October 13, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Republican Ken Paxton partied in Dubai with fugitives ahead of high-stakes Texas Senate race

As President Trump weighed endorsing Ken Paxton over incumbent Texas Sen. John Cornyn this spring, he was told that damaging revelations were likely to surface about Paxton, according to people familiar with the conversations. Trump was dismissive and said there would be more negative material about Democratic nominee James Talarico. Trump plowed ahead and endorsed the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general, helping him win the Republican-primary runoff in May. Months later, that decision is looking like Trump’s biggest gamble of the midterms. Despite efforts by Paxton to paint his opponent as a far-left zealot, Talarico consistently holds a narrow lead in polls, raising a once unthinkable possibility: A Democrat could win statewide office in Texas for the first time since 1994. Meanwhile, damaging revelations about Paxton continue to emerge.

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A new scene that could join the list: a previously unreported New Year’s Eve 2024 celebration where Paxton partied in Dubai with two fugitives from U.S. justice and a woman who wasn’t his wife. As fireworks exploded over the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to welcome 2025, Paxton and his girlfriend Tracy Duhon watched from a luxury high-rise balcony full of people, according to a video of the gathering reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, details of which were contained in court filings and confirmed by people familiar with the matter. Among those at the event with Texas’ top law-enforcement official were two Americans who had been indicted months before on federal healthcare-fraud charges but failed to return to the U.S., Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail, according to the court records and people familiar with the matter. Ahmed, a healthcare executive, had donated $190,000 to Paxton, campaign finance records show, including $25,000 days after he was indicted. Talarico has hammered Paxton over his jet-setting travels, accumulation of wealth in office, and his business associations. Paxton, 63 years old, has long been a survivor of controversy, and Trump’s allies maintain the MAGA faithful will power him to a win in the Nov. 3 election.

‘Phantom’ data centers are demanding more from the power grid than they need

Data-center developers are turning to utilities and grid operators for unprecedented amounts of electricity. The power industry is countering with a perhaps surprising question of its own: Are you for real? The artificial-intelligence boom is driving a once-in-a-generation surge in electricity demand that should translate to a heyday for utilities. Yet the race has accelerated so quickly that it has become challenging to distinguish projects that are ready to build from those that might never materialize. To plan their own investments and shield other customers, utilities are trying to filter out legitimate projects from wannabes by imposing higher electricity rates, longer-term contracts, collateral requirements and steep fees for engineering studies.

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Utilities face a predicament: Underbuilding grid infrastructure risks missing a huge opportunity, but overbuilding could also be problematic. Because grid costs are shared, other electricity customers would be left to pick up the tab—and help a utility recoup its investment—if a data-center project falls through. Jeanne Jones, executive vice president of finance and strategy at Exelon, said her utility tries to identify “real growth that’s going to happen versus speculative growth” before it invests to build out the grid. “For our customers it is obviously important,” Jones said. “Because if we build out the grid and then that data center walks away, someone’s got to pay for it and that’s not fair to them.” When scouring the country for the best location to build a data center, developers often request power from multiple utilities. That means the electricity needs of the same project might be double, triple or quadruple counted by different providers. In some cases, the wait time to connect to the grid is so long that data centers resort to building their own on-site power.

Trump's diesel deal with Putin draws criticism from Congress

The House speaker stood before Donald Trump during his first term at the White House and pointed a finger declaring that with this president, “All roads lead to Putin.” The stark assessment years ago from Nancy Pelosi echoed anew after Trump’s surprise announcement last week that he struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import tons of Russian diesel to the U.S. as a way to ease sky-high prices at the pumps for Americans ahead of the midterm elections. Trump’s diesel deal with Putin has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats as fueling Russia’s war against Ukraine, violating existing U.S. laws and drawing the U.S. closer to Russia. It joins a growing list of instances where the president has sided with Putin, often at the expense of Ukraine — and America’s own standing.

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“The harm to the Ukrainians is real,” said William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, in an interview Monday. “And the cost to us, the United States, is high.” It’s not at all clear the Trump-Putin deal will deliver the supply boost the president is seeking to bring down prices. Energy experts have said the flow of Russian diesel is unlikely to lower prices in the U.S., which have escalated largely due to disruptions from the U.S. war against Iran. But the agreement underlines a message at home and abroad that Trump is an unreliable ally as Ukraine battles Russia. A bipartisan group of six senators urged Trump over the weekend to reverse course, saying the U.S. “should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline.” Trump, however, held fast to his deal with Putin and lashed out, blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for America’s high diesel costs and asserting he should step aside — something Ukraine’s leader has no intention of doing.

Rick Bailey: I'm a conservative Johnson County Commissioner. Greg Abbott is misleading voters about property taxes

(Rick Bailey is a Johnson County commissioner.) I’m a lifelong conservative. I believe strongly in limited government, fiscal responsibility and keeping taxes as low as possible. Government should live within its means just like the families it serves. And I believe decisions are best made as close to the people they affect as possible. Those principles are why I have a problem with what Gov. Greg Abbott is trying to sell Texans about property taxes as he runs for re-election. The governor consistently blames counties and cities for rising property tax bills, accusing us of runaway spending and arguing that even tighter restrictions on local government are the answer. In Johnson County, that story doesn’t match reality. Our commissioners court recently adopted a property tax rate of 41.7 cents per $100 of valuation, which is up from 38.9 cents the year prior. Taxpayers have every right to ask why, just as they have a right to expect honesty from their governor. So here’s the truth about where these dollars are going.

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Johnson County’s employee health insurance costs are going up by almost $2 million this year. We anticipate losing almost $3 million in revenue through our jail. And another portion of our tax rate pays for the $60 million in voter-approved transportation bonds. Then there’s the unfunded mandates handed down to us by politicians in Austin, Abbott included. We’re required to pay for services like indigent legal defense and health care. In Johnson County, that costs us roughly $5 million a year — a fraction of which is reimbursed by the state. That’s not reckless local spending. That’s county government fulfilling its obligations as required by law. Yet, Abbott would have Texans believe their property taxes are rising because local officials can’t control themselves. Worse, he’s proposing a new law requiring local governments to get two-thirds of registered voters to approve any property tax increase, taking us to a new 0% revenue cap with no room to breathe. We should think about what that means in practice. The next time Austin hands counties another unfunded mandate, or the cost of providing ambulance services increases, or health insurance for our employees goes up, our hands would be tied even further. Not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars it would cost Johnson County to hold a special election.

State Stories

Ken Paxton questions Talarico’s faith, but his own church is unknown

As Ken Paxton stood on stage at Vintage Church in Harker Heights last month, his son-in-law, Pastor Daniel Hayworth, prayed the U.S. Senate Republican candidate had what he needed to “continue fighting for the faith.” That faith is more central to this year’s Senate race than perhaps any in recent memory. Paxton’s Democratic opponent, James Talarico, is a seminarian who openly talks about his Christian beliefs. The Republican attorney general has said he’s on a God-given assignment to protect Texas from the political left, and his supporters see him as a true believer whose record pushing Christianity into public life speaks for itself. But little is known about Paxton’s personal relationship with religion. He has not said what church he attends, or if he attends one regularly. In a statement to Hearst Newspapers, he said he has been worshipping during the campaign cycle "at churches in communities all across Texas."

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"I'm a committed Christian, and my faith guides every area of my life, from how I lead to the decisions I make for Texans every day," Paxton said. "Right now, my focus is on meeting Texans where they are, and that includes sitting in the pews alongside them on Sunday mornings." Democrats have chastised Paxton for his recent high-profile divorce, in which his estranged wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, accused him of adultery. Even some Christian conservatives have been disappointed by Paxton’s reticence to publicly address his actions or open up more about his faith journey. Texas Values Action, a Christian conservative political group that has long supported Paxton, initially pulled its endorsement of him for the Senate when it said he refused to meet about his divorce. (The group has since backed him again). Rick Scarborough, a former Southern Baptist pastor from Pearland who runs an organization that paved the way for pastors to bring politics to the pulpit, said Paxton had been a great ally to Christian voters, but “suddenly, he's departed” from the religion’s tenets. “If he would make a return, then we would see the church rally to his assistance, and I, for one, would do all I could to make sure that the Christian community knew about the repentance,” Scarborough said. He has taken issue with some of the scandals surrounding Paxton’s private life, and said Paxton should address those issues directly. “But thus far, I've not been able to get Ken to do that.”

Jessica Grose: Can this education policy turn Texas blue?

(Jessica Grose covers family, religion, education and culture for the New York Times opinion section.) “I’ve been voting Republican my whole life. I’m superconservative,” the Pine Tree superintendent, Steve Clugston, tells the camera in an Instagram reel. “I’m going to tell you what: When Greg Abbott sold us out to the billionaires and sold out our schools, I’m done with his leadership.” In the Texas governor’s race, Clugston is voting for Abbott’s Democratic opponent, State Representative Gina Hinojosa. The Pine Tree public school district is in the bright red small city of Longview in East Texas, between the big cities of Dallas and Shreveport, La. A majority of its 4,400 students are economically disadvantaged. When I caught up with Clugston on Friday, hours before the Pine Tree football team trounced its opponents under the lights, he was at his farm. “My wife’s a teacher. My daughter’s a teacher. My son-in-law’s a teacher. Both my sisters are teachers. My brother-in-law’s a retired superintendent. So I’d say education’s kind of in our blood,” he told me over the phone.

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Clugston told me he’s sick of his fellow Texas conservatives straying from their principles of fiscal common sense and straight talk; he even attempted a run for the Texas State Senate as an independent conservative. He is particularly appalled by Texas’ voucher program, known as Texas Education Freedom Accounts, which went into effect this year. This program puts state money in accounts for Texas families to use outside the public school system: up to nearly $10,500 for children enrolling in private school, up to $30,000 for children with disabilities and up to $2,000 for those who are home-schooled. The State of Texas has no say over the curriculum taught at the institutions that accept vouchers, and participating schools can discriminate against applicants for any number of reasons, including religion and disability status. Texas’ vouchers are universal, which means anyone can apply for them, regardless of financial means, though poorer students have been prioritized. Around 70 percent of this year’s voucher recipients already were enrolled in private schools or were home-schooled. Vouchers are costing the state about a billion dollars this year alone and could ultimately cost $4.4 billion annually. While funding for vouchers comes from a budget that is separate from the public school pot, the state’s funding for public schools has not kept up with inflation.

Bankruptcy judge lifts pause on wrongful death lawsuits against Camp Mystic

A federal bankruptcy judge ruled Friday that wrongful death lawsuits against Camp Mystic may resume on Nov. 9, lifting a pause that was put on the claims after the camp's owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief in June. More than a dozen families are suing the all-girls Christian summer camp and its owners, the Eastland family, after catastrophic flooding in July 2025 killed 25 campers and two counselors. One of the camp's owners and executive director, Dick Eastland, also died during the flooding. Judge Christopher Lopez, a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of Texas, said at the conclusion of a nearly 12 hour hearing that public interest supports the timely resolution of the wrongful death claims against the camp and its owners.

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Allowing the cases to move forward, Lopez said, will also give all parties a better understanding of how much money the camp may be liable for as a result of the claims. No money, he said, can be paid out without permission from the bankruptcy court first. It's unclear where the wrongful death lawsuits will be litigated. Shortly after the camp filed for bankruptcy, the cases were transferred from a Travis County district court to federal court. There are motions to move the cases from where they currently are in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to the Southern District of Texas or back to Travis County. Lopez is still considering who will take control of the camp's bankruptcy case. Chapter 11 bankruptcy typically allows businesses to continue operating while they reorganize their finances under court supervision. The Eastland family currently retains control of the business. Since filing for bankruptcy, they have hired a chief restructuring officer, Karen Nicolaou, to help them manage the case and the camp's finances. The case's creditor committee, which is comprised of 13 families who lost their children in the flood, has asked for the appointment of a Chapter 11 trustee, a type of independent fiduciary, to manage the case. The committee argued this is the best course of action because of conflicts of interest created by the wrongful death claims against the Eastlands.

‘I need to stand up:’ Rep. Vincent Perez challenges Texas Comptroller’s performance review into EPISD

Monday, Texas State Representative Vince Perez (D-El Paso) sent a letter to Texas Comptroller Don Huffines challenging the state's investigation of the El Paso Independent School District. On Oct. 6, Huffines announced four Texas school districts, including EPISD, will undergo a performance review to "ensure taxpayer funds are being spent responsibly." In his letter, Rep. Perez argued that EPISD's administrative spending meets the Texas Education Agency's standard and the law behind the investigation was "written for tax collection." "By the State's own measures, El Paso ISD spends a smaller share on administration than 84 other large districts, and TEA grades its finances superior," said Rep. Perez in a statement. "If spending were the test, El Paso wouldn't be on this list. The Comptroller owes El Paso families an explanation of what the test was."

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Perez' letter claimed EPISD is under the state's benchmark for administrative costs. He argued that EPISD used 4.20% of its spending on administration. TEA gives large districts full credit at 4.50% or less. Additionally, Rep. Perez said Texas Governor Greg Abbott used inaccurate numbers before asking the comptroller to investigate the district. The letter said Gov. Abbott's numbers counted students who left the district. The letter asks Comptroller Huffines to answer eight questions within two weeks. The questions ask how EPISD was chosen for review, which revenue law the district is alleged to have broken, whether a referral to the attorney general is being considered and whether the full report will go to the Legislature and the public the same day it goes to the governor Rep. Perez said Huffines would share findings with the Legislature and the people of Texas. Rep. Perez is running for re-election for Texas House District 77 against Republican candidate Humberto Perez.

Active-duty soldier’s wife faces possible deportation this month

An active-military service member’s wife could face deportation this month after a scheduled immigration hearing in late October. Jacob Olson, a seven-year military service member in the Army, told KTSM that any information shared was his own and he does not speak on behalf of the U.S. military. Due to this, Jacob did not disclose his rank. “All of the things I am saying today are opinions of my own personal opinions,” Olson said. Jacob Olson said he met his wife Rosa in July 2024 while she was on a student visa. The two got engaged and married after his deployment in November 2025. Jacob Olson said Rosa Olson stopped going to school in December 2025 because they thought Rosa would be safe while her applications were in process. Rosa Olson is a Mexican national.

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“We filed the I-130 and the I-485 within three weeks of being married,” Jacob Olson said. “Something I didn’t know that needed to be included was an actual IRS tax return.” Back in April of 2025, ICE issued a memorandum stating that a relative’s U.S. military service no longer automatically exempts noncitizen family members from immigration enforcements. Jacob Olson said the first application was denied due to a missing tax return. “That’s because of my fault that I didn’t know better to do that, but UCIS also had the option to just specifically request and ask for the tax return, instead of denying our application that cost $1,440,” Jacob Olson said. The two said they tried filing paperwork a second time through a notary. “UCIS gave us a receipt number for the work permit, but they didn’t give us a denial notice,” Jacob Olson said. “Since we didn’t receive the denial, we thought things were fine because they gave us the work permit receipt and they scheduled biometrics to go and get fingerprints.”

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Vote for McGee and against taxation without representation

If you’re mad about runaway spending in Harris County, make sure to direct a bit of your ire at state Rep. Mike Schofield. That’s because the Republican started a successful effort to allow constables to sign patrol contracts without any oversight from commissioners — the elected officials who actually have to balance the budget. As a result, county taxpayers are directly subsidizing patrols in wealthy neighborhoods. The whole deal smacks of taxation without representation, and it contributes to a significant driver of the county’s budget woes. One expert said it might even be illegal. Voters should want representatives in Austin who help lighten our local fiscal load rather than making things worse. If he had a strong defense of this unfunded mandate, we didn’t hear it — Schofield, 62, did not meet with us.

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That’s too bad. We’ve endorsed him in the past, but not this time. Voters instead should support Sara McGee, his Democratic challenger. McGee was raised in the Katy-area district in a Republican family. Not too long ago, she counted herself as a Never-Trump Republican and split her ticket in 2016. But she said she’s seen Republican leadership in her district and in Texas attack local control and undermine the public schools that have attracted much of the region’s growth. “My community did not want vouchers,” McGee said of the $1 billion program that Republicans are pushing to further expand next session. “I don’t have political aspirations,” the director of radiology told us. “I have Katy and Cy-Fair aspirations.” She had this to say about Schofield: “He’s brilliant at writing bills,” and, “a lot of people go to him for bill advice and this and that but he’s terrible at the one thing that is the most important to me and that’s representing the people you were elected to serve.” Though she’s a political newcomer, McGee, 46, impressed us with her ability to talk policy and a much more balanced disposition than her admittedly aggressive Twitter presence. She was able to draw on personal experience to map out urgently needed changes in state law.

UT Austin response to Myron Gaines debate draws criticism

University of Texas students, parents and Black student organizations are questioning their university’s decision to allow a far-right speaker on campus amid concerns about hate speech’s place at UT. Last week, manosphere influencer and podcaster Myron Gaines hosted a debate on campus, during which he used sexist, racist and homophobic slurs, according to video captured by UT students and Uncensored America, the organization hosting the event. UT police shut down the event before its official conclusion when Gaines directed profane language toward individuals in the crowd.

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UT’s chapter of Uncensored America, which launched in May 2026, reserved Gregory Plaza for the debate, said Sean Semanko, the national organization’s founder and president. The venue cannot be reserved without a registered UT organization, according to university policy. Invited speakers must be approved by the UT administration. In the days after the event, Black student organizations criticized the university for not strongly standing against racism and for allowing the speaker to come on campus. Student groups Austin Students for a Democratic Society, Not Our Texas and Texas Black Students Alliance condemned the Gaines event and the “continued normalization” of hateful rhetoric. UT spokesperson Mike Rosen said in a statement that the university values free speech and safety and promptly shut the Gaines event down when tensions escalated. “On Wednesday night, the University took decisive action to shut down a student organization event that was on the verge of disruption and violence,” Rosen said. “UT will always protect free speech and will always prioritize the safety of our students and our campus community.” Rosen declined to comment on the content of Gaines’ speech. The invited speaker’s rhetoric struck a nerve among UT’s Black community, prompting the launch of a new student organization and a wave of statements demanding unity and action.

Kristi Noem took a jab at Texas' James Talarico. Then Kacey Musgraves fired back

A weekend concert became a political sideshow Monday after former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took a jab at two Texans — Senate hopeful James Talarico and singer Kacey Musgraves — and the country star fired back. Talarico, the state's Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, was fresh off a break from the campaign trail when he shared photos of himself and Musgraves from her Saturday show in Dallas, writing: “Thank you for having me last night!” Noem shared a screenshot of Talarico’s post Monday morning on X, stating she would take country singer-songwriter Ella Langley over Musgraves any day.

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“And if I'm choosin' Texas, I'll take Ken Paxton over James Talarico,” Noem continued, invoking Talarico's Republican opponent and the current Texas attorney general. A few hours later, Musgraves, who grew up in East Texas, responded with a pointed dig of her own: “I don't think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it." Noem was widely criticized in 2024 after she disclosed in her memoir, "No Going Back," that she shot and killed her 14-month-old wirehair pointer, Cricket, in a gravel pit after the dog attacked her chickens. Musgraves' comeback took off online, garnering more than three million views in just a few hours. It joins a growing list of viral moments for Talarico, whose Senate campaign has become a magnet for social media attention as the Nov. 3 election approaches. Over the weekend, Talarico pushed back against viral rumors that he used the flu as a pretense to seek mental health treatment in Ohio. The facility at the center of the rumor publicly denied ever having the politician as a patient, while Talarico said he had never even visited the state.

‘Oil field trash’ tries to pull off Texas shocker

Any other year, Jon Rosenthal would be a major underdog for statewide office in Texas. He’s a Democrat running to oversee the oil and gas industry, in a state that has been largely under Republican control for more than 30 years. But if his closing rural push against a controversial GOP opponent delivers, Rosenthal would have a platform — as one of three state Railroad Commission members — to pursue what he calls commonsense solutions to some of the oil industry’s thorny problems. He has pushed for bigger budgets at the commission so it can retain employees, address unplugged wells and manage oil field wastewater. All of that, Rosenthal said, can be done without endangering the state’s crude production — an important caveat for an oil field engineer who describes himself as a “drill, baby, drill Democrat.”

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“I am thoroughly oil field trash,” Rosenthal said at a recent conference. “I worked on drilling rigs, and I drink, smoke and swear.” A win would be a watershed moment for Texas, where major GOP candidates often don’t have to break a sweat to win in November. That’s not the case this year as President Donald Trump’s popularity plummets and concerns about affordability hang over candidates. Then, of course, there’s Rosenthal’s opponent: Bo French. French made national news in September with a xenophobic online post showing South Asian students celebrating at a University of Texas football game — saying the “problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” Within a week, Rosenthal had raised more money than he had in his whole race, according to campaign finance reports. Longtime Republican strategist Karl Rove also endorsed him in the Wall Street Journal, saying he won’t support extremists. “For the last several months, I have been saying this campaign is the wildest thing I’ve ever done,” Rosenthal told POLITICO recently. “It just keeps getting wilder — and still I was not prepared for Karl Rove to say my name.”

Houston Chronicle Editorial: We heard Rep. Gene Wu tell his GOP challenger to 'shut up'. We still back him.

Gene Wu led the charge. Or was it a strategic retreat? There wasn’t much Texas Democrats could do when Republicans here decided to scrounge up a few more red seats in Congress with a round of midterm redistricting. So they left, officially breaking quorum to try to stall the vote on the new maps. As the chair of the House Democratic caucus, Wu garnered national attention. For a state representative, it’s remarkable that he helped change our national politics by inspiring a retaliatory redistricting fight in California and other states. Fierce pushback from Republicans is to be expected, even personal attacks on Wu.

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But on the first day of quorum break, Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton wrote on X: “Is Gene Wu back in China?” The racist post was another reminder that Wu’s leadership comes at a cost: to himself, to his family and even his district. Before Railroad Commissioner candidate Bo French got national attention for his gleefully ignorant attempt to call a crowd of South Asian University of Texas at Austin football fans un-American, French was busy attacking Wu, alleging he has ties to the Chinese Communist Party and calling for his deportation. The attacks have been personal, he told us, aimed at not just him but his wife and kids. Wu’s family were victims of communism. They fled communist China. What Wu, 48, has had to put up with is disgraceful. But it also underscores why he fights so hard, why he’s made himself a lightning rod in the Legislature where he now says it’s difficult for him to get bills passed if his name is on them. And it also underscores, perhaps, why he seemed so exhausted and on edge when the editorial board met with him and his Republican challenger, Helen Zhou. She suggested that Wu invited the nastiness with his own combativeness, a stance we just don’t think fits the reality. At one point, Wu shouted at Zhou to “shut up” when she interrupted him. We told him that he had crossed a line.

Advocates urge lawmakers to address mental health

Mental health advocates and service providers urged state lawmakers Thursday to increase funding for community-based treatment, expand crisis services and address workforce shortages as demand for behavioral health care continues to grow across Galveston and Brazoria counties. The Gulf Coast Center and NAMI Gulf Coast hosted a legislative forum at the College of the Mainland Conference Center, where families, healthcare professionals and advocates shared experiences navigating mental health and intellectual and developmental disability services. The state has invested heavily in psychiatric hospitals and crisis services, but additional funding is needed to help residents receive treatment before their conditions require hospitalization or intervention by law enforcement, Gulf Coast Center CEO Felicia Jeffery said.

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“We want our officials to know that care should begin in our communities and not in hospitals, jails and emergency rooms,” Jeffery said. Demand for services has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, Jeffery said. More people are seeking treatment for trauma, depression, homelessness and employment-related difficulties, she said. Although Texas has invested about $2.5 billion in inpatient psychiatric capacity, community clinics need additional resources to sustain services, particularly after federal pandemic funding expired, Jeffery said. “In order for care to have quality, it needs to be accessible,” Jeffery said. “To open up access, you need to have capacity.” She also pointed to waiting lists for intellectual and developmental disability services and reimbursement rates that make it difficult to recruit and retain qualified workers. Galveston resident Gabby Rice described struggling to obtain help for her adult son as his mental health deteriorated. Rice contacted law enforcement seeking intervention but was told officers could not act unless her son threatened himself or someone else, she said.

Texas A&M coach Elko says he regrets 'cesspool' comments

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko expressed regret Monday for his comments after losing to Missouri in which he referred to the website TexAgs and a portion of the Aggies' fanbase as a "cesspool." After the Aggies dropped to 3-3 on Saturday with a 27-6 defeat at No. 14 Missouri, Elko was asked what his message would be to Texas A&M fans who might be worried. He said there is a difference between the fanbase and social media, with a nod to Billy Liucci, the executive editor and co-owner of TexAgs.

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"There's one group that I really don't care much about. Billy's cesspool can go be Billy's cesspool," Elko said. "Our fanbase: Stay with us, be behind us, we're going to build something that we told you we were going to build. We're in a really bad spot right now, but we'll work our way out of it." On Monday, with Liucci in attendance at his weekly news conference, Elko said the viral comment was made in the heat of the moment and came across in a "way that I certainly regret." "I think everybody knows I have a tremendous relationship with Billy," Elko said. "I appreciate Billy. I appreciate him being here today. There's nothing about him and I that have ever been off since 2018. I think everybody knows I appreciate our fanbase and everything that they're about and everything that they mean to Texas A&M. Outside of that, I'll leave it alone. "I regret the way it was taken. I regret the way it came out. I regret the way it ran. That certainly was never my intention. And certainly, throughout the course of that interview, at no point ever did I lend any blame to anything other than myself. I am the reason why this team is struggling. I have owned that since this has started. I continue to own that. It's my job to figure out how to get it better."

City Stories

With recall effort launched, Dallas City Council member Gay Donnell Willis to postpone zoning case

Dallas District 13 council member Gay Donnell Willis plans to ask for a postponement of a controversial mixed-use zoning case at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane. The postponement announcement was made late Friday – the same day a group of District 13 residents officially launched their recall petition effort. But Willis’ plans are not to address the development’s building height – the main issue residents have with the proposed development. Instead, Willis plans to ask for a postponement during the Nov. 10 City Council meeting to address traffic flow concerns, another issue residents saw with the project.

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Willis said in a statement that she wants a solution that goes beyond the immediate intersection to include eastbound and westbound traffic as well. She said additional traffic improvements would reduce wait times at the lights and ensure improved vehicle flow. “Hopefully, this additional time will result in recommendations that can be incorporated into the zoning requirements for the developer, who will bear the expense,” Willis said. “This postponement also aligns with the delay some neighbors have requested for further study of the project.” The Preston Road and Royal Lane case is one of three zoning cases that residents with the D13 Together Coalition say “show a broader, systemic breakdown in trust” between Willis and the neighborhoods she represents. D13 Together has initiated a recall effort against Willis after, what they say has been, “years of escalating disputes” with their representative. Doug Hazelbaker with the Neighborhoods First PAC said in a statement that the recall petition would continue. “Apparently, the quickest way to get Councilwoman Gay Willis’s attention is to start collecting signatures to recall her,” Hazelbaker said in a statement. “We repeatedly asked her to delay this project and meet with residents about overwhelming opposition to a development backed by her campaign contributor. She ignored us. Then, the very day we launch a recall petition, our concerns suddenly matter. Amazing timing.”

National Stories

What to know about the search of Ilhan Omar's home

Federal agents searched Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C. home on Monday, only three weeks before the frequent target of President Donald Trump’s criticism stands for reelection in her congressional district in Minnesota. Here’s what to know: Trump has not been shy about wanting to use federal law enforcement to target his perceived political enemies. He’s pushed prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York’s Democratic Attorney General, Letitia James, following earlier probes the two launched against him. Omar, a left-wing firebrand, has been a longtime target of Trump and Republicans in general.

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Omar was born in Somalia and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Trump has especially targeted Somali immigrants in Minnesota, posting on social media last week that the people of the state must “fight back” against them. The state has reeled from several federal fraud cases sometimes involving Somali-run nonprofits in Minnesota. Many of those cases were filed by former President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. Omar is not involved in them. Omar has long criticized Trump, and the president has likewise gone after her repeatedly over the years. Trump late last week alluded to possible action against the congresswoman. At a rally in Tennessee on Saturday, Trump referred pejoratively to Omar as coming from a country of “crime and squalor” and suggested that Vice President JD Vance “and our people” were investigating her. Justice Department protocol has long been to avoid legal action against politicians in the final weeks before their election. The Trump administration’s violation of that added to Democratic criticism that this is simply political payback.

They came to Washington to dismantle government. Now, they’re profiting from it.

Last year, billionaire Elon Musk unleashed a small army of Silicon Valley techies to drain what he called the “swamp” of Washington — wielding the U.S. DOGE Service to slash at a bureaucracy they argued was bloated and corrupt. But today, many of his former DOGE foot soldiers have leveraged their government stints to fuel private-sector ambitions: building companies that tap government largesse or that deploy knowledge they garnered during their brief tenures in Washington. A Washington Post analysis found that roughly two dozen former DOGE staffers have parlayed their government experience into relevant private-sector jobs or investments — becoming founders, securing CEO positions or senior executive roles, amassing large stakes in start-ups looking to win government contracts or approvals, or taking the skills developed at DOGE to the private sector.

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Though several of the businesses are only months old, with little public activity, at least six DOGE alumni have registered on Sam.gov, a government contracting portal examined by The Post. The migration of former staffers from DOGE — short for the Department of Government Efficiency — into the private sector has prompted a burst of funding for their businesses. Start-ups founded by, or with key investment from, DOGE alumni have raised at least half a billion dollars in funding, according to an analysis of government data, investor research platforms and venture capital funding disclosures, paired with lists of confirmed DOGE members compiled by The Post, the New York Times and ProPublica. They have built a cottage industry of ambitious but largely untested businesses, often helmed by inexperienced founders, sometimes drawing initial valuations in the billions of dollars. Despite DOGE’s shaky track record on trimming the federal budget, the private sector has come to see experience with the group as a valuable commodity, said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a nonprofit-sponsored organization that advocates for government work to serve the public interest.

AI models may soon self-replicate without access to data centers, Anthropic warns

Anthropic said on Monday its experiments suggested small AI models may be months away from being capable enough to ?self-replicate on commercial internet-of-things (IoT) devices, such as smart ?ovens and off-brand Android TV boxes. In its experiments, Anthropic looked at whether AI models could find vulnerable devices, copy themselves into those devices, ?and continue spreading without human help. It found that small ?models under 30 billion parameters could complete the many ?steps needed for replication. However, the firm found that such AI ?models also struggled to complete the entire sequence from start ?to finish. In its simplified tests, where some security steps were removed, Anthropic found that GLM-5.2 and stronger models were capable of end-to-end replication.

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Replicating models ?would be hard to shut down as there is no ?central switch-off point and, unlike non-AI malware, they could also figure out ?unfamiliar ?devices on their own, targeting data center processors, Anthropic warned. The firm focused on IoT devices like Android TVs, smart appliances, and other internet-connected gadgets in its research as these are typically ?poorly secured. The AI ?major also ?warned that if small models improved at their historical rate, they would be able to ?autonomously replicate by the end of this year, ?with small ?weight-based replicators following suit soon after. Anthropic also said such autonomous AI systems were likely to replicate slowly and rely on widely ?available, ?relatively insecure computing resources. It added ?that systems should be strengthened to make it harder for such AI agents ?to spread.

Hillary Clinton steps to the podcast mic as midterms approach

Hillary Clinton has rarely been far from the spotlight since her 2016 presidential bid. She has written best-selling books, taught at Columbia University and even tried her hand on Broadway as a producer for the Tony Award-winning musical “Suffs.” Her next act? Podcaster. With the midterm elections looming, Mrs. Clinton is preparing to make her voice heard on a new podcast series, called “High Stakes,” alongside the well-known technology journalist Kara Swisher. Starting Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Swisher will break down the race to control the House and the Senate in weekly episodes that run through mid-November.

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“I don’t think the stakes for the country and the world could be any higher,” Mrs. Clinton said in an interview with The New York Times last week. “If we don’t reverse this chaos and corruption and cruelty that is being visited upon us by this administration, we won’t recognize our country.” The podcast is launched with Vox Media, which also produces, distributes and sells advertising for two other podcasts that Ms. Swisher hosts: “Pivot” and “On With Kara Swisher.” “High Stakes” will be distributed through the same feed of Ms. Swisher’s “On” podcast. Ms. Swisher, Mrs. Clinton and Vox Media will share advertising revenue from the episodes. The idea for the podcast came this spring at the sprawling home of former Atlantic owner David Bradley in Washington’s upscale Kalorama neighborhood. Ms. Swisher turned up to the soireé, which was being held for Mrs. Clinton, wearing a T-shirt and jeans and began peppering the former secretary of state with questions about a variety of topics — from the upcoming midterm elections to the continuing war in Ukraine. Ms. Swisher said she thought Mrs. Clinton’s answers were concise and intelligible, and Ms. Swisher wondered why Mrs. Clinton had not taken another swing at podcasting after her solo interview show, “You and Me Both With Hillary Clinton,” ended in 2023.

Venezuela wants to return to the days when its oil fields were booming—with U.S. help

An oil gusher discovered more than 100 years ago gave birth to Venezuela’s energy industry near this once-booming city on the shores of Lake Maracaibo. Today, Cabimas is ground zero for the U.S. effort to resurrect the sector. This city of 350,000 resembles an oil-industry graveyard. Mangled drill towers and collapsing offshore platforms are visible as far as the eye can see. Hardened globs of crude cling to fishing nets pulled from the lake, and natural gas gurgles up from busted underwater pipelines. The lake’s shores are black with petroleum. Nearby, children play baseball between leaky pump jacks that often stop working because of power outages that last up to 12 hours a day.

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Many residents here say they can’t wait for American investors to arrive and start plowing money into rebuilding the country’s dilapidated oil infrastructure. Many remember the boom years of old when oil workers enjoyed housing provided by international oil companies, along with neighborhoods with swimming pools, sports clubs and golf courses, and a lake with clean water and healthy marine life. The question they are asking is: Can the U.S. bring the good times back? “God willing, the foreigners will come back soon and we’ll have a better quality of life,” said José Medina, a fisherman with five children. But he is worried it will take a long time. “It feels like we’re neither moving forward nor backward.” The decaying industry here reflects two decades of mismanagement under late President Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. captured in a raid in January and is prosecuting in New York on drug-trafficking charges, which Maduro denies. Industry executives and experts say residents’ fears are well-founded: Reviving Venezuela’s oil sector will be a lengthy undertaking costing hundreds of billions of dollars.

Trump census plan to cut noncitizens from 2030 count spurs critics toward legal fight

Congressional Democrats and civil rights groups are concerned about a proposed Trump administration change to the U.S. census that would exclude noncitizens without permanent resident status, altering congressional representation and potentially how federal funding is distributed. Opponents warn the rule, which was posted in September, could have negative effects, potentially shifting congressional power to parts of the country where fewer immigrants live and underfunding education, healthcare, food assistance and emergency management programs. The public can comment on the rule until Nov. 2, the day before Election Day.

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?The greatest likelihood is that this is going to end up in litigation,” said Meeta Anand, senior director of census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “I’m under no delusion that we will see everything remedied because I do know that it’s been a project of the administration to exclude noncitizens from the count.” The proposed census change is the latest volley in the Trump administration’s push to reduce illegal immigration. If certain categories of immigrants living in the U.S. are not counted, areas where they are concentrated could get less federal money. The rule’s supporters say counting all immigrants living legally in the U.S. encourages illegal immigration. The rule would exclude from the census millions of noncitizens without a green card, including people in the country on student visas, people with temporary protected status, refugees and asylum seekers. It would also bar the collection of demographic information on race and ethnicity from the census’s short-form questionnaire. That information can be used for civil rights enforcement and to assess compliance with federal laws that bar racial discrimination.

Pro-Collins ads target wrong Portland in GOP super PAC mix-up

Ads promoting Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) appeared to target the wrong city of Portland in a Republican super PAC mix-up, running the advertisements in Oregon instead of Maine. “During a recent independent expenditure, our media vendor mistakenly placed approximately $25,000 in digital advertising in the Portland, Oregon media market instead of Portland, Maine,” a spokesperson for Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP), the nonprofit affiliated with GOP super PAC Defending Main Street, told The Hill. “The error was identified, the ads were immediately stopped and corrected, and the vendor is refunding Defending Main Street the full amount of the misplaced spend,” the spokesperson said. “No donor funds will be lost as a result of the vendor’s error.”

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The mix-up was first reported by NBC News, which identified a Portland, Ore., resident writing on social media Sunday that she received “5 anti-Troy Jackson ads in the last 24 hours.” According to Google Ads Transparency Center, the advertisements ran for four days and targeted various zip codes around the Portland, Ore., area. Before the ad was taken down, it was shown more than 1 million times to people across all demographics in Oregon. An RMSP spokesperson also directed The Hill to statements from Sarah Chamberlain, the president and CEO of RMSP. In the statements to NBC News, Chamberlain said she was “absolutely furious” that the ad buyer, Cross Screen Media, made such a “ridiculous” error. “It has nothing to do with us. I would never run an ad in Portland, Oregon, for Susan Collins, for Christ’s sake,” Chamberlain said. Cross Screen Media released a statement Monday, saying that it was “100% our mistake,” adding that they have refunded the $25,909.61 to the super PAC and began running the ads in Portland, Maine.

Copyright October 13, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved