February 13, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Party balloons? FAA’s surprise El Paso airspace closure fuels questions

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) surprise closure and later opening of airspace over El Paso, Texas is fueling questions from the public and sharp rebukes from lawmakers. Trump administration officials initially contended the move came in response to the incursion of Mexican drug cartel drones. However, the closure of airspace — initially set to last 10 days, but lifted after 8 hours — reportedly came after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials in the area used a laser counter-drone weapon, provided by the Pentagon, to take out objects that were later identified as party balloons. A White House official told The Hill on Thursday that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford pulled the trigger on closing the airspace without notifying the White House, DHS and the Pentagon.

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“The Department of War and the Department of Transportation having been working together for months regarding drone incursion operations. Last night’s action to disable the cartel drones was not a spontaneous action,” the official said in a statement. “At no point in the process of disabling these cartel drones were civilian aircraft in danger as a result of the methods used by DOW to disable the drones.” That explanation has not put to bed questions about why the FAA acted alone, why the decision was reversed so quickly, what CBP’s role was in the preceding events, or why officials initially defended the move as a necessary response to “address a cartel drone incursion.” “The FAA is in charge of the notification and the process of closing the airspace, but it’s historically done in consultation and coordination with other agencies, right? Because other agencies have equities in airspace,” said Charles Marino, ex-advisor to former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano. Marino, who is now chief executive officer of global security and intelligence advisory firm Sentinel, told The Hill on Thursday that he finds it “weird that the FAA would be the first stop regarding an imminent threat.”

DHS shutdown imminent after Senate Democrats block Homeland Security bill

Senate Democrats voted Thursday to block a motion to advance a House-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, putting Washington on the brink of a partial government shutdown that will affect more than 260,000 federal employees. The motion, which required 60 votes, failed to advance by a vote of 52-47. Centrist Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who has a long-standing policy of voting against government shutdowns, was the only Democrat to vote for advancing the measure. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) voted no for procedural reasons to be able to bring the bill back to the floor quickly at a later date. Shortly after, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) attempted to get unanimous consent to move a two-week stopgap bill, but Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) objected. Democrats blocked the legislation after rejecting an offer from the White House they said didn’t go far enough to reform immigration enforcement operations after the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis last month.

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As a result, funding for key agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Coast Guard will lapse Saturday without further action from Congress. The agencies that are the main targets of Democratic fury, however, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will be able to continue operations without much disruption. Both agencies received tens of billions of dollars through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law last year. “Democrats have been very clear. We will not support an extension of the status quo, a status quo that permits masked secret police to barge into people’s homes without warrants, no guardrails, zero oversight from independent authorities,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said before the vote. Schumer acknowledged that White House border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday that it was ending its surge deployment of ICE officers in Minnesota but declared the action falls short of what’s needed to prevent troubling incidents connected to law enforcement operations.

Trump boasts of over $1.5B in political funds. How he chooses to spend it could rock the midterms

President Donald Trump has bragged about building a political war chest exceeding $1.5 billion — a staggering sum that he can wield at his whim to shape November’s midterms and the 2028 race to succeed him. Trump’s stockpile — which dwarfs any amounts raised by his predecessors in their second terms — is not easy to precisely calculate given that much of it is being collected by groups that aren’t required to file regular financial disclosures. Current and former staffers, as well as others in Trump’s orbit, wouldn’t say exactly where his political bank account stands six months after the president announced on social media that he’d raised, just since Election Day 2024, “in various forms and political entities, in excess of 1.5 Billion Dollars.”

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But what is not in question is that it represents a mountain of cash that could reshape Republican politics for years to come — if he chooses. He’s been reluctant to spend money on other people’s races in the past, and he’s even found ways to funnel some cash to his own businesses. The $1.5 billion Trump claimed is roughly equal to what he and outside groups spent on his successful 2024 reelection bid, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks political spending. Related Stories Bondi clashes with Democrats as she struggles to turn the page on Epstein files furor Republican calls are growing for a deeper investigation into the fatal Minneapolis shooting Smith defends his Trump investigations at a House hearing. 'No one should be above the law,' he says By comparison, Democratic President Joe Biden’s various super PACs, political groups and nonprofits, as well as the Democratic National Committee, raised roughly $97 million during his first year in office, according to public disclosures. That’s only about 7% of Trump’s total, and Biden was gearing up for a reelection run Trump isn’t allowed to make. “I think a lot of people are asking, ‘What is it all for?’” said Saurav Ghosh, federal campaign finance reform director at the Washington nonprofit Campaign Legal Center.

Julie Johnson says she only made $90, disputes attack over ICE-linked stock trades

Rep. Julie Johnson pushed back Thursday against a new attack from Democratic rival Colin Allred over her stock trades in Palantir, a tech contractor whose software assists immigration officials on deportations. The Farmers Branch congresswoman faces Allred, a former House member from Dallas, in an increasingly caustic primary March 3 for Congressional District 33. The Allred ad accuses Johnson of “profiting from ICE’s surveillance company, making thousands from the company ICE uses to track and detain our neighbors.” “In Congress, she was supposed to be overseeing Trump and ICE,” the ad’s narrator says. “Instead, Johnson was making money from it.” Johnson called that misleading.

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“It was less than $8,000 and I made $90 on the whole thing,” she told reporters this week. “I owned it for a very short period of time and I consistently voted against their interests. So, Colin’s assertions to the contrary are false, misleading and deceptive to the voters.” Financial disclosures show Johnson bought Palantir stock on Jan. 15 and Feb. 12 of last year, each time in amounts between $1,000 and $15,000. She sold on April 1 and June 30, again in that same range. Those reports list ranges, not exact figures, leaving no independent way to confirm or refute Johnson’s $90 figure. Johnson’s campaign said an independent money manager handled her assets, she started divesting her portfolio in March 2025 and all Palantir stock was sold by June 2025. She had divested “all actively traded stocks” in 2025, the campaign said. She also cited her support for a revised congressional stock trading ban in November, two months after it was introduced. Allred signed onto a January 2023 version of a stock trading ban in mid-2024. Allred has stuck with his criticisms of Johnson’s stock trading, saying she is one of the most active stock traders in Congress. In contrast, he said, he never traded stocks while in office.

State Stories

No tax hike despite budget headache, Whitmire says in State of the City address

At his second State of the City event on Thursday, Houston Mayor John Whitmire addressed daunting fiscal challenges and unveiled his aspirational visions. The address came about a year before the next municipal campaign season, when Whitmire will seek a second four-year term. "I’m prepared to give six years — the remaining best years of my life — for Houston," said Whitmire, who is 76 years old. If reelected, he would be 82 years old at the end of his second term. Sign up for the Hello, Houston! daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox. He said the main message of the address was "Houston is a strong city and is getting stronger every day." The city of Houston faced its highest-ever budget deficit last year, as expenses outpaced revenues by nearly $150 million.

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As the end of the current fiscal year in June approaches, the city again faces a daunting deficit ­­— expected to exceed $120 million, with additional overages possible as the police, fire and solid waste departments are projected to overshoot their overtime budgets by about $54 million. Throughout his first two years in office, Whitmire refused to increase the property tax rate. He said the trend will continue until the city eliminates "waste, duplication, conflicts of interest and corruption." "We’re not going to raise taxes in this next budget cycle," Whitmire said. "We’re going to look for efficiencies, collaboration, eliminate corruption, conflicts. It can be done, and it will be done." He highlighted the voluntary retirement incentive program put forward by his administration last year, in which about 1,000 workers retired in exchange for lump sum buyouts equaling 25% of their annual salaries. It is projected to save $35 million per year from the city's $3 billion general fund.

‘You’re being cute:’ Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo walks out during spat over office project

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo walked out in the middle of the Harris County Commissioners Court meeting on Thursday during a spat about a project that she said could restrict space inside her department’s office. Commissioner Lesley Briones said that her efforts to secure a second exit door from her precinct office inside the Harris County Administration building were delayed for months before commissioners overwhelmingly approved the request on Thursday. Though the item was set to be taken up in a closed-door session during the court meeting, Hidalgo requested that the discussions be taken in the public forum. Earlier in the day, she held up a map of her county office and said she’s been harassed by Briones’ precinct office, which has made attempts to tear down one of her office walls for the project, Hidalgo said.

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However, Briones said that creating a second egress from her precinct office would ensure her staffers’ safety. “All we want is a second door in case there is an active threat, whether that is a shooter, whether that is a fire,” Briones said. “My office does not have a second exit in a separate area by which my team can leave.” Hidalgo spoke about commissioners last year failing to back her request for additional security detail during her trade mission to Paris. In an interview with Houston Public Media last year, she said she wasn't permitted to bring security detail on her trip, which was funded with money from her own political campaign. The request for an additional door from Briones’ office first arose in a meeting of the county’s space planning committee, which works with county departments and precinct offices to make security and space recommendations for local government buildings. On Thursday, Hidalgo said the county judge’s office inside the administration building is limited in space and has not been remodeled like other precinct offices. Some of the county judge’s staff need to work out of a conference room because the floor they work on is being treated for asbestos.

Sakai fired staffer after probe into texts to newspaper publisher

Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai fired one of his top staffers in December over flirtatious texts the staffer sent to the publisher of an East Side newspaper — messages the publisher said made her feel "creeped out," according to county documents and interviews conducted by the San Antonio Express-News. Jim Lefko, Sakai’s communications director, had been talking with staff of the San Antonio Observer, a weekly news tabloid, in an effort to generate support for a plan to revitalize the grounds of the county-owned Freeman Coliseum on the East Side. In November, Observer CEO Waseem Ali sent Lefko an email expressing concern about texts Lefko had sent to Stephanie Zarriello, Ali's wife and the weekly's publisher.

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Lefko called her a "pretty lady," asked her to send him a photo of herself "all dolled up" and suggested they meet for drinks because he was a "bachelor for the weekend," according to a county investigator's report and text messages, copies of which Zarriello gave to the Express-News. The messages were part of an Oct. 23 text exchange. After Sakai heard about the texts, he requested assistance from the county ombudsman, an independent official who investigates complaints about county employees. The ombudsman interviewed Lefko, 67, but he refused to turn over his text messages. Lefko and Zarriello communicated over the course of three months and met twice — once at Lefko's office and again at a downtown bar. Their exchanges included debates over the county’s East Side plan, Lefko’s suggestion that he could arrange a ceremonial proclamation honoring the Observer and his invitation for Zarriello to sit next to him at a Commissioners Court meeting.

Austin United PAC appeals convention center decision to Texas Supreme Court

An effort to stop the Austin Convention Center project from moving forward is not over. The group hoping to stop the construction appealed to the Texas Supreme Court days after a Travis County district judge sided with the city. The Austin United Political Action Committee — the group behind the petition that would let voters decide whether the expansion should move forward — filed the emergency appeal on Tuesday, Bill Bunch, an attorney representing the PAC, said. But the Texas Supreme Court faces a tight deadline. The last day to call for an election in May is Friday. “The court does have some leeway for ordering an election after the deadline,” Bunch said. “They have complete discretion to not consider this at all, or not consider it on an expedited basis, in which case the appellate process would be addressing whether we are entitled to an election in November."

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Last October, the Austin United PAC filed a petition with more than 20,000 signatures — the amount needed to trigger an election — to force a ballot measure on if the convention center expansion was something voters wanted. But after reviewing the documents, Austin City Clerk Erika Brady said her office determined there were not enough valid signatures, and the petition was denied. The Austin United PAC believes Brady improperly disqualified hundreds of signatures from people who live in the extraterritorial and limited purpose jurisdictions to keep the petition below the 20,000 signature threshold. It sued the city over it in December. The lawsuit played out over two days in court last month, where Bunch and attorney Bobby Levinski argued that the people who live in these areas just outside the city are allowed to have a say in how hotel occupancy taxes are spent. Bunch said the group still believes the city disenfranchised those voters, which is a violation of state law and the city charter. “The question is whether our suburban voters in the extraterritorial jurisdiction and limited purpose jurisdiction have a right to vote on this matter,” Bunch said. State law says voters who live in these areas can only cast a ballot in certain city elections. The city believed the convention center petition wasn't one of them. A similar effort went before Austin voters in 2019 but failed. A city spokesperson said staff are reviewing the appeal and will respond as needed. Austin began its $1.6 billion project to expand the Austin Convention Center last year. The facility is already demolished and construction has begun. The center is set to reopen in Spring 2029.

Sheila Jackson Lee's daughter named as new Harris County administrator

Commissioners unanimously voted Thursday to appoint Erica Lee Carter to the position of county administrator — the fourth person to oversee the department since it was created in 2021. Lee Carter's appointment marked the end of a roughly nine-month nationwide search that cost the county more than $100,000. Lee Carter is the daughter of the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, and was elected to briefly succeed her in a November 2024 special election. Her appointment takes effect March 9, and she will succeed Jesse Dickerman, who served as interim county administrator following the April resignation of Diana Ramirez. "'I've seen your commitment to strengthening infrastructure core services and engaging residents in every corner of this county," Lee Carter said to commissioners at Thursday's meeting. "I look forward to elevating governance, collaboration and communication across Harris County departments."

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Lee Carter, 46, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her master's in public policy from Duke University. She previously worked as policy director for Commissioner Rodney Ellis. Commissioners created the Office of County Administration to oversee 16 county departments, including flood control and public health, and handle various day-to-day operations. The intent was for the office to serve as a centralized administrative department empowered to put commissioners' plans into action, but skeptics say the office has failed to deliver on that vision. Although the Office of County Administration was created at least in part to help shield department heads from political exposure, Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey previously said that, in practice, the office simply created a single "bureaucratic scapegoat." "The county administrator position is nothing but a bureaucratic scapegoat. Since its inception four years ago, we’ve gone through two highly paid administrators, with the last one making $418,000 a year,” Ramsey said.

A teen shattered Hector Garcia's face. He's one of many Texas juvenile officers who've suffered

A Dallas County juvenile detention officer is still recovering 10 months after he says he was attacked by a detainee while on duty. Hector Garcia, who had been on the job less than one year, said he intervened when a 15-year-old male resident tried to assault another juvenile last April. The teen began hitting Garcia, shattering bones in his face, according to medical records. "He broke my nose, he broke my jaw bone,” Garcia told KERA in an interview. “I might have passed out a little bit, but I was mostly aware and I'm not sure how much time passed, but it might have been like two minutes.” When he got up, he said he tried to help the other boy out of the shower before help came. Covered in blood — holding his eye — Garcia says he waited about a half-hour before a supervisor spoke with him. A nurse put him in a wheelchair and took him from the fifth floor to the third. "I lost a lot of blood," he said. "I couldn't walk. I was a little too woozy.”

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Garcia is among the thousands of staff members at juvenile facilities who have been attacked in recent years. Serious incidents must be reported to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. That agency's data indicates more than 1,400 juvenile assaults on staff were reported statewide from 2022-2023, more than 1,900 in 2024 and nearly 900 from January to August 2025. After the attack, Garcia, 37, was taken by ambulance to Parkland Hospital. "Honestly, I kind of felt like someone should have been there, not just me by himself in the ambulance," he said. "I feel like someone should have gone with me. They just put me in an ambulance and I just went with the paramedics." He was treated as an "assault victim" with facial lacerations, abrasions, contusion, and fractures, according to hospital documents. Parkland discharged him at 6 a.m. the next day, April 29. "I requested from the hospital, like an Uber, to get me back over there so I can get my car, and I had one eye closed," he said. "My eye was all swollen. They told me they were going to give me a bus pass at first and I asked them can I get an Uber because I can't see."

Bonck, deZevallos and Pratt lead crowded GOP field vying to succeed Hunt in TX-38

Texas' 38th Congressional District, stretching across west and northwest Harris County, is a solidly Republican seat drawn with U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt in mind. Twelve GOP candidates are vying to succeed Hunt now that he's running for the U.S. Senate. Jon Bonck, a mortgage loan officer and Baptist deacon, leads the 10-person Republican field in fundraising for the March 3 primary election. According to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, Bonck has raised just over $1 million and has more than $846,000 in cash on hand. Bonck has also landed some of the most significant endorsements of the contest, including those of Sen. Ted Cruz and retiring Houston-area U.S. Rep. Morgan Luttrell.

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West Houston Airport president Shelly deZevallos is second in fundraising on the GOP side. She's raised more than $666,000 and has more than $578,000 in cash on hand. Running third in fundraising among the Republican candidates is Michael Pratt, a Tomball ISD board member and former U.S. Marine Corps officer. Other candidates competing for the Republican nomination in Texas' 38th include journalist Carmen Maria Montiel, who has run unsuccessfully as a GOP candidate in Texas' 18th and 29th Congressional Districts; paralegal Avery Ayers; health care executive and retired U.S. Army officer Barrett McNabb; law enforcement leader and attorney Craig Goralski; business executive and political activist Larry Rubin; and firearms dealer Jeff Yuna. The Democratic field includes Marvalette Hunter, former chief of staff to Sylvester Turner, the late congressman and former Houston mayor; school counselor Theresa Courts; and real estate broker Melissa McDonough.

Dallas County primary election early voting locations still in flux

With days left before early voting begins, where Dallas County residents can vote continues to change. Several places selected to be early-voting locations approved last month declined, were unavailable to host or were swapped for a different site. Local Democratic and Republican parties each set primary election day locations, but the county is required, under contract with the parties, to establish the early voting sites. So again, on Feb. 12, the list of early voting centers changed. Elections Administrator Paul Adams said during the special-called commissioners court meeting that separate Republican and Democratic elections has stressed planning.

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"We kind of anticipated some of the things that might happen here today for early-vote, so we can kind of adjust for that," he said. "But as we get farther down the road with the polling places, the issue is going to be making absolutely certain — especially those places that only Democrats or only Republicans are voting, that the equipment that is dropped off, is the proper equipment for that place. "...If we have a place that's supposed to be a Democrat polling place, but they only get Republican equipment, that obviously is gonna be a problem for election day," he said. Staff are giving extra effort to serve the parties and voters, he said. "They're doing the best job that they can dealing with the circumstances that we are under," he said. "There are individuals in logistics that have worked through the weekend. They have been working 12-hour days in order to make this happen."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott scores endorsement from 800 Texas music venues

Gov. Greg Abbott was just called back for a political encore. A collective of 800 live music venues across the state – from classic theaters to honky-tonk dance halls – endorsed the Republican’s reelection bid on Thursday. In a statement released by Abbott’s campaign, the Music Venue Alliance – Texas praised recent pro-music initiatives and Abbott’s moves to lift COVID-19 restrictions that had threatened about 500 venues statewide. The group said those efforts also helped protect the tens of thousands of musicians who perform on their stages. “Governor Abbott has always been a champion for us,” said Edwin Cabaniss, alliance cofounder and chairman. The state has an estimated 1,000 live music venues, according to the alliance website.

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Cabaniss also praised the Texas Music Incubator Rebate Program, which will give $200 million in tax rebates over the next decade for eligible Texas venues and festival promoters. Abbott is all but assured of the GOP nomination in the March 3 primary, while Democrats are still sorting out their field, with state Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin widely viewed as the leading Democratic contender for governor. Live music is a $31 billion annual industry in Texas. The alliance includes Antone’s Nightclub in Austin, Trees Dallas, Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth, the Texas House of Rock in Corpus Christi and The Arcadia Live in Kerrville.

San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Hawk Dunlap, with 30-plus years in oil and gas, our GOP pick for Railroad Commission

We recommend Hawk Dunlap, a longtime oil and gas worker, in the Republican Party primary for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, which is tasked with regulating and overseeing this industry despite its misleading name Dunlap began working in oil fields more than three decades ago, and during his time in the business, he has held senior roles and developed operational expertise that would serve him well as one of three railroad commissioners.

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And unlike the incumbent, Jim Wright, who has shown himself to be overly cozy with the companies the commission is supposed to be holding accountable, Dunlap takes that responsibility as paramount. To that end, he told us that his first priority would be to get produced water “under control,” referring to the water that comes out of the ground in the process of extracting oil and gas. Tens of millions of barrels of it are injected into the ground daily, which has been linked to contamination. “It's gotten out of hand,” he said. “That’s really threatening our groundwater.” Similarly, Dunlap believes the state must do a lot more to plug abandoned, or orphan, wells. And he’s proposed charging production companies 10 cents per barrel of produced water that they inject into the ground with the proceeds going toward plugging such wells. It’s past time for the commission to include someone who understands the industry while also being committed to making it as responsible as it should be. Dunlap could be that person.

Austin ended its license plate reader program. Then the police department found a loophole.

Austin police are still using license plate reader technology months after the Austin City Council ended the city's program over privacy concerns. A KUT investigation found the Austin Police Department accessed data from Flock Safety license plate readers maintained by neighboring law enforcement agencies within the last month. The access skirts the city's push to end the firm’s presence in Austin — and highlights a gap in Austin’s policies on surveillance technology. The cameras scan license plates at intersections and allow police to search a database for certain criminal activity, like stolen cars or arrest warrants tied to certain vehicles. Austin ended its contract with Flock last June after pushback from residents who said the surveillance can be shared with immigration enforcement and that the system can be used as a dragnet that leads to wrongful arrests.

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While APD no longer has the license plate reading cameras on city roads, it does have access to cameras maintained by at least two neighboring agencies: Round Rock and Sunset Valley police. Both agencies listed APD under the departments they had shared data with in the last 30 days. APD confirmed to KUT that it has access to Flock data from other departments, but said it only requests it in emergencies. "There may be situations where APD requests assistance from peer law enforcement agencies, such as during a joint investigation or when additional information is needed for investigative purposes," APD said. "These partnerships ensure the safety and well-being of our Austin community." APD did not say whether it had accessed data from any other departments' license plate readers, including the Texas Department of Public Safety, which recently installed Flock cameras near its headquarters off North Lamar Boulevard.

UT Austin consolidates ethnic and gender studies, causing uncertainty for hundreds of students

The University of Texas at Austin is restructuring seven ethnic and gender studies departments into two new departments, causing concern among students and faculty. The decision was first announced by the dean of the College of Liberal Arts in a 30-minute meeting with department chairs on Thursday. The changes are likely to be finalized by September 2027, faculty from the departments said in a written statement. A university spokesperson said there's no official timeline for the consolidation. In a message to the UT community sent afterward, President Jim Davis said the departments of African and African Diaspora Studies; American Studies; Mexican American and Latina/o Studies; and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies will be consolidated into a new Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.

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The departments of French and Italian; Germanic Studies; and Slavic and Eurasian Studies will also be consolidated into the Department of European and Eurasian Studies. Davis said curriculums will be reviewed to determine what majors, minors and courses will be offered. He said students currently enrolled in the affected departments can continue pursuing their degrees as the changes are implemented. Faculty members said they were not given specifics at the meeting on Thursday on what the review of curriculums would entail. It is also unclear how the consolidation of these departments will affect institutes, research centers or staffing. Davis said these changes come after an evaluation of the college revealed fragmentation across departments. He also said the restructuring of the college would allow students to have access to a "balanced and challenging educational experience." Karma Chávez, a professor in the Mexican American and Latina/o Studies department, says the consolidation will take staff's attention away from students for the next couple of years while they figure out the new governance structures of the college. She said it could also have implications on what faculty teach.

Harris County's 100-year floodplain may swell 43% under new FEMA maps

Harris County’s 100-year floodplain could grow by more than 40% under draft maps newly released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. After a nearly four-year delay, FEMA posted last week an early version of the county’s updated floodplain boundaries on its website. The agency is now gathering feedback from local officials before beginning a broader public review process. If adopted, the new maps would mark the first comprehensive update to Harris County’s floodplain boundaries since 2007. A Chronicle analysis found the county’s flood zones could see substantial expansions. If finalized as currently proposed, the 100-year floodplain would grow by about 130 square miles, a 43% increase compared with today’s boundaries. The 500-year floodplain would increase by about 62 square miles, or 30%. Meanwhile, floodways, which represent the most dangerous areas, would shrink by about 5%.

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For one, new data show that rainfall rates are over 30% higher than previous models assumed, according to Emily Woodell, a spokesperson for the Harris County Flood Control District, FEMA’s local partner in the update. The new maps also use more sophisticated technologies, she said. The latest analysis, for instance, takes into account almost all the channels in the county, while the previous model only included major waterways. At the same time, decades of development have replaced vast stretches of natural soil that once absorbed water. A recent Chronicle investigation found that builders have developed more than 65,000 new structures inside Greater Houston’s floodplains since 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. “We're developing and not thinking about downstream impacts,” said Sam Brody, an environmental science professor at Texas A&M University, whose research found that sprawling growth has consistently worsened flood damage. “I think that’s the biggest driver of the expanding floodplains.”

National Stories

Conservative heavyweights pan Trump’s ‘socialist’ drug pricing plan

A group of more than four dozen conservative and free-market activists penned a letter to members of Congress Thursday opposing the Trump administration’s new drug pricing model. The letter, sent to members of Congress, argued that the White House’s “most favored nation” drug pricing model released late last week would “import socialist price controls and values into our country.” It also suggests the program will reduce global competitiveness in medical innovation and “reduce cures available to patients while causing an unacceptable degree of drug shortages.” “While supporters of this proposal correctly identify the unique problems facing the American health care system — namely, wealthy countries paying artificially lower prices for prescription drugs than the U.S. and the fact that this depresses innovation and inflates our costs — MFN would not solve these problems,” the letter continued. “In fact, it would exacerbate them.”

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Among the signatories to the letter were: President of the nonprofit Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist; Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union; conservative pundit and former Trump adviser Stephen Moore; president of the nonprofit Taxpayers Protection Alliance, David Williams; and Ryan Ellis, president of the conservative nonprofit Center for a Free Economy. The groups who wrote Thursday’s letter argued that Trump’s drug pricing plan is essentially a manufacturer incentive program “based on the flawed assumption that American manufacturers are not already fighting as hard as they can against foreign price controls.” The White House announced in December that it had confirmed commitments to most favored nations pricing by more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, requiring those firms to charge U.S. consumers prices on par with those of other peer countries. On Feb. 5, the White House also unveiled its TrumpRx drug portal, which allows pharmaceutical companies under the MFN initiative to market directly to consumers by linking out to private drug websites. “You’re going to save tremendous amounts of money,” Trump said during the announcement. “We have many of them, and in a very short period of time, we’ll have just about all of them.”

Goldman Sachs General Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler resigns over Epstein ties

Goldman Sachs’s top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, resigned on Thursday in the wake of the Justice Department’s release of emails and other material that revealed her extensive relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier. Ms. Ruemmler and representatives for Goldman said for years that she had a strictly professional relationship with Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender. But emails, text messages and photographs released late last month upended that narrative, leading to Ms. Ruemmler’s sudden resignation, which surprised many inside the firm. Before joining Goldman in 2020, Ms. Ruemmler was a counselor, confidante and friend to Mr. Epstein, the documents showed. She advised him on how to respond to tough questions about his sex crimes, discussed her dating life, advised him on how to avoid unflattering media scrutiny and addressed him as “sweetie” and “Uncle Jeffrey.”

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Mr. Epstein, in turn, provided career advice on her move to Goldman, introduced her to well-known businesspeople and showered her with gifts of spa treatments, high-end travel and Hermes luxury items. In total, Ms. Ruemmler was mentioned in more than 10,000 of the documents released by the Justice Department. Ms. Ruemmler, in addition to being Goldman’s general counsel since 2021, was a partner and vice chair of its reputational risk committee. She earlier served as White House counsel under President Obama and was a white-collar defense lawyer at Latham & Watkins. “My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs’s interests first,” Ms. Ruemmler, 54, said in a statement confirming the resignation. In a separate statement, Goldman’s chief executive, David M. Solomon, said he respected her decision and described her as “a mentor and friend to many of our people.”

A pilot fired over Kristi Noem’s missing blanket and the constant chaos inside DHS

Kristi Noem knew she needed a reset. It was two days after federal agents had shot and killed Alex Pretti, and Noem was facing fire from all sides. Even some inside the administration were pushing President Trump to remove her from her position for her handling of the chaotic immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis and comments she’d made saying Pretti committed an act of domestic terrorism. So Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, messaged Trump’s pollster with a request: They needed to cut an ad to help her, according to two people familiar with the episode. The pollster, Tony Fabrizio, who worked on Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, ignored the entreaty, the people said. Throughout her tenure as secretary of Homeland Security, a sprawling agency charged with carrying out Trump’s central campaign promise of a mass deportation, Noem has attempted to burnish her personal stardom at every turn.

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Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski have cut employees or put them on administrative leave. The pair have fired or demoted roughly 80% of the career ICE field leadership that was in place when they started. In the blanket incident, Noem had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn’t moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home. The DHS spokeswoman didn’t address the episode but said the secretary has “made personnel decisions to deliver excellence.” In an incident last year that rankled some senior staff at the agency, Lewandowski made it known to top ICE officials that he wanted to be issued a law-enforcement badge and a federally issued gun, according to people familiar with his push. Officials are typically only issued a badge and a gun after undergoing law-enforcement training. The administration was preparing to bring on Tom Feeley, a former top ICE official in New York, as its new director when Lewandowski asked Feeley if he would be willing to issue him and several other political officials badges and guns. Feeley declined, and he was subsequently passed over for the top job at ICE.

Trans-Atlantic tensions in focus as annual Munich security gathering opens

An annual gathering of top international security figures that last year set the tone for a growing rift between the United States and Europe opens Friday, bringing together many top European officials with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others. The Munich Security Conference opens with a speech by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of 15 heads of state or government from European Union countries whom organizers expect to attend. The many other expected guests at the conference that runs until Sunday include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In keeping with the conference’s tradition, there will also be a large delegation of members of the U.S. Congress.

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“Trans-Atlantic relations have been the backbone of this conference since it was founded in 1963 ... and trans-Atlantic relations are currently in a significant crisis of confidence and credibility,” conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger told reporters earlier this week. “So it is particularly welcome that the American side has such great interest in Munich.” At last year’s conference, held a few weeks into U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, Vice President JD Vance stunned European leaders by lecturing them about the state of democracy on the continent. A series of Trump statements and moves targeting allies followed in the months after that — including, last month, his later-abandoned threat to impose new tariffs on several European countries in a bid to secure U.S. control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark. With Rubio heading the U.S. delegation this year, European leaders can hope for a less contentious approach more focused on traditional global security concerns, though a philosophically similar one. Rubio will face a heavy lift if he wants to calm the waters, however.

A 54-year-old personal injury lawyer from Minnesota just became the oldest US Winter Olympian

The stakes were low — and the time ripe — for a 54-year old personal injury lawyer and six-time winner of “Minnesota Attorney of the Year” to make Olympic history. It was the end of the U.S. men’s curling match against Switzerland on Thursday and they were down 8-2. The team called a substitution. Rich Ruohonen, from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, stepped onto the ice. He hurled the corner guard and watched his stone, biting his lip until it arrived safely at the left flank of the house. “Yeah, baby! Good shot, Rich!” skip Danny Casper — who was born in 2001, making him 30 years younger than Ruohonen — shouted across the ice. U.S. fans gave a standing ovation. The lawyer looked wistful. He’d had just become the oldest person to compete for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics.

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“I would have rather done it when we were up 8-2 instead of down 8-2,” he said, “but I really appreciate the guys giving me a chance.” Since inviting Ruohonen onto their Gen-Z team as an alternate for Casper, who has Guillain-Barre syndrome, he has become something of an honorary uncle: driving them around, waking them up for morning trainings and buying them snacks. Related Stories A red headband earns quirky US curling star a nod from 'Pommel Horse Guy' at Winter Olympics US reaches first Olympic curling mixed doubles final, will face Swedish siblings for gold By The Numbers: A look at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics All while holding that much-discussed full-time job. “We got Rich. Uh, he’s a lawyer. I don’t know if you guys knew that,” said Casper at a recent press conference, after that fact had already been mentioned four times. Curlers from the US women’s and men’s teams cracked up. “If you need a lawyer, I think you can call Rich,” Casper said a few minutes later, again to uproarious laughter. All jokes aside, it’s a serious commitment.

FBI gives new details on suspect in Nancy Guthrie case, doubles reward to $100K

The FBI revealed new details about the man they now describe as the suspect in the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, based on evidence investigators gathered from the 84-year-old’s doorbell camera. The suspect was described as a man around 5 feet 9 inches tall with an average build, the FBI said in a social media post Thursday evening. Footage from the doorbell camera of Guthrie’s Tucson home showed the man was wearing a black “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack, according to the FBI. The FBI on Thursday also raised the reward for information leading to Guthrie’s location or to the arrest of a person involved in her disappearance to $100,000. “We hope this updated description will help concentrate the public tips we are receiving,” the FBI’s post said, which added that the agency has collected more than 13,000 tips about the case since Feb. 1, when Guthrie’s family reported her missing.

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The same day the Pima County Sheriff’s Department requested neighbors within a two-mile radius of Guthrie’s home send in video footage, including of vehicles, people or anything they deemed “out of the ordinary” from between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2. Several items of evidence, including gloves, have been recovered and would be submitted for analysis, it said. Guthrie’s disappearance unfolded in front of a worldwide audience that was familiar with Savannah Guthrie as the host of the “Today” show and, over the past two weeks, saw her as a distraught daughter in search of her mother. The case has drawn intense interest from internet sleuths, a show of support from President Donald Trump and a flurry of special news segments, namely from NBC, Savannah Guthrie’s home network. Still, it remained slow-moving and mysterious. On Thursday, Savannah Guthrie shared what appeared to be a home movie of her family and a photograph in a post on social media. “Our lovely mom. we will never give up on her. thank you for your prayers and hope,” she wrote.

White House seeks to tighten control over HHS with personnel shakeup

The White House is looking to exercise tighter control over key areas of the US Health and Human Services Department, planning a shakeup of top personnel as the administration looks ahead to the midterm elections, an administration official told CNN. The moves are aimed at restructuring HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s senior-most ranks, installing four new senior counselors who will be charged with more closely managing the department’s daily operations and communications across the federal government. Chris Klomp, the administration’s current Medicare head and senior adviser at HHS, will become chief counselor and the department’s de facto chief of staff, the administration official said.

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John Brooks, the deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will be a senior counselor in charge of CMS-related issues. Two senior US Food and Drug Administration officials, Grace Graham and Kyle Diamantas, will take on senior counselor roles at HHS managing FDA-related issues. Matt Buckham, the current HHS chief of staff, will move to a senior counselor role, the administration official said, adding that the changes came out of conversations between White House officials and Kennedy. HHS confirmed the changes later Thursday, saying the hires would help accelerate the department’s agenda in their new roles, while still retaining their previous positions. “I am proud to elevate battle-tested, principled leaders onto my immediate team — individuals with the courage and experience to help us move faster and further as we work to Make America Health Again,” Kennedy said in a statement.

CBS News producer quits in fiery note lambasting Bari Weiss’ break from ‘journalistic merit’

Producer Alicia Hastey departed CBS News on Wednesday after four years with the network, blasting Bari Weiss’ break from “journalistic merit” in a fiery exit note. “It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am taking a buy out and today was my last day in the Broadcast Center,” Hastey wrote in a statement. “I joined the network four years ago with gratitude and optimism and I want to leave you with these thoughts only as a reminder of things I know you already know.” She continued: “I am proud of the work that’s been done in my time here: segments that aimed to foreground underrepresented perspectives, interviews that challenged conventional wisdom and effort to make our journalism more responsive to a skeptical public.”

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However, Hastey bemoaned that “a sweeping new vision” has prioritized “a break from traditional broadcast norms to embrace what has been described as ‘heterodox’ journalism.” “The truth is that commitment to those people and the stories they have to tell is increasingly becoming impossible,” she added. “Stories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of idealogical expectations — a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.” While Hastey noted that this sentiment didn’t detract “from the talent of the journalists who remain at CBS News,” she called this shift in the industry “so heartbreaking,” adding, “The very excellence we seek to sustain is hindered by fear and uncertainty.” Representatives for CBS News did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

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