August 25, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Supreme Court allows Trump to pursue mail voting limits, for now

A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to restrict mail-in voting before the midterm elections. In an emergency opinion, the justices said President Trump could proceed with implementing an executive order he had signed, which directed the U.S. Postal Service to help decide which voters should receive mail-in ballots. Under the executive order, the Department of Homeland Security will also create lists of U.S. citizens that the administration believes could be used to monitor voter rolls for noncitizens. The decision means the administration can move ahead with planning for restricting the use of mail ballots even as a lower court continues to weigh the legality of Mr. Trump’s executive order. But with a little more than two months until Election Day — and considerably less time before early voting begins in many states — it remains unclear whether the White House’s rules will be in effect for a midterm election in which control of both chambers is at stake.

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Additional legal action is a near certainty with the plan’s fate not yet final. A separate injunction by the same lower court complicates matters. That court action prevents the postal service from implementing some parts of the executive order. That case could also soon be headed to the justices. Monday’s order from the Supreme Court was unsigned, as is typical in such emergency rulings. The majority wrote that it agreed with the government’s argument that it should be able to move forward with its plans, finding that the Trump administration was “likely to suffer irreparable harm” unless the justices lifted a freeze that had been imposed by lower courts. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warning that the majority “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections.” The majority said the states that challenged the president’s order could not demonstrate that they were sufficiently harmed by voting rules that had not yet taken effect. The justices cautioned that their order was preliminary and not a final decision about whether the administration’s order “will necessarily be lawful” once the plans are complete. “On that score, time will tell,” the majority said in the 10-page, unsigned order. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has been receptive to some, but not all, of the administration’s broad claims of executive power. In this case, the majority said that the provision of Mr. Trump’s order that required creating lists of U.S. citizens was “an internal directive from the president to a subordinate” and so far imposed no obligations on the states.

Can counties stop data centers? Ken Paxton won’t say.

Attorney General Ken Paxton has called data centers a “complicated issue” that should be decided “by local communities.” But when two rural counties asked his office early this year if they could halt local data center construction, it was not quick to weigh in. Six months later, it still hasn’t. The attorney general’s office had 180 days to issue a legal opinion or delay the matter, according to state law. The office wrote to Hood County Attorney Matt Mills on Monday notifying him it would "need more time to review the law, complete our analysis, and finalize the opinion." “I predicted long ago that I wouldn't hear back until after the election in November,” Mills said.

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Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate, on Monday rolled out a campaign proposal that endorses new rules on where data centers can be built and calls for prohibiting Chinese technology from being used in them. He is the latest candidate to wade into the data center fracas, joining other GOP candidates who have sought to quell a brewing backlash among rural voters. But Paxton's plan is silent on one of the biggest questions fueling the data center debate in Texas, the ability that counties have to do anything about the centers cropping up across the state. Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, has called for them to be given the power to keep data centers out. His four-part plan includes federal legislation to hold data center companies criminally liable if they empower AI chatbots that could be harmful to children and backs a federal proposal to cut regulations to speed up power so new data centers don’t raise electricity costs.

Farmers struggle to get basic services from depleted Agriculture Dept.

Mary and Zachariah Ben, farmers in New Mexico, believed they were on the verge of buying the property of their dreams last fall: 47 acres, with enough cropland to grow heirloom corn and a processing facility to expand their organic baby food business. But the low-interest loan they secured from the Agriculture Department to make the purchase in Aztec, N.M., was on hold for months, first during the government shutdown that lasted until mid-November and then as federal workers left the agency in droves. Only half a dozen loan specialists who could help process their claims remained in the entire state, the couple learned, leaving them in limbo indefinitely and the seller impatient to know whether the agreement would ever go through. Zachariah Ben, who along with his children is a member of the Navajo Nation, ultimately turned to private lenders instead, and the family absorbed more than $200,000 in interest as a result. “At least we got the land because we could have also lost that, and we would have if we had to wait” on the Agriculture Department, Mary Ben said.

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The experience of the Bens, whose aim of providing organic and shelf-stable options for young children appears to align with some of the Trump administration’s stated goals, is not unique. Across the country, farmers and rural residents describe struggling to obtain the basic services the Agriculture Department is meant to offer, including loans and grants, technical assistance and financing for housing and utilities. Sharp attrition under the Trump administration, largely through voluntary resignations and dismissals by the Department of Government Efficiency, have left many of the Agriculture Department’s local offices with skeletal staffing — and, in some counties, with no one at all. The ripple effects of the Agriculture Department’s depleted work force illustrate how the Trump administration’s mission of shrinking the federal bureaucracy has undercut a competing priority: delivering for farmers, a core political constituency. Strained government resources also risk posing additional challenges for a farm economy that administration officials have described as “dire,” increasing barriers to entry for new farmers who need more assistance, impeding assistance to producers already facing tough economic conditions, and hampering basic services and government aid in the most remote and poorest places. “All these practical things that make the wheels go around in a community were facilitated by U.S.D.A., and it was with staff who knew how to navigate and had the trust of the local community,” Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee on rural development, said in an interview. “It’s something that was working, was working well, and was very cost-efficient. And now it is being demolished.”

A relentless heat dome is expanding from Texas to California, challenging records

The states of Texas and Oklahoma are no strangers to extreme heat during summer. So when temperature records are being challenged in these notoriously hot places, it catches a meteorologist’s attention. On Monday, Dallas tied its hottest overall day on record, with an average temperature of 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit. It reached a blistering 109 degrees during the day after a low of just 86 degrees. By the time August is said and done, high temperatures in Dallas may end up reaching or exceeding 100 degrees on 27 out of a possible 31 days — just one day shy of the record, set in 2011. And the heat dome that has produced these extremes is showing no signs of letting up — at least not until early September. “Check on your Texan friends,” Dallas-based meteorologist Pete Delkus wrote Monday on X, while sharing a chart that showed triple-digit temperatures predicted for another two weeks straight.

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In Oklahoma City, where it soared to a daily-record-tying 108 degrees on Monday, temperatures have reached the century mark on 18 days this month. The August record of 20 days, set in 2011, is within reach. Meanwhile, near Chickasha, Oklahoma, about 35 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, it reached 115 degrees, making it the regional epicenter of Monday’s heat. Through the end of August, about 98 million people across the United States — mostly from the Southwest to the southern Plains and Texas — could face major or extreme risks for heat-related impacts, according to NOAA’s HeatRisk. At those potentially dangerous heat levels, people without access to effective cooling or hydration are particularly vulnerable. In the days ahead, the core of the heat will shift farther west, becoming centered over New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California, where numerous temperature records are expected. Continuing a pattern seen with most heat domes this summer, nights will bring little or no relief from the day’s extreme heat — and the number of overnight low temperature records are expected to outnumber daytime high temperature records. “It will probably not drop below 70 degrees almost anywhere in Southern California at any point for several consecutive days,” said Swain, when discussing the potential for “record-shattering” overnight warmth.

State Stories

Dallas to pay nearly $2 million on security for Republican midterm convention

Dallas will pay an estimated $1.8 million for police officers to provide security at the midterm Republican convention in September, city leaders were told Monday. Large conventions, not to mention ones that feature the president, generally require a police presence that can drive up overtime pay costs for the city, which is facing an overall $30 million budget shortfall. Kevin Oden, director of the Office of Emergency Management and Crisis Response, told the city council’s finance committee the Department of Transportation and Public Works is expected to spend $14,000 for the event. There’s no cost estimate yet for Dallas Fire-Rescue.

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“Our focus between now and Sept. 9 is to continue doing that planning work everyday, make sure the city is prepared, whittle down our costs to get exactly what we know this thing’s going to be and then seek reimbursement or grant opportunities,” Oden said. Cost estimates are changing by the day as planning continues, Oden said. The estimate comes as overtime pay for Dallas police is projected to hit $2.7 million over budget for fiscal year 2026. Dallas police work to secure events whether they get reimbursed or not. For example, the city does get regular and overtime pay reimbursement for security when leaders of Congress are in town. That's not historically been the case for people protected by the Secret Service, Assistant Chief Mark Villarreal said during a city council briefing earlier this month. "As far as Secret Service protectees, never in the history have we ever received any type of reimbursement from the Secret Service," Villarreal said. At Monday's meeting, City Council member Chad West raised concerns with the costs related to the upcoming event. “I very much think we need to welcome this convention to the city just like we do all conventions,” West said. “But I do have real concerns on nonpayment given what has happened across the country for similar events.” The convention will take place at American Airlines Center on Sept. 9 and Sept. 10 — just a few months before midterm elections. Republicans hope to rally voters as they fight to hold onto their slim majority in Congress. But they face challenges. President Donald Trump’s approval rating is at 33%, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. That will likely affect Trump’s ability to get votes for Republican Congress members during the Nov. 3 elections. The President’s party also historically loses seats in Congress during the midterms.

Buc-ee’s CEO signals expansion shift away from blue states that ‘don’t appreciate’ chain

Buc-ee’s CEO suggested recently that the Texas-based travel center chain may be done looking into blue districts, saying some communities do not appreciate what the company brings while conservative states offer business-friendly and family-oriented values. Arch "Beaver" Aplin III, the company’s president and co-founder, made the comments during the grand opening of Buc-ee’s newest location in Benton, Arkansas on August 17. The chain is known for its expansive gas stations, famously clean restrooms and in-house food offerings. "We have a lot of opportunities. We're growing. We're building in a lot of places. But when you find a conservative business-friendly state with a phenomenal workforce, it makes a difference," Aplin said.

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Aplin criticized states that he said do not appreciate what Buc-ee’s brings to their communities, suggesting the company would rather focus its expansion efforts elsewhere. "I'm starting to realize life's too short to try to build in places that people don't appreciate what you're bringing, versus a place like this where people do appreciate what you are building," he said. Conservative states typically promote business-friendly and family-oriented policies that align with Buc-ee’s values, Aplin said. "That leadership, that concept, that idea of conservative, business-friendly, family-oriented concept works so much better if it trickles down from the very leadership from the top at the governor's office, at the congressman, at senator, at the mayor, the representatives," he said. Aplin pointed to Benton as an example of the approach, saying the city’s business-friendly environment helped pave the way for Buc-ee’s newest location. "What we found when we got here into Benton was a business-friendly town," he said.

Texas Gov Greg Abbott releases end-of-summer playlist, raises eyebrows

Around this time each year, there's often a debate over the "song of the summer." In 2026, Gov. Greg Abbott has thrown his hat in the ring. Abbott released an end-of-summer playlist on Friday, playing into the debate with the caption "Texas is the song of every season." The playlist features 16 songs with Texas-themed titles. The first is Ella Langley's smash-hit "Choosin' Texas," which is many people's "song of the summer" and has spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Beyond that, the selection includes a mix of modern hits and classics like George Strait's "Amarillo by Morning" and Marty Robbins' "El Paso."

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It also includes North Texas artists like Fort Worth singer Leon Bridges, whose collaboration with Khruangbin "Texas Sun" made the cut alongside Dallas rapper BigXThaPlug's "Texas." The inclusion of BigX raised eyebrows on social media with several commenting to express skepticism that the governor listens to his music. "I’m 100% sure that Abbott is not jamming to Bigxthaplug but that’s ok," one commenter wrote. Some commenters shared songs they thought should have been on the list, while others suspected artificial intelligence was used to make it. "Hey AI make me list of songs that have Texas in the title so I can seem like common folk for election season," one commenter wrote. The playlist recalls the musical selections regularly released by former President Barack Obama since his final years in office. Abbott's summer playlist arrives in the midst of his re-election campaign for governor. The Republican is facing off against Democrat state Rep. Gina Hinojosa this fall. The Hinojosa campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Council Member Paige Ellis falls short of signatures needed to secure place on ballot

Austin City Council Member Paige Ellis’ petition to run for a third term was rejected by the city clerk, according to the city of Austin. The council member did not secure enough signatures. Austin City Council members can serve two consecutive terms. To run for a third, council members need to get a certain portion of eligible voters in their district to sign off. Those signatures are then filed with the clerk for verification. If the clerk finds there are enough valid signatures, the candidate is put on the ballot. In a statement provided to KXAN by Ellis’ campaign, she expressed gratitude to her team and constituents, while also making note of milestones during her tenure, such as the 2020 Active Mobility bond for improving sidewalks and bike lanes, as well as an effort to place a dog park in Circle C.

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“Over the past six months, my campaign ran an exhaustive signature collection drive, where I personally knocked on thousands of doors, visiting all kinds of voters through all kinds of Texas weather,” Ellis’ statement to KXAN stated. “I feel so fortunate that our community has repeatedly and warmly welcomed me into their homes, our parks, our restaurants, and so many other places.” Ellis believed she had the necessary signatures from 5% of qualified voters in her district that would have moved her petition forward and kept her run for a third term alive. “Our campaign verified our petition against two voter files before submission, and our internal count showed a healthy cushion above the 3,044 signatures required,” the statement said. “Tonight, we have been informed by the City Clerk’s office that the petition fell 62 signatures short.” The campaign noted that Ellis respected and accepted the city clerk’s result, and would be working to understand what happened that lead to the number of signatures falling short of the minimum number needed. “On behalf of me and my entire team, it has been an honor to serve the people of Southwest Austin, and I look forward to continuing to connect with this city in new capacities, whatever those may be,” Ellis said in the statement.

Trump's border wall may bring down a 110-year-old church in West Texas,

Out in Far West Texas, a heavy bronze bell once tolled, calling congregants from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to worship at a small adobe church. The bell and the Catholic church in Ruidosa are hallmarks of an era when Mexican and American border communities lived as one. But nearly three generations ago, parishioners moved away from the tiny town. One of the church’s twin towers toppled. The bell disappeared. Local volunteers have begun restoring the church, El Corazón Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesús. They view it as one of the last vestiges of a shared history along a southwestern landscape that is as Indigenous, Spanish and Mexican as it is American. Fortifying its walls and twin towers means that perhaps the bell could ring again.

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Now their work faces a new danger: President Trump’s border wall. The church is one of dozens of historical sites across the Southwest threatened by the construction. In Arizona, portions of a 1,000-year-old etching in the earth have been bulldozed. In Texas, work is endangering ancient cave murals and landmarks on the Underground Railroad. “If you value a people’s worth and contributions, then you preserve their history in textbooks and curriculums,” the historian Trinidad Gonzales said. “You would preserve these physical markers.” Trump administration officials say the wall will go up yards away from the church and help deter violent drug traffickers in one of the most remote parts of the Chihuahuan desert. Preservationists, though, warn that the relentless vibrations of the construction threaten the church’s fragile structural integrity. To historians and border residents, the administration’s construction plans, alongside a campaign to deport thousands of immigrants, amount to uprooting centuries of Mexican and Latino American history and presence. The 110-year journey of the church and its bell is a story of displacement and migration, of being lost and improbably found, and of artists, historians and community residents who have gone to great lengths to bake and haul adobe bricks, bail the bell out of a Marfa jail and reclaim a piece of lost past.

Rep. Al Green wants to impeach Trump — again

Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas is trying to impeach President Donald Trump, even though the lame-duck lawmaker knows he doesn’t have the votes. Green, who lost his primary runoff in May, cited immigration agents’ fatal shootings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in his 27-page resolution to impeach the president for high crimes and misdemeanors. “He is abusing the powers of the presidency by operating United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as his vicious, quota-driven, unaccountable paramilitary police forces, transgressing with anonymity and secrecy, assaulting people, committing and covering up unjustified killings of civilians,” Green’s articles of impeachment state.

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Green has attempted to impeach Trump multiple times in both of the president’s terms, including three times last year for what the congressman said was Trump undermining judicial independence, over the war with Iran and for accusing several Democratic lawmakers of behavior the president said was punishable by death. The White House scoffed at Green’s attempt. “The brave men and women of ICE and CBP put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists,” said White House spokesperson Lauren Bis, “Al Green should be thanking President Trump and our law enforcement for delivering the largest decrease in violent crime in American history.” The House impeached Trump twice in his first term: in 2019 for withholding military aid for Ukraine and in 2021 after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The Senate voted to acquit him both times. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a CNBC summit in June that impeaching Trump wasn’t a focus for his party if Democrats take the majority after the midterms.

Sarah Silva: I'm a New Mexico lawmaker. Project Jupiter developers should leave

(Sarah Silva, a Democrat, represents District 53 in the New Mexico House of Representatives, which includes Chaparral, the east side of Las Cruces and White Sands Missile Range.) I’m serious. As an early supporter of this project because of the jobs and infrastructure it promised, I’m fed up with the dishonesty, broken promises and threats. The final straw for me is Oracle’s recent suggestion that it may try to connect Project Jupiter to the El Paso Electric grid. A company official first suggested this publicly in June and spun it as a good thing for us. (It is not). Then, last month at a meeting of the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners, Oracle Executive Vice President Mahesh Thiagarajan was asked what would happen if the state rejected Project Jupiter’s proposal to power its data centers with fuel cells. I’ve formally opposed that plan because it would emit more than 10 million tons of greenhouse gases every year. That is too much.

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Thiagarajan said the grid was the only other option. When one county commissioner pushed back, Thiagarajan said there is no other way to power the data centers. If neither was acceptable, he suggested the developers might abandon the project. That came days after I met with Thiagarajan and asked him to come up with a new power plan that includes renewable energy. He agreed to consider it. Instead of getting back to me, he delivered his ultimatum to the county commission. Connecting to the grid would break a promise that Oracle and Stack Infrastructure, the primary developers of Project Jupiter, promote on the project’s website: “Powered by its own independent energy system, Project Jupiter will protect local ratepayers,” the pledge states. I believe connecting to the grid would also violate Project Jupiter’s legal agreements with the county. To protect you from paying higher utility rates, county commissioners included language requiring Project Jupiter to “power itself with an onsite microgrid” instead of connecting to El Paso Electric’s system so that it “will not impact existing customers’ power reliability or costs.” Connecting to our grid creates the unacceptable risk that you will end up paying for the electricity to run data centers for billionaires.

Tarrant County meeting arrests raise First Amendment concerns

Individual rights experts and political scientists are raising questions about the Tarrant County Commissioners Court decorum policy that led to the arrest of two people. Former state Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth was carried out of the Aug. 4 court meeting by sheriff’s deputies after he picked up the microphone during his allotted one minute. EJ Carrion of Fort Worth was kicked out of the meeting for cursing and then arrested a week later on a warrant issued by the county. Notably, both had been kicked out of a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting once already this year. Both were released on a personal recognizance bond within a day of being booked into the county jail system. They are also facing criminal charges that could mean up to 18 months in jail and $6,000 in fines.

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The charges are hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct, a Class A misdemeanor, and disrupting a meeting or procession, a Class B misdemeanor. Brennen VanderVeen, an attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said he believes there are unconstitutional provisions within the county’s decorum policy. The Philadelphia-based foundation was founded as a non-partisan group and has challenged both Democrats and Republicans on First Amendment issues across the country. The Tarrant County decorum policy prohibits personal attacks, impertinent, profane, obscene, or slanderous remarks as well as threatening, disruptive or unruly behavior. Leah Nesbitt, a spokesperson for County Judge Tim O’Hare, said the policy exists to allow as many voices as possible to be heard at meetings in an orderly manner. She pointed to the fact that every large county in Texas has a decorum policy, and many of them are stricter than Tarrant County’s. “These rules do not silence passionate or critical voices. Maintaining order is necessary to serve all constituents efficiently and effectively,” Nesbitt said.

Evan Mintz: Talarico is trying to win moderate voters. Why isn’t Paxton?

(Evan Mintz is the editor of opinion and community engagement for the Houston Chronicle.) The impossible happened last week in Texas politics, or at least the improbable: The Cook Political Report rated the Senate race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton as a toss-up. Texas Republicans have won every statewide race since 1994, so, much like Cabo Verde in the World Cup, even a tie can feel like a win to the long-suffering Democrats. Cook's assessment of the race relies on polls that show the candidates running tied, but it also points to Paxton’s “personal and ethical vulnerabilities.” Not many GOP candidates were impeached by their fellow Republicans due to rampant corruption.

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At the same time, Cook's Jessica Taylor notes that Talarico can be “appealing to disaffected Republicans.” That’s not by accident. The “soft-spoken Seminary student,” as Taylor describes him, has made earnest efforts to distinguish himself from the national Democratic brand, reach across the aisle and expand his electoral coalition. For example, Talarico has been criticizing the Biden administration’s failure to secure the border since before the primary election. “If we don't keep people safe, the government has failed in its most basic function,” he told the Houston Chronicle editorial board at the time. Putting space between himself and the unpopular former president may have been a risky gambit during the partisan primary, but it’s paying off in the general election. Talarico even went out of his way to applaud President Trump for supporting a gas tax holiday to deal with high prices at the pump — a bad policy, but smart politics for a Democrat in a red state. To put it bluntly, Talarico has tried very hard to present himself as the more moderate choice in this race. It has been working. Polls regularly show that Talarico has an overwhelming advantage with independent voters. So what about Paxton? For decades, Texas Republicans just had to show up to win a statewide race in November. The electoral math was easy — Texas had more Republican voters than Democratic. But with a tight race, Paxton might benefit from trying to moderate on the issues and expand his coalition beyond the hard-right base that delivered his primary victory over Cornyn.

Wayne Dolcefino returns to Houston radio on KSEV

Former investigative reporter and media consultant Wayne Dolcefino is returning to his radio roots with a new morning role on conservative talk station KSEV-AM (700). The longtime television reporter will join radio host Craig Collins weekdays from 7 to 9 a.m. to talk about politics, culture and Texas news, according to an Aug. 18 announcement from the station owned by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

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The new program, "KSEV Mornings with Craig Collins and Wayne Dolcefino," will replace Chris Salcedo's morning show as Salcedo leaves the station after 14 years. For Dolcefino, the role marks a return to radio after a career that made him one of Houston's best-known investigative reporters and, more recently, a media and political consultant. "I'm doing this because I enjoy doing it," Dolcefino said. "There's a lot of things I want to get off my chest, and you never make money in radio. You just do it because you like talking to folks, so that's what I'm doing." Dolcefino started his journalism career in radio after leaving the University of Texas to take a full-time job at a radio station in Austin. He later moved to Houston to work at KTRH-AM (740). The award-winning journalist is best known for his nearly 27 years at ABC13, where he covered local corruption and public spending. During his broadcasting career, Dolcefino received 30 Emmy Awards. Dolcefino said he returned to radio in recent years by filling in on Salcedo's KSEV morning show. Dolcefino said he hopes to talk more about politics on the conservative show, as well as "the change that's happening in Texas, and how we fight it." "I'm doing it to because I think it's trying to use whatever voice I have, personality, to show people that they've got they've got an important choice to make about where we're going," Dolcefino said. "I call it a fun thing because I started in radio," Dolcefino said. "That was kind of my first love. Still love it actually."

Texas screwworm outbreak: U.S. reopens border to Mexican cattle

As the U.S. begins reopening its southern border to cattle from Mexico, the flesh-eating parasite that caused the closure more than a year ago has not been eradicated — and there still isn’t an adequate supply of the sterile flies needed to stop it. The opening Monday of a cattle port in Arizona, an attempt by the Trump administration to reduce record-high consumer beef prices, comes as both the United States and Mexico are still fighting the spread of New World screwworm. “We have enough to slow it, not to eradicate it,” said Adm. Michael Schmoyer, director of the New World Screwworm Directorate, a unit within the U.S. Department of of Agriculture created to coordinate the federal response to the flesh-eating larvae that can infest and kill cattle and other animals.

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The directorate’s challenge is simple math. During the last major outbreak in the mid-1960s, about 500 million sterile flies were released each week to prevent the screwworm fly from maintaining a self-sustaining population. Since the current outbreak began in early June with the first confirmed case in Zavala County, only about 700 million sterile flies had been released by Aug. 12, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. As of Sunday, the U.S. had 46 cases — all but one in Texas — with two cases active in Terrell and Val Verde counties. The last confirmed new case was reported Aug. 16, also in Texas. In Mexico, screwworm is still spreading, with 82 active cases in the state of Chihuahua as of Aug. 18. Monday’s reopening of a crossing in Douglas, Ariz., comes as the USDA says the spread has slowed enough to allow imports to the U.S. market, where consumers have seen beef prices jump 12% from a year ago. The price increases come as supply has declined because of a U.S. cattle herd that has been shrinking for five years and now is the smallest in decades.

Wife of Army sergeant at Fort Bliss is deported to Honduras

The wife of an active-duty U.S. soldier was deported Monday to her native Honduras, according to her family and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty U.S. military service member to be deported under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Associated Press has found more than 50 cases in which immediate family members of U.S. troops were placed in federal immigration detention after the Trump administration rolled back protections for military families. In some instances, DHS has released military spouses following media attention and advocacy by congressional leaders. Villafranca-Trejo’s husband, Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, said he has been struggling to manage his military duties since she was detained July 11 outside a Walmart near Fort Bliss, Texas, where he is stationed.

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Since then, he’s had to care for their 6-year-old daughter without his wife’s help. Instead of training in the mornings, he takes his daughter to first grade, and he said he has already had to postpone a planned assignment at another base. “I don’t know if I will be able to continue with this,” Turcios Juarez told AP of his Army career. “I have to make a plan to make sure I can still fulfill my military responsibilities — but also take care of my family.” DHS confirmed Villafranca-Trejo’s deportation, saying she had “received due process.” Villafranca-Trejo, who has no known criminal record and entered the U.S. in 2016 at age 18, was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2017 after failing to appear at a hearing, according to DHS. Villafranca-Trejo’s husband said she had not received a notice for the hearing she missed and did not realize she had been ordered deported until they went to apply for her green card after marrying in 2022. Originally from Honduras, Turcios Juarez became a U.S. citizen in 2024 after enlisting two years earlier.

5-year-old boy and father will be deported after ICE arrest on way to Austin soccer game

Victor Martinez Nieto, the father of 5-year-old Liam Tadeo, has chosen to be deported to Mexico with his son, rather than risk the child being separated from his family by immigration officials, according to their lawyer. The father and son were pulled over and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in North Austin on Aug. 16, while on their way to a children's Sunday soccer game. The pair’s detention was captured on video. It sparked calls from Congressman Greg Casar, D-Austin, and others for Liam’s release and the closure of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, where the two have been since their arrest. But Martinez Nieto’s lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, says her client has decided to return to Mexico with Liam, rather than risk losing custody of his son.

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“Victor, facing the possibility that he will be separated from Liam, ... is deciding to depart voluntarily with his son because the alternative is that Liam could be placed into [Office of Refugee Resettlement] custody as an unaccompanied child,” she said. “Children can be held in this system for months or even years at a time. It's a really bad experience for children and the family is just not willing to risk Liam being held alone,” she said. In a public statement shared with KXAN News last week, the Department of Homeland Security said, “Parents have a choice if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administrations’ immigration enforcement." Lincoln-Goldfinch says that Liam’s family in Austin, including his mother, was not given the option of having Liam released into their custody. She said Liam’s mother, who lives in Austin, is figuring out how to reunite with her son. “In a heartbeat, she lost both her husband and her child. And her number one main priority is her son and his well being,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said. KUT News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on these developments.

Patients face long-term consequences after JPS Health Network outage

A network outage due to detected “suspicious activity” at the John Peter Smith Hospital system lasted almost two weeks, and some patients are facing lasting consequences. JPS Health Network continued to operate under a “controlled network downtime” that started on Aug. 3, the hospital communicated through social media. While the health system’s hospital, clinics and other locations remained open, online services and phone lines were affected. Under the controlled network downtime, doctors, nurses and other staff used established manual procedures to provide care while technology systems were unavailable.

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Many people on social media expressed frustration over not being able to access charting portals, scheduling, prescriptions and other critical care. Some also said the outage was affecting payroll for care providers. Other concerns reported on social media involved not being able to get prescribed critical medication without an original paper copy of the prescription. While the hospital did not directly communicate that, many community members said they learned that only after arriving at the pharmacy to receive their medications. JPS also takes care of inmates’ medical needs at the Tarrant County Jail. When asked about delays inmates might have faced during the outage, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said that is something JPS has to answer. It is unclear how much financial impact the outage had and the long-lasting impacts. While JPS’ core network was reported to be restored on Friday, Aug. 14, some social media users reported not being able to access online charts. JPS has said that patients should be able to log into MyChart as of Aug. 16.

National Stories

Trump-backed candidates have lost 10 primaries. South Carolina is the next test.

The next big test of President Donald Trump’s now-strained endorsement power takes place Tuesday in South Carolina, where Republicans are voting in a runoff to elect a Senate nominee after the sudden death of Lindsey Graham. Trump backed Sen. Darline Graham, the late senator’s sister, for a full six-year term after the state’s GOP governor appointed her to temporarily fill the role shortly after Graham’s death last month. She faces Rep. Ralph Norman, a longtime conservative firebrand in the state and a House Freedom Caucus member whose campaign has shown signs of momentum despite the president’s support for Graham.

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Unlike in the state’s gubernatorial primary in June — when Trump initially endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who ultimately failed to gain traction with a majority of GOP voters — this time, the president is motivated to get his candidate over the finish line. He wants to mitigate his recent shaky endorsement record after his candidates suffered losses in at least 10 primary races this year, including high-profile defeats in Iowa, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Wyoming. “I think she’s great. I asked her to do it. I got her into this whole thing,” Trump said Monday night during a tele-rally for Graham, letting out a small chuckle. “I have to make sure she gets in, because there will be nobody better.” In June, Trump issued a last-minute dual endorsement of both Evette and her runoff opponent, Attorney General Alan Wilson, who won the primary election. Trump did not visit South Carolina to try to boost Evette. This time, Trump did visit the state, traveling on Friday to campaign in a primary for a seat that is widely expected to remain safely red this fall. His aligned super PAC, MAGA Inc., also doled out more than $825,000 over the weekend for get-out-the vote calls and texts on Graham’s behalf — marking the first time this year his political operation has deployed its large reserves of cash. The travel and spending reflected the Trump team’s concern about notching a win in a primary runoff they expected would be close.

A third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched were written by AI, study finds

Over one-third of web pages published after the release of ChatGPT show signs of being written by AI, according to a new study from Pew Research released on Thursday. The report corroborates other studies that detail how much of the web’s newer web pages are now either written by or “substantially edited” by AI, the firm says. It also arrives shortly after internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare reported that bot web traffic had overtaken human web traffic — a milestone that was reached sooner than the company had estimated. Pew’s data, however, is focused not on who or what is browsing the web, but on what is being browsed. And apparently, much of it is bots reading web pages written by other bots.

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To compile the report, Pew said it used the Common Crawl web archive to collect nearly half a million English-language web pages from the past five or so years, starting a couple of years before ChatGPT’s November 2022 release. Pew then used Open Pangram’s technology to detect how many were likely written or heavily edited by AI. In a random sample of 10,000 web pages collected in July 2026, around 10% showed “significant signs of AI authorship,” Pew said. However, Pew pointed out that a random sample like this would inevitably include older web pages — ones published before AI writing tools even existed, and therefore couldn’t have been AI written. To get a better sense of how much of the web is now being written by AI, Pew filtered out the older web pages and focused only on those published after the release of ChatGPT. In this same snapshot with the older pages removed, signs of AI authorship were found in over one-third (35%) of the pages. Drilling down into domains themselves, Pew found that URLs with a .com domain showed signs of AI authorship at around 10x the rate of a .edu or .gov domain (both of which were around 1% AI authored). In addition, .org domains had only a 4.6% rate of AI authorship. Of course, this analysis is not perfect. Pangram, like other AI-detection tools, can misclassify pages as AI written when they weren’t. But at scale, the data is likely at least directionally correct. In addition, Pew found that other supposed tells of AI authorship had also increased over the years, like the use of em dashes, Oxford commas, and phrasing like “it’s not X, it’s Y,” among other things.

Paramount-WB Deal could cost LA 4,500 film and TV jobs and $2.8 billion, study finds

The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger could result in the loss of nearly 4,500 film and TV jobs in Los Angeles County over the next three years when the two companies combine their operations, according to a new analysis by CVL Economics and the Department of Economic Opportunity exclusively obtained by TheWrap. The report also estimates that a total of 10,360 “job years” could be at risk, including 2,661 indirect jobs at small businesses that support production — such as prop houses, printers, transportation companies and other vendors — and 3,204 induced jobs that exist because film and TV workers spend money in the local economy — including restaurants, retailers and service providers. A “job year” is defined as one job sustained for one year and measures the total volume of work that could disappear over time. For example, one job lasting three years equals three job years.

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Overall, the economic impact of losing these jobs would be $1.26 billion in wages, $2.78 billion in economic value, $4.06 billion in total business output and $547 million in tax revenue, including $78.6 million in local taxes — most of which (63%) comes from property taxes. Los Angeles County’s creative economy supports more than 312,000 workers, including approximately 171,155 entertainment sector jobs. The direct jobs at risk account for nearly 9% of the 52,016 film and TV jobs California has already lost since 2022 — and almost all those losses (99.6%) occurred in Los Angeles County. CVL and DEO said the losses would occur due to slate consolidation that would result in fewer buyers and fewer greenlights and reduce the overall number of unscripted/talk shows and related opportunities for Los Angeles–based crews. They also warned that about 895 creators hold exclusive deals with the two companies and that if development shrinks, these creators and their crews will lose work. If the two companies merge, the decisions they make about where to film their shows could dramatically affect how much production stays in California, CVL and DEO said. The high cost of living in L.A. County and California, combined with stronger incentives out of state and abroad, also contribute to work shifting out of the state and country.

Tornado Alley’s on the move and creating new risk concerns, modeler says

The peak of tornado season may be behind us, but the eastward expansion of what has been traditionally known as Tornado Alley into more populated areas may continue raising insurance risk for some time. Record tornado activity in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin this year drove elevated claims and increasing risk because of population exposure. Increased losses in new areas weren’t from raw tornado counts across the U.S., but from increased risk exposure, according to one industry catastrophe modeler. Illinois led all states in tornado activity in this year, with 220 confirmed tornadoes through the end of July. Indiana and Wisconsin also set record-high numbers.

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Weather experts say the tornado alley shift — beyond areas like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas — is due to a warming climate that helps transport warmer and more-humid air farther north and east than in the past. Illinois saw its third distinct spike in five years, and the year’s volume already exceeds 2024 and 2025 combined, with average severity up by a factor of four since 2022, according to Verisk. The 2026 Illinois surge has been concentrated, driven mainly by occurrences in June and July, and by strikes in Cook, Kankakee and Coles counties. Kankakee saw unusually high severity with a $104,000 average estimate, according to Verisk data. Wisconsin experienced an even sharper spike, up 672% year-over-year, but that spike is due largely to a single concentrated event in Winnebago County in July the data show. “The Tornado Alley’s kind of expanding or shifting a bit eastward, and so I think as we think about that from an insurance perspective and think about ‘What does that mean for insurers,’ I think one of the largest concerns is there’s a lot more population as you move eastward,” said Tory Farney, vice president of Verisk Weather Solutions. Their data show the numbers of tornadoes aren’t going up, but the losses have tended to be worse when they strike.

Democrats hash out trans rights message in Massachusetts debate

Democrats have another chance to test their messaging about transgender rights that the party has struggled to make plain. Two Democrats vying for the party’s Massachusetts Senate seat will face off Thursday in their final debate before the state’s Sept. 1 primary. Laws banning transgender women from participating in female sports surfaced as a key difference between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton in their debate earlier this month and led to a contentious exchange. The events represent one of few opportunities for national Democrats to publicly debate an issue Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars attacking their support in the past several election cycles.

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Markey is looking to question Moulton’s commitment to trans rights given his post-2024 election stance that Democrats’ support of trans athletes was out of touch with voters. Moulton at the time cited not wanting his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.” Gallup polling after that election found that 69 percent of U.S. adults — including about four in 10 Democrats — believe that transgender athletes should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth sex. Still, Moulton in the Aug. 3 debate apologized for those comments and tried to defend his LGBTQ+ record. Lanae Erickson, senior vice president at center-left think tank Third Way, said part of the reason Republicans’ attacks have landed so well is “because Democrats were afraid to talk about” it. “At this point, every person in America has a viewpoint on transgender participation in sports. It’s incumbent on Democrats to be able to speak about this issue authentically and not evade it,” Erickson said. “In a way that opposes blanket bans, but leaves room for people to have questions about the rules.”

Iran vows to retaliate after US widens sanctions

Iran pledged to fight back against expanded U.S. sanctions aimed at isolating its economy, expressing confidence that major trading partners would resist Washington's pressure campaign. Almost six ?months into a conflict the U.S. has struggled to resolve, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled the measures on Monday but stopped short of the most punishing sanctions. While he said countries that continued trading with Iran risked being forced out of the dollar-based financial system, he declined to give a timeline or identify which may be targeted, saying he would give them time to comply with the new directive.

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"Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?" he said when asked why the ?measures had not gone further. The Treasury Department did announce new sanctions on 60 individuals, entities and vessels, but the list did not feature any of the Chinese financial institutions suspected of facilitating ?Iran's oil trade. "We want to make clear here today that no one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions," Bessent said in response to a question ?about Chinese banks. China has been the biggest buyer of Iranian oil for several years, although the U.S. blockade of Iran's ports has cut Iranian oil flows to China since Washington renewed it in mid-July. Experts say Washington is ?wary of Chinese retaliation for any sanctions on its banks ahead of expected talks next month between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with any curbs on China's exports of critical minerals especially sensitive. China ?said on Tuesday that its cooperation with Iran is conducted within the framework of international law and should not be interfered with or disrupted. Oil prices fell for a second day as traders brushed off the impact of the sanctions, although market participants remained wary of Iran's continued ability to disrupt shipping.

White House crops Natalie Harp out of Grand Prix content

As we’ve learned in recent weeks, Natalie Harp rarely leaves the president’s side, and Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix was no exception. What was odd was that even though Harp was clearly among the president’s entourage, she was mostly invisible in the White House social media coverage of the race. The administration has been trying to do damage control as public scrutiny over the relationship between the president and Harp intensifies, and it seems that not even an appearance by the reclusive first lady or mountains of media intrigue can convince her to leave his side for any length of time.

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In broadcasts of the event, Harp was clearly visible among Trump’s guests. In the president’s suite she was spotted standing behind and to the right of Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, who has reportedly found herself at odds with Harp over her increasingly controversial relationship with her husband. Shocking. Someone in the press office, it seems, is trying to lower the temperature. A clip of Trump waving the starting flag for the IndyCar race held on the National Mall on Sunday was oddly cropped. Half of the Fox Sports logo was missing, the first lady had an arm almost entirely cut out of the frame. Zoom out and the full picture shows Harp hovering just beyond the first lady’s shoulder. Cameras also captured the first lady standing up and leaving her suite shortly after Harp arrived and approached the president, lingering behind him as he spoke to another guest. Harp, a 35 year aide to the president, has over the last few years become one of the most powerful — if least known — figures within Trump’s inner circle. She shares control of his social media, is his confidant and informant, travels with him virtually everywhere, and acts as a gatekeeper for his time and attention. Her status as a background character in the attention-hungry MAGA universe ended this summer, as reports emerged of the deep — passionate to the point of concern — devotion that she holds for the president. ‘Last week, The Daily Beast and Michael Wolff published two letters written by Harp and reportedly left in the president’s personal quarters — alarming the Secret Service.

GLP-1 boom could reshape restaurant bars as diners cut back on alcohol

The rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs could be changing more than what Americans put on their plates, as restaurants increasingly look to wellness drinks and other alternatives to traditional alcoholic beverages. The National Restaurant Association's new 2026 Restaurant Beverage Trends report found growing interest in a wider range of drink choices, particularly among younger consumers, as restaurants experiment with everything from wellness and energy drinks to smoothies, lemonades and alcohol-free cocktails. Chad Moutray, chief economist at the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association, told Fox News Digital that the growing use of GLP-1 medications is one of several health trends restaurant operators are watching.

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The report, which was conducted by the National Restaurant Association and is based on surveys of consumers and restaurant operators across the country, found that health is already influencing some Americans' decisions about alcohol. Among adults surveyed who said they don't drink alcohol, 25% cited health reasons. That figure climbed to 34% among Gen Z nondrinkers. Several trends are converging as younger consumers become more health-conscious and GLP-1 medications become more widely used, Moutray said. "I think you're seeing a lot younger folks who are, in general, wanting to be healthier. You have the Make America Healthy Again movement, which is also driving some of this trend," he said. "You have people drinking energy drinks and health drinks and all those things. And then you add to that the GLP-1 notion, where if you're taking one of those drugs and your appetite is more suppressed, you're not going to drink as much alcohol." Restaurants are already preparing to broaden their drink selections.

Copyright August 25, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved