March 13, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Oil prices rise despite Trump’s decision to lift Russia sanctions

The worldwide price of oil rose slightly on Friday, continuing to trade at around $100 a barrel on heightened fears about the economic impact of a sustained blockage of Middle East energy. The latest move by President Trump to signal relief to markets slowed but did not reverse the increase in prices. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Thursday night that the U.S. government had temporarily removed sanctions on Russian oil currently at sea to add oil to global markets. Stock markets in Asia fell again on Friday, a day after the S&P 500, the U.S. stock benchmark, slumped to its worst single-day performance since the war began.

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The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was trading at about $100 a barrel on Friday in London. It settled at $100.46 a barrel on Thursday, up 10.1 percent, the highest settlement level since August 2022. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was around $95 a barrel. It settled at $96.40 a barrel, up 10.5 percent, on Thursday. Oil markets have been on a convulsive path since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. The price of Brent spiked to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday as traders feared long-lasting cuts in supplies. Prices have pulled back since then, but remain sharply higher than before the war. Investors and analysts across the world are focused on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is a vital trading route for oil and natural gas, which normally carries as much as one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. Shipping traffic exiting the Persian Gulf through the strait has been effectively halted and tankers are stranded because of the risk that vessels could be attacked.

Houston rodeo revokes Lina Hidalgo's ex officio title after show access dispute

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo was told ahead of time she would not be allowed to enter the sold-out premium viewing area during Tuesday’s concert at NRG Stadium, rodeo leadership said in a Thursday statement. The county judge was escorted from the rodeo grounds Tuesday evening after being denied entry to the premium area with her guests. The judge said in a since-deleted Facebook post after the incident that she was "manhandled" by security. Hidalgo said the rodeo also informed her Thursday that its executive committee has voted to revoke her status as an ex-officio director of the event.

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The rodeo's Thursday statement was signed by rodeo board Chairwoman Pat Mann Phillips and President and CEO Chris Boleman. The pair said Hidalgo was the only Houston or Harris County elected official to request "tickets at any level" this year, let alone the premium $425 "chute" tickets that allow access to the dirt floor of the arena near the concert stage. Hidalgo and her guests were given 21 chute tickets across three earlier performances, the rodeo statement said -- a combined value of roughly $9,000-- but not to Tuesday's sold-out show. The judge acknowledged her office was not given the wristbands typically distributed to holders of chute tickets on Tuesday, but said she had not been asked to wear one at previous performances and said no one told her she was not allowed to enter the dirt area that night. Phillips and Boleman also calledHidalgo's implication that her treatment Tuesday was motivated by her race or gender "false and insulting."

ERCOT takes aim at ‘doom loop’ for big power users seeking to join Texas’ grid

When the Electric Reliability Council of Texas designed its process for connecting big industrial users to the statewide grid, it envisioned receiving from eight to 15 such requests every three months. Now, with the state at ground zeroof the data center boom, it’s getting as many as 100 requests in that same time period. So, for the past 18 months, the grid operator has been discussing how to handle the rapid influx of demand. It’s looking for a way to keep data centers and other big requests from getting stuck in what’s been nicknamed the “doom loop.” “We quickly came to the conclusion with the market participants that something had to change,” President and CEO Pablo Vegas said.

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The solution? A new process — called batch study — that allows for requests to be evaluated as a group based on the amount of electricity that can be reliably served over a six-year period instead of looking at each request individually. ERCOT presented the framework for the batch study to the Public Utility Commission on Feb. 20 but still needs to determine who will be included in the “batch zero” group — the first to be evaluated using transitional guidelines. The goal is to have that criteria worked out by June, then the grid operator can start working on evaluating the group’s power requests. The new evaluation process is a result of Senate Bill 6, legislation requiring new rules for interconnection, operation and cost of service for large load customers. Large loads — like data centers for artificial intelligence and oil and gas electrification — are flooding into Texas, drawn by the state’s booming business landscape, plentiful land and affordable utilities. ERCOT now has projects seeking about 230 gigawatts of electricity at various stages of the existing process. Soon, they will need to be transitioned into the new batch study process.

Austin City Council changes lobbying rules for reporting interactions

Austin City Council approved changes to the city's lobbying rules, shifting the reporting of lobbyists' interactions with city officials away from departments to the lobbyists themselves — a move some council members warn could make it harder for the public to track influence at City Hall. The updated rules now require lobbyists to report all interactions with city officials rather than only scheduled meetings. The changes also eliminate a requirement that city departments provide a reporting method, shifting that responsibility to the lobbyists. They also cut a requirement for lobbyists to disclose their meetings — and whether they receive or expect to receive compensation — in writing to the department. Council members Vanessa Fuentes and Ryan Alter voted against the changes, raising concerns about transparency.

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“Austin has long held itself to a higher standard of transparency than the State of Texas, but this ordinance would only move us closer to the state's weaker lobbying requirements,” Fuentes said in a statement. “At a time when trust in government is already fragile, scaling back transparency is the wrong choice. Our focus should be on strengthening public trust, not eroding it.” Alter said in a statement: "The public should know how lobbyists are interacting with their representatives. I'm concerned this change could reduce that transparency." Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison, however, said that shifting reporting responsibility from council offices to lobbyists would free up time and cut down on inefficiency. “I'm happy to see any item that comes forward that helps us be more efficient with the use of the time and spend more of it working on constituent issues,” she said during the council meeting. The changes come after the Austin city auditor noted issues with transparency and accessibility in lobbyist compliance and recommended changes to the city's lobbying rules in September. The office noted that "current city code lobbying provisions limit reporting and make transparency hard to achieve.” The auditor’s office noted in September that Austin’s peer cities such as Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio and Houston define who in city government is subject to lobbying more narrowly than Austin does. The updated Austin lobbyist rules now include a narrower definition of “city official” that focuses on decision-makers.

State Stories

ICE family detentions put Texas Republicans on defensive with Latino voters

In 2024, a historic number of South Texans turned out to vote for President Donald Trump, driven in part by his promise to reverse President Joe Biden’s “disastrous open-border” policies. But now, ahead of the 2026 midterms, the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation crackdown is proving deeply unpopular with those same Latino voters, and threatening to turn what was once the party’s strongest issue into one of its biggest liabilities. Nowhere was that shift on clearer display than in McAllen this week, where the administration detained a pair of nationally acclaimed mariachi-playing teens, then released them amid intense public backlash.

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U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, one of South Texas’ few Republican members of Congress who won on a border security platform, called the brothers’ detention “troubling” and took pains to highlight her role in securing their release. “We can have safe communities, and we can also have common-sense enforcement policies,” she said. Democrats were quick to criticize her for her prior positions on border security, and for not intervening sooner. State Rep. Terry Canales, an Edinburg Democrat whose district overlaps with De La Cruz’s, compared the move to “setting your house on fire, calling the fire department and pretending your not the arsonist (sic)” in a social media post. Republicans in South Texas worry the immigration issue could erode the gains they’ve made in what has historically been a Democratic stronghold. The implications in November could be huge because the state’s Republicans redrew the area’s congressional districts last year to favor the GOP under the assumption Latino voters who backed Trump would stick with the party.

Paxton’s pastor joins faith team for Cornyn

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s pastor has joined the Faith Advisory Council of his opponent, Sen. John Cornyn. After a tough primary campaign that will be settled by a runoff election in May, the Cornyn campaign announced formation of the faith team, which includes Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. Paxton says he is a member of that megachurch. While Paxton has his supporters among the hard right of Texas Republicans, Cornyn is portrayed as the more moral of the candidates. Paxton has faced numerous ethics accusations, including a long-running lawsuit about securities fraud.

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He also was impeached by the Republican-led House of Representatives last year but not convicted by the Senate after intervention by President Donald Trump. The longtime executive pastor at Prestonwood was among those allegedly swindled in the securities fraud. Last year, Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce on “biblical grounds.” Graham is a former Southern Baptist Convention president who has close ties to Trump, who has yet to endorse either Cornyn or Paxton. Graham is one of five men named to the council. The others are author and pastor Max Lucado of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio; Phil Schubert, president of Abilene Christian University; Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Dallas; and Gus Reyes, a board member with National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. That’s three Southern Baptists on Cornyn’s faith team: Graham, Jeffress and Reyes. Cornyn attends a Churches of Christ congregation. Although lesser known nationally, Reyes has a long history with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, where he twice worked with its Christian Life Commission. He also is the brother of Albert Reyes, president of Buckner International, a Dallas-based nonprofit with historical ties to the BGCT. Gus Reyes also works as director of Hispanic Partnerships with Dallas Baptist University, a BGCT-affiliated school. “As our state and nation are in turbulent times, we need leaders who serve with principle, wisdom and integrity,” the Cornyn campaign said in a statement announcing the group. “A key element to principled leadership is who a leader consults when confronting complex problems.”

Karl Rove: Don’t bank on a Texas blue wave

Count on Democrats to be all over any political happening in Texas that casts them in a positive light. Such is the case after last week’s Lone Star State balloting, in which 2.3 million Texans voted in the Democratic primary and 2.2 million in the Republican primary. The “higher turnout on the Democratic side,” the Texas Tribune wrote, “has helped fuel Democrats’ hopes that backlash to President Donald Trump’s policies could propel them to their first statewide win since 1994.” A Southern Methodist University political science professor suggested that while Democrats weren’t “generally” thought to have that “great of a chance to win statewide office,” that may not be true “this time.”

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An NBC News analyst argued “Democrats have matched their hype with real numbers at the polls.” Turning out more of them in the primary than Republicans did “left no doubt that Democrats have the will to win Texas.” Hold your horses. Primary turnout isn’t a reliable predictor of general-election outcomes. In 2020, more Texas Democrats voted than Republicans in the presidential primary, 2.1 million to two million. That fall, Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in the state 52% to 47%, while Republican Sen. John Cornyn was re-elected with 54% of the vote. The rest of the GOP statewide ticket received between 53% and 55% of the vote. In 2008, 2.9 million Texans voted in the Democratic primary, more than double the Republican 1.4 million. Yet that November, Sen. John McCain carried Texas with 56% of the vote compared with Barack Obama’s 44%. Mr. Cornyn won his first re-election, 55% to 43%. In 2004, more than 800,000 Texans participated in the Democratic primary. Fewer than 700,000 came out for the Republican primary. Still, President George W. Bush carried the state, 61% to 38%. The rest of the GOP statewide ticket against Democratic opponents received between 55% and 59%.

Lithium was found deep underground in northeast Texas. Now, there’s a race for who gets it

Inside his office just off Mt. Vernon’s town square, attorney B.F. Hicks lays a map out on his desk. At speed, he points at different tracts of land, reciting who lives there, what size their property is and which companies he’s heard have sent landmen to knock on their door to negotiate lithium leases. What happens in northeast Texas could shape America's energy future. The region has emerged as a key player in the domestic race for lithium — the mineral essential to the batteries in electric vehicles, cellphones, and renewable energy storage — as the U.S. scrambles to secure its own supply. For a few years now, the infiltration of companies into this rural region of Texas searching for lithium – a critical ingredient for storing solar energy and powering electric vehicle batteries – has become a topic of conversation over dinner at the local chophouse or in catching up at the historical society meeting.

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Sometimes, it’s behind closed doors as friends, family and neighbors gossip about who’s getting the best offers for their mineral rights. Being an energy frontier for other parts of Texas isn’t new to residents in Franklin and surrounding counties, as some of their backyards have started to fill with solar panel farms and battery energy storage systems, all fuel powering the “green economy.” But now, they’re learning that deep beneath their feet is salty water that could become a key resource in the United States’ global fight for full energy independence. The Smackover Formation, which broadly sweeps from East Texas to Florida and once gushed with oil, is now being hailed as containing some of the purest lithium brine in the world. Hicks, one of the most vocal local leaders with opposition to industrial-scale solar projects, actually welcomes the potential lithium can bring to the community. The historian and longtime attorney has signed a lithium lease for a portion of his pristine Daphne Prairie; he’s now helping others do the same. He’s hoping to get the best deal for his clients – and perhaps most important, make sure the surface land is as protected and preserved as possible. “I want to call myself an environmentalist,” Hicks said, bringing his freckled hands to his face as he looked down at the map. “But this is going to bring a lot of money into our community.”

Dallas leaders urge passage of 'transformative' school bond package

Dallas school and city leaders say a historic bond on the May 2 ballot can be “transformative” for the district. The $6.2 billion package is the largest bond proposal in Texas history. It would go toward nearly two dozen new buildings, tech and safety upgrades and hundreds of permanent classroom spaces to replace portable classrooms. Speaking at a news conference Thursday, former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, who served from 2011 to 2019, praised improvements he’s seen in Dallas ISD since he was mayor, including a B rating for the district and more than 70% of campuses earning A or B grades. He urged voters to approve this package — to maintain the progress.

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“This world is moving fast in technology, in capital, in how things are done,” Rawlings said. “And we know if you're not getting better faster than the next guy, you're getting worse. It's a competitive world out there. Dallas has got to come to the polls and say ‘this is the easiest vote we've ever made.’" Rawlings was joined by some school board trustees as well as Senior Pastor Richie Butler, with St. Luke Community United Methodist Church and Commit Partnership president Miguel Solis to tout the benefits of the bond package. The May bond election is broken into four propositions. The largest, Prop A, accounts for nearly $6 billion of the $6.2 billion total. It would fund new buildings and renovations, including 26 replacement campuses as well as enough new classroom capacity to eliminate portables districtwide. Officials say the average age of Dallas ISD schools fell to about 43 years, from 52 years, thanks to the 2020 bond approval. If passed, proposition A would further reduce the age of Dallas ISD’s facilities to around 33 years. The national average is 49. Proposition B would fund $145 million for technology upgrades. Proposition C would enable the district to refinance debt at a cost of $143 million. And Proposition D would service swimming pools and natatoriums across Dallas ISD for $26 million. Dallas

Dallas officials feared WFAA-TV might leave downtown

Dallas officials feared WFAA-TV (Channel 8) might leave downtown after the city sought to take the station’s parking lot for the expansion of the nearby convention center, according to internal city emails. Messages from last fall and this year reviewed by The Dallas Morning News show officials worried that losing the parking lot could cause the longtime broadcaster to relocate from its Young Street newsroom, and potentially out of the city. A spokesperson for WFAA did not respond to a phone call or emailed questions this week about the station’s parking plans and whether it will remain at its Young Street location. WFAA general manager Carolyn Mungo could not be immediately reached for comment. The Young Street studios house one of the last major television newsrooms still in downtown Dallas, a presence the city has long viewed as important to the area’s civic and business core.

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In September, city attorneys sued Charter DMN Holdings, owned by developer Ray Washburne, as they aimed to use eminent domain to seize his roughly 36,000 square feet of land around Young and Houston streets for the overhaul of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The parcel included Channel 8’s parking lot. The station was also named as a defendant in the case. The city wrote in its lawsuit that its previous offers to buy the land had been rejected. Washburne had indicated he’d be open to a sale, but told The News the property was tied to an existing ground lease with Channel 8. Amid the legal wrangling, city officials were scrambling to keep the station downtown, according to the emails reviewed by The News. Linda McMahon, CEO of the city-affiliated Economic Development Corp., wrote city officials Sept. 12, saying the eminent domain case “could effectively push WFAA out of the city.” The message was sent to City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert; Tolbert’s chief of staff, Ahmad Goree; and assistant city manager Robin Bentley.

How a culture warrior forced a runoff in the race for Texas oil regulator

Last summer, Republicans across Texas were trying to force Bo French out of a party leadership position after he made disparaging online comments about Muslims and Jews. Now he’s vying to become one of the most important U.S. energy regulators. The longtime GOP activist made it into a primary runoff for a spot on the Railroad Commission of Texas. In May, he will face incumbent Commissioner Jim Wright, who was endorsed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The winner will have a high-profile pulpit to discuss energy policy in an important state — and real authority to oversee polices that affect oil and gas production, emissions and development. The Railroad Commission isn’t focused on cultural issues, but French spent the primary playing up his opposition to Islam and to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. He also vowed to end what he described as Chinese Communist influence in the oil industry and said the commission should create a “pro-family credentialing program for Texas oil and gas producers.”

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“This is a very powerful statewide position, so obviously I’m going to continue talking about the things that our voters care about to help drive the narrative in Texas on these issues,” French said this week in an interview. The Railroad Commission no longer oversees railroads, though efforts to change its name have failed over the years. Instead, it regulates the oil, gas, pipeline and mining industries in Texas, which gives it sway over roughly 40 percent of U.S. oil production and 29 percent of gas production. The three commissioners are elected statewide — often with campaign funding from the companies they oversee — and the job is frequently viewed as a stepping stone to other political offices in Texas. Each seat has a six-year term, with elections staggered. “French’s profile as a candidate aligns with the more militant wing of the MAGA wing of the Texas GOP, and he benefits from the publicity around his more controversial comments,” Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said in an email. Henson said French was “helped by the fact that, despite the importance of the Railroad Commission in governance and the economy, most voters typically don’t pay much attention to the race and tend to know very little about the candidates.”

Manchin rips Cornyn over filibuster shift: ‘Deeply disappointing’

Former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) on Thursday criticized Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) for backing a change to the filibuster rules to pass a GOP-backed voting reform bill. In a lengthy post on the social platform X, Manchin said “there was not another person more committed to keeping the filibuster” than Cornyn during his time in the upper chamber from 2010 until last year. “It’s deeply disappointing to see that Senator Cornyn is now willing to scrap the very rule he once praised and personally thanked me for defending,” the retired lawmaker added. “These extreme election-year politics that put party power over everything else are why Americans are sick and tired of the duopoly of the two-party system of Democrats and Republicans.”

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Cornyn, who is in the middle of a heated GOP runoff race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said Wednesday he supports changing the Senate filibuster rule to advance the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act. Last week, Paxton said he would consider exiting the race if Senate leadership bypassed the filibuster to pass the bill, which proposes requiring Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote. “After careful consideration, I support whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary for us to get the SAVE America Act and homeland security funding past the Democrats’ obstruction, through the Senate, and on the president’s desk for his signature,” Cornyn wrote in an op-ed published by the New York Post. Cornyn noted that the GOP could force Democrats to use a talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, a strategy that would allow the majority to push the legislation through via a simple 51-person majority once the Democrats finish speaking on the floor.

Fort Bend County Judge KP George maintains innocence as money laundering trial begins

Attorneys for Fort Bend County Judge KP George argued during opening statements on Thursday that the criminal case against him is politically motivated. Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued why the embattled public official should be convicted on felony charges of money laundering. "Why are you going through all of his campaign records looking for a crime?" George's attorney, Jared Woodfill, told the jury seated in the 458th District Court in Richmond. The Fort Bend County judge was arrested on two counts of money laundering last year. Prosecutors allege he used more than $46,000 in campaign funds to make a down payment on a house and to pay his property taxes.

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If convicted of the third-degree felony, George would be removed from office and could face up to 10 years in prison, with fines up to $10,000. George is already on his way out as the top elected official for a diverse, fast-growing county southwest of Houston. The county judge was first elected as a Democrat in 2018 and reelected in 2022. Following his indictment, George switched parties and joined the GOP this summer, but failed to secure the Republican nomination for his seat in last week’s primary election. George received 8.4% of the vote to place last in a five-candidate race. George's attorneys characterized their client as a "gentleman" from "a small, little village" in southeast India who eventually sought the American dream and went on to serve as a public official in his community.

Elon Musk's Boring Company names Dallas development finalist for mile-long tunnel project

A major development in Southern Dallas has been named one of 16 finalists in a nationwide competition hosted by Elon Musk's Boring Company in which the winner will have a mile-long tunnel built within its infrastructure for free. University Hills, a 280-acre, $1 billion mixed-use project by developer Hoque Global, was named on of the contest's finalists after being one of 487 entities to submit a proposal for the tunnel. According to a statement released by the City of Dallas, the proposed tunnel would connect the neighborhood to the University of North Texas Dallas DART Station nearby.

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The competition, known as the “Tunnel Vision Challenge,” was announced in January by The Boring Company, the tunneling enterprise founded by Elon Musk. It encouraged companies to pitch tunnel concepts up to one mile long and 12 feet in diameter that would demonstrate innovative transportation or infrastructure solutions. The Boring Company is expected to announce the winning proposal on Monday, March 23. The selected winner will see its project constructed at no cost to the host city, per the contest's rules. University Hills is being designed as a walkable, urban neighborhood featuring 580 homes, phased mixed-use construction and a town center. Homebuilding is expected to begin in early 2027. The project has drawn both momentum and scrutiny in recent months. Dallas officials gathered in May for a ceremonial groundbreaking after the city committed nearly $35 million in economic incentives to its construction. City Manager Kimberly Tolbert has indicated that additional support could follow, saying “so much more is needed.” Still, some city council members have raised concerns about the project’s execution and past delays in meeting city deadlines. Council Member Adam Bazaldua questioned whether the city should continue incentivizing developers who fail to meet progress benchmarks, while Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins, whose district includes the site, defended the project as key to Southern Dallas’ long-term growth. Hoque Global is also behind Newpark, a separate mixed-use development planned for downtown Dallas near City Hall, which is backed by roughly $100 million in pledged city subsidies.

Sen. John Cornyn ad invokes Ten Commandments to blast AG Ken Paxton

Sen. John Cornyn is turning the Ten Commandments into a campaign weapon. In his first TV ad in the GOP runoff against Attorney General Ken Paxton, Cornyn’s campaign invokes scripture and church imagery to accuse his rival of violating the core moral rules of Christianity. The ad, released Wednesday, opens with a narrator asking what a burner phone, an expensive pen and a cash machine have in common. “They are symbols of Ken Paxton’s depravity,” the narrator says. “Paxton used the burner phone and an alias to hide his affair from the mother of his children. Now his wife’s divorcing him on biblical grounds.”

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As images of church pews and a cross appear on screen, a separate, deep voice intones a commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” The narrator then cites an incident from more than a decade ago in which Paxton picked up a $1,000 pen left at a security checkpoint by another lawyer. Paxton returned the pen after law enforcement identified him through security footage. At the time, a Paxton aide described the incident as a misunderstanding. But the ad’s narrator calls it theft. The church scene returns and the same deep voice declares: “Thou shalt not steal.” The narrator also says Paxton’s net worth has shot up while in office and cites allegations he listed multiple properties as his principal residence to secure lower mortgage rates. “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” the deep voice says. The TV spot marks a further escalation in an already bruising runoff that has become the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history. The Paxton campaign did not respond to an email requesting comment on the ad. He previously has denied allegations of wrongdoing in his personal life and public career. Paxton was impeached by the Republican-led Texas House before the state Senate acquitted him. The Cornyn ad closes with the narrator warning “Judgment Day” comes for everyone eventually and that Paxton now faces Texas voters. The deep voice chimes in with a final commandment: “Defeat the crook.”

New legal network aims to help families navigate CPS investigates

Across Texas, fewer than 1 in 4 child abuse and neglect investigations conducted in fiscal year 2025 by Child Protective Services result in findings of abuse or neglect, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees CPS. With more than 136,000 cases reported statewide in FY 2025, legal advocates say thousands of Texas families face intrusive DFPS investigations each year — often triggered by conditions tied to poverty rather than abuse. But even when investigations ultimately find no abuse or neglect, families can still face high-stakes decisions during the investigation period when CPS first knocks on their door. The average CPS investigation lasts 45 days, according to DFPS. During that time, parents may be asked to remove children from their homes, allow investigators inside or share private records — often without fully understanding their legal rights or speaking with a lawyer.

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A new statewide legal initiative launched earlier this month aims to change that. The Family Early Defense Network, funded through a $14 million grant from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, is designed to connect low-income families with attorneys at the earliest stages of a child welfare investigation — often before a case ever reaches court. Under Texas Family Code, courts must appoint an attorney for parents when the state files a case seeking to terminate parental rights or obtain custody — known legally as conservatorship of a child. But because most investigations never reach that point, Leila Blatt, an attorney and special project director for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid — the lead partner in the network — said many families must make decisions with long-term consequences early in the process, often without legal guidance. “CPS often uniformly uses safety plans and so folks are agreeing to have their kids away from them for a month, and perhaps having to renew that safety plan for several months without ever speaking to a lawyer,” Blatt said. “ Some of those decisions can have lasting effects for who ultimately cares for those kids and have consequences on who has the ability to get support to get a court order for a child when a parent otherwise is going about their life wanting to do the caretaking. “

Ballots cast by Dallas County Democrats during extended voting hours March 3 won’t count

Nearly 2,000 ballots cast by Dallas County Democrats who got in line after voting hours were extended on March 3 due to mass confusion at the polls will not be counted in final primary results after the county party dropped its litigation of the matter. District Judge Staci Williams granted the party’s request on election day to extend voting by two hours — to 9 p.m. — after hundreds of voters were rerouted amid the precinct-based system forced by the Republican Party. The Texas Supreme Court blocked the extension that evening after the office of Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a petition challenging the decision.

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This week the county Dallas County Democratic Party declined to challenge the matter further, stating “the Texas Supreme Court is no longer a viable forum for seeking a fair and independent application of the law regarding this issue.” There were 1,756 provisional ballots cast by Democrats who got in line after 7 p.m. that will not be included in final results, according to elections department spokesperson Nic Solorzano. No race appears to have a margin small enough to be affected, according to unofficial results. Democratic Party Chair Kardal Coleman said in a statement the group will continue organizing and supporting voter protection efforts to overcome roadblocks he said were placed by the GOP. “The Texas GOP has held a thirty year stranglehold on this state — and in that time they have weaponized Texas law to disenfranchise millions of Texans — because they know if every eligible voter has access to the polls, they lose,” Coleman said. “Continuing to pursue this case in a hostile forum would incur massive legal costs, resources that are better spent on the ground protecting our voters.” Last year, the Dallas County Republican Party decided to hold a separate March 3 primary from Democrats and revert to precinct-based voting on election day. It was a change from the countywide voting system in place since 2019 that allowed residents to cast a ballot at any vote center regardless of their address. Because county officials control early voting in Texas, the universal system remained in place for that 10-day period.

National Stories

4 killed in crash of U.S. refueling plane in Iraq, military says

Four of six crew members died after a U.S. military KC-135 refueling aircraft that was part of the American war against Iran crashed in neighboring Iraq, United States Central Command said on Friday. In a statement, it said that rescue efforts were continuing and that the circumstances of the crash were under investigation, but added that “the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.” The deaths brought the number of U.S. service members killed in operations related to the Iran conflict to at least 11. Central Command did not immediately identify the four crew members who were killed, pending notification to their families. It said on Thursday that an incident involving two aircraft had “occurred in friendly airspace,” and one aircraft went down, while the other landed safely.

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The last American tanker crash occurred in 2013. In that incident, a K-135, taking part in refueling missions over Afghanistan, crashed soon after departure from the Manas airport in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan. Three airmen died in the incident. The KC-135s are among the most heavily used aircraft in the Air Force’s arsenal, and among its oldest airframes. The planes are used to refuel all kinds of aircraft to include fighter jets, surveillance planes and cargo aircraft. A U.S. official said that the other plane involved in the collision was also a KC-135, which landed safely. Air-to-air refueling missions are performed regularly by Air Force pilots and mishaps are rare. But the maneuver is still challenging, especially in bad weather or high winds. Investigators suspect a midair collision may have caused the crash, but details are still murky, Air Force officials said. The inquiry is still going on along with a search and rescue effort to locate the downed crew.

Violent attacks at Michigan synagogue and Virginia university rattle sense of safety in American communities

A pair of attacks over 700 miles apart on Thursday struck at the heart of community safe havens, leaving shocked Americans with an uneasy sense of security. First, a deadly shooting being investigated as terrorism devastated a Virginia university in a military town. Hours later, a targeted vehicle-ramming attack on a Michigan synagogue left congregants shaken to their core. The shooting at Virginia’s Old Dominion University was committed by a veteran who was a convicted ISIS supporter. The attacker was able to kill one person and injure two others before a classroom of ROTC students subdued and killed him, the FBI said.

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Then, a vehicle rammed into the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township in an attack the FBI said targeted the Jewish community, carried out by a US citizen who was born in Lebanon, the Department of Homeland Security said. The synagogue had been on high alert for potential violence in the weeks before the building became engulfed in flames after the suspect drove through it with a rifle and a large number of explosives, officials said. Though the motive in the attack is still unknown, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said there is a clear “nexus” between the Iran war and the attack, adding it’s no coincidence the suspect targeted a synagogue named Temple Israel. The attacks are among four acts of violence that have rattled Americans’ collective consciousness in recent weeks. The two attacks on Thursday came just days after two terror suspects were accused of tossing makeshift bombs at a protest outside the New York City mayor’s home Saturday in what authorities have described as an ISIS-inspired attack Less than two weeks earlier in Austin, Texas, a shooter wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the Iranian flag killed three people and injured over a dozen others in the city’s bustling entertainment district. Though the motive is still under investigation, authorities are investigating whether the shooter was inspired in part by US and Israeli strikes on Iran that weekend, multiple law enforcement officials briefed on the case said.

The most popular MAGA influencer you've never heard of is an AI foot fetish model

Do you know who Jessica Foster is? Neither did I until last week, which is surprising because (1) she has amassed 1 million followers on Instagram after starting her account just a few months ago, (2) she is a U.S. Army soldier with a look as wholesome and American as apple pie, and (3) she is a huge Trump supporter. With that trifecta, you could assume she would be a star on Fox News, Newsmax, or The Joe Rogan Experience. But no, she is nowhere to be found on those platforms—or any major U.S. media outlet, for that matter. And that’s because she is a computer-generated mirage designed by an anonymous operator to funnel conservative men toward an OnlyFans page where “she” sells foot fetish pics.

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I came across Foster while reading the Spanish sports media, which covered the AI character after her account posted fake images of her attending a White House reception for the MLS championship-winning Inter Miami soccer team, alongside Donald Trump and Lionel Messi. (She also has appeared in the Oval Office alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.) The stunt triggered a massive wave of coverage across sports outlets in “fútbol”-obsessed Spain and Latin America, which then expanded to TV, other online publications, and national newspapers with huge readerships like 20 Minutos. The Instagram profile @jessicaa.foster went live on December 14, 2025. In just three months, the account has more than a million followers. The recipe for this success was fairly simple: The puppet master behind the screen pumped out a constant stream of content around this fictitious, Trump-loving female soldier and built an entire digital lore by letting followers peek into her daily life. We see Jessica posing in army bunks, frolicking with female soldiers, shoeless at the office, and behind an F-22 Raptor fighter jet. The feed is packed with high-resolution, completely forged photos of her posing with Trump and politicians like Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy; in one, she’s speaking at the Board of Peace Conference—Donald Trump’s international body created to mediate the Gaza conflict. She even invaded Greenland, because of course, all it takes to conquer a country is a Colgate smile.

Much of the government’s technology isn’t accessible, internal report finds

Nearly 30 years after Congress put accessibility requirements for government technology into law, much of the federal government’s technology still isn’t fully meeting accessibility standards. Less than 40% of the government’s most-viewed public webpages are fully accessible, according to a new report by the General Services Administration. Overall, the federal government’s technology, including internal webpages, hardware, software, videos and electronic documents, scores only a 1.96 average across a 5-point scale, although accessibility varies widely across agencies. The congressionally-mandated report is focused on how agencies are doing in their implementation of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires government tech to be accessible for people with disabilities — over 70 million Americans.

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Fewer than half of the government’s most-viewed technologies are fully accessible. Inside the government, funding constraints, staffing shortages and workforce turnover are all decreasing the capacity to improve accessibility, the GSA report states. Over 386,800 federal employees left the federal government last year, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. The report is based on responses from 60 agencies, although not all submitted data for each section of the report. Forty-three agencies didn’t respond to GSA’s ask at all, and more than half of responding agencies cited resource limitations, according to GSA. Approximately half of agencies reported that they do not routinely test their technology for accessibility. Usability testing with people who have disabilities is “rare,” the report says, as is mandatory digital accessibility training for relevant employees. Despite overall low ratings, some agencies scored very well on their technology’s accessibility. The Social Security Administration, for example, reported that 100% of its top-viewed tech conforms with accessibility guidance.

The Republican who wants to banish his own constituents

The Islamic Center of Columbia, Tennessee—a small city about 45 miles south of Nashville—had been around for only a few years when white supremacists burned it down. On a Saturday in early 2008, three young men went to the mosque armed with spray paint and Molotov cocktails. According to a federal indictment, they first defaced the exterior walls with swastikas and phrases including White Power. Then they broke into the building and set it aflame. “Everything on the inside was charred,” a former member of the Islamic Center told me. “The roof had come down, and they had to demolish the building afterwards.” The mosque, which had a few dozen members, had been the first in Columbia and was, for a time, the only Muslim house of worship between Nashville and Huntsville, Alabama. After the fire, its leaders bought an empty church building nearby and converted it into a new mosque, though they initially kept their plans for the space a secret to avoid a community backlash.

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The former member who related this to me asked that I not publish his name, because nearly two decades later, the Muslim community in middle Tennessee is again on edge. The membership of the rebuilt Islamic Center of Columbia is smaller but still active. Its mosque sits less than a mile from the district office of the area’s U.S. House member, Andy Ogles. But Representative Ogles, a Republican in his second term, doesn’t seem to want Muslims to reside in his district. And he doesn’t want them anywhere else in the country, for that matter. “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” Ogles posted on X on Monday. “Pluralism is a lie.” Ogles is a Trump loyalist who has proposed amending the Constitution to allow the president a third term. Ogles has long denigrated Muslims; he’s pushed for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (who was born in Uganda and with whom Trump has lately been chummy) to be denaturalized and deported, and just last week, he called for a ban on immigration from several majority-Muslim countries. His comments on Monday were more sweeping, and a more direct attack on America’s constitutional values. They also imply an outright rejection of thousands of Ogles’s own constituents. Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District includes parts of Nashville and several counties to the south. For 20 years, its House representative was a centrist Democrat, Jim Cooper, who had welcomed a Muslim community in Nashville that grew over the years to more than 40,000 people. It comprises significant Kurdish and Somali populations that arrived as a result of refugee-resettlement programs, as well as a sizable number of Palestinians. In Columbia, as in other parts of the region, Muslim physicians who had been recruited to the area because of a need for more doctors brought along their families.

How The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found itself in the battle over Big Tech

On Nov. 5, in a harshly lit conference room at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ main administrative hub in Salt Lake City, Elder Gerrit Gong delivered an impassioned speech about the future of AI. “Man can create AI, but AI cannot create God,” he told the assembled audience. Gong was speaking at a conference put together by Organized Intelligence, an initiative not directly associated with the church but one that advances Latter-day Saint perspectives on AI, namely that these tools are safe, properly regulated and don’t impede or replace users’ relationship with morality or God. Gong, who is one of the 12 Apostles of the church, has spent much of the last year thinking and speaking about this rapidly evolving technology.

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A former State Department official and Oxford-trained Rhodes Scholar, he is able to discuss AI at a technical level or a more abstracted one. And he is the public face of a concerted Latter-day Saint effort to begin to take seriously the risks associated with AI development. Over the course of two days at the Organized Intelligence conference, Latter-day Saint leaders weren’t the only ones taking the stage. The speakers included officials from the Future of Life Institute, which works to reduce existential risk from advanced AI, historians from around the country and the executive director of Utah’s Department of Commerce. As quickly became apparent, there is a fast-growing collection of people and interests in Utah who are deeply focused on the future of AI. Top officials in the state have also shown no hesitation when it comes to going up against the agenda of Big Tech — or the industry’s allies in the Trump administration.

Senate passes bipartisan housing bill targeting large investors and easing regulations

The Senate has passed the largest housing bill in decades — bipartisan legislation designed to improve housing affordability and availability through deregulation, expanding old programs and banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes, with few exceptions. The bill passed 89 to 10. "It's Democrats. It's Republicans. It's pieces they built out together," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a co-sponsor of the bill, in an interview with NPR. "That is the strength of this bill." "It's not a Republican issue or a Democrat Issue," said Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the bill's other sponsor, speaking in advance of the vote on the Senate floor. "It's an issue about helping moms like the one who raised me, the amazing woman that she was, become homeowners."

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Many of the bill's provisions are meant to boost the United States' housing supply. The typical home sold in the U.S. — priced around $400,000 — is well above what the median family can afford. The housing shortage is responsible for much of that cost, since limited supply increases prices. One estimate from Realtor.com puts the shortfall between available units and demand at 4 million. "If we want to bring down the cost of housing, we've got to build a lot more," said Warren. "And what I love about this bill is that it has more than 40 different provisions in it, all of which aim in the same direction, which is to give a push toward building more housing." Much of the bill mirrors one passed by the House last month, with 84% of the provisions from the latter making their way into the Senate version. The major difference between the two bills is the Senate's introduction of a ban that would prevent any investor that owns at least 350 homes from buying more.

Copyright March 14, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved