June 30, 2025: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Senate GOP looks to pass marathon final test on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

Senate Republicans are facing a marathon session on Monday in order to pass President Trump’s ambitious tax and spending package and meet the White House’s end-of-week deadline to OK its top domestic agenda item. Senators will convene on Monday morning for a lengthy “vote-a-rama,” during which lawmakers can offer an unlimited number of amendments that are related to the mammoth proposal. The hours-long voting session was expected to start overnight, but GOP leaders opted to push it until 9 a.m. after a grueling weekend, which included Democrats forcing the Senate clerks to read all 940 pages of the bill. That process took nearly 16 hours to complete, and was followed by debate on the bill itself that lasted into Monday morning before the chamber finally recessed.

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“The debate and eventually voting on the ‘big, beautiful bill.’ has begun. Hallelujah. It’s taken a while for us to get there,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on the floor on Sunday afternoon. “I’ve worked a long time with my colleagues to get to where we are today.” As Graham referenced, Republicans have been working on the bill — which extends much of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and includes the elimination of taxes for some tipped and overtime income — dating back to even before their 2024 electoral victory. And they still have to clear some hurdles in order to finish the job. Republicans can lose a maximum of three votes, with two of those already spoken for. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are both expected to vote “no” over their opposition to proposed Medicaid cuts and the inclusion of a $5 trillion debt ceiling hike, respectively. Both voted against advancing the bill past a procedural hurdle Saturday night. This has left GOP leaders little room for error, forcing them to quell potential opposition from a key group of conservatives who are seeking to further reduce Medicaid spending.

Gov. Greg Abbott ignored dysfunction at the Texas Funeral Service Commission, lawyer says

A lawyer for the state agency tasked with overseeing funeral homes and regulations has backed up his now-fired boss, alleging that the head of the funeral board has far exceeded her authority. Further, Christopher Burnett — a 20-year state worker — notes the governor’s office was aware of the strife between staff at the Texas Funeral Service Commission and board chair Kristin Tips. Burnett’s comments follow the June 18 firing of former executive director Scott Bingaman, who had complained of a “rot” that permeated the commission board, making the agency unable to properly function. “Yet instead of stopping Tips’ behavior themselves, the governor’s office sat mute and allowed Tips and the other commissioners to terminate Mr. Bingaman,” Burnett wrote in a June 26 letter.

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Neither Tips nor Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints the seven-member board, responded to requests for comment on Friday. The letter is the latest salvo in the divide between the funeral commission board and its staff, as the agency addresses its dual focus of regulating funeral homes and enforcing the proper disposal of corpses. The funeral commission board on June 18 unanimously and immediately fired Bingaman as executive director, ending his nine-month tenure. The vote, which led to a walkout by funeral commission staff, followed Bingaman airing concerns about the board’s own actions and months of disarray related to the proper handling of human remains and the regulations governing the industry. “I have never seen a mess like this in my life. It is just astounding,” Burnett said Friday morning. Commission board members are scheduled to meet July 3 and potentially choose an interim replacement for Bingaman. The board also oversees donations of bodies for medical studies and research, a task previously handled by the now-defunct State Anatomical Board of Texas. Burnett confirmed many of the concerns Bingaman raised in his own letter to the commissioners, sent in the runup to his firing. Burnett, echoing Bingman, said Tips “directed agency staff to research limiting damages for pain and suffering and mental anguish in lawsuits against funeral homes," despite the commission having no authority over the court system. Tips, along with her husband Robert “Dick” Tips, own and operate the Mission Park Funeral Chapels, Cemeteries and Crematories in San Antonio. Further, Burnett wrote, “Tips wasted two years of the agency’s time,” as the commission ineffectively regulated donations of bodies for medical research and training.

Texas keeps adding jobs, setting records; Austin jobless rate edges up

Despite concerns about government cutbacks and tariffs slowing down the economy, Texas has kept on growing. For the sixth month in a row, it has posted a record number of number of jobs, the Texas Workforce Commission said. The state also set a record in terms of its labor force, which has grown in 59 of the last 61 months. “Texas continues to be a top state for growth and economic success with thousands of jobs added by employers in May,” Workforce Commission Chairman Bryan Daniel said in a statement. Leading the way for statewide growth was the sector tied to trade and transportation, followed closely by hospitality. Texas added 28,100 jobs over the month of May, reaching 14.3 million positions, according to the latest data from Texas Workforce Commission and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since May 2024, its added 213,300 jobs, for a growth rate of 1.5%, as compared with 1.1% for the nation.

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The state’s labor force, the count of people working or actively looking or work, grew by 24,900 people to reach a record of nearly 15.84 million people. The statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 4.1% in May, a notch better than the U.S. rate of 4.2%, which also was unchanged. The unadjusted unemployment rate for both the San Antonio-New Braunfels region and the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos region edged up in May compared with April although both added jobs. All of the state’s metro areas saw their unadjusted rates creep higher. Statewide, the trade, transportation, and utilities sector had the largest over-the-month increase in May, adding 8,400 jobs. Leisure and hospitality was close behind with 8,200 new jobs. Coming in third was the private education and health services sector, which added 4,300 positions. Job growth in the leisure and hospitality sector led both the San Antonio-New Braunfels and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos regions in May. The greater San Antonio area added 2,400 jobs in the sector while the greater Austin area had even more new jobs, 3,700. The Austin region also added more total jobs during the month — 6,700 new positions in the capital city compared with 5,700 in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area.

From tariff pain to record highs, a wild quarter on Wall Street

A historic and tumultuous quarter is wrapping up with U.S. stocks at records and many investors betting the ride isn’t over yet. The April swoon that carried the S&P 500 to the brink of a bear market has been erased and then some. The broad index has now added more than 8% since President Trump announced sweeping tariffs that sparked havoc in markets. Now, investors have more reasons to feel upbeat. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index hit fresh all-time highs on Friday. Robust corporate earnings and solid economic data suggest that the growth remains resilient. Inflation is trending near the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Banks that slashed their year-end targets for the S&P 500, such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, are raising them again.

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“Markets can take some comfort in that we’ve, in a sense, weathered some of the storm,” said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at PNC Asset Management. “The worst is probably behind us.” That optimism has fueled fresh gains for some recent stalwarts. The AI trade has rebounded from a rocky start to the year, when the emergence of Chinese upstart DeepSeek’s artificial-intelligence model erased billions of dollars of value from Nvidia and other tech giants. Nvidia shares have climbed 17%, Meta Platforms has gained 25% and Microsoft has added 18%. Shares of data-analytics firm Palantir Technologies and chip maker Broadcom, are up 73% and 16%, respectively. The price of bitcoin has climbed back above $100,000, with Trump reaffirming his promise to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” and Congress seeking to advance legislation that could integrate crypto into the mainstream financial system. Coinbase led the recovery from the April lows, rising around 130%. At the same time, some warn that it is just a matter of time before tariffs hurt economic growth, rekindle inflation and weigh on corporate earnings.

State Stories

Northwest ISD trustee is running for Texas House District 93

Northwest school board trustee Steve Sprowls announced this week he will challenge Rep. Nate Schatzline in House District 93 next year. Schatzline said earlier this week he would run for an open Senate seat in District 9, but on Friday changed his mind after conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss announced she was entering the Senate race. Schatzline now intends to run for reelection. Sprowls said Friday he intends to stay in the House District 93 race. “My initial intention was to run against Nate,” he told the Star-Telegram. “This is the race I wanted.”

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Sprowls, a 54-year-old Republican who previously served as the school board’s president, said he had been thinking about serving in the legislature for several months after growing frustrated with what he described as a lack of support for public education from Schatzline. The election is in 2026. Sprowls, who has served on the Northwest ISD board for nine years, said he invited Schatzline to several events in the school district such as an all-community pep rally and reading to elementary students. He said that Schatzline attended the school events but did not advocate for students while in Austin. “He pretended to care, but once he got to Austin it was a different story. I just got tired of our kids being ignored and put on the back burner for personal ambition,” Sprowls said. Schatzline declined to comment on Sprowls running for District 93. “I’m focusing on my own race right now,” he told the Star-Telegram. Sprowls said he decided to seek the District 93 seat when Schatzline announced this week that he is running for the open Senate District 9 seat, previously held by Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills, who resigned to become Texas comptroller on July 1.

Tropical Storm Barry has formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Could it affect Texas?

A tropical storm has developed in the Bay of Campeche, in the far southern part of the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center announced Sunday morning. The storm has been given the name Tropical Storm Barry, and it is the second storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. The first named storm of the year was Tropical Storm Andrea, which developed in the central Atlantic Ocean on June 24, only to dissipate just 12 hours later. The National Hurricane Center first noted the tropical system on Saturday afternoon, denoting the system as a tropical depression with sustained winds of 30 mph. In the past 18 hours, the storm strengthened its wind speeds to 40 mph, which makes it officially a tropical storm and is thus, given a name. Barry is the first tropical system to develop within the Gulf of Mexico this year. The center of the tropical depression is located 90 miles east-southeast of Tuxpan, Mexico. Heavy rain and potential flooding is possible across eastern Mexico. The state of Texas is not expected to see a direct effect from Barry. However, leftover moisture from the storm may help to produce scattered showers and thunderstorms across parts of South Texas during the middle of the week. Some of this tropical moisture could reach the Houston area in the form of scattered showers and storms by the middle to later part of the week, but big impacts are not expected.

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Former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg gearing up to run for office

Since former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg left City Hall earlier this month, there’s been a lot of speculation about his next move in politics. Nirenberg told TPR he’s gearing up for the midterm elections. He made the comment at a rally hosted by former El Paso Congressman Beto O'Rourke Friday at Pearl's Stable Hall. “This is more than about Democrats and Republicans — this is about right and wrong," Nirenberg told a crowd of more than 1,000 people who turned out to see O'Rourke along with fellow Democrats, Rep. Joaquin Castro and State Rep. James Talarico. They are all being talked about as statewide office candidates in 2026. Nirenberg, who served as mayor of San Antonio from 2017 to 2025, said he could also be on the midterm ballot. “I will tell you that the challenges that are facing this country and our nation and our state and our communities are complex and they're urgent — and I'm not going to sit on the sidelines," Nirenberg said. He said he’s not ready to make an announcement yet on what office he might pursue, but his time in politics isn’t over.

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South Texas county judge calls military border zone ‘drastic’

Standing atop an earthen levee just north of the Rio Grande and near the famous Santa Ana National Wildlife Refugee, environmentalist Scott Nicol wondered Friday where signs indicating that this area is now a military zone would go. And if people would notice them, or face arrest. “Where are they going to put it? Look around,” said Nicol surrounded by mesquite trees and hardy drought-resistant thick brush. Nicol took a stroll atop the levee with Border Report, which now is part of a new military zone that the Air Force says spans 250 miles in Hidalgo and Cameron counties of deep South Texas. “It is very concerning because the whole part of this announcement is to restrict access – to make sure that people can’t get anywhere near the river, can’t get across the river. What does that also mean for residents? Does it mean the entire Rio Grande Valley is cut off from the river, which is the lifeblood of our region?” Nicol said.

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The federal lands — previously under management by the International Boundary and Water Commission — were transferred Wednesday by the General Services Administration, an IBWC official confirmed to Border Report. The lands now are part of Joint Base San Antonio, a facility nearly 250 miles away. Establishing these new National Defense Areas along the Southwest border are “designed to support the Department of Defense’s ongoing mission to secure the southern border in coordination with inter-agency and partner stakeholders,” the Air Force said in a statement. But Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez on Friday told Border Report it’s a “drastic” move, annd one of which he had no knowledge. “We have an issue that we haven’t been able to resolve with immigration and I think that this is kind of a drastic way of addressing it,” Cortez said. Cortez, who is the top elected official in a county of 1 million people, said on Friday that federal officials told Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra that it’s meant as an extra layer of border security. “It’s all federal land and basically our understanding is it allows the military to be able to go in there and do surveillance of the property and anyone illegally trespassing they can withhold them. They cannot arrest them but they can withhold them and turn them over to other authorities,” Cortez said. That means that anyone caught on these lands can be arrested and charged with trespassing – a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

Brian Nyquist: Texas patients deserve better than price-control politics

(Brian Nyquist is the president and chief executive of the National Infusion Center Association.) Every day, Texas patients walk into infusion centers to receive treatments that help them manage cancer, autoimmune conditions, rare diseases, and more. These therapies — often delivered in community-based settings — are critical to keeping Texans healthy, productive and out of the hospital. But there’s a threat lurking in Washington that would upend the progress each of our centers is making in helping keep Texans healthier. It’s called the “Most Favored Nation” policy, an artificial drug price control, that we adamantly oppose. Here’s why. The MFN policy would peg Medicare drug reimbursements to prices paid by foreign governments with entirely different health care systems — systems that ration care, limit innovation, and often delay or deny access to lifesaving treatments. That may be how Europe handles its health care system. But it’s not how we do things in Texas.

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In fact, data from the PRI Center for Medical Economics and Innovation show that in countries with government-imposed drug price controls, patients have access to only 29% of new medicines. Here in the U.S., it’s 85%. Why? Because we’ve created an environment that rewards innovation and supports timely access to cutting-edge care. MFN would upend that balance — hurting not just patients, but the doctors and infusion centers that serve them. Texas has one of the largest networks of community-based infusion centers in the country. Many of these centers operate on tight margins, particularly in rural and underserved communities. If Medicare suddenly slashes reimbursement rates to match artificially low international prices, it could force Texas providers to stop offering key therapies — or close altogether. That means less access to care, more delayed treatments, and more patients pushed into higher-cost hospital settings. Worse, MFN wouldn’t actually solve the root causes of high out-of-pocket costs for Texas patients. The real culprits are middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers, who use opaque pricing practices and rebates that often do nothing to lower costs for the people filling prescriptions. We also see continued abuse of the 340B drug discount program by large health systems that divert savings away from patients. These are the places Congress should continue to focus reform — not on punishing local providers trying to do right by their patients. Supporters of MFN like to argue it’s fiscally responsible. But there is nothing fiscally smart about destroying a cost-effective, community-based care delivery system and shifting care to more expensive hospital outpatient departments. That’s not savings — it’s cost-shifting. MFN is also a threat to Texas’ growing life sciences economy. Our state is a hub for clinical trials, medical research and biopharmaceutical investment. Policies that import foreign price controls would send a chilling message to innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers working on the next generation of treatments and cures. Why invest in tomorrow’s breakthrough if Washington can arbitrarily cap its value based on what Europeans pay?

Houston scored big wins in the Texas Legislature this session.

Houston leaders are calling the recent legislative session the “most successful” one in its history, reaping a catalog of benefits that included everything from new supplies to new laws and more funding. The city took a team of six people, led by Mayor John Whitmire’s intergovernmental relations chief Josh Sanders, to Austin to lobby for policy that would directly impact Houston. Here’s a breakdown of some of the new state laws that will help Houstonians: The 2024 hurricane season was nothing short of detrimental for Houstonians, and included a derecho that took the city by surprise and a Category 1 hurricane that led to the largest outage in CenterPoint’s history in Houston with 2.7 million impacted customers.

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That power loss inhibited Houston from being able to provide vital services residents needed during the hurricane. Around 10 fire stations went offline, and many of the city’s multi-service centers couldn’t open as cooling shelters for those who needed a place to go to beat the blistering heat. Whitmire’s team just unrolled a plan where the city will install 100 generators at critical city facilities before the end of his first term to help keep city buildings online when the power goes out. But that move will get an extra boost with House Bill 1584, led by state Rep. Lacy Hull, R-Houston, which will require energy companies to prioritize critical facilities like public safety buildings and water treatment plants when they’re working to turn the lights back on. Houston also saw gaps in its ability to provide mental health services during the winter freeze in January. Officials tried to help a man to shelter, but he denied assistance and ended up dying at a Metro bus stop in what city leaders said was a mental health case. Under Senate Bill 1164, led by state Sen. Judith Zaffirnini, D-Laredo, city officials will better be able to help those who don’t know they need it. Those experiencing mental health emergencies will be able to be transported to help with proper notification. Some Houston neighborhoods have had some serious problems with bandit signs, which is any sign placed in a public right of way. Some of the sign placers, too, have bad intentions and put up signs that look like they might help residents but ultimately end up scamming them. And after six years of effort to get lawmakers to pass a law change to help the issue, Houston was finally successful. House Bill 3611, carried by state Rep. Pat Curry, R-Waco, ups the penalties the city can give out to people who repeatedly put bandit signs in public right of ways.

Resolutions seeking to admonish ‘MAGA mayor’ John Whitmire grow to 100 signatures from Democrats

Resolutions attempting to admonish Houston Mayor John Whitmire and prevent him from seeking Democratic party endorsement have so far gleaned more than 100 signatures from a growing coalition of fringe Harris County Democratic Party precinct chairs. The collective is also hoping to make sure Whitmire and other elected officials are bound to the same rules that precinct chairs are for fundraising. Democratic precinct chairs in Harris County are not allowed to endorse or fundraise for members of a different political party. The resolutions came to life after Whitmire made plans to appear at a Houston-based fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican representing parts of northern Harris County and Montgomery County.

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Experts, at the time, did not think the move was unlike something the mayor of a big city would do. They reasoned that mayors have to make friends on both sides of the aisle in order to get the city resources. Whitmire, too, justified his attendance and said he worked closely with those who helped the city. But some Democratic precinct chairs begged to differ. “John Whitmire’s agenda is indistinguishable from that of a MAGA mayor,” the collective wrote in its resolution, referring to the Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.” “With Trump in office and pursuing an illegal and authoritarian agenda impacting millions of Houstonians, we deserve to have a fighter who wants to represent us, not a willing enabler of an emerging dictatorship,” the resolution continued. “If Whitmire wants to be a Republican, that’s OK, but he shouldn’t be able to do that and count on the support of thousands of grassroots volunteers who shed blood, sweat and tears to knock on doors and elect people who represent our values.” When the resolutions were first announced, it only had about 30 signatures. Cameron Campbell, the leader of the charge, said Friday he was proud of the grassroots group of Democrats who had come together to learn a new fighting style. “I'm just really proud of our ability to learn a different way to use our voices, and how aligned and unified everybody (is),” Campbell said.

No disrespect to the past, but the Spurs look to bright future with young core

No disrespect to the past, but the Spurs look to bright future with young core. A rookie born in 2006 held up a jersey with the number he always wanted. He grinned from ear to ear. He wasn’t insulting anybody. Neither was the team that gave it to him. Nothing about this scene was disrespectful, and it’s doubtful that someone on a beach or in a practice gym 1,300 miles away felt the sting of any purported affront. It’s simple, really. You can’t slap a man in the face after he’s turned his back on you and walked away. Dylan Harper wears No. 2 for the San Antonio Spurs now, and that’s because seven years ago Kawhi Leonard chose to let him. The most valuable player of the Spurs’ last NBA Finals victory had no illusions back then about what he was doing, and he understood as well as anyone that the clean break he wanted was irrevocable. Leonard had his reasons for wanting to move on in 2017. That was his right. He chose his future over his past. And now that the Spurs have done the same? Some might say it’s about dang time.

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Year by year, era by era, it’s hard to notice sometimes when the stuff we still consider current events starts slipping into children’s history books. Who put the cutting-edge music that blew our minds on the classic rock station? Why is one of my favorite “new” films on Turner Classic Movies? It happens. Near the end of his playing days, Tim Duncan would get mildly perturbed when opposing rookies would approach him during games and tell him they grew up watching him play. He didn’t want to be reminded of how old he was. He also didn’t realize how much worse it could get. On Saturday, when the Spurs held a press conference to introduce their two newest first-round picks, it was a good thing Duncan wasn’t there. “Timmy D,” 19-year-old Carter Bryant said, “was my uncle’s favorite player.” The lesson here is that the Spurs’ championship dynasty isn’t the stuff of fuzzy childhood memories for NBA players anymore. It’s now basically ancestral, no different than a great-grandfather’s stories about World War II, or the moon landing, or accessing the internet with a dial-up modem.

Harlandale ISD superintendent named best in the region

Harlandale Independent School District Superintendent Gerardo Soto was named the region’s superintendent of the year by the Texas Association of School Boards. Region 20 includes all school districts in Bexar County, stretches out toward Kerr and Atascosa counties and reaches parts of the Southwest Texas border. Each year, the TASB picks one superintendent from each region to recognize “achievement and excellence in public school administration.” “I’m honored to serve a community that believes so deeply in the power of education,” Soto said in a statement after his family, campus leadership and school board members surprised him with the announcement on Tuesday morning. “This recognition is a reflection of the work we’ve accomplished together for the betterment of our students,” he said in a statement.

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Tony Quesada: Losing spent nuclear fuel storage case may be win in long term for Texas

The Texas government's recent loss in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling may prove to be a long-term victory for the state — at least in the eyes of those who see nuclear energy as a viable and desirable part of the state’s future electricity generation. In a 6-3 decision, the court rejected litigation by the Lone Star State and a private business challenging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authority to issue a license to a company to operate a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in West Texas. The decision, which concludes years of legal wrangling, comes in the wake of the Texas Legislature allocating $350 million during its recent session to foster development of advanced nuclear energy projects. The Texas Advanced Nuclear Development Fund, created by newly enacted House Bill 14, supports the ambitions of Gov. Greg Abbott, who said last year that he wants Texas to be “the global leader in advanced nuclear power.”

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But while Abbott and Texas lawmakers are putting taxpayer money behind nuclear power generation, the state has sought to block a necessary aspect of the full nuclear power life cycle — a place to store radioactive waste after it’s fissionable material is depleted. In 2021, the state and Fasken Land and Minerals Ltd., a West Texas business, sued the NRC after the agency issued a license to Waste Control Specialists to operate a temporary storage facility for up to 11 million pounds of spent uranium fuel at a Permian Basin facility it owns that currently accepts low-level nuclear waste. After Texas prevailed before a federal judicial panel in 2023, the NRC appealed. In October, the Supreme Court granted review primarily on two questions: Can a nonparty challenge a federal agency’s final order under the judicial review provisions of a law called the Hobbs Act? Do federal laws — namely, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 — allow the NRC to license private entities to temporarily store spent nuclear fuel away from where it was generated? While Texas said “yes” to the first and “no” to the second, the high court said “no” to the first and “it doesn’t matter” — for now, at least — to the second. In doing so, the commercial nuclear energy industry averted a major setback — again, at least for now — in its decadeslong quest for a solution to its long-term waste storage needs.

Dallas Stars closing in on hiring Glen Gulutzan as new head coach

A familiar face could soon be taking over as the Dallas Stars' next head coach. The Stars are closing in on hiring Glen Gulutzan as the franchise’s next head coach, a person familiar with the team’s search confirmed with The Dallas Morning News. Gulutzan, who was most recently an assistant for the Edmonton Oilers, served as the Stars’ head coach for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons before being fired by Jim Nill as one of his first acts as general manager. But for the second time in his career, Nill could be hiring a former Stars coach to take over the team. He hired Stanley Cup-winning Ken Hitchcock for his second stint in Dallas in the 2017-18 season.

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The likely hire comes three weeks after the Stars fired Pete DeBoer after three years leading the team. Nill said earlier this month that he planned to conduct a patient and open-minded search for DeBoer’s replacement, as the Stars were the only NHL team actively searching for a new head coach. Gulutzan was one of three known candidates interviewed for the opening, alongside Texas Stars head coach Neil Graham and Dallas Stars defensive assistant Alain Nasreddine. Gulutzan has not served as a head coach since the 2017-18 season. After his two years in Dallas, which followed two seasons as the Texas Stars’ head coach, he went on to coach the Calgary Flames. He has a 146-125-23 record in his 294 games as a head coach and made the playoffs just once when Calgary lost in the first round to Anaheim in 2016-17. The Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, native also served as an assistant for the Vancouver Canucks and the Oilers, most recently. He had worked in Edmonton since 2018, running the Oilers’ lethal power play led by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Gulutzan’s Oilers eliminated the Stars in the Western Conference finals in each of the last two seasons. The Oilers went 6 for 16 on the power play in their five playoff games against the Stars this year. Gulutzan’s contract with the Oilers is set to expire Monday. The 53-year-old would become the Stars’ sixth head coach in the last decade and under Nill. He replaces DeBoer, who led the Stars to three consecutive Western Conference finals, but lost his job after many felt he lost the locker room.

National Stories

The Trump administration is building a national citizenship data system

The Trump administration has, for the first time ever, built a searchable national citizenship data system. The tool, which is being rolled out in phases, is designed to be used by state and local election officials to give them an easier way to ensure only citizens are voting. But it was developed rapidly without a public process, and some of those officials are already worrying about what else it could be used for. NPR is the first news organization to report the details of the new system. For decades, voting officials have noted that there was no national citizenship list to compare their state lists to, so to verify citizenship for their voters, they either needed to ask people to provide a birth certificate or a passport — something that could disenfranchise millions — or use a complex patchwork of disparate data sources. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is offering another way.

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DHS, in partnership with the White House's Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) team, has recently rolled out a series of upgrades to a network of federal databases to allow state and county election officials to quickly check the citizenship status of their entire voter lists — both U.S.-born and naturalized citizens — using data from the Social Security Administration as well as immigration databases. Such integration has never existed before, and experts call it a sea change that inches the U.S. closer to having a roster of citizens — something the country has never embraced. A centralized national database of Americans' personal information has long been considered a third rail — especially to privacy advocates as well as political conservatives, who have traditionally opposed mass data consolidation by the federal government. Legal experts told NPR they were alarmed that a development of this magnitude was already underway without a transparent and public process. "That is a debate that needs to play out in a public setting," said John Davisson, the director of litigation at the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. "It's one that deserves public scrutiny and sunlight, that deserves the participation of elected representatives, that deserves opportunities for the public to weigh in through public comment and testimony."

Sen. Thom Tillis says he won’t seek re-election after opposing Trump megabill

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, N.C., will not run for re-election when his term is up, he announced Sunday, hours after he voted against advancing President Donald Trump’s tax bill and drew the president’s ire. “As many of my colleagues have noticed over the last year, and at times even joked about, I haven’t exactly been excited about running for another term,” Tillis said in a statement. “That is true since the choice is between spending another six years navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock in Washington or spending that time with the love of my life Susan, our two children, three beautiful grandchildren, and the rest of our extended family back home,” he said.

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“It’s not a hard choice, and I will not be seeking re-election,” he continued. Tillis’ announcement is likely to spur a competitive — and costly — election in the key battleground, where Trump had already said he would explore supporting a primary challenger to the two-term senator. Tillis has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s megabill, and he voted against advancing the package in a key late Saturday vote, making him one of two Republicans to do so. After Tillis’ “no” vote,Trump took to Truth Social to criticize the North Carolina Republican. “Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against “Senator Thom” Tillis,” Trump wrote. “I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America,” he continued. Tillis’ seat, which he has held since 2014, has also been a target for Democrats in next year’s midterms eager for a pick-up opportunity.

Zohran Mamdani wants to build government supermarkets. America already has them

Zohran Mamdani, the favorite to become New York City’s next mayor after winning the Democratic primary, has a contentious plan to create a network of city-owned grocery stores. But it’s less radical than critics portray, some food policy and grocery industry experts say. Mamdani has proposed five municipally owned stores, one in each New York City borough, to offer groceries at lower prices to customers with limited access to supermarkets. In some New York City neighborhoods, more than 30% of people are food insecure. The proposal has been blasted as a “‘Soviet’ style disaster-in-waiting,” “farcical” and “economically delusional.” John Catsimatidis, the owner of New York City-based supermarket chain Gristedes, threatened to close stores if Mamdani is elected. (Catsimatidis is a two-time Republican candidate for mayor.)

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But Mamdani is drawing on government-owned and subsidized models that already exist in the United States, such as the Defense Department’s commissaries for military personnel, public retail markets that lease space to farmers and chefs, and city-owned stores in rural areas such as St. Paul, Kansas. Atlanta is opening two municipal grocery stores later this year after struggling to draw a private grocery chain. Madison, Wisconsin, and rural Venice, Illinois, also plan to open municipally owned stores. “This is more common than people are aware of,” said Nevin Cohen, director of the City University of New York’s Urban Food Policy Institute. “There’s a wide spectrum of food retail establishments that could be created by or with the support of city government.” Mamdani has not released all the details of his plan yet, and it’s not clear what role New York City would play in the opening or operation of grocery stores. Would it build stores? Lease them out to a private company or a non-profit? Would the employees be on the city’s payroll? But a government-owned supermarket “concept is sound” and can take a “variety of formats,” Cohen said. “Rather than giving incentives to private supermarkets without the assurance of low prices, a city-focused program that puts affordability front and center is a better approach.” Yet municipal-owned stores have recently closed in several towns, such as in Baldwin, Florida. Chicago also shifted its effort from building city-owned stores to a city-run public food market, despite a study showing stores were “necessary, feasible and implementable.” These cities’ struggles underscore the challenges of government stepping into the grocery business amid fierce resistance from the private sector.

2 firefighters dead after apparent ambush on first responders in Idaho

Residents of Coeur d’Alene lined the highway on Sunday to honor two firefighters killed in an ambush while responding to a fire. The procession transporting the firefighters from Kootenai Health to Spokane, Washington, drew a large turnout from the community. “It was very moving to see all the people that came out. They just kept coming out. Even after the procession was done, people kept coming out,” Bill Buley, assistant managing editor for of the Coeur d’Alene Press, told CNN’s MJ Lee. Many stood in silence, waving flags or holding one another in comfort as a stream of vehicles passed by, Buley said. “I think a lot of people were hit hard to think that this could happen — to their firefighters, the front-line guys, who are there to protect them,” Buley said. “Coeur d’Alene is a pretty small community. People know who these front-line guys are and hold them with a great amount of respect. So when this happened, I think a lot of people were really shaken and just really wanted to come out and show their support for the firefighters and for their families.”

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National pride is declining in America. And it's splitting by party lines, new Gallup polling shows

Only 36% of Democrats say they’re “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, according to a new Gallup poll, reflecting a dramatic decline in national pride that’s also clear among young people. The findings are a stark illustration of how many — but not all — Americans have felt less of a sense of pride in their country over the past decade. The split between Democrats and Republicans, at 56 percentage points, is at its widest since 2001. That includes all four years of Republican President Donald Trump’s first term. Only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults who are part of Generation Z, which is defined as those born from 1997 to 2012, expressed a high level of pride in being American in Gallup surveys conducted in the past five years, on average. That’s compared with about 6 in 10 Millennials — those born between 1980 and 1996 — and at least 7 in 10 U.S. adults in older generations.

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“Each generation is less patriotic than the prior generation, and Gen Z is definitely much lower than anybody else,” said Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor at Gallup. “But even among the older generations, we see that they’re less patriotic than the ones before them, and they’ve become less patriotic over time. That’s primarily driven by Democrats within those generations.” America’s decline in national pride has been a slow erosion, with a steady downtick in Gallup’s data since January 2001, when the question was first asked. Even during the tumultuous early years of the Iraq War, the vast majority of U.S. adults, whether Republican or Democrat, said they were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American. At that point, about 9 in 10 were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American. That remained high in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but the consensus around American pride slipped in the years that followed, dropping to about 8 in 10 in 2006 and continuing a gradual decline. Now, 58% of U.S. adults say that, in a downward shift that’s been driven almost entirely by Democrats and independents. The vast majority of Republicans continue to say they’re proud to be American. Independents’ pride in their national identity hit a new low in the most recent survey, at 53%, largely following that pattern of gradual decline. Democrats’ diminished pride in being American is more clearly linked to Trump’s time in office. When Trump first entered the White House, in 2017, about two-thirds of Democrats said they were proud to be American. That had fallen to 42% by 2020, just before Trump lost reelection to Democrat Joe Biden.

Copyright June 30, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved