October 6, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Ken Paxton Texas Senate campaign sees fundraising surge

Ken Paxton’s campaign announced Monday that it raised $18 million in the third quarter of 2026, about double what it raised in the previous three months. It was a flex by the attorney general, who had faced a significant fundraising disadvantage against Democrat James Talarico since Paxton won the Republican Party’s nomination in May. But as the Nov. 3 election nears, Paxton has seen campaign donations swell. Monday is the last day to register to vote, and early voting begins Oct. 19. Campaign spokesman Nick Maddux said in a statement more than 160,000 donors have given to Paxton. “Republicans from all corners of Texas have given to the campaign because they know what’s at stake,” Maddux said. While a new high for Paxton’s campaign, it was still less than the $30 million Talarico’s campaign raised in the second quarter of 2026.

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Talarico’s campaign had not released its latest fundraising numbers Monday and had no comment on Paxton’s third-quarter total. But the campaign pointed to leaked audio from a lunch hosted by lobbyists in Washington in which Paxton said he had “never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign,” according to Politico. “Ken Paxton is a puppet,” Talarico said on X. Paxton’s campaign told Politico that he was referring to laws that prohibit campaigns and candidates from coordinating with PACs, preventing Paxton from controlling their messaging. Paxton recently announced a $20 million ad buy leading up to the election. It’s his campaign’s largest ad buy this election cycle. However, it remains dwarfed by the money spent by PACs supporting Paxton, which have spent nearly $200 million flooding the zone.

Election officials work to clear voter registration backlog say Texas TEAM system makes that harder

At 6 p.m. a few days after the state sent Randall County election administrator Shannon Lackey a backlog of 3,388 of voter registration records, she was still at her desk, processing them after a full day of work. She planned to stay late and get as much done as she could, then keep working from home. Lackey, whose department has five employees, isn’t expecting overtime pay or compensatory time off to make up for the extra work caused by the state error. The most frustrating part, she said, was that the state’s voter registration and management system, known as TEAM, was making it harder to get through the backlog. “I just got a message saying ‘an error occurred’,” Lackey said while on the phone with a Votebeat reporter. “I cannot tell you how many times I get that message, ‘an error occurred,’ so I’m just clicking. Nothing’s happening. I can’t work right now.”

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She said her only choice is to push through. “I have to get this done” she said, but “how are we going to fix it? And if it’s not fixable, where do we go from here? Because this is unacceptable.” Local election officials across the state have raised concerns about TEAM since the state rolled out a long-awaited upgrade more than a year ago. Now they must use the system to resolve a backlog of hundreds of thousands of voter registration records and updates state officials sent them due to a software error with the Texas Department of Public Safety web portal. Many say the issues with TEAM are making the backlog harder to resolve at a critical time. State officials discovered the error just weeks before today’s deadline for Texans to register to vote in time for the critical midterm elections. Election officials are already contending with the typical high volume of voter registration applications delivered in person and by mail at the last minute in the coming days. Some better-resourced and larger county election departments have been able to quickly resolve their backlogs with help from outside vendors, but they’re also still reporting problems interacting with TEAM.

Republicans fight red-state midterm chaos with hundreds of millions in late money

Republicans are swamping House and Senate races with an unprecedented flood of late ad spending as the party tests whether hundreds of millions of dollars can buy it some reprieve from the eroding political environment that’s threatening longtime Republican states and districts. Since the start of September, Republicans have made more than $700 million worth of new advertising bookings in congressional races alone, according to an NBC News analysis of data from AdImpact, a political ad-tracking firm. That’s new money on top of what had already been committed to those races in ad reservations made over the summer. By comparison, Democrats booked more than $430 million in new ad reservations across those races last month.

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The disparity is greatest in the battle for the Senate majority, where almost 7 of every 10 newly booked advertising dollars are coming from Republicans. That’s led by a massive, late investment in the Senate race in Texas, where Democrat James Talarico is threatening a longtime Republican seat and the GOP has poured in almost $150 million in new ad dollars to back up its nominee, Ken Paxton. The gap is smaller in the House, where a bit less than 6 in 10 of those new ad dollars are coming from the GOP. Democrats still have a number of advantages in their corner, including President Donald Trump and his party’s eroding standing among voters, Democrats’ own well-funded candidates, and help from outside groups. Candidates can take advantage of a rule that allows them to buy television ads at cheaper rates than outside groups, too. But the color of the outside money flood shows how Republicans, increasingly on defense in both the House and the Senate, are able to lean on their financial advantage in hope of defying political gravity, as party bastions like Texas and even Kansas look more competitive than usual.

They’re the most hated thing in America. A strange new industry has cropped up to change your mind.

One sweltering morning in early August, data center executives gathered in a Northern Virginia conference center to talk about why nobody likes them. The panel, convened by the trade publication Data Center Frontier, featured industry leaders who sat onstage and shook their heads in bewilderment at the anti–data center movement presently engulfing communities across the country. As recently as a year or two ago, they said, a new data center could be quietly constructed without so much as a peep from concerned residents. Now, entire states were passing bans to keep them out. The panelists tossed out possible reasons for the American public’s disdain: Data center developers have been too secretive and seem shady to the average townsperson. Anti–data center Facebook groups are rife with misinformation about water usage, an issue that’s more complicated than detractors suggest. Companies have made a habit of waltzing into town and executing their plans without listening to community concerns. “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason,” chided one energy-industry executive.

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During the first three months of 2026, U.S. data center opponents stopped or delayed 75 projects worth almost $130 billion, roughly equal to those blocked in the entirety of 2025. The 840-plus anti–data center groups across the country represent a new, surprisingly bipartisan national consensus: A Gallup survey conducted in March found that 71 percent of Americans would oppose a new A.I. data center in their area. This is sobering news for tech executives, but it has opened a new avenue of business in another industry: public relations. A growing number of PR consultants are styling themselves as experts in getting data centers built without provoking opponents. They advertise strategic counsel on responding to community resistance, recruiting landowners to sell their lots for development, and trying to win over residents before opposition groups even have a chance to form. Often, they attempt to intervene quietly, behind the scenes, hoping that once-resistant communities will start to soften, maybe without realizing why. Until the last year or two, there was no need for this specialty. For decades, data centers were the small, unobtrusive, unlabeled buildings on the outskirts of town, doing the invisible work of keeping the internet afloat without straining the power grid or bearing the weight of our anxieties about technological change. But the advent of A.I. has made the buildings exponentially bigger, louder, and closer to places where people live.

State Stories

Whitmire administration will pull bid for $150M federal grant as council questioned its ICE implications

Mayor John Whitmire’s administration will withdraw a $150 million grant application to a controversial federal program after the Houston Chronicle reported Monday that the city had submitted the paperwork last month, unbeknownst to city council. Houston’s bid for the Model Cities Initiative, run by the U.S. Department of Justice, was pulled twice from the council agenda last month as Whitmire said his office was pressing the DOJ to clarify the program’s guidelines, while council members and residents raised concerns that the funding might force the city to more closely cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The council has spent months this year debating the role Houston police play in ICE actions. But the grant application had been submitted weeks before in order to meet the program’s Sept. 1 deadline, the mayor’s office said.

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Council Member Amy Peck, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, said Friday that the mayor’s staff told her the council would be asked to approve the funding if it came through. At least three other council members said they were unaware of the city’s submission. Two said they thought the Whitmire administration had decided not to apply, especially after his office told Houston Public Media last week that the city was “not taking any action… at this time” on the grant. Whitmire said late Monday afternoon he would withdraw the application in part because his staff erred in not securing council approval before submitting it. “In the effort to ensure the application was submitted on time, staff prematurely submitted it before the required council approval was secured,” Whitmire said in a statement. “Due to that error and current lack of clarification on the program’s guidelines, the city of Houston is withdrawing its application.” In an earlier Monday statement, Whitmire said the city had applied with the goal of supporting its efforts to combat homelessness, violent crime and domestic violence.

‘Fishing expedition’: Eastland family responds to search warrants in Camp Mystic criminal investigation

The Eastland family is responding to the criminal probe into their role in the deaths of 25 campers and two counselors following deadly floods at Camp Mystic in July 2025. The Texas Department of Public Safety executed 14 search warrants last month, mostly against the Eastland family, who owns the Kerr County summer camp. Those court documents show the lead criminal investigator requested access from Apple, Inc. to their electronic data, including browser history, call logs, emails, GPS, and photos. Texas Ranger Brant Johnston is looking at five criminal charges, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, injury to a child, abandoning or endangering a child, and deadly conduct.

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Six members of the Eastland family filed motions in Kerr County District Court, asking for a hearing on multiple issues, calling the search warrants a “fishing expedition.” The family wrote, “We can only assume this is a fishing expedition by Ranger Johnston regarding speculation as to admissions he believes to exist in the aftermath of the flood event itself, and to attempt and prove something by the non-existence of information, which is to prove a negative, which should not be an acceptable form of credible evidence in a criminal investigation.” KXAN reached out to DPS for a comment but has not yet heard back. In their filings, the Eastlands claim the time frame in which the investigator is asking for their data — July 3 through July 4, 2025 — is “overbroad” and they point out it could include information that’s protected by attorney-client privilege. “The warrant’s date range encompasses not only the July 4, 2025, flood but also potential post-incident communications generated while Movant and Camp Mystic, LLC potentially faced related civil claims, regulatory inquiries, and other investigations,” the document said. The family, therefore, is asking the court to stop investigators from reviewing the returned electronic data and to, instead, appoint an independent person or team who will take a look at and filter the evidence for investigators. According to the response, the Eastland family is requesting information on who has already seen the returned electronic data and what they have seen.

These energy companies put Oklahoma City on the map. Now they’re moving to Texas.

An NBA basketball team. An Olympic rowing facility. The state’s tallest skyscraper. All were lavished on this mid-American city by two oil-and-gas companies and their leaders over decades of investment to lure top talent. Now, the partnership has run into a Texas-shaped wall. Devon Energy and Expand Energy —the successor of Chesapeake Energy—said in back-to-back announcements this year that they were moving headquarters to a more desirable location: Houston. Just like that, Oklahoma City is losing its two largest public oil-and-gas companies, with market values of about $52 billion and $20 billion, respectively. The abrupt exits have frazzled some of the city’s elder statesmen, chagrined politicians—and prompted some chief executives to make not-so-subtle digs at their former neighbors.

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The companies have said they would maintain a large presence in Oklahoma City, but some officials fear that will dwindle over time. “We should be asking why Oklahoma keeps building energy companies only to watch so many of them eventually move south,” said state Sen. Dusty Deevers. The corporate migration carries extra sting because the companies were by far the top corporate boosters in Oklahoma City. They erected sprawling campuses and upscale strip malls—and even helped turn a moribund river into an Olympic water-sports venue. The drive from the airport to the city center is studded with signs celebrating the Oklahoma City Thunder, which won its first NBA championship two seasons ago. The departures are the latest sign that a frenzy of oil-and-gas mergers is consolidating the energy industry in Houston. Devon announced its departure after inking a deal to merge with Houston-based Coterra Energy. Chesapeake merged with Southwestern Energy, which was based in north Houston, two years ago and changed its name to Expand. Oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron both based in the Houston region, have acquired rivals once based in New York, Denver and Irving, Texas and centralized corporate functions in Houston. “People don’t understand that locating in Houston is like moving a film company to Hollywood,” said Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt.

San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Dorazio still the right choice in Texas House District 122

We recommend incumbent state Rep. Mark Dorazio in his bid for a third term representing Texas House District 122. While we don’t agree with Dorazio, a Republican, on a number of issues, our recommendation is broader than tallying issues on a score sheet. It’s notable that in a majority-Republican district, Dorazio outperformed President Donald Trump during the 2024 general election, garnering 58.1% of the vote in his election versus Trump’s 54.9% in the presidential race. Given the open race in House District 118 and the tough challenge that Republican state Rep. Marc LaHood faces from Zach Dunn in District 121, Dorazio could be one of two Republicans in San Antonio's statehouse delegation, along with state Sen. Donna Campbell, whose district includes northern Bexar County.

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We give credit to Dorazio for his opposition to the controversial Guajolote Ranch development, the proposed 2,900-home project with plans for a sewage plant that would discharge up to 1 million gallons per day of treated wastewater into Helotes Creek. Dorazio reached his position after he took the time to understand the characteristics of the karst formations that comprise the area under Helotes Creek. “I’m not against development,” he said. “But I’m for good, commonsense development.” The administrative rules by which the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality operates favor permit applicants such as Municipal Operations LLC, the company that developer Lennar Corp. has engaged to operate the proposed wastewater treatment plant. Nevertheless, Dorazio’s support was more than symbolic. When his constituents reached out with concerns, he invested time and energy to understand them, and we’re confident he will continue to listen, even to those who disagree. While we recommend Dorazio, we also are impressed by his Democratic opponent, Dr. Shelly Nickels. Given that’s she’s a physician and medical director with Methodist Hospital, it’s unsurprising that she’s well-versed on healthcare. We agree with her call for expanding Medicare in Texas and blocking the Texas Republican Party’s goal to ban IVF treatment.

San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Zack Dunn our choice to represent Texas House District 121

In a race that includes a one-term incumbent, we recommend political newcomer Zack Dunn for state representative in Texas House District 121. Dunn, the Democratic candidate, rose above state Rep. Marc Lahood in our meeting with two candidates. While Dunn was sharp on policies and district issues, LaHood was unfocused and often came across as either unaware or unengaged. Should he win, LaHood needs to sharpen up ASAP.

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In our meeting, Dunn called for better funding for public schools and referred to the state’s new private school voucher system as a “terrible waste of taxpayer dollars.” He supports removing tax breaks as part of a measured approach to dealing with data centers, and he opposes Gov. Greg Abbott’s call to undo CPS Energy’s status as the sole provider of electricity in San Antonio. Devastating fatal flooding rocked this district on June 12, 202 Meanwhile, LaHood was underwhelming and scattered. He was remarkably disengaged regarding Abbott's proposal for CPS, and he occasionally rambled well off topic. When the subject was border security, he started talking about the war in Iran and threats from Russia and China. He expressed no urgency to address the infrastructure needs in this district, which was rocked by fatal flooding on June 12, 2025. While Dunn is the Democrat, he was far more aligned with this district's former Republican state Reps. Joe Straus and Steve Allison. He’s best suited to represent District 121.

Texas pediatricians face Paxton investigations for vaccinating children

It was a bustling Monday morning at a little pediatrician’s office in central Texas. Children with rashes, fevers and runny noses cycled through exam rooms decorated with butterflies, planets and colorful maps. The doctor, who had been treating kids in the community for 20 years, was delighted when a woman she had cared for as a child came in with her newborn. Until recently, she had planned to continue her practice for years to come. But this year, she has begun to reconsider amid the stress and legal costs of defending herself in a statewide investigation by Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, who has accused doctors, drug companies and insurers of conspiring to push parents into vaccinating children. She agreed to be interviewed and allowed a reporter to visit her practice but asked to be identified by her middle name, Rachel, to protect her from retaliation.

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In December, Dr. Rachel received a letter from the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division demanding her vaccine purchase records over the past 10 years. “The division believes that you are in possession, custody or control” of material, “involving potential misleading or deceptive acts regarding incentives associated with the administration of childhood vaccines,” it said, adding that such acts could be in violation of the state’s deceptive trade practices law. The letter also requested her practice’s vaccine policy, and said that it would not be sufficient to cite the childhood vaccine schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr. Paxton has also implicated the nation’s largest organization of pediatricians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, in the alleged conspiracy over the workaday task of protecting children from polio, measles, meningitis and more than a dozen other dangerous and sometimes life-threatening diseases. “I will ensure that Big Pharma and Big Insurance don’t bribe medical providers to pressure parents to jab their kids with vaccines they feel aren’t safe or necessary,” he said when announcing the investigation in January, describing his efforts as working “alongside President Trump” and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Why Taylor Sheridan signed on with NBCUniversal after years at Paramount

While he's best known for his work on TV now, Taylor Sheridan got his big break as a screenwriter for the big screen. Working on movies reportedly played a big role in the Fort Worth-based creative signing a lucrative film and TV deal with NBCUniversal. NBCU Entertainment chair Donna Langley said at a recent event that she opened talks on a deal with Sheridan by talking about films first. "That’s how it started, and then we just got to talking and one thing led to another," Langley said at Bloomberg’s Screentime event in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.

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His move will follow a long and successful stint with Paramount that included popular TV shows like Landman, Lioness and Tulsa King, among others. The film part of Sheridan's NBCU deal is expected to take effect this year while the TV component will start once his Paramount deal runs out in 2028, per Variety. Additionally, Langley hinted at the ongoing merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. as playing a role in her studio's ability to pull Sheridan away from his longtime home. "There’s just a moment to kind of look around the marketplace and see if there’s a competitive advantage," she said. Sheridan is set to return to the big screen in May with F.A.S.T. starring Brandon Sklenar, who played Spencer Dutton in the Yellowstone prequel 1923. Sheridan is also reportedly co-writing a script for a movie based on the popular Call of Duty video game.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Blame this Democrat for the HISD takeover, but still reelect him.

Here’s how octogenarian Harold Dutton thinks about retirement and passing the torch to the next generation: “Why don’t you get a torch and light it on mine?” Dutton once wanted to retire from the Texas House. He had a successor, a staffer he’d trained up over the course of a decade. But she died tragically in 2023. Other candidates challenged him, even fellow Democrats, but voters just kept picking him. This year, yet again, he made it through a contentious primary — even though opponents attacked him for having written the bill amendment that launched the controversial state takeover of Houston ISD. We’ve been critical of the takeover, too, but even we think he remains the best candidate to represent this north Houston district.

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How could anyone defend the HISD takeover, you ask? Even now, as enrollment craters and funding challenges have even well-performing campuses facing painful cuts? Dutton always reminds us that HISD failed children in his district for years. He wrote the provision that enabled the takeover with the intention of forcing the district to pay attention to its most troubled schools. And he doesn’t regret it. “For the most part it’s all been positive,” he insisted. When he visits schools, Dutton said, he hears good reviews. “Mr. Dutton, we don’t have nearly as many fights as we used to have,” he said he heard on his recent stop at Wheatley High School, his alma mater and the chronically failing campus that triggered the state takeover. But perhaps some of the criticism and concerns — the “noise,” as state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles dubs it — has finally broken through to Dutton. “Is it perfect?” he asked rhetorically. “ Is it where I’d like for it to be? Well, probably not.” A better answer would be, definitely not. Even three years in, Wheatley’s much-lauded A rating came with a big asterisk. As was the case for many high schools across the district, Chronicle reporting revealed, Wheatley’s score was boosted by questionable online college prep courses that even the state education agency is wary of and is mostly phasing out. Still, Dutton said, “I arrive at the conclusion that says we’re far better off than we were at the time this began.”

A Ken Paxton campaign rally at a Houston music hall sparked a fight over what venues stand for

When White Oak Music Hall hosted a campaign rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton, the backlash was swift. The August event faced extensive criticism from indie, punk and underground music scenes — communities built on diversity and inclusion. Punk in particular has a history built on LGBTQ+ intersectionality and anti-establishment ethos. Hosting a politician whose career is defined by anti-trans legislation, aggressive border crackdowns and far-right ideology was seen as a direct betrayal of the safe-haven ethics that keep the local scene alive. White Oak management posted, then quickly deleted, a statement defending the decision, calling itself a “neutral forum” and pointing out that it previously hosted Democrats Beto O’Rourke, former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and judges Ravi K. Sandill and Manpreet “Monica” Singh.

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Online reaction was so negative that the venue turned off comments on social media. White Oak management did not respond to a request for comment. The fallout from August’s Paxton rally has shown surprisingly long legs. Hermanos Gutiérrez, an instrumental duo with almost 4 million monthly Spotify listeners, announced in mid-September that they were moving their Oct. 21 show to 713 Music Hall “due to issues with the venue and concern from our fans.” Viral singer Novulent canceled his Aug. 8 show day-of after learning of the Aug. 5 Paxton rally, stating the band “does not support his hatred and bigotry at all.” After failing to secure another venue, Mannequin Pussy and Wednesday opted to keep a Nov. 12 date on White Oak’s outdoor stage but said the venue will donate its facilities fee to the Montrose Center and Houston Immigrant Legal Services Collaborative and drop its merch cuts.

Trump orders firing squad for gunman who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas

President Donald Trump has ordered the use of ?a firing squad to execute the former US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in ?a 2009 shooting spree the gunman later described as retaliation for US wars in the Muslim world, the Pentagon said on Monday. Putting former US Army Major Nidal Hasan to death by Army firing squad was approved by Trump at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on ?X. Parnell noted that Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" — God is greatest in Arabic — during the attack, which killed 12 unarmed active-duty soldiers ?and a retired serviceman, and wounded 32 others.

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The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place ?of the execution, Parnell said, adding, "Judgment day for Hasan has finally come." Death by firing squad was one of several forms of capital ?punishment the Trump administration recently added to permissible forms of execution for the gravest of federal crimes, along with electrocution and gas asphyxiation. The ?number of federal execution options was expanded in part because of increasing difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections, which have also proved challenging to carry out for other reasons at times. Plans by the state of Tennessee to execute a woman for the first time in more than 200 years went awry ?last week when prison personnel botched an attempt to administer a lethal injection, leaving the death-row inmate, Christa Pike, alive but unconscious and ?hospitalized on life support. Pike's lawyers had previously urged that the Tennessee Department of Correction to consider an alternative to lethal injection, such as hanging or ?firing squad, ?in anticipation of the trouble executioners faced in establishing a sound intravenous line.

Lawmakers hear from women’s health experts on hormone health and menopause

The Texas House of Representatives subcommittee on Maternal Health, Menopause and Access to Evidence-Based Medicine had their second interim hearing Monday where they focused on issues regarding hormone health and menopause. The subcommittee was established in August to extend discussion of women’s health concerns beyond childbearing years into midlife. A panel of OB/GYNs and menopause specialists delivered testimonies at the hearing and shared their concerns with the subcommittee. A common concern was that physicians often fail to treat root causes of menopause symptoms and instead opt to treat the symptoms themselves. Many menopausal and perimenopausal women seek medical care from multiple providers before being directed to a menopause specialist.

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“A recent study found that 60% of women say their clinician dismissed their symptoms, also found that 40% got no guidance on treatment. The treatments exist, but the training is lagging,” said Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a board certified OB/GYN and certified menopause specialist. “Women arrive with a sleeping pill from one doctor, an antidepressant from another, and a referral to a cardiologist for heart palpitation, and nobody asks them about their periods. They treated each symptom on its own, and the cause never really gets named.” Haver also discussed the lack of comprehensive menopausal training in medical schools. “I got almost no menopause training in my residency. I got six one-hour lectures in my second year of training and no clinics, no clinical experience whatsoever,” Haver said. Dr. Jennifer Friedman, an OB/GYN and clinical associate professor at Texas A&M University Family Medicine Residency Program, emphasized the need for menopause education in Texas during the hearing. Friedman created a formal menopause gynecology elective and curriculum at the Texas A&M Family Medicine Residency in 2022 and believes that more physicians need to be trained in menopausal care to adequately address the needs of the population.

Johnson County Commissioner Bailey pushes back on Abbott tax message

Commissioner Rick Bailey pushed back this week against Gov. Greg Abbott’s criticism of local government spending, arguing that state mandates, population growth and rising costs are driving much of Johnson County’s increased property tax burden. His comments followed the Johnson County Commissioners Court’s recent adoption of a property tax rate of 41.7 cents per $100 of valuation for the new fiscal year, up from 38.9 cents the previous year. County Judge Chris Boedeker said inflation and current economic conditions contributed to the increase. “Other banner items that led to the [increase] came about because our health insurance coverage costs are going to increase by about $2 million per year,” Boedeker said. “We’re also anticipating decreases in our jail lease revenue numbers of about $3 million in the coming year.”

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Historically, the county has generated revenue by leasing jail space for inmates from other jurisdictions. As Johnson County’s own inmate population has increased, however, fewer beds have been available to lease. Bailey added that the new tax rate, like last year’s, includes a 1-cent increase related to $60 million in transportation bonds approved by voters two years ago. Bailey, who has frequently criticized what he views as attempts by state leaders to erode local control, then turned his attention to Abbott’s recent property tax proposals and messaging. “The vicious attack that our governor is putting out needs to be addressed,” Bailey said. “It’s basically smoke and mirrors, if you will. “There’s so many things in Abbott’s messaging that are really deceiving to the state of Texas, and I’ll call him out on it, and I plan to do so.”

AIM Media Texas Editorial Board: Deportations in Valley have taken a major toll; policy changes needed

The recent crackdown on immigration has affected our entire country, but probably the areas most affected are those along the border such as the Rio Grande Valley, where immigrants comprise a larger percentage of the population. Local officials, advocates and observers note that the effects are widespread, and affect virtually everyone in our communities directly. Recent data detail how the removal of thousands of Valley immigrants — many of them longtime residents and even business owners — affects us all. They also show the need that new policies are needed, or existing policies should be changed, to deal with them. Information from the Deportation Data Project and the Caminos Institute indicate that since 2022, immigration officers have detained more than 13,000 Valley residents, and more than 86% of them have been deported. They include both illegal and legal residents.

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Nearly 70% of those removals have been men and the median age is 36. In simple terms, most of the people our community has lost have been part of our workforce. The effects have been obvious in several elements of our economy, particularly in housing, construction and agriculture. This means fewer homes and other buildings are being constructed and renovated, driving up local home prices and making it more difficult for home and business owners to make repairs and upgrades that can improve living conditions, lower utility costs or recover from storm damage. Valley farmers report they can’t hire enough workers for their fields, and some produce hasn’t been harvested because of the worker shortage. Local shrimpers for years have reported difficulty finding enough capable workers work their trawlers; some have even stayed in port because they can’t operate. Reduced harvests mean less produce in the stores, which drives food prices up.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Voters should back this 'all gas, no brakes' Democratic staffer

If you want to feel excited about Houston, talk to Odus Evbagharu. His view of our city and our future is so buoyant that you can’t help but feel a little lighter after hearing it. “My parents came to this country on a penny and a promise,” Evbagharu told the editorial board. And the country welcomed them. His family found a home in Houston. He attended Cy-Fair ISD schools and then the University of Houston. No matter what side of town he was on, he said, he felt the openness that made this region great. “There’s really a lot more that unites us,” Evbagharu said. “I’ve seen it firsthand: People would come to our house eating fufu, jollof rice — white people.” His friends from college would ask him to bring back food from home. “People can barely say my last name and they’re like, ‘Hey go run for office.’”

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Though Evbagharu, 34, is a first-time candidate, he’s also a behind-the-scenes politico. He was chief of staff for Jon Rosenthal, the outgoing state representative for House District 135, which includes northwest Houston, Cypress and Jersey Village. (Rosenthal is leaving this seat to run for a spot on the Texas Railroad Commission.) Evbagharu also runs his own political communications business. And after extreme right-wing candidates took over the school board at Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, cutting chapters out of state-approved text books, he helped moderates win back the majority. With all that experience, it’s not surprising that, when you ask how he’d accomplish political goals in Austin, he doesn’t just talk abstractly about his pro-smart growth platform or talk convincingly about on-the-ground issues.. He says that he’s already been meeting with representatives from both parties. “I’m all gas, no brakes,” he said in his self-assured way. “I’ll be effective come January.” Evbagharu wants to partner with County Commissioner Lesley Briones, for example, to boost her sidewalks initiative — a critical issue in an area that saw school bus routes cut. He thinks a strategic approach to adding new, regulated data centers could help lower local property taxes. He welcomes AI into classrooms with guardrails so students don’t miss out on learning important skills.

National Stories

Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Francis Halzen for work on neutrinos

Francis Halzen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for his work on a project at the South Pole that has helped discover high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. Who is the winner? Mr. Halzen is a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was born in 1944 in Tienen, Belgium. Why did the committee say he received the prize? The Nobel Committee praised Mr. Halzen's “vision and scientific leadership” at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a research project at the South Pole that he directs. The project — which the committee said involves “a cubic kilometer of ice that is equipped with light sensors” — was designed to capture neutrinos, bountiful but elusive subatomic particles that could give astronomers a new look at the universe.

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Mr. Halzen first presented his vision for capturing neutrinos at the South Pole in 1988, the committee said in a statement, and IceCube was finished in 2011. “Researchers soon discovered the first high-energy neutrinos and, a few years later, could publish their discovery of neutrinos that must originate far outside our solar system,” the statement said. Mark Pearce, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in the statement that Mr. Halzen had “provided us with a fantastic instrument” and that his “tenacity and scientific vision has paved the way for a new kind of astronomy.” What did he say about winning? Mr. Halzen called the award “a great surprise.” Addressing the news conference in Stockholm by phone from Italy, he emphasized that his work was the result of a “large collaboration” with other researchers.

The mighty American consumer is crashing through inflation and driving growth

Happy hour at Chicago’s Bar Roma was buzzing this past week as locals poured in for $10 cocktails and $11 bruschetta. Kathleen Harper and her husband would normally share a few appetizers, but tonight they were splurging on the $50 tasting menu. “After a long day—I work from home—I like to just get out of the house,” said Harper, who sells fraud-protection services. “Business has been good,” she added, “because fraud, unfortunately, is up.” Harper said she worries about the health of the economy and rising prices for gas and groceries, but feels secure enough to enjoy a good happy-hour deal. Decisions like that across the economy show America’s appetite for consumption is expanding. Americans are spending more on food, travel, couches, Halloween decor and most anything else they want or need—pushing through inflation and their own gloomy feelings about the economy.

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The dollar amount spent by U.S. households rose by 6.1% in the 12 months through August, up from annual growth of 4.3% at the end of last year, the Commerce Department reported. Economic growth for the second quarter of 2026, the most recent data available, was revised upward this past week, fueled by consumer spending and business investment. “For all the talk about AI data centers, the main engine of growth for GDP in the United States has been broad-based consumer-spending growth, which I think is tied to a broad-based, stable labor market,” Austan Goolsbee, head of the Chicago Fed, told journalists after an economic forum this past week. Hiring slowed last month, though the unemployment rate remains low. Spending is rising because prices are climbing and Americans are buying more stuff. Just over half the spending increase in the year through August owes to the persistent inflation that has frustrated many shoppers: Consumer prices were up by about 3.4% over that period. But inflation-adjusted spending climbed by 2.6%, too, extending a streak of steady growth over the past five years.

Dennis Hastert, longtime House speaker who served time in prison, dies at age 84

Dennis Hastert, whose congressional legacy as the longest-serving Republican House speaker was later fouled by allegations that he had molested high school athletes during his prior career as a teacher and wrestling coach, has died, a coroner said Monday. He was 84. Hastert, who was speaker from 1999 until 2007 and spent more than a year in prison later in life, died Saturday of natural causes at his home while receiving hospice care, according to Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell. When he was sentenced in 2016 to more than a year behind bars, the former history teacher became one of the highest-ranking American politicians ever ordered to prison. In the late 1990s, Hastert was a little-known Illinois lawmaker with a reputation for congeniality that had helped him ascend the ranks of congressional leaders.

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When Newt Gingrich lost support because of ethics violations and the GOP’s poor showing in an election, Republicans elected Hastert to succeed him. In his first weeks on the job in 1999, he presided over the House while the Senate conducted then-President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. After the GOP reclaimed the White House, Hastert helped pass then-President George W. Bush’s legislative agenda. In 2015 he was accused of evading banking regulations as part of a plan to pay hush money to conceal unspecified “prior misconduct.” Nearly a year later, prosecutors said Hastert’s alleged misconduct involved the sexual abuse of teenage boys on his wrestling team in Yorkville, a small town west of Chicago. Prosecutors said Hastert sexually abused at least four team members during his coaching career, which lasted from 1965 to 1981. The person Hastert was paying, identified in court papers only as Individual A, said the abuse occurred in a motel room when he was 14 on the way home from wrestling camp. Hastert allegedly touched other wrestlers in a locker room after saying he would give them massages. Two wrestlers said Hastert performed sexual acts on them. Prosecutors also described a recliner where Hastert often sat in the locker room with a direct view of the stalls where the boys showered.

Meet the Fox News correspondent leading the fight for press freedom at the White House

Even Fox News, one of President Trump’s preferred media outlets, isn’t exempt from his go-to term for any woman he dislikes. “She can be so nasty,” was how Trump recently described the conservative-leaning network’s senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich. Never one to hold back, the president has also had harsh words for her spouse, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a moderate Republican congressman. “Her husband votes against me all the time,” Trump once said. “Can you imagine?” The double-barreled attacks don’t bother Heinrich, who as president of the White House Correspondents Assn. is leading the fight against Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico. When Trump delivered his insult at the WHCA’s dinner in July, Heinrich just shrugged and smiled. “You don’t get into journalism to be well liked by the subject that you’re covering,” Heinrich said in a recent phone interview.

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“As long as I’m doing my job, which is to get the story and tell it fairly and fully, the rest of it is not really my business to care about. It’s probably not the last time I’ll upset him. The president still takes my calls.” Heinrich’s durability is being put to the test as she delivers the public and private messaging on the latest battle with the White House over press freedom. Trump banned the three outlets from the White House grounds due to what he believes is their constant negative coverage. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to block the move, calling it viewpoint discrimination and a violation of the outlets’ 1st Amendment rights. But the administration continues to prevent CNN from serving in the press pool that follows the president at all times. More court hearings are ahead. Over the last 10 days, Heinrich has issued public statements condemning the ban, monitored the legal proceedings and held back channel conversations with the White House in an effort to get Trump’s decision reversed. It’s a second job on top of covering the president and co-hosting a weekend program “The Sunday Briefing.”

Oil is flowing from Hormuz again—just not diesel

Ships are ferrying almost as much crude oil out of the Strait of Hormuz as they were before the Iran war. But they are barely moving any barrels of the fuel the world needs most: diesel. For now, the distinction is paramount in American politics. President Trump’s team has explored a long list of options to arrest the skyrocketing price of diesel fuel, which factors into the cost of groceries, gadgets and just about everything else moved on semitruck beds. The national average for a gallon of diesel hit a record $6.53 late last month. In California, where supplies are increasingly tight and fuel taxes are higher, diesel reached a historic high of $8.44 a gallon. “Consumers don’t buy crude oil. They buy gasoline, jet fuel and diesel,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. “As a result of missile and drone strikes in the Middle East, several large refineries have been damaged. The world finds itself short of refined products.”

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The recovery in oil flows out of the Strait of Hormuz won’t fix the problem anytime soon. As of Saturday, the seven-day average for crude-oil cargoes clearing the critical waterway between Iran and Oman reached 10.3 million barrels a day, or 76% of the prewar baseline, according to the latest available data from market intelligence firm Kpler. But cargoes of oil products like gasoline and diesel came to 1.3 million barrels a day, accounting for only 11% of the overall flows—the rest was unrefined crude oil. Before the war, refined products typically represented more than 20% of the oil cargo passing through the strait. Trump on Monday unveiled an executive order aimed at bringing fuel prices lower. The U.S. will temporarily permit highway use of dyed diesel, a tax-exempt fuel typically used for farming. That move will defer a federal tax of 24.4 cents a gallon on diesel through the end of the year. The administration is putting pressure on its allies abroad. The Group of Seven major economies on Friday agreed to release 100 million barrels of crude oil and fuel from their emergency stocks.

Trump says his Super PAC will pay for pro-Trump ads instead of taxpayers

President Trump said he plans to pay for controversial pro-Trump television ads using funds from his MAGA Inc. super PAC rather than the federal government, following lawmaker criticism that the spots might violate federal law and were an improper use of taxpayer money. The advertisements, which predominantly feature the president and promote the administration’s policies, started airing on national television last month and were paid for by federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats and some Republicans questioned the use of federal dollars for the ad campaign, which the White House has defended as public service announcements. “The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday evening.

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This is a rather standard thing to do but, rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.” The White House said MAGA Inc. would pay for the ads moving forward. MAGA Inc. didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It was unclear if the PAC would repay the U.S. government for the money already spent or just pay for ads going forward. Trump personally pushed for the ads and has been involved in their creation, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The ads have drawn public scrutiny because they include the unusual disclaimer “paid for by the U.S. government.” Critics say the ads might violate laws including the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive-branch employees from using their jobs to promote political causes. One of the ads begins with Trump saying a frequent line he uses on the campaign trail: “Together we will defeat communism, Marxism in America once and for all.” The ad follows with dozens of images of the president at White House events. Playing in the background is a choir singing “Love Me.” Trump ends by saying “America will never be a communist country” and in small letters at the bottom of the screen it reads, “Paid for by the U.S. government.”

Why Trump is so ticked off sbout Daylight Saving Time

Changing daylight saving time has obvious appeal for Donald Trump. Many Americans hate switching their clocks twice a year, so ending that practice could win the president rare bipartisan praise and boost his dismal job-approval ratings ahead of the midterms. Despite growing momentum around the issue, legislation to make daylight saving time permanent keeps stalling in Congress. This gives Trump an opportunity to show off his dealmaking skills and taunt political foes like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi for failing to get the bill over the finish line. Plus altering the way millions of Americans experience time has the sort of kinglike vibe Trump enjoys. So will President Trump finally end this biannual ritual? Can he even do that? And why did he post a GOP senator’s phone number? Here’s an explainer, which we’ll keep updated, on Trump’s clock-switching stance. Perplexed? You’re in good company.

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Under the current system, in addition to changing our clocks, making up for lost sleep, and adjusting kids’ nap schedules, we’re expected to waste precious time remembering the difference between two not very obvious terms. Basically, standard time is the one most people in the United States use in the winter months. Each year, we “fall back” to standard time on the first Sunday in November. Then we “spring forward” to daylight saving time on the second Sunday in March. This is pretty confusing, as “standard” only lasts about four months. During the other eight months, we’re on daylight saving time. Even more confusingly, a lot of people refer to it as “daylight savings time,” plural, though that is grammatically incorrect. Oh, and two states, Arizona and Hawaii, don’t observe daylight saving time at all. It’s a mess! As with any bill passed by Congress, the president must sign the changes into law. And obviously, Trump has a tremendous amount of sway over the Republicans, who currently control both the House and Senate. For many years, he seemed to be confused, just like the rest of us. In 2019, he tweeted, “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” But weeks after winning reelection in 2024, he announced on Truth Social that he’d be working to do the opposite:

Democratic mayors in red states launch new group to counter MAGA and far-left extremes

A group of 15 Democratic mayors governing in Republican-dominated states are building a new political operation that aims to influence national politics as a center-left alternative to both the MAGA movement and what they describe as "far-left dysfunction" from groups like the Democratic Socialists of America. The organization -- Blue Cities/Red States -- is led by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and will launch next week in Miami with a kickoff event hosted by its mayor, Eileen Higgins. The founding mayors lead cities including Atlanta, Jacksonville, Boise, Tulsa and Memphis -- governing more than 7 million Americans across 11 red and purple states, according to a memo for the new coalition.

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In an interview with ABC News, Bibb said he hopes these mayors will emerge as a kind of testing ground for a post-2024 Democratic message. He suggested that the party can rebuild trust among voters by zeroing in on things such as public safety, affordability, economic growth -- things that these mayors often govern on, up against Republicans at times, Bibb said. "As Democrats talk about closing the credibility gap, these 15 mayors have been closing that gap in their cities -- without the cover of a Democratic governor or a Democratic-led legislature," Bibb said. Higgins, who was elected as Miami's mayor in December as the first Democrat to serve in 28 years, also emphasized the group's focus on working against the political extremes. "Working for a more united states is a core theme of Blue Cities/Red States, and we do this by pushing back against extremism and promoting a more practical brand of leadership that focuses on results over rhetoric," Higgins said. "This includes balancing the need to stand up for your community against harmful policies but also finding compromise solutions that deliver results."

Copyright October 06, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved