October 12, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

‘I just had the flu’: James Talarico shoots down conservative speculation about his absence from the trail

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico addressed his recent absence from the campaign trail Sunday, saying it was nothing but a “nasty case of the flu.” “I was in bed, drinking lots of liquids. Unfortunately, the campaign made me work from home, so I didn’t even get full days off. But I didn’t want to be out on the trail, and I didn’t want to get anyone else sick. It’s important, I think, for leaders to be responsible in these moments. And I’m glad to be back. I’m feeling much better,” he told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth in an interview. Talarico returned to the campaign trail Friday; his last in-person event in the state had been Sept. 26, and on Sept. 30, he spoke at a forum virtually, saying he wasn’t feeling well.

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In his absence, some conservatives speculated that he was taking a break for mental health reasons. One right-wing influencer falsely claimed Talarico was receiving treatment at the Lindner Center of Hope, a facility in Ohio. Asked about those theories, Talarico said, “The internet’s doing its thing.” “That’s not true,” Talarico said. “I just had the flu, and I feel much better. But it’s a good reminder that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.” The Lindner Center also shot down the speculation Sunday, posting on social media: “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.” Republicans latched on to Talarico’s being off the trail in the final weeks of the campaign, and even some Democrats admitted to NBC News that his absence was less than ideal in the tight Senate race. State Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico’s Republican opponent, called for him to show “proof of life” with a picture of him and a newspaper showing the date. President Donald Trump, stumping for Paxton in San Antonio on Wednesday, highlighted Talarico’s absence and urged him to debate Paxton. Asked about Trump’s comment Sunday, Talarico said he agreed. “I agree with President Trump. I think Ken Paxton should debate. The president’s saying he should debate. Fox News has said he should debate. The people of Texas have said he should debate, and I think it’s mysterious that Ken Paxton hasn’t responded to a request for a debate in 85 days,” Talarico said. “Ken Paxton has asked for proof of life for me. I’m asking for proof of spine from him,” he added. So far, no debates are scheduled. Talarico has accepted debate invitations from multiple media outlets, but Paxton hasn’t done the same.

Inside Elon Musk’s $276 million midterm rescue mission for Republicans

Elon Musk has quietly funneled more than $276 million into Republican groups and his super PAC since the start of July, building a huge turnout operation to help the party battle headwinds in the midterm elections. The staggering amount of money makes Mr. Musk, the richest person in the world, by far the largest known donor in the midterms. Representatives for Mr. Musk supplied the previously unreported figures on his political giving to The New York Times before a federal filing deadline on Thursday. In an effort to save Republicans’ Senate majority, gave a total of $158 million this summer to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing the party’s candidates for the chamber, according to his team. In sum, that is one of the largest political donations in American history, and more than the group’s Democratic rival raised from all of its donors that quarter.

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Mr. Musk has also built a major Republican turnout operation through a super PAC he founded in 2024, America PAC. He donated over $76 million this summer to the group, which in turn spent that much on building a sprawling canvassing program to try to turn out hard-to-reach Republican voters. The group is active in seven Senate battlegrounds and nearly three dozen House races. Mr. Musk has already given far more money, about $366 million, to federal committees during the 2025-26 election cycle than he did during the 2024 election, when he laid out roughly $290 million to help return President Trump and Republicans to power. He has given even more in undisclosed donations during both elections, according to people briefed on the giving. The latest torrent of spending has helped give the Republican Party a financial advantage in the midterms, as well-funded outside groups like Mr. Trump’s powerful super PAC flood the airwaves with advertising in the final weeks. No Democratic billionaire is spending nearly as much as Mr. Musk, and money remains a central worry for the party in an otherwise favorable political environment.

Texas lawmaker threatens legislative action against Kinder Morgan and PUMPCO over pipeline subsidence

State Rep. J.M. Lozano is putting Kinder Morgan and one of its contractors on notice after touring a South Texas property where the landowner says continuing ground subsidence along a natural gas pipeline right-of-way has created dangerous conditions for workers, livestock and farm equipment. Lozano, who represents District 43, joined landowners and others for a field tour of the Knolle Dairy Farms property, where the group inspected sinkholes, depressions and areas where participants said the ground was hollow beneath their feet.

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During the tour, participants used physical probes and referenced earlier ground-penetrating radar surveys that they said showed low-density soil and underground voids in some areas. At one location, a probe was pushed roughly five to six feet into what participants described as hollow or soft ground. "Kinder Morgan needs to rectify this problem very quick, um, preferably before next session starts, um, and PUMPCO needs to revise. Their operations, and next session I'm gonna be requesting a list from those two companies of every employee that worked on this property in my district. I'm gonna make sure that if they have any certification with the state of Texas that they're up for review. I'm gonna make sure that those companies themselves are up for review in the state of Texas," Lozano said. Lozano also said he wants Kinder Morgan leadership to see the conditions firsthand. "I understand that the, uh, vice president of Kinder Morgan is interested now in what's going on. I don't want him interested. I want him on a plane flying down here to look at this firsthand and to snap a finger and get it solved," Lozano said. Lozano warned that the issue could become a legislative matter if it remains unresolved. "And it's gonna be a rude awakening for them if this problem is not solved by the time next session begins," Lozano said.

How data centers are pushing up US power costs

Data centers have become a defining political issue in the run-up to the US midterm elections. The giant, windowless warehouses have drawn fierce backlash across the country as people worry about how much power and water they use, as well as the noise and heat they produce. Voters squeezed by higher electricity bills have focused their ire on data centers, which can require as much power as a small city to support artificial-intelligence systems. Local opposition blocked or delayed at least 120 projects worth almost $200 billion in the first half of this year, according to research group Data Center Watch. Those cost-of-living pressures have become a liability for Republicans as they seek to hold on to both chambers of Congress in November. President Donald Trump had promised to slash electricity prices by 50% if he was reelected to the White House.

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Between January 2025, when Trump took office, and July of this year, the latest date for which data is available, the national monthly average price of electricity for residential users rose by 15% in nominal terms, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration. Zooming out, power prices have been climbing more rapidly in recent years after a long stretch of relatively small increases. They were nearly 40% higher across the first seven months of 2026 than the same period in 2019. The picture varies by state over that time frame. The largest jump in residential prices has been in Maine, at around 90%, followed by California and New York at closer to 70%. At the other end of the scale, the increase has been much more modest in Iowa and Nevada, where average prices have risen by less than 15%. Data centers need vast amounts of power to run thousands of chips and the cooling systems that prevent overheating. A large facility with a 1-gigawatt capacity can use about as much electricity as 800,000 homes, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. As data centers rapidly spring up across the US, Bloomberg forecasts their share of national electricity consumption could roughly double to 12% by the end of the decade, rising to 20% in 2035.

State Stories

Rep. Peña-Raymond addresses pulling out gun during Capitol hearing

Texas state Rep. Richard Peña-Raymond displayed a handgun during a House Committee on Governmental Oversight hearing examining violent crimes that have not been prosecuted. He explained he was thinking about a threat made against him at the Capitol a few years earlier. “A lot of the focus was on Travis County, where they weren’t prosecuting the cases. And we’re trying to get to understand that better. Why? And whether we need to do something in the legislature,” Peña-Raymond said. Peña-Raymond said he reported the threat to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which handles Capitol security, and forwarded it to the Travis County attorney’s office. He said the office’s first assistant declined to pursue charges without explaining why. “What you do is you carry one of these. And I just pulled it out. I didn’t show it to the audience, but there was the camera above… I was showing it to my committee members, saying, this is what you do, you carry one of these,” Peña-Raymond said. He said he and other lawmakers have licenses to carry. Peña-Raymond said the hearing could shape legislation next session, including a proposal to give the Texas attorney general more power to prosecute violent crime cases when county district attorneys decline to act.

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Kimberly Crouch: Camp Mystic should have reopened. I blame Dan Patrick.

(Kimberly Crouch lives in Hunt, Texas.) I am heartbroken that Camp Mystic will not open its gates this summer. It is especially tragic for the 800 girls and young women who had looked forward to returning to their beloved and sacred place to mourn, accept and grow into their grief surrounded by their similarly suffering friends. I was once one of those campers. Camp Mystic has long been important to my family: My sisters, my niece and I shared a total of 44 years of Camp Mystic experience. And better than most families, we understand the alacrity and horrific power of the July 4 flood. One of my sisters and my niece also lost their lives that night — not at Camp Mystic, but at the vacation home my parents built in 1976, three miles downriver from Camp Mystic’s site on the Guadalupe.

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I understand why the camp’s owners, the Eastland family, decided not to reopen this year. Sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor. But I am deeply saddened by how their situation became untenable even for the brave and true of heart. I blame grandstanding Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and his pandering minions at the Texas State Legislature for this tragedy piled on tragedy. The fact is, the directors of Camp Mystic did an amazing job in the chaotic early-morning hours of July 4. No rational individual could have predicted or planned for the speed and size of the flood. The water rose an incredible 40 feet, probably more in places — flooding land far outside the 100-year flood plain. Authorities didn’t send a truly urgent-sounding warning until after 4 a.m. — a full hour after Dick Eastland’s watch stopped working as floodwaters swept away him and his carful of girls Those of us who live along the banks of the Guadalupe understand its power. My sisters and I knew — or thought we knew — how high the river might go in any potential flood. We were wrong.

"The numbers don't lie": Investors sue over millions poured into Baker Hotel restoration

They shared a dream of bringing one of North Texas' most iconic hotels back to life. For decades, the historic Baker Hotel stood boarded up in downtown Mineral Wells, a reminder of a time when tourists and celebrities flocked to the city for its famous mineral waters. The effort to restore the hotel brought together investors who believed they could help revive the landmark — and the community around it. Among them were retired Air Force veterans Porfirio and Jennifer Dubon, who say they invested more than $1 million of their savings in the project. "When we finished the tour, we were hooked," Porfirio Dubon recalled of their visit to the hotel in 2021. But the vision that once united the investors has now divided them.

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The Dubons are among a group of investors suing developer Randy Nix, accusing him of putting his own financial interests ahead of theirs. The lawsuit raises questions about millions of dollars in loans, mounting interest charges and a restructuring agreement the investors say was never honored. Nix strongly denies the allegations. "The allegations are completely baseless. The court system is going to prove that quickly," Nix told WFAA. At the center of the lawsuit are two loans totaling $3 million made to the Baker Hotel project by Nix and another developer. The loans carried a 15% annual interest rate. According to the lawsuit, the developers agreed to convert those loans into ownership interests as part of a restructuring plan in early 2023. That conversion would have eliminated the loans and stopped additional interest from accumulating. Instead, the investors allege the developers broke that promise, resulting in approximately $1.8 million in additional interest charges they say should never have accumulated. "They took our money. They didn't convert their loans," Porfirio Dubon said.

Texas attorney general’s office opens investigation into American Bar Association

The Texas Office of the Attorney General opened an investigation into the American Bar Association, an organization of lawyers and law students that provides accreditation to law schools, including UT’s School of Law, Sept. 30. According to a news release from the Texas Attorney General’s office, the investigation will examine whether the ABA’s accreditation requirements have “unlawfully restricted competition” for the accreditation of law schools or increased the cost of attending law school. Christopher Roberts, the executive director of marketing and communications at UT Law, wrote in an email that UT Law does not anticipate changes in its accreditation status.

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In the news release, the Texas Attorney General’s Office alleges the ABA used its authority over law schools to inflate faculty salaries, create expensive accreditation requirements and exclude schools who challenge the ABA’s views. The Office also wrote that the ABA imposed “unconstitutional racial and gender preference requirements” on ABA accredited law school admission and hiring processes. “There must be competition and a fair playing field when it comes to law school accreditation, or else we risk inflated costs for students, unfair restrictions, and illegal discriminatory practices,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the news release. “My office will investigate whether the law school accreditation process has been used to unlawfully limit competition and burden students and institutions. No organization should be permitted to use its position of influence to violate our antitrust laws.” The Daily Texan reached out to an ABA spokesperson and a spokesperson for the Accreditation Council for Legal Education responded and wrote that the Council will work with the Attorney General’s Office to respond to their inquiry. The Council operates separately from the ABA. The Texas investigation comes after several national conflicts with the ABA. In April 2025, the ABA filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice for limiting the ABA’s funding. This September, a panel that advises the U.S. Department of Education on accreditation did not reach a decision on whether the ABA should retain federal recognition for accreditation. Previously, those interested in practicing law in Texas would have to attend an ABA-accredited law school to take the Texas bar exam. The bar exam is a test used to determine whether someone can legally practice law. In January, the Texas Supreme Court ended the requirement to attend an ABA-accredited school before taking the bar exam.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: For State Representative, District 146: Lauren Ashley Simmons

When Lauren Ashley Simmons was a young mother, still in college and struggling to make ends meet, she felt proud that she’d finally been able to buy her son a bedroom set. Then she came home from class to find her belongings strewn outside their apartment. They were being evicted. In the mess, she saw it: his brand new headboard, broken in half. “There is nothing that makes you feel like more of a failure in life than when you can’t even keep a roof over your kid’s head,” she told the editorial board, her voice cracking. That young woman has gone on to become one of the most impressive young lawmakers in the Texas House. Simmons, 39, just finished her first term. In that short time, she has quickly become a critical voice for the long overlooked people of not just House District 146 but of Houston and Texas.

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Still a renter herself, Simmons filed a bill that would prevent landlords from holding onto application fees even after they’ve rejected you, a bill that would stop landlords from having standing contracts with towing companies that roll the parking lots day and night exploiting their own tenants, and a bill that would require landlords to at least respond in writing within two business days when tenants ask for repairs. Simmons knows how impactful these bills would be for renters because she has compelling personal experiences and stories from constituents to back them up. Sadly, none of these bills made it. But in her first term, Simmons gained experience and relationships that make it more likely she’ll succeed in the future. In fact, she’s already had some success. She brought home money for parks and for Texas Southern University. And she got bills passed. After the governor vetoed a sickle cell registry bill right before she got in office, Simmons revived the bill and got it signed and enacted. The effort was personal. She is a mother of a young daughter with sickle cell. Though there have been blockbuster breakthroughs and expensive new treatments unveiled, the disease still has low awareness around it and a registry is the first step in ensuring better care for those who suffer from it without access to costly and intensive therapies. Simmons also secured $1 million for the registry. Next session, Simmons wants to go a step farther. As part of a cohort of bipartisan state lawmakers across the South, Simmons learned about rare diseases advisory councils, which strengthen cooperation and research across healthcare institutions. She wants one in Texas. But she said she’s gearing up for a bigger fight over school vouchers. “Every amendment that we tried to put in this bill, even Republicans who tried to put some type of guardrails, all of them got shot down,” she said. “We know that they're going to continue to try to put more and more money into it, and now you know the comptroller signaled that he wants $2 billion.”

Jose Martinez: I objects to photo in Rep. Hickland's political ad

(Jose Martinez lives in Temple.) A political ad that Hillary Hickland has is false and misleading. She has a photo of me and a friend, Rodrigo, appearing to support her, when we do not. This was at a restaurant in Harker Heights where she had a sort of town hall and a number of people there chatted with her for two or three minutes. She came over to our table and in fact argued with us for almost half an hour, particularly about vouchers. We told her we did not agree with her about that or much of anything else that she said. She is using that photo to make it appear we support her and/or that she converses with all kinds of folks. The reality of that situation belies the perception of the photo.

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Also, it was not even the sweet manner of conversation portrayed in the photo, since in arguing about vouchers, which my friend and I oppose, she had the gall to tell, with a smile, a constituent of hers, Rodrigo, that he could not understand about children or vouchers since he was not a parent. Simply put, there are parents who do not understand children and there are those who are not parents who understand children. My friend and I were appalled at what she said and she quickly exited the restaurant. I am publicly pointing this out because she needs to delete that photo which many have already seen and which she is using and wherein she has portrayed a false and misleading message and still is doing so. Contacting her campaign only privately would not correct nor undo the public damage already done.

Bush v. Gore attorney threatens to sue Mansfield ISD if trustees change school board elections

Lawyer Andy Taylor has spent nearly 40 years drawing political maps and fighting them in court. Now, he’s ready to challenge Mansfield ISD. Taylor, who represented George W. Bush in Florida’s 2000 presidential election recount, warned trustees Oct. 7 that he will file a lawsuit if they change how voters elect the school board. Trustees are considering electing each of the seven members from a set area instead of districtwide. Trustees will decide before the end of the year whether they will pursue the change and roll it out for the May 1, 2027, election. Board President Jandel Crutchfield emphasized no decision has been made. Taylor, who was retained by concerned residents, told trustees that they are rushing a process that requires detailed analysis and community feedback.

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“There’s no way you can do that between now and the end of this year,” Taylor said. Trustees backing exploration of the change say a bigger risk is doing nothing. Crutchfield pointed to Lewisville ISD as an example. The North Texas school system switched to single-member districts after a candidate lost and filed a lawsuit claiming the Lewisville school board did not fairly reflect student demographics. More than half of Mansfield ISD’s roughly 35,000 students live outside the namesake city, according to the district. One-third live in Arlington where three Mansfield ISD campuses are rated as D’s. A district survey found about 40% of 1,060 respondents said they don’t feel their community is represented on the school board. Another 40% of respondents said they do. The survey also found 36% of respondents disagreed that at-large trustees effectively represent the community, while 39% agreed.

Ag Commissioner nominee Clayton Tucker angry about alleged bus stunt

With November's midterm elections approaching, a Texas candidate is demanding an apology after his opponent's campaign bus allegedly blared its horn outside his parents' home. Clayton Tucker, the Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner, is calling on Republican opponent Nate Sheets to apologize after a bus from Sheets' campaign allegedly stopped outside Tucker's parents' home in Lampasas and repeatedly honked for several minutes. Tucker's campaign said his parents were home at the time and that several people witnessed the alleged incident. Tucker condemned it and called on Sheets to "take responsibility for the conduct of his campaign."

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"I signed up to run for public office, and I know politics can get ugly. But my elderly parents didn't sign up for any of this," Tucker said in a news release Saturday. "I am Nate Sheets' opponent. My parents are not. If Nate has a problem with me, he can say it to my face. Better yet, he can get on a debate stage and face me." Sheets' campaign team did not immediately respond to Chron's request for comment Sunday. In a post about his bus tour Sunday morning, Sheets wrote, "Great event in Liberty County last night! The bus is rolling out to the next stop. Honk if you see us!" As of Sunday, Sheets had not publicly commented on the allegation. Tucker's campaign said it had reported the incident to local law enforcement and would leave any determination of possible legal violations to authorities. "I don't care if you're a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. We ought to agree that our families and neighbors should be left out of this kind of foolishness," Tucker said in the release. "My parents deserve to live in peace without being dragged into a political campaign they never asked to be part of." Tucker also called on Sheets to apologize to his parents and their neighbors. "If he wants to come after me politically, I'm right here. Leave my family alone," Tucker said.

Garnet Coleman funeral: Houston leaders honor former lawmaker

Hundreds of mourners gathered at a downtown chapel on Friday to remember longtime state Rep. Garnet Coleman as a “political giant” of Third Ward and greater Houston. Coleman died Sep. 25 at age 65. He had long dealt with serious health complications from diabetes. A stalwart advocate for healthcare and affordable housing issues, he retired from politics in 2022 as one of the most senior lawmakers in the state Legislature after 15 terms representing much of downtown, Montrose, Midtown, and Third Ward, where he grew up. The succinct, hourlong ceremony was held under the gothic trusses of Christ Church Cathedral, part of the historically Black St. James Episcopal congregation of which Coleman was a lifelong member.

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“His specific and focused attention on the people of Third Ward is legendary, but the public servant behind those things was a man who worked to establish connections across the aisle with anyone who would work with him,” said the Rev. Victor Thomas. The solemnity was punctuated by laughter as Thomas recounted Coleman’s courtship of his wife, Angelique. Among the politicians present were Mayor John Whitmire, former Mayor Annise Parker, U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Lizzie Fletcher and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, as well as a bipartisan group of more than a dozen state lawmakers and members of Houston City Council. No officials gave remarks, allowing Coleman’s long list of legislative accomplishments to speak for him, from increased funding for mental health, HIV/AIDS services and children’s health insurance to the 2017 Sandra Bland Act, a sweeping civil rights law. Coleman also will lie in honor at the Texas Capitol from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 22 before his burial at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin at 2 p.m.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: For State Senator, District 4: Sen. Brett W. Ligon

Voters in Senate District 4 will experience a bit of déjà vu when they go to the ballot box this November. That’s because they already voted in May in a special election to fill the seat left vacant after Brandon Creighton was appointed to head the Texas Tech University System. And the results were decisive: 75 percent went for former Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon. We think the voters had it right in this heavily red district that includes all of Chambers County and most of Montgomery County as well as small parts of Jefferson, Harris and Galveston County. A longtime prosecutor, Ligon, 58, campaigned on locking up habitual offenders. As district attorney, he occasionally made headlines, like when he criticized a judge’s decision to give former Vikings player Adrian Peterson a reduced probation in his child abuse case. He earned a reputation as an aggressive prosecutor, especially on child abuse cases, an issue he testified on at the Legislature before he was even elected.

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Ligon did not meet with us, unfortunately. But we still believe this conservative district is well served by a conservative fighter like Ligon. His challenger, Democrat Ron Angeletti, 52, said he “stepped up because no one else did.” He already lost in the special election and likely will again in November, but he said he felt compelled to speak for the portions of this large and varied district that don’t align with the conservative talking points in Austin. On school vouchers, for example, Angeletti opposes the use of public dollars without public scrutiny. He’s got a child and grandkids in public schools and told the editorial board, “Parents should have that choice and opportunity,” but that he did not believe vouchers were the “solution.” As a special education advocate, he’s particularly concerned about whether students with special needs are actually being served by these vouchers that were supposed to help them. He’s a gun owner who supports responsible gun ownership and he wants to make sure corporations are paying their fair share of property taxes, too. These sorts of common-ground policies may help him appeal to folks on the fence. In fact, his own neighbor assumed he was Republican before he started campaigning for the seat. So far, that campaign has been grassroots with volunteers and without even a traditional campaign manager. There’s a lot to like in his platform, but conservative voters in the district already have a clear choice in Ligon.

Texas student says she lost ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ role over concerns about drag law

A Texan high school student says she was removed from the role of Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors after district officials raised concerns about Texas legislation targeting sexually oriented performances. In a written statement, Ana Mota says she earned the role after auditioning alongside other students at South Grand Prairie High School in Grand Prairie, TX. Five days later, she says, she was informed that the district and its legal team would no longer allow her to play the character because of concerns involving Senate Bill 12. The 2023 law referenced in Mota’s statement has faced significant constitutional challenges. On August 25, U.S. District Judge David Hittner issued a judgment declaring SB 12 an unconstitutional restriction on speech and barring the Texas attorney general from enforcing it.

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The 2023 law referenced in Mota’s statement has faced significant constitutional challenges. On August 25, U.S. District Judge David Hittner issued a judgment declaring SB 12 an unconstitutional restriction on speech and barring the Texas attorney general from enforcing it. Mota also argues that removing her because she is female constitutes sex discrimination under Title IX. That is her allegation; the materials available for this report do not establish a legal finding concerning the district’s actions. The district’s explanation has not been independently verified. Questions remain about which specific legal provisions officials relied upon and whether the original production and casting could be reinstated. Mota is asking for both.

National Stories

Trump is griping he should win the Nobel for settling eight wars, which he hasn’t done

Again, President Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. Again, he keeps complaining about his non-victory at length. Again, his griping is centered on the false claim that he “settled eight wars.” Trump made his case at a New York rally on Friday, hours after the prize was awarded to South African jurist Navi Pillay. Declaring that there is now “an indelible stain on the country of Norway” and that the victor should have been “the United States of America, represented by me as your president,” Trump said the key evidence he and the US were wronged is “the eight wars that I’ve already settled.” At one point in the address, he claimed, “We should have had eight Nobel Prizes, for each war.” Let’s ignore the hyperbolic call for eight prizes. Let’s temporarily leave aside the pertinent fact that he started an ongoing war with Iran, has threatened that country with annihilation, and declared in this very speech that “either they give us everything or they don’t exist any longer.”

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Let’s talk first about this: the “settled eight wars” list on which the president is hanging his complaint – a complaint he posted again on social media in a nearly 600-word missive after the rally and again on Saturday morning – is not actually a list of eight settled wars. CNN and many others have repeatedly noted the big problem with his list: it includes two wars that didn’t happen at all and three wars that either never ended or have resumed. In other words, five of the items on Trump’s eight-item list are either total nonsense or clearly flawed: 1) Trump said again Friday that one of the wars he settled was “Egypt and Ethiopia over the dam.” But Egypt and Ethiopia didn’t fight any war over the major Ethiopian dam project that is opposed by Egypt; rather, they have had a long-running diplomatic dispute on the issue. Their relations remain tense. 2) Trump’s list also includes some sort of supposed situation between “Kosovo and Serbia,” but they too were not at war during his presidency. In neither the rally speech nor the social media post did the president explain what he was talking about. 3) Trump claimed in the speech that he settled a war between Rwanda and “the Democrat Republic of the Congo.” (He referred to the Democratic Republic of Congo using the pejorative shortening of “Democratic” usually deployed by critics of the Democratic Party.) But the war involving Rwanda and the DRC has not ended despite a peace agreement, brokered by the Trump administration last year, that was not signed by the M23 rebel group.

Is universal basic income the answer to A.I.-fueled job losses?

One morning in December 2024, Mikole Weeks, then 35, received a phone call with surprising news. She had been chosen for an experimental program called guaranteed basic income, and it came with cash: $1,330 a month for an entire year, with no strings attached for how it could be spent. “It felt like another chance to turn my life around,” said Ms. Weeks, a single mother and a part-time house cleaner in Santa Cruz, Calif. Only it did not turn out to be quite that simple. For decades, people have debated the merits of guaranteed income programs, also called universal basic income, as an alternative or complement to traditional welfare. Driving the efforts is the idea that the most effective way to improve people’s lives is to give them cash and let them spend it how they want. The concept resurged in popularity a decade ago, driven by fears of automation and rising wealth inequality. Proponents argued that permanent payments would raise the standard of living for those on the margins, and ultimately lift millions off welfare.

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Critics contended that giving people money unconditionally would deter them from working in the first place. In the age of artificial intelligence, these programs have again become a hot topic. Tech titans including Elon Musk, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic have hailed basic income as a solution to A.I.-fueled job losses. In April, Mr. Musk posted that “universal HIGH INCOME” was the best way to deal with unemployment caused by the powerful technology. In June, Dr. Amodei suggested a tax on A.I. companies as one way to fund these payments. Across Silicon Valley, experimental guaranteed income programs have quietly taken off. Google began funding six different initiatives in 2022 as part of a $50 million donation to nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area, saying basic income could be a novel way to prevent homelessness in one of the nation’s most expensive locations. Each program has hundreds of participants who receive around $1,000 a month, and academics study the results. State and federal tax laws limit the lengths of the programs and the payment amounts. The studies have found that most basic income programs improve short-term employment and mental health while reducing food insecurity. But while data from these efforts has been closely tracked, less is known about the individual journeys of participants. In October 2024, after The New York Times contacted two social services providers that received Google’s funding, the organizations offered reporters the chance to follow basic income recipients in real time. The Times ultimately shadowed three people, including Ms. Weeks, to better understand their guaranteed income experiences, from their first payments through last month. All of the program participants, including the ones The Times followed, were previously homeless and transitioning off a housing stipend that paid for a portion of their rent, and many received the payments on top of other social assistance like food stamps. The Times’s findings mirrored the academic studies. For all three recipients, the instant benefits of basic income were clear: They had breathing room for groceries, rent and other expenses. But the success of the payments in another area — giving people more free time and opportunity in the long term — was mixed. “It’s a lot to ask of someone to get their life together in 12 months, when a lot of these issues are structural or systemic,” said Jennifer Loving, who runs Destination: Home, a nonprofit that administers basic income programs in Silicon Valley. “And the world around them isn’t getting cheaper.”

Judge orders Trump administration to cancel taxpayer-funded TV ads

President Donald Trump must cancel any remaining television commercials paid for with millions of dollars in taxpayer money to promote his political message, a federal judge ordered Sunday night, even as the administration said the ad campaign was coming to an end. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon in New York sided with a coalition, including the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause, that challenged the ads as an illegal misuse of funds. She told the administration to cancel any remaining ads, including any set to air Sunday night, in granting a temporary restraining order. “Defendants shall not enter into, renew, or expand any agreement authorizing the development, creation, dissemination, placement, or airing of the challenged advertisements” during the two-week duration of her order, the judge said.

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Asked for comment, the White House referred to an Oct. 5 social media post from Trump in which he defended the taxpayer-funded ads as “rather standard” but, amid backlash, said he would pay for them from his political fundraising. In a court filing late Saturday, the Justice Department argued that the temporary restraining order was unnecessary because “the alleged offending conduct will end tomorrow.” The Department of Homeland Security tapped $20 million in taxpayer money for the ads. Legal experts have suggested that violated a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda” and potentially other laws. “We are pleased the court acted swiftly to prevent more taxpayer dollars from being used for such blatantly unlawful political propaganda,” the plaintiffs said in a statement issued by Democracy Forward, the nonprofit legal organization that represents them. “There is no legal justification — and no precedent — for the president to use the machinery of the government and funds set aside by Congress for other uses to influence electoral outcomes that further his own agenda.”

U.S. restrictions on Chinese drones are leaving police departments in the lurch

For hours, bullets tore through the home, hitting neighboring houses and cars. Inside, a man wanted by police for allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend was holed up with his new girlfriend. As the SWAT team prepared to enter, Kevin Fennessy with the Ocean County Sheriff's Office tried something new first. He sent in a tiny assistant: a small drone equipped with a camera. From a safe position outside, Fennessy slowly piloted the device through a blasted-in window, while he and other officers watched on a monitor. The video, viewed by NPR, showed hallway walls and furniture riddled with bullet holes. As it entered a back bedroom where the couple had holed up, footage showed the man's body on the floor. He had killed himself. With the drone still hovering above the macabre scene, police deployed two flash bangs into the room. The woman rushed out and surrendered.

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The incident, which happened about three years ago, sticks in Fennessy's mind when he considers the value of his department's drone program, which he heads. "No one's hurt. Everyone's safe," Fennessy says. "Forty-one times they shot out the house at us. But at the end of the day, we were able to clear the house." New Jersey's Ocean County Sheriff's Office is one of an estimated 6,000 law enforcement agencies across the country that now have drones, used for search and rescue, fire and traffic crash investigations, and tactical response, according to the Law Enforcement Drone Association. It's an organization that advises, trains and certifies police across the country on their drone programs. Ocean County's entire fleet is from DJI, a Chinese manufacturer of drones. LEDA estimates that about 80% to 90% of law enforcement agencies flying drones use DJI devices. China controls a vast majority of the global drone market, and it's the dominant source for the minerals and raw materials needed to build them, researchers say.

Nobel prize in economics awarded to Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford

Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford were on Monday awarded the Nobel prize in economics for work that underpins the models used by central banks and governments. The U.S.-born pair were jointly awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, a prize established by Sweden’s central bank in 1968, for their research into the “microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation.” They will split the 12 million Swedish kronor ($1.19 million) prize. Hall and Woodford have “significantly improved our ability to implement effective stabilisation policy,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. “On the basis of these models, well-timed fiscal and monetary policy measures can reduce the economy’s peaks and troughs.” Hall, born in California, is a professor at Stanford University, while Massachusetts-born Woodford is a professor at Columbia University. “With them, we are better equipped to deal with shocks in the economy, such as energy crises or sudden changes in how much households consume,” John Hassler, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a statement.

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Takeaways from first S.C. Senate debate between Darline Graham, Annie Andrews

Sen. Darline Graham (R-South Carolina) clashed Sunday night with Democrat Annie Andrews in their only scheduled debate for the red state’s unexpectedly competitive Senate race. Graham, who was appointed to fill the seat of her brother, Lindsey Graham, after he died in July, stood by President Donald Trump, who elevated her from obscurity, and cast Andrews as a “radical liberal.” Andrews, a pediatrician, presented the incumbent as unqualified and tried to appeal to independents and Republican voters she needs to win in a GOP stronghold, which last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1998. In September, the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election prognosticator, shifted the race’s rating from “Solid” to “Likely” Republican. Republicans have increased spending to protect Graham, and Trump recently weighed in by attacking Andrews using an anti-transgender slur.

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Graham, who never held office and kept a low profile before her appointment, entered the general election with skepticism from some in the GOP base. Despite receiving Trump’s endorsement, Republicans questioned her — and her late brother’s — MAGA credentials. She said during a primary debate that she was “not that informed on national security” when asked about Taiwan policy, an answer that opponents seized upon as evidence she is ill-equipped for the job. The debate, hosted by South Carolina ETV and Public Radio, is the only scheduled general election debate, and Graham has rebuffed Andrews’s demands for more. Libertarian Kasie Whitener also participated in the Sunday debate. Andrews referenced Graham’s foreign policy fumble in a primary debate as she criticized the senator’s voting record on the war in Iran. “South Carolina, if your surgeon said that appendectomy aren’t really his thing, would you still hand him a scalpel? No,” Andrews said. “So why would we hand Darline Graham a full term in the U.S. Senate? She is unserious and unqualified.” Graham countered that her answer showed she was honest with voters.

Trump tells cheering crowd: ‘I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap’

President Donald Trump spoke before an adoring crowd in Tennessee Saturday, telling his fans, “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap.” Trump questioned why he was even in Tennessee since Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) were doing so well in their U.S. Senate and governor races, respectively. “What am I doing in Tennessee?” Trump asked. “So, three times I won the election, the big election three times. I got screwed the second time because they cheated. They cheated. We cannot let that happen again. “But, I said, ‘You know sometimes it’s nice to go to a place where you don’t have to be, but you are there to say thank you to the great people that elected you three separate times,” he said.

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Trump then told the story of a “friend” who has stage fright and asked him, “How do you go in front of all of these people every day in, day out?” “I said, ‘You know, for me it’s easy because there is such love in these rooms,” Trump said to cheers and applause. “It’s true,” Trump said as the crowd broke into chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump!” “Thank you,” Trump said. “No, it’s true. No, there’s such love,” he said as someone yelled, “We love you!” “It’s like, like, I mean, it’s amazing. When you stand up here, it’s just like, the love,” Trump marveled. “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap. ‘Oh, I love you so—’ It’s true. “But we don’t say the stupidest things, we say things of common sense. We say things that make sense, and probably are mostly conservative. But it’s not really conservative, it’s the things of common sense.We want to have a border, we want to have low taxes, we want to have a great military. We want to have, you know, all of the different things. It’s like seven, eight, 10, five, four — it’s just things that are common sense.”

Copyright October 12, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved