June 4, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

New World screwworm infestation detected in South Texas cattle: USDA

Officials with the Texas Animal Health Commission confirmed that an infestation of the flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite was detected in South Texas cattle, they said Wednesday. Officials explained on a call earlier Wednesday that the case was a ‘presumptive positive,’ which means preliminary tests were positive but that results needed to be confirmed, according to Reuters. A sample taken from two calves on a ranch in La Pryor, Texas, was tested at a federal government laboratory. The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly that feeds on the tissue of warm-blooded animals and people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The feeding can create large wounds on animals that result in “serious, often deadly” damage.

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The fly is typically found in South America and the Caribbean, but the species has been tracking northward through Mexico since 2023, according to the USDA. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on Wednesday criticized the USDA for a “slow, bureaucratic, and incomplete response that allowed the pest to advance unchecked through Mexico and reach American soil,” according to a statement from his office. Miller urged President Donald Trump to deploy the Screwworm Adult Suppression System (SWASS) to combat the bug in Texas. The system uses bait and EPA-approved pesticides to cut down on the insect population, and was developed by the USDA. “Mr. President, I am asking you to take direct control of this response,” Miller said. “Cut through the bureaucracy, deploy SWASS immediately, and throw every available federal resource at this threat before it becomes a full-blown agricultural disaster.”

H-1B crackdown on Indian workers erodes a Texas real estate boom

Zach Schneider points to a room just off the foyer of a $1 million model home north of Dallas. The 40-year-old builder has staged it with shelves and a dark wooden desk, done up like a typical study. But its tall, north-facing windows hint at the use it was designed for — as a puja room, a traditional Hindu prayer space. Down the hall there’s an area that could one day be redolent with turmeric, cumin and cardamom. “A spice kitchen,” he says, highlighting an optional upgrade that could appeal to a buyer from India. For almost a decade, South Asians have been the driving force behind this region’s building boom, one of the biggest in the US during the pandemic. They once accounted for 70% of sales at Schneider’s Tradition Homes. But in the past year they’ve dropped below 30%, leaving his family-owned company with a backlog of 125 luxury properties to sell. Since 2018 the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has attracted more corporate headquarters relocations than anywhere else in the US, according to real estate company CBRE Group Inc., with manufacturing and tech firms leading the way.

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Visa holders flocked to the new subdivisions spreading north through the suburbs of Prosper, Frisco and, most of all, Celina, where the population more than tripled in just five years. That helped make Collin and Denton the fastest-growing US counties among those with a population of at least 1 million, the most recent census data show. Collin also had the biggest percentage jump in Indian residents among large counties, climbing to an average of more than 116,000 in the five years through 2024, from 70,000 in the preceding five years. But the momentum is quickly reversing. Indian buyers are disappearing from the market as federal and state governments tighten H-1B restrictions and many of the tech companies that employed the new arrivals fire workers in favor of artificial intelligence. Prices in the Collin County suburbs north of Dallas in February dropped almost 9% from a year earlier, compared with a decline of 4% in the metro area as a whole, according to data from brokerage Redfin. The shift has knocked down home prices, slowed population expansion and risks eroding the tax base needed to fund schools and roads planned during a five-year growth streak. The changes also take a personal toll on immigrants because many have lived in the US for years and have established families and communities. Those on H-1B visas who lose their jobs not only face financial hardship but also risk having to return to their home countries if they can’t get sponsored for another position within 60 days.

Texas leads nation in flood insurance cancellations as costs rise ahead of hurricane season

As hurricane season begins, Texas is losing flood insurance coverage faster than any other state in the nation, raising concerns among flood experts and researchers in a state with a long history of devastating floods. Data from the National Flood Insurance Program shows more than 45,000 flood insurance policies were canceled across Texas over the past 12 months, a decline of roughly 7.2%, according to figures reviewed by KPRC 2. Nationwide, flood insurance policies also declined, but at a significantly lower rate. The trend comes despite repeated flood disasters across Texas in recent years and as many homeowners continue to face rising housing, insurance and living costs. “We know it’s raining more. We know it’s raining more intensely and that rain is more unpredictable now than ever,” said Emily Woodell, chief external affairs officer for the Harris County Flood Control District. “That’s why flood insurance is more important now than perhaps ever before.”

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Flooding has long been one of Texas’ most persistent natural hazards. Houston alone has experienced numerous major flood events, including Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, the Tax Day Flood of 2016 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The region’s extensive network of bayous was designed to move water away from homes and businesses, but flood officials say no system can eliminate flood risk entirely. “If you live in the Houston area, you are at risk of flooding,” Woodell said. She said flood control projects completed since Harvey have significantly reduced risk for many residents. “If that were to happen today, hundreds of thousands of homes would be in a better position than they were then,” Woodell said, referring to Harvey. “However, that risk still exists.” Woodell said periods without major flooding can lead some residents to become less focused on the threat. “Unless you’ve been hit recently, you’re right. You become complacent and it becomes much more of a comfortable issue versus one that you think you need to take action on,” she said. Still, she believes flood insurance remains essential for families across Harris County.

SpaceX’s IPO is set to be the biggest ever and could make Elon Musk a trillionaire

SpaceX says it plans to raise up to $75 billion when it goes public this month, setting the stage for the largest-ever stock market debut and putting Elon Musk on course to becoming the world’s first trillionaire. The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., said Wednesday it will sell 555.6 million shares at $135 a piece in an initial public offering. The estimated proceeds would easily top the $26 billion raised by oil giant Saudi Aramco in 2019. The offering would also give SpaceX a market value of $1.77 trillion. Only six companies in the S&P 500 are currently worth more, with Nvidia tops at $5.2 trillion. Besides the size of the offering and the expected proceeds, SpaceX’s amended prospectus updates details about how much control of the company Musk will have. As SpaceX’s CEO, chief technical officer and chairman, Musk’s voting power will come primarily through his ownership of 5.22 billion Class B shares, which give the holder 10 votes for every share held. According to the filing, Musk would have 82.4% of the voting power in the company.

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Forbes currently values Musk’s net worth at $826 billion and his stake in SpaceX at $542 billion. The estimated value of his SpaceX holdings was based on an overall value for the company of $1.25 trillion. Based on those numbers, a $1.77 trillion valuation for SpaceX would boost Musk’s net worth by $223 billion, making him a trillionaire. However, much of Musk’s worth is in stock that he has yet to cash in. Even as it makes a bid for a blockbuster market debut, SpaceX is currently losing billions of dollars a year. The filing shows that the company lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue, and the losses kept piling up at the start of this year, too. Time will tell how SpaceX fares on the market. Musk’s plans for the company are as fantastical as the money he hopes raise in the sale. Colorful, even frightening in parts, the IPO document strikes a contrast with the typically dry, technical prose in IPO documents, detailing plans to use proceeds from the sale to help put men on the moon again and perhaps even Mars. In one section, it talks of a need to build “a permanent human colony” on the red planet with “at least one million inhabitants” as existential threats loom that could consign man to “the same fate as the dinosaurs.” Musk has almost equally ambitious plans for his other publicly traded company, Tesla. His goal is to transform the maker of electric vehicles into a producer of robotaxis and humanoid robots. Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities wrote in a research note that he expects Tesla and SpaceX to merge next year.

State Stories

Google announces $10 million Water Impact Fund for Texas projects

Google on Wednesday announced its intentions to invest $10 million into Texas water as part of its broader commitment to manage water resources in the communities where it builds and operates data centers. The company said its Water Impact Fund would support water stewardship and restoration in the state, including protecting already existing water sources and developing or improving infrastructure. “Our goal is to minimize our local impacts so that our growth does not come at the expense of the communities we call home,” the company said in its announcement. The investment is part of Google’s larger announcement of $17 million for seven new projects across the country. Other states receiving funding are Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska.

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Water is critical to developing and operating data centers. As data centers generate heat from the servers and chips, companies will often rely on water to cut back on energy use needed for cooling. Water cooling can reduce data center energy use by about 10% compared with air cooling, according to Google, which said the aggregate water consumption of U.S. data centers is less than 1% of the water that Americans use on their lawns annually. “The science is showing that water can just have this really, really remarkable ability to reduce the energy consumption of data centers, which helps to support grid constraints and energy affordability in the communities where we operate,” Ben Townsend, Google’s head of infrastructure strategy and sustainability told The Dallas Morning News in an interview. “But, we also know that water is a vital resource, and it is plentiful in some areas and very scarce in others, and because of this, we know that water has to be prioritized.” Google’s new water stewardship commitments include replenishing more water than it consumes at its sites by 2030, helping to modernize water and wastewater infrastructure, protecting at-risk watersheds with air-cooled solutions, reporting its annual water use transparently and pursuing alternative and reclaimed solutions to protect water sources.

After 53 years in Travis County, Margaret Gómez retires with a call to learn from one another

Margaret Gómez, the longest-serving Travis County commissioner in history, is retiring early. She will continue her post overseeing Precinct 4 until June 11, when George Morales, who won the Democratic primary election for the seat last month, will be appointed to take over, Gómez said. Gómez, 81, said she is ready to step down after serving as a Travis County employee for nearly 53 years. Gómez originally planned to retire in December when her term ends, but she said after suddenly losing her ability to walk, it was "time to turn it over to somebody else."

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“That was kind of something I couldn't really deal with because my love is to walk door to door,” she said. “If I can't walk anymore, it's just kind of like, well, what am I in this for? Because that was the way I always campaigned.” Gómez said she’s looking forward to listening to music, reading and “learning how to relax.” “Not jumping every time the phone rings, that kind of thing,” she said. Gómez began her career in Travis County in 1973 working for former County Commissioner Richard Moya, who was the first Mexican-American elected to public office in the county. In 1980, she became the county’s first elected female constable after defeating a 14-year incumbent. She was reelected three times, and in her tenure, cleared a backlog of more than 30,000 criminal warrants. Gómez was sworn in as the first female Mexican-American commissioner in 1995 and has held the position since.

Republican candidate for Harris County commissioner escalates effort to remove incumbent from office

A Harris County commissioner candidate has elevated efforts to remove Commissioner Adrian Garcia from office, arguing in a Texas Supreme Court filing that Garcia’s seat should have become vacant when he was appointed to the Gulf Coast Protection District. The filing in the state’s highest court came after the First Court of Appeals denied Republican candidate Richard Vega’s legal effort in April and ruled that Garcia can keep his seat on the Harris County Commissioners Court. Vega, who is facing Garcia in November’s election, is seeking a ruling to vacate Garcia’s position on commissioners court. He said such a vacancy could allow a special election to be called before a vote on the county budget and taxe rate in mid-September — potentially adding another Republican vote to the Democratically-held commissioners court during fiscal year 2027 budget discussions.

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“The partisan split on Commissioners’ Court is currently 4-1, but if the election is held, it could again yield a 3-2 split,” according to the recent filing. “This is a choice for the voters to make. But it reflects how important it is for the Court.” According to state law, however, the county judge is charged with appointing a commissioner’s successor if their seat suddenly becomes vacant before the next general election. Similarly, commissioners court is charged with appointing interims when other county officials vacate their seats — including the recent appointment of former Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin to the county attorney's position. Scott Spiegel, a spokesperson for Garcia’s office, called the latest legal filing a last-ditch effort and a waste of taxpayer money. "It should be noted that two courts have already dismissed these baseless and ludicrous claims,” Spiegel said Tuesday. “The relief the plaintiff seeks is not allowable under the Texas Constitution. We will be having no further comment at this time." A spokesperson for the county attorney’s office said there is no provision in state law for filling a commissioners court seat by special election. The county clerk’s office, which manages elections, deferred questions to the county attorney’s office.

Patrick joins GOP leaders in lining up behind Bo French

Roughly a year after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Bo French's inflammatory comments did not reflect Republican values, he is now backing French for the Texas Railroad Commission. French, a hard-right conservative who last week won the GOP runoff for the three-member commission that regulates the state's oil and gas industry, said he spoke with Patrick by phone Monday night. “The takeaway is that Republicans are unified and working together to defeat the slate of radicals the Democrats have offered up,” French, the former Tarrant County GOP chairman, posted Tuesday.

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Patrick had backed Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright in the runoff. French narrowly defeated Wright and will face state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, in November. The call is another sign Republicans are rallying behind their nominees after a bruising primary season. French earlier announced endorsements from GOP commissioners Christi Craddick and Wayne Christian, who also supported Wright in the runoff. Despite opposition from much of the Republican establishment in the runoff, French attracted strong support from Texas' MAGA base. His social media posts have often featured anti-Muslim rhetoric, calls for mass deportations and slurs targeting people with disabilities and LGBTQ people. Neither Patrick's campaign nor French responded to requests for comment about the call. Over the weekend, Patrick's campaign issued a statement endorsing the Republican ticket but did not mention French by name. “I said that if voters whose candidates lost the primary refuse to support the winners in November, Texas will turn blue,” Patrick said. “These races were tough on all sides. But we must come together as one party to defeat the crazy left, who are a threat to our great state.” Patrick's history with French is unusual. Last year, he called on French to resign as Tarrant County GOP chair after French posted a poll asking whether Jews or Muslims posed a greater threat to the country. French did not resign but he later deleted the poll and said he regretted posting it.

Here is who gave Mayor Jones her playoff tickets to see the Spurs

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones cheered on the Spurs just a few rows away from the court last week thanks to Tullos Wells, co-chair of the Tobin Endowment and former outside legal counsel for Spurs Sports & Entertainment. A season ticket holder since the 1990s, Wells gave Jones two tickets to the Spurs' Game 6 against the Oklahoma City Thunder last week. He said he couldn’t make the game because he was visiting Boston. He had two tickets behind the Spurs' bench every playoff game, but he said he gave most of his tickets to friends. He said he doesn’t recall giving any to other elected officials during the Spurs' playoff run.

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Wells, an attorney, said he has spoken to Jones only a couple of times. Jones reached out to him last month to pick his brain about San Antonio’s business community. They talked for more than an hour in the lobby of a downtown hotel. They didn’t talk about the Spurs or plans for a publicly financed downtown arena for the team. Jones has had a tense relationship with the Spurs organization. She unsuccessfully fought last summer to slow down City Council’s adoption of arena financing agreement with SS&E and Bexar County, and she has argued the team owner should share revenue generated from a new facility — which SS&E has called a non-starter. Wells offered Jones his tickets for Game 6 during their conversation. He recalled telling her that “the mayor needs to show up at a Spurs game and show the flag.” “I think it’s important that the mayor be there and understand better what role the Spurs play in this community,” he added.

Grimes County approves tax break for SpaceX chip facility

Grimes County officials approved a tax break for a SpaceX chipmaking facility on Wednesday, supporting a $55 billion project that could create 1,800 jobs and transform this rural area outside of College Station. More than 100 people attended Wednesday’s public hearing. They largely expressed concerns about their rural way of life, impacts to property values and local businesses, SpaceX’s lack of transparency and potential effects to the environment. A handful of people spoke in support of the project.

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After hours of public comments, four of the five county commissioners, including the county judge, voted in favor of providing SpaceX with a tax abatement agreement. The deal waives the company’s property taxes in exchange for SpaceX paying $10 million to the county upfront and then $20 million a year for the 35-year period. The proposed facility, which SpaceX is calling Terafab, is still in its early stages. But Grimes County is poised to become home to a major chipmaking facility. “Texas is where the integrated circuit was born and where the future of the semiconductor industry is being built,” Andrew Mahaleris, press secretary for Gov. Greg Abbott, said in a statement released before Wednesday’s hearing. Chips, also commonly called semiconductors, are found in nearly all electronic devices. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is building Terafab to create chips for its Starlink broadband internet satellites and the data centers it plans to launch into space, according to John Federspiel, who said he’s leading the Terafab project for SpaceX.

Nearly 180 ICE detainees quarantined at Camp East Montana for possible measles exposure

Nearly 180 detainees are under quarantine for possible measles exposure at Camp East Montana, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Fort Bliss, city health officials told El Paso Matters on Wednesday. The facility initiated quarantine after 16 detainees were identified as contacts of two confirmed measles cases at a detention facility in Arizona, city officials said. The detainees arrived at Camp East Montana before the Arizona measles cases were confirmed, Dr. Hector Ocaranza, city and county health authority, said in an email statement to El Paso Matters. City, state and federal officials didn’t say when the quarantine began.

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But it appears the quarantine started at the detention center several days before state and local health officials were notified of possible measles exposures. A Catholic group was turned away Sunday from a planned Mass and told there was a quarantine to protect against measles spread, said a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified. The chain of communication among federal, state and local authorities raises questions about whether ICE delayed notification on potentially serious public health matters. As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, there were no detainees at Camp East Montana showing symptoms of measles, and no indication of measles spread in the El Paso community linked to these exposures, Ocaranza said. Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the state health department, said a group of detainees were also quarantined for measles exposure at the West Texas Detention Facility in Sierra Blanca. The detention centers are quarantining because of different possible exposures to measles cases in other states, he said in an email.

Zapata County landowners say border wall contractors bulldozed property before agreements were signed

Landowners and border wall opponents in Zapata County say contractors bulldozed property near San Ygnacio this week before landowners signed right-of-entry agreements or went through condemnation proceedings, raising new questions about property rights and the pace of border wall construction in South Texas. Elsa Hull, who lives near San Ygnacio and has been involved in opposition to the project, said she went to the riverfront Tuesday after receiving reports of bulldozing near the Rio Grande. "I received a message that border wall contractors were dozing on private property without permission. That came as a big shock to me," Hull said.

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Hull said an elderly landowner showed her where contractors had bulldozed through an irrigation line and cleared vegetation on his property. "He has a boat ramp, and he had an irrigation line, and they dozed right through his property, severed his irrigation line," Hull said. "Now he can't get water up there, he can't withdraw water, and they destroyed all these trees, cut a huge swath through his property." Hull said she later observed similar activity on two nearby properties and that two of the three affected landowners had received right-of-entry requests from the federal government but had not signed them. "Neither one of them had signed," Hull said. "No one had been taken to court to condemn the property, and nobody's received compensation." Hull said federal officials asserted that the land being cleared was already government property because it falls within a floodplain along the river. "They come back and they say that anything in the flood plain along the entire length of the river is federal government property," Hull said. Hull said the landowners possess deeds showing their property extends to the Rio Grande and questioned why right-of-entry requests had been sent if the land was already federally owned.

David Brockman: ‘Fake’ Christian? or Faithful?

“One of the few openly Christian politicians in the United States who acts like a Christian.” That’s how conservative New York Times columnist David French recently characterized James Talarico and the Texas Democrat’s “faith-forward” campaign for the U.S. Senate. It should come as no surprise that Talarico walks the Christian walk: He’s currently on leave from his training for the ministry at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (APTS). However, given the MAGA Christian response to the young politician-seminarian, you might think it was the Antichrist running for the Senate. He’s been called “demonic,” a “fake Christian,” and “blasphemous,” with “very, very radical and extreme views.” One Newsmax host accused him of using “fake passages from the Bible, tortured and misrepresented.” Talarico has drawn fire for characterizing God as “nonbinary,” though he later explained he meant God is “beyond gender” (a common theological notion). U.S. Representative Ronny Jackson, an Amarillo Republican, said the statement showed Talarico is “a full-on RADICAL LEFTIST!!”

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Such over-the-top rhetoric is a sad fact of life in this age of post-truth hyperbole. But the ferocity of anti-Talarico invective reveals a deep and very public clash between two distinct ways of being Christian. While MAGA Christians insist that the Bible dictates their anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant Christian nationalism, the Mainline Protestant tradition—of which Talarico’s Presbyterian Church (USA) is a part—has a very different understanding of what it means to follow Jesus, one that leads to a politics precisely opposite from that of MAGA Christians. Within this Mainline tradition, Talarico is quite orthodox. His campaign, then, and the shrill attacks it provokes from right-wing Christians, is a vivid reminder of just how varied Christianity is. And paradoxically, Talarico’s unabashedly biblical politics also underscore the imperative of defending our nation’s venerable, but now vulnerable, tradition of church-state separation. So strongly does Talarico’s campaign foreground his Christian faith that The New Yorker claims his platform is basically the New Testament. That’s a bit of an overstatement.

Bell Textron lays off hundreds of Fort Worth and Texas employees

Bell Textron has laid off approximately 285 employees across its Amarillo, Fort Worth and Wichita sites, according to a letter from Bell Textron CEO Danny Maldonado. Bell Textron is an American helicopter and aerospace manufacturer based in northeast Fort Worth near Hurst. The letter says that these layoffs affect the members working on the MV-75 programs the most. The MV-75 is a tiltrotor aircraft being developed by Bell. The Star-Telegram reached out to Bell about the exact number of employees affected and no one responded immediately. According to Bell’s website, “The MV-75 strengthens every mission soldiers execute — speed and range cut medevac timelines to save lives, deliver long-range assault forces from safer launch points, and bring agility to humanitarian operations in the toughest terrain.”

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Maldonado said as the company moves from design to production, it has to make “additional adjustments to align our overall cost structure with current funding and business needs.” Company officials shared that getting clarity from the government on the funding for this fiscal spending year showed them that layoffs were necessary to align with “current funding and budget realities.” The CEO made it clear that these decisions were based on funding and not employee behavior. “These decisions are not a reflection of the value of the team or the importance of the mission,” Maldonado said. “They are about ensuring we stay aligned to the program, protect long-term success, and position ourselves to deliver what matters most.” In addition to layoffs, Bell is entering a four-week furlough period for certain staff on the MV-75 team that begins June 14. Employees affected by the furlough are expected to receive notice within the next few days, according to Maldonado. Maldonado wrote that it’s “incredibly difficult” to watch colleagues leave who have made such an impact. “The first flight of the MV-75 remains paramount, and long-term prospects for 2027 and beyond remain strong. This is not about stopping momentum; it is about responsibly managing our resources to ensure we can deliver on our commitments,” he said.

Lisa Falkenberg: Mike Miles’ HISD reforms are hurting my daughter’s school: ‘Mom, I don’t even have an English teacher’

Stuck in traffic one morning in October, I tried to make small talk with my 13-year-old daughter in the back seat. “What are you reading these days?” I asked. “Nothing,” she said. Nothing. I felt a thud in my soul. This was the same big-eyed girl, the same consummate straight-A student who, just a few years earlier, had to have her nose physically dislodged from a book several times a day so the family could reacquaint ourselves with her face. In elementary school during the pandemic, she finished “Little Women” in two days. If you had asked her if she loved reading, she might have responded similarly to Scout Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird”: “I never loved to read. One does not love to breathe.”

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“You’re not reading anything?” I prodded the middle-schooler. “Not even in English class?” She paused, giving me a look that said I should know better. “Mom,” she said. “I don’t even have an English teacher.” Ah, yes. I had forgotten. For months, I had written about other schools within Houston ISD, scrutinizing superintendent Mike Miles’ reforms in the state’s takeover, his closure of libraries and sidelining of storybooks, all the while harboring some relief that my own three kids’ campuses had been somewhat insulated from the changes. Until this year, that is, when the district’s instability, fluctuating expectations and teacher exodus hurt my kid, too. Some like to pretend that Miles’ move-fast-and-break-things approach is only affecting students at the poorest-performing schools for whom any change must be better than what they had. That's not true. The Houston Chronicle has reported that aspects of Miles’ controversial curriculum or instructional model have seeped into virtually all of HISD’s 274 campuses. That includes some of the highest-performing schools that never needed academic rehabilitation in the first place. These are schools for which families sweat lottery admissions to gain entry, and some even buy houses or rent apartments just to be zoned to them.

'A lot of concern': Mark Cuban expresses worry over future of Victory Park, downtown Dallas

Mark Cuban's transformative impact on the Dallas-Fort Worth multiplex could be most felt in the area of downtown Dallas known as Victory Park, in which Victory Avenue runs through, tucked snuggly between I-35E and the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. The crown jewel of this once-ascendant mix of business development, upscale entertainment choices, and high-priced retail became the American Airlines Center upon its opening in 2001. One of the people most involved in that stadium's development, and its earned status as the home for major league sports in Dallas, was the former Dallas Mavericks principal owner Cuban, now a minority owner, meaning he's basically in the same position as anyone else who is searching for answers in the wake of the Mavs' decision this week to purchase land at the former site of the Valley View Mall in North Dallas.

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In an email exchange with WFAA, Cuban spoke of his concern for the future of what is expected to now be the former site of both the Mavs and the Stars, who right after the Mavs' announcement, made public their plans to develop a new arena in Plano at the former Shops at Willow Bend site. "A lot of concern," Cuban wrote to WFAA about his main reaction to the news. "And (concern) for the people that have businesses down there. Who live down there to be close to games." Even with his reduced influence on the Mavs' future plans, Cuban has remained an endorser of the Mavericks remaining in Dallas, he reaffirmed that belief in 2024 while at the same time stating that the chances of the Mavs staying at the AAC being "less than 50%." As news of the Valley View development choice emerged this week, Cuban told the House of Haymaker podcast that it was a "great choice" and an option he considered before selling his majority share of the team. Overall, Cuban sees the eventual choice made as potentially transformative for another area of Dallas, but he still tells us that he hopes both his team and the Stars retain some connection to the Victory Park area. "I hope both teams do something to help (Victory Park)," Cuban tells WFAA.

Policy expert exits Mayor Jones’ office, upping total departures to 8

Policy expert Sophia Alejandro has become the latest staffer in Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ office to leave, bringing the total number of staff exits within the past year to eight, Jones’ office confirmed Wednesday. Even so, the mayor’s office declined to discuss the reasons behind the departure by Alejandro, a Baylor University alum with a master’s in public administration from George Washington University. Alejandro joined the office in October to help Jones implement her agenda. Word of Alejandro’s exit comes less than 24 hours after Jones’ office announced the hiring of TikTok realtor MarkAnthony Ball to help with the mayor’s social media presence. The departure also comes after both Jones’ chief of staff, Jenise Carroll, and deputy chief of staff, Pat Wallace, left within a week of one another.

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Other staffers who have left Jones’ office within the first year of her four-year term include: Jordan Abelson, who served as chief of staff from June 2025 until July 2025; Anna San Miguel, who served as special assistant from August 2025 until October 2025; Rory Vance, who oversaw event services from June 2025 until September 2025; Gary Cooper, who briefly served as communications director in August 2025; Carlos de Leon, who briefly served as communications director during October 2025 Former staffers have complained about difficult working conditions on the 2nd floor of City Hall. One former staffer, who spoke to the Current on condition of anonymity after leaving the office, said Jones was disrespectful to staff and created a toxic work environment. Meanwhile, an ex-campaign staffer, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity after signing an NDA, maintained Jones was difficult to work with and often ignored her staff’s advice. Separately, a person familiar with City Hall matters recalled an incident in which Jones hastened a staffer’s resignation by publicly dressing the person down for taking a seat at a meeting.

National Stories

AI data center demand “larger than we’re prepared for” despite “existential investment” - report

Data center demand “could be larger than we’re prepared for,” with vacancy entering record lows of two percent, and global AI usage surging, according to a report from Newmark. Newmark’s 2026 Data Center Market Outlook report showed that, in a scenario where AI usage reaches levels similar to Internet or smartphone adoption, an additional 250GW of capacity would be required, far exceeding currently planned AI-data center capacity. While conceding that this is an “aggressive but still plausible scenario,” the report argued that this prediction doesn’t even account for increases in enterprise workloads, Edge compute, or AI training, which Newmark said is forecast to grow by 3x annually through 2030.

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“This scenario leaves the market in a catch-22: the binding constraint on mass AI adoption is new capacity coming online, and the binding constraint on new capacity is power,” the report said, “In the meantime, hyperscalers, developers, and their partners continue to pour capital into the buildout at an accelerating pace, considering it an ‘existential investment.’ As constraints sharpen and demand rises, the goalposts for spending continue to move higher.” Various firms and organizations have tried to put an estimate on the amount of investment required to meet rapidly growing data center demand, with some suggesting staggering sums of up to $3 trillion over the next five years. Last year, data center investment topped $580 billion and beat investment in new oil supply for the first time. And in 2026, hyperscalers alone are expected to spend $700bn to meet their data center commitments. Newmark’s report also examined the boosted demand for core industrial real estate driven by the level of spending on data center construction, termed the “halo effect.” Spending on data center construction is now up by nearly 400 percent since 2020, significantly boosting demand for warehouses, industrial outdoor storage, and manufacturing facilities.

The meltdown inside ‘60 Minutes’

Emotions were running high again at CBS News. Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley had delivered a rebuke of CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss at a staff meeting Monday, accusing her of “murdering” the storied news show. He also criticized her choice of Nick Bilton as a new executive producer. In the hours after his remarks, Weiss and other senior leaders debated how to proceed, people familiar with the matter said. The executives believed Pelley’s behavior was insubordinate and a fireable offense, but decided to speak with him to discuss his future at the network. David Ellison, CEO of CBS parent Paramount spoke with Weiss about how she would approach that conversation, people familiar with the situation said. The fraught circumstances of Pelley’s departure illustrate a broader moment of crisis within CBS News and its signature show.

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So went another wild week at CBS News. In the past six days, “60 Minutes,” its signature show, parted ways with three high-profile correspondents, turned over its top editorial and producing ranks and sparked a staff mutiny. Just three of the show’s correspondents, who introduce themselves to viewers at the start of each episode, remain: Lesley Stahl, Jon Wertheim and Bill Whitaker. Weiss has made significant changes to CBS News’ roster of talent, programming and operations since taking over last October following Paramount’s purchase of her news and opinion platform, the Free Press, for $150 million. In the process, her editorial choices and growing pains as a new TV executive have drawn the ire of many longtime staffers, particularly at “60 Minutes.” Spats between Weiss’s roster of deputies and the show’s stars have morphed into a fight over the future and soul of the program. The most recent season of “60 Minutes” had a 9% increase in viewership from the year prior, according to Nielsen data. Weiss’s supporters see her strategy at CBS as a painful but necessary retrofitting of a stultified news operation to compete in a modern era, one in which waning audience trust and splintering viewership are challenging broadcasters. Her detractors say the decisions are politically motivated and have further eroded the credibility of a long-successful network.

Senators privately ask Platner whether new allegations will emerge

In a private meeting Tuesday with some Senate Democrats, Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner attempted to quell growing concerns from some in the party that a string of negative revelations about his life had jeopardized his candidacy. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders asked Platner if any additional allegations would emerge against the embattled Democratic candidate, according to people familiar with the discussion. Platner said there weren’t any. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who also attended the meeting, followed up and said there is a big difference between marital issues and allegations of sexual assault, the people said. Platner agreed and denied any credible allegations of assault were forthcoming. “It’s not a secret I’ve had a messy, complicated life,” he told the senators, one of the people said. “The worst of the rumors we’ve all heard are not true.”

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The meeting with some of Platner’s biggest supporters in the Senate (Sanders and Warren have both endorsed him), ended with most of the group continuing to express support for the neophyte politician. But the gathering also underscored that Platner’s campaign had entered crisis mode. Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported Platner engaged in sexually explicit texts with other women while married, prompting concerns among Democrats that his personal life could imperil the party’s shot at flipping one of the Senate’s most competitive seats. “I have no idea” if more shoes will drop, Sen. Peter Welch (D., Vt.) said a day after attending the meeting. Asked if Platner had been reassuring, Welch said, “He was very explicit that he accepts the right of Maine voters to ask him questions about his personal life and his responsibility to answer those questions.” Others who attended the meeting said they remained convinced Platner was the right candidate. “I didn’t go in needing assurance and I left feeling confident,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D., Minn.), who described herself as “excited” about Platner’s candidacy.

House passes Iran war powers resolution in bipartisan rebuke to Trump

The House on Wednesday voted to direct President Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from the conflict with Iran or win approval from Congress to continue the war, after four Republicans sided with Democrats in a striking sign of growing opposition to a military campaign now in its fourth month. Adoption of the resolution was a remarkable rebuke to Mr. Trump and his handling of the conflict, after he has repeatedly dismissed any effort by Congress to curb his power and as the G.O.P. has largely ceded its prerogatives to do so, deferring to him time and again. Republicans had abruptly postponed the vote two weeks ago, recognizing that they did not have sufficient votes to defeat the measure and wanting to spare themselves and the president the affront. But they made no headway over the ensuing days in winning converts, as the conflict has dragged on and Mr. Trump has made little progress toward ending it.

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G.O.P. leaders were unable to delay the vote any longer because Democrats had invoked the War Powers Resolution, which requires consideration of such measures within a limited period of time. The move was also the latest reflection of divisions between Republicans in Congress and the president on a range of issues as their interests diverge in the run-up to the midterm congressional elections. It came after Senate Republicans have in recent days forced Mr. Trump to abandon his request for $1 billion in security funding for his ballroom project and a plan that the Justice Department announced to create a federal fund to pay claimants who accuse the government of having victimized them. The vote was 215 to 208 to adopt the war powers resolution, sending it to the Senate. Even if it were to pass both chambers, the ability of lawmakers to force a president to withdraw troops remains a contested legal question, and Mr. Trump and his senior aides have dismissed any effort by Congress to limit his war powers as unconstitutional.

New York Democrats give preliminary approval to redistricting amendment

New York Democrats gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a constitutional amendment allowing them to redraw the state’s congressional lines in advance of the 2028 elections. The state Legislature’s vote formally kicks off what’s likely to be several years of bitter partisan feuds over whether blue New York should join the national redistricting wars. “You have Black members of Congress being specifically targeted,” Senate Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris said during the floor debate, referring to new maps that have been drawn in Republican-dominated states. “Of course Republican members of this body will say, ‘No, don’t fight fire with fire, don’t respond.’” The amendment to allow mid-decade changes to the maps can’t be finalized unless the Legislature approves it again next year and voters pass it as a referendum in November 2027.

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Republicans and Democrats are expected to pour tens of millions of dollars, if not more, into that vote that could move up to four GOP seats to the Democratic column. And Democrats are doing everything they can to ensure that goes as smoothly as possible — they’re poised to approve a separate bill on Thursday that would give them the power to determine the wording of the referendum. “There is going to be a rigging of the system,” Republican Sen. George Borrello said. “We’re going to say the words just right, pour a ton of money into the propaganda, and try to convince people this is in their best interest.” Democrats decided to take an aggressive approach with the amendment after months of debating how far they should go. Not only would it allow for new lines before the next Census, but it’d permanently remove the state’s restrictions on maps drawn to benefit parties or incumbents. Wednesday’s state Senate debate was largely an argument over history. Republicans repeatedly dusted off quotes from Gianaris and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins from when they worked with former New York City Mayor Ed Koch 15 years ago to call for more independent redistricting. Lines like “voters choose their elected officials rather than elected officials choose their voters” repeatedly resurfaced.

Republicans rocked by Trump’s midterm approach

Republicans hoping to keep control of Congress in a tough election year have been thrown off-balance by President Trump’s focus on foreign policy, pet projects, and statements dismissing the importance of the midterms and cost-of-living issues. To be sure, Trump’s team is putting its shoulder into the midterm operations. The president has helped to catapult fundraising and clamp down on primary infighting that could distract from a unified message. But as Republicans were trying to roll out messaging on tax cuts, Trump’s actions in Iran dominated the headlines and national attention. And Trump in recent weeks has outright said cost of living and keeping control of Congress are not a part of the calculus in his approach to Iran — saying “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation” and “I don’t care about the midterms.”

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That’s left some Republicans scratching their heads. “Of course, that was frustrating,” one GOP operative said. “There is going to be a need to talk about the economy no matter what, because that’s always going to be the top issue.” Trump’s defenders note the president made the comments in the context of U.S. negotiations with Iran, and Republicans publicly insist his team is active in the 2026 fight. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday that Trump is “absolutely” focused on the midterms. In a three-hour meeting with the president Monday, Johnson said, “we talked about domestic policy almost the entire time.” “This president is more laser focused and more dialed in on domestic issues here in the homeland than any president in memory,” Johnson said. “He spends more time working on domestic issues in one day than Joe Biden did in four.” The Republican National Committee (RNC) referred to Trump as “the party’s strongest messenger, biggest turnout driver, and the key to Republican success in the midterms.”

Trump says he plans to nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he planned to formally nominate acting attorney general Todd Blanche for a full term as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, signaling confidence in his former personal defense lawyer’s leadership of a department over which the president has sought to exert unprecedented control. Trump announced his intention to move forward Thursday with the nomination during a White House dinner Wednesday evening, according to a video of his remarks posted to social media by deputy White House chief of staff Dan Scavino. “We are going to make him permanent attorney general,” Trump said. Blanche has held the job on a temporary basis since Trump fired former attorney general Pam Bondi earlier this year.

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Trump’s decision to back Blanche for a permanent term will kick off a Senate confirmation process that could face tough headwinds. Some Republican senators have already expressed hesitation about supporting Blanche for the job, raising questions about recent comments in which they believed he appeared to excuse violence committed during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. More recently, Blanche faced open revolt from some portions of the Republican caucus in the Senate, as he unsuccessfully sought to defend a deal struck to settle legal claims Trump had filed against the government with the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who believe they have been victims of politicized prosecutions. Facing bipartisan backlash, Blanche returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to announce that plans for the fund had been scuttled. Trump has repeatedly expressed approval for Blanche’s performance in his temporary post, including the day after Blanche‘s reversal on the settlement deal. “Todd’s doing a very good job at DOJ,” the president said during an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the New York Post podcast, Pod Force One. Trump added, “I wanted to see how he’s received. ... We put him as acting, and he’s done a very good job, but I’ve known him a long time.”

Senate GOP leaders’ rough day ahead

President Donald Trump announced late Wednesday night that he’ll formally nominate Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for the post full-time. This will be a difficult nomination for Senate Republicans. There’s no guarantee that Blanche — Trump’s formal personal lawyer — can even get through the Judiciary Committee, much less get confirmed by the full Senate. More on Blanche and Senate Republicans below. Reconciliation now. It’s going to be a really long day for Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso. The GOP leadership duo is in for a marathon of twisting arms and whipping votes on two pieces of legislation that have little in common except for this: Trump has made passing them much harder than it needed to be. Trump is causing Senate Republicans a ton of heartburn right now. GOP senators really want to wrap up the reconciliation bill funding ICE and Border Patrol, find a long-term solution for FISA Section 702 and move on to other priorities, like the long-stalled bipartisan affordable housing bill.

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Vulnerable Republicans are desperate to show they’re trying to address the high cost of living, the top issue for voters. And GOP leaders want to be talking about their economic program — mostly the One Big Beautiful Bill’s tax cuts — amid a Democratic barrage over affordability. Instead, Trump is lobbing problems at Senate Republicans in the middle of crucial legislative fights. Just in the last few weeks, the Trump administration tried to secure $1 billion for White House ballroom security, unveiled the “anti-weaponization” fund as the reconciliation bill was about to pass and tapped Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence days before another FISA deadline. All of these moves derailed elements of the GOP’s agenda while heightening tensions between Trump and Senate Republicans. The Pulte standoff is far from solved and could tank FISA reauthorization altogether. Yet Trump isn’t showing any signs he cares much at all about Congress. Now Trump wants to formally confirm Blanche as the nation’s top law-enforcement official. This comes just weeks after a hostile meeting between Blanche and Senate Republicans over the “anti-weaponization” fund that left GOP senators fuming and delayed the reconciliation bill. And for Senate Republicans, Trump’s move on Blanche could pave the way for the president to further erode their power on nominations. Floor action. First up today is the GOP reconciliation bill, which has been stalled for two weeks over the weaponization fund fiasco. Despite assurances from Blanche that the fund won’t move forward, some GOP senators want to codify that promise into law, especially as Trump is still actively defending the fund. Several Republicans have indicated they’d oppose the bill on final passage if it doesn’t include such language. GOP leaders can’t lose more than three votes on final passage. “We need to take action here. It’s creating headwinds that we don’t need,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who told us it’d be “hard” for him to support the reconciliation bill without language on the fund. “If we’ve got the acting AG saying it’s done, then let’s just stick a fork in it.”

Copyright June 04, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved