October 4, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Governor’s race: Hinojosa demands stations pull Abbott attack ad over tax votes

Gina Hinojosa is trying to knock one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s attack ads off Texas television, accusing his campaign of falsely claiming she voted 40 times to raise taxes. The Democratic candidate for governor sent cease-and-desist letters this week to stations airing the spot, demanding they stop running it and retract or correct its claims. Hinojosa’s attorneys said in the letter that the ad damages her reputation by falsely telling voters she repeatedly voted to raise taxes and that Abbott’s campaign is liable for defamation. It was unclear which stations received the letter. Abbott’s campaign has spent $12 million to air the ad across the state. Hinojosa campaign spokesman Tommy Kubitschek said Abbott should defend his record and the ad on a debate stage. “Instead, he’s lying to Texans, plain and simple.”

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Abbott campaign spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Hinojosa’s actions were a “desperate use of lawfare to pull ads that expose her horrendous voting record on property taxes.” “Texas voters need to understand – Gina wants to raise your taxes. Period,” Frazier said. Abbott's legal team also sent letters to TV stations stating that Hinojosa mischaracterized the law and that the ad was based on her legislative record. The political spot accused Hinojosa of voting 40 times to increase taxes in the Legislature. But many of the votes were against bills designed to limit how quickly local property tax revenue could grow. For instance, 11 were procedural votes against a 2019 bill that reduced the pace that property tax rates increase by limiting how much local governments can collect in revenue. None of the votes directly raised property taxes. The Legislature does not levy property taxes – cities, counties, school districts and other local taxing entities do. Abbott has said that himself in a different ad he ran last month. “The state of Texas does not impose the property tax. Only local governments impose property taxes,” he said.

The price tag on the Ken Paxton rescue mission has Republicans panicking

Republicans know they have to spend big to save Ken Paxton. They’re increasingly worried MAGA Inc. won’t throw down in time. In private conversations over recent weeks, senior Hill Republicans and GOP officials have nudged President Donald Trump’s team to start spending more on the Texas Senate race before it’s too late, according to three people with direct knowledge of those conversations, who were granted anonymity to discuss them. Those fears escalated after audio leaked of Paxton privately trashing Trump’s midterm convention, with some worrying it could impact whether MAGA Inc. continues spending after a current wave of GOP ad bookings run out Oct. 12. A Trump operative told POLITICO that MAGA Inc. and its affiliates are expected to spend near $45 million on direct mail, TV, and digital advertising in Texas through Oct. 12, an increase from its previous $20 million to boost Paxton. But they said the team is still assessing how much more money to send in the final weeks, in consultation with Senate Republicans and their top super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.

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The Trump operative, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to speak candidly, would not commit to any plans when asked by POLITICO. With national Democrats starting to finally spend for their Senate nominee, James Talarico, after months of holding off, and as polling of the race tightens, Republicans expect the cost of salvaging Paxton’s campaign will only skyrocket. And, they’ve started to panic. “It’s a five-alarm fire, no doubt,” one GOP senator said. “Can we put it out? I hope so.” “This is a slow-moving car crash that we’re witnessing right now,” a Republican strategist in the state said. “And there’s a 75% chance that the ultimate result here will be catastrophic from a GOP Senate majority standpoint.” A fourth Republican, a national operative, spoke to the urgency factor: “While it’s money we shouldn’t have needed to spend, it needs to be spent now,” said a national GOP operative, describing the state as more winnable than North Carolina, Georgia and potentially Ohio. Even with a massive war chest, Texas is turning into a huge money sink for the GOP that senators worry could hurt them in other tight races as they work to defend deep-red states and try to flip blue seats in Michigan and New Hampshire.

Judge temporarily blocks border wall construction in Texas’ Big Bend region

A federal court in Texas on Friday issued a ruling temporarily blocking the Trump administration from building a border wall and other infrastructure across the state's Big Bend region, in a victory for opponents who have pushed back against what has long been a key campaign promise by President Donald Trump. Landowners, businesses and environmentalists in the region have united to oppose the planned infrastructure projects, which are part of a $46 billion effort by the Trump administration to line the southern border with a mix of 30-foot-tall steel walls, vehicle barriers, roads and surveillance technology. The judge's ruling includes Big Bend National Park, which sits on a bend of the Rio Grande River, but also extends across the entire, roughly 500-mile-long Big Bend sector, which accounts for about a quarter of the roughly 2,000-mile-long southern border with Mexico.

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Judge Kathleen Cardone said in her ruling that the plaintiffs were “likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims in suit, that there is a likelihood that they will suffer serious, irreparable harm without an injunction, and that the balance of the equities and the public interest weigh in their favor.” Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Opponents of the border wall project have argued that the Big Bend region of Texas is so remote and the landscape so rugged that it serves as its own deterrent to illegal immigration and that the administration violated the law when it issued a swath of waivers allowing it to bypass numerous regulations in order to speed up border wall infrastructure projects. The lawsuit brought by an environmental organization, advocates for a historic church in Ruidosa and a river guide argued that the Department of Homeland Security was wrong to bypass regulations meant to protect the environment, culture, and archeology of regions like the Big Bend area. Laiken Jordahl, with the Center of Biological Diversity that brought the suit, called Cardone’s ruling a “total victory.”

How the shooting death of a Houston father is igniting Latino politics in Texas

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo woke before dawn on a hot Houston morning on July 7, as he did most days. He had lived in the U.S. for decades without legal status but was in the process of getting a work permit. He had no criminal record. He picked up workers in his white van and was driving to a jobsite when he was pursued by immigration agents in unmarked vehicles. An officer shot him, according to authorities, after they say he used his vehicle to ram them. It’s a story contradicted by witnesses in the van, but it’s one immigration authorities have told before in explaining how a traffic pursuit turned deadly. This time, though, the family wasn’t having it. Salgado Araujo’s eldest son stood before cameras and delivered an emotional testimonial to his father that went viral. “He was a hardworking family man who never wanted his name to be known by anyone outside of his family,” Ronaldo Salgado said at a news conference days after his father’s shooting, as his brother held up a photo of their father.

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Ronaldo Salgado stressed that the story of his dad ramming government vehicles could not be true. Their father had always taught his kids that if law enforcement attempted to pull them over, they were to pull off the road, hand over their license and registration and act respectfully. In the end, authorities admitted Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the operation. In an interview with NBC News, Ronaldo Salgado said as immigration arrests became more prevalent in 2025, they talked to their father about the procedure if he had an encounter, including calling his family, and that they’d contact their attorneys. “Just remember, don’t sign anything. Call us,” Ronaldo Salgado said he told his father. Sitting at Las Perras Cafe in Houston, where a makeshift altar to his father sits in the corner, Ronaldo Salgado recited the names of those who had been killed by immigration officers, including Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Ruben Ray Martinez, saying the country is not now safe because of their deaths. “These are lives that are lost, and they need to be investigated, just like any other life lost. It needs to be investigated with the full cooperation of the agents involved and the agencies involved,” the son said.

Federal judge rules warrantless Flock camera searches may violate 4th Amendment

An Oklahoma federal judge ruled Friday that warrantless searches using AI-powered surveillance camera data, such as what Flock Safety’s hallmark technology collects, may violate the Fourth Amendment without adequate probable cause. “Freedom from persistent, dragnet-style surveillance while in public is not a foreign concept in our society, and it is a reasonable expectation that society already accepts,” U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill wrote in her ruling. Hill, a former President Biden appointee, continued, “But it becomes constitutionally problematic when law enforcement can indiscriminately and passively catalog your whereabouts over an extended period of time and then use that information for any purpose whenever convenient.“ Flock offers a system of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), which use recording devices to log plate numbers and identify what the company calls a “vehicle signature” — including a car’s make, model and other identifying features. The cameras do not collect the biometric data of a vehicle’s occupants.

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The ruling concerned ALPRs’ role in a Tulsa County deputy sheriff’s traffic stop that resulted in a drug arrest. In this case, the deputy began following a driver after noticing she had an out-of-state license plate and ran her vehicle through an AI-powered camera database — allegedly before the officer had identified any traffic violation or other criminal activity The officer had access to both Flock and VehicleManager systems, according to the judge’s ruling, and his search turned up over 50 sightings of the woman’s vehicle across several states. The deputy sheriff eventually observed an infraction and pulled over the driver. The judge’s ruling does not label the use of Flock data to aid in arrests as illegal, rather, it clarifies that the officer in this case did not have probable cause to “intruded on her reasonable expectation of privacy” with the technology — setting stricter precedent for when law enforcement may employ extensive ALPR databases during investigations. A spokesperson for Flock told The Hill, “The ruling goes against the overwhelming weight of authority in similar cases across the country, including multiple recent decisions in Oklahoma, and we expect it will be appealed and ultimately overturned.” “This ruling is limited to the specific facts of this case. It does not set controlling precedent and does not affect law enforcement agencies’ continued use of these important public safety technologies,” the spokesperson added. ALPR technology has faced bipartisan pushback. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made moves over the past two months to limit the technology’s use in their respective states. A growing number of municipalities have also ended contracts with Flock. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), similarly unveiled legislation that would both prohibit federal agencies from using the AI-powered surveillance technology and pause government grant funding toward local law enforcement agencies looking to contract with ALPR manufacturers. VehicleManager’s parent company, Motorola Solutions, did not respond immediately to The Hill’s request for comment.

State Stories

Bob Stallman: Texas Farm Bureau endorsed Ken Paxton. Big mistake.

(Bob Stallman is a former president of both American Farm Bureau and Texas Farm Bureau.) In 2016, I finished a 16-year term as president of the American Farm Bureau — after six years as president of the Texas Farm Bureau and several more in other Farm Bureau roles. I also helped establish AGFUND, the bureau’s campaign arm. It endorses qualified candidates who will fight for farmers and ranchers. Ten years later, the Texas Farm Bureau endorsed Ken Paxton — someone who is neither qualified for the U.S. Senate nor a proven fighter for the agriculture industry. This shouldn’t have happened. There was a lot of discussion about endorsement criteria when AGFUND was created. We wanted to ensure that the final endorsement decision was left up to the AGFUND board of directors for a situation such as this one, potentially involving the organization’s reputation and integrity. The reputation of any organization with a PAC is closely tied to the individuals receiving the endorsement and financial support. In this case, Texas Farm Bureau’s reputation has been greatly diminished.

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Ken Paxton has the morals of a lizard, and that is probably being unkind to lizards. He has proven to be corrupt. He has lied, cheated openly on his ex-wife and stolen. He should have been removed from office when the Texas House impeached him. Instead, a purely political play with no connection to the substance of his offenses allowed his actions to go unpunished. I have worked with members of Congress for many years. I’ve worked with plenty of Republicans who truly care about the agriculture industry. In my opinion, Paxton is not one of them, and he does not have the moral fitness to serve as a U.S. senator. When the Farm Bureau endorsed Paxton, they referenced the actions he supposedly took on behalf of Texas agriculture. The Bureau neglected to mention that Paxton has failed to publicly oppose a variety of policies that are actively harming farmers and ranchers, including the war in Iran and the import of foreign, unregulated beef into our state. If Ken Paxton really wanted to support Texas ranchers, then he should have told the president of the United States to stop his plan of importing 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef to be sold at a 25% discount. I know why Paxton didn’t: It’s because the president is bailing out Paxton’s Senate campaign. Trump’s PAC, MAGA Inc., is putting more than $10 million into the effort because Paxton can’t raise his own money.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Mary Ann Perez for Texas House 144. She’s not a drunk idiot.

Last year, at a barbecue restaurant in Cypress, Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to turn Harris “dark red” in the 2026 midterm elections. Pretty much every Joe Schmo running got an Abbott endorsement. David Flores, the Republican running for Texas House District 144, managed to clear that low bar — even though he’s such an unserious candidate that in October, his campaign website still says “Coming Soon.” But apparently, Abbott does have some standards: On October 1, the governor actually pulled his endorsement after dashcam footage of Flores’ arrest for drunk driving made its way online. The DUI itself wasn’t news — it had happened in February, and Flores had pled guilty to the misdemeanor.

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The news was what the video showed about his character. Between mumbling expletives, calling an officer the n-word and just generally being an idiot, Flores can be seen and heard bragging about his powerful “good buddy,” fellow Republican Briscoe Cain.Maybe what really hacked off Abbott was that Flores dragged him, too, into the mess: "The governor just freaking endorsed me," Flores told the cops. That wasn’t even true at the time: Abbot wouldn’t endorse Flores until months later. And now, of course, Abbott has un-endorsed him. Luckily, District 144 voters already have a competent representative running for reelection. Mary Ann Perez, 64, isn’t a flashy legislator. She described herself as “a workhorse, not a show horse.” Instead, as a minority party member, she’s chosen a few lanes and stuck to them with great success.

Voters sue Tarrant County, allege poll site cut discriminates against minorities

Four Tarrant County voters of color allege the decision to cut 92 polling sites for the Nov. 3 midterm election disenfranchises voters, violates election code and “intentionally treats Black and Hispanic voters unequally.” Plaintiffs Deborah Peoples, outside of her capacity as a Fort Worth council member, Maryellen Hicks, Kathleen Hicks and Camille Rodriguez are suing Tarrant County, the elections administrator and the Republican members of the commissioners court. On Sept. 1, county commissioners approved a 29% cut to the Election Day polling location list from the 2022 election to the 2026 election. The three Republican members — County Judge Tim O’Hare and Commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez — were in favor of the cut. Democrat Commissioners Roderick Miles and Alisa Simmons opposed it.

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Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig told the commissioners court that his office reached out to the 479 locations that held voting in 2022 and 2024. Only 269 sites were able and willing to host voting again this election, but the list was unequal across the county precincts, criteria created by a 2019 citizen advisory committee. Ludwig also said he adjusted the list to ensure there were not any two locations too close together, which was requested by O’Hare and Krause. There were about 105 public commenters who agreed with Miles and Simmons’ objections to the cuts. Ten public commenters agreed with the Republicans on the dais. The lawsuit, filed Friday morning in the Tarrant County District Court, requests an expedited hearing, a temporary restraining order and a temporary injunction. It also demands that 92 polling locations be restored. Nick Maddux, O’Hare’s campaign strategist, pointed out that the commissioners court a month earlier had unilaterally rejected a larger proposed cut to the polling locations list saying it was too drastic. They requested more voting sites be added to give voters “ample ability” to cast a ballot, which Maddux said was achieved with the approved list. “This is a clear political stunt by failing far left Democrats who want to sow chaos and baseless lies into our community,” he said of the lawsuit. There are 32 days until Election Day. Early voting begins Oct. 19 and ends Oct. 30.

Fast start for Texas Business Court fuels calls for statewide growth

Two years into its existence, the Texas Business Court has proven it can resolve complex business disputes quickly. But so far, the Texas Legislature has only funded five of the 11 divisions it created, leaving West, East and South Texas without access to the business court. The five funded divisions cover the state’s most populous cities — Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin. According to the court’s midyear report looking at September 2024 through April 2026, 53% of cases have been corporate-governance claims, 37% qualified transactions, 6% intellectual property and 4% statutory or regulatory claims.

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But in large swaths of the state, attorneys handling complex oil and gas disputes remain subject to local district court dockets packed with criminal, family and civil cases, meaning it can take months for rulings on motions. Yetter Coleman partner Tim McConn said that while judges in West Texas are sophisticated and capable of handling complex oil and gas dockets, they lack the resources — such as law clerks — that judges in major metro areas have. He pointed to the 143rd District Court, where Judge Alan Nicholas presides over rural Reeves, Ward and Loving counties. While Nicholas is doing a commendable job of mastering oil and gas litigation, McConn said there should be a business court there. “I think a business court would be very helpful out there. If you’ve got a lot of high-profile, high-dollar, complicated oil and gas civil cases that the judges out there sometimes struggle to get to just because they have so much on their docket,” McConn said, “and it would be helpful to have a business court that could sort of take those cases and specialize in those cases.”

Trump tomato tariffs could spell the end of free chips, salsa at restaurants

Free chips and salsa at Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants could soon be a casualty of President Donald Trump's trade war with Mexico. The administration's tariffs on Mexican tomato exports are making the traditional appetizer too costly for restaurants to just give away. The Trump administration imposed a 17% tariff on Mexican tomatoes in July 2025, ostensibly with the aim of protecting U.S. farmers from foreign competition and boosting domestic production. Mexico accounts for roughly 90% of the tomatoes the U.S. has imported since 2015, worth more than $3 billion, according to a study by Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension Service.

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Grocery stores and restaurants were initially able to absorb the higher costs rather than passing them on to consumers. But then, bad weather in Mexico and Florida reduced supplies, and tomato prices jumped to their highest level in two decades. "As a result, we saw the fresh tomato market jumped to about $80 a box," said Dante Galeazzi, president of the Texas International Produce Association. "We saw, as American consumers, that there was a point in late April and almost the entire month of May, where grocery stores were not carrying tomatoes. So that’s a clear reflection of price elasticity where the buyers just say, ‘You know what? We’re not going to participate.'" Restaurants have held out a few months longer, in large part because customers have become accustomed to free chips and salsa. But food costs overall have spiked roughly 35% over the past two years, in part due to the tariffs. Kelsey Erickson Streufert, chief public affairs officer for the Texas Restaurant Association, said her members are now dealing with a raft of other escalating expenses.

Mico Rodriguez, Dallas Tex-Mex pioneer, dies from heart attack

Word comes that the man who transformed Tex-Mex into something much more stylish and profitable in Dallas has died. Michael “Mico” Rodriguez died last night from a heart attack. In 2009, D Magazine chronicled Mico’s personal struggles with a cover story titled “Mico’s Ruin.” The man was a giant on the Dallas dining scene. Ray Washburne, who co-founded M Crowd with Rodriguez and launched the first Mi Cocina, texts the following: “In 1991 when Mi Cocina opened in Preston Forest, Michael Rodriguez took the traditional way of preparing and presenting Tex-Mex food in a new direction. His brilliance in design and food helped to lift the entire restaurant scene in Dallas to a much higher level. Watching him as his partner as the evolution continued over the years was amazing. The culinary scene in Dallas will miss him.” Mico’s life and legacy are complicated. Washburne wound up suing Rodriguez, as did other business partners. We’ll return to Rodriguez’s story in a bit. For now, everyone raise a Mambo Taxi.

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Eagles legend Don Henley puts big money into turning Texas blue

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Don Henley really wants to see his native Texas turn blue for the first time in more than 30 years. Henley, who grew up in Cass County near Texarkana, has become the number one donor to Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor, agriculture commissioner and the Railroad Commission, and is a major force behind Lone Star Rising, a super PAC supporting James Talarico’s bid for the U.S. Senate. Railroad Commission candidate Jon Rosenthal said he was already a huge Henley fan – his song “Dirty Laundry” is one of his all-time favorites. Henley sent him a $25,000 donation in April, Rosenthal’s biggest contribution during the first half of the year.

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“Imagine how excited I was to get a contribution from a literal rock 'n' roll legend like Don Henley,” Rosenthal said. “This election cycle presents a unique and historic opportunity to work for positive change, and I hope Mr. Henley agrees.” In all, the Eagles icon had poured out $300,000 in Texas campaigns during the first six months of this year. That includes more than $109,000 to Vikki Goodwin, the Austin Democrat trying to defeat Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in November. He also gave $50,000 in February to Clayton Tucker, the Democrat running for Texas agriculture commissioner against Republican Nate Sheets. But Henley, who attended what was then called North Texas State University, has spent another nearly $2 million on federal campaigns in Texas and around the nation. He’s sent individual donations to Talarico and South Texas congressional candidate and fellow musician Bobby Pulido. He’s also sent much bigger donations to several left-leaning super PACs that are supporting Democratic candidates in Texas, most notably $250,000 to Lone Star Rising, the group trying to help Talarico on the airwaves in Texas. That group has funded more than $6 million in digital ads in Texas since late August in support of Talarico, who is being vastly outspent by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton and his allies over the last five weeks. Paxton and his allies have spent $193 million on the airwaves, compared to $45 million from Talarico and his allies like Lone Star Rising. Henley, who lists his address in Virginia, could not be reached for comment. He doesn’t often talk about his politics in interviews, but has made clear he’s a Democrat and supported President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Besides his music, Henley spends a lot of time and money on environmental and land conservation programs. He founded the Walden Woods Project and is the cofounder of the nonprofit Caddo Lake Institute, which works to protect the body of water just south of Cass County, the title of his last solo album released in 2015.

TJJD issues persist at Evins Regional Juvenile Center, report says

A recent report by a nonprofit public interest law and policy center states that the United States Department of Justice’s 2024 findings of unconstitutional conditions found in all of Texas’ juvenile centers, including Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg, continue to persist. According to Texas Appleseed, many of the problems found by the DOJ within the Texas Juvenile Justice Department include failing to protect youth from unconstitutional harm by excessive force, abuse, isolation and inadequate mental health care. In addition, the TJJD failed to meet the federal requirements for special education and have discriminated against kids with disabilities by denying them necessary accommodations, limiting their access to education and extending their confinement, according to the report.

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Texas Appleseed said its report is based on publicly available data, original research and firsthand accounts. The organization also submitted multiple public information requests in order to gather the information used in the report. Additionally, Texas Appleseed conducted interviews with children who were formally confined in these facilities, parents, guardians and former staff members which were conducted between late summer of 2025 to spring 2026. Another persisting issue, which according to Texas Appleseed, is a major contributing factor to many of the problems with the juvenile centers, is the high turnover rate of staff. “The number of juvenile correction officers with more than three years experience has declined significantly,” the report said. “The lack of veteran staff impacts the quality and delivery of services as well as the safety of staff and youth.” According to the report, Evins Regional Juvenile Center had a 62% turnover rate and a vacancy rate of 7% for the 2025 fiscal year.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Gov. Abbott gave us some good Republican judges. Voters should keep them.

It’s a tough year to be a Republican judge appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor appears as vulnerable as he’s ever been in his bid for a fourth term in office, and midterm elections heavily favor the party out of power in the White House. Conventional political wisdom and history would suggest that even if Abbott survives re-election, a blue wave could wipe out Republicans in down-ballot, local races. That would be a significant loss for the Harris County court system. Since 2025, Abbott has appointed six judges to the felony courts. Some of them are presiding over new courtrooms created by the Legislature. Others are filling out terms of judges who resigned from the bench or died. There’s a baseline of experience and qualifications that are necessary to take over a felony bench. This is the top rung of the ladder for the legal profession, and all six of these jurists take that responsibility seriously. Many of them are longtime prosecutors, though several have extensive experience in criminal defense as well.

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What they all have in common is a commitment to fairness and efficiency. They ably balance defendants’ rights and concerns about public safety. They are mostly well-liked by their peers in the legal community — including prosecutors and the defense bar. That doesn’t mean they always get it right. Each felony court judge wishes they had a crystal ball, particularly when it comes to setting bail, but changes to state law have also made it easier for judges to hold defendants accused of violent offenses at no bond. We met with candidates in-person, talked to lawyers who practice in these courts and reviewed whatever publicly available information we could find for these nonpartisan endorsements. If the worst thing you can say about these judges is that a team of Abbott’s in-house lawyers vetted them and found them fit to serve the public, then voters in both parties should rest easy. While we have real concerns about how extensively Abbott has used his broad executive power to reshape the judiciary — notably appointing seven of the nine current state Supreme Court justices, some from his in-house team of partisan warriors — his felony court appointments in Harris County are focused on justice and worthy of a full term.

Dallas Morning News Editorial: We recommend Democrat Amy Taylor over Mindy Bumgarner in SBOE race

The State Board of Education doesn’t set tax rates or approve attendance zones as a local school board does. But the 15-member group has important powers. It sets standards for public school curricula and reviews and adopts instructional materials. It also oversees the state’s Permanent School Fund, which is basically a $60 billion endowment for public education. It can also reject a recommendation to allow a new charter applicant to open a school. Two candidates are competing to represent District 14 on the state education board. The C-shaped district includes parts of 19 counties, stretching from the Oklahoma border to Waco to Waxahachie. (Most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area is in other districts.)

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Amy Taylor, the Democratic candidate for District 14, includes a primer about the state board on her campaign website. That fits: She’s a classroom teacher in Denton and sees part of her job as a candidate as educating voters about the board’s official duties. While we disagree with Taylor on several issues, her experience, pragmatic attitude and thoughtful comments about how students learn and curriculum standards go awry make her the best candidate in this race. Her opponent, Republican Mindy Bumgarner, is something of a mystery to us. Her online presence is remarkably thin. If she is speaking out, it’s only to her base constituency as far as we can tell. She did not respond to multiple invitations to fill out our questionnaire or participate in an interview. Bumgarner’s campaign website displays generic statements about parent rights and school choice. She has been endorsed by Republican leaders and is married to state Rep. Ben Bumgarner. Taylor, meanwhile, said she decided to run for the seat because, “I want to make a case for public education.” Political rhetoric increasingly demonizes educators and public schools, and that is making difficult work harder, she said. Taylor critiqued the SBOE’s recently adopted social studies standards and literature list, arguing that they force particular religious and political viewpoints on students. The literature list also ignores classroom realities, she argued. We think she should give students more credit for being able to take on longer works rather than relying on shorter texts. She is correct that the state continues to add items to essential knowledge and skills lists and that it’s getting difficult to cover all matters in the classroom. Taylor was adamant that public schools are best for most families; this Editorial Board believes families with limited means should have more options. But because the SBOE has no direct power over the voucher program, we’re comfortable recommending Taylor as the better candidate for District 14.

American Rust: The $1.1 billion border wall built with salvaged materials and few answers

In March, Tucson, Arizona–based Spencer Construction LLC received a $1.1 billion contract from the Department of Homeland Security to build 34 miles of border wall in the counties of Hidalgo and Starr in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. The contract amounts to more than $32 million a mile, twice the cost of wall construction during Trump’s first term, when the price tag was $16 million a mile. Even though the cost has doubled, Spencer Construction is building the wall using old steel bollards—bars filled with concrete and rebar—that have sat in various staging areas near the border for several years. Many of the bollards, it appears, have been sanded to remove rust, and in some places, the caps on the newly constructed 30-foot wall have already fallen off. It’s unclear whether Spencer billed for new steel bollards in its contract with the government or how it arrived at the price of $32 million per mile. In August, The Border Chronicle submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the contract, but Customs and Border Protection has yet to respond with documents. The federal agency and Spencer Construction did not reply to questions via telephone or email about the contract, which is not publicly available.

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The Border Chronicle also requested comment from Royal Concrete LLC, which did not respond. Not only is the wall expensive but it also targets the Rio Grande Valley’s most treasured wildlife and heritage sites, including the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, the historic La Lomita Chapel, the National Butterfly Center, Bentsen State Park, and the Salineño Wildlife Preserve in Starr County, among other sites. South Texas residents have battled for years to protect these places, and over the last decade, congressional leaders from the border, including Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, added exemptions to federal appropriation bills to prevent federal funds from being spent on border wall construction in these sensitive areas. All this changed in 2025, however. President Trump and Republicans circumvented the normal congressional appropriations process to pass the “Big Beautiful Bill,” designating at least $46.5 billion for wall construction and bypassing the long-standing amendments in previous appropriation bills that protected Santa Ana and other sites in South Texas. Additionally, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem used authority provided by the REAL ID Act to waive dozens of federal contracting oversight rules for border wall construction. Six preapproved private contractors, including Spencer, were chosen for the border wall contracts—exempting them from a public bidding process and the requirement to make details about their scope of work publicly available. For the 34 miles of wall, DHS also waived at least 31 federal laws, including the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, which would have provided additional oversight and input from local residents. The speed at which contractors have moved and the lack of communication about their work have left many border residents stunned. At least 93 percent of wall construction funding over the last decade was disbursed in 2025 and 2026, according to The Washington Post, and 52 contracts were issued in 2025 alone—a fivefold increase from previous years. Thanks to the rapid pace and lack of transparency, protests and lawsuits have multiplied across the southern border, including against the $1.1 billion Spencer Construction contract in South Texas.

ICE is checking 'random' license plates in Austin and other takeaways from Garces Perez hearing

Security guards pushed Wilber Garces Perez in a wheelchair into a federal courtroom in Austin on Wednesday. Garces Perez is the Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Sept. 20 in North Austin. ICE is now saying he struck the agent who shot him with his car’s side mirror while fleeing an immigration stop minutes before the shooting. The court hearing concerned whether the charge against him for assaulting and resisting a federal officer will proceed. The judge said it will. But the hours of evidence, witness testimony and lawyers' arguments also revealed more details than have previously been made public about what happened that day and about ICE activity in Austin.

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The one witness who spoke at the hearing was Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Rick Bazan. Bazan is the investigator who was tasked with looking into the initial interaction between Garces Perez and the two ICE officers who pulled him over. He was not at the scene, but he described the “everyday” workload of ICE enforcement officers as driving around and running people's license plates to see if they have immigration enforcement orders against them. Bazan said that’s what the two agents involved in the incident were doing when they spotted Garces Perez picking up a food delivery order from a restaurant in his blue Toyota Corolla. “They were doing immigration enforcement, random checks on random places,” Bazan said. “They’re out there everywhere running license plates.” The federal charges against Garces Perez are based on a criminal complaint Bazan wrote after interviewing Garces Perez and one of the officers who initially pulled him over. The officer Bazan spoke with, named “D.F.” in the complaint, is not the officer who shot Garces Perez after pursuing him to the corner of U.S. Highway 183 and Anderson Square. That officer is referred to as “L.G.” in the complaint. During his testimony, Bazan said there is a separate investigation into the shooting. He did not comment on the status of that investigation, but said “my team has not talked to L.G. at all.”

Taylor has struck a deal on a nearby data center, allowing it to annex the site and set conditions

The city of Taylor is considering an agreement with Big Watt Digital and PowerHouse Data Centers to annex their planned 664-acre development, Taylor Technology Campus, located just outside city limits. Council members are set to vote on the deal on Oct. 8. Developers withdrew their annexation and zoning application with Taylor last month. However, in a press release on Oct. 2, the city said it continued to "negotiate with the developers regarding annexation to ensure that Taylor Technology Campus would be required to meet regulatory standards on noise, water use, setbacks and community benefits." According to the city's website, the Taylor Technology Campus (formerly known as Project Mustang) will include data center facilities and on-site power generation equipment that will be used to meet the facility's electricity needs.

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If the Taylor City Council votes to approve the proposed agreement, the site of the development will be annexed into city limits. That means the project will be required to meet certain regulatory standards laid out by the city. Those standards include requiring the developers to use a closed loop system and reclaimed water for cooling its facilities, as well as paying for the infrastructure needed to connect their site to city utilities. If the council votes not to approve the deal, the development will remain in an unincorporated area of Williamson County. The city said it would have no authority over the project. "I'm incredibly pleased that the City was able to reach a proposed agreement with the developers for Taylor Technology Campus," Jim Buzan, Taylor's mayor, said in the press release. "I believe the terms before Council represent the best path forward for Taylor and the surrounding area, and the regulations that Big Watt and PowerHouse have agreed to for the project will work to ensure that the community's concerns about noise, water use and setbacks are being addressed and enforced by the City and Council."

National Stories

Americans of all ages want more federal help with childcare costs. Gen Z most of all.

Most Americans think the federal government should increase spending on childcare, and one group of voters more than any other is in favor of that change: Gen Z. Data from a new The 19th/YouGov poll found that 52 percent of U.S. adults overall think federal childcare spending needs a boost, including 73 percent of Democrats, 38 percent of Republicans and 50 percent of Independents. Among Gen Z voters, support was more robust than other age groups. Nearly 60 percent of Gen Z voters favor increasing federal spending on childcare — more, even, than the 49 percent of millennials who said the same. Currently, the United States spends about $12.4 billion on childcare annually, most of it to subsidize care for very low-income families. That shuts the vast majority of American families out of those benefits, leaving them with an average childcare price tag of $13,000 a year, and much more in certain states.

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Center-based childcare for two children is more expensive than the median annual rent payment in 47 states, and the median annual mortgage payment in 39 states, according to an analysis by the childcare advocacy group Child Care Aware. In a midterm cycle that is undoubtedly defined by affordability, the high cost of childcare makes it one of the key policies Americans would like to see change on. Numerous Democratic campaigns are running with childcare solutions in their platforms this election cycle, and some Republicans in Congress are also embracing the issue. The 19th’s poll revealed that 38 percent of voters think Democrats are doing a better job at handling the cost of childcare; only 19 percent said the same about Republicans. Last year, the issue played a role in the victories of candidates who championed childcare, most notably Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York but also New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, all Democrats.

Voters say Congress is too old. But older candidates keep winning.

In the lead-up to the midterm elections, calls for generational change have echoed through districts across the country, as younger candidates have pushed to replace the old guard. In Massachusetts, Senator Ed Markey, 80, was diagnosed with “chronic re-election disorder” by allies of his younger primary opponent. “Doctors agree: Democracy suffers when politicians won’t pass the torch,” said an actor dressed as a doctor in an attack ad. In Northern California, a spot denouncing Representative Mike Thompson, 75, compared the Capitol to a refrigerator, full of “career politicians” who “sit there year after year behind the pickles.” Thompson, the ad said, was “past his expiration date.” And in Mississippi, an ad featured a woman identified as a retired public-school teacher wondering about the effectiveness of Representative Bennie Thompson, 78, who has been in Congress for over three decades. “Has he made things better here?” she asked. “Absolutely not.”

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And yet, the gerontocracy remains alive and well in American politics. In primary after primary, voters rejected those calls for younger leadership, voting for incumbent politicians who were notably older than their challengers, according to an analysis by The New York Times. The New York Times analyzed 143 partisan primary races with an incumbent and a challenger. Nearly half of these races featured an incumbent aged 65 or older. Only seven retirement-age incumbents — five Democrats and two Republicans — lost their primaries, all to younger candidates. Nine out of 10 of these older incumbents won their primaries. Their wins didn’t stem from a failure by younger candidates to press the case: Campaign ads pushing for new, younger leadership ran in at least 77 House and Senate primary races, according to a Times analysis of data from AdImpact, a media tracking firm. Instead, the results point to an unshakable reality of American politics: Incumbency remains a near-invincible force in congressional elections. With stronger name recognition and a fund-raising advantage, members of Congress typically hold onto their seats as long as they like. Over the past four decades, the re-election rate for incumbents has rarely dipped below 80 percent. The incumbent has lost in only 78 primary races out of several thousand over the past two decades, according to a New York Times analysis of data from Ballotpedia.

Byron Donalds walks a tightrope of Trump loyalty in Florida’s race for governor

Rep. Byron Donalds had a problem. President Trump had learned that the campaign of the man he had endorsed to become Florida’s next governor had scrubbed prominent mentions of him from Donalds’s website. To calm Trump down, aides showed him a tweet where Donalds minimized the change and appeared beaming alongside the president inside the Oval Office, according to people familiar with the events. That satisfied Trump, who went on to warn that Donalds risked losing if he dropped him. The incident last month shows the conundrum facing Republicans who owe their political careers to Trump. A worsening environment for the GOP is tightening midterm races across the country and prompting a number of Republicans to distance themselves from the president. Yet doing so risks alienating the most powerful person in the party and the voters who remain loyal to him.

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That is partly why Donalds, after gingerly tiptoeing away from his kingmaker in recent weeks, made plans to appear in Florida with Trump in the final stretch of a race that is become uncomfortably competitive for the GOP. In Florida, a 1.67 million-person population surge since the pandemic has helped drive inflation above the national average in some places. The threat of job losses due to artificial intelligence, the inaccessibility of the housing market and the high price of gas, groceries and healthcare have some voters wanting a new party to take control of the state Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis transformed into the epicenter of American conservatism. In South Florida, Trump’s immigration crackdown has triggered backlash from Hispanics. Those shifts had Donalds’s top donors feeling nervous when they gathered at a private retreat at the oceanfront Fontainebleau hotel here last month. Donalds was once expected to win comfortably over Democrat David Jolly. Now Donalds was telling donors over a steak dinner that the contest was a battle, according to several attendees, and his pollster Tony Fabrizio later disavowed the group of any notion that this would be a big win. Trump, after all, was a double-edged sword for Republicans, Fabrizio said, in that he was the biggest motivator of turnout on both sides. With Trump’s approval rating dipping, it is a risky dynamic for Donalds.

Ohio truck plant closes, jolting 1,400 workers days before Trump rally

Sipping tea from beer mugs with his co-workers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing. Bos has two daughters, with a third due in January. At the grocery store, five items cost as much as a full cart once did. And on Wednesday, Bos and nearly 1,400 other people were laid off from their jobs at what had been the Navistar truck factory in southwestern Ohio. The layoffs — occurring just three days before President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday at a nearby high school — were large enough to basically erase an entire year of job growth in the greater Dayton, Ohio, area. And they are one reason why Bos, 30, plans to spend the final weeks before the November election canvassing votes for Democrats. Asked how many times he had voted for Trump, Bos held up three tattooed fingers. But he said he’s done with the president.

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“Something has to change politically in this country,” said Bos, a member of the United Auto Workers who identifies as a centrist. “Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.” This year’s election is a test for the working-class coalition that lifted Trump into the White House and gave majorities to Republicans in the House and Senate. The outcome will be decided in places like Dayton, which once sprouted factories because it led America in patents per capita. The Wright brothers’ airplane, the cash register, the stepladder and the electric car starter were all invented in this city of 137,000. Trump’s blunt talk and status as a celebrity businessman initially helped him around Dayton, where voters sensed that politics as usual had failed them. Republicans secured wins in the larger metro area, but this year, the party is vulnerable with voters who are disgruntled about inflation, the Iran war and a president who seems unsympathetic to their struggles. An Ohio race could help determine control of the Senate. Republican Sen. Jon Husted is facing a challenge from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is trying to harness that disenchantment as he attempts a comeback two years after losing his seat.

Seniors on Medicare to receive $90 payments for premium costs, Trump says

President Donald Trump is promising more payments to voters just ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections — this time, to more than 20 million seniors, giving them $90 each to help pay for Medicare premiums. The announcement, made late Friday night by Trump on social media, comes after the president last month said about 1 million people would get rebate checks of $500 for Affordable Care Act premiums. He has also promised on the campaign trail to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections. That pledge — which would require approval from Congress — would likely cost more than $1 trillion, adding to the deficit and worsening inflation. Trump highlighted his $5,000 promise at a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on Saturday night, and told supporters that 70,000 families in the state would receive the ACA rebates “within the next couple of days.”

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He also reminded voters about the $1,776 payments to military members, announced in December — though he mused that they should have been timed better. “Maybe I should have waited a year,” he said. “To be honest, I said that. Should I wait for before the election?” Polls show Americans increasingly blame Trump for the high cost of gasoline and groceries with just 17% approving of his handling of inflation. Trump has sought to shrug off concerns about affordability, saying the economy is booming. The White House said the $90 payments for seniors will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, established by Congress in 2008 as flexible funding to improve program operations and payments to health care providers. Medicare Part B enrollees can expect to receive a one-time payment in October, either through direct deposit or by check, the White House said. Total monthly costs for the program — which covers costs like doctor’s visits, ambulance services and lab tests — start around $200 and vary with income.

Cornell president says alleged gang rape 'deeply disturbing,' pledges transparency

Cornell’s president called the alleged gang rape of a student at a fraternity house in 2024 “deeply disturbing” Saturday, said it would weigh on the university for years to come and pledged greater transparency amid mounting outrage over the school’s handling of the case. In an eight-minute video message to the Cornell community, Michael Kotlikoff described the past week as one of the most difficult in the university’s history and acknowledged troubling questions about the investigations that followed the allegations. “My heart aches when I think of what she experienced,” Kotlikoff said. “It raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use.” Kotlikoff reaffirmed his commitment to supporting an independent review of Cornell’s handling of the case called for by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and said the school’s Board of Trustees would announce details next week.

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He also expressed support for Hochul’s decision to turn the criminal investigation over to the state attorney general. “I want to acknowledge something that can be difficult for an institution to say,” Kotlikoff said. “We don’t have all the answers, but we are committed to investigating and finding the answers our community deserves.” Scrutiny has mounted in recent days over Cornell’s response to allegations that the woman was sexually assaulted by multiple fraternity members in 2024. The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, has sued the university and seven former students. During a student assembly hearing Thursday that gave students an opportunity to voice concerns and discuss proposals to improve Cornell’s response to sexual assault, several speakers called for Kotlikoff’s resignation. Hochul, asked at a news conference Friday whether she believed Kotlikoff should resign over the university’s handling of the case, declined to take a position, saying she did not yet have enough information. Kotlikoff acknowledged frustration that Cornell has not communicated enough, saying that has led to distrust. While citing “real legal and privacy limits” on what the university can disclose, he pledged greater transparency and more opportunities for students, parents and others to engage with university leaders.

Here’s Senator Cotton’s cell number, Trump Says, in dispute over Daylight Saving bill

President Trump wants to make daylight saving time permanent. Senator Tom Cotton does not. On Saturday, that disagreement led the president to share what he said was the Arkansas Republican’s cellphone number on social media, urging the state’s residents to take the issue up with Mr. Cotton personally. Mr. Trump, championing the Sunshine Protection Act, which has been stalled in the Senate since July, accused Mr. Cotton of holding up the bill in a lengthy Truth Social post. Then Mr. Trump shared 10 digits. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate,” Mr. Trump said. “Call Tom on his cellphone.”

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Two officials confirmed that the number Mr. Trump gave out belonged to Mr. Cotton, whose office did not respond to a request for a comment. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Calls went to an automated voice mail greeting saying an unnamed recipient was “temporarily unavailable.” The bill, which would cement daylight saving time and stop Americans from having to change their clocks twice a year, has been stuck in the Senate after sailing through the House in July with a 308-to-117 vote. Year-round daylight-saving time was last tried in 1974, but public sentiment quickly soured as Americans complained of dark winter mornings, particularly for parents taking children to school. It was repealed in less than a year. But Mr. Trump has described moving clocks an hour forward in the spring and an hour back in the fall as “ridiculous.” On Saturday, he told reporters that the practice “discombobulates everybody.” His post directed at Mr. Cotton included a letter from Brian Rolapp, the chief executive of the PGA Tour, endorsing the bill, which would add an extra hour of daylight in the evening. Mr. Rolapp claimed that would allow golfers to squeeze in 23 million more rounds a year.

Copyright October 04, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved