August 11, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Oil in U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve falls below 300 million barrels, lowest since 1983

Crude oil stockpiles in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve have fallen below 300 million barrels, the lowest level in more than four decades, as global inventories stay under pressure due to the Iran war. The SPR fell by 6.1 million barrels to 298.7 million barrels last week, according to data released by the Department of Energy on Monday. The reserve, created in 1975, is at its lowest level since January 1983. President Donald Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels in March after Iran choked off oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering the largest disruption of crude oil supplies in history.

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The drawdown in the SPR, whose authorized storage capacity is 714 million barrels, has raised questions about whether U.S. government stockpiles are on the verge of depletion. The minimum amount of oil needed to safely operate the SPR is about 70 million barrels, an Energy Department spokesperson told CNBC in July. There is enough oil left in the SPR to do another release if needed, said David Goldwyn, who served as a State Department special envoy for international energy affairs under President Barack Obama. “I’m not worried about the stability of the reserve or our ability to do another drawdown, if we needed to,” Goldwyn told CNBC. The SPR stood at around 415 million barrels before the U.S and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. U.S. government stocks will fall to around 243 million barrels when the release Trump ordered is completed. The SPR’s operational capability is at risk due to aging infrastructure, according to a May report from the Government Accountability Office. More than a quarter of its inventory was “not available for drawdown due to a combination of construction outages and cavern outages” as of December 2025, GAO investigators found.

One source of Paxton’s wealth: A cell tower at a hospital he knew well

Over the course of Ken Paxton’s decade-long rise to prominence, through scandal and turmoil, questions about his finances have followed him. Opponents scrutinized his real estate holdings and suggested that he has used his public office to enrich himself personally — allegations that have never been proven. With Mr. Paxton locked in a close, contentious race for U.S. Senate in Texas, his Democratic opponent has questioned how Mr. Paxton, the state attorney general, has amassed a multimillion dollar real estate portfolio on a public servant’s salary. Now, Mr. Paxton’s federal financial disclosure forms and additional records obtained by The New York Times shed light on one unusual source of his income: a cellular tower company from which Mr. Paxton made between $100,000 and $1 million about every 18 months. The company controls at least one tower in a city north of Dallas that was erected around 20 years ago on the property of a hospital where Mr. Paxton was a board member.

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Mr. Paxton co-founded the company, Premier Vertical Properties, in 2005; he reported serving on the board of the hospital, Centennial Medical Center, from 2003 to 2013. Records show that Premier signed a deal to lease space on the tower to T-Mobile in 2006; the hospital’s parent company at the time, Tenet Hospitals, was mentioned in the lease agreements. The terms of any agreement that may have been struck between Mr. Paxton’s company and the hospital are not clear. Tenet did not respond to questions, and the hospital’s current administration said it could not provide information about a deal made before its tenure. Industry experts said a hospital’s board would need to review and approve a decision to lease land to a cell tower company such as Premier. It is not clear whether Mr. Paxton, as a board member, voted on any contract between the hospital and his company, or whether he had participated in any such discussions. In a statement provided to The Times, Nick Maddux, Mr. Paxton’s campaign spokesman, did not address questions about Premier’s dealings with the hospital during Mr. Paxton’s time on the board. “This week, every major publication in Texas covered the overflow crowds at Attorney General Paxton’s Protect the Texas Promise tour, and the Times spent that same week combing through twenty-year-old lease paperwork on a cell tower that Ken Paxton has disclosed publicly for many years,” Mr. Maddux said in the statement. “That is not journalism; it’s a search for a story that does not exist.”

Gov. Greg Abbott touts tech company cooperation, following Trump criticism of data center policy

Gov. Greg Abbott is touting major technology companies' responses to his temporary moratorium on data centers, following recent criticism from President Donald Trump. "I established clear guardrails to ensure data centers protect our electric grid, conserve our water, respect our neighborhoods, and pay their own way," Abbott said in a statement. “They must not pass costs on to Texas families or interfere with their quality of life." The governor issued a directive last week, announcing that no new data centers could connect to the Texas power grid until state regulators conducted a thorough review of their energy and water usage, as well as their impact on nearby communities.

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It's a reversal of the governor's previous stance. Abbott once courted data centers, calling Texas "the epicenter of AI development" in November. In an interview with Punchbowl News late last week, Trump criticized changes to Texas’ data center policy. "I saw Texas the other day sort of is against data centers," Trump said. "I think that's a mistake." Meanwhile, major technology companies have signaled their willingness to comply with Abbott's recent directives, which called for data centers to bring their own energy infrastructure to Texas and reduce their water usage. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, issued a statement on Monday, saying the company pays for its own infrastructure to connect data centers to the power grid. The company also announced the launch of a new fund to invest in water and energy infrastructure, educators and first responders. Google also touted a "$40 billion investment" in Texas infrastructure and jobs.

Lubbock County commissioners pass resolution regarding large-scale industrial development in Texas

The public gathered, Monday, to hear Lubbock County commissioners discuss and potentially approve a resolution regarding large-scale industrial development in the state of Texas. This discussion mostly centered around data centers potentially being built in unincorporated parts of the county, but the wording opens it up for any major business to disclose how much water and electricity it would use for its projects. The resolution passed four to one, with only judge Curtis Parrish voting against it due to its language. “If the concern is about data centers, let’s make sure this resolution is tailored to data centers,” Parrish said. “I don’t have anyone coming and talking to me concerning about any other manufacturing businesses, any other expanding businesses.”

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Commissioner Cary Shaw does not see it the same way, feeling each business should be up front about what it plans to use regardless of its industry. “Why would you not want all the information before a business comes in?” Shaw said, “what they’re going to use, what kind of resources they’re going to need from the county.” Nothing in this non-binding resolution creates or expands county authority. It does not require the county to take any action or authorize the county to prohibit, suspend, delay, or impose a moratorium on a privately financed project, except as expressly permitted by Texas law. This became a point of contention inside the commissioner courtroom. “All this is doing is telling Texas law that we need some help,” commissioner Jordan Rackler said during the meeting. “You just got done rattling off that this would make the data centers come talk to us,” commissioner Jason Corley said in response. “If you want it to pass, let’s pass it, but this is 10 minutes of my life I’m never getting back. Let’s get going. Resolutions do nothing, they are not binding. You want to pass it, let’s pass it.” After the resolution passed, Parrish said a lot more work needs to be done before anything moves forward regarding this topic. “We need to make sure that the state gives us enough teeth, enough authority that we can put a hiatus on these data centers coming and taking our electricity, taking our water and not giving anything back to the community,” Parrish said. “That’s what I want to make sure we’re protecting the citizens of Lubbock county for. This resolution does not do that.” Commissioner Shaw says the symbolic approval does send a message to Austin as the statewide debate over the future of its economy takes up more of its bandwidth.

State Stories

Secretary of State opposes closing Texas primaries via GOP-led lawsuit

The Texas agency that oversees elections still opposes a lawsuit seeking to restrict Republican primaries to voters registered with the party but believes the issue will likely be resolved in the 2027 legislative session, Secretary of State Robert Howden said Monday in a court filing. The Texas GOP last year filed a lawsuit against the secretary of state's office, saying only registered Republicans should be allowed to vote in GOP primaries. Howden’s answer comes after Matthew Kacsmaryk, the federal judge overseeing the suit, on Friday ordered Howden to say whether the state’s official position has changed under his leadership.

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Howden, who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott last month after Jane Nelson stepped down, said the Legislature is the “proper forum for adopting any closed primary system” and coming up with a detailed plan on how it would work. Texans are not required to register with a specific political party under state law, allowing them to vote in either party’s primary. GOP activists say the state’s open primary system is allowing Democrats to vote for more moderate Republican candidates, boosting people they believe are insufficiently conservative. The secretary of state's office has asked Kacsmaryk to dismiss the lawsuit, while the state's Republican Party is asking him rule that the open primary system violate's the party's First Amendment rights and allow the party to exclude non-Republicans from primaries. Legislation seeking to close the state’s primary system failed in last year’s legislative session, prompting the party to file the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the state’s Republican Party did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Monday’s filing. The party also did not respond to a voicemail.

How many voting sites does Tarrant County need? Commissioners to decide in September

After disagreeing with a proposed reduction in polling sites, Tarrant County commissioners are divided on how many locations to approve for the November midterm election. County staff are revising the proposed list of sites based on feedback from commissioners. One commissioner proposed keeping the number consistent with the total used during the 2022 midterms, while another suggested an increase to accommodate population growth over the last four years. Others haven’t suggested a specific number but were clear that the proposed list did not include enough sites. Commissioners were scheduled to vote on the list of sites Aug. 4 but ultimately delayed that decision until Sept. 1 after listening to dozens of speakers criticize the proposed reduction as an attempt to make it harder for voters to cast a ballot. The nearly seven-hour meeting saw attendees removed, banned and arrested.

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After disagreeing with a proposed reduction in polling sites, Tarrant County commissioners are divided on how many locations to approve for the November midterm election. County staff are revising the proposed list of sites based on feedback from commissioners. One commissioner proposed keeping the number consistent with the total used during the 2022 midterms, while another suggested an increase to accommodate population growth over the last four years. Others haven’t suggested a specific number but were clear that the proposed list did not include enough sites. Commissioners were scheduled to vote on the list of sites Aug. 4 but ultimately delayed that decision until Sept. 1 after listening to dozens of speakers criticize the proposed reduction as an attempt to make it harder for voters to cast a ballot. The nearly seven-hour meeting saw attendees removed, banned and arrested.

Texas could owe $709M for food stamps. Food banks say the fallout would be ‘catastrophic.’

Food banks across Texas are raising the alarm over a federal policy change that could force the state to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for food assistance benefits or risk leaving millions of Texans without access to food. Beginning in 2027, states with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payment error rates above 6% will be required to share in the cost of benefits under the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law in 2025. Texas recorded a 9% error rate in fiscal year 2025, meaning the state could face up to $709 million a year in additional costs, and potentially more than $1 billion if that rate climbs above 10%. San Antonio Food Bank CEO Eric Cooper said the stakes couldn’t be higher.

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“When you think about the San Antonio Food Bank, for every one meal we put out, SNAP provides nine,” Cooper said. “Should we see an increase in the number of families, we just won’t have the food supply to meet that need.” The San Antonio Food Bank currently serves around 140,000 people every week — a number that has continued to climb year over year. That growth comes on the heels of a recent study showing food insecurity in the San Antonio region has risen to nearly 22%, meaning roughly one in five people don’t have enough to eat. Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, the state association of food banks, said the error rate triggering these new costs is widely misunderstood. “The most important thing to know about the payment error rate is that it is not fraud,” Cole said. “It is a measure of accuracy.” Cole explained that the error rate reflects paperwork and processing mistakes, not intentional wrongdoing, and that roughly two-thirds of errors come from state agency mistakes, not recipients. She added that Texas consistently maintained an error rate below 6% before the COVID-19 pandemic strained state workforce capacity. If Texas cannot or will not fund its share of SNAP costs, Cole warned the consequences would be severe. “If they walk away from the program, what that’s going to mean is 3 million Texans without access to reliable food,” Cole said. “Our food bank network won’t be able to make up for that gap.” Food bank leaders across the state are now calling on Congress to delay the cost-sharing requirement by two years, giving Texas time to bring its error rate back below the 6% threshold. The Senate version of the Farm Bill, currently working through Congress, includes a provision for a one-year delay, but advocates say two years is what’s needed. Cooper echoed that urgency. “The fear that SNAP might be impacted — it’s catastrophic,” Cooper said. “I just don’t have the inventory at the San Antonio Food Bank to meet that need.” The Texas Legislature is set to begin its next session in January 2027 — the same session that would need to appropriate funds if the cost-sharing requirement moves forward without a congressional delay.

She says she was fired from a nursing home after taking medical leave. It’s a common claim in Texas

Kendria Dubois felt she had sacrificed health and family to keep her job as a resident care coordinator at a Mansfield nursing home. One night in March 2025, Dubois, 46, says she began to vomit and pass blood during an overnight shift, prompting a call to her superiors and her staff. Nobody answered, she says, so she toughed it out until the end of her shift at 6 a.m. before rushing to the emergency room where she learned she had intestine inflammation. Dubois — who also has multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune nervous system disease with no cure — was fired a little more than two months later. In a federal lawsuit filed last month, she claims the nursing home discriminated against her for her disabilities. “I kept putting all these people first, and put myself at the bottom,” Dubois told KERA News. “But when it mattered, I was the first to go.”

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The complaint is becoming increasingly common in Texas. The state had the highest number and percentage of disability complaints in the country filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2025. And that year saw more disability complaints filed than any other year in decades, according to EEOC data that goes back to 1992. Management for the nursing home, Cedar Bluff, did not respond to KERA’s request for an interview or comment. The company has also not filed a response to the lawsuit as of Monday. Disability discrimination complaints with the EEOC have only increased as older generations experience natural health decline, said Michael Maslanka, an associate professor at the University of North Texas at Dallas who teaches employment law. "Two words, one concept: baby boomers," Maslanka said. "You're going to have a spike, and it's going to continue for a while I think.” Texas could also have more complaints because some large states like California have their own agencies to handle discrimination claims. "There may be less action in the California EEOC, or even in California's federal court, because the state protection is better," said Brian East, an attorney at Disability Rights Texas. Employees with disabilities are largely protected from discrimination by the American with Disabilities Act and the Texas labor code, which aims to mirror the ADA.

The Dog's Head deal was made with little public input. Now neighbors want their voices heard

Lee Edwards has lived on Hergotz Lane for nearly two decades. His property backs up to the Colorado River, giving him direct access to the water. It’s the reason he moved to the area. “This is a river neighborhood, a river community,” Edwards said. “We’re very identified with the nature here, the animals, the river, the whole thing.” It’s surprisingly rural, considering how close it is to U.S. 183 and the airport. There are trees and wildflowers. Bobcats and deer roam the land. Edwards is the president of the South East Colorado River Neighborhood Association. He said it's unlike any neighborhood he’s lived in before. “You’ve got our property and your house, and we have neighbors, that is nice,” he said. “All that is true but there is this whole other thing going on – it's a special and unique neighborhood.”

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Garrett Tung, who has lived just a few doors down from Edwards for five years, agreed. “It's a quiet lifestyle,” Tung said. “It's kind of like you're in the middle of nowhere, but you're in Austin. The neighbors are amazing. The wildlife is amazing. It's just a crazy cool place to live.” If you look at a map of this area, the Colorado River bends around the neighborhood in a shape that resembles a silhouette of a dog’s head. So, people have taken to calling this area the Dog’s Head. Last month, the Austin City Council signed off on a 2,600-acre development for the site that will include housing, retail and office space and some green space. Amazon’s robotics division will be the property’s biggest tenant. But the project was approved with little public input. That’s where neighbors said the city failed them. Both Edwards and Tung fear that their little slice of paradise will be lost without a proper plan to develop the Dog’s Head.

Peter Licata: We’ve acted fast to fix schools. And we’re not done

(Peter Licata is the superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District.) When I took the job as superintendent of the Fort Worth school district on March 24, I knew meaningful change would not happen overnight. But I knew it needed to start right away. The reason I was hired was one simple, indisputable fact: too many of our schools were failing to educate many of our kids. While there has been incremental progress in some areas, far too many of our students are still not achieving at the levels they deserve. That reality demanded change — not because our educators lack commitment but because our students deserve better outcomes. Accepting the status quo is simply not an option. Over the past four months, our leadership team has worked with urgency to stabilize operations, restore confidence, and build systems that put students — not adults — at the center of every decision we make.

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One of our first priorities was ensuring that every student arrives safely at school each day. We eliminated all bus driver vacancies and hired additional qualified drivers to strengthen daily operations and reduce disruptions. Equally encouraging is the progress in staffing our classrooms. For years, Fort Worth ISD routinely began the school year with more than 200 teacher vacancies, many of which remained open throughout the year. This year, we opened school with only nine classroom teacher vacancies districtwide, a testament to our Human Capital team, campus leaders and the outstanding educators who chose Fort Worth ISD because they believe in our mission. We also restructured our central administration, eliminating positions that did not directly support student achievement and redirecting resources back into classrooms where they can have the greatest impact. This work has also required difficult decisions, including consolidating campuses. Instruction has remained our highest priority. This year, we introduced Cowtown 12, a districtwide instructional framework designed to protect instructional time while providing every teacher with clear, consistent expectations for high-quality teaching. Great teachers deserve clarity, and Cowtown 12 establishes districtwide expectations while honoring each teacher’s craft. Top schools are built one classroom at a time by exceptional teachers. Our responsibility is to provide them with outstanding curriculum, meaningful support, clear expectations, and the trust to do what they do best: teach children.

American-Statesman Editorial Board: Texas leaders talk tough. Why won't they fight for Big Bend?

For years — when a Democrat was in the White House — Texas Republican leaders projected unflinching “Don’t Mess with Texas” swagger. Gov. Greg Abbott famously bragged, as state attorney general during the Obama years, “I go to work, I sue the federal government and then I go home.” Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a press release when his office filed its 100th lawsuit against the Biden administration. And in January 2024, when Abbott asserted Texas’ right to deploy the National Guard and state troopers at the border, the governor declared that “states should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats.”

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Where is that energy now, as federal contractors have begun bulldozing a remote stretch of Big Bend National Park for a border construction project that threatens to permanently alter one of Texas’ greatest natural treasures? Instead, with Republican President Donald Trump pursuing his signature border wall project, Texas’ formidable political machinery has gone eerily quiet. That silence is infuriating and indefensible. There is one notable exception: Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent a cease-and-desist letter last month after finding a Customs and Border Protection contractor had improperly cleared more than a mile of state-managed grazing land in Presidio County. Buckingham’s letter says the lands “must be remediated and returned to their original condition.” More of that, please. The resolve to defend one of Texas’ most cherished landscapes should not be hard to find. Protecting the wild swaths of untamed Texas, the rights of private property owners and the integrity of taxpayer dollars should not be partisan causes. Yet all three are at stake in the massive border construction project now bearing down on the Big Bend region.

E-bike, e-scooter riders will have to dismount on central portion of UT campus

Riders of electric bikes, scooters and boards on the University of Texas at Austin’s campus will have to dismount and walk in a large portion of central campus, including the Speedway Mall, starting Aug. 24. The university is designating the area between San Jacinto Boulevard and Guadalupe Street and 21st Street to 24th Street as a “pedestrian friendly zone,” the university announced Monday. The changes start the first day of the fall semester. The announcement comes after signs went up on campus last week and after the university quietly posted new mobility regulations online, including a “dismount zone map.” The web page was then taken down. The original post did not make clear if the dismount areas included non-motorized vehicles. Cycling advocates expressed concerns about the plan's impact before the university clarified that the ban would not impact manual bicycles and scooters.

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The new "pedestrian friendly zone" will also have a 5 mph speed limit for personal electric vehicles. Other sections of campus have speed limits of 15 mph. Eduardo Diaz, a student at UT, was one of the people concerned about a blanket ban for all scooters, bikes and boards on Speedway. "I still think that this confusion would have been avoided significantly if we had gotten some input before this went into place,” Diaz said. "I'm glad that this was clarified or that it was changed." He said he understands the decision more after the clarification, but that, for him, ideally the ban would only be in effect in between classes. "Speedway is basically the only protected car-free route that you can take from Central Austin, that's not really far out of the way,” Diaz said. "So if you're people who are coming up from Hyde Park, from all those areas, [you] probably would take Speedway.

Axiom Space CEO Jonathan Cirtain on NASA’s moon race and the fight to build the next space station

Jonathan Cirtain is drawn to big challenges. He was first pulled toward the sun, developing instruments that studied its complexities and earning a presidential award in 2011. He then led a team that used nuclear medicine to image and treat diseases. Now, Cirtain is leading Houston-based Axiom Space through two particularly big tasks: Deliver a spacesuit that can help NASA’s astronauts walk on the moon before China’s taikonauts and develop a successor to the International Space Station that will win NASA’s business. “I’ve always been drawn to complex problems and their solutions,” Cirtain said in a statement. “I’ve wanted to work on very difficult problems that, if solved, could significantly expand what we know and push humanity forward.”

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Cirtain is an astrophysicist turned technology executive. With a doctorate in physics, he joined Axiom Space as its president in June 2025 and became its chief executive that October. He’s had a busy first year. The company announced it is opening overseas offices and moving its legal domicile to Texas from Delaware. It has begun building test versions of its spacesuits, partnering with sunglass company Oakley on the visor and luxury retailer Prada on some of the materials. It’s also preparing to receive the first two major structures of its space station in 2027. But there have been doubts, too. NASA’s Office of Inspector General suggested Axiom’s spacesuit might not be ready for the agency’s Artemis IV mission that seeks to land on the moon in 2028. And NASA has questioned the financial viability of commercial space stations. Cirtain said he can't imagine not finishing the space station. “We have been preparing for game day for 10 years,” Cirtain said during an interview with the Houston Chronicle. “We've been building this company for this purpose.” Axiom Space was founded in 2016 to build Axiom Station, an outpost that could replace the International Space Station when it retires in 2030. The company would own and operate the station; NASA would be one of many customers. Axiom Space plans to launch the first component of its space station into orbit in 2028. The company has raised more than $1 billion, and NASA awarded it a $140 million contract for early development.

Has abortion become the forgotten issue in the 2026 midterm elections?

Ashley Brandt knows what it feels like to get smacked in the face by politics. She knows what it’s like to be affected by a draconian law that doesn’t see nuance or reason. She knows what it’s like to be an advocate, focusing on tiny wins whilst becoming a punching bag for the other side. She knows what it’s like to be lied about and smeared, and what it’s like to change a mind. For Brandt, abortion is not simply a law or a ruling or a campaign promise. It is the medical procedure that she received in Colorado in 2022 after being told that one of the 12-week-old twin girls she carried had developed an abnormality in her skull that would be lethal. Continuing to carry the child may have put the life of her healthy twin, and herself, at risk. In Texas, which operated under a near-total abortion ban even while Roe v. Wade was in effect, there was no way to terminate the life of the sick fetus.

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Brandt was forced to travel out of state to receive care, a decision that thousands of Texas women have made since the 2021 passage of Senate Bill 8, which banned abortions in all instances after a heartbeat has been detected in an embryo. Brandt made it through the procedure, returned home, and was overwhelmed by fear. Would the daughter she still carried remain healthy? Would she or her doctors be prosecuted for the decision to cross state lines? It was amid that anxiety that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the decades-old precedent that guaranteed women across the nation access to abortion care, and the world cracked open. “Coming home and trying to process and grieve my situation, (and then) seeing that happen just a week later, was devastating,” Brandt, who lives in North Texas, told the Observer. “All I could think was how many more women, how many families, were going to suffer under this decision.” When the Dobbs decision overturned Roe, protests converged on the steps of the Supreme Court. Record-breaking amounts of donations poured into centers offering resources and aid to women in need of abortion care. In 2022 and 2024, Democratic candidates put money towards ads highlighting their pro-reproductive rights voting records, and they went on the attack against Republicans who had worked to limit abortion access. Polling overwhelmingly showed that a majority of Americans supported access to abortions in at least some cases.

Jones and Galvan call for new vote on Spurs arena funding and back data center moratorium

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and District 6 Councilmember Ric Galvan are supporting a citywide vote on the proposed use of $489 million in city funding for a new downtown Spurs arena, while also opposing Gov. Greg Abbott’s call to introduce private competition into San Antonio’s electricity market. Appearing separately Monday on Texas Public Radio’s "The Source," Jones and Galvan stressed that the proposed vote would address the city’s contribution to the arena. And last November’s countywide vote on the issue was not sufficient. Bexar County voters narrowly approved $311 million in county funding for the project. “I think it’s really important that city voters have an opportunity to weigh in on the city’s $489 million contribution,” Jones said.

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She cited the city’s projected $158 million budget shortfall, possible property-tax increases and changes to the broader Project Marvel proposal as reasons voters should have the chance to vote on the city funding for the new NBA arena. Jones said the county and city contributions would expose San Antonio residents to a combined $800 million in public arena funding, before any additional downtown infrastructure bond. The city council would have to approve an election ordinance by Aug. 17 to place the question on the ballot. Six members of city council have signaled they would not vote to place the issue on the November 3 ballot — which is enough to block the measure. However, when asked whether he supported a citywide vote, Galvan responded, “I’m supportive.” But he wouldn’t acknowledge that his position is likely in the minority on council and, therefore, not likely to pass. Jones urged residents who want a citywide vote to contact their council representatives before the Aug. 17 deadline. “If you want to vote on the city’s $489 million contribution to the arena, please reach out to your council member,” she said.

National Stories

Hopes for Hormuz deal fade as Trump demands Iranian reparations

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday responded to Iran's conditions for a peace deal with his own demands ?that Iran pay compensation for people killed in wars, attacks and protests, in a rhetorical escalation likely to complicate efforts to reopen the Strait of ?Hormuz. Trump's proposal, which had not been raised before, was a response to Tehran's demands for compensation and an end to sanctions. The Iranian demands were largely in line with the terms of a preliminary peace deal signed in June, which has since broken down.

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Since the war began in February, Trump has repeatedly oscillated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal is imminent. "We're going to ask for money for the damage ?they've done over a 50-year period," Trump said at the White House, saying payments would cover deaths among both civilian demonstrators and U.S. forces in the region. "So if ?there's damages to be paid, I think Iran should pay those damages," Trump said. Oil prices settled 5% higher on Monday after the demands ?dimmed prospects for a deal to reopen the strait. Referring to Tehran's crackdown on demonstrations in late 2025 and 2026, Trump said Iran had ?killed some 52,000 protesters as of six weeks ago. While some Iranian opposition and exile groups have claimed tens of thousands killed, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) in February reported ?around 7,000 deaths including 6,500 protesters. Trump encouraged protesters to overthrow the Iranian government when the war began with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in February. Rights groups say the Iranian government has continued to crack down on opponents since then. Trump also said Iran should compensate families of the 17 U.S. sailors killed in an October 2000 attack in Yemen on the naval vessel USS Cole, which has been blamed on al Qaeda, not ?Iran.

Trump signs order calling for spacing out childhood vaccines, against medical groups’ guidance

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits. The order advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and administering all childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible. It also directs the nation’s health department to improve research on vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and present a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since that is not currently an option in the United States. The renewed focus on vaccines marks a departure from the Trump administration’s recent efforts to emphasize less controversial health policies related to healthy eating, drug price negotiations and medical fraud crackdowns ahead of November’s midterm elections.

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Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit. Childhood vaccines — and how and when to give them in combination — go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used. Trump called the announcement a “major victory for parents rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.” Speaking about the order at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump repeatedly suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even as scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link. The order also includes several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that his health department has already attempted, but that have been blocked by a federal judge. A White House official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters said Trump was within his right to provide his own recommendation through the executive order and said the lawsuit blocking the health department’s schedule was a separate issue. Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the announcement spreads uncertainty, fear and confusion where “there doesn’t need to be any of that.” He disputed Trump’s recommendations and said previous ones should stand.

NOAA says the Lower 48 US states set a record for hottest month in July

The contiguous United States sizzled to its hottest month ever last month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. July averaged 76.89 degrees Fahrenheit (24.94 degrees Celsius) across the Lower 48 states, eclipsing the Dust Bowl’s July 1936 by an eighth of a degree. Records go back to 1895. “It’s not good when you’re breaking records from the Dust Bowl, which we are in this case,” said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections. “And that was a crazy sort of situation where you put tens of millions of people in motion. You had this great migration because of the drought and the heat that hit the center of the U.S. — just a cataclysmic event in U. S. history. If we’re exceeding records from The Dust Bowl, that says that we’re in deep trouble.”

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Although it was unusually cool in Alaska, hotter-than-normal conditions blanketed the Lower 48, with the most excessive heat in the Mountain West, Southwest, Northern Plains and Southeast. The heat was so widespread that every one of the Lower 48 states was at least 1 degree Fahrenheit (nearly 0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average, said Russ Vose, chief of monitoring at NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information. What’s happening now is due to the burning of coal, oil and gas, scientists said. “Extremely high temperatures across the continental U.S. this summer, along with intense drought and fire conditions, are absolutely consistent with the climate change signal,’ said Katharine Jacobs, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona. The biggest driver of the record heat was nighttime lows that smashed the old mark for hottest minimums by 0.7 degrees, NOAA said. Hotter nights are a classic sign of human-caused climate change, according to scientists and several studies in peer-reviewed literature. NOAA’s calculation is based on averaging 24 hours of temperature, not just highs or lows. “If you’re talking heat waves, that nighttime low is incredibly important for determining total heat stress,” Masters said. “So if it doesn’t cool off at night, your body doesn’t have time to readjust to all the heat.” As nighttime temperatures increase, more people die and lose sleep, studies show.

Taylor Swift songs removed from White House, Trump campaign posts

Some Taylor Swift songs have been removed from social media videos posted by President Donald Trump's campaign and the White House, which has used two of the American superstar's songs over the past ?week. The White House and a representative for Swift did not immediately respond to requests for ?comment. The Reuters Inside Track newsletter is your essential guide to global sports news. Sign up here. Swift has not spoken recently about Trump, although she endorsed his Democratic rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in 2024. During the 2020 campaign, Swift posted on social media that Trump was "WELL AWARE we do not want him as our president."

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Trump has repeatedly criticized ?Swift. After she endorsed Harris, the Republican said on social media, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" Last year he ?wrote: "Has anyone noticed that, since I said 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,' she’s no longer "HOT?" Dozens of ?artists, including Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande, have called on the Trump administration not to use their songs. The Trump campaign ?used two Swift songs over the last week on its TikTok page. One, playing on her lyrics, featured the caption: "Red (Donald ?Trump's Version). Red (Taylor Swift Wrote A Whole Album About Republicans). Donald Trump. Everything Has Changed (At Our Southern Border). Donald Trump. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (The Biden Harris Administration). Donald Trump. The Last Time (An Autopen Runs The Country)." It referenced famous songs ?by the pop star. In June, Trump's campaign posted a video on the short-video platform with Swift's new "Toy Story ?5" song "I Knew It, I Knew You." The short video was captioned "Nobody loves our country & the American People more than @President Donald ?J Trump." ?It showed him interacting with children at the White House, dancing at a UFC match and appearing at a rally. It was the third time the Trump administration or his campaign had used one of the Grammy Award-winning pop star's songs in recent months.

Judge temporarily blocks Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new pied-à-terre tax hit a wall on Monday after a Staten Island judge ordered an emergency pause on the implementation of the new surcharge. The ruling came in response to a Friday lawsuit from a group of three aggrieved homeowners suing to delay the rollout of the tax because of how it has been executed so far. Wayne Ozzi, a state judge in Staten Island, entered a temporary restraining order mandating that the Department of Finance remove the tax roll of 960,000 properties that it published last month as part of the pied-à-terre tax rollout. The court also banned the city from taking any additional enforcement action on the tax warning notices that have already been mailed to 17,000 homeowners. The next hearing is scheduled for the afternoon of Aug. 31. The lawsuit isn’t challenging the legal basis for the pied-à-terre tax as a whole. Rather, it argues that the rollout has been botched so far. The plaintiffs—Rachel O’Brien, Carmine Morano and Simon Hedley—are New York City residents who say they were falsely targeted with the pied-à-terre tax notices and are now scrambling to prove that they live there.

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“We disagree with today’s ruling, but we are confident in both the pied-à-terre surcharge and the City’s ability to implement it fairly and effectively,” said Mamdani spokesman Matt Rauschenbach. “This surcharge asks those who own second homes valued at $5 million or more to contribute their fair share to the city they benefit from.” The spokesman added that the city’s Law Department intends to appeal the ruling immediately in order to halt the temporary restraining order and allow the tax rollout to proceed. State law requires the Department of Finance to make an initial determination of who is subject to the pied-à-terre tax based on available information like tax returns, property assessments and other official records. The lawsuit claims that city officials illegally placed the burden on homeowners to prove their residency status, rather than verifying that for themselves. “We are very gratified by the judge’s decision, which has vindicated the rights of hundreds of thousands of New York City homeowners who were subjected to a process they never should have been a part of in the first place,” said Randy Mastro, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. The pied-à-terre tax applies to homes worth $5 million or more and co-ops and condos worth $1 million or more in which the owner isn’t a primary resident. Mamdani has touted the tax as proof that he is delivering on his campaign promise to tax the rich to fund his agenda. The tax went into effect on July 1 and since then, the rollout has been messy. Some New Yorkers say they received notices warning they may be subject to the tax despite having lived in their residences for years or decades. Property owners had until Sept. 18 to challenge their tax notices or apply for an exemption. The judge on Monday said that no deadlines related to those tax letters should be enforced.

Will the left keep winning in the Midwest? Will Sen. Graham keep her seat? What to watch in Tuesday’s primaries.

The Democratic Party’s ascendant left flank, looking to build on its success in Michigan last week, faces fresh tests in two primaries in the Midwest on Tuesday. A democratic socialist appears to be clearly ahead in the governor’s race in Wisconsin, and a progressive is facing off against a moderate in an expensive Senate race in Minnesota. Wisconsin, like Michigan, is a closely watched national battleground. On the Republican side, President Trump’s choice to succeed Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina — Mr. Graham’s younger sister, Darline Graham — is running in a special primary election against four more experienced rivals. Despite Mr. Trump’s endorsement, a runoff is likely in the crowded race.

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Mr. Graham’s death last month rocked South Carolina politics, leading to Tuesday’s special primary election to succeed him. His sister, Ms. Graham, accepted Gov. Henry McMaster’s appointment to complete her brother’s term, but then she surprised South Carolina Republicans by deciding to run for a full six years in the Senate — with Mr. Trump’s support. Special elections, especially those run on a compressed calendar, can be unpredictable. Four other Republicans also decided to run, increasing the likelihood that a runoff will be necessary on Aug. 25. The front-runner for the Democratic nomination for governor of Wisconsin is State Representative Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist. While her victory on Tuesday is assured by most accounts, where she does well — or less well — could reveal clues as to whether the socialist brand can work in a general election in a purple state. More moderate Democrats worry that candidates with “socialist” by their names would struggle to win in America’s heartland, risking the party’s chance at a governorship in November. Far-left candidates including Abdul El-Sayed, who won the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan last week, have tended to do best among white and college-educated voters. More moderate Democrats fear that trend might suggest that other slices of the electorate that the party has counted on, including Black voters, could stay home in November. How well Ms. Hong does in Milwaukee, for instance, will be closely watched as election results come in.

White House officials tamped down efforts to oust Max Miller in final days

Members of President Donald Trump’s political team asked Ohio Republicans last week not to wage a public pressure campaign against embattled GOP Rep. Max Miller, after they became increasingly convinced he wouldn’t end his reelection bid. Their engagement, according to three people granted anonymity to share direct knowledge of private conversations, came as Miller insists he has no plans to withdraw despite serious allegations of domestic abuse, which he denies. Before that, some White House officials and Republicans had urged Miller to drop out of his race for reelection. Miller’s determination to remain in the race would render efforts to oust him moot, administration officials reasoned in calls with party leaders and other Republicans in the state over the past week. It would complicate messaging, the officials argued, when those same leaders would likely later have to defend Miller’s candidacy against a Democratic challenger.

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“They basically told us to back off,” said one Ohio Republican involved in the conversations, “and let the voters decide.” Miller faced a 4 p.m. Monday deadline to drop out, and state party leaders would have had to schedule a meeting to discuss his replacement two days prior to that. At one point, Republicans in the state discussed scheduling the required meeting to replace Miller, in the hopes it would pressure him to drop out of the race, according to two of the people. But Ohio Republicans scuttled that effort as White House officials warned them that Miller would not drop out and Republicans would likely have to defend the seat without a new GOP replacement contender. Spokespeople for Miller and for the White House did not respond to requests for comment. Some Republicans argue they have no choice but to close ranks around a candidate accused by his former father-in-law, Ohio GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno, of being unfit to serve and needing psychological help; Ohio’s other Republican senator, Jon Husted, has also said Miller should resign and not run for reelection. Miller has remained defiant amid the calls to resign.

Copyright August 11, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved