May 5, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Trump’s retribution? What to watch in Tuesday’s elections in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan

President Donald Trump’s campaign to politically punish Republicans who stand in his way moves through Indiana on Tuesday, when seven state senators face Trump-backed primary challengers. An effort pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump last November to redraw Indiana’s congressional map failed. With the recent Supreme Court decision limiting the Voting Rights Act, some fear it could happen again. (AP video: Obed Lamy) In neighboring Ohio, primaries for U.S. Senate and governor will lock in the candidates for two major races with national implications. And in Michigan, voters in a bellwether district will fill a vacancy in the state Senate, a race with implications for the balance of power in a battleground state. Here’s what to watch for.

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Trump is taking aim at seven Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his plan to redraw congressional district boundaries to help the party gain seats in the U.S. House. Groups allied with the president have spent millions on advertising, an extraordinary flood of cash and attention into races that are typically low profile. The races are a test of Trump’s enduring grip over his party as Republicans grow increasingly anxious about the midterm elections in November. The results will signal to Republicans everywhere about how big a price they’ll pay with their voters if they distance themselves from Trump even as his popularity fades. And it will show the president whether he can still credibly threaten consequences for Republicans who cross him. The Trump-targeted state senators all represent districts he carried in 2024, mostly by 20 percentage points or more. The key races to watch are districts 1, 11, 19, 21, 23, 38 and 41.

Morris ouster signals battle for transportation policy in North Texas

Visions of the future of North Texas -- and how to engineer it from wishful thinking into reality -- are hatched in a large conference room about 100 yards from Six Flags over Texas in Arlington. It is where bureaucrats make decisions that impact the everyday lives of more than 8.3 million North Texans, who are mostly unaware of the proceedings. Article continues below this ad And it is where the region’s power brokers take high-stakes positions over how to spend billions of the public’s money. And where one man — for 36 years — led so many deals that they have become impossible to count. Michael Morris, as transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, has been the ultimate persuader.

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How do you put a tolled highway in north Dallas without enraging the owners of high-rises in the way? Bore underground tunnels. How do you find cash to finish the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge when money is strangled by red tape? You depend on your local allies — the city of Dallas and private donors — to help foot the bill. But at the April 30 regularly scheduled meeting of the Regional Transportation Council, a 45-member group of elected officials from all over North Texas in charge of setting policy for the Council of Governments, Morris was not there. He was not seated in his swivel chair at the head of the meeting. Two days prior, Morris had been shown the door by the Council of Government’s Executive Director Todd Little in what past and current members of the Regional Transportation Council say was a strategic and unlawful coup to take control of the heart and soul of transportation policy in North Texas. Up until now, Morris was its heart and soul. But now, without Morris, the future direction of the transportation arm of the Council of Governments is up in the air. Morris may have left an indelible mark on North Texas’ highways, bus routes, commuter rail and air travel, but he also took positions that made him a polarizing figure and drew a fair share of criticism.

Inside the quiet Republican effort to flip Fetterman

It’s a few days after the election this November, and the results have become clear: Democrats have netted the four seats they need to claim a Senate majority. But then there’s a disturbance in the force: Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump persuade Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) to switch parties or at least become an independent to ensure Republicans retain power in the chamber. It’s a scenario that’s becoming less fantastical by the day. The political environment is curdling for Republicans, and the quiet campaign to lure Fetterman across the aisle is underway. Trump has made the sell, offering his patented total and complete endorsement plus a financial windfall to the Pennsylvanian. A handful of Senate Republicans are also gently feeling out Fetterman and responding to his concerns over the prospect of defecting from the Democratic Party, multiple high-level GOP officials tell me.

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If Fetterman does flip, according to officials who were given anonymity to talk about sensitive matters, it will be thanks in large part to his deepening friendship with a pair of senators and their high-profile spouses: Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), and his wife Dina, and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and her husband, Wesley. But the first-term Democrat — who’s infuriated his party with his harder line on immigration and staunch support for Israel, Trump nominees, government funding bills and most recently the president’s ballroom — isn’t yet persuaded. “I’m not changing,” Fetterman told me in an interview Friday when I asked if he was ruling out both becoming a Republican or turning independent. “I’m a Democrat, and I’m staying one. “ Yet, at least in private, he’s not totally rejecting dropping his “D.” When one senior Republican recently brought up the idea of becoming an independent to Fetterman, he absorbed the suggestion and didn’t embrace or reject the overture, according to a GOP official familiar with the conversation. In our interview, Fetterman said bluntly: “I’d be a shitty Republican.”

DeSantis signs Florida redistricting map, drawing quick legal challenge

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed into law the congressional map his office created. Within hours, opponents filed a lawsuit. DeSantis’ plan could add four more seats for the Republican Party. It also threatens to dismantle Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment, a voter-approved part of the constitution adopted in 2010. “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered,” DeSantis said on social media, attaching a photo of the new districts. The governor’s signature comes one week after his office first unveiled its proposal. Fox News received an exclusive, red-and-blue party-coded map before lawmakers did. Lawmakers approved the governor’s proposal after two days of a redistricting-focused special session. Democrats decried what they said was a violation of Florida’s constitution and a ploy to appease President Donald Trump, who has pushed red states to redraw their maps to keep GOP control of Congress.

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Florida now joins the about half-dozen states that have redrawn their maps after Trump’s push, either in favor of Republicans or in favor of Democrats. No Republicans other than the bill sponsors in the House and Senate spoke out in support of DeSantis’ proposal during the special session. Five Republicans voted against the plan. DeSantis’ signature puts the new districts in place for the 2026 midterms. But a lawsuit filed Monday by the Equal Ground Education Fund and a group of 18 Florida voters asks the court to strike the map down. Six plaintiffs are from Tampa Bay, two are from Central Florida and 10 are from South Florida. The plaintiffs, who filed in Leon County court, are represented by the Elias Law Group, a Democrat-aligned firm that focuses on election law. The group’s lawsuit focuses on Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment, which prohibits lawmakers from creating a map that favors a certain political party. The group is accusing Florida of drawing an explicitly partisan map in violation of the state constitution. “When the time came to present his proposed map ... the Governor left no room for doubt as to its purpose,” the lawsuit said, pointing to the plan’s release on Fox News.

State Stories

Houston Texans, Rodeo commit to Harris County for stadium plans

Team owner Cal McNair said the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo have decided to make things work in Harris County. Team president Mike Tomon said the Texans have not ruled out building a new stadium within the park but are focusing on renovating Reliant Stadium, which is said to be significantly behind on needed maintenance. “What we’ve talked to the Rodeo (about) is we’re going to make it work, and so we’ll figure out a way to make it work and have everybody a winner in this thing,” McNair said Monday at the team's annual charity golf event, which raised more than $565,000.

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In February 2025, the Texans began negotiating a new lease with Harris County and the Rodeo. The current lease expires in 2032. At the time, the Texans said they wanted to remain in the greater Houston area but not necessarily in Harris County. But McNair’s latest comments represent a significant shift in their line of thinking. Whereas other nearby counties were thought to be viable candidates to potentially house a new stadium for the Texans and Rodeo, if it came to that, Harris County is now the sole focus. “The reason we feel that way is if you take a step back and you look at Reliant Park, the attributes of it, you have 350 continuous acres on major arteries with (Interstate) 610, and soon to be the third-largest city in the United States,” Tomon said. “That is pretty special. So when we think about our partnership with the Rodeo, we’re both aligned on we’ll do everything we can to make it work on that specific site because we really think that can be transformative for the city of Houston.” The facilities the Rodeo uses are also in need of renovations. Reliant Park is owned by the county, which leases the facilities to the Texans and the Rodeo. As part of the current lease agreement, the county is responsible for the facilities within the park and their upkeep. But the county is behind on those maintenance needs.

Criminal allegations against Travis County District Attorney and top staff dismissed

Criminal allegations against Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza and top staff members were dismissed in court on Monday. Travis County Judge Karen Sage threw out two motions that alleged misconduct and violations of due process in connection with a 2020 police use-of-force case. Doug O’Connell is the attorney representing APD Officer Chance Bretches. O'Connell alleges that the DA’s Office withheld favorable evidence in the case against the officer.

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O’Connell claimed that Garza and his staff hid evidence and held secret meetings with city leaders about the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations. He alleged they discussed whether the City of Austin, rather than an individual officer such as Bretches, was liable for injuries to protesters during the demonstrations. In this scenario, the city itself would be an “alternate suspect” in the case. “The court is not convinced by the 'alternative suspect' theory. That theory would say it was not your client; it was the city. I think in this case it cannot really just be the city without your client, so I am not really interested in that theory,” said Judge Karen Sage, Travis County 299th Criminal District Court. Sage says that she is interested in seeing an exact timeline of who knew what and when. This is relevant to accusations that Bretches used expired bean bag rounds during the protest that did not work as intended.

AT&T's multibillion-dollar HQ with 'mini Reunion Tower' moves forward

Plans for AT&T’s new multibillion-dollar headquarters in Plano — complete with a 280-foot structure that one official called a “mini Reunion Tower” — got key approval from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday night. Commissioners unanimously recommended approval for four items tied to the telecom giant’s new 54-acre campus at 5400 Legacy Drive and adjacent sites. The Plano City Council will get the final say. Preliminary site plans show there will be 2.3 million square feet of building space. The office campus will also include a daycare center, a pedestrian bridge, ¾ of an acre of public green space, and the tower. The southern half of the site will include parking garages. The tower may not exceed 280 feet.

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The tallest building, excluding the tower, will be 8 stories. The 280-foot tower will feature AT&T’s logo and include an enclosed communications antenna. City codes prevent the tower from flashing, strobing or displaying other related light effects between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The structure must still be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, city planners said. The tower will be set back 320 feet from nearby residential structures, and any major changes would require the approval of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Plano planning commissioner Ban Alali said the structure resembles a miniature version of Dallas’ 561-foot Reunion Tower. The company announced earlier this year it planned to move its global headquarters out of downtown Dallas. AT&T’s lease at the 37-story Whitacre Tower at 208 S. Akard St. runs through Dec. 31, 2031. Two of the requests were filed by Dallas-based investment firm NexPoint. The group owns the 54-acre site. The firm requested to rezone 1.4 acres of the site as a planned development — which was required because the tower will also function as a communications antenna.

Matthew J. DeSarno: John Cornyn faces the ultimate test

(Matthew J. DeSarno is a retired FBI special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Office, with a career spanning the Army, the private sector and more than two decades in federal law enforcement.) Ken Paxton is unfit for the United States Senate. The Texas attorney general is ethically compromised, legally entangled and openly opportunistic. His rise is not about leadership. It is about loyalty — to power, not principle. With Texas Republicans now facing a choice between accommodation, scandal and integrity, this Senate race has become a test of political character. But the harder truth is this: Sen. John Cornyn is not being challenged because he stood up to President Donald Trump. He is being challenged because he didn’t. For years, Cornyn’s brand has been competence and restraint — the adult in the room, a steady hand when others chased headlines. That image carried weight because people believed that when it mattered, Cornyn would act. When it mattered, he didn’t.

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When the Constitution was tested, Cornyn stayed quiet. When the party drifted toward grievance and personal loyalty, Cornyn adjusted instead of confronting it. When nominees appeared before the committees he serves, who were plainly unqualified or openly partisan, Cornyn allowed the process to move forward as if norms still applied. They don’t. I raised concerns with Cornyn's staff about Kash Patel — not casually, but repeatedly and with specificity. Cornyn’s staff acknowledged those concerns. In my view, those concerns should have raised serious questions about his qualifications, his independence and his approach to the FBI — treating it not as an institution to protect, but as a tool to use. And yet, when Patel sat before the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which Cornyn is a member, there was no meaningful challenge. No sustained questioning. No effort to force clarity on the record. The hearing proceeded as if this were routine. It wasn’t. It was a turning point.

Austin police response times lag amid chronic staffing shortage

Last month, Austinites and officials alike heaped praise on the Austin Police Department after officers responded to a mass shooting on West Sixth Street in 57 seconds and took down the gunman minutes later. The praise for the speedy response was rare for the Austin Police Department, which has struggled for years with slow response times and regularly faces online criticism and complaints. The rapid intervention also raised a question: Is the Police Department getting faster? An American-Statesman analysis of median response times over the past decade shows that the swift reaction to the Buford’s Bar shooting was an outlier. Since 2017, response times – while seeing some improvement in the last year under Police Chief Lisa Davis – have lagged even as 911 call volumes have decreased.

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The findings are reflected in public complaints. Since the city’s police oversight agency began categorizing grievances in 2022, the most common type has been “no assistance,” which includes slow responses and alleged no-shows. “It’s a large problem for APD,” Nelly Ramirez, a member of the city’s Public Safety Commission, said in an interview. “We’ve all been in a situation where we see a group of officers sitting around in their cars and we think: What are they doing? Why aren’t they responding to calls?” The Police Department also faces constant criticism on sites like Reddit, where users on the Austin forum regularly accuse police of being "useless" and “quiet quitting.” “I for one am grateful for APDs quiet quitting bc my vehicle tags are 3 years expired,” one user quipped in a post that racked up more than 400 comments. In a recent interview, Davis flatly denied such accusations while also acknowledging slow response times as a problem and emphasizing her department’s chronic, yearslong struggle with understaffing. She also pointed to response time improvements during her 18-month tenure. “No one is quiet-quitting here,” Davis told the Statesman. “It is just the opposite.”

‘All hat and no cattle’: Dallas City Council pushes back on mayor’s criticism of city spending

A day after Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson slammed the City Council for approving “bloated” budgets amid escalating costs and a $33 million financial shortfall halfway through the year, three council members said the mayor hasn’t backed up his words with proposed solutions. Council member Laura Cadena said everyone agrees the city needs to live within its means. But the mayor’s email did not offer any cuts of his own in the “already bare bone budget.” “It’s easy to write a bunch of fiscal statements with zero plan to back it up,” Cadena said. “Here in Texas, we call that ‘all hat and no cattle.’ ”

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Last month, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert imposed hiring freezes, halted overtime and banned unnecessary spending. Johnson criticized the council, saying the belt-tightening should be a “wake-up call” for the council’s resistance to aggressive cuts. “Council members will pay lip service to fiscal responsibility, but when it comes time to vote, few are willing to follow through. Each has favored projects and programs to which they will tolerate no reductions,” Johnson said in his weekly newsletter. Johnson urged council members to identify programs to cut alongside those they want to preserve. He said resistance to cuts makes it difficult to follow through, pointing to the library system. The council recently approved four branch closures but later decided to keep all of them open. Council members say their projects are often bundled with other tiers of work and disrupting one could have a ripple effect on others. Cadena said she’s meeting with residents and community groups to learn their priorities. Council member Adam Bazaldua said he hoped the mayor “is just as enthusiastic on cuts being made to the unnecessary amount of security detail, he has ballooned his budget to include.”

TEA finds HISD did not violate parental rights at Bellaire HS

The Texas Education Agency did not find any wrongdoing at the district level in an investigation ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott into whether Houston ISD employees at Bellaire High School violated parents’ rights, records show. In March 2025, Abbott said he asked the TEA to investigate whether employees at Bellaire High School had engaged in misconduct or whether the school had violated any state policies after a local Moms for Liberty chapter alleged that teachers had been “socially transitioning” a student.

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In a viral video, Denise Bell, the chair of the Harris County chapter of Moms for Liberty, said during an HISD school board meeting last year that an anonymous HISD mother was “shocked” to learn that teachers at Bellaire had been calling their child by a different name and pronouns. The TEA investigated whether the district had violated parents’ rights under the Texas Education Code, which states that parents are entitled to full information about the school activities of their child. It also notes that any attempt by an employee to encourage a child to withhold information from their parents is grounds for discipline. In a March letter to state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles and board president Ric Campo, the TEA said the investigation had closed in October and there would be no further investigative actions. “Based on the available evidence, the investigation did not result in a finding of district-level wrongdoing or identify violations of provisions of the Texas Education Code in effect during the period under review,” Richard Segovia, the TEA’s Division Director of Special Investigations, wrote. The TEA released the letter to Miles and Campo this week after the Chronicle requested it through public records. The TEA and HISD did not respond to requests for comment.

Alex Jones' Infowars site has finally shut down — for now

"There's a war on for your mind." That's what Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told his listeners, readers and acolytes for decades. Now, it seems that war is over. Jones' Infowars platform shut down quietly over the weekend after a court-appointed receiver refused to continue paying for the outlet's operating expenses. The same weekend, The Onion launched its Infowars-branded satirical takedown of Jones as his bankruptcy case lingers in state court. Families of the Sandy Hook school shooting successfully sued Jones for defamation in Texas and Connecticut courts, forcing him to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages. But, so far, plaintiffs' attorneys say Jones has managed to dodge paying anything to Sandy Hook families.

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The Onion tried in 2023 to take over the site, only for a court to block it. Last month, the satirical publication announced it had a plan to acquire Infowars again, only for a court to side with Jones and stall that takeover. Last week, Mark Bankston, an attorney for plaintiffs, said the yearslong slog in courts has been frustrating for Sandy Hook families. "Everything should be done," Bankston said. "It's a frustrating element in this country that the legal system in general is much too friendly to individuals with wealth who want to seek to avoid paying that wealth to people that they've injured. That's a big problem in this country, and it's not isolated to Alex Jones." Over the weekend, Jones launched a new endeavor, the Alex Jones Network, continuing his controversial brand of broadcasting under that banner. Jones said he did not own the network, but that he was news director, telling his legal foes to "piss up a rope." "The Onion failed to get Infowars for the second time in a year and a half, but the receiver told us to get out of the building by midnight on the 30th," Jones said. "So they're turning the place off."

Magnolia mayor faces third federal lawsuit related to assault, retaliation allegations

A third federal lawsuit has now been filed against the mayor of Magnolia, further intensifying a growing legal and political crisis that has unfolded over the past several weeks. The newest lawsuit comes from the city’s former administrator, who alleges he was fired in retaliation for speaking out about claims that Mayor Matthew Dantzer assaulted and sexually harassed City Secretary Christian Gable during a work trip. The filing accuses city leadership of punishing him for raising concerns tied to the same allegations that are now at the center of both criminal charges and multiple civil cases.

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With three federal lawsuits now filed, a criminal case underway, and a new mayor preparing to take office, Magnolia faces a complex and uncertain path forward. This latest case marks the third federal lawsuit connected to Dantzer in just over a month. Gable and former Human Resources Director Kristy Powell previously filed federal lawsuits alleging sexual harassment, retaliation, and failures by the city to properly investigate claims. Both women say they faced consequences after reporting alleged misconduct. Gable has publicly described what she says was a pattern of inappropriate and escalating behavior that began after she started working at City Hall. She alleges repeated sexualized comments, including being referred to as the mayor’s “sexitary,” and claims the situation escalated during an October work conference in Fort Worth. According to Gable, the mayor allegedly attempted to pull down her pants in public and later grabbed her by the throat, pinning her against a structure outside a hotel while she was five months pregnant. She says surveillance video reviewed later by investigators captured the incident. The allegations prompted an investigation by the Texas Rangers, which ultimately led to Dantzer’s indictment on charges including aggravated assault of a pregnant person and official oppression. He was arrested on a Tarrant County warrant and later released on bond. Dantzer has denied all allegations through his attorney, stating he maintains his innocence and intends to defend himself through the legal process.

As DART loses Highland Park, leaders say future lies in growth

After walking away from a suburban mutiny with one less member city, Dallas Area Rapid Transit leaders laid out goals not just for working with remaining cities on improvements, but for expanding service. On Saturday, Highland Park became the first DART member city in almost 40 years to vote to leave the agency. The town’s voters overwhelmingly chose to cut ties with DART, after its leaders criticized the high cost of a one-cent sales tax they said does not match the value of services in its borders. Still, DART emerged victorious on election day in Addison and University Park, where residents voted to continue their membership. Plano, Irving and Farmers Branch had dropped their election plans months before.

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At a news conference Monday, DART Board Chair Randall Bryant said governance and funding challenges “drove our 40-plus year partnership to its near breaking point” this year, despite the agency surviving rounds of withdrawal elections throughout its history. The agency’s focus is now on following through on proposed changes to overcome those challenges, plans that convinced three cities to cancel elections. Ultimately, the board chair said his goal is to see DART expand to meet growing transportation needs that roads alone cannot fulfill. “Even in the midst of ending transit services in our second smallest city in the days to come, we must continue to look beyond our current boundaries,” Bryant said, including north to McKinney, and in the southern sector. “That’s where the future of DART lies.” Member cities will have the opportunity to call an election on DART next in 2032. Over the next six years, the agency will seek to change its governance structure and funding model in the state Legislature.

How Johnny Garcia rose from sheriff’s deputy to a high-profile congressional candidate

TX35 hopeful Johnny Garcia hasn’t even secured his party’s nomination yet, but national Democrats are already listing him among their top candidates to take back seats in the U.S. House this year. The 39-year-old Westside native has spent nearly his entire career at the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, rising from jail guard to the SWAT team and later serving as the sheriff’s communications director. Though his campaign launch in the new 35th Congressional District surprised some local political watchers, national Democratic Party leaders say he’s exactly what they needed to put a tough seat in play. This week Garcia was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) red-to-blue program, an elite group of 20 candidates believed to have the best chance of flipping seats either currently held by a Republican or — in light of many redrawn congressional maps — drawn to favor one.

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The designation means he’ll get additional strategic guidance, staff resources, candidate trainings and fundraising support for a race that Democratic super PACs are already reserving ads for this fall. That’s after he was already a personal guest of the Democratic National Committee chair at a national fundraiser earlier this year, and benefitted from hundreds of thousands of dollars in TV ads boosting him through a four-way primary. “Johnny Garcia has dedicated his career to investing in San Antonio, and is ready to answer the call to serve his community in Congress,” U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington), who chairs the DCCC, said in a statement Monday. “Texans are eager to elect a leader that will put the needs of hardworking families first, and Garcia is ready to step up to the plate.” First, Garcia must still get through a May 26 Democratic primary runoff — which is not a given. In a district that was dramatically redrawn for the 2026 midterm, both parties wound up with crowded fields full of little-known candidates. And despite spending less than $5,000 on her campaign, housing activist Maureen Galindo finished first in Democrats’ race, taking 29% in the first round, to Garcia’s 27%.

Christian Menefee and Al Green, rivals in TX-18, align on aim of strengthening voting rights

U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green are vying for the same seat in the Democratic primary runoff election for Texas’ 18th Congressional District. But the two Houston-based lawmakers are on the same page when it comes to backing new voting rights legislation, in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision last week to gut a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court ruled last Wednesday, in Louisiana v. Callais, that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act — the provision that allowed enforcement of the act — didn’t bar states from using non-racial factors when drawing maps, including to achieve partisan advantage. The immediate effect was to strike down a congressional district Louisiana had created as an African American opportunity seat. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court's conservative majority, called the district an "unconstitutional racial gerrymander."

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Menefee, speaking with Houston Public Media, called for Congress to pass a national ban on partisan gerrymandering. "Because of the court decision," Menefee said, "that can be used as subterfuge as an excuse where you can take a racist map, put some lipstick on it and call it a partisan gerrymandering instead of racial gerrymandering. And so we have to ban partisan gerrymandering as quickly as possible." Menefee said there was effectively no chance that Congress would pass new voting rights legislation as long as Republicans are in charge. He said that made it even more important for Democrats to prioritize strengthening voting rights the next time they return to power. "I think it is a stain on the Democratic Party that we weren’t able to pass voting rights legislation when Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Joe Manchin (I-WV) held it up the last time that we had a majority in the Senate," Menefee said. "But it is going to be incumbent upon us that next time we get the majority that we do whatever is necessary — I don’t care if it means suspending the filibuster — do whatever we can to make sure that we have fair access to the ballot box so that we can continue this pursuit of a true multiracial multicultural democracy."

The long, bitter fight to get ICE out of Dallas

Last November, Azael Alvarez was driving around a neighborhood in southeastern Dallas when he noticed what appeared to be a group of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers surrounding a car at a gas station. Alvarez, an organizer with the group El Movimiento DFW (Dallas–Fort Worth), had been heavily involved in the fight against ICE in the city since the start of the second Trump administration. As soon as he saw the masked agents, Alvarez pulled into the station and began recording the interaction. He noticed that a group of Dallas Police Department (DPD) officers was also present. When Alvarez asked the officers if they could verify that the masked men were from ICE, they said, “We don’t know [who they are] either.” As the suspected ICE agents detained at least one person, Alvarez asked the agents if they had a warrant, while DPD officers stood by watching. As police were driving off, an officer shouted, “Get a job!” in his direction. The incident came in the midst of an ongoing debate about the relationship between local Dallas law enforcement and ICE.

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For the better part of a year, organizers, residents, and elected officials have called on the city’s leadership for accountability, transparency, and action in the face of the Trump administration’s pervasive mass-deportation drive. The debate reached a fever pitch less than three weeks before the gas station incident, when Eric Johnson, the Republican mayor of Dallas, ordered a special meeting of two city hall committees to discuss whether the DPD should enter into an official agreement with ICE, under a federal program known as 287(g). (Johnson, whose lax approach to his job led the The Dallas Morning News to dub him “the mayor of Somewhere Else,” didn’t show up to the meeting.) Across the country, local governments are increasingly leveraging their autonomy to curb ICE’s reach. In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson issued a directive ordering city officials to investigate and potentially prosecute federal agents. Los Angeles’s mayor barred the use of city-owned properties as “a staging area, processing location, or operations base for immigration enforcement.” But in Texas, where the state legislature is dominated by right-wing politicians who threaten lawfare against cities that decrease their police budgets or adopt “sanctuary” statutes, local governments face challenges to establish policies protecting their immigrant communities against ICE, even if they are largely symbolic. Texas’s 2017 anti-sanctuary law prevents local governments from creating policy that “prohibits or discourages the enforcement of immigration laws” and requires them to honor ICE detainers placed on immigrants in local jails.

City Stories

City of Frisco launches on-demand rideshare service

The city of Frisco is launching a new pilot rideshare service in partnership with the Denton County Transportation Authority aimed at helping residents and visitors get around the central part of the city during the work week. Starting May 5, the new program, GoZone, is available to help people get to work, school, or run errands. This pilot promotes ridesharing at a very reasonable cost,” Frisco Director of Engineering Services Jason Brodigan said in a statement. “But what makes microtransit so successful is the fact it gets people from where they are to where they want to go.” GoZone will operate between 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday with rides at a distance-dependent cost between $3 and $5 per person. Rides can be secured through the DCTA GoZone app, which will show "Frisco's service" starting at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

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“When people think about public transit, often times they think about a bus or train,” DCTA CEO Paul Cristina said in a statement. “But what makes microtransit so successful is the fact it gets people from where they are to where they want to go.” The 'Zone' for transportation through the service borders Eldorado Parkway to the north, as well as Hillcrest Road on the east, FM 423 on the west and Main Street and SH 121 on its southernmost boundary. The city says the service also connects to the Northwest Plano Park and Ride. “Once you call for the ride on the app, the ride will show up within 20 – 30 minutes,” Cristina said. “Other people may already be in the van, and you may stop at those riders’ destinations. But your ride will take no more than 30 minutes.” According to the city, riders may have to walk short distances to pre-set pickup points, which are placed to make rides more available and optimize routing. “DCTA has been a great partner,” Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said in a statement. “This is a program we hope to learn from and expand in the future. It’s going to be an incredible transportation resource for our residents and visitors.”

National Stories

Data centers used to be a prize. States are having second thoughts.

Politicians used to compete to lure data centers to their states. They’re starting to reconsider. Tempted by promises of more jobs, tax revenue and the chance to be on the cutting edge of technology, more than three dozen states rolled out the red carpet for data centers in the form of tax breaks and other financial incentives. But now a growing number of states are tempering their enthusiasm. Of the 38 states that currently offer incentives to the data center industry, at least 28 of them have weighed legislation this year to end or shrink those benefits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan research group.

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The turnabout speaks to the rapidly shifting politics surrounding data centers, as well as the real-world impacts of their construction. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) has pointed out that sales tax exemptions for data centers — which include exemptions for electricity costs — cost the state up to $57 million every year. “Do we really want to subsidize data center’s consumption of energy and electricity when they make everyone else’s power bills go up?” Stein said in remarks early last month. “It doesn’t make much sense to me.” Last week, Democratic lawmakers in the North Carolina Legislature introduced a bill that would regulate data centers and repeal some tax credits. Officials in other states have pursued similar ideas. Washington state this year nixed a policy that let data center operators avoid sales taxes for replacement equipment. Minnesota last year scrapped tax exemptions for electricity costs. Nationwide, lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills that would rein in the data center industry. Some would force companies to pay more for electricity. Others would impose energy requirements or set other strict regulations.

The secret team blowing up Ford’s assembly line to make a $30,000 electric truck

A crew of engineers slipped past the empty security gate at a Ford Motor truck plant outside Detroit just after 3 a.m. The factory lines were still at that hour—but that was the point. The crew was there to test a section of a new pickup that few at the company knew even existed. Ford’s secret project had an ambitious goal: to figure out how to make electric vehicles in the U.S. that could compete with the Chinese models clobbering competitors globally. The secret is now out as Ford races toward building its first model, a new truck it says will be nearly as fast as a Mustang, travel around 300 miles on a single charge and feature in-car technology to compete with Tesla and China. It’s aiming for a 2027 launch and a price tag of around $30,000, the cost of a Toyota Camry.

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Getting there means tearing up a century of manufacturing practices in a notoriously hidebound industry. At stake for Ford is securing a future beyond the gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs that have long defined its bottom line. The project had been kept quiet from its 2022 start, led by veterans from Tesla and Apple who worked on designs out of a California office. Ford eventually brought in some of its own employees to help execute the vision. The process was filled with misunderstandings and distrust as the techie outsiders worked to win over the risk-averse industry veterans. To build these new EVs, the company must use fewer people and simpler parts, and dismantle decades of engineering inertia. Chief Executive Jim Farley is calling it Ford’s new “Model T moment.” Rival automakers say overcoming China on EVs can’t be done, given their advantages: extensive government backing, low-cost labor and a massive head start. Whether Ford’s bet big will work may come down to how well Detroit and Silicon Valley can work together. Traditional automakers have sometimes tried to infuse outsider know-how into their operations, with often bleak results, from abandoned robotaxi projects to costly, unpopular EVs.

Rubio expects 'frank' meeting with pope as Trump takes fresh potshots at Leo

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expects a "frank" meeting with Pope Leo during a visit to the Vatican this week, the U.S. ambassador said ?on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump took a fresh pot-shot at the pope for criticising the ?U.S. war in Iran. "Nations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is ... through fraternity and ?authentic dialogue," said Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. "I think the Secretary is coming here in that spirit," Burch told journalists. "To have a frank conversation about U.S. policy, to engage in dialogue." Trump has repeatedly disparaged the first U.S.-born pope in recent weeks, drawing a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.

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In his latest comments, ?Trump told right-wing radio talk show ?host Hugh Hewitt that "the Pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think that’s very good. "I think ?he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people. But I guess if it’s up to the Pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon," Trump said. Leo has never said Iran should have ?nuclear ?weapons, but has opposed the war which Trump says is ?aimed at ending Iran's nuclear programme. Rubio is ?a Catholic, as is Vice President JD Vance. The two met Leo a year ago after attending his inaugural mass, the Trump administration's only previous known cabinet-level meetings with the pope. Burch was asked after an event hosted by his embassy at Rome's Gregorian University on Tuesday if Rubio was hoping to repair the relationship between Trump and Leo. "I don't accept the idea that somehow there's some deep rift," the ambassador responded. Rubio is coming, ?Burch said, so that the U.S. and the Vatican can "better ?understand each other, and to work through, if there are differences, ?certainly to talk through that." Rubio is also set ?to meet in Rome on Friday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who defended ?the Pope. Her defense minister has said the ?war in Iran puts U.S. ?leadership at risk. Leo, who marks his first year as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church on Friday, maintained a relatively low profile on the global stage in the first months of his papacy but has ?emerged in recent weeks as a ?firm critic of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The pope has also sharply criticised the Trump ?administration's hard-line anti-immigration policies and called for dialogue between the U.S. and Catholic-majority Cuba to prevent violence.

Senate Republicans seek $1 billion for White House ballroom security

Senate Republicans want to provide U.S. Secret Service $1 billion for “security adjustments and upgrades” related to the construction of President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom. The use of public funds would be limited to building “above-ground and below-ground security elements” only, according to the text of a reconciliation package released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It also includes $30.7 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $3.5 billion for Customs and Border Protection. “Republicans won’t allow our country to be dragged backwards by Democrats’ radical, anti-law enforcement agenda,” Grassley said in a statement Monday. “The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking action to help provide certainty for federal law enforcement and safer streets for American families. We will work to ensure this critical funding gets signed into law without unnecessary delay.”

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The committee is expected to mark up the bill next week before sending it to the full chamber, where it will likely pass via a simple-majority vote. The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted that construction of a new 90,000 square foot White House ballroom, which is to occupy the space of the former East Wing building that was demolished by Trump last year, would be financed by private donations and not cost taxpayers money. It is estimated to cost $400 million. “It’s not going to cost taxpayers a dime,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last year. The plans for the new “East Wing Modernization Project” include offices, a theater and military infrastructure, including a new underground bunker. A federal appeals court has allowed construction to proceed while legal challenges continue. “The military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed,” Trump told reporters in March, adding that the ballroom “essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under.” The text of the reconciliation bill does include a limitation on the use of the $1 billion: “None of the funds made available under this section may be used for non-security elements of the East Wing Modernization Project.”

Secret Service says suspect opened fire on them and was shot in exchange near Washington Monument

A man spotted carrying a gun in the vicinity of the White House by plainclothes officers and agents was shot by law enforcement Monday after he opened fire on them near the Washington Monument, the Secret Service said. Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said plainclothes agents spotted the man around 3:30 p.m. in the area near the White House complex and saw the imprint of the weapon on him. The agents followed him briefly and contacted the uniformed officers. The unidentified man attempted to flee when uniformed officers with the Secret Service approached him. Quinn said the man fired at the officers, who returned fire. The alleged gunman was transported to a local hospital. Quinn said he had no information on the suspect’s condition.

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Quinn said emergency personnel also transported a minor who was shot but not seriously injured. Quinn said he could not say definitively that the bystander, who also was taken to a hospital, was struck by shots from the suspect’s gun. “We’ll let the doctors figure that out,” he said, though he noted that “investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.” Quinn said the Washington, D.C., police would investigate the officer-involved shooting. The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White House, where President Donald Trump was holding a small business event. The White House was briefly locked down as authorities investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered journalists who were outside into the briefing room, and Trump continued his event without interruption. The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a week after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret Service officer was shot, although he was wearing body armor and was not seriously injured. Quinn said it was not known yet whether the Monday incident was related to Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” Quinn said. “Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will find out.”

Supreme Court voting rights ruling set to reshape local power from statehouses to school boards

The U.S. Supreme Court’s new decision gutting a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act clears the way for state officials to drastically reshape not only Congress but also state legislatures, county commissions, city councils and even local school boards. The ruling, released last week in a case called Louisiana v. Callais, dismantled some of the final guardrails protecting the electoral power of Black, Hispanic and other racial minority voters that had been enshrined in the Voting Rights Act, a landmark 1965 federal civil rights law that bars racial discrimination in voting access. The 6-3 decision all but nullifies a provision called Section 2 that required states to draw electoral maps to give racial minority voters the opportunity to elect their chosen candidates.

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And while intense national attention on the case’s fallout has focused on the U.S. House as the 2026 midterm congressional elections loom, the new ruling also applies to state legislative districts and maps for county or municipal elections. Those localized changes are just hovering further down the road. “While everyone has been focusing on what this means for the power in Congress, there’s a whole other sector of power that it changes,” said Davante Lewis, an elected member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission and one of the litigants in a case that pushed Louisiana to create the congressional maps that were eventually struck down in the Callais ruling. “This is a decision on who gets to serve on a school board, who gets to serve on a city council, who gets representation in the judiciary,” Lewis said. Electoral maps are typically redrawn every 10 years after a census, but the Trump administration has encouraged Republican-led states to redraw districts to favor the GOP, a controversial move that has prompted some Democratic-led states to retaliate with gerrymandering of their own.

AP, Washington Post, Reuters and Minnesota Star Tribune among Pulitzer winners for 2025 work

The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for scrutinizing the Trump administration’s sweeping, choppy overhaul of federal agencies, and The Associated Press won the award Monday for international reporting about surveillance. In a year when several prize-winning projects zoomed in on the Trump presidency, the Post’s coverage illuminated the administration’s fast-moving, sometimes opaque drive to reshape the national government and what the cuts and changes meant for individual Americans. The Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown was given a special citation for her reporting, nearly a decade ago, that drew attention to Jeffrey Epstein ’s abuses. The New York Times won three of the coveted prizes, the Post and Reuters each won two, and less widely known outlets ranging from The Connecticut Mirror to the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” also were recognized in a challenging year for American journalism.

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“This is always a day of celebration in our communities, but perhaps never more so than today as we face tremendous political and economic pressures,” prize administrator Marjorie Miller said in a livestream announcement. In the last few months, the Post cut a third of its staff, CBS News announced it would shutter its nearly century-old radio service, The AP offered buyouts to over 120 journalists and some regional newspapers also publicly struggled. CBS parent Paramount’s acquisition of CNN has raised questions about what’s next for those networks. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continued to bash, and sometimes sue, outlets whose coverage he finds objectionable. Spanning three years, thousands of pages of documents and numerous interviews, the AP project found that American companies help lay the foundations of the Chinese government’s system for monitoring and policing its citizens. “This was sweeping and deeply impactful reporting, the kind of work that highlights the unique strengths of AP’s global, multiformat newsroom,” executive editor Julie Pace said in an email to staffers. She is among the Pulitzer Board’s new members.

Copyright May 05, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved