July 23, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas politicians call for AI guardrails after OpenAI security incident

Texas politicians across the political spectrum are calling for guardrails on artificial intelligence and data centers. This comes after OpenAI disclosed that one of its AI models gained access to another company’s systems during a security evaluation. On Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said via social media, “We had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models.” OpenAI identified the target as Hugging Face, an AI platform that hosts models and datasets. “The model searched for and successfully found ways to gain access to secret information,” OpenAI said in a recent statement. The model then used that information to access Hugging Face servers.

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The incident raises a broader legal question if it were to happen again: Who is responsible when an AI system hacks a company? University of Texas Law Professor Kevin Frazier says the answer is not so simple. “It depends,” Frazier told Nexstar Wednesday. “We know that the laws we have on the books in many ways were not written with these highly sophisticated AI models in mind.” Frazier says existing laws often focus on human decisions and company actions, creating uncertainty when AI systems act in unexpected ways. “The law that is currently being evaluated by legal scholars and by AI pundits is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA),” he said. “So it includes, in many of its provisions, a intent provision asking, for example, did a computer user intend to hack into another system? We’re not sure how that’s going to apply to situations like this one in which intent is really hard to attribute to an AI system.” Frazier noted the law likely won’t be tested in this circumstance, as OpenAI and Hugging Face appear to be handling the situation together.

‘We’re getting into an ugly phase’: Trump’s new tariffs are angering voters and U.S. allies alike

Tariffs are back — and they couldn’t come at a worse time for the GOP. Some Republicans fear the eye-popping new levies President Donald Trump threatened to slap on Canada and generic drug makers this week will aggravate Americans who were already blaming the tariffs for stubborn inflation ahead of a midterm election dominated by economic issues. The president has long brandished tariffs as a cudgel in negotiations and some industry insiders see the promise of a future 50 percent tariff on $20 billion of Canadian goods and 100 percent levies on generic drugs as the latest example of a well-worn tactic. The administration is hoping to get Canada to re-negotiate a trade pact and pharmaceutical companies to reshore manufacturing.

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But the president’s allies fear that nuance will be lost on voters and argue the new tariffs — which could raise the prices of popular goods like alcohol and bacon, and the heart pills necessary to mitigate their effects — threaten to undercut the long list of victories Republicans would rather be touting. “Everything that you do that’s not focused on affordability is not helpful. This might not be a negative five, but it’s a negative 0.5. Anything that you’re doing that is not on the plus side of the scale is a problem,” said one person close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak about the impact of the tariffs on the GOP’s midterm chances. “When you announce new tariffs, it’s not like, okay, well, let’s see what they do. It’s, ‘Oh crap, those are the bad things.’” The threat of new levies — the duties on Canada are not scheduled to take effect until mid-August and the generic duties until 2028 — come as the administration slowly rebuilds its tariff wall in the aftermath of a February Supreme Court ruling that struck down a broad swath of Trump’s trade regime. The president is set to unveil another set of tariffs ranging from 10 to 12.5 percent on 97 countries in the coming days. The administration also has several ongoing investigations that could result in tariffs on everything from wind turbines to industrial machinery.

Ken Paxton’s fundraising woes are beginning to worry some in the GOP

James Talarico is the most well-funded Texas Democratic Senate candidate in years. Some in the Republican Party are worried about the challenge Attorney General Ken Paxton is mounting in return. “A joke,” one GOP strategist said of Paxton’s fundraising this week. Another, when asked if they were worried about the impact Paxton’s cash disadvantage could have on downballot races, said “everybody is.” “I’m more concerned than I was in 2018,” said Jill Tate, president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, referring to Beto O’Rourke’s close loss to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. “Talarico is a formidable opponent.” Paxton’s campaign said it raised $9 million in the quarter ending last month, compared to Talarico’s $30 million

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Some Republicans who support Paxton are optimistic that his strong connections to the base and to President Donald Trump will drive turnout in November. Others say his scorched-earth primary fight with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn turned off traditional GOP donors and is evidence that enthusiasm in the broader Republican umbrella is not what it needs to be ahead of a pivotal election. A candidate’s fundraising is important outside of the fate of their own race. Down-ballot candidates are often buoyed by high performers in their party who fund get-out-the-vote efforts, campaign events and generate excitement. Tate said Talarico comes across as likable and well spoken, and “that’s what affects the entire ballot.” She’s not the only one who thinks so. Cruz said Talarico has a “real chance” to beat Paxton on a radio show earlier this month. He’s now reportedly helping Paxton smooth things over with some major Republican donors.

James Talarico rolls out plan to rein in data centers. It's a lot like Greg Abbott's.

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on Wednesday rolled out a plan to address the growing backlash to data centers — and it sounded a lot like the one pushed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Opposition to the centers has galvanized voters, especially in deep-red rural parts of the state, and has led to calls for a moratorium from several Democrats on the ticket in November. Talarico’s proposal stops short of that. The Austin Democrat and the Republican governor — who is not running for U.S. Senate, but has sought to brand Talarico as “out of step” with Texans — are both pushing for a middle ground. “I don't know what Greg Abbott's plan is, but I'm willing to work with anybody, including the governor, to pass these common sense regulations,” Talarico said at a press conference in Austin, where he laid out his proposal. “We have to strike a balance between welcoming growth, welcoming investment, and protecting people and communities.”

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Talarico and Abbott both want to repeal tax breaks that are driving the data center boom across the state. They want to require data centers to reuse water and to stop companies from passing on infrastructure costs to ratepayers in the communities where they build. The sales tax exemption for data centers was created before Abbott was elected governor in 2014, but he signed a law expanding it in 2015, well before demand boomed amid the rise of artificial intelligence. Talarico’s plan does go a little further than Abbott’s in some ways. Perhaps most notably, Talarico says he wants to “empower local communities to decide whether they want a data center in their town.” Any changes he wants to make in the U.S. Senate will have to be at the federal level, which could be more complicated, politically. “The biggest concern I hear from communities across the state is that this is being done without their consent,” Talarico said. “They may be open to some of these projects, depending on the guardrails, depending on if demands are met. But right now, folks in the community, taxpayers, aren't getting that input, and that's what we have to change.”

State Stories

Nvidia supplier Wistron launches $700 million Texas factory for AI system production

Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang calls a partner's new supercomputer assembly plant in Fort Worth a key part of the artificial intelligence infrastructure ecosystem that will "re-industrialize" the United States. Huang and other executives from the world's most valuable company were on hand for the July 21 opening of the first of two Wistron Corp. plants in the city. They pulled a curtain off the first GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Superchip built by the Taiwanese company in Fort Worth, with Huang signing the chip: "The world's first made in Texas, U.S.A." Those chips ultimately will be installed in supercomputer racks for the GB300, the most powerful AI supercomputer in the world. The computers weigh two tons, cost $4 million and consist of 1.5 million parts. They are installed in data centers that power AI systems.

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"We're producing them like phones right here in Wistron," Huang said. Huang believes Wistron's manufacturing sites in Fort Worth, an estimated $761 million investment, will be key to his company's $500 billion initiative to build out AI infrastructure. Other partners include Taiwanese companies Foxconn and TSMC. Nvidia is the most valuable company in the world with a market capitalization of $5.2 billion, according to Yahoo Finance. The first factory by Wistron in Fort Worth, called D1, is located in a 324,598-square-foot building at 15200 Heritage Parkway. The building is part of Hillwood’s 27,000-acre AllianceTexas development in far north Fort Worth. Wistron estimates the investment could create up to 900 jobs, which will assemble and test the technology. Wistron is one of several companies in Dallas-Fort Worth partnering with Nvidia to build out artificial intelligence infrastructure. Earlier in July, Huang spoke at a Coherent groundbreaking in Sherman about how artificial intelligence will "re-industrialize" the U.S. The city of Irving, in Dallas County, approved incentives for Nvidia projects.

Secret’s out: Amazon is the company behind Austin’s fast-tracked Dog’s Head project

The identity of the Fortune 100 company that has quietly driven the city’s push to fast-track approvals for the Dog’s Head development is finally public: Amazon. Austin Assistant City Manager Eric Johnson revealed at the City Council’s work session Tuesday that Amazon’s robotics division is the anchor tenant Dog’s Head developers have been trying to lure to the proposed 2,600-acre, mixed-use project in Southeast Austin. Johnson had argued for months that the city’s ability to land the company depended on moving quickly through the approval process. The urgency shaped the city’s handling of Dog’s Head. Before the project drew widespread public scrutiny, the City Council annexed the Southeast Austin land in late May. The city also signed off on a 45-year, wide-ranging agreement that allows the developer, Endeavor, to build almost anything.

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Until Tuesday, the city and Endeavor had refused to name Amazon publicly due to confidentiality agreements. The disclosure answers a question that has lingered for months as residents and environmental advocates criticized the city for accelerating approvals without fully explaining what was driving the urgency. Dog’s Head is a four-square-mile proposed mixed-used development that could bring thousands of houses, businesses, industrial plants and even data centers to the site. Residents and environmentalists have protested the project, saying the city is moving too fast and regulating the development too loosely. Dog’s Head won’t move forward unless the City Council approves a tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, a financing tool. Under a TIRZ, Endeavor would build infrastructure, such as water and sewer lines. The city would reimburse much of that cost over time using the new property tax revenue generated within Dog’s Head. The council is expected to vote on that plan at its Thursday meeting.

‘This isn’t a peacekeeping initiative — this is a terror campaign’: Texas faith leaders condemn ICE deaths

A group of religious leaders gathered Wednesday (July 22) at the Texas State Capitol to condemn recent immigration enforcement-related deaths in Texas, Maine and Florida and to demand that federal immigration agents end what one pastor called a “terror campaign” against migrants. “We grieve every death, every act of violence and every enforcement practice that unnecessarily endangers human life or diminishes the God-given dignity of our immigrant neighbors,” said Bishop Sue Briner of the Southwestern Texas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “When fear begins to shape the daily lives of our neighbors, it is time for the church to show up.” The news conference inside the Capitol brought together about two dozen leaders from the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, the South Central Conference of the United Church of Christ, the National Council of Jewish Women and other faith-related groups.

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Texas Impact, an interfaith grassroots advocacy network, organized the event in response to the July 7 fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Houston. The religious leaders present condemned deportations, detention centers and enforcement-related deaths involving ICE amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. Federal agents who determine that their actions have been immoral should “resign and find other work,” said the Rev. Jim Harrington of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Austin, where he works with immigrants, and who is also a lawyer who founded the Texas Civil Rights Project. “Following orders is never a justification in the Christian tradition — nor in international law — to perpetuate evil,” Harrington said. The Rev. Dan De Leon, senior pastor at Friends Congregational Church in College Station, invoked the Sermon on the Mount. “Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’ Notice that Jesus does not say, ‘Blessed are the peacekeepers,’ which is what ICE alleges to be doing in our communities,” De Leon said.

Dallas poll tests mayoral candidates and bond measures

Shortly after the dinner hour Tuesday, a text message popped up on my phone. It was “James with Zylun Insights” asking me to take a survey “on issues important to residents of Dallas County.” Now, usually I ignore these things. I have a limited list of things I use my phone for, and that’s not one of them. But the name of the company asking made me click through. Zylun Insights is now Clear Insights. The link in the text says Clear Insights. If you go to the Zylun Insights website, it redirects to Clear Insights. In April, WFAA’s Cole Sullivan led the charge in trying to uncover who hired Zylun/Clear Insights to survey Dallas residents about future arena sites. (The city’s contract for polling is with ZenCity.) That particular survey had 30 questions designed to feel out a survey taker about various high-profile Dallasites, including Mayor Eric Johnson, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, and others, as well as people connected with the American Airlines Center and the Mavericks, such as Miriam Adelson and Mark Cuban.

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But it also asked the survey taker to choose from four options for a future arena site: City Hall, the former Valley View Mall site, the AAC, and an “unnamed location outside Dallas city limits but still inside Dallas County.” It also queried about whether people would be down with a future ballot measure that would direct tax dollars toward financing the arena. Yesterday’s survey kicks off by asking about the likelihood of the respondent voting in the November midterms. It then launches into specific Dallas questions: Is the city on the right path? What is the number one challenge the city faces? Will you still live in Dallas in two years? What would make you change your mind about living in Dallas? It also asked respondents to give the city an A-F grade on transparency, crime and public safety, cost of living and affordability, responsible use of taxpayer dollars, availability of good paying jobs, tourism and culture, homelessness, business and economic development, pensions and taking care of seniors, debt and long term finances, education and taking care of children, roads and transportation, sports and recreation, and city leadership. It also asked whether the survey taker has a favorable opinion on specific people: potential mayoral candidates like former mayoral candidate Lynn McBee and former Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa, Dallas police Chief Daniel Comeaux, former police chief David Brown, and former Dallas City Councilmember Jennifer Staubach Gates. It also asks for job approval responses for Mayor Eric Johnson, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Councilmember Gay Donnell Willis, Dallas City Council as a whole, the Dallas police and fire departments, and Dallas City Hall staff and administration. The survey then turns its attention to two bond measures that will likely appear on the November ballot. One would ask voters to approve nearly $400 million in bonds to complete two police training facilities. The other would ask voters to approve $500 million in bonds to address the city’s public safety pension shortfall. Both questions ask survey takers to say how likely they are to vote for or against the bonds, from “Definitely Against” to “Definitely For”. The next few questions lead survey takers through several statements that have or could appear in news stories or campaign materials for those ballot measures, asking the respondent to indicate whether the statement would make them more or less likely to change their minds about their leaning, or if it didn’t move the needle at all.

Elon Musk pumps nearly $5M into Texas GOP, Abbott campaign

Texas Republicans and their causes have received nearly $5 million from the world’s richest man this year. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, has given $500,000 to Texans for Greg Abbott in the six months through June, according to the latest campaign finance reports filed with the state. Other high-profile donations include $250,000 to Rep. Dustin Burrows, the speaker of the Texas House, and the Elon Musk Revocable Trust gave another $500,000 to Texans for Dan Patrick, the campaign committee of the lieutenant governor. At the start of the year, he gave $500,000 to Patrick’s Texas Senate Leadership Fund ahead of a Senate special election in North Texas. The Musk trust’s other political contributions this year include $2 million to the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC and $1 million to the Judicial Fairness PAC.

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Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which backs tort reform, has overwhelmingly supported Republican candidates for office. From 2025 through April, it is also the political action committee that has spent the most on state elections. The Judicial Fairness PAC has supported Republican judicial candidates across Texas. Musk is making donations outside of Texas, too. He gave $5 million to a super PAC supporting Republican billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for Ohio governor. He also sent $10 million to both the Senate Leadership Fund and Congressional Leadership Fund, which support Republicans. He contributed less than $500,000 in the second quarter to his own America PAC, which backed President Donald Trump’s re-election. In all, his donations for the midterm election cycle are at least $90 million. From September 2024 to April, he had given $5.5 million to political action committees in Texas. The year 2024 also saw his funding of a group that unsuccessfully tried to unseat Travis County District Attorney José Garza in the Democratic primary. Until increasing sharply in 2024, his donations to Texas politicians totaled $69,500, almost all of which was given in 2014. Musk’s personal net worth is tied largely to his 42% stake in SpaceX and roughly 15% ownership stake in Tesla. Much of his fortune is on paper, tied to the fortunes of his companies, and he’s said less than 0.1% of it is in cash. He briefly became the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX went public in June. The company’s shares shot as high as $176 on their first day of trading, pushing Musk’s personal wealth above the $1 trillion mark and the company’s market value to $2.2 trillion. In recent days, Musk’s net worth has dropped to less than $800 billion as investors have driven down SpaceX shares after it aborted the 13th launch of its Starship rocket last week for engine trouble.

Paxton dodges ethics questions while claiming Talarico isn’t Christian

Within the last week, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton has claimed his opponent holds views “antithetical … to historical Christian views” while refusing to answer questions about his own alleged illegal voting. Paxton, a Southern Baptist layman, will face Presbyterian minister James Talarico in this November’s general election for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas. Paxton already defeated Republican incumbent John Cornyn, a devout Catholic, in the May primary. Paxton has been dogged by ethics complaints for decades and was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives but spared conviction by the Texas Senate after Donald Trump threatened revenge against any state senator who voted against Paxton. This year, Trump endorsed Paxton in the primary despite a trail of ethics complaints.

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One of the key themes of Paxton and the GOP in general against Talarico is that he is not an authentic Christian but someone who embraces the Social Gospel. That makes him not only a liberal in their eyes but also not a Christian. Other Republican leaders have falsely labeled Talarico as a homosexual and a transgender man. On June 25, Paxton appeared on the “Lieutenant Dan” podcast with Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and said this about Talarico: “His views are antithetical to Christian, historical Christian views. They’re — it’s deceptive for him to present his views as historical Christianity. They are not Christian views. They are his views that he’s adopted from liberal theology that do not reflect what Scripture says. None of his views that I’ve heard match up. They’re literally the opposite of Christianity.” Talarico’s “liberal” views include the belief that Christians should care for the poor, welcome immigrants, support public education, reject Christian nationalism, protect religious freedom and treat LGBTQ people with dignity. Paxton recently reached an out-of-court divorce settlement with his estranged wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce “on biblical grounds.” The Texas attorney general’s extramarital relationships have been well documented.

A gas leak caused by a line strike outside an Uptown Dallas apartment forced an evacuation

A gas line struck by a construction company outside an Uptown apartment complex Wednesday afternoon caused a gas leak and the evacuation of over 180 apartments, Dallas Fire-Rescue said. The scene was cleared by 6 p.m. and residents had returned to their apartments, according to DFR. Firefighters responded to the gas leak at the MAA Meridian Apartments around 1:20 p.m. and dispatched the HazMat team to address the situation despite there being no gas readings inside the building, according to Jason Evans, a DFR spokesperson.

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Reports indicated the leak was caused by a construction company hitting a 6-inch commercial gas line, Evans said. Atmos technicians were on location to address the leak. An investigation by KERA found excavators in Texas have struck thousands of gas lines this year alone. Most notably, a gas explosion in May killed three people in an Oak Cliff apartment. A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report found a drilling company hit an unmarked gas line outside the apartment, causing a gas leak that led to the explosion. Multiple wrongful death lawsuits have been filed against Atmos Energy in the wake of the explosion, claiming the company failed to locate and mark the gas line that was hit.

SpaceX makes history as one of the worst IPOs in years

Just over a month since its historic initial public offering, SpaceX has delivered one of the weakest post-debut performances of any major U.S. listing since the end of the Great Recession. A Barron’s analysis found that the stock has performed worse than 90% of other U.S. IPOs with market capitalizations of $1 billion or more since July, 2009. Over the first 27 trading days, SpaceX was down 23% from its first day closing price of $161. Across 955 public offerings, the typical IPO returned 0.8% over the equivalent period. On Tuesday, SpaceX broke a seven-day losing streak in which the shares fell 21%, gaining 3.1% to $123.54 by market close.

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SpaceX IPO price was $135, but it is now trading below that price. The IPO was made available to large numbers of retail investors, unlike the typical IPO that is largely only available to institutional investors or those with large brokerage accounts. Poor IPO performance doesn’t determine a company’s long-term trajectory. Meta Platforms ultimately rewarded patient investors after its rocky debut, but the turnaround was far from immediate. In the months following its public listing, Meta came under renewed pressure after the lock-up period expired and insiders were free to sell. SpaceX faces a similar challenge: beginning in August, billions of previously restricted shares are expected to become eligible for sale, increasing the supply of stock at a time when demand has already weakened. Not all of those shares will hit the market at once. Shares held by founder Elon Musk are locked up until June 2027 and cannot be sold earlier. Together with holdings from other major pre-IPO investors, this group accounts for roughly 7.8 billion shares, or about 60% of the company’s 13 billion in outstanding shares after the IPO.

Laredo's future rides on Trump’s next trade moves

Tractor-trailers rumble through the gates of the World Trade Bridge, punctuated by the squeals of air brakes and growls of engines. South of the border, a line of trucks stretches back into Mexico, extending for more than a mile at the busiest times. President Trump’s tariffs have reshaped America’s trading relationship with the world. Imports from countries like China have steadily fallen as tariffs went into effect. As a result, manufacturers have sought low-cost factories closer to home, prompting a boom in trade between the United States and Mexico. Laredo, Texas, has been a winner from the shift. A border city on the Rio Grande, it directly connects the factories surrounding Monterrey, Mexico, about 150 miles away, with Interstate 35, a central artery in the United States, and other highways that carry Mexican products throughout the country. Roughly 40 percent of U.S.-Mexico trade passes through Laredo.

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That trade is now in question as Mr. Trump demands changes to the North American trade agreement that has stitched together the economies of Mexico, Canada and the United States for more than three decades. In negotiations in Mexico City this week, U.S. officials will push for significant revisions to the trade deal the president signed during his first term — the United States Mexico Canada Agreement — which replaced NAFTA. Under those deals, goods have been allowed to move between the countries tariff free, as long as they follow the rules of the pact. Mr. Trump has already taken a highly disruptive approach to North American trade. He has threatened to scrap U.S.M.C.A. altogether unless the United States gets a better deal, a disastrous scenario for the businesses that depend on it. On July 1, he declined to renew the agreement, starting a 10-year clock for its expiration. And on Monday, Mr. Trump signed orders to impose a 50 percent tariff, starting next month, on Canadian goods ranging from plywood and paper to cement and hockey sticks, a move some speculated was an effort to force Canada to the negotiating table. Negotiations with Mexico have been smoother, but U.S. officials say they want to see big changes to the relationship. Since U.S.M.C.A. was signed in 2018, the U.S. trade deficit in goods with Mexico has more than doubled, irking Mr. Trump. U.S. officials want their Mexican counterparts to adopt changes to the pact that would require manufacturing more products in the United States and give U.S. companies greater access to the Mexican market. Mr. Trump has put tariffs on some goods from Mexico, including steel, copper and tomatoes, but most U.S.M.C.A. goods continue to come into the United States tariff free.

As state takeover pressure mounts, Austin ISD will close another middle school

The Austin school district is moving to immediately close Paredes Middle School before the start of the 2026-27 school year, a drastic step the district is taking as the campus faces the possibility of failing another state accountability rating and further state intervention. While Austin ISD in a statement on Wednesday attributed the imminent closure to slow academic progress, labor union Education Austin said district leaders told the group they expected the campus to earn a fourth consecutive failed rating when state ratings are released in mid-August. The closure comes at a pivotal moment for Austin ISD as it awaits state accountability ratings expected in mid-August. The ratings for Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools could determine whether the district faces a state takeover. If any of those campuses receive a fifth consecutive rating, Education Commissioner Mike Morath could either order the campus closed or replace Austin ISD’s elected board with an appointed one.

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The district announced its proposal just months after Superintendent Matias Segura pledged to avoid additional school closures. Ken Zarifis, president of Education Austin, said the district informed the union midday Wednesday. Education Austin made public the proposed closure on a statement posted to social media Wednesday afternoon. Austin ISD trustees are expected to vote on the proposal next week after reviewing the proposal and gathering community input on July 28 and 30. School closures require board approval. Austin ISD said the proposal is a difficult decision, but district leaders are committed to high expectations and rigor for all students. “Middle school is a critical bridge to high school, college, and future careers,” Matias Segura said in the statement. “We cannot afford to wait when we have the ability to give these students access to stronger academic environments right now,” Zarifis said the closure is a difficult but necessary step to avoid more interruptions during the school year, particularly if the Texas Education Agency were to require further intervention at the school in response to another low academic accountability rating.

A tiny Texas town fights Trump's border wall plan

On one side: a small community in rural Texas. On the other: the Trump administration. A tiny Texan town along the border with Mexico is fighting the administration’s efforts to build a border wall running through a levee system protecting the community. The town argued in court Tuesday that the wall could cause flooding and that the administration isn’t following the law as it rushes forward with its plans. The hearing in federal court came as the Department of Homeland Security charges forward with its $46 billion plan to complete a border wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and deliver on what has long been a signature promise of President Donald Trump. But the department is running into opposition by landowners, environmental groups, Native American tribes and others who argue that the government’s rapid construction endangers historical and religious sites and a way of life along the border, when crossings from Mexico are already at extreme lows.

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The lawsuit brought by the development district of Presidio pits a small town of a little over 3,200 residents against a department key to the Trump administration’s plans to carry out its mass deportations agenda. It also showcases a context that has long been important to many Americans, particularly Republicans: the scratchiness that sometimes arises between the most local of municipalities and the federal government in Washington. Lawyers for the development district contend the government’s plans could compromise the levee system protecting the town from flash flooding — a formidable problem in Texas — and that the government flouted a key act that requires it to seek permission from the Army Corps of Engineers before building on or near the levees. The government argues that there is no final plan for where the border wall will go or how it will be built. Regardless, the administration asserts it has the authority to waive a vast swath of regulations to build the wall as it seeks to get the number of people crossing the border every day to zero.

ERCOT prepares for record demand during Texas heat wave

Texas power grid operators are preparing for record-breaking demand this week, due to a heat wave that is driving up energy use in the Houston area and across the state. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said Wednesday the grid is currently operating under normal conditions. "ERCOT continues a reliability-first approach to grid operations and will continue to operate the grid conservatively, bringing generating resources online early to mitigate sudden changes in generation or demand," spokesperson Trudi Webster said in a statement.

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In the Houston region, an extreme heat warning was issued by the National Weather Service for Wednesday as triple-digit temperatures were forecasted along with heat indices, or “feels-like” temperatures, in the 110-115 range. There was a heat advisory on Tuesday. ERCOT's record demand of 85,508 megawatts occurred on Aug. 10, 2023. The council said the state may have set a new record on Tuesday, surpassing that usage by about 2,000 MW. However, ERCOT cautioned the numbers from this week were still preliminary, and have yet to be confirmed. In 2023, ERCOT narrowly avoided a power grid failure and rolling blackouts during one of the state's hottest summers on record. However, University of Houston Energy Fellow Ed Hirs said Texans don't have to worry about grid failures this summer, due to a growth in renewable energy. "We have more than enough capacity for wind, solar (and) batteries pitching in to meet the ever-rising demand on the Texas grid," he said.

Floods expose dangers of Trump’s $3 billion Rio Grande buoy barrier plan

The Rio Grande floodwaters in Laredo and Eagle Pass are subsiding, but not the mess, which includes the closure of international bridges and financial losses estimated in the millions. This is all thanks to the Trump administration’s massive orange “waterborne barrier” buoys, each weighing a ton, which private contractors are still retrieving from the river. Dozens of buoys are also lodged on the Mexican side of the river. Texas border cities from Brownsville to Eagle Pass have opposed the administration’s plan to deter border crossers by turning the Rio Grande into what will look like the world’s largest swim lane, with 536 miles of chained-together orange buoys. Border city officials oppose the plan for various reasons, including flooding hazards and a lack of environmental and safety studies. The plan also violates the binational water treaty with Mexico. But the Department of Homeland Security is moving forward with the barriers anyway, doling out $3 billion in taxpayer money to a handful of private contractors.

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Thousands of these buoys are waiting to be installed, staged up and down the river in different areas, many of them on private land. At least 17 miles of buoy barrier have already been installed at the southernmost part of the Rio Grande in Brownsville, where there was no flooding over the weekend. This weekend’s river flows were less than half of the historic flood of 2010, when Hurricane Alex dropped more than 50 inches of rain and the Rio Grande crested at 57 feet. But it was enough to demonstrate the failures, and the danger, of the administration’s plan for the “waterborne barriers.” The buoy plan has been carried out largely in secrecy after the DHS waived more than 30 federal laws that would have required public oversight and input. In most cases, city officials don’t know where the buoy staging areas are located, given that the administration and contractors haven’t communicated any of this information. When The Border Chronicle contacted city officials in Eagle Pass and Laredo on Monday, they were still trying to obtain information from DHS on how the buoys would be retrieved from the river and where exactly they came from.

National Stories

Ratepayer bill gains momentum in House amid data center backlash

A bill that seeks to mitigate data centers’ impacts on Americans’ electric bills is gaining steam in the House, as lawmakers face pressure to act in the face of sharp backlash to the sprawling AI infrastructure. The bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act would require states to “consider” standards that put the costs on tech companies, rather than individuals. Its supporters say it could help alleviate potential price spikes caused by power-hungry data centers, but critics say it doesn’t go far enough to solve the problem. The legislation advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday in a 52-0 vote, a strong display of bipartisan support and a reflection of how the backlash to the data center buildout has crossed party lines.

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The measure, which aims to codify a White House pledge signed by tech giants earlier this year, forces state regulators to hold a hearing on a standard that would ensure that large data centers pay for the cost of new power or power lines stemming from their electricity use. It does not force them to actually adopt such standards. “[I]t has become clear that across the entire industry there is one entity uniquely positioned to stand up for families and communities who are the ones paying electricity bills-and that is this Committee, and our colleagues in Congress,” House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said in a statement. The Ratepayer Protection Act also recently got a companion in the Senate, bolstering its chances of becoming law. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) introduced the measure in the upper chamber last week. A spokesperson for the senator said in a statement that he is “encouraged by the bipartisan support and committee passage in the House” and will continue working with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to get the bill “across the finish line in the Senate.”

Senate GOP expresses concern over Iran endgame after Hegseth hearing

Senate Republicans are growing increasingly concerned about what they say is a lack of a clear plan to end the military conflict with Iran, warning that rising U.S. casualties and stubbornly high gas prices are going to hurt their party in the midterm election. GOP lawmakers came away dissatisfied from a hearing Tuesday at which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified in support of the administration’s request for another $80 billion in emergency funding for the Iran war. Republicans want to provide the Pentagon with more money to replenish its munitions but are frustrated the administration hasn’t given them a clearer picture of how to end the conflict, which has dragged on since Feb. 28. “There’s got to be an off-ramp, that’s all there is to it,” said Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.).

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“Naturally all of us are concerned because we’ve lost three wonderful, wonderful service people in the last little while,” he said, referring to three U.S. service members killed in recent days. Justice also raised concern about mounting civilian casualties in Iran, which are believed to range from 1,700 to more than 3,000 people killed. “Every last one of us is super concerned about civilian casualties because first and foremost it’s terrible. Secondarily, it’s generally not very popular in the world,” Justice said. “In this situation, where we’re at right now, we’ve got to make one of two decisions, either just pull out and leave and roll the dice and hope for the best, or we’ve got to win, and winning is only one thing: Make sure they don’t have a nuclear weapon,” he added. Trump on Wednesday threatened to strike civilian infrastructure in Iran, such as bridges and power plants, if Iranian forces continue to target ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Stop the trucks: Inside Taco Bell’s rush to contain cyclospora

The word went out from Taco Bell’s leaders on the evening of July 14: Stop the trucks. Public-health officials that night had notified the chain that the shredded lettuce garnishing Crunchwrap Supremes, Cantina Chicken Burritos and other menu items was the suspected culprit in a rapidly expanding cyclospora outbreak. Executives rushed to halt shipments then on their way to hundreds of Taco Bell’s 7,785 U.S. locations. Over the course of late-night virtual meetings and gatherings since early last week, Taco Bell executives have pushed to respond to one of the biggest food-safety crises in the chain’s history—an episode that has lodged the phrase “explosive diarrhea” firmly in national headlines. More than 1,600 people who became ill in the outbreak reported eating at Taco Bell locations across five states, federal health officials said last week. Officials later named produce giant Taylor Farms as the lettuce supplier.

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Taco Bell’s efforts to contain the cyclospora outbreak are testing the agility of a chain known as one of fast-food’s top operators and challenging the durability of its customer base, a dedicated and youthful clientele that has helped Taco Bell stand out in a challenged industry. The chain has said that it voluntarily acted to protect consumers, and urged other restaurants and retailers to do the same. This article is based on interviews with current and former Taco Bell officials and people familiar with its operations. It could take months for Taco Bell to rebuild its business, based on the experiences of other restaurant chains trying to move past a food safety crisis. Taco Bell risks alienating customers with its social-media messages and advertising since the outbreak, which have included a playful tone and kissy emojis, said Pam Goldstein, a crisis communications consultant who helped McDonald’s when it contended with a 2024 E. coli outbreak.

The White House pushes healthy eating. It cut a landmark nutrition education program

Wholesome eating is a central part of the Trump administration's efforts to Make America Healthy Again. But a landmark nutrition education program for recipients of federal food assistance and other low-income people will cease to exist within weeks after President Trump eliminated it last summer when he signed a massive Republican spending and tax bill. For decades, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program, known as SNAP-Ed, has funded programs such as community cooking classes, farmers markets in low-income neighborhoods, school nutrition lessons and more in every U.S. state. The program is a "pillar of the public health infrastructure in the US," according to a report published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

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The decision to end SNAP-Ed at a time of rising food prices and the Trump administration's push for healthy eating has mystified nutrition advocates and public health experts alike. "It doesn't make sense when we have an administration [promoting] the Make America Healthy Again efforts that are focused on decreasing consumption of ultraprocessed foods and wanting to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables," said Tashara Leak, a professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University, "to then get rid of the largest federally-funded nutrition education program that helps to achieve those goals." The White House did not provide specifics to NPR about how or whether eliminating this program aligned with the goals of the MAHA agenda, but said the law signed by President Trump had strengthened SNAP for future generations and provided tax cuts that improved all Americans' financial situations. Some recent SNAP-Ed projects include a series of cooking workshops led by indigenous chefs and traditional food experts in Southwest Colorado, classes on meal planning and budgeting in Kansas and a social marketing campaign in Michigan that urged parents and caregivers to model healthy behaviors for children. One North Carolina church built a fitness center that's free to use.

U.S. signs nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that gives it path to enriching fuel

The Trump administration on Wednesday signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia that gives that country a pathway to enriching nuclear fuel and commits it to using U.S. firms to supply its reactors. The agreement, which the Energy Department announced had been signed, is certain to spark heated debate in Congress, where many lawmakers have long expressed concern that exporting enrichment capabilities will lead to a proliferation of nuclear arms. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has spoken openly about working to develop nuclear weapons if Iran is not stopped from getting them. While the Trump administration offered little information about the agreement’s contents, three people familiar with it shared details with The Washington Post. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the agreement publicly.

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The people familiar with the new agreement say it is designed with safeguards to keep the Saudis from enriching nuclear fuel to weapons-grade level. But they also acknowledge it includes a waiver that exempts the Saudis from the aggressive international inspections required in nuclear reactor deals with other countries, including the United Arab Emirates. Instead, sensitive inspections would be executed by American teams under terms spelled out in the agreement, which was initially worked out when the crown prince visited Washington in November. “These agreements reflect our two nations’ shared commitment to strengthening U.S.-Saudi commercial relations, delivering prosperity at home and security to our allies abroad,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. “Rest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world’s best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States.” On Wednesday, Wright and his Saudi counterpart signed what is known as a 123 agreement, which lays out conditions for nuclear energy cooperation and includes stipulations aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

Maine Democrat Troy Jackson has raised $1M for his Senate bid so far

Maine Democrat Troy Jackson has raised $1 million in the less than two weeks since he entered the race for Senate shortly after Graham Platner dropped out, his campaign told POLITICO on Wednesday morning. Jackson, the presumptive Democratic nominee, raised $613,000 of that haul since Sunday following the selection of the 601 delegates who will determine Platner’s replacement this weekend. More than 90 percent of those delegates have pledged to back Jackson.

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The fundraising number is a strong showing for Jackson, who only raised a bit over $1 million in his entire run for governor earlier this year. But he still has a lot of work to do to catch up to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is sitting on an $11 million war chest. Jackson’s campaign said they received 27,283 contributions from 24,669 individual donors. A University of New Hampshire poll released Tuesday showed Jackson with a narrow lead against Collins, 49 percent to 46 percent. The Maine Senate seat is a must-win for Democrats hoping to retake control of the upper chamber. Collins is the only sitting Republican senator up for reelection in a state that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024.

The next big tests for the Left: Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota

Progressive Democrats have romped through primaries this summer, dispatching incumbents and minting new stars of the left in deep-blue territory in New York and Colorado. In the coming weeks, they’ll take their fight to tougher turf. Primary elections in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota will test whether Democratic voters in swingier territory have the appetite to send liberal candidates into statewide general elections where the outcome is not assured. The view from the left: Progressives believe that, in a moment of deep frustration with inequality and the cost of living, insurgent candidates can both win primaries and turn out voters in the fall — and send their party a sign that it should return to its populist roots.

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The pushback: The rise of these candidates has spooked moderate Democrats who argue that their party’s activist base is on the verge of nominating figures who could fumble away winnable general elections. “We are in danger of losing some races we could otherwise win if we go too far left in states like Michigan that voted for Donald Trump a year and a half ago,” Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank, told me. The Senate primary here pits El-Sayed, who also has the support of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, against Representative Haley Stevens of Detroit’s northern suburbs. The contest has become a summertime battle royale, with tens of millions of dollars washing through the race. The state’s Democratic primary for governor has gotten messy, to put it mildly. State Representative Francesca Hong, 37, a democratic socialist, has been steadily rising in a crowded field, making the case that her politics will appeal to factory workers and farmers in one of the nation’s swingiest states. My colleague Kellen Browning explored her candidacy this month. This has worried Democrats who believe that anyone associated with socialism can’t win a heartland governorship that the party sees as a bulwark for its national ambitions.

Copyright July 23, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved