April 7, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Hopes fade for deal with Iran ahead of Tuesday-night deadline

Negotiators are pessimistic Iran will bend to meet President Trump’s demand to reopen the Strait of Hormuz before his Tuesday-night deadline, paving the way for the U.S. to target Iranian bridges and power plants in a fresh escalation of the war. Twice in his second term, Trump set a deadline for a deal with Iran, said he would bomb the country if its leaders didn’t comply, then followed through with military operations. Now, as everyone from Vice President JD Vance to top Middle Eastern spy chiefs push for a last-ditch cease-fire, Iranian officials are telling mediators they expect the same pattern to play out again, U.S. officials and mediators said. Trump also could extend the deadline, something he has also done multiple times already. Some U.S. officials say there is too large a gap to narrow between the U.S. and Iranian positions before Trump’s 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

click here for more

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have told mediators that they expect the U.S. will continue to attack targets in their war-torn country and Israel to keep conducting airstrikes to take out senior Iranian officials—even if negotiations with the U.S. move forward, Arab officials familiar with the matter said. Iran was “negotiating, we think, in good faith,” Trump told reporters Monday at the White House, but if not the U.S. would be “blowing everything up.” Some U.S. officials said Trump has privately been less hopeful that Iran will make a deal, expecting to issue final orders for strikes Tuesday evening—though they note his assessment could change based on how talks play out overnight. “Only President Trump knows what he will do, and the entire world will find out tomorrow night if bridges and electric plants are annihilated,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. Hopes for a deal soured Monday morning after Iran rejected a U.S. cease-fire proposal, claiming Washington sought maximalist concessions, including on its nuclear work. Trump later told reporters Tehran’s counter wasn’t enough to secure an agreement. Both countries were once again in the familiar position of staring down a deal, deadline extension—or more war.

A ragtag Wisconsin group is leading America’s first anti-data center referendum

A small Wisconsin city upended by a data center backed by President Donald Trump is set to vote Tuesday on a referendum that could reshape grassroots resistance to AI projects nationwide. The vote in Port Washington, a lakeside town of roughly 12,000 people just north of Milwaukee, appears to be the first time any U.S. municipality will go to the ballot to kneecap data center development. It marks an aggressive new tactic in an escalating movement to oppose the hulking artificial intelligence factories — and offers a potential blueprint for other small towns challenging Big Tech. “I’m not aware of another ballot referendum that has been taken directly to the voters yet,” said Brad Tietz, state policy director for the Data Center Coalition, which represents tech companies and developers.

click here for more

“If this trend continues and grows, it’s going to have significant consequences for our economic competitiveness [and] our national security. I don’t think that can be understated.” The vote comes as companies descend on Middle America to build the data centers, which are major priorities for the White House and the U.S. tech sector but the object of scorn for roughly 3 in 10 U.S. voters who, according to a recent POLITICO poll, say they would oppose a facility being built in their area. At least three other U.S. cities are gearing up for referendums of their own this year, in a growing trend that pits grassroots organizers against some of the world’s richest companies. If it passes Tuesday, the referendum won’t actually derail the proposed $15 billion, 1.3-gigawatt data center campus from OpenAI and Oracle, one of multiple “Stargate” AI infrastructure megaprojects that the companies are planning with Trump’s support. Rather, it would allow residents to potentially obstruct future projects by requiring city leaders to obtain voter approval before awarding developers lucrative tax incentives. The backers, a group of roughly a dozen Port Washington residents who formed a nonprofit in October to organize against the project, placed the measure on the ballot after connecting on Facebook and protesting at city council meetings. Organizers said that it took roughly 10 days to collect the approximately 1,000 signatures needed to qualify their measure.

Mike Miles' charter network to expand HISD-style reforms to more districts

As more Texas school districts face the threat of a state takeover, they are turning to a charter network founded by Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles to try to avoid it. At least seven school districts — Edgewood, Everman, Hempstead, Killeen, San Antonio, Texarkana and Waco ISDs — are moving to partner with Third Future Schools to turn around 12 schools, according to school district board documents and announcements. Wichita Falls ISD is expanding its existing partnership to two additional schools and Midland ISD to one more school. Those partnerships would add 15 schools to the charter network’s portfolio, doubling its national footprint.

click here for more

The growth comes as districts across Texas face pressure to improve struggling campuses or risk a state takeover that strips elected school boards of control. Third Future Schools, based in Colorado, was founded by Miles before Texas appointed him in 2023 to lead Houston ISD following the state’s takeover of the district for low performance at one high school. Now, as more districts face similar consequences tied to repeated low ratings, they are turning to the charter network he built. At the center of those partnerships is an instructional model Miles has said mirrors the New Education System he implemented in HISD. "The NES model (and the model used by Third Future Schools) developed by Mike Miles is the only proven instructional methodology that has been able to consistently turn around failing campuses quickly," Miles co-wrote in a July proposal to improve instruction at International Leadership of Texas, a charter school network.

Corpus Christi water crisis spurs stampede on South Texas aquifers

Dwindling levels in this region’s main reservoirs have triggered a rush on local aquifers as cities, towns, chemical plants and ranchers drill for water. The nearby city of Corpus Christi faces a looming catastrophe from the imminent depletion of water supplies that sustain 500,000 people and one of Texas’s main industrial complexes. Recent emergency groundwater projects have pushed off the timeline to disaster by months, officials said last week. But locals fear they may threaten the water supplies of rural towns and residents who have historically relied on their own small wells. “People like me are probably gonna be running out of water,” said Bruce Mumme, a retired chemical plant worker who lives on family land in rural Jim Wells County, about 40 miles outside Corpus Christi. “Then this property and house is useless.”

click here for more

Last fall, after the city of Corpus Christi first began pumping millions of gallons per day from the Evangeline Aquifer, towns and landowners across this area saw water levels in their wells drop. Mumme lost access to water for three days while he waited for workers to come lower his pump, which he said cost thousands of dollars. After that experience, he paid $30,000 to add another well on his property, for backup. He’s not the only one. The region’s largest industrial water users are also drilling wells, according to officials. In Nueces County, where Corpus Christi is located, newly planned pumping projects alone could add up to over 1,000 percent of what the state water plan considers a sustainable rate of withdrawal from aquifers. In March, Corpus Christi began pumping millions more gallons per day from its wellfield on the western banks of the Nueces River, about 15 miles outside the city, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott waived permitting processes for the project in a bid to avert a water shortage. Across the river, drill rigs are turning at the city’s eastern wellfield. “I’ve done a lot of big projects in my career,” said Rik Allbritton, an operations manager for Weisinger Inc. with 40 years drilling experience, as a rig roared behind him at the eastern wellfield last Tuesday. “This is on the bigger side.”

State Stories

Fort Worth asks landowner to remove data center use from zoning request

Developers hoping to get 184 acres of land in west Fort Worth rezoned for industrial and multifamily residential use will not be able to use the land for a data center, as growing concern from residents has prompted the city to pump the brakes on several data center developments. A zoning application filed by Fort Worth-based construction company Westwood Professional Services, for land owned by the John Henry Dean & Shirley Lawson Foundation and the Dallas-based developer Standridge Companies, requests that the Fort Worth Zoning Commission rezone two parcels of land at the northwest corner of FM 1187 and Interstate 20. The land is in Fort Worth’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, with the developer hoping to get the land annexed by the City Council after the Zoning Commission decides on the zoning case.

click here for more

The Fort Worth Zoning Commission at its meeting on Wednesday will decide whether to recommend that those two parcels be zoned for intensive commercial development on one parcel and a planned development with intensive commercial, light industrial and dense residential use on the other. Data centers are included in the usage types for the second parcel of land, but according to Fort Worth District 3 council member Michael Crain — who represents the land developers want to rezone — they have agreed to remove that classification from their zoning request. “I asked the owners’ representative to formally request removal of all data center uses from this site,” Crain wrote in an April 3 Facebook post that includes a letter written by Westwood to the Zoning Commission. Crain told the Star-Telegram that the request came directly from him. In that letter, Westwood says that the landowners are requesting for the item to be continued to the May 13 Zoning Commission meeting and that data centers be removed from allowed uses on the site. The move comes as a cluster of data center developments in North Texas are causing concern and anger among residents. On March 31, the Fort Worth City Council decided to hold off on voting on a major tax agreement for a data center that would be built in the fast-growing suburbs of West Fort Worth near Benbrook. Before that, the City Council postponed votes on another data center that would be built on the other side of town, near Forest Hill and Everman. Residents and city leaders say developers and the city of Fort Worth have not been forthcoming about how the data center would impact them. Following these delays, and increasing questions from other council members, Crain has asked city staff to complete an informal report on data centers.

Nurses may no longer qualify for higher student loan limits. It could worsen Texas’ nursing shortage

A potential change to federal policy could limit how much students can borrow for different degree programs – a KERA listener wants to know how that could affect health disparities in Texas. The U.S. Department of Education’s proposed rule going into effect in July would narrow which programs can be considered “professional degrees,” which come with a higher student loan borrowing limit of $200,000. Under the proposed rule, which hasn’t been finalized, nurses aren’t eligible – meaning they can only borrow $100,000, or up to $20,500 per year. Teneisha Howard, president of the Metroplex Black Nurses Association and a nursing professional development specialist, said the rule is misaligned with the “reality of our health care needs” given the looming nursing shortage in Texas.

click here for more

“We’re going to see the gap we have been working so hard to close open back up tremendously at a rate that we might never be able to close it,” she said. The concept of “professional degrees” was introduced as part of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The definition is used by DOE to determine which programs should qualify for higher loan limits because the requirements for practice require more than a typical bachelor’s degree. “It’s important to acknowledge that nurses were never on the list to begin with,” said Serena Bumpus, the CEO of the Texas Nurses Association. “[DOE] just didn’t have any controls essentially around who was getting the higher limits.” Prior regulation treated the list of professional degrees as non-exhaustive, leaning on the phrase “including, but not limited to.” However, the federal tax and spending bill passed last year required DOE to identify which programs will be eligible for higher federal student loan limits. Under the draft rule, there would be 11 fields that could receive a professional degree – including medicine, law and theology. Ten of the fields were part of the Higher Education Act definition from the 1960s – but clinical psychology was added to the list during the negotiation process which concluded late last year. In a statement to KERA, a DOE spokesperson said the change is “currently subject to ongoing rulemaking.”

'ShamWow Guy' spent $300,000 of his own cash in Texas congressional race for just 3,000 votes

An ill-fated run for Congress in Texas’ 31st District cost long-shot candidate Offer Vince Shlomi — better known as the “ShamWow Guy” — more than $300,000 of his own money. What’s worse, for all the cash he poured in, the former TV pitchman landed less than 3,000 votes. Not only did Shlomi end his Republican primary bid in sixth place, but federal finance reports show that of the campaign’s $326,589 total receipts, $300,700 came from personal loans obtained by Shlomi, while another $22,270 were drawn from his personal savings. Indeed, the campaign raked in just $1,284 in donations from people who weren’t Shlomi himself. $300,000 for 3,000 votes? He might as well have gone door-to-door and paid people $100 to vote for him (which is illegal, but still).

click here for more

Further, it appears Shlomi may incur additional expense from suing the Texas Republican Party for dropping his “ShamWow” nickname from the ballot. In social media posts, he attributed his paltry 2,791-vote total to the nickname being left off the ballot in an attempt by unnamed Republicans in Name Only, or RINOS, to rig the contest. (Shlomi calls them “rhinos” but give him a break, he specializes in absorbent towels.) In his defense, we all know him as the “ShamWow Guy.” That is, if we’ve even heard of him at all. Some might also remember Shlomi from an infomercial for another product called the Slap Chop, for which his tag line was, “You’re gonna love my nuts.” That kind of pedigree doesn’t exactly scream “congressional material,” but in this topsy-turvy Idiocracy world, sure why not? However, the ShamWow was Shlomi’s magnum opus, his Mona Lisa, his Sistine Chapel.

Paxton probes Dallas Islamic mediation group, accuses it of imposing ‘sharia law’

Attorney General Ken Paxton is demanding documents from a Dallas-based Islamic mediation group he accused of unlawfully acting as a court and imposing “sharia law.” In a press release Monday, Paxton alleged the religious organization — which issues rulings in disputes involving Texas Muslims — implies it has governmental authority, acting outside of First Amendment protections that allow religious institutions to govern themselves. The attorney general announced his office has sent the Islamic Tribunal a request to examine documents, to determine if the organization is engaged in illegal activity. “Anyone or any entity that seeks to subvert the codified state and federal laws of this country will be stopped dead in their tracks,” Paxton said.

click here for more

“If the Islamic Tribunal is undermining the rule of law or misleading Texans about the legal authority it claims to hold, my office will ensure its operation is shut down. This is America, and we will not be governed by sharia law.” Paxton's legal action comes after Gov. Greg Abbott instructed local and state officials in Dallas and Collin counties to investigate the Islamic Tribunal and other Islamic mediation groups in November. Abbott called them "Sharia courts" trying to supersede Texas law. A spokesperson with the Dallas County District Attorney's Office told KERA News at the time neither the governor nor any law enforcement agency had contacted the DA's office about Islamic mediation groups. The Islamic Tribunal has since updated its website to emphasize that its practices are strictly spiritual — it does not practice law, function as a court, issue legally binding decisions or provide legal advice. The group describes itself as providing voluntary, faith-based religious guidance for individuals and families for divorces and other issues.

Is fracking in Texas endangering a day care's children?

In early December, drilling resumed near Mother’s Heart Learning Center. Newly installed gas wells dot property at 2020 S. Watson Road, less than one mile from the day care. One day in December, the sound of fracking machinery was so cacophonous that children couldn’t play outdoors. For gas companies and stakeholders, the project is poised to be an economic windfall. But many Arlington residents and experts say it could come at the expense of the community — especially its children. In January 2025, the Arlington City Council unanimously approved a permit allowing French oil and gas company TotalEnergies to install 10 new gas wells in East Arlington, which has a heavy concentration of Black and Latinx residents. It marked the first time in over a decade that the city council approved a permit for a new drill site after years of community opposition.

click here for more

Named Maverick, the new site also lies near three schools — Johns Elementary, Adams Elementary and Thornton Elementary. Five wells owned by the same company already occupy the plot of land near the new drilling site, which the company has owned since 2008. Hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — is used to extract gas by pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals into bedrock. Texas policymakers have lauded the activity as a boon to local communities, garnering $2.48 billion in state tax revenue in 2025, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Arlington is choked with hundreds of these gas wells. The city, which sits atop the Barnett Shale, is a modern-day Golconda. But fracking has drawn sharp criticism from health experts, who say it could be linked to severe conditions like preterm births, congenital anomalies, lung diseases and childhood cancers. Ingrid Kelley, 69, has grown tired of the gas wells sprouting throughout North Texas. Several sit less than a mile from her house in East Arlington, and a pungent lingering scent of sulfur and something else that she can only describe as “rotten” has settled into her neighborhood. She fears what might happen to her 4-year-old grandson, who lives with her and attends Mother’s Heart Learning Center. “I can’t project and trace what all is going to affect him and all those that live around there and all those that are around these sites,” she said. “It’s very hard to project what’s going to happen, how many people are going to have increased cancer risk, respiratory disease, cardiac disease — all the things that go along with being premature or having congenital heart disease that affect you the rest of your life.”

Austin City Council wants a say in the future of 10 closing Austin ISD schools

Austincity council leaders want more say in the future of parks and public spaces at the campuses Austin Independent School District plans to close this year. Two resolutions that Austin City Council approved in March seek to shore up a consistent parkland condemnation process and to start discussions on partnership or acquisition opportunities to find new use for closed school campuses. The city and Austin ISD have jointly owned several parcels of land on campuses for decades. The partnership formally allows the public to use the park space outside school hours and splits maintenance costs between the two entities.

click here for more

The imminent closure this summer of 10 Austin ISD campuses — and the district’s ongoing efforts to find new uses for the properties — prompted city council’s interest in creating more defined rules for city and school district joint property agreements. Superintendent Matias Segura said Friday he welcomed a more defined process for working with the city but AISD needs to take the lead indetermining how closeddistrict properties will be used in the future. “Which property lends itself to community hub, which lends itself to a repurpose for early childhood center, which lends itself to workforce housing — that’s the process that we need to own,” Segura said. One city council resolution directed the city manager to develop a standard process for when the city would give up its rights to property it jointly owns with other public entities, like AISD, and how the city would be compensated. In the past, council members haven’t always been made aware of when the city was being asked to give up its stake in a park that it jointly owned with Austin ISD, said Councilman Ryan Alter. This is important to Alter who hopes to increase the number of Austinites with a park in walking distance.About 70% of city residents can walk to a park, but Alter hopes100% of residents eventually will be able to. Austin ISD parks play a role in that number, but there’s a not a defined process for what factors the city should consider during condemnation procedures, he said.

Most charges against Millsap ISD, former faculty dismissed in alleged child abuse case

A lawsuit filed against Millsap ISD, its former superintendent, an elementary school principal and two former educators regarding the alleged abuse of autistic children has been almost entirely dismissed, court records show. Former Millsap ISD superintendent Edie Martin and two former educators -- Jennifer Dale, 44, and Paxton Kendal Bean, 25 -- were arrested in March 2025 after a video of a February incident showed educators allegedly abusing an autistic child in a classroom. Martin resigned as Millsap ISD's superintendent after her arrest.

click here for more

The lawsuit, filed in June 2025, named Millsap ISD, Martin, Dale, Bean and the principal of Millsap Elementary School, where the alleged abuse happened, Roxie Carter, court documents show. Carter was not criminally charged. Nearly all of the charges against the defendants were dismissed at the request of the defendants, citing legal standards and Texas law against claims of assault, battery and negligent discipline amongst other charges. Additionally, qualified immunity was granted in part for Bean and in full for Dale. However, records show the court found Bean is not entitled to qualified immunity for claims that she pulled one of the victim's by the ear, punched them in the "calm down" room, and struck another child. The document goes onto state that Martin reported both Dale and Bean within two weeks of hearing about the abuse and an investigation followed immediately afterwards, which led to the plaintiffs' allegations that there was a failure to report to be dismissed. All of the dismissed claims were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they can't be brought up in court again, except for the right to bodily integrity claim against Dean, records show.

UTRGV secures seats for students in St. Mary‘s law program

A new partnership between St. Mary’s University and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has secured a long-awaited Legal Education Hub in the Rio Grande Valley. St. Mary’s President Winston Erevelles visited the Valley last week to sign a memorandum of understanding alongside UTRGV President Guy Bailey. The agreement secures at least five spots for students in the region in St. Mary’s School of Law’s Online Doctor of Jurisprudence and Master of Legal Studies programs. The move answers a decades-long plea by state Rep. Armando “Mando” Martinez, D-Weslaco, who filed legislation for at least the last eight years asking for the creation of a public law school in the Rio Grande Valley, as reported by The Texas Tribune. “So many kids from the Valley who go to law school, go to St. Mary’s,” Bailey said. “But this is going to really help ambitious kids who really can’t afford to leave home for a variety of reasons.”

click here for more

As the only institution with a law school in South Texas, St. Mary’s serves a large number of Rio Grande Valley students, Erevelles said. Each year, about 5% of incoming law students are from the Valley, but many of them might not end up returning home to practice, creating a shortage of lawyers in the region. “In the Rio Grande Valley, you’ve got roughly about one attorney for every 800 residents,” Erevelles said. “Now if you compare that to Bexar County or other Texas metropolitan areas, that number varies between one for every 100 residents or one for every 300 residents.” The St. Mary’s online law program is highly competitive and selective, Erevelles said. It currently welcomes about 2% of all applicants for its available 25 seats. So setting aside a minimum of five spots for Valley residents means allocating 20% of the total space. To qualify, students must be accepted and enrolled in the St. Mary’s online J.D. or M.L.S. program, provide proof of residency in the counties of Cameron, Hidalgo, Willacy or Starr and complete the UTRGV Hub student registration process.

Elon Musk insists banks working on SpaceX IPO must buy Grok subscriptions

Banks and other firms that want to work on SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) are being required to buy subscriptions to the Grok AI service, The New York Times reported today. Elon Musk “is requiring banks, law firms, auditors and other advisers working on the IPO to buy subscriptions to Grok, his artificial intelligence chatbot that is part of SpaceX,” the NYT wrote, citing anonymous sources who are familiar with the confidential negotiations. “Some of the banks have agreed to spend tens of millions on the chatbot and they have already started integrating Grok into their IT systems.” SpaceX reportedly filed IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The IPO filing came two months after SpaceX purchased xAI, the Musk company that produces Grok. xAI purchased the X social network in March 2025.

click here for more

While Grok is known to individual Internet users because of the chatbot’s integration with X, the AI technology also comes in business and enterprise versions offered by xAI. Grok could benefit from the SpaceX IPO process at a time when it is the subject of investigations and lawsuits for generating nude images of real people and child sexual abuse material. According to the NYT sources, “Mr. Musk insisted that [banks] purchase the chatbot services,” and “asked the banks to advertise on X, his social media site that is also owned by SpaceX, but was less adamant about that request.” “For now, five banks are expected to work on the [SpaceX initial public] offering—Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. The law firms Gibson Dunn and Davis Polk are also advising on the deal,” the NYT wrote. We contacted SpaceX today and will update this article if it provides any comment.

'Cicada' COVID variant confirmed in 25 states, including Texas

A new COVID-19 variant is spreading across the United States — and health experts say it can evade the immunity built up from vaccines and previous infections. The variant, officially known as BA.3.2, has been nicknamed "cicada" because it stayed largely undetected — or underground — since it was first identified in June 2025, much like the insect it's named after. As of Feb. 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed cases in at least 25 states, including Texas. The CDC used nasal swabs, clinical samples and wastewater surveillance samples to track where the variant has spread across the country.

click here for more

According to Dr. Greg Newman, Medical Director at Hillcrest Convenient Care in Waco, the cicada variant has mutated in a way that makes it harder for your body to fight off — even if you've been vaccinated or previously infected. "It's mutated several of the what's called spike proteins, and that kind of helps it avoid some of the initial defenses of our immune system," Dr. Newman said. Experts say the mutation makes cicada highly transmissible and capable of evading immunity built from earlier strains of the virus. Dr. Newman says the symptoms of the cicada variant are similar to what COVID patients have experienced in recent years — and resemble a mix between the flu and a common cold. Symptoms include: Sore throat, headache, body aches, fever, cough, and occasional loss of taste or smell.

Golden Pass launches in East Texas at ‘right time’ for Iran war

Terry Fritz bought her light blue lakefront house more than two years ago, as the now-hulking liquefied natural gas facility took shape across the street. Golden Pass LNG, owned by QatarEnergy and Houston oil behemoth Exxon Mobil, started commercial production last week and expects to ship its first cargo in the coming months. The water that laps against it is the same that added real estate appeal to the line of neighboring pillar-raised homes and vacation rentals. Fritz, 70, said she didn’t mind Golden Pass. The gas processing and export facility was relatively quiet, she said. Unlike the refineries down the road in Port Arthur, she couldn’t smell the gas being piped in and, at night, the flares and lights made it look like she lived near a little city.

click here for more

“They do what they need to do,” Fritz said of companies operating nearby, like Exxon. “And if it keeps the gas lower than it is in California, then it’s nice.” The facility’s launch, under construction since 2019, marks a critical moment for both the U.S. and global industry. It is the latest project along the Gulf Coast to come online and strengthen America’s role as lead exporter while natural gas markets elsewhere reel from the Iran war. “Golden Pass is hitting the market at the right time,” said James West, head of energy and power at Melius Research. Demand for U.S. LNG has skyrocketed as a result of the war in Iran. An Iranian airstrike to a QatarEnergy LNG facility at the Ras Laffan industrial hub in Qatar in March knocked out as much as 17% of the country’s current supply for the next five years, according to the company. LNG is considered one of the cleanest fuel sources on the market. It is the supercooled liquid form of natural gas, which makes it easier to pipe into ships to send to gas-favoring markets in Europe and Asia. The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, and a favorite of the Trump administration, which restarted export permitting after a yearlong pause to the process during the Biden administration. The war in Iran showed that U.S. LNG is safe from a vulnerable choke point — the Strait of Hormuz — that cargoes from Qatar LNG are not, West said.

Holley Digby: The power of showing up

(Holley Digby is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the Director of Mental Health and Wellness for Communities In Schools of South Central Texas.) All three of my children had an incredible fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Kaufman. For many students, the impact of having him lasted well beyond fifth grade. He’s even invited former students back as seniors to speak to his class. This is something both the seniors and current students seem to find incredibly meaningful. When my now-teenagers see him around town, he always stops and asks about school. And without fail, he’ll throw in a sarcastic comment about whichever sibling isn’t there. Maybe something like, “So...is your brother still out making trouble?” Recently, he sent an email inviting families to participate in a celebration for Carl Schurz Elementary’s 100th birthday. And because it was Mr. Kaufman, there were far more teenagers back at their elementary school than I would have expected.

click here for more

It’s become a bit of a joke in our house to refer to “a Mr. Kaufman sighting,” which really just means someone saw him out in the wild, and we’re all waiting to hear what sarcastic for funny thing he said. Yes, he’s funny. But the real impact was the relationship. He knew his students. He paid attention. He made school feel a little less heavy. I’m always impressed that he remembers names and the small details. For my oldest, the running joke was pencils. When Jack was little, he just never seemed to have one, and every time Mr. Kaufman found a pencil on the floor, he’d point and call out, “Jack! Get it! A pencil!” Motivating students doesn’t start with a curriculum or counseling goals; it starts with the relationship. And while not every student will have a Mr. Kaufman, every student benefits from having adults who take the time to truly know them. One of the things I’m most proud of in my work in schools is how much relationships with students and their families are prioritized. That’s really at the core of Communities In Schools. It shows up in everyday moments, like asking a student about their day, asking about their grades, or simply taking the time to truly know them.

City Stories

Unions, Democratic groups spend in NEISD school board races

Heated races are shaping up for two positions on the North East ISD school board this May, where partisan interests are again spending money to help their chosen candidates. Unlike past years, where conservative groups dominated the conversation, this time candidates backed by labor unions and local Democrats are the ones bringing in big money. Campaign finance reports covering Jan. 1 through March 23 were due last Thursday, offering the only look at money raised and spent before early voting starts on April 20. They indicated that a PAC aligned with teachers’ unions, called the Bexar County Federation of Teachers Committee on Political Education, spent about $2,300 helping forensic accountant Michael Adam Wulczyn and former congressional staffer Caprice Garcia.

click here for more

The PAC received a sizable contribution from the North East Bexar County Democrats, which has also endorsed Wulczyn and Garcia, and kicked off its own campaign to influence local school board races this past weekend. Wulczyn is challenging District 3 trustee Diane Sciba Villarreal — one of two members who got help from the now-dissolved Parents United for Freedom PAC when she first ran in 2022. Sciba Villarreal reported no money raised and spent as of March 23, while Wulczyn brought in a total of about $2,400. Meanwhile, Garcia is one of two candidates running to replace District 7 incumbent Marsha Landry, who also got money from conservative groups in 2022, but isn’t seeking reelection. Last week’s campaign finance reports indicated that Garcia got about $1,800 worth of help from the Bexar County Champions for Public Education PAC, which formed two years ago to oppose conservative influences in NEISD school board races. She brought in a total of $6,000, including $2,500 from a plumbers’ union. Her opponent, real estate agent Cheryl “Cheri” Ann Eltinger, reported raising about $1,400 in the same span, and listed Landry as her campaign treasurer. Of the many Bexar County-area school districts, none has experienced more tension over its approach to parental rights, library materials, health education and other hot-button issues than NEISD. The seven-member board was once divided evenly between those backed by conservative groups and those supported by the teachers’ union and other left-leaning groups, but the latter won races for all five seats on the ballot in 2024.

National Stories

The man who watches Trump all day, every day

The psychological demands of Aaron Rupar’s work are immense. He counts himself lucky to have remained more or less healthy after a decade in his job. “I certainly wouldn’t say that I’m like a model of mental health,” says the father-of-two from Minnesota. “But for the most part, especially considering what I do and how much time I spend doing it, I think I’ve been able to emerge relatively unscathed.” Rupar works from his spare room in his Minneapolis house. His job is to watch President Trump. All day, every day. Spread over two laptop screens, Rupar, 42, follows the frenetic schedule of the president, from the meandering speeches to the impromptu press conferences, the middle-of-the-night social media rants to the sudden interviews on TV.

click here for more

Rupar is a one-man news agency, running accounts with a million followers on X and another 930,000 on BlueSky. He also writes a Substack with 274,000 subscribers. A small fraction of those subscribers pay $50 per year, his main source of income. He sees it as his duty to keep the world informed of almost everything Trump and members of his administration say and do. He clips videos of Trump’s noteworthy remarks and shares them instantly on social media, monitoring 12 different TV channels simultaneously. His clips bounce back and forth across the internet. “I’ve certainly had some days over the years that have been 18-20 hours of pretty much nonstop work,” he says. “I remember he gave some sort of speech to the Korean legislature that started at my time, like four in the morning, that I woke up for. I’d been working till midnight the night previous. So that’s not super uncommon.” Rupar started clipping Trump in 2017. He has a strong claim to have watched more of the president’s appearances than anyone else.

Gulf funds agree to back Paramount’s $81 billion takeover of Warner

Paramount has received signed equity commitments of close to $24 billion from three sovereign-wealth funds led by Saudi Arabia to help back its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to people familiar with the matter. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has agreed to provide roughly $10 billion of the nearly $24 billion to Paramount, run by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The agreements with investors also include Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co., the people said. The agreements by the Middle East funds coincide with the region’s increased economic and political unrest caused by the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran.

click here for more

In February, Paramount announced its deal to buy Warner Discovery, home to HBO, CNN and Harry Potter, for $81 billion. The deal is pending regulatory review in Europe, and Paramount executives have told employees to prepare to close as soon as the end of July, according to other people familiar with the situation. The commitments by the Gulf investors will help offset the cost for the Ellisons and RedBird Capital Partners, which is also backing the deal. As part of its deal, Paramount has said any equity syndication wouldn’t affect the transaction closing because the Ellison family would cover the entire amount if needed. The Gulf investors won’t have voting rights in the new Paramount-Warner entity, and the deal isn’t expected to trigger a mandatory review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or Cfius, people familiar with the matter said. Because each entity will own far less than 25% of the combined company, executives don’t expect the funds’ involvement to spark a review by the Federal Communications Commission either, the people said.

Trump says God supports U.S. cause in Iran war as he threatens wider bombing

As President Donald Trump renews his threats to bomb “the entire country” of Iran, he is offering a new justification for the costly five-week conflict with no clear end in sight: God himself wants the United States to do it. Trump said Monday that he believed God supports the United States’ actions in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, a widening conflict that has killed thousands in the Middle East,wounded many more and left 13 U.S. service members dead. “I do, because God is good,” Trump said in response to a Washington Post reporter’s question during a White House news briefing. “And God wants to see people taken care of.” Trump’s comments mark a shift in how he is describing the war. After offering conflicting explanations for U.S. involvement — including whether his goal is regime change — he has begun in recent days to cast the conflict in religious terms as he raises the possibility of broader strikes.

click here for more

The president earlier Monday threatened to bomb the country’s power and transportation infrastructure until it resembles the “stone ages.” He claimed that such actions are welcomed by Iranian people who want their government overthrown and who, he said, are begging the U.S. to “please keep bombing.” Trump did not answer a question about whether he has sought God’s direction as the conflict has escalated. But he suggested that the Almighty supports U.S. action, even if God is grieved by the violence. “God doesn’t like what’s happening. I don’t like what’s happening,” Trump continued. “Everyone says I enjoy it. I don’t enjoy this. I don’t enjoy it.” He went on to tout that he “ended eight wars” earlier in his term, a reference he has frequently made to brokering peace deals between India and Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and others. “That makes me much happier than what we’re doing right now,” the president said. Trump, who identifies as a Christian but does not claim to regularly pray or read the Bible, has invoked faith at times in his second term, including suggesting that his political return and survival after an assassination attempt carried a larger purpose. The language has echoed that of some of his supporters, who have cast him as a figure protected or chosen by God.

Trump threatens to jail unspecified reporter over airmen rescue leaks

President Donald Trump threatened to jail a journalist as part of a hunt for the “leaker” behind initial reports Friday that a second Air Force officer from a downed US fighter jet was missing. The public revelation complicated the administration’s military rescue efforts in Iran, Trump said at a White House press conference on Monday, which officials were trying to keep quiet following the successful recovery of the first airman on Friday. “We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security, give it up or go to jail,’” Trump said, as he detailed the two separate rescues of the crew members shot down over Iran last week. “The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say.”

click here for more

Trump did not specify which media outlet he was referring to, and the White House official declined to answer questions about his remarks. Iranian media had first reported the downed plane, sparking widespread discussion online about the fate of the crew before any major US outlet had published the news. “An investigation is underway,” a White House official told CNN. Several outlets, including CNN, reported last week on the missing airmen and the US military’s subsequent efforts to find and rescue them. The second Air Force officer was ultimately recovered early Sunday in a high-risk mission that CIA Director John Ratcliffe described Monday as “comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.” During the press conference, Trump said that the revelation of a second missing crew member had alerted the Iranian military and sparked their competing efforts to try to find him first.

AP says it will offer buyouts as part of pivot away from newspaper-focused history

The Associated Press, one of the world’s oldest and most influential news organizations, said Monday it is offering buyouts to an unspecified number of its U.S.-based journalists as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and their print journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s. The News Media Guild, the union that represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers on Monday. The news organization is becoming more focused on visual journalism and developing new revenue sources, particularly through companies investing in artificial intelligence, to cope with the economic collapse of many legacy news outlets. Once the lion’s share of AP’s revenue, big newspaper companies now account for 10% of its income.

click here for more

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, said in an interview. Despite changes – the company has doubled the number of video journalists it employs in the United States since 2022 – remnants of a staffing structure built largely to provide stories to newspapers and broadcasters in individual states have remained. That has its roots well back in American history; the AP was started in the mid-19th century by New York newspapers looking to share the costs of reporting outside their immediate territory. The number of AP journalists who will lose jobs is murky, in part intentionally. The AP does not say how many journalists it employs, though it has a large international presence as well as its U.S. staff. Pace said the AP’s goal is to reduce its global staff by less than 5%. Since buyouts are being offered now to only U.S. journalists, it stands to reason that the cut among that workforce will be more than 5%. Whether there are layoffs depends on how many people take the offer, Pace said. “The AP employs hundreds of talented journalists who are willing and able to adjust to the changing media landscape,” the union said in a statement. “However, the company refuses to offer them appropriate training and tools. Instead, AP continues to get rid of experienced staff and flirt with artificial intelligence — ignoring the opportunity to differentiate AP news stories as ones that are and always will be created by human journalists.”

Trump Administration plans sweeping changes to accreditation

The Trump administration wants the agencies that oversee colleges and universities to set minimum standards for student achievement, protect viewpoint diversity and consider cost efficiency in their evaluation of institutions, among other changes unveiled Monday. That last provision would help to “provide relief for students and taxpayers who have suffered from increasing tuition by allowing greater institutional flexibility to control costs,” according to a nine-page summary of the Education Department’s 151-page proposal. An advisory committee will consider the administration’s proposed revisions to the rules that govern accreditors in two rounds of weeklong meetings that begin April 13. Those meetings are the next step in the department’s rule-making process. Any changes still will be subject to public comment.

click here for more

Trump officials have signaled for the last year that they see overhauling accreditation as key to their plans to reform higher education over all. The draft changes released Monday outline how exactly they plan to rework the system, which is critical to how colleges access billions in federal student aid. As expected, the department wants to make it easier for new accreditors to gain federal recognition and to require accreditors to ensure colleges and universities are complying with federal laws, “including the prohibition of preferential treatment based on protected characteristics, such as race-based scholarships or programs, and preferential hiring or promotion practices.” The administration also would “direct accrediting agencies to refrain from interfering with institutional governance decisions that fall within the rightful purview of state governments, boards of trustees, or similar governing bodies, limiting their role to advisory purposes only.”

Trump’s new DHS secretary floats a plan to punish airports in sanctuary cities

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Monday that the Trump administration was looking at pulling customs officers from airports in so-called sanctuary cities, a move that would effectively cancel international flights to most of the country’s largest travel hubs. Mullin pitched the move as explicit retaliation for those cities’ decisions to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, saying, “We need to focus on cities that want to work with us.” “I believe sanctuary cities are not lawful. I don’t think they’re able to do that,” Mullin told Fox News host Bret Baier during a sit-down interview that aired Monday, his first as a Cabinet secretary. “So we’re going to take a hard look at this.”

click here for more

Sanctuary cities limit their cooperation with federal immigration agents in connection to the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants. Major cities with these policies include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco. When asked if he was serious about pulling customs officers from those airports, Mullin responded, “Well, we’re going to have to start prioritizing things at some point.” The threat comes as DHS remains shut down, thanks to a funding lapse that began on Feb. 14 when Democratic lawmakers demanded new restrictions on immigration enforcement in exchange for their votes to fund the department. “Democrats are wanting to defund Customs and Border Patrol,” Mullin said on Fox News. “Who processes those individuals when they walk off the plane? So I’m going to have to be forced to make hard decisions.” The Senate eventually passed a bill that funded most of DHS through September, excluding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Customs and Border Protection.

Copyright April 07, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved