October 30, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

GOP women's group behind fake transgender mailer campaign

A Republican women's group is behind a fake Texas transgender student union that sent text messages and brochures to as many as three million voters this month. The Republican Women’s Caucus Fund and someone named John Braun were identified as those responsible for the scheme that riled up voters just as early voting began, according to legal filings made public late Thursday. The identities were ordered to be revealed by a Travis County judge. The RWC Fund is the political wing of a group of Republican women in the U.S. House and Senate. It was not immediately clear who Braun was. The Texas Observer, which first reported the names, noted that John Braun is the name of a Washington state senator running for Congress. His campaign lists as its treasurer Paul Kilgore, who is also the treasurer for RWC Fund, as well as for two political action committees — the Senate Conservatives Fund and its super PAC Senate Conservatives Action — that have supported Attorney General Ken Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign.

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Neither the RWC Fund, Braun or Kilgore could be immediately reached for comment. Civil district court Judge Jan Soifer had ruled on Wednesday that a real advocacy group named in the campaign, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT, had no role in it and is "suffering injuries, including harassment, threats, diversion of resources, and frustration of operations" as a result. The messages, which went out just days before early voting began in the midterm elections, were sent by an organization calling itself the Texas Transgender Student Union. The group was formed in September and registered as a limited liability corporation in Wyoming. In the messages, which were addressed to the children of registered voters, the group advised on how to access gender-affirming care even if it went against the wishes of their parents. Included in the messages was TENT's website. TENT's lawyer, Mimi Marziani, told Soifer on Tuesday that the mailers were clearly designed to boost conservative turnout in the election, where U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton is facing Democrat James Talarico. TTSU's lawyer, Chris Hilton, who previously worked for Paxton as an assistant attorney general, countered that the organization is covered by the First Amendment and is legally allowed to keep secret the names of whoever sent the messages. During a Thursday hearing, Soifer denied a request by Hilton to keep the names of the people backing the campaign secret. She said TENT deserved to hear "from the horse's mouth" about why they had sent the messages and had implied that TENT was part of it.

How an obscure website became a force in America’s election information machine

Frustrated with hunting for information on political candidates, Ben Torres Ezrick set out to build a one-stop shop for voters. To wrangle data on thousands of candidates, the tech veteran turned to artificial intelligence. He sent out teams of digital agents across the web to build the dossiers that populate his website, the Ballot Brief. But Ezrick envisioned attracting an audience beyond humans: chatbots. This effort has been a stunning success. In tests by The Washington Post, ChatGPT cited the Ballot Brief in 22 percent of its answers to questions about the election. Microsoft’s Copilot cited it in 75 percent of answers. Ezrick said his own data shows Microsoft’s AI systems referred to the Ballot Brief more than 680,000 times in 30-day period spanning September and October. It’s part of a pattern. Chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT are frequently turning to three small websites — including the Ballot Brief and two other newly launched sites — to shape their answers about voting information, according to a Post review of thousands of AI responses.

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All three sites are tiny operations, almost entirely dependent on AI to gather and summarize data, their founders said. As Americans increasingly turn to chatbots for political information, experts warn that this AI feedback loop could quietly distort the information voters receive, seeding errors about candidates and elections across the internet and into the hands of millions of people. Isabel Linzer, an elections analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said The Post’s findings illustrate how easy it can be to get chatbots to rely on information “some random person publishes on an AI-generated website.” “It’s really important to think about how that could affect voter trust,” she said. The Post identified numerous mistakes on the Ballot Brief. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) was credited with supporting a bill that passed before he took office — an error that Copilot repeated in a response to The Post. Two Robert Garcias running in California were collapsed into one profile. And several House members were listed with incorrect committee jobs. Profiles for other members of Congress were sparse, with missing voting records and a note incorrectly claiming that they appeared not to have a campaign website.

Kalshi, founders charged, escalating fight over who can regulate prediction markets

Utah on Wednesday filed criminal charges against prediction market operator Kalshi and two of its executives, months after a federal judge rejected Kalshi's effort to prevent Utah from enforcing its strict anti-gambling laws against the activity. The felony charges could represent a new tactic in how states try to assert regulatory authority over the fast-expanding activity, a clash that appears headed to a showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. The charges include 13 counts of violating the state's prohibition on gambling and another charge involving profiting off illegal activity. The state's charging documents name Kalshi and its co-founders, chief executive officer Tarek Mansour and chief operating officer Luana Lopes Lara. In a statement, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said Kalshi has continued to operate in Utah, despite a federal court ruling that Utah's gambling laws apply to the company. “Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it. Calling it a ‘prediction market’ doesn’t change what it is, and being federally registered doesn’t put a company above the law," Brown said in a statement.

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The attorney general's office did not immediately say what sort of criminal penalties it would seek in the case, although the felony charges carry the possibility of jail time. In a statement, Kalshi called the charges a “crazy overreach” and said that “Utah is clearly playing politics.” “We look forward to putting a stop to this in court, just like we did in Arizona,” it said. Utah has been on the front lines of a battle between states and the federal government over who regulates the markets. Litigation has spread across roughly 20 states, creating a fragmented legal landscape that analysts say will likely be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. Kalshi has maintained that prediction markets fall exclusively under federal jurisdiction and are not governed by state gambling laws. Under President Donald Trump, the federal agency responsible for regulating financial markets, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has agreed and even sued at least 10 states — including Utah this week — to try to stop states from regulating prediction markets.

Harris County breaks early voting records for a midterm election

Harris County has set a new record for early voting in a midterm election, and there's still one more day to push the number even higher. With close battles for the U.S. Senate and governor, more than 862,000 people had voted before polls opened on Thursday morning. The previous record for a non-presidential election was in 2018 when 855,711 people cast ballots during the entire early voting period. “Harris County voters are making history,” Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth said on Wednesday, even before the official numbers were announced. She predicted that 1 million voters will have cast a ballot in Harris County by the time early voting ends on Friday. That would put the county just short of the nearly 1.2 million people who voted early in the 2024 presidential election, races that typically draw more voters than in midterm elections. The Richard and Meg Weekley Community Center in Cypress has become the most popular voting location in the region, with more than 29,000 ballots cast through the first 10 days of voting — a 75% increase from the same period in 2022.

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The Metropolitan MultiService Center is the second busiest vote center with just over 28,000 ballots cast so far. That's a 60% increase in turnout from the same period in 2022. Voters in Houston’s Black community are a major reason for the surge. Voter turnout at Acres Homes Multiservice Center and Sunnyside Health and Multi Service Center is up over 80% compared to the first 10 days of early voting in 2024, the last presidential election. At the Northeast MultiService Center and Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, voter turnout is up more than 150%. Turnout isn't an indicator of which candidate will win. There is no way to know how voters are casting their ballots. But State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said more voters with a history of participating in Democratic primary elections are voting than those who've participated in Republican primaries. He said the big unknown is the independents. More than 37% of the people who have voted early statewide have no previous primary voting history. “Independents will decide these races, and of that there can be no doubt,” said Bettencourt, a former elections official who pays close attention to the voting numbers in Harris County. The major candidates for U.S. Senate and governor are looking to boost that turnout even higher. On Friday at noon, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton will rally in Houston just miles from a major voting center. And at 2 p.m. on Saturday, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, both Democrats, will be in the city for a get-out-the-vote rally going into Election Day on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott was up in Montgomery County on Wednesday and is expected to be back in Houston on Monday for a final campaign push.

State Stories

Congressman Cloud’s water comment draws mixed reactions from Corpus Christi council members

A comment from Congressman Michael Cloud during President Donald Trump's rally at the Port of Corpus Christi Tuesday is drawing mixed reactions from city leaders as water security becomes a key issue ahead of the November election. Cloud took aim at the City Council's handling of the city's water challenges, using a cowboy analogy to criticize the city's progress on finding a long-term water supply solution. “You can bring a city council to water, but you can't make it drink,” Cloud said. Councilmember Roland Barrera said he agrees with Cloud's frustration, arguing the city has spent years working toward a long-term water solution. Barrera said Cloud worked to identify federal funding opportunities that could help reduce costs for residents and other water customers across the Coastal Bend.

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“He worked very, very hard to be able to create grant funds that would have reduced the cost of the residential ratepayer and all the ratepayers in the Coastal Bend,” Barrera said. The comments come after the City Council voted 5-4 this summer against applying for up to $120 million in federal Bureau of Reclamation funding for the proposed Inner Harbor desalination project. In September, the council also voted against advancing the project's design. Councilmember Mark Scott, who is running for reelection, said he shares Cloud's frustration with those decisions. “I thought the congressman's comments were poignant, spot on, and I share his frustration with the city's inability to pursue that Bureau of Reclamation grant in particular,” Scott said. Mayor Paulette Guajardo is running for reelection. She also said she understands Cloud's concerns, pointing to his efforts to help Corpus Christi address its water challenges. “We must find a water solution that is drought proof. That is long term and it's in our backyard by the way. I'm glad he made the remark,” Guajardo said. However, not all council members agree with Cloud's criticism. “With due respect, I think it was unprofessional and it was a divisive remark,” Vaughn said. “First of all, the council is not horses. We make decisions day to day and try and make the best ones we can for our constituents,” said Vaughn.

El Paso ISD releases student data to state comptroller, prompting concerns over undocumented students

The El Paso Independent School District has provided the Texas Comptroller’s Office with records breaking down the number of students enrolled using a Social Security number and those who use a state-approved alternative identification number, raising concerns that the data may be used to target undocumented students. EPISD board President Leah Hanany confirmed to El Paso Matters that the district provided the records requested by the comptroller, but noted that they alone cannot be used to determine citizenship status. Districts assign students an alternative number when a family does not provide a Social Security number. “I think they’re trying to ascertain which children have Social Security numbers and which don’t. But it’s impossible to ascertain that. Anybody can register their child using an alternate number,” Hanany told El Paso Matters. Comptroller Don Huffines’ office requested the data but told the district not to provide identifying student information, according to a Thursday news release from El Paso state Rep. Vince Perez.

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EPISD is one of four districts being reviewed by the Comptroller’s Office after Gov. Greg Abbott requested a state financial investigation to ensure that districts are spending more state funds in the classroom and not on administration. Huffines did not respond to El Paso Matters’ request for comment. Perez said the Comptroller’s Office used a financial assessment of EPISD to collect documents unrelated to the district’s finances and operations. “A Social Security number isn’t required to go to school in Texas, and an alternative ID number tells you nothing about a child’s immigration status,” Perez said in the news release. “So what does a review of central office spending have to do with a count of El Paso children who enrolled without using one?” Huffines also asked for budgets, payroll documents, contracts, an electronic copy of the district’s school library catalog and board policies on parents’ complaints about human sexuality curriculum. El Paso ISD officials did not immediately respond to El Paso Matters’ request for comment or answer questions about the records provided to the comptroller, but said they’ll have more details during a Friday morning news conference. Hanany did not comment further.

Texas will choose Paxton or surrender, JD Vance says at Weatherford rally

If Texas doesn’t vote Ken Paxton into the U.S. Senate on Nov. 3, the state has surrendered, said Vice President JD Vance during a Republican campaign rally in Weatherford. Vance and a dozen other Republicans spoke to the packed crowd on Thursday, Oct. 29, at JRJ Construction. The message throughout the three-hour-long rally was that every conservative voter needs to get out to the polls and select the Republican nominee from the very top of the ticket all the way down. It’s the only way to keep the “demon party” out of Texas, Comptroller Don Huffines said.

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About 3,000 people spanned the brand-new JRJ Construction warehouse at 1140 Ric Williamson Memorial Highway and spilled out into the overflow area outside. The vast majority of the speakers were candidates on the Republican ticket, including Huffines, Mayes Middleton (attorney general), Craig Goldman (Congressional District 12) and Brandon Gill (CD 26). The tight U.S. Senate race between Paxton, the Texas attorney general, and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico took center stag. The warehouse was crowded, hot and humid, but Vance said the perseverance of the attendees just proved how energized they were to vote for the Republican ticket, especially Paxton. “This crowd is proof that everything, from the enthusiasm, to the spirit, to the patriotism, everything is bigger than the state of Texas,” Vance said. “What I love about Texas is that Texas is not ashamed of its way of life. Texas feels real pride in the United States of America. Texans feel pride in what we built.”

The Trump administration touts immigration enforcement push in Texas as Election Day nears

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin speaks during a press conference Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Dallas, announcing the results of Lone Star Mission, a 10-day federal immigration enforcement operation across Texas. Days before the midterm elections, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin traveled to Texas to tout the results of a statewide immigration enforcement operation during a press conference that at times took on a political tone. Thursday’s press conference centered on Lone Star Mission, a 10-day federal immigration enforcement operation that’s separate from Gov. Greg Abbott’s years-long border security initiative known as Operation Lone Star.

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But Mullin spent much of the press conference criticizing so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, where local policies can limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. He repeatedly contrasted President Donald Trump’s immigration policies with those of former President Joe Biden, at times blaming Biden administration policies for crime and public safety problems without providing evidence during the press conference to support those claims. “When you support sanctuary policies, you’re supporting gang bangers, you’re supporting child pedophiles, you’re supporting rapists, you’re supporting cartels, you’re supporting organized crime,” Mullin said. Mullin’s appearance comes as Trump and other administration officials have made a series of trips to Texas to rally Republican voters ahead of Election Day. Trump held rallies in Corpus Christi and Lubbock on Tuesday, while Vice President JD Vance appeared at a Republican rally in Weatherford on Thursday.

Under Bean's leadership, charter school turned down lower rent, filled seats with friends and used operating funds for salaries

Dozens of parents had filled the auditorium of the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts. The majority of parents attending were upset about a meme posted by board chair Cheryl Bean, the AI-generated cartoon of the WNBA Indiana Fever crossing the Delaware River, re-enacting the famous painting by Emanuel Leutze. This version depicted the Black athletes wearing floaties. After critics, including some parents, called it racist, Bean removed the post. That night, Bean told the crowd that "some" people "can accept an apology," which she noted Webster's Dictionary defines as "a statement of regret." For many families at the two tuition-free arts charter schools run by Texas Center for Arts + Academics, the moment summed up years of frustration.

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Although TCAA receives much of its $11.2 million budget — $9.2 million — from the Texas Education Agency, its actions face little scrutiny from the state. “The board holds itself accountable,” said Jeffrey Koch, a charter school portfolio coordinator at TEA. TEA can replace a charter’s board or revoke its charter, but only if the charter holder violates the charter, fails basic financial standards, breaks the law or fails the state’s performance standards. On paper, the schools pass. In 2025, TEA renewed FWAFA’s charter for 10 years without a site visit “because of our financial standing and academic standing,” the board was told, according to the minutes of the meeting. Records and interviews show that over the past three years, the board has barred transgender students from the choir that fits them, filled open seats with friends of its leaders and raised the rent it charged the schools by about 10% for TeSA and almost 50% for FWAFA. Parents say the board doesn't listen to them. The board isn't elected and it appoints its own members. At times, it has changed its bylaws so that its actions are in accord. Bean, who is the Republican nominee for Texas House District 94, did not respond to multiple interview requests. Board leaders say the schools are financially stronger than ever and that critics have spread false information.

Texas General Land Office race is among the statewide races to tighten

The Texas Land Commissioner race is often overlooked during elections because of the more powerful state offices up for grabs. It’s the oldest statewide office, dating back to the Republic of Texas. Its powers are important, but narrow. The commissioner leads the state’s General Land Office, or GLO. Among other duties, the GLO manages 13 million acres of state-owned land in Texas. This year’s race features the first woman to hold the office, Republican Dawn Buckingham, and Democrat Benjamin Flores, a newcomer to statewide politics. Republican incumbent Dawn Buckingham is a ninth-generation Texan who worked her way through UT-Galveston medical school to build a career as an eye-focused plastic surgeon. She faces Democrat Benjamin Flores, a former Bay City councilman. Buckingham’s campaign didn’t respond to TPR’s interview request, but she’s been in the office since 2023. As land commissioner, she has said the Alamo is her “greatest love.”

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The GLO is the custodian for the Alamo — the state’s top tourist attraction. Buckingham has overseen a more than half-a-billion-dollar makeover of its grounds in San Antonio. The project is designed to make it a bigger and more educational experience for visitors. Day-to-day operations at the Alamo, site of the 1836 battle that helped lead to Texas independence from Mexico, are handled by the Alamo Trust. On top of that, the GLO’s business is land. It sees to it that money earned from state land goes toward public education. The agency also oversees veterans’ land programs and long-term spending of federal disaster funds after floods or hurricanes. UT-San Antonio Political Science Chair Jon Taylor said the office is often a springboard into bigger things, such as the governor’s race. And it has just enough power to keep the job interesting. “The idea is that it’s managing the state’s affairs in terms of money, especially disaster relief, public schools. Those are important things, so it does make sense that someone would want this position.” Buckingham’s Democratic challenger is the Mexico-born Flores. He introduced himself in a campaign video to voters this way. “I came to the U.S. in 1996 with a big dream. I worked my way up, earned my citizenship, and built a career in cybersecurity. Today, my family and I live on a small ranch in Bay City.” Flores operates a family pig farm in Bay City, too. Besides their backgrounds, one of the biggest differences between Buckingham and Flores has to do with 2017’s Hurricane Harvey — specifically, how long-term federal relief funds were spent.

TACA Emerging Leaders Academy recognized for community service initiative providing 2,000 backpacks to Texas students

The Texas Aggregates & Concrete Association’s (TACA) Emerging Leaders Academy (ELA) has been recognized by Communities In Schools of San Antonio for a community service project that doubled its original goal, providing 2,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to students in need across Texas, including 1,250 backpacks to Communities In Schools communities in San Antonio, Austin and Midland. The recognition took place Oct. 22 at Margil Elementary School in San Antonio, where ELA representatives joined Communities In Schools for an event highlighting the nonprofit organization’s work supporting students and families. The group was honored for its contributions to the organization’s mission. As part of its community service project during TACA’s 2026 Annual Meeting, ELA members set out to assemble 1,000 backpacks filled with essential school supplies. Through the efforts of participating members and supporters, the group exceeded its goal by 100 percent, ultimately preparing 2,000 backpacks for distribution to students across Texas.

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Months since new rules took effect, hemp businesses feel the burn

Back in January, Mary Tello was planning for a big year. Co-owner of South Austin hemp shop Green Haus Wellness, she was considering expanding her business to a second location in town. The opposite happened: Amidst a chaotic year of rule changes and legal battles involving the hemp industry, Tello had to close her brick-and-mortar, transitioning to online-only sales. “Things just kind of went downhill for everybody. … People were scared to come and purchase, and we lost thousands of dollars per month,” she told the Chronicle. In March, the Department of State Health Services implemented new restrictions on hemp. Among those new rules were a large hike in licensing fees and the prohibition of products containing THCA – alterations that many business owners said put the entire industry at risk. The Texas Hemp Business Council, a nonprofit group of industry members and advocates that works to safeguard hemp access in the state, then led the effort in filing a lawsuit against state agencies in an attempt to overturn the new rules.

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After two Travis County district judges sided with the industry, blocking some of the changes, the state turned to the Texas 15th Court of Appeals, which reinstated those rules as the case continues to unfold. On Dec. 8, the appellate court will hear oral arguments. Concurrently, the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling on a 2021 lawsuit related to products containing Delta-8, in which it decided that the DSHS has authority to categorize certain hemp-derived THC isomers as controlled substances. Since July 31, retailers have been prohibited from selling any products containing Delta-8, Delta-10, THCP, and other cannabinoids, only allowed to distribute goods with less than the 0.3% Delta-9 THC legal limit. The DSHS did not respond to the Chronicle’s questions regarding enforcement of the regulations. Three months after those July changes, Tello isn’t the only hemp business owner who has felt the impacts of the modifications the industry has undertaken this year. Mark Bordas, executive director of the THBC, told the Chronicle that the changes have substantially damaged businesses throughout the entire state. “People have to lay folks off, shutter their business, or move to another state and start all over again,” he said.

All data centers built in San Antonio now must receive City Council approval on case-by-case basis

The City of San Antonio on Thursday passed its first significant restrictions on data center development, requiring each of the computing facilities to seek City Council approval on a case-by-case basis before construction can begin. City Council approved the amendment to the city’s Unified Development Code (UDC) on a 9-2 vote, with District 9’s Misty Spears and District 10’s Mark Whyte — the council’s two conservatives — casting the dissenting votes. In addition to requiring council approval for each data center, the code amendment also limits the development of such facilities to the city’s heavy industrial and commercial zones. Additionally, the amendment gives council flexibility to require increased setbacks for certain facilities, depending on the surrounding area. An alternate proposal by Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones requiring a minimum setback of 1,000 feet was shot down during the session.

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In her remarks, Jones described her visit to a data center this week, when she reflected on the homes surrounding it. “Does anyone think that those homeowners’ property values increased when that data center showed up? It’s not likely,” Jones said. “It’s not likely that Redfin or Zillow will start advertising the distance to a data center as a selling point.” With her proposed amendment, Jones suggested offering public hearings in order to address a common complaint community members have voiced at town halls and permit hearings — that they didn’t have a say before a data center was built in their backyard. At a town hall hosted by Public Citizen and the Great Edwards Aquifer Alliance at Northwest Vista College earlier this month, one woman said she initially thought a warehouse was being constructed across the street from her home in Westover Hills. In impassioned public comments, she spoke of the “perpetual daylight” that flooded through her windows from the center and lamented that she was no longer able to see the stars at night. Like many others who live next to data centers, she got her first chance to vocalize her opposition after the facility was already built, she added.

Dozens quit Dallas County DA’s office ahead of election

With less than a week until voters choose Dallas County’s next district attorney, dozens of prosecutors and staff have already left the office that Democrat Amber Givens hopes to lead. Since Givens defeated two-term incumbent John Creuzot in the March Democratic primary, 77 employees have submitted their resignations, including 47 attorneys, according to records reviewed by The Dallas Morning News. More departures are expected before the next district attorney takes office in January. The departing lawyers represent more than 15% of the office’s 273 budgeted attorney positions. At least 19 had served more than a decade, taking years of experience with them. There are currently 49 vacant positions in the office, compared to 33 in October 2025 and 23 in October 2024.

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The turnover raises questions about how the office will prosecute criminal cases, particularly with vacancies spread across divisions and several felony courts severely understaffed, according to a recent organizational chart. The departures come amid a nationwide prosecutor shortage. Givens said she has privately and publicly expressed appreciation for the “talented and dedicated team” at the DA’s office. Article continues below this ad “Dedicated public servants who are committed to justice for the people of Dallas County can rest assured that there is a place on my team for them,” Givens said in a statement to The News. “If elected District Attorney, I will lead a thoughtful, collaborative transition grounded in respect for their work and continuity of service to our community. My commitment to putting people over politics will guide how I lead.” Givens’ opponent, Dallas attorney Eric Reed, who entered the race in August as a write-in candidate, has made the departures a campaign issue. “When attorneys tell us they would rather leave than work under my opponent, that is a failure of confidence with consequences for public safety,” Reed said.

Can the Texas border flip the governor's race?

Texas hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since Ann Richards in 1990. But in November, Democrats have a better shot than they’ve had in decades, with Brownsville-raised Gina Hinojosa closing in on longtime Republican governor Greg Abbott in the polls. Republicans are doing everything in their power to hold on to Texas, with Elon Musk and others spending hundreds of millions to keep them in power. Crucial to deciding who wins: the border. The Texas border was once reliably blue but made headlines in 2024 when many Latinos voted for Donald Trump. Two years of punishing ICE raids, spiraling gas prices, and a worsening economy, along with Abbott’s costly Operation Lone Star, have led many border residents to reconsider their votes. A win by Hinojosa, a 52-year-old attorney and state representative, would be historic, making her the first Hispanic candidate to hold the state’s highest office. It would also break a decades-long losing streak for Democrats. Hinojosa’s hometown and the Texas border will be decisive in her historic bid for governor. That’s why, in October 2025, Hinojosa launched her campaign in downtown Brownsville, just blocks from where she grew up.

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A lot has changed since Hinojosa’s school days. For one, in 2014, Musk, the world’s richest man, broke ground on his SpaceX rocket facility just east of town, an area that recently became its own municipality called Starbase. Brownsville’s historic center is now dotted with Tesla Cybertrucks and sedans. The controversial Musk, who has poured hundreds of millions into Texas Republican candidates, continues to push for more land and more tax incentives for his projects, including a data center. In August, Brownsville city commissioners voted unanimously to disannex 444 acres of land and relinquish governing authority to the city of Starbase. At the center of this stretch of land, a large steel building under construction will be SpaceX’s first data center in the Rio Grande Valley. In 2013, not long before Musk broke ground on SpaceX, then Republican governor Rick Perry signed House Bill 1223 into law, offering sales tax exemptions to companies that build data centers. Thanks to these exemptions, the state will lose as much as $3.3 billion in revenue under the 2028–29 budget, and Musk’s data center will draw its water from the Rio Grande, Brownsville’s main source of drinking water. Texas already has more than 300 data centers and hundreds more planned, many in rural areas and in South Texas, spurring a fierce local backlash.

Texas AG’s office sues Harris County Clerk for allegedly running ‘racially discriminatory advertisements’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Office is suing the Harris County Clerk's Office for allegedly running social media advertisements that targeted "certain racial and ethnic groups," according to the lawsuit filed Thursday. Paxton, who is currently running as a Republican in the Texas Senate race against Democrat James Talarico, has recused himself from the investigation, according to a statement from his office. The lawsuit accuses county clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and her office’s director of communications, Irene Nuñez, of running voter awareness ads on Facebook and Instagram that were allegedly targeting "certain racial and ethnic groups (African-American, Asian, and South American or Latino Groups)" while excluding other demographics.

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"The Harris County Clerk's office used Meta's ad tools to intentionally target its ‘Get Out the Vote' style ads to certain racial and ethnic groups while avoiding targeting other demographics," the attorney general’s office said via a release announcing the lawsuit. "By classifying based upon race when advertising to provide Harris County voters with election information, the county clerk's office exceeded its authority." The attorney general’s office claimed this alleged targeted advertising amounts to racial discrimination "in an effort to increase voter turnout among particular races and ethnicities." The county clerk's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the lawsuit, Meta's ad library shows that the clerk's office spent over $40,000 on such advertisements in the past 30 days.

National Stories

General ousted by Hegseth referred for possible criminal prosecution, officials say

The Pentagon said Thursday that it has made a criminal referral in an alleged leak case, claiming the ouster of a top general was necessary “to protect sensitive information.” The unusual announcement followed reports by The Washington Post and others that Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia had been abruptly removed from his job as director for strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Staff. In that role he reported to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sylvia was fired this week without any previous explanation from the Pentagon, stunning many of his colleagues and leading some of them to question the narrative being promoted by members of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team.

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Attempts to reach Sylvia for comment have been unsuccessful. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Thursday that the Defense Department has “zero tolerance for the intentional, unauthorized disclosure of classified information” and that following an “extensive” internal investigation, the matter — “along with others” — had been referred to the Justice Department “for potential legal action.” Parnell and other spokespeople for Hegseth declined to address questions about the extraordinary accusations against Sylvia, and they have not publicly disclosed any evidence corroborating their claims. Parnell’s statement does not identify Sylvia by name, but a defense official familiar with the matter said Parnell’s comments were related to the general’s removal. Like others, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. In a statement, the Justice Department said it has “ongoing investigations related to possible leaks of classified information” and is coordinating with government partners, including at the Pentagon. When asked by a reporter Thursday what proof the administration has that the general leaked classified information, President Donald Trump appeared unaware that Sylvia is a man. “She’s going to have big problems,” he said. “Long-term problems.”

Senate Democrats’ PAC spends in South Carolina for first time

Senate Democrats are buying ads in South Carolina for the first time as polls show a close Senate contest in the deep-red state. Senate Majority PAC (SMP), the Senate Democrats’ main political action committee in the midterms, will spend $750,000 on digital ads in the Palmetto State on the race between Sen. Darline Graham (R) and Annie Andrews (D). “We’ll draw a sharp contrast between Andrews and Darline Graham, focusing on Graham raising health care costs and Rx drug prices,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French wrote in a post to the social platform X. Recent polls of the race have shown Graham and Andrews in a close contest, with a New York Times/Siena University poll giving each candidate 48 percent support among likely voters. South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998. SMP’s response comes after Republicans moved more money into South Carolina to support Graham, with GOP spending reaching more than $20 million.

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Despite not having outside support up to this point, Andrews has raised more than $20 million herself compared to Graham’s $1.2 million, Federal Election Commission filings show. One of Graham’s challenges has been her struggle to unite Republicans. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Graham’s opponent in the primary election, said he would keep his word and vote for her, but outright refused to campaign with Graham. He even said that his family would not be supporting her. President Trump has made multiple trips to the state to boost his hand-picked candidate, who was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) following the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R). Still, Democrats have been burned before in South Carolina, namely in 2020, when polls showed a close race, but Lindsey Graham went on to defeat Democrat Jaime Harrison by 10 points. Nonpartisan election forecaster Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), a partner of The Hill, gives Graham a 65 percent chance to win a full term.

Binance suspends transactions after it is targeted in biggest-ever cyber heist

Binance suspended transactions Thursday as the exchange investigates the biggest cyber heist in history. “It does look like a hack on Binance,” Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder, said in a post on the social-media platform X. “User funds are safe.” Binance said late Thursday that the hack totaled around $6.3 billion. Zhao, who no longer leads the world’s biggest crypto exchange but remains its largest shareholder, added that stablecoin providers Tether and Circle had moved quickly to freeze some $1.7 billion in stolen assets. Binance later revised that number to $3 billion across several different assets. Cybersecurity research firms TRM Labs and Pangolin Intelligence said the heist appears to have been conducted by North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking group, which has been behind many of the largest crypto hacks in recent memory. “This was absolutely North Korea,” said Nick Carlsen, a senior investigator on the Global Investigations team at TRM, who told the Journal he worked with Pangolin Intelligence to correlate hackers’ blockchain activity with information they gathered on other DPRK-linked attacks.

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Binance said it has suspended all deposits and withdrawals as its team conducts security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement. Binance said in a statement on X that an initial investigation into the incident suggested it involved “a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop,” which allowed the attacker to “submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.” In a follow-up statement on X early Friday, Binance said a “subsequent investigation has uncovered additional points of breach.” “This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it. We are still gathering the facts, and will share more directly as we have them,” Binance said Friday, adding that withdrawal service should resume in 45 hours. A Binance spokesman said the company is working with law enforcement to “to confirm the identity of the criminals and bring them to justice.” When stablecoin providers freeze stolen funds, hackers cannot move, transfer or cash out of those specific tokens. They essentially blacklist the hacker’s crypto wallet address, trapping the tokens inside the wallet before hackers can convert them into other cryptocurrencies or launder them through a mixer.

Netanyahu alleges fraud as Arab parties score record gains — emerge as potential kingmakers

Israel's two Arab parties are in a position to have a say in who the country's next prime minister and government will be — but not if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has anything to do with it, after he alleged serious criminal activities took place during voting in the Arab areas of the nation. The two parties were projected to win a combined 19 Knesset seats, according to preliminary results. However, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led right-wing bloc and the opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist bloc fell short of the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on X that Israel’s election had been "stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state," alleging serious criminal offenses, including bribery, threats, violence, forgery and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters.

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"The Likud party is transferring to the police, the Shin Bet and the Central Elections Committee hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence regarding election theft in many Arab polling stations," he wrote. He cited allegations of thousands of envelopes containing cash and Ra’am ballot slips, threats and violence against polling station staff, multiple votes cast behind the voting curtain, voting under multiple identities, discrepancies between the number of ballot envelopes and the number of voters, the use of prohibited voter-mobilization software and other offenses. "We demand from the police and the Shin Bet a thorough investigation into the election theft by the Arab parties and the full prosecution of the criminals. We demand from the Central Elections Committee an immediate response to investigate these criminal offenses that have severely damaged the integrity of the elections in Israel and the election results," he added. In a letter addressed to Yesh Atid lawmaker Vladimir Beliak, Acting Central Elections Committee Director-General Dean Livne wrote that the elections "were conducted lawfully" and that, "to the best of my knowledge, there is no basis for allegations of systematic violations of election integrity," the Times of Israel reported. He also acknowledged that the request for an investigation concerned classified information whose veracity had not yet been determined.

Patrick Stewart, ‘Star Trek’ captain and Professor X on ‘X-Men,’ dies at 86

Patrick Stewart, who overcame a bleak childhood in England’s coal-mining country to find acclaim as a Shakespearean actor before making an unlikely career pivot in middle age that would bring him his greatest fame, playing a noble starship captain on the TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. The death, from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, was announced on social media. With a commanding baritone voice — he had shed his Yorkshire dialect as an acting student — Mr. Stewart was by his late 40s an eloquent, statesmanlike presence on the British stage. But to many American television viewers, Mr. Stewart was a new face when he made his debut in 1987 as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “The Next Generation,” the first live-action spinoff of the original “Star Trek” series of the late 1960s.

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Old and new fans embraced the balding, graying Picard and the members of his 24th-century crew, among them a pale-skinned android with deadpan comic timing; an intense, half-alien mind-reader; a gruff Klingon; and a blind human engineer wearing a vision visor. Over the show’s seven seasons, Picard became known for his preternatural calm and his trademark directives “Engage!” and “Make it so.” (Mr. Stewart titled a 2023 memoir “Making It So.”) Mr. Stewart went on to star in four feature-film spinoffs — “Star Trek Generations” (1994), “Star Trek: First Contact” (1996), “Star Trek: Insurrection” (1998) and “Star Trek: Nemesis” (2002) — before returning to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise in 2020 in a TV sequel that he could call his own, “Star Trek: Picard,” which ran for three seasons. The Enterprise was neither Mr. Stewart’s first science-fiction home nor his last. He appeared in David Lynch’s original film version of “Dune” (1984) as the weapons teacher Gurney Halleck. Years later, he was Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X, in five “X-Men” movies, playing a wealthy telepath in a wheelchair who leads other mutants with superpowers. Those films, some of which also starred Mr. Stewart’s close friend Ian McKellen, included “X-Men” (2000), “X2: X-Men United” (2003) and “Logan” (2017).

USDA employees ask court to stop Rollins’ proselytizing before Christmas

Employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture believe Secretary Brooke Rollins is abusing her position by proselytizing to 100,000 employees through email. Now, a union has sued her over the practice and wants it stopped before Christmas. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in National Federation of Federal Employees v. USDA made the plea before a federal judge Oct. 27, emphasizing that workers cannot avoid the religious messages because they are required to read emails from agency leaders. In addition to seeking a preliminary injunction in the case, they also argued against the federal government’s motion for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Rollins has made no secret of her employer-to-employee preaching and has promised to continue doing so despite the litigation and criticism.

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She went even further in September by telling Trinity Broadcasting Network she views her federal cabinet position as an instrument for saving souls: “I do use this platform. I believe in making disciples of all the nations. I believe that God has blessed this country and so ensuring that we are using this and bringing the light to a very dark world.” Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Democracy Forward and Bryan Schwartz Law represent six federal workers and the union that represents 110,000 federal employees, including thousands at the USDA, in the lawsuit. “We urge the court to protect federal workers’ religious freedom and stop Secretary Rollins from abusing the power of her public office to impose her beliefs on others,” said Americans United President Rachel Laser. “Across the federal government, the Trump administration has misused taxpayer resources to preach, hold government-sponsored prayer services during work time, and broadcast Christian nationalism over official communications channels. Not on our watch.” Americans United also sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in March for hosting prayer and worship services at the Pentagon. Those events are promoted in emails to Defense Department employees and have included sermons by Hegseth’s Christian nationalist pastor, Doug Wilson, and evangelist Franklin Graham.

How can sports teams possibly be worth this much?

Pity James Dolan: According to the stock market, he is not as rich as he thinks he should be. Unlike most teams in the Big Four North American pro-sports leagues, the Knicks and Rangers have been owned by a publicly traded company, MSG Sports Corp. The Dolan family trust owned a fifth, and legally controlled all, of MSG Sports, which, as of last week, was valued at $9.5 billion. Or, in the mind of James Dolan, which was valued at only $9.5 billion. Earlier this year, Bob Iger and Josh Kushner said they would buy the Lakers for $12.5 billion; a trio of investors just bought an eighth of the NHL team in Raleigh, North Carolina (where God did not mean for people to play hockey) at a valuation of $2.7 billion. Dolan can check the Forbes and Sportico websites. Both estimate the teams should be worth about $7 billion more. So, this week, Dolan tried some Wall Street hocus-pocus: One company became two, and the Rangers and Knicks are now owned by separate entities. Their combined value is still $9.5 billion, but Dolan hopes that a more transparent daily measure of how undervalued the teams are will move their value closer to the $17 billion estimate.

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That dream can be hard to understand for an outsider. Ten years ago, Forbes estimated the teams’ value below $5 billion. Has the value of the Rangers and Knicks tripled because they have become a great business recently? No. In the fiscal year ending on June 30, the company generated $32 million in earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation. (That is, for context, the operating profits of a distributor of laundry equipment; it is two-thirds less than MSG Sports made in 2022.) Are the teams worth a lot more because Dolan — after 27 years of being seen as a talentless, short-tempered nepo baby — oversaw the Knicks finally winning an NBA championship? No again. The team would likely be worth the same had Jalen Brunson missed every shot or if Dolan had won five rings over his reign. The truth is that the prices of American sports teams are post-logic. Their value has, in Wall Street lingo, technical trading dynamics independent from the fundamentals (or the basic rules of finance). In the past few years, prices of sports teams have rapidly accelerated — suddenly in the case of the NBA, relentlessly in the case of the NFL, incredibly in the case of the MLB. In the NBA, Kushner and Iger are buying the team from Mark Walter (who purchased the team himself last year with money that may not have been exactly his) for twice what the Celtics sold for in 2025 — and three times the recent “get-in price” for teams in Minnesota and Phoenix. In the NFL, prices have quadrupled between David Tepper’s purchase of the Panthers for $2.3 billion in 2018 and Vinod Khosla’s purchase of the Seahawks for $9.6 billion in 2026. In the MLB, the Padres (the small-market winner of one World Series game in their entire history) sold for $3.9 billion, 62 percent more than what Steve Cohen paid for the Mets only six years ago.

Copyright October 30, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved