August 6, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Talarico used parents' address to vote in 5 elections, report states

State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, used his parents' address to vote in five elections after buying his own home, according to a report the Texas Tribune and ProPublica published Wednesday. Talarico listed his parents' address on his voter registration in November 2021. Despite buying a home the following June, he failed to update his voting records until September 2024, the report says. Talarico himself has accused his Republican opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of voter fraud in light of an earlier report by the Tribune and ProPublica, stating he may have also voted with an address at which he did not live. Talarico's voting practices may have violated state law, according to the recent report. His spokesperson directed blame at Paxton in light of the coverage on Wednesday.

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Paxton had cited a report by the conservative magazine The Federalist to accuse Talarico of voter fraud linked to his mother's address last week. "This is a lame attempt by Ken Paxton to deflect from his own hypocrisy and career of corruption," JT Ennis, Talarico campaign spokesperson, said in a statement to the Chronicle after the report broke. The campaign declined to comment on whether Talarico used his parents' address to vote while living elsewhere. "Given Ken Paxton's history of weaponizing his office to conduct baseless witch hunts — and the credible threats made by right-wing actors trying to track down the whereabouts of James and his family — our campaign will not enable this any further," Ennis said. Paxton also declined to answer a question about the potential illegal voting during a rare press conference last month. He blasted Talarico on social media in response to the Tribune and ProPublica report on Wednesday, calling him a "fraud who has zero respect for the rule of law." "He will do anything to push his radical agenda, even if it means breaking the law," he wrote on X. "Texans deserve better." In a statement to the Chronicle, Paxton campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy said Talarico is the only candidate in the race to commit voter fraud. She reiterated the campaign's allegations that Talarico committed election fraud to run for office in 2022. The Tribune and ProPublica reported that he appeared to comply with residence requirements at the time. “Just like he’s flip-flopping on all his radical positions during the Senate campaign, Talarico can’t settle on a single version of events even if it means complying with the law,” Cercy said. Talarico’s home is roughly six miles away from where his parents live, but the two properties sit within the same county and the same state house district he represents, according to the Texas Tribune and ProPublica report. They fall under different jurisdictions for some local elections, the report states.

Released after arrest at Tarrant meeting, former lawmaker considers suing county judge

Lon Burnam, the former Texas state representative arrested during a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting, has been released from jail and is now considering legal action against County Judge Tim O’Hare. At about 1 p.m. Tuesday, Burnam, 73, was carried out of the courtroom by four sheriff deputies, who held him by his hands and feet. He was charged with disrupting a meeting and released Wednesday night from the county jail without paying a bond, Burnam said. He is now banned from attending commissioners court for six months, he said. The former state lawmaker, who represented Tarrant County as a Democrat from 1997 to 2015, is a frequent speaker at commissioners court meetings, often advocating for accountability for deaths in the county jail.

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Burnam’s arrest came about three hours into a heated commissioners court meeting, where commissioners were scheduled to consider reducing the number of polling sites for the November midterm election. Commissioners ultimately voted to delay that decision after dozens of speakers, including Burnam, criticized the proposal as an attempt to limit voter access to the polls. “I am OK. I think I really did a good job of bringing attention to the attempt to do voter suppression,” Burnam told the Fort Worth Report on Wednesday. That morning, Burnam was en route to Austin to visit with state lawmakers about the increasing number of in-custody jail deaths, plus what he described as “filthy conditions” at the jail. He and several other local activists had previously arranged the trip and are planning to testify to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards during its Thursday meeting. “This will be my second time to speak to them, and it’ll be my first time to speak having personal knowledge of the situation,” Burnam said of the state agency tasked with regulating city and county jails.

Why Republicans could still keep control of the House

Democrats are favored to flip the House, but Republicans could still save their majority under the right conditions. Historically, midterm elections are a referendum on the party that holds the White House, which voters are prone to punish. This year, the Democratic Party is well positioned to win a House majority, buoyed by voters’ dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump and the war in Iran that he started. But Trump’s party could defy conventional wisdom and still eke out a win, election analysts say. Here’s how.

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Registered voters support Democrats over Republicans in Congress by five percentage points, according to a Washington Post average of July “generic ballot” polls that ask preferences for parties rather than individuals. Analysts estimate that Democrats need to win the national House vote by three to four points to win the majority. Democrats have a bigger advantage among highly motivated voters, who are more likely to turn out in November. But polls also show that the Democratic brand is bruised. The Democratic Party is less popular than before the 2018 midterm elections, when a blue wave delivered 41 new seats, according to a CNN poll released in late July.Aggressive redistricting to favor parties in congressional elections has resulted in a smaller battleground for control of Congress. As of mid-July, Cook Political Report deemed 37 districts competitive. Eighteen were toss-ups, while 10 leaned Democrat and 9 leaned Republican. Republicans made it unusually hard for Democrats to win the majority by launching a national battle to redraw electoral maps mid-decade. While Democrats tried to gain their own seats, the redistricting gambit proved advantageous for the GOP. Because the two parties are competing on the new map, November’s results could be close even in a difficult year for Republicans, Wasserman said. If Democrats win all of the most competitive districts classified by the Cook Political Report, they would win 235 seats under the 2024 map. But under the current map, they would only win 223 seats.

Texas’ first report on school voucher recipients is missing key data

The state has released the first in-depth look at the more than 85,000 students participating in Texas’ voucher program, shedding light on who will benefit from the state’s new $1 billion initiative. The report, which was required by the Legislature, provides high-level demographic data on recipients and where they live. But it leaves some questions about the program unanswered, and some data required by law wasn’t released. Newly appointed Comptroller Don Huffines said in a statement that “the initial success of this program speaks for itself.” “Giving all parents the power to choose the right education for their child encourages schools to compete and deliver better results for all students,” he said.

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Here’s what the report does — and doesn’t — show: Most recipients live in low-income households. The Legislature’s voucher program prioritized students from low- and middle-income families and students with disabilities, and that’s what the data shows. About 80% of recipients come from households earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s about $66,000. A few students in households earning more than 500% of the level also received vouchers, since the law requires siblings to be awarded together, even if they’re living in different homes Nearly 21,000 students, about 25%, had a qualifying disability. Those students qualify for a voucher up to $30,000, although few actually received that maximum. Many students didn’t accept a voucher. The state awarded the vouchers, which can cover the costs of private or home school, to more than 122,000 students. But only about 85,000 actually accepted them by the report’s deadline. That’s a surprising 30% of recipients not participating. The reasons could be varied: Parents couldn’t find a spot in their chosen school, couldn’t afford tuition even with the voucher, they didn’t understand the state’s process or they simply didn’t want to participate. White students make up about 41% of funded recipients, according to the report. That makes sense — about 45% of applicants were white, according to the office.

State Stories

Talarico unleashes ‘new American Dream’ in Arlington with tripartisan support

In the American Dream City, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico detailed his four-part plan to build a “new American Dream” surrounding economy, families, energy and technology. The Democrat’s half-hour speech was filled with ideas for putting Texans back on their feet after what Talarico described as a billionaires’ rigged economy that has kicked working-class people down. Over a thousand people were in the Esports Stadium Arlington to hear from the Democratic nominee. “We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis,” Talarico said. “We’re getting screwed. Whether you’re a little more conservative or a little more progressive, we’re all getting screwed.”

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Ahead of Talarico coming to the stage, two local Democrats, a Tarrant County Republican and Arlington’s independent mayor took to the microphone and voiced their support. Democrats Congressman Marc Veasey and Tarrant district attorney candidate Tiffany Burks focused on the need to vote up and down the ballot. “There is a slate of candidates that are ready and waiting to serve you,” Burks said. “When you go to the polls, make sure that you don’t stop at the top. You go all the way down the ballot. Make no mistake. When you all wake up that morning, we are going to have a different Tarrant County.” Retired County Judge Glen Whitley, the Republican replaced by conservative Tim O’Hare, said he supports Talarico over Paxton because he trusts the Democrat will work across the aisle to benefit Texans. “I have always voted for the best candidate. I did not look at what party they had beside their name,” Whitley said. “What I’m going to have to tell you right now, as a Texan, I am ashamed of the fact that Ken Paxton is even on the ballot.” Ross, an independent, said a better future is on the horizon with Talarico because he leads with love instead of hate. “Nobody else can bring all these parties together like James Talarico,” Ross said.

NRG Energy reveals details on $3.2 billion data center power project, its first in Texas

Houston-based NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) has revealed details about its first power project for data centers in Texas just a day after the state’s governor called for a pause in data center approvals. In the company’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call on Aug. 4, NRG said it is developing a 1.2-gigawatt power project in Texas with a “leading global cloud and AI hyperscaler.” NRG is targeting commercial operations in 2029 and could later expand it to 2.4 GW. NRG said the project will require $3.2 billion of investment and is expected to generate at least $500 million of annual adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and about $375 million in annual free cash flow. The project is still pending NRG's internal approvals.

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CFO Bruce Chung added during the earnings call the investment in the project through 2026 will be about $800 million, including previous reservation payments. NRG’s earnings come just after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Aug. 3 directed the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Public Utility Commission of Texas to conduct an audit of all data centers advancing through the interconnection queue before any project moves forward. The governor said ERCOT currently is considering approximately over 474 GW of requests to connect to the Texas grid — more than five times ERCOT’s record peak electricity demand — and about 90% of the new power requests are data centers. During the earnings call, in a response to an analyst asking about the governor’s directive, CEO Rob Gaudette said NRG’s project addresses the concerns state regulators have when it comes to the influx of new power and industrial developments. “It is the right project to meet the concerns of the communities and the elected officials because it doesn’t strain the grid and because it also can reduce the need for some transmission out there. As far as timing goes, Texas is a get-things-done state. I expect them to work through stuff to get to a higher-quality understanding of the projects to be put down over time,” Gaudette said.

Asian American groups backing James Talarico for Senate say he needs to step up his game

Asian American groups in Texas say they are “sounding the alarm” on Democrat James Talarico’s Senate campaign, warning that if he wants to pull off an upset in Texas in November, he must change course on his outreach to voters in their community. The warnings came from the three Asian American groups that have endorsed him. The Asian Texans for Justice Action Fund announced in May that it backed Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian. But since then, executive director Nabila Mansoor said his campaign has fallen short of reaching Asian voters she said he needs if he is to beat his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton. The action fund is the sister group of Asian Texans for Justice, which says it represents more than 1.9 million Asians in the state.

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Alternate text NBC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: ASIAN AMERICAN GROUPS BACKING JAMES TALARICO FOR SENATE SAY HE NEEDS TO STEP UP HIS GAME AAPI leaders who have endorsed Talarico point to a new poll first shared with NBC News showing that 50% of Asian voters in Texas know little or nothing about him. Click here to read on NBCNews.com – Please credit NBC News NBCNews.com story by Natasha Korecki Asian American groups in Texas say they are “sounding the alarm” on Democrat James Talarico’s Senate campaign, warning that if he wants to pull off an upset in Texas in November, he must change course on his outreach to voters in their community. The warnings came from the three Asian American groups that have endorsed him. The Asian Texans for Justice Action Fund announced in May that it backed Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian. But since then, executive director Nabila Mansoor said his campaign has fallen short of reaching Asian voters she said he needs if he is to beat his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton. The action fund is the sister group of Asian Texans for Justice, which says it represents more than 1.9 million Asians in the state. Two other groups that backed Talarico — Asian American Democrats of Texas and the AAPI Victory Fund — also expressed worries to NBC News. While Talarico has generated excitement in many corners of the state, Mansoor said that with only three months to go to Election Day, community groups do not feel the campaign is connecting with them. “I think that’s what’s been lacking,” she said. “He is the best person to win this race, but he will not win this race without the Texas-Asian vote,” Mansoor added. “While we are doing everything we can to make sure that we are encouraging folks to vote for our endorsed candidates, there has to be something that’s coming from the campaign to back that up. That’s been a little bit disappointing.” The Asian Texans for Justice Action Fund commissioned a poll, first shared with NBC News, that it says underscores their worries.

Ted Cruz held a hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood's in the U.S. None of his colleagues showed up.

The Republican Party declared open season on America’s Muslims on Wednesday. On the very morning that Muslim American Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official campaign arm of Senate Republicans, released an ad showing grainy footage of El-Sayed and this message: “Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, the most radical Senate candidate in America. El-Sayed pledged support for the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a designated foreign terrorist group … and when his ally claimed America deserved 9/11, El-Sayed refused to disavow it.”

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And all that was but a warm-up for what happened Wednesday afternoon in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. There, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) used the authority of the United States Senate — specifically, his Judiciary subcommittee — to hold a hearing purporting to demonstrate that there has been a decades-long Muslim conspiracy, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, to undermine and control the United States. And that El-Sayed is its crowning achievement. Cruz had his aides put up a poster showing El-Sayed alongside the Muslim Brotherhood’s emblem of crossed swords and the Quran. “FROM THE MIDDLE EAST TO THE MIDWEST,” it announced. “COMMUNIST EL-SAYED, LINKED TO THE BROTHERHOOD, WINS DEM SENATE PRIMARY IN MICHIGAN.” Democrats on the panel, accusing Cruz of “scapegoating Muslims,” boycotted the hearing, saying they had “no intention of indulging this political creepshow.” Cruz’s fellow Republicans also skipped the hearing — though probably less because of the subject matter than because Cruz is so singularly disliked. The result was a one-man show of religious bigotry and conspiracy theories, an awkward development that Cruz attempted to conceal.

The quiet work that has changed South Dallas

Billy Lane found a seat inside the crowded Dallas City Council chambers and reminded himself that the vote on his proposed townhomes was mostly a formality. But the pastor and social justice activist couldn’t relax, not about the affordable housing project his team had been trying to build in the Mill City neighborhood of South Dallas since 2018. Lane, executive director of the South Dallas Fair Park Innercity Community Development Corporation, better known as ICDC, thought the council vote he had witnessed three months earlier was the final OK. Only at the last minute — and only because of a city staffer’s casual remark — did Lane learn the project was back on the agenda, this time at the city attorney’s request to clean up some administrative language. After years of delays, Lane knew better than to take anything for granted. When the townhomes item was read aloud, a single thought ran through his mind: “We have for so long been so close, only for another dadgum wave to sweep us back out to sea. Don’t let it happen again.”

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Finally, on June 24, the vote on the eight Mill City homes on the southeastern edge of Fair Park went South Dallas’ way. With construction of the alley and improvements to sidewalks and Brashear Street already completed, ICDC expects to start building by mid-September. The project is the latest hard-won battle in the often overlooked neighborhood-building that ICDC has accomplished since Diane Ragsdale founded the organization 40 years ago. While this local civil rights icon, community organizer, and former City Council member has long been celebrated for her activism, her construction successes have received far less attention. In a dogged and workmanlike way, ICDC has built or rehabbed about 300 homes in South Dallas, provided homeowner education, and partnered to bring healthcare and workforce training to the area. Other community development corporations and partners stepped up over the years, but ICDC has been at it the longest and shown the most staying power. “ICDC has weathered all of the storms,” including deficient infrastructure, political squabbles, and public safety challenges, said Scottie Smith II, a South Dallas resident and real estate broker, investor, and developer focused on this part of the city. “For decades, they’ve been able to see projects through and make progress despite all those storms.”

Jerry Jones open to selling piece of Cowboys to Mark Cuban in future

Two of the biggest personalities in Dallas and across the sports world are reportedly "open" to discussing a deal in the future. Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban both discussed the possibility of the latter purchasing a minority stake in the Dallas Cowboys in recent interviews with the Dallas Morning News. While Jones told DMN that the Cowboys are not currently interested in taking on additional investors, he did not rule it out in the future, according to an Aug. 2 report. Jones told DMN he respects Cuban and what he could bring to a franchise.

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"That’s exactly why if you’re me, you would be open to that, is because of the man," Jones told DMN. "I have all the respect in the world for him and I know what he did for the Mavericks and what he’s done for basketball. ... You want to associate with the highest quality of [a person] who loves the game and then also at the same time wants to do something about it. Mark leads the way in that." The Cowboys declined to comment and Cuban did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Dallas Business Journal. Jones purchased the Cowboys in 1989 and has built the team into the most valuable sports franchise in the world. Cuban, a billionaire entrepreneur who made his fortune selling Broadcast.com at the height of the dot-com bubble, was the longtime majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He sold his majority stake in the NBA team in 2023 but remains a 27% minority owner.

Texas A&M Fort Worth celebrates ‘Silicon Valley on the Trinity’ with new campus

Texas’ most promising legal minds will have a new home to hone their craft after Texas A&M officially opened its new law school building Wednesday. The eight-story $200 million building is the first of a five-building campus expected to reshape the economic landscape of Fort Worth. In addition to the new law school, the campus will include two research and innovation buildings, a performing arts building, and a gateway building serving as an entryway into the campus. It’s expected to create as many as 25,000 jobs and have a $3 billion economic impact on Fort Worth, according to a Texas A&M press release. At a groundbreaking event Wednesday for the first research and innovation building, law school Dean Bobby Ahdieh recounted early conversations with developer John Goff on what the campus and the surrounding “Switchyard Innovation District” could be.

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“What if we could create Silicon Valley on the Trinity River?” Ahdieh said, adding the vision was to create an academic campus bringing together multiple disciplines, universities, industry partners and the community to advance innovation and economic growth not just for North Texas, but for the nation. The new campus would not be possible without the vision and collaboration of leaders not just at Texas A&M, but at the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and the business community as a whole, he said. Several speakers at Wednesday’s event took time to honor former congresswoman and Fort Worth Mayor Kay Granger, who died Aug. 3 at the age of 83. It was Granger’s leadership that shepherded Texas A&M’s takeover of the downtown law school from Texas Wesleyan University in 2013, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said. Parker recounted serving on Granger’s staff during tense negotiations with former Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp. “I can’t think of two tougher Texans to sit across a table from one another and negotiate about what the future of this law school could be,” Parker said.

'Boomtown' near Austin considers data center project as it preps for more

A Kansas City-based real estate developer is angling to earmark a portion of a long-planned development in Mustang Ridge for a data center developer after previous plans to build housing on the site did not materialize. It's the first of at least two data center projects expected to approach the city in the next few weeks. VanTrust Real Estate LLC, over the last several years, has been working to bring the roughly 1,400-acre development online in the small city of about 1,000 people that is about 20 miles southeast of downtown Austin. Officials during an Aug. 4 workshop with the Mustang Ridge City Council and residents revealed how those plans have shifted. VanTrust executive vice president Bill Baumgardner, who is in charge of the firm's Texas office, said during the meeting initial plans on a roughly 623-acre parcel at 13709 Schriber Road are still in motion.

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The group annexed and zoned a piece of the property for what it's calling Mustang Ridge Industrial Park, which he indicated could eventually have 3 million square feet of speculative warehouse and logistics space. VanTrust is in the process of building infrastructure and aims to complete the first buildings by 2030. The remainder of the property, which still sits outside of the city, was previously set for potentially hundreds of homes and some retail, but those plans did not materialize, Baumgardner said. Instead, his team has been inundated with interest from advanced manufacturers and data center developers. They've agreed with an unidentified data center developer to carve out about 200 acres initially for data center uses – and he admitted the remainder of the piece could eventually house the same. "This would also be light industrial, but would also have a data center component on it. Whether this becomes all data center, I don't know," Baumgardner said. The workshop marked the first step in what's expected to be a long process if the Council opts to bring its first data centers online within city limits. Council billed the workshop as an opportunity for members and the public to ask questions ahead of potential annexation, zoning and other votes. It will also serve as a way to standardize further data center development, as officials indicated during the meeting that an additional data center developer is scheduled to hold a workshop later this month.

'I was taken aback!' | Former McKinney Mayor addresses physical confrontation during contentious mosque expansion vote

A marathon McKinney City Council meeting over a proposed mosque expansion ended with a unanimous vote in favor of the project, but the five-hour meeting was marked by heated public comments and a physical altercation involving former Mayor George Fuller. More than 150 people signed up to speak Monday night. While some voiced concerns about traffic, noise and the mosque's proximity to nearby neighborhoods along Virginia Parkway, many speakers criticized Islam. "The Islamification of our country has to stop, and it needs to stop now," said one speaker. "I ask you to reject the fear, reject the division, reject the hatred," said one speaker in favor of the project.

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"Every country has this disgusting ideology in their country," said another speaker against the project. After addressing the council, Fuller said he was confronted by a woman carrying papers referencing Sharia law. "I started by saying it's a sad day in McKinney, Texas. What I saw last night was the worst behavior of our community," said Fuller, who was mayor of the city for 8 years. Fuller said he initially believed the woman was approaching to greet him. "I was taken aback. I thought she was going to greet me in a friendly way...did not know she was aggressively going to assault me," he said. Witness Samad Syed, who attended the meeting and worships at the mosque with his family, said he saw the mayor being escorted by officers on the way out of the building. "When he was assaulted, I was very disturbed by that," Syed said.

Pliny Fisk III, “mad scientist of the green building movement” and co-director of CMPBS, dies at 82

Pliny Fisk III, the exuberant and visionary co-director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS), died on July 27 in Austin, Texas, due to complications of ALS. He was 82 years old. Despite the challenges of living with the disease, Fisk continued creating and collaborating until the last days of his life. Fisk earned a reputation as one of the founding figures of the modern sustainability movement in design, alongside pioneers like Ian McHarg, Buckminster Fuller, John and Nancy Todd, Sim van der Ryn, Bob Berkebile, and Paolo Soleri. Over his 50 years of leadership at CMPBS, known colloquially as “Max’s Pot,” Fisk—in tandem with his equally renowned partner, Gail Vittori—constantly experimented, venturing regularly into uncharted territory with an ever-changing cast of collaborators from all corners of the earth. The Center celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025.

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“Pliny was the beloved mad scientist of the green building movement, the innovator and linkage maker,” said Jason F. McLennan, creator of the Living Building Challenge and chief sustainability officer at Perkins&Will. “He was the one who saw decades ahead of others on embodied carbon and natural materials and found connections between strands of research, data, and possibility. He will be missed by us all dearly and profoundly.” Fisk embodied the ecological designer archetype. He found boundless inspiration in natural systems, and his unique skill was translating natural processes and ambient materials into a never-ending stream of daring projects. Visitors and collaborators would often sit in awe of his passion, playfulness, encyclopedic knowledge, courage, and urgency. Underwriting this flurry of visionary design was The Center itself, tucked away on the outskirts of Austin. Created in Fisk’s image, it evolved into a living laboratory of design, where ideas swiftly flowed from concept to physical prototype. The unique organization has been a proving ground for generations of designers, drawn there to develop expertise in green building in the presence of the masters. On top of all that, The Center was a statement of Fisk and Vittori’s deep integrity—the clearest possible example of what sustainable principles looked like in practice.

Texas governor’s data center moratorium prompts calls for special legislative session

After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a moratorium on new data centers, pending a state-led audit of these fast-emerging and controversial facilities, several of his political opponents issued statements critiquing his actions. But they weren't criticizing his decision to temporarily prevent new data centers from connecting to the Texas power grid. Instead, they said Abbott's actions didn't go far enough. "Let's be very clear about this: Abbott can take action now to end the data center madness," Austin state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor, said in a statement. "He could issue a moratorium until the legislature meets to put in place real protections for Texans and give them a seat at the table to decide if and how data centers move into their communities."

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As Texas sees the fastest-growing data center market in the country, the governor’s moratorium on data centers has also prompted calls for a special legislative session focused on regulating these facilities. Large energy consumers are requesting about 474 gigawatts of power from the Texas grid — more than five times the amount of energy used to power the entire state during record-breaking demand. About 90% of those requests are from data centers. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican, was among critics calling for a special session. Abbott endorsed Miller’s opponent, Nate Sheets, who defeated Miller in this year’s GOP primary election. "Without legislative action, this directive is all hat and no cattle — empty political rhetoric wrapped in meaningless fluff," Miller said in a statement. "Texans need laws with teeth, not another press release designed to make it look like something is being done while hyperscale projects continue moving forward."

Texas Children's Hospital must open country's first 'detransition clinic' by October under finalized settlement

A legal settlement requiring Texas Children's Hospital to create what Attorney General Ken Paxton calls the country's first "detransition clinic" has been finalized, the attorney general's office announced Wednesday. Under the agreement, the hospital must open the clinic by the end of October, pay $10 million to resolve state and federal Medicaid fraud claims and permanently revoke the privileges of multiple physicians. The agreement also requires the hospital to permanently revoke the medical staff privileges of multiple physicians and amend its bylaws so performing gender-transition procedures results in the automatic loss of medical staff privileges.

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The settlement was first announced in May following an investigation by the attorney general's Healthcare Program Enforcement Division into Texas Children's former gender-affirming care program. Paxton alleged the hospital improperly billed Texas Medicaid for gender-transition procedures using false diagnosis codes. "This historic settlement is a resounding defeat for the radical gender ideology that has preyed on Texas children under the guise of 'care,'" Paxton said in a statement Wednesday. "This settlement sends an unmistakable message: if you put radical ideology over children's health, my office will go after you." When the settlement was first announced, Texas Children's said it agreed to resolve the case to avoid prolonged and costly litigation while maintaining it had complied with the law. "To be clear — we are settling to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation," the hospital said in a statement at the time. "We stand proud knowing we will always put our purpose over politics and that we have and will continue to follow the law."

Sen. Menéndez warns Lt. Gov. Patrick's religion initiative could further polarize Texas

Democratic state Sen. José Menéndez of San Antonio blasted Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s new religious-liberty initiative. He said it could deepen divisions among Texans while distracting public schools from their educational mission. "It's kind of weird to try to say to people, look, look, look, this is the time and place where you can practice your religion," Menéndez said during an interview on Texas Public Radio’s "The Source." Menéndez said Patrick is "trying to embolden people to demand something that isn't a problem. " Patrick created a seven-member Senate Select Committee on Religious Liberty in March, saying it would find ways to educate Texans about their religious rights and prevent those rights from being infringed.

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On July 27, he directed the committee to compare state and federal religious-liberty protections and determine whether Texas needs additional laws. The committee must also develop ways to inform Texans about their right to practice religion in education, workplaces, government and health care. A third directive calls for reviewing the implementation of recent laws involving religion in public schools. The recommendations could become legislation when lawmakers return to Austin in January 2027. “Today, I released an additional seven interim charges for Texas Senate committees to study in preparation for the 90th Texas Legislature, reflecting issues facing Texans for the Senate to study,” Patrick said in announcing the broader package. Menéndez said Texans already have the right to practice their faith. He said the initiative will further divide Texans. "It's already doing it. It's causing people to pick what team they feel like they're on. Or 'are you Christian enough?'" he said.

Austin’s surprise $4.7 million sparks fight over social service cuts

As Austin faces a projected multimillion-dollar deficit that is expected to balloon in the coming years, one of the biggest tactics City Manager T.C. Broadnax has pushed to balance the books is deep cuts to social service contracts with a more than $5 million proposed reduction in the next budget. The effort has been bolstered by several findings suggesting Austin’s funding and oversight of those services are unsustainable. A city analysis found Austin relies far more heavily than peer cities on its general fund to pay for social services, while a more recent audit found nonprofits missed nearly half of the performance goals reviewed. But Friday’s discovery of $4.7 million in additional property tax revenue has upended the plan days before the City Council begins adopting next year’s budget.

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A supermajority of council members now supports restoring at least some of the proposed cuts, prompting a debate over whether the money should preserve services, fund housing vouchers or be held until the city can determine which contracts are producing results. The council is expected to confront that question Thursday, when city staff will present a proposal to reserve the additional revenue for possible social service spending. Broadnax zeroed in on social services late last year shortly after Austin voters rejected Proposition Q, a council-backed plan to raise property taxes by more than 20% to fund social services and other city programs. He made the first cuts in December, slashing $5.28 million from the social services budget and promising nearly $17 million more would follow. Council then created a rubric for distributing the cuts that weighed factors like whether a contracted service provides essential programs, prevents costs elsewhere in the city, delivers a return on investment and meets its contract goals. At the end of February, council approved the rubric and directed Broadnax to use it in recommending cuts. When Broadnax released a proposed budget in July, staff recommended spreading the remaining $16.8 million in reductions over two years, leaving about $5 million in direct social service cuts this year. That would ease the burden on nonprofits that have relied on city funding for years.

National Stories

Why so many C.E.O.s are getting a chief of staff

When Richard Gelfond, the chief executive of IMAX, hired his first chief of staff, he went looking for a shadow, someone who could take notes during meetings and let him know what was up next. But over time, as IMAX grew more complex — expanding from 55 theaters to almost 2,000 across more than 90 countries — his chief of staff grew in stature. “They’re really invaluable in helping me think through what I want to say and what I want to accomplish and then how to execute it and helping me execute it,” Mr. Gelfond said. Raphael Roesler, who was Mr. Gelfond’s chief of staff until June 2025, recently worked on a high-profile project: coordinating with research and development to build the special camera used in Christopher Nolan’s summer hit, “The Odyssey.” Mr. Gelfond has had a chief of staff for 16 years, but the position is becoming increasingly trendy among his peers.

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Since early 2020, postings for the role have increased 85 percent, according to Indeed, the job posting site. That’s a faster clip than for executive assistants and secretaries, whose jobs are also tied to helping business leaders manage their day. Unlike executive assistants, the chief of staff is often a senior level role, according to data from Indeed, because they serve as a second brain for the busy boss. An executive assistant “figures out what time something goes on the calendar, but a chief of staff figures out whether it should go on the calendar at all,” said Clara Ma, founder and chief executive of Ask a Chief of Staff, a networking platform that brings together chiefs of staff across various industries. According to a survey she conducted, the position pays $150,000 to more than $200,000 a year, depending on experience. Executive search firms like Russell Reynolds Associates are fielding more requests from companies to help recruit chiefs of staff. And companies aren’t looking to hire them just for the top boss. Lower level executives, such as vice presidents within marketing, communications and finance departments, are getting them as well.

After Michigan loss, AIPAC weighs a second effort to defeat El-Sayed

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has told allies that it is considering a major financial campaign to support the Republican Senate nominee in the Michigan general election this fall, after it failed its biggest test of the primary season on Tuesday. AIPAC’s super PAC spent $32 million in an unsuccessful effort to boost Representative Haley Stevens over Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a relentless critic of Israel, during the state’s Democratic primary. After Dr. El-Sayed’s victory, the group is unbowed and now appears willing to put what is expected to be tens of millions of dollars behind Mike Rogers, the Republican, as some of AIPAC’s major backers are urging, according to a half dozen people who have spoken with the group’s leaders.

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In a statement, AIPAC suggested its supporters would be involved in the general election without laying out specific plans. “Our members remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November,” said Deryn Sousa, a spokeswoman for AIPAC. In an interview, Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s main super PAC, said no official decision had been made about spending in the race. The organization had about $80 million on hand at the end of June, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Backing a Republican in a competitive general election — especially in a crucial swing state — would be an extraordinary shift for AIPAC. The organization has long considered itself bipartisan and began spending in federal elections only in 2022. Still, many AIPAC supporters consider Dr. El-Sayed to be a threat: He made opposition to Israel a centerpiece of his campaign and has repeatedly said that he would vote to cut off funding for the Jewish state. “The days when we are told to shut up and be nice are over — that’s not what is going to happen here,” said Sam Markstein, the political director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, a national organization with several AIPAC donors on its board. “We are not going to be bullied, we are not going to be slandered. We are going to double down and we are going to do what we need to win.”

Are rural law enforcement agencies using Flock cameras?

According to my analysis of data from the Atlas of Surveillance, a crowd-sourced database of police technology, nearly 800 rural law enforcement agencies use Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) as of December 2025. Rural jurisdictions with limited resources and staffing might find automated policing tools attractive, but investigative reporting on ALPRs reveals that they might do more harm than good. Flock Safety, the well-known ALPR company, has come under fire for encroaching on citizens’ privacy in ways that are difficult for the public to track. Flock Safety and its competitors use artificial intelligence (AI) to collect sensitive data on both individuals and vehicles. Although Flock Safety says that they don’t track down people, just cars, public records obtained by 404 Media revealed that police regularly used Flock cameras to look for individuals, searching their databases with terms like “heavy-set male with a black and white hat.”

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(Note: ALPRs are not traffic cameras. While law enforcement agencies use traffic cameras for ticketing traffic violations by capturing photos of license plates, they use ALPRs primarily for investigative purposes.) “Much of the world hasn’t quite caught up yet to how much more powerful a surveillance camera is today compared to a few years ago,” said senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Jay Stanley in an interview with 404 Media. Stanley told 404 Media that, today, “oceans” of data can be searched with key terms like a text file, including for sensitive personal content, like one’s bumper stickers or clothing. The vast majority of these cameras are manufactured by Flock Safety. In nonmetropolitan, or rural, jurisdictions, nearly 80% of all agencies that deploy ALPRs use Flock cameras, representing 627 communities. The following map shows metro and nonmetro law enforcement agencies that have contracts with an ALPR company. Visit the interactive web map to click on points and explore the pop-up windows. This dataset was last updated at the end of 2025.

White House declassifies info on secret FBI probe into whether Trump fired Comey at Russia's behest, official says

The White House on Wednesday released declassified information saying the FBI opened an investigation into whether President Trump was acting as an asset for Russia when he fired FBI Director James Comey, a theory an administration official said was not backed up by evidence. The official said the investigation, known as Oxferd Comma, was a subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI probe into potential collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government — an investigation that has long drawn Mr. Trump's ire. The predicate of Oxferd Comma was the newly elected president's decision to fire Comey in 2017. The case was marked sensitive, which is generally done to keep a case off the books from other agents, the official said.

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The agents who opened the case said they believe it was going to be the least intrusive method to address a serious national security risk. Oxferd Comma was eventually rolled into Special Counsel Robert Mueller's larger probe into Mr. Trump, the official said, and was later found not to have any merit when the rest of the Mueller investigation was closed down. "I was unaware that the predicate for the obstruction included a claim that Donald Trump was somehow acting on behalf of Vladimir Putin," the official said. "The short of it is, almost everything in the FBI's possession at that point had debunked or ruled out that Trump or his campaign was colluding with Russia at that time." Mr. Trump fired Comey in May 2017, just months into his first term as president. The White House initially cited Comey's handling of the investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails as the reason for his dismissal, though Mueller's report claimed Mr. Trump was frustrated with Comey for refusing to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation for potential ties to Russia. Comey's firing ended up as the catalyst that set a larger investigation into Mr. Trump in motion. After Comey's dismissal, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as a special counsel to investigate claims of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and any potential ties to the Trump campaign. Mueller ultimately did not find evidence that members of the Trump campaign "conspired or coordinated" with Russia, though he did describe some contacts between the campaign and Russian government-linked individuals.

Ohio Rep. Max Miller resists pressure to drop reelection

Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio resisted pressure Wednesday to exit his reelection campaign for Congress, even as anxiety over his electability was growing within his own party. Miller is facing a congressional ethics investigation related to domestic abuse allegations leveled against him by his ex-wife but is insisting he won’t withdraw. “I’m not going anywhere,” he told CNN on Wednesday. The second-term congressman’s actions in a parade of public appearances — beginning with a livestream from his X account Sunday — are heightening concerns among Republicans, who have only until Monday to replace Miller on the November ballot if he were to change his mind and withdraw.

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Some senior House Republican campaign strategists worry that Miller’s chances of reelection in the competitive Cleveland-area district have vanished in light of the renewed attention on the allegations and his attempts to defend himself, according to a source familiar with the strategists’ thinking who requested anonymity to discuss internal party deliberations. Messages left for Miller were not returned. Miller said in a CNN interview earlier this week that he had spoken about his reelection prospects with President Donald Trump, who told him, “I don’t know if you’re going to be able to, you know, pull this one out.” Miller, a senior adviser to Trump during his first term, said he believes he retains strong support within his district and can raise the money needed for a winning campaign. Miller has so far raised about $2.1 million, compared to his opponent’s $603,000, according to federal filings. “There’s no chance that I’m removing myself from this race,” even if Trump were to ask him to step aside, Miller said in a Newsmax interview Tuesday evening.

Fauci faces contempt of Congress vote over refusing to answer COVID-19 questions

A Senate committee is set to vote Thursday on whether to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week focused on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the Republican committee chairman, has said that constitutional protection did not apply since Fauci last year received a pardon from President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution.

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But Fauci, in a statement issued before the hearing, said he had good reason to fear the possibility of criminal charges given what he said was Paul’s determination “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote.” The pardon from Biden covered acts from 2014 through the January 2025 day it was issued but does not shield Fauci from state-level prosecutions or from investigations into any testimony that he did give that lawmakers thought was false. The Republican-led panel is set to vote Thursday morning on whether to refer Fauci to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which would make a decision on whether or not to investigate or potentially attempt to prosecute the doctor for contempt. Paul, who has previously sent referrals on Fauci on his own, acknowledged Wednesday that contempt resolutions have often gone through the full Senate but said he did not “want to waste time” moving the matter to a vote of the full Senate, where it would be unlikely to muster the required 60 votes needed to advance. “We still might come to the floor,” he said, “but at this point, the first thing we will do is we will send it over as a recommendation from our committee, if it passes.” No matter what happens, the episode raises fresh and complicated questions about lawmakers’ ability to compel testimony from previously pardoned witnesses — and the outcome could resonate beyond Fauci given the possibility that Trump may also grant clemency to his own aides before leaving the White House.

Trump, Hegseth clashed at Camp David over Iran missile depletion concerns

President Donald Trump’s frustration over the Iran war boiled over at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran, two people familiar with the exchange told The Washington Post. The encounter took place on the sidelines of his Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday where Trump vented at Hegseth that he thought the munitions issue “had been fixed,” according to both people familiar with the conversation, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.

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The shortages, particularly in long-range guided missiles and air-defense interceptors, have been part of the reason Trump has pulled back from launching additional massive strikes against Iran in recent days, one of the sources said. Trump said Monday that he had ordered and subsequently called off “the biggest attack since World War II,” pending claims of new negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz. The president asserted overnight that the United States has “massive amounts” of munitions, saying in a post on Truth Social that “large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed.” The “‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down,” he added. While the United States has announced new production agreements for some of the most critical munitions, such as Patriot air defense missiles, the munitions themselves can take as long as two years to produce, and there’s no immediate relief in sight for the shortages.

Copyright August 06, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved