September 24, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas counties are receiving tens of thousands of unprocessed voter registration applications due to state error

Tens of thousands of voter registration applications, some dating back at least a year, are caught in a backlog and have yet to be processed due to an error by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the leader of an association of county election officials said Wednesday. Texas Democrats, who are fiercely contesting key offices in closely watched races this year, are calling on Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, to investigate the problem, which was first reported by Votebeat. Some voter registration applications and updates submitted through DPS’s online driver’s license portal were never sent to county voter registrars, the state told county election officials. In an emailed statement Wednesday, DPS said “the system issue has been resolved” and the agency worked with the secretary of state’s office “to identify incomplete records to backfill incomplete information.” DPS did not respond to questions about what caused the issue or the exact scope of the problem. The state began delivering the unsent registrations to county officials Tuesday night.

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Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said the organization is still gathering numbers from its members but that he expects large counties to be hit the hardest with additional applications. Voter registrars have told the association they’ve received anywhere from a few hundred voter registration applications to process in small counties to tens of thousands of applications and updates in the most populous counties, McGinn said in a statement Wednesday. “We cannot provide specific numbers of these records for specific counties, because by the time I send this e-mail the numbers will have gone up — and will continue to go up throughout the day today,” he wrote. In Collin County, officials are analyzing more than 40,000 additional records they’ve received as of Wednesday. Election workers are trying to identify how many of those could be duplicates of existing records, as well as how many are new voter registration applications versus updates to an existing voter registration, said Kaleb Breaux, the county’s elections administrator. That data analysis alone is going to be time-consuming, he said. “I have seven full-time voter registration staff and we have brought in 10 temporary workers since Labor Day to help out with applications,” Breaux said. “Depending on what our final numbers are, and how long it takes to process these records, we may have to bring on more.”

Angela Paxton to Texas women: Vote Republican despite candidate flaws

State Sen. Angela Paxton of McKinney is telling Texas women to vote for the Republican ticket, including candidates they see as flawed. Her public comments are being closely watched after she filed for divorce from Attorney General Ken Paxton last year, accusing him of adultery. Ken Paxton is running for the Senate against state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, after defeating longtime Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff in May.

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“It’s not the people; it’s the seat, because we have more control over that seat and the future when we control the seat, when it’s still in the family, even if we’re mad at them,” Angela Paxton said while speaking last week to a group of Republican women. “But if we lose it to the other team, the nuances that we want to fix with maybe a certain candidate are nothing compared to what it’s going to take to get it back.” The outlet spoke to attendees who confirmed Angela Paxton never mentioned Ken Paxton by name while making the case for overlooking the flaws of an individual candidate and focusing on party values. Angela Paxton sent an email to supporters before the GOP runoff encouraging them to vote in that election and endorsing various statewide candidates but stopped short of endorsing either Republican in the Senate contest.

Texas turning blue may hinge on Democrats harnessing data center opposition

Mason McCallister said it was an act of God that sent him down a gravel road near his home in Bells, Texas, one Sunday last December. It wasn’t the normal route he and his family take back from church, but he decided to detour so his daughters could shout hello to their grandmother as they drove by her home. What he saw that day catapulted him into a debate playing out around the country — and especially in Texas — over data centers. It’s one that may now affect the outcome of key elections in the Lone Star State. As they rolled past, flashes of red caught McCallister’s eye among the lush green of the area’s gentle hills. “Driving down that road, I just see survey markers everywhere,” McCallister, a real estate agent, told CNBC. “And I knew at that time what was happening. I could feel it” — a data center is coming, he said. Mason McCallister, a real estate agent who has argued for stricter regulations and more transparency around data center development, near his Bells, Texas home.

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The outcry over data centers — warehouses that contain the hardware for powering artificial intelligence and other technology — was only a faint murmur when McCallister first saw the survey markers. In the months since, it’s become a dull roar, as increasingly more projects are proposed and built, and general anxiety over AI and its potentially humanity-ending powers grows. Across Texas and the country, people have flooded local meetings to protest proposed projects, citing concerns about the use of water and other resources, noise and light pollution, rising utility costs and falling property values. Some towns and cities have moved to block their development, as anti-data center advocacy groups and social media pages proliferate. Polling shows the economy and cost of living are top of mind for voters in the runup to the 2026 midterm elections. But some political strategists say data centers are a potent enough issue that they could shift the balance of power in Texas, potentially paving the way for Democrats to win statewide for the first time since 1994. Democrats have their sights set on the governor’s mansion, as well as an open U.S. Senate seat, and the outcome of the Senate race could determine control of Congress. Populists on both the left and the right — including Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo. — were quick to try to rein in data centers and protect consumers against associated utility cost increases.

Behind the oil-and-gas industry’s blitz to try to defeat a diesel export ban

When the oil-and-gas industry heard President Trump back the idea of a ban on diesel exports, it pulled out the bazooka. Shortly after Trump made his suggestion Tuesday, Mike Sommers, chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s top lobby, issued a statement condemning the move. He said restricting U.S. exports “would only compound the problem” of rising diesel costs. API also issued a press release on the dangers of an export ban. “Restricting U.S. diesel exports would wreak havoc on fuel markets at home and abroad, destabilize refinery operations and deepen a global refining crisis already putting upward pressure on U.S. prices,” the group said. Around the same time, a loose group of CEOs affiliated with API and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade group that represents refiners, sprang into action.

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Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier and other senior executives started calling their contacts in the administration to push back on the idea of a ban, according to people close to the situation. The executives have different relationships with different members of the administration and they made their discontent known. ExxonMobil and Valero are among the other companies involved in the effort, according to people aware of the interactions. The industry has also been able to rely on Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Louisiana Republicans. The full-throated offense comes as the industry sees an existential threat to its business. Oil-and-gas producers sell a large chunk of their product to refiners, who then turn it into fuel and export it. Bottling up diesel production risks congesting the whole energy chain—and could cost the industry billions of dollars. On Wednesday, more than 30 business, energy and manufacturing groups including API, AFPM and the Business Roundtable in a letter urged Trump to reject export restrictions. “While we understand the urge for a silver bullet, there are no easy answers,” the letter said. Oil lobbies and executives have been gearing up for a potential ban on energy exports since the beginning of the Iran war. They first anticipated restrictions on crude exports. In the end, it is diesel, whose price has exploded, that has become a target of the administration.

State Stories

Why Texas could become epicenter of America’s housing downturn

Texas is set to become the epicenter of America’s housing downturn, as the state faces such a significant inventory glut that many of its markets are likely to see dramatic price declines, according to analysts. The massive population boom faced by the state between 2020 and 2024, when U.S. Census Bureau data shows it gained over 2.1 million new residents, spurred an unprecedented surge in new home construction in Texas, made easier by regulatory relief and lower costs. This would generally be considered good news for buyers, as the nation is facing a chronic shortage of affordable homes, estimated anywhere between 1.5 million and 10 million.

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But by the time this new inventory flooded the Texas market, everything had changed. Domestic migration to the state had slowed down, held back by return-to-office orders; and higher borrowing costs and skyrocketing home values had pushed many would-be buyers to the sidelines. "High mortgage rates and still-high home prices have dampened demand and allowed homes to stack up on the market, and now the pressure on prices is downward," Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, told Newsweek. While for Berner this is a natural "correction" of the Texas housing market, for Trevor Bacon, founder and CEO of housing data and analytics company Parcl Labs, it is a sign of a potential darker turn for the state. "Texas is dealing with a supply glut that was largely built for a very different demand and affordability environment," he told Newsweek. "Demand peaked in 2021 when mortgage rates were still around 3 percent, yet roughly 75 percent of the stock added across Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio since 2020 came after that peak," he said. "Today, there is simply too much housing at prices and financing costs buyers aren’t willing or able to absorb," he added. That is why Parcl Labs believes that Texas may become the weakest major housing market in the country. "The market now has to rebalance with mortgage rates near 7 percent, and price appears to be the primary lever left," Bacon said.

HISD cuts staff, campus budgets after enrollment drops nearly 10,000 from last September

Houston ISD is cutting staff, reassigning employees and reducing campus budgets after steep enrollment declines so far this school year. HISD reported just over 155,600 students enrolled as of Sept. 4, which is a drop of nearly 10,000 students from September 2025, according to records obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Texas public schools will not count their official enrollment until Oct. 31, and HISD’s student population typically grows between the start of school and then. But the early decline points to a tight financial year for the district, which expected to lose only 4,000 students — or $50 million in funding — this school year. The state funds public schools based on attendance, so declining enrollment in HISD and other districts creates financial pressure.

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HISD had 9,691 fewer students on Sept. 4 than on Sept. 5, 2025, according to district records. That represents a nearly 6% drop in enrollment. HISD said in a statement Tuesday that the enrollment losses are part of broader financial challenges facing the district and other public schools across the country. “We have worked hard over the last three years to put HISD on stronger financial footing while putting more resources into classrooms and increasing teacher pay,” state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said in a press release. “But we also have to adjust when enrollment and revenues change. We have to make responsible decisions now so the District remains financially strong and can continue investing in the things that have the greatest impact on student achievement," he said. "We are hopeful the next legislative session will provide additional funding for Texas public schools." It’s typical for a district’s student count to gradually increase after the first day of school until it reaches peak enrollment sometime between the end of September and mid-October, said University of Houston clinical associate professor Duncan Klussmann.

Gina Hinojosa blasts HISD AI use as Greg Abbott's 'experiment' on kids

Gina Hinojosa made a campaign stop in front of Houston ISD headquarters Tuesday, calling the district's plan to expand its AI-focused school model to 100 campuses "Greg Abbott's plan to experiment on our children with AI." It's part of the Austin Democrat's campaign focused on public education as she takes on Abbott in the race for Texas governor. The former school board member has also pledged to end the state takeover of HISD and other districts, eliminate the STAAR and cut the state's new $1 billion voucher program for private school tuition while increasing teacher pay. Her populist message for everyday Texans, including teachers, against tech billionaires has made her perhaps the most serious challenger that Abbott has faced during his three terms as governor.

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Hinojosa on Tuesday called for a "framework in place to protect kids" and said elementary school students shouldn't interact with artificial intelligence. "I am here to talk about the catastrophic impacts on our children to experimenting — Greg Abbott's plan to experiment on our children — with AI," Hinojosa said. "I am here in Houston where the plan under Greg Abbott is to convert 100 schools —100 public schools — into AI schools, and they have already started." HISD's state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles wants to increase the number of so-called Future 2 schools from nine this year to 100 by 2031, according to an email obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Miles has said the model is meant to prepare students for a world where AI is ubiquitous. While HISD has embraced AI in its new school model, curriculum and special education compliance, other large school districts in the country, such as Los Angeles and New York City, have put sweeping restrictions on students using AI. Locally, Katy ISD has banned generative AI through sixth grade and placed limits for older students.

Federal judge rules EPA unlawfully clawed back $250 million for solar energy initiatives across Texas

A federal judge this week ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency unlawfully clawed back more than $250 million for solar energy initiatives across Texas, siding with a legal challenge brought by Harris County last year. The ‘Solar for All‘ program was intended to fund clean energy initiatives for low-income households across the state, create job growth and establish community hubs powered by solar energy reserves in the event of power outages. The program was backed by a $7 billion clean energy fund signed by former President Joe Biden. Harris County was awarded $54 million for the solar program in 2024. That money was rescinded in August last year when the county received a termination letter from the EPA that claimed to end the initiative.

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The Harris County Attorney’s Office brought the legal challenge in October of 2025, after raising doubts about the legality of the termination notice. The EPA argued in court that Congress repealed the Solar for All program in 2025 through the passing of President Donald Trump’s signature tax cut and spending package — known colloquially as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — forcing the agency to terminate more than $7 billion in grant funds for solar initiatives across the United States, according to lawsuit documents. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday sided with Harris County in it’s arguments that the EPA unlawfully clawed back those funds. She described the agency’s interpretation of the act as “arbitrary and capricious.” Chutkan’s ruling does not instruct the EPA to restore the grant funds. Brent Taylor, a spokesperson for the Harris County Attorney’s Office, said the federal agency will essentially be on notice to figure out how to restore the program, though not necessarily any lost funds. Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin, who was appointed by commissioners court in April this year, said the county will work to safeguard the funds for local projects.

Nueces River Authority leader announces retirement days before board meets on his job

For two years, John Byrum sold South Texas on a big idea. A small river authority based in Uvalde would build a 100-million-gallon-a-day seawater desalination plant on Harbor Island. The river authority's board president, Eric Burnett, has called the future facility the largest plant of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Now Byrum is leaving before construction has started, and days before his board is scheduled to discuss his job behind closed doors. KRIS 6 News has reported several setbacks for the project this year. Design work on its pipeline stopped after the engineering firm ran through its contract. Byrum said federal money was coming, but no commitment has been made. And in June, the agency's chief financial officer confirmed that money for the project could run out by the end of August unless more payments came in.

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The project is tied to a regional water shortage. This spring, the city of Corpus Christi said a persistent drought could trigger a water emergency in a region of more than 500,000 people, where oil refineries and petrochemical plants would also face cuts. City leaders have since said recent rains pushed that date back to September 2027. Regional water planners project the area will need roughly double its current water supply within a decade, a gap the Harbor Island project is meant to help address. Corpus Christi agreed in October 2025 to pay the river authority $2.7 million to reserve 50 million gallons a day from the plant. As of July, 18 cities and water supply corporations across South and Central Texas had paid fees to hold a place in line. Corpus Christi's own, separate desalination project in the Inner Harbor has stalled. In early September, the City Council voted 5-3 against a design contract for the roughly $979 million plant. The Nueces River Authority announced Wednesday that Byrum will retire as executive director Oct. 31. The agenda for Friday's board meeting includes a closed session on the "evaluation, duties, discipline, employment, reassignment, or dismissal" of the executive director, followed by possible action in open session. Deputy Director John Chisholm will serve as interim executive director, pending action by the board.

San Antonio congressman says Venezuelan man shot by ICE told he needs surgery

A Democratic congressman said Wednesday that a Venezuelan man shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas and then taken to a detention center has been told by a specialist he needs surgery to remove the bullet still lodged near his spine. U.S. Rep. Greg Casar visited a federal detention center in south Texas where Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was taken into custody after being shot Sunday in Austin by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Casar said Garces Perez was in a wheelchair and still in pain, but did not say whether the family had decided that he should undergo surgery. The Department of Homeland Security has said Garces Perez, who has been taken to a hospital twice since the shooting, is receiving around-the-clock medical care and pain medication.

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“If they want to say it’s great medical care, they should start providing great medical care today by having him leave the detention center, go to a hospital or to a doctor, and do not delay his surgery if that’s what his family chooses to do,” Casar said. Garces Perez remains in Texas detention center Casar, whose district includes Austin, was the first member of Congress to visit Garces Perez in person since the shooting. He said the wound in Garces Perez’s back remains bloody and medical staff change his gauze two or three times daily. Following Casar’s visit and a press conference, DHS issued a previous statement denying claims that Garces Perez was forced to sleep on a floor or that he was prevented from having the bullet removed, saying ICE would not advise on a medical procedure for a detainee. Garces Perez was making a DoorDash delivery when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice, his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said. He was shot and taken to a hospital, then released into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back, she said.

Bo French wants to 'kick' Islam out of Texas energy. Can he?

Bo French has said he is running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, to “end DEI” and “to kick radical Islam out of Texas Energy.” But just how far he could stretch the commission’s authority is an open question. French made waves this month when he posted a photo of non-white students at a UT football game and suggested they did not belong at the school. He has since doubled down on the position, even in the face of Republican criticism. If he defeats his Democratic opponent Jon Rosenthal in November, he would become one of three commissioners with sweeping discretion over an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Texans. He would also help lead the commission’s staff of more than one thousand employees.

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Theoretically, French has little room to fulfill his campaign promises, industry experts and attorneys said. The bulk of the commission’s work involves approving and regulating permits that empower oil and gas companies to drill wells, operate pipelines and dispose of oilfield waste. French has targeted Saudi Arabia’s presence in the Texas energy industry in news releases and social media posts, pointing to a petrochemical facility north of Corpus Christi that a subsidiary of the nation’s state-owned oil company operates with Spring-based Exxon Mobil. A subsidiary of Saudi Aramco also operates a massive oil refinery — the largest in the U.S. — in Port Arthur, a facility that employs more than one thousand people. The Railroad Commission doesn’t have direct permitting authority over these facilities, but it does regulate the pipelines carrying oil, gas and chemicals to and from the sites. If the commission figured out a legal pathway to suspend permits for these pipelines, it could functionally freeze operations at the facilities. French, a former Tarrant County GOP chair, did not respond to requests for comment.

Recall efforts target Dallas Council Members Gay Donnell Willis and Chad West

Two members of the Dallas City Council are facing separate recall efforts, as neighborhood disputes over hot-button zoning cases — and, in one case, the future of Dallas City Hall — spill into electoral politics. Groups in Districts 13 and 1 are preparing petitions seeking to recall Council Members Gay Donnell Willis and Chad West, respectively. D13 Together, a coalition that comprises neighborhood residents from Preston Hollow, Melshire Estates, Wimberley Court, and Bluffview, among others, announced plans Tuesday to notify the city secretary of its intent to circulate a recall petition early next week to remove Willis (District 13) from office. “I think we’ve got a lot of synergy among the neighborhoods,” said resident Margaret DiFrancesco. “We’re funded, we’re serious, we’re committed, and I think we have a lot of strength in our numbers.”

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From official notification, the group will have 60 days to gather signatures from at least 15% of the District 13 voters eligible to participate in the last general municipal election. That way put the target figure over 9,500. If the city secretary certifies the petition, the Dallas City Council would be required to call a recall election for the next date permitted under state law, which would be in May. Tension has been building for months around three zoning cases in the district, so much so that the coalition formed in August and issued an ultimatum to Willis, calling on her to delay or oppose specific zoning applications that have drawn organized neighborhood opposition over proposed height and density increases. Meanwhile, a group of Oak Cliff residents is also planning to collect signatures to recall their council member, citing disputes over zoning and the future of Dallas City Hall. Neighborhood organizer Joseph Beckham told the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday that he and others intend to file notice with the city this week. Organizers estimate they would need roughly 7,000 signatures.

The enending nightmare of Jason Landry’s disappearance comes to an end

It became one of the most bizarre missing persons cases in Texas history, but it began in a fashion that can only be described as strikingly mundane: Jason Landry, a laid-back college student, had spent several days camped out in his apartment, making social media videos, talking to friends about conspiracies, smoking pot, ordering fast food, and perfecting an extensive Christmas wish list for his mother. Hours before he would become a statewide news story, Jason told friends that he planned to drive from his San Marcos apartment to his family’s home, in the Houston suburbs. It was a seemingly safe and predictable two-and-a-half-hour road trip he’d made several times before. But somewhere along the way, in a set of circumstances that still remain shrouded in ambiguity, Jason’s late-night drive turned into a nightmare, one that has lasted—almost impossibly—for nearly six years. On Wednesday, a critical piece of that nightmare, the uncertainty that has kept Jason’s family members from being able to fully process his tragic ending, came to a merciful end.

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The Texas attorney general’s office’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit announced that DNA analysis has concluded that human remains recently discovered in rural Caldwell County and tested by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI) are those of Jason Landry. “The Landry family has been notified, and agencies respectfully request privacy for the family as they navigate this difficult update,” the statement read. The statement noted that the skeletal remains do not offer insight into the cause of death, whether foul play was involved, or how they arrived at their final resting place, questions that will ensure investigators continue researching Jason’s case. Jason’s disappearance always seemed like more than a simple mystery—it was something far more unsettling and disorienting. In the nearly two years I spent investigating his disappearance, culminating in a story for Texas Monthly that was published last summer, it became clear to me that everyone who ventured into the case—whether they were volunteer searchers, law enforcement investigators, or parents desperately searching for their child—lost a part of themself in their hunt for Jason. Indeed, the phenomenon began the moment Kent Landry, Jason’s father, arrived on Salt Flat Road outside Luling in the freezing early-morning hours of December 13, 2020, to find that the state trooper who’d alerted him to his son’s abandoned car had gone home and fallen asleep.

‘You Can See Everything’ trailer: Nathan Fielder lives with Texan Elizabeth Holmes, makes her cry and interrogates her husband

A24 has released a new trailer for “You Can See Everything,” the mysterious and highly anticipated documentary that’s heating up awards season. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s top-secret doc is 174 minutes and follows Theranos founder and fraudster Elizabeth Holmes in her final days of freedom and first few weeks of imprisonment. The official logline reads: “Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.”

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The highly anticipated documentary premiered to a full crowd at the Telluride Film Festival, followed by the reveal of a short teaser and an Oct. 16 release date announcement. Leaving much to be discovered, the minute-long teaser showed Fielder and Holmes staring intensely into each other’s eyes as Holmes promises she’s being genuine. “I don’t have anything to deceive you on,” Holmes tells him. “Of course I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.” Variety’s film critic Owen Gleiberman saw the film at the festival and described it as “a one-of-a-kind reality-TV-as-hangout-movie psychodrama circus. Yet it’s been made with a spirit of true inquiry, driven by Fielder’s acidly quizzical personality (as an onscreen interviewer, he’s got the most drop-dead deadpan since Steven Wright), and it gets its hooks in you.” Similarly, Variety’s own Clayton Davis concluded that the film “keeps escalating in strangeness across its three-year span and lands a final movement that had Telluride’s most seasoned attendees walking out shell-shocked. ‘Wild’ and ‘WTF?’ were the words circulating on the gondola line, and they were compliments.”

Half of Texas families have someone skipping meals or eating less as food costs rise, new poll says

Texas families are struggling to keep up with rising food costs, according to a new poll from No Kid Hungry Texas. Half of Texas families surveyed reported at least one member of the household skipping meals or eating less because of concerns about cost. Advocates warn food insecurity and the effects of inflation could worsen as federal changes to food assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, go into effect. No Kid Hungry Texas conducts this kind of polling every year, according to the organization’s director Stacie Sanchez. She said in previous polls parents might stop buying specific types of foods that can be expensive, like meat or protein, but parents skipping meals is new. “Parents are having to make difficult trade-offs,” she said. “They are having to make really hard choices between paying the electric bill or providing nutritious food.”

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More than 80% of respondents said the cost of food is rising faster than their income – which Sanchez said is leading people to find creative ways to make ends meet that could cause larger financial issues in the future. The poll found about 40% of families were taking on debt to cover the cost of food – and there was a significant increase in people utilizing “buy now, pay later” services, like Afterpay or Klarna, to cover necessities. “We saw folks having to take on second jobs or join the gig economy,” Sanchez said. “Texans are dealing with and experiencing these issues every day. We experience the highest food insecurity rate in the nation and that’s showing up.” Last year, the organization’s poll found a growing number of families reported food insecurity and trying to maintain nutritional diets without resources was having a bigger effect on people’s physical and mental health. This year, the poll shows several factors making that problem even worse, Sanchez said. More parents reported feeling helpless because they can’t feed their children. “The urgency really feels ramped up,” Sanchez said. “There are so many factors at play that are kind of creating a unique moment in this time.”

Joel Pinckney: His car is still sitting there

(Joel Pinckney is a writer and book worker living in Austin.) There’s a gray Subaru Impreza parked on Hunters Trace in Austin. It has sat there, unmoved, since 8am last Saturday. You can see it just where you turn right onto the street from Rundberg. I walk this way almost every morning with my kid. On Saturday we went a different route, looping around a few other streets before approaching Hunters Trace from the other direction. It was a beautiful, quiet morning; we had the streets almost entirely to ourselves. Earlier in the walk, we had stopped for a while to watch a couple of squirrels chase each other up and down a tree; my three-year-old was delighted when one of them paused, looked at us, and flicked their tail, as if acknowledging our presence. As if seeing us there meant something to them. Not long after I saw an unmarked black car quickly flash blue lights and swerve in front of a small hatchback. Behind, another unmarked car turned on its lights. The driver of the hatchback was boxed in; he had no way out, no choice but to stop.)

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He was alone in his car, alone on the streets—there were no other cars going in either direction. I watched as masked ICE agents exited the two cars, removed the driver from the hatchback, and put him in handcuffs, depositing him in the vehicle in front. He didn’t resist, so far as I could tell. I know nothing about this man, except where he was at 8am on Saturday; except that I was the last person to catch a glimpse of him before he officially entered the hell and terror of ICE detention. I can imagine he knew this day might come; I can imagine people he loved had disappeared without explanation, and yet with but one explanation; I can imagine people who loved him spent much of Saturday trying to reach him, looking for him at his usual places, before reaching the horrible, desolate, unavoidable conclusion that so many here and across the country have had no choice but to reach in recent months. This man was taken amidst what has been referred to as a shadow surge: ICE arrests are way up across the country, and ICE’s tactics, often thanks to the willing collaboration of state and local police, are much more subtle than they were even just a few months ago. Texas leads the country in ICE arrests, as a September 22 piece in the Austin American Statesman pointed out, “with more than 1 in 5 U.S. arrests this year occurring in the state.” The Statesman piece also noted that ICE arrests in Austin tripled this summer. The surge here has been particularly concentrated in the Rundberg/North Lamar area of North Austin, as highlighted recently in the Austin Chronicle, an area of town with a particularly large immigrant presence. The majority of these arrests are happening in the shadows, during quiet hours, when almost no one is looking.

National Stories

Hormuz supply crisis to change LNG market forever

The Strait of Hormuz crisis has turned roughly 20% of global LNG supply into something buyers now have to treat as interruptible. Nearly seven months after traffic through the strait collapsed, LNG exports from Qatar and the UAE remain severely constrained. Buyers in Europe and Asia are responding by looking for supply that does not depend on Hormuz at all—from Canada, Mozambique, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Argentina—and reconsidering how much of their future gas demand they are willing to tie to a single export route. The war has changed the near-term outlook and sent LNG prices in Asia and Europe soaring to the highs last seen in the 2022 crisis. Europe is hard-pressed for supply ahead of winter, while price-sensitive buyers in Asia are scrambling for alternatives, burning more coal, and boosting renewable energy generation targets to avoid supply crunches and hefty gas import bills when the next crisis hits the energy market.

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The current crisis goes well beyond the concerns about winter supply in Europe or how high prices in Asia destroy demand. The war and the Strait of Hormuz supply crunch have undermined the decade-old belief among buyers that relying on cheap fixed-term supply from one or two sources is enough. “The market seems now to be viewing the 20% of global supply behind the straits as ‘interruptible’ – even if it does return, it could easily be constrained again, feeding market volatility and further complicating contracting decisions,” Wood Mackenzie analysts said about their conversations with LNG leaders at the Gastech 2026 conference in Bangkok earlier this month. “An important consequence is that the value of more reliable supply has increased,” WoodMac’s analysts say. Following the halt to LNG shipments from the Strait of Hormuz for months, buyers have started to think about energy security more than anything else and are busy diversifying their sources of supply. European buyers started exploring purchases from Canada after it became clear in April that U.S.-Iran ceasefires aren’t bringing back Qatar’s supply to the market.

Judge restores White House access for POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW

A federal judge has ordered the White House to immediately restore the press credentials of three news organizations after President Donald Trump barred their reporters from the complex last week. Early Thursday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order sought by POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW as part of a joint lawsuit filed challenging the revocations. Citing the urgent needs of a “free press,” Kelly ordered the 78 journalists’ credentials returned for at least two weeks while further litigation plays out. The Trump-appointed judge suggested that the national security grounds the administration claimed to justify the ban amounted to an after-the-fact justification of a decision the president appeared to have made over more mundane disagreements with the outlets’ reporting. Kelly called the disputed stories “routine.”

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“The Court is skeptical — at least on this record — that Defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes,” Kelly wrote in an eight-page ruling issued just before 1 a.m. Eastern. “Nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns. Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House — instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting,” the judge added. The judge noted that the administration provided no support for its assertion that any of the disputed stories contained classified information or actually damaged national security and said some of the reporting was months or years old, belying claims the administration’s claims of urgency by the administration. Kelly also said the White House appeared to have violated the constitutional due process rights of the journalists by failing to give them advance notice that concerns about their reporting could lead to cancellation of their passes.

Eight sailors assigned to US carrier group that fought in Iran war attempted suicide, Navy secretary tells Congress

Eight US Navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during a period that included when the ships undertook combat operations against Iran and the carrier set a modern record for its time at sea, according to a letter from the service’s acting secretary, which was obtained by CNN. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao revealed the number, which has not been previously reported and covers crew members from several ships that travel together, including the carrier, in written responses to questions posed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand about the morale and mental health of the USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew. Cao wrote that no service members had killed themselves during the deployment. The rate of suicide attempts among the Lincoln strike group’s sailors was roughly consistent with that of the entire active duty Navy in 2024, the most recent year for which the Pentagon has released suicide data.

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That year, the Navy saw 356 suicide attempts among its estimated 337,000 active duty sailors. “Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group,” Cao wrote to Gillibrand, a Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services, in a letter dated Tuesday. “This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier airwing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons.” Between 6,000 and 7,000 US Navy sailors were deployed as part of the Lincoln strike group across roughly a half dozen ships — with the carrier kept out of port for over six months while conducting a high rate of combat operations against Iran. “Eight attempted suicides is incredibly high,” one US military official told CNN, noting recent carrier strike group deployments have had one or two per year. “The strain of combat ops is much higher than normal deployments. No port calls, constant alerts, etc.” The Navy did not respond ahead of publication to a request for comment about the letter.

MAGA podcasters are tuning out Trump. We tracked what they are talking about now.

Conservative podcasters appear to be losing interest in President Trump. Instead, they are criticizing a Bible-quoting Democrat threatening to flip red Texas, and they can’t stop talking about a murder trial that divided a jury—and the country. The Wall Street Journal analyzed nearly 70,000 hours of podcasts to understand the topics that conservative podcasters—some of whom helped propel Donald Trump to victory in 2024—are talking about, and what has fallen out of the conversation. The analysis captures the political mood in key corners before crucial midterm elections in November. To do it, we used an in-house AI tool developed to help monitor trends on social media ahead of the midterms. In addition to podcasts, we have pulled in more than 10 million TikToks and Instagram posts from a range of creators. We crossed those with thousands of hours of broadcast news and the Journal’s own articles to understand the political topics circulating in the mainstream. Here’s what we found:

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Trump has urged voters to keep him front of mind when they head to the polls in November, telling supporters at the GOP midterm convention to “pretend I’m on the ballot.” Congressional Republican leaders are also putting the president front and center in their effort to keep control of the House and Senate, despite Trump’s low approval ratings, though some Republicans in tight races are starting to tiptoe away from the president. But MAGA podcasters aren’t playing along. Mentions of Trump’s name per hour on conservative podcasts have fallen nearly 70% from their peak in the run-up to the 2024 election. On conservative podcasts, James Talarico has become the most-discussed Democrat in the country who isn’t a former president. This month, hosts on the 147 shows the Journal tracks have named him more often than Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont—and nearly three times as often as Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist mayor of New York. Democrats haven’t won a statewide office in Texas since 1994. Polls show Talarico, a state legislator who has campaigned on his Christian faith, in a tight race against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a MAGA warrior beloved by Trump’s base and backed by national Republicans pouring money into the state to shore him up.

Trump welcomes Xi to Washington looking for a trade win

US President Donald Trump welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday for a lavish state summit expected to be heavy on symbolism but light on substance, with ?both leaders keen to showcase stable ties despite a deep underlying rivalry. It will be the year's second meeting of the leaders of the two biggest economies, but Xi's first ?visit to Washington in more than a decade. Trump greeted Xi on arrival on Wednesday evening, the first time a US president has welcomed a foreign leader at Joint Base Andrews in 11 years, when President Barack Obama welcomed Pope Francis in 2015, according to C-SPAN, which tracks presidential events.

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In a statement on arrival carried by China's Xinhua news agency, Xi voiced hope for a more stable relationship with the United States, saying Beijing and Washington should be "partners, not rivals" and that the "historical logic ?of peaceful coexistence" between the two countries had not changed. For Trump, who relishes ceremony and prizes his ties with powerful leaders, the visit is as much a matter of national prestige as ?an opportunity for high-stakes diplomacy. The US president aims to reciprocate the grand welcome he received in China in May and impress Xi with a ceremony spanning the ?White House South Lawn, State Floor and Rose Garden. Major breakthroughs are not expected. Analysts say tangible outcomes are likely to be limited to an extension of a trade truce expiring in November and an agreement to ?examine threats posed by artificial intelligence. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday after talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng that they had agreed to extend until January 10 an agreement that paused a ?trade war that saw mutual tariffs top 100%. People familiar with the plans say the talks could also yield deals to lower some tariffs, combat drug trafficking and expand military-to-military dialogue, while Trump is expected to seek the release of Americans and others detained in China. Former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the summit was less about substantive negotiations than a chance for two forceful leaders to project strength.

New coalition fights Trump’s efforts to weaken protections for historic sites

A coalition of more than 600 historic preservation groups, architectural associations, tribal governments and other organizations is urging Congress to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to weaken or evade laws intended to protect historic sites. Members of the new coalition say that they are seeking to safeguard sites in every congressional district — and that they intend to pursue legal action if Congress does not act. “Our coalition did not exist six weeks ago. Today it brings together constituencies who have rarely spoken with one voice,” the groups wrote in letters that were set to be sent to all members of Congress on Thursday. The signatories want lawmakers to reject the administration’s revisions to a 60-year-old federal law that governs changes to landmarks such as the National Mall, sites that are significant to Indian tribes and other properties eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

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The proposed changes would allow federal agencies to undertake their own projects or permit construction by private developers without public input, breaking with long-standing requirements for public participation. Some members of Congress are also considering similar changes to the review process, which is required under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The administration can enact regulatory revisions to Section 106 without congressional approval, but the coalition is asking lawmakers to help oppose such changes. The coalition also wants Congress to block legislation that would separately allow similar revisions to take effect. The coalition says it is also responding to Trump’s attempts to unilaterally change historic sites, such as demolishing the White House’s East Wing to build a planned ballroom. Administration lawyers have argued in court that they do not need to seek congressional approval for Trump’s projects, such as the ballroom and his planned triumphal arch. “The burden of standing up for congressional authority is falling heavily to civil society organizations, law firms, and individual Americans when Congress itself should be taking the lead,” the coalition wrote in a letter shared with The Washington Post. Administration officials on Thursday declined to comment on the new campaign. Spokespeople for the White House and the Interior Department touted the president’s projects and said they were following Section 106 requirements to seek public input on the arch.

China hawks seethe as Trump rolls out red carpet for Xi

China hawks on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. are seething as President Trump prepares to welcome the country’s President Xi Jinping for what is expected to be a lavish three-day state visit to Washington. Unlike with other world leaders, Trump is pulling out all the stops for his Chinese counterpart. Trump took the unusual step of welcoming Xi at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday evening and will greet him again Thursday on the South Lawn for an elaborate arrival ceremony complete with B-2 Spirit and F-22 Raptor flyovers. Critics are questioning why Trump, who has a storied history of slamming China, is rolling out the red carpet for the U.S. adversary.

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“Had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States, based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Arms Services Committee, said on the upper chamber floor Tuesday evening. Despite the criticism over the state visit, many China critics say they are not as concerned about the optics of the state visit as much as they are about the policy developments that come out of the event. “To me, the overall arrival and presentation is one thing. It’s certainly symbolic and can matter, especially for the Chinese side,” said Andrew Harding, a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation who previously served as Special Assistant for Asia on the National Security Council under Trump. “But I think from an American perspective, we need to focus on the substance of the agreements,” he continued. “What matters most about determining where the president’s position is is what is ultimately negotiated during the summit.”

Copyright September 24, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved