Lead Stories

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

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

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

Read this article at Community Impact Newspapers - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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State Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Austin council members unanimously back new expense guidelines for their offices

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

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

Read this article at Community Impact Newspapers - Subscribers Only

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Glenn Rogers: Go ahead; close public schools

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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National Stories

The House passed all 12 spending bills asserting their control

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lead Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Trump 2.0 shakes up K Street power balance

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

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

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Abbott endorses challenger against incumbent Ag Commissioner Sid Miller

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

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

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State Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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County Stories

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

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

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

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City Stories

Crosswalks and intersection in University Park will keep SMU theme

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

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

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National Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ghislaine Maxwell to be deposed by House Oversight Committee next month

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

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

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Health insurance CEOs to appear before House committees as premiums soar

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

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

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Data centers are becoming a political problem

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

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

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

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

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

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DOGE employees shared Social Security data, court filing shows

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

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

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Lead Stories

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

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

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

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Determined to grab Greenland, Trump faces tough reception in Davos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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State Stories

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

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

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

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Grapevine-Colleyville ISD denies Muslim sports competition use of school

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

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

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Court hears arguments on Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Texas water crisis demands new thinking across agriculture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Parents call for accountability in Celina ISD investigation

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

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

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National Stories

Prosecutor who brought James Comey and Letitia James cases steps down

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Vance to visit Minneapolis as tensions over immigration operations escalate

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

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

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

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

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

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Lead Stories

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

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

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

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Trump jabs European leaders over Greenland as Davos becomes emergency summit

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

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

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Americans are the ones paying for tariffs, study finds

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

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

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

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

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

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State Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Austin city workers brace for layoffs

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

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

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

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

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

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Greater:SATX wants to attract more corporate HQs by 2030

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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National Stories

Fed Chair Powell to attend Supreme Court argument on Cook case

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

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

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

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

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

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Tillis eyes new blockade over Greenland, tariffs

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

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

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

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

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

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Prediction market sites are taking over Washington

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

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

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

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

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

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US officials probing Minnesota ICE protest that disrupted church service

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lead Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Trump’s immigration crackdown faces growing disapproval from voters

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

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

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

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

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

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State Stories

Houston ISD delays state requirement that would limit uncertified teachers

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

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

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Mistakenly deported college student details how her life turned upside down

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Clean energy is pushing North Texas' uptick in domestic manufacturing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Millennial generation knocking early in Texas Senate race

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

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

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The most valuable college football program is the Texas Longhorns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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National Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Inside Minnesota hospitals, ICE agents unnerve staff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lead Stories

Trump says 8 European countries will face 10% tariff for opposing US control of Greenland

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland, setting up a potentially dangerous test of U.S. partnerships in Europe. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff, Trump said in a social media post while at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The rate would climb to 25% on June 1 if no deal was in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States, he said. The Republican president appeared to indicate that he was using the tariffs as leverage to force talks with Denmark and other European countries over the status of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark that he regards as critical to U.S. national security.

“The United States of America is immediately open to negotiation with Denmark and/or any of these Countries that have put so much at risk, despite all that we have done for them,” Trump said on Truth Social. Related Stories Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland In their words: European governments criticize Trump's tariff threats over Greenland Rubio plans to meet with Danish officials next week to talk about US interest in Greenland The tariff threat could mark a problematic rupture between Trump and America’s longtime NATO partners, further straining an alliance that dates to 1949 and provides a collective degree of security to Europe and North America. Trump has repeatedly tried to use trade penalties to bend allies and rivals alike to his will, generating investment commitments from some nations and pushback from others, notably China. Trump is scheduled to travel on Tuesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he likely will run into the European leaders he just threatened with tariffs that would start in little more than two weeks. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Trump’s move was a “surprise” given the “constructive meeting” with top U.S. officials this week in Washington.

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Why the tech world thinks the American Dream is dying

Silicon Valley is filled with all sorts of dreams. But one of those wild-eyed ideas, long debated on subreddits and in hacker houses, is becoming a real-life nightmare: Will the AI boom be the last chance to get rich before artificial intelligence makes money essentially worthless? The argument is that tech companies (and their leaders) will become a class unto their own with infinite wealth. No one else will have the means to generate money for themselves because AI will have taken their jobs and opportunities. In other words, the bridge is about to be raised for those chasing the American dream. And everyone is worried about being left on the wrong side. It’s the kind of FOMO that on first blush seems to require a huge suspension of disbelief. But the idea’s mere existence helps explain some of the increasing class worries in California, where a growing movement to tax billionaires is roiling the Democratic Party, affordable housing is a real concern and the idea of the middle class seems out of reach.

Yes, it smacks of sci-fi thinking. But in San Francisco it feels real. And it’s made more believable by the exploits of Elon Musk, the rise of OpenAI’s Sam Altman and warnings by Anthropic’s Dario Amodei about Great Depression-like worker displacement. “The transition will be bumpy,” Musk said this month on a podcast. “We’ll have radical change, social unrest and immense prosperity.” And that’s Musk’s best-case scenario. History is filled with technology booms that create new winners and losers. AI optimists like to point out that a rising tide has tended to lift all boats. What’s being talked about now—massive job loss to automation and the need for public safety nets, in the form of universal basic income—paints a dramatically different future. It’s still not clear there’s any appetite for so-called UBI, which runs counter to many Americans’ bedrock ideals of personal achievement. “I used to be really excited about UBI…but I think people really need agency; they need to feel like they have a voice in governing the future and deciding where things go,” Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said last year when asked by a podcaster about how people will create wealth in the AI era. “If you just say, ‘OK, AI is going to do everything and then everybody gets…a dividend from that,’ it’s not going to feel good, and I don’t think it actually would be good for people.”

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European Union and Mercosur bloc of South American nations sign landmark free trade agreement

he European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought free trade agreement on Saturday, strengthening commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world. The signing ceremony in Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion, caps more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations. It marks a major geopolitical victory for the EU in an age of American tariffs and surging Chinese exports, expanding the bloc’s foothold in a resource-rich region increasingly contested by Washington and Beijing. It also sends a message that South America is keeping a range of trade and diplomatic relationships even as U.S. President Donald Trump makes an aggressive push for geopolitical dominance of the Western Hemisphere. The agreement could still face hurdles in the EU parliament, which must ratify it before it can take effect. Ratification is considered all but guaranteed in South America, where the agreement has broad support.

Mercosur consists of the region’s two biggest economies, Argentina and Brazil, as well as Paraguay and Uruguay. Bolivia, the bloc’s newest member, is not included the trade deal but could join in the coming years. Venezuela has been suspended from the bloc and isn’t included in the agreement. Supported by South America’s cattle-raising countries and European industrial interests, the accord will gradually eliminate more than 90% of tariffs on goods ranging from Argentine beef to German cars, creating one of the world’s largest free trade zones and making shopping cheaper for more than 700 million consumers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive branch, portrayed the deal as a bulwark against the disruptive policies of the Trump administration. “It reflects a clear and deliberate choice: We choose fair trade over tariffs. We choose a productive long-term partnership over isolation,” von der Leyen declared in an veiled rebuke of Trump at the ceremony, which got underway as Trump announced 10% tariffs on eight European nations over their opposition to American control of Greenland. “We will join forces like never before, because we believe that this is the best way to make our people and our countries prosper,” she added. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Republican candidate Marty Lancton leads in Harris County Judge campaign funds, Parker trails behind

Local firefighters union president Marty Lancton, a top Republican candidate for Harris County Judge, has raised more than $500,000 in his upcoming bid for the seat — outpacing the leading Democratic candidate, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker. But while Lancton received several high-dollar donations from some business owners and real estate moguls, Parker, who drew in roughly $416,000, received about 115 more donations than Lancton, according to recent campaign finance reports filed this week. His lead in campaign funds comes weeks after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his endorsement of Lancton in the county judge’s race, vowing to devote a significant part of his war chest to Lancton’s campaign and a consolidated effort to turn elected Harris County seats red. Lancton’s campaign finance report did not include any direct donations from Abbott.

A 2025 University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs survey — which was conducted before Lancton threw his hat in the ring — showed Harris County voters slightly favored Parker in this year’s county judge election. Other candidates trailed behind Parker, like Democratic Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer, who received a 2% net favorability for the position. Plummer did not file a campaign finance report through the Harris County Clerk’s Office by the Jan. 15 reporting period deadline. Her campaign made a July 8 filing appointing a treasurer, and a Jan. 12 filing giving her authorization to file financial reports. A spokesperson for Plummer’s campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced last year she would not seek reelection for her seat. Her recent campaign finance report shows she pulled in about $1,800 in the latest reporting period and spent more than $280,000. Many of those expenditures went towards her Japan trade mission, which was aimed at garnering more business for the county. Republican candidate Aliza Dutt, the mayor of Houston suburb Piney Point Village, brought in $42,000 in donations. Republican Warren Howell raised just under $4,500.

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They wanted a university without cancel culture. Then dissenters were ousted.

The inaugural year of the University of Austin, or UATX as it’s known, had been marked by the frenzy and occasional chaos that one might expect from a start-up aimed at disrupting American higher education. The audacious experiment — the construction of a new university ostensibly based on principles of free expression and academic freedom — had drawn the interest and participation of a star-studded cast of public intellectuals, academics and tycoons. Even measured against this high bar, however, April 2, 2025, would be a memorable day. The night before, the campus had hosted a dinner and conversation between the prominent conservative historian Niall Ferguson and Larry Summers, the former Harvard University president and Treasury secretary. Later, that evening, the billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel would deliver the first of a series of lectures on the Antichrist. People at UATX had grown accustomed to fast-paced action. But in the afternoon, all of the professors and staff were summoned, quite unusually and mysteriously, to a closed-door meeting.

It had been called by Joe Lonsdale, a billionaire entrepreneur who’d co-founded the data analytics company Palantir Technologies with Thiel. Together with Ferguson and the journalist Bari Weiss, Lonsdale had been a driving force behind the creation of UATX and was a member of the board of trustees. But he wasn’t often present on campus, and it was almost unheard of for a member of the board to summon the staff, as Lonsdale had. The campus was quiet that Wednesday, the first of the spring term. The college, which operates under a quarter system, doesn’t schedule classes on Wednesdays, and so no students would be around to see the staff coming and going from the conference room in the elegant, former department store where UATX had made its home. Through the window, one could see the huge American flag in the atrium, illuminated by a skylight in the ceiling. It was a warm, pleasant day in Austin, but Lonsdale’s mood didn’t match the weather. “Let’s get right into it,” he said. Then, with heightened affect, Lonsdale explained his vision for UATX — a jingoistic vision with shades of America First rhetoric that contrasted rather sharply with the image UATX had cultivated as a bastion of free speech and open inquiry. “It was like a speech version of the ‘America love it or leave it’ bumper sticker,” one former staffer told me, and if you didn’t share the vision, the message was “there’s the door, you don’t belong here.” Like many of the people I spoke with for this story, the staffer was granted anonymity for fear of reprisal. “It was the most uncomfortable 35-to-40ish minutes I’ve ever experienced. People were shifting uncomfortably in their seats.”

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State Stories

GOP Rep. McCaul says a US invasion of Greenland would mean 'war with NATO itself'

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul warned on Sunday that any U.S. military intervention to obtain Greenland would put America at odds with its NATO allies -- and possibly spell the end of the alliance itself. "What do you make of what's going on with the president in Greenland? And now he's slapped tariffs on eight of our allies in Europe; he's not ruling out military force to get Greenland. What is going on?" ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl asked McCaul, who serves as chair emeritus of both the House Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security committees.

While McCaul acknowledged the strategic importance of the autonomous island, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, he said that the U.S. already has a treaty that allows "full access" to protect Greenland -- effectively negating the purpose of any invasion. "The fact is, the president has full military access to Greenland to protect us from any threat," McCaul said. "So if he wants to purchase Greenland, that's one thing. But for him to militarily invade would turn Article Five of NATO on its very head and, in essence, press a war with NATO itself. It would end up abolishing NATO as we know it." McCaul added, "If we want to put more military in there, we can; we don't have to invade it. If he wants to buy it, that's fine. But I don't see a willing seller right now."

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AI-generated video of Crockett, Cornyn dancing takes center stage in Paxton’s 1st campaign ad

With 32 days until early voting starts for the Texas 2026 U.S. Senate Primary, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released his first television advertisement — heavily featuring artificially generated versions of two other candidates. The ad, titled “Partner,” depicts U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, slow dancing with incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, and highlights comments made by the candidates about their bipartisan work. “The ad is being released in honor of this week being the two-year anniversary of John Cornyn calling Jasmine Crockett his ‘dance partner’ and Crockett calling Cornyn her ‘best partner’ in the Senate,” said Paxton’s campaign in a press release. Cornyn declined to comment on Paxton’s recent advertisement, but Crockett’s campaign said she feels Paxton’s ad highlights her strong suits.

“This ad doesn’t attack her on substance, but instead launches attacks for bipartisanship, something that most voters appreciate,” Crockett’s campaign said in a statement. “Paxton’s AI-generated digital ad attacks Congresswoman Crockett for crossing the aisle to deliver solutions to our opioid crisis, to stop fentanyl deaths, and address hunger in Texas.” While the ad’s usage of AI is obvious to the average observer, it includes a disclaimer about the generated imagery at the end of the video. However, he wasn’t legally required to do so. Under Texas law, there’s not much restricting the use of generative AI in political materials outside of laws that cover all AI-generated content. Multiple attempts to legislate AI in recent years saw some traction, but failed to pass a vote of both chambers of the legislature.

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ICE detains, injures one person in Kyle as agents conduct operations in Hays County

A person was detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Kyle on Thursday and transported to the hospital, according to the Kyle Police Department. Emergency medical services provided the transport, and the individual was accompanied by Homeland Security personnel, according to Kyle Police. Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said the incident happened outside a Costco store and that the individual was “beat up” by ICE agents and was “bleeding from his face." “They beat up a shopper. They beat them up so bad that they needed to call for paramedics. Really? … There's an army of you to take one person down,” Becerra said. “They're not trained on de-escalation. They're not trained on how to take someone down. They're not trained as we would expect them to be. They're being run through like if it was the draft and we were in Vietnam.”

KUT News has reached out to the Kyle Police Department to confirm the injuries sustained by the individual. ICE agents are also active in Buda, according to a Thursday announcement from city officials. “[ICE] agents informed the City that they intended to temporarily park a transport vehicle at City Hall as a central location while conducting their own operations in surrounding areas,” city officials said in a Facebook post. “The City requested that the transport bus be relocated to free up limited public parking and the agents complied.” The city of Buda and the Buda Police Department are not involved in the operation, according to the post. Buda city officials did not confirm where the transport vehicle is now parked or what it looks like, however Becerra said ICE agents are operating out of a large, unmarked white bus. “I'm not trying to thwart, undermine or usurp laws,” Becerra said. “What I'm trying to do is inform people like a car wreck, like a tornado, like a fire. I am saying, ‘Guys, this chaos has been brought upon [our] community, and this is where it's at, and this is what's going on.'”

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Bud Kennedy: MAGA vs. Muslims: Steve Bannon rallies Texas voters with ‘invasion’ cry

Muslim-bashing has returned to Texas Republican politics, and it’s not clear why. Most Texas Muslims are religious conservatives who oppose abortion, gay rights and, in some places, liquor stores. They’re like Baptists with dancing. New York’s new mayor notwithstanding, Muslim men trended toward President Trump in 2024. That was mainly because they viewed Democrats as backing Israel. Yet some Republicans want the state to ban mosques, shut down schools and discourage anyone from the Middle East or South Asia from moving to Texas. This conservative-on-conservative bashing was on full display Saturday night at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, where former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon led a fervent Christian revival warning of an “invasion” by “jihadists” to overthrow Texas and thus America — “Why in the hell do you think they’re in Houston and north of Dallas?”

Bannon led a rally titled “Save Texas from Radical Islam.” But he allowed speakers like fervent Muslim-basher John Guandolo to broadly complain about all worshipers of Islam and, in Guandolo’s case, also those of the Hindu faith. In other words, this was a Christian revival to stir up Christian voters against anyone who isn’t a Christian, not just to oppose supporters of Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood. Bannon accused unnamed people of “making big money on the invasion of this state by Islamists.” That was between his commercials for gold bullion, spyware blockers and Patriot Mobile, a Church of Christ-founded telephone reseller in Grapevine that donates to conservative political campaigns. On a star-studded political night that included Irving-based showman Glenn Beck and Dutch politician Geert Wilders — he has called for ending immigration from Muslim countries and banning mosques — almost every speaker strayed far from Gov. Greg Abbott’s policy-based position opposing sharia in Texas government.

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Fort Worth City Council member Michael Crain arrested on DWI charge

Fort Worth City Council member Michael Crain has been arrested on a drunk driving charge, according to Tarrant County Jail records. Crain, who is in his third term representing District 3, was booked into the county jail early Saturday. Details about his arrest, including where it took place, weren’t immediately available. As of Saturday afternoon, Crain is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $750 bond, according to court records. It’s not clear if he’s obtained an attorney. No one answered his phone when the Star-Telegram tried to reach him for comment Saturday morning. The Fort Worth Police Department referred the Star-Telegram to the Texas Department of Public Safety for more details. DPS spokesperson Sgt. William Lockridge confirmed the arrest and said the department plans to release more information Saturday. Crain, 53, was sworn in for his first two-year term in May 2021. His district covers parts of far west and southwest Fort Worth, including the area around Texas Christian University. He previously told the Star-Telegram that he’s taken an active role bolstering the university’s Neighbor-to-Neighbor program.

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Nirenberg outraises Sakai in Bexar County Judge race

Campaign finance reports covering July 1 through Dec. 31 were due Thursday, offering the first look at where money is flowing in a Bexar County Judge contest between two popular, well-known Democrats. In total, former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg raised more, leaning hard on the money of a few large donors to make up for lost time in an officewhere individual donors could only give $1,000 per campaign cycle. Incumbent Peter Sakai brought in less money but reported a bigger campaign war chest, amassed over the course of three years in a role with no contribution limits. Nirenberg reported roughly $360,000 raised between July 1 and Dec. 31, plus a $100,000 loan from local philanthropist Harvey Najim, leaving him with about $355,000 on hand as of Dec. 31. Sakai raised about $254,000 during that same span and ended the year with $563,000 on hand.

Neither candidate had spent much on the most recent reports, with early voting for the March 3 primary starting Feb. 17. In a busy season of campaign events, Sakai and Nirenberg will face off in a debate hosted by the San Antonio Report at Stable Hall on Feb. 10, one week before early voting kicks off. Nirenberg, who termed out as San Antonio’s mayor this year, had been raising money for a future campaign even before leaving that office, though he wasn’t sure what race it would be. In August he closed out his city campaign account, where mayoral candidates can only collect up to $1,000 from an individual donor each campaign cycle, and started a Texans for Ron Nirenberg PAC to be the fundraising vehicle for whatever came next. From there he was able to collect a $50,000 check from his old campaign handChristian Archer and a $25,000 check from Najim, among other smaller contributions. Nirenberg ultimately passed on a potential statewide bid, where assembling the resources would have been a big challenge. But since county offices have no contribution limits, he was able to roll the PAC money into his campaign account for the judge race. Nirenberg spent about $100,000 in the past six months through the PAC and campaign, some of which went toward his campaign consultants at Viva Politics, which worked on Sakai’s race in 2022. Sakai, meanwhile, entered 2025 under pressure from the business community to deliver a deal on a new Spurs arena. He started off hesitant, but after crafting a plan to rehabilitate the team’s existing home on the East Side, took on a major role in bringing voters on board. The largest contributors so far to his reelection race have been from salsa billionaire and Pearl founder Kit Goldsbury and attorney Tullos Wells, who each gave $10,000. He’s paying MAP Strategies, previously Nirenberg’s longtime consultant, to run his race.

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Four businesses with ties to Patriot Front operating in North Texas

After last year’s deadly Hill Country flood took at least 135 lives over the July 4 weekend, volunteers flocked to the area to support disaster relief efforts. Among those volunteers were members of Patriot Front, a neo-Nazi organization that is one of the nation’s largest and most influential white nationalist groups. On July 23, Patriot Front posted multiple photos on their official Telegram account showing about two dozen of what the group described as their “activists” doing disaster relief work in Kerr County. The faces of the participants were blurred other than that of the group’s North Texas-based leader, Thomas Rousseau, and a well-known podcaster and Holocaust denier. In a video also posted to Telegram two weeks prior, Rousseau described the intent of the mission, which appeared to be part of a broader strategy that extremism experts say is meant to launder the group’s image and recruit new members. “Patriot Front is here in Central Texas responding to the flooding,” Rousseau said in the video. “We are prioritizing the interests of our people in this mission. While every other race and religion across the country and the world, for that matter, can establish charities, communities, and institutions that explicitly exist by and for their own, it is regrettably a revolutionary act to do so for Americans, that unique nation, descendant of the European peoples who discovered, settled, and founded America.”

While the neo-Nazi group shielded the identity of most of its members, a photo posted on the Facebook page of the River Inn Resort in Hunt, where disaster relief was coordinated, was unblurred. It shows roughly 20 people standing in a semi-circle, including Rousseau and some others previously identified by police or media as Patriot Front members, with many wearing shirts and hats that bear Patriot Front insignia. (Scott Towery, the general manager of the River Inn Resort, told the Texas Observer he was “shocked” to hear of the volunteers’ white supremacist affiliation and said “River Inn has zero affiliation with the group.”) Encroaching in from the left side of the River Inn photo is a pickup bearing the logo and contact information of Veteran Brothers Roofing & Restoration, a Fort Worth-based contractor. Near the photo’s center, a man resembling the company’s owner, Cameron Schronk, stands beside a known Patriot Front member and behind Jake Shields, the Holocaust-denying podcaster whose shirt reads “AIPAC Is a Foreign Agent.”

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Judson ISD trustee calls for investigation into board president days after superintendent placed on leave

Days after a tense board meeting that led to Judson ISD’s superintendent being placed on leave, a board trustee told KSAT Investigates he requested a special meeting to start an investigation into allegations of abuse of power by another trustee. Judson ISD board member José Macias said the investigation would be into allegations made against Board President Monica Ryan, which include abuse of board authority and employee intimidation.

“I am not saying that she has conducted herself inappropriately,” Macias told KSAT Investigates in a Wednesday text message. “I am asking that we determine if those allegations have merit.” As of Thursday morning, no agenda has been posted for any upcoming Judson ISD board meeting. “Disgusting does not even begin to describe learning that a fellow board member has shared false claims about my children with members of the public and, now, with media outlets,” said Ryan via a Facebook post. Ryan said she was accused of having her children taught alone in a classroom, having a college professor coming to teach her children and petitioning the school board to hire a teacher. She denies those allegations, adding that “retaliation against board colleagues by targeting their families—especially children who have nothing to do with this—is repulsive and shameful."

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Is Six Flags about to dump some parks in Texas? Filings raise questions.

Trademark applications filed this month are fueling speculation that Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is in the process of rebranding or selling some of its properties — possibly including the Schlitterbahn water park in Galveston. The filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office appear to cover current Six Flags properties in Galveston, St. Louis, Kansas City, Michigan, New York and others with uncertain locations. All were filed in Orlando, Fla., by Enchanted Parks Holdings LLC.

Six Flags — which owns Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, Schlitterbahn water parks in New Braunfels and Galveston and its flagship Six Flags over Texas and the nearby Hurricane Harbor water park in Arlington — has been telling investors it’s planning to continue reducing the size of its portfolio. After reporting a decline in revenue during its peak late summer period, the company said in November it was ready to invest more in its most popular locations and sell off its underperformers. After completing its 2024 merger with rival amusement park company Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., Six Flags last year said it was closing two parks in the Washington, D.C., area and evaluating the rest of its portfolio. It later announced plans to close California’s Great America in Santa Clara by the end of 2027. The recent filings included trademark requests for: Enchanted Parks Galveston. Six Flags operates one of its Schlitterbahn water parks in Galveston. Enchanted Parks St. Louis. Six Flags St. Louis operates in that Missouri city. Enchanted Parks Michigan Adventure. Six Flags owns the Michigan’s Adventure park in Muskegon. Enchanted Parks Oceans of Fun. Six Flags owns the Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun parks in Kansas City, Mo. Enchanted Parks Great Escape Lodge. Six Flags owns Six Flags Great Escape park in Queensbury, N.Y.

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Is San Antonio the next big city for filmmakers? MovieMaker magazine thinks so.

Are you an up-and-coming filmmaker looking for your next creative home? San Antonio just might be for you, according a trade magazine’s ranking. The city was named one of MovieMaker magazine’s “Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker” for the eighth consecutive year, according to a Thursday news release from the city’s Department of Arts & Culture and Film Commission. San Antonio jumped six spots from No. 20 to No. 14 in the magazine’s 2026 ranking of the top 25 “Big Cities” in the U.S. and Canada. The Alamo City appears alongside other Texas cities on the list, including El Paso, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and Austin, while also ranking with established film hubs such as Toronto, Savannah, and Santa Fe.

City officials cited a “revamped film incentive program, overall affordability, diverse and photogenic locations, and the growing availability of experienced local crew and vendor resources” as contributing factors to the city’s rise in attracting filmmakers. MovieMaker magazine compiles its annual list using industry surveys, production spending, tax incentives, additional research, and personal visits when possible, with supporting data provided by local film offices, according to the news release. “San Antonio thrives in filmmaking and livability, with the best incentives in Texas and simply some of the best incentives anywhere,” said Tim Molloy, MovieMaker’s editor. “We’re thrilled that the city is moving up the list.” Founded in 1985, the San Antonio Film Commission supports media production throughout the city by issuing permits to more than 250 city-owned locations, connecting productions with local crews and vendors, and administering the San Antonio Film Incentive Program. Since the 2020 pandemic, the city has seen a 165% increase in film permits, rising from 221 in 2022 to 586 in 2025. Total film days also doubled to 710.

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Williamson County will no longer offer countywide voting sites on primary Election Day

Voters in Williamson County will no longer be able to cast their ballot at any polling location on primary Election Day. Instead, they will only be able to vote at their assigned neighborhood polling place. The county's Republican Party has decided it no longer wants to offer countywide polling locations on primary Election Day, and under current state law, the county's Democratic Party has no choice but follow Republicans' lead. Both parties must agree to using countywide polling locations for them to be offered. "We decided, as a party ... to return to precinct based polling," said Michelle Evans, the chair of the Williamson County GOP. "It just means that you are voting in your community, as an overwhelming majority of voters do anyway."

Williamson County, she said, only began offering countywide polling places in 2013. Evans said for her and other Republicans, the shift back to precinct based polling places is about "being more confident in the outcomes of our elections." "I could get into all of those details, but at the end of the day, it's because we can," she said. "It's legal. It's something we're entitled to do, and it's something that our party would like us to do." Last year, Republican state lawmakers introduced two bills aimed at eliminating the use of countywide polling place, but the bills failed to gain enough support. Early voting, however, will remain unchanged. Voters will still be able to cast their ballots at any available polling place in the county during the two week period. Kim Gilby, the chair of the Williamson County Democratic Party, said she and other Democrats are "adamantly opposed" to the change, but intend to go along with it for the March 3 primary election. "I don't want to jeopardize our candidates and our election. So we are doing precinct level [polling], not because we want to — because we're being forced into it," she said.

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Texas court clears path for Planned Parenthood lawsuit challenging state abortion law

A Texas appeals court has allowed three Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates to move forward with a lawsuit challenging the state’s “heartbeat” abortion law, rejecting an effort by Texas Right to Life to shut the case down. The Third Court of Appeals on Friday said Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers have the right to sue over the Texas Heartbeat Act, the 2021 law that bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected and is enforced not by the state, but by private citizens through civil lawsuits. Judges said the providers face a credible and ongoing threat of enforcement that has already chilled their work, even as they comply with the law. The court found the groups “established an imminent threat of injury traceable to the threatened conduct of Texas Right to Life,” pointing to its efforts to encourage private citizens to file lawsuits and submit tips about suspected violations.

“Stating ‘we won’t sue you as long as you obey the law’ is still a threat of litigation,” the Friday court filing read. Planned Parenthood didn’t respond to a request for comment. Texas Right to Life could appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. The group didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. The lawsuit was filed shortly before the law took effect in September 2021. At the time, a judge granted a restraining order blocking Texas Right to Life from suing the clinics under the new statute. Providers argued the law’s private enforcement system exposed them and their supporters to unlimited lawsuits and effectively shut down reproductive care through fear of legal retaliation. And in the years that followed, the state implemented a near-total abortion ban created by three overlapping laws, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The ban allows abortions only when a pregnant patient’s life is at risk, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Performing an illegal abortion is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and the state Attorney General’s office can seek civil penalties of at least $100,000 per violation.

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Recent New World screwworm cases along Texas border

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller alerted livestock producers on Thursday to new cases of New World screwworm in the neighboring Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) received confirmation of these cases from Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Public Health, Safety, and Quality (SENASICA), which raised the total number of screwworm cases from two to 11 since Dec. 30. With sterile fly deployment already in place to combat the screwworm population, Miller urged Texas livestock producers to be vigilant.

“Producers should be checking livestock every day and treating any wound as a potential entry point,” said Miller. “Early detection and aggressive surveillance are how we protect Texas livestock … Texas producers need to stay on high alert along our border.” Expanded TDA surveillance and trapping efforts began, with strategic trap placements at ports of entry, livestock export facilities and other locations where there was livestock movement and pest risk. The TDA has not received confirmation that the affected animals reported by SENASICA have a history of movement outside Tamaulipas, with concern that the screwworms could spread naturally rather than through animal movement.

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National Stories

1,500 paratroopers put on alert for possible Minnesota deployment

About 1,500 active-duty Army paratroopers have been put on alert for a possible deployment to Minnesota, ABC News reported late Saturday. No final decision has been made by President Donald Trump, the network reported. The move, though prepares the option. The development comes as tensions remain in the state over a federal crackdown on immigration. Earlier Saturday, an anti-Islam influencer and his small cadre of allies were chased out of downtown Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon by throngs of counterprotesters. Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang, who had organized a rally outside of City Hall, was mobbed by crowds who jeered, jostled and possibly injured him.

Lang — who served four years in prison for attacking Capitol police on Jan. 6, 2021, before being pardoned by President Donald Trump — said on social media he had been physically assaulted, and a photo showed a gash on the back of his head. Hours later, protests against the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation intensified at the Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling. Federal agents rushed the crowd and used chemical irritants. A federal judge on Friday prohibited ICE agents from arresting, detaining, retaliating against or using force and chemical irritants against peaceful protesters and observers. The Department of Homeland Security has called the deportation operation in Minnesota its largest in history. The agency says it has arrested more than 2,500 people since Operation Metro Surge began Dec. 1 but has not released the names of all those detained.

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Trump suffers major losses in his war on offshore wind

President Donald Trump’s long-running quest to demolish the U.S. offshore wind sector is facing some serious blowback in federal court. Three different judges — including one appointed by Trump — last week allowed construction to resume on multi-billion-dollar offshore wind projects off the coasts of New England, New York and Virginia that the Interior Department was trying to idle. After Congress shredded incentives for wind last year and the administration imposed new permitting roadblocks, the industry’s streak of victories this week represent a significant setback in Trump’s campaign to erase the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda and deepen the country’s reliance on fossil fuels. Democrats and wind supporters hailed the clean sweep in this week’s legal cases, even if the ultimate fate of those massive offshore energy projects remains to be determined. “Trump is getting his butt kicked again. The question is whether he learns from that,” said Democratic Rep. Scott Peters of California. The legal decisions, Peters said, “reinforces what we’ve been saying: That this is illegal. It’s a bad signal to the markets.”

Trump has made no secret of his deep dislike of wind farms — particularly those built in coastal waters. “My goal is to not let any windmill be built,” Trump told a meeting of oil executives at the White House last week. “They’re losers.” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers reiterated on Friday Trump’s contention that wind power represents “the scam of the century.” The Trump administration paused the construction of projects because its “priority is to put America First and protect the national security of the American people,” she said. “The Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue,” Rogers added. Trump’s Interior Department in December paused all five leases for large-scale offshore wind projects that are currently under construction, citing publicly undisclosed national security concerns. Those projects were approved as part of then-President Joe Biden’s effort to create an offshore wind industry that could feed clean electricity into the nation’s power grid and reduce the need for fossil fuels. The administration’s stop-work orders are among the roadblocks for renewable energy enacted by the Trump administration that also includes potentially revoking permits for offshore wind projects approved under the Biden administration. And they come with the added appeal for the administration of thumbing their nose at efforts to address climate change, which Trump has frequently derided as a hoax.

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'Not for sale': massive protest in Copenhagen against Trump's desire to acquire Greenland

Thousands of people marched from Copenhagen City Hall to the U.S. embassy Saturday afternoon in protest of President Trump's comments that he wants to acquire Greenland. The crowd, waving Greenlandic flags, chanted "Greenland is not for sale." Many demonstrators wore red hats in Trump's own "Make America great again" fashion that read, "Make America go away." Trump has continued to endorse the idea of acquiring Greenland, which he says the U.S. needs for national security purposes. The U.S. already has a military presence on the island. "One way or the other, we're going to have Greenland," Trump told reporters recently on Air Force One.

Saturday's protest came on the heels of a bipartisan Congressional delegation that travelled to Copenhagen. House and Senate lawmakers met with Danish and Greenlandic officials, as well as members of the Danish business community. The visit was meant to be a reassurance tour — affirming the longstanding relationship between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Denmark in the face of Trump's rhetoric. Peder Dam, who lives in Denmark,attended the demonstration with a sign that featured an image of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars that read: "Americans: I know there is good in you. Come back to sanity." "We know what is going on in the White House is not representative for all Americans," he told NPR. Peder Dam attended the protest alongside his son Gorm. They each carried signs: one with a cartoon of Trump stepping on leggos with a caption that read: "Denmark is small, but we fight with what we have"; and another with an image of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars that read: "Americans: I know there is good in you. Come back to sanity."

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MAGA is discovering the downsides of X

When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 promising to end “woke” censorship and transform the platform into a right-leaning haven of free speech, conservatives almost universally rejoiced. The right’s expectations for the Musk-era platform were sky-high: Many predicted that it would end the liberal media’s supposed stranglehold on information. Others hailed it as an epochal moment in the history of American conservatism. Three years later, Musk’s control of the platform, now re-branded as “X,” has delivered its fair share of benefits for conservatives — not least of which was Musk’s successful full-court press to elect Donald Trump in 2024. But as the elite echelons of the MAGA movement slowly descend into obscure online disagreements and testy turf wars between rival influencers, conservatives are starting to confront an unpleasant possibility: that the right’s domination of X is doing more to divide the MAGA movement than unite it.

It’s an ironic inversion from the days of pre-Musk Twitter, when liberals and progressives bemoaned the platform’s tendency to stoke petty intramural disputes while conservatives watched gleefully on the sidelines. Now, it’s the conservatives who are doing the bulk of the bemoaning. In a recent op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Ohio gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy announced his plans to log off of X, citing its “warped projection of reality.” And Ramaswamy isn’t alone in heading for the digital exits. During a recent appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, the conservative commentator andformer Breitbart editor Raheem Kassam bleakly proclaimed that he was deleting the app from his phone. “X is a post-apocalyptic cesspool of bots, pedophilia and political illiteracy,” Kassam wrote in a text message when asked about his decision. “I deleted it from my phone because it was making me dumber.” As anyone who’s spent time on X during the Musk era well knows, Kassam has a point. Since Musk took over the platform and promptly relaxed its content moderation rules, researchers have found a notable uptick in both hate speech and activity from bots — or fake accounts — especially during high-profile political events like presidential debates. Musk’s efforts to combat bot activity have in turn backfired on conservatives: A new feature rolled out earlier this year displaying the country where an account is based inadvertently revealed that many of the most active pro-Trump and MAGA accounts are based abroad.

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College football teams are now worth billions—and their values are skyrocketing

On Monday night, either Indiana or Miami will grab hold of college football’s ultimate bragging rights and call themselves national champions. But no matter what happens in the title game, there’s one distinction that neither one will be able to claim: being the most valuable team in college football. That title belongs to Texas. Despite a disappointing season that began with a No. 1 ranking and finished without a playoff berth, the Longhorns lead the country with a $2.2 billion valuation, according to an annual analysis by Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus. Brewer’s study examines industry trends, cash flows, revenue and broader economic shifts to calculate what every team would be worth if it could be bought and sold on the open market—just like a professional sports franchise. These days, that’s closer to reality than ever. Schools can pay players while athletic departments are cutting deals with private-equity firms. And while some feared that this new landscape would damage the sport, Brewer actually found the opposite. Interest in college football is soaring—and so are the valuations.

Across the FBS level, Brewer found that they were up 46% compared to last year. “There’s more value in college football than there’s ever been,” Brewer says. “Even though they’re paying players and it’s more expensive, it’s also worth more.” Brewer points to Indiana as proof. The Hoosiers are showing how nontraditional powers can emerge as huge attractions in this era. So while Indiana only ranks 28th on Brewer’s list at $648 million, it remains a 67.9% increase over last year. At $806 million, Miami placed 21st. And even though the new revenue-sharing may level the playing field, it doesn’t mean that everyone is on equal ground. Texas became the first team to cross $2 billion in the analysis, overtaking Ohio State ($1.5 billion) for the top spot. Overall, Brewer says that one reason valuations have surged is that the deeper pool of potential champions—created by the loosening of rules around player movement and compensation—has brought college football’s competitive landscape closer to the richest league around. In the NFL, it isn’t uncommon for the fortunes of crummy teams to turn on a dime. Take the New England Patriots, who went from winning four games last season to 14 victories this year. But at the college level, the powerhouses typically remained the powerhouses while schools like Indiana were their doormats. But with increased parity, Brewer believes that the sport is attracting new fans from programs that wouldn’t typically be thought of as football schools. That, in turn, boosts revenues and television ratings. Right now, the surprise team happens to be Indiana. What the Hoosiers have also shown, however, is that it could be practically anyone next year. “It’s interesting,” Brewer says, “because different teams could ostensibly enter into that conversation in the future.”

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Nobel Prize committee says Machado decision to give Trump award doesn’t change who won

The committee that awards the Nobel Prize said Friday that the physical symbols of the prize — a medal and diploma — can be given away, but the honor itself is “inseparably linked” to the winner. “The medal and the diploma are the physical symbols confirming that an individual or organisation has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee,” the committee said in a statement. Several Nobel medals are currently on display in museums around the world, the committee noted. They highlighted seven past winners who chose to give away or sell theirs, including former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose widow donated the medal and diploma to the U.N. Office in Geneva following his death in 2024.

“Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize,” the committee said. “Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else’s possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” The clarification came one day after Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Trump during a meeting in the White House. “I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize. I told him this: 200 years ago, Gen. [Marquis de] Lafayette gave Simón Bolívar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolívar since then kept the medal for the rest of his life,” Machado told reporters Thursday. “Two hundred years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” she added.

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ICE agents are trained in CPR. They didn’t use it on Renee Macklin Good

An analysis of videos, 911 calls, fire department records and dispatch logs conducted by MPR News and APM Reports raises questions about whether the federal agency that mortally wounded Renee Macklin Good did enough to try to save her life. It took more than 10 minutes after Macklin Good was shot by a federal immigration officer before someone gave her CPR. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are trained in basic CPR, a series of lifesaving techniques that can keep blood flowing to vital organs, but they did not perform it on Macklin Good after she was shot by ICE officer Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7. After what appeared to be a brief medical assessment, ICE agents left her bleeding and alone in the car for almost three minutes. They also turned away a man identifying himself as a physician who offered to help. “Is somebody that’s medically trained pronouncing this woman dead?” the man asked, as agents swore at him and kept him back.

The analysis also shows that federal immigration officials waited nearly three minutes to contact emergency services in Minneapolis following the shooting. Having received calls from bystanders at that point, police, ambulance and fire crews were on their way but had difficulty reaching the scene because the street was filled with vehicles, many belonging to ICE. “I'm just appalled by the lack of immediate first aid and initial resuscitation attempts,” said Adam Armbruster, a family medicine doctor who also works in the emergency room at Sleepy Eye Medical Center in southern Minnesota. “That’s the part that is, I would say, most inadequate to me.” Macklin Good suffered bullet wounds in her chest, arm and possibly her head following the shooting, a report from the Minneapolis Fire Department showed. Those injuries may have been impossible to survive, but ICE’s use of force policy requires agents to obtain medical assistance “as soon as practicable.” And with grievous injuries like Macklin Good’s, time is of the essence, doctors and paramedics said. “All ICE candidates are subject to months of rigorous training and selection at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center where they are trained in everything from deescalation tactics, driving, firearms, and medical training,” wrote Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, in response to an email seeking comment. “We do pray for the deceased and her family, and as well as for our officer and all affected in this situation.”

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It took 75 governors to elect a woman. Abigail Spanberger is now at Virginia's helm

Virginia inaugurates its governors in traditional style, complete with a swearing-in ceremony outside the Capitol building presided over by men in three-piece morning suits with coattails and an occasional top hat. "At the conclusion of the oaths, there is a 19-gun salute by the National Guard and a jet flyby, if that has been requested," reads the state's protocol guide. "After the salute, the previous Governor and his family retire from the platform." While everyone is busy with the pomp and circumstance, the guide continues, state employees "prepare the Governor's Office for the new Governor and his staff … to be ready for use the following day." But the guide will need a tweak or two now that Abigail Spanberger is Virginia's 75th governor and the first woman in the role. "There's no requirements for what women wear, what women do," she said. So she's doing her best to honor the commonwealth's traditions — but also forge her own.

Spanberger, a Democrat, said she wanted her inauguration to showcase the commonwealth's modern vibrancy and diversity. It helps that the two other leaders taking office are also boundary breakers. Saturday, Ghazala Hashmi became the lieutenant governor and the first Muslim woman sworn into a statewide office in the country. Jay Jones is the commonwealth's first Black attorney general. Spanberger's own historic "first" didn't come up a whole lot on the campaign trail, perhaps because the three-term congresswoman and former CIA officer was running against another woman, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, for the job. Spanberger, who led in fundraising throughout the race, won a decisive 15-point victory in November after a campaign focused on the cost of living and the impact of the Trump administration's federal cuts in Virginia. Democrats see her victory as an early test case of the party's emerging message on "affordability," which they are expected to deploy across the country in this year's midterms. In her victory speech, Spanberger paid tribute to the Virginia women in politics before her, including Barbara Johns, a Black teenage activist who led a 1951 school walkout to protest school segregation. The walkout led to a legal case that was later folded into the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education that ultimately desegregated American public schools.

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Lead Stories

Earnings fall short at Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo

For a year, Wall Street’s dominant theme has been the so-called K-shaped economy, in which the well-to-do have powered financial activity despite lower earners’ struggles. This week, the nation’s largest banks reported a broadly disappointing set of quarterly earnings, the first stumble after a yearlong spree of rising markets and softening regulations paid off handsomely for the finance set. Results at Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo all fell short of expectations, and their shares fell. Troubles ranged from delayed merger deals (JPMorgan) to stubborn expenses (Citi) to questions about the efficacy of artificial intelligence tools (Bank of America). Banks that do business largely with rich individuals and corporations, such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, fared comparatively better.

Results from major lenders are closely watched because they contain hints about the state of the economy and ordinary American consumers. Wells Fargo’s chief executive, Charles Scharf, said his organization had not seen a “meaningful” shift among the customer data it collected, including checking account flows, direct deposit amounts, overdraft activity and payments. Another Wells Fargo executive described “very consistent activity.” Wells Fargo’s quarterly results disappointed for a different reason: lower-than-expected profits, in part because mortgage lending stayed weak in a slow housing market. The bank’s stock had its steepest fall in six months. For yet another quarter, Trump administration policies loomed large. This time, the banks were asked by reporters and Wall Street analysts about President Trump’s threatened 10 percent cap on credit card interest rates. Although it’s not clear how or if Mr. Trump could unilaterally impose that ceiling, bankers mostly gave identical responses by arguing that charging lower rates would cause them to lend less to riskier borrowers with patchier credit. And Jeremy Barnum, JPMorgan’s chief financial officer, was candid about what a cap would mean for the bottom line. “It would obviously be bad for us,” he said.

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‘Dumbest thing I’ve ever heard’: Republicans amp up their resistance to Trump’s Greenland push

President Donald Trump is talking about taking over Greenland by any means necessary. Republicans in Congress are trying to scare him back to reality. As Trump continually threatens to bring the Danish territory into the U.S. over the objections of key global allies and the island’s elected representatives, some GOP lawmakers are stepping up their warnings and engaging in diplomacy as Democrats prepare to put the other party on record opposing a military invasion. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) predicted members on both sides of the aisle would lock arms and require congressional signoff if it became clear Trump was preparing imminent military action. “If there was any sort of action that looked like the goal was actually landing in Greenland and doing an illegal taking … there’d be sufficient numbers here to pass a war powers resolution and withstand a veto,” Tillis said.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) went further, predicting that it would lead to impeachment and calling Trump’s Greenland obsession “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” The blunt public messaging comes as lawmakers try to reassure U.S. allies, including Denmark, in private. A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers will be in Copenhagen Friday to try to drive home in person the message that military action does not have support on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not joining the delegation but he largely endorsed the message the contingent plans to send in comments to reporters Thursday, saying “there’s certainly not an appetite here for some of the options that have been talked about or considered” — an apparent reference to military action. The pushback amounts to one of the most profound breaches yet seen between GOP lawmakers and the president in Trump’s second term. So far the Republican uneasiness over Trump’s brash foreign policy moves have not resulted in any successful steps to restrain him.

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Venezuela's opposition leader gives Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal

President Donald Trump lost out on the Nobel Peace Prize, yet in a rare confluence of geopolitics and chance, he wound upwith the 18-karat gold medal nonetheless. María Corina Machado, who won the 2025 prize, presented hermedal to Trump during a private meeting at the White House on Thursday in appreciation for deposing Venezuela's repressive leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a U.S. military raid on Jan. 3. In a post on his social media site, Trump thanked Machado for parting with her prize. He did not say what he intends to do it. "It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!"

He later posted a photo of himself with Machado and the medal. In an interview, Machado told Fox News that she gave Trump the medal "because he deserves it." "I decided to present the Nobel Peace Prize medal on behalf of the people of Venezuela," she added. Machado’s offering is wholly symbolic; it does not make Trump the official recipient of the prestigious honor. The Norwegian Nobel Institute has already stated that Machado remains the winner for all time. The prize can’t be shared or transferred, the institute said in a statement last week. It said Thursday: "But one truth remains. As the Norwegian Nobel Committee states: “Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.” A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot." Yet, with the medal in hand, Machado was always free to do with it as as she chose. She had already dedicated the prize to Trump, crediting his support for her democratic movement.

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In ink and on airwaves, Texas media grows ever more concentrated

In the realm of Texas newspapers, one media mogul now rules them all—or close to it at least. Last February, Hearst Communications acquired the Austin American-Statesman. Seven months later, the privately held New York-based conglomerate bought up the Dallas Morning News, one of the country’s last locally owned metro papers, for just over $80 million—outbidding the notorious hedge-fund outfit Alden Global. Considering the alternative, this was seemingly welcome news for the journalism business in Texas, where over 200 local papers have shuttered in the past 20 years. Under the vampiric regime of Gannett/Gatehouse, the Statesman was bled and hollowed out into a husk of a paper. And the Morning News had steadily slipped away from its glory days, when it had bureaus around the world, and was mired by turnover, layoffs, and declining print circulation. Hearst, meanwhile, is one of the few media companies still investing in newspapers, and it has an established interest in Texas: It already owned the Houston Chronicle, these days the state’s best paper by a mile,and the San Antonio Express-News, as well as others in Laredo, Midland, and Beaumont.

While Hearst’s spending spree has brought salvation in the short term, it does raise concerns about homogenization of coverage and about the fate of the union contracts that journalists have won in recent years at the Dallas and Austin papers. (A unionization effort was voted down in Hearst’s San Antonio newsroom in 2024.) The Hearst expansion also raises questions long-term about the size, strength, and investigative firepower of the state’s press corps—particularly at the Capitol. Is it in fact a good thing that Hearst now runs the papers servicing the four largest metros in Texas, which are home to roughly two-thirds of the state population? Do these papers risk being stripped of their local identities and missions under Hearst assimilation? What will it look like for the journalists covering politics and state government at these papers to consolidate under a single Capitol bureau? In an October interview, Hearst’s CEO Steve Swartz said the local papers would retain their independence but would also benefit from economies of scale—and more might in Austin. “I think that there are advantages to being concentrated in locales. … We will be able to better service in Texas a number of advertisers, to reach more people for them. I think we’re going to be able to have the biggest and most effective capital bureau in Austin, the best coverage of the statehouse and of the political leaders both in Texas and in Washington.”

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State Stories

Greg Abbott’s campaign tops $100 million

Gov. Greg Abbott has amassed $105.7 million in campaign cash, a chest-thumping haul that towers over challengers trying to block his bid for a fourth term. The updated financial account that his campaign released late Thursday also e dwarfs all other Texans seeking state offices this year. Only Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is close, reporting $38 million in the bank. Democrats say they plan to counter their financial disadvantage through grassroots fundraising and targeted spending. Still, the vast sums held by the state’s two most powerful Republicans provide a clear measure of the GOP’s three-decade dominance in Texas politics. “The outpouring of support from across the state sends a powerful message about the values Texans expect our governor to defend,” said Kim Snyder, Abbott’s campaign manager. “As socialists win elections elsewhere, Texans are stepping up to support Governor Abbott because he protects our way of life.”

Abbott’s chief Democratic rival, Austin Rep. Gina Hinojosa, announced a $1.3 million campaign haul. She did not release figures on the amount of cash her campaign maintained as of the end of 2025. Abbott’s eye-popping numbers indicate that the governor could, at this pace, easily outspend his opponents. It also creates the potential for Abbott to influence Republican state legislative races to continue reshaping the Texas House in his image. Abbott flexed that muscle in 2024, where his campaign dollars helped unseat numerous Republican incumbents opposed to his efforts to send taxpayer cash to private schools. With more friendly Republicans in the House, the Legislature passed a school choice proposal, giving the governor a landmark policy win that could come to define his legacy. No such hot-button issue is dividing House Republicans this time, cycle, and Abbott has made eliminating property taxes his No. 1 policy goal. It’s a policy highly popular among conservatives. Only Patrick, who presides over the Texas Senate, has questioned its feasibility. The primary is March 3. Abbott’s campaign said it raised $22.7 million during the latter six months of 2025 from more than 48,000 contributions. His full finance report was not available late Thursday. Statewide officeholders and lawmakers are required to file campaign finance reports every six months.

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Brooke Rollins faces backlash for $3 diet advice

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins took heat on social media Thursday over a comment that Americans can eat healthily for $3 a meal by consuming "a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla and one other thing." Rollins, a native Texan and former president of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, appeared on News Nation to promote the Trump administration's Make America Healthy Again campaign, which advises Americans to eat more whole foods like meat and vegetables. That has drawn push back from Democrats that the diet is hard to achieve with the relatively high price of groceries. "We've run over 1,000 simulations," Rollins said. "So there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money." Social media users quickly pilloried the remarks, sharing pictures online of nearly empty plates with small pieces of chicken and broccoli.

Among them was U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat who wrote on X, "Due to Trump’s tariffs, last month was the largest spike in grocery prices in three years. So now this is what the Trump Administration suggests you can afford for a meal." The Department of Agriculture did not respond Thursday to a question about how many calories the meal described by Rollins would contain, according to their simulation. A spokesperson did say their analysis showed "hundreds of thousands" of other options to eat healthy for $3 a meal, built around foods including poultry, cottage cheese, frozen broccoli, sweet and white potatoes, frozen blueberries, whole grain bread and butter. The department reported last month that grocery prices were up 2.4% in 2025, with beef and other meats, along with fresh vegetables seeing larger spikes. They explained the increase, which is slightly below historical norms, as a product of factors including inflation, weather and trade patterns.

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Could attacks on Sharia law steer Texas Muslims away from the Republican Party?

For months, Gov. Greg Abbott has mounted a campaign against Muslim-led groups, trying to stop a planned Islamic community in North Texas and designating the nation's largest Muslim civil rights group a terrorist organization. And on Wednesday, Abbott predicted Republican voters will endorse a full ban on "Sharia law" when polled on GOP primary ballots. “Texas already does have the strongest pushback against Sharia law of any state in the country, but we're going to take it the full load and do everything possible to make sure Sharia law has no presence in Texas whatsoever,” Abbott said on conservative radio host Glenn Beck’s show.

The blitz seems designed to resonate with right-wing, often Christian voters, who have long supported measures like President Donald Trump's Muslim ban in his first term. But some of the state's Muslim Republicans say the rhetoric has left them questioning their place in the party and runs the risk of alienating a conservative voting bloc that is ripe for GOP cultivation. Nafees Asghar, a Republican voter in Richmond, said his Muslim faith is the source of his conservative values. “Muslims don't believe in same-sex marriage,” Asghar said about his own beliefs. “We don't believe in gender modification. We do not believe in mid-term or long-term abortions. We don't believe in that, and the Republicans don't believe in that. So, if what we believe is Sharia law, then that makes me think that these Republicans also believe in Sharia law.” Asghar says he is a “staunch conservative, like most of the Muslims are, or should be.” He has almost always voted for Republicans. But he will vote for “anyone but Abbott” in the primary in March, and thinks Muslims should prove to be a reliable voting bloc by doing the same. Asghar isn’t alone. Mo Nehad used to envision a spot for himself in the Republican Party. As a Muslim, he saw reflections of his conservative beliefs in the tenets of the GOP, like opposing abortion and same-sex marriage.

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Trial of former Uvalde CISD officer recesses early Thursday due to family emergency of jury member

The ninth day of the trial against former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer Adrian Gonzales continues in the Nueces County courthouse on Thursday. On Wednesday, the courtroom was still tense after Tuesday’s outburst from Velma Lisa Duran, the sister of Robb Elementary teacher Irma Garcia, who was killed in the shooting. “Y’all are saying she didn’t lock her door,” Duran shouted as she was removed from the courtroom by deputies. “She went into the fatal funnel!” The fatal funnel is a tactical term used by law enforcement to describe an area, like a doorway, where a police officer does not have cover and can be shot. Presiding Judge Sid Harle had told family members before the trial to not have any outbursts for risk of declaring a mistrial.

However, court continued Wednesday with testimony from school employees and parents of children who were at Robb Elementary the day of the shooting. Instruction aide Melodye Flores told the court she was the first to tell Adrian Gonzales there was a shooter in the parking lot. She was positioned to speak directly to Gonzales’s actions in the first minutes of the police response. Flores is the person previously described as wearing an orange-peach shirt, who had fallen to the ground as Gonzales drove up. She said she told the driver of the vehicle, who she knew was a cop, that they needed to stop the gunman before he entered the fourth-grade building. “We need to go in. We need to stop him,” Flores recalled what she said. Flores said she pointed to where she previously saw the gunman, but at the time she was talking to Gonzales, she could not see the gunman. Testimony on Wednesday also came from a doctor who worked at a nearby outpatient clinic as victims from the shooting came in.

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Texas Supreme Court hears arguments in case tied to state’s bounty hunter abortion law

The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Sadie Weldon v. The Lilith Fund, a case that pertains to Senate Bill 8, the 2021 law that banned abortions after around six weeks. The landscape of abortion law has changed since SB 8 — also called the Texas Heartbeat Act — passed, with Texas enacting more comprehensive abortion bans after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. But SB 8’s novel “bounty hunter” provision, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, has continued to drive legal questions. The Texas Supreme court’s decision in Sadie Weldon v. The Lilith Fund would not decide the constitutionality of SB 8, though challenges to the law still persist. It could, however, impact whether a challenge to the law has a path forward.

The case has wound through the courts since 2022, when Weldon, a private Texas citizen, sought to depose Neesha Davé, the deputy director of the Lilith Fund, a nonprofit that provides support to people seeking abortions. In a sworn affidavit for a separate legal proceeding, Davé acknowledged that the Lilith Fund had helped at least one Texas woman pursue an abortion, a potential violation of SB 8. Weldon filed a Rule 202 petition to try to glean more information about the potential violation without officially filing a lawsuit. “We wanted to find out exactly who was involved, the extent of the violation and what else we could investigate,” said Jonathan Mitchell, Weldon’s attorney, in arguments presented Wednesday. Mitchell, who was a key figure in the drafting of SB 8, has represented a number of clients filing Rule 202 petitions pertaining to suspected abortion law violations. However, the Lilith Fund countersued Weldon, asking a judge to both declare SB 8 unconstitutional and prevent Weldon from suing the organization under the statute. Weldon asked the courts to dismiss that countersuit, invoking the Texas Citizens Participation Act — a law intended to prevent retaliatory suits aimed at silencing “matters of public concern.” A Jack County court and the Second Court of Appeals ruled that the TCPA does not apply to declaratory judgment claims of this nature.

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Fraud, cannabis millions and a bitter court fight involving Perry’s Restaurants

Fraud, conspiracy, attempted murder and a partner deprived of tens of millions of dollars are alleged between restaurant scion Chris Perry, his restaurant group Perry’s Restaurants and a former consultant. The claims and counterclaims filed in Texas courts since early December read like alternate histories. Craig Aumann, the consultant, filed suit in early December saying Perry, David Crawford and Perry’s Restaurants employees worked to deprive him of an ownership stake in Vantage Point Global Corp., a company set up to farm and export cannabis from Costa Rica.

Aumann’s lawsuit says he was initially hired as a consultant to assist fundraising for the venture but was asked to assume the CEO title after a falling out with a previous leader. He relocated to the South American country and oversaw the farm’s setup and obtained necessary government licenses. Aumann says he moved to the country full time in October 2023 for a salary of $100,000 a year and $15,000 a month in expenses — but with a significant equity stake. Crawford was a co-founder and, according to the suit, Perry was the first and main investor. It says he obtained 51% of the company through financial outlays from accounts tied to Perry’s Restaurants Limited, the Houston company behind Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille, CARVE American Grille, Verdad True Modern Mexican and the original Perry & Sons Market & Grille. It has operations in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and eight other states. Seventy acres of Costa Rican farmland was the main source of cannabis for Vantage Point. After a year and repeated offers from outsiders to purchase the business, the last of which was for $45 million, Aumann says, Perry, Crawford and others conspired to push him out.

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Texas A&M has big plans for new nuclear reactors in College Station

Texas A&M has big plans for small reactors as it expands the nation’s largest nuclear engineering program and partners with six startups to develop new power plant technologies. The first experimental reactor could be running as early as July, and five other private companies have plans to build pilot projects. The new reactors are small enough to ride on the back of a truck or fit inside a grocery store. Texas A&M’s nuclear engineering program has 550 students, 23 faculty and a 60-year-old small research reactor operating near the College Station airport. University officials say their RELLIS Research Campus will become an energy proving ground to fulfill Gov. Greg Abbott’s desire to make Texas ground zero for next-generation U.S. nuclear.

However, many Texans fear and oppose new nuclear facilities, despite two power plants operating without incident for more than 50 years near Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. The federal government has also failed to obey a 1982 law requiring the construction of a permanent waste disposal site. Tomlinson's TakeTexas' record use of solar power proves the grid relies on renewable energyTexas set a record for solar power and battery use, proving the electric grid can and does rely on renewable energy.Texas governor’s plan for taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors reanimatesNuclear advocates want more reactors, but opponents insist radioactive waste remains a problem, and money would be better spent elsewhere.Crypto-mining and AI are bad news for Texas electricity customersData centers providing artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency mining are making enormous demands on the nation’s electric grid, and home electric bills are rising fast. Critics also question whether new nuclear will be affordable. The reactor designs are untested, and project costs frequently spin out of control.

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Greg Abbott once endorsed this Republican. Now she’s running against him.

In 2022, Evelyn Brooks touted the support of Gov. Greg Abbott as she handily won a seat on the Texas State Board of Education. Four years later, she’s challenging him in the GOP primary for governor, accusing Abbott of orchestrating a top-down takeover of public schools and criticizing his $1 billion voucher program. “Honestly, it looks a little bit like communism,” Brooks said of the voucher program. “I don’t agree with the direction that he’s taken our education.” Brooks — who is vacating her deep-red SBOE district after just one term — is one of 10 Republicans challenging Abbott in the primary. But as the only officeholder, she is by far the most established of the group.

Brooks could provide an early test of GOP support for Abbott’s signature voucher program, fresh off the governor’s success in muscling it through the legislature. Though few elected Republicans oppose the program today, vouchers were long seen by rural lawmakers as a potential drain on local schools and there has been growing agitation among some on the right, who see the program as a potential boost for Islamic institutions. Her campaign faces long odds. Fresh off key legislative wins over vouchers, bail reform and property tax cuts, Abbott’s grip on power in his party has never been stronger. And the governor has easily fended off past primary challenges. In 2022, Abbott cruised to victory with 66% of the vote against spirited challenges from former state Sen. Don Huffines and former Texas GOP chairman Allen West. Abbott, meanwhile, had a 78% approval rating from GOP voters in the latest survey by the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Politics Project and boasts $90 million in the bank to fend off challengers. Wayne Hamilton, a Republican strategist who managed Abbott’s first gubernatorial campaign in 2014, noted that the governor still defeated his GOP challengers last cycle by more than a million votes despite Huffines spending $15 million in his primary bid. “This year, it will be no different, except that he will crush them at a greater level,” Hamilton said. “He’s got an incredibly strong base of support that other politicians just don’t have.”

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UT Arlington offering buyouts amid federal funding restrictions

The University of Texas at Arlington said it will start offering buyouts to faculty and staff, citing increased funding challenges amid federal restrictions. UTA President Jennifer Cowley announced a voluntary separation program and a phased retirement program earlier this week. The programs will provide incentives for employees to consider retirement or other career transitions this spring. Cowley said the programs were needed to help UTA adapt “amid significant shifts in federal funding and policy,” according to a Monday email to students, faculty and staff. She said university officials are looking for ways to “preserve funds” to support the school’s mission and brace for the future, noting “there are challenges ahead.” UTA spokesperson Jeff Caplan declined to share additional details, deferring to Cowley’s email.

The move follows budget-saving measures last year in response to federal funding reductions, including a staff hiring freeze and a pause in staff salary adjustments. The public university, which serves over 42,000 students, is the fifth largest in Texas. It’s one of 16 universities in the state to receive the elite R1 Carnegie status, a classification given to the nation’s top research institutions based on research spending and the number of research doctorates awarded annually. About 17% of the school’s funding comes from the federal government — nearly 9% going to student financial aid and 8.5% coming from grants and contracts, according to a June email from Cowley to the UTA community. At her state of the university address in September, Cowley acknowledged that federal challenges, including those related to research support, student financial aid and international student visas, were testing the school’s budget.

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Another judge rules on Southlake candidate’s challenge of eligibility for Texas House race

For the second time in a week, a Tarrant County judge ruled that Zee Wilcox, a state House hopeful whose candidacy has been called into question, must remain on the Republican primary ballot. Judge Ken Curry, presiding over the 96th District Court, granted a temporary injunction on Thursday, following an afternoon hearing where Wilcox and Tarrant County GOP Chairman Tim Davis took the stand to share their sides of the dispute over filing paperwork. The decision follows Davis’ determination earlier this month that Wilcox, a candidate from Southlake for Texas House District 98, is ineligible for the Republican primary ballot. After taking the arguments from both sides under consideration, Curry said he struggled to decide the best course of action, but ultimately concluded that Wilcox could remain on the ballot until further notice, as a more permanent resolution is considered in a North Texas appellate court.

Wilcox told the judge that the court’s intervention was needed to ensure her campaign isn’t further derailed. “Catastrophic” harm has already been done to her election bid, she said. She is competing against two other Republicans in the March primary, Keller Mayor Armin Mizani and Colleyville businessman Fred Tate. “I don’t know if I can ever recover,” said Wilcox, who runs a health and beauty business. Wilcox, representing herself in court, sued Davis on Jan. 9. She has argued that Texas election law was incorrectly followed and that her candidacy is valid. Wilcox has maintained that invalidating her candidacy is a result of political retaliation, while Davis has said the decision was “not the result of some vast conspiracy.” “Do I have proof of it? Not hard proof, but common sense,” Wilcox said of her retaliation claim in an interview after the hearing. Wilcox filed to run for office on Dec. 8. She was notified on Dec. 16, after the filing deadline, that a local precinct chair had challenged her application to run for the North Texas House district. She offered to fix any issues but didn’t hear back, Wilcox said.

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Save Our Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum group to protest planned closure

The Save Our Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum group will gather with students and community members from noon to 2 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum to protest the decision to close the museum. Organizers say the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum has long served as a cultural and educational cornerstone for the region, preserving local history and family records through community donations. The group also cites a memorandum of agreement between the Texas A&M System and the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, saying plans to end the university’s involvement would violate that agreement. The group is calling on West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler and the Texas A&M System to stop any plans to sever ties with the museum and to reaffirm their commitment to its continued operation.

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Ex-prosecutor booted from Harris County judicial race over threat, signatures

A judge removed a Houston lawyer from the Democratic race against Judge Lauren Reeder following a contentious hearing that brought the challenger to court to defend both her ballot signatures and a text message. The message in question appeared to threaten the incumbent with exposing a past romantic relationship if she didn't drop out of the race, according to testimony. The decision late Thursday to disqualify Kim McTorry, a former Harris County prosecutor and associate judge, from the race for the 234th District Court judge seat came just ahead of a looming deadline for officials to print and mail the March primary ballots to overseas voters. Both sides waited more than two hours on opposite ends of the courthouse for her ruling, only to be told to expect an email with the decision.

A witness testified that McTorry understood a text message she sent Reeder "was bad" and that her intent was to intimidate the incumbent, Judge Christi Kennedy wrote in a seven-page ruling. Kennedy determined McTorry's testimony was not credible and suggested that she may have coordinated with a political activist to share social media videos threatening to expose Reeder's affair with an attorney. The bulk of testimony in the temporary restraining order hearing focused on how an apparent misunderstanding led to an escalating political feud and frayed friendships, rather than similarly dwelling on 42 potentially fraudulent signatures. The Harris County Democratic Party chair rejected Reeder's complaint about the signatures, triggering the hearing on Wednesday and Thursday. Reeder's attorney, Lloyd Kelley, argued McTorry attempted to extort his client — a violation of election code. McTorry alleged Reeder violated the same code by attempting to bribe her after she entered the March 3 primary race for Reeder’s bench in December.

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City delays another Wings facility as concern grows from WNBA team

One Dallas pro sports franchise is weighing a move to Plano. Another is analyzing potential arena sites to remain in Dallas, but owns prime property in Irving as a fallback. Then there are the Dallas Wings: Eager and, since 2024, contractually committed to move from Arlington to Dallas, but now reeling from another gut-punch delay. Wings CEO Greg Bibb told The Dallas Morning News the team’s $48.6 million training facility that was supposed to open this spring in Far West Oak Cliff is in construction limbo — unstarted, actually — and now projected to open by spring 2027. The delay compounds last May’s setback, when the city of Dallas informed the Wings that Memorial Auditorium downtown won’t be refurbished in time to host WNBA games until 2027, a year later than planned.

Both delays are ill-timed for a Wings franchise that wants to pounce during this most pivotal confluence in the WNBA’s 29-year history: rising women’s basketball popularity, a potential new collective bargaining agreement and greater ability to woo players — in the Wings’ case, to build around star Paige Bueckers. Ninth-year Wings CEO Bibb seemingly has reasons to be frustrated, but during a sitdown with The News to explain the latest delay, he says his emotions don’t rise to that level. “Obviously I’m disappointed that we’re not getting ready to move into two facilities that we thought we were going to be moving into when we signed the agreement,” he said. “But I do believe in the city and its leadership. “And I do believe in the vision of what the city has for the next decade downtown.” City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, through a spokesperson, declined to comment. Mayor Eric Johnson has been vocal in his support for the Wings, but his spokesperson didn’t respond to emails. Rosa Fleming, director of Dallas’ convention and event services, did not respond to calls or emails and council member Jesse Moreno, whose District 2 includes downtown didn’t respond to phone messages.

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National Stories

Trump threatens to send troops to Minneapolis

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke an 1807 law and deploy troops to quell persistent protests against the federal officers sent to Minneapolis to enforce his administration’s massive immigration crackdown. The threat comes a day after a man was shot and wounded by an immigration officer who had been attacked with a shovel and broom handle. That shooting further heightened the fear and anger that has radiated across the city since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good in the head. Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used federal law, to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors. In 2020, for example, he threatened to use the act to quell protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police, and in recent months he threatened to use it for immigration protests.

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump said in social media post. Presidents have invoked the law more than two dozen times, most recently in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to end unrest in Los Angeles. In that instance, local authorities asked for the assistance. “I’m making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are,” Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said on X. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he would challenge any such action in court. He’s already suing to try to stop the surge by the Department of Homeland Security, which says officers have arrested more than 2,500 people since Nov. 29 as part of an immigration operation in the Twin Cities called Metro Surge. The operation grew when ICE, which is a DHS agency, sent 2,000 officers and agents to the area in early January.

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Pentagon to overhaul independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes

The Pentagon said it will take editorial control over a historic military newspaper, Stars and Stripes, in an effort to get rid of what the department sees as “woke” policies and coverage. “We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,” said Sean Parnell, a Defense Department spokesperson, in a social media post Thursday. Parnell added that the Pentagon would change the newsroom’s priorities to “warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY.” According to Defense Department sources who spoke with the right-wing publication The Daily Wire, the Pentagon plans to hire active-duty service members and distribute “War Department-generated materials” that would account for roughly 50% of Stars and Stripes’ editorial production. In addition, Parnell said the publication will no longer use wire services, such as the Associated Press or Reuters.

“That is public relations, not independent journalism,” Jacqueline Smith, the publication’s ombudsman, told Stars and Stripes. “The other ‘50%’ of the content would hold no credibility.” Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin told NOTUS that the publication did not receive any communication from the Pentagon before Parnell’s post. “We are continuing to provide accurate and balanced news on matters of interest to the military, with emphasis on overseas communities. We do so in places and on topics — housing, pay, field exercises and even sports, to name a few — that no other news outlet regularly covers,” Slavin said. The publication came under fire Wednesday when The Washington Post reported that applicants to their open job positions were asked if they would promote Trump policy. Employees at the Stars and Stripes are Defense Department employees but have traditionally exercised editorial independence. Democrats on the Senate Armed Forces Committee criticized the move by the Defense Department to overhaul Stars and Stripes.

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Democrats launch campaign for Virginia voters to join redistricting fight

Democrats launched a campaign Thursday aimed at persuading Virginia voters to back a plan to redraw the state’s congressional map in their favor, the latest salvo in a nationwide battle over redistricting ahead of the midterm elections. Virginians for Fair Elections, a Democratic-aligned nonprofit, kicked off its public-facing efforts. The organization will urge voters in Virginia to vote “yes” on a proposed redistricting amendment to the state constitution that would give lawmakers in Richmond, not the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission, the authority to redraw the congressional map through 2030. The Democratic-controlled House of Delegates passed the amendment on Wednesday, and the Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to approve it by the end of the week. The push in Virginia is the latest move in an unusual mid-decade battle over redrawing U.S. House district lines, which began when Texas approved new maps favored by President Donald Trump. Officials in a handful of other states have since redrawn their maps as both sides fight for an edge in the battle for control of the House in 2027.

The Virginia campaign, which plans to emphasize that the commission approved by voters in 2020 will return after 2030, will argue that the effort is being undertaken “with reluctance” as a response to other states diminishing Virginia’s voice in Congress through redistricting, according to a news release. The group plans to immediately begin raising money to air ads and hold events aimed at persuading and mobilizing voters. Campaign officials and state lawmakers have said they expect that any special election related to redistricting would occur in April. “We wish we didn’t have to take this step. But with Donald Trump pressuring MAGA-controlled legislatures to rig their maps, this temporary, emergency exception will keep Virginia’s elections fair until every state plays by the same rules — and make sure the people, not politicians, decide how Virginia’s voice is heard in Congress,” said Kéren Charles Dongo, the campaign’s top operative.A video released Thursday makes a similar argument. The effort echoes a campaign in California, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and his allies, which successfully persuaded voters to redistrict ahead of the midterms by arguing that it was necessary as a direct response to Texas and other Republican-controlled states.

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ICE error meant some recruits were sent into field offices without proper training, sources say

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement was racing to add 10,000 new officers to its force, an artificial intelligence error in how their applications were processed sent many new recruits into field offices without proper training, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the error. The AI tool used by ICE was tasked with looking for potential applicants with law enforcement experience to be placed into the agency’s “LEO program” — short for law enforcement officer — for new recruits who are already law enforcement officers. It requires four weeks of online training. Applicants without law enforcement backgrounds are required to take an eight-week in-person course at ICE’s academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, which includes courses in immigration law and handling a gun, as well as physical fitness tests.

“They were using AI to scan résumés and found out a bunch of the people who were LEOs weren’t LEOs,” one of the officials said. The AI tool was initially the mechanism used to categorize résumés, the officials said and flagged anyone with the word “officer” on their résumés — for example, a “compliance officer” or people who said they aspired to be ICE officers. The majority of the new applicants were flagged as law enforcement officers, the officials said, but many had no experience in any local police or federal law enforcement force. Both law enforcement officials noted that ICE’s field offices provide more training beyond what is provided at the academy or in the online course before officers are sent out onto the street and that the officers singled out by the AI tool most likely received that training. The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity. A DHS spokesperson said called it a "technological snag" that was quickly rectified, impacting about 200 hires who then reported to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for full training. The spokesperson said that no candidate was placed on enforcement duties without "appropriate training and credentials."

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Trump’s judicial blitz loses steam

President Donald Trump is getting judges confirmed at an even faster clip than he did at the beginning of his first term — but he’s making less of an impact on the judiciary. Trump’s ability to reshape the federal judiciary was one of the crowning achievements of his first term. Aided by the GOP Senate and years of vetting by the conservative legal movement, he appointed more than 200 judges, including three Supreme Court justices. By the numbers alone, Trump 2.0 is off to an even stronger start. The Senate confirmed 26 judges in 2025, compared to 19 in the first year of Trump’s first term. But the overwhelming majority of those judges sit on district courts. There simply aren’t as many of the more coveted and more powerful appeals court spots to fill as there were in 2017. That reality, along with more steadfast resistance from Democrats, suggests Trump won’t be able to make as big of an impact on the courts this time around.

“This is not going to be the same kind of earth shaking four years … we saw in his first four years, when he really did turn the judiciary around in terms of the percentage of judges appointed by Republicans as opposed to Democratic presidents,” said Russell Wheeler, a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies program. Trump came into office in 2017 with more than 100 judicial vacancies waiting for him, including a Supreme Court seat, thanks largely to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s blockade of then-President Barack Obama’s nominees. He inherited only about 40 vacancies for his current term, fewer than any president since Ronald Reagan. Trump appointed 12 appeals-court judges in 2017 — more than any president has gotten in their first year since 1945, according to the Congressional Research Service. He has been able to appoint only six so far in his second term. There are also fewer vacancies opening up over the course of Trump’s second term. Federal judges — including Republican appointees — have been retiring at an unusually slow pace since Trump’s second inauguration, according to federal data and research by Derek Muller, a University of Notre Dame law professor who has tracked vacancies by recent presidential administrations.

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‘A massacre happened’: The 24 hours that bloodied Iran

Robina Aminian was passionate about fashion, posting images of herself on Instagram wearing the dresses she hand-embroidered. She was also passionate about politics. On Jan. 8 the fashion student finished her class at Tehran’s women-only Shariati College at around 7 p.m. and joined a group of antigovernment protesters not far from campus. Iranians had been demonstrating for over a week, but Aminian knew that day was going to be different. The protests had been growing in size and expanding to more cities, with calls for regime change becoming louder. President Trump had threatened to intervene if security forces started shooting. Adding to the growing momentum, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the deposed shah, had urged Iranians to pour onto the streets at 8 p.m., the start of the Iranian weekend. Aminian wouldn’t survive the night. “She was a girl full of enthusiasm for life and a lover of design and fashion whose dreams were buried by the violence of the oppressors of the Islamic Republic,” said her aunt Hali Nouri, speaking from outside Iran.

Trump said Wednesday that the killing of protesters had stopped, comments that appeared to lessen the chance of a U.S. strike against the regime. If so, it is largely because security forces had unleashed an unprecedented wave of violence beginning late last week that Iranians reached by The Wall Street Journal said had left a tense pall over many cities. Iran carried out the crackdown under the cover of an internet shutdown and extensive disruption to phone services, so it is hard to judge its true scale. Human-rights groups are trying to assemble a full account of the death toll, compiling evidence that includes images of body bags and testimonies from relatives, medical workers and other eyewitnesses. But eyewitness accounts of localized violence and estimates by human-rights groups and intelligence services point to bloodshed that far exceeds the toll in previous bouts of protests, whatever the final tally of the dead may be. Iranian officials initially acknowledged the economic grievances that sparked the unrest in late December. But the rhetoric shifted as pressure on the regime grew. By last week, the head of the judiciary was warning there would be no leniency for those aiding the enemies of the Islamic Republic, and other top officials were speaking menacingly of war with foreign-sponsored terrorists.

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Following Texas, Florida drops ABA oversight of lawyers

Florida is now the second state to drop its requirement that lawyers in the state hold a degree from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association, The Tallahassee Democrat reported Thursday. The Florida Supreme Court, which sets law-licensure requirements, said the decision is designed to open the door for more law school accreditors. “The rule changes create the opportunity for additional entities to carry out an accrediting and gatekeeping function on behalf of the Court,” the Jan. 15 opinion read. “The Court’s goal is to promote access to high-quality, affordable legal education in law schools that are committed to the free exchange of ideas and to the principle of nondiscrimination.”

The Texas Supreme Court made a similar decision last week, and Ohio and Tennessee’s high courts are also considering minimizing the ABA’s oversight of lawyers in their states. Republicans, including Florida attorney general James Uthmeier, who called the ABA “a captured, far-left organization,” have targeted the ABA, which accredits the vast majority of law schools in the country, as part of a broader crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Last year, the ABA suspended its DEI standards in response to conservative criticism. On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the state Supreme Court’s decision as a “Good move” in a post on X. “The (highly partisan) ABA should not be a gatekeeper for legal education or the legal profession.” For now, though, a new law school accreditor has yet to emerge. And experts say it’s unlikely most law schools will abandon their ABA accreditation any time soon, because it’s created reliable professional standards that make it easier for lawyers to practice in multiple states. Justice Jorge Labarga, the only dissenting vote in the Florida opinion and the only justice who wasn’t appointed by DeSantis, cautioned that a new law school accreditor would have a tough time rivaling the ABA. “[The ABA] has cultivated unmatched proficiency in dealing with Florida law-school-specific issues that would require decades for any successor to develop,” he wrote in his dissent. “Refinements can always be made. However, replacing an established entity with an unknown alternative is detrimental in the context of disputes."

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