July 7, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

The Platner-induced headache for Schumer

In order for Senate Democrats to take the majority on Election Day, everything needs to go exactly according to plan. It’s not. Graham Platner, the untested 41-year-old oyster-farming darling of progressives, is no longer a viable Democratic candidate to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) this fall, putting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in an incredibly difficult position. After Politico and CNN both reported that Platner allegedly sexually assaulted Jenny Racicot, the DSCC and Senate Majority PAC said they’d no longer support his campaign. Republicans have already announced that they will spend $42 million in Maine defending Collins. Platner will have no backing from the Senate Democratic political machine.

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Party leaders believe Platner will drop out of the race as soon as today, possibly even this morning. That would give Democrats just three weeks to find a new challenger to take on Collins. Much of the discussion about possible replacements for Platner is currently focused on other failed 2026 candidates. Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, epidemiologist Nirav Shah, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former congressional candidate Jordan Wood are all options, according to multiple sources. Jackson released a statement saying he believes Racicot and urged Platner to get out of the race. “There is no place in our politics for sexual violence,” Jackson said. “Not in our party, not in any party. Graham Platner must withdraw from this race today.” Retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden would be the top choice of many Democrats. But the four-term lawmaker has made clear he wants to leave Congress at the end of this year. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, whom Platner decisively defeated in the Democratic primary, is extremely unlikely.

Toyota to move Tacoma production to Texas in $3.6 billion U.S. expansion plan

Toyota will spend $3.6 billion to bring production of its top-selling midsize pickup, the Tacoma, back to the U.S. by 2030, the Japanese automaker said Monday. The company plans to build a second assembly line for the Tacoma at the San Antonio plant where it currently assembles larger pickups and SUVs, adding 2,000 jobs, it said. Making more vehicles in the U.S. will help Toyota, the world’s top-selling automaker, defray a hefty tariff bill in its largest market. The company also needs more domestic capacity as it struggles to keep its U.S. dealers stocked with vehicles, said John Murphy, founder of advisory firm Murphy Automotive Partners. Toyota currently builds the Tacoma in roughly equal numbers at plants in Guanajuato and Baja California in Mexico. The Baja plant’s production will move to San Antonio when the expansion is complete in 2030, while the Guanajuato plant’s output will continue unaffected, the company said.

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Toyota declined to comment on its plans for the Baja plant following the Tacoma’s exit. The Tacoma, launched in the mid-1990s, has long been the dominant seller in the midsize truck space. Its sales consistently dwarf those of competitors like the Ford Ranger and Chevrolet Colorado. The San Antonio plant previously assembled the Tacoma from 2010 to 2021, when the truck was fully moved to Mexico. The company already assembles its larger Tundra full-size pickup truck and Sequoia SUV in San Antonio, producing just shy of 200,000 vehicles annually. The plant currently employs about 3,700 people. The Tacoma line will add about 150,000 trucks to the plant’s annual output. Despite its extensive U.S. manufacturing presence—its popular models like the Camry, Corolla and RAV4 are made in America, among other locations—tariffs on parts, components and vehicles imported from Japan have sent Toyota’s profits sliding. The company’s North American division swung to a loss in the year ended in March after taking a 1.38 trillion yen, or about $8.5 billion, hit to operating income from U.S. tariffs. Murphy, the auto industry analyst, called that “bonkers.”

Belgium ends Team USA’s World Cup run after political firestorm

The U.S. national team came into this World Cup with every conceivable home advantage. The Americans enjoyed automatic qualification and a gentle group as co-hosts. They encountered raucous, star-spangled crowds wherever they went. And, when necessary, they could count on a game-changing assist from the Oval Office. Even after presidential intervention helped the team’s top scorer back into the lineup, however, the U.S. couldn’t overcome its latest challenge on the field: the country of Belgium, the fifth-ranked team in Europe. On Monday evening, the Belgian Red Devils swept into Seattle and brought the American World Cup campaign to an untimely end with a 4-1 defeat in the round of 16. The U.S. had been playing to reach its first World Cup quarterfinal since 2002. But that detail was easily forgotten over the previous 24 hours as a stunning series of events placed the U.S. at the center of a global soccer firestorm.

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“I think we were not good enough today,” U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “We don’t need to find another excuse.” American striker Folarin Balogun had seen his suspension for an earlier red card lifted on Sunday, after President Trump spoke with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, prompting outrage and astonishment from a Belgian team that argued the U.S. was being given preferential treatment. FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, denied a Belgian appeal on Monday morning. And by kickoff later that afternoon, Balogun was walking out of the tunnel alongside his teammates. U.S. supporters gave him the loudest reception of any player when he was introduced while the Belgian fans booed. Some even waved red cards in the air. Unfortunately for the Americans, that was one of the rare occasions that Balogun electrified the crowd. He had no goals, and just three shots. His greatest contribution was drawing the foul that led to Malik Tillman’s free kick goal to make it 1-1 in the first half. That proved to be the last gasp for the American attack. Two minutes after they tied the game, Charles De Ketelaere headed home his second goal of the match to put the Belgians back on top.

Push to regulate Texas data centers crimped by calendar

Top Texas leaders, including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, want to slap more restrictions on data centers. But because the Texas Legislature isn’t expected to meet again until early next year, the state likely can’t do much to set limits on a new surge of data centers that’s expected to come online by late 2032. The issue is one of procedure — and timing. Next April, regulators at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, are expected to approve plans to allow a new wave of data centers — known collectively as “Batch Zero” — to connect to the Texas grid. Many of the data centers in Batch Zero have been in the works for years; some already are being built. State officials expect them to use a lot of energy.

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All told, ERCOT estimates projects that meet Batch Zero requirements could request a combined 100 gigawatts of power, equal to the juice needed to power 25 million homes. To put that in perspective, there were 12.6 million homes in Texas as of 2024, according to the census. Not all Batch Zero projects will receive the full amount of power they’re requesting when they first come online. Some experts believe the actual power usage of Batch Zero projects will be closer to 20 to 50 GW. Still, it’s a lot of power. And these projects were set in motion at a time when there were few rules governing their construction and operation. That means that unless Texas legislators convene soon for a special session — or pass laws that apply retroactively, which carries its own risk — there’s little they can do to impose building requirements on these new data centers. That includes requiring setbacks or mandating water-efficient cooling techniques, said Chris Kirby, a partner at the Balch & Bingham law firm, who represents data center clients. Without a special session, Kirby said, April or May 2027 is probably the earliest a new data center guardrail bill could go into effect — and that would require a two-thirds vote in both statehouse chambers to expedite the law.

State Stories

Supreme Court lets Texas restrict minors' access to app stores for the time being

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a Texas law prohibiting minors from downloading apps without their parent's consent to go into effect. Multiple organizations had sued the state, arguing that the law violates children's freedom of speech. But in an unsigned, unexplained order, the high court allowed Texas to enforce the law as lawsuits continue in lower courts. Texas enacted its App Store Accountability Act in 2025. The law requires app stores to verify all users' ages, and it prevents children under age 18 from downloading most apps without parental consent. Texas told a lower court that legislators enacted the law in order to keep minors from seeing "harmful" material.

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Challengers argued that such a broad law is plainly unconstitutional under a variety of Supreme Court precedents, holding that children do have substantial free speech rights. Texas responded in its filings that the law regulates only "commercial speech" and so is less constitutionally protected. Nonetheless, the law has only a few exceptions for apps made by emergency services and the companies that oversee college entrance exams. Children must get parental approval before downloading all other apps, such as Instagram, library apps, and the apps of news organizations. A lower court initially blocked the law from going into effect, writing that the law "prohibits minors from participating in the democratic exchange of views online." But in June, a panel of judges on the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the law. On Monday, the Supreme Court left the law in place, at least for now. The law now returns to the lower courts for further litigation Utah, Louisiana, and Alabama have passed similar laws. This is not the first time the Supreme Court has dealt with a law banning children from accessing content online. Last year, the court upheld a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify users' ages. But the court has long treated children's access to pornography differently than other access questions. Monday's app store ruling does not necessarily mean that the law is constitutional — only that the law can be enforced while lawsuits make their way through the lower courts. That said, the court's refusal to intervene at this point is at least a tentative signal that favors the law.

SpaceX president pledges stock to new Trump Accounts, with ‘bit more emphasis’ on Texas kids

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Monday she would donate a portion of her company stock to Trump Accounts for more than 2 million children in areas with lower average household income. The effort will place “a bit more emphasis” on children, between 11 and 17 years old, who live near her central Texas home, Shotwell wrote on X. Shotwell lives in Jonesboro, a rural community near a SpaceX facility that tests rocket engines, according to Forbes. “We have been fortunate in our careers and hope this gift encourages the next generation to continue the journey of enabling humanity to live and fly amongst the stars,” Shotwell said on X. SpaceX, which is based in Starbase outside of Brownsville, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Shotwell owned nearly 12.7 million SpaceX shares when it became a publicly traded company last month, according to public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Her shares were worth roughly $2 billion during Monday’s trading. President Donald Trump celebrated the launch of Trump Accounts, a new federal savings program for children under the age of 18, by ringing a bell from the Oval Office to open trading on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange Monday morning.

Trulieve files plans for Texas medical cannabis dispensaries

A major medical marijuana company is preparing to debut in three cities in the Lone Star State, marking a significant expansion in the small number of businesses allowed to dispense cannabis in Texas. Florida-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp. has filed renovation plans for storefronts in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. It already operates more than 250 dispensaries nationwide and announced in December that it had received conditional approval for a state Dispensing Organization license. “We are excited to be selected for a coveted Texas Dispensing Organization license and we look forward to working with regulators as we complete the licensing process,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said at the time. “Pending necessary approvals, we plan to provide patients compassionate care and expanded access to high quality medical cannabis products.”

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The Texas projects include a $250,000 build-out of a 4,060-square-foot space in Austin, a $200,000 build-out of a 1,324-square-foot space in Dallas and a $200,000 build-out of a 2,753-square-foot space in San Antonio, according to filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The Austin and San Antonio projects are scheduled to start July 20 and wrap up Sept. 11, while the Dallas project began June 22 and is expected to be finished Sept. 4. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Information in the state filings is preliminary and subject to change. Texas created the Compassionate Use Program in 2015, initially allowing low-THC medical cannabis for patients with intractable epilepsy. Lawmakers have since expanded the program to include conditions such as multiple sclerosis, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer and chronic pain, but recreational marijuana remains illegal in Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety now lists just three active dispensary organizations and says it will issue 12 additional licenses under House Bill 46, passed in 2025. The Texas expansion comes after Trulieve reported first-quarter net income of $2.3 million on revenue of $287 million. The company also recently proposed reincorporating in Delaware from British Columbia, saying the move would better align its structure with its U.S. operations.

Tesla leases Austin region's largest ever speculative industrial building at 682K sq. feet, sources say

What's believed to be the Austin region's largest speculative industrial building is off the market. Tesla Inc. has leased the 682,000-square-foot industrial building that is under construction at the Austin Hills Commerce Center at 11801 Decker Lake Road, about five miles from the company's gigafactory, several sources told the Austin Business Journal. It is unclear what Tesla, which has diversified well beyond carmaking, has planned for the Austin Hills Commerce Center building. Missouri-based Sansone Group broke ground on the building in March and it's expected to completed by January. The project, which is being co-developed with Iowa-based Principal Asset Management, will be the second phase of Austin Hills Commerce Center just off State Highway 130. Eventually, that project will total 1.4 million square feet.

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The building is listed as "leased" on an updated brochure for the site. While it does not mention Tesla by name, Elon Musk's electrical vehicle company already occupies a nearly 300,000-square-foot building at the sprawling industrial park that is located on 134 acres in northeastern Travis County. All in all, Tesla already has nearly 2.2 million square feet of space leased throughout the Austin market, according to data provided by CoStar, which tracks real estate data throughout the country. The new lease would push Tesla to nearly 2.9 million square feet of industrial leases – easily making it among the biggest industrial tenants in the region. That presence expands outside of Austin and is in suburbs like Kyle and Taylor. Tesla also has over 10 million more square feet in the Austin area that it owns and built itself. In fact, the building continues. Next to the Tesla Gigafactory, Tesla is building a new factory that Musk said will make "not just Tesla’s biggest product, but the biggest product ever" — Optimus humanoid robots.

Eckhardt says Huffines would politicize comptroller's office

Democratic comptroller nominee Sarah Eckhardt took aim at Republican rival Don Huffines during a recent appearance on Lone Star Politics, accusing him of wanting to politicize the office and questioning his judgment and experience. Eckhardt, a state senator from Austin, said the office, which oversees state finances and certifies the state budget, should serve taxpayers rather than political agendas. Huffines, a former state senator from Dallas who will become comptroller Aug. 1 after Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him to fill the vacancy, has pledged to run government lean and protect taxpayer dollars. Lone Star Politics has invited him to appear on the program.

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Eckhardt called the comptroller “the most powerful statewide position that most people have never heard of” and said it should not be used to reward political allies or punish opponents. She accused Huffines of wanting to “weaponize the office” to advance conservative cultural priorities instead of serving all Texans. She criticized Huffines' plans to shrink state government through a Texas version of the federal Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. She said Texas is already among the nation's lowest-tax, lowest-spending states. “It is not time to DOGE state government,” she said. “It is time to invest in Texans.” Eckhardt contrasted her record as a prosecutor, Travis County judge and state senator with Huffines' business background, saying she had managed billions in public assets and cut taxes while maintaining services. She said Huffines is “best known for billboards and having secretly purchased the Epstein ranch,” before asking: “Who can you trust with your hard-earned tax dollars?” The Huffines campaign has said his family purchased property listed in a New Mexico public auction and that the sale's proceeds benefited Epstein’s victims.

Daniel Wong sues Fort Bend County attorney over authority to remain interim county judge

The legal battle over who has the authority to serve as Fort Bend County's interim judge escalated Monday when Daniel Wong filed a lawsuit against Fort Bend County Attorney Bridgette Lawson-Smith, seeking to validate his interim appointment as judge and stop what his legal team calls a politically motivated effort to remove him from office. “I did not seek this lawsuit. I sought to do the job the district court entrusted me to do,” Wong said in a July 6 statement. “The people of Fort Bend County deserve certainty, stability, and a government focused on serving the public — not political disputes." Wong is the GOP nominee for county judge and will face Democratic nominee Commissioner Dexter McCoy in November's election. Wong was appointed to the role in April by a Galveston County district court judge after embattled Fort Bend County Judge KP George was suspended based on a civil lawsuit filed by a resident.

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The civil lawsuit was later dismissed on June 17, after George was sentenced to five years of probation and 180 days in county jail for money laundering. George was first elected as a Democrat in 2018. He switched parties last year as he planned to seek a third term in office. However, he placed last in the March Republican primaries. In the 58-page lawsuit filed in Fort Bend County's 240th Judicial District Court, Wong claims his appointment is still in effect, unless it is vacated by another court. The lawsuit also cites a law from the Texas Constitution called the “holdover provision,” which is a statute that allows appointed and elected officers to continue their duties in office until a successor is found. Wong’s lawsuit attempts to address several arguments Smith-Lawson and her office previously raised. In a June 25 letter to Wong’s attorney, Chris Hilton, Smith-Lawson argued that since the civil lawsuit against George was dismissed on June 17, the order appointing Wong as interim county judge was no longer valid.

Final Prairieland federal defendant sentenced to 6 years in prison, amid shooting's anniversary

The last defendant facing federal charges in connection with last year's Prairieland ICE detention center shooting was sentenced to six years in prison Monday. It comes just two days after the anniversary of an event that made national headlines as the first case of the Trump administration targeting "antifa" as domestic terrorism in federal court. Susan Kent, 24, was part of a group that met at a hotel in Cleburne to plan getting Benjamin Song away from the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado. Song was convicted in March for nonfatally shooting an Alvarado police officer outside Prairieland the night of July 4, 2025. He hid out in a sunflower field until the next day. Kent cooperated with prosecutors and testified at trial that she met Song through the Socialist Rifle Association, a left-wing firearm club. Kent said other defendants were part of an "antifa" cell.

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KERA News reached out to Kent's attorney for comment and will update this story with any response. Antifa — short for "anti-fascist" — is an ideology, not a single organization of which one can be a part. For some, it’s become an umbrella term for far-left-wing beliefs like anarchism, socialism or communism. It’s also been associated with anti-Trump and anti-ICE beliefs in recent years. President Donald Trump designated the ideology a domestic terror threat in September. Kent testified she wasn't an anti-fascist, she said, but a libertarian who believed U.S. immigration policies needed reform. Kent also testified she went to a "gear check" at the home of defendants Autumn Hill and Meagan Morris' home in Dallas July 3, 2025. There, she said, Song had the group review photos of Prairieland. The group decided to bring guns to the detention center but find nonviolent ways to protest, she said.

Report: Family of migrant who died at Camp East Montana files lawsuit

A migrant detainee who died at Camp East Montana earlier this year told staff there that he was not getting the care he needed for his mental health issues, according to a report published in the Washington Post earlier this week. Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban national, died at Camp East Montana on Jan. 3. An autopsy report released by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Lunas Campos died from from asphyxia caused by neck and torso compression, with the manner of death ruled a homicide. The family of Lunas Campos has also filed suit against the guards and company that was running the facility at the time of his death. According to the Post, the family is seeking $1 million in damages.

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Lunas Campos, who suffered from bipolar disorder and anxiety, had complained about not getting the right dosage of antidepressants, expressed suicidal thoughts to staff and reported giving himself a black eye by hitting his head against the wall, records obtained by the Washington Post show. Three months before he died, guards found Lunas Campos with a sheet tied around his neck, the Washington Post reported. Staff discussed moving him to “a higher level of care for mental health treatment,” but never did, the Washington Post reported. Lunas Campos’s struggles with mental health, the details of which have not been previously reported, provide context for the chaotic events surrounding his death on Jan. 3. What took place in his final moments, behind the walls of a privately run detention center, is the subject of conflicting accounts, with a witness claiming the 55-year-old Cuban immigrant was choked to death by guards and the Department of Homeland Security alleging he had been trying to take his own life and was killed in an ensuing struggle.

Matador Resources joint venture strikes $752 million deal for Delaware Basin Assets

In a $752 million agreement, San Mateo Midstream will acquire the operating subsidiaries of Cardinal Midstream Partners. San Mateo is a joint venture between Matador Resources Company and Five Point Infrastructure. Cardinal is a portfolio company of EnCap Flatrock Midstream. The acquisition is expected to expand San Mateo’s designed natural gas production capability to one billion cubic feet per day. San Mateo will also expand its gathering systems to over 800 miles of pipeline. The acquisition is expected to increase San Mateo’s customer base and revenue generation from third-party customers. Cardinal’s assets are expected to complement San Mateo’s existing natural gas gathering and processing systems, enabling easier movement of natural gas through the Northern Delaware Basin in New Mexico and West Texas.

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Cardinal has a cryogenic natural gas processing plan complex in Loving County, with a capacity of 320 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. In addition, Cardinal has 145 miles of low-pressure and high-pressure natural gas gathering pipelines. “We believe that the integrated nature of the San Mateo and Cardinal infrastructure will create additional opportunities for San Mateo to pursue third-party volumes in the future,” said Brian J. Willey, San Mateo’s chairman of the board and the executive vice president of Midstream for Matador. “By connecting Cardinal’s natural gas gathering and processing assets to San Mateo’s existing natural gas system, San Mateo will have the ability to move natural gas throughout the northern Delaware Basin—north to south or south to north—creating better flow assurance and system flexibility that we believe few midstream providers can match.”

Texas took this Dallas couple's newborn baby for 3 weeks. A judge says their rights were violated

A Travis County judge ruled the state's child welfare agency violated the constitutional rights of a Dallas couple whose newborn daughter was temporarily taken into state custody for week after a hospital visit three years ago. Temecia and Rodney Jackson sued the Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency that houses Child Protective Services, last year. The parents say the department put them on the Central Registry — a public abuse and neglect database — without a clear way to appeal and get themselves removed. Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy ruled late last month two sections of the state administrative code used in the Jacksons’ case impair or interfere with the family’s constitutional due process rights.

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One section states DFPS can label an investigation into alleged abuse as “unable to determine,” which means investigators could not rule out abuse or neglect, but the subject of investigation isn’t completely cleared of wrongdoing. The Jacksons argued the Central Registry process and the “unable to determine" label didn’t give the parents an opportunity to appeal the determinations and defend themselves. “That is a denial of procedural due process,” said Charelle Lett with the ACLU of Texas, which is helping represent the Jacksons in court. “And this court agreed that the Jacksons are entitled to that, and so is every other Texan that comes through this system.” KERA News reached out to DFPS for comment and will update this story with any response. CPS took baby Mila into custody after Baylor Scott and White Doctor Anand Bhatt reported the Jacksons for alleged medical neglect in 2023. Bhatt diagnosed 3-day-old Mila with jaundice during a routine postpartum checkup and believed she needed treatment in the hospital.

Austin social services budget cuts target transportation, legal aid

Austin budget officials are proposing to phase in millions in planned cuts to the city’s social safety net spending over two years, with the steepest reductions aimed at programs such as transportation, legal services, basic needs and community planning. In a Thursday memo to Mayor Kirk Watson and City Council members, Austin Budget and Organizational Excellence Director Kerri Lang said a previously announced $16.8 million reduction to Austin’s $74.2 million social services contract portfolio should be spread out over the next two fiscal years. That would mean a $6 million to $8 million cut in the 2026-27 budget, followed by an additional $8.8 million in the 2027-28 spending plan, according to the memo.

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The proposal comes days before City Manager T.C. Broadnax is expected to deliver a pared-down budget proposal to Austin City Council that must account for a $26 million projected deficit. The 11-member council may make amendments to that plan as it sees fit before adopting a final budget in late August. Broadnax zeroed in on social service spending late last year after Austin voters rejected Proposition Q, the council-backed tax rate election that would have raised property taxes to help fund a slew of initiatives, includingsocial services. In late February, City Council directed his office to develop a standardized rubric to help decide how to spread the cuts across services for Austinites in need. Thursday’s memo outlines much deeper reductions to certain categories of spending while noting staff are still refining recommendations. The preliminary plan would largely spare behavioral health, homelessness services and clinical services from the largest percentage cuts, while imposing steeper reductions on smaller categories. Transportation services could be reduced by up to 38%. Basic needs and legal services could each be cut by up to 35%. Family services could be reduced by up to 34%, while workforce development and HIV services could each face cuts of up to 32%. The city is also proposing to eliminate one service category entirely: community planning, which covers community-led planning efforts, civic engagement and neighborhood capacity building in historically underinvested areas. Staff identified it as a lower-priority investment area and proposed cutting its $251,431 budget by 100% in fiscal year 2026-27.

Catholic legal aid group for immigrants nears collapse as US withholds funds

For 40 years, a ministry of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso has provided legal assistance to hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Now, the ministry, Estrella del Paso, says the Trump administration’s refusal to pay more than $765,000 owed in reimbursements is pushing the organization to the edge of collapse. The lack of reimbursements since December 2025 has eaten up Estrella del Paso’s cash reserves and may force it to close altogether, said Melissa Lopez, the executive director of the nonprofit, formerly known as Diocesan Migrant Refugee Services. An April 2025 preliminary injunction by a California federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s plans to defund legal services for unaccompanied children. Shuttering Estrella del Paso would mean tens of thousands of immigrants would lose legal services, she said.

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When asked what that would mean to people who rely on their legal assistance, Lopez gave a one-word answer. “Deportation.” “The system is so rigged against people right now that, without legal representation, they are very much at risk of being deported. That risk is high as it is, but in the case of not having any legal representation, that risk goes up exponentially,” Lopez said. Health and Human Services officials haven’t responded to a request for comment from El Paso Matters. A California federal judge has scheduled a July 16 hearing on a request by Estrella del Paso and other nonprofit providers of legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children to hold HHS in contempt of court for allegedly violating her injunction. The Trump administration has argued in court that government payments for legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children are discretionary, not mandatory. Serving over 40,000 people a year, Estrella del Paso is one of the largest providers in the nation of legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children and the largest provider of nonprofit immigration legal services in the El Paso region, Lopez said. “Frankly, there aren’t enough private attorneys to do the work that we do,” Lopez said. “We cover a huge portion of the work that has to be done in this region, and so, without Estrella, I think people would go without legal representation.”

4 energy companies join ‘DExit’ movement, redomicile in Texas

Dallas-Fort Worth just claimed another slate of victories in the corporate exodus from Delaware. Four energy companies officially redomiciled from Delaware to Texas on Monday: Energy Transfer LP, Sunoco LP, SunocoCorp LLC and USA Compression Partners LP. All are major players in the oil and gas industry, and they announced the moves together on July 2. They each already call Dallas home, in a way. Their respective corporate headquarters are already located here. By redomiciling, they are changing the jurisdiction where their companies are registered to do business — effectively aligning the geography of their physical and legal footprints.

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Though the changes are effective in both Delaware and Texas as of Monday, they are not considered effective for market purposes until July 13, in accordance with New York Stock Exchange guidelines that require 10 days of advance notice. The NYSE ticker symbols for each of the four companies will remain unchanged: ET, SUN, SUNC and USAC, respectively. The companies did not give a reason for their respective migrations in a joint news release. Representatives did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication. They join a growing contingent of corporate behemoths abandoning Delaware over the last year in search of greener pastures — which many have found in the Lone Star State. Delaware has been the nation’s corporate capital for over a century, thanks to a well-established legal system that offered stability through decades of precedent and jury-less rulings at the nation’s premier business court, as well as favorable tax and privacy policies.

Dallas County blocks release of autopsy report of Afghan asylum seeker who died in ICE custody in March

Dallas County is refusing to release the full autopsy report of an Afghan asylum seeker who died in ICE custody at Parkland Hospital in March, despite multiple public information requests. John Creuzot, the county's district attorney, has asked state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, to block the report's release, citing an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal's death certificate says he died from anaphylaxis and asthma as the result of an adverse drug reaction and ingestion of methamphetamine. It does not explain when the methamphetamine, an illegal drug, was ingested. Paktiawal, 41 at the time of his death, had no known allergies, according to his family, which said he did not use illegal drugs.

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"My family has waited months to understand how my brother died, and we’re still waiting for [an] answer," Naseer Paktiawal, his younger brother, said. "Whatever they say on that certificate, whatever they put it on there, that’s not true, and that’s not what my brother deserves." According to AfghanEvac — a nonprofit that assists with the resettlement of Afghans who allied with the U.S. — an independent forensic pathologist hired by Hazeer’s family found “nothing remarkable” in his “underlying health for a man his age.” When the independent exam took place, Nazeer had already been embalmed, so no blood remained for toxicology testing, according to AfghanEvac. Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, known among family and friends as Nazeer, fought alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan for more than a decade before being resettled in Texas in 2021, after Kabul fell to the Taliban. He was seized by ICE outside his home near Dallas on March 13 and was dead less than 24 hours later. He leaves behind a wife and six children, all of whom his brother, Naseer, is now caring for in addition to his own family.

National Stories

NATO showcases big arms deals in Ankara before summit with Trump

NATO leaders began unveiling arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars in Turkey on Tuesday, driving home the message that they ?are heeding U.S. calls to spend more to defend Europe before a summit with President Donald Trump. To upbeat tunes and slick videos at a defence industry forum in the capital Ankara, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced a series of initiatives, inviting a roll-call of representatives from NATO members to join the stage. The sum of various deal values was projected onto a screen. "We can do more when we do it ?together. And we must do more of it," Rutte said. "NATO allies are joining new multinational procurement coalitions. This really helps us get more of what you need ?across a range of capabilities." The deals, which had been mostly kept under wraps to make a splash at the summit, included European ?countries buying surveillance drones from U.S. company Northrop Grumman

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The U.S. is also in talks with Germany and other nations about establishing joint ?production in Europe of missiles that are in high demand for the defence of Ukraine, a source told Reuters. The move followed growing concern in Washington about the capacity of U.S. ?weapons manufacturers to meet demand, as both the war on Iran and the war in Ukraine depleted U.S. arms stocks. Rutte also said NATO allies will invest more than $40 billion in the next five years in their anti-drone capabilities. The announcements add weight to Trump's frequent criticism of Europe for insufficient defence contributions and over-relying on the U.S. to defend them through NATO, which has protected the continent since the early ?years of the Cold War. Trump reinforced the message in a video previewing his visit on Truth Social, urging Europe to spend more on its own defence.

FIFA’s red-card committee hits back after fury over Trump intrusion

FIFA’s disciplinary committee, the body that lifted American striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension ahead of Monday’s U.S.-Belgium game, defended its decision in a statement released hours before kickoff in Seattle — but didn’t explain the rationale for making it. In the 13-paragraph statement, the committee explained the body’s rationale for reconsidering Balogun’s suspension. The review came after President Donald Trump called FIFA chief Gianni Infantino last week to call for the soccer boss to take another look at the decision, after Balogun received a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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“Said suspension of the implementation was decided considering all of the specific circumstances surrounding the incident and evidence available,” the committee said, referring to the lifting of Balogun’s one-game ban. “The FIFA Disciplinary Committee (as any other FIFA judicial body) is independent as provided by the FIFA Statutes and the FIFA Disciplinary Code.” The committee also argued that by not overturning Balogun’s red card entirely, but instead merely suspending his one-game ban, it had applied a “much more balanced measure.” Soccer pundits had widely criticized the referee’s decision to send Balogun off during the last-32 encounter, but commentators, European politicians and soccer officials rounded on the move to let Balogun play against Belgium. Earlier Monday, UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, said that FIFA’s decision “crossed a red line,” adding that it was “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”

Conservative fight against license renewals for ABC stations heats up

A group of prominent conservative organizations has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny license renewal requests from the eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC, accusing the network of political, racial and sexual bias and supporting the Chinese communist party. The petitions come after the commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, took the nearly unprecedented step of requiring the network, a frequent recipient of attacks from Donald Trump, to apply several years early to maintain its ability to broadcast in markets around the country. While Carr has said the early license renewal process stems from an FCC investigation into ABC’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, petitioners are free to include a variety of grievances against the network and concerns about whether ABC is operating in the public interest.

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The petitions – part of an open process that allows anyone to argue that ABC is not fit to hold publicly owned television licenses – came from groups like the Center for American Rights, which has played a significant role during Carr’s tenure atop the FCC agency as an initiator of complaints against major broadcast television networks. In a petition to deny filed last Monday, the group said the stations were not being operated “in the public interest” in part because ABC’s programs “show a consistent and overt partisan bias”, citing the group’s past complaints about late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and the network’s moderation of a 2024 presidential debate, among other concerns. “ABC ignores long-standing Commission precedents and principles protecting the integrity of the news,” the group wrote. “ABC engages in explicit racial and gender discrimination. ABC cozies up to the Communist Chinese Party and airbrushes over religious and ethnic cleansing. ABC fails to respect this Commission’s rules.” The organization lobbied the FCC to deny ABC’s renewal requests and to call the matter for a hearing, “because the Petition and accompanying materials raise sufficient questions [about] whether ABC is operating in the public interest or remains worthy of the public trust”.

U.S. agencies seized more than 600 drones near World Cup sites

U.S. agencies have seized over 600 drones near FIFA World Cup venues and fan zones since the start of the tournament on June 11, the Transportation Security Administration said on Monday. On match days, all aircraft operations, including drones, are prohibited within a radius of three nautical miles and up to 3,000 feet (914 meters) above ground level around the stadiums unless specifically authorized by air traffic controllers. The FBI said drones have been seized from restricted airspace across all 11 U.S. host cities. The FBI said that 130 drones had been seized in Miami alone, and over 70 in Dallas during five matches. The Federal Aviation Administration has barred drones from flying over matches and related fan gatherings across the United States.

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At fan gatherings, drones are barred within a one-nautical-mile radius and up to 1,000 feet above ground level. Drone operators who enter restricted airspace without approval can face fines of up to $100,000, along with criminal charges and confiscation of their drone, the FBI said. The FBI has teams stationed around World Cup stadiums to detect and disable unauthorized drones. Cristobal Torres Alvarez, a 40-year-old Mexican national, was charged last week with flying a drone in restricted airspace around Dallas Stadium ahead of a match. In 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to bolster U.S. defenses against threatening drones, and the Homeland Security Department has installed new counter-drone defense systems at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. There have been numerous drone incidents in prior years over major U.S. sporting events. In 2025, a man pleaded guilty after he was charged with violating defense airspace by flying a drone over a National Football League playoff game in Baltimore.

Meet 'Project 2029' — and its war on the annoyance economy

Imagine no more annoying robocalls. No more spam texts. No more hidden fees. No more jumping through hoops to cancel subscriptions or file an insurance claim. A group of Democratic policy veterans believes that daily annoyances like these have become a real economic problem. They even have a name for it: "the annoyance economy." Taking it on is one plank in a broader governing agenda they're assembling for a future Democratic president. They're calling it "Project 2029." Sound familiar? If you followed politics at all in 2024, you probably heard about Project 2025. Released by The Heritage Foundation, it laid out a conservative policy blueprint for a second Trump administration. Democrats attacked the project nonstop as extreme, and Trump distanced himself from it on the campaign trail.

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But what had looked like an election liability became a governing asset: The Trump administration came into office with a ready-to-go policy agenda and quickly began pursuing many of Project 2025's proposals. That experience apparently left an impression on the other side of the aisle. Project 2029 aims to give a future Democratic president a similarly ready-to-go governing blueprint. And I recently learned that a former classmate of mine, Chad Maisel, is the executive director of the effort, so I called him up. Maisel previously served as a special assistant to President Biden on the White House Domestic Policy Council. "I think the lesson from Project 2025," Maisel says, "is just the importance of preparation." He wants a future Democratic president to "have a bookshelf full of really bold, transformational ideas" that are ready to be deployed on their first day in office. Project 2029 is still in its early stages. They'll be releasing proposals on a rolling basis over the next year or so. Much of what they've previewed so far is what you'd probably expect from Democrats in today's economy: ideas to lower child care costs, make health care and housing more affordable, reduce energy bills, protect kids online.But the Project 2029 proposal that immediately caught our attention was the one to take on the annoyance economy. The annoyance economy is a catch-all term referring to a slew of frustrating business practices that waste our time and money. Think hidden fees that appear only at checkout. Jumping through hoops to cancel a subscription.

As Israel becomes Democratic litmus test, Jewish progressives warn about a tilt into antisemitism

Rep. Becca Balint helped Sen. Bernie Sanders craft and lead efforts to cut US arms sales to Israel, wrote an op-ed calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide” and has stood proudly with fellow progressives for two decades. But Balint was wincing last week as she stood on the steps of the Capitol, recounting the warning she gave her congressional staff. “I know at some point there will be a day of reckoning, because I still believe that Jews should have a homeland,” the Vermont Democrat told CNN. “There will be people, I think some of my own supporters, who will turn on me, because I still believe in a two-state solution. I still do. I still believe that Israel should be safe and secure. I believe that the Palestinians have been so ill-treated for so long and deserve a safe and secure homeland. I do not believe Israel should be dismantled.”

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Balint described being “shaken to my core” watching the video of Scott Wiener, the California state senator running for retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat, recently being hounded out of a transgender rights event with angry shouts including, “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel, you piece of sh*t!” She described a familiar ache. Like the people who tell her that homophobia doesn’t exist and then ask her what it means that she’s a lesbian. Like the House Democratic colleague she wouldn’t name who she says came to a bipartisan antisemitism taskforce meeting and said, “I didn’t really think there was any antisemitism anymore, because all the Jews are rich.” Like the people who accuse Jewish politicians of having dual loyalty. For many liberals, longtime policy priorities like universal healthcare or stopping climate change are now intertwined with opposing Israel. An ascendant faction of the left argues there’s no such thing anymore as “progressive except for Palestine” — a phrase that took off in the years following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and the ensuing war in Gaza — and sees opposition to Israel as a Democratic litmus test.

The Hill prematurely publishes McConnell obit

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has not passed away, at least according to current news reports — but The Hill accidentally published an article clearly intended to be embargoed until he has. The article in question, screenshotted and posted to X ahead of its removal, was titled, "A lookback at Mitch McConnell's time in the Senate," but was prefaced by an all-caps warning to site editors, saying, "DO NOT USE." McConnell, a decades-long titan in the Senate who previously served as Republican Leader, has been in the hospital for weeks, after he was reportedly discovered "unconscious and unresponsive" in his home, given CPR for cardiac arrest, and taken by advanced emergency support team.

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Few details have been released publicly about his condition since then, although some sources have insisted he is "recovering." This comes after Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer with close ties to the White House, alleged with no evidence that sources told her McConnell is "officially brain dead," something that no other source has corroborated. This is not the first time in the last few weeks that a major story was erroneously published and retracted. NPR's Nina Totenberg came under fire last week after publishing an article announcing the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who as of this writing has not retired.

Inside Trump’s ideological fight with the Smithsonian

Coming from the leader of almost any other major museum, the comments made around the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary by Lonnie G. Bunch III, the head of the Smithsonian Institution, would have seemed almost self-evident truths. The Smithsonian’s mission, Mr. Bunch told CNN last week, is to “?give you questions and answers that will make you understand the complexity of who we are as a nation” using “the best nonpartisan scholarship we have.” On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said the institution was like the glue that holds the nation together. “Red states, blue states — whatever your politics, you come to the Smithsonian,” he said. But after more than a year of intense pressure from President Trump and his allies over what they term “improper ideology” in the Smithsonian’s presentation of American history and culture, Mr. Bunch’s comments amounted to a public glimpse into a far less diplomatic, behind-the-scenes battle for control of the institution.

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The inside story of the fight for control of the Smithsonian underscores how Mr. Trump has tried, with varying degrees of success, to impose his own view of American history, erase “wokeness,” influence which artists are worthy of exhibits and oust top leaders of the institution. Mr. Bunch spent much of the past year seeking to fend off or mitigate escalating demands from the administration to address what a White House report, issued on Saturday amid the July 4 festivities, characterized as a drive that “has moved the museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.” The blistering report focused on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. It followed a March 2025 executive order from Mr. Trump, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Mr. Bunch, the first Black secretary of the Smithsonian, has largely avoided engaging publicly with Mr. Trump’s criticisms. Without mentioning the president, he told CNN on Friday: “It scares me when people aren’t brave enough to face their history. And in some ways you have to face it anyway.”

Lockheed Martin is covering the cost of Trump’s White House helipad

President Donald Trump said on Monday morning that an American company owned by Lockheed Martin would take on the cost of building a helipad at the White House, one of the president’s many construction projects across Washington as he moves to leave his imprint on the nation’s capital. He singled out Sikorsky, the manufacturer of the fleet of Marine One helicopters used by the White House for decades, as the reason such a project was needed in the first place — arguing that the company’s new, more powerful aircraft had torn up the historic South Lawn and sent chunks of sod flying to the doorstep of the Oval Office. He claimed that the donation, which Lockheed Martin confirmed in a statement to NOTUS, was made because the company felt bad about the damage.

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Copyright July 07, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved