April 5, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Renewable energy is a 'second opportunity' for some rural Texans

Ely Valdez was considering selling his flock of sheep when a solar farm moved in across the road. He was being laid off from oil field jobs every three months, he said, and money was tight. But what if his 27 sheep could graze the solar farm as a way to maintain the flock and potentially grow it to his goal of 100? When he contacted the solar development to discuss it, its owner asked a question that changed everything: “How much would you charge us?” Being paid for pasturing his sheep wasn’t at all on Valdez’s mind until that “lightbulb moment,” he said. But it opened the door for his development of companies that often work in partnership: EVA Ranch, a sheep vegetation management service, and South Texas Curbing, a ground maintenance company.

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“We still have that same site that we started with 11 years ago,” Valdez said. “That means that we’re doing something right.” Now, the flock he oversees has grown to 10,000 sheep and expanded from grazing the 100-acre solar farm in South San Antonio to rotating across 40,000 acres throughout Texas, a site in Alabama and another in Louisiana. For Valdez, solar farm grazing was a lifeline to keeping his farming business afloat. Such ag-energy industry partnerships come as demand for electricity is spiking. Texas is facing an unprecedented surge in demand driven by population growth and an increasing number of large electric loads looking to connect to the statewide grid. In response, developers across Texas are building to meet the demand, with solar and battery sites now making up 77% of generation sources, grid operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas reported in December. Rural Texas, with vast swaths of land available affordably, is often the site of such projects. That raises concerns for some who fear farmland is being lost.

OPEC+ agrees in principle on theoretical oil output hike amid Iran war paralysis, sources say

OPEC+ has agreed in principle to raise its oil output quotas by 206,000 barrels per day for May, three sources with knowledge of the group's talks said ahead of its meeting later on Sunday, a rise that will largely exist on paper as its key members are unable to raise production ?due to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.The war has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz - the world's most important oil ?route - since the end of February and cut exports from OPEC+ members Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait ?and Iraq, the only countries in the group which were able to significantly raise production even before the conflict began. continueOther group ?members such as Russia are unable to increase output due to Western sanctions and damage to infrastructure inflicted during the war with Ukraine.

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Inside the ?Gulf, damage to infrastructure from missile and drone attacks has also been severe. Several Gulf officials have said it would take months to resume normal operations and reach production targets even if the war stopped and Hormuz reopened immediately.Iran on Saturday said Iraq was from any restrictions to transit the vital ?route, and shipping data on Sunday showed a tanker loaded with Iraqi crude passing through the strait. Still, it remains to be ?seen if more vessels will take the risk involved, a source close to the issue said. Sunday's OPEC+ talks are ?set to ?start at around 1300 GMT with a gathering of ministers called the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which does not decide on output policy.After this, eight members of OPEC+ hold separate talks having agreed in principle to raise output quotas by 206,000 bpd for May, the three sources said. This would be the same as the increase decided for April at their last meeting held on March 1, just as ?the war began to disrupt oil ?flows.A month later, the largest oil ?supply disruption on record is estimated to have removed as many as 12 to 15 million bpd or up to 15% of global supply.Crude prices have soared to a four-year high close to $120 ?a barrel. Oil prices could spike above $150 - an all-time high - if flows via Hormuz remain disrupted ?into mid-May, JPMorgan said on ?Thursday.

ERCOT: Data centers cause Texas' large load queue to balloon

The size of ERCOT’s large load interconnection requests – majority of which are data centers wanting to connect to the grid – soared by nearly 150 gigawatts to 410 gigawatts in just two weeks, a symptom of Texas becoming a hub for data centers and other high-tech industries. On Tuesday, ERCOT officials discussed the massive uptick in requests, the agency’s recently published “state of the grid” report and more at its third annual Innovation Summit at Kalahari Resorts’ convention center in Round Rock. Large loads are customers requesting a new or expanded interconnection, where its total peak demand at a single site would be at least 75 megawatts. Hundreds of people in various roles tied to the energy industry were in attendance for panels, attended by industry executives and experts from across the globe.

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The first session included a discussion between ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas and National Energy System Operator CEO Fintan Slye on “powering progress.” Vegas, who has led ERCOT since 2022, reflected on the evolving grid and energy market in Texas. “The ERCOT grid today is vastly different from the ERCOT grid of even 5 years ago and certainly more than 20 years ago,” he said. “I think that’s one of the characteristics of the conversation today about the grid itself is just how rapidly evolving and changing it has become.” Vegas called ERCOT an “energy island,” which can afford both benefits like the ability to change and move quickly in response to needs. The needs are noticeably increasing — and fast, according to the last data from ERCOT. The agency said peak demand could reach 145 GW by 2030, and it currently has about 453 GW of requests to connect to the grid. ERCOT’s all-time peak demand was 85 GW in August 2023. Notably, ERCOT reported its large load interconnection queue now sits at 410 GW, about 87% of which are data centers. That’s a spike from closer to 300 GW just two weeks ago.

Viral Harris County judge accused of overreach after ordering critic to court

When James Stafford saw the viral video of a civil judge berating a Harris County employee, the longtime criminal defense attorney emailed the judge directly to raise concerns about his behavior. Judge Nathan Milliron responded by accusing Stafford of sending an improper "ex parte" communication and ordering him to appear before him in court. The exchange, first reported by the Houston Chronicle, added fuel to the social media outcry against Milliron, rallied other Houston lawyers to Stafford’s defense and raised questions about free speech and judicial overreach.

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Milliron's weekend email had the appearance of an official mandate. He called Stafford an officer of the court — he has been practicing law in Texas since 1973 — and ordered him to come before his bench to discuss their conversation further. He also included his court coordinator and clerks in the email, suggesting Stafford’s appearance would be added to his schedule. Stafford considers the email toothless and not an official order — a point backed by at least one legal expert. If Milliron’s goal is to hold Stafford in contempt of court, the judge’s communications did not meet the legal threshold, said Thomas Hogan, a South Texas College of Law professor. In order to be found in contempt, Stafford would have to either disrupt court proceedings to criticize the jurist or violate a court order as a party in a case, Hogan said. As of Thursday, nothing has appeared on Milliron’s 215th District Court docket to suggest a hearing will take place. The judge, who has repeatedly declined to comment, has not rescinded his request or communicated with Stafford since the initial exchange. Milliron, who took office in 2025, has deleted his Facebook page, which was flooded with thousands of comments in the fallout of the now-infamous video. The brief footage, initially posted to TikTok, showed Milliron clashing with an information-technology worker for the courts who tried to lighten the mood when the judge's audio problem turned out to be a false alarm. The judge lashed back by ordering him out of his courtroom. "I think he just realizes now the chaos he's created," Stafford said.

Trump weighs more Cabinet changes, but wants to avoid ‘massive shake-up’

After ousting two of his highest-profile Cabinet members from their posts, President Donald Trump is considering making more changes to his administration’s top leadership, according to advisers — a decision that would accelerate the once-slow pace of his second-term staff departures. But Trump, who sought to avoid high-profile departures during the first year back in the White House — often publicly standing by Cabinet members even as they faced scrutiny — is also reluctant to engage in a large-scale shake-up of his Cabinet, and in some cases has pushed to counter reporting that he has soured on certain officials. On the heels of news of the firing Thursday of his attorney general, Pam Bondi, Trump wanted to make a “very strong” statement reaffirming his support for another official rumored to be on the chopping block, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

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As a result, his rapid-response account on X posted a statement from Trump’s communications director saying that the president “has total confidence” in Gabbard, “and any insinuation otherwise is totally fake news.” Gabbard, who has a long history of criticizing U.S. involvement in Middle East conflicts — specifically the notion of a war with Iran — has continued to brief the president on intelligence, even as Trump earlier this week told reporters that Gabbard was “a little bit different in her thought process than me” on Iran. Gabbard is “safe” in her role for the time being, the White House official said. Two others in his Cabinet may be less secure. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have both been under Trump’s scrutiny for a possible exit,according to the same official and a second White House official. Chavez-DeRemer, who is facing misconduct allegations that include an alleged affair with a staffer and drinking in her office, has so far remained in her role despite top officials in her agency resigning amid the scandal. And Lutnick’s style of freelancing policy ideas and deals without prior approval has long prompted eye rolls from aides and others in the White House, according to people close to Trump, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.

State Stories

Protesters gather in Austin to defend Big Bend against proposed border wall

The grounds of the Capitol in Austin were crowded Saturday as more than 2,000 people gathered to protest proposed construction of a physical wall on the Mexico-U.S. border in the Big Bend region. The region is home to Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Seminole Canyon State Park. Protesters argue the proposed 30-foot border wall will fracture protected ecosystems in the region. Calvin Plumb has been going to the park for decades. He and his wife Sandra said they feel called to protect the park. “The idea that bulldozers are gonna come through there and change the landscape, it touches down so deep in my soul that I had to be here,” Plumb said.

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“I just could not let it happen. As a native son of this state, I just could not, if I might be able to stop it.” Plans for the border wall keep changing. In February, the Trump administration waived more than two dozen environmental laws in order to expedite construction of a physical border wall spanning more than 150 miles. The original plan included construction of the wall through both Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. However, as of Saturday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website said the region will rely on detection technology rather than a physical wall. President Trump has not commented on the change on the website. Without formal confirmation, some protesters remain wary of border construction plans. Martha Stafford is a resident of Big Bend and said she has been organizing against the proposed wall since the idea was first floated during Trump’s first term. She said she doesn’t trust the current map on the website.

Facing political pressure, UT Austin announces it will consolidate ethnic and gender studies this fall

The University of Texas at Austin is set to consolidate seven ethnic and gender studies departments at the College of Liberal Arts into two new departments beginning in the fall. The information was shared with faculty by the interim dean of the college, David Sosa, in an email on Thursday. Some faculty claim changes have been rushed because of political pressure. It is the first time faculty have received official written communication from a UT official since the consolidation was announced in February. Faculty members said they were told at the time that changes were likely to be finalized by September 2027, but they were not given a precise timeline.

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Multiple faculty members confirmed with KUT News that Sosa said in a meeting with the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies (MALS) in March that the provost’s office determined the changes needed to happen before the Texas Legislature comes back into session in January of 2027. Julie Minich, who teaches in the department, said this undermines the mission of the university. "To make this happen for fall 2026, I think this timeline is really detrimental for students’ education," she said. "[It] effectively means that the primary consideration here is politics and not the education of students." UT officials didn't deny or confirm the statement by the interim dean of the college. A UT spokesperson said the only timeline the university is on is academic. They said making the change before the new semester helps avoid disruptions and is a "common-sense administrative practice."

Power plant for data center on 2,000 acres in Granbury goes to public hearing

The city of Granbury will hold public hearings Tuesday on rezoning 2,100 acres of recently annexed ranchland for a data center power plant, and new guidelines meant to mitigate the impact on neighboring properties. Fears of a data center or other large-scale industrial development on the land, known as Knox Ranch, drew an overflow crowd of furious residents to a Jan. 6 council meeting when the city was considering the annexation. Elsewhere in Hood County, residents have waged wars against a Bitcoin mining plant 10 miles to the south and a recently proposed data center near Dinosaur Valley State Park.

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Before unanimously approving the annexation in January, city officials assured the crowd that the property owners hadn’t contacted the city about what they intended to build. City leaders said annexation would allow them to have some control over what goes on the land. Records from last summer show at least state regulators knew what was coming. Dallas-based Bilateral Energy LLC applied in June for a permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to build “electric generating units” at 1225 Meadow Wood Road, in the center of the property. The agency approved the emissions permit in July for eight simple-cycle power turbines and 87 linear generators. Bilateral Energy “designs and delivers private power infrastructure for today’s most demanding workloads — data centers, AI, and high-performance compute,” it’s website says. “Our mission is to enable energy independence at multi-gigawatt scale through onsite natural gas generation, while enhancing grid stability by alleviating transmission constraints and integrating intelligently with broader grid operation.”

DART names acting leader as CEO steps down

Leaders at Dallas Area Rapid Transit have named general counsel Gene Gamez as acting head of the agency after parting ways with its outgoing leader earlier than expected. The board of directors on Friday approved a separation agreement with former president and CEO Nadine Lee, who announced last month she is stepping down after four years in the role. DART said in statement leaders had initially been in talks to “transition Mrs. Lee out of her position” prior to the end of her contract on Sept. 30, but that no agreement could be reached during talks this past week. “Therefore, in the best interests of the agency, we have made the decision to terminate Mrs. Lee at this time,” the agency’s statement said. “We are confident that this decision allows DART the ability to move forward with clarity, renewed focus, and a strong sense of accountability as we continue to serve our region and plan for its future.”

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Gamez served as assistant general counsel and senior assistant general counsel for DART for 18 years, according to his bio on the agency’s website. He was named general counsel in 2019. Gamez was previously a Dallas County assistant district attorney. He will lead the agency while the board works on an interim leadership plan and conducts its national search for a new CEO and president. Lee oversaw the transit agency through some of its most challenging years as member cities sought to change DART’s funding and governance model. “We have really fortified DART’s foundation and set DART up for success in the future,” Lee told KERA in a recent interview. “I feel good about that because, like I say, the next CEO can take it to the next level.” Several cities called for elections to withdraw from DART. Three of those cities – Addison, Highland Park and University Park – are still holding elections. DART made a compromise with the remaining cities to return funding contributions and expand the number of seats on its board.

Austin loses longtime TV meteorologist Dan Robertson

Courtesy of Spectrum News A local news station is mourning the loss of a meteorologist who spent decades in Texas broadcasting. Spectrum News multimedia journalist John Salazar shared on Facebook Wednesday night that longtime Spectrum News 1 meteorologist Dan Robertson had died. "I write this post with an extraordinarily heavy heart," Salazar wrote in a Wednesday night post. "Our Texas news industry has lost a great one." "My friend of more than 25 years and Spectrum News colleague the last 15, Dan Robertson, passed away unexpectedly overnight," Salazar added. Salazar said the station’s news director delivered the news in an internal memo to staff. Salazar described Robertson as a "helluva news and weather man," noting that their last "big conversation" was about the deadly July 4 Hill Country floods.

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"Dan positively impacted a lot of people with his deep knowledge of Texas's Jekyll and Hyde personality known as weather," Salazar wrote. "Few people know this of him, but he also was a helluva singer/songwriter." Robertson was a native Texan, born in Dallas, and a University of Texas graduate who worked in the state for more than 20 years. He got his start in broadcasting with Austin's KLBJ AM/FM radio in the late 1980s, before getting his first on-camera opportunity as a weather anchor for KRTE-TV in Lufkin. He remained in Austin, broadcasting throughout the rest of his career, including roles as a founding team member and weather anchor at KEYE-TV, a weather anchor and reporter at KXAN-TV, and later as a meteorologist at Spectrum News 1. Throughout his career, Robertson received the National Weather Association Seal of Approval in 1991 and launched "Project Tornado," a Skywarn storm spotter training program coupled with a severe weather safety program in local schools.

Trump nominates Texas federal prosecutors who carried torch on immigration crackdown

President Donald Trump nominated two more Texas prosecutors who have furthered his immigration enforcement goals to be federal judges, he announced on social media Wednesday evening. The president picked acting U.S. Attorney John Marck and Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Arthur “Rob” Jones, both of the Houston-headquartered Southern District of Texas, to serve as judges within the district. It comes two months after the U.S. Senate confirmed former Southern District of Texas U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei as a federal judge in February. Marck became acting head of the district after Ganjei’s resignation in March.

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Marck, Trump wrote on Truth Social, has worked tirelessly to “help us deport criminal illegal immigrants” and stop lethal drug trafficking. Jones was a longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney in Laredo before he took the executive role, Trump said. “(Jones) understands a Strong Border is a matter of National Security, and has powerfully prosecuted Criminal Illegal Immigrants, and fought tirelessly to stop the flow of Illicit Drugs into our Country,” Trump wrote. KERA News has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas for comment. The office has put out weekly statistics on immigration and border-related cases since Trump and Ganjei took office. The focused prosecution is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that began at the start of Trump’s second term targeting criminal activity by those without legal status and other homeland security issues. Federal judgeships are lifetime appointments. The majority Republican Senate still has to confirm Trump’s picks to assume the positions. There are currently four judicial vacancies in the Southern District of Texas, according to the U.S. federal courts website, all left by judges who have gone into senior status in the past three years.

Texas knocked out by UCLA in women's basketball Final Four game

The Texas women's basketball team will take the court against UCLA in Friday's Final Four game in Phoenix. The winner plays South Carolina or UConn in Sunday's national championship game. It's the second straight year that the Longhorns have advanced to the NCAA tournament semi-final game. The last time that kind of back-to-back happened was in 1987 when the team was coached by the legendary Jody Conradt. Conradt remains the only coach to lead a Texas women's basketball team to a national championship. Her 1986 team went 34-0, becoming the first team in NCAA history to complete a perfect season. The team's current coach, Vic Schaefer, is looking to change that in his sixth year leading the program.

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"They're certainly the best team I've had at Texas. No question," Schaefer said at a news conference after the team's 77-41 win over Michigan on Monday. "This team, they got a chance [at a national championship.]" Schaefer also praised the team's work ethic and chemistry, both on and off the court. "They're playing for each other. They're having fun. We have really good leadership right now. This is what happens when you have all that come together," he said. But Schaefer also acknowledged: "We know we've got a big challenge in front of us on Friday, a great team."

Patients still in limbo, waiting for deal between Blue Cross Blue Shield and Memorial Hermann

A contract dispute between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and Memorial Hermann Health System has left thousands of patients scrambling to find in-network care, including a Montgomery County man who may face delays in a critical cancer test. Jim Olson, who has battled stage 4 lung and brain cancer for years, said he was recently told he needs a biopsy after doctors found a concerning development during a routine check-up. Olson had been in remission and receiving care at Memorial Hermann in The Woodlands, where he said he trusts his medical team. “I had great medical providers up here in The Woodlands,” Olson said.

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But on April 1, the contract between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and Memorial Hermann expired, leaving patients like Olson uncertain about their coverage. Olson said he may still be able to undergo the biopsy scheduled for next week, but the cost could be significantly higher if it is considered out-of-network. “You’re not talking about tens of dollars — you’re talking about hundreds, even thousands,” Olson said. “For most Texans, that’s a lot of money, if not impossible to pay. It’s unacceptable that you have to choose between your mortgage and your health care.” Olson said he plans to submit a continuity of care request, which may allow certain patients — including those with life-threatening conditions — to continue receiving in-network coverage temporarily.

Bud Kennedy: Texas wants to take oil land from New Mexico. What could go wrong?

Texas wants to take over part of New Mexico. That was the unbelievable headline last week. It wasn’t April Fool. Two Republican lawmakers in New Mexico started this. They’d like to move Hobbs, Portales and two whole counties into redder, more oil-friendly Texas. In the words of Lovington Republican Rep. Randall Pettigrew: “We can get the hell out of New Mexico. ... [Democrats] want all the money.” Texas, of course, would love the money. We’d gladly take $13 billion a year in oil revenue from Lea and Roosevelt counties. We can even send an army of lobbyists and oil zillionaires to make it happen. After all, why stop at Texas’ current 254 counties? What’s a few counties between neighbors?

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Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, actually assigned a committee to consider the opportunity. “Southeast New Mexico deserves a real voice in its own future,” Burrows said in a written statement, “not one dictated by Santa Fe.” As you can imagine, this did not go over well in Santa Fe or Albuquerque. The oil from southeast New Mexico is considered the bedrock of the state’s economy. New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said in a statement: “Let me put this into terms Speaker Burrows might be able to understand: Come and try to take it.” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office issued a statement saying “Texas can study it all they want.” The New Mexico Senate Democrats’ spokesman, Chris Nordstrum, mocked the whole idea. “Nothing says ‘serious policy agenda’ like adding ‘annexing some New Mexico counties’ to your to-do list right between tax reform and water shortages,” he said. Before Texas starts twisting arms in Santa Fe, let’s think about the complications. First, Portales is the home of Eastern New Mexico University. Does that become Formerly Eastern New Mexico? And there’s a casino in Hobbs. Does it get grandfathered?

Frost Bank is betting on 0% down mortgages in Texas

Frost Bank previously announced in 2023 that it was reentering the mortgage business after a multiyear buildup that included system development and pilot programs. Now, reporting from Dallas news outlet WFAA says that the Texas-based bank is coming back swinging with a new program for borrowers who have been priced out of the housing market. Bill Day, Frost Bank’s senior vice president of corporate communications, clarified the company’s timeline to HousingWire and confirmed the bank began offering mortgages again in 2023. “We’ve been steadily increasing since then,” Day said. “We started working with companies to help us design a system back in 2021 and started offering mortgages to employees in a pilot program in 2022. Then we started offering mortgages to customers in a few markets, and later statewide, in 2023.”

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After relaunching its mortgage arm, Day said the company set a goal to have $500 million in mortgages by the end of 2025. Frost was able to surpass that, with Modex data revealing that Frost posted $744.2 million in volume last year. “It has been an incremental process because we created our mortgage lending system ourselves, rather than acquiring a mortgage operator or something similar,” Day said. “We wanted to build a mortgage lending process that would fit with the rest of our customer-centric culture, which is why we intend to service the mortgage ourselves through the life of the loan, rather than bundle and sell off the mortgages as is common elsewhere in mortgage lending.” A central part of Frost’s push has been its “Progress Mortgage,” a product designed to attract borrowers who have been priced out of the market.

Joe Panzarella, Nick Hellyar headed to runoff in Houston City Council District C special election

Joe Panzarella and Nick Hellyar are headed to a runoff in the special election to fill the District C seat on the Houston City Council, according to results released Saturday night by the Harris County Clerk’s Office. Panzarella and Hellyar led the seven-candidate field with about 33.3% and 22.5% of the vote, respectively. Audrey Nath placed third with 19.9% of the vote. Because no candidate received more than 50% of the nearly 9,400 votes cast in Saturday’s election, the top two advance to a runoff. A spokesperson for the county clerk's office said the city had not yet provided a date for the runoff. The city secretary said the runoff is "potentially" slated for Saturday, May 16 — less than two weeks before the state's primary runoffs.

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Panzarella, a community organizer and renewable energy developer, would be a newcomer to City Hall. He's running on a progressive platform focused on improving dangerous streets, addressing a lack of affordability and preparing for climate change. “That’s what this campaign has been about since day one — it’s been about can we design and build streets that are safe and comfortable for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike,” Panzarella told Houston Public Media, “and can we change the permitting process and the form codes at City Hall to make it possible to build the homes that we need and to bring down housing costs.” A former city council staffer, Hellyar was the only candidate with experience at City Hall. The real estate business owner focused on improving city services and emphasized his municipal finance savvy. He previously fell short in bids for an at-large seat on the city council in 2019 and 2023. Hellyar was unavailable for an interview on election night.

Admissions data shows falling acceptance rates

Admissions data at Texas A&M shows a decline in the acceptance rate of applicants in the 2025-26 academic school year, and the current trends predict an even steeper drop for Fall 2026. A culmination of factors, including the increasing popularity of A&M among both in-and-out-of-state applicants, has led to historic application numbers, and the subsequent competitive selection process is contributing to this growing margin. Prospective students have speculated about the causes of this decline and how this relates to their own chances of acceptance. Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Chief Enrollment Officer Christopher Reed stated that what people are seeing in these admissions statistics are not a decrease in the number of students accepted, but a dramatic increase in the overall applicant pool.

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Within the last five years, A&M experienced a 34.78% increase in overall applications. The Fall 2021 semester received a total of 66,346 applications, whereas the Fall 2025 semester saw 89,422 total applicants. Reed went on to say that a baseline of 20,000 students is accepted per freshman class, and admissions have only trended upward. Although the number of accepted applicants remains approximately the same each year, the growing diversity of applications make the process increasingly selective. Data released by the Office of Academic and Business Performance Analytics reveals that test score trends from previous years tend to fluctuate rather than gradually increase. The Fall 2022 academic term saw an average SAT score of 1267 with a median score of 1270. The Fall 2023 term experienced a drop in SAT scores with an average of 1257 and a median of 1260, and for Fall 2024, scores rose back up with an average of 1271, bringing the median back to 1270. The average and median ACT scores remained the exact same for all three years at 28. The increase in averages, while the medians remained stagnant, suggests a bigger pool of outliers on the top end of score statistics. This indicates that there is a growing number of highly competitive students. However, standardized college admissions tests have become more difficult to measure in recent datasets, especially at a university such as A&M, as these tests are not a requirement for the application process.

From Alabama to Texas: A patchwork of buyer agency laws emerges after NAR settlement

For many agents and brokers across the country, the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) commission lawsuit settlement agreement thrust buyer representation agreements into the forefront. Under the terms of the settlement, which went into effect in August 2024, Realtors are required to have consumers sign a buyer agency agreement that outlinse the terms of the agent’s services and compensation prior to touring a property. This requirement marked a change for agents across the country — even those already accustomed to using buyer agency agreements — and sparked concern among others about getting a stranger they just met to sign a legally binding contract. This concern prompted several states to examine their buyer agency and disclosure laws. Alabama was one of the earliest movers in enacting legislation in response to the buyer agency agreement requirements outlined in NAR’s settlement.

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In March 2025, Alabama governor Kay Ivey signed into law a bill that ensures homebuyers only have to sign a buyer brokerage agreement prior to submitting an offer on a property — and not before touring a home with an agent. The law reaffirms Alabama’s existing Real Estate Consumers Agency and Disclosure Act (RECAD) framework, with emphasis on early discussions of brokerage services and compensation. But it prevents consumers from signing a contract with an agent early in their relationship. Chad Beasley, a Birmingham, Alabama-based agent for eXp Realty, said that in the year since the bill was passed, it has mostly felt like business as usual. “It was a pretty seamless change because it basically went back to the way we were doing things prior to the NAR settlement,” Beasley said. “In my business, I am always careful when meeting buyers for the first time to sit down and go over the real estate brokerage services disclosure form that is required.

National Stories

US rescue mission successful after airman evaded capture in Iran

A service member whose F-15 jet was shot down over Iran evaded capture for more than a day, equipped with a pistol, a communication device and a tracking beacon, according to US officials. The airman hid alone in a mountain crevice and scaled rugged terrain as a massive rescue effort unfolded. US commandos swarmed the high mountains to bring the officer to safety after aircraft dropped bombs to clear the area, officials said. The mission involved hundreds of military and intelligence personnel, including a CIA deception campaign to throw off potential captors. President Donald Trump,who said the airman was “seriously wounded” and receiving care, will address reporters about the mission tomorrow.

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Meanwhile, Trump issued a profanity-laced warning to Iran, vowing severe military action if Tehran fails to make a deal or reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s military issued its own threats over US-Israeli strikes on industrial plants and infrastructure. A missing US airman has been rescued in Iran after his fighter jet was shot down on Friday, according to US President Donald Trump. Details are now emerging as to how the rescue operation took place. Meanwhile, in a social media post a short while ago, Trump issued a profanity-laced warning to Iran, threatening severe military action should it fail to make a deal or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil thoroughfare. Here are some of the other latest developments regarding the conflict in the Middle East today: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the “incredible rescue” of the missing US airman. Earlier, Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz said the mission underlined his country’s “close cooperation” with the US. Meanwhile, Iranian state media did its best to undercut the announcement, with the Tasnim News Agency claiming that “several enemy American aircraft” were “destroyed by the warriors of Islam, and the pilot rescue operation failed,” citing Iran’s military headquarters. Egypt’s foreign minister held a phone call with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff yesterday, as well as separate calls with Iran’s foreign minister and his regional counterparts to try to de-escalate the ongoing war, the country’s foreign ministry said.

Trump’s new budget seeks more TSA privatization. Here’s what that could mean for airport security screening

President Donald Trump wants the Transportation Security Administration to turn over more airport security screening to private companies, according to his new 2027 budget proposal released Friday. The issue gained traction in recent weeks as many airports across the country saw long lines at checkpoints due to the ongoing partial government shutdown that left TSA employees without paychecks. Trump’s latest push is part of an annual proposal submitted by the Office of Management and Budget to Congress and is a largely symbolic reflection of the president’s priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Friday’s budget proposal suggests the federal government should begin the process of privatizing TSA’s airport security screening. It would require small airports to enroll in TSA’s Screening Partnership Program, under which TSA pays for private screeners. The administration says the move would save $52 million and “begin reform of a troubled Federal agency.”

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Currently, 20 airports in the United States have private companies operating the security checkpoints under contracts supervised by the TSA. San Francisco International, Kansas City International, Orlando Sanford and 17 smaller airports participate. Privatizing airport security, some in the business argue, makes airport workers and travelers less vulnerable to becoming pawns in congressional fights over policy issues. In recent weeks, private companies were able to avoid the large-scale absences some airports that use TSA staff were struggling with as their employees went unpaid during the partial government shutdown. “These 20 airports are completely oblivious to the government shutdown,” Sheldon Jacobson, a founder professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who analyzes data to improve aviation security, said in March. “All operations at the privatized airports are normal because we continue paying our employees during the shutdown,” said Nat Carmack of BOS Security, which screens passengers at Tupelo Regional Airport in Mississippi. “Our employees have never missed a paycheck during any of the government shutdowns.”

Hegseth has intervened in military promotions for more than a dozen senior officers

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, some of whom are seen as having been targeted because of their race, gender or perceived affiliation with Biden administration policies or officials, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process. The process within the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines is structured to ensure the most qualified officers get promoted. Hegseth’s decision to intervene in the process has raised concerns among some officials within those military branches and the White House, the nine U.S. officials familiar with the situation said. “There is not a single service that has been immune to this level of involvement by Hegseth,” one of the U.S. officials said.

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Two of the officials said there are concerns in the military and the White House specifically that Hegseth is blocking or stalling some qualified officers from receiving promotions through the ranks of general and admiral because of their race or gender as he targets diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the Pentagon. There is also concern that Hegseth could be singling out military officers whom he views as aligned with officials or policies of the Biden administration, the officials said. On Thursday Hegseth fired the Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, whose term was expected to be four years ending in September 2027. George, the Army’s top officer, was senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration. George recently asked to meet with Hegseth to discuss Hegseth's blocking of promotions for some Army officers, which seemed to focus on women and Black men, but Hegseth refused to meet or discuss his decisions, according to two additional U.S. officials.

‘Think everybody dead’: How the threat of AI is fueling a new political alliance

On a partly cloudy February day in Berkeley, California, Sen. Bernie Sanders learned the human race might soon go extinct.? Sitting around a conference table with Sanders were some of the world’s most prominent AI “doomers” — a group of people, based largely in Silicon Valley and tied closely to the tech industry, who believe the development of artificial intelligence will lead to the end of humanity as we know it.? “Eventually, you get to the point where the AIs are much, much, much more powerful,” Eliezer Yudkowsky, co-founder of the Berkeley-based Machine Intelligence Research Institute, told Sanders. “They are running the robots, they are running the factories, they don’t actually need the humans. And once they don’t need the humans, the humans are discarded.”? “What does that mean, humans are discarded?” asked the Vermont independent.?

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“Think everybody dead,” Yudkowsky replied.? Within the fast-expanding bloc of Americans that are skeptical of AI, Yudkowsky and Sanders sit at opposite poles.? On one end are Yudkowsky and others like him — mostly Bay Area-based technologists that align with “rationalist” or “effective altruist” ideologies, which take a data-driven approach to tackling humanity’s biggest problems and are backed by a handful of tech billionaires. They fall under a broader umbrella of “AI safety” advocates, who for well over a decade have warned about the technology’s potential to annihilate humanity.? Then there are people like Sanders — populists from either the left or right who worry about billionaire influence and whose concerns about AI are newer and more prosaic. In the last few months, they’ve worked to channel rising public anxiety about mass job loss, the impact of AI chatbots on children and how data centers use electricity and water.?? Sanders is at the forefront of the populist revolt against AI, leading the push for a moratorium on new data centers — the massive, server-packed facilities at the heart of America’s AI buildout. The fact that he is now taking the AI “doomers” seriously suggests a burgeoning alliance between that tech-adjacent faction and Sanders’ anti-corporate ideology.?

Jonathan Majors fell through a window on Daily Wire action movie set; producers downplay the accident amid crew strike

Jonathan Majors‘ new action movie, backed by Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire and Dallas Sonnier‘s Bonfire Legend, is facing scrutiny following an on-set accident and a crew strike. On Friday, Deadline obtained footage of Majors and his co-star, JC Kilcoyne, accidentally falling through a window while filming a scene. In the clip, the two actors stumble backwards into the glass before falling through and out of the frame. As crew members rush in to check whether they’re okay, two voices can be heard affirming that they’re “good.” A voice that appears to be Majors asks if the production was rolling on the action. “Did we shoot it?” the man asks. “Use it.”

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Sources told Deadline that the accident occurred “after the window was replaced with an unsecured sheet of tempered glass to be purposefully shattered in a later stunt that did not involve any actors,” and that the actors, and the pane of glass, fell about six feet to the ground. The same sources revealed that Kilcoyne required stitches in his hands. Kilcoyne’s reps tell Variety that the actor is “doing well and was taken care of immediately by production.” Kilcoyne is wrapped filming on the movie, but his team notes that he “did not feel unsafe on set and continued to have a positive experience working on the project.” Representatives for Majors have not returned requests for comment. In addition to starring in the film, Majors is an executive producer on the movie under his Tall Street Productions banner. “The actors’ fall was shorter than the failed movie careers of the now-union reps,” Sonnier told Variety, responding to a request for comment about the accident, as well as the production’s negotiations with the crew who’ve walked off the South Carolina set. On March 26, IATSE called a strike against the production after crew members walked off the job, which is shooting under the working title “Knuckle,” over a series of labor concerns. Deadline’s reporting indicates that the on-set accident was many crew members’ final straw with the indie production.

The Walmart billionaires next door: Quiet backlash is brewing against the heirs who remade the retailer’s hometown

Sam Walton’s favorite ice cream, butter pecan, is always available at the Spark Café, in the quaint town square of Bentonville, Ark. Next door is Walton’s 5&10, the five-and-dime store where in 1950, “Mr. Sam,” as he was known locally, planted the seeds of Walmart, a retail empire that became the biggest company in America. That little shop is now a museum, and parked outside is a replica of Mr. Sam’s red 1979 Ford F150, the pickup truck he used to tool around town in, often with his dog Ol’ Roy. Venture out beyond the square, and the small-town USA illusion breaks. The population of the town surrounding Walmart’s sleek new multibillion-dollar headquarters has soared from about 6,000 in the 1970s to more than 60,000 today, and it’s expected to triple in coming decades as the company attracts top tech and management talent from coastal cities. The feeling is more glossy high-design hub than Norman Rockwell painting. There’s a Soho House-like private social club and spa, boutique hotels, chef-driven restaurants, speakeasies. At the private-jet-filled municipal airport, you can drink a cappuccino and watch vintage planes take off. There are sprawling parks and playgrounds, paved walking paths, and hundreds of miles of mountain biking trails. The expanding 200,000-square-foot Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art sits on a landscaped 134-acre campus and is free to the public, as is the music and arts center The Momentary.

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Much of Bentonville’s transformation has been bankrolled, directed, and shaped by the Walton family, whose approximately 44% stake in Walmart makes them one of the richest families on earth. Walmart is now worth around $1 trillion. Through their various hospitality and investment groups, and their philanthropies, Sam Walton’s children and grandchildren have helped remake the town as a kind of urban utopia in the Ozarks. “They are like royalty in Bentonville,” said Charu Thomas, who chairs the board of Bentonville-based supply-chain tech company Ox and lived there for several years. “It’s a little bit bizarre.” Lately, however, something has changed. As the Waltons have become more and more involved in the city’s development, some have started to express harsh skepticism about their intentions. In a region where the family seems to have a part in every aspect of life, the closing of a restaurant they own or even a generous loan to the city can cause backlash. Simmering resentments came to a head in 2023 in the tiny nearby town of Jasper when it was revealed that two Walton grandchildren were exploring whether there would be support to pursue national park and preserve status for one of Arkansas’s most important natural icons, the Buffalo National River. Locals, fired up by rumors that such a redesignation could lead to unwelcome tourism, development, or even them being pushed off their land, packed a town hall meeting. They erupted in applause at an anti-elite country song one indignant resident had reworked: “Rich Men Not From Here.” It was very clear who the “rich men” were. A Republican state senator who spoke against the redesignation campaigned this year with flyers boasting: “Bryan King said no to the billionaires,” and won reelection in March.

Inside the Pentagon, fears of a disrupted war effort after Army chief's ouster

Merely two weeks had passed since the Iran war began when Gen. Randy George, the Army's highest-ranking officer, began sounding an alarm. Touring a weapons depot in North Carolina, George warned lawmakers present that the conflict's vast and ever-growing list of targets was straining U.S. capacity — “depleting our stockpiles faster than we can replace them,” as one congressman recalled. Since assuming Army leadership, George had made it his mission to strengthen the nation’s industrial base in anticipation of precisely this moment, when the United States would be engaged in a major war with a formidable adversary. On Thursday, in a brief phone call, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired George. No reason was given, a U.S. official familiar with the matter told The Times. The forced departure of George in the middle of a war created yet another blow to morale inside the Pentagon, where multiple officials expressed dismay over the state of the department's leadership.

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Over the last year, Hegseth has fired five sitting members of the joint chiefs of staff, with only two holdovers remaining in their posts. "Whenever you have a change in leadership, military or otherwise, there is bound to be some churn in information management," one U.S. official said, granted anonymity to speak candidly. "So what you're doing, in the middle of a war, as we are taking U.S. casualties, is you're taking out the general in charge of making sure the right people and equipment are flowing into the Middle East." Inside the building, officials believe that Hegseth's next target is Dan Driscoll, the Army secretary and an ally to President Trump. Driscoll has been seen by Hegseth's aides as outshining the Defense secretary on prominent policy initiatives. It is a purge that Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill fear could have tangible, detrimental effects on the war effort. Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa, all members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have expressed private concerns over George's firing, a second U.S. official said.

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