June 19, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas Democrats seek unity at state convention without Jasmine Crocket

Texas Democrats will gather next week in Corpus Christi, seeking to project unity and build momentum behind state Rep. James Talarico's Senate campaign. One of the party's most recognizable stars won't be there. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, who lost a hard-fought Senate primary to Talarico in March, told The Dallas Morning News she does not plan to attend the state convention and instead is focusing on helping down-ballot candidates across the country. Crockett also said she’s not sure whether Democrats, particularly Black voters, have united fully behind Talarico and the rest of the ticket. She said the lack of a Black nominee for major statewide office could dampen enthusiasm among some voters.

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“I've not heard a bunch of kumbaya,” she said. “People don't seem to be convinced at this point, but there's a lot of time between now and November.” Asked whether she would actively support Talarico's campaign, Crockett said: “I have no idea. I am more focused on down-ballot races in general.” Crockett’s absence from the convention reflects a lingering divide between her and Talarico, who served together in the Texas House and became rivals during the hotly contested Senate race. He faces Republican Ken Paxton in November. She said she received what she described as an “afterthought invite” on June 8 from Talarico, based on the preview message on her cell phone. “I had a missed call that I've not returned, nor have I listened to the message from Talarico,” Crockett told The News. “It seemed like an afterthought invite. I can't say for sure, because I haven't listened to it.” According to Talarico’s campaign, he called Crockett and left a message suggesting she make the keynote speech at the convention. In a statement to The News, Talarico said that “Texans are coming together…to do something extraordinary.”

Hormuz relief may not ease the economic toll that's already 'baked in,' analysts warn

Early signs that the Strait of Hormuz is reopening have eased the most acute threat to global energy supplies, but economic damages from the nearly four months of war will take months to unwind, analysts warned. The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum Thursday to open the Strait of Hormuz, ending a war that has upended global energy supply chains, pushed inflation higher and dented the outlook for growth. But even if shipping through the strait normalizes, higher inflation has already been largely “baked in” across many economies, Simon MacAdam, deputy chief global economist at Capital Economics, said in a note this week.

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“It can take many months for higher energy and fertiliser prices to be passed along food supply chains to end-consumers,” MacAdam said. Prices of natural gas piped to households typically lag the upstream market by around three months, he said. Oil prices retreated to around $80 a barrel on Friday, down from a peak of $118 in March when the war was at its height. Goldman Sachs cut its oil price forecast Tuesday, projecting Brent to average $80 in late 2026 and $75 in 2027, citing a faster-than-expected recovery in Persian Gulf crude flows. Higher energy costs and upstream supply disruptions would take longer to feed through to the downstream food and energy sectors. A backlog of vessels waiting to transit the Strait of Hormuz could further delay a full recovery in freight flows. The World Bank, which last week lowered its global economic growth forecast to 2.5%, the slowest pace since the pandemic, expects global inflation to climb to 4% this year, up from 3.3% in 2025, even if disruptions to oil flows ease in the coming weeks. Fertilizer prices could jump as much as 38% this year as supply disruptions and shortages of key inputs from the Gulf ripple through agricultural markets, it said.

Paxton breaks with Texas GOP’s anti-IVF platform, saying he supports the procedure

Attorney General and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton broke with his state party’s opposition to in-vitro fertilization Thursday, calling himself a “strong supporter” of the fertility treatment. “Strong families are the foundation of a strong nation,” Paxton said in a statement shared exclusively with The Texas Tribune. “Every child is a blessing, and every family hoping to welcome a child deserves support and compassion. I am a strong supporter of IVF and pro-family policies that help Americans experience the wonders of parenthood.” Paxton’s support puts him in the same camp as President Donald Trump, but on the opposite side of the issue as the Republican Party of Texas. The state party, in a platform and legislative priorities adopted last weekend at its Houston convention, called on lawmakers to “protect fetal life from destructive practices, such as IVF and commercial surrogacy.”

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Another plank of the state GOP platform states that the party opposes “public funding for procedures that destroy embryonic life, including IVF”, and called for regulation to prevent “embryo discarding, eugenic practices and commodification of human life.” But Paxton’s campaign said he would work to safeguard IVF if elected to the U.S. Senate. The Republican nominee supports the IVF Protection Act, a bill from Sens. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to bar Medicaid funding for any state that bans IVF. Paxton will cosponsor the bill if elected. Paxton had taken heat from Democratic nominee James Talarico’s campaign over the Texas GOP’s stated opposition to IVF. Polling on IVF finds the treatment to be highly popular; a 2024 Pew Research Center survey found 70% of Americans say access to IVF is a good thing, while only 8% say it’s bad. But while high-level Republicans, including President Donald Trump, are supportive of IVF, the treatment is divisive among conservative activists and abortion opponents. The fertility treatment was thrust into the political spotlight in 2024 when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children, under a state law extending rights to “unborn children,” and that fertility clinics could be found liable for wrongful death if embryos are destroyed. The ruling immediately chilled IVF access in the state, with several providers pausing treatments. Top Republicans came out in support of IVF, including then-candidate Trump, and Alabama’s Republican Legislature quickly passed a law shielding IVF providers and patients from civil and criminal liability for embryo destruction, allowing the state’s clinics to resume fertility treatments.

Report heading to Texas leaders cites Camp Mystic emergency planning failures before 2025 flood

No written emergency plans. Stalled evacuations. Chaotic incident management and re-unification efforts. Those were some of the main findings included in a new investigative report on Camp Mystic’s response to last year’s historic July Fourth flood that killed 25 of its campers and two counselors. The 115-page document, which was adopted Thursday by a special joint committee in the Texas Legislature, paints a troubling picture of Camp Mystic’s preparedness prior to the flood. “This report represents months of careful work by the Senate and House General Investigative Committees to establish a complete and factual record of the events surrounding this tragedy, honor the memories of those that were lost, and identify lessons that can help prevent future loss of life,” said state Sen. Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton), a committee chair.

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More than 130 people were killed in the July Fourth floods. The majority of those deaths took place in Kerr County in the Texas Hill Country, where Camp Mystic is one of many popular summer camps lining the banks of the Guadalupe River. Now, lawmakers say the report’s findings will be used to guide policy changes for the Texas Legislature to take up when they reconvene in 2027. This move comes after state lawmakers passed a package of bills during a special session last year aimed at improving youth camp safety and boosting the state’s emergency preparedness and response planning. State Sen. Charles Perry (R-San Angelo), told the panel on Thursday that he believes a good portion of the issues cited in the new report on Camp Mystic were already addressed by that legislation, and that he believes only a few tweaks are needed going forward. “What I don't want to do is have to effectively bring back the hurt that comes with these conversations if we've already addressed it the way it needs to be addressed — to the legislature's credit,” said Perry. The report was created by Casey Garrett and Judge Michael Massengale, investigators hired by the legislature to look into the flood and its response — including what went wrong at Camp Mystic.

State Stories

Public Utility Commission of Texas finalizes new data center standards

The Public Utility Commission of Texas on Thursday approved stricter standards for data centers looking to connect to the state's power grid — the final step in the development of new regulations meant to weed out speculative projects. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which operates the state's main power grid, approved the new standards earlier this month, before passing them onto the Public Utility Commission for final approval. When large energy consumers want to join the state's power grid, ERCOT will now evaluate them in a group study, rather than individually. ERCOT says it will notify applicants for the first study, known as “Batch Zero,” in August.

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The study will prioritize projects that are further along in the development process, and require large energy users to post a financial security equal to $50,000 per megawatt of the proposed project in order to be included. "This new process represents a fundamental shift in how ERCOT manages the significant growth of large load interconnection, providing a structured, transparent path forward that protects reliability for Texans while supporting the state’s continued economic growth," ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said in a news release. Data centers and other large energy consumers looking to connect to the grid are requesting five times the amount of power used to power the entire state during record-breaking demand. ERCOT is trying to figure out which data centers are actually ready to build in Texas — and what infrastructure will be needed to connect them to the power grid. Bryan Clark, a partner at the global energy firm Bracewell LLP, said unprecedented economic growth has created a need for Texas to build more transmission infrastructure — such as power lines and transformers. "I think it’s both organic to the data center industry but also just unprecedented economic growth in Texas," he said. Jared Berg, another partner at Bracewell, said the state's clear standards are part of the reason data centers are flocking to Texas. "Why is there so much industrial load that’s attracted to the state?" he said. "It’s because we have that inclination to set the rules of the road and make it clear so that companies know how to operate and the right way to operate."

Supreme Court sides with Texas marijuana user who was barred from owning guns

The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously limited the use of a gun law used to prosecute President Biden's son Hunter. The case, however, did not affect Biden, who was pardoned by his father. The case was brought by a Ali Hemani, a Texas resident who admitted to FBI agents that he used pot several times a week at the same time that he owned a legally purchased gun. He was soon indicted under the federal Gun Control Act, which makes it a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison for an individual to use illegal drugs and to have even a legally purchased gun. While it is the same law used to prosecute Hunter Biden, the Supreme Court's decision was sufficiently narrow that it may not insulate from prosecution those who, like Biden, use more serious drugs, and own a gun.

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In explaining the decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch stressed that the ruling was extremely limited, in part because marijuana use has become so ubiquitous, widely accepted and is now legal to one degree or another in 40 states. Indeed, as Gorsuch observed, the federal government itself has reclassified many marijuana products from a schedule one, high-potential-for-abuse category, down to a schedule 3 drug. Therefore, said Gorsuch, the only thing before the court is the government's "ambitious theory" that could "could automatically strip Mr. Hemani of his Second Amendment right to own a gun because he uses marijuana a few times week." The court's answer was basically, no you can't do that. The decision was unanimous, though several justices filed concurring opinions. So, was this a big win for gun rights advocates? "It's a good question" said Stephen Stamboulieh, a lawyer for Gun Owners of America. "I think it's a pretty significant win when we have basically the entire court saying that a federal statute can't go as far as it tried to go." Eric Ruben, a law professor at Southern Methodist University had a different take. "I think the outcome of this case was based on the view that most Americans may hold, which is that weed is the new booze. The narrowness of Thursday's ruling, plus the fact that a total of five justices filed concurring opinions that spelled out different approaches, is a reflection of the many divisions among the justices on the subject of guns and gun regulations. In 2022 the court's conservative majority declared for the first time that in order for a gun law or gun regulation to be constitutional, it had to be analogous to laws at the nation's founding in the 1700s and early 1800s. Since then, however, lower court judges, and the Supreme Court itself, have struggled with how to apply such a rigid rule.

Texas version of Epstein files? Talarico targets Paxton over child sex abuse deal

James Talarico is deeming a child sex offender’s plea deal the Texas version of the Epstein files. And he wants everything that led to the bargain from the Texas attorney general’s office released to the public. State Rep. Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, is running against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that’s garnering nationwide (and White House) attention. On Thursday, Talarico is calling for Paxton’s office to release “the Hoffman files.” Here’s what you need to know.

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Former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman, 49, was arrested in June 2022 and charged with continuous sexual abuse of a young child after a friend of his son’s told authorities that he had been abused since he was about 7 years old. Hoffman initially faced between 25 years to life in prison on the first-degree felony charge. The McLennan district attorney recused himself in the case, which is why the Attorney General’s Office took over. The victim testified when the case went to trial, but it ended with a hung jury. The victim, now 14, didn’t want to testify again in an effort not to be re-traumatized, according to Paxton’s office. In March, Paxton’s office offered Hoffman a plea deal that included reduced charges and 30 days in jail if he pleaded guilty. Before the bargain, Hoffman was facing a life sentence without parole. Talarico called it an “Epstein-style sweetheart deal.” Hoffman pleaded guilty on April 16 to reduced charges of indecent assault and displaying harmful materials to a minor, Class A misdemeanors that could lead to up to a year in jail. The judge in the case extended the jail time to 60 days. On day 29 in the McLennan County Jail, Hoffman was released for good behavior. The jail often grants similar “two-for-one” deals when inmates exhibit good behavior, according to KWTX-TV in Waco. After moving to Omaha with his wife, Hoffman was required to register as a sex offender in his home county of Sarpy County. Because of the plea deal, Hoffman was not required to register in Texas. At a press conference, Talarico said no matter a person’s political leaning, anyone can agree that child molesters must be brought to justice. “So today I am calling on Ken Paxton to release the Hoffman files, all text messages, all emails, all documents, all internal memos relating to the Adam Kaufman case,” Talarico said at a press conference in Waco. “Those documents need to be made public immediately, so Texans can get answers about this corrupt deal.”

Records challenge UT Austin’s allegations against former KUT leader Debbie Hiott

Earlier this week, the University of Texas at Austin fired KUT Public Media’s General Manager Debbie Hiott, marking an extraordinary and unprecedented intervention in the governance of the public radio station that has been housed at UT for decades. The move has reverberated across journalism and higher education circles, with many asking the same questions: Was this really about a dispute over the planning of a KUT event on campus, as the university claims? Is Austin’s NPR station being deliberately targeted amid explicit attacks on public media and attempts to reshape higher education institutions across Texas? Hiott’s termination letter simply cites her “oversight and management of planning for the KUT festival” as reason for her firing. The letter also appears to reference the fact that she publicly denied allegations by UT that the station had engaged in “insufficient planning” related to the event.

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But in an interview with KUT, Hiott said her firing was a symptom of “pettiness” within the university and that its current leaders don’t “have any sense of accountability or concern” for the station’s audience. University leadership has changed in recent years as Texas Republicans exert more influence on the state’s flagship public school. “I was just holding out hope that they would let it all die down, because the station never did anything wrong. I never did anything wrong,” Hiott said. “They're just angry because they looked stupid through it all — the whole festival back-and-forth.” In a text message on Monday, UT Austin spokesman Mike Rosen said “the university does not comment on personnel matters.” University officials also did not respond to a detailed request for comment. KUT and its sister music station, KUTX, are editorially independent from the university. While they are based at UT's Moody College, they are funded by community and business donations, rather than tuition or state taxpayer dollars. Last month, KUT requested records of communications between UT Austin officials and KUT staff and festival planners in an attempt to square the two competing narratives. The university asked for $536 for the records but has yet to provide them.

Debate over sterilized screwworm flies plays out in Texas Capitol

Texas lawmakers heard competing approaches Thursday for how to combat the New World screwworm, as federal officials defended the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s current eradication strategy while private sectors urged the state to invest in alternative sterile fly production methods. Sterile flies are used to disrupt the reproduction cycle of the screwworm. The hearing, chaired by state Rep. Ryan Guillen, R – Rio Grande City, comes as Texas and federal officials continue responding to recent New World screwworm detections in the state.

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Nathan Moses-Gonzales, CEO of M3 Agriculture Technologies, testified that Texas should consider investing in modular insect-rearing facilities that use x-ray technology to sterilize flies, arguing the approach could quickly expand the supply of sterile insects used to suppress screwworm populations. Moses-Gonzales told lawmakers his company is seeking roughly $4 million from Texas to partner with the University of Veracruz in Mexico and help produce additional sterile flies while larger federal facilities come online. Moses-Gonzales told lawmakers he could produce 100 million sterile flies per week in a year. The USDA is currently building a $619 million facility on 19 acres of land at Moore Air Base in South Texas that will be capable of producing up to 300 million sterile flies per week. But it could take years for the facility to reach that level of output. “We see ourselves as partners with and enabling USDA to have this capacity as a bridge until Moore Airfield comes online,” Moses-Gonzales said. He described the proposal as a short-term way to boost production capacity and support broader eradication efforts. Federal officials, however, cautioned against adopting x-ray sterilization before additional research is completed.

Rep. David Cook backs residents fighting Tarrant County wastewater facility

At a public meeting at the Forest Hill Civic and Convention Center on Thursday night, residents from the southern edge of Tarrant County urged the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to reconsider permitting a wastewater treatment facility that would discharge treated wastewater into a creek already being monitored for high levels of the bacteria E. coli. During public comments and an informal question-and-answer session, several of the approximately 200 in attendance, many wearing red in a show of solidarity, voiced concerns about effects on the environment and people’s health. State Rep. David Cook — who requested the public meeting at the behest of some of his constituents — addressed the TCEQ staffers present and asked the agency to reject the wastewater permit application, raising questions about whether the applicants had followed proper protocol.

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This fight began more than a year ago when Greg Coontz, a Burleson attorney, and his sister, Cathy Frederick, a Burleson real estate agent, applied for a TCEQ permit for a domestic wastewater treatment facility. According to application documents, the facility would be built on land Coontz and Frederick own at the corner of FM 1187 and Bill Levey Road near Burleson. It would handle wastewater for a planned mobile home community on the site, discharging treated wastewater into a normally dry creek bed that runs into Village Creek, which in turn feeds into Lake Arlington. Since 2010, TCEQ has categorized Village Creek as impaired because of its high E. coli concentrations. When asked whether the wastewater treatment plant could worsen that, a TCEQ spokesman told the Star-Telegram it would not. “The permit and proposed facility are designed to provide adequate treatment to protect the stream from bacterial loads,” the spokesman wrote in a statement.

Ed Longanecker: Fifty years of permitting dysfunction may finally be coming to an end

(Ed Longanecker is president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association.) For decades, the American oil and gas industry has watched viable infrastructure projects collapse under the weight of a federal permitting system that was never designed to deliver timely decisions. Projects with strong economics, willing investors, and genuine public need have spent five, six, or ten years waiting for federal approvals before a shovel touched the ground. That is now changing, through a convergence of executive action, landmark legislation, and agency reform that together constitute the most significant overhaul of energy permitting in a generation. On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed EO 14156 declaring a National Energy Emergency under the National Emergencies Act and EO 14154 titled “Unleashing American Energy,” directing all agencies to identify and eliminate regulations imposing undue burdens on domestic energy development.

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U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright followed on February 5, 2025 with a secretarial order directing the Department of Energy to prioritize more efficient permitting for energy infrastructure. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 908 on June 30, 2025, authorizing reliance on environmental reviews completed by other agencies and eliminating redundant parallel reviews. On October 7, 2025, FERC permanently rescinded Section 157.23, which had barred natural gas pipeline companies from proceeding with construction while rehearing requests were pending. Executive orders are reversible, which is why the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last July 4, represented a more durable development. The OBBBA capped Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) reviews at 150 pages and two years and created a fast-track mechanism under which a project sponsor pays a fee equal to 125% of anticipated preparation costs and receives a completed environmental assessment within 180 days or a full EIS within one year. It replaced the presidential permit requirement for cross-border energy infrastructure with a Certificate of Crossing issued by FERC or DOE, removing the State Department and White House from a process subject to political manipulation, as demonstrated by the Biden administration’s cancellation of the Keystone XL permit. The Interior Department was ordered to mandate a minimum of 30 oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of America through 2040, restart Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) lease sales, and the OBBBA raised the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) revenue-sharing cap from $500 million to $650 million annually through 2034, benefiting Texas and three other Gulf-producing states.

Brazoria County hires Houston attorney after deputy fatally shoots Mendoza Jr.

Brazoria County hired a Houston attorney as legal counsel in a dispute over the deputy-involved shooting that killed a Texas State University student in Lake Jackson earlier this month. Norman Giles, a civil rights and police defense litigation attorney for the nationwide law firm Lewis Brisbois, told the Chronicle he will represent Brazoria County as it grapples with the fallout of the shooting. A Brazoria County sheriff's deputy shot and killed 18-year-old John Mendoza Jr. in his father's garage after a failed traffic stop turned into a slow pursuit in the early morning hours of June 1.

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Another Houston attorney, Charles Adams, represents Mendoza Jr.'s family. He said Mendoza Jr. and his three friends were unarmed and had their hands up at the time of the shooting. The sheriff's office has not said what prompted the traffic stop, but Adams said the young men were hanging out, playing basketball and walking a park track before the deputy began trailing them. Brazoria County Sheriff Bo Stallman has since fired former Deputy Kevin Tippit, and the Texas Rangers opened an investigation into the shooting with the Brazoria County District Attorney's Office. Neither office has released its findings, and Tippit has not been formally charged with any wrongdoing.

Dallas nabs defense lawyer discount to fight Paxton gun suits

An acclaimed Texas trial lawyer with a long record of supporting Democratic candidates is charging half his hourly rate to help Dallas thwart Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton‘s (R) push for guns in more public spaces. High stakes litigator Jeff Tillotson represents the city in a trio of firearms lawsuits from Paxton’s office over whether the lessor of government property for a private event can deny access to patrons legally carrying a gun. Dallas, thus far, is getting favorable rulings in all three suits. In an interview with Bloomberg Law, Tillotson said he bills a typical client at an hourly rate of about $2,000. According to a contract reviewed by Bloomberg Law obtained through public records, he’s charging the city just $895 per hour in one of the cases.

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“They have many, many fine lawyers in the city’s office so the fact they’d give me the opportunity to work on this is an honor,” Tillotson said. Dallas declined to release invoice statements from his firm, Tillotson Patton, showing how much it’s spending in legal fees to defend the gun restrictions. The city is on the hook directly for one case and for the other two could recoup expenses from private organizations whose firearms bans drew the suits. The final resolutions will be felt not only in Dallas but throughout the deeply-red state where the legislature has passed some of the most firearms-friendly laws in the country. People in Texas can carry a handgun openly in libraries, recreation centers, the Texas State Capitol, and government buildings except for when a meeting is happening. Paxton, a right-wing champion of firearms protections, argues Dallas must also allow them in public spaces that are leased by a private entity, because the city can’t confer authority to a third party to ban them that itself lacks.

The World Cup in Arlington is imperfectly perfect

The World Cup being played in Arlington is, in a word, unnatural. It is unnatural—and sometimes a little jarring—to witness such an overt melding of old-world soccer rituals and American stadium sports schlock, like a fusion restaurant getting very extra about Philly cheesesteak eggrolls. Because there’s no preparing a seasoned watcher of both European soccer and American stadium sports for the mashup of the English national team and the Chicago Bulls’ entrance theme. Or an overly peppy PA announcer barking out “let’s see who’s cheering on Croatia!!” by way of introducing fans clad in the country’s traditional red-and-white checkered kits. Same goes for the traditional unfurling of flags, the captain’s handshake at midfield, and the pre-match team photos all playing out beneath the JerryTron. And a hydration break sponsored by Powerade, featuring a performance by the Dallas Cowboys’ drum line and dancers.

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Our touches are as manufactured in this sport as theirs are organic, which isn’t a matter of laziness versus this just being what America has to contribute to a sport still relatively new in these parts. (That, and a place of employment for Croatia’s Petar Musa, who plays his club matches for FC Dallas.) You can be cynical about that if you’d like. Chances are the fans in attendance yesterday afternoon would pay you no mind. Because North Texas is now two for two in its group stage matches, after the late drama from Sunday’s Netherlands-Japan tilt was bettered by England and Croatia providing arguably the match—and inarguably the half—of the tournament thus far. That was to be expected from two of the top 10 teams in the world, each of which skews ambitious in its play. Something would have had to go especially wrong for Harry Kane to stay silent in front of net and Jude Bellingham to be muted in the midfield. England is a team with so much leftover ammunition that Bukayo Saka, one of the pillars of Arsenal’s English Premier League title team, had to come off the bench. Regrettably, something did go wrong for Croatia, when the legendary Luka Modric was subbed off in the 57th minute because his 40-year-old legs lacked the juice to keep up with England’s pace and power. But the team that punched higher above its weight than any other in Europe over the past decade landed a couple of haymakers to make this a spectacle.

USDA moves Rural Development roles to new D-FW hub

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving some roles from the Washington, D.C.-area to D-FW, the federal agency announced Wednesday. The roles fall under the umbrella of the USDA’s Rural Development arm, which offers various loan and grant programs designed to help rural Americans with housing, infrastructure, healthcare and other needs. The bureaucratic operation oversees a loan portfolio of more than $200 billion and counts several thousand employees in Washington, D.C. and hundreds of offices around the country, including one in McKinney that’s responsible for programs in Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rockwall and Tarrant counties.

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The USDA is relocating some positions from the D.C.-area to D-FW to create a new “operational hub” that will support loan and grant processing and program management, according to a news release. The agency is also creating a new hub in St. Louis as part of the same initiative. Further details about the relocation, including how many roles are being moved and whether the operation will be based at the existing McKinney office, were not immediately clear. A representative for the USDA did not immediately respond to questions from The Dallas Morning News about the move on Wednesday. While the relocation comes as part of a broad effort by the Trump Administration to reduce the federal government’s footprint in Washington — as a candidate in 2024 Trump said he wanted to move 100,000, or roughly one in three, federal jobs out of the capital, expanding on a similar initiative from his first term — USDA executives this week framed the moves to D-FW and St. Louis as an effort to more efficiently serve rural communities. “When rural communities collaborate with USDA they deserve a streamlined experience,” Stephen Vaden, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, said in a statement. “This reorganization injects new attention to our systems and processes that will eliminate unnecessary layers of bureaucracy, improve our ability to engage with our customers and conduct responsible oversight of federal investments.” The USDA, an agency now led by the Glen Rose-native Brooke Rollins, announced last year that it would undergo a broad restructuring that included vacating a Maryland research center and moving more than half of its nearly 5,000 Washington-based employees to five hubs around the country, prompting criticism from a major federal employee union. The agency's Rural Development division has around 3,000 total employees nationwide, less than half of its total staff in 2005, according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, an advocacy group. Last year, the division lost around 1,500 employees — including over 30% of its staff in Texas — from DOGE-related reductions, according to the group.

Scores fall ill at Texas Air Force base after Hegseth makes flu vaccine optional

A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said. The outbreak at the base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic Military Training wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open bays and share meals at large communal tables. A trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said in a news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of the trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak. A comprehensive medical review into his death is underway to determine the cause, according to the Air Force.

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In the weeks since Mr. Hegseth’s vaccine policy took effect on April 21, only about 40 percent of Air Force trainees have opted to take the vaccine, which had long been mandatory, an Air Force official said. In the aftermath of the outbreak, the Air Force issued an exception to the voluntary vaccine policy, requiring that all recruits at Lackland get flu shots — part of a broader effort to stem the virus’s spread. Sign up to get Maggie Haberman's articles emailed to you. Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent reporting on President Trump. Mr. Hegseth cast his decision to make the flu vaccine optional as a matter of religious freedom and medical autonomy. “Under the disastrous Biden administration, this Pentagon waged an unrelenting war on our warriors on many fronts, including when it came to denying them simple medical autonomy and the freedom to express their religious convictions,” he said in a video announcing his decision in April. He described the longstanding flu vaccine requirement as an “absurd, overreaching” mandate that had served to “weaken our warfighting capabilities.” At the time, many lawmakers, including some prominent Republicans, expressed puzzlement and dismay at Mr. Hegseth’s decision.

Harris County set to name Marcus Stuckett as new chief of Flood Control District

The Harris County Commissioners Court appears set to name a longtime employee as executive director of the Flood Control District on Thursday, two weeks after Tina Petersen resigned amid concerns about the handling of a federal grant program. According to documents provided by the agency, commissioners plan to name Marcus Stuckett to be the post at their next meeting June 25. Stuckett has worked for the Flood Control District since 2015, most recently as director of engineering, according to his LinkedIn profile. Tina Petersen stepped down June 11 after commissioners had discussed her job performance in closed sessions. Criticism over Petersen's performance emerged after commissioners learned this year that the city was at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Hurricane Harvey recovery aid due to projects expected to miss spending deadlines. Petersen said she "plan(s) to continue to be available to implement a transition plan."

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National Stories

California labor union could scale back billionaire tax proposal

A labor union behind a controversial tax on California billionaires significantly scaled back its proposal a day after it qualified for the November ballot, but the offer Thursday wasn’t enough to get the governor on board. The proposal from the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Workers West to impose a one-time, 5% tax on individuals whose net worth exceeds $1 billion faces staunch pushback from a wide swath of critics, including Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The union said Thursday that it would abandon the 5% tax proposal if Newsom would join them in supporting a 2% levy. The updated proposal would instead have to be passed by the Legislature, given a June 25 deadline for the measure to qualify for the ballot. Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom, said scaling it back doesn’t change its “fundamental flaws that harm working Californians.”

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“The Governor supports making the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share, but this poorly designed state-only measure will defund teachers, schools, clinics, and public safety,” she said in a statement. The tax, to be paid by those living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026, is meant to generate $100 billion in revenue, mainly to counter federal cuts to healthcare for low-income people with some money going to food assistance and education programs. “A 2% one-time tax on that accumulated wealth is modest by any objective measure especially if it means keeping emergency rooms open and saving patient lives,” backers wrote in a letter to Newsom. Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, said Wednesday night that petitioners collected more than the roughly 875,000 signatures needed to place the original proposal before voters. States have been debating how to respond to the major tax breaks and spending cuts legislation President Donald Trump signed last year. The proposal has already divided Democrats and major labor unions and triggered an expensive campaign to defeat it. The proposed tax is backed by prominent progressives including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Meta lobbies Congress for protection from child-harm lawsuits

Meta Platforms has lobbied the U.S. Congress for legal immunity from child-harm claims tied to social media products such as Instagram, as it faces thousands of lawsuits from young users and their families, according to ?a source familiar with the matter and proposed legislative language reviewed by Reuters. If adopted by lawmakers and passed into law ?as part of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) under consideration in the U.S. Senate, such a provision could undermine thousands of lawsuits against Meta and other online platforms over ?harms to children. Meta and Google's YouTube face a combined $6 million in damages after they lost the first case at trial early this year. While legislators have given no indication of adopting the language, the lobbying effort shows the kind of legal protections Meta is seeking amid the biggest attempt to regulate online platforms in the U.S. since the 1990s.

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The proposed language reviewed by Reuters would make online companies "immune from suit or liability under state law ?with respect to all claims for loss caused by, ?arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the safety or privacy of individuals under the age of eighteen online or otherwise related to the provisions" of KOSA. The provision appears alongside language that would preempt state ?laws on children's online safety and privacy. Asked about the lobbying effort and the proposed language, Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway said the provision "does not extinguish existing lawsuits, nor does it represent blanket immunity." "Instead, it establishes uniform national standards for online youth safety, ensuring these critical issues are governed by comprehensive federal legislation, ?not plaintiffs' ?lawyers or patchwork state legislation," she said.

Rebel lawmaker’s election win clears path to oust U.K.’s Starmer

British politics is set for a fresh bout of chaos after Labour politician Andy Burnham won a special district election, allowing him to enter Parliament and launch a leadership challenge against the deeply unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Burnham, the 56-year-old mayor of Manchester, was elected by a comfortable margin in voting Thursday to represent the district of Makerfield in northern England, defeating a candidate from the anti-immigration party Reform UK. By entering Parliament, Burnham can now attempt to unseat Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister, raising the prospect that the U.K. could get its sixth prime minister in seven years, a period of unprecedented turmoil in one of the world’s oldest and most stable democracies.

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“Everyone knows that politics isn’t working, everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be,” Burnham said during a victory speech. “Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.” Starmer, who took Labour into power with a big majority just two years ago, is under pressure from his own lawmakers as his party trails Reform in the polls. Many Labour lawmakers fear losing their jobs in the next general election in 2029 and think swapping out Starmer gives them the best chance of survival. Speaking on Friday, Starmer said he won’t quit and would face down any leadership challenge. He added that now wasn’t the time for a change of prime minister. “I don’t think that is a good thing for the country, to plunge us into chaos,” he said. It is unclear when Burnham will formally launch his leadership challenge, or if Labour ministers will rise up en masse to try to topple the prime minister. Starmer, a former prosecutor turned politician, is likely to come under growing pressure in coming days from lawmakers and some of his own cabinet members to step down and avoid a drawn-out leadership fight.

Everyone in Trump’s Cabinet is eating sauerkraut

A new diet is sweeping through President Trump’s cabinet—and it involves heaping portions of sauerkraut. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Vice President JD Vance have all embraced the diet, drawn by the promise of slimmer waistlines and glowing skin. They all apparently have determined the health benefits outweigh the slightly sulfurous odors that have been the cause of some domestic friction. “Within 30 days I lost 20 pounds,” Kennedy said at an event in Michigan this week. “JD Vance is also on the diet and you can see how different he looks.” The diet is the brainchild of Dr. Sean O’Mara, who advises his high-profile patients to eat fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi, alongside grass-fed steak—and to abstain from alcohol and sugary food.

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O’Mara says the diet leads to a reduction in visceral fat, which wraps around organs, as well as a more robust microbiome, which can help with digestion. Kennedy, 72, was the first to convert. Lutnick, 64, and Duffy, 54, followed suit. Vance, 41, committed to the diet for Lent earlier this year, and has stuck with it. “I tend to like to work with older people because the ROI is so much greater…. it’s like taking over a sinking ship, a company that is headed to bankruptcy,” O’Mara said. He declined to discuss his patients, citing privacy concerns. But people familiar with the matter said Kennedy, Lutnick and Duffy have all seen O’Mara. Kennedy began the diet about a year ago after meeting with O’Mara. Though he is sometimes turned off by the tangy and pungent taste of sauerkraut, he found the diet helped him shed fat, and reduced aches and pains. He also credits it with eliminating the atrial fibrillations he had been experiencing. The Trump administration officials on the diet have been known to trade tips when they are gathered at the White House. Online commentators recently remarked that Vance was looking thin in a photo posted earlier this month.

Firm tied to Trump donor got no-bid contract to clean reflecting pool

A business tied to a longtime supporter of President Trump was given a no-bid contract to install a water-purification system in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool earlier this spring. Now that work is coming under scrutiny after algae blooms have come back and turned the iconic pool in Washington a vibrant shade of green rather than the American-flag blue Mr. Trump says he chose. The contract shows that the National Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is typically required, and gave a $1.7 million contract to the firm, Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio.

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Federal contracting records show that firm’s ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by John J. Cafaro, a donor to Mr. Trump and a neighbor to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Florida. The water treatment company also listed Mr. Cafaro’s Palm Beach mansion as its address in Florida corporate records, and listed his investment trust’s phone number and email in Ohio lobbying records. Mr. Cafaro, a longtime Republican donor whom Mr. Trump has described as a “fantastic man,” was once involved in a high-profile bribery scandal. He has also donated to Democrats in the past, and his daughter Capri Cafaro served in the Ohio State Senate as a Democrat from 2007 to 2016. On Thursday, when a photographer for The New York Times visited the pool, about half of its water remained green, as workers sought to vacuum out algae. Workers have also added hydrogen peroxide to the water in recent days in an attempt to kill the algae, the Interior Department said in an email to The Times.

Israeli military strikes in southern Lebanon in intense fighting as US-Iran talks postponed

Israel’s military struck targets throughout southern Lebanon overnight into Friday and Hezbollah reported intense fighting in the area, threatening the nascent agreement between Iran and the United States to end their war. Lebanese media reported at least 18 people killed in the strikes, and Israel said four soldiers died. The conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah is the most precarious part of the Iran deal. Neither Israel nor the militant group signed the agreement — but it is supposed to end their fighting, and Iran has signaled its willingness to risk renewed war in the region for the sake of its interests in Lebanon and its most important regional ally. Iranian officials didn’t travel as planned to Switzerland for talks on Friday with the United States, in part over the fighting, a regional official said. U.S. Vice President JD Vance also called off his trip, and mediators are now scrambling to reschedule the meetings, which were supposed to begin addressing how to restrict Iran’s nuclear program — the core issue over which Israel and the U.S. went to war on Feb. 28.

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The talks are also supposed to bring about a permanent end to the conflict. The interim deal has already reopened the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, after Iranian attacks and threats all but stopped the flow of oil and natural gas through the waterway. That caused energy prices to skyrocket far beyond the region, and President Donald Trump said he signed the agreement to avoid “economic catastrophe” in the U.S. The Israeli military said strikes were ongoing on Friday after four of its soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, were killed in an attack on a tank in a village near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh. An explosive drone attack wounded another five, it added. Israel then launched multiple strikes against “Hezbollah infrastructure sites” in Nabatiyeh and other areas, according to a military statement, which accused the militant group of “blatant ceasefire violations.” Later, the military said it also struck targets in the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, with Lebanese media saying the village of Douris was hit. “Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or on our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks,” Netanyahu said in a statement Friday.

Kash Patel accused of directing $1m to ‘slush fund’ to pay bonuses to loyalist agents

Kash Patel, the FBI director, has been accused of directing more than $1m in taxpayer-funded bonus payments to a small circle of loyalist agents as part of a “personal slush fund” that may have violated federal law. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking member of the House of Representatives judiciary committee, alleged Patel had authorized substantial recurring payments to agents in his inner circle and security detail. According to information received by the House judiciary minority committee, some agents received payments of nearly $8,000 every two weeks, despite already earning at the federal salary ceiling. While the exact total received by each individual remains unclear, the committee says it can confirm a number of agents received at least five such payments in consecutive pay periods, amounting to close to $40,000 per person.

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The pace of disbursements was so rapid, the committee says, that FBI reserve accounts set aside for bonus payments were drained dry, causing some payments to bounce back from exhausted funds. “Why are these agents receiving extra pay simply for doing their jobs?” Raskin wrote in a 15 June letter to the FBI director. “Are they, in fact, collecting bonus compensation for engaging in actions outside of their duties and outside of the law?” He added: “We write to find out precisely how much slush fund largess you have put on the American taxpayer’s tab.” The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. As the minority, Democrats have no authority to compel the bureau to hand over documents, though they would gain that power if they retake the House in November’s midterm elections, as some forecasts suggest they may. The main beneficiaries, according to Raskin, were agents serving on Patel’s “director’s advisory team”. The unit was created in 2025 and tasked with examining internal documents and government materials to expose and discredit federal law enforcement officials who had investigated Trump and his allies.

Senate targets Hegseth’s travel in standoff over apparent Iran school attack, boat strikes

Frustrated senators are threatening to withhold 75 percent of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget unless the Pentagon provides Congress with answers about an apparent U.S. strike on a girls school in Iran and the military’s ongoing attacks targeting alleged drug smuggling boats in Latin America. The proposal is tucked into an early version of the Senate’s 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), sprawling, must-pass legislation that sets Defense Department priorities. It reflects the growing bipartisan frustration over the Pentagon’s refusal to comply with congressional requests. The Pentagon said it would not comment on pending legislation. For months lawmakers have sought the complete, unedited video of the first, and highly controversial, boat strike in which the U.S. military killed two survivors of an initial attack that mostly destroyed the vessel.

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Since that episode in early September, U.S. forces have killed more than 200 people in strikes on small boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee advanced the bill by a vote of 18-9 last week and has since made the legislation public. The committee is seeking unedited footage of every boat strike in waters around Latin America. Lawmakers have also sought information on the military’s investigation into how a girls school in Iran was apparently targeted by a Navy Tomahawk missile on Feb. 28, during the war’s initial hours. The strike, for which the U.S. government has not publicly accepted blame amid an ongoing investigation, killed more than 170 people, most of them children, Iranian officials have said. No one has yet been held accountable for those deaths. The investigation is being conducted by U.S. Central Command.

Copyright June 19, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved