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Newsclips - April 30, 2025 |
Lead Stories
US consumer confidence plummets to Covid-era low as trade war stokes anxiety
Americans’ confidence in the economy slumped for the fifth straight month to the lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as anxiety over the impact of tariffs takes a heavy toll. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell 7.9 points in April to 86, its lowest reading since May 2020. Nearly one-third of consumers expect hiring to slow in the coming months, nearly matching the level reached in April 2009, when the economy was mired in the Great Recession. The figures reflect a rapidly souring mood among Americans, most of whom expect prices to rise because of the widespread tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. About half of Americans are also worried about the potential for a recession, according to a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center.
“Rattled consumers spend less than confident consumers,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, in an email. “If confidence sags and consumers retrench, growth will go down.” A measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market plunged 12.5 points to 54.4, the lowest level in more than 13 years. The reading is well below 80, which typically signals a recession ahead. How this gloomy mood translates into spending, hiring, and growth will become clearer in the coming days and weeks. On Wednesday, the government will report on U.S. economic growth during the first three months of the year, and economists are expecting a sharp slowdown as Americans pulled back on spending after a strong winter holiday shopping season. And on Friday the Labor Department will release its latest report on hiring and the unemployment rate. Overall, economists expect it should still show steady job gains, though some forecast it could report sharply reduced hiring.
Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only
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How Miriam Adelson went from big MAGA Winner to casino loser in Trump’s first 100 days
One hundred days ago, Miriam Adelson was on top of the world. The billionaire and far-right mega-donor was in the Capitol Rotunda, dressed in an all-white version of a Sgt. Pepper’s coat and her signature round sunglasses, standing next to Laura Bush and Barack Obama, watching her chosen candidate, the man she had spent more than $100 million on, be sworn in as president. Her basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks, was fresh off of a run to the NBA finals, thanks to Luka Doncic, the league’s most talented young superstar. Las Vegas Sands, the gambling company founded by her late husband and fellow kingmaker Sheldon Adelson, was making slow progress toward its long-term goal of building a casino about 20 minutes’ drive from the squad’s home court. Perhaps most exciting, at least from a pure profit perspective, was the firm’s potential to land a license to operate a casino on Long Island, just outside of New York City, widely believed to be the one of the most lucrative untapped gambling markets on the planet. If Sands could secure it, the MAGA queen would have a cash register that would never stop ringing. Of course she was happy. But that was 100 days ago.
In the three months or so since, Trump’s approval rating has tanked as he declared a trade war on the entire world—even on Israel, where Adelson was born, and where she remains an influential figure. Under the leadership of Adelson’s son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, the Mavericks gave away their superstar in what was instantly panned as the worst trade in NBA history. The Adelsons’ family-controlled company, Las Vegas Sands, dropped its plans to build the Dallas-area gambling house for now. And now there’s New York, where Sands spent about $400 million and hired a squad of lawyers, lobbyists, architects, engineers, and image makers, all for a chance at that jackpot in Nassau County. On Wednesday, Sands president Dumont announced to investors that the Adeslon family was ending its East Coast pursuit, after more than a decade of trying. Miriam’s winning streak was over. Dumont, in an investor call, blamed Sands’ change of heart on the rise of online gambling as a competitor to real-world action. (A company spokesperson declined to comment on the record for this story, and pointed to Sands’ statement on the topic.) Multiple sources familiar with the situation tell Vanity Fair that’s only a partial answer. Politics was one of several other factors. Adelson wasn’t the only Trump superfan trying to bid in this cobalt blue state. But she was the most visible.
Read this article at Vanity Fair - Subscribers Only
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Lottery Commission formally bans third-party courier companies from selling tickets online
The Texas Lottery Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to ban third-party "courier companies" that broker game ticket sales through smartphone apps, a practice that has been in place for years but only recently gained political attention. Tuesday's action came with little discussion, a far cry from the stinging criticism lawmakers heaped on the recently resigned former executive director of the state-run gaming operation during a series of legislative hearings. Several lawmakers expressed concern that the couriers are effectively a work-around to the 1991 state law that established the Texas Lottery, which expressly forbids using a telephone to buy and sell tickets. Others warned that faceless transactions can invite money launderers or those underage to illegally play the lottery in Texas.
Ryan Mindell, the director who resigned this month, and his predecessor Gary Grief, who resigned in February 2024, each told legislative committees that they were powerless under state law to regulate couriers. However, after forceful pushback from lawmakers and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick earlier this year, Mindell reversed course. He said the law permits him to revoke the licenses of lottery retailers who do business with couriers, which the commission affirmed with its vote Tuesday. Commissioner Mark Franz said that initially he was skeptical of imposing a ban on courier companies, noting the Legislature is considering action to either regulate the way they operate in Texas or to outlaw them outright. However, he said, his mind changed once he took a closer look over the weeks since Mindell made his recommendation. "I have during this 30-day period weighed all evidence, and I am persuaded that this is the right move to go forward, and that we should do the maximum amount allowable under our current statute, which is what this does my in understanding," he said during the meeting. The measure will promote and ensure integrity, security, honesty and fairness in the operation and administration of the lottery, the rule states.
Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only
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Bill clarifying when doctors can perform abortion unanimously passes Texas Senate
A bill that would clarify when Texas physicians can legally perform an abortion to save a mother’s life unanimously passed the state Senate on Tuesday. Senate Bill 31, also known as the Life of the Mother Act, would allow doctors to intervene and provide abortion care to pregnant women who are experiencing medical emergencies. Current law includes an exception for patients with a “life-threatening physical condition” but requires the doctor performing the procedure to provide “the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive.” Doctors have said that language is vague and confusing, making many hesitant to perform an abortion to save a mother’s life. Violating the state’s near total abortion ban is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine — in addition to a $100,000 civil penalty.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, thanked Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, for his work crafting a proposal that garnered “universal support from all sides.” In a statement issued after the final vote, Patrick credited Texas for leading the way “in protecting life,” noting the Life of the Mother Act “is only designed to provide legal clarity for doctors in rare cases when a mother’s life is threatened.” Despite how divisive abortion is politically, Hughes said, the entire legislative body agreed that a pregnant woman’s life must be protected. “These are difficult matters to grapple with,” he said. “We can all agree — we can all agree — that when the life of the mother is at risk, she should be protected. That’s what this bill is about.”
Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only
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State Stories
Why legislation to protect mothers’ lives in Texas went from bipartisan to belligerent
In the annals of the Texas Legislature, it may be that no bill has suffered the kind of instant whiplash as the one Republican Senator Bryan Hughes christened the “Life of the Mother Act.” Senate Bill 31, which Hughes filed exactly one hour before the deadline on March 14, was presented as one that would free Texas doctors to provide abortions when their pregnant patients were suffering from medical emergencies—without fear of the career-killing, prison sentence-inducing penalties for violating Texas law. “The intent of this bill is to remove any excuse, when a mom is in danger . . . that’s always been an exception we have recognized,” Hughes said. “We want to love them both. There’s a mom and a baby. We want to love and respect and protect them both.” The bill was championed by fervent abortion opponents, including Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who named its passage one of his top priorities. Also supporting the Life of the Mother Act: notable reproductive rights advocates. Its coauthors in the Senate and joint authors of the companion House Bill 44, including three of the most liberal surviving Democrats, Senator Carol Alvarado and Representative Ann Johnson of Houston and Representative Donna Howard of Austin, got to savor the rarest of bipartisan triumphs.
All in all, March 14 seemed like the happiest of days in the capital, when legislators across the political spectrum could feel good about doing good. Republican Representative Charlie Geren from Fort Worth, another abortion foe who is cosponsoring the bill in the House, put it best when he declared, “Too many women have suffered. Too many women have died.” Well, yeah. In hospitals and doctors’ offices across the state, chaos and tragedy have ensued since the Legislature enacted a series of restrictive laws including 2021’s Senate Bill 8, which allows anyone to sue individuals who “aid or abet” an abortion after about six weeks of gestation, and the “trigger law,” which outlawed most abortions after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. In combination, these laws made virtually all abortions illegal, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or fetal abnormalities and included only a vague passage referring to “medical emergencies” that place “a woman in danger of death or serious risk of substantial impairment of a bodily function.” Doctors who didn’t follow the law could be charged with a felony, fined $100,000, lose their medical license, and be sentenced to life in prison. Meanwhile, those who reported doctors and others who assisted with abortions—anyone from nurses to neighbors to Uber drivers—could reap a $10,000 “bounty,” as the cash reward came to be known. The Life of the Mother Act would, in the words of its proponents, save women’s lives—in a state where the government seems only marginally interested in doing so. But the bill isn’t far reaching. For instance, it excludes exemptions for abortions in the case of fatal birth defects or complications that damage a woman’s future fertility. It doesn’t address pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Democratic leaders know that trying to get such changes through the GOP-dominated Legislature would be counter-productive. So, to mix metaphors, those working to even slightly to expand reproductive rights here have to crawl over glass to grab what crumbs they can.
Read this article at Texas Monthly - Subscribers Only
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Texas lawmakers have the lottery on the chopping block
It is a real possibility that the Texas lottery can go away in the wake of two major payout scandals. The Texas Lottery Commission is up for its every-12-year review known as the Sunset Commission. Last week, Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Ryan Mindell was the latest to resign. This came after a public grilling earlier this Spring in a Texas Senate committee hearing. The Texas Rangers, the Texas Attorney General, and select lawmakers continue to investigate whether large electronic lottery courier companies improperly had their thumb on the scale for two huge payouts: one for $95 million and another for $83 million. They're also investigating whether state regulators looked the other way. Courier services are companies like Lotto.com and Jackpocket, which sell lottery tickets online or through mobile apps.
In April, the Texas House zeroed out the budget for the Lottery Commission, killing the program if they don't make a different decision while negotiating with the Texas Senate. The legislative session ends in early June. “It’s a hard thing even for someone like me to comprehend," said Rob Kohler, a longtime anti-gambling lobbyist for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. According to state data, lottery sales have plummeted since the legislature began to scrutinize the industry. Earlier this Spring, the commission abruptly reversed its years-long course and decided that it could ban third-party lottery courier services. Sales in both scratch-offs and draw games have decreased. Lotto.com filed a lawsuit against the state for its quick backpedal to ban the courier services. Kohler told NBC 5 on Monday that it may be because people heard of the scandal and lost faith that it was fair. “They’ve lost players. There’s no doubt. You can look on social media. There’s folks they care enough that they bother to write down several sentences, you know I used to do this and I’m not going to do it anymore because it’s fixed," said Kohler.
Read this article at NBC DFW - Subscribers Only
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Latinx organizations, supporters advocate on behalf of undocumented students at state Capitol
Abigail Holguin, a government and Mexican American studies junior, reads from a piece of paper to a staffer in state Rep. John Lujan’s office. Speaking the words written by a friend, who is an undocumented student, Holguin rattled off the bevy of adjectives used to describe immigrant communities: “lazy,” “criminals,” “we come to steal jobs.” “While it might be convenient for these negative outliers to define all undocumented persons, the students would be significantly impacted by (Texas) House Bill 160 or law-abiding, morally conscious and hard-working people,” Holguin said. A group of students led by the UT chapter of predominantly Latino fraternity Sigma Lambda Beta lobbied lawmakers and testified before the Texas Senate Education Committee on April 22. They spoke against Texas Senate Bill 1798 and Texas House Bill 160, which would neutralize the Texas Dream Act, which is a law granting in-state tuition eligibility for undocumented students.
Marco Julian Gonzalez, a member of the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity, led the advocacy planning efforts over multiple months, bringing together 15 students from his organization and advocates across UT. Holguin was one of those students. She and two other students met with staffers from the office of state Sen. Donna Campbell, along with representatives from the offices of John Lujan and Terry Wilson. Those offices are where she read her friend’s statement. “It’s a lot to tell someone this, especially when you’re so used to not talking about it, especially in the very political climate we live in,” Holguin said. “Being one of the trusted friends to not only know your story, but also be one of your trusted friends to tell the story for you really puts into perspective how important it is knowing about this (and) talking about this.” The organization split into smaller groups and spoke to representatives and senators across the political spectrum. Interpersonal communications sophomore Samuel Lawrence Brainard said lawmakers should not treat the issue with as much partisanship. “Speaking as someone who voted for Donald Trump and I’m sure that plenty of people in this office probably did as well, being concerned about immigration is not mutually exclusive from offering the students who are not here of their own volition, basic opportunities and economic mobility and being able to climb the social ladder,” Brainard said.
Read this article at Daily Texan - Subscribers Only
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Noem takes look at cross-border tunnel during El Paso visit
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited El Paso on Monday. The trip included meeting with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials and a walk along the border wall near the spot where federal officials a few months ago discovered a cross-border tunnel believed to have been used by Mexican cartels to bring across drugs and “high value” migrants. Noem’s visit followed that of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week to highlight El Paso’s importance in the Trump administration’s border security strategy even as migrant encounters have plummeted. Noem’s trip came unannounced and wasn’t open to local news media. It came a little more than a month after DHS announced a series of international ads telling migrants not to come to America and warning they would be hunted down if they commit crimes. The president of Mexico called the ads “discriminatory” and vowed to change her country’s laws so they wouldn’t run in the future. Noem later countered saying the ads are working.
Read this article at Border Report - Subscribers Only
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Communities In Schools of Houston highlights mental health initiative during Mental Health Awareness Month in May
Communities In Schools of Houston (CIS), a leading educational nonprofit, proudly joins the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month this May. This year’s national campaign, “In Every Story, There’s Strength,” highlights the power of personal stories to foster connection, understanding, and hope. NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. NAMI’s campaign celebrates the power of storytelling to fuel connection, understanding, and hope for those navigating their own mental health path. For 46 years, CIS has championed student well-being, placing mental health at the core of its mission. Since launching the CIS Mental Health Initiative (MHI) 13 years ago, CIS has grown to become the largest school-based provider of mental health services in Harris County.
Read this article at Katy News - Subscribers Only
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Tilman Fertitta confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Italy by Senate
Houston's Tilman Fertitta has been confirmed as United States ambassador to Italy and San Marino. The billionaire businessman, who was nominated to the post by then President-elect Donald Trump in December, was approved by the Senate on Tuesday evening by a vote of 83-14. Fertitta, who was born in Galveston and is of Sicilian descent, described himself as a longtime admirer of Italy's culture, food and patriotic spirit in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations committee earlier this month. "If confirmed, I take the responsibility of being an ambassador at this crucial moment in history as the most important job of my life," Fertitta said. "You have my commitment, and America has my commitment, to always represent the United States and President Trump with dignity, pride, friendship and strength."
The confirmation will mean changes for many Houston institutions, given the scope of Fertitta's business and civic activities since he launched his entertainment empire with a single restaurant, Landry's Seafood in Katy, in 1986. He is the wealthiest person in Houston according to Forbes magazine. In a letter to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Fertitta said that, if confirmed, he would resign as CEO of Landry's, Inc., which has grown to include about 600 dining, gaming and entertainment locations. He is also expected to step down as chair of the University of Houston System Board of Regents. However, Fertitta will retain his role as owner of the Houston Rockets, he said in the letter.
Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only
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Texas lawmakers propose scrapping the STAAR test in favor of three much shorter exams
House lawmakers are proposing to replace the state’s annual STAAR exams with a series of tests given throughout the year under a plan they say would reduce the exams’ high-stakes nature and relieve pressure on students. The widely-criticized State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests would be scrapped in favor of three much shorter tests given at the start, middle, and end of each school year, according to draft legislation released on Tuesday. The plan would mark the most dramatic redesign of the state’s tests since STAAR was established for public and charter school students in 2011.
State Rep. Diego Bernal, a San Antonio Democrat who authored the bill, said having multiple short tests makes the purpose less about grading a student’s learning each year, and more about diagnosing any problem areas and improving them over time. It also means teachers and schools can be better evaluated on student improvement in between tests, he said, rather than just raw performance scores. “We’re not just teaching to the test anymore, we’re allowing teachers to shift and give individualized calibration and attention to students,” Bernal said. “You see the starting point, what kind of progress they’ve made, and how they are doing at the end.” House Bill 4 is up for its first public hearing Tuesday afternoon in the House education committee, whose chair, Republican state Rep. Brad Buckley, is the bill’s primary author. It is a priority bill for House Speaker Dustin Burrows and comes as part of a wider education package that includes vouchers for private schools and a boost in funding for public schools.
Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only
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Texas man charged with failing to register as an undocumented migrant
The Justice Department charged a migrant man in a West Texas federal court for failing to register his undocumented status with the federal government. The charge comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January requiring migrants to register based on a rarely used provision from a 1952 law. The executive order directed the Homeland Security secretary to “announce and publicize information about the legal obligation of all previously unregistered aliens in the United States to comply.” The Texas case follows one of an Arizona man charged earlier this month for failing to register. The Justice Department charged Hugo Moreno-Mendez with two misdemeanors. One was for refusing to provide DNA and the other was for willful failure to register. The second charge confused Moreno-Mendez’s attorney.
“This is not a charge I’ve ever seen before,” said Lauren McLeod, who has practiced law for 17 years, the last eight as a criminal defense attorney in Waco. Moreno-Mendez is accused of illegally entering the United States more than two decades ago and failing to register with the federal government. It’s unclear if his case is related to Trump’s executive order. In February, Department of Homeland Security officials announced they would create a registry for people who were in the U.S. illegally. DHS set a deadline of April 11 for people to comply with the new rule. Anyone who did not register with the federal government could be criminally prosecuted or fined. Moreno-Mendez reported to the McLennan County Probation Department on March 13 according to court records, and was arrested that day. Moreno-Mendez was on a 12-month probation after a September conviction on unlawfully installing a tracking device, local court records show. Justice Department officials noted in court filings that he entered the country illegally in 2004 “and willfully failed or refused to make such application or to be fingerprinted after thirty days.” Failing to register is punishable by up to six months in prison.
Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only
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State ethics panel to review allegations of ‘dark money’ in Prosper ISD trustee race
The Texas Ethics Commission has agreed to review allegations that a political action committee broke election laws when it spent $50,000 supporting two challengers running for the Prosper Independent School District school board. The PAC, known as the Accountable Leadership Committee, received $50,000 from a Washington, D.C., fund to support candidates in the trustee races, campaign finance records filed with the school district show. The money supported two candidates trying to unseat incumbents: Scott Bray, who is challenging incumbent Kelly Cavender for the Place 3 trustee seat, and Janette Church, who is challenging incumbent Garrett Linker for Place 6.
Bray and Church have said they are not involved with the committee, which has sent out advertisements supporting them. The committee’s website doesn’t give information on its mission or origins apart from the statement that it is “fighting for accountability and transparency.” The complaint was filed by Doug Charles, who founded a now-inactive political action committee that supported Linker in Prosper ISD’s 2022 trustee race. In an interview, Charles called the $50,000 contribution “dark money” — donations that can’t be traced because the source isn’t disclosed. The committee lists Dustin McIntyre as its treasurer on campaign finance records and includes a Nevada phone number and an address with a Frisco mailbox. Calls made to McIntyre’s listed number were not returned Monday. The ethics commission will review Charles’ complaint at 9 a.m. on Sept. 17 in Austin. The commission accepted jurisdiction on the complaint this month, which does not mean the commission found that a violation occurred. “It is scary. … $50,000 just didn’t randomly show up from Washington, D.C., into Prosper ISD,” Charles said in an interview. “There’s an agenda. It’s deep, it’s dark, and it’s ugly, and we need to know why.”
Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only
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Simplifying Texas child vaccine exemptions sparks partisan tensions amid measles outbreak
Legislation designed to make it easier for parents to exempt school children from vaccine requirements is fueling tensions over declining vaccination rates amid the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas. Currently, to exempt a child from school vaccine requirements, a parent must request the required form from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The department then mails the form to a parent, who must then fill it out and have it notarized before taking it to the school. State Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, wants the form available on the department’s website, cutting days or weeks from the process as parents wait to receive the required paperwork. During a debate that went late into Monday night, Hull said her House Bill 1586 was a “DOGE-like” proposal solely about government efficiency.
However, several testified before lawmakers that the proposal would undermine public health, expose children to diseases and further erode vaccination rates that have been declining in schools. “By making it easier for parents to opt out of routine childhood vaccinations required for school entry, this bill threatens the protection of vulnerable children who cannot be vaccinated,” said Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The partisan divide was evident during the House Public Health committee’s debate as a Democratic lawmaker questioned an advocate representing an organization dedicated to banning vaccine mandates. Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, said taking sides on the issue based solely on political party affiliation will hurt public health at large. “If we make this purely Republican and Democrats, guess who suffers? All of us,” said Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston.
Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only
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Texas House gives initial passage to antisemitism bill
The Texas House gave initial approval to legislation Tuesday designed to tamp down on antisemitism in Texas’ public schools and universities. The 134-2 vote gives the proposal a clear path for it to become law. The bill comes as President Donald Trump has taken a strong stance against pro-Palestine protests that many on the right view as anti-Jewish hate. Trump has threatened to cancel international student visas and deport any students found to have committed a hate crime. Texas has taken up the mantle as well. A groundswell of conservative support for legislation like the bill passed Tuesday came after pro-Palestine protests erupted at some public universities in 2024. State troopers arrested dozens of protesters at University of Texas campuses in Dallas and Austin last March.
In response to the demonstrations, Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order that directed schools to update free speech guidelines to address what he described as rising antisemitism on campuses. Opponents of the bill said they fear it will chill free speech on campuses, especially related to protests of Israeli military action in Gaza. The bill adds the definition of antisemitism to bullying statutes and requires public schools and colleges to consider if antisemitism was involved in any disciplinary action. Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, who said he is the House’s lone “fully Jewish member,” initially opposed the bill. Rosenthal said the Jewish community is divided on the bill. He expressed his own personal reservations over the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition in state law — a definition that was not intended to be used in laws or legal documents.
Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only
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Keller ISD split bill debated in Texas House committee
Local control, voter participation and the Keller school district were front and center at an April 29 House committee hearing in Austin, as lawmakers considered a bill that would put the splitting of a school district up to a public vote. The proposal at the center of the discussion — House Bill 5089 — comes after news broke in January that some Keller school trustees were considering a plan to divide the district in half along U.S. 377 through a process called detachment. The move would have separated Keller, Southlake, Watauga and Colleyville from district residents west of 377 in Fort Worth. The district ultimately didn’t go through with the idea, but different interpretations of state law over whether the splitting of a district must be approved by voters became apparent amid public outcry.
“Over the last four months, I’ve learned more about the Education Code than I have in the past three decades, and frankly, I’m embarrassed to to admit that, but I had to learn because we discovered a confusing and dangerous loophole that our board of trustees attempted to exploit,” said Angela Hall, a parent in the Keller school district who testified at the House Public Education Committee hearing. As a split was debated in Keller, there was debate over whether it could be done unilaterally if proposed through a resolution by the board or if a split must be taken to residents for a vote. House Bill 5089 by Rep. Charlie Geren, a Fort Worth Republican, clarifies that the process of detachment must go through voters. The bill as filed says a petition signed by 20% of registered voters in the existing district would be presented to the Texas State Board of Education. The state board would then determine if the petition is valid. If it is, an election would be held.
Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only
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North Texas lawmakers want transparency around jail deaths
Tarrant County lawmakers and advocates for those incarcerated in Texas jails called for more transparency surrounding in-custody deaths during an April 28 subcommittee hearing. The legislation comes as the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office faces scrutiny over recent jail deaths, with family members and advocates demanding more information about the circumstances surrounding people’s deaths while in jail custody. “Government must be accountable to the people it serves,” said Rep. Nicole Collier, a Fort Worth Democrat, during the subcommittee hearing. “When oversight laws are ignored or transparency is lacking, it sends the wrong message that accountability is optional. That’s unacceptable.”
House Bill 3841 by Collier and Rep. David Lowe, a North Richland Hills Republican, says a jail death investigation would begin “as soon as practicable” after an outside law enforcement agency is appointed to investigate. If a conflict of interest arises, the appointed investigative agency must notify the Texas Commission on Jail Standards so a new agency can be tapped to investigate, Collier said during the hearing. For each county jail death, the commission would need to publish on its website monthly: The county where the death occurred. The date the death occurred. The name of the law enforcement agency investigating the death and the date they were appointed. This information would also be required for any new law enforcement agency appointed to investigate due to a conflict of interest. Whether the investigation is pending or complete. The information would stay on the website until at least the second anniversary of the inmate’s death.
Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only
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National Stories
Trump, back in rally mode, marks 100 days in office with boisterous Michigan speech
Donald Trump's Michigan rally celebrating the 100th day of his second term wasn't a campaign rally, but it resembled one in many ways. He spoke for almost an hour and a half, falsely claimed to have won the 2020 presidential election, danced to "YMCA," and acknowledged the regulars that have shown up to his rallies for years. "I miss you guys," he said to the Front Row Joes, one group of Trump faithful. "I miss the campaign." While the Tuesday night rally had been billed as a way to celebrate his 100-day record, it served many more purposes. Trump also used his time on stage to luxuriate in the crowd's adoration, blame Joe Biden for various national problems, and insist that he, as president, is not getting the credit he deserves for his accomplishments.
Among the policies Trump celebrated was his deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador — a move that courts have challenged. In recent days, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked new deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, the law the Trump administration has used to deport more than 200 people to El Salvador. "Now the courts are trying to say that, you know, that doesn't matter. I don't think it's going to be allowed to stand," he said. "We are delivering mass deportation, and it's happening very fast. And the worst of the worst are being sent to a no-nonsense prison in El Salvador." He then presented a video of prisoners being flown to El Salvador and treated roughly — having their heads shaved and being marched, bent-over, into prison cells — while the crowd cheered.
Read this article at NPR - Subscribers Only
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Secret deals, foreign investments, presidential policy changes: The rise of Trump’s crypto firm
The pitch from “ZMoney” arrived on the encrypted messaging app Signal just days before Donald J. Trump’s presidential inauguration. “ZMoney” was Zachary Folkman, an entrepreneur who once ran a company called Date Hotter Girls and was now representing World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency firm that Mr. Trump and his sons had recently unveiled. Mr. Folkman was writing to a crypto startup in the Cayman Islands, offering a “partnership” in which the firms would buy each other’s digital coins, a deal that would bolster the startup’s public profile. But there was a catch, The New York Times found. For the privilege of associating with the Trumps, the startup would have to make, in effect, a secret multimillion dollar payment to World Liberty. “Everything we do gets a lot of exposure and credibility,” Mr. Folkman wrote, asserting that other business partners had committed between $10 million and $30 million to World Liberty.
The Cayman startup rejected the offer, as did several other firms that received a similar pitch from World Liberty, executives said. They considered the deal unethical, concluding that World Liberty was essentially selling an endorsement — and hiding the arrangement from the public. World Liberty’s executives, who have maintained that they did nothing improper, were undeterred. They successfully pitched similar deals to other firms while also marketing their coin to buyers around the world, reaping more than $550 million in sales, with a large cut earmarked for the president’s family. Mr. Trump’s return to the White House has opened lucrative new pathways for him to cash in on his power, whether through his social media company or new overseas real estate deals. But none of the Trump family’s other business endeavors pose conflicts of interest that compare to those that have emerged since the birth of World Liberty. The firm, largely owned by a Trump family corporate entity, has erased centuries-old presidential norms, eviscerating the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in a manner without precedent in modern American history.
Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only
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Jennifer Hegseth holds unorthodox role shaping Pentagon affairs
Hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon on his first full day in office, his wife, Jennifer, made a request. Would the defense secretary’s staff, she asked, edit and post a video to the Defense Department’s social media accounts of his initial remarks to reporters? The ask felt to some like a directive, according to people familiar with the matter and messages reviewed by The Washington Post. Though defense officials were aware of Jennifer Hegseth’s quiet yet omnipresent role in her husband’s bruising Senate confirmation process and her background — like his — at Fox News, she had no experience working in government and — importantly, these people said — had not been appointed to any official role in the Trump administration. “We would always hear that she was saying what kind of videos he should be doing, and what kind of statements he should be doing, and how the press should be handled,” recalled one person, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a dynamic viewed inside the Pentagon as unorthodox and sometimes problematic.
The role of Jennifer Hegseth, 40, throughout her husband’s budding tenure in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet has snapped into focus in recent weeks, after damaging news reports about Pete Hegseth’s stumbles as his on-the-job training plays out in public view — including the revelation that she was among a group of people with whom he shared advance notice of a U.S. military operation in Yemen. Others in the unclassified group chat, created by the defense secretary using the commercially available Signal app, included his brother and personal lawyer. It’s one of at least two such group chats established by her husband that Jennifer Hegseth has been included in along with other political appointees at the Pentagon, said two people familiar with the matter. The other group chat includes Sean Parnell, a senior adviser and spokesman, and Tami Radabaugh, a former Fox News producer overseeing how Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon engage with the media, these people said. It was not immediately clear whether that group chat, which has not been previously reported, also has included highly sensitive information. Jennifer Hegseth on multiple occasions has informed her husband’s staff of media interviews he planned to do, underscoring a belief among some officials that she wields outsize influence over certain Pentagon operations. Typically, such responsibilities fall to dedicated media-engagement professionals employed by the Defense Department, not the secretary’s wife.
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The big decision that could shape AOC’s future
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is at a crossroads — again. Five months ago, she chose to play the inside game with her fellow House Democrats, running for her party’s top post on the high-profile Oversight Committee. She came up short to a more senior lawmaker, Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, and left the committee entirely. Now she has a second chance. Connolly unexpectedly announced Monday he will soon step aside for health reasons, leaving her with another critical choice — one made even more momentous by how much has changed inside the Democratic Party since she last chose to try and move up the House ranks.
Faced with the stresses of President Donald Trump’s second term, Democratic voters are yearning for younger and more assertive leadership. Many see exactly what they are looking for in Ocasio-Cortez, 35, who has traveled the country in recent months, packing rally after rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and fueling speculation about a potential White House run. In other words, the stage afforded as ranking member of the House Oversight Committee is suddenly looking a whole lot smaller, and Ocasio-Cortez is remaining publicly and privately noncommittal as speculation swirls about Connolly’s successor. Even colleagues who enthusiastically backed her Oversight bid last year have been left guessing about her final decision. “The group of us who were her whip team have asked for her plans, and she’s still sorting out what she wants to do,” said Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.). “I think, to the person, we’ve all said, ‘Just let us know what you want to do, and we’ll work on your behalf.’”
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‘There’s no playbook for this': Trump allies press SEC on businesses
Paul Atkins took over as Wall Street’s chief regulator just a week ago, but he’s already staring at what could become a political headache: all the president’s friends. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new chair is facing a battery of decisions that directly involve some of President Donald Trump’s closest connections. Crypto firms, whose donations helped catapult Republicans to power, want the SEC to green-light a wave of novel products for everyday investors. The agency must decide how to proceed with a lawsuit against Elon Musk, whom it sued just before Inauguration Day. Trump Media & Technology Group, whose largest shareholder is the president, has called for an investigation of a London-based hedge fund’s bet against its stock. And Trump Media, Truth Social’s parent, is poised to launch a series of investment products of its own, likely needing SEC approval.
On top of all that, Atkins’ agency is running into MAGA world just as the White House pushes for more control over historically independent regulators like the SEC — setting up a potential challenge for the new chair, who was a member of the commission until 2008. “He already has a hard job, and now that job will include managing a relationship with the White House that will be more robust than any chair previously would have had to manage,” said Jennifer Schulp, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, the libertarian-leaning think tank. “It’s going to be a lot of feeling in the dark.” The rush of activity underlines a broader concern over the close ties that businesses have with the Trump administration, which has already begun shepherding major regulatory changes in corporate America’s favor. It comes as the president’s own business empire shows little hesitation about striking new deals or ventures, even if the optics raise alarms. Last week, a website for a memecoin that Trump launched right before his inauguration unveiled plans to host an “intimate, private” dinner with him for its biggest holders.
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New York bans smartphones in schools, joining national movement
New York will require schools statewide to ban smartphone use during school hours, joining a national movement aimed at preventing compulsive social media use and distractions that interfere with school work, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced this week. In more than 700 districts including New York City, school leaders will be required to create plans to store students’ smartphones “from bell to bell” and prevent their “unsanctioned use” during class, lunch and other parts of the school day. The ban, which applies to students in kindergarten through 12th grade, will also restrict other “internet-enabled personal devices” such as smartwatches. The ban will not apply to basic cellphones that lack internet access, state officials said.
New York will join roughly a dozen other states including California, Florida, Louisiana and Virginia that have moved in recent years to require districts to limit phone use, though the policies vary. Some states have banned devices only during classes; others have ordered districts to create their own restrictions. The bipartisan movement to crack down on phones has been fueled by anxiety over the consequences of an “always online” youth culture. Today, about 90 percent of U.S. teenagers own a smartphone, surveys show. Nearly one in three 8-year-olds have a smartphone. These bans come as policymakers are searching for solutions to soaring rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm among adolescents in the past decade. The U.S. surgeon general in the Biden administration warned last year that the addictive nature of social media could be part of the crisis, especially for young girls, though research on the issue is nuanced and mixed.
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Whitmer, Michigan’s Democratic Governor, appears with Trump again
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan didn’t hide her face when she appeared Tuesday with President Trump in her state as he marked his 100th day in office and announced new jet fighters for a National Guard base there. Their joint appearance stood in contrast to an awkward one when Whitmer found herself inside the Oval Office earlier this month while Trump signed a set of executive orders and held a question-and-answer session with reporters. She proceeded to try to hide herself—she was photographed holding blue folders in front of her face—and the fact that she was in such proximity to a Republican president many in her party try to avoid. This time at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base, where the president announced that A-10 fighter planes would be replaced with new F-15 jet fighters, Trump gestured for her to come to the microphone and stand behind his presidential seal.
“I hadn’t planned to speak,” Whitmer said. “But on behalf of all the military men and women who serve our country and serve so honorably on behalf of the state of Michigan, I am really damn happy we are here.” During her White House visit earlier in the month, Whitmer had been trying to secure funding for an expansion of the base near Detroit and warn the president about the impact of his tariffs on her state’s auto industry. “I’m so grateful this announcement was made today,” Whitmer, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said of the expansion of the base’s assets, before shaking Trump’s hand. Trump said Whitmer had “done a very good job” and noted that she had visited him at the White House to lobby for the base. “She was very effective,” he added. The Michigan governor has shown a greater willingness to try to work with Trump than some other Democratic governors. Their meeting at the National Guard base was held before Trump appeared at a rally in Macomb County, a suburban battleground area north of Detroit in a swing state that Trump won in November. Away from Trump, Whitmer has expressed concern about what his trade war will mean for her state’s large auto and manufacturing industries.
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Newsclips - April 29, 2025 |
Lead Stories
Tariff ‘chaos’ drags key Texas manufacturing gauge to worst since 2020
A widely followed measure of Texas manufacturing activity weakened significantly as executives used words like “chaos” and “insanity” to describe the turmoil spurred by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. A general gauge of business activity plunged to its worst reading since May 2020 based on recent survey responses from 87 Texas manufacturers, the Dallas Fed said Monday. While responses indicated modest current growth in production, company outlooks fell to a post-pandemic low as respondents pointed to frazzled supply lines and difficulty in forecasting. Survey indexes tracking the prices of raw materials and finished goods came in well above average, and almost 60% of respondents said higher tariffs would negatively impact their business this year.
Even as a majority of companies said they would pass higher costs onto customers, some 38% said it’s becoming harder or much harder to do so. US prices have increased more than 20% in the past four years, increasing concern that consumers may be fatigued, or have less spending power, to tolerate another ramp up in inflation. “The tariff issue is a mess, and we are now starting to see vendors passing along increases, which we will have to in turn pass along to our customers,” a respondent in the printing industry told the Dallas Fed. Another in food manufacturing said “tariffs and tariff uncertainty are wreaking havoc on our supply lines and capital spending plans.” An executive in electronics manufacturing said, “We have already had to turn around and refuse shipments because customers cannot afford the tariffs, delaying our ability to build, which will eventually lead to job losses.” Even companies with domestic inputs felt pressure because of a reduction in demand, one survey respondent said. Texas accounts for about 10% of total US manufacturing. One executive in the solidly Republican state told the Dallas Fed that “we believe the direction the current administration is leading our country is on target, but the pain to get there may be longer and more intense than originally anticipated.”
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'Burn it all down': Hardline conservative bloc declares war on Texas House GOP leadership
A group of insurgent Texas House Republicans has declared open war on GOP leadership and the lower chamber’s regular order of business, vowing to kill every local and consent calendar for the rest of the legislative session. The extraordinary move will slow down the passage of legislation about a month before the regular session's end and has some lawmakers fearing a repeat of the 2017 “Mother’s Day Massacre,” when the hardline Freedom Caucus killed more than 100 local and consent bills ahead of a deadline. “You won’t see another (L&C calendar) for the rest of this Session and we’re not even close to being finished,” state Rep. Steve Toth, R-Conroe, said in a social media post Saturday morning. “Burrows’ Leadership team has left us no other options than to burn it all down.”
If the local and uncontroversial bills are to survive, they will have to come up one at a time and be discussed on the House floor. And because there are scores of such bills waiting in the queue, such debates could threaten the future of those bills and other far-reaching measures in the five weeks remaining before the 2025 regular session ends June 2. Long-simmering tensions between the conservative bloc of lawmakers and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, exploded Friday when Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park led a maneuver to pop every Democrat-led proposal from the L&C calendar, which is generally reserved for uncontroversial measures, including the naming of roads, that are voted unanimously out of committee. The first to fall was a bipartisan bill targeting white-tailed deer overpopulation. The second, a proposal to let a Native American tribe commission peace officers in Texas. The third would help the state go after motor fuel theft.
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Texas House Dems appear to fold on threat prompted by vote on education savings accounts
House Democrats appeared to fold over a threat to block all proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. By Monday afternoon, at least six such amendments passed — including funneling money to dementia research and a nuclear power incentive fund. Leaders of the minority party in the House threatened to lock arms to block any amendments requiring a two-thirds majority to be placed before Texas voters on a ballot. They hinted at such a move to force compromise on the vote over education savings accounts. However, Republicans refused to put the issue on a statewide ballot as well and punted other proposed compromises on the bill now heading to the governor’s desk. Amendments need 100 votes to pass the House, which would require support from at least 12 of the 62 Democrat members of the House. Democrats showed some resistance early Monday, blocking the full passage of one amendment that would add a provision to the state Constitution blocking estate taxes.
That resistance soon crumbled, however, as large majorities passed six other amendments. They included $3 billion in dementia research funding and a $2 billion nuclear power incentive fund. Several amendments were held up for weeks in the Texas House after it became clear that they lacked the votes needed to pass and be placed on November’s ballot. Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, authored a proposed amendment that extends property tax exemptions to the spouses of veterans who died from medical conditions associated with military service. Turner’s proposal passed Monday with wide bipartisan support. Turner said he knew it had wide bipartisan support and that the House Democratic Caucus may still work to block other amendments with less support. “For Democratic members, there are always some that we would oppose on the merits and some we would support,” he said. As for whether the caucus might block less popular proposed amendments, “Those discussions are ongoing,” he said. House Democratic Caucus chair Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, did not comment when asked about the votes. Other amendments likely to come before the House include increases to homestead exemptions for property taxes and tax cuts for businesses, bail law reform to make it harder for people accused of violent crimes to be released and funding for water projects.
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Trump’s next 100 days: Trade deals, foreign policy and reconciliation
As President Trump looks to his next 100 days in office, White House officials said his focus can be summarized in five words: Trade deals and peace deals. Trump’s first 100 days in office saw a flood of executive action to rapidly deliver on key campaign promises around immigration and culture war issues, as well as a blitz against major agencies to slash the scope and size of government staffing and spending. Trump is expected to take additional deregulatory actions and sign more executive actions to enforce immigration and other aspects of his agenda, officials said.
But as Trump charts the path forward, the president and his aides are devoting significant time and resources to trying to negotiate trade deals to resolve tariff disputes and the potential economic fallout largely created by Trump’s own policies. Trump is also expected to focus in the weeks ahead on foreign policy, where he has struggled to deliver on a pledge to end the war in Ukraine and has kept a close eye on the Middle East. “I think we’re now entering this new era where we’ll now be able to focus on peace and prosperity,” a White House official said. “Peace in the world, prosperity at home by fixing our trade relationships and finding peace deals.” White House officials indicated that trade deals would be at the center of Trump’s agenda and schedule in the coming weeks. The president announced earlier this month a 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs for many countries to allow for talks, creating a deadline of July 8.
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State Stories
'Cannabis civil war': Why Texas lawmakers want to boost medical marijuana and end hemp sales
With 15 surgeries, head trauma, a disc replacement and documented post-traumatic stress disorder, former LSU football player Jamal Pack believes he is a perfect candidate for the state’s medicinal marijuana program. But the cost and hurdles to participate are too high, the Houston resident said, especially when the state is awash in hemp-derived THC products that work just as well. “If medical marijuana became more accessible, I would switch over," he said. "I know I can get approved for it, but I’d have to pay so much and travel is hard.”
The rise of cheap, loosely regulated delta-8 products in Texas after the state legalized hemp has undercut the state’s medicinal marijuana program, known as the Texas Compassionate Use Program, which operates under strict rules and has struggled to gain traction since its start a decade ago. This year, state lawmakers have proposed overhauling the playing field with bills that would support a dramatic expansion of the medicinal program, while banning all hemp-derived THC and effectively putting the burgeoning industry out of business. The approach has split the patient community, including veterans seeking alternatives to traditional pharmaceuticals. David Bass, director of Texas Veterans for Medical Marijuana, explained that though many veterans do enjoy easy access to cheap products, the hemp market undermines a core philosophy of the medical program: that cannabis is legitimate medicine and should be treated and regulated as such. Meanwhile, Mitch Fuller, legislative advocate for Veterans of Foreign Wars, said he welcomed an expansion but felt many veterans currently purchasing hemp products would fall through the cracks during a market transition or struggle to afford the more expensive medicinal products.
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Texas lawmakers hear proposal to fine, jail noncitizen donors
Noncitizens who make political contributions in Texas elections could be fined and jailed under a bill taken up by a legislative committee Monday. It is illegal for foreign nationals to donate or spend money in federal, state and local elections under federal law. But Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Houston, said “enforcement is rare and often focused on national races.” Paul’s House Bill 4312 would prohibit anyone who is not an American citizen from knowingly donating to a Texas candidate or political committee. An offense would be a Class A misdemeanor, and violators would face up to a $4,000 fine, a year in jail or both. “This applies at every level of government — including school board, judicial, local races — ensuring foreign money has no influence in Texas politics,” Paul said Monday morning. “The bill aligns with federal law, but it ensures Texas can defend its election without waiting on Washington and gives our state clear legal grounds to enforce that standard.”
Paul said his proposal would empower the state “to investigate and penalize violations directly, especially in the small local contests where oversight is a weakness.” Daniel Hunt, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, said Texas needs to eliminate outside influences in its elections. “Texans should be determining who their representatives are, who their governor is, etc.,” Hunt said. “This goes all the way down to school board and city council elections.” Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, asked Paul to amend his bill to also make it illegal for Texas candidates to accept contributions from noncitizens. Paul said it would be a good floor amendment. Other members of the House State Affairs Committee raised concerns over enforcement, including Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who has introduced legislation to limit out-of-state contributions in Texas elections and other bills related to campaign donations and advertising.
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Potential Head Start defunding could hurt Texas economy, schools
National and local Head Start providers in Texas are calling on community members to reach out to elected officials in light of reports that the federal government is proposing to slash the program that provides child care and creates job opportunities for low-income families. Head Start, a federally funded child care and preschool program for children ages 0-5, is among the latest programs being eyed for budget cuts by the Trump administration, according to a leaked proposal for fiscal year 2026 that allocates no money toward it. Any budget decisions would have to be approved by Congress. In a virtual press conference on Monday, April 28, program providers and advocates said dismantling Head Start would have far-reaching consequences for the Texas economy and workforce by taking away services that help children thrive and allow parents to go to work.
The proposal also comes on the heels of recent cuts to the federal offices of Head Start and Child Care. Kriston Jackson-Jones, of the Dallas-based Child Care Group, said other services beyond child care such as health screenings, mental health supports and disability services are also at risk with the defunding proposal. “That’s the real power of Head Start. It builds strong children, strong families and most importantly, strong communities,” she said, noting that 19,000 jobs in Texas’ early childhood sector are also on the line. More than 65,000 children and 50,000 parents in Texas rely on Head Start and Early Head Start, which focuses on infants and toddlers, according to child advocacy nonprofit Children at Risk. Texas’ economy is estimated to be losing out on $9.4 billion a year due to affordability and accessibility issues in the child care system, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The return on investment, officials said on Monday, ranges from $7-9 for every $1 spent on Head Start.
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Voucher bill requires public schools to help administer the program for students with disabilities
Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican legislators have pitched vouchers as an escape hatch for students with disabilities struggling in public schools, who will get up to $30,000 a year to spend on private education. But the program could also prove a major strain on public schools, which are saddled with the time-consuming and costly task of evaluating whether interested students qualify for special education services. The bill headed to Abbott’s desk requires public schools to complete comprehensive special education evaluations for all students interested in private school vouchers, including those with no intention of ever enrolling in public districts, within a 45-day deadline.
Since students with disabilities are first in line to receive the vouchers and can receive higher dollar amounts based on their needs, the law is expected to spur additional demand for the evaluations. Public schools fear the new rush of requests will further clog a system that’s already overwhelmed: Special education evaluations have increased by more than 70% in the last decade, and school districts are struggling to complete those on time amid a staffing shortage. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Conroe Republican who authored the school voucher bill, acknowledged the hardship for public school districts. But he said that the districts are already required to complete evaluations for students who need them, even if they’re enrolled in private schools. “There’s been an incredible uptick in the number of evaluations requested,” he told Hearst Newspapers in an interview. “I'm not sure exactly how it will tie into (the new program), but we'll have to wait and see on that.”
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Shirtless J6er spews white supremacist lies about Texas teen’s killing
White supremacists are attempting to make the tragic murder of a North Texas teenager about Black-on-white crime, and the grieving father of the white victim isn’t playing along. What began as a bizarre tragedy that made headlines all across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is becoming a national story tied to January 6 rioters who were pardoned from prison by President Donald Trump. The story begins on Wednesday, April 2, in Frisco, Texas, a far northern suburb of Dallas. Austin Metcalf, a 17-year-old white student from Memorial High School in Frisco, and 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, a Black student from Centennial High School in Frisco, ended up next to each other in a tent during a rainstorm.
This tent was for the Memorial High School team, not the Centennial High School team. According to reports from the scene, Anthony came under the other team’s tent because it was raining. The two teens apparently did not know each other. However, by Anthony’s account, Metcalf told him he had to leave the tent and threatened him. The Black student reportedly replied: “Touch me and see what happens.” The white student persisted in trying to expel the Black student from the tent. According to eyewitness accounts, Anthony pulled out a black knife from his backpack and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest before running away. Metcalf was pronounced dead soon after at a local hospital. Locally, racial tensions accelerated because of the murder, which Anthony claims was not intended to be a murder and was his response to being bullied by Metcalf. By some accounts, Metcalf and his twin brother were known bullies. By other accounts, the victim was a model student. Anthony told police as he was being escorted away: “He put his hands on me, I told him not to.” Here’s a question no one seems to be asking: How is it possible for a high school junior to have a large knife at a track meet? Was there no security at the stadium? Texas is a state where the attorney general is suing cities to force them to allow guns in other public venues such as the state fair and theatrical performances. But still: Why was it possible for a high school student to bring a murder weapon to a track meet? Instead, the national debate has turned to race, and that is being done by what might be called “outside agitators” sparked by local race baiting.
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A 106-year tax break? Texas lawmakers look to close loopholes in unchecked economic development laws
The Texas Legislature is considering closing loopholes in a tax incentive program that lets cities and counties give public funds to private businesses with no limits and little oversight. Other types of economic development incentives in Texas, such as abatements on city, county and school property taxes, cap each deal at 10 years. Those programs also come with other guardrails and transparency measures. Chapters 380 (for cities) and 381 (for counties), by contrast, let city and county officials reduce any type of tax or fee that companies pay — or simply give away public money to companies as grants. A 2021 Houston Chronicle investigation found the state statutes impose no limits on each deal and do not require officials to write rules guiding their programs, hold public meetings before the deals are approved or reclaim funds paid to companies that fail to meet their commitments.
One city even extended a 60-year sales tax rebate deal last spring through 2099 – meaning the agreement will run for 106 years. A bill filed by state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, would address some of these weaknesses. Senate Bill 878 passed the Senate 27-4 this month and awaits a hearing in the House Ways & Means Committee. The bill would force cities and counties to hold public hearings on each deal before putting it to a vote of the commissioners court or city council, post information about the deals on their websites and include “appropriate performance metrics” in each agreement. It would cap the deals at 25 years – 10 years plus up to three 5-year renewals, which could be approved only if the deal’s performance metrics are met. The bill also would block cities and counties from using the laws to reduce businesses’ property taxes, limiting those abatements to other chapters of state law that cap those deals at 10 years.
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CenterPoint Energy to launch 100 weather stations across Houston metro ahead of hurricane season
CenterPoint Energy plans to install a network of 100 weather stations across its 12-county service territory in the Greater Houston area before hurricane season kicks off on June 1, the company announced Monday. The weather stations are expected to help the Houston-area electric utility better forecast severe weather and more precisely distribute resources, among other improvements, according to CenterPoint’s statement. CenterPoint said it would be the first investor-owned utility in Texas to establish its own weather station network. “Our weather network will provide invaluable situational awareness, in real-time, to help us act quickly, proactively and precisely before weather threatens to impact the electrical system and our customers,” Matt Lanza, CenterPoint’s meteorology manager, said in the statement.
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Fort Worth ISD risks TEA takeover after failing ratings
When Texas education officials released long-delayed 2023 A-F accountability scores last week, the Fort Worth Independent School District found itself at risk for a possible state takeover like the one that occurred two years ago in the state’s largest school district. After a now-closed sixth grade center in the district received a failure rating for five consecutive years, Fort Worth ISD is facing the possibility of state intervention. But the specifics of the situation make it difficult to predict what that intervention looks like — and even whether it happens at all. When a school receives a failure rating for five consecutive years, state law requires the education commissioner to do one of two things: Shut that campus down, or take over the entire district, replacing its elected school board with a state-appointed board of managers made up of district residents. The commissioner may also replace the superintendent, but isn’t required to do so.
Because of a change in state law, TEA didn’t issue failure ratings in 2021 and 2022. But that change was a pause, not a reset. That means any campus that racked up four consecutive failure ratings between 2016-2019 and then received an F in 2023’s ratings could place its district at risk of state takeover. Across Texas, there’s only one campus in that situation: Fort Worth ISD’s Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade, formerly known as Glencrest Sixth Grade. Complicating matters is the fact that Fort Worth ISD has already closed Forest Oak Sixth Grade. After the sixth grade center lost about a quarter of its enrollment between 2019 and 2022, the district shut the campus down at the beginning of the current school year and consolidated it with the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Middle School, about a mile away. It’s unclear if the district’s closure of its own campus satisfies the law requiring Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to intervene or, if not, what action the commissioner would take. TEA officials have noted that the ratings are considered preliminary until they’re finalized in August, and every district has the opportunity to appeal.
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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Funding air conditioning in Texas prisons a moral, constitutional imperative
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Texas Legislature have had years to correct a deficiency that renders a typical Texas prison into what a U.S. district judge likened to “unconstitutional punishment.” Instead, disregard for fellow humans amid a populist tough-on-criminals mentality has kept the state from making meaningful progress toward installing air conditioning in Texas’ notoriously and dangerously hot prisons. From 2001 to 2019, at least 271 deaths in Texas prisons were attributable to extreme heat in facilities without air conditioning, public health researchers from Harvard, Boston and Brown universities found.
Now, legislation recently passed out of the Texas House Committee on Corrections aims to put the state on track — sort of — to have air conditioning throughout state prisons by 2032. House Bill 3006 calls for the TDCJ to complete such a transformation for one-third of its prisons by 2028, another third by 2030 and the rest two years after that. But even if the bill — a seemingly earnest effort by its sponsor, state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg — were to become law, something no prison air conditioning bill has done, it’s questionable whether its intent would be realized. For one thing, the bill caps spending on each phase at $100 million, while the TDCJ has estimated it would take $1.3 billion to install climate-control systems in inmate housing areas, according to the Texas Legislative Budget Board. And the bill’s tasking of the TDCJ is contingent on the Legislature providing such funding, which is hardly assured. We hope state lawmakers will do the right thing by correcting this decadeslong deadly deficiency and overcoming the misguided notion that prison inmates deserve to suffer.
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Texas school ratings reveal stark east-west divide in Austin: 'There is work to be done'
The 2023 Texas Education Agency's academic accountability scores released last week highlighted a stark divide running generally along Interstate 35 in Austin: schools that earned A ratings — the highest passing scores — were mostly located west of the bisecting highway, and those with failing scores were concentrated along the corridor and to its east. West of I-35 and south of Texas 183 lay swaths of campuses that received A ratings by the TEA's A-F letter grading system, which is used to designate which schools meet state academic standards. Campuses that failed to meet state standards are concentrated to the east and north of the two major thoroughfares. The sharp image also comes into focus as the Austin school district — along with many others across the state — saw an increase in schools earning F ratings in 2023 compared with the previous year.
In Austin the disparity is visually blaring, underscoring a historic imbalance in the district's allocation of resources and a lack of teacher and staff stability at campuses with the greatest needs, according to local education advocates and experts. The Austin district considers demographics, such as economic and emergent bilingual data, when deciding which resources or staff members to allocate to campuses, spokesman JJ Maldonado said. Some students may face family challenges that affect their ability to get to school, and some changes to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test, such as its move to online instead of paper form, could be difficult for students who only access computers at school, Maldonado said. "We recognize there is work to be done throughout our schools and we’re working with our communities to transform Austin ISD — not only to succeed within the state system but to continue delivering the excellence our students and families expect and deserve," he said. Campuses that have been rated an F do tend to experience higher teacher turnover, especially among newer educators, which can contribute to a lack of stability at schools, Maldonado said.
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Members of Ed Young's Houston megachurch claim church shut them out
In May 2024, Pastor H. Edwin "Ed" Young told his congregation that he was resigning from his leadership post at Second Baptist in Houston, ending his 46-year tenure as one of America's most influential and charismatic pastors. The pastor, then 87 years old, named his son Ben Young as his successor. Nearly a year later, a group of current and former Second Baptist members say the father and son, associate pastor Lee H. Maxcy and attorney Dennis Brewer (together dubbed "the Young Group"), abolished the right of church members to vote for their next pastor and installed Ben Young as an act of self-interest to "takeover" the church. Earlier this month, members of the congregation filed a suit in Harris County District Court.
The case against Second Baptist is led by a newly formed, Houston-based nonprofit called the Jeremiah Counsel Corporation that says its purpose is to "promote, protect and restore integrity, accountable governance and donor protection for churches" in Texas. In a statement Friday, the Jeremiah Counsel alleged that the Young Group "deceived and manipulated" the Second Baptist's 90,000 members by amending the church bylaws to deny them their right to vote for a new pastor. It claimed church members never received copies of the proposed bylaws, and the Young Group now controls over $1 billion in assets. "The church membership and the assets have been put at great risk because of the deceitful and deceptive practices of the church leadership, including the Senior Pastor, collectively ‘the Young Group,’ which has stripped all church members of the voting rights they have had since the church was founded nearly 100 years ago," the Jeremiah Counsel said.
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MD Anderson implements hiring pause after $43M loss, anxiety over Trump tariffs
MD Anderson Cancer Center has implemented a hiring pause for some positions and cut back “non-essential” spending after seeing a budget shortfall through the first half of the fiscal year, according to an internal email from the cancer center’s president, Dr. Peter Pisters. In the email, sent to employees April 17, Pisters said the cancer center took a $43 million operating loss through March – or $18.3 million below projections. Expenses had outpaced revenue, with more doctors on staff and fewer new patients coming to the hospital compared to last year, Pisters said. The losses reflect only a small percentage of MD Anderson’s 2025 budget, which listed $7.8 billion in total projected revenue through August. However, inflation and uncertainty in the financial markets – including the prospect of tariffs raising prices on medications – prompted the institution to take action, Pisters said in an interview with the Chronicle.
“The economic climate makes it very difficult to forecast,” Pisters said. “And that’s not a personal view, that’s a shared view among CEOs that I speak with.” Pisters characterized the changes as “mild” and said he was confident they would be enough to reach the $140 million budget surplus expected by August. The hiring pause will only affect positions that aren’t directly tied to patient care, he said. Research positions funded by external grants and contracts will still be considered. Additionally, MD Anderson employees have been asked to cut back on business travel and conference attendance, unless there’s a legitimate need. Pisters said he’s no longer planning to attend two major cancer research conferences held by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. MD Anderson is among many health systems struggling with increasing costs, in part because of supply chain disruptions and workforce shortages. Fifteen hospitals have closed so far in 2025, already exceeding the total closures in 2023, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
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National Stories
Mark Carney warns Canadians in Liberal Party victory speech: 'Trump is trying to break us'
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won Canada’s federal election on Monday, capping a stunning turnaround in fortunes fueled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats and trade war. After polls closed, the Liberals were projected to win more of Parliament’s 343 seats than the Conservatives. It wasn’t immediately clear, though, if they would win an outright majority — at least 172 — or would need to rely on one of the smaller parties to pass legislation. The Liberals looked headed for a crushing defeat until the American president started attacking Canada’s economy and threatening its sovereignty, suggesting it should become the 51st state. Trump’s actions infuriated Canadians and stoked a surge in nationalism that helped the Liberals flip the election narrative and win a fourth-straight term in power.
In a victory speech before supporters in Ottawa, Carney stressed the importance of Canadian unity in the face of Washington’s threats. He also said the mutually beneficial system Canada and the U.S. had shared since World War II had ended. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” he said. “As I’ve been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,” Carney said. “These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never ... ever happen. But we also must recognize the reality that our world has fundamentally changed.” The Conservative Party’s leader, Pierre Poilievre, hoped to make the election a referendum on former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and housing prices rose. But Trump attacked, Trudeau resigned and Carney, a two-time central banker, became the Liberal Party’s leader and prime minister. In a concession speech and with his own House of Commons seat still in doubt, Poilievre vowed to keep fighting for Canadians.
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It’s not just ‘leftist’ judges. GOP appointees have many sharp words for Trump.
President Donald Trump has spent almost his entire political career attacking the independence of the judicial system. But even against that backdrop, the first three months of his second term have been something else. As judges have halted his actions or ruled against him in dozens of cases, he and his top allies have increasingly cast their decisions as an illegal and unconstitutional power grab from another branch of government. It’s the kind of talk that could lead to ugly places. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday cited “rogue district court judges.” Top White House adviser Stephen Miller late Wednesday denounced “a rogue radical left judiciary.” Vice President JD Vance has railed against “radical left judges.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi referred to “low-level leftist judges who are trying to dictate President Trump’s executive powers.” Elon Musk has gone so far as to claim that a “judicial coup” is underway and has pushed for impeaching individual judges. One of the most popular memes in right-wing social media circles this week is a comparison of the number of legal injunctions faced by Trump versus other recent presidents. Trump has faced many more than the others, even as the meme butchers the data. There is at least one very good reason for those numbers, though, and that is that Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to test the limits of his power. He has even done transparently illegal things in hopes that the Supreme Court will change its precedents. But there’s another aspect of Trump’s attack on the judiciary that should not be lost: It’s not just Democratic-appointed, so-called “leftist” judges who are rebuking him. A fast-increasing number of Republican appointees have also cast the administration’s actions as blatantly illegal, lawless and even dangerous to U.S. democracy.
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Harris to criticize Trump in first major address since leaving office
Former Vice President Kamala Harris will jab at President Trump in the keynote address at the Emerge gala on Wednesday, making her first public remarks since leaving office in January, a source told The Hill. In her remarks, the former vice president, who lost to Trump in November, is expected to offer pointed criticism of the administration, the source said. Harris is also expected to honor the organization for its role empowering women in politics and issue a call to action to combat Trump’s economic policies and his push to overhaul the federal government. Emerge, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the gala, is an organization that helps recruit and train Democratic women to run for office. Harris worked with the Emerge co-founder Andrea Dew Steele on her run for district attorney of San Francisco in 2003.
Harris earlier this month made a surprise appearance at a leadership summit for Black women in California and told the crowd, “I’m not going anywhere.” She also signed on with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the entertainment firm, earlier this year. Speculation has swirled surrounding whether Harris is mulling a run for California governor in 2026, and she is expected to make a formal decision by the end of the summer. Early polling has shown that if Harris was to launch a bid, she would be the Democratic front-runner. The former vice president nabbed nearly 6 in 10 likely primary voters in a February survey from Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill.
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Civil rights lawyers leave en masse as Justice Dept. mission shifts
The new head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division is dramatically reshaping the office to propel President Donald Trump’s social agenda, prompting the departure of about half of the division’s lawyers in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the situation and public statements from top officials. Since being sworn in this month, civil rights director Harmeet K. Dhillon has redirected her staff to focus on combating antisemitism, the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports and what Trump and his allies have described as anti-Christian bias and the Democrats’ “woke ideology.” The division changed mission statements across its sections to focus less on racial discrimination and more on fighting diversity initiatives. And department officials reassigned more than a dozen career staffers — including section chiefs overseeing police brutality, disability and voting rights cases — to areas outside their legal expertise.
The changes under Dhillon, a longtime Republican activist, coincide with a second White House offer to federal workers that allows them to resign from their positions and be paid through September. The deadline for that offer is late Monday evening, and civil rights employees have been submitting their resignations en masse as the deadline nears, said people familiar with the division who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. More than 100 division attorneys have already said they will leave their jobs, Dhillon told conservative podcaster Glenn Beck during an appearance on his show Saturday. Many departed because they disagree with the division’s new direction, she said. The division had about 380 attorneys when Trump began his second term in the White House. Approximately half have left or said they will leave, according to people familiar with the division, and Dhillon told Beck she had no problem with their departures. “I think that’s fine,” Dhillon said. “We don’t want people in the federal government who feel like it’s their pet project to go persecute police departments based on statistical evidence or persecute people praying outside abortion facilities instead of doing violence. … The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws — not woke ideology.”
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'60 Minutes' correspondent Scott Pelley calls out parent company Paramount
Turmoil at "60 Minutes" spilled from behind the scenes to front of camera over the weekend. In a rare on-air rebuke April 27, longtime correspondent for the CBS newsmagazine Scott Pelley said the broadcaster's parent company Paramount had become heavy-handed in its oversight. His comments came in response to executive producer Bill Owens' resignation from the show last week. Owens resigned after saying he had lost journalistic independence. "It was hard on him and hard on us," Pelley said. "But he did it for us and you. "Stories we've pursued for 57 years are often controversial: lately, the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way," he continued.
"But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways," Pelley said. "None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires." Announcing his resignation, Owens wrote in an internal memo seen by Reuters that it had "become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it" or "to make independent decisions," and that after defending the show "from every angle, over time with everything I could," he had elected to step down. USA TODAY has reached out to a rep for "60 Minutes" for comment. Pelley's comments come as the Trump administration bears down on media outlets it views as biased or over-critical. Both as a candidate and now as president, Donald Trump has taken legal action against several of the major news networks, and his press office has shut out some legacy media outlets from access they previously enjoyed.
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Can public money flow to Catholic charter school? The Supreme Court will decide
The Catholic Church in Oklahoma wants taxpayers to fund an online charter school that “is faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ.” The Supreme Court could well approve. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would be the nation’s first religious charter school. A ruling from the high court allowing public money to flow directly to a religious school almost certainly would lead to others. Opponents warn it would blur the separation between church and state, sap money from public schools and possibly upend the rules governing charter schools in almost every state. The court hears arguments Wednesday in one of the term’s most closely watched cases.
The case comes to the court amid efforts, mainly in conservative-led states, to insert religion into public schools. Those include a challenged Louisiana requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms and a mandate from Oklahoma’s state schools superintendent that the Bible be placed in public school classrooms. Conservative justices in recent years have delivered a series of decisions allowing public money to be spent at religious institutions, leading liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor to lament that the court “continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build.” The justices are reviewing an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision last year in which a lopsided majority invalidated a state board’s approval of an application filed jointly by two Catholic dioceses in Oklahoma. The K-12 online school had planned to start classes for its first 200 enrollees last fall, with part of its mission to evangelize its students in the Catholic faith.
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Newsclips - April 28, 2025 |
Lead Stories
Only about half of Republicans say Trump has focused on the right priorities, AP-NORC poll finds
Many Americans do not agree with President Trump’s aggressive efforts to quickly enact his agenda, a new poll finds, and even Republicans are not overwhelmingly convinced that his attention has been in the right place. Americans are nearly twice as likely to say Trump has been mostly focusing on the wrong priorities as to say he has been focusing on the right ones, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Further, about 4 in 10 Americans say Trump has been a “terrible” president in his second term, and about 1 in 10 say he has been “poor.” In contrast, about 3 in 10 say he has been “great or ”good,” while just under 2 in 10 say he has been “average.”
Most haven’t been shocked by the drama of Trump’s first 100 days. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say the first few months of Trump’s second term have been mostly what they expected, and only about 3 in 10 say the Republican president’s actions have been mostly unexpected. But that does not mean they are pleased with how those opening months have gone. In fact, Democrats seem even unhappier with the reality of the second Trump term than before he was sworn in on Jan. 20. About three-quarters of Democrats say Trump is focused on the wrong topics and about 7 in 10 think he has been a “terrible” president so far. That is an increase from January, when about 6 in 10 anticipated that he would be “terrible.” Rahsaan Henderson, a Democrat from California, said “it has been one of the longest 100 days I’ve ever had to sit through.” “I think the next four years will be a test of seeing who can resist the most and continue defying whatever he’s trying to do, since he defies everything, including the Supreme Court,” said Henderson, 40.
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Texas House and Senate at odds over how to boost public school funding and teacher pay
The Texas House and Senate have each supported billions in new investments for public schools, but their strategies and bottom-line amounts remain far apart as lawmakers from each chamber head to the negotiating table in the closing weeks of session. The House passed a landmark $7.7 billion school funding bill last week that would revamp special education, invest in merit-based teacher pay and make dozens of changes big and small to the complex funding formulas that decide what schools get how much. It would also raise schools’ base, per-student funding for the first time since 2019 — providing huge relief to districts statewide, many of which have cut budgets, closed campuses or run deficits in recent years. The Senate prefers much more targeted increases that specify how the districts can use the money, including one bill that would make a similar investment in special education and a $4.3 billion measure earmarked directly for teacher pay bonuses.
“There’s a philosophical difference in how to deliver the money to the school districts,” said H.D. Chambers, executive director of the Texas School Alliance. “Do you put it in buckets? Or do you do it more discretionary, and you let the schools decide?” Proposals in both chambers would likely provide the most significant investments to rural school districts, with legislators saying it’s because smaller districts lack the economies of scale of larger ones, causing struggles to recruit and retain staff. Most of the state’s small and rural school districts are represented by Republicans, who control the Legislature, while the larger, urban districts in big cities like Houston and San Antonio often are represented by Democrats. The two chambers must hash out the differences before the session ends on June 2.
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John Cornyn or Ken Paxton? Trump says he’s not ready to endorse next Texan for U.S. Senate.
President Donald Trump says he is not ready to tap which Texan he wants to send to the U.S. Senate. The commander in chief told reporters Friday that he likes both incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and outgoing Attorney General Ken Paxton — the two Republicans vying for the seat — but hasn’t made a decision on which would be best for the job. “In a way, I wish they weren’t running against each other,” Trump said in a press gaggle aboard Air Force One, according to The Washington Post. “I’ll make a decision somewhere along the line.”
Cornyn, 73, has held the seat for two dozen years. Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, he was state attorney general and sat on the Texas Supreme Court. He also held the position of Senate majority whip, a position that required him to corral votes for GOP priorities. Paxton, 62, has served a decade as state attorney general. He previously won seats in both the Texas Senate and Texas House, representing the McKinney area. The two men have split repeatedly over the years, most recently spurred by Cornyn’s criticisms of Paxton’s legal troubles. Cornyn has called Paxton, who was impeached and later acquitted for alleged corruption, a “con man.” Paxton says Cornyn is not sufficiently conservative, and has criticized him for his votes on foreign aid and gun policy.
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Academic freedom, DEI: Texas colleges face major overhaul this legislative session
Texas’ public colleges face a major overhaul that would shift more power over what’s taught and who’s hired to politically connected regents, furthering Republican leaders’ efforts to exert control over universities they see as overtaken by liberal bias. Governor-appointed regents could veto nearly any campus-based decision, cut core classes they determine not “foundational and fundamental” and have more oversight across public universities in the state under Senate Bill 37. The priority bill would reduce professors’ influence and create a state office to ensure schools are complying with new state laws, such as the ban on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that passed in 2023. Many see SB 37 as an expansion of the state’s DEI ban — aiming to limit what’s taught in classrooms. The proposal is a major shift from how the state universities have historically operated.
The legislation passed the Texas Senate in a 20-11 vote, but House members have not held a hearing on the bill. Professors and campus leaders have long had the academic freedom to determine what courses are offered and to participate in the hiring process of presidents, provosts, deans and other faculty. Faculty members see SB 37 as a push by the state GOP to infringe upon freedom of speech on campuses and to weaken higher education, which would make it difficult for Texas to attract the best talent. The bill is a “political invasion” of higher education, said Leonard Bright, a professor at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. It’s “wasteful and needlessly vindictive,” Bright said. “Ultimately, the goal of the bill is to intimidate faculty, quiet our voices and to punish us for having the courage to speak truth to power.” The increased scrutiny of higher education in the state has already led to schools making changes. In early April, officials at University of Texas at Austin announced the school eliminated its signature “flags” program that sought to ensure students had exposure to core disciplines — from writing skills to global cultures. A new program aims to focus on workforce skills, UT leaders have said.
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State Stories
Texas Democrats push inquiry into Trump deals with prominent law firms
U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Sylvia Garcia of Texas are pushing an inquiry into whether deals between several prominent law firms' and President Donald Trump constituted the bribe of a government official. The pair joined 14 other Democratic members in penning letters to nine large firms on Thursday, several of which have offices in Texas, requesting details on how their deals with Trump came together and what exactly they agreed to in order to maintain access within the federal government. Trump reached the agreements with some of the nation's largest firms after he issued executive orders taking away their attorneys' security clearance and barring government agencies from working with them.
Many of those orders were revoked after firms agreed to provide tens of millions of dollars worth of pro bono legal work for causes important to Trump, as well as refraining from hiring practices designed to promote "diversity, equity and inclusion." "Agreements of this kind also signal acquiescence to an abuse of federal power, raising serious questions about how or whether your firm would represent clients or take on matters that might be seen as antagonistic to President Trump or his agenda," the Democrats wrote. Paul Weiss, the first of the firms to come to a deal with Trump, did not return a request for comment Friday. The others have yet to comment publicly. Trump touted the deals as providing legal support for issues important to the country, saying earlier this month, "Have you noticed lots of law firms have been signing up with Trump? $100 million (worth of pro bono legal work), another $100 million for the damages they’ve done."
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Two new PACs get busy in Dallas elections
If you hadn’t already heard, it’s municipal election season in Dallas. Early voting has begun. And like budding flowers to springtime, so are burgeoning PACs to election season. Two new political action committees have recently distributed physical mailers and digital ads endorsing slates of Dallas city council candidates. But until now, the PACs’ funding has been a mystery. They were only recently created, and mandated financial reports weren’t released until this week. One PAC is an apparent surrogate for the Dallas County Republican Party. The other is a vehicle for the interests of Airbnb. Let’s take them one at a time.
The Dallas County Republican Party has previously issued direct endorsements for city council candidates, but this time around it has instead funded an arms-length PAC to push endorsements. On February 10, the wonderfully named Committee for a Strong Econcomy PAC was created. Yes, the name is misspelled on official filing documents. Its only donor is the Dallas County GOP, which has contributed $6,000. The second Dallas-focused PAC to recently pop up appears to have a more serious backer. Revitalize Dallas PAC was formed on March 30, and so far, Airbnb has contributed $500,000. Revitalize Dallas has sent mailers endorsing candidates in three districts with open seats: Maxie Johnson, District 4; Monica Alonzo, District 6; and Erik Wilson, District 8. The endorsements are related to a questionnaire that the PAC sent via email to all candidates in races where there is no incumbent. The questionnaire sought candidates’ stances on a number of topics. One question asked candidates about their position on destination gambling. Others asked about housing affordability and public safety. But the majority of the questions related to short-term rentals, which the City Council passed an ordinance to ban in single-family neighborhoods—over 90 percent of the city—by a narrow vote of 8-7 in 2023. That ordinance has since been blocked by court decisions.
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Houston's ConocoPhillips may face layoffs after sweeping firings at Marathon Oil last year
Employees of ConocoPhillips face more layoffs after the oil company's merger with Marathon Oil, which triggered sweeping job cuts in Houston last year. A spokesman for the Houston oil giant confirmed Friday that the company had informed employees about additional layoffs, but declined to specify how many or when the layoffs would take place. “We are working through the process carefully and won’t speculate on timing or numbers while our evaluation is ongoing,” he said in a statement.
Reuters reported Tuesday that ConocoPhillips hired Boston Consulting Group to guide its restructuring and layoff program. The layoffs come as the company works to operate more efficiently after the $22.5 billion merger that closed in November. Marathon Oil notified the Texas Workforce Commission last year that it would cut more than 500 people at its CityCentre offices as a result of the union. The company said last year that it expected the merged company to save $500 million annually in costs, including $250 million in general and administrative costs related to salaries, benefits and facilities. However, ConocoPhillips’ CEO, Ryan Lance, sent a letter to employees implying that the cost savings would not result in workforce reductions. Marathon did not receive the same letter before its layoffs, according to a report in the Houston Business Journal.
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Houston Chronicle named 2024 Newsroom of the Year by Texas Managing Editors
The Houston Chronicle on Sunday was named the state's 2024 Newsroom of the Year by Texas Managing Editors, with its journalists taking home numerous awards in other categories, including editorial writing, comment and criticism; news photography; and Star Reporter of the Year. The Houston Chronicle placed in 18 categories and also received several honorable mentions in Class AAA, which comprises print and web-only news organizations with at least 20 full-time journalists. Entries are judged by out-of-state journalists, with the Charles E. Green Star Awards judged by the Headliners Foundation. “With our work, we seek to serve Houston and have an impact here in our city through our journalism," said Kelly Ann Scott, editor-in-chief of the Houston Chronicle. "There’s so much good journalism being done in Texas, and we’re so very honored to have our work recognized with this award. Congratulations to everyone on our team.”
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Fort Behavioral Health, accused of abusing juvenile patients in Fort Worth, faces another lawsuit
The family of a teen who lost an eye at Fort Behavioral Health in Fort Worth is suing for “far in excess of $1 million,” according to a news release from the family’s attorneys. The 15-year-old boy was in a bathroom at the hospital when he was attacked by 10 other boys and lost his eye, according to the lawsuit. The family says in the suit that a supervisor at the facility laughed about the assault. Fort Behavioral’s adolescent programs were shut down in 2023 following a Fort Worth Star-Telegram investigation which uncovered allegations of abuse and neglect at Fort Behavioral Health Center. Its adult offerings were abruptly ended last year.
The lawsuit, originally filed March 17, seeks damages from Fort Behavioral, several employees along with the families of two children. The petition was amended April 9. KERA News could not reach any attorneys representing Fort Behavioral, its employees or those named in the suit as assailants, Bobby Patton, the owner of Fort Behavioral, did not respond to a KERA News request for comment. Patton is also a minority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Patton Land and Cattle. Fort Behavioral promoted itself as a treatment center for minors 11 to 17 years of age experiencing combined addiction and mental illness. That’s why on Sept. 11, 2023, the teen’s mother took him to Fort Behavioral Health for in-patient treatment, according to the lawsuit. The boy, identified in the petition with only his last initial “L,” was diagnosed with depression, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and autism prior to his admittance, according to the suit. His mother took him there because she believed he would be safe, and the treatment program would help him.
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Latest Texas Supreme Court ruling highlights the high bar on proving police recklessness
A Killeen man whose vehicle was hit by a police cruiser en route to a 911 call can't sue the officer unless the man can prove he violated emergency response laws, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. It's the latest ruling to highlight the high bar on claims against police officers after the court's decision in the case of an Austin driver set a higher standard in proving an officer’s alleged recklessness in police responses. Aamir Terry sued the city of Killeen after Officer Jonathan Player hit Terry’s car in 2017 on the way to a reported stabbing. Terry alleged Player wasn’t complying with state laws on driving emergency vehicles and was driving recklessly.
Lower courts rejected the city’s claims that the case should be dismissed on the grounds of governmental immunity. But drawing from their decision in an Austin police chase crash case late last year, the high court justices ruled it would take more for Terry to claim the officer was reckless and the city shouldn’t be immune from suit. “The Texas Supreme Court, I think, in this ruling is just inserting an additional level of immunity for officers who injure a plaintiff when responding to an emergency call,” said Tammy Holt, an attorney for the plaintiff. Attorneys for the city of Killeen did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Both sides agree Player activated his lights and sirens and sounded his horn as he approached the intersection of West Trimmier Road and East Stan Schlueter Loop. Player testified he slowed to check for oncoming traffic before he drove through the red light.
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Can this Texas House bill help curb high ticket prices? Depends whom you ask
It’s not just you: Like groceries and other expenses, going to concerts, plays and sporting events has gotten more costly. Ticket prices have risen nearly 20% since 2021, according to data collected by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. A bill pending in the Texas House of Representatives aims to address some common frustrations with the ticketing process by making it easier to see the total cost of the ticket up front. But opponents say the language prioritizes ticket resellers over fans by preventing venues and artists from placing a price cap on resale tickets. “I hope the legislators hear that this is an important issue and the bill as written does not solve the issue and will make it worse,” said Warren Tranquada, president and CEO of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. “I really think it needs to be thrown out, and we can start over and work collaboratively with all the players, secondary ticket providers, primary ticket providers and artists to come up with a reasonable solution that protects customers.”
The measure, House Bill 3621, would: Require sellers to display the full price of the ticket — including the fees but not taxes — up front; Prevent the price from jumping during the transaction; Require sellers to be transparent about the location of the seats, when applicable. "If you stop there, then people will say, this is a great bill,” said Serona Elton, chair of the music industry department at the University of Miami. “But that's misleading because that is only one small piece of a multipart bill where the other parts of the bill actually do the opposite in terms of protecting the consumer.” The bill would also: Prevent venues from barring secondary sales of their tickets, with a few exceptions, including when all ticket proceeds are donated to charity. Prohibit price restrictions for tickets on the secondary market, and require all tickets to be delivered by the seventh day after purchase. Prevent sellers from listing tickets they do not have while still allowing the use of concierge services, where consumers pay someone else to acquire tickets on their behalf. While introducing the bill for discussion before the House’s Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee on Wednesday, the bill’s author said he did not understand why the measure was controversial. “Not long ago, buying a ticket was a simple process,” said state Rep. Benjamin Bumgarner, R-Flower Mound. “When you bought a ticket, it was yours. You could hold it in your hand, give it to a friend or sell it if your plans changed. Technology was supposed to make the process easier, instead it has made it more complicated and frustrating.
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San Antonio Express-News wins top Texas prize for investigative reporting
The San Antonio Express-News won top honors in investigative reporting and deadline writing in the Texas Managing Editors’ annual Excellence in Journalism competition. Business reporter Sara DiNatale won the first-place prize in Star Investigative Report of the Year for her series about how thousands of Texas homeowners were victimized by predatory salespeople, lenders and installers in the residential solar power industry. A team of Express-News journalists won first place in deadline writing for their early, exclusive report that former Uvalde school police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo had been indicted in connection with the much-maligned police response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting. Express-News staff members also were recognized in feature writing, general column writing, sports column writing, criticism, business reporting, specialty reporting, informational graphics, sports photography and other categories. The TME awards recognized outstanding journalism published in 2024. Go here to see the full list of winners.
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Communities In Schools of North Texas celebrates 31 years of changing lives
Tasha Moore lives for what many might call the little things. Like the countless times she and other dedicated staff and volunteers at Communities In Schools of North Texas took 15 or 20 minutes to help a struggling middle schooler prepare for an important math test—then watched as they sprinted down the hall, test paper in hand, shouting with pride that they passed. Or the way a student’s face instantly brightens upon hearing that their mentor will be on campus later that day to spend time with them. Over the years, she has also seen those small moments ripple out to families. The relief on a parent’s face when they learn that their child’s school now offers after-school care—a space for tutoring, a hot meal to hold them over and even a ride home when needed. Meanwhile, countless individuals and businesses donate their time, money and resources to support these efforts.
To some, these might seem like minor victories spread out over Communities In Schools of North Texas’ rich 31-year history. To the kids and families who benefit, they are life-changing. “I was impressed with what this organization was doing from the first day I started as a Site Coordinator at Hedrick Middle School (in Lewisville) in 2012. We were in four school districts back then, but my predecessors had incredible foresight to help us keep growing, and I knew this was something I wanted to keep being a part of,” said Moore, who has been the CEO for two years. “Today, we’ve doubled and tripled in size regarding the schools we serve and programs we offer.” “The things I’ve seen might seem like they are simply a part of the daily lifecycle of being in school,” she said. “But for the kids and parents, it’s huge. It’s extremely humbling to think about the monumental impact we can all make when the community comes together.” It’s easy to assume schools are well-oiled machines that can meet these needs and more independently. It’s also easy to assume that all kids lead healthy, happy and supported lives in and outside school. But it’s not always that simple. In North Texas, one in two kids is at risk of dropping out of school. According to the Texas Education Agency, students are considered at-risk if they meet one or more of 14 criteria, including homelessness, Limited English Proficiency, pregnancy or parenting, foster care and if they have one or more incarcerated parents. Many students are also economically disadvantaged and have barriers to academic success.
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Rick W. Merrill: Fort Worth-area families could lose health coverage choice
(Rick W. Merrill is president and CEO of Cook Children’s Health Care System.) A health plan that serves 125,000 vulnerable children and families in the Tarrant County area is in danger of being destroyed. Cook Children’s dedication to the North Texas community dates back 107 years; it is far-reaching and deeply rooted. We operate two medical centers, neighborhood health centers, urgent cares, home health services and more, And our Cook Children’s Health Plan has provided health care coverage for families and children with limited resources for more than 20 years. However, last year, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission denied Cook Children’s Health Plan a renewed contract to serve its membership. The commission’s decision would upend the coverage choices of thousands of Dallas-Fort Worth area families. We are doing everything we can to protect those families.
Two bills proposed in Austin offer a ray of hope. House Bill 3538, introduced by Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, and Senate Bill 2331, filed by Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, would give families the right to choose whether they want to remain on Cook Children’s Health Plan and other care plans. Cook Children’s Health Plan provides care through two state programs: STAR (which is part of Medicaid) and CHIP. The state health commission oversees the contracts — and therefore, the funding — for those programs. In March 2024, the commission announced it would not renew contracts for major community-based, not-for-profit health plans, including Cook Children’s Health Plan and two other health plans in South Texas and the Houston area. Instead, the commission chose to give those contracts to for-profit health care companies, all of which keep their central operations out-of-state. Their proceeds benefit out-of-state shareholders. The decision would force 1.8 million children and pregnant women who qualify for the Medicaid STAR and CHIP programs to switch from the health plans they rely upon to unfamiliar, corporate insurers.
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Feds use Texas mass shooting to cite domestic violence as risk factor
Mass shootings such as the one at a Sutherland Springs church in 2017 could be prevented if courts, police, health care practitioners and community groups collaborate to perform risk assessments on people with troubling and documented histories of violence — and domestic violence in particular. That is the finding of a new U.S. Secret Service case study looking at the warning signs that were missed in the young shooter responsible for the massacre at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs near San Antonio that left more than two-dozen people dead. The report also mentioned “red flag laws” as one such prevention tool — a measure that Texas does not have and which has faced strong opposition in the state Legislature. Red flag laws allow state courts to temporarily prevent individuals who are deemed dangerous from having guns.
On the morning of Nov. 5, 2017, a man dressed in black clothing, tactical body armor and a black mask painted with a skull design arrived at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. Devin Patrick Kelley, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns, fired more than 200 times into the church before entering. Once inside, he kept firing, killing 26 people, including his wife’s grandmother, and wounding 22 others. The 26-year-old walked up and down the aisles shooting at the congregants, sometimes hitting people multiple times. The Secret Service said in its 40-page report that a goal of the case study was to highlight the link between domestic violence and mass casualty violence. The report said “behavioral threat assessments” by community members are important proactive ways to identify and address the risk of violence in certain people in order to prevent mass shootings. This was not done in Kelley’s case despite multiple indicators in his past, according to the report. “This case study depicts an attacker with a long history of deeply disturbing behavior…including numerous instances of physical, emotional, and sexual violence; child abuse; animal cruelty; explicit threats; and other concerning communications and behaviors,” the report said.
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Bishop T.D. Jakes is handing Potter’s House leadership to daughter, son-in-law
Bishop T.D. Jakes, who founded The Potter’s House and has led the Dallas megachurch for almost 30 years, announced at a Sunday morning service that he will be handing leadership of the church over to his daughter Sarah Jakes Roberts and son-in-law Touré Roberts. “As I enter my 50th year in the public spotlight, I recognize the urgent need to address more challenges of our time, particularly the looming threat of a disappearing middle class, social unrest and closing opportunity gaps,” Jakes said in a news release prepared before Sunday’s service. “Elevating Pastor Touré and Pastor Sarah as the new senior pastors of The Potter’s House, we will honor our rich history while embracing a future that demands innovative ministry for the coming age.”
Their appointment will occur later this year. After the transition, Jakes will continue in his role as chairman of the T.D. Jakes Group, which includes his real estate company, social impact holding company and T.D. Jakes Foundation. Jakes’ announcement comes nearly six months after a major health incident that he later described as a “massive heart attack.” The health incident occurred while Jakes was delivering a sermon on stage last November. That same month, Jakes filed a lawsuit against a former minister who accused Jakes of alleged attempted sexual assault. On Sunday morning, Jakes delivered a sermon titled “Whatever God commands” on God’s call for unity. With his trademark humor and booming voice, Jakes urged his flock to compromise and put down their egos to prioritize unity with one another. At the end of his message, Jakes raised his voice as piano and organ chords punctuated his words. Audience members cheered, clapped and danced, and a few dozen gathered in front of the stage with raised hands and bowed heads. Jakes quieted the room as he began discussing the transition he said he’d been planning for at least six years. “I have seen too many men build something and stay so long that they kill what they built,” the pastor said. “I cannot afford, especially after November, to risk something happening to me and you be sheep without a shepherd.”
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Northwest school district announces more teacher cuts
The Northwest school district will be eliminating 33 more staff positions by attrition than the district originally thought heading into the 2025-26 school year. In a Facebook Live, the district also gave parents more details regarding the cuts and plans to increase the student-teacher ratio as it addresses a $16 million budget gap. Despite having 33% more students since 2019, the district has had to stay on the same ever-tightening budget provided by the state. The Senate is set to consider a bill that would increase the basic allotment to $6,555 per student, with 40% of that additional revenue dedicated to teacher pay raises.
State lawmakers have not changed the basic allotment of $6,160 per student since 2019 despite inflation. Nor has the state provided funding for teacher raises, meaning districts have had to restructure their existing budgets to compensate. Anthony Tosie, Northwest’s spokesperson, told the Star-Telegram that proposed increase “does not come close to meeting the structural needs of school districts.” In February, the district announced it planned to cut 101 teacher positions, but it now plans to eliminate 134 spots through attrition. The district announced the cuts after voters rejected a tax increase in November. Over the last four years, the fast-growing district has hired 869 staff members primarily on-campus. Through a Facebook Live hosted by the district, viewers were also given details as to which grade levels will see more students in desks per classroom. The district expects to save $13 million through the staff reductions and $3 million by ending contracts.
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National Stories
Canada vs. Trump: How Monday’s election will play out
In March, shortly after Ontario Premier Doug Ford decisively won re-election here, Canada Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre grudgingly telephoned the leader of this country’s most populous province to grudgingly ask for advice from a conservative rival. “People said, ‘You’ve got to call him,’” Ford happily recalled to me this week. “He said, ‘What advice can I get?’ I said it’s one thing, our polling shows it, we just came off a big victory: It’s the tariffs. A number of years ago, [James] Carville said, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ Well, it’s the tariffs, stupid. That’s what it is.” So why didn’t Poilievre adjust his message? “I can’t figure it out,” Ford said, happy to plunge the knife in days before Canadians vote on a new government.
For months now, the dynamics of Monday’s federal election here seemed easy enough to grasp on either side of the border: A campaign that had been a referendum on former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s increasingly unpopular decade-long tenure had, once Trudeau stepped down, become a vote on who was best able to manage Donald Trump, his tariff arsenal and designs on annexing Canada. But it isn’t that simple. Liberals are poised to hold power, and Prime Minister Mark Carney may even claim a majority of Canada’s 343 House of Commons seats, because Poilievre never pivoted to accommodate a changed race and alienated crucial leaders and voters; because Liberals didn’t just dump Trudeau, they replaced him with a sober central banker, an Alan Greenspan from the Northwest Territories who can still lace up the skates; and because Canada has momentarily imported two-party, tribal politics from America into their multi-party parliamentary democracy. It’s this final element that may prove most crucial — and could determine whether Liberals claim a majority or minority government — but is not easily grasped in the U.S. Canada has long had robust minor parties that play a pivotal role in both provincial and federal politics, most notably the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois, which advocates for Québécois nationalism in Canada’s Francophone province. Yet the effect of Trump’s existential threat has been to marginalize these parties, to render purity politics or domestic questions as a bit like the clogged sink disposal when the house is on fire.
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Pritzker’s speech in New Hampshire drives presidential campaign buzz
In a fiery address to New Hampshire Democrats on Sunday night, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker condemned what he described as President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian power grabs” while also blasting the “do-nothing” Democrats in his party — stating it is “time to fight everywhere, all at once.” The billionaire Democratic governor repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet with acidic attacks on the morals and ethics of the president, adviser and top donor Elon Musk, as well as members of the president’s Cabinet. He slammed their efforts to dismantle government programs that the most vulnerable Americans rely on and said the Democratic Party must “abandon the culture of incrementalism that has led us to swallow their cruelty.” It is time for his party, he said, to “knock the rust off poll-tested language” that has obscured “our better instincts.”
Pritzker was most searing in his condemnation of what he cast as the Trump administration’s infringement on the rights enshrined in the Constitution, stating that it should be easy for Democrats to say “it’s wrong to snatch a person off the street and ship them to a foreign gulag with no chance to defend themselves in a court of law.” “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now,” Pritzker said to a standing ovation accompanied by whistles and cheers from the audience. “These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They must understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soap box and then punish them at the ballot box.” Calling out Trump’s “xenophobia” and thirst for power, the Illinois governor said Democrats must “stop thinking we can reason or negotiate with a madman.” His hope, he added, is that Republicans who enable Trump “feel in their bones that when we survive this shameful episode of American history” that their portraits will be relegated “to the museum halls reserved for tyrants and traitors.” Turning to his own party, Pritzker argued that Democrats have spent too long listening to voices who “would tell you that the house is not on fire, even as they feel the flames licking their face” and called out politicians “whose simpering timidity served as a kindle for the arsonists.”
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Democrats seize on a new issue to use against the GOP: Social Security
Democrats, after weeks of struggling to find a message that resonates with ordinary Americans while President Donald Trump dominates the news, are beginning to settle on one: the allegation that Trump and his allies are crippling Social Security. Former president Joe Biden used his first public comments since leaving office to criticize Trump’s handling of the popular program. Early Democratic ads are targeting Republican senators on Social Security. Democrats have visited Social Security offices around the country, sometimes getting turned away and going public. Senate Democrats have set up a “war room” to deliver the message. Democrats say there is evidence that the push is working. Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Washington) reported having more than 22,000 constituents on a recent tele-town hall on Social Security. Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor who served as Social Security commissioner toward the end of Biden’s term, has drawn crowds to town halls in Florida and elsewhere.
“For much of the country, Washington might as well be Mars for all the connection it has to them,” Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the top Democrat on the committee that oversees Social Security, said in an interview. “But Social Security is something where there is connective tissue between the government and the people.” The elimination of 7,000 Social Security jobs — more than 12 percent of the workforce — and other cuts have led to long waits, dropped calls and other widespread service issues. Democrats say the worsening problems create a clear link between Trump’s chaotic style and Americans’ day-to-day well-being. Michael Astrue, who led the Social Security Administration under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama — and says he voted for Trump — sharply criticized cuts to the agency by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency. “I think you have a group of very immature people coming out of Silicon Valley bro culture, and they have decided federal agencies are filled with bad people doing bad things, and if you go in and hack away, and you don’t have to know what you are doing, you can improve it because less is more,” Astrue said. More than 73 million Americans receive Social Security benefits, spanning all states and districts. It is the government’s marquee program for elderly and disabled people, so beneficiaries are concentrated among older Americans, who vote in high proportions. Voters 65 and up narrowly backed Trump 50 percent to 49 percent in November.
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China’s billion-dollar footprint near Florida coast poses US national security risk, expert warns
China is steadily expanding in the Bahamas through projects that blur economic development and geopolitical aims, an expert warned. "The People's Republic of China has been making diplomatic, economic and even military and quasi-military inroads into the Caribbean, South and Central America for the past couple of decades," retired Rear Adm. Peter Brown, former Homeland Security advisor to President Donald Trump, told Fox News Digital. Brown pointed to the rise in dual-use infrastructure projects along the Bahamas coastline, which is located just 50 miles off the coast of Florida. "It doesn't take a lot of imagination for the People's Republic of China to use its commercial footprint in the Bahamas to monitor, exploit and perhaps even do worse to [the] U.S.," he said.
Pointing to the Chinese-controlled British Colonial Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, Brown said that its location directly across from the U.S. Embassy could give way to intelligence gathering on U.S. personnel. "It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think that additional electronics were put in there with the purpose and the task of keeping an eye not only on the U.S. Embassy itself, but also the U.S. Embassy visitors," he said. The hotel is owned by a Chinese company, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, which has raised geopolitical concerns given its location. Fox News Digital has reached out to the British Colonial Hotel for comment. China has invested heavily in the Bahamas through a range of additional high-profile projects, including a $40 million grant for a national stadium, a $3 billion mega-port in Freeport, and $40 million for the North Abaco Port and Little Abaco Bridge. Additionally, China EXIM Bank provided over $54 million in loans to construct a four-lane highway and nearly $3 billion to finance the development of the Baha Mar Resort.
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Trump-aligned club for the ultra rich launches in Washington
A new club is coming to Washington — and you probably can’t get in. Donald Trump Jr., megadonor Omeed Malik and several other investors are launching an invite-only club that costs more than half a million to join with an exclusive post-White House Correspondents’ Dinner gathering, according to an invite obtained by POLITICO and two people with knowledge of the venture, granted anonymity to discuss the private organization. The “Executive Branch” is the brainchild of Malik and the president’s eldest son, and their partners at conservative fund 1789 Capital. It will be located in Georgetown. Their goal, the people familiar with the plans say, is to create the highest-end private club that Washington has ever had, and cater to the business and tech moguls who are looking to nurture their relationships with the Trump administration.
The referral requirements and prohibitive pricing is meant to ensure the C-suite crowd can mingle with Trump advisers and cabinet members without the prying eyes of the press and wanna-be insiders. The price tag won’t be a problem for Trump’s cabinet — given it’s by far the wealthiest in history. The club already has a waitlist. Spokespeople for Trump Jr., Malik and other investors declined to comment. Some parts of the group’s plans this weekend were first reported by Puck and Semafor.
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Over 100 immigrants arrested in raid on underground Colorado nightclub where active-duty military members worked, feds say
More than 100 immigrants, allegedly in the country illegally, were detained in Colorado Springs after an overnight raid at what authorities described as an underground nightclub in a strip mall. “What was happening inside was significant drug trafficking, prostitution, crimes of violence,” Jonathan C. Pullen, the Special Agent in Charge at the DEA Rocky Mountain Division, said at a news conference Sunday morning. “We seized a number of guns in there.” Over a dozen active-duty military members were also at the club during the raid, and federal officials said some were working at the illicit operation. “We had active-duty service members who were running security at the club and involved in some of these crimes,” Pullen said.
Authorities also found drugs at the underground club, including cocaine and so-called pink cocaine, also known as “tusi,” Pullen said. The nightclub had been under surveillance by the DEA and partner agencies for “a number of months,” according to Pullen, who said authorities documented drug trafficking, prostitution, and the presence of alleged members from the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and the Hells Angels. “I don’t have the information about whether those members were there tonight, but we’re still working through a lot of that, because we have so many people in custody,” Pullen said. “Colorado Springs is waking up to a safer city this Sunday morning,” he said. Hundreds of agents across over 10 federal agencies participated in the raid, Pullen said. Agents from the FBI, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement joined in carrying out the operation, the DEA said on X.
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Ron and Casey DeSantis were plotting a political dynasty in Florida. Then came a scandal
A year after his presidential ambitions collapsed, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey can no longer lay claim to the future of the Republican Party. And in Florida, even their present is in jeopardy. Once firmly in his corner, many Sunshine State Republicans have lately turned on DeSantis, stymying his agenda and frustrating him to no end. At the same time, Casey DeSantis, long regarded as a political force in her own right, is encountering quiet but firm resistance as she lays the groundwork for a potential run to succeed her husband — a campaign that would pit her against President Donald Trump’s handpicked choice to lead the state, Rep. Byron Donalds.
Now, a funding scandal involving one of Casey’s signature initiatives — a state assistance program known as Hope Florida — is casting a shadow over the governor’s legacy and complicating her political ambitions. Lawmakers spent the spring investigating why $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement was routed to a charity connected to Hope Florida, which then transferred the same amount to two groups that financially backed a DeSantis-led campaign against legalizing recreational marijuana. Key lawmakers have publicly suggested the flow of money appears illegal. The couple have fiercely stood by their work and denied wrongdoing. DeSantis this week called the criticism of Hope Florida “all political.” Standing alongside her husband Thursday, Casey DeSantis characterized the program as “a philosophy” that “shows we can help people in need.” Remarkably, the investigation into Hope Florida was not by Democrats, but by Republicans — a striking sign of DeSantis’ eroding clout in a state capital he once controlled with unchallenged authority. Outside Tallahassee, some of Trump’s staunchest allies in Florida have helped to amplify the controversy to their MAGA followers.
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