November 6, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Hinojosa taps anti-school voucher Republican, education and labor allies for Texas transition team

Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa announced her first transition team appointments Thursday, tapping allies in public education and organized labor — along with a former Republican lawmaker who fought against outgoing Gov. Greg Abbott’s school voucher plan. “I am not going to be the governor for just Democrats,” Hinojosa said. “I am going to be the Governor for all the people of Texas.” Former state Rep. Ernest Bailes, a conservative Republican from rural East Texas, was among the GOP lawmakers who joined Democrats to block Abbott’s school voucher push in 2023. Abbott then successfully retaliated by backing primary challengers against those Republicans in the 2024, including the candidate who defeated Bailes.

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Hinojosa, who served alongside Bailes in the Texas House, called him a champion for public schools and one of her closest Republican allies on education. “We will put partisanship aside. We will work together for what is best for the kids of the state of Texas,” Bailes said Thursday. Hinojosa’s focus on public education is also reflected in her selection of Tamala Barksdale, a former Austin ISD trustee who served alongside her on the school board. During her campaign, which Barksdale worked on, Hinojosa promised to increase funding for public schools and replace Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath with an educator. Ryan Pollock, a union electrician and executive director of theTexas State Building and Construction Trades Council, brings organized labor’s perspective to the transition team. Hinojosa said his appointment reflects her commitment to creating good jobs and putting money in Texans’ pockets. Pollock said achieving that goal means investing in workers.

Nasdaq 100 eyes $1.8 trillion loss as Democratic win sparks AI delay fears

The Nasdaq 100 index was set to lose a whopping $1.8 trillion in stock value on Thursday as investors feared that the sweeping midterm victory of Democrats could stall the pace of ?AI infrastructure expansion. The rout marked a dramatic slide from a relatively mild initial reaction in the previous session, when ?the index, stacked with elite tech companies, rose on hopes that an end to election-related uncertainty could improve overall sentiment. "Wall Street badly needs a happy ?AI story right now," said Matthew Tuttle, founder and CEO of Tuttle Capital Management. "We now probably have two years of nothing. Divided government, angry politics, and very little getting passed." Shares of semiconductor and neocloud companies, which were behind much of the market's gains in the recent past, witnessed sharp declines for a second straight day on worries that data center buildouts worth billions of dollars could face ?delays.

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The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index fell 8.4% ?to its lowest level in more than six months, led by losses in heavyweights Nvidia and Broadcom. Hyperscalers, which defied the selloff on Wednesday on hopes that slower data-center construction could rein in Big ?Tech's AI spending, also dropped. Amazon.com fell 2.5% and Alphabet 1.4%. The losses suggested investors are beginning to price in the possibility that political gridlock and greater scrutiny of data-center development could slow one of Wall Street's most important growth engines. Around 30% of expected US data center ?capacity ?additions in 2028 could be at risk from potential construction pauses, ?UBS analysts estimated, highlighting the threat to an industry ?whose growth depends on a rapid build out of new facilities. The political jitters are hitting an AI trade that was already on shaky footing in recent weeks, on worries surrounding the enormous sums being poured into the technology. CoreWeave, which has become a barometer of investor anxiety over heavy AI spending, slumped 12%. Five-year credit default spreads widened to a record high, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Nebius, another neocloud company, also dropped 15.2%. The sharp declines put the Nasdaq Composite on ?course to confirm a correction, or a 10% drop from its recent ?peak. The Nasdaq 100 was last down 4.5%. "The market's moving from the promise ?of AI to the price of AI," said Ted ?Parkhill, founder and CEO of Incline Investment Management. "There's no question that AI is going to be ?transformative for the world in the long run. But ?that doesn't mean every AI-related ?stock is currently priced appropriately. There's going to be a lot of turmoil."

Trump tells voters ‘you only have yourselves to blame’ in Truth Social rant after stock market crash

As Democrats continue to add to their “blue tsunami” of midterms wins, President Donald Trump has pointed the finger of blame at the opposition and at the American public for Thursday’s stock market plunge. The Nasdaq Composite dipped 5.52 percent while the S&P 500 dropped 4.36 percent and the Dow Jones went down 1,833.06 points in response to this week’s resounding election results. “The Stock Market suffered one of the Worst Days in History based on the results of the Election. Such a sad thing to watch!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Remember, it wasn’t Republicans, it was Dumocrats.” In a follow-up post, he told the electorate: “You only have yourselves to blame!”

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With votes still being counted in the Alaska and Mississippi Senate races and elsewhere, Democrats currently hold a 54 to 44 majority in the Senate and are projected to win 253 seats in the House to the GOP’s 157. The results come amid a civil war brewing within the Trump administration, with insiders scrambling to assign blame, the president reportedly sounding out advisors on the potential firing of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly on “resignation watch.”

Inside the investigative blitz coming for Trump’s corporate allies

Democrats are preparing to unleash a wave of investigations that will probe the most sensitive and controversial actions of America’s largest corporations over the past two years, sparking a reckoning among Silicon Valley and Wall Street executives who courted the Trump administration — and who are now bracing for an onslaught. Days after winning majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats are setting sharp priorities. They are zeroing in on Apple, Meta and the companies led by Elon Musk as early targets for congressional investigations, according to two people familiar with the plans. The House is laying the groundwork to investigate President Donald Trump’s use of Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, to plan the military operation and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, according to those people. Lawmakers are also eyeing Apple over its hosting of tracking apps used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Meta over its demands that local governments sign nondisclosure agreements related to data center development.

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This report is based on interviews with five congressional staffers, lobbyists, venture capitalists and lawyers familiar with the preparations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private matters, along with recordings of meetings reviewed by The Washington Post. Those possibilities have prompted a flurry of activity in Washington, where corporate lawyers are hosting emergency online meetings, gatherings in co-working spaces and intimate bar conversations to dispense advice to founders and C-suite executives on how to prepare for the highly public investigations about to rain down on firms with ties to the Trump administration. Multiple firms have crafted pitches for why they should serve as Musk’s personal counsel, aware that the world’s richest man is likely to receive a barrage of subpoenas and that any casework stemming from those investigations will be both lucrative and the highest-profile investigative work available in the coming year, according to two of the people. It remains unclear in Washington’s corporate legal circles, however, whether Musk’s current team can manage these efforts, according to the two people. “This is a new era,” a lawyer at a prominent Washington law firm warned corporate executives in a private online meeting on Thursday. “If your company is caught up in this oversight, it’s likely to be much more highly publicized.”

State Stories

How Texas Democrats could change enforcement of the abortion ban

The momentum behind Texas’ anti-abortion movement stalled this week. The major Democratic gains in Texas are likely not enough to repeal the state’s strict abortion laws, but new state leaders could take a dramatically different approach to abortion-related issues than their Republican predecessors. That includes eschewing legal action against out-of-state healthcare providers who mail abortion pills to Texans, redistributing money now earmarked for anti-abortion causes and improving research on maternal deaths. “I do not intend to use Texas law as a tool of persecution, intimidation and harassment,” Democratic Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson told the Houston Chronicle. “I will uphold the law. I will enforce the law. But there's a difference between upholding and enforcing the law on the one hand, and using it to score political points by persecuting people on the other hand.”

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Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, who unseated three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, previously acknowledged to the Chronicle editorial board that “it's going to take more than the election of a governor to undo that and get us to a place where we have the protections of Roe v. Wade.” “That is ultimately what I support, but I'm not going to pretend like I can make that happen once I'm elected,” she said. “What I do think there is bipartisan support to do is to save women's lives.” Texas has some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, threatening anyone who provides an abortion with first-degree felony charges, civilian lawsuits and the loss of medical licenses. There are no exceptions for rape or incest, and the few exceptions that do exist -- for ectopic pregnancies (in which the fetus is unable to survive) or complications that put the mother’s life in danger -- have been met with confusion among doctors who have hesitated to perform the procedure in life-threatening situations. Multiple Texas women have faced health consequences or died because doctors delayed care for pregnancy complications -- delays that patients and other medical experts attribute to the ban, according to lawsuits and news reports. But the composition of the Texas House and top leadership posts changed overnight, with Democrats taking control of the Texas House for the first time in 24 years.

Texas wanted to power America’s AI boom. Its new governor could change everything

Less than a year ago, Texas Governor Greg Abbott stood beside Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO, to celebrate the company’s $40 billion investment in the state’s cloud and AI infrastructure. Three new data center campuses would help make Texas, Abbott declared, the “epicenter of AI development.” On Tuesday, Abbott, a Republican, lost his reelection bid to Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat who campaigned on halting new data center development until state lawmakers pass stronger protections for residents. At a press conference over the summer, Hinojosa accused corporations of taking advantage of Texans and operating with little oversight, blaming Abbott for creating the “Wild West of data centers.” Her stunning victory makes her the first Democrat elected governor of Texas since Ann Richards in 1990. And given that Texas is home to the country’s second-largest data center market, behind Virginia, the political upheaval could have profound implications for the artificial intelligence boom.

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Texas’s $2.9 trillion economy is the nation’s second largest; if it were a country, it would rank eighth worldwide. It boasts abundant energy resources, a ton of relatively inexpensive land, and a historically light regulatory touch—all of which have enticed AI companies (and companies in seemingly every other sector, for that matter). Researchers at Rice University’s Baker Institute estimate that annual data center investment in Texas rose from $3.4 billion in 2022 to a projected $66.2 billion in 2026. And much more is in the pipeline. Texas accounts for roughly 26% of planned American data center capacity—nearly three times the amount planned in Virginia—according to an analysis by the investment bank Jefferies, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Jefferies estimated that Hinojosa’s proposed moratorium could put 13.3 gigawatts of announced Texas data center projects at risk, potentially delaying construction or forcing developers to abandon their plans.

Gov.-elect Hinojosa promised to stop state takeovers, fire TEA leader. Can she?

Texas’ newly elected governor, who will take office in January, pledged to fire Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath and to stop existing state takeovers of school districts such as Fort Worth ISD. Political science experts say fulfilling these promises is less straightforward than it appears. Democrat Gina Hinojosa won over Texas voters this week, defeating Republican incumbent Greg Abbott with about 53% of the vote. As a former school board member in Austin who ran on a platform prioritizing public education, Hinojosa promised to turn the tides on state appointees taking over control of school districts with low-performing schools while also kicking out Morath, who oversees state takeovers of schools. In Tarrant County, Fort Worth ISD and Lake Worth ISD have been under state control since March and April, respectively.

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In a Thursday statement from the Texas Education Agency, state officials said Morath told superintendents that he is committed “to ensuring a smooth and successful transition for the incoming education commissioner” in a previously scheduled meeting on Wednesday. Morath met with education leaders at the Region 12 Education Service Center in Waco after visiting Troy Elementary in Troy ISD. “As planned, he was present for the entire presentation and provided introductory and closing remarks (at the superintendent meeting). As part of his remarks, he also expressed his appreciation for the educational leaders in the room and a commitment to ensuring a smooth and successful transition for the incoming education commissioner,” TEA officials said. Morath’s current term as education commissioner ends on Jan. 10, and Hinojosa’s inauguration is Jan. 19. Hinojosa’s campaign did not respond to questions about the logistics of firing of Morath or ending state takeovers as of Thursday afternoon. Fort Worth and Lake Worth ISDs both shared statements saying they would continue to focus on serving students with state-appointed leadership. “While political circumstances may change, our focus remains unchanged. We will continue to provide the highest quality education to every student in Fort Worth and keep building on the gains this community has earned,” Fort Worth ISD officials said.

Tesla to wind down Cybertruck production in Texas after years of poor sales in few markets

Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at its Texas gigafactory around mid-2027, CEO Elon Musk said on Friday, after years of persistently weak sales for a futuristic model once touted as a rival to legacy pickup trucks that ultimately only sold in just a handful of markets because of its heavy, angular design. Musk said in an X post the production wind-down would enable the automaker to accommodate increased output of its newly launched Cybercab model, which the billionaire has made central to Tesla's robotaxi ambitions.

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While it was not immediately clear whether Cybertruck production would be moved to another facility or phased out entirely, the automaker's Austin plant is the only known Tesla facility equipped to manufacture the model's specialized components. In response to a user on X, Musk called the Cybertruck the "best vehicle Tesla has ever made" and the wind-down the "end of an era". Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment sent outside regular business hours. The US EV maker only began delivering the Cybertruck to customers in late 2023. According to Kelley Blue Book, the company only sold 20,237 Cybertrucks in the US last year, down 48% from 38,965 in 2024. Before the pickup truck launched, Musk had predicted annual sales of 250,000 units. "It doesn't make sense to keep it going when it's not meeting its targets," said former Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer. "Every rational auto guy would say the same." "It will no doubt only be a rounding error on Tesla's balance sheet, but the statistics speak for themselves."

Texas’ chief justice-elect urges all-or-none wedding policy for judges

Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice-elect Maggie Ellis wants to amend a rule allowing judges to refuse to perform weddings on religious grounds, setting up an early test of her ability to reshape the court. Ellis, a Democrat, told The Dallas Morning News she wants to ensure judges who officiate weddings will perform ceremonies for all couples — without religious exceptions. “One thing I’d like to do is work with the other justices to amend these orders to say either you perform all marriages, or none,” she said.

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The court adopted the rule in October 2025, adding a two-line comment to the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct: “It is not a violation of these canons for a judge to publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief.” “It’s really the wrong direction for our Supreme Court,” Ellis said of the order. “It's back-door discrimination.” The amendment came after a Waco justice of the peace sued the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for reprimanding her for refusing to perform same-sex marriages. The American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ advocates decried the rule as discriminatory. The rule helped persuade Ellis, who previously served on the Texas Third Court of Appeals, to run for the state’s highest civil court. Now, after being elected Texas’ first female chief justice, she said she wants to reverse it. Ellis defeated Republican Chief Justice Jimmie Blacklock in Tuesday’s election. Fellow Democrats Chari Kelly, Kristen Hawkins and Gisela Triana also ousted Republican incumbents on the bench. The victories give Democrats four seats on the nine-member court, leaving the GOP with a 5-4 majority. Ellis will need support from Republican justices to change the wedding ceremony rule.

Jon Rosenthal joins Texas’ oil regulator with plans to double budget

As a "drill, baby, drill Democrat,” newly elected Texas Railroad Commissioner Jon Rosenthal said he isn’t coming for anyone’s oil rig. In fact, the sitting state representative and oilfield engineer from Houston said during a recent interview that he wants to encourage more energy production of all kinds as he prepares to serve as one of three powerful regulators of the state’s prolific oil and gas industry. But, he said, “we have to operate responsibly.” It’s the operative word for a regulatory agency that walks a fine line between protecting Texans from pollution and boosting the industry that fuels paychecks, state budgets and campaign coffers. The commission issues drilling permits and regulates oilfield activities such as oil and gas extraction, flaring and waste disposal.

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Rosenthal will be the first Democrat to serve on the commission since 1994. He aims to double the agency’s annual budget to roughly $500 million a year to hire more inspectors, specialists and scientists and pay more-competitive wages that retain talent. The commission’s need for more funding and more people to monitor oilfield activities is “without question,” he said. “I hope that's an area where I can find common ground with the other two commissioners,” Rosenthal said. Rosenthal joins the commission at a pivotal moment. The industry is running out of safe places to put its wastewater, forcing the regulatory agency on its heels as it grapples with an issue threatening the Texas economy and drinking water across the state. The commission’s budget is already growing rapidly as it contends with areas where oil and gas operators are stuffing so much toxic wastewater underground for disposal that the earth is spitting it back up, contaminating water and soil it touches along the way to the surface.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Here are the worst candidates Texans elected in the 2026 blue wave

It wasn’t all sunshine, rainbows and blue skies in Texas on election night. While many of the editorial board’s preferred candidates prevailed at the top of the ticket, the blue wave that James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa surfed to victory also swept a lot of flotsam and jetsam onto Texas’ political shores. It’s clear that most voters in both parties didn’t heed our plea to split their tickets, particularly in lower-profile races on Harris County’s lengthy ballot. If Texans can’t occasionally vote for a candidate on the other team, both parties must place a far greater emphasis on vetting candidates in primaries. Many Texans are thankful that vile candidates like Bo French lost, but he never should’ve made it to the general election in the first place. Our democracy, statewide and nationally, will be far healthier when voters aren’t simply picking the lesser of two evils, or blindly choosing any candidate with a D or R next to their name. Fans of good governance should encourage the new Democratic majority in the Texas House to consider reforms to how we select our judges and county officials. Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips, a Republican who endorsed Talarico for Senate, would be the right person to help lead that effort if Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa is looking for someone to chair a committee.

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Until then, Texans can rest assured we’ll be keeping an eye on the unqualified candidates who prevailed and that we won’t hesitate to hold them accountable if they fall short of expectations in public office the next time they’re on the ballot. U.S. Representative-elect, District 2: Steve Toth. The fact that Toth just barely squeaked it out over Democrat Shaun Finnie in a heavily red congressional district speaks to his weakness as a candidate and poor reputation as a state lawmaker. Toth, the owner of a pool maintenance services company, has been in the state House since 2012 with very few bills to show for it despite being in the legislative majority that entire time. Worse, he actively takes positions and votes against his constituents’ interests, such as his opposition to common sense flood mitigation bills. Justice-elect, 15th Court of Appeals, Place 3: Marc M. Meyer.q At first glance, Meyer doesn’t belong on a list with the rest of this motley crew. He’s a licensed nurse and former EMS supervisor for the Houston Fire Department who specializes in defending nurses accused of malpractice. But Meyer will now be thrust onto the 15th Court of Appeals after ousting Republican April Farris, an experienced appellate judge and lawyer with a stellar reputation. That’s a rather huge leap for a lawyer with limited appellate experience beyond medical malpractice cases.

Lina Hidalgo sued by former employee for discrimination, retaliation

A former employee of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is suing the county, alleging she was fired for filing a discrimination complaint. The lawsuit highlights a common issue for employees of elected officials: human resources and other departments have little sway over elected leaders. In most cases, the power to address workers’ complaints lies mainly in voters’ hands, as elected officials are broadly immune from disciplinary or other corrective action under Texas law – and numerous county offices are elected positions. The plaintiff, Tera Roberson, claimed Hidalgo’s staff openly discussed that the judge “preferred white men” for certain roles within her communications department, and viewed this as the reason she was passed over for a promotion.

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Roberson filed a complaint with Harris County Human Resources and Risk Management on Nov. 11, 2024, according to the suit. Eleven days later, after requesting an update on her complaint, she was fired, the suit alleged. Roberson, a Black woman and mother of two, had been promoted to a leadership role in Hidalgo’s office just one month prior to her termination, according to the suit. “One would like to believe that when you follow the process and make a complaint, that it will be looked at properly,” Roberson said in an interview. “Instead, the exact opposite happened to me. Once I was informed they were looking into it, I was fired almost immediately.” Roberson is suing for race and sex discrimination, as well as retaliation. A spokesperson for Hidalgo rejected Roberson’s allegations in a statement. “These allegations are false. Judge Hidalgo’s administration has appointed qualified and accomplished women, including women of color, to key leadership positions within her office and various county appointments,” the statement said. “Her administration has a strong record of elevating women to positions of authority at the highest levels of county government.”

Democrats poised to narrowly flip Texas State Board of Education

Democrats delivered a major shakeup to the Texas State Board of Education Tuesday night, breaking up the Republican supermajority. Democrats appear in position to double their seats on the board from four to eight, according to unofficial election results from the Texas Secretary of State. According to the Secretary of State's results, Democrat Dana Van De Walker beat Republican incumbent Audrey Young for the District 8 seat by a little more than 500 votes. Young could request a recount over the incredibly close results. Thursday morning, Van De Walker posted to social media celebrating her victory but said she was still tracking the results.

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“I’m still processing it,” Van De Walker said. “Things are not official official until votes are certified. So we are kind of waiting with baited breath.” Young did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding whether she would request a recount. Board members set curriculum and choose instructional materials for more than five million public school students across Texas. The board also develops education policies, oversees the State Board of Educator Certification — which sets standards for teacher certification — and holds the power to veto charter school applications as their popularity grows. Tuesday's election radically changed the Democratic voting power on the board. For several cycles, Democrats have had little recourse to counter ultra-conservative proposals pushed by their GOP board members. The flipped board comes alongside major changes in political leadership across the state. As part of her campaign, Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa promised to remove Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath with an educator.

New DART CEO expected to testify in January in prior agency inquiry

New Dallas Area Rapid Transit CEO Nathaniel “Nat” Ford is expected to testify in January to Jacksonville leaders as Florida state and local officials investigate his prior agency’s financial crisis. Ford led the Jacksonville Transportation Authority for 13 years before starting at DART last month. He left JTA in a cloud of financial concerns — a nearly $40 million budget shortfall, service cuts and dozens of eliminated jobs. Jacksonville leaders have subpoenaed Ford to testify on what went wrong at the agency. The Florida attorney general — Republican James Uthmeier, who won reelection Tuesday — is also investigating, with subpoenas naming Ford and seeking records involving contracts, payments and other agency business.

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Jacksonville City Council member and JTA liaison Rory Diamond said he expects the testimony to come early next year. It’s not clear if it will take place in person or if Ford will appear virtually. “I’ve been going back and forth with Mr. Ford about his appearance before the finance committee and expect that to happen in January,” Diamond said at a Nov. 1 meeting. “The exact date in January, we’re still going back and forth on.” Ford said he’s in contact with Diamond’s office and is working on scheduling. Article continues below this ad “I have great respect for the Jacksonville City Council and for the work we accomplished at JTA,” Ford said in a statement. “My focus remains fully on DART and the riders and communities we serve across North Texas.”

Dan Patrick steered the Alamo makeover. What happens next?

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick never forgets the Alamo. He’s captivated with the 1836 siege and battle and its mythology, his enthusiasm fed by the television shows and movies starring Fess Parker or John Wayne as defender Davy Crockett that he watched growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. Patrick says he has been “breathing it and living it” for decades. He heralds the site as a symbol of liberty and sacrifice and one of Texas’ most precious historic treasures. His Capitol office is a kind of shrine whose sacred objects include an Alamo diorama, a cannonball from the battle, a poster from Wayne’s Alamo movie and the signatures of Crockett, James Bowie, William Barret Travis and other defenders. Patrick has used his position, one of the most powerful in state politics, to shape a major public-private makeover of the Alamo grounds — and how the history of the site is told.

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He lost his re-election campaign to Democratic state Rep. Vikki Goodwin of Austin on Tuesday. His defeat raises questions about the Alamo’s future as the redevelopment of the 4.2-acre site and surrounding properties in the heart of downtown San Antonio inches closer to completion. “There is no elected official who has had more passion for the Alamo and the Alamo project than Dan Patrick,” said Douglass McDonald, a former CEO of the Alamo Trust Inc., a nonprofit that oversees day-to-day operations at the site. Patrick drove Texas lawmakers to allocate more than $500 million for the $700 million project as well as millions more for ongoing preservation and maintenance. And he has pushed for a historical interpretation of the site that focuses primarily on the 1836 battle, rather than a multifaceted telling of the Alamo’s complex 308-year history, including accounts of Indigenous people who lived in the area and how slavery shaped the conflict. In April, he announced that producer and writer Taylor Sheridan, creator of the TV series “Yellowstone,” would make a film recreating the story of the Battle of the Alamo for a 4D theater at the future Alamo Visitor Center and Museum. Patrick said he personally reached out to Sheridan to ask if he would take on the project.

Bee Moorhead: Texas Impact heads back to the UN’s Climate Change Conference

(Bee Moorhead is the executive director of Texas Impact, the state's oldest and largest interfaith advocacy network.) The international community will gather November 9-20 in Antalya, Türkiye, for the 31st United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP31. As in years past, Texas Impact will be participating in the COP as the only state-level, faith-based credentialed NGO observers and sharing video with the Chronicle from the conference. Texas Impact joins a cohort of experienced faith advocates from around the world in traveling to the meeting. As leaders of denominations, social action groups, and mission organizations, we hope to remind the parties in the official negotiating rooms that the need for climate action is not an isolated technical or scientific matter, but a humanitarian and ethical imperative of the highest order.

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U.S. faith participation in COP this year is urgently important. That’s partly precisely because our national leaders are staying away – effectively sidelining Americans in a critical global conversation that has existential implications for all people. It’s also important because the emerging agendas and work plans for this year’s COP reveal serious conflicts between interest groups, nagging doubts about the efficacy of multilateral negotiations in the current global political environment, and – most significant for faith communities – growing tensions between the goals of economic leaders and demands for equity and justice from marginalized groups like women, youth, and those living in areas already disproportionately impacted by climate change. The issues in play on the global stage – from interest group conflicts to political conditions to justice and equity – also are in play right here in Texas. Local fights over data centers are one potent example. And Texans, like all Americans, certainly are experiencing climate impacts on our weather. The United States is uniquely positioned with respect to climate change, both as a primary emitter of the greenhouse gases causing human-induced climate change and as a wealthy nation with the capacity to drive mitigation and adaptation worldwide. And we were on track to be climate leaders: The U.S. set ambitious emission reduction targets under the Paris Agreement, and operationalized those targets through the Inflation Reduction Act. Unfortunately, the current administration has undone decades of American leadership to address climate change. The U.S. has withdrawn not only from the Paris Agreement but from the entire United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – although subnational leaders continue to participate robustly.

The gay romance novelist who saw Blexas coming

Did you see blue Texas coming? Maybe you had considered that state legislator–cum–seminary student James Talarico could eke out a win against the scandal-ridden Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat, but there was no way the Democrats could also take the governor’s mansion. The mood heading into Tuesday night was one of hope heavily tinted by fear, even if many of us had an inkling that, as Slate writer Jim Newell wrote in September, this time in the Lone Star State might actually be different. But one person who did see the potential for Blexas on the horizon was Casey McQuiston, the bestselling author of queer romance novels. Their 2019 debut Red, White & Royal Blue (later turned into a Prime Video movie starring Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine) features an enemies-to-lovers dalliance between Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of a female American president, and Prince Henry, the third in line for the British monarchy. Spoilers ahead: These two crazy kids find a way to be together—while Alex also hatches an elaborate political strategy to, against all odds, flip Texas blue for his mom’s reelection, a plot point that was viewed with some amount of lighthearted disbelief at the time.

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Well, turns out McQuiston was right. When real-life Texas’ returns came in on Tuesday night, my feed became flooded with memes about this unexpectedly prescient 7-year-old novel, its 2023 film adaptation, and the all-important role this story might play in America during so-called “Woke 2.0” (or even 3.0, depending on who you’re asking). I called up McQuiston the day after the historic blue tsunami to get their read on this monumental night, and to ask if any of their other characters—who will appear again in the sequel to Red, White & Royal Blue, an epistolary novella called The Private Correspondence, out in December—have some political predictions they’d like to share. Slate: "How have your past 20 or so hours been, Casey?" Casey McQuiston: "It’s so funny. I’ve been burned so many times by watching returns that I was not letting myself really lock in too much. I was literally sitting right there at my sewing machine, working on Christmas presents, and I had Steve Kornacki on YouTube going. And then around the time they started calling Harris County in Texas—which I know is Houston, ’cause I’m a Houston bitch—I was like, OK, let’s put this aside for a minute. And so I swapped to my TV and started actually really watching. I pretty immediately started getting a lot of texts from friends and a lot of people being like, 'Oh my God, I’m thinking of you right now.'" Slate: "Do you feel vindicated?" McQuiston: "You know, I do! But at the same time, I wasn’t really surprised until [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott conceded. Honestly, even with how much I’ve been burned, I was really confident Talarico was going to win. And so I was just like, OK, let’s have a cute little night and let’s see what happens. But when Abbott conceded, I literally screamed 'WHAT!' out loud."

Corpus Christi approves water charges for industrial giants as landslide election rocks Texas

Amid a spate of historic political upsets across Texas, voters in the industrial port city of Corpus Christi on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a citizen-led petition to impose steep fees for water use on the region's refineries and chemical plants during future droughts. The measure passed by a two-to-one margin despite heavy spending by industry groups in opposition—a dramatic rebuke of industrial interests in a port city that leads the nation in crude oil exports. "The people have woken up," said Sylvia Campos, a member of the Corpus Christi City Council and the Democratic Socialists of America who supported the measure. "We overcame all that money." The city's referendum was part of an earth-shattering election across Texas, a fortress of conservative politics and the seat of the nation's energy sector, which saw Democratic challengers wipe incumbent Republicans out of every statewide office on the ballot.

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The new governor-elect of Texas, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, has described her politics as "economic populism." "In the past we evaluated politics as right versus left, I just don't think those labels apply at this moment," Hinojosa told the New York Times in October. "Things are so stacked against working people in this country." In Corpus Christi, a Gulf Coast city of 300,000, partisan lines didn't mark the political divisions that emerged over the referendum on industrial water fees, according to Paul Gottemoller, a professor of political science at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi. "It's kind of a country club, business, chamber of commerce thing versus a populism thing," Gottemoller said. "You do have populist and business sentiments on both sides of the political aisle." The measure, proposed as an amendment to the city's charter, would levy millions of dollars in surcharges on the region's largest water users—industrial titans like ExxonMobil, Valero and OxyChem—the next time its main reservoirs drop below 30 percent full.

Dan Patrick steered the Alamo makeover. What happens next?

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick never forgets the Alamo. He’s captivated with the 1836 siege and battle and its mythology, his enthusiasm fed by the television shows and movies starring Fess Parker or John Wayne as defender Davy Crockett that he watched growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. Patrick says he has been “breathing it and living it” for decades. He heralds the site as a symbol of liberty and sacrifice and one of Texas’ most precious historic treasures. His Capitol office is a kind of shrine whose sacred objects include an Alamo diorama, a cannonball from the battle, a poster from Wayne’s Alamo movie and the signatures of Crockett, James Bowie, William Barret Travis and other defenders. Patrick has used his position, one of the most powerful in state politics, to shape a major public-private makeover of the Alamo grounds — and how the history of the site is told.

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He lost his re-election campaign to Democratic state Rep. Vikki Goodwin of Austin on Tuesday. His defeat raises questions about the Alamo’s future as the redevelopment of the 4.2-acre site and surrounding properties in the heart of downtown San Antonio inches closer to completion. “There is no elected official who has had more passion for the Alamo and the Alamo project than Dan Patrick,” said Douglass McDonald, a former CEO of the Alamo Trust Inc., a nonprofit that oversees day-to-day operations at the site. Patrick drove Texas lawmakers to allocate more than $500 million for the $700 million project as well as millions more for ongoing preservation and maintenance. And he has pushed for a historical interpretation of the site that focuses primarily on the 1836 battle, rather than a multifaceted telling of the Alamo’s complex 308-year history, including accounts of Indigenous people who lived in the area and how slavery shaped the conflict. In April, he announced that producer and writer Taylor Sheridan, creator of the TV series “Yellowstone,” would make a film recreating the story of the Battle of the Alamo for a 4D theater at the future Alamo Visitor Center and Museum. Patrick said he personally reached out to Sheridan to ask if he would take on the project.

A quick message to Eric Johnson

You could switch back.

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County Stories

Susan Hays elected Presidio County Commissioner

Tuesday’s election resulted in a new Presidio County commissioner — Susan Hays — who beat write-in candidate Ida Dominguez for the Precinct 4 seat 459-264. The seat was held by Commissioner Frank “Buddy” Knight, who was appointed by the county judge after David Beebe inadvertently resigned from the seat when he announced his run for county judge too soon last year to meet constitutional requirements. (All results are unofficial until the government entities canvas the votes.) At his appointment, Knight said he had no intention of running in the election.

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Hays, an attorney and former state agriculture commissioner candidate in 2022, was unopposed in the March Democratic primary, and she appeared to be cruising unopposed with no Republican candidate for Tuesday’s election. But Ida Dominguez, wife of Sheriff Danny Dominguez, announced as a write-in candidate. Presidio County faces a lot of challenges, and I look forward to working with the entire Commissioners Court to improve the whole county, not just Marfa. In the only other contested Presidio County race, Democrat Bianca Bailon came out on top of Republican opponent Amabilia Galindo 677-305. Other county Democratic officials reelected with no Republicans opponents included: County Judge Joe Portillo, County/District Clerk Carolina Cataño, Treasurer Florcita Zubia and Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Dina Jo Marquez. Also elected with no Republican opposition were Precinct 2 Commissioner-elect Jesus “Junie” Herrera, and Precinct 3 Commissioner Obed Esonterias, who was appointed in March after Franky Ortiz resigned.

City Stories

Fort Worth is poised to lose its premier PGA Tour event at Colonial Country Club

Proving again that tradition has nothing on a giant pile of money, Fort Worth’s future with the PGA Tour, if there is one, will be a tournament of seniors who appreciate the history of the game, and its celebrated courses. This current iteration of the PGA Tour and its players may sell tradition, but that ambition is easily defeated by a bag of cash. As a result, Fort Worth’s Colonial Country Club will likely lose its spot hosting a premier PGA Tour event when the new schedule begins in 2028. Colonial Country Club hosts the longest-running non-major PGA Tour event, a tournament that began in 1946 and has been a staple on the schedule for 80 years. Unless something dramatically changes, the event at Colonial in 2027 will be its last as a premier PGA Tour tournament.

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A source confirmed the Golf Week Magazine report that the PGA Tour’s new format will likely not have Colonial and its Charles Schwab Challenge as part of its Championship Series. Sources did say that nothing has been officially decided, and that there are “many moving parts” to this future schedule. On Thursday afternoon, Colonial Country Club issued a statement via email to its members from its Board of Governors. “With the current Charles Schwab Challenge contract terminating in 2027, Charles Schwab, with Colonial Country Club’s full support and alignment, sought a place in the newly established PGA Tour Championship Series beginning in 2028. Despite Colonial’s best efforts, an agreement with the PGA TOUR has yet to be reached at this time,” the statement says. “While an agreement has not been reached at this time, Colonial Country Club remains actively engaged in discussions with a variety of organizations involved in sponsoring and staging championship golf as we explore opportunities to bring championship competition to Colonial in 2028 and beyond. We are actively exploring a range of options and alternatives and will share updates as our discussions progress and information becomes available.” Technically it’s not official, so there is still a chance that the CS Challenge could ace a shot from 180 yards into a stiff breeze, but this looks all but done. Because money.

In the shadow of failed school bonds, city launches 2027 bond process with new tri-chairs

City council discussed an updated list of proposed 2027-2032 bond projects on Thursday. They’ll be under the guidance of three newly appointed bond chairpersons. The proposed $442 million bond is about half the size of the 2022 bond, the result of a tough economy. It comes with a smaller list of public infrastructure and improvement projects — but no tax increase. Three bond-related propositions, tweaked slightly since the last council briefing on Oct. 29, will be put to voters in May. The next step in the process, the public review, gets underway Nov. 16 In the months to follow, the bond chairpersons are tasked with shaping the list of projects to present to the council on Jan. 21 then seeing that the bond is something the community will support.

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Put forth by Councilwomen Sukh Kaur (D1) and Phyllis Viagran (D3), the tri-chairpersons approved by the council are Kevin Dinnin, FirstDay Foundation president and CEO; OCI Group co-founder Anita Fernandez; and Sandi Wolff, Hallmark University vice president of Community Engagement and Advancement. “I think we’ve arrived at three great people who are going to make sure that the bond gets all the attention it deserves from the community,” said Marc Whyte, (D10). They are “going to lead the effort in a way that is going to be really nice to see, and it’ll be something that the community can rally around.” They could have their work cut out for them. While a Pre-K 4 SA reauthorization passed Tuesday, bond propositions and accompanying tax increases from four local school districts on the midterm ballot failed. The fifth district, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD, saw its proposition pass narrowly in with voters in Guadalupe and Bexar counties.

National Stories

The blue tsunami was the revenge of the Black South

Voters in the 2026 midterm elections issued a stunning rebuke of the Republican Party on Tuesday, delivering Democrats control of both the House and the Senate, in addition to a majority of state legislative chambers, governorships, attorney general offices, and more. A Democratic victory of this magnitude—which turned even staunchly red states like Texas blue—hasn’t been seen in generations. And a new memo circulated among top Democratic National Committee officials on Wednesday acknowledges that voters of color were “the driving force” of this massive win. The feat is all the more astounding because the voters of color who powered Democrats’ success were set up to fail. In July 2025, Donald Trump’s Justice Department started pressuring Texas officials to break up electoral districts where Black and Latino residents made up a majority of eligible voters. In August, Trump declared that Republicans were “entitled” to five more congressional seats and called on the state to redraw district maps to hand the GOP a structural advantage.

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Texas, led by Gov. Greg Abbott (who just lost his reelection campaign) and Attorney General Ken Paxton (who just lost his campaign for Senate), did as it was told. And at Trump’s urging, several more Republican-led states soon redrew their district maps, aiming to maximize partisan gains at the expense of meaningful representation for voters. Experts predicted a precipitous drop-off of people of color in elected office, and warned that 20 of the Congressional Black Caucus’ 62 members could lose their seats. Then, in April 2026, the Supreme Court poured fuel on the fire by eviscerating the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the Republican majority that district maps violate the VRA only if there is an “objective likelihood” of “intentional racial discrimination.” He stressed that maps drawn to achieve partisan goals easily pass that test, “even if it so happens that the most loyal Democrats happen to be Black Democrats.” And he emphasized that restoring the political power of people of color targeted with gerrymanders is unlawful, because that too is “intentional race-based conduct.” In other words, Alito gave Republicans the go-ahead to deny Black people an equal opportunity to participate in the political process.

Trump signs proclamation to prevent changes to Oval Office, other White House rooms

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Thursday designating the Oval Office, the Outer Oval Office and the Cabinet Room as a national monument and federal landmark, a move intended to preserve the spaces and prevent future administrations from altering them. "It won't be able to be taken down, destroyed, touched or anything else," Trump told reporters from the Oval Office. "It’s actually called a national monument. It’s a federal landmark. When completed … it'll make it impossible for anybody ever to destroy this incredible space. " Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House.

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The announcement came two days after the midterm elections in which Democrats won enough seats to gain control of Congress. The proclamation is part of a broader series of post-election public appearances highlighting White House construction initiatives. On Monday, Trump detailed planned updates during remarks in front of the Reflecting Pool. On Wednesday, he held a press briefing at the construction site of a new White House ballroom. Since returning to office in 2025, Trump has prioritized several high-profile architectural and cultural projects, including a proposed 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and proposals to rename and restructure the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Nithya Raman wins L.A. mayor race as Karen Bass concedes

The latest voter results released Thursday morning by the L.A. County Register-Recorder/County Clerk show Raman, a two-term City Councilmember, with a continuing commanding and growing lead over incumbent Bass. As of right now, with 72% of the expected vote counted, Raman has 429,450 to Bass’ 394,796. In terms of percentage, that’s a decisive 52.1%-47.9%. On Wednesday night, Raman had 51.67% to Bass’ 48.33% of the vote, with over 66% of ballots tabulated. Raman took to social media to thank the voters of “this beautiful joyful city” for her win. In the less than two-minute video, Raman praised Bass for her service over the decades. The newly minted Mayor-elected also promised those who voted against her or didn’t vote at all to use her time in City Hall to “earn your trust.”

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In a statement, Bass said: “Four years ago, you elected me as the first Black woman mayor in the history of Los Angeles. You gave me the honor of serving the city that raised me, and every single day since, I have carried that responsibility with me While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken. I have called Councilmember Nithya Raman to congratulate her on her victory, and I have committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition. Moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us.” Raman’s vote has been steadily growing since Tuesday’s general election, while Bass, who has been pilloried over her initial response to the 2025 wildfires, projected L.A. Olympics costs and quality-of-life issues, has been going down. While more vote drops are scheduled for later today and Friday, the trajectory made it mathematically impossible for Bass to catch up to her former ally and challenger. Today’s statement by the pragmatic 73-year-old veteran pol shows Bass is considering her legacy in the Democratic Party with the way the wind is blowing in the city and nation. Pledging to make the revitalization of film and TV production in the home of Hollywooda top priority in her administration, Raman’s win is a shock to the L.A. political establishment, who lined up solidly behind Bass. To that, Raman will surely move quickly to heal divisions that emerged in the party during the campaign. At the same time, as midterm election results across the nation this week made clear, voters want change in what looks to be a generation shift. On that note, the 45-year-old Raman will not be the youngest mayor L.A. has ever had. That distinction goes to Alpheus Hodges, a physician who was 28 when he took over City Hall’s top job in 1851 while also serving as L.A.’s coroner. Hodges led the then city of less that 1,700 for less than a year.

Should cities take control of their electric utilities?

The concept of public power may be an unfamiliar one for many Ann Arbor residents who have only ever paid for electricity from a for-profit company. But Ann Arbor would not be the first to create its own electric utility if voters say yes to Proposal E on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and the city follows through on it. About 40 Michigan communities have had public power since the late 1800s or early 1900s — cities like Chelsea, Lansing, Bay City, Traverse City and dozens of others. Nationwide, about 2,000 community-owned, not-for-profit power utilities serve tens of millions of customers across the United States — everywhere from Austin to Nashville, Los Angeles, Seattle and beyond, including the entire state of Nebraska. Proponents want Ann Arbor to create a public utility that would replace DTE Energy, the investor-owned utility that has served Ann Arbor for more than a century. Opponents of the ballot effort, which include DTE and city officials, argue it would be too costly, citing estimates the city may have to borrow anywhere from a few hundred million dollars to $1 billion to buy out DTE and the likelihood of a costly legal battle to break away from DTE.

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Dozens of communities across the U.S. have attempted municipalization of their electric grids in recent decades and most never panned out, notes the DTE-backed Ann Arbor Responsible Energy Coalition, which is campaigning against Prop E. City Council Member Erica Briggs, one of several Ann Arbor officials against the proposal, cites Boulder, Colorado, as an example of a failed effort. Boulder set out in 2010 to cut ties with Xcel Energy and spent nearly $30 million on a decade-long legal fight before giving up. “I accept the basic concept that evidence demonstrates municipal power, if you have it, is generally more affordable and more reliable,” Briggs said. “The question is just us trying to do it 100 years after the infrastructure has been built.” Jonathan Koehn, Boulder’s chief sustainability and resilience officer, told the Ann Arbor Energy Commission in 2021 he didn’t consider his city’s municipalization attempt a cautionary tale. It was worth it and he would do it all over again, he said. “We did make mistakes and you can learn from those mistakes,” he said. Boulder’s intention wasn’t to own and operate poles and wires — it was to achieve community goals, Koehn, said, and he’s still a believer in public power.

Goodbye from Salon: It has been an extraordinary privilege.

Today, after 31 years, we are saddened to announce that Salon is ceasing publication. It’s difficult to find the right words for the end of something that has meant so much to so many people. Salon was never just a website. It was an idea about what journalism could be, born at a moment when the internet was still a largely unexplored frontier. When Salon launched in November 1995, the web was a very different place. A small group of journalists set out to create something original: a publication with a strong voice, a curiosity about the world and a belief that the internet could bring journalism and readers together in new ways. They helped pioneer a form of journalism that would come to define an entirely new era of publishing.

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Over three decades, Salon has brought together politics, culture, criticism and ideas in a way that was distinctly our own. Our journalism examined power and politics, questioned assumptions, surfaced stories that deserved attention and made room for perspectives that were too often overlooked. Our writers and editors helped shape conversations about the forces changing our lives. The work was never simply about keeping up with the news. It was about making sense of it. The history of Salon is also the history of the people who made it. We are profoundly grateful to the journalists, editors, photographers, producers, designers, business teams and countless other colleagues who brought this publication to life across its many chapters. To the founders who imagined it, the staff members who built it, the contributors who gave it their voices and the alumni who carried its spirit into the world: Thank you. Salon’s legacy belongs to all of you. We also want to thank our readers. You came to Salon for the journalism, the dialogue, the essays, the criticism, the unexpected discoveries and the sense that there was a place on the internet where ideas mattered. You read, shared, challenged, subscribed, wrote to us and kept coming back. Your engagement made Salon a publication and a community, and it gave our work meaning. We are so grateful for the time you spent with us.

The fight is growing over ballot counting in Mississippi’s tight Senate race

National party operatives, lawyers, grassroots activists and content creators are descending on Mississippi to observe the vetting of thousands of provisional ballots in the coming days and to gear up for possible legal challenges over the final results. Mississippi, a state not used to the national spotlight for close elections, now sits at the forefront of a fight that will determine the size of the Democrats’ majority in the US Senate next year. Democrat Scott Colom has a razor-thin lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly 40 years and no Black person to the Senate since Reconstruction.

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Both Colom and Hyde-Smith have assembled extensive teams ready to observe and potentially challenge ballot-counting procedures ahead of Mississippi’s December 3 deadline for certifying the results. “We were prepared for this for months,” Colom told reporters Wednesday. “We have an army of lawyers. We have local lawyers. We have everybody involved to make sure the process is followed according to the law.” At a press conference Thursday, the state GOP touted the 50-plus volunteer attorneys and observers it had sent across the state, and Mississippi Republican Party Chair Michael Hurst said many more are prepared to jump in to help. “Our attorneys and observers will continue to be in different parts of Mississippi – watching as election commissioners review and process these outstanding ballots, ensuring that our elections are followed and that only ballots which have been legally cast are counted,” he said.

The 'World's Best Airline' is updating its business and first-class experience

Singapore Airlines is rolling out new onboard seating, dining and entertainment options as part of an over S$2 billion ($1.6 billion) investment to keep up with rivals from around the world. The cornerstone of this investment: new premium cabin seats for its long-haul flights, which will progressively debut on the Airbus A350 long-haul and ultra-long-range planes in mid-2027. First-class seats will come with 32-inch 4K high-definition screens, Bang and Olufsen noise-cancelling headphones and options for passengers to book double bed and face-to-face dining configurations. New First Class seats will feature a configuration where travelling companions can choose to dine face to face if their seats are beside each other.

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Seating in business class will come outfitted with 22-inch 4K screens, wireless charging and Bluetooth audio connectivity. These retrofits to the A350 aircraft also come as SIA grapples with a long-running delay to the delivery of new Boeing 777-9 planes, which were slated to come in 2021 and now faces an uncertain date as to when it will take delivery of the aircraft. These products will also debut with the 777-9 aircraft when they come into service with SIA. Minor refreshes will be added to other classes, such as an extra inch of reclining space in premium economy cabins, and new upholstery in economy class. Both will also come with new 4K seatback entertainment monitors, but the new features for economy and premium economy seats will only be on the incoming 777-9 aircraft.

Copyright November 06, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved