. Robert Drinan, who represented Massachusetts from 1971-81, and Robert John Cornell (Wisconsin, 1975-79). Bob Edgar, a United Methodist minister, represented Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1987. Since then, all white ordained members of Congress have been Republicans. Of the five ordained members of Congress now in office, two are Democrats, and both are Black: Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, lead pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor, and Emanuel Cleaver, a United Methodist minister, a congressman representing Missouri. But this year at least six white clergy and one seminarian — some from evangelical Christian backgrounds and others from mainline Protestant denominations — have declared to run as Democrats in 2026. Another 20 ministers — many of whom are white Democrats — are seriously considering running for various state or local seats, said Doug Pagitt, executive director of Vote Common Good, a nonprofit that seeks to engage religious voters. The jump reflects a sense of alarm among progressive pastors, who aim to counter President Trump’s agenda and the spread of Christian nationalism, Pagitt and several of the pastors said.

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Lead Stories

Jasmine Crockett created deadline day drama that reshaped Texas politics

In the days before she launched her Senate campaign, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett tried to develop a slate of Democratic candidates to run with her in the 2026 midterm elections. Crockett and other Democrats theorize running their best candidates in races up and down the ballot — particularly in statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and comptroller — improves their chances to break through. Crockett’s challenge was convincing fellow Democrats to put aside campaigns already in motion as the deadline to file candidacies for the March 3 primaries fast approached. Her effort failed. “We were almost there,” Crockett told me last week after her campaign kickoff speech. “That’s all I can say.”

The Dallas Democrat acknowledged the delicacy of the negotiations and the effect the final, frenzied hours of the filing period had on various elected leaders. Crockett is in a high-profile primary Senate race against state Rep. James Talarico of Austin. “You’re trying to be spicy,” she said after being asked about her efforts to put together a candidate slate. Crockett’s political moves, most notably her eleventh-hour entry into the Senate race, highlighted a dramatic, chaotic day that changed the course of Democratic politics. The run-up to the filing deadline will have ramifications on the 2026 midterm elections, as Democrats try to wrest power from Republicans nationally and inside Texas. The drama was most pronounced in North Texas, where the Republicans’ mid-decade redrawing of congressional boundaries led to the decisions made by Crockett and Democrats.

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Rick Perry helps lead $40M pro-Cornyn push in Texas Senate race

A coalition of Republican donors organized by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell and the wife of a close associate to Austin-based tech-billionaire Joe Lonsdale have pumped nearly $18 million into helping reelect U.S. Sen. John Cornyn as he faces his toughest primary in years. The group, Lone Star Freedom Project, is by far the largest spender in the race, according to data from the campaign spending group Ad Impact. The $17.8 million it has put in over the past five months dwarfs what has been spent against Cornyn in the March GOP primary. The fourth-term senatoris facing off against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, of Houston.

Groups supporting Paxton, including his campaign fund, have spent virtually nothing on advertising, while Hunt's campaign and the pro-Hunt group Standing for Texas have spent approximately $5 million. Another group named Texas Conservatives Fund LLC, which is based in Delaware and has no website or public profile, spent $3.5 million in October and November running an attack ad focused on Cornyn's breaks with President Donald Trump on immigration and the border wall. Other groups are pitching in for Cornyn, including $12.9 million in ad buys by the pro-Cornyn super PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority, and $10.9 million from One Nation, a dark money group tied to Republican leadership in the Senate. That brings the total to $40 million. Recent polling has Paxton leading in the race,with 32% support, and Cornyn and Hunt drawing 27% and 23%, respectively, according to analysis by research firm Decision Desk HQ. "The only thing keeping John Cornyn's campaign alive is John Cornyn's money," Hunt said. "Strip that away and the entire operation collapses under its own weight." The Cornyn campaign declined to comment for this story. Cornyn continues to rely on support from establishment Republicans who have long clashed with Paxton.

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Inside the Clintons’ fight to avoid testifying in the House Epstein inquiry

A quiet, monthslong battle between Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee, and Bill and Hillary Clinton over the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation could come to a head this week. Mr. Comer has threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against them if they fail to appear in person for depositions. The threat is the starkest example yet of the attempt by House Republicans to shift the focus of the Epstein affair away from President Trump and his administration and onto prominent Democrats who once associated with the convicted sex offender and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell. After Democrats on his panel effectively forced him to subpoena the Justice Department for its files, Mr. Comer also issued subpoenas in August to the Clintons, as well as to eight former top law enforcement officials.

Since then, the chairman has withdrawn the subpoenas for five former attorneys general who wrote in statements to the panel that they had no knowledge relevant to the investigation. The committee also excused former F.B.I. directors James B. Comey and Robert S. Mueller III from giving live depositions. Only one person, former Attorney General William P. Barr, has appeared to testify. But Mr. Comer has refused to excuse the Clintons, even though they have repeatedly offered to provide the same kind of sworn statement to the committee. Instead, Mr. Comer has falsely accused them of ignoring his subpoenas and continued to demand that they appear for live depositions or face the possibility of being held in contempt, typically a first step in referring someone to the Justice Department for prosecution. For months, the Clintons have been engaging with Mr. Comer far more than was previously known to respond to his requests and avoid having to appear on Capitol Hill. Their longtime attorney, David Kendall, has sent three letters explaining in detail his argument that the Clintons should be required to provide only sworn statements to the committee. On Sept. 30, Mr. Kendall met in person with Mr. Comer’s staff to discuss the requests.

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Why everyone got Trump’s tariffs wrong

In the days following “Liberation Day,” the contrast between Trump’s optimism and more dire predictions from trade experts and economists was stark. As businesses and consumers tried to make sense of the mixed messages, the president doubled down on promises he’d made during his 2024 presidential campaign. “The markets are going to boom, the stock [market] is going to boom, the country is going to boom,” he said on April 3. Economists and business leaders dialed up predictions of a fallout. BlackRock’s Larry Fink said “most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now.” JPMorgan Chase said a global recession was even likely. An economic collapse hasn’t materialized. Neither has an economic revival. A lot of federal data is delayed, but the numbers so far show the U.S. economy has held up. The odds of a recession in the coming year have fallen below 25%. While Trump’s promise on tariff revenues happened to a degree, most of his others have fallen flat.

The U.S. has seen little evidence of large-scale reshoring. Cheaper labor abroad continues to give foreign manufacturers an edge, while uncertainty at home over the tariffs has kept many companies from making major investments or bringing manufacturing home. We look at six bold predictions Trump, the White House, economists and business leaders made about the economy, what’s happened and what might come next. Eight months into the tariff regime, Trump’s policies haven’t done much to boost employment. In fact, a host of large layoff announcements and other troubling labor data signal difficult times for workers. The U.S. added 119,000 jobs in September, far more than economists had expected. But the figure was an outlier from previous months, in which job growth had lagged. As of September, the unemployment rate reached 4.4%, the highest in four years. Economists don’t rule out tariffs leading to more hiring down the road, but the picture is complex.

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State Stories

Camp Mystic to get new flood warning system ahead of summer

Camp Mystic officials said they are in the process of installing a new flood warning system ahead of the all-girls Christian camp reopening its Cypress Lake location this summer. Mystic has allowed Cedar Park company River Sentry to install 8-foot aluminum towers designed to detect rising water upstream and downstream along the banks of the Cypress Lake campsite, which is uphill from Mystic’s Guadalupe site, where 27 campers and counselors lost their lives in the flooding. Texas lawmakers passed House Bill 1, the Youth CAMPER Act, after the families of the campers and counselors who lost their lives in the floods joined together to push for changes to safety requirements for Texas camps.

The bill now requires camps to install and maintain an emergency system capable of alerting all campers and occupants of an emergency — one that “includes a public address system operable without reliance on internet connection.” River Sentry Founder Ian Cunningham, a commercial pilot, said he began developing the technology for what he says is a “catastrophic flood alarm system” after the deadly floods in the Hill Country. The company said it originally offered the system to camps as a donation. “I thought to myself, this has to be solvable. Why are we still tolerating this in Texas, with all the tech and all the imagination and creative ability we have just in this region?” Cunningham said. Cunningham demonstrated that when the towers detect flood water, they activate warning lights and sirens that can produce up to 75 decibels to wake people. According to the company’s website, each tower is autonomous but will be paired so that any detecting unit can activate the entire system. “We intend to daisy-chain these towers from different placements down the bank as we head down the river,” Cunningham said. “The entire River Sentry philosophy is built upon waking you up and providing a lighted egress and make(s) that basic promise to anyone who’s going to use our equipment.”

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Travis County district attorney moves to exonerate wrongfully accused yogurt shop murder suspects

Travis County will formally undo charges leveled against four young men for Austin's infamous yogurt shop murders after police found the man they believe responsible for the 1991 case earlier this year. Travis County District Attorney José Garza said he has filed the paperwork to exonerate the four men initially accused of the murders of Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, and Jennifer and Sarah Harbison at an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop in December 1991. Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen, Maurice Pierce, and Forrest Welborn were all tied to the murders in 1991 and charged in 1999. Austin Police said in September they believe Robert Eugene Brashers was responsible for the murders, ending a decades-long search for answers in the case that shocked Austin, drew national headlines and was the subject of an HBO docuseries.

Garza said his office filed paperwork Thursday for the surviving men to formally clear their records. "Thirty-four years is too long for anyone to have to wait for the criminal legal process to be over," Garza said. "And it is our hope that [this filing] ... will be the first step in finally closing this case so that all involved can move forward." While the charges were previously dropped against the former suspects, they were still on the record. Garza said the filing will allow their records to be formally cleared in Travis County. Springsteen and Scott were convicted in 1999. Springsteen was sentenced to death, while Scott was given a life sentence. Both of those cases were tossed out in 2006 by the state's highest criminal court. Pierce spent more than three years in a Travis County jail awaiting trial until the case was dismissed in 2003. Pierce later stabbed an Austin police officer and was fatally shot in 2010. Wellborn's charges were dropped in 2000. Both Springsteen and Scott maintained for decades that their confessions were coerced by police.

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Red-hot Texas is getting so many data center requests that experts see a bubble

Everything is bigger in Texas. That's also true for data center demand in the Lone Star State, where project developers are rushing to cash in on the artificial intelligence boom. Cheap land and cheap energy are combining to attract a flood of data center developers to the state. The potential demand is so vast that it will be impossible to meet by the end of the decade, energy experts say. Speculative projects are clogging up the pipeline to connect to the electric grid, making it difficult to see how much demand will actually materialize, they say. But investors will be left on the hook if inflated demand forecasts lead to more infrastructure being built than is actually needed. "It definitely looks, smells, feels — is acting like a bubble," said Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin and a founder of energy consulting firm IdeaSmiths.

"The top line numbers are almost laughable," Rhodes said. More than 220 gigawatts of big projects have asked to connect to the Texas electric grid by 2030, according to December data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. More than 70% of those projects are data centers, according to ERCOT, which manages the Texas power grid. That's more than twice the Lone Star State's record peak summer demand this year of around 85 gigawatts, and its total available power generation for the season of around 103 gigawatts. Those figures are "crazy big," said Beth Garza, a former ERCOT watchdog. "There's not enough stuff to serve that much load on the equipment side or the consumption side," said Garza, director of ERCOT's independent market monitor from 2014 to 2019. Rhodes agreed. "There's just no way we can physically put this much steel in the ground to match those numbers. I don't even know if China could do it that fast," he said.

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Human Rights groups warn immigration detention camp at Fort Bliss reaching "breaking point"

Human Rights groups warn an immigration detention camp at Fort Bliss has reached a "breaking point" Human rights experts are sounding the alarm about living conditions at the immigration detention camp that houses hundreds of people. "Fort Bliss is a human and civil rights disaster," said Eunice Cho Senior Counsel for the American Civil Liberty Union's prison program. The ACLU and other organizations allege physical abuse, unsanitary conditions and medical neglect at the massive tent facility operated by a private contractor on military property. The amount of violence we have heard about officers using against detained people is creating a crisis situation, ACLU Texas attorney Savannah Kumar said. People at the tent facility have given sworn declarations detailing alleged abusive treatment, according to the ACLU.

"Officers have crushed detained people's testicles, slammed people to the ground, stomped on them and punched their faces. Officers have beaten people even when they are already restrained and handcuffed," Kumar said. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said allegations of inhumane conditions are "categorically false" in an emailed statement. Nearly 3000 people from across the country are held in the camp. Future plans are to increase capacity to 5,000. Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, pushed back against the allegations, saying: "No detainees are being beaten or abused. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, access to showers, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members." ICE opened the tent facility named Camp East Montana in mid-August to provide extra detention space as the Trump administration works to carry out mass deportations. The federal government awarded the Virginia-based company Acquisitions Logics LLC $1.2 billion to operate the sprawling camp. The ACLU, in a letter, urged the federal government to shut it down.

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After devastating flood, can Guadalupe River ever fully recover?

Anna Neale and Lois Fields walked slowly through Flatrock Park, tossing handfuls of seed on the ground along the Guadalupe River. At their feet, the flood-ravaged soil was mostly bare. Above their heads, there was little evidence of the thick canopy of trees that guarded the river’s banks just a few months ago. Neale paused to examine a small mountain laurel that was determinedly rising from the ground. “He’s beat up, but he’s trying to survive,” Neale said. “This is nature doing nature.” Before July 4, when the Guadalupe River turned into a raging, deadly torrent, this section of the riverbank was shaded by trees, with so much dense vegetation that you couldn’t leave the paved walking path, Neale said. The flood was catastrophic to Kerr County’s human population — killing 119 people and sweeping away homes, RVs, cars and anything else in its path — but it was also devastating to the environment.

The floodwaters damaged or destroyed thousands of trees and wiped away acres of vegetation, altering the river and its surrounding ecosystems. An analysis found that more than half the vegetation along the river’s floodway was lost, based on aerial images from before and after the flood. Those scars are easily visible along the Guadalupe. In some areas, trees are bent at 45-degree angles. In others, nothing is left behind but stumps and bare ground. The river banks were scoured clean in some spots, while mounds of gravel and other debris were deposited elsewhere. It’s also not yet fully clear how much of an effect the flooding had on fish, mussels and other creatures that live in and around the river. But the river — and the wildlife that depends on it — will recover, experts said, given time, patience and intentional restoration efforts. Floods “are part of the natural climate, part of the natural hydrology,” said Steve Nelle, a retired natural resource specialist and wildlife biologist with the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service. “It won’t look exactly like it did before; it’s going to look a little different,” he told Kerr County landowners at a recent recovery workshop. “But this river will heal.”

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Houston’s historic Ismaili Center opening its doors to the public

After nearly 20 years in the making, Houston's historic Ismaili Center — the first in the United States — is opening its doors to the greater Houston community. Ismaili Center Houston will host a free opening event from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, when Houstonians can tour the massive cultural center and see dance performances, live music and art installations. Guests can also walk around the center's 9 acres of gardens and courtyards. The center will have food trucks and a hot chocolate bar.

"Our longstanding partnership with the Ismaili community has always been rooted in a shared belief in the power of landscape to foster understanding," said Thomas Woltz, Senior Principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, one of the designers of the center. "In designing the Ismaili Center, Houston, we drew on centuries-old landscape principles and the ecological richness of Texas to create a campus that invites connection, curiosity, and a sense of shared purpose." The five-story center is 150,000 square feet and sits on 11 acres of land at the southeast corner of Allen Parkway and Montrose Boulevard, near Buffalo Bayou Park. Ismailis are a branch of Shia Muslims who advocate for pluralism, social progress and service to societies. Ismailis are led by Aga Khan V, who took over as leader after the death of his father in February. City officials and prominent Ismaili Muslim leaders held an opening ceremony in November. Houston Mayor John Whitmire praised the center as a "beacon of light surrounded by some of our most treasured neighborhoods and cultural institutions." His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan V stood next to Whitmire in the opening ceremony. "This building may be called an Ismaili Center," he said at the time, "but it is not here for Ismailis only. It is for all Houstonians to use; a place open to all who seek knowledge, reflection, and dialogue.”

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Who’s running? Republicans look to challenge El Paso Democratic stronghold in 2026 elections

El Paso Republicans – who have failed to find candidates for most partisan races in recent years – will have contested primaries in March for Congress and county judge, and will have candidates in November for county commissioner and state legislative races. Meanwhile, the region’s Democratic incumbents face lesser-known challengers in the 2026 primaries. “We’re breathing life back into the local Republican party,” said Michael Aboud, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, which drew more than a dozen candidates in local races. “Republican candidates on the ballot make Republican voters find out who they are and increase their chances of coming out to vote.”

The candidate filing deadline for the March 3 primary was Monday. In all, more than 30 candidates filed for12 key local, state and federal elected positions in El Paso, along with a slew of candidates who filed for judgeships and justice of the peace seats. “We’re going to get behind all our nominees and make sure we bring out the votes because it’s so critical this year in 2026,” said Michael Apodaca, chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party, who is unopposed in seeking his second term in the position. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar will face a graduate physics student in the Democratic primary for District 16. Six Republicans will face off for the party’s nomination to attempt to unseat the four-term incumbent in the November midterm. No Republican has represented El Paso’s main congressional district since 1964. District 23 Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales will face three opponents in the primary, while four candidates will compete for the Democratic nomination for the seat.

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Pentagon in talks to move major agency to San Antonio. What it could mean.

The bureaucracy in charge of the military’s healthcare system could be headed to San Antonio. The move could bring as many 3,300 people and their families to the city if the entire headquarters of the Defense Health Agency relocates, but it remains unclear exactly how many workers or which portions of the organization might move. Recent moves at City Hall and a letter from area congressmen to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, though, suggest ongoing talks over uprooting the agency from Falls Church, Va.

City officials and the military have been mum, but sources suggest an announcement may be coming as soon as this week. The renewed talks come two years after unit officials and city leaders denied the idea was under consideration and with San Antonio fighting to hang on to military personnel. Hegseth’s Pentagon has already yanked two military headquarters, and most of their 1,100 workers, from the city. It’s also stalled the Air Force’s plans to raise the status of its cyber hub at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. For years, the city and county have been wooing the Pentagon to bring more of its health care system to San Antonio, which already is considered the home of military medicine. And they’re ready to spend to make it happen. Both San Antonio and Bexar County have budgeted $10 million to refurbish an old building on Fort Sam Houston for the unit and, in October, each approved a request for $5 million in state Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance Grants.

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Ex-con Congressman attempts a Texas comeback

Former Congressman and felon Steve Stockman, a Friendswood-area conservative who was convicted of 23 federal corruption charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison back in 2018, has declared himself rehabilitated and fit to run again for the U.S. House of Representatives. Stockman, once dubbed Texas’ “weirdest lawmaker”, entered a crowded field of candidates running to fill the recently redrawn 9th Congressional District, FEC records show. The district, served for two decades by Congressman Al Green, a Black Houston Democrat, was gerrymandered and relocated from its diverse neighborhoods and suburbs to encompass conservative turf that extends from eastern Harris County out to Liberty County. Even before his convictions, Stockman was never politically popular or effective as a congressman who previously represented other swaths of southeast Texas.

Texas Monthly once described him as “one of those kind of creepy politicians that other politicians try to keep at a distance just in case it might rub off on them.” In his latest comeback attempt, Stockman joins a dubious though growing American political tradition of disgraced politicos who have attempted to recast themselves as martyrs after being tarnished or convicted of crimes, according to Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor whose most recent book is Scandal: Why Politicians Survive Controversy in a Partisan Era. “We’re seeing that in politics a lot now because polarization is such an important force,” Rottinghaus told the Texas Observer. “It gives them an opportunity to use that scandal as evidence in an ideological war.” Stockman left Congress in 2015 under a cloud of corruption allegations, including a House ethics probe into a congressional junket to Azerbaijan and questions about allegedly illegal campaign contributions. In 2018, Stockman was convicted with two former aides of carrying out a multi-year scheme to bilk conservative foundations and donors of about $1.2 million in funds that were then diverted for his personal and political use via a network of paper companies and fake charities, federal court records show. The two former staffers, Jason Posey and Thomas Dodd, went to prison for 18 months for their role in what the the U.S. Department of Justice at the time called an “Extensive Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme.”

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Hanukkah terror attack: College Station man volunteering in Sydney among those hurt in deadly attack

At least 15 people are dead and 40 others hurt in a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday. Among those hurt was a 20-year-old College Station man, Houston Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff told KHOU 11's Michelle Choi. "Please say Tehillim, Kapitel 21, for my nephew Yehudah Leib ben Manya Lazaroff of College Station, Texas, who was among the injured in the attack," Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff of Chabad of Houston said in a statement. Rabbi Lazaroff said his brother runs a Chabad branch in College Station, primarily serving Texas A&M students. "It's a very bustling and hustling Chabad house," Rabbi Lazaroff said. "He grew up there giving to the community and being a, definitely being a central part of all the work they do there."

He described his nephew as "bustling with energy" and "always looking for ways to help." Rabbi Lazaroff said his nephew had gone to Sydney to volunteer the Chabad of Bondi. "He was there for the year to volunteer and to give up his time, because it's a part of a, a central part of our ideology," the rabbi said. "You're not here on this world just to live for yourself, you're here to live to give to someone else. And so he was there to strengthen the communities." Rabbi Lazaroff said he learned of his nephew's injuries when they woke up to the news. "We saw that they were having a hard time reaching my nephew, and then they confirmed that, they got word that he was critically injured, in ICU," he said. Rabbi Lazaroff said that among the dead was Chabad of Bondi Rabbi Eli Schlanger. "It's very hard for the family, but I think it's also, it's hard for the Jewish community everywhere," he said. "Leaders have been tepid in their response to antisemitism that's growing across America and around the world." "It's up to the leaders to speak up and to say that we will not tolerate antisemitism of any form. It doesn't make a difference what your motives are, on what's going on overseas, what your political interests are. Terrorism is definitely not an option and not something that can be accepted by anyone."

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Travis County judge makes San Antonio-Austin rail among top priorities

As Travis County Judge Andy Brown runs for reelection, one of his top campaign priorities is building a train between Austin and San Antonio. “You want trains; I want to give ‘em to you,” Brown wrote in a Threads post on Monday. The judge continued: “A top priority for my office is building a passenger railway between Austin and San Antonio to free up transit on I-35, help thousands of between-county commuters and change the way we travel for the better.” Even so, may not want to get their hopes up. The Austin-San Antonio train idea has been around for decades, and it’s appeared to pick up steam in recent years. Last year, the Texas Passenger Rail Advisory Committee, launched by Brown and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, began holding monthly meetings.

However, it remains to be seen how the new committee differs from the Lone Star Rail District, an earlier committee that sought to connect San Antonio and Austin. Despite paying out millions in consultant fees, the District never laid down a single foot of rail track. And the primary obstacle that killed the Lone Star Rail District still remains. Union Pacific still owns the primary rail line between San Antonio and Austin, and the company is likely still unwilling to expand passenger rail service on existing tracks unless a new freight bypass is built, as the Current has reported. What’s more, it’s unclear whether the notoriously fiscally conservative Texas Legislature has any appetite for funding a high-speed rail project. Sakai, who’s also running for reelection and faces a Democratic primary challenge from former Mayor Ron Nirenberg, has notably left a possible rail line to Austin out of his campaign platform.

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North Texas ‘Cowboy Capitalism’ carving niche in venture capital

There was a 283-day period when it would have been impossible to have any productive ideas at a Dallas Mavericks game. How could one think over chants of “Fire Nico”? Luckily for Alex Treece and Nick Elledge, two of the founders of Stablecore, they reconnected at the American Airlines Center in November 2024, one of the last times Luka Doncic played in a Mavericks jersey before being infamously traded to the Lakers. A leading venture capitalist invited the pair to the game as part of a group outing with several of the city’s most promising entrepreneurs, and by early 2025, their fintech startup was born. Like a true Dallas guy, Elledge highlighted the conspicuous presence of Doncic in Stablecore’s origin story in a joint interview with The News, but the tale is emblematic of something else big that is happening in North Texas: the glimmerings of a venture capital boom.

Stablecore, which provides community and regional banks and credit unions with the tools to offer digital assets, announced a $20 million fundraising round in September. In October, Stablecore was anointed Startup of the Year at the annual Venture Dallas conference, and Treece said in November they already have agreements with several banks and streams of revenue. “These are the types of companies that are deciding to start their business here and not in the Bay Area,” said Aaron Pierce, partner at Perot Jain — an investor in Stablecore — and the organizer of Venture Dallas. “Because you can.” According to Pierce, North Texas is on track for $2.5 billion invested in early-stage companies in 2025. Last year, that number was $1.4 billion. In 2019, $500 million. “Which felt like a big number at the time,” Pierce said. The growth is due to the symbiotic ecosystem of startups and venture capital, as talent like Treece and Elledge deploy capital from firms like Perot Jain. Each provides proof to prospective founders and investors that the whole startup thing is possible in North Texas. Still, the region stands just on the precipice of a true venture capital explosion, and headwinds like concentration and limited exit opportunities may affect whether it actually takes the plunge.

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National Stories

Rob Reiner and wife, Michele, founded dead.

Rob Reiner, a writer, director, producer, actor and political activist whose career in Hollywood spanned more than six decades and included some of the most iconic titles in movie history, was found dead Sunday with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, at the home they shared in Brentwood. He was 78. “It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,” a spokesperson for the family said in a statement Sunday. “We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.” Reiner will be remembered as the director of the seminal 1980s rom-com “When Harry Met Sally...,” the actor whose character “Meathead” faced off regularly against Archie Bunker, and the political activist who backed early childhood programs in California and railed loudly for years against President Trump.

The oldest child of comedian Carl Reiner and singer Estelle Reiner, Robert Reiner was born March 6, 1947, in the Bronx, N.Y. Raised by a father who won 11 Primetime Emmys and a Grammy in addition to the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Rob Reiner attended Beverly Hills High School and studied film at UCLA. He then went to work in Hollywood as an actor and writer before moving on to directing and producing. Reiner’s writing credits in the 1960s included “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” and the TV movie “Where the Girls Are.” In the 1970s, he wrote several episodes of “All in the Family” as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards telecast in 1978 and episodes of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” Reiner married Penny Marshall, star of TV’s “Laverne & Shirley,” in 1971 and adopted Tracy, the daughter Marshall had from a previous marriage. Reiner and Marshall divorced in 1981. He wrote for the first “Comic Relief,” hosted by Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg. That and the dozen “Comic Relief” telethons that followed raised awareness and money to fight poverty in the U.S. and elsewhere. “This Is Spinal Tap” in 1984 further established Reiner’s comedic sensibilities in the American milieu. His work took a dramatic turn when he directed the 1986 adaptation of Stephen King’s novella “Stand by Me,” which starred Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell, but he returned to comedy with 1987’s “The Princess Bride” starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright and Mandy Patinkin. Also in 1987, he co-founded production company Castle Rock Entertainment.

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Big advertisers appear wary of CBS News’ Bari Weiss town hall format

During a Saturday-night town hall led by Bari Weiss, the recently named editor in chief of CBS News, most of Madison Avenue sought an off-ramp. The program featured an in-depth interview with Erika Kirk, the CEO of the conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA and the widow of Charlie Kirk, the group’s former leader. He was assassinated during one of the organization’s events at Utah Valley University, throwing a harsh spotlight on the political and cultural divides present in the U.S. The event marked a new offering from CBS News. The organization does not typically host town halls or debates on trending issues or with newsmakers.

And the choice of Weiss as moderator also raised eyebrows, because in most modern TV-news organizations, senior editorial executives remain off camera, rather than appearing in front of it. More may be on the way. During the program, Weiss told viewers that “CBS is going to have many more conversations like this in the weeks and months ahead, so stay tuned. More town halls. More debates. More talking about the things that matter.” That would suggest CBS is planning to devote more hours to the programs. The news special aired at 8 p.m. on Saturday, one of the least-watched hours in broadcast TV. And that may have contributed to a relative dearth of top advertisers appearing to support the show. During the hour, commercial breaks were largely filled with spots from direct-response advertisers, including the dietary supplement SuperBeets; the home-repair service HomeServe.com; and CarFax, a supplier of auto ownership data. Viewers of the telecast on WCBS, CBS’ flagship station in New York, even saw a commercial for Chia Pet, the terra-cotta figure that sprouts plant life after a few weeks. Direct-response advertisers typically pay lower prices in exchange for allowing TV networks to put their commercials on air when convenience allows. A flurry of the ads appearing in one program usually offers a signal that the network could not line up more mainstream support for the content it chose to air.

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Trump gets reality check in bid to retain loyalist U.S. attorneys

President Trump’s efforts to keep his loyalist U.S. attorneys in their roles hit a dead end this week, as two top federal prosecutors stepped down over piling complications from their leadership. Julianne Murray, Delaware’s GOP chair-turned-top federal prosecutor, announced her resignation Friday, just days after Alina Habba said she was leaving her position atop New Jersey’s federal prosecuting office. They both pinned the blame on a long-standing Senate practice that cut their confirmation ambitions short, and Habba assigned additional fault to the judges whose dockets were upended as the legality of her tenure was questioned. It appeared to mark a rare reality check for the administration, which has taken extensive steps to keep its embattled U.S. attorneys in their posts, even as courts have ruled they are serving unlawfully.

“There’s a lot of hills that they’re willing to die on, and clearly this isn’t one of them,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University. The resignations follow a ruling by a panel of federal appeals court judges affirming Habba’s disqualification, at the heart of it a rejection of the maneuvers the administration took to keep her and other U.S. attorneys in the positions after their interim terms expired. When Habba’s temporary tenure ended in July, New Jersey federal judges declined to extend the clock, instead invoking a seldom-used power to appoint her next-in-command to the position. However, so Habba could remain atop the office, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the judges’ selected successor and Trump withdrew Habba’s formal nomination. She was given the title of acting U.S. attorney, alongside all the powers that come with it. The administration made similar moves in Nevada, California, New York, New Mexico and Delaware, where the prosecutors were turned from interim to acting U.S. attorneys when judges did not greenlight their continued leadership without Senate approval.

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DNC rolls out pair of programs to staff down ballot campaigns

Democrats think the political environment is turning against Republicans ahead of next year’s midterm elections, and they’re taking steps to make sure their campaigns are ready to take full advantage. The Democratic National Committee on Monday announced the creation of a pair of novel programs meant to help candidates find qualified people to run their campaigns, part of what officials with the group said is a two-pronged approach to help the party win as many races as it can in 2026. One effort, called the Battleground Leadership Project, will recruit and train men and women to be organizing directors and run the party’s coordinated campaigns in battleground states, an effort that would benefit Democrats up and down the ballot.

The DNC is also planning to create a program in January called BlueMatch that will help match potential campaign staffers with Democratic candidates and state parties nationwide. Officials said they hope that the dual effort, backed by an initial six-figure investment from the DNC, will help resolve a longstanding problem of campaigns struggling to find qualified staff. The issue is especially acute for candidates running in more remote areas of the country, they said. “As we head into the midterms, Democrats must seize this moment and ensure that our coordinated campaigns are staffed early with the strongest talent,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement. “There are thousands of people who want to join our movement, and the DNC will get them on the ground across the country through the Battleground Leadership Project and BlueMatch — two critical programs to ensure our coordinated campaigns and state parties have the high-quality staff they need to win in 2026.”

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Nobel laureate María Corina Machado: ‘I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy’ in Venezuela

Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado said she supports President Trump’s aggressive approach in dealing with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and said she thinks the Venezuelan government’s days are “numbered.” In an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” the Venezuelan opposition leader was asked if she supports the U.S. increasing sanctions on Venezuelan individuals and the U.S. potentially conducting more seizures of vessels, like the oil tanker last week. “Look, I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy, and we, the Venezuelan people, are very grateful to him and to his administration, because I believe he is a champion of freedom in this hemisphere,” Machado told host Margaret Brennan.

Speaking from Oslo, where she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year, Machado noted that she previously dedicated, in part, the award to Trump “because I think that he finally has put Venezuela in where it should be, in terms of a priority for the United States national security.” “And we do support these actions, because, Margaret, we are facing, not a conventional dictatorship. This is a very complex criminal structure that has turned Venezuela into a safe haven of international crime and terrorist activities, starting with Russia, Iran, Cuba, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Colombian guerrilla, the drug cartels operating freely and directed in partnership with Maduro and his regime,” she continued. Machado has been living in hiding in her own country for nearly a year and was seen in public for the first time this past week in Oslo, where her daughter accepted her peace prize on her behalf. After winning the opposition primary, Machado was barred from running against Maduro last year and endorsed a lesser-known candidate widely seen as her stand-in. Maduro claimed victory and refused to leave power, but experts broadly dismissed the government’s election data purporting to show Maduro as the winner as “mathematically and statistically” impossible.

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Everyone wants to change infrastructure permitting. Nobody knows how to pass it.

Democrats and Republicans alike are calling for an overhaul of the way infrastructure is approved and built in the United States. They’re just moving further and further apart on how to actually do it. Partisan fighting and intraparty tensions over a slate of permitting reform bills are signaling that the once bipartisan policy goal may once again stall in Congress, even as lawmakers emphasize the need for more energy infrastructure and housing to tackle the growing cost-of-living crisis. “Polarization is part of everything, so I’m sure it has a role here at some level,” Marc Boom, a former senior adviser at the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration, told NOTUS. “The best solution is going to be one that leaves everyone happy, and the path that I’m seeing doesn’t seem like that.”

A group of conservative Republican lawmakers is threatening to withhold support from a bipartisan bill that would overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act, a key permitting statute. Why? It has a measure that would provide wins for renewable energy developers who want to insulate their projects from a Trump administration crackdown. Progressive Democrats and environmentalists, meanwhile, are upset that the bill would weaken community input and environmental review on proposed projects. The impending vote on the SPEED Act comes after lawmakers got into a fiery debate on the House floor last Thursday over a bill that would weaken the scope of reviews under the Clean Water Act. Republicans said that bill would speed up infrastructure, but most Democrats criticized it on environmental grounds. “You will hear no argument from me about the need for permitting reform,” Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten said on the floor ahead of a vote on the bill. “We do need reform, but this bill is not what we need. It doesn’t just cut red tape, it cuts all the tape that has protected our clean water for 50 years.” The bill passed, with a handful of moderate Democrats joining most Republicans in voting “yes.” So did a different bill that would speed up permitting for natural gas pipelines. But both came with some mudslinging.

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Brown University person of interest to be released from police custody, officials say

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said late Sunday night the person of interest is being released from police custody as he is no longer considered a person of interest, as the evidence is pointing in another direction. A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University on Saturday during final exams on the Ivy League campus, authorities said, and that person appears to still be at large as police are releasing a person of interest, who was detained Sunday amid their active investigation. University President Christina Paxson said she was told that 10 people who were shot were students. Another person was injured by fragments from the shooting, but it was not clear if that victim was a student, she said.

Officers scattered across the campus and into an affluent neighborhood filled with historic and stately brick homes, searching academic buildings, backyards and porches late into the night after the shooting erupted in the afternoon. The suspect was a man in dark clothing who was last seen leaving the engineering building where the attack happened, said Timothy O’Hara, deputy chief of Providence police. Security footage showed the suspect walking away from the building, but his face was not visible. Some witnesses reported that the man, who could be in his 30s, may have been wearing a camouflage mask, O’Hara said. Authorities said Sunday morning that they had a person of interest in custody, before announcing around 11 p.m. they would soon be releasing that person as evidence is now pointing in a different direction.

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Lead Stories

Trump leans into isolation as challenges mount at home

The Trump administration, amid a series of foreign and domestic challenges, is redoubling its efforts to blame an array of outside forces for America’s problems and enact policies that block those influences from crossing U.S. borders. Last week, the United States halted immigration applications from 19 countries. Shortly after, the administration announced an expanded travel ban covering more than 30 countries — “every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” in the words of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. And on Wednesday, Border Protection officials proposed requiring visitors from U.S. allies to provide up to five years of their social media history, a move that could discourage tourists. The actions come on the heels of a 33-page National Security Strategy stressing the administration’s opposition to multilateralism and immigration, while scolding European allies that they risk “civilizational erasure” for taking a different approach. “Who a country admits into its borders — in what numbers and from where — will inevitably define the future of that nation,” the paper says.

These moves — accompanied by a bolstering of tariffs and President Donald Trump’s often racially tinged anti-outsider rhetoric — suggest a goal of sealing off the United States from many foreign people, products and cultures. They also signal that the U.S. is refocusing its attention on its immediate neighborhood in the Western Hemisphere, rather than the broader global landscape that has long been its horizon. “We are isolating ourselves in a very dangerous way that I don’t think this administration understands,” said former senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska), who served as defense secretary under President Barack Obama. “We will find ourselves isolated — dangerously isolated — in a world where you do not want to be isolated. Once you go down that road, you will not get that back. That is not the way it works.” Several experts said Trump’s language increasingly echoes the isolationism and anti-immigrant sentiment of the 1920s and 1930s, which downplayed the threat of authoritarianism before World War II. But White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration is trying to protect what is great about America. “America’s culture and way of life is worth defending and preserving. Full stop,” she said. “Aliens who come to our country en masse and refuse to assimilate to American society only recreate the same conditions that are destroying the nations they fled from. We cannot allow their problems to become America’s problems.”

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The deeply personal reasons why many Indiana Senate Republicans said no to Trump

Jean Leising spoke at a breakfast this fall at her 8th grade grandson’s school. Hours later, when she was set to give him a ride home from basketball practice, he bashfully told her that his entire team had received text messages about her that day — “and they were all bad.” Recounting the moment to CNN shortly after she joined 20 other Republican state senators in rejecting President Donald Trump’s redistricting push, Leising said she laughed the moment off with her grandson — but that it ultimately led to her opposing the president. “Boy, when I got home that night, that’s when I decided,” said Leising, a 76-year-old grandmother of eight, first elected to the Senate in 1988. “I was angry. So the next day, I said, ‘I’ve got to talk about this.’ Because this is over the top. This shouldn’t be the way it was.” “But that was the beginning,” she added. “It only got worse from there.”

It was clear on Thursday that a pressure campaign waged by the White House and its allies had backfired. A state that Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2024 gave him a massive political black eye, rejecting a push to create two more GOP-friendly US House seats that could have helped Republicans retain the House majority in next year’s midterms. Several Republican senators noted on Thursday that constituents opposed a mid-decade redrawing of US House maps and that they questioned the wisdom or the precedent of joining the national redistricting battle. But a number of Republicans, including people who voted for the president three elections in a row, also gave deeply personal reasons over the last several weeks. Sen. Mike Bohacek has a daughter with Down syndrome. He was offended by Trump’s use of a slur for people with disabilities, in a Truth Social post deriding Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and said that Trump’s “choices of words have consequences.” Sen. Greg Walker, who represents former Vice President Mike Pence’s hometown of Columbus, said he was among the senators targeted by swatting attempts in the weeks leading up to Thursday’s vote. While law enforcement has not publicly linked the swatting or other threats to a political motive, Walker said he felt voting yes would reward wrongdoing and set a dangerous precedent.

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T.S.A. is providing air passenger data to immigration agents for deportation effort

The Trump administration is providing the names of all air travelers to immigration officials, substantially expanding its use of data sharing to expel people under deportation orders. Under the previously undisclosed program, the Transportation Security Administration provides a list multiple times a week to Immigration and Customs Enforcement of travelers who will be coming through airports. ICE can then match the list against its own database of people subject to deportation and send agents to the airport to detain those people. It’s unclear how many arrests have been made as a result of the collaboration. But documents obtained by The New York Times show that it led to the arrest of Any Lucía López Belloza, the college student picked up at Boston Logan Airport on Nov. 20 and deported to Honduras two days later. A former ICE official said 75 percent of instances in that official’s region where names were flagged by the program yielded arrests.

ICE has historically avoided interfering with domestic travel. But the partnership between airport security and the immigration agency, which began quietly in March, is the latest way the Trump administration is increasing cooperation and information sharing between federal agencies in service of the president’s goal of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history. “The message to those in the country illegally is clear: The only reason you should be flying is to self-deport home,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. Airline passengers have long been subject to some federal scrutiny. Airlines typically provide passenger information to T.S.A. after a flight is reserved. That information is compared against national security databases, including the Terrorist Screening Dataset, which includes the names of individuals on a watch list of known or suspected terrorists. But the T.S.A. previously did not get involved in domestic criminal or immigration matters, said one former agency official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue freely. Among the concerns, the former official said, has been that enforcement activities at airports could distract from airport security and contribute to longer passenger wait times.

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Democrats Julie Johnson and Colin Allred spar in District 33 primary

U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred aren’t holding much back as they compete for the Democratic nomination in Congressional District 33, kicking off their campaigns with a flurry of rhetorical haymakers. Johnson says Allred blindsided everyone by switching races at the last minute – and that Texas women can relate to having a man try to take back a position after failing to advance in his own career. Allred says he’s shown he can deliver for the Dallas area and that Johnson is not entitled to represent a newly drawn, majority-minority district that needs an effective advocate who truly understands the community. The two have been sparring since filing day drama last week scrambled the party’s primary landscape and thrust them into a head-to-head contest heavy with overtones of gender and race.

“This is going to be a primary election that lots of people will be watching for the show as well as for the result,” said Cal Jillson, professor of political science at Southern Methodist University. The unusual primary battle between a sitting congresswoman and the man she succeeded in office stems from a mid-decade Republican redistricting and a decision by U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, to seek a Senate seat rather than reelection. Democrats have such a solid advantage in the newly drawn District 33 that whoever wins the primary will be heavily favored to win the general election and represent a key part of the Dallas area. Johnson is a freshman member of Congress, building her brand on Capitol Hill in an era of unified Republican control in Washington, as Democrats are increasingly optimistic they can retake the House next year. Allred served three terms in the House before making an unsuccessful 2024 bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, losing by about 9 percentage points. Johnson wasted no time opening up on Allred, denigrating his effectiveness during his time in Congress and saying he disappeared from the scene after losing to Cruz.

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Legendary Houston news anchor Dave Ward passed away

ABC13 Anchor Emeritus Dave Ward has died. For more than 50 years, Dave was Houston's anchorman. He began each newscast with his signature line, "Good evening, friends." That's how the legendary newsman felt about the viewers who shared his love for the city he was so proud to call his home. His name was David Henry Ward, but he was known to thousands of Eyewitness News viewers simply as "Dave." Born in Dallas in 1939, Dave grew up in Huntsville and began his radio career with KGKB Radio in Tyler while attending college. Three years later, he joined the staff of WACO Radio as a staff announcer and quickly climbed to Program Director the following year. Dave moved to Houston in 1962 where he worked for KNUZ Radio as a News Reporter and News Director for four years. He made the move to Channel 13 in 1966 as the station's only on-the-street news reporter and photographer, coming "inside" in early 1967 to anchor Channel 13's weekday 7 a.m. newscast.

Later that year, he became the first host of the wildly popular "Dialing for Dollars" program, which later evolved into "Good Morning Houston." Houston viewers flocked to see him and hear him and by January 1968, Dave became the anchor of Eyewitness News at 6 and 10 p.m. Dave hit a historic milestone when he celebrated his 50th year at KTRK-TV. His long tenure at the station was acknowledged in June 2016 when he was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records by breaking the record as the longest-running local TV news anchor in the world at the same station, in the same market. After signing off from his role anchoring ABC13 Eyewitness News in May 2017, Dave continued to tell the legendary stories of Houston, as only he could. "Dave Ward's Houston" celebrated the iconic places, people and moments that help weave the unique fabric of the Bayou City. Over five decades, Dave covered topics from space walks and the Vietnam peace talks to natural disasters and politics, including a one-to-one interview with President Obama. Getting the facts right, consistently -- that's what defined Dave Ward. A true Texas original, Dave has made his mark as one of the nation's most respected news anchors for the past five decades. In his trademark down-to-earth style, he began every newscast with "Good evening, friends." It was that candor and dedication to getting every side of the story that helped him become the most trusted newsman in Houston.

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State Stories

In Texas, a former Chinese official targeted by Beijing's surveillance finds refuge

The Chinese government is using an increasingly powerful tool to control and monitor its own officials: Surveillance technology, much of it originating in the United States, an Associated Press investigation has found. Among its targets is Li Chuanliang, a Chinese former vice mayor hunted by Beijing with the help of surveillance technology. Li’s communications were monitored, his assets seized and his movements followed in police databases. More than 40 friends and relatives — including his pregnant daughter — were identified and detained back in China. Deep in the Texas countryside, Li has now found refuge with members of a Chinese church living in exile after fleeing from China like Li.

Here, the Chihuahuan Desert unfurls as a stark, flat expanse of sand, punctured by phone poles and wind turbines. Tumbleweeds roll across roads, past ranches flying the Lone Star flag and pumpjacks extracting oil. Li and members of the church are building a new life, thousands of miles from China. They cook, eat, and study together. They plant olive trees and design new homes for their budding community. On Sundays, they attend church, singing hymns and reading the Bible. But even in the United States, Li worries he’s being watched. Strange men stalk him. Spies have looked for him. He carries multiple phones. Surveillance technology powers China’s anti-corruption crackdown at home and abroad — a campaign critics say is used to stifle dissent and exact retribution on perceived enemies. Beijing has accused Li of corruption totaling around $435 million, but Li says he’s being targeted for openly criticizing the Chinese Communist Party. He denies criminal charges of taking bribes and embezzling state funds.

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Margaret Scarbrough Wilson, pioneering Austin retailer, dies at 95

Retail pioneer Margaret Scarbrough Wilson, once head of the iconic Austin department store Scarbroughs, died Dec. 6 at Hospice Austin's Christopher House. She was 95. The granddaughter of Emerson Monroe Scarbrough, who founded a general store that served far-flung rural customers, Wilson was the first woman to lead the family firm. She expanded the Scarbroughs brand beyond the handsome downtown anchor store at Congress Avenue and West Sixth Street to suburban malls, and finally to its last hurrah in the Central Market Shopping Center.

"She was so nice!" Austin author J.F. Margos said. "My little sister was a buyer in that store for a long time, and I had the good pleasure of meeting Margaret once. That was such a fantastic and special store! It was so beautiful, and such a wonderful, almost fairytale place to go as a kid. I miss it a lot." Born Aug. 7, 1930, Wilson, like her relatives, played as a child among the aisles of the posh downtown store. Her parents, Margaret Ann Caldwell Scarbrough and Lemuel Scarbrough, not only helped steer the retail business, but served as civic leaders and charity donors. Wilson grew up in the family's grand old house at Whitis Avenue and West 27th Street. She attended Wooldridge Elementary and graduated from Austin High School in 1948. She attended Smith College in Northhampton, Mass., and earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Texas. She married Bayard Spence Wilson on Dec. 20, 1964. They had a daughter, Nancy S. Garrison, who helps run a different kind of family business, Garrison Brothers Distillery near Hye in western Blanco County.

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James Carville: Crockett broke ‘first rule of politics’ with Senate campaign launch

Democratic strategist James Carville mapped out on Thursday what he sees are possible problems with Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s (D-Texas) announcement to run for Senate, saying she broke the “first rule of politics.” “First of all, she seems like she’s well-educated,” Carville told his “Politics War Room” podcast co-host Al Hunt. “Seems like she’s got a lot of energy. But she, to me, she violates the first rule of politics and that is, in politics, you always make it about the voters and never about yourself.” Carville added that “if you listen to her talk, it’s a lot more about herself than it is about the voters.” He suggested that she help more vulnerable Democrats in Texas keep their seats while also staying in Congress. “We know what wins elections,” he continued. “We just do, and what wins elections is not sitting there talking incessantly about yourself. Winning elections is not about how many clicks you get or how much overnight fundraising you do. Winning elections is being part of framing issues and understanding where people come from.”

He concluded that he doesn’t “think Congresswoman Crockett is very good at that, I’ll be very frank.” Carville and Hunt praised her primary opponent in the race to take Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) Senate seat, state Rep. James Talarico (D). Carville said Talarico “has potential.” “He talks about voters more than himself, which is a big thing here,” Carville said, to which Hunt replied, “That’s what it’s all about.” Crockett, a rising star in the Democratic Party, announced her Senate bid Monday and addressed people’s concern over her intended exit from the House to the upper chamber. “There are a lot of people that said, ‘You got to stay in the House. We need our voice. We need you there.’ And I understand, but what we need is for me to have a bigger voice,” Crockett said at her campaign launch event. Her campaign launch followed former Rep. Colin Allred (D) dropping out of the race earlier in the day. Allred’s departure clears the way for a showdown between Crockett and Talarico, another Democratic Party rising star. Republicans relished the launch of her Senate campaign. Cornyn, who is already facing primary challenges from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), told Semafor in an interview, “Am I hiding my glee? I’ll try to wipe the smile off my face, I would say it’s a gift.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rubbed his hands together and gave a wide smile after a reporter asked for his thoughts on Crockett’s campaign. “I’m absolutely delighted that Jasmine Crockett is running for Senate in Texas,” Johnson said. I think it’s one of the greatest things that’s happened to the Republican Party in a long, long time.” Johnson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) separately called her “the face of the Democratic Party.“

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Abraham Quintanilla, father of music icon Selena, has died, family announces

The father of music icon Selena Quintanilla, Abraham Quintanilla, has died, his family announced on social media. In an Instagram post, Quintanilla’s son, A.B. Quintanilla III, shared the news along with a photo of his father. “It’s with a heavy heart to let you guys know that my Dad passed away today…” the post read. His cause of death was not shared to the public. Quintanilla was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, and gained recognition in 1956 for his group, the Dinos. He later became known as the father of Selena and founder of Selena y Los Dinos.

Quintanilla was instrumental in launching Selena’s career, managing her early performances and helping build the family band that would take her to international fame. After Selena’s death in 1995, he remained a fierce guardian of her legacy, overseeing her music, brand, and continued influence across generations. Quintanilla was also recently featured in the Netflix documentary, “Selena Y Los Dinos: A Family Legacy.”

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Texas sues Wisconsin-based Epic Systems, accusing it of running a monopoly

The state of Texas in a new lawsuit claims Verona-based Epic Systems is running an illegal monopoly and restricting parents’ access to their children’s medical records. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit against Epic on Wednesday, accusing the company of using its outsized influence over electronic health records to snuff out competition and limit access to data. The suit accuses Epic of running an “anticompetitive playbook” to maintain its health records “monopoly.” The suit says its goal is to “dismantle Epic’s monopoly” and hold the company accountable for restricting competition.

“We will not allow woke corporations to undermine the sacred rights of parents to protect and oversee their kids’ medical well-being,” Paxton said in a statement announcing the Epic litigation. “This lawsuit aims to ensure that Texans can readily obtain access to these records and benefit from the lower costs and innovation that come from a truly competitive electronic health records market.” But an Epic spokesperson says Texas’ action is “flawed and misguided” because it fails to understand the company’s business model and position in the market. The company maintains it doesn’t determine parental access to health records. Paxton, a prominent Republican who is running for U.S. Senate in Texas, previously filed at least 100 lawsuits against the Biden administration and tried to overturn 2020 presidential election results in other states, including Wisconsin. He was acquitted in an impeachment trial in 2023 after allegedly abusing his office to protect a political donor. The Texas lawsuit comes as Epic has faced antitrust lawsuits over the last year, in which competitors have accused the company of trying to prevent competition. The suit says patient data is the backbone of the U.S. health care system and that Epic has “amassed control over patient data” by locking hospitals into the company’s electronic health records system. That’s allowed Epic to “insert itself as a gatekeeper,” controlling who can access patient data, when they can access it and the terms they can access it under, the suit says. According to the lawsuit, Epic’s database houses more than 325 million patient records, representing more than 90 percent of all U.S. citizens. Once a hospital is in an Epic database, the suit alleges “it is almost impossible to get out” because switching electronic health records providers can take up to a decade and cost more than $1 billion.

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DeeJay Johannessen: There will be a Pride event in 2026

(DeeJay Johannessen is CEO of Help Center for LGBTQ+ Health, the organization that produces Arlington Pride.) Thank you all for the support, concert — and yes, the anger and disappointment. I want to address those opposing the decision to suspend Arlington Pride. “Let me be clear: There will be a Pride event in 2026. My strong hope is that it will be in Arlington — just not on June 6th. The majority of this city believes in basic civil rights for everyone, and they are joined by city leaders and council members who are fighting alongside us. “What we will not do is play along — smile, entertain and hope you like us while our rights are stripped away. Those days are over. Arlington Pride will not be used as a political prop to validate that everything “is fine” in Arlington.

Additionally, I expect this issue to be well resolved before June, but I will not gamble with the safety of 10,000 people by hosting an event at the steps of City Hall and hoping nothing goes wrong. That’s exactly the chaos some would like to see. Arlington Pride has always been — and will remain — a safe, welcoming and powerful event, where families can celebrate without fear. “Thank you to everyone who spoke up. You made it clear that Pride is far more than a party — it matters. And for those who know me, this will come as no surprise: I will never stand down when it comes to our civil rights. Failing to fight would be a personal, moral and ethical failure — and I will not fail the next generation of LGBTQ+ youth who are watching to see if someone will protect them.

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Renee Patterson wins Houston City College trustee runoff

Renee Jefferson Patterson won the race for Houston City College's District II trustee, representing portions of northeast and east Houston, according to unofficial results. Patterson secured 55.6% of the vote, while Kathleen "Kathy" Lynch Gunter had 43.4%, according to preliminary results. The runoff election came after Patterson led with 49% of the vote to Gunter's 33% in the Nov. 4 general election. A third candidate, Desmond Spencer, earned nearly 18%, preventing Patterson from securing the majority. Patterson led by around 500 votes as of 11 p.m. Saturday, with around 3,800 votes cast. Around two-thirds of Harris County voting centers were reporting as of 11 p.m. Saturday.

Patterson was first appointed in February to fill a vacancy left when previous trustee Charlene Ward Johnson won a seat in the state Legislature. Since then, Patterson, a former Houston City Council candidate and interior designer, has been an advocate for HCC's VAST Academy for people with intellectual and physical disabilities. An HCC alumni, Patterson said she hopes to expand the university's North Forest campus and bring more resources to her home neighborhood of Acres Homes. "It's been a very emotional journey for me ... but I'm excited. I'm grateful," Patterson said. "I'm just excited about being able to give students in the community the opportunity that was given to me." The winner will help oversee one of HCC's largest and diverse trustee districts, which stretched from northwest Houston near Spring Branch to North Forest in the city's far northeast. The board leads one of the nation's largest community colleges, with 95,000 students enrolled in 2024-25, chancellor Margaret Ford Fisher said. The community college's enrollment gains have neared pre-COVID levels, and it has seen recent improvements under a state funding model that ties allocations to student outcomes like graduation.

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Ector County judge rules against TGAA in Odessa lawsuit

An Ector County judge has ruled that an agreement at the center of a lawsuit involving the Texas Government Accountability Association (TGAA) and the City of Odessa is not valid and cannot be enforced. The ruling means the agreement carries no legal authority, according to the City of Odessa. Earlier this year, TGAA tried to compel the City into arbitration so the dispute would be heard by an arbitrator instead of a judge.

The City opposed that effort and sought to have the matter decided in a court of law. A temporary order had paused the arbitration process. With the new ruling, the judge has made that pause permanent. TGAA, along with anyone acting on its behalf, is no longer permitted to pursue arbitration against the City. This decision resolves the final outstanding issue in the lawsuit. The judge denied all remaining requests in the case and stated that the order is final unless appealed. The City of Odessa said it is pleased with the outcome and remains committed to transparency, fairness and responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources.

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North Texas layoffs top 10,000 in 2025, but experts say DFW's economy remains strong

North Texas faced a wave of layoffs this year according to the Texas Workforce Commission. As of December, employers across the Metroplex announced over 10,000 layoffs. The largest sectors impacted are in logistics, retail technology and corporate administrative operations, according to Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification, also known as WARN notices Most recently, FedEx announced it will layoff 856 employees in the coming months at its Coppell distribution center. The company is closing the center in favor of a third-party partner. These layoffs come on the back of FedEx’s announcement it would layoff over 500 more people at its Fort Worth distribution center in May. Meanwhile, Dallas County saw the largest amount of layoffs at 4,721. The biggest of those was the Coppell FedEx closure, but layoffs at the Chewy Fulfillment Center and Southwest Airlines added a significant amount as well.

Chewy’s Fulfilment Center saw a reduction of 647 employees as of June. The center did not close, but the company told the TWC it would remain open in a significantly lower capacity. In April, Southwest Airlines eliminated 626 positions at Love Field in order to “fund the right work, reduce duplicative efforts, and have a lean organizational structure that drives clarity and pace.” The largest layoff in Tarrant County came after the City of Fort Worth ended its partnership with MedStar earlier this year. MedStar, a private ambulance company, ended its operations in the city. That prompted 589 layoffs in July. However, according to MedStar, most employees were able to find similar roles with the city. Most recently, the Sheraton Arlington Hotel, LeeMAH Electronics, S&S Activewear, CRST Expedited and Transportation Solutions announced their own layoffs totaling 231 employees to start off December. Economists like SMU's Dean Stansel say the region has historically withstood labor disruptions better than most major metros, thanks to rapid population growth and diverse business base.

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John Whitmire unveils party support amid 'civil war' for Houston Democrats

Several top Houston elected officials and community advocates are attempting to rally support for Mayor John Whitmire as precinct chairs with the Democratic party weigh whether to deny him future endorsements, according to a letter leaked to the Houston Chronicle. Whitmire, a Democrat who spent 50 years in the Texas Senate before stepping into the mayor’s seat in 2024, caught heat from the party when he appeared as a special guest at an April fundraiser for GOP U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Whitmire and his team reasoned at the time that the mayor worked with everyone who helped the city accomplish its goals, and experts said it wasn’t unusual for mayors of large cities to build bridges among members of the opposite party. Notably, the office of Houston mayor is also nonpartisan.

A swath of more than 100 Democratic precinct chairs, though, begged to differ. They penned a series of resolutions shortly after the Crenshaw fundraiser that called for ending the Harris County Democratic Party’s future endorsements of Whitmire, and to hold elected officials to the same fundraising standards as precinct chairs. Precinct chairs take an oath when they are sworn in to not raise funds for members of the opposite party. The resolution regarding fundraising failed in September. The resolution to deny Whitmire future endorsements will be voted on this Sunday. A version of the letter obtained by the Chronicle highlights some of Whitmire’s accomplishments as mayor and during his time in the statehouse. It points out how Whitmire stood with workers at the Hilton Americas as they went on strike for fair wages. Denying the mayor's future party endorsements, it states, would be “deeply harmful” to the Democratic party’s “unity and strength” as they looked toward securing victories in the 2026 election cycle. “Not everything we see in headlines or online tells the full story,” one version of the letter reads. “The mayor is currently engaged in complex, high-stakes negotiations behind the scenes to protect our city, including navigating challenges with the state and federal governments. These efforts may not always be highly visible or political theater, but they are essential to defending Houston’s interests in the difficult political climate we face.”

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Alejandra Salinas wins Houston City Council runoff race

Houston lawyer Alejandra Salinas won the runoff election Saturday for the at-large seat on City Council by clinching more than 57% of the vote, according to unofficial results. Dwight Boykins, a lobbyist and former City Council member, trailed with 43%. Salinas and Boykins were the two top vote-getters, with 21.9% and 21% of the vote, respectively, in a crowded Nov. 4 general election for the seat that opened when Council Member Letitia Plummer resigned to run for Harris County judge. "Tonight is a night to celebrate. Tomorrow, we get to work," Salinas wrote in a statement. Salinas' wife, Elizabeth, stood beside her as she told a crowd at her watch party the reason she decided to run: Their fear of what they were seeing across the county, and how they wanted to do more. "We wanted to create a campaign of hope and joy and inclusivity, and send a message that right here in Houston, we're going to stand up to the hatred, we're going to stand up to the fear and show them that with love and inclusivity and hope and whole lot of hard work, we can make the city better for everyone," Salinas said as the crowd cheered.

Salinas dominated fundraising throughout the race, which she ran – literally and figuratively – on foot. The power of block walking helped her collect more than $210,000. Salinas’ most recent campaign finance report showed she had a little more than $87,000 on hand. Boykins, by comparison, earned nearly $30,000 throughout the race and had more than $32,000 on hand, according to his most recent campaign finance report. At her watch party at Side Peace Sports Bar on Washington Avenue Saturday night, Salinas milled around a packed room of supporters that included state Rep. Christina Morales, Council Member Abbie Kamin and former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who's now running for the Democratic nomination for Harris County judge. Salinas told the Chronicle she couldn't be prouder of the campaign she ran as a first-time candidate reaching 2.4 million Houstonians. She said she'll prioritize making sure the city delivers essential services well and push to create strong infrastructure.

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Future for Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum unclear after WTAMU announcement

The future of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum remains uncertain after an announcement made by West Texas A&M University’s president last month. West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler announced November 18, in a meeting with Panhandle-Plains Historical Society board members, that the university is unable to provide long-term funding and maintenance for the museum. NewsChannel10 reached out to WTAMU, which provided the following statement: This comes after the university closed the doors to the museum back in March due to the building being deemed unsafe by fire marshals.

“The building is not safe to operate as a museum right now,” said Mark White, PPHS board of trustees. “In 1932 there was a lease agreement requiring the state of Texas, working in conjunction with the A&M Board of Regents, to maintain that building, but it has not been maintained.” White says while the news came as a shock and is disappointing, the society has begun having conversations with local institutions in order to keep the over two million artifacts in our region. “We want to keep the museum local, absolutely important to the people in this area. So, we will be doing that. The other thing I want to mention is that the employees that we have at the museum, the wonderful employees that we have at the museum, they will continue to be employed by the society,” said White. White says they are excited for the future and anticipate a museum that is even larger than the original.

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Kyle, Pflugerville voters choose new mayors in runoff elections

Voters in Travis, Hays and Williamson Counties cast their ballots in a few runoff elections on Saturday, choosing their next mayors and council members. The bigger elections on Saturday were the runoffs for Kyle and Pflugerville’s mayors and four other races held in Central Texas, are below.

Kyle voters chose between the top two candidates from November’s mayoral election after none of the four candidates received more than 50% of the vote. Of those four, Saturday’s runoff election came down to Yvonne Flores-Cale and Robert Rizo. Preliminary results from Saturday’s election have Flores-Cale as the winner of the race, with 50.83% of the vote Saturday. A runoff election for the position of Mayor of Pflugerville was called on Nov. 18, 2025, after none of the candidates in the Nov. 4 election won more than 50% of the vote, according to the city. The two candidates who received the most votes in the November election and advanced to the runoff on Saturday were Pat McCord and Doug Weiss. Some voters in Buda, Kyle, Leander, and San Marcos chose their next city council representative. For Buda City Council District C, Kimberly Goodman and Jeffrey Morales both received about 43% of the vote in the November election and advanced to the runoff. Voters chose Goodman as the winner in Saturday’s runoff election. She had 50.79% of the vote. For Kyle City Council District 1, incumbent Bear Heiser advanced to a runoff with challenger Courtney Goza. Heiser received about 40% of the vote in November, while Goza received 27%. Voters chose Goza as the winner in Saturday’s runoff election, with 50.80% of the vote. For Leander City Council Place 3, Natomi Blair and Anna Yelaun moved ahead to a runoff in this race. Blair received about 48% of the vote in November’s election, while Yelaun picked up 40%. Voters chose Blair as the winner in Saturday’s runoff election, with 53.78% of the vote. For San Marcos City Council Place 2, Josh Paselk and incumbent Saul Gonzales advanced to the runoff. In November’s election, Paselk received 35% of the vote, while Gonzales won 27%. Voters chose Paselk as the winner in Saturday’s runoff election. He got 54.50% of the vote.

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National Stories

12 killed in Sydney beachside Chanukah event shooting

Twelve people were killed and at least 29 injured in a terrorist shooting that targeted a Chanukah party on Bondi Beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Sunday afternoon, according to Australian authorities. The attack involved two gunmen, one of whom is believed to be among the fatalities, according to a New South Wales Police statement. The second shooter sustained critical injuries, it added. Shortly after the shooting occurred, police located a vehicle nearby which they believe contained several improvised explosive devices. Bomb disposal units worked to neutralize the devices, police said. The attack took place at a Chanukah celebration attended by thousands of people and organized by the Chassidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement, according to Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism.

“I am in continuous contact with leaders of the Jewish community in Australia,” stated Chikli. “There are many casualties, including fatalities. I will provide updates as soon as additional details become available.” According to Chabad spokesman Motti Seligson, one of the organization’s rabbis was among those murdered. The slain rabbi was identified as Eli Schlanger, a U.K.-born Chabad emissary in Sydney. Australian Prime Minister Antony Albanese told a press conference following the attack, “This afternoon, there has been a devastating terrorist incident at Bondi at the Chanukah by the Sea celebration.” “This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Chanukah—which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith,” continued the premier. “An act of evil antisemitism, terrorism, that has struck the heart of our nation,” he said. “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”

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Brown University shooter in custody, officials say

A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University on Saturday during final exams on the Ivy League campus, authorities said, and police now appear to have apprehended the suspect. University President Christina Paxson said she was told that 10 people who were shot were students. Another person was injured by fragments from the shooting, but it was not clear if that victim was a student, she said. Officers scattered across the campus and into an affluent neighborhood filled with historic and stately brick homes, searching academic buildings, backyards and porches late into the night after the shooting erupted in the afternoon.

The suspect was a man in dark clothing who was last seen leaving the engineering building where the attack happened, said Timothy O’Hara, deputy chief of Providence police. Authorities said Sunday morning that the suspect they believe is responsible for the shooting is now in custody. Security footage showed the suspect walking away from the building, but his face was not visible. Some witnesses reported that the man, who could be in his 30s, may have been wearing a camouflage mask, O’Hara said.

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Poll: Trump's MAGA base is still behind him — but cracks are showing ahead of 2026

President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains steadily underwater among adults as he nears the end of his first year back in the White House, and he has lost some ground among his “Make America Great Again” base, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey. Trump’s approval has inched down in 2025 amid concern about the economy, while Americans remain worried about inflation and costs after Trump’s campaign promises to ease those anxieties. Respondents’ concerns were apparent in everyday spending decisions like grocery shopping, holiday spending and more, the poll shows. Other high-profile Trump decisions, including his handling of the controversy over the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files, have scored negatively with Americans. Trump initially opposed a congressional move to force the release of the files before relenting to pressure from both parties last month.

Overall, the poll underlines how the intense support that Trump rode to a second presidential term has weakened — and how the intensity of the opposition to him has grown. American adults largely disapprove of Trump’s job performance, with his approval rating at 42% and disapproval at 58% in the new poll. That’s a slight approval rating drop of 3 points (from 45%) over the course of four polls since April, the first time the survey was conducted. The new poll surveyed 20,252 adults online, including people registered to vote and not registered to vote, from Nov. 20 to Dec. 8, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. But underneath this modest decrease in approval are more subtle shifts in the intensity of feelings about the president — both positive and negative. The share of people who strongly approve of Trump (21%) has dropped over the course of the year (26% in April). Slightly more people now say they strongly disapprove of Trump (44%) compared to April (42%).

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Trump wants the U.S. shipbuilding industry to be great again. Here's what it will take, and what's at stake

President Donald Trump has vowed to lead a revival in U.S. shipbuilding, but the success of this manufacturing renaissance in a key sector for national security will rely on the expertise from overseas. The administration’s goal of a shipbuilding boom is a part of Trump’s “Make America Great” policy agenda. Trump signed an executive order in April to bolster the shipbuilding industry, but many industry executives have warned it won’t be easy given the current state of the domestic industry, and foreign investment and collaboration are key. The Trump administration’s “Make American Shipyards Great Again” initiative is looking to build out liquified natural gas tankers, polar ice-breakers, and Navy vessels. “The American shipbuilding industry saw a boom twice in the past 110 years,” Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at Xeneta, tells CNBC. “The first boom was during World War I, the second, World War II,” he said.

global commercial shipbuilding industry. The U.S. presently has eight active shipyards. China has over 300. The Trump administration’s shipbuilding plan is an extension of an investigation into Chinese shipbuilding by the United States Trade Representative under the Biden and Trump administrations. The USTR 301 investigation found the Chinese government has bolstered its shipbuilding dominance through the use of significant subsidies and designating the industry as strategic. The investigation said the acts, policies, and practices were “unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce.” The U.S. recently began to charge fees on ships built in China visiting U.S. ports, which led to retaliatory measures from China, but the two nations agreed to a one-year pause as part of a November trade truce. In 2008, China surpassed Japan in shipbuilding output. In 2010, China overtook South Korea to become the world’s largest shipbuilder, both in production capacity and new orders. Since then, China’s lead has continued to grow. Its global market share in shipbuilding stands at 53%, followed by South Korea and Japan.

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The eerie parallels between AI mania and the dot-com bubble

Is it karma? Coincidence? Either way, the ghost of the dot-com bubble is back 25 years later. Shares in Cisco Systems CSCO -1.85%decrease; red down pointing triangle, the dot-com-era champion that became the world’s most valuable company at its peak in March 2000, this week reached that level again for the first time. It’s a cautionary tale of how far stock prices can depart from reality. Bulls spend a lot of time denying that there’s a 1990s-style bubble inflating again in artificial intelligence. But it’s worth going through a few of the striking similarities, and some notable differences.

There are lots of ways of valuing stocks, and pretty much all of them make U.S. shares look the most expensive since the dot-com bubble. The forward price-to-earnings ratio, price to cash flow, the “Fed model” calculation of the extra reward offered by stocks compared with bonds and the cyclically adjusted PE ratio all scream that stocks are expensive. The reason is common to them all: Investors are, just as in 1999-2000, betting on a new technology to deliver much faster than usual profit growth. If it happens, it justifies higher valuations. Just as the dot-coms were priced based on hope that the internet would deliver a new era of profits from business models that were yet to be proven, so with AI. Generative AI has delivered chatbots and image generation that seem to be not far from magic—but is, for now, priced well below what it costs to produce, leading to big losses at AI businesses. One difference: Many of the pure-play dot-coms didn’t even have revenue, while the AI companies are at least making some sales.

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Another blue wave? Meet the Democrat trying to make it happen and the Republican trying to stop her

ven though Republican Brian Jack is only a first-term congressman, he has become a regular in the Oval Office these days. As the top recruiter for his party’s House campaign team, the Georgia native is often reviewing polling and biographies of potential candidates with President Donald Trump. Lauren Underwood, an Illinois congresswoman who does similar work for Democrats, has no such West Wing invitation. She is at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue working the phones to identify and counsel candidates she hopes can erase Republicans’ slim House majority in November’s midterm elections. Although they have little in common, both lawmakers were forged by the lessons of 2018, when Democrats flipped dozens of Republican-held seats to turn the rest of Trump’s first term into a political crucible. Underwood won her race that year, and Jack became responsible for dealing with the fallout when he became White House political director a few months later.

Underwood wants a repeat in 2026, and Jack is trying to stand in her way. For Republicans, that means going all-in on Trump and his “Make American Great Again” agenda, gambling that durable enthusiasm from his base will overcome broader dissatisfaction with his leadership. “You’re seeing a lot of people very inspired by President Trump,” Jack said about his party’s House candidates. “They’re excited to serve in this body alongside him and the White House. That’s been a tool and a motivating factor for so many people who want to run.” Underwood said she is looking for candidates with community involvement and public service beyond Washington politics. A registered nurse, she was a health care advocate before she ran in 2018, joining a cadre of Democratic newcomers that included military veterans, educators, activists and business owners. “It’s about having ordinary Americans step up” in a way that “draws a sharp contrast with the actions of these MAGA extremists,” she said.

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Lead Stories

In a setback for Trump, Indiana lawmakers defeat redistricting plan

Indiana lawmakers voted 19 to 31 against the congressional redistricting called for by President Donald Trump in his attempt to help Republicans win the 2026 midterm elections.The defeat today in the Indiana Senate, where 40 of the 50 members are Republicans, is the first time Trump’s redistricting campaign has been voted down by members of his own party. Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have answered his call for an unusual mid-decade redistricting scramble. Sen. Greg Goode (R-Terre Haute) was the first lawmaker to face a swatting attempt and has been called out on social media by Trump himself. Goode, who has held a town hall on the bill, relayed what he said he’d heard from constituents, reading off direct quotes. He said constituents were largely against it, to cheers from protestors outside the chamber.

Goode called on lawmakers to focus on what really matters to constituents – issues of affordability and job creation. “My vote on this legislation will reflect just that: common sense,” he said. Senator Spencer Deery (R-West Lafayette) said he felt mid-decade redistricting would undermine the people’s faith in the electoral process and was not in line with conservative principles. “My opposition to mid-cycle gerrymandering is not in contrast to my conservative principles, my opposition is driven by them,” Deery said. “As long as I have breath, I will use my voice to resist a federal government that attempts to bully, direct, and control this state or any state. Giving the federal government more power is not conservative.” The move was also opposed by Indiana Democrats, who currently hold just two of the state’s nine U.S. House seats and said it would dilute the voting power of minority communities. Democrats each took time to speak out against the bill on Thursday. J.D. Ford (D-Carmel) called on the Senate to use common sense and fairness. “We have a real opportunity to be a national leader,” Ford said. “We can rise above the political noise and say no to this map.”

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Jasmine Crockett leads James Talarico in first poll post-announcement

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, may have just entered the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Monday, but according to a new poll she’s already the favorite to win. The Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey center at Texas Southern University polled 1,600 likely Texas Democratic Primary voters between Dec. 9 and Dec. 11, releasing their results on Friday morning. Among those responses, 51% of respondents indicated support for Jasmine Crockett, while 43% showed support for State Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock. The pollsters said that the results have a margin of error of +/- 2.45%. While Crockett leads by eight points among all likely Democratic primary voters, she excels in three major demographics. Crockett leads Talarico amongst women 57%-36%, amongst those 55 or older 59%-34% and among black voters 89%-8%.

Conversely, Talarico leads with white voters 53%-40%, with men 52%-42% and with Latino voters 51%-41%. His strongest demographic is young voters, leading 63%-34% among eligible voters under the age of 34. According to the poll, Talarico lags behind Crockett heavily in name recognition, with 21% of likely Democratic primary voters saying they don’t know enough to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion about him. On the other hand, the outspoken U.S. congresswoman only has 6% of voters who say they don’t know enough. To close the poll, voters were asked two questions about how each candidate could help the Democratic party break a 30-year dry spell of statewide races. Voters overwhelmingly (53%-34%) said they believe Crockett would be the candidate to galvanize the base and mobilize Democratic-leaning non-voter to actually turn out in the 2026 General Election. On the other hand, voters overwhelmingly (58%-29%) said they believe Talarico would be the best candidate to flip the vote of Texans who consistently support Republican candidates. Both candidates have 81 days to make their case to Texas Democrats before the March 3 election.

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Texas employment mostly flat in September before shutdown

Texas’ main economic indicators were mostly flat in September as escalating fears of an economic slowdown weighed on economists and American households, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Texas Workforce Commission shows. The report is the last snapshot of the state’s economy before the federal government shutdown, which started Oct. 1 and lasted a record 43 days, resulting in at least 67,000 furloughs and other economic pressures due to a lack of services. For the month, the state added a net 4,600 nonfarm positions, according to the Workforce Commission, representing a statistically negligible change from August. Texas, with a population of around 31 million, recorded a record high civilian workforce of around 15.9 million, the TWC report notes. For the year, the September report brought the state’s job growth to 168,000, representing a year-over-year seasonally adjusted nonfarm growth rate of 1.2%.

That year-over-year growth rate was significantly better than the corresponding national rate, which was 0.8%. But for years, Texas’ economy has been growing much faster than the national average, with the 1.2% rate representing something of a cooldown from the state’s recent trajectory. “Historically, the Texas economy grows around 2%,” Luis Torres, a senior economist at the San Antonio Branch of the Dallas Fed, said in an interview with The News earlier this fall. The 1.2% year-over-year rate is on par with modeling produced by the bank in September, when the Dallas Fed forecast the state’s employment would grow by 1.3% in 2025. “So yes, it’s below trend,” Torres added, “and it’s also weaker than 2024.” The data released Thursday showed that in September, Texas counted 14,343,800 nonfarm jobs, up from 14,339,200 in August and 14,175,800 in September of 2024. The state’s biggest monthly increase came from the construction sector, which added 4,300 jobs. The trade, transportation and utilities sector saw a monthly gain, as did Texas’ two million plus-worker government sector, which grew by nearly 6,000 workers.

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Trump seeks to cut restrictions on marijuana through planned order

President Donald Trump is expected to push the government to dramatically loosen federal restrictions on marijuana, reducing oversight of the plant and its derivatives to the same level as some common prescription painkillers and other drugs, according to six people familiar with the discussions. Trump discussed the plan with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) in a Wednesday phone call from the Oval Office, said four of the people, who, like the others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The president is expected to seek to ease access to the drug through an upcoming executive order that directs federal agencies to pursue reclassification, the people said. The move would not legalize or decriminalize marijuana, but it would ease barriers to research and boost the bottom lines of legal businesses.

Trump in August said he was “looking at reclassification.” He would be finishing what started under President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, which followed the recommendation of federal health officials in proposing a rule to reclassify marijuana; that proposal has stalled since Trump took office. “We’re looking at it. Some people like it, some people hate it,” Trump said this summer. “Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana because it does bad for the children, it does bad for the people that are older than children.” Trump cannot unilaterally reclassify marijuana, said Shane Pennington, a D.C. attorney who represents two pro-rescheduling companies involved in the litigation on the topic. But he can direct the Justice Department to forgo a pending administrative court hearing and issue the final rule, Pennington said. “This would be the biggest reform in federal cannabis policy since marijuana was made a Schedule I drug in the 1970s,” Pennington said. The president was joined on the Wednesday call with Johnson by marijuana industry executives, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Mehmet Oz, three of the people said. Johnson was skeptical of the idea and gave a list of reasons, including several studies and data, to support his position against reclassifying the drug, two of the people said. Trump then turned the phone over to the executives gathered around his desk, who rebutted Johnson’s arguments, the people said.

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State Stories

Henry Cuellar will retake key spending post after Trump pardon

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to return Rep. Henry Cuellar to his leadership position on a powerful spending panel following his pardon on federal corruption charges. “We got ratified,” Cuellar told reporters following the vote. The veteran Texas lawmaker overcame private concerns inside his party about restoring him as the top Democrat on the Homeland Security subpanel after President Donald Trump granted him clemency in a surprise move last week. But Cuellar remains popular in the Democratic Caucus, particularly among longtime colleagues — some of whom argued that with the pardon wiping away his bribery indictment, the legal process had run its course and there was no reason to bar Cuellar from the post under caucus rules.

“Just look at the rules,” said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.). “There’s nothing more to say.” Still, the fact that the vote even happened meant that at least one Democratic appropriator privately objected to reappointing Cuellar by acclamation. If his party retakes the House majority next year, Cuellar would be in line as subcommittee chair to directly oversee more than $60 billion in annual spending on agencies including Customs and Border Protection and ICE. Democrats have made a high-profile push in recent weeks to police ethical transgressions in the party’s ranks. Nearly two dozen Democrats led by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington broke ranks to reprimand Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) for apparently engineering his retirement announcement to ensure a favored ally would succeed him. Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood has served as the top Democrat on the subpanel since Cuellar’s indictment last year alleging he took some $600,000 in bribes from foreign entities. Cuellar has denied wrongdoing and cast his indictment under President Joe Biden as political retribution for his moderate immigration stances.

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U Can Share: Food bank partnerships help address student hunger in West Texas schools

Student hunger is becoming more visible in West Texas classrooms, prompting schools to partner with local organizations to ensure children can focus on learning rather than empty stomachs. The South Plains Food Bank collaborates with several organizations to address this growing need, including Communities in Schools, which helps identify students who depend on school-based food support. Amanda Graham, Chief Growth Officer for Communities in Schools, reflects on the impact of addressing basic needs. “I think often about the fact a cup of noodles can change a student’s entire day,” she said. Communities in Schools stations trained site coordinators at 87 campuses across the region. These coordinators witness daily challenges students face, particularly when hunger affects their ability to learn and participate in school activities.

Chase Head, Chief Development Officer for the South Plains Food Bank, acknowledges the financial commitment required to maintain these programs. “Children are our future for us to fill a pantry it’s 200 to 500 dollars for us to take the mobile market out it’s about 2,500 dollars every time we take that out,” Head said. “It’s expensive and that’s where the community is so important to us a lot of this is coming straight from donations.” The campus food resources serve more than emergency supplies. They provide coordinators with opportunities to connect with students, build trust, and understand additional challenges families may be experiencing. Graham explains that many families work hard but still struggle financially. “A lot of families are working really hard and they’re still not able to make ends meet,” she said. “We want to alleviate that stress and burden at home, when we can. It can carry over to a student and stress at school, we want to be there for the students and family.” The food bank emphasizes that partnerships like this one are crucial for effective food distribution. While they can provide food at reduced costs, they rely on school-based organizations to connect resources with students who need them most. “We’re in the business of resourcing food at really low cost so that’s where we come in but we’re not always in that school or community to identify who needs stuff and that’s where we partner with agencies like CIS to make sure we’re filling the pantry and they’re able to help the people that need it,” Head said. Together, these organizations create consistent food access for students, addressing hunger one pantry, one snack, and one student at a time.

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TEA will take over Beaumont ISD, district and board member confirm, as commissioner orders new board of managers

The Texas Education Agency will take over the Beaumont Independent School District, a move confirmed Thursday by both the district and BISD school board member Joe Evans, who told 12News that “the entire district will be taken over.” The confirmation came the same day TEA Commissioner Mike Morath issued a formal letter ordering the installation of a board of managers and a conservator to govern the district. In the December 11, 2025 letter addressed to Superintendent Dr. Shannon Allen and all seven trustees, Morath said state intervention is required because two BISD campuses—ML King Middle School and Fehl-Price Elementary—earned a fifth consecutive unacceptable academic accountability rating. State law under TEC §39A.111 mandates the appointment of a board of managers or the closure of any campus that fails for five straight years.

Morath wrote that ML King Middle School received its fifth consecutive unacceptable rating with the 2023–24 school year, marking 11 years since it last earned an acceptable rating. Fehl-Price Elementary reached the same threshold with the 2024–25 ratings; according to the letter, it has never met an acceptable academic standard since opening in 2011–12. Both campuses received “F” ratings in their most recent review. The commissioner described the district’s challenges as a “fundamental failure,” citing chronic academic deficiencies and a long-standing inability to support student success. Only 30% of BISD students are meeting grade level—20 percentage points below the state average, he wrote—calling the intervention compulsory rather than discretionary. According to 12News file reporting, this marks the second time in just over a decade that state-appointed oversight will replace locally elected leadership. The TEA first confirmed a takeover on April 14, 2014, when then-Commissioner Michael Williams removed the elected board following investigations into special education, finance, and governance. Williams cited the “magnitude of the findings,” “systemic operating deficiencies,” and the need to prevent “further harm to students.” Some trustees objected at the time, arguing the action disenfranchised voters. Local control was restored in 2020 after years under a board of managers. Morath informed Superintendent Allen and the board of the transition, and Board President Thomas Sigee said the decision restored trust in the voters who elected district leaders. But renewed state scrutiny intensified after BISD received a “D” accountability rating and seven failing campuses in the prior school year. During a September 2025 visit, Morath toured Fehl-Price, Pietzsch-MacArthur and Vincent Middle School, noting he saw both “great practices” and “very problematic practices.”

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Lake Worth ISD will be taken over by the state, TEA officials announce

The Texas Education Agency is taking over the Lake Worth Independent School District after Marilyn Miller Language Academy received five consecutive F ratings, state education officials announced Thursday. The takeover means Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath will name a replacement for district Superintendent Mark Ramirez and appoint a board of managers to temporarily replace the district’s school board. Lake Worth ISD is the second Tarrant County school district to be taken over by the state in the past year. TEA officials announced in October that they would take over Fort Worth ISD after a similar series of consecutive F ratings at a middle school in the district. Texas law requires the state education commissioner to do one of two things anytime a single campus receives a fifth straight F rating: order that campus closed, or take over the entire district, replacing its elected school board with an appointed board of managers.

In an enforcement letter sent to Lake Worth ISD officials and school board members, Morath said he planned to appoint a board of managers and a conservator to oversee the district. The board of managers temporarily replaces the district’s elected school board. The conservator oversees turnaround plans at low-performing schools. Morath said the board of managers will remain in place until no campuses in the district have consecutive years of F ratings. Ideally, the district will reach a point where no campuses receive an F rating at all, he said. Although a fifth consecutive F rating at Miller Language Academy triggered the takeover, the district’s problems go beyond a single campus, Morath said: Only 22% of students across all grades and subjects met grade level on the most recent STAAR exam. That’s 28% lower than the statewide percentage. “Lake Worth ISD’s low level of student achievement is a long-standing issue, predating the COVID-19 disruptions, and has gotten worse recently,” he said.

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TEA announces takeover of Connally ISD

The Texas Education Agency announced the state agency is taking over Connally Independent School District, 25 News confirmed. State Takeover: Texas Education Agency announces takeover of Connally ISD Mike Morath, TEA Commissioner of Education, tells 25 News' Bobby Poitevint that they delivered the letter, notifying Connally ISD of the takeover Thursday afternoon. In the letter obtained by 25 News, it reads that two of the five Connally ISD campuses earned a fifth consecutive unacceptable academic accountability rating for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. This requires the TEA Commissioner of Education to either order the closure of those two campuses or appoint a board of managers to govern the district.

"I am hereby ordering the appointment of both a board of managers to govern the district and a conservator," Morath said in the letter. The two campuses at the center of the state takeover are Connally Junior High and Connally Elementary. According to the letter, Connally Junior High earned an 'F' in 2023, an 'F' in 2024, and a 'D' in 2025, and Connally Elementary earned three consecutive 'F' ratings for 2023, 2024, and 2025. Mike Morath on Texas Education Agency announces takeover of Connally ISD State law requires that the commissioner appoint a superintendent, which Morath says in the letter he will decide at a later time. An informal review is scheduled for Dec. 17 at 1:45 p.m.

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Appeals court rejects lawsuit over Texas foreign land-buyers law

A federal appeals court has allowed Texas’ new foreign land-ownership law to remain in effect — not because the judges weighed in on whether it’s constitutional, but because they ruled the person challenging it isn’t actually affected by it. On Thursday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit against Senate Bill 17, a new law that restricts people with citizenship, permanent residence or political ties to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from acquiring most types of real estate in Texas, including farmland, homes and commercial property. Supporters say the measure is a safeguard against national security threats repeatedly highlighted in the federal government’s annual threat assessment.

The plaintiff in the case, Peng Wang, is a Chinese citizen who’s lived in Texas for 16 years on a student visa. Wang argued that the law discriminated against him and others like him, making it harder to rent long term or eventually buy a home. But the appeals court on Wednesday ruled that SB 17 doesn’t apply to Wang at all. To fall under the law, someone must be domiciled in a designated country, meaning that country is their permanent home. The judges noted that Wang considers Texas his home, plans to stay after school and has “no real plans to return to China.” “Wang is asking this court to find that his true, fixed, and permanent home and place to which he intends to return is an unknown place somewhere in China at which he has never lived and to which he has no intention to ever return,” the ruling read. “We refuse the invitation.” Because Wang didn’t meet those requirements, the court refused to move forward on the bigger constitutional questions, leaving SB 17 fully in effect. Justin Sadowsky, legal director at the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance and Wang’s attorney, said he was disappointed in the decision, but believed future legal challenges would be taken against what he described as a “blatantly discriminatory law.”

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Jason Berry: Confronting abuse cases in Dallas, survivors and Jesuits take path of reconciliation

(Jason Berry achieved prominence for his reporting on the Catholic church crisis in Lead Us Not Into Temptation (1992).) In 1965, just shy of my junior year at Jesuit High School of New Orleans, with good potential as an offensive end, I had an epiphany in the muddy slog of August football practice. Why are you doing something you don't like? Soon, I quit. And was trailed by guilt for a dereliction of duty. Jesuit vaunted student achievements of all kinds. I played on the golf team and did some pieces for the school paper. Jesuit fostered a fraternal culture, molding friendships I carry to this day. For a writer, the Jesuits' stress on Socratic thinking was a gift. Question seeks answer, answer sparks new questions, yielding synthesis as the wheel of learning turns. Picture Kevin Trower, the cerebral basketball coach, a layman teaching Latin, pacing the floor with furrowed brow, book in hand on Caesar's Gallic Wars. "Alea iacta est. The die is cast! What does this tell us? Think, boys! Think!" In 1966, on certain nights, I sat in a school parlor with my religion teacher, troubled by a loving father who, after work, downed a few stiff ones, watched Vietnam War protests on TV, then drifted off to bed. Ashamed to tell Fr. Pat Koch how Dad was there-but-not-there. I brooded over quitting football. "Think of yourself in five years, Jason. What difference will football make?"

Koch (pronounced Coke) entreated me to pray for a closeness with Jesus. He blessed me when we finished. I left feeling clean, a burden lifted. A few years later, Dad got sober, bounced back as a benevolent paterfamilias. By then, Koch had gone to Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. Today, I wince on reading about Koch in a 2021 deposition of Fr. Philip Postell, the Dallas Jesuit Prep president from 1992 to 2011. Nine men alleged they were sexually abused as teenagers, with the cases involving five priests in the '70s and '80s. Four men accused Koch, who died in 2006 at 78. His Legacy obituary is full of praise from people with memories like mine. Postell, 20 years younger than Koch, testified they were not close. I recall Postell, who taught at my high school: a scholastic, not yet ordained, easygoing with a wry sense of humor. Postell in testimony was 83, questioned by Brent Walker, an adroit attorney among several lawyers suing the Dallas Diocese, Jesuit Prep and the Jesuits' Central and Southern Province, among others.

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Joe Holley: Democrats face a mess in Texas

(Joe Holley, a speechwriter for former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, writes columns and editorials for the Houston Chronicle.) Whenever I hear the name Jasmine Crockett — she’s the bold and brash Democratic congresswoman from Dallas — I can’t help but think of the other Crockett, the one most folks around the country know. That would be Davy Crockett, of course. Also a politician, Davy was a congressman from Tennessee until he got his coonskin cap handed to him in his 1835 bid for reelection. The disgusted future Disney hero decamped to Texas, but not before he got off a parting shot at Tennessee voters: “You all may go to hell, and I will go to Texas.” The latter-day Crockett, now that she’s a declared candidate for the U.S. Senate, may not bring hell to her fellow Texas Democrats but she has already stirred up turmoil. She made the announcement Monday, just hours after former Rep. Colin Allred, who ran a respectable U.S. Senate race in a losing effort last year against incumbent Ted Cruz, dropped out of the 2026 Democratic senate primary race.

Saying he wanted to avoid “a bruising Senate Democratic primary and runoff,” Allred announced he’ll run for the House from the newly drawn 33rd congressional district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Crockett’s candidacy may also have cast a worrisome shadow on the glow many Texas Democrats were beginning to see in her remaining Democratic primary opponent. James Talarico, a young state House member from the Austin area, is not only uncommonly eloquent, but he’s also a part-time ministerial student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Although he may be a tad bit Mr. Rogers-earnest, he’s adept at framing progressive ideals and policies within the context of his Christian beliefs, not unlike Sen. Raphael G. Warnock of Georgia. Democrats across the country have noticed, particularly after the 36-year-old politician/preacher spent nearly three hours on the Joe Rogan podcast in July. Rogan told him he ought to run for president. The Talarico boomlet — also fueled by over 1.5 million followers on TikTok — has the makings of a Beto O’Rourke-style love affair. (The Beto boomlet fizzled after the former congressman lost his two statewide races and flamed out in his quixotic run for president.) And as Talarico is well aware, his party’s three-decade-plus exile from statewide office in Texas approaches the Israelites’ epic wilderness sojourn.

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TCU offers new course inspired by hit TV series ‘Landman’

In the first episode of Taylor Sheridan’s hit TV series Landman, lead character Tommy Norris, played by Billy Bob Thornton, is held prisoner by the Mexican cartel and a massive oil tanker and airplane collide in a fiery explosion. While Tom Seng, an assistant professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University, admitted those scenes were entertaining, he said they don’t reflect what life is actually like as a landman. “I have yet to run into a landman who said he was battling cartels in West Texas,” he said with a chuckle.

What is a landman? Someone who negotiates land rights on behalf of energy companies. That’s part of what 25 undergraduate students will learn in the spring in a new eight-week seminar at TCU called “Land Management and Land Administration.” The course, while inspired by Landman, is not exclusively about the show. Instead, Seng will teach students what it means to be a landman and prepare them for a certification exam through the American Association of Professional Landmen (AAPL), which is headquartered in Fort Worth. Seng said students will hear about the profession from Midland and Fort Worth landmen, including a TCU alum couple who own a mineral management company. During his 30 years as a trader in the natural gas industry, Seng said, he worked with several landmen. He said there are certain stereotypes about old-school landmen — like “the guy with the Cadillac with the longhorns on the hood.” But he said the face of the modern landman has changed as younger generations join the ranks and the number of women in the profession increases.

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‘Human trafficking behind prison walls’: women jailed in Texas allege rampant sexual abuse

Women at FMC Carswell – long a focus of sexual abuse investigations – say prison officials have turned a blind eye Eleven women incarcerated at a federal prison in Texas allege they have been subjected to rampant sexual abuse by staff members in the past seven years. The allegations are the latest accusations of abuse within a federal prison system rife with claims of inhumane conditions. The allegations at FMC Carswell, a federal medical women’s prison in Fort Worth, Texas, are particularly troubling because the facility has been the focus of sexual abuse investigations for years, with 13 staff members convicted of abuse and misconduct since 1997 and promises of reform at various times. Now, 11 women have filed fresh lawsuits alleging they have been sexually assaulted by prison staff in recent years.

The lawsuits have been filed since 1 May in federal District of Columbia court and list Beth Reese, the chief of the office of internal affairs for the BoP, and the United States as defendants. The suits each lodge 10 civil claims against the US, including negligence, sexual battery and trafficking victims. In the lawsuits, the women identify six staff members at the facility as perpetrators, including a doctor, chaplain and three officers. Several women say they have been assaulted by the head of the BioMed office. Over the past months, the Guardian spoke with six women alleging abuse. They say sexual assault is common at FMC Carswell, and an issue that staff and administrators turn a blind eye to. “Coming into the system, whether you’re guilty or not, it’s like you’re punished over and over again,” said Priscilla Ellis, an army veteran incarcerated at Carswell who said she was abused for more than a year by a Carswell staff member. “It’s like human trafficking behind prison walls.”

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Support Texas animal initiatives with new license plate design

The Texas Humane Legislation Network unveiled a new design for the Animal-Friendly license plate in a news release Monday. The network partnered with Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of State Health Services to develop and release the plate design. The plate features updated language from the previous design, adding the word “adopt” to read “Spay. Neuter. Adopt.” This is meant to emphasize the importance of adopting from local shelters, according to the release. During the 89th Texas Legislature this year, Senate Bill 1568 was passed, which enabled DSHS to diversify license plate designs to boost public interest and awareness of the Texas Animal-Friendly Program.

The plate is available for purchase for $30, with $22 going toward supporting spaying and neutering initiatives across Texas, the release said. The funds raised from the original plate design reached over $6 million, according to the release. The design is part of the Animal-Friendly License Plate Program, which was established in 1997. The program set up the Animal-Friendly Fund, which supports spay and neuter initiatives at local shelters and nonprofit organizations across Texas, the release said. “These new plates are more than just a design update — they’re a reminder of what Texans can accomplish when compassion meets action,” Shelby Bobosky, executive director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network, said. “Every plate purchased helps reduce shelter overpopulation and supports local organizations working tirelessly to provide spay, neuter and adoption services across the state.” To order the new plate, visit MyPlates.com.

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Invasive pest never before seen in North America threatens Texas food supply, officials warn

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller discusses efforts to help farmers and ranchers with supplies and the opening of an agriculture mental health hotline to all Texans. Texas agriculture officials issued an urgent alert this week after confirming that a newly identified invasive pest is spreading quickly across more than 20 counties, threatening grazing lands, hay production and livestock operations across the state. The insect, Helicococcus summervillei – known as the pasture mealybug – has never before been reported in North America. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said the pest is already causing visible damage in multiple regions. "This is a completely new pest to our continent, and Texas is once again on the front lines," Miller said. "If the pasture mealybug spreads across Texas grazing lands like it has in eastern Australia, it could cost Texas agriculture dearly in lost productivity and reduced livestock capacity."

The Texas Department of Agriculture says it is working with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to evaluate how far it is spreading and to determine the best emergency response strategy. The pasture mealybug was first described in Australia in 1928, according to AgriLife Extension publications, and was known to be responsible for millions of acres of lost pasture due to "pasture dieback." The publication describes the condition as when the insect feeds at the soil level and within plant tissues, weakening and eventually killing grass essential for grazing and hay production. While the species is believed to be new to North America, researchers suspect the insect has been present since before 2022. So far, state and extension experts have documented the following 20 counties as being infected, with possibly more: Brazoria, Galveston, Wharton, Matagorda, Colorado, Austin, Washington, Cameron, Hidalgo, Willacy, Refugio, Calhoun, Victoria, Goliad, Dewitt, Lavaca, Fayette, Jackson, Burleson, Brazos and Robertson.

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Steve Phillips: Here’s what it takes for a Democrat to win in Texas

(Steve Phillips is a best-selling author, columnist, podcast host, and national political expert.) Contrary to what Democratic elites think is conventional wisdom, Representative Jasmine Crockett is not just a viable candidate for the Texas US Senate race next year—she’s the strongest one. Pundits and Democratic politicians haved failed to appreciate her potential, clinging instead to outdated theories about “moderate candidates” and mythical Republican “crossover voters.” But the path to flipping Texas has already been illuminated: most notably by Beto O’Rourke’s near-miss in 2018 and, more recently, by Zohran Mamdani’s stunning ascent to victory in New York City. The closest any Democrat has come to winning statewide in Texas over the past three decades was O’Rourke’s 2018 Senate campaign, when he lost by just 2.6 points, falling just 215,000 votes short.

O’Rourke’s unapologetic progressivism—his courage to staunchly defend NFL players protesting police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem—separated him from the pack and attracted support from across the country. His campaign demonstrated that inspiring, galvanizing leadership resonates in diverse states with large populations of voters of color. This same dynamic propelled Stacey Abrams within a hair’s breadth of the Georgia governorship and Andrew Gillum to a near-win in Florida in 2018. The pattern is clear: bold, progressive candidates who refuse to run from their values come closest to victory in these former slave-holding states. What too many political strategists fail to understand is that Texas is a majority-minority state. People of color are 61 percent of the population and 51 percent of eligible voters. The challenge in Texas is not changing the minds of conservative voters but tackling the low levels of voter participation among communities of color. While not all people of color in Texas are Democrats, the upside is considerable in those communities in light of Republican hostility to racial justice and inequality. Most applicable to Crockett’s candidacy is the fact that O’Rourke won the support of 89 percent of Black Americans and 64 percent of Latinos, according to exit polling data. In that 2018 contest between O’Rourke and Ted Cruz, 5 million eligible people of color did not cast ballots.

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County Stories

Judge throws out perjury charge against embattled Johnson County sheriff

A Johnson County district judge on Thursday threw out one of the indictments against the county’s embattled sheriff, according to court documents. Sheriff Adam King had been indicted on the charge of aggravated perjury on Oct. 1, hours before the same judge granted King’s request to return to work while his case is pending. The indictment for the charge was “illegally obtained,” according to the court documents. King, who was in August charged with abuse of office and witness retaliation, was accused of lying under oath while testifying before a grand jury in those cases, according to the original indictment. The sheriff perjured himself when he told the grand jury he did not change the schedule of a female employee after she reported that King sexually harassed her. King’s attorneys could not specify why the indictment was illegal, they said in a statement Thursday. “At this time, it can’t be said whether the indictment was a mistake, negligence, or simply not knowing state law,” the statement reads.

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City Stories

SAPD officers stand by their chief, stopping no-confidence push against McManus

San Antonio police are standing by their chief. The police union’s board has decided not to pursue a no-confidence vote against SAPD Chief William McManus. The decision comes after weeks of mounting tension in the department after three San Antonio police officers charged with murder or other offenses in the 2023 shooting of Melissa Perez were swiftly acquitted last month. Many in the SAPD ranks saw the charges as unwarranted and the not-guilty verdicts as proof of their flimsiness. The officers contended they acted in self-defense. The union acknowledged the board’s decision against a no-confidence vote in a statement released Thursday night.

“After careful deliberation and input from our members, the San Antonio Police Officers’ Association has decided not to move forward with a formal vote of no confidence against Chief William McManus,” San Antonio Police Officers’ Association President Danny Diaz said in a statement. A total of 35 of the union’s 50 directors, who represent every SAPD substation and shift, were present at Thursday’s meeting, which was held at the Barn Door restaurant. The final tally was 34–1, with only one director voting in favor of a no-confidence vote. Diaz said a detective made a motion not to hold the vote, prompting an emotional discussion that lasted several minutes. Six union directors stood up to speak, and the consensus emerged that this wasn’t the time to take a vote against the chief. Some expressed concern about expected voter apathy, Diaz said. Others argued that even if a no-confidence vote were held, it would be only symbolic, noting that a near-unanimous no-confidence vote in 2016 did not affect McManus’ job status.

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When Mom can't come home

On a chilly Saturday in downtown Dallas, a curly-haired woman dashes between rows of wrapped gifts arranged in the back room of an Italian restaurant. Her name is Angelica Zaragoza, and today, she refuses to forget anyone. Dozens of children watch as she and a few volunteers call out the names scrawled on multi-colored boxes. The kids sit cross-legged in front of a 7-foot-tall paper gingerbread house decorated with coffee-brown, white, and red balloons. Zaragoza turns to them, drawing their attention as if she is conducting a choir. “Who else needs somethin’?” she yells over Christmas tunes. She won’t let anyone leave without a present. Many of these kids are here because their mothers can’t be. This is the second Christmas event since Zaragoza, 47, took the reins of Janie’s Angels, an organization that supports incarcerated mothers and their children. The nonprofit, once called Girls Embracing Mothers, transports sons and daughters from North Texas to Gatesville to visit their imprisoned moms for four hours every month and do an activity—crafts, painting, even dodgeball.

It also offers monthly parenting classes, a yearly summer camp and mentorship for the kids, and support for families throughout the woman’s re-entry into society. Since 2013, the program has served around 300 women in North Texas, and to Zaragoza’s knowledge, only five have returned to jail. As the group’s only full-time staffer, Zaragoza spends her days like she did this past Saturday, rushing around to ensure no child is forgotten. It previously allowed only daughters, but this fall, the group admitted sons, increasing enrollment to 23 mothers and 45 kids. (The state prison system caps the visits at 45, she says.) The number of incarcerated women has exploded in the U.S. since the 1980s, growing at twice the pace of men. More than half are mothers to children younger than 18, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Mothers are more likely to have been the sole or primary caregiver for the child before incarceration, the bureau found. While men typically rely on the mother to care for the children while they’re away, women turned to other relatives—and their kids were five times more likely to end up in foster care. Most women in the criminal justice system report childhood abuse or trauma. They are more likely than men to be arrested for low-level offenses, and while locked up, have more significant behavioral health needs that often go untreated. When they return home, their stress is exacerbated by navigating childcare while finding housing and a job.

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National Stories

Trump signs executive order blocking states from enforcing their own regulations around AI

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that blocks states from enforcing their own regulations around artificial intelligence and instead aims to create a “single national framework” for AI. “This is an executive order that orders aspects of your administration to take decisive action to ensure that AI can operate within a single national framework in this country, as opposed to being subject to state level regulation that could potentially cripple the industry,” White House aide Will Scharf said of the executive order in the Oval Office. The order could have far-reaching effects on US efforts to dominate the nascent technology, which has already become a significant part of the economy and the stock market but which also still remains untested in many ways.

David Sacks, the White House crypto and AI czar, said during the signing ceremony that the executive order would have the administration create a “federal framework” on AI in conjunction with Congress. “In the meantime, this EO gives your administration tools to push back on the most onerous and excessive state regulations,” Sacks said. Notably, Sacks emphasized that the administration will not push back on state-level regulation around child safety and AI. He later wrote in a social media post that the EO “does not mean the Administration will challenge every State AI law.” Congress killed an earlier attempt by Republicans to prevent states from regulating AI in July. The US Senate voted nearly unanimously to remove a 10-year moratorium on the enforcement of state artificial intelligence regulations from Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill before the bill passed. Lawmakers also declined to add an AI moratorium to the National Defense Authorization Act, despite Trump’s suggestion that they do so.

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US seizure of rogue oil tanker off Venezuela signals new crackdown on shadow fleet

The oil tanker was navigating near the coast of Guyana recently when its location transponder showed it starting to zigzag. It was a seemingly improbable maneuver and the latest digital clue that the ship, the Skipper, was trying to obscure its whereabouts and the valuable cargo stored inside its hull: tens of millions of dollars’ worth of illicit crude oil. On Wednesday, U.S. commandos fast-roping from helicopters seized the 332-meter (1,090-feet) ship — not where it appeared to be navigating on ship tracking platforms but some 360 nautical miles to the northwest, near the coast of Venezuela. The seizure marked a dramatic escalation in President Donald Trump’s campaign to pressure strongman Nicolás Maduro by cutting off access to oil revenues that have long been the lifeblood of Venezuela’s economy.

It could also signal a broader U.S. campaign to clamp down on ships like the Skipper, which experts and U.S. officials say is part of a shadowy fleet of rusting oil tankers that smuggle oil for countries facing stiff sanctions, such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran. “There are hundreds of flagless, stateless tankers that have been a lifeline for revenues, sanctioned oil revenues, for regimes like Maduro’s, Iran and for the Kremlin,” said Michelle Weise Bockmann, a senior analyst at Windward, a maritime intelligence firm that tracks such vessels. “They can no longer operate unchallenged.” Since the first Trump administration imposed punishing oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, Maduro’s government has relied on scores of such oil tankers to smuggle their crude into global supply chains. The ships cloak their locations by altering their automated identification system — a mandatory safety feature intended to help avoid collisions — to either go entirely dark or to “spoof” their location to appear to be navigating sometimes oceans away, under a false flag or with the fake registration information of another vessel. The dark fleet expanded following U.S. sanctions on Russia over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Experts say many of the ships are barely seaworthy, operate without insurance and are registered to shell companies that help conceal their ownership.

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At least 254 quarantined in SC over 'accelerating' measles outbreak

Hundreds of people, including children, are quarantined in South Carolina on the heels of an upstate measles outbreak, which health leaders said stems from a lack of vaccinations and recent holiday travel. At least 111 people have contracted measles since the outbreak began in early October, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH). Of the cases reported in the state's northwest region, 105 people were unvaccinated, state epidemiologist Linda Bell announced during a Wednesday, Dec. 10, news briefing. The remaining six included three people who received only one of the two recommended MMR doses, Bell said, while another person was vaccinated and the vaccination status of the other two is unknown.

At least 254 people have been placed in quarantine - 16 of them in isolation, Bell said. "This significant jump in cases is unfortunate," Bell said. "Vaccination continues to be the best way to prevent the disruption that measles is causing to people's education, to employment and other factors in people's lives in our communities." Bell said authorities traced 16 infections to the Way of Truth Church in Spartanburg County in the northwest part of the state. The church, in the city of Inman, is part of South Carolina's Upstate region which also includes Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Oconee, Pickens, and Union counties. Since Dec. 5, Bell said, 27 new cases had been reported, bringing the total number reported to the DPH this year to 114. Declared eradicated in the United States in 2000, measles recently made a comeback as vaccination rates have dropped. Earlier this year, two children ages 6 and 8, died from measles amid an outbreak in Texas where Department of State Health Services data revealed more than 94% of cases were in unvaccinated people, USA TODAY previously reported. "If people are willing to be vaccinated, receiving an MMR vaccination within 72 hours of exposure has been shown to prevent measles infections," Bell said.

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A grand jury again resists Trump’s push to reindict Letitia James

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., declined on Thursday to indict Letitia James, the New York attorney general, the second time in a week that jurors had rejected the effort — a rebuke of President Trump’s bid to order up prosecutions against his political enemies. The jury refused to charge Ms. James, who had brought a civil case against Mr. Trump, in connection with making false claims on a mortgage application, according to people familiar with the matter, exactly one week after another set of jurors did the same. The back-to-back failures by prosecutors to secure an indictment amounted to a striking rejection of the administration’s retribution campaign. It highlighted the Justice Department’s unusual strategy of pursuing second indictments despite earlier failures in court and suggested the department would face major hurdles in bringing charges against President Trump’s foes.

Nothing bars the U.S. attorney’s office in Eastern Virginia from trying again to indict Ms. James, though a judge might look askance at multiple juries’ having rejected the charges. A former White House aide whom Mr. Trump had named U.S. attorney in Eastern Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, succeeded in securing charges against Ms. James in October. But late last month, a judge ruled that Ms. Halligan’s appointment had violated a federal law that dictates the procedure of filling high-level federal vacancies. That ruling led to the dismissal of the case against Ms. James, as well as another against the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey. Bruce Green, who teaches legal ethics at Fordham Law School in New York, said there was no constitutional provision forbidding the repeated presentation of the same case to different grand juries, though he added that most prosecutors “would take a hint” after being rejected once or twice. “If a grand jury isn’t indicting and you don’t even have a lawyer on the other side presenting a defense, that’s a pretty strong sign that you don’t have a tryable case,” he said.

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Tesla is the most unreliable used car brand in America, even behind Jeep and Chrysler

According to Consumer Reports' 2025 used vehicle reliability study, Tesla is the most unreliable used car brand in the US. It placed last among 26 automotive brands with a reliability ranking of 31 – below Jeep (32), Ram (35), and Chrysler (36). The study evaluated the reliability of 5- to 10-year-old models on the second-hand market. While the results may seem like a damning indictment of Tesla, the report notes that the company has improved the build quality of its vehicles. All of its latest models now offer "better-than-average reliability," and Tesla ranks among the top 10 brands in Consumer Reports' new car predictability rankings, surpassing established automakers like Ford, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Volkswagen.

While newer Teslas are more reliable than older models, the company has issued several recalls across most of its lineup, including the flagship Model S and the all-new Cybertruck. Earlier this year, Tesla recalled more than 46,000 Cybertrucks to fix an exterior panel that wasn't properly secured and could detach while driving. In January, the company recalled over 200,000 vehicles due to a software glitch affecting rearview cameras. In recent years, Tesla has recalled millions of cars for issues ranging from autopilot bugs, brake fluid detection problems, and faulty seat-belt warning systems, to malfunctioning touchscreens and power steering failures. Used Tesla prices have fallen sharply since the pandemic years, when federal tax credits helped fuel demand for EVs in the US. Since those credits were rolled back under President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, demand has softened, with consumers increasingly opting for traditional internal combustion vehicles or plug-in hybrids.

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Noem left a hearing early for a meeting. Turns out it was canceled before it began.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem left a House hearing on worldwide threats early on Thursday to attend a meeting about the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, drawing the ire of Democrats in the hearing room who were grilling her on President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. The FEMA Review Council meeting was then abruptly canceled minutes before it was set to begin. FEMA referred questions about the meeting’s cancellation to the White House. “Noem said she had to go chair the FEMA review council meeting. BUT I’m told that meeting was canceled,” Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz said on X. One source inside FEMA said they received a message that the meeting had been postponed until further notice.

The meeting’s cancellation comes amid growing tensions between the White House and Noem over her handling of FEMA, according to several sources familiar with the issue. The task force created by Trump to remake FEMA was supposed to deliver on its final recommendations Thursday. The review council was expected to recommend that FEMA drastically shrink its size and scope, cut the size of its workforce in half and raise the bar for states to qualify for federal emergency help at all, according to CNN. Those expected recommendations do not reflect the original conclusions of the task force, two FEMA employees with knowledge of the matter told NOTUS. The FEMA Review Council initially concluded that the agency needed to be strengthened and made independent from the Department of Homeland Security. Noem reportedly intervened to shorten the report and alter its conclusions, preserving its status as an agency within DHS and beholden to her leadership, according to The Washington Post.

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Always on my mind: Trump’s enduring focus on Joe Biden

Of all the statistics that came out of President Trump’s economic address on Tuesday night in Mt. Pocono, Pa., surely one of the most striking was this: He mentioned Joe Biden 30 times. That would be 31 times, if you count “sleepy son of a bitch,” which the audience surely did. “Sleepy Joe Biden — have you heard of him?” Mr. Trump asked at one point. At various other points: “So you have Biden food price increases … You know what you did during the Biden era for Thanksgiving? … I had a news conference, unlike Biden … Stupid Joe … Sleepy Joe … Crooked Joe.” Joe. Joe. Joe. Hardly a day goes by that Mr. Trump does not talk about his predecessor. Even still, his performance at Mt. Pocono seemed to represent some kind of new summit being reached. According to a review of all his speeches throughout the year, Tuesday’s was the one in which he mentioned Mr. Biden the most.

Mr. Trump has been in office for nearly 11 months, but his fixation with the guy who had the job before him has not diminished as time has gone on. It actually seems to be growing more intense. An analysis of his first 50 days in office conducted back in March by The New York Times found that Mr. Trump mentioned the name “Biden” 6.32 times a day on average. At a cabinet meeting last week — 316 days into his second term — he spoke about Mr. Biden eight times during one 20-minute window. It’s also notable that this fixation has become more acute as Mr. Trump has started facing scrutiny over some of the same issues for which he attacked Mr. Biden — namely, his handling of the economy and his age. It’s like a rhetorical Chinese finger trap: The more that Mr. Trump’s troubles resemble Mr. Biden’s troubles, the more Mr. Trump talks about Mr. Biden. “He’s like a bad gambler who just can’t stop doubling down on the same bet, and that bet was that cost of living and age was killing Biden,” said James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist.

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Lead Stories

What could thwart the Texas G.O.P. from picking up 5 House seats in midterm elections

When Texas Republicans redrew the state’s congressional map over the summer, they aimed to flip five districts held by Democrats and were guided by the 2024 presidential election results, which showed voters moving to the right. But winning all five of those seats under the new map is far from a lock for Republicans next November. With Hispanic voters showing signs of souring on President Trump in special elections this year and concerns mounting over the cost of living, Democrats believe they could hold on to as many as three of the redrawn seats in Texas, two in the Rio Grande Valley and possibly a third centered in and around San Antonio. The party is also looking at flipping a Republican seat in the Valley, little changed in its partisan makeup by the new map, where a popular Tejano music star is running as a moderate Democrat.

The fight in Texas is ultimately about whether Republicans can maintain their narrow control of the U.S. House into the second half of the Trump administration. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the new map to go into effect last week. Success for Democrats would mean bucking the voting trend that led Republicans to draw the new congressional district around San Antonio, Texas’ 35th. Its new lines encompass a range of modern Texas communities, including the southern working-class neighborhoods of the city, its eastern suburbs and some of the surrounding and fast-developing rural counties, where cows still graze alongside neatly arranged housing developments. The majority of residents are Hispanic, and about a third are white. Such developing suburban areas have been among the most hotly contested in the state, with Democrats making gains in some recent elections, including in the suburbs and exurbs of Houston and Dallas. But Republicans surged back in 2024. Had the 35th existed in its redrawn form last year, it would have voted for Mr. Trump by a margin of a little over 10 percentage points. The biggest question for next year’s midterm elections is whether the rightward trend will hold, or 2026 will look more like the 2018 midterms, during Mr. Trump’s first term, when Democrats made gains across the state. “The assumption that Latino voters who voted for Trump in 2024 would continue to vote Republican is potentially a bad assumption,” said Michelle Lowe Solis, the chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party, which includes San Antonio. “We have a good shot at this.”

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Senate to vote on dueling health care proposals as ACA premium hikes loom

With subsidies for the Affordable Care Act set to expire for millions of Americans at the end of the month, the Senate plans to vote on two health care related bills Thursday, but both are expected to fail. In a trade-off to reopen the government following the longest shutdown in U.S. history, Senate Republicans promised Democrats a vote on a bill of their choosing to extend the subsidies. Democrats are seeking a three-year extension of the subsidies, warning that without one health care premiums are predicted to skyrocket at the start of the 2026. While both parties agree on the need to address healthcare costs, the Democratic proposal doesn't have enough GOP support to pass. Republicans have argued that extending the subsidies would allow what they describe as Obamacare "waste, fraud and abuse" to continue, while lining the pockets of insurance companies.

"There is nothing in their [Democrats] bill that stops billions of dollars in fraudulent spending," Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said on the Senate floor Wednesday. Republicans are countering with a plan by Cassidy and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, that would provide up to $1,500 a year in payments for health savings accounts for Americans earning less than 700 percent of the federal poverty level. However the bill does not extend the ACA tax credits and the money could not be used to pay for health care premiums. Deductibles for those plans average around $7,000, according to data from the health policy organization KFF. "It delivers the benefit directly to the patient, not to the insurance company, and it does it in a way that actually saves money to the taxpayer," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. Democrats rejected the GOP proposal on Wednesday and called it dead on arrival. They criticized the plan for limiting coverage to plans on the ACA marketplace that provide less coverage. Funds could also not be put towards abortion services or gender reassignment.

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Fed’s fractured vote signals trouble ahead for future rate cuts

Jerome Powell pushed through a rate cut Wednesday over the broadest reservations of his nearly eight-year tenure, and in doing so, implicitly delivered a pointed message to President Trump and his own successor: Cutting rates is harder than it looks. The decision drew three dissents—two from officials who opposed any cut and one from a Trump ally who wanted a larger reduction. The formal vote understated the resistance. Four other officials registered a quieter objection in the Fed’s quarterly projections: They wrote down a higher interest rate for 2025 than the one the committee approved—a signal they wouldn’t have cut. Together with the dissenters, that is roughly a third of the policymakers who attend Fed meetings.

Trump immediately voiced his displeasure that the cut wasn’t bigger. “I’m looking for somebody that will be honest with interest rates,” he said on Wednesday ahead of his first formal interview with a candidate to succeed Powell, whose term ends in May. “Our rate should be much lower.” Powell led his colleagues to cut at the past three meetings, including the one this week, based on two main considerations. First, he judged that inflation wasn’t proving to be as big a worry as many feared when Trump announced large tariff increases this past spring. Second, while officials have expected job growth to cool gradually this year, that process has been “a touch” cooler than expected recently, he said Wednesday. Nevertheless, Powell gave little indication that further cuts were imminent.

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U.S. seizes tanker off the coast of Venezuela, spiking oil prices

The U.S. seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said, a major escalation that coincided with a rise in oil prices. President Donald Trump confirmed the seizure during a roundtable with business leaders at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, with officials later claiming that the vessel was being used to transport oil in violation of U.S. sanctions from both Iran and Venezuela. “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually,” Trump told reporters before the event began Wednesday afternoon. When asked what the U.S. planned to do with the oil, Trump replied: “Well, we keep it, I guess.” Attorney General Pam Bondi posted a 45-second video of the seizure on X Wednesday evening, saying, “For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”

“This seizure, completed off the coast of Venezuela, was conducted safely and securely—and our investigation alongside the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil continues,” Bondi posted. The tanker, named The Skipper, was previously sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2022 for alleged ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. At the time, the Treasury Department found the tanker transported Iranian oil through an elaborate network of ships in order to bypass U.S. oil sanctions. Reuters first reported the operation, which was carried out by the United States Coast Guard with assistance from the FBI, Homeland Security and the U.S. military. That seizure shocked oil markets, with global prices ticking up as Brent crude hit roughly $62.35 per barrel. By directly targeting a tanker, the U.S. is capturing a key piece of Venezuela’s economic lifeline. Given that crude exports are Caracas’s primary revenue source, the move threatens to further squeeze the Venezuelan economy. The tanker operation also comes amid a shift, during Trump’s first year in office, to a far more aggressive posture in the region. Over the past three months, U.S. forces have carried out more than 20 lethal strikes on vessels that Washington said were tied to drug trafficking, many of them in waters off Venezuela. Those attacks have killed dozens so far.

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State Stories

Texas firms armed Russia with weapon components used to attack Ukraine: lawsuits

Two Texas-based companies and two with major operations in the state illegally supplied semiconductor components used in Russian missiles and Iranian drones that attacked civilians in Ukraine, according to five lawsuits filed Wednesday. The suits were filed in state District Court in Dallas by a legal team led by Austin lawyer Mikal Watts on behalf of individuals and families who were either injured or had relatives killed in attacks. San Antonio attorney James “Jamie” Shaw also is part of the team.

The companies targeted are manufacturers Texas Instruments Inc. of Dallas and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Intel Corp., California companies that both have a significant presence in Austin. Mansfield-based Mouser Electronics Inc., a distributor, also is a defendant. They are being sued for gross negligence, wrongful death, fraudulent concealment and conspiracy to evade and/or violate export restrictions to Russia and Iran. Watts’ team represents about 20 plaintiffs, including 14 people who were killed and six who were injured. Each lawsuit seeks more than $1 million in damages. The companies had not yet been served with the suits. The other companies didn’t respond to requests for comment “The United States of America has provided $175 billion in security assistance to Ukraine as it attempts to defend itself from Russian aggression,” Watts said during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington. “But most of the damage we’re seeing there now is being caused by missiles and drones guided to their targets by American chip technology that’s being illegally exported into Russia.”

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Dozens of Lake Austin properties move to disannex; city to lose nearly $300M value

Lake Austin property owners are disannexing from Austin under a new state law years after their land was added into the city's full purpose jurisdiction. A series of properties along Lake Austin totaling nearly $300 million in taxable value to the city are slated to exit its full jurisdiction under a new state law, following years of complaints over lacking public services and taxation by Austin in that area. The Lake Austin properties have been at the center of jurisdictional questions stretching back to the late 1800s when some land along the shoreline was first added into city limits. Residents in those areas later experienced public safety and infrastructure service issues while facing "substantial confusion" over their local government representation, according to city documents.

Some of the property was added to Austin's tax rolls in 1985, but city officials reversed course the next year by declaring the outcome was made in error and that tax collections wouldn't resume without offering full public services. That decision was again reversed in 2019, when City Council unanimously voted to resume taxing hundreds of tracts despite property owners' opposition and persisting concerns over the services they received. Officials at the time cited concerns over unequal levels of taxing in city limits under the Texas Constitution, with then-council member Greg Casar stating the Lake Austin properties had long enjoyed civic representation without taxation. “Not only was the 1986 ordinance unconstitutional, but we’ve been in an unconstitutional situation for decades," he said in 2019. Area residents went on to sue the city over the taxing update, litigation that remains in progress as of this year. Past state legislation meant to address the issue stalled out, but lawmakers this spring passed Senate Bill 1844 allowing property owners to disannex from a city if they aren't fully connected to its infrastructure systems.

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No, Democrats shouldn’t give up on Texas

Comment Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. In 2018 U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke broke state fundraising records and sparked national attention with his campaign for a Texas Senate seat. The polls never had him as the favorite—FiveThirtyEight gave him a 23 percent chance by Election Day—but it was noteworthy that in Texas a Democrat was even close. Bolstered by the notoriously unlikable Ted Cruz and a national “blue wave,” O’Rourke lost by only 2.6 points. Not bad for an anti-gun Democrat in a seemingly deep-red state. In hindsight, O’Rourke’s narrow loss was actually the cruelest thing he could’ve done to the Democratic Party. It created a misleading impression that a long-dreamed-of blue Texas was right around the corner. That idea was emboldened in 2020, after Joe Biden lost the state by just 5.5 points. It was a larger loss than O’Rourke’s had been, but it was arguably more impressive when you took into account the more Republican-friendly national environment.

The blue Texas dream is widely scoffed at post-2024, with liberals themselves often the most skeptical of the idea. They’ll say they’ve been promised that the state will flip one too many times, so don’t you dare try to get their hopes up again. Conservatives, meanwhile, appear to see blue Texas as a total joke; whereas Cruz’s 2024 Senate campaign ads took the idea seriously, in 2025 the White House urged Texas legislators to redraw their state’s congressional map in an attempt to grab Republicans five additional seats. It’s a move that conveyed total confidence that Texas would remain in the GOP’s hands. And so it is with some trepidation that I come to argue that the blue Texas dream is not over. Not only that, but there’s a historical precedent for a state flipping from one party’s bastion to the other’s playground. Let’s begin with those electoral maps that Republicans redrew this summer, a move that took on additional salience last week after the Supreme Court upheld them for the upcoming election. It’s not clear that this power grab will actually yield the party the five new seats it’s hoping to snag—particularly if the national political environment continues to favor Democrats in 2026. As elections analyst Eli McKown-Dawson noted, two of those five districts aren’t actually safe red: Texas’ 28th District can easily fall in a blue-wave environment, and its 34th could fall too if the Hispanic vote shifts back to Democrats. Given Hispanic and Latino Texans’ status as swing voters and their already-observable leftward shift in the 2025 elections, this hardly seems like a safe bet for the GOP. And considering that the recent Tennessee special election showed a district moving 13 points to the left, these 2024 Texas margins just aren’t that impressive. But when I talk about blue Texas, I’m talking about something more ambitious than a wave election that flips a few House seats.

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Texas Tech gathers info on race, gender course content

As promised in a memo from the chancellor earlier this month, some Texas Tech University system faculty members were asked this week to report whether any course they teach “advocates for or promotes” specific race, gender or sexual identities. It is the latest step in a sweeping curricular review focused on limiting discussion of transgender identity, racism and sexuality across the five-campus public system. By 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 22, faculty members at Angelo State University must fill out a survey for each class they teach. In addition to the course title and reference number, the survey asks the following questions: “Does this course include any content that advocates for or promotes race- or sex-based prejudice, as defined in the Chancellor’s memorandum? Does this course include any content that recognizes or discusses more than two sexes (male and female), or addresses gender identity beyond what is recognized under state and federal law? Does this course include any content related to sexual orientation?”

If a faculty member answers yes to any of those questions, they are then prompted to answer, “What is the course material required for? Check all that apply,” and select from the options “professional licensure/certification,” “accreditation,” “patient/client care” and “other.” Faculty must also provide a justification statement to support their response and are asked to “be as specific as possible.” Once faculty submit their responses, they will be compiled into spreadsheets by college, which department chairs and deans will review. They then must report the outcomes to the president and provost, Angelo State University provost Don Topliff said in an email to all faculty. “Faculty will be notified of outcomes after approval,” he wrote. It is unclear exactly what curricular changes the outcomes will prompt. Faculty at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center received a similar email this week, a faculty member told Inside Higher Ed. But instead of filling out a survey, they are being asked to enter the same information directly into a spreadsheet. A faculty member at Texas Tech’s flagship campus in Lubbock said faculty there have yet to receive any information beyond the chancellor’s Dec. 1 memo.

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Hobby Lobby founder gives $7 million to rebuild First Baptist Dallas

The founder of Hobby Lobby has donated $7 million to First Baptist Church of Dallas to help rebuild the 1890 sanctuary destroyed by fire last year. Pastor Robert Jeffress announced the gift during Sunday morning worship Dec. 8. The Hobby Lobby gift was presented as a matching gift — to be received if the church raised an equal amount — and one family in the church provided the full match, Jeffress said. Total estimated cost for the rebuilding and related improvements — including 16 new stained-glass windows telling the biblical narrative — is $127 million, Jeffress said. Insurance will cover about $100 million of that, with the other $27 million to come from the church. Jeffress said the church already has raised about $5 million toward rebuilding. Added to the combined $14 million, that gets the church’s total currently to $19 million toward the $27 million goal. The downtown Dallas church has a two-year unified budget that, once met, will overflow into the building fund.

Jeffress said plans already are drawn and construction should start sometime in early 2026. The structure that burned July 19, 2024, is not the church’s primary worship space today. A new worship space — in an ultra-modern style — opened in 2013. The historic sanctuary, however, is where legendary pastors George W. Truett and W.A. Criswell preached. Before the fire, it was still used for weddings and funerals and special events. When the new worship space was built in 2013, along with other major construction, that $130 million project at First Baptist Dallas was cited as being the largest Protestant church construction project in modern history. Although one of the nation’s original megachurches, First Baptist Dallas today draws about 3,300 people to Sunday worship, well below the threshold to be considered among the largest churches in the nation. It remains a megachurch, however, and reports membership of 16,000. Its property spans several city blocks in downtown Dallas. The church’s current two-year budget goal is $95 million to fund all church operations for 2025 and 2026 as well as some property needs. Hobby Lobby founder David Green lives in Oklahoma City and is a member of Council Road Baptist Church in Bethany, a suburb. He was the founder and primary funder of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., reportedly pouring $500 million into that project. The Green family all are significant funders of evangelical ministries, but they do not typically give to church construction projects. First Baptist Dallas, of course, is not just any church. It is one of the most significant and historic churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. Although there are many larger churches in Dallas based on attendance, there are few with the high profile of First Baptist.

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A mockup of the Starlab space station being tested at NASA is now on display

A new commercial space station mockup is ready for astronauts to test the kitchen layout, develop emergency procedures and train for future missions. Starlab Space recently completed a three-story, white cylindrical mockup at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Its space station is set to launch in 2029, and each floor of the mockup is a near-exact replica of the station’s habitable levels – with some minor earthly necessities. “We haven't figured out hovering yet, so we can't use the central tunnel,” said Courtenay McMillan, mission segment lead for Starlab Space. “But we can use the stairway to get up and down.” Starlab Space is a joint venture based in Houston. Its partners – the primary partners are Voyager Technologies, a defense and space technology company based in Denver, Colo., and Airbus, the largest aeronautics and space company in Europe – are spread across the U.S., Europe, Japan and Canada.

They’re working together to create a commercial successor to the government-run International Space Station, which is set to retire in 2030. NASA is supporting multiple space station companies in this effort. “ISS really set the bar high for a partnership,” McMillan said. “A lot of the human spaceflight and aerospace communities learned to work internationally through that experience, and I feel like Starlab is really a great opportunity to keep that going.” The Starlab space station mockup has three “floors” – or HAB1, HAB2 and HAB3. The first floor of the Starlab station, HAB1, will house life support systems, exercise equipment, a hygiene area for astronauts and two toilets. McMillan said the extra toilet is especially important for the roughly 1,600-square-foot station that’s about the size of a two-bedroom house. “Two toilets is a big deal,” McMillan said. “Anyone who has ever gone on a house hunt knows how important this is.” The second floor of the station, HAB2, is where most of the research will occur. The mockup currently has graphics that show where plants could grow and experiments could be stored. McMillan said the mockup could eventually have a functional workbench, glovebox and other research hardware to train crew members on conducting research in space.

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Austin's light-rail is on the verge of clearing a major hurdle with the Trump administration

Austin's long-promised light-rail line is poised to clear a major bureaucratic hurdle within days, giving new momentum to a project that has pushed through years of political and legal resistance. Federal transportation officials are expected to issue a final environmental ruling by the end of the month, a sign that Washington still views Austin's plan as viable after years of uncertainty. The decision won't settle the project's fate or lock in the billions of federal dollars it depends on. Those grants would come only after the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) completes the most detailed designs of the system and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) scrutinizes them.

That process is expected to take about 18 months. ATP is hoping for more than $4 billion in grants to cover almost half the project's price tag: $7.1 billion in construction costs plus more than $1 billion in interest payments. The sprawling document — known in government-speak as a Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision — would move Austin's light-rail line into its most consequential phase since the 2020, when voters approved the city's largest ever transit expansion by authorizing a similarly historic property tax increase. Clearing the environmental review would allow ATP to award three major contracts that will define how the system is built. The biggest of those contracts is a multibillion-dollar deal to design and build the 9.8-mile light rail line, including everything from the tracks and stations to the bridges and new sidewalks. The second contract is to build a 62-acre operations and maintenance facility near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The third is to procure the first light-rail vehicles, expected to run as often as every five minutes.

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Mayor Ortiz Jones call to move elections gets chilly reception from council

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ last-minute push to move San Antonio’s municipal elections to November got a chilly reception in its first public council hearing Wednesday, casting serious doubt over whether it would pass when it comes to a vote next week. The Texas legislature gave Dallas permission to make the change this year, and in a move that went largely unnoticed, opened it up to other cities to follow suit without having to change their city charters. The catch is that they have to do it before a Dec. 31 deadline, or risk the possibility the legislature won’t agree to reopen the policy in a future legislative session. A long list of voting rights groups and civic leaders are now urging San Antonio to jump on what they see as a rare opportunity to help boost turnout, yet member after member on a overwhelmingly progressive council raised concerns about the way it had been pitched and the short timeline to make a decision.

“When I received the memo from the mayor about the work that the City of Dallas had did and how they adopted this unanimously, I reached out to a Dallas City Council member to understand the context in which this was initiated and the work that was done,” said Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), a reliable member of the council’s progressive bloc. “What [they] shared with me is that there was a lot of work put in, in terms of, their City Council took this to the voters of Dallas [for approval],” she said. “… San Antonio residents deserve that same type of engagement.” Among many councilmembers’ top concerns was the potential impact on local school districts, seven of which currently partner with the city to hold their elections in May. Those districts would either need to move their elections to November as well or find another municipality to partner with if they want to keep it in May. Districts aren’t on the same deadline to decide, but many choose that quieter election as a way to attract voters they believe are more focused on local issues, and say that staying there would cost them more money.

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What’s Next? MWBEs weigh future after Texas dismantles HUB Program

Texas’ Historically Underutilized Business program (HUB) has abruptly stopped after an emergency rule change from the Texas Comptroller’s Office. Now, thousands of minority and women-owned firms are no longer eligible for the certification that once boosted their competitiveness. The state replaced HUB with a dramatically narrowed version of the program, now called the Veteran Heroes United in Business program, or VetHUB. Only veterans with a 20% or higher service-connected disability are eligible, according to the Comptroller’s Office. Any business previously certified based on the race, ethnicity, or sex of its owners will lose its status. The HUB program was created to give minority-and women-owned businesses a foothold when seeking state contracts. The certification does not guarantee awards, but it helps businesses gain exposure in a competitive marketplace and sets “good-faith effort” goals that state agencies generally strive to meet.

Interim Comptroller Kelly Hancock said the change was necessary to “restore constitutional integrity” and ensure state contracting is “free from gender or race discrimination.” “Our nation’s veterans have always stepped up for us. VetHUB is Texas’ way of stepping up for them,” Hancock said in a statement. “These emergency rules ensure Texas’ state contracting is free from gender or race discrimination and keep the program centered on those who earned this support through their service.” For the women and minority business owners who relied on HUB as a lifeline, the question now is simple — and urgent: What happens next? State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, one of the architects who codified HUB into state law in 1999, said the comptroller’s move represents an unprecedented rollback. “Where we are is that the HUB program is threatening to be dismantled,” West said in an interview with The Defender. “I’ve attempted to get the interim comptroller to sit down and visit with me about this. For some strange reason, he has been reluctant to do so.”

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What happens next for Fair Park in Dallas?

Last week, Dallas Parks and Recreation laid out its public-private partnership management model for Fair Park to City Council members on the Parks, Trails, and Environment Committee, just as the city begins a new generation of management for its “crown jewel.” The city plans to manage the park while delegating some functions, such as security, food, and venue advertising, to private companies. “We have the right infrastructure there, it’s just that, I truly believe, we have not given the necessary time and attention that Fair Park deserves, and that’s why the old models don’t work,” Dallas Park and Recreation Director John Jenkins told the committee. “It has to be a partnership between the private sector, the city, and the surrounding community.” The city took over management of the park this September after cutting ties with the previous sub-contractor, Oak View Group (formerly known as Spectra), and the nonprofit intermediary Fair Park First.

That relationship crumbled after it was revealed that OVG allegedly misappropriated $5.7 million in donations. The city also had no direct contract with OVG, which further complicated oversight. (OVG still manages another city asset: the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.) Before the park’s privatization in 2018, it was run by the city. Many at the time felt it was underutilizing the space and doing so at too high a cost. The new public-private model aims to take a hybrid approach, reaping the benefits of both models while mitigating as many of the negatives as possible. Park officials laid out five pillars for how they’re going to approach Fair Park. They include finding ways to better utilize the successful partners at the park they already have, developing regularly occurring community events and programming that also include opportunities for small businesses near Fair Park, and encouraging nonprofits to use the park and facilities in the hopes that they become operating partners over time. Officials also said they hope to “aggressively” pursue additional large events and other opportunities for the park. That all amounts to a lot of ‘economic development,’ which is city-speak for investing heavily to attract businesses. Park and Recreation Deputy Director Ryan O’ Connor told the committee he hopes to have contracts with the City of Dallas Economic Development Corporation ready by early 2026.

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Tarrant GOP won’t hand-count ballots in 2026 but will explore options for future elections

Tarrant County Republicans won’t hand-count ballots during the party’s March primary, members confirmed to the Fort Worth Report on Tuesday. Party members previously indicated they would move to manually tallying votes in their effort to enhance election security and prevent fraud. Members of the GOP’s resolution committee took no action nor had discussion on hand-counting ballots during a Tuesday meeting, the last of the year. “There’s a lot of moving parts associated with it — I don’t know that anybody at this point is convinced that all those pieces are working correctly,” Richard Jimmink, who chaired the resolution committee, said after the meeting. “Hopefully, in the future, we’ll get there,” Jimmink added.

A push toward hand-counting ballots was “one of the last moves” of former county GOP Chair Bo French, according to the local party’s newsletter sent Nov. 15. The change would have meant turning away from the voting machines Tarrant County has used since 2019. It also would have required voters to cast ballots in their own precinct rather than at any polling location of choice across the county. The local Republican Party could make the change without approval from the Tarrant County Elections Office or Commissioners Court as partisan primary elections are controlled by the political parties. However, the Democratic Party would have been forced to make the switch to precinct-level voting, according to a state law aimed at preventing voter disenfranchisement within the system. The Democratic Party would not be required to hand-count ballots.

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Here’s what got a pastor tossed from Tarrant County Commissioners Court

County Judge Tim O’Hare had another member of the public removed from the commissioners courtroom on Tuesday after the man made a snide remark about not being allowed to clap. O’Hare has a history of removing people from the Commissioners Court meetings. Some have even gone in front of a judge. Last year, he banned a pastor and a former state lawmaker from attending Commissioners Court. The pastor was banned from attending meetings for a year because he had gone eight seconds over the allotted three minutes of public comment. The former lawmaker, Lon Burnam, had approached O’Hare at the conclusion of the 2024 meeting. Multiple people have been threatened to be kicked out by the county judge for clapping.

The Tarrant County Commissioners Court’s rules of decorum forbid remarks or actions of approval or disapproval. On Tuesday, Bishop Kirkland, the senior pastor at Greater Saint Mark Ministries in Fort Worth, approached the microphone to use his allotted three minutes to comment on a consent agenda item. Just before, O’Hare shushed someone for clapping. “Lord, I live in America, where people cannot clap,” Kirkland said as he came up to the microphone. “That is insane to me.” O’Hare told Kirkland to sit down before he finished his second sentence. When a speaker signs up to comment, they sign a form stating they will follow the Commissioners Court’s rules of decorum. “The County Judge maintains the right to interrupt and/or excuse a speaker when the allocated time has expired, if the speaker otherwise violates these guidelines, or for any other matter at the discretion of the County Judge,” the rules state. Though the rules are open-ended about why the county judge can remove a person, the Texas Local Government Code states that a governmental body cannot prohibit public criticism of that body. This includes “criticism of any act, omission, policy, procedure, program, or service.” As Kirkland sat down, he protested. O’Hare told him there would not be commentary from him out of the audience. “Sir, I sat down,” Kirkland said from the audience. “Remove him from the room,” O’Hare said. Two sheriff’s deputies stood beside Kirkland as he gathered his things and escorted him to the exit. O’Hare’s Chief of Staff, Ruth Ray, said O’Hare has never removed anyone from a meting due to criticism “and never will.” O’Hare is a firm believer in the Constitution, Ray said. “The person in question, a Dallas County resident, was removed for repeatedly violating the Court’s duly-enacted decorum policy through his conduct and then his speech,” Ray said in a written statement. “Section 551.007(b) ensures the public may speak on specific agenda items — but it does not give anyone authority to hijack the meeting, shift discussion to non-agenda topics outside of public comment, or disregard or try to speak over the Presiding Officer. ”

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Unaccompanied migrant children being sent to Texas border to be deported, lawyers say

The Trump administration is sending dozens of unaccompanied migrant children to the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas to await deportation, Border Report has learned. About 50 children have been sent to the region from the interior of the U.S. in the past few months and are being held in four detention facilities operated by the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Laura Peña, director of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, or ProBar, said Tuesday. Peña said her nonprofit, which offers free legal representation to migrants, including children, started noticing this trend since the summer. “We’re starting to see an uptick of children from other parts of the country being detained here on the border, and that is new,” Peña said during a call with reporters. “We understand it’s a pilot program here in the Rio Grande Valley, and that four ORR shelters are essentially holding children until their removal flight is scheduled.”

She says there are about 500 unaccompanied migrant children currently in the Rio Grande Valley — about a quarter of the 2,000 unaccompanied children held by ORR nationwide. She says there are about 15 ORR shelters to house them in the Rio Grande Valley. Although all of the facilities operated by Southwest Key were closed earlier this year, Peña says there are still plenty of beds for the children down here. She told Border Report that she worries the Trump administration will send dozens more children to the area and try to quickly deport them to their home countries. Nationwide, there are an estimated 2,000 unaccompanied children currently being held by ORR who face the threat of deportation, she says. “It’s going to increase, I believe, in the coming years, because there’s a lot of beds here in the Rio Grande Valley. There’s the militarization of the border for many years. So there’s a lot of detention capacity for children here. And what we’re seeing, even though it’s maybe, you know, 40 to 50 kids here from other parts of the country, that number’s going to go up. And it’s extremely concerning,” she said. ProBar represents 12 of the children sent to the Rio Grande Valley, but Peña says one child has already been deported. She says her organization noticed the trend after interviewing the children and hearing their stories and tracking other arrivals.

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Galveston County sheriff retains license after state commission approves probated suspension

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) voted on an "agreed order of suspension" regarding Galveston County Sheriff Jimmy Fullen's peace officer license at its meeting Wednesday afternoon. The vote settled a long-winded legal battle over the sheriff's license. In a 6-0 vote, the commissioners agreed to a six-month suspension of Fullen's peace officer license; however, the suspension is fully probated and back-dated to begin on June 30, 2024, and end on Dec. 31, 2024. This means Fullen’s peace officer license won't currently be affected, and he will remain the Galveston County sheriff. In June 2024, TCOLE recommended Fullen’s license be revoked after investigating allegations that Fullen falsified government documents, specifically personal history statements. Retired Galveston County Sheriff’s Sergeant Kenneth Williams filed the complaint that led to the investigation.

"[Fullen] submitted personal history statements to the Galveston County Constable's Office Precinct 2 and the Texas City Police Department that were alleged to have admitted or failed to fully disclose information related to experience and employment history, financial history, arrest history and civil court history," a TCOLE representative said at Wednesday's meeting. When TCOLE recommended his license be revoked, Fullen was running as the Republican candidate for Galveston County Sheriff. Under Texas law, sheriffs must have active peace officer licenses. After Fullen won the election for sheriff in November 2024, TCOLE proposed a 10-year suspension rather than a revocation, since state law doesn’t allow the agency to revoke the license of elected officials. Fullen then sued TCOLE on March 3, saying its actions to suspend his peace officer’s license for 10 years “equates to a revocation,” according to the lawsuit. Both parties entered mediation this summer to come to an agreement outside of court. The “agreed order of suspension” the two parties settled on was approved at Wednesday’s meeting.

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National Stories

How a U.S. admiral decided to kill two boat strike survivors

In the minutes after U.S. forces attacked a suspected drug smuggling boat near Trinidad, Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander overseeing the operation, faced a choice. A laser-guided bomb had killed nine of the 11 people on board, sunk the boat’s motor and capsized the vessel’s front end, according to people who have viewed or been briefed on a classified video of the operation. As smoke from the blast cleared, a live surveillance feed provided by a U.S. aircraft high overhead showed two men had survived and were attempting to flip the wreckage. Ahead of the Sept. 2 mission, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given an order to U.S. forces to kill the passengers, sink the boat and destroy the drugs, three people familiar with the operation said. It appeared to Bradley that none of those objectives had been achieved, the admiral would later recount for lawmakers.

The video feed showed that the two men were struggling to stay atop the flotsam, which people who’ve seen the footage described as roughly the size of a dining room table. Bradley turned to the military lawyer advising him and requested input, according to members of Congress who spoke with him privately last week and people later briefed on those conversations. Under the law of armed conflict, were the men now “shipwrecked” and therefore out of the fight, rendering them unlawful targets? The admiral decided that definition did not apply, these people said. Instead, what Bradley explained to lawmakers left some with the impression that there was a prevailing lack of certainty — about the existence of any drugs beneath the wreckage and whether the survivors had a means to call for help or intended to surrender — when he concluded that further action was warranted. He ordered a second strike, killing both men. Moments earlier, the video feed had shown them waving their arms and looking skyward, people who saw the footage said. It was unclear, they added, why they were doing so. The 30-plus minutes that elapsed between the first strike and the second has become the most consequential moment in Bradley’s three-decade military career — one that includes direct involvement in more than 1,000 lethal strikes governed by the law of armed conflict central to understanding the events of Sept. 2 and whether the strike survivors were lawful targets. The episode has put the admiral and his advisers under a spotlight alongside Hegseth, who has expressed support for Bradley while attempting to distance himself from the fallout.

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For Trump, the Warner megadeal talks are all about CNN

The fate of Warner Bros. Discovery could hinge on a frequent subject of President Trump’s ire: CNN. President Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the ownership of CNN should change regardless of which company buys Warner and that it is “imperative that CNN be sold.” Behind the scenes in recent days, Trump has repeatedly told allies that CNN should either be sold or get new leadership, according to people familiar with the matter, even if Netflix’s proposal is approved. The president has been unwavering in meetings with allies about his position on CNN and he has connected its future to deal negotiations with Warner Bros., the people said.

For Trump, the deal represents a second chance to take aim at CNN. During his first term, the Justice Department unsuccessfully tried to block a sale of CNN’s parent company, then known as Time Warner, to AT&T unless the network was spun off. The president’s intervention in corporate dealmaking raises fresh questions about how a transaction might proceed. Warner Bros. last week agreed to sell just its studios and HBO Max streaming business—but not the television-networks group that includes CNN—to Netflix for $72 billion in cash and stock. If Netflix’s acquisition succeeds, Warner Bros. Discovery would continue with its plans to spin off CNN and its other cable networks into a stand-alone, publicly traded company called Discovery Global. Despite declining ratings, Warner executives consider CNN a vital part of Discovery Global. The split is structured to be tax-free for U.S. federal income-tax purposes, the company has said. A stand-alone sale of CNN before or after a split would have significant tax implications. After Warner’s deal with Netflix was announced, CNN Chief Executive Mark Thompson told staff that it would “enable us to continue to roll out our strategy to secure a great future for CNN by successfully navigating our digital transition.”

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Republicans’ shaky grip on the House

Four live discharge petitions. Being forced to bargain for GOP support during simple procedural votes. Calls to Cabinet secretaries from the House floor to help win over members. A prolonged debate on health care with a disengaged president. Potential retirements on the horizon. This is the House Republican majority with less than 11 months until the midterm elections. OK, we won’t say that the House is in total chaos. Total chaos is when members unleash censure resolutions against each other or a trio of House Republicans publicly claim Speaker Mike Johnson has no business running the chamber. That was last week. But there’s a very tenuous reality for Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer as they navigate the post-shutdown climate with a soon-to-be-even-thinner three vote margin.

Fear of President Donald Trump kept everyone in line earlier this year, especially on the One Big Beautiful Bill. Trump’s poll ratingshave fallen, however, and Republicans took a bad beating in last month’s elections. Members are retiring or running for other offices, meaning they have their own agendas. Most importantly, Republicans could lose the House next year, and GOP lawmakers are beginning to think more about their own political survival rather than what party leaders are selling. There were a pair of episodes this week to demonstrate just how shaky the House GOP leadership’s control is. House Republicans struggled for more than an hour Wednesday to pass a rule to begin debate on the NDAA, the typically bipartisan Pentagon policy bill. In order to flip hardline conservatives, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Johnson had to call Secretary of State Marco Rubio from a room off the House floor. Rubio agreed to look into NGOs that are funneling money to the Taliban. This was just one of a trio of promises made to pass the rule.

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Indiana Senate to vote Thursday on 9-0 Republican congressional map, but its passage is uncertain

Indiana's state Senate will decide on Thursday whether or not they'll pass a new congressional map that will make all nine of the state's U.S. House districts lean toward Republicans. This possibility of adding two GOP-friendly seats in Indiana has been a political priority of the Trump administration, as Democrat-run and Republican-run states have been trading blows in a nationwide redistricting arms race ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. But the contentious debate also spawned bomb threats and swatting incidents against Indiana lawmakers, as enough Indiana Republican state lawmakers are opposed to a new map to put its passage in jeopardy. Republicans already represent seven of Indiana's nine Congressional districts, while Democrats represent two districts, one near southwest Chicago and one that encompasses Indianapolis.

The proposed map drastically breaks apart the Indianapolis-based district of Democratic Rep. André Carson to dilute the city's Democratic-leaning electorate. The map passed in the Indiana state House with a 57-41 vote earlier this month, but Indiana Senate president Rodric Bray has previously insisted the votes needed to pass the map are not there. At least 25 of the state's 50 senators would have to vote yes for the map to pass, with Republican Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith being the tiebreaker vote. There are 40 Republican senators in the chamber, while at least 12 state senators have come out publicly against the map with several keeping their stance private, according to the IndyStar. "It's a toss up," said GOP operative Marty Obst, chair of the "Fair Maps Indiana" nonprofit pushing for a middecade redraw. He said there's about ten state Republican senators who are still undecided, in part because they want to hear more from constituents and during this week's debate on the senate floor. "We'll obviously need a few of those to get to 25," he said. "It should be an interesting day on Thursday. It's truly up in the air."

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House overwhelmingly passes $900B annual defense bill

The House on Wednesday easily passed the annual defense policy bill, sending the mammoth, $900 billion measure to the Senate ahead of the year-end deadline. The measure, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed the lower chamber by a vote of 312-112. Ninety-four Democrats and 18 Republicans opposed the bill. The NDAA, a traditionally bipartisan bill that lays out defense priorities for the next year, would increase pay for service members, provide some military aid to Ukraine, restrict U.S. investment in China and fully repeal sanctions on Syria, among other things. It also contained a provision to withhold a portion of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until he turns over unedited footage of U.S. military strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and copies of the orders behind the operations.

While the final vote wasn’t close, the legislation’s passage wasn’t without some drama. The bill had barely cleared a key procedural vote just hours earlier. House leadership held the vote open for more than an hour as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) persuaded Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) to flip their “no” votes to yes. They said they did so after receiving assurances from GOP leadership and administration officials. Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) was the only Republican to vote “no” on the rule. “I would vote for an increase in pay for soldiers, but they put that in there to try to get you to vote for all the other stuff. There’s still a lot of waste in the bill,” Massie, who also voted against the bill’s final passage, told The Hill. He also criticized the aid to Ukraine in the bill. “I thought we were getting out of Ukraine. I don’t know why we still need to spend money there,” he said.

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DeSantis follows Abbott’s lead in labeling Muslim groups terrorists

Following Texas’ lead, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood as “foreign terrorist organizations.” “Florida agencies are hereby directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support,” DeSantis said. His Dec. 8 executive order accuses the organizations of involvement in acts of violence and intimidation, including support of Hamas in its military campaign against Israel. Without citing evidence, the directive connects Hamas’ 2023 attack against Israel with the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egypt-based organization that has renounced violence in its quest for Islamic rule. It also claims CAIR was founded by members of the Brotherhood.

The organizations’ values are “irreconcilable with foundational American principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and conflict with “the right to religious freedom and the equal protection of the law,” according to the executive order. DeSantis also references an executive order President Donald Trump issued Nov. 24 calling for “a process by which certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood shall be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” The Florida development came less than a month after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared members of CAIR and the Brotherhood as “radical extremists” operating “foreign terrorist” and “transnational criminal” organizations now prohibited from owning property in the state. Abbott’s proclamation said the groups are bent on imposing Sharia law around the world and represent Hamas’ attempt to “regenerate itself” in the U.S. “The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation and harassment are unacceptable,” he said. CAIR, the largest Muslim civil rights advocacy organization in the U.S., said its national and Florida groups plan to sue DeSantis for his “‘defamatory and unconstitutional’ order baselessly smearing the group as a foreign terrorist organization.” CAIR-Florida said the governor has been an open supporter of Israel since taking office in 2019 and just as open about his opposition to Palestinian rights.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend has had a weird month

The day before Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced she was quitting Congress, her boyfriend was outside the White House. This wasn’t an unusual place to find Brian Glenn. He’s the White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a pro-Trump broadcast network, and films his live shots by the row of media tents along the residence’s North Lawn. What was unusual was that Glenn wasn’t closer to the action. He hadn’t ventured into the Oval Office that week, nor attended that day’s press briefing. And he hadn’t sought any face time with President DonaldTrump. “I didn’t want to make any awkward spaces,” Glenn told me, “so I said, ‘You know what? Let me just stay back this week.’” Glenn works at, not for the White House, though you’d be forgiven for assuming otherwise. Among the friendly media figures Trumphas welcomed into the press corps, Glenn is among the most obliging. “I’m so much more based than they are,” Glenn boasts during one of our interviews, referring to his peers in the pro-MAGA media. “And the administration knows that, too.” He has been rewarded with top-notch access to the president; whenever Trump offers himself to the press, it’s beena safe bet that Glenn is in the room. Glenn’ssocial media feeds, meanwhile, are replete with reposts of White House talking points, as well as his own commentary about the fantastic work Trump is doing. On the lethal missile attacks on alleged drug boats that have prompted scrutiny from Congress: “Trump is defeating the drug cartels. One strike at a time.” On the subject of Jeffrey Epstein: “TRUMP DID NOTHING WRONG … FACT.” On economic anxiety at home: “President Trump has done a tremendous job lowering the cost of goods and services. That is FACT.”

In recent weeks, however, Trump had taken a position that Glenn could not endorse. “All I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” the president posted on Truth Social last month. Greene had lately opposed Trump on several issues she argued were important to his voters, such as releasing the Epstein files and extending health care subsidies that passed under President Joe Biden. Trump had retaliated by pulling his endorsement of the Georgia congresswoman, effectively inviting a more obsequious Republican challenger to take her out next year. He’d also given her a nickname: “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene” — or the less homophonic “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown,” because “Green turns to Brown where there is ROT involved!” So Glenn was lying low. It wasn’t that he felt the whole White House had turned against him; press secretary Karoline Leavitt and communications director Steven Cheung had both sent him kind notes. But he didn’t want his fellow reporters to feel uncomfortable asking Trump about the falling-out with Greene. And he didn’t want to have to stand there and listen to Trump’s response — especially sinceTrump’s responses, thus far, had struck Glenn as unfair.

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Disguised and in danger: How a Nobel Peace Prize winner escaped Venezuela

Wearing a wig and a disguise, María Corina Machado began her escape from Venezuela on Monday afternoon. The Venezuelan opposition leader was trying to get to Norway by Wednesday in time to receive the Nobel Peace Prize that she won for challenging Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro. First she had to get from the Caracas suburb where she has been in hiding for a year to a coastal fishing village, where a skiff awaited her. Over the course of 10 nerve-racking hours, Machado and two people helping her escape hit 10 military checkpoints, avoiding capture each time, before she reached the coast by midnight, said a person close to the operation. She rested for a few hours, the person said, before the next leg of her journey: a perilous trip across the open Caribbean Sea to Curaçao. She and her two companions set out on a typical wooden fishing skiff at 5 a.m., the person said, with strong winds and choppy seas slowing them down.

She had almost completed an escape that had been in the works for about two months and was carried out by a Venezuelan network that has helped other people flee the country, the person close to the operation said. The group said it made an important call to the U.S. military before they set out to sea, warning American forces in the region of the vessel’s occupants to avoid the kind of airstrike that has hit more than 20 similar vessels in the past three months, killing more than 80 people. “We coordinated that she was going to leave by a specific area so that they would not blow up the boat,” said the person close to the operation. The Trump administration was aware of the operation, said people familiar with the matter, but the extent of its involvement was unclear. The U.S. Navy and the Pentagon declined to comment. Administration officials denied the accuracy of the military contact. Around the same time of their crossing, a pair of U.S. Navy F-18s flew into the Gulf of Venezuela and spent roughly 40 minutes flying in tight circles near the route that would lead from the coast to Curaçao, according to flight-tracking data. It was the closest incursion of U.S. aircraft into Venezuelan airspace since the U.S. military buildup began in September.

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Lead Stories

Texas Association of Business CEO resigns amid sexual assault allegations

Glenn Hamer has resigned as president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business — one of the state’s most powerful business groups — a little more than two weeks after a lawsuit was filed by a woman alleging sexual assault, harassment and retaliation. The resignation was announced in a two-sentence statement from board Chairman Bill Jones, who said Megan Mauro would continue leading the association as interim president and CEO. The lawsuit, filed Nov. 24 in Travis County District Court by a woman identified only as “Jane Doe,” accuses Hamer of using his position as head of the association and chair of the Texas Venture Alliance to foster a relationship with her, allegedly later coercing and assaulting her.

In a statement to the American-Statesman, Hamer’s attorney, Sam Bassett, said his client “regrets his consensual relationship with ‘Jane Doe.’ However, at no time did Glenn harass, assault or retaliate against ‘Jane Doe.’ When all the facts come out through the legal process, Glenn will be exonerated.” The complaint alleges that when she rejected his advances, Hamer used his position to undermine her organization and professional opportunities. She is seeking more than $10 million in damages. The association was also named as a co-defendant in the suit, arguing it was "vicariously liable." Jones previously said the organization was aware of the lawsuit and had placed Hamer on administrative leave while it investigated. The plaintiff was described on social media by her attorney, Tony Buzbee, as founder and executive director of the Texas Venture Alliance, an advocacy group for startups and entrepreneurs.

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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proposes another increase of the homestead exemption

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is looking ahead to 2027 and said when the state Legislature meets again, one of his main priorities will be making homeownership more affordable for older Texans. Patrick held a press conference at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday afternoon to discuss his proposal to further decrease the amount of a home’s value that cannot be taxed to pay for public schools. He said he wants the senior homestead exemption available to people 55 and older, too. Right now, people who are 65 and older and live in the home they own are eligible for a $200,000 homestead exemption. That means on a $300,000 home, they only have to pay school property taxes on $100,000 worth of the home's value.

The lieutenant governor said this will also freeze appraised values for people 55 and older, resulting in lasting savings. "Your homestead exemption will travel with you, whether you're 55, 56, 57, 58, whatever your age. Now that it's frozen, 55 and up, it'll travel with you anywhere in the state and to any house you own. It travels with you,” Patrick said. "The homestead exemption by far is the biggest bang for the buck." Patrick said that of the 6.1 million homeowners in Texas, 3.3 million homeowners will have their tax values frozen. Patrick said the median home price in Texas is $332,000. The median homeowner is 58 years old, and the median new homeowner is 35 years old. “This now gives a homeowner who's 55, let's say they're still living in it at 80, that's a big deal,” Patrick said. “That's 25 years of values frozen, and how much does this mean to those who are 55? It's going to mean about an extra $900 to $1,000 a year today, which over 10 years from 55 to 65 is about $10,000 – that's real money.”

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Miami elects its first Democratic mayor in nearly 30 years

Democrat Eileen Higgins won Miami’s mayoral race on Tuesday, the first Democrat to win the seat in nearly 30 years. “Together, we turned the page on years of chaos and corruption and opened the door to a new era for our city — one defined by ethical, accountable leadership that delivers real results for the people,” Higgins said in a statement declaring victory, promising to lead a government “that finally earns the public’s trust.” Higgins, a 61-year-old mechanical engineer and a former Peace Corps director, represented what she characterized as a Republican-leaning district on the county commission. Her campaign, backed by the Democratic National Committee, focused on local issues including affordable housing and promoting small businesses.

Higgins is set to become Miami’s first female mayor and its first non-Hispanic mayor since the 1990s. She bested Republican candidate Emilio T. González, who had been endorsed by President Donald Trump, with 59.3% of the vote to González’s 40.7%. The city’s outgoing mayor, Francis X. Suarez, who attempted a 2024 presidential bid, is term-limited. Congressional Democrats took note of Higgins’ win Tuesday as a sign of Democratic momentum ahead of next year’s midterm elections. “We are soooo going to flip the House next year,” Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, said in a post to X congratulating Higgins. “After nearly 30 years, the good people of Miami have flipped this seat blue,” New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury posted. “This is a big deal for our democracy, our communities, and what comes next.”

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Democrats think this new GOP-drawn Texas district is winnable in 2026

The main group working to elect Democrats to the U.S. House announced Wednesday it sees a path to victory in a district that Texas Republicans just redrew to be more GOP-friendly. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says it will invest in the party’s nominee for Congressional District 35, a seat that was redrawn from a Democratic stronghold into one that would have favored Trump by 10 points in 2024. ”Democrats will not let (Republicans’) cynical power play go down without a fight,” Susan DelBene, who chairs the national campaign arm, said in a statement Tuesday. “The DCCC will work to ensure the people of Texas’ 35th District have the representation they deserve.”

The open seat is one of two in Texas that the DCCC named to its “Districts in Play,” a roster of Republican-held or Republican-leaning seats the party considers competitive as it seeks to win the majority in the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm. In a news release, a spokesperson for the group argued that voters favor Democratic strategies for addressing rising costs, health care access and working-family issues. The group’s GOP counterpart set CD-35 as a target in September, soon after Gov. Greg Abbott signed the new map into law. National Republican Campaign Committee Chair Richard Hudson said the elections would prove House Democrats are “painfully out of touch with hardworking Americans” in a statement to CQ Roll Call at the time. The seat is currently held by U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, an Austin progressive who opted to run for reelection in a neighboring district that maintains a Democratic advantage. A slew of candidates have jumped in to represent the majority-Latino district, including three Democrats. The other Texas district the DCCC is targeting is Congressional District 15, where Tejano singer Bobby Pulido and a medical doctor, Ada Cuellar, are fighting for the Democratic nomination to take on GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz.

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State Stories

Three top Alamo fundraisers quit over CEO Kate Rogers' banishment

Three leaders of the Alamo’s fundraising arm have quit to protest the forced resignation of Kate Rogers as president and CEO of the Alamo Trust, the San Antonio Express-News has learned. Three of the most active fundraisers on the board of the Remember the Alamo Foundation — real estate developer Phillip P. Bakke, philanthropist Tracy Wolff and retired Air Force Gen. Donald G. Cook — have stepped down. Their departures add another layer of turmoil as the Alamo undergoes a $550 million public-private renovation and expansion amid political differences over how the 300-year history of the site — in which Native Americans, Spanish missionaries, Mexicans, Tejanos, Texas revolutionaries and enslaved people all played a role — should be depicted.

The board members’ resignations were not publicly announced, but Bakke, Wolff and Cook were removed from a Remember the Alamo Foundation web page featuring photos and biographies of the nonprofit’s 16 board members. Now, only 13 members are listed. The foundation is a tax-exempt nonprofit that raises money for the Alamo Trust, which handles day-to-day operations at the state-owned historic site under contract with the Texas General Land Office. Rogers resigned as Alamo CEO on Oct. 23 under pressure from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who objected to social media posts by the Alamo staff and academic writings by Rogers that they deemed unacceptably “woke.” Mounting tensions between the Alamo Trust board and state officials burst into public view on Oct. 14, when Buckingham took exception to posts on the Alamo’s official Facebook and X accounts that acknowledged Indigenous Peoples' Day. A dozen states and some cities recognize the day instead of or in tandem with Columbus Day. Buckingham criticized the Alamo posts as “woke” and demanded an investigation into who wrote and published them. "This is frankly unacceptable and it has been deleted," Buckingham wrote on X, adding: "Woke has no place at the Alamo."

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Rod Paige, former U.S. education secretary and Houston ISD superintendent, dies at 92

Rod Paige, a former Houston ISD superintendent and U.S. Secretary of Education, died Tuesday morning at the age of 92. Paige was the first Black secretary of education as well as the first school superintendent to serve in the role. He was appointed at the start of George W. Bush's first administration in 2001. He was born on June 17, 1933, in segregated Monticello, Mississippi. Paige earned his bachelor's degree from Jackson State University and his master's and doctorate from Indiana University.

Paige served as the dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University in Houston until 1994. He was sworn in as a trustee and officer of the HISD Board of Education in 1990, eventually becoming the superintendent of HISD, one of the largest school districts in the country. In 2001, Bush appointed Paige to serve as the seventh secretary of education. In a statement, Paige's family said he died with his wife, Stephanie, at his side. He worked on the passage and implementation of the landmark No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, an education reform policy that developed education standards for public schools to benefit all students. Since leaving the federal government, Paige returned to Jackson State University as interim president from 2016 to 2017. He served as an honorary board member of the Greater Houston Partnership until his death. The family said details of a memorial service will be shared in the coming days.

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Frisco ISD was once the fastest-growing district in Texas. Now, it’s facing a new reality.

At a tense October board meeting, Frisco ISD trustees heard from dozens of students and parents all there with the same message: Keep Staley Middle School open. “Keeping Staley open allows all children to stay close to home, remain engaged in their school community ... and continue benefiting from these opportunities,” said mom of three Erin Baxter. Even Deputy Superintendent Todd Fouche spoke publicly of his own emotional ties to the school. “My mom taught at Staley, my wife taught at Staley, my brother went to Staley,” Fouche said during the board meeting. “If you were here before the year 2000, Staley was part of your story. No one gets in this business to talk about closing schools.”

Among the many North Texas school districts closing campuses to save money amid falling enrollment, ongoing inflation, and reduced state funding, Frisco ISD stands out. “We were the fastest growing school district in the country and the state for years and years and years, growing 3,000 students a year for 15 years," Fouche told KERA. Twenty years ago, the district had 15,000 students. By 2008 it had double that. Land to grow, to build businesses and homes helped drive the expansion. The arrival of new technology companies also helped, as did landmark sports franchises that relocated to Frisco, including the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Stars and the PGA. Even in 2020, when districts statewide LOST students from COVID fears, Frisco kept growing – just one of two in Texas that did. But two and half years ago, Frisco ISD officials reported a 300-student decline.

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Texas AG launches financial transparency probes into hundreds of cities

State Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating Dallas, Fort Worth and hundreds of other cities to prevent what he calls potential unlawful tax increases, his office announced Tuesday. Paxton said he's requesting financial documents and other information from those cities, and that the number of cities under investigation "will continue to grow." “Local officials will not be allowed to ignore the law, cover up their finances, and burden Texans with never-ending tax increases,” Paxton said in a statement. “Our cities and municipalities must prioritize transparency and minimizing the tax burden of every citizen across the state. While many cities have already complied with these requirements, I’m launching this review to ensure that the law is universally followed, taxpayers are respected, and local government is accountable to all Texans.” Other cities include San Antonio, Houston, El Paso, Wichita Falls, Waco, Tyler and Galveston. It’s not clear what evidence — if any — Paxton has to suggest wrongdoing by the cities. The probe comes in the wake of Senate Bill 1851's passage earlier this year. The law prohibits a city from raising taxes if it's found to have violated financial statement audit requirements.

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Texas’ data center boom contributes to ERCOT’s large load requests quadrupling in 2025

The amount of ERCOT‘s large load interconnection requests ballooned to more than 230 gigawatts this year, a massive increase from the 63 gigawatts reported in December 2024. The agency, which operates the electrical grid for most of Texas, reported “many” of the interconnection requests exceed one gigawatt per site. More than 70% of the large loads were data centers. The number of applications — and the amount of power requested by each client — underscores how the economic benefits of the artificial intelligence boom are colliding with the reality of Texas’ increasingly strained resources. This year, ERCOT received 225 large load interconnection requests through mid-November, compared to 152 requests for the comparable 2022 to 2024 time frame, according to data published ahead of ERCOT’s board of directors meetings this week.

The most requests were submitted in the second quarter, with 78 requests totaling more than 70,000 megawatts. Rapid demand growth continues to outpace new energy supplies, prompting concerns about grid reliability. As of the end of October, ERCOT has 1,999 active generation interconnection requests totaling 432 gigawatts. Solar and battery storage makeup about 77% of that total. Since last winter, more than 11,000 megawatts of new generation resources were added to the grid, the majority of which were storage and solar. “Both transmission and resource adequacy should be considered in how quickly large loads can connect and ramp up,” ERCOT executives wrote in the presentation for the board meeting. The Public Utility Commission of Texas’ “load forecasting rules will be instrumental in identifying credible loads that should be planned for.” The PUCT filed a discussion draft — a preliminary version of a proposed rule — last week related to the large load interconnection standards. In the document, a large load customer is defined as customer requesting a new or expanded interconnection where its total peak demand at a single site would be at least 75 megawatts. The proposal would create standards for an electric utility, including a municipally owned utility and electric cooperative, to sync a large load customer to ERCOT’s transmission network.

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Texas postpartum depression data isn’t showing accurate picture for economically disadvantaged mothers

Mental health is a leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in Texas. However, annual state data meant to track postpartum depression and treatment in the state isn’t showing an accurate picture of what economically disadvantaged mothers face. “I didn’t feel like myself. There were times when I was just like, I can’t even deal with the baby,” Tamiquewa Brewster, a Texas mother who said she experienced postpartum depression, said. Collecting this data is mandated by state law, but the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said claims aren’t always being reported, which impacts the full view.

“There are limitations when it comes to claims data,” Krystyn Malveaux, a DSHS research specialist, said. On Friday at the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee public meeting, Malveaux presented the postpartum depression screening and treatment data. SB 748, authored by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, was passed in 2019 and requires the data to be presented annually. The bill’s stated purpose is to reduce pregnancy-related deaths and postpartum depression among economically disadvantaged women. According to state numbers, more than 33,000 women were diagnosed with postpartum depression in SFY 2023, but fewer than 10,000 had been screened for it. “Due to clinician coding practices and changes in Medicaid policy, and it’s likely that more women were screened … than this data shows,” Malveaux said. According to DSHS, there’s no incentive for providers to record claims.

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Arlington council suspends LGBTQ+ protections

The Arlington City Council tonight (Tuesday, Nov 9) voted to suspend anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, becoming the first city in the country to rescind such protections. The vote was 5-4, and came before an overflow crowd and after two hours of what the Dallas Morning News described as “emotional testimony” from more than 60 speakers, following months of heated debate and delayed votes. The protections suspended by tonight’s votes were put into place only four years ago, in June 2021, and protected LGBTQ+ residents against discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. The council abandoned those protections in the face of threats from the Trump administration to withhold federal funds from cities and other entities that don’t toe the line in the administrations war against diversity, equality and inclusion. The vote goes into effect immediately and remains in effect until further notice. The five council members voting to suspend protections were Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Raul Gonzales, Mauricio Galante, Rebecca Boxall, Long Pham and Bowie Hogg. Mayor Jim Ross sided with council members Mayor Pro Tem Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley, Nikkie Hunter and Andrew Piel to vote to keep those protections in place.

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As Southwest considers expansion, Austin looks to draw airline with incentives

The Austin City Council is expected to vote on an incentive program with Southwest Airlines that could help the airline expand its footprint at the Austin airport. “As the company meets growth plans, it seeks to expand facilities and operations infrastructure to support new flight capacity and employment growth. Southwest, on its mission to find a suitable site for the business expansion, has pinpointed Austin as a potential viable location. However, there are multiple sites in competition, and therefore, is exploring State and Local incentives along with other cost drivers to make its selection,” council documents said. On Dec. 11, Council will vote on whether it will allow the city to move forward with pitching the airline an incentive program that would encourage it to hire locally, shift money toward child care and further Southwest’s involvement in the city of Austin’s newly created infrastructure academy.

Bob Jordan, CEO of Southwest Airlines Co., told ABJ earlier this year that the Dallas-based company aims to continue growing its operations in Austin, with plans that eventually could make ABIA its busiest airport in Texas. He previously said Southwest's plans could include more international long-haul flights and an increase in airline partnerships that Southwest operates out of Austin. Jordan also said ABIA’s expansion might make it feasible for the airline to add a passenger lounge in the planned new concourse. At the time, he also said it would be “logical” for Southwest to look at adding a pilot and flight attendant base for its Austin operations because the airline keeps growing in Austin. Southwest — already the dominant carrier at the airport — wants up to 18 gates at the airport, making it an "anchor tenant," as part of the airport's larger expansion plan, officials previously said. A new set of use and lease agreements with airlines is close to being finalized, an airport spokesperson recently said, and airport officials aim to provide an update in January that includes an updated cost of the facility expansion, which is expected to be higher than the original $4 billion figure.

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SMU proposes moving law school off main campus, across U.S. 75, as it eyes expansion

A proposal to move Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law off the main campus and into a new building across the U.S. 75 freeway is stirring frustration among students, faculty and alumni, who say they weren’t consulted. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday, SMU President Jay Hartzell said the school is considering a plan to move the law quad, which currently sits in the northwest corner of campus, to East Campus. The proposed move would be part of a larger development of the stretch of land from SMU Boulevard to Fondren Drive, which SMU owns, just north of The Beeman Hotel and the SMU/Mockingbird DART station. Some of that space is currently occupied by SMU and leased out to businesses, including Cafe Brazil.

The proposal involves constructing six new buildings, including a law school and graduate housing, Hartzell said. The other buildings would house a “research park and technology center,” akin to those at Georgia Tech University or Stanford University, that bring students and companies together. “Our goal is to have a top 20 law school and that’s going to involve everything from recruiting great faculty and students to the right mix of programmatic offerings,” Hartzell said. “The facility is a big piece of the puzzle and I think having a custom-built building … is going to be pretty powerful.” Hartzell added that he believed affordable graduate housing nearby, one of the most pressing needs for the university, will bolster the school’s recruitment efforts. The proposal has faced opposition from some members of SMU’s law school community. Critics say moving to East Campus would silo the school and complicate access to campus resources. Students and faculty say they weren’t consulted about the proposal, which they believe overhauls years-long promises from university officials to significantly renovate the existing buildings in the law quad. “We weren’t involved in the process at all,” Carliss Chatman, a professor of law, said of faculty input. “We’re just as surprised as everyone else is and we think, at the very least, we should talk about it more. It just changes the culture of the law school to be so isolated from campus.”

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North Texas cities may find leaving DART is quite hard

On May 2, 2026, in empty college campuses and high-school gymnasiums, voters across four North Dallas suburbs will see on their ballots the question “Shall Dallas Area Rapid Transit be continued in the City of…?” How they choose to answer will be the most consequential decision for DFW transit in a generation. In late October, Plano moved first to hit the big red button and announce their intention to vote on whether to withdraw from DART. Later that day, the cities of Highland Park and Farmers Branch joined in. Irving and, eventually, Addison would follow, making the same announcement that they were considering holding elections to leave DART. DART has long been primarily funded by collecting a 1-cent sales tax in its member cities. Taking up half of the 2 cents local entities are allowed to charge in Texas. Over the past two years, some cities and DART have been in conflict over this rate, with cities claiming they are not getting enough value from DART compared to the sales tax rate DART charges. That ultimately led to these upcoming elections.

The votes came like dominoes. Farmers Branch and Highland Park voted to greenlight a withdrawal election on November 4, with Plano and Irving following suit. It wasn’t until Addison voted on December 2, by a narrow 4-to-3 margin, not to hold a withdrawal election, that the momentum slowed. In the event a withdrawal election is successful, all services would immediately grind to a halt after the vote is canvassed. Trains would either turn around before entering a withdrawn city or run through it without stopping. All bus routes, microtransit, and paratransit would indefinitely cease. Withdrawn cities would continue to pay DART until all their financial obligations are paid off. To replace these services, the Plano City Council is creating the “Collin County Connects Committee,” also known as the C4 committee, to develop a new vision for transit by and for Plano. “Our Collin County Connects Committee will be working on an intra-city transportation program that would include senior transit, paratransit, and additional transit for those interested in using the system,” said Plano City Councilmember Steve Lavine. As for intercity transit, should the withdrawal be approved, Plano would task its now-divorced transit partner, DART, with running regional services such as the Silver Line, light rail, and express buses. That is, at least according to a proposed deal that Plano sent the transit agency, which DART is now reviewing “for their financial and operational feasibility and will provide a response to those respective cities once the analysis is complete,” according to DART Board Chair Randall Bryant.

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BNSF Railway’s fight against $85B merger: Are jobs on the line?

BNSF Railway, which employs nearly 3,000 people at its Fort Worth headquarters, is lobbying against a colossal merger proposal by two competitors that would reshape the nation’s freight rail network and potentially impact the industries that rely on it. In July, Union Pacific announced its intention to acquire the Norfolk Southern for $85 billion. The merger would create the first truly transcontinental railroad in the U.S. and a streamlined path for shipping companies to send goods across the nation. Union Pacific’s network is mostly west of the Mississippi River, while Norfolk Southern operates on the East Coast. Leaders in the industry believe that this would be one of the most significant mergers of railroad companies since at least the 1990s, when Union Pacific combined with Southern Pacific and BNSF was formed after Burlington Northern and Santa Fe merged.

If approved, the new combined company would control 45% of all freight tonnage in the U.S. The acquisition is nowhere close to complete. The Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency that regulates freight rail, must review the application, which hasn’t been submitted yet. President Trump has expressed support for the merger and over the summer dismissed a Democratic member of the five-person Surface Transportation Board, which critics say demonstrates his intention to get the merger approved. Union Pacific has said the merger would make it significantly more efficient — and cheaper — for shipping companies to move their goods. BNSF, which is the nation’s largest railroad company, begs to differ. In November, the Berkshire Hathaway-owned company filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board, asking for a more scrutinized review of the application and claiming that Union Pacific has repeatedly ignored measures to boost competition and prevent monopolies in the railroad industry.

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Dell, Amazon, Microsoft join TCU for $10M investment for responsible AI use

A combined $10 million from TCU and corporate contributions will fund a new artificial intelligence initiative aimed at spurring responsible use of the popular technology for research and learning, university officials announced Tuesday. The money will go toward AI² — Accelerating Institutional AI — to enhance research that uses secure, high-powered computers; support students; and allow Texas Christian University to leverage AI across campus, officials said. “We’re pleased to harness the opportunity and innovation of AI to accelerate learning, drive operational efficiency and expand research impact for our community at even greater scale,” Chancellor Daniel Pullin said in a news release. “Launching AI² is yet another material investment in our strategic plan, LEAD ON: Values in Action and, most importantly, our students, faculty and staff.”

Physical computing infrastructure and cloud capabilities will come from Dell Technologies, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, according to the release. The effort will contribute to TCU’s drive toward R1 status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, recognition for the highest level of research activity, according to the release. “AI² gives our faculty and students a world-class tool to foster interdisciplinary research partnerships and generate high-impact outcomes,” Reuben F. Burch V, vice provost for research, said in the release. In recent years, professors have implemented AI in class projects and used it to help expand teaching. Professor Leslie Browning-Samoni asked fashion merchandising students to use AI in class and solicited feedback that informed her doctoral dissertation. As the initiative is implemented, the university will, in consultation with faculty, develop AI in teaching and research as well as research the technology itself and make sure it is used ethically. “TCU’s investment is more than hardware and software — it’s another proof point that we are serious about innovation and impact,” Bryan Lucas, chief technology officer, said in the release. “In coming months, we will be launching additional tools and services for faculty teaching and research, student learning certificates that prepare them for real-world AI uses and institutional tools that enable TCU to continue to offer the best academic experience in the country.”

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Austin Energy employee allegedly paid $980K to ‘fictitious vendors,’ city auditor says

The Austin City Auditor’s Office released a report Tuesday accusing a local couple, both of whom previously worked for the city, of defrauding the city for approximately $980,000 by sending payments to allegedly fictitious businesses. The report focuses on the alleged actions of Mark Ybarra, who worked as a facility service specialist for Austin Energy. He was issued a city credit card by his superiors for the procurement of necessary tools and materials, the audit said. According to the report, he used the card to “pay fictitious vendors approximately $980,000 and fraudulently reported these transactions in City records.”

“The falsified invoices he submitted were ultimately discovered by his management in Austin Energy. Some of the fictitious vendors used contact information like addresses that connected them to relatives of Mark Ybarra, or Mark himself,” reads an email to KXAN from the auditor’s office. According to the city auditor’s report, Ybarra allegedly made payments to 22 fictious businesses using the card. He resigned from his job in October 2023. A grand jury indicted Ybarra on Aug. 23. He now faces a felony charge of theft greater than $300,000. His wife, former Austin Watershed Protection employee Ambrosia Ybarra, “refused to answer questions” from city auditors. She was indicted on Sept. 15 and charged with felony theft between $150,000 and $300,000. She resigned from her job in November, the report states. KXAN has reached out to the couple’s attorneys for comment on the accusations. The report also named two Austin Energy managers who supervised the former facility service specialist. It says that the managers “wasted City resources when they approved the credit card payments based on invoices they should have identified as questionable or illegitimate.” Neither of those managers have been criminally charged.

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County Stories

Republicans turn to Patrick Von Dohlen in Bexar County Judge race

Candidate filing closed Monday evening for the 2026 midterms, setting the stage for a very different election than the last time most Bexar County offices were on the ballot in 2022. This time around, no elected Republicans signaled interest in the Bexar County judge race, leaving the party scrambling for a candidate until the final day of filing when social conservative activist Patrick Von Dohlen put his name in the hat. The blue county has long been tough for Republicans, but favorable political winds last election cycle lured then-GOP Commissioner Trish DeBerry (Pct. 3) out of a seat she’d just won to wage an uphill campaign for county judge. Even in a good year for the GOP, however, DeBerry took just 39% of the vote in her race against against Democrat Peter Sakai.

As the lone GOP filer for 2026, Von Dohlen will face the winner of a heated primary between two of Democrats’ best-known candidates, Sakai and former Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who will be fighting it out for their party’s nomination in the March primary. He’ll also be the top of the GOP’s county ticket in an election that features a hard-fought District Attorney race as well as other countywide offices and a number of judicial races. “He’s a former candidate on a few races, but you know what, I’m just so excited that he’s in there,” said Republican Party of Bexar County Chair Kris Coons. “We weren’t able to [field a candidate] in every race, but I tried very hard, because I think for us in Bexar County, that’s where we’ve got to start.” Even among fellow Republicans, Von Dohlen can be a polarizing figure.

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National Stories

Georgia Democrat flips a state House seat in district Trump won by double digits

Democrats continued their run of successes in special elections by flipping a state House seat in Georgia Tuesday, according to a projection from the CNN Decision Desk. The Democratic victory, in a district that voted for President Donald Trump by about 12 percentage points last year, comes ahead of next year’s critical midterms, when Georgians will vote in closely watched races for Senate and governor. Eric Gisler, a Democrat who owns a local olive oil store, will defeat Republican Mack “Dutch” Guest in the 121st House District, in the northeastern part of the state, near the college town of Athens.

Between regularly scheduled elections in Virginia and New Jersey and special elections held on newly redrawn maps in Mississippi, Democrats flipped about 20 state legislative seats on Election Day last month. Those victories came after Democrats flipped two seats in Iowa and one in Pennsylvania during special elections earlier in the year. Republicans still control a significant majority in the Georgia House, but Tuesday’s results come just a month after Democrats won two statewide elections to flip two seats on the state’s Public Service Commission. The district has been without representation since Republican Marcus Wiedower resigned at the end of October. The Democratic Party of Georgia congratulated Gisler in a statement Tuesday evening, “This isn’t just a win for Georgia Democrats – it’s a win for every family in Oconee and Clarke Counties who has been struggling to get ahead under 22 years of failed Republican leadership.”

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House Democrats add 5 seats to their 2026 battleground target list

The House Democrats’ campaign arm is adding five seats to its 2026 offensive battleground target list as recent election wins have made the party feel increasingly bullish about next year’s midterms. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is adding California’s 48th Congressional District, Florida’s 15th Congressional District, North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District and 11th Congressional District and Texas’ 35th Congressional District. Overall, the DCCC has 40 target pickup opportunities the group is eyeing next year. “The DCCC is confident we can win anywhere, and we are full speed ahead while Republicans are running scared,” DCCC chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said in a statement. “House Democrats have the better message, stronger candidates, and as the data shows, the American people are on our side.”

The announcement comes on the heels of Democrat Eileen Higgins’ victory in the Miami mayoral race on Tuesday, flipping the seat blue for the first time in nearly 30 years. Both parties viewed the race as a potential bellwether of the national mood ahead of 2026, though a mayoral race in an off-year election is not alone predictive of a midterm electorate. Recent elections have also offered warning signs for Republicans. Last week, Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-Tenn.) won a special election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District by 9 points despite President Trump winning the seat in 2024 by 22 points. Democrats also showed an impressive overperformance in a slew of elections last month.

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Voting by mail faces uncertain moment ahead of midterm elections

Derrin Robinson has worked in Oregon elections for more than 30 years, long enough to remember when voters in the state cast their ballots at physical polling sites instead of by mail. As the nonpartisan clerk of Harney County, a vast, rural expanse larger than Massachusetts, Robinson oversees elections with about 6,000 registered voters. Oregon has exclusively conducted elections by mail since 2000, a system he thinks works well, requires fewer staff and doesn’t force voters to travel through treacherous weather to reach a polling place. “As you can tell, I’m not an advocate for going back,” Robinson said.

Not everyone agrees. An Oregon Republican lawmaker has introduced legislation to end the state’s mail voting law, and organizers of a ballot measure campaign seeking to ban mail-in voting say they have gathered thousands of signatures. Across the United States, voting by mail faces a moment of uncertainty ahead of the midterm elections next year. President Donald Trump has assailed mail-in voting and vowed this summer to lead a movement to eliminate the practice, promoting baseless claims that mailed ballots are linked to widespread fraud. Some states are also reevaluating their mail-in voting laws, including shortening or ending grace periods that now require election officials to count mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day. The U.S. Supreme Court in November agreed to take a case that could end ballot grace periods nationwide. A decision by the justices late next spring or early summer striking them down could affect 16 states and the District of Columbia, potentially upending the rules of elections as states prepare to hold primaries ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

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U.S. plans to scrutinize foreign tourists’ social media history

Travelers visiting the United States from countries like Britain, France, Germany and South Korea could soon have to undergo a review of up to five years of their social media history, according to a proposal filed on Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The change would affect visitors eligible for the visa waiver program, which allows people from 42 countries to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa as long as they first obtain electronic travel authorization. In a document filed on Tuesday in the Federal Register, C.B.P. said it plans to ask applicants for a long list of personal data including social media, email addresses from the last decade, and the names, birth dates, places of residence and birthplaces of parents, spouses, siblings and children. Under the current system, applicants from visa waiver countries must enroll in the Electronic System for Travel Authorization program.

They pay $40 and submit an email address, home address, phone number and emergency contact information. The authorization is good for two years. This move from C.B.P. follows similar actions by the U.S. government to conduct social media reviews for some visa applicants, including seekers of the H-1B visas awarded to skilled foreign workers, as well as applicants for student and scholar visas. It also follows the government’s pending plans to collect a new $250 visa integrity fee from many visitors, though visitors from visa waiver countries are exempt from that fee. The travel industry has pushed back on the visa integrity fee. In November, a coalition of more than 20 tourism and travel businesses signed a letter of opposition, citing concerns that the fee would discourage millions of prospective international visitors to the United States, including those traveling to events like next year’s World Cup. A travel industry official who spoke anonymously because his organization had not yet had time to review the proposal said C.B.P. did not brief industry stakeholders on the plan, which he called a significant escalation in traveler vetting.

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Australia launches youth social media ban it says will be the world's 'first domino'

Can children and teenagers be forced off social media en masse? Australia is about to find out. More than 1 million social media accounts held by users under 16 are set to be deactivated in Australia on Wednesday in a divisive world-first ban that has inflamed a culture war and is being closely watched in the United States and elsewhere. Social media companies will have to take “reasonable steps” to ensure that under-16s in Australia cannot set up accounts on their platforms and that existing accounts are deactivated or removed.

Australian officials say the landmark ban, which lawmakers swiftly approved late last year, is meant to protect children from addictive social media platforms that experts say can be disastrous for their mental health. “With one law, we can protect Generation Alpha from being sucked into purgatory by predatory algorithms described by the man who created the feature as ‘behavioral cocaine,’” Communications Minister Anika Wells told the National Press Club in Canberra last week. While many parents and even their children have welcomed the ban, others say it will hinder young people’s ability to express themselves and connect with others, as well as access online support that is crucial for those from marginalized groups or living in isolated parts of rural Australia. Two 15-year-olds have brought a legal challenge against it to the nation’s highest court.

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Trump plans final interviews with Fed chair candidates in coming days

President Trump is planning to start his final round of interviews in the coming days with candidates to be the next Federal Reserve chair. Trump and some of his aides are scheduled to interview former Fed governor Kevin Warsh on Wednesday, according to senior administration officials. Other candidates, including Trump’s National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett, are soon expected to meet with the president, the officials said. One of the officials cautioned that the interviews, similar to a recent round of expected meetings with Vice President JD Vance, could be canceled and postponed as the president continues to deliberate who he will announce to be Fed chair.

Trump’s team suddenly canceled interviews scheduled for last week with Fed chair contenders and Vance, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Trump has said in recent weeks that he has already made up his mind and echoed that sentiment Tuesday when asked about the selection. “We’re going to be looking at a couple of different people, but I have a pretty good idea of who I want,” Trump said on Air Force One. The news of the coming meetings was earlier reported by the Financial Times. Warsh and the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, Trump teased that Hassett, the presumed front-runner for the job, was a “potential Fed chair.” Hassett deflected speculation that he would be the pick. Trump “makes his choice, and then he changes his mind, too,” Hassett said at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council event Tuesday.

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Just how monogamous are humans? Scientists break down how we compare with other animals

Humans are far more monogamous than our primate cousins, but lessso than beavers, a new study suggests. Researchers from the University of Cambridge in England analyzed the proportion of full siblings versus half-siblings across several animal species, as well as various human populations throughout history. Species and societies that are more monogamous tend to have a greater number of siblings that share both parents, while those that are polygamous or promiscuous produce more half-siblings.

The team of scientists led by Mark Dyble, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, used a computational model and sibling data produced by genetic studies of humans and other animals to arrive at the estimated monogamy ratings. They reported their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Wednesday. The researchers found that beavers had a monogamy rating of 72%, while humans clocked in at 66%, slightly higher than meerkats’ score of 60%. All three species arepart of what they call the “premier league” of monogamy. At the other end of the scale, dolphins and chimpanzees had a monogamy rating of just 4%, whilemountain gorillas came in at6%. “This is not the first study to use sibling proportions as a measure of monogamy, but it is the first to compare the rates in humans to other mammal species,” Dyble told CNN. Monogamy has long been considered a key factor in the social cooperation that has facilitated humans’ ability to dominate the planet, according to the researchers.

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At State Department, a typeface falls victim in the War against "woke"

Secretary of State Marco Rubio waded into the surprisingly fraught politics of typefaces on Tuesday with an order halting the State Department’s official use of Calibri, reversing a 2023 Biden-era directive that Mr. Rubio called a “wasteful” sop to diversity. While mostly framed as a matter of clarity and formality in presentation, Mr. Rubio’s directive to all diplomatic posts around the world blamed “radical” diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs for what he said was a misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri in official department paperwork. In an “Action Request” memo obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Rubio said that switching back to the use of Times New Roman would “restore decorum and professionalism to the department’s written work.”

Calibri is “informal” when compared to serif typefaces like Times New Roman, the order said, and “clashes” with the department’s official letterhead. A State Department official confirmed the document’s authenticity. Mr. Rubio’s directive, under the subject line “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” served as the latest attempt by the Trump administration to stamp out remnants of diversity initiatives across the federal government. Then-Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ordered the 2023 typeface shift on the recommendation of the State Department’s office of diversity and inclusion, which Mr. Rubio has since abolished. The change was meant to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities, such as low vision and dyslexia, and people who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers. Calibri, sometimes described as soft and modern, is typically considered more accessible for people with reading challenges thanks to its simpler shapes and wider spacing, which make its letters easier to distinguish. Mr. Blinken’s move was applauded by accessibility advocates.

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Copyright December 17, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved