Lead Stories

U.S. debt tops 100% of GDP

The U.S. national debt now exceeds 100% of gross domestic product, crossing a once-unthinkable threshold, on the way toward breaking the record set in the wake of World War II. As of March 31, the country’s publicly held debt was $31.265 trillion, while GDP over the preceding year was $31.216 trillion, according to data released Thursday. That puts the ratio at 100.2%, compared with 99.5% when the last fiscal year ended Sept. 30. That figure will likely climb for the foreseeable future because the federal government is running historically large annual deficits of nearly 6% of GDP, which add to the debt. The government is spending $1.33 for every dollar it collects in revenue, and the budget deficit this year is projected at $1.9 trillion. That is little changed from 2025 as Republicans’ tax cuts kick in before their spending cuts take effect. The final tally will depend on Iran war spending, tariff refunds and the strength of the economy.

By itself, the milestone doesn’t mean much. There isn’t a special level where debt goes from problematic to catastrophic. And the ratio might bounce around in coming quarters as tax receipts come in, tariff refunds go out and GDP fluctuates in response to inflation and revisions. Still, the triple-digit mark is a potent symbol of the fiscal stresses on the U.S. that have been building for decades. Lawmakers in both parties have expressed alarm but given priority to tax cuts and spending increases with clearer short-term political benefits. “We’re headed toward uncharted territory,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “There’s no magic of 100% vs. 99%, but it’s a scary place to be.” The debt-to-GDP ratio is economists’ preferred metric for how much the country’s borrowing weighs on the economy. As it rises, debt consumes resources that could be used more productively elsewhere. The government also becomes more sensitive to interest rates as debt grows. One in seven dollars of federal spending now goes to interest. A 0.1 percentage-point interest-rate increase would cost $379 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

Camp Mystic withdraws 2026 license application, will not operate this summer

Camp Mystic announced Wednesday it is withdrawing its application for a 2026 summer camp license, effectively ending the possibility of the camp operating this summer under any circumstances. The announcement came one day after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called publicly on the Eastland family to withdraw the application and cancel the season, and two days after 13 hours of testimony before the joint General Investigating Committee on the July 4, 2025, flood produced overwhelming legislative and public pressure to close the camp. “No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” the camp said in a statement released Wednesday.

The withdrawal resolves — at least for this summer — the regulatory standoff that dominated Tuesday’s hearing, in which the Texas Department of State Health Services disclosed a potential loophole under the Administrative Procedure Act that could have allowed Camp Mystic to continue operating even if its license was denied or revoked. By withdrawing the application, the camp removes that legal pathway entirely. The statement acknowledged the pressure of the past two days directly. “This decision is intended to remove any doubt that Camp Mystic has heard the concerns expressed by grieving families, members of the Texas House and Senate investigating committees and citizens across our state. Respect for those voices requires that we step back now.” The camp also acknowledged the more than 800 girls who had signed up to attend the Cypress Lake campus this summer. “Our special bond with our Camp Mystic families does not change or end with this announcement. We love each of you.”

Read this article at Kerr County Lead - Subscribers Only

These oil giants had written off Venezuela. Now they are taking a second look.

Rising above the din of voices in the lobby of the J.W. Marriott in Caracas is an unusual sound: Spanish spoken with a Texas twang. Engineers, lawyers and other emissaries of the U.S. oil industry have flocked to the heavily guarded hotel to pitch their Venezuelan counterparts on plans to revive the country’s rundown oil fields. Dozens have met with a receptive Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s acting president. One small Texas operator was recently heard boasting that his company is nimble enough to get oil flowing faster than the oil giants. Even Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and other oil companies that just months ago deemed Venezuela too risky for business have come back to town for a second look. “It was unmistakable, the sense of impending opportunity,” said Jon Hughes, the chief executive of boutique energy investment bank Petrie Partners, who visited the bustling hotel last week.

“There were so many Americans meeting with so many Venezuelans. Both sides are engaged in a constructive way, with a shared vision of making things function better and getting production up.” The U.S. Embassy has even set up camp at the J.W. Marriott—to escape the black mold that overran its building after years of disrepair. More visitors are likely on the way: American Airlines on Thursday offered the first direct U.S. commercial flight to Venezuela’s capital city in seven years, out of Miami. In recent weeks, both Exxon and Conoco have met with Venezuelan officials and sent technical teams to the Latin American country. Exxon’s team inspected the Cerro Negro heavy-oil project that it operated before 2007 when Hugo Chávez’s government nationalized much of the country’s energy infrastructure. Conoco is also trying to assess oil-and-gas opportunities. Neither company has committed capital to projects in the country—but the fact that they appear more open to the idea is a far cry from their position just three months ago. A sharp rise in oil prices and the government’s moves to change laws in favor of foreign investors have softened their opposition, according to people close to the companies.

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Jeffries lays out more targets for gerrymanders in response to GOP’s renewed push

The Supreme Court decision has given Republicans a big opportunity to gerrymander more seats as they look to keep House control. But Jeffries insisted Republicans’ options for redraws before the midterms are limited given the calendar. And he stressed that Democrats would be aggressive in their counterefforts. “Republicans have concluded that they need to cheat to win, and the Supreme Court conservatives have decided to aid and abet their scheme. Democrats are going to fight back with every tool available,” Jeffries said. Some Democrats in the immediate aftermath of the Callais ruling raised the possibility of diluting majority-minority districts to help draw more seats favoring Democrats — even in states like California, where the party already stands to gain up to five seats after voters approved a new congressional map last fall.

Jeffries didn’t give a direct answer when asked whether blue states should look to split up those seats to draw more Democratic-leaning seats overall. “We’re looking at every opportunity to ensure that communities of color will continue to have the chance to elect the candidate of their choice in districts that have traditionally been covered by the Voting Rights Act,” he said, “while at the same time doing what is necessary, as occurred in California, to decisively respond to efforts by Republicans to gerrymander congressional maps.” Democratic governors in several of the states Jeffries highlighted for potential new maps slammed the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights act on Wednesday. Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to plow ahead with efforts to redraw New York’s maps ahead of 2028. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, whose effort to draw out the sole Republican representing his state in the 2026 election flamed out this year, said in a statement that “until we have national redistricting reform, every state should stay part of the conversation.” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the ruling “voter suppression that will silence Black and brown voters,” adding that “the magnitude of this decision cannot be understated.”

Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only

State Stories

Texas radio personality Chad Hasty dies at 43.

Texas lost a beloved voice on Thursday morning. Chad Hasty, a West Texas institution and Lubbock radio personality, died at age 43, according to longtime employer KFYO. The Grand Prairie native and Texas Tech alumnus was a fixture in Lubbock radio for decades, joining KFYO in 2003. "We are stunned and heartbroken by the sudden passing of our beloved KFYO family member, Chad Hasty," Townsquare Media Lubbock Market President Dan Endom said. "Chad was not only a brilliant on-air host, but an even better friend. Our deepest condolences go out to Jennifer and his baby girl, Ava. It's hard to imagine not seeing his welcoming presence roaming the halls of Townsquare Media Lubbock."

It didn't take long after the news broke for condolences to begin pouring in from multiple influential Texans. Quorum Report Editor Scott Braddock on X remembered Hasty's "heart as big as Texas," with multiple responders noting what a substantial loss this is for the state. State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) noted Hasty's ability to keep leaders accountable and conversations grounded in reality, making the region a better place. State Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), also speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, shared a photo and lengthy post remembering Hasty. "Chad wasn't just a broadcaster, he was one of the very best to ever cover the people, policy, and politics shaping the Texas Legislature and our state," he said in the X post. "He asked the right questions, gave fair room for debate, and, most importantly, he made sure Texans stayed informed." According to Hasty's biography on the KFYO website, he launched his first show in 2006 and incorporated in his career a variety of topics including politics, sports, "cigars and anything else that's on the listeners' minds." In his honor, KYFO will air a special edition of The Chad Hasty Show at 5 p.m. Thursday.

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Regional Transportation Council joins lawsuit in hope to rehire fired director, protect staffing decisions

Members of the Regional Transportation Council are looking to rehire longtime transportation director Michael Morris who was fired Tuesday. To do that, the group decided Thursday to allocate $5 million for legal expenses as it joins a lawsuit filed by Denton County officials over hiring decisions. The choice to sue the North Central Texas Council of Governments came during an emergency meeting in Arlington. RTC members said the suit is intended to change the Metropolitan Planning Organization structure in North Texas. The group would have the ability to hire and fire transportation department staffers, instead of the council of governments as its CEO Todd Little maintains. A proposed agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation still under negotiation would be similar to those used in other Texas metro areas, officials said.

Morris was fired by Little — weeks before the FIFA World Cup games in Arlington start in June. “We just voted today that the Regional Transportation Council is going to intervene in the lawsuit … to ensure that our regional (decisions) here in transportation, our interests, are protected and taken care of,” Arlington Mayor Jim Ross said. “The RTC is the policy-making entity for transportation here in North Texas and for someone to come in and unilaterally make a decision to get rid of an individual that has over four decades of institutional knowledge — we’re owed at least an explanation,” Ross said. Denton County Judge Andy Eads said he was encouraged by the transportation council’s strong show of support to address “the overreach” of the council of governments board of directors. Eads said the RTC’s actions “reinforces what we have maintained from the beginning.”

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Greater Edwards Aquifer Authority report sounds the alarm over proposed data centers in Texas

A new report from the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance is sounding the alarm about the proliferation of proposed AI data centers in the state. The report summarizes data center operations, growth, and impacts, along with a review of national and international efforts to respond to data center challenges and a summary of recommendations. Rachel Hanes is policy director for the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance. She says Texas could be in dire straits if action is not taken soon. “It's going to have very large impacts on our water supplies, on our energy supplies and public health, our coffers, our local government regulations and authorities and budgets,” she told TPR. More than 20 sprawling data centers that house and cool a massive collection of computer equipment are in the San Antonio area, and more are on the drawing board.

Among the recommendations in the report for local governments, regional entities, and utilities is to adopt policies that could serve as guardrails against the adverse impacts of data center development. These include policies to improve data gathering and state and local planning; allocate costs fairly; improve and expand local regulatory tools; limit incompatible land uses; improve transparency; limit detrimental energy and water use; and limit increases in pollution and public health impacts. The report also recommends data center operators adopt measures to limit potable water use; reduce demand on local water supplies; limit fossil-fuel energy generation and its public health impacts. “We really encourage people to take a holistic view of the industry and use it as an opportunity to better prepare the state for generations to come, whatever the next high growth and high impact," Hanes said. Pacifico Energy and other energy companies are rushing to build private power plants across the Lone Star State. Hanes says at present state agencies are not adequately prepared to deal with the influx of AI data centers and that could lead to major consequences for natural resources and communities.

Read this article at Texas Public Radio - Subscribers Only

Republic National laying off 1,903 Texas workers amid sale talks

Republic National Distributing Co. is planning mass layoffs in Texas ahead of a potential sale. The struggling alcohol distributor notified the Texas Workforce Commission that it expects to lay off 1,903 employees throughout Texas, including 372 workers at its Schertz office, 164 at its Austin office and 689 at its Grand Prairie headquarters. Republic National has said it employs about 10,000 people across operations in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Elsewhere, reports indicate that the company plans to lay off 925 employees in Florida, 428 in Virginia, 451 in South Carolina, 320 in Colorado, 211 in Arizona and 318 in Maryland.

Amid a recent string of troubles, the nation’s second-largest wine and spirits distributor is in talks to sell 11 of its markets, including Texas, to Chicago-based Reyes Beverage Group, the nation’s largest beer distributor. In addition to Texas, Reyes has proposed buying Republic National’s Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C., markets, according to a spokesperson for the Texas-based distributor. Talks for six of those markets have been going on since at least January. “The Company understands that Reyes or its affiliate intends to extend offers of employment to many of the Company’s employees at or reporting to the facilities included in the transaction,” the WARN letter reads. “In addition, certain corporate and other employees may continue to be employed by the Company, including to provide transition services. However, we are providing this notice to you at this time since there is no guarantee that Reyes will provide employees with an offer of employment, as discussions remain ongoing, and it is not yet known who will be needed to continue employment with the Company.”

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

First lawsuit filed against San Antonio’s CPS Energy after recent home explosions

The first lawsuit has been filed against city-owned utility CPS Energy following the explosions of two homes last week in Northwest San Antonio, KSAT reports. The joint lawsuit against CPS Energy was filed by Monday by Jose Ochoa and Mayte Terrie Reeves in Bexar County District Court. The couple, whose home was the second to blow up in the 1500 Block of Preston Hollow on April 21, allege that a natural gas leak from a CPS Energy line created a “gas cloud” inside their home, causing the blast, the station reports. Ochoa and Reeves both sustained permanent physical injuries due to the explosion and are seeking $1 million each in damages, according to KSAT.

The lawsuit also alleges CPS Energy failed to maintain its system, equip and train its employees and inspect the work performed near the residences. A CPS Energy spokeswoman told KSAT its officials don’t comment on active litigation. Five people, including a child, were injured during the string of explosions last week. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the cause. The federal agency’s preliminary report is expected within the next 30 days.

Read this article at San Antonio Current - Subscribers Only

TEA appoints 7-member board of managers, names Sandi Massey superintendent of Beaumont ISD

The Texas Education Agency appointed a seven-member Board of Managers and named a new superintendent Wednesday to lead the Beaumont Independent School District, marking a major step in the state's takeover of the district. Commissioner Mike Morath named Sandi Massey as the district's new superintendent. Massey, who previously served as Chief of Schools in Houston, brings more than three decades of experience across Texas public school systems, according to a news release from the TEA. She began work Wednesday under a 21-day interim contract, pending formal approval from the newly appointed Board of Managers. "For more than a decade, persistent academic struggles have held students back from reaching their full potential," Morath said in a statement. "Today's actions reaffirm our commitment to the children of Beaumont, by putting them first."

Morath appointed the following seven community members to the Board of Managers: Desmond Bridges Sr., a Beaumont native and West Brook High School graduate with more than 22 years in education and administration, and the parent of a current BISD student. Darrian Graves, a youth pastor and former Beaumont journalist who volunteers with multiple community organizations and is a BISD parent. Elias Ibarra, a Central High School honor graduate, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, educator and local business owner with three children in the district. Laurie Leister, a BISD graduate whose professional background spans real estate, city planning and county government, and a mother of five BISD graduates. Arthur Louis Jr., an educator and community leader with degrees in education and educational administration who has spent decades coaching, teaching and mentoring students. Daniel Parker, a parent of BISD graduates and commercial lender with 30 years of experience in financial services. Jeff Wheeler, a West Brook High School graduate and business leader with more than 14 years in marketing and corporate relations.

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Can Texas A&M’s new president ease the political pressure?

Texas A&M regents are expected to vote next week on the flagship's third permanent president in five years — a high rate of turnover that may have led them to favor a sole finalist with insider and political know-how over a more traditional academic candidate, according to experts on college leadership. Longtime administrator Susan Ballabina could be named Texas A&M University's next president during a special board meeting Wednesday. While some faculty hoped for a former professor to shield them from what they call attacks on academic freedom, experts say the regents chose Ballabina to bring stability to the office after political pressures toppled the prior presidents. "To have a president that can build trust among the faculty is just simply not a priority," said Jorge Burmicky, assistant professor of higher education leadership and policy studies at Howard University. "A president that can deal with the politics, the system-wide expectations, is far more important."

With over 30 years in administrative positions, Ballabina's resume does not include any classroom teaching, according to records obtained by the Houston Chronicle. She is the second recent pick to arrive at a high-profile Texas presidency without going through the ranks as professor: Last year, the University of Texas chose James E. Davis, a lawyer, to lead the flagship. Texas A&M University System officials did not respond to a request for comment. System leaders previously cited Ballabina's leadership style and "unparalleled knowledge" as reasons for her selection. They also issued a press release boasting an "unprecedented level of support" for Ballabina, including a joint letter signed by the leaders of five of A&M's most influential cultural and alumni groups, including the Texas A&M Foundation, 12th Man Foundation, the Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets Foundation and the Association of Former Students. "As Texas A&M approaches its 150th year, this is a moment that calls for experienced, principled and steady leadership," the joint letter said. "We are confident Dr. Ballabina has the experience, character and commitment needed to lead Texas A&M into its next chapter while preserving the traditions, values and sense of purpose that have long defined this institution."

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'Texas got it wrong': At James Broadnax execution, a mixture of agony and closure

At 19 years old, James Broadnax participated in a merciless, arbitrary crime that took the lives of two loved and innocent men. In taped interviews that would trail his life like a shadow, he boasted about it from jail. He asked the state to kill him; not because he was remorseful, but because his past had been so agonizing, he had no desire to find out if the future would hold more or less of the same. At 37 years old, Broadnax believed he’d transformed on death row, where he taught classes on peacekeeping and mentored youth to keep them off the path to incarceration. He found God, got married and asked for forgiveness. He wanted to do so much with his life, that a friend in his unit said if it came down to it, and only one of them could get clemency, he’d pick Broadnax every time.

For years, county, state and federal courts ruled that neither Broadnax’s evolution nor his claims of an unfair trial were grounds for absolution. On Thursday evening, Broadnax was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, home of the prison system’s death chamber. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. His wife, Tiana Broadnax, wailed from the other side of the glass. Seeing him on the gurney and covered in a white sheet, she screamed repeatedly, “I love you” and “I’m sorry.” Broadnax used his final statement to tell his wife he loved her, and to ask, one last time, for the families to forgive him. “No matter what you think of me, Texas got it wrong,” he said of his case. “Let this be the moment that sparks the revolution.” Much of Broadnax’s family believes his death was a grave injustice, while those closest to the victims — with one unforeseen exception — hoped to see a long delayed sentence finally carried out.

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Bud Kennedy: Will James Talarico turn Texas blue? Not so fast — poll trend favors GOP

The news is good for Texas Democrats. Unless you actually read it. Austin Democrat James Talarico has a thin lead in polls over U.S. Sen. John Cornyn for his Senate seat and a wider lead if Attorney General Ken Paxton is the Republican nominee. Democratic candidates Gina Hinojosa and runoff favorite Vikki Goodwin are already closer to Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick than Democrats Lupe Valdez and Michael Collier were back in 2018. That was the year when bottle-rocket Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke’s challenge to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz lifted Democrats within range of a statewide victory for the first time since 1994. Another bad sign for Republicans: Voters are now more intensely worried about money than they were in 2018.

Three times as many voters in the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll now say their family is worse off. Inflation and the economy combined are now the No. 1 issue for 24% of voters. And Texas voters have even lost our bravado. By 47%-42%, voters now say the state is on the wrong track. That should all add up to a close election in November. But when you read on, there is one big problem for Texas Democrats: They’re Democrats. Even though Texas voters are completely unhappy with their leaders, the state and their family situation, they are also more conservative now than in the 2018 poll. Back then, those voters polled mostly said they were Republicans, 46%-43%. That 3-point margin was what U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Paxton won by that fall in the closest races on the ticket. Now, based on the poll, Texas is 50% Republican and 40% Democrat. The baked-in winning margin for Republicans is now 10%. Not 3%. In the new poll, 43% of Texas voters have a favorable view of the Republican Party. Back in 2018, that number was 35%. Meanwhile, 50% of Texas voters now have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party.

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

‘I know how to win’: Former Texas Democrats executive running to be party leader

Last year, Monique Alcala was fired as executive director of the Texas Democratic Party after Kendall Scudder became the party’s new leader. Now, Alcala is running against him in an election that will be settled at the party’s state convention in June. Alcala, a 15-year veteran of political campaigns at the local, state and national level, said she’s running to make sure Democrats capitalize on a crucial election year. “We have a huge opportunity for us here in 2026,” Alcala told Capital Tonight. “We have a real opportunity to flip the state and win statewide.” Earlier this month, three dozen Texas Democrats wrote an open letter calling on Scudder not to seek reelection this year, accusing him of a “hostile work environment” and operational failures.

Days later, more than 800 Texas Democrats wrote a dueling letter that backed Scudder and said the party needed more time to assess his leadership. Scudder brushed off the criticisms and filed for re-election, saying he was focused on helping the party win in November — noting a $30 million commitment he secured to target key races and a full slate of candidates for every congressional and state house race in Texas. Alcala filed her candidacy on Friday, the deadline to jump into the race, promising “real change, not more empty promises or missed opportunities.” Alcala said she would return to the work she had been doing as the party’s executive director. That includes building infrastructure to aid local parties and strategic partners, like the campaign arm of Texas House Democrats, in winning legislative races. She also criticized the party’s current leadership, saying they had lackluster fundraising. “It’s a far cry from the millions of dollars that it’s going to take to defeat Greg Abbott, John Cornyn or Ken Paxton,” she said. Alcala said she would focus on lessons she learned during her career in battleground states to help Democrats win in Texas, including running coordinated campaigns that would help the party’s candidates from the top of the ballot to the bottom. She also said she would focus on keeping employees on staff who had experience in organizing and running elections — a criticism that has been lobbed at Scudder by his opponents. “This is about building infrastructure on the ground when it comes to the TDP,” Alcala said. “We need people that are working at TDP that are leading TDP that know how to build coalitions but also know how to have hard conversations about how to move the organization forward.”

Read this article at Spectrum News - Subscribers Only

$20M state grant to fuel semiconductor expansion in Sugar Land, create 500 jobs

Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $20.8 million grant from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund to Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. to expand its manufacturing operations in Sugar Land. The project represents more than $279 million in total capital investment and is expected to create 500 jobs. Abbott said the expansion strengthens Texas’ role in advanced manufacturing and semiconductor production. “Texas is leading America’s resurgence in advanced manufacturing,” Abbott said in a statement. “This investment … will create hundreds of high-skilled jobs and advance our state’s leadership in innovation and semiconductor manufacturing.”

AOI, founded in Houston in 1997, designs and manufactures fiber-optic networking products. The Sugar Land expansion will increase production of semiconductor chips and optical transceivers used in high-speed data infrastructure. Company leaders say the investment will help meet growing demand tied to artificial intelligence and data centers. “We are proud to partner with the State of Texas to expand our homegrown manufacturing,” said Stefan Murry, AOI’s chief financial and strategy officer. “This investment helps us increase production, create high-quality jobs, and help define the future of AI data center infrastructure.” State Sen. Joan Huffman, who sponsored the Texas CHIPS Act, said the funding supports continued semiconductor growth across the state and strengthens the Houston region as a manufacturing hub. State Rep. Suleman Lalani added the investment highlights Sugar Land’s growing role in next-generation technology and economic development. The Texas CHIPS Act, signed into law in 2023, created the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, which provides grants to boost semiconductor research, design and manufacturing across the state. The program is administered through the governor’s office to encourage industry expansion and support workforce development.

Read this article at Click2Houston - Subscribers Only

Texas uncertified teacher hires fall as veterans return to classroom

Last year, state lawmakers passed new rules clamping down on the number of uncertified teachers working in Texas schools and created programs designed to help districts put more well-prepared educators in classrooms. A year later, new data suggests those efforts are beginning to pay off. The state saw more experienced teachers returning to the classroom after leaving the profession years before and a small but substantial decline in the number of uncertified teachers hired for the current school year, according to data released by the Texas Education Agency. Nearly half of the roughly 44,000 teachers hired to teach in Texas public schools this year were experienced educators, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said at a State Board of Education meeting in March. About 42% of those teachers were coming back to the classroom after leaving earlier in their careers, and another 6% were teachers who came to Texas from out of state.

The number of teachers returning to the classroom is a good sign for Texas schools, Morath said. Those teachers aren’t untrained new hires, he said, but skilled veteran educators who are “maybe a little rusty.” They may be teachers who spent years in the classroom when they were in their 20s, then switched careers or dropped out of the workforce to raise a family, and then decided to return to teaching years later, he said. In 2015, state lawmakers loosened teacher certification requirements to help school districts deal with teacher shortages in career and technical education programs. A post-pandemic teacher shortage led more school leaders turned to uncertified teachers to fill the gap. In two years, the number of new uncertified teachers hired in Texas schools more than tripled, climbing from 4,285 in the 2020-21 school year to 14,170 in the 2022-23 school year. By the 2023-24 school year, about a third of all newly hired teachers in the state lacked certification, according to TEA data. Last year, Texas lawmakers re-tightened those rules and provided funding to help. By the beginning of the 2027-28 school year, districts must have no uncertified teachers working in math, science, social studies or reading, although districts may apply for a two-year extension.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

FCC orders ABC stations, including Houston’s KTRK, to re-apply for broadcast license amid political squabble

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered several television stations owned by Disney to re-file for their broadcasting licenses within 30 days, amidst a squabble over ABC content. That includes Houston-based KTRK. On Tuesday, the FCC issued an order saying Disney may have violated the Communications Act of 1934 and FCC rules, "including the agency's prohibition on unlawful discrimination." As part of the order, eight television stations, including KTRK, must file for their license renewal by May 28. The order comes amid a political fight over a joke made by Jimmy Kimmel, a late-night comedian whose show airs on ABC, which is owned by Disney. Kimmel referred to First Lady Melania Trump as looking like an "expectant widow.” President Donald Trump called for Kimmel to be fired for the joke.

A representative for KTRK, which is also referred to as ABC 13, declined to comment for the station. A spokesperson for Disney, speaking on behalf of all eight stations, said the company stood by its content. "We are confident that the record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate." The broadcast licenses for each of the stations were originally scheduled for renewal between 2028 and 2031. The FCC and its chair, Brendan Carr, had previously been at odds with Disney after Kimmel made a joke about the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk in September. Kimmel was briefly suspended from his role by Disney, after Carr called for reining in broadcasters while speaking on a podcast. The FCC also made headlines in Texas when Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico was set to appear on CBS's late-night program hosted by Stephen Colbert. Carr had called for ending an exception for talk shows to provide equal time commitments to candidates in a political race. Citing that guideline, which was not official policy, CBS allegedly blocked Colbert from airing the interview on the network.

Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only

Corpus Christi Harbor Island water project faces setback after $140M loan denial

The Nueces River Authority says its Harbor Island desalination loan ranked 13th, missing funding as only top 9–10 projects were approved. Corpus Christi’s water development plans hit a major setback after a $140 million low-interest loan for the Harbor Island desalination plant was denied. The Nueces River Authority applied for the loan earlier this year through the Texas Water Development Board. John Chisholm, deputy executive director of the Nueces River Authority, said the denial caught him by surprise. "This was the first year that they're telling me they had more projects, more value of projects than they have money available," he said. Chisholm said state officials received applications totaling about $4.2 billion, with demand outpacing available funding. "They were only able to fund like the first nine or ten, and we scored 13th. So we were out of the money," he said.

Chisholm said the denial comes as communities across Texas compete for limited water resources. "We're not alone," he said. "You know, our fellow Texans all over are in the same spot. Um, I think there's a great water, you know, North Texas, Central Texas, uh, West Texas as well. So I think that says a lot that there's a lot of projects and a lot of need in Texas right now." Corpus Christi At-Large councilman Roland Barrera, who opposed the Harbor Island project, said there was still to many unanswered questions. "Without even understanding the cost of facility is. The cost to convey is upward of a million dollars. The resources they'll have to provide to get electricity out there," he said. Political analyst Dr. Bill Chriss said with more regions across Texas drawing from the same well, Corpus Christi could have a harder time landing major water projects. "Because this is an emergency that requires immediate response not building something that could produce water for us in five to 10 years," he said. Chisholm said the project is too important to abandon. He said the Nueces River Authority is now looking to private investors and potential federal support.

Read this article at KIIITV - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Congress votes to reopen key parts of DHS without ICE funding

Congress voted to reopen key parts of the Department of Homeland Security — including the Transportation Security Administration — Thursday after weeks of GOP infighting that prolonged a record shutdown of the critical agency. President Donald Trump promptly signed the bill to fund the department, which went unfunded for 75 days, into law. In the end, House GOP leaders conceded in a weeks-long DHS funding fight in a major retreat by Speaker Mike Johnson as he faced a growing revolt from centrists in his party, multiple sources told CNN. The House abruptly passed the package — which includes no money for federal immigration enforcement, in a major win for Democrats — by a voice vote Thursday afternoon.

The move brings an end to a historic shutdown that led to long lines at airports across the country and comes just before paychecks were about to stall out once again for DHS employees. Johnson decided to move forward after a private leadership meeting earlier Thursday where the team agreed they had little choice but to move the bill — with their own members warning the situation was untenable. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former House member, had also repeatedly warned that he was almost out of money. And GOP leaders knew that the deteriorating DHS situation would only further underscore their party’s diminishing ability to govern in a House rife with divisions and infighting. Conservative hardliners — who had contributed to holding up the bill for weeks — eventually admitted they had no leverage left in the fight. GOP Rep. Andy Harris, who leads the House’s ultraconservative bloc, told reporters that “you really can’t stop anything from passing” if dozens of Democrats are also going to help.

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Louisiana governor postpones House primaries after Supreme Court ruling

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry on Thursday postponed his state’s May 16 primaries for the House, one day after the Supreme Court struck down the state’s congressional map as an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.” “Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,” the Republican governor said in a news release accompanying an executive order he signed prohibiting the state from conducting House elections under its current map. “This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.” Primaries for other offices in Louisiana will go ahead on May 16, state officials said.

President Donald Trump lauded Landry for “moving so quickly to fix the Unconstitutionality of Louisiana’s Congressional Maps.’’ The Supreme Court decision invalidating Louisiana’s congressional map limits the use of race in drawing congressional districts and could lead to further redistricting nationwide, especially in Southern states. In a 6-3 decision, the court’s conservative majority found that Louisiana should not have been forced to draw a congressional map with a second Black-majority district to comply with the Voting Rights Act. Democrats denounced the decision to postpone the House primaries, saying changing the rules this close to the election – early voting was set to start Saturday – would create chaos and disenfranchise voters. “Louisianans have already cast absentee ballots, early voting was set to begin this weekend, and now those votes won’t count. That is unacceptable,” Rep. Cleo Fields, whose Black-majority district was at the heart of the Supreme Court case, said on social media.

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Immigrants file suit over Trump’s Catch-22 biometric data policy

A group of detained immigrants have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration over a catch-22 biometric data policy that they allege has blocked them from obtaining legal status. A 19-year-old from Venezuela detained for over a year is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Thursday against the Department of Homeland Security. At issue is a December policy change barring immigrants in detention from getting their fingerprints and photos taken for visa and other deportation-protection applications. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, denies applications of people who don’t attend their biometric screenings, which the lawsuit claims puts the immigrants in an impossible situation.

Other plaintiffs, such as a 22-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman from Mexico, are seeking visas they say they qualify for as victims of crime. The man applied for a visa meant to protect victims of human trafficking because he said his father abused him after bringing him to the U.S. as a minor. The woman claims to be a victim of domestic violence and stalking from the father of her children. She has spent nearly a year in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in Kentucky, according to the complaint. Attorneys from Democracy Forward, the National Immigration Project and the National Immigrant Justice Center are representing the immigrants in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint argues the policy violates the detainees’ due process. “In its zeal to block paths for lawful immigration, the Trump-Vance administration has yet again set up an unlawful trap for noncitizens, creating a system where people are required to meet a condition for relief and then blocking them from ever meeting it,” Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement. Another lawsuit against this policy led to DHS agreeing in March to transport the mother of a U.S. citizen who had been in detention for more than eight months to her biometrics-collection appointment as part of her application for a green card. USCIS is facing a mounting number of lawsuits over its processing freeze on applications from immigrant nationals of countries on President Donald Trump’s travel ban list.

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House votes to renew foreign spy program and creates pathway to end DHS shutdown

The Republican-controlled House voted Wednesday to renew a powerful foreign surveillance program and passed a Senate-approved measure that would jump-start the process to fund ICE and the Border Patrol for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term. The House voted 235-191 to extend the critical spy program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires this week. Lawmakers later voted 215-211 along party lines to pass the GOP budget resolution previously approved by the Senate after a revolt by House Republicans over an unrelated farm bill delayed final passage by more than five hours. Asked to describe the chaotic day in one word, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., replied: “S---show.”

The successful budget vote could unlock the GOP support needed to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down for a record 74 days because of Democrats’ demands for reforms to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics. Wednesday was one of the more tumultuous days in the House in recent memory. Earlier, a handful of conservative hard-liners blocked a key procedural vote, preventing several of Trump’s legislative priorities from coming to the floor. The difficulty in passing even routine motions highlighted, again, the challenges of the GOP's narrow 217-212 majority as the 2026 midterm elections approach. In that vote series, Johnson and his team could be seen on the floor desperately trying to persuade the rabble-rousers — including Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., and Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo. — to flip their no votes to yes. After two hours of arm-twisting and cajoling in public view, Johnson's efforts proved successful, and the House passed the rule 216-210. In addition to the Republican budget and the renewal of FISA, the rule also advanced the farm bill, which sets agriculture policy for the next five years, on its way to a final vote.

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Republicans want Tennessee’s last Democratic House District

The Supreme Court’s blow to the Voting Rights Act had barely landed on Wednesday when Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, called on lawmakers to eliminate the last Democratic-held House seat in the state. Taking to social media shortly after the Wednesday morning ruling, Ms. Blackburn, the favorite to become the state’s next governor, urged the legislature to hastily adopt a new congressional map that would put Memphis, a majority Black city, in Republican hands. The chorus quickly grew. Her opponent in the gubernatorial primary, Representative John Rose, declared that the Democratic-led city “deserves Republican representation in Congress.” State Senator Brent Taylor, of nearby Shelby County, asked on X, “Got any ideas on who would make a great Republican congressman from West TN?”

By Thursday morning, President Trump said on Truth Social that Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, had assured him in a call that he would “work hard” to get Republicans “one extra seat” in Tennessee, “and help save our country.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Lee did not respond to questions about the conversation, and it remains unclear whether a new map will be approved before the midterm elections. But for some Democrats, the eager chatter was the realization of fears that have percolated since 2022, when Republicans carved a Nashville-area seat long held by Democrats into three Republican districts. “Memphis could be like Nashville,” said Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat who has held the Memphis seat since 2007. “Thrown off the political map.” Mr. Cohen said he had been in touch with voting rights lawyers and would try to stop any redistricting effort. The Supreme Court ruling, which raises the bar for finding congressional maps racially discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act, was not unexpected. But it still set off a scramble across the South, as conservatives saw a new opportunity to break up districts with large numbers of Black voters who remain loyal to Democrats. Tennessee was not always as reliably ruby red. As recently as 2008, it had a Democratic governor, Phil Bredesen, and five Democrats in its congressional delegation. But as the state’s electorate became increasingly disillusioned with the Democratic Party during the Obama years, the number of Democrats it sent to Congress dwindled.

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Trump taps Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after pulling Casey Means nomination

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will nominate Dr. Nicole Saphier as the next U.S. surgeon general after pulling his previous pick, Dr. Casey Means, whose confirmation process in the Senate stalled for months. Saphier is a breast radiologist and was previously a Fox News contributor. She is listed as the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center-Monmouth and the author of several books. That includes one book that critiques the U.S.’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing that political agendas often overshadowed scientific guidance. “Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.

“She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans,” Trump continued. Means was nominated at the recommendation of her close ally Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Her nomination had stalled in the Senate for more than two months over concerns about her controversial stances on vaccines, birth control, pesticides and psychedelics. Her brother, Calley Means, is a senior White House adviser. Trump on Thursday also blasted Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., accusing him of standing in the way of Means’ nomination “I nominated Casey, a strong MAHA Warrior, at the recommendation of Secretary Kennedy, who understands the MAHA Movement better than anyone, with perhaps the possible exception of ME!” Trump wrote, adding: “Casey, thank you for your service to our Nation!”

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After Janet Mills' departure, more Democrats begin to rally around Graham Platner's Senate campaign

Gov. Janet Mills' decision to end her U.S. Senate campaign on Thursday dramatically changed the dynamics of a race with major national implications. Within hours, many prominent Democrats in Maine as well as national party leaders rallied behind Graham Platner, the Hancock County oysterman and populist who is now the presumptive nominee. But Platner said the governor's decision doesn't change how he's running his populist and anti-establishment campaign to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins this fall. "The race has never been about me or really about one person," Platner said. "It's about a movement of working Mainers who are fed up with being robbed by billionaires and the politicians who own them. We are now taking back our power. That is what this campaign is."

Platner was speaking a little more than two hours after Mills announced she was suspending her campaign. He was joined by nearly two dozen elected officials — most them Democratic members of the Legislature — for what had been planned as a fairly routine endorsement event. But the landscape had changed. So Platner started by thanking Mills for her lengthy career in public service — as prosecutor, attorney general and now two terms as governor — and by saying that her decision reflects their shared commitment to a singular goal: unseating Collins this November. "I look forward to working closely with her between now and November to do just that, to defeat Susan Collins and turn this seat blue again," Platner said. A Marine Corps veteran who farms oysters near his home in Sullivan, Platner has been leading in almost every poll for months over Mills and the third Democratic contender, David Costello of Brunswick. And there were plenty of other signs that the Mills campaign was struggling to find traction in a race that's a top priority for the national parties.

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Trump’s border wall expansion just bulldozed an ancient tribal site

President Donald Trump’s expansion of the wall along the southern border with Mexico has damaged a rare Native American archaeological site in the Arizona desert, area residents said Thursday, as the administration moves to rapidly build hundreds of miles of additional barriers in a $46.5 billion project. The aggressive expansion project — funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill — is erecting three miles of wall a week, introducing barriers in parts of Texas that did not previously have them, as well as a second wall in much of California, Arizona and New Mexico. The construction is not abiding by environmental laws and other protections, alarming advocates, national park staff and Native Americans.

In Arizona, construction crews ran heavy machinery through and destroyed a roughly 60-to-70-foot swath of an intaglio, a more than 200-foot-long ground etching that looks like a fish and is thought to be at least 1,000 years old, said Richard Martynec, a retired archaeologist who now volunteers his time surveying the area. Satellite imagery from Friday shows a disturbance crossing the intaglio area. Lorraine Marquez Eiler, an elder of the Hia-ced O’odham Indigenous people, said the damage happened last week. “If someone came to Washington and started destroying all the different sites that people in the United States revere, it’s the same thing for us,” Marquez Eiler said. “Those things were made by our ancestors, and it’s hitting home. … For me, it’s an emotional subject,” she added.

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Sheinbaum defies US demand to extradite Mexican officials on drug charges

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum denounced the U.S. prosecution of a sitting Mexican governor and other officials on drug trafficking charges as "political," and said Thursday that Mexico would not comply with Washington's demands that the accused be arrested and extradited to the United States. "We are not permitting a foreign government to say what is the future of Mexico," said a defiant Sheinbaum, who repeatedly assailed U.S. "meddling" in the incendiary case. U.S. authorities have not submitted "compelling proof" to justify the arrests and detentions of anyone in Mexico, Sheinbaum said. Sheinbaum's stance puts Mexico on a likely collision course with Trump, who says Sheinbaum's government hasn't done enough to crack down on cartels.

Sheinbaum's comments came a day after the unsealing of a bombshell indictment in federal court in New York accusing 10 current and former Mexican officials of drug trafficking, arms offenses and links to the notorious Sinaloa cartel co-founded by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Topping the list of accused is Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of the northwestern Sinaloa state. Rocha Moya and others named have denied the charges, calling them an attempt to subvert Mexico's sovereignty. The indictment presents Sheinbaum with one of her biggest challenges yet. In standing firm against the U.S. action, she risks being seen as shielding drug traffickers and their political allies. Sheinbaum faced "a terrifying Hamlet-like dilemma: to yield or not, with disastrous consequences in either case," Jorge Castañeda, a former Mexican foreign minister, wrote in El Proceso magazine. Sheinbaum's response risks "sounding like a defense of corrupt governments," said Carlos Pérez Ricart, a professor of international relations at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics. Pérez said he agreed with Sheinbaum's plan to have Mexican authorities evaluate the evidence against the Sinaloa officials, which he said appeared "strong." Still, he said, she was correct to view the U.S. indictment in political terms. "There's no doubt the United States is weaponizing its prosecutorial powers to serve a political agenda," he said.

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Lead Stories

Supreme Court ruling is set to reshape American politics

The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday handed Republicans their biggest victory yet in the perpetual battle to control the House of Representatives and statehouses across the country — but it may have come too late to have much of an effect on this year’s midterm elections. The 6-3 ruling effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act’s requirement that districts be drawn to give minority voters a chance to elect representatives of their choosing. One practical effect of that requirement was the protection of reliably Democratic-voting majority-minority districts, even in solidly red states where lawmakers could otherwise favor the GOP. With that mandate now largely gone, Republican lawmakers across the country — and especially in the South — have a freer hand to eliminate Democratic-leaning districts and pad the total number of seats they can win to hold the U.S. House. There are more than a dozen such seats in Republican-controlled states.

Shortly after the ruling, Republicans were urging a review of their congressional maps in Louisiana, Tennessee and elsewhere. Their immediate challenge is that the ruling came down well after filing deadlines for this year’s primary elections — and in some cases, after those primary elections have been held. That means ballots are set and in some states early and absentee voting has already begun. The timing makes it difficult to tear up maps and draw new ones. In Louisiana, where the mandate to draw a second, Democratic-leaning majority-Black House district led to Tuesday’s decision, the primary election for federal offices is set for May 16 — and early voting is scheduled to begin Saturday. Nevertheless, the state’s governor, attorney general and legislative leaders were meeting to discuss how the state would respond. Republicans have been scrambling to comply with President Donald Trump’s directive to redraw maps to add more winnable House seats to stave off losses in the midterms. In a sign of the pressure for Republicans to take advantage of the opportunity, multiple hopefuls running for governor in GOP primaries called for immediate redraws. “There is no time to waste,” Rick Jackson, a businessman and GOP governor candidate in Georgia, said in urging a redraw there even as voting is underway for the May 19 primary. “Georgia must act now to ensure secure elections in Georgia and counter the Democrats’ national assault on our elections.”

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Oil surges to highest price since 2022 on growing supply fears

Oil briefly surpassed $126 a barrel Thursday, its highest price in four years, as traders worried about a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, following US President Donald Trump’s decision to extend a blockade of Iranian ports. Brent crude, the global benchmark, surged overnight to touch $126.41 a barrel, before falling 1.5% to $116.3 a barrel, as trading volumes thinned. WTI crude, the US benchmark, was broadly flat at $106.7 a barrel. “The oil market has moved from… hoping for resolution to fixating squarely on the physical scarcity and long-term threat to supply with the possible escalation of conflict now looming,” Neil Wilson, a strategist at investment bank Saxo wrote in a note. US average gasoline prices hit a four-year high of $4.30 a gallon on Thursday, according to the latest national average reading from the AAA.

Global crude prices have now risen for nine straight days as face-to-face negotiations between the United States and Iran broke down, keeping the Strait of Hormuz – a critical oil and natural gas shipping channel – effectively shut. Thursday’s price spike was also driven by quirks in oil futures contracts, according to Wilson. The widely quoted June futures contract expires today and so trading volume has shifted to the July contract, which was trading above $110 a barrel. Last night, Trump said he wanted the US naval blockade of Iranian ports to continue, sources familiar with the talks with his senior advisers told CNN. US officials have begun laying the groundwork for such an extension, including a longer-term closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices have “nowhere to go but up,” until the permanent reopening of the strait comes into view, said Vandana Hari, founder of energy market analysis firm Vanda Insights. “As of now, how and when that might happen is anybody’s guess,” she added, noting that another few weeks of stalemate would unlikely sit well with Trump.

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Jerome Powell says he will continue to serve as a Fed governor, calls Trump criticism 'unprecedented'

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said he will stay on the Board of Governors for an indefinite period while a probe into the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters continues. “I’ve said that I will not leave the board until this investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality, and I stand by that. I’m encouraged by recent developments, and I’m watching the remaining steps in this process carefully,” Powell said near the beginning of his post-meeting news conference. “My decisions on these matters will continue to be guided entirely by what I believe is in the best interest of the institution and the people we serve after my term as chair ends on May 15, and will continue to serve as a governor for a period of time to be determined,” he added.

By staying on, Powell for the moment is denying President Donald Trump a majority on the Board of Governors. Trump’s other appointees on the seven-member board include Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman. Trump appointee Stephen Miran, whose term has expired but has continued to serve, will leave after Warsh is confirmed. Powell’s decision to stay resolves for the moment a key question that hovered over the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Markets already had largely expected to keep its key interest rate steady, with the bigger question over Powell’s future. Powell’s tenure as chair ends next month, but he has two years remaining on his seat as governor. The chair, who has served eight years, congratulated his appointed successor Kevin Warsh, whose nominee cleared a pivotal hurdle earlier Wednesday when the Senate Banking Committee voted to move Warsh forward to the full floor for a vote.

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Texas health agency, lawmakers clash over authority to suspend Camp Mystic license

State lawmakers are pressing the Texas Department of State Health Services to suspend Camp Mystic’s license as the camp prepares to reopen its Cypress Lake location in about a month, but the agency says recently passed legislation does not clearly spell out how it can take that step. The dispute played out during Tuesday’s investigative hearing, where lawmakers questioned DSHS about its authority to suspend a youth camp license if a camp violates state safety requirements. “You have the ability to suspend,” state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said. “And I'm asking you, will you suspend?” State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, also pushed for a definitive response, saying, “I need very clear answers on that, yes or no.”

DSHS has identified 22 deficiencies in Camp Mystic’s emergency management plan. During the hearing, the agency said it is actively implementing newly passed youth camp safety legislation and emphasized that emergency planning is required for licensing. “We will not approve a camp's license unless it has an acceptable emergency plan,” said Dr. Jennifer Shuford, the DSHS commissioner. The legislation at the center of the dispute is Senate Bill 1, passed in response to the deadly July 4 floods at Camp Mystic. The law updated emergency planning requirements, added enforcement provisions, and included language in the Texas Health and Safety Code stating: “The department shall suspend a youth camp license issued by the department if the camp or youth camp operator is in violation of state safety requirements, including emergency planning rules.” Lawmakers argued that language gives DSHS clear direction. “You have direct language, which gives you your marching orders. Do you agree?” Darby asked. Nycia Deal, chief deputy counsel for Texas Health & Human Services, said the agency does not interpret the statute that way, pointing to what she described as missing procedural language typically included when an agency is allowed to suspend a license immediately.

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State Stories

14 Texas border county judges ask feds to include them in wall talks

All 14 county judges from the Texas border sent a letter to the head of the Department of Homeland Security asking “to serve as partners” in matters concerning security along the border with Mexico, including border wall construction. “Our purpose in writing is not to oppose or obstruct, but to help ensure that the people who live, work, ranch, farm and raise families along this border continue to have a meaningful voice in decisions that shape our daily,” they wrote. “Our counties lie directly along the international boundary. We see firsthand the impacts of unlawful crossings, including strain on local resources, risks to public safety, and challenges faced by landowners and law enforcement,” they said.

Among their concerns is that new border wall construction will impact or diminish water supplies. The letter was sent April 21 to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. And was sent by: Hudspeth County Judge Joanna MacKenzie, Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, Presidio County Judge Jose Portillo, Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino, Brewster County Judge Greg Henington, Terrell County Judge Dale Carruthers, Starr County Judge Eloy Vera, Kinney County Judge John Schuster, Zapata County Judge Joe Rathmell, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, Jeff Davis County Judge Curtis Evans, Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, Maverick County Judge Ramsey English Cantu, and Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens. The judges cite a change by the Trump administration to use more detection technology in the Big Bend region, for instance, after much pushback from the sheriffs of that region. “That approach reflects how thoughtful coordination can meet security objectives while preserving natural resources, access, and the unique character of the region,” they wrote.

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Texas Republican Party chair talks Islam, midterms

In a speech at the Rowlett Republican Men’s Club, Texas Republican Party Chair Abraham George touted his efforts working with state legislators on conservative priorities in the two years he has led the party. George, former chair of the Collin County GOP, was elected state party chair in a six-way race at the party’s convention in San Antonio in May 2024. He is running for reelection at the party’s June convention in Houston. About 9,000 delegates from across the state, many of them Republican precinct chairs, will gather to discuss the party’s priorities and elect a chairperson. So far, George has only attracted one challenger, D’Rinda Randall, the current vice chair of the state party who was his running mate in 2024.

George said he would lead the party through a competitive midterm election in November. Unlike two years ago when securing the Southern border was a priority for the party, Texas conservative activists have turned their attention to legal immigration pathways such as H-1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire foreigners for jobs requiring specialized knowledge. In fiscal 2024, 71% of H-1B visas issued nationwide went to Indian applicants, according to federal data. Activists have lamented the increase in Indian H-1B workers in cities such as Frisco, and some online have disparaged the Texas GOP for being led by George, who immigrated to the United States from India when he was 15 years old. Nativism in some corners of the GOP might influence George’s reelection chances, even though he said he supports banning H-1B visas in Texas. At a Monday night event at a Pentecostal church in Rowlett, a suburb one attendee dubbed a “red bastion in the corner of Dallas County,” about twenty five people gathered to hear George speak about a host of issues. “It's going to be a fight. It's not going to be easy for us,” George said of November elections for Congress and the Texas Legislature. He said representatives from the Republican National Convention told him about $1 billion will be poured into Texas in support of Democrats this election cycle.

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Texas judge says agency must comply with agreement made with Plano-area Muslim development

A Travis County District Court has ordered the Texas Workforce Commission to comply with an agreement it made with the developer of a Muslim-oriented community. The Meadow, formerly known as EPIC City, has been repeatedly targeted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and other officials. Civil rights groups claim religious discrimination is behind the attacks on the housing development — which has not been built. The agency and the developer, Community Capital Partners, agreed last fall to resolve allegations of fair housing violations against the project. Community Capital Partners sued the Texas Workforce Commission after it sent the commission fair housing policies for the development but didn’t receive any review or response from the agency according to a press release from the developer.

The proposed housing community a 402-acre development in unincorporated Collin and Hunt counties, roughly 40 miles northeast of Dallas near the city of Josephine. The project is years away from construction but has already faced intense scrutiny from top Republicans in the state. Texas officials have accused the development of implementing Sharia Law and creating a no-go zone for non-Muslims, something the developer has repeatedly denied. Imran Chaudhary, the president of Community Capital Partners, praised the court’s ruling in a press release. “This ruling confirms what we have maintained from the beginning — that Community Capital Partners has been willing, ready, and committed to complying with Texas law at every step,” said CCP President Imran Chaudhary. “We have acted in good faith throughout this process, and today’s decision reflects that.” The Texas Workforce Commission told KERA via email it plans to appeal the court's ruling.

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Hours before James Broadnax's lethal injection, chances to postpone his execution dwindle

One by one, legal options to postpone James Broadnax's execution are dwindling — with very little time left before his scheduled lethal injection. Hours before the sentence was scheduled to be carried out two chances in the Dallas County 2008 capital murder case remained. Broadnax's legal team on Tuesday requested from Texas Governor Greg Abbott a 30-day reprieve. Attorneys could learn the response when the public does, not before. Broadnax, now 37, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday in Huntsville, Texas for robbing, shooting and killing Christian music producers Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in Garland in 2008. He was convicted in 2009.

His cousin, Demarius Cummings, recently confessed to being the shooter. The U.S. Supreme Court had not yet issued a decision on one last appeal to pause the execution late Wednesday. Broadnax, 37, made two appeals to the Supreme Court to halt his execution: one alleging the use of rap lyrics as evidence against Broadnax during trial was unconstitutional, and another arguing prosecutors struck Black prospective jurors from the selection pool, resulting in a nearly all-white jury. "James continues to maintain faith and stoicism and belief that his case will still have a chance to be heard and that his life will be spared," said Allan Ripp, a spokesperson for Broadnax's legal team. Still pending is Broadnax's appeal after Cummings confessed in a sworn statement last month that he convinced Broadnax, then 19, to take the blame for the shooting while they were both high on PCP and marijuana. Cummings decided to come clean after finding out two months ago that Broadnax was scheduled to die, he said. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled earlier this month it would not consider the confession as a reason to pause Broadnax's execution.

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Inside SpaceX's IPO: Musk's most ambitious plan yet

In the days after the PayPal IPO in 2002, Elon Musk and company executives gathered at a Las Vegas casino to celebrate. But while others socialized by the pool, Musk was hunched over an old Soviet rocket manual and already planning ?his next venture: SpaceX. “He’d come off what was an unequivocally big win, he was one of the largest shareholders, and yet he was focused on this next thing,” Kevin Hartz, an early PayPal investor who ?was at the party, told Reuters. “Now it’s a multi-trillion-dollar business.” In the two decades since Musk took the reins at SpaceX, the company has grown into the world’s largest space business, launching thousands of Starlink internet satellites and pioneering reusable rockets, transforming the economics of space in a way Musk likens to inventing an airplane that no longer has to be destroyed after every flight.

Musk’s years of defying accepted logic through audacious risk-taking in space look set to be validated when SpaceX goes public this year at a possible valuation of $1.75 trillion, in what would be the largest public listing on record ?and one that could put him on track to become the world’s first trillionaire. But what comes next may be an even bigger ask than building reusable rockets or the first mass-market electric vehicle, according to a Reuters review ?of more than 100 pages of excerpts from SpaceX’s confidential pre-IPO prospectus, offering the most detailed look at SpaceX’s financials and its future plans since Musk took the helm. Reuters published a series of exclusive ?stories based on the documents last week. “I always thought he was crazy,” said Walter Isaacson, who spent two years shadowing Musk while writing a biography of the billionaire. “But the danger of betting against him is that he ends up being crazy like ?a fox and gets things done.”

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EF-3 tornado injures 5 people, causes extensive damage in Mineral Wells, officials confirm

Multiple people were injured after an EF-3 tornado struck Mineral Wells on Tuesday, prompting a Tornado Warning in Palo Pinto County, according to city officials. The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado’s strength Wednesday after surveying damage in some of the hardest-hit parts of the Metroplex. Five people were injured in the storm, Mineral Wells officials said during a Wednesday morning press conference. No reported deaths and no reports of any community members missing, officials confirmed “We’re going to get through this,” said Police Chief Tim Denison. “We’re going to be there for them.”

The city also confirmed structural damage in the industrial areas and the northeast portion of the city. Downed power lines were reported on East Hubbard Street near Highway 180. WFAA also spoke with business workers who reported large hail in the area. Multiple homes were damaged and several families were displaced; however, officials are unclear of how many as of Tuesday evening. There are also several homes and businesses without power, city officials said. WFAA was allowed inside the Holliday Hills Country Club neighborhood, located right next to the golf course, and our crews saw extensive damage. Homes were ripped apart and tree limbs snapped in half.

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Judge dismisses part of Eli Lilly's GLP-1 lawsuit against Houston's Empower Pharmacy

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed part of Eli Lilly's lawsuit against the Houston-based Empower Pharmacy — the latest development in the pharmaceutical giant's bid to curb sales of cheaper, less-regulated versions of their blockbuster GLP-1 weight loss drug. The lawsuit is significant because millions of Americans have gained access to GLP-1s through compounding pharmacies like Empower, which make customized versions of drugs without going through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration review process. Empower describes itself as the largest and most advanced compounding pharmacy in the country. Eli Lilly argued in its lawsuit that Empower violated federal trademark laws and state unfair competition laws by selling "untested and unapproved" versions of their tirzepatide products, Mounjaro and Zepbound, which the company said it spent billions of dollars to develop.

U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake dismissed the federal trademark law claims because Eli Lilly did not show it lost sales or suffered "irreparable harm" from Empower's allegedly false advertising. The judge also dismissed Lilly's allegations that Empower violated Texas' unfair competition laws. He did, however, allow the allegation that Empower violated unfair competition laws in other states to move forward. Empower and Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On its website, Empower continues to market versions of Eli Lilly's drugs with vitamin additives, in different concentrations and in pill form. Patients have commonly used compounded GLP-1s because they can be hundreds of dollars cheaper than the brand-name products, although the pharmaceutical companies have started to offer discounted cash prices. Compounding pharmacies were given the green light to produce copies of GLP-1 drugs starting in 2022, when the FDA declared a drug shortage. But the shortage has since ended, and the pharmacies have continued to make their own versions, under laws that allow them to make drugs for specific patients. Unlike brand-name drugs, compounded drugs are not required to go through the traditional FDA review process. Empower's revenue more than doubled when the drugs were on shortage, from $119 million in 2022 to $377 million in 2024, according to financial figures provided to the Houston Business Journal.

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Jasmine Crockett maps next moves: boost other candidates, road show

Rep. Jasmine Crockett gave a peek into her political future Wednesday, telling a daytime TV talk show host she will work to elect like-minded candidates and launch a road show to share her views. “My focus is going to be to pivot to support others,” Crockett told Sherri Shepherd on the Sherri show. “We want to fuel individual rights everywhere. And so we are going to support other candidates as well as I'm going to go on tour across the country and we are going to educate people about what it is that elected officials can do, should be doing and what they’re doing wrong.” Crockett was referencing her Fueling Individual Rights Everywhere political action committee, or FIRE PAC. Such leadership PACs represent a fundraising mechanism in which politicians collect donations and distribute them to other candidates. Crockett did not share details on the timing of the tour and did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

Crockett’s plans come amid speculation about her next steps after losing the Democratic primary for Senate last month to state Rep. James Talarico of Austin. Talarico will face incumbent John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton, who meet in the GOP runoff May 26. Crockett has said she expects a book deal and a return to practicing law after she leaves Congress, although House rules restrict her ability to lock those down now. Crockett’s work on behalf of other candidates included her endorsement Wednesday of former Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas in the Democratic primary runoff against Rep. Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch. Allred represented Congressional District 32 before leaving to run for Senate in 2024. Johnson succeeded him. After last year's mid-decade Republican redistricting revamped the district, Johnson opted to run in the newly drawn District 33 that favors Democrats. Article continues below this ad Allred initially announced a Senate bid but switched to District 33 after Crockett entered the Senate race. He and Johnson are locked in a heated runoff after neither finished with a majority of the vote in the March primary.

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UT Austin orders changes to KUT Festival days before inaugural event

A major portion of the inaugural KUT Festival, which Austin’s NPR station has billed as a springtime community celebration featuring live music, author talks and panel discussions, will have to change its location following a decision by the University of Texas at Austin. Citing safety concerns, university leadership announced in an email to attendees and staff on Tuesday evening that all of Saturday’s events — panels, musical performances and a street fair — will be moved off campus. The university announced that much of the Friday portion of the festival, including a keynote event with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, will continue as planned at the LBJ Presidential Library. Saturday’s events will be moving to Central Machine Works and East End Ballroom — two venues within walking distance of each other in East Austin.

In a staff-wide email, KUT Public Media General Manager Debbie Hiott said the university first raised its concerns last Wednesday afternoon, adding that the station had begun planning the event in the fall. “On Friday, the university ordered KUT to cancel the outdoor portions of the events citing a safety analysis that they have yet to provide us,” Hiott said, noting that the university's order took the station by surprise. “In our months of planning, we have agreed to every health, security and safety request that has been made of us and our production company, which has produced the Texas Tribune Festival and many other major events over the years.” Hiott said the station “would have been happy to sit down with the appropriate officials and go over their concerns and any remedies, but have not been provided that opportunity.” Anita L. Vangelisti, interim dean of the Moody College of Communication, which includes KUT and its sister music station KUTX, said in an email to festival attendees and staff that "our analysis has identified key areas where KUT provided insufficient planning for safety measures, including security, health, fire, and emergency services." A UT spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment or a copy of the analysis.

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Austin music venues, promoters hope antitrust ruling breaks Live Nation's grip on booking concerts

When Pedro Carvalho tries to book a rising artist at the Far Out Lounge in South Austin, he sometimes offers substantially more money than larger promoters and still loses the show. The reason, he said, has less to do with price than access: Artists often stick with Live Nation-connected tours and venues in hopes of landing bigger bookings and festival slots later. That dynamic was at the center of a federal antitrust case that found Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as an illegal monopoly, a ruling that could reshape how concerts are booked nationwide, including in Austin. “They have these strong grips and holds on these agencies, and they say, ‘If you [don’t play] a Live Nation venue, then you are not gonna play one of the Live Nation festivals,’” said Carvalho, who co-owns Far Out Lounge. “So we can’t compete even with dollars.” The lawsuit, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of states, now moves into a remedies phase that could determine whether Live Nation must change how it operates. Potential outcomes could include limits on its control of venues and ticketing, or requirements to alter how it contracts with artists and promoters.

Live Nation has already indicated it plans to appeal the ruling, though any challenge would likely come after a judge determines penalties, setting up what could be a prolonged legal fight. For independent promoters and venue operators in Austin, that timeline dampens any expectations of sweeping, business-altering changes anytime soon. Live Nation has become deeply embedded across the live event ecosystem. The company, which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, operates as a promoter, venue owner and ticketing provider, giving it influence over multiple stages of how shows are booked and sold. For smaller companies, that reach can be difficult to work around. Randy Cohen, founder of Austin-based ticket broker TicketCity, said his company once tried to compete directly as a ticket marketplace but eventually moved away from that approach. It now focuses on buying blocks of tickets and reselling them on other platforms. “It’s a deep-pocket game,” Cohen said, describing how Ticketmaster can afford to spend far more on ads to get customers to click and buy through them. “We lost that battle.” In Austin, Live Nation’s influence often shows up not as a direct barrier, but as a factor in how tours are built from the start, shaping which venues artists play and which promoters get access to them.

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Mayor Jones’ chief of staff Jenise Carroll also departs City Hall

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ chief of staff Jenise Carroll resigned Wednesday — days after her deputy chief of staff Pat Wallace also left the office. Like the mayor, Carroll is an Air Force veteran with a background in federal policy. She moved to San Antonio for the job in July of last year, replacing Jones’ first chief, Jordan Abelson, who served as campaign manager before resigning just weeks into the job. Though Carroll was new to city government, she seemed to gain the respect of the council staff in other offices. As of Wednesday evening, her city email address was providing an automatic reply saying she’s no longer with the mayor’s office. It directed questions to the mayor’s executive assistant Laura Atamosa. Carroll later confirmed in an email that she’d resigned.

In a statement Wednesday night, Jones thanked Carroll for her leadership. “A superb professional, she brought a focused discipline that helped the office quickly make progress on my priority initiatives,” Jones said. “I wish Dr. Carroll only the very best in her next steps.” In the meantime, Jones’ communications director, Andrew Fuentes, will serve as acting chief of staff. Fuentes previously worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, and for then-U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California).

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For Texans with disabilities, voting can take weeks — or be out of reach

For one Texas voter, casting a ballot in the March primary took weeks of coordination, multiple phone calls, two applications and help from several people just to meet the deadline. “As a multi-disabled, homebound senior living in a rural area … there are a number of barriers I have to overcome just to cast my ballot by mail,” he said in a written account to Texas Public Radio. The voter requested anonymity due to pending litigation with the state of Texas. Without regular care at home, even basic steps depend on others. Living on a county road without mail delivery, the voter relies on a post office box and a volunteer who can only pick up mail occasionally. “I get my mail once a month,” he said.

After requesting a ballot by mail in January, delays meant the application did not reach election officials for several weeks. Then another problem came up. “County election staff called me that day and told me I had failed to choose a party preference, as required under Texas law, so I would not get a ballot for the primaries,” he said. He said local county election officials were helpful and did what they could within the limits of the system. With the deadline approaching, he had to start over. A second application was picked up, delivered and returned on the final day. Even then, retrieving and returning the ballot required coordination with a volunteer and a case manager to ensure it arrived on time. “The lack of regular home care and volunteers, not as easy to find as you might think, is the greatest obstacle to voting,” the voter said. Advocates and researchers say this experience reflects a broader pattern that may pose added challenges with two elections scheduled in May: The May 2 municipal elections and the May 26 primary runoffs. For many voters with disabilities, the biggest barriers are not the ballot itself, but the systems people rely on to navigate the process on time, including gaps in home care, transportation and access to assistance.

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Hispanic population experiences worst health care outcomes, access in Texas, report finds

A new report found that Texas has more severe racial and ethnic health disparities than other states in the Southwest. Hispanic people experienced the worst health outcomes, access and quality in Texas, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund – a private foundation focused on health equity in the U.S. The report notes that racial and ethnic health disparities “persist across every state” and may worsen as recent policy changes take hold. “In most states, American Indian and Alaska Native people and Black and Hispanic people and communities really continue to bear the highest burden and have the worst health access and affordability,” said Dr. Laurie Zephyrin, senior vice president for Achieving Equitable Outcomes at the Commonwealth Fund.

The report also finds that these populations are more likely to die from “premature and avoidable deaths” – while being less likely to have health coverage. Researchers analyzed the most recent state data available on 24 measures related to health care access, quality and use of services and health outcomes to produce the state-by-state report. Based on that performance data, the report evaluates differences across racial and ethnic groups both within and between states. “The Hispanic population had some of the lowest scores achieved in the report, particularly in a handful of southern and southeastern states, including Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas,” said Kristen Kolb, a research associate for the Commonwealth Fund. She said the Hispanic population tended to be among the lowest performance on measures of affordable access to care. “When health services are not affordable, people are more likely to forgo needed care,” Kolb said.

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National Stories

Florida lawmakers pass a voting map that could help Republicans flip 4 House seats

Florida lawmakers have approved a new congressional map that could position Republicans to win four additional U.S. House seats in the midterm elections in November. The 21-17 vote for final passage in the Senate came just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in a decision on a Louisiana congressional district Wednesday morning. Both developments will assist President Trump's national push to help the GOP in the midterm elections. With the Florida redistricting, the GOP likely gains an advantage of two or three new seats as Republican-led states have followed Trump's call and Democratic-led states have countered it.

However, control of the House will depend on the votes in November. Democrats have said the redraw in Florida makes several GOP seats more competitive, potentially leading to smaller seat gains if strong Democratic performances seen in recent special elections continue. The bill now goes for expected signing by Gov. Ron DeSantis. He has argued that the state's rapid population growth requires redistricting. And he's urged the redrawing of districts that were drawn with consideration for preserving the voting power of minority communities. He had predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court would weaken the Voting Rights Act in a way that would support redistricting in Florida. Indeed, after that morning ruling, he posted on X that the it "invalidates" a Florida constitutional ban on districts that deny "the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process." But DeSantis' office has also released a color-coded map showing the partisan effect of the redistricting. Currently, the state has 28 districts with 20 leaning toward the GOP. The new map raises that to 24 districts favoring the GOP, according to the governor's office.

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Legal filing raises questions about who shot Secret Service officer at press dinner

A U.S. government court filing on Wednesday raised questions about officials’ initial assertions that a gunman shot a Secret ?Service officer while allegedly attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, fired a ?shotgun "in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom" where Trump, other administration officials and members of the press were gathered on Saturday night, according to the pretrial detention motion, which offered the government's most extensive account yet of the incident. In the motion, prosecutors referred to an officer firing five times, but the document does not mention that officer or any ?other being shot. A spent cartridge was found in the suspect's shotgun, according to Wednesday's motion.

The document did not accuse Allen of aiming at or ?striking the Secret Service officer who authorities say was shot in the chest but protected by his body armor. That contrasts with ?statements made earlier by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. It also raises the question of who ?fired the round that struck the Secret Service officer. Hours after the incident, Pirro told reporters that the suspect would be charged with "assault on a federal officer using a ?dangerous weapon," though that is not among the charges brought so far. Pirro has said Allen could face additional charges. Prosecutors did charge Allen with attempting to assassinate the president. Blanche told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that he believed shots from Allen's shotgun hit the officer. He reiterated that belief at a press conference on Monday, but added the caveat, "We're still looking at that."

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Louisiana governor prepares to suspend House primaries after court ruling

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) told Republican House candidates Wednesday that he plans to suspend next month’s primary elections so state lawmakers can pass a new congressional map first, according to two people with knowledge of the calls. The move follows a Supreme Court decision earlier in the day that found Louisiana had unlawfully discriminated by race when it created a second majority Black congressional district under legal pressure. The ruling positions Republicans to gain one or two seats in the midterms as they fight to hold their narrow majority in the House. The 6-3 decision limited a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act and could lead to other Black Democrats across the South losing their House seats. Most states are unlikely to be able to redraw districts in time for the November midterm elections, but Louisiana could be one of the exceptions.

Landry’s announcement to suspend the May 16 primary could come as early as Friday — one day before early voting is to begin, according to people familiar with his plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Election officials sent ballots to overseas voters weeks ago. It’s unclear whether the governor’s suspension would apply only to primaries for the six House seats, or include other elections, including the heated Senate primary that pits incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy (R) against Rep. Julia Letlow (R). Louisiana has six House seats, two of which are held by Democrats. A spokesperson for Landry declined to comment on his plans for the primary. Earlier in the day, Landry said the Supreme Court “affirmed what we have said for years: drawing districts for political reasons is the States’ prerogative, not a federal civil rights violation.” If Landry suspends the House primaries but not other contests, primary voters would have to go to the polls twice, just weeks or months apart from each other.

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Voting rights ruling means a big shakeup is coming for Black Caucus

Black members of Congress are bracing for a crippling shakeup of their ranks after a Supreme Court ruling gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act that had protected minority communities in political redistricting and helped boost their representation. Wednesday’s decision clears the way for Republican-led states to redraw U.S. House districts without regard to race, potentially creating many more GOP-friendly seats. Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters that its members and Democrats would fight the effects of the ruling. “The Supreme Court has opened the door to a coordinated attack on Black voters across the country,” Clarke said. “This is an outright power grab.”

Clarke was joined by over a dozen of the 60 Black Caucus members, including Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Their responses to the court’s decision ranged from outrage to defiance to mourning. It’s not clear how many seats will ultimately be affected by the ruling, but redistricting experts predict that more than a dozen now held by minorities could be swept away. Rep. Troy Carter, one of two Black Democrats from Louisiana, the state at the center of the case, called the ruling “a devastating blow to our democracy, plain and simple.” Republican leaders in several Southern states already have been discussing how to apply the ruling and create new GOP-friendly congressional maps. In Florida, Republicans wasted no time approving a new U.S. House map, part of which redrew one district created to elect a Black representative. “I would be surprised if we do not see former slave-holding states moving at lightning speed to target districts that provide Black voters and other voters of color an equal opportunity to elect candidates,” said Kristen Clarke, general counsel for the NAACP and the first Black woman to be assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division.

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Takeaways from Hegseth’s testimony on Iran war and his tenure

In his first major public appearance before Congress since the beginning of the Iran war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the biggest adversary the United States faced was not Iran’s military, but the “feckless and defeatist words” of Democrats and some Republican lawmakers. It was a preview of what turned out to be a contentious debate over the Iran war. The Defense Department’s nearly $1.45 trillion budget request was ostensibly the reason for the House Armed Services Committee hearing, but lawmakers made little mention of it during several hours of questioning.

Mr. Hegseth offered a full-throated defense of “Operation Epic Fury,” which began on Feb. 28. Sitting next to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Jay Hurst, the Pentagon comptroller, Mr. Hegseth repeatedly stressed that the war was necessary because Iran posed an “existential threat” to the United States. The defense secretary grew testy during the hearing and mocked the questions of Democratic lawmakers, prompting a rare admonition from the committee chairman. Here are the main takeaways from the hearing. Mr. Hurst said that figure is mostly representative of the tens of thousands of bombs and missiles used in the conflict. It was the first time the Defense Department has publicly provided a cost estimate for the war. The war has consumed a large percentage of the Pentagon’s longest-range conventional munitions, such as air-launched stealth cruise missiles and ground-launched Precision Strike Missiles. General Caine mentioned that 14 U.S. military service members have died as part of Operation Epic Fury, although the Pentagon’s casualty analysis system online showed 13 U.S. deaths as of Wednesday morning. The 14th service member was Maj. Sorffly Davius of the Army National Guard, who according to ABC News died on March 6 after a medical emergency in Kuwait. Two Pentagon representatives, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, confirmed the death.

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Mike Johnson’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week

Just about everyone is mad at Mike Johnson this week. The majority of the House Republican Conference, GOP senators, the White House and even members of his own leadership team are fighting with the embattled House speaker and believe Johnson has lost control of his members. They are also confused by his strategy, as he has repeatedly fumbled attempts to get must-pass legislation through the chamber. “Right now, it’s a shit show,” Rep. Chip Roy said. Asked to described Johnson’s handling of this week, another member simply said: “fucked.” After days of false starts, Johnson was finally able to get the rule on a controversial provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act over the line and ultimately pass the FISA extension with Democratic votes and later pass the Republican budget resolution after hours of cajoling. But his conference walked away from the process scarred.

Some Republicans told NOTUS it was unwise for Johnson to have clumped multiple controversial bills into one rule — including one for Republicans’ budget blueprint for reconciliation. That decision deterred Democrats, who went out of their way to support the failed rule on FISA earlier this month. “This is what happens when you have leadership who can’t organize a one-car parade,” one senior Republican told NOTUS. Johnson stood by his game plan and told NOTUS that “this was the only way to have done it, and we’ll get through it.” “We’ve been working really hard to get consensus in here from all corners of the conference and get all viewpoints,” the speaker added. “It’s sometimes impossible to touch nearly 220 people, but most of the interests certainly been listened to.” However, everything boiled over on Wednesday night. To get the rule passed, Johnson had to make a deal with the holdouts. In exchange for their support, Johnson promised that faction of the conference he would postpone a vote on the farm bill, three sources told NOTUS, which has not been reauthorized since 2018, angering another faction of Republicans who wanted the bill on the floor this week.

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Airbnb hosts prepped their homes for a World Cup windfall. They’re still waiting.

Mae Stewart has prepared for two years to host Airbnb guests at her Atlanta home during this summer’s World Cup. The design consultant refurnished the floors, relit the rooms and replaced the vanities. She put in new countertops and faucets. She monitored the pricing strategy for competing homes and made sure to rent hers out enough times to generate reviews with a high rating. Stewart did all this, spending roughly $60,000 in total, to lure soccer ticket holders who would be willing to splurge on her three-bedroom house. She is charging roughly $4,500 for a weeklong stay in mid-July during the tournament, about three times the price of what she’ll charge shortly after the World Cup. Now, she just needs someone to actually come. With the games less than two months away, Stewart is among thousands of Airbnb hosts hoping for last-minute bookings.

Uncertain travelers are grappling with surging costs from dynamic ticket pricing and pricier airfare. Hosts are also contending with the number of foreign fans put off by U.S. politics and more burdensome requirements to enter the country. Airbnb is advising hosts not to panic. Many bookings typically land shortly before a marquee event begins. Plenty of soccer fans won’t want to book a stay for a later round in the tournament until they know that their team has made it to that stage, according to Juan David Borrero, Airbnb’s global head of partnerships. “I think we’re going to see more demand as the tournament starts to unfold,” he said, “just because that is the nature of the tournament.” But that requires much patience from those who have been banking for months—sometimes years—on a hefty payday. The bulk of World Cup hosts on Airbnb, and other short-term rental companies such as Vrbo, are still waiting for guests.

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Lead Stories

Camp Mystic owners defend safeguards put in place after deadly floods

Family members who own and operate Camp Mystic expressed deep sorrow on Tuesday as they testified about their actions during last summer's deadly floods, which left 25 campers and two counselors dead. But they also defended their work to better prepare for such emergencies going forward, even as some lawmakers said they should no longer be permitted to continue operating the facility. "I think about the night of the flood every moment of every day. We tried our hardest that night, and it wasn't enough to save your daughters," said Edward Eastland, a camp director whose father had run Camp Mystic for several decades before dying in the flooding trying to rescue children. "Every moment of every day is hard. And yet that pain feels like nothing compared to what you're going through. To talk openly about our pain feels like I'm insulting you."

Eastland, along with his wife Mary Liz, and bothers Britt and Richard, were questioned for nearly three hours by a special Texas House and Senate committee investigating the tragedy. On Monday, the panel's investigative team laid out a minute-by-minute timeline of the storm and highlighted numerous missteps and lost opportunities to get every child in the all-girls Christian camp to safety. The panel was expected to hear from parents of the children who have died, as well from state regulators, later in Tuesday's hearing. Each member of the Eastland family said they are still grappling with grief and guilt with the help of therapy and prayer. They told the panel that they had done the best the could under horrendous and frightening circumstances, the likes of which they had never experienced, despite growing in the part of the Hill Country often called "flash flood alley" and being associated with Camp Mystic for much of their lives. State Sen. Lois Kolkorst, R-Brenham, questioned whether the family members are yet psychologically able to adequately care for the hundreds of children who would return to their camp. Others on the panel were more direct.

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UAE exit weakens OPEC+ power over oil market but group to stay together, sources say

OPEC and its allies will lose some of their power over the oil market when the United Arab Emirates leaves the group on May 1, but the rest of the producer alliance is likely to stick together ?and continue to coordinate on oil supply policy, OPEC+ delegates and analysts said on Tuesday. The UAE is the fourth-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and said it would quit the ?group on Tuesday after nearly 60 years as a member. That will free Abu Dhabi from the oil production targets imposed by OPEC and its allies to balance supply and demand. The UAE's exit came as a shock, said five OPEC+ sources, who asked not to be named as they are not allowed to speak to the press.

The exit would complicate OPEC+'s efforts to balance the market through adjustments to supply because the group would have control over less of global production, four of the five sources said. The UAE will become the largest oil producer to depart ?OPEC, a heavy blow to the organization and its de facto leader Saudi Arabia. Abu Dhabi pumped around 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) or about 3% of the world's crude supply before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran ?forced it and other Middle East Gulf producers to curb shipments and shut down some production. OPEC and the Saudi government communication office did not immediately reply to a request for ?comment. Once outside OPEC, the UAE will join the ranks of independent oil producers that pump at will, such as the United States and Brazil. For now, there is not much the UAE can do to increase production or exports due to ?the effective closure of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. If and when shipping recovers to pre-war levels, the UAE could increase output to the country's capacity of 5 million bpd of crude oil and liquids. There has been tension between the ?UAE and Saudi Arabia over the Emiratis' production quota, which stands at 3.5 million bpd. The UAE has asked for a bigger quota to reflect the fact that it had expanded capacity as part of a $150 billion investment program.

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It’s all falling apart for House GOP this week

The wheels are coming off the House Republican Conference. In a week that was supposed to set the tone for a furious period of election-year legislating, Speaker Mike Johnson’s House GOP majority is once again the epitome of discord and dysfunction. It’s not really clear how House Republicans will get through the next few days. Johnson’s leadership team may lose yet another big rule vote. There’s constant grumbling inside House Republican leadership circles as people snipe at one another. Senate Republicans are furious with their House GOP counterparts. The White House seems fed up with the chaotic House GOP conference too. Plus, the stakes couldn’t be higher, politically and policy-wise.

After a Rules Committee hearing that stretched from Monday to Tuesday, House GOP leadership plans to go to the floor today with a blueprint for debating several key bills. These include a FISA Section 702 renewal; a farm bill; legislation allowing the year-round sale of E15 ethanol fuel; and a budget resolution to fund ICE and Border Patrol. But that GOP-drafted rule looks destined to fail, another potentially devastating misstep for Johnson and his top lieutenants. And then what? Will Johnson keep the House in over the weekend? Will Johnson cancel the upcoming week-long May recess? Will Johnson have to punt to the Senate to ensure that the nation’s most critical foreign surveillance program doesn’t expire? House Republicans want to portray themselves as the “grownups” in Washington ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult midterm election. But at this point, they look like amateurs — and their majority is in deep trouble. The legislative morass. Despite months of internal discussions, House Republicans can’t agree among themselves about how to move forward on extending FISA Section 702, a critical surveillance authority that expires Thursday.

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Albright leaves hundreds of cases for busy colleagues to finish

Judge Alan Albright, after spending years making his Texas courtroom a national hub for patent litigation, is leaving behind one of the longest backlogs of cases of any federal judge for his colleagues to see through when he leaves the bench at the end of August. The Western District of Texas had 129 civil cases pending for three years or longer, as of last September—and 70% belonged to Albright. He also accounted for 63% of the 706 civil motions that were ripe for a decision for six months or longer but hadn’t been resolved. Albright had 446 undecided motions as of September 2025, nearly twice that of any other district judge in the three states that make up the Fifth Circuit. Albright’s judicial colleagues in Austin, Robert Pitman and David Ezra, had none. “He has a huge docket that now the other judges are going to have,” said Lee Yeakel, who was a judge in the Western District of Texas until 2023, “because it’s not going to go down appreciably by the end of August, no matter how hard he works.”

The former patent litigator revealed April 21 he’ll step down after eight years and return to practicing law as an attorney. He said he held off on the announcement until the Senate confirmed judicial nominations in Austin and Waco, two divisions in the district where he hears cases, rather than create another opening. His list of undecided cases highlights the struggles Albright was having on the bench—and a growing disinterest toward cases that are outside of his patent wheelhouse. Last December, he issued an order referring all criminal matters and many civil matters to a magistrate judge to make recommendations for Albright to review. He held onto only habeas corpus petitions, ex parte applications for temporary restraining orders, and patent cases. “There will be a significant adjustment,” after Albright leaves,” Ezra, a senior judge who maintains a full docket, said in an interview. Together, Ezra will tackle Albright’s caseload with Pitman and Andrew Davis, a former Lehotsky Keller Cohn partner who is on his way to Austin following his confirmation in the Senate on April 20. Other judges in the district have volunteered to chip in, Chief Judge Alia Moses said. It’s unclear how quickly the White House will move to replace him. “We’re going to make every effort to minimize the disruptions and get matters resolved as quickly as possible,” Ezra said.

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State Stories

Only 3 Texas summer camps approved to open as licensing deadline nears

Only three Texas summer camps have received licenses to operate this summer, as camps race to navigate a slate of strict new laws enacted following last year's catastrophic Hill Country floods. The deadline is nearing, with camps across the state scheduled to open in one month. Camp leaders said they are growing anxious about the tight timeline but remain optimistic the licensing process will be completed in time. “Everyone wants camps to open, and everyone wants safe camps,” said Eddie Walker, executive director of Mt. Lebanon Camp in Cedar Hill, one of the largest faith-based camps in the state. “But the process is challenging this year.”

State lawmakers last year passed a flurry of laws following the July flood that killed 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic, an all-girls’ camp in Hill Country. Parents of the girls, who became known as “Heaven’s 27,” pushed for reforms that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. Under the new laws, camps are required to install emergency warning and public address systems, provide mandatory safety training to campers and distribute emergency plans to families. Some must build new cabins and move existing cabins out of dangerous floodplains, as designated by Federal Emergency Management Agency maps. Camps must outline safety and compliance details in thorough emergency plans. Unlike previous years, camps are now required to submit those plans to the Department of State Health Services, which is responsible for issuing licenses to both day and overnight camps. Texas state Rep. Wes Virdell, who represents Kerr County, which assumed the brunt of flood devastation, said he has heard from numerous camps struggling to meet the state's new requirements. Like other critics, Virdell worried the laws would financially cripple decades-old camps and create an unrealistic timeline for them to comply. "Ultimately, legislators passed a sloppy bill that is now causing massive trouble for camps across Texas," said Virdell, a Republican. "This was an egregious overreach by lawmakers."

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Meet the small-town Texas mayor whose vision is reshaping how cities like Dallas govern — and who controls their decisions

In February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit accusing Dallas officials of failing to adequately fund the city’s police department and violating a voter-approved measure requiring it to hire up to 900 new officers. “I filed this lawsuit to ensure that the City of Dallas fully funds law enforcement, upholds public safety, and is accountable to its constituents,” Paxton said in a news release demanding that the city adhere to a 2024 change in its charter. “When voters demand more funding for law enforcement, local officials must immediately comply.” The reason Paxton could pursue such action, the reason the Dallas city charter even requires hiring more officers, was due in large part to a man named Art Martinez de Vara. A private attorney with a law practice based in Houston and a tiny South Texas town called Von Ormy, Martinez de Vara was one of the driving forces behind the changes in the charter that opened Dallas up to such a lawsuit in the first place.

Martinez de Vara’s personal website lists him as a state historian, an anthropologist and an attorney, in that order. He’s also the mayor of Von Ormy, a community of 1,100 people. But over the past two decades, Martinez de Vara has been much more than that. He has made a name for himself in Texas conservative circles as the architect behind the formation of a handful of small towns with austere — nearly nonexistent — local governments. His push for limited-government concepts is not out of the norm in Texas, a state that has long worn that badge with pride. But the so-called “liberty city” experiment, in which communities agree to lean governments, little to no taxation and scant regulation, never grew into a large-scale movement. So in recent years, Martinez de Vara and other limited-government advocates have taken a different tack: They’ve ramped up efforts to restrict local governments’ ability to decide how they spend their money and which policies they can adopt. That’s what happened in Dallas. Two years ago, Martinez de Vara joined a coalition of power players associated with a nonprofit called Dallas HERO, a group funded in part by Republican megadonor and Dallas-area hotelier Monty Bennett.

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Pharr mayor, AT&T rep clash at heated meeting

Normally, mayors and city commissioners do not comment during public testimony at commission meetings. They let the public have their say without responding. But Pharr Mayor Ambrosio Hernandez felt he had to comment after listening to AT&T representative Mario Barragan criticize a proposed amendment to a City of Pharr’s ordinance. Hernandez said: “The only truthful statement you made was your name and who you represent. The rest of it was all fluff. But you're entitled to your opinion.” In his remarks, Barragan said: “Good afternoon commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak again. Mario Barragan, director of external legislative affairs for AT&T in South Texas. Mayor and commissioners, as you're already aware, AT&T remains opposed to this ordinance and the proposed amendment because we have raised concerns that have gone unaddressed."

“Through this ordinance and proposed amendment, the city is using its regulatory authority to compel private parties to support a government-owned network by shifting costs onto builders, businesses, renters and families, ultimately families in Pharr. At the same time, private providers are left trying to compete in the market where the city is writing the rules to benefit its own network. This government overreach discourages private investment, undermines competition and leaves consumers with fewer choices, less innovation and higher costs. In short, this is not good for Pharr residents." “As we have stated previously, this ordinance conflicts with state and federal law and goes far beyond ordinary development standards and uses the permitting and occupancy process to advantage the city's broadband operation over competitors. If the city truly wants greater connectivity and more investment for its residents, the answer is to adopt lawful, balanced policies that encourage all providers to compete. We respectfully ask that you work with us and other community organizations that have raised similar concerns on a balanced approach that expands connectivity without undermining competition or shifting costs onto the public. Thank you.”

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City of Austin will push for new driverless vehicle legislation

Austin leaders plan to ask state lawmakers to pass new rules for autonomous vehicles driving on Texas roads. The city’s legislative recommendations, including higher fees for safety violations and a new digital system for law enforcement to ticket AVs, were sparked in part by videos and reports of a Waymo blocking first responders after a mass shooting on Sixth Street in March. The city is also recommending autonomous vehicles stay out of a 1,000-foot radius for an hour during serious emergencies. The Austin Police Department already issues geofencing alerts to AV companies during some big events and emergencies, but complaints KXAN obtained from first responders show there have been issues with AVs still driving in those areas.

Austin’s recommendations are detailed in the Mobility Committee’s Wednesday meeting materials. Some of the committee’s recommendations appear to already be reflected in Texas law or are already occurring at some level within the city. A posted copy of the city’s presentation recommends the city hold regular meetings with AV companies on how they are working to improve their systems. APD officials said the department’s officers and other first responders have regularly been meeting with Waymo while it has been operating in the city, including a meeting that happened after the mass shooting to discuss a Waymo blocking an ambulance. The presentation also includes a legislative recommendation to “ensure the [Texas Department of Motor Vehicles] has the authority to immediately limit [and] restrict operations in fatal or serious injury crashes.” State lawmakers already passed a law last legislative session allowing the DMV to do just that. Starting on May 28, the DMV will have authority to restrict an AV operator, if an investigation finds its vehicle has caused, or is likely to cause, serious bodily injury.

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Trump’s new tool to speed up wall construction may be a trap for Texas landowners

As President Donald Trump’s second administration rushes to wall off the Texas border, landowners along the Rio Grande are being pushed to let construction begin on their property before the federal government purchases or condemns it. Owners of real estate on the border are receiving letters from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) offering a signing bonus of up to $5,000 to let government contractors survey their property and begin wall construction. In copies of the letters obtained by the Texas Observer, CBP promises to negotiate with landowners to purchase their real estate at a later date. They include a warning that if property owners don’t agree to the signing bonus or quickly sell, the government will file a lawsuit to condemn their property. It’s a new tactic. Past administrations, including Trump’s first, simply sought to survey land as the initial step, according to documents reviewed by the Observer and multiple attorneys, with the government taking landowners to court who refused access. Property owners often received only $100 at this step.

Negotiations over and possible condemnation of the land itself, using eminent domain, would come later and take place before construction began. In property condemnation proceedings, construction may still begin partway through the process thanks to the feds’ “quick take” power, but a court ultimately decides appropriate compensation. The letters being sent to landowners this year are “very different” than before, said Carlos E. Flores, a Laredo attorney who has represented landowners facing condemnation lawsuits for the border wall. “These actually give permission by the landowner to allow for construction operations on the property,” he said. “Theoretically if a person were to sign one of these [agreements], the government could come in, do measurements and build the wall.” The famed Big Bend national and state parks aside, nearly all the land along the Texas-Mexico border is privately owned. This has slowed down past presidential administrations’ wall-building efforts in the state, and most of the Texas border remains unfenced—though the Rio Grande Valley in deep South Texas hosts significant wall stretches and could soon see itself entirely divorced from its river. Last year, Congress appropriated an unprecedented $46.5 billion for border barrier construction, including both 30-foot-tall steel fencing and river buoys, and the Trump administration has already awarded contracts for wall construction in Texas, despite having purchased very little property.

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Alex Jones files motion to stop Infowars licensing deal with the Onion

Alex Jones, the embattled Austin-based conspiracist who was ordered to pay $1.4 billion to the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, filed an emergency motion Monday in an effort to stymie an attempt to turn control of Infowars over to satirical news outlet the Onion. Jones had told his millions of viewers on his web-based show Infowars that the shooting never took place, was a false flag operation, and that the grieving parents were crisis actors. He would later admit he was wrong about the shooting. His accusations caused numerous online attacks on the families, according to court testimony. Global Tetrahedron, the company behind the Onion, filed a motion to approve an agreement with the court-appointed receiver of Free Speech Systems, Jones’ former company, in a state district court in Travis County to license the logos, trademarks, domain and properties associated with Jones’ media property Infowars.

Under the deal, War Is Over LLC — an affiliate of Global Tetrahedron — would pay $81,000 per month to license Infowars.com and related intellectual property, according to court records obtained by the Austin American-Statesman. The proposal is backed by families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, who won defamation judgments against Jones and his Austin-based company. It is the second attempt by the Onion to take control of InfoWars. A bankruptcy court blocked an earlier offer. Jones filed an emergency motion for a temporary pause with the 3rd Court of Appeals. In court documents he says The Onion wants to destroy the value of Free Speech Systems, the umbrella company, and mislead his audience, citing new coverage and the comments of Onion executives. “The licensee’s intentions are clear and, remarkably, reflect its stated desire — destroy the value of the FSS assets,” read the motion. The Onion recently announced that Tim Heidecker, comedian, director, Second City alum and longtime Adult Swim showrunner, would steer the new iteration of Infowars. Jones lashed out online after the news, making demonstrably false allegations against Heidecker. The motion argues that the district court cannot rule on the agreement while the issue is before the appeals court, where it has been for the last three months. It also argues the agreement is void because ultimate authority rests with the bankruptcy court for the Southern District of Texas, which has a stay on collections.

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Fort Worth ISD board unanimously votes to cut dozens more staff positions

Fort Worth school district’s Board of Managers voted on Tuesday to implement another reduction in force despite overwhelming, often aggressive pushback from parents and community members during a marathon board meeting that included over six hours of public comments. Tuesday’s approved cuts impact staff members in the departments of Talent Management, Communications and Community Partnerships and Financial Services. The board voted unanimously to approve the reduction in force. Most of the cuts are related to positions that assist Early Language Learners.

The staff cuts come after days of intense debate and passionate difference of opinion from parents and education leaders across Fort Worth who argue the district would be worse off with less ESL, speech therapy and bilingual-related staffers. Superintendent Peter Licata said there will not be any less ESL, ELL, or emergent bilingual instruction, and argued it would actually be stronger. The board also voted to close International Newcomer Academy, the district’s only campuses designated for immigrant and refugee students new to the country. More than 130 people signed up to address the board during a public comment session that took so long the board paused for a five-minute recess halfway through to change microphone batteries. Most who spoke complained about how the district has not shared a plan on how students who require ELL instruction will continue to do so after staff cuts. “While overall district enrollment has declined, the emergent bilingual enrollment has continued to increase,” said Alice Garcia, the district’s emergent bilingual director. “Our students who are learning English are not disappearing. They are arriving, many as newcomers, immigrants, refugees, often with interrupted education, significant resilience and a strong desire to belong and succeed.”

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Hemp industry in court to argue for an extended pause on intoxicating hemp ban

The Texas hemp industry has two-and-a-half days to extend the judicial pause against new Department of State Health Services (DSHS) rules which essentially ban smokable intoxicating hemp. The rules originated from a Gov. Greg Abbott executive order issued in September 2025, but the fight over hemp started much earlier. Last spring, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 3 attempting to ban hemp containing any amount of THC. Eventually, SB 3 made it to Abbott’s desk — where he vetoed it at the last minute. Instead he ordered the legislature to take a less restrictive approach during a pair of special sessions — and when they failed to do so, instructed state agencies to take actions like DSHS’ through an executive order.

The change became official on March 31. Previously, hemp was defined as a cannabis plant with less than 0.3% total THC. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), Delta-9 THC, commonly just known as THC, is a naturally-occurring chemical compound which grants users the “high” feeling. While 0.3% is not enough THC to make smokers feel any significant effects, Tetrahydrocannabinol Acid (THCA) could legally be found at any limit. When the THCA is exposed to heat (like being smoked), it decarboxylates — turning about 88% of the THCA into THC. Additionally, the industry is challenging a rule change dramatically increasing the fees for hemp producers and hemp retailers. Previously, hemp stores needed to pay a $150 fee to DSHS for their annual license. Under the new rules, they will have to pay $5,000. Similarly, hemp manufacturers currently have to pay $250 in license fees per facility. Under the new rules, they will be required to pay $10,000. On April 10, Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted the hemp industry at temporary restraining order to prevent an enforcement of the new rules. The order was later extended until May 1, the day after the two-and-a-half day hearing is set to end. The Hemp industry, represented by the Texas Hemp Business Council, Hemp Industry & Farmers of America and several Texas-based hemp companies, is asking Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle to grant a permanent injunction against the new rules until the full case is heard.

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Austin ISD to pause additional school closures, advance rezoning amid $181M budget shortfall

Austin ISD is planning to hold off on future school closures while moving forward with adopting new attendance boundaries. District officials discussed potential changes for the 2027-28 school year as AISD faces a $181 million budget shortfall and considers potential staff layoffs for fiscal year 2026-27. AISD Superintendent Matias Segura confirmed his decision to pause additional school closures in a letter posted to the district's website April 26. “I am very much committed to moving forward the boundary process but have concerns around taking on consolidations,” Segura said at an April 23 board meeting. In November, the AISD board of trustees voted to close 10 campuses this summer to address declining enrollment and mounting budgetary concerns.

Weeks before the board’s vote, AISD scaled back its initial plans to rezone students districtwide along with closing Maplewood, Bryker Woods and Palm elementaries amid community pushback and a district investigation. The district opened an investigation after community members shared concerns about district officials leading the school consolidation process. In an online update from January, Segura said the district's internal investigation determined "that the integrity of the process was maintained throughout the entire process." Segura said the district would resume its rezoning work and consider future school closures this fall. Going forward, AISD will focus on strengthening the district's special education services while improving student achievement at low-performing schools with turnaround plans, Segura said in an online update. Additionally, AISD will work to stabilize its budget, support families impacted by school closures next school year, improve declining enrollment and advance its 2022 bond projects. "Given the challenges we have taken on recently, I cannot put additional strain on our community that might detract from this strong progress," Segura states in his letter.

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Deadline nears for Texans to weigh in on future of state agencies

Texas residents have the opportunity to share ideas for improving agencies that serve families. The Texas Sunset process evaluates the performances of state agencies to determine if they should continue, be restructured or even abolished. Currently, the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission is reviewing the operations of 16 agencies and seeking input from the public. Diana Forester, director of health policy for the group Texans Care for Children, said they are proposing changes for the Department of Family and Protective Services, the Health and Human Services Commission and State Health Services.

"Right now there's some gaps in major children's mental health services," Forester explained. "Texas covers the most basic care and the most intensive care. When children are already eligible for health coverage, we want to make sure that they're able to sign up and stay covered." She added their goal is to make sure Texans who are eligible for benefits get the coverage they need. Recommendations can be made through April 30, via a public input form on the commission’s website. Commission members will propose changes to lawmakers during next year’s legislative session. Forester stressed anyone has the opportunity to submit their ideas to the state government. "Texans could share (their) experiences accessing services or navigating the eligibility process for Medicaid or SNAP, challenges you or your organization face when working with state systems," Forester outlined. "Then, ideas for improved coordination, efficiency or accountability." Other agencies under review this year include the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee and the Texas Workforce Commission. Most state agencies are reviewed every 12 years.

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DART tries to close commuting gap in car-centric Dallas

Not everyone can afford a car, and not everyone wants one. That places more of the burden on Dallas Area Rapid Transit, North Texas’ largest public transportation agency, to manage the challenge of providing reliable service for the ninth largest city in the United States and its suburbs. DART covers more than 700 square miles across 13 cities. Its network includes 93 miles of light rail, the new 26-mile Silver Line regional rail, 83 bus routes with more than 7,000 stops, 31 GoLink microtransit zones, paratransit, the Trinity Railway Express, and the Dallas Streetcar system. These services carried about 56 million trips last year, or roughly 171,000 boardings on a typical weekday. DART aims to put about 74% of residents in its coverage area within a half-mile of service. Core riders remain low-income residents, many of them people of color, who lack cars and rely on transit for jobs, school and everyday needs.

But financial pressures are weighing on the agency. DART relies heavily on a dedicated 1% sales tax from its member cities, which provides nearly two-thirds of its revenue. Its long range financial plan shows that earlier rail expansion and the Silver Line project left the agency with significant debt obligations into the 2030s, constraining how much new service it can add. “We just have to provide more service, but more service is expensive,” said Nadine Lee, who served as DART CEO until April. “Our revenues are not growing at the same pace, and there is constant pressure to spend less money.” This spring, residents in Addison, Highland Park and University Park will vote on whether to withdraw from DART, a sign of the agency’s central role and the strain in some member cities over how service and sales-tax contributions line up. DART rider surveys consistently point to three priorities, which Lee summarized as security, cleanliness and reliability. Under a 10-year, $2.5 billion program called DART Transform, DART is replacing vehicles and upgrading stations and safety systems. It reports violent crime is down and missed trips have fallen from about 15% of runs when Lee arrived to less than 1% today. But as Dallas grows, gaps in access and opportunity become clearer. Transportation is a necessity across North Texas, and the region is struggling to build a system that works for the people who depend on it most.

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Temple residents seeking to recall Mayor and City Council members over data concerns

A dispute over data centers moving into Temple has led a group to begin collecting signatures to recall the mayor and two members of City Council. Over the past several months, the City of Temple has approved two Rowan Digital Infrastructure data centers, and another one is working its way through the public hearing process. Some residents of Temple fear these centers are popping up too fast, and don’t like the way City Council is pushing them through. “They’re not listening to the people and they’re not doing basic due diligence, like, what’s the impact this is going to have on our community,” asked Joe Royer, one of the leaders of Temple Stands Together. In a statement released to FOX 44, the city disagrees with Royer and says they have done their due diligence.

“The City Council considers a wide range of factors when reviewing items for its consideration – including annexation requests, zoning cases, and potential development or incentive agreements. These factors include the impact to both existing infrastructure and the effect on future infrastructure planning, proposed economic impact, availability of current and future resources, alignment with the City’s future development plan, and how the matter may affect the future of the city and its residents,” wrote the City of Temple. Along with Temple, Rowan Digital Infrastructure also spoke about the work they’re doing to integrate into the community. “Rowan is a sustainable data developer, which means that we approach development with that lens every decision we make, and that includes power and water,” said Nathaniel Brown, the Director of Public Relations & Strategic Communications for Rowan. In a City Council meeting on April 16th, Royer along with dozens of other concerned residents voiced their concerns to City Council members about the partnership with Rowan. Representatives from Rowan were also present to answer any questions residents had. The meeting went on for over seven hours, due to the number of public comments, and ended with City Council unanimously voting to approve a development agreement with Rowan on another data center.

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Texas inmate James Broadnax denied clemency as execution nears

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency to James Broadnax, closing one of the final paths available to halt his Thursday execution. The vote against recommending clemency or reprieve was unanimous, according to a memo obtained Tuesday by The Dallas Morning News. The decision comes two days before Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Huntsville.

Clemency in Texas is historically rare for death row inmates, with only three cases since the penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to data tracked by the Death Penalty Information Center. Texas governors can't issue a pardon, commutation, or reprieve without a written recommendation from the board, but they do have the authority to grant a one-time reprieve of execution. In 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott commuted Thomas ?“Bart” Whitaker’s death sentence to life without parole. He listed several reasons, including the surviving victim’s opposition to execution and the fact that the man who killed the victims did not receive the death penalty. Broadnax raised the latter in his own appeals. In June 2008, court documents say Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, set out to rob Matthew Butler and Stephen Swan outside their music studio in Garland. By the time they left, Butler, 28, and Swan, 26, were dead, and the cousins had taken only $2 and a 1995 Ford. Broadnax and Cummings were both 19 at the time. The cousins were convicted of capital murder in separate trials. Broadnax, who was tried as the shooter, was sentenced to death, while Cummings, who was tried as his accomplice, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But on March 11, Cummings signed a written declaration stating it was he who shot Swan and Butler, not Broadnax. Cummings wrote that he persuaded his cousin to take the blame based on the circumstances of their criminal records.

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The U.S. wants to ban China’s high-tech cars, but they’re already here in El Paso

Just 5 miles from the U.S. border, a bustling commercial strip here offers the buzzy Chinese car brands currently blocked from the American market. A Geely dealership features the all-electric EX2, a sleek compact that starts at only around $20,000. A bulky hybrid pickup truck sits next to a charger outside a BYD dealership. Great Wall Motors boasts some beefy gas-powered sport-utility vehicles, one advertised with the slogan “Be More Tank.” Luis Hernandez, a Geely salesman, said he has poached many longtime Ford and Chevrolet owners attracted to the affordable sticker prices and whiz-bang Chinese technology. He recently sold two Geely Emgrand sedans, which start at around $17,000, to a Mexican family for their two daughters to commute to college in El Paso, where the sleekest Chinese cars are now attracting attention.

“If they were allowed to be sold in the United States,” Hernandez boasted of the Chinese models, “they would destroy the American car market.” U.S. automotive executives don’t entirely disagree. Without a clear plan to deal with Chinese competitors, some of them said in interviews, the arrival of affordable, high-tech Chinese cars could upend a U.S. industry that contributes $1.3 trillion to the economy each year. “I’m telling you, it is very difficult—not to say impossible—to compete,” said Hyundai Motor Chief Executive José Muñoz. “We cannot compete at the same price as the Chinese in the market where we operate. Otherwise, we will be losing money.” So far, the many Chinese car companies that want to expand into the U.S. have been kept at bay. The U.S. has applied sky-high tariffs to vehicles imported from China, and regulations make it nearly impossible for such vehicles purchased in Mexico to be registered in the U.S. A trio of senators has urged the Trump administration this month to ban Chinese vehicles sold and registered in Mexico and Canada from entering the country; several dozen House lawmakers sent a similar letter this week.

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National Stories

Budget airlines pitch Trump administration on $2.5 billion relief plan

A group of budget airlines including Frontier and Avelo is seeking $2.5 billion in government assistance in exchange for warrants that could convert into equity stakes in the companies. The Association of Value Airlines said Monday that it asked the administration to consider creating a $2.5 billion pool that budget carriers could draw from because they have been disproportionately affected by the run-up in fuel prices. The estimate assumed jet-fuel prices would remain above $4 a gallon on average for the rest of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. The group called it “a necessary and targeted measure to stabilize operations and keep airfares affordable.” The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on the group’s request.

Conversations about a potential economic aid package are expected to continue in the coming days, the people said. Low-cost airlines have been heartened by President Trump’s statements in the Oval Office on Thursday that he likes “having a lot of airlines, so it’s competitive.” The White House is aware of the budget airline group’s outreach to the Transportation Department and is monitoring the health of the U.S. aviation industry, a spokesman said. The request comes as the administration is separately considering extending a lifeline to Spirit Airlines to help it avoid liquidation. Spirit is in its own negotiations to receive a loan of up to $500 million in return for warrants that could give the U.S. government a significant stake in the low-cost carrier, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The budget carriers’ latest request represents an escalation from one made earlier this month. They had requested lawmakers approve a temporary holiday from certain taxes on airline tickets.

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Trump tells aides to prepare for extended blockade of Iran

President Trump has instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran, U.S. officials said, targeting the regime’s coffers in a high-risk bid to compel a nuclear capitulation Tehran has long refused. In recent meetings, including a Monday discussion in the Situation Room, Trump opted to continue squeezing Iran’s economy and oil exports by preventing shipping to and from its ports. He assessed that his other options—resume bombing or walk away from the conflict—carried more risk than maintaining the blockade, officials said. Yet continuing the blockade also prolongs a conflict that has driven up gas prices, hurt Trump’s poll numbers and further darkened Republicans’ prospects in the midterm elections. It has also caused the lowest number of transits through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began.

Since ending the major bombing campaign in an April 7 cease-fire, Trump has repeatedly walked back from escalating the conflict, opening space for diplomacy after earlier threatening to destroy the entirety of Iranian civilization. But he still wants to tighten the grip on the regime until it caves to his key demand: dismantling all of Iran’s nuclear work. On Monday, Trump told aides that Iran’s three-step offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and save nuclear talks for the final phase proved Tehran wasn’t negotiating in good faith, The Wall Street Journal reported. For now, Trump is comfortable with an indefinite blockade, which he wrote Tuesday on Truth Social is pushing Iran toward a “State of Collapse.” A senior U.S. official said the blockade is demonstrably crushing Iran’s economy—it is straining to store its unsold oil—and sparked fresh outreach by the regime to Washington. Trump’s decision represents a new phase of sorts of the war and highlights the fact that the president, who always seeks a quick and salable victory, is devoid of a silver bullet. Unilaterally stopping the fight offers a quick exit to the conflict and relief to the U.S. and global economies. But Iran’s proposal last weekend would have allowed Tehran to set the terms of that off-ramp.

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In first electoral test, Mamdani's magic fails

Carl Wilson is on track to win the special election to the City Council district representing the West Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, and other parts of the west side of Manhattan on Tuesday, with a strong lead over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s choice for the seat. After one round of ranked-choice voting tabulations, Wilson led his closest rival, Lindsey Boylan, who rose to prominence as the first person to publicly accuse former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, her onetime boss, of sexual harassment, by a commanding 43% to 25%, with more than 93% of ballots counted. “I stand here tonight deeply honored to be your next Council member for District 3,” Wilson told jubilant supporters at his watch party at the bar Vers in Hell’s Kitchen. Around 10 p.m., Boylan told supporters at the Chelsea Bell she had “called Carl to congratulate him on winning this race.”

Council Speaker Julie Menin celebrated Wilson’s victory, which pitted Mamdani against the Manhattan Democratic establishment. “Tonight, we had a resounding victory by electing Carl Wilson as our next City Council Member,” Menin said in a social media post. Election officials will keep counting ranked ballots until a candidate crosses 50% of votes. Wilson will be sworn in to the City Council after the results are ratified, but will need to win the June 23 Democratic primary and the November general election in order to serve a full four-year term. Wilson defeated Boylan despite her significant name recognition heading into the special election, which was declared when Councilmember Erik Bottcher vacated the seat in January upon his election to the state Senate. It was Boylan’s third run for office, after failed bids for Congress and Manhattan borough president in 2020 and 2021. Wilson had been Bottcher’s chief of staff. The special election became a proxy war between the city’s democratic socialist faction, headed by Mayor Mamdani, and the Democratic establishment. Wilson was endorsed by all four of his immediate predecessors, including former Council speakers Christine Quinn and Corey Johnson, and several of the district’s political clubs.

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Trump administration mandates enhanced security checks for immigration applicants

The Trump administration is subjecting broad categories of immigrants applying for legal immigration benefits to enhanced security checks, and is pausing some cases while the changes are implemented, according to internal government documents obtained by CBS News. Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services distributed internal guidance instructing its officers to resubmit pending applications for different immigration benefits, including asylum, green cards and U.S. citizenship, to enhanced FBI background checks, the documents show. Officers were directed to refrain from approving any pending cases that have not undergone the expanded background checks.

USCIS has long used FBI databases to vet immigration applications for potential national security or public safety concerns. But the documents indicate the enhanced security screenings were prompted by the FBI's decision to grant USCIS greater access to its criminal history database, as part of an executive order by President Trump in February. That order directed the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, to provide USCIS access to its criminal history database "to the maximum extent permitted by law" to identify criminal actors. "Such criminal actors may include foreign nationals with criminal histories who have entered or remained in the United States in violation of the immigration laws of the United States or who otherwise seek to violate the criminal laws of the United States," the president said in his order.

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Where the GOP-labor relationship goes after Chavez-DeRemer’s exit

Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s exit as Labor secretary last week amid a wave of misconduct allegations is raising questions about the fledgling coalition between Republicans and labor. The next moves from the administration and from Republicans more broadly will determine whether the political alliance and appeal to union workers that boosted President Trump in 2024 has fizzled out, or if it has just been dialed back to a slow burn that gradually builds into broader GOP embrace of pro-labor positions. After talking to several people on both sides of the labor issue in recent days — some of whom asked not to be named to speak candidly — it is clear that Trump has an opportunity to make a big symbolic gesture in naming Chavez-DeRemer’s replacement, if he wants to. Trump’s nomination of Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor was seen as a major signal of his warming to unions and the labor movement, and a win for the “New Right” populist faction of the GOP that takes a more pro-worker, protectionist view of labor.

The one-term moderate was one of only three House Republicans to co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act that was championed by Democrats. The Teamsters supported the pick, and the AFL-CIO was “encouraged” by her confirmation. The National Right to Work Committee, which has long aligned with Republicans and battled unions, opposed her nomination. The nomination, though, was largely symbolic. Now-Acting Secretary Keith Sonderling, who until last week was the deputy secretary, was reportedly running the bulk of the day-to-day operations. Many contentious labor issues are before the National Labor Relations Board rather than subject to the DOL. Sohrab Ahmari, the U.S. editor at UnHerd and a prominent voice on the New Right, expressed disappointment last week that Chavez-DeRemer didn’t do more on labor policy during her time as secretary beyond “giving her social-media staffers free rein to post ‘based and red-pilled’ memes on X featuring blond-haired, squared-jawed men in Fifties-style outfits, accompanied by calls to ‘BUILD YOUR HOMELAND’S FUTURE.’” “Trump’s labor policy has been more libertarian and pro-business than George W. Bush’s,” Ahmari argued in his piece last week. Others who supported Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination, though, don’t see it as quite that dire, and think the Trump administration has been friendlier to labor than Republicans past, even if it hasn’t issued the kind of sweeping policies that could be expected from a Democratic administration.

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Prosecutions of Trump’s foes add to GOP’s headaches in midterms

Republicans hoping their party’s standard-bearer will stay focused on voters’ priorities heading into the November midterms caught no relief on Tuesday as the Trump administration announced charges against former FBI director James B. Comey and an aide to former chief medical adviser Anthony S. Fauci, as well as a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses. The latest instances of turning government power against President Donald Trump’s critics and pursuing years-old grievances added to frustrations felt by Republicans who say the president isn’t doing enough to address the signature issues that won him a second term. Two-thirds of Americans said Trump hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems in a CNN survey conducted late last month, up from 52 percent in February 2025 and higher than at any point in his first term.

“No Republican wants to run on ‘I stand with Donald Trump’s retribution tour’” while gas prices are so high, said Barrett Marson, a GOP strategist in Arizona. “There is no doubt that the vast majority of non-MAGA voters want Trump to focus on anything but his personal animus toward a wide variety of people.” The White House said the Comey prosecution has no bearing on Trump’s efforts to bring down costs — moves that include signing a tax-cut bill, adding discounted drugs to a government-run portal, expanding domestic beef production, releasing oil reserves and easing restrictions on tankers moving fuel between U.S. ports. “The idea that President Trump and his Cabinet agencies cannot execute multiple actions simultaneously is so laughably false,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “The insinuation that a grand jury returning an indictment is mutually exclusive with the administration’s strong efforts on the economy is objectively false.”

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King Charles promotes US-UK unity in speech to Congress amid Iran tensions

Britain's King Charles told the U.S. Congress on Tuesday that despite an age of uncertainty and conflict in Europe and the Middle East, the UK and the U.S. will always be staunch allies united in defending democracy, at a time of deep divisions between the two long-time allies over ?the war with Iran. "Whatever our differences, whatever disagreements we may have, we stand united in our commitment to uphold democracy, to protect all our people from harm, and to salute the courage of those who daily risk ?their lives in the service of our countries," Charles told U.S. lawmakers during a rare speech to a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives, and after a prolonged standing ovation at his entrance with Queen Camilla.

In a speech that Buckingham Palace said beforehand would not be political, Charles also made references to President Donald Trump's criticism of NATO, highlighted the importance of continued U.S. help for Ukraine in its war with Russia, the dangers of isolationism, and even a call for the safeguarding of nature, an important issue to the king for most of his life. Trump has been ?highly critical of NATO and European allies, most recently over their reluctance to provide military help in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Trump has also been ambivalent about prolonged U.S. financial and military aid to Ukraine. Charles referred to the ?September 11, 2001, attacks, saying, "we answered the call together, as our people have done so for more than a century, shoulder to shoulder through two world wars, the Cold War, Afghanistan ?and moments that have defined our shared security today. Mr. Speaker, that same unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine, and her most courageous people."

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Trump State Department puts president's face on America250 passports

The State Department is rolling out limited-edition U.S. passports to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence. The new passport designs, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, prominently feature President Donald Trump's image on the inside cover. Mock-ups show Trump's image surrounded by the text of the Declaration of Independence and American flag along with the president's signature in gold. Another page features the famous painting of the founding fathers at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The passports, which are set to be released this summer, are part of the Trump administration’s broader "America250" celebration, which also includes a Grand Prix race on the National Mall in August and a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn in June.

"As the United States celebrates America's 250th anniversary in July, the State Department is preparing to release a limited number of specially designed U.S. passports to commemorate this historic occasion," State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told Fox News Digital. Featuring customized artwork and enhanced imagery, Pigott maintains the identification booklets will include the "same security features that make the U.S. Passport the most secure documents in the world." The cover of the commemorative U.S. passports has been slightly altered with the words "United States of America" enlarged and placed at the top of the passport, above the crest. The back cover will feature an American flag with "250" centered between the 13 stars featured on the 1777 version of the flag. A State Department official told Fox News Digital that the new designs will be available for "any American citizen" who applies for a passport when the rollout happens and will continue for as long as there is availability. The passports will only be available at the Washington Passport Agency, the official detailed. The launch is expected to coincide with the 250th Anniversary in July, the official confirmed to Fox News Digital. Americans all over the country are preparing for the major kickoff this summer of a nationwide celebration that's been years in the making.

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Lead Stories

Camp Mystic failed to train teenage counselors for floods, expert says

Several Camp Mystic cabins with girls as young as 8 were supervised by inexperienced teenage counselors during last year's deadly floods, and some had expressed concerns to their parents about their lack of training for emergencies, an expert told the legislative committee examining the tragedy on Monday. Casey Garrett, a lawyer and investigator hired by a select joint committee of the state Senate and House, said the operators of the family-owned Christian retreat for girls were well aware of the flooding dangers when torrential rains descended upon the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. Many of them had previously survived devastating storms there that forced evacuations and leveled some of the cabins.

"There was never any real training. There were never drills," Garrett told the committee, a fact that had not been fleshed out in that level of detail before. "No drills of any kind." The select committee is investigating circumstances surrounding the overnight flood that killed 25 children and two counselors at the camp. Lawmakers last year enacted reforms prompted by the flooding, including requiring youth camps in flood-prone areas of Hill Country to install flood warning sirens. The committee, appointed by House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, is charged with building on those measures. Investigator Casey Garrett speaks at a joint House and Senate flood investigating committee hearing at the Texas Capitol on Monday, April 27, 2026. Investigator Casey Garrett speaks at a joint House and Senate flood investigating committee hearing at the Texas Capitol on Monday, April 27, 2026. Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman Dozens of flood victim family members listen as investigator Casey Garrett addresses the joint House and Senate flood investigating committee during a hearing at the Texas Capitol on Monday, April 27, 2026. Edward Eastland, a camp official whose father, Richard "Dick" Eastland, was a co-owner, acknowledged earlier this month during a legal hearing that the camp did not have a detailed written flood evacuation plan in place when the storm hit.

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Corpus Christi water crisis has neighboring communities on edge of panic

At least six small cities and towns in the Coastal Bend region of Texas issued disaster declarations in the last two weeks, begging not to be forgotten amid a spiraling water crisis. All attention lies on the city of Corpus Christi as it grapples with the growing likelihood of an unprecedented disaster. But Corpus Christi, the eighth-largest city in Texas, doesn’t just provide water to its own industries and residents. It supplies the entire seven-county region, including 20 other municipalities. “Everyone is like, ‘What the heck is going on and what do we do?” said Elida Castillo, mayor of the small town of Taft, which issued a disaster declaration on April 21. “I’m just trying to figure out what we could do.” Castillo recently organized a town hall meeting on the water crisis for the 3,000 residents of Taft, but officials from Corpus Christi didn’t show up.

If Corpus Christi becomes the first modern American city to run out of water, it would take most surrounding communities with it. Up the coast of Corpus Christi Bay, the cities of Ingleside and Aransas Pass, with a combined 19,000 residents, issued disaster declarations on April 22. “There should be some type of legislation that will assist us now, rather than in the future,” said Ingleside City Manager Brenton Lewis. “All these small cities that have declared disasters are looking at alternate water supplies.” The towns of Three Rivers, Orange Grove and Alice also issued disaster declarations in the week prior. “Regional water demand is exceeding available supply,” said an April 14 declaration from the City of Alice, population 17,000. “Continued drought conditions threaten public health, safety and welfare, as well as essential public services.” Alice, however, expects to fare better than other communities. Last July it cut ribbons on a groundwater desalination plant, a decade in the making, owned and operated by an investor-backed water treatment company called Seven Seas. “They have a profit margin,” said Alice City Manager Michael Esparza. “We are paying a private company to do something for us. It’s no different than we do with a lot of things. Although, this one is pretty big because it’s our water.”

Read this article at Inside Climate News, KUT and KEDT - Subscribers Only

Once again, House Republicans are a mess

This week is already unraveling for House Republicans. And it’s only Tuesday. House Republicans recessed the Rules Committee on Monday night without a path forward on extending FISA Section 702 authority, which lapses on Thursday. GOP leaders haven’t been able to resolve the same complaints from conservatives they’ve heard for weeks now, threatening what the White House and U.S. intelligence officials call a vital surveillance tool. Speaker Mike Johnson wants to change the Senate-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, another twist in the now 73-day shutdown. DHS needs funding by April 30 to continue paying its 270,000 employees, who are currently receiving their salaries under two executive orders from President Donald Trump.

Trump is urging House Republicans to adopt the Senate-approved budget resolution that tees up ICE and Border Patrol funding, despite widespread concern that it’s silent on other GOP priorities. House members are now fighting over various provisions in the farm bill, which was supposed to be the easiest legislation of the week. All together, this paints a multifront picture of chaos for Johnson and other top House Republicans. It puts new pressure on the Senate. And time is running short before next week’s recess. “They’re clearly not talking to their members,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), top Rules Committee Democrat, said shortly before midnight on Monday as Republicans failed to pass a rule to extend FISA. “They have no clue on strategy or how to move anything across the finish line, and it’s just frustrating as hell.” FISA. Johnson and House Republicans made modest tweaks to the FISA renewal proposal that failed just over a week ago. But GOP leaders won’t agree to warrant requirements for Section 702 inquiries involving a U.S. person, a key concession sought by conservatives.

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DeSantis redistricting plan gives Florida GOP 4 more seats in Congress

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday released a redistricting proposal that could give the Republican Party four more seats in Congress. His plan, released to Fox News before it was sent to lawmakers, could leave Tampa Bay without any Democratic seats. Only four seats out of Florida’s 28 — District 10 in Central Florida, and districts 20, 23 and 24 in South Florida — would lean in favor of Democrats, according to the proposal from the governor’s office. The map his office released is colored according to political party. The governor’s proposal comes amid a national redistricting battle initiated by President Donald Trump, who last summer started pushing red states to redraw their maps and keep GOP control of Congress. Some left-leaning states retaliated, and both parties are at about where they started before about half a dozen states created new maps. Florida’s proposal, if passed, could tip those scales.

Florida lawmakers are set to vote this week on the proposal during a special session called by DeSantis. Unlike in some other states, the map does not have to go in front of voters for approval. Opponents say DeSantis’ plan flies in the face of Florida’s ban on partisan gerrymandering, which more than 60% of Florida voters supported and the state adopted into its constitution in 2010. “It is illegal, plain and simple,” Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said. In discussing redistricting, DeSantis has avoided citing politics as a motivating factor. But Driskell said DeSantis releasing the map first to Fox News “shows this is just about giving red meat to his base.” In the Fox News article, DeSantis also cites the state’s 1.5 million Republican voter advantage and says his proposal “more fairly represents the makeup of Florida today.” DeSantis first started pushing for redistricting last summer as Trump began asking friendly states to help him keep a GOP majority. Though Florida bans partisan redistricting, the governor’s office on Monday suggested that it doesn’t need to follow the Fair Districts Amendment.

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State Stories

Molly Young and Janice Reyes: As therapists, we think it's too soon to return to Camp Mystic

(Molly Young and Janice Reyes are co-owners of Safe Haven Counseling, founded in 2024 in Austin. They are licensed marriage and family therapists and have extensive training in guiding children through grief and trauma.) In most situations involving significant loss or trauma, there is an understanding that returning to the place where it occurred requires pause. After events such as school shootings, natural disasters or large-scale accidents, spaces are closed, re-evaluated or permanently changed — because even though they were once meaningful, tragedy has fundamentally altered them. In trauma-informed environments, children are not expected to simply return and carry on. Their experiences are acknowledged, and space is made for them to process. Adults do the heavy lifting — creating physical and emotional safety and patiently rebuilding trust.

What feels different in the months following the deadly July 4 flood at Camp Mystic is the urgency to return. This summer, Camp Mystic plans to reopen its Cypress Lake location, not far from the still-closed Guadalupe River site where floodwaters filled cabins last July. We understand the pull to restore what was lost as quickly as possible. But that does not align with what we know about how children process loss and fear. It has been just over nine months since the flooding that claimed the lives of 25 campers and two counselors on the Guadalupe River site, and in that time families have been holding something that does not fit neatly into words. There is deep grief and fear, but also deep love for a place that shaped summers, friendships and a sense of self. The profound and tragic loss of such a meaningful place is disorienting. It disrupts not just memory but meaning. For many children, camp is not just a place. It is a source of identity, belonging and joy.

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Superintendent turnover is rising in Texas. Why?

Budget constraints, a shortage of high-quality teachers, school board turmoil and the demands of the job are accelerating turnover among school district leaders locally and across the state. In the Austin area, Bastrop and Leander Independent School Districts have announced new leaders this school year. Austin ISD’s superintendent has already outlasted many urban peers, even though he has held the job permanently since 2024. “This is absolutely a statewide phenomenon. This is not a local situation at all. And it’s not unique to Central Texas,” said Brian Woods, the former superintendent of San Antonio’s largest district. “I think there are … a number of factors contributing to it.” In Texas, school funding depends on enrollment, attendance and local property values. Many districts have faced financial strain in recent years as birth rates fall and charter schools draw students away.

Woods, who led Northside ISD for more than a decade, said a “lack of support from state leadership in Texas” to raise more money for traditional public schools has made the job harder and helped drive turnover. Northside stretches from San Antonio’s far West Side into Bexar County’s north-central area. It serves students in urban, suburban and semirural communities. Like the areas it serves, the district’s demographics closely mirror the state in both ethnicity and income. “You saw virtually no turnover in 2020 and early 2021,” Woods said. “Folks were staying in place just to try to get their districts through it, and so I think that’s part of it. But then you’ll remember, it didn’t take long after the pandemic got kicked off, that schools became a real…point of contention around all of the kind of social issues that the pandemic brought up.” The job, he said, has become harder. “I was about 55 or so, and there’s a real calculus in your mind about, ‘is the toll that this is taking worth staying around’” said Woods, who retired in 2023. “And I had opportunities to go do other things that were interesting to me, but perhaps not 70 or 80 hours a week, and that was enticing too.”

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In Big Bend, uncertainty persist around Trump's border wall plans

First a hiker stumbled on surveying stakes in Big Bend Ranch State Park in late March. Then a construction crew began work on a remote mountain road without notifying local officials in neighboring Presidio and Jeff Davis Counties. More than six weeks after the Trump administration appeared to have signaled it was backing off plans to build a border wall through Big Bend National Park and the adjacent state park, unexpected activity in and around the parks has residents and local officials on edge. "I'm getting phone calls. 'Hey judge, they're working down at the river. They're doing this; they're doing that," Jeff Davis County Judge Curtis Evans said in an interview Wednesday.

"I'm at a funeral for my cousin's 12-year-old son and I'm getting calls about something I know nothing about. These (federal officials) are too damn lazy to give us a call or too scared to catch us up on what's going on." The unrest is the latest development since U.S. Customs and Border Protection sent letters to landowners near the national park in February, informing them the administration was considering acquiring their land for “project construction or maintenance.” That set off a firestorm of opposition, including from prominent Republicans like former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, who served in the first Trump administration, and JP Bryan, a former oil CEO and philanthropist in Houston. Combs and Bryan both own ranches in the area. The administration has yet to say definitively what it is planning, even as U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated its online border wall map last month to show a planned physical wall through the two parks replaced by a "detection technology" project.

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Ex-Spurs owner Holt, former yacht captain trade allegations of drug smuggling, extortion

A yacht captain is accusing former Spurs controlling owner Peter M. Holt of pressuring him to smuggle drugs across international borders — an allegation Holt calls fabricated and part of an extortion scheme. In dueling lawsuits, Jay Jones alleges he was pressured over months to obtain narcotics abroad and bring them into the United States aboard Holt’s yachts, while Holt denies the allegations and counters that Jones invented the claims to demand millions of dollars. Holt, whose family owns Holt Cat, also alleges Jones improperly took funds from a Holt-affiliated company for personal use.

Jones, who worked for Holt for more than a decade, describes a relationship that evolved from trusted employee to what he calls a coerced participant in illegal activity. He says he feared losing his job and jeopardizing his captain’s license if he refused the requests. His complaint describes trips to obtain Xanax and Provigil, instructions to carry drugs for Holt on commercial flights through Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, and directions to hide them in the engine room of one of Holt’s yachts or aboard his private jet to avoid detection. Jones says he objected to the requests and ultimately resigned after his refusals were ignored, citing concerns about Holt’s drug use. Holt’s lawsuit paints a sharply different picture. It says Jones was a highly paid employee who resigned after failing to obtain required certifications and being denied a raise, then attempted to leverage Holt’s struggles with addiction into what Holt calls a “shakedown.” Holt also alleges Jones “diverted” over $1 million to himself and his family from a Holt company, and that Jones used his position to provide family and friends with what the lawsuit describes as “effectively free vacations” on Holt’s yacht. The two sides attempted to mediate the dispute last week. Holt’s lawsuit alleges Jones threatened to go public with his claims unless he was paid millions, an assertion Jones’ counsel disputes. Holt filed his eight-page complaint Wednesday in Blanco County, where he lives.

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Fort Worth ISD leader addresses proposed staff cuts, school closure before vote

Fort Worth ISD’s new superintendent acknowledged the tough decisions behind potential staff reductions and another school closure that will be voted on at Tuesday’s board meeting. In an interview with the Star-Telegram on Monday, April 27, Superintendent Peter Licata addressed the proposed closure of International Newcomer Academy, 5% teacher raises going into effect next school year, and cuts to vacant positions that he says brought $40 million back into the district’s budget this year. He described these decisions and proposals, among others, as necessary to drive the district in a positive direction. The flurry of changes to the district came forward after Licata and a nine-person Board of Managers were appointed by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to lead the district during a state takeover, which was prompted by the district’s years of stagnant academic performance.

The Board of Managers approved a reduction in force at its last meeting two weeks ago and is set to vote on another reduction in force on Tuesday, in addition to the proposed closure of International Newcomer Academy. The campus serves refugee and immigrant students in grades 6-9. Licata explained the district has been operating as if it’s been serving about 85,000-95,000 students — the enrollment it was built for — rather than the roughly 66,500 expected to enroll in the fall. “We can’t change what we’ve been doing by moving pieces of the furniture around the room. We have to do massive program changes, and that doesn’t mean less services for ELL (English language learners), SpEd (special education), new language learners, any of those groups, dyslexia…. What we’re doing is more targeted, but we have to do a massive program change. We have to give them an ability to get the resources that we’ve been paying for students that we don’t have,” Licata said.

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Future of the American Airlines Center is, at best, cloudy

The vision that was the American Airlines Center was realized, right about the same time its primary tenants that created the traffic will vacate the premises, which will change downtown Dallas. Every night the Dallas Stars host playoff games, the area in and around the American Airlines Center vibrates with activity, commerce and life. The same for the Dallas Mavericks, when they used to actually make the playoffs. People take the TRE from all over DFW to the Victory Station train stop to see a game. The entire scene is on a shot clock. Both the Stars and Mavericks have made their respective intentions known they plan to leave the AAC when the lease expires in 2031.

With the pro sports revenue model shifting away from local media rights money fueling teams, the franchises have to find a different way to make money. One way is real estate. “We have every intention to fulfill the end of the lease,” Dallas Stars president Brad Alberts said in an interview with the Star-Telegram. “There is no set date we have to notify [the AAC]. We are definitely not doing anything yet, but to do something in a new building, the construction would have to start in the middle of 2028, or early 2029.” Without the Stars and Mavericks filling up around 90 or so days on the calendar with games, as well as concerts and other events, will the AAC stay open for business? Initially, yes. Long term, doubtful. The Stars and Mavericks will open new buildings with the plan to host events other than hockey and basketball games. The acts and performers that play the AAC now will go to the new, shiny arenas. Dallas Mavericks president Rick Welts has said the plan is for their new arena to be a main attraction for concerts. The WNBA’s Dallas Wings plan to leave their home at the College Park Center on the campus of Texas-Arlington for Dallas next year, although the particulars remain in a difficult negotiation with the city of Dallas. The AAC is not viewed as a potential long-term home for the Wings, primarily because of practice space.

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Pudu Robotics opens U.S. headquarters in Texas to expand industrial and service robotics deployment

Pudu Robotics is opening a new U.S. headquarters in Dallas as part of a broader effort to expand its robotics footprint across industrial and commercial environments. The company said the new facility will support sales, service and engineering operations as robotics adoption grows across sectors including manufacturing and facility operations. Pudu has deployed nearly 15,000 robots across the Americas, driven by demand for systems that address labor shortages and improve efficiency. Its portfolio includes robots designed for material handling, facility support and industrial delivery tasks, with payload capacities ranging from 150 to 600 kilograms.

In production environments, these systems are used to move materials, support workflows and reduce manual handling while improving productivity. The company is also expanding into applications using embodied AI, aimed at enabling robots to operate more effectively in dynamic, real-world conditions. The Dallas headquarters reflects a shift toward regional deployment and support, as companies look to scale automation across multiple facilities while maintaining service and integration capabilities closer to operations. “We are building for the long-term in the Americas with a localized approach,” said Raymond Pan, general manager of the Americas at Pudu Robotics. “Our ambition over the next five years is to serve one million people across the U.S. Our new headquarters and infrastructure optimization provide a foundation for this ambition, alongside continuing investment in localized products, enhancing our local supply chain, and strengthening our partner ecosystem.” Pudu said it plans to continue growing its presence in manufacturing and industrial settings as part of a strategy to expand robotics infrastructure across global markets.

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Former Texas Tech professors criticize course content changes, cite academic freedom concerns

Former Texas Tech professors say system leaders are harming the future of the university by what they believe is stifling academic freedom in the classroom. They claim the recent system-wide change is forcing Tech to take a step backward. The professors told KCBD they need to talk about this since current faculty are afraid to do so. The Texas Tech Board of Regents imposed the changes on April 9. Since then, critics of the new standards have come forward against the changes. “I’ve talked to some of my colleagues who are Republican, independent, and Democrats. All spectrums are frightened by what’s happening at Texas Tech,” said Gary Bell. He helped create the Texas Tech Honors College in 1998. He says the new standards are limiting academic freedom and will jeopardize the future of the university.

“I feel very strongly about Texas Tech. I love Texas Tech,” Bell said, “and I think what the Chancellor is saying, quite frankly, threatens the entire purpose for why universities exist.” Chancellor Brandon Creighton wrote the state law imposing these changes when he was in the Texas Legislature, building off of the state restrictions on DEI in the classroom. “It was the next iteration of addressing governance reforms and how our regents and our top level university leadership would have more say in traditional governance sense over upper level hiring and over course content that would match expectations for today’s economy that’s quickly evolving,” Creighton said. Creighton said the new changes are meant to be efficient for students in the labor market. “Our curriculum should match for an immediate hire for a position with a company that would pay a very good starting salary, extremely competitive or greater,” Creighton said. “That’s what our students expect. Our students are working so hard day in and day out.”

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Interim Fort Bend County Judge Daniel Wong's first court meeting brings frustration from some

Interim Fort Bend County Judge Daniel Wong presided over his first commissioners court meeting, which prompted protestors to voice their frustration. The words of displeasure outside of the historic courthouse in Fort Bend County were a sign of what was to come for Thursday's commissioners court meeting. "Wrong Daniel Wong," Vanessa Luna's sign read. "Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!" Around 10 people protested an item on the court agenda. It wasn't tied to a project, spending, or ordinance, but the swearing-in of a new county judge. "They're preempting our vote by putting in a candidate that hasn't been duly elected and is running for the exact position," Kevin Williams said. It's frustration that went from the courthouse steps to the chamber.

"I'm very upset that you would allow yourself to be pushed into this position knowing that this is wrong," Luna said. "Let us vote for you." In March, Daniel Wong became the Republican nominee for judge. He's on the November ballot, but he doesn't have to wait. Two weeks ago, a judge appointed Wong to the position of county judge. He replaced KP George. Last month, he was convicted of felony money laundering. George wasn't removed because of that. He was suspended because of a separate civil case. It's not just Wong's appointment that upset neighbors, but who he named to his staff. Wong appointed congressional candidate Trever Nehls as his chief of staff. On Thursday, Nehls' Democratic opponent, Marquette Greene-Scott, attended the meeting. "He's a chief of staff," Greene-Scott explained. "So, he's going to get some experience, and that's not fair because he wasn't voted for. Well, he wasn't, but his boss voted on. He was appointed, and then he was appointed."

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Tesla files to deliver Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package – ending the saga

Tesla has filed an S-8 registration statement with the SEC to register 303,960,630 shares of common stock for CEO Elon Musk under his 2018 pay package. At today’s share price of ~$376, those shares are worth over $114 billion. The filing confirms what many expected after the Delaware Supreme Court restored the award in December: the years-long legal fight over the largest executive compensation deal in corporate history is officially over. The 2018 CEO Performance Award was designed as an all-or-nothing bet. Tesla’s board granted Musk options to buy 304 million shares (split-adjusted) at $23.34 per share, contingent on Tesla hitting 12 escalating market cap and operational milestones. Musk reached the final milestone in December 2021.

But in January 2024, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick voided the entire package, ruling that the board’s approval process was deeply flawed. The court found that Musk effectively controlled the negotiation of his own pay through personal relationships with board members — a textbook governance failure. Tesla responded by asking shareholders to reincorporate in Texas and vote again on the same package. The company even spent advertising money to push shareholders toward a “yes” vote. In June 2024, shareholders approved the package a second time. That still wasn’t enough. Judge McCormick shut down the attempt in December 2024, ruling that a shareholder revote couldn’t retroactively fix the original disclosure failures. The turning point came a year later. In December 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the lower court, finding that full rescission was too extreme a remedy. The justices ruled it would be “inequitable” not to compensate Musk for the six years he performed work under the award.

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U.S. Supreme Court denies James Broadnax death row appeals 3 days before scheduled execution

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied two appeals from Dallas County death row inmate James Broadnax three days ahead of his scheduled execution. Broadnax, 37, made two appeals to the Supreme Court in an attempt to halt his execution: one alleging the use of rap lyrics as evidence against Broadnax during trial was unconstitutional, and another arguing prosecutors struck Black prospective jurors from the selection pool, resulting in a nearly all-white jury. Without comment, the high court denied both. Broadnax was sentenced to death in 2009 for robbing and killing two Christian music producers in Garland. "James continues to maintain faith and stoicism and belief that his case will still have a chance to be heard and that his life will be spared," said Allan Ripp, a spokesperson for Broadnax's legal team.

Still pending is Broadnax's appeal after his cousin, Demarius Cummings, confessed in a sworn statement last month to being the shooter. Cummings said he convinced Broadnax — then 19 years old — to take the blame for the shooting while they were both high on PCP and marijuana. Cummings decided to come clean after finding out two months ago that Broadnax was scheduled to die, he said. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled earlier this month it wouldn't consider Cummings' confession as a reason to pause Broadnax's execution.

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Dallas City Hall survey questioned by city council members

Last month, the City Council gave city staff marching orders to gather more information on prospective options for City Hall. One of those orders was to provide residents with a survey that could help inform the Council’s path forward. That survey is live now (you can find it here), and it has 21 questions. Only, according to a memo sent by council members Adam Bazaldua and Paula Blackmon, those aren’t the questions the Council intended to be in the city’s survey. Attached to the memo are the draft questions, which the two say “seemed neutral and aligned with the goal of capturing genuine community sentiment.” Also attached are the questions in the current survey, which is being conducted on the city’s behalf by ZenCity. Those questions, the two say, “indicate a shift in tone and intent,” with the revisions “designed to guide the public toward a predetermined conclusion, without offering adequate space for residents to register an opposing opinion.”

The questions in the draft document were lengthier and asked questions such as, “When you think about decisions on City Hall and civic facilities, what is your single biggest concern?” and “What information would you most want before forming a final opinion?” The questions in the existing survey do not seem to give respondents the opportunity to offer a clear-cut sentiment, one way or the other. It also does not ask any questions—save the last one, which is open-ended—that would allow the taker to entertain an outcome beyond moving to a new City Hall. A statement from city spokesperson Robyn Gerard, attributed to the City of Dallas, says that the Office of Communications and Customer Experience/311 “leveraged its existing contract with Zencity” to “undertake a statistically valid survey of residents from all council districts.” The statement says that Zencity drew on its “best practices and experience” to develop preliminary survey questions. “City staff, informed by discussion at both committee meetings, reviewed and finalized the survey questions,” the statement continues. “In advance of the survey launch, the City Council was provided a memo on April 3rd outlining the process, goals, and timeline.”

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“We jumped in with both feet”: Landscape designers in Texas and beyond on AI’s back-office impact

“We jumped in with both feet in 2025.” Bill Odle, ASLA, is talking about artificial intelligence (AI) implementation at TBG Partners, the Texas-based landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm where he is president. “Across all our AI use cases, the primary function is to augment our teams and streamline our operations,” says Odle, noting that this approach allows designers to focus on design and relationships. “People are at TBG because they are creatives who want to create. Leveraging AI to allow more time and space for creative thought and the creative process is a key benefit and use case for integrating AI tools.” John Payne, ASLA, a partner at the 14-employee landscape architecture firm SiteWorks, has used ChatGPT to respond to RFPs.

He says SiteWorks employees can input the RFP into ChatGPT and then use carefully constructed prompts. “The result likely generates about 20 percent of the needed document and still requires a lot of refinement, including likely altering 80 percent of the text [that the] AI generated, fleshing out ideas, personalizing it, and better focusing it.” While the public narrative about the use of AI in landscape architecture has focused on design iteration, the use of AI by landscape architecture firms to drive business and operational efficiencies and other improvements is increasing and could become as or more important to their bottom lines. “A shift is underway from an initial period of experimentation focused on generative AI, with most firms using off-the-shelf software, toward using AI in practice, particularly in text-based workflows,” says Phil Fernberg, ASLA, an assistant research professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at Utah State University, who has been researching AI in the profession for several years. Since AI first emerged as a potential tool for design firms, adoption has been growing. Results from a recent (albeit narrow) survey set the benchmark: 43.4 percent of respondents reported using AI in their practice, while 56.6 percent responded that they were not using AI. The survey, authored by Heather Braiden, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Montreal, also found that in many cases respondents used AI for early phases of the design process, including writing briefs (61 percent), concept design (51 percent), and RFP responses (43 percent). Notably, respondents working for multidisciplinary firms reported substantially higher levels of AI use than those working for landscape architecture firms.

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National Stories

False flag conspiracy theories swirl around White House Correspondents' Dinner attack

A flood of misinformation, conspiracy theories and false claims about the shooting at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents' Association dinner spread online at a notable and concerningly speedy rate, mostly about the baseless theory that the incident had been staged. The speculation on social media began to swirl within minutes of the first reports of shots fired, picking up steam throughout Sunday despite journalists — the vast majority of the gala’s attendees — and authorities quickly releasing verified and evidence-backed information about the suspect. There is no evidence that Saturday night’s incident was staged. Authorities have released ample evidence that Cole Tomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, California, rushed the event while armed and was stopped by law enforcement. A senior administration official said the suspect's brother told authorities that Cole Allen had sent him and other family members writings displaying anti-Trump sentiment prior to the incident.

Even President Donald Trump, long known for distributing conspiracy theories online, took note of the speed. “Usually it takes a little bit longer,” he said in an interview with CBS' “60 Minutes” on Sunday. “Usually they wait about two or three months to start saying that.” This time, it was less than two or three hours. The response highlights how conspiracy theories and a knee-jerk skepticism of current events have become the default response for a growing number of Americans, deepened by the loss of trust in institutions and supercharged by starkly partisan politics. “I would have been surprised if they hadn’t developed because we’re in a society that is absolutely saturated with conspiracism,” Michael Barkun, professor emeritus in the political science department at Syracuse University, said of the theories. On Reddit, many of the platform’s most popular posts about the incident — including many in communities not dedicated to politics — either directly or indirectly poked at the idea that it had been staged, while comment sections were rife with the sensibility that believing anything else was naive. On Instagram, many posts from people arguing or theorizing that Trump or the White House had something to do with the situation drew thousands of engagements. On X, the word “staged” trended Saturday night and much of Sunday alongside “Butler,” a reference to the assassination attempt on Trump in that Pennsylvania city that has been the subject of similar conspiracy theories.

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New DHS chief’s call for quieter immigration enforcement alarms MAGA base

A month into his tenure, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is facing mounting pressure from conservative groups that fear the Trump administration is going soft on its mass deportation agenda amid a public backlash over aggressive enforcement tactics. Mullin has vowed to restore confidence in the Department of Homeland Security after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. In a recent cable news appearance, he expressed a desire to conduct enforcement in a “more quiet way.” Organizations such as the Mass Deportation Coalition, formed in March and led by the Heritage Foundation, interpret that approach as a potential betrayal of one of the president’s core campaign promises. The coalition recently published a lengthy report concluding that the administration had deported 350,000 immigrants in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, far fewer than the 650,000 deportations that Trump officials have cited.

The numbers “don’t represent a victory in quantity,” said the report, which offered 21 recommendations to vastly expand operations. “What remains is a policy choice: to carry out a program of mass deportation, in keeping with the campaign promise, or not,” the report said. Mike Howell, president of Heritage’s Oversight Project, said Mullin’s comments thus far appear aimed at “assuaging left-wing concerns.” “There’s not a lot of recommitting to the cause” of mass deportations, Howell said in an interview. “It makes you wonder.” DHS remains mired in a partial shutdown, and Trump is facing the lowest approval ratings of his second term, with the public souring on his handling of immigration, the economy and the war in Iran. Mullin has consistently struck a moderate message, saying his goal is to keep DHS from being the lead story on the news each night. That rhetoric reflects guidance given to Mullin by the White House, according to one federal official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

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Congress responds to WHCA attack with five separate bills to build Trump’s ballroom

In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, congressional lawmakers have begun offering their official policy reaction and so far it all points in one direction: building Trump’s ballroom. Within hours of the shooting, several GOP lawmakers from both the House and Senate announced they would introduce legislation to approve the project, which has stalled amid legal challenges. On Monday, at least five different proposals to build the ballroom were floating around Capitol Hill. On the House side, Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Randy Fine (R-FL) have announced separate plans to introduce legislation to authorize the ballroom.

On the Senate side, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO) are backing legislation to appropriate at least $400 million to build the ballroom. Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) and Rand Paul (R-KY) are expected to introduce their own separate bills on the topic as well. In a show of bipartisanship, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has also called for the ballroom to be built after the shooting. The president’s ballroom proposal has been the subject of a legal challenge from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has argued the project needs congressional approval. District Judge Richard Leon, a Bush appointee, has halted the construction project as the legal case plays out. Paul, who has at times broken from Trump on key issues, said in a statement he will introduce legislation on Tuesday to allow the construction to “proceed without new taxpayer costs and make it easier for Congress to review major White House projects going forward.”

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Defiant Jimmy Kimmel goes nuclear on Trump and Melania

Jimmy Kimmel fired back against Donald and Melania Trump’s calls for ABC to cancel his show after a supposedly inflammatory joke he made in his Thursday monologue. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” Kimmel said. “And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular.” Kimmel added, “But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend.... And probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.” The late-night host told Melania, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.” Expand article logo Continue reading The line drew loud applause from Kimmel’s audience.

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22 Buddhist monks arrested at airport, accused of smuggling drugs in luggage

Nearly two dozen Buddhist monks were arrested in Sri Lanka for allegedly trying to smuggle cannabis into the country when returning from a trip Saturday. The group of 22 was arrested at the Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport around 10:10 p.m. when returning from a trip to Thailand, BBC Sinhala reported. The group was out of the country for about four days and returned with more than 240 pounds of Kush, a Sri Lanka Customs spokesman told CBS News. The spokesman said it is a very potent strain of cannabis. Police suspect the drugs were in the monks' suitcases without their knowledge, BBC Sinhala reported.

Each monk reportedly had roughly 11 pounds of drugs, which was found inside false walls in their luggage among school supplies and various sweets. This is the first time monks have been arrested at the airport with a stash of drugs, according to reports. Customs officials told CBS News this was the largest single detection of Kush at this airport. One other monk, only identified as "Amitananda" was arrested later in Sri Lanka on suspicion of being connected with the attempted smuggling, BBC Sinhala reported. The monks order told BBC Sinhala it "strongly condemns" the illegal actions and will work to expel any guilty monks.

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SiriusXM said to be in early talks to acquire iHeartMedia

SiriusXM is in early-stage discussions to acquire iHeartMedia, a deal that would create an audio giant with a foothold in traditional and satellite radio and podcasts, two people familiar with the discussions said Friday. Should a deal come to fruition, it would be the culmination of years of speculation about a tie-up. Liberty SiriusXM Group, once an affiliate of John Malone’s media empire, formerly held significant stakes in both companies. But it eventually sold its stake in iHeartMedia, primarily a broadcast radio company, and split off its ownership of SiriusXM, the satellite radio company, into a separate entity. The talks are still in their early stages and may not result in a deal, the people said, requesting anonymity because the conversations are confidential. SiriusXM and iHeartMedia declined to comment. Bloomberg News reported the discussions earlier.

Both companies primarily make their money in traditional broadcast radio and satellite subscriptions. IHeartMedia says it owns more than 860 radio stations across the United States. Sirius says it had around 33 million subscribers as of last year. The companies have complementary businesses, which could make the deal attractive to investors. Both SiriusXM and iHeartMedia have sizable audio advertising businesses and relationships with music labels, and both have begun to expand in podcasting. SiriusXM has hit shows like Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” and “SmartLess,” while iHeartMedia’s push into podcasts includes “Las Culturistas” and “Stuff You Should Know.” The deal could also help offset the deterioration of traditional radio businesses. Though SiriusXM has lost more than a million customers since 2022, it has started to regain them, according to MoffettNathanson, a research firm. Shares of iHeartMedia were up 35 percent at the close of trading on Friday, while shares of Sirius were down around 5 percent. In the event of a deal, the combined company’s grip on traditional and satellite radio could come under scrutiny from antitrust regulators. But executives may argue that the tie-up would provide a necessary counterweight to Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, digital giants that dominate smartphone music consumption, one of the people said.

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South Carolina's measles outbreak is over. But more are brewing around the country

South Carolina public health officials on Monday declared an end to the largest measles outbreak in the U.S. since 1991. On Sunday, the state marked 42 days with no new cases reported related to the outbreak. Over a six-month period starting last October, 997 people were infected with measles in South Carolina. Most of them were unvaccinated children. At least 21 people were hospitalized with measles complications. The outbreak was largely contained to the northwest region of the state. It never went statewide, "thanks to timely investigations, identification of those exposed, and people's willingness to stay home," said Dr. Edward Simmer, interim director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health. "In many ways, this was a textbook response to dealing with an outbreak."

The measles virus can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia and brain swelling. At a briefing Monday, Dr. Brannon Traxler of the South Carolina Department of Public Health said while many measles cases were mild, "it was, at times, life- threatening or potentially long lasting for others." Measles can be fatal. Last year three people — including two school-age children in Texas — died from the disease. While most people recover from measles, it can cause long-lasting complications, including immune amnesia, a phenomenon where the virus wipes out parts of the immune system, leaving kids vulnerable to new infections for several years. And children infected before the age of 2 are at higher risk of developing a fatal, degenerative neurological condition that typically develops seven to 10 years after a measles infection. The South Carolina outbreak was centered in Spartanburg County, where the majority of schools had measles vaccination rates below the 95% threshold required to prevent outbreaks. Traxler says the state succeeded in stopping the outbreak, in part, because of an uptick in people getting the vaccine. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known.

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Supreme Court heard case on how to label risks of popular weed killer

A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard a dispute over labels on the popular Roundup weed killer, which thousands of people blame for their cancers. How the Supreme Court rules could have implications for tens of thousands of lawsuits against Roundup maker Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer. The case centers on who decides about warning labels on chemicals: the federal government — or states or juries. The main plaintiff in Monday's case is John Durnell. Durnell in 2019 sued Monsanto in a state court in Missouri, alleging he contracted non-Hodgkin's lymphoma because of his 20-year exposure to glyphosate, a chemical included in the weed killer. Durnell regularly sprayed the weed killer throughout his neighborhood. A jury sided with Durnell on his claim that Monsanto had failed to properly warn users about risks, awarding him more than $1 million in damages.

Missouri law bans the sale of dangerous pesticides that lack an "adequate warning," Durnell's lawyer Ashley Keller wrote. Keller says the key questions are for juries to decide. Durnell is one of tens of thousands of people to sue because they say they faced harm because of Roundup. Those plaintiffs have experienced mixed success in the lower courts. Monsanto argues those claims should have been preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, which requires manufacturers to register pesticides with the EPA before selling them, which Monsanto did. The EPA also signs off on labels for those pesticides. Paul Clement, a former solicitor general and a lawyer for Monsanto, argued that it's important to have a uniform standard nationwide. "It's probably the most like studied herbicide in the history of man and they've all reached the conclusion, based on more data and the kind of expert analysis they can do, that there isn't a risk here," he told the justices. "You shouldn't let a single Missouri jury second guess that judgment."

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Lead Stories

Texas leads U.S. in business bankruptcies as filings keep rising amid economic pressures

Texas is continuing to lead the nation in the number of businesses filing bankruptcy, new data show, with one of every six U.S. cases being filed in the state. The Texas business bankruptcy boom comes as the number of filings across the nation is topping pre-pandemic levels, an extension of a trend that began in 2022. The increases are tied to economic pressures including persistent inflation, the impact of tariffs and rising interest rates and consumer debt. Those factors pushed to 591,000 the number of individuals and businesses across the U.S. filing bankruptcy in the 12 months through March 31, a jump of 11.9% from the same period a year ago. Bankruptcy filings in the January-March period were up nearly 1% from the previous quarter, according to a new report from the Federal Courts of the United States.

Texas continues to be the leader in raw numbers of filings, followed by California and Florida. One of every 15 bankruptcy filings of all types was in Texas, with more than 40,000. The state’s business filings also continue to grow quarter over quarter, rising 1.5% in the latest three-month period. San Antonio-based Goodman Home Solutions joined 4,500 other businesses entering bankruptcy in the first quarter. The appliance repair provider was one of the last to file in the surveyed time period. The company asked the court to allow it to liquidate its assets in Chapter 7 bankruptcy and close down. Goodman Home Solutions owes more than $2 million to secured creditors, according to its filing. It estimates it has over $200,000 in assets and cash. As a result, there is little likelihood of repayment for unsecured lenders, to which it owes $6 million. More than half of the 25,960 businesses that entered bankruptcy in the first quarter filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. The rest filed for Chapter 11 to reorganize debts and continue operating.

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Accused correspondents’ dinner attacker is a tutor from California

The California man arrested in the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer opposed to the policies of President Donald Trump. Authorities say Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was taken into custody at the dinner Saturday night in Washington that was attended by Trump and top members of his administration. A social media profile for a man with the same name and a photo that appears to match that of the suspect show he worked part-time for the last six years at a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students. In a message sent to family members minutes before the attack, the 31-year-old the described himself as “Friendly Federal Assassin” and railed against recent actions taken by the U.S. government under Trump, though he did not name the Republican president directly, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.

The writings ran more than a thousand words and read as a rambling, deeply personal message, opening almost jarringly with a casual “hello everybody!” before shifting into apologies to family members, co-workers, fellow travelers and even strangers he feared could be caught in the violence. The note moved between confession, grievance and farewell, with Allen thanking people in his life even as he sought to explain the attack. Elsewhere, the document veered between political anger, religious justifications and rebuttals to imagined critics, at times reading as if he were arguing with detractors in real time. Authorities said Allen will face charges including using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer, as well as other potential counts. A search of state and federal court databases showed no indication Allen had ever previously been charged with a crime. He signed the document using a moniker that matches social media accounts that have since been taken offline. A defunct account using the same name on the platform Bluesky reposted others who offered commentary critical of Trump as well as members of the media who attend the annual black-tie dinner.

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Iran offers to end chokehold on Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to the war, officials say

Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear program would come in a later phase, two regional officials said Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28. With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store the oil.

The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas. The closure has also had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods. The proposal would push off negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons. The two officials, who had knowledge of the proposal, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. The Axios news outlet first reported Iran’s proposal. It came as Iran’s foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It’s unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.

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The new Democratic machine — and the billionaires behind it

The scandal was minimal, a blip in a Democratic primary race in New York’s Hudson Valley. But the incident was an early sign of a powerful new political machine playing an unprecedented role in Democratic primaries. The problem emerged in February. Jackie Rosa, a political communications strategist, had been fielding press questions for Cait Conley, a combat veteran vying for New York’s 17th congressional district, as though she were a campaign spokesperson. But when controversy erupted after Rosa circulated a memo bashing Conley’s opponent as a “far left political operative,” the strategist claimed she’d mounted the attack on behalf of an outside group, not the campaign. However, Rosa’s email sign-off listed an affiliation with a different political group — and her email address was tied to yet another organization, a shadowy Delaware consultancy. Four separate entities, all tied to a single strategist, seemingly collaborated on messaging against a candidate, even though campaign finance law theoretically limits close coordination between campaigns and outside spending vehicles. What exactly was going on?

All of the organizations, it turns out, belonged to a new dark-money-backed enterprise of unparalleled scale and complexity. The influence network brands itself as boosting Democrats’ electoral prospects ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. But the project’s true ambitions go much further. Born from the ashes of the party’s 2024 defeat, this new operation has taken inspiration from Democrats’ free-market neoliberal turn after stinging defeats in the 1980s and 1990s and infused it with the deregulatory zeal of the abundance movement. Funded by Silicon Valley billionaires with skin in the game, the network is exploiting the country’s increasingly threadbare campaign finance laws to elect a new generation of leaders on board with bringing the party back to the “moderate” middle. The machine operates as two big-name new organizations, Majority Democrats and the Bench, both tied to a single venture capitalist-turned-secretive Democratic adviser. Under this umbrella, the influence network is dispersing millions through a sophisticated nesting doll of political action campaigns (PACs), nonprofits, consultancies, and LLCs, while sharing the same big-money donors, political consultants, and often the same policy proposals. The convoluted arrangements are sowing confusion on the campaign trail about the roles various campaign operatives play and who pays them. The ambiguity may be the point. Political influence networks backed by super PACs — which have no limits on the money they can collect from billionaire donors — have become widespread. But the many-tentacled network of Majority Democrats, the Bench, and their affiliates appears to be intervening in campaigns’ day-to-day operations to an unprecedented degree.

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State Stories

Texas school districts face costly legal battles with attorney general’s office

In September, Austin Independent School District settled a months-long legal battle with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The office accused the district of teaching Critical Race Theory — an allegation the district has steadfastly denied. Legal fees KXAN obtained show the litigation cost the district more than $22,000 — all while the district was fighting to lower a growing budget deficit and considering school closures. Not even a year after resolving that lawsuit, the attorney general notified the district it received a complaint from an AISD parent concerned the district was allowing a trans student to use the girls’ bathroom at Austin High School — and that it would face a $5,000 a day penalty and a lawsuit if it did not resolve the alleged violation of the Women’s Privacy Act.

The district responded to the letter weeks later telling the attorney general it was aware of the complaint and laid out how it came into compliance with the new law, including speaking to the impacted family and student. In the last two years, records show public school districts across Texas have spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting lawsuits that Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office has filed against them. The catalyst for the legal action ranges from allegations of electioneering to claims that school districts violated the state law requiring them to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Candidates vying to become the next attorney general have differing opinions on the impact and necessity of the legal actions against financially-strapped public school districts. Legal battles between districts and the state are not unusual, including districts taking the state to court over issues like funding, according to University of Texas School of Law Adjunct Professor Scott Schneider. More than 120 school districts joined a lawsuit in 2023 against Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to block the release of A-F school ratings over anticipated changes to how the scores would be calculated.

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In fight for the U.S. House majority, Democrats target two uphill San Antonio-area races

In the fight for control of the U.S. House this fall, Democrats are targeting two San Antonio-area districts that are considered quite red. Texas’ 35th Congressional District was bright blue before Republicans redrew it this summer to create a GOP pickup opportunity on San Antonio’s Southeast side. Now it’s a new seat that would have supported President Donald Trump by more than 10 percentage points under its new boundaries and neither party will know who their nominee for November is until after the May 26 primary runoffs. Another surprising opportunity, Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, hasn’t been on Democrats’ target map since redistricting added Republican voters after the 2020 Census.

It supported Trump by nearly 15 percentage points in 2024, but U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) just resigned from the seat, and Democrats are feeling optimistic about their chances against the new Republican nominee Brandon Herrera. The 30-year-old gun content creator’s social media posts range from entertaining to shocking, and Democrats hope they can capitalize on it in a November race against child welfare attorney Katy Padilla Stout. “Brandon Herrera’s nomination is a gift to Democrats and a full-blown crisis for Republican leadership,” said Katarina Flicker, a spokeswoman for the pro-Democrat House Majority PAC. “His candidacy puts TX-23 firmly on the House battlefield.” Nationwide, Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats to upend a narrow GOP House majority. But they believe a wave election could be coming, and are now spending in quite a few races so uphill that party leaders typically wouldn’t include them in a target list like House Majority PAC is doing. The pro-Democrat PAC currently has 48 congressional targets nationwide, including districts in Alaska, Montana, Florida and Tennessee that Trump carried by more than 10 percentage points. They’re also on offense in Texas’ 15th Congressional District, where incumbent Republican Monica De La Cruz (R-Edinburg) is up against Democrat Bobby Pulido, the famous Tejano signer. De La Cruz’s district supported Trump by nearly 18 percentage points under its new boundaries.

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Merged UT San Antonio rises in the ranks of top research institutions, becomes third largest in state

Less than a year since the University of Texas at San Antonio and UT Health San Antonio became one institution — UT San Antonio — the university ranked among the top 2.3% of U.S. institutions to receive National Institutes of Health funding. Despite receiving nearly $6 million less in NIH funding in 2025 than UTSA and UT Health received in 2024 separately, UT San Antonio managed to move up in the national rankings. The overall NIH funding awarded to UT San Antonio in 2025 totaled $147,098,904. “UT San Antonio’s improved ranking in 2025 reflects the continued strength and growing recognition of its research enterprise,” said Jennifer Sharpe Potter, UT San Antonio’s senior executive vice president for research and innovation. “This includes highly specialized and mission-driven work in fields that are critically important to the health needs of our region, Texas and the nation”

On Sept. 1, 2025, when the merger became official, UT San Antonio became the third largest public research university in Texas. The long-awaited merger promised to better-position the university as a stronger candidate for research dollars, but under the Trump Administration the availability of federal research grants and funds changed quickly, and thousands of dollars in research funds were frozen or terminated. The NIH’s 2025 funding decision placed the university at No. 64 among the 2,702 institutions ranked by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research in its first appearance as a merged institution. When UTSA and UT Health were ranked independently last year, UT Health led the way, ranking No. 69 nationally with $139,286,059 in NIH funding, while UTSA ranked No. 275 with $13,579,839. The Blue Ridge Institute is an independent nonprofit organization that uses NIH funding for its annual rankings. Dr. Francisco Cigarroa, UT San Antonio’s senior executive vice president for health affairs and health system, called the ranking a landmark moment for the newly merged institution and a sign of its faculty’s strength.

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TX35 hopeful Carlos De La Cruz scores fundraiser with RFK Jr.

One of the most visible members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet is headed to San Antonio to raise money for Republican congressional candidate Carlos De La Cruz. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, and went on to draw major attention for his controversial views on vaccines and other medical issues, which at times put him at odds with fellow Republicans. On Friday, the Republican Party of Bexar County promoted a May 2 fundraising event with Kennedy in San Antonio, though the exact location was not disclosed in the invitation. Kennedy is expected to give remarks at the general reception, according to the invitation.

His visit comes on the heels of another unusual visit from a high-ranking White House official, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who was in San Antonio earlier this month. De La Cruz, the congressional candidate, is in the midst of a tough GOP primary runoff on San Antonio’s Southeast Side. The new 35th Congressional District district is ground zero in the Trump administration’s effort to squeeze more Republican lawmakers out of Texas in 2026. But the conservative Texas Legislature drew it for one of their own, state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), who they believed would give the party their best chance at winning it in November. At the eleventh-hour, Trump and House GOP leaders endorsed De La Cruz, who finished a close second behind Lujan in the March primary. Now the two must face off in a May 26 primary runoff, where Democrats are also still deciding the nominee for this race. De La Cruz is the brother of U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Edinburg), and his connections in D.C. have been paying off big in his race with Lujan. “It’s an honor to have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in our corner and here in Texas — another sign of the momentum we’re building with President Trump’s endorsement,” De La Cruz said in a statement Friday. ” … I look forward to working with him in Washington to ensure America’s children and families are stronger and healthier.”

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EF-2 tornado confirmed in Runaway Bay after Texas storms kill 2, displace families

Two tornadoes — an EF-2 in the Runaway Bay area in Wise County and an EF-1 near Springtown in Parker County — have been confirmed from Saturday night’s severe storms in North Texas, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. An NWS survey team determined the tornado that touched down in Runaway Bay had peak winds of 135 mph. Damage in the Springtown area was caused by another tornado with speeds up to 105 mph. In Runaway Bay, the tornado killed one person, injured six and displaced more than 25 families from damaged homes, according to Wise County Judge J.D. Clark.

Roads blocked by downed power lines, trees and other debris were restricting access to several damaged structures, and first responders were coordinating with utility providers to clear those hazards, Clark said Sunday morning. Runaway Bay is on the south side of Lake Bridgeport, about 50 miles northwest of Fort Worth. Aerial photos showed roofs and walls torn off many homes in the area. Speaking to the Wise County community at a press conference Sunday morning, Clark said, “Situations like last night are challenging. They’re tough. It was a tough night, and it is understandable that emotions are running high. From the heart of our county government, all our community partners here that are working together, please know this: Wise County takes care of Wise County, and we are going to stand strong and we’re going to stand together.”

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New ‘drought-proof’ desalination plant planned on South Padre Island

On Thursday, officials from Cameron and Hidalgo counties together with representatives of US Desalination LLC and IDE Technologies hailed a partnership between the latter two companies that will see the construction of a $1 billion desalination plant on South Padre Island. The companies formed RGV-Desal LLC, described in a news release as a joint venture to design, develop and finance the plant with private funds. The plant is planned to produce around 50 million gallons per day using seawater from the Gulf of Mexico, and will be designed to serve the entire Rio Grande Valley. A rendering on the RGV-Desal website, however, shows the facility being capable of producing 100 MGD.

Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said there are also opportunities for growth as the Valley’s population and need for resources grow as well. “Today, we received an update from RGV Desal on their desalination project in Cameron County,” Treviño said via Facebook on Thursday. “Planned for South Padre Island, the facility is expected to produce over 50 million gallons of water per day, with the potential to expand capacity in the future. “With our proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, Cameron County is uniquely positioned to play a key role in securing long-term regional water sustainability and supporting residential, recreational, and commercial water needs as the RGV is projected to grow in coming decades.” Like Treviño, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said via Facebook that he, too, was invited to speak at an event Thursday where an update was provided on the project.

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Kathryn Guerra: AI data centers are moving fast in Texas. Environmental regulators are falling behind

(Kathryn Guerra is the TCEQ Watchdog Campaign director for Public Citizen.) Artificial intelligence data center development is rapidly expanding in Texas, but so too are concerns about whether the state’s environmental agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, can effectively regulate the industry. Texas will soon lead the nation in the number of data centers, with Dallas-Fort Worth as the epicenter of resource-intensive operations. State leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, are touting the economic benefit of massive AI data centers, while handing over billions in tax breaks to tech industry giants in recent years. If you’re one of the many Texans concerned about Big Tech’s rapid expansion, the TCEQ’s most recent performance metrics may give you reason to wonder if it is up to the job.

TCEQ issues the permits that AI data centers need to operate gas-powered turbines and diesel generators and to discharge wastewater from cooling operations. Issuing permits isn’t a problem for the state regulator, which handed out 9,000 new permits last year, according to the agency’s own reporting. But one of TCEQ’s primary functions – and struggles – is conducting on-site compliance inspections. In 2025, the agency conducted the fewest on-site inspections in eight years, including years when the pandemic made in-person investigations challenging. Each year, it performs fewer total inspections. In 2025, there were 3,600 fewer inspections than in 2024 and 5,200 fewer than in 2023, based on annual enforcement reports. The agency also lagged in response to reported environmental concerns, another core function, which typically comes after significant delays, if at all. In 2025, the agency received 9,200 complaints. More than 2,000 of those came from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the most of any region. TCEQ responded to just 300 of those complaints in 24 hours. More than half of the complaints took 30 days or longer for an initial response.

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Paratransit riders push to save DART ahead of withdrawal elections

In a video posted to her YouTube channel, Francis Zalace makes the trek from a grocery store in Dallas to the First Unitarian Church in University Park. Along the way, she finds an obstacle. “Oh no! What is this? There’s no sidewalk," she says in the video. "Whatever shall I do?" Zalace is a quad-amputee after a medical event two years ago. She lost her arms and legs and uses a wheelchair. She filmed the video to show people the challenges of getting around the area in a motorized wheelchair without public transit. In the video, it takes her about an hour to get to her church, which she attends sometimes several times a week. Zalace told KERA she would feel isolated without DART's paratransit services helping her to get to church and other activities.

“I'm very limited on the type of vehicles that can transport me, but all of DART vehicles are equipped to be handicap accessible for my needs," she said. Zalace is one of thousands of paratransit riders who rely on DART’s services daily. The system recorded more than 700,000 paratransit rides last year alone. After May 2, three North Texas cities —Addison, Highland Park and University Park — could lose those services, including bus, rail and paratransit. That's when voters will decide whether to stay in DART, or withdraw from the system entirely. The elections could have a regional impact for paratransit riders across North Texas. “It is really important for people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities to use DART, paratransit, for the future,” said Ian Rawn, who lives in Plano and has Down syndrome. He said without those services, he couldn’t be independent or hold a job. “I would stay home, have my parents drive me everywhere,” he said. That potential loss of service is what prompted Kevin Wright to begin raising awareness of the need for DART. He lives in Irving and has cerebral palsy, autism, and limited vision. It was his first time getting involved in any kind of local activism. “I emailed my mayor and city council twice and ... then I went to the meeting so I feel very good about that," Wright said. "Hopefully the other three cities, the voters will make the right choice."

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Accreditor mum as Texas politicians take curricular control

In recent months, two of the biggest Texas public university systems—Texas A&M and Texas Tech Universities—passed comprehensive restrictions on how faculty can teach about gender, sexuality and race. Faculty at both institutions, as well as free speech advocates nationwide, have decried the new policies as gross violations of academic freedom. But those seeking to fight against the state-mandated changes can’t turn to the federal government for help—leaders at both institutions have cited federal rules and executive orders as justification for their decisions. And as of now, the accreditor overseeing the Texas institutions doesn’t appear likely to step in. Accreditors are tasked with ensuring that universities maintain fiduciary responsibility, good student outcomes, academic quality and effective governance.

To earn their stamp of approval—which is required for an institution’s students to be eligible for federal financial aid—universities must adhere to the accreditor’s standards. Both Texas A&M and Texas Tech are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which requires that faculty must have primary responsibility for the “content, quality and effectiveness” of the curriculum. These new policies, handed down by systems’ governor-appointed boards, appear to violate that standard, experts say. But SACS hasn’t taken any action in response. The association has no current sanctions or open investigations into Texas A&M or Texas Tech, said Stephen Pruitt, president of the association. He also said the accreditor hasn’t received any complaints about either university, including from faculty. Both institutions are in good standing—Texas Tech’s accreditation was renewed in 2025 for another 10 years. The higher education watchdog is limited in its ability to respond to the curricular policies because it cannot require its member institutions to adhere to a standard that would force them to violate state law or policy, Pruitt said. “We have always made it a practice that we don’t hold institutions accountable when there’s a state law that may [contradict] our standards,” he said. “At the end of the day, states rule the day.” The presidents of both Texas Tech’s and Texas A&M’s American Association of University Professors chapters said they are considering filing complaints in the coming months. If they do submit a complaint, SACS would be required to investigate it, said Antoinette Flores, director of higher education accountability and quality at New America, a left-leaning think tank. That said, she’s not optimistic that a faculty complaint would yield any action from the accreditor.

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Texas Supreme Court tosses suit over state probe into families with transgender children

The Texas Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit over the state's investigations into families with transgender children because most of the investigations were closed and the children are no longer minors. In a ruling Friday, the state’s highest civil court ruled that because the Department of Family and Protective Services isn’t actively investigating the families, they no longer face the alleged threats they outlined in their 2022 lawsuits against the agency. The plaintiffs argued against dismissing the case, suggesting DFPS could choose to reopen its investigations without the injunction. But the Texas Supreme Court dismissed those concerns over future investigations as too speculative.

In a joint statement from Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and PFLAG — organizations that helped represent the plaintiffs in court — the groups said the high court's ruling is "purely procedural" and doesn't mean DFPS' rule requiring the investigations is lawful. "DFPS argued to the Court that, given that gender affirming medical care is no longer lawfully provided to minors in Texas, there is no reason for DFPS to conduct future investigations," the statement said. "We will hold them to that." A spokesperson for the governor's office referred KERA News to DFPS. DFPS declined to comment. KERA News reached out to the attorney general's office and plaintiffs' attorneys for comment and will update this story with any responses.

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New study lays out environmental costs of adding toll lanes to MoPac through South Austin

A new government review of the proposed MoPac South project lays out the most detailed picture yet of what the long-debated highway expansion would touch. And it's not just affecting MoPac. The agency leading the project, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), has issued a draft environmental assessment showing how construction would reach into public spaces including Zilker Park, how water quality could be affected and where noise walls could go. Previous rounds of public feedback offered broader outlines of the proposal. Now, the public can read a 224-page draft environmental assessment, along with a stack of technical studies, spelling out the costs of the project and what CTRMA says drivers would gain in return. The draft environmental assessment is open to public comment until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 3.

Opponents say the new documents reveal why the current level of review still doesn't go far enough. They argue the studies show the project is large and complicated enough to deserve a full environmental impact statement (EIS), which is a more rigorous review than the environmental assessment now on the table. At the center of the plan is a new set of toll lanes with prices that rise or fall based on demand, just like the existing toll lanes on MoPac North of Lady Bird Lake. MoPac South would extend those lanes south to Slaughter Lane. For most of the 8.77-mile project, CTRMA would add two toll lanes in each direction. Those would narrow to one toll lane each way toward the north and south ends. The project would also add flyover ramps near Barton Skyway and Bee Caves Road, so drivers on the frontage roads could reach the toll lanes in the middle of the highway. Another set of ramps farther south would connect the toll lanes to the U.S. 290 interchange.

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City Stories

Lammes Candies set to close shop after 141 years in business

The iconic Lammes Candies logo will disappear in the foreseeable future. The local chain is shutting down completely soon after operating under the same family for 141 years. A sign on Lammes Candies’ Round Rock store gave customers the news, which started to spread widely on social media over the weekend. The Round Rock store closed on April 24. The flagship location at 5330 Airport Blvd. will remain “a bit longer,” though a timeline for when it will shutter was not displayed. The Airport Boulevard location did not have signage indicating when it will shutter. The Austin icon — incorporated as Lammes Candies Since 1885 Inc. — is known for its Texas Chewie Pecan Praline, giant chocolate-covered strawberries and other treats. It stated on the sign at its Round Rock store that changing market conditions and long-term sustainability were reasons for its decision.

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National Stories

California’s billionaire tax has the signatures to make the ballot, backers say

Backers of the proposed California billionaire tax believe they have gathered enough signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot, according to people familiar with the campaign, likely kicking off a bruising battle over the initiative. More than 1.5 million people have signed a petition to get the one-time, 5% wealth tax on statewide ballots in November, the people said. County election officials must tally the signatures, verify them, and send them to California’s secretary of state before the measure can appear on the ballot. The people familiar with the campaign said they expect that will be more than enough to clear the required 875,000-signature threshold, even after accounting for illegible or invalid signatures. The tax was proposed by the Service Employees International United Healthcare Workers West, which represents more than 120,000 healthcare workers, to offset cuts to healthcare funding in President Trump’s signature tax-and-spending law last year.

“When our growing coalition files these signatures, David will have won the first round against Goliath,” Suzanne Jimenez, spokeswoman for the Billionaire Tax Now coalition, said in a statement Sunday. If passed, the tax would apply to the assets of individuals who resided in California as of Jan. 1 this year and who have net worths of $1 billion or more at the end of this year. SEIU-UHW says around 200 people meet those criteria. The proposal still faces several hurdles before taking effect. The campaign needs to submit the signatures by early May to ensure election officials have enough time to tally them and certify the initiative for November ballots. The proposal needs approval from a majority of California voters to pass. Attack ads are likely to paint the proposed tax as a long-term fiscal disaster for California, which relies heavily on its wealthiest residents’ income taxes to fill state coffers. The proposal also could face competing ballot initiatives as well as legal challenges to what several economists describe as a first-of-its-kind tax in the modern U.S. California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the tax, and has warned it could spark an exodus of the wealthy. Other billionaires have lambasted it as having a stifling effect on innovation or said they’d exited the Golden State in December.

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Inflation is sucking the life out of teacher pay raises, report says

The average salary for a public school teacher in the U.S. rose to $74,495 in the last school year, up 3.5% from the year before. But adjusted for inflation, today's teachers are estimated to be earning less, not more, than they were in 2017. That's according to a new review of school-related data from the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest teachers union with 3 million members. The annual release includes the latest data — collected directly from state departments of education – on teacher and support staff salaries, student enrollment and even how much money schools are getting from federal, state and local sources. Here are some of the most interesting findings:

$74,495 — The national average public school teacher salaryAccording to this new data, roughly 3.2 million teachers worked in U.S. public schools during the last school year, and, on average, they earned around $74,500 — not including benefits. The report breaks down teacher salaries by state and region, too. At the top of the rankings for 2024-25 are California ($103,552), New York ($98,655) and Washington ($96,589) while Mississippi ($54,975), Florida ($56,663) and Louisiana ($56,785) round out the low end. These data come with an important caveat, though: They have not been adjusted for differences in the cost of living, which can vary greatly from ZIP code to ZIP code and could reasonably account for at least some of the gap in salaries. NEA researchers used state department of education projections — or, when necessary, arrived at their own projections — to estimate teacher salary averages for 2026, then compared those estimates to salaries from 2017. At first glance, pay appears to have risen across the decade (in current dollars). But after adjusting for inflation, the researchers estimate that teachers' real earnings have actually declined by nearly 5%.

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GOP senators losing confidence in Hegseth amid Pentagon turmoil

A growing group of Senate Republicans are losing confidence in Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s leadership of the Defense Department and some GOP lawmakers would like to see him “move on,” though they say it’s President Trump’s call. Senate Republicans who spoke to The Hill on the condition of anonymity say Hegseth wouldn’t be confirmed to head the Pentagon if he were renominated by Trump today and they say senior staff turmoil at the Defense Department under Hegseth’s leadership is a major concern. Republican defense hawks in the Senate aren’t happy about media reports that Hegseth pushed popular Army Chief of Staff Randy George to resign in early April, and they were surprised and disappointed to hear that Hegseth fired John Phelan this past week. One Republican senator who requested anonymity said there have long been questions within the Senate GOP conference over Hegseth’s lack of experience managing a large and complex bureaucracy, as well as leeriness about his unconventional and often brash leadership style.

The lawmaker, however, said confidence in Hegseth has dropped among Republicans because of his battles with senior military leaders who have strong relations with policymakers on Capitol Hill. “The hollowing out of incredible leadership at the Pentagon has been a big concern,” said the senator. “It really came to a tipping point when Gen. George was dismissed.” Hegseth’s feud with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is another source of irritation for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who hold Driscoll — a longtime friend and aide to Vice President Vance — in high esteem. “I think he’s missing the mark on personnel. He has separated some of the most extraordinary generals that we’ve had in play. I don’t quite know what’s going on there,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) of Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon, expressing his concern about the sudden departure of senior military leadership. Tillis, who cast a pivotal vote for Hegseth during his Senate confirmation last year, questioned whether Hegseth has the management skills to run an organization as large and complex as the U.S. military. He noted that Hegseth, who served as an infantry officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard, had experience managing “30 or 40 people” before taking over the Pentagon.

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Trump rips ‘disgraceful’ Norah O’Donnell for reading WHCA shooting suspect’s manifesto

President Trump on Sunday criticized CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell for reading the reported manifesto of the suspected gunman at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, calling the veteran reporter a “disgrace.” “I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump told O’Donnell in a “60 Minutes” interview taped Sunday afternoon, later calling her “disgraceful.” Trump appeared on Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes” to discuss Saturday’s shooting at the annual WHCA dinner. Shortly after the dinner began, a heavily armed man ran through security at the Washington Hilton, where he exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officials before being apprehended. Trump, Cabinet members, lawmakers and other high-profile White House officials were evacuated from the ballroom, and the dinner was ultimately canceled.

Multiple media reports have identified the suspected gunman as Cole Allen of Torrance, Calif. CBS News and other outlets reported Sunday that Allen wrote a manifesto stating he intended to target administration officials. A White House official confirmed to The Hill that the suspect did write such a manifesto. O’Donnell on Sunday began reading a portion of the reported manifesto to Trump, saying, “The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it. He writes this quote, ‘Administration officials, they are targets.’ And he also wrote this, ‘I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.'” “Yeah, he did write that. I’m — I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody,” Trump said. “I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all — stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated,” he said, later calling the CBS News senior correspondent “disgraceful.” “You know, he’s a sick person,” Trump continued. “But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.” “You shouldn’t be reading that on ’60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace,” he added. “But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview.”

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Ingenious? Orwellian? Or both? Supreme Court considers constitutionality of 'geofence' warrants

The Supreme Court hears arguments Monday about a relatively new law enforcement technique that allows police to tap into giant tech-firm databases to find out who was near the scene of a crime and may have been involved. Essentially the question before the high court is whether that technique is ingenious, Orwellian, or both? And, ultimately, is it constitutional? The technique is called geofencing, and it allows the government to draw a virtual fence around a geographic area where a crime was committed. After that, the government seeks a warrant, not to search a home or office, but to require a tech company to search its data to identify any of its millions of users who were within the geofence line at the time of the crime.

The geofencing in this case relied on a Google feature called 'location history.' Every two minutes, on average, the location feature recorded where you were by using multiple information sources to pinpoint and record the location of every person with an active cell phone. In other words, if you were within the geofence, and your phone was not turned off, Google could tell quite precisely where you were at any moment of the day or night. Although Google has modified some of its geofencing policies, at the time this case began in 2019, about one-third of all Google users — some 500 million people — voluntarily opted into using the service, which also stored the users' information in Google's cloud, and could be accessed by law enforcement under a Google policy that required a warrant. "This was a little bit of an investigative lottery ticket when they had no other way of finding a suspect," says Stanford law professor Orin Kerr, who has written extensively about searches. The focal point of Monday's case is the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches of people, their homes, papers, and effects, unless police obtain a warrant issued by a neutral magistrate, and aimed at obtaining specific evidence of a crime.

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Trump officials hire ‘deportation judges’ with less training, experience

A divorce lawyer who has vowed to “fight exclusively for the rights of men.” A Minnesota attorney who championed Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration’s raids in Minneapolis. And a judge who was once lambasted by an appeals court for denying humanitarian protection to a Serbian man because he didn’t look “overtly gay.” All three are among the “deportation judges” recently hired as part of President Donald Trump’s quest to clear a massive case backlog and fulfill his goal of deporting 1 million immigrants each year. The hiring spree follows the Justice Department’s firings of more than 100 immigration judges since Trump took office, an unprecedented purge, and a similar number have retired or resigned. More than 140 new judges have been appointed so far to replace them, many of whom have no stated experience practicing immigration law and, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges, are receiving less training than previously offered.

Former judges who were fired say they fear Trump is forcing out judges who rule against the government and replacing them with loyalists and others being pressured to help carry out a single goal: Deport immigrants. “They’re trying to create a malleable workforce that will do what they want without question,” said Kerry Doyle, a former ICE official who was hired to serve as an immigration judge in Massachusetts under President Joe Biden and then fired last year before she could begin hearing cases. “That’s what I think the goal is.” The firings come as the Trump administration is simultaneously implementing policies that make it more difficult for immigrants to prevail in court. Under new orders from the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, judges have been refusing to grant bond hearings and are dismissing cases at the government’s request so that defendants can be arrested. They are also being advised to grant asylum more sparingly. Asylum rejections doubled from 2024 to 2025. The recruits are being offered signing bonuses, the opportunity to work from home, and even the flexibility to keep their day jobs and moonlight as judges after hours. New hires can earn up to $207,500 a year and 25 percent signing bonuses in some Democrat led-states such as California.

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Lead Stories

A shooter throws Trump’s night with the press into chaos

President Trump was ready to put on a show. On his way to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday evening, the president told associates that he was excited to deliver his speech, calling it the “hottest ticket in town,” according to a person familiar with the matter. He and his advisers had packed his prepared remarks with jokes, including jabs at members of his own cabinet such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump’s attendance, his first as president, marked an uneasy truce with a press corps that his administration had spent years antagonizing and sometimes even threatening with rhetoric and legal action. The dinner—known in media circles as “nerd prom”—is an annual black-tie event at the iconic wing-shaped 1960s-era Washington Hilton that brings together some of the biggest names in journalism and politics. While past presidents had routinely attended, Trump didn’t participate during his first term.

Instead of taking the mic as planned, Trump would be whisked offstage by Secret Service agents after shots rang out near the cavernous ballroom. Suddenly, what was meant to be an evening of celebration devolved into chaos. Some in the room, from cabinet secretaries to aides and reporters who had been shaken by two prior assassination attempts on Trump, left grappling with the new reality that such violence has become a regular occurrence. High-profile guests walked the red carpet and posed for photos Saturday evening, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and her husband, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. The entourage of administration attendees included Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel and multiple cabinet members, who mingled with business executives, lawmakers and celebrities. Traffic was limited on the streets surrounding the hotel, made famous as the site of an attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and a common meeting place for world leaders and D.C.’s elite. Guests in tuxedos and gowns entered the hotel through checkpoints on the surrounding streets by showing a dinner ticket or a copy of an invite to one of several predinner receptions. Attendees were able to access the Hilton’s lobby and lower levels without going through security scans, only passing through magnetometers as they entered the ballroom where the dinner was held.

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The Hormuz billion-barrel oil shock is about to crash demand

The Strait of Hormuz oil shock has yet to crash demand as the rich world borrows from its stocks and pays up to secure supply. Traders are now sounding the alarm that a harsh adjustment is coming. The longer the vital oil channel doesn’t reopen, traders say, the more consumption is going to have to recalibrate lower to align with supply that’s dropped at least 10%. And for that to happen, people will have buy less, either through prices they can’t afford, or government intervention to force consumption down. A billion barrels of supply loss is already all-but guaranteed — more than double the emergency inventories that governments released not long after the conflict began at the end of February. Buffers are being used up fast, helping to keep a lid on oil prices for now. But with the closure now in its ninth week, demand destruction that started in less obvious sectors like petrochemicals in Asia, is quietly spreading to everyday markets the world over.

“Demand destruction is happening in places that are not visible pricing centers,” Saad Rahim, chief economist of trader Trafigura Group, told the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne this week. “That adjustment is already happening, but if this continues, it has to get larger and larger. We’re at a critical inflection point.” The most dependent industries and markets — including petrochemicals plants in Asia and the Middle East, and shipments of liquefied petroleum gas, a vital cooking fuel in India — saw an immediate hit when the US and Israel first attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Now, with a stalemate between US President Donald Trump and his Iranian adversaries dragging on, the impact is increasingly shifting west — and to products that are central to consumers’ everyday lives. Airlines in Europe and the US are cutting thousands of flights. Analysts are warning of weakness in consumption of gasoline after prices hit $4 a gallon in the US, and diesel — used to power everything from trucks to construction equipment.

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Texas Democrats attempt to avoid distractions following internal fight over party leadership

Democrats in Texas are excited and engaged for the general election in November and actually have hope that the party will be able to make some gains. Even Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has warned that the GOP could have a tough time holding the Texas House if Republicans don’t stick together and show up at the polls. That’s why many Democrats were surprised when a handful, three dozen or so, signed onto a public letter demanding party chair Kendall Scudder not run for reelection. It seemed to backfire and led to hundreds of others to sign another letter coming to his defense. “I will say after that came out, the letter that seems to be largely disgruntled former staff members, the grassroots of this party really rallied. And I’m so grateful that nearly 1,000 folks signed on to a letter, precinct chairs, county chairs, SEC members, elected officials, party leaders across the state, basically saying that it’s undeniable that the party is in a better spot now than it was a year ago,” Scudder told us on Inside Texas Politics.

When Scudder was first elected chair, one of his first steps was to “decentralize” the party by downsizing the headquarters in Austin. That meant some staffers were asked to move to other areas in the state, thought to be one of the main reasons some folks were upset. The party now has offices all over Texas, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, Amarillo and Eagle Pass. “This party, the Democratic Party, has to be a 254-county party. It cannot be a party that just camps out in urban areas and tries to call it a day. Doesn’t matter how many consultants you lock into a room in Austin, they cannot buy their way out of this problem,” Scudder explained. And Scudder stands by his – and the party’s – recent accomplishments. Since he was elected, the party has paid off its debt, flipped a state Senate seat, placed a Democrat on the ballot for every federal and statewide office, the first time that’s happened since 1972, and they also have around 80 staff members involved in a $30 million coordinated campaign. Scudder has already filed to run for reelection, so he’s hopeful to stick around for a while. “I think if you go up and down our ballot, we have great candidates this year, lots of excitement, and finally, we have some infrastructure. And I think that Republicans should be scared,” said the chair.

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‘Come and make the ask’: Talarico faces a test with Black voters in Texas

Friendship-West Baptist Church is a stronghold for Black politics, where candidates pass through cycle after cycle to win over its 13,000 congregants. It’s the church Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) calls home; her pastor, the Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, is now running to succeed her in Congress. Even Beto O’Rourke visited last week to encourage people to register to vote. But several congregants can’t help but notice a continued absence this year: James Talarico. The Democratic Senate nominee has a long road ahead if he wants to flip the Texas seat blue — one that requires winning over the state’s nearly 3 million Black voters, who largely broke for Crockett in the March primary and many of whom remain skeptical of his candidacy.

“Come and make the ask. Come and try to earn the vote,” said Alan Williams, a Crockett voter and Friendship-West congregant. “I think he thinks our vote is just a default and he doesn’t have to earn it.” In the month-and-a-half since he won the nomination, Talarico has begun criss-crossing Texas, including visiting some Black churches, holding meetings with faith leaders and elected officials, and block-walking in majority-Black cities. But frustration from worshippers at Friendship-West — who have yet to hear from him directly — and interviews with Black power brokers across the state reveal the pressure Talarico faces to move faster to heal open wounds from a contentious primary and convince voters to turn out. David Malcolm McGruder, the church’s executive pastor, said Talarico has to do more to sell his vision to voters — and convince them he’ll follow through: “We have people who show up in our churches during the election season, but who don’t show up for us at the level of policy beyond November.”

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Republicans are worried the redistricting fight is backfiring

Republicans are increasingly worried that a battle President Trump started last summer to redraw congressional district lines has backfired and may hand more seats to Democrats. At best, some Republicans say, the effort will produce only a small gain in the number of GOP House seats instead of the firewall the party was hoping to build to stave off defeat in the midterm elections. Some in the party said on Wednesday that Trump and his aides had miscalculated by pressing Texas last year to undertake an unusual, mid-decade effort to draw new House district lines to the GOP’s advantage, which prompted several Democratic-leaning states to redraw their own maps in response. And some questioned why Trump’s political machine didn’t spend more resources on Tuesday’s election in Virginia, given the narrow outcome.

Voters in Virginia on Tuesday passed one of the nation’s most aggressive gerrymanders that, should it survive court challenges, would put Democrats in position to win 10 of the state’s 11 House seats and leave the party with a slight overall advantage in the nationwide redistricting war, which so far has yielded new House maps in seven states. A redistricting approved by California voters last November could add up to five Democratic seats. “We should have anticipated and played three or four moves ahead. We should have known that there was going to be a response to Texas,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.), who is retiring after this year. He added: “We’ll pay for it in November.” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat who championed the new districts in the state, said: “People are fed up with this administration, especially in Virginia. Trump is historically unpopular there.” He said the vote reflected “the desire to even the playing field.” The chess match isn’t over, and it is impossible at this point to predict exactly how many seats will change hands. The battle turns next to Florida, which is slated to take up a redistricting plan next week that could add Republican seats. Louisiana and potentially other GOP-leaning states could also draw new maps if given the green light under a Supreme Court case regarding racial considerations in redistricting, for which a ruling is expected by the end of June. But the state of the redistricting battle, as of now, has left many in the GOP frustrated.

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State Stories

Why Greg Abbott is still declaring a border emergency under Trump

Border crossings have ground to such a halt over the last year that President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, recently said “we have the most secure border in the history of the nation.” But last week, Gov. Greg Abbott quietly renewed a border disaster proclamation — a version of the same order he has issued monthly since 2021, when migrant crossings were at decades-long highs. The now five-year-long disaster declaration has provided the foundation for Abbott’s $11 billion security crackdown and is now allowing the state to help Trump’s mass deportation effort. “The effects of four years of failed border policy under the Biden Administration did not go away overnight,” said Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for the governor. “Illegal crossings, cartel smuggling, fentanyl trafficking, and related criminal activity continue to threaten public safety in Texas.”

The lasting nature of the declaration underscores how Abbott — who is seeking a record fourth term as governor this fall — has leveraged his executive authority and consolidated power over the past decade in office. The border disaster appears to be the longest standing since at least the 1990s, surpassing even Abbott’s yearslong COVID-era proclamations, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston who studies governors. The order is “a testament to the core power of Texas governors: longevity,” Rottinghaus said. “The political ramifications are significant too — the governor can continue to brag about being on the front lines of the front lines of the border crisis.” The governor’s use of such emergency orders has previously chafed some in the Legislature, who see it as shifting the balance of powers in the state. The COVID orders pushed some in Abbott’s own party to seek to curtail the governor’s ability to issue such proclamations indefinitely, arguing it tips the balance of power in Austin away from the Legislature. State Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Granbury Republican, pushed a constitutional amendment last year that would require the governor to call a special session if a declared disaster or emergency that affects most of the state exceeds 30 days. Birdwell’s legislation easily cleared the Senate and unanimously passed a House committee. But it never made it to the House floor.

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Dallas Republican’s petition to force precinct-based runoff rejected by Texas appeals court

A North Texas appeals court rejected a petition from a Dallas County republican trying to force the county to hold a precinct-specific Election Day for the upcoming primary election. The petition came after former county GOP Chair Allen West agreed to countywide voting for upcoming runoffs — in the wake of a chaotic March election marred by confusion and legal challenges. The filing from petitioner Barry Wernick, a Republican Party precinct chair and commissioners court candidate, requested the Dallas-based Fifth Court of Appeals order the county elections administrator to conduct the upcoming runoff Election Day with precinct-based polling places. The judges declined Friday, finding they had no jurisdiction to do so. They also found Wernick had no standing for relief, in part because he won his primary race outright and wasn’t in a runoff.

He also was not a party to the election services agreement between the GOP's County Executive Committee and the county, the court said, calling Wernick "a stranger to the contract." "(Wernick) is a party precinct chair and, therefore, a member of the CEC. He also serves as a chair of a committee of the CEC," Friday's opinion said. "But he is not the county executive committee, nor is he chair of the CEC." The court did not weigh in on the merits of the challenge itself — namely, whether the contract to go back to countywide voting between the county and the GOP under West was valid. KERA News reached out to Wernick for comment and will update this story with any response. Dallas County is in charge of early voting locations, and its rules stipulate Democrats and Republicans can vote at any location throughout the early voting process. The process for primary Election Day itself is controlled by the parties.

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Austin Police will adjust ICE policies following Gov. Abbott funding threat

The Austin Police Department will adjust its rules on how officers engage with federal immigration authorities after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to block the city from receiving state grant funding. Earlier this year, APD released new rules for how officers interact with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under those rules, an officer had to first clear any communication with ICE with a supervisor if an individual had a civil administrative warrant — a noncriminal charge. Austin officers are required to communicate with ICE if a suspect is facing criminal charges. Now, the rules will be updated to clarify that if someone has an ICE administrative warrant, the officer or supervisor “should, when operationally feasible,” contact ICE.

Officers should consider urgent public safety needs in the city first, and whether they are needed elsewhere, the city said. The orders also clarify “officers shall not take an unreasonable amount of time assisting in these matters.” Last week, Abbott threatened to pull $2.5 million in state grants from Austin over its rules on how police cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Houston and Dallas are facing similar threats from the governor. Abbott said restricting any notification to ICE agents could be in breach of the grant agreements the city entered into. Just a few days before, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he had launched an investigation into APD's policies over the same concern. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said public safety and community policing are the main focus. “Allocating resources in a way that protects public safety is vitally important and these updated General Orders allow for that," she said in a written statement. Mayor Kirk Watson said the new rules were a rational approach that maximized APD's limited resources to adequately address Austin’s public safety needs.?

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The Texas Legislature bowed to Trump. It screwed him in the process.

Back in August, state Representative Mitch Little, Republican of Lewisville, had an admirably masculine sound bite for CNN’s Brianna Keilar. The TV anchor had asked Little why Texas Republicans were trying to redraw the state’s congressional map in the middle of the decade to deliver the president more seats in the upcoming midterm. “Because we can,” Little said. “We have the votes.” Little, to his credit, and unlike many of his colleagues, didn’t hide the ball. He explained to Keilar that his party wanted a handful of congressional districts it currently couldn’t win. This had a whiff of Thucydides about it—“the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”—and apart from the general preference Panera Bread–frequenting state lawmakers have for a little classical grandeur from time to time, it had the added benefit of making the Texas Legislature look like the tough-guy mover in the equation. This bluster obscured what had actually happened. Texas Republicans had received, and submissively obeyed, marching orders from the political arm of the White House to find five more Republican congressional seats, even though at least some of them knew mid-decade redistricting in this political environment was a bad idea for them.

It was hard not to remember the Republican legislative braggadocio of last summer when President Trump spoke to a Virginia radio station on Monday before that state’s redistricting referendum. (Citizens got to vote on it—isn’t that cute?) Virginia was about to approve maps that are designed to give Democrats four seats currently held by Republicans, and Trump offered mewling and uncharacteristically beta complaints about our wonderful Norms and the integrity of the Process. “I don’t know if you know what gerrymandering is, but it’s not good,” he told the host. Not good, he says. Won’t Mitch Little have egg on his face? When it comes to taking a whole pile of busywork hypothetically aimed at making things better and then producing no substantive forward motion, the Texas Legislature is God’s own machine, perfect and sublime. Not infrequently, months of effort put into making something better will end up making it worse. This is the gang, you may remember, that accidentally legalized dirty, lab-prepared THC products while keeping the real thing, God’s green herb, illegal. The White House probably did not know about the deeply ingrained hopelessness that pervades the Texas Legislature, or it probably would not have ordered state leaders to spearhead the gerrymander charge. It was hoping to encourage red states across the country to follow in Texas’s wake. It was hoping Texans would start a prairie fire, and it asked the state to move first and early—which is significant in part because the president’s approval rating was much healthier-looking than it would be six months down the road.

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A looming execution raises questions of race, responsibility, and rap

Curtis Riser had some concerns about the problem of wrongful convictions. He wasn’t the only potential juror to raise this point ahead of the 2009 capital murder trial of James Broadnax, in which the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office was seeking death, but attorneys for the state used one of their limited peremptory strikes to keep Riser off the jury. Prosecutors for the state have said they struck him from the jury pool because of his stated concerns, but their notes tell a different story. “Only concern … age + race,” an attorney for the state wrote on his jury questionnaire. Aqwana Long said her feelings about capital punishment were mixed, but she clarified she meant it should only be applied in some cases. Rating her approval of the death penalty on a scale of one to 10, she chose seven. Still, the state rejected her.

Dedric Morrison, who said he believed the death penalty was appropriate in “some murder cases,” seemed to prosecutors like he might be sympathetic to a defendant who was intoxicated at the time of the crime. This, according to the state, was enough to exclude him from the jury pool. Riser, Long, and Morrison are all Black. They had similar answers and beliefs to potential jurors who were white, yet they were struck while their white counterparts were not. Attorneys built an all-white jury to try Broadnax, a Black teenager, until the trial judge defied protocol and reinstated one of the other previously struck Black jurors. The judge didn’t go so far as to imply that the prosecution was racially profiling, but stepped in after prosecutors had used almost half of their allowed challenges to cull all seven of the potential Black jurors from the pool. In front of what ended up as a nearly all-white jury, prosecutors would argue that Broadnax and his cousin had robbed two white men—26-year-old Stephen Swan and 28-year-old Matthew Butler, both producers of Christian music—and that Broadnax had shot and killed the pair outside of a recording studio in Garland on June 19, 2008. Broadnax had confessed to shooting the men, and the jury returned a guilty verdict. One juror recently stated, “It seemed to be an open and shut case.”

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Texas' quiet city west Of Houston is now the fastest-growing boomtown in the country

It's no surprise that the Houston area is an appealing place for those looking to relocate. Space City has it all, from walkable neighborhoods with fantastic dining to affordable living and a lively, diverse culture. However, there's one particular area west of Houston that's seeing explosive growth. GO Banking Rates reports that Fulshear, a city suburb just 35 miles outside the city, has experienced a 736% growth in total population between 2015 and 2023, making it the fastest-growing town in the United States. In 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the area had more than 54,000 residents, an increase of 26.9% from the previous year. So, how does a once-tiny town like Fulshear turn into a magnet for working professionals? For one, Fulshear's location makes it a fantastic option for those who need to commute into the city for work in tech or healthcare.

Just outside of Katy, itself an ideal weekend destination, Fulshear has designed itself to be nothing short of a residential paradise. From being one of the safest towns in Texas to an excellent school system and several master planned communities, it's the quality of life that sets this town apart from all the others. Here's what the research says. One of the most important things about Fulshear is its reputation for safety. The area is widely considered one of the safest and most welcoming cities in Texas, and the data agrees. Neighborhood Scout gave Fulshear a score of 86 on its total crime index, making it considerably safer than national and state-wide medians. Safewise also conducted a study of the safest cities in Texas for 2026, and Fulshear made the top 10. Even students feel safe here, as polls on Niche revealed that 79% felt that the police were very visible and responsive, and 73% reported feeling completely safe and having no safety concerns. That peace of mind is priceless. Don McCoy, the mayor of Fulshear, told Fox 26 Houston that this exponential growth reflects the high quality of life in the area. The massive influx of people has naturally increased stress on infrastructure, but the good news is that the Fulshear area is flat enough to easily accommodate needed expansions, unlike towns near mountain ranges that have to navigate difficult terrain to expand. Fulshear has the space for additional road and housing projects, which keeps the cost of living down for those looking to purchase homes in the area.

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In billionaire space race, Bezos gaining on Musk's SpaceX

SpaceX, which was fast off the launch pad in the private race for space business, may be feeling some heat. Though the Texas-based builder of rockets and satellites led by Elon Musk is easily the global leader, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been ramping up the rivalry with recent strides by his Blue Origin space company. The latest move, Amazon.com Inc.’s $11.6 billion deal to buy satellite operator Globalstar Inc., comes along with decisions by the U.S. military and NASA favoring Blue Origin over SpaceX.

Bezos’ global technology and retail company said this month it’s buying Globalstar to launch a direct-to-device service that would compete with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. Starlink, which has fast-growing operations in Bastrop County, is the biggest moneymaker for SpaceX and the current leader in an industry that’s expected to be worth $200 billion in the coming years. The Globalstar deal came the same day the U.S. Space Force announced it had selected Blue Origin to build a new launch site for super-heavy rockets at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, beating out SpaceX’s bid for a site for Starship, which is in development at Starbase in South Texas. Delays in the troubled Starship program, which saw multiple testing failures last year, contributed to NASA changing its plans for the next moon mission, Artemis III, which has already been pushed out to next year. NASA scrapped the original plan, which called for a SpaceX Starship to land astronauts on the moon, opting for a scaled-back mission to practice docking maneuvers between an Orion capsule and Starship — and a Blue Origin lunar lander.

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Austin man deported by ICE says he is a U.S. citizen

Federal immigration agents deported an Austin man who says he is a U.S. citizen after detaining him during a traffic stop near Fredericksburg earlier this month. Brian Jose Morales Garcia, 25, said he was born in Denver but grew up in Mexico and lived there until last year, when he legally crossed into the U.S. Despite having documents at home that he said show he is a U.S. citizen, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him four days after his arrest. The American-Statesman reviewed copies of Garcia’s Colorado birth certificate, hospital records and a baptismal record from a few months after his birth, which he and his attorney provided to the newspaper. The Statesman independently corroborated the existence of the birth certificate and baptismal record.

“There just is no dispute about whether he is a U.S. citizen,” his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said. “What happened here was not that they reviewed those documents and decided that they didn't care. What happened here was that they immediately assumed that he was lying.” Morales Garcia was being driven to a worksite on April 3 when his boss’ truck was stopped by Texas state troopers for what the officer said was a window tint violation. The officer contacted ICE, which asked the Gillespie County Sheriff’s Office to hold Morales Garcia in jail. Morales Garcia, whom authorities identified as a Mexican citizen, was eventually picked up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and deported four days later. During those four days, friends of Morales Garcia said they tried to provide authorities with a copy of his birth certificate. In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that it had determined Morales Garcia’s lack of authorization to be in the country “through record checks” and pointed to an admission by Morales Garcia that he had entered the country illegally, a statement that Morales Garcia said he made after being intimidated. “They didn’t believe me; they were intimidating me so that I’d sign,” Morales Garcia said. “I figured that I’d come back with my birth certificate.” Border Patrol did not provide the Statesman with proof of its claims or evidence to dispute Morales Garcia’s account. In its statement, the agency wrote: “CBP did NOT arrest a U.S. citizen.”

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Former detainees report water price-gouging at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center

Amanda Aguilar is a staff attorney at American Gateways in San Antonio. She represents multiple families detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center and said her clients claim the tap water there is foul. “The water that they have smells like bleach and it’s not really drinkable," said Aguilar. “So, for them to have water that they can drink, they have to pay $3 per bottle of water. Or $39 for a 12-pack of water." Aguilar said one thing that's consistent between all of her clients, whether they were detained out of San Antonio, El Paso, Austin, or another check-in office, is that they were all concerned about the water situation. She said it was causing stomach issues for many of them, emphasizing that people who have medical conditions are much worse off than healthier detainees, considering the lack of available medical care at the facility.

One of Aguilar's clients spent more than $ 900 in 20 days on water, food, and phone calls. All of a detained person's cash is put into a commissary, and direct access to their bank account is cut off, so they have to depend on friends and family to receive money they need while in detention. Aguilar files habeas corpus petitions and is challenging the legality of initial detention and adequacy of conditions for children at Dilley. She says the only thing they can do right now is sue ICE. "I plan to keep suing them, and hopefully just keep educating people on what's going on there so we can have humanity and dignity for all families," said Aguilar. In a February 2026 news release from ICE, titled "Debunking the mainstream media lies about South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas," ICE Director Todd M. Lyons states that detainees receive "medical care, educational services, recreational opportunities and essential daily living needs." Federal contractor Core Civic operates Dilley. Their website states that the facility gets the same clean?drinking water supplied to the town. Dilley’s water department hasn’t released a water quality report since 2024.

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Dallas is (almost) broke

Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert announced that the city is essentially broke. A budget shortfall means that the city will begin “immediate cost containment measures.” The press release gives three main reasons: Expenses are forecast to exceed this year’s budget by $16.4 million, “primarily due to Police and Fire pay and overtime.” Revenues are $3.8 million below budget because of declining sales tax revenue. The city self-funds its employee health insurance. It will exceed its budget by $13.8 million because of increased medical and pharmacy claims.

The city is now freezing all hiring, with the exception of police and fire, seasonal positions, and jobs in departments outside the general fund. All non-uniform overtime has been halted and discretionary overtime for uniform positions is suspended. Departments are asked to delay all non-essential purchases, and travel is paused. The City will continue monitoring revenues and expenditures closely,” the announcement says. “Additional cost containment measures may be implemented as needed.” The City Council will vote on next year’s budget by the end of September. The city has grand plans for its convention center redo. In the meantime, its existing portfolio is crumbling—and nobody knows what it will cost to fix.

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San Antonio courts strained as immigration detention cases spike

On a typical day in his federal courtroom in San Antonio, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia might preside over a drug trafficking trial or sentence someone for human smuggling or oversee a civil case. But on a recent Thursday afternoon, Garcia's docket was filled solely with back-to-back habeas corpus cases — all of them filed on behalf of immigrants seeking to get out of federal detention. A habeas corpus petition allows someone in government custody to challenge their detention. The number of habeas corpus cases has skyrocketed in recent months as federal agencies have ramped up enforcement of immigration law during President Donald Trump’s second term. More than 38,000 petitions have been filed nationwide since January 2025. More than 7,600 of them were filed in Texas.

The filings have come from people in a variety of different situations — some seeking asylum, others who overstayed their visas or have expired work permits, and some who crossed the border years ago without permission and never left. Some of the filings are high-profile cases such as that of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy who was detained with his father in Minnesota and brought to the Dilley Family Detention Center in South Texas. The surge in filings is creating backlogs in the federal court system, slowing down immigration cases and diverting resources and court time from other criminal and civil matters, according to judges and attorneys. Normally, criminal cases take precedence, “but when you have a habeas corpus case, that case needs to be dealt with because someone’s liberty is at stake," Garcia said. More than 4,000 of the habeas corpus petitions are in the Western District of Texas. About 2,100 of them have been assigned to federal judges in San Antonio. Those courts handle about 1,500 cases of all kinds in a typical year, said U.S. District Judge Fred Biery. Biery said that since January, his court has recorded 401 habeas corpus filings.

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Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig: Texans will decide if Jesus was a lefty

While some might pray for hope or peace in such dark times, others are praying for the death of Texas Democrat James Talarico, who is running for the U.S. Senate. During a recent episode of the right-wing Protestant podcast Reformation Red Pill, host Joshua Haymes told the pastor Brooks Potteiger that he prays that “God kills” Talarico, given that the politician seems to be possessed by demons. Potteiger agreed, offering that Talarico should be “crucified with Christ.” Both Haymes and Potteiger later insisted that their remarks were not sincere expressions of violent intent, but rather metaphorical calls for Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, to find salvation in their brand of Christianity. Talarico shrewdly responded by offering forgiveness: “You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you. I love you more than you could ever hate me.” A cherubic and well-scrubbed 36-year-old state lawmaker, Talarico seems lately to invite such vitriol. This despite the fact that he has run a generally positive campaign. Born and raised in Texas, he is campaigning on a fairly standard Democratic platform: He supports higher wages, labor organizing, comprehensive immigration reform, and increasing firearm regulations. Talarico’s sermonic speeches are largely about inclusivity and justice.

What has made his candidacy so controversial is what he says about God. An avowed progressive, Talarico argues that the country’s powerful Christian conservatives have distorted the lessons of their faith. The words of Jesus, he insists, endorse policies the left embraces. In deep-red evangelical Texas, does his brand of Christian politics have a chance? In a 2021 debate on transgender issues in the Texas House of Representatives, Talarico said that “God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between. God is nonbinary.” In a 2025 conversation with Joe Rogan, Talarico argued that “this idea that there is a set Christian orthodoxy on the issue of abortion is just not rooted in Scripture,” explaining (somewhat confusingly) that because God sought Mary’s consent before the conception of Jesus, Christians ought to conclude that creation requires permission—and therefore that women should have access to legal abortion. As soon as Talarico’s primary victory over Jasmine Crockett was certain, conservatives called on those remarks and others to swiftly and uniformly deride his Christianity as blasphemous and insincere. “Talarico is a leftist atheist’s idea of a good Christian,” Allie Beth Stuckey, a Texas-based evangelical-conservative influencer, wrote in The Daily Wire.

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National Stories

A new worry for Republicans: Latino Catholics offended by Trump

When Stuart Sepulvida arrives at St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Parish in Tucson, Ariz., for Mass, which he attends most mornings, he passes a display honoring local soldiers and encouraging parishioners to pray for their safety. Hundreds of small cards record their names: Robles, Arenas, Grajeda. A portrait of Pope Leo XIV hangs across the lobby. Mr. Sepulvida, 81, is a Vietnam veteran whose patriotism and Catholicism are deeply intertwined. He voted for President Trump three times but has never felt more betrayed by an American president than when Mr. Trump denounced Pope Leo as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.” “It was very disturbing to me to hear both of them clashing like they did,” Mr. Sepulvida said, standing outside the church one morning this week. Now, he is reconsidering whether he will vote Republican this year.

The Republican Party is struggling to hold onto the support from Hispanic voters who helped propel Mr. Trump back into the White House in 2024. Yet as many party leaders have acknowledged the urgent need to stop the backsliding among Latinos, the president has enraged many of even his strongest supporters by clashing with the pope. On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff, spoke of the need to “abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars.” Within days, Mr. Trump, who has led the United States into a war with Iran, said the pope was “catering to the radical left” and posted an AI-generated image portraying himself as a Jesus figure. Mr. Trump later deleted the image, saying he thought it depicted him as a doctor. “It just isn’t what a president should do,” Mr. Sepulvida said. “The pope speaks for his people. He is beyond politics.” Mr. Trump won 55 percent of Catholic voters in the 2024 election, compared to 43 percent who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Pew Research Center. The most sizable gains came from Hispanic Catholics. While Joseph R. Biden Jr. won their votes by a 35-point margin in 2020, the Democratic advantage shrunk to 17 points in 2024. Now, just 18 percent of Hispanic Catholics said they support most or all of President Trump’s agenda, according to a poll from Pew released earlier this year. If the president’s quarrel with the pope sours more Latinos on the Republican Party, it could affect midterm races across the country, including in South Florida and South Texas, where Republicans have notched important victories in predominantly Hispanic districts in recent years.

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‘He has the market in a chokehold’: Stocks swing as Trump posts

There are lots of things that can move the stock market, from economic data, to Federal Reserve pronouncements, to corporate developments. But for the past 15 months, traders’ fortunes have been largely tethered to the whims of a single person: President Donald Trump. Since taking office last January, Trump’s comments to reporters in extemporaneous gatherings in the Oval Office and at formal press conferences, as well as his posts on social media, have been the primary driver behind the five best and worst days in the S&P 500 Index, according to an analysis from Fundstrat Research. It’s a grip unmatched by any modern American leader. No other president has orchestrated this many best and worst days in a dozen administrations going back to President Ronald Reagan in 1981. “He has the market in a chokehold,” said Hardika Singh, economic strategist at Fundstrat. “The president isn’t supposed to have such an extraordinary amount of control over the fortunes of the stock market. It’s completely unprecedented.”

The war in Iran is providing a perfect backdrop to see how much Trump can move US stocks. The S&P 500 just posted its fastest V-shaped drop and recovery since 2020, tumbling 9% from a Jan. 27 peak to the cusp of a technical correction on March 30, before rallying back to all-time highs over the course of 11 trading days. The impact of the president’s words is even clearer when examined session-by-session. For example, the S&P 500 sank 1.5% on March 20, as Trump said in a White House briefing that he didn’t want a ceasefire with Iran. Then, on March 31, the index jumped 2.9% for its best day since May and rallied through the rest of the week after Trump told reporters at several different news outlets that negotiations with Iran were going well and the war was close to ending. There are numerous similar examples from before and since then. It isn’t just equities that are seeing these moves either. Commodity prices have also swung wildly, with oil market volatility rising to levels last seen at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In essence, Trump’s wavering positions on the war have made him the market’s “arsonist and firefighter,” said Alexander Altmann, head of global equities tactical strategies at Barclays.

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Every Black Republican is leaving the House, erasing diversity gains

Eight years ago, Kevin McCarthy, then the House Republican leader, embarked on a push to recruit more Black Republicans to run for Congress, arguing that the G.O.P. needed to diversify to survive. By 2022, his efforts had yielded modest success, helping pave the way for four Black Republicans to be elected to the House that year, which boosted the total number of Black Republicans serving in Congress to five, including Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. That progress is about to be erased.

All four Black Republicans in the House are leaving Congress next year: Three are seeking statewide office, and one is retiring because redistricting in his state effectively boxed him out of his seat. The exodus is a reflection of the striking and persistent lack of diversity in the G.O.P. ranks of Congress, something that Mr. McCarthy has acknowledged is still an issue even years after his efforts to address it. “When you look at the Democrats, they actually look like America,” he said shortly after leaving Congress in 2023. “When I look at my party, we look like the most restrictive country club in America.” Republican leaders who for a time focused heavily on recruiting and electing more Black candidates appear to have allowed those efforts to flag during the second Trump presidency, as the president has denounced and eliminated diversity programs, fired Black officials while installing an overwhelmingly white senior team and presided over an administration that routinely circulates material echoing white-supremacist references, including a racist meme he posted himself. With the president’s gains with Black men dwindling, there are few Black Republicans running for Congress this year, and none regarded as likely to win.

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‘Hyperscale’ data center project in Utah — expected to generate and consume more power than entire state — nears final approval

Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary plans to build a massive hyperscale data center project in Box Elder County — which state boosters say will fund modern buildings at Hill Air Force Base while generating all of its own power, cleaning the water it uses so it can be sent to the Great Salt Lake and creating 2,000 high-paying jobs in the rural area. The board that oversees the state’s Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, approved a series of resolutions Friday to move the multibillion-dollar project forward, agreeing to move fast and charge far lower taxes than usual to help O’Leary “lure the hyperscalers” to Utah. “There’s only five hyperscalers in America, OK, so it’s pretty easy to know who they’re negotiating with,” Paul Morris, MIDA’s executive director, told the board Friday. “You can look those up and you know who they’re talking to.”

Amazon, Microsoft and Google are the country’s top-tier hyperscalers — tech giants that run vast cloud computing networks. Analysts typically list Meta and Apple right behind them. The project is awaiting only a final approval from the Box Elder County Commission, which postponed a planned Friday afternoon meeting until Monday. The head developer of the project is O’Leary Digital, owned by O’Leary, a Canadian tycoon and one of the investors on the reality show “Shark Tank,” where his nickname is Mr. Wonderful. O’Leary also made his movie debut last year, co-starring with Timothée Chalamet in “Marty Supreme.” In February, O’Leary posted on Facebook: “Luckily, in Utah, I found … three senators and Governor [Spencer] Cox, pro-business, pro-data centers, but the ball’s back in their court now. We’ve announced that we need every incentive we can get out of that state because we have to raise billions to build this power, and then the data centers that come afterwards.”

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The MAHA revolt threatening the farm bill

Republican infighting between two important constituencies — the agriculture sector and the MAHA coalition — is threatening passage of a bill leaders are counting on to help woo rural voters ahead of the midterms. House GOP leaders hope this week to advance a long-stalled farm bill that would secure a slew of industry and rural investments. They see a political incentive to move quickly now to shore up farm country support in advance of the November elections, plus heed calls from President Donald Trump to “PASS THE FARM BILL, NOW!” The farm bill traditionally comes to the floor with bipartisan support. But House Democrats this time are largely opposed to the package because it does not reverse the massive cuts to the country’s largest food aid program enacted by last year’s GOP megabill. That’s putting extra under pressure on Republicans to see it over the finish line amid intraparty disagreements over provisions related to pesticides, livestock laws and ethanol sales.

The farm bill traditionally comes to the floor with bipartisan support. But House Democrats this time are largely opposed to the package because it does not reverse the massive cuts to the country’s largest food aid program enacted by last year’s GOP megabill. That’s putting extra under pressure on Republicans to see it over the finish line amid intraparty disagreements over provisions related to pesticides, livestock laws and ethanol sales. The biggest source of conflict is over a provision that would shield pesticide makers — a powerful lobbying force with agriculture state Republicans — from lawsuits. It comes as the Trump administration has also moved to protect access to a key pesticide after chemical manufacturers told the White House they were concerned about regulatory uncertainty or MAHA-driven crackdowns. Removing the measure would stoke backlash from Trump officials and farm state Republicans. MAHA activists feel betrayed after voting for Trump in hopes that his administration would crack down on chemical exposure they blame for driving up chronic illness and disease. And now these activists are so fed up that they’ve turned to working with a group of House Democrats to strip out the language, according to four people granted anonymity to share private discussions.

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Pope Leo reiterates opposition to death penalty on same day U.S. approves firing squads

The Trump administration announced Friday that it will authorize firing squads as a federally permitted method of execution, deepening its push to revive the death penalty — underscoring a sharp divide with Pope Leo XIV and recent Catholic teaching. Hours after the Justice Department made its announcement, the pontiff condemned the death penalty as an attack on human dignity. In a prerecorded video message shared with DePaul University in Chicago to mark the 15th anniversary of Illinois' abolition of the death penalty, Pope Leo declared that the Catholic Church has consistently taught that each human life, from conception until natural death, is sacred and deserves protection. "We affirm that the dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed," Leo said.

Hours earlier, the pontiff had condemned capital punishment aboard the papal plane, when asked about executions carried out by the Iranian government. The timing comes amid a widening divide between the Trump administration and Catholic leaders, who have also opposed the administration's immigration tactics, including widespread arrests of undocumented immigrants. In February, as part of a case contesting the administration's position on birthright citizenship, U.S. bishops filed an amicus brief outlining its opposition. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department is also reauthorizing lethal injection using the sedative pentobarbital, which was withdrawn by the Biden administration after a government review found the injection may cause unnecessary pain and suffering. The changes reflect a broader directive from Trump, who since returning to office has ordered the Justice Department to prioritize pursuing and carrying out death sentences. The pentobarbital protocol was originally developed during Trump's first term – with the reintroduction of the federal death penalty – under then-Attorney General Bill Barr. It replaced a three-drug mixture last used during the early 2000s. The Trump administration's report released Friday pushes back on the Biden administration's finding, arguing the review misread the science and that pentobarbital renders a prisoner unconscious rapidly enough to prevent pain.

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DOJ drops investigation into Fed’s Powell

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Friday that she is dropping her investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the cost for renovations at the central bank, a move that could clear a path for the Senate to confirm Kevin Warsh as Powell’s replacement. “I have directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry,” Pirro said in a post on social media platform X. “Note well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.” She said the Federal Reserve’s inspector general has been asked to scrutinize the renovation, saying the cost overruns ran into “the billions of dollars.”

Pirro is the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Her investigation into Powell and the cost overruns led Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the Senate Banking Committee, to say he wouldn’t support any Fed nominee until the probe was dropped. His opposition would leave the committee tied if all the Democrats also oppose Warsh, which would prevent the nomination from advancing. Tillis also said he considers Warsh a qualified nominee. Powell’s term as chair ends on May 15. “Let’s get rid of this investigation so I can support your confirmation,” Tillis said at Warsh’s hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday that the Banking Committee would provide “accountability” for the investigation into the Fed renovations in an attempt to move the Warsh nomination ahead.

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Lead Stories

Dallas police change ICE policy after Abbott threatens to pull public safety, FIFA funding

The Dallas Police Department changed its immigration policy Thursday in response to pressure from Gov. Greg Abbott. The new rules affirm police officers are allowed to provide enforcement assistance to immigration officers, ask a detained or arrested person’s immigration status and share that status with ICE. The change includes removing a provision that prevented officers from detaining someone longer to investigate the person's immigration status or contact ICE. Under the original policy, an officer was required to release someone after they had been processed for the initial reason they were stopped. The change came after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened in a letter to pull nearly $90 million in state funding if the police department did not change General Order 315.04, which outlines how officers can handle immigration.

That funding includes more than $55 million in security funding for the FIFA World Cup — which is less than two months away — and more than $32 million in public safety grants. City Manager Kimberly Tolbert responded in a letter Thursday the changes align DPD policy with state law while maintaining trust with the community. “Although your letter does not specifically identify the portions of General Order 315.04 you find problematic, DPD has completed a review of General Order 315.04 and has revised certain provisions in the general order to further clarify DPD's continued compliance with state law regarding immigration enforcement,” Tolbert wrote. Abbott wrote in his letter General Order 315.04 violates a certification Tolbert agreed to last year as a condition to receive a $32 million public safety grant. Abbott took issue with parts of the order that made it voluntary for police to ask someone about their immigration status or inform ICE about that status. He also targeted the part of the order that prevented Dallas officers from detaining someone longer to investigate the person's immigration status or contact ICE. Under the order, an officer was required to release someone after they've been processed for the initial reason they were stopped.

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West Texas rancher raises alarm over abandoned well blowouts impacting water supply

Well blowouts have become a common sight on land near the Pecos County and Crane County border, causing damage to property, threatening livestock and raising concerns about water. Schuyler Wight, a landowner near the Pecos County and Crane County border, has experienced multiple well blowouts on his property. But after reporting the blowouts to the Railroad Commission, he said nothing has been done. “They’re underfunded, they’re understaffed, they’re undermanned,” Wight said. “They don’t have the personal to take care of it and basically, they don’t care.” These blowouts are leaving an uncontrolled amount of oil, natural gas or other fluids above the surface. Specifically, hydrogen sulfide or H2S, a toxic gas with a rotten egg odor that creates to air quality and life.

It can even become fatal if inhaled too much. “When wells are allowed to sit for a long time, rust happens,” Wight said. “Rust causes casing to break down, the cement breaks down, and they break lose and flow to the surface.” Wells also produce saltwater, which Wight said his cattle needs and craves to survive. But with these blowouts, the chemicals are posing fatal risks to both ranchers and cattle. “It can cause health problems for the cattle. They can die from drinking this water,” Wight said. “The bottom line is you don’t want to be eating beef that comes from a cow that drinks produced water do you?” According to Wight, he visited Austin in February and March to speak to the Railroad Commission about this ongoing issue. He said there are over 11,000 orphan wells in Texas with no responsible operator, leaving the state responsible for plugging them. “This orphan well count keeps growing. It’s over eleven thousand now and it just keeps growing,” Wight said. “They’ll never get ahead of it at the rate they’re going.” First Alert 7 has reached out to the Railroad Commission for a statement but has not received a response.

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Big Bend National Park could see vehicle barriers, patrol roads under latest changes to border wall plans

The Trump administration is once again planning to install physical border barriers within Big Big National Park in West Texas, according to an updated map of "Smart Wall" projects that now shows plans for a "vehicle barrier system" and "patrol roads" in the park. The change appeared on a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website sometime Tuesday, and came just weeks after CBP backed away from plans for border barriers in the national park in favor of a "detection technology" only project. A CBP spokesperson did not immediately comment on the change. It was first noticed by anti-wall advocates who are closely monitoring the agency's border wall projects map.

"As we've warned – the map can and will change with no public notice, no Congressional approval, no nothing," Laiken Jordahl, an advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in a post on X noting the updated map. It's not clear whether the vehicle barriers would be temporary or permanent. As of Wednesday morning, the CBP map showed a new plan for 17 miles of "vehicle border barriers" along different segments of the Rio Grande within the national park. The map shows the vehicle barriers would go up at a river access point near Lajitas on the park's western boundary and near the remote Mariscal Canyon area within the park, among other locations. The updated map also shows CBP is now planning to build vehicle barriers along the border across southeastern Brewster County and through Terrell County to the Del Rio area. Some stretches of the project would be built a few miles north of federally protected portions of the Rio Grande. In addition to the vehicle barriers, CBP on Tuesday added plans for "patrol roads" across the southern portions of Big Bend National Park and neighboring Big Bend Ranch State Park.

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Rowlings, West Virginia U.S. Senator feud over The Greenbrier Resort

The billionaire Dallas family who owns the Omni hotel chain and a sitting U.S. senator have fired the opening salvos in a contentious legal feud over the fate of West Virginia’s “crown jewel” — the landmark Greenbrier Resort. Robert and Blake Rowling, the father-son duo who lead Omni Hotels’ parent company TRT Holdings, purchased the first lien debt on assets, including the resort, for nearly $290 million. They’ve asked a federal court to take control of the resort away from Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., who has owned it since 2009. Facing a request to turn over property, the Justice family is fighting back. They’ve filed a lawsuit in a West Virginia court, accusing the Rowlings and others of conspiring to seize the historic resort by “unlawful and deceptive means.”

The parties met at The Greenbrier earlier this month, but they reached no agreement regarding Justice’s debt. The deadlock sets the stage for legal proceedings, and the issues may not be resolved for years. A federal judge will hear evidence May 11 to determine if the Justice family must turn over the 11,000-acre luxury property to a third party, or hold off until a state court rules on Justice’s lawsuit. Attempts to contact representatives for the Justice family were not returned before publication. “I don’t foresee a partnership coming together after the way the first meeting went,” Blake Rowling told The Dallas Morning News in a recent interview. “It was not fruitful. …We bought a piece of debt. If we get paid off, we’re no longer a lender, which is fine. But at this point, they’re in breach of the forbearance agreement. We’re moving forward with the rights we have.”

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State Stories

Talarico hopes to bolster Black support after defeating Crockett

Sheniqua Jones hoped her March 3 vote would help make history, sending U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett to the Senate as the first Black woman nominee from Texas. When state Rep. James Talarico won instead, it left many of Crockett’s Black supporters wrestling with disappointment, even as they look toward November. “As a Black woman, it feels like voters think we can’t run the country,” Jones said. “We are needed in today’s world and one day we’ll win these races, if we are allowed.” Now Jones, 40, a mother and small business owner, said she’s willing to give Talarico a chance, but only if he connects with what matters most to voters like her. “He has to speak to the issues that we care about,” she said. “That’s how to get more people on his side.”

That’s the case Talarico now has to make. To win in November, he must maximize Democratic turnout in a state where Republicans still hold the advantage, starting with Black voters, the party’s most reliable base. That may not come easily. Talarico’s victory over Crockett left hard feelings among many of her backers in North Texas and beyond. In the primary, some of Talarico’s supporters said Crockett’s combative style wouldn’t work statewide, clashing with Democrats who saw her as the kind of fighter needed to take on President Donald Trump. At the Dallas County Democratic Party Convention last month, Talarico struck a conciliatory tone. “To the congresswoman’s supporters, I know I wasn’t your first choice, but I hope to earn your trust and earn your support,” he said. Party leaders say words alone won’t be enough.

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HISD board of managers votes to fire union leader after hearing

Houston ISD's appointed board of managers voted Thursday to terminate a teacher union leader even though an independent hearing examiner initially recommended that the district reinstate the longtime educator. All six members who were present voted in favor of terminating Michelle Williams, president of the Houston Education Association and third grade teacher. The attorneys' arguments showed that questions went beyond the individual case, such as whether a teacher can deviate from the curriculum, including when they believe it is necessary to accommodate student needs. The board's decision goes against a February recommendation from a state-appointed independent hearing examiner, who found that Williams was wrongfully terminated after a two-day hearing.

The examiner decided HISD "did not provide a preponderance of credible, admissible evidence" and therefore "has not established any of the reasons for the proposed termination" with enough evidence. But Wednesday night, HISD submitted a brief to the board, asking members to approve a modified recommendation that would reverse the examiner's recommendation to mean there was sufficient evidence to fire Williams, said Williams' attorney, Giana Ortiz. She questioned how the board could make that change after the independent examiner found no wrongdoing. "We're going to be exploring that and really diving into what they've asked," Ortiz said. "Because we just got it last night. And so we've not had a chance to fully digest it, nor has the board." HISD's outside attorney, Ellen Spalding, said Williams' case was about whether a teacher can opt not to use HISD's instructional model. Spalding pointed out that Benbrook's accountability rating dropped, requiring the adoption of the district's curriculum.

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Austin ISD is under state investigation for celebrating Pride Week

The Texas Education Agency launched an investigation into the Austin Independent School District for celebrating its annual Pride Week. A TEA spokesperson confirmed with KUT News the state has opened an investigation, but declined to comment since “the matter remains ongoing.” The investigation comes after conservative State Board of Education member Brandon Hall, from the Fort Worth area, raised concerns in March about AISD breaking the law and working to "indoctrinate" students by celebrating Pride Week. “It's time to defund AISD and criminally investigate Superintendent Matias Segura,” Hall said in a social media post.

During an interview with the conservative nonprofit Texas Values, Hall said taxpayers in his district were concerned about state funding going into a district where “instead of focusing on education they are focusing on gender identity and celebrating pride and things like that.” “[If] we don’t stop it in Austin ISD, we are going to see more of this across the state,” Hall said. “We need to make a statement and set an example. We will not put up with you breaking the law.” Hall stated that AISD was not complying with Senate Bill 12. The law passed in 2025 and prohibits “diversity, equity and inclusion duties,” including activities that reference gender or sexual orientation, at K-12 public schools. The law also bans the creation of clubs based on gender identity or sexual orientation. AISD held Pride Week from March 23 to 27 with the theme “beYOUtiful.” Students’ participation was voluntary, and activities took place outside instructional time, including before or after school or during lunch.

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Texas Capital beats earnings, gives shareholders dividend

Texas Capital Bancshares is entering a new era, rung in with a new leadership structure and the company’s first ever quarterly common stock dividend. The Dallas-based firm, whose subsidiary Texas Capital Bank is one of the largest banks headquartered in the Lone Star State, announced its first-quarter earnings Thursday, beating expectations. Texas Capital also announced a slate of leadership appointments to facilitate the company’s next phase of growth, having completed its years-long transition into a full-service financial institution.

“Success going forward requires us to move from a transformation-focused structure to one engineered for speed of decision making, commercial agility and frontline empowerment,” said Texas Capital Chairman, President & CEO Rob C. Holmes in a release. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.58 in the first three months of 2026, a year-over-year increase of about 70% and better than consensus estimates of $1.41, per S&P Global Market Intelligence. Quarterly revenue, coming in at $324 million, also exceeded estimates. The company recently underwent a transformation into a full-service financial institution, marked by hitting a series of quantitative and qualitative goals it set for itself in 2021 in late 2025. In a vote of confidence in its future, Texas Capital is initiating a quarterly common stock dividend of $0.20 a share, the first such dividend in Texas Capital history.

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Former detainees report water price-gouging at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center

Amanda Aguilar is a staff attorney at American Gateways in San Antonio. She represents multiple families detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center and said her clients claim the tap water there is foul. “The water that they have smells like bleach and it’s not really drinkable," said Aguilar. “So, for them to have water that they can drink, they have to pay $3 per bottle of water. Or $39 for a 12-pack of water." Aguilar said one thing that's consistent between all of her clients, whether they were detained out of San Antonio, El Paso, Austin, or another check-in office, is that they were all concerned about the water situation. She said it was causing stomach issues for many of them, emphasizing that people who have medical conditions are much worse off than healthier detainees, considering the lack of available medical care at the facility.

One of Aguilar's clients spent more than $ 900 in 20 days on water, food, and phone calls. All of a detained person's cash is put into a commissary, and direct access to their bank account is cut off, so they have to depend on friends and family to receive money they need while in detention. Aguilar files habeas corpus petitions and is challenging the legality of initial detention and adequacy of conditions for children at Dilley. She says the only thing they can do right now is sue ICE. "I plan to keep suing them, and hopefully just keep educating people on what's going on there so we can have humanity and dignity for all families," said Aguilar. In a February 2026 news release from ICE, titled "Debunking the mainstream media lies about South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas," ICE Director Todd M. Lyons states that detainees receive "medical care, educational services, recreational opportunities and essential daily living needs." Federal contractor Core Civic operates Dilley. Their website states that the facility gets the same clean?drinking water supplied to the town. Dilley’s water department hasn’t released a water quality report since 2024.

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American Air explores Alaska Air revenue-sharing deal

American Airlines Group Inc. and Alaska Air Group Inc. are pursuing potential revenue-sharing agreements and other strategic partnerships, people familiar with the matter said, in a push for scale as the US carriers grapple with higher costs and fierce competition. The idea of a merger was raised as part of the talks around a stronger partnership, but did not get off the ground, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential. The discussions include adding Alaska into American’s existing joint business arrangements, principally its transatlantic partnership with IAG SA’s British Airways, as well as its Pacific joint business with Japan Airlines, the people said.

“As we go forward, we’ll make sure that anything that we do complies with our scope clauses,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Isom said on a Thursday call with analysts. “I feel good about where our relationship is and what happens next.” Alaska Air said it doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation. Such partnership agreements allow airlines to coordinate schedules and pricing on certain routes and share revenue on those flights once approved by the US Department of Transportation. Expanding those arrangements could give American greater reach on the US West Coast and strengthen connectivity through Alaska’s Seattle hub, while providing the smaller carrier with deeper access to lucrative long-haul markets as it pushes global growth.

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Teen charged in conspiracy to attack Texas synagogue and 'kill as many Jews as possible': Prosecutors

An 18-year-old woman was being held on a $10 million bond on Thursday after authorities alleged she conspired with two men to attack a Texas synagogue and "kill as many Jews as possible," according to court records. The suspect, Angelina Han Hicks of Lexington, North Carolina, was charged with felony conspiracy to commit murder and felony conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon, according to court documents She allegedly plotted with two men to attack the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Houston, Texas, according to court records.

"The conspiracy is to kill as many jews as possible by driving through a congregation at the synagogue," North Carolina prosecutors alleged in the court documents. Hicks was arrested on Wednesday in North Carolina and made her first court appearance later that day in Davidson County District Court in Lexington. Two men, only identified as "Angel" and "Teegan," allegedly plotted with Hicks to commit the attack in 2028. The two co-conspirators, according to the court records, have not been arrested and remain unidentified. A Davidson County judge set Hicks' bond at $10 million, noting the two co-conspirators remain at large. "Allowing a co-conspirator a chance to communicate with either of those individuals or those who could relay a message puts lives at risk," the judge wrote in his court order, according to the court documents.

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Bud Kennedy: Why are Texas, Tarrant officials sponsoring extremist group’s banquet?

Nearly 60 Texas and local elected officials, including 22 judges, helped pay for a recent banquet for a Grapevine-based patriot-movement group that promotes white Christians as superior and says conservative Christianity should be the law of the land. Nine state and Tarrant County officials, including County Judge Tim O’Hare of Southlake, Commissioner Matt Krause of Keller and District Clerk Tom Wilder of Bedford, paid from $1,000 to $10,000 to sponsor tables at the event for the True Texas Project. The group virulently campaigns against American Muslims and Islam and has for years supported Christian rule and opposed immigration and “foreign people.” Only two years ago, some Republican Party officials denounced the group and pulled out of a conference in Fort Worth.

Speakers that day warned of a “war on white America” and called for forced “top-down” government under biblical “natural law.” The sponsorships of the recent event indicate how Texas and Tarrant County Republicans have changed under a new administration. Republican state attorney general candidate Mayes Middleton of Galveston was listed in the program as a $2,500 table sponsor for the banquet April 18 at the River Ranch events center in Fort Worth. Other $2,500 sponsors included state Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield; Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, who represents far north Fort Worth in Denton County; and elected local District Judge Andy Porter. O’Hare, Krause and Wilder are listed as $1,000 table sponsors, along with Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, R-Center, and Texas House candidate Cheryl Bean of Fort Worth.

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‘Work ahead of us’: New Lake Worth ISD leader shares goals for improvement

Lake Worth ISD’s state-appointed Superintendent Ena Meyers promised to partner with parents, improve community engagement and focus on literacy and math as she steps into the role this week and attempts to turn the struggling district around. Meyers addressed the media hours after the Texas Education Agency announced her as Lake Worth’s next leader, alongside a new five-person Board of Managers to replace the former elected school board. Meyers said her focus right now is making sure teachers know how to teach and keep kids engaged.

“We want to look at curriculum,” Meyers said. “What is in front of our students, and what are they learning? And is that aligned to the work that we have to do, the work that is ahead of them? And do our teachers feel supported and able to deliver high quality instructions?” Meyers, who most recently served as deputy chief of strategic initiatives at Houston ISD, also acknowledged that there are numerous parents who believe that state intervention was not the correct course of action for Lake Worth. But Meyers vowed that she will come in and do everything she can to guide the district toward improvement. “I am here to partner with you in the education of our students and our community to improve student outcomes,” Meyers said. “So we want to make sure we are reaching achievement levels for literacy and math.” Lake Worth schools struggled mightily prior to the state takeover. TEA data shows that schools in the district, which has about 3,300 total students, only have 22% of students currently meeting grade level on the most recent STAAR exams across all grades and subjects.

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Texas leads the nation in utility shut-offs, federal report finds

Texas leads the nation in utilities shutting off electricity and natural gas services to customers who can’t afford their energy bills, according to a first-of-its-kind report released recently by the federal government. The report, prepared by the Energy Department’s data wing, reflects how difficult it has become for many Texas residents to make ends meet as utility bills and other costs have risen over the last several years. Without intervention, Texas’ utility shut-off problem could worsen, especially since the state’s residential electricity rates are expected to keep climbing in the coming years, said Margo Weisz, director of the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute. “We're seeing a problem that is out of control,” Weisz said. “When you look at what's happening to our rates, and you pair it to (the fact) we’re already No. 1 in shut-offs, it's kind of terrifying, actually.”

The Energy Department report was based on data collected in 2024, before electricity costs spiked last year and became a hot-button political issue. Even so, it found that utilities across the country shut off power to households more than 13.4 million times that year. More than 3 million of those shut-offs — by far the highest number of any state — were recorded in Texas. In fact, only one other state reported a six-figure disconnection statistic: Florida, where utilities shut off power nearly 2.2 million times in 2024. As for natural gas, utilities shut off this service nearly 1.7 million times nationwide, according to the Energy Department report. Texas accounted for 200,000 of those disconnections, once again the highest of any state. The high number of utility shut-offs can’t just be attributed to the fact that Texas is the second-most populous state. The Lone Star State has one of the highest rates of electricity disconnection — second only to Oklahoma, according to the Energy Department data. Texas is also in the top third of natural gas shut-off rates nationwide.

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Kalshi fines Texas congressional candidate for betting on his own race

A Republican congressional candidate in Texas placed a bet on the May 3 primary on an online prediction market platform. Ezekiel Enriquez came in 10th place, and now faces a more than $700 fine. Kalshi, a federally regulated exchange service that lets users wager on the outcome of real-world events, said in a public filing with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that the Congressional District 21 hopeful risked "less than $100 worth of contracts related to his own candidacy" during the run up to the primary. Under its guidelines, no one who has a stake or "any influence, directly or indirectly," in the outcome may enter into a trade.

The filing said Enriquez cooperated with the company's disciplinary panel and agreed to pay a $748.20 fine. He may not use the platform for five years. Enriquez, a Marine Corps veteran who sought to align himself with the policies of President Donald Trump during his campaign, did not dispute Kalshi's account of the matter, but declined to comment further. He was one of three candidates nationwide named by Kalshi who had placed wagers on their own races. Former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixera won the Distrct 21 Republican primary and will face Democrat Kristin Hook, a biological scientist, in November. The Republican-leaning district touches nine counties across the Texas Hill Country, including Bexar and Hays, and covers Fredericksburg and Kerrville. In San Antonio, it includes Castle Hills, Alamo Heights and Terrell Heights, and a small portion of South Austin in Travis County.

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County Stories

Former Liberty Co. housing official arrested again after being indicted on new charge, records show

A former Liberty County housing official was arrested again Wednesday after being indicted on a new charge related to misuse of public money. Klint Bush was released from the Liberty County Jail on a personal recognizance bond after being booked on a misappropriation charge stemming from his time as chairman of the Liberty County Housing Authority. Records show a grand jury indicted him on the latest charge on April 15.

He was already facing charges of theft and abuse of official capacity filed in 2023. At the time, prosecutors said he directed $33,000 of CARES Act funds to fictitious businesses. The latest indictment details 14 transactions totaling more than $163,000. Several involve five-figure checks to an entity called Liberty County Housing Dev Corporation, whose bank account, the indictment alleges, Bush withdrew money from. Prosecutors also flagged an almost $12,000 check from the Housing Authority to Liberty Technologies and a more than $16,000 check to an entity called County Healthcare.

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National Stories

Karl Rove: Democrats in peril, from Barcelona to Boise

The Republican Party faces problems. The Democratic Party is a mess, too. In September 2018, before Democrats flipped 42 House seats, Gallup found that 44% of Americans approved of the Democratic Party while 52% disapproved. Today, the RealClearPolitics average says 36% approve of the Democratic Party while 56% disapprove. For Republicans, 39% approve and 54% disapprove, while President Trump’s numbers are 41% approve, 56% disapprove. Why are Democrats less popular than Republicans and Mr. Trump? The answer was on display Saturday at the Global Progressive Mobilization conference in Barcelona. The confab of leftists from across the world featured speeches by Gov. Tim Walz (D., Minn.) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.). American politicians used to feel restrained in criticizing the U.S. president even if he was from the other party. No longer. Mr. Walz called Mr. Trump “feeble-minded” and “trigger-happy” and described the Iran war as “fascism.” Mr. Murphy called the president “the most significant threat to American democracy since the Civil War.”

Those remarks undoubtedly pleased the socialists and progressives at the conference. But they won’t add a vote to the Democratic column. The more the party’s messaging follows the Walz-Murphy line, the less attractive its candidates appear. Anyone who thinks Mr. Trump is a Nazi is already voting Democratic—or leaving the country. If that were a winning message, the party’s approval rating would be more than 36%. Some Democratic leaders understand their party is unpopular, especially in right-leaning areas. So they’re trying different tactics. In four heavily Republican states, Democrats are running “independent” candidates for the U.S. Senate. If the independents win, they’ll caucus with the Democrats like Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine have done. In Nebraska, the state Democratic chairman, Jane Kleeb, is working to keep any Democratic candidate off the fall ballot, and some Republicans allege she is trying to stop the state’s Legal Marijuana NOW Party from running a candidate who would split the non-Republican vote. Her aim is to elect independent Dan Osborn, a leftie who came within 7 points of beating Republican Sen. Deb Fischer two years ago. He’d clearly caucus with Senate Democrats. His chances of winning are probably less than they were in the spring of 2024. Sen. Pete Ricketts won’t be caught off-guard.

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U.S. soldier involved in Maduro raid accused of betting on the operation

A U.S. special forces soldier who participated in the U.S. raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arrested and charged for using classified information to bet on the ouster via the prediction market company Polymarket. The Department of Justice announced Thursday that Gannon Ken Van Dyke faces several charges for using insider information gleaned from his participation in “Operation Absolute Resolve.” These charges include unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the announcement. “Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.” Prosecutors alleged that Van Dyke used information about the operation to make timely bets on Polymarket that netted him upwards of $400,000 — specifically that Maduro would lose power by the end of January. Maduro was captured on Jan. 3. The DOJ announcement alleges that Van Dyke tried to cover his tracks by sending most of his earnings to a foreign cryptocurrency account before depositing it into a newly created online brokerage. He also tried to delete his PolyMarket page by claiming he lost access to his email account.

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Up, or down? War scrambles financial markets' signalling efforts

The traditional global asset correlations that collapsed when the war in the Middle East erupted remain broken, leaving investors to piece together strategies to trade the road to resolution with a faulty instrument panel. Record highs for Wall Street stocks belie concerns about fraught ?geopolitics, how long energy supplies might be disrupted for and long-term economic damage. BMO chief FX strategist Mark McCormick reckons the next three to six months will not ?resemble the "pre-conflict normal". "The growth factor is recovering, but remains below late-2025 levels, the rates (monetary policy) factor remains elevated, correlations are shifting, and drawdown risk is rising. Something new is forming," he said in a note. Here's a look at the disruption to classic correlations in stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities that have traditionally provided a steer on economic trends.

Stocks and bond yields usually move together, as investors tend to hedge economic growth worries, which hit ?stocks, by buying bonds, sending yields lower and vice versa. That relationship has been more erratic since the pandemic, as higher inflation and government debt undermine the ability of bonds to ?act as a hedge against equity risk. The International Monetary Fund, in a pre-war blog in February, warned that investors and policymakers must rethink risk management for "a new ?era" where traditional hedges fail. Two-year bonds, sensitive to inflation and interest rate expectations, have been in the eye of the storm. The one-month rolling correlation between two-year Treasury yields and the S&P 500 has ?collapsed to around -0.8 from an average of 0.23 over the last five years. Since the war started, that metric is at -0.63. A near-identical pattern emerges for two-year German yields and European stocks. "There definitely wasn't ?a move into sovereign fixed income in March, which, at least at the front end, you might have expected," said State Street head of macro strategy Michael Metcalfe. "This was a hard test for fixed income, because it was an inflation shock and also potentially a growth shock, which doesn't help the long-term fiscal concerns."

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What the Trump administration's move to reclassify marijuana means for investors

The Trump administration on Thursday moved to reclassify marijuana under federal law. In a release, the Department of Justice said it will immediately move FDA-approved marijuana products, along with items regulated by a state medical marijuana license, to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, a demotion from its current Schedule I status. That puts medical cannabis in the company of regulated drugs with recognized medical uses, such as Tylenol with codeine and testosterone, rather than Schedule I drugs, such as heroin, which are considered to have no medical use and high potential for abuse. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will evaluate whether to extend Schedule III status to cannabis broadly — not just to medical marijuana — in a hearing scheduled for June 29.

The changes haven’t and will not legalize the drug at the federal level. But for an industry that has historically feared executive authority could deal a major blow to the drug’s legality, the moves are a step in the opposite direction, says Ben Kovler, founder and CEO of cannabis firm Green Thumb Industries. “Since Nixon’s Controlled Substances Act 50-plus years ago, this is the first major step towards opening up the product that’ll make it much more investable,” he says. In the near term, Kovler says, the move could remove what amounts to a huge tax burden on cannabis firms. Over the long-term, continued progress could see pot firms embraced by major banks and brokerages, he says. For now, though, the industry still faces major obstacles that retail investors should be aware of before putting money into pot stocks, says Gerald Pascarelli, a consumer equity analyst at investment firm Needham & Company. “It’s important to note that this industry still has its fair share of challenges,” he says. “For most people interested in this space, stock price movements over the near term are going to be largely dictated by optimism or pessimism around regulatory reform.”

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The for-profit education company scooping up millions of welfare dollars

John Alvendia’s for-profit education company seemed to have flopped in West Virginia. The four public school districts that were testing his Star Academy program, which promises to turn around the performance of struggling middle-school students, had stopped using it. One school reported worsening behavior and less improvement in English and math for Star Academy students than for other kids. That didn’t stop West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey from sending more business to Alvendia, who earlier had donated nearly $42,000 to his campaign and affiliated political committees. In January, the Republican governor announced plans to tap the state’s unspent funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare program, called TANF, to expand Star Academy. The deal would pay Alvendia’s New Orleans-based company, NOLA Education, as much as $16 million to put the program in 16 other schools.

Elected officials from both parties have steered millions of taxpayer dollars to no-bid contracts for the Star Academy program in several states, records show. Some school districts and state officials have expressed misgivings about the program’s cost and effectiveness. Wall Street Journal interviews with local officials and an examination of school performance data show Alvendia and his company have overstated its results in some of those places, including claims it freed an Arkansas school district from state oversight and boosted a Chicago area school’s graduation rate by 65 percentage points. NOLA Education said since 2018 it has operated in more than 150 sites, which typically pay $1 million for the program. It is one of many for-profit companies that have carved out businesses vowing to help turn around troubled public schools, often by tapping public money. “We’ve got a lot of kids out there that are in very high-poverty areas with no hope,” Alvendia said in an interview. “And we’re bringing hope to these kids.” He said his company’s own data on the schools where Star Academy operates shows his program works.

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are learning to love AI

Sen. Angus King was in the middle of a hearing this week with U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright when he pulled out his phone to consult with Claude, an artificial intelligence chatbot that has surged in popularity in the United States recently. King wanted details about wind and solar energy capacity before he pressed Wright on the Trump administration’s decision to cancel renewable energy projects around the country, and Claude, built by the company Anthropic, instantly delivered. “You have to be careful with it, particularly when it’s talking about analysis. But for data, it’s very useful,” the independent senator, who caucuses with Democrats, told NOTUS. “I use it all the time.” King isn’t the only AI-curious member on Capitol Hill, though at age 82, he’s certainly one of the oldest.

Many Democrats are warming to AI in a personal and professional capacity despite deep concerns in their party about its impact on job security, the environment, human relationships and society writ large. Progressive critics of the industry, for example, have called for major regulations cracking down on AI and gone on the attack against construction of massive energy-hogging data centers used to power it. In interviews on Capitol Hill this week, over a dozen Democratic senators described how they are actively experimenting with AI chatbots, most commonly Claude, in their daily lives and for help with official duties. Some rely on them in a casual way, using AI as a souped-up search engine to do research, draft memos and speeches, organize their schedule, and even plan their family vacations. Others have relied on AI for more complicated tasks. Sen. Adam Schiff used it to draft a living trust for him and his wife. Sen. Brian Schatz used it to analyze the many nonprofit grant funding requests he reviews as part of his job on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Sen. Mark Kelly went so far as to use Claude to try to build his own stand-alone applications, which is perhaps not that surprising for a former astronaut.

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Trump’s dreams for a battleship led to his Navy Secretary’s ouster

President Trump wanted one thing, more than anything else, from his secretary of the Navy, John Phelan: a new class of battleships. “They’ll be the fastest, the biggest and by far — 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Mr. Trump boasted at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate and resort in Florida a few days before Christmas. Mr. Phelan, a billionaire investor who has a home near the club, stood next to the president as he made the announcement. Mr. Phelan’s job was to deliver the first of Mr. Trump’s battleships by 2028. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump fired Mr. Phelan, who had struggled to come up with a plan to deliver the ships on the nearly impossible timeline that Mr. Trump has demanded, senior defense and administration officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

Mr. Phelan is the first service secretary to be forced from the Defense Department during this administration, though he is far from the only senior Pentagon official to be dismissed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or sidelined more than two dozen generals and admirals over the past year, including the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, earlier this month. Mr. Hegseth has also butted heads with the secretary of the Army, Daniel P. Driscoll, over promotions and a host of other issues. The churn of senior Pentagon officials at a time when the U.S. military is engaged in war with Iran has alarmed top Republican and Democratic members of Congress. The Pentagon did not respond to questions regarding the circumstances surrounding Mr. Phelan’s dismissal. Mr. Phelan could not immediately be reached for comment. The breaking point for Mr. Phelan, who often said that he and Mr. Trump texted and talked on the phone regularly, came in the last two weeks as the president’s frustration over Mr. Phelan’s management of his prized battleship program grew and Mr. Phelan’s enemies in the Pentagon, including Mr. Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen A. Feinberg, mounted a campaign to force him out.

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Teen killed, 5 wounded in Mall of Louisiana shooting

Six people were wounded and one of them, a 17-year-old, died after gunfire rang out in the food court area of the Mall of Louisiana on Bluebonnet Boulevard in Baton Rouge about 1:22 p.m. Thursday. Signi Dreyer, who works at the carousel inside the mall, said she was cleaning when she heard gunshots and saw a gunman “turning in circles and shooting.” She said it appeared the person was “shooting randomly.” “I heard a loud bang and then another loud bang,” Dreyer said. “At first, I thought someone was shooting fireworks in the food court. I turned around, and I saw people dropping to the ground, and I immediately saw the gun.”

Police said the gunfire was the result of a confrontation between two groups and not a random shooting. Within hours, authorities announced five suspects were in custody, including one arrested in Livingston Parish. Sheriff Jason Ard with the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office said investigators cannot confirm the person detained earlier in Watson, now identified as Marcus Washington, 18, was involved in the shooting. Ard said Washington was arrested and booked into the Livingston Parish Detention Center after investigators found him in possession of Schedule II narcotics and a firearm. Ard also added that the investigation remains ongoing and questions about the mall shooting should be directed to the Baton Rouge Police Department. Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse said all six victims appear to have been innocent bystanders and not part of the confrontation. “The incident that transpired today is completely unacceptable,” Morse said.

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