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Newsclips - May 10, 2026 |
Lead Stories
‘It will forever change who we are’: Rural Texans brace for data center invasion
Ryan Mote gestures to the property line between land that has been in his family for 100 years and the grounds of what is slated to become a data center campus. The parcels are separated by a welded wire fence barely visible against the brown-green grassland of Young County, about 90 miles from Fort Worth. Lake Graham glistens in the distance. At full capacity, 15 data center buildings on land the size of 657 football fields would become the neighbor Mote never wanted. “This is not good for our community,” Mote said. “It will forever change who we are.” Mote’s primary concerns aren’t aesthetics. He’s worried about the center moving in with the help of tax breaks and without a public vote. He’s worried about a lack of oversight and the effects on the environment and the health of people and wildlife.
He’s worried about water and electric demands that come with a project of its scale. These are the same issues being raised across rural Texas as the state’s business-friendly environment and lack of regulations — the same qualities that attract many to country life — fuel an expansion of server farms from the Panhandle to the Valley. Those traits coupled with Texas’ geography and favorable weather have long been magnets for the latest industry and infrastructure of the day: railroads, highways, oil rigs, wind and solar farms. Now, in the midst of an artificial intelligence boom, it’s data centers. To some, the data centers are an inevitable part of our future and an economic opportunity that can’t be ignored as the global AI race accelerates. To others, they’re a nuisance at best and at worst they’re noisy health and environmental hazards that destroy land and livelihoods. For Mote, one of an estimated 4.2 million to 7 million people living in rural Texas, and others like him, data centers could be a future neighbor — just not without a fight. “Country living is a whole different feeling,” Mote said. “It is based in God and community and love for the land and the resources around you. I just think there’s a different mentality — that you wouldn’t necessarily see the same fight at the city level that you would at the rural level.”
Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only
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CPS Energy pilot targets Texas data center power demand
The rapidly increasing pressure to provide electricity for data centers and other high-demand users could be eased by a CPS Energy pilot program that encourages energy-hungry customers to bring their own generation. The program — and others under consideration by the statewide electric grid operator — is a response to demand that’s projected to increase nearly 400% across Texas by the end of the decade as the state attracts more of the computing power needed for artificial intelligence and other aspects of today’s digital world. “We’ve been anticipating that we may need some new tools to help customers’ desire, as well as things that are being contemplated at the state level,” said Elaina Ball, CPS Energy’s chief strategy officer. “This pilot is one of the solutions that we’ve been pursuing.”
The effort by San Antonio’s city-owned utility is a microcosm of trends in the energy sector, she said, which have state grid operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas also grappling with sharp growth in both commercial and residential demand. The Austin-San Antonio area is in the crosshairs as some forecasts suggest it could be the world’s top data center market by 2030. Though experts suggest that only a fraction of the facilities on the waiting list to connect to the grid will actually be built, its growing backlog of requests is forcing ERCOT to overhaul its processes and experiment with new ideas. CPS Energy’s new service option is a natural response, Ball said. Under its pilot, CPS will provide natural gas for industrial users that bring their own energy generation. In return, data centers and other so-called large loads could connect more quickly to ERCOT’s statewide grid. Ball pitched the behind-the-meter generation pilot to the City Council in early March, saying it would “help exercise someone else’s capital to provide grid flexibility.” “When customers bring their own generation, it does help the grid,” she said in an interview. “We’ve got less demand on the system. During times of tight demand, customers will be able to self-provide their power, which lessens the burden on the rest of the grid.”
Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only
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State Department reviewing all Mexican consulates in U.S. as tensions grow
The State Department is initiating a review of all 53 Mexican consulates operating in the United States, a U.S. official told CBS News on Thursday, in a move that could lead Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider ordering the closure of some diplomatic offices. The review comes as bilateral tensions build over security cooperation and cartel violence, and it follows the deaths of two American CIA officers after a counter-narcotics operation in northern Mexico last month. A State Department official said the review is part of a broader effort to align U.S. foreign policy with the Trump administration's priorities.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, said the "Department of State is constantly reviewing all aspects of American foreign relations to ensure they are in line with the President's America First foreign policy agenda and advance American interests." Mexico maintains the largest foreign consular network in the United States, with offices that provide documentation and legal aid to millions of Mexican citizens living across the country. Most are concentrated in border states and cities with large Mexican American populations, including California, Texas and Arizona. In recent years, U.S. consulate closures have usually reflected rising tensions with rival countries rather than routine diplomatic changes. In 2020, as relations between Washington and Beijing worsened, the Trump administration ordered China's consulate in Houston to close, citing concerns over espionage and intellectual property theft. In 2017, the U.S. ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco, along with diplomatic facilities in Washington and New York, in response to Moscow expelling American diplomats.
Read this article at CBS News - Subscribers Only
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How Republicans gained an edge on the midterm House map over 10 days
Just two weeks ago, Democrats felt increasingly emboldened about taking control of the House in November after seeming to fight the redistricting wars to a draw. But two court rulings — one by the Supreme Court and another by Virginia’s top court — and an aggressive new push by red states to carve up congressional maps have delivered the Republican Party its biggest burst of momentum in many months. Put bluntly, Republicans have roughly 10 more House seats that favor them than they did just 10 days ago, and Democrats are suddenly grappling with a new landscape. “This is now clearly closer than it was just a week and a half ago,” Representative Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said of his party’s chances to retake the House. Democrats are still widely seen as favored to win the House this fall. Republicans face a daunting political climate, saddled with President Trump’s sagging approval ratings, high gas prices and an unpopular war with Iran. In special elections and last year’s races for governor, Democratic enthusiasm has swamped Republican turnout.
governor, Democratic enthusiasm has swamped Republican turnout. “I was anticipating about a 15-to-20-seat pickup before the last week and a half,” Mr. Boyle said. “Now I would be anticipating a 10-to-15-seat pickup.” That would be more than enough to wrest the majority from Republicans, who are clinging to a current edge of 217 to 212 seats. And history is not on Republicans’ side: The party in power almost always loses seats in midterm elections. But after the latest map changes, winning the House majority will require Democrats to flip more seats in less hospitable territory. Bullish Republicans feel they are back in the game. “Lord grant me humility,” James Blair, the Republican strategist who is overseeing Mr. Trump’s political operation in the midterms, wrote on X on Friday after Virginia’s top court struck down a recently enacted map meant to give Democrats four extra House seats. One of Speaker Mike Johnson’s senior political aides interrupted the middle of a meeting in Texas, where the Republican leader was on a fund-raising swing, to break the news, according to two people with knowledge of the conversation. Mr. Johnson later celebrated on the phone with Glenn Youngkin, the former Republican governor of Virginia, who had opposed the Democratic effort to redraw the state’s lines.
Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only
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Railroad Commission runoff exposes bitter divide in Texas oil industry
For some oilmen, there’s only one thing they need to know about Bo French: He isn’t Jim Wright, the Railroad Commission’s incumbent chairman and French’s competition in a Republican primary runoff later this month. “I can't support Jim Wright, because Jim Wright makes rules that are silly for lots and lots and lots of operators,” said Lance Thomas, manager of Albany-based Stasney Well Service. French’s political campaign may have little to do with oil and gas — he has said far more publicly about Muslims and DEI — but it was an oil and gas policy that helped set the stage for his battle against Wright to lead the state regulatory agency. Wright’s efforts to lead reforms at the commission, which oversees oil and gas extraction in Texas, have not landed well with many small-scale oil companies.
In fact, Stasney is suing the Railroad Commission over a new set of rules about how oil operators manage onsite waste pits. They require permits and, in many cases, adding synthetic liners meant to protect groundwater from drilling waste often containing residual oil, wastewater and radioactive material. volumes of oil and waste that are triggering the need for more regulation. Low-volume wells like theirs aren’t threatening groundwater — at least not in his area, where there is no groundwater to protect, Thomas said. While smaller companies like Stasney are waging war against Wright over “one-size fits all” solutions that threaten their businesses, big oil companies are working with Wright to wage a war of their own. They need a technological breakthrough and a friendly regulator to help them find a new way to dispose of massive volumes of super-salty water that pour from the ground with every barrel of their oil. Their existing method of handling it — injecting it underground — is resulting in a rash of leaking wells, earthquakes and geysers that threaten not only Texas groundwater, but the future of the oil industry.
Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only
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State Stories
Mihaela Plesa: Texas doesn’t have many real elections anymore. The Supreme Court just made it worse
(Mihaela Plesa represents the 70th district in the Texas House of Representatives.) I represent Texas House District 70, covering much of Plano and parts of Far North Dallas, Richardson and Allen. It’s one of the few truly competitive districts left in Texas. In 2024, my race was decided by 4.44 percentage points, one of the closest Texas House races in the state. I do not see that as a political burden — I see it as a governing responsibility. In a competitive district, you cannot take voters for granted. You cannot only talk to people who already agree with you. You have to show up in schools, chambers of commerce, neighborhood meetings, town halls, community events and living rooms. You have to listen to people who voted for you and people who did not. You have to explain your votes. You have to earn trust over and over again.
That is how representative government is supposed to work. The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais makes that harder. The court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and held that the Voting Rights Act did not require the state to create an additional majority-minority district. The ruling does not erase the Voting Rights Act, but it narrows one of the tools communities have used for generations to challenge discriminatory maps and demand fair representation. Texans should care because redistricting decides more than the shape of a district. It decides whether lawmakers have to listen to the full community they represent, or whether they can hide inside districts drawn to protect them. Texas has already seen what happens when competitive districts disappear. In 2024, only nine of 150 Texas House races were decided by less than 10 points. Most Texans now live in districts where the real political fight is not the general election. It is the primary. And when the primary becomes the only election that matters, the legislative process changes. Lawmakers stop asking, “What does my whole district need?” and start asking, “What will keep me safe from a primary challenge?”
Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only
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The new North Texas Banking Order
Y’all Street is here. The concrete might still be drying and the steel beams still exposed, but the financial infrastructure is taking shape—fast. Goldman Sachs is building a $700 million, 5,000-employee campus in Uptown as part of its growing Dallas presence. Bank of America is developing a new tower near Klyde Warren Park that will house 1,000 employees. Scotiabank’s new Victory Park office is expected to bring more than 1,000 jobs. And Morgan Stanley is reportedly exploring a 500,000-square-foot lease in Uptown—roughly twice the size of Bank of America’s footprint.
The public markets are here, too. The New York Stock Exchange Texas is open for business, landing early dual listings from companies like AT&T, Vistra Corp., Arcosa, Cinemark, HF Sinclair, and D.R. Horton. Nasdaq launched its own Texas dual-listing program in March with JB Hunt, APA Corp., and Huntington Bancshares. And the Texas Stock Exchange—the upstart that forced Wall Street’s hand to launch the aforementioned markets—plans to begin trading this July. Against that backdrop, Dallas’ banking landscape is consolidating. Over the last year, three of North Texas’ most recognizable banks have been swept into major transactions. Fifth Third Bancorp acquired Comerica in a deal valued at $10.9 billion and Vista Bank and Veritex Bank both merged into larger institutions. Malcolm Holland sold Veritex—the bank he founded in 2010 and grew into a $13 billion-asset institution—to Huntington Bancshares for $1.9 billion. National Bank Holdings acquired John Steinmetz’s Vista Bank, which had $2.5 billion in assets at the time of the deal, for $377.4 million. It’s an era of consolidation that Curt Farmer—former Comerica CEO and now vice chairman of Fifth Third—says he saw coming when the current administration took office. “We perceived a change in regulatory receptivity,” Farmer says. “Interest rates began to stabilize, inflation became more manageable, credit conditions were favorable, and we’ve been in a very benign credit environment. As an $80 billion bank, we had a lot of capabilities, but we didn’t have the scale of some of our competitors.”
Read this article at D Magazine - Subscribers Only
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Nvidia, Corning's factory plans could mean thousands of jobs in Austin
The world's most valuable company might bring thousands of jobs to Austin as Nvidia ups its investment in Texas. Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia Corp. and glassmaker Corning Inc. announced plans to build three new plants dedicated to manufacturing light and glass technologies for AI manufacturing in North Carolina and Texas.
The companies, which both have significant business ties to the Austin area, promised to create more than 3,000 jobs at the factories. "(Nvidia's) commitment is directly fueling the expansion of our U.S. manufacturing footprint and creating more than 3,000 new, high-paying jobs for American workers," Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said in the announcement. "This partnership is proof that AI is not just a technology story. It is a manufacturing story, and it is happening here in the United States." It is unclear where in Texas and North Carolina these factories will be built, and both companies declined to specify locations.
Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only
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Kaye Stripling, former HISD superintendent, dies at 85
Kaye Stripling, a former Houston ISD's superintendent who was known for her advocacy for teachers, died Saturday at 85. Stripling joined the school district in 1964 at Lee Elementary School as a special education teacher. She taught at Losscan and Atherton elementary schools before serving as principal at Burbank Elementary, Parker Elementary, West University Elementary and Pershing Middle School. She was appointed to various administrative roles before succeeding Superintendent Rod Paige to the district's top position in 2001. Stripling, who lived in the Houston area, received a bachelor's degree from Texas Woman's University in 1962, and earned her master's degree and doctorate in education at the University of Houston, specializing in special education.
Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only
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Texas made more complaints about Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show to the FCC than any other state
Texans had more to say than residents of any other state about Super Bowl LX and Bad Bunny's halftime show, according to the Federal Communications Commission — and they said it with great conviction. According to a Dallas Morning News analysis of complaints made to the FCC regarding the broadcast, which the agency released on its website Friday, no state filed more complaints than Texas did, with more than 10% of the 2,157 complaints originating here. "It was a disgrace and an embarrassment for US all," one person wrote from Dallas.
Filing a complaint from Plano with a subject line, "Violent Horror Advertisement During Family Broadcast," another person wrote: "While I do not speak Spanish, how in the world could anyone let Bad Bunny be broadcast, saying the things that he did, without it being censored?" Identifying themselves as a Texan from the city of "none of your business," the author of another complaint emphasized how little of the show they could bring themselves to watch. "so much for an all American sport and entertainment. that was disgraceful, inappropriate and disgusting!!!!" that complainant wrote. "at least the 5 seconds i watched because i was so offended." According to The News' analysis, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio led in complaints with eight each of the 226 total people who identified themselves as Texans. Houston came in fourth, with six. Four of the complaints came from Dallas. More than 40% of the Texas complaints — 92 — mentioned Bad Bunny by name. That matched the percentage of total complaints who mentioned him nationally. About 30% used the word "vulgar" and 14% found the performance "disgusting."
Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only
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Amanda McAfee: Texas' childcare investments pay off
(Amanda McAfee is President/CEO of the Lubbock Area United Way.) At Lubbock Area United Way, we spend a lot of time listening to South Plains parents — hearing both what’s hard and what’s working for their families. One theme comes up again and again: access to high-quality, affordable childcare can change everything. When parents have reliable childcare — whether that’s a preschool, a church program, a grandparent, or a trusted neighbor running a home-based center — they can show up for work. That might mean putting on a tie, a uniform, or their well-worn work boots. Either way, it’s how parents provide for their families today and build toward a more stable future. And quality childcare doesn’t just matter for parents. It matters just as much for children — the kids who will someday be our doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers, business owners, and community leaders right here in West Texas.
We want those children to walk into their first day of kindergarten confident, curious, and ready to learn — not already playing catch-up. That’s why our local school districts asked United Way’s School Ready 806 Coalition to focus on strategies that help more children in our communities arrive at school truly “kindergarten-ready.” Research shows there are six key areas in which children benefit from strong early experiences between birth and age 4: literacy, language, math, self-care, motor skills, and social-emotional development. Parents are, of course, a child’s very first and most important teacher. But for the many parents who must work to make ends meet, high-quality childcare is also a critical piece of the puzzle. In a quality childcare setting, children gather on the carpet with trained teachers for story time. They practice counting, learn their letters, and figure out how to share and play with others. These everyday moments add up — laying the foundation for success in kindergarten and beyond. Too often, though, quality childcare is simply out of reach. In some cases, it costs more than tuition at Texas Tech. That price reflects a tough reality: childcare requires skilled, hands-on, nurturing professionals doing work that can’t (and probably shouldn’t) be automated
Read this article at Lubbock Avalanche-Journal - Subscribers Only
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Waco’s “Baby Whisperer” has her murder conviction reversed again
Marian Fraser, the former Waco day care owner who is serving a fifty-year sentence for allegedly killing a four-month-old with a fatal dose of Benadryl, may get a third trial. On Wednesday, Texas’s Seventh Court of Appeals, in Amarillo, reversed Fraser’s 2023 felony-murder conviction. The court ruled that Fraser was found guilty based in part on evidence obtained through an illegal search warrant. This is the second time the 62-year-old Fraser has had her conviction overturned. She was originally tried for Clara Felton’s death in 2015. A Waco jury found her guilty and sentenced her to fifty years in prison. Two years later, an appellate court reversed that conviction after finding that the judge’s instructions to the jury had been slanted in favor of the prosecution. The McLennan County district attorney put her on trial again in 2023, winning another guilty verdict and another fifty-year sentence.
Prosecutors plan to appeal the Amarillo court’s decision to the Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas’s highest court for criminal matters. “While we are disappointed with the Amarillo Court of Appeals’ ruling, we still firmly believe that Marian Fraser’s conviction should be affirmed,” the DA’s office wrote in a statement provided to Texas Monthly. “We therefore look forward to continuing the appeal by asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review the case.” The previous reversal survived a similar appeal, and the high court has been consistently skeptical of Fraser’s prosecution for felony murder. Her conviction hinged on whether giving diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, to a child under age two constituted an “act clearly dangerous to human life.” During a hearing last June, several of the judges tore into McLennan County’s appellate lawyer. “I had two small children at one point, and I gave them Benadryl all the time,” said Judge David Newell. “So it’s hard to see why giving Benadryl, in and of itself, would be clearly dangerous to human life.” Because Fraser’s conviction was overturned on procedural grounds, she can be put on trial for a third time. In its statement, the McLennan County DA’s office left no doubt that it intends to do so. “Should justice ultimately require it, we will absolutely try Fraser again for killing Clara Felton. The fight for Baby Clara and her family is ongoing and we will continue using every tool the law provides to hold Fraser accountable.”
Read this article at Texas Monthly - Subscribers Only
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Psychedelic treatments are on the verge of FDA approval. Why Texas is pushing for them, and how Texans could gain access
Psychedelic treatments are moving closer to federal approval, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration taking steps to fast-track several compounds under review. The agency recently said three companies will receive National Priority Vouchers to speed their psychedelic drugs through the approval process. These include two psilocybin compounds for treatment-resistant depression and major depressive disorder, and methylone, a drug similar to MDMA, for post-traumatic stress disorder. Each previously received Breakthrough Therapy designation, which the FDA awards to therapies for serious conditions that demonstrate a substantial improvement over currently available therapies.
That announcement came one week after President Donald Trump signed a psychedelics executive order, which signaled the federal government’s support for states, including Texas, that are working to create access for psychedelic treatments that show promise for addressing life-threatening conditions, but are currently illegal in the U.S. Psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, 5-MeO-DMT, and ibogaine are among the psychedelic compounds being studied in FDA clinical trials for mental and behavioral health conditions. Many researchers believe that psychedelics promote healing by inducing the brain’s ability to change and form new neural connections. In combination with therapy, they may help people develop new ways of thinking and processing trauma. Lynnette Averill, PhD, told Texas Public Radio that psychedelic-assisted therapy involves one or a few psychedelic experiences which support ongoing therapy, and the effects are felt quickly, within hours to days. Averill, who leads a psilocybin clinical trial at Baylor College of Medicine and the Menninger Clinic, said this differs from daily antidepressants, which generally take weeks or months to help patients feel better, if at all.
Read this article at Texas Public Radio - Subscribers Only
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HISD under federal investigation over plans to restructure special education services
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Houston ISD to determine whether the district is violating the rights of students with disabilities after it unveiled plans to restructure the way special education services are delivered. This week, after Houston Public Media reported on leaked draft documents outlining their plan, district leaders confirmed they planned to consolidate special education services to certain campuses beginning in 2026-27. The move would require some students to be transferred from their neighborhood school to another school in the district that would be tapped as a hub to provide a variety of special education services.
"Public schools are required – to the maximum extent appropriate — to ensure that children with disabilities are educated alongside their nondisabled peers and to follow specific procedures when making placement decisions about how and where children with disabilities are educated," the education department stated in a Friday news release announcing the investigation. Houston ISD, the largest school district in Texas that has been under state control since 2023, defended its forthcoming changes in a Friday night statement while noting that 15,000 of its more than 21,000 students in special education “are served in inclusive settings.” The district also said that for the roughly 5,000 students “primarily served in self-contained settings, families can expect small class sizes, low adult-to-student ratios to support specialized instruction, and placement with similar-age peers.” HISD added that special education services will be available at more than half of its campuses. “Any review will show that all special education updates for the 2026–27 school year focus on increasing access to services in the least restrictive environment, strengthening systems to improve the quality of instruction, and improving student outcomes,” HISD also said in its statement.
Read this article at Houston Public Media - Subscribers Only
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From banking to conservation, nonprofit leader is celebrated for preserving land in Texas
Anne Brown had tears in her eyes as she recalled when Merrill Gregg’s resume landed on her desk at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation 10 years ago. From working for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, Gregg made a life-changing decision to turn to a career in conservation, said Brown, the foundation’s executive director. Merrill committed 110% to making a difference in conserving Texas’ natural land, Brown said. She hopes people understand the magnitude of her dedication. “I’m so proud to call you a colleague and a friend,” Brown said to Gregg. Since joining the state organization in 2016, Gregg went from focusing on major gifts and donations to leading in land conservations, developing conservation finance models and managing the foundation’s investment portfolio.
Gregg’s accomplishments earned her recognition at the Fort World Wild! event Wednesday, hosted and awarded by the Friends of the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge. Every year, the nonprofit honors an individual for their work and dedication in urban conservation. As Fort Worth grows, the community’s well-being depends on natural areas to make the city an enjoyable place to live, Gregg said. “I’m so proud to be a Fort Worthian and to be part of this community,” she said. “I’m super excited about what we will continue to accomplish together.” Although Gregg previously worked in banking, a daily routine in nature wasn’t completely new to her. She reminisced on growing up on her family’s farm in Virginia, where she often rode her pony and explored nearby streams. Gregg’s background in finance helped in her transition to protecting natural spaces. She arrived at a time when the foundation was navigating different approaches to funding conservation projects. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill prompted the organization to think about how to acquire large sources of funding without added costs — such as interest — while ensuring dollars are allocated across much-needed conservation projects. Since joining the foundation, Gregg helped parks and wildlife officials collect and allocate $10 million in loans to protect 3,500 acres across the state. But her dedication to conservation doesn’t stop there. Gregg made it a goal to give back to Fort Worth in smaller ways.
Read this article at Fort Worth Report - Subscribers Only
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‘Liberty or die’: Comal GOP arson suspect indicted by federal grand jury
A federal grand jury indicted a 22-year-old woman Wednesday on a charge of “actual and attempted malicious damage by fire to property involved in interstate or foreign commerce” for allegedly throwing a burning magazine into the Comal County Republican Party’s headquarters on Jan. 14. Grace Carol Brown also faces felony charges of terrorism, arson and burglary of a building in Comal County court. KXAN reached out to Brown’s attorneys Friday afternoon for their comments on the case.
A press release issued Friday by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Justin R. Simmons, says that the building also contained two commercial businesses. These include a storage company and a used car dealer. A redacted version of the indictment, obtained by KXAN through court records, claims that Brown allegedly “displayed antipathy towards the goals and activities of” the Comal County Republican Party and federal immigration enforcement. “This antipathy extended to…. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and certain Executive Branch officials, including the President of the United States, whom she referred to as “Enemies of The US Constitution,'” the indictment says. The indictment also claims that Brown allegedly “expressed support” for “anti-government principles espoused by the domestic terrorist organization ‘ANTIFA.'” As to the alleged crime, it accuses Brown of allegedly breaking one of the building’s windows before throwing a backpack and a burning magazine inside the building. According to Simmons’ press release, the backpack “allegedly contained, among other items, one container of ethanol, two containers of gasoline, a lighter and matches.”
Read this article at KXAN - Subscribers Only
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National Stories
The man trying to make Trump’s tariffs go on forever
Jamieson Greer is a trade lawyer. He is a well-respected trade lawyer. He was chosen by President Donald Trump to be the country’s top trade lawyer: the U.S. Trade Representative. He is not a member of a union. He is not a welder. He is not a manufacturer. He is definitely not a salesman. But here he is one cloudy morning on a factory floor in Michigan, in front of an American flag that could hide an elephant, selling the administration’s trade agenda in one of the most important political states in the country with a man hoping to become its next governor. And that man just went soft on the core tenet of Trump’s efforts to reshape global trade. “We don’t want the tariffs to go on forever,” said Rep. John James (R-Mich.). “We want reciprocal tariffs. We want fair trade.”
Greer stares off at a machine in the distance. He’s heard a similar line from tariff-skittish Republicans before — that the tariffs are a tool, a way to get countries to open markets and expand exports, and then they will come down. But those reassurances contradict his daily reality: His boss does want tariffs to go on forever. And he’s made it Greer’s job to ensure they do. Trump has never hidden his love of tariffs. But his second term has seen the so-called “Tariff Man” unleashed, with a trade policy defined by a fire-from-the hip approach that’s upended global markets. He immediately set about imposing tariffs on three of the country’s top trading partners — China, Canada and Mexico — and quickly followed with “Liberation Day,” when he imposed duties on goods from nearly every country in the world in the hopes that it would end the alleged global exploitation of American commerce and mark the beginning of a grand resurgence in domestic manufacturing. He justified those tariffs with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows the president to regulate trade during a national emergency. The trade deficit between the U.S. and other countries, Trump said, constituted such an emergency. But the law had never been used for that purpose and doesn’t explicitly mention tariffs. In April, the Supreme Court ruled that it couldn’t be used that way at all, striking down the cornerstone of Trump’s economic agenda.
Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only
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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy returns to reality TV roots, sparking criticism and questions
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s new reality show, filmed with his family over the last seven months, has sparked criticism amid high gas prices, in addition to raising ethics questions. Duffy said that costs for the five-part series titled “The Great American Road Trip,” which will air for free on YouTube ahead of America’s 250th birthday, were paid for by a nonprofit, the Great American Road Trip Inc., and that “zero taxpayer dollars were spent on my family.” He said his family did not receive a salary or production royalties. The project’s sponsors, according to its website, include Boeing, Shell, Toyota, United Airlines and Royal Caribbean — all companies that intersect with the Department of Transportation.
“As everyday Americans struggle with the price of gas and raise concerns about airline safety, the Secretary announces that he spent work time going on a road trip that appears to have been funded by the very industries his agency oversees,” Donald K. Sherman, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement. This show brings Duffy and his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, back to their entertainment roots. The pair, who have nine children together, met while filming the MTV reality show “Road Rules: All Stars.” “To love America is to see America,” Duffy says in the trailer that released Friday. “It’s one of the most powerful ways to understand the vast, beautiful, complicated place we call home,” he says over video of destinations spanning from sweeping fields to bustling cities. The Duffy family said they filmed the show one to two days at a time over the course of seven months. Trip activities included running up the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, snowmobiling in Montana, and a stop at “The Real World: Boston” house where Duffy first gained reality television fame.
Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only
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Trump administration’s new wildfire agency preps for fire season
Across the country, wildland firefighters are staring down what could be one of the most severe fire seasons in recent history. Among those figuring out how to prepare is the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, a brand new agency created by the Trump administration. "We're dry and we're expecting the pace to pick up significantly here any time," said the recently appointed head of that service, Brian Fennessy, in an interview with NPR's All Things Considered host Emily Feng. The agency is a product of an ongoing White House effort to combine all the parts of the federal government that fight fires.
"We're trying to bring on additional aircraft and bring them on early," he said. The agency is also bringing on more fire crews earlier in the year. Some wildfire experts, like Park Williams at the University of California, Los Angeles, say they want the government to do more preventative work that could stop a major fire instead of narrowly focusing on suppressing those that ignite. "If we don't want fires to be growing so large that they have catastrophic consequences for people and ecosystems, then the best tool we have at our disposal is large prescribed fires," Williams said.
Read this article at NPR - Subscribers Only
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A deadly cruise ship outbreak exposes travel’s blind spot
The chef on the expedition vessel Hondius filmed it all. Tuna steaks sizzling on a flat-top grill. Lobster pulled from volcanic reefs. A crew drawn from nine countries gathered around a table in Ushuaia, Argentina, raising glasses before setting off into the South Atlantic. “Next stop: the deep blue,” Khabir Moraes wrote in a Facebook post. Ten days later, people on that same ship began dying. A hantavirus outbreak tied to the Dutch-flagged vessel has left three passengers dead and five others ill, with cases now spanning continents, including a patient in intensive care in South Africa and another being treated in Switzerland after leaving the voyage earlier. Almost 150 passengers and crew remain isolated on board as the ship sails toward the Canary Islands, where authorities are preparing to screen them and determine when they can disembark.
The outbreak is still being pieced together. But the setting — a small ship moving through some of the most remote, wildlife-rich parts of the planet — is already familiar to epidemiologists. It’s the kind of journey where infections can incubate silently, only to surface mid-voyage, far from hospitals and across multiple jurisdictions. That’s the blind spot: infections that start out of sight and surface too late to be contained in one place. Expedition cruises promise access to places few people ever reach: Antarctica, sub-Antarctic islands, isolated communities scattered across the South Atlantic. They’ve become one of the fastest-growing corners of the travel industry, built on the appeal of proximity to wildlife and landscapes largely untouched by mass tourism. (The number of passengers landing on the Antarctic Peninsula reached almost 80,000 last season, up from about 54,000 before the pandemic, according to industry data.) But those same features can complicate the way diseases are detected and contained. Passengers move through environments where animal-borne pathogens circulate. They spend days or weeks together in close quarters. And by the time symptoms appear, the ship may be thousands of miles from where exposure occurred.
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Passengers begin to disembark cruise ship hit by hantavirus
Passengers are disembarking the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak, Spain’s Ministry of Health said, in a carefully managed repatriation operation in Tenerife involving multiple nations. All passengers still aboard the vessel were screened Sunday and did not show symptoms, according to health authorities. Since the vessel departed Argentina last month, the deaths of three people have been linked to hantavirus — a rare disease typically caused by exposure to infected rats’ urine or feces. It remains a low risk to the general public, according to the World Health Organization, which also emphasized how the virus differs from Covid-19. The operation has caused tensions in the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. The territory’s leader said last week that he opposed the ship docking. Meanwhile, British medics parachuted onto a remote Atlantic island to treat a UK national with suspected hantavirus, who left the ship weeks before the outbreak became clear.
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Trump's Truth Social lays bare narrow obsessions of an extremely online president
On March 1, the day after U.S. forces bombed Iran and began a war that's now more than nine weeks long, President Trump posted 30 times on Truth Social. Just after midnight, he posted about the bombing campaign, including a threat to retaliate if Iran itself retaliated ("THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT"). But he soon had a lot more on his mind; mid-morning, he posted a video portraying Senator Mitch McConnell as the floppy, deceased Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's. He posted a Tiktok video praising his State of the Union – a speech he had given five days prior – then reposted that video, along with a screenshot of a post on the social media site X. Just after noon, he posted an update on the war ("we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important").
Mid-afternoon, he posted a string of Trump-friendly news coverage, including a New York Post article from September 2024 about how Lady Gaga's father endorsed Trump in the presidential race. Shortly thereafter, in the span of five minutes, he posted 10 times, all of them lists of screenshots of praise from X users for his State of the Union address. He later posted a video update about the war in Iran, followed by a video marked as being from an Instagram user called @truthaboutfluoride, purporting to show San Francisco as a run-down city filled with poverty. During his first presidential campaign, Trump's constant stream of seemingly unvetted tweets was a sideshow that quickly became inescapable – the boasts, insults, and lies at times hijacked news cycles. Once he was elected, they presented a new frontier in American politics: a real-time view into a president's mind. Ten years, one Twitter ejection, one Twitter return, and a move to Truth Social later, Trump's posts still make news – like when he announces a war or tries to pick a fight with the pope – but for many have become the background noise of American politics.
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North Korea updates constitution to require automatic nuclear strike if Kim Jong Un is assassinated: report
North Korea has updated its constitution to require a retaliatory nuclear strike if leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated, according to a report. The Telegraph reported the change comes amid heightened global tensions following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials during a recent conflict. Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike in Tehran as part of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli military operation earlier this year, Fox News Digital previously reported. The constitutional revision was approved during a session of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, which opened March 22 in Pyongyang, the outlet said.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) briefed senior government officials this week on the update, according to the report. The revised policy outlines procedures for retaliatory action if North Korea’s leadership is incapacitated or killed. "If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately," the updated provision states. Reuters previously reported that North Korea revised its constitution to define its territory as bordering South Korea and remove references to reunification, reflecting Kim’s push to formally treat the two Koreas as separate states. That marked the first time North Korea included a territorial clause in its constitution. Last month, Kim pledged to further strengthen the country’s nuclear capabilities while maintaining a hard-line stance toward South Korea, which he has called the "most hostile" state.
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Newsclips - May 8, 2026 |
Lead Stories
Consumers are ‘running out of money’ and cutting back, CEOs warn
Executives across retail, restaurants and packaged goods are increasingly worried about US shoppers with tighter budgets amid surging gas prices caused by the conflict in the Middle East. “They’re literally running out of money at the end of the month,” Kraft Heinz Co. Chief Executive Officer Steve Cahillane said in an interview this week. “We’re seeing negative cash flows in the lower-income brackets where they’re dipping into savings.” Since the pandemic, Americans have continued to spend at surprising levels despite high inflation, keeping the US economy growing and thwarting recession fears. But rising fuel costs might be too much to overcome. “The war in Iran amplified consumer concerns about the cost of living,” Whirlpool Corp. CEO Marc Bitzer said Thursday on a call with analysts.
The maker of washers and dryers said it’s counting on purchases picking up after a harsh US winter slowed shopping, but the war caused a collapse in consumer sentiment. The company described the resulting 15% hit to industry demand as similar to the global financial crisis in the aughts. In fast food, McDonald’s Corp. CEO Chris Kempczinski said confidence among shoppers isn’t improving and may be getting worse. The company cited “heightened anxiety” and gas prices that disproportionately impact low-income consumers. Sit-down dining is also taking a hit. “Our price-sensitive, more value-oriented guests seem to be staying home a bit more,” Dine Brands Global Inc. CEO John Peyton said on an earnings call this week. The company, which owns the Applebee’s and IHOP chains, said it hasn’t seen a similar pullback in other income levels. Eyewear retailer Warby Parker Inc. said younger shoppers are feeling the pinch from higher-than-usual unemployment and student debt bills. Gas prices, now at $4.56 a gallon on average, are at their highest levels since July 2022, according to data from the American Automobile Association. As shoppers put more of their income toward fuel, they have less money for discretionary spending like eating out. Enlarged tax refunds helped blunt some of the impact, but sentiment has still soured to a record low.
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Mayor John Whitmire unanimously endorsed by Houston police union PAC for reelection
A month after the president of the Houston Police Officers Union implied he wouldn’t support Mayor John Whitmire's reelection bid next year, the union's political action committee unanimously voted to endorse him Thursday. “HPOU stands with Mayor Whitmire because he stands with Houston police officers and the communities we proudly serve,” the union wrote on social media. “He has also shown a willingness to make tough decisions and take on the long-term issues facing our city instead of kicking the can down the road." Neither the union nor the mayor's office immediately responded to requests for comment Thursday afternoon. Whitmire's office has not responded to requests for comment from the Houston Chronicle since August.
Whitmire for decades has been a close ally of the union, which endorsed his initial run for mayor in 2023. Whitmire then negotiated a five-year contract giving police officers raises of 36.5% at a cost to the city of almost $1 billion. The context made HPOU's recent rift with the mayor over the city's work with federal immigration agents notable. Whitmire initially supported an ordinance the council passed last month limiting police cooperation with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. After the vote, HPOU president Doug Griffith said the union wouldn’t support any council members who voted for the ICE ordinance, and told Houston Public Media "that will include the mayor." The union quickly changed course, however, saying endorsements would be made by its political action committee. Whitmire later pushed the council to amend its ICE ordinance after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to pull $114 million in public safety grants if the city did not act. The Houston Police Department has now returned to the ICE policy it used last year, before the issue roiled City Hall this spring.
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U.S. intelligence says Iran can outlast Trump’s Hormuz blockade for months
A confidential CIA analysis delivered to administration policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship, four people familiar with the document said, a finding that appears to raise new questions about President Donald Trump’s optimism on ending the war. The analysis by the U.S. intelligence community, whose secret assessments on Iran have often been more sober than the administration’s public statements, also found that Tehran retains significant ballistic missile capabilities despite weeks of intense U.S. and Israeli bombardment, three of the people familiar with it said. Iran retains about 75 percent of its prewar inventories of mobile launchers and about 70 percent of its prewar stockpiles of missiles, a U.S. official said. The official said there is evidence that the regime has been able to recover and reopen almost all of its underground storage facilities, repair some damaged missiles and even assemble some new missiles that were nearly complete when the war began.
Trump painted a rosier picture in Oval Office remarks on Wednesday, saying of Iran: “Their missiles are mostly decimated, they have probably 18, 19 percent, but not a lot by comparison to what they had.” Three current and one former U.S. official confirmed the outlines of the intelligence analysis, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. Asked for comment, a senior U.S. intelligence official emphasized the blockade’s impact. “The President’s blockade is inflicting real, compounding damage — severing trade, crushing revenue, and accelerating systemic economic collapse. Iran’s military has been badly degraded, its navy destroyed, and its leaders are in hiding,” the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said in a statement. “What’s left is the regime’s appetite for civilian suffering — starving its own people to prolong a war it has already lost.” Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials have consistently presented the war as an overwhelming U.S. military victory, despite Iran’s rejection of Washington’s demands that it abandon nuclear enrichment, surrender its uranium stockpiles, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and take other steps.
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Hackers breach Canvas learning platform, exposing data on millions of students and teachers
A cybersecurity attack on the nation's most widely used classroom software has potentially exposed the personal data of millions of students and educators across the country. Instructure, the company that runs the Canvas learning management system used by more than 7,000 universities, K-12 districts and education ministries worldwide, disclosed the breach to affected institutions this week. The company confirmed names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private messages between users had been accessed before the breach was contained. Canvas was offline Thursday evening as the company placed the app in maintenance mode after reports of users encountering issues logging into student ePortfolios. By late Thursday, Instructure said most users should be able to access the app.
Canvas is used by 41% of higher education institutions across North America to deliver courses. Millions of K-12 students rely on it as well. In North Carolina alone, the state Department of Public Instruction has used Canvas across all public K-12 schools since 2015. The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the attack. On a dark web leak site, the group alleged it had stolen more than 3.65 terabytes of data and threatened to release it unless its demands were met. The group said it stole roughly 275 million records tied to students, teachers and staff, and shared a list of 8,809 school districts, universities and online education platforms it claims were affected. ShinyHunters warned that a failure to pay could result in the release of "several billions of private messages among students and teachers." A ransom message on the platform appears to give Infrastructure until May 12 to respond and "negotiate a settlement" before the hackers leak information. The company stated that the affected data might have included full names, email addresses, student ID numbers and messages, but that there is no evidence passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers or financial information were exposed.
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State Stories
Two Texas residents were on cruise ship with hantavirus outbreak, CDC tells state
Two Texas residents were aboard a cruise ship that reported an outbreak of hantavirus — an infection that can rapidly progress and become life-threatening. Texas health officials said Thursday the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified the state about the Texas passengers on the MV Hondius. The Texas Department of State Health Services, or DSHS, said the passengers had left the ship and returned to the U.S. before the outbreak was identified. Hantavirus is a “rare but severe disease that can be deadly,” according to WHO. It is typically spread when people have contact with wild rodent urine, droppings and saliva. However, DSHS said in a statement the strain in this outbreak, the Andes virus, can spread from person-to-person “in limited circumstances.” “It typically requires close, prolonged contact with a person who is actively sick with the disease,” the agency said.
“It is not known to spread through casual contact such as shaking hands or being in the same room for a few minutes. There have been no documented cases where a person without symptoms spread it to someone else.” DSHS said public health officials in Texas have reached the two individuals, who report they are not experiencing any symptoms and weren’t in contact with anyone who was sick while on the ship. The state said it will not release additional personal details about the passengers due to privacy concerns. KERA reached out to DSHS to see where in Texas the passengers are but did not immediately receive comment. The agency said the individuals agreed to “monitor themselves for symptoms with daily temperature checks” and reach out to public health officials at any sign of a possible illness. As of May 4, the World Health Organization, or WHO, said seven cases have been identified – two confirmed with lab testing and five suspected – including three deaths, one critically ill patient and three patients reporting “mild symptoms.” WHO noted the initial appearance of symptoms was characterized by “fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, rapid progression to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock.” The organization also said investigations are ongoing.
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Is Brownsville getting a refinery? America First CEO is confident; industry analyst skeptical
When Donald Trump announced on Truth Social March 10 that Brownsville would be the site of the first U.S. oil refinery to be built in 50 years, it seemed to come out of the blue. But in fact, Port of Brownsville officials have been in communication with the principals behind the proposed America First Refining (AFR) project for about a dozen years, according to Brownsville Navigation District Chairman Steve Guerra. Back in June 2024, AFR founder and CEO John Calce announced that his company (then Element Fuel Holdings) had completed the site preparation and pre-construction work for a large oil refinery at the port. In a statement, he said the company had secured the permits necessary to construct and operate a refinery with a capacity of more than 160,000 BPD, or “approximately 6.7 million gallons, per day of finished gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.”
Reuters reported at the time that Calce had tried before to build a refinery at the port, through start-up firms ARX Energy and Jupiter Brownsville LLC, one such attempt resulting in a bankruptcy filing. Now branded as AFR, the facility is designed to refine U.S. shale crude oil exclusively, which no other domestic refinery is equipped to do, the company said. AFR said the approximately $4 million project has investment from a “global supermajor,” identified by Trump as Reliance Industries, India’s largest private company and owner of the world’s largest oil refinery. The Financial Times reported that Reliance, which has not commented publicly on the deal, is committing a “modest initial outlay” of about $40 million to the project. In a May 5 phone interview with The Brownsville Herald, Calce declined to say how much Reliance is investing, but when asked about the likelihood of AFR actually getting built, said the project is moving forward with much of the pre-construction work already done. “In a lot of ways we’ve already commenced construction, because we’ve spent an extraordinary amount of money on … permitting, design, engineering etc.” he said. “In these kind of projects, so much of what you do in the development piece of it is engineering.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson raising campaign cash in Dallas
House Speaker Mike Johnson will headline a fundraiser and “fireside chat” Friday in Dallas to ramp up efforts to protect Republican congressional candidates in November. The event, sponsored by Johnson’s Grow the Majority committee, also will feature members of the Texas congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin, who is in the GOP runoff May 26 for attorney general. The Dallas fundraiser, part of a two-day North Texas swing by Johnson, comes as Republicans are mobilizing to maintain control of the House and defy the midterm pattern of the president’s party losing seats. President Donald Trump’s poll numbers have sagged this year, and rising living costs could make it harder for Republicans to hold the House.
Texas has a special role in the 2026 midterm races. Last year, Republican lawmakers redrew congressional boundaries at Trump’s request to try to add five GOP seats, sparking redistricting fights in other parts of the country. At least three of the five districts revamped to favor Republicans are competitive, so Johnson and Republicans may be forced to spend national resources to help those candidates. Texas remains a major fundraising base for Republicans, including in Democratic-controlled Dallas County. According to an invitation reviewed by The Dallas Morning News, Friday’s event is hosted by Dallas business leaders and GOP donors, including Kathy and Harlan Crow, Ross Perot Jr. and Catherine “Trinka” Taylor. Contributions range from $25,000 to $250,000.
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Despite anger over bills, Austin considers new contract with Texas Gas Service
The Austin City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday on a plan to continue partnering with Texas Gas Service for another 10 years. That's even though the council and residents have had plenty of complaints about the cost of the service being provided. Two years ago, renewing the contact felt less guaranteed. The relationship between the city and Texas Gas Service, the for-profit utility that provides the city with natural gas, was in a bad place. Repeated rate hikes angered customers, and plans for another increase had City Council members suggesting they had reached a breaking point. They discussed finding another utility to work with when Austin’s contract expired in 2026, or even buying out the local distribution system entirely and creating a public gas service.
“Please, work with the city, our representatives and the outside stakeholders to meet the moment,” Council Member Ryan Alter asked representatives for the utility in 2024, “and not motivate us two years from now to really question whether this is a good partnership.” Two years later, gas bills have kept going up, public anger persists, but a new contract appears inevitable. The question is under what terms. “This [contract] is going to be well discussed before we reach the finish line. And we'll hopefully have a product in place that protects customers and limits these rate increases,” Alter said. The vote Thursday is over a proposed agreement drafted by city staff in negotiations with Texas Gas Service, that would allow the utility to continue as the the primary provider of gas for Austin homes and businesses.
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Abbott orders North Texas Muslim school to stop offering degrees
Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that the Texas American Muslim University at Dallas, a North Texas school that advertises degree programs with Islamic studies courses, must cease operations. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said the school is offering higher education courses and degrees without a proper certificate of authority, violating Texas laws for operating a higher education institution. At Abbott’s direction, the state agency ordered the school, which is based in Richardson, to cease advertising its programs and enrolling students. “Texas will not allow illegal educational institutions to operate in our state,” Abbott wrote Thursday in a post on X. Shahid Bajwa, the school’s founder, said the school was “actively engaging” with state officials to “clarify any misunderstandings and to ensure full compliance with state regulations.”
Bajwa said that the school, which started its first semester in October 2025 with 26 students, was aware of the state’s process for authorization. School leaders are “in the process of seeking the necessary authorizations and accreditation and will not offer degrees until all regulatory approvals are secured,” he said in a statement Thursday evening. The school has not granted degrees, certificates or credentials, he said, adding that it is primarily funded through donations. Abbott’s directive comes as state leaders have increasingly scrutinized Islamic schools and sought to curtail activities hosted by Muslim groups. The state comptroller’s office initially held up dozens of Islamic K-12 schools from enrolling in Texas’ new voucher-like program, with Abbott deeming the schools sites of “radical Islamic indoctrination.” Texas American Muslim University at Dallas, whose website says its “north star” is to “advance Texas,” advertises itself as the first university in the country to offer STEM degree programs with mandatory courses in Islamic studies.
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Roy, Self target anti-drunk driving ‘kill switch’ tech, advocates call fears overblown
Republican U.S. Congressman and Texas Attorney General candidate Chip Roy is attempting to repeal legislation requiring technology in vehicles designed to combat drunk driving. Advocates say it represents a step back. When former President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law in 2021, the legislation included the HALT Drunk Driving law. Long sought by anti-drunk-driving advocates, the law sets requirements for new vehicles in the U.S. to be equipped with advanced impaired driving technology that detects impaired drivers and, if necessary, prevents them from driving via a so-called “kill switch.” Roy has added an amendment to the GOP’s upcoming Foreign Intelligence Security Act renewal to repeal the section of the infrastructure bill requiring the technology to be added to all new non-commercial motor vehicles.
Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie filed a similar amendment in January to prevent funding for the initiative, although 57 fellow GOP representatives joined with Democrats in voting to maintain the requirements. The “kill switch,” Roy argues, is a government overreach that violates U.S. citizens’ civil liberties. “Do you really want to put that kind of data collection mandated inside every car? At what point is there just literally no privacy at all anywhere? A lot of Americans died to protect our Fourth Amendment rights so that we don’t have government looking at our stuff,” Roy said at an April 28. Committee meeting. As set forth in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, the technology will utilize passive, consumer-ready mechanisms to detect impairment in motor vehicles. Breathalyzers and other traditional methods for detecting blood alcohol content do not fall under that definition. Instead, cars would have camera systems and vehicle-based sensors capable of identifying a drunk driver. U.S. Rep Keith Self from Collin County has also voiced opposition to the technology. On Wednesday, Self tweeted, “Imagine a woman fleeing an attacker—and her car won’t start because it thinks she’s impaired. Imagine a farmer injured on the job—his truck won’t start because it thinks he’s drunk.”
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Paxton opens investigations into 29 Texas ISDs over Ten Commandments law
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is launching investigations into 29 Texas school districts to ensure schools display the Ten Commandments in classrooms in compliance with Texas law. This comes after a federal appeals court's April 21 decision to uphold a contentious Texas law requiring public school districts to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, setting the stage for a potential Supreme Court fight. "Texas school districts must comply with Texas law by displaying the Ten Commandments and taking a school board vote regarding the implementation of prayer time in schools," said Paxton in a statement. "I will never stop defending our students’ religious freedom and the moral foundation of our nation."
The Texas Ten Commandments law — SB 10 — was passed by the Legislature during the 89th session in 2025 and requires public schools to display donated copies of the Ten Commandments that meet certain specifications. Schools must also comply with SB 11, passed in 2025, which requires school boards to vote on whether to implement a designated time for prayer and the reading of the Bible or other religious texts. According to the Office of the Attorney General, it has demanded that school districts provide proof of a board vote on implementing SB 11. The demands issued to these schools also require them to produce documents regarding the display or lack thereof of the Ten Commandments and their policies regarding SB 10.
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Casinos are illegal in Texas. So why did Las Vegas Sands post casino software jobs in Dallas?
A year after Las Vegas Sands made an unsuccessful push to include casino gaming in a North Texas mixed-use development, the resort company has posted several jobs based out of Dallas on its website. At least nine Dallas-based jobs had been posted on the Sands website in the last 30 days as of Thursday. Posted roles are for application architects, data engineers, and technology support. One position includes a senior product manager role that leads development of the casino management systems software "from the ground up". A spokesperson with the company said that Sands does "not have any projects being undertaken in Dallas." However, the company has established an office in the area to centralize software development, strengthen operational efficiency, and "innovate at scale."
"DFW was selected for its strong concentration of skilled technology talent, robust infrastructure, and thriving innovation ecosystem supported by leading universities," Sands spokesperson Ron Reese said in an email. "The region’s connectivity across North America, cost-effective operating environment, and business-friendly policies enable sustainable growth and efficient collaboration with partners." Sands proposed rezoning a mixed-use development in Irving last year that would have included casino gaming in its destination resort, pending legalization in Texas. Following strong pushback from Irving residents, Sands took out the casino-related portion of the development plans. Those plans were ultimately approved by the Irving City Council without the casino gaming element. It was not the first time Sands floated the idea of casino gaming in Texas. Las Vegas Sands has lobbied to legalize gambling in Texas for years and formed the Texas Sands PAC in 2022.
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‘It chokes us out’: San Antonio Rodeo bucks county’s ‘alternate vision’ for the East Side
Seven months after voters overwhelmingly approved plans for an expanded rodeo district on the East Side, leaders of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo are accusing Bexar County leaders of going behind their backs to pursue an “alternative vision.” In November, voters approved Propositions A and B to help fund a new Spurs arena downtown, as well as convert the existing Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum grounds into a year-round stock show and rodeo district. Now Cody Davenport, executive director and CEO of the San Antonio Livestock Exhibition, says Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and county commissioners have been negotiating without them on a mixed-use development that was long expected to accompany the rodeo grounds — but as written, is “fundamentally incompatible” with the plan voters approved.
“It chokes us out,” he said. Davenport played a key role in getting Props A and B over the line in November. But the county appeared to be dragging its feet on his contract, Davenport said, and when multiple people alerted him about movement on this other vision, he sent county leaders a three-page letter expressing his frustration. In it, he vents frustration over the developer’s plans to eliminate parking, saying the rodeo wouldn’t be able to use the $193 million voters approved in Proposition A to expand the rodeo grounds and grow its event calendar. He also suggested the plan was at odds with the rodeo’s prior agreement with the county, which said that development shouldn’t interfere with or restrict rodeo activities. “[County leaders] have been presented with an alternate vision advanced by the Hunt Companies and Lincoln Group that was not presented to voters, not described on the ballot, and not approved by the public,” Davenport wrote.
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San Antonio Mayor Ortiz Jones, council standoff boils over during Project Marvel consultant contract debate
Long-simmering tensions between the mayor, council and city staff again boiled over publicly Thursday, leading Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones to cast the lone vote against the two consultant contracts related to the downtown development Project Marvel. By a 10-1 vote, council members approved two contracts, one to determine costs and the other to lead the multi-million-dollar investment surrounding a Spurs NBA arena in downtown San Antonio. The council was set to hear a briefing by City Manager Erik Walsh on the city’s plan to develop a $3 billion to $4 billion sports and entertainment district near an expanded convention center and anchored by the new arena. It would have been the first full update since January, with 37 detailed presentation slides outlining how the district study and executive program manager consultants were selected.
It also included some updates on progress toward acquiring federal and UTSA-owned properties for the development. But that briefing was pushed off to June after council members joined Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) in agreeing that such an update should be given during a future B Session of the council, which has more time for such updates. (The previous staff update was provided during B Session on Jan. 14.) Jones again pushed for the update to occur before the vote, saying it was necessary for “transparency.” “I think it’s important that we share the information,” Jones said. “There may be questions about why we would not talk about the overall picture, or taking action on contracts related to the projects.” Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) said the entire council had met with city staff during the past two weeks and had been fully updated on progress with the project.
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TCU & Baylor aligned on Big 12’s new private equity partner & cash infusion
The Big 12’s future health and stability hinge on its ability to find new partners who believe in the product and want to be affiliated with one of America’s highest-profile college athletic conferences. There is quiet frustration growing among league members that the conference has not landed more lucrative deals to be disbursed among the Big 12 members and adding to their bottom lines. In lieu of those types of potential deals, the league partnered with RedBird Capital to help with cash flow. Yahoo Sports reported on May 1 that the deal provides $12.5 million to the league, and includes a provision where the member schools can receive a credit line of $30 million.
TCU director of athletics Mike Buddie said the university’s athletic department has declined the offer, as has Baylor. “[Baylor is] is supportive of the RedBird partnership and excited about its benefits for the Big 12, but as of now [we] do not have plans to participate in the school-level capital option,” Baylor athletic director Doug McNamee told the Star-Telegram. According to reports from news organizations that cover the schools in local Big 12 markets from Florida to Utah, nearly all of the universities are rejecting this line of credit. They are passing for two reasons. 1. If a member school’s athletic department desperately needs a line of credit, the university can arrange a more favorable one. 2. They don’t want another voice in the room helping to manage the budget in a … cough-cough … “partnership.”
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Bud Kennedy: Ex-party chair tells Texas Republicans: Unite or expect Senator Talarico
Steve Munisteri of Austin remembers back when young Texans were Republicans. Now, he’s a senior adviser with a warning: Republicans can lose. The party’s former state chairman brought a sobering message to two Fort Worth-area Republican clubs last week: Texas Democrats can elect James Talarico to the U.S. Senate and maybe win more races if Republicans keep bashing each other after the May 29 runoff. In a week when the party’s deep divide was garishly displayed in Texas — for example, state Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco wrote on X.com that current state party Chairman Abraham George represents the “low-IQ base” after the state party tried to ban some incumbents from the ballot — Munisteri put it bluntly:
“The Democrats are united now. Believe me, nothing unites a losing party more than the hope that they might not be the losing party.” “In 30 of the races [nationally since January 2025] in which a party has flipped a seat from one party to the other, our party is 0-30.” “Is the best way to [win] to be mean to your other Republicans? ... You need their votes. We need everybody’s votes.” “Does anybody this think this state has become more Republican with our population going up about 400,000 [people] a year?” Munisteri advises Gov. Greg Abbott and has worked for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. He served in the White House from 2017 to 2019 as a deputy assistant during President Donald Trump’s first administration. He comes from the libertarian-minded wing of the party and has also advised U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Texan.
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‘In the presence of Jesus:’ Founder of Daystar Television Network dies at 65
Joni Lamb, the founder and president of the Daystar Television Network, has died at age 65, according to a statement from the network. Lamb founded the Christian television network in 1993 with her husband, Marcus, according to WFAA-TV. Its headquarters are located in Bedford. “We know that she is in the presence of Jesus, reunited with Marcus, and receiving her reward for a beautiful life lived in surrender to the Lord,” the statement reads. “She has modeled what it means to be fearless, to be bold, and to stand for righteousness even when it’s unpopular. Her love and compassion for people were unparalleled. She will be so greatly missed.”
Prior to her death, Lamb had been dealing with “serious” health issues that were made worse by a past back injury, according to the statement. Her condition worsened over the last few days despite “the dedicated efforts of her medical team and the prayers of so many around the world.” Lamb spent 40 years “building a ministry that brought the Gospel into millions of homes,” according to the statement. The network will continue programming “uninterrupted” with tributes to air in the coming days, officials said. Lamb met with the network’s board prior to her death to ensure a leadership team was in place that would allow the network to continue.
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County Stories
Tarrant faith leaders denounce racial disparity in death penalty cases
Faith leaders and community activists expressed their concerns on Thursday afternoon following a report that said Tarrant County unfairly targets racial and ethnic minorities in death penalty cases while also frequently threatening the death sentence to leverage plea bargains. The report, “An Extreme Outlier: Race and the Death Penalty in Tarrant County, the Third Largest County in Texas,” was published by the Texas Defender Service, which describes itself as “dedicated to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in Texas through direct representation, policy reform, and public education.” At a press conference at the Tarrant County Courthouse, the Rev. Ryon Price, the senior pastor of Broadway Baptist Church, said Tarrant County’s pursuit of the death penalty is “shocking in its frequency and absolutely abhorrent in its effect.”
Price says the death penalty is a cruel, unnecessarily vindictive form of punishment, and it disappoints him that Tarrant County leads the charge in the state. “What is obvious from this report is that Tarrant County is consistently and abusively misusing capital case prosecution as a weapon of persecution against the Black and brown community, this must stop,” Price said. “I and other faith leaders here with me today call upon Tarrant County to end its extreme and unjust pursuit of the death penalty, and commit itself to seeking a more reasonable, ethical and equitable measure of justice.” Pamela Young, executive director of United Fort Worth, compared the report to other Tarrant County issues, such as jail deaths, the Commissioners Court redistricting that likely flipped a Democrat’s seat, and voter suppression efforts, such as when commissioners tried to reduce the number of voting locations in 2024. Young called out registered Tarrant County voters, saying no one will come to save them except themselves, and that the best way to do it is by voting.
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National Stories
Campaign staffers tell NPR they make 'thousands' betting on their own candidates
It was a tight race, so a campaign staffer doubted the results of an unreleased poll showing their candidate up — by a lot. The tip about the outside poll didn't match up with the campaign's internal numbers. But accuracy aside, the staffer knew the poll would shake up the prediction markets. One market had their candidate down by double digits. "Myself and others started placing bets before that poll came out," the staffer, who was working on a statewide campaign in the South, told NPR on the condition of anonymity over fear for their future employment. "And then, sure enough as soon as that poll came out, the stock went up and everybody made money." This is one of the first publicly reported instances of a campaign staffer betting and winning thousands on their own candidate on prediction markets — emerging financial exchanges where billions are bet each week on future events like sports, culture and even elections.
The staffer's bet was verified by prediction market data reviewed by NPR. "Because you have all this information and knowledge that isn't publicly available yet, it's almost foolish not to bet on it before it's made public," the staffer said. The staffer said campaign bets by fellow staffers were commonplace in this particular campaign and the ones that followed. In recent weeks, popular prediction market Kalshi has banned and fined a handful of political candidates for betting on themselves. Bets like these raise questions about how campaign operatives can also turn private information into a quick payday amid an unsettled legal landscape. For this campaign staffer, the method was simple. First, they'd receive a tip on an unreleased poll and compare it with the odds on a prediction market, like PredictIt or Polymarket. If the poll reported their candidate had a better chance of winning than the prediction markets, they'd use this edge to buy low-cost odds on their candidate — known as event contracts — before the poll was released. On prediction markets, the price of an event contract often mirrors the market's estimation of the probability of a given outcome — in this case the chance a candidate will win. So a contract selling for 20 cents means the market is pricing a 20% chance of success. Once the poll went public, the prediction market contracts shot up in value. The staffer would then sell their contracts at a higher price and make money. "The most I've ever made is thousands," the staffer said. This sort of election betting "could potentially be a violation" and be subject to a CFTC investigation, said Jeff Le Riche, who worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for 20 years as a trial lawyer focused on insider trading and market manipulation. The agency oversees and regulates prediction markets and allows election betting in some, but not all, cases.
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John Fetterman says he’s not switching parties. Here’s why everyone’s talking about it anyway.
Just as Sen. John Fetterman’s tension with his own party has grown since he began his term in 2023, so have the Pennsylvania Democrat’s unexpected friendships with Republican senators. And as Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate in November improve, Fetterman’s friends across the aisle have been opening their arms even wider. Pennsylvania GOP Chair Sen. Greg Rothman indicated last month that supporting Fetterman’s reelection wouldn’t be off the table if he switched parties. President Donald Trump asked Sean Hannity to urge Fetterman to become a Republican in exchange for the president’s support, according to the Fox News host. But Fetterman has repeatedly said he doesn’t plan to switch parties, including Thursday in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, following a new round of speculation.
“Being an independent voice that works with the other side to deliver for Pennsylvanians might put me at odds with the party that I have stayed committed to and have no plans to leave — but I will continue to put the commonwealth and the country first,” Fetterman wrote. “Plus, I’d be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats,” he added. So why is everyone talking about Fetterman switching parties if he keeps saying he won’t, and why does it matter? Even though he votes with his party the majority of the time, Fetterman has had public disagreements with party leaders on a host of high-profile issues, including recent shutdowns, the Iran war, immigration enforcement, and even Trump’s desired White House ballroom. He’s consistently voted for Trump’s cabinet nominees and has criticized members of his party for having “Trump derangement syndrome,” a common Republican attack. And while many Democrats support Israel — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Gov. Josh Shapiro — Fetterman has been particularly vocal in criticizing the party’s progressive wing over its embrace of the Palestinian cause. In Pennsylvania, Fetterman has polled much better among Republicans than members of his own party in recent months — an eye-popping 73% of Republicans approved of his job performance in a February poll, compared with only 22% of Democrats. Progressive groups who once supported his election now routinely stage protests outside his office. He’s also had high turnover on his staff, with some former employees openly opposing him or expressing concerns about his health.
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Inside a MAGA influencer’s turn against the right-wing machine
Few MAGA influencers were as committed to the digital cause as Ashley St. Clair. The 27-year-old former brand ambassador for the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA published an anti-transgender children’s book, appeared prime-time on Fox News and posted selfies from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. On X, where St. Clair has more than 1 million followers, she had become a legend: a young conservative woman fighting back against the perceived liberal excesses of “brain rot” feminism and the “‘woke’ agenda” — a reputation that swelled last year, when she revealed that she had secretly had a child with the platform’s multibillionaire owner, Elon Musk. But in the past few months, St. Clair has become one of the right-wing internet’s most scathing and visible critics.
Many of Trump’s top online cheerleaders are actually just mercenaries of the attention economy, she argues, working to turn political outrage and talking points coordinated with administration officials into paid promotional deals. “There is no free thinking here,” she said in a TikTok video last month about the movement she joined when she was 19. “They are waiting to get marching orders and a direct deposit.” St. Clair’s transformation from a self-described “good little foot soldier” to MAGA turncoat has unspooled in near-daily monologues to more than 77,000 followers on her TikTok feed, where she applies makeup from her New York apartment and claims to expose the secrets of her former allies and the hidden machinery that made them social media stars. Her viral criticism has triggered unease across the online right, where some of her ex-compatriots have argued she is a disgruntled attention-seeker moving onto her next grift. Naomi Seibt, a far-right German activist and influencer, said in an X post that St. Clair is “projecting her guilt and bitterness for a decade of selling out onto us.”
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Costa Rica’s top newspaper says US revoked visas of its executives, prompting press freedom concerns
The United States has revoked the visas of several board executives at La Nación, one of Costa Rica’s leading media outlets, triggering fresh accusations that the U.S. — in conjunction with the allied Costa Rican government — is stripping visas to punish critics and political opponents. In a statement that ran as the newspaper’s front page on Sunday, the board of directors said that the affected members first learned they had been stripped of their visas to enter the U.S. from reports in pro-government media. La Nación has long been a thorn in the side of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who has agreed to accept up to 100 third-country deportees a month as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up deportations.
The newspaper, which Chaves has berated since it published allegations of sexual harassment during his 2022 presidential campaign, said that the U.S. gave no reason for the visa revocations. The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment. “We fully recognize that the United States, like any sovereign state, has the power to determine the terms of entry into its territory,” La Nación said. “However, it is unprecedented in Costa Rica’s recent history for visas to be revoked from members of the board of a general-interest and independent newspaper.” The move appeared to mark the latest instance of the Trump administration deploying immigration restrictions to punish its political foes, and prompted sharp criticism from political opposition and press freedom organizations in Costa Rica, which demanded that Costa Rican and U.S. authorities provide an explanation for what happened. “If this decision is based on their critical stance toward this government, it would be yet another troubling signal for our democratic system,” the organizations said in a statement, adding that failing to provide transparent information would “constitute an unacceptable form of complicity.”
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Thomas Massie is really in danger of losing his seat
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s lead in his primary later this month is slipping and he is in genuine danger of losing his Kentucky seat, according to interviews with local GOP officials. Massie — best known for his defiance of President Donald Trump and advocacy for the release of files associated with notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein — is believed to still have a small edge in his race against military veteran Ed Gallrein, they say. But his lead is shrinking under an onslaught of negative ads and steadfast opposition from a bloc of older Republicans who remain fiercely loyal to the president. “I think Ed could win,” said Rich Hidy, chairman of the Campbell County GOP in the commonwealth’s 4th Congressional District, who is neutral in the race. “It’s going to be the closest race that Thomas has faced.”
Republicans in the district broadly share Hidy’s view: Many believed Massie’s lead had already shrunk to the single digits when May began. Massie’s path looks even more complicated this week after primaries in Indiana, where Trump-backed candidates defeated a majority of the Republican incumbents they faced in state Senate elections. Those incumbents had earned Trump’s wrath after voting against his preferred redistricting map. That anger hardly matches the president’s rage at Massie: Trump vowed to defeat Massie last year after the congressman opposed a series of the president’s policy priorities, endorsing Gallrein and dispatching some of his top political lieutenants to ensure the incumbent’s loss. “Hey @RepThomasMassie ….you are next,” former Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita posted on X on Tuesday, shortly after votes had been tabulated in Indiana.
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Federal and state officials discuss closing Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Florida is in talks with the Trump administration to shut down a high-profile immigration detention center that opened last summer in the Everglades and has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars to operate, according to a federal official, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, and a person close to the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The shutdown talks are preliminary, the people said. But officials at the Department of Homeland Security have concluded that it is too expensive to keep operating the center, known as Alligator Alcatraz. Homeland security officials have also come to consider the center ineffective, the federal official said. All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks.
The DeSantis administration has been spending more than $1 million a day to run the center, which is in a swampy, isolated area between Miami and Naples. Some private vendors hired by the state to operate it have been struggling to front costs, according to the person close to the DeSantis administration. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment before this article was published on Thursday morning. Neither did the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which operates the center, nor Mr. DeSantis’s office. In a statement provided after publication, a homeland security spokesperson said the department “continuously evaluates detention needs and requirements to ensure they meet the latest operational requirements.” What you should know about anonymous sources. The Times makes a careful decision any time it shields the identity of a source. The information the source supplies must be newsworthy, credible and give readers genuine insight.
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