May 16, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico opens up about his girlfriend on podcast

State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ contested U.S. Senate seat, got personal during a Thursday appearance on the Jamie Kern Lima podcast. When asked by Lima, a New York Times best-selling author and co-founder of IT Cosmetics, whether he has a girlfriend, the Austin politician revealed he did. The question comes as online trolls have repeatedly questioned his sexuality. “She is my rock. She is my best friend,” Talarico told the podcaster. “I don’t know if I could have gotten through the last six months of this crazy race if she hadn’t been by my side.” Talarico’s campaign said he met his girlfriend when she was the Chief of Staff in his Texas House legislative office, and that they’ve been together for four years. After they developed feelings for each other, she left the office to pursue other opportunities and have been together ever since.

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“We became best friends, and then we fell in love, and we’ve been together ever since,” he added. Talaricio’s campaign asked the Current not to publish the woman’s name out of fear for her safety. “What I’m trying to do is protect her and my family and my friends from the impacts of this race,” Talarico said on the podcast. “I signed up to run for the U.S. Senate; obviously, they did not. So, I’m trying to balance running this race while also protecting them, and protecting her in particular.” Talarico’s response makes sense, considering Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s spiritual advisor, Brooks Potteiger, tweeted in March that he wanted the Texas Democrat to be “crucified with Christ.” “I always try to remind myself that every single person that I come across is a child of God,” Talarico said. “Including someone who is praying for my death.” As Lima and Talarico discussed his relationship, he also said he plans to become a father in the future. He touched on his relationship with his niece Jane, his sister’s daughter.

Trump nemesis Sen. Bill Cassidy defeated in GOP primary

Sen. Bill Cassidy’s run for re-election was cut short Saturday as voters heeded President Trump’s call to oust the two-term Louisiana Republican, with the incumbent expected to finish third in the GOP primary and failing to qualify for the runoff this summer. The outcome marks a dramatic end for Cassidy’s decadeslong run in politics, with the result again showing the president’s ability to make or break Republicans’ careers, despite slipping approval ratings and voter anxieties about the Iran war and the cost of living. The Associated Press projected the top two vote getters were Rep. Julia Letlow, who was endorsed by Trump, and state Treasurer John Fleming. With no candidate exceeding 50%, Letlow and Fleming will advance to a June 27 runoff, the AP projected. Louisiana is considered a safe GOP seat, so the winner of the runoff is expected to have an easy path to victory in November.

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Cassidy, who spent heavily on the race, became the first Republican senator to lose in a party primary this election cycle. He had faced an uphill battle to keep his seat, more than five years after he voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Trump had made clear he wanted Cassidy out. Ahead of the election, he reiterated his endorsement of Letlow and called Cassidy a “disloyal disaster.” On Saturday evening, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!” Letlow enjoyed broad support across the state, leading the vote in 52 of the state’s 64 parishes. “Julia Letlow is a fantastic person and, after taking care of some additional business, will make a brilliant Senator for the Great People of Louisiana,” Trump said in a separate post. Cassidy has argued that he works well with the president despite his past conviction vote against him. After his defeat, he told supporters in a concession speech: “I have spoken to John. I spoke with Julia. And I congratulated them both. This was not the result that I necessarily wanted, but I feel great.”

‘Technology is a hurdle’: Rural Texans push through 765-kV transmission line hearing

Inside a large, brightly lit hotel conference room in downtown Austin, Lance Trinque’s face flashed on a screen. Or, his eyes and forehead, rather, while he held his phone close to his nose and searched for what button he needed to push. A woman’s face entered the corner of the screen. It was Jocelyn Perez, the Erath County judge’s chief of staff, whose eyes crinkled from smiling as she helped Trinque unmute.

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Trinque, a 65-year-old retired firefighter, could finally be heard at one of the most important meetings he’s ever attended: the proceeding on a proposed 765-kilovolt transmission line with the State Office of Administrative Hearings, or SOAH. One of the judges presiding over the case acknowledged Trinque from a table at the front of the Austin conference room and admitted his testimony. A similar scene repeated throughout the day on May 4 as the faces — and voices — of residents throughout nearly two dozen Texas counties attempted to participate in a regulatory process many of them described as overwhelming and confusing. These interactions lasted a matter of seconds but left participants anxiously staring at their computers and phones for hours. “Technology is a hurdle,” Randall Terrell, a former attorney who attended in person, said. He lives in San Marcos but is representing his family’s generational ranch in Erath County. “They’re threatening our major family asset and doing the same to all our neighbors,” he said. “They’re running over it with complex cases, and the whole thing comes across unfair and predetermined.”

Supreme Court rejects Virginia’s bid to restore congressional map favoring Democrats

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Virginia’s bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives. The court’s order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation’s mid-decade redistricting competition. It was kicked off last year by President Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines and was supercharged by a recent Supreme Court ruling severely weakening the Voting Rights Act that opened up even more winnable seats for the GOP. In recent days, the justices have sided with Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana who hope to redo their congressional maps to produce more GOP-leaning seats following the court’s voting rights decision.

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But the Virginia situation was different, stemming from a 4-3 ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed just last month. The state court found that the Democratic-controlled legislature improperly began the process of placing the amendment on the ballot after early voting had begun in Virginia’s general election last fall. The Supreme Court typically doesn’t intervene in state court proceedings unless they present an issue of federal law. Virginia Democrats had hoped to persuade the justices that the Virginia court misread federal law and Supreme Court precedent that hold that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself. Virginia’s amendment had been intended as a response to Republican gains in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and to blunt a new map in Florida that just became law. Once the Virginia amendment passed, it briefly turned the nationwide redistricting scramble into a draw between the two parties. That was unraveled by the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision. The state’s attorney general, Democrat Jay Jones, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, saying it was another example of what he described as a national attack on voting rights and the rule of law.

Senate parliamentarian deals blow to $1 billion security proposal for White House

A proposal to fund $1 billion in security additions for the White House campus and the president’s new ballroom fails to meet procedural rules, according to the Senate parliamentarian, dealing a blow to Republican plans to include it as part of a bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies for the next three years. The parliamentarian’s ruling, described late Saturday by Senate Democrats, said that funding for a project as large and complex as President Donald Trump’s massive East Wing renovation is too broad to be included in the narrow GOP budget bill, which cannot be filibustered and only needs a simple majority to pass. It’s unclear if Republicans will be able to immediately salvage any part of the billion-dollar Secret Service proposal, which would fund security for Trump’s ballroom along with other parts of the White House, including a new visitor screening center, additional training for agents and extra reinforcements for large events. Republicans said Saturday night that they are revising the legislation based on the parliamentarian’s advice.

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Ryan Wrasse, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, wrote in a post on X that “none of this is abnormal” during the complicated budget process that Republicans are using to try and pass the immigration enforcement and White House security money on a partisan basis. “Redraft. Refine. Resubmit,” Wrasse said in the post. Democrats have seized on the security request, accusing Republicans of dedicating precious federal resources to the ballroom effort instead of focusing on helping Americans with rising costs. Republicans have insisted that private donations will be used to build the ballroom and that the federal dollars are focused just on much-needed security enhancements. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took credit for the ruling after Democrats argued to the parliamentarian that the security money doesn’t belong in the bill. “Republicans tried to make taxpayers foot the bill for Trump’s billion-dollar ballroom,” Schumer said Saturday evening. “Senate Democrats fought back — and blew up their first attempt.” Schumer added that Democrats “will be ready to stop them again” as Republicans say they will revise the bill.

State Stories

John Moritz: Texas Democrats hope Obama’s visit can help break decades of political losses

When Barack Obama made his surprise appearance in Austin last week with U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico and gubernatorial hopeful Gina Hinojosa, the former president gave Texas Democrats and Republicans something they could use as the 2026 midterm election cycle barrels toward November. The advantage for the Democrats is obvious. Obama has been the party's most effective mobilizing force of the 21st century, even before leaving the White House with two largely scandal-free terms under his belt and handing off a stronger national economy than the one he had inherited. But the upside for the GOP is that, in Texas, Obama was never quite able to parlay his popularity among Democrats into support from independents — much less Republicans. He lost Texas in both of his presidential elections, and he lost by more on his second try, when voters could assess his first four years in the White House.

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And that helps explain why, even as Talarico and Hinojosa were flooding their social media platforms with images and video of Obama with patrons at a taco restaurant just east of the University of Texas campus, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's campaign was blasting out some of the same images to Republicans and urging them to send campaign contributions. But let's take a deeper look at why Obama would come to Texas, given that the state hasn't elected a Democrat since before he was even a state senator — and before Talarico was out of middle school or Hinojosa had graduated from college. What's more, even though Talarico is showing promising poll numbers in hypothetical matchups with four-term incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and runoff challenger Ken Paxton, political forecasters still have Texas a ways down the list of states most likely to flip a Republican-held Senate seat to the Democrats. Hinojosa is given far less of a chance of blocking Abbott's bid for a fourth term as governor. One explanation might be that Obama is playing the prediction markets in his head. Polymarket, for instance, gave Talarico a 47% chance of winning as of Friday even though Republicans won't settle on a nominee until May 26.

North Texas home insurance costs squeeze homeowners

Any gains North Texans receive from protesting their property taxes may be lost to growing home insurance costs that are stretching homeowners’ budgets and blunting the region’s affordability edge, real estate experts say. Among the largest U.S. metros, Dallas-Fort Worth now has the second highest number of homeowners with annual insurance premiums exceeding $4,000, according to a News analysis of the latest census data. The region has superseded cities such as New York, Houston or Los Angeles, cities more prone to flooding and wildfire risks. It is second only to Miami. Mortgage lenders require homebuyers to secure insurance policies before they complete a home loan. In April, home insurance costs made up about 15% of a homeowner’s mortgage payment in North Texas – double the national average – according to data from Realtor.com. In Tarrant County, insurance costs account for nearly 18% of total monthly mortgage payments.

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“One of the advantages of the D-FW metro is relatively affordable home prices compared to incomes,” said Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com. “But when we add in this factor of high homeowners’ insurance, a lot of those advantages go away.” Many North Texas homebuyers are choosing to settle for less expensive homes than they initially planned so they can accommodate high insurance costs, said Nancy Garcia, a Monument Realty real estate agent working in the D-FW area since 2019.? “Because insurance is taking up a larger portion, they cannot actually get a better home because the monthly payment is going to be that much higher.,” Garcia said.? Insurance premiums are typically among the smaller parts of a monthly housing payment, and homeowners aren’t accustomed to focusing on that part of the breakdown, said Todd Luong, a ReMax real estate agent, who has worked in the North Texas region for 19 years. Home values, property taxes and insurance costs have all shot up in the region, he said, “So they just kind of see everything is going up.” Over the last five years, though, home insurance rates have increased in Texas, and especially in North Texas, at a faster rate than any other state, said Daniel Oney, director of research at the Texas Real Estate Research Center. “That doesn't mean that we have the highest rates, but our rates have gone up more than other states,” he said. Between 2019 and 2024, when the average home insurance premium in the state rose 67%, it rose 105% in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties, according to a News analysis of data available from the Texas Department of Insurance.

Judge rules in favor of opponents to Corpus Christi Evangeline project

An administrative law judge has ruled that opponents of Corpus Christi's Evangeline water project have legal standing to have their concerns heard in court. The ongoing legal battle over the Evangeline Aquifer is centered on a proposal by city leaders to pump water from it as one of the solutions to the region’s water crisis. Others say such a move could impact wells, land, and long-term aquifer health. A letter from Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni stated that Administrative Law Judge Alicia York found standing for all the protesting parties, and recommends granting them the requested contested case as to all permit applications for the Evangeline project, which include 22 drilling permits and one transport permit. Those parties include the cities of Sinton and St. Paul.

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"Basically the Judge concludes that the protestants provided sufficient testimony to support the conclusion that the installation of the infrastructure could cause an injury to their wells, water quality, etc.," Zanoni stated in his letter. Zanoni adds that York's ruling does not mean that the project ultimately does not get permitted. "It means the Judge thinks the protestants should have their concerns heard in court through a contested case hearing process," Zanoni said. San Patricio County rancher Charles Ring was also a party to the protest, saying that if the project moves forward, it would decimate his livelihood. While Ring was granted standing for the one transport permit being considered, the judge requested briefings and will set a hearing date on Ring’s late protest of the drilling permits. Judge York also recommended contested-case hearing status for R.B. Farms Inc. and Ring Bros. Farm and Seed. The recommendation means the case could move into a much more extensive legal process involving attorneys, expert witnesses, hydrogeologists, scientific studies, cross examination, evidence and possible appeals. Such proceedings can last months or even years.

Texas Children’s Hospital to develop nation's first ‘detransition clinic,’ fire physicians as part of settlement, AG says

Texas Children's Hospital will develop a “detransition clinic” and fire five physicians as part of a unique settlement with the state, the Office of the Texas Attorney General announced Friday. Such a clinic could be the first of its kind, the attorney general’s office said in a news release. It would focus on providing medical care to patients who had undergone gender-affirming healthcare and work toward reversing the effects of that healthcare. The Houston-based hospital system is also required to pay $10 million for billing Texas Medicaid for prior gender transition treatments, along with firing and permanently cutting ties with five doctors who performed such treatments, according to the attorney general.

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In a lengthy statement, representatives from Texas Children's Hospital stated they had cooperated with the attorney general’s office, producing more than 5 million documents and conducting multiple investigations. "All reviews and investigations continue to support the facts – we have been compliant with all laws," Texas Children's said in a statement. "Today, we made the difficult decision to settle with the Texas Attorney General and the Department of Justice, closing a chapter that has been wrought with falsehoods and distractions. To be clear – we are settling to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation. This settlement will allow us to redirect those precious resources to focus on the life-saving care and groundbreaking discoveries of our exceptional clinicians and scientists." Texas Children's did not provide specific information regarding the development of a detransition clinic, including when it might be in operation and what it might entail.

Weslaco mayor establishing coalition to strengthen healthcare network

Weslaco Mayor Adrian Gonzalez emphasizes “communication is the key to success” as the city launches its first healthcare coalition meeting to help strengthen coordination and preparedness across the healthcare network. The meeting was held Wednesday morning at the Weslaco City Hall where city officials, community health partners, mental health professionals and members of the school district gathered together to kick off the collaborative effort. Gonzalez explained one of his main reasons for wanting to create a healthcare coalition is to create a space that allows the healthcare systems and city officials to stay informed and plan effectively and efficiently for emergency situations. “My thing was to make sure that in case of any emergencies that we’re prepared,” Gonzalez said. “I want to be proactive not reactive.”

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He added that during the meeting attendees shared their contact information to ensure they are all accessible to each other as well as discussed emergency management. The goal of the coalition however, is not just to strengthen emergency care but also to create a space that prioritizes mental health. For Gonzalez, opening lines of communication on how to address mental health needs in the area is an important aspect to improving community health. “It’s not just affecting our young, it’s affecting all ages and I wanted to know and figure out what we can do to improve that,” Gonzalez said. After struggling with his own mental health issues Gonzalez wants residents to know they’re not alone and hopes to build a support system for the community. “I was an alcoholic. I’m going on eight-and-a-half years sober, I know what it is to be in those dark places and that mental health so I’m speaking because I’ve been through it,” Gonzalez said, adding that he wants to be a source for people who are struggling.

Nicole Golden and Liz Hanks: Texas leads the U.S. in murder-suicides. Here's how to change that.

(Nicole Golden is executive director of Texas Gun Sense. Liz Hanks is a board member of Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council.) Over the last weeks, Texans have digested horrific news of murder-suicides in our communities. Our hearts ache for Thy Mitchell and her two young children, whose lives were stolen in a horrific murder-suicide in Houston — and also for the victims and survivors of deadly family violence San Antonio, Lubbock, Pflugerville and Burleson. These incidents come on the heels of devastating murder-suicides across the country. Last month in Virginia, former Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax shot and killed his estranged wife, Cerina Fairfax, and then himself. In Louisiana, a former National Guard member killed seven of his children and their cousin, ranging in age from 3 to 11, before taking his own life. Every domestic violence shooting destroys families and sends traumatic ripples through the lives of everyone they knew.

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It is urgent that policymakers commit to adequately funding vital domestic violence programs and adopting lifesaving gun laws that protect families. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 20 murder-suicides in Texas this year, including eight so far in May. Our state accounts for approximately 10% of all U.S. murder-suicides in 2026 to date. For too many kids, home offers no protection. Heartbreaking data tell us that between 2018 and 2022, at least 621 kids were shot and killed in domestic violence incidents. During that period, Texas had more child domestic violence shootings than any other state during that period. Murder-suicides are particularly shocking acts that intersect with other types of violence. However, guns are consistently the most common catalytic component in these cases. In the first half of 2025, 87% of murder-suicides nationwide involved a firearm. The lethal intersection of guns and domestic violence cannot be overstated. When an abusive partner has access to a gun, a woman is five times more likely to be killed. Nearly half of all women murdered in the United States are killed by a current or former intimate partner, and more than half of these intimate partner homicides are by firearm. In Texas, around 70% of intimate partner homicide victims are shot. In 2024, 114 Texans were shot and killed by their partners, including 47 victims in Harris County.

Washington Post Editorial: Ken Paxton vs. Netflix: AG pivots hard to the left with an attack on the streamer.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit this week aimed at forcing Netflix to get rid of its auto-play feature and purge data about user habits. Pivoting hard to the left during a Republican primary is a novel strategy, but American politics has always been a little strange. Paxton is trying to take political advantage of parental anxieties about the streamer, but his desired changes would make Netflix less convenient and useful for its customers. The data collection allows Netflix’s algorithm to serve up personalized suggestions for shows and movies that someone might enjoy. The auto-play feature allows people to move seamlessly from one episode to the next. Paxton says collecting that data is “spying” and going from one show to the next is “addictive.” But no one is forced to sign up for Netflix, and people are clearly happy with the service without a politician dictating how it ought to be run.

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Paxton’s suit rests on claims that Netflix deceived customers back in 2020 when its leaders marketed the company as a “safe respite” from the advertising and data collection that many of its competitors engaged in. True enough. CEO Reed Hastings made that core to the company’s branding back then. Yet, as is often the case in the fast-moving world of technology, the business dynamic changed. Multiple competitors entered the market, including Disney+ and Paramount+. That contributed to Netflix’s first loss of subscribers in more than a decade. Meanwhile, the cost of producing content skyrocketed. By 2022, out of necessity, Netflix changed course. It cracked down on password sharing and expanded advertising. Perhaps the company’s leaders misled viewers when they said they had “zero interest” in advertising and implausibly promised that they “don’t collect anything.” Or perhaps they realized their old business model wouldn’t keep them competitive, so they adapted to survive.

John Cornyn: With water treaty, we’ve tried the carrot approach; now it is time to bring out the sticks

Eight decades ago, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement, now known as the 1944 Water Treaty, to govern the sharing of waters of the Colorado River and the Rio Grande. According to this treaty, the United States is required to deliver one and a half million acre feet, or just under 500,000 gallons of water from the Colorado River to Mexico each year. Similarly, Mexico is obligated to deliver 1.7 5 million acre feet to the United States from the Rio Grande River every five years. And while the United States has dutifully held up its end of the bargain, Mexico has been delinquent on repeated occasions. Now Mexico is hundreds of thousands of acre feet behind in their required water deliveries. In the most recent cycle, which ended in October of last year, Mexico has delivered less than half of the water it was obligated to deliver under the terms of the treaty.

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Furthermore, Mexico has not been consistent in their water delivery, sometimes waiting to the very end of the five year period to deliver a substantial amount of water in an attempt, ostensibly, to catch up. This uncertainty, in and of itself, has made life difficult. You can imagine for the more than 400,000 farmers and ranchers who call Texas home… imagine trying to grow crops, not knowing whether you're going to have any water for as long as four years, only to receive a huge lump sum at the end of year five. It just doesn't work out, but this is a very real dilemma faced by many of my constituents in South Texas. Water deliveries from Mexico are vital to irrigation farming and municipal use in the Rio Grande Valley, helping generate billions in economic productivity for the region. Water shortages created by Mexico's failure to follow this treaty have wreaked havoc on the ability of farmers and ranchers to plan and attend their crops, which has, in turn, had a terrible economic cost on our entire state. In 2024 the Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers, which ran the only sugar cane mill in Texas, announced they were forced to close operations after more than 51 years because of these water shortages. Five hundred American jobs were lost as a result. If Mexico continues to fail to live up to the treaty, more and more farmers and ranchers and other producers will face the same fate.

Huffines Foundation program pays Mesquite kids for math, reading skill

At three public schools in Mesquite, some kids are making money for doing math. Each time they complete 30 addition problems correctly within 60 seconds, for example, they get a badge that earns them $20. The same thing happens when they get 20 phonics problems right in 90 seconds. On Friday, students from the school district gathered at Horn High School to celebrate their feats, with an appearance from the Mavs Man. The cash they racked up throughout the semester by completing problems on an app came from the Huffines Foundation, founded by Phillip Huffines. He’s the co-founder of Dallas-Fort Worth residential real estate development company Huffines Communities, which developed Solterra Communities in Mesquite.

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The foundation partnered with Mesquite ISD to launch a pilot program at Gentry Elementary School, Smith Elementary School and Achziger Elementary School, where second and third grade students earned badges that they can trade in for $20 cash each time they complete a certain amount of timed math and reading problems on an app. “Education is the foundation for opportunity, which means success,” Huffines said. “When children are schooled on their math facts, then everything else is a lot easier when it comes to math.” Huffines and his employees brought envelopes filled with cash for the students. When Achziger Elementary was announced as the winner of the an additional $10,000 prize, kids leaped up and cheered, bumping chests and clapping. The school’s principal, Robin Cathcart, said teachers with strong attendance will receive the extra money. More than 440 students earned at least one “mastery badge,” and several students earned $250, according to the Huffines Foundation. The foundation awarded 2,887 badges in total, giving nearly $60,000 to students. The program began at the start of the fall semester.

Joe Panzarella beats Nick Hellyar in District C special election runoff despite last-minute attack

Joe Panzarella beat Nick Hellyar in a special election runoff to fill the District C position on the Houston City Council, according to results reported Saturday night by the Harris County Clerk's Office. Panzarella, a progressive community organizer, received 64.7% of the 9,912 votes cast. Hellyar, a former city hall staffer, garnered 35.3% of the vote. Panzarella and Hellyar were vying to replace Abbie Kamin. She is stepping down to run for Harris County attorney, a position to which she has been appointed on an interim basis. Panzarella ran as a candidate focused on boosting home affordability and expanding multimodal transportation options on city streets.

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“This is a grassroots, people-powered campaign that is passionate about safer streets, about affordable housing and transparency,” Panzarella said after early voting results were released. “This is what a lot of folks in District C are looking for, and we’re excited to bring that vision to city council.” Hellyar, who was not available for an interview Saturday night, focused on core city services, like the police and parks departments. They emerged from a seven-candidate field in April, when Panzarella and Hellyar earned 33% and 23% of the vote, respectively, with progressive Audrey Nath falling short in third place with 20% of the vote. In the runoff, Nath endorsed Panzarella. For some voters in the area — overlapping with the 18th Congressional District, which also had a special election this year — the runoff marked the sixth election since November.

Greg Abbott, DEI champion

In the day-to-day, the churn of politics in Texas consists of events and proclamations that seem, taken on their own, nonsensical. But put deranged events together, and quite often, by some strange additive property, they make sense. Last week, Governor Greg Abbott went to war with the City of Grand Prairie, in North Texas, threatening to cut its state funding if it did not force the cancellation of a private party for families organized by a small group of local Muslims to celebrate a religious holiday. If you want to understand why this became a flash point, amid all the various problems facing the great state, you have to start elsewhere. On May 7, the Texan conservative activist Lynn Davenport posted a clip of herself on a web show discussing the governor’s race. Abbott “goes on all these junkets to other countries and draws in foreign money and foreign investments,” she said. She meant this as an indictment. But ten or twenty years ago, this would have been a fair description of the job of the Texas governor as our governors understood it. Rick Perry went to foreign lands—India, Mexico, California—to get Job Creators to come here. He was very proud of it. Greg Abbott, when he became governor, more or less picked up the model of leadership Perry had innovated. He dispensed ample cash to bring companies here, courted big business, and celebrated, within limits, the diversity and dynamism that population growth had brought to Texas.

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Perry danced with rabbis; Abbott put on garb to celebrate Diwali. “As long as I’m governor,” Abbott said in 2024, “Texas will be a land for the Indian community.” They balanced this out with border theater—pouring money into ineffective state efforts to curtail illegal immigration. For some folks, like Davenport, that was not enough to offset the offense of embracing legal immigration. The overarching problem was Texas’s place in the world. Abbott “has been a primary driver of globalism,” she said, speaking on a show hosted by an editor of the New American, a magazine affiliated with the John Birch Society, one of the most storied ultra-right-wing groups in America. “We have not only Zionist donors to Abbott pulling his strings but also Islamic [ones]—the top donor is a Muslim oil and gas guy,” she said. (Pennsylvanian Jeff Yass would actually seem to be Abbott’s largest donor—but Midland oilman Javaid Anwar is close behind.) Would a real conservative go to “the World Economic Forum on the plane of Sheldon Adelson’s widow?” (Miriam Adelson.) Maybe you’ve heard this line before, but Davenport took it to an unexpected place. “As a lifelong Texan, I have always voted for Republican governors,” she said. Not this time: She would be voting for Democrat Gina Hinojosa. Socialism or progressivism, which Democrats might try to usher in, would be preferable to “globalism and technocracy, which is far more dangerous than any other ism.”

‘What kind of life is this?’: Five desperate Cubans weigh their odds in Texas

It’s 3 a.m. in Austin and Rodríguez is still awake, the glow of his phone illuminating his face in the darkness. He refreshes the page again. A painting job appears—$150 for a day’s work. His finger hovers over the screen for just a second. Too long. By the time he taps, it’s already gone. He’s been doing this for months now, ever since President Donald Trump canceled his work permit. Before that, he’d installed speakers at a Tesla facility north of town for 12 hours a day. And before that, he’d served drinks at a nightclub downtown, worked construction, and hauled furniture. These days, he takes whatever he can find, whenever he can find it, hoping someone will accept his expired documents. His American girlfriend helps when she can, but her brothers won’t even look at him. “Your boyfriend isn’t welcome until he gets his papers,” he said they told her.

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Rodríguez, who asked to be identified only by his last name for fear of retaliation, is one of an estimated 125,000 Cubans now living in Texas. He is part of a wave who fled the island over the past five years, seeking safety. Instead, they found a U.S. immigration system that opens doors, then slams them shut: work permits canceled overnight and bureaucratic delays stretching for years. The flow of Cubans to the United States became a flood after July 11, 2021, when thousands took to the streets demanding freedom. More than 850,000 arrived here from 2022 to September 2024. To manage the influx, the Biden administration created a humanitarian parole process in January 2023, allowing Cubans and others to apply online for legal entry and work permits while awaiting immigration court dates. Then, under Trump’s second administration, humanitarian parole programs were ended, stripping those permits and legal protections from more than half a million people. The changes created shock waves, particularly among people who historically had benefited from the Cuban Adjustment Act—a Cold War-era policy created in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution that promised many a relatively swift path to permanent residency after a year. Now, technicalities in that law and changes in U.S. policy have disqualified many new arrivals—even some with U.S. citizen relatives. Applicants are required to prove that they entered the country “properly.” They cannot have a prior deportation order or any criminal or immigration court record.

Attorney General says San Antonio can withhold records from investigation into Mayor Jones

The Texas Attorney General’s office says San Antonio does not have to release records surrounding an investigation into Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ conduct earlier this year. Jones was accused of yelling at Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) in a private meeting space on Feb. 5, and the city hired an outside counsel to look into incident. Though the results of that investigation were cited by council members who voted to censure the mayor weeks later, they were never released to the public because the city said it would be too easy to identify the witnesses, even if their names were redacted. City officials asked the AG’s office for permission to withhold the report from open records requestors, stating that it was subject to attorney-client privilege. On Thursday, the AG’s office seemed to agree with that assessment, saying “the city may withhold the submitted information” under Texas evidence rules.

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“The city asserts the information at issue was intended to be and has remained confidential,” Assistant Attorney General James L. Coggeshall wrote in a letter. “We find the city has demonstrated the applicability of the attorney-client privilege.” Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. She admitted to using an “f-bomb” in the Feb. 5 confrontation with Kaur, and later said “I should not have raised my voice at my colleague.” The few details shared from the employment law investigator’s report concluded that Jones’ actions were verbally abusive and violated the council’s Code of Conduct, as well as city administrative directives governing equal employment opportunity and workplace violence. But members of the public who showed up to speak before the censure vote had wildly mixed opinions about what they’d heard, and council members were divided about whether people should be allowed to view the report and make their own judgement.

$2 billion Toyota expansion fuels talk of Tacoma production returning to San Antonio

Toyota has filed public disclosures for a $2 billion expansion of its South Side manufacturing facility, fueling industry speculation it may resume production of its Tacoma pickup trucks here. The expansion could also create up to 2,000 jobs. Construction is scheduled to start this year and would become operational in 2030, according to a filing at the Texas State Comptroller's Office. The production of those trucks was relocated from here to Toyota plants in Tijuana and Guanajuato, Mexico in 2021 as part of a major restructuring of the company's North American production facilities. Toyota did not release specific details about its expansion plans on the South Side. They issued only a short statement on how it chooses to locate its facilities.

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"Our production philosophy is to build where we sell and buy where we build. We regularly evaluate our manufacturing footprint to ensure we remain competitive and aligned with customer demand. This reflects our long-term commitment of investing in the North American region, local manufacturing jobs, and suppliers. We have nothing further to announce at this time," said the statement released by Melinda Higgins Louder, the manager of corporate communications for Toyota Motor North America. Moving Tacoma production back to San Antonio makes sense to industry observers because tariffs on foreign imports could affect its sticker price. The company recently opened a new rear axle manufacturing facility on its South Side grounds. Those axles would not have to be shipped to Mexico any longer to be installed in Tacoma trucks. Erin Keating, an executive analyst for Cox Automotive, with consumer-facing brands like Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, said it's a pretty good bet the Tacoma is coming back to the Alamo City. "I'd say there's a solid 50-50 shot that it's the Tacoma," she said. "I mean we know in the U.S., consumers continue to go for the pickups and SUVs, and so anything they can do to help increase the profitability in those particular models will help them continue to either import or sell more of the sedans and compact SUVS, where they don't make as much margin."

National Stories

She was deported without her toddler. Then ICE blamed her for his killing.

After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained his mother, 2-year-old Orlin Hernandez Reyes moved into a shed. His uncle, Samuel Maldonado Erazo, was charged with taking care of the toddler and his three cousins, the oldest of whom was 7, while Orlin’s mother and her sister waited in ICE detention to be deported to Honduras. Maldonado had once served in the Honduran military, a co-worker later told investigators, and now lived in the Florida Panhandle. He was separated from Orlin’s aunt, and police said he drank heavily and whipped the children with a wire. Orlin repeatedly endured the worst of the abuse. An autopsy showed he had multiple broken bones. There were signs his tiny body had been sexually battered. Authorities allege Maldonado repeatedly struck Orlin in the head, stomped on his body and burned his skin with a lighter.

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His hands bore bruises, a sign that Orlin had tried to shield himself from the blows. The coroner listed his cause of death as multiple blunt force traumas. Maldonado has been charged with murder and pleaded not guilty. In a statement a week after Orlin died, acting ICE director Todd M. Lyons berated Orlin’s mother, Wendy Hernandez Reyes, alleging that she had “abandoned” her child to the man who allegedly killed him — an undocumented immigrant who “never should’ve been in this country in the first place,” but was nonetheless allowed to care for the children while Orlin’s mother was in detention. “Reyes chose to leave her son here with a violent murderer who took his life,” he asserted. But a review of court records and the mother’s own account contradict ICE’s narrative and raise questions about how the Trump administration is deporting scores of parents, many without their children. Hernandez was detained by a sheriff’s deputy in Alabama while on her way to work. Local law enforcement agencies are increasingly carrying out immigration enforcement as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign.

FIFA vs. the State of New Jersey is the World Cup’s biggest grudge match

—A highhanded international organization with a reputation for skulduggery and cozy relationships with autocrats may have finally met its match: the state of New Jersey. FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, will stage eight World Cup matches—including the final—at the Garden State’s MetLife Stadium. But just as the extravaganza is set to kick off, many New Jerseyans are viewing their hosting duties less as an honor and more as a costly burden they could do without. The tension came to a boil when NJ Transit announced last month it would charge fans $150 for a round-trip ticket from Manhattan to the Meadowlands, a ride that typically costs around $13. Such charges would have “a chilling effect,” FIFA’s chief operating officer, Heimo Schirgi, warned—which struck some New Jersey officials as rich, coming from a body that touts the inclusive nature of the games while charging nearly $33,000 for top tickets.

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NJ Transit has since reduced the train fare to $98, thanks to contributions from corporate sponsors. Still, New Jersey’s new Democratic governor, Mikie Sherrill, shows no sign of bending further to an organization that expects to generate at least $14 billion from the quadrennial soccer-fest. “My number one concern is to make sure that this isn’t put on the back of New Jerseyans,” Sherrill said of an estimated $62 million in World Cup-related transit costs at a time when she is trying to pass her first budget. “We still strongly feel like they need to throw in more for some of these expenses.” Others are less diplomatic. In a recent budget hearing, Declan O’Scanlon, a Republican state senator and fiscal hawk, gave voice to a nativist suspicion about the world’s game. O’Scanlon dismissed predictions of a World Cup bonanza “because soccer sucks,” he said. The clash between FIFA and New Jersey features the familiar rage of this populist era—namely, a public beaten down by rising costs snarling at global elites. It is fodder for the debate about the economic merits of hosting big sporting events. Underlying all that is the fragile ego of a state whose outward brassiness is often a cover for an inferiority complex stoked by its glittering neighbor.

American Bar Association votes to eliminate DEI rule for law schools

A longstanding diversity and inclusion requirement for U.S. law schools is teetering amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration and Republican states. The American Bar Association council that oversees law school accreditation voted on Friday to eliminate a ?rule that requires law schools to demonstrate their commitment to diversity in recruitment, admissions, and student programming. Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here. The ?rule has been suspended since February 2025, after Republican President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

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"Even though I personally agree with [the diversity and inclusion standard] and what it tries to achieve, I think it's appropriate as an ?accrediting body that we eliminate that standard so we don't inhibit the diversity of ideas out there in ?various types of legal education environments," said David Brennen, a council member and a former dean ?of the University of Kentucky College of Law. The change would not become final until the ABA's House of Delegates begins ?to consider it as early as August and then debates revisions. That approval process could push the diversity rule's elimination to sometime ?in 2027. The ABA's accreditation rules for law schools have required diversity and inclusion for decades, providing a key tool for advocates seeking to bolster the number of women and minorities in the U.S. legal profession — which remains more heavily white and male than the nation's population. But the ?ABA's focus on DEI has placed the organization squarely in the crosshairs of the second Trump administration. Trump in April 2025 signed ?an executive order directing U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to assess whether to suspend or terminate the ABA as the government's official law school ?accreditor, citing ?its "unlawful 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' requirements," as part of an executive order focused on reforming higher education accreditation. Texas, Florida and Alabama have each moved to sideline the ABA in their lawyer licensing processes in recent months, and several other Republican-controlled states are weighing similar moves.

He’s king of the AI boom. Why do former colleagues say he can’t be trusted?

“Do you always tell the truth?” an attorney for Tesla CEO Elon Musk gruffly asked Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, in federal court this week. “I believe I’m a truthful person,” Altman replied. The attorney pivoted, asking him if people Altman did business with would ever think he misled them. “I can’t answer that for other people,” said Altman — but several had already had their say in court. Altman spoke on Tuesday in the closing days of a trial in which several of his onetime close associates, including former OpenAI executives and board members, testified that he misled or lied to them. The CEO’s trustworthiness has been at the heart of Musk’s case in his lawsuit that colorfully played out in court over the past three weeks. The opposing sides gave closing arguments Thursday and jury deliberations begin Monday.

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Musk alleges that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, who co-founded the artificial intelligence venture with Musk as a nonprofit in 2015, pivoted away from its mission of helping humanity benefit from AI after Musk left the project in 2018. Instead, Musk claims, Altman and Brockman transformed OpenAI into a profit-chasing business with the aim of enriching themselves. The trial has given new life to allegations of lying and self-dealing that have followed Altman for years, even as he has cemented his position as the most influential CEO in Silicon Valley’s AI revolution, sitting atop the company that kick-started it with ChatGPT and is now worth over $850 billion. A former mentor once wrote admiringly of Altman that “You could parachute him into an island full of cannibals and come back in five years and he’d be the king.” OpenAI’s rivals Google and Anthropic have largely caught up to its early lead, but ChatGPT remains more popular than other chatbots, with over 900 million users. The company has maintained friendly relations with the Trump administration, with Altman attending Trump’s inauguration. Brockman is among the largest donors to MAGA Inc., a super PAC aligned with President Donald Trump, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

AI license plate cameras tore this town apart and led to a state of emergency

The civic uproar began quietly, when a mom walking her newborn spotted a strange black contraption at the end of her block: a camera topped with a solar panel. Dierdre Shea researched the camera and learned that it was an artificial-intelligence-assisted license plate reader — the type that have caused privacy concerns across the country in recent months, leading to laws limiting their use in more than a dozen states. She emailed her neighbors, sparking fierce debate in this town of 52,000 overlooking the Hudson River. Citizens called for the devices to be taken off the streets, and the Republican mayor, who supports the cameras, clashed with the Democratic city council, which tried to halt funding for them. Last month, Mayor Carmella Mantello, flanked by officers in blue, accused the city council of “defunding” the police and declared a state of emergency to keep the cameras running, a designation usually reserved for floods and blizzards.

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“I will not put our city in jeopardy and take these cameras away,” she said. The cameras at the heart of the debate are run by Flock Safety, a technology company that has built a network of automatic license plate readers in more than 6,000 communities across the country in recent years. Flock’s system uses AI-enabled cameras to snap photos of every vehicle that passes, creating a digital “fingerprint” that includes data as personal as bumper stickers or gun racks. Flock cameras are beloved by police because officers can use the company’s national database to track vehicle movements to recover drugs and stolen automobiles, and to solve even more serious crimes. A company spokesman said in a statement that the devices support “communities across the country in addressing crime and locating missing people.” “At Flock, we believe safety and privacy should go hand in hand, which is why our technology is built around transparency, accountability, and local control,” Chris Castaldo, Flock Safety’s chief information security officer, said in a statement. “Our platform includes safeguards like audit trails to help ensure accountability at every step.”

Trump threatens to primary Lauren Boebert after she campaigned for Massie

President Donald Trump threatened Saturday to back a primary challenger to Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) after she campaigned in Kentucky for Trump adversary Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). “Is anyone interested in running against Weak Minded Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District?” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “Even though I long ago endorsed Boebert, if the right person came along, it would be my Honor to withdraw that Endorsement, and endorse a good and proper alternative.” Boebert is among a small group of GOP lawmakers who have publicly supported Massie in his race against Trump-backed Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL and Army Ranger. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was also at the event.

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Massie has emerged as one of Trump’s most outspoken critics on high-profile policy debates, including Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, the Iran war, and spending. “I’m not mad or offended. I knew the risks when I agreed to stand by my friend Thomas Massie” Boebert said in response to the president on X. “I was, and will be, America First, America Always, and MAGA.” Gallrein held roughly a 5 percentage-point lead over Massie one day before early voting began, according to a Wednesday Quantis Insights poll of 908 likely GOP voters. The primary will be held on Tuesday, May 19.

National Mall prayer event sparks concern about Trump administration eroding the wall between church and state

An all-day prayer event on the National Mall on Sunday — backed by the White House through a mix of taxpayer funds and private donations — is?the most recent flashpoint in the Trump administration blurring separation of church and state. The event, dubbed “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” is part of a series of celebrations commemorating America’s 250th birthday, and is expected to feature video messages from President Donald Trump and other members of his Cabinet. House Speaker Mike Johnson will also deliver remarks. The event will bring together faith leaders, public officials and musicians to reflect and worship ahead of the anniversary of the nation’s founding. Sunday’s event is the latest in a series of faith initiatives and policy moves championed by the White House that have bolstered an emphasis on Christianity in the government’s operations,?culture?and policy.

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Freedom 250, a nonprofit subsidiary of the National Park Foundation, which functions as the National Park Service’s?fundraising?arm, organized the event. “Rededicate250 will be a powerful moment to reflect on where we have been, recommit ourselves to the ideals that define us, and look toward the future with renewed hope and purpose,” said Freedom 250 senior adviser Danielle Alvarez. While organizers are inviting Americans of every background to attend the event, the?long list?of faith leaders attending?are?largely evangelical Christians — except?for?one Orthodox?rabbi and two conservative Catholic bishops. Brittany Baldwin, White House senior policy adviser and executive of the White House Task Force America 250, described a focus on “our heritage as a?Judeo-Christian” nation in a since-deleted planning webinar that was posted ahead of Sunday’s event. Experts CNN spoke with were split on?whether the event is constitutional.

Copyright May 17, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved