August 13, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas High Court appoints judges in school funding challenge

A special three-judge panel will preside over a school district’s constitutional challenge to Texas’s public education funding system that redistributes property tax revenue, according to a high court order issued Wednesday. The Texas Supreme Court granted a petition from Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) under a state statute ordering the court to convene such a panel upon request when cases involve public school system financing. Midland Independent School District’s suit alleges aspects of the school funding system violate local government bodies’ constitutional authority to levy property taxes. A Travis County Democrat assigned the case will be joined by two Republicans chosen by Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock. Blacklock's choices are Justice Emily Miskel of the Dallas Court of Appeals and District Court Judge Alfonso Charles of Longview. Aurora Martinez Jones of Travis County also on the panel.

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Outside groups are raising money to help down-ballot Texas Democrats

James Talarico may be trouncing Ken Paxton in fundraising for the U.S. Senate race, but the Austin Democrat is an outlier in his own party when it comes to raking in campaign contributions. That's why several independent organizations are stepping in to raise millions ahead of Election Day, to help down-ballot Democrats do the legwork necessary to be competitive even as their GOP adversaries are awash in cash. Former state Sen. Wendy Davis, the Democrats' nominee for governor in 2014, helped launch a political action committee in May, Blueprint Texas, to provide Democrats running for the Legislature and targeted county offices with financial help and expertise. The goal is to replicate or improved on the 12 state House seats it picked up during President Donald Trump's first midterm election, in 2018. As of July 1, the group had pulled in just over $600,000.

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Davis said the group does not make direct cash transfers to candidates, but instead tries to fill in logistical gaps such as paying for direct mail pieces, helping with media relations and get-out-the-vote efforts. "If we have a candidate who is trying to get a mailpiece out the door, but they're short of money, we will help make sure that they can," said Davis, who lost the 2014 race to Republican Greg Abbott. "What we want is for us to be running on all engines in each of these districts and counties that we're focusing on. Our hope is to make sure that we fill any holes that those (candidates) have." Davis added that the political landscape for Democrats this year is the best it's been since 2018, when Democratic Senate nominee Beto O'Rourke fell just 2.6 percentage points short of unseating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. After his Senate bid, O'Rourke formed a grassroots organization called Powered by People that helps register young people and residents new to Texas to vote. So far this cycle, the group has spent more than $2.4 million to solicit and communicate with new voters. "We'll stay in touch with that voter during early voting until we can confirm from their county registrar that they have voted," said O'Rourke, who represented El Paso in Congress for three terms before his Senate run. According to its filing with the Federal Election Commission, Powered by People has received more than $200,000 in contributions through a political organization called Middle Seat that was founded by veterans of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns. It also has taken in several hundred contributions that were $10 or less.

A small Texas law firm backs out of HHS contract after backlash

A small Houston-based law firm announced this week that it had withdrawn itself from consideration for a federal contract, worth up to $150 million, to facilitate legal representation for unaccompanied minors. Last week, President Donald Trump’s administration quietly unveiled its intent to award the firm a contract to provide legal services — quickly prompting backlash from advocates, as Burke Law Group seemed to have little experience in immigration law before the contract was published. This week, both the law firm and the Office of Refugee Resettlement backed away from the no-bid contract. “We were approached by the Trump administration to fill a gap in legal services and we were considering how we might help,” Burke Law Group wrote in a Tuesday statement addressing “false reporting” about its involvement, adding that the firm was “only considering applying for a small portion” of the $150 million contract.

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The ORR is the Health and Human Service Department’s branch tasked with facilitating legal services for unaccompanied minors. The agency posted a notice on the Federal Register on Aug. 4 announcing its intent to award Burke Law Group the multimillion-dollar contract after the government’s previous contract expired that week. A spokesperson for ORR confirmed to NOTUS that Burke Law Group had declined to apply for a grant. “On August 4, 2026, a Federal Register Notice was published to share ORR’s intent to enter into a cooperative agreement with Burke Law Group, PLLC, a private law firm with a strong geographic presence in Texas,” the ORR spokesperson wrote in the statement. “Burke Law Group has declined to apply and has not been awarded any grant with ORR. ORR has published notices in the Federal Register in an abundance of transparency regarding a potential grant recipient.” Earlier versions of staff biographies indicated no one at the organization specialized in immigration law when the contract was first announced. Two profiles on the site were later updated to include “immigration and asylum” as specialties after initial reports about the contract were published.

Officials say data centers can boost local economies. In Abilene, they have spurred a housing crisis

Lexi Smith and her family have always had a plan. They wanted to buy land that was big enough to build multiple houses. That way she and her husband could raise their boys next door to their grandparents. “?Our family budgeted and...said yes to less so that we could pay our house off...and then, you know, this kind of stuff happens, and you just don’t have any control,” Smith said. Smith’s family settled down just outside of Abilene, where, before a few years ago, their only neighbors were other ranches. In 2024, construction on one of the biggest data centers in the world started across the street. The Stargate Project is one of dozens of data center campuses in Texas that some local, state and federal officials have promised will revitalize local economies. Some officials across Texas, including in the Austin area, say they will create jobs, ease the burden on taxpayers and transform downtowns. But in Abilene — a city with the most expensive data center project in the U.S. — residents and business owners say that hasn’t happened.

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The Smiths do a little bit of everything. Her husband is an accountant but also co-owns an electrical company and sells turf for sports fields. She teaches K-12. Together they own and operate a fireworks stand just down the road. “?I can mark things by fireworks season. Two or three fireworks seasons ago, [things were] completely normal,” Smith said. Since then, she said the construction project has caused traffic, damaged roads, worsened air and water quality and, for her family, created a worse quality of life. “?We got taken, we got robbed,” Smith said. “Because when you see what kind of money they’re throwing into it, you’re like, ‘Holy cow.'” OpenAI, one of the companies behind the project, has said they will invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure over the next four years. That doesn’t mean much to Smith. “[Our] house has no more residential value. If we were ever able to sell, it would be purely commercial,” she said. That’s hard to grapple with after waiting so long and saving so much money to build their home out here. She said she resents the city for ever allowing the data centers to build. “?There’s no amount of money worth it. None,” Smith said. “I can’t tell you enough, there’s no dollar sign worth it.”

State Stories

Fermi finally secures Project Matador tenant in a $6.5B deal

Amid other announced data center projects, concerns and controversies, progress is quietly continuing on a massive site in the Texas Panhandle near Amarillo. On Aug. 10, Fermi America announced a binding lease agreement with its first tenant, TensorWave, at the Project Matador site in Carson County. The lease is expected to generate approximately $6.5 billion in total contracted revenue over a 15-year term, excluding any renewal terms, according to a company release. "Power is the critical constraint in AI infrastructure, and the vision and scope of what Fermi is building at Project Matador resonates with our own," said Darrick Horton, CEO and co-founder of TensorWave. "Our customers need hundreds of thousands of next-generation AMD Instinct GPUs in aggregate, on timelines they can count on. Fermi has assembled the power, land, and permits to deliver at that pace, and we are proud to be the first customer at a campus built for the decades ahead."

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Fermi said the first phase is to deliver a complete turnkey data center solution with 222 megawatts (MW) beginning in the second half of 2027. "The lease between Fermi's subsidiary Fermi Campus 1 LLC and TensorWave TEX1, LLC, a subsidiary of AI cloud provider TensorWave Inc., covers a facility supported by 222 megawatts (MW) of total facility power following commencement of the final delivery phase," the release states. "Once fully delivered, the facility is being designed to support tens of thousands of next-generation AMD Instinct GPUs for large-scale AI training and inference. The lease carries expansion rights for two additional data centers that when exercised, would bring the partnership to a total of more than 650 MW." TensorWave delivers high-bandwidth, memory-optimized infrastructure that scales with training and inference workloads, backed by funding from investors including Magnetar, AMD Ventures, Maverick Silicon, Nexus Venture Partners, and Western Frontier. Fermi said approximately 6 GW of the planned 17 GW are already permitted for the 7,570-acre campus being built in the Panhandle. "As a result, Fermi is positioned to deliver AI data center capacity in a market where many projects are still raising the capital required to build or being blocked by permitting issues," the release states.

Permian Basin community seeks fix for radium in its drinking water

Many residents of Imperial, Texas drive long distances to buy bottled water instead of opening up the tap. Pecos County Fresh Water, a county-operated utility, provides drinking water for 800 people in Imperial and the surrounding area. The utility routinely violates safe drinking water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency for “combined radium” and “gross alpha,” two metrics of radioactivity in water. The culprit is naturally occurring radioactive material in the aquifer. Imperial is one of many rural communities in Texas where deposits of radioactive materials dissolve into the groundwater. But small communities often struggle to pay for costly treatment technology or alternative water sources that could fix the problem. During 2025, 29 public water systems that serve more than 22,000 people in Texas violated maximum levels of radionuclides. That’s down slightly from 2018, when a report by the non-profit Environmental Working Group found that 38 Texas utilities exceeded legal limits for radionuclides.

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“It needs to be fixed,” said Pecos County Commissioner Nathan Reeves, who represents Imperial. “It’s a problem that should have been dealt with a long time ago.” Reeves said the county has been rejected for several grants to address the problem, but recently obtained some funding. Pecos County is evaluating alternatives including blending with another water source or drilling a new well. In the meantime, residents rely on purchasing drinking water 30 miles away in Fort Stockton. “[Radiation] is especially an issue for these smaller systems that only have a limited number of wells they can rely on,” said Tasha Stoiber, an environmental chemist and senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group. “It’s a huge inequity and disparity of who is being exposed more.” In August 2025, Pecos County Fresh Water once again notified its customers that the utility had exceeded the EPA’s maximum level for radionuclides in drinking water. “This is not an emergency,” the notice pinned in the Imperial post office and mailed to water customers declared, explaining that some radioactive minerals in water emit alpha radiation. “Some people who drink water containing alpha emitters in excess of the [Maximum Contaminant Limit] over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer.”

Baby at center of surrogacy controversy born in North Texas

McKenna West, a surrogate from Alaska, has given birth to the baby who’s been at the center of a multistate controversy over parental rights and abortion. Get coverage about the businesses, industries and developments shaping North Texas. West gave birth Wednesday morning in the Dallas area, attorney Lincoln Wilson told The Dallas Morning News. West’s legal team has referred to the baby as “Baby Gabriel.” An attorney for the intended parents, Lee Budner, confirmed in a written statement to The News that the baby was born Wednesday morning and is currently undergoing medical care.

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“Our clients’ only focus at this time is ensuring that their baby receives the medical care that he vitally needs and that they, as his parents, are able to spend every precious moment they can with him,” Budner wrote. The baby has been part of a controversy that’s made national headlines. West was carrying the baby under a surrogacy contract that she signed with a California couple. The surrogacy contract, according to Wilson and a recorded interview that West participated in for The Megyn Kelly Show, allowed the intended parents to choose to terminate the pregnancy in the case of fetal anomalies. When West was about 20 weeks pregnant, the fetus she was carrying was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which is a severe congenital heart condition. The intended parents then decided they wanted to terminate the pregnancy. West, however, refused to undergo an abortion. She later traveled to Texas, seeking a hospital with expertise in caring for infants with this congenital condition. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has waded into the legal case in Dallas County court. Paxton’s office announced that it obtained an emergency court order requiring two Dallas hospitals — UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas — to provide life-saving care to the baby.

Randy Galloway quits Dallas Express over distorted views on legacy media

Veteran sports columnist Randy Galloway quit the Dallas Express Sports Network (DXSN) after only a handful of podcast appearances, saying the outlet distorted his views on legacy media and made him feel “used.” In February, the Dallas Express established a partnership with the Dallas Sports Network, a digital sports media platform founded by Chris Yates, an award-winning former FOX 4 News sportscaster. The launch announcement for DXSN touted a number of prominent writers, producers, and sports personalities, including Galloway, whose decades-long career in sports media at the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and ESPN Radio’s Dallas affiliate earned him an induction into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2020. “You heard that right,” Dallas Express CEO Chris Putnam wrote on X on February 22. “Randy Bleeping Galloway.”

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Galloway appeared to be a major get for the right-wing Dallas Express, which fashions itself as an ascendant alternative to the “dying” legacy media. But within a matter of months, Galloway’s name was absent from the list of contributors. I called him to find out why. “I liked the guys I was working with,” Galloway said. “But one screwup pissed me off.” His departure stemmed from his objections to a headline on one of his podcast segments: “Randy Galloway: Old Media is DEAD—Social Media is Taking Over.” Yates promoted the clip in a post on X, stating: “That’s why he’s teamed up with us at Dallas Express Sports Network. He’s a great addition to our team.” But Galloway said the headline distorted his point. “My point was that the golden days are dead,” Galloway said. “But newspapers aren’t.” Galloway also recalled making positive statements about contemporary local newspapers that were absent from the published segment. When he raised the issue with Yates, Galloway said, he was told an unidentified editor was responsible. DXSN never published Galloway’s full remarks. He quit soon afterward. Galloway was not denying the newspaper industry’s well-documented decline. Massive changes in the economics of newspaper publishing, the rise of digital media, and corporate consolidation have dramatically reshaped journalism, contributing to the closure of thousands of local papers since 2005. Sustained political attacks and polarization have meanwhile helped drive public trust in the media to historic lows.

Water produced at South Padre Island RGV Desal plant to be privately owned

RGV Desal has pitched itself as a potential solution to the Rio Grande Valley’s longstanding water woes. This new resource, however, will be privately owned. Cities and water districts throughout the region could eventually depend on the water produced at the $1 billion seawater desalination plant — water that will belong to a for-profit company. The desalination plant to be located on South Padre Island is a joint venture between US Desal and Israeli company IDE Technologies. Both will own the water produced, but the infrastructure for distribution will be a public affair. Additionally, water will be sold at a set price at the plant’s “fenceline” but the consumer’s distance from the plant will impact total cost.

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The company’s preferred customers will be cities and water districts, as well as industrial companies, according to US Desal Board Director Doug Allison. RGV Desal’s leadership board is composed of both US Desal and IDE Technologies board members. IDE Technologies will oversee construction with additional US Desal oversight, and are signed onto a 20- to 30-year contract, according to Allison. RGV Desal will own the completed plant as well as the water it produces, and will control pricing, contracts, and potential expansion. RGV Desal is a for-profit enterprise. It is privately financed with a limited number of investors, none of which are from the Valley, according to Allison. Some investors are within the state. While at this time Allison could not disclose the identity or quantity of investors, he did say they range from smaller investors to private equity groups. Allison said “lots of people” stand to profit if the plant proves successful, and cited the local communities as an example. He specified that they will benefit by “not running out of water.”

G. Brint Ryan completes buyout of Mr Gatti's

G. Brint Ryan's family office has completed its acquisition of the remaining ownership interest in Texas-born pizza and entertainment chain Mr Gatti's Pizza. Dallas-based OneRyan Global LLC announced the closing of the deal Aug. 6. CEO Jim Phillips, who has led Fort Worth-based Mr. Gatti's since 2015, will also retire at an unspecified date, according to the announcement. Phillips will remain CEO during the transition to OneRyan's ownership, and the company said it will announce his successor at a later date. The latest transaction follows OneRyan's acquisition of a controlling stake in Mr. Gatti's in January. As of April, Mr Gatti's reported having 234 open and upcoming locations, including those inside Walmart stores.

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Though born in Austin in 1969, Mr Gatti's relocated its headquarters to Fort Worth in 2015. The chain moved after being acquired by Sovrano LLC, an affiliate of Fort Worth-based FundCorp Inc. Mr Gatti's evokes nostalgic memories for many Gen Xers and millennials who grew up in Texas, especially a catchy jingle that was ubiquitous on radio and television ads. During the last decade, Phillips guided the chain through turbulent times as it went through financial challenges. The chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2019 and re-emerged the following year while embarking on a plan to expand through franchise sales. The company now has more than 200 locations open or in development across Texas and the southeastern United States. During Phillips' tenure, Mr Gatti's expanded its restaurant footprint by 50% and nearly doubled revenue over the past five years, according to the announcement.

Texas hemp-derived THC ban hits businesses as Senate candidates clash over policy

Nearly two weeks after Texas enacted a statewide ban on most hemp-derived THC products, local businesses say they are feeling the financial impact while political candidates continue to debate the policy’s effects ahead of the state’s U.S. Senate race. Cristina Da Costa, owner of Vida Botanicals in El Paso, said the new law forced her to remove and dispose of thousands of dollars’ worth of inventory. “I ended up having to dispose of thousands of dollars’ worth of products,” Da Costa said. “It’s impacted my business that, obviously, a certain section of the population here in El Paso no longer comes to buy my products.”

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The ban, which took effect this month, prohibits the sale of numerous hemp-derived THC products that had previously been available in Texas stores. Supporters of the law argue it is necessary to protect consumers from potentially dangerous products, while opponents say it limits access to products many Texans use for wellness purposes and could hurt small businesses. Da Costa said many of her customers have expressed frustration with the state’s decision. “People are frustrated that Texas has taken this stance,” she said. “Millennials, Gen Zers are not drinking. They are doing other things that they feel are healthier for their bodies, which includes the edibles.” The issue has also become a point of debate in Texas politics. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, criticized the ban and said voters across the political spectrum have opposed the move. “People are outraged across the state, and it’s not any one political party,” Talarico said. “It’s people across the spectrum.”

City leaders hope a Democratic wave election will protect Pre-K 4 SA from future cuts

Democratic strategists believe their party’s enthusiasm is at a high headed into the November midterm election, and some San Antonio city leaders want to harness it to protect a signature anti-poverty initiative from potential spending cuts in the future. Pre-K 4 SA, the landmark tuition-free early childhood education program started under-then Mayor Julián Castro, is about to see its first class of enrollees graduate from high school next year. While most policymakers consider the program an unmitigated success for a city trying to improve its low educational attainment rates, the one-eighth-cent sales tax underwriting requires periodic reauthorization from voters, including another election when the current funding expires in 2029.

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This week, San Antonio’s City Council will vote on a proposal to bump that decision up by several years to the Nov. 3 midterm — when they could have the wind at their backs with Democrats already revved up about the partisan races on the same ballot. “All signs are pointing toward major Democratic turnout in November with the U.S. Senate race … so this would be the time to do it,” said San Antonio political consultant Mohammad Rassool, referring to the high-profile race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico. Voters will also be weighing in on a governor’s race, a Bexar County Judge race, and a number of targeted congressional and state legislative contests. “The political environment is ripe,” said San Antonio political consultant Bert Santibañez, who has worked on citywide ballot initiatives in the past. “Childhood education issues are very Democratic-centric.” This week a proposal to reauthorize the program was added to Thursday’s council agenda with the support of four members. It would extend the funding for an unprecedented 20 years before it needs another public vote — something Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) said would allow for more “thoughtful long-term planning” on a program that already proved its popularity when voters re-upped it in 2020.

Appeals court revives key parts of Texas voter suppression law found to harm voters with disabilities

A federal appeals court Wednesday overturned a ruling that had blocked key parts of Texas’ sweeping voter suppression law, allowing those provisions to remain in effect despite a lower court’s finding that they violated federal protections for voters with disabilities. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision in full, delivering another win for anti-voting Texas Republicans in the yearslong legal fight over Senate Bill 1 (SB 1). The ruling affects several restrictions on mail-in voting and voter assistance. Among them are rules requiring some voters to provide an identification number that matches state records, requirements for people who help voters cast ballots and limits on paid voter assistance and canvassing.

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The opinion opened with an unusual and extraordinary attack on mail-in voting, portraying the practice itself as a threat to democracy. “It has long been established that mail-in ballots are prone to fraud,” Judge Andrew Oldham wrote. “That is why voting by mail jeopardizes election integrity and democracy itself.” The sweeping claim goes well beyond what the evidence shows. Fraud involving mail-in ballots is exceedingly rare, and research has not found evidence that mail-in voting produces widespread voter fraud as anti-voting activists have suggested over the years. Election officials also use safeguards including ballot tracking and other security measures to detect improper ballots. Oldham cited a 2014 federal district court opinion stating that mail-in ballots are “not secure,” a decision the Fifth Circuit later affirmed in relevant part. But his broader assertion that mail-in voting itself jeopardizes democracy was the court’s characterization, not a finding that widespread mail-ballot fraud had occurred. A federal district court blocked nine provisions of SB 1 in March 2025 after finding that they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, two federal laws that protect people with disabilities from discrimination.

Man arrested after profanity at last week’s Tarrant commissioners meeting

Last week, he used profanity in a public government meeting. On Wednesday morning, he was in jail. Fort Worth police arrested Efrin “EJ” Carrion around 3 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, on a warrant from Tarrant County, his friend Alexander Montalvo said. Carrion is a fixture at most city and county public meetings and hosts the 817 Podcast. Montalvo and Carrion were out late celebrating after Fort Worth City Council began the process to restrict data centers, a decision the pair among many others have been pushing for.

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Around 2:15 a.m. Wednesday, Carrion was on the phone with Montalvo while driving home when he said there were police pulling him over. The next time Montalvo heard from his friend, Carrion was in police custody under a warrant from Tarrant County. On Aug. 4, Carrion was kicked out of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting after he twice used a profane word during his minute of public comment. He said the Republicans’ extremism and the Republican court members themselves were baloney, in choice terms. The Tarrant County decorum policy prohibits personal attacks and impertinent, profane, obscene or slanderous remarks. Promptly after, County Judge Tim O’Hare told sheriff’s deputies to remove Carrion from the meeting, but he was already leaving. On his way out, Carrion called O’Hare a “small man” and “crybaby.” Carrion was the first of five people kicked out of the court that day, including the arrest of former Texas Rep. Lon Burnam for picking up the microphone in support of another man who was kicked out for doing the same.

HUD wants to overhaul a homelessness response program. North Texas communities are worried.

Tanisha Thomas isn’t usually one to ask for help. But when she dialed 2-1-1, Texas’ free hotline that connects people to local resources, three and a half years ago, she was at rock bottom. Thomas and her 1-year-old son were experiencing homelessness after she'd lost her job, and they'd worn out their welcome with friends and family. With no car, her phone shut off, and her three oldest children staying with their dad back home in Iowa, she arrived at the door of Center for Transforming Live’s historic old lodge in Fort Worth with a weight on her shoulders and nowhere else to go. That's when the shelter's intake coordinator, Miss Sydney, gave Thomas exactly what she needed.

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"I just remember when I got to the room, I was looking out the window and I started crying and she came and gave me a hug and... I guess you just, you don't think about hugs and stuff like that at a time like that," she said. "But I really needed, I really just needed to feel, you know human, like somebody loved me or somebody cared." The nonprofit later helped Thomas and her son move into an apartment — where she received counseling, childcare, financial coaching and 18 months of rental assistance to get back on her feet. But now, Thomas' program, and others like it across the country, are on the chopping block as the Trump administration threatens to overhaul the federal homeless aid program that fuel them. Last Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island struck down a second attempt by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s to significantly restructure the Continuum of Care program. The ruling blocked changes that critics said would have put more than 5,000 Texans at risk for re-entering homelessness next year.

National Stories

They’re making record profits, but oil companies still won’t ‘drill, baby, drill’

Over the last two weeks, oil companies have announced eye-popping profits from the spring quarter. Exxon Mobil pulled in $14.5 billion. Chevron landed $12 billion, its highest quarterly profit on record. Shell posted $9.8 billion — more than twice its earnings from the same time last year. These profits are largely a product of supply constraints brought on by the war in the Middle East. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively blockaded, oil suppliers have rerouted shipments over land and through pipelines. The resulting supply shortages, constrained refining capacity, and higher transportation costs have driven up oil and gasoline prices, delivering windfall profits for producers. But companies aren’t using those profits to drill lots of new wells or explore untapped oil fields. Instead, they’re pocketing the cash and paying their shareholders, experts say.

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What was once an industry defined by the “drill, baby, drill” ethos is now defined by another term: “capital discipline.” It’s a phenomenon in which rampant drilling and production growth has given way to tightened belts and bigger payouts to investors. Oil executives expected a weak financial year in 2026 due to a supply glut, but the closure of the Strait of Hormuz constrained oil production and allowed companies to charge top dollar for use of their refineries outside the Middle East. “While we didn’t anticipate the current situation, we were prepared for it,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods said in a July call with analysts, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Despite the temporary loss of approximately 10 percent of our upstream production, we delivered exceptional financial results.” Chevron executives offered a similar assessment. In July, Chief Financial Officer Eimear Bonner told Bloomberg that the company didn’t adjust their production as prices rose. “We did not change any of our plan,” she said.

ICE wants to give agents gloves that deliver electric shocks

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers could soon be provided gloves that administer painful electric shocks, the latest in a series of costly purchases to bolster President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort. The Department of Homeland Security posted a notice about the purchase on Monday in the Acquisition Planning Forecast System, which provides alerts on contracts that the agency intends to issue in the coming days. The contract for the gloves, which the agency says would be used as a “distraction and de-escalation device,” would be issued to Enforcement Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations officers. The contract could be awarded as early as Friday and is estimated to cost anywhere from $10 million to $20 million. It lists a completion date of March 31, 2027.

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Although the notice of a potential contract does not name a company, the gloves in question — CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E., or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — are made by Compliant Technologies, a Kentucky-based company that has sold its gloves to various law enforcement agencies, according to its website. The plan to purchase the gloves was first reported by The Associated Press. Jeff Niklaus, the founder and CEO of Compliant Technologies, said in an email to NOTUS that the organization was “unable to comment” on any potential contract. A spokesperson for DHS told NOTUS that ICE is “constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country.” “Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards,” the spokesperson said, pointing to the agency’s use of force policy.

The backlash to social media bans has already begun

Banning social media for minors has, well, gone viral. In less than a year, the world has witnessed a rapid-fire succession of political proposals to restrict youth access to social media: from the left-wing prime minister of Spain to the right-wing prime minister of Greece, the Australian Labor Party leader and a Texan Republican senator, and on to the national agendas of Brazil, Rwanda and, most recently, Vietnam. Creating new government limits to keep young people off digital platforms is increasingly seen as good politics, a popular piece of legislation that touts the protection of kids while tapping into bubbling anger at Big Tech platforms. Three decades into the digital era, policymakers around the world are converging on the idea that much of the time we spend online is not good for us — and that children are the most vulnerable.

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Yet eight months since Australia’s groundbreaking under-16 social media ban triggered a surge of similar legislation around the world, doubts are already spreading about both the efficacy and unintended side effects of a blanket ban. The rash of new laws and the subsequent backlash is prompting people to ask if social media bans are going too far, too fast — and whether there may be a smarter way to protect kids online than forcing them off. Lorena Giuberti Coutinho, an online safety commissioner for Brazil’s independent data protection authority, told POLITICO that social media bans increasingly appear “quite hard to impose,” and questioned whether global momentum for that approach would persist. “The incentives for teenagers to continue on social media are quite strong because this is where they communicate,” said Coutinho. Brazilian lawmakers passed a law last year that allows teenagers to keep using social media but legally requires platforms to anticipate and reduce potential harm to children. For under-16s, the law also bans targeted advertising and “loot boxes” commonly offered as online gaming rewards, while requiring the availability of parental-control tools.

Mamdani’s honeymoon with New York is over

Zohran Mamdani was riding high as the mayor of New York City earlier this summer, after fulfilling a campaign pledge to put a new tax on the wealthy, flexing his political might with successful endorsements of three progressive congressional candidates and handing the victorious New York Knicks the keys to the city. Now, after a streak of good fortune, Mamdani is facing growing discontent from New Yorkers upset with his anti-Israel rhetoric and slights against the business community. Efforts to fulfill some of his marquee campaign pledges have stumbled, including the messy launch of the pied-à-terre tax. His relationship with the City Council is fraying. The latest setback for the mayor came this week when a judge swiftly paused a new tax on luxury second homes after a group of residents, including one of Mamdani’s own supporters, filed a lawsuit accusing the city of botching the rollout.

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The city quickly appealed the decision, automatically putting the lower-court order on hold, but not before the judge criticized the administration’s handling of the matter. The city posted an online list of more than 900,000 properties, which included homes that might be subject to the tax but many more that likely won’t. It also sent out notices to 17,000 property owners saying they might be subject to the tax, including some who said they were longtime New Yorkers. At a hearing Monday, Justice Wayne Ozzi questioned why the city needed to post such a broad list. “I’m sure it caused concern amongst people,” the judge said. “Some may be embarrassed, some may be quizzical.” He also said the city had made “missteps,” noting that it could have done more due diligence before sending out the mail notices. President Trump—who earlier in the year had appeared to have struck up an avuncular political friendship with the new mayor—chimed in on Tuesday, saying his administration was looking into legal action the federal government could take to stop the tax. He called it a “dangerous political experiment.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to leave administration

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave the administration at the end of August, one of the most high-profile exits of Trump’s second term, with the midterms less than three months away. Leavitt, 28, was the youngest press secretary in history and the first to give birth while serving in the role. She has been a loyal adviser to President Donald Trump who played a highly visible role in his efforts to remake the presidency and erode trust in traditional media reporting, in part through aggressive moves to control which news outlets have access to the White House. In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said that Leavitt will leave her role to spend more time with her children. Leavitt gave birth to a girl in May and is also the mother of a 2-year-old boy. Trump said that she would continue to serve as an outside adviser.

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“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections,” Trump wrote. Leavitt said in a lengthy social media post that the job has been the “honor and adventure of a lifetime,” but that she had decided to leave the administration after she returned from maternity leave this summer. “The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” she wrote. The White House has not announced who will succeed Leavitt. One of her deputies, Abigail Jackson, also left this month, adding to staffing complications. During Leavitt’s maternity leave, a rotating cast of Cabinet secretaries filled in for occasional press briefings.

Farrah Hassen: The fight against Flock cameras is just the beginning

(OtherWords columnist Farrah Hassen, J.D., is a writer, policy analyst, and educator. ) Government surveillance isn’t new, but new wide-ranging technologies that can detect our faces and track our movements are making it more ubiquitous. While the tools have changed, the purpose remains the same: to chill independent thought, free speech, and dissent, bringing our country closer to 1984. Millions of Americans are being watched as the U.S. ramps up mass surveillance with help from AI, data brokers, and partnerships with private tech companies. Immigrants, people seeking reproductive health care, and activists are among the most intensely monitored, but tech like Flock cameras has brought the issue into communities across the country. According to the ACLU, police departments have increasingly deployed automated license plate readers (ALPRs) powered by AI to track drivers “without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.” And they’re doing this with little to no oversight or regulation.

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Flock Safety is one of the largest ALPR vendors in the U.S. Their solar-powered, teardrop-shaped cameras capture images of all passing vehicles, storing the car’s make, model, and other identifying features. Any law enforcement agency with a Flock contract can access the company’s nationwide database without a warrant. Flock cameras also track people. Their “FreeForm search” feature has allowed police departments to search the database using phrases like “male with tattoos” and “person on skateboard,” according to data reviewed by 404 Media. DeFlock, an open-source project that maps license plate readers, has identified over 128,000 ALPRs in the U.S. Even my small town of around 20,000 people in Southern California has at least 35 ALPRs, most of them Flock cameras. No independent research has shown that ALPRs can reduce crime. But there’s mounting evidence of the technology’s alarmingly high error rate. An analysis by the Roseville, California police department found that 71 percent of Flock’s alerts to the Roseville police incorrectly flagged vehicles as stolen or used in a felony.

AI data center developer 5C secures half a billion dollars in new financing

AI data center developer 5C Group has secured $605 million in debt financing to expand its projects across North America. The financing, led by Brookfield Asset Management, follows the raise of $835m in equity and debt capital that 5C raised in 2025. 5C says it builds “AI factories,” defined as large-scale, high-performance data center campuses for “dense and complex AI workloads.” The developer said the funding would allow it to accelerate the development of its portfolio of priority sites, fund the acquisition and construction of a campus in Memphis, Tennessee, and support the development of its campuses in Phoenix, Arizona, and Ohio.

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“This financing reflects strong confidence in 5C's strategy and our ability to execute at scale," said Jonathan Ahdoot, CEO of 5C. "It strengthens our ability to build next-generation AI infrastructure while investing for the long term in communities." Hamish Kidd, managing partner, Investments – Infrastructure at Brookfield Asset Management, added: "We are pleased to expand our partnership with 5C and support the continued growth of its AI infrastructure platform. 5C combines strong execution capabilities with a long-term approach to developing critical digital infrastructure, and we believe its North American campuses are well positioned to support growing demand for advanced AI capacity." Launched in 2023, 5C describes itself as one of North America’s largest AI digital infrastructure providers. The company says it has more than 1.5GW of capacity in the pipeline. 5C was acquired by Hypertec Cloud last year.

Copyright August 13, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved