September 25, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Sen. Paul Bettencourt says state should have caught error that caused Texas voter registration backlog

A key Texas Republican lawmaker says state officials must be held accountable for an error that led to a backlog of at least 178,000 voter registration applications from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Votebeat reported earlier this week that DPS failed to send counties thousands of voter registration applications and updates submitted through its online driver’s license portal. Some of those date back at least a year, and counties are now being hit with a deluge of applications to process in the weeks leading up to November’s midterm election. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican from Houston who has championed election administration legislation for years, told Votebeat on Thursday that although a DPS failure is at the heart of the problem, the Texas Secretary of State’s office should have caught the issue because it oversees the system the counties use to receive the files from DPS.

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“If the files were received, pulled, or not, that should have been noticeable,” Bettencourt said. “They should have caught it.” When asked whether he was concerned about the error or whether he had offered DPS specific direction on how to handle it, Gov. Greg Abbott referred questions to the agency and the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. DPS has said only that the error has been resolved, but has not offered details on how it was fixed or responded to further questions about the cause. The backlogged voter registration records go back at least as far as October 2025. They could include new registrations or simply updates to voters’ existing records, like a change in address. The exact number of outstanding applications statewide is still unknown, but officials in seven of Texas’ 254 counties have confirmed receiving more than a combined 178,000 records. Some of the people whose applications were delayed may have since registered another way.

Shale tycoon claims Exxon CEO ‘betrayed’ him in $60 billion deal

Scott Sheffield, one of the earliest architects of the US shale oil boom, said he was “betrayed” by ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. after Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods failed to support him in a dispute with the Federal Trade Commission despite a promise to do so. “I do firmly believe that Exxon schemed against me during the FTC process,” Sheffield, the former CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources Co., wrote in a new memoir to be released Oct. 6, From Tehran to the Permian. “Contrary to Darren’s assurances to me, Exxon threw me under the bus at its earliest opportunity.” Such public animosity directed at one high-profile oil boss from another is extremely rare in the US shale patch, where rivalries abound but the industry generally tries to portray a unified front. Sheffield, however, said his wife likened his experience with Woods to the 1997 film The Devil’s Advocate, a thriller about an ambitious lawyer who discovers his new boss is actually Satan.

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“‘Darren Woods came into my home, ate my food, drank my beer and lied to my husband’s face,’” Sheffield quotes his wife as saying. “‘It’s hard to get over that.’” The dispute stems from ExxonMobil’s agreement to buy the Permian Basin giant Pioneer for about $60 billion in late 2023. As part of the accord, Sheffield was due to take a seat on ExxonMobil’s board after the transaction closed. But the merger proposal suffered a lengthy review by the FTC, which was then run by Lina Khan, an appointee of President Joe Biden. His administration regularly blamed Big Oil for high gasoline prices and for fueling the climate crisis. As part of the review, Khan alleged Sheffield colluded with OPEC on oil prices — a claim he says was “absurd.” The FTC would only approve the deal if the Texas oilman was prevented from joining the larger company’s board. “Woods called and promised me that Exxon would not ‘throw me under the bus,’ and that it had ways to fight the FTC,” Sheffield said in the book. And yet, soon after, Exxon agreed to the FTC’s terms, which Sheffield considered a violation of Woods’ promise to push back against the commission. He said he didn’t seek to blow up the deal over the issue, writing numerous times in the book that it was ultimately good for Pioneer’s shareholders. But he was enraged. “Now I understood why people had been telling me for more than 50 years that the two X’s in Exxon stood for the double-cross company,” Sheffield wrote. “I am now convinced I was set up.”

Former Houston State Rep. Garnet Coleman dies at 65

Garnet Coleman, a Democrat who represented Houston’s House District 147 in the Texas Legislature for more than 30 years, died Wednesday at the age of 65. According to a statement from his family, Coleman died of natural causes. He had long been living with serious complications from diabetes. State Rep. Armando Walle, a Democrat who represents Houston's HD 140, called Coleman a close friend and mentor. He said that the state had lost "a giant."

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"I loved him like a brother," Walle said. "What I remember distinctly about Garnet Coleman is that he was a day-one supporter of mine, but he was a day-one supporter of Texans." Coleman's most significant legislative achievements include the passage of significant health care legislation, including Children's Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Texas' mental health parity legislation, and HIV/AIDS services. "This was not just for kids in Third Ward, Second Ward, or Northside," Walle said. “Working mothers across the state owe a debt of gratitude for the work and tenacity of Garnet Coleman, because he was the lead champion in passing Medicaid and CHIP in Texas." Coleman's district stretched across much of Houston's Inner Loop, including the University of Houston's main campus. "There are a lot of doctors, a lot of graduate students at [the University of Houston's] Hobby School that would not be getting their education and being primary care physicians or being public servants without his tenacity in advocating for the funding and the authorization to create the Hobby School of Public Affairs but also the Tillman Fertitta Medical School at the University of Houston," Walle said.

Texas Republicans splinter as MAGA candidates test party limits

Republican Joe Straus spent 10 years as the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. Now he’s the latest to join a chorus of GOP leaders voicing doubts about US Senate nominee Ken Paxton, who’s trailing Democrat James Talarico in polls with less than six weeks until Election Day. “Republicans are really pushing their luck with Ken Paxton at the top,” Straus said in an interview Thursday. “He has a list of scandals as long as a CVS receipt.” While Straus declined to say how he plans to vote, he said he understood Talarico’s appeal. “I admire Talarico for making a deliberate and sincere attempt to welcome Republican voters and independents into his campaign,” the former speaker said. Straus’ doubts echoed the concerns of other senior Texas Republicans, some of whom have broken with candidates from their own party. The divisions have deepened despite urgent calls for unity from other Republican leaders as the GOP works to defend its narrow US Senate majority and extend decades of dominance in Texas.

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Karl Rove, a longtime adviser to former President George W. Bush, recently said he wouldn’t vote for Bo French, the Republican nominee for a state oil and gas regulator. Rove slammed French as a “bigot” after the candidate’s social media post about nonwhite students cheering at a University of Texas at Austin football game. Senator John Cornyn, who lost to Paxton in a fractious GOP primary that inflamed tensions between the party’s traditional and MAGA wings, hosted Bush at a fundraiser this week to support six Republican Senate candidates — but not Paxton. Since his primary loss, Cornyn has criticized Paxton as “lazy” and a “poor campaigner.” Paxton, the state attorney general, was impeached in 2023 by the Republican-dominated Texas House of Representatives on charges of bribery and misuse of power. Paxton denied the accusations and was acquitted by the state Senate. He has also been dogged by allegations of adultery, and his wife, state Senator Angela Paxton, said last year she was seeking a divorce on “Biblical grounds.” Still, she recently told a group of Republican women to vote GOP “even if we’re mad at them.” At a Republican midterm convention this month in Dallas, Paxton addressed party activists and national donors in a bid to boost his campaign. Asking for support, he said Talarico “is the most radical Democrat in Texas history, but he’s also the most well funded.”

State Stories

Rising diesel prices impacting school districts

As fuel costs rise, getting students to and from school is getting pricey. “Last school year that closed out we spent right at a million dollars in diesel fuel for our buses,” said Hays CISD spokesperson Tim Savoy. Savoy says the district is keeping a close eye on diesel prices. This year Hays CISD increased the budget to take into account rising costs, but if prices don’t fall they could end about $200,000 over the transportation budget. “We budgeted that $1.2 million to have that extra cushion in there, but it looks like with the prices, where they are at, we will go through that and over some if they stay this high.” This time last year Hays CISD was spending $2.44 a gallon for diesel and this last month they spent $5.13 a gallon. Austin ISD is also bracing for the impacts of higher fuel costs.

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In an online slide show the district posted, they are estimating a $1.9 million increase this year for fuel costs. Jaimie Brito is the executive director of refining and oil products for Dow Jones Energy, he says the increase in average price of diesel is substantial. “Right now the national average is in the $6.50’s and for Texas it is around $5.50,” said Brito. Brito says there is a lot of uncertainty with what the future holds, but people who rely on diesel are feeling the impacts across the board. “It is a monstrosity, the price increase completely disrupts any budget,” said Brito. For prices to get back to normal global conflicts must de-escalate to reopen vital shipping lanes, and international refining capacity must expand.

Angela Colmenero, Trump’s latest judicial nominee to Southern District of Texas, confirmed on party-line vote

Wednesday afternoon, the Senate confirmed Angela Colmenero to the bench for the Houston division of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Colmenero was confirmed on a party-line vote of 50-47. Colmenero's confirmation leaves one vacancy remaining in the U.S. Southern District. "After nearly two decades in public service to the Lone Star State, Angela Colmenero is well equipped to serve as a District Court Judge," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX. "I am grateful Angela will bring her exceptional legal acumen, sound judgment, and devotion to the rule of law in this new role, and I look forward to seeing her on the bench."

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Colmenero previously served as deputy chief of staff to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and as provisional Texas attorney general during U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton's 2023 impeachment process. Half of the district's bench is now made up of President Donald Trump's appointees, either since 2025 or from his previous term. "Senators Cornyn and [Ted] Cruz have been very aggressive about filling those seats, and making sure that they’re seated," said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias. "It slowed down quite a bit during Biden’s time, and only a few were confirmed." Federal judges have life tenure. Barring impeachment, that means they're on the bench till they retire or die. "These people could be serving for decades, literally," Tobias said. "And so it’s a huge legacy for the president, and I think Trump is very aware of how important that is." Tobias said that Colmenero fits into the ideological mold of her fellow Trump appointees to the Southern District — among them Judges John Marck and Arthur "Rob" Jones, who were confirmed this summer. "I think these nominees are somewhat more conservative than Trump 1.0 and certainly more conservative than the Obama nominees, and [they] often have worked in the very areas that are the culture war issues," Tobias said. "For example, reproductive freedom and election disputes and religious freedom and the abortion pill and any number of other disputes and litigating those issues as lawyers."

As crime falls, Texas eyes addiction treatment behind bars

For the third year in a row, crime in Texas is falling, and state leaders are pointing to the decline as evidence that a nearly two-decade investment in tough enforcement and smarter reentry is paying off. Even so, a growing group of lawmakers, researchers and reentry advocates say the numbers open a window to build on that success, and they are turning attention to a less visible part of the story: what happens to people while they are behind bars, and whether treating their addictions there could help keep the crime rate falling for years to come New Uniform Crime Reporting data from the Texas Department of Public Safety showed the statewide crime rate dropped 13 percent in 2025, the largest single-year decline in five years and the third consecutive annual drop. Governor Greg Abbott has attributed the trend to tough laws and strong law enforcement, pointing to a sweeping bail reform package and a focus on violent, repeat offenders.

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Independent experts have urged caution about assigning credit to any single policy. Alex del Carmen, a criminologist and dean at Westfield State University who has worked with Texas police departments, told The Texas Tribune in July that no single actor could claim credit, and that declines happening at once in cities with very different policies pointed to broad structural and post-pandemic forces. Thomas Abt, founding director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction, told the same outlet that the drop had occurred in places with and without aggressive immigration enforcement. Even so, Texas has spent nearly two decades building a distinctive model that supporters say leaves the state well positioned to hold on to the gains. That model rests on a simple split: be tough on the people the public genuinely fears, and be smart about the people who can be redeemed. Beginning in 2007, under an effort that became known nationally as Right on Crime and grew out of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the state expanded treatment and reentry programs rather than building more prisons. Texas went on to close prison units, lower its incarceration rate, and reduce crime while saving taxpayers billions, a record conservatives around the country have sought to copy.

Texas electric utility only considered gas to power $10 billion Meta data center

While Texas officials have hit pause on data center permitting, one project that is still moving ahead is Meta’s $10 billion, 1-gigawatt data center in northeast El Paso. Meta had already signed tax abatement agreements with El Paso, jumped through regulatory hoops and started construction before Texas officials tapped the brakes on data center development this year. But one hurdle the project must still clear is securing approval for El Paso Electric’s application to the Public Utilities Commission of Texas to build a 366-megawatt natural gas facility, using modular generators, to power the data center. Once operational, Meta’s data center would be the utility’s largest electric customer. The City of El Paso intervened in the application, and a hearing was held in July.

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Administrative law judges for the commission released their proposed decision Wednesday. They found that El Paso Electric failed to adequately consider alternatives to the gas plant, called the McCloud facility and failed to issue a request for proposals to contractors. The judges recommended that the Public Utilities Commission only approve the application on the condition that El Paso Electric does not pass capital and operating costs on to its ratepayers. Without this condition, the judges recommend the application be denied. The ultimate decision lies with the five PUCT commissioners. The application has not yet been scheduled for a vote. “We’re disappointed,” said Verónica Carbajal, an organizer with the Sembrando Esperanza Coalition in El Paso, which submitted comments of over 1,000 people protesting the application. “If the state was really serious about this, the commission would be denying everything related to data centers.” El Paso Electric did not respond to a request for comment.

A top Texas smokehouse is cutting brisket from its menu amid soaring beef prices

Last week, Andrew Soto learned the wholesale price of his brisket had increased by $1 a pound, a dramatic leap even at a time of soaring beef costs across the country. The owner and pitmaster behind Butter’s BBQ in Sinton, Texas — one of the top 50 smokehouses in the state, according to Texas Monthly’s estimable list — figured he would need to charge customers $51 a pound to justify keeping brisket on the menu. The increase would represent more than a $10 markup from his most recent price of $37 a pound. “That was the final straw that broke the camel’s back,” Soto said in an interview. “I’m not charging that.” So, the owner did something drastic in a state where brisket is considered king among pitmasters and patrons alike: Soto decided to take the cut off his menu, even though it’s his top-selling item.

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He announced it Sunday in a brief social media post, saying that brisket is “eating up over 70% of our total grocery costs.” Butter’s is the first smokehouse on Texas Monthly’s list to drop brisket completely, said Daniel Vaughn, the magazine’s barbecue editor. Soto’s decision was fueled not just by the skyrocketing price of brisket but by inflation that has increased his costs across the board, he said. He has had to raise menu prices, which Soto says has only hurt business in the small town of Sinton, population 6,000, about 20 miles north of Corpus Christi. Sales last weekend, the owner said, were down 60 percent from the previous year. These economic pressures have been too much for numerous smokehouses in Texas. Several have closed in the past month or so, said Vaughn, including Fiasco BBQ in Austin, Kelly’s Hill Country BBQ in Wimberley, and Lenox Bar-B-Q in Houston. This is not a story about beef inflation alone, Vaughn said. “It’s a story about overall inflation.” The pitmaster said he will add beef cheeks to his smoked-meat offerings, following the lead of other Texas smokehouses that have turned to the rich, gelatinous cut as a brisket replacement. Soto doesn’t look forward to the tough conversations that lie ahead with customers at his restaurant: He compares dropping brisket from his menu to a favorite team losing the big game. “It’s a gut punch,” said Soto, who won’t rule out bringing brisket back at some point. “It really does hurt.”

'My nightmare is over': Highest Texas criminal court upholds Crystal Mason voter fraud acquittal

Nearly a decade after authorities said Crystal Mason voted illegally in Tarrant County the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a lower court's decision to acquit her of criminal wrongdoing. Crystal Mason was charged with illegal voting after she cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. Mason, who was on supervised release for federal tax evasion at the time and thus ineligible to vote, has maintained that she did not know she was ineligible. Her ballot was never counted. Mason was convicted of voter fraud in 2018 and sentenced to five years. She appealed twice to the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, the latter attempt being approved by the court and her conviction overturned in 2023.

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While it looked for several months like that would be the end of the case, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells announced in 2024 that his office was filing its own appeal, challenging the decision to overturn the conviction to the highest possible court. Now Mason's attorneys say her decade-long battle to defend her innocence is over. The ACLU and Texas Civil Rights Project, which have represented Mason through her appeals, announced in a news release Thursday that the court changed its mind and is upholding the acquittal without hearing arguments. “In all these years, I never lost my faith that justice would be done,” Mason said in the news release. “I am so happy my nightmare is over and I can move on.” Prosecutors argued Mason cast her provision ballot knowing she was ineligible to vote, an important detail after an amendment to the law under which she was prosecuted. The 2021 amendment requires that state's attorneys show evidence proving the person knew they weren't eligible.

Save Dallas City Hall group to launch petition, wants voters to decide building's fate

The Save Dallas City Hall Coalition wants voters, not the city council, to decide what will happen to the building designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei. And they want it on the May 2027 ballot. The group plans to submit the official paperwork on Oct. 2, which will start the petition process. They will need 20,000 in-person signatures from registered voters within 60 days to make it happen. If placed on the ballot, it would be a proposed amendment to the Dallas City Charter that requires keeping the current building as the seat of city government unless otherwise decided by voters. The announcement came on Thursday, nearly a year since city council members were first told that the building had millions of dollars in deferred maintenance and proposed relocating City Hall elsewhere in downtown.

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That briefing sparked strong debate in later months on whether the city should stay and repair the building, or move elsewhere and use the land at 1500 Marilla Street for economic development opportunities. That sparked the creation of the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition, which has grown from a grassroots effort to an organized 501(c)(4) nonprofit that issued a number of legal notices to the city prior to filing a lawsuit last month. The group is made up of residents, neighborhood and business leaders, preservation advocates, architects, current and former elected officials, and other community stakeholders. That briefing sparked strong debate in later months on whether the city should stay and repair the building, or move elsewhere and use the land at 1500 Marilla Street for economic development opportunities. That sparked the creation of the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition, which has grown from a grassroots effort to an organized 501(c)(4) nonprofit that issued a number of legal notices to the city prior to filing a lawsuit last month. The group is made up of residents, neighborhood and business leaders, preservation advocates, architects, current and former elected officials, and other community stakeholders.

Bud Kennedy: Texas Democrats smell a breakout year but face a $200M GOP counterpunch

Texas Democrats are on the verge of their best election in 30 years. Either that, or Texas Republicans are on the verge of a $200 million rally. Six months ago, we knew that if gas is close to $4 a gallon and U.S. troops are still at war with Iran, then it will be tough for all Republicans in an election cycle that is always locked in against the party in the White House. If Texas Republicans lose a U.S. Senate seat from Texas for the first time in nearly 40 years, or a Tarrant County courthouse race for the first time in more than 30, then you read this here first: In the next four weeks, Republicans will spend $100 million on ads for Ken Paxton.

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For six years, he was an obscure Collin County lawyer and low-key Texas attorney general. Since 2020, he has been notorious. If Texas voters don’t like him anymore, whether it’s over his impeachment, his devotion to Donald Trump or his prominence as a ladies’ man, they are not likely to start liking him now. But he always outperforms the polling. And the point of Paxton’s campaign is not to win back Talarico voters. It’s to stir up his own by scaring them with drag performers, trans rights and Satan. Democrats are running against other devils: THC bans, data centers, public school takeovers and stalking via license-plate cameras. Talarico still has to win back challenger Jasmine Crockett’s voters in south Dallas County and central Houston. He not only can’t win without them — he needs Black Texans to turn out as heavily as they did for Barack Obama or Kamala Harris. The same goes for Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare, a personal-injury lawyer from Southlake: If voters don’t like him anymore after four years of open hostility and abusive treatment, they are not going to start liking him now. The beneficiary is Arlington Democrat Alisa Simmons, a county commissioner and former 911 call-taker who became the regional spokeswoman for that emergency dispatch agency.

Scripted lessons, lack of trust among Fort Worth ISD parents’ biggest concerns

Parents and community members who attended Fort Worth ISD’s recent series of community listening events and superintendent strategic action sessions most commonly named scripted lessons, campus-wide mandates, micromanagement and rigid schedules as their largest concerns since state-appointed leadership took over the district in March, according to data released by the district. Superintendent Peter Licata and the state-appointed Board of Managers, who were appointed to their roles following the Texas Education Agency’s takeover of the district due to stagnant academic performance, held 41 total listening sessions as part of their community listening series. The district listed a total of 3,027 respondents during the sessions and through digital forms.

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District leaders posed five main questions to attendees at the listening sessions, which were: What should students know and be able to do, what describes a successful graduate, what are values and non-negotiables for the district, what is the district doing that is working, and what is the district doing that is not working. The largest complaints at the sessions were related to scripted lessons and instructional mandates, responses show. As part of Fort Worth ISD’s effort to overhaul the way instruction is delivered to students, state-appointed leaders developed a stricter scripted curriculum model for its campuses. Higher-rated schools gained more autonomy to teach in different ways, while lower-rated schools are required to strictly follow the model, with little tolerance for going off script. But several parents and teachers at campuses that gained “autonomy status” who spoke to the Star-Telegram still say they have been subject to strict scripted curriculum with little opportunity for independence. The district’s new overall instruction framework, Cowtown 12, is followed by all campuses district-wide. It includes first-teach lessons, and “demonstrations of learning” intended to prove students are absorbing content by testing their knowledge at the end of lessons.

In a Texas prison, Kwaneta Harris cultivated a menopause support network from scraps of paper

For most of Kwaneta Harris' life, menopause was not something she heard people talk about. She didn't learn about much beyond hot flashes, night sweats and irregular periods in her nursing school training, or at any point during her decade-long career in the medical field. Her mom never passed along tips about that particular stage of life — just as her grandmother never shared any menopause wisdom with her mom. This legacy of silence meant that Harris' crash course in menopause came in her late 40s, while she was incarcerated at a Texas state prison. For three years, Harris experienced a litany of confusing ailments: shoulder pain, memory loss, heart palpitations, thinning hair and mood swings. She saw specialist after specialist, each visit costing $13.55 — a substantial amount for a person with no income — and typically requiring an hours-long bus ride to a medical facility in Galveston. None of these visits resolved the fears spiraling in her mind.

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Harris finally connected the dots after hearing a neuroscientist explain on NPR that hot flashes, insomnia, memory lapses and anxiety are menopause symptoms, and they start in the brain, not the ovaries. "It was like clicking a puzzle again," Harris told The 19th in a phone call from prison. "And it was so relieving because I really thought I was losing my mind." But when she brought this information to the prison medical staff, a familiar scenario began to play out, one that she characterized as a dismissal of her symptoms and no urgency to respond. She quickly understood that menopause care in prison — like other prison health care — is mired in a lack of resources and timely treatment options. This reality set Harris on a hunt to find her own solutions, not only for herself but also for the growing population of incarcerated people experiencing menopause. Since 2022, Harris has built community with women in her facility, written articles for national news outlets and advised an organization on bringing menopause education to prisons. Her efforts are happening alongside a growing conversation among celebrities, politicians, journalists and the general public about the nuances of menopause.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: To replace Paul, vote for this conservative Republican who takes housing affordability seriously

For years, House District 129 has been served by Dennis Paul, who helped create the Gulf Coast Protection District (good for Houston) and who recently filed a bill to try to put Harris County’s flood control district under the governor’s control (bad for Houston). Even before he announced he was going to throw his hat in the race for state Senate, District 11, Rep. Paul’s team called Scott Bowen to give him the heads up. He was at the chemical plant where he works, Bowen told us. He had about 96 hours to put together a campaign. And he did. The former Clear Creek Independent School District board member wasn’t new to elected office and his family has deep connections to the local Republican party. But he has also put together a genuinely impressive campaign with real issues at the heart of it, going beyond the usual partisan talking points on important issues like property taxes, housing costs and flood resilience.

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He’s lived all of these issues as a longtime resident in the district that includes Clear Lake, Seabrook, Webster as well as bites of League City, Pasadena, Friendswood and more. Bowen, 36, was born in North Carolina but has been in Clear Lake since he was a young kid, attending public schools all the way through. His father is a well-connected former Republican precinct chair. He works in petrochemicals and engineering, currently working for a TPC chemical plant, which briefly made headlines recently when a power outage caused flaring and black smoke. He got a spot on the local school board and vowed to bring some more opposition and discussion to what had been a pretty unanimous board prior. While on the board he passed the first school district policy banning Critical Race Theory, well before the state did. That's not the kind of policy-making we think is important for Texans and voters kicked him off the board in 2025 for a candidate who eschewed partisan issues in favor of fiscally conservative leadership. But from his seat on the board, he saw what many Texas school districts are facing: declining enrollments, aging neighborhoods with few opportunities for young families to move in. When he met with the editorial board, he focused on those critical issues and largely stayed away from culture war concerns.

Man crashes into tree while attempting to evade ICE officers in Galveston

A man from Guatemala was injured after allegedly attempting to evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Galveston on Tuesday. According to a Wednesday news release from Galveston County Precinct 3 Constable Justin West, officers tried to pull over Willian Antonio Dardon-Soto, 32, when Dardon-Soto crashed into a federal law enforcement vehicle. Dardon-Soto continued to drive before crashing his vehicle into a tree, where he was arrested, according to West. Representatives from the Houston Field Office for ICE did not respond to a request for information on the crash and the status of Dardon-Soto, including what charges, if any, he faces. Dardon-Soto could not be reached for comment.

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Galveston police were dispatched to the crash on the west side of Galveston at around 10 a.m. Tuesday, along with the Galveston Fire Department and EMS. Galveston County Precinct 3 deputies were working alongside ICE officers as outlined under a federal program called the 287(g) task force , according to the news release. The Precinct 3 Constable's office joined the federal 287(g) task force program in 2025, according to West. The program allows local law enforcement to perform immigration enforcement under ICE's oversight. According to West’s office, citing information from the Department of Homeland Security not shared directly with reporters, Dardon-Soto previously entered the U.S. illegally in 2016. He was arrested and deported that same year. On an unknown date, he re-entered the U.S. illegally and hadn't encountered ICE officials until his crash on Tuesday, according to the news release.

Talarico challenges Paxton to debate on Fox News

Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico is challenging Republican nominee Ken Paxton to a debate on Fox News. The challenge comes after State Rep. Talarico criticized Attorney General Paxton for failing to accept any of three debates offered by nonpartisan outlets — Nexstar, WFAA and Hearst Newspapers/NBC/Telemundo. “Ken Paxton has been dodging debates all year,” Talarico said in a one-on-one with Texas Tribune Editor-in-Chief Matthew Watkins at TribFest 2026, “that’s why I’m challenging Ken Paxton to a debate on Fox News.”

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While Paxton has done interviews with network news outlets during the campaign, his appearances in nonpartisan media have been few and far between. He has, however, gone on Fox News multiple times since winning his primary in late May — most recently speaking with Bret Baier at the National Republican Convention in Dallas. “His handler in July said ‘Of course we’re going to debate,’ and then they declined three different invitations from local Texas TV stations. So let’s go to Ken Paxton’s safe space, let’s do Bret Baier on Fox News. I’ll go into the lion’s den because I know what I believe. I am proud of my record, and I’m not afraid of hard questions. Ken Paxton is running from a fight,” Talarico said. “I’m challenging Paxton to a game on his home turf.” Ken Paxton’s campaign did not respond to our immediate request for comment.

City Stories

Dog’s Head detractors bark back with lawsuit

Back in July, Save Our Springs Alliance attorney Bobby Levinski warned that the city of Austin was walking into a lawsuit over the planned Dog’s Head development. That lawsuit has arrived. SOS, People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources, and a group of Dog’s Head neighbors filed suit against Austin and City Council on Monday, challenging the legality of the two major actions city leaders have taken thus far on the proposed development east of Downtown, which is to be built over 4 square miles of land next to the airport and is imagined as a city within the city. The lawsuit’s first challenge is to Council’s unanimous approval in May of the 45-year development agreement with the company that has been buying up land in the Dog’s Head over the last several years, the Endeavor Real Estate Group.

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The second is to Council’s July approval of a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone for the project, which would give Endeavor over a billion dollars from future property and sales taxes collected in Dog’s Head to reimburse the company for their construction of roads, utility lines, and other infrastructure. The amount of taxpayer money that would ultimately flow to Endeavor has been estimated at $1.5 billion, but the Dog’s Head lawsuit pegs the figure at $2 billion. “The $2 billion rebate over 35 years is only a guesstimate from Endeavor; we actually have no idea how much the rebate will actually be since the rebate commitment is not capped and expressed only as a percentage of future taxes generated on the Dog’s Head land,” Levinski said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. Susana Almanza, executive director of PODER, pointed out that city leaders have raised taxes and fees while cutting services in recent budgets, saying, “The last thing Austin should be doing is diverting billions in future public revenue away from libraries, parks, public safety, and affordable housing to subsidize private development that was already moving forward.”

National Stories

As states seek to rein in Flock license plate cameras, New Hampshire is considered a model

As backlash to Flock and other license plate-tracking cameras grows, some states are exploring limiting the technology. New Hampshire is already a decade ahead. Since 2016, the Granite State has had one of the strictest laws in the country regulating and limiting automated license plate readers. The result: While license plate-tracking cameras from companies like Flock, Axon, and Motorola Solutions have proliferated in other states in recent years, New Hampshire’s years-old law appears to have prevented those companies from establishing a foothold here. Now, as bipartisan opposition has led states such as Florida, Arizona, Connecticut, and South Dakota to seek to restrict the cameras, New Hampshire has provided a possible template.

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In a press conference earlier this month, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis urged legislation to bar the cameras from his state — and pointed to the Granite State as a model. “Florida’s going to need to do something for sure on that,” DeSantis said Sept. 2, according to WESH. “I think New Hampshire showed the way it can be done.” But even as other states explore restrictions, some New Hampshire lawmakers say the state’s laws should be tightened further. Rep. Michael Granger, a libertarian-leaning Milton Republican, has filed a legislative service request for the 2027 session “relative to surveillance on public ways and on public property” — the first step toward a bill. Granger did not respond to requests for comment. Since 2016, New Hampshire state law has allowed only state, county, or local law enforcement officers to use “number plate scanning devices,” or automated license plate readers. And the statute also tightly regulates how even those officers may use them. The devices may be used to identify stolen vehicles; vehicles registered to people with outstanding arrest warrants; vehicles involved in suspected terrorism or major crimes such as homicides and shootings; vehicles associated with wanted, missing, or endangered people; vehicles in the vicinity of a recent crime; and vehicles that have violated commercial trucking requirements or whose drivers have had their licenses or privileges suspended.

The AI build-out is becoming the biggest economic bet in U.S. history

The AI build-out is on track to become the biggest economic bet in U.S. history, dwarfing the investments made to fund other huge U.S. infrastructure projects such as the railroads, the highway system and the plumbing for the internet. Total investment in data centers and related artificial-intelligence infrastructure is projected to total $10.3 trillion from 2025 to 2032, according to new estimates by economist Stijn van Nieuwerburgh published by the Brookings Institution. That is a staggering 3.6% of gross domestic product a year, on average. Never before has the U.S. economy been so dependent on the build-out of a single industry. The investment is transforming every corner of the economy, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and minting new billionaires. It is also creating significant risk, as much of it is built on debt. An abrupt slowdown could ignite shock waves throughout the U.S. economy.

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Projecting investment is tricky, and total spending might well end up substantially lower. Still, the money poured into data centers this year already represents an investment unprecedented in recent history. AI investment in the U.S. is projected to hit 1.9% of GDP in 2026, according to new estimates from Goldman Sachs. The railroad boom of the late 19th century marked the last time the build-out of one new industry accounted for a larger share of the economy. The flood of money spent on the build-out of data centers has represented a bright spot in an otherwise dark time for the construction industry. Through July of this year, a seasonally adjusted $37 billion has been spent on private data-center construction—about $9 billion more than in the first seven months of last year, according to the Commerce Department. Private construction spending on everything else—houses, apartment buildings, shopping centers and so on—was about $46 billion below year-earlier levels in the first seven months of this year. Hyperscalers are tying up scarce workers and electricity, raising costs for other businesses. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond recently reported that data-center construction is straining labor availability in its area. It isn’t just electricity: In many places, data centers are pushing up land costs. “It’s crowding out manufacturing,” said Didi Caldwell, a site-selection consultant who works with heavy industry.

Xi Jinping got the red carpet treatment from Trump - but not everything he wanted

President Xi Jinping's summits with Donald Trump have one clear aim. China believes the United States is trying to contain its rise as a superpower, and it wants Washington to stay out of its way - particularly when it comes to trade, technology and Taiwan. On this visit, however, despite Trump rolling out the red carpet for him, the Chinese leader didn't get everything he wanted. The trade truce that saw both countries pause a tit-for-tat tariff war and prevent a further escalation, was extended by only a few months - from November to January. Beijing had hoped for at least a year as Xi looks to ride out the remainder of Trump's presidency. This means key disputes on tariffs, China's dominance on rare earth supplies and access to advanced US chips are being kicked forward into yet another round of negotiations. This suggests the US wants China to do more to fulfil its side of the bargain before offering longer-term concessions.

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The uncomfortable truth for Xi is that his domestic economy is in trouble. While the country sells a record number of goods around the world, consumers at home are holding back. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high and property prices have slumped in a country where 80% of people own their own homes. Trade is helping to prop up growth, making access to overseas markets more important than ever. Xi needs to protect those exports from the kind of debilitating tariffs the US imposed last year. On Taiwan, Xi once again made clear that US arms sales to Taiwan are a red line for China. The US is bound by law to provide the self-governing island with the means to defend itself. In May, Xi warned Trump that mishandling the issue could cause the two countries to "collide or even enter into conflict". Trump then delayed the approval of a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan, describing it as a "very good negotiating chip" with Beijing.

The rise of the almost-premium credit card

It used to be that $500 would get you a premium credit card. Now it gets you something just below that. The popularity of ultra-luxe cards with ever-higher annual fees has led to a reshuffling of the market, with cards just below that tier now making up a new category for the not-quite-rich enough. These near-premium cards are increasingly being aimed at younger Americans eager for travel, dining out and the merry-go-round of other life experiences constantly on display on social media and in pop culture. Skye Zhao couldn’t justify paying $895 for an American Express Platinum card. But she crunched the numbers and realized the $325 annual fee for the Gold card would be worth the travel points and perks she could earn.

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Another plus is the rose-gold metal card. “It’s very pretty,” said Zhao, a 25-year-old doctoral student in New York. The reordering of the credit-card market comes after issuers have tricked out top-flight cards with new benefits to justify higher fees. Amex hiked the annual fee on its Platinum card by $200 last year, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve saw a similarly big leap from $550 to $795. The higher prices are pushing some to search for alternatives. “What has emerged is what I would call the upper-middle-class option,” said Ted Rossman, principal consumer finance analyst at Money Management International, a credit-counseling organization. Part of the appeal of these near-premium cards is that they still confer a sense of exclusivity that doesn’t come with free or lower-fee cards. They might have airport lounge access, for instance, or credits for popular restaurant chains.

‘Love Me’: White House airs government-funded ad praising Trump

With the midterm elections approaching, the White House is airing a new TV ad promoting President Donald Trump and his policies that says it is “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” The unusual 30-second commercial shows rapidly edited pictures and video of Trump over audio of him denouncing communism and socialism, with text on the screen that touts his administration’s accomplishments, such as “reigniting American manufacturing.” The spot is set to the song “Love Me” by JMSN. The ad ends with a clip of UFC President Dana White praising Trump as the “toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.”

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The commercial started airing Wednesday across the country on cable TV, including Fox News, as well as connected TV, according to AdImpact. The ad-tracking service said the government has spent just over $14,000 to run the ad so far. That is a small amount of money compared to the tens of millions of dollars that are flooding the airwaves in the final weeks of the midterms, and the ad doesn’t mention any races or candidates. But it marks an atypical use of taxpayer dollars at a time when Trump has sought to make himself front and center in the elections, even though he is not on the ballot. The White House declined to elaborate on how the ad is being funded but defended it as part of “public service announcements” to promote national pride. “The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement. “We should be proud of our country.” JMSN, the singer-songwriter whose song is the soundtrack of the ad, suggested on X that the administration used “Love Me” without his permission. “I am looking at lawyers and handling this internally,” JMSN wrote.

Former Secret Service cybercrime expert weighs in on privacy after hackers breach stolen Flock camera

A stolen Flock Safety license-plate camera yielded roughly 1.6 million images after hackers physically removed and reverse-engineered the device, but a former Secret Service cybercrime expert says the incident does not appear to have compromised Flock's broader cloud network. Jason Brown, director of customer advisory and counter-fraud lead at threat intelligence firm iCOUNTER, spent 25 years with the U.S. Secret Service and specialized in cybercrime. Brown told FOX Business that the distinction between accessing one physically stolen camera and breaching Flock's network is critical. "The biggest thing I keep hammering at home [is] that Flock was never compromised," Brown said. "So there's never been a large dump of information out of their network."

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Hackers physically removed a Flock Safety license-plate camera and reverse-engineered the device, recovering roughly 1.6 million images, according to WIRED. (Getty Images / Getty Images) According to WIRED, hackers physically removed a Flock camera from above a roadway and reverse-engineered it. They reportedly discovered encrypted and unencrypted portions of the device's storage and recovered an encryption key stored on the camera that allowed them to unlock additional data. "This was a situation where somebody physically had access to a camera because they stole it off of a pole, took it home, and then did backward engineering on that camera," Brown said. "That did not give them the capability to actually log into the cloud portion of Flock, and nothing in the cloud of Flock proper was accessed." According to WIRED's analysis, the recovered logs covered roughly 21 days of activity, including 1.6 million images, 50,200 vehicles and 27,000 short video clips. Flock cameras capture images and short videos of passing vehicles, which are transmitted to the company's cloud infrastructure for processing and can then be searched by authorized law enforcement users.

NJ governor asks Caldwell, her second in command, to resign

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Thursday asked her lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell, to resign from office by Friday, following an investigation that found he made female members of his staff uncomfortable, including a sexual harassment complaint that was substantiated by investigators. A 61-page report Sherrill released late Thursday concluded that Caldwell asked a female senior staffer whether her friend was single and that if the woman was ambitious, she “needed a man who was in a position to help them.” “The lieutenant governor’s resignation is necessary and in the best interest of New Jersey residents,” Sherrill said in a statement. Thomas Calcagni of Calcagni and Kanefsky, a law firm representing Caldwell, disputed the report's findings and said its “conclusions go further than the evidence supports.”

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“The question is not simply whether investigators believed one person over another,” Calcagni said in a written statement. “The question is whether the evidence actually proves that a violation occurred. In our view, the evidence does not support these findings.” The statement did not say whether Caldwell plans to heed Sherrill’s request to resign. If Caldwell does not resign, the only way to remove him as lieutenant governor under New Jersey's state constitution would be for the legislature to do so through an impeachment by a majority of assemblymembers, and then a conviction by two-thirds of state senators. The report’s findings come nearly three weeks after it was revealed that Caldwell was under investigation over the allegations by an outside law firm tapped by Sherrill to conduct the probe. Former New Jersey Attorney General Chris Porrino and other attorneys from the firm Lowenstein Sandler have reviewed complaints against Caldwell and interviewed the lieutenant governor and witnesses, including a whistleblower from Caldwell’s staff.

South Asians face surging racism in America

For months, many Indian Americans said that they had noticed what seemed to be a marked uptick in racist comments against South Asians in some corners of social media. But two recent incidents have left some in the community wondering whether the anti-South Asian hate that they thought was a fringe sentiment was perhaps not so fringe after all. As part of the rollout of a new tip line to report truckers suspected of fraud, the Department of Homeland Security posted an image on Sept. 9 of a “Transformers” character facing off with a Sikh man, along with the words: “America for Americans. Get off our roads. You don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh.” Singh is a common surname for followers of the Sikh faith. A few days later, Bo French, a Republican candidate for statewide office in Texas, posted an image from a University of Texas football game showing cheering students who appeared to be of South Asian heritage. He wrote: “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”

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For many, the posts confirmed an uneasy sense that the immigration debate has led to rising animus against people of South Asian descent and that it has crept into mainstream American politics, particularly on the right. “What we’re seeing now is full blown and out in public view,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, co-director of Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit that tracks discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. “When agency officials and candidates use this language, it gets weaponized and utilized by those who are perpetrating hate.” There was backlash to the posts and some backtracking. Mr. French later said that his post was “not about race, it’s about policy,” specifically what he believed to be an admissions policy that favored international students over Americans. (By state law, 90 percent of first-year students at the University of Texas at Austin must be in-state residents.) Mr. French did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Homeland Security said that its post was a depiction of Harjinder Singh, an Indian citizen accused of causing a high-profile fatal crash in Florida last year. It later removed the image without explanation. A few days later, on Sept. 13, a Sikh trucker named Gurvinder Singh was stabbed 17 times at a Wyoming rest stop. Many Sikh Americans couldn’t help but draw a connection to the heightened rhetoric.

Copyright September 25, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved