November 23, 2025: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

U.S. Supreme Court blocks lower court ruling finding Texas congressional map was illegal

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday night blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas new congressional map was likely a racial gerrymander, allowing the map to stay in effect — for now. The brief order by Justice Samuel Alito came after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had asked the court to allow the new map to remain in place while the high court considers the state’s appeal. Alito asked the justices to issue a ruling before 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 24. Paxton had asked for the court to make it’s decision by Dec. 1. The state’s filing deadline for the 2026 midterm elections is Dec. 8. While it is a brief victory for Texas, Friday’s order by Alito does not necessarily foreshadow how the nine justices will vote when considering if they agree with the lower court’s ruling that blocked the new map.

click here for more

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, a Trump appointee, granted a preliminary injunction when he ruled the map the Republican-controlled Legislature approved over the summer was racially gerrymandered. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map,” Brown wrote in his opinion. “ But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.” U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith filed a scathing dissent the next day in which he excoriated the majority opinion as “the most blatant exercise of judicial activism that I have ever witnessed.” The Supreme Court’s ultimate ruling will likely have a major impact on next year’s midterm elections. President Donald Trump asked state lawmakers to draw a new congressional map that could shift five House districts to Republicans, giving the GOP a better chance of retaining control of Congress after the midterms. The decision by Texas to redistrict mid-decade in response to Trump set off a redistricting battle across the states as Republican- and Democrat-controlled states have looked to cancel each other out and give their party a better chance at having control of Congress.

Defiant GOP congressman rejects push by party bosses to drop out of Texas primary, scrambling race for Senate majority

GOP leaders in Washington are ramping up pressure on Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt to drop out of the Texas Senate race, warning that his candidacy could cost their party tens of millions of dollars and even upend their midterm map. But a defiant Hunt told CNN in an interview that he is “absolutely” staying in the heated three-way race against long-time incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and firebrand Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, even as senior Republicans accuse him of being a “spoiler” in the race that is now all but certain to lead to a costly runoff. Hunt, a 44-year-old combat veteran and two-term House member, revealed that he planned to officially file for the race this week, setting aside weeks of GOP speculation about whether he would continue with his insurgent Senate campaign or opt to stay in his Houston-area seat instead.

click here for more

“If Senate leadership does not like me being in this race, you know what I say? Good, because Senate leadership does not pick the leadership in Texas,” Hunt said, insisting that he is the only candidate who can win both the primary and the general election without costing “hundreds of millions of dollars.” “This is like a David and Goliath kind of story. I have a couple of smooth stones to throw at him, but guess what? They are very effective,” Hunt said, arguing the base is not with the 73-year-old Cornyn, who has held his seat since 2002. “The people of Texas are looking for an alternative, and it’s absolutely my job to give them one,” Hunt said. Like Paxton, Hunt is a MAGA loyalist and courting the endorsement of President Donald Trump, who has been lobbied hard by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other top Republicans to clear the field for Cornyn. But multiple people familiar with the matter have said Trump is unlikely to endorse in the coming weeks – and could wait to choose a candidate until a clear favorite emerges ahead of the March 3 primary.

An unusual trend in the economy is worrying the Fed

Something in the US economy isn’t adding up, and it’s rattling the people charged with wrangling inflation and keeping the labor market intact. US companies have sharply slowed their hiring this year, hesitant to invest without knowing the full effects of President Donald Trump’s sweeping economic policies. The economy lost jobs in June and August, and the average pace of job gains for the three months ending in September was only around 62,000, according to the Labor Department. Yet workers’ productivity, a key driver of economic output, remains high. And gross domestic product, which captures all the goods and services produced in the economy, has stayed robust.

click here for more

That dichotomy of an expanding economy and a softening labor market presents a conundrum for policymakers at the Federal Reserve, complicating their efforts to determine whether the economy needs cooling or boosting. “The divergence between solid economic growth and weak job creation created a particularly challenging environment for policy decisions,” Fed officials noted in their October meeting, according to minutes released Thursday. A growing economy, boosted by resilient consumers and massive investments in AI, should be spurring hiring, especially now that the Fed has started lowering borrowing costs. But that hasn’t happened, and there are fears it won’t. “When it comes to monetary policy, the narrative next year is going to be about how to handle a jobless expansion,” Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, told CNN. “How do you try to get businesses to hire more?”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will resign after fallout with Trump

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia announced on Friday that she will resign her seat in the House of Representatives in early January, after a dramatic falling out with President Donald Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein files and other issues. Greene cited Trump’s recent attacks on her — which included calling her a “traitor” and a “lunatic” — in a video and statement posted on X that said her last day in Congress will be Jan. 5. “Loyalty should be a two way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest because our job title is literally, ‘Representative,’” wrote Greene, who is in the middle of a third term representing Georgia’s 14th District. After her announcement, Trump told an ABC News reporter, “I think it’s great news for the country. It’s great.”

click here for more

Greene, 51, had been a leading supporter of Trump and a prominent figure in the Republican’s Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement, while sparking controversy for promoting conspiracy theories and using extreme rhetoric. But in recent weeks, Trump has blasted her for backing a bill to compel the Department of Justice to release investigative files about the notorious sex offender Epstein. Greene also has drawn Trump’s ire for criticizing him for prioritizing meeting with foreign leaders at the expense of paying attention to the needs of Americans. Trump last week said that he was withdrawing his support and endorsement of Greene, who was first elected in 2020, the year he lost a re-election bid to former President Joe Biden. He said that he would fully support “the right person” if they challenged her in the Republican primary next year.

Poll: Americans don’t just tolerate gerrymandering — they back it

Voters in both parties want to go on offense in the redistricting fight. A new POLITICO Poll shows both Democrats and Republicans support redrawing congressional districts to give their side a boost in the midterms. And there is no apparent appetite for a ceasefire in the gerrymandering wars: Most voters on the left and right favor using partisan redistricting not just to level the playing field, but as a weapon to help them win. Among voters who say they would vote for Democrats in the midterms, 54 percent say they support drawing maps to gain an advantage over Republicans in the midterms. A similar 53 percent of GOP voters agreed with gerrymandering to help their party, the survey of 2,098 U.S. adults found. The shifting sentiment comes as both parties are locked in a bitter map-drawing arms race. The partisan tilt of the final map is still in flux, but neither party has slowed down since President Donald Trump first pushed Texas Republicans this summer to redraw their maps to benefit the GOP. Republicans across the country have followed Trump’s lead — and blue-state Democrats have fired back with new maps of their own. Both sides have cast their escalating efforts as a necessary defense of democracy, designed to neutralize the other party’s map-drawing. “We’ve seen an extraordinary public outcry in favor of fighting back against Donald Trump’s overreaches in basically every forum,” said John Bisognano, president of National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

click here for more

He pointed to the passage of Proposition 50 in California — which redrew the state’s congressional maps to advantage Democrats in five districts — as a sign of the “astronomical amount of energy and support” driving Democrats. Roughly seven million voters supported the proposition, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom explicitly cast as a response to the GOP effort to create five red-leaning districts in Texas. The redistricting feud has since exploded into a cross-country battle involving more than a dozen states. “Redistricting and its excesses are at the top of the agenda of most of the public,” said Kareem Crayton, vice president of the Washington office of the liberal-leaning advocacy group the Brennan Center for Justice. He said that in the past he’s had to “spend time” explaining redistricting, but “everybody now understands what the stakes are.” The POLITICO Poll, conducted by Public First from Nov. 14 to 17, helps shed light on public opinion as the redistricting fight enters a new and uncertain stage. While prominent voices in both parties increasingly view redistricting as the best way to lock in an edge ahead of next year’s midterms, they’ve also encountered resistance — both from lawmakers in their own ranks and the courts. The battle over who ultimately stands to win has become increasingly unclear. Democrats, historically the party aligning itself with “good-government” reforms such as opposition to partisan gerrymandering, have made a sharp U-turn on redistricting this year as Trump and Republicans push the bounds of mid-cycle map-drawing. It’s unclear what the long-term implications of the current redistricting battle are — including whether it will undo years of efforts from good-government activists to ban partisan gerrymandering. Bisognano said that voters’ partisan appetites may be a temporary response to Trump’s pre-midterms redistricting push.

State Stories

Ken Paxton argues divorce records should remain private, accuses press of invading his personal life

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants the records in his divorce case to remain private. In a court filing earlier this week, Paxton’s lawyer argued that the case records should remain sealed because the media organizations arguing for their release want to “invade and publicize the most sensitive aspects of the Paxtons’ marital and private lives.” He added state law also does not require the records to be made public, calling the attempt to access them an “unprecedentedly broad and intrusive request.” “The mere fact that a person holding or seeking public office is going through a divorce provides the public with no greater interest in or right to private information about that person,” the lawyer argued.

click here for more

District Judge Lyndsey Wynne, who is presiding over the case in Collin County, will decide whether the records remain sealed. There is a hearing scheduled for Dec. 19. Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, declined to comment for this story. Angela Paxton filed for divorce in July, accusing her husband of adultery. Soon after, she requested all records in the case be placed under seal, arguing that doing so would “not have an adverse affect on the public health or safety.” The judge presiding at the time, Ray Wheless, agreed and made all the case records private, including those that had already been released. Wheless later recused himself from the case. While he did not give a reason why, he has longtime ties to the Paxtons and has made contributions to the attorney general’s campaign. A group of eight media organizations in September requested the decision to seal be reversed. They are Dow Jones & Co. (publisher of The Wall Street Journal), The Washington Post, Hearst Newspapers (which owns the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News), ProPublica, The Texas Lawbook, the Texas Observer, The Texas Tribune and The Texas Newsroom.

Tarrant County Republicans elect new chair after opponents concede in runoff

Tim Davis is the newly elected chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party after his opponents threw their support behind him in the runoff. In the first round of voting, Davis earned the majority with 87 votes. John O’Shea was second with 58 votes. Shellie Gardner had 26 votes, and Marshall Hobbs received 16 votes. “Understanding our democratic process that as representatives, our job is to represent you, and in that, we have decided that as a team, we are going to go ahead and throw our endorsement behind Tim Davis,” Hobbs told the audience of 184 precinct chairs who participated in the election. Davis is an attorney with the law group Jackson Walker and has been general counsel for the county’s Republican Party and the Grapevine-Colleyville school board. Davis was also paid $172,000 by the Keller school board in five months, during which the board considered a proposal to split the district in half.

click here for more

“Can you believe that that just happened? It’s so incredible,” Davis said in his first remarks after being elected. “I thank those three for their support deeply, because it shows how united we really are. It shows how we have to be a force as we go into the next months and weeks ahead.” Davis said that as a child, his parents taught him two key things: that Jesus is his savior and to never give up. “I make that promise to you,” Davis said. “I’ll never give up, and I want you to make that promise to me and to each other and to our county that you’ll never give up. Because if we keep it, if I keep it to you, and you keep it to me, we’ll have a better county tomorrow than we do today and the day after and the day after.” In his speech prior to the election, Davis said his priorities would be to ensure secure, fair elections and to give the party chairs a budget to hold events and hand out flyers. The proudest thing he has ever done for the Republican party, Davis said, was as an electorate in the 2024 election, when President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were elected into the White House.

Texas is developing a required reading list for all K-12 students. What to know

Texas will soon become the first state to adopt a mandatory list of books that must be taught at each grade level in classrooms statewide. The Republican-controlled State Board of Education on Wednesday began work on the list of literary works, which they plan to finalize next year. The list must have at least one literary work for every grade K-12 and will be accompanied by a vocabulary requirement. Some of the early titles up for discussion include “Number the Stars,” “The Outsiders” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Though many states have required public schools to teach certain textbooks, Texas appears to be the only one with a list of literary works. The initiative comes as Republican state lawmakers have moved to restrict the types of books that can be stocked at public school libraries and expand parents' control over the titles their children can check out.

click here for more

The literary works and vocabulary list requirements were included in a broader curriculum package, known as House Bill 1605, that that GOP-led Legislature passed in 2023. State Rep. Brad Buckley, a Republican of Salado and the legislation’s lead House sponsor, described the bill as a “back to basics” effort that would give the state board more authority to align classroom standards statewide and raise expectations. “There’s never been a more important time to double down on student achievement with a high bar,” Buckley said at a workshop on the bill in 2023. “You will get from students what you expect from them.”The legislation requires incorporating the mandatory reading into the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, the state standards known as TEKS, meaning the books could become part of Texas’ standardized testing. Education Commissioner Mike Morath is slated to present a preliminary list of titles sometime next month to the 15-member state board, which is made up of 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats. The list will be debated and finalized across two State Board of Education meetings in January and April. The state board will also decide on a list of vocabulary words that students at each grade level will be expected to know.

Talks underway for $10 billion data center and power plant north of Waco

Texas’ AI boom and the tide of data center companies chasing it have arrived in the Waco area. Lacy Lakeview and McLennan County are negotiating the area’s first large-scale data center project, valued at some $10 billion on 520 acres of farmland west of Elm Mott. Across the bargaining table is Infrakey, a data center company formed in March. Infrakey purchased the farmland in June, the same month the Lacy Lakeview City Council signed a memorandum of understanding with the company. The “Lacy Lakeview Data District” depicted in the company’s online material shows a scale of industrial development and investment unmatched in McLennan County’s history: acres of computer hardware, substations and a 1.2-gigawatt gas-fired plant capable of powering about 300,000 homes. The impact of the $10 billion tax value at buildout is not lost on Lacy Lakeview Mayor Charles Wilson.

click here for more

“For the city, a tax base of this quantity is a paradigm-changer for us,” Wilson told the Bridge on a Tuesday call. “We’re obviously keen on seeing it get done.” Lacy Lakeview currently has a tax base of $649 million. The suburban town is less than 5 miles north of downtown Waco and counts 7,000 residents. Wilson hopes to see the project break ground sometime next year. Collecting property taxes on the unincorporated site would normally require annexation. However, the site is in Waco’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, meaning that Lacy Lakeview would likely have to work out a deal with Waco allowing Lacy Lakeview to annex it. The project would be the biggest taxpayer in McLennan County by far and would also pay millions of dollars a year in taxes to Connally ISD and McLennan Community College. Data centers across the country have been criticized for draining water supplies, straining power grids and exacerbating air and noise pollution. Available materials on the Lacy Lakeview project do not give a full picture of those impacts.

Thanksgiving travel in Texas expected to break records this year

Thanksgiving travel could be busier than ever this year. The American Automobile Association predicts a record number of Texan and Americans will hit the road, while the Federal Aviation Administration estimates the busiest Thanksgiving travel season in 15 years. About 5.8 million Texans could travel more than 50 miles from home during the Thanksgiving period, which runs from Tuesday through the following Monday. That represents a 1.1% increase from last year, according to AAA Texas. If predictions hold true, 2025 will mark the seventh consecutive year-over-year travel uptick during that window.

click here for more

“Thanksgiving travel is a true Texas tradition,” Galen Grillo, the vice president and general manager of AAA Texas, said in a news release. “From road trips along I-35 and I-10 to flights out of DFW and Houston, Texans go the distance to spend time with family and friends. It’s one of the busiest — and most meaningful — times to travel each year.” Nationally, 1.6 million more people could travel this year, up to 81.8 million travelers in total, AAA said, with almost 90% of those choosing to travel by car. Still, six million Americans are expected to fly, a 2% increase over 2024. The FAA predicts Tuesday will be the busiest day for air travel, with more than 52,000 flights scheduled across the U.S. Last year, 370,000 passengers flew out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport during the Thanksgiving period, with the Sunday after the holiday marking the busiest day in the terminal. Airport officials are urging passengers to “plan ahead, arrive early and prepare for a busy terminal experience.” Meanwhile, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons are expected to be the most congested on the roads, with Sunday also drawing heavy traffic as travelers return home.

Texas A&M committee finds professor’s firing over transgender-related lesson unjustified

A Texas A&M committee ruled that the university’s decision to fire a professor after a student was removed from class for objecting to a children’s literature lesson on gender identity was unjustified. A video recorded earlier this year by a female student showed her asking Melissa McCoul, a senior lecturer in the English department, if teaching gender ideology is legal, pointing to President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at removing the subject from higher education. The internal committee ruled that the university failed to follow proper procedures and did not prove there was good cause to terminate McCoul. The committee unanimously voted this week that "the summary dismissal of Dr. McCoul was not justified." The university said in a statement that interim President Tommy Williams has received the committee's nonbinding recommendation and will make a decision after reviewing it.

click here for more

McCoul's lawyer, Amanda Reichek, said the dispute is likely to end up in court because the university appears to want to continue fighting, and the interim president is facing similar political pressure. "Dr. McCoul asserts that the flimsy reasons proffered by A&M for her termination are a pretext for the University’s true motivation: capitulation to Governor Abbott’s demands," Reichek said in a statement. Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans had called for her firing after watching the video. "Fire the professor who acted contrary to Texas law," the governor wrote on X in September. The video led to public criticism of university president Mark Welsh, who later resigned, although he did not offer a reason and never mentioned the video in his resignation announcement. State Rep. Brian Harrison said in a statement to Fox News Digital at the time that the "liberal president of Texas A&M must be fired and all DEI and LGBTQ indoctrination defunded." The opening of the video posted by Harrison on social media showed a slide titled "Gender Unicorn" that noted different gender identities and expressions.

Former UTPD chief sues university, claims ‘purge of female employees’

The former chief of police at the University of Texas Police Department has filed a civil lawsuit against UT Austin and the university system for being “fired without cause,” among other claims. Eve Stephens was offered the UTPD chief position in June 2023 following what she called a “rigorous months-long hiring process.” According to the lawsuit, in September 2024, Stephens was told she was being fired or that she could “resign as a special advisor while keeping pay and benefits for two additional months.” The lawsuit claims Stephens’ firing was “followed by a coordinated purge of female employees from the department.”

click here for more

According to the lawsuit, while Stephens was with UTPD, “many” officers told her the department was “plagued by favoritism.” KXAN has reached out to UT for a statement regarding the lawsuit. The university said it was aware of the lawsuit, but that its response would be in future court filings. According to the lawsuit, Stephens claimed she was “replaced by an unqualified, hand-picked white male successor who never applied for the job.” Stephens’ lawsuit seeks back pay, compensatory damages, and benefits she claims were lost due to her termination. She also asked for reinstatement or front pay, along with attorneys’ fees and court costs. In addition, the suit requests injunctive relief, including Title VII training for UT employees and oversight to prevent future discrimination.

Texas Republicans like Greg Abbott who condemn Sharia law struggle to define it

When Gov. Greg Abbott branded the Council on American-Islamic Relations a foreign terrorist organization, he claimed its executive director boasted Muslims were ready to hold public office and advance “Sharia law” in the U.S. The following day, he urged an investigation into entities he said may be “masquerading as legal ‘courts’” and enforcing Sharia law in Texas. Abbott’s claims reflect a growing trend among GOP officials who decry Sharia — often while being unable to specify what exactly Sharia law is. CAIR, which says it’s the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group, said Abbott “made up” the claim that its executive director, Nihad Awad, said Muslims were advancing Sharia law through political office. The group has also staunchly denied being anything beyond an American civil rights group and is now suing the governor in federal court.

click here for more

Before its “terrorist” labeling, CAIR had been speaking out against Abbott’s crackdown on Sharia and insisted the term refers to a moral and spiritual framework. Officials like Abbott maintain Sharia law is a legal system that flouts human rights. In interviews with the Houston Chronicle, religion experts disagreed with the GOP rhetoric. Najam Haider, a religion professor at Columbia University’s Barnard College who teaches a class about Sharia, said it is often inaccurately translated into ‘Islamic law,’ but it isn’t a legal code that competes with the U.S. legal system. He said Sharia is a human attempt to understand God’s will. Muslims interpret it differently but generally agree one of its crucial components is the requirement to follow whatever is the law of the land. In the case of Muslim Americans, they are bound to follow U.S. laws. “Sharia is not consistent, it's not static, it's not ossified, and so these are some of the misconceptions that we end up having,” Haider said. “If I say ‘Sharia’ to you, you will think of a set of unchanging laws that go back hundreds and hundreds of years. But actually, the Sharia is incredibly flexible, and it has always been flexible.”

North Texas Muslim community leader to be deported, attorney says

A North Texas Muslim community leader will be removed from the U.S., according to an organization representing him. Marwan Marouf, a Palestinian born in Kuwait and raised in Jordan who first came to the U.S. on a student visa in 1993, according to his representation, has been in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since he was initially detained on September 22. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Marouf had been denied a lawful permanent resident visa because of his alleged connections to the Holy Land Foundation case, a high-profile federal prosecution in the early 2000s. This week, the Muslim Legal Fund of America says he accepted a removal order. Attorneys with the Muslim Legal Fund of America said in closing arguments shared with WFAA that Marouf did not testify in a hearing Nov. 20 on the issue amid health issues. KERA reports, citing DHS, that Marouf will be deported to Jordan within two weeks.

click here for more

"After 60 days in detention, Marwan Marouf accepted a removal order – not as an acknowledgment of any wrongdoing but as a decision born of impossible circumstances imposed by a system that has failed him at every turn," Marium Uddin of the Muslim Legal Fund of America said in a statement. "Marwan is the best of us. An order of removal against him is an order of exclusion against all of us who stand with him. He is a man who has lived 35 years in this country as a model citizen - a devoted husband and father, a community leader, and a person of service to mosques, schools, and civic organizations throughout the DFW area. He has not so much as a traffic ticket to his name." The organization says Marouf's detention and removal represents "a profound loss." "Marwan's detention and removal represent a profound loss - not just for his family, but for the community he has served faithfully for over three decades. It is easy to say Marwan has lost America. But the truth cuts the other way: America has lost Marwan, and in doing so, has lost a piece of its own promise," the statement continued. In a statement to WFAA, though, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin previously said: “If you are pushing Hamas propaganda, supporting terrorist organizations, and conducting other anti-American actions, you will face consequences.”

‘There can be enough for everybody’: Housing experts convene to discuss Dallas’ challenges

A century ago, families of four settled into single-family homes on large lots with back and front yards. That’s not the case today, said Alex Horowitz with the Pew Charitable Trusts at Dallas’ second annual housing summit Friday. Developers, residents, city officials and housing experts attended the event at the University of North Texas at Dallas to address ways the city can grow without encouraging displacement — a topic that has invited community consternation and celebration, often in the same breath. Horowitz, who served as the keynote speaker, said the average household these days is composed of two and a half residents, which means the current housing stock, dominated by detached single-family homes, is a mismatch with the population it intends to serve. Panels during the summit targeted several questions about the future of housing in Dallas.

click here for more

Can single-family housing co-exist with multifamily housing? Is a new state law that offers a pathway to convert commercially zoned properties into multifamily housing by right the boon Dallas had been waiting for or is the bane of a neighborhood’s existence? How does one develop underutilized, vacant lots in a city that’s filled with them? And though Dallas was one of the few jurisdictions in the country to successfully add housing to its stock, the city still faces challenges. Nationally, from 2017 to 2024, rents rose 18 percentage points faster in the lowest-income neighborhoods than in the highest-income during that time. “That’s a big gap between high-income and low-income areas,” Horowitz said. In Dallas, the two dominant types of constructions are apartments and single-family homes. The “missing middle” — such as townhomes, duplexes, accessory-dwelling units and homes on smaller lots — would cost less to construct and produce, and could serve working professionals. Half the renters in the country spend over a third of their income on rent, and a quarter spend over 50%. “This is not historically normal. In the past, rents consumed a much smaller share of income,” Horowitz said.

Family of pregnant mom in viral Dallas Regional Medical Center video hires legal team

Last week, a video went viral of a North Texas woman in active labor while hospital staff seem to ignore her. Now, the family in the video has retained high-profile attorneys from a firm that previously represented the families of George Floyd and Botham Jean, both Black men who were killed by police. The family at the center of last week’s viral video is now represented by two law firms, according to a statement the firms sent to The Dallas Morning News. The two firms are Chicago-based Romanucci & Blandin and Houston-based Dunk Law Firm.

click here for more

“The law firms are exploring all legal remedies in this case,” the legal team wrote in a statement, “and are becoming increasingly concerned with the disparity and the level of care being provided to people of color versus those who are not.” The Dallas Morning News is not naming the woman at this time, because she has not agreed to an interview, and her attorneys have not agreed to publicly use her name. The case came into the public eye through a social media post. A video posted on TikTok last week shows a Black woman, screaming in pain and writhing in a wheelchair, in a waiting area at Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite. As she screams through contractions, a hospital employee calmly asks her questions about her pregnancy and her medical history. A text overlay on the video, which was posted by the woman’s mother, says the hospital staff kept the woman waiting for more than 30 minutes. She gave birth 12 minutes later, according to the video.

New report highlights the 'fatal flaws' behind wrongful capital convictions

Sitting in a Brazoria County courtroom in 1994, Anthony Graves, a Black man, looked at his nearly all-white jury. He was on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and the state was seeking the death penalty. At that moment, he felt like nothing had changed in 150 years. “I felt like Dred Scott,” he told the Texas Observer this week. “I felt like a person sitting in front of white people with no rights, knowing that I hadn’t done anything to anybody, but I could not control what they were trying to do to me.” As in Scott’s case, the courts ruled against Graves. He was sent to Texas’ death row. Robert Carter, the co-defendant who had named Graves as an accomplice, repeatedly told authorities he had lied. Carter even used his last words from the gurney in Huntsville in 2000 to try to clear Graves’ name. But he wasted his breath—the state’s highest appeals court was determined to keep Graves on death row.

click here for more

Graves was ultimately exonerated in 2010 after a federal court determined the prosecutors in the case had withheld critical evidence from the defense, including the fact that the star witness against Graves had repeatedly changed his story. In 2015, that prosecutor was disbarred. As a new ACLU report shows, Graves’ experience is all too common. Since 1973, when the modern era of capital punishment began, at least 201 people on death row have been exonerated—meaning cleared of any responsibility for a crime—according to data maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI). Eighteen of those people were in Texas. The ACLU report, released Wednesday, analyzed these cases looking for common threads. What it found was unsurprising but indicative of the habitual mistakes and misconduct that lead to wrongful convictions. “In America, this risk [of wrongful conviction] is not only a defining feature of the modern death penalty, but it also results in the disproportionate conviction and execution of innocent Black people,” the report states. The most prevalent contributor to wrongful convictions in these cases was official misconduct, where police ran shoddy investigations or state prosecutors withheld evidence that indicated the defendant might actually be innocent, like in Graves’ case.

Report: Selena Quintanilla's autopsy reveals details of her tragic death 30 years later

The medical autopsy for Selena Quintanilla was revealed 30 years after her death, according to the magazine US Weekly. Selena, who was also known as the "Queen of Tejano Music," was shot and killed by her Yolanda Saldivar, in Corpus Christi in 1995. Saldivar was accused of embezzling money from the singer. According to US Weekly, which obtained the medical report from the Nueces County, Texas, medical examiner’s office, it confirmed that Selena died from a bullet wound to her lower right shoulder. Selena’s death was ruled a homicide. The magazine stated the coroner confirmed that her cause of death was “exsanguinating internal and external [bleeding] due to [a] perforating gunshot wound” in the chest.

click here for more

The medical examiner stated that Quintanilla her death came " as a result of an exsanguinating internal and external hemorrhage, in other words massive bleeding, due to a perforating gunshot wound of the thorax (chest),” according to US Weekly. According to the report, the bullet entered her back and the bullet was traced from her ribs to the “upper pulmonary lobe,” before puncturing “the chest wall." An exit wound was detected on the “upper right anterior chest.” Saldivar remains in prison after being sentenced to life.

National Stories

Big changes to the agency charged with securing elections lead to midterm worries

Since it was created in 2018, the federal government’s cybersecurity agency has helped warn state and local election officials about potential threats from foreign governments, showed officials how to protect polling places from attacks and gamed out how to respond to the unexpected, such as an Election Day bomb threat or sudden disinformation campaign The agency was largely absent from that space for elections this month in several states, a potential preview for the 2026 midterms. Shifting priorities of the Trump administration, staffing reductions and budget cuts have many election officials concerned about how engaged the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will be next year, when control of Congress will be at stake in those elections. Some officials say they have begun scrambling to fill the anticipated gaps.

click here for more

“We do not have a sense of whether we can rely on CISA for these services as we approach a big election year in 2026,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat who until recently led the bipartisan National Association of Secretaries of State. The association’s leaders sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in February asking her to preserve the cybersecurity agency’s core election functions. Noem, whose department oversees the agency, has yet to reply. “I regret to say that months later, the letter remains very timely and relevant,” Simon said. CISA, as the agency is known, was formed under the first Trump administration to help safeguard the nation’s critical infrastructure, from dams and power plants to election systems. It has been undergoing a major transformation since President Donald Trump’s second term began in January. Public records suggest that roughly 1,000 CISA employees have lost their jobs over the past years. The Republican administration in March cut $10 million from two cybersecurity initiatives, including one dedicated to helping state and local election officials. That was a few weeks after CISA announced it was conducting a review of its election-related work, and more than a dozen staffers who have worked on elections were placed on administrative leave. The FBI also disbanded a task force on foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections. CISA is still without an official director. Trump’s nomination of Sean Plankey, a cybersecurity expert in the first Trump administration, has stalled in the Senate.

Ukraine and Western allies meet to discuss a US peace plan that has sparked alarm in Kyiv and Europe

Top European and Ukrainian envoys conferred in Geneva on Sunday ahead of talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio over President Donald Trump’s proposal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. The head of the Ukrainian delegation, presidential chief of staff Andrii Yermak, wrote on social media said that they held their first meeting with the national security advisers from the U.K., France and Germany. The allies have rallied around Kyiv in a push to revise the plan, which is seen as favoring Moscow. Rubio was expected to join the talks together with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. “The next meeting is with the U.S. delegation. We are in a very constructive mood,” Yermak said. “We continue working together to achieve a lasting and just peace for Ukraine.”

click here for more

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was waiting for the outcome of the talks. “A positive result is needed for all of us,” he said. “Ukrainian and American teams, teams of our European partners —- are in close contact, and I very much hope there will be a result. Bloodshed must be stopped and it must be guaranteed that the war will not be reignited,” he wrote in a post on Telegram on Sunday. The 28-point blueprint drawn up by the U.S. to end the nearly four-year war has sparked alarm in Kyiv and European capitals. Zelenskyy has said his country could face a stark choice between standing up for its sovereign rights and preserving the American support it needs. The plan acquiesces to many Russian demands that Zelenskyy has categorically rejected on dozens of occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory. The Ukrainian leader has vowed that his people“will always defend” their home. Speaking before Sunday’s talks, Alice Rufo, France’s minister delegate at the Defense Ministry, told broadcaster France Info that key points of discussion would include the plan’s restrictions on the Ukrainian army, which she described as “a limitation on its sovereignty.”

US to launch new phase of Venezuela operations, sources say

The United States is poised to launch a new phase of Venezuela-related operations in the coming days, four U.S. officials told Reuters, as the Trump administration escalates pressure on President Nicolas Maduro's government. Reuters was not able to establish the exact timing or scope of the new operations, nor whether U.S. President Donald Trump had made a final decision to act. Reports of looming action have proliferated in recent weeks as the U.S. military has deployed forces to the Caribbean amid worsening relations with Venezuela. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. Two of the U.S. officials said covert operations would likely be the first part of the new action against Maduro. All four officials quoted in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of impending action by the United States.

click here for more

The Pentagon referred questions to the White House. The CIA declined to comment. A senior administration official on Saturday did not rule anything out regarding Venezuela. "President Trump is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The Trump administration has been weighing Venezuela-related options to combat what it has portrayed as Maduro’s role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans. He has denied having any links to the illegal drug trade. Two U.S. officials told Reuters the options under consideration included attempting to overthrow Maduro. Maduro, in power since 2013, has contended that Trump seeks to oust him and that Venezuelan citizens and the military will resist any such attempt. The Venezuelan president, who will celebrate his 63rd birthday on Sunday, appeared on Saturday night at Caracas' main theater for the premiere of a television series based on his life. A military buildup in the Caribbean has been underway for months, and Trump has authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Friday warned major airlines of a "potentially hazardous situation" when flying over Venezuela and urged them to exercise caution.

Media clashes on the right could shape what comes after Trump: 'Things are a hot mess '

Conservative journalist Jonah Goldberg doesn't see his social media activity as "some deep and profound philosophical mission." But he's getting "really tired of the bulls–t." He was referring to the current tempest in right-wing media which threatens to upend what has been one of the most effective tools of Republican politics, a juggernaut of Fox News, talk radio, podcasts, and websites like Breitbart. Goldberg, editor of the center-right site The Dispatch, spoke to TheWrap after his latest pushback on host Megyn Kelly for defending Tucker Carlson's interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. People "are trying to get really, really, really clever about how complicated a question this is about whether or not we should allow a guy who says he's on 'Team Hitler' into the coalition," which is a reference to Fuentes, said Goldberg.

click here for more

"It is just nonsense, and the lack of moral clarity about this, the desire to turn it into this very complicated question," he added, "is really just a smokescreen for being afraid of your audience." Goldman's comments illustrate how media and political figures on the right have gone to war over Carlson's kid-gloves treatment of Fuentes and the Jeffrey Epstein saga, a fracturing that includes The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro accusing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of trying to sell a "knock-off" or "Temu version of MAGA." These fissures may continue to grow as right-wing media personalities compete for audience share and try to shape the GOP ahead of 2028, when, for the first time in 16 years, Donald Trump will not be the Republican presidential nominee. Howard Polskin, who tracks right-wing media coverage on TheRighting, told TheWrap he's observed "a vibe shift" in terms of more critical coverage of Trump in conservative precincts of the internet. Trump has weathered countless crises, and his power remains unmatched on the right. But there are signs that his grip on the party is loosening, evident in Republicans giving in on releasing files related Epstein, a convicted sex offender with ties to Trump, and state lawmakers opposing his midterms redistricting plans.

Trump and Mamdani share a cordial White House meeting after months of trading attacks

In a highly anticipated face-to-face meeting, President Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani described their first in-person conversation as cordial and productive, a striking shift in tone after months of both leaders slinging political attacks at one another. The White House sit-down on Friday marked a stark contrast for the two leaders. Trump has repeatedly sought to paint Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, as too extreme for the city that he long called home. In the president's announcement of the meeting on Truth Social earlier this week, Trump called Mamdani a "communist." However, speaking to reporters after the meeting in the Oval Office, that antipathy was nowhere to be found. Trump praised Mamdani's campaign and pledged to work with him on shared policy concerns centered on the cost of living and reducing crime.

click here for more

"I met with a man who's a very rational person. I met with a man who wants to see – really wants to see – New York be great again," said Trump, who was born in Queens, N.Y., the same borough that Mamdani partially represented in the State Assembly. "I'll be cheering for him." Mamdani had previously called Trump a "despot," but standing to his side on Friday he echoed the president's interest in cooperating around shared goals. "I enjoyed our conversation and I look forward to working together to deliver that affordability for New Yorkers," he said. Over the course of just months, Mamdani's candidacy for mayor turned from a long-shot bid to a national movement, sparking interest far beyond New York in his progressive ideas, including freezing rent in rent-stabilized units, making city buses free and opening city-run grocery stores. It's a platform that quickly caught the ire of many conservative leaders, notably Trump, who made no secret of his opposition to Mamdani following his upset win in June's Democratic primary.

Want to know if someone is worried about crime? First ask how they voted.

The United States is experiencing historic drops in crime across almost all categories, including murder, burglary and motor vehicle theft. But crime statistics don’t necessarily change how safe Americans feel or whether they support the latest public safety proposals, like President Donald Trump’s deployments of the National Guard into U.S. cities. Those beliefs are driven by political preferences. By many measures, Americans are more politically divided than ever, and this polarization colors people’s perceptions of the world around them. According to data from the research firm Gallup, which publishes an annual survey on crime perceptions, Republicans were more likely to believe crime was rising during the Barack Obama and Joe Biden presidencies than under George W. Bush or Donald Trump. The reverse was true for Democrats. The partisan shift was especially dramatic in Gallup’s poll conducted this October, after Trump’s return to the White House.

click here for more

While 90% of Republicans surveyed in 2024 said national crime rates had risen over the past year, just over half believed the same was true in 2025. Meanwhile, Democrats were more likely to say crime was on the rise this year than they were in 2024, but their shift was smaller than Republicans’. National murder rates began falling in 2023, well before Trump’s second term, and have continued to decline ever since. This year could result in the largest one-year drop in murder ever recorded, with data going as far back as the 1960s. Similar trends are taking place with other violent and property crimes. On the surface, the latest polls reflect this safer reality. Less than 50% of people surveyed by Gallup this year said they believed crime was rising in the U.S., the lowest proportion since 2001. Yet the data also shows Republicans are driving the decline, following a decades-old pattern of party members shifting their views under new presidential administrations. Long-term trends make it clear that partisanship is deeply embedded in Americans’ crime perceptions, even in their own communities.

Trump, war, absent media: five threats to climate progress that dogged COP30

Cop30 in Belém wrapped up on Saturday night more than 24 hours later than planned, and with an Amazonian rainstorm thundering down on the conference centre. The UN structure just about held, as it has done these past three weeks despite fire, savage tropical heat and blistering political attacks on the multilateral system of global environmental governance. Dozens of agreements were gavelled through on the final day, as the most collective form of humanity worked to resolve the most complex and dangerous challenge that our species has ever faced. It was chaotic. The process very nearly collapsed and had to be rescued by last-ditch talks that went on into the early morning. Veteran observers told me the Paris agreement was on life-support. But it survived. For now at least. The outcome was not nearly enough to limit global heating to 1.5C. There was a considerable shortfall in the finance needed for adaptation by the countries worst affected by extreme weather. The importance of rainforest protection barely got a mention even though this was the first climate summit in the Amazon. And the power balance in the world is still so skewed towards gas, oil and coal interests that there was not even a single mention of “fossil fuels” in the main agreement.

click here for more

Yet, for all these flaws, Belém opened up new avenues of discussion on how to reduce dependency on petrochemicals, and it increased the scope of participation by Indigenous groups and scientists. It made strides towards stronger policies on a just transition to a clean energy future, and crowbarred the wallets of wealthy nations a little further open. A debate is now raging as to whether Cop30 was a success, a failure or a fudge. But any judgment needs to take into account the geopolitical minefield in which these talks took place. The US walked out. China failed to step up. Many of the problems that beset the talks could have been avoided if these two climate superpowers – the world’s biggest historical emitter and the world’s biggest current emitter – had been able to coordinate a shared approach as they used to do before Donald Trump came to power. Instead, Trump has attacked climate science, cursed the UN and staged a summit in Washington with the Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Little wonder Riyadh felt emboldened at Cop30 to stymie any mention of fossil fuels, even though language on this was agreed at Cop28 in Dubai. China, by contrast, was present in Belém and geared towards helping its Brics partner, Brazil, to stage a successful conference. But its advisers made clear that Beijing did not want to fill US shoes when it came to finance, nor to lead alone on any issue beyond the manufacture and sale of renewable energy products. Among the key fractures in global politics today is that of the relationship between extraction and conservation interests. One wants to endlessly expand agricultural frontiers, dig ever deeper for minerals and ignore the toll on forests and oceans. The other says such activities are breaking planetary boundaries with ever more catastrophic consequences for the climate, nature and human health. This division is evident across the world. It was also apparent at Cop30, where the Brazilian hosts sometimes seemed to send mixed messages, according to observers from Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Copyright November 23, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved