April 27, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas leads U.S. in business bankruptcies as filings keep rising amid economic pressures

Texas is continuing to lead the nation in the number of businesses filing bankruptcy, new data show, with one of every six U.S. cases being filed in the state. The Texas business bankruptcy boom comes as the number of filings across the nation is topping pre-pandemic levels, an extension of a trend that began in 2022. The increases are tied to economic pressures including persistent inflation, the impact of tariffs and rising interest rates and consumer debt. Those factors pushed to 591,000 the number of individuals and businesses across the U.S. filing bankruptcy in the 12 months through March 31, a jump of 11.9% from the same period a year ago. Bankruptcy filings in the January-March period were up nearly 1% from the previous quarter, according to a new report from the Federal Courts of the United States.

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Texas continues to be the leader in raw numbers of filings, followed by California and Florida. One of every 15 bankruptcy filings of all types was in Texas, with more than 40,000. The state’s business filings also continue to grow quarter over quarter, rising 1.5% in the latest three-month period. San Antonio-based Goodman Home Solutions joined 4,500 other businesses entering bankruptcy in the first quarter. The appliance repair provider was one of the last to file in the surveyed time period. The company asked the court to allow it to liquidate its assets in Chapter 7 bankruptcy and close down. Goodman Home Solutions owes more than $2 million to secured creditors, according to its filing. It estimates it has over $200,000 in assets and cash. As a result, there is little likelihood of repayment for unsecured lenders, to which it owes $6 million. More than half of the 25,960 businesses that entered bankruptcy in the first quarter filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. The rest filed for Chapter 11 to reorganize debts and continue operating.

Accused correspondents’ dinner attacker is a tutor from California

The California man arrested in the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer opposed to the policies of President Donald Trump. Authorities say Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was taken into custody at the dinner Saturday night in Washington that was attended by Trump and top members of his administration. A social media profile for a man with the same name and a photo that appears to match that of the suspect show he worked part-time for the last six years at a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students. In a message sent to family members minutes before the attack, the 31-year-old the described himself as “Friendly Federal Assassin” and railed against recent actions taken by the U.S. government under Trump, though he did not name the Republican president directly, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.

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The writings ran more than a thousand words and read as a rambling, deeply personal message, opening almost jarringly with a casual “hello everybody!” before shifting into apologies to family members, co-workers, fellow travelers and even strangers he feared could be caught in the violence. The note moved between confession, grievance and farewell, with Allen thanking people in his life even as he sought to explain the attack. Elsewhere, the document veered between political anger, religious justifications and rebuttals to imagined critics, at times reading as if he were arguing with detractors in real time. Authorities said Allen will face charges including using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer, as well as other potential counts. A search of state and federal court databases showed no indication Allen had ever previously been charged with a crime. He signed the document using a moniker that matches social media accounts that have since been taken offline. A defunct account using the same name on the platform Bluesky reposted others who offered commentary critical of Trump as well as members of the media who attend the annual black-tie dinner.

The new Democratic machine — and the billionaires behind it

The scandal was minimal, a blip in a Democratic primary race in New York’s Hudson Valley. But the incident was an early sign of a powerful new political machine playing an unprecedented role in Democratic primaries. The problem emerged in February. Jackie Rosa, a political communications strategist, had been fielding press questions for Cait Conley, a combat veteran vying for New York’s 17th congressional district, as though she were a campaign spokesperson. But when controversy erupted after Rosa circulated a memo bashing Conley’s opponent as a “far left political operative,” the strategist claimed she’d mounted the attack on behalf of an outside group, not the campaign. However, Rosa’s email sign-off listed an affiliation with a different political group — and her email address was tied to yet another organization, a shadowy Delaware consultancy. Four separate entities, all tied to a single strategist, seemingly collaborated on messaging against a candidate, even though campaign finance law theoretically limits close coordination between campaigns and outside spending vehicles. What exactly was going on?

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All of the organizations, it turns out, belonged to a new dark-money-backed enterprise of unparalleled scale and complexity. The influence network brands itself as boosting Democrats’ electoral prospects ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. But the project’s true ambitions go much further. Born from the ashes of the party’s 2024 defeat, this new operation has taken inspiration from Democrats’ free-market neoliberal turn after stinging defeats in the 1980s and 1990s and infused it with the deregulatory zeal of the abundance movement. Funded by Silicon Valley billionaires with skin in the game, the network is exploiting the country’s increasingly threadbare campaign finance laws to elect a new generation of leaders on board with bringing the party back to the “moderate” middle. The machine operates as two big-name new organizations, Majority Democrats and the Bench, both tied to a single venture capitalist-turned-secretive Democratic adviser. Under this umbrella, the influence network is dispersing millions through a sophisticated nesting doll of political action campaigns (PACs), nonprofits, consultancies, and LLCs, while sharing the same big-money donors, political consultants, and often the same policy proposals. The convoluted arrangements are sowing confusion on the campaign trail about the roles various campaign operatives play and who pays them. The ambiguity may be the point. Political influence networks backed by super PACs — which have no limits on the money they can collect from billionaire donors — have become widespread. But the many-tentacled network of Majority Democrats, the Bench, and their affiliates appears to be intervening in campaigns’ day-to-day operations to an unprecedented degree.

Iran offers to end chokehold on Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to the war, officials say

Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear program would come in a later phase, two regional officials said Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28. With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store the oil.

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The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas. The closure has also had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods. The proposal would push off negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons. The two officials, who had knowledge of the proposal, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. The Axios news outlet first reported Iran’s proposal. It came as Iran’s foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It’s unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.

State Stories

Texas school districts face costly legal battles with attorney general’s office

In September, Austin Independent School District settled a months-long legal battle with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The office accused the district of teaching Critical Race Theory — an allegation the district has steadfastly denied. Legal fees KXAN obtained show the litigation cost the district more than $22,000 — all while the district was fighting to lower a growing budget deficit and considering school closures. Not even a year after resolving that lawsuit, the attorney general notified the district it received a complaint from an AISD parent concerned the district was allowing a trans student to use the girls’ bathroom at Austin High School — and that it would face a $5,000 a day penalty and a lawsuit if it did not resolve the alleged violation of the Women’s Privacy Act.

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The district responded to the letter weeks later telling the attorney general it was aware of the complaint and laid out how it came into compliance with the new law, including speaking to the impacted family and student. In the last two years, records show public school districts across Texas have spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting lawsuits that Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office has filed against them. The catalyst for the legal action ranges from allegations of electioneering to claims that school districts violated the state law requiring them to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Candidates vying to become the next attorney general have differing opinions on the impact and necessity of the legal actions against financially-strapped public school districts. Legal battles between districts and the state are not unusual, including districts taking the state to court over issues like funding, according to University of Texas School of Law Adjunct Professor Scott Schneider. More than 120 school districts joined a lawsuit in 2023 against Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to block the release of A-F school ratings over anticipated changes to how the scores would be calculated.

In fight for the U.S. House majority, Democrats target two uphill San Antonio-area races

In the fight for control of the U.S. House this fall, Democrats are targeting two San Antonio-area districts that are considered quite red. Texas’ 35th Congressional District was bright blue before Republicans redrew it this summer to create a GOP pickup opportunity on San Antonio’s Southeast side. Now it’s a new seat that would have supported President Donald Trump by more than 10 percentage points under its new boundaries and neither party will know who their nominee for November is until after the May 26 primary runoffs. Another surprising opportunity, Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, hasn’t been on Democrats’ target map since redistricting added Republican voters after the 2020 Census.

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It supported Trump by nearly 15 percentage points in 2024, but U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) just resigned from the seat, and Democrats are feeling optimistic about their chances against the new Republican nominee Brandon Herrera. The 30-year-old gun content creator’s social media posts range from entertaining to shocking, and Democrats hope they can capitalize on it in a November race against child welfare attorney Katy Padilla Stout. “Brandon Herrera’s nomination is a gift to Democrats and a full-blown crisis for Republican leadership,” said Katarina Flicker, a spokeswoman for the pro-Democrat House Majority PAC. “His candidacy puts TX-23 firmly on the House battlefield.” Nationwide, Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats to upend a narrow GOP House majority. But they believe a wave election could be coming, and are now spending in quite a few races so uphill that party leaders typically wouldn’t include them in a target list like House Majority PAC is doing. The pro-Democrat PAC currently has 48 congressional targets nationwide, including districts in Alaska, Montana, Florida and Tennessee that Trump carried by more than 10 percentage points. They’re also on offense in Texas’ 15th Congressional District, where incumbent Republican Monica De La Cruz (R-Edinburg) is up against Democrat Bobby Pulido, the famous Tejano signer. De La Cruz’s district supported Trump by nearly 18 percentage points under its new boundaries.

Merged UT San Antonio rises in the ranks of top research institutions, becomes third largest in state

Less than a year since the University of Texas at San Antonio and UT Health San Antonio became one institution — UT San Antonio — the university ranked among the top 2.3% of U.S. institutions to receive National Institutes of Health funding. Despite receiving nearly $6 million less in NIH funding in 2025 than UTSA and UT Health received in 2024 separately, UT San Antonio managed to move up in the national rankings. The overall NIH funding awarded to UT San Antonio in 2025 totaled $147,098,904. “UT San Antonio’s improved ranking in 2025 reflects the continued strength and growing recognition of its research enterprise,” said Jennifer Sharpe Potter, UT San Antonio’s senior executive vice president for research and innovation. “This includes highly specialized and mission-driven work in fields that are critically important to the health needs of our region, Texas and the nation”

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On Sept. 1, 2025, when the merger became official, UT San Antonio became the third largest public research university in Texas. The long-awaited merger promised to better-position the university as a stronger candidate for research dollars, but under the Trump Administration the availability of federal research grants and funds changed quickly, and thousands of dollars in research funds were frozen or terminated. The NIH’s 2025 funding decision placed the university at No. 64 among the 2,702 institutions ranked by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research in its first appearance as a merged institution. When UTSA and UT Health were ranked independently last year, UT Health led the way, ranking No. 69 nationally with $139,286,059 in NIH funding, while UTSA ranked No. 275 with $13,579,839. The Blue Ridge Institute is an independent nonprofit organization that uses NIH funding for its annual rankings. Dr. Francisco Cigarroa, UT San Antonio’s senior executive vice president for health affairs and health system, called the ranking a landmark moment for the newly merged institution and a sign of its faculty’s strength.

TX35 hopeful Carlos De La Cruz scores fundraiser with RFK Jr.

One of the most visible members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet is headed to San Antonio to raise money for Republican congressional candidate Carlos De La Cruz. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, and went on to draw major attention for his controversial views on vaccines and other medical issues, which at times put him at odds with fellow Republicans. On Friday, the Republican Party of Bexar County promoted a May 2 fundraising event with Kennedy in San Antonio, though the exact location was not disclosed in the invitation. Kennedy is expected to give remarks at the general reception, according to the invitation.

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His visit comes on the heels of another unusual visit from a high-ranking White House official, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who was in San Antonio earlier this month. De La Cruz, the congressional candidate, is in the midst of a tough GOP primary runoff on San Antonio’s Southeast Side. The new 35th Congressional District district is ground zero in the Trump administration’s effort to squeeze more Republican lawmakers out of Texas in 2026. But the conservative Texas Legislature drew it for one of their own, state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), who they believed would give the party their best chance at winning it in November. At the eleventh-hour, Trump and House GOP leaders endorsed De La Cruz, who finished a close second behind Lujan in the March primary. Now the two must face off in a May 26 primary runoff, where Democrats are also still deciding the nominee for this race. De La Cruz is the brother of U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Edinburg), and his connections in D.C. have been paying off big in his race with Lujan. “It’s an honor to have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in our corner and here in Texas — another sign of the momentum we’re building with President Trump’s endorsement,” De La Cruz said in a statement Friday. ” … I look forward to working with him in Washington to ensure America’s children and families are stronger and healthier.”

EF-2 tornado confirmed in Runaway Bay after Texas storms kill 2, displace families

Two tornadoes — an EF-2 in the Runaway Bay area in Wise County and an EF-1 near Springtown in Parker County — have been confirmed from Saturday night’s severe storms in North Texas, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. An NWS survey team determined the tornado that touched down in Runaway Bay had peak winds of 135 mph. Damage in the Springtown area was caused by another tornado with speeds up to 105 mph. In Runaway Bay, the tornado killed one person, injured six and displaced more than 25 families from damaged homes, according to Wise County Judge J.D. Clark.

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Roads blocked by downed power lines, trees and other debris were restricting access to several damaged structures, and first responders were coordinating with utility providers to clear those hazards, Clark said Sunday morning. Runaway Bay is on the south side of Lake Bridgeport, about 50 miles northwest of Fort Worth. Aerial photos showed roofs and walls torn off many homes in the area. Speaking to the Wise County community at a press conference Sunday morning, Clark said, “Situations like last night are challenging. They’re tough. It was a tough night, and it is understandable that emotions are running high. From the heart of our county government, all our community partners here that are working together, please know this: Wise County takes care of Wise County, and we are going to stand strong and we’re going to stand together.”

New ‘drought-proof’ desalination plant planned on South Padre Island

On Thursday, officials from Cameron and Hidalgo counties together with representatives of US Desalination LLC and IDE Technologies hailed a partnership between the latter two companies that will see the construction of a $1 billion desalination plant on South Padre Island. The companies formed RGV-Desal LLC, described in a news release as a joint venture to design, develop and finance the plant with private funds. The plant is planned to produce around 50 million gallons per day using seawater from the Gulf of Mexico, and will be designed to serve the entire Rio Grande Valley. A rendering on the RGV-Desal website, however, shows the facility being capable of producing 100 MGD.

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Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said there are also opportunities for growth as the Valley’s population and need for resources grow as well. “Today, we received an update from RGV Desal on their desalination project in Cameron County,” Treviño said via Facebook on Thursday. “Planned for South Padre Island, the facility is expected to produce over 50 million gallons of water per day, with the potential to expand capacity in the future. “With our proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, Cameron County is uniquely positioned to play a key role in securing long-term regional water sustainability and supporting residential, recreational, and commercial water needs as the RGV is projected to grow in coming decades.” Like Treviño, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said via Facebook that he, too, was invited to speak at an event Thursday where an update was provided on the project.

Accreditor mum as Texas politicians take curricular control

In recent months, two of the biggest Texas public university systems—Texas A&M and Texas Tech Universities—passed comprehensive restrictions on how faculty can teach about gender, sexuality and race. Faculty at both institutions, as well as free speech advocates nationwide, have decried the new policies as gross violations of academic freedom. But those seeking to fight against the state-mandated changes can’t turn to the federal government for help—leaders at both institutions have cited federal rules and executive orders as justification for their decisions. And as of now, the accreditor overseeing the Texas institutions doesn’t appear likely to step in. Accreditors are tasked with ensuring that universities maintain fiduciary responsibility, good student outcomes, academic quality and effective governance.

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To earn their stamp of approval—which is required for an institution’s students to be eligible for federal financial aid—universities must adhere to the accreditor’s standards. Both Texas A&M and Texas Tech are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which requires that faculty must have primary responsibility for the “content, quality and effectiveness” of the curriculum. These new policies, handed down by systems’ governor-appointed boards, appear to violate that standard, experts say. But SACS hasn’t taken any action in response. The association has no current sanctions or open investigations into Texas A&M or Texas Tech, said Stephen Pruitt, president of the association. He also said the accreditor hasn’t received any complaints about either university, including from faculty. Both institutions are in good standing—Texas Tech’s accreditation was renewed in 2025 for another 10 years. The higher education watchdog is limited in its ability to respond to the curricular policies because it cannot require its member institutions to adhere to a standard that would force them to violate state law or policy, Pruitt said. “We have always made it a practice that we don’t hold institutions accountable when there’s a state law that may [contradict] our standards,” he said. “At the end of the day, states rule the day.” The presidents of both Texas Tech’s and Texas A&M’s American Association of University Professors chapters said they are considering filing complaints in the coming months. If they do submit a complaint, SACS would be required to investigate it, said Antoinette Flores, director of higher education accountability and quality at New America, a left-leaning think tank. That said, she’s not optimistic that a faculty complaint would yield any action from the accreditor.

Kathryn Guerra: AI data centers are moving fast in Texas. Environmental regulators are falling behind

(Kathryn Guerra is the TCEQ Watchdog Campaign director for Public Citizen.) Artificial intelligence data center development is rapidly expanding in Texas, but so too are concerns about whether the state’s environmental agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, can effectively regulate the industry. Texas will soon lead the nation in the number of data centers, with Dallas-Fort Worth as the epicenter of resource-intensive operations. State leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, are touting the economic benefit of massive AI data centers, while handing over billions in tax breaks to tech industry giants in recent years. If you’re one of the many Texans concerned about Big Tech’s rapid expansion, the TCEQ’s most recent performance metrics may give you reason to wonder if it is up to the job.

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TCEQ issues the permits that AI data centers need to operate gas-powered turbines and diesel generators and to discharge wastewater from cooling operations. Issuing permits isn’t a problem for the state regulator, which handed out 9,000 new permits last year, according to the agency’s own reporting. But one of TCEQ’s primary functions – and struggles – is conducting on-site compliance inspections. In 2025, the agency conducted the fewest on-site inspections in eight years, including years when the pandemic made in-person investigations challenging. Each year, it performs fewer total inspections. In 2025, there were 3,600 fewer inspections than in 2024 and 5,200 fewer than in 2023, based on annual enforcement reports. The agency also lagged in response to reported environmental concerns, another core function, which typically comes after significant delays, if at all. In 2025, the agency received 9,200 complaints. More than 2,000 of those came from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the most of any region. TCEQ responded to just 300 of those complaints in 24 hours. More than half of the complaints took 30 days or longer for an initial response.

Paratransit riders push to save DART ahead of withdrawal elections

In a video posted to her YouTube channel, Francis Zalace makes the trek from a grocery store in Dallas to the First Unitarian Church in University Park. Along the way, she finds an obstacle. “Oh no! What is this? There’s no sidewalk," she says in the video. "Whatever shall I do?" Zalace is a quad-amputee after a medical event two years ago. She lost her arms and legs and uses a wheelchair. She filmed the video to show people the challenges of getting around the area in a motorized wheelchair without public transit. In the video, it takes her about an hour to get to her church, which she attends sometimes several times a week. Zalace told KERA she would feel isolated without DART's paratransit services helping her to get to church and other activities.

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“I'm very limited on the type of vehicles that can transport me, but all of DART vehicles are equipped to be handicap accessible for my needs," she said. Zalace is one of thousands of paratransit riders who rely on DART’s services daily. The system recorded more than 700,000 paratransit rides last year alone. After May 2, three North Texas cities —Addison, Highland Park and University Park — could lose those services, including bus, rail and paratransit. That's when voters will decide whether to stay in DART, or withdraw from the system entirely. The elections could have a regional impact for paratransit riders across North Texas. “It is really important for people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities to use DART, paratransit, for the future,” said Ian Rawn, who lives in Plano and has Down syndrome. He said without those services, he couldn’t be independent or hold a job. “I would stay home, have my parents drive me everywhere,” he said. That potential loss of service is what prompted Kevin Wright to begin raising awareness of the need for DART. He lives in Irving and has cerebral palsy, autism, and limited vision. It was his first time getting involved in any kind of local activism. “I emailed my mayor and city council twice and ... then I went to the meeting so I feel very good about that," Wright said. "Hopefully the other three cities, the voters will make the right choice."

Texas Supreme Court tosses suit over state probe into families with transgender children

The Texas Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit over the state's investigations into families with transgender children because most of the investigations were closed and the children are no longer minors. In a ruling Friday, the state’s highest civil court ruled that because the Department of Family and Protective Services isn’t actively investigating the families, they no longer face the alleged threats they outlined in their 2022 lawsuits against the agency. The plaintiffs argued against dismissing the case, suggesting DFPS could choose to reopen its investigations without the injunction. But the Texas Supreme Court dismissed those concerns over future investigations as too speculative.

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In a joint statement from Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and PFLAG — organizations that helped represent the plaintiffs in court — the groups said the high court's ruling is "purely procedural" and doesn't mean DFPS' rule requiring the investigations is lawful. "DFPS argued to the Court that, given that gender affirming medical care is no longer lawfully provided to minors in Texas, there is no reason for DFPS to conduct future investigations," the statement said. "We will hold them to that." A spokesperson for the governor's office referred KERA News to DFPS. DFPS declined to comment. KERA News reached out to the attorney general's office and plaintiffs' attorneys for comment and will update this story with any responses.

New study lays out environmental costs of adding toll lanes to MoPac through South Austin

A new government review of the proposed MoPac South project lays out the most detailed picture yet of what the long-debated highway expansion would touch. And it's not just affecting MoPac. The agency leading the project, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), has issued a draft environmental assessment showing how construction would reach into public spaces including Zilker Park, how water quality could be affected and where noise walls could go. Previous rounds of public feedback offered broader outlines of the proposal. Now, the public can read a 224-page draft environmental assessment, along with a stack of technical studies, spelling out the costs of the project and what CTRMA says drivers would gain in return. The draft environmental assessment is open to public comment until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 3.

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Opponents say the new documents reveal why the current level of review still doesn't go far enough. They argue the studies show the project is large and complicated enough to deserve a full environmental impact statement (EIS), which is a more rigorous review than the environmental assessment now on the table. At the center of the plan is a new set of toll lanes with prices that rise or fall based on demand, just like the existing toll lanes on MoPac North of Lady Bird Lake. MoPac South would extend those lanes south to Slaughter Lane. For most of the 8.77-mile project, CTRMA would add two toll lanes in each direction. Those would narrow to one toll lane each way toward the north and south ends. The project would also add flyover ramps near Barton Skyway and Bee Caves Road, so drivers on the frontage roads could reach the toll lanes in the middle of the highway. Another set of ramps farther south would connect the toll lanes to the U.S. 290 interchange.

City Stories

Lammes Candies set to close shop after 141 years in business

The iconic Lammes Candies logo will disappear in the foreseeable future. The local chain is shutting down completely soon after operating under the same family for 141 years. A sign on Lammes Candies’ Round Rock store gave customers the news, which started to spread widely on social media over the weekend. The Round Rock store closed on April 24. The flagship location at 5330 Airport Blvd. will remain “a bit longer,” though a timeline for when it will shutter was not displayed. The Airport Boulevard location did not have signage indicating when it will shutter. The Austin icon — incorporated as Lammes Candies Since 1885 Inc. — is known for its Texas Chewie Pecan Praline, giant chocolate-covered strawberries and other treats. It stated on the sign at its Round Rock store that changing market conditions and long-term sustainability were reasons for its decision.

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National Stories

California’s billionaire tax has the signatures to make the ballot, backers say

Backers of the proposed California billionaire tax believe they have gathered enough signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot, according to people familiar with the campaign, likely kicking off a bruising battle over the initiative. More than 1.5 million people have signed a petition to get the one-time, 5% wealth tax on statewide ballots in November, the people said. County election officials must tally the signatures, verify them, and send them to California’s secretary of state before the measure can appear on the ballot. The people familiar with the campaign said they expect that will be more than enough to clear the required 875,000-signature threshold, even after accounting for illegible or invalid signatures. The tax was proposed by the Service Employees International United Healthcare Workers West, which represents more than 120,000 healthcare workers, to offset cuts to healthcare funding in President Trump’s signature tax-and-spending law last year.

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“When our growing coalition files these signatures, David will have won the first round against Goliath,” Suzanne Jimenez, spokeswoman for the Billionaire Tax Now coalition, said in a statement Sunday. If passed, the tax would apply to the assets of individuals who resided in California as of Jan. 1 this year and who have net worths of $1 billion or more at the end of this year. SEIU-UHW says around 200 people meet those criteria. The proposal still faces several hurdles before taking effect. The campaign needs to submit the signatures by early May to ensure election officials have enough time to tally them and certify the initiative for November ballots. The proposal needs approval from a majority of California voters to pass. Attack ads are likely to paint the proposed tax as a long-term fiscal disaster for California, which relies heavily on its wealthiest residents’ income taxes to fill state coffers. The proposal also could face competing ballot initiatives as well as legal challenges to what several economists describe as a first-of-its-kind tax in the modern U.S. California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the tax, and has warned it could spark an exodus of the wealthy. Other billionaires have lambasted it as having a stifling effect on innovation or said they’d exited the Golden State in December.

Inflation is sucking the life out of teacher pay raises, report says

The average salary for a public school teacher in the U.S. rose to $74,495 in the last school year, up 3.5% from the year before. But adjusted for inflation, today's teachers are estimated to be earning less, not more, than they were in 2017. That's according to a new review of school-related data from the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest teachers union with 3 million members. The annual release includes the latest data — collected directly from state departments of education – on teacher and support staff salaries, student enrollment and even how much money schools are getting from federal, state and local sources. Here are some of the most interesting findings:

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$74,495 — The national average public school teacher salaryAccording to this new data, roughly 3.2 million teachers worked in U.S. public schools during the last school year, and, on average, they earned around $74,500 — not including benefits. The report breaks down teacher salaries by state and region, too. At the top of the rankings for 2024-25 are California ($103,552), New York ($98,655) and Washington ($96,589) while Mississippi ($54,975), Florida ($56,663) and Louisiana ($56,785) round out the low end. These data come with an important caveat, though: They have not been adjusted for differences in the cost of living, which can vary greatly from ZIP code to ZIP code and could reasonably account for at least some of the gap in salaries. NEA researchers used state department of education projections — or, when necessary, arrived at their own projections — to estimate teacher salary averages for 2026, then compared those estimates to salaries from 2017. At first glance, pay appears to have risen across the decade (in current dollars). But after adjusting for inflation, the researchers estimate that teachers' real earnings have actually declined by nearly 5%.

GOP senators losing confidence in Hegseth amid Pentagon turmoil

A growing group of Senate Republicans are losing confidence in Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s leadership of the Defense Department and some GOP lawmakers would like to see him “move on,” though they say it’s President Trump’s call. Senate Republicans who spoke to The Hill on the condition of anonymity say Hegseth wouldn’t be confirmed to head the Pentagon if he were renominated by Trump today and they say senior staff turmoil at the Defense Department under Hegseth’s leadership is a major concern. Republican defense hawks in the Senate aren’t happy about media reports that Hegseth pushed popular Army Chief of Staff Randy George to resign in early April, and they were surprised and disappointed to hear that Hegseth fired John Phelan this past week. One Republican senator who requested anonymity said there have long been questions within the Senate GOP conference over Hegseth’s lack of experience managing a large and complex bureaucracy, as well as leeriness about his unconventional and often brash leadership style.

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The lawmaker, however, said confidence in Hegseth has dropped among Republicans because of his battles with senior military leaders who have strong relations with policymakers on Capitol Hill. “The hollowing out of incredible leadership at the Pentagon has been a big concern,” said the senator. “It really came to a tipping point when Gen. George was dismissed.” Hegseth’s feud with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is another source of irritation for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who hold Driscoll — a longtime friend and aide to Vice President Vance — in high esteem. “I think he’s missing the mark on personnel. He has separated some of the most extraordinary generals that we’ve had in play. I don’t quite know what’s going on there,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) of Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon, expressing his concern about the sudden departure of senior military leadership. Tillis, who cast a pivotal vote for Hegseth during his Senate confirmation last year, questioned whether Hegseth has the management skills to run an organization as large and complex as the U.S. military. He noted that Hegseth, who served as an infantry officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard, had experience managing “30 or 40 people” before taking over the Pentagon.

Trump officials hire ‘deportation judges’ with less training, experience

A divorce lawyer who has vowed to “fight exclusively for the rights of men.” A Minnesota attorney who championed Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration’s raids in Minneapolis. And a judge who was once lambasted by an appeals court for denying humanitarian protection to a Serbian man because he didn’t look “overtly gay.” All three are among the “deportation judges” recently hired as part of President Donald Trump’s quest to clear a massive case backlog and fulfill his goal of deporting 1 million immigrants each year. The hiring spree follows the Justice Department’s firings of more than 100 immigration judges since Trump took office, an unprecedented purge, and a similar number have retired or resigned. More than 140 new judges have been appointed so far to replace them, many of whom have no stated experience practicing immigration law and, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges, are receiving less training than previously offered.

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Former judges who were fired say they fear Trump is forcing out judges who rule against the government and replacing them with loyalists and others being pressured to help carry out a single goal: Deport immigrants. “They’re trying to create a malleable workforce that will do what they want without question,” said Kerry Doyle, a former ICE official who was hired to serve as an immigration judge in Massachusetts under President Joe Biden and then fired last year before she could begin hearing cases. “That’s what I think the goal is.” The firings come as the Trump administration is simultaneously implementing policies that make it more difficult for immigrants to prevail in court. Under new orders from the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, judges have been refusing to grant bond hearings and are dismissing cases at the government’s request so that defendants can be arrested. They are also being advised to grant asylum more sparingly. Asylum rejections doubled from 2024 to 2025. The recruits are being offered signing bonuses, the opportunity to work from home, and even the flexibility to keep their day jobs and moonlight as judges after hours. New hires can earn up to $207,500 a year and 25 percent signing bonuses in some Democrat led-states such as California.

Ingenious? Orwellian? Or both? Supreme Court considers constitutionality of 'geofence' warrants

The Supreme Court hears arguments Monday about a relatively new law enforcement technique that allows police to tap into giant tech-firm databases to find out who was near the scene of a crime and may have been involved. Essentially the question before the high court is whether that technique is ingenious, Orwellian, or both? And, ultimately, is it constitutional? The technique is called geofencing, and it allows the government to draw a virtual fence around a geographic area where a crime was committed. After that, the government seeks a warrant, not to search a home or office, but to require a tech company to search its data to identify any of its millions of users who were within the geofence line at the time of the crime.

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The geofencing in this case relied on a Google feature called 'location history.' Every two minutes, on average, the location feature recorded where you were by using multiple information sources to pinpoint and record the location of every person with an active cell phone. In other words, if you were within the geofence, and your phone was not turned off, Google could tell quite precisely where you were at any moment of the day or night. Although Google has modified some of its geofencing policies, at the time this case began in 2019, about one-third of all Google users — some 500 million people — voluntarily opted into using the service, which also stored the users' information in Google's cloud, and could be accessed by law enforcement under a Google policy that required a warrant. "This was a little bit of an investigative lottery ticket when they had no other way of finding a suspect," says Stanford law professor Orin Kerr, who has written extensively about searches. The focal point of Monday's case is the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches of people, their homes, papers, and effects, unless police obtain a warrant issued by a neutral magistrate, and aimed at obtaining specific evidence of a crime.

Trump rips ‘disgraceful’ Norah O’Donnell for reading WHCA shooting suspect’s manifesto

President Trump on Sunday criticized CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell for reading the reported manifesto of the suspected gunman at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, calling the veteran reporter a “disgrace.” “I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump told O’Donnell in a “60 Minutes” interview taped Sunday afternoon, later calling her “disgraceful.” Trump appeared on Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes” to discuss Saturday’s shooting at the annual WHCA dinner. Shortly after the dinner began, a heavily armed man ran through security at the Washington Hilton, where he exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officials before being apprehended. Trump, Cabinet members, lawmakers and other high-profile White House officials were evacuated from the ballroom, and the dinner was ultimately canceled.

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Multiple media reports have identified the suspected gunman as Cole Allen of Torrance, Calif. CBS News and other outlets reported Sunday that Allen wrote a manifesto stating he intended to target administration officials. A White House official confirmed to The Hill that the suspect did write such a manifesto. O’Donnell on Sunday began reading a portion of the reported manifesto to Trump, saying, “The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it. He writes this quote, ‘Administration officials, they are targets.’ And he also wrote this, ‘I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.'” “Yeah, he did write that. I’m — I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody,” Trump said. “I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all — stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated,” he said, later calling the CBS News senior correspondent “disgraceful.” “You know, he’s a sick person,” Trump continued. “But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.” “You shouldn’t be reading that on ’60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace,” he added. “But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview.”

Copyright April 27, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved