July 30, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Nate Schatzline's role in Abbott's office unclear despite high salary

Gov. Greg Abbott’s new senior official advising on election integrity, Nate Schatzline, is among his highest paid employees, even as Schatzline’s duties remain a mystery. Schatzline, a former state lawmaker and consistent 2020 election denier, is making an annual salary of $275,000, according to payroll records. That puts him in the top 10 highest-paid governor's office staffers, and at a higher salary than Abbott himself. Abbott announced earlier this month the Fort Worth Republican would serve as his senior adviser for election integrity, but has yet to specify what his new role entails. Hiring documents reviewed by Hearst Newspapers make little mention of how Schatzline will be expected to help shape state elections policy. The two-page job description says the position is “responsible for providing policy and strategic direction related to legislative and electoral matters,” but doesn’t mention elections again in any of the 18 essential duties.

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A spokesperson for Abbott's office did not answer questions about Schatzline's role or whether there were any other applicants for the job. “Governor Abbott appointed Nate Schatzline as Senior Advisor because of his proven conservative record fighting for election security,” said spokesman Andrew Mahaleris. “As the Governor stated: his experience in the Texas House will be a tremendous asset as we protect the voices of Texas voters.” The July 2 announcement of his hiring came just weeks before Secretary of State Jane Nelson stepped down ahead of the high-profile midterm elections, and as Republicans are pushing for stricter voting laws in next year’s legislative session. Schatzline has advocated for closing the state’s GOP primaries and denied the results of the 2020 presidential election. In his resume, he described himself as “a spiritual leader who has given his life to bringing Godly reformation to the Governmental realm.” He listed work experience as a pastor at a Fort Worth megachurch and as president of a nonprofit that mobilizes religious leaders to run for office.

Why Republicans aren’t funding the Texas Senate race yet

In one of this year’s most competitive Senate races, Republicans are refusing to spend money — so far. That peculiar dynamic is playing out in Texas, where the fate of the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton, will help decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. But Mr. Paxton has struggled to raise cash, and no one has stepped in yet to help him. Mr. Paxton finds himself in a unique situation among Senate candidates, according to interviews with a dozen Republicans with ties to his campaign. Republican donors still hold grudges from a bruising primary. The state, with its 18-plus television markets, is an epically expensive setting. And his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, has proved to be a particularly strong fund-raiser.

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Perhaps the most striking piece of Mr. Paxton’s money woes is the high-stakes game of chicken that two of the Republican Party’s biggest money committees, along with their allied donors, are playing. Both of those groups, the Senate Leadership Fund and MAGA Inc., are not so secretly hoping that the other one swoops in to boost Mr. Paxton with tens of millions in spending, the Republicans said. Neither group has reached for its wallet yet. “Somebody is going to have to spend big money,” said Dan Eberhart, an oil executive who is raising contributions for Mr. Paxton. “We’ll see who blinks.” In the primary, Mr. Paxton defeated Senator John Cornyn, a favorite of many of the country’s and state’s largest donors. The Republican nominee still lacks enthusiasm from these contributors, who financed ads in the primary repeatedly calling him a criminal and a womanizer. Their opinions largely haven’t changed, especially with the continuing drumbeat of revelations of Mr. Paxton’s world travels with his girlfriend, the Republicans said. Mr. Paxton is not getting help from Washington, either. National Republican groups are slated to spend tens of millions of dollars this summer and fall in every other top-tier Senate race, including in some states that prominent handicappers think are not as competitive as Texas. They even plan to spend more in noncompetitive Kansas. In most states, Republicans are expected to outspend Democrats — for instance in Ohio, where the G.O.P. commitment totals over $100 million.

With Cornyn holding up nomination, Todd Blanche won’t get Thursday vote in Senate Judiciary Committee

The Senate Judiciary Committee has abandoned plans to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general Thursday, a significant speed bump that will make it difficult for Republicans to confirm him before the chamber begins its August recess next week. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) held firm Wednesday in his demand that Blanche revise a controversial settlement agreement between President Donald Trump and the IRS. Cornyn, who was defeated for renomination earlier this year by a Trump-backed primary challenger, was explicit on the legal language he needed from Blanche — even providing the Justice Department with a revision to the agreement that would address his concerns — but an agreement could not be reached in time to have the Thursday morning vote.

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“We actually sent them a red-line strikeout of what we need, and they just need to make a decision,” Cornyn said earlier Wednesday, adding that he was “trying to make it easy for them.” Just one GOP “no” vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee would effectively sink Blanche’s nomination. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another member of the panel with concerns about the settlement, said he would follow Cornyn’s lead. Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), along with Tillis, met late afternoon in Cornyn’s office to hammer out the issues on Blanche, but with no resolution. “We made it clear that we need the language to move forward with the markup,” Tillis said of the meeting. The vote could still be rescheduled if Cornyn and Tillis are satisfied, though it might not happen in time to get Blanche across the floor before the recess begins at the end of next week. A DOJ official granted anonymity to describe the negotiations said the department sent “new language” to the two senators and remains “in discussion” with them.

American oil majors trying to get into Venezuela have hit a wall

Seven months after the U.S. deposed strongman Nicolás Maduro, Big Oil has yet to make any big moves in Venezuela. ExxonMobil, Chevron, and other major oil companies are fighting for a small number of the country’s most attractive drilling spots, but some of the talks with Venezuelan leaders recently hit an impasse, according to people familiar with the negotiations. President Trump and his lieutenants had high hopes that big U.S. oil companies would quickly sign investment deals to kick-start production in Venezuela, home to some of the world’s largest reserves. They see the country’s rising oil exports as a boon to U.S. supplies while Iran hobbles shipping lanes in the Middle East that typically carry 20% of the world’s oil and gas.

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The administration is also putting pressure on interim President Delcy Rodriguez to boost Venezuela’s production quickly—before the end of Trump’s second term. Among the issues that have handicapped any big deals: Major U.S. oil producers are interested in many of the same prized assets, including fields in eastern Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt and the northeastern state of Monagas—and they want to secure the most favorable fiscal and regulatory terms possible. The devastating earthquake that shook the country last month also slowed the progress. “Few of them are really jumping into the water,” said José Ignacio Hernández, a law professor and consultant at advisory firm Aurora Macro Strategies. “It’s like when you’re trying to sell your house. You have a very successful open house with 100 people attending, but then nobody calls.” The negotiations are largely being led by state-run Petróleos de Venezuela, which is holding separate meetings with companies and making private offerings. Some of the American companies, which are more accustomed to public bidding processes, have requested U.S. officials intervene. So far, the administration has let the process play out without choosing any winners.

State Stories

Gov. Abbott suggests lowering health insurance costs by nixing state mandates

Gov. Greg Abbott raised the curtain on the third part of his plan to lower insurance costs for Texans. This section focuses on health insurance costs for small businesses and their employees. In conversations with small business owners, Abbott said, he heard time and time again that the employers were having trouble providing health insurance to their workers due to rising premiums. According to the Texas Association of Health Plans, insurance premiums for small businesses in Texas are jumping 15-20% in 2026 — 36-82% above the national average. As a result, only about 38% of the small businesses can afford to offer healthcare coverage to their employees.

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Because Texas is one of the most heavily mandated states in the country, the state is one of most expensive for healthcare, says the Texas Association of Health Plans. Texas’ regulations mean health insurance policies in the state exceed what is required by the Affordable Care Act and federal regulations. Abbott is suggesting to nix dozens of those mandates, equating to less coverage for Texans but at a more affordable price for the small businesses they work for. He said at a press conference in Fort Worth on Wednesday that the health insurance policies offered would still cover the necessities. In conversation with local entrepreneurs, Abbott heard from Vicki Cisneros, owner of the Stockyards’s staple Tex-Mex restaurant Los Vaqueros. She told him about 90% of their employees had insurance “not too long ago,” but today, only about 10% have insurance because of the rising cost.

Joe Rogan warns liberals against trying to turn Texas blue, says it would wreck the state's 'delicate balance'

Podcaster Joe Rogan warned liberals Tuesday that moving to Texas and turning the state blue would ruin the delicate balance for everybody, including liberal Texans. "The liberals that want to turn Texas blue, like, don't. You're going to ruin it," he said. Rogan, a former Californian, has spoken out numerous times about his choice to leave California over its far-left policies, particularly those from the COVID-19 pandemic years. Rogan lamented that many "coastal elites" and "coastal snobs" often "have this idea of it being filled with rednecks and ignorant people and foolish people. It's not that way at all. Especially Austin. Austin is like one of the most, like, liberal, easygoing, progressive cities, but even the progressives here, they’re like, more reasonable."

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He specified that liberal Texans, while they shifted somewhat leftward in recent years, are nowhere near the same far-left positions as those of Los Angeles or New York. "There’s this saying about Austin: ‘Keep Austin Weird … and surrounded,’" Rogan said. "And surrounded? What is the ‘and surrounded?’" guest Forrest Galante asked. "Surrounded by red people. Like it’s all red states around you, and it’s this pocket of blue that’s in the center of this red state," Rogan said. "I think that's good for everybody. I think that's good. It's a balance." Rogan warned against liberals fleeing blue states only to vote for the same left-wing policies. He compared the state’s delicate political balance to that of an ecosystem. "You're going to ruin it," he warned. "You're going to ruin it for you too. You don't get it. Balance is important. … You can't kill all the predators because then the deer get overrun, and you're hitting them with cars. And you can't kill all the deer because then there's no food. That's what they did when they were market hunting. Balance. And you need balance with humans, too.

Texas Capital CEO blasts proxy advisers, vows to renew 'Dexit' push

Texas Capital CEO Rob Holmes intends to renew a campaign to move the company's legal home from Delaware to Texas after shareholders rejected such a proposal earlier this year and has blasted proxy advisory firms that came out against the change for having "too much power." The bank, which is based in Uptown Dallas, asked shareholders to vote on a proposal to "redomicile" in Texas at its annual meeting in April. The move failed to win shareholder approval, with about 45% of votes cast in favor and 55% opposed, according to a regulatory filing. Shareholders cast 18.2 million votes supporting the redomicile and 22 million against it, preventing the company from completing the move to Texas. Proxy advisory firms influenced many investors to oppose the move, Holmes said during a July 23 conference call with analysts to discuss the company's second-quarter financial results.

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"I think we would have gotten the vote, had our shareholder base been more retail as opposed to institutional where they listen to irresponsible, uninformed proxy advisers," he said. "And I'll go on the record and say it ... it's a problem, and they have too much power. So we'll do it again, and we look forward to continuing educating our shareholder base, and we look forward to becoming incorporated in the great state of Texas." At the center of the redomiciling debate are the two largest proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis & Co. Large institutional investors such as BlackRock Inc., T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP — all shareholders of Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. (Nasdaq: TCBI) — often align their votes with the recommendations issued by those firms. Texas Capital's push for reincorporating from Delaware to Texas comes amid a recent influx of reincorporations by other companies including ExxonMobil Holdings Corp., Dell Technologies and Tesla, a trend referred to as "Dexit." The legal domicile of a business is important because it determines tax obligations and legal jurisdiction, among other things. Delaware has long been the country's top destination for incorporation but that has been changing amid growing frustration among corporate leaders with its courts.

Ken Paxton investigates RGV hospitals over 'birth tourism' claims

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday that his office will investigate two South Texas hospitals for “potentially unlawful birth tourism schemes,” escalating state Republicans’ latest effort to crack down on immigration. The hospitals, Mission Regional Medical Center and Knapp Medical Center, came under fire after photos of Spanish-language billboards advertising their childbirth services, including the email “havemybabyinTEXAS.com,” went viral on social media. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to investigate the claims, and the agency asked Paxton to investigate the South Texas Hospitals earlier this month.

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“My office will investigate any suspected illegal birth tourism schemes in Texas, including the operations of two South Texas hospitals that appeared to advertise birth tourism on a billboard near the border,” Paxton said in a release. “My office will continue to hold accountable any entity that knowingly facilitates fraud in our state.” Texas Republicans have ramped up their fight against foreigners coming to the U.S. to give birth since the Supreme Court issued a ruling that protected birthright citizenship. Paxton sued Houston-area center De’Ai Postpartum Care Center in April for allegedly encouraging Chinese nationals to come to Texas to have children, and the state GOP adopted language supporting a ban on commercial surrogacy for foreign nationals in June. It’s not illegal for foreigners to give birth in the U.S., but critics have accused the centers of engaging in visa fraud by facilitating travel for that express purpose. Estimates suggest the practice does occur, but is rare and affects about 10,000 to 26,000 children a year. Some experts note that pregnant foreign nationals may come to the U.S. for higher-quality medical care, not expressly to access citizenship for their children.

Miguel Solis: Tom Luce’s odyssey made Texas better

(Miguel Solis is president of The Commit Partnership, and formerly president of the Dallas ISD board of trustees.) Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey has rekindled interest in one of literature’s greatest stories. Caught up in that renewed interest, I'd been rereading Homer's epic. Then I learned that Tom Luce, the noted Texas attorney and public servant, had passed away. I've since been reflecting on Tom's 86-year journey and its epic impact on those of us who were lucky enough to join him in it. Since his passing, many tributes have celebrated Tom's Odyssey-like life, one that moved from chapter to chapter of Texas history the way Odysseus moved from island to island. They should. Few Texans have shaped our state as profoundly. He helped transform public education; advised local, state and federal officials including presidents; stood beside Ross Perot during defining moments including freeing two Electronic Data Systems employees imprisoned in Iran; helped shepherd a 13th century copy of the Magna Carta across the Atlantic; built institutions still shaping education, mental health, biotechnology, workforce development and public policy, and that's just the beginning. Like Odysseus, he had a story for nearly every shore.

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I had the privilege of knowing Tom for more than a decade. Our first meeting came out of the blue: He invited me to discuss challenges facing Texas school districts, the first of many such invitations over the years. His questions were thoughtful and pointed, hinting at a bigger vision for state education policy that would position students, and Texas, for success. I'd later come to realize what he was doing: plotting the creation of Texas 2036, a non-partisan policy think tank that has helped shape Texas education for nearly a decade. As the invitations grew, I realized this instinct to build things that would outlast him showed up everywhere. I'd eventually learn where that instinct came from. Raised by a single mother doing her best under difficult circumstances, Tom never embraced the mythology of the self-made man. He spoke often about the teachers, mentors and civic leaders who believed in him early, and the impact this had on his life. I'm sure he also thought often about the kids who never got that same break, whose potential went unclaimed simply because no one showed up in time, and how easily an entire life could tip the other way. Rather than simply expressing gratitude, Tom repaid that debt through a dogged pursuit of better systems, and through conversations, quiet investment and coalition building aimed at solving the systemic issues holding Texans back. My colleague Todd Williams, CEO of Commit and a frequent collaborator of Tom's, described him as “relentlessly committed to systemically making Texas a better place.” His expansive interests were all connected by one question that animated the second half of his life: How can our state remain a place where every child has greater opportunities than the generation before them?

Texas law shields San Antonio-area data center water usage from public records requests

As data centers rapidly expand across South Texas, KSAT Investigates learned the public cannot find out how much water San Antonio-area data centers are using because of a Texas law that its author says is being interpreted far more broadly than intended. Water is used to cool and produce power used by data centers. Data centers could potentially account for 3% to 9% of Texas’ water use by 2040, according to a report from University of Texas at Austin researchers. A 39-acre plot of land in Cibolo is expected to become home to a new data center. Legacy Investing plans to build a 243,000-square-foot facility on the property, according to the San Antonio Business Journal.

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To better understand how much water existing data centers are using, KSAT Investigates filed a public information request with the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) seeking water usage records for 36 data centers in Bexar County over the past three years. SAWS said they could not release data from after the implementation of smart water meters, which would start around 2023, because of a provision in Texas law. That provision is the result of a six-year-old law written by Texas State Representative Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, which he said was meant to protect individuals and families’ water usage data from payday lenders — not corporations or companies. “Data centers are doing tremendous damage to Texas, to our water supply, to air quality,” said Bernal. “We need to know as much as we possibly can.”

Texas virtual schools expand as new law opens online opportunities

Several North Texas school districts are launching virtual schools this fall, giving leaders another way to stay competitive at a time when enrollments are dropping statewide, and creating more options for students who want to go to school without actually going to school. Last year, lawmakers loosened the state’s rules around virtual schools, making it easier for school districts to build course programs that are partially or entirely online. Following the change, several North Texas school districts, including Frisco ISD, Arlington ISD and Grand Prairie ISD, are launching virtual school programs with the beginning of the upcoming school year. District leaders say those programs give them more flexibility to meet their students’ needs, and another tool to prop up their enrollments at a time when the number of students in public schools across the state is shrinking.

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Last year, Texas lawmakers passed a bill overhauling the state’s framework for virtual schools. Senate Bill 569 makes it easier for public school districts and charter schools to offer individual courses or entire programs online. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, the bill’s author, said it’s intended to replace "a patchwork of outdated virtual learning laws with a clear structure." Among other changes, the bill allows school districts to count students in their virtual and hybrid programs toward their average daily attendance, meaning they receive state funding for those students at the same rate as for in-person students. That provision in the bill was critical in getting Grand Prairie ISD’s new virtual program off the ground, said Felicia Layne, chancellor of the district’s Grand Prairie Collegiate Institute. The new program, called Grand Prairie Collegiate Institute: NEXT, launches this fall. District leaders had discussed the possibility of launching a virtual school for years, Layne said. After schools reopened during the pandemic, some of the district’s students transferred to virtual programs, she said. So district leaders got to work building a virtual program that would allow Grand Prairie ISD students to take some or all of their classes online. The idea was to give students and their families another option for their education and, in doing so, avoid losing those students to other school systems, she said. The district has lost about 3,600 since 2019, and while virtual schools aren’t the only factor driving that decline, Layne said the program is part of a larger strategy geared toward keeping students in the district.

Rush Enterprises ends profit slide as demand improves

Rush Enterprises Inc. broke a three-year streak of falling profit while reporting signs of further improvement on the horizon. Among those signs: Demand for aftermarket parts and service is gradually improving as fleets are driving more miles, and repair activity is starting to pick back up as customers resume spending on vehicle maintenance. “While the recovery remains in early stages, improving freight rates and customer confidence, increased quoting activity and significantly stronger new truck order intake all contributed to better business conditions as the quarter progressed,” CEO and President W.M. “Rusty” Rush said during a Wednesday morning call with investors. “We feel good about the second half of the year.”

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On the sales front, the New Braunfels-based commercial truck company is faring better than the market as a whole, which saw a decline in the quarter. Rush’s sales remained relatively flat compared with the second quarter of 2025, with 3,172 Class 8 trucks sold in the U.S. Rush said the company’s diversified business model has been key to navigating the turbulence of the last 16 months. There have been more variables, including tariffs and technology changes, “than I’ve seen” before, he said. The company is doubling down on that diversification strategy by getting into the refrigerated transport business and expanding geographically. Rush entered into a 50-50 joint venture with MCT Cos., a commercial-transport refrigeration business, last week. The move will help establish the New Braunfels company’s presence in the refrigerated transportation market, which the CEO said complements its core dealership operations. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

Bee Moorhead: A call to end ICE violence on behalf of Texas faith communities

(Bee Moorhead is executive director of Texas Impact.) As Texans of faith and conscience, we affirm the belief—widely shared and deeply held across the world and throughout history—that all people, regardless of country of origin, are members of the family of God, and that we are called to welcome the stranger. While recognizing the need to maintain our national borders, we oppose policies that dehumanize, criminalize, or endanger our immigrant neighbors. We hold that public policy must protect human life and human dignity, especially the lives of the most vulnerable among us. We call for restoration of trust and an end to enforcement that terrorizes communities. We call on our leaders to reject enforcement practices that treat entire neighborhoods as targets and that make our immigrant neighbors afraid to drive to work, report a crime, or seek help.

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We renew our long-standing call for just, humane, and comprehensive immigration reform that keeps families together and honors the dignity of every person. We acknowledge that immigration policy and policy enforcement are under the purview of the federal government. We also assert that state officials can impact federal policy in two ways: first, by intervening with federal officials on behalf of their communities, and second, by shaping incrementally how federal policies are carried out in their state. We believe change is needed at the federal level, and that Texas officials can help. We call on federal authorities to make the following reforms to ICE enforcement operations: Clear, enforced limits on the use of lethal force, and an end to vehicle-based enforcement tactics that predictably escalate to deadly outcomes; An immediate review and restriction of the use of unmarked vehicles and plainclothes agents in routine enforcement stops, which sow confusion and fear and make peaceful compliance nearly impossible; A binding requirement that federal immigration agents wear activated body cameras and visible identification during all enforcement operations; Prompt and humane notification of families when a loved one is injured, detained, or killed, so that no family again learns of a death through social media; Independent oversight of ICE operations and real accountability when agents violate policy or the law.

Flock cameras expand across Bexar County as privacy concerns grow

Automated license-plate readers are spreading across Bexar County, giving police a powerful investigative tool while prompting concerns about mass surveillance, civil rights and documented misuse. Flock Safety cameras record license plates, vehicle descriptions, locations and times. Police use the searchable database to locate stolen vehicles, missing people and vehicles connected to crimes. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office operates 33 cameras. Its public dashboard recently showed more than 750,000 vehicle detections during a 30-day period. Flock cameras are also used by area municipalities and homeowners’ associations. Live Oak has credited the technology with arrests in 16 stolen-vehicle cases, while New Braunfels reported 19 arrests.

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But Savannah Kumar, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Texas, told TPR’s The Source that the cameras collect information about everyone, not only suspects. “They’re actually recording the license plate and all of this other accompanying information of every car that’s passing by, logging the movements of every driver regardless of whether they’ve done anything wrong,” Kumar said. Michael Soyfer, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, said misuse is a foreseeable consequence of allowing officers to search the system without judicial supervision. “We’ve found tons of cases of law enforcement officers using these databases to stalk past and potential romantic partners all across the country,” Soyfer said. “They don’t have to go to a judge. They don’t have to prove probable cause.” A Pasadena, Texas, officer resigned after being accused of using the system to monitor a female colleague. In Johnson County, a deputy used the nationwide network while searching for a woman whose family reported her missing after she had self-administered an abortion.

Gov. Abbott reappoints all 10 Texas Business Court judges to new terms

Governor Greg Abbott reappointed all 10 Texas Business Court judges to new two-year terms Wednesday. The terms will begin on Sept. 1, the judges' second since the court was created in the 2023 legislative session. “Businesses choose Texas in record numbers because Texas delivers results,” said Abbott in a release. “The Texas Business Court has resolved complex commercial disputes with unmatched speed and expertise. Hundreds of cases already filed and scores resolved prove these judges fuel Texas’ status as the economic engine of America. I have reappointed these skilled judges to protect that success and to ensure that Texas’ business jurisprudence is on steady ground for years to come.”

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The Texas Business Court specializes in complex corporate litigation that normal district courts may not have the time or expertise to deal with effectively, and it is currently made up of five divisions each helmed by two experienced jurists. Unlike state district court judges, who are elected, business court judges are appointed by the governor. The inaugural 10 judges were sworn in in September of 2024, and in their first year on the bench, the Texas Business Court saw more than 180 cases filed. The judges are: Andrea K. Bouressa, Bill Whitehill, Melissa Davis Andrews, Patrick K. Sweeten, Marialyn Barnard, Stacy Sharp, Jerry D. Bullard, Brian Stagner, Sofia Adrogué, and Grant Dorfman.

National Stories

Government report to show how US economy performed amid Iran war

A government report on Thursday will show whether the United States economy held sturdy as an inflation surge took hold over the early months of the Iran war. The fresh data is set to provide gross domestic product (GDP) over three months ending in June, a period that followed a historic global oil shock. The national average price for a gallon of gasoline soared to a price as high as $4.56 a gallon in May, AAA data showed, before easing somewhat after a preliminary peace agreement last month. Annual inflation has climbed to 3.5%, putting it more than percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2%. Still, hiring has proven more resilient than many economists feared, despite elevated costs for businesses and shoppers.

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Economists expect GDP to have grown at an annualized pace of 1.8% in the second quarter, which would mark a slight slowdown from 2.1% growth in the previous three-month period. Still, the anticipated figure would amount to better performance than 0.5% annualized GDP recorded over final three months of 2025. In recent quarters, a burst of investment in artificial intelligence has accounted for a large share of the nation's economic growth. A surge of AI spending accounted for roughly two-thirds of gross domestic product growth over the first half of 2025, JPMorgan Asset Management found, outpacing the contribution made by hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers. Many of the nation's largest companies have poured funds into the chips and data centers necessary to operate AI. Observers will likely pay close attention to whether that trend held steady in the data to be released on Thursday.

Establishment fails to stop rise of democratic socialist in Wisconsin

A democratic socialist is surging in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary race for governor, and establishment figures are showing no signs of stopping her. Polling this week shows that state Rep. Francesca Hong is well-positioned to win the five-way primary on Aug. 11. She had 38 percent of the vote in a survey of likely voters released Wednesday by Marquette University Law School. Behind her were former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes with 16 percent and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley with 7 percent. Two other candidates — state Sen. Kelda Roys and former state administration secretary Joel Brennan — trailed with 2 percent each. More than a third of those polled were undecided.

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Hong also led in a State Navigate poll released Tuesday that showed her with support from 44 percent of likely voters. Crowley had 15 percent, Barnes 14 percent and the other two in the low single digits. Thirteen percent of likely voters were undecided. Democratic socialists have performed well this year in solidly Democratic urban areas, and they hope to expand their reach into swing states that President Donald Trump has won. Hong offers a test case of how progressives can fare in such places, as does Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for Senate in Michigan’s Aug. 4 Democratic primary on a left-wing platform. Establishment Democrats worry that Hong can’t win the general election, but they have not coalesced around a single alternative to try to truncate her rise. The polling shows those challenges would continue even if they did rally behind someone. In the only televised debate of the primary campaign Tuesday, Hong’s opponents took a hands-off approach. None of them used the debate to criticize her, even when moderators left them openings by asking Hong about her past calls to abolish the police. The winner of the Democratic primary contest is expected to face U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who has a nominal opponent in the Republican primary race.

FIFA plan for Kushner-backed $20 billion operation to run World Cup meets fury from Europe’s UEFA

FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to create a $20 billion company running the World Cup with private investors, including the Kushner family, was announced Tuesday — and immediately attacked by European soccer body UEFA. “It is not FIFA’s to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “None of us are the owners of football.” Infantino’s plans to form a commercial subsidiary, which would be called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), running competitions like the World Cup and Club World Cup was first reported by The Times of London. FIFA said in a statement FFE would raise up to $4.2 billion later this year to help fund development programs “based on an initial equity valuation of $20 billion by carefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests.”

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FIFA is working with J.P. Morgan while intended investors include Thrive Eternal launched by Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump. The men’s World Cup that finished this month only deepened the political and personal ties between Trump and Infantino, and fueled concerns about those ties, including from UEFA. “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially,” UEFA said Tuesday, responding to the reports of selling stakes in FIFA competitions. FIFA is currently a Swiss-based not-for-profit association of its 211 national member federations worldwide. Those members must approve any plan and would get the chance “to access up to $20 million in one-off capital,” FIFA said.

Trump’s support for Graham’s sister stirs GOP backlash in South Carolina

President Donald Trump has put his weight behind Sen. Darline Graham in her bid to succeed her late brother, Lindsey Graham, for a full term. But rather than embracing the president’s endorsed candidate in a whirlwind election less than two weeks away, influential conservative activists in South Carolina say they’re not swayed. Trump’s conservative base could again reject one of his chosen candidates this year — as they did in South Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial primary in June — as his supporters question whether the president is acting with their top priorities in mind. “People are going to be independently minded in this, and I don’t think that Trump is the end all, be all that he used to be,” said CJ Westfall, chairman of the Dorchester County Republican Party.

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Many conservative activists say they aren’t sold on Graham because of her lack of a political record, besides her public support for her brother. Trump initially appointed Graham to serve the remaining six months of her brother’s term, then quickly backed her after she unexpectedly decided to seek a full term. A dozen GOP candidates filed to run in the Aug. 11 primary election before this week’s deadline. They include U.S. Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, who have conservative voting records in Congress, and former governor Mark Sanford. The crowded special election is expected to go to an Aug. 25 runoff. And runoff elections, Westfall said, “typically bring out the hard core of the hard core.” Even national Republican operatives sympathetic to Darline Graham, and who were aligned with her brother, are privately conceding that her odds of success in the primary race appear slim. In interviews, more than a dozen South Carolina Republican operatives and activists described three issues working against Graham: She had never held office and is little-known across the state, despite her brother’s high profile.

Redacted Fauci diary entries depict him personally helping Katie Miller

Former White House official and conservative influencer Katie Miller heralded the release of Anthony Fauci’s diaries as a bombshell discovery that outed him as a calculating attention-seeker. “The most disturbing part of Fauci’s diary — is what he decided to memorialize versus what he kept out of his diary,” she wrote in a post on X on Monday. “It’s almost like he knew this diary would one day become public. He wanted to cast himself as the hero, as famous, as the savior.” Katie Miller, who is married to Trump adviser and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, has called for Fauci to be jailed. She derided Fauci’s appearance in front of the Senate Wednesday, questioning why he repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment. And she’s said he caused “decades of harm” to children as a leader of the federal government’s COVID-19 response.

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Since-redacted excerpts from Fauci’s diary indicate his relationship with Katie Miller was not always this way. In entries dated to 2020, Fauci’s diary suggests he had a close relationship with Katie Miller, who was Vice President Mike Pence’s communications director at the time and heavily involved in the White House’s COVID-19 response. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a longtime critic of Fauci’s, published more than 1,000 pages of the infectious disease doctor’s diary Saturday. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News that he handed the entries over to Senate Republicans after finding them on government servers. Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases who served as the face of the Trump administration’s COVID-19 response, writes about providing medical advice to Katie and Stephen Miller. He writes that he counseled the family after Katie Miller tested positive for COVID-19 while pregnant in 2020, when Stephen Miller tested positive and when their newborn child experienced a medical episode later that year.

Democrats fear viral DSA interview on Fox News will leave a scar

Democrats are worried that widely circulated comments from a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) leader outlining the group’s priorities could become Republican attack fodder as the midterm elections draw closer. The unease from moderate Democrats intensified after Megan Romer, DSA co-chair, was asked a lightning round of questions on Sunday during a Fox News interview about the organization’s platform, answering true to several proposals, including abolishing the Senate and — as a long-term goal — prisons. The moment has also circulated widely online and has been played up on other cable news networks. Democrats say the interview could not have come at a worse time.

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They fear Republicans will seize on Romer’s comments in campaign ads, much as President Trump’s 2024 campaign repeatedly highlighted then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s past support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for prisoners. The ad — which concluded “Kamala Harris is for they/them, President Trump is for you” — was devastating to Democrats at the time. Now, on the heels of a string of primary victories by DSA candidates in states including New York and Colorado, some Democrats worry that it will have an impact on Democrats across the board. “You now have to argue to voters that you aren’t insane when you want to talk about making groceries cheaper,” said Democratic strategist Steve Schale. “It’s all just off message,” Schale said, adding that Democrats in competitive races will now “have to spend time and research dollars learning how it impacts the race, then you may have to spend limited campaign resources pushing back on the idea that you want to eliminate the presidency or close prisons when you need to be talking about how to make life more affordable.”

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