August 5, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Tarrant commissioners table decision on Election Day and early voting sites

Members of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court unanimously agreed Tuesday that a proposal to nearly halve the number of Election Day voting locations was out of left field and far too drastic. The decision on a proposed list was tabled by the commissioners until a later date, likely the Sept. 1 meeting. Under the proposed list, Tarrant County would have had 55% of the Election Day polling sites for this November’s midterm election compared with the number there were in the 2022 midterm election. Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare said the proposed number of 176 locations was too low. Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig said he came up with the number by apolitically looking at the map of election precincts and determining how many voting locations would be adequate with an increased turnout.

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Ludwig outlined his methodology for configuring the 176 Election Day sites, which was done in a way that ensured there were 44 polling places in each commissioner precinct. On average, he said there are 1.3 miles between voting sites. Twenty-eight of the voting sites are within 1,000 feet of a bus stop. Ahead of the commissioners’ discussion and delayed vote, there was a flood of opposition from residents, politicians and voting right groups. Of the 70 public commenters who came to the microphone Tuesday, one supported the list as proposed. The other 69 called it un-American, voter suppression and an attempt to select who could have a voice in elections. A proposal to reduce the number of early voting sites was also tabled.

‘Taxation through electricity prices’: Abbott takes aim at city-owned utilities like CPS Energy

Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on the Texas Legislature to break up “monopoly-run” electricity companies like CPS Energy, allowing other providers to come into the San Antonio area and compete for customers. The move would likely mean dramatic changes for the city’s financial structure, since CPS Energy contributes 14% of its profits to the city budget in lieu of paying property taxes. At a press conference Tuesday, Abbott suggested the change was at least in part a response to ideological disagreements over how blue cities have been spending their profits from municipally owned utilities. In a particularly good year for CPS Energy, for example, San Antonio’s City Council famously used some of its share of the utility’s windfall to create a Reproductive Justice Fund — which the state later outlawed.

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“Over a course of about four years, money that was paid into CPS went into a fund for the city of San Antonio that they used for other things,” Abbott said on Tuesday. “Some money that was used in that fund was used for Zumba classes,” he continued. “Listen, I’m not diminishing Zumba classes, but I’m just saying, that’s not what you’re paying your electricity bill for.” In more recent years, City Council members have looked for ways to reinvest CPS Energy profits into keeping utility costs from rising, like putting some of the money toward utility infrastructure upgrades as CPS sells energy onto the Texas grid for a profit. On Tuesday, however, Abbott claimed his plan would lower utility prices for San Antonians by 10%-20% — while also keeping CPS Energy ratepayers who don’t live within the city from helping fund city services they don’t use. “There’s more than 100,000 people that live outside of the city of San Antonio, and yet they’re paying CPS, and a large percentage of what goes to CPS goes beyond just providing electricity; it goes to funding the city budget,” Abbott said. “This is taxation through electricity prices without representation, and it must come to an end.” CPS Energy contested the idea its agreement with the city unfairly punishes any of its ratepayers.

Texas Comptroller leadership email orders list of employees for cuts

Leaders at the Texas Comptroller’s office received an email Tuesday directing them to create priority lists of employees they’d cut under potential staff reductions. The Dallas Morning News reviewed the email, which comes in Don Huffines’ first few days as acting comptroller after being appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott last month. Huffines has campaigned on shrinking state government with his own version of the federal government’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, making it a campaign priority in the comptroller’s race, where the Dallas businessman faces state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt in the November election.

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Tuesday’s email came from Michael Apperley, the comptroller’s director of administration, and was sent to several directors within the agency. When asked for comment, agency spokesman Kevin Lyons referred The News to a Tuesday afternoon news release saying the agency would undergo a performance review to find areas to save taxpayer money. The review will look at the agency’s business processes, vendor contracts and administrative structure. The email mentioned that state leaders had asked state agencies last month to cut spending by 3% in preparation for their budget requests for the next two-year budget cycle. “One of our largest objects of expense is salaries, so we must consider the potential need to reduce salary expenditures,” Apperley’s email said. The email asked the directors to provide a list of potential “staff to reduce” and broke them down into three categories: low performers with documented discipline issues; people who may be leaving the agency soon due to retirements, resignations or transfers to other agencies; and involuntary terminations.

Stevens, El-Sayed in tight race for Michigan's Democratic Senate nomination

Moderate candidate U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed were in a tight race for Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in the early morning hours of Wednesday. Both addressed supporters, saying the vote count could continue well into the day. “We knew that this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Stevens said. “I am feeling fired up, and you should be too.” The bitter and expensive campaign attracted national attention not just because the general election for the seat will help decide which party controls the Senate. It also became the most notable proxy battle between the Democratic Party’s establishment and progressive wings.

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Candidates from the left-flank — including democratic socialists — have found surprising success in the party’s U.S. House primaries, including in New York and Denver. Those races, however, were in deep-blue cities. Michigan has a purple hue. A progressive victory here would be a more significant notch. El-Sayed maintained a lead as initial results rolled in Tuesday night, though Stevens made up ground as Wayne County, the state’s most populous and home to Detroit, reported more votes into the night. Wayne has historically released results later than other counties, and its voters have tended toward establishment candidates over progressives. That meant Stevens could see a boost as the counting dragged on, though that did not guarantee victory. The crowds’ energy at each watch party was a measure of the race’s competitiveness: Early in the evening, El-Sayed’s supporters in Detroit’s Majestic Theatre cheered at the first batches of votes, before mellowing. Hours later, Stevens’ previously subdued partygoers roared as she narrowed the margin. “Whatever happens tonight,” El-Sayed told a thinned but still energetic crowd, “we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite, unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the U.S. Senate.” Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is the Republican nominee.

State Stories

Elon Musk's SpaceX tosses millions to Texas county

Elon Musk’s SpaceX just poured millions into the rural Texas county where it is planning to build its massive Terafab chip manufacturing plant. The company sent Grimes County a check for $10 million, making good on a deal for an upfront payment as part of a tax abatement agreement it won for the project in June. “I saw the check and they beat the deadline,” County Judge Joe Fauth said. Musk highlighted the payment by sharing a post about it on X. As part of the agreement, which county commissioners approved in early June, the nonrefundable payment was due within 60 days. The county treasurer received the check last week and deposited it Thursday, Fauth said.

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The payment shows SpaceX is making good on the deal that waives all county property taxes on the project. In addition to the upfront payment, SpaceX will have to pay $20 million a year thereafter for the 35-year term of the agreement. As part of the deal, SpaceX also secured a tax increment reinvestment zone, which allows revenue generated by increased property values within its boundaries to be spent on improvements inside the zone. Though a Musk-linked company has been snatching up thousands of acres at the site near Gibbons Creek Reservoir and has won county and other tax breaks, Terafab's location has yet to be made official. In late July, Musk hinted that the site of the project, which is a joint venture between SpaceX, xAI, Tesla Inc. and Intel Corp., could be announced soon. SpaceX representatives have said that sites in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada have also been considered and that Terafab was prepared to walk away from Texas if school tax breaks were not approved. In July, Iola Independent School District and Anderson-Shiro Consolidated Independent School District both approved $1.66 billion in breaks under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation program.

What another Texas flood revealed about the state’s warning system

One year after several rivers and creeks in central Texas killed 139 people and spurred a statewide push to improve flood warnings, another historic storm tested those changes. This year’s disaster brought at least 12 inches of rain — and as much as 28 — to one dozen counties north and west of San Antonio and destroyed or damaged hundreds of buildings. Yet just three people died. “Here we are a year later, but under incredibly different circumstances,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said at a July 20 press conference. “Last year when we were here, we were grieving. We were in a pall of human loss.” Earlier forecasts, new warning systems, and a public primed by last year’s tragedies saved lives. But the catastrophe also exposed how much work remains, leaving many Texans counting on vigilance and neighbors when the water rises.

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Many of those caught in this year’s flood were still mourning those who died in last year’s. The torrents that swept across the Hill Country then came with such speed and ferocity that many people were still asleep as the water crashed into their homes. The scale of the devastation, which included the deaths of 25 girls at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, shocked the nation. It also spurred action. Legislative hearings and investigations revealed failures by Kerr County and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority that exemplified weaknesses in the state’s flood-warning and emergency management systems. Among them, the county lacked outdoor sirens, even along the most vulnerable stretch of the Guadalupe, and the authority had deferred building the warning system it knew it needed after the state denied funding. The county never activated a federal emergency alert system capable of reaching nearly every cellphone in the area and delayed some local alerts while dispatchers sought supervisory approval. Those shortcomings became central to lawmakers’ push for a more robust warning system across flood-prone communities. During a special late-summer session, lawmakers passed four flood-response bills. Two strengthened safety and licensing requirements at youth camps. Another launched an effort to expand flood-warning systems in 30 counties by identifying flash flood–prone areas that need warning siren systems, including sensors and gauges. The last bill provided $50 million to buy them and another $24 million for a two-year project to dot the Hill Country with more rain gauges, radar, and forecasting tools.

'They're not real pastors': As clergy run as Democrats, Republicans question their faith

At last month’s Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, Joe Mitchell, a Republican running for U.S. Congress in the state’s second congressional district, jabbed at his Democratic opponent, state representative the Rev. Lindsay James, saying she “calls herself a pastor.” He then turned to the crowd of conservative evangelical pastors and coined a term he said applies to James, a Presbyterian minister, and other faith-forward Democratic candidates — namely, Lutheran minister the Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, an Iowa state senator also running for another seat in Congress, and James Talarico, a state senator and Presbyterian seminarian running for U.S. Senate in Texas. “I call them PINOS,” he said, explaining the term is an acronym for “Pastors in Name Only.” “Because they’re not real pastors, right? They don’t profess the true gospel of Jesus Christ,” added Mitchell, who has attended an evangelical church in the past.

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It’s the latest in a series of faith-focused attacks that have intensified amid an election cycle featuring a striking number of clergy campaigning as Democrats — and, in recent months, besting their challengers. At least 12 pastors, seminarians and former clergy have run for federal office as Democrats this year, and five have already become the Democratic nominees. Some are even competing against each other: In Iowa, James, who is ordained within the Presbyterian Church (USA), had to beat out another pastor, United Methodist minister the Rev. Clint Twedt-Ball, to win her primary. At least seven current and former pastors, all evangelicals, have also launched campaigns for Congress as Republicans this year, but with less success. Of those seven, only three — Pastor Mark Harris, an incumbent in North Carolina’s 8th district; Pastor John Elleson, who is running in Illinois’ deep-blue 9th district; and Tim Walberg, an incumbent and former pastor in Michigan’s 5th district — ultimately became nominees. Tensions are high in competitive races with clergy candidates, with Republican opponents sometimes even turning to allegations of blasphemy as they hope to capitalize on longstanding divisions within Christianity to eke out victories. That includes Garriott, whose race is rated by The Cook Political Report as one of only 18 “toss-up” House elections in the country; in addition to Mitchell’s “PINO” remarks, Republican officials have referred to Garriott as the “Wicked Witch of Woke.”

Spurs CEO defends arena deal after mayor says voters should decide

Days after Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called for a public vote on the city’s contribution to a $1.3 billion NBA arena, the Spurs put out a letter saying that’s not necessary. The open letter from Spurs Sports & Entertainment CEO R.C. Buford doesn’t mention Jones by name, but it is clearly directed at her — and any City Council member who’s on board with her proposal. “The vote has taken place. The commitments have been made. The work is underway,” the letter states. Bexar County voters “made their voices heard” when 52% approved the county’s $311 million contribution to the project last November, Buford said in the letter, which SS&E released Tuesday. The county payment required a public vote because the county will raise its taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars to generate the revenue.

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The city’s $489 million contribution, however, needed only a majority of council members to say yes — and seven members did that last August when they approved the draft financing plan for the arena. SS&E agreed to put $500 million toward the arena and pay for any cost overruns. In addition, SS&E will give the city $2.5 million each year under its 30-year arena lease, which amounts to $75 million. That money can be used on projects and programs chosen by City Council. Jones has scoffed at the payment, which she routinely notes would pay for 156 speed bumps a year — 15 for each of the 10 council districts. The city contribution would come from bonds repaid by rising property tax revenue and rent from developers leasing city-owned property to build restaurants, bars and housing around the arena at Hemisfair. Rent from the arena lease and the state’s share of hotel taxes would also help repay the bonds. Buford’s letter says the contribution “comes from visitor-based revenue” and “is legally restricted to venues and tourism-related projects.”

Data centers use lots of water and power, but Texas officials don't know exactly how much

The high transmission line that bisects Torrie Martin’s ranch hums subtly. Occasionally the frequency changes to a droning buzz that ends in a pop. “?You can actually hear the power plant right now,” Martin said. “It's been pretty loud the last few years.” The Vistra Hays Power Plant is directly across the street from Martin's property. It generates around 990 megawatts of power, enough to power 250,000 homes. This facility is considerably larger than Austin’s biggest power plant — Sand Hill Energy Center — which generates 595 megawatts. The proximity to the power station makes Martin’s neighborhood a desirable place to build data centers. Data centers need a lot of power to operate, and, depending on how they’re cooled, a lot of water too. As more and more data center developers submit proposals to build in Texas, questions about how they’ll impact Texas’ grid and contribute to drought conditions across the state are widespread.

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So much so, that Gov. Greg Abbott effectively ordered a pause on all data center projects looking to connect to the grid until officials get a better grasp on the amount of resources they will use. For Martin, these concerns aren’t just hypothetical. A year ago, a developer approached the city of San Marcos with a request to build a data center behind her ranch. She and many other residents of the city opposed it. “?I love San Marcos,” Martin said. “This is my home, and so I'm just standing up for it.” Martin grew up on the ranch in Hays County where she now tends to a herd of horses. She said, in this rural part of the county, power and water outages aren’t uncommon. “We do have brownouts kind of regularly and we get our water shut off at least twice a month, usually [for] two or three hours, sometimes more,” Martin said. A brownout is a reduction in power availability. It can cause lights to flicker and appliances like washing machines or microwaves to run sluggishly or make weird noises. Repetitive brownouts put extra strain on machines and can shorten their lifespan.

Families brace for change as Third Future reboots two struggling Waco schools

Laneisha Latimer has heard about the strict way Third Future Schools plans to run South Waco Elementary School, where her son is starting as a fourth grader. School begins Tuesday at South Waco and Dean Highland elementary schools under the control of the charter school operator Waco Independent School District chose to turn them around. Latimer learned in May how tightly scheduled her son’s day will be. He will have to walk in silence in between one-minute transitions. Several times per class period he will have to demonstrate through writing or peer discussions that he understands the lesson.

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And he and his classmates will have 10 more instructional days than their Waco ISD peers, who start next week. So far, so good, Latimer says. Latimer believes the additional rules and structure will work for her son, Landon, who has struggled with behavior and academics. “It would take away a lot of distraction,” Latimer said. ”First of all, when the kids are loud, when they don’t have any structure like it’s been from my point of view. … Then the kids tend to get out of control when they’re able to talk in the hallway, then that causes arguments.” Waco ISD is among the latest Texas districts to choose Third Future Schools to take control of campuses with a record of failing under the state’s accountability system. South Waco Elementary had four years of failing grades under the A-F system and Dean Highland had three. The next round of accountability rates are due next week, reflecting the 2025-26 academic year. A fifth consecutive failing grade at any single school could trigger a state takeover of the whole district. But under state law, the third-party agreement protects Waco ISD from intervention for two years.

Texas A&M System sued over limits on race, gender teachings

A group of professors filed a federal lawsuit Monday to block the Texas A&M University System from implementing its policies that limit how faculty members can discuss race, gender and sexual orientation in the classroom. Under the policy, Texas A&M professors cannot teach courses that “advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” without prior approval. Four professors and the national American Association of University Professors argue the policies, first introduced in November by the Texas A&M Board of Regents, are unconstitutional and violate their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

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“The First Amendment plainly prohibits this egregious attack on academic freedom at a public university,” said Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, in a news release. “This broad policy and the university’s opaque enforcement process makes it impossible to teach or to learn freely and endangers course content about everything from the history of slavery to Shakespeare to the hard sciences.” A spokesperson for the Texas A&M University System described the lawsuit Tuesday as "without merit." "The System will vigorously defend its policies and procedures," spokesperson Chris Bryan said in a statement. "The A&M System remains focused on the important work of supporting our students and fulfilling our duty to the state." Monday’s suit is the second major legal challenge brought against a Texas university system over increased restrictions around what can be taught. In July, the national AAUP chapter sued the Texas Tech University System over its policies.

Marc Whyte: San Antonio has an opportunity to get data center growth right

(San Antonio City Council Member Marc Whyte represents District 10.) San Antonio faces two realities. We need new sources of revenue to support a growing city that deserves more public safety, jobs and infrastructure solutions, and we need to protect our neighborhoods, natural resources and quality of life. The debate over data centers sits squarely at the intersection of those two priorities. The issue isn’t whether we want data centers in San Antonio. They are coming. What we should focus on is establishing the standards necessary to ensure they are good neighbors and responsible consumers of our natural resources. Data centers bring significant private investment, expand our tax base, increase city revenue and create temporary construction jobs along with long-term technical and operational jobs once they are up and running.

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As San Antonio faces projected budget shortfalls that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars during the next several years, growing our commercial tax base is no longer simply an economic development goal — it is a fiscal necessity. Every time San Antonio expands its commercial and industrial tax base, more of the cost of running city government is shared by businesses rather than homeowners. That helps reduce pressure on residential property taxpayers while providing additional resources for police, firefighters, streets, parks and libraries. With the positives, however, also come challenges. Gov. Greg Abbott recently directed state regulators to ensure that future data center development includes adequate power generation and water conservation measures. He also supported limiting local tax incentives for these projects, and he was right do so. Those policies reflect an important principle: Large-scale developments should contribute to the infrastructure they rely upon rather than shifting those costs onto existing residents.

Lina Hidalgo seeks property tax increase for daycare, preschool

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo will again ask Commissioners Court to consider a property tax increase to support a daycare and preschool subsidy for some residents, public agenda documents indicate. Hidalgo did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday, and the exact details of the proposal remain unclear. But records state the tax increase would maintain a “portion of critical Harris County early childhood programming” — language that closely mirrors a proposal Hidalgo floated last year that ultimately failed after she brought dozens of kids to court in a bid to pressure her colleagues to support the measure. Commissioners will discuss the proposal Thursday. If approved, the proposed increase would go before voters in November.

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The program provides free daycare and preschool to eligible low-income families, and provides professional development and training to childcare providers. As many as 1,000 children can receive free childcare through the program, which currently is funded through December using federal grant dollars. Hidalgo's 2025 proposal would have dedicated a portion of the county's tax revenue to support the initiative indefinitely. The county is facing a $130 million deficit for its coming budget year — similar to the shortfall it faced when Hidalgo made her proposal last August. Nancy Sims, a University of Houston political science lecturer, said a tax hike may face political headwinds. “This is a really complicated issue, and I think it's going to be a tough sell,” Sims said. “Everything that our local governments are experiencing with budgets, so are our local citizens. So asking them to pay one more penny for anything is going to need to be seriously thought out.” More than 90,000 children in Harris County are on a waitlist for subsidized childcare, according to a fact sheet

House Democrats add 12 GOP seats, including Texas seat, to offensive target list

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), House Democrats’ campaign arm, on Wednesday announced it is adding 12 more Republican-held and leaning seats to its offensive target list — including seats held by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chair of the DCCC’s GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee. The 12 new “Districts in Play” for the 2026 cycle bring the DCCC’s total number of offensive target seats to 58, nearly all of which have been rated as Solid Republican by the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper. President Trump won all of the new additions by double digits in 2024, though some of them saw Democrats performing well in previous cycles.

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Those new additions include three Republican-held open seats, with no incumbent running: Rep. Mark Amoedi (R-Nev.) is retiring from Nevada’s rural northern 2nd Congressional District; Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) opted against reelection in New York’s upstate 21st District; former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) resigned and ended his reelection bid for Texas’s 23rd District border seat, which is rated Likely R by Cook. The DCCC also put Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, a seat that is newly Republican as a result of partisan redistricting that is being vacated by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), on its pickup list. In Colorado, the DCCC is targeting not only Boebert — who last cycle moved across the state to run in a safer GOP seat after only narrowly winning reelection in 2022 — but also Rep. Jeff Hurd, who represents the rural southwestern corner of the state. Trump won North Carolina’s central 9th District held by Hudson, the NRCC chair, by 16 points in 2024 — but Democrats are encouraged by their nominee in the district, veteran Richard Ojeda, who when he ran for Congress in 2018 in West Virginia performed 20 points better than Hillary Clinton did in 2016.

Suzanne Bellsnyder: Don't leave rural Texas behind

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I watched a documentary about President Theodore Roosevelt. I have always been intrigued by Roosevelt, and his “Man in the Arena” speech on courage is one I return to when I need a reminder of why engaging in the political arena matters, even when doing so is difficult. More than a century ago, the country was rapidly shifting from a nation of farms and small towns to one of growing cities, factories and industry. As Americans left rural communities for urban opportunity, Roosevelt worried that something valuable might be lost in the rush toward progress. “There are no two public questions of more vital importance to the future of this country,” Roosevelt said, “than the problem of conservation and the problem of the betterment of country life.” Roosevelt understood that conservation was about more than protecting forests, rivers and wildlife. It was also about preserving the communities that had cared for those places for generations.

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Over the past year, I have written about school vouchers, data centers, property taxes, the state budget and local control. Each of those debates raises a larger question about the direction Texas is heading and what that future will mean for the people who call rural Texas home. Too often, conversations about rural Texas begin with what we lack. Some communities have lost population. Hospitals have closed. Main Streets are quieter than they once were, and young people often leave to pursue careers elsewhere. Those challenges are real, but they do not mean rural Texas needs to be rescued from itself. Many of us live here because we choose to. Others are the fourth, fifth or sixth generation to care for the same ranch or farm. We stay not because it is the easiest place to make a living, but because it is where we find purpose. There is value in knowing your neighbors, supporting your local school, serving your church, volunteering at the fire department and believing your children and grandchildren might someday want to come home. That isn’t nostalgia. It’s a culture worth protecting.

More than 8,400 San Antonio students will use private school vouchers

At least 8,405 students who live in San Antonio school districts will use the state’s new voucher program, according to data released Monday by the Texas Comptroller, who oversees the initiative. These students are among the 85,434 statewide to receive some of the $1 billion from the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, an education program that gives families public funds for private education costs including tuition at private schools, learning supplies and therapy. More than 2,200 students living in Northside Independent School District will use a voucher, making it one of the top Texas districts with students claiming TEFA funds.

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Other San Antonio-area districts with a large number of students using the vouchers include North East and San Antonio ISDs, with 1,536 and 972 students enrolled, respectively. The data from the comptroller’s office tracks the district where students live but does not list where they previously attended school. The state prioritized awarding TEFA money to children with disabilities from low- and middle-income households. The next priority group — making up around 80% of all TEFA recipients — is children from families with incomes at or below two times the federal poverty level, which is $66,000 for a family of four. The TEFA program gives students with disabilities up to $30,000 annually. Other students can get up to $10,500 for private schooling and $2,000 for homeschooling. Parents can only use the funds to pay for state-approved private education costs. Monday’s data reflects the number of students whose parents have claimed or used their awards. Of the program’s 274,000 applicants, 90.5% were eligible for the funding, and 31.1% received funding. About 121,000 students are on a waiting list.

National Stories

Authorities arrested a man with ammo and apparently monitoring security at Trump golf course near LA

A man carrying ammunition and with a gun in his car was arrested Sunday at President Donald Trump's Los Angeles-area golf course after appearing to monitor security preparations two days ahead of Trump's fundraiser there, authorities said Tuesday. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Jeanine John Taele, 38, was taking photos and video and had a 16-round magazine with ammunition in his pocket. Authorities recovered a loaded pistol in his car. Law enforcement searched his home in the nearby city of Downey on Monday and found a plethora of firearms, magazines and ammunition, body armor and notebooks with "concerning statements."

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The sheriff's department announced the arrest as Trump was preparing to arrive for a fundraising dinner for the Republican National Committee at the Trump National Golf Course in the suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes just south of Los Angeles. Taele was charged with several felonies including second-degree robbery, receiving a large-capacity magazine and possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun. He was also charged with carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanor. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges Monday and was ordered to stay away from the golf course and not possess weapons. His bail was set at $250,000. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney, and family members could not immediately be reached for comment. The sheriff's department said when they made contact with Taele on Sunday, they had determined he was being investigated by the El Segundo Police Department for robbery.

At least 12 states face cyberattacks on their water systems, sources say

Possible cyber intrusions targeting water and wastewater utilities have now been reported in at least a dozen states, multiple sources told ABC News. Iran is the prime suspect in the cyberattacks, which can blind utility operators by changing passwords or disabling alarms, according to the sources, though its involvement has not been officially confirmed. There have been no widespread disruptions to water supplies or wastewater treatment so far, sources said. The FBI is urging utilities to disconnect systems from the internet where possible, use systems with breakers and become familiar with reverting to manual controls if automated systems are compromised.

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In Michigan -- one of the states affected -- state police said they are monitoring the situation and coordinating with federal partners. The Michigan State Police said they are working with the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to communicate with municipal water systems across the state and encourage facilities using the affected software to secure their systems and follow applicable cybersecurity guidance. "All systems continued to operate safely, issues were addressed by local operators, and there are no known impacts that posed a public health concern," the Michigan State Police said, citing information from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. The Michigan State Police said the FBI is leading the investigation and referred additional questions to the bureau.

Wesley Bell defeats anti-AIPAC challenge from Cori Bush

The pro-Israel lobby showed its sustained power in a high-profile House primary Tuesday, with Rep. Wesley Bell staving off a grassroots primary challenge from former representative Cori Bush amid a crescendo of criticism against Israel within the party. AIPAC, whose political arm spent millions to support him and oppose Bush, kept Bell on course for a second term in the heavily Democratic district. Tuesday’s race was a rematch of the 2024 primary, where the pro-Israel lobby spent $9 million to unseat Bush over her criticisms of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip. Bush cast Bell as an ineffective lawmaker who catered to the pro-Israel lobby, but Bell succeeded in pushing back on her grassroots campaign, highlighting Bush’s past personal controversies. Bell’s victory interrupted a run of wins by Democratic candidates critical of Israel and AIPAC’s political influence. Israel-critical candidates who have denounced political spending by the pro-Israel lobby have won in high-profile primaries in New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

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Bush expressed optimism going into Tuesday’s election that Democrats’ changing views of Israel and AIPAC had improved her prospects from two years ago. “I was pretty much isolated ... because people were afraid that they would have problems if they associated with me,” Bush said, recalling the 2024 race. “Having so much money spent from AIPAC and those other groups against a Democrat, it made some Democrats feel like, well, I don’t want that ire coming my way.” Democratic lawmakers have increasingly shown willingness to break with their party’s long-standing support for Israel. Nearly half of all House Democrats voted last month to cut off military aid to Israel — an unthinkable position for the overwhelming majority of the party only two years ago. Progressives assert the number would be higher were it not for campaign spending by the pro-Israel lobby, especially with nearly three-quarters of Democratic voters wanting to curtail aid to Israel, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll last month. AIPAC, the preeminent pro-Israel lobbying group, has been particularly subject to left-wing attacks.

Inside the Oval Office showdown between Trump and Jeanine Pirro

Jeanine Pirro had had it up to here with Doug Burgum. The famously voluble U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia strode into the Oval Office late Monday with her future on the line and the interior secretary, whom she privately called an incompetent liar, in her cross hairs. A few hours earlier — in front of the cameras, from the Resolute Desk — President Trump had accused Ms. Pirro, an ally and friend from New York going back decades, of “folding like an umbrella” and “choking” after she withdrew charges against a man accused of destroying the lining of his beloved but shoddily renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Why was he so angry at her? Because Ms. Pirro had dared to publicly demolish one of his most cherished narratives, promoted by Mr. Burgum, that vandals — and not a contractor hired by the Interior Department to do a rushed job — had defaced a Washington landmark.

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Mr. Trump raged against Ms. Pirro in private on Monday. Then he raged a little to reporters. Rumors she would be fired burbled through West Wing. Then he raged a little bit more before hosting a high-drama, face-to-face meeting with Ms. Pirro at the White House worthy of two decorated veterans of confrontational reality TV. Mr. Burgum had been invited too, so Ms. Pirro came prepared. She entered the White House from the West Executive driveway in a bright red blazer that matched her fight-back mood, schlepping a white box containing evidence, plus a black box with documents, on wheels. Waiting for her in the Oval Office, along with the president: Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and David Warrington, the White House counsel. After about an hour of intense back-and-forth, Ms. Pirro emerged with her job intact, for now. Speaking to reporters during a trip to the West Coast on Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump said he had told Ms. Pirro he was “not happy” with her filing and was still weighing her future. “I haven’t made a determination,” he said when asked if Ms. Pirro’s job was safe. During the meeting on Monday, Ms. Pirro, her voice raised at times, directly confronted Mr. Burgum, accusing him of misleading the president. She made the case that Mr. Burgum had promoted a self-serving cover story to conceal his own missteps. Mr. Burgum spoke less, but did his best to defend himself, according to a person briefed on the exchange requesting anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

Trump White House readies AI framework to review security risks

In a meeting on Tuesday with top artificial intelligence companies, White House officials said the federal government planned to review only certain types of artificial intelligence models for potential security risks and not others, according to four people familiar with the discussions. The A.I. models the government plans to review are known as “closed” models, which do not publish their underlying code and are made by companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, according to three of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the meeting were private. The administration does not plan to review “open source” A.I. models, which have computer code available to the public to download and modify, although that could change as the technology advances, the people said.

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The moves are an effort by the Trump administration to take a more hands-on approach to regulating A.I., and they formalize oversight of leading A.I. labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. But they delay addressing some of the most pressing regulatory issues with the technology, including potential threats posed by increasingly powerful open-source models made by Chinese companies. The decision to exclude open-source models could also be a boon for companies that are trying to catch up to Anthropic and OpenAI, which are widely considered leaders in developing next-generation A.I. Some companies, like Meta, have used open-source software to create products to directly compete with the two leading start-ups. The framework, which comes after months of private discussions between administration officials and a handful of the world’s most consequential tech companies, is likely to shape the global A.I. race. Companies have long decided largely on their own whether to give the public access to the latest advances or to withhold them over concerns about safety and security. Now, the United States will have a greater opportunity to weigh in, potentially giving the government the ability to slow down the rollout of the technology.

Rand Paul’s Fauci diary dump exposed peoples’ medical histories

Anthony Fauci’s diary included the names and medical information of people he came into contact with as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, including people with cancer, Ebola or HIV. Sen. Rand Paul’s office published Fauci’s diary entries without redacting those sensitive details. The documents expose more than 20 individuals by name along with their medical histories, a NOTUS review found. Paul published over 1,600 pages of Fauci’s diaries last week ahead of Fauci’s appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, after obtaining the documents from the Department of Health and Human Services. The initial document dump was unredacted. Days later, those files were removed and replaced with partial redactions to some, but not all, of the personal medical information.

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The unredacted entries have raised legal questions around how the Health Department disclosed these documents to the Senate. Several of the individuals named in the documents said they were unaware their medical history had been made public and expressed concerns around their personal privacy. “What this administration does with information is selective, it is unconstitutional and truly disappointing,” Leslie Adelman, one of the individuals whose medical information was revealed in the documents, told NOTUS in a text message. Adelman said she was “pretty offended that my name and public health information have been shared to the world.” NOTUS is only publishing the names of the private individuals who have given direct approval to appear in this story. Fauci’s diary entries remain accessible with some redactions on Paul’s Senate office website. Paul, who has long called for Fauci to be jailed for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, has suggested that the documents reveal that Fauci thought the COVID-19 virus emerged from a lab. The senator continues to promote the documents on social media.

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