August 10, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

As solar and batteries dominate in Texas, Republican lawmakers consider natural gas minimums

As new electricity generation skews toward solar and battery storage in Texas, Republican state senators are questioning whether it’s time to impose minimum standards for building gas plants and move away from free trade in the state’s electricity marketplace. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s grid operator, reported last week that 70 percent of generation in the 460-gigawatt interconnection queue is from solar and battery storage. Natural gas facilities make up less than 17 percent of that line. And while it’s an uptick from three years ago, when there were less than 10 gigawatts of gas power plants seeking to connect, legislators and grid leaders say going forward the current level of planned gas facilities won’t be enough.

click here for more

State Sen. Phil King, a Republican from Weatherford, asked the leaders of ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) at a public hearing last week whether there should be a rule that puts a quota on what share of new generation connecting to the grid comes from fossil fuels. “Should we say that from a point of interconnection that 50 percent—or some percentage of new generation—has to be dispatchable generation as opposed to just letting the market forces guide that,” King asked, referring to gas plants as “dispatachable” because they can be ramped up or down on demand, unlike intermittent wind and solar power sources. “That would be a pretty significant policy change to have a requirement like that,” ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas replied at a Senate Committee on Business and Commerce public hearing. But both Vegas and PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson said there needs to be a way to provide long-term incentives for gas to get built in Texas.

Data center backlash leads to a new land rush in the Texas oil patch

Energy companies in the country’s largest oil field have a plan to turn shrub-covered dirt into gold. It has nothing to do with oil—and everything to do with the data-center boom. Firms including Texas Pacific Land, LandBridge, and EagleRock sit on land empires nestled in the Permian Basin, which spans West Texas and New Mexico. Their customers are oil-and-gas producers that pay for the right to build roads, drill wells and dump toxic water that is produced alongside the oil they bring to the surface. Now, these landowners want a piece of the AI action. The companies’ ambition is to lease land to data centers and sell them everything from water to construction materials. They are betting that developers facing community pushback from Maine to Arizona will be drawn to the Permian’s abundant land, cheap energy and business friendly climate.

click here for more

“A lot of places you see all over the country they’re worried about water, they’re worried about power, they’re worried about transmission, and the Permian has all of those things in spades,” said EagleRock Chief Executive Greg Pipkin Jr. The companies’ business model has been like catnip to investors because unlike drilling for oil, which requires huge upfront investments, leasing land is capital light. Texas Pacific’s stock is trading around 37 times its projected earnings over the next four quarters; LandBridge, about 39 times, which analysts say reflect investors’ growth expectations driven in part by data centers. Their respective stocks are up 14% and 56% so far this year. EagleRock, another firm that sits on a vast land domain, raised $320 million from an initial public offering earlier this year. “There’s so much money,” said Bryan Loocke, an energy partner at law firm Vinson & Elkins. “Everybody’s chasing that white whale.” Chevron recently signed a 20-year agreement to sell electricity to a Microsoft data center and is working to build a gas-fired power plant in the Permian to feed electricity to the facility. Texas Pacific sold land to Chevron for the project. Artificial-intelligence startup Poolside and cloud-infrastructure company CoreWeave have said they would build a massive data-center complex on a sprawling ranch in West Texas.

Flock cameras can track every car in America. Police love them. Citizens don’t.

Driving down a road lined with strip malls outside Dallas, Philip, a 27-year-old cellphone tower repairman, was describing the exquisite piquancy of his homegrown hot peppers when he stopped midsentence. “Flock!” he said, pointing to a traffic light pole at an intersection. Attached to it was a small black box with a camera that takes photos as cars drive by. It was a license plate reader made by Flock Safety, based in Atlanta, that alerts law enforcement when it spots wanted cars and allows officers to see where cars of interest have been. Philip pulled into a strip mall, parked outside a dentist’s office and opened an app on his phone. The app, DeFlock, invites people to “view and contribute to an open map of public mass surveillance devices.” He zoomed in on the intersection on the digital map and plotted the location of the camera. Philip asked that his full name be withheld, because Flock’s chief executive, Garrett Langley, once called DeFlock “terroristic.”

click here for more

To Philip, DeFlock is about pushing against the proliferation of cameras that capture the ordinary moments of ordinary people. “And what is my way of pushing back? Education. Data,” Philip said. “Am I just being paranoid? No, they’re actually everywhere.” Flock’s 120,000 cameras can be found alongside roads in every state but Alaska, allowing law enforcement officers to see within seconds where a car might be, and where it has been. The company has contracts with 7,000 law enforcement agencies, which is 40 percent of all departments in the United States. Other companies sell license plate tracking services, but Flock, a private company valued at $8.4 billion, has become a lightning rod because of its rapid expansion, the ubiquity of its cameras, and a number of controversies involving its product. A Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. Los Angeles and Dayton, Ohio, among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras.

'Weaker than we thought': Jobs surprise deals setback for GOP in elections

U.S. employers are shedding jobs and wage growth is decelerating, suggesting that President Donald Trump’s labor market looks much weaker than assumed. The Labor Department on Friday reported that employment unexpectedly contracted by 23,000 positions last month — compared with the 83,000 gain that economists had forecast. It also revised down the May and June reports by more than 100,000 jobs from payroll estimates that the White House had celebrated as a sign of the economy’s resilience. U.S. employers are shedding jobs and wage growth is decelerating, suggesting that President Donald Trump’s labor market looks much weaker than assumed. The Labor Department on Friday reported that employment unexpectedly contracted by 23,000 positions last month — compared with the 83,000 gain that economists had forecast. It also revised down the May and June reports by more than 100,000 jobs from payroll estimates that the White House had celebrated as a sign of the economy’s resilience. The report is a tough beat for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterms, with voters already sour on the economy. “Recent economic history is weaker than we thought,” University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers wrote on X shortly after the report’s release. “July’s new number is downright concerning.”

click here for more

Even though the jobless rate fell to 4.1 percent — a level that would normally suggest workers could secure larger paychecks — average hourly earnings are growing at a slower pace than at any point since early 2021, when the labor market was still recovering from the pandemic. The jobs report is likely to take some of the heat off the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates at its next meeting to combat persistent inflation. That may keep borrowing costs from rising, but the combination of higher interest rates, inflation and uneven wage growth has fueled pessimism that has prevailed for the last half-decade. And the public’s negative mood about the economy is likely to persist, said David Blanchflower, an economics professor at Dartmouth College who specializes in labor market perceptions. “Maybe you know people are expecting more from their jobs, and they’re comparing themselves to different people,” he added. Or “maybe the jobs have just become shit.” Whatever the cause, measures of consumer sentiment and confidence have been weak. Cost-of-living issues have consistently kept Trump’s approval rating near record lows — a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that the GOP’s long-held advantage on economic policy has eroded — and Friday’s jobs report threatens to undermine the administration’s attempts to reverse the narrative.

State Stories

A year into the job, Mayor Jones risks holding the bag on largest tax increase in decades

Roughly a year into her first term, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is calling for some drastic measures to address a ballooning budget deficit: Reconsidering funding for a new $1.3 billion Spurs arena, sunsetting a workforce development program that’s popular with some of her closest political allies, and axing funding for popular events like Fiesta and the San Antonio Book Festival. Under San Antonio’s weak-mayor form of government, however, Jones has little power to do any of these things alone. And after months of irritating colleagues with her go-it-alone approach, she could soon be the one left holding the bag on the biggest tax increases in decades. “My administration inherited a mess,” Jones vented to reporters after Thursday’s council meeting. “This $158 million budget deficit did not happen overnight. This was years and years of poor decision-making.”

click here for more

Six weeks out from its budget vote, the City Council returned from July recess with tensions as high as ever. Members have been grumbling privately all week about the slew of memos the mayor released about her spending plans without consulting them. On Thursday, a low-stakes vote over a community advisory board ended with one member accusing the mayor of lying about the status of the arena deal and the mayor requesting mediation from the city attorney. Then on Friday, a trio of council members raised the stakes with a press conference in which they characterized Jones’ budget efforts as “disingenuous” and an unwelcome distraction in the middle of the council’s busiest season. Despite not having the support to put a Spurs funding vote on the ballot, they pointed out, Jones has proceeded with a listening tour to rally residents in favor of the idea, the first of which kicked off last night.

Dallas awaits convention costs and how much government might reimburse

Dallas officials expect to seek federal reimbursement for city resources used during President Donald Trump’s Republican midterm convention, but they do not yet know the event’s cost or how much the federal government would cover. City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, asked about the potential cost to taxpayers of the Sept. 9–10 gathering at the American Airlines Center, said she was awaiting more details about what the convention might require of the city. “I’m hoping to hear more because I keep asking, when are we gonna know what they’re doing?” she said Friday after speaking to The Dallas Morning News editorial board.

click here for more

Tolbert said that if the convention creates additional costs, the city would typically establish a separate pay code for officers to record the extra hours they work. That would allow Dallas to calculate its expenses and submit them for possible reimbursement, as it did for the FIFA World Cup events. She said federal reimbursement is common when an event requires the city to commit additional resources, but she did not know how much would be covered. “Generally, that’s what happens if they’re going to require us to pull a certain number of our resources to support it,” Tolbert said. “Then there’s typically a federal government reimbursement. I just don’t know what the level is going to be.” Public Safety Chief Dominique Artis said after The News meeting that detailed planning is only beginning. “We’re just starting now to really get into how this thing is gonna roll out with the White House,” Artis said. “They’re taking the lead, and so as we go through the planning phase, we’ll start understanding costs.” Tolbert said Dallas has the public safety network needed to support the Republican convention. “The good thing is that we have the infrastructure,” she said. “We’ve got the public safety ecosystem that’s important. They’re kind of just controlling everything right now.” Mayor Eric Johnson spoke Tuesday at a media reception where he promoted Dallas as the convention’s host city but made no mention of what the event could cost or whether city expenses would be fully reimbursed.

Don Nelson, influential Dallas Mavericks coach & basketball pioneer, has died

The assignment was to knock on the door, and interview Dallas Mavericks head coach Don Nelson 90 minutes before tipoff inside Reunion Arena. Having never covered an NBA game, or practice, I did not allow the boss to know the level of terror I felt because, in January 2000, this was an opportunity you take, no matter how scary. Inside a small room, Nelson was sitting in a chair, smoking a cigar, Red Auerbach style. Don Nelson was a huge man, and unaware of how intimidating this was to a young, naive reporter. He didn’t care. We were the only two in the room, and this five-minute interview happened a week or so after a young tech guy named Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks; Nelson had no idea of what was coming with Cuban, a point he offered with his dry wit that caught me off guard.

click here for more

“I have two years left on my contract as general manager,” he said, “whatever that means.” It didn’t matter who you were, Nelson wore who he was, his thoughts and feelings, like a pair of comfortable jeans. He believed in himself, and what he thought. We should all be so lucky. Like anyone who was ahead of his time, his thoughts and vision are revered now. Longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein reported on Sunday that Nelson has died. His family issued the following statement to Stein: “On Sunday morning our beloved husband, dad, grandfather and great-grandfather Don Nelson peacefully went to be with the Lord, surrounded by his loving family. Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories.”

TACA annual meeting highlights Texas growth

The Texas Aggregates & Concrete Association (TACA) drew more than 600 attendees to its 72nd Annual Meeting at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa. TACA logo This year’s event, themed “Building the Community,” set records for attendance (600-plus), exhibitors (26), funds raised (more than $200,000) and more. Featured at the meeting were economic and legislative updates, leadership development, industry recognition programs, charitable initiatives and networking opportunities to support the continued growth of Texas’s construction materials industry.

click here for more

“Every road, school, hospital, home and business begins with the materials our members produce,” says Andrew Pinkerton, president and CEO of TACA. “As Texas continues to grow, our industry remains committed to providing the essential building materials that support strong communities, create jobs and improve quality of life for Texans. The TACA Annual Meeting is a reminder that what we build goes far beyond infrastructure. Our member companies help build the communities where families live, work and thrive – not just today, but for generations to come.” The meeting opened with a community service project led by TACA’s Emerging Leaders Academy participants. More than 100 volunteers assembled 2,000 backpacks for students in need, benefiting charitable organizations serving communities in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. The general session featured updates on association initiatives, legislative and regulatory developments and presentations from nationally recognized speakers addressing the economic, technological and leadership challenges shaping the future of the industry. Featured economist Anirban Basu, chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group, discussed economic trends affecting the construction materials sector, including inflation, tariffs and workforce challenges. Despite ongoing uncertainties, Basu forecasts continued growth for Texas, citing the state’s strong economic fundamentals and population expansion. “Let’s empower the doers,” Basu says. “That’s one of the reasons the Texas economy remains such a powerful engine of growth. Texas is a doer state.”

Austin's pursuit of an NHL team is about to ramp up

Austin's impending pursuit of a National Hockey League team remains at "ground zero," stakeholders said, but there are at least signs that it's about to soon ramp up. About two months after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made the surprise revelation that the league signed an exclusive term sheet with the Friedkin Family and Houston-based Pursuit Sports to consider Houston and Austin for a new franchise, those involved maintained the latter is not just a throw-in to sweeten a deal with the franchise owner's hometown. That's because in recent weeks, representatives from Pursuit Sports have started initial conversations with local officials. Additionally, sources said Pursuit Sports has inked a local office lease, although it remains unclear where. Its CEO, David Beeston, is said to be soon spending extended time in Austin.

click here for more

"I'm really pleased that the Friedkin group and Pursuit Sports are giving us a shot in this," Visit Austin CEO Tom Noonan said, adding the group had an initial call with Beeston. Noonan's team offered to serve as a connector as they roll out the welcome mat to court the city's first big four sports franchise. Representatives for Pursuit Sports and the NHL declined to comment. But Bettman, back during a June press conference, indicated the league has been working with the company for the better part of two years about Houston as an expansion opportunity. It was the realization a team would need a new arena that brought Austin also into the mix. Over the next six months, both the Houston and Austin areas will be evaluated for what Bettman has billed as a $3.5 billion project cost between an expansion fee and a new arena. A new Texas franchise would serve as the NHL's 33rd team. Public incentives are almost assuredly expected to be part of the discussion. The league's governing board will have the final say.

Fort Worth ISD says it will start school year with zero teacher vacancies

Fort Worth ISD says it will begin the 2026-27 school year with no teacher vacancies, marking a significant turnaround for a district that faced major staffing concerns earlier this year. The district announced the milestone Sunday, one day before students are scheduled to return to class Monday, Aug. 10. "A milestone worth celebrating! Fort Worth ISD is opening the 2026-27 school year with 0 teacher vacancies," the district said in a social media post. The announcement comes after a months-long push to fill positions following more than 1,000 staff departures ahead of the new school year. As recently as July 23, Fort Worth ISD reported it still had 20 classroom teacher vacancies remaining with fewer than three weeks before the first day of school.

click here for more

The district said Sunday that historically it has begun the school year with more than 200 teacher vacancies. "This year, every student will have a teacher on day one," the district said. Fort Worth ISD credited school principals, its talent management team and other district employees with filling the remaining positions. The district has spent months recruiting educators, including holding hiring fairs throughout the summer. In April, Fort Worth ISD also announced an automatic 5% raise for classroom teachers as part of its efforts to recruit and retain educators. Although Fort Worth ISD says it has filled its teacher vacancies, the district continues to advertise other employment opportunities, including positions in special education and other areas. The district called reaching zero teacher vacancies the result of "teamwork, urgency, and commitment" from employees across Fort Worth ISD.

In blue San Antonio, Paxton taps locals to warn Republicans about progressive rule

Attorney General Ken Paxton tapped some unexpected names to introduce him at his packed campaign rally at the Angry Elephant on Saturday. Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody and San Antonio Councilwoman Misty Spears took the stage asking the roughly 200 Republicans in attendance to rally their friends and neighbors around Paxton’s U.S. Senate bid this November. The move comes just months after the two were stumping for Paxton’s primary opponent, the more moderate U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who they said was the best candidate to hold off Democrat James Talarico in a tough race this November. San Antonio has long been a last bastion of GOP moderates.

click here for more

But Paxton went on to trounce Cornyn in the primary runoff, and his party is now scrambling to unite voters around a candidate with baggage from a high-profile affair, personal legal troubles and years of disagreements with other Texas GOP leaders. Despite those weaknesses, nearly all of San Antonio’s elected Republicans were in attendance Saturday, urging voters rally their friends and neighbors against sitting out this election. “What we stand for is on the line here, and what we have before us is Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is ready to deliver that Texas promise up to the U.S. government,” said Spears, a longtime GOP activist before she was elected to City Council last year. “So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to sit out? Are you going to say ‘Ah, it’s fine’? Yell at the TV, at Fox News, and be upset? No, you’re going to get out there. You’re going to vote.” Councilman Marc Whyte (D10), state Rep. Mark Dorazio (R-San Antonio), state Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) and TX23 congressional candidate Brandon Herrera were also in attendance.

Communities In Schools of Houston offers guidance to help families start the school year strong

Communities In Schools (CIS) of Houston, a leading nonprofit supporting students and families across multiple Houston-area school districts, encourages parents and guardians to help students begin the 2026–2027 school year with healthy routines that support academic success. Serving students from Pre-K through Alumni, CIS provides comprehensive services that help young people overcome barriers and thrive in school and life. CIS places at least one full-time CIS Student Support Manager (SSM) on each partner campus to deliver direct services and provide students and families with tailored referrals to community partners. SSMs provide students and families in need with services including academic support, supportive guidance and mental health counseling, health and social services, and college and career readiness resources.

click here for more

“With the new school year beginning, our campus-based professionals, which could include licensed mental health staff, are ready to help students and families navigate challenges, build resilience, and take advantage of opportunities for success,” says Shubhra Endley, Director of Mental Health & Wellness for Communities In Schools of Houston. “The first few weeks of school are critical.” “Students who miss even a few days early on are more likely to become chronically absent and fall behind academically,” Endley continues. “We want families to have the tools and support they need to start the year strong.”

Mavericks call Valley View arena deal called 'purely exploratory'

New legal documents raise further questions about the prospects of the Dallas Mavericks' proposed new arena and entertainment district on the site of the former Valley View mall. Documents obtained by Dallas Business Journal indicate the NBA team remains non-committal. In recent court filings, attorneys for the Mavericks described an agreement to buy land at Valley View as "purely exploratory." The legal filings emerged as part of an ongoing dispute between the team's current majority owners, the family of Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont, and minority owner Mark Cuban. Cuban argues he's being frozen out of "business opportunities" related to the team’s planned Valley View arena development and filed a pre-lawsuit petition last month.

click here for more

In an Aug. 6 response, James Bookhout, who is serving as legal counsel for a Mavericks entity called Arena Development Intermediate LLC, or ADI, called the Valley View deal "purely exploratory" and said "there is no business opportunity to present" to Cuban given "uncertainty" over who will operate the new arena. He states Cuban's team has been made aware of this. Cuban, who maintains 27% minority ownership in the team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest filings. However, the legal dust-up appears to be heading toward arbitration. Judge Bill Whitehill of the Texas Business Court in an Aug. 6 filing sided with ADI's request to seek arbitration, rather than a full-blown lawsuit, in the case. Whitehill also set an Aug. 14 hearing on a petition Cuban originally filed in the 134th District Court in Dallas County. ADI successfully requested the hearing be moved from Dallas County to the Texas Business Court.

FDA authorizes wound spray to help protect Texas livestock and wildlife from New World screwworm

Texas ranchers and wildlife managers now have a new tool to help protect animals from New World screwworm, as the parasitic fly continues to spread in the state. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued an Emergency Use Authorization for CLiK Extra, a wound spray that can help prevent New World screwworm infestations in livestock and several species of wildlife. The authorization comes as the U.S. responds to an outbreak that has resulted in 45 confirmed New World screwworm infestations, according to the latest federal data. New World screwworm is a parasitic fly whose larvae feed on the living tissue of animals. Female flies lay their eggs in wounds or other vulnerable areas. Once the larvae hatch, they can cause severe tissue damage and, in some cases, death.

click here for more

The FDA said CLiK Extra may be effective in preventing New World screwworm infestations, known as myiasis, when used as authorized. The agency said the known and potential benefits of the product outweigh its known and potential risks. “Today's emergency use authorization provides a new tool for preventing the spread of New World screwworm infestations,” Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said. CLiK Extra does not kill screwworm larvae directly. Instead, it works as an insect growth regulator, disrupting the development of the larvae and preventing them from completing their life cycle. The product can be applied to or around a wound when the wound appears or is created. The authorization covers wounds associated with injuries, birth and surgical or husbandry procedures, including dehorning, ear tagging, castration, tail docking and shearing. That could give Texas livestock producers another option for protecting animals after procedures that leave them with wounds that could potentially attract screwworm flies. But the spray is intended for prevention, not treatment of an existing infestation. If a wound is already infested with screwworm larvae, or if an infestation develops after the product has been applied, the FDA recommends contacting a veterinarian to discuss treatment options.

Longtime Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert dies at age 84

Longtime Republican Fort Bend County Judge Robert E. “Bob” Hebert has died at the age of 84 following a brief illness. Hebert assumed office in 2003 and led the county through what county officials called "an extraordinary period of growth and change" up through Hurricane Harvey in 2017. After serving as county judge for 15 years, Hebert lost his re-election in 2018 to then-Democrat KP George. The former judge is being remembered for his years of leadership, public service and generosity in the community, as an outpouring of tributes from local nonprofit organizations and county officials has been released.

click here for more

"I always appreciated Judge Hebert's wisdom, his integrity and the thoughtful leadership he provided through the years," Republican Fort Bend County Commissioner Vincent Morales said in an Aug. 6 social media post. "He carried himself with dignity, treated others with respect and understood that public service is ultimately about leaving a community stronger than you found it." For one of Fort Bend County's longtime Democratic commissioners, Hebert represents a different era of county politics — one they remember as more measured and less defined by partisan conflict. He’s described as someone who knew how to work within the role of county judge and balance competing interests without allowing political differences to overshadow the county’s work. Democratic Commissioner Grady Prestage served alongside Hebert on commissioners court during the former judge's entire time in office and believed Hebert genuinely wanted to do what was best for Fort Bend County.

Travis County taking its time on critical Dog's Head vote

Travis County officials plan to take their time considering whether the county should participate in a taxing plan that would support Endeavor Real Estate Group's development of the massive Dog’s Head area. The Dog’s Head is a 2,645-acre site along the Colorado River near Austin’s airport. The site is called the Dog’s Head because the shape of the Colorado River makes it look like a dog’s head from an aerial view. Most of the Dog’s Head site has been used for mining and industrial purposes. Endeavor has pitched the Dog’s Head as a massive development opportunity for Austin that could eventually hold millions of square feet of commercial real estate and over 12,000 residential units. But for Endeavor’s vision of the Dog’s Head to become a reality, the site needs an estimated $5.6 billion worth of infrastructure work.

click here for more

That's why Endeavor is seeking for both the city of Austin and Travis County to participate in a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ. A TIRZ is a funding mechanism that local governments can use to pay for infrastructure and create a dedicated fund for improvement projects in a certain area. It works by creating a baseline of taxable value for an area of land, and increases in the land’s taxable value are put into a TIRZ fund for that area. The Austin City Council in July approved the city’s participation in the Dog’s Head TIRZ. The Travis County Commissioners Court is in no rush to vote on the Dog’s Head TIRZ. Travis County Judge Andy Brown told the Austin Business Journal that no decision has been made on when Commissioners could vote on participating in the Dog’s Head TIRZ. “I'd like to see the proposal come before the Commissioners Court when it's ready for thoughtful consideration and we have the information needed to determine whether it reflects Travis County's values,” Brown said in an emailed statement. “My focus is on getting it right, not on meeting a specific timeline."

National Stories

The ‘jury duty’ scam that cost this family $25,000

The sheriff’s deputy chatted breezily over the phone about his three young daughters as Kimberly Fudge drove through gritty streets and lush Florida byways on a grim errand: gathering thousands of dollars in bail to avoid arrest for missing jury duty. When Fudge, 38, a manager in the finance department of a government contractor, reached the drop-off point, she balked. It was a convenience store with abandoned gas pumps and a cryptocurrency machine inside. She was told to scan a QR code and feed the machine $4,000 in cash. She walked back to her car and began to voice doubts that had been building: “Are you sure this is where I’m supposed to post the bail?” The officer’s friendly demeanor vanished. His voice rose. He reminded her that he was tracking her location—and that deputies were two blocks away, ready to bring her in.

click here for more

She went back inside and made the deposit. It was the first of many that day. A team of at least five scammers, playing different roles with dead-perfect Florida accents, would keep her on the phone for nearly 10 hours and talk her into handing over $25,000. “They had me scared,” Fudge said. They could read her texts and see her internet searches. “They knew my Social Security number. They knew how much I had in my bank account. They had every single thing about me.” Americans are awash in scams: phony UPS texts, AI-generated voices of loved ones in trouble, spoofed emails tricking city governments. People reported losing $3.5 billion to impostor scams in 2025, nearly triple 2020’s level, the Federal Trade Commission said in a June report. Some swindles originate overseas, run by sophisticated criminal syndicates. “Some of them have HR departments and performance reviews,” said Ben Bernstein, a cybersecurity expert at Huntress. But increasingly, they come from closer to home. In January, the Justice Department announced the conviction of two Georgia inmates who ran scams on stolen cellphones from behind bars. The jury-duty shakedown has surged in the Tampa area. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office alone has received 44 reports of the scam so far this year, up from 25 for all of last year, said Sgt. Andrew Miller, head of the economic-crimes unit.

Surprises and scandals scramble the battle for Congress

The final stretch of primary season has scrambled the battle for Congress, as scandals, insurgent victories and voters’ rejection of party leaders’ preferred candidates reshape a small but critical set of races. Democrats’ path to a Senate majority narrowed with the triumph of progressive insurgent Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, whom polls show faring worse against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R) than his primary rival. Republicans suffered their own setbacks as a Trump-endorsed congressional candidate in Michigan lost to a rival who had suspended his campaign, while misconduct allegations drove a vulnerable North Carolina incumbent from the race. Republicans are eager to face several Democrats they believe are too far left for their districts, while Democrats see new openings where GOP candidates have suffered from controversies. With control of Congress potentially turning on a handful of seats, both parties are betting individual candidates will matter as much as the political terrain — though operatives’ judgments about electability often prove wrong.

click here for more

“It’s really hard to tell you what the board’s going to be like,” said Democratic strategist Andrew Acosta, noting that antiestablishment fervor among grassroots organizers has made prognosticating harder for consultants and pollsters, and scandals are adding more volatility. For Trump, the stakes include the fate of his policy agenda for the rest of his term, as well as burdensome oversight and possibly a third impeachment. But he has taken a hands-off approach to the midterms, frustrating some Republicans who want him to help mobilize his supporters and dip into his super PAC’s $400 million war chest. “I said to somebody, ‘Wait a minute, you don’t understand — I won, I’m not campaigning,’” Trump said in an interview with Punchbowl News released Friday. “If I don’t run, will those people go out and vote? … Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans.” To win the Senate, Democrats need to defend their seats in Michigan and Georgia, pick up North Carolina and Maine, plus win in two more states that Trump won by more than 10 points in 2024 — a tall order even in a year expected to favor them. The latest polls show how individual candidates can defy a state’s typical partisan makeup. Democrats are currently leading in red states like Ohio, Iowa and Texas by more than in left-leaning Michigan or Maine. Without Michigan, Democrats would have to win in a third state that Trump won by at least 10 points in 2024. Polls showed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Michigan), who was endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), faring at least slightly better against Rogers than El-Sayed. But he edged her out in Tuesday’s primary by about one percentage point.

Powerball jackpot climbs to $905 million ahead of tonight’s drawing, the largest of the year

The Powerball jackpot is at an estimated $905 million ahead of tonight’s drawing after there were no big winners in Saturday night’s drawing. Tonight’s drawing will be the 43rd in a row in search of a winner, and its prize ranks as the eighth-largest jackpot in Powerball history, according to the Multi State Lottery Association, which administers the game. If a player matches all five white balls and the red Powerball tonight, they can choose between an annuitized prize estimated at $905 million, paid out over 30 years, or a lump sum payment estimated at $391.9 million. Saturday night’s winning numbers were 5, 9, 35, 54, and 63, and the red Powerball was 7. There was a Power Play multiplier of 3.

click here for more

Although there were no jackpot winners on Saturday, tickets sold in Arizona, Florida, Michigan and New York matched all five white balls to win $1 million each, lottery officials said. Another ticket, sold in Texas, matched all five white balls and included the Power Play option, winning $2 million. Nobody has won the grand prize in more than three months, since two players in Florida and Texas split a $20 million prize on May 2. The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are approximately 1 in 292.2 million. They are considerably more favorable for smaller cash prizes, with a 1 in 24.9 chance. Powerball drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET.

Trump Crypto took $100 million from a businessman with red flags

During the World Cup soccer final in New Jersey last month, Zach Witkoff, co-founder of President Trump’s cryptocurrency company, took in the action from a luxury suite. Joining him was a man who had made the president, and all the company’s co-founders, much richer. Two years earlier, the man, Guren “Bobby” Zhou, was a failed hardwood flooring retailer in Britain who had come under investigation there for money laundering and presided over the collapse of a small crypto start-up. Then seemingly out of nowhere, he became one of the biggest buyers of tokens from Mr. Trump’s company, World Liberty Financial, dropping a total of $100 million through a new firm called Aqua 1. He kept quiet about it for months, other than speaking briefly as “Mr. Bobby” from Aqua 1 during a little-noticed audio stream on X.

click here for more

“We’re very proud to be a major player in the World Liberty, which is Trump’s family’s crypto venture,” he said. Under World Liberty policy, as much as $75 million of that money was distributed to a company controlled by the president and his three sons. The money also benefited the family of Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s special peace envoy and the father of Zach Witkoff. In any prior era, a windfall for the president of that size from a foreigner with no public signs of access to that level of wealth would have certainly gone against norms and might have spawned a congressional investigation. Instead, the curious case of Mr. Zhou illustrates the ease with which buyers with unknown backgrounds and motivations can use the anonymity of cryptocurrency to shower Mr. Trump with money. The president’s recent financial disclosure form shows that he collected $1.4 billion from his crypto businesses last year, the majority of it from anonymous sources. It is not clear how closely World Liberty scrutinized Mr. Zhou’s past, but the money laundering investigation in England was publicly available information, as were portions of Mr. Zhou’s troubled business history.

Trump names Will Scharf as White House counsel

Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, will become White House ?counsel and assistant to ?the president effective September 1, ?U.S. President Donald Trump ?said on Sunday. Scharf will become the ?White House's top lawyer after overseeing the administrative work of the ?Oval Office in his current ?role. The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here. He also led the National Capital ?Planning ?Commission, which approved the president's construction of the White House ballroom. Trump said David Warrington, the ?current ?White House ?counsel, is going to the private sector. ?Warrington formerly served as ?a ?personal counsel and a lawyer for Trump's 2024 campaign.

click here for more

Democrats’ new plan to win in November: Just be normal

Democrats are increasingly convinced that “double haters” — voters disappointed with both President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party — will make or break their chance at winning a House majority in November. All it’ll take to win this voting group over, Democrats think, is one very normal trick. In battleground districts across the country, Democratic candidates are attempting to prove that they are just like the average, everyday Americans they hope to represent. Their bet is that the promise of normalcy is enough to win over skeptical voters. It’s an effort that sits at the center of the party’s planned communication effort in the coming months, especially in the right-leaning seats its candidates need to win for a majority next year.

click here for more

“What this really means is, are you putting your head down and working?” said Democratic Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan. “Are you talking about things that really matter and using language that normal people use, not something from inside the beltway?” McDonald Rivet, who won her Trump-supporting district with relative ease in 2024, is considered the template for the kind of candidate Democrats hope they recruited this year, a list that includes Rebecca Bennett in New Jersey, Zach Dembo in Kentucky and Chaz Molder in Tennessee. In interviews, they described a formula for coming across as normal that included focusing on economic pressures instead of Trump’s actions and avoiding statements and positions more aligned with liberal activists than the larger body politic. “The most important communication aspect of this is, ‘Hey, I’m a normal human being who’s going to focus on the economy,’” said one Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly about party strategy. “‘I’m not a crazy Democrat.’”

Trump says there was ‘some contractor error’ during Reflecting Pool renovation

President Trump on Sunday said there was “some contractor error” with the renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool while still accusing a former Olympian canoeist of vandalizing the Washington, D.C., landmark despite charges against the athlete being dropped. “There was substantial damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are working on the Pool, and it will reopen shortly. As with many jobs, there was also some contractor error done by rushing the job for a July 4th opening, but it was a very small area of this massive Pool, and was relatively inconsequential.”

click here for more

Trump claimed that a National Park Service “career employee, a highly credible witness,” saw Olympian David Hearn “in broad daylight vandalize the Reflecting Pool by ‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating.” He added that this employee’s testimony was provided to U.S. Attorney of the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro. The president concluded his post by saying that security cameras “have been, and are being, installed.” The remarks went up on Truth Social the day after Trump posted photos of alleged vandalism amid a push for Pirro to revisit the decision to drop the charges against multiple people also accused of vandalizing the pool. This other post on Truth Social included two photos of what appeared to be graffiti and some peeling of the coating of the pool. Both photos were labeled with the word “Vandalism.” Trump is pushing for the Justice Department to backtrack on its move to drop criminal charges against people accused of damaging the site. On Friday, the president pressed for Pirro to revisit “her hastily made decision.”

Hawaii Democratic incumbent fends off left-wing challenger in congressional primary

U.S. Representative Ed Case easily fended off a Democratic primary challenge from ?a progressive rival for one of Hawaii's congressional ?seats, election results showed late Saturday. Case's victory over Jarrett Keohokalole, 43, marks ?the latest front of the battle roiling U.S. Democratic politics in which seasoned lawmakers have been pitted against more progressive newcomers. Case, 73, won 57% of the votes in his ?district, compared with Keohokalole's ?34%, official results showed. Neither could be reached immediately for comment on Sunday. Three others had ?also sought the Democratic nomination for the Honolulu-based district that is seen as safely Democratic.

click here for more

Case, widely seen as a moderate, ?has held ?the seat since 2019, ?and also served in the ?House between 2002 and 2007. He holds a senior position on a key spending committee and has argued Hawaii will attract fewer federal dollars if he is not reelected. Keohokalole highlighted Case's campaign donations from businesses to argue he ?has lost touch with voters. Case's ?win stands out from a recent ?surge for left-wing candidates ?in states including Colorado, Kentucky and New ?York. In Hawaii's other congressional district, ?U.S. Representative Jill ?Tokuda easily won her Democratic primary with 84% of the vote. Hawaii Governor Josh Green, who has led the ?state since ?2022, also defeated several challengers for the Democratic nomination.

Copyright August 10, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved