July 28, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

A rare bipartisan coalition takes aim at Texas data centers, urging Abbott to call a special session

Calls are growing among data center opponents for Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session for lawmakers to rein in the projects that have roiled rural communities. On Monday morning, in advance of two interim hearings this week dealing with data centers, grassroots organizers from across the state convened at the Capitol to voice their opposition to the massive computing centers that have proliferated rapidly over the last year. The protest comes as data centers have emerged as an unexpected flashpoint ahead of November’s midterms. Roughly 40 people held signs reading “Governor Abbott is all hat and no cattle” and chanted “special session now.” Abbott, who as recently as November touted Texas as the “epicenter of AI development,” has sought to address the bubbling backlash among voters in deep-red rural Texas by directing state regulators to ensure data centers do not pass on costs for new electrical infrastructure to ratepayers.

click here for more

He has urged lawmakers, who reconvene for the next Legislative session in January, to repeal the centers’ lucrative sales tax exemptions and set up rules on where they can be built. Troy Jones, a GOP precinct chair from Paris, said Abbott has not gone far enough. “To go far enough would be to have a special session to get the House and the Senate to get on board and to get something done,” Jones said. “It just keeps getting kicked down the road. Nobody really wants to do anything. Counties' hands are tied. They can't do anything.” Abbott is the only official with the power to bring lawmakers back for a special session. Sid Miller, the outgoing Republican Agricultural Commissioner whom Abbott campaigned against in the primary, pointed to the governor’s office and urged the crowd to call on him to act. “He can hear everything we're saying, and I invite him to come down here and join us today,” Miller said. “The governor has authority to bring the legislature back tomorrow. He can have them in session tomorrow. So we're calling on him to do just that.”

Judge orders release of a witness to Lorenzo Salgado's shooting

A federal judge on Monday ordered U.S. immigration authorities to release Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, one of the witnesses to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's shooting death. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison granted Rojas' habeas petition and ordered ICE to release him from a Conroe detention facility within 48 hours, according to a filing issued in the Southern District of Texas. Ellison said Rojas' continued detention would violate his Fifth Amendment rights to due process, if he were held without an "individualized justification." Justice Department lawyers argued in a Friday motion that precedent set by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans allowed Rojas to be detained throughout removal proceedings. Ellison noted the Fifth Circuit's ruling, but wrote that it had "no effect" on Rojas' claims.

click here for more

Rojas' lawyer couldn't immediately be reached for comment. The U.S. Attorney's office and Department of Homeland Security didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Rojas has been held at the Conroe facility since July 7. He was one of three construction workers whom Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving to work that morning, shortly before immigration agents began pursuing the van they were riding in. The chase ended on Canal Street in Houston's East End, where an ICE agent fatally shot Salgado. Federal officials have said in statements that Salgado "weaponized" his van and rammed pursing ICE vehicles. But through statements passed through their lawyers, Rojas and the other men have denied that Salgado attempted to hit anyone on purpose. Salgado's death sparked weeks of protests in Houston and prompted calls for independent investigations. At least three agencies — the Department of Homeland Security, the Harris County District Attorney's Office and the Texas Rangers — have said they are investigating the shooting. Rojas had been detained without a bond determination while removal proceedings continue. He has applied for a U visa based on the circumstances of the shooting, with certification from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow new mail-in voting rules

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow federal agencies to move forward with new mail-in voting policies. The application seeks to lift a lower court ruling that blocked, in nearly half of all states and the District of Columbia, two parts of an executive order from March that directed the U.S. Postal Service to create mail ballot rules and the Department of Homeland Security to compile a national database of eligible voters. Attorneys for the administration argued that an injunction against the policies is “premature” because the agencies have not yet implemented the executive order, which gave them “substantial discretion” to do so. “Accordingly, much remains uncertain as to what a final USPS rule might include or what the contents or uses of any DHS lists might be,” the filing says.

click here for more

And, with fewer than 100 days until the midterm elections, the administration said it does not have time to let the lower court process play out first. “Even if the agencies’ implementation plans end up being entirely lawful, there is not enough time to obtain ordinary appellate relief from the injunction in order to carry them out before the November election, especially given that any such plans will need to be implemented well before November given the timing of election procedures concerning voter-roll verification and mail voting,” the filing says. Efforts to implement any DHS rule or USPS rule would need to begin as soon as early- to mid-August to be in place for the 2026 election, the filing argued, “particularly given that absentee and mail-in voting begin (in some States) several weeks prior to Election Day.” The order would require USPS to regulate the redesign of mail-in ballots and envelopes. A state must also notify USPS if “it intends to allow for mail-in or absentee ballots to be transmitted by the USPS,” 90 days before the election, and any mail-in ballots submitted must be checked through a preapproved list of eligible voters.

ICE extends no-bid contract for major detention center in Texas, rejecting calls for closure

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to keep one of its largest and most expensive detention facilities open for at least another year despite calls to close it over reported human rights abuses, according to a notice published last week. ICE plans to extend the no-bid contract of the firm that runs Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, through Sept. 30, 2027, at a potential additional cost to taxpayers of $776 million, the notice says. This is on top of a $452 million initial contract that the firm, Amentum Services Inc., was awarded in March when it was hastily installed to take over the camp’s operation from a contractor removed for poor performance.

click here for more

For months, Democratic members of Congress and several advocacy organizations have called for Camp East Montana to be closed, citing reports that detainees have been routinely mistreated since its opening in August 2025. A report released earlier this month by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union alleged that staff routinely beat detainees, denied them medical care, made them live in filthy conditions and fed them inedible meals. Reports by federal agencies have also found unsafe detention conditions and that the Army and ICE have wasted millions of dollars paying for unnecessary services. At least three Camp East Montana detainees have died. The facility at Fort Bliss, an Army base near the U.S.-Mexico border, has housed an average of more than 2,000 male and female detainees a day since Oct. 1, though its population has declined significantly in recent months, according to ICE data.

State Stories

House ethics panel investigating Gooden, who rejected the allegations

The House Ethics Committee announced Monday it is investigating unspecified allegations against Republican Rep. Lance Gooden of Terrell. The Office of Congressional Conduct referred the matter to the committee June 10. Gooden indicated the allegations are related to “spending” and he dismissed them as unfounded. “These are bogus spending allegations perpetrated by dishonest unelected OCC bureaucrats, and as the fifth Texas GOP ally of the president to endure one of these attacks, I am confident the House Ethics Committee will confirm their baseless nature,” Gooden said in a statement.

click here for more

He did not specify whether the spending in question was by his official office or his campaign. The committee provided no details about the allegations, saying it will announce next steps by Nov. 9. “The committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the committee,” it said in the announcement. The Office of Congressional Conduct, previously called the Office of Congressional Ethics, fields many complaints and refers a small number to the committee for further review. Under House rules, the panel can review those complaints confidentially for a period, but is required to issue a public statement if it needs more time.

Why Greg Abbott is targeting James Talarico instead of Gina Hinojosa

Greg Abbott’s challenger for governor is Democrat Gina Hinojosa, but Senate nominee James Talarico is commanding most of his attention. Abbott and his GOP allies see Talarico’s record-breaking fundraising and voter turnout operation as a bigger threat to Republicans up and down the November ballot. They see no need to engage with Hinojosa, a state representative from Austin who is not as widely known and lacks the same political resources. So whether it's a rally, news conference or fundraising appeal, Abbott doesn't say Hinojosa's name. And when his campaign aides are asked about Hinojosa, they respond by asking, "Who?" It's an old-school strategy for a new-era race.

click here for more

"We don't talk about her. We don't think about her. We don't care about her," said Dave Carney, Abbott's longtime chief political strategist. "We are running our own campaign, and she can run her own campaign." In response, Hinojosa said Abbott is "scared" to engage her because he's in the pocket of corporate donors and has a poor record to tout. "Greg Abbott won't talk about me because he's afraid to run against me," she said in a text message. "He sees the polling showing this is the closest race of his political career." Talarico, a state representative from Austin, raised more than $31 million in the second quarter of this year, more than tripling the $9.3 million hauled in by his Republican rival, Attorney General Ken Paxton. Carney warned that along with the money Talarico raises for his individual campaign, up to $400 million in outside money could pour into Texas to mobilize Democratic voters.

In ‘limbo’: North Texas family’s legal battle with school district could affect special ed statewide

Shannon Harriman is careful when he talks about his son, Kelton Lightfoot. Harriman describes his son as a funny 17-year-old who wants to get a job, learn how to drive and spend time with the family’s gentle black labrador retriever, Hudson. For all of his affection and devotion to Kelton, there’s also exhaustion, frustration and concern. “A lot of times, it is good,” Harriman said. “[He] can be funny and great to be around. It’s just when it’s bad, it’s sometimes really bad.” Kelton’s intellectual and behavioral development has been significantly affected by a traumatic brain injury he sustained when he was two weeks old. Harriman said Kelton’s disabilities manifest mostly in his behaviors — which can often be violent.

click here for more

“He can go from being happy to spitting on you, to hitting, throwing things, threatening you with knives, a lot of verbal escalation as well,” he said. For several years, Harriman has split his time and energy between his job in IT and trying to ensure his son has the resources he needs. That’s how Kelton became the center of a legal battle that could have far-reaching implications for accessible education across Texas. Earlier this year, Weatherford ISD — about 30 miles west of Fort Worth — was given 10 days to comply with an order to provide specific resources for Kelton. Months later, the family is still waiting — and advocates warn Kelton might not be the only kid affected. As a child, Kelton went between school districts, full-time therapy providers and short-term treatment programs.

Kerr County officials still taking stock of damage from latest flood

County Judge Rob Kelly picked up his wooden name plate on Monday morning and tapped it like a gavel on a folding table. That was how the Kerr County Commissioners Court started its first regular meeting since flooding struck the county on July 16. “That’s as good as I got today,” Kelly said. “Where in God’s name do we begin?” With their usual home at the Kerr County courthouse rendered unusable by the flooding, the commissioners met at the old Kerrville municipal court building. They sat behind two joined folding tables, with a small console table serving as a podium. As they continue to take stock of the damage done to county infrastructure by this year's flooding, the commissioners on Monday got briefings from multiple county officials. Some of the takeaways include:

click here for more

County officials aren’t sure when they can return to the flood-damaged courthouse; Several flood-damaged bridges remain closed; County staffers are still assessing damage to infrastructure along the Guadalupe River. As much as seven feet of water flowed into the basement of the county courthouse, and it could take a year to repair, Kelly said. Damage to the courthouse varies by level, Kelly said. The first floor will take at least a month to reopen. Before employees can return to the first floor, it must be cleared of asbestos, mold and bad odors, Kelly said. The courthouse’s second floor was not damaged by the flood, but the building’s elevator is out of commission. Kelly said federal law prevents county offices from operating on the second floor if a working elevator is not available. “The nastiness downstairs has caused problems upstairs,” Kelly said. Kelly said it's not clear when the elevator will be repaired. Flooding did significant damage to 10 bridges in Kerr County and four of those remain closed, said Kelly Hoffer, administrator of the county's road and bridge department. Flood debris remains wedged under some of the bridges, and the county lacks the proper equipment to remove it and will need to "get some help" Hoffer said.

North Richland Hills City Council unanimously approves more data center regulations

North Richland Hills council members unanimously voted to amend zoning requirements for data centers that want to locate in the city. After a public hearing Monday, July 27, the council voted to require that data centers must have specific use permits before they can operate. Councilman Matt Blake was absent because of work. Planning Director Cori Reaume told the council that the specific use permits means city staff would consider noise, water systems and effects of data centers on adjacent properties. She added that there are specific use permits for other types of businesses, including drive-thru restaurants and secondhand goods sales.

click here for more

Reaume also said that a FlashVote survey went out to residents asking them to list their top four concerns about data centers. Those concerns included high water use, noise from backup generators and the concern that tax revenues wouldn’t cover the infrastructure demands that data centers would cause. During the public hearing, speakers shared similar concerns. Resident Karen Martin said the recommendation for specific use permits is a “good starting place.” “Time is of the essence because our doors are open,” she said. Martin also said she is worried about the grid, although improvements have been made. She provided information packets to the council members and said she had concerns about “heat islands” from data centers. North Richland Hills adopted data center regulations in June 2025 to address the new use. Some requirements include specifying that data centers larger than 10,000 square feet are allowed on industrial property by right, or on commercial property with a specific use permit.

The latest front in the Texas trans wars? The American Revolution

A Texas member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and her supporters are calling on the national nonprofit organization to bar transgender women from its ranks, pitting traditionalists against progressives on yet another culture war battlefield. At the group’s 135th Continental Congress in June, members voted down a resolution to clarify the term “woman,” as used in the organization’s bylaws, to only include “a woman who was born female.” For three years before that, Laura McDonald, a member from Mount Pleasant, had lobbied to keep transgender women out of the group, known as the DAR. McDonald said she discovered in 2023 that the DAR had transgender members. While investigating further, she found a frequently asked questions document that had circulated among state and national officers of the DAR confirming the organization’s stance on allowing transgender women. According to a copy of that document, which McDonald shared, the DAR’s position is that because transgender women live and identify as women, they are permitted to join the DAR as long as they meet other membership requirements.

click here for more

The stipulation is that transgender individuals seeking membership must have birth certificates stating they are female. In all but a handful of states, people can change the gender on their birth certificates. Texas, however, is not one of them. The head of the DAR in Texas, Susan Johnston, referred the Star-Telegram to the organization’s national president, Ginnie Storage. Storage did not respond to an email asking for perspective on the DAR’s policy regarding transgender members. None of the Fort Worth DAR chapters responded to requests for comment. The DAR was founded in 1890 by women who were excluded from joining the Sons of the American Revolution, a historical preservation organization founded by men whose forebears helped the United States secure independence from Great Britain in the previous century. The DAR’s bylaws state that membership in the organization is open to women 18 or older who can prove “direct lineal bloodline descent from an ancestor who aided the fight for American independence.” According to the DAR’s website, there are 175,000 members and 3,000 chapters in the U.S. and abroad. When asked how many transgender women were in the DAR, McDonald said she was told there were three or four.

Texas AG Ken Paxton launches investigations into feminine care products

The Texas attorney general says he's launching an investigation of popular cosmetics and feminine care products that potentially contain toxic chemicals. On Monday, AG Ken Paxton announced investigations into Tampax and Kotex, as well as products that brand themselves as "clean" and "non-toxic," like LOLA and L. The investigation cites a UC Berkeley study that found heavy metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic in tampons. “I will continue to work tirelessly to help Make America Healthy Again by stopping companies that illegally put toxic heavy metals and dangerous chemicals in their products,” Paxton said in a media release.

click here for more

“Many corporations have neglected the health of women by using harmful ingredients in their everyday products, but my office will fight to defend Texas women and their health. No corporation should mislead women about the safety of its products, and my office will thoroughly investigate any company that harms the health of Texans.” KVUE reached out to the companies mentioned, but we have not heard back yet. The attorney general also said he's investigating lip products that may contain harmful ingredients like titanium dioxide. He did not name specific cosmetic companies he's looking into. Paxton said the investigations will focus on potential violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and whether consumers were misled over the safety, quality or chemical makeup of the products.

Fort Worth council member says cop who shot child sex offender did ‘Lord’s work’

Fort Worth City Council member Charles Lauersdorf was criticized over the weekend following his Facebook post saying the officer who fatally shot a convicted child sex offender was doing the Lord’s work. Lauersdorf made the post shortly after midnight on July 26 after he attended a press conference with Police Chief Eddie Garcia at the scene of the shooting in south Fort Worth. Police were looking for 56-year-old Ricky Shane Lindsey on a felony warrant for cutting off his ankle monitor, Garcia told reporters late Saturday night. Lindsey was convicted in McLennan County in 2004 on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child, according to the Fort Worth police department’s sex offender registry.

click here for more

He was released from prison in October 2024, but indicted in January 2026 for failing to register with the Fort Worth Police Department, according to court records. Lindsey was spotted driving near Interstate 35W and Risinger Road about 8 p.m. After a short vehicle pursuit, Lindsey stopped at a motel parking lot on the 100 block of Palette Drive, just south of the Everman Parkway exit, where police say he produced a weapon, Garcia said. Police fired, Lindsey was struck, and died after receiving medical attention, Garcia said. In his post, Lauersdorf characterized the shooting as the Lord’s work. “Our Directed Response Unit took a sex offender off the street - Permanently - saving taxpayers money and keeping us safe. I couldn’t be more proud!” Lauersdorf said in his post. One person called Lauersdorf’s post disgusting, arguing police don’t sign up to be “judge, jury and executioner.”

How a Dallas mom says leaders of a nonprofit tried to take her baby

(Editor’s note: WFAA repeatedly reached out to the leaders of Reflection Ministries, including traveling to Midland to try to talk to them. Both declined to answer questions.) On a recent day inside a Dallas courtroom, there were baby gifts, balloons and a small celebration. For DeAmber Brown, it was a moment she wasn’t sure she’d ever see — holding her baby again after months of separation, court fights and weeks in jail. “I’m just happy to have my baby back,” Brown said. But Brown also said her ordeal is far from over. What started as a search for shelter while she was pregnant turned into a fight for her freedom and her child that stretched from Dallas to Midland. Brown, a human trafficking survivor, says the leaders of a West Texas ministry that promised to help her instead tried to take and keep her baby. “To hear what I have to say is unbelievable,” Brown told WFAA.

click here for more

Brown’s story began in November 2025. “I was at the end of my pregnancy,” she said. “I’d just quit both my jobs, too big to work,” she said. Homeless and in need of help, Brown says a Dallas shelter referred her to Reflection Ministries, a Midland-based nonprofit that works with trafficking survivors. On Nov. 21, Brown arrived at the group’s housing complex outside Midland, known as “The Village.” “I really thought it'd be a place where I could start over, bring my other kids, have a life, a new life,” she said. Ten days later, Brown underwent an emergency C-section at Midland Memorial Hospital. “They were like, you're going to have this baby tonight,” Brown said. Brown says while she was in the hospital, Elizabeth Walker, the chief operating officer of Reflection Ministries, began making strange comments. “’She's just having a baby for me. She's just the surrogate,’” Brown recalled Walker saying. “And I really thought she was joking. I was laughing and never in a million years did I think it was real,” Brown said. Reflection Ministries’ founder, Lisa Bownds, would later produce paperwork – which has since been filed in court and obtained by WFAA – claiming Brown signed over temporary guardianship of her newborn to her.

Inside the parish-led fight against a $123M ICE facility in Texas

In the 1980s, Maria Estella Padilla went door to door after Mass, organizing house meetings to bring running water and sewerage services to hundreds of thousands of homes along the Texas-Mexico border. Today, at 82, she’s back to organizing her neighbors and fellow parishioners at La Purisima Catholic Church in an effort aimed both at stopping a planned immigration detention center and protecting the access to water that she and others fought so hard to win decades ago. “We did it back then when we didn’t have the internet, when we didn’t have social media, but now they communicate quickly. It would be easier in a way to do it now than it was back then when we had to go door to door and take signups after Mass,” she said of her latest fight.

click here for more

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, then headed by Secretary Kristi Noem, announced a $38 billion plan to buy and retrofit 11 warehouses across the country to convert them into sprawling detention facilities to serve the administration’s mass deportation program for undocumented immigrants. (DHS spent $1 billion on buying the 11 facilities.) That included three warehouses on the edge of Socorro, about 15 miles southeast of the El Paso city limits, which were built to hold nuts harvested from nearby pecan groves. The property, sold to DHS for $123 million by a Kansas City area developer, included three reinforced concrete warehouses of about 296,000 square feet each, with an adjacent plot of land available for expansion. DHS initially said the Socorro facility would hold up to 8,500 immigrants awaiting deportation, which would have made it one of the largest immigrant detention centers in the country.

Fort Bend resident whose lawsuit led to Daniel Wong’s appointment as county judge wants that decision vacated

Fort Bend County's Democratic commissioners remain in a stalemate with their Republican counterparts over Daniel Wong's authority to serve as county judge – a key question as the suburban Houston-area county approaches tax rate discussions and the elected position is set to be on the November ballot. The county resident who filed a lawsuit last fall against former county judge KP George – which led to Wong's interim appointment in April – is asking a district court judge to help provide an answer. Wong, a Republican who is facing Commissioner Dexter McCoy in November's county judge election, was appointed to serve in the role by Judge Jeth Jones.

click here for more

The visiting Republican judge from Galveston County did so while suspending George – in response to a civil lawsuit filed by a resident who claimed George violated her free-speech rights and was incompetent to hold office. Jones' decision followed George's criminal conviction in March on felony money laundering charges. Now an attorney representing the resident who filed the civil suit, Sarah Roberts, is asking Jones to vacate his temporary appointment of Wong as of June 17, the date the lawsuit was initially dismissed at Roberts' request. Jones presided over a court hearing last Thursday that included Roberts' attorney as well as legal counsel for Wong, who is challenging Roberts' request. Jones called the case “complex” and indicated he would make a ruling “soon,” also discussing the possibility of another hearing in the case. In addition to arguing that Wong's appointment became invalidated when the lawsuit against George was dismissed, Roberts' attorney, Dylan B. Russell, also argued that his client lacked standing to sue in the first place because a county attorney or county district attorney was not involved in litigating the matter.

As bus drivers threaten to strike, CapMetro board member urges more pressure on management

With the possibility of a transit strike shutting down virtually all fixed-route bus service in Austin, a CapMetro board member joined transit workers Monday in calling on the agency to push harder for a labor agreement. Meanwhile, an executive with Keolis, the private contractor which operates most of CapMetro's bus service, acknowledged to KUT News that the company must negotiate within financial limits set by the transit agency. Council Member Zo Qadri, who also serves on the CapMetro board, told reporters that he's asked tough questions of the agency's leadership as about 1,400 bus drivers, mechanics and other workers threaten their first strike since 2008.

click here for more

Asked whether CapMetro controls how much workers can be paid, Qadri said "it seems like CapMetro could put their thumb on it ... a little bit firmer." The comments increase scrutiny on a central question in the dispute: How much control does CapMetro have over negotiations it has publicly characterized as being a matter between Keolis and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091? Keolis Assistant General Manager Cynthia Rasco said the company decides how to bargain within the constraints of money available. And she confirmed the limits are set by CapMetro. "Not that they tell us how to do that, but there's a certain financial parameter that we do have to remain within," Rasco said. A July memo to CapMetro's board uses similar language, saying Keolis is negotiating "within the financial parameters provided by CapMetro." The memo says Keolis may have to find savings elsewhere in the union agreement.

City Stories

Dallas 'hid' homeless people from FIFA, council member says, cites ongoing 'inhumane' conditions

Dallas City Council Member Cara Mendelsohn — who chairs the city's Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee — says the city hid its homeless community from FIFA World Cup visitors and pushed unsheltered individuals out of downtown with no enforcement. The comments were part of a Facebook post made on her official District 12 profile late last week. Mendelsohn wrote that she cared deeply about homelessness but also voiced frustration that some people experiencing homelessness push back attempts to help. "If you are homeless in Dallas, and aren't willing to go to any shelter or program, be reunited with your family, go to in-patient detox or mental health care, there has to be a forced removal and some kind of consequence," she wrote.

click here for more

"People can't take over public land and make our medians their toilet. It's not safe and sanitary for Dallas residents, businesses, or the homeless. In the post, Mendelsohn said she received notice that a “bucket” of human feces was found dumped at the intersection of Frankford Road and the Dallas North Tollway. She later clarified in a follow up post that a city contractor sent out to clean the debris said it was sausage and ribs, not human feces. “The city isn't enforcing state laws and local ordinances,” Mendelsohn told KERA. “It is unsafe and inhumane to ignore that people are living unsheltered.” There were 44,545 calls regarding homeless encampments between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2025, according to the latest data from Dallas 311. Several Texas Penal codes and Dallas City codes prohibit camping, obstructing roadways, sleeping in public places, and urinating or defecating in public. Mendelsohn said in her post that the city needs to encourage people to move to shelter and, if necessary, enforce the law to make that happen. She says the answer should be as unique as the individual's situation or crisis that led them to become unsheltered.

Under pressure from Mayor Jones, Spurs to pay part of penalty over failed MLS bid

The Spurs organization will pay the city of San Antonio and Bexar County a penalty of $2.6 million because it failed to lure a Major League Soccer team to the Alamo City — a requirement under a decade-old soccer stadium deal. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has made it her mission to enforce the provision, repeatedly calling on Spurs Sports & Entertainment to fulfill its end of the $21 million agreement, which resulted in the city and county purchasing Toyota Field from philanthropist and one-time developer Gordon Hartman in 2015. “Payment in accordance with the contract would remind everyone of the strength of the City’s relationship with the Spurs owners — a relationship built on mutual respect,” Jones said to SS&E managing partner Peter J. Holt in a May 15 letter.

click here for more

SS&E, which owns San Antonio FC, agreed to repay the San Antonio-Bexar County Soccer Public Facility Corporation a combined $5 million penalty if it failed to secure an MLS expansion team by 2021. The corporation is the city-county entity that owns Toyota Field, which San Antonio FC leases for $100,000 a year. San Antonio FC plays in the USL Championship, a men’s professional league a tier below MLS. SS&E declined to answer questions about the payment, which the PFC board will vote to approve on Thursday. “This will fulfill the City’s portion of the amount owed to the PFC by SS&E,” said city spokesperson Brian Chasnoff. To date, SS&E has repaid $250,000, according to the city. It has missed $1.75 million worth of scheduled payments, which amounted to more than $2.1 million after factoring interest as of April.

National Stories

Pentagon reports more than 600 Iran war casualties in quiet database update

The Pentagon updated its official war casualty database over the weekend, adding more than 140 wounded service members. The Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) also introduced a new casualty category labeled “Overseas Operations” for personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7”. According to the updated database, the official toll for the earlier phase of the US-Iran war, known as Operation Epic Fury, now stands at 14 service members killed and more than 400 wounded in action. These figures have been a point of contention after the Pentagon previously reduced the totals from 18 deaths and 482 wounded that had been recorded just days earlier.

click here for more

The dispute comes after the collapse of the ceasefire with Iran and the resumption of near-daily airstrikes beginning on 6 July. Analysts and officials have questioned whether casualties from the renewed fighting should be counted separately from Operation Epic Fury, a move that would be unprecedented. The Trump administration is seeking to classify the renewed military campaign as separate from Operation Epic Fury, the US military’s official name for the Iran conflict. The change is tied to the War Powers Act of 1973, which requires the president to end military operations within 60 days unless Congress authorizes an extension. The Trump administration has argued that the April ceasefire with Iran paused the clock on 1 May for the conflict’s initial period. The separate casualty count beginning on 7 July follows that interpretation.

McConnell says he is unable to return to US Senate yet

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell said he will not ?rejoin the Senate when it returns to work on ?Monday because he is still recovering from a fall and from pneumonia. "As much as it frustrates me, this process takes time," McConnell said in a ?statement on Sunday, his first since he was hospitalized last month. "And ?on the advice of my doctors, I won’t be ?able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet." He ?said that he suffered a fall in mid-June that left him ?briefly unconscious. While hospitalized, he developed pneumonia and was treated with antibiotics, according to a separate statement that McConnell's office attributed to the attending physician. ?The physician was not identified.

click here for more

McConnell, 84, said he is now at ?a rehabilitation center, which he did not name. He will focus on "physical therapy and ?strategies ?to reduce his risk of future falls," according to the physician's statement. The Kentucky Republican and former Senate majority leader, who now chairs the Senate Rules Committee, said he has been working with his ?legislative staff on ?current issues ?and keeping in touch with Senate colleagues. McConnell has been out of public view since mid-June, when he ?was taken from his home to a hospital ?in the ?Washington area for reasons that were not disclosed until the latest statement. Less than a day earlier, the office of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a ?South ?Carolina Republican and one of the ?chamber's most prominent members, announced that he had died from a heart ailment.

Kevin Warsh’s first two months as Fed Chair: What he changed, and what could happen next

On the evening of June 15, before the first day of his first policy meeting as Federal Reserve chairman, Kevin Warsh sat down to dinner with the 18 officials who set interest rates alongside him. Gathered around a rectangular table, he announced his plan: five panels of outside experts would spend the next few months examining how the Fed reads the economy and explains itself. Governor Christopher Waller, a former economics professor with a reputation for saying what others won’t, put Warsh on the spot, according to several people familiar with the dinner. What’s the point of all this, he asked. Tell me who you’re putting on these groups, he said, and I’ll tell you what they’ll say. There were no brilliant ideas out there that everyone had somehow missed. The dinner was an early sign of the central tension of Warsh’s chairmanship. He is determined to remake the Fed and convinced it can’t afford to wait.

click here for more

Last year, Warsh persuaded the most rate-cut-hungry president in modern memory to hand the central bank to him despite his long record of worrying about inflation. Now he faces another tricky sale: convincing his colleagues to abandon the intellectual habits of an economics profession he thinks led it astray. The Fed meets again this week with an outcome that is unusually uncertain. Many expect it to hold rates steady, but a renewed inflation scare has put a surprise increase in play. Part of why it’s so hard to call is Warsh’s signature early move on Fed reform: He is saying less—about the economy, about where policy is headed, about his own thinking—and that silence is generating its own tension. Last month’s dinnertime exchange was, in one sense, exactly what Warsh says he wants: a “good family fight,” in the phrase he uses often, over outcomes not settled in advance. Waller had obliged, insinuating Warsh was importing outside authority to ratify long-held views and dressing them up as discovery.

Why Trump’s SAVE threats aren’t working

President Donald Trump is upping his pressure campaign on Senate Majority Leader John Thune over the SAVE America Act, backing a push from hardline conservatives to scrap the August recess to try to pass the voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill. But it’s not as easy as Trump makes it out to be. First of all, Thune doesn’t want to cancel the recess for a bill that has nowhere close to 60 votes. And he’s not alone. There are two potential paths to get the bill moving — blowing up the filibuster or bringing the House-passed budget resolution to the floor. Nuking the filibuster isn’t happening. Trump has pushed for months to eliminate the 60-vote threshold on legislation, and a big chunk of Senate Republicans still won’t budge. More alarming for the White House: Senate Republicans still don’t have the requisite 50 votes to proceed to the House-passed budget resolution.

click here for more

And even if they did, the SAVE America Act’s $10 billion blueprint may not pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian. The hangups. Why is the budget resolution so unpopular in the Senate Republican Conference? There are those like Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) who won’t vote for anything that includes SAVE Act provisions. “It doesn’t have the votes,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who backs the measure. “It is an exercise in futility if the votes aren’t there. Period, end of story. Do something productive with your life.” Another big problem: Defense hawks say the House’s $67 billion for the Pentagon isn’t nearly enough amid the war in Iran and Trump’s massive $1.5 trillion FY2027 budget request. Thune told us Monday he’d “prefer doubling” the defense number — and then suggested it may have to be bumped up to get 50 Senate Republicans on board. “I do think that’s an issue,” Thune said in an interview. “Frankly, if we’re going to do this — and what it’s going to take to get this done — you kind of want to make it worthwhile. I think the president asked for $350 billion… We’re at $67 [billion].”

SpaceX stock-purchasing by Congress members fuels conflict concerns

Three days after SpaceX’s blockbuster public debut, Rep. William Timmons bought as much as $100,000 of the rocket company’s stock. The South Carolina Republican chairs a House oversight panel on military and foreign affairs and sits on a financial services subcommittee covering artificial intelligence — two sectors central to Elon Musk’s newly public empire. He was not the only member of Congress to buy in. Within six days of the June 12 initial public offering, at least six House members or their immediate families purchased a total of between roughly $83,000 and $245,000 in SpaceX shares, according to a CNBC tally of the amounts reported in House financial disclosures, where transactions are reported in ranges. Joining Timmons were Reps. John McGuire, R-Va., Dan Meuser, R-Pa., Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., John James, R-Mich., and Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.

click here for more

That total reflects the combined minimum and maximum values reported for the six transactions: $50,001 to $100,000 for Timmons; $1,001 to $15,000 for McGuire, Moskowitz and Cisneros; and $15,001 to $50,000 for James and Meuser. That count could rise. House members must report stock trades over $1,000 within 30 days of learning of them and no later than 45 days after the transaction. Monday was the deadline for reporting IPO-day purchases; trades in the following six days are due by Aug. 2. Five of those members serve on committees overseeing aspects of SpaceX’s business — including defense, satellite communications and AI — and securities markets. The company relies heavily on federal approvals and receives billions in government contracts — spending directed by the very lawmakers buying its stock. There is no evidence the lawmakers traded on nonpublic information, violated congressional trading rules or used their offices to benefit SpaceX. The trades are legal; three were made by a spouse or child, and some lawmakers say outside advisors manage their portfolios. While there have been efforts to limit the practice, Congress members are allowed to own and buy individual stocks provided they disclose their purchases and holdings.

El-Sayed comes under fire for 'ogre on a pike' leaked comment

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing backlash from within his own party after using controversial rhetoric to describe the stakes of his victory in a recent donor meeting. “If I win ... well y’all came at me so now I get to come at you, and you know, primarying people like John Fetterman, I have no problem to do that,” he said, according to audio of a Zoom meeting obtained by POLITICO. “Ideally you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different,” El-Sayed added later, referencing how he could help propel the progressive moment. On Monday, several Democrats were quick to slam his comments. “Violent, vulgar threats have no place in a democratic electoral contest,” said Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.). “With political violence on the rise, we need to be doing everything we can to lower the temperature — not raise it. It’s the American people who suffer most when we degrade the political process this way.”

click here for more

Some took El-Sayed’s remarks as an attack on the party. Shannon Watts, founder of gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action, said on X that El-Sayed “doesn’t mean Republicans.” Another gun control activist, Fred Guttenberg, wrote: “That is what Abdul El-Sayed and his DSA movement think of Democrats and the party.” Guttenberg — whose daughter was killed in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting — urged Michiganders to support El-Sayed’s primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, and “show AES the loss he deserves.” An El-Sayed campaign spokesperson referred POLITICO back to an earlier statement that the candidate was “speaking metaphorically” about his intention to support a primary against Fetterman, a Pennsylvania senator. Fetterman and El-Sayed have clashed over support for Israel. The senator, who possesses a towering stature, has been mocked for his physical appearance by political rivals, and the “ogre” moniker partly stems from an attack by Kari Lake, a failed Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate and ally of President Donald Trump.

A desert town may run out of water. Others could face the same fate.

Mayor Curtis Stacy starts every morning checking two websites that tell him how much he needs to worry about water. One site tells him about the reservoir that supplies his tiny desert town — it’s effectively empty. The other site tells him if the town gets additional water that other communities with more senior rights aren’t using; right now, the answer is yes. But Stacy tries to remind Kearny’s roughly 2,000 residents that they could easily tip back into crisis mode, just like this spring. In newsletters, he underscores that fragility with no less than 20 exclamation points. If other communities call for more water, they will have to cut back again. “!!!!!!!!!!THIS SITUATION IS ALMOST CERTAINLY TEMPORARY!!!!!!!!!!” he wrote in one bulletin posted on the Kearny Facebook page and taped up and down the glass doors of the town office.

click here for more

Kearny is an extreme example of the water crunch facing communities across the West as states and cities stare down a future of “megadrought” and fight over scarce resources. An unusually dry winter this year left the Southwest parched, with not enough water for everyone laying claim to it. In the complex web of water rights that govern how that short supply is distributed, the tiny town of Kearny comes last. Other cities around the West could face similar challenges and cutbacks. The federal government is set to release a plan for the shrinking supply of Colorado River water this summer that could force dramatic cuts. Kearny is not directly affected by the Colorado River negotiations, officials say, but its dilemma shows how dwindling resources — and water-rights rules that can feel arbitrary to those most affected — can upend daily life. Kearny usually uses about 280 acre-feet of water a year; this year, it was allocated 77 acre-feet (one acre-foot supplies about three homes annually). Town officials realized they were on track to run out of water in July. The crisis forced steep reductions in water use and now hangs over the town’s future, testing residents’ ability to adapt to shortage. It has also consumed much of Stacy’s final year in charge, giving him new gray hairs and new worries about his hometown, a community where everyone knows everyone and where you can get ahold of the mayor by walking into his office.

Washington says goodbye to Sen. Lindsey Graham

President Donald Trump, congressional colleagues and world leaders Tuesday will say their final goodbye to Sen. Lindsey Graham, the influential and colorful foreign policy hawk whose sudden death this month at age 71 stunned Washington and reverberated in capitals around the globe. Two days of ceremonies and funeral services will begin around 10 a.m. ET Tuesday when Graham’s casket arrives at the Capitol for a brief ceremony in the rotunda that will include nods to both his military service and his more than three decades in Congress. The ceremony will be private but livestreamed.

click here for more

From there, Graham’s casket will depart for Washington National Cathedral for an invitation-only funeral service at 2 p.m. ET. That also will be livestreamed. Trump is expected to speak at the funeral. Cabinet officials and congressional and military leaders are expected to be on hand, as are global leaders who viewed Graham as a key American ally on defense and foreign policy matters, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Also present will be Graham’s sister and successor, Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., who was sworn in to her late brother’s seat this month and plans to run for a full term in an Aug. 11 primary. Remembrances will continue at the South Carolina State House on Wednesday morning. Graham’s casket will be carried by a South Carolina State Guard horse-drawn military wagon, known as a caisson, followed by an F-16 flyover to mark his more than three decades in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve.

Copyright July 28, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved