May 8, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Consumers are ‘running out of money’ and cutting back, CEOs warn

Executives across retail, restaurants and packaged goods are increasingly worried about US shoppers with tighter budgets amid surging gas prices caused by the conflict in the Middle East. “They’re literally running out of money at the end of the month,” Kraft Heinz Co. Chief Executive Officer Steve Cahillane said in an interview this week. “We’re seeing negative cash flows in the lower-income brackets where they’re dipping into savings.” Since the pandemic, Americans have continued to spend at surprising levels despite high inflation, keeping the US economy growing and thwarting recession fears. But rising fuel costs might be too much to overcome. “The war in Iran amplified consumer concerns about the cost of living,” Whirlpool Corp. CEO Marc Bitzer said Thursday on a call with analysts.

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The maker of washers and dryers said it’s counting on purchases picking up after a harsh US winter slowed shopping, but the war caused a collapse in consumer sentiment. The company described the resulting 15% hit to industry demand as similar to the global financial crisis in the aughts. In fast food, McDonald’s Corp. CEO Chris Kempczinski said confidence among shoppers isn’t improving and may be getting worse. The company cited “heightened anxiety” and gas prices that disproportionately impact low-income consumers. Sit-down dining is also taking a hit. “Our price-sensitive, more value-oriented guests seem to be staying home a bit more,” Dine Brands Global Inc. CEO John Peyton said on an earnings call this week. The company, which owns the Applebee’s and IHOP chains, said it hasn’t seen a similar pullback in other income levels. Eyewear retailer Warby Parker Inc. said younger shoppers are feeling the pinch from higher-than-usual unemployment and student debt bills. Gas prices, now at $4.56 a gallon on average, are at their highest levels since July 2022, according to data from the American Automobile Association. As shoppers put more of their income toward fuel, they have less money for discretionary spending like eating out. Enlarged tax refunds helped blunt some of the impact, but sentiment has still soured to a record low.

Mayor John Whitmire unanimously endorsed by Houston police union PAC for reelection

A month after the president of the Houston Police Officers Union implied he wouldn’t support Mayor John Whitmire's reelection bid next year, the union's political action committee unanimously voted to endorse him Thursday. “HPOU stands with Mayor Whitmire because he stands with Houston police officers and the communities we proudly serve,” the union wrote on social media. “He has also shown a willingness to make tough decisions and take on the long-term issues facing our city instead of kicking the can down the road." Neither the union nor the mayor's office immediately responded to requests for comment Thursday afternoon. Whitmire's office has not responded to requests for comment from the Houston Chronicle since August.

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Whitmire for decades has been a close ally of the union, which endorsed his initial run for mayor in 2023. Whitmire then negotiated a five-year contract giving police officers raises of 36.5% at a cost to the city of almost $1 billion. The context made HPOU's recent rift with the mayor over the city's work with federal immigration agents notable. Whitmire initially supported an ordinance the council passed last month limiting police cooperation with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. After the vote, HPOU president Doug Griffith said the union wouldn’t support any council members who voted for the ICE ordinance, and told Houston Public Media "that will include the mayor." The union quickly changed course, however, saying endorsements would be made by its political action committee. Whitmire later pushed the council to amend its ICE ordinance after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to pull $114 million in public safety grants if the city did not act. The Houston Police Department has now returned to the ICE policy it used last year, before the issue roiled City Hall this spring.

U.S. intelligence says Iran can outlast Trump’s Hormuz blockade for months

A confidential CIA analysis delivered to administration policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship, four people familiar with the document said, a finding that appears to raise new questions about President Donald Trump’s optimism on ending the war. The analysis by the U.S. intelligence community, whose secret assessments on Iran have often been more sober than the administration’s public statements, also found that Tehran retains significant ballistic missile capabilities despite weeks of intense U.S. and Israeli bombardment, three of the people familiar with it said. Iran retains about 75 percent of its prewar inventories of mobile launchers and about 70 percent of its prewar stockpiles of missiles, a U.S. official said. The official said there is evidence that the regime has been able to recover and reopen almost all of its underground storage facilities, repair some damaged missiles and even assemble some new missiles that were nearly complete when the war began.

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Trump painted a rosier picture in Oval Office remarks on Wednesday, saying of Iran: “Their missiles are mostly decimated, they have probably 18, 19 percent, but not a lot by comparison to what they had.” Three current and one former U.S. official confirmed the outlines of the intelligence analysis, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. Asked for comment, a senior U.S. intelligence official emphasized the blockade’s impact. “The President’s blockade is inflicting real, compounding damage — severing trade, crushing revenue, and accelerating systemic economic collapse. Iran’s military has been badly degraded, its navy destroyed, and its leaders are in hiding,” the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said in a statement. “What’s left is the regime’s appetite for civilian suffering — starving its own people to prolong a war it has already lost.” Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials have consistently presented the war as an overwhelming U.S. military victory, despite Iran’s rejection of Washington’s demands that it abandon nuclear enrichment, surrender its uranium stockpiles, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and take other steps.

Hackers breach Canvas learning platform, exposing data on millions of students and teachers

A cybersecurity attack on the nation's most widely used classroom software has potentially exposed the personal data of millions of students and educators across the country. Instructure, the company that runs the Canvas learning management system used by more than 7,000 universities, K-12 districts and education ministries worldwide, disclosed the breach to affected institutions this week. The company confirmed names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private messages between users had been accessed before the breach was contained. Canvas was offline Thursday evening as the company placed the app in maintenance mode after reports of users encountering issues logging into student ePortfolios. By late Thursday, Instructure said most users should be able to access the app.

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Canvas is used by 41% of higher education institutions across North America to deliver courses. Millions of K-12 students rely on it as well. In North Carolina alone, the state Department of Public Instruction has used Canvas across all public K-12 schools since 2015. The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the attack. On a dark web leak site, the group alleged it had stolen more than 3.65 terabytes of data and threatened to release it unless its demands were met. The group said it stole roughly 275 million records tied to students, teachers and staff, and shared a list of 8,809 school districts, universities and online education platforms it claims were affected. ShinyHunters warned that a failure to pay could result in the release of "several billions of private messages among students and teachers." A ransom message on the platform appears to give Infrastructure until May 12 to respond and "negotiate a settlement" before the hackers leak information. The company stated that the affected data might have included full names, email addresses, student ID numbers and messages, but that there is no evidence passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers or financial information were exposed.

State Stories

Two Texas residents were on cruise ship with hantavirus outbreak, CDC tells state

Two Texas residents were aboard a cruise ship that reported an outbreak of hantavirus — an infection that can rapidly progress and become life-threatening. Texas health officials said Thursday the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified the state about the Texas passengers on the MV Hondius. The Texas Department of State Health Services, or DSHS, said the passengers had left the ship and returned to the U.S. before the outbreak was identified. Hantavirus is a “rare but severe disease that can be deadly,” according to WHO. It is typically spread when people have contact with wild rodent urine, droppings and saliva. However, DSHS said in a statement the strain in this outbreak, the Andes virus, can spread from person-to-person “in limited circumstances.” “It typically requires close, prolonged contact with a person who is actively sick with the disease,” the agency said.

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“It is not known to spread through casual contact such as shaking hands or being in the same room for a few minutes. There have been no documented cases where a person without symptoms spread it to someone else.” DSHS said public health officials in Texas have reached the two individuals, who report they are not experiencing any symptoms and weren’t in contact with anyone who was sick while on the ship. The state said it will not release additional personal details about the passengers due to privacy concerns. KERA reached out to DSHS to see where in Texas the passengers are but did not immediately receive comment. The agency said the individuals agreed to “monitor themselves for symptoms with daily temperature checks” and reach out to public health officials at any sign of a possible illness. As of May 4, the World Health Organization, or WHO, said seven cases have been identified – two confirmed with lab testing and five suspected – including three deaths, one critically ill patient and three patients reporting “mild symptoms.” WHO noted the initial appearance of symptoms was characterized by “fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, rapid progression to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock.” The organization also said investigations are ongoing.

Is Brownsville getting a refinery? America First CEO is confident; industry analyst skeptical

When Donald Trump announced on Truth Social March 10 that Brownsville would be the site of the first U.S. oil refinery to be built in 50 years, it seemed to come out of the blue. But in fact, Port of Brownsville officials have been in communication with the principals behind the proposed America First Refining (AFR) project for about a dozen years, according to Brownsville Navigation District Chairman Steve Guerra. Back in June 2024, AFR founder and CEO John Calce announced that his company (then Element Fuel Holdings) had completed the site preparation and pre-construction work for a large oil refinery at the port. In a statement, he said the company had secured the permits necessary to construct and operate a refinery with a capacity of more than 160,000 BPD, or “approximately 6.7 million gallons, per day of finished gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.”

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Reuters reported at the time that Calce had tried before to build a refinery at the port, through start-up firms ARX Energy and Jupiter Brownsville LLC, one such attempt resulting in a bankruptcy filing. Now branded as AFR, the facility is designed to refine U.S. shale crude oil exclusively, which no other domestic refinery is equipped to do, the company said. AFR said the approximately $4 million project has investment from a “global supermajor,” identified by Trump as Reliance Industries, India’s largest private company and owner of the world’s largest oil refinery. The Financial Times reported that Reliance, which has not commented publicly on the deal, is committing a “modest initial outlay” of about $40 million to the project. In a May 5 phone interview with The Brownsville Herald, Calce declined to say how much Reliance is investing, but when asked about the likelihood of AFR actually getting built, said the project is moving forward with much of the pre-construction work already done. “In a lot of ways we’ve already commenced construction, because we’ve spent an extraordinary amount of money on … permitting, design, engineering etc.” he said. “In these kind of projects, so much of what you do in the development piece of it is engineering.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson raising campaign cash in Dallas

House Speaker Mike Johnson will headline a fundraiser and “fireside chat” Friday in Dallas to ramp up efforts to protect Republican congressional candidates in November. The event, sponsored by Johnson’s Grow the Majority committee, also will feature members of the Texas congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin, who is in the GOP runoff May 26 for attorney general. The Dallas fundraiser, part of a two-day North Texas swing by Johnson, comes as Republicans are mobilizing to maintain control of the House and defy the midterm pattern of the president’s party losing seats. President Donald Trump’s poll numbers have sagged this year, and rising living costs could make it harder for Republicans to hold the House.

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Texas has a special role in the 2026 midterm races. Last year, Republican lawmakers redrew congressional boundaries at Trump’s request to try to add five GOP seats, sparking redistricting fights in other parts of the country. At least three of the five districts revamped to favor Republicans are competitive, so Johnson and Republicans may be forced to spend national resources to help those candidates. Texas remains a major fundraising base for Republicans, including in Democratic-controlled Dallas County. According to an invitation reviewed by The Dallas Morning News, Friday’s event is hosted by Dallas business leaders and GOP donors, including Kathy and Harlan Crow, Ross Perot Jr. and Catherine “Trinka” Taylor. Contributions range from $25,000 to $250,000.

Despite anger over bills, Austin considers new contract with Texas Gas Service

The Austin City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday on a plan to continue partnering with Texas Gas Service for another 10 years. That's even though the council and residents have had plenty of complaints about the cost of the service being provided. Two years ago, renewing the contact felt less guaranteed. The relationship between the city and Texas Gas Service, the for-profit utility that provides the city with natural gas, was in a bad place. Repeated rate hikes angered customers, and plans for another increase had City Council members suggesting they had reached a breaking point. They discussed finding another utility to work with when Austin’s contract expired in 2026, or even buying out the local distribution system entirely and creating a public gas service.

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“Please, work with the city, our representatives and the outside stakeholders to meet the moment,” Council Member Ryan Alter asked representatives for the utility in 2024, “and not motivate us two years from now to really question whether this is a good partnership.” Two years later, gas bills have kept going up, public anger persists, but a new contract appears inevitable. The question is under what terms. “This [contract] is going to be well discussed before we reach the finish line. And we'll hopefully have a product in place that protects customers and limits these rate increases,” Alter said. The vote Thursday is over a proposed agreement drafted by city staff in negotiations with Texas Gas Service, that would allow the utility to continue as the the primary provider of gas for Austin homes and businesses.

Paxton opens investigations into 29 Texas ISDs over Ten Commandments law

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is launching investigations into 29 Texas school districts to ensure schools display the Ten Commandments in classrooms in compliance with Texas law. This comes after a federal appeals court's April 21 decision to uphold a contentious Texas law requiring public school districts to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, setting the stage for a potential Supreme Court fight. "Texas school districts must comply with Texas law by displaying the Ten Commandments and taking a school board vote regarding the implementation of prayer time in schools," said Paxton in a statement. "I will never stop defending our students’ religious freedom and the moral foundation of our nation."

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The Texas Ten Commandments law — SB 10 — was passed by the Legislature during the 89th session in 2025 and requires public schools to display donated copies of the Ten Commandments that meet certain specifications. Schools must also comply with SB 11, passed in 2025, which requires school boards to vote on whether to implement a designated time for prayer and the reading of the Bible or other religious texts. According to the Office of the Attorney General, it has demanded that school districts provide proof of a board vote on implementing SB 11. The demands issued to these schools also require them to produce documents regarding the display or lack thereof of the Ten Commandments and their policies regarding SB 10.

Roy, Self target anti-drunk driving ‘kill switch’ tech, advocates call fears overblown

Republican U.S. Congressman and Texas Attorney General candidate Chip Roy is attempting to repeal legislation requiring technology in vehicles designed to combat drunk driving. Advocates say it represents a step back. When former President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law in 2021, the legislation included the HALT Drunk Driving law. Long sought by anti-drunk-driving advocates, the law sets requirements for new vehicles in the U.S. to be equipped with advanced impaired driving technology that detects impaired drivers and, if necessary, prevents them from driving via a so-called “kill switch.” Roy has added an amendment to the GOP’s upcoming Foreign Intelligence Security Act renewal to repeal the section of the infrastructure bill requiring the technology to be added to all new non-commercial motor vehicles.

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Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie filed a similar amendment in January to prevent funding for the initiative, although 57 fellow GOP representatives joined with Democrats in voting to maintain the requirements. The “kill switch,” Roy argues, is a government overreach that violates U.S. citizens’ civil liberties. “Do you really want to put that kind of data collection mandated inside every car? At what point is there just literally no privacy at all anywhere? A lot of Americans died to protect our Fourth Amendment rights so that we don’t have government looking at our stuff,” Roy said at an April 28. Committee meeting. As set forth in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, the technology will utilize passive, consumer-ready mechanisms to detect impairment in motor vehicles. Breathalyzers and other traditional methods for detecting blood alcohol content do not fall under that definition. Instead, cars would have camera systems and vehicle-based sensors capable of identifying a drunk driver. U.S. Rep Keith Self from Collin County has also voiced opposition to the technology. On Wednesday, Self tweeted, “Imagine a woman fleeing an attacker—and her car won’t start because it thinks she’s impaired. Imagine a farmer injured on the job—his truck won’t start because it thinks he’s drunk.”

TCU & Baylor aligned on Big 12’s new private equity partner & cash infusion

The Big 12’s future health and stability hinge on its ability to find new partners who believe in the product and want to be affiliated with one of America’s highest-profile college athletic conferences. There is quiet frustration growing among league members that the conference has not landed more lucrative deals to be disbursed among the Big 12 members and adding to their bottom lines. In lieu of those types of potential deals, the league partnered with RedBird Capital to help with cash flow. Yahoo Sports reported on May 1 that the deal provides $12.5 million to the league, and includes a provision where the member schools can receive a credit line of $30 million.

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TCU director of athletics Mike Buddie said the university’s athletic department has declined the offer, as has Baylor. “[Baylor is] is supportive of the RedBird partnership and excited about its benefits for the Big 12, but as of now [we] do not have plans to participate in the school-level capital option,” Baylor athletic director Doug McNamee told the Star-Telegram. According to reports from news organizations that cover the schools in local Big 12 markets from Florida to Utah, nearly all of the universities are rejecting this line of credit. They are passing for two reasons. 1. If a member school’s athletic department desperately needs a line of credit, the university can arrange a more favorable one. 2. They don’t want another voice in the room helping to manage the budget in a … cough-cough … “partnership.”

Bud Kennedy: Ex-party chair tells Texas Republicans: Unite or expect Senator Talarico

Steve Munisteri of Austin remembers back when young Texans were Republicans. Now, he’s a senior adviser with a warning: Republicans can lose. The party’s former state chairman brought a sobering message to two Fort Worth-area Republican clubs last week: Texas Democrats can elect James Talarico to the U.S. Senate and maybe win more races if Republicans keep bashing each other after the May 29 runoff. In a week when the party’s deep divide was garishly displayed in Texas — for example, state Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco wrote on X.com that current state party Chairman Abraham George represents the “low-IQ base” after the state party tried to ban some incumbents from the ballot — Munisteri put it bluntly:

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“The Democrats are united now. Believe me, nothing unites a losing party more than the hope that they might not be the losing party.” “In 30 of the races [nationally since January 2025] in which a party has flipped a seat from one party to the other, our party is 0-30.” “Is the best way to [win] to be mean to your other Republicans? ... You need their votes. We need everybody’s votes.” “Does anybody this think this state has become more Republican with our population going up about 400,000 [people] a year?” Munisteri advises Gov. Greg Abbott and has worked for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. He served in the White House from 2017 to 2019 as a deputy assistant during President Donald Trump’s first administration. He comes from the libertarian-minded wing of the party and has also advised U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Texan.

Abbott orders North Texas Muslim school to stop offering degrees

Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that the Texas American Muslim University at Dallas, a North Texas school that advertises degree programs with Islamic studies courses, must cease operations. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said the school is offering higher education courses and degrees without a proper certificate of authority, violating Texas laws for operating a higher education institution. At Abbott’s direction, the state agency ordered the school, which is based in Richardson, to cease advertising its programs and enrolling students. “Texas will not allow illegal educational institutions to operate in our state,” Abbott wrote Thursday in a post on X. Shahid Bajwa, the school’s founder, said the school was “actively engaging” with state officials to “clarify any misunderstandings and to ensure full compliance with state regulations.”

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Bajwa said that the school, which started its first semester in October 2025 with 26 students, was aware of the state’s process for authorization. School leaders are “in the process of seeking the necessary authorizations and accreditation and will not offer degrees until all regulatory approvals are secured,” he said in a statement Thursday evening. The school has not granted degrees, certificates or credentials, he said, adding that it is primarily funded through donations. Abbott’s directive comes as state leaders have increasingly scrutinized Islamic schools and sought to curtail activities hosted by Muslim groups. The state comptroller’s office initially held up dozens of Islamic K-12 schools from enrolling in Texas’ new voucher-like program, with Abbott deeming the schools sites of “radical Islamic indoctrination.” Texas American Muslim University at Dallas, whose website says its “north star” is to “advance Texas,” advertises itself as the first university in the country to offer STEM degree programs with mandatory courses in Islamic studies.

‘It chokes us out’: San Antonio Rodeo bucks county’s ‘alternate vision’ for the East Side

Seven months after voters overwhelmingly approved plans for an expanded rodeo district on the East Side, leaders of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo are accusing Bexar County leaders of going behind their backs to pursue an “alternative vision.” In November, voters approved Propositions A and B to help fund a new Spurs arena downtown, as well as convert the existing Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum grounds into a year-round stock show and rodeo district. Now Cody Davenport, executive director and CEO of the San Antonio Livestock Exhibition, says Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and county commissioners have been negotiating without them on a mixed-use development that was long expected to accompany the rodeo grounds — but as written, is “fundamentally incompatible” with the plan voters approved.

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“It chokes us out,” he said. Davenport played a key role in getting Props A and B over the line in November. But the county appeared to be dragging its feet on his contract, Davenport said, and when multiple people alerted him about movement on this other vision, he sent county leaders a three-page letter expressing his frustration. In it, he vents frustration over the developer’s plans to eliminate parking, saying the rodeo wouldn’t be able to use the $193 million voters approved in Proposition A to expand the rodeo grounds and grow its event calendar. He also suggested the plan was at odds with the rodeo’s prior agreement with the county, which said that development shouldn’t interfere with or restrict rodeo activities. “[County leaders] have been presented with an alternate vision advanced by the Hunt Companies and Lincoln Group that was not presented to voters, not described on the ballot, and not approved by the public,” Davenport wrote.

Casinos are illegal in Texas. So why did Las Vegas Sands post casino software jobs in Dallas?

A year after Las Vegas Sands made an unsuccessful push to include casino gaming in a North Texas mixed-use development, the resort company has posted several jobs based out of Dallas on its website. At least nine Dallas-based jobs had been posted on the Sands website in the last 30 days as of Thursday. Posted roles are for application architects, data engineers, and technology support. One position includes a senior product manager role that leads development of the casino management systems software "from the ground up". A spokesperson with the company said that Sands does "not have any projects being undertaken in Dallas." However, the company has established an office in the area to centralize software development, strengthen operational efficiency, and "innovate at scale."

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"DFW was selected for its strong concentration of skilled technology talent, robust infrastructure, and thriving innovation ecosystem supported by leading universities," Sands spokesperson Ron Reese said in an email. "The region’s connectivity across North America, cost-effective operating environment, and business-friendly policies enable sustainable growth and efficient collaboration with partners." Sands proposed rezoning a mixed-use development in Irving last year that would have included casino gaming in its destination resort, pending legalization in Texas. Following strong pushback from Irving residents, Sands took out the casino-related portion of the development plans. Those plans were ultimately approved by the Irving City Council without the casino gaming element. It was not the first time Sands floated the idea of casino gaming in Texas. Las Vegas Sands has lobbied to legalize gambling in Texas for years and formed the Texas Sands PAC in 2022.

San Antonio Mayor Ortiz Jones, council standoff boils over during Project Marvel consultant contract debate

Long-simmering tensions between the mayor, council and city staff again boiled over publicly Thursday, leading Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones to cast the lone vote against the two consultant contracts related to the downtown development Project Marvel. By a 10-1 vote, council members approved two contracts, one to determine costs and the other to lead the multi-million-dollar investment surrounding a Spurs NBA arena in downtown San Antonio. The council was set to hear a briefing by City Manager Erik Walsh on the city’s plan to develop a $3 billion to $4 billion sports and entertainment district near an expanded convention center and anchored by the new arena. It would have been the first full update since January, with 37 detailed presentation slides outlining how the district study and executive program manager consultants were selected.

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It also included some updates on progress toward acquiring federal and UTSA-owned properties for the development. But that briefing was pushed off to June after council members joined Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) in agreeing that such an update should be given during a future B Session of the council, which has more time for such updates. (The previous staff update was provided during B Session on Jan. 14.) Jones again pushed for the update to occur before the vote, saying it was necessary for “transparency.” “I think it’s important that we share the information,” Jones said. “There may be questions about why we would not talk about the overall picture, or taking action on contracts related to the projects.” Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) said the entire council had met with city staff during the past two weeks and had been fully updated on progress with the project.

‘In the presence of Jesus:’ Founder of Daystar Television Network dies at 65

Joni Lamb, the founder and president of the Daystar Television Network, has died at age 65, according to a statement from the network. Lamb founded the Christian television network in 1993 with her husband, Marcus, according to WFAA-TV. Its headquarters are located in Bedford. “We know that she is in the presence of Jesus, reunited with Marcus, and receiving her reward for a beautiful life lived in surrender to the Lord,” the statement reads. “She has modeled what it means to be fearless, to be bold, and to stand for righteousness even when it’s unpopular. Her love and compassion for people were unparalleled. She will be so greatly missed.”

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Prior to her death, Lamb had been dealing with “serious” health issues that were made worse by a past back injury, according to the statement. Her condition worsened over the last few days despite “the dedicated efforts of her medical team and the prayers of so many around the world.” Lamb spent 40 years “building a ministry that brought the Gospel into millions of homes,” according to the statement. The network will continue programming “uninterrupted” with tributes to air in the coming days, officials said. Lamb met with the network’s board prior to her death to ensure a leadership team was in place that would allow the network to continue.

County Stories

Tarrant faith leaders denounce racial disparity in death penalty cases

Faith leaders and community activists expressed their concerns on Thursday afternoon following a report that said Tarrant County unfairly targets racial and ethnic minorities in death penalty cases while also frequently threatening the death sentence to leverage plea bargains. The report, “An Extreme Outlier: Race and the Death Penalty in Tarrant County, the Third Largest County in Texas,” was published by the Texas Defender Service, which describes itself as “dedicated to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in Texas through direct representation, policy reform, and public education.” At a press conference at the Tarrant County Courthouse, the Rev. Ryon Price, the senior pastor of Broadway Baptist Church, said Tarrant County’s pursuit of the death penalty is “shocking in its frequency and absolutely abhorrent in its effect.”

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Price says the death penalty is a cruel, unnecessarily vindictive form of punishment, and it disappoints him that Tarrant County leads the charge in the state. “What is obvious from this report is that Tarrant County is consistently and abusively misusing capital case prosecution as a weapon of persecution against the Black and brown community, this must stop,” Price said. “I and other faith leaders here with me today call upon Tarrant County to end its extreme and unjust pursuit of the death penalty, and commit itself to seeking a more reasonable, ethical and equitable measure of justice.” Pamela Young, executive director of United Fort Worth, compared the report to other Tarrant County issues, such as jail deaths, the Commissioners Court redistricting that likely flipped a Democrat’s seat, and voter suppression efforts, such as when commissioners tried to reduce the number of voting locations in 2024. Young called out registered Tarrant County voters, saying no one will come to save them except themselves, and that the best way to do it is by voting.

National Stories

Campaign staffers tell NPR they make 'thousands' betting on their own candidates

It was a tight race, so a campaign staffer doubted the results of an unreleased poll showing their candidate up — by a lot. The tip about the outside poll didn't match up with the campaign's internal numbers. But accuracy aside, the staffer knew the poll would shake up the prediction markets. One market had their candidate down by double digits. "Myself and others started placing bets before that poll came out," the staffer, who was working on a statewide campaign in the South, told NPR on the condition of anonymity over fear for their future employment. "And then, sure enough as soon as that poll came out, the stock went up and everybody made money." This is one of the first publicly reported instances of a campaign staffer betting and winning thousands on their own candidate on prediction markets — emerging financial exchanges where billions are bet each week on future events like sports, culture and even elections.

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The staffer's bet was verified by prediction market data reviewed by NPR. "Because you have all this information and knowledge that isn't publicly available yet, it's almost foolish not to bet on it before it's made public," the staffer said. The staffer said campaign bets by fellow staffers were commonplace in this particular campaign and the ones that followed. In recent weeks, popular prediction market Kalshi has banned and fined a handful of political candidates for betting on themselves. Bets like these raise questions about how campaign operatives can also turn private information into a quick payday amid an unsettled legal landscape. For this campaign staffer, the method was simple. First, they'd receive a tip on an unreleased poll and compare it with the odds on a prediction market, like PredictIt or Polymarket. If the poll reported their candidate had a better chance of winning than the prediction markets, they'd use this edge to buy low-cost odds on their candidate — known as event contracts — before the poll was released. On prediction markets, the price of an event contract often mirrors the market's estimation of the probability of a given outcome — in this case the chance a candidate will win. So a contract selling for 20 cents means the market is pricing a 20% chance of success. Once the poll went public, the prediction market contracts shot up in value. The staffer would then sell their contracts at a higher price and make money. "The most I've ever made is thousands," the staffer said. This sort of election betting "could potentially be a violation" and be subject to a CFTC investigation, said Jeff Le Riche, who worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for 20 years as a trial lawyer focused on insider trading and market manipulation. The agency oversees and regulates prediction markets and allows election betting in some, but not all, cases.

John Fetterman says he’s not switching parties. Here’s why everyone’s talking about it anyway.

Just as Sen. John Fetterman’s tension with his own party has grown since he began his term in 2023, so have the Pennsylvania Democrat’s unexpected friendships with Republican senators. And as Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate in November improve, Fetterman’s friends across the aisle have been opening their arms even wider. Pennsylvania GOP Chair Sen. Greg Rothman indicated last month that supporting Fetterman’s reelection wouldn’t be off the table if he switched parties. President Donald Trump asked Sean Hannity to urge Fetterman to become a Republican in exchange for the president’s support, according to the Fox News host. But Fetterman has repeatedly said he doesn’t plan to switch parties, including Thursday in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, following a new round of speculation.

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“Being an independent voice that works with the other side to deliver for Pennsylvanians might put me at odds with the party that I have stayed committed to and have no plans to leave — but I will continue to put the commonwealth and the country first,” Fetterman wrote. “Plus, I’d be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats,” he added. So why is everyone talking about Fetterman switching parties if he keeps saying he won’t, and why does it matter? Even though he votes with his party the majority of the time, Fetterman has had public disagreements with party leaders on a host of high-profile issues, including recent shutdowns, the Iran war, immigration enforcement, and even Trump’s desired White House ballroom. He’s consistently voted for Trump’s cabinet nominees and has criticized members of his party for having “Trump derangement syndrome,” a common Republican attack. And while many Democrats support Israel — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Gov. Josh Shapiro — Fetterman has been particularly vocal in criticizing the party’s progressive wing over its embrace of the Palestinian cause. In Pennsylvania, Fetterman has polled much better among Republicans than members of his own party in recent months — an eye-popping 73% of Republicans approved of his job performance in a February poll, compared with only 22% of Democrats. Progressive groups who once supported his election now routinely stage protests outside his office. He’s also had high turnover on his staff, with some former employees openly opposing him or expressing concerns about his health.

Inside a MAGA influencer’s turn against the right-wing machine

Few MAGA influencers were as committed to the digital cause as Ashley St. Clair. The 27-year-old former brand ambassador for the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA published an anti-transgender children’s book, appeared prime-time on Fox News and posted selfies from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. On X, where St. Clair has more than 1 million followers, she had become a legend: a young conservative woman fighting back against the perceived liberal excesses of “brain rot” feminism and the “‘woke’ agenda” — a reputation that swelled last year, when she revealed that she had secretly had a child with the platform’s multibillionaire owner, Elon Musk. But in the past few months, St. Clair has become one of the right-wing internet’s most scathing and visible critics.

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Many of Trump’s top online cheerleaders are actually just mercenaries of the attention economy, she argues, working to turn political outrage and talking points coordinated with administration officials into paid promotional deals. “There is no free thinking here,” she said in a TikTok video last month about the movement she joined when she was 19. “They are waiting to get marching orders and a direct deposit.” St. Clair’s transformation from a self-described “good little foot soldier” to MAGA turncoat has unspooled in near-daily monologues to more than 77,000 followers on her TikTok feed, where she applies makeup from her New York apartment and claims to expose the secrets of her former allies and the hidden machinery that made them social media stars. Her viral criticism has triggered unease across the online right, where some of her ex-compatriots have argued she is a disgruntled attention-seeker moving onto her next grift. Naomi Seibt, a far-right German activist and influencer, said in an X post that St. Clair is “projecting her guilt and bitterness for a decade of selling out onto us.”

Federal and state officials discuss closing Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Florida is in talks with the Trump administration to shut down a high-profile immigration detention center that opened last summer in the Everglades and has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars to operate, according to a federal official, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, and a person close to the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The shutdown talks are preliminary, the people said. But officials at the Department of Homeland Security have concluded that it is too expensive to keep operating the center, known as Alligator Alcatraz. Homeland security officials have also come to consider the center ineffective, the federal official said. All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks.

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The DeSantis administration has been spending more than $1 million a day to run the center, which is in a swampy, isolated area between Miami and Naples. Some private vendors hired by the state to operate it have been struggling to front costs, according to the person close to the DeSantis administration. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment before this article was published on Thursday morning. Neither did the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which operates the center, nor Mr. DeSantis’s office. In a statement provided after publication, a homeland security spokesperson said the department “continuously evaluates detention needs and requirements to ensure they meet the latest operational requirements.” What you should know about anonymous sources. The Times makes a careful decision any time it shields the identity of a source. The information the source supplies must be newsworthy, credible and give readers genuine insight.

Thomas Massie is really in danger of losing his seat

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s lead in his primary later this month is slipping and he is in genuine danger of losing his Kentucky seat, according to interviews with local GOP officials. Massie — best known for his defiance of President Donald Trump and advocacy for the release of files associated with notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein — is believed to still have a small edge in his race against military veteran Ed Gallrein, they say. But his lead is shrinking under an onslaught of negative ads and steadfast opposition from a bloc of older Republicans who remain fiercely loyal to the president. “I think Ed could win,” said Rich Hidy, chairman of the Campbell County GOP in the commonwealth’s 4th Congressional District, who is neutral in the race. “It’s going to be the closest race that Thomas has faced.”

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Republicans in the district broadly share Hidy’s view: Many believed Massie’s lead had already shrunk to the single digits when May began. Massie’s path looks even more complicated this week after primaries in Indiana, where Trump-backed candidates defeated a majority of the Republican incumbents they faced in state Senate elections. Those incumbents had earned Trump’s wrath after voting against his preferred redistricting map. That anger hardly matches the president’s rage at Massie: Trump vowed to defeat Massie last year after the congressman opposed a series of the president’s policy priorities, endorsing Gallrein and dispatching some of his top political lieutenants to ensure the incumbent’s loss. “Hey @RepThomasMassie ….you are next,” former Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita posted on X on Tuesday, shortly after votes had been tabulated in Indiana.

Costa Rica’s top newspaper says US revoked visas of its executives, prompting press freedom concerns

The United States has revoked the visas of several board executives at La Nación, one of Costa Rica’s leading media outlets, triggering fresh accusations that the U.S. — in conjunction with the allied Costa Rican government — is stripping visas to punish critics and political opponents. In a statement that ran as the newspaper’s front page on Sunday, the board of directors said that the affected members first learned they had been stripped of their visas to enter the U.S. from reports in pro-government media. La Nación has long been a thorn in the side of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who has agreed to accept up to 100 third-country deportees a month as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up deportations.

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The newspaper, which Chaves has berated since it published allegations of sexual harassment during his 2022 presidential campaign, said that the U.S. gave no reason for the visa revocations. The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment. “We fully recognize that the United States, like any sovereign state, has the power to determine the terms of entry into its territory,” La Nación said. “However, it is unprecedented in Costa Rica’s recent history for visas to be revoked from members of the board of a general-interest and independent newspaper.” The move appeared to mark the latest instance of the Trump administration deploying immigration restrictions to punish its political foes, and prompted sharp criticism from political opposition and press freedom organizations in Costa Rica, which demanded that Costa Rican and U.S. authorities provide an explanation for what happened. “If this decision is based on their critical stance toward this government, it would be yet another troubling signal for our democratic system,” the organizations said in a statement, adding that failing to provide transparent information would “constitute an unacceptable form of complicity.”

Copyright May 08, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved