July 22, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

The Pentagon, sinking billions into Iran war, is quickly running short on cash

The Pentagon faces an urgent budget shortfall caused largely by the war in Iran, with some critical lines of funding set to run out within weeks even as President Donald Trump escalates the conflict with Tehran, according to lawmakers and current and former U.S. officials. The funding crunch is already leading the Pentagon to limit training and maintenance that help maintain military readiness, according to four current and former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the budget constraints. And the collapsed ceasefire with Iran could further strain the military’s budget: After four U.S. service members died during more than a week of intensified fighting, officials in Washington signaled they were preparing for a wider conflict.

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The White House has asked Congress for an immediate infusion of $67 billion to help cover the costs of the war, but lawmakers are gridlocked over how to proceed. The House plans to leave Washington on Thursday for a month-long recess, leaving any deal on military funding weeks away at the earliest. “Everybody needs to look at this situation and get rid of the complacency that they have,” Rep. Pat Harrigan (North Carolina), a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment Monday. On Tuesday, after this article published, press secretary Sean Parnell said in a statement that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would “do whatever is necessary” to preserve military readiness and that defense funding is “essential.” On Tuesday, Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine went to make their case for the money before the Senate Appropriations Committee — the first public hearing centered on the package. They last appeared on Capitol Hill in May, before a tenuous ceasefire broke down.

Texas district launches new legal challenge to school finance system

Texas’ byzantine school finance system will face legal scrutiny for the first time in a decade after a rural school board voted to sue the state. The Midland Independent School District board unanimously greenlit the lawsuit Tuesday night, arguing that the state’s restrictive funding rules unfairly strip the local board of its power to levy property taxes. The suit, which will be filed in Travis County, sets up the first significant challenge to the system since 2016 and, if successful, could force the state Legislature to rework the system to allow districts to keep more of their local taxes. It comes as lawmakers have struggled in recent years to address voter anger over rising property taxes, with Gov. Greg Abbott going as far as calling for abolishing school taxes entirely for homeowners.

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Josh Guinn, the Midland ISD board president who proposed the suit, said he did not know yet whether other districts would join. But the board must act to protect its power, he said. “I think Midland has paid its fair share in property taxes to the state, and it’s time to challenge it,” Guinn said in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. Asked by a fellow board member if the suit was connected to Abbott’s property tax push, Guinn said no. “I’ve never met the man,” he said. The state’s “Robinhood” system, created to collect and redistribute excess taxes from property-rich districts, has faced legal challenges from school districts about once a decade since the 1980s. The most recent lawsuit, which was joined by over two-thirds of Texas’ 1,200 school districts, was rejected by the state Supreme Court in 2016. Several previous challenges were more successful, forcing overhauls of tweaks to the state formula.

Gov. Greg Abbott orders state health agencies to crack down on ‘birth tourism’

Gov. Greg Abbott has issued an executive order to crack down on the practice of "birth tourism." The move appears to be a response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding birthright citizenship, despite efforts by President Donald Trump to restrict it. Abbott's order directs six health-focused state agencies to investigate schemes aimed at helping non-citizens travel to the United States illegally for the alleged purposes of giving birth and securing U.S. citizenship for their children.

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"Texas will not tolerate the exploitation of our immigration laws by individuals traveling to the United States illegally or under false pretenses to give birth and secure citizenship for their child," Abbott said. "This executive order directs state agencies to investigate birth tourism schemes and hold accountable any provider that facilitates this fraud. U.S. citizenship is not for sale, and Texas will put a stop to individuals seeking to profit from birth tourism." The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that, at most, the number of babies born to tourists visiting the U.S. is less than 30,000 out of more than 3.5 million births per year. "There’s nothing in the law that says that somebody can’t come to the United States as a tourist when they’re pregnant," said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. program at the Migration Policy Institute. "We had a member of our World Cup team who was born in the United States just by accident because the airline decided that this soccer player’s mom was too pregnant to get on a plane to go back home, even though that was her intention to go back home and give birth." The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution automatically conveys U.S. citizenship on anyone born in the United States, regardless of the legal status of their parents. The U.S. Supreme Court, in its final decision of the 2025-2026 term, ruled that President Trump could not limit the practice of birthright citizenship.

Flock camera use backed by Texas police association

As the controversy surrounding Flock Safety cameras and other automated license plate-reader technology continues to rise nationwide, the Texas Municipal Police Association reached out to the Reporter-Telegram to provide a law enforcement perspective. The Reporter-Telegram spoke with TMPA legislative liaison John Wilkerson about the issue. “I represent over 35,000 members of law enforcement across the state, who rely on (ALPR) technology every day to help solve crimes and, of course, keep their community safe,” Wilkerson said about his role, confirming he has never worked with the Flock system directly. As previously reported, Flock Safety, which was founded in 2017 and is based in Atlanta, manufactures and operates cameras with license plate recognition functionality, allowing law enforcement agencies to better track down criminal suspects.

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Midland originally purchased the contract for the cameras during the 2022-23 fiscal year, and the City Council voted unanimously in February to renew its contract to keep the Flock cameras in Midland for an additional 24 months. After MPD provided examples of the Flock cameras’ successes during the contract renewal phase, Wilkerson highlighted some examples where their absence was apparent. The first involved a May shooting in Austin that injured four people. Austin had not renewed its Flock camera contract when the shooting occurred, but afterward, Flock cameras caught the three suspects fleeing through Manor, Texas. “In essence, (Austin) was without the Flock camera system,” Wilkerson said. “As soon as (the suspects) got into Manor, law enforcement was alerted that these are the suspects that have been driving around and shooting up locations around Austin.” Following this, Austin said it would look into bringing Flock cameras back under new privacy guidelines. Another involved a Harris County constable who was fatally shot in September 2024, only for the suspect to flee into Galveston County, which did not have a large Flock system. Authorities eventually apprehended the suspect.

State Stories

John Cornyn: Closing Texas' GOP primary would be a costly mistake that would hurt voters

Texas is among a majority of states with open primaries where any eligible registered voter can vote in the primary election, regardless of their party affiliation. Nevertheless, there has been a recent movement among some Texas Republicans to close our Republican primary to only those who register as a Republican. At best, this would be a mistake that has the potential to harm our party in the long run as we hamper our appeal by narrowing our coalition of voters. At worst, it would limit our voters’ ability to have their voices heard in primary elections and undermine the American system of self-government. The right to vote is essential to our democratic republic: voting is one of the most fundamental ways ordinary citizens participate, and the mechanism by which the people consent to be governed.

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When Texans fail to exercise this right, as a large majority have done by not turning out to vote in this past spring’s elections, they are giving up the opportunity to have their voices heard and to influence the direction our state and country take. They are ceding to others to decide who should govern. For the party to close the primary, we would exacerbate an already worrying trend. When fewer people participate in our elections, our very system of self-government is undermined. If only 7% of registered voters choose our nation’s leaders, as was the case in Texas’ recent U.S. Senate run-off election, our government becomes less like a democratic republic and more like an oligarchy, where the leaders are chosen by a select few. As our country continues to see increasingly low trust in government and low participation in elections, closing the primary elections would be a grave mistake, furthering these existing problems. By closing the primary, we risk taking away the voices of those who are disillusioned with the current government. With 93% of registered voters sitting on the sidelines, we find ourselves in a vicious cycle. Low voter participation means that those nominated represent the views of the few.

Houston lawmaker’s firm blamed for $11M Texas teacher insurance hike

State Rep. Tom Oliverson has made lowering health care costs a top goal in the Legislature, even as the anesthesia conglomerate where he's a partner and investor has been accused of driving them up. The company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners, has been under the microscope of the Federal Trade Commission since 2023 for swallowing up smaller clinics and ratcheting up prices. Now it's being blamed for raising insurance premiums for hundreds of thousands of Texas teachers. A top official with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas recently singled out USAP before a legislative committee, where Oliverson is a member, for costing teachers $11 million more per year last year — an outlier even by the standards of America’s costly medical system.

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Oliverson, who has made health care affordability one of his stated priorities, sat silent as the Retirement System official explained that the cost equated to a 0.4% increase on premiums for more than 400,000 of the state’s active teachers. The Republican doctor said he was silent because he didn’t know what to say. “That was all pretty shocking stuff to hear,” Oliverson said Friday. “Here I am sitting on a committee and they’re accusing my company of wrongdoing, basically." The statements sparked a behind-the-scenes campaign by USAP to rebut the retirement agency’s claims as House lawmakers look for ways to reduce health care costs during next year’s session. The company, which was sued by the Federal Trade Commission in 2023, met with lawmakers afterward and told them it had never raised rates above the rate of inflation. A spokesperson told the Houston Chronicle that TRS’ claims are “patently false.” The Retirement System is not backing down, however. A spokesperson noted that last month Chief Health Care Officer Katrina Daniel repeated the claim to a different House committee.

University of Austin land pitch fraud trial tied to GOP power circles

The University of Austin, the self-described conservative alternative to “woke” liberal education, is the backdrop of a federal fraud trial that began Monday. The Justice Department says that John Robison, a conservative operative and filmmaker, bilked an investor out of $1 million he said would be used to purchase land in Bastrop County for a future University of Austin campus and community. Prosecutors on Monday portrayed Robison as a stickup man who held up Joe Lonsdale, a conservative venture capitalist who co-founded the University of Austin. “Not by pointing a gun at him, not by reaching over and taking it, but by telling a story,” Daniel Guess, chief of the Austin Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District, told the jury. “John Robison, is a con man.”

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Robison has said he relocated from California to Texas at the behest of former Gov. Rick Perry, who wanted to bring Hollywood to Central Texas. Now, he’s being described as a real estate fraudster who, according to congressional investigators, also had a role in President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election of Joe Biden using fake electors. Though he has said he’s a millionaire, Robison now claims poverty, asking for a court-appointed attorney to represent him. He pleaded not guilty after his arrest in November. Federal prosecutors say a Lonsdale-backed entity named FG Trust invested $1 million in Four Gates Property LP in 2022, in which Robison was the senior managing partner and held a 75% ownership stake. Walter Berkeley Fondren, a 29 year old with ties to the philanthropic Houston oil and gas family, was managing partner and held the remaining 25%. Robison told FG Trust that he was an experienced real estate investor and, according to records in an earlier state court trial he lost, already had property under contract. He did not.

Hunter Biden gets ‘really kinky’ vibe from Ted Cruz: ‘It may be gay, it may not be gay’

Hunter Biden has thoughts on Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) sex life. The son of ex-President Joe Biden said he gets a “really kinky” vibe from the Texas conservative, debated whether Cruz is or isn’t gay, and quipped he may enjoy having sex with animals. Biden made the comments during a Saturday appearance on progressive pundit Jennifer Welch’s I’ve Had It podcast. Welch thought it would be fun to get Biden’s take on the “Top 3 MAGA laptops” he would like to see revealed, and he said Cruz definitely grabbed the silver medal after listing Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) first. “Ted Cruz, of course,” Hunter said. “100%.”

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“Ugh, do you get a gaydar ping from Ted?” Welch asked. “No, you know what I get, I get a really, really kinky weird sh*t-type thing,” Biden said. Biden’s take stands out, given the New York Post in 2020 reported photos of Biden “surrounded by drug paraphernalia” and partying with “scantily clad women” were among the files on his unearthed laptop. Biden then pivoted and said Cruz might be a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. “It may be gay, it may not be gay, it may be a little bit of this, it may be a little bit of that, but it may involve animals, too,” Biden said. Welch asked if he remembered when Cruz liked a tweet with a video of porn star Cory Chase on Sept. 11, 2017. Cruz blamed a staffer for the apparent mistake, and Chase said she “didn’t like that he watched it for free.” “He blamed it on his staffer, and everyone knows Ted did it on 9/11!” Welch said.

DART votes to hire former Jacksonville transit leader as new CEO

Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials have selected Jacksonville's transit leader as the agency's new president and CEO, despite concerns over a history of spending controversies. DART’s board of directors voted 9-4 Tuesday to offer a contract to Nathaniel Ford. It comes after the board vetted three finalists in a process that involved rigorous public input. "DART conducted the longest, most transparent president and CEO search process in the history of this agency," said board chair Randall Bryant. "We found one of the most talented, sought-out executives."

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Ford previously served 13 years as the CEO for the Jacksonville Transit Authority in Florida. He’s been credited with securing $400 million in federal funds for the agency and expanding a local gas tax to invest in transit infrastructure. His tenure was also marked by reports of excessive travel and spending. Action News JAX, a Fox station in Jacksonville, reported that Ford, who was paid more than $625,000 a year, spent tens of thousands of dollars on travel, taking 140 trips over the course of several years. He also spent more than $40,000 on travel in 2023, including a 14-day trip to Spain and a five-day visit to Hawaii, the station reported. The station also reported in 2024 that the transit agency’s card was used to purchase massages, resort hotel bookings and photo booths. Nathaniel Ford has faced public scrutiny for his spending habits at the Jacksonville Transportation Authority he led for 13 years.

HPD called ICE on a woman reporting a violent threat — one of more than 100 calls from April through June

On April 21, a woman in North Houston called 911 to report a man threatened to kill her. According to a Houston Police Department incident report obtained by Houston Public Media, the man had three outstanding warrants and was arrested. The woman had an immigration warrant. HPD reported her to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The incident report does not state whether she was detained by federal immigration agents. Houston City Council member Mario Castillo, who represents the area, called the incident "concerning" and said he "asked to meet with HPD to discuss." That HPD officer's call to ICE was one of more than 100 from April through June, according to data the department released last week to members of the city council.

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Council member Alejandra Salinas, who shared the data publicly, spearheaded the ordinance requiring the department to provide quarterly reports about its coordination with ICE. She told Houston Public Media she will seek more information about the incident from Mayor John Whitmire's administration. "If it is correct that HPD is contacting ICE when individuals are reporting a crime, I think it is a poor use of limited local law enforcement resources," Salinas said. "It should be more focused on keeping us safe — and no one in the city of Houston is safer when individuals are reporting crimes and are then being handed over or calls to ICE are being made." From April through June, 34 of the calls from HPD to ICE came after someone asked emergency responders for help. It's unclear how many of those incidents mirrored the one on April 21, when the person requesting emergency services was reported to ICE. HPD called ICE 46 times after encountering someone with an immigration warrant during traffic stops and 17 times while responding to car crashes. According to HPD, federal immigration agents took direct custody of 19 out of the more than 100 people reported to ICE. Within the data released by HPD, the description of the incident on April 21 suggested the woman was detained for an hour and taken to jail for "new charges." The incident report obtained by Houston Public Media states only the man suspected of threatening her was arrested. A spokesperson for Whitmire did not respond to a request for comment. HPD did not respond to a request for comment before publication. Afterward, the department referred to a general order instructing officers to contact ICE about immigration warrants.

Dave Lieber: Texas Electricity companies purposely fixed it so customers overpay

Memo to Laurel Peltier, retail energy expert from: The Watchdog. Laurel, I read your recent study on how Texas electricity companies deceive customers and nearly fell out of my chair. Investigative reporting that exposes wrongdoing and protects Texans’ money and rights. The Watchdog is looking out for you. You blew up the system. I’ll include your findings in Part One of my series helping newcomers adjust to moving to the Lone Scam State. Imagine arriving amid the chaos of a new home, new job, new school and new everything. Then someone tells you to choose a retail electricity plan.Where do you even start? Here’s the first lesson I’m borrowing from your study: Most Texans overpay for electricity.

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They just don’t know it. You estimate that two years ago 11 million Texas families paid a joint total of $4 billion — or $480 a year for a family — in overcharges. That would not have happened if they had stayed with their monopoly electric companies and not moved to retail companies. Yes, the same retailers who promised lower prices because of a competitive market place. It didn’t work. As you put it, “These ratepayers losses are not the result of rising energy supply costs, renewable mandates, or poor consumer decision-making. They are the predictable outcome of a market structure that allows for no guardrails to prevent retail energy suppliers from exploiting customers.” How do they exploit us? You show how some contracts go on up to five pages. When a contract expires, the low introductory rates go up. It’s in the small print. You say that most customers are “inattentive.” You write, “About 75% of residential customers do not re-shop.”At that point, fixed rates can suddenly change to higher variable rates. “Notices are sent — but rarely understood or acted upon,” you write.

Back on track? Texas employment growth will return to long-term norm this year, Dallas Fed projects

Early this year, on the heels of a rough 2025, researchers at the Dallas Fed projected that in 2026 the state would add jobs at a rate of just over 1% — or roughly half of Texas’ traditional growth rate. But more than halfway through the year things are looking up: The latest projection from the bank’s modeling system, released late last week, shows Texas employment is now on pace to expand this year by 2%, in line with Texas’ long-run average. “Texas job growth has been surprisingly strong in light of labor supply constraints,” Luis Torres, a senior economist at the bank, said in a statement. “The data center buildout and relatively high oil prices continue to provide a boost to state economic activity and job growth.”

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The rosier full-year projection comes on the back of robust June jobs numbers: For the month, Texas added over 42,000 jobs, representing an employment growth rate of an annualized 3.5%, according to the bank’s figures — the highest monthly increase in nearly two years. The jobs gains came largely from professional business services, construction and trade and transportation, which far outweighed losses in education, health services and government. Leisure and hospitality also saw a bump, which Torres attributed to increased activity from the World Cup. While the tournament was widely expected to provide a short-term boost to the sector — including in soccer-mad D-FW — analysts have also stressed that its long-term economic impact was likely to be minimal. “It’s a modest bump,” Barbara Denham, an economist at Oxford Economics who authored a report on the tournament’s economic impact, previously told The Dallas Morning News. “It’s not as significant as people think,” she added, “because people come for the games, spend a lot of money, then they leave.” Greater Austin notched the highest monthly growth rate, at 5.8%, while greater Fort Worth added jobs at a rate of 3.9% and greater Dallas added jobs at a rate of 3.7%. Houston saw slower growth, while San Antonio reported a net decline.

Workers in Texas City enter fifth week of strike

More than 70 engineers, machinists, plumbers and electricians at Texas City’s Ashland Specialty Chemicals are in a standoff with company management over outsourcing and “misclassification” that they say is forcing them to do jobs outside their skill sets and presenting safety threats. A strike began when the workers’ contract expired June 24, and the union members say they plan to continue picketing until Ashland management gives in to their demands. Employees walk the picket line every weekday from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., and they have a large gathering during the 6:30 p.m. shift change on Friday nights. Lewis Crawford, a leader of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 564, is the lead negotiator for a four-union coalition deemed the Texas City Metal Trades Council.

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Crawford told the Houston Press on Monday that workers are demanding an end to employees being assigned to jobs outside their craft, such as plumbers doing electrical work. They also want restoration of the paid sick time members earned over decades of bargaining, and a halt on outsourcing storeroom jobs to eliminate union positions. Ashland spokeswoman Carolmarie Brown issued a statement shortly after the strike began, saying that the company “is dedicated to the safety, health, and security of our employees, their families, and the communities where we work and live.” Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday on the status of negotiations with union representatives. Crawford said a federal mediator contacted him recently and they’re “going back to the table” with Ashland executives on Monday, July 27.

Texas lawmakers review housing laws, consider new ideas to improve affordability

Texas lawmakers are taking another look at how to make housing more affordable as home prices remain high and the state continues to face a housing shortage. The Texas House Land & Resource Management Committee held a hearing on Monday at the Texas State Capitol to examine the effects of housing legislation passed during the 89th legislative session and to discuss potential policy changes lawmakers could pursue when they return to Austin next year. According to research from Texas A&M University, median home prices in Texas increased 40% between 2019 and 2023. Another report by Up for Growth, a nonprofit organization that focuses on housing poli­cy, estimated the state was 306,000 housing units short of meeting demand in 2023.

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One of the committee's main topics was House Bill 24, which lawmakers passed during the 2025 session. The law changed a decades-old state process for protesting zoning changes by raising the threshold required for petitions to block development and reducing the number of local council votes needed to override those petitions. Supporters told lawmakers the changes have already helped move housing projects forward. Robin Stallings, trustee and treasurer of South Austin Christian Church, said HB 24 gave his church the confidence to move ahead with an affordable housing development near South Congress Avenue. "HB 24 gave a seller like our church the confidence to proceed, gave our development partner a predictable, bounded process, and most importantly, will give 64 Texas families a home near jobs, transit and opportunity that might otherwise have been delayed or lost to procedural obstruction,” Stallings said.

The company in charge of CPS cases in Dallas has been ousted. Now what?

The private contractor that manages all Child Protective Services cases in the Dallas area is being removed from the job, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. In an email to The Lab Report Tuesday morning, DFPS said the management of child welfare cases in Dallas and eight surrounding counties will be handed over to two other private contractors. The decision was made after “an extensive assessment,” the agency said, and comes four months after a judge placed Empower under state supervision due to mishandled cases and the deaths of two infants. All cases in Dallas County will be managed by Texas Family Care Network, which is based in Nederland, Texas and is currently the private contractor over child welfare cases in a 15-county region along the state’s eastern edge. The other eight counties Empower oversees will be managed by Our Community Our Kids, which is based in Fort Worth and manages cases in ten counties including Tarrant.

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The transition process will take several months, DFPS said. In the interim, Empower will continue to manage the more than 2,000 child welfare cases in the nine-county region and will do so under state supervision. “This decision was made with one priority in mind: helping ensure children, youth, and families receive safe, stable, and high-quality services,” the state said in a written statement. “It also reflects DFPS’ continued commitment to the Community-Based Care model and to partnering with organizations that can deliver strong outcomes for children and families.” Empower leadership said in a written statement they are disappointed by the decision to end their management of foster care services. “We are proud of our dedicated staff, providers, and partners and the positive impact they have made in the lives of countless children and families,” the statement said. “We will work collaboratively with DFPS throughout this new transition to minimize disruption in services for children and families. The well-being of those we serve will continue to guide our efforts every step of the way.”

Austin Council Member Vanessa Fuentes announces cancer diagnosis ahead of City Hall return

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes announced Tuesday she is battling breast cancer. Fuentes, who has been on parental leave since May 4, said in a statement that she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer at 37 weeks pregnant. Fuentes said she felt a lump in her breast and immediately consulted with her doctor. “By acting quickly, we caught the cancer before it spread,” she said. “It’s so important to trust your body. If something feels off, get it checked. Early detection saves lives.” Fuentes said her daughter Vivienne was delivered safely on May 5 and is "healthy and growing fast!" She encouraged women to "be proactive with their health" and consider getting a mammogram before the recommended age of 40.

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Within 36 hours of delivering her daughter, Fuentes said she began cancer treatment. She said she will continue to receive medical care while resuming her duties on the Austin City Council. “I now join the fight against cancer, standing shoulder to shoulder with the millions of people who show up to work, raise their families, and serve their communities while fighting this disease every single day,” Fuentes said. “This diagnosis hasn’t changed who I am or what I’m committed to. If anything, it’s reinforced why the work we do together matters.” Fuentes returns amidst the city’s budget planning cycle and ahead of major decisions about a bond election, the Dog’s Head development and city council elections.

National Stories

The top of Arizona’s GOP ticket is littered with 2020 election deniers

To make it out of a Republican primary in Arizona, there’s one key litmus test: believing the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. Election deniers who played prominent roles in efforts to overturn the 2020 results triumphed in statewide Republican primaries Tuesday, from Rep. Andy Biggs for governor to state Rep. Alexander Kolodin for secretary of state. State Senate President Warren Petersen was leading his primary for attorney general, though his race was not yet called as of early Wednesday morning. To make it out of a Republican primary in Arizona, there’s one key litmus test: believing the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. Election deniers who played prominent roles in efforts to overturn the 2020 results triumphed in statewide Republican primaries Tuesday, from Rep. Andy Biggs for governor to state Rep. Alexander Kolodin for secretary of state. State Senate President Warren Petersen was leading his primary for attorney general, though his race was not yet called as of early Wednesday morning. Biggs, a staunch Trump ally who helped try and overturn the election on Jan. 6, 2021, was later subpoenaed in an Arizona probe. Kolodin represented a slate of fake electors, leading to discipline from the Arizona state bar, and filed lawsuits to try to overturn both the 2020 and 2022 elections. Petersen launched a taxpayer-funded audit into Maricopa County’s election system that eventually led to a subpoena.

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Their victories show GOP primary voters continue to prefer candidates who have pushed false narratives about elections or worked to overturn them. But that can prove toxic in November — and Democrats plan to make their rivals pay for those positions in the fall. “It’s one of those things that just won’t go away,” said former Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.). “In the Republican Party in Arizona, in the primary, carrying the Trump line on virtually everything — and that includes election denialism — is still something that benefits you.” But in the general election, “it’s a stone around your neck,” Salmon said. “Among independents and moderate Republicans who vote in the general election, election denialism is not an asset.” Each of the triumphant election deniers Tuesday centered election integrity in their 2026 campaigns. Biggs has been a prominent supporter of the SAVE America Act, the stalled election bill that Trump has pushed repeatedly.

Almost half say Supreme Court rulings on Trump agenda based on politics: Survey

Nearly half of Americans say they believe the Supreme Court is ruling on President Trump’s policies based on ideology instead of the law, according to a new poll. The Washington Post/Ipsos survey, conducted July 8-13, found that 46 percent of 2,648 respondents said they believe the nine justices are ruling on cases impacting the president’s agenda based on ideology. A quarter of respondents said the high court is ruling on those cases based on the law, while 28 percent had no opinion and 1 percent skipped the question. The Supreme Court has given Trump multiple unfavorable rulings during his second term. The high court in February struck down emergency tariffs the president issued on imports last year and invalidated his Day 1 executive order restricting birthright citizenship last month.

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But the high court has also ruled in the president’s favor, including when it allowed him to fire Democrat Rebecca Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The 6-3 decision, handed down along ideological lines, overturned the high court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States — which afforded certain executive branch agencies a degree of independence from the White House for 91 years. Under the latest ruling, the president has increased authority over federal agencies, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing the decision grants “far greater power than ever before” to Trump and future occupants of the Oval Office. “It is true that today’s decision does not eliminate the FTC or the many other agencies whose structures are implicated by overruling Humphrey’s,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, joined by fellow liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “It is undeniable, however, that those agencies will be transformed in ways that those who created them never could have expected and actively sought to avoid, fundamentally recalibrating the balance of power in this country in the process.”

USDA workers don’t plan to stay on the job as offices relocate

Workers at the Department of Agriculture are trying to stop mandatory relocations, which they warned are mass layoffs in disguise. Employees throughout the department told NOTUS their colleagues overwhelmingly did not plan to move to new offices across the country. This month, employee unions and nonprofit organizations asked a federal judge to halt the USDA’s plans. Their warnings: A reduction in force at this scale will delay policy changes, damage research, slow getting federal dollars out the door and hamper wildfire response. “No one was asking for this,” former USDA Undersecretary Robert Bonnie told NOTUS. “It’s hard to reach any other conclusion than that the purpose of this is to dramatically reduce the size of the federal civil service. There’s no compelling reason to do this.”

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It’s potentially another drastic reduction in the USDA’s workforce, which already faced some of the most significant cuts during the DOGE era. In a 2025 workforce plan made public this month as part of the employee groups’ ongoing lawsuit, USDA said it was anticipating that “a significant number of employees will decline geographic reassignments” out of Washington and regional and state offices. “We absolutely do view it as a RIF in disguise,” one employee at the Foreign Agricultural Service, USDA’s trade policy arm, told NOTUS, using an abbreviation for the term reduction in force. In multiple polls from various unions representing USDA employees, around 80% say they would rather quit than move. It’s a percentage that would exceed the loss of staff in 2019, when the USDA moved hundreds of employees from its Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture offices in Washington to Kansas City, Missouri.

Hegseth says Iran is weakened, but won’t give timeline for war’s end

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted on Tuesday that Iran was on the defensive, even as he declined to offer a timeline for when the war might end — and acknowledged that Tehran still poses a threat in the region. Iran’s military capabilities are “at the weakest point militarily” after nearly two weeks of new American airstrikes, Hegseth said. And he insisted that the White House is achieving its objective of preventing Iran from rebuilding its nuclear weapons programs and terrorizing countries throughout the Middle East. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted on Tuesday that Iran was on the defensive, even as he declined to offer a timeline for when the war might end — and acknowledged that Tehran still poses a threat in the region. Iran’s military capabilities are “at the weakest point militarily” after nearly two weeks of new American airstrikes, Hegseth said. And he insisted that the White House is achieving its objective of preventing Iran from rebuilding its nuclear weapons programs and terrorizing countries throughout the Middle East. “They still have capabilities, no doubt,” he told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “But the amount of damage that we’ve done to them over the course of these series of operations has put them in the worst place they’ve ever been.”

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Hegseth’s appearance before the panel represented an attempt by the administration to sell the unpopular conflict as a necessary expense, one that the Defense secretary said has now totaled about $37.5 billion over the last five months. He pressed lawmakers to supply supplemental funds as soon as possible to cover those expenses and preserve military readiness. But Senate Democratic appropriators questioned both the success of the war so far and the need for more military money, citing $75 billion in unused funds from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. They flatly rejected the administration’s request for $67 billion in supplemental funds before the end of the fiscal year in September, calling it a tacit approval of the administration’s decision to attack Iran. “This administration has tried to sell this as an emergency request, but it may be better understood as an attempt to skirt the normal appropriations process,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “A lot of this request does not feel like an emergency.”

U.S. 10-year Treasury yield flat as traders reassess Fed rate hike bets

U.S. Treasury yields inched higher on Wednesday as investors mapped escalating tensions across the Middle East and mulled prospects for Federal Reserve monetary policy in the months ahead. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note — the key benchmark for U.S. government borrowing — was broadly flat at 4.626%. The 2-year Treasury note yield, which more closely tracks short-term Federal Reserve interest rate policy, fell one basis point to 4.251%. The longer-dated 30-year Treasury bond yield was flat at 5.132%. One basis point is equal to 0.01%, and yields and prices move inversely to each other.

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U.S. Central Command carried out its 11th consecutive round of strikes against Iran overnight. Early on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting in the Philippines that Tehran is “not serious” about peace talks. “If they’re serious, we’re serious. If they’re not, then we will do what is necessary to protect our interests and also the interests of our allies.” he added. The latest escalation helped extend the rally in oil prices, which jumped as much as 4% in early trading, while investors continue to gauge prospects for more hawkish Federal Reserve policy measures. “The probability of a July hike was back up to 26% by [Tuesday’s] close, the highest since last week’s downside surprise in the U.S. CPI print,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said in a note on Wednesday morning. “It was at 45% the day before CPI and as low as 10% the day after.” Money markets are now pricing in a 24.1% chance of a rate hike from the Fed this month, and a 69% chance of at least a quarter-point hike in September, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool. Investors will also be monitoring the latest S&P Global Flash U.S. PMI report due Friday, which measures the economic health of American manufacturing and services sectors.

Kalshi launches midterm election forecasting hub

Kalshi launched a new online hub Wednesday for midterm election forecasting, displaying prediction market odds for major races alongside polling averages, fundraising data and other election information. The platform touted its “Midterms Hub” as a “one-stop-shop for state and federal election forecasting,” featuring Senate, House and gubernatorial races. “Prediction markets don’t care about spin or partisanship,” Kalshi CEO and co-founder Tarek Mansour said in a statement. “They cut through polarization and show you what the wisdom of the crowds actually believes, backed by real money, not rhetoric.” “That kind of clarity is rare right now and that’s what people are getting with the Midterms Hub,” he added.

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Kalshi argued prediction markets can provide a clearer picture of races than traditional methods of gauging people’s views, such as polling, by relying on the “wisdom of the crowds.” The platforms, which have surged in popularity in recent years, allow users to place wagers on the outcome of various events, from sports to politics. Kalshi’s push into elections was bolstered by a 2024 court decision, which deemed betting on federal races legal. Its new hub will show live trading odds on midterm races, as well as aggregated polling averages, candidates’ latest fundraising reports, historical elections results and news and analysis from political outlets. Prediction market users across both Kalshi and Polymarket have traded nearly $200 million on the results of the upcoming midterm elections so far, according to a recent NBC News analysis. However, the platforms have faced some resistance on this front. The Wisconsin Election Commission warned residents Tuesday that betting on elections they vote in is illegal in the state and could cause their ballots to be disqualified. “With prediction markets and online gambling platforms growing in popularity, the Wisconsin Elections Commission is warning voters: if you bet on an election – it could cost you your vote,” the commission wrote. The statement drew a sharp rebuke from Kalshi. Robert DeNault, the company’s head of enforcement and legal counsel, argued on X that “threatening to prosecute Wisconsin voters and strip away their voting rights for engaging in legal trading activity is unconstitutional and illegal.” “The Wisconsin Elections Commission should retract this guidance before courts are required to force them to do so,” he added.

Software glitch put thousands of noncitizens on New Jersey voter rolls

A software error caused more than 6,000 noncitizens to be added to New Jersey’s voter rolls, the state’s Democratic governor said Tuesday, while fewer than 400 of them were found to have illegally cast ballots. Gov. Mikie Sherrill blamed a software vendor called IDEMIA for the issue, saying the software erroneously registered the noncitizens to vote while they were applying for drivers’ licenses and identification cards through New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System. State officials said they would begin working with a new vendor. “These individuals answered ‘no’ when asked on a keypad whether they were a U.S. citizen … but through no fault of their own, the system registered them anyway,” Sherill said in a statement. IDEMIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Sherrill’s announcement comes less than a week after President Donald Trump railed against voter fraud and election interference in a prime-time speech to the country. During the fiery White House address, he asserted that the Department of Homeland Security had evidence that more than 250,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in the country. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin backed up the claim in a press conference the next day without providing further evidence. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare, election officials say, and there is no evidence that it has occurred on a mass scale that could change the outcome of an election. The White House said the incident is “exactly why” Congress needs to pass the SAVE America Act, Trump’s controversial elections bill. Trump himself has not yet commented publicly on the news. Sherrill acknowledged on Tuesday that Trump would likely use the news as evidence of widespread vulnerabilities in the country’s election security system, despite little evidence to support the claim.

Something weird is happening beneath the stock market’s surface

The stock market is a lot like a duck at the moment. It’s gliding along the water, occasionally changing direction or ruffling its feathers. Beneath the surface, though, investors are paddling furiously to navigate shifting financial currents. Take the market’s closely watched “fear gauge.” The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, uses options prices to get a rough measure of how much choppiness investors expect in the S&P 500 index in the coming 30 days. At 17.5, it’s below the index’s long-term average. But look at how much traders are paying to hedge against big moves up or down in individual stocks and a totally different picture emerges. That can be seen from a related measure, VIXEQ, which is above 50. It’s derived from a similar calculation for each stock in the index, weighted by market value. Individual stock volatility is always higher, but the gap between the two just hit a record.

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Investors aren’t bracing for some shocking development that would cause a market swoon, but they’re unusually concerned about some specific stocks and sectors, according to Citadel Securities strategist Scott Rubner. Mostly, those are the “momentum” stocks like chip makers that have gyrated with waxing and waning AI optimism. A similar split can be seen in a much simpler measure. The divergence between market price and breadth has never been higher, BTIG technical analyst Jonathan Krinsky wrote. According to a Monday note, there have been 52 trading days so far this year when the index went in one direction but a majority of S&P 500 stocks went the other way. That now ties tumultuous 2000 for the third highest number of instances this century. Since July isn’t over yet, 2026 will almost certainly break the record. Instances were also high in 2023 and 2024 when tech stocks were the only game in town, but that has now changed. Much like the peak tech bubble year, serious doubts seem to have emerged about many stalwarts. Earlier this year, software stocks, once market darlings, became toxic as AI models’ coding capabilities spooked investors. More recently, chip stocks flipped within days from powering the market to entering their own bear trend. The Magnificent Seven are lagging too and AI hyperscaler Oracle closed at a multiyear low Monday. Divergence can be the hallmark of a rally when a new industry has taken the market baton, but also a preview of broader market trouble. BTIG’s analysts write that, as the relationships between stocks normalize, “it’s likely to be a result of everything catching down to the recent pullback in AI names, rather than AI names catching up to everything else.”

Copyright July 22, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved