June 7, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas oil CEO Josh Cohen arrested, accused of organized crime

Law enforcement officials in Texas and New York arrested Josh Cohen of Vision Oil & Gas on Friday, charging the Texas oilfield executive with theft and engaging in organized crime, Reeves County District Attorney Sarah Stogner said. Stogner, whose West Texas office assisted in the arrest in Nassau County, New York, said her team investigated the case involving more than $1.2 million in stolen services. Investigators accuse Cohen of contracting for services such as oilfield remediation, trucking and equipment rentals “without the intent or ability to pay for them,” pushing some firms to “near financial collapse,” law enforcement documents show. "... the evidence indicates the scheme extends broadly across the State of Texas,” investigators said.

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Stogner said she began investigating the case after alleged victims shared their experiences online. “There's a fine line in the boom-or-bust industry … between good faith, ‘got in over your head’, and a con man,” Stogner said. “If you commit crime in my counties and try to defraud my constituents, we will investigate you, and we will go arrest you, no matter where you are, regardless of county lines or state lines.” Cohen lives in New York but operates in the Permian Basin. Cohen is being held in New York and is expected to be extradited to Texas, Stogner said. He is charged with one count of theft of services and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity, according to arrest warrants. Cases like Cohen’s are challenging for law enforcement in small counties, Stogner said, noting the investigation remains ongoing. “For rural prosecutors – where most of the oil and gas operations are – they just don't have the manpower to get into these really forensically challenging ... electronic cases,” Stogner said. “It's very time consuming.” An attorney for Cohen, Lane Haygood, declined to comment. “All our talking is done in court,” he said.

Paxton’s Senate bid raises the stakes in his war on Latino voting groups

For years, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has been waging war on Democratic and Latino-led groups over “election integrity,” leaving a trail of ransacked residences, shellshocked volunteers, struggling organizations and indictments behind him. But the stakes of the fight with groups determined to mobilize Texas’ fast-growing Hispanic electorate changed significantly last month when he won the Republican Party’s nomination for Senate. Now it is personal and could help determine his own political future — and which party controls the Senate. “It doesn’t look good for us,” said Gabriel Rosales, the Texas director for the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, which is one of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organizations. “But we are going to keep fighting.” Long a voice amplifying baseless claims that noncitizens are voting in huge numbers, Mr. Paxton went beyond rhetoric in 2024, using a new restrictive voting law to target left-leaning Latino groups and wielding corporate statutes that allow him to target entire organizations, not individual officers or employees.

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In the name of election integrity, the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature criminalized what had been fairly routine tools for civic groups, churches and political campaigns, particularly in Latino communities. The new law made it a felony to pay staff or give volunteers benefits — such as stipends or gas money — or to drop by the homes of voters. The measure also made it illegal for volunteers to help fill in ballots for, say, elderly or bilingual voters, and bring them to polling sites or drop boxes. Volunteers are allowed only to read mail-in ballots to those they would assist. Lawsuits and investigations followed, along with raids on home offices and private residences. At least 15 Latino Democratic officials and volunteers were indicted last year in Frio County alone, a place with only about 20,000 people. They include a county judge, two city council members and a former county election administrator, charged with contravening the new Texas voting law by illegally “harvesting” ballots that otherwise would not be cast and with tampering with evidence. “Under my watch, there will be no stolen elections in Texas,” Mr. Paxton said in February. The groups remain defiant. Four prominent Latino civil rights and political organizations formed a strategic alliance in May, seeking to stem the Republican Party’s gains among Hispanic voters. In a separate initiative, seven national and state-led Latino rights and progressive groups announced on Tuesday that they will coordinate canvassing and voter outreach.

How Dallas lost its grip on North Texas' biggest wins

In February 2025, Dallas business and civic leaders gathered outside Neiman Marcus' downtown flagship to celebrate a temporary reprieve for the iconic retailer and show that downtown could keep moving forward. New housing projects were planned or underway. City leaders promised progress on long-standing challenges. Supporters were hopeful about the future of the city's urban core. Today, the outlook is far less certain.

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Neiman Marcus is leaving downtown. The Mavericks plan to move to North Dallas. The Stars have chosen Plano for a new arena. Earlier this year, AT&T announced plans to relocate its headquarters to Collin County and Fifth Third Bank selected a campus on the northern edge of town for its regional headquarters. The decisions are largely unrelated. But together they’ve stirred anxieties about whether Dallas is keeping pace with a region where neighboring cities increasingly are competing for jobs, investment and prestige. “The wolf is not in this room,” Mayor Eric Johnson said at last week’s City Council meeting. “The wolf is up the tollway.” As suburbs gain ground, downtown Dallas continues to struggle with empty offices, changing work patterns and pressure to keep pace. City leaders are scrambling not only to keep major employers and institutions, but also to attract new ones. The latest blows have been jarring, said Walter Bialas, head of research at Goodwin Advisors, a local real estate firm. “There's a shot to the kidneys, and there's one to the midsection. Then there's an uppercut, then there's another one to the midsection,” he said. “Oh my goodness, this is just crazy.”

Texas drought, shrinking herds reshaping cattle country

For the past five years, Texas ranchers have been struggling against drought. Now, those with cattle to sell are finding a bright spot — but it’s one causing pain for consumers and politicians. It’s not a clear win for ranchers, either. Despite dried-up pastures and shrunken-down herds, ranchers like Lew Thompson, who runs nearly 3,000 head near Pearsall, are reaping what he called “prolific sales.” “Usually when the drought is on, you just keep getting kicked in the teeth on the price,” Thompson said. “We have a very unusual situation.” This time around, ranchers are cashing in cattle for all-time high prices as inventory in the United States has plummeted to 75-year lows. The result is retail prices that have surged more than 18% from a year ago, pushing the average price of a pound of ground beef in American cities to $6.90 in April, the highest on record. A year earlier, it was $5.80, also a record. As recently as early 2021, the price was less than $4.

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Prices are projected to keep rising, too, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasting another 10.1% increase by the end of the year. Ranchers aren’t reaping all the price increases in profit, though. Their margins are being squeezed by difficulties spurred by the lingering drought and record-high costs for feed, fuel, fertilizer, equipment and supplies as Trump administration tariffs, war and persistent inflation take their toll. Thompson, for example, said his costs are up about 25% in recent years, wiping out the 12% average increase in cattle sale prices seen across the U.S. in the past year. The steadily rising prices are rattling consumers and, increasingly, elected officials who are beginning to understand the political impact of declining affordability in the U.S. This spring, a group of congressional Democrats introduced a bill designed to break up the heavily consolidated U.S. meat industry, which they blamed for a lack of competition and high prices. Later, the U.S. Justice Department said it was investigating potential antitrust violations in the cattle and beef industry. Then, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office was launching its own investigation.

The great American job-creation machine comes back to life

Economists had written off the great American job-creation machine. Now, it is revving back to life. Hiring has surged this spring, with employers adding more than half a million jobs between March and May. Factories, restaurants and city halls have all shifted into hiring mode, a pivot from last year, when the healthcare industry almost single-handedly propped up job creation. Friday’s May jobs report showed the labor market has now notched its best three-month stretch in more than two years. The momentum is a sea change from last year, when hiring was weak in many sectors. Many companies reported then that the economic outlook was too iffy for them to expand. Meanwhile, the Trump administration was clamping down on immigration in high-profile raids, which sharply curtailed the number of people available to work and added another hurdle to strong hiring.

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Now, however, President Trump isn’t making as many rapid changes to tariff policy as he was last year, giving businesses an easier time planning. AI companies are rushing to build data centers, creating a boom in that corner of the construction industry. Though many Americans are gloomy about high gasoline prices and rising inflation, well-heeled consumers continue to spend robustly, supported by a roaring stock market—Friday’s selloff notwithstanding. The resurgence poses a puzzle for economists. Many came to believe that the immigration crackdown had pushed the economy into a new, more sedate equilibrium, where even a trickle of new jobs each month would be enough to employ an American workforce whose growth had slowed substantially. The country, some economists proposed, simply didn’t need to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs a month anymore to keep the economy stable, a trend called a falling break-even rate of job creation. If that downshift were happening, slower job creation wouldn’t lead to more unemployment—but weaker growth and a less dynamic economy would likely follow. More recent data is calling that conclusion into question.

State Stories

‘The knives are out’ for Dallas as rivals chip away at its regional clout

Can Dallas still compete? That’s the question confronting local leaders after a series of high-profile departures rattled a city whose image has long been built on growth, ambition and swagger. Get the latest political news, analysis and policy decisions shaping Texas and the nation. “The knives are out for our city,” Mayor Eric Johnson said last week. His warning reflects an intensifying scramble in North Texas for prestige and influence. Neighboring cities that once played supporting roles are now winning marquee projects that once seemed destined for Dallas. The Mavericks and Stars put that shift on full display when they announced plans to leave downtown. Now, a larger debate has broken out about whether Dallas is moving quickly enough in a region where it no longer stands alone. The stakes reach from City Hall to downtown and Dallas' place in North Texas.

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For some civic leaders and residents, the problem isn't that Dallas lacks resources. It's that it lacks alignment. Sana Syed, a downtown resident and former City Council candidate, told council members Wednesday that Dallas' recent losses were not isolated events. “Downtowns rarely die from a single blow,” she said during the public comment segment. “They fade when vision is replaced by complacency, when short-term politics outweigh long-term stewardship.” Her complaints echoed a frustration that surfaced throughout the meeting: that the council has become too distracted by internal fights and too slow to act as neighboring cities aggressively pursue businesses, investment and major projects. Council members have traded barbs on social media, while supporters packed council chambers wearing shirts urging leaders to “save City Hall” or move employees into a “safe City Hall.” Tensions escalated after a 9-6 council vote in March directing city staff to study relocating government functions from the aging downtown building. At the end of Wednesday's meeting, Johnson urged council members to stop questioning one another's motives and focus on making decisions as suburbs make inroads.

Dallas mayor supports moving out of City Hall ahead of key vote

Dallas leaders are nearing a pivotal decision on the future of City Hall, with the City Council set to vote next week and Mayor Eric Johnson now publicly backing a move from the aging downtown landmark. Johnson, who made his position clear for the first time on Thursday, said the escalating cost of repairing and modernizing the 50-year-old I.M. Pei-designed building is too high to justify staying. City Council members are expected to receive a briefing Wednesday on relocation costs and financing options before voting on a series of proposals that could authorize negotiations for new office space, redevelopment of the City Hall property and repairs to the existing building.

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Consultants told council members this week that repairing and modernizing City Hall would cost between $532 million and $611 million over the next decade. They said the building’s infrastructure and code deficiencies make a limited repair strategy unrealistic, leaving leaders with the choice of investing heavily in the building or pursuing relocation alternatives. “The numbers have now been proven multiple times to be accurate and it would be very costly to stay,” Johnson said in an interview that aired on KTVT-TV (Channel 11). “I would be in favor, for sure, of us saving the taxpayers considerable money by leaving this obsolete building.” Johnson’s comments mark the first time he has publicly said he favors moving out of City Hall. The mayor’s position adds momentum to a debate that has increasingly become intertwined with questions about downtown Dallas’ future. The discussion comes after a week of high-profile announcements, including Neiman Marcus’ plans to close its flagship Main Street store, the Mavericks’ decision to pursue a new arena district in North Dallas and the Stars’ selection of Plano as the leading contender for a future arena.

Hill County drops data center moratorium after lawsuit, adopts new review requirements

Hill County commissioners reversed course on a controversial moratorium on new data center development Thursday after a developer sued the county, arguing the ban was illegal. During a special meeting, the Hill County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to rescind the one-year moratorium it approved in May. County leaders said the move was intended to protect taxpayers from potential liability stemming from a federal lawsuit filed by developer RCM Hill LLC. The company is planning a large-scale data center project near Hillsboro and argued the county lacked legal authority to impose the temporary ban. According to the lawsuit, RCM Hill spent more than 16 months and invested nearly $1 million pursuing a proposed 1,235-megawatt data center known as Project Aquila.

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The company says it secured contracts to purchase more than 800 acres in unincorporated Hill County for more than $80 million and obtained key electrical planning approvals through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. The original moratorium was approved on a 3-2 vote and paused new data center, power generation and large battery storage projects in unincorporated areas of the county. Supporters said the pause was needed to study potential impacts on water resources, electrical demand, emergency services and local infrastructure. County Attorney David Holmes warned commissioners during the May meeting that Texas counties may not have the legal authority to enact such moratoriums. RCM Hill later filed suit in federal court, seeking to have the measure declared invalid. In its complaint, RCM Hill alleged county officials were aware of those legal concerns before approving the moratorium. The lawsuit cites comments made during the May 12 meeting in which County Judge Shane Brassell reportedly said the proposal was "illegal," Commissioner Jim Holcomb said it was "against the law," and Holmes advised commissioners that he did not believe the county had authority to enact the moratorium.

John Moritz: Jane Nelson's political legacy in the Texas Capitol

Jane Nelson was a North Texas school teacher raising five daughters when she won a seat on the State Board of Education. She would later say that her biggest accomplishment on the panel was helping to correct some 5,000 errors in school history books and working to pass higher standards for all textbooks. Not a bad start to a political career for a working mom from the suburbs who was still in her 30s. By the time the present chapter in public service comes to a close next month, when her resignation as Texas secretary of state becomes effective, Nelson can rightfully boast that she's been one of the Texas Capitol's most effective female political figures of her generation, and perhaps even of its history.

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Let's review. After two terms on the state board starting after the election of 1988, Nelson won a seat in the Texas Senate. Nelson was a Republican back when the Legislature was dominated by Democrats, as it had been for much of the past century. Hers would be a canary-in-the-coal-mine election, toppling Sen. Bob Glascow, one of the many long-serving Democrats of the era who would be swept away as the Republican tide in Texas was beginning its ascendancy. Nelson would also start her Senate service in the minority when it came to the male-female ratio. She was joined by only three other women in the 31-member chamber, and she was only the 10th woman elected to the state Senate in Texas history. While her party would make great strides in the chamber, holding the majority continuously since 1997, only 14 woman would follow Nelson to the Senate over the next 33 years. But even though she was always outnumbered by men, Nelson was hardly in the Senate as window dressing. As a member of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, including four years as chair, Nelson played leadership roles in overhauling the state's foster care system, expanding access to mental health care, and shepherding more than 30 bills into law to protect victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.

Lawmakers protest removing immigrant truckers from roads: 'Texans will be paying more for their goods.'

Governor Greg Abbott and many Republicans argue that cancelling the commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) held by many immigrant truck drivers in Texas is necessary to make our roads safer. Critics, including state Representative Ramón Romero Jr., D-District 90, say it means Texans will be paying more for their goods. “It’s not just the truck. It’s the 20-plus thousand dollars a year that you’re paying in insurance. And now, if you owned a trucking company that hired several of these drivers, now those trucks are sitting still. If they’re not moving, they’re not moving goods. If they’re not moving goods, they’re not moving our economy. This is going to have a huge impact on our economy,” Romero Jr. said on Inside Texas Politics.

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There are around 6,400 fewer truckers on Texas roads since the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) began canceling licenses given to noncitizens who are legally in the United States last December. This includes asylum seekers and DACA recipients. DPS also says it will no longer issue what it calls “nondomiciled CDLs” and it will review nearly 3,500 more after they expire in the near future. In November of 2025, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles also implemented a new rule requiring stricter photo ID requirements for vehicle registrations and renewals. Rep. Romero says the governor is “legislating through rulemaking” because he couldn’t get lawmakers to pass bills that would have implemented the same requirements, choosing instead to change the rules. And Romero argues it is impacting a long list of people. “These are not unemployed people. This is a part of our economy. He’s figured out a way to make things more expensive for Texans, not less expensive,” argued the Democrat.

Texas BBQ joints are struggling with sky-high beef prices. But there’s another way.

A gaggle of press armed with cameras and microphones formed outside Smokey Joe’s Bar-B-Que, in South Dallas, this week. Senate candidate James Talarico had invited us there to announce his plans for lowering beef prices to provide relief to Texas barbecue joints. Ending the war in Iran, suspending the federal diesel tax, and fully staffing the USDA were on his list of priorities, but his real reason for being there was the photo op inside. Countering accusations of being vegan from his opponent Ken Paxton, who nicknamed him “Talafreako,” Talarico sat beneath a BBQ Freak sign with Smokey Joe’s owner, Kris Manning, to share an overflowing tray of smoked meat. He cleaned the meat off a spare rib with his teeth and ate brisket slices with his hands. Smoked sausage, brisket boudin, and Texas Twinkies beckoned while Talarico savored a South Dallas specialty called brakes. Sometimes spelled “breaks,” they are usually the end pieces of meat sliced on the chopping block, but at Smokey Joe’s, Manning smokes the raw trimmings from his rib racks and seasons them liberally with lemon pepper. They’re delicious.

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Along with the omnivorous overtones, the message from Talarico was that the high price of beef is making the barbecue business unsustainable. (Paxton has his own plans to combat the issue.) His proposed solutions highlighted that everything is too damn expensive. When barbecue joints close, it’s the beef prices—or more specifically, the brisket prices—that are blamed, but grocery, fuel, and utility bills at home are whittling away at the profitability of every restaurant. The National Restaurant Association has collected data on customer traffic and found that operators reported a net decline during fourteen of the last fifteen months. Diners are staying at home more often. Rising beef prices and the threat they represent for struggling barbecue joints has been covered ad nauseam by national media of late. I talked with The Washington Post for a Memorial Day story that built on my reporting from January about some beloved Texas barbecue joints that have called it quits. Other outlets like The Independent, the New York Post, and Men’s Journal echoed that reporting, and the Today show visited Iron Works Barbecue, in Austin, over the weekend to tell a similar story. Evidently, barbecue stories sell when barbecue isn’t selling so well. Brisket prices are a culprit, for sure, due to ridiculously high demand. If all the Texas-style barbecue joints opening across the country haven’t affected supply enough, major chains are getting in on the action too: Panda Express just unveiled its new Cantonese BBQ Brisket entrée. And beef prices are elevated across the board thanks to low cattle-herd counts and the Big Four meat companies—Cargill, JBS Foods, National Beef Packing Company, and Tyson Foods—controlling about 85 percent of the country’s beef supply. To add to the concern, this week brought news of the first detection of New World screwworm in the U.S. beef supply since a 1976 outbreak. There are a whole lot of market forces restaurant owners can’t control, but they can put a dent in demand. But what is Texas barbecue without brisket?

Red River leaders question Austin enforcement visits that left venues feeling targeted

The Red River Cultural District's executive director questioned visits Friday night by the Austin Fire Department and accompanying agencies to at least 12 venues, saying some businesses received citations. In an email obtained by the American-Statesman, Nicole Klepadlo said Austin Fire Department and code enforcement officials visited venues across Red River and Sixth Street, issued citations and directed operators to make changes as part of what she described as "the city manager's goal to complete an 'audit.'"

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City officials say the visits were part of ongoing safety and licensing efforts downtown, but Red River leaders say the approach left venues feeling targeted as businesses navigate one of their slower stretches of the year. Klepadlo asked what the audit was about and reported that businesses had been questioned extensively, asked to move equipment, told they would be cited or shut down if changes were not made, and subjected to what she described as "threatening remarks." "What is this regarding and why is [there] a target on the Cultural District in such a state of vulnerability?" Klepadlo wrote, referring to what she later noted was a slow period for business due to the summer season. Assistant City Manager for Public Safety Ramón Batista told the Statesman that Friday night's activities were "not related to an audit by the city."

Austin’s communications spending tops $10M. Tracking it is harder.

A new city report describes a sprawling and inconsistent communications system across Austin government, identifying inefficiencies that could become a target as City Hall looks for ways to close a projected $26 million budget shortfall. The report, released this week by Austin Communications and Engagement, found that the city’s public communications work is spread across 28 departments, 176 communications staffers and more than $10.4 million in reported marketing and communications spending over fiscal years 2024 and 2025. It is part of City Manager T.C. Broadnax’s citywide Shared Services Optimization initiative, which is examining whether internal city functions can be delivered more consistently and cost-effectively.

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The communications report does not recommend layoffs or attach a dollar figure to potential savings. But it describes a decentralized system where departments set their own marketing budgets, define campaigns differently, use inconsistent performance metrics and often buy and track advertising independently. That structure, staff wrote, creates an opportunity for the city to use its collective purchasing power, reduce administrative work and get more value from advertising dollars. The city’s communications system is currently split across departments with widely varying levels of staffing and funding. Austin Communications and Engagement, known as ACE, leads citywide communications policy and supports the City Manager’s Office and 13 departments that do not have dedicated communications staff. Another 21 departments have one to three communications employees, while nine departments have larger teams that generally include a communications manager, public information staff, community engagement staff and marketing or graphic design employees.

'It's a free country': TPUSA responds to reported protests outside Women's Summit downtown

Turning Point USA released a statement for their Women's Leadership Summit in downtown San Antonio after protesters reportedly gathered outside the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel. In the video posted on X by Savanah Hernandez and reposted by Turning Point USA, San Antonio police officers can be seen detaining at least one person during an altercation with protestors.

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In a statement, TPUSA spokesperson Matt Shupe said, "It's a free country. If a few protestors want to waste their weekend, shouting vile obscenities and making fools of themselves outside of an event with 3,000 young, positive, patriotic women, they can have at it. It's just further proof TPUSA is over the target." The Women's Leadership Summit is being held in downtown San Antonio June 5-7th.

Ann Killion: Why the 2026 World Cup feels completely different — and not in a good way

(Ann Killion is a sports columnist at the Houston Chronicle.) Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, isn’t shy about grand proclamations. He says the upcoming World Cup will be “the greatest event that humanity, that mankind, has ever seen and will ever see.” That this will be the “biggest, most inclusive and greatest” tournament of all time. Yes, it will be the biggest, with 48 teams and 104 matches. It will be the longest, spread over 39 days. It will surely be the greatest, from a fan expense standpoint. It may also be the most absurd and infuriating. But the most inclusive? Many are calling the upcoming tournament the most exclusive, based on exorbitant prices, travel concerns and a primary host — the United States — that isn’t exactly welcoming to the rest of the world.

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Here we go again, 32 years later, trying to host a World Cup in a place not exactly built for the event, either in mindset or geography. This time around we have two co-hosts in Canada and Mexico, the latter a soccer-mad country that has hosted two World Cups in the past. We still have the big stadiums we had in 1994, which led to record attendance. We still have the travel barriers because of our enormous size. In a new twist, we’ve added an official position of hostility toward foreigners, a stance that didn’t exist in 1994. The majority of the games will be played in the United States, across 11 host cities, including Houston. And even though soccer has experienced tremendous growth in the U.S. over the past three decades, a recent Pew Research poll found that most Americans don’t seem to care about the “greatest event that mankind will ever see” and a majority (66%) say they are unlikely to watch. Apathy is one emotion surfacing in the run-up to this event. Another is anger. Anger over ticket price-gouging, the financial burden placed on host cities, the unbooked hotel rooms that are double or triple the normal rate, the cost or absence of parking, the lack of transportation. A new development this week: anger over not being allowed to have reusable water bottles inside stadiums.

Trinity Metro gets funding for TEXRail extension to hospital district

Trinity Metro has received the funding it needs to extend the TEXRail line from downtown to the hospital district. Michael Morris, the director of transportation of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said Thursday that the agency’s Regional Transportation Council has approved $40 million for the $100 million project. Construction is expected to begin within a year. Morris said this expansion would be a “game changer” for the hospital district that, according to him, is growing in restaurants and retail. The TEXRail line runs from downtown to DFW Airport, with stops near the Stockyards, Fort Worth, North Richland Hills and Grapevine.

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“Having mobility options creates value, and overnight it would make the hospital district both retail, office, and residential, a terrific new opportunity for Fort Worth,” Morris said. Morris’ announcement came during a press conference as Trinity Metro announced its plans and preparations for the World Cup. “We have buses, we have trains, no need to rent that rental car, just hop right onto the Tex rail and ride downtown,” Rich Andreski, Trinity Metro President and CEO said. Trinity Metro is expanding its services during starting June 14 for the nine World Cup matches at AT&T Stadium through July. New bus stops, extended hours, and 911 capabilities to accommodate all languages are planned, according to Andreski. “Trinity Metro is going to connect all the major destinations, so we’re going to take people off the road. We’re going to make it affordable to get around while you’re here,” Andreski said. Andreski said he is looking at this like a trial run to see if there is “interest and ridership.” If so they would be happy to continue to provide these services if they can find funding. The World Cup services are built into the Trinity Metro budget, but at this time there is no funding to keep the services year round.

Texas hemp companies sued by medical marijuana operator

As Texas lawmakers and regulators grapple with the future of hemp-based products, an operator in the state’s medical marijuana program says several companies are selling illegal drugs under the guise of legal hemp. Austin-based Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation has filed a lawsuit seeking to block several companies from doing business in Texas and recover damages for lost revenue. The case was moved to Texas Business Court last week by one of the defendants. Since 2017, Texas Original has had one of the rare and valuable state licenses to sell low-THC medical marijuana through the state’s Compassionate Use Program. Often referred to as TCUP, it was signed into law in 2015 to help Texans with conditions like intractable epilepsy, cancer and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

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But the value of that license has been degraded, the company says, by “wildcat” operators in the hemp space it says are increasing THC levels beyond the legal limit and lying about it. The largely unregulated market is now competing with the highly regulated TCUP market to the detriment of its licensees, Texas Original argues. Under House Bill 1325, passed in 2019, hemp-derived products are legal if they contain less than 0.3% delta-9 THC. The state’s Compassionate Use Program formerly allowed products with up to 1% THC before switching to a 10-milligram-per-dose limit. Texas Original’s lawsuit alleges that 10 companies are selling marijuana products as legal hemp, marketing them deceptively and offering products that may contain contaminants. It also claims many are poaching Compassionate Use customers through false advertising while operating outside the regulatory framework imposed on medical marijuana providers.

Cruz partners with Democrats to protect military bases like Ellington

One of the oldest military aviation installations in Texas is at risk of losing a powerful tool because of the ongoing war in Iran. That has U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz joining forces with Democrats, to craft legislation that would prevent the Air Force from repositioning MQ-9 Reaper drones and personnel stationed at Air National Guard installations like Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, just south of Houston. The MQ-9 drones have been called the “most valuable player” during Operation Epic Fury in Iran because of their ability to strike targets without putting pilots at risk. But dozens of the drones have been destroyed in the fighting, depleting the total number of available units.

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While the Air Force hasn’t announced any plans to move the MQ-9 drones from Air National Guard Bases, Cruz and others are responding to concerns that it could happen to offset the losses in Iran. While the drones have been critical abroad, they’ve also been MVPs closer to home, Cruz said. “In Texas, they were invaluable after the devastating July 4, 2025, floods, when the Texas Air National Guard’s 147th Attack Wing deployed the MQ-9 to support search, rescue, and recovery operations along the Guadalupe River,” Cruz said about the bill he filed on Wednesday with U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin as co-sponsors. The 147th Attack Wing, which is estimated to have more than 1,000 soldiers, is based at Ellington. The air base is one of the oldest in Texas, and was established during World War I. Ellington isn’t the only base that could be affected if the drones are moved to Air Force Special Operations Command. Units in California, Arizona, New York on elsewhere could be impacted, which is why Kelly, from Arizona, and Slotkin, from Michigan, have joined on with Cruz’s legislation.

National Stories

How can retail investors buy shares in SpaceX's IPO?

SpaceX's long-awaited initial public offering, expected to fetch a $1.75 trillion valuation, has set off a frenzy among retail investors clamoring for a share of Elon Musk's rocket, satellite and AI empire. It has become one of the biggest FOMO trades of the year, despite SpaceX's lack of profits, ?drawing so much investor demand ahead of the IPO that bankers have already received twice as many orders as available shares. SpaceX has reportedly earmarked ?as much as 30% or $22.5 billion in shares for retail investors, a rare move for a blockbuster IPO that is typically dominated by institutional buyers. Here's what investors need to know about buying shares in the IPO, who may get access and the risks of purchasing the stock once it begins trading.

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Trading under the symbol SPCX, SpaceX has picked a ?handful of brokerage firms to distribute shares in the IPO to retail customers in the U.S. Investors typically need to have an eligible brokerage account, meet ?minimum funding requirements and submit an indication of interest before the IPO is priced. Requirements vary by brokerage and there ?is no guarantee your order will be filled. Fidelity lowered its eligibility requirements from holding $500,000 in a Fidelity account to $2,000 just in time for the SpaceX IPO. Fidelity Investments: $2,000 ?account minimum; Robinhood Markets: $0 account minimum; SoFi: $0 account minimum; E*Trade: $0 account minimum; Charles Schwab: $100,000 account minimum. Brokerages warn against "flipping," or selling IPO shares shortly after a stock begins trading. Investors who sell ?their stock within two to four weeks of the offering could be restricted from future IPOs.

RFK Jr.’s movement was supposed to save the GOP’s majorities. It’s not even in the game.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement isn’t doing much to help Republicans maintain control of Congress. MAHA Action and MAHA Institute, the movement’s political organizations spreading Kennedy’s message on healthy food and vaccine safety, have largely stayed out of the races that will determine the makeup of Congress. Tony Lyons, the publisher of Kennedy’s books who’s taken a lead role in running the groups, has struggled to turn Kennedy’s appeal into the juggernaut Republicans had hoped would enable them to hold onto their House and Senate majorities. “The majority of those candidates that got that endorsement were going to win anyway,” said John McCarthy, founder of McCarthy Strategic Solutions, a Republican political strategy firm in Kentucky, about elections where MAHA Institute got involved in his state. MAHA groups have endorsed just one Republican, freshman Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett, in a battleground House district so far, ignoring the rest of the competitive races that will determine control of the chamber.

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In the Senate, where Republicans need to defend seats in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, MAHA hasn’t backed anyone, much less provided money or grassroots support. Aides to President Donald Trump have credited Kennedy with helping Trump win the popular vote in 2024 and were banking on him helping GOP candidates this year. Lyons has played up the savior role. In February, he declared MAHA a “once in a generation political gift to the GOP” in a memo to the Republican National Committee and the party’s Senate and House campaign arms. His MAHA PAC has committed $100 million to support Republicans in this year’s election, although campaign records show it has less than $400,000 in available cash. Of the 40 candidates MAHA groups have endorsed, only four are running for Congress, Barrett, Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), Michael Alfonso, and Brandon Herrera. Alfonso and Herrera are pursuing solidly Republican House seats in Wisconsin and Texas where the incumbent isn’t seeking reelection, while Letlow is running for Senate and expected to win. The rest of MAHA’s endorsees are running for state offices.

Amid mounting Democratic concern, Platner says his past is being ‘weaponized’

Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, moved to quell mounting Democratic anxieties about his candidacy on Friday, telling supporters in a defiant speech that his past behavior was being “weaponized” by his political opponents. A day after The New York Times reported that three women — a conservative and two Democrats — who had been romantically involved with Mr. Platner described volatile and “toxic” relationships, Mr. Platner addressed a crowd at a theater in Bar Harbor, expressing confidence that Maine voters would stick by him. “When politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me, Maine, you have my back,” Mr. Platner said. “The state of Maine raised me, and the state of Maine saved me, and to all of you out there, Maine, I will always have your back.”

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Mr. Platner’s appearance came at a tense moment in one of the year’s premier Senate races. With just days left before Maine’s primary on Tuesday, revelations about Mr. Platner’s personal history have caused escalating discomfort within his party, while drawing intensifying attacks from Republicans. The rally also took place less than a week after The Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, had sought to warn his campaign last year that her husband had been exchanging sexual messages with multiple other women. Onstage, Mr. Platner referred to Ms. Gertner by name, drawing chants of “Amy!” It was one of the strongest responses from a supportive but relatively sedate crowd that included attendees who said they were anxious about Mr. Platner’s candidacy and still getting to know the candidate. Mr. Platner said from the stage that he had gone through a period of “darkness” after his military service.

Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim say they’ll stay at ‘60 Minutes’

“60 Minutes” correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said Friday that they planned to stay on at the newsmagazine, capping days of turmoil for the show. “We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay,” the three wrote in a memo to their colleagues at the program, before adding: “We don’t want to see ‘60 Minutes’ die.” They wrote that they were still “deeply upset by the firings” of executive producer Tanya Simon and high-ranking producer Draggan Mihailovich, whom they called “strong leaders who everyone respected.” Their colleague Scott Pelley was fired earlier this week after he challenged the newsmagazine’s new executive producer over the recent firings. The longtime correspondents said that “as far as we can tell,” those leaders were fired because “they fought for our ‘60 Minutes’ values and stood up to protect our independence and integrity.”

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“Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships,” they added in the memo, obtained by NBC News. “Collaboration and argument are the way we have always worked at 60.” Stahl, 84, has spent most of her career at CBS News and joined “60 Minutes” in 1991. Whitaker, 74, spent three decades as a CBS reporter before joining the newsmagazine in 2014. Wertheim, 55, joined three years later. The trio’s statement is the latest beat in the turmoil engulfing “60 Minutes,” America’s top-rated and most prestigious newsmagazine, which just ended its 58th season. The upheaval started last week, when several key senior staff members were let go. Tensions between “60 Minutes” staffers and management reached a fever pitch during a Monday meeting to introduce executive producer Nick Bilton, where Pelley openly challenged leadership and accused CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the storied newsmagazine that debuted in 1968.

At least 12 people shot at an Ohio street festival and suspects remain at large, police say

At least 12 people were wounded as gunfire erupted Saturday near a busy street festival in Ohio. Some people at the event in Toledo scrambled for cover while others rushed to help the victims. No suspects were in custody hours afterward, Toledo Deputy Police Chief Joe Heffernan said. He said it appeared that at least two people fired weapons and they were “probably shooting at each other.” The shooting happened near the Old West End Festival, an annual two-day celebration in Toledo’s historic district that includes live music, food vendors, home tours and shopping. The remainder of the festival was canceled Sunday. Organizers said “it would not be compassionate, responsible or possible to continue.” “We are heartbroken about those that were injured at the Old West End Festival,” the festival said in a statement.

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Two of the victims were in critical condition, Heffernan added. The ages of the victims ranged from 14 to 61, with most of them in their early 20s. “I am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo tonight,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement. “Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence.” Officials urged people who were at the festival to come forward with any photos or videos. Multiple videos posted to social media showed people running amid the sound of gunshots and emergency officials tending to others who appeared wounded. Fire Chief Allison Armstrong said it was difficult to get to the hospital due to closed roads and traffic from people leaving the festival, but emergency responders were able to transport all patients from the scene within an hour. Kevin Berry was sitting in the neighborhood arboretum listening to live music with friends when he heard a handful of gunshots ring out. “Everybody hit the deck,” he said. When Berry looked back up, he saw a gun being tossed to the ground less than 50 feet (15 meters) away from him. Officers who were already on site for the festival responded immediately. Berry, who has medical training and served in the Navy, walked around looking for anyone who might need help and saw at least five people with gunshot wounds. “The folks who were hit were spread out around the arboretum area,” he said. George Kral, the city’s safety director, said the Old West End Festival is one of the most iconic festivals in Toledo. “And it’s a shame that something like this had to ruin it,” Kral said.

Why ceasefires haven’t stopped deadly strikes in Gaza, Lebanon or the Gulf

Across the Middle East, three separate ceasefire deals are currently in effect. In all three, deadly strikes are still a frequent occurrence. The contradiction has exposed a growing question: What does a ceasefire actually mean when the fighting never fully stops? On Wednesday, President Donald Trump appeared to suggest that promises to stop fighting in the region cannot always be trusted, as he addressed the continued exchanges of fire with Iran in the Gulf. “It’s a different part of the world, you know,” he told reporters. “I’d say in that part of the world a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.” The same day Trump made his comments, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least nine Palestinians overnight, according to local hospitals in Gaza, where a ceasefire deal has been in place since October as part of a peace plan brokered by Trump.

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While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fired on Palestinians, killing more than 936 since the agreement took effect, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Both Israel and Hamas have accused the other of breaching the ceasefire and their commitments under the agreement. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that he would like Israel to increase its control over territory in Gaza, despite a stipulation in the peace plan that the Israeli military would initially withdraw to a demarcation line, known as the “yellow line.” Netanyahu said he had directed the military to increase control over Gaza to 70%. “We were at 50. We moved to 60,” he added. Further progress toward peace in Gaza has largely stalled, with no signs of the disarmament of Hamas or the further withdrawal of Israeli troops indicated under Trump’s full 20-point peace proposal. The situation is similarly uncertain in Lebanon, where a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Lebanese government announced in April has not prevented near-daily airstrikes on people and targets Israel says are linked to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Fetterman vows to ditch hoodie for suit if Graham Platner proves he didn't send 'd--k pics' to minors

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) pledged to wear a suit “every day” if embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner can prove he didn’t send “d–k pics” to minors. The extraordinary hoodie challenge came during Fetterman’s appearance on Fox News Saturday in America, where he referred to Platner, who admitted he had an active Kik account while newly married, as “P-Hustle” – Platner’s user name. The term drew a head-shake from interviewer Kayleigh McEnany.

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“P-Hustle, here’s a great chance. You can just prove that all these people that you’re dropping those d–k pics and saying these things to were over 18. “I will wear a suit every day in the Senate,” said Fetterman, who has become Platner’s foremost critic in Congress. He wore his signature black hoodie during the interview, and regularly wears shorts when working in the Senate. “You can set the record clear and provide all of those texts and all of those conversations that you were having as a newlywed just before you were going to run for the Senate,” Fetterman said. “Transparency,” he added, noting the site has been probed for hosting underage users. Democrats are scrambling to contain the damage after Platner admitted to sexting women “soon” after getting married, then faced a New York Times report where ex girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield accused him of twisting her arm during an argument and locking her in a bedroom and keeping her there until she was “calm.”

CIA officer who had millions in gold bars accused of creating fake spy program

The former senior CIA official found with more than $40 million worth of gold bars in his house allegedly created a fake, highly classified intelligence program that he used as a conduit to funnel millions of dollars for his personal use, according to people familiar with the criminal investigation. David J. Rush, who was arrested last month and charged with one count of theft of public money, constructed what is known as a “special access program,” a sort of black box for the most secret intelligence operations, the people familiar with the investigation said. Even intelligence personnel with the highest security clearance cannot access an individual SAP, as they are known, without specific authorization. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation, said the criminal probe found that Rush “read in,” or initiated, two colleagues into the highly secretive sham program, effectively cultivating them as perhaps unwitting accomplices and preventing them from talking to others about it.

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He persuaded one of them to transfer millions of dollars to the program via a government contract that was also fraudulent, they said. “He made up a contract,” one of the people said. Rush, who worked in the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology, has not pleaded to the charges against him. At a detention hearing in federal court in Alexandria on Friday, a judge ruled that Rush posed a significant flight risk and ordered him to remain detained at the local jail pending trial. The CIA, meanwhile, has put several agency officials on leave as FBI and spy agency investigations continue, two people familiar with the matter said. NBC News first reported that development. The people familiar did not disclose those officials’ names or positions. The science and technology directorate is the arm of the agency that creates technical espionage tools to aid U.S. spies and their agents abroad. The account of those familiar with the criminal probe appears to raise serious questions about secrecy guardrails and vetting at the CIA.

Copyright June 08, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved