January 28, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Maine airport officials confirm new details on plane crash tied to Houston firm

A Houston-registered flight had received fuel and "de-icing services" at Bangor International Airport before crashing Sunday night, officials said Tuesday. Four passengers and two crew members were on the plane, officials said, and all are presumed to be dead by authorities. The plane was heading to Paris-Vatry Airport in France from Bangor International Airport, according to officials. It had originally arrived in Maine from Houston, although officials did not specify which airport the flight originated from.

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Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigations are at the airport and have started their investigation into the crash, officials said. The plane, a Bombardier Challenger 600, has a registered address that is the same as the Houston law firm Arnold & Itkin. Authorities have not yet announced the identities of those in the plane, but Lakewood Church confirmed that one of the victims was employee Shawna Collins. The Federal Aviation Administration first reported the incident Sunday night, saying that the plane crashed around 7:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. According to air traffic control audio from LiveATC.net, after a plane was cleared for takeoff Sunday night, someone said, "We have a passenger aircraft upside down." The airport has remained closed since the crash. Officials have said the airport will remain closed until at least 9 a.m. Thursday.

D.H.S. review does not say Pretti brandished gun, as Noem claimed

A preliminary review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s internal watchdog office found that Alex Pretti was shot by two federal officers after resisting arrest, but did not indicate that he brandished a weapon during the encounter, according to an email sent to Congress and reviewed by The New York Times. The review makes no mention of the Department of Homeland Security’s earlier claims that Mr. Pretti, a U.S. citizen, “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Shortly after the shooting, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, claimed that Mr. Pretti had been “brandishing” a gun. Officials had provided no evidence to back up the claim, which was contradicted by witness videos.

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The initial review by C.B.P., which deployed more than 1,000 officers and agents to support the enforcement operation in Minnesota, represents the first official written assessment of Saturday’s shooting since administration officials rushed to blame Mr. Pretti. “These notifications reflect standard Customs and Border Protection protocol and are issued in accordance with existing procedures,” Hilton Beckham, a C.B.P. spokeswoman, said in a statement. “They provide an initial outline of an event that took place and do not convey any definitive conclusion or investigative findings. They are factual reports — not analytical judgments — and are provided to inform Congress and to promote transparency.” The review was done by C.B.P.’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which normally conducts internal misconduct investigations following shootings, and was distributed to members of Congress on Tuesday, as required by law. It presents a detailed timeline of the events based on body camera footage and agency documentation. At approximately 9 a.m. on Saturday, a federal officer was confronted by two female civilians blowing whistles, according to the review. Although the officer ordered them to move out of the road, they did not move.

Texas pauses H-1B visas for high-skilled workers at colleges and state agencies

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is directing state agencies and public universities and colleges to hit pause on new federal H-1B visas — temporary work visas that are reserved for high-skilled immigrant workers. In a Tuesday letter, Abbott said the higher education institutions and state agencies led by governor appointees shouldn’t initiate or sponsor any new H-1B visas until the end of the next year’s Texas legislative session, unless given written permission from the Texas Workforce Commission. State lawmakers from Jan. 12 through May. 31, 2027. The directive includes university-affiliated medical centers, such as UT Southwestern in Dallas and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Abbott cited “recent reports of abuse” in the federal program, as well as an ongoing federal review of the program “to ensure American jobs are going to American workers,” as the basis for the new directive.

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“State government must lead by example and ensure that employment opportunities — particularly those funded with taxpayer dollars — are filled by Texans first,” Abbott said in a Tuesday statement. Abbott also told the state agencies and universities and colleges to collect data about existing H-1B visas, including how many of the visas are sponsored, the countries of origin for the visa holders, the types of jobs held and anticipated expiration dates. The agencies and higher education institutions should identify documentation of efforts to give “qualified Texas candidates with a reasonable opportunity to apply for each position filled by a H-1B visa holder before a new petition was submitted for that position.” The information gathering and pause on new H-1B visas will give the Texas Legislature time to create “guardrails” for future employment practices for federal visa holders in state government, Abbott said. It will also allow Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration time to carry out changes, Abbott said. The governor teased the announcement in a Monday episode of “The Mark Davis Show.” In fiscal year 2025 across all sectors, Texas had about 42,500 recipients of H-1B visas, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. Tech-related companies like Cognizant Technology Solutions, Infosys Limited, Oracle and Tesla were among the top employers in the state.

ICE raid rumors spark fear in Austin as city denies surge

As a winter storm bore down on Austin late last week, residents braced for an onslaught of ice — and, many feared, ICE enforcement in the city. Rumors that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were preparing a major operation in Austin spread rapidly across social media as the weekend approached. The claims, shared by a prominent Austin immigration attorney who is now a political candidate, along with downtown businesses and food influencers, suggested ICE had booked a large block of rooms at the Hyatt Regency downtown and arrested service workers in the Warehouse District. None included photos, video or other evidence.

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“Credible reports on ICE activity,” attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said in a bilingual video post that was viewed more than 1 million times on Instagram and 250,000 on TikTok. “Watch out, stay safe and avoid downtown.” City officials initially said nothing publicly, even as they worked behind the scenes to figure out if there was anything to the rumors. Police Chief Lisa Davis called ICE. City Council Member José “Chito” Vela called downtown hotels and bar workers, as well as immigration and criminal defense attorneys. They found nothing to corroborate the claims. The situation was the latest test for officials in Austin, a liberal city where distrust of federal immigration agencies runs deep and residents have been rattled by recent events in Minneapolis. Earlier this month, Davis’ department faced backlash after Austin police called ICE on a mother and her young daughter due to an outstanding immigration warrant. The weekend rumors again placed local officials — many of whom oppose the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown — in the difficult position of trying to combat misinformation and calm fears while explaining the complexities of immigration enforcement in Texas and relying on assurances from the same federal agencies residents increasingly distrust.

State Stories

Ted Cruz urges Trump administration to soften tone on shootings

Sen. Ted Cruz has urged the Trump administration to strike a more measured tone after fatal shootings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, saying tough talk risks alienating key swing voters. After Renee Good was shot and killed in her vehicle, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested Good was trying to run down Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in an “act of domestic terrorism.” Cruz, in his podcast Monday, defended the agent’s actions, saying Good drove her car into him, and “that is a justifiable use of lethal force.” He also said officials should be cautious about casting those killed as terrorists and he said he supports an investigation into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse in Minneapolis.

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“Immediately when an incident like this happens, they come out guns blazing that we took out a violent terrorist, hooray,” Cruz said. “And the problem is, particularly for someone not paying attention, if you’re being told this is a mom of three, and there’s no indication, you know, she’s not waving an ISIS flag or doesn’t have a suicide vest around her, escalating the rhetoric doesn’t help and it actually loses credibility,” he said. After Pretti’s shooting, some Republicans blamed him for carrying a gun while protesting immigration enforcement operations. He had a Minnesota permit to carry a firearm. Trump adviser Stephen Miller described Pretti as an “assassin” trying to murder federal agents. Some Second Amendment rights advocates, generally supportive of President Donald Trump, have said exercising a constitutional right to carry doesn’t automatically give law enforcement cause to shoot someone. Cruz, a Republican, said on his podcast there was “confusion” about what happened with Pretti and “there needs to be an investigation.”

‘ICE conveyor belt’ illegally detaining, moving Minnesota children to Texas faster than courts can respond

Shortly after Elvis Joel Tipan Echeverria, a man from Ecuador with an open asylum case, pulled into the driveway of his Minneapolis home on Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broke a window in his car, pulled him and his 2-year-old daughter out and drove them away. In less than eight hours, Echeverria and his daughter were on a commercial flight to a Texas family detention facility, even though a judge had ordered ICE to return the toddler to her Minnesota home. “The court ordered the release of this child, and 20 minutes later they were put on a flight,” said Irina Vaynerman, an attorney representing the man and his daughter. The 2-year-old’s detention is part of an accelerating trend of what Vaynerman describes as ICE agents sending children and adults with legal immigration status out of state to avoid dealing with accountability from the federal court system.

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Vaynerman said she and her colleagues filed an emergency motion in federal court Friday, asking a judge to stop the practice. “Minnesotans are being unlawfully detained and are then being quickly marshalled across state lines by the government,” Vaynerman said. “They’re doing that in order to evade the reach of the federal district court in Minnesota.” “This is an intentional, calculated effort,” Vaynerman added, “Especially where folks are already being denied the access of counsel before they're placed on the planes.” Echeverria’s 2-year-old daughter, identified in court documents only as C.R.T.V., was returned to Minnesota on Friday and is now with her mother. Her father is still in detention. But several lawyers told MPR News the trend of illegally detaining immigrants, including young children and shipping them out of state has been widespread. Early on Thursday morning, Maria Velasco Hurtado was being driven to work by a neighbor when the vehicle she was in was stopped by ICE officers. According to her attorney, Velasco Hurtado tried to show the agents papers proving her legal permission to be in the United States. But the agents removed her from the car, drove to her home in Hopkins and, according to her lawyer, used her as “bait” to detain the rest of the family, including two children in first and fourth grade. q

Edward Mazria: Texas can transform coal infrastructure into clean energy engines for digital age

(Edward Mazria is founder of the nonprofit Architecture 2030 and an internationally recognized architect, author, researcher, and educator. He was awarded the 2021 AIA Gold Medal for his “unwavering voice and leadership” in the fight against climate change.) A dangerous fiction is being promoted in Texas and across the nation: a manufactured energy crisis designed to justify our reliance on polluting coal plants while scapegoating new technologies like AI and data centers. Simultaneously, communities in Texas are grappling with the immense costs and impacts of proposed massive new transmission lines and the construction of large, resource- and land-intensive data center campuses. Citing unsustainable energy and water consumption, more than 230 groups have now urged Congress to pause data center development in the U.S. But these narratives miss the real story. The problem isn’t our digital future; it’s our toxic past. First, let’s be clear: there is no systemic energy crisis in the United States. The facts tell a story of progress showing the U.S. produces more energy than it consumes and remains the world’s top oil and gas producer, with Texas as the nation’s leading net energy supplier.

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The hype that new development is causing an energy crisis ignores a crucial fact: the data shows no corresponding increase in energy demand, even with massive growth. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), from 2005 to 2024, the American building sector cut its energy consumption by 8.2 percent and its electricity energy consumption by an impressive 10.7percent, while total U.S. electric power sector use fell 13.0 percent. These figures include America’s massive digital infrastructure—ten times the number in China—with major hubs in Texas. This trend holds in Texas: despite leading the nation in construction, the state’s building sector energy consumption fell 0.6 percent between 2013 and 2023 and the latest 2024 EIA data for Texas shows a 1.5 percent drop in building sector electricity consumption this past year. While the energy and electricity demand from the data center boom has not materialized, the financial risk to Texans is very real: acting on this false narrative and building out infrastructure would cost consumers billions. What is the real motive behind the energy-crisis narrative? It serves as a pretext to prop up fossil fuels and gut federal and local rules that protect our health and well-being. This fiction has been used to weaken clean air and water regulations, limit federal tracking of extreme rainfall and pollution data, and promote so-called “clean” coal-generated electricity in the U.S. and Texas. Promoting these aging, polluting coal plants to power the AI revolution is like trying to run the newest iPhone on a steam engine.

Austin Film Critics Association takes stand against Alamo Drafthouse mobile ordering

The recent announcement that the Alamo Drafthouse is getting rid of its pen-and-paper ordering and in-seat call buttons has been met with an overwhelming backlash from customers. Now the Austin Film Critics Association has joined the chorus by releasing a statement that calls for the Alamo Drafthouse and its owners, Sony Pictures Entertainment, to reverse this decision. [Full disclosure: Chronicle critics including Kimberley Jones, Marjorie Baumgarten, and Richard Whittaker are members of the AFCA.] On January 10, the Drafthouse announced the shift to ordering via QR code. In the statement, management explained that they believed it will reduce distractions during screenings, and that staff will still be available to assist if there are any issues.

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However, the consumer response online has been wholly negative, as this is a complete reversal of the Drafthouse’s cornerstone policy that bans phone usage during screenings. Moreover, there have been broad concerns among Drafthouse staff that, when introduced nationwide in February, the immediate result will be a loss of staff. So far, the Drafthouse has not issued any further statement on the change, but every social media post released since has become a forum for protest. Even the company’s LinkedIn page has seen complaints and calls for the old system to be reinstated, and a Change.org petition promoted by workers union Alamo United has already gathered more than 4,000 signatures. Now the AFCA has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a statement in support of the reversal and laying out the reasons for its opposition.

Deep East Texas electric company explains why thousands without power for a week

Following the winter freeze that has been sweeping across East Texas, Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative has reported around 24,000 customers without power. Now, three days later, around 10,000 customers were still waiting for power to be restored, and some residents may face another week without electricity. While the cooperative hopes to restore power for most by Sunday, they definitely recognize the frustration and need. “It’s kind of a situation where you plan for the worst and you hope for the best, so we hope that we can restore it much sooner to most folks by Sunday. But the reality is that it could take by Sunday for us to restore everyone’s power,” Brittney Ford, director of communications for the Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative, said.

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The ice storm has been particularly brutal in certain areas. Cities like Garrison, Tenaha, Timpson and Joaquin have borne the brunt of the damage, with higher ice accumulation creating additional challenges for restoration crews. The widespread damage in these communities means they require more time and resources to get back online compared to other affected areas. For residents like Brian Patterson, the outage has taken its toll. “It’s been hard,” he explained. “We got power but the rest of my friends and family don’t have power. We come together and hope for the best—that’s about it.” Ford stressed that the areas hardest hit aren’t necessarily the most difficult to access—they simply sustained more damage. “Those areas in Garrison and Tenaha and Timpson and Joaquin were heavily impacted. They saw higher ice accumulation. It’s not that they’re not as accessible as the other areas, they just have more damages,” she explained. As restoration efforts continue, Ford recommends that those without power report their outages two to three times a day to help keep them updated.

UT Austin becomes NSF’s top-funded campus, driven by computing and AI

The University of Texas at Austin was the top university for research funded by the National Science Foundation nationally in fiscal year 2024 — a sign of the university’s leadership in scientific research. Federal funding pays for 60% of UT’s research. In 2024, NSF dollars made up $176.4 million of that funding, accounting for roughly one-quarter of UT’s total federal research dollars. The National Science Foundation’s mission is to advance scientific discovery, national prosperity and national security. The federal agency funds thousands of projects at 1,900 universities annually. UT’s top rank means the Texas flagship received more funding than any other institution, according to a Higher Education Research and Development Survey released last month.

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Two major UT centers studying artificial intelligence computing power and image processing received significant investment from NSF. The research keeps UT on the forefront of the rapidly growing fields while ensuring the public can access its benefits. “I do think people all over Texas, if they’re not already, will be using tools that were created by NSF researchers,” said Adam Klivans, the director of the AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning. The biggest 2024 NSF grant for UT was a multi-year $457 million investment to build a “leadership-class” computing center, with UT receiving $26 million of the grant in 2024. The money will go to creating the largest-ever supercomputer, Horizon, which will have ten times the computing power than the current largest computer, Frontera, which is also at UT. The facility marks a new “major facilities commitment to large scale computing,” said Daniel Stanzione, the executive director of UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center, which is spearheading the project. About 80% of the center’s funding comes from NSF alone, he said. “We keep sort of upgrading the level of funding we’re getting as they trust us more and more to be the right place to do this,” he said. UT has built four other supercomputers with NSF over the past two decades.

After Alex Pretti, Kyle Rittenhouse is again a lightning rod online

As Americans vented, grieved and, in some cases, justified the killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers over the weekend, they turned, as they often do, to social media. In the hours after the shooting, as the Trump administration rushed to push a narrative that Mr. Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” who possessed a weapon and an intent to cause harm, the name Kyle Rittenhouse began to circulate online. A young man who arrived armed with an AR-15-style rifle to defend a local business during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, Mr. Rittenhouse was once a symbol of patriotism and Second Amendment rights for many on the right. Some of his supporters, among them President Trump, helped fund his legal defense when he was brought up on — and later found not guilty of — charges of intentional homicide for shooting three protesters and killing two.

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After the killing of Mr. Pretti, Mr. Rittenhouse has become a prism through which observers across the political spectrum are filtering the actions by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis. For those on the left, Mr. Rittenhouse is a figure who highlights what they believe is a staggering display of hypocrisy by MAGA conservatives and administration officials who have rushed to paint Mr. Pretti, an I.C.U. nurse, as a violent activist on the streets of Minneapolis. Some liberals have posted images of Mr. Rittenhouse gripping a rifle as a pointed reminder that conservatives, not that long ago, once forcefully defended the right to bear arms on the streets of America. Mr. Pretti was carrying a 9 mm handgun, according to federal officials, when he entered a zone of civil unrest. “Kyle Rittenhouse showed up to a protest like this and Republicans called him a hero,” Isaiah Martin, a former Democratic candidate for Congress in Texas, wrote on X on Saturday. For many on the right, the simple fact that Mr. Pretti had a weapon in his possession justified the actions of the federal agents, who fired at least 10 shots at Mr. Pretti in five seconds after appearing to have disarmed him. (Officials with the Minneapolis Police Department have said that Mr. Pretti had a permit to carry a weapon.)

Paxton files suit against Delaware nurse practitioner for providing abortion pills to Texans

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued a Delaware-based nurse practitioner, alleging she broke Texas law by prescribing abortion pills to women in Texas. In the suit filed Tuesday, Paxton said that Debra Lynch, a co-founder of the organization Her Safe Harbor, has sent packages containing the medications mifepristone and misoprostol to women in cities including Beaumont, Fulshear, Tomball, Houston and El Paso. The suit references statements Lynch made to media outlets, including in a profile by the Austin American-Statesman. Abortion is illegal in Texas except for a narrow carveout for medical emergencies.

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Her Safe Harbor advertises itself as a telehealth service that offers “safe, private care” to women in all 50 states. In addition to abortion medication, the service offers other kinds of gynecology treatment, such as care for UTIs and sexually transmitted infections, and prescribes birth control and emergency contraception. In the filing, Paxton calls Her Safe Harbor “part of a growing network of out-of-state abortion traffickers that deliberately target Texas residents.” He is seeking a temporary or permanent injunction that prohibits Lynch and her organization from providing abortion medication to Texas residents and prevents her from practicing medicine in the state. The action follows a cease and desist letter the Texas Attorney General’s office sent Lynch last year. After receiving the letter, Lynch told media outlets that Her Safe Harbor did not plan to change its operations, and she had seen an uptick in requests from Texans since news of the cease-and-desist was reported.

Could ‘Landman’ help Fort Worth’s film industry grow into a $5B production powerhouse? Experts believe so

Cowtown’s two-step with Hollywood is lining up to be a showbiz success. Film and TV productions are booming in Fort Worth, thanks to Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman” series, which features prominent shots of the city in most episodes. In 2025, an estimated $1 billion in economic impact spurred the opening of new production facilities and offices across the Fort Worth area. “It really is a Cinderella story for Fort Worth — and it’s just the beginning,” said Taylor Hardy, film commissioner and director of video content for Visit Fort Worth, the city’s tourism arm. Hardy’s comments came during a 2026 Real Estate Forecast event held Jan. 22 at TCU as experts discussed ways in which Fort Worth can bolster its ties to film and TV productions in North Texas. Until “Landman,” Fort Worth often lost out to Dallas when productions chose filming locations, Hardy said. Since then, with the establishment of a film commission, Visit Fort Worth has kept track of the city’s efforts to secure more film and TV productions for the past decade.

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“It was kind of a turning point for our city,” Hardy said. “Before that, we were losing a lot of business to Dallas. They were representing the entire metroplex and they didn’t know our locations and our community.” Despite the initial lack of economic incentives and infrastructure, Fort Worth was still attractive enough to scrape its way into TV and film. Diverse filming locations, including the Stockyards, and talented crew members aided in developing the local industry and attracting new businesses. Fort Worth’s proximity to the middle of the United States was enhanced further by Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, the world’s third-busiest travel hub. “We’re right between New York and Los Angeles, with more direct flights and more availability than cities like Austin or Oklahoma City,” Hardy said. Cowtown’s pride also helped provide positive experiences for filmmakers and directors, who have been welcomed by residents and officials alike. “That pride in our city is something that’s really contagious,” she said. Since filmmaker David Lowery, a former Irving High School student, did a scene in Fort Worth years ago, he has returned to the city for other projects, including “The Old Man & The Gun,” Robert Redford’s final movie, Hardy said. The film commission’s work with Taylor Sheridan began in 2021 when he sought to film a Fort Worth equestrian scene for the TV series “Yellowstone.” He returned to film the “1883” spinoff in the city, followed by a season of “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” two seasons of “Lioness,” two seasons of “Landman,” and two new shows, “The Madison” and “The Dutton Ranch.”

Report projects more than 6,000 PTSD cases tied to Kerr County floods without sustained mental health care

The July 4 floods in Kerr County could result in more than 6,000 new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among adults and about 2,000 cases of serious emotional disturbance in children without sustained access to mental health care, according to a new assessment released this week. The assessment was conducted by the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country in partnership with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. It highlights that the psychological impacts of disasters often surface well after the initial crisis and can persist for years.

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“These effects often emerge months after a disaster and persist without sustained care,” the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country said in a statement. “Informed by interviews with 70 local leaders and supported by data modeling, the report identifies where expanded mental health support is most needed.” The findings build on broader recovery efforts already underway following the floods and are intended to guide long-term investment in mental health services across Kerr County. In response, the Community Foundation announced a $1 million grant commitment to partner organizations working to expand mental health services in the area. Those groups include Light on the Hill, Hunt Independent School District, and the Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Centers. Priority areas for the funding include expanding trauma and grief-informed care, increasing access to mental health services for children, and providing specialized support for bereaved families and frontline responders. Foundation leaders say the goal is to ensure residents affected by the floods have access to mental health care throughout the long recovery process, not just in the immediate aftermath.

San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Daniel Betts is our choice in GOP primary to replace Chip Roy

The Republican primary election for Texas’ 21st Congressional District is among the most contested and wide open races on the March 3 ballot. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy — who ran unopposed in the 2024 Republican primary — is not seeking a fifth term. He has chosen instead to run for the office of Texas attorney general, which is being vacated by Ken Paxton, who is seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in his bid for a fifth term. In Roy’s wake, 12 candidates are vying for the GOP nomination to replace him. Given the historically conservative voting patterns in District 21, which includes parts of northern Bexar County, most of Comal County and all of Kendall, Kerr and Bandera counties, the winner of this primary will have a huge edge in the November general election.

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Daniel Betts, an Austin-based criminal defense lawyer and University of Texas School of Law graduate, emerged as our recommendation in this crowded field. Betts, who lives in Dripping Springs and ran for Travis County district attorney during the previous election cycle, is a conservative, but not in the combative and arrogant mold of Roy. Betts’ law degree is interestingly paired with an undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago, which speaks to an appreciation of science and validated facts that we hope will serve as a backstop against some of the evidence-be-damned, ideological approaches to federal lawmaking we see in too many ultra-right members of Congress. Betts is keen on finding ways to responsibly do desalination to help meet our needs for water, as well as possibly tapping nuclear power for the energy needed to operate such plants. He considers himself a “small government” conservative who believes many in his party have “fallen down on the job” in that regard. At the same time, he acknowledges that being in Congress means representing and listening to constituents of all parties, and he told us that he would strive to hold town halls at least monthly, as did a few other candidates.

Addison joins other North Texas cities considering leaving DART

Pressure is increasing on Dallas Area Rapid Transit as a fifth city is now considering an election to withdraw from the agency. The city of Addison has called a special meeting on Dec. 2 to address concerns from the council over funding for the transit agency. If the council votes to call an election, it would join four other cities — Farmers Branch, Highland Park, Irving and Plano — that will ask voters this spring whether or not to leave DART. “Following the decision of four other cities to call DART withdrawal elections, the Addison City Council has decided to call a special meeting to determine the best path forward for our community,” Addison’s director of marketing and tourism Mary Rosenbleeth said in a written statement.

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The city is identified as a “donor” city according to a 2024 report by the consulting firm Ernst & Young that showed the Addison contributed about $16 million while only receiving $9.5 million in services in Fiscal Year 2023. The report does not take into account the recently added Silver Line that began providing service to the city in October. Transportation Plano's new proposal to DART could keep the city from leaving the agency Pablo Arauz Peña , November 19, 2025 Plano's proposal would eliminate regular bus routes in the city but keep rail, including the new Silver Line. The decision to consider a withdrawal election is a blow to DART’s standing with the city, which earlier this year passed a resolution to support full funding for the agency after North Texas legislators filed a bill to reduce the agency’s funding by at least 25%. When that effort in the legislature failed, the DART board of directors voted to approve a General Mobility Program (GMP) to return 5% of sales tax funds to donor cities, including Addison; DART later stipulated cities would need to cease efforts to leave the agency or reduce its funding in order to receive their share of the GMP. According to a presentation prepared by city staff for the Dec. 2 meeting, Addison's legal team advised the council not to approve the GMP "as written and have made our concerns known to DART.” If Addison residents vote to leave the agency, service would end the day after the election. A spokesperson for DART told KERA in a statement the agency is aware of the Dec. 2 meeting. “DART remains committed to negotiating transparently and in good faith to ensure North Texans have access to transit solutions that work best for them,” the statement said. DART CEO Nadine Lee has previously said that cities withdrawing from the agency would have a detrimental impact on the entire system. “What I tell people is, you pay with your time or your money,” Lee said in a recent interview on WFAA’s Y'allitics podcast. “You’re going to sit in congestion and maybe you’ll have the option to work from home but in 20 years, who knows what’s going to happen?” Addison City Council’s special called meeting is at 5:30 on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

National Stories

Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked during town hall meeting in Minneapolis

A man attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) while she was speaking during a Tuesday town hall meeting in Minneapolis, according to local police. The man used a syringe to spray an unknown liquid at Omar, the police said. The meeting was being held in the wake of events that have roiled the state, including the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal officers last week. “We must abolish ICE for good. And (Department of Homeland Security) Secretary Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment,” Omar said just before the man walked up to her. The man was immediately arrested and booked into Hennepin County Jail on suspicion of third-degree assault, the police statement added. The Minneapolis Police Department later identified the attacker as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak.

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A live stream of the event shows the man being tackled to the ground and taken away by security. Photos from the scene show the syringe containing a brown liquid. Omar appears unharmed and continues speaking. “We are Minnesota strong. We will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us,” she says after coming back to the lectern. In a social media post after the attack, Omar said she was all right and thanked her constituents for rallying behind her. “I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work,” she wrote on X. In a phone interview late Tuesday, President Donald Trump minimized reports of the incident and called Omar a “fraud,” echoing his frequent barbs against the congresswoman. Trump told ABC News that “she probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” without providing evidence to substantiate the claim. Speaking to CNN later, Omar said it is important not to get intimidated and to keep fighting for her constituents. “I’ve survived war. And I’m definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think they can throw at me because I’m built that way,” she said.

Trump has four finalists to run the Fed. None of them are exactly what he wants.

President Trump has said for months that he’s made up his mind about who should lead the Federal Reserve. But with each passing week without an announcement, some people close to the process aren’t sure any of his four finalists fully meet his requirements. The difficulty: Trump wants something that may not exist—a new chair who will pursue his demands for lower interest rates while still commanding enough credibility on Wall Street and from his colleagues to deliver them. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been managing the search and, after ruling himself out of contention, has presented Trump with four finalists: Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor; Christopher Waller, a current Fed governor whom Trump appointed to the board in 2020; Rick Rieder, a senior executive at BlackRock; and Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council.

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Each represents a different trade-off between the two things Trump says he wants. The tension was on display last week when Trump addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “They’re all respected. They’re all great…. Everyone could do, I think, a fantastic job,” he said of his finalists. Then he telegraphed his core anxiety about the selection—that candidates “say everything I want to hear” during interviews, only to assert their independence once they have been confirmed. “It’s amazing how people change once they have the job,” Trump said. “It’s too bad, sort of disloyalty, but they got to do what they think is right.” In a Dec. 23 post on Truth Social, the president laid out what he called “The Trump Rule”—a demand that the Fed abandon an approach to inflation that has conditioned markets to treat good economic news as bad news, since it means rates won’t come down as fast. He concluded with an unambiguous warning: “Anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman!” The two statements capture the bind Trump has created for himself as he searches for someone to replace Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May.

Bari Weiss tries to win CBS staffers’ trust amid ‘noise’ over 60 Minutes segment

In her first town hall, Weiss expressed some regret over her decision to pull 60 Minutes segment at the last minute During her first address to CBS News employees as editor in chief, Bari Weiss acknowledged that there had been “a lot of noise” about her tumultuous tenure and said that some staffers might decide they don’t support her or want to continue working at the company. “I just want to start by saying: I get it. And I get why, in the face of all this tumult and noise, you might feel uncertain or skeptical about me and about what I’m aiming to do here,” Weiss said on Tuesday morning, according to an audio recording of her comments obtained by the Guardian. “So I’m not going to stand up here today in front of all of you and ask for your trust: I’m going to earn it, just like we have to do with our viewers. What I can give you is what I’ve always tried to give my readers and listeners as a journalist: and that is transparency, clarity and straight talk.”

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Weiss, who shared her broader strategy for the network for the first time since joining the network in October after her company The Free Press was acquired by Paramount Skydance for a reported $150m, said that her goal is to “make CBS News fit for purpose in the 21st century”. As part of the new strategy that Weiss laid out, CBS News announced the addition of 18 new on-air contributors, including prominent names from the world of politics, academia and culture – though some have faced controversy. The list includes medical expert Mark Hyman, historian Niall Ferguson, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman and former national security adviser H R McMaster. Ending her opening remarks, Weiss acknowledged that her plans might not be for everyone. “We are the best-capitalized media startup in the world,” she said. “We have the talent, we have the energy, and we have the mandate to transform CBS News. And if everyone here does their jobs right, and together, in a year’s time CBS News is going to look different. But startups aren’t for everybody. … If that’s not your bag, that’s OK. It’s a free country, and I completely respect if you decide I’m not the right leader for you, or this isn’t the right place at the right time.”

Amazon to cut 16,000 jobs in latest round of layoffs

Though business has been booming, Amazon said on Wednesday that it was laying off 16,000 more corporate employees as it looked to trim bureaucracy and free up money for plans to spend heavily on artificial intelligence. The cuts were widely expected across Amazon’s corporate work force since late October, when the company laid off 14,000 corporate employees. At the time, The New York Times and other publications reported that another round of layoffs was planned for January, after the holiday shopping season. The company did not rule out more job cuts in the future, although it said it was not planning to create a “new rhythm” of layoffs every few months. “Just as we always have, every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate,” Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, said in a blog post.

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Next week, Amazon is scheduled to report its financial results for the fourth quarter, which covered the holiday shopping season. Wall Street analysts expect that sales surpassed $211 billion and that profits were more than $21 billion. In the previous quarter, July through September, the company’s sales totaled $180 billion, and profit topped $21 billion. The pattern echoed a large round of layoffs in late 2022 and early 2023, when the company eliminated almost 30,000 positions to trim costs as the world emerged from the pandemic. The October layoffs ran the gamut. In Amazon’s home state, Washington, about 2,000 employees lost their jobs, including recruiters, analysts and managers. The hardest-hit job category was software engineers. More than 1,500 positions were cut in California. Last summer, Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, told employees that artificial intelligence meant that, over time, the company would operate with fewer corporate workers. But in the fall, he told investors that the layoffs had less to do with A.I. or finances and more with reducing layers of bureaucracy. Still, the reductions in various divisions were based on targets for trimming operating costs.

Ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter joins those calling for boycott of World Cup in U.S.

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday backed a proposed fan boycott of World Cup matches in the United States because of the conduct of President Donald Trump and his administration at home and abroad. Blatter was the latest international soccer figure to call into question the suitability of the United States as a host country. He called for the boycott in a post on X that supported Mark Pieth's comments in an interview last week with the Swiss newspaper Der Bund. Pieth, a Swiss attorney specializing in white-collar crime and an anti-corruption expert, chaired the Independent Governance Committee's oversight of FIFA reform a decade ago. Blatter was president of the world's governing body for soccer from 1998-2015; he resigned amid an investigation into corruption.

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In his interview with Der Bund, Pieth said, "If we consider everything we've discussed, there's only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA! You'll see it better on TV anyway. And upon arrival, fans should expect that if they don't please the officials, they'll be put straight on the next flight home. If they're lucky." In his X post, Blatter quoted Pieth and added, "I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup." The United States is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico from June 11-July 19. The international soccer community's concerns about the United States stem from Trump's expansionist posture on Greenland, and travel bans and aggressive tactics in dealing with migrants and immigration enforcement protesters in American cities, particularly Minneapolis. Oke Göttlich, one of the vice presidents of the German soccer federation, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in an interview on Friday that the time had come to seriously consider boycotting the World Cup. Travel plans for fans from two of the top soccer countries in Africa were thrown into disarray in December, when the Trump administration announced an expanded ban that would effectively bar people from Senegal and Ivory Coast following their teams unless they already have visas. Trump cited "screening and vetting deficiencies" as the main reason for the suspensions. Fans from Iran and Haiti, two other countries that have qualified for the World Cup, will be barred from entering the United States as well; they were included in the first iteration of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration.

Trump posts more endorsements of GOP challengers to Indiana redistricting foes

President Donald Trump is publicly backing Republican primary challengers to longtime state Sens. Jim Buck and Greg Walker over their opposition to the Indiana congressional redistricting demanded by the president. Trump has vowed political revenge against Republican legislators who helped defeat the redistricting bill — and in separate Monday social media posts he endorsed state Rep. Michelle Davis in her challenge to Walker and Tipton County Commissioner Tracey Powell to defeat Buck. Trump’s posts used nearly identical wording to label Walker and Buck as a “RINO” — for Republican in name only — and “an America Last politician” for voting against the redrawing of Indiana’s U.S. House maps aimed at helping Republicans win all nine seats. Davis, a third-term House member from Whiteland, announced her Senate campaign in August after Walker had said he would not seek reelection to the seat he first won in 2006.

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But Walker, R-Columbus, earlier this month filed for the May primary, saying he was “greatly concerned when I see Hoosier politics play a surrogate to those national battles.” Davis voted in favor of the redistricting plan when it passed the House in December. She said after Walker reversed his decision on seeking reelection that she was continuing her Senate campaign. Walker said in a statement that he was “not surprised this issue is following some of us in our primaries.” “I could not support a map creating four new Indianapolis districts that would have greatly undermined the important voices of rural Indiana and my constituents who live in these areas,” Walker said. “I respect the President’s opinion but I have to put Hoosiers first.” Davis is challenging Walker in Senate District 41, which includes all of Bartholomew County and much of Johnson County south of Indianapolis. Powell is a chiropractor who was first elected as a Tipton County commissioner in 2020.

State judge in Virginia blocks Democrats’ redistricting effort

A state judge on Tuesday ruled against Democrats’ redistricting efforts in Virginia, which Democrats quickly said they would appeal. Judge Jack S. Hurley Jr. ruled that the state constitutional amendment passed by Democrats in order to redraw their district maps, which could net Democrats several House seats in this year’s midterm elections, is unconstitutional because the process they used to pass the constitutional amendment is invalid. “The simple fact is that the rules cannot be rewritten on the fly to suit the political ambitions of those in power,” the Republican Party of Virginia’s acting chair, Kristi Way, said in a statement cheering the ruling. “Democrats in Richmond have attempted to jam through a major constitutional change by violating clear-cut procedures, ignoring long-standing statutory requirements, and disregarding the plain text of our Constitution.”

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Virginia Democrats, who paved the way to new maps in the Virginia General Assembly along party lines, have yet to publicly say what the maps would look like. After the passage of the constitutional amendment in the General Assembly earlier this month, lawmakers began to plan for an April 21 special election. Republican leaders quickly filed suit in Tazewell County, where they found Hurley in agreement. “We will be appealing this ruling immediately and we expect to prevail,” said a joint statement from Democratic leadership in the Virginia House of Delegates and state Senate. “This was court-shopping, plain and simple. We’re prepared for the next step, and voters - not politicians - will have the final say.” Virginia currently has six Democrats and five Republican representatives in the House. “We always knew this would be a fight— because this has never been about what’s easy. It’s about what’s right: leveling the playing field and protecting the right to vote,” the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, Don Scott, said on social media. “Today’s ruling won’t deter us. Republicans who can’t win at the ballot box are abusing the courts to sow confusion and block Virginians from voting. We will appeal immediately, and we expect to prevail. Voters—not politicians—will have the final say.”

Copyright January 28, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved