Lead Stories

Virginia voters back mid-decade redistricting effort pushed by Democrats

Virginia voters approved a mid-decade redistricting plan Tuesday that could boost Democrats’ chances of winning four additional U.S. House seats in November’s midterm elections that will decide control of the closely divided Congress. The constitutional amendment narrowly backed by voters bypasses a bipartisan redistricting commission to allow the use of new districts drawn by Virginia’s Democratic-led General Assembly. But the public vote may not be the final word. The state Supreme Court is considering whether the plan is illegal in a case that could make the referendum results meaningless. The Virginia redistricting referendum marked a setback for President Donald Trump, who kicked off a national redistricting battle last year by urging Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts.

The goal was to help Republicans win more seats in the November elections and hold on to a narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party out of power during midterm elections. But the Virginia redistricting referendum could help nullify Republican gains elsewhere. “Virginia just changed the trajectory of the 2026 midterms,” Democratic state House Speaker Don Scott said in a celebratory statement. “At a moment when Trump and his allies are trying to lock in power before voters have a say, Virginians stepped up and leveled the playing field for the entire country.” Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who campaigned for the new map, quickly shifted her attention to the November election. “I understand the urgency of winning congressional seats as a check on this President, and I look forward to campaigning with candidates across the Commonwealth working to earn Virginians’ trust,” she said in a statement.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Texas jobs market seen slowing down in 2026

The Texas economy is now expected to add jobs at a rate of 1.4% in 2026, according to a model-based forecast from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — a significant downshift from the bank’s forecast just a few weeks ago. The bank’s previous 2026 employment forecast, released in early April, had projected a growth rate of 1.9%, implying an addition of nearly 280,000 jobs and a significant upswing from earlier estimates for the year. The latest forecast, released on Friday, implies an addition of around 206,000 jobs. “Texas employment growth slowed sharply in February,” Luis Torres, a Dallas Fed senior economist, said in a statement, “and year-to-date growth is now more aligned with earlier forecasts for 2026.”

Those figures, though, are the midpoints on a wider statistical range the bank’s modeling system projected. Even a few weeks ago — after the unexpectedly rosy 1.9% projection — researchers were cautioning that they expected the year-end number to land closer to the low point of the range because of several more lasting economic challenges, especially labor market constraints stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Torres reiterated that sentiment with the release of the new projection. “Given several headwinds, our expectations are for this year’s growth to come in at the lower end of the forecast’s confidence band, at around 1.0 percent,” he said in the release. “Declining immigration is constraining labor supply, and higher productivity is suppressing labor demand.” State business activity, meanwhile, has recently moderated, the bank’s monthly surveys of executives around the state have shown, and labor demand has been low. In February, the information, manufacturing and professional and business services sectors recorded jobs gains, the Dallas Fed’s report noted, while trade and transportation, other services and oil and gas all notched employment losses. Construction and education and health services also recorded job losses — representing a reversal from those sectors’ recent solid gains.

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State legislators tour Camp Mystic to learn more about July 4 flood

State legislators who serve on special committees investigating the July 4 flash flood that devastated the Texas Hill Country toured Camp Mystic on Monday to get a better understanding of where and how 25 children and two counselors were swept to their deaths during the disaster. It marked the first time the Texas Senate and House investigating committees visited the privately operated Christian camp for girls, located on the south fork of the Guadalupe River near the village of Hunt, about 18 miles southwest of Kerrville. The committees’ meeting agenda said media was not allowed to accompany the legislators on the tour due to a restraining order restricting access to the site.

The order stems from a lawsuit filed by one flooding victim’s parents against Camp Mystic, some members of the Eastland family who own and operate the camp and other parties. The tour followed a withering court hearing last week that explored Camp Mystic directors' delay in responding to alerts and warnings about the approaching flash flood and their flawed evacuation effort. The Senate committee is examining the circumstances surrounding the July 4 flash flood in the Texas Hill Country, including actions that were taken at youth summer camps. The House committee is looking into factors contributing to the devastation at Camp Mystic and will identify steps to strengthen the state’s preparedness and response to flooding and other natural disasters. The committees are expected to issue a report on their findings this summer. The Texas Department of State Health Services also is investigating Camp Mystic, examining whether directors broke any laws in their response to the July 4 flood. The agency also is exploring rules governing youth camps. The agency has received more than 600 complaints and requests to not renew Camp Mystic’s state license this year, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said.

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

Key moments from Kevin Warsh’s congressional testimony

Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, fielded questions at his confirmation hearing Tuesday about his commitment to an independent monetary policy, his pre-nomination argument that AI-driven productivity gains would give the central bank room to cut interest rates and his plans to divest more than $100 million in financial holdings he has declined to fully disclose. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) used her opening statement to brand Warsh as both a “sock puppet” for Trump and an opportunist whose views on rates have tracked the availability of the Fed chairmanship rather than the state of the economy. When her questioning turn came, she tried to force Warsh to prove she was wrong. He mostly declined to play. “Independence takes courage. Let’s check out your independence and your courage,” she said before asking if Trump lost the 2020 election. Warsh wouldn’t answer directly. “I’m just asking you a factual question,” she said. “I need to measure your independence and your courage.”

After Warren tried a third time, Warsh pivoted, pointing to how the Fed had sowed the seeds of a “huge inflation problem” that year. Warren’s point was that a Fed chair who can’t bring himself to state plain facts that might displease the president who nominated him isn’t going to stand up to that president when it matters. It was a theme Democrats returned to throughout the hearing. Asked by committee chairman Tim Scott (R., S.C.) about how he would address affordability, Warsh provided a stiff indictment of the institution he hopes to lead. “The Fed missed its mark,” he said. “The fatal policy error” of 2021 and 2022 “is still a legacy that we’re dealing with.” What he said is needed now is “a regime change in the conduct of policy,” which he said includes a new inflation framework, new tools and a new approach to communicating its messages. It was just the opening salvo of a sustained critique that ran through the hearing. Warsh described the institution as one that has “lost its way,” that “wandered outside of its remit” and that is “in the business of politics” because of its own choices. He mocked “FedNow,” a real-time payments network the central bank launched several years ago, by calling it “Fed Yesterday.” He was no gentler on the culture. Warsh said he preferred “messier meetings” where “people don’t show up with rehearsed scripts,” a critique aimed squarely at how the Federal Open Market Committee now operates. He complained that “too many Fed officials past and present opine in advance about where they think interest rates should be,” a shot at the forward-guidance practice that has defined Fed communication for more than a decade.

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State Stories

Federal court of appeals rules in favor of Texas' Ten Commandments law

A federal appeals court has ruled against a number of Texas families who sought to block school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. In a split opinion filed Tuesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state of Texas and reversed a ruling by a federal judge that prohibited some Texas schools from displaying the Ten Commandments. "Yes, Plaintiffs have sincere religious disagreements with its content," Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote for the nine-judge majority. "But that does not transform the poster into a summons to prayer." Senate Bill 10, which was passed into law last year, requires public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

Several families, both from religious and nonreligious backgrounds, brought the lawsuit against a number of Texas school districts, including Plano ISD, in July 2025. A federal judge in August issued a preliminary injunction temporarily preventing the school districts named in the case from displaying the Ten Commandments. Tuesday's opinion reversed that injunction. The ACLU of Texas, which is representing the families in the case, said in a statement that it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse Tuesday's decision. "The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction," the statement said. "This decision tramples those rights." The districts, represented by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office, appealed the preliminary injunction. Paxton asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to evaluate the case along with a challenge to a similar law in Louisiana and the court heard arguments in January. According to the Associated Press, the court ruled in February that it was too soon to decide the constitutionality of the Louisiana law. In a social media post, Paxton called the opinion a "major victory for Texas and our moral values." "The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day," he said.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

Cornyn slams Paxton over sex offender's 'sweetheart deal' in Texas US Senate race

Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's campaign is lashing out at his Texas runoff opponent over a "sweetheart deal" for a sex offender. Adam Hoffman, a lawyer in Waco, Texas, was facing a life sentence for the sexual abuse of a child that lasted three years. Attorney General Ken Paxton, however, reduced the charges last week so that Hoffman will serve only 30 days in jail and will not be required to register as a sex offender, according to reporting from KWTX in Waco. The initial plea offered by Paxton's office would not have required Hoffman to serve additional jail time, but it was rejected by the judge.

“Crooked Ken Paxton took a horrific first degree felony case and reduced it down to two class A misdemeanors, initially suggesting it would accept no additional jail time,” said Cornyn campaign senior advisor Matt Mackowiak in a news release. “A child was sexually abused for three years, and Ken Paxton thinks that should be a misdemeanor with no jail time and no requirement to register as a sex offender." "This is one of the most outrageous examples of leniency towards a violent criminal in modern Texas history," he added. "The only person (in) Texas that thinks this sentence is appropriate is Ken Paxton.” As has been the case throughout the U.S. Senate race in Texas, Paxton did not respond to a request for comment. Paxton is set to face Cornyn in the May 26 Republican primary runoff for a U.S. Senate seat. Despite Cornyn's continuous efforts to highlight Paxton's failures, both professionally and personally, Paxton continues to swing polls in his favor. The winner of the Republican runoff will face Democrat state Rep. James Talarico in the November 3 General Election.

Read this article at El Paso Times - Subscribers Only

UT announces new Dell Medical Center, research campus after $750 million gift

After a historic $750 million gift from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, The University of Texas at Austin’s future hospital has a name: The UT Dell Medical Center. It will be part of the newly announced UT Dell Campus for Advanced Research, which will focus on clinical care and research in combination with advanced computing and artificial intelligence. At a press conference Tuesday, the Dells, along with state and university officials, emphasized the opportunity to build a world-class university medical center that integrates modern technology from the ground up. “By bringing together medicine, science and computing in one campus designed for the AI era, UT can create more opportunity, deliver better outcomes, and build a stronger future for communities across Texas and beyond,” said Michael and Susan Dell in a news release.

The Dells' gift is one of the largest ever given to a United States university, and the couple are now the first donors to surpass $1 billion in lifetime giving to UT Austin. They were also integral in launching the university’s medical school — also named for the Dells — with a $50 million donation in 2013. In addition to the new university hospital and research campus, the Dells’ latest investment will also support undergraduate scholarships, student housing and UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center. Michael Dell, a UT alumnus, joked at the press conference that his parents had sent him to the university decades ago to become a doctor — a plan that "got derailed" when he founded Dell Technologies from his dorm in the Dobie residence hall. "So far, it's worked out," Dell said. "But Susan and I never lost our connection to medicine and our belief that this university can do great things for this community." That dorm building is now set to be renamed "Dell House," UT officials announced. Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti, dean of the Dell Medical School, said the Dells’ gift represents "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to define what the future of health should look like." “We are building an integrated, patient-centered model powered by AI and advanced technology that shifts the focus from treating sickness to advancing health itself through prevention, prediction and precision,” Lucchinetti said. “This will transform how we care for patients, how we train the next generation of physicians, and how we accelerate life science innovation to improve lives at scale.”

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Dallas County canceled Domingo Garcia's voter registration, saying he died. Still alive, he's working to get it reinstated.

Dallas attorney and politician Domingo Garcia is sounding the alarm about potential voter suppression now that he's received a letter from Dallas County Elections telling him that his own voter registration has been canceled. The letter, signed by Dallas County Elections Administrator Paul Adams, says Garcia's voter registration is canceled as of April 10, 2026. The letter cites Section 16.031(a) of the Texas Election Code, which, according to the Texas Secretary of State's Office, includes registrations canceled due to death or mental incapacity, or someone identified as registered to vote in a different county or state. Garcia says he has been told that the state informed Dallas County that he was dead.

"I sent a letter requesting that I have a hearing over the next 10 days to prove that I'm alive and that I should be reinstated," Garcia told WFAA. "You know, too many people have fought. And whether it was women during suffrage or Hispanics and Blacks through the civil rights movement to have that right to vote and for it to be just taken away, via letter, that's just not right. And we're going to make sure it doesn't happen to me, and it does happen to any other Texan or American." "And I'm just wondering how many other votes are getting these letters without the proper protocol," Garcia said. "And we're just trying to get the word out in case other people are facing similar problems like mine." He says several people have contacted him after his social media post, indicating that they are in similar situations. Garcia says he has voted in every election since 1976, when he was 18 years old, and voted in the most recent March primaries. In a statement, the Secretary of State's Office said, "We are reviewing this case to determine what may have caused the issue. Our office is not currently doing any large-scale voter list maintenance." The Secretary of State's Office also said that voters can check their registration with the "Am I Registered" tool on VoteTexas.gov. "If a voter is mistakenly removed, they can notify the voter registrar, and their registration will be reinstated with immediate effect," the office said. WFAA has also reached out to Dallas County Elections for comment.

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Cuban says ‘no’ when asked if he wants Harris to run for president in 2028

Investor Mark Cuban on Tuesday said “no” when asked if he wants to see former Vice President Kamala Harris run for president in the 2028 election. Cuban was once one of Harris’s surrogates in 2024 when she ran against President Trump. But at Politico’s Health Care Summit on Tuesday, when asked by Politico’s senior executive editor Alexander Burns what Harris’s message on health care was, Cuban added, “Don’t remember, don’t care.” “Those days are gone,” he said. “… I don’t care at this point in time. Right now, we’ve got until 2028. I don’t care who the candidates are. I’m not trying to pick a candidate. I’m not trying to promote a candidate. I’m trying to change how f—ed up this health care industry is right now, and that’s all I care about.”

When Burns pressed Cuban further about his “no” answer, Cuban replied, “There’s time for a lot of new s— right now.” The former “Shark Tank” star said he was open to supporting a Republican supportive of Trump and of the president’s Department of Health and Human Services, citing lowering drug prices and speeding up drug trials. Cuban referred to legislation co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that would crack down on health care conglomerates that own multiple parts of the industry. “Until you break those companies up and make them divest their non-insurance assets, they own your health care,” Cuban said, later telling the Federal Trade Commission to “do your job.” He praised the possibility of an independent running on a health care affordability platform, but dismissed any possibility he would run a campaign on that platform, adding that “it won’t be me.”

Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only

TCEQ can withhold documents related to cancer-causing emissions for now, Texas Supreme Court rules

Texas' top environmental regulator does not have to produce thousands of documents related to carcinogenic emissions limits after the agency was accused of delaying their release, the Texas Supreme Court ruled. In its ruling, the high court reversed a decision that found the Texas Commissioner on Environmental Quality violated a deadline to ask the attorney general’s office whether more than 6,000 files could be withheld after a public records request from the Sierra Club, and environmental nonprofit. The court found the commission didn't blow the deadline for two reasons: The commission put its request to the attorney general's office in "interagency mail" within the timeframe, and TCEQ reset the 10-day period by sending an email to the Sierra Club for clarification on their information request.

Justices Brett Busby and Debra Lehrmann dissented. While the ruling doesn't end the case — a trial court must now decide whether or not the files are protected from being released at all — the nonprofit said the decision was a disappointing. "While it's not a total loss because they're remanding it back to another court, it certainly isn't the ruling we were looking for," said Cyrus Reed, the legislative and conservation director for the Texas chapter of the Sierra Club. The case dates back to 2019, after the commission requested the Environmental Protection Agency raise the limit for how much ethylene oxide can be emitted into the environment. Ethylene oxide is a colorless gas used mainly to make other chemicals like antifreeze, according to the National Cancer Institute. In small quantities it is used as a pesticide and sterilizing agent. The Sierra Club requested documents related to how TCEQ determined the ethylene oxide emissions limit could be raised.

Read this article at KERA - Subscribers Only

Cruz: Schumer will shut down government weeks before midterms

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) predicted Tuesday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) would shut down the government shortly before this year’s midterms. “On Sept. 30, funding for the federal government will end. Chuck Schumer is not a creative guy, he’s not hard to predict. Last year, right before the election, what did Schumer do? He shut the whole government down, and the Democrats believe that shutdown helped them politically, and it benefited them in New Jersey and Virginia,” Cruz said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” referencing a shutdown surrounding health care issues that lasted more than a month. “I will wager, right now, $100, that Schumer intends — on Oct. 1 — to do the same thing, to shut the whole federal government down for a month, so that on Election Day … the government is shut down, you have four-hour lines again in airports, and the Democrats can say, ‘See, the Republicans are in charge, they don’t know what they’re doing,’” he added.

Republicans are facing a rocky road to the midterms, with issues such as low approval ratings for President Trump, concerns around affordability and dissatisfaction with the recent U.S. conflict against Iran dogging the GOP as it approaches November. According to a polling average from Decision Desk HQ, Trump’s approval rating is sitting at 40.8 percent, while his disapproval is at 56.3 percent. Earlier this month, former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany warned that the upcoming midterms “will be hard” for the GOP. “Not to put too rosy a picture on it though, midterms will be hard for Republicans. It’s just historically difficult to win when you’re in power, but I would like my odds more with this president than prior presidents,” she said on “Fox & Friends Weekend.” During his CNBC interview, Cruz also discussed the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warning on Tuesday that the department is going to be unable to pay out employee salaries beginning early next month. The Hill has reached out to Schumer’s office for comment.

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Texas lawmaker targets JetBlue over alleged customer spying claims

The internet is in an uproar after viral posts raised questions about a major airline's pricing methods—prompting one Texas congressman to act. On April 18, an X user known as NuggetSince94 said the price of a JetBlue flight jumped by $230 in just a 24-hour timeframe. "I love flying @JetBlue but a $230 increase on a ticket after one day is crazy," NuggetSince94 wrote. "I’m just trying (to) make it to a funeral." In a now deleted comment, JetBlue replied: "Try clearing your cache and cookies or booking with an incognito window. We're sorry for your loss." Screenshots of the exchange quickly spread online, alleging that the sixth-largest airline in the U.S. quietly admitted to surveillance pricing—or dynamic, algorithmic pricing based on personalized data.

"Crazy, Did JetBlue just admit to raising prices when they know you're tracking the price?" one user wrote. In response to Chron's request for comment, JetBlue said the reply from the JetBlue's crewmember on social media was incorrect, and apologized for the "error." "JetBlue fares on JetBlue.com and our mobile app are not determined by cached data or other personal information," the company wrote. "Pricing is based on real-time availability and is managed through our reservation system. Fares can change at any moment as seats are purchased or as inventory is adjusted based on demand, and are not guaranteed until a purchase is completed." However, this is not the only post that has garnered widespread attention. On Feb. 23, a user named Sarah Zimmermann posted on X, complaining that she was unable to buy points on the JetBlue website during a limited-time special deal and received an error message.

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Texas AG sues California kratom retailers for selling products he says violate state law

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued two California-based online kratom companies for allegedly selling products to Texans that contain an illegal amount of a controlled substance, he announced Tuesday. The lawsuit, filed in Collin County district court last week, accuses Pure Leaf Kratom and Outcast Distribution of selling products that contain nearly 50 times the legal limit of 7-hydroxymitragynine — also known as 7-OH — an alkaloid found in kratom products the suit says can cause life-threatening symptoms or even be fatal when chemically manipulated. “I will not allow California-based companies to illegally ship their potentially deadly substances into Texas,” Paxton wrote in a statement. “Synthetic kratom products can be incredibly dangerous, and my office will continue to work to protect Texas consumers from the harms of adulterated kratom products.”

KERA News has reached out to Pure Leaf Kratom and Outcast Distribution for comment and will update this story with any response. It comes about two months after Paxton sued North Texas kratom retailers operating under the name Smokey’s Paradise in Midlothian. An Ellis County judge granted the state a temporary injunction last week preventing Smokey’s from selling kratom products. Kratom is a leafy plant that can be consumed in capsule or powder form or mixed into food or drinks, producing opioid-like effects, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The Food and Drug Administration has not approved kratom for any use, but some people use it to manage drug withdrawal symptoms and cravings. In 2023, state lawmakers passed the Texas Kratom Consumer Health and Safety Protection Act. It limits the 7-OH level of any kratom product to 2% of the product's total alkaloid content and bans synthetic alkaloids.

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Arlington approves $273M deal to keep Dallas Cowboys in city through 2055

The Arlington City Council voted Tuesday, April 21, to approve a $273 million agreement to keep the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. The Cowboys’ lease of the stadium, enacted after a voter-approved ballot measure and extended for one year during the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to run until 2040 with an option to extend toward the end of the lease. Under that lease, the city owns AT&T Stadium, but the Cowboys take care of the maintenance and upkeep. Arlington paid $325 million for the construction of the stadium, with the rest financed by the Cowboys. Under the agreement approved on Tuesday, the Cowboys would extend their lease for another 15 years and invest at least $750 million into “maintenance, operation, and improvement of the complex” through 2055, while the city of Arlington would invest that $273 million over a 20-year period into a “maintenance and operation account.”

When voters approved the city’s contribution to AT&T Stadium in 2004, they also agreed to pay a half-cent sales tax increase, a 2% hotel room tax, and a 5% rental car tax. Those taxes allowed the city to pay back its debt 10 years early. In 2016, Arlington voters also approved a ballot measure to give $500 million in tax revenue to fund a new Texas Rangers stadium. The council approved the proposal 7-2, with District 3 council member Nikkie Hunter and District 7 council member Bowie Hogg voting against it. Hogg previously told the Star-Telegram that although the deal would be a positive outcome for the city, he wanted the council to debate whether voters should have the right to re-approve it, as they did in 2016. Local business owners told council members that the Cowboys bring vital money and visitors to the downtown corridor.

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

Gateway Church founder officially registered as sex offender in Palo Pinto County

Former Gateway Church senior pastor Robert Morris is officially registered as a sex offender, according to online records from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Morris was released last month from an Oklahoma prison after serving six months on charges related to his sexual abuse of Cindy Clemishire in the 1980s. The former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump is registered and serving his probation in Palo Pinto County, where he owns a lakefront property on Possum Kingdom Lake, according to the online records. Morris will be required to verify his registration quarterly for the rest of his life.

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

Texas agriculture commissioner candidate calls for moratorium on data centers

Dozens of communities across the state have been pushing back against data centers, and farmers are weighing in. Concerns continue to grow over the amount of water these projects require. Spectrum News has reported on county judges pushing for moratoriums to limit the growth of data centers. Now, the Texas Farmers Union is also calling for a halt to data center growth. Texas farmers say they’ve been enduring many hardships, particularly over the past five years. Between higher production costs and low commodity prices, many have not been able to break even. With data centers popping up throughout the state, some are worried these projects could exacerbate the problems affecting the already strained industry. “I love the business,” said Clayton Tucker, a rancher in Lampasas. “I love being with the animals. I just don’t love the economic situation.”

Seeing the challenges farmers have been facing led Tucker to run for agriculture commissioner. He’s the Democratic nominee on November’s ticket, and the data center boom in Texas is one of his top issues. “We are calling for a full moratorium on all data center construction in Texas,” Tucker said during a news conference while representing the Texas Farmers Union. He is particularly concerned about the amount of water data centers require, and with droughts already affecting Texas farmers, he fears these projects could strain the industry even more. “On day one, I will start issuing ag impact studies to slow them down, to gunk them up and to really put the brakes on them because we need to study what’s actually going on,” Tucker said. His opponent, Republican candidate Nate Sheets, points to other factors he says are affecting farmers more than data centers. “As it relates to agriculture in Texas, the real issue that I feel is the greater issue than just the encroachment of data centers, is the continued loss of agriculture in Texas due to the consolidation in agriculture,” Sheets said.

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RGV leaders mourn banking pioneer Robert C. ‘Bobby’ Norman

Valued McAllen Economic Board Of Directors member Robert C. “Bobby” Norman died unexpectedly on Tuesday, April 14. Norman is described by his colleagues as a pioneer who was committed to advancing economic opportunity in McAllen and the broader Rio Grande Valley region. He was a mentor, a friend, and a warm, but also a strategic, teaching leader. In addition to his service to the McAllen Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), Norman dedicated 30 years of his life to developing banking and business in South Texas. The impact of his knowledgeable perspective will be a lasting fixture in his passing, as Rio Grande Valley leaders look back on his teachings.

Norman’s community minded work reached many corners of the Valley, from Mission to Weslaco to McAllen. He served on the boards of the Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce, Mission Boys & Girls Club, the McAllen Foreign Trade Zone, and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Development Board. In addition, he served as both a board member and the chairman of Mission Regional Medical Center and South Texas Higher Education Authority, Inc. A community staple, according to Suarez, Norman was the reason many bankers came to McAllen, highlighting the profound and lasting mark he left on the local finance world. “You could ask him anything and he really would give you a good opinion, good advice, and he was great at listening and trying to understand different points of view,” she recounted. Suarez believes Norman will go down in McAllen history as a community leader that led the Chamber of Commerce and MEDC through a transition that left them in full alignment with the city. As a result of this, a flurry of opportunities continue to rise. He’s recognized as a key player in the ongoing development of a $225 million Valeo manufacturing plant within the city.

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A TPUSA tour stop triggered a pro-LGBTQ event at Baylor. Then came the Baptist blowback.

When the conservative political group Turning Point USA scheduled a campus tour stop at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, for Wednesday (April 22), organizers advertised it as “a chance to honor Charlie’s mission” and as a venue for enacting free speech. But though free speech was part of their program, TPUSA, which was led by activist Charlie Kirk until his assassination in September, probably didn’t expect to be the catalyst for an event welcoming LGBTQ activists to speak at the Christian university. The competing event, called “All Are Neighbors,” is the result of grassroots activism from progressive student leaders. “They’re (TPUSA) pushing a message that is aligned with Christian nationalism,” said J.W. LaStrape, president of Baylor’s College Democrats chapter. “We’re going to push back on it by celebrating the marginalized folks that the Christian nationalist vision excludes.”

Baylor has maintained that hosting the duel events is part of its commitment to open discussion and said the events will be aligned with institutional policies. “Historically, Baylor has opened its doors to a wide range of student-invited speakers with differing viewpoints on theology, politics, research and many other subjects,” a spokesperson told RNS in a statement, adding that Baylor doesn’t “institutionally endorse” the views of event speakers. But the events have generated controversy among stakeholders, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas, a group of Texas churches that announced Friday they would be reviewing their historic relationship with the university. Event participants told RNS the tensions surrounding the events are emblematic of larger religious and political trends. “It’s two very different visions of the future, and (of) what is possible, and the kind of America, as well as college campuses that we want,” said the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance who is speaking at the “All Are Neighbors” event.

Read this article at Religion News Service - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Iran seizes ships in Strait of Hormuz after Trump extends ceasefire

Iran attacked three ships in the Strait of Hormuz this morning, saying its Revolutionary Guard seized two of them and further inflaming tensions over the key waterway. It comes after U.S. forces seized an Iranian ship and boarded a tanker linked to Tehran’s oil trade. President Donald Trump said last night that he was extending the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely so its leaders “can come up with a unified proposal,” but that the naval blockade Tehran considers an act of war will continue. The truce was set to expire today, and Trump had vowed not to extend it.

Trump said he was prolonging the ceasefire until peace talks have reached a conclusion one way or another. Vice President JD Vance had been expected to lead a delegation to Pakistan, but a second round of negotiations is now uncertain. Iran’s forensics chief said nearly 3,400 people had been killed in the country since U.S.-Israeli strikes began Feb. 28. More than 2,200 people have been killed in Lebanon, 32 have been killed in Gulf states, and 23 have died in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed, and two more died of noncombat causes.

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Justice Department charges Southern Poverty Law Center with fraud over investigations into extremist groups, Blanche says

A federal grand jury in Alabama indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts of wire and bank fraud-related charges on Tuesday, the Justice Department announced, accusing the group of paying members of extremist groups as part of its efforts to investigate them without disclosing the practice to donors or banks. The SPLC has denied the allegations. "The SPLC is a nonprofit entity that purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement groups with the goal of dismantling these groups," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference announcing the charges. "The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred."

Blanche said the group was charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The SPLC is a nonprofit that tracks white supremacist and other hate groups across the U.S., and has been a frequent target of President Trump's allies. It is best known for its work investigating the Ku Klux Klan. The charges came hours after the center's interim president and CEO Bryan Fair said in a video that the organization was being investigated by the Justice Department in connection with a now-defunct program that used paid confidential informants to infiltrate far-right groups. Blanche said the paid informant program at the Southern Poverty Law Center went through at least 2023. He also claimed that the investigation into the group started years ago, but was shuttered during President Joe Biden's term, until the Trump administration revived it.

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D.H.S. will run out of money for paychecks in May, secretary says

Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said on Tuesday that his department would run out of money to pay employees the first week of May if Congress failed to reach a deal to reopen the department. “The money is going extremely fast,” Mr. Mullin said during an interview with “Fox & Friends.” “The president can’t do another executive order for us to use money, because there’s no more money there.” Missed paychecks could renew chaos at airports as lawmakers remain divided over a deal to end the two-month shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

The threat of them also ramps up political pressure on Congress to unlock funding, which had eased after President Trump signed memos calling on his administration to use existing money to pay all department employees, including Transportation Security Administration officers. Mr. Mullin said the money to fund paychecks was drawn from a portion of Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which gave the department more than $170 billion over four years to carry out the president’s immigration crackdown. But he said that payroll costs were amounting to more than $1.6 billion every two weeks, and that available funding for salaries would dry up after this month. The dysfunction has frustrated many department employees who have been dealing with financial uncertainty since the shutdown began. More than 90 percent of the department’s roughly 260,000 workers are considered essential, meaning that most employees continue to work without pay.

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Patel gets in shouting match with reporter as he defends job performance

FBI Director Kash Patel got into a shouting match with a reporter amid questions over his job performance following an explosive article from The Atlantic alleging excessive alcohol use by the director. The outlet reported that while in charge of the bureau, Patel has consumed alcohol “to the point of obvious intoxication” in front of White House officials and other Trump administration staff. On multiple occasions within the past year, the article said, members of his security detail have also “had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated.” Patel fielded a number of questions about the article in his first appearance before the Justice Department press corps since its publication. “I can say unequivocally that I never listen to the fake news mafia, and as when they get louder, it just means I’m doing my job,” he said.

When asked about video showing Patel partying and drinking with the U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team, he said, “I’m on the job. I’m the first one in. I’m the last one out. I’m like an everyday American who loves his country, loves the sport of hockey, and champions my friends when they raise a gold medal and invite me in to celebrate. I’ve never been intoxicated on the job, and that is why we filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit. And any one of you that wants to participate, bring it on, I’ll see you in court.” Patel then erupted at a reporter who narrowed in on a specific detail of the story mentioning that at one point the director was unable to log into FBI systems. The Atlantic reported that Patel “panicked, frantically” as he believed his job to be in jeopardy. Patel claimed Tuesday that the detail was untrue, though his $250 million defamation suit against The Atlantic confirms he had “had a routine technical problem logging into a government system.” Patel was asked by NBC’s Ryan Reilly what he was thinking on the day he was unable to log in to his government computer. “The problem with you and your baseless reporting is that is an absolute lie. It was never said. It never happened. And I will serve in this administration as long as the president and the attorney general want me to do so,” Patel said, telling Reilly, “you are off topic.”

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CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits

A report showing the efficacy of the covid-19 vaccine that was previously delayed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been blocked from being published in the agency’s flagship scientific journal, according to three people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The report showed that the vaccine reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter. The move, which has not been previously reported, has raised concerns among current and former officials that information about the vaccine’s benefits is being downplayed because they conflict with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been an outspoken critic of the shots. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda has received pointed questioning from lawmakers during budget hearings that began last week and conclude Wednesday.

The Washington Post reported two weeks ago that Jay Bhattacharya, who is temporarily overseeing the CDC, delayed publication of the report over concerns about methodology. The report had been scheduled for publication March 19 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In recent days, a decision was made that the report would not be published, according to two of the people who spoke to The Post. Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, confirmed the delay two weeks ago. At that time, he said it was “routine for CDC leadership to review and flag concerns about MMWR papers, especially relating to their methodology, leading up to planned publication.” Nixon said that Bhattacharya had raised concerns about “the observational method used in the study to calculate vaccine effectiveness” and that the scientific team was working to address them. Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, is leading the CDC while Erica Schwartz, a top health official during President Donald Trump’s first term, awaits Senate confirmation. On Tuesday, Nixon described the decision differently: “The MMWR’s editorial assessment identified concerns regarding the methodological approach to estimating vaccine effectiveness and the manuscript was not accepted for publication,” a characterization that differs from accounts by people familiar with the report’s review.

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Indicted Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigns from Congress amid expulsion threat

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., announced Tuesday she is resigning from the House of Representatives after Republicans vowed to force a vote to expel her from the chamber. "Rather than play these political games, I choose to step away so I can devote my time to fighting for my neighbors in Florida's 20th District," she wrote on social media Tuesday afternoon. "I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately." "This fight is far from over," Cherfilus-McCormick, who was indicted by a grand jury last year for allegedly stealing COVID-19 emergency funds, added in her statement. She is facing 53 years in prison as part of a separate criminal indictment.

Cherfilus-McCormick’s abrupt announcement came after Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., pledged to file a motion to expel her, teeing up a vote later this week. It takes two-thirds of the House to remove a lawmaker, but a growing number of Democrats have voiced support for the expulsion effort. It also came just minutes prior to a House Ethics Committee hearing that was slated to recommend sanctions against her for committing a bevy of violations involving financial misconduct. House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., announced the panel lost jurisdiction with Cherfilus-Mccormick's eleventh-hour decision to quit Congress. The committee panel found "clear and convincing evidence" in March that the Florida Democrat misused federal disaster relief money that was improperly paid to her family’s healthcare company, among other misconduct.

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Johnson touts ‘bipartisan’ path for FISA reauthorization, but obstacles remain

Speaker Mike Johnson is raising the possibility of a “bipartisan” path forward on extending a key spy authority after negotiations among House Republicans blew up late last week. “We’re confident that we’ll be able to find strong bipartisan consensus that builds off of the really meaningful reforms that we included in the legislation the last time we reauthorized it,” Johnson said during a news conference Tuesday morning. The emergency short-term reauthorization Congress cleared last week expires April 30, putting pressure on lawmakers to reach a deal quickly. Among the options GOP leaders are discussing: If the Senate can advance a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with policy changes, the House could then pass it with a majority of Republicans and some Democrats, according to three people granted anonymity to share direct knowledge of ongoing conversations.

It’s also possible Johnson could put that measure on the House floor under an expedited procedure that does not require prior adoption of a party-line rule, but would need a two-thirds majority voting in the affirmative to secure passage. House GOP leaders still need to appease hard-liners who have very specific demands for new guardrails on warrentless surveillance practices as part of any reauthorization measure. House Democratic leaders, meanwhile, aren’t promising cooperation — and they’re skeptical Johnson is as close to a deal as he might suggest. “His confidence meter was always pretty high, and then he put a bill on the floor that had zero consensus among his caucus, and looked like the disaster that it was after midnight,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California told reporters Tuesday. He added that he has not had “any discussions” yet with Republican counterparts on next steps for Section 702, and “absent those conversations, it’s going to be hard to find bipartisan consensus.” Aguilar also said that Democrats would follow the leads of House Intelligence Chair Jim Himes of Connecticut and Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Johnson is planning to meet Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Darin LaHood of Illinois later Tuesday as the pair of Republicans works with Democrats on a bipartisan FISA extension plan, according to two people granted anonymity to share private scheduling.

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Lead Stories

What we learned from a secret deposition of Ken Paxton

In 2019, hostile attorneys questioned Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton about his conduct as a lawyer: Had he turned over a former client’s communications to an attorney suing that client? Paxton acknowledged that he had, one of the nuggets in an old deposition, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, that sheds new light on his legal behavior, past business dealings and blind trust that has shielded his rapidly expanded assets. Paxton, a prominent conservative firebrand, is seeking to unseat Sen. John Cornyn in an ugly Republican primary showdown set for a May runoff. Cornyn has sought to showcase past Paxton controversies, including abuse-of-office accusations by top aides, an impeachment and later acquittal and securities-fraud charges resolved with a pretrial deal. Paxton denied wrongdoing in each of the situations and has accused Cornyn of not adequately supporting President Trump’s agenda. Paxton’s campaign and lawyer protested the Journal’s reporting on the deposition, calling it out of context and a violation of a court order.

A spokesman for Paxton, Nick Maddux, called the Journal’s reporting “blatant lies” but didn’t offer specifics. “The Wall Street Journal has spent the last year bending over backward to be an extension of the Cornyn campaign, but this one takes the cake,” Maddux said. Paxton, in his second term, was made to sit for the six-hour questioning for a lawsuit involving a falling-out between two of his former friends. Charles Loper III, trustee of Paxton’s blind trust, sued Byron Cook, a former business associate, claiming fraud by Unity Resources, an energy investment company. Paxton wasn’t a defendant in the suit, but was Unity’s former lawyer, board member and investor. The deposition marked a rare instance of Paxton being made to answer questions under oath. It remained effectively sealed when the case’s judge, a donor to Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, delayed ruling on its sealing for more than four years until the case was settled in 2023. Attorneys pressed Paxton on having given Unity records to his own attorney Mitch Little—who was also representing Loper in suing Unity—but not to Unity itself. “I’m sure I did,” Paxton said of giving the communications to Little, saying that he had done so to see if they were privileged. Legal ethics experts declined to read the deposition because it is under a protective order, but said giving former client communications to anyone—especially someone suing the client—is a violation of attorney-client privilege. And, records belong to the client and can’t be withheld, they said. “That’s a violation on his part on two counts,” said Randy Johnston, a Dallas lawyer specializing in legal malpractice.

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Paxton sues ActBlue, alleging it allowed illegal donations to Democrat

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the national Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue on Monday, accusing it of allowing fraudulent and foreign donations through its system. The suit alleges the platform – which raised more than half a million dollars in the first three months of this year – knowingly permitted untraceable prepaid cards and “straw donations,” and misled investigators about safeguards meant to block illegal contributions. Leaders at the platform, which has processed more than $16 billion in donations since it launched in 2004, denied any wrongdoing and called the suit “a thinly veiled attempt to distract from Ken Paxton’s numerous legal and ethical issues ahead of next month’s runoff.” Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn are in a heated GOP runoff May 26, with the winner taking on Democratic nominee James Talarico in November.

Foreign political donations are barred in American elections, and Paxton suggested those who favor candidates supported by ActBlue are complicit in efforts to circumvent laws and ethics around secret donations. “The radical left has relied on ActBlue as a way to funnel foreign donations and dark money into their political campaigns to subvert our laws,” Paxton said in a statement. “ActBlue…has blatantly ignored state law that prohibits deceptive practices.”ActBlue spokesperson De'Andra Roberts-LaBoo disputed that, saying: “Our platform has done more than any other, regardless of party, to prevent improper donations and protect donors. Full stop.” The filing in Tarrant County is the latest in a string of legal actions by Paxton on partisan and consumer protection issues.

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Stock of Rick Perry-backed Fermi sinks as CEO exits

Fermi Inc. plunged more than 20% Monday after a management shakeup that included the abrupt departure of its chief executive officer, potentially threatening its plans to build the world’s biggest private power grid for a data-center campus. The company co-founded by former US Energy Secretary Rick Perry is developing an AI campus in Texas that would initially be powered by natural gas, with plans to add as many as four nuclear reactors. But Fermi has been dogged by challenges in recent months, including the loss of a key anchor tenant for the site. Those issues have now been compounded by the exit of co-founder and CEO Toby Neugebauer, along with the company’s chief financial officer. Changes at the top indicate “there was friction between customers and Mr. Neugebauer, and negotiations could be simpler going forward,” Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Stephen Gengaro said in a note.

Fermi is seeking to capitalize on booming power demand from data centers running artificial intelligence. Initial designs for its Project Matador site near Amarillo called for delivering as much as 11 gigawatts of gas, nuclear and solar power. In March, the company said it secured additional land to expand that to as much as 17 gigawatts. Lining up tenants will be critical to keeping the project on track. Fermi said in December that a potential user had terminated a $150 million deal. Fermi shares tumbled as much as 23% on Monday, the most intraday since March 30 when the company said on an earnings conference call that it still hadn’t signed up customers. Fermi slumped 69% as of Friday since last year’s initial public offering, reducing the company’s market value to about $4.1 billion. “Fermi’s ability to ink a contract from hyperscalers who are scrambling to secure scarce available power has been perplexing,” Gengaro wrote in the research note. “Some potential customers could be taking a ‘prove-it-to-me’ approach to Fermi’s power campus.”

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Trump says he’s ‘highly unlikely’ to extend fragile Iran ceasefire as clock ticks down

President Donald Trump said that it’s “highly unlikely” he will extend the current U.S.-Iran ceasefire, which is set to end on Wednesday. The 2-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was reached on April 7, and went into effect the following day. Trump told Bloomberg on Monday that the ceasefire expires “Wednesday evening Washington time” and it’s “highly unlikely that I’d extend it” if no deal is reached with Iran before then. “I’m not going to be rushed into making a bad deal. We’ve got all the time in the world,” Trump also told Bloomberg. He said Iran “desperately” wants the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened, but “I’m not opening it until a deal is signed.” A U.S. delegation planned to travel to Islamabad, Pakistan, on Monday for another round of face-to-face peace talks with Iran, a source familiar with the plans told Fox News Digital.

The White House said this weekend that Vice President JD Vance will lead the delegation, joined by envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law. Trump told Bloomberg that the negotiations will take place “either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.” “There’s going to be a meeting. They want a meeting, and they should want a meeting. And it can work out well,” Trump also said to Bloomberg about Iran.

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State Stories

Roy unveils immigration bill dubbed ‘MAMDANI Act’

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Monday introduced an immigration bill he dubbed the “MAMDANI Act.” The Measures Against Marxism’s Dangerous Adherents and Noxious Islamists Act proposes amending the Immigration and Nationality Act, which dictates federal immigration law, to allow for the deportation, denaturalization, denial of citizenship or entry to any migrant that is a member of a socialist party, communist party, the Chinese Communist Party or Islamic fundamentalist party. It also proposes imposing such restrictions on any migrant who “advocates” for socialism, communism, Marxism or Islamic fundamentalism, a sweeping term that includes “writing, districting, circulating, printing, displaying, possessing, or publishing any written, electronic, or printed matter” in support of those ideologies, according to the bill’s text.

The acronym for the bill is a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), a democratic socialist who was born in Uganda and moved to the city as a child. Mamdani, who is Muslim, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018. The Hill has reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment. In a press release, Roy asked why the U.S. continues “to import people who hate us?” in reference to those who support the ideologies targeted by his bill. “Not just for the last six years, but for the last 60 years, our immigration system has been cynically used to disadvantage American workers’ competitiveness in favor of mass-importing the third world,” added the Texas Republican, who is running for state Attorney General. “This has not just led to higher crime and lower wages, but also the promulgation of hostile ideologies fundamentally opposed to American values.” “By targeting the Red-Green Alliance, this legislation deploys new tools to fight back against the Marxist and Islamist advance that has devastated Europe and has now arrived on our doorstep, especially in my home state of Texas,” he added. Under the bill, migrants who can establish that their advocacy for one of the listed ideologies occurred before they turned 14 years old are exempt from the restrictions. As for those deemed part of an “Islamic fundamentalist party,” the bill lists the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State, the Al-Nour Party, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab as falling under that category. There were an estimated 3.45 million Muslims in the U.S. as of 2017, according to the Pew Research Center. Back in October, Roy introduced the Sharia-Free America Act, which proposes preventing foreign nationals who observe Sharia law from entering the U.S. or remaining in the country.

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Richard Flowers, Houston's celebrity event planner, dies at 75

Richard Flowers had a magic touch, an unmatched eye for detail and a serendipitous last name for his chosen profession. Flowers, who became one of Houston’s most prolific event planners, died Friday morning. He was 75. Today, his business, the Events Company, is synonymous with many of the city’s toniest gatherings. It grew out of humble beginnings. Flowers got his start in the oil fields of East Texas and later moved to Houston as a partner of an oil and gas exploration venture. The year 1990 brought reinvention when Flowers became a flower shop owner. One day, Lynn Wyatt walked in. She asked if he would help her with decor for the Houston Ballet Ball. Flowers accepted, and the rest is history.

“I could walk into a ballroom or any event, and immediately tell that the room was created by none other than Richard Flowers,” Wyatt said. “From the light to the flowers to the table settings, you knew right away it had to be Richard Flowers.” Flowers meticulously planned Wyatt’s Truman Capote-themed, black-and-white 80th birthday bash, which doubled as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s 2015 Grand Gala Ball. The party was attended by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, actor Shirley MacLaine and then-Oscar de la Renta creative director Peter Copping, who also designed her dress, and was covered by Vanity Fair and Town & Country. Wyatt appeared at Flowers' side in February, when Houston Ballet Ball 2026 honored him, the Events Company and Houston First Corporation for their respective decades-long contributions to the professional dance organization. “Richard had one of the most creative minds that I’ve ever known,” Wyatt said. “He also became one of my dearest friends in life.” Stanton Welch, artistic director of Houston Ballet, met Flowers through Wyatt. Upon arriving in Houston in 2003 for his current role and attending various fundraising events across the state, whenever Welch inquired about the planner behind some of the more elaborate gatherings, the name that was often mentioned was the same.

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Hutto data center developer withdraws rezoning request, effectively ending the project

The developer of a proposed data center in Hutto has withdrawn its rezoning application with the city, effectively ceasing the project. Zydeco Development had requested the city rezone a parcel of land to allow for "heavy industrial" development for its proposed data center. The site, located on Ed Schmidt Boulevard, is currently zoned for "multi-family residential" development. Zydeco's request would have required the city to change both its future land use map and comprehensive plan. Howard Koontz, the director of development services for Hutto, recommended the city deny Zydeco's application at a public meeting on April 7.

"Our comprehensive plan reflects the community's vision for how Hutto should grow, and that vision guides how we evaluate every item that comes before us," Koontz said. "As submitted, this proposal was not consistent with that vision. Thoughtful planning is a priority for the city, and we remain open to continued dialogue." Several community members also opposed Zydeco's rezoning request, raising concerns about noise, impacts on the local power grid and possible long-term risks associated with having a data center near residential neighborhoods. Organizing through a Facebook group called "Stop the Hutto Data Center," these community members had been working to file a formal protest within the Texas Local Government Code against Zydeco and its rezoning request. If that protest was successful, Zydeco's application would have required a three-fourths supermajority vote from the Hutto City Council to move forward, rather than the usual simple majority. "This is what happens when neighbors work together and get organized," said Katie Martin, co-organizer of the group, in an email to KUT. "We will continue to be vigilant so that no other developer tries something like this in the future. We also hope to share what we’ve learned with other communities facing similar challenges. But for now, we are celebrating the success of our efforts!" KUT News reached out to Zydeco for comment, but has not heard back. It's estimated that Texas could have more data centers than anywhere in the world by 2030, and state lawmakers look to be gearing up to tackle the topic during the 2027 legislative session. Here are four takeaways from their most recent meeting.

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Harris County has a higher rate of tuberculosis than the state and the nation, report finds

Harris County leads the state in rates of tuberculosis, and has nearly double the rate of active cases compared to the rest of the county, according to a new report from Harris County Public Health released Monday. Tuberculosis, an airborne disease that affects the lungs and other parts of the body. In 1900, the disease was a leading cause of death, with 194 deaths per 100,000 people. Although tuberculosis may seem like a disease of the past, Harris County reported a rate of 5.5 active cases of tuberculosis per 100,000 people in 2024, the most recent year of data.

"Tuberculosis is a serious but preventable disease, and this report helps us better understand where and how it is impacting our community," Dr. Jo Ann Monroy, with the HCPH Office of Epidemiology, Surveillance and Emerging Diseases, said via a statement. "Our goal is to use this data to guide action, improve access to care, and protect the health of all Harris County community members." Texas had a tuberculosis rate of 4.1 per 100,000 in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Of the lower 48 states, only California and New York had higher rates — Alaska and Hawaii surpassed them all, according to the CDC. The nationwide rate of tuberculosis cases was 3.0 — nearly half that of Harris County. In 2022, the most recent year on record for the Texas Department of State Health Services, Harris County had more cases of tuberculosis than any other county. Though the rates of tuberculosis have remained stable in recent years — and are far below the rates in previous centuries — the fact that it still remains in Texas and Harris County is remarkable. Since the 1950s, the United States has had an effective treatment of the disease, which has significantly lowered rates. However, the disease still pervades across the globe. The World Health Organization reported 10.8 million people developed tuberculosis in 2023, 1.25 million of whom died.

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Georgetown election begins to decide if city will stop managing water for neighboring areas

Early voting has begun for Georgetown's May 2 election that will determine if the city will sell a portion of its public water system to a new, private water provider. The city has said it wants to sell parts of the water system that extend into neighboring cities, so it can better plan for future growth and manage rising costs. "The City of Georgetown Water Utility was created to serve city residents," Mayor Josh Schroeder said in a press release in February. "Today, our water service territory extends far outside of our city limits into the ETJs of several neighboring communities. The proposed sale would significantly reduce our long-term needs and expenses as both water and infrastructure become increasingly expensive for all Texas cities."

About 40% of Georgetown's water utility customers currently live outside the city. Those customers in Florence, Liberty Hill and Salado joined the utility's service area after the city acquired the Chisholm Trail Special Utility District in 2014. These areas are expected to rapidly develop in the coming years, and right now, Georgetown is legally obligated to provide water to residents and businesses that request service in those areas. City leaders said the utility can save hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming decades if they can sell these portions of its water service area and consequently reduce water and infrastructure needs. "The proposed sale will help stabilize rates for Georgetown residents and businesses long-term," Schroeder said. National Utility Infrastructure is the city's "preferred buyer" of the water service area it plans to put up for sale. “NUI has proven experience and the financial resources needed to secure water, build new infrastructure and stabilize rates for customers in the transferred area," City Manager David Morgan said. The city said it is prepared to provide water to NUI for up to 10 years while it establishes a water supply. "We are confident all customers will be in good hands," Morgan said. If the sale is approved by voters on May 2, the Texas Public Utility Commission would also need to give its approval before the project moved forward. That process, city leaders said, could take up to two years. Water customers of Georgetown can determine if they are eligible to vote on the sale by using the city's interactive "Address Lookup" map. If they live within city limits, they are eligible.

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Leadership shakeups at UT continue as LBJ School dean departs for Duke

In another leadership change at the top of a University of Texas college, Dean JR DeShazo will leave the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the end of this academic year. DeShazo has led the LBJ School for five years. Starting July 1, DeShazo will lead the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University as dean, UT officials announced Monday in an email. DeShazo — one of the longest serving leaders at UT — is one of several deans to leave in the past year. More than one-third of UT’s dean positions — 7 of 18 leaders — are currently in flux. He leaves at the conclusion of his contracted term, and it is unclear whether Provost William Inboden decided to offer him a renewal. Per the university’s policy, UT leaders have until the end of a dean's six year appointment to evaluate their performance.

When a dean’s term is up, top UT leadership can then choose whether to offer a contract renewal or find new leadership, according to the current policy. UT faculty members described DeShazo Monday as an excellent, thoughtful leader who made the LBJ School stronger. “I’m shocked, and I’m devastated,” said Kate Weaver, who has worked at the LBJ School for 17 years as a professor and associate dean. “He’s the best dean I’ve ever seen. He’s just utterly transformed the school.” As dean, DeShazo doubled the LBJ School’s degree offerings from three to six and launched the college’s first undergraduate degree. He also increased enrollment, grew research activity and supported alumni and current students in job placement as opportunities for work among federal agencies have declined. DeShazo declined to comment. University spokesperson Mike Rosen did not respond to questions about DeShazo’s departure.

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Nancy Saustad, who raised millions of dollars for KERA, has died

As a fundraiser, Nancy Saustad’s biggest projects ranged from a new home for public broadcasting in North Texas to a new habitat for elephants and giraffes at the Dallas Zoo. The former chief philanthropy officer for KERA and lifelong North Texan died Sunday from ovarian cancer. She was 61. “I think more than anything else, I think we just all remember her with a great deal of gratitude,” said KERA President and CEO Nico Leone. “We're fortunate to have known her, fortunate to work with her, and incredibly grateful for everything she did, not just for KERA, but for so many organizations in the community.”

Her development efforts helped make it possible for KERA to break ground on a new headquarters at a time when other public TV and radio stations were forced to make cuts amid a loss of federal funding. Prior to joining KERA, she raised money to help bring the Dallas Zoo's “Giants of the Savanna” habitat to life. The 11-acre exhibit was first to make space for various species of African animals like elephants, zebras and impalas. Without a doubt, those were her proudest professional accomplishments, her husband, David Carl Saustad, said. Outside of work, she loved animals, art and skiing in Colorado. “But I would think her favorite title would have been mother, for sure. There was nothing that would stop her from doing anything for her kids.," Saustad said. "She would stop whatever she was doing to give them her ultimate attention because even though she loved her work, mother was her first priority, always.”

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The Onion says it's finally acquired Alex Jones' Austin-based Infowars

Alex Jones' Infowars, a decades-long source of conspiracy theories, has been acquired by The Onion. The satirical media outlet said Monday it finally acquired the controversial show hosted by Jones after roughly 18 months of back and forth in a Texas bankruptcy court. Jones was sued for defamation by victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, which killed 20 children and six adults, for referring to them as "crisis actors." Courts in Texas and Connecticut ordered the conspiracy theorist to liquidate his assets to pay back roughly $1.5 billion in liability. The Onion CEO Ben Collins told journalist Pablo Torre that the company would follow through on its plans to take over the show, while also sharing profits with victims of the Sandy Hook massacre.

"We want them to be able to get paid for real at some point with actual human dollars as part of this process," he said. "We have taken over the Infowars studio and the IP and the website and all of that stuff." Collins said the transition would be finalized "within a couple of days." KUT News reached out to The Onion and Jones' bankruptcy attorney for confirmation on the sale but hasn't yet heard back. Jones teased the acquisition last month on a podcast. "We've beaten so many attacks," Jones said. "But, finally, we're shutting down in the middle of next month." Jones' assets are being sold off in a Texas bankruptcy court, including the South Austin studio that hosts Infowars and any equipment used to produce content for the website. Jones tried to block the sale of Infowars to The Onion in 2024, and last year, a judge rejected his attempt to throw out the defamation judgment. Since then, Free Speech Systems, the Infowars parent company, has been slowly selling off property to pay plaintiffs over the last few months. Collins told Torre he plans on continuing programming as Infowars with some rebranding and reshuffling. The site plans to replace the "o" in "Infowars" with The Onion's logo, and Collins said the show will bring on comedian Tim Heidecker as a potential replacement host.

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NY comptroller urges eXp shareholders to reject Texas reincorporation

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is calling on eXp Realty shareholders to block the company’s plan to move its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas, arguing that the brokerage should address internal culture issues rather than seek a more favorable home base. The pushback comes after allegations of sexual assault and related shareholder litigation put the cloud-based brokerage under intense scrutiny, according to the New York Times. DiNapoli framed the brokerage’s move as an attempt to sidestep accountability. eXp, one of the largest residential brokerages in the country, has faced three separate lawsuits tied to conference and recruiting-event conduct. Two filed in California in 2023 and another filed in Florida last year saw women allege the company enabled a pattern of drugging and rape around those events.

The allegations largely center on two former agents — Michael Bjorkman and David Golden — who were reportedly high earners generating significant revenue for the firm. The lawsuits allege the company allowed them to remain affiliated with eXp well after leadership was alerted to complaints about them. The controversy spilled into corporate governance when two shareholder pension funds filed suit in Delaware, where eXp’s parent company is incorporated. The complaint accuses the company of risking investor value through a “purposeful decision to ignore reports of criminal abuse.” After a judge allowed that case to go forward, eXp founder and chief executive officer Glenn Sanford announced the company would reincorporate in Texas, which is widely viewed as a friendlier jurisdiction for companies facing shareholder challenges than Delaware, long the default for corporate domiciles. In a statement urging shareholders to vote down the move, DiNapoli said investors have an obligation to hold eXp accountable. That includes the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which held nearly 27,000 shares of eXp’s parent company at last glance.

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BGCT executive wants another study of relationship to Baylor

The Baptist General Convention of Texas announced April 17 it will launch another study of the relationship between the BGCT and Baylor University. This follows a recent dialogue that concluded in 2023 without any changes proposed. Baylor’s relationship to the BGCT has been a regular item of concern since the university’s regents in 1991 declared themselves a self-perpetuating board. Before then, the BGCT had total control of naming university trustees. Since then, the state convention nominates only 25% of trustees in consultation with the current board.

Today, the BGCT contributes only 0.001% of Baylor’s $995.8 million annual budget but controls 25% of the board. Some Baylor insiders think that’s not fair and want to eliminate the BGCT’s role entirely. But the BGCT wants to exert more influence — especially over matters of human sexuality. The latest study has been sparked by Baylor administrators allowing a student group to bring two gay Christian speakers to campus next week for an event that will counter the Turning Point USA rally the administration also approved. BGCT leaders have not raised concerns about the far-right TPUSA event but have focused instead on the “All Are Neighbors” event planned in response. They first expressed those concerns the previous Friday afternoon. Texas Baptists Executive Director Julio Guarneri told the Baptist Standard he had “conversations” with Baylor leadership, the chair of the BGCT Institutional Relations Committee, the chair of the Texas Baptists Executive Board and “several Texas Baptists pastors.” “Hosting speakers who are Christian, identify as gay and practice LGBTQ advocacy at a university-approved event is inconsistent with the convention’s long-standing views on biblical sexuality,” Guarneri said. “It is likely that the viewpoints to be shared at this event and others may not represent either BGCT’s or Baylor’s official positions, and convention messengers have made it clear that the traditional view of biblical sexuality is a matter of fellowship and harmonious cooperation.”

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Inside the push for a business-savvy candidate for north Fort Worth City Council seat

The question to Mayor Mattie Parker was succinct: Why all the fervor around a May 2 special election for a far north Fort Worth City Council seat? First-time candidates Chris Jamieson and Alicia Ortiz are vying to fill the unexpired term of Alan Blaylock, who is running for the Texas House. The race has featured a slew of high-profile endorsements for Jamieson, including from Mayor Parker and County Commissioner Manny Ramirez, and the city’s two public safety associations. And he’s gotten campaign donations from some traditional heavyweight supporters in Fort Worth law offices and the Alliance development area. Ortiz, who served as district director for former City Council member Cary Moon, said she’s been shut out of contributions she might have secured, had the mayor and other traditional city leaders not gotten so heavily involved.

“I feel for her,” Moon said of Ortiz. “She’s run into a juggernaut.” Parker and Ramirez confirmed to the Report that they led an informal group that began searching for a business-savvy candidate after Blaylock announced he was leaving the seat. Parker said she had an interest in ensuring continuity in the office — one of four council districts that cover the fast-growing and sprawling Interstate 35W corridor north of Loop 820 — after Blaylock’s departure. “I have so much respect for council member Blaylock; I had a vested interest in helping find a great candidate,” Parker said. Jamieson, 47, an entrepreneur and homeowner association president in north Fort Worth, was little known in local political circles before he filed to run. Parker said she appreciated Jamieson’s business background and lack of partisan history. The search turned to Jamieson after better-known prospect Travis Clegg, a business development executive for the Westwood Professional Services design and engineering firm, decided against running, the mayor, Ramirez and Clegg confirmed. “Travis was my first person,” Parker said. Once he declined, “then we kind of pivoted.”

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Dallas-Fort Worth leads nation in corporate HQ relocations

Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 1 in the nation last year for corporate headquarter relocations and continues to dominate longer-term as company mobility accelerates overall, according to a new analysis by CBRE. DFW had the most net interstate or international HQ relocations in 2025, with 11, followed by Miami, with 8, according to the report from the Dallas-based commercial real estate services firm that moved its own headquarters to Big D from California a few years back. DFW tacked on an additional seven intrastate or intra-metro HQ moves. Dallas-Fort Worth has secured more than 100 headquarters relocations since 2018, the most of any metropolitan area in the now seven-year timeframe tracked by CBRE. The company counted 725 public headquarters announcements from 2018 to 2025 from company disclosures and news sources. The data revealed relocation patterns, corporate motivations and evolving real estate strategies, CBRE said. Companies are increasingly using intra-metro strategies, weighing benefits of various submarkets within the same region, as return-to-office and hybrid work change location priorities and drive demand for more flexible, efficient footprints, CBRE’s report notes.

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County Stories

Bexar County judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez resigns under agreement that dismisses charges, imposes lifetime ban

Bexar County Court at Law No. 13 Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez resigned Monday under an agreement that dismisses criminal charges stemming from a late 2024 courtroom incident and permanently bars her from serving as a judge in Texas. The charges stem from a December 2024 incident in which Gonzalez was accused of having defense attorney Elizabeth Russell handcuffed and placed in a jury box after Russell objected to a plea from her client in a domestic violence case. The argument escalated, and Gonzalez ordered bailiffs to detain Russell. Gonzalez was indicted in January on charges of official oppression and unlawful restraint and later turned herself in. The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office recused itself from the case, and a special prosecutor was appointed.

Gonzalez was suspended without pay by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct and later lost her bid for reelection in the March primary. Her opponent, Alicia Perez, won 65% of the vote for Bexar County Court at Law No. 13. The charges were dismissed under the agreement. Special prosecutor Brian Cromeens of DeWitt County said dismissing the charges was “in the interest of justice.” Gonzalez did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the agreement. The unlawful restraint charge is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The official oppression charge is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Gonzalez presided over a court that specializes in domestic violence cases and includes programs that combine treatment and strict supervision.

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National Stories

Virginia voters to decide whether to allow a new Democratic-drawn map for the midterms

Virginia voters on Tuesday will decide the fate of a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for a new congressional map designed to allow Democrats to pick up as many as four seats in this year’s midterm elections. The special election marks the latest fight in the mid-decade redistricting war that has unfolded across the country as both parties vie for control of the narrowly divided House. Under the proposed map in Virginia, Democrats would be in position to hold up to 10 of the state’s 11 districts, rather than the current six. Virginia Democrats have framed their aggressive effort as a response to President Donald Trump pressuring GOP-led states to redraw their district lines last summer. Republicans have accused Democrats of a power grab after winning full control of Virginia’s government in last fall’s elections.

While Democrats have maintained a clear spending advantage, Tuesday’s contest is shaping up to be close. Virginia has leaned Democratic in recent elections, with Gov. Abigail Spanberger winning by 15 points in November and then-Vice President Kamala Harris carrying the state by 6 points in 2024. But Democrats have acknowledged the messaging challenges they have faced as the party that had previously opposed such partisan gerrymandering moves. And a springtime special election where only the redistricting referendum is appearing on the ballot makes turnout unpredictable. The constitutional amendment seeks to temporarily bypass the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission — which voters overwhelmingly approved a few years ago — to enact a new congressional map for the rest of the decade. It would also return mapmaking duties to the commission after the 2030 census.

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House braces for next wave of potential expulsions focused on Cherfilus-McCormick, Mills

House lawmakers are bracing for the next wave of expulsions. Former Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) avoided the boot only by quitting their seats in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct with staffers. Now, the expulsion battle is poised to enter its second round, as lawmakers in both parties eye plans to remove Florida Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D) and Cory Mills (R), who are both accused of violating campaign finance laws, among other offenses. “If they’re doing this s---, then they need to go,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said. The debate is set to erupt Tuesday, when the Ethics Committee is scheduled to make its disciplinary recommendations in the case of Cherfilus-McCormick, who is accused of stealing millions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to help finance her campaign. The Justice Department filed federal charges last November, and an Ethics subcommittee earlier this month found she violated 25 rules of congressional standards.

Cherfilus-McCormick has denied any wrongdoing, saying she’s the victim of a partisan witch hunt by the Trump administration. But even many Democrats are ready to push her out the door given the Ethics findings. “The Ethics Committee has the material,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) said. “So I think it needs to move quickly.” “We’re moving if the Ethics Committee brings it to the floor,” echoed another Democratic lawmaker, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. Yet those same Democrats are also demanding the expulsion of Mills, who is the subject of a separate Ethics investigation into allegations of “dating violence,” campaign finance violations and using his perch in Congress to steer business to the weapons and defense companies he continues to operate. (He has denied the charges.) The Democrats are arguing the importance of parity: Like offenses demand like consequences. But the unspoken political dynamic underlying the debate is that, in a House with razor-thin margins, neither party wants to advantage the other by expelling only one of their own — a concern that’s generated support for the idea of pairing the removals. That was the case with Swalwell and Gonzales, and now it’s the case with Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills.

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Apple taps John Ternus as CEO to replace Tim Cook, who will become chairman

Apple said on Monday that John Ternus is succeeding Tim Cook as CEO, with Cook assuming the role of executive chairman on Sept. 1. Ternus, a senior vice president of hardware engineering, will join Apple’s board of directors when he becomes chief. Apple’s nonexecutive chairman Arthur Levinson will become the iPhone maker’s lead independent director at that time. “Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a smooth transition,” Apple said in a press release. The company said in a filing that the board made the appointment on Friday.

It’s the first CEO transition for Apple since Cook, now 65, succeeded Steve Jobs at the helm in 2011, shortly before Jobs’ death. Ternus will become Apple’s eighth CEO. “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company,” Cook said in a statement. “I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people who have been unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers and creating the best products and services in the world.” Apple also said that Johny Srouji will become chief hardware officer, taking over for Ternus in an expanded role. Srouji, who most recently served as the company’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, will also lead hardware engineering. Apple’s market cap increased by more than 20-fold on Cook’s watch, closing on Monday at $4 trillion. Cook took home $74.6 million in total compensation last year, including a $3 million base salary and millions more in stock awards, according to recent regulatory filings. Forbes estimates his net worth at close to $3 billion.

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Trump is quietly seeking allies to fix Gaza, says Norway

Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is quietly engaging with international partners including the EU and the Palestinian Authority to stabilize Gaza and prepare for post-conflict governance, Norway’s foreign minister told POLITICO. The U.S. president set up the Washington-led Board of Peace, which held its first meeting in February, as the main vehicle for overseeing reconstruction and governance of the Gaza Strip. But Norway’s Espen Barth Eide, who was in Brussels on Monday for back-to-back events focused on the Israeli-Hamas conflict, said the Board of Peace is increasingly liaising with international institutions that have long experience in Gaza — including the Palestinian Authority.

“The Americans who have been tasked with the Board of Peace … are also discovering that the established institutions are quite useful. The World Bank, the [United Nations], different agencies actually have a lot of experience,” he said in an interview at Norway’s representation to the EU. Trump’s administration has kept the Palestinian Authority somewhat at arm’s length in plans to govern Gaza, notably denying entry to the United States to anyone holding a Palestinian Authority passport. But chief EU diplomat Kaja Kallas welcomed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Brussels as a special guest — and Eide said that relations between Mustafa and the Board of Peace were better than they publicly appeared. “The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority tells me that the conversation with the U.S. has been going much better, and that there is practical cooperation,” he said, adding that Trump’s plan for the governance of Gaza includes a long-term role for the Palestinian Authority after it has carried out reforms.

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Uncertainty reigns at DOJ in the aftermath of Bondi’s departure

Since President Donald Trump tapped Todd Blanche, his former defense attorney, to temporarily lead the Justice Department this month, the message from those familiar with the president’s thinking has remained consistent: A permanent shot at the job of attorney general is Blanche’s to lose. But that hasn’t stopped a frenzied competition to push other candidates for what has become one of the most important Cabinet-level posts in the president’s plans for his second term. And the uncertainty around top leadership roles has prompted concern from some in a department already struggling with claims of politicization and the abandonment of long-held norms over the lengths to which Trump’s next pick may go to impress him. Following Trump’s decision to fire Blanche’s predecessor, Pam Bondi, various factions of the president’s MAGA coalition have rallied around figures like Harmeet K. Dhillon, currently head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Jeanine Pirro, the sharp-tongued former Fox News host and current U.S. attorney in D.C., as alternatives.

Neither Dhillon nor Pirro has been so forward as to openly suggest an interest in the job. But both have taken steps in recent days that are viewed by insiders as efforts to raise their profile and jockey for the president’s attention. Blanche, meanwhile, has quickly moved to leave his own mark on the Justice Department’s downtown Washington headquarters in his new role, pushing out Bondi’s top spokespeople and installing a key ally in a top deputy position. Others within Trump’s orbit have seized on the department’s shake-up to push their own favored candidates for influential jobs. Some have urged Dhillon and Ed Martin — the president’s pardon attorney and a veteran of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” effort, with whom Blanche has clashed in the past — for top spots, according to multiple people familiar with those efforts. Those people, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer candid assessments of current dynamics. Trump has given no indication of when, or if, he intends to formally nominate a permanent replacement for Bondi. Either option carries risks: Nominating Blanche could result in a fiery confirmation fight, but leaving him as an unconfirmed attorney general gives him less stature and legitimacy.

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Dan Hannan: Donald Trump is losing his mind

(Daniel Hannan is a member of the House of Lords and a former Conservative MEP.) Imagine it was someone other than President Donald Trump. Suppose a different leader were posting deranged rants in the small hours, insulting the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics, threatening entire civilizations with annihilation, and comparing himself to God. What would be the reaction? We all know the answer. Both parties would be rushing to bundle him out of office before he did irreversible harm to the republic. Yet, as we all also know, different rules apply to Trump. Democrats, having had their fingers burned by two failed impeachment attempts, are reluctant to try again, for they know that there is no surer way to boost his support. Republicans, who privately despair at the electoral damage he is doing, let alone the constitutional damage, are paralyzed by fear of upsetting their primary voters.

Harold Macmillan, the suave British postwar leader, liked to quip that there were three institutions that no sensible man challenged: the Brigade of Guards, the National Union of Mineworkers, and the Roman Catholic Church. Yet Trump, in one of his nocturnal forays, decided to conjure a fight with the Bishop of Rome out of thin air, calling him “WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy,” and adding that “if I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” The president, whom critics accuse of having a God-complex, then followed up with an image of himself as Jesus healing the sick. This image was offensive, not only to Catholics, but to almost every practicing Christian and, come to that, to almost every Muslim. The Iranian ayatollahs used one of the Lego videos with which they have been trolling the president to condemn what they sincerely saw as blasphemy. They were not alone. CatholicVote.org, which turned out millions of voters for Trump in three successive elections, condemned the post as impious. At the same time, according to its president, Kelsey Reinhardt, “President Trump’s post insulting Pope Leo crossed again a line of decorum.”

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Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will resign amid misconduct allegations

Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s labor secretary, is resigning from her position amid professional misconduct allegations, becoming the third Cabinet member to depart during Trump’s second term. White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X on Monday that Chavez-DeRemer would leave the Cabinet to take a position in the private sector, though he did not say where she was going. Cheung said the deputy labor secretary, Keith Sonderling, would become the acting head of the agency. Accusations that Chavez-DeRemer had engaged in misconduct, including personal travel during taxpayer-funded trips, surfaced in a complaint filed with the Labor Department’s inspector general that was first reported by the New York Post. The complaint led to the suspension of several top aides and surfaced sexual misconduct allegations against Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Shawn DeRemer.

Chavez-DeRemer, in her own post, wrote on X: “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve in this historic Administration and work for the greatest President of my lifetime.” She said that she is “looking forward to what the future has in store as I depart for the private sector.” The Labor Department referred The Post to Chavez-DeRemer’s post on X. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation follows a New York Times report from last week that she and her top aides, as well as her father and husband, sent personal messages to young staffers, which has been under investigation by Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito. The outlet also reported that Chavez-DeRemer and her aide asked employees to bring them wine during work trips. D’Esposito told his employees in an email after news of the investigation broke that the office “takes all allegations of fraud, waste, abuse and misconduct seriously” and that the complaint against Chavez-DeRemer “was likely to be of interest to our many stakeholders.”

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Lead Stories

Texas lawmakers to visit Camp Mystic in first meeting of Independence Day Floods investigatory committee

On Monday, ten Texas lawmakers will visit the Camp Mystic site where 25 campers and two counselors died during the Independence Day Floods. The lawmakers are members of the Texas House and Senate general investigating committees on the July 2025 flooding events. It will be the first time the two committees have met since their formation in the fall of last year. The goal of the committees is to examine the facts of what happened in the early morning hours of the July 4 floods, including the actions taken by youth camps, and identify ways to strengthen the state’s response to flooding and other natural disasters, according to a joint statement from Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

The campsite visit comes a week after a three-day evidentiary hearing in Travis County civil court, where owners and operators of the camp, the Eastland family, testified about their actions on the night of the flood. The hearing was part of a lawsuit filed by Cile Steward’s family, the 8-year-old camper who died in the flood and is still the only camper whose body has not been recovered. A judge in that lawsuit ordered the camp to stop all renovations to the campsite near the Guadalupe River. The hearing this past week centered on Camp Mystic’s challenge to that order. Attorneys representing the Steward family said in a statement they are grateful the committee members are visiting the campsite, and have a request for the lawmakers. “We would ask the Committee to stand outside Cile’s cabin, Twins II,” the statement reads. “Then look to the left at the loud speaker less than 50 feet away. Then look to the right at the two-story building less than 20 paces from her door. And then ask: if the Eastlands had used that speaker at any time to tell Cile to run to up those stairs to safety, would she still be alive?”

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Greg Abbott leans into his ties to Elon Musk. What will it mean for the midterms?

Gov. Greg Abbott told business leaders gathered in Fort Worth last month a familiar tale about how he helped lure Elon Musk to Texas. It was 2020, and the world’s richest man wanted to build a massive Tesla factory somewhere far from California’s onerous regulations. So the Republican governor got to work, directing agency appointees to speed up permitting processes for Tesla and waiving some all together. Musk later moved to Texas and recently assured the governor that “everything that he's going to be doing is going to be located in the state of Texas,” Abbott said.

The Republican governor, who is running for a record fourth term this year, has repeated a version of the spiel multiple times in recent months, holding Musk up as the state’s “leading economic developer.” According to Abbott’s office, Musk has invested more than $11.6 billion in his businesses here and is set to create more than 22,000 jobs. But Musk is more than just an eye-popping example of the success of the state’s business-friendly policies for Abbott to tout on the campaign trail. Their growing relationship comes as Musk has supercharged his political activity, becoming one of the biggest political benefactors in the nation. The upcoming midterms in Texas could provide a test of how much the tech titan is willing to engage in the politics of his new home state. While he spent nearly $300 million to help President Donald Trump claim the White House in 2024, Musk’s giving in Texas has so far been more limited — though it has begun to grow in the last couple of years. “At a moment in which Republicans are expressing some public concern about the outcome of the November elections in Texas, staying close to Musk and his resources is an essential activity for the leader of the state party,” said Joshua Blank, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. “They want to know they’ve got more artillery waiting for them if they need it.”

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U.A.E. asks U.S. about a wartime financial lifeline

The United Arab Emirates has opened talks with the U.S. about obtaining a financial backstop in case the Iran war plunges the oil-rich Persian Gulf state into a deeper crisis, U.S. officials said. U.A.E. Central Bank Gov. Khaled Mohamed Balama raised the idea of a currency-swap line with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Treasury and Federal Reserve officials in meetings in Washington last week, the officials said. The Emiratis emphasized that they had so far avoided the worst economic effects of the conflict but might still need a financial lifeline, the officials said. The talks highlighted the U.A.E.’s concern that the war could inflict major damage on its economy and its position as a global financial hub, depleting its foreign reserves and scaring away investors who once saw it as a stable and secure place for their money.

The conflict has damaged Emirati oil-and-gas infrastructure and shut off their ability to sell oil using tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, depriving it of a key source of dollar revenues. Emirati officials haven’t made a formal request for a swap line, which would give the U.A.E. central bank inexpensive access to dollars to support its currency or shore up its foreign reserves in case of a liquidity crisis. In talks with the U.S. in recent days, they have portrayed the proposal as preliminary and precautionary, the U.S. officials said. But they have also argued that it was President Trump’s decision to attack Iran that entangled their country in a destructive conflict whose effects may not be over, some of the officials said. Emirati officials told the U.S. officials that if the U.A.E. runs short of dollars, it may be forced to use Chinese yuan or other countries’ currencies for oil sales and other transactions, some of the officials said.

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Trump Administration to begin refunding $166 billion in tariffs

When President Trump unveiled his sprawling global tariffs last spring, he boasted that they would generate windfall profits and “make America wealthy again.” But after suffering a significant Supreme Court defeat, Mr. Trump is about to pay the money back. The Trump administration on Monday is set to take its first steps toward returning more than $166 billion collected from tariffs that were struck down in February. Just over a year after imposing many of the duties, the government is expected to begin accepting requests for refunds, surrendering its prized source of revenue — plus interest. For some U.S. businesses, the highly anticipated refunds could be substantial, offering critical if belated financial relief. Tariffs are taxes on imports, so the president’s trade policies have served as a great burden for companies that rely on foreign goods. Many have had to choose whether to absorb the duties, cut other costs or pass on the expenses to consumers.

By Monday morning, those companies can begin to submit documentation to the government to recover what they paid in illegal tariffs. In a sign of the demand, more than 3,000 businesses, including FedEx and Costco, have already sued the Trump administration in a bid to secure their refunds, with some cases filed even before the Supreme Court’s ruling. But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump’s policies — including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought — are not able to apply for direct relief. The extent to which consumers realize any gain hinges on whether businesses share the proceeds, something that few have publicly committed to do. Some have started to band together in class-action lawsuits in the hopes of receiving a payout. Many business owners said they weren’t sure how easy the tariff refund process would be, particularly given Mr. Trump’s stated opposition to returning the money. Adding to the uncertainty, the administration has declined to say if it might still try to return to court in a bid to halt some or all of the refunds.

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State Stories

Demand tsunami: Energy leaders foresee exponential need as Texas economy expands

Could nuclear energy be key to Texas data center boom? Driven by economic growth, data centers and an increasingly urban population, industry leaders in Texas foresee energy demand increasing exponentially over the next decade. “We’ve had this relatively flat growth for the last two decades,” said Tony Robinson, president and CEO of nuclear power company Framatome. “That’s changed, and I think we’re using the wrong term. I don’t think it’s a surge in demand. I think it’s a tsunami.” Robinson cited the amount of power needed by data centers, for cloud computing and crypto mining, the state’s growing population along with all the electronic devices used by consumers as major contributions to this increase in energy needs. “The amount needed on a daily basis is astronomical,” he said. Robinson was one of several speakers at the Texas Christian University’s Ralph Lowe Energy Institute’s Global Energy Symposium on April 15, an annual event that looks at the state of the industry.

A year ago, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the nonprofit corporation that operates the state’s power grid, said the current power demand record for use in Texas was 85.5 gigawatts, set in August 2023. The organization now expects an estimated peak demand of 218 gigawatts by 2031. One single type of energy source is not going to provide the kind of power needed in the state or the nation, Robinson said. The state will need wind, solar, natural gas, geothermal and other forms of energy, he said. “It’s not going to be just oil and gas, it’s not going to be just nuclear,” he said. “We need all of the above.” Nuclear power can produce clean, fast and renewable energy, but can be hampered by public perception, said Brian Gitt, senior vice president of business development for Oklo Inc., a firm that designs fission reactors. Gitt compared a reactor to “a big tea kettle” that boils water to produce energy. Opponents said nuclear projects have significant issues to consider, including a lengthy approval process. “High up-front costs and first-of-a-kind deployment make advanced nuclear designs economically risky,” officials with environmental group CleanWisconsin said in a statement. “Although the Trump administration recently announced an $80 billion-plus commitment to help fund new reactors, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical that these projects will materialize.”

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After ICE detentions, Elgin families find relief from surprise donor

In the final days before a court judgment threatened to push her property closer to foreclosure, Bricia felt hopelessness. Efforts by the 43-year-old Elgin resident, who has cancer, to sell her land to pay thousands in back property taxes had gone nowhere. Like many other residents of Elgin, a Hispanic-majority town 30 miles northeast of downtown Austin, Bricia had watched her household’s finances crumble after the detention of her husband, a Mexican immigrant and construction subcontractor who had lived in the country without legal authorization. Immigration arrests have continued to rise in Central and Southern Texas, leaving many without their primary source of income, as detailed in an April 12 American-Statesman story. But just before Bricia’s Wednesday court hearing, she and the other families featured in the Statesman’s story about the economic fallout following deportations became the recipients of unexpected help. A Houston businessman, Lee Ackerley, has pledged to give $10,000 to each featured family.

“Just felt sympathy for the people and wanted to reach out,” the soft-spoken Ackerley told the Statesman. “I don’t want to get into politics, but they seemed to be in need and I thought I could help.” Donations from Ackerly and others helped Bricia gather the money this week to pay Bastrop County for overdue property taxes under a payment plan. Although she still owes taxes, she’s no longer at immediate risk of the county moving to foreclose her house. Bricia asked the Statesman to withhold her last name due to fear of retribution. Ackerley’s support also helped Margarita, a Mexican baker who has remained in the United States after her husband was detained by immigration agents earlier this year because her 2-year-old-son has severe digestive health issues. (The Statesman is withholding Margarita’s last name because of her legal status.) A week ago, she was still $800 short on her April rent and unable to pay her electric and water bills. News of the donations “surprised me a lot,” Margarita said Wednesday. “It provides for everything that I had due today, the light, the water. Everything was due today.”

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2026 school bond elections include Texas' largest ever. Here’s what’s in it

Early voting starts Monday, and on the ballot in Dallas ISD is the state’s largest ever school bond package. The district’s $6.2 billion election is nearly twice the size of the last record- setter, when Dallas ISD put forward a $3.7 million package in 2020. Voters approved $3.5 billion. The bulk of this year’s package is the $5.9 billion Proposition A. If approved, it would build 26 replacement schools, including safety and security upgrades; add science labs, buses, technology, playgrounds and more; and renovate hundreds of other buildings and replace hundreds of portable classrooms. “I started my career in a portable, and I hope to end my career with zero portables in this district,” said former Dallas ISD chief of operations David Bates, who has since moved onto El Paso ISD. “We want to create additions at our campuses to eliminate all portable buildings."

Prop B, for $144.7 million, would add and upgrade technology for classrooms, staff, students. Prop C, for $143.3 million, would fund debt service refinancing. Prop D, for $23.25 million would repair and renovate district pool facilities. The district had considered putting forward a smaller package worth $4.9 billion but opted for the larger one. If approved, the total package would raise the average homeowner’s taxes by about $3 a month, or $30-$35 a year. Trustees argued the need for such a large bond is there. School board member Byron Sanders, who represents the area that includes South Oak Cliff High School, said it was losing students as grades slipped beforea2015 bond renovated and nearly completely modernized the school. “We went not only from building a new school and bringing back new kids, our academic trends started to rise over time too,” he said at a news conference earlier this year. “You also have the school that has the highest school effectiveness index score in the entire school district.”

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Dallas County leaders expect smoother city, school district elections after chaotic March primary

Early voting for May municipal elections begins Monday, and Dallas County leaders say they’re confident this election will go smoothly — a stark contrast to the chaotic, location-specific March primary Election Day. This election, voters can choose from 68 vote centers throughout early voting and on Election Day for 46 Dallas County city, school district and proposition elections. Elections Administrator Paul Adams said voters can feel comfortable casting their ballot. "Voters should not be worried," he said. "If they happen to be at lunch or out at work and not close to the vote center that's near their house, they will have an opportunity to vote at any location, whether that be near work, whether that'd be near where they're shopping, out for the day."

The election process will run similar to last November's general election — and all previous elections for more than a decade — instead of the recent separate, precinct-based primary elections. That’s because municipal elections in Texas are nonpartisan — meaning there is no required party affiliation on the ballot, which is why there’s no primary like there is for state, congressional and U.S. senatorial races. "When you walk in ... you sign in and you cast your ballot," Adams said. "There will be no division by party like we saw back in March because none of these elections are partisan races.” The confusing March 3 voter experience came as a result of changes to that partisan primary process. Republican and Democratic parties have legal authority to conduct their primary Election Day jointly or separately, countywide or precinct-specific based on a voter's registered address. After the Dallas County Republican Party's decision for separate, precinct-based voting on Election Day, Dallas County's Democratic Party had to align their voting process. County officials estimate at least 30,000 voters showed up at that wrong location to vote on Primary Election Day. The county has authority over early voting operations, which was countywide for the primary election.

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GOP battle over Salazar’s Dignity Act immigration bill has Republicans lashing out, with Gill leading the way

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) has a message for those attacking her and her signature Dignity Act immigration reform and border security legislation: Bring it on. The South Florida congresswoman has faced an onslaught of criticism from right-wing commentators and from fellow Republicans in Congress over the bill over the last few weeks — complete with calls for primary challengers to end not only her career, but that of any GOP co-sponsor. “I welcome it,” Salazar said Thursday of the primary threats. “Those are the rules of the game.” “I like that game. It’s better than the Cuban game or the Venezuelan or the Iranian,” Salazar said. “It’s not pretty, it’s not perfect, it’s not comfortable, but it’s the American way of doing business.” Days earlier, she approached one of the fiercest Republican critics of her bill, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), on the House floor. “I said, why don’t you explain to me what is it that you know that I don’t about immigration?” Salazar said of their conversation, adding it was “very nice” and that Gill had “some legitimate points.”

Salazar said that she pitched Gill on doing a public, perhaps televised, debate over her legislation. Asked about that conversation, Gill — first correcting a question about the measure by noting its official name is the Dignidad Act — said he had good conversations with both Salazar and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), another one of the bill’s cosponsors. “We’re just diametrically opposed on this issue. I’m taking the conservative side and they’ve taken the Democrat side,” Gill said. “We are so wildly divergent on this issue. It’s hard to imagine how we reach some form of consensus.” As for a public debate about the bill, Gill said he would be open to doing something like that. “I think that the bill needs to be scrapped entirely. And we can start with something fresh, and maybe we can discuss that, but I think we’re pretty far off from the Dignidad Act being something that’s actionable,” Gill said. “I don’t think that anybody seriously thinks that I’m going to vote for this under any circumstances with any amendments to it whatsoever.” Under the legislation, those migrants in the country illegally prior to 2021 — who do not have criminal records — could pay $7,000 in restitution and any back taxes owed and get a new legal status. They would also not be eligible for welfare programs, and the legal status would not provide them a path to citizenship.

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LaMantia reviews RioPlex's high-level strategy meeting in Brownsville

Following lessons learned from a presentation by William Dietrich, CEO of the Port of Brownsville, RioPlex wants to start running workshops for contractors wishing to do business with tier one companies operating at the port. This was confirmed by Morgan LaMantia, a board member of RioPlex, at the conclusion of a high-level strategy meeting held by board members and visionary partners at the offices of Texas National Bank in Brownsville. One of the two top speakers was Dietrich. “It was a great meeting,” LaMantia said. “I think his (Dietrich’s) remarks were incredibly insightful and useful for it gives RioPlex a new goal that we need to start striving for. That is, creating workshops where we can bring in contractors and service providers that can service these tier one companies that are coming to into the Port of Brownsville and having workshops to be able to train them (the contractors and service providers) on how to respond to requests for services, for quotes, how to conduct themselves in interviews.”

LaMantia gave an exclusive interview to the RGG Business Journal at the conclusion of the strategy meeting. “We want to bring those groups together, those tier one businesses, with our local businesses, so that it is our local architects, our local contractors, our local subcontractors that are getting those jobs and getting those contracts (from the tier one companies),” LaMantia said. “So that we're keeping that value here in the (Rio Grande) Valley, and it's not leaving by going to companies out of San Antonio or Corpus.” It was put to LaMantia that Dietrich successfully walked a fine line in giving advice to the RioPlex board members on what local contractors should be doing to secure contracts from the tier one companies while also explaining that as a government official, he had to adhere to certain rules and regulations. But it was clear Dietrich wanted local contractors to do well.

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San Antonio leaders eye long-term future for Pre-K 4 SA

Some San Antonio City Council members are pushing for an early renewal of Pre-K 4 SA, the city-funded early childhood education program. Pre-K 4 SA leaders laid out a budget for the upcoming fiscal year at a Wednesday City Council meeting that will maintain its current staffing and services. There are several more steps before that budget is approved, but council members were generally impressed with the program that educates 3- and 4-year-old children. Pre-K 4 SA proposed spending $62.3 million in its 2027 fiscal year budget, which will run from July 2026 to June 2027.

Council members proposed asking voters to renew the program for an even longer period of time before its 2029 expiration. A report published in January showed a strong need for more affordable early child care in San Antonio. The nonprofit will launch an online family search tool and assist early child care providers in extending child care to weekends and non-traditional hours for military families and other workers in the upcoming year, Baray said. Pre-K 4 SA is also a partner in the construction of Educare San Antonio, an early child care center for 200 children that will open at Texas A&M-San Antonio in August. Much of its work next year will stay the same. Sarah Baray, Pre-K 4 SA’s CEO, highlighted the addition of a new South Education Center in October 2025 and the launch of more robust planning and support for families that need to be connected to additional services, like housing, transportation and employment. The South Education Center has been more successful than anticipated, Baray said. “One of the data pieces that we collected is around instructional quality, which we thought might be a little lower than in our preschool programs to start, because it’s a new program,” she said. “Actually the baseline scores are very high. We’re very excited about that.” Pre-K 4 SA will maintain the exact same staffing levels as it had in the previous year — 502 employees. A majority of those will work at its preschools.

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Magnolia mayor facing assault charge has bonded out of Tarrant County Jail

Magnolia Mayor Matthew Dantzer was released from jail Friday after paying bond, days after he was arrested and accused of assaulting the city secretary in October. City Secretary Christian Gable in November filed a human resources complaint against Dantzer in which she claimed that he assaulted her when they were on a work trip in Fort Worth for a convention in October. Gable was pregnant at the time. Following an investigation by the Texas Rangers, Dantzer was arrested Tuesday on charges of assaulting a pregnant person and official oppression.

Dantzer's attorney, Douglas Atkinson, released a statement last month denying the allegations. “Mr. Dantzer maintains his innocence and looks forward to the opportunity to defend himself in the appropriate legal process. Mr. Dantzer remains dedicated to faithfully serving the citizens of the city of Magnolia,” Atkinson said in the statement. The mayor was arrested in Magnolia on Tuesday and taken to the Montgomery County Jail before being transferred to Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth. A Tarrant County Jail representative said that after Dantzer's $15,000 bond was paid, he was released on Friday. Gable has also filed a lawsuit against Dantzer and the city, alleging sexual harassment dating to 2021. When Gable filed her complaint last year, the city ordered an investigation into it. City officials, however, said no action was taken afterward as the outside firm looking into it determined the evidence was inconclusive. Gable's lawsuit alleges the city failed to adequately investigate the incident and that it violated the Whistleblower Act after she accused Dantzer of assault. Gable also alleged that she suffered bodily injury from the assault and that it led to the delivery of her baby two weeks early. The case will be prosecuted by the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.

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The Spurs are the most exciting team in the N.B.A.

Last June, Victor Wembanyama, a young center for the San Antonio Spurs, went to Zhengzhou, China, to study martial arts and meditation. Wembanyama, twenty-one at the time, was already known for his unconventional training methods. Even at seven feet four inches tall, with an eight-foot wingspan, he did handstands. He played speed chess in between bursts of cardio exercise to hone his pattern recognition and decision-making while under intense physical stress. He practiced (really) high kicks, astonishing his teammates. Wembanyama astonished people easily and often. He could dunk without jumping, and he blocked shots so easily that before long all it took to stop an opposing ball handler was an intimidating glare. But he could also dribble the ball up the court and drain step-back threes, or toss elegant little lobs to his high-flying teammates—not the sort of stuff associated with seven-footers. When he arrived in the N.B.A., in 2023, he was the most heralded rookie in recent memory, and the salient thing about him wasn’t his size. It was his audacity. But, last February, a little more than halfway through his second year in the league, he’d been diagnosed with deep-vein thrombosis in his shoulder, and he’d missed the rest of the season.

The narrow, specialized life of a professional basketball player had taxed his body past its limits. And so Wembanyama decided to expand those limits, any way he could. That June, he quietly went to the Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of the ancient discipline Shaolin kung fu, for ten days, to see what he could learn. His first question for the monk who oversaw his stay was whether he would have to shave his head in order to become “a true kung-fu practitioner.” Yes, the monk answered. And so Wembanyama sat down on the temple’s stone steps, and the monk got a razor and shaved off the center’s soft brown curls. “There was no ritual, no audience,” the monk later wrote, in an account of Wembanyama’s time at Shaolin. The monk was struck by the seriousness of his commitment. “When it was done, he touched his head and smiled.” Without Wembanyama last spring, the Spurs cratered, losing nineteen of their remaining thirty games. Once the paragon of consistent excellence—from the late nineties to the late twenty-tens, the Spurs made the playoffs every year, twenty-two seasons in a row—the team now seemed oriented toward the future, toward Wembanyama’s prime. But Wembanyama was not the type to wait around. The Spurs began this season 5–0, and even thrived for a time without Wembanyama, who sat out twelve games in November and early December with a strained calf. Things seemed different in San Antonio.

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Beyond inspiring, Cruz says moon missions are also a race against China

If you found yourself looking to the sky in awe during the Artemis II mission, you weren’t alone. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was right there with you. But geopolitics here on Earth is also joining our missions into space, as Sen. Cruz made it clear, America is in a race with China. "China has stated their intention to go to the moon, to land an astronaut on the surface of the moon by 2030. And we are going to beat China back to the moon. And we’re in the middle of what is, essentially, a land grab,” the Republican told us on Inside Texas Politics. Sen. Cruz says the most critical territory on the moon is near the southern pole, where there would be access to water. He says they’ve also mapped craters high enough to provide access to solar power that could power a lunar base.

“It is American policy,” Cruz said proudly. “We are going to create a lunar base, a base on the surface of the moon to engage in exploration, to engage in discovery. The funding is there.” The lawmaker says there won’t be a major cut to NASA’s budget, so these missions are expected to move full steam ahead. Artemis II was the first crewed flight that took humans the farthest we’ve ever been from Earth. The four astronauts used the 10-day mission to successfully fly around the moon and back using the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. Artemis III, expected in mid-2027, will test our ability to rendezvous and dock between Orion and a private commercial spacecraft that will be used to land astronauts on the Moon. SpaceX and Blue Origin developed the commercial landers, and one or both will be tested during this docking mission in low Earth orbit. Artemis IV is the big one, with a target date of early 2028. This is when American astronauts will head back to the surface of the moon. The crew will transfer from Orion into the chosen lunar landers that will take them to the surface and back.

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Tesla's robotaxis come to Dallas, Houston as Musk's vision takes shape

Tesla is rolling out its robotaxis in Dallas and Houston, the electric vehicle maker said on ?Saturday, marking further expansion of its nascent service in the ?United States since its Austin, Texas, launch last year. The company's official robotaxi account on X ?announced the launch and posted two videos showing its best-selling Model Y SUVs running in the two cities with no human driver or monitor in the front seats. It posted two map images outlining service ?boundaries, but did not ?disclose further details such as fleet size or pricing. "Try Tesla Robotaxi in Dallas & Houston!" CEO Elon Musk said ?reposting the X post. Tesla's move comes as the robotaxi business has regained momentum with Alphabet (GOOG)'s Waymo and Amazon' (AMZN)s Zoox speeding up expansion.

Expanding the ?robotaxi service ?and wider adoption of its ?full self-driving software, a version ?of which underpins the technology, is key to Tesla's growth strategy as Musk has pivoted the company's focus to artificial intelligence and robotics from EVs. Much of the company's $1.3 trillion valuation hinges on that bet. Tesla first deployed a small group of self-driving taxis in an area ?of Austin with human safety monitors ?and other restrictions. The company has since ?widened the service area ?and started removing the monitors. Last year, Tesla also started ?a ride-hailing service in the ?San Francisco Bay ?Area. Musk has promised to expand the robotaxi service rapidly in the U.S., but missed earlier predictions of its robotaxis operating ?widely in multiple ?U.S. metro areas by the end of 2025.

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John Whitmire calls Greg Abbott ICE fight futile; experts disagree

Mayor John Whitmire says the city must walk back its new policy limiting Houston police officers’ cooperation with federal immigration agents after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to pull $114 million in grants over the measure, saying fighting back would be “a waste of time.” But some council members are calling on the mayor to challenge state leaders – particularly since Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the city over its policy. Legal experts say Houston could have a good case, and that a judge could block Abbott from following through on his threat. Houston’s new policy eliminates a requirement that officers wait 30 minutes for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrive when they encounter someone with an immigration warrant. These are civil documents that do not on their own give officers the authority to make arrests.

Legal experts and the authors of the ordinance argue Houston’s new policy brings the city in line with the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits officers from detaining people excessively. For instance, once the original reason for a traffic stop is addressed, a driver with an immigration warrant must be released even if federal agents have not reached the scene. But the measure – and similar policies in the cities of Austin and Dallas – has come under attack from Republicans. Paxton’s lawsuit alleges Houston’s policy violates a 2017 state law prohibiting cities and counties from “materially restricting” cooperation with ICE. And Abbott says the ordinance falls afoul of the terms of Houston’s agreements to receive federal public safety grants that are passed through the state. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld that 2017 law, called Senate Bill 4, after a lawsuit questioned whether parts of the bill were unconstitutional. But that case did not set a clear precedent, said Marc Levin, the Houston-based chief policy counsel for the Council on Criminal Justice. “A court hasn’t ruled on whether or not SB 4 is in conflict with the U.S. Constitution,” Levin said. “There hasn’t been a ruling on the points at issue here.”

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National Stories

Vance heads to new talks with Iran. At stake: peace and his own standing.

The vice president is scheduled to lead an American delegation back to Islamabad, Pakistan, this week for another round of in-person negotiations with Iran after failing to secure a deal just over a week ago. Whether the talks even occur seems in dispute. Hours after President Trump announced the trip on Sunday, Iranian state media said that Tehran had not yet agreed to any such meeting. Later, Mr. Trump announced that a Naval destroyer had attacked an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to skirt the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. The conditions for a new round of diplomacy were, at best, imperfect, and the stakes for a second failure high, both for ending a war that neither side seems to want to prolong and for Mr. Vance himself.

As a two-week cease-fire nears an end, and as Mr. Vance prepared for another long journey to Pakistan, Mr. Trump again threatened maximalist consequences if Iran failed to agree to his terms. “We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” the president wrote on social media on Sunday. “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!” While Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, will also be at the talks, Mr. Vance is center stage, tasked with finding a way out of a war that is increasingly unpopular with Americans and that has continued to weaken the global economy and the vastly complex energy supply chain. It is also a conflict that Mr. Vance told Mr. Trump, during deliberations on whether to attack, could be seen as a betrayal to loyal voters who did not want more wars. He has nonetheless defended it publicly Mr. Vance spent 21 hours in Pakistan last weekend negotiating with the Iranians, only to walk away with no deal. Allies and adversaries alike say that if he is unable to make any progress this time, it will be the latest political setback, as the world watches, for a man who wants to succeed Mr. Trump.

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Authorities identify 8 young children shot and killed by a Louisiana father

Eight children, ranging in age from just 3 to 11 years old, were killed early Sunday morning in Shreveport, Louisiana, in a shocking act of violence that marks the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in more than two years. A father, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, fatally shot his seven children and a cousin, and critically wounded two women, including his wife, in a rampage across at least two locations before sunrise. After the shooting, which authorities described as “domestic in nature,” the gunman fled the area in a carjacked vehicle and was pursued by police, who shot and killed him. The Caddo Parish Coroner’s office identified the victims as Jayla Elkins, 3; Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Markaydon Pugh, 10; Sariahh Snow, 11; Khedarrion Snow, 6; and Braylon Snow, 5.

As the shooting unfolded, some children tried to escape out the back door, said state Rep. Tammy Phelps during a news conference with other city officials. A 13-year-old boy escaped from the roof and was injured, police said. Much about the circumstances and the motive of the shooting remains unclear. “This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had in Shreveport,” Mayor Tom Arceneaux said in a news conference. As police continue to piece together what led to the massacre, here’s what we know so far. Police first responded to reports of shots fired in the Cedar Grove community of Shreveport, a northwestern Louisiana city with about 180,000 residents, just after 6 a.m. local time Sunday morning, according to Shreveport Police Cpl. Chris Bordelon. Police believe Elkins first shot his wife at a residence on Harrison Street. Then he went to another home on West 79th St., where he shot the eight children and the other woman, the mother of the eighth child killed.

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Meet Tony Lyons and his $100 million quest to boost RFK Jr.’s MAHA movement’s midterms clout

Tony Lyons, longtime book publisher for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., seems to be everywhere in the Make America Healthy Again movement. He has raised what he said would be as much as $100 million toward Republicans in the midterms and convened scientists at a hotel near the White House to discuss vaccine injuries and other health topics. His efforts also include spending millions on a Super Bowl ad on nutrition featuring Mike Tyson, and bringing together representatives from Google, Walmart and other firms for a “MAHA Summit” that offered corporate sponsorships at rates from $250,000 to $1 million. The end goal: proving to the White House that the MAHA coalition is a reliable voting bloc, and that it would be wise to give more priority to Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy’s agenda after the midterms.

“If Secretary Kennedy is going to complete the mission of really trying to stand up to these corrupt companies, to these corrupt agencies…he has to have more time,” Lyons said in an interview. The challenge for Lyons, a member of Kennedy’s inner circle who runs the political operation behind the MAHA movement, is motivating a growing group of Kennedy fans who are sharply critical of the administration’s recent moves on pesticides and other actions and want MAHA groups to amp up their criticisms. Worries at the White House about the unpopularity of Kennedy’s vaccine agenda led to a recent shake-up at the top ranks of his department. MAHA “needs to distinctly be its own thing that will eventually transcend MAGA when this term is over,” said Alex Clark, an influencer whose “Culture Apothecary” podcast was an introduction to MAHA causes for many conservative women. “Tying it to one admin is a mistake and could cut the legs off its longevity,” said Clark, who was recently among the activists invited to the White House in a bid to win back MAHA support. Lyons—who wears many hats in the movement without getting paid, he says—wrangles a long list of groups, influencers and donors and urges them to support the administration and make MAHA a deciding factor in the coming midterm elections.

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Comer warns ‘something sinister’ may be behind deaths, disappearances of 11 nuclear, space-linked scientists

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., warned Sunday that "something sinister could be happening" after 11 scientists mainly tied to the U.S. nuclear and space research programs reportedly died or went missing under mysterious circumstances, raising urgent national security concerns. Comer said on "Fox & Friends Weekend" that when he first heard about the disappearances, they sounded like "some kind of crazy conspiracy theory." But the details of the case changed his mind and prompted him to alert multiple government agencies. "We've put a notice out to the Department of War, to the FBI, to NASA, to the Department of Energy, that we want to know everything that they know about what happened with these scientists, because those four agencies were predominantly the agencies that those 11 individuals were affiliated with. And we want to try to piece this together."

Comer plans to bring the leaders of these offices before Congress, but said he sent the letters first to allow them time to ensure their testimony would not compromise any potentially classified investigations. He said he hoped anyone with information would bring it to the Oversight Committee, and that anyone affiliated with America's nuclear program should be on alert, given the possible security risks to the nation. "We know there are many countries around the world that would love to have our knowledge and nuclear capabilities. And these are the people that were at the forefront of it, and they're either dead or missing." Missing or deceased figures include experimental propulsion researcher Amy Eskridge, 34; retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William "Neil" McCasland, 68; NASA scientist Monica Jacinto Reza, 60; contractor Steven Garcia, 48; astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, 47; Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Nuno Loureiro, 47; NASA engineer Frank Maiwald, 61; Los Alamos–linked employees Melissa Casias, 53, and Anthony Chavez, 79; NASA researcher Michael David Hicks, 59; and pharmaceutical scientist Jason Thomas, 45.

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Hegseth recites 'Pulp Fiction' speech at Pentagon prayer service

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, leading a Pentagon prayer meeting, quoted a fictional Bible verse taken from a violent monologue in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film “Pulp Fiction,” originally delivered by actor Samuel L. Jackson just before his character shoots a helpless man to death. Hegseth told the audience at a monthly Pentagon worship service Wednesday that he learned the prayer from the lead mission planner of the “Sandy 1” team that recently rescued downed Air Force crew members in Iran. Hegseth said the verse frequently is spoken by combat search-and-rescue crews, who call the prayer “CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17” from the Bible.

“And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother,” Hegseth recited. “And you will know my call sign is Sandy 1, when I lay my vengeance upon thee.” The infamous Ezekiel 25:17 speech from “Pulp Fiction” is almost entirely a screenwriter’s creation; only the final refrain is loosely inspired by the actual biblical verse. The majority of the monologue in Tarantino’s film is adapted from the opening of the 1970s Japanese martial arts film “The Bodyguard,” with action star Sonny Chiba. Hegseth’s minute-long prayer closely followed those scripts, with only the last two lines resembling language from the Bible. In Hegseth’s version, he replaced “and they shall know that I am the Lord” from the book of Ezekiel with the call sign for a U.S. A-10 Warthog aircraft. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said some outlets accused Hegseth of mistaking Jackson’s performance with actual Scripture, and called that narrative “fake news.”

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Republicans stare down a growing, neverending FISA crisis

Hill Republican leaders are finding themselves in a never-ending crisis over the fate of a government spy law that has unleashed a bitter, intraparty battle within the House while also threatening to derail a host of other GOP priorities. Republicans now have scant legislative days to build new plans to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. But President Donald Trump, GOP leaders and White House officials have failed to come up with a workable framework for months — and there is no agreement yet on the path forward. Some House Republicans hope they’re in the final stages of massaging a multi-year extension that would incorporate some minor changes intended to pacify privacy hawks. Others are already predicting they’ll face the same internal schisms come April 30, when the current short-term extension runs out.

For many Republicans, the high-drama meltdown in the House was entirely predictable and has been months in the making, after Trump demanded a clean extension of the surveillance law despite well-documented skepticism within his own party. “A trainwreck,” was how Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles described it, as he walked off the House floor in the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning. Speaker Mike Johnson had just tried and failed to secure a long-term reauthorization after days of ultimately fruitless negotiations across his conference. “I don’t know how we solve it,” said one House Republican of the current impasse, granted anonymity to speak candidly. It’s gotten to the point where Senate Republicans, who have until now largely taken a back seat on FISA, are warning they are prepared to grab the wheel if the House can’t figure it out. “We’ve just got to have optionality here,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Friday of the path forward, shortly after clearing the House-passed, 10-day emergency Section 702 extension to avert a looming expiration. “I don’t know what the House is going to be able to do, and so we’ll be preparing accordingly.”

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Lead Stories

Mike Miles cancels moonlighting contract with his former charter school network

Houston ISD pays its state-appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, a base salary of $462,000, and the district also gave him a bonus of $173,660 approved by its state-appointed board in September. Yet, all along, the leader of Texas’ largest school district has also been moonlighting—earning another $190,000 over the past three years, according to receipts obtained by the Texas Observer, as a consultant for Third Future Schools (TFS), the Colorado-based charter school network he founded and previously led. In February, he renegotiated his TFS consulting contract to receive $30,000 per quarter—a 58 percent raise over his prior pay, based on documents the Observer obtained from a source. Miles’ contract with Houston ISD allowed him to do outside consulting. But his February agreement may have violated a 2025 state law that restricts moonlighting by administrators.

House Bill 3372, which took effect June 22, 2025, bans public school administrators from moonlighting for companies that do business with their districts. It also bans superintendents and assistant superintendents from moonlighting for other school districts, charter schools, or education companies that provide curriculum or administration services to any district. (The law allows lower-level administrators to moonlight for the latter group of entities if their school board approves.) In response to a question about Miles’ February consulting agreement with TFS, an HISD spokesperson initially told the Observer in an April 7 email that Miles had complied with the new law: “Superintendent Miles has disclosed his prior affiliation with Third Future Schools, and all related matters have been reviewed to ensure compliance with HB 3372, District policy, and applicable legal requirements, with no impact on his duties leading Houston ISD.” But after the Observer emailed questions to members of Houston ISD’s appointed school board, including a copy of the February agreement, the Houston ISD spokesperson emailed again, saying that Miles had cancelled the contract after it had “been carefully reviewed for compliance with HB 3372.” On April 8, the spokesperson wrote: “Following that review, Superintendent Miles proactively canceled his contract and will not accept any financial benefits from Third Future Schools, ensuring full alignment with the law. He remains fully focused on leading Houston ISD and delivering results for students.” No member of the Houston ISD board responded to the Observer’s questions.

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National Stories

Gov. Josh Shapiro doubles down on his fight against rising electricity prices

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is picking fights with the country’s largest power grid operator and the state’s biggest utility company over rising costs — and he’s already notched some wins. In an exclusive interview with NOTUS, Shapiro doubled down on his threat to pull Pennsylvania out of PJM Interconnection, which currently serves 13 states including Pennsylvania. “Pennsylvania is no longer going to be held captive to PJM,” Shapiro said. “We put forth some very specific proposals I wanted to see them do to reform themselves. They have not yet adopted those, and I’ve been very clear that they’re either going to adopt them or they’re going to lose Pennsylvania.”

Shapiro, who was at a bipartisan energy-focused meeting with other governors Thursday, declined to provide a specific deadline on his ultimatum, but said “the ball is in their court.” PJM is facing extensive criticism from state leaders and power developers, who say that the organization has failed to properly plan for rapidly increasing electricity demand. Shapiro’s tactics show how grid operators and utility companies have become increasingly appealing targets for politicians looking for someone to blame in the developing electricity price crisis. Utility companies are also facing heat. On Thursday, just after the meeting, Shapiro’s office announced that the governor convinced Pennsylvania’s largest utility to voluntarily withdraw a large planned rate hike — an exceptionally rare occurrence. PECO, the state’s largest natural gas and electric company that serves Philadelphia and most of the surrounding counties, requested a 12.5% hike in electricity rates last week, which Shapiro called “pure greed.” On Thursday, just eight days after it announced the rate hike request, PECO withdrew its plans for the increase, citing “conversations with Governor Josh Shapiro” as part of the reason for changing course.

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Lead Stories

Trump picks top Texas health official for CDC deputy director

President Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Jennifer Shuford, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, to serve as deputy director and chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trump announced Shuford’s selection among a slate of CDC hires in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, including his pick for CDC director, Dr. Erica Schwartz. “These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC,” Trump said in his post. Schwartz, who served as deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term, must have her nomination confirmed by the U.S. Senate before she can assume the role. As deputy, Shuford will not have to undergo a Senate confirmation process.

Shuford has led DSHS in Texas since 2022 after serving as the state’s chief epidemiologist and helping to lead the COVID-19 response here. She trained as an infectious disease physician at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and has a Master of Public Health from Harvard University. In a news release, representatives for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), of which Shuford is a board member, praised her appointment. "Dr. Shuford has demonstrated exceptional leadership and a steadfast commitment to evidence-based public health," said Dr. Joseph Kanter, CEO of ASTHO. "Her experience leading one of the nation's largest and most complex state health agencies — particularly her work as a frontline infectious disease physician and chief state epidemiologist — makes her uniquely qualified to help lead CDC." As commissioner of DSHS, Shuford oversaw the state’s response to the West Texas measles outbreak of 2025 and publicly spoke about the importance of vaccination to prevent the disease’s spread. Schwartz, too, has been a vocal supporter of vaccines — in contrast to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has questioned the efficacy and safety of vaccines. KUT News has reached out to HHS for additional comments on Shuford’s selection and a timeline for her transition into the role. KUT News has also reached out to Shuford for comment. The executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission will be responsible for finding a new DSHS leader once Shuford leaves her post.

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Behind Trump’s public bravado on the war, he grapples with his own fears

It seemed like Donald Trump’s appetite for risk had run out, and his fears were ramping up. It was Good Friday afternoon in a nearly empty West Wing soon after the president learned that an American jet had been shot down in Iran, with two airmen missing. Trump screamed at aides for hours. The Europeans aren’t helping, he said repeatedly. Gas prices averaged $4.09. Images of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis—one of the biggest international policy failures of a presidency in recent times—had been looming large in his mind, people who have spoken to him said. “If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter…with the helicopters and the hostages, it cost them the election,” Trump had said in March. “What a mess.” Trump demanded that the military go get them immediately. But the U.S. hadn’t been on the ground in Iran since the government overthrow that led to the hostage crisis, and they needed to figure out how to get into treacherous Iranian terrain and avoid Tehran’s own military.

Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful, instead updating him at meaningful moments, a senior administration official said. One airman was recovered quickly, but it wasn’t until late Saturday that Trump received word that the second airman had been rescued in a high-stakes extraction. What could’ve turned into the lowest point in Trump’s two terms, wouldn’t. After 2 a.m., Trump, too, went to bed. Six hours later, the chest-thumping president was back with another audacious gamble to loosen Iran’s grip on its most powerful point of leverage, the Strait of Hormuz. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” he blasted on social media Easter morning from the White House residence, adding an Islamic prayer to the post. A president who thrives on drama is bringing an even more intense version of his unorthodox, maximalist approach to a new situation—fighting a war. He is veering between belligerent and conciliatory approaches and grappling behind the scenes with just how badly things could go wrong. At the same time, the president sometimes loses focus, spending time on the details of his plans for the White House ballroom or on midterm fundraisers—and telling advisers he wants to shift to other topics.

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Dallas Police Association calls Gov. Abbott's threat to pull funding because of immigration orders 'deeply concerning'

Two days after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold public safety funding from the city of Dallas, the Dallas Police Association has issued a statement calling the threat "deeply concerning." In the statement, DPA President Sean Pease said the threat to withhold tens of millions of dollars in state funding isn't just concerning for Dallas police officers, but for the safety of Dallas residents as well. "Let me be clear: the men and women of the Dallas Police Department have always supported our federal partners, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, every time they have called upon us," Pease wrote. "However, our primary responsibility is, and must remain, responding to the residents of Dallas who call 911 for help."

Currently, Pease wrote, the Dallas Police Department is about 700 officers short, even as officers work to improve emergency response times. And any priority shift that pulls officers away from those emergency calls, he said, puts the community at risk. Threatening critical funding, Pease says, creates unneeded strain on DPD, which is already facing serious staffing shortages. "The current general orders of the Dallas Police Department are designed to ensure officers can focus on local public safety — responding to violent crime, protecting victims, and maintaining trust with the community," Pease wrote. "These policies do not prevent cooperation with federal authorities; they ensure that Dallas officers are not diverted from their core mission during routine policing." Pease said DPD remains committed to working with all of its partners, including federal, state and local, but that the department's most important duty is helping the people of Dallas.

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In red states, anti-immigrant bills are failing as businesses push back

In Tennessee, a bill championed by White House adviser Stephen Miller would allow public schools to deny enrollment to undocumented children. In Idaho, employers would have been forced to use the government E-Verify system to stop undocumented immigrants from getting jobs. In Utah, undocumented immigrants would have been denied public assistance for vaccines or food for pregnant mothers. But businesses and Christian groups helped block each of those proposals from becoming law. “Business leaders across various industries are nervous about the many immigration-focused bills being proposed or that have recently passed at the state level, which negatively impact the workforce,” said Jennie Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy organization that represents Fortune 500 companies.

In fact, of the roughly 200 bills targeting legal and undocumented immigrants in state legislatures this year, fewer than two dozen have made it into law so far, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the American Immigration Council. More than 80 of the measures have died, multiple were vetoed, and dozens more have made little progress this spring legislative season, although several state legislatures are still in session. Many of the bills share common goals and similar texts, and they reflect the immigration enforcement priorities of the Trump administration. But much of the most aggressive legislation has stalled after failing to gain traction, even in red states such as Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Idaho. “Still crazy that Idaho legislators are killing every single bill we got on illegal immigration,” Republican Idaho state Sen. Brian Lenney wrote on X on March 17. In Utah, Republican state Rep. Cheryl Acton called a bill that would have denied public services to undocumented immigrants a “violation, really, of the Sermon on the Mount.”

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American Airlines pours cold water on talk of United merger

Speculation about a merger between Fort Worth-based American Airlines and Chicago-based United Airlines can be put to rest — at least according to one of the parties involved. On Friday evening, American issued a statement addressing the merger rumors, saying the airline isn’t considering joining forces with its competitor. “American Airlines is not engaged with or interested in any discussions regarding a merger with United Airlines,” the statement read. Earlier in the week, Reuters reported that United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby had floated the merger idea during a meeting with President Donald Trump in February.

American is the second-largest airline in the U.S. by market share behind Delta Airlines, and United is fourth behind Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, though there’s a relatively small gap between first and fourth place. But American ranks far behind Delta and United in terms of profitability. A United spokesperson declined to comment when asked about Kirby’s pitch to the president. Any potential merger likely would have met antitrust opposition. Still, during an April 7 interview with CNBC, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wouldn’t rule out the possibility of an airline merger when asked if it could happen. A merger would be subject to regulatory approval, but Duffy said the president “loves to see big deals happen.” American’s statement Friday went on to say that a merger with United would hurt competition and negatively affect customers. “Our focus will remain on executing on our strategic objectives and positioning American to win for the long term,” the statement read.

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State Stories

Dallas GOP pushes to undo runoff voting shift. Election officials say not so fast.

With Dallas County GOP Chair Allen West’s resignation, party leaders still want to overturn his decision to allow countywide voting in the May 26 runoff and reinstate precinct-based voting for all voters. But Dallas County’s elections chief has already said there is not enough time to do that. After thousands were turned away at polls on March 3 due to confusion tied to precinct-based voting forced by Republicans, West amended the party’s contract with the elections department to let voters cast ballots at any vote center, regardless of address.

West said he did so to protect the party from potential litigation, but the unilateral action was counter to a vote 200 members of his executive committee took last year to use precinct-based voting for the 2026 primary cycle – and set off fury that led to calls for his ouster. West stepped down Wednesday, days before a planned vote by the committee to call for his resignation over backlash to his handling of runoff voting. Members of the county Republican Party’s executive committee say the amendment signed by West without their authorization is invalid and precinct-based voting should stand for the runoff for federal, state and local offices. Precinct Chair Stan Woodward told The Dallas Morning News last week party members “are evaluating all legal options” to require the county to honor the original contract for precinct-based voting. While a party chair signs the agreement, he pointed to Texas election code that states county election officers contract with a county party’s executive committee to perform election services. “They’re over there operating with essentially an illegal contract,” Woodward said. “That’s why we are looking to have this reversed in any way.”

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Toby Neugebauer departs as Fermi America’s CEO

Fermi America CEO Toby Neugebauer departed his role as the company’s CEO on April 17, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fermi’s board of directors has created an interim office of the CEO, which will include Jacobo Ortiz, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, and Anna Bofa, an observer on the company’s Board. In its first year, Fermi America raised around $1.8 billion in capital, around $785 million from IPO gross proceeds on NASDAQ and the London Stock Exchange, and around $885 million in equipment financing.

During Fermi’s most recent earnings call on March 30, Neugebauer announced that the company would pursue a potential expansion. The Project Matador site has expanded from its planned 5,769 acres to around 7,570 acres through adjacent land acquisitions, which Fermi said are either closed or under contract. Fermi’s filing with the SEC said the company expects to release additional information on Monday. We’ve reached out to Fermi America and will provide additional information as it becomes available.

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Houston's Friedkin outbid in MLB-record shattering $3.9 billion sale of San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres are nearing a deal to be sold to private-equity billionaire José E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal values the Padres at around $3.9 billion—the highest valuation ever achieved by a Major League Baseball team, the people said. The previous record was Steve Cohen’s $2.4 billion purchase of the New York Mets in 2020. The deal for the Padres, which have been owned by the Seidler family since 2012, is expected to be announced early next week, the people said. Jones and Feliciano, a co-founder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital, beat out a group of bidders that included Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob and businessman Dan Friedkin. Several bids were over $3.5 billion, some of the people said.

Born in Puerto Rico, Feliciano has a net worth of around $3.9 billion, according to Forbes. He worked at Goldman Sachs before starting Clearlake in 2006 with fellow managing partner Behdad Eghbali. While most of the firm’s investments have been in traditional technology, industrial and consumer businesses, Clearlake also has experience in sports. In 2022, it teamed up with investor Todd Boehly to buy Chelsea Football Club for more than $5 billion. Jones is the CEO of Supercharged, a media and personal development company. She is the co-founder of the Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano Initiative, an investment and philanthropic platform that has committed nearly $500 million. She and Feliciano met when they were both students at Princeton where Jones was a track-and-field athlete. Feliciano and Jones will be the first Puerto Rican and African-American majority owners in MLB. The two will each have an equal economic stake, but Feliciano will be the MLB-recognized controlling owner, according to people familiar with the matter. Merchant bank BDT & MSD advised the Padres on the sale.

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State politics shape rarely-contested Alamo Heights ISD races

“We are a consensus board,” is a phrase Ty Edwards often uses to describe the Alamo Heights Independent School District Board of Trustees, in which he’s served on for three years. Covering nine square miles in the cities of Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills, Olmos Park and a sliver of San Antonio’s North Side, AHISD serves around 4,800 students and has a B-rating from the state for “recognized performance” in student achievement. Less than 20% of students are considered economically disadvantaged, and enrollment has stayed consistent for years, even as other neighboring districts keep losing students. Alamo Heights ISD is what education experts call a “destination district,” consistently attracting families from outside of its boundaries.

Usually untouched by contentious elections or board disagreements, the AHISD board could face shakeups from two races on the general May election this year. The two trustees up for reelection — Edwards in Place 3 and Hunter Kingman in Place 4 — both drew challengers from a group of parents concerned with AHISD’s handling of new “parents’ rights” laws. In January, district officials canceled an author’s visit to its two elementary schools after a handful of parents complained about the mention of the LGBTQ+ community in one of the writer’s other books. The cancellation quickly drew backlash from families concerned that the complaints had an outsized effect on all students. But officials said they were being cautious in response to Senate Bill 12, a parent choice bill passed during the 2025 state legislative session that limits classroom discussion of gender identity, sexual orientation, race and topics of diversity, equity and inclusion. Unsatisfied with the district’s response, parents informally picked two moms from their ranks to run: Lindsey Saldana for Place 3 and Bianca Cerqueira for Place 4, who have been supporting each other’s campaigns.

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2nd lawsuit against border wall construction in Big Bend region

An environmental watchdog group on Thursday filed another lawsuit to stop border wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas. The Center for Biological Diversity filed Thursday’s lawsuit in federal court in El Paso against the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This came a week after the nonprofit had filed a lawsuit to stop border wall barrier construction in Big Bend in the same Western District of Texas Court.

Thursday’s lawsuit was filed with the nonprofit group Friends of the Ruidosa Church, and a Big Bend river guide and landowner alleging the Trump administration unconstitutionally waived dozens of environmental laws to fast track border wall construction through the Big Bend region. It also says the administration exceeded its power legally granted by Congress. And violated the Constitution, including the major questions doctrine, which requires clear congressional approval for actions with vast economic and political consequences. “Because Congress did not clearly authorize DHS or U.S. Customs and Border Protection to create a complete, cross-continental border-length wall, the Secretary’s efforts to do so through serial waivers, and particularly the Big Bend Waiver, violates the major questions doctrine and thus the Constitution’s separation of powers principles,” the 38-page lawsuit says. The lawsuit says the “unconstitutional repeal of bedrock environmental and historic protections and dozens of other federal laws to expedite massive border wall construction on the Texas Mexico border will destroy iconic sections of the Rio Grande corridor.” On April 7, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Texas Civil Rights Project filed a complaint in the same federal court against CBP for more information on border wall plans. That complaint charged the government was withholding public records on construction plans for border barriers through Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park, as well as the surrounding region.

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Dallas man convicted of threatening judges in Texas and New York

A federal jury convicted a Dallas man of sending letters threatening to kill federal judges and mailing a white powder intended to resemble biological weapon to a Fort Worth courthouse. Donald Ray McCray, 67, was found guilty Wednesday on three counts of mailing threats to federal courthouses in North Texas and New York, and one count of sending a hoax biological weapon to the federal courthouse in Fort Worth. The trial lasted two days and jurors deliberated for just one hour before convicting McCray.

Prosecutors said McCray sent the letters while incarcerated in a Texas state prison. In March 2025, he mailed letters to clerks at federal courthouses in Fort Worth and Amarillo threatening to kill state and federal employees, including judges. The letters contained white powder. In one instance, one of McCray’s letters containing white powder triggered an emergency response at Fort Worth’s federal courthouse. The building was shut down, and authorities enacted an emergency response to make sure the substance was safe. McCray appeared at a federal court hearing shortly after the indictment in June 2025 and made additional threats against government employees and judges. “With this verdict, North Texas residents held the defendant accountable for his threats and attempts to undermine our judiciary,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in a statement.

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Growing Fort Worth suburb tangled in lawsuit heads toward critical election featuring a few familiar Capitol characters

Willow Park, a growing city west of Fort Worth, is heading toward an election that could flip the balance of its five-member City Council — as it grapples with crumbling roads, new home developments and a lawsuit filed by neighboring cities. Three at-large City Council seats in Willow Park — a city of nearly 7,000 along the lucrative I-20 corridor — are up for grabs on May 2. The three incumbents, Nathan Crummel, Scott Smith and Buddy Wright, are aligned against Marci Galle, Houston Wingard and Roy Kurban. Early voting starts Monday, April 20. The city, which Crummel calls “the gateway to Parker County,” took in around 2,000 new residents in the last six years.

Just shy of 800 voted in the city’s last election, making low voter turnout a concern on both sides. “We’re not looking to keep things the same,” Wright said of himself and fellow incumbents. “We see potential ... and their side seems to be afraid of growth. They’re afraid of development. They’re afraid of change.” The challengers have the support of prominent conservatives and the city’s relatively fresh mayor, Teresa Palmer. Palmer’s tenure, which began in May 2025 after she defeated Doyle Moss, has seen the resignation of two city council members and the city attorney last year. The city manager was also voted out. The election could flip the way the city is governed. Palmer is a fierce advocate of Willow Park becoming a home rule city. Texas cities can either be general law, meaning state statutes dictate its powers and duties, or home rule, meaning a city operates based on its own charter, as long as that charter does not conflict with state law. She appointed 12 people, including Wingard, Kurban, Galle’s daughter Gwendolyn, and former Republican state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, who represented suburban Fort Worth from 2013-21. The committee proposed adding a sixth council member and giving the mayor voting power. “It’ll get more citizens involved in managing our city,” Wingard said. “Not just a small group at city hall.” While the charter will not be voted on in the upcoming election, the slate of challengers said, if elected, they will make it a priority. Wingard, a Lockheed Martin retiree, said part of what riled him up to run was what he believed to be coordinated mistreatment of the mayor by City Council and staff. Palmer has faced harsh critics.

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‘La Gordiloca’ lost at the Supreme Court but won in Laredo

It’s the day after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive her lawsuit against the local officials who orchestrated her arrest nearly a decade ago, and Laredo citizen-journalist Priscilla Villarreal is on Facebook Live to deliver a much-awaited statement. For several minutes, viewers are treated to little more than the radio playing in the background and a scowl that would be the envy of an old-school cop shop reporter. The delay is a tactic; Villarreal is waiting until enough people have started watching to begin her stream-of-consciousness diatribe. Then, the music changes to English band Chumbawamba’s 1997 hit “Tubthumping,” with its on-the-nose refrain of “You’re not ever gonna keep me down.”

Despite the dire concern about press freedoms that the ruling in her case has created among mainstream journalists and First Amendment experts, the social media personality and provocateur known as “La Gordiloca” is defiant, as she explains the prosecution had only managed to raise her profile. “I’m already in the lawbooks; that’s enough for me,” Villarreal said on the March 24 livestream before switching into expletive-filled Spanish. “This was a fucking nine-year squeeze that had everybody shitting themselves. And if you mess with me again, we’ll go back to fucking court.” Villarreal’s oft-recounted origin story is that in 2015, she livestreamed the aftermath of a murder-suicide on her Facebook page, garnering her attention across Laredo and unexpectedly launching her journalism career.

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Crypto-powered payment option MegPrime introduced by D-FW homebuilder

A platform tied to a Dallas homebuilder launched a crypto-backed payment and rewards program that could be a pathway for homebuilders into the world of cryptocurrency. MegPrime, a payment platform powered by its own digital currency, launched its app and incentive program on Wednesday. The incentive program offers incentives up to $15,000 to homebuyers while their home is under construction. The program uses cryptocurrency as an interface in one of the first instances of cryptocurrency being used by a homebuilder in this way. MegPrime’s launch was sparked by the Dallas homebuilder Megatel Homes, which will be the first builder to use the payment program. Zach Ipour, the CEO of MegPrime and Megatel Homes, said that while a home is being built, Megatel will offer $1,500 per month through MegPrime in the form of its own cryptocurrency to customers.

Depending on the size of a home, it can take four to 12 months to build a home. During that time, buyers may be making rent or mortgage payments on their current home using the MegPrime app. “You’re already paying that rent regardless, you just choose to pay that through the MegPrime pay and receive $1,500 incentives for that,” Ipour said in an interview. The cryptocurrency token can be converted into dollars or other forms of currency, which Ipour said is part of the benefit of using cryptocurrency. He also said the platform is designed for people who aren’t necessarily crypto savvy. “We didn’t build this because the world needed another cryptocurrency,” Ipour said in a news release. “We built it to solve a real need, and we used homeownership as our starting point. Crypto is just the architecture of the solution.” Megatel is the first builder to use the platform and Ipour said he hopes the platform is used by more builders, eventually becoming a regularly used platform, similar to PayPal. MegPrime is working with other builders to have them use MegPrime, he said. MegPrime is basing its ability to create its cryptocurrency-powered platform on a no-action letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The January letter signaled the staff of the regulatory body would not recommend enforcement action against the company. Companies can request a no-action letter if they are unsure if a product or service would be a violation of federal securities law and want clarification from the commission.

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Lockheed Martin lands $4.7B PAC-3 missile production deal

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $4.7 billion contract by the U.S. government to accelerate production of its PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptors. “With the right tools, proven processes and skilled employees in place, we are positioned to deliver a record number of munitions in support of the warfighter and our allies,” said Tim Cahill, president, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. The contract supports increased output of the air defense system, which intercepts incoming missile threats and protects U.S. and allied forces. It follows a January framework agreement to ramp up production capacity under the Department of War’s acquisition strategy.

Lockheed Martin said it has invested more than $7 billion in recent years to expand munitions production, including the construction of new facilities and workforce development. The company is working to increase the output of PAC-3 systems and other missile programs, such as THAAD and Precision Strike Missiles. TPG, a global alternative asset manager, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Learfield, a media and technology company empowering college athletics programs. “Through its deep network and quality offering, Learfield has positioned itself as a trusted partner to colleges across the country, and we look forward to working with Cole and the team to support the company’s next chapter,” said Kris Wong, business unit partner at TPG. Learfield works with more than 1,200 collegiate institutions and 12,000 brands, providing services across sponsorships, ticketing, licensing, and name, image, and likeness strategy. The platform is built on a dataset of more than 125 million fan records and supports major conferences, including the SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to approvals. Separately, TPG said the investment will support Learfield’s continued growth across digital media, fan engagement, and sports commercialization.

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Texas Medical Board sanctions doctors for delayed care in the deaths of 2 pregnant women

The Texas Medical Board has disciplined three doctors ProPublica previously investigated whose patients died after receiving delayed or inappropriate pregnancy care under the state’s strict abortion ban. Two of the doctors failed to properly intervene as a pregnant teenager repeatedly sought care for life-threatening complications, the board found. The third did not provide a dilation and curettage procedure to empty a miscarrying patient’s uterus, and she ultimately bled to death. As ProPublica investigated those preventable deaths and five others across three states in the past few years, reporters found that abortion bans have influenced how doctors and hospitals respond to pregnancy complications.

Facing risks of prison time and professional ruin, doctors have delayed key interventions until they can document that a fetus’ heart is no longer beating or that a case meets a narrow legal exception. Some physicians say their colleagues are discharging or transferring pregnant patients instead of taking responsibility for their care. Doctors and lawyers have questioned why medical boards, which oversee physician licensing and investigate substandard care, have not played a more active role in guiding doctors on how to uphold medical standards within the constraints of the law. When asked by ProPublica in 2024 what recourse miscarrying patients had when a doctor denied them necessary treatment, the president of the Texas Medical Board said it had no say over criminal law but that patients could file a complaint and “vote with their feet” to seek care from another doctor. Since then, the Texas board has taken more steps than those in other states, publishing guidance this year that provides case studies on how doctors can legally provide abortions to patients with certain medical complications. The state Legislature ordered the board to create the training materials as part of the Life of the Mother Act, which was passed after ProPublica’s reporting and made modest adjustments to the state’s abortion restrictions in an attempt to prevent additional maternal deaths.

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New San Antonio ICE detention site to open in September, letter says

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention site planned for San Antonio’s East Side will open by Sept. 30 and lock up as many as 1,500 people, the Express-News reported Friday, citing a letter the agency sent to local officials. The massive warehouse the agency bought at 542 SE Loop 410 will serve as a holding site for 500 to 1,500 detainees at a time as their immigration proceedings play out, acting ICE director Todd Lyons told San Antonio officials, according to the daily. Once those legal proceedings are done, the prisoners will be sent to a more permanent detention sites, he added.

Despite informing San Antonio officials of the prison’s opening date, Lyon wrote that ICE hasn’t yet selected contractors to outfit the 600,000-square-foot building as a detention facility. The site is one of several the Trump administration purchased nationwide this spring to facilitate what it’s calling the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. Atlanta-based Oakmont Industrial Group sold the East Side warehouse to ICE in February for $66 million, despite public outcry and opposition from members of City Council. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and the council recently voted 7-2 to amend the city’s zoning code to prevent the opening of new private detention centers without city approval. However, that change doesn’t give the city authority to stop the federal government from opening detention centers here.

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Detained citizen minors remain in limbo when parents deported, judge says

The extensive ICE raids have hit the Valley hard. The raids hurt businesses and impacted classrooms, and now another problem is showing itself. Many local children whose parents are deported find themselves without any support. The kids are U.S. citizens as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, but there is now a gap in the legal system. It is a gap that no one foresaw before the ICE raids began, but Judge Adela Kowalski-Garza of the 484th state District Court has been seeing it very well recently. New laws governing immigration and stricter enforcement of existing laws have created an urgent need regarding the children of parents who have been deported, she said.

“In Cameron County, we are confronting a growing problem that the law has not yet caught up with — and children are paying the price,” said Kowalski-Garza, who handles juvenile cases. One of those children was V.M., a U.S. citizen by birth whose mother was deported to Matamoros about a year ago. MyRGV.com is using a pseudonym for V.M., who was a minor at the time his mother was deported. V.M’s attorney, Louis Sorola, worked closely with Kowalski-Garza who was presiding over the case. “The judge was like ‘I can’t let him go in the street, he’s a kid,” Sorola recalled. “So, she called Child Protective Services and said, ‘Hey, I have an abandoned child here, he’s in jail, I can’t keep him, I’ve already had him for month.’” CPS would not take him because of laws and policies which have not caught up to the current situation. Kowalski-Garza said that as immigration enforcement has increased, so too have the number of parents who have been deported.

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National Stories

Traders placed over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war. What is going on?

Suspicious wagers on the US-Israel war in Iran are creating huge windfalls and raising concerns among lawmakers Sixteen bets made $100,000 each accurately predicting the timing of the US airstrikes against Iran on 27 February. Later, a single user would make over $550,000 after betting that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would topple, just moments before his assassination by Israeli forces. On 7 April, right before Donald Trump announced a temporary ceasefire with Iran, traders bet $950m that oil prices would come down. They did. These bets and other well-timed wagers accurately predicted the precise timing of major developments in the US-Israel war with Iran, creating huge windfalls and raising concerns among lawmakers and experts over potential insider trading.

Betting – once largely siloed to sporting events – has now spread to include contracts on news events where insider information could give some traders an advantage. The proliferation of online betting markets like Polymarket and Kalshi has allowed bets on virtually any news event. It’s also easier than ever to buy commodity derivatives like oil futures, where traders gamble on what the price of oil will be in the future. Leaders of some US federal agencies and some members of Congress said they want to crack down on suspicious trading taking place across different marketplaces, but it’s unclear how much headway regulators will make. “Is the problem that we don’t have legislation or that we don’t have enforcement capabilities?” said Joshua Mitts, a law professor at Columbia University. “To have a law that can’t really be enforced effectively given the technological limitations, it’s sort of putting the cart before the horse.”

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The FBI director is MIA

On Friday, April 10, as FBI Director Kash Patel was preparing to leave work for the weekend, he struggled to log into an internal computer system. He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach. Two of these people described his behavior as a “freak-out.” Patel oversees an agency that employs roughly 38,000 people, including many who are trained to investigate and verify information that can be presented under oath in a court of law. News of his emotional outburst ricocheted through the bureau, prompting chatter among officials and, in some corners of the building, expressions of relief. The White House fielded calls from the bureau and from members of Congress asking who was now in charge of the FBI. It turned out that the answer was still Patel. He had not been fired.

The access problem, two people familiar with the matter said, appears to have been a technical error, and it was quickly resolved. “It was all ultimately bullshit,” one FBI official told me. But Patel, according to multiple current officials, as well as former officials who have stayed close to him, is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy. He has good reasons to think so—including some having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking. My colleague Ashley Parker and I reported earlier this month that Patel was among the officials expected to be fired after Attorney General Pam Bondi’s ouster, on April 2. “We’re all just waiting for the word” that Patel is officially out of the top job, an FBI official told me this week, and a former official told my colleague Jonathan Lemire that Patel was “rightly paranoid.” Senior members of the Trump administration are already discussing who might replace him, according to an administration official and two people close to the White House who were familiar with the conversations. In response to a detailed list of 19 questions, the White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told me in a statement that under Donald Trump and Patel, “crime across the country has plummeted to the lowest level in more than 100 years and many high profile criminals have been put behind bars. Director Patel remains a critical player on the Administration’s law and order team.” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told me in a statement, “Patel has accomplished more in 14 months than the previous administration did in four years. Anonymously sourced hit pieces do not constitute journalism.”

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Potential 2028 Democrats audition in Michigan, with a focus on Trump

Former Vice President Kamala Harris accused the Trump administration of being historically ineffective and unethical. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey urged Democrats not to be derailed by their internal disagreements. And Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said the party could lure back working-class voters by focusing on kitchen-table issues. The 2028 presidential shadow primary arrived in the swing state of Michigan on Saturday, with several potential Democratic candidates test-driving their pitches before a crowd of party activists eager to turn the page on President Trump. The Democrats’ remarks at a Women’s Caucus luncheon hosted by the Michigan Democratic Party are part of a weekend of programming in Detroit that will culminate with the state party’s convention on Sunday. Michigan has been pivotal in recent Democratic presidential primaries and general elections.

A week ago, the three potential candidates — and many more — gathered in New York for a convention that was the first of many Democratic auditions before what is expected to be a wide-open 2028 race. As they travel the country, these Democrats are delivering stump-speech-style messages that often include sharp criticisms of the president and his party. “We are dealing with the most corrupt, callous and incompetent presidential administration in the history of the United States — period,” Ms. Harris, the 2024 nominee, said at the luncheon Saturday, decrying a war with Iran that “the American people do not want” and that she said had eroded the nation’s global standing. Mr. Booker, who ran for president in 2020, called for Democrats to unify going into the midterm elections, saying that the Trump administration was inflicting a “terrible storm” on Americans through its handling of immigration, the economy and the Iran war. “Our kryptonite is division,” Mr. Booker said, adding that the party should have a “robust dialogue” during the primary season but should not allow its disagreements to bleed into the general election. “I’ve seen it too much in our party.”

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Trump accelerates research on psychedelic treatments and asks, ‘Can I have some?’

President Donald Trump on Saturday signed an executive order aimed at encouraging expanded research into psychedelic drugs, part of a broader push to explore emerging mental health treatments. “In many cases, these experimental treatments have shown life-changing potential for those suffering from severe mental illness and depression, including our cherished veterans,” Trump said during a signing event in the Oval Office. The president also announced that the federal government is making a $50 million investment for further research into the psychedelic drug ibogaine. Trump, ahead of signing the order, pointed to initial research he said demonstrates the drug’s potential and quipped that he wanted some himself.

“Can I have some, please? I’ll take some,” Trump said, adding that he would “take whatever it takes,” prompting laughter in the Oval. “I don’t have time to be depressed. You know, if you stay busy enough, maybe that works, too. That’s what I do.” The president invited Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others, including podcast host Joe Rogan, a supporter of ibogaine, to speak about the initiative. Rogan, who backed Trump in 2024 but has recently made headlines for his opposition to some of the president’s policies, including his handling of the Iran war, said his outreach to the president helped spark the policy move. “I want to tell everybody how this happened,” Rogan said from the Oval Office. “I sent President Trump some information.” “The text message that came back,” Rogan said, “’sounds great, do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it,’” he added that it was “literally that quick.” Kennedy said the move is part of a broader effort to address the nation’s mental health crisis.

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Paul Rudd, Brad Pitt, 'R.J. Decker.' Is Florida's film industry back?

Is Florida getting its close-up moment again? After years of losing big-screen productions to states with lucrative tax incentives, a surge of new film and TV projects is bringing Hollywood back to the Sunshine State, from Miami’s neon-lit streets to West Palm Beach's sunny beaches and Tampa Bay’s coastal backdrops. Paul Rudd was filming a movie in St. Petersburg this month. In December, the Hallmark Channel brought its cameras to Disney World to shoot a holiday movie scheduled for later this year. The ABC show "R.J. Decker," which premiered in March, shot scenes in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum were here in 2023, filming scenes for "Fly Me to the Moon" at the Kennedy Space Center. Brad Pitt's "F1," partially shot at the Daytona International Speedway and a restaurant in New Smyrna Beach in 2024, even picked up four Oscar nominations this year, including Best Picture (it won for Best Sound). Is Florida's film industry back?

In the early 2000s, Florida was a film powerhouse. Think "Bad Boys II," "Dolphin Tale," "Magic Mike," "Spring Breakers," "Moonlight," "The Florida Project," and numerous reality shows and Nickelodeon productions that cemented the state's reputation as a versatile, sun-soaked location. But in 2016, the state’s film tax incentive program expired, prompting big studios to go shoot in Georgia instead. For years afterward, even movies and shows that took place in Florida weren't filmed in Florida. The 2024 "Road House" remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which brought the fabled fighter to the Florida Keys, was shot almost entirely in the Dominican Republic. The 2016 Ben Affleck film "Live By Night," based in Ybor City, was shot in Georgia, as was most of the Tampa-based 2023 Netflix movie "Pain Hustlers" starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans. Even the Netflix show "Florida Man" was mostly shot in North Carolina. (MTV kept shooting "Siesta Key" around Sarasota, though.) Now, thanks to local and regional action, the cameras are rolling again. Cities like Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Palm Beach have introduced their own production incentives, while widespread promotion from local film commissions and marketing and development organization Film Florida swings the spotlight back in our direction.

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NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani describes his relationship with Trump as 'honest, direct and productive'

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday called his relationship with President Donald Trump “honest, direct and productive” in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” one day before Trump said Mamdani is “destroying New York” by proposing a new property tax on wealthy New Yorkers. “He’s the president of the United States of America. I’m the mayor of New York City, and we know that so much of what the city needs is also dependent on a relationship with the federal administration,” Mamdani said in an interview marking his first 100 days in office that aired Sunday. He added that he partially credits their at times chummy relationship to the fact that “New York City holds a very special place for him as well as for me. We’re both from the same city.”

“Our conversations are not just of the scale that is typical with the president, but also granular about even the things as specific as zoning law changes in midtown Manhattan, and that, I think, speaks to the fact that Donald Trump is not just the president of this country, he’s also someone who’s been a New Yorker for his entire life, and there is an investment in this,” the mayor added. Though the two have worked together and met in the Oval Office at least twice since Mamdani was elected last November, the mayor declined to comment on how often he speaks with Trump. Still, the mayor was the subject of the president’s ire this week when Trump criticized Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to institute a pied-a-terre tax on properties in New York City worth over $5 million whose owners do not primarily reside there. “Sadly, Mayor Mamdani is DESTROYING New York! It has no chance! The United States of America should not contribute to its failure. It will only get WORSE. The TAX, TAX, TAX Policies are SO WRONG. People are fleeing. They must change their ways, AND FAST. History has proven, THIS ‘STUFF’ JUST DOESN’T WORK,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.

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'Mission accomplished': US breaks hiring record for air traffic controller applicants

More than 8,000 qualified candidates applied to be air traffic controllers in record time, according to U.S. officials. "Mission accomplished," U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted Friday night on X along with a video clip of "Super Mario Bros." The clip is a nod to the Federal Aviation Administration's latest hiring campaign, inviting video game players to "level up" and apply to become air traffic controllers. The splashy new campaign featured an ad targeted at video game players and launched ahead of the annual hiring window, which opened at midnight April 17. Within 13 hours, the FAA reportedly received more than 8,000 applications, and roughly 7,250 of those applications were qualified, according to Duffy.

By 7 p.m. Eastern, the number of qualified applicants rose past 8,000, was the agency's goal. As of Saturday morning, the job posting was no longer open. Duffy said that it was the "fastest application pace in American History for air traffic controllers" in the FAA's 67 years of recruiting. The FAA has been battling a stubborn shortage of air traffic controllers, hit by retirements and pandemic slowdowns. The FAA highlights skills gamers already use, including quick thinking, focus and managing complex situations under pressure. On the hiring website, the FAA leans into the gaming tactics, reframing job requirements as "mission requirements" and dangling "high score rewards" for joining the team. To become an air traffic controller, the agency says one must be a U.S. citizen, under 31 years of age and speak fluent English. As the "high score rewards," the FAA touts a six-figure salaries totaling more than $155,000 after three years of Academy graduation, paid academy training and a "legendary" benefits package.

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Lead Stories

The cost to meet Texas' future water demand just skyrocketed to $174B

The cost to stave off future water crises in Texas just went up – by a lot. According to a draft 2027 State Water Plan approved on Thursday, Texas will need to invest $174 billion over the next 50 years if it wants to keep up with demand. That’s more than double the cost of the previous state water plan, published in 2022. That higher price tag, captured in 2023 dollars, comes as parts of the state have already begun to experience water shortages and experts warn that droughts will become more frequent and severe. Thursday’s draft report, issued by the Texas Water Development Board, said the higher price tag is due to inflation in construction costs and a growing backlog of projects that have been approved but not built. But it also reflects the fact that as water becomes scarcer, accessing new sources becomes more and more expensive.

Existing water supplies are projected to decline by 10% by 2080, largely due to the depletion of the state’s aquifers, which supply the state with half of its water. If nothing is done, Texas faces potential water shortages of 3.6 million acre-feet per year as soon as 2030, according to the plan, more than half the total municipal use across the state. (An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land to the depth of a foot, or about 325,000 gallons.) By 2080, potential water shortages rise to 5.8 million acre feet. The hefty price tag of the new water plan is raising some alarm among experts, who question whether state lawmakers allocated enough resources last year to the problem when they earmarked $20 billion over the next two decades for water infrastructure and supply projects.. “This figure validates concerns that $1 billion a year is not going to be sufficient to meet the infrastructure needs to ensure our water supply,” said Perry Fowler, the executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, a construction trade coalition for water projects.

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Israel and Lebanon agree to 10-day ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah

A 10-day ceasefire announced by U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed on by Lebanon and Israelstarted at midnight local time. The Israeli and Lebanese governments agreed to the ceasefire following more than a month of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Nearly 2,200 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli air strikes. Israel’s hardline Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Friday that Israel’s attempts to completely disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon “is not yet complete.” Katz said that Israel would continue to hold all the places it is currently stationed. “We defined the goal: disarming Hezbollah by military or diplomatic means, was and remains the goal of the campaign to which we are committed.” Trump also said he’s inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House for the leaders’ first direct talks in over 30 years.

Aoun had refused to speak with Netanyahu on Thursday. Israel’s and Lebanon’s respective ambassadors to the U.S. held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades earlier this week. Pakistan’s army chief met with Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday in a bid to extend the separate ceasefire between Israel, the U.S. and Iran. Uncertainty remains whether the frantic diplomacy can lead to a deal. A second round of US-Iran talks hasn’t been scheduled yet, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday. Israel Katz said Israeli forces would continue to hold all the places they are currently stationed, including a buffer zone extending 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Israel into southern Lebanon. He added that many homes in the area would be destroyed and no Lebanese residents could return to the area. Katz said the rest of Lebanon south of the Litani River must also be cleared of Hezbollah’s presence, either through diplomatic means or continued Israeli military operation. “Disarming Hezbollah by military or diplomatic means was and remains the goal of the campaign to which we are committed –- with significant political leverage now also due to the direct involvement of the U.S. president and his commitment to this goal -– while applying pressure to the Lebanese government,” Katz said. Israel occupied a similar area in southern Lebanon between 1982 to 2000.

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Texas restaurant owners call for work permits as immigration crackdown strains industry

On a recent Friday afternoon at Revolver Taco Lounge in Dallas, business was slow. Many seats at the restaurant were empty, and only a few customers were waiting for their orders. An art festival down the street was not generating much foot traffic. For Regino Rojas, the owner, the day was not an anomaly but almost a new norm. “I think this, right now, is worse than the pandemic,” he said. About 50 percent of Texas restaurants reported that they were not profitable last year, up from 38 percent in 2024, according to the Texas Restaurant Association. Some of that has been a consequence of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration: In Texas, where by some estimates nearly 10 percent of the work force is undocumented — compared with about 4.5 percent of the U.S. work force — restaurant owners have said that the crackdown has created a chilling effect among their workers, regardless of their immigration status.

Now as they feel the strain, the Texas Restaurant Association and business leaders across the country have started a coalition, called Seat the Table, demanding that Congress and the White House create work permits for “long-term, law-abiding immigrants playing critical roles from farms to restaurants.” Across the country, roughly 42 percent of restaurant operators said they were not profitable last year, according to the National Restaurant Association, a slight uptick from 2024 as food and labor costs have steadily increased for years. In backing the coalition, the Texas Restaurant Association, in a state with strong conservative roots, made clear that it was not calling for amnesty, nor was it asking for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants. “I think the vast majority of Americans recognize that there is a large group of undocumented immigrants who have been literally keeping food on our tables,” said Kelsey Erickson Streufert, the chief public affairs officer for the Texas trade group. “And if we remove those people, it is going to hurt everyone in terms of higher prices.”

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Texas law firm headcount grows slowly with historic demand

For the first time, Texas has a corporate law firm with 500 attorneys working in the state. A second firm is just two lawyers shy of that mark. Four law firms now have 400 or more attorneys, and 11 have 200 or more business lawyers operating in Texas, according to new data research by The Texas Lawbook. Even so, the number of business lawyers in Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio is not growing fast enough to handle the increased demand for legal services from corporate clients, especially when it comes to the most complex mergers and acquisitions, bet-the-company litigation and major regulatory matters. The result: The best and most successful lawyers in Texas are now demanding annual compensation packages exceeding $12 million — and some reaching $23 million — while hourly rates being paid by Texas businesses are approaching $3,000.

“It’s a simple matter of supply versus demand,” said Kent Zimmermann, a law firm consultant with Zeughauser Group. “The work is there because so many new companies are moving into Texas, and Texas-based companies are growing. Law firms are struggling to find lawyers who have experience and expertise to do the work.” The 50 largest corporate law firms employed 8,400 attorneys in Texas in 2025, a 2.9% increase over the prior year, according to the Texas Lawbook 50, an annual survey of the top law firms in Texas, tracking their lawyer headcount, revenues and profits. “I’ve never seen so many good things coming together all at once, giving us the best year ever,” said Joe Coniglio, managing partner of the Dallas office of Greenberg Traurig, a Florida-founded firm. “Our hard work and investment in Texas are giving us a significant advantage.” The two law firms with the largest lawyer head count declines in Texas were Holland & Knight — formerly Dallas-based Thompson & Knight — and Vinson & Elkins. Across the board, law firm leaders in Texas say they want to hire more lawyers — especially those with experience handling private equity transactions, corporate fundings and high-stakes litigation — but there is a shortage of such attorneys currently practicing in Texas.

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State Stories

Abbott threatens to pull millions from Dallas over immigration policy

Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday warned Dallas that he would pull $32.1 million in state funds if the city does not repeal police department rules around collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a letter to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, Andrew Friedrichs, the executive director of Abbott’s Public Safety Office, said the Dallas Police Department’s internal rules regarding immigration may violate the city’s agreement with the state for the funding. The threat to Dallas is part of a broader push by the Republican governor to force major cities into closer alignment with federal immigration enforcement. Abbott issued similar warnings this week to Houston and Austin for their respective immigration-related policies.

A spokesperson for Johnson’s office did not respond Thursday afternoon to requests seeking comment. City and police spokespeople did not answer a list of questions about Abbott’s letter or the rules at issue, issuing a joint statement saying the city would respond by the April 23 deadline in the letter. “We remain committed to complying with all applicable state and federal laws while continuing to prioritize public safety for the residents of Dallas,” the statement read, “and ensuring our officers have the resources and support necessary to effectively serve the community.” Police’s general orders — the department’s internal rules that guide officer conduct — may also “imperil” the city’s ability to receive $51.5 million in federal funds to help cover public-safety costs tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Friedrichs wrote in the letter. Article continues below this ad “A city’s failure to comply with its contract agreement with the state to assist in the enforcement of immigration laws makes the state less safe,” Andrew Mahaleris, an Abbott spokesperson, said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News. “It can have deadly consequences. Cities in Texas are expected to make the streets safer, not more deadly.” The city has until the letter’s deadline to “confirm that the City will not enforce, and will act to repeal” the general orders on immigration. Failure to do so would see the city repaying the funds it has already received.

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Gov. Abbott threatens to pull $2.5 million in grants to Austin over APD's ICE rules

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to terminate roughly $2.5 million in state grants awarded to Austin because of the city's policies on police cooperation with federal immigration authorities. This comes just days after Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the city’s policies on how it works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Austin Police Department announced new rules in March for how officers interact with ICE agents if they suspect someone is in the country without authorization. Those rules require officers to clear any communication with ICE with a supervisor if the suspect has a civil "administrative warrant" — or noncriminal warrant — flagged by ICE. APD is required to communicate with ICE for suspects facing criminal charges, according to the guidelines.

Abbott said the department's policies “impede or restrict the notification” to ICE and may be in breach of the grant agreements. Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott's press secretary, said this is a safety issue. "A city's failure to comply with its contract agreement with the state to assist in the enforcement of immigration laws makes the state less safe," Mahaleris said. "It can have deadly consequences. Cities in Texas are expected to make the streets safer, not more deadly." City officials said the grants at risk of being pulled provide mental health services to police officers, help survivors of sexual assault, help protect and prepare the community against cybersecurity attacks and terrorism threats, and improve the ability to respond to violent crimes against women. In a letter to Mayor Kirk Watson and council members, Abbott said the city should respond by April 23 to confirm that it will move to repeal the new rules or risk the grants being terminated. If the grants are terminated, the city will be required to repay the entire amount within 30 days.

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Harris County commissioners appoint Houston City Council’s Abbie Kamin to serve as interim county attorney

Harris County commissioners on Thursday appointed Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin to serve as interim Harris County attorney, a position she is seeking full-time in the November election. Kamin’s appointment will be effective June 15. She said in a statement she’ll continue to serve on the city council until her successor in sworn in, likely in late May, as Joe Panzarella and Nick Hellyar are headed to a runoff for Kamin’s District C seat on the council. Her appointment came after a lengthy executive session during commissioners court on Thursday, and after Commissioner Tom Ramsey said Jonathan Fombonne — who had served as interim county attorney since January — submitted his resignation from the position.

Ramsey and Commissioner Rodney Ellis said they were taken aback when they saw a potential appointment appearing on the agenda for Thursday’s commissioners court meeting. “I think it matters how you do something,” Ramsey said. “I don’t think this is the correct way to do this. I don’t think putting something on the agenda last week and then surprise surprise, Jonathan resigns this week.” Commissioners approved the appointment after commending Fombonne for his work serving a brief stint as county attorney. Commissioners in January selected Fombonne to serve as the county's interim chief legal advisor, after delaying an appointment for months. The January appointment was prompted by then-County Attorney Christian Menefee's run for Houston's 18th Congressional District. The county attorney position is set for an election in November. Kamin, who edged civil court Judge Audrie Lawton-Evans in the Democratic primary in March, is facing Republican Jacqueline Lucci Smith, a former civil court judge who once worked in the county attorney's office. Kamin will begin serving in the position on June 15. The commissioners court voted 3-2 to appoint her, with Ramsey and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo voting against the appointment.

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John Cornyn pushes crackdown on cities after Abbott's Houston ICE threat

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is pushing to crack down on cities that limit local police cooperation with federal immigration officers, the latest GOP response to Houston’s new ICE policy. The Texas Republican filed legislation Thursday to strip some federal funding from so-called “sanctuary” cities, allow states to sue cities and counties that do not cooperate with ICE and bar states from prosecuting local police who help with immigration enforcement.

It’s a beefed-up version of a bill Cornyn led in 2016 that drew 53 votes in the Senate, but fell shy of the threshold needed to pass. Republicans in the Senate still do not have the numbers to overcome a potential Democratic filibuster. Texas lawmakers passed a law in 2017 requiring local police to cooperate with federal immigration officials. Still, some cities across the state have sought to manage how much local police interact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive. Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened to strip $110 million in grants from Houston after the city council last week voted to scrap a policy that requires officers to wait 30 minutes for ICE officers to pick up someone with a civil immigration warrant. The city’s new policy also requires the department to make reports to the council about its cooperation with ICE. A spokesman for the governor said this week that his office is also investigating other cities, but did not specify which ones.

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Austin airport delays drop but remain among longest in U.S.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is among the worst airports in the nation for long flight delays, a new study suggests. The study, by travel-tech company AirAdvisor, found the average flight delay at Austin-Bergstrom was about 163 minutes in the first quarter of 2026, ranking the airport No. 3 in the U.S. for delay length. AirAdvisor analyzed flight performance data from 200 major U.S. airports to find the average duration of long delays — meaning one hour-plus — from Jan. 1 to March 26.

The same study found that Austin’s delay time dropped by almost 55 minutes from the same period in 2025, marking significant year-over-year improvement. Still, long delays put extra strain on passengers, AirAdvisor CEO Anton Radchenko said. “Even with some easing, disruption at that level can still lead to missed connections and significantly longer travel days,” Radchenko said. Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas topped the list with an average long delay of 181.63 minutes, the analysis found. Close behind is San Diego International Airport, at 181.34 minutes. Behind Austin at No. 4 is Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which averaged about 165 minutes. Los Angeles International Airport rounds out the top five with an average long delay of roughly 148 minutes. Last year, an AirAdvisor analysis found Austin to be the worst in the nation for delays exceeding three hours, with routes to Dallas, Chicago and Boston among the most affected.

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Former Arlington mayor Robert Cluck dies at 87, city officials announce

Former Arlington mayor Robert N. Cluck, whose leadership helped bring the Dallas Cowboys to the city, died Tuesday at age 87, city officials said in a statement. Cluck, a former obstetrician-gynecologist, was elected to two terms on the Arlington City Council before serving as mayor for 12 years, from 2003 until 2015. “Dr. Cluck’s tenure was defined by bold milestones,” city officials wrote in an online obituary. “He was known as a champion for public health and economic revitalization, steering the city through the development of the Arlington Highlands shopping center, Viridian masterplan community in north Arlington, and the rebirth of Downtown.”

Cluck was born in Cisco, Texas, on March 20, 1939. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and later attended medical school at UT-Southwestern, completing his residency at John Peter Smith hospital. A two-year Air Force veteran, Cluck served as a general medical officer at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, according to his obituary. Cluck originated the idea of moving the Dallas Cowboys to Arlington in 2001, when he was serving on the city council. He reached out to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones after hearing the team might be in the market for a new location. Jones named the stadium’s atrium after him in 2015, and a city park east of the stadium also bears his name. “During his time as mayor, Dr. Cluck was instrumental in the growing city’s vision for development and redevelopment,” city officials said. “He saw the community’s potential as a thriving and competitive city of the future, and it was his ability to build collaborative partnerships that helped the city be a part of developments such as The University of Texas at Arlington’s College Park, the Levitt Pavilion and Downtown Arlington redevelopment. He also worked on economic development initiatives to keep the Texas Rangers and General Motors Arlington Assembly Plant.” Cluck is survived by his wife, Linda, daughters Katherine and Jennifer, son Robert and four grandchildren.

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Harris County commissioners table ICE proposal over legal concerns

Harris County commissioners took no action Thursday on a proposed plan to develop guidelines for law enforcement interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during traffic stops. Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who added the item to the agenda, instead requested the county attorney look into the issue and come back at an unspecified date with guidance. The Precinct 1 commissioner said his colleagues had legal concerns regarding the proposal. “I won't give them a deadline, but I’ll just say, do it with all deliberate speed. That’s my request,” Ellis said.

Ellis previously said he was inspired by a recent 12-5 Houston City Council vote that eliminated a requirement that police wait 30 minutes for ICE agents if they pull someone over with a civil immigration warrant. But the city’s vote prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to threaten to pull $114 million in public safety grant funding in response. Mayor John Whitmire, who voted for the measure, called a Friday special session at which City Council members were to consider revoking the ordinance, then on Thursday delayed that vote to Wednesday, saying the governor had extended the city's deadline. Ellis had intended to have county staff develop a set of voluntary guidelines regarding interactions with ICE agents that the sheriff and constables could sign onto, should they choose. Unlike the Houston Police Department, which reports to the mayor, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and the county's eight constables are independently elected officials.

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Austin proposes daily homeless camp sweeps

Austin officials are planning to dramatically increase the number of homeless camp sweeps the city conducts, starting this summer. These sweeps – in which police and Austin Resource Recovery workers descend on camps, give their residents an hour to gather possessions, and then throw their remaining belongings into dumpsters – are controversial. Advocates for the homeless community say they are cruel, expensive, and actually perpetuate homelessness. The plans for the sweeps are summarized in a leaked six-page draft document which surfaced last week. The document, the legitimacy of which has not been disputed by the city’s Homeless Strategies and Operations Department, begins by stating the rationale for the sweeps, saying that Austin’s 311 call center takes over 700 requests a month for camp cleanup services, far more than the city can handle.

It recommends the creation of six teams to clean camps daily, Monday through Friday, each consisting of two APD officers and several ARR personnel. Altogether, 42 people would work on the sweeps. The document proposes that three teams be assigned to clear out camps in parks, green spaces, and neighborhoods. Two more would clear camps near highways, bridges, and waterways. A sixth would collect litter. The document emphasizes the city will prevent homeless people from returning to camps that have been cleared. Paulette Soltani of the homelessness advocacy group VOCAL-TX told us it feels like HSO is shifting its resources toward criminalizing homelessness, since the department has said it will no longer embed outreach workers in the groups conducting the sweeps. “I wish our community understood that there’s no way for us to solve this problem through the enforcement of sweeps,” Soltani said. “People come back to camps because they need access to services. They need access to food.”

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Tremaine Jackson, Prairie View staff earn raises, $200K NIL boost

It has been no secret on The Hill that Prairie View is enjoying the success of football coach Tremaine Jackson. Prairie View has put its money where its appreciation is. Tremaine Jackson confirmed to the Defender that he has received a 35% pay increase, his staff is getting a similar uptick in the assistant coaches’ pool, and Jackson will have at least $200,000 in NIL money to lure recruits. “I believe schools show how much they value you by what they do contractually. Everybody says, `We are so glad Coach Jack is here,’” Jackson said to the Defender. “In my profession, there is only one way to show me you are glad to see me. Pats on the back don’t spend at HEB. Now I believe them when they say, `We’re glad to see you.’”

But more than the increase Jackson received for himself, the reigning SWAC Coach of the Year after just one season at Prairie View, is most proud that his coaches have been taken care of to the level that their pay is now competitive with most FCS programs. Jackson and his staff came from Division II Valdosta State pretty much under the same contracts that former coach Bubba McDowell and his staff had. Jackson said negotiations between his agent, athletic director Anton Goff, and the administration began in January and were finalized recently. “I feel really good about the fact that we were able to come to an agreement to get our assistants paid,” Jackson said. “For me, any dollar you pay Tremaine Jackson once I left Valdosta State was more money than I’ve made coaching football. “It really didn’t matter to me. I don’t need no money. I’ve been good for a while now, thankfully. I wanted to make sure that we were competitive from an assistant coach standpoint and assistant coaches pool and that I wouldn’t be losing coaches because somebody got five more thousand dollars for them. Thankfully, our administration got that done to where we can come with an agreement.”

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After years of ‘chronic’ bottlenecks, JPS gets started on a new hospital

JPS Health Network is breaking ground on two hospital towers, one of the most pressing needs of the aging public hospital system. The construction will begin in the coming weeks, nearly eight years after voters first approved an $800 million bond to finance the hospital and numerous other projects. “We are here today not just to break ground on a new hospital, but to fulfill a promise,” said Dr. Karen Duncan, the health system’s president and CEO. “Everyone in Tarrant County, no matter what their circumstance, their ZIP code or their story…they deserve access to exceptional and compassionate care.” As a public hospital, JPS is partially funded by local tax dollars, and cares for a disproportionate amount of Tarrant County residents who lack health insurance and have limited means to pay for their care.

For years before voters approved the bond, consultants, hospital leaders, and county officials identified a new hospital tower as a priority for JPS. The new hospital will bring more beds for patients. There are “chronic bottlenecks” in the JPS emergency room while patients wait for beds to become available, according to a report from 2018. These bottlenecks have forced JPS to transfer out hundreds of patients to other hospitals because they did not have enough beds. “The size of these existing facilities do not meet the current demand and will certainly not be able to meet expected increases in future demand,” according to the report. There are 582 beds in the existing hospital. The new towers will have 740 beds when they open, and capacity to have more than 800 beds, said Jill Farrell, the chief operating officer for JPS. In addition, the new hospital will have private patient rooms. Some of the rooms in the existing hospital are semi-private. The new hospital will also replace the outdated and aging infrastructure of the existing tower, built in 1970. The mechanical and electrical systems for the hospital are “well past their usable life and minimally functional for any current form of use,” according to a long-range planning and facilities analysis done in 2017.

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NASA awards private astronaut mission To Voyager

NASA has awarded its seventh private astronaut mission to Voyager, one of a handful of companies also vying to provide NASA’s microgravity research and astronaut flight services in low Earth orbit (LEO) after the International Space Station (ISS) is retired. Voyager looks at the Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) as an opportunity to get a practice run at ground operations, training and flight control ahead of the launch of its planned Starlab space station, Starlab CEO Marshall Smith told Aviation Week April 15 on the sidelines of the 41tst annual Space Symposium. Voyager and Airbus are primary partners on the commercial space station Starlab project.

The PAM mission to Voyager, announced April 15, follows four private U.S. charters to the ISS by Axiom Space, the award of a fifth Axiom mission and the award of a sixth PAM mission to startup Vast, another contender for a commercial space station to succeed the ISS. “With three providers now selected for private missions, NASA is doing everything we can to send more astronauts to space and ignite the orbital economy. Each new partner brings fresh capabilities that move us closer to a future with multiple commercially operated space stations and a vibrant, sustainable marketplace in low Earth orbit,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement. Voyager’s PAM-7 mission, named VOYG-1, is targeted to launch no earlier than 2028 and spend up to 14 days at the ISS. Transportation services are expected to be provided by SpaceX, which currently operates the only U.S. crew transportation system to and from the ISS. Voyager said it would submit four proposed crewmembers to NASA and the international ISS partners for review. “Once approved and confirmed, they will train with NASA, international partners, and the launch provider for their flight,” Voyager said in a statement.

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Dallas looks to regulate churches, nonprofits distributing free food to homeless people

Dallas City Council members were divided Wednesday over a city proposal to prevent street vendors without a permit from offering free food to people experiencing homelessness. For years, faith-based groups and nonprofits have hosted food drives to assist those who experience heightened food insecurity on the streets. Several of the groups have set up tables and pop-up tents in the parking lots behind City Hall to help nearly hundreds of people at a time. City officials have raised concerns about the safety and hygiene of the drives, saying there’s no way to ensure food is handled safely and the trash left behind negatively impacts nearby neighborhoods. Food providers told The Dallas Morning News last year that the city’s crackdown unfairly targets those who are just trying to help the most vulnerable.

At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, some council members wanted the city to redo its proposed regulations to address legal concerns, while others wanted the council to hash out changes when they finally vote. Council member Adam Bazaldua said the current proposal was too broad, and ran the risk of overregulating groups if the city interpreted their actions as an “imminent threat to public safety or public health.” This, he said, could set the city up for future lawsuits under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “This ordinance raises serious concerns, especially when it comes to religious freedom,” Bazaldua said. “For many people, feeding the hungry is not just charity.” Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Moreno, whose district includes parts of downtown where these drives regularly occur, said the proposed regulations were specific to the city government’s efforts to improve food regulation. Moreno asked Chris Christian, the code compliance services director, who was responsible for paying for the cleanup after food distribution events. Christian said a lot of the cleanup was done by the city’s Department of Transportation and Public Works and the city’s clean sweep team that’s funded by a yearly $36 fee for taxpayers. Downtown Dallas Inc., the nonprofit overseeing downtown, has paid contractors some bills exceeding $100,000 to clean up, he said. The city’s code currently does not outline safety standards for street vendors to prevent contamination and food-borne illnesses. Council member Cara Mendelsohn said the current homelessness data did not show whether this was an actual issue. She said food-related illnesses and emergency visits would have better explained a need for regulation. But she had not seen that.

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National Stories

Sports betting industry spends $41 million to influence elections

Some of the country’s biggest sports betting platforms are pooling tens of millions of dollars into a new super PAC that is expected to focus primarily on state legislative races, the latest example of an industry-funded special interest seeking to play a big role in the midterm elections. DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics have put $41 million into a new group, Win for America, according to a Wednesday filing with the Federal Election Commission. The striking total signals that the group is likely to be one of the biggest spenders in the 2026 election cycle. Win for America operates two other outside groups: American Future, which will engage in Democratic primary races, and American Conservative Fund, which will focus on Republican ones. Sports betting has been largely regulated by state governments since the Supreme Court in 2018 overturned a national ban on such wagers (except in Nevada casinos and a few venues in other states).

The industry has spent heavily on lobbying state legislatures to legalize sports betting and to limit taxation and some regulation, leading to the fastest expansion of legalized gambling in American history. More than 35 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized some form of sports betting. New filings show that the three Win for America groups are sending their money to affiliate groups that appear to be spending on state legislative races in Georgia and Texas — two of the largest states that have not approved sports betting. In Pennsylvania — another state where the Win for America operation is directing money — lawmakers have considered raising taxes on sports betting. The group’s state-focused approach is different from the paths taken by other industry-funded super PACs this cycle, such as those backed by the artificial intelligence and crypto industries. Those super PACs are largely engaging in federal races as they try to shape the membership of the next Congress, and are some of the cycle’s biggest spenders. An exception to that is the social media giant Meta, which has pumped $65 million into its own A.I.-focused super PACs centered on state lawmakers.

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Trump to pick ousted FEMA head to lead agency again

President Trump intends to nominate Cameron Hamilton to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency after he was pushed out as acting leader nearly a year ago, according to two people briefed on the matter. Mr. Hamilton, who has limited disaster management experience, is a former Navy SEAL who worked for a defense contractor and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Virginia before taking over FEMA. Mr. Hamilton was ousted from that position after he told members of Congress that the agency should not be eliminated. Mr. Trump had said early in his second term, “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away.” But when Congress pressed him on the agency’s future in a hearing last May, Mr. Hamilton contradicted that outlook. “I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Mr. Hamilton said on May 7.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Mr. Hamilton. Mr. Trump has not yet formally nominated him for the role, and as with all personnel matters, aides caution that Mr. Trump could change his mind before officially announcing Mr. Hamilton. His nomination could raise concern among emergency managers because of a federal law passed after Hurricane Katrina requiring that the FEMA administrator carry extensive experience managing disaster response. Mr. Hamilton previously worked as an emergency management specialist in the State Department and as a division director in the Department of Homeland Security, where he managed emergency medical technicians on the southern border. He would take over an agency that has lost thousands of employees since Mr. Trump took office, and whose future has appeared in flux as Kristi Noem, the former homeland security secretary, explored eliminating or dramatically reshaping it. The FEMA administrator must be confirmed by the Senate, but Mr. Trump has not formally nominated anyone for the job in his second term. Three people have led the agency on an acting basis over the past year, including Mr. Hamilton. But Markwayne Mullin, who was confirmed as homeland security secretary last month, told senators in his confirmation hearing he planned to name a permanent administrator to take over.

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Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons resigns

Todd Lyons, the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is resigning from the agency later this spring, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to MS NOW. He will remain in his role until May 31. The circumstances surrounding his departure were not immediately clear, and officials have not publicly identified his replacement. “Director Lyons has been a great leader of ICE and key player in helping the Trump administration remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members from American communities,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “He jumpstarted an agency that had not been allowed to do its job for four years. Thanks to his leadership, American communities are safer.”

Lyons, a longtime immigration enforcement official who assumed the acting directorship in 2025, has overseen ICE during a period of expanded deportation operations under President Donald Trump. His tenure has coincided with a sharp increase in enforcement tactics under the administration, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers in Minnesota in January. ICE has cycled through multiple acting leaders in recent years and has lacked a Senate-confirmed director. Lyons’ departure comes at a pivotal moment for the agency as it navigates ongoing legal challenges and political divisions tied to the administration’s hardline immigration crackdown agenda. In recent months, Lyons has faced growing scrutiny, including a court order requiring him to appear before a federal judge over concerns that the agency failed to comply with directives related to detainees’ rights. Earlier Thursday, Lyons testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee, where he faced questions from lawmakers over ICE’s budget, enforcement priorities and compliance with court orders.

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How Gavin Newsom boosted his book sales with $1.5 million from his PAC

In November, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California rolled out an intriguing offer to his formidable email list of supporters: Donate anything to his political group, and he would send them a copy of his forthcoming book: “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.” “Make a contribution of ANY AMOUNT today and I will send you a copy,” he wrote. It turned out about 67,000 supporters did just that. The books those donors received account for roughly two-thirds of the print copies of the memoir that have been sold. On Wednesday, new federal records revealed that Mr. Newsom’s political action committee paid $1,561,875 to buy and distribute copies of his book through the donation program. A spokesman for Mr. Newsom, Nathan Click, said his PAC, the Campaign for Democracy Committee, wound up netting more money from contributors attracted by the book offer than the cost of 67,000 copies of the book that the PAC provided. Mr. Newsom does not receive royalties for books sold through the program, he said.

“We were thrilled with the response,” Mr. Click said. “Our goal was to deepen the relationship between him and the millions of folks who have already expressed support for Governor Newsom’s work. And as it turns out, the tactic more than paid for itself.” The Newsom team said that the 67,000 books that supporters received after sending donations were part of the 97,400 print copies of Mr. Newsom’s memoir that have been sold since publication, a total provided by Circana BookScan, a book industry sales tracker. Mr. Newsom’s team had hailed his book sales back in March, including a map in a news release showing all the sales by location across the country. “With more than 91,000 copies sold through organic, in-person and online, non-bulk purchases in the United States, the memoir surged on bestseller lists within hours,” the release said. The book also appeared on the New York Times best-seller list. Danielle Rhoades Ha, a Times spokeswoman, said: “When The Times has reason to believe that sales of a book include a mix of organic and bulk sales, the book’s best-seller ranking is accompanied by a dagger. That’s what we did with the Newsom book.”

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House extends surveillance powers until April 30 after late-night revolt sinks GOP plan

The House early Friday approved a short-term renewal until April 30 of a controversial surveillance program used by U.S. spy agencies in a post-midnight vote after Republicans revolted and refused President Donald Trump’s push for a longer extension. GOP leaders rushed lawmakers back into session late Thursday with a series of back-to-back votes that collapsed in dramatic failure, before they quickly pushed ahead the stopgap measure as they race to keep the surveillance program running past Monday’s expiration date. First they unveiled a new plan that would have extended the program for five years, with revisions. Then they tried to salvage a shorter 18-month renewal that Trump had demanded and Speaker Mike Johnson had previously backed. Some 20 Republicans joined most Democrats in blocking its advance.

Shortly after 2 a.m. they quickly agreed to the 10-day extension, which was agreed to on a voice vote without a formal roll call. It next goes to the Senate, which is gaveling for a rare Friday session, as Congress races to keep the surveillance program running. “We were very close tonight,” said Johnson after the late-night action. But Democrats blasted the middle-of-the-night voting as amateur hour. “Are you kidding me? Who the hell is running this place?” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., during a fiery floor debate. At the center of the standoff that has stretched throughout the week is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant. In doing so, they can incidentally sweep up communications involving Americans who interact with foreign targets. U.S. officials say the authority is critical to disrupting terrorist plots, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage.

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RFK Jr. grilled over vaccines, MAHA in back-to-back hearings: Key takeaways

House members got their first opportunity Thursday to grill Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as he kicked off a marathon series of seven congressional hearings in seven days with back-to-back hearings in the Ways and Means and Appropriations Committees. In the two appearances, his first before Congress in 2026, Kennedy defended his record in leading the nation’s health agency as Democrats sought to push back against proposed budget cuts and changes to vaccine policy. Kennedy faced a very different political environment from the one in which he appeared before Congress seven months ago, when his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement seemed to be at its most politically powerful. Kennedy and his allies last year overhauled the childhood vaccine schedule to recommend fewer shots while also shaking up key leadership positions across health agencies.

But with an eye on the 2026 midterm elections, the White House wants Kennedy to stop talking about vaccines and focus on other MAHA “wins.” The administration sees him as an asset, so long as he avoids talking about unpopular changes to vaccine policy. Thursday was the first high profile test of that strategy. Here are key takeaways: In his opening remarks in both hearings, Kennedy touted the administration’s moves on food and nutrition as well as drug pricing. He highlighted new dietary guidelines and partnerships with companies to eliminate artificial food dyes. He also defended the administration’s proposed budget for the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, which would slash $16 billion from the current fiscal year’s appropriated amount. The proposal includes substantial cuts to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “Am I happy about the cuts? No, I’m not happy about the cuts,” Kennedy said. But, he added, “we got a $39 trillion debt.”

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Trump slammed the first US pope. The country’s bishops now appear more united than ever.

After President Donald Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV and his foreign policy on social media this week, U.S. Catholics, and especially bishops, have largely reacted with condemnation and dismay. While it’s not new for U.S. presidents and the popes to disagree — especially on matters concerning war — what’s surprising about the recent spat between Leo and Trump is how much it has unified the Catholic bishops and faithful behind the pontiff, after years marked by division and internal conflict. “The attack on Pope Leo has united the American hierarchy with particular zeal,” said Christopher White, author of the 2025 book “Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.”

The bishops’ unity has been strengthened by the election of an American pope and the “general sense of obligation that they need to support him and have his back,” he said. From the moment Leo walked out on the loggia after his election last May, he laid out his mission, entrusted to him by the cardinals who elected him, to “walk together with you as a church, united, ever pursuing peace and justice.” His motto “In Illo uno unum” (“In the one Christ we are one”) is a manifesto of what the new pope wants to prioritize in what he considers a fractured church and society. During Pope Francis’ papacy, U.S. bishops only occasionally criticized him in public, but their United States Conference of Catholic Bishops organizing body rarely threw its weight behind his priorities, like the environment and dialogue, known as synodality. And their attempts to weigh in on former President Joe Biden’s policies were marred by division as disagreements about denying Democrats who supported abortion rights Communion spilled into public view.

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Lead Stories

It's not just Talarico. Democrats are dominating the fundraising race in critical Congressional contests

Even at a time of inflated political-fundraising hauls, the numbers Democrats reported Wednesday stand out. Many of the Democratic Party’s top candidates reported gargantuan fundraising totals for the first three months of the year — figures that reinforce the party’s growing confidence that it is gaining momentum roughly six months before the midterm election. The Democrats’ Senate nominee in Texas, James Talarico, led the way by raising $27 million in the year’s first fundraising quarter, a figure that until recently would have been considered a strong return for a major presidential candidate, let alone a congressional contender. But he wasn’t the only Senate Democratic nominee to post an impressive report to the Federal Election Commission: Roy Cooper, the Democrats’ Senate nominee in North Carolina, raised nearly $14 million, and Mary Peltola, the putative party nominee for Senate in Alaska, raised almost $9 million. Sherrod Brown, the likely nominee in Ohio, raised $12.5 million.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s totals might be the most striking: The incumbent raised $14 million last quarter and has $31.7 million on hand, per FEC reports. Ossoff, Talarico, Cooper, Peltola and Brown had, combined, more than $80 million on hand to start April. The Democrats’ financial successes last quarter, however, come with a caveat. At the national level, the party still faces a steep financial disparity against Republicans, when including outside groups like MAGA Inc. and super PACs like the Senate Leadership Fund. And an expected Supreme Court decision this spring could give the GOP another advantage, letting them maximize the political impact of contributions from big donors and the more than $100 million in the Republican National Committee’s own warchest. Like their Senate counterparts, House Democratic candidates challenging Republican incumbents also reported impressive fundraising figures. Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke ($2.4 million) outraised Rep. Derrick Van Orden ($1.3 million) in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District. Sarah Trone Garriott ($1.7 million) raised more than Republican Rep. Zach Nunn ($1.3 million) in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District. Janelle Stelson ($2.2 million) collected more than Rep. Scott Perry ($1.1 million). JoAnna Mendoza ($2.4 million) hauled in more than Rep. Juan Ciscomani ($1.1 million).

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Greg Abbott eyes other Texas cities' ICE policies after threatening Houston

Gov. Greg Abbott’s office is investigating Texas cities that limit law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officials after the Republican governor threatened to pull $110 million in public safety grants from Houston this week. A spokesman for Abbott did not specify which cities were under investigation, but told Hearst Newspapers the governor’s public safety office is “looking into allegations that other cities may be in violation of their contract with the state.” “Every city in Texas that enters into an agreement with the Governor‘s Public Safety Office must follow the same standards applied to the City of Houston,” Andrew Mahaleris said.

A state law passed in 2017 bans so-called “sanctuary” policies and requires local police to cooperate with federal immigration officials. Still, some cities across the state have sought to manage how much local police interact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive. The Houston City Council last week voted to scrap a policy that requires officers to wait 30 minutes for ICE officers to pick up someone with a civil immigration warrant. The city’s new policy also requires the department to make reports to the council about its cooperation with ICE. The governor’s office said that policy flouted an agreement to work with federal immigration authorities that the city signed to receive the public safety grants his office oversees. Abbott distributes $580 million in state and federal grants to local law enforcement agencies each year, one of the biggest pots of police grant funding in the state.

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Camp Mystic hearing concludes with judge's rebuke, strengthened preservation order and 2027 trial dates

A three-day evidentiary hearing in the Camp Mystic wrongful death litigation concluded Wednesday in Austin with a judge strengthening her preservation order, scrapping a 2028 trial date in favor of 2027, and formally warning both legal teams that the extraordinary acrimony that has defined the proceeding will not be tolerated going forward. The hearing before Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble produced three days of testimony — including nearly five hours from camp director Edward Eastland alone — that laid bare the failures of July 4, 2025, in granular, often agonizing detail. When it was over, the judge made clear she had been paying attention: she added language to her preservation order explicitly stating that the defendants potentially violated the Texas Administrative Code by failing to maintain a written evacuation plan, a legal finding that strengthens the plaintiffs’ negligence case heading into trial.

For the 22 families suing Camp Mystic, the three days of testimony represented something they have waited nine months for — a public accounting, under oath, of what happened in the early morning hours of July 4 that led to the deaths of their children. For the Eastlands, who have deep roots in Kerr County and enjoy broad support from a loyal base of Camp Mystic alumni and families stretching back generations, the hearing was an equally painful ordeal — one that placed their decisions, their communications and their character under a microscope in open court. The proceeding was, in many ways, an emotional tug of war between two very different versions of the same night, argued by lawyers whose mutual contempt became impossible to ignore. For everyone in that courtroom, Wednesday marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of a long road ahead. There are five separate lawsuits — and the judge has kept them that way. Judge Guerra Gamble is presiding over all five wrongful death cases stemming from the Camp Mystic disaster, but she has explicitly declined to consolidate them. Each case remains legally distinct, brought by different families represented by different attorneys. That is why five separate legal teams were present throughout the hearing, why the trial dates are staggered, and why coordination between those teams — particularly around the depositions of surviving campers — required the judge’s direct intervention. The cases move together in some procedural respects but will ultimately be tried separately.

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Pentagon approaches automakers, manufacturers to boost weapons production

The Trump administration wants automakers and other American manufacturers to play a larger role in weapons production, reminiscent of a practice used during World War II. Senior defense officials have held talks about producing weapons and other military supplies with the top executives of several companies, including Mary Barra, chief executive officer of General Motors, and Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor, according to people familiar with the discussions. The Pentagon is interested in enlisting the companies to use their personnel and factory capacity to increase production of munitions and other equipment as the wars in Ukraine and Iran deplete stocks. The talks were preliminary and wide-ranging, the people said. Defense officials said American manufacturers might be needed to backstop traditional defense companies and asked whether the companies could rapidly shift to defense work.

The Defense Department “is committed to rapidly expanding the defense industrial base by leveraging all available commercial solutions and technologies to ensure our warfighters maintain a decisive advantage,” a Pentagon official said. The discussions are the latest by the administration to put military manufacturing on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called a “wartime footing.” Discussions started before the war in Iran, the people said. The conflict’s strain on U.S. munitions stockpiles is further indication that the military needs more commercial partners to scale up supplies of munitions and tactical hardware, such as missiles and counterdrone technology, quickly. During the talks with U.S. manufacturing executives, defense officials framed bolstering weapons production as a matter of national security. The officials asked whether companies could help as the Pentagon seeks to shore up domestic manufacturing capacity, the people said. The officials also asked executives to identify barriers to taking on additional defense work, from contracting requirements to hurdles in the bidding process.

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State Stories

Fewer new wells, more oil in West Texas

Texas produced nearly half of all U.S. oil last year despite having drilled fewer new oil wells in 2025, a trend that analysts and industry groups said is possible due to the state’s geological makeup, a network of pipelines and transportation, and the ability to work on multiple production sites in less time. And that West Texas oil has helped keep U.S. supply steady as oil supply across the world has been squeezed during the Iran war, experts said. American oil companies produced 13.6 million barrels of oil daily last year, once again breaking their own record, according to a report by the Energy Information Administration. Almost half — 6.6 million barrels a day — came from the Permian Basin, the vast stretch of oil-rich deposits spanning tens of thousands of square miles between western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Oil companies accomplished the record with a fraction of available drilling rigs, which the industry historically relied on to search for, find and lift fossil fuels from the ground. The EIA, in its report, said fewer rigs could lead to a 2% drop in production in 2027, marking the first time oil could dip since 2021. And in light of the U.S. war on Iran, domestic oil production — particularly in West Texas — has taken on a new meaning. The war pushed gas prices sky high as the global supply of oil has been slashed during the conflict. Texas oil leaders said the situation could have been worse had it not been for their work. “Without the millions of barrels produced a day in the Permian Basin there’s no question we’d be in much more volatile times,” said Ben Shepperd, president of Permian Basin Petroleum Association, the largest regional trade group in the country. “The strong production coming out of the Permian Basin, however, helps provide a stable source of energy for the United States and our allies, which can reduce volatility when conflicts arise in other parts of the world.”

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Guard: More could have been saved at Camp Mystic if more adults helped evacuate

A night watchman who assisted with a chaotic, haphazard rescue effort at Camp Mystic during a catastrophic flash flood told a state district court Wednesday that more able-bodied adults could have helped evacuate campers and more children could have been saved. Glenn Juenke, 58, a retired Houston police officer, was initially defensive when questioned about the doomed effort led by Camp Mystic owner and executive director Richard “Dick” Eastland in the early morning hours of July 4. He testified that no evacuation plans would have worked given the scale of the flooding. He insisted that he and camp leaders did everything possible to save children. But by the end of a withering cross-examination, Juenke conceded that camp officials could have rescued more children if anyone had used a functioning loudspeaker or walkie-talkie radio to summon more able-bodied adults on the grounds to direct campers from their cabins to safer buildings.

Juenke’s testimony gave a more detailed description of a rescue effort that failed to save the lives of 25 children and two counselors at the Texas Hill Country camp on the south fork of the Guadalupe River, about 18 miles southwest of Kerrville. Eastland, 70, was killed while trying to pull victims from the floodwaters when his Chevrolet Tahoe was swept away by high water and crashed into a tree. He and Juenke — along with Eastland’s son, Camp Mystic Guadalupe River director Edward Eastland, 42 — managed to evacuate some campers and counselors before the situation spiraled into disaster. But the three men didn’t reach the victims in the greatest peril in time. Other adults at Camp Mystic didn’t know about or assist with the rescue effort. They included nurses at the camp infirmary, Camp Mystic Guadalupe River director Mary Liz Eastland, Camp Mystic head chef Richard Eastland Jr. and male college students staying on the camp’s grounds.

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Allen West — Dallas County's top Republican Party leader — resigns

A month after his reelection, Dallas County Republican Party Chair Allen West has resigned. West notified county election department officials Wednesday afternoon. He called to inform elections administrator Paul Adams. Commissioner Andy Sommerman, who chairs the elections commission committee, confirmed Wednesday that West quit. "Allen West called Paul Adams this afternoon to announce that he was resigning as the Republican chair," he said. The local Republican Party is scheduled to meet Monday and its county executive committee had planned to vote for West's removal. Party members were angry and disappointed that West signed a contract with the county to revert to countywide, joint vote centers for the May primary run off election.

West made the decision to amend and sign the contract after a disastrous Primary Election Day last month confused and potentially disenfranchised an estimated minimum 30,000 voters. The Republican Party voted at the end of December to hold separate, precinct-based primary elections on Election Day, March 3. Allen had announced earlier this month in his weekly newsletter party members were unhappy that he signed an amended contract with the county election department to hold joint Republican and Democratic voting in May. He had decided to abandon separate, precinct-based voting and return to joint, countywide voting after month's chaotic primary elections — which confused thousands of voters and set off a chain of legal action in local and state courts. He told KERA that holding another election that confuses voters could open the Republican Party up to potential risks, including disenfranchisement accusations. He also alluded to the potential for "serious legal ramifications and litigation."

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Brownsville, McAllen deny AG’s claims of ‘illegally raising taxes’

The cities of Brownsville and McAllen are among two of the more than 1,000 cities in Texas under investigation for “illegally raising taxes,” the Texas Attorney General’s office said in a news release. Both cities are compliant in their financial reports, according to respective city managers. McAllen City Manager Isaac J. Tawil noted that the Attorney General’s office was referring to nearly every city in Texas. The state has more than 1,200 incorporated cities, according to the comptroller’s office. McAllen has provided everything to the state lawfully, he said, adding that there is no pending litigation against the city or imminent threat of an audit.

Tawil also said that the release acts as a reminder for cities across Texas to remain compliant in financial transparency. In May 2025, the state legislature passed a partisan Republican bill requiring cities to publish annual financial audits, but municipalities that fail to meet requirements cannot increase property taxes beyond that of the previous year. The bill became effective at the start of September. Brownsville passes its annual report at the city commissioner’s second March meeting each year, said interim City Manager Alan Guard. The city approved the meeting’s minutes at the start of April. “We take care of our business, most cities do,” he said, adding that the city must get its fiscal documents filed within six months after the end of the fiscal year, as per the city charter. In Brownsville, the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. “So we’ve been in compliance for years and years and years,” Guard said. MyRGV.com reached out to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Office, but received no immediate response. Paxton’s office posted a complaint form for Texans who believe local officials are violating audit transparency requirements and “unlawfully raising taxes,” the release said. “I am demanding that cities prioritize transparency and work to minimize the tax burden of every citizen across the state,” Paxton said in the news release.

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Judson ISD cuts 536 positions to balance budget next school year, but expects far fewer layoffs

The board of trustees for the Judson Independent school district voted Tuesday to eliminate more than 500 positions next school year. District officials said cutting those positions from the 2026-2027 budget will eliminate Judson’s $35 million deficit and allow Bexar County’s fourth largest school district to begin rebuilding its cash reserves. “Throughout these last (four) years, our money has been telling us what we cannot do. ‘You don't have money for this.’ ‘We don't have money for that.’ With (these) cost reductions, all of a sudden, things have changed,” Interim Superintendent Robert Jaklich told trustees. “Now we get a chance to talk about how we can make our money work for us.” Jaklich said Judson’s cash reserves, called a fund balance, currently has 71 days of operating expenses.

“We need to be at 75 days of operating expenses,” Jaklich said, adding that the budget plan presented Tuesday would reverse the downward trajectory of the district’s fund balance. Trustees voted Tuesday to follow Jaklich’s recommendation and eliminate a total of 536 positions. However, district administrators said at least 459 of those 536 positions will be covered through attrition and existing vacancies. “Those 459 positions. Those are positions. Those aren't people,” Jaklich said. “That leaves us 77 positions left (with people in them).” Trustees voted earlier this semester to permanently close four campuses at the end of the current school year. District officials said those closures eliminate the need for 284 positions. However, Judson officials expect to place most of the employees affected by the closures in positions at other campuses left open through attrition. Deputy Superintendent Mary Duhart-Toppen said enough teachers quit each year for all of Judson’s certified teachers to be retained even with the recommended reduction of 258 teacher positions across the district.

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Longtime immigration court interpreter arrested by ICE at South Texas airport

Last month, Meenu Batra, 53, who has lived in the South Texas border colonia of Laguna Heights since 2002, was on her way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to work another case. She’s been a court interpreter for over 20 years, the only one licensed in Texas for Hindi, Punjabi, or Urdu. Her language skills are requested nationwide, where she’s contracted to help people making their way through the immigration court system, just as she did for herself 35 years ago when she immigrated from India to New Jersey before settling in Texas. She planned to meet with her adult children in Austin after the Wisconsin trip, the only difference she foresaw in an otherwise typical trip. Her routine for years included flying from either Harlingen or Brownsville to far-flung parts of the country where South Asian immigrants needed language access. For this trip, the flight was out of Harlingen. But, around 5 p.m. on March 17, Batra was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after passing through security at Harlingen International Airport.

In a sworn deposition that was filed as part of a petition for habeas corpus—a legal request to be released on the grounds that the detention is unlawful—Batra said the people who arrested her did not have visible badges nor were they wearing uniforms. One of those agents had asked Batra if she knew she was in the country illegally and that she had a deportation order. She replied that her work authorization status, which she applied for regularly after being granted a legal status called withholding of removal by a New Jersey immigration judge decades ago, was good for another four years. “That doesn’t mean you can be here forever,” the agent replied. Two more plainclothes agents would join the two that detained her, bringing her down the escalator and to the front of the airport. “Having watched and read enough news, I know that the moment you say something, they accuse you of evading arrest or whatever other things,” Batra told the Texas Observer. “So, being mindful of all that, mindful of the whole line and being embarrassed in front of everybody, I just complied.”

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Texas Tech Chancellor defends new course content guidelines as LGBTQ advocates criticize changes

New guidelines for the more than 14,000 courses offered at Texas Tech are getting pushback from several organizations serving as advocates for the LGBTQ community. Texas Tech System leaders are working to be more efficient with these new course guidelines. The driving force behind these changes has been Texas Senate Bill 37, written by Chancellor Brandon Creighton last year, when he was in the Texas Legislature. The law requires state curriculum to serve as the foundation for a student’s future, particularly in the workforce. It states classes may “not endorse specific public policies, ideologies, or legislation.” The Academic, Clinical, and Student Affairs Committee of the Texas Tech Board of Regents identified about 60 courses that needed alteration. Lubbock LGBTQ advocates say the decision targets conversations about gender identity and sexual orientation.

“Free speech on campus doesn’t quite feel so free at the moment,” said Jay Pettit, a member of the Lubbock chapter of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, also known as PFLAG. Pettit said the recent course changes are creating a climate of fear in faculty and staff at Texas Tech, fear of speaking up about it or fear of misunderstanding the guidelines. “There’s so much like, is this going to be the thing that a student objects to? Am I going to face disciplinary actions for even bringing this up?” Pettit said. Pettit says the changes make him feel like he’s losing his footing with TTU. “It feels very strange to come into work every day or to sit down in a classroom knowing that based on the memo, people like me aren’t supposed to exist,” Pettit said. “It does, even if it’s not said out loud, like if I’m not feeling like I’m allowed to talk about my experience.” Chancellor Creighton says respecting academic freedom has been at the center of the content review. “The process has respected the First Amendment,” Creighton said.

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Reliant Stadium is back: Why NRG is returning to its original name

When the Houston Texans begin play in their 25th season, they’ll do so with a familiar name back on their home venue. After 12 years of being called NRG Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is reverting to its original name: Reliant Stadium. The change was approved Wednesday by the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation. Reliant Energy, the company based in Houston, bought the 30-year naming rights for the stadium and surrounding buildings in 2002 for $300 million. NRG Energy purchased Reliant’s retail electricity business in 2009 and opted to change the name of the stadium in 2014 to reflect the brand of the parent company.

Although there are no changes with the business — Reliant is still a subsidiary of NRG Energy — the publicly traded energy company now has decided to go back to using the Reliant branding on the stadium. According to NRG, a recent survey revealed that 90% of their Houston-based customers supported the return of the stadium’s original name. NRG Consumer president Brad Bentley said the survey “just dialed in what we knew to be true.” “It’s the brand that they connect with, that they do business with, that they trust to deliver their power and that we have relationships with, so we’re excited to bring it back,” Bentley told the Houston Chronicle. “We think we’ll have a lot of good momentum and excitement among our customers.” Although the decision was made solely by NRG, which owns the naming rights to the stadium through 2032, the timing works out for the Texans, who have events planned to celebrate their 25th season in the NFL. “I don’t think you could have mapped it out better from our perspective,” Houston Texans team president Mike Tomon said. “We’re excited to celebrate 25 seasons of Houston Texans football back where it all began when it was Reliant Stadium. To be in this situation, where you have one of your founding partners that has really been with us from the very beginning back in 2002, to have it rebranded back to Reliant as we celebrate 25 seasons, I think it lines up perfectly.”

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NAACP denied use of Arlington subcourthouse after Tarrant commissioners argue politics, raising free speech concerns

Tarrant County commissioners denied the use of a county subcourthouse to the NAACP after disagreeing over the civil rights group’s politics. The Arlington chapter of the NAACP requested to use a community room at their city’s subcourthouse — which is owned and operated by the county — to host monthly public meetings from May to November. The group asked that commissioners waive the estimated $2,600 in fees needed to pay for after-hours personnel and security. Commissioners voted along party lines April 14 to deny the request, with the court’s three Republicans voting no. GOP Commissioner Matt Krause said he couldn’t approve the request out of concern that the events would be perceived as partisan, which free speech experts said could pose First Amendment violations.

“If you ask people, ‘Does the NAACP identify with one political party over the other and do more politicking and partisanship for one party over the other?’ I think a strong majority would say, ‘Oh, certainly they do,’” Krause told the Fort Worth Report on Wednesday. “Whether that’s a positive or a negative, I’m not saying that one way or the other.” Before casting his vote Tuesday, Krause recalled denying a similar request in his own precinct when a resident asked to use a county subcourthouse to host voter registration training. Although he believes the training could have been helpful, Krause said, he denied the request because of the applicant’s past affiliations with the GOP and concern about the perception of partisanship. Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons, whose precinct includes the Arlington subcourthouse, argued that the NAACP is nonpartisan and should be allowed to use the county building. Simmons is running for the countywide judge seat on the Commissioners Court in the November election. “It is a policy organization with a mission to advance civil rights and human rights — that’s it,” Simmons said at the meeting. Rejecting the NAACP’s application sets a dangerous precedent and raises serious questions about fairness, Simmons added in a statement to the Report. “A community room is not a reward for approved opinions. It is a public space governed by neutral rules,” she wrote. “If this request meets those rules, and it does, it should be approved.” The First Amendment protects most forms of speech and expression in public forums, such as public sidewalks and parks. Government facilities are typically considered public forums. Government bodies may impose reasonable rules to restrict speech, but those rules must be viewpoint-neutral and appropriate to the building’s intended use.

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Retired HPD chief Troy Finner hired by Missouri City as police department leader

Two years after abruptly retiring as HPD chief, Troy Finner is back at work. Missouri City announced Tuesday that it has hired Finner as its police chief. He is expected to begin work next week. “Chief Finner brings more than three decades of law enforcement experience,” read a statement released by the City of Missouri City. “Throughout his distinguished career, he advanced through the ranks of one of the nation’s largest police organizations, earning a reputation for professionalism, leadership, and a steadfast commitment to public service.” Finner spent 34 years with HPD, including his first 12 years as a patrol officer before being promoted to sergeant. After serving five years as a sergeant, Finner was promoted to lieutenant, and in 2021, former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner appointed him chief.

It was a position Finner held until he retired amid controversy in May of 2024, when an investigation revealed that the police department had suspended 260,000 cases under a code due to a lack of personnel. The department, under Finner’s leadership, suspended investigations into 4,000 sexual assault cases and over 264,000 incident reports because it lacked the manpower to investigate. According to reports, the victims were unaware that their cases were no longer being investigated. Finner said at the time that he had stopped the practice after learning of it in 2021. Missouri City, through City Manager Angel Jones’ office, didn’t shy away from the controversy surrounding Finner’s abrupt retirement in a released statement. “The City is aware of the circumstances regarding Chief Finner’s departure from the City of Houston,” the release read. “While Missouri City does not minimize the seriousness of those matters, the City’s decision was based on it’s assessment of his extensive experience and his ability to lead the department forward.” But Missouri City focused on the qualities Finner brings to the table and why he was hired to lead the city’s police department. “Chief Finner brings the leadership experience, judgment, and professionalism needed to lead the Missouri City Police Department and serve this community effectively,” said City Manager Angel Jones.

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In Dallas County, stalled paperwork keeps teens homeless

On Dallas County’s streets, the government’s failure to deliver public benefits is more than abstract policy debate. It’s life-or-death for kids who age out of foster care every week. Forty-six of these vulnerable young people are homeless right now because they cannot receive the federal housing funds for which they qualify, according to reporting by The Lab Report. Bureaucratic inertia between state and county employees has resulted in this aid being gridlocked in paperwork and communication breakdowns for months. That means the 46 kids are left to sleep in shelters, encampments, or on a friend’s couch instead of living in a safe, stable place paid for by the government. The Foster Youth to Independence, or FYI, vouchers cover at least 70 percent of each month’s rent for kids exiting foster care who, after attaining housing, can focus on college, job training, or steady employment. They can begin to build credit, establish roots, and form connections in their community.

But without a place to live, their options are limited, and mostly bad. Some resort to returning to a family that the child welfare system previously determined to be unsafe. Others wind up with people who don’t have their best interests at heart. Tonight they might sleep in a co-worker’s car, tomorrow on public transportation, the next—they have no idea. “These kids are at such risk. It’s very easy for them to be human-trafficked or harmed by predatory individuals,” says Nicole Binkley, CEO of the Transition Resource Action Center, which assists young people moving out of foster care. Despite the risks they face, “time and time again, bureaucratically, getting these vouchers into their hands just has fallen through the cracks,” she says. Based on about a dozen interviews and reviews of more than 50 documents and emails, here’s why the housing assistance remains unavailable: Since 2024, the work necessary to put the vouchers in play has lurched along with more stops than starts. Officials, staffers, and lawyers have banged their heads against each other only to fall back into the growing bureaucratic quagmire.

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‘Jeff Williams syndrome’: Former mayor looms over Arlington race

Arlington Mayor Jim Ross has accused one of his opponents in the May 2 election of being a “puppet” for former Mayor Jeff Williams. During an interview with the Star-Telegram’s editorial board on April 9, Ross said that Williams urged Steve Cavender to run against him. Cavender, a real estate developer, is the president of the River Legacy Foundation’s board. Hunter Crow, a Tarrant County Democratic Party precinct chair, and Shaun Mallory, owner of Daesy’s Tropic Sno, are also on the ballot.

“I inherited horrible relationships with police and fire because of Jeff Williams, and Mr. Cavender is acting simply as his puppet,” Ross said during the interview during a contentious exchange about Champions Park, a $30 million mixed-use development in north Arlington at the intersection of Interstate 30 and Collins Street that has seen little progress since it was approved by Arlington City Council in 2015 and initially developed in 2016. “He hasn’t been involved in virtually anything in this city, except recently becoming the president of the River Legacy Foundation … and then he has the audacity, without reading a budget, to come in and challenge what we’re doing on these types of things, simply because Jeff Williams is telling him to do so.” Ross was commenting on a question earlier on in the interview, when Cavender — asked where in the city’s budget he would make cuts to avoid further property tax increases — said he did not extensively read the full budget document.

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What the NRA is doing to rebuild its membership in Texas and beyond

The National Rifle Association is still in damage control after a financial scandal rocked its leadership structure two years ago and triggered a major decline in memberships. As the NRA returns to Houston for its annual convention this week, top officials are talking up a restructured organization and pleading with former members to rejoin. “We're making major strides,” Justin Davis, the NRA's director of public affairs, said about the reforms. “We're making the NRA back about the members again.” In 2024, longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre, a key architect of the nonprofit's hardline gun rights agenda, resigned after he was accused of spending more than $11 million on private flights and approving $135 million in NRA contracts in exchange for yacht access and free trips to the Bahamas, Greece and other vacation hotspots.

?Ten years ago, the NRA reported raking in $200 million from memberships. That was down to about $61 million in 2023, according to an independent audit of NRA finances made public in December by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a D.C. nonprofit. ?NRA political spending has also dropped. In 2016, the NRA’s political arm spent $54 million to help get President Donald Trump elected. In 2024, that spending was just over $10 million. ?Davis said after years of losses, the membership rolls have “stabilized.” He said they are still expecting about 70,000 people to attend this year’s convention in Houston, even though President Donald Trump will not be the headliner as he has been at past NRA conventions in Texas. Davis said he hopes former members will see an organization going back to its “blue collar” roots and using their membership money more wisely. “I can assure you you're in good hands and we're looking forward to having you come back home,” he said.

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National Stories

A progressive group rolls out a campus competitor to Turning Point

Democrats desperate to win back young voters who drifted rightward in the 2024 election have rolled out a host of projects since then aimed at appealing to Gen Z. The latest high-profile group to join in: More Perfect Union, the progressive media organization run by a veteran of Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns. On Wednesday, More Perfect Union announced an initiative called More Perfect University, a college campus effort pitched as a liberal antidote to Turning Point USA, the conservative activist group that has spread right-wing cultural values at universities and mobilized young voters for President Trump. “They’ve been wildly successful,” Faiz Shakir, the executive director of More Perfect Union and a senior adviser to Mr. Sanders, said of the right. “We’re hoping that an economic populist movement for the next generation will start through More Perfect Union on campuses.”

The stakes are high on college campuses, where younger voters joined a historic shift of traditionally Democratic groups toward Mr. Trump in 2024. Young voters backed former Vice President Kamala Harris over Mr. Trump, 51 percent to 47 percent. But that result represented a significant shift from the 25-point margin by which they backed former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, according to an analysis of Associated Press VoteCast data. The world of higher education has long been seen as a bastion of liberalism, and that view helped Turning Point pitch itself as countercultural alternative when it emerged more than a decade ago. But if Turning Point was the right’s answer to the left’s dominance of academia, More Perfect University will frame itself as a progressive champion for the working class, said Elise Joshi, a former executive director of Gen-Z for Change who will lead the push. “The same corporations that are rigging the economy against young people are bankrolling the right’s campus operation,” Ms. Joshi said. The evidence, she added, lies in Turning Point’s “refusal to champion working-class issues.”

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How Eric Swalwell rose to the top of Democratic politics as rumors followed him

When Cheyenne Hunt first arrived on Capitol Hill as a staffer in 2020, several other young women working there warned her privately: Stay away from Rep. Eric Swalwell. Swalwell could be “creepy,” Hunt said other women told her, especially over social media. Six years later, Hunt is one of several women who have leveraged their large followings online to go after Swalwell, enlisting women to come forward with their stories and connecting them with reporters at CNN and other outlets. Late last week, allegations that include sexual assault of a former staffer and sending unsolicited explicit messages to young women came to light in investigations published by CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle. On Tuesday, a woman accused Swalwell of raping her in 2018.

Swalwell’s attorney Sara Azari said Swalwell denies “each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault” made against him, calling them “false, fabricated, and deeply offensive.” “This is a ruthless and shameless attempt to smear Congressman Swalwell,” Azari said of the allegations. In recent days, Swalwell (D) exited the California governor’s race and resigned from Congress. He apologized for some “mistakes in judgment” he made while in office in a statement on Monday. The Washington Post has not independently verified the allegations, and Azari and Swalwell’s Capitol Hill staff did not respond to a detailed list of questions for this article. The stunning fall has Hunt and others asking how someone who was dogged by persistent rumors of inappropriate behavior toward women similar to what she heard in 2020 could have risen so high and so fast in a party that says it supports women’s rights. “We do need to take a look inward as a party because it was an open secret,” said Hunt, the executive director of the youth group Gen Z for Change, referring to the Democratic Party. “Not necessarily that he was assaulting people but that he was a creep. That was well known.”

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US sanctions 2 casinos, 3 people over alleged links to Mexico’s Northeast cartel

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday issued sanctions against three individuals and two casinos for their alleged links to Mexico’s Northeast cartel, one of several criminal groups designated last year as terrorist organizations by the Trump administration. Washington has intensified its crackdown on the Northeast cartel — heir to the former Zetas — which has been accused of trafficking weapons, drugs and people, and is characterized by its violent practices and extortion. Its base is Nuevo Laredo, the busiest commercial port on the U.S.-Mexico border. Among the entities sanctioned is Casino Centenario, a gambling venue in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, which the U.S. claims functions as a drug storage hub and a mechanism for laundering money through gambling activities.

The Treasury also sanctioned Diamante Casino, headquartered in the northern city of Tampico — also in Tamaulipas — which operates an online betting site. Sanctions were also leveled against high-profile enablers, including Eduardo Javier Islas Valdez — the alleged “gatekeeper” of the cartel’s human smuggling routes into Texas — and attorney Juan Pablo Penilla Rodríguez, cited for providing illicit support. Notably, the list includes activist Jesús Reymundo Ramos, whom the Treasury Department identified as a paid operative responsible for spreading cartel disinformation under the guise of human rights advocacy. The U.S. sanctions block assets the targeted people have in the United States and prohibit people from doing business with them in the U.S. Ramos did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In March 2023, Ramos alleged that the Mexican Army and government orchestrated accusations linking him to the Northeast cartel, which he denied. An independent investigation later confirmed that his phone had been compromised by Pegasus spyware in 2020.

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‘He’s got a lot of stamina:’ What to watch as the RFK Jr. hearing blitz kicks off

Lawmakers are about to get their shot to weigh in on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first year at the Health Department and his plans for the next. In seven hearings over less than a week, beginning Thursday, Kennedy will show whether all those workouts with Kid Rock and his red meat-heavy diet have him in shape for a Capitol Hill marathon like none in recent memory. Democrats will call out Kennedy’s efforts to downsize his agencies — and the vaccine schedule. Republicans who’ve given their Health secretary a hard time in the past about his vaccine moves, like Senate Health Chair Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, must decide whether to stand down now that it’s an election year.

The hearings, Kennedy’s first appearances on Capitol Hill in seven months, are the first high-profile public forum of 2026 to test the White House’s theory that Kennedy will help Republicans in the midterms. Kennedy and his GOP allies in Congress will not only make the case before the principal oversight committees for the Department of Health and Human Services, but also before panels where he’s never appeared before, such as Ways and Means, which will kick everything off Thursday morning. The hearings are officially about the Trump administration’s 2027 budget request for HHS, which includes a more-than-12-percent cut to federal health agencies, calling for the elimination of “bloated, woke and inefficient programs that do not advance” Kennedy’s goal to “make America healthy again.” But members of Congress from both parties are expected to question him on his tumultuous year heading the department and make the case to voters that he’s a reason to vote for or against President Donald Trump’s party. The hearings will test Kennedy’s political acumen, as some voters who embraced the GOP because of Trump’s alliance with him in 2024 say they plan to vote for Democrats, dissatisfied with the administration’s pace on improving Americans’ health. Worried about a potential rupture with Kennedy’s MAHA movement over a Trump order in February calling for more glyphosate production — a pesticide vital to U.S. agriculture that a World Health Organization agency has said there’s evidence causes cancer — the White House last week sought to woo supporters back to Trump’s tent at a meeting with the president and top administration officials.

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Trump’s Federal Reserve pick discloses more than $130M in assets ahead of confirmation hearing

Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s pick to be the next Federal Reserve chair, has disclosed more than $130 million in assets ahead of his planned confirmation hearing next week but pledged to divest much of it if he is chosen to lead the central bank. The 69-page financial document submitted to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics shows Warsh’s assets valued between $131 million and $209 million, making him much wealthier than any previous Fed chair, according to the New York Times. The paperwork details two investments worth over $50 million each in the Juggernaut Fund, LP, which Warsh said he would divest from if confirmed. It also indicated that he would resign from several positions, including his work as a financial adviser.

Warsh collected $10.2 million in consulting fees from the office of Wall Street investor Stanley Druckenmiller, according to the document. CNBC reported that Warsh’s filings outline roughly 1,800 individual assets, many of which were identified as subject to “pre-existing confidentiality obligations” that prevented further details of the underlying items. The disclosure marks the first step in Warsh’s confirmation process, which had reportedly been stalled due to the paperwork delay. Senate Banking Committee Chair Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) announced during a Tuesday afternoon appearance on Fox Business that Warsh’s hearing would be held next week. Two sources told NewsNation the date is April 21. “We’ll talk through the economy, talk through price stability and inflation. We’ll talk about the independence of the Fed,” Scott told host Maria Bartiromo. Trump nominated Warsh, a former Federal Reserve board member, in January to replace Jerome Powell as chairman of the central bank. Powell’s term ends on May 15, but he said last month he would not step down until his successor was confirmed.

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House Democrats file 5 impeachment articles against Hegseth

House Democrats will introduce five articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, accusing him of war crimes in connection with the Iran war, abuse of power and mishandling of the Department of Defense (DOD). Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), the first Iranian American Democrat in Congress, will introduce the impeachment resolution, Axios reported after it obtained a copy of the resolution. Eight Democrats are co-sponsoring the long-shot resolution: Reps. Steve Cohen (Tenn.), Jasmine Crockett (Texas), Nikema Williams (Ga.), Sarah McBride (Del.), Brittany Pettersen (Colo.), Dina Titus (Nev.), Dave Min (Calif.) and Shri Thanedar (Mich.). Ansari announced last week that she was filing articles of impeachment, which are almost certain to go nowhere in the GOP-controlled House. She accused Hegseth of being “complicit” in President Trump’s “devastating, illegal war” in Iran.

The first article accuses Hegseth of violating his oath of office in overseeing an “unauthorized war against Iran and reckless endangerment of United States service members.” The resolution goes on to accuse the secretary of war crimes by targeting civilians and breaking the rules of armed conflict, followed by the alleged mishandling of sensitive information. This article refers to the use of the Signal app on his personal cell phone to discuss a pending strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. The incident drew attention after The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to the chat that included Hegseth and other administration officials. The Office of Inspector General determined in a report that Hegseth jeopardized troop safety and violated department policy. The DOD stated the report was a “total exoneration” for Hegseth. Ansari’s resolution also accuses Hegseth of obstructing congressional oversight responsibilities, including the alleged withholding of information regarding military actions in Venezuela and Iran, among other military theaters. It also claims the Defense chief abused his power, “including targeting and launching bogus investigations against specific elected officials for the express purpose of political retribution.”

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Trump yanks millions from Catholic Charities amid Pope feud

The Trump administration has abruptly canceled a multimillion-dollar contract with a Catholic charity that houses and cares for migrant children amid the president’s feud with Pope Leo XIV. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami has helped provide vital services to unaccompanied minors for more than 60 years, but could now shut down within a matter of months after the administration canceled an $11 million federal contract. The decision comes amid tensions between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo, the leader of the Catholic Church, over issues such as migration and the war in Iran. Trump has launched a series of attacks against the American-born pontiff, including suggesting Leo was “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” The 79-year-old president also received intense criticism after he shared an image depicting himself as Jesus Christ on social media.

Writing for the Miami Herald, Thomas Wenski, archbishop of Miami, said it is “baffling” that the government would want to shut down a service that has helped thousands of children who entered the U.S. without parents or guardians since the 1960s. “The Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country,” Wenski wrote. “Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors has been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months.” The Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, has had an arrangement for years for Catholic Charities to house immigrant children. The government reached out to the charity in March about the proposed cancellation of funding, the Miami Herald reported. A spokesperson for the department said the decision was because the number of unaccompanied migrant children in the agency’s care was “significantly lower,” at 1,900 under the Trump administration, compared to a peak of around 22,000 under the Biden administration.

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Lead Stories

Houston Councilman Pollard says Whitmire 'caved' as $110M ICE showdown looms

As tensions escalate between Houston leaders and the state, one city council member is taking direct aim at the mayor—accusing him of folding under pressure in a blistering public rebuke. Council Member Edward Pollard issued a scathing letter on social media, ripping both state officials and Mayor John Whitmire as fallout grows over a controversial immigration ordinance. Pollard first blasted state leaders for threatening to strip Houston of critical funding, calling the move reckless and politically motivated. "Every Houstonian should be outraged with them putting politics during an election year over people," he wrote, adding that the state is "ironically creating the very risk they claim to oppose. But his harshest criticism was reserved for Whitmire.

The criticism stems from what Pollard described as direct retaliation by the state after the mayor and the Houston City Council approved a revised "Prop A" immigration ordinance. Whitmire has maintained the policy simply reinforces a longstanding stance: "Houston enforces state and local laws—not federal law—and we are not ICE." However, Governor Greg Abbott and other state leaders see it differently. In a letter from the governor's Public Safety Office, officials threatened to withdraw $110 million in public safety grants because it violates an agreement between the City of Houston and the state. This is funding that supports police, firefighters, and critical safety infrastructure, going far beyond a routine budget issue. "That's not leadership, it's hypocrisy and political bullying," Pollard said. "Worse, it appears to be working." Whitmire, in his own public response, called the potential loss of funding "a crisis situation," warning it could impact public safety operations, homeland security efforts, and preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. But Pollard seized on that response as evidence that the mayor is buckling.

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Kristin Tips out as head of embattled Texas funeral commission

Kristin Tips, the longtime presiding officer of the embattled Texas Funeral Service Commission, is no longer on the board. “Governor Abbott appreciates Kristin Tips’ service,” Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary, said in an email Tuesday. “An announcement on a replacement will be made at a later date.” He did not respond to questions immediately about whether she was terminated or resigned, nor did he say when she left the board. Tips, who has run San Antonio’s prestigious Mission Park Funeral Chapels, Cemeteries & Crematories with her husband, Dick Tips, was appointed to the board by the governor in 2017 and made the presiding officer in May 2024. Tips did not respond to a request for comment.

The funeral commission is a small agency tasked with regulating the business of death care, mandated to protect consumers against abuses like price gouging and unlicensed funeral directors and to license and inspect funeral providers and crematories. The agency also oversees the donation of body parts for research or educational purposes. The governor appoints the commissioners, who in turn can hire and fire an executive director to run day-to-day operations. The agency publicly imploded in the summer of 2025, when the commissioners unanimously voted to fire their executive director of less than a year, Scott Bingaman. Before he was fired, Bingaman accused Tips of using agency resources to further her own interests. Shortly after his termination, he sued the commissioners. Tips, he claimed in the filings, had “crossed ethical and legal lines” and “state resources for her own personal interests and lobbying efforts”; he also claimed he’d raised concerns about her to Abbott’s office. The commissioners denied the allegations he made and, in their own filings, alleged “Bingaman misappropriated funds, undermined the statutory functions of the Commission, and violated public trust.” The lawsuit is ongoing.

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The Iran war created a global natural gas shortage — a windfall for U.S. companies

Troubles in the Strait of Hormuz continue, with the U.S. now imposing a naval blockade on Iranian ports. More than six weeks after the war began, one key part of the global energy supply remains locked in the strait—liquefied natural gas, or LNG. LNG is mainly used for electricity and heating, and about a fifth of the global LNG supply is produced by state-owned QatarEnergy. Even if the strait opens, it's unclear when Qatar's LNG could reach buyers in Asia and Europe. Early in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, attacks hit QatarEnergy's LNG facilities. Energy experts tell NPR it could take several months to repair them. A return to full production capacity could take years. QatarEnergy did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

With Qatar largely out of the picture, there's a global shortage of natural gas. That leaves an opening for the world's largest LNG exporter, the U.S. Last month, the heads of U.S. LNG companies gathered for a reception at CERAWeek by S&P Global, an annual industry conference in Houston. Mood lights made everyone look blue. But no one looked like they were feeling blue. With drinks flowing and a jazz band playing, the mood was celebratory. "We have a shortage of natural gas," U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told the crowd. "Where is that natural gas gonna come from? It's gonna come from continued ramps, continued investments to grow United States LNG exports." In recent weeks, LNG company executives have framed the U.S. as a reliable supplier in an unstable world. In a panel discussion at CERAWeek, Anatol Feygin, chief commercial officer of U.S. LNG giant Cheniere Energy, called the sudden shortage of LNG from the Strait of Hormuz a "guillotine issue."

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Europe is accelerating a NATO fallback plan in case Trump pulls out

A fallback plan to ensure Europe can defend itself using NATO’s existing military structures if the U.S. departs is gaining traction after getting buy-in from Germany, a long-term opponent of a go-it-alone approach. The officials working on the plans, which some officials are referring to as “European NATO,” are seeking to get more Europeans into the alliance’s command-and-control roles and supplement U.S. military assets with their own. The plans—advancing informally through side discussions and over dinner meetings in and around the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—aren’t intended to rival the current alliance, participants said. European officials are aiming to preserve deterrence against Russia, operational continuity and nuclear credibility even if Washington withdraws forces from Europe or refuses to come to its defense, as President Trump has threatened.

The plans, first conceived last year, underscore the depth of European anxiety over U.S. reliability. They accelerated after Trump threatened to seize Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, and are now gaining fresh urgency amid the standoff over Europe’s refusal to back America’s war in Iran. Crucially, a political reversal in Berlin is boosting momentum. For decades, Germany resisted French-led calls for greater European sovereignty in its defense, preferring to keep America as the ultimate guarantor of European security. That is now changing under German Chancellor Friedrich Merz because of concerns about the U.S.’s dependability as an ally during the Trump presidency and beyond, according to people familiar with his thinking. The challenge is enormous. NATO’s entire structure is built around American leadership at almost every level, from logistics and intelligence to the alliance’s top military command. Europeans are now trying to shoulder more of those responsibilities, which Trump has long demanded. The alliance will be “more European-led,” its Secretary-General Mark Rutte said recently. The difference now is that Europeans are taking steps under their own initiative, due to Trump’s growing hostility, rather than as a result of U.S. goading. In recent days, Trump branded European allies as “cowards” and called NATO a paper tiger, adding, in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Putin knows that too.”

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State Stories

Austin breaks ground on $1.5B wastewater plant expansion

City officials marked the groundbreaking of the expansion of Austin's largest wastewater plant at an April 14 ceremony. “This is needed generational investment to expand and modernize the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, and it fulfills our responsibility as a city to provide basic but critical services for today, tomorrow and the next 50 years," Mayor Kirk Watson said. The more than $1 billion expansion will boost the plant's wastewater treatment capacity by 33%, from 75 million gallons daily to 100 MGD by the early 2030s. Hundreds of millions of dollars more are also being spent to improve and modernize other parts of the facility, which will remain operational throughout several years of construction.

“This project will be complete in advance of when flows are expected to exceed the plant’s rated capacity in 2032," Austin Water Director Shay Ralls Roalson said. "By expanding the treatment capacity to 100 MGD, we will not only be meeting increasing needs, we will also be able to implement treatment upgrades to meet more stringent regulatory limits on effluent water quality." On top of the plant's first major capacity upgrade in decades, improvements also include: Upgrading water treatment processes with biological nutrient removal, which Roalson said will significantly cut the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen discharged from the plant into the Colorado River and improve that waterway's health; Converting water disinfection to an ultraviolet process, eliminating the use of chlorine gas and improving safety; Implementing advanced odor control, such as biofilters and activated carbon filters, which Roalson said will help the plant remain a "good neighbor" in East Austin; Preserving trees and undeveloped areas of the plant property by tunneling a new pipeline to the Colorado River; Rolling out a new treatment process for peak water flows in heavy rain or flood conditions, and building a new flood wall around the property to protect facilities in extreme weather. “This project will modernize every part of the existing plant," Roalson said.

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Jim Davis says UT had no Trump university compact to sign

When the Trump administration last October offered the University of Texas funding benefits in exchange for adhering to conservative priorities, the UT community anxiously awaited the university's choice. UT Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife said the system was honored and excited to work with the administration. But some students protested and angry alumni pulled funding. Both worried the deal could threaten UT’s academic excellence and independence from politicians. As the deadline to sign that compact passed, UT was the only one of the initial eight universities that received the letter to not publicly respond. Last week, UT President Jim Davis commented for the first time publicly on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. He told The Daily Texan, the university’s student newspaper, that there was never anything for him to sign.

But Davis’ claim directly contradicts the Trump administration’s initial letter, which was obtained by the American-Statesman. It also is at odds with how seven other university leaders responded, saying publicly that their institutions would not sign onto the agreement. It’s not clear if the Trump administration’s desire to have schools sign onto the offer changed since the October message. “In the very first week, I gave them some feedback on things that function in a public university in the state of Texas, things that don’t, ways to think about what their goals were, of what they’re trying to solve,” Davis said. “And then nothing much happened since then. “There’s no place for me to put my orange pen on the bottom line. There wasn’t in October, there wasn’t in November, and there’s not now,” he added.

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Texas Tech law student disciplined for “celebrating” Kirk’s death sues

Ellen Fisher, a third-year law student at the Texas Tech University School of Law, is suing the university after its honor council recommended she be reprimanded for allegedly “celebrating” the death of conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk. Should the honor code sanction become final, Fisher would be required to report it to the Texas Board of Bar Examiners, and it could cause “incalculable” damage to her career, according to the complaint, filed April 9. The suit showcases another example of a university punishing students and employees for disparaging or even discussing Kirk—an advocate of free speech—after he was killed. Several faculty and staff members lost their jobs over comments they made about Kirk during class or on social media. Six months after Kirk died, institutions are still litigating how students and employees should be permitted to speak about him and if their speech is protected by the First Amendment.

Fisher, founder of the Texas Tech NAACP chapter, claims she was unfairly punished for talking about Kirk’s death because she is Black, and she is calling for compensatory and punitive damages, an injunction to block the honor code sanction, and a jury trial. “Of all the students who discussed Kirk’s shooting in [class], none are Black except Fisher. None were brought before the School of Law Honor Council except Fisher,” the complaint states. While Fisher was being investigated by the honor council, someone wrote the N-word on Fisher’s car window while it was parked at Texas Tech. When she reported it to the school, “Fisher was told it was irrelevant,” according to the complaint. Terri Morgeson, a clinical instructor and director of the School of Law Family Law Clinic, reported Fisher to the honor council after overhearing her discuss Kirk’s death with other classmates in a way she deemed “unprofessional,” the complaint states.

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Austin's undeveloped parks: The city is sitting on hundreds of acres

When Diana McCue thinks about Jamestown Neighborhood Park, she imagines what it could be. Trees. Open space. A playground. A community art wall. A place for sports, neighborhood gatherings and playtime with her two small children. It’s a vision that could still happen. Since the city bought the land in 2021, the new park has been designed, the permitting process is underway and the Austin Parks Foundation is financially supporting it. But exactly when the North Austin park will open remains an unanswered question. Best guess right now: 2028.

“My hope, selfishly, is that my kids will get to enjoy it,” said McCue, a Jamestown resident who has been active in the planning process. “I feel like I’m having to let go of that dream.” McCue’s wait reflects a broader reality across Austin. The city is sitting on more than $41 million in taxpayer-funded, undeveloped parkland. Nearly 300 acres across about 50 neighborhoods and pocket parks remain dormant. Some are moving through planning. Others have no clear timeline for when, or if, they will be built. The land remains vacant even as the city falls short of its own goals for all Austinites to be within a 5-to-10 minute walk of a park. Right now, just 70 percent of residents are. In 2025, the Trust for Public Land ranked Austin’s park system 54th out of the country’s 100 most populated cities. Changing that is slow. Even under ideal conditions, building a park takes years, said Ricardo Soliz, park planning division manager for Austin Parks and Recreation Department. From planning to opening, the process takes an average of three years.

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The Ticket's George Dunham, a toilet and a battle for the soul of rural Texas

George Dunham traded the suburbs for the sleepy town of Bartonville nearly 20 years ago. “We moved here for the quiet,” says the Ticket radio host, one-third of the sports station’s top-rated morning show The Musers. Bartonville — population 1,700 — is an upscale rural haven about an hour northwest of Dallas, wedged between the booming suburbs of Argyle and Flower Mound in Denton County. On the drive home from his early-hours gig, Dunham passes rolling pastures and sometimes sees a guy fishing off a pier, and he likes to stop for breakfast at the Bartonville Store, a restaurant and music venue in a charming white wooden structure whose history stretches back to the arrival of the town, when the Barton family opened a farming store on a dusty trail in 1882.

“I hate to sound hokey, but this is our Cheers,” says Dunham of the Bartonville Store, whose interior is strung with Edison bulbs and lined with raw cedar fence planks that give the place a down-home feel. Although Dunham is best known as a radio host, he’s also a musician who appreciates a place that could have stepped out of a country song. “We don’t live in Dallas, where there are cool spots all around town. This is our cool spot.” The Bartonville Store is the kind of lovingly restored gem you might see on a travel show about roadside honky-tonks. Country stars Pat Green and Cody Jinks have played the venue, and weekends get hopping with blues and boot-scootin’. “I see it as a place like Luckenbach and Gruene Hall,” says Pat Green, name-checking two of the shiniest stars in the belt buckle of Texas dance halls. “There are places that take you back, where the furniture takes you back, where you play and the sound slaps the back wall and hits you in the face. That’s what it’s like being there. I love the Bartonville Store.” There is a problem, though. A few of them, but let’s start with the toilet. The Bartonville Store is on a septic system, and unlike about 80 other businesses in town, it’s been unable to hook up to a sewer line, even though one runs onto the property. The place can only stay open five days a week to keep the system from overloading, which has left it struggling financially, and let’s not get started on the smell.

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Baylor Scott & White's insurance arm is dropping Medicaid, marketplace plans

The Baylor Scott & White Health Plan — the health insurance arm of Baylor Scott & White — announced Tuesday that it plans to stop carrying Texas Medicaid plans and individual marketplace plans later this year. “This change reflects the state’s Medicaid procurement decision and Individual Marketplace complexities,” the announcement said. The change only impacts people who have health care coverage plans through the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan. It does not impact patients of Baylor Scott & White medical providers who have health care coverage through a different insurer. The health plan, according to a Tuesday evening announcement, intends to exit the Texas Medicaid Managed Care Program at the end of August, which is the end of the current plan year. If that goes through as scheduled, then the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan will no longer offer Medicaid coverage. People enrolled in one of those Medicaid plans will need to change carriers.

About 3.5% of Texas’ Medicaid enrollees — or 125,000 people — have coverage through the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan, according to the Tuesday announcement. At the end of the year, the health plan will also discontinue individual marketplace plans, which are the health coverage plans that people can purchase for themselves and their families under the Affordable Care Act. Current enrollees would need to select a coverage option through a different carrier. About 2.6% of Texans on marketplace plans — or 100,000 people — are covered through the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan, according to the announcement. Baylor Scott & White’s health system — the hospitals, doctor’s offices and other health care facilities — will still accept patients’ other Medicaid and marketplace health plans. Patients who have other Medicaid or marketplace plans, but see medical providers at Baylor Scott & White facilities, will not be impacted by this change. The changes will mean some job losses at the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan, according to the announcement. A spokesperson for Baylor Scott & White said there are 321 jobs impacted across the state, including 65 in North Texas. The health plan will reach out to impacted enrollees, the announcement said, after regulatory approval of the change.

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Magnolia mayor arrested, charged with felony assault of pregnant woman following Texas Rangers investigation

Magnolia Mayor Matthew Dantzer has now been arrested amid an ongoing investigation led by Texas Rangers. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to KPRC 2’s Corley Peel that Dantzer was taken into custody on a Tarrant County warrant for felony assault of a pregnant person. He is currently being held in the Montgomery County Jail. The investigation began after a complaint was filed by Magnolia City Secretary Christian Gable. In the complaint, Gable alleged that while she was pregnant, Dantzer sexually harassed her and grabbed her by the throat during a work conference in Fort Worth in October 2025. KPRC 2 News has also obtained a federal complaint filed by the city’s former human resources director. In that filing, the former employee claims she was pushed out of her position after reporting the alleged incident involving Gable.

The lawsuit accuses the city of First Amendment retaliation, failure of city-wide policies, and violations of the Texas Whistleblower Act. Dantzer has denied the allegations. In a statement released in March through his attorney, the mayor said he denies all claims and is asking for privacy and patience as the investigation continues. KPRC 2’s Corley Peel previously reached out to Dantzer by phone. Dantzer told Corley, “I’m not a Texas Ranger, you’ll have to talk to them or Leonard Schneider,” before ending the call. KPRC 2 News reporter Corley Peel was at Tuesday night’s Magnolia City Council meeting, where the mayor pro tem, Jack Huitt, called for Dantzer’s resignation. The city secretary’s family expressed relief about his arrest. “Honestly, it’s a step in the right direction,” said Bryan Emery, Gable’s fiancé. During the council meeting, Huitt acknowledged Dantzer’s arrest but said the city could not formally discuss the arrest because it was not on the agenda, but he made his personal position clear. “I have previously spoken to the mayor to resign on several occasions and I will do so again when I’m able to speak to him,” Huitt said.

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Church-state separation is a ‘lie,’ says Trump's Religious Liberty Commission Chair Dan Patrick

The leader of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission said that church and state separation is a falsehood at the group’s final meeting, drawing criticism from an advocacy group that supports it. At a Monday (April 13) hearing at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and the chair of the commission, asked, “Would it not be a good recommendation that every school, every university, every business, has to have that one sheet on the bulletin board about protecting people’s religious liberty, and that the separation of church and state is the biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding?”

His question was posed to Helen Alvaré, a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, as Patrick compared the notion of such a bulletin board announcement to the federal notices from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that are posted in classrooms and other buildings that aim to promote safety and prevent hazards. Alvaré, a onetime top staffer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops representing the bishops’ anti-abortion stance and a witness at the hearing, agreed with Patrick’s suggestion. “It would be an appropriate time to put up some information about these sorts of rights,” she said. “You’re responding to the signs of the times where this has been misunderstood, and like any other thing, where people are unclear about their rights, this might be a way to clarify them.” Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, rejected Patrick’s stance.

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Walk for Peace monks recognized by Tarrant commissioners amid O’Hare abstention

Throughout a four-month “Walk for Peace” that captivated the nation, 19 Buddhist monks met with elected officials and county sheriffs across the country. Two months after returning to their east Fort Worth temple the monks caught the attention of their own county officials. Four members of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court honored the monks Tuesday with a ceremonial resolution to celebrate their pilgrimage. The court’s presiding member, Judge Tim O’Hare, abstained from the vote. Sheriff Bill Waybourn, the county’s top law enforcement official, hasn’t met the monks. Commissioner Alisa Simmons put forth the resolution to commend the monks and their equally famous pup Aloka, describing their pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., as a reflection of “the highest ideals of unity, humility and harmony among diverse communities.”

“The peace walk has brought honor and distinction to Tarrant County through the message of understanding and goodwill,” Simmons said. Asked why she felt it was important to recognize the monks, Simmons said it was “intentional.” “It was about setting a different standard for how we treat people. And more importantly, how we lead,” she said in a statement. Walking for peace is generally not seen as a controversial act, said Rev. Michael Yandell, the director of Soul Repair Center and Doctor of Ministry Program at Brite Divinity School. Although he was clear he didn’t know O’Hare’s motivation, Yandell said, the decision not to recognize the monks is “a question of power.” “Anytime there’s a situation in which somebody’s kind of comfortably in a position of power is asked to do something that might, in any way be construed as ‘Wait a minute, that’s not particularly patriotic or that’s not particularly Christian’ in this really simplified way — they’re likely not going to risk doing that thing, even though, on his face, it doesn’t appear risky at all,” Yandell said. O’Hare, who did not return a request for comment, is currently seeking his second term as county judge in the November election. He is being challenged by Simmons.

Read this article at Fort Worth Report - Subscribers Only

Founding CEO Chris Cobler resigns after 5 years of leading Fort Worth Report

Chris Cobler, the Fort Worth Report’s founding CEO, resigned Monday after five years of leading the nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. During his tenure, Cobler oversaw and guided the Report’s growth and fundraising. His resignation as CEO, publisher and editor was effective immediately. He cited the need to be with his family as they support his mother through a serious illness. “I firmly believe the Fort Worth Report and the Arlington Report are on the cusp of fully connecting all of Tarrant County through trusted local news and information,” Cobler wrote in his resignation letter. “We will become a civic institution for decades to come.”

Wes Turner, board co-chairman, will serve as interim CEO while a national search identifies the organization’s next leader. Turner is the former longtime executive of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He was part of a group of Fort Worthians concerned about the declining state of local news in the city. The coalition of business and civic leaders eventually created the Report. Turner will focus on business operations, while Managing Editor Babs Rodriguez will lead the award-winning newsroom. In a statement, the Report’s board of directors thanked Cobler for his five successful years of growing the organization. “Since launching the organization in 2021, Chris built a thriving, community-centered newsroom that has grown to more than 30 staff and fellows and expanded into Arlington,” the board wrote in a statement. Becoming CEO marked Cobler’s return to North Texas where he previously worked at the Denton Record-Chronicle. He called working at the Report a dream come true as the nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization showed a path for the future of local journalism, Cobler wrote in a 2021 note.

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Jim Ross, Steve Cavender in the spotlight for Arlington mayoral race.

Housing, gay rights, taxes and the personal finances of candidates are among some of the big issues that have emerged in the race for Arlington mayor. Early voting starts April 20 and Election Day on May 2. Incumbent Jim Ross, 65, took office in 2021 and has overseen planning for the World Cup, relocation of several national corporate headquarters to the city and led the council through three tax rate decreases and two increases. Steve Cavender, the 77-year-old president of the River Legacy Foundation, is seeking to unseat Ross. Cavender has worked for 35 years in real estate development and has never run for or held public office before.

Shaun Mallory, the owner of Daesy’s Tropic Sno on Little Road, is running for mayor because he says voters need a more direct say in how the city is run. Mallory has never run for office before. Hunter Crow, the fourth mayoral hopeful, is the Tarrant County Democratic Party Precinct 2425 Chair. He has made eight unsuccessful bids for office, including for Arlington school board, Texas Railroad Commission and Texas State Board of Education. Ross and Cavender have taken center stage in much of the discussion about the mayoral election. Cavender has outspent Ross with $78,863 spent as of April 2, according to a campaign finance report filed that day. Ross, as of April 2, spent $7,339. More than $58,000 of Cavender’s expenses have been paid to Mayes Media Group, the firm of his campaign manager Brian Mayes. Ross’ largest expenditure was for yard signs, paying $2,459.85 to Digital Corporate Companies in Arlington. Much of the campaign has played out on social media.

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National Stories

Trump threatens to fire Powell if he does not resign from Fed

President Trump vowed to fire Jerome H. Powell if he opted to stay on at the Federal Reserve after his term as chair ends, doubling down on a criminal investigation into the central bank that is threatening to delay the confirmation of Mr. Powell’s successor. Mr. Powell’s tenure as chair officially ends on May 15, but both the law and past precedent suggest that he can serve on a temporary basis until Mr. Trump’s pick to replace him, Kevin M. Warsh, is confirmed by the Senate. Mr. Powell’s term as a Fed governor also runs well beyond that date, allowing him to stay on at the central bank until 2028. The process to confirm Mr. Warsh has been complicated by the Justice Department’s investigation into Mr. Powell and his handling of costly renovations at the Fed’s headquarters in Washington.

Mr. Trump said in a Fox Business interview that aired on Wednesday that the investigation was not just about the $2.5 billion project but also about Mr. Powell’s “incompetence.” Mr. Powell has blasted the investigation as a pretext to pressure the Fed to lower borrowing costs, which has long been Mr. Trump’s goal when it comes to the Fed. Mr. Trump’s decision to pick another fight with Mr. Powell at a moment when the fate of his choice for chair is already in limbo runs counter to recent signals sent by top administration officials and senior Republicans. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said on Tuesday that “we want Kevin Warsh in as soon as possible.” Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina and chair of the Banking Committee, told Fox Business earlier that day that he believed the investigation would conclude within weeks, though he conceded that he had no evidence of that.

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Vance warns the pope should 'be careful' when talking about theology

Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that Pope Leo XIV should “be careful” when he talks about theology, rebuking the pontiff over his criticisms of U.S. foreign policy. Vance argued that the pope, who has said Jesus “is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs,” was failing to take into account conflicts such as World War II. “Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps and liberated those, those innocent people, you know, those who had survived the Holocaust? I certainly think the answer is yes,” he said at a Turning Point USA event in Athens, Georgia.

Vance, who is Catholic and met with the pope in May, said that he likes it when the pope weighs in on issues such as abortion, immigration or “matters of war and peace” but that he sometimes disagrees with him. “Now we can, of course, have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just, but I think in the way that it’s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said. “But I think one of the issues here is that if you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth, and that’s one of the things that I try to do, and it’s certainly something I would expect from the clergy, whether they’re Catholic or Protestant,” he added.

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A divided America processes a war with Iran

Krystal Zimmerman, an Army veteran who fought in Iraq, is worried about America’s latest war in the Middle East. She supported attacking Iran’s nuclear sites, but as the conflict lurches from bombings and threats of annihilation to a shaky truce with no clear exit, she worries that President Trump has now stumbled into his own forever war. “It’s a waste of resources, a waste of money, and we come off as bullies,” Ms. Zimmerman, 40, said after she wrapped up a recent appointment at a Veterans Affairs clinic in Colorado Springs, where she receives treatment for the depression and sleeplessness that followed her home from Baghdad. Many Americans are expressing anger, frustration, even bewilderment as the war on Iran grinds into its seventh week. Over the weekend, peace talks fizzled, and Mr. Trump reverted to bombast and conflicting statements as he ordered a blockade of Iranian ports to counter Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Public-opinion surveys show that roughly six in 10 Americans oppose the U.S.-led war against Iran, a striking shift from the solid public support that accompanied the United States’ invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s, or the Persian Gulf war in the 1990s. Some say they are simply baffled by a war that they feel the president did not prepare them for and that still has not been clearly explained. “I don’t think Trump is making wise decisions,” Emmelia Lorenzen, 19, said as she and a friend sipped coffees in Fayetteville, N.C., home to the sprawling Fort Bragg Army base, which serves as headquarters to both Army Special Operations and the Third Special Forces Group. But it has been a muted opposition, unfurling in conversations at cafes and veterans’ halls, and prompting smaller demonstrations instead of the huge protests that accompanied the Vietnam War or the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “I’m incredulous that more people aren’t in the streets but, yeah, it’s kind of hard to be surprised or even shocked by anything he does now,” Mike Keefe, 64, said of the president as he stood with a diminished cluster of protesters outside an immigration detention center in Portland, Ore.

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Forest Service shake-up will boost states’ role — but even supporters have concerns

A sweeping reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service signals that the agency is planning to lean heavily on states to help manage millions of acres of federal land, foresters across the West say. State officials and timber industry leaders say they’ve been given scant details about the plan, which will move the agency’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, restructure its regional management, and close scores of research stations in dozens of states. While they wait for the dust to settle, they’re preparing for the Forest Service — with its workforce slashed by the Trump administration — to ask more of its partners under the new model.

“The Forest Service itself is unable to uphold its mission and cannot alone manage the many challenges on these landscapes,” said Nick Smith, public affairs director with the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group. “The transition from regional offices to more state-level offices is a recognition that partnerships are the future for the Forest Service.” But many forestry veterans fear the shake-up will cause more attrition in an agency that’s already shrunk because of Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce. Some see a clear sign that moving the headquarters to Utah — a state whose leaders are often hostile to federal land ownership — is designed to undermine the Forest Service’s management of its lands. The closure of 57 research stations, some agency partners fear, will threaten critical science that states and other forest managers rely on to learn about wildfire behavior, timber production and a host of other issues. Some observers noted that the agency is required to seek congressional approval to relocate offices, which could trigger legal challenges to the plan if lawmakers do not weigh in. Meanwhile, some foresters feel the uncertainty swirling over the agency will cause chaos as the West heads into a dangerous fire season amid record temperatures and drought.The plan announced on March 31 will relocate Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz and his headquarters staff to Salt Lake City. The agency will close its nine regional offices, each of which oversee national forests across multiple states.

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Oklahoma lawmakers add data center restrictions to groundwater metering measure

Lawmakers advanced a bill that would reshape how Oklahoma tracks the water it pulls out of the ground. After a change during the legislative process, the measure would also add requirements for data centers seeking to use Oklahoma groundwater. Senate Bill 259 would require Oklahoma groundwater users to meter the water they pull from wells. The law would allow eight years before metering requirements are enforced, and only apply to people with permits from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) to use groundwater for commercial purposes, not people with household wells.

Under current state law, permit holders are required to report how much water they use and keep it under a set limit. But they aren’t required to document their reporting. According to the bill authors, many people use less but report the full limit, in fear their cap will be lowered. “They're given a permit by the OWRB to use so much water,” said Rep. Carl Newton, R-Cherokee, who co-authored the bill. “All I'm asking is that we measure that much water, so we know exactly how much they're using.” This measure would require specific, documented reporting. But it would explicitly bar the OWRB from lowering someone’s permitted water use because they weren’t using the full amount. It would also allow a five-year flex period, during which people could use up to 150% of their allowed amount one year, as long as their average use over a five-year period was below the limit. Although metering wouldn’t be mandatory yet, the five-year flex policy would go into effect in 2027 for people who voluntarily meter their water. Newton and Sen. Brent Howard, R-Altus, are behind this bill. They sponsored a similar measure in 2024, which made it through the legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Kevin Stitt. But this measure goes a step further to address a concern that wasn’t on most people’s minds just two years ago: water use by large data centers.

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Vance’s K Street army is growing

Three top aides to Vice President JD Vance have decamped to high-priced and well-connected lobbying shops in the past two months, building out his Washington apparatus of policy and fundraising connections that could help fuel a potential 2028 campaign. Sean Cooksey, the vice president’s former chief legal and policy adviser, left for BGR Group. Jim Durrett, former deputy chief of staff for operations, went to Invariant. Wesam Hassanein, former special adviser on the Middle East, went to Continental Strategy. Cooksey worked for Vance since the start of the second term. Durett and Hassanein joined his office last May. The moves widen Vance’s connections in the lobbying and fundraising worlds that are typically needed in a presidential run.

Should he decide to run for president in 2028, the network of former Vance aides who still feel loyal to the vice president could provide fundraising expertise and policy chops that can expand by working with clients and relationships with the private sector. “The vice president’s outside network is small, but they are experienced and fiercely loyal,” said a person close to Vance’s team, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive topics. “Whatever he does, you can expect Vance alumni to jump into action to support him.” Vance is a relative newcomer to Washington, having arrived a little more than three years ago as a freshman Ohio senator with little inside-the-beltway political network. Strong presidential candidates typically have circles of people from their D.C. internal government staff, home-state connections and a D.C. political network. “Your D.C. political network [is] movers and shakers, people who can introduce you to Super PACs, people who can get you in front of the financiers and the titans of business,” said GOP lobbyist Stewart Verdery, founder and partner of Monument Advocacy. “The Vice President has already made that jump. He doesn’t need some of that stuff, but the fact that some of his aides are moving into private sector positions just moves them from one circle on the chart to the other.”

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Copyright April 23, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved