February 6, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Layoffs in January were the highest to start a year since 2009, Challenger says

Layoff plans hit their highest January total since the global financial crisis while hiring intentions reached their lowest since the same period, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday. U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs for the month, up 118% from the same period a year ago and 205% from December 2025. The total marked the highest for any January since 2009, while the economy was in the final months of its steepest downturn since the Great Depression. At the same time, companies announced just 5,306 new hires, also the lowest January since 2009, which is when Challenger began tracking such data. The crisis recession officially ended in March 2009. With the recent narrative centering on a no-hire, no-fire labor market, the Challenger data suggests that the layoff part of the equation could be stepping up.

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“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for the firm. “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.” To be sure, if employers are stepping up plans to furlough workers, it hasn’t been showing up much in official government data. However, initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 31 totaled a seasonally adjusted 231,000, the highest since early December though the spike likely had something to do with a brutal winter storm that hit large parts of the country. The longer-term trend still was at its lowest since October 2024. Some high-profile layoff announcements have boosted fears of wider damage in the labor market. Amazon, UPS and Dow Inc. recently have announced sizeable job cuts. Indeed, transportation had the highest level from a sector standpoint in January, due largely to plans from UPS to cut more than 30,000 workers. Technology was second on the back of Amazon’s announcement to shed 16,000 mostly corporate level jobs. Planned hiring dropped 13% from January 2025 and was off 49% from December.

Trump’s war on wind energy is costing him blue-collar support

President Donald Trump built his 2024 campaign around the country’s working-class voters. Some of those voters are changing their minds about him as his administration’s war on renewable energy has cost them their jobs, labor leaders and workers said. “A lot of my members voted for President Trump in the last election, and they completely turned around on him,” Patrick Crowley, the president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, told NOTUS. His union represents thousands of workers who work on renewable energy projects like Revolution Wind, the offshore wind development the Trump administration halted in August and then again in December. The project resumed construction last month after a federal judge ruled in its favor, but the impacts remain, Crowley said. The Trump administration’s sweeping attempts to stymie energy projects and other infrastructure have impacted thousands of jobs.

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Revolution Wind is one of many infrastructure projects the administration has paused, canceled or defunded. The list includes onshore and offshore wind farms, massive public works projects like the Hudson Tunnel in New York and New Jersey and billions of dollars in energy projects. The exact impact on jobs is difficult to measure, but estimates for each project range from hundreds to thousands of direct and indirect construction, manufacturing and other labor jobs lost or threatened, according to court filings, company statements and NOTUS’ conversations with lawmakers and labor leaders. It’s an upheaval that could cost the president’s allies at the ballot box in 2026 and beyond. “When a family is feeling like that, they’re looking for somebody to blame and they could look at the president and say, well, he canceled the project that was employing me because he didn’t like it was solar,” Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito told Politico. “And yes, that could cost you at the ballot box.” Crowley said his union members haven’t felt heard.

Senate primary between Jasmine Crockett, James Talarico turns sharper with negative TV ad

The first major attack of the Democratic Senate primary came Thursday from an outside group supporting James Talarico, attacking his rival Jasmine Crockett as too weak to win. The TV ad says Crockett, a U.S. House member from Dallas, is “backed by Republicans” because she would be easier for the GOP to defeat in the November. “If she wins, we lose,” says the narrator of the ad, which uses clips from media commentators who say that Crockett would struggle in the general election against Republican incumbent John Cornyn. The spot marks a major escalation in advance of the March 3 primary in which the Democratic candidates mostly have campaigned on competing visions for breaking their party’s long statewide losing streak.

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In January, Talarico, a state representative from Austin, said that Crockett, seemed poised to run negative ads against him and that Democrats should not spend time turning on each other. But it was a pro-Talarico super PAC, Lone Star Rising, that struck first, with ads are running throughout Texas. Talarico’s campaign on Thursday said it wasn’t involved in the Lone Star Rising ad. JT Ennis, a Talarico spokesman, noted that federal law prohibits coordination between political campaigns and super PACs. “James has made it crystal clear…he wants to run a positive campaign focused on records and ideas,” Ennis said. He did not denounce the ad, but said Talarico would fight to ban an independent political committee like Lone Star Rising that raise unlimited donations and spend freely on ads, as long as they do not not coordinate with candidates. Crockett’s team labeled the ad “hypocrisy on par with the Republican playbook” and showed why “people don’t like politicians.” In a statement, a campaign spokesman said the spot was bankrolled “by the same millionaire mega-donors Talarico claims not to have,” adding, “Texas voters recognize when games are being played.” Meanwhile, the Talarico campaign said it will air an ad in the Houston market during Sunday’s Super Bowl, aimed at empowering working people and pushing billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes.

Why lawyers, big business are pouring millions into a San Antonio primary race

If you live in San Antonio's North Side, chances are you’ve been bombarded with ads about a topic most Texans think little about: tort reform. Television ads warn of “ambulance-chasing lawyers” who are “driving your insurance rates through the roof.” Mailers allege a history of damaging personal legal battles. A Newsmax host brands the local Republican lawmaker a “liberal Democrat” before cutting to his GOP challenger promising to “stop these predatory lawyers.” The GOP primary for House District 121, featuring state Rep. Marc LaHood and challenger David McArthur, has turned into a ferocious power struggle between the state’s well-funded trial attorneys and Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the corporate lobbying juggernaut that has for decades tried to take them down.

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With spending already blowing past $3 million, the race has become more expensive than any other state House race this cycle and even outpaced spending on some statewide and state Senate races, according to a Hearst Newspapers analysis of data from the Texas Ethics Commission. The outcome of the race, and dozens of others like it, is in part a referendum on failed legislation last year that aimed to protect businesses from lawsuits. It’s also a test of whether personal injury attorneys, a major donor to the left who once reigned supreme when conservative Democrats led Texas, will gain a sturdier foothold in the state’s now dominant Republican Party. Texans for Lawsuit Reform has been the largest contributor to Republicans in Texas for decades and counts billionaire Tesla owner Elon Musk and business magnates from across Texas among its backers. In recent years, however, its grip has been waning.

State Stories

Parents of final missing camper file suit against Camp Mystic, several other defendants

A fifth lawsuit has been filed against Camp Mystic seven months after 27 campers and counselors died when the July 4 floodwaters swept through the camp. The legal team for the family of eight-year-old Cile Steward, the final missing camper, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Travis County. In the legal filing, it is said that Cile is "presumed to be deceased." In addition to suing the camp. the Stewards are also suing a number of the Eastland family members. The more than 100-page lawsuit goes into detail about the warnings that were sent from the Texas Department of Emergency Management regarding the storm.

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It also goes on to allege at 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., the Eastlands moved canoes to higher ground. At 1:14 a.m. The NWS issued a Flash Flood Warning for Kerr County with a "considerable" threat tag. The legal team alleges Camp Mystic owner Dick Eastland received this alert. Dick Eastland also died in the July 4th floods. Around 3:00 a.m. the lawsuit said Dick Eastland decided to evacuate the cabins closest to the river. It then goes on to say Cile and other campers in her cabin, Twins II, could hear Edward Eastland allegedly telling them to "stay put in their cabins until the water gets 'so high they couldn't stay any longer'." The Stewards’ lawsuit said Edward Eastland returns around 3:30 a.m. and said the water was too high to leave "and will soon recede." While in Twins II, the lawsuit said Edward prayed for Jesus to stop the rain while bracing the doorframe. Around 4:09 a.m. Edward Eastland is swept away with two Twins I campers holding onto him.

Texas Education Agency warns districts of potential state takeovers for 'encouraging' student protests

The Texas Education Agency on Tuesday warned school districts that they could be taken over by the state if they help facilitate students walking out of class to attend protests. The agency released guidance after Gov. Greg Abbott directed Education Commissioner Mike Morath to investigate a social media post showing Austin Independent School District students participating in nationwide walkouts against the recent killings of several people by federal immigration officers. Austin school district police officers drove near some of the students during the Friday protest in downtown Austin. In the guidance released Tuesday evening, the education agency said students, teachers or school districts participating in “inappropriate political activism” could face the following consequences:

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Students being marked absent and districts losing state funding, Educators being investigated and disciplined, including losing their teaching license, Districts facing state oversight, including the replacement of an elected school board with a board of managers and “Today, in classrooms across Texas, tomorrow’s leaders are learning the foundational, critical thinking skills and knowledge necessary for lifelong learning, serving as the bedrock for the future success of our state and nation,” the TEA’s press release said. “It is in this spirit that school systems have been reminded of their duty and obligation to ensure that their students are both safe and that they attend school, with consequences for students for unexcused absences.” State law grants Morath authority to conduct special investigations into school districts as he determines necessary. Based on the results of those investigations, the commissioner could lower the district’s accreditation status or accountability rating. He could appoint an individual to monitor the district. He could also replace its elected school board.

Football fans are wagering millions on the Super Bowl in Texas where gambling is illegal

Gambling is illegal in Texas, but it’s not stopping football fans from wagering millions of dollars on this year’s Super Bowl as an emerging industry of prediction markets and daily fantasy companies takes advantage of betting loopholes. Prominent companies such as Kalshi and DraftKings are making a play in states such as Texas where there are bans on betting on the outcome of sporting events. Texans still can make money on the outcome of the game, the score, player performances and halftime show cameos. They are inundating airwaves and streaming platforms with advertisements and sponsoring podcasts to promote the platforms ahead of the biggest betting event of the year. The American Gaming Association projects more than 67 million Americans will bet more than $1.76 billion on the game with U.S. legal sportsbooks, which operate in 39 states (not Texas) and the District of Columbia.

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That doesn’t account for prediction markets, which are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and mimic traditional sports betting. Those who take part buy and sell yes and no contracts with each other on events that run the gamut from politics to sports and culture. For instance, Kalshi offers the chance to put money on everything from the winner of the game and traditional prop bets like who will score a touchdown to what will the NBC broadcasters say during the game. Will NBC’s broadcast tandem of Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth say “tush push?” Fifty-nine percent of traders say yes. Kalshi spokesperson Laura Frank told The Dallas Morning News that the $167 million traded on the Super Bowl outcome this year represents more than five times what was traded on last year’s game ($27 million). She also said 84% of states — all except New England, Georgia and South Carolina — have picked the Seattle Seahawks to win.

Texas' newest inspector general will target 'educator misconduct'

The Texas Education Agency this week named former assistant attorney general Levi Fuller as the state’s first Inspector General of Educator Misconduct. In the newly created role, Fuller will closely oversee TEA policies and processes to help “foster safe learning environments for the state’s 5.5 million public school students,” the agency’s announcement said. State Education Commissioner Mike Morath said Fuller, who also served as former chief of staff for Republican state Rep. Andy Hopper, has more than a decade holding bad actors to account, and Fuller will help root out “flawed” teachers.

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He’ll participate in certification sanctions, placement on the Do Not Hire Registry, settlement decisions and case closures. He’ll also offer guidance and recommendations to the State Board for Educator Certification. Texas recently enacted tougher school oversight including aK-12 DEI ban and guidance on stopping student walkouts amid protests over immigration enforcement. In a statement, Zeph Capo, president of the teachers group Texas AFT, raised concerns “that this new position will be weaponized against educators over political differences or frivolous allegations of misconduct.” He urged the TEA and Fuller to protect teachers’ due process rights.

Teamsters back Greg Abbott as unions split endorsements in governor's race

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday drew the backing of a slew of labor unions, including the Texas Teamsters, in his bid for a record fourth term in office — a series of endorsements that the Republican touted as a first from labor groups that have historically backed Democrats. “Literally the backbone of our economy are the workers who built that economy — the plumbers, the pipe fitters, the welders, the longshoremen, the truckers,” Abbott said during a press conference with union leaders in Houston. “All those job skills have made Texas what it is. They've had my back, and I want them to know I will always have their back.”

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The governor has long had a rocky relationship with unions. The state’s largest labor group, the Texas AFL-CIO, is a vocal critic of Abbott’s and is backing state Rep. Gina Hinojosa in her Democratic primary bid to challenge him. The union’s 250,000 members include teachers, firefighters, public employees and more. The Service Employees International Union’s Texas branch, which counts airport workers, hospital employees and janitors as members, also is backing Hinojosa. “Greg Abbott does not represent workers. During his 12 years in office, his divisive politics have made our families worse off,” Leonard Aguilar, president of the Texas AFL-CIO said in a statement. “Texans deserve a governor who will fight for all workers.” The Teamsters have been warming to Republicans in recent years. The union’s national president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2024 and has praised President Donald Trump. He met with Abbott last year. “Governor Abbott has kept an open door to the Teamsters union during his tenure, willing and eager to partner with us on job creation and workplace protections,” said Brent Taylor, vice president of the union’s southern region, which includes Texas. “The Teamsters do not care if you have a D, an R or an I next to your name. We're interested in one thing: Are you ready to help us tackle big issues to improve the lives of working families.” Taylor touted the state’s film tax credit as among the programs Abbott has supported that the Teamsters benefit from. And he said the state should continue to invest in job-training programs that Abbott has also backed. The unions endorsing Abbott include the Plumbers Local Union 68, International Longshoremen South Atlantic & Gulf Coast District Association and the Pipefitters Local Union 211.

Texas firms set to cash in on ICE camps, Pentagon spending

More than 30 Texas companies, including some in the San Antonio and Austin areas, made the cut for a Pentagon program that Homeland Security can use to build detention sites across the nation. Vendors on the list can bid for contracts worth up to $45 billion. The Texas firms are among 109 nationwide that the Defense Department has selected as vendors under a mega-contract that helps government agencies quickly get supplies and services during “military operations” in the U.S. and around the world through 2029.

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The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement already have used the program to set up and operate a 5,000-bed facility at Fort Bliss near El Paso under a $1.2 billion contract with Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC. Originally intended to help the military get goods and services for overseas work, the program has rapidly grown its domestic deals under the Trump administration. A recent update raised the contract limits to $45 billion per vendor as ICE looks to expand its network of detention facilities across the nation, including a warehouse on San Antonio’s East Side that it acquired this week. Solicitation documents list “Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) to include but not limited to Temporary Staging Support to Immigration and Custom Enforcement” as one of the types of activities it supports. It falls under the work that the Pentagon does to help federal, state and local authorities with border security, civil disturbances, natural disasters, public health emergencies, oil spills and events like presidential inaugurations.

University of Houston faculty must pledge not to “indoctrinate” students

Faculty members in the University of Houston’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Science were asked to sign a three-page memo pledging not to “indoctrinate” their students, the Houston Chronicle reported. In a November email to faculty, Houston president Renu Khator wrote that the university’s responsibility is to “give [students] the ability to form their own opinions, not to force a particular one on them. Our guiding principle is to teach them, not to indoctrinate them.” The recent memo, sent by college dean Daniel O’Connor, asks faculty to “document compliance” with Khator’s note. It’s a way to ensure all faculty members are compliant with Texas’s Senate Bill 37, O’Conner told associate English professor María González in a meeting. The law mandates regular reviews of core undergraduate curriculum but does not address indoctrination or what material can or cannot be taught.

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By Feb. 10, faculty must signal their agreement with the following five statements: “A primary purpose of higher education is to enhance critical thinking;” “Our responsibility is to give students the ability to form their own opinions, not to indoctrinate them;” “I understand the definition and attributes of critical thinking;” “I design my courses and course materials to be consistent with the definition and attributes of critical thinking;” and “I use methods of instruction that are intended to enhance students’ critical thinking.” Faculty immediately pushed back. The University of Houston American Association of University Professors chapter encouraged faculty members to use proposed “conscientious objector” language in response, which states, in part: “The premise of this assertion is a straw man, and I am concerned that my signing of this letter could serve as some admission of guilt concerning these false accusations. As such, I request that you accept this letter, in which I am asserting that I have never engaged in indoctrination and that I take offense, as a scholar, at such insinuations.” González said O’Conner told her that “no punitive actions will be directed at anyone” who doesn’t sign the acknowledgement form, but that he will have to review the syllabi of any faculty member who doesn’t sign the form. González refused to sign the acknowledgement or even click the link, she said.

Study: Big Country County one of biggest Texas spenders per capita on Only Fans

One Big Country County is at the top of the list in Texas for the most money residents spent on Only Fans per capita. Coleman County ranks #4 out of 254 Texas counties studied when you break down the dollars per capita, spending an estimated $273,264.31 per 10,000 residents on Only Fans in Fiscal Year 2025, according to data released by OnlyGuider in their Only Fans Wrapped 2025 study. This is more than the per capita spending in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Ft. Worth, which make up the counties where the most money was spent overall, due to the size of their population.

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Here is a list of how much money residents each Big Country County spent on Only Fans total in 2025, as well as how they each break down per capita (per 10,000 residents): Taylor County ($1,022,909.09 total, $68,737.89 per capita), Coleman County ($218,338.18 total, $273,264.31 per capita), Eastland County ($196,309.09 total, $92,569.21 per capita), Nolan County ($67,370.91 total, $47,504.52 per capita), Callahan County ($53,614.55 total, $36,684.60 per capita), Jones County ($46,383.64 total, $22,246.35 per capita), Runnels County ($33,685.45 total, $34,545.64 per capita), Haskell County ($24,690.91 total, $45,429.46 per capita), Stephens County ($23,809.09 total, $25,128.33 per capita), Throckmorton County ($11,287.27 total, $73,676.70 per capita), Kent County ($10,229.09 total, $145,506.26 per capita), Knox County ($8,112.73 total, $24,923.90 per capita), Coke County ($6,349.09 total, $18,695.79 per capita), Stonewall County ($1,940.00 total, $15,708.50 per capita), King County ($1,763.64 total, $82,029.77 per capita).q

Mercy Culture pastor says God has forgiven Gateway founder Robert Morris

The pastor of Mercy Culture Church said he told Gateway Church founder and convicted child sex offender Robert Morris that God has forgiven him. Landon Schottt said in a Facebook post Feb. 3 that he visited Morris at the Osage County Jail in Oklahoma. “Today I had the honor of sitting with Pastor Robert. I am grateful for the role he played in my life. I am grateful for what I learned. And I am grateful that the story of grace is still being written,” Schott wrote. Morris is serving six months in jail after he pleaded guilty in October to charges of indecent conduct with a child in connection with the sexual abuse case that led to his resignation from the North Texas megachurch.

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Morris, who founded Gateway in Southlake in 2000, was convicted on five counts of lewd and indecent conduct with a child and was sentenced to 10 years with all but six months suspended. After his release from jail, Morris will serve the remainder of the sentence on probation in Texas. He must also register as a sex offender. Morris resigned from the church in June 2024 after he admitted to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. He was indicted in March 2025. Schott did not respond to messages seeking comment. Cindy Clemishire, who came forward in 2024 and accused Morris of sexually abusing her over four years, said she was disappointed when she read Schott’s Facebook post. She said Morris told her not to tell anyone and that he and others from Gateway covered up the abuse for years. “I just don’t understand why he would even make a public announcement,” she said. “It just seems self-serving. I know we are called to forgive, to restore and all of that, but I just don’t see the fruit of it.”

‘Hubris caught up with her’: Texas leaders unload on ex-Alamo CEO

State and Alamo Trust leaders accuse former CEO Kate Rogers of “biting the hand” of Texas lawmakers who allocated hundreds of millions for a major makeover of the Alamo, which she spearheaded for four years. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Rogers “needlessly” criticized the Legislature’s “conservative” agenda in a 2023 doctoral dissertation. He made the claim in a written response to a Nov. 17 lawsuit brought by Rogers, who resigned under pressure on Oct. 23. Her lawsuit alleges Patrick, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham and trust leaders violated her First Amendment rights in retaliating against her for the opinions she expressed in her dissertation.

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Patrick learned of the document and called her credibility into question, suggesting in letter to the trust’s board — which he also posted on X — that she step down CEO. In the court papers filed Tuesday, trust CEO Hope Andrade — Rogers' replacement — and board chair Welcome Wilson Jr. said Rogers resigned “without any coercion,” and Patrick and Buckingham called her lawsuit a publicity stunt. “Rogers knew she was playing with fire when she was highly critical of those actors she knew were absolutely vital to the future success of the Alamo Plan, the Alamo and her job,” trust leaders said in their filing. “Rogers knew full well that she had sealed her own fate.” They also said Rogers negotiated her severance agreement in bad faith, refusing to agree not to make derogatory comments about them and others working on the Alamo project until after she had already given an interview lambasting them. The trust's board ultimately revoked her severance package. Buckingham also alleges that Rogers “consistently placed her interests above the long-term interests of the Alamo” by undermining the General Land Office’s efforts to oversee her work and using private donations to pay for trips and “excessive” staff raises.

Glenn Rogers: How far are Republican candidates willing to go with Trump?

Recently, driving to my childhood home of Graham, my eyes darted toward a ginormous Trump flag, high on the tallest flagpole in the area, flapping in the northern breeze. I found the sight unsettling, not because it conveyed support for Trump; we see pro-Trump signs commonly in the rural areas around Possum Kingdom Lake. It was the sheer height, the singularity, and the prominence above all else that sent a chill up my spine. I think it illustrated how we have digressed as a nation, at least some in my political party. This placement of such a pronounced flag display is usually left for an American flag, a Texas flag or even one of our great Texas universities. But a highly elevated flag with the name of one man? It got me thinking.

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President Donald Trump has always been crass. But his recent, worsening behavior — from slandering the recently murdered Rob Reiner, to whining about not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, to threatening an attack on a NATO ally — gives me pause to wonder: Where do I personally draw the line? How far does Trump have to go to lose my support? And where do current Republican leaders, with the capacity to rein in the impact of Trump’s dangerous and excessive behavior, draw the line? At an Iowa campaign stop 10 years ago, Trump remarked, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters. It’s, like, incredible.” At the time, this quip was quickly dismissed by Trump supporters, including myself, as just harmless bravado and “Trump being Trump.” But 10 years later, with increasingly hateful speech and dictatorial behavior, maybe the specific question about loyalty boundaries needs to be asked of every Republican. In April 2025, Trump phoned in and persuaded a reluctant group of Texas House members to vote for a school voucher-like program, even against the consciences of many of them and the wishes of their districts. Both Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott received millions in campaign contributions from megadonor voucher supporters.

County Stories

Judge Speedlin Gonzalez suspended without pay by State Commission on Judicial Conduct

Bexar County Court at Law 13 Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez has been suspended without pay, one week after her indictment on multiple criminal charges. The suspension order, issued Thursday morning from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, states Speedlin Gonzalez’s suspension will remain in effect until the charges are dismissed, she is acquitted of all charges or until the commission issues another order.

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Speedlin Gonzalez was indicted last week by a grand jury on charges of unlawful restraint by a judicial officer, a felony and misdemeanor official oppression. Speedlin Gonzalez’s indictment came two weeks after KSAT Investigates revealed a December 2024 incident in which the judge ordered a defense attorney in her courtroom to be placed in handcuffs and seated in the jury box. The judge is free on bond after making her initial court appearance last week and later heard cases in court this week. County officials have not said who will preside over County Court 13 moving forward. Speedlin Gonzalez did not respond to a text message seeking comment Thursday afternoon. A visiting judge would be put in the court, if requested. As of Thursday evening, an official with the Fourth Administrative Judicial Region, which oversees courts in Bexar County, told KSAT no visiting judge had been requested.

National Stories

U.S. automakers’ foreign troubles now extend to Canada

Canada’s decision this month to give Chinese carmakers a toehold in the country’s car market may be an ominous development for U.S. automakers that are already struggling to stay relevant outside North America. General Motors and Ford Motor — the two largest U.S.-based car manufacturers — have been steadily losing customers in Asia, Europe and Latin America, as Chinese carmakers have gained ground. Now Canada plans to lower tariffs on a limited number of Chinese-made vehicles, potentially giving companies like BYD, SAIC or Geely a small but significant presence on the United States’ northern border after already building a thriving business in Mexico and much of Latin America. If they lose significant ground to Chinese companies in Canada, Mexico and other countries where they once dominated, Ford and G.M. could gradually become niche manufacturers, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

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They will end up primarily making and selling large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles favored by many Americans but that tend to sell less well in much of the rest of the world. “There’s a real danger that the market for U.S. carmakers is going to largely to be the U.S., and only that part of the U.S. market that wants big S.U.V.s and trucks,” Mr. Gordon said. The number of Chinese vehicles eligible for low tariffs in Canada will be small — less than 3 percent of the Canadian car market. Still, “it is very symbolic and significant to the industry,” said Lenny LaRocca, who leads the auto industry practice at the consulting firm KPMG. The U.S. automakers, he said, “are taking it very seriously.” The deal with China, which was announced Jan. 16 in Beijing by Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, was the latest example of how President Trump’s policies have disrupted the U.S. auto industry. His hostile rhetoric toward Canada and 25 percent tariffs on cars imported from Canada have devastated the Canadian auto industry, which is highly intertwined with U.S. automakers and parts suppliers.

ACA tax credit negotiations have stalled. Senators can’t even agree on a reason why.

Negotiators on both sides of the aisle say that the prospects to renew Affordable Care Act tax credits are increasingly bleak. But Democrats and Republicans involved in the health care talks cite different reasons for why things fell apart. A bipartisan Senate group, led by Sens. Bernie Moreno and Susan Collins, has been working to finalize legislative text to revive the ACA subsidies, which expired at the end of 2025. The group began its effort after debate over the subsidies led to the longest government shutdown in history. Democrats in the working group now say proposed language around restricting federal funding for abortion services is responsible for tanking negotiations. “The issue is Hyde, 100%,” Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and has been involved in the talks, told reporters Thursday, referring to the long-standing measure included in health care bills that prohibits federal funding for abortion care.

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“The ACA already has Hyde language in it, and it’s really, it’s a shame that this anti-abortion thing has to screw up the ability of millions of Americans to have reasonable-priced health care.” The debate about the issue is a particular point of contention for both parties. Democrats have said the Hyde Amendment does not need to be included in any extension of the subsidies while Republicans wanted to see the issue particularly addressed. Negotiators thought they had come to a compromise on Hyde by including language that would require an audit of states’ adherence to the amendment. But Sen. Tim Kaine told reporters Thursday that Democrats in the group were taken aback by new abortion-related language applying to health savings accounts included in the legislative text offered by Moreno. “It fell apart for one reason: the Hyde Amendment,” Kaine said. “We talked to our colleagues, and we said, ‘the Hyde Amendment was included in the ACA, and we’re willing to state that nothing we’re doing here contravenes that.’ They wanted more, and that was going to be a nonstarter.”

U.S., Russia to resume high-level military talks

The United States and Russia will resume a high-level military-to-military dialogue that was suspended just before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, officials said Thursday, in the latest sign the Trump administration is pursuing more normalized relations with Moscow even as a key nuclear weapons treaty between the two powers expired. Thursday marked the end of New START, which limits the numbers and types of nuclear weapons each country maintains. In response, President Donald Trump called for a “new, improved, modernized” pact that could last for a long time. Both developments coincided with the latest efforts to end the four-year-old Ukraine conflict. The decision to resume military talks between Washington and Moscow, according to one U.S. official, was a direct by-product of the peace negotiations, which so far have failed to produce a significant breakthrough that would halt the fighting. U.S.-Russian interactions in recent days created an opening for further dialogue, the official said.

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The Kremlin had no official comment on the resumption of military talks, and its embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The nuclear treaty’s lapse has worried nonproliferation experts, who fear it will spur a new, destabilizing arms race as each side looks at short-range nuclear weapons and explores potential new uses — including in space. Trump has also suggested that a future U.S. battleship could serve as a platform to launch nuclear missiles. For now, there’s no agreement by either side to hold to the terms of the expired treaty, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday. Her Russian counterpart, Dmitry Peskov, said “everything will depend on how events develop,” and that Russia will “maintain its responsible approach to strategic stability in the field of nuclear weapons, guided first and foremost by its national interests.” The U.S. disbanded military-to-military dialogue with Russia in late 2021, as the Kremlin amassed a large invading force outside Ukraine’s borders. Since then, relations between the nations cratered as the U.S. and its European allies provided Ukraine with advanced weapons systems to defend itself. Russia has responded with nuclear threats and aggressive long-range strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

Trump promises Schumer funding for NY tunnel project — if Penn Station and Dulles Airport are renamed after him

President Donald Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last month that he was finally prepared to drop his freeze on billions of dollars in funding for a major New York infrastructure project. But there was a condition: In exchange for the money, Schumer had to agree to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport after Trump. The startling offer, which was described by two people familiar with the conversation, was swiftly rejected by Schumer, who told the president he didn’t have the power to deliver on such an unorthodox request.

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In the weeks since, Trump has continued to withhold the more than $16 billion earmarked for the long-planned Gateway project connecting New York and New Jersey through a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River. The two states are now suing the Trump administration over the freeze, alleging in a complaint filed earlier this week that the funding suspension is unlawful. A spokesperson for Schumer declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The episode, first reported by Punchbowl, offers a fresh window into Trump’s ever-expanding effort to secure an outsized place in American history — and to do so in part by branding nearly everything around him with his own name. Since returning to the White House, the president has introduced a slew of initiatives bearing the Trump name, including the Trump Gold Card offering a high-priced path to citizenship, the TrumpRx website offering lower-priced prescription drugs, and a new Trump-class battleship meant to solidify his era of “peace through strength” foreign policy for years to come.

Inside Trump’s takeover of D.C.’s golf courses

In early spring, the founders of the National Links Trust met with a White House adviser to talk about the future of golf in Washington, D.C. The White House adviser, William Doffermyre, who was set to become the solicitor general at the Department of the Interior, pitched founders Mike McCartin and Will Smith on the idea of a partnership. According to sources familiar with the meeting, Doffermyre’s plan was for the federal government to help renovate the three public golf courses the trust controlled: East Potomac Golf Links, Langston Golf Course and Rock Creek Park Golf. Doffermyre expressed to the founders that President Donald Trump was eager to cut red tape and could help raise money for the venture.

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While skeptical, the founders were intrigued. But they needed something: assurances from the Trump administration that their organization’s commitment to affordable and accessible golf would be maintained. Doffermyre said he would fight for that. The three talked about the project throughout the summer of 2025. Doffermyre even recommended a lawyer at a Trump-aligned firm for the group to use as a conduit to help with negotiations with the White House. Near the end of the summer, Doffermyre told Smith and McCartin that he was working to arrange a meeting with Trump. But a promising beginning morphed into chaos as Trump increasingly took an interest in remodeling many of D.C.’s iconic buildings and public spaces. By the end of 2025, the Interior Department notified the nonprofit it was terminating its 50-year lease, signed in 2020, with the National Park Service and said the National Links Trust owed millions in back rent to the government.

White House unveils TrumpRx website for medication discounts

The Trump administration finally has unveiled TrumpRx.gov, a website for consumers to find discounts on brand-name drugs if they pay cash instead of using their health insurance. It launched Thursday evening with 43 drugs from five companies that made deals with the Trump administration: AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer. Discounts from the other 11 companies that made agreements with the administration will be available in the coming months, the White House said. "It's the biggest thing to happen in health care, I think, in many, many decades," President Trump said during a launch event.

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The discounts ranged from 33% off Pfizer's Xeljanz, which treats autoimmune disorders such as ulcerative colitis, to 93% off Cetrotide, a drug made by EMD Serono that is used in fertility treatments. In order to get some discounts, customers must click a button stating that they aren't enrolled in a government insurance program, such as Medicare, and won't seek insurance reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs or count them toward a deductible. Then, they can get a coupon to take to a pharmacy for a discount. Some offers, such as the discount for AstraZeneca's Bevespi inhaler for COPD, require consumers to go to the company's website. Trump and administration officials announced their plan for TrumpRx in the fall as part of deals with drug companies to get lower prices for American consumers. In exchange for exemptions from certain tariffs, the drugmakers agreed to lower prices for Medicaid, to launch future new drugs at prices no higher than those paid in other wealthy countries and to offer discounts through TrumpRx to patients paying cash for their medicines. Drug policy experts say that the site will likely only be helpful for a limited number of patients.

Analilia Mejia and Tom Malinowski locked in a tight Democratic primary for US House from New Jersey

The Democratic special primary in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District remains too early to call with progressive Analilia Mejia and former US Rep. Tom Malinowski locked in a tight race. Mejia was slightly ahead of Malinowski at the close of counting on Election Night. But with nearly all election day ballots counted, the race could come down to uncounted mail ballots. According to reports late Thursday from the counties in the district, upwards of 1,000 are already in hand and remain to be counted. Additional ballots can be counted if they were postmarked by Election Day and arrive before Wednesday.

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Trailing the top two vote-getters are former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way and Essex County commissioner Brendan Gill, among a ballot of more than a dozen Democratic primary candidates. Whoever wins will face Republican Randolph Township councilman Joe Hathaway, who ran unopposed, in the general election on April 16, and will be favored in a district that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris by nearly nine percentage points in 2024. Thursday’s primary was seen as an early testing ground for the debates that will shape the Democratic push to retake the US House in this year’s midterms. A win by Mejia, who served as political director on Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, would be a major success for national progressive leaders who had backed her run. Malinowski, meanwhile, would be in position with a victory to return to the House four years after losing a bid for reelection.

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