August 2, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas land commissioner sends cease and desist for alleged illegal land clearing in Hudspeth County

A Texas state agency is pushing back on what it calls illegal entry and unauthorized clearing of more than a mile of state land near the Rio Grande. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent a cease and desist letter Friday to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and a contractor working on border wall construction. In a release, the Texas General Land Office (GLO) said Buckingham sent the letter after finding that federal contractor Barnard Construction illegally entered and cleared more than a mile of state land. The letter claimed the contractor CBP hired trespassed across and altered GLO-managed state lands in Presidio County without permission. The land at issue also partly falls under Hudspeth County.

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The Texas GLO said its leases don't allow land modifications, excavations or construction without the office's written consent. “Significant grazing acreage was disrupted by this unauthorized activity that has devalued our lease and diminished our ability to generate future revenue for the schoolchildren of Texas,” said Commissioner Buckingham in a news release. The letter included a map with areas that match an online property sale listing for the Moody Bennett Ranch, which extends across Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. Online Presidio County property records show that Trans Pecos Ice LLC owns parcels in that same area, which match the GLO's map included in Buckingham's letter. The Texas GLO said Trans Pecos Ice LLC has been told they're in breach of their lease agreement for allowing unauthorized access. The office told it to take immediate action. Additionally, the GLO demanded any and all state land damaged by the reported activity be restored to its original condition. Barnard was asked to work with the CBP and lessee to develop a reclamation proposal plan for the GLO to approve. “The people of Texas entrusted the General Land Office with more than 13 million acres of state land, and we take that responsibility seriously,” Commissioner Buckingham said. “We will work with our federal partners to keep the southern border secured, but we will not compromise the integrity of Texas state property to do it. State land is damaged and it must be restored.” Texas State Senator Cesar Blanco shared his support for Buckingham's letter Friday. "I applaud Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham’s decision to order an immediate halt to land-clearing activities related to border wall construction and require a more transparent process. This is an essential step toward protecting Texas' sovereignty and ensuring proper oversight," the senator said in a statement.

The Democrats’ biggest donors have gone on strike

George Soros and his son Alex donated more than $400,000 to the Democratic National Committee during the 2018 midterms. They gave more than $1 million during the 2022 midterm election cycle, campaign finance records show. This year, they have yet to give the DNC a dollar. The Soroses aren’t alone—other high-profile donors have given little or no money to the Democrats’ central committee this year. Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, wrote steady checks to the DNC for years but during the midterms has yet to give money. In a sign of the party’s challenges, a running joke among some donors is that the DNC stands for “Do Not Contribute,” said one Democratic strategist who advises major party donors. Months ahead of pivotal midterm elections, the Democratic fundraising apparatus has a big donor problem.

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While many Democratic elites still feel bullish about taking back the House and are willing to throw big money at their favorite candidates, institutional fatigue—and in some cases, full-on drama—have set in among a number of the party’s biggest donors. Like voters, donors say they feel disillusioned with Washington and the party establishment they have long supported. The DNC isn’t the only problem spot for Democrats—other Democratic committees and super PACs lag behind Republicans across the board. It is common for a party that is out of power in Washington to struggle, but Democrats are increasingly concerned it will hurt their chances of winning this fall as Republicans stack up significantly more money in committees and PACs that can organize door-knocking efforts and air TV ads. Some of the problem is the lingering frustration among major donors over how their money was spent in the 2024 presidential election, when nominee Kamala Harris quickly raised more than $1 billion but still lost after a rushed process to nominate her. Others point to the painful divisions in the Democratic Party’s donor base over the war in Gaza, antisemitism in the U.S. and an insurgent group of Democratic socialists.

Abbott vows to prevent cities from collecting sales tax if they circumvent housing laws

Gov. Greg Abbott is continuing to push for lower housing costs in Texas, arguing that local regulations are circumventing recent reforms designed to clear red tape to build homes. “One thing that’s driving up the cost of housing is our local government regulations,” Abbott said. “Now already last year, I signed a law to make it easier and cheaper to build homes, but some local governments are skirting the law, imposing costly mandates.” Abbott pointed to multiple laws he signed last year as an example of his efforts to reduce housing costs. One was Senate Bill 840 — aimed at increasing housing in the state. The law primarily allows multi-family housing and mixed usage in areas previously zoned for retail, office or commercial purposes.

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According to a recent report conducted by Texans for Reasonable Solutions, Texas Appleseed and American Enterprise Institute, SB 840 can be linked to 8,764 new housing units in it’s first nine months. Abbott said cities are passing regulations that are designed to subvert laws like SB 840. “So what they try to do to limit new residential building, they will add very costly amenities to what the requirements are. It could be requiring eight stories be built for multifamily housing. It could be adding very large swimming pools,” he said. “I can’t even express my frustration,” Nicole Nosek, Founder of Texans for Reasonable Solutions, said. “These mandates don’t come out of a developer’s pockets. They come out of the rent check of a nurse, a senior citizen, a teacher.” As Abbott seeks a fourth term, he says he’ll crack down on cities by hitting them where it hurts — their pocketbooks.

John Curtis: I won’t change the filibuster

(Mr. Curtis, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Utah.) The debate over the filibuster is often misunderstood. Most people think it is about a rule. It isn’t. It is about the absence of a rule. When the Senate was established, the Constitution gave it the authority to create its own rules. The Senate chose not to give itself a mechanism to end debate. Unlimited debate wasn’t an accident or a loophole. It was simply how the Senate operated. This original design assumed a very different environment from today’s. There were no established political parties as we now know them. No modern leadership structure. Very little media. No mass communication. It was a small group of people sitting in a room, working through issues, knowing that if they wanted to act, they had to reach agreement. In that setting, if no one could force the end of debate, the only way forward was to work it out. Cloture, which is what we usually mean when we talk about the filibuster today, came much later in the Senate’s history.

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Eventually the chamber grew, and unlimited debate threatened to bring all business to a permanent halt. While cloture was adopted in 1917 to limit debate, its current 60-vote threshold protects the Senate’s original design in the face of today’s realities by requiring a broad number of members to “work through issues” before passing bills. This tradition contributed to the Senate’s reputation as the world’s greatest deliberative body. Not because senators speak longer, but because no one can be easily ignored. The structure forces engagement. It requires listening. It pushes ideas to be tested beyond a simple majority. Because of that, individual senators hold real power. This is an important distinction between the Senate and the House. In the House, power is centralized. Leadership controls the flow of legislation, the terms of debate and often the outcome. Even senior members can have limited influence. I served there and saw how difficult it is for an individual member to shape major legislation. The Senate operates differently. Because debate isn’t easily cut off, individual senators can’t be dismissed in the same way.

How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking

Marci Bakely couldn’t understand how her ex-boyfriend always seemed to know where she was. When she went to buy groceries or on a date or to the doctor, he’d text her about it, sometimes within minutes, despite working 15 miles from her home as a police chief in a small town in the Atlanta suburbs. One day in 2024, when he incorrectly suspected that she’d gone to see a man against his wishes, he messaged her, “I didn’t think you would slip up,” according to texts she shared with The Washington Post. Bakely, 50, began to feel like she was constantly being watched. She says she installed three cameras around her home and on her patio, to see if he was staking out her cul-de-sac. She bought a hidden-camera detector and nervously waved it down every wall. Three times, in desperation, she says she drove her Kia to a mechanic’s shop, asking them to scan for trackers on her car. Then one day, when she pressed him for answers, her ex told her in a text: He was using Flock.

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Like thousands of other law-enforcement agencies across the United States, his police force could follow cars spotted by Flock’s sprawling network of artificial-intelligence roadside cameras, which record passing license plates into a mappable database that officers can search while investigating crime. Flock had sold its system as a police officer’s dream crime-fighting tool. But the tool had also given the chief, Michael Steffman, the power to silently monitor Bakely’s life. By the time she understood what was happening, Steffman had looked up the tags for her and her teenage daughter roughly 600 times, according to Have I Been Flocked, a website that aggregates police search logs made available through public records. Steffman was arrested in November on charges of stalking, harassment and license-plate-reader misuse. In April, before a trial could take place, he was found dead in his home from what officials said was a suicide. The town manager of Braselton, where Steffman worked, declined to comment. The town’s new police chief and four members of Steffman’s family did not respond to requests for comment. Backed by some of Silicon Valley’s top investors, Flock has rapidly grown into a colossus of American technological surveillance. A leader of the surging industry for license-plate readers, the company told The Post that its more than 120,000 shoebox-size cameras now scan the roads of more than 6,000 communities and record 20 billion plate scans a month.

State Stories

Contractor who built Colossus and Colossus II says Elon Musk owes him colossal amount of money

A mechanical contractor who helped build Elon Musk’s Memphis-area data centers at breakneck speed says SpaceXAI is dragging its feet on paying his company for work performed since 2024. Darrell Cuttell, owner of Ohio-based Darana Hybrid, said SpaceXAI owes his company more than $136 million. Dima Amro, the real estate and economic development reporter for the Memphis Business Journal, broke the story Friday. Cuttell’s company is one of several with liens filed against SpaceXAI for failing to pay for services rendered. “The contractors are alleging they haven’t been paid for years of construction work,” she told Action News 5.

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The Shelby County Register of Deeds website shows Darana Hybrid filed two liens against SpaceXAI this week. Cuttell said his company has not been paid for more than $118 million worth of work at the Tulane Road Colossus II data center in Whitehaven, and $18 million for construction at the Colossus facility near Boxtown. The work was performed from 2024 through June of this year. Cuttell is expected to file additional liens for construction performed at the Southaven plant as well which would take the total amount of money he says is owed to him by SpaceXAI to more than half a billion dollars. “So it looks like more liens are going to be coming to the surface,” said Amro, “About $400 million more worth of liens. I was told that that would be filed in Mississippi for the SpaceXAI facilities there.” Two other companies also filed liens against SpaceXAI. USW-Menard Inc. claims it is owed $2.2 million for work done at the water treatment plant. TorcSill Foundations says SpaceXAI owes the company $65,000 for two days of work at Colossus II. Amro said Cuttell has been affected by the dispute. “He said he hasn’t slept in over four months. He’s lost a lot of weight. And he feels like there’s no future right now after filing those liens,” Amro said.

Hundreds of El Paso teachers leave classrooms as enrollment decline reshapes area schools, workforce

Last spring, Patricia Amezaga, a physical education teacher at Coach Wally Hartley PK-8 School, tossed volleyballs and talked to students who visited her gym every day as part of an afterschool program for military families. Amezaga knew it would be one of the last days she’d have to wrangle footballs, referee a game of pickup basketball and watch students head home with their parents at the end of the day. Amezaga said she had considered leaving her job after teaching for 35 years, but wasn’t sure until the El Paso Independent School District offered a $3,000 buyout to employees to give an early notification of their plans to retire or resign at the end of the school year. She took it and retired at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

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“When they offered $3,000, I said, ‘You know what, I’m 99.9% sure I’m going to leave, so, I’m going to take the leap,’” Amezaga said. “It’s going to be really hard to leave, because I love it here. It’s a great place to be. I think now it’s just time for me to go.” Hundreds of El Paso teachers took similar steps after the city’s three largest school districts offered separation incentives to reduce staffing costs in response to declining enrollment. About 820 teachers from the El Paso, Socorro and Ysleta school districts – nearly 10% of all teachers in the districts – either retired, resigned or were terminated during the last fiscal year, which ended in June. That same year, the districts only hired a combined 470 teachers – 260 at EPISD, 160 at SISD and the remainder at YISD. Over the last seven years, the number of full-time equivalent teachers working for the three districts declined by about 10% to 8,400 during the 2025-26 school year, according to data from the Texas Education Agency. Meanwhile, the total number of employees in the districts fell by about 8% to 18,200.

Texas Stock Exchange rings bell to mark historic milestone

Gold confetti coated the floor underneath the Texas Stock Exchange's formidable closing bell Friday, a physical manifestation of the capital foundation provided by the likes of Goldman Sachs and Charles Schwab that made TXSE the most well-capitalized stock exchange ever when it debuted in the summer of 2024. Just two years later, the nascent Dallas-based is celebrating a major milestone, literally rung in Friday at the exchange's temporary headquarters in Knox/Henderson: the complete launch of trading on TXSE's platform. Having begun a phased launch of operations on July 6, Friday's closing bell ceremony marked the ability to trade all the more than 13,000 stock symbols that trade in the U.S. on the Lone Star State's homegrown exchange.

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"Today is an important moment for the state of Texas and America's capital markets. The Texas Stock Exchange has successfully completed its launch of trading and is now firmly part of the global market structure. We are recognizing this milestone because what this team and our partners have accomplished is simply remarkable," said founder and CEO James Lee before striking the bell. "Here's what they've delivered in a mere 18 months: a fully integrated exchange that's trading and listings at once, something that has never been done before, and the broadest day one participation of any new exchange in a half a century. This is pure infrastructure built to support what comes next: real competition for primary listings for the first time in decades," he continued. On Friday, more than $700 million worth of shares were traded on TXSE, according to NasdaqTrader.com, as the exchange seeks to slowly but surely nab market share from the New York capital markets duopoly it aims to challenge. TXSE has raised more than $275 million in backing to create its own trading platform from the ground up and eventually give companies an alternative venue to list, with the goal of restoring health to public markets.

U.S. House candidate Claire Reynolds searches for blue dots in West Texas

laire Reynolds stood before a group of 30 neighbors at the Pflugerville Library on a recent July day and explained how she came to be running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. “I was living my life, working at the State Bar of Texas, and I woke up one morning and found that I was in a completely different congressional district,” Reynolds told the audience. “When I looked to see where that district was, and who the current representative was, I was very disappointed. I felt like that representative did not represent my values. So I was mad.” She paused and laughed shyly. “And then I decided that being mad was getting me nowhere. I decided: Let’s beat them at their own game.” Reynolds is a 51-year-old attorney whose home at the edge of North Austin was, until December of last year, part of the 37th Congressional District of the U.S. House, represented by the Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett.

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But after Donald Trump demanded that Texas Republicans provide him with five additional Republican seats for the House last summer, Reynolds and approximately 193,000 other residents in the area were stripped out of nearby districts and placed in Congressional District 11, considered one of the reddest districts in the nation. On maps, TX-11 resembles a blocky handgun, pointed west. It covers an immense stretch of Central and West Texas almost twice the size of Massachusetts, much of it very remote. The Pflugerville-area neighborhoods added to the district appear as a tiny, twisting tail tacked onto its southeast corner. For years, the district has been represented by conservative Republicans, most recently a retired Air Force colonel named August Pfluger. Though equipped with the perfect name to represent the area, Pfluger has no perceptible connection to Central Texas. He lives in San Angelo. The most relevant thing about him is that on January 6, 2021, three days after being sworn in to office, Pfluger helped Donald Trump attempt a coup against our country, voting to block certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory. He has gone on to become a close ally of Trump.

Harris County launches ‘Priority Pass’ in an effort to streamline vehicle registration

The Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office launched an online vehicle registration service, called "Priority Pass," earlier this week. The new online service is designed to speed up vehicle registration for Harris County residents by reducing tax office wait times. According to the tax assessor-collector’s office, Priority Pass allows residents to submit their documents online for automatic verification before going to the tax office in person. After submitting their documents online, residents will receive a barcode. The barcode can then be taken to the tax office, allowing the resident to bypass paperwork that can often result in longer wait times.

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The new Priority Pass service is available via MyHarrisCountyTax, which was launched by the office last year as the county's online property tax payment platform. MyHarrisCountyTax also allows residents to set up a property tax prepayment plan. "Priority Pass is the next step in bringing the full range of tax office service onto one platform," the office said in a news release announcing the new program. According to the tax assessor-collector's office, when residents create a MyHarrisCountyTax profile, they can receive due date reminders via email, pay taxes for multiple properties at once, apply for recurring payments, see their bill history and save their payment methods, receipts and documents.

Interstate 635 construction in Dallas is almost done. What to know

The Interstate 635 East project, also known as Lyndon B. Johnson East, is nearing the end, with most of the roadway now open. The reconstruction of the highway started six years ago, but plans were made long before the crews came in. During this time, North Texas motorists navigated detours, lane closures and constant construction on their commutes. Now, the project is entering its final stretch and transportation officials estimate construction will be completed by the end of the summer. The highway first opened in 1969, originally designed for a much smaller region, and could withstand about 180,000 cars per day.

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The Texas Department of Transportation estimates the current traffic volume on I-635 is about 230,000 cars per day. Dallas’ population has significantly grown since the interstate’s construction. The city's population increased from 844,401 in the 1970 U.S. Census to an estimated 1,329,491 as of July 1, 2025, about a 57% increase, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Due to the region’s population increase, the highway often ranks as one of the state’s most congested corridors. As part of TxDOT’s statewide Texas Clear Lanes initiative, the transportation authority wanted to address the busiest roads and improve mobility on major motorways. How much did construction cost? The I-635 East project is one of the largest highway investments in Dallas County, with a budget of $1.74 billion. Public updates have not identified major cost increases beyond the design-build contract value, which requires TxDOT to report the overall amount rather than incremental spending totals. The design-build contract was finalized in 2019, and construction crews broke ground in spring of 2020.

Parents sue Plano ISD, principal and teacher for $1 million over alleged sexual abuse of daughter

The parents of an8- year-old girl are suing Plano ISD, saying the district failed to prevent longtime 2nd-grade teacher Paul Campbell from sexually abusing their daughter. The suit, which also names Campbell and Brinker Elementary principal Jennifer King as defendants, claims the school knew about an earlier accusation against Campbell but didn’t report it to the state as required, didn’t investigate Campbell, or supervise his actions. “Campbell was allowed to continue to teach at Brinker placing him in a position of authority over second-grade students as a teacher where he could have unfettered access to girls,” the Collin County suit reads.

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The parents, listed as John and Jane Doe, say Campbell repeatedly sexually abused their daughter – listed as Janie Doe – when she was his student last year. They’re seeking $1 million in damages. Campbell taught at Brinker Elementary for 28 years before he was arrested on July 8 and charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, a first-degree felony. Police later filed three additional charges of indecency with a child, a second-degree felony, after more alleged victims stepped forward. The Plano ISD school board voted unanimously after Campbell’s arrest to take steps to fire him. He remains at the Collin County Detention Center, records show. The district said in a statement it “cannot comment on pending litigation or confidential personnel and student matters.” It called the alleged conduct “serious, unacceptable and wholly inconsistent with the standards and expectations of Plano ISD.”

Environmental groups threaten Clean Air Act lawsuit over San Antonio data centers

Three environmental organizations are threatening to sue the developers of two West San Antonio data centers, alleging the companies improperly used streamlined state permits to avoid stricter federal air-pollution requirements. The Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club and Public Citizen sent a formal notice of intent to sue Vantage Data Centers and VoltaGrid on July 22. The notice is a required step before filing a citizen lawsuit under the federal Clean Air Act; it does not establish that the companies violated the law. The projects at 14270 Omicron Drive and 5207 Rogers Road include two natural-gas power plants and 151 backup diesel generators.

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Together, the dedicated “behind-the-meter” systems, which serve the data centers rather than the regional grid, provide 423 megawatts of primary generating capacity. The groups contend Vantage and VoltaGrid treated the equipment as separate, minor pollution sources when the interconnected operations should have been evaluated as major sources. In 2024 and 2025, the companies obtained four minor-source authorizations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. According to the legal notice, the facilities have the potential — not necessarily the expectation — to emit approximately 5,600 tons of nitrogen oxides and 323 tons of volatile organic compounds annually. Those pollutants help create ground-level ozone. The groups also estimate potential emissions of 1,190 tons of carbon monoxide and more than 70 tons of formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen. The allegations carry particular significance because TCEQ classifies Bexar County as a “serious” ozone nonattainment area, meaning it does not meet the federal health standard for ozone. Major-source permits generally require pollution controls, monitoring and opportunities for public participation before construction. The environmental groups say those safeguards were bypassed.

Mayor targets funding for Spurs’ new arena in hunt to reduce city budget gap

After a flurry of proposals over the last week, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has taken aim at cutting the City of San Antonio’s $158 million budget gap again. In a memo Friday, Jones proposed another vote on the public funding for a downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs in November. She said now that city residents understand the budget shortfall, which could lead to an increase in property taxes, they should vote on the city funding for the arena. “November would allow city voters to vote clearly informed by what they are paying, what they are receiving in return and whether the latter is good enough,” Jones wrote in a memo to City Council on Friday.

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The Spurs’ downtown arena, part of Project Marvel, would cost $1.3 billion and is scheduled to host the team beginning in 2030. Bexar County voters approved using $311 million in hotel tax dollars for the arena in November 2025. City officials said their $489 million in funding — a combination of sales tax revenue from hotels and hotel-related businesses and funds borrowed against projected future property taxes — did not need a public vote. City council members linked their $489 million contribution to the county vote. Now, Jones is saying voters who live in the city should have another bite at the apple because they are residents of both Bexar County and San Antonio. “City voters will pay twice towards the proposed arena, as they will contribute to the county’s $311 million contribution and the city’s $489 million contribution,” Jones said. “Since they pay twice, city voters deserve to vote twice.”

Family, community honor Carrollton soldier Isabella Gonzales at funeral service

Family members, military leaders and elected officials gathered in Plano Saturday to honor the life of Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, remembering the 19-year-old as a woman of deep faith, selfless service and unwavering determination. Gonzales, a Hebron High School graduate who enlisted in the Army shortly after graduation, was killed July 17 while serving in Jordan. She volunteered for the deployment and was remembered throughout the service as someone who embraced challenges and put others before herself. Her uncle, Alfredo Muñiz, told mourners Gonzales "made the ultimate sacrifice. She was killed in action doing exactly what she wanted and chose to do."

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Muñiz said Gonzales lived intentionally, choosing to spend her time helping others and pursuing her dream of serving her country. "Don't measure Isabella's legacy by the length of her years," he said. "Measure her legacy by the depth of the love she left behind and the profound impact she made on the people around her.” Carrollton Mayor Steve Babick said Gonzales never lost sight of her goal to make a difference. "Today we honor a hero, a 19-year-old female soldier that with all of her patriotic heart answered the call to serve," Babick said. Brig. Gen. Glenn Henke, commander of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, shared stories from Gonzales' fellow soldiers, describing her as a quick learner whose personality strengthened her unit. "She became a source of laughter and joy. She became the glue of her team," Henke said.

Gilberto Cárdenas, revered for his advocacy for Chicanos and Latino art, dies at 79

Gilberto Cárdenas, a highly respected sociologist who many considered a great advocate for advancing Latino and Chicano identity through academia and art, has died. Cárdenas died Sunday at his home in Austin, Texas, after a long illness, according to a statement released by his family. He was 79. Born and raised in San Gabriel, California, Cárdenas became deeply entrenched in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Chicano was a rallying social and political identity embraced by Mexican Americans fighting for equality and civil rights. Cárdenas advocated for the cause with his camera. He documented marches, meetings and other community gatherings.

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He also loved to acknowledge Chicano artists in the movement and often swapped his photos for posters, prints and other artworks. He would even save posters that were about to be thrown away because of their potential cultural significance. “Looking at all his accomplishments, he was such a gentle and humble man and really appreciated where he came from,” said Richard Flores, a friend and Mexican American Studies professor at University of Texas at Austin. Cárdenas was always “trying to make a contribution not only to the community but the artists he so loved.” He went on to earn a doctorate at the University of Notre Dame and then was hired by the University of Texas at Austin as a sociology professor. He spent nearly 25 years lecturing on the sociology of immigration. Cárdenas is credited for establishing Mexican American Studies there. In 1999, Cárdenas went back to the University of Notre Dame as a faculty member. In his role as assistant provost, he created the Institute for Latino Studies.

National Stories

Capital One says it closed Trump Organization's accounts after anti-money laundering probe

Capital One Financial hit back on Friday against a lawsuit over its decision to close the Trump Organization’s bank accounts years ago, stating that it did so after a review by anti-money laundering experts. The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money-laundering concerns to U.S. President Donald Trump’s family business. Capital One is seeking to dismiss the case by casting doubt on claims of illegally debanking — or denying services on religious or political grounds — the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization and Capital One did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Capital One has never accused the Trump Organization of illegal money laundering. But Friday’s filing argues that “documents and Plaintiffs’ own allegations make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (“AML”) reasons. The closures were the result of months of analysis and a careful review by Capital One’s AML team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidance.” Capital One gave notice of its plans to close more than 300 Trump-affiliated bank accounts in March 2021. The Trump Organization and Eric Trump, the president’s son, filed a lawsuit in March 2025 in a Florida federal court, alleging the accounts were closed because of Capital One’s “woke” beliefs and its desire to benefit from the political mood after the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The federal court in Miami has tossed two complaints in the Capital One case, but gave the plaintiffs opportunities each time to submit an amended complaint. Capital One said that the latest version, filed in July, “suffers from the same fundamental flaws as their prior two pleadings.” Capital One said in Friday’s filing that the Trump Organization’s allegations of political pretext were “misguided” and “based on cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context” of documents submitted to the court.

Trump says parameters met for a deal to end Iran war

U.S. President Donald Trump says he will order American forces to hold off on new strikes against Iran, claiming Mideast allies have reached the parameters of a deal to end the 5-month old war. The emerging deal “would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump wrote in a Saturday evening social media post. “Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump said. Trump has announced halts to strikes in Iran on several occasions since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, only for things to unravel and fighting to resume again.

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Iran’s defense minister said on X that the country was “neither surprised nor passive” following Trump’s announcement and said Iran continues to remain alert in the face of concrete threats from the U.S. A regional official says the proposal announced by Trump over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue working out many of the issues that have stymied prior progress on the deal. The official, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said the proposal calls for reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan. The U.S., in exchange, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil as stated in the tentative ceasefire deal, he said. No deal has been reached yet, but mediation efforts are underway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media. Trump said that Israel is joining his commitment to end the war by implementing the ceasefire deal. Israel did not publicly comment on the announcement.

Loudoun County, other Virginia localities consider hitting the brakes on data center development

Loudoun County, ground zero of Data Center Alley and home to over 250 of the power-hungry digital warehouse facilities, is considering a pause on all new data center project applications, officials said this week. “The community has basically been begging us to do something about the unchecked growth of data centers,” County Supervisor Juli Briskman said Thursday. “The communities have been asking us to fight back against these big corporations that have basically been able to run roughshod over the county.” Briskman asked the board to have county staff draft a plan for what a data center pause would entail. The county is currently revisiting its comprehensive plan zoning ordinances regarding data center permitting and zoning. Phase one of the review process concluded in the spring of 2025.

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Following that review, supervisors removed “by-right” permitting for data centers and moved it to a conditional use permit application that allows for more public input into the process. In the second phase of the ordinance review, supervisors will examine existing standards for data centers and utility substations in the zoning ordinance, Briskman said. From there, they will determine if amendments are necessary to minimize community impacts while ensuring operational functionality. Briskman said they will also “evaluate provisions related to onsite power generation and energy storage, (and) noise parking standards.” She suggested data center applications pause while review of potential amendments to the comprehensive plan is underway. This would mean no new applications would be considered for months. “I decided it was time that we actually just pumped the brakes, listened to the community, and just put a pause on all of it until we can get our arms around some of these other standards that we’ve been working on,” Briskman said.

In-N-Out president says ‘heart is broken’ after employee, customers killed in Idaho shooting

In-N-Out President Lynsi Snyder said her "heart is broken" after an employee and customers were killed when a gunman opened fire at one of the burger chain’s newest restaurants in Idaho. Three people were killed and seven others injured, some critically, in the Saturday afternoon shooting at the In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, city spokesperson Josh Palmer said. Police found the suspected gunman dead near the restaurant, though Palmer said it was not immediately clear whether the shooter was included in the city’s reported death toll. "We lost one of our beautiful Associates tonight," Snyder said in a statement posted to Facebook. "She was taking care of our most important asset — our Customers, and her life was taken by a disgusting human who doesn’t value the lives of others or his own."

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Snyder said the gunman fired both on and away from In-N-Out property before ending his own life shortly after killing the employee and customers. "My heart is broken, my chest is heavy, my eyes burn from the tears I’ve shed," she wrote. Officials had not released the names, ages or other identifying details of the victims as authorities worked to notify their relatives. Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said investigators were also working to identify the suspected shooter and determine a motive. "We believe the threat to the community is over," Hicks said during a news conference. "It was a very chaotic scene." The shooting unfolded at about 2 p.m. in a busy shopping plaza where hundreds of people were in the area, according to Palmer. Video recorded from across the street appeared to show a person dressed in black carrying a long rifle toward a white vehicle. The person opened the driver’s door and then the trunk before reaching inside, prompting the driver recording the scene to leave out of concern that the shooter might be retrieving additional weapons. Multiple victims were taken to St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center. A hospital spokesperson said the facility was working with law enforcement and emergency personnel as they responded to the shooting.

Why Trump won’t just break the Blanche impasse

The irony is that Todd Blanche can’t be confirmed for the very reason that he shouldn’t be confirmed: He is willfully running interference for something tawdry that President Trump is insistent on doing under the guise of Justice Department authority, namely, establishing the so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund. An attorney general fit for the job would resign rather than be a part of that. As I’ve been telling you, despite Blanche’s testimony to the contrary, the slush fund is not dead. Moreover, a lot of creativity went into its creation, and because the fund is a raid on the Judgment Fund for paying judgments, awards, and compromise settlements against the government, Blanche was an essential participant.

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In essence, the Anti-Weaponization Fund would be underwritten by nearly 2 billion taxpayer dollars filched from the Judgment Fund, which could then be paid out as “compensation” for Capitol riot defendants and other Trump political allies without any specific congressional appropriations. (For good measure, the scheme — camouflaged as a legal settlement of a lawsuit Trump brought against his own administration, for wrongdoing that occurred during his last administration — also included an attempt by Blanche to immunize Trump, Trump’s elder sons, and Trump’s business empire from tax audits.) Needless to say, if a Democratic administration had pulled such a stunt, Republicans would be apoplectic. Consider this: The amount of money involved in the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” dwarfs the $24 million in influence-peddling by what Republicans gleefully labeled the “Biden Crime Family” while devoting much of the last Congress to tracing every penny. The point, however, is that the Blanche nomination is in suspended animation because the president does not want to forfeit the fund. Blanche, of course, is now the acting AG, as well as the Senate-confirmed deputy AG.

Louisiana AG says state will investigate Fauci after Senate hearing

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) said her state will investigate Dr. Anthony Fauci after a recent fiery Senate hearing where the retired government scientist pleaded the Fifth Amendment in response to questions from Republican lawmakers. In a post on the social platform X on Saturday, Murrill said that “Louisiana and Missouri deposed Dr. Fauci.” “At the time, he claimed to not recall many key details of his own actions and now we are discovering contemporaneous records he kept,” she added. “Louisiana will join Alabama & Florida in investigating Fauci and whether he committed any other offenses that could be pursued in our State courts.”

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On Wednesday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) said he was beginning an investigation into Fauci after the former chief White House medical adviser invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times during a Senate hearing focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. “Fauci’s lack of candor to Congress is unbelievable,” Uthmeier wrote on social media. “My office is launching an investigation into Dr. Fauci. It’s past time we get the truth of what happened during COVID.” Fauci’s Senate hearing on Wednesday turned into an hourslong chance for Republicans to express criticisms, arguments and theories on the response to COVID-19, with Fauci refusing to answer questions. A few days before the hearing, over a thousand pages of Fauci’s personal diary entries and work records were released by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The longtime health official called the action from Paul an attempt at “embarrassing and intimidating” him. The Hill has reached out to an attorney for Fauci for comment.

In dropping reflecting pool case, Pirro draws Trump’s wrath

Jeanine Pirro faced the cameras on July 2 with characteristic self-assurance to announce the indictment of the 67-year-old ex-Olympian David Hearn for trashing “sacred” government property, President Trump’s highly prized but shoddily renovated Reflecting Pool. “This is not only a priority for the president, but for myself,” said Ms. Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, disclosing felony vandalism charges against Mr. Hearn for touching the lining of the pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. She added: “We will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn willfully destroyed property.” This was not the case. Ms. Pirro’s office dramatically reversed course on Friday, not only withdrawing the charge against Mr. Hearn but blasting the Interior Department for the rushed and “botched” renovation, along with U.S. Park Police officials who fed bad information that led her to publicly cite “tremendous evidence” against Mr. Hearn.

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In the process, intentionally or not, she skated perilously close to contradicting Mr. Trump — and he noticed. Ms. Pirro’s 20-page filing did not refer to, much less rebuke, Mr. Trump for claiming the damage was caused by left-wing vandals rather than his administration’s missteps. But it raised innate doubts about his assertion that criminals had slashed the pool’s lining with a “knife or blade.” That Ms. Pirro, a former Westchester, N.Y., district attorney and Fox News personality was aiming much of her criticism not at Mr. Trump, but his interior secretary, Doug Burgum, who oversaw the issuance of a no-bid contract to renovate the pool, did not appear to matter much. On Saturday morning, Mr. Trump dashed off a post on Truth Social that made clear he was unhappy with Ms. Pirro, a friend and ally since the 1980s. “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Copyright August 02, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved