April 24, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Big Bend National Park could see vehicle barriers, patrol roads under latest changes to border wall plans

The Trump administration is once again planning to install physical border barriers within Big Big National Park in West Texas, according to an updated map of "Smart Wall" projects that now shows plans for a "vehicle barrier system" and "patrol roads" in the park. The change appeared on a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website sometime Tuesday, and came just weeks after CBP backed away from plans for border barriers in the national park in favor of a "detection technology" only project. A CBP spokesperson did not immediately comment on the change. It was first noticed by anti-wall advocates who are closely monitoring the agency's border wall projects map.

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"As we've warned – the map can and will change with no public notice, no Congressional approval, no nothing," Laiken Jordahl, an advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in a post on X noting the updated map. It's not clear whether the vehicle barriers would be temporary or permanent. As of Wednesday morning, the CBP map showed a new plan for 17 miles of "vehicle border barriers" along different segments of the Rio Grande within the national park. The map shows the vehicle barriers would go up at a river access point near Lajitas on the park's western boundary and near the remote Mariscal Canyon area within the park, among other locations. The updated map also shows CBP is now planning to build vehicle barriers along the border across southeastern Brewster County and through Terrell County to the Del Rio area. Some stretches of the project would be built a few miles north of federally protected portions of the Rio Grande. In addition to the vehicle barriers, CBP on Tuesday added plans for "patrol roads" across the southern portions of Big Bend National Park and neighboring Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Republicans are worried the redistricting fight is backfiring

Republicans are increasingly worried that a battle President Trump started last summer to redraw congressional district lines has backfired and may hand more seats to Democrats. At best, some Republicans say, the effort will produce only a small gain in the number of GOP House seats instead of the firewall the party was hoping to build to stave off defeat in the midterm elections. Some in the party said on Wednesday that Trump and his aides had miscalculated by pressing Texas last year to undertake an unusual, mid-decade effort to draw new House district lines to the GOP’s advantage, which prompted several Democratic-leaning states to redraw their own maps in response. And some questioned why Trump’s political machine didn’t spend more resources on Tuesday’s election in Virginia, given the narrow outcome.

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Voters in Virginia on Tuesday passed one of the nation’s most aggressive gerrymanders that, should it survive court challenges, would put Democrats in position to win 10 of the state’s 11 House seats and leave the party with a slight overall advantage in the nationwide redistricting war, which so far has yielded new House maps in seven states. A redistricting approved by California voters last November could add up to five Democratic seats. “We should have anticipated and played three or four moves ahead. We should have known that there was going to be a response to Texas,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.), who is retiring after this year. He added: “We’ll pay for it in November.” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat who championed the new districts in the state, said: “People are fed up with this administration, especially in Virginia. Trump is historically unpopular there.” He said the vote reflected “the desire to even the playing field.” The chess match isn’t over, and it is impossible at this point to predict exactly how many seats will change hands. The battle turns next to Florida, which is slated to take up a redistricting plan next week that could add Republican seats. Louisiana and potentially other GOP-leaning states could also draw new maps if given the green light under a Supreme Court case regarding racial considerations in redistricting, for which a ruling is expected by the end of June. But the state of the redistricting battle, as of now, has left many in the GOP frustrated.

State Stories

Talarico hopes to bolster Black support after defeating Crockett

Sheniqua Jones hoped her March 3 vote would help make history, sending U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett to the Senate as the first Black woman nominee from Texas. When state Rep. James Talarico won instead, it left many of Crockett’s Black supporters wrestling with disappointment, even as they look toward November. “As a Black woman, it feels like voters think we can’t run the country,” Jones said. “We are needed in today’s world and one day we’ll win these races, if we are allowed.” Now Jones, 40, a mother and small business owner, said she’s willing to give Talarico a chance, but only if he connects with what matters most to voters like her. “He has to speak to the issues that we care about,” she said. “That’s how to get more people on his side.”

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That’s the case Talarico now has to make. To win in November, he must maximize Democratic turnout in a state where Republicans still hold the advantage, starting with Black voters, the party’s most reliable base. That may not come easily. Talarico’s victory over Crockett left hard feelings among many of her backers in North Texas and beyond. In the primary, some of Talarico’s supporters said Crockett’s combative style wouldn’t work statewide, clashing with Democrats who saw her as the kind of fighter needed to take on President Donald Trump. At the Dallas County Democratic Party Convention last month, Talarico struck a conciliatory tone. “To the congresswoman’s supporters, I know I wasn’t your first choice, but I hope to earn your trust and earn your support,” he said. Party leaders say words alone won’t be enough.

Dallas billionaire, U.S. Senator feud over The Greenbrier Resort

The billionaire Dallas family who owns the Omni hotel chain and a sitting U.S. senator have fired the opening salvos in a contentious legal feud over the fate of West Virginia’s “crown jewel” — the landmark Greenbrier Resort. Robert and Blake Rowling, the father-son duo who lead Omni Hotels’ parent company TRT Holdings, purchased the first lien debt on assets, including the resort, for nearly $290 million. They’ve asked a federal court to take control of the resort away from Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., who has owned it since 2009. Facing a request to turn over property, the Justice family is fighting back. They’ve filed a lawsuit in a West Virginia court, accusing the Rowlings and others of conspiring to seize the historic resort by “unlawful and deceptive means.”

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The parties met at The Greenbrier earlier this month, but they reached no agreement regarding Justice’s debt. The deadlock sets the stage for legal proceedings, and the issues may not be resolved for years. A federal judge will hear evidence May 11 to determine if the Justice family must turn over the 11,000-acre luxury property to a third party, or hold off until a state court rules on Justice’s lawsuit. Attempts to contact representatives for the Justice family were not returned before publication. “I don’t foresee a partnership coming together after the way the first meeting went,” Blake Rowling told The Dallas Morning News in a recent interview. “It was not fruitful. …We bought a piece of debt. If we get paid off, we’re no longer a lender, which is fine. But at this point, they’re in breach of the forbearance agreement. We’re moving forward with the rights we have.”

Kalshi fines Texas congressional candidate for betting on his own race

A Republican congressional candidate in Texas placed a bet on the May 3 primary on an online prediction market platform. Ezekiel Enriquez came in 10th place, and now faces a more than $700 fine. Kalshi, a federally regulated exchange service that lets users wager on the outcome of real-world events, said in a public filing with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that the Congressional District 21 hopeful risked "less than $100 worth of contracts related to his own candidacy" during the run up to the primary. Under its guidelines, no one who has a stake or "any influence, directly or indirectly," in the outcome may enter into a trade.

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The filing said Enriquez cooperated with the company's disciplinary panel and agreed to pay a $748.20 fine. He may not use the platform for five years. Enriquez, a Marine Corps veteran who sought to align himself with the policies of President Donald Trump during his campaign, did not dispute Kalshi's account of the matter, but declined to comment further. He was one of three candidates nationwide named by Kalshi who had placed wagers on their own races. Former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixera won the Distrct 21 Republican primary and will face Democrat Kristin Hook, a biological scientist, in November. The Republican-leaning district touches nine counties across the Texas Hill Country, including Bexar and Hays, and covers Fredericksburg and Kerrville. In San Antonio, it includes Castle Hills, Alamo Heights and Terrell Heights, and a small portion of South Austin in Travis County.

National Stories

Trump’s dreams for a battleship led to his Navy Secretary’s ouster

President Trump wanted one thing, more than anything else, from his secretary of the Navy, John Phelan: a new class of battleships. “They’ll be the fastest, the biggest and by far — 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Mr. Trump boasted at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate and resort in Florida a few days before Christmas. Mr. Phelan, a billionaire investor who has a home near the club, stood next to the president as he made the announcement. Mr. Phelan’s job was to deliver the first of Mr. Trump’s battleships by 2028. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump fired Mr. Phelan, who had struggled to come up with a plan to deliver the ships on the nearly impossible timeline that Mr. Trump has demanded, senior defense and administration officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

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Mr. Phelan is the first service secretary to be forced from the Defense Department during this administration, though he is far from the only senior Pentagon official to be dismissed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or sidelined more than two dozen generals and admirals over the past year, including the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, earlier this month. Mr. Hegseth has also butted heads with the secretary of the Army, Daniel P. Driscoll, over promotions and a host of other issues. The churn of senior Pentagon officials at a time when the U.S. military is engaged in war with Iran has alarmed top Republican and Democratic members of Congress. The Pentagon did not respond to questions regarding the circumstances surrounding Mr. Phelan’s dismissal. Mr. Phelan could not immediately be reached for comment. The breaking point for Mr. Phelan, who often said that he and Mr. Trump texted and talked on the phone regularly, came in the last two weeks as the president’s frustration over Mr. Phelan’s management of his prized battleship program grew and Mr. Phelan’s enemies in the Pentagon, including Mr. Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen A. Feinberg, mounted a campaign to force him out.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are learning to love AI

Sen. Angus King was in the middle of a hearing this week with U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright when he pulled out his phone to consult with Claude, an artificial intelligence chatbot that has surged in popularity in the United States recently. King wanted details about wind and solar energy capacity before he pressed Wright on the Trump administration’s decision to cancel renewable energy projects around the country, and Claude, built by the company Anthropic, instantly delivered. “You have to be careful with it, particularly when it’s talking about analysis. But for data, it’s very useful,” the independent senator, who caucuses with Democrats, told NOTUS. “I use it all the time.” King isn’t the only AI-curious member on Capitol Hill, though at age 82, he’s certainly one of the oldest.

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Many Democrats are warming to AI in a personal and professional capacity despite deep concerns in their party about its impact on job security, the environment, human relationships and society writ large. Progressive critics of the industry, for example, have called for major regulations cracking down on AI and gone on the attack against construction of massive energy-hogging data centers used to power it. In interviews on Capitol Hill this week, over a dozen Democratic senators described how they are actively experimenting with AI chatbots, most commonly Claude, in their daily lives and for help with official duties. Some rely on them in a casual way, using AI as a souped-up search engine to do research, draft memos and speeches, organize their schedule, and even plan their family vacations. Others have relied on AI for more complicated tasks. Sen. Adam Schiff used it to draft a living trust for him and his wife. Sen. Brian Schatz used it to analyze the many nonprofit grant funding requests he reviews as part of his job on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Sen. Mark Kelly went so far as to use Claude to try to build his own stand-alone applications, which is perhaps not that surprising for a former astronaut.

U.S. soldier involved in Maduro raid accused of betting on the operation

A U.S. special forces soldier who participated in the U.S. raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arrested and charged for using classified information to bet on the ouster via the prediction market company Polymarket. The Department of Justice announced Thursday that Gannon Ken Van Dyke faces several charges for using insider information gleaned from his participation in “Operation Absolute Resolve.” These charges include unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

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“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the announcement. “Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.” Prosecutors alleged that Van Dyke used information about the operation to make timely bets on Polymarket that netted him upwards of $400,000 — specifically that Maduro would lose power by the end of January. Maduro was captured on Jan. 3. The DOJ announcement alleges that Van Dyke tried to cover his tracks by sending most of his earnings to a foreign cryptocurrency account before depositing it into a newly created online brokerage. He also tried to delete his PolyMarket page by claiming he lost access to his email account.

The for-profit education company scooping up millions of welfare dollars

John Alvendia’s for-profit education company seemed to have flopped in West Virginia. The four public school districts that were testing his Star Academy program, which promises to turn around the performance of struggling middle-school students, had stopped using it. One school reported worsening behavior and less improvement in English and math for Star Academy students than for other kids. That didn’t stop West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey from sending more business to Alvendia, who earlier had donated nearly $42,000 to his campaign and affiliated political committees. In January, the Republican governor announced plans to tap the state’s unspent funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare program, called TANF, to expand Star Academy. The deal would pay Alvendia’s New Orleans-based company, NOLA Education, as much as $16 million to put the program in 16 other schools.

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Elected officials from both parties have steered millions of taxpayer dollars to no-bid contracts for the Star Academy program in several states, records show. Some school districts and state officials have expressed misgivings about the program’s cost and effectiveness. Wall Street Journal interviews with local officials and an examination of school performance data show Alvendia and his company have overstated its results in some of those places, including claims it freed an Arkansas school district from state oversight and boosted a Chicago area school’s graduation rate by 65 percentage points. NOLA Education said since 2018 it has operated in more than 150 sites, which typically pay $1 million for the program. It is one of many for-profit companies that have carved out businesses vowing to help turn around troubled public schools, often by tapping public money. “We’ve got a lot of kids out there that are in very high-poverty areas with no hope,” Alvendia said in an interview. “And we’re bringing hope to these kids.” He said his company’s own data on the schools where Star Academy operates shows his program works.

Copyright April 24, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved