July 2, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas Governor’s Office asked for broadband rules that help Musk’s Starlink

The Texas office responsible for distributing over five billion dollars in state and federal money to expand rural broadband faced allegations of “favoritism” and offering “sweetheart” deals at a recent hearing of the State Senate’s Business and Commerce Committee. At the June 24 hearing, lawmakers suggested the Texas Broadband Development Office was changing rules and giving special treatment to companies that offer broadband via “low earth orbit,” or LEO, satellites. According to testimony, some of those changes came at the suggestion of the office of Governor Greg Abbott.

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Currently, Elon Musk’s company Starlink is the only one in Texas offering residential broadband via low earth orbit satellites at scale, though the Amazon Leo service has also been applying for grants in the state, according to industry monitors. “I'll just say it bluntly, favoritism and transparency are real big concerns that have been brought to my office,” committee chair State Senator Charles Schwertner said. At the hearing, lawmakers criticized how the office has approached a range of its duties, from awarding grants to communicating with applicants to identifying where in Texas there is the greatest need for expanded broadband access. The allegations of favoritism started early in hearing when Schwertner questioned Broadband Development Office director Bryant Clayton about changes his department made to the way it disburses grant money to companies offering low earth orbit broadband service.

Diocese of Brownsville calls nun’s detainment ‘wildly disturbing’

As questions remain unanswered about how a nun on her way to Mass in McAllen ended up detained by immigration officials, Bishop Daniel E. Flores said Monday that the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement protocols are “wildly disturbing and need to be reformed.” Sister Leticia Ugboaja, also known as Sister Letty, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Sunday morning while she was walking to Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen. Ugboaja would go on to be released from the Raymondville detention center later that same evening after Valley congressional delegates spoke with DHS.

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“There are many questions remaining about the circumstances surrounding Sister Letty’s arrest and detention,” Flores said in a statement. “For now, it is clear that Homeland Security enforcement protocols that make it possible for a religious sister, or anyone, to be detained and handcuffed while peacefully walking to church on a Sunday morning are wildly disturbing and need to be reformed.” Following her release, Sister Letty was seen leaving the detention center in her nun garments while being greeted by Sister Norma Pimentel, according to footage from Telemundo 40. In addition to her volunteer work as an extraordinary minister of holy communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville said Sister Letty also works as a registered nurse at South Texas Health System McAllen. She previously served as a certified nursing assistant for 10 years at DHR Health in Edinburg.

Feds release preliminary report on deadly Oak Cliff gas explosion

An investigative report released Wednesday determined the portion of the gas line that was hit before last month’s deadly explosion in Oak Cliff had not been marked as required before drilling began at the site. It's not clear why the struck line was not marked, a step designed to prevent drillers from hitting underground utility lines. The report, issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, is preliminary, and investigators say it could take more than a year to finish its probe into the cause of the disaster. The finding adds a key detail to a growing fight over responsibility, as residents and relatives of those killed press legal claims accusing Atmos Energy of not repairing repeated leaks, not replacing aging plastic pipe and not properly marking underground gas lines.

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The gas utility has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing: “Third parties are responsible for the harms alleged in Plaintiffs’ petitions,” lawyers wrote Monday in a court filing. Dallas Fire-Rescue crews were responding May 28 to a reported gas leak at The Clyde apartments on East Ninth Street near Patton Avenue when the building exploded and caught fire. Three residents — Sylvia Collins, 79; Marisol Pérez, 37; and her 18-month-old son, Erik Pérez Sanchez Jr. — were killed. The NTSB report said at least six others were hurt. Previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News revealed a third-party contractor, Barba Drilling, had been hired to drill for a soil analysis at the site in preparation for future construction. A request to locate and mark utilities was required before drilling could begin. ECS Southwest, LLP, the engineering consulting firm that hired the driller, submitted that request. ECS said in a statement it could not provide further details during the NTSB investigation. Barba did not respond to an emailed request for comment. It’s unclear how the NTSB determined the line locations. In a statement, the agency said the investigation “has involved close coordination with all parties involved, including utility companies. Investigative activities have included the review of records, photographs, diagrams, and witness interviews.”

How Trump made over $1 billion last year in Crypto, overshadowing real estate

The real estate mogul has become the billion-dollar crypto man. President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure report showed he took in about $1.2 billion last year from various crypto holdings, overshadowing a real estate business that brought him fame and helped propel him to the nation’s top office. Whereas it took decades for Trump to amass his various properties, the rise of crypto in his portfolio was done in just over a year, a stunning development sped along by his own friendly policies toward the industry and help from billionaires and other actors with important business before the presidency. Running over 900 pages, the mandatory annual report showed Trump struck several other new veins of wealth last year, raising questions about whether he is profiting from his high office.

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He took in tens of millions from new property holdings in foreign countries eager to please a man with power over where to deploy the U.S. military and how much to charge in tariffs. And he got tens of million more suing media companies worried they could lose their broadcast licenses or not get deals approved by his regulators. Ever the salesman, Trump even made big money off the smallest of things, pulling in millions by slapping his name on Bibles, guitars and watches — the latter alone bringing in $4.7 million. Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling “governance tokens” and “stablecoins” and other crypto assets. Another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face. Both the tokens and the meme coins have plunged in value since his sales, partly because they are so difficult to value. Governance tokens, for instance, confer to holders only the power to vote on certain management policies at a company, not equity stakes, and so typical valuation measures don’t apply.

State Stories

Corpus Christi City Council votes down federal funding application for Inner Harbor desalination project

The Corpus Christi City Council voted 5-4 Tuesday against allowing the city to apply for up to $120 million in federal funding for the Inner Harbor desalination project — the latest in a series of failed votes on the roughly $1 billion proposal. The grant was a part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART Desalination Grant Program. Council members Roland Barrera, Mark Scott, and Everett Roy brought the motion forward. It would have authorized Corpus Christi to seek up to $120 million in federal grant funding for the project. Opponents of the motion argued the city would likely receive only a fraction of that amount. Council member Eric Cantu said the full figure was not guaranteed. "$120 million — that's not the case, we don't even know what we're going to get."

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Council member Carolyn Vaughn echoed that concern, taking issue with how the funding figure had been characterized publicly. "The Mayor gets on Facebook and she does this and if we don't do this we're going to turn down $120 million — that's not the case. No one is going to get $120 million. There's $120 million to go around, they're going to pick 10 groups to get it," Vaughn said. Mayor Paulette Guajardo, who traveled to Washington, D.C. to pursue the federal funding, argued that seeking grant money before construction is standard practice for large infrastructure projects. "It is standard practice to go after grant funding before it's being constructed. This is the way large infrastructure projects work," she said. The five council members who voted against the motion said there is still not enough information to move forward on the project. Council member Kaylynn Paxson questioned how the council could support an application without firm details in hand. "How are we going to say yes to applying for something that we don't have firm information for?" The vote follows a failed vote on September 3, 2025, and a delayed vote on June 3. Barrera said the outcome Tuesday came as no surprise. "I mean I already knew where this was gonna go anyway because it's been that way for the last 18 months." One piece of information the council is seeking is additional study on how the Inner Harbor facility could affect marine life in the bay. City Manager Peter Zanoni said the city plans to give scientists who opposed the far field study an opportunity to review its findings.

The Pentagon’s flu vaccine policy change created an ‘epidemiological time bomb’ at Lackland

In April, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth changed Pentagon policy to make flu shots voluntary for all military personnel, declaring that mandatory influenza vaccines “weaken our war-fighting capabilities.” Within weeks, recruits at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio started getting sick. The virus burned through boot camp, and by June 24, according to a statement from Congressman Joaquin Castro, 275 people had been infected. The Air Force confirmed one trainee died June 12 due to a “medical emergency,” though officials did not specify whether it was flu related. The speed with which this all happened was not a surprise, according to Dr. Luis Ostrosky, chief of infectious diseases at UT Health Houston. The April policy change created an “epidemiological time bomb.”

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“Military settings are prime for transmission,” Ostrosky said. “When you have an introduction of a highly communicable disease in a congregate setting like this, it’s just going to spread like wildfire.” Secretary Hegseth argued the voluntary policy would pose no threat to military readiness. But Ostrosky says the outbreak demonstrates the opposite. He explained that even young, otherwise healthy recruits can be bedridden for days or hospitalized with influenza. “It ends up affecting our readiness for combat at a time when we’re having several conflicts throughout the world,” he said. San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, a Democrat who previously served as Undersecretary of the Air Force, drew a direct line between Hegseth’s decision and the outbreak at the base. “Regardless of whether you want to believe it, science is a thing. It’s really unfortunate that we’re playing politics with people’s public health and with things like vaccines.” While a guest on TPR’s The Source, she said this puts the nation’s overall health in a precarious place. “Not only are we dealing with cuts to public health, but we are also dealing with the misinformation around basic concepts in public health, and there are real consequences of that.”

Ninth Prairieland defendant sentenced to 50 years in prison, 6 who pleaded guilty get 2-15 years

The ninth person convicted in federal court in March for the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside a North Texas ICE facility was sentenced to 50 years in prison Wednesday. Six others who pleaded guilty in connection with the shooting received sentences ranging from just short of two years to 15 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor handed down the prison sentence for Ines Soto, 42, who was arrested near the Prairieland Detention Center the night of July 4 along with his wife Elizabeth Soto and eight others. Following the sentencing hearings, the Sotos’ son Estevan Soto read a letter from his father. In his statement, Ines Soto called the weight of Wednesday’s sentences “crushing” but said he was not surprised.

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“The government has shown it’s willing to separate loved ones across borders, cage people in squalid detention centers, bring violence into loving neighborhoods and gun people down in the streets,” Estevan Soto said, reading the letter. “Their attempts to bury people in prisons falls right in line with these horrible acts.” Soto and about a dozen others gathered outside the ICE facility, chanted and shot off fireworks in a display they said was meant to support those detained inside. At least two people damaged cars and spray-painted structures within the property. Shooter Benjamin Song fired at Alvarado Police Lieutenant Thomas Gross, hitting the officer in the shoulder soon after he arrived at the detention center. Gross was released from the hospital within the next 24 hours. Song’s attorney and supporters contend Song fired at the ground as suppressive fire once he saw Gross draw his weapon. Soto was involved in Signal group chats planning the noise demonstration outside Prairieland in the days leading up to July 4, according to copies of the messages shown during trial. Prosecutors also showed evidence alleging the Sotos operated a printing press from their Fort Worth home.

Austin’s million-dollar home boom spills into Texas Hill Country

Three years ago, Jen Bachman noticed a woman who had started coming in twice a day to the cafe she owns with her husband in Wimberley, Texas, a small town about 45 miles southwest of Austin. The woman, Linda Nelson, said she’d made all her husband’s meals for over 40 years, and now that he’d died, she never wanted to cook again. Bachman made a coffee mug emblazoned with “Linda” for her to use, and hung it on the wall between Linda’s meals. She started doing the same for other regular customers, and now there are around 1,500 personalized mugs at Wimberley Café. Demand for the mugs got so strong that Bachman limited hanging them on the walls to customers who ate there at least five times a week. She’s up to making around 25 new mugs a month, and is running out of wall space. “There are so many people here now, I can barely keep up,” she said. Wimberley is one of several small towns ringing Austin to the west that have exploded with growth over the past six years.

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The surge started as a reaction to Austin’s pandemic housing boom, when waves of remote workers and big-tech companies like Tesla and Oracle moved there. There were 729 Austin homes sold for over $1 million between January and April of this year, compared with 262 for that same period in 2019, according to Unlock MLS. People looking for less-expensive homes and more space moved out to nearby towns like Wimberley, Dripping Springs and Spicewood. These areas are part of Texas Hill Country, a region of farm and ranch towns that have long attracted city dwellers looking for a rural getaway. An hour’s drive or less to Austin, these towns are now seen as good spots for weekend homes and, in some cases, for commuting. Median home prices, and the number of homes sold over $1 million, in these towns soared between 2019 and 2023, according to Unlock MLS. Prices have started to soften over the past two years, but they are still significantly higher than they were before the pandemic. “Austin just keeps getting bigger and more expensive. The luxury market has spread out to these areas,” said Vaike O’Grady, market research adviser for Unlock MLS.

Galveston County commissioners approve new precinct map despite criticism from residents

Galveston County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to adopt new precinct boundaries for elected commissioners, constables and justices of the peace. The decision comes as the county continues to defend itself against claims that its previous map weakened the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters. The new lines take effect immediately and notably change the boundaries of Precinct 3, which has been at the center of the debate since commissioners radically shrunk the precinct's boundaries in 2021. It had been the county’s one precinct in which non-white voters represented a majority.

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Even though Black and Latino residents combine to make up nearly 40% of the Galveston County population, people of color no longer made up the majority of a single precinct with the map approved in 2021, according to previous Houston Public Media reporting. While the newly drawn lines change the boundaries of Precinct 3 once again, Galveston County resident Lucille McGaskey said the new map still does not fairly represent minority voters. "The redrawn lines will not give a minority candidate a fair shot. They drew the lines for them to pick the politician. This is not for the people to pick the politician," McGaskey told Houston Public Media after Monday's vote. The move by Galveston County leaders comes about two months after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bans raced-based gerrymandering. The court’s decision, in a Louisiana case, makes it harder to bring voter discrimination claims against electoral maps. Throughout roughly two hours of public comment ahead of the Galveston County commissioners' vote Monday, residents expressed concern about the idea that the redrawn maps essentially decide the representatives for many residents.

What Trump's Great American State Fair got right and wrong about Texas

Walking into the Texas booth at President Donald Trump's Great American State Fair, the first thing you notice is a welcome blast of Texas-style air conditioning. Washington is in the midst of its first big heat wave of the summer. But inside Texas' booth on the National Mall this week, it is dark and cool, with Selena and Willie Nelson playing on a jukebox in the corner and visitors mingling around replicas of Big Tex and the Alamo. This is the version of itself that Texas wants to present to the country, a fun, lively oasis where NASA sends astronauts into space and people bury Cadillacs in the ground for the sheer spectacle of it. There's plenty that the state's tourism officials missed. There are no blue bonnets or barbecue — save a brief flash of brisket in a video — no replicas of oil rigs or breakfast tacos.

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Doug Latham, a South Carolinian who was stationed in Texas while serving in the Air Force, thought they'd done an okay job, except for one thing. "The size of Texas. There's no way you can comprehend that," he said. To be fair, there's only so much you can say with a modest-sized room of identical dimensions to the 39 other states participating in the fair — 11 states declined Trump's invitation. Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for the Governor's Economic Development and Tourism Office, which organized the booth, said the aim was to give visitors "a real taste of what makes our state exceptional." While Florida focused on their citrus industry and Arizona on the state's natural beauty, Texas's booth seemed to focus on its quirks and ingenuity. You can watch a video of musicians performing at the Austin City Limits music festival while checking out a scaled-down version of Amarillo's Cadillac Ranch before walking inside a replica of a NASA spacecraft.

Rural Texas is losing Affordable Care Act access coverage even as statewide enrollment rises

Recent headlines have highlighted rising Affordable Care Act (ACA) plan enrollment in Texas, but statewide gains mask uneven trends across different communities. While overall enrollment in Texas increased by about 5%, enrollment fell more than 3% in rural areas and dropped roughly 5% in exurban counties, or metropolitan counties where at least one-third of residents live in rural-designated census blocks. Across the country, ACA Marketplace plan selections fell by more than one million people to 23.1 million in 2026, the largest year-over-year decline since the marketplaces were created over a decade ago. Actual enrollment is expected to drop even further because many consumers may not pay their premiums or may cancel coverage during the year as higher costs, following the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, make plans less affordable.

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With enhanced premium tax credits expiring, average monthly costs for ACA Marketplace enrollees rose 58% in 2026, leading many consumers to choose cheaper plans with higher out-of-pocket costs and pushing deductibles up by more than $1,000 on average—the largest jump in the marketplace history. “Rural enrollees may be shifting to lower tier plans that require more out-of-pocket costs or dropping healthcare coverage altogether because of recent Marketplace changes,” said Alexa McKinley Abel, director of government affairs and policy at the National Rural Health Association (NRHA). “Increases in ACA premiums combined with recently finalized regulations that incentivize enrollment in bronze and catastrophic plans will lead to higher healthcare costs for rural populations, and ultimately less access to care. These costs may come in the form of paying the higher premiums themselves, less generous coverage leading to higher out-of-pocket costs, or expensive medical bills for those who are no longer insured.” Texas remains an outlier nationally, posting enrollment growth even as Marketplace sign-ups fell across the country. Still, signs of the national affordability squeeze are emerging in rural parts of the state, where rising premiums are coinciding with sharp enrollment declines.

Texans voice opposition to data centers as couple's lawn message takes flight, the industry sharpens its pitch

A majority of Texans oppose having a data center built in their community — and a Red Oak couple has cut their answer into the lawn for anyone flying overhead to see. A new University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll found 56% of Texas voters opposed to local data center construction, with opposition climbing to 62% in rural areas. Only 29% said they were in favor. The survey of 1,200 self-reported registered voters was conducted June 5–12 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percentage points. In Ellis County, Deanna Tiffany said her husband cut "No more data centers" into the grass at their property, big enough to read from the air. "I don't want them in my neighborhood," she said.

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Joshua Blank, research director at the Texas Politics Project, said the industry has noticed. "Surely they're aware that they're fighting an uphill battle with public opinion, and they're making a greater effort to try to show that they're not as costly to the communities as they appear," Blank said. Companies are responding to concerns about how much power and water data centers consume. Microsoft and Chevron last week signed a 20-year agreement for Chevron to build a co-located natural gas power plant — Project Kilby — to provide dedicated electricity to a Microsoft-operated data center in West Texas. Google, which already operates data centers in Ellis County, announced a $10 million Texas Water Impact Fund earlier this month for water stewardship and infrastructure projects in communities where it builds. A new advocacy group is also entering the conversation. The Texas National Security Council, a recently launched public-interest nonprofit, has brought on former Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw as its public face. He frames the buildout as more than an economic question. "It's a national security imperative. If we lose the race for AI, and frankly, it is a race with AI with China right now. It compromises our capability, our military capability, tenfold," McCraw said. Still, McCraw said the industry has not done enough to bring residents along. "They just need to be more proactive in terms of talking to the communities themselves, plain and simple," he said. For now, more rural couples appear to be landing where the Tiffanys have. "Makes me proud. I'm fighting for my community," Tiffany said.

Another man has died after being in Tarrant County Jail custody — the fourth death in 2 weeks

Another man has died after being in Tarrant County Jail custody — the fourth death in less than two weeks, raising more questions from family members. The family of Victor Runnels, 61, told reporters Tuesday they still do not know what medical emergency led to him being taken from the jail to John Peter Smith Hospital and said they received few answers from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. Runnels’ relatives called for transparency and an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. “We want to know why,” Rogers said. “Why are we not afforded those answers?” Runnels was pronounced dead at 4:46 p.m. Friday at JPS, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s website. He was released from custody at the jail at 4:18 p.m. that same day, court records show.

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Family members said they were notified he was in the intensive care unit by a family member before arriving after Runnels’ passing. According to the family, they were not informed he was transported to JPS. Runnels’ sister, Vicky Rogers, said the family is seeking justice and accountability. “I deeply, deeply love my brother,” Rogers said. “For this to happen to him, we must have answers. I want justice and accountability for my brother. I’m not going to rest in peace without it.” Runnels was arrested June 11 over a parole violation, according to court records. The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office says it will not be investigating the death, as it doesn’t match the criteria of an in-custody death. “The Texas Commission on Jail Standards reviewed the case and formally determined that it does not meet the criteria for an in-custody death,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Every day, people arrive at our jail already sick, struggling with addiction, or dealing with long-term untreated medical conditions. Unfortunately, there are cases where an individual’s illness is so advanced that there is no curative treatment available. We remain committed to ensuring that every person in our custody is treated with professionalism, dignity, and the highest standard of care.”

Dallas City Hall named to World Monuments Fund’s ‘Irreplaceable America’ list

Dallas City Hall has been recognized as one of 10 heritage places included on the World’s Monuments Fund (WMF) “Irreplaceable America” list. The list highlights significant locations across the United States, ranging from landmarks and colonial buildings to Indigenous heritage sites, that face urgent preservation needs. Dallas City Hall, designed by I.M. Pei, was built following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as part of an effort to rebrand the city and look toward the future. In addition to being named to the Irreplaceable America list, Dallas City Hall has also been placed on endangered lists by Preservation Texas and Preservation Dallas. As uncertainty remains over whether the building will be renovated or demolished, its inclusion on the Irreplaceable America list comes at a pivotal moment.

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“Dallas City Hall is irreplaceable as a major civic anchor in downtown Dallas,” said Zaida Basora, vice president of the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition and executive director of AIA Dallas, in a press release. “Not only is this an architecturally and historically significant building, but it has all of the elements to serve as a catalyst for the kind of development and revitalization that the southern area of downtown Dallas needs.” The nationwide open call for nominations resulted in 75 submissions. Nominations were evaluated based on cultural significance, urgency of conservation needs and the potential community benefit of preservation.

TCEQ fines Freeport LNG for alleged air pollution, record keeping violations

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has fined one of the country's largest liquefied natural gas exporters for alleged air pollution violations dating back to 2019. The TCEQ said Freeport LNG, located south of Houston along the Gulf Coast, failed to keep its air pollution below the state's regulatory limits and maintain proper records. However, the state agency also agreed to defer part of Freeport LNG's fines and issued a new permit late last year that increases the amount of air pollution the company is allowed to produce. Freeport LNG paid $103,240 in fines, even as it denied allegations that it exceeded its air pollution limits and failed to meet the TCEQ's record-keeping requirements.

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Environmental advocates expressed frustration that Freeport LNG received what they view as a minor punishment for repeated violations. "The fines are too small to get their attention," said Melanie Oldham, director of the nonprofit Better Brazoria County Clean Air and Water. Freeport LNG declined a request for comment from Houston Public Media. In TCEQ enforcement documents, Freeport LNG denied the agency's allegations. The TCEQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning. In enforcement documents, state environmental regulators said Freeport LNG has taken steps over the last five years to comply with TCEQ regulations. The TCEQ has agreed to waive an additional $25,810 in fines if Freeport LNG complies with the agency's enforcement order. State environmental regulators said Freeport LNG exceeded its allowed emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds. According to the TCEQ, the company released 14.33 tons of unauthorized nitrogen oxides, 118.53 tons of unauthorized carbon monoxide emissions and 7.31 tons of unauthorized VOC emissions.

National Stories

‘The battle line has been drawn’ around Virginia’s data centers

For decades, the world’s densest cluster of data centers has grown in Northern Virginia with little scrutiny and generous incentives. That changed this spring, when state lawmakers seriously considered taking away a key tax exemption that saved the state’s data centers $1.9 billion last year and doesn’t expire until 2035. For a while, it looked like Virginia would have its first-ever state government shutdown over whether to sunset the incentive early. Policymakers ultimately reached a compromise to avert a shutdown — and send a warning shot to the industry — by signing off on a budget Monday containing the first-ever statewide tax on data center energy consumption. Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger praised the initiative. “Virginia has a responsibility to make sure the data center industry is paying their fair share for the energy they use,” she said in a Monday evening address. “But this is only the beginning.”

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Even activists and lawmakers who have been pushing for years to rein in Northern Virginia’s data center industry were surprised by how quickly cracks appeared in the foundation of what felt like a stable relationship. Northern Virginia is home to more than 300 data centers. About 200 more are expected to go up in the coming years. Loudoun County, specifically, has the world’s highest concentration of data centers, relying on the industry for almost half its property tax revenue. But Virginia voters have quickly soured on the issue. A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll of more than 1,100 found just 35% would be comfortable with a new data center going up in their community, putting pressure on politicians to effectively choose between the interests of their constituents and those of the data center operators whose business they depend on. “The battle line has been drawn around that question in Virginia,” said Brennan Gilmore, executive director of Clean Virginia, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on political corruption and utilities in the state. “And folks are lining up on either side of it.”

U.S. beats Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 to advance to round of 16 and keep its World Cup dreams alive

Folarin Balogun scored his third goal of the World Cup before being sent off with a red card in the second half, and Malik Tillman converted on a free kick to give the 10-man United States a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday night that advanced the Americans to the round of 16. Balogun dominated the first half with his 45th-minute goal, 14 minutes after he put the ball in the net but was called for offside. The Americans had to scramble down a man after his foul against Tarik Muharemovic in the 64th minute. Star Christian Pulisic had a goal disallowed for offside in the 78th minute, and Tillman helped seal the win when he curled in a free kick from from just outside the box in the 82nd, a shot off diving goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj’s right hand.

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Frustration mounts as GOP infighting derails House

Republicans are growing increasingly frustrated with the infighting that has brought work in the House to a halt and caused Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to send lawmakers home early for the second week in a row. Republican rebels are fuming over a voter ID bill and what they say is a broken promise from leadership to vote on border legislation by Independence Day. But those defectors are getting increasing heat from not only their colleagues, but from the president whose policies they claim to be fighting for. While hosting a group of Republican lawmakers for dinner Tuesday evening at the “Rose Garden Club” at the White House, President Trump turned to Johnson and asked if it was members of the House Freedom Caucus who tanked a procedural vote that would have teed up major funding and defense legislation.

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Johnson, according to a source at the dinner, responded to Trump that some of the 13 lawmakers who voted down the rule were in the Freedom Caucus. Trump said that was “stupid” and that Republicans should stick together like the Democrats. Trump dubbed the rebels part of the “3 o’clock caucus” in an apparent reference to the kind of members he gets asked to call in the wee hours of the morning to help sway them on a vote, as he has previously publicly complained about. Trump said there were nine members of the 3 o’clock caucus, but he didn’t specify who the nine were, the source said. Punchbowl News first reported Trump’s remark at the dinner. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who is not a Freedom Caucus member, was the most visible of the 13 rebels this week. She had called for the annual defense authorization bill to include her amendment attaching the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, legislation pushed by Trump that would require voter ID to cast a ballot and proof of citizenship for voter registration. It has passed the House multiple times.

Trump administration seeks to stomp out all fires quickly, reviving policy that has been discredited

The deaths of three U.S. government firefighters in a Colorado wildfire are casting a spotlight on the Trump administration’s creation of a new federal fire service and its revival of a previously discredited policy to stomp out all wildfires quickly. One of the killed firefighters worked for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, established this year without customary congressional approval by drawing personnel from four agencies within the Interior Department. The victims were part of an elite, helicopter-based crew that got trapped Saturday in a fast-growing wildfire near the Utah border as they attacked the blaze on the ground. Five firefighters, including the ones who died, tried to shield themselves by deploying tentlike emergency shelters as flames overran their position. The two survivors were hospitalized with burn injuries.

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The consolidation of thousands of personnel into the fire service has sown confusion among some firefighters about who their bosses are and what their responsibilities should be, according to former government officials. And the administration’s focus on “full suppression” of new fires marks a sharp reversal from a decades-long trend toward embracing flames as a tool — to burn off old vegetation and growth that acts like fuel and lessen the risk of catastrophic blazes being stoked by a warming planet. The changes benefit private fire aviation companies that are key to hitting blazes fast. Federal officials have not released details on the circumstances preceding the weekend deaths, including the firefighters’ objective at the site where they were overrun. “The question is, why were they attacking that fire in the first place?” asked Timothy Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter and cofounder of the advocacy group Firefighters United For Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “What was actually at risk? If it was a bunch of shrubs on remote mountaintops, what was the real risk that justified putting those firefighters at risk?”

Colorado Governor Polis fires officials who opposed freeing election denier

Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado on Wednesday fired two members of his clemency board after they spoke out against his decision to commute the prison sentence of the election denier Tina Peters. The board members, Hannah Seigel Proff and Azra Taslimi, had objected to Mr. Polis’s decision in May to release Ms. Peters from prison after pressure from President Trump. After the commutation, Ms. Proff and Ms. Taslimi revealed that the board — appointed by Mr. Polis — had twice voted unanimously to reject Ms. Peters’s application for a shortened sentence. Mr. Polis, a Democrat, has the final decision, and overruled the board.

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The board normally operates in secret, and does not disclose the pardon and commutation recommendations it makes to the governor. Ms. Proff and Ms. Taslimi said they had been compelled to pierce that veil of secrecy in Ms. Peters’s case. On Wednesday, they said they had paid the price. They received a letter from the governor saying they were being dismissed for violating the board’s confidentiality standards. “You breached the required duty of confidentiality by publicly divulging board members’ votes,” Mr. Polis wrote to each of the women, who shared the letters with The New York Times. Ms. Peters, a former county clerk in conservative western Colorado, had been sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted in 2024 in a plot to tamper with voting machines under her control in an attempt to show that the 2020 election had been rigged against Mr. Trump.

Vatican excommunicates bishops of breakaway traditionalist sect

The Vatican on Thursday said it had excommunicated top clerics in an archconservative Catholic sect with thousands of adherents in the United States and Europe for ordaining renegade bishops in defiance of the Holy See, triggering the most serious schism in decades within the world’s largest Christian faith. Pope Leo XIV had pleaded directly with the sect, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), not to move forward with the consecration of four traditionalist bishops, a move that, under church law, carries the penalty of automatic excommunication. In an extraordinary act of defiance, the group moved forward on Wednesday. By Thursday morning, the Vatican announced the excommunications — signaling the limits of Leo’s willingness to a accommodate traditionalists who reject modern church teachings.

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The Vatican’s statement, issued by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, came with a stern warning to priests and parishioners associated with the society. “As regards the lay faithful, those who formally join the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X … are to be considered schismatic and excommunicated,” Fernández declared in a letter published Thursday. In recent years, both conservatives and liberals have tested the Vatican by pushing the boundaries of official doctrine — moves that have threatened to create rifts in the church of 1.4 billion Catholics. Founded in Switzerland in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who opposed modernizing changes in the church a decade earlier, SSPX claims more than 700 priests and a half million members worldwide. Many will now have to choose between SSPX and the Catholic Church.

C.I.A. reorganization prioritizes cyberoperations

John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, announced on Tuesday that the agency was reorganizing to ensure that it can adopt technology faster and further develop offensive cyberoperations division. He promised that the agency would use new technology more aggressively and take “smart risks,” even as it prioritized human decision making and oversight of artificial intelligence and other innovations. The changes are intended to strengthen the C.I.A.’s ability to collect intelligence by gaining access to additional computer networks or communications, or even just locating additional potential human sources. The overhaul, Mr. Ratcliffe said, is an acknowledgment that in the modern world, digital borders are as important as physical borders.

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In his first major address as C.I.A. director, Mr. Ratcliffe said artificial intelligence is raising the stakes in America’s competition with its adversaries, since the new technology is itself a transformative weapon. “In conversations with many of the president’s other national security and economic security advisers, we’re talking about the impact of these frontier A.I. models,” he said. “It would be, as we’ve talked about, not misplaced to refer to their capabilities as akin to digital nuclear weapons.” To improve its collection, both through human spies and eavesdropping on communication networks, “more C.I.A. officers are going to have to become just as comfortable with handling lines of code as they are with handling human assets and sources,” Mr. Ratcliffe said. In a brief interview after the speech, Mr. Ratcliffe said the capabilities of the new generation of artificial intelligence model had promoted hard thinking about cyberdefenses and cyberoffensive operations. “These capabilities, it is fair to say, surprised everyone in terms of what that iteration was capable of versus what was predicted about where A.I. was going to go.”

States considering charging employers with Medicaid-covered workers

New Jersey is launching a new fee on companies whose workers have Medicaid health coverage instead of being covered by their employers. Other states are considering it, too. Democratic lawmakers and governors see it as a way to help pay for the joint federal and state insurance program that covers low-income residents as federal policy changes are expected to make the program more expensive for states and may lead to a reduction in the number of people with coverage. Proponents also say it’s about fairness because employers benefit from having some lower-income workers with taxpayer-funded health coverage. Business groups object. So do some liberal policy organizations.

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New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a measure Tuesday night to charge employers that have at least 50 workers covered by Medicaid, and the state budget she approved earlier in the week counts on raising $145 million this year from the program. Under the plan, companies will be billed for each employee and employees’ dependent receiving Medicaid, the joint state-federal insurance program. The fees per person would start at $325 a year for companies with 50 to 249 Medicaid beneficiaries and top out at $725 annually for employers with at least 500 recipients. A bill passed this week in California doesn’t impose a charge now, but it does direct the state administration to present lawmakers options for doing so next year. Finishing the job would fall to the successor of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is leaving office in January. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has made an employer charge part of his election platform. State Sen. John Laird, a Democrat who sponsored the California proposal, said the big tax and policy law President Donald Trump signed a year ago was a major factor in the need for action because it could prompt the state to spend more on Medicaid to plug holes left by federal changes.

Copyright July 02, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved