February 8, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Democrats confront the party’s questionnaire-industrial complex

A group of moderate Democrats is kicking off the midterm season by targeting one of the mightiest, if least-known, forces in their party: the interest group questionnaire-industrial complex. Rohan Patel and Seth London, who oversee Majority Democrats — a group of young Democrats that have won competitive races — want their candidates to know they shouldn’t feel obliged to complete the often-expansive advocacy group forms. They’re also telling these organizations’ donors to think twice about contributing and urging the groups to heal thyselves by overhauling or mothballing the documents, which are typically used to determine endorsements. “These questionnaires, and more broadly the interest groups, are hurting our chances of winning,” Patel told me. “They all have their own niche questionnaires, some of which are so broad as to be almost absurd, 20 to 30 pages of questions that don’t always have anything to do with their actual issue focus.”

click here for more

While long a staple of campaigns up and down the ballot, and a bane for many a candidate and staffer, the liberal litmus tests are little-known by the broader voting public. That began to change, though, in 2024 when Kamala Harris was hammered by Republicans for saying she supported taxpayer-funded trans surgery for prisoners. Harris made that pledge in the 2020 campaign, and it stemmed from an ACLU candidate questionnaire she filled out, in which she vowed to use executive authority to ensure transgender people, including those in prisons or immigration detention, would be granted “comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition.” It was, Patel said of the ACLU form, “one of about 20 questions that were absolutely deranged.” Harris has been blistered for her answer, but what about the groups asking the questions in the first place, he asked. Trans surgery for prisoners was no aberration. As Patel and London will post on a site they’re calling “The Questionable,” other groups have asked candidates to commit to federally mandated 32-hour workweeks, halting the expansion of all fossil fuel projects and signing broadly-worded pledges on criminal justice that Republicans happily portray as defunding the police.

Following Talarico appearance, FCC launching probe into ABC's 'The View' amid crackdown on equal time for candidates

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is launching an investigation into ABC's "The View" amid the agency's crackdown on equal time for political candidates, Fox News Digital has learned. Last month, the FCC announced it will require the broadcast networks to adhere to the "statutory equal opportunities requirement," citing the Communications Act of 1934, "including their airing of late-night and daytime talk shows." A source at the FCC told Fox News Digital that Monday's "View" appearance by Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico triggered the probe. Talarico was among the first political candidates to appear on "The View" since the FCC announced its crackdown.

click here for more

There has been a longstanding "bona fide" exception for news programming that wouldn't require equal time for an opposing candidate, but the FCC now says it "has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late-night or daytime television talk show program on the air presently would qualify for the 'bona fide' news exemption." ABC's parent company, Disney, never made an equal-time filing to the FCC regarding Talarico's recent appearance, which would implicitly indicate to the FCC that Disney believes "The View" is bona fide news and would be exempt from the policy, the source said. The equal opportunity requirement applies to all legally filed candidates on a ballot regardless of political party, meaning all eligible Democratic primary candidates would require equal time. Notably, Talarico received roughly nine minutes of airtime in one segment while his top primary rival, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, had roughly 17 minutes of airtime across three segments during her appearance on "The View" last month. Crockett's appearance came before the FCC announced its policy enforcement.

Texas’ troubled election software and new congressional maps delay voter registration cards

Texas' unusual mid-decade redistricting and problems with the state's new voter registration system have delayed the mailing of voter registration certificates, the documents that give voters information about their polling place and their assigned districts, state and local officials say. Under state law, the certificates should have been issued by Dec. 6, though there's no penalty for a late mailing. With early voting for the March 3 primaries set to begin Feb. 17, the delay has confused some voters who were expecting to have received the certificates by now, and multiple election officials said they have been fielding calls and questions about the missing certificates for weeks. The certificates are small postcards that counties send to registered voters every two years, listing the voter's local voting precinct, their congressional, state Senate and House districts, county precincts, and city and school districts.

click here for more

Voters don't need the cards to vote, but election officials say the cards can serve as an additional form of ID and help voters identify their new congressional or legislative district if it has changed. They also help election officials conduct voter list maintenance: When a card is returned as undeliverable, it signals that the voter may have moved. Most of the state's 254 counties rely on the Secretary of State's free election and voter registration management system, called TEAM, to produce the certificates. Local election officials have for months complained that they are struggling with the system, which was overhauled in July, and several election officials said that is contributing to the delay. State election officials said they also didn't anticipate the system needing to handle the unexpected midcycle redistricting lawmakers undertook last year, and the redrawn boundaries are creating additional complications. Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State's Office, said the state is still working with "several counties" to upload redistricting data, including Harris and Tarrant counties, which could not begin the process until they completed special runoff elections Jan. 31. The system has lagged in producing reports containing large amounts of data and images that county officials need to print the certificates. Those reports are reviewed by both state and local election administrators to ensure voters' information, including street addresses, cities, precincts, and districts, is accurate.

Washington Post publisher Will Lewis abruptly steps down, days after massive layoffs gut the newspaper

The Washington Post’s publisher and CEO Will Lewis has abruptly stepped down, just days after the newspaper laid off one-third of its staff, including at least 300 journalists in the newsroom. Post journalists, who believed Lewis had failed to turn around the publication’s fortunes, openly celebrated the news. “After two years of transformation at The Washington Post, now is the right time for me to step aside,” Lewis wrote Saturday in a brief note to staff. “I want to thank Jeff Bezos for his support and leadership throughout my tenure as CEO and Publisher. The institution could not have a better owner.”

click here for more

“During my tenure, difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news to millions of customers each day,” Lewis’ note concluded. The Post said that CFO Jeff D’Onofrio, the former CEO of Tumblr who joined the Post in June, will take over as acting publisher and CEO, “effective immediately.” D’Onofrio wrote in a Saturday memo to staff that he is “honored to take the helm as acting Publisher and CEO to lead us into a sustainable, successful future with the strength of our journalism as our north star.” “The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” Bezos, the paper’s owner, said in a statement — his first since the layoffs. “Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”

Republicans rarely criticize Trump in his second term. A racist post briefly changed that

President Donald Trump received rare blowback from Republican lawmakers over a video posted to social media that included a racist image of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, depicted as primates. Since Trump’s return to the White House, Republican lawmakers have treaded carefully when disagreeing with the president, often communicating their concerns in private for fear of suffering his wrath. But the swift calls to remove the post, which also echoed false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, represented a rare moment of bipartisan backlash to Trump’s actions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Multiple GOP members of the Senate and House joined their Democratic colleagues in voicing disgust and criticism at the post and urged the president to remove it. Trump declined to apologize, saying he did not see the racist portion of the video when he passed it on to staff.

click here for more

South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the only Black Republican senator and chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, criticized the image and urged the president to remove it. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Scott wrote on social media. Other Republican senators echoed the sentiment. “Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this,” Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, wrote on social media. “The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.” Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called the image “appalling.” Roger Wicker, the senior senator from Mississippi, denounced it as “totally unacceptable.” “The president should take it down and apologize,” Wicker wrote. Sen. John Curtis of Utah called Trump’s post “blatantly racist and inexcusable. It should never have been posted or left published for so long.” In the House, Rep. Mike Lawler of New York called Trump’s post “wrong and incredibly offensive—whether intentional or a mistake—and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered.” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a frequent Trump critic, quipped on social media about the White House’s shifting explanations for the video’s origin and deletion.

State Stories

Austin officials correct campaign donation cap after providing incorrect information

Individual donors to Austin City Council candidates may contribute up to $500 per election, not $450 as previously stated by city officials, a city spokesperson confirmed. The clarification follows recent reporting that raised questions about whether Council Member Paige Ellis had accepted campaign contributions exceeding the city’s individual contribution limit. At the time, both Ellis and the city told the American-Statesman the limit was $450. City spokesperson Jenny LaCoste-Caputo also provided a statement on Jan. 29 that suggested Ellis’ contributions could be a violation of city rules, saying that if a finance report listed an amount "above $450 with only one name, that would be an issue for the city’s Ethics Review Commission to review."

click here for more

The next day, the American-Statesman noticed the city’s elections webpage had been updated with a higher individual donation cap of $500. Asked about the change, LaCoste-Caputo confirmed that officials had provided incorrect information and that $500 is the current limit. Another city spokesperson, Jessica King, said city communications officials mistakenly provided outdated information because the staff who were familiar with the current limit were at a court hearing in a lawsuit related to an effort to thwart the ongoing convention center expansion. However, those staff confirmed the $450 limit to the Statesman, which was present at the hearing.. King added that the webpage updates to reflect the actual limit were not related to the Statesman’s reporting. Ellis said via text message Friday that she was unaware of the new contribution limit. “I had not heard it changed,” she wrote.

Texas National Guard silences troops posted at ICE facility near S.A.

In advance of a planned visit by members of Congress, Texas National Guard troops stationed in an ICE facility in South Texas have been ordered not to answer questions from elected officials or the media about their activities. The San Antonio Express-News viewed an image of the written order from the Texas Military Department, which oversees the National Guard. The order bars guard personnel from speaking publicly about their mission in support of ICE and says “all media inquiries, Congressional inquiries and internal inquiries regarding this operation” must be referred to the guard’s public affairs office. It also instructs guard members to avoid “speculation or discussion of the mission with unauthorized individuals.” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from San Antonio, is scheduled to visit the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall on Friday, along with Rep. Maxine Dexter, an Oregon Democrat. The facility is in Frio County, 55 miles southwest of San Antonio.

click here for more

Asked about the order silencing the guard troops, Castro said he suspected it came down after the Express-News, quoting the congressman, reported on Wednesday that Texas guard members in civilian clothes were “embedded” in ICE facilities to support the Trump administration's campaign to detain and deport immigrants. Responding to inquiries from the paper, the guard and Gov. Greg Abbott’s office confirmed Castro’s assertion in general terms but provided few details, saying only that troops were performing administrative and logistical functions. Castro said Thursday that he wants to talk to guard soldiers at the Pearsall facility about what they are doing there. In a letter to Todd M. Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Castro asked for "the opportunity to speak directly with the Texas National Guard personnel currently stationed or performing duties within the facility.

Comal County Judge Sherman Krause dies at home

Comal County Judge Sherman Krause, a long-serving leader who presided over the county for more than 15 years, passed away early Saturday morning at his home. The Comal County Public Information Office announced his death in a statement, describing the county family as "devastated" by the loss. "Judge Krause was more than a leader," the statement read. "He was a colleague, a mentor, and a friend to many." Krause first took office on Jan. 1, 2011. Throughout his tenure, he was regarded as a "steady presence" through various periods of both challenge and progress within the community. He had announced his retirement back in December. County officials have asked the public to keep the Krause family in their prayers during this time. Details regarding memorial services or a successor have not yet been released, though officials noted that additional information will be shared as it becomes available. Krause was a New Braunfels native. He graduated from Texas State University.

click here for more

Redrawn TX-35 sets stage for high-stakes Democratic primary

For more than a decade, Texas’ 35th Congressional District was easy to describe. It ran like a political spine between Austin and San Antonio, linking two liberal urban centers through a corridor of heavily Latino and working-class neighborhoods. It reliably sent a Democrat to Washington. In 2026, the district barely resembles that version of itself. After Republican lawmakers unveiled new congressional maps in 2025, TX-35 was carved away from Austin almost entirely and reshaped into a district anchored in Southeast Bexar County and extending through Guadalupe, Wilson, and Karnes counties, along with smaller portions of surrounding rural areas. Analysts now rate the seat as Republican-leaning, a dramatic shift for a district that had long been considered safely blue. The map’s political impact has been matched by legal chaos.

click here for more

In November, a three-judge federal panel in El Paso blocked Texas from using the 2025 congressional map for the 2026 cycle, finding that the new lines amounted to unlawful racial gerrymandering and ordering the state to use its 2021 map instead. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly appealed, and in early December, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Texas a stay, effectively allowing the new map to be used while the case continues, leaving campaigns and election officials to plan around a district map that remains under active litigation. Nowhere is that shift more evident than in TX-35. Under previous maps, TX-35 consistently elected Democrats by comfortable margins, powered largely by voters in East and South Austin and central San Antonio. That coalition sent progressive Democrat Greg Casar to Congress in 2022. Casar no longer lives in the newly drawn district and is now running in Texas’ 37th Congressional District, a newly configured Austin-based seat that remains solidly Democratic, which Rep. Lloyd Doggett currently holds. Casar’s departure leaves TX-35 open for the first time in years and strips the district of its most visible progressive anchor. Under the new lines, TX-35 is rated R+4 by the Cook Political Report, meaning Republicans hold a four-point structural advantage based on past election results and partisan composition. That shift has transformed what was once a safe Democratic seat into a battleground and given Republicans their best chance in years to flip it.

Austin ISD updates protest protocols for staff, campus police as walkouts continue

The Austin Independent School District is updating its protocols for how campus police officers will monitor student walkouts. The district is just one of several across Central Texas that have seen an increase in walkouts over the past two weeks, as students protest immigration enforcement actions taken by the Trump administration. AISD’s response to the protests has received scrutiny from Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, both of whom have launched investigations into how the district responded. In a letter to parents Friday evening, Superintendent Matias Segura said AISD will implement new protest protocols beginning Monday. If walkouts remain on campus and are within 300 feet of a school building, the students will be monitored by administrators and AISD police officers.

click here for more

If the protest moves more than 300 feet away from the building, administrators and staff will stay on campus, while police will follow the students to monitor safety. Once students leave campus, local law enforcement will monitor them, rather than AISD police, Segura said. Segura also reiterated several policies to ensure AISD employees remain “in alignment” with guidelines released earlier this week by the Texas Education Agency, including a reminder that school staff are not allowed to participate in, help plan, provide guidance or endorse walkouts, unless directed to do so for safety and monitoring purposes only. Teachers are also directed to remain in the classroom with any students who do not participate in the walkout. “State law requires educators to support student learning in ways that are objective and free from political bias,” a TEA spokesperon told KXAN earlier this week. “Schools also have an obligation to ensure students are safe and attend school, with consequences for students for unexcused absences.” “TEA takes allegations that schools have violated these requirements seriously and is investigating these complaints thoroughly. If violations of law are found, the agency will take appropriate action to ensure that state law is upheld,” the spokesperson said.

Junior grand champion steer fetches record-breaking $550K at Fort Worth Stock Show

On Saturday, Feb. 7, a Hood County teen’s life was forever changed after his beloved steer White Castle was sold for $550,000 to the Azle-based company Trico Electric at the Fort Worth Stock Show Junior Stock Show Sale of Champions. Caiman Cody, a 13-year-old from Tolar, Texas, was awarded the grand championship title on Friday after spending the past year caring for the white European crossbreed steer. Wearing his bright purple Tolar Rattlers shirt, Cody walked White Castle into the auction ring to raucous applause before the bidding began. The bidding started at $25,000 and blew past last year’s purchase of $375,000 in less than three minutes before settling at that record-breaking $550,000.

click here for more

After the auction, the visibly shocked Cody family spoke to reporters alongside the buyers from Trico Electric in a closed-off media room as the auctioneer bellowed outside. “I’m just so thankful for these two nice men who donated so much money,” Caiman said. Caiman’s mom Kasey said that the prize money will transform their family’s farming operation. “My husband is a fourth-generation cattlemen...not only will we be able to grow our operation, we’ll be able to help more families,” Kasey said. “This is what we do, we live and breathe it every single day. To see that pay off in this scope is incredible.” What’s next for young Caiman, who now has such a large sum of money before he can drive a car? “Well, I want to go to college one day, and I’d also like to be on the Texas Junior Ambassador board so I can help educate more kids about agriculture and help teach people,” Caiman said. “I love teaching people about stuff they don’t know.” Caiman isn’t quite sure where he wants to go to school — he’s only in eighth grade, after all — but he knows that he wants to stay in agriculture.

Texas AG opens probe into Houston anti-fascist group accused of 'doxing' neo-Nazis

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday he's taking "legal action" against a Houston-area anti-fascist group that's posted personal information of alleged neo-Nazis and members of other far-right movements online. Paxton accused the Screwston Anti-Fascist Committee, an "Antifa-affiliated" nonprofit, of potentially violating state law by aiding in the commission of terrorism and "doxing," or publishing a person's private information online with malicious intent. The attorney general issued a legal demand for records and documents to identify any potential violations of law. “Radical leftists have engaged in coordinated efforts to militantly attack our nation and undermine the rule of law," Paxton said in the release. "Screwston and related groups have illegally doxed Texans and encouraged violent terrorism against fellow citizens. These deranged traitors will face the full force of law. No stone will be left unturned, and no tool will be left unused.”

click here for more

KERA News reached out to the AG's office and the Screwston Anti-Fascist Committee for comment and will update this story with any response. According to the "About" section of the group's blog, the committee was formed in 2016 and is dedicated to "building resistance to fascism and the far-right in Houston, Texas." The committee dedicates a section of its blog to highlighting "local fascists," generally people associated with far-right and neo-Nazi groups in Texas. The blog links to separate sites that list the personal information of those individuals, including their full name, date of birth, address and vehicle information. Among the groups referenced on their site is Patriot Front, which the George Washington University Program on Extremism describes as a white nationalist and fascist organization founded in the wake of the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally. Photos on the site show people in Nazi-associated tattoos and iconography. The Screwston committee also sells merchandise with messages like "Antifa Zone, refugees welcome" and "Make Racists Afraid."

Professors, students push back as Texas A&M regents increase curriculum oversight

One of the nation's largest university systems has been in a state of academic and political turmoil over the past several months. Since September, the president of Texas A&M University has resigned, a professor has been fired and subsequently sued the university, the faculty senate has been dissolved and several courses have been canceled due to the system's new race and gender policy — under which faculty can be put on leave or fired if they stray from approved course syllabi. During this year's first quarterly Texas A&M System Board of Regents meeting Thursday, the board approved the establishment of general education review committees at each of its 12 university campuses. These new review committees will act as an additional level of administrative supervision over course curriculum and were implemented to comply with Senate Bill 37.

click here for more

Several faculty members and students spoke out against this oversight Thursday, including philosophy professor Martin Peterson, who said the committees were yet another form of censorship. "We have recently seen several attempts to politicize the university by closing academic programs for ideological reasons and prohibiting important topics from being taught," Peterson said. "Even Plato has been censored at Texas A&M in recent weeks." Peterson's mention of Plato was in reference to his own course syllabus, which, according to the New York Times, was flagged by university administration, who asked Peterson to remove some teachings of Plato — a central figure in Western philosophy. Texas A&M civil engineering student Robert Day also spoke to the board and said the actions by the regents are causing some to consider taking off their Aggie rings and canceling any future donations to the university. "I fear the actions this board has taken to cancel the gender studies major, dismissively fire faculty and your capitulation to political pressure bear grim consequences for students who share the same mission I have to lifelong learning and critical thinking," Day said. "Academic freedom is the great equalizer and it is the protector of our ability to learn without fear." Day's comments on the potential risk to alumni donations came just one day after Jon Hagler, an A&M class of 1959 graduate and prominent donor to the Texas A&M Association of Former Students, published an editorial in the Dallas Morning News saying the regents had failed to protect the university's independence.

San Antonio Mayor Jones could face censure vote for allegedly yelling at council member

City Council members are mulling over whether to reprimand Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones after she allegedly yelled and cursed at Councilwoman Sukh Kaur when the two stepped away from Thursday’s City Council meeting, according to three City Hall insiders familiar with the situation. The incident was the last straw for some members who have grown tired of Jones’ confrontational behavior with council members who have sided against her on high-profile votes, a source said. Jones got into an argument with Kaur in a private area in the Municipal Plaza Building that’s reserved for city staff, according to multiple City Hall sources who requested anonymity because they feared retribution for publicly discussing the matter. The area is adjacent to City Council Chambers, where the council meeting was underway.

click here for more

Council was slated to vote on whether to allow the Bonham Exchange to remain open after the historic gay nightclub blew past an Oct. 1, 2023, deadline to install legally required fire sprinklers. Kaur was pushing for a resolution that would have given the Bonham Exchange until Feb. 1, 2027, to install sprinklers without having to cut its occupancy in half, as the San Antonio Fire Department had urged for months. Joan Duckworth, the club’s general manager and co-owner, said that limiting capacity to fewer than 300 people would make it impossible to keep the venue in business. Jones disagreed with the resolution that Kaur forced onto the meeting agenda with the support of Council members Teri Castillo and Jalen McKee-Rodriguez. The mayor brokered a last-minute deal to get Duckworth to comply with the city’s demands, rendering the three council members’ resolution moot. Jones publicly committed Thursday to helping the club raise the $550,000 it needs to cover the costs of installing automatic fire sprinklers throughout the three-story venue. The city and the Bonham Exchange finalized a compliance agreement on Friday. The deal allows the club to continue operating, but with an occupancy limit of fewer than 300 people, among other safety precautions. Before taking up the Bonham Exchange issue during Thursday’s meeting, the mayor and City Council’s 10 members went into a closed-door executive session to discuss it. There, Kaur talked about her encounter with Jones, and Castillo asked City Attorney Andy Segovia about the possibility of calling a censure vote against the mayor, a source said.

Fort Worth ISD’s final appeal of TEA state takeover denied by judges

The Texas Education Agency is cleared to move forward with a state takeover of the Fort Worth Independent School District, according to a ruling by three state administrative law judges. Fort Worth ISD lost its appeal in the case in which it challenged TEA’s takeover decision. In an order issued Thursday, the administrative law court granted TEA’s request to dismiss the case. The administrative judges’ order is final and can’t be appealed, according to state law, meaning the TEA will move forward with appointing a board of managers to replace the elected school board. The court reviewed pleadings and evidence submitted from both the district and state education officials on the issue and determined there were no factual disputes that would justify overriding the TEA’s plans. A formal decision and order with the judges’ analysis will be issued within 30 days.

click here for more

Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Karen Molinar said in a statement Friday that the district will continue staying focused on students while the final order is forthcoming. “This action does not change our focus. Our team remains fully engaged in the day-to-day work of serving nearly 70,000 students, and we will continue working collaboratively with the Texas Education Agency while keeping student success at the center of every decision,” Molinar said. “Fort Worth ISD remains committed to serving students by strengthening classroom instruction, supporting educators, and ensuring safe, stable learning environments across the district.” A TEA spokesperson said on Friday that the search process for a board of managers and superintendent remains ongoing. Fort Worth ISD Board of Trustees President Roxanne Martinez said in a statement that the court’s action “is deeply disappointing” and “disregards the meaningful progress taking place in Fort Worth ISD.” She echoed Molinar’s sentiments, saying the board is dedicated to the success and support of all students.

Defamation lawsuit against former Gateway Church elders will continue, judge says

A Dallas judge denied requests from two former Gateway Church elders asking to be dismissed from a defamation lawsuit filed by the woman who was sexually abused by founding pastor Robert Morris. During a court hearing Friday, Judge Emily Tobolowsky immediately denied the motion after arguments by the attorney for elders Kevin Grove and Steve Dulin and an attorney for Cindy Clemishire. Clemishire declined to comment after Friday’s hearing. In June 2024, Clemishire accused Morris of sexually abusing her when she was 12 years old and he was 22 during the 1980s. She said the abuse lasted for more than four years.

click here for more

Morris pleaded guilty to five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child in October and was sentenced to 10 years at Osage County Jail in Oklahoma, where the abuse took place. He’s serving six months of that time, will pay out $270,000 to Clemishire and register as a lifetime sex offender. Gateway parted ways with Dulin a month after the accusations from Clemishire. Grove was one of four elders removed following a four-month internal probe into the Southlake megachurch that revealed they knew about the abuse. Last June, Clemishire and her father sued Gateway, its elders, Morris, his wife, and his charity group over statements elders made about the abuse, allegedly covering it up for years and financially benefiting from it. Elders released a statement on June 14, 2024, acknowledging Morris’ sexual abuse. It also said he had been involved in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a “young lady,” and that her family forgave him.

‘A disaster waiting to happen’: How the fracking boom put an oil field in the Guadalupe River floodplain

More than 500 enormous oil tanks dot the floodplains of the Guadalupe River and its tributaries where they cross one of Texas’ leading oilfields, an Inside Climate News investigation has found, posing risk of an environmental disaster. Longtime residents of these historic ranchlands still remember the last time these plains filled up with water in a biblical inundation in 1998. That was before the fracking boom hit this region and the oil-rich geological formation that lies beneath it, known as the Eagle Ford Shale. Today, a repeat of the historic flood could wreak havoc, locals worry. “There’s a whole lot of tanks full of oil that are going to float away,” said Sara Dubose, a fifth-generation landowner in Gonzales County with 10 tanks in the floodplain on her family’s ranchlands, each holding up to 21,000 gallons of oil or toxic wastewater. “Spill all over our land and ruin it for 100 years.”

click here for more

Almost 20 feet of water could submerge some of the tanks on the Dubose family’s land in an event similar to 1998, according to an Inside Climate News analysis of data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Inside Climate News scoured satellite imagery on Google Maps to identify batteries of oil tanks and other oilfield infrastructure near waterways of the Guadalupe River Basin where it crosses the Eagle Ford Shale. We then took the latitude and longitude coordinates of each tank battery and used FEMA’s flood mapping data to extract the agency’s estimates for the depths of its benchmark flood scenarios at these locations. In some areas, the 1998 flood exceeded the worst-case scenario considered by disaster planners. FEMA calls this the “500-year flood,” a hypothetical event the agency estimates has a 0.2 percent chance of happening in any year. Today, a 500-year flood across this entire area would cover at least 22 tank batteries containing 144 individual oil and wastewater tanks with 10 or more feet of water, ICN’s analysis found. Of those, 12 tanks would sit beneath at least 20 feet of water. FEMA’s estimates for a 500-year flood understate present risk in many locations, research shows, as warming air and oceans continue to fuel an intensification of extreme rainfall. Dubose experienced the 1998 flood, when the Guadalupe River sprang from its banks and filled the shallow valleys here at the edge of the coastal plains.

Dirk Nowitzki seems ready to move on, embrace future after Mavs’ trade of Anthony Davis

The Dallas Mavericks took another huge step forward in moving on from the Luka Doncic trade this week by shipping out Anthony Davis and looking toward the future. The greatest player in the history of their franchise seems to agree with their line of thinking. Dirk Nowitzki, while on the job Saturday for Prime TV in his studio analyst role, discussed the Mavericks’ trade of Davis from the perspective of a fan hoping to move forward and embrace the future of the franchise around rookie Cooper Flagg.

click here for more

“I’ll tell you one thing, I think Mavs fans are happy with this,” Nowitzki said on Saturday. “I think they didn’t want to be reminded of what happened a year ago in the Luka trade. So to me, looking at this deal at first glance there’s not a lot that came back, picks or player-wise. This is all really about financial flexibility for the future.” The Mavericks have, of course, dismissed the primary architect of last season’s Doncic deal, as they fired Nico Harrison in early November. Ultimately, though, it sounds like Nowitzki agrees that the time was right to pull the plug on the Davis experiment as well and instead “go young.” “I’m a little disappointed, I think when AD actually played with Cooper, they played off each other really, really well,” Nowitzki admitted. “But we’ll never know. What this ultimately is now is build around Cooper, go young. See what the next year brings with the draft this summer. Ultimately now, they’re all in on Cooper Flagg and his future.” Dirk might’ve even thrown a bit of a not-so-subtle dig at Harrison, as after some teasing from his co-hosts Steve Nash and Blake Griffin about the Mavericks landing Flagg on a 1.8% chance, Nowitzki replied: “That was the vision.”

National Stories

Senators far apart on DHS deal as talks stall with deadline looming

Pessimism is increasing across the Capitol that lawmakers will reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they point fingers over the lack of talks and float canceling the upcoming recess. Senators return to Washington on Monday facing a sprint to strike a deal and avoid a shutdown that would affect agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Coast Guard. Democrats, facing intense pressure from their base to rein in Trump’s deportation crackdown, have insisted GOP lawmakers acquiesce on including far-reaching immigration reforms in the funding bill. Republicans have little appetite to even put most of those demands on the table. And, with a Feb. 13 deadline looming, negotiations hadn’t even gotten off the ground by the end of last week.

click here for more

When asked of his level of optimism that a deal could come together by then, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) responded: “About a minus squillion.” Kennedy placed the blame squarely on Democrats. “It’s not enough time. … This is not about reforming DHS. This is about the Karen wing of the Democratic party that wants to defund ICE, just like they wanted to defund the police,” Kennedy said. “I think even if we agreed to every one of [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s] suggestions, I don’t think most Democrats would vote for the bill because the Karen wing of the party would punish them.” Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) laid out the party’s 10-item wishlist in a letter to Republican leaders on Wednesday night — much of which was repurposed from their previous asks after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.

Seahawks, Patriots—or asleep by halftime? Ultimate last-minute Super Bowl guide for a last-minute fan

Few events in American life are more overexposed, over-promoted and over-discussed than the Super Bowl—and I say that as a sportswriter who’s a gleeful part of the plague. The NFL’s extravagant finale is preceded by a two-week rodeo of media gasbaggery in which the country is bombarded with hype and nonsense and everyone but the neighborhood squirrels is polled for a prediction on the outcome. Will it be the Seattle Seahawks? Will it be the New England Patriots? Or will it be a righteous nap on the couch that begins on in the second quarter and ends Monday morning? Then there’s the whole gambling component, increasingly legal and brutally ubiquitous.

click here for more

The Super Bowl is a wagering peril in which, if you’re dedicated, you can lose money betting the winner, the game MVP, the time it takes to power through the national anthem, the color of the Gatorade poured on the coach’s head, and the paragraph at which I get to my inevitable line about the Super Bowl being the final sliver of the national monoculture. If you bet the sixth paragraph, you won. Watching this game is indeed the last thing we do collectively as a country, other than scream over each other on the internet. If I really want to sound pretentious, I’d call the Super Bowl the final fireplace of the digital era, with a live audience that dwarfs every other show in the U.S., even Bluey. This is why an advertisement costs many millions, and perhaps why most Super Bowl advertisements are terrible. Finally, mercifully, game day arrives. I am thrilled to report: we are here. The Patriots will face the Seahawks in Santa Clara, Calif. Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET. There used to be a robust search-engine business in writing content that answered the question “What time is the Super Bowl?” but we all work for the AI robots now, and they just say 6:30 p.m. ET in a haunting metallic voice.

Breezy Johnson wins U.S.'s first gold medal

Breezy Johnson became the second American woman ever to win the Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing Sunday, hours after the first person to accomplish the feat, Lindsey Vonn, crashed violently on the famed Tofane course. Johnson finished in 1:36.1 to earn the first Olympic medal of her career. A native of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Johnson was skiing in her second Olympics. The win was not an upset — Johnson entered the competition as the reigning world champion in downhill. It was the United States' first medal of the Milan Cortina Olympics. Johnson extended both arms above her head as she stepped atop the podium before accepting her gold medal. She held back tears while mouthing the words to the U.S. national anthem.

click here for more

"I had a good feeling about today, I sort of still can't believe it yet, I don't know when it will sink in yet," Johnson said. "I knew I had to push and go harder than I did in training. I had to be super clean and I felt like I did that." Emma Aicher of Germany earned the silver medal, just four-hundredths of a second behind Johnson. Italy's Sofia Goggia earned bronze to win the host country's fourth medal of these Olympics. The victory required Johnson, 30, to confront and overcome her own history of difficulty on this course. In 2022, she crashed on a training run in Cortina and tore cartilage in her right knee, forcing her to miss that year's Olympics in Beijing. "I'm going to have to come back to this same place with a body that's been put back together and try to accomplish my goals," she told NBC last May. "It's a beautiful place, (but) it has teeth and has also hurt a lot of people." Johnson survived the 1.6-mile course with more than 2,000 feet of elevation drop on Sunday by making up time on the five women who taken the course ahead of her during the back half of the race. Seven skiers later, however, Vonn did not — crashing violently after only 13 seconds. She was airlifted off the course, which reopened after an approximately 30-minute delay. It came 16 years after Vonn won the Olympic gold medal in Vancouver, Canada.

The big split driving the tricky politics of AI data centers

The tech industry is facing fierce local backlash to data center projects around the country. But a new poll suggests national opinion is still up for grabs. Cities from Madison, Wisconsin, to Chandler, Arizona, are rejecting new data centers — the hulking, server-packed complexes that make up the backbone of the booming artificial intelligence industry — citing everything from rising electricity costs to depleted water tables and air pollution. Nationally, however, the tech giants behind the rapid rollout of data centers have a window to shape public opinion despite opposition they’re seeing on the local level, according to new results from The POLITICO Poll. The survey, conducted by London-based independent polling company Public First, found that most voters are blasé — even mildly positive — about the possibility of having a data center in their area, associating them with new jobs and other economic benefits. But the industry’s standing is also precarious, and the poll suggests a partisan split is emerging: People increasingly see the tech companies as aligned with Republicans, the survey shows.

click here for more

And Democratic Govs. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey won races in November in part by campaigning to force data center operators to help upgrade the electric grid and keep utility rates down. As the AI-driven projects spread, the map the industry will have to defend politically and financially will keep expanding, far beyond traditional clusters of data center growth in places like Virginia and Texas. “I think it’s going to be a big issue in the midterm elections,” said Brad Carson, a former Oklahoma Democratic representative and head of Public First, a super PAC pushing for AI regulations that has no relation to POLITICO’s polling partner. He said that while most people can tune out data centers as an abstraction, “we know there are discrete pockets of people — often quite conservative in their politics — who care a lot about it.” Carson said people who are against data centers “are likely to vote on that issue, right, because, ‘I don’t want a data center in my neighborhood, I’m opposed to it.’ The guys who are for [data centers] are like me — they’re a million miles away from the nearest data center.” While distance from a data center is a factor, the poll found that voters aren’t reflexively opposed to the idea of having one nearby the way they might be quick to complain about new transmission towers or freeway expansions: Thirty-seven percent of respondents say they would support a new data center in their area, compared with 28 percent opposed. That leaves a large portion of people — 36 percent — that could swing either way.

Bad Bunny rewriting the ‘rules’ of American popstardom

Recording artist Bad Bunny will command one of America’s biggest stages this Sunday when he is poised to make history as the first Super Bowl halftime headliner to sing primarily in Spanish. In less than a decade, he has become one of the world’s most popular artists while embracing traits that have historically been seen as barriers to the widest success: he sings almost entirely in Spanish, champions his Puerto Rican identity, and doesn’t shy away from speaking his mind on politics. Bad Bunny, 31, whose full name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, was born and raised in Puerto Rico. His first album, “X 100PRE” (pronounced “por siempre” meaning “forever”), came out in 2018. His songs blend Latin trap and reggaeton with pop, rock and classic Puerto Rican styles including salsa, bomba and plena. Since his debut, he has skyrocketed to global stardom, dominating charts and obliterating streaming records.

click here for more

“He is someone who has broken countless records and just keeps breaking them,” said Vanessa Diaz, professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-creator of the Bad Bunny syllabus. “It’s just kind of unimaginable how many accolades he has acquired in a relatively short time,” Diaz said. Bad Bunny’s embrace of video and visuals has also helped his popularity, including with non-Spanish speakers, said Diaz. He has 19 videos on YouTube with more than one billion views – the most of any artist on the platform - and his channel has 51.7 million subscribers. Diaz points to the video for “La Mudanza” (The Move), a salsa track from the album as an example. The lyrics reference Puerto Rico’s pro-independence and decades-long resistance movements. In the video, Bad Bunny runs with a Puerto Rican flag while being chased by men in military fatigues, followed by shots of salsa musicians and dancers, and historical footage of Puerto Rico’s independence struggle. Then there’s the music itself. “You don’t have to understand every single historical reference in a song like ‘La Mudanza’ to want to dance to ‘La Mudanza’,” said Diaz. “Everyone’s getting something different, with or without the lyrics.” The data show Bad Bunny’s formula is working. He ranks consistently on Billboard’s list of top artists, and his albums remain popular years after release.

The troubled state of the Senate has members eyeing governorships

The U.S. Senate has long been considered the pinnacle of American politics. Governors, in particular, saw the deliberative and dignified body as a natural last stop when their time in the executive mansion was up, a place to confront the big issues before the nation in momentous debates. Those days are over. Frustrated by Senate dysfunction and the inability to accomplish much of substance, senators this year are reversing the steady migration from state capital to Capitol Hill as a record four sitting senators are running for governor. It is one of the best indicators yet of how the Senate, plodding and polarized, has lost its allure. “I like my job in the Senate,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, in declaring at the end of January that she wanted to head home to head up her state’s government. “But I love our state more than any job.”

click here for more

Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, was candid about his decision to run for governor there rather than stick it out in the Senate. “I think what is driving people the other way — what is driving me the other way — is the feeling that the real battle now is going to be in the states, that it is not going to be in D.C.,” Mr. Bennet said in an interview, noting the “dysfunctional nature” of the Senate. “It just isn’t working for the American people.” Besides Mr. Bennet and Ms. Klobuchar, Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama are also running for governor in their states. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, explored the possibility of running for governor there like her father, Frank Murkowski, had done as a senator in 2002, but she has made no firm move in that direction, with time running short to do so.

Lindsey Vonn crashes out of Olympic downhill

Lindsey Vonn’s audacious bid for an Olympic comeback ended in a cloud of snow on Sunday morning after a dramatic crash in the women’s downhill. Vonn, the 41-year-old alpine skiing star competing on one rebuilt knee and another with a torn ligament, appeared to tag the fourth gate hard with her right shoulder as she carved through a corner. The contact spun her around and left her splayed out on the course, screaming in pain. Her day was over less than 14 seconds into the run. She received treatment on site leading to a 15-minute delay in the race as a helicopter swooped in overhead. For the second straight week, Vonn was airlifted off a mountain. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the three-time Olympic medalist and perhaps the best downhill racer in history would attempt to return at these Games.

click here for more

The crash in her first race brought a shocking end to Vonn’s return to competition on an ACL that she had completely ruptured in a pre-Olympic event just 10 days earlier. While some athletes require surgery and a year of rehabilitation after tearing the ligament, which helps stabilize the knee, Vonn said she had no pain and little swelling. That allowed her to strap on a knee brace and return to the mountain within days. Vonn made a comeback to the sport in late 2024 after nearly six years of retirement, her body battered by years of crashes and surgeries. She had undergone a reconstruction on her right knee that included titanium parts, and felt so good that she returned to the slopes. This season, she stunned the sport’s fans by winning two World Cup races and leading the overall standings in the downhill. She made her fifth U.S. Olympic team at age 41, becoming the oldest in alpine team history, and she was set to try to repeat her gold in the downhill at 2010 Vancouver.

Gabbard under scrutiny over whistleblower report, election probes

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is coming under scrutiny from lawmakers in both parties for delays in transmitting a whistleblower complaint and her involvement in two different seizures of voting records. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Gabbard’s office had failed to relay a whistleblower report made last May accusing her of wrongdoing to Congress. Two days later, Gabbard’s office confirmed its involvement in the seizure of voting machines in Puerto Rico, news that came after the DNI was spotted during the execution of a search warrant in Fulton County, Ga.

click here for more

Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been highly critical of Gabbard on both fronts, hammering her for failing to swiftly turn over the whistleblower report while calling her involvement in voting a threat to the coming elections. “It appears there may be a coordinated effort to try to interfere in the ’26 midterm,” Warner said, noting that President Trump said he requested Gabbard be on site for the Fulton County search. “I think we’ve got a president that can’t get over the fact that he lost in 2020 and now in kind of a Nixonian effort is going to try to do everything he can to make sure he doesn’t get another beating in 2026.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) elections probes were done in conjunction with other agencies, with FBI officials seizing 2020 ballots in Fulton County and voting machines in Puerto Rico after the ODNI said it received allegations of “discrepancies and systemic anomalies.” Gabbard has taken heat not only for her involvement but for evolving explanations surrounding her presence. It’s extremely unusual for high-level officials to be on site for the execution of a search conducted by rank-and-file officers and even more unusual for Gabbard, since her intelligence job is focused on foreign countries and is not connected to domestic law enforcement.

Copyright February 08, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved