September 15, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Trump-backed married Republican accused of throwing massive tantrum after being caught on camera with mistress

An American tourist has accused US Senate candidate Ken Paxton of lunging at him and trying to snatch his phone after he filmed the Texas Attorney General walking with his lover in London. The man, who exclusively spoke to Daily Mail so long as we not name him or his wife, said he reported the alleged confrontation to London's Metropolitan Police after it unfolded on Westminster Bridge, close to the London Eye, on July 1. The tourist said he recognized the scandal-hit Republican walking with his mistress, Tracy Duhon, while sightseeing in the British capital with his wife and decided to record a short video on his phone. Paxton and Duhon were in the middle of a trip across Europe and had been spotted together in Iceland just days earlier in footage first reported by the Daily Mail. Paxton, 63, is running against Democrat James Talarico in the hotly contested Texas Senate race, the outcome of which could determine if Trump's party remains in power.

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The Daily Mail first exposed the affair between Paxton and Duhon a year ago, revealing that Paxton and the mom of seven became romantically involved in May 2024 after meeting at the Kentucky Derby while they were both still married to other people. Neither Paxton or Duhon have ever denied their affair. After recording an 18-second clip, which was later published by the Daily Mail on July 7, the tourist said he walked away. Moments later, he claimed, he suddenly felt a bump against his left shoulder. When he looked over, he described Paxton standing shoulder to shoulder with him. 'Were you filming me back there?' Paxton allegedly demanded. 'And I said, "Yes, I was." And he said, "You can't do that,"' the tourist told the Daily Mail. 'I stopped because I was just hot, and I said, "I can absolutely film you. You're a public figure in a public place, and I can film you all I want." 'Now we're facing each other and he's mad, and he says, "Let me see what you filmed," and he lunged for my phone,' according to the tourist. He claims the encounter then descended into a heated public confrontation, with Paxton repeatedly demanding his phone as he tried to move away. 'He says, "You can't do that. Let me have your phone. I want your phone," and then at this point it's a confrontation,' he added. 'He's yelling at me, and I'm telling him to back off. He lunged at the phone a second time and tried to force it from me.' By then, the man's wife said she realized her husband was in trouble and began running toward him.

Oil executives say the great fuel crisis is here

American oil executives warned for months that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was bound to cause a fuel crisis. Now, they say it is here. Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves can’t be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate. “All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk,” Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth said Friday at an energy conference in Austin, Texas. “Those have largely now played out, and we don’t have nearly the buffers in the system that we did when it began.”

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It is hard to predict where oil prices will go, he added, but at the moment, it is difficult to envision prices coming back down quickly. “I wish I could tell you that I saw some reason why things would ease, but it’s difficult right now to see that happen,” he said. Veteran energy advisers say that with no resolution to the Iran war in sight, the situation risks spinning out of control. Diesel prices have soared to a record $6.23 a gallon and gasoline prices, which slipped below $4 a gallon this summer, have rebounded to $4.32. Some energy analysts say they have been fielding investor questions about when consumers pinched by the high prices will start pulling back on new purchases. The Trump administration has repeatedly promised Americans that prices at the pump would decline and that energy flows out of the Middle East would keep increasing. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at a Houston G-20 event on Monday that “the prices in the prior administration were this high anyway” and that Americans would have paid those prices permanently because former President Joe Biden was “pursuing a policy of energy subtraction and shutting down refineries.” “If you want to write about the prices, make sure you include the word ‘temporary’ because this is a temporary disruption,” Burgum told reporters.

Bo French stands firm, and is fundraising on his UT post condemned as racist

Over the weekend, former Tarrant County GOP chairman and Railroad commissioner candidate Bo French got in hot water among Republicans and Democrats alike for saying there is a problem with the number University of Texas students are of South Asian descent. On Monday morning, he doubled down and fundraised off the original post. French’s Saturday night post came after Texas made a remarkable comeback in the Longhorns defeat of Ohio State. He shared a photo of a group of UT students, predominantly of South Asian descent, celebrating the victory. He wrote: “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”

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Texas Republicans officials, such Sen. John Cornyn and Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows, criticized French for his “intolerance and racism,” as Cornyn put it. Others stood up for French, saying he is right in calling out the university for allowing foreign students to make up about 10% of its enrollment of 55,000. Founder and CEO of True Texas Project, Julie McCarty said French is a rock star and that the elected Republicans condemning him aren’t going to keep their seats for long. “Most of them have already been booted and are just trying to feign relevancy,” McCarty said on Facebook. “Anyone anti-Bo is anti-America, and they have no clue how [angry] the masses are.” French followed the post with a call to donate to his Railroad commission campaign. On a conservative talk radio show Monday morning, French said the post was a commentary on H-1B visas, which allow employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. French said on the talk show H-1B visas allow those employees’ children to be defined as residents and receive in-state tuition. The University of Texas policy allows the children of H-1B visa holders to receive in-state tuition as long as they have lived in Texas for 12 months. He said undocumented immigrants get the same benefit. In June 2025, a federal court blocked in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. “The left always wants to make it about race, it’s not about race,” French said. “It’s about policy.” French said it’s not racist to say Texans should be prioritized over foreigners. Under state law, 90% of first-year students at the University of Texas must be in-state residents. “The bigger conversation is: are we going to have policies that prioritize Americans and the exceptionalism that I believe Americans have, or are we going to have policies that prioritize foreigners,” French said. “I think most people in the America First movement think we ought to be prioritizing Americans.”

The Supreme Court rejects Trump's mail voting restrictions for this year's midterms

The Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, rejecting his efforts to enact new mail-in voting restrictions for the midterm election. The ruling released Monday by the high court means the U.S. Postal Service is expected to continue delivering ballots as usual. Voting by mail has already begun in states including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, with more soon to follow — including Western states such as Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, where elections are held primarily or fully with mail ballots. Under the still-blocked USPS plan, which followed an executive order by Trump, states would have had to turn over lists of voters' names and addresses and have certain specific barcodes on ballot envelopes in order to have them delivered by the mailing agency.

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Earlier this month, a federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction against USPS, blocking it from imposing those new ballot requirements on states. The judge found the requirements are likely illegal because the Postal Service has no authority to control mail-in voting. A second federal judge issued another preliminary injunction late Sunday. Now, a majority of the Supreme Court decided to keep that injunction in place. The court said the Trump administration was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a short concurring opinion, saying "there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority." But, he added, "applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections." Indeed several Republican state election officials, including from the mostly vote-by-mail state of Utah, signed on to a Supreme Court brief, warning that any attempt to carry out the USPS plan now "will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays, and confusion for both voters and election officials."

State Stories

Texas landowners sue to block Trump border wall plans

Landowners, ranchers and business owners in the Big Bend region of Texas along with a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the region’s landscape and heritage are suing to stop the Trump administration’s plans to build a wall and other border infrastructure through the remote section of the state. The lawsuit, filed by Conserve Big Bend and six landowners and with the support of dozens more people along the border, comes as the administration is ramping up a $46 billion effort to line the roughly 2,000-mile southern border with a collection of 30-foot (9-meter) steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers, and technology intended to keep out smugglers and migrants. In Texas, the effort has run up against numerous lawsuits and bipartisan opposition from sheriffs, elected officials, tour guides, environmental groups and landowners.

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Officials backing the wall “were woefully unprepared for the hornet’s nest they stirred up because they had no idea how much we love this place,” said David Keller, an archaeologist and historian who specializes in the Big Bend and lives in the region. “For us, the Big Bend is not an empty place on the map,” he said at a press conference announcing the suit. “It is our home.” As part of its wall-building efforts, the administration has waived numerous regulations and statutes designed to protect the environment, archaeology or wildlife, on the basis that there’s an urgent need to protect the border in what Homeland Security has called areas of “high illegal entry.” But in the lawsuit announced Monday, the plaintiffs argue that when it comes to the Big Bend region, that’s not an accurate description. They’ve cited historical statistics issued by Customs and Border Protection showing how few people cross the border in Big Bend compared with other areas along the U.S.-Mexico border. Big Bend has about 500 miles of border __ roughly one quarter of the total length of the border with Mexico from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. But the region only accounted for about 1% of arrests, according to the lawsuit’s stats.

Karl Rove said he’ll break 30 years of only supporting Republicans to vote against “bigot” Bo French

Karl Rove, former adviser to President George W. Bush and longtime Texas GOP political consultant, said he will vote for Jon Rosenthal, a Houston Democrat running to serve the Texas Railroad Commission, after Republican Bo French posted racist comments on Sunday about South Asian students at the University of Texas at Austin. Rove made the comments at a members-only lunch event at the Headliners Club in Austin, where he called French a “bigot,” according to three attendees to whom The Texas Tribune has granted anonymity to discuss the conversation. Rove said he has only ever voted for one Democratic candidate, Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, who was up for reelection in 1994.

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Neither Rove nor French were immediately reachable to comment. French came under fire Sunday for sharing a post on X showing a photo of the student section cheering a Texas Longhorn victory against Ohio State, referring to the students as “foreigners” who displaced Americans, without having any information about their status. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” French wrote, drawing excoriation from Democrats and Republicans alike, many of whom called on French to delete the post. Earlier Monday, French doubled down on his comments and said Republicans who criticized him were “less conservative.” Rove, who teaches graduate students at the university’s school of public affairs, praised one of his students of South Asian descent, calling him one of the more hardworking people he’d taught. The student was a Texan at heart, Rove said, according to the people present for the conversation. Rove also praised Texas Republicans for decrying French’s comments.

Dallas County, Sheriff Marian Brown sued for violating free speech

The Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC) is suing Dallas County, Sheriff Marian Brown and Chief Deputy Shane Sowell for allegedly violating free speech and due process rights. The lawsuit alleges the jail’s current rules and procedures surrounding access to physical books, magazines and periodicals amount to a near-total ban and violate the Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the Texas Constitution. “For incarcerated readers, materials like HRDC’s publications provide life-changing access to education,” the lawsuit, filed on Sept. 4, says. HRDC is a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of people in detention facilities. The organization has multiple publications, including Prison Legal News and Criminal Legal News, designed to educate and inform incarcerated individuals about their legal rights.

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“Each of HRDC’s publications provides information about important legal issues, such as access to courts and counsel, disciplinary hearings, prison conditions, court opinions, excessive force cases, mail censorship, jail litigation, visitation, access to telephones, religious freedom, sexual assault, and the death penalty, among other topics,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit states the HDRC materials are not accessible on jail-issued tablets, which incarcerated people use instead of physical reading materials. “We have tablets that are issued to inmates and books are available on those tablets each and every day,” Brown said in a video statement on Facebook on Aug. 27. Brown said the department removed access to physical books from inmates because some were using the materials to “compromise the security operation of the doors.” She said inmates still have access to physical books in the jail libraries. The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on ongoing litigation. In April, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice cracked down on hardcover books entering its prisons because of an uptick in narcotics.

San Antonio lawyer Edward Valdespino sued again; another $1M in escrow funds allegedly missing

Another company has sued San Antonio lawyer Edward Valdespino over money placed in his lawyer trust account, bringing to three the number of lawsuits filed this year alleging he failed to return money held in escrow. R.E.H. & P.L. LLC, a Tucson, Ariz.-based private lending and project financing company, alleges in a seven-page complaint filed in federal court in San Antonio that two of its investors wired $1 million in loans directly to Valdespino’s lawyer trust account at PNC Bank on April 13 to be held in escrow pending what the suit describes as a structured transaction. The proposed transaction didn’t happen within the agreed 30-business-day period, prompting R.E.H. to repeatedly instruct Valdespino to return the escrow funds. He has refused, the suit alleges.

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The lawsuit filed Thursday follows two others filed this earlier year by parties who similarly allege Valdespino failed to return money they had placed in his lawyer trust account to be held in escrow. Together, the three lawsuits seek to recover at least $7 million from Valdespino. R.E.H. is suing Valdespino on allegations of civil theft under the Texas Theft Liability Act, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. The company also seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to preserve the $1 million. Valdespino didn’t respond to a request for comment, but he previously denied the allegations in the first two lawsuits. Kelli Cubeta, a San Antonio lawyer representing R.E.H., also didn’t immediately respond. R.E.H.'s allegations bear similarities to two other lawsuits filed this year. In one, Boca Raton, Fla.-based I.C. Deposits Development Inc., also represented by Cubeta, alleges it transferred $5 million into Valdespino’s lawyer trust account to be held in escrow for a private investment transaction that never closed. In the other, New York couple Kevin and Holly Wyse allege they wired $1 million into Valdespino’s lawyer trust account for a purported investment program and never got their money back. Like the earlier complaints, R.E.H. contends a written escrow agreement required the money to be returned if the underlying transaction did not proceed. The company alleges the escrow period expired months ago and that Valdespino ignored repeated demands for the money’s return.

Texas Supreme Court strikes Harris County commissioner candidate’s effort to remove incumbent from office

The Supreme Court of Texas has denied a Harris County commissioner candidate’s petition to remove Democratic Commissioner Adrian Garcia from office, whose appointment to a local flood resiliency board was previously determined to be illegal. A Sept. 9 ruling by the Texas Supreme Court denied Richard Vega’s lawsuit against the Harris County Commissioners Court, which argued Garcia effectively vacated his seat on commissioners court in 2021 when he was appointed to the Gulf Coast Protection District, a local government entity. In a statement to Houston Public Media, Scott Spiegel, a spokesperson for Garcia’s office, said the ruling proves the effort has been a “waste of taxpayer resources and everyone’s time from the very beginning.”

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Vega, a Republican who is seeking to replace Garcia on commissioners court in November, and Mark Goloby, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate, originally filed a lawsuit against Harris County in 2024 arguing the appointment should’ve triggered Garcia’s immediate vacancy on the court. The First Court of Appeals in April agreed with former County Attorney Jonathan Fombonne, who argued Garcia’s appointment to the protection district was not legal to begin with, making it void. The appeals court ultimately ruled Garcia could maintain his seat on the court. “It’s bad enough that they petitioned for relief that is not allowable under the Texas Election Code, but also, those who filed this garbage appeal further embarrassed themselves with now three courts effectively saying their case was nonsense,” Spiegel said on Monday. Vega’s lawyers have asserted in legal filings that Garcia’s move to assume a second office conflicted with his loyalty to the commissioners court, a position he has held since 2019. The Texas Constitution generally restricts an elected officer from holding more than one public office at a time — accepting a second office can act as an immediate resignation from the first office.

Abbott orders penalties for data centers that fail to report water use

On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott shared that he is directing the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that fail to enforce state water-use reporting requirements. The governor’s office said that some major water users, including data centers, appear to have violated state law by failing to provide required information about their water use. Abbott directed the Texas Water Development Board, or TWDB, to impose legal consequences for past and future reporting failures.

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“Data centers must share the duty to protect Texas water. The Texas Water Code requires a complete and accurate water use survey. I direct the Texas Water Development Board to use its enforcement authority to penalize past failures and to impose legal consequences for any future failure to comply,” Abbott said in a statement. Under the Texas Water Code, recipients of a TWDB water-use survey are required to complete and return it. According to Abbott’s office, a data center that fails to do so could face criminal consequences and become ineligible for certain Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permits, amendments or renewals. TWDB can also refer noncompliance to the appropriate county or district attorney.

One of the top Texas House races could come down to a single issue: Water

Water is one of many issues at the forefront of Texas politics this election cycle, no place more so than in Corpus Christi. Texas’ sparkling city by the sea has received national attention in recent months over ever-worsening conditions for residents deluged by years of drought restrictions. Predictions of an impending water emergency have been pushed back month by month thanks in part to some timely rains but still remain within arm’s reach. Governor Greg Abbott previously indicated a state takeover of the city may be necessary to handle its water woes. Local leaders have faced intense scrutiny over their perceived lack of foresight to get ahead of the crisis and more recently, a lack of sufficient action coupled with controversial policies allowing industrial plants and factories to use large sums of water amid restrictions in exchange for a monthly fee.

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Now, the race for Texas House District 34, which includes half of Corpus, could in some ways serve as a referendum on the region’s water crisis and even help shape the future direction of its water policy. Once a relatively safe blue seat, incumbent state Representative Abel Herrero opted not to run again in 2024, and Republican Denise Villalobos, a former local school board trustee and oil and gas project manager, flipped the seat by a margin of more than 10 points—marking a notable downballot extension of the Trump-fueled wave among South Texas Latino voters. Trump won the district by 2 points. The last time a Republican held that seat was when Connie Scott, now the Nueces County judge, ousted Herrero in the tea-party wave of 2010 but only held onto the seat for one term. While she won in a red wave, Villalobos now faces reelection in a potential blue wave season and will face Democratic challenger Stephanie Guerrero Sáenz at the ballot box in November. It’s a top race for state Democrats this election cycle, one of the highest priority targets in their effort to expand their numbers or even take control of the Texas House. Per the latest Census data, about three quarters of the district’s constituents are Hispanic. Now, polling data suggests Latino voters who voted for Trump and other down-ballot GOP candidates in 2024 are swinging the other direction. “If Democrats are going to take back the Texas House, they have to flip seats like this,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “This is a heavily Latino seat, and the trends for Democrats have been moving in a favorable direction.”

‘Culture of sabotage’: How San Antonio’s City Council went off the rails at budget time

San Antonio is staring down a budget deficit that could raise taxes for the first time in decades and take an ax to the city services many leaders hold most dear. Yet days out from a critical budget vote, council members tasked with overseeing such matters can barely stand to be in the same room as one another — much less come together on spending priorities. Unlike Congress, which can kick the can of such disagreements indefinitely, the City Council is legally obligated to pass a balanced budget. Public libraries, nutrition centers and additional police officers are all on the chopping block in the plan coming before them this Thursday, but such usual sacred cows have been overshadowed by disagreements so personal that some members are no longer talking, according to Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2).

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In a three-part social media video after last week’s council meeting, McKee-Rodriguez described a “culture of sabotage,” where otherwise ideologically aligned members who dug in during last year’s vote on a new NBA arena have now grown more interested in spiting one another than advancing longtime policy goals. “If we can’t have a real conversation, if I can’t disagree with you, if I can’t make an amendment to an item that impacts my constituents without you trying to f*** me and my constituents over — I can’t work with you,” McKee-Rodriguez said in the video. “Unfortunately, that is where most people are with each other at this point.” The posts drew an equally unconventional video response from Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) who argued that some members are working collaboratively to build a majority coalition — while being mistreated by those who aren’t in the “starting lineup.” “What’s been created is a toxic workplace that’s quite frankly visible to all of our residents to see,” Kaur said. In a highly unusual budget cycle, this week the council is preparing final budget amendments without ever having agreed on their topline spending numbers. That means the council won’t know whether they need to make $89 million worth of cuts or $165 million until members vote on the tax rate — which happens in the same meeting as their budget vote this Thursday.

UT students denounce social media attack by Republican Bo French

Dhairya Gupta and his friends arrived at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday wearing orange, hoping for an upset. The Longhorns squeaked out a victory against top-ranked Ohio State with a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback. The camera cut to Gupta and his friends after the go-ahead touchdown. Gupta, his arms outstretched to the sky as he flashed the “Hook ‘em” sign with both hands, grinned for all to see. To his right was Rahul Kodali, a friend since the first day of freshman year, his face frozen in apparent disbelief. Kodali lost his voice that night. Gupta went home to watch the highlights. Saturday was a blast.

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Then came Sunday morning. A man Gupta had never heard of, Bo French, was trending on X after singling out a photo of Gupta, Kodali and other Texas students celebrating. French said the photo, largely depicting men with brown skin, illustrated a problem at the university. “It was just us having some enjoyment,” Gupta, 21, said in a phone interview Sunday. “And now it's just people being blatantly racist toward us.” French’s tweet has received condemnation from across the political spectrum, with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers denouncing the post as racist and urging him to delete it. He didn’t. He posted the picture a second time Sunday morning, saying social media showed “how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners.” French, a Republican running to oversee the state’s oil and gas industry, has spent much of his campaign speaking about mass deportations, eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion policies and also targeting racial and religious groups. French has called for deporting every Muslim in the U.S. and also deporting 100 million people. Gupta, a senior and computer science major, picked UT because he believed it was a great school with a thriving athletics department located in a major city that keeps growing. He met Kodali his first day of school as a freshman, and they bonded over their love of the English soccer team Chelsea.

Child advocates urge Texas lawmakers to strengthen protections for minors on gaming platforms

Child advocates, pediatricians and mental health experts urged Texas lawmakers on Monday to expand online safety protections for children, arguing that today’s gaming platforms pose many of the same risks as social media and are increasingly affecting children’s mental health, sleep, academic performance and overall development. The discussion came during a hearing before the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee, where advocates called for stronger safeguards for minors and greater accountability for gaming companies. Dr. Lauren Gambill, an Austin pediatrician representing the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Pediatric Society, told lawmakers gaming has become a central part of how children and teens spend their time. She said roughly 85% of U.S. teens report playing video games, with 41% saying they play daily. While gaming can provide some benefits, she said modern platforms expose children to risks that did not exist a decade ago.

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“Gaming today looks very different than it did back when I was a kid, 20 years ago, even 10 years ago,” Gambill said. “We know that games have become social interactive platforms with many of the same safety concerns that we see with social media.” Gambill said gaming can influence children’s mental and physical health, academic performance and sleep habits. “The data will tell you that about 41% of teens who play video games report that it’s hurt their sleep,” Gambill said. “But clinically I’ll tell you this number, while it’s already significant, doesn’t begin to paint the picture of what we’re seeing is happening with these kids.” She argued many gaming platforms are intentionally designed to keep users engaged for long periods of time. “These platforms are intentionally designed to make it really difficult to stop,” Gambill said. “There’s features like streaks, persistent notifications, rewards, leader boards, social pressure mechanisms that just encourage kids to stay online continuously or return back to these games over and over and over again.”

Austin ISD lawsuit: LBJ teacher sexually abused student after report

A single mother was sitting in a darkened hospital room in July 2024, watching over one critically ill son, when she began worrying about another. Her 17-year-old son, a junior at LBJ Early College High School, had recently lost interest in extracurricular activities. Looking for clues, she reviewed his Cash App transactions. She found nearly 70 payments from Rodney Childers, the school’s assistant band director, totaling more than $2,000. The payments covered haircuts, Uber rides and gifts, according to court records and documents she provided to the American-Statesman. She immediately suspected Childers was sexually abusing her son.

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“I said, ‘I know he did something,’” she said. “It’s just a feeling you get. I know he did something to my child.” The mother, who the American-Statesman is not naming to protect her son’s identity, spent much of the next morning figuring out how and where to report her concerns. She eventually contacted an Austin Independent School District police officer assigned to LBJ. What happened next is at the center of a recently filed lawsuit against the district. The mother alleges that school district police and administrators failed to act quickly enough after she reported her suspicions, did not keep her informed about the investigation and did not immediately interview her son. She also alleges that Childers continued to sexually abuse her son after she sounded the alarm, while she traveled between Austin and Temple to care for her hospitalized son. The suit, filed in mid-July, seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Texas PUC changes Howard-Solstice transmission line route

The voices of hundreds of landowners who turned out to argue against the proposed route of a massive power line from San Antonio through the Hill Country to West Texas helped reshape the route. Before approving the state’s largest-ever transmission line, regulators altered the route proposed by CPS Energy and American Electric Power, the two utilities building the Howard-Solstice transmission line, to mitigate its impact on landowners. The Public Utility Commission on Friday directed it to go north of Uvalde County to prioritize running parallel to existing transmission lines. The previous route crossed the county. The decision came after Texans turned out in droves for weeks to make commissioners and lawmakers aware of how the Hill Country and South Plains could be harmed by the project to build one of the state’s largest-ever power lines.

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The voices included that of John Burrow, a Bell County landowner who testified Friday that those speaking out about the historic project are not dots on a route map but farmers, ranchers and parents raising their children. “They are not fighting because they oppose the progress,” he said. “They’re fighting because this is their home. Many of them don’t have the team of lawyers, engineers, lobbyists and consultants that are sitting in this room. They have their land. They have their families and their voices and their faith that Texas will stand with them.” Commissioner Courtney Hjaltman said their fight influenced the route change. “I want you to know that your participation really did matter,” she said. “My goal in making these changes was to reduce the impacts where possible by encouraging greater use of existing corridors and really minimizing the disruption of the land.” Concerns about limited use of existing right-of-way were often raised after landowners started learning about the project barreling toward approval under a compressed timeline. At the previous PUC meeting, a representative from the Zachry Hughes Group said that only 1%, or 4 miles, of the 370-mile line would parallel existing transmission lines. Commissioners opted to delay making a decision at that meeting.

Collin County commissioners increase property tax rate for the first time in decades

Collin County commissioners voted to raise property taxes for the first time in 33 years despite pushback from the county judge. Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the county’s budget and tax rate for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 at Monday’s commissioner’s court meeting. The new tax rate is about $0.151 per $100 of a home’s value, an increase of about 2.4% from the current rate of about $0.149 per $100 of a home’s value. Collin County Judge Chris Hill voted against the budget and tax rate, citing the impact on taxpayers. Hill has voted against the county’s budget and tax rate the past several years.

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The county kept the same property tax rate for the past few years, but property tax bills still increased due to an increase in home values. The increase in property tax revenue will add about $16.3 million to the county’s budget according to county budget documents. The median home value in Collin County this year was $517,911 according to county budget documents. The median homeowner in the county with a homestead exemption can expect to pay $744.98 in property taxes under the new rate. Last year, the median home value in Collin County was $480,773 according to the 2026 fiscal year adopted budget. The average homeowner with a homestead exemption paid $682.10 in property taxes to the county under the previous budget’s tax rate. Hill proposed asking the county’s departments to cut 2.67% and of their budgets and forgoing raises for county employees to prevent raising taxes but his motion failed to move forward. He made the same motions two other times at previous commissioners’ court meetings.

National Stories

Warsh set for showdown with Trump as Fed faces pressure to raise rates

Days before President Trump named Kevin M. Warsh as his pick to run the Federal Reserve, he griped about his past experience picking the leader of the central bank. “They’re saying everything I want to hear,” he told attendees at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland in late January. “They get the job, and all of a sudden, ‘Let’s raise rates a little bit.’” Four months in, Mr. Warsh is on the cusp of doing exactly that. The Fed is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, as it tries to stamp out inflation that has overshot the central bank’s 2 percent target for five years. It would be the first increase since July 2023.

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Raising rates from the current 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent level would directly defy Mr. Trump less than two months before midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress. Mr. Trump has long pressured the Fed to lower borrowing costs to boost economic growth and make interest payments on the national debt less costly. He repeatedly demanded this of Jerome H. Powell, whom the president elevated to chair in his first term. Mr. Trump’s Justice Department later opened a criminal investigation into Mr. Powell when he did not comply. This week’s decision has morphed into a litmus test for Mr. Warsh, who had been staunchly critical of the central bank’s handling of inflation before taking the helm. As chairman, he vowed to vanquish it once and for all. Now faced with an economy on solid footing, unemployment low and price pressures barely abating, Mr. Warsh and his colleagues on the policy-making committee appear boxed in to raising rates. Financial markets see an increase this week as all but guaranteed, driven in large part by Mr. Warsh’s own tough talk, which he delivered as recently as last month at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson, Wyo. Failing to follow through now risks eroding Mr. Warsh’s credibility and exacerbating a sell-off in U.S. government bonds that has already pushed yields on 10-year Treasuries this week to a multiyear high of 5 percent.

Costco raises price of Kirkland motor oil and limits how much shoppers can buy

Costco has raised the price of motor oil sold under its exclusive private-label Kirkland brand and is now limiting how much customers can purchase weekly amid rising oil prices. A 10-quart case of Kirkland Signature full synthetic motor oil is now $58, according to Costco’s website, after previously selling for roughly $30 to $35 for much of the past several years. Customers are limited to two cases per week, the product page reads in bold.

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Additionally, Costco is limiting purchases of Mobil 1 full-synthetic motor oil’s 1-quart six-pack, which is listed at about $44, to five per membership. FOX Business reached out to Costco for comment. The synthetic motor oil relies heavily on Group III base oils, which are produced by refining crude oil. Industry analysts say a significant share of the Group III base oils used in the U.S. is imported from producers in the Persian Gulf, where supply disruptions tied to the conflict have tightened availability. The price of a barrel of Brent Crude exceeded $109 on Monday morning as the conflict in the Middle East keeps disrupting global oil shipments. Brent has increased from less than $72 in early July amid uncertainty over whether a diplomatic resolution will restore normal oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Rising oil prices have pushed the national average price of regular gasoline to nearly $4.32 per gallon, up from $4.08 a month ago and $3.18 a year ago, according to AAA.

Newsom says he won’t challenge Harris if she runs in 2028

Gov. Gavin Newsom will not run in 2028 if former Vice President Kamala Harris decides to make another bid for the presidency. Widely considered a top contender to become the next Democratic nominee for president, the California governor told CNN that a contest between him and Harris “doesn’t make sense.” “I wouldn’t run if she ran,” Newsom said. “I know her base of supporters. I know her friends. The Venn diagram on that is just pure crossover. … I wouldn’t do that to people.”

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Newsom has laid miles of groundwork for a 2028 presidential campaign, recently visiting early primary and battleground states like South Carolina, in a “take it back” tour to rally base voters and confront Republican policies. He’s also positioned himself as a reliable Democratic surrogate, and has participated in media appearances to cement himself as an ideological foil to MAGA Republicans, including a televised debate against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Newsom said Monday contesting Harris for the nomination would be “a gift from God” to his political opponents. “They’d enjoy the hell out of it — mutual assured destruction,” he said. “It services no greater good.” Harris ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2020 and again in 2024 after then-President Joe Biden dropped out of his reelection bid.

Emmy Awards: The complete winners list

The 2026 Emmy Awards were handed out Monday night. Widow’s Bay was named best comedy series (setting a record), The Pitt won best drama series, and DTF St. Louis was named best limited or anthology series. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert won best variety series, and The Traitors was named best reality competition program. Among the acting winners are Jean Smart for Hacks, Kate O’Flynn for Widow’s Bay, Matthew Rhys (twice! which marks a record) for The Beast in Me and Widow’s Bay, Allison Janney for The Diplomat, Rhea Seehorn for Pluribus, Noah Wyle for The Pitt, Stephen Root for Widow’s Bay, Tom Pelphrey for Task and Sally Field for Remarkably Bright Creatures.

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Katie Dippold and Vince Gilligan won best writing for Widow’s Bay and Pluribus, respectively. Hiro Murai and Saul Metzstein scooped up directing trophies for Widow’s Bay and Slow Horses, respectively. Awards in 19 categories — including best drama and comedy series — were presented at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. (See the red carpet arrivals.) This year, The Pitt led the pack with 25 total nominations, followed by Hacks (with 24 nominations, a comedy series record), Widow’s Bay (19), Pluribus (18), and Beef (16). The Creative Arts ceremonies were held last weekend over two nights; click here and here to see the winners. Mariska Hargitay hosted the Emmys (which also featured a surprise appearance by Taylor Swift during a pretaped segment). Hargitay picked up two wins last week to her documentary My Mom Jayne. The ceremony aired live on NBC and Peacock.

McConnell returns to the Senate for first time since his hospitalization

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky returned to the Senate to vote on Monday for the first time in three months, looking noticeably more frail after he was hospitalized for a June fall in his home. McConnell’s lengthy absence from the Senate generated a flood of criticism and online speculation, as he initially remained quiet for weeks about his condition. The 84-year-old senator eventually disclosed a month later that he had been “briefly unconscious” due to the fall and had also been treated for mild pneumonia in the hospital. He briefly addressed reporters Monday from a wheelchair outside the Senate chamber, smiling but speaking slowly and with some difficulty. McConnell joked that he wasn’t sure how many reporters would be there after dodging so many questions during his almost two decades as leader.

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He said he was back in the Senate to work on a pending farm bill and because he has an ongoing interest in NATO and “backing up our good friends who are totally in the fight against the Russians.” Reporters and photographers were told by Senate staff not to take video of his remarks in the second-floor hallway, even though video is often permitted in that area. Still images were allowed. McConnell, who holds the distinction of being the longest-serving Senate leader, is in his final months of his four decades in office. He is retiring at the end of January after one of the most consequential careers in modern politics. Republicans have nominated U.S. Rep. Andy Barr to replace him, while Democrats have nominated former state lawmaker Charles Booker. McConnell has said he is determined to finish out his term. In a statement issued before his remarks, McConnell made clear that he may still miss some votes due to his health issues. He said that he is “still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured Leader (John) Thune that, as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors, I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me.” “My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and the lingering effects of childhood polio haven’t made it any easier,” McConnell said in the statement. The senator’s extended leave highlighted increasing public concern about the age of lawmakers and their capacity to carry out their duties. Speculation about his condition grew so intense at one point that Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear took the extraordinary step of issuing a public letter asking McConnell to update the public in a “transparent manner.” McConnell’s absence was also felt over the summer as Republicans were unable to advance a farm bill out of committee. His return could give GOP leaders a needed vote as they try to advance legislation on cryptocurrency regulation and college sports.

Crypto campaign cash could come at a cost for Democrats

The cryptocurrency industry is becoming a political liability on the left. A massive spending spree by crypto companies in the 2024 elections established the industry as a political force capable of making allies and breaking critics in big races. But in a series of Democratic primaries this year, progressive candidates have turned their opponents’ ties to crypto — and the industry’s campaign spending — into a successful line of attack. The cryptocurrency industry is becoming a political liability on the left. A massive spending spree by crypto companies in the 2024 elections established the industry as a political force capable of making allies and breaking critics in big races. But in a series of Democratic primaries this year, progressive candidates have turned their opponents’ ties to crypto — and the industry’s campaign spending — into a successful line of attack. The dynamic is emerging at a bad time for the industry. The Senate this week will take up a bill that represents the longtime top lobbying priority of crypto companies, and it needs bipartisan support in order to advance. Democrats considering supporting the measure must now weigh the future risk of increased blowback from their base if they bless a crypto-backed proposal. The crypto sector, though, wields a formidable war chest of campaign cash that could be deployed against Democrats if they stand in the way.

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“You do not want to be in a Democratic primary as a pro-crypto candidate — no matter how much money the crypto people give you,” said Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and longtime crypto skeptic. When Sherman, a 15-term Los Angeles-area Democrat, conducted polling on the most effective attack against a primary challenger he faced earlier this year, he said targeting contributions his opponent received from figures in the crypto world “was the single best attack.” “I had other attacks,” he said. “That was the best.” The shifting politics of crypto on the left poses a major dilemma for the Senate Democrats weighing whether to vote for the Clarity Act, the sweeping bill that would create a bespoke new regulatory framework for digital assets. Leading crypto companies have spent years — and hundreds of millions of dollars — lobbying for such a bill because they believe it will lock in legal certainty for their business models and help legitimize digital assets as mainstream financial products. Proponents say it will also add necessary new consumer protections in the crypto space. About a dozen Democrats have been involved in negotiations over the bill and say they are open to supporting it. But President Donald Trump’s family business entanglements in digital assets have made the politics of the bill worse on the left, and Democrats are demanding an ethics provision restricting Trump’s ability to profit from his family’s crypto businesses. None of the Democrats negotiating on the Clarity bill face serious threats this November. But at least two — Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Cory Booker of New Jersey — are potential 2028 presidential candidates, and others could face primary challenges in the future.

Why a lawyer who launched the Christian legal movement believes it’s gone astray

In the beforetimes, when Americans weren’t yet debating whether Starbucks holiday cups were Christmas-y enough or whether bakers should make cakes for same-sex weddings, a lanky Southerner named John Whitehead started something totally new: a Christian religious liberty law firm. It was hard to raise money, Whitehead recalled, or get support for the firm — even from evangelical leaders — for Christians fighting in court for the right to home-school or a police officer wanting to wear a cross to work. “They said ‘Christians don’t sue,’ or that ‘Christians shouldn’t get mixed up with the government,’” or they didn’t see the cause as a donor draw, Whitehead said in an interview. “I made appointments with these fancy ministers but no one seemed interested.”

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Today the Christian legal movement Whitehead helped pioneer is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and has touched many aspects of American life. Its firms, many sprinkled with his former protégés, have been on a winning spree at the Supreme Court, overturning long-standing legal limits on religious expression by public officials, expanding religious exemptions and elevating the place of religious exercise to its highest point in modern times. But Whitehead says the movement is not what he envisioned when he launched the Rutherford Institute in 1982. The cause has become dangerously politicized and intertwined with right-wing politics, he says, wrongly staying quiet as Muslim rights are under attack and as President Donald Trump allows immigration enforcement officers into houses of worship. While religious-liberties-focused law firms have successfully argued in federal courts to greatly expand what it means to freely exercise one’s faith, Whitehead says the movement has wrongly elevated the rights of conservative Christians over those of religious minorities. He points to new laws in a handful of states mandating public schools to prominently hang the King James version of the Ten Commandments and threats last month by Texas officials against airports that offer foot-washing stations for Muslim travelers.

Nancy Mace calls for public execution of Lindsay Clancy

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Monday that Lindsay Clancy should be publicly executed, as the Massachusetts woman faces a new trial for allegedly murdering her three children. “Her children are dead, she should be dead too,” Mace told TMZ. The South Carolina Republican later said, “She should get the death penalty. It should be public, it should be a public execution,” adding Clancy “deserves nothing less” than such a punishment. “It could be by firearm, it could electric chair, I don’t really care,” the outgoing lawmaker added, later saying it would serve as a “warning to women everywhere [that] you don’t kill your kids.”

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Judge William Sullivan, who is overseeing the case, declared a mistrial earlier this month. That came after the jury, composed of nine women and three men, told him they were unable to come to a unanimous decision after seven days of deliberation and five weeks of testimony. Prior to Sullivan declaring a mistrial, the jurors said they had an 11-1 majority in favor of acquittal by reason of insanity due to postpartum psychosis, with one holdout. Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz (R) has not said whether he will retry the case. A court hearing on the case is scheduled for Sept. 29 at Plymouth Superior Court, with Clancy being held at a psychiatric facility until then. Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, has asked President Trump for a pardon — despite the president not having the authority to do so, as Clancy is facing state, and not federal, charges. After Sullivan declared a mistrial on Sept. 4, Trump called the situation “a horrible tragedy.” The president told reporters, “Look, [Clancy] did a horrible, horrible thing. Can’t be worse, but you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There’ll be a price. It’s going to be [a] mental institution or jail or something, but I guess they’re going to go through another trial. It’s too bad.”

Copyright September 15, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved