December 31, 2025: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Karl Rove: The good, the bad and the ugly of 2025

If you listed the worst years in American history, 2025 wouldn’t be near the top. Our economy is growing better than most of the world. Total nonfarm employment is up slightly year over year. Inflation is under 3%. The southern border is secured. U.S. murders are on pace for the biggest yearly drop on record. America isn’t involved in any major wars. The war in Gaza has ground to a halt. Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed terror groups are significantly weakened. The U.S. and Israel destroyed key Iranian nuclear facilities. And even though America dithered over critical aid, beleaguered Ukraine hangs on as Russia’s invasion approaches its fourth anniversary. This year had its share of bizarre developments. No American president has ever ruled the news cycle like Donald Trump. He’s omnipresent, completely dominating coverage, constantly in front of cameras and inundating us with round-the-clock Truth Social posts.

click here for more

His pace is unrelenting. He throws at reporters so much fluff—personal asides, fulminations about adversaries real and imagined, commentary on culture and self-congratulation—that the press and public often ignore important things. This pace is also unsustainable. There are signs that the public is tiring of his hyperbole and insatiable desire for retribution. Increasingly, they may hear only the offensive or cruel things he says. Has the president convinced himself that he doesn’t need to sell his policies and actions? It appears that he believes he can will people into agreeing with him by claiming his achievements are the biggest, best and most amazing in American history. He’s gone way too far by slapping his name on buildings (the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) and government programs (the Navy’s “Trump-class” battleship). He might receive a fawning reaction from his MAGA base, but the average American finds such narcissism off-putting. Americans would be much more likely to support Mr. Trump if he explained what he’s doing and asked for patience as his administration makes necessary changes. But that isn’t his way. Presidents do best when they underpromise and overdeliver. The opposite—overpromising and underdelivering—angers voters. They often take out their anger at the ballot box. This year, Americans were also increasingly fascinated by conspiracy theories. Take Jeffrey Epstein. It isn’t enough that he committed heinous sex crimes and then took his life before being tried. Many people feel the need to place him at the center of a worldwide conspiracy of wealthy, powerful people. These co-conspirators murdered him in jail, it’s said, because of the threat he posed to them. Mr. Trump’s failure to deliver the goods on this vast plot has undermined his followers’ confidence in his Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Abbott calls for ‘Chief State Prosecutor’; gets backing from Elon Musk

After spending most of 2025 pushing to make it easier for judges to hold people accused of violent crimes in jail ahead of trial, Gov. Greg Abbott is continuing his tough-on-crime agenda entering the new year. His most recent proposal: create a new “Chief State Prosecutor” to override certain decisions made by local prosecuting attorneys. In recent days, Abbott cited two alleged cases from the X account “@AustinJustice” as proof the state needs the role. He first floated the idea on Dec. 22 by quoting an Austin Justice post about “Austin Man” Michael Nnaji. According to court records, Nnaji was arrested on suspicion of a terroristic threat on Oct. 3. Witnesses told police Nnaji, a homeless man, was banging on the doors of Padrón Elementary School and shouting “I’m going to go inside and kill” and “I’m gonna find a way to get in.”

click here for more

According to the social media post, Nnaji “racked up 34 cases since 2019” and skipped court in his terrorist threat case. A search for his name on the Travis County Court Viewer shows 37 cases. According to a spreadsheet the account compiled, Nnaji spent several stints behind bars after plea deals, including a recent two-year sentence for pleading guilty to aggravated assault. Nexstar has reached out to the Austin Justice social media account and Nnaji’s listed attorney in his pending case — Jill Gately — for comment, but have not yet heard back. “I am calling for legislation that creates a Chief State Prosecutor to actually prosecute criminals like this that DAs in places like Austin refuse to prosecute,” Abbott wrote. “Progressive DAs are literally leading to the murder of Texans. Those DAs must be held accountable and prosecutorial power must be shifted to actual prosecutors.” A spokesperson with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office (TCDA) noted that Nnaji has been convicted multiple times, citing his two-year jail sentence. They also noted that the Travis County Attorney’s Office (TCAO) — a different entity led by County Attorney Delia Garza and not District Attorney José Garza — is responsible for misdemeanor charges including Nnaji’s arrest outside of Padrón Elementary.

Texas appeals court upholds ruling preventing AG Paxton from targeting ‘rogue’ prosecutors

The judicial panel effectively sided with Democratic Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot and fellow urban prosecutors who argued the Paxton-imposed reporting requirements exceeded his statutory authority. The ruling, however, doesn’t end the legal fight. The case now returns to the Travis County district court that issued a temporary injunction in May preventing Paxton from requiring urban-area prosecutors to hand over sensitive case information and submit regular reports to him. “While this ruling is only preliminary, it shows progress in the right direction,” Creuzot said in a statement late Tuesday. “Yet another court has ruled that Attorney General Paxton overstepped his authority by proposing to enforce these rules with the likelihood of costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”

click here for more

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office didn’t respond Tuesday to a request for comment. Tuesday’s decision was issued by the 15th Court of Appeals, a relatively new appellate court created by the state Legislature in 2023 that consists of three justices appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Among the court’s duties is handling all appeals brought by or against the state and challenges to the constitutionality of state laws. In its 14-page opinion, the panel said Paxton, a Republican from McKinney, didn’t have the authority to force local district attorneys to report to his office on certain matters. “Administrative rulemaking is a lawmaking power that the Legislature delegates to agencies to carry out legislative purposes,” the justices wrote. “Although the Attorney General is a constitutionally created officer…the Office of the Attorney General is part of the executive branch and therefore has rulemaking authority only if the Legislature grants it such authority.” The court battle between Paxton and district attorneys in counties consisting of more than 400,000 residents began earlier this year after the attorney general proposed expansive new rules that require chief prosecutors in the state’s most populous areas to submit regular reports and hand over investigative files for cases involving indicted police officers, poll watchers and defendants claiming they acted in self-defense. If allowed, the mandate would have given the attorney general unprecedented access to prosecutorial decisions and policies.

Bankers are gearing up for another onslaught of monster deals in 2026

Megadeals returned in full force in 2025. Wall Street is already bracing for another wave in 2026. There were a record 68 transactions valued at $10 billion or more announced globally this year, according to data from LSEG going back to 1980. That drove the average annual deal size to a new high of nearly $227 million. “Large deals are driving the market. And when you see big deals, it’s a sign of CEO and boardroom confidence,” said Ivan Farman, global co-head of M&A at Bank of America. Farman said he and his team are anticipating momentum will continue in 2026 and beyond, and across industries. This year’s action picked up as concerns around President Trump’s tariffs were subsiding, and bankers and lawyers say it hasn’t slowed down since. One lawyer said she even got messages from clients on Thanksgiving—a 24-hour window that in past years has typically been sacrosanct, even on Wall Street.

click here for more

In media, Netflix struck a $72 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studios and HBO Max streaming service, prompting Paramount Skydance to launch a $77.9 billion hostile takeover bid for the entire company. In July, Union Pacific agreed to buy Norfolk Southern for $72 billion, in a bid to create the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. A couple months later, videogame maker Electronic Arts said it would go private in a $55 billion deal. In November, Huggies diapers owner Kimberly-Clark agreed to buy Tylenol maker Kenvue for $40 billion. Jonathan Davis, a corporate partner at Kirkland & Ellis, said companies are moving fast because they don’t want to miss the boat. “For the first time in several years, there’s a growing perception that the failure to act quickly risks losing the asset,” he said. Still, he cautioned that there have been numerous times in the past few years when it seemed as though dealmaking activity was about to take off before something got in the way. “I am super bullish, but cautiously so,” he said.

State Stories

Austin Energy unveils $735M 10-year grid resiliency plan

Austin Energy has released a sweeping, 10-year plan to strengthen the city’s electric grid, a move that comes in the wake of several catastrophic power outages that exposed weaknesses in the system and put the utility under intense public and political scrutiny. The $735 million Electric System Resiliency Plan is the result of more than a year of stakeholder engagement, cost analysis and third-party studies of Austin Energy’s overhead and underground distribution system. One of those analyses determined that fully burying the city’s power distribution lines would cost an estimated $50 billion, making the widely-discussed solution financially impractical. Instead, the plan focuses on targeted upgrades designed to deliver the greatest reliability improvements for the lowest cost. Those upgrades involve hardening vulnerable infrastructure, improving outage detection and restoration, and preparing the grid for increasingly extreme weather.

click here for more

Vegetation management is also a central focus of the plan, reflecting findings that trees and limbs were a major driver of outages during recent storms. The utility plans to better align tree-trimming efforts with areas identified as highest risk. “Over the last five years, we've had our three worst events in Austin Energy's history with regards to outages,” David Tomczyszyn, Austin Energy’s vice president of electric system engineering and technical services, said in an interview. Tomczyszyn was referring to winter storms in February 2021 and February 2023 that caused widespread and prolonged power outages, as well as May’s freak “Microburst.” The utility had already been working on the resiliency plan when the latter storm hit. The 2021 freeze and 2023 ice storm, in particular, prompted city investigations, leadership shakeups and sharp criticism over Austin Energy’s preparedness, communication and response.

Lina Hidalgo's chief of staff running for open City Council seat

Angelica Luna Kaufman, chief of staff for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, has her eyes set on Houston's open City Council seat. Luna Kaufman, 53, officially filed to run for the City Council seat representing Montrose, Meyerland and the Heights on Tuesday as current Council Member Abbie Kamin steps down to run for Harris County attorney.

click here for more

Becoming a council member was always in her periphery, Luna Kaufman told the Houston Chronicle Tuesday. But the timing of her campaign moved up with Kamin’s step back. “(Kamin) deciding to run for county attorney and the special election made me just realize, OK, well, I wasn't expecting it, but it's my window and it's now,” Luna Kaufman said. Before becoming the eyes, ears and guiding force in Hidalgo’s administration last year, Luna Kaufman previously worked communications for the state and local Democratic parties and for the late former U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s campaign for mayor. If elected to the position, Luna Kaufman said she’d use her background as the right hand to Hidalgo to push forward critical issues in District C like addressing flooding, public safety, infrastructure and coming up with solutions to Houston’s longstanding budget issues.

Sheriff: Body found near search area for Camila Mendoza Olmos

A body has been found near a field where Camila Mendoza Olmos was last seen, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Tuesday evening during a press conference, the individual’s identity has not yet been confirmed. Salazar said investigators had been operating under the possibility of self-harm, and that there are indications the death may have been self-inflicted, though he emphasized that the cause and manner of death have not been determined and will be confirmed by the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office. Salazar said investigators were also searching for a firearm that was unaccounted for from the residence, a detail that had not previously been made public.

click here for more

A firearm was recovered at the scene, he said but emphasized that authorities have not yet confirmed whether it is the same weapon. He added that the clothing worn by the unidentified individual matches the description of what Camila Mendoza Olmos was last seen wearing. Salazar reiterated that officials do not currently suspect foul play. The body was found in a field about a quarter mile from the search staging area and about a hundred yards from Camila’s residence, Salazar said. According to the sheriff, the discovery was made by a joint search team from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI during a renewed ground search Monday afternoon. The FBI, which had previously assisted with intelligence and digital forensic work, deployed agents to assist with boots-on-the-ground searching, Salazar said. Investigators made a deliberate decision to re-search an area that had already been checked, citing tall grass and visibility concerns. Salazar said the body was located approximately 10 minutes after the renewed search began. As of Tuesday evening, authorities were processing the scene, and Salazar said additional information would be released once identification is confirmed and the medical examiner completes its work.

‘Bring Maher home’: Family of Arlington man detained by ICE makes plea to Trump

The family of an Arlington man detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is making a plea to President Donald Trump for his immediate release. Maher Tarabishi is the primary caregiver for his 30-year-old son, Wael, who was recently hospitalized for the second time since his father was detained in October. Wael is a U.S. citizen who suffers from Pompe disease, a rare genetic condition that causes muscle deterioration and has left him bedridden. Speaking Tuesday morning outside the Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, family and advocates pleaded for Maher Tarabishi’s humanitarian release so he can care for his son while his case is underway.

click here for more

“Studies tell that when the family is there, the patients survive,” said Dr. Bilal Piracha, an ER physician from another hospital who is not treating Wael but is helping the family. “And when the families are not there, the patients are in pain.” Piracha said the trauma of his father’s detention is affecting Wael’s medical condition. He is not able to eat or drink, and his feeding tube is not working, Piracha asaid. Tarabishi’s nephew addressed Trump directly as he spoke. “My uncle has never done anything wrong in this country,” Loui Tarabishi said. “He has followed the laws, abided by everything.” Tarabishi came to the U.S. from Jordan in 1994. The family did not elaborate on Tarabishi’s legal status, but said his green card had been approved and he had permission to stay in the U.S. for decades to act as his son’s caregiver. Tarabishi was detained during his annual check-in at the Dallas ICE Field office on Oct. 28. In a statement to NBC last month, ICE alleged Tarabishi was a “self-admitted member of the Palestine Liberation Organization."

Dallas County GOP's plan to hand count ballots in primary election sunk by personnel, logistics issues, chair says

The Dallas County Republican Party's plan to hand count thousands of ballots for the March primary election has been sunk by a lack of personnel and logistics issues, Dallas County GOP Chair Allen West announced in a statement Tuesday. West said in a statement that the county was "woefully short" of the staffing required for the hand-counting effort.

click here for more

"On Monday, December 29, I received a call from our Hand Count Task Force lead regarding several risks that did not have a clear path for mitigation. These issues involved financial reimbursement, logistics, and personnel. The two most concerning areas were logistics and personnel," West's statement said. "The logistics challenges involved the demand for additional tables and chairs, as well as ballot printing due to the high number of races. This leads to the second issue—personnel. We are currently tapped out at approximately 1,300–1,500 individuals for hand counting. With only 63 days until the election, that number is woefully short of what is required. The greatest risk would be to continue without having trained, qualified, and ready counters, which would place our election judges in an untenable legal position. Instead, West said he decided to "sign a contractual agreement" with the Dallas County Elections Department to manage their primary. "My decision, as Chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party, is to sign a contractual agreement with the DCED that enables us to conduct a precinct-based, community, separate Election Day electoral process. This approach reduces the liabilities of DCRP and protects the organization, while affording us an opportunity to maintain better control," West said.

Ed Wallace, Fort Worth car columnist and DFW radio host, dies at 72.

Ed Wallace, who regaled radio listeners, TV viewers and newspaper readers with stories and advice about cars, died Sunday at his Fort Worth home. He was 72. “Ed was the most intelligent man I ever knew,” said his wife, Judi Smith. “There was a challenge of lifting me up to be a better person.” Smith described her husband as a “voracious reader” who was curious about everything. Wallace wrote almost 1,000 columns for the Star-Telegram about the auto industry and on topics such as the Middle East. He wrote his final column for the Star-Telegram on Feb. 12, 2021. He also hosted a five-hour radio show on KLIF every Saturday called “Wheels with Ed Wallace,” and he was the car and truck critic for the Fox 4 morning show, “Good Day” until he retired in 2022. Wallace was born in Riverside, California, on May 4, 1953.

click here for more

Smith said Wallace was a “military brat” whose father was an Air Force pilot. His parents wanted to retire in Fort Worth, she said. Wallace graduated from Arlington Heights High School but never went to college. “He was too smart for college,” Smith said. Smith said her husband sold cars, had a stint on the “Dating Game” and played in a rock band called Santa Fe before his journalism career. Smith said her husband wanted to impart his knowledge to others. Smith said she and Wallace first met when she needed a new car and went to Vandergriff Acura where he worked in 1993. They went to dinner, but she lived in east Dallas and Wallace was in west Fort Worth, she said. Then when Smith was working at Fox 4, she needed a date to a company Christmas party. She asked Wallace. In January 1999, she said, “Why don’t we get married.” Wallace replied, “When?” They married six months later, Smith said. Wallace was known for his generosity, and didn’t hesitate to give someone a $1,000 check if they needed the money. “Ed was a kind and generous man, but he also wanted to make people think,” Smith said. “He did a tremendous amount of research about what he wrote. He wanted to see both sides of the story.” Wallace is a recipient of the Gerald R. Loeb Award for business journalism, bestowed by the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.

Texas man accused of trying to support ISIS ordered held pending trial

A 21-year-old Texas man accused of trying to support ISIS with bomb components and money has been ordered held pending his trial on an international terrorism offense, online court records show. John Michael Garza Jr., of Midlothian, was charged last week by federal complaint with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. During a detention and preliminary hearing in federal court in Dallas on Tuesday, the judge ordered Garza held pending trial, citing the nature of the alleged offense and finding that the defendant's release poses a serious danger to the community, court filings show. The court found that the government "satisfied its burden to show that no conditions of supervision would mitigate the risk posed by Mr. Garza's conduct and his desire to support a designated foreign terrorist organization," U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian McKay wrote in the detention order.

click here for more

ABC News has reached out to Garza's attorney for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Garza was arrested following a Dec. 22 sting operation, according to the federal complaint. The investigation began in mid-October, when an undercover New York City Police Department employee began engaging with an Instagram account allegedly belonging to Garza that "followed several pro-ISIS Instagram accounts and wrote a comment on a pro-ISIS post," according to the complaint. The NYPD employee portrayed himself as an ISIS fighter in Iraq, according to the complaint. Over the next several weeks, Garza allegedly sent the undercover NYPD employee "official ISIS media releases," a video depicting a suicide vehicle bombing and a bomb-making instructional video, and "shared that he ascribed to the ISIS ideology," the Justice Department said on Monday in a press release announcing the charge. The DOJ accused Garza of sending "small sums" of cryptocurrency -- including several payments worth approximately $20, according to the complaint -- to the undercover NYPD employee in November and December, allegedly believing that he was supporting ISIS causes, such as buying firearms.

TCU pulls out overtime win against USC in Valero Alamo Bowl

TCU (9-4) managed an overtime win against the University of Southern California (9-4) at the Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Tuesday night, with the Horned Frogs handing out a 30-27 win against the Trojans. TCU quarterback Ken Seals got his very first start as a Horned Frog as TCU appeared in their third straight bowl game against the No. 16 ranked USC Trojans in the Alamo Bowl. TCU Tight Ends Coach Mitch Kirsch handled the play-calling duties for the offense, after former offensive coordinator Kendal Briles left to take a job at South Carolina. For USC, their fourth straight bowl game under head coach Lincoln Riley ended with them breaking a potential three-win streak for such games.

click here for more

Behren Morton leading Texas Tech's improbable CFP run amid unreal injury journey

They’re everywhere in West Texas. Can’t swing a cowboy hat without hitting one. But here’s the thing about pump jacks that paint the flat landscape of the oil-rich state: The damn things never stop pumping. For anything. “That’s what I think of when you say West Texas,” says Texas Tech All-America linebacker Jacob Rodriguez. “What I think of when you say Behren Morton.” And that’s the story of this magical Texas Tech season. Not big money benefactors swinging a big stick in the transfer portal era, not a former high school coach managing all those egos and somehow making it work. But an overlooked and undervalued senior quarterback who has beaten significant injury odds, year after year, by gutting and grinding it out — and not stopping for anything or anyone.

click here for more

This season, this time around, it’s a hairline fracture in his right leg. Or as medical professionals call it, a broken leg. For two years prior — two years, and two full seasons — Morton played with a Grade 3 AC joint sprain of his throwing shoulder, an injury so severe, it involved a complete tear of ligaments connecting the collarbone and shoulder blade. That’s three seasons of playing with significant injuries that would be season-ending for most players. But not this guy. Not this West Texas soul born and raised in Lubbock, Texas, where life is spent bending and lifting and working nonstop like those pump jacks. You just keep going. Day after day, year after year in the hardscrabble island of the Texas hinterlands. They’re not stopping, why should he? “It’s just not how I was raised,” Morton said. “I’m going to do everything possible to get on that field.” So he did, and wouldn’t you know it, the one thing that makes the $25 million dollar Texas Tech roster go, the one home-grown indispensable on a team of high-dollar, single-season mercenaries of the transfer portal era, is the pounding and persevering heart of West Texas. The first Big 12 title in school history. The first 12-win season in school history. The first appearance in the College Football Playoff in school history, beginning Thursday in the Orange Bowl quarterfinal against Oregon. Morton’s not missing this ride, he’s leading it.

College football transfer portal: Texas' Steve Sarkisian calls out irrational agents

Constructing a college football roster is wildly different now than it was even three years ago, as the transfer portal, NIL and revenue sharing completely reshaped the way coaches and programs must operate. There are plenty of teams that use the ability to (legally) pay players and the portal to their advantage, but the newness of everything related paying players and the lack of regulations in college football, due to the ever-weakening NCAA, created a number of challenges. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian detailed one major problem he hopes to see addressed after a reporter asked about how he approaches building through the portal. Texas doesn't have much issue with investment or resources, but Sarkisian explained that the lack of a certification process for agents can lead to some absurd situations.

click here for more

"I think it's all so strategic, right? It's one about need. It's two about money and the cost and where's the market and which agent you're dealing with," Sarkisian said. "There are some agents that are rational, and there are some agents that this is the first time ever being an agent — I don't know if they are even licensed to be agents, but all of a sudden they get to be agents because we have no certification process in college football. In the NFL, you have to be certified. In college football, it may be their college roommate their freshman year who's their agent right now, and this guy is throwing numbers at you and it's like, we can't even deal with this. Like, you just move on. It's unfortunate. And we'll get there in college football, but right now it's a tough situation." Coaches complaining about NIL and the portal often amount to sour grapes, but Sarkisian's point about the challenge of dealing with agents which have no previous experience or understanding of the market is a legitimate one. That said, you have to wonder if this is fresh in Sarkisian's mind due to any of Texas' opt-outs, as they have 13 players who announced intentions to enter the transfer portal and won't play in the Citrus Bowl. Among them are the Longhorns top three running backs, headlined by Tre Wisner, and their second-leading receiver, DeAndre Moore Jr. Eventually one would think some governing body will emerge that can provide some form of regulations on that sort of thing and require certification to help everyone out -- as players would be better served being represented by more professional agents. However, it's not clear when that will happen as the fear of anti-trust litigation led the NCAA to await congressional action, which has yet to materialize in any meaningful way. In the meantime, coaches and GMs will have to deal with the occasional green agent who asks the world, which even a program with seemingly endless resources like Texas has to laugh off.

Attorneys for indicted Sugar Land plastic surgeon say medical board cleared him

Attorneys for a Sugar Land plastic surgeon accused of drinking while performing surgery told a judge the Texas Medical Board reviewed similar allegations and determined they were unfounded. Azul Shirazali Jaffer went before a magistrate judge this month after a Fort Bend grand jury indicted him on one count of performing surgery while intoxicated, court records show.

click here for more

The magistrate set Jaffer's bail at $5,000, with restrictions subjecting the longtime surgeon to alcohol and drug testing and monitoring ahead of each surgery while the criminal case is pending. Jaffer was no longer in the Fort Bend County Jail as of Monday. Prosecutors in the magistrate hearing provided few clues about the specifics behind the allegations against Jaffer. Bond conditions mention that he shouldn’t have contact with several people, listed only by their initials, and his defense attorney, Troy McKinney, told the judge that several anesthesiologists were listed as witnesses in the case. Officials with the Texas Medical Board did not respond to a request for comment about whether they’d cleared Jaffer of the claims in the Fort Bend criminal case. A spokesperson for the medical board previously said it doesn’t comment on potential or ongoing complaints unless it takes disciplinary action.

Ousted Alamo CEO asks for financial help in suing Texas leaders

A friend of Kate Rogers has launched an online fundraiser to help the former Alamo Trust CEO pay legal expenses related to a lawsuit she filed against state leaders who she says forced her out of her job. Rogers resigned on Oct. 23 under pressure from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who had objected to her academic writings and to social media posts by the Alamo that they deemed unacceptably "woke." Rogers later filed a federal civil rights suit naming Patrick, Buckingham, the Alamo Trust and Hope Andrade, who replaced her as Alamo president and CEO. In the suit, Rogers contends that the defendants violated her free speech rights. She is seeking reinstatement to her former job along with monetary damages for economic loss and emotional distress.

click here for more

A GoFundMe campaign titled “Kate Rogers Legal Fund — Truth At The Alamo vs Politics” is soliciting donations to defray Rogers' legal bills. Mary Ullmann Japhet, owner of Japhet Media, a public relations firm, and a friend of Rogers for more than 30 years, announced the effort this week. “So many people were asking me, and asking her, ‘How can I help? What can I do?” Ullmann Japhet said in an interview. “Her legal fees are very real. This is a tangible way that people can help, at whatever level.” By Tuesday afternoon, the GoFundMe had received 10 donations totaling $1,695. The goal is $50,000. Rogers, who has one son in high school and another in college, said she earned $350,000 annually as Alamo CEO. She said she has paid more than $20,000 in legal fees so far and expects the total to exceed $50,000. “I’m not a wealthy politician. I live a nice life, but I’m also a professional who lost their job quite suddenly,” she said in an interview.

Harris County elections officials find more than 100 voter registrations illegally tied to P.O. boxes

The Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar's Office has found more than 100 voter registrations linked to private post office boxes, in violation of state elections law, and the Texas Secretary of State has asked the office to review an additional 126 addresses. The secretary of state began investigating after state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, filed a complaint earlier this year. His office identified voters whose home addresses were registered at UPS locations on Westheimer Road and Waugh Drive, in violation of legislation he authored. "No one lives in a P.O. Box, and Texans cannot legally register to vote from one," Bettencourt said in a Monday statement in response to the investigation's findings. "It's the law, and it's been the law for four years in statute."

click here for more

In response to Bettencourt's November complaint, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson threatened potential state oversight of elections in Harris County, where there were more than 2.6 million registered voters as of November 2024. Texas’ most populous county has become a Democratic stronghold in recent years, and its elections have come under scrutiny by the state’s Republican leaders, who have passed laws regulating how the county runs its elections. Neither Bettencourt nor Nelson has alleged the voter address issue led to ballots being illegally cast in recent elections or impacted the outcome of any races. The secretary of state's office was not immediately available for comment Tuesday afternoon. On Dec. 23, the office sent a letter to the Harris County Voter Registrar, acknowledging the actions the county took to address the P.O. box registrations. The secretary of state also provided the county with the list of additional addresses associated with commercial post office boxes. "Our office acknowledges and appreciates your diligent and timely efforts to respond to the items listed in the complaint and to ensure the accuracy of your voter registration records through proper list maintenance activities," the secretary of state's office said in the letter to the county.

National Stories

CIA behind strike at Venezuelan dock that Trump claims was used by drug smugglers, AP sources say

The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to two people familiar with details of the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the classified matter. The first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September marks a significant escalation in the administration’s months-long pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. The strike has not been acknowledged by Venezuelan officials. President Donald Trump first made reference to the operation in an interview Friday with John Catsimatidis on WABC radio in New York, saying the U.S. had knocked out some type of “big facility where ships come from.”

click here for more

In an exchange with reporters Monday as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump added that the operation targeted a “ dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.” But the president declined to comment when asked whether the attack was conducted by the military or the CIA. The CIA and White House officials also declined to offer further comment on the matter. Col. Allie Weiskopf, a spokesperson for Special Operations Command, which oversees U.S operations in the Caribbean, said in a statement that “Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support.” Related Stories US military carries out 30th strike on alleged drug boat A look at the US military's unusually large force near Venezuela US forces stop oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as Trump follows up on promise to seize tankers The strike escalates what began as a massive buildup of U.S. personnel in the Caribbean Sea starting in August, which has been followed by at least 30 U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. More recently, Trump has ordered a quasi-blockade aimed at seizing sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela.

Warren Buffett stayed true to his ways in his final year as Berkshire CEO

In a year of record stock highs, artificial-intelligence moonshots and tense standoffs on global trade, Warren Buffett spent much of it watching, and waiting for the right moment to strike. Buffett, one of corporate America’s most-prolific—and patient—dealmakers, stuck to his script in his final year as Berkshire Hathaway’s chief executive. With the market’s rally limiting opportunities to make large acquisitions, Berkshire sold more stocks than it bought and stockpiled cash. He further pared Berkshire’s stake in Apple when tech stocks were still booming, and bought a petrochemical company with cash. But as the year drew to a close, it became clear Buffett’s biggest move in 2025 was his May announcement, from the stage of Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha, Neb., that he would cede his CEO post to Greg Abel at the end of the year. Even Abel was surprised by the timing. “Warren exits in his final year having invested the same ways he did for six decades: patiently opportunistic and never placing the company in harm’s way,” said Chris Bloomstran, president and chief investment officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group, who has invested in Berkshire since 2000.

click here for more

Americans have relied on Buffett’s straight talk for decades to make sense of all manner of financial developments. In March, weeks before President Trump’s taxes on imports set off a historic market crash, Buffett warned that his threatened tariffs amounted to an “act of war.” But after announcing his CEO tenure would end today, Buffett began to cede the spotlight. He told investors in his Thanksgiving letter last month that he is “going quiet”—“sort of”—and reiterated his confidence in Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman of noninsurance operations. “Greg understands, for example, far more about both the upside potential and the dangers of our (property and casualty) insurance business than do a great many longtime P/C executives,” Buffett wrote. Not everyone is sticking around for what comes next. Berkshire’s stock price is down more than 6% since he announced his departure. One of his key lieutenants, Geico CEO Todd Combs, is joining JPMorgan Chase. Longtime finance chief Marc Hamburg is retiring in June. “When you don’t have Buffett as the magnet, it gets to be more like a normal company” where people leave for other jobs or retire by their 70s, said Bill Stone, chief investment officer at Glenview Trust in Louisville, Ky., which holds Berkshire shares.

Democrat wins Iowa Senate election, holding off GOP supermajority

Democrat Renee Hardman made history after winning the Iowa Senate District 16 seat to become Iowa's first Black female senator, defeating Republican Lucas Loftin in a Dec. 30 special election to hold off a GOP supermajority. Hardman earned 71.4% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Iowa Secretary of State, to represent the district that includes parts of West Des Moines, Clive and Windsor Heights — continuing a string of special election wins that have buoyed Iowa Democrats heading into the 2026 midterm elections. The seat has been vacant since the death of Sen. Claire Celsi, D-West Des Moines, in October. Hardman is the president and CEO of Lutheran Services of Iowa. She also made history as West Des Moines' first Black City Council woman when she was elected in 2017.

click here for more

At an election night party Tuesday in Valley Junction, Hardman, 64, said she felt a responsibility to live out the words on her campaign yard signs to be “a voice for all people” and give all Iowans equal opportunity to thrive, adequately fund public schools, make health care affordable and support small businesses. “We ran to make life better for real people," Hardman said. "I ran to fight for people like you.” Hardman becomes the 17th Democrat in the Iowa Senate, holding Republicans at 33 members — one short of the 34 the GOP caucus would need to claw back their supermajority in the 50-member chamber. It means Republicans would need at least one Democratic vote to confirm Gov. Kim Reynolds' nominees to state agencies, boards and commissions. Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, told reporters her caucus will give all nominees the chance to explain themselves and make their decisions as a collective.

Trump's first year was marked by racist controversies. These conservatives of color don't care.

Here at the breakout session at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, the vibe felt less like a political panel than an evangelical revival. Asian, Black, Latino and white attendees crammed into a meeting room in the Phoenix Convention Center, crosses dangling from necks, from the dainty and demure to the big and blinged-out. There were outbursts aplenty of “Amen!,” “Yes!” and “That’s right!!!” And there were testimonies, conversion stories about sin and redemption, about straying too far to the left before finally seeing the light and being put, quite literally, on the right path. The panel was called “The Story of How We Left the Left,” a session focused mainly on the perspectives of Black and brown voters whose increased support for Donald Trump helped fuel his victory a year ago. And if any of that support has ebbed after a 2025 that featured ugly controversies around things like Tucker Carlson’s interview with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, the (since reversed) downgrading of nooses and swastikas as hate symbols by the Coast Guard and the leaked Young Republicans group chat full of racist and antisemitic messages, it wasn’t evident here, at a gathering of MAGA’s most fervent supporters.

click here for more

Instead, at AmFest, the young conservative activists of color were full of energy for what they considered the real battle: The one against Democrats who, they said, take minority votes for granted. “I was born and raised a Democrat,” said Bianca Garcia, co-founder and president of Latinos for Trump, one of three panelists addressing the crowd. “I didn’t know any better … Obviously, I was in the plantation of the Democrat Party. But thank you, Jesus, for waking me up.” The audience erupted in applause. Another panelist, Craig Long, a Black former prisoner, one-time liberal and self-proclaimed provider of “mean tweet commentary,” added, “Have I lost family members and friends? Absolutely. I have relationships that probably will never be rebuilt, [even] with my own mother and father ... Truth is very inconvenient.” Insofar as anyone at AmFest was talking about racists, most were pointing a finger at the left, arguing the real culprits were progressives who look down on people of color who have the temerity to think for themselves and break with the Democrats. That line is an old standby of conservative rallying, but its power hasn’t been diminished after an election where Trump made unprecedented inroads among traditionally Democratic constituencies.

Homeland Security seeks emergency demolition of historic buildings in D.C.

The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to fast-track the demolition of more than a dozen historic buildingsat St. Elizabeths in Southeast Washington, asserting that the conditions of the vacant structures represent an “emergency” and pose potential security risks, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, in a Dec. 19 memo to the General Services Administration, said the buildings “constitute a present risk to life and property” on the 176-acre West Campus, a fortified complex that Homeland Securityhas been transforming into its new headquarters over the past 15 years. “Demolition is the only permanent measure that resolves the emergency conditions,” Noem wrote in thememo. A risk assessment report undertaken by her agency “supports immediate corrective action,” she wrote. The assessment report, which Noem included with her memo,concludes the vacant buildings “may be accessed by unauthorized individuals seeking to cause harm to personnel.” The structures “provide a tactical advantage for carrying out small arms or active shooter scenarios,” the report states.

click here for more

DHS’s proposed demolition is prompting opposition from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the D.C. Preservation League, which are seeking to participate in a detailed on-site assessment of the structures, nine of which they say were built in the late 1800s. In a letter sent Sunday to the GSA, the preservation organizations raise “strong objections” to the proposed demolition, contending that no evidence of an emergency exists beyond “Secretary Noem’s unilateral declaration” of one. “A unilateral declaration like this is problematic because it bypasses the procedural safeguards designed to ensure stability, legitimacy and fairness,” reads the letter signed by Elizabeth Merritt, the National Trust’s deputy general counsel, and Rebecca Miller, the Preservation League’s executive director. Regarding the purported security risks, the preservationists wrote that the Homeland Security campus possesses “the highest security classification for a government facility.” Concerns about threats, they wrote, “imply a fundamental flaw in the facility’s security as a whole,” not the vacant buildings.

Health Dept. pauses child care funding to Minnesota, citing state’s fraud scandal

The Health and Human Services Department said on Tuesday that it had paused its child care payments to Minnesota, days after the posting of a widely circulated video that added new accusations to a fraud scandal in the state’s social services programs and led conservatives to call for a government crackdown. The decision blocks a funding stream that provides $185 million in annual aid to Minnesota day care centers, according to the health department. More than a dozen schemes have come to light in Minnesota in recent years, many of them involving people of Somali origin. Prosecutors say the schemes have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The scandal has rattled Minnesota politics and drawn the ire of the White House.

click here for more

On Friday, a conservative active on social media, Nick Shirley, posted a video purporting to uncover rampant fraud in day care centers run by people of Somali origin. While day care centers in Minnesota have been prosecuted for overbilling in the past, none of the centers featured in the video have been accused of fraud by the authorities. Nevertheless, the video drew accolades from several senior White House officials. Jim O’Neill, the deputy health secretary, said in a video statement on Tuesday that the department was pausing the funding in response to “credible allegations” of “extensive fraud” in Minnesota’s child care programs. Mr. O’Neill said he had sent a letter to the state’s governor, Tim Walz, a Democrat, demanding a thorough audit of the state’s day care centers. In a statement, Mr. Walz’s office said the governor had been combating fraud “for years.” “Fraud is a serious issue,” said the statement. “But this is a transparent attempt to politicize the issue to hurt Minnesotans and defund government programs that help people.”

Tatiana Schlossberg, a grandchild of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died at 35

Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, one of three grandchildren of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died after she was diagnosed with leukemia last year. She was 35. Schlossberg, daughter of Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Edwin Schlossberg, revealed she had terminal cancer in a November 2025 essay in The New Yorker. A family statement disclosing her death was posted on social media Tuesday by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. “Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,” the statement said. It did not disclose a cause of death or say where she had died. Maria Shriver, a niece of John F. Kennedy and a former award-winning TV journalist, grieved for Schlossberg on social media and called her “the light, the humor, the joy” and a great journalist who “used her words to educate others about the earth and how to save it.”

click here for more

“She loved her life, and she fought like hell to try to save it,” Shriver wrote. Schlossberg told of being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024 at 34. While in the hospital for the birth of her second child, her doctor noticed her white blood cell count was high. It turned out to be acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation, mostly seen in older people. In the November essay, “A Battle With My Blood,” Schlossberg recounted going through rounds of chemotherapy and two stem cell transplants and participating in clinical trials. During the most recent trial, she wrote, her doctor told her “he could keep me alive for a year, maybe.” Schlossberg also criticized policies pushed by her mother’s cousin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in the essay, saying policies he backed could hurt cancer patients like her. Her mother had urged senators to reject his confirmation. “As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers,” the essay reads. Schlossberg had worked as a reporter covering climate change and the environment for The New York Times’ Science section. Her 2019 book “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have” won the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award in 2020. Schlossberg wrote in The New Yorker essay that she feared her daughter and son wouldn’t remember her. She felt cheated and sad that she wouldn’t get to keep living “the wonderful life” she had with her husband, George Moran. While her parents and two siblings tried to hide their pain from her, she said she felt it every day. Her siblings, Rose and Jack Schlossberg, are JFK’s other grandchildren. “For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry,” she said. “Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

Trump vetoes unanimously approved, Boebert-sponsored water bill

President Donald Trump vetoed a bipartisan, unanimously-approved bill sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Jeff Hurd that would have secured funding to bring clean water to communities on the Eastern Plains, according to a statement made to FOX31 by Boebert’s office. The Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act passed unanimously in the House and the Senate. The bill would have secured funding to continue building the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a water pipeline that would bring access to clean water for 39 communities between Pueblo and Lamar, an area that is known to have high concentrations of salt in the groundwater. It is not a new idea that has been recently created, but rather the end of a project that was developed just over 60 years ago, in 1962, as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. Colorado Democrats and Republicans alike have been working side-by-side on this project for decades, with Boebert the latest on the scene. Most of the land used for the pipeline site falls under her district.

click here for more

Her office made a statement to FOX31 about the veto on Tuesday: “President Trump decided to veto a completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Why? Because nothing says ‘America First’ like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado, many of whom enthusiastically voted for him in all three elections. “I must have missed the rally where he stood in Colorado and promised to personally derail critical water infrastructure projects. My bad, I thought the campaign was about lowering costs and cutting red tape. “But hey, if this administration wants to make its legacy blocking projects that deliver water to rural Americans; that’s on them. “I’m going to continue fighting for Colorado and standing up for our rural communities, our farmers, and every family that deserves safe, reliable drinking water without decades more delay.” Typically on the same wavelength as Trump, this is the second time that Boebert has found herself on the opposite side of the president recently, with her pushing for the release of the notorious Epstein Files in the last few months. Boebert was the sponsor for the House version of the bill, while Sen. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Michael Bennet worked with her to progress the bill and sponsored the Senate version. Both responded to the decision by Trump.

Copyright January 01, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved