August 14, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

State takeover of Austin ISD likely with new Fs announced

The five consecutive failing ratings give Education Commissioner Mike Morath the power to either shut down Webb and Burnet middle schools or replace Austin ISD’s elected Board of Trustees and superintendent with state appointees. TEA has used the law to take over seven school systems for academic issues since 2015. In only three cases, TEA has closed campuses rather than replace elected district leadership. The sobering results come despite Austin ISD’s overall rating improving from a C to a B and the district reducing the number of D- and F-rated campuses from 41 to 31. Austin ISD learned of the results Wednesday, ahead of the state’s public release of grades Friday.

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Dobie Middle School earned a D this year, which “pauses” any state penalties at the campus for another year. Superintendent Matias Segura had hoped scores at Burnet and Webb would improve further, but he said the decreasing number of D- and F-rated campuses across the district shows progress. “There’s without a doubt been and will continue to be a sense of urgency for all schools, and certainly these two schools as we move into the ’26-’27 school year, regardless of what the agency does or doesn’t do,” Segura said. The first day of school for Austin ISD students is Aug. 18. Getting five F ratings at two campuses is a big deal, Board President Lynn Boswell said. But Austin ISD is making necessary changes to improve student outcomes, she said. “We’re figuring out how to make that change,” Boswell said. “We need to figure out how to make that change happen for students who are right now at … Burnet and Webb, and at every one of our schools where we’re not there in the way we want to be yet.”

More than 20,700 Texas students gave up their school vouchers

More than 20,700 Texas students have returned their school vouchers. Over two-thirds were previously enrolled in public schools. Proponents promised that vouchers would help families leave cash-strapped public schools. The data, which was obtained through a Dallas Morning News records request, paints a clearer picture as to whether the Texas Education Freedom Accounts is meeting that goal. Education experts say the numbers confirm their early warnings. Getting approved for a voucher is a starting point. As of July 29, more than 122,000 students have been awarded and invited to participate, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, which runs the program.

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Actually using it proves challenging, critics say. Private schools can deny admission, charge tuition far beyond the voucher amount and be located far away. “Just because you got an award does not mean you have a seat in a private school,” said Dee Carney, director of the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency. “They have to pick you.” Nathan Cunneen, Texas state director of American Federation for Children, said in a statement that TEFA is "fulfilling its mission,” despite families returning their vouchers. He pointed out that 80% of participating children come from low-income households and 25% have a documented disability. The program offers families $10,474 to offset private education expenses. Students with special needs can receive up to $30,000, while homeschooled students can get $2,000. Among those who “opted out,” about a quarter formally declined the award, according to a TEFA spokesperson. The rest did not select a school by the July 15 deadline, or the selected school did not confirm their enrollment by July 31. Regardless, the voucher gets reassigned to someone on the waitlist.

White House says more than 40 nations help China dodge tariffs

Chinese companies are increasingly routing shipments to the United States via other nations to avoid President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the White House said Thursday. Such efforts began during Trump’s first term and have accelerated over the past year as he imposed higher taxes on Chinese imports. The United States is missing “tens of billions of dollars” in tariff revenue from the practice, as merchandise worth roughly $75 billion skirts Trump’s tariff wall, the White House said in a report. Different tariff rates for goods from different nations are a key part of the president’s trade policy. But the varying rates also “create opportunities for arbitrage and evasion,” the report said. To avoid high tariffs, exporters in China send a product to another nation, such as Vietnam or Mexico, where it is repackaged or minimally processed and sent on to the U.S.

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“Communist China has engaged in an extremely sophisticated set of actions that are designed essentially to transship and thereby evade the tariffs,” said Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser who led the study. The report comes little more than a month before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet Trump in Washington. The administration has tried to discourage the practice in trade deals reached over the past year with nations including Vietnam and Indonesia. But distinguishing between permissible transshipment — when goods move from one vessel to another like passengers boarding a connecting flight — and fraudulent practices is difficult. The administration is working on an artificial intelligence system that would scrutinize shipments to identify suspect cargos, the report said.

CBP commissioner defends agency’s border project in Big Bend National Park

The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is defending the agency’s plan to build border vehicle barriers and new patrol roads across Big Bend National Park, despite growing public outcry from those who say any new border infrastructure will irreparably harm the pristine West Texas park. “We are securing this park to protect its legacy,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a statement Thursday. “Keeping it safe, secure, and pristine so American families can enjoy the beauty of our country, free from fear of cartel activity, for generations to come.” The park draws more than 500,000 visitors per year, many of whom flock to campgrounds, hiking trails and a scenic hot spring pool that all lie right along the Rio Grande in areas with no physical border security infrastructure.

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CBP has maintained it’s not planning to build a 30-foot steel border wall in the national park or nearby Big Bend Ranch State Park – though the agency is pursuing a 175-mile-long, 30-foot-tall steel wall in the broader Big Bend region from Hudspeth to Presidio counties. More than $3 billion in federal contracts have been awarded for that project. CBP said in early August “early construction activities” have begun on the project and that wall panels would begin being installed “in the coming weeks.” In his statement, Scott indicated the agency would not back down from its infrastructure plan for the national park, which calls for more than 200 miles of “patrol road” construction and improvements in and around the park, along with 17 miles of smaller steel vehicle barriers and surveillance technology. “These improvements will help our agents detect illegal crossings, respond faster, and assist visitors in danger,” Scott said. “As we strengthen the border across the Southwest, we will not leave Big Bend as an opening for cartels to exploit by shifting their routes and tactics.”

State Stories

Greg Abbott app offers rewards for Texas campaign activities

If you’re supporting Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign and turning out conservative voters to the polls this November, you can now hope for more than just your candidate getting elected — you may be the big winner of a Dyson Airwrap or a whole brisket. Abbott’s team launched the Abbott Impact app, which gives supporters tools to help turn out conservative voters. Users can earn points by completing campaign activities, including messaging neighbors, knocking on doors and phone banking, then redeem those points for rewards.

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Among the lower-point prizes is a Yeti Rambler emblazoned with the GOP catchphrase “Unity Drives Victory.” At the higher end, supporters can redeem points for a Traeger pellet grill and smoker. The Republican-repackaged Airwrap goes for 40,000 points, compared with its market value of roughly $650 (per the official Dyson website). The brisket, sausage and sauce can be taken home for 25,000 points; the market price varies depending on your choice of butcher. “Since the Abbott Impact App launch, the Governor’s campaign has rewarded volunteers who put in the work, earn points, and encourage their friends and neighbors to vote,” said Abbott’s press secretary Eduardo Leal. “Gov. Abbott is competing for every single vote, and this app gives Republican volunteers and activists another tool to reach voters, organize their communities, and turn out at the polls.” The app is available on the App Store and Google Play. The governor plugged the app on X earlier this week, calling on his followers to “get rewarded for supporting Texas.”

Future of surrogacy in Texas could be at stake amid complex legal battle over ‘Baby Gabriel’

The birth of a baby boy at the center of a rare, multistate surrogacy dispute has put Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the middle of a legal fight over parental rights, medical decisions and the state’s authority to intervene. The level of media attention on the case, along with a recent Republican grassroots push to change surrogacy laws in Texas, has some worried this case could influence lawmakers in next year’s legislative session. The case involves McKenna West, a surrogate from Alaska, and intended parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed. Their child, referred to publicly as “Gabriel,” was diagnosed in the 20th week of pregnancy with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or HLHS, a serious congenital heart defect where the left side of the heart does not form correctly. It requires urgent surgery.

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West alleges that the intended parents wanted to terminate the pregnancy, which was allowed in the contract, but she did not want to. In an interview on the Megyn Kelly Show, West said she felt “trapped” by the contract and wanted to protect the unborn child. She flew to Texas to try and gain parental rights of the child and get him the necessary medical care he needed to live. Paxton intervened in the Dallas County case Monday, asking a judge to ensure the child received medically indicated, life-saving treatment after birth and could not be removed from Texas while questions over his care remained unresolved. The child was born Wednesday, according to West. According to Paxton’s legal brief, West and the intended parents entered into a gestational surrogacy agreement. After the baby’s diagnosis, West said the intended parents wanted the pregnancy terminated. Paxton’s brief describes its account of the circumstances as “assumed facts” for purposes of its legal arguments. The state alleged the intended parents planned to refuse consent for surgery after birth or potentially transport the child to California.

Corpus Christi puts industrial water charge on November ballot

Reservoirs have rebounded, but the fight over water isn't over in Corpus Christi. The City Council has ordered a public referendum on a citizen-led petition that would sharply increase the price of water for industrial facilities during drought. The proposal is expected to face a litany of legal challenges before November's election. It would add millions of dollars in fees to the region's largest water users, including ExxonMobil, Occidental Chemical and Valero, the next time reservoir levels are below 30 percent full, like they were for 29 months until early August. Community and environmental groups gathered nearly 13,000 signatures of registered voters to get their proposal on the ballot. "This was a lot of signatures," said Corpus Christi Mayor Pro-tem Kaylynn Paxson at the City Council meeting Tuesday evening.

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"This is something that doesn't happen every day. I am very proud and amazed to say that this actually took place." The 6-2 vote to call a special election on the referendum followed years of growing tensions between the public in Corpus Christi and the industrial giants that consume enormous amounts of water. As the region's main reservoirs fell from 30 percent full in March of 2024 to less than eight percent full in May of this year, residents clamored for authorities to curtail water consumption at refineries and chemical plants. Activists began to circulate the petition for the referendum, called the Fair Water Amendment, this year as Corpus Christi came perilously close to running out of water. Dozens of volunteers for a local organization called For the Greater Good along with paid canvassers from Texas Campaign for the Environment spent months gathering signatures. "Something that seemed impossible gave me hope in our democracy," said Miriam Guerra-Rachidy, a member of For the Greater Good, in comments to the City Council on Tuesday. "It gave me hope in believing that the people can make a difference."

In this flood-ravaged South Texas town, residents are rebuilding while waiting for federal aid

For decades, wide skies, fresh air and scattered livestock sightings have greeted visitors to Crystal City, a South Texas town of around 6,000 where no one is a stranger. Today, furniture, tires and other destroyed possessions are piled next to gutted houses. The sound of construction equipment drowns out the area’s usual soundtrack of birds, crickets and cicadas. Empty lots have become makeshift landfills. In mid July, historic flooding hit the town. The Nueces River, which lies just to the east of Crystal City, rose more than 30 feet in some areas, spilling over its banks and sending walls of water rushing through its many creeks and tributaries.

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Water covered roads and filled residential streets along the waterways. More than a hundred homes were damaged, shocking a community where few residents have ever experienced flooding. The disaster hit just after Texas marked the one year anniversary of 2025’s catastrophic flooding. More than 130 people died, mostly along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country. But this year’s storm spread across a wider geographic area, filling even more of the state’s iconic rivers. Crystal City was one of dozens of tiny South Texas towns to be inundated with floodwaters. While camaraderie is rich in this rural community, resources are limited. Crystal City is the seat of Zavala County, which has one of the highest poverty rates in the state. Now, many residents who were already struggling financially, are picking up the pieces as they wait for aid. Also limited in Crystal City: rainfall. Drought isn’t uncommon. These factors all made last month’s flooding even more devastating and surprising.

Texas Gov. Abbott proposes limiting laptops and tablets in school classrooms

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing to limit the use of laptops, tablets, and other electronic devices in classrooms, emphasizing a return to traditional learning methods like books, paper, and handwriting. Abbott held a roundtable with parents and educators in Corpus Christi on Thursday, building on what he described as the success of last year's cell phone ban in schools. Texas Gov. Abbott proposes limiting laptops and tablets in school classrooms "Educators report that class participation and grades are up, and bullying and cyberbullying have gone down," Abbott said. Abbott says technology should serve a specific purpose in the classroom rather than act as a time-filler.

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"Technology should only be used for specific lessons and specific assessments, not as a substitute for teachers or other proven methods of learning," Abbott said. Texas is currently ranked 34th in the nation for education. Abbott says the path to improvement starts with one key element. "The most important element of delivering a good quality education is a great teacher in a classroom," Abbott said. Parents at Thursday's roundtable said they notice a difference when their children engage with teachers rather than screens. "They're not telling me about the games they played on their computers. They're telling me about the times that their teachers sat down and worked with them on the one-on-one time they get with their educator," a parent said. The Texas Classroom Commission will work with educators, parents, and students to determine how much screen time is appropriate for each grade level, with the goal of improving Texas's national education ranking.

Some Austin ISD families lose in-school help for finding food, counseling, tutoring

For lunch, Michelle Covington sits with a group of middle schoolers eating cafeteria food and talking through challenges at home or school. Later that day, she may help a student process the loss of a loved one. Some Austin families will start the new school year without the resource that Covington provides. As a program manager of 27 years for Communities in Schools (CIS), she has helped families find food and provided mental health counseling, academic support and more from inside their children’s schools. CIS is a national nonprofit that partners with schools to provide in-school support for families, helping keep students in school. It will serve 44 Austin Independent School District campuses during the 2026-27 school year, AISD said, down from 55 last school year.

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The reduction is part of Austin ISD’s effort to close a roughly $180 million budget deficit. The district’s budget, approved in June, included about $200 million in reductions, including staffing cuts, campus consolidations and reductions to district-supported programs. District officials said declining enrollment, lower-than-expected property tax revenue and inadequate state funding have contributed to the financial challenges. The district’s contract with CIS was reduced from $2.2 million last school year to $1.2 million for the upcoming year, said Mary Ann Maxwell, Austin ISD’s assistant superintendent of academics. That initial amount was estimated to fund CIS at about 30 campuses. Fundraising efforts and campus-level budgets brought enough funding to maintain CIS services at some additional campuses, bringing the total to 44 as of the time of publication, AISD said. Maxwell said the district is currently considering whether it can fund CIS at one or two more campuses. As of the time of publication, CIS provided KXAN with a list of 13 Austin ISD campuses that will not have the program this school year. The school district did not respond to requests to clarify how those figures align with the totals AISD is reporting.

UNT slashes projected $45 million deficit by half after cost-cutting

The University of North Texas has trimmed its projected $45 million budget deficit to approximately $19 million, President Harrison Keller said at a Board of Regents meeting Thursday. Since February, the university has instituted cost-saving measures to address the projected shortfall, which is driven by a steep decline in international enrollment and reduced state funding. By May, the university had reduced the projected deficit to $35 million. The fiscal year runs until the end of August. The university has phased out over 70 programs with low enrollment, including linguistics, ethnic and gender studies and arts degrees and certificates. It also offered buyouts to 40 faculty members, which officials said could save the school an estimated $4.7 million.

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Keller also announced plans to move some courses to a hybrid learning model, combining online lectures and small in-person sections, and to realign smaller academic departments with larger divisions or schools. The university also slowed hiring and controlled expenditures in personnel, maintenance and operations. The sweeping changes have altered academic life at the Denton campus, drawing pushback from some professors. But on Thursday, Keller described the measures as a success, saying the university was “leaner” and backed by “powerful momentum” as it entered the school year. “Even as we pulled back in some areas, we also made strategic investments in other areas that are important for our future,” Keller said. He named support for student retention, transfer partnerships, graduate students and incentives for top-performing researchers. Keller, who took the helm in August 2024, has long underscored the need to develop new revenue streams by improving student retention and boosting enrollment. In the past year, for example, UNT announced new partnerships with community colleges to bring in more transfer students.

Judge who appointed Daniel Wong as Fort Bend County judge denies request to vacate that decision

Four months after a visiting Republican judge from Galveston County appointed Daniel Wong as Fort Bend County’s chief executive — while Wong seeks that role on a more permanent basis in the upcoming November election — the judge this week denied a request to have the April appointment vacated. The decision solidified the likelihood that Wong, a Republican who is facing Democratic Fort Bend County Commissioner Dexter McCoy in the county judge race, will continue to serve in that position through the election. The request to vacate Wong’s appointment was made last month by Fort Bend resident Sarah Roberts, who last September filed a civil lawsuit against then-county judge KP George, alleging he was incompetent to hold office and violated her First Amendment rights during a commissioners court meeting.

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As part of that case, district court Judge Jeth Jones suspended George and appointed Wong to serve as county judge on an interim basis — after George was convicted of felony money laundering in a criminal case. After Roberts dismissed her lawsuit against George on June 17, she asked Jones to invalidate his appointment of Wong as of that date. Jones on Monday denied that request, which had been challenged by Wong. Wong, a former Sugar Land city council member, also is contesting a lawsuit filed by Fort Bend County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson. The twice-elected Democratic attorney is challenging Wong's authority to continue serving as the appointed county judge after the Roberts case was dismissed, also arguing that decisions made by a commissioners court with Wong presiding over it could be challenged. "The legal challenges are confusing to those of us who've watched politics for lifetimes," University of Houston political science lecturer Nancy Sims said. "It doesn't appear that the court's actions presented a real solution on whether County Judge Wong is officially still county judge or not."

ICE detained Adventist pastor at Houston airport, church says he has legal work authorization

A Seventh-day Adventist pastor was detained by immigration agents last week at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Pastor Luis Morales Pérez leads four Adventist congregations in the Houston area and holds “valid employment authorization,” the Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security told RNS that Morales was detained August 6 at the airport. “His commitment to our mission and the families he serves is unwavering,” the Texas Adventists wrote, asking for people “to join us in prayer for Pastor Morales and his family that the situation may be resolved quickly.”

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Morales, a 50-year-old father of two, according to Telemundo Houston, is at least the third Texas pastor detained by immigration agents at an airport in the last month. The arrests come as the Trump administration has begun detaining people with expired visas at airports, including those who have work permits and pending applications — a group that was not previously targeted for detention. In July, Assemblies of God Pastors Nepthali Zozaya Saucedo and Cinthia Sarai Cardona Otero, assistant pastors at Comunidad Cristiana Emanuel in Edinburg, Texas, were detained in the airport and released two days later. The two said that they were threatened with separation from their children and deportation to separate third countries if they did not sign voluntary departure papers. In a statement to RNS, a DHS spokesperson said that Morales “legally entered the United States on January 10, 2020, with permission to remain until July 9, 2020. In violation of our nation’s laws, Morales Perez overstayed his welcome. He will receive full due process and remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings.”

San Antonio pitches 3.9% property tax increase as budget woes worsen

San Antonio’s financial state has only worsened since city leaders first floated the idea of raising taxes earlier this year. Rather than bumping up the tax rate as high as they can, however, city staff is now pitching bigger budget cuts and financial restructuring that will offer more wiggle room if the economy doesn’t turn around in the next few years. Their budget proposal on Thursday called for a 3.9% increase to the city property tax rate — amounting to about $36 more per year for the average San Antonio home with a taxable value of $231,356.

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None of the changes are final until debated and approved by City Council in the coming weeks, but the proposed $4.4 billion fiscal year 2027 budget eliminates more than 100 civilian positions, consolidates city departments and defunds several senior nutrition centers, among other cuts. It doesn’t add a single new police patrol officer, but it raises fees the city collects on everything from Alamodome parking to trash carts and missing library books. “What we’re feeling is probably the same thing that other tax entities in Bexar County are feeling,” City Manager Erik Walsh told reporters in a media briefing Wednesday. “So we felt like we needed to be conservative.” As of this week, city leaders say San Antonio’s net taxable value is down about 2.7% — worse than projections issued earlier this year — due to slowed economic growth and new tax exemptions for business property and homeowners.

National Stories

Trump’s Justice Dept. targets smaller fraud cases

As the White House expands its “war on fraud,” the Justice Department announced criminal charges in recent days against a new symbol of that battle — a food truck in Santa Ana, Calif. Soriano Produce, a weathered white food truck advertising ice cream treats as well as fruits and vegetables, drew the attention of undercover agents at Immigration and Customs Enforcement for what investigators said was a startlingly high number of food stamp transactions for such a small business. The case against the food truck owner, Esmeralda Soriano, is an example of the Trump administration’s push to show that “no fraud is small enough or big enough to look away from,” as Vice President JD Vance said in a speech in April.

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The new emphasis on small-dollar fraud comes as the administration has issued pardons and commutations to white-collar convicts, pulled back from pursuing criminal cases against multinational corporations and dropped high-profile charges against wealthy executives. Administration officials say they are pressing to prosecute fraud involving government-funded programs because Democrats have failed to do so at the federal, state and local levels. Current and former federal prosecutors, however, criticize the change as effectively lowering the standards of a Justice Department that for decades prided itself on tackling big, financially complex investigations in executive suites, and leaving the small cases in corner stores and food trucks to local agencies. A food truck “is not the kind of case you would typically see federal law enforcement resources being poured into,” said Jacqueline Kelly, a former federal prosecutor. “And that’s resources being pulled from other areas. We’re not seeing an increase in fraud prosecutions involving public companies, investment frauds and the more traditional Wall Street prosecutions typically pursued by the Justice Department.”

Meta can keep its data center details private, PSC decides

Social media giant Meta gets to keep records for its projected $50 billion data center secret after state utility regulators overturned a judge’s order to make them public. The Louisiana Public Service Commission voted 3-1 Wednesday to overrule its administrative judge’s order that required Meta to disclose how it calculated publicized job projections and electricity needs for its Hyperion artificial intelligence data center campus in Richland Parish. The vote fell along party lines, with Republicans Jean-Paul Coussan, Mike Francis and Eric Skrmetta reversing the judge’s order and Democrat Davante Lewis in support of it. A second Democrat, Foster Campbell, was absent.

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Meta has contracted with Entergy Louisiana to provide electricity for the data center, starting with three natural gas-powered turbines the utility will build for the facility. Meta has since announced it intends to expand Hyperion, which will require another seven power-generating units. But the finer details of the deal have been shrouded under the secrecy of non-disclosure agreements that state and local officials, including Gov. Jeff Landry, have signed. The Alliance for Affordable Energy, the Union of Concern Scientists, the Sierra Club and other organizations want firm figures from Meta before the Public Service Commission gives a green light to Entergy to build all that power infrastructure. The groups asked PSC Administrative Law Judge Melanie Verzwyvelt to subpoena the Meta records, arguing Entergy has never adequately explained how Meta came up with the power-need calculations the utility included in its applications to the commission to build new turbines for Hyperion. After Verzwyvelt approved the subpoena July 10, Meta appealed the ruling to the commission in a last-ditch bid to keep the details under wraps. The company maintains that revealing the information would expose trade secrets. Wednesday’s PSC hearing drew a stream of data center opponents who addressed commissioners before the vote, though Skrmetta, the chairman, limited each to 3 minutes and at times engaged in contentious debate with speakers who called for transparency as audience members applauded.

Bluesky’s active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

Decentralized social network Bluesky was one of the bigger beneficiaries of the exodus from Elon Musk’s X in November 2024, following the U.S. elections. But now, nearly two years later, the social network and would-be X competitor is struggling to hold on to its momentum. According to data from digital intelligence provider Similarweb, Bluesky’s mobile app had 10.4 million monthly active users worldwide in June 2026, down 27.2% year-over-year. In addition, mobile daily active users continued to decline, falling 25.6% year-over-year in July to around 3 million.

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These declines indicate that even though Bluesky’s app continues to add registered accounts, fewer people are using its mobile app on a regular basis. It also suggests that some of those who joined Bluesky due to their dissatisfaction with X post-elections haven’t stuck around long-term. But the bigger takeaway here is not just that Bluesky’s post-election bump has shrunk. Bluesky’s app has lost more than half its monthly active users from its late-2024 high, which means that its app usage continued to shrink even after the initial post-election surge subsided. (Its quarterly average was around 22.1 million monthly active users in the fourth quarter of 2024, Similarweb’s data indicates, and it declined to 10.7 million in the second quarter of 2026. That’s a decline of around 52%.) While Bluesky’s numbers are down, those who stuck around are committed. Its smaller community remains relatively active, with a stickiness rate (the ratio of daily to monthly active users) of roughly 29% in June, about the same as Threads. For Bluesky’s new CEO, Toni Schneider, these numbers may not be as concerning. The company is not entirely focused on making Bluesky (the app) succeed, but on making it possible for the underlying protocol (AT Proto) to power a growing number of social apps, services, and communities. That’s something that is now taking place, as projects like BlackSky and Eurosky are growing, while some AT Proto apps like the video-focused Skylight have found early traction, too.

Republicans love working with Elizabeth Warren

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is well known for her progressive stances on “Medicare for All” and taxing the rich. But over the past year, the senior Democratic senator from Massachusetts has collaborated with a number of conservative Republicans. Warren partnered with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina to overwhelmingly pass a bill aimed at increasing the country’s housing supply, authored an op-ed alongside Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno on the future of social security and introduced a measure with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley to limit stock buybacks by defense contractors. “We have a great work relationship,” Hawley said about Warren. “We’ve done a lot of issues that are really pocketbook issues that are about trying to make sure that working people can afford health care, see their doctor.”

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Warren told NOTUS that she is always looking for common ground with lawmakers across the ideological spectrum and has found areas of overlap with some Republicans on cost-of-living and anti-corruption issues. “It’s about lowering costs for working families. I look for places of intersection,” she said. “We may disagree on 99 things, but if I can find one that we agree on and make some progress, I am ready to go.” Hawley, who over the years has worked with Warren on legislation to break up health care conglomerates, rein in pharmacy benefit managers and tackle electricity costs for data centers, told NOTUS that he has long looked to Warren as a partner in the Democratic Party. Moreno, another Republican who has praised President Donald Trump for creating a “new, populist Republican Party,” told NOTUS that his recent work with Warren was born out of a conversation in a budget hearing. Warren approached Moreno and asked to partner on a New York Times opinion piece on a plan for Social Security. Moreno said that work expanded quickly — the two met to try to identify a path forward and assembled a team that is working on a legislative solution before funds are set to run out in 2032.

Trump orders Navy to restore older tech on aircraft carriers, costing billions

President Trump has directed the Navy to tear out a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers and instead go back to using steam catapults, a move Navy officials have fought for years and will likely cost billions of dollars. U.S. officials say Trump signed a national security memorandum Thursday directing the change, which would involve removing the electromagnetic catapult system used by the ships in the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers. By doing so, Trump is making good on a promise he made almost 10 years ago to go back to the steam system after hearing a sailor praise it while visiting a ship during his first term. But since Trump said in an interview with Time in 2017 that he told the Navy to go back to “goddamn steam,” top Navy and industry leaders have resisted the move because of the enormous expense to tear out such a complex system that was integral to the design of the Ford class.

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The move directs the Navy to redesign the fourth ship in the class—to be named the Doris Miller—and all remaining ships. The first three ships—the Ford, John F. Kennedy and Enterprise—will retain the electromagnetic system. “They’re not nearly as good, too complex,” Trump said last month at a conference in Pennsylvania, referring to the electromagnetic system. The memo includes several other directives aimed at improving submarine maintenance and repair and driving foreign investment into the U.S. shipbuilding sector as the Navy tries to increase the size of its fleet. The order marks Trump’s latest foray into the design and development of military programs. He inserted himself into negotiations for the Air Force One and the F-35 jet fighter programs, directed design changes to the Constellation-class frigate and championed the creation of Trump-class battleships. “This decision will result in carriers that are enabled by battle-tested steam and hydraulic systems that are more resilient and robust than the present, more exquisite, follow-on systems,” the White House said in a statement. “It will also reactivate portions of the maritime industrial base that are easier to scale.”

The U.S. surveilled left-leaning groups during immigration crackdown in Minnesota

Homeland Security officials secretly spied on and investigated progressive groups and protesters during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year, new court filings show. The motion for discovery, filed in the U.S.’s ongoing federal case against local activists, details two undercover surveillance operations that targeted protesters and dissidents during and following the Homeland Security Department’s January descent into the Twin Cities. Through “Operation Puppet Master” and “Project Whipple Shield,” undercover agents attended community meetings across the capital region, covertly recorded conversations and obtained financial records — all without any basis for suspecting criminal activity. Attorneys who represent the 15 people charged with conspiring to impede or injure federal agents say the usage of such surveillance tactics on those practicing political dissent violated the First Amendment.

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DHS officials conducted these operations under a directive President Donald Trump signed last September that tasked that agency and the Justice Department with investigating individuals and groups under an expanded definition of domestic terrorism. Operation Puppet Master was opened four days after federal immigration agents fatally shot Alex Pretti while he filmed officers detaining a woman. Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh used Trump’s September memo to encourage officials and prosecutors to pursue a sweeping set of cases that could generate headlines, The New York Times reported in March. “Go big and go loud,” Singh said at the time. One exhibit features a PowerPoint diagram of 18 organizations — including Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America, Minnesota ICE Watch and labor union chapters like the AFL-CIO — that Homeland Security Investigations alleges were conspiring to interfere with the work of federal immigration agents in the state. DHS reports lay out plans to investigate “funding sources, organizational structures and predicate actions” for those organizations and others, over two dozen filings show, even before agents had identified any specific criminal basis to do so.

Kennedy Center Board votes again to shut main building down — and add Trump's name back

On Thursday, the board of the Kennedy Center voted a second time to shut down most of the Washington, D.C., arts complex for what is being described as a two-year major renovation plan, according to a person briefed on the vote. In March, the center's board approved a full shutdown of the complex for major renovations, but a federal judge later ruled to temporarily block the planned closure, saying that no board members had "sufficient information" to make such a decision. In a test of both the same judge's previous ruling and a related appeals court ruling, the board also voted on Thursday to put President Trump's name back on the center's entry, calling the complex, "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump."

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In this most recent vote, the board elected to close the center's main building, while keeping The REACH, a 2019 addition, open for limited programming and as a memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy. According to the plan approved by the board, the $250 million project includes structural repairs, new marble floors, nearly $12 million in "acoustical improvements" and a plan to temporarily move the famed, eight-foot, bronze bust of Kennedy that sits in the center's main foyer. Under this plan, the main campus would reopen in the summer of 2028. The details of the proposal and the potential name change were first reported by The New York Times. The individual who was briefed on the vote spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The board's decisions will be subject to the federal judge's approval. Thursday's board meeting was held by Zoom, and was not public. In the days leading up to Thursday's vote, Democratic legislators who serve as ex-officio Kennedy Center trustees told the Washington Post that they had still not been given access to any assessments of what such a closure would mean for the long-term wellbeing of the institution. The arts complex is chaired by President Trump, and the majority of its current board are Trump allies appointed by the president.

Copyright August 14, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved