June 21, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas Democrats seek unity at state convention without Jasmine Crocket

Texas Democrats will gather next week in Corpus Christi, seeking to project unity and build momentum behind state Rep. James Talarico's Senate campaign. One of the party's most recognizable stars won't be there. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, who lost a hard-fought Senate primary to Talarico in March, told The Dallas Morning News she does not plan to attend the state convention and instead is focusing on helping down-ballot candidates across the country.

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Crockett also said she’s not sure whether Democrats, particularly Black voters, have united fully behind Talarico and the rest of the ticket. She said the lack of a Black nominee for major statewide office could dampen enthusiasm among some voters. “I've not heard a bunch of kumbaya,” she said. “People don't seem to be convinced at this point, but there's a lot of time between now and November.” Asked whether she would actively campaign for or with Talarico, Crockett said: “I have no idea. I am more focused on down-ballot races in general.” Crockett’s absence from the convention reflects a lingering divide between her and Talarico, who served together in the Texas House and became rivals during the hotly contested Senate race. He faces Republican Ken Paxton in November. She said she received what she described as an “afterthought invite” on June 8 from Talarico, based on the preview message on her cell phone. “I had a missed call that I've not returned, nor have I listened to the message from Talarico,” Crockett told The News. “It seemed like an afterthought invite. I can't say for sure, because I haven't listened to it.”

Texas job growth climbs with 17,800 jobs added in May

Texas added more than 17,000 new jobs last month as the state continues to outpace the nation in growth. The state added 17,800 positions in May, according to the Texas Workforce Commission, bringing the total number of nonfarm jobs in the state to more than 14.4 million. Texas has added 98,000 new jobs in the last year, putting the state's growth rate at 0.7% since last May. The national growth rate in that time is just 0.3%. "The addition of more than 17,000 positions in May highlights the industriousness of Texas employers and expanding opportunities for Texas’ highly skilled workforce,” said TWC Chairman Joe Esparza in a statement. “Driven by our entrepreneurial spirit, Texas continues to outpace the nation in job growth, and TWC offers a wide variety of programs to maintain this momentum.”

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The state's job growth is aided in part by the continued expansion of its labor force, which grew by 6,800 people last month. Texas's employment numbers so far this year reflect a bounceback from 2025, when political uncertainty, declining immigration and higher tariffs led to stagnant job growth in the state and nation, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Dallas Fed expects year-over-year job growth of about 1.1% by the end of 2026, an improvement from last year but still "well below" the state's historical average of about 2%. The trade, transportation, and utilities industry led the state in job growth last month with 7,100 new jobs. The leisure and hospitality industry added 3,900 jobs, while the mining and logging field added 3,800. The construction industry posted the highest growth rate for the 22nd straight month, growing by 2.1% in May.

Vance and Iranian officials set to launch talks in Switzerland

U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Sunday is meeting with top Iranian officials as the White House looks to build out the interim deal to end the war in Iran reached by the two sides last week. Vance was expected to meet with Tehran’s negotiators, including parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, at a Swiss mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne. Mediators from Pakistan and Qatar were also in the room for the direct engagement. Iran dealt two quick blows to the interim agreement with the United States on Saturday, angered by Israel’s continued attacks in Lebanon, saying it had closed the Strait of Hormuz and announcing that while its negotiators were going to Switzerland for talks, not much is likely to happen there.

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Iranian officials appeared to avoid being seen during a brief appearance by Vance in front of reporters before the start of the talks. IRIB, the Iranian state broadcaster, announced the four-way talks had begun shortly after Vance delivered a statement to media and took a couple of questions from reporters. The U.S. side is looking to get Iran locked into negotiations over its nuclear program. But the on-again, off-again conflict in Lebanon, between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, continues to threaten to derail the effort for the U.S. to win concessions from Tehran on its nuclear program and keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Iran’s main focus during negotiations on Sunday would be the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iran’s state news agency ahead of the meeting with Vance.

Texas Senators Cruz, Cornyn express concerns over President Trump and VP Vance's Iran deal

After supporting President Trump's war against Iran, Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz said they're now concerned by the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran. Cruz questioned some of the provisions of the deal in remarks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol late last week. "History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea," said Cruz. "And I think, unfortunately, the president is receiving some really bad advice on this deal. I don't want to see us send a penny to the Ayatollah." Cornyn said he hadn't seen the MOU when asked about it Thursday. "I'm looking forward to seeing it, but everything I've heard about it causes me concern," he told reporters.

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"I supported the President's Operation Epic Fury because I believe he has delayed the Iranian regime's ability to get a nuclear weapon, which is very, very important," Cornyn added. "But my hope would have been that he would have finished the job and basically eliminated that threat in the future." For their part, both President Trump and Vice President JD Vance — who led the negotiations with Iran — praised the deal. In France last week, the president told reporters, "Ending the current conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon. That's what it was all about." At the White House, Vance said, "The only way the Iranians get any of those resources, not a single penny by the way, from the United States of America under any circumstances, but the only way that they would ever get any benefit of the bargain is if they comply fully and change their behavior." Under the MOU, Iran will be given a way to have its economic sanctions lifted, the ability to sell its oil on the world market, and potentially receive hundreds of billions of dollars, but not from the U.S., to rebuild its country. Cruz said the regime shouldn't be allowed to receive the money no matter where it comes from.

Trump faces new hurdles after deal: Iran’s leverage, Israel’s attacks, MAGA’s backlash

President Donald Trump’s effort to strike a deal with Iran faced significant headwinds on Sunday, as Tehran flexed its control of the Strait of Hormuz, Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes and the right flank of Trump’s party continued to accuse him of making too many concessions to secure an agreement. The challenges underscored the difficulty of Trump’s task as he seeks to turn a fragile ceasefire into a lasting agreement after months of war sent energy prices skyrocketing. Ending the fighting addressed Trump’s immediate concerns about oil prices and the stock markets, but it left unresolved the question at the heart of the conflict: what limits, if any, Iran will accept on its nuclear program. Vice President JD Vance is set to meet Sunday with senior Iranian leaders in hopes of keeping Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump may have less leverage than he did during talks in February before the war. Then, Iranian leaders feared a U.S. attack could topple the regime.

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Now the government has proved it can survive, even after the Feb. 28 killing of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump has made clear that a halt to oil shipping out of the Persian Gulf is a pressure point. And Tehran has shown that it can send shocks through global energy markets with just the threat of attacks on ships. Vance and other senior U.S. officials seeking a breakthrough at the bargaining table must haggle over the many issues Trump deferred to halt the fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz — restoring what amounted to the status quo before the initial U.S. strikes on Feb. 28. The concessions the White House has already offered to get back to the bargaining table have become a central line of attack for Trump’s critics. Trump is no longer demanding regime change, despite promising Iranians that help was on the way. He says he understands why the country needs ballistic missiles, upsetting U.S. allies who feel threatened by those weapons. And he has made clear he wants to avoid anything that would derail the stock market’s upward trajectory.

State Stories

How Gina Hinojosa is trying to convince 'MAGA moms' to turn on Greg Abbott

Gina Hinojosa’s recent campaign swing felt more like a public vent session than a conventional political tour. A teacher at her Richardson stop detailed his frustrations with his school district’s broken air conditioning and aging buildings. In Fort Worth, dozens of parents worried that the recent state takeover of the district would kickstart a staff exodus. Even in the wealthy suburbs, like Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, moms fretted about the recent closure of two elementary schools forcing larger class sizes. It’s this frustration about the state of public schools that the Austin Democrat is hoping to tap into as she takes on Gov. Greg Abbott, betting that she can galvanize parents across the political spectrum to reject the Republican's approach to education.

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In stops through North Texas last week, Hinojosa roused loud cheers with her “day-one” promise to fire Mike Morath, Abbott’s education commissioner, who has overseen the adoption of controversial Christianity-infused textbooks and initiated the takeover of several large districts. She accused Abbott of diverting property taxes meant for public schools into his own “corruption schemes,” including his private school voucher program. “I am counting on that anger and that love for our public schools, from parents, Democratic moms, Republican moms, to be the difference in this election,” Hinojosa said at a stop in Grapevine. It’s the first time a candidate challenging Abbott has made education so central to the campaign, and Hinojosa may face an uphill climb. Josh Blank, a political scientist at the University of Texas-Austin, said his polling shows only one in five Texas voters has school-aged children. Even fewer named schools a top issue compared to concerns about inflation and immigration, he said. “There’s a certain limit to the salience of what is going on in schools,” Blank said. “For most voters, it’s just not of direct concern.” Last election cycle, Texas Democrats running for the Legislature campaigned against Abbott’s private school voucher plan, arguing it would sap much-needed funds from public schools. The message didn’t seem to land, as the party failed to flip any of their targeted seats. Still, Blank said the focus could help shore up hardcore supporters with direct ties to public education.

Talarico calls for Paxon to release the 'Hoffman Files' in Adam Dean Hoffman case

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico held a press conference Thursday, June 18 outside the McLennan County Courthouse, demanding that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton release all emails, text messages, memos and internal documents related to the AG's office handling of the Adam Dean Hoffman case. The "Hoffman Files", as Talarico calls them, center around the plea deal that Paxton's Attorney General's Office gave Hoffman, which allowed him to serve only 29 days in jail after admitting to sexually abusing a child. Talarico calls the plea deal an "Epstein-style sweetheart deal" and says that Texans deserve more answers from Paxton on the case.

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"We need answers to these questions immediately," Talarico said. "It's why today I am calling on Ken Paxton to release the Hoffman files, all text messages, all emails, all documents, all internal memos relating to the Adam Hoffman case. Those documents need to be made public immediately, so Texans can get answers." The Adam Dean Hoffman case is now becoming part of Texas' high-profile U.S. Senate race. The case started with Adam Dean Hoffman, a former Waco attorney, who accepted a plea deal in a child sex abuse case. The case was prosecuted by the Attorney General's office after the McLennan County District Attorney's Office recused itself. The request to release the "Hoffman Files" come after months of controversy surrounding that plea deal. After he was initially sentenced to 30 days in jail, a judge doubled Hoffman's sentence to 60 days following public backlash. He was released just 29 days into the sentence. Talarico believes that public pressure will lead to more transparency and answers from the AG's office.

As independent candidates race to collect enough signatures, a national group is taking up their cause

Now that the Republican and Democratic primary runoffs are over, independent candidates are scrambling to qualify for the November ballot in Texas. Instead of paying a filing fee or appearing on the primary ballot like major party candidates, state law requires independent candidates to collect hundreds or even thousands of signatures to get on the ballot. The names can only be from people who didn’t vote in either party’s primary — and candidates only have a narrow window to find them. The collection process starts after the Republican and Democratic primaries are over their race, and must be submitted to the Secretary of State’s office by June 25. As of this week, one San Antonio-area congressional candidate who’s been preparing his campaign for nearly a year now said he’s quickly found the signature collection process to be all but impossible.

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U.S. Air Force IT specialist Gerard Villalobos planned to run as an independent in U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro‘s (D-San Antonio) 20th Congressional District, and even bought a digital billboard to help get his name out. “I have been trying hard [for] the past two months … my platform is sincere,” he said Monday. “Unfortunately, per the Texas Legislature, I can only move forward after I have 500 signatures validated … and I doubt I reach that number.” Several other Bexar County candidates are also hustling to meet the deadline. Defense attorney Jason Wolff is waging an independent bid for District Attorney, while Jonathan LaFevers is trying to get on the ballot in the hotly contested Texas House District 121 race. Each must collect 500 signatures before the end of next week, while Mike Collier, who is running as an independent candidate for lieutenant governor in Texas, needs more than 80,000 for his statewide race. This week all of Texas’ independent hopefuls got a boost from a national group trying to build a third political party in the U.S. —which is suing the state over its signature requirements.

Texas tribe to open state's fourth tribal casino

Shovels broke ground and dirt flew on a 95-acre patch of land belonging to the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas — a historic moment that commemorated the start of construction on the state’s fourth tribal casino. “It’s been a long way, baby,’’ Alabama-Coushatta Vice-Chairwoman Nita Battise, who was among a line-up of tribal members and casino employees who held shovels to mark the official groundbreaking on Thursday in Leggett. “Keep in mind, we had all these obstacles going against us,” Battise said. “But we are reminded that we are resilient people and we will move forward and this is what we did.”

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When completed in 2028, the new casino resort will house a 685,000-square -foot resort casino with a large gaming floor that includes 3,400 electronic gaming machines, a multi-story 366-room hotel, a resort-style pool complex and an event and conference center. The event and conference area are expected to include a grand ballroom that will accommodate 1,000 guests and will be designed to attract conferences, special events and group gatherings from across the region, tribal officials said. For years, Texas leaders had blocked efforts by the Alabama-Coushatta to open a casino on its 11,000-acre reservation in Livingston, roughly 73 miles northeast of Houston in deep east Texas. That all changed when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas could not impose its regulations on reservation gaming, which is overseen by the federal government.

Supreme Court of Texas denies appeal in case challenging Harris County’s 2024 elections conduct

The Supreme Court of Texas announced Friday that it would not hear an appeal on behalf of conservative activist and Republican megadonor Steven Hotze, in a suit in which he and three other plaintiffs accused the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office of failing to uphold election integrity by properly maintaining the county's voter registration roll. An appeals court had earlier ruled in favor of Tax Assessor-Collector Annette Ramirez, on the grounds that Hotze and his fellow plaintiffs lacked standing to sue.

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Hotze initially filed the lawsuit in mid-October 2024, just weeks ahead of that year's presidential election. Joining him in the suit against then-Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett were Joseph Trahan, a Republican nominee for Texas State Senate District 15, and Caroline Kane, a Republican running for Congressional District 7 of the U.S. House of Representatives. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller later joined the suit as a fourth plaintiff. Hotze alleged Harris County's voter roll was "bloated" by "tens of thousands" of illegal voters, who he expected would vote for Democratic candidates. By allowing this, Hotze argued, Bennett had violated the Texas Election Code. Hotze demanded that the alleged illegal voters be removed from the county’s voter roll. The lawsuit asserted that the registration roll includes voters "who have moved out of Harris County, voters who have died, voters who are felons, voters who have registered at post office or private mail boxes with commercial mail receiving agencies, scores of voters who are not related to each other but have registered at the same address, voters who have registered at a commercial address and do not reside there and voters who claim to live on vacant [properties]."

Pete McCanna: My father’s final years showed me our healthcare system must be rebuilt

(Pete McCanna is CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health.) For much of my adult life, my father and I talked on Sundays at 3 p.m. We talked about family, work and his beloved Green Bay Packers. But in his final years, as Parkinson’s took more from him, our conversations became less about football and more about medications, appointments, symptoms and frustrations. My father did not complain often, so when he did, I listened. I began to hear more about the suffering, not just from his disease, but from conflicting healthcare instructions, lingering questions and incomplete handoffs. My siblings and I, many of us from afar, filled those gaps the best we could. We compared notes and tried to help manage the care. When I traveled back to visit him, I took my dad to as many appointments as I could. One of the most painful visits began the way so many do — with a clipboard and forms. Parkinson's had made it hard for him to hold a pencil steady, and I will never forget the frustration and embarrassment on his face that day. Watching him struggle made it impossible to ignore how many healthcare processes are designed around the system's needs rather than the people it should serve.

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I spent 40 years in this industry focused on optimizing organizations to perform. I believed strong systems produced better outcomes for patients, and I still do. Healthcare requires disciplined structures, focus on quality and precise execution. But the experiences with my father and our Sunday conversations near the end of his life made clear to me the central flaws in American healthcare — and my own complicity in them. American healthcare is often extraordinary when there is a serious and urgent condition and people know where to go. But most needs do not require an emergency room, hospital stay or complex procedure. Today, most patients seeking care in our ERs can likely be treated outside of a hospitals’ walls. That requires more care options and effective, accessible navigation assistance. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3 out of every 4 American adults live with at least one chronic condition, like my dad did. They are largely left to manage their care themselves and seek emergency care when that fails. Fixing this requires timely, reliable clinical support between appointments, including monitoring, a care plan and medication coordination. We also know the onset of most chronic diseases could be delayed or avoided in the first place. We should focus as much on proactive prevention, education and timely guidance as we do episodic care.

Principal reassigned over social media posts sues Fort Worth ISD

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Fort Worth principal who was reassigned after backlash over old social media posts about the Black Lives Matter movement and Sharia law, the organization said in a news release Friday. Shayma Alzubi is suing the Fort Worth Independent School District for allegedly violating her First Amendment and equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution, according to the complaint. The 15-page lawsuit was filed Thursday in Tarrant County. “This is the clearest violation of the First Amendment our organization has seen all year,” CAIR attorney Gadeir Abbas said in the release. “We call on the school district to realize the unlawful path it’s walking down, change course, and return our client to her school.”

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Alzubi was announced as the incoming principal of Western Hills High School on May 22, but Fort Worth ISD officials said four days later that the Muslim educator had been reassigned to another position. According to the district’s statement, officials had become aware of several social media posts by Alzubi that didn’t align with the district’s policies or expectations. The lawsuit alleges that Alzubi’s reassignment was really due to “the demands of online hecklers.” “School officials made the decision to punish the incoming principal because some people online were upset,” the lawsuit states. “But those people were upset not at what Shayma said or how she said it. The online hecklers were upset that Plaintiff was Palestinian and Muslim.” Alzubi has worked in the district in various capacities, including chemistry teacher and assistant principal, since 2013. She was promoted to the role of principal for the 2026-27 school year, and was supposed to have started her official duties at Western Hills on June 1, according to the complaint.

Nonprofit organization serves more than 9,000 NBISD students in 2025-26 school year

Communities in Schools of South Central Texas, or CISSCT, a nonprofit organization working to support students at risk of dropping out, served 9,607 New Braunfels ISD students in the 2025-26 school year, according to preliminary data presented by CISSCT CEO Susan Wetz during a June 15 school board meeting. x Approximately 923 students received continuous intensive services, and 2,405 students received targeted services for additional support ranging from food, school supplies and resources for parents to ongoing individual and small group services. There were 9,607 students who received schoolwide prevention services, according to the presentation. CISSCT provided 985 students with attendance-related services. Of those, 53 students received rides to or from school for a total of 258 trips, according to board documents.

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The organization also provides mental health and counseling services through site coordinators and clinical counselors. Site coordinators provide daily interventions, referrals, parent consultations, individual and group counseling as well as suicidal ideation and self-harm interventions. Clinical counselors provide intensive, solution-focused therapy to students experiencing anxiety, depression, self-harming behaviors or suicidal ideation, the presentation stated. Site coordinators served 864 students, and clinical counselors provided 83 students with therapeutic counseling, according to the presentation. “Those therapeutic and preventions are all grant-funded; that cost is not passed onto the school district,” Wetz said. “In addition to that, we helped students with five suicide protocols, and it is decreasing every year, which makes me very happy, but there’s still work to do.” Hispanic students make up the largest demographic served by CISSCT, followed by white students and Black or African American students. The organization is in 60 schools across several districts, including: Luling ISD, Marion ISD, Comal ISD, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD, Seguin ISD, and Navarro ISD.

Dallas Morning News Editorial: Gov. Abbott, don’t ditch Texas’ open primaries

Every time we think our politics couldn’t get any bleaker, the Texas GOP says, “hold my beer.” The Republican Party has a stranglehold on state government, from the statehouse to the Supreme Court to the governor’s office. But the party won’t be satisfied with controlling every branch; it must also control every member. Even good-faith disagreement within the ranks won’t be tolerated, as conservative lawmakers who opposed Gov. Greg Abbott’s school voucher plan found out the hard way when Abbott teed up opponents to oust them in the 2024 primary.

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Those electoral victories didn’t satiate the governor’s need for party purity. At the state party’s convention in Houston this month, Abbott indicated that he would support a push to close primaries in Texas, the Texas Tribune reported. That means forcing Texans to officially affiliate with a party instead of letting them choose their primary every two years. We criticized the Texas GOP last fall for filing a lawsuit to stop the Texas secretary of state from enforcing the state’s open primaries. Our illustrious Attorney General Ken Paxton, who will go to bat for party leaders but not the state agencies he has a duty to defend in court, filed a motion with the Texas GOP asking to toss open primaries. The whole thing came across as a foolish stunt. Party leaders had tried and failed to get state lawmakers to end open primaries during the 2025 legislative session. Secretary of State Jane Nelson, an Abbott appointee, defended her office against the lawsuit — and did so gingerly.

How North Dakota could overtake Texas and Florida as the most tax-friendly state

Texas and Florida usually come to mind when Americans think of tax-friendly states. But another deep red enclave has quietly joined the club: North Dakota. Tax cuts, strong finances and billions in oil revenue have combined to create one of the nation's most competitive tax environments while other states grapple with budget shortfalls and debates over tax hikes. The issue is likely to remain front and center for governors and state lawmakers as they look to attract residents, businesses and investment in the years ahead, and amid a growing affordability crisis in the United States.

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Most states do not sit atop one of the nation's largest oil formations like North Dakota does, but tax experts say the broader lesson to take from the state is applicable almost anywhere — strong revenues can lower tax burdens and strengthen state finances rather than fuel spending increases. The payoff for North Dakota has been straightforward — residents keep more of what they earn, businesses face fewer tax burdens and the government remains on solid financial footing. And while tax policy is only one piece of the equation, Nicole Fox, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation told Fox News Digital that the group's analysis of IRS migration data points to a clear trend. "States that have experienced net in-migration are states with more competitive tax structures and lower overall costs of living," Fox said. While North Dakota ranks second in tax collections per capita, it remains one of the country's more tax-friendly states — a welcome contradiction for the state's government and residents.

3 men have now died in Tarrant County Jail custody this week. A family demands answers

Three men have died in Tarrant County Jail custody within four days this week — raising serious concerns for at least one family, a county commissioner and several community members. Mack Greer, 46, was pronounced dead Thursday afternoon at John Peter Smith Hospital after he suffered internal bleeding in his brain, his parents told KERA News Friday. "We don't deserve this pain," Lea Hurd, Greer's mother, said through tears. "Our children are supposed to bury us. We're not supposed to bury our children because of somebody else." Hurd said she received a call from the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office early Wednesday morning that her son was in the hospital, but wasn't given details on his condition or what happened prior.

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She and her husband arrived at the hospital shortly after but weren't able to see Greer until hours later when he was already brain dead, Hurd said. While at the hospital, an officer told Greer's parents their son had asked for a blanket and was found slumped over and unresponsive when a guard returned to give him one. Hurd said the officer told them he may have intentionally banged his head against the wall to have caused the bleeding in his brain. His parents don’t believe the story. "Mack was scared of pain," Hurd said. "Mack didn't hurt nobody, and he sure wouldn't hurt himself." Joseph Hurd, Greer's father, said there were multiple bumps on his head when he saw him. "I just want to know the truth, and what they're saying that happened is not the truth," he said. His parents also said it's not possible he had an altercation with another inmate as he had been moved to a psychiatric hold by himself, suffering from depression and bipolar disorder.

Texas homeowners face nation’s highest home insurance costs

Texas homeowners continue to face some of the highest home insurance costs in the nation, with average annual premiums nearing $4,000. The state ranks fifth nationwide for these high costs, according to a recent report from LendingTree. The average annual home insurance premium in Texas is $3,969, which is 65.7% above the national average of $2,395. This comes despite a minimal 0.6% increase in 2025, which was the third-smallest increase in the nation for that year. However, home insurance rates in Texas have risen 55.9% since 2020. Lindsay Bishop, a home insurance expert at LendingTree, highlighted the ongoing financial impact on residents. “While rate growth has slowed in Texas recently, homeowners are still paying substantially more for coverage than they were just a few years ago,” Bishop said. She added, “The affordability challenges created by years of steep increases don’t disappear simply because annual rate hikes begin to moderate.”

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National Stories

Trump likely to drain Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool again, following peeling paint and algae

President Donald Trump said Saturday night that he was likely to drain the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool again, as workers contend with paint peeling off its surface and algae blooming in the wake of his $14 million effort to resurface it. The president made his announcement, after what he said was a meeting with contractors while he was at Camp David in Maryland for the weekend. It comes 16 days after the government began refilling the pool following a renovation that Trump had said would result in clean water and “could last for 100 years.” Since pieces of peeling paint started floating to the water’s surface earlier this week, the Interior Department has not responded to questions about the paint and why the pool surface is separating.

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The agency said in a statement Wednesday that it is treating the pool with hydrogen peroxide and “high-tech nanobubble ozone technology” to limit the spread of algae. “We met with contractors today, will probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to do the necessary repairs, but will have them done as quickly as possible,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Saturday evening. The president spent the weekend at Camp David with senior advisers, as Iran said it has once again closed the Strait of Hormuz, testing the fragile ceasefire in place with the United States. Trump blamed the damage on “disgraceful Vandalism,” an accusation he also made earlier this week. “Many additional people” were arrested, he said. The U.S. Park Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the number of arrests. The Park Police patrolling the Lincoln Memorial area on Friday afternoon observed an individual peeling paint from the pool, a spokesperson for the department said via email. The person was arrested on charges of destruction of government property.

Kennedy Center says tarp will stay in place for maintenance after Trump's name was removed

A tarp covering the area where President Donald Trump's name was removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts remained in place Friday. According to a Kennedy Center official, the tarp will remain while crews address maintenance needs involving marble and soffit panels. Officials did not specify why the covering was installed. The issue drew renewed attention Friday after the Kennedy Center filed a court-ordered status report outlining plans for the facility amid an ongoing legal dispute over a proposed closure. The center was directed to explain why a full two-year closure may be necessary.

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In its filing, the Kennedy Center said it intended to remain open beyond a previously discussed July 5 closure date and was evaluating several options, including a possible full closure, for the board to consider during a vote expected in mid-July. Attorneys representing Rep. Joyce Beatty argued in court filings that Kennedy Center leadership was failing to properly manage the institution and accused officials of using the tarp to shield conditions at the facility from public scrutiny. The dispute follows months of debate over the condition of the building after Kennedy Center Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Matt Floca publicly highlighted what he described as extensive water damage and maintenance concerns during a tour of the facility. Critics, including former Kennedy Center volunteers and arts advocates, have challenged those characterizations, arguing the center's maintenance issues do not justify a prolonged closure and warned any extended shutdown could disrupt programming and discourage audiences from returning. Demonstrators gathered outside the center Friday evening to protest the proposed closure and broader changes at the institution, saying they plan to continue their efforts as the board weighs its options. The Kennedy Center's board is expected to consider potential next steps, including whether any temporary or long-term closure is necessary, during a meeting next month.

Mamdani burns allies in making a big bet for Congress and the Left

A year ago this week, Zohran Mamdani’s surprise victory in the Democratic primary for mayor upended New York politics. Now, in the closing days of another primary season, he has thrown himself back onto the campaign trail, this time risking his political capital in a high-stakes bid to catapult fellow leftists to primary victories against the old Democratic guard. Mr. Mamdani and allies are attempting to unseat two Democratic incumbents, Representatives Daniel Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, whom they view as too friendly to corporate donors and Israel. They want to lay claim to a third House seat. And down the ballot, they have designs on expanding the socialist block in Albany.

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If he prevails on Tuesday, Mr. Mamdani, 34, will go a long way toward establishing socialists as a major faction in New York City politics and himself as a kingmaker capable of vaulting relatively unknown candidates to victory and sidelining erstwhile power brokers. But a string of losses could be disastrous, weakening the mayor’s political standing just six months into his term, empowering political opponents and creating new ones. His involvement has already alienated Black and Latino progressives, powerful labor unions and the left-leaning Working Families Party, all of which helped him get to City Hall and partnered with him as mayor. Some, like Representative Nydia Velázquez, have taken the rare step of publicly declaring they have lost trust in him. “I have a pit in my stomach because of secondhand anxiety,” said Michael Lange, an elections analyst and fellow democratic socialist who rose to prominence chronicling Mr. Mamdani’s ascent. “This is a way to remake the Democratic Party,” he said. “But if he loses, the knives would be out. They would be really out. The risk is that they’ll say this is more man than movement.”

UK's Starmer considers political future, could decide as early as Monday

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was considering his ?political future on Sunday, after rival Andy Burnham's decisive election victory to parliament prompted more ministers in the governing Labour ?Party to call for him to go. Struggling with some of the lowest popularity ratings for any British leader, Starmer could decide as soon as Monday whether to step aside or fight a leadership contest against Burnham, one source said. Get a look at the day ahead in European and global markets with the Morning Bid Europe newsletter. Sign up here. The scale of victory Burnham won for a parliamentary seat in northwestern England on Friday has piled ?pressure on Starmer, with dozens of lawmakers and some ministers privately calling for him to set out a timetable for his ?departure to clear the way for the former mayor.

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A source with knowledge of the matter said Starmer was ?spending the weekend thinking about and discussing his position with his family but that an expected conversation with Burnham would clarify matters. "Keir likes ?to think about things," the source said. Starmer's unpopularity was laid bare by Labour's heavy losses in local elections in May, and polls of party members ?indicate Burnham would win a formal leadership contest. Should Burnham take the helm, he would become Britain's seventh prime minister in the past 10 years. Sky News reported that it understood foreign minister Yvette Cooper had called on Starmer to stand down in a private conservation over the weekend. Her spokesperson did not ?immediately respond to a request for comment. Her apparent appeal, alongside other ministers and dozens of lawmakers, increased the sense that it was now ?a case of when, rather than if, Starmer would step aside. Starmer said only a few days ago that he would stand in any formal Labour leadership contest ?that sought ?to replace him. While Starmer's team believes his landslide national election win in 2024 gives him the mandate to stay in post until 2029, business minister Peter Kyle said the prime minister was reflecting on the "the political challenges that he faces in this moment".

Why Richard Nixon has suddenly gone viral

He’s tanned, rested and ready — and he’s been dead for 32 years. Amazingly, Richard Nixon, the most nefarious American political personality of the 1970s, appears to be making a comeback, at least online. It’s being called Nixonmaxxing, and it involves a series of slickly edited social media videos that cut archival Nixon footage to rap tracks and turn the 37th president into the sort of stone-cold, sigma male-style antihero that Gen Z bros can’t get enough of these days. As it turns out, the videos are the work of the Richard Nixon Foundation, a Yorba Linda, California-based nonprofit founded in 1983 — by Nixon himself — that has long been dedicated to protecting Tricky Dick’s public image. Which they’ve now apparently decided should look something like Walton Goggins in a Tarantino pic.

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Of course, Nixon has never fully disappeared from the pop culture ether. Over the decades, he’s popped up as a head-in-a-bottle on Futurama, had a whole story arc on HBO’s Watchmen, appeared on rubber masks during a bank robbery in Point Break and most recently turned up in Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, where he’s shown giving a tour of dead alien bodies at a secret government base — a nod to a bonkers bit of UFO lore in which Nixon supposedly took his golfing pal Jackie Gleason to an Air Force base in Florida to show off top secret E.T. corpses. Still, let’s make one thing perfectly clear: The Nixon Foundation videos — which include snippets of EsDeeKid’s “Rottweiler” and BIA’s “We on Go,” as well as a clip of Mad Men’s Don Draper throwing his support behind RMN (“Kennedy? I see a silver spoon. Nixon? I see myself”) — are a whole other thing, more posthumous political rehabilitation than nose-tweaking satire. And they appear to be working: The foundation’s Insta account has 107,000 followers, while its most popular video has 1.4?million views. As for who’s behind the audacious social campaign? The foundation credits its marketing team for “meeting new audiences where they are” — but it’s also known that its 33-year-old CEO, Jim Byron, who started at the organization as a 14-year-old marketing intern, is back at the job after taking 14 months off to serve as President Trump’s guy at the National Archives. We’re going to guess he’s the one to blame, or credit, depending on whether you agree with Don Draper or not.

Trump doubles down on feud with Italian Prime Minister Meloni, insisting she asked for G7 photo

US President Donald Trump deepened his feud with Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on Saturday, doubling down on claims that she insisted on a photo with him at the G7 summit in France this week. “Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France,” Trump wrote on social media of a leader who has been a key European ally. He claimed that Meloni’s popularity was plummeting, suggesting it was a result of her refusing to help the US in its conflict against Iran. But the Italian leader was quick to rebuff Trump’s declarations, suggesting his argument was nonsense and advising the president to direct his attention toward his own popularity rather than hers.

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“President Trump, these constant and gratuitous attacks are senseless,” Meloni wrote on Facebook later Saturday. She added that her friendship with the US leader has never contributed to her popularity, as the president claimed. The right-wing leader said her popularity endures because of her “ability to defend Italy’s national interests,” which, she said, is why she denied the US access to Italian military bases earlier this year. “In any case, my popularity is none of your concern,” Meloni added. “I’d suggest you focus on yours.” The spat is the latest dip in the deteriorating relationship between the once-close leaders and a further fracture between the US and its European allies, coming after tentative signs of repair at the G7 summit this week in France. Trump’s remarks come after Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced Friday he was canceling a planned trip to the United States, where he was due to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the heated exchange. The two were snapped during the summit, but the spat began when, in an interview with Italy’s La7 TV this week, Trump claimed Meloni had “begged” him for a photo, and he obliged because he felt sorry for her, according to a dubbed Italian translation posted by the outlet.

Copyright June 21, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved