Lead Stories

Gov. Abbott blames Texas school districts for mass layoffs

If you don't like the budget cuts at your child's school — tough! It's your school's fault. That's the message Governor Greg Abbott had for Texans as he addressed state education finances and said it is not up to him or the state to fix it. Instead, he cited it as school districts' "consequence" for how they've handled their budgets as federal pandemic relief funds expire. In an interview on Thursday on Lubbock-based radio station KYFO, host Chad Hasty asked the governor what his message was to concerned parents from Houston-area school district Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, who blamed Abbott for their district's $138 million deficit. Cy-Fair is the third largest school district in the state and is just one of many tackling financial woes expected in the 2024-2025 academic school year.

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"You'll be shocked to hear this, but it's not me that's responsible for this," Abbott said. "Almost every school district in the state of Texas, as well as across the United States, is facing that very same problem for reasons completely unrelated to the state of Texas. The reason why they have a budget shortfall is because, the last couple of budgets they had, they had an incredible amount of money given to them by the federal government in the post-COVID years." Citing Texas' $19 million in ESSER funding, Abbott continued saying some campuses were more "responsible" on budgeting decisions than others. "The federal government just sent a boatload of money to our schools, and that increased their budgets dramatically," Abbott said. "Some schools were responsible in their budgeting to make sure that would not happen; others not so much. Some school districts, for example, took that money and hired additional people, and now they do not have that money coming into them from the federal government, and as a result, they have to lay off those people, and that's a consequence of spending the money that way." Abbott's comments come as several Texas school districts, including the state's largest system, Houston ISD, and other large districts, including Cypress-Fairbanks ISD and Spring Branch ISD, face massive layoffs and cuts across personnel. Last week, Houston ISD cut its janitorial staff to make up a $450 million shortfall, alerting employees that they could reapply on a contract basis but wouldn't be eligible for benefits. And they laid off more than 100 district employees who work with students dealing with poverty-related issues. Cy-Fair ISD recently slashed hundreds of positions, including librarians. Spring Branch ISD eliminated 215 positions in February because of its $35 million deficit.

Third person pleads guilty in Cuellar bribery investigation

A woman from Houston was the third person to plead guilty in the investigation of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife Imelda Cuellar for alleged bribery and money laundering, according to a recently unsealed plea agreement. It was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News. During a hearing closed to the public on May 1, the same day Henry and Imelda Cuellar were indicted, the Express-News reported that 67 year old Irada Akhoundova secretly entered a guilty plea to a charge of failing to register as a foreign agent for the country of Azerbaijan. Registration is required by federal law for anyone engaging in lobbying activities on behalf of a foreign government.

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The Department of Justice accused the Cuellars of laundering more than $600,000 in bribes from an oil and gas company owned by the Azerbaijan government and also from a bank headquartered in Mexico City from December 2014 and through November 2021. Akhoundova entered a guilty plea for coordinating a $60,000 payment to Imelda Cuellar in federal court. Cuellar’s former campaign manager, Colin Strother, and another consultant, Florencio "Lencho" Rendon, were the first two people to plead guilty in the investigation. They admitted to helping the Cuellars launder more than $200,000 in bribes from the Mexican Bank Banco Azteca. The Cuellars pleaded not guilty to all charges. Akhoundova has served as the president of the Houston-Baku Sister City Association, a nonprofit that builds ties between the Texas city and Azerbaijan’s capital.

Musk's SpaceX is quick to build in Texas, slow to pay its bills

SpaceX is building launch facilities, office buildings and even a shopping center in rural Texas, as billionaire Elon Musk's space venture rapidly expands its rocket and satellite business across the Lone Star state. But a Reuters review of Texas property records shows that SpaceX and its contractors can be far slower to pay builders and suppliers than they are to break ground. Unpaid bills and finger-pointing among contractors, Reuters found, have led many construction-industry businesses to file liens against SpaceX properties in efforts to get compensated. The result, several of those businesses told Reuters, is a reluctance to work on SpaceX-related projects again. "If they were to call me today, I'd tell them to fuck off," said Brian Rozelle, an owner of Hydroz Energy Services LLC.

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The excavating business was hired by SpaceX to clear storm drains at a facility near Brownsville, the south Texas city where much of the company's development has taken place. Until about two weeks after Hydroz filed a lien last June – months after it had performed the work – SpaceX didn't pay its $19,214 bill. "We're not some hundred-million-dollar company," Rozelle said. "It was hard on us." SpaceX didn't respond to requests from Reuters for comment on the liens and complaints from subcontractors and suppliers. Texas property records show that Hydroz is one of more than two dozen companies that have filed at least 72 liens since 2019 against sites developed by SpaceX and its contractors. Combined, Reuters found, the liens have sought payments totaling more than $2.5 million. Reuters couldn't determine for every lien whether outstanding bills were owed by SpaceX or by one of its contractors who commissioned work or materials on its behalf.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes major step toward appearing on presidential ballot in Texas

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer, said Monday he submitted more than double the necessary petition signatures to appear on the November presidential ballot in Texas. Kennedy, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, needed to collect 113,151 signatures from registered Texas voters who did not vote in the Republican and Democratic primaries in March. His application to appear on the Texas ballot included 245,572 signatures, Kennedy said. The Texas secretary of state’s office must verify that Kennedy met state requirements before his name can appear on the November ballot as an independent. Agency spokeswoman Alicia Pierce confirmed Kennedy’s campaign submitted its ballot application Monday.

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Kennedy’s campaign said he will be on the ballot in five states — Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware and Oklahoma — and has collected enough signatures to appear on ballots in Texas and eight other states. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s strength, character, and selfless dedication to defend and protect our democracy is a beacon of hope for all Americans,” said Kim Limberg, the campaign’s Texas director. “Lone Star State volunteers echo this sentiment and believe RFK Jr. is the best person to lead this country.” Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi predicted Kennedy’s campaign would hurt President Joe Biden’s efforts to win Texas’ 40 electoral votes. “We expect Kennedy to take more votes from Democrats than from Republicans as Texans are excited to vote for Donald Trump as our next President,” Rinaldi said in a statement, adding that Texas voters will be motivated by the “devastating effects” of Biden’s policies. Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, said he believes Kennedy’s skepticism toward vaccines is more likely to appeal to Republican voters.

State Stories

Democrats urge special session to increase Texas school funding

Texas Democrats urged Gov. Greg Abbott to call lawmakers back for a special legislative session Monday, citing “the urgent need to address school finance and improve funding for all of our school districts.” Some of Texas’ largest school districts face massive budget deficits, forcing some to cut teachers and staff for next school year. Democrats blame the cash crunch on the legislature’s failure to increase basic funding for the public school system in the last legislative session. Texas lawmakers had a record $33 billion budget surplus to allocate last year, but no money went towards increasing schools’ basic allotment – the uniform per-student funding that makes up the foundation of Texas’ school funding. Abbott tied school funding increases to his plan for state-subsidized private school tuition vouchers, which did not pass.

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‘Everybody’s hurting.’ Low-income Dallasites struggle with taxes as property values soar

It kept Juanita Velasquez up at night. Her home, not far from the western fork of the Trinity River, had been in her family since the early 1940s. It was her grandfather’s and then her mother’s and then hers. The 67-year-old spent all but two years of her life in that home in Dallas’ Ledbetter neighborhood. Velasquez wondered how much longer it would last. She was approaching retirement, and like others in Dallas County, her property taxes skyrocketed following the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The total market value of her west Dallas home jumped 135% in four years Her property taxes ballooned from just under $1,850 in 2019 to over $3,400 in 2023, an 85% increase. And she didn’t want to see what this year would bring. She knew she needed to get things fixed and fast. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to pay $4,000 in property taxes when my income is $1,400 a month,” she said. She isn’t the only one struggling. As property values surge, low-income Dallas residents in developing parts of town are left with property tax bills they struggle to afford. Total market value of residential properties in Dallas has increased over the last three years, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you paid more in taxes. From 2020 to 2023, the total market value of residential properties in Dallas County jumped 47%. If you owned a $400,000 home within the City of Dallas in 2020 and claimed a homestead exemption, you paid nearly $8,900 in taxes. Texas has a 10% cap on appraisal increases for residential properties with a homestead exemption, which affects the property bill on that house over the next several years.

Path ahead still uncertain for Dallas-to-Fort Worth bullet train

Regional transportation planners hope to advance a Dallas-to-Fort Worth bullet train, but the path to making the project a reality remains murky. The North Central Texas Council of Governments shared updates to the proposed project during a public meeting Monday. It would connect to the separate Dallas-to-Houston line led by Texas Central and Amtrak, but unlike its 220-mile counterpart, an agency to lead the project has yet to be identified. Also at issue is where the project’s funding would come from and the final alignment. NCTCOG has said it could be funded through a public-private partnership, but funding would be addressed after an outside entity takes on the project. The hunt for that agency wouldn’t begin until after the proposed rail line has been environmentally cleared. It’s currently undergoing the National Environmental Policy Act Review process, which is expected to wrap up in early 2025.

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NCTCOG has had preliminary conversations with Amtrak and foreign entities that have successful high-speed rail lines abroad, Wheeler said. “Especially for foreign investors that see the economic benefit of high-speed rail, they’re very concerned with the NEPA process from a standpoint of it It introduces risk into their pocketbook,” said Brendon Wheeler, transportation planning program manager at NCTCOG. “They don’t know how long it’s going to be, they don’t know how much it’s going to cost. [We said] let us take that on as a region, and then we can promote a project that has a cleared corridor.” The Dallas-to-Houston project also remains largely unfunded. Some Dallas City Council members have previously called into question the need for an expansion of the Dallas-to-Houston leg another 30 miles west. The proposed elevated rail route, which would approach Dallas from the west along Interstate 30, has also come under fire. Hunt Realty Investments, one of downtown Dallas’ biggest property owners, said in March that the current alignment would compromise a planned $5 billion development. It would slice through the southwest corner of downtown Dallas where Hunt owns the more than 20-acre Reunion property, which includes the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Reunion Tower. A new $3 billion convention center is also being planned near the route downtown.

El Paso mom won’t get damages for unexpected pregnancy after believing her tubes were tied

An El Paso woman who got pregnant a year after believing her doctor tied her tubes cannot recover medical negligence damages for the unexpected pregnancy, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. In the court’s opinion, Justice Rebeca Huddle wrote Texas law doesn’t allow for 41-year-old Grissel Velasco to be compensated for the financial cost or pain and mental anguish of giving birth to and raising a healthy daughter. And because there were no valid expenses associated with the pregnancy or postpartum period on record, Velasco can’t recover those economic damages either. “To award money damages for experiences inherent to a healthy birth wrongly suggests the mother’s rightful position is one where the child had never been born—i.e., that carrying a healthy baby to term is an injury,” Huddle wrote.

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Velasco was receiving prenatal care at Sun City Women’s Health Care owned by Dr. Michiel Noe in 2014. She said she paid ahead of time to get her tubes tied at the same time she delivered her son, believing that having more C-section births would be risky. Around October 2015, Velasco was surprised to learn she was four or five months pregnant. She didn’t want an abortion, she said, but she sued Noe and his clinic for not tying her tubes and not telling her the procedure hadn’t been done. Noe’s lawyers alleged Velasco’s medical records didn’t indicate she wanted her tubes tied, therefore he didn’t perform the procedure. Plus, the doctor testified she didn’t wait the full 30-day consent period required by law before the surgery could take place. Attorney Diana Faust told the court Velasco had no other medical expenses on record aside from the $400 Velasco said she was told by Sun City employees to pay for the tubal ligation. The money was refunded around November 2015.

Move to expand electricity transmission could boost Texas wind, solar generation

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moved Monday to overhaul the nation's transmission system, limiting states' authority to block long-distance power lines to try and enable remote wind and solar farms in places like West Texas and the Panhandle to more easily move electricity around the country. Under draft regulations approved by FERC, the commission will be able to overrule state objections to often unpopular transmission projects within designated corridors deemed necessary to the stability of the nation's power grid. FERC also ordered power utilities and state utility commissions to undertake a more comprehensive planning process when it comes to transmission, looking ahead 20 years to avoid the construction of "piecemeal transmission expansion addressing near-term needs."

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The main Texas power grid, operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, does not cross state lines and is not subject to most FERC rules and would be exempted from the order, though it can send and receive power from neighboring grids. Parts of the Texas Panhandle, East Texas and West Texas, which are served by other grids, would need to comply. The decision follows authority Congress granted to FERC in 2021 to speed up the development of transmission projects, which are routinely held up for years by litigation, state environmental reviews and federal bureaucracy. FERC Chairman Willie Phillips, a Democrat appointed by President Joe Biden, called the orders "milestones" in the nation's effort to modernize a power grid that is under stress from rising power demand, the retirement of old fossil and nuclear plants and more extreme weather events. "Our grid is being tested like never before and without significant action we won't be able to keep the lights on," Phillips said. "Failing to act is not an option."

Klein ISD trustees vow to increase safety after a string of teacher arrests

Trustees in Klein ISD vowed to reexamine safety and security practices on their campuses Monday, in light of a string of recent teacher arrests that brought statewide attention to the northwest Harris County district. “The trust has been undermined by ex-employees who have been accused of committing acts of egregious moral turpitude,” according to resolution the board unanimously approved at its regular May board meeting. “We must redouble our focus on student safety by evaluating our current practices with the most critical eye… to strengthen and maintain our community's trust.” Some trustees addressed the multiple arrests of former Klein ISD staff who were charged with various crimes relating to child pornography and sexual assault and trafficking of minors.

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“I'm devastated by the heinous acts inflicted on students by evil people,” Trustee Chris Todd said. “Some would have you believe that their actions were allowed, or that this was a result of neglect or poor leadership or simply the fault of public education in general. None of those are true…We cannot allow selfish political or personal ambition to take us off our mission.” The most egregious arrest was that of Kedria Grigsby, Klein Cain High School’s former cosmetology teacher, who was arrested on multiple counts of facilitating sex trafficking of minors, some of whom were area students who had been reported as missing. The trafficking arrest earned the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott, who blasted the district in an April tweet that advocated for school vouchers. Klein ISD officials did not specify whether the evaluation of district practices would be in the form of an official audit.

HISD parents protest job cuts and forced resignations: 'How do you fire the Principal of the Year?'

Roughly 200 parents and students started their day protesting in front of Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School, one of many Houston ISD campuses sent into turmoil last week with news that their principal was asked to resign. "Everything going on in the district right now is absolutely ridiculous," said Karina Gates, a Meyerland alum. "I don't even understand. How do you fire the Principal of the Year from last year? I don't get it. It's just politics. And they're screwing with our kids and their futures, and no, no that's not going to happen."

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Gates and Leslie Santamaria wanted their rising sixth graders, attending nearby S.C. Red Elementary, to attend Meyerland PVA because of the magnet school principal's "fantastic reputation," Santamaria said. But Principal Auden Sarabia was among several principals asked to resign or face a termination that he must appeal to HISD's Board of Managers, parents said. Gates and Santamaria said their children at Red started the academic year with a new principal and are under different leadership after that principal's January resignation. They could not weigh in on the selection processes for both principals after asking to do so, they said. Protesters outside the school held signs blasting state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles and calling for the protection of principals and teachers. The district has not disclosed how many principals have been targeted for alleged low performance.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: We endorse Charlene Ward Johnson for House District 139 runoff election

This past legislative session was not kind to education. Instead of adequately funding public schools, K-12 became a battleground for Gov. Greg Abbott’s misguided school voucher goals. But there was one area of education that fared OK, even well: community colleges. The Legislature’s $683 million investment in community colleges is part of an overarching reform of the way Texas funds the low-cost higher education institutions. From her elected board seat with Houston Community College, Charlene Ward Johnson, 56, advocated for the change. It puts less emphasis on enrollment, which had taken a hit during the pandemic, and instead offers incentives for schools based on metrics including students completing degrees, transferring to four-year institutions or earning a credential of value, meaning they earn a degree that readily translates to workforce opportunity. We’ll need that same type of advocacy and attention to detail to get the Legislature to give the public school funding formula the updates it needs. We believe Ward Johnson offers the right mix of advocacy and experience to replace outgoing state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, who happens to be her ex-husband, for District 139.

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“I have the leadership experience, dealing with legislation, creating policies, dealing with budgets, being able to bring that to help the community,” she told us. With experience in the energy industry, serving in customer-facing roles, Ward Johnson could also help provide an important consumer-focused voice to discussions about the ever-struggling Texas grid. And she’s worked to establish relationships that will help her once in office. She protested the state takeover of Houston ISD and earned the endorsement of the Texas American Federation of Teachers union. She has championed higher education opportunities for senior citizens and better workforce preparation, and earned the endorsement of Texas AFL-CIO, as well as former Houston Mayor and state Rep. Sylvester Turner. Her challenger in the runoff, Angeanette Thibodeaux, 52, also has a wealth of experience, having served as president for the Acres Homes Super Neighborhood and worked for decades across the country in the world of affordable housing, helping major corporations invest in communities. In a crowded primary field, Thibodeaux earned the greatest share of votes at 33%. As is often the case in primary races, many of the two remaining candidates' goals overlap: paying teachers more, expanding Medicaid, creating better opportunities for people exiting the criminal justice system, funding affordable housing opportunities across the community and not just in certain areas. Both have campaign donations from pro-charter school groups but say they would not support school vouchers.

GOP runoff pits 2 similar Republicans in race for North Texas Senate seat

In the Republican primary runoff election, two candidates are vying for a state Senate seat in a conservative-leaning North Texas district that has a population base in Denton County. Candidates Brent Hagenbuch and Jace Yarbrough have served in the armed forces and both attended Stanford University, but they have shown little camaraderie heading toward the May 28 election. Yarbrough wants Hagenbuch tossed from the ballot, alleging on the campaign trail and in a lawsuit that the perceived front-runner does not live in District 30. Hagenbuch has called Yarbrough a “smooth talker” who wants to be a career politician. It’s been a bruising campaign.

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Hagenbuch, the owner of a Denton-based trucking company, calls his effort a “resume and references” campaign that boasts backing from many of the state’s top Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and the district’s current senator, Drew Springer. Those seals of approval, plus the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, make Hagenbuch the presumed front-runner. “My background lines up very well to be a successful state senator, and I’m very confident we’re going to win this,” Hagenbuch, 64, said in a recent interview. Yarbrough, 37, said he is running a “grassroots, scrappy, young campaign” in a district that spans 11 counties and includes parts of the cities of Denton and Frisco. “We’re out and among good folks,” Yarbrough said in an interview. “We are being helped by so many good people across the district.” In the March Republican primary, Hagenbuch topped Yarbrough by about 2,400 votes, with 36.4% of the vote to Yarbrough’s 33.9% in a four-candidate race. Because neither received at least 50%, they are facing off in the runoff. The winner gets the Republican nomination and, in a district that voted for Trump over President Joe Biden by 22 percentage points in 2020, would be highly favored to succeed Springer, R-Muenster, who is retiring after two terms.

Southwestern blasts student's anti-Israel commencement speech

Southwestern University on Monday condemned a student's speech at its commencement Saturday, characterizing as “highly controversial and antisemitic” her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and asserting that she had misled institutional officials by delivering a different speech from the one she had shared with them earlier. “We … expect that student speeches at university-wide events reflect our commitment to a respectful and inclusive environment, while still upholding academic freedom that is the center of our mission,” the university said in its statement. “Unfortunately, certain comments did not reflect our respectful and inclusive environment.” The speech by the student differed little in terms of content from many others delivered in recent weeks and months.

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It described Israel as engaging in “genocide” in carrying out its war in Gaza, accused the U.S. government and some university endowments of supporting the arming of Israel, and closed with the “river to the sea” phrase that some view as calling for the elimination of Israel. Southwestern said in its statement that “many” of those who attended the ceremony had expressed disappointment with the student speaker’s comments. The university said the speaker had been chosen through a vote of Phi Beta Kappa members and that the speech the student delivered differed meaningfully from the version she had shared for feedback. Commenters on a Facebook post about the university's statement about the speech predictably divided alumni and students. Some criticized the speech, but a majority questioned Southwestern’s response: “The Southwestern administration should be ashamed … Don't spend four years teaching students to seek truth, provide them with the skills to identify it and then condemn them for having the courage to speak it.”

County Stories

In Hays County, damage from last week's storm tops $1 million

Hays County continues cleaning up after last week's severe weather, which officials say caused more than $1 million in damage. A storm system moved through the Hill Country with hail and high winds last Thursday, toppling trees and power lines and damaging homes. Damage was spread throughout Hays County, with central San Marcos among the most hard-hit areas. County Judge Ruben Becerra issued a disaster declaration on Friday.

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Alex Villalobos, Becerra's chief of staff, on Monday said current estimates put the storm damage total at $1.1 million for the county. However, he said he expects to total to rise, as some residents have yet to file insurance claims. The damage total for the county would have to be close to $1.6 million to qualify for aid from the state government, he said. Another storm system was moving through the area on Monday. Any damage caused by the Monday storms would be counted as part of the same weather event, Villalobos said, and would contribute toward the county meeting the threshold for state assistance. San Marcos’ city-owned electric utility, SMTX Utilities, reported 12,000 customers were without power at various points during the storms, according to city spokesperson Maddie Baker. Power wasn’t restored to all customers until Saturday night, she said.

City Stories

UT to add 576 beds with new graduate student housing complex, boost housing scholarships

The University of Texas will move forward with a graduate student housing project that will bring 576 beds along with entertainment, dining and grocery options. The UT System Board of Regents on Thursday approved the university's proposal to build the project at 1900 Comal St. The new development is the second phase of the university's plan to expand graduate student housing, UT President Jay Hartzell told the American-Statesman on Thursday. The new complex will be built near another new graduate student housing project UT plans to open in the fall with about 780 beds. It will also be near UT's athletic facilities and will have five new beach volleyball courts, which will allow the UT women's team to host NCAA competitions. The project is part of the university's commitment to establishing "high-quality affordable housing" and a strong sense of community for graduate students, which will help UT attract top talent, Hartzell said.

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"When I got the job in 2020, this was on the drawing board," Hartzell said. "As a person who went to graduate school at UT, I get the need. And as the city's gotten more expensive, this is just one more thing we're trying to do to ensure students choose us." Jim Davis, UT chief operating officer, said costs for the new graduate complex are still being estimated, and it is expected to open in 2027. The new development will feature about 9,000 square feet of retail space and 3,000 square feet for dining, which will help support the athletic and East Campus communities, a university spokesperson said. With the latest project, UT will have about 2,250 graduate student beds available in three complexes. The spokesperson said rental costs for the Phase Two housing units have not yet been determined but are expected to be at or below market value. Davis said the two residential complexes are the university's first new graduate student housing projects in about 40 years. The university is also continuing its housing scholarship program in the upcoming school year after launching the program this year to help low- and middle-income students with on-campus housing costs. UT spent about $5 million to subsidize housing costs for about 3,200 on-campus students who qualified for UT's tuition assistance program, Texas Advance Commitment.

National Stories

What to watch in Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska primaries

Voters in Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska will head to the polls Tuesday as several closely contested Senate and House races take shape. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is running against Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) for the Democratic nod to take on former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for a vacant seat that’s seen tens of millions of dollars spent so far this year. Trone’s decision to run for the Senate has left his House seat open, with a number of Democrats eyeing the seat, including a former Biden administration official and a Generation Z state delegate. Meanwhile, Rep. John Sarbanes’s (D-Md.) retirement is pitting a former U.S. Capitol Police officer who defended lawmakers during the Capitol riot against several state senators.

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A small handful of Republicans in West Virginia with high name ID are battling it out to get the Republican nomination in the governor’s race to replace Gov. Jim Justice (R): state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey; businessman Chris Miller, whose mother is Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.); former state Rep. Moore Capito, whose mother is Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and whose grandfather was a former governor; and Secretary of State Mac Warner. Justice endorsed Capito last month, though recent polling has largely seen Morrisey leading in first place. A flashpoint within the crowded GOP primary has surprisingly been a focus on transgender issues as candidates have sought to tack farther to the right. “You would think there are hordes of transgender [people] trying to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. It’s absurd,” Charleston-based political strategist Tom Susman told The Hill. Bacon is vying for a fifth term in the House, where he’s battling it out against conservative hard-liner Dan Frei. Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, waded into the GOP primary to back Frei — prompting Bacon to endorse Good’s challenger, John McGuire, as payback. Bacon is likely to come out ahead in the GOP primary, which will set him up for a rematch against state Sen. Tony Vargas, a Democrat. Bacon beat Vargas in 2022 by more than 2 points. Still, the fact Bacon has seen at least one House GOP lawmaker wading into the primary against him underscores bitter divisions that have been roiling the party in the lower chamber since last year. Bacon’s seat will be critical in House Republicans’ pursuit to hold onto their narrow majority this fall.

Biden announces new tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, including electric vehicles

President Biden will slap tariffs on $18 billion of imports of goods from China including electric vehicles, semiconductors, and medical products to protect the strategic sectors and punish China for unfair trade practices. He will also keep in place the tariffs that former President Donald Trump had placed on more than $300 billion of imports from China. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that she raised concerns last month during a trip to Beijing about "artificially cheap Chinese imports," concerns that she said many other countries share. She said the new tariffs are necessary to protect American workers and companies from what could become a flood of unfairly traded products. The move comes as Biden pushes forward to implement three pieces of legislation that contain hundreds of billions of subsidies to boost the domestic manufacturing and clean energy sectors — and ahead of a presidential election where trade and jobs will again be an issue.

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"We know China's unfair practices have harmed communities in Michigan and Pennsylvania and around the country that are now having the opportunity to come back due to President Biden's investment agenda," Lael Brainard, Biden's top economic adviser, told reporters. Most of the new tariffs cover items that the Biden administration has sought to have made in America through investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Trump had made tariffs on China one of his signature policy moves when he was in the White House. At first, some Democrats warned this could really hurt the economy — and that American consumers would pay the price. Biden's team began reviewing those tariffs when he took office, and now has decided to keep them in place. "One of the challenges is once tariffs have been imposed, it is quite difficult politically to reduce them — because the affected industry tends to get used to them, like them, operate with them as baked into their plans," said Michael Froman, who was U.S. Trade Representative during the Obama administration. The White House has tried to distinguish its strategy from Trump's approach. It points to comments made by Trump in rallies and interviews that he would broaden tariffs on all imported goods, including targeting Chinese cars, if he wins the election — something that they said would hike consumer prices.

Explosive revelations surface as Trump's legal team prepares to poke holes in enemy showdown

Prosecutors will continue their questioning of Michael Cohen on Tuesday after the ex-Trump attorney spent a full day on the stand Monday testifying against former President Trump in his criminal trial. Cohen is said to be the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team as they try to prove the former president falsified business records related to a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence. Cohen, who once famously said he would "take a bullet" for Trump, his former longtime boss and friend, testified against him about his role in arranging the alleged hush-money payment to Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election in an effort to keep her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump in the early 2000s from becoming public.

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Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger led the questioning. Cohen testified Monday that working at the Trump Organization was "fantastic" and working for Trump "was an amazing experience." Cohen testified that he spoke to Trump multiple times a day and often lied for his boss, saying he did so because "it was needed in order to accomplish the task." "The only thing on my mind was to accomplish the task and to keep him happy," Cohen said. Hoffinger asked Cohen if it was accurate to describe himself as a "fixer" for Trump, to which he replied, "It’s fair." But as for the payment to Daniels, Cohen testified that in October 2016, he told Trump that Daniels must be paid to quiet her claims ahead of Election Day the following month. When Daniels emerged, Cohen said Trump was "really angry with me." Cohen recalled Trump telling him: "’I thought you had this under control, I thought you took care of this.’" Cohen said he explained to Trump that he had taken care of Daniels’ allegations as far back as 2011, but as the story resurfaced, Trump directed Cohen to "just take care of it," calling the situation a total disaster and reasoning that it would hurt the campaign's chances with women voters. The ex-Trump attorney testified that he spoke with Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg about how to fund the payment, with Weisselberg saying he was not in a position to initially foot the bill.

Anti-war protests, a Chicago DNC: Is it 1968 all over again? Some historians say no

In late April, with election season in full swing and pro-Palestinian demonstrations sweeping college campuses across the U.S., a historian named Keith Orejel voiced an observation. "I just can't believe the parallels with 1968," the Wilmington College professor wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "I mean ok, Columbia has unrest and there's widespread anti war activism, that might be coincidence. But there is a guy named Robert Kennedy running for president and the [Democratic National Convention] is in Chicago. Like is this a bit?" That question seemed to resonate, and not just among the more than 8,000 people who liked Orejel's post. It has appeared in a growing number of think pieces and political interviews in recent weeks, especially with the school year ending and the general election — along with this summer's political conventions — fast approaching.

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Thousands of voters opposed to Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war voted "uncommitted" in their state primaries, earning at least eight delegates for the DNC. It's unclear how many of those voters will support Biden in November; several have told NPR that they don't know yet. It's not just politics that seem to be repeating. Both years also saw new Planet of the Apes movies, Summer Olympics and U.S. moon missions (though we're still far from another moon landing). And yet, Orejel says, 2024 is by no means a replica of 1968, which is widely considered one of the most tumultuous years in recent American and global history. That's an assessment shared by all three historians NPR interviewed for this story, who acknowledge some similarities between the years but caution against relying too closely on 1968 as a guide. Marsha Barrett, a professor of history at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, says it makes sense that people are looking for historical examples to understand what's happening now. But 1968, she argues, may not be the best one to use. "Maybe making a comparison helps you to make it clear why this moment is different or what was unique about that past moment in time," she says. "But I think there's too many factors that have changed between now and 1968 [for us to] really look to 1968 to help us understand what's going to happen next."

The Michael Cohen who testified Monday was not the witness anyone expected

The world has long known two Michael Cohens. There’s the fire-breathing “fixer” who famously bullied Donald Trump’s foes. And there’s the social media resistance hero he became after breaking with his former boss, lobbing insults at Trump with the same expletive-laden fury he used to reserve for Trump’s enemies. On Monday, the jury in Trump’s Manhattan hush money trial met a third, one who seemed to manifest in real time on the witness stand: mild-mannered, self-deprecating, just-the-facts-ma’am. (In fact, he said ma’am more than 100 times when addressing prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.) It was a reinvention that could define and even determine the outcome of Trump’s criminal trial, in which the former president is charged with orchestrating a scheme to prevent porn star Stormy Daniels from revealing an extramarital affair on the cusp of his 2016 presidential victory.

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That’s because Cohen, while recasting himself, also revealed perhaps the most damaging bit of evidence yet: a meeting just days before Trump assumed the Oval Office, in which, according to Cohen, Trump reviewed and endorsed a plan to reimburse him for paying off Daniels. It was a reinvention that could define and even determine the outcome of Trump’s criminal trial, in which the former president is charged with orchestrating a scheme to prevent porn star Stormy Daniels from revealing an extramarital affair on the cusp of his 2016 presidential victory. That’s because Cohen, while recasting himself, also revealed perhaps the most damaging bit of evidence yet: a meeting just days before Trump assumed the Oval Office, in which, according to Cohen, Trump reviewed and endorsed a plan to reimburse him for paying off Daniels. That is a critical piece of testimony because the alleged reimbursement scheme — and records related to it — are at the crux of the 34 felony charges against Trump. Prosecutors say that Trump, while reimbursing Cohen, falsified the reimbursement as a series of legal expenses in violation of New York law. And Cohen’s description of the January 2017 Trump Tower meeting is the first piece of direct evidence to suggest that Trump personally green-lit the scheme. But it is also a tricky piece of evidence for prosecutors, because the jury may need to rely solely on Cohen’s account of it. In Cohen’s telling, only three people attended the meeting: Cohen, Trump and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. Of those three, two — Cohen and Weisselberg — are convicted felons with a history of dishonesty. Weisselberg is currently serving jail time for perjury and appears unlikely to testify in the trial. Trump is under no obligation to testify in his own defense, which would open him up to cross-examination. And if he did testify, he would surely dispute Cohen’s version of the meeting — or deny that it happened at all.

Hospitals’ new message for patients: Stay home. We'll come to you.

Hospitals want you to visit them less often. Empowered by Washington and armed with Covid-inspired health innovations, health executives are seeking to increasingly move care outside of the hospital — despite the seeming risk to their bottom line. Hospital executives think they can more than make up the revenue by shifting their exam and recovery rooms to patients’ homes. And Congress is urging them on, with legislation in the works to help hospitals expand their at-home offerings and to allow Medicare to continue paying for telehealth after lawmakers first granted temporary permission after Covid struck. The appeal to lawmakers is potential savings if remote care proves more efficient, but hospitals also see financial advantage.

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The appeal to lawmakers is potential savings if remote care proves more efficient, but hospitals also see financial advantage. “It’s a real game changer for us” and “one of the silver linings to the pandemic,” John Couris, president and CEO of the Florida Health Sciences Center in Tampa, said of Congress’ support for remote care. “We’re all trying to diversify our revenue streams.” And it’s bipartisan. House legislation that would extend loosened pandemic rules for telehealth and hospital care at home won unanimous approval in the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday. In the Senate, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have a bill that would extend the rules permitting government reimbursement of care at home. A Carper aide told POLITICO that the senator plans to soon introduce another measure that would make hospital-at-home offerings permanent. Hospital leaders believe spinning up new lines of business and making health systems more efficient have the potential to buoy a sector that is still contending with the financial fallout from the pandemic — now without the federal emergency funding that blunted Covid’s impact. The American Hospital Association points to costs rising at the same time the sector operated in the red every month of 2022. Margins have improved since, but not enough for hospital leaders to take comfort in the status quo.

US to spend $200M on bird flu fight, including dairy farm compensation

The U.S. announced a $200 million plan on Friday to step up bird flu testing and enhance biosecurity measures on dairy farms as public health experts call for a more coordinated response to prevent the virus from moving to humans. The plan includes $100 million from the Agriculture Department encouraging dairy farms impacted by bird flu to implement biosecurity measures and take action to prevent the spread of the virus. Collectively, each affected location is eligible for up to $28,000 over the next 120 days. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services will spend approximately $100 million to scale up contact tracing efforts, wastewater surveillance and vaccine research. The USDA is providing a range of financial incentives to help increase biosecurity and cover veterinary fees plus costs associated with sample collecting and testing.

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Lead Stories

Battleground polling shows ticket-splitting pattern

This morning, we have a new set of polls for you in the battleground states, including New York Times/Siena College polls of Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and the inaugural Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena poll in Pennsylvania. The results in the presidential race would have been surprising a year ago, but it’s hard to call them surprising anymore. Donald J. Trump leads in five of the six states among likely voters, with Mr. Biden squeaking out a lead among likely voters in Michigan. Mr. Trump’s strength is largely thanks to gains among young, Black and Hispanic voters. What’s more surprising is the U.S. Senate results. This is the first time we’ve asked about Senate races this year, and the Democratic candidates led in all four of the states we tested: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada.

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Not only do Democrats lead, but they also seem to do so in an entirely customary way, with ordinary levels of support from young and nonwhite voters, even as Mr. Biden struggles at the top of the ticket. Nevada was ground zero for this striking ticket splitting. Mr. Trump led the poll by a staggering 12 points among registered voters, thanks to an eye-popping nine-point lead among Hispanic voters and a 13-point lead among those 18 to 29. But in the Senate race, everything looks “normal.” The Democratic senator Jacky Rosen led her likeliest Republican challenger by two points among registered voters, including a 46-27 lead among those 18 to 29 and a 46-28 lead among Hispanics. Remarkably, 28 percent of Mr. Trump’s Hispanic supporters and 26 percent of his young supporters back Ms. Rosen. This level of crossover voting has been extremely rare in the last few years, but it was pretty common before 2020. In fact, these results remind me a lot of the 2016 presidential election, when Mr. Trump surged in white working-class areas, Hillary Clinton surged in college-educated areas, and yet the Senate and House results by county still mostly followed the pre-2016 pattern.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Christianity is needed more than ever in Texas politics

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Gov. Dan Patrick wants to be a minister after his political career is done. “I want to be the first elected official who becomes a pastor, as opposed to the first pastor who becomes an elected official,” Patrick said last week on Praise, a Christian talk show on the Trinity Broadcast Network. You could argue that Patrick already serves as a pastor, with his flock being the Texas Senate. That’s where he’s pushed through numerous bills influenced, he says, by his Christian faith. Politics has long been a bastion for religious expression and activism, but Patrick sees room — and the need — for more. While the debate over how religion and government should mix has raged since America’s founding, Patrick sees Christianity as an essential guide for Texas lawmakers and their approach to governing — even as polls show a steady decline in the rate of churchgoing in America.

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“We as Christians shouldn’t be afraid to talk about political things,” Patrick said last Monday on Praise, where he was joined by television personality Phil McGraw and show host Matt Crouch. “People in politics shouldn’t be afraid to talk about their faith.” On the show, Patrick pointed to legislation aimed at transgender Texans as central to his political ministry. During last year’s legislative session, he spearheaded legislation that banned puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender adolescents seeking gender-affirming care. Lawmakers also restricted the college sports teams that trans athletes could join. Another bill outlawed some drag shows by banning sexually explicit performances in front of kids. “We have to stand up and push back, because there’s a real group pushing God out and trying to undermine our family,” he said on the show. State Rep. James Talarico welcomes more religion in politics, but the Austin Democrat believes Patrick has a misguided view of Christian principles in the legislative arena. “It would be great to have more Christians in public office who actually practice Christian values, like healing the sick and liberating the poor and caring for God’s creation,” Talarico said. “Those are not things that I’ve seen in Lt. Gov. Patrick.”

Clean energy shift is in danger as major companies and tech giants struggle to meet climate goals

A wave of corporations, from oil companies to tech giants, are struggling to meet their climate goals amid society’s continued reliance on oil and other fossil fuels, putting efforts to shift the world almost entirely to clean energy by 2050 into increasing question. European oil giant Shell this year pulled back its emissions reductions targets, citing “uncertainty in the pace of change in the energy transition.” And companies including Microsoft, Walmart and United Airlines have had their climate goals decertified by the United Nations' Science Based Targets initiative, following concern the plans to achieve emissions reductions were too vague. Underlying the examination of corporate climate targets is a global economy that continues to remain hugely reliant on fossil fuels, even as wind and solar energy continue to grow at a rapid pace, said Andrew Logan, oil and gas director at the nonprofit climate group Ceres.

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“We’re seeing the rubber hit the road between companies' net zero aspirations and whether they have a coherent and defensible plan to get there,” he said. “There are companies that thought this was going to be simpler and you could just convert to 100% renewable or rely on efficiency to drive down emissions more than was realistic.” After years of stagnant crude demand in the United States, oil consumption is rising again, up 1.5% last year from 2021. And natural gas demand continues to rise, up 4.5% over the past five years, with Goldman Sachs projecting an even larger surge in gas demand coming this decade as power grids try to keep up with boom in new data centers. Oil and gas companies dominate the Texas economy and have struggled in recent years to convince investors of their long-term viability amid global decarbonization efforts. Now, the years ahead are suddenly looking bright.

Michael Cohen: A challenging star witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial

He once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump. Now Michael Cohen is prosecutors’ biggest piece of legal ammunition in the former president’s hush money trial. But if Trump’s fixer-turned-foe is poised to offer jurors this week an insider’s view of the dealings at the heart of prosecutors’ case, he also is as challenging a star witness as they come. There is his tortured history with Trump, for whom he served as personal attorney and problem-zapper until his practices came under federal investigation. That led to felony convictions and prison for Cohen but no charges against Trump, by then in the White House. Cohen, who is expected to take the stand Monday, can address the jury as someone who has reckoned frankly with his own misdeeds and paid for them with his liberty. But jurors likely also will learn that the now-disbarred lawyer has not only pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and a bank, but recently asserted, under oath, that he wasn’t truthful even in admitting to some of those falsehoods.

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And there is Cohen’s new persona — and podcast, books and social media posts — as a relentless and sometimes crude Trump critic. As Trump’s trial opened, prosecutors took pains to portray Cohen as just one piece of their evidence against Trump, telling jurors that corroboration would come via other witnesses, documents and the ex-president’s own recorded words. But Trump and his lawyers have assailed Cohen as an admitted liar and criminal who now makes a living off tearing down his former boss. “What the defense is going to want the jury to focus on is the fact that he’s a liar” with a blemished past and a tetchy streak, said Richard Serafini, a Florida criminal defense lawyer and former federal and Manhattan prosecutor. “What the prosecution is going to want to focus on is ‘everything he says is corroborated — you don’t have to like him,’” Serafini added. “And No. 2, this is the guy Trump chose.” In criminal trials, many witnesses come to the stand with their own criminal records, relationships with defendants, prior contradictory statements or something else that could affect their credibility. Cohen has a particular set of baggage. In testimony, he will need to explain his prior disavowals of key aspects of the hush money arrangements and to convince jurors that this time he is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Still in the Trump fold when the Daniels deal came to light, he initially told The New York Times that he had not been reimbursed, later acknowledging repayment — as did Trump, who had previously said he did not even know about the Daniels payout.

State Stories

How Texas became the hottest grid battery market in the country

On the warm spring night of April 28, Houston had a problem. Denizens of the most populous region in Texas were cranking up air conditioning to beat the early burst of summery heat. Texas’ nation-leading solar fleet had wound down for the night, passing the baton to the nation’s largest fleet of fossil-fuel-burning plants to keep all those air conditioners going. Gas and coal plants were pumping out 40 gigawatts of power — but another 27 gigawatts of thermal plants were offline, undergoing maintenance ahead of the bustling summer season. That scheduled maintenance exposed a vulnerability in the gas fleet, which politicians in Texas and elsewhere frequently tout as being unfailingly dependable. ?“They’re reliable when they’re on and they have fuel, which is not always the case,” noted Joshua Rhodes, an energy researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.

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That unlucky mix of unseasonable warmth and power plant maintenance threatened the supply of power for the 26 million customers hooked up to the state’s uniquely isolated grid, which is run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. Fortunately, the grid operator had a new tool it could fire off in an instant. Enormous, digitally controlled batteries across the Lone Star State rapidly injected 2 gigawatts of power into ERCOT’s wires just before 8 p.m., staving off potential power shortfalls and lowering electricity costs for customers. Aaron Zubaty, CEO of Eolian Power, was watching these events closely. His company owns and operates some of the biggest batteries in Texas, and he saw April 28 as a test for the ascendant Texas energy storage industry. “This was the largest instantaneous amount of energy storage deployed to date in the Texas market, but nevertheless is a record that will be substantially exceeded this summer as more energy storage capacity is commissioned in the coming months,” he noted at the time.

How the state’s complex toll system is choking thousands of Texas drivers

Every day, thousands of drivers jump on toll roads to ease their commutes to work and school. Toll roads overlook international bridges and crossings on the Texas-Mexico border, they connect drivers to airports all over the state and they circumnavigate urban cores by way of loops and tunnels. Texas has so many toll roads that it has earned the distinction of building more miles than nearly all other states combined. Picture this: If you stretched the state’s 852 miles of toll roads across the eastern U.S., they would pass through 13 states — from Maine to South Carolina, a yearlong Dallas Morning News investigation has found.

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The high concentration of toll roads came about because state leaders disdained higher taxes but needed a way to prepare for an influx of new residents. But now those same roads are adversely affecting drivers all over Texas and are being denounced by some of those same elected officials at the state Capitol, The News’ investigation found. Toll roads have engulfed some communities, the examination found, making it difficult for residents — especially those who live in middle- to low-income neighborhoods — to avoid them or travel easily without them. They have also brought complaints from motorists and some local judges about excessive fees and unfair treatment by some of the state’s largest toll operators. Each year, thousands of drivers are hauled into court for unpaid fees. Some have their car registrations yanked and others are sent to jail even when they have proof the fees they were charged are incorrect. These practices make Texas one of the country’s harshest and most unforgiving states for unpaid toll fines, the investigation revealed. Even more troubling is that the evidence most often used to convict drivers for unpaid toll fees may not hold up in court, several national legal and transportation analysts told The News. That’s because the penalties are based on an image of a vehicle’s license plate and not proof that shows the identity of a car’s driver. “You have to prove in a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt that a person drove a vehicle through without paying a toll,” said Lisa Foster, a retired California superior court judge who is now co-director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, an organization that works to ensure fines are equitably imposed and enforced. “You can’t prosecute a car, you have to prosecute people for doing things illegally.”

Houston is one of the world's top cities for millionaires. Here's how many live here.

Houston is among the world’s wealthiest cities, with the number of millionaire residents here soaring during the past 10 years, according to a new analysis. There are 90,900 millionaire residents in Houston, according to an annual report from Henley & Partners, a London-based investment migration consultancy. According to that metric, Houston is the fifth-wealthiest city in the United States and 17th in the world, just above the canton of Zurich, in Switzerland. Houston is also home to 258 centimillionaires — those with a net worth of at least $100 million — and 18 billionaires, according to Henley & Partners. The consultancy advises wealthy individuals on migration decisions.

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New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area lead the world when it comes to collecting millionaires, with about 350,000 in New York and 306,000 in the Bay Area. Tokyo ranks third, with about 298,000 millionaires. Tokyo is among several world cities where the number of millionaires has declined over the past 10 years, the report notes. But the number of has soared in many cities across the Sun Belt. Houston saw a 70% increase in local millionaires from 2013 to 2023, Dallas saw a 75% increase, and in Austin the number of millionaires has more than doubled to 32,700, according to the report. The Texas capital is America’s top city in terms of millionaire growth. “Taxes are quite low in states such as Texas and Florida, so that’s probably a major driver of the recent millionaire growth in these states,” said Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth and a contributor to the report. He added that Houston could continue to attract and create more millionaires within city limits. “Strong growth in high-value sectors sector such as high tech, tourism, green tech, fintech, wealth management, and family offices and engineering will be key,” he said. “Also, if Houston is able to get more Fortune 500 companies to move their headquarters to the city, that would significantly boost wealth held in the city.”

El Paso leaders criticize UTEP president over NSF grant handling

El Paso’s top elected officials criticized UTEP President Heather Wilson in a letter Wednesday, saying her actions this week involving the university’s Aerospace Center “will impact the economic future of our entire region and jeopardize a once-in-a-generation opportunity.” Mayor Oscar Leeser, County Judge Ricardo Samaniego and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar sent the letter two days after the University of Texas at El Paso announced that the National Science Foundation had suspended a major economic development grant. Wilson also removed Ahsan Choudhuri as head of the Aerospace Center he founded.

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“We are extremely concerned with the announcement regarding the removal of Dr. Ahsan Choudhuri as the head of the Aerospace Center at UTEP. Dr. Choudhuri’s involvement and leadership (have) been instrumental in moving this initiative forward. His removal will impact the economic future of our entire region and jeopardize a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We cannot even fathom what would lead you to take such a negative action toward our community given that the National Science Foundation’s Office of Inspector General investigation is ongoing,” the letter said. University of Texas System officials issued a statement Thursday supporting Wilson’s actions regarding the NSF grant and the Aerospace Center. “The University of Texas at El Paso President Heather Wilson has fully briefed us and the entire UT System Board of Regents on matters regarding UTEP’s Aerospace Center and the facts regarding the removal of Dr. Choudhuri as its leader. We are unwavering in our support of her decisions on the matter, and we know they were guided by the highest ethical standards that we expect of our university presidents,” said the joint statement from UT System Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife and UT System Chancellor James Milliken.

UT commencement ceremony goes off without a hitch, but protesters rally after event

The University of Texas' 141st commencement Saturday evening was followed by a pro-Palestinian protest of students, faculty and supporters in red gloves demanding that the university divest from businesses and weapons manufacturers that contribute to Israel because of its war against Hamas in Gaza. The protest followed numerous demonstrations at UT and national calls for institutions to divest as the war continues. UT held its commencement despite some other universities around the nation canceling commencement or facing protests during ceremonies. The university posted clear conduct guidelines on its commencement page that prohibited disruption.

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Before the ceremony, a small plane circled with an Israeli and American flag and a banner that said, "Israel Strong." During the ceremony, there was no interruption. But as commencement concluded, protesters gathered outside Royal-Memorial Stadium and marched to the Lyndon B Johnson Fountain and Lawn. Police followed protesters to the lawn but did not interfere. "Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!" protesters chanted, carrying signs and flags and some wearing graduation regalia. About 100 gathered. A statement posted on the Palestine Solidarity Committee's Instagram account halfway through the ceremony said some UT students and faculty members walked out of commencement because they have lost faith in UT's administration and UT President Jay Hartzell "for their extreme repression of pro-Palestine voices." "Despite our pleas for the university to divest from death, they remain obstinate in their complicity in genocide and have brutalized their students for advocating against it," the statement said. "It is shameful for us to sit and celebrate the ceremony on this field when there is not a single university left standing in Gaza."

How T.C. Broadnax's salary as Austin's city manager compares across the state

T.C. Broadnax began his job as Austin's new city manager on Monday. He is starting as the city's highest-paid employee at nearly half a million dollars. By comparison, his compensation is among the highest in the state, even over larger cities like Dallas and San Antonio. KUT collected data from those cities and others to see what might explain the large difference in salaries. Here's what we found out. Before Broadnax's hire, Austin had been without a permanent city manager for more than a year sinceSpencer Cronk was firedin the aftermath of the 2023 ice storm. Jesús Garza served in the interim. Garza made several controversial decisions in the role, including appointing a new department head for the Office of Police Oversight.

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Broadnax comes to Austin after spending the last seven years in Dallas. Before that, he worked as a city manager in Tacoma, Washington, and was assistant city manager in San Antonio. City leaders have said his experience is what singled him out as a top candidate for the job and is the main reason they are paying him such a large amount of money. When city council members approved his hiring in April, his employment agreement guaranteed him a base salary of $470,000. He will also receive an array of fringe benefits, including a $5,000 per month housing allowance for six months to offset costs of a temporary residence, relocation and moving assistance; a cell phone stipend; and an "executive allowance." San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh was hired in March 2019 and makes about $374,000 a year. He also receives an additional $16,000 in incentives and allowances, such as a phone and car allowance. Altogether, he makes around $390,000, according to San Antonio city data. But Walsh is now capped, meaning his salary does not have the potential to grow, said Luke Simons, a spokesperson for San Antonio. Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke was hired in June 2014. Today he earns $410,017 annually. He, like Walsh, receives a variety of additional benefits in the role, including a $7,200 annual car allowance. Cooke was a county manager in North Carolina when he was hired to join Fort Worth. His starting salary was $315,000 and came with a $2,500 monthly housing allowance during his first six months. He also received relocation benefits, including up to six round trips from Fort Worth to Raleigh, North Carolina, moving company expenses and the relocation of two cars, according to his contract.

Ed Frauenheim: In the 2024 presidential election, it’s The Godfather vs. Yoda

(Ed Frauenheim is co-author, with Edward M. Adams, of “Reinventing Masculinity: The Liberating Power of Compassion and Connection.”) This year’s presidential election isn’t just about visions for the country. It’s also about versions of older manhood. And what those mean for men of all ages. Donald Trump, 77, offers us Don Corleone from “The Godfather” — a violent, power-obsessed patriarch. Joe Biden, 81, is more like Yoda — the “Star Wars” sage with surprising feistiness. The stakes are high as the country chooses between the candidates and their takes on masculinity. Polls suggest Biden has the bigger challenge, including widespread concern that he is over the hill. But as Biden suggested in his recent State of the Union speech, the crucial question is which direction you’re facing as an aging man — forward or backwards? “The issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are,” Biden said. “It’s how old our ideas are.”

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Trump has an outdated male ethos. MAGA masculinity is a conventional, confined definition of manhood, with just a few acceptable roles and ways of relating to others. Be a provider, a protector or a conqueror. Dominate others, do it by yourself and show no vulnerability. Trump’s father famously told him to be “a killer,” be “a king.” Those options limit older men to show up much as Trump does: like a cold-blooded mob boss. Still, Biden has a tough job to do to sell his version of manhood. Many American men feel like they’re losing, as traditional notions of masculinity collide with a changing world. Trump’s might-makes-right manhood offers a simplistic, seductive answer. Biden’s is a more complex masculinity that blends traditional male archetypes such as conviction and commitment with the deeply human qualities of compassion and connection. Biden’s mature male ethos is what we need now. Qualities such as self-awareness, empathy and cooperation are vital in a world that is faster, flatter and more fairness-focused. The strongman and the barking boss of yesteryear now come across as rigid, cold and isolated in a business climate and society that call for agility, warmth and connection.

Houston-area agricultural drone company started in a UT dorm room. Now it's ready for liftoff.

On a gray and muggy afternoon, several hundred handsome black cattle went about their business at the Wodagyu Ranch in Richmond, seemingly undisturbed by the beeps and buzzing overhead. "They're certainly used to it," said Arthur Erickson, co-founder and CEO of agricultural drone company Hylio, which he and several friends began in a dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin about 10 years ago. Co-founder Mike Oda grew up on the Fort Bend County ranch, Erickson explained, meaning that the company's co-founders always had a suitable place to tinker, ideate, manufacture and test their drones, which are used to apply herbicide, insecticide, fertilizers and other chemicals over farm and ranchland. Now they have grown to a company of about 75 people, with a foothold in the rapidly growing agricultural drone market.

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Erickson explained that when he began college in 2012, aerospace engineering students like himself were abuzz about drones and space, two sectors that were seeing rapid innovation and growth. He was drawn to drones, seeing their potential practical uses, and soon found that several of his friends, also from the Houston area, had complementary skillsets. Oda, now the company's CFO, was majoring in finance at the McCombs School of Business; Nikhil Dixit, now CTO, was studying computer science; Nick Nawratil, COO, was also an aerospace engineering student. All were able to put a few thousand dollars of their personal savings into the business, which officially launched in 2015, and soon began offering drone spraying services for $20 an acre to help finance operations. Hylio sold its first drone at a trade show in Indiana in 2018, Erickson said, to a farmer in his 60s or 70s who had never used a drone before but was convinced of its usefulness after a brief test flight.

State of Texas: Leaders weigh marijuana options after local decriminalization measure fails

An effort to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana appeared on the ballot recently in another Texas community, and the results turned out differently than similar initiatives in other Texas cities. On May 5, voters in Lubbock overwhelming rejected Proposition A by a margin of 30 percentage points — 65% opposed the measure, while 35% supported it. If approved, it would have told police to stop arresting people for having less than four ounces of marijuana in most cases. The proposed reform drew loud opposition from local conservative leaders, like Texas Rep. Carl Tepper. He explained why he believed the effort failed there, while six other Texas cities — Austin, Denton, Elgin, Harker Heights, Killeen and San Marcos — already approved similar decriminalization measures.

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“Because Lubbock has common sense,” Tepper said Thursday. “People from Lubbock travel a lot. We’re a great place to live, but our folks like to go out of town for vacation. Again, they’ve been to Portland; they’ve been to Denver; they’ve been in New York City. They have some common sense. Those other communities made a horrible, terrible mistake.” Adam Hernandez with the group Lubbock Compact, which pushed for voters to approve Prop A, addressed whether he though the loss in Lubbock would affect the movement in Texas to bring about marijuana decriminalization reforms. “We just weren’t able to get that voter turnout high enough, but in a lot of cities, you may not have that same issue,” Hernandez explained. “So I don’t think for the overall mission people should take this as sort of a bad sign if you will.” So far the idea of decriminalizing marijuana has gone nowhere the Republican-controlled Texas Capitol. That’s why groups like Ground Game Texas are pushing local ballot measures to send a message to lawmakers and activate voters.

Cruz gets ‘grief’ from fellow Senators over work to pass bipartisan FAA bill

A show of bipartisanship in Washington helped Senators pass a bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration. The $105-billion bill aims to improve customer service and safety for air travelers. The deal came Thursday night, just hours before a deadline that could have led to the FAA furloughing 1000s of workers. It still needs approval in the House. One challenge to passing a major piece of legislation is the work to keep members from stalling the bill by adding amendments or making moves to block progress unless their own priorities are added. One Senator who played a key role in managing the process for the FAA bill is someone who has a reputation for being one who normally disrupts the process: Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz is the ranking member of the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science and Transportation. Cruz, along with Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) took the lead in managing the FAA bill, to make sure the package passed.

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“It really was building bipartisan compromise. And I have to say the way this bill moved forward, I think is a model for how legislation should move forward,” Cruz said in an interview for the State of Texas politics program. Sen. Cruz elaborated on the process he and Sen. Cantwell followed to move the bill forward. “We solicited from our colleagues their priorities, and this bill incorporates amendments priorities for over 200 different amendments that came from other senators from Republicans from Democrats addressing needs and concerns they have in their states. That process was an extended negotiation as we worked through incorporating those amendments,” The measure passed 88 – 4 in the Senate. Cruz described it as “an overwhelming bipartisan vote.” Cruz is not normally someone associated with bipartisanship. The Hill reported that some of his fellow senators gave him some ribbing as he worked to keep the bill on track. Basically, they found it funny, since Cruz is seen as usually the one blocking legislation.

National Stories

Elon Musk’s diplomacy: Woo right-wing world leaders. Then benefit.

Minutes after it became clear that Javier Milei had been elected president of South America’s second-largest nation in November, Elon Musk posted on X: “Prosperity is ahead for Argentina.” Since then, Mr. Musk has continued to use X, the social network he owns, to boost Mr. Milei. The billionaire has shared videos of the Argentine president attacking “social justice” with his 182 million followers. One doctored image, which implied that watching a speech by Mr. Milei was better than having sex, is among Mr. Musk’s most viewed posts ever. Mr. Musk has helped turn the pugnacious libertarian into one of the new faces of the modern right. But offline, he has used the relationship to press for benefits to his other businesses, the electric carmaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. “Elon Musk called me,” Mr. Milei said in a television interview weeks after taking office. “He is extremely interested in the lithium.”

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Mr. Musk has declared lithium — the silvery-white element that is the main component in Tesla’s car batteries — “the new oil.” Tesla has long bought lithium from Argentina, which has the world’s second-largest reserves. Now Mr. Milei is pushing for major benefits for international lithium miners, which would likely give Tesla a more stable — and potentially cheaper — flow of one of its most critical resources. Mr. Milei is part of a pattern by Mr. Musk of fostering relationships with a constellation of right-wing heads of state, with clear beneficiaries: his companies and himself. Mr. Musk, 52, has repeatedly used one piece of his business empire — X, formerly known as Twitter — to vocally support politicians like Mr. Milei, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Narendra Modi of India. On the platform, Mr. Musk has backed their views on gender, feted their opposition to socialism and aggressively confronted their enemies. Mr. Musk even personally intervened in X’s content policies in ways that appeared to aid Mr. Bolsonaro, two former X employees said. Mr. Musk, in turn, has pushed for and won corporate advantages for his most lucrative businesses, Tesla and SpaceX, according to an examination by The New York Times. In India, he secured lower import tariffs for Tesla’s vehicles. In Brazil, he opened a major new market for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service. In Argentina, he solidified access to the mineral most crucial to Tesla’s batteries.

Pelosi rebuked to her face during Oxford debate after condemning Americans clouded by 'guns, gays, God'

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was rebuked as an "elite" during a recent Oxford Union debate, where she argued that populism in the United States is a threat to democracy. Pelosi — a self-described "devout" Catholic — said during the April 25 debate that certain Americans, whom she considered to be "poor souls who are looking for some answers," refuse to accept the answers Democrats give them on particular topics due to their beliefs about "guns, gays, [and] God." Challenging Pelosi's position in the debate about populism, Winston Marshall, a musician who was once a part of Mumford and Sons and now hosts the "Marshall Matters" podcast for The Spectator, spoke in opposition to the Oxford Union motion that "This House Believes Populism is a Threat to Democracy."

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The Oxford Union at the UK's famed university holds itself as a defender of free speech, and has hosted events with numerous U.S. politicians in the past, including former Republican House Speakers Newt Gingrich and Kevin McCarthy. Marshall argued at the April 25 debate that the meaning of the word "populist" has been changed by "elites [who] have failed" to align with their own narrative. "'Populism' has become a word used synonymously with ‘racist.’ We've heard ‘ethno-nationalist,’ we have ‘bigot,’ we have ‘hillbilly,’ ‘redneck,’ we have ‘deplorable,’" Marshall said. Pelosi had argued in her remarks that contemporary American populism currently had an ethno-nationalist character. "Elites use it to show their contempt for ordinary people," Marshall said. Marshall argued that the change in meaning of the word "populist" is "a recent change," and pointed to a 2016 speech delivered by then-President Barack Obama, who he said "took umbrage with the notion that Trump be called a populist." "If anything, Obama argued that he was the populist. If anything, Obama argued that Bernie was the populist," he said. "Something curious happens. If you watch Obama's speeches after that point, more and more recently, he uses the word ‘populist’ interchangeably with ‘strong man,’ ‘authoritarian.' The word changes meaning. It becomes a negative, a pejorative, a slur."

The elections next door: Mexico’s cartels pick candidates, kill rivals

This time, Willy Ochoa brought reinforcements. This time, unlike the last time, he’d be ready for cartel attacks. He was accompanied by three truckloads of national guard troops. Two state police cars with flashing red lights. He rode in his own bulletproof SUV, and had a complement of muscular bodyguards. One sat in the bed of a pickup truck, his eyes fixed on the sky. “He’s making sure they don’t fire a bomb from a drone,” Ochoa explained. This is what it’s like to run for the Senate today in Mexico. “You’re at risk every minute,” the candidate said. Organized crime groups are turning Mexico’s elections into a literal battleground, making the campaign this year one of the deadliest in the country’s modern history. More than two dozen candidates have been killed leading up to the June 2 vote; hundreds have dropped out of the race. More than 400 have asked the federal government for security details. The campaign of intimidation and assassination is putting democracy itself at risk.

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The armed groups’ goal is to install friendly leaders in local offices so they can better exploit Mexican communities. Once largely focused on shipping drugs to the United States, the cartels now also smuggle migrants, extort businesses and win contracts for firms they control. They want to name towns’ police chiefs and public works directors. That makes controlling mayor’s offices crucial. But candidates for governor and Congress are at risk, too. In some areas, cartels wield so much power they can decide who can enter towns — or even what people may say out loud. “They don’t like it when you talk about the organized crime violence, the extortion, the people forced out of their communities,” said Ochoa, running as the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate to represent Chiapas state in the Senate. When his campaign announces visits to strife-torn areas, he said, “we receive threats and warnings to not come.” He’d had his own brush with danger in February, when gunmen on motorcycles charged after him, following a campaign stop in a tense town. He wasn’t going to leave himself so vulnerable again.

Stormy Daniels court appearance reopens wounds for Trump’s #MeToo accusers

Amy Dorris tried not to watch too much news last week as Stormy Daniels gave her courtroom account of sex with Donald Trump. But little details from Daniels’s story have stuck with her, she said. The age gap. Daniels’s description of leaving a hotel bathroom and being surprised to see Trump in his boxers. Dorris said it reminded her of her own encounter with Trump outside a restroom in 1997, when she and her boyfriend attended the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Trump’s VIP box. “I came out,” Dorris recalled, “and there he was.” Dorris said Trump was suddenly kissing her and groping all over her body, despite her protests. She first disclosed her account publicly in 2020 after years of hesitation. Trump at the time denied the allegation through a lawyer. Dorris said she lost friends, shut down her social media and left her house for months over worries about her safety and privacy.

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Now, Dorris and some other women who had publicly accused Trump of kissing or touching them inappropriately — sometimes alleging assault — are watching his campaign to return to public office with alarm. They are confiding in one another, following Trump’s trials together and occasionally talking over Zoom. Despite a national reckoning with sexual misconduct shortly after Trump’s 2016 election, they feel the former president is politically more impervious than ever to their claims. More than a dozen women have accused Trump, who is on course to be the Republican nominee for president for a third straight time, of sexual assault or aggressive, unwanted advances they said left them feeling violated. Trump or his representatives have denied all of the accusations and have sought to undermine the credibility of the accusers. The accounts span several decades and some have resurfaced in the criminal and civil trials he has faced as he seeks to return to the White House. Many of the allegations first emerged publicly in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, and Trump argued that they were politically motivated. “Do you not believe us?” Dorris asked of Trump supporters this past week. “Or do we not matter?” Her mother said in 2020 that Dorris told her about the U.S. Open incident shortly after it happened. A friend said then that Dorris had first relayed her account of the incident 12 or 13 years earlier. “Where is his accountability?” Dorris asked, speaking of Trump.

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez goes on trial in New York on federal corruption charges

Sen. Robert Menendez goes on trial Monday for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including bars of gold, in exchange for using his position as a powerful member of Congress to benefit three New Jersey businessmen as well as the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Menendez, a three-term Democratic senator from New Jersey, faces 16 criminal counts, including bribery, obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent and honest services wire fraud. He has pleaded not guilty, and says that he is being targeted because he is a prominent Latino. He faces trial alongside two co-defendants, Egyptian-American businessman Wael Hana and real estate developer Fred Daibes, while a third businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government. Menendez's wife, Nadine, was also charged but will face trial separately.

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After he was indicted, Menendez stepped down from his role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a powerful post that gave him influence over foreign military sales and financing. Despite calls to step down entirely, he has professed his innocence, refused to resign from the U.S. Senate and is still running for re-election this fall — though not as a Democrat. This is not the first time Menendez has faced legal peril. He was indicted in 2015 on unrelated federal corruption and bribery charges, which he fought and took to trial. That case was declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Menendez has vowed he will prevail in this prosecution as well. This case will be heard by a federal jury in Manhattan, unlike his previous trial which was in his home state of New Jersey. Jury selection begins Monday, and the trial is expected to last up to two months. The indictment describes a complex bribery scheme that allegedly ran from 2018 to 2023. Prosecutors say that Menendez and his wife accepted bribes from the three businessmen, including gold bullion, a Mercedes Benz convertible and cash. In exchange, Menendez allegedly agreed to take action to protect and enrich the trio, as well as to secretly benefit Egypt and Qatar.

There’s not enough power for America’s high-tech ambitions

Bill Thomson needs power fast. The problem is that many of the other businesspeople racing into Georgia do too. Thomson heads marketing and product management at DC Blox, which in recent years built a string of data centers in midsize cities across the fast-growing Southeast. The company more recently set its sights on Atlanta—the would-be capital of the region—joining a slew of tech and industrial firms piling into the state. Vying for a piece of one of America’s hottest markets, those businesses tend to have two things in common. One is that they represent a U.S. economy increasingly driven by advanced manufacturing, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The other is that they promise to hoover up huge amounts of electricity. That combination means Georgia’s success in luring this development comes with a side effect: Power is a big source of tension. The clean-energy goals of companies and governments are running up against the need for projects to break ground fast. So far, climate advocates fear the imperatives of growth mean more fossil fuels.

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Georgia’s main utility, Georgia Power, has boosted its demand projections sixteen-fold and is pushing ahead on a hotly contested plan to burn more natural gas. Critics warn it will yield higher bills and unnecessary carbon emissions for decades. Some companies are scrambling to secure bespoke renewable-energy deals to power their development. One major source of disruption is data centers. The facilities are ballooning in size as people spend more of their waking hours online and companies digitize everything from factory processes to fast-food drive-throughs. All that computing requires power—and for firms like DC Blox to lock it in as quickly as possible. “Generally,” Thomson said, “we find the guys with the fastest power win.” Similar quandaries are rippling through other hubs of the new American economy, with utilities in Tennessee and the Carolinas forecasting their own unexpected surges in load growth. U.S. power usage is projected to expand by 4.7% over the next five years, according to a review of federal fillings by the consulting firm Grid Strategies. That is up from a previous estimate of 2.6%. The projections come after efficiency gains kept electricity demand roughly flat over the past 15 years, allowing the power sector to limit emissions in large part through coal-plant closures. “We haven’t seen this in a generation,” said Arne Olson, a senior partner at consulting firm Energy and Environmental Economics. “As an industry, we’ve almost forgotten how to deal with load growth of this magnitude.” For states like Georgia, the fear is missing out on what could be once-in-a-generation investments. Wall Street is salivating over an artificial-intelligence-fueled tech bonanza, while Washington is throwing billions of dollars into domestic manufacturing.

Ordered back to the office, top tech talent left instead, study finds

Return-to-office mandates at some of the most powerful tech companies — Apple, Microsoft and SpaceX — were followed by a spike in departures among the most senior, tough-to-replace talent, according to a case study published last week by researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan. Researchers drew on resume data from People Data Labs to understand the impact that forced returns to offices had on employee tenure, and the movement of workers between companies. What they found was a strong correlation between senior-level employees departing directly after a mandate was implemented, suggesting these policies “had a negative effect on the tenure and seniority of their respective workforce.” High-ranking employees stayed several months less than they might have without the mandate, the research suggests — and in many cases, they went to work for direct competitors. At Microsoft, the share of senior employees as a portion of the company’s overall workforce declined more than 5 percentage points after the return-to-office mandate took effect, the researchers found.

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At Apple, the decline was 4 percentage points, while at SpaceX — the only company of the three to require workers to be fully in-person — the share of senior employees dropped 15 percentage points. “We find experienced employees impacted by these policies at major tech companies seek work elsewhere, taking some of the most valuable human capital investments and tools of productivity with them,” said Austin Wright, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Chicago and one of the study’s authors. “Business leaders should weigh carefully employee preferences and market opportunities when deciding when, or if, they mandate a return to office.” Technology is an industry “where the discourse over the return to office was most heated,” said David Van Dijcke, a researcher at the University of Michigan who worked on the study. Microsoft, Apple and SpaceX play an outsize role in the sector — collectively they represent more than 2 percent of the tech workforce and 30 percent of the industry’s revenue, according to researchers — and their office policy “sets the precedent for the wider debate around the return to office,” the study’s authors wrote. Those three companies also were among the first Big Tech firms to pursue return-to-office mandates in 2022, allowing researchers to separate the effects of mandates from the widespread tech layoffs that rocked the industry later in the year, Van Dijcke said.

Lead Stories

Indictment of Rep. Henry Cuellar puts spotlight on foreign influence

The federal indictment of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, casts a spotlight on efforts by foreign governments to influence lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Cuellar is accused of accepting bribes from an oil and gas company controlled by the government of Azerbaijan, as well as a Mexican bank, in exchange for trying to influence U.S. foreign policy. The indictment filed against the South Texas Democrat alleges he tried to help Azerbaijan, an oil-rich county on the boundary between Europe and Asia. “It’s also a post-Soviet country where the United States has an interest in the question of whether it becomes a dictatorship or a democracy, whether it’s friendly to Western countries, open for business with Western investors and so forth,” said Stephen Sestanovich, the George F. Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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A focus of Azerbaijan’s lobbying efforts in Congress involves a decades-long dispute with Armenia over territory that both countries claim as their own. Some experts said historically the U.S. has been interested in upholding Armenian interests because of the population in the U.S. “For the United States, it is a balancing act between domestic politics, international politics, and trying to also ensure that the (transcontinental region) Caucasus remain as quiet as possible, become as stable as possible, because you have these other actors — Russia, Turkey, Iran — in the region,” said Jamsheed Choksy, a distinguished professor at Indiana University. “U.S. interest is to make sure that we can have a foothold in the Caucasus to keep an eye on Iran and on Russia.” According to the 54-page indictment, Azerbaijani officials knew Cuellar served on the House Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees the State Department. The Justice Department alleges that those officials recruited Cuellar and his wife shortly after they took a trip to Turkey and Azerbaijan in January 2013. One Azerbaijan diplomat allegedly wrote in an email, “[t]he good news is that Cuellar was just in Baku.” Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan.

Ethics probe looking at whether U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls profited from campaign spending

The House Ethics Committee is investigating whether U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls improperly directed campaign money to himself under the guise of rent payments to a company he owned, according to details released Friday. The Republican from Richmond, Texas, has denied wrongdoing and pledged to cooperate with the committee. “The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) was created under Nancy Pelosi, which is why I refused to cooperate with the office,” Nehls said in a statement. “My books remain open, and I am cooperating with the legitimate House Committee on Ethics.” The Office of Congressional Ethics is responsible for reviewing allegations of misconduct against House members. It referred the Nehls matter to the committee in December.

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The referral, released by the committee Friday under House disclosure rules, chiefly revolves around seven payments totaling a little more than $25,000 made by the Nehls campaign to Liberty 1776 LLC, which was owned and operated by Nehls. The payments, labeled as rent, were made from 2019 to 2022. “The sporadic nature of the payments, as well as the lack of publicly available information linking Liberty 1776 to the campaign headquarters, raises concerns regarding the personal use of campaign funds,” the referral says. OCE said the company’s right to do business in Texas was terminated for failure to pay franchise taxes in 2022, but the campaign committee made at least one reported payment after that termination. Nehls, his aides and all third parties contacted refused to cooperate, according to OCE, which meant no witness could confirm the payments were for bona fide campaign purposes. The report said Nehls did not disclose his role with Liberty 1776 on his annual financial disclosure statements.

What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign

As Donald Trump sat with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one executive complained about how they continued to face burdensome environmental regulations despite spending $400 million to lobby the Biden administration in the last year. Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. Giving $1 billion would be a “deal,” Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people.

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Trump’s remarkably blunt and transactional pitch reveals how the former president is targeting the oil industry to finance his reelection bid. At the same time, he has turned to the industry to help shape his environmental agenda for a second term, including rollbacks of some of Biden’s signature achievements on clean energy and electric vehicles. The contrast between the two candidates on climate policy could not be more stark. Biden has called global warming an “existential threat,” and over the last three years, his administration has finalized more than 100 new environmental regulations aimed at cutting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, restricting toxic chemicals, and conserving public lands and waters. In comparison, Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” and his administration weakened or wiped out more than 125 environmental rules and policies over four years. In recent months, the Biden administration has raced to overturn Trump’s environmental actions and issue new ones before the November election. So far, Biden officials have overturned 27 Trump actions affecting the fossil fuel industry and completed at least 24 new actions affecting the sector, according to a Washington Post analysis. The Interior Department, for instance, recently blocked future oil drilling across 13 million acres of the Alaskan Arctic.

Trump heightens attacks against NY prosecutor, Biden at Jersey Shore rally

Former President Trump ramped up his attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) and President Biden at his latest rally at the Jersey Shore on Saturday. Trump repeatedly railed against the hush money case being brought against him in New York and took shots at Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case. He also blamed Biden for his legal woes in the Manhattan case, despite there being no evidence that his administration has anything to do with the hush money case. “As you know, I’ve come here from New York, where I’m being forced to endure a Biden show trial — all done by Biden,” Trump said. He labeled Merchan as “corrupt” and “highly conflicted” and called Bragg “fat Alvin” in his latest round of criticisms. He also described his multiple indictments as “bull—-.”

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“I got indicted four times in a period of three seconds,” he said at one point. Trump spoke to a large crowd of supporters during his rally, saying at times that he thinks he can win New Jersey. New Jersey has voted for the Democrat presidential candidate in the last eight presidential elections, and Biden carried the state with about 57 percent of the vote in 2020. The Associated Press reported that Lisa Fagan, spokesperson for the city of Wildwood, said she estimated the crowd to be between 80,000 and 100,000 attendees. The AP also noted that Rep. Van Drew (R-N.J.) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) were in attendance. Trump came off a long week during the hush money trial, where he had to listen to adult film star Stormy Daniels’ testimony about her alleged sexual encounter with the former president. Trump has denied any affair. Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump that bars him from hurling insults at witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff and the judge’s family. It does not bar him from insulting Merchan or Bragg—both of whom he criticizes on a near-daily basis. Trump has already been fined for 10 separate violations of the gag order to a total of $10,000, warning this week that further violations could result in jail time.

State Stories

125,000+ North Texas families could lose current health care coverage

More than 125,000 North Texas families could lose their current healthcare coverage because of proposed changes to Medicaid. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has said it plans to drop the Cook Children's Health Plan and award contracts to several national, for-profit insurance companies instead. "It would just be awful," said Breanna Hernandez, whose son MJ is covered by the Cook Children's Health Plan. "It would just be terrible taking it away." MJ, who is now nine years old, was born at 27.5 weeks and spent 190 days in the NICU. He still sees several specialists at Cook Children's Medical Center for a variety of health issues. "As a special needs mom, and being a single mom, it's a lot," Hernandez said. "It's a lot every day. It's never knowing, is today going to be a good day? We literally take life hour by hour."

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Hernandez says being on the Cook Children's Health Plan makes it all a little easier. "The plan just honestly puts you at ease, so you feel like you're able to parent and to have a healthy child," she said. But now the future of the plan is in jeopardy after the HHSC announced it doesn't intend to renew the Cook Children's Medicaid contract, along with two other nonprofit children's hospitals plans in the state. The decision would force 125,000 low-income families in North Texas and 1.8 million across the state to switch plans. "There are days I try to stop from crying because it's disheartening, it really it," said Amber Castillo, a Cook Children's Health Plan service coordinator who helps children who have complex medical needs. "They typically have trachs, ventilators, feeding tubes, they're wheelchair bound or bedbound and they require a lot of care, a lot of support," Castillo said. "Just the thought there could be a disruption in these care for them, that support – it breaks my heart." That's why Cook Children's has appealed the change, which hasn't been finalized yet.

UT Austin professor arrested and fired after confronting police at pro-Palestinian protest

The Texas Department of Public Safety arrested a UT Austin professor Wednesday after he allegedly grabbed a state trooper’s bicycle and shouted expletives at officers during a pro-Palestinian protest last week. The professor has since been fired by UT. The story was first reported by the Austin American-Statesman. State police last week accused Rich Heyman, a lecturer who teaches courses in the Department of American Studies and the College of Liberal Arts, of interfering with public duties. This is a Class B misdemeanor, according to state penal code. KUT reached out to Heyman, but he referred reporters to his lawyer, Gerry Morris. Morris said Heyman, who was not tenured, received an email from the university on Thursday stating that he was fired. No reason was given.

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Heyman, 57, attended pro-Palestinian protests on the university's South Lawn on April 29. Over several hours that day, police arrested 79 people, charging the vast majority of them with criminal trespass. In total, more than 130 arrests have been made on the UT Austin campus over the past several weeks of protests. According to a state trooper’s account detailed in an arresting document, Heyman approached police during last week's protest and began shouting obscenities. “F--- you. You don’t belong here,” police allege he said. As officers surrounded protesters on the university's South Lawn, they used their bicycles to set up a blockade. State trooper Thomas Goodson alleged that Heyman walked between two bicycles and the officer pushed him away “with an open hand to the chest." Goodson said Heyman responded by holding a Nalgene water bottle above his head and pulling on Goodson’s bicycle, breaking his state-issued bike bell, which cost $62. Morris, Heyman's lawyer, refutes this narrative. He said Heyman grabbed the officer's bicycle to stop himself from falling backward after the officer pushed him. State troopers arrested Heyman outside his home on Wednesday afternoon. Officers surrounded him while he was driving, Morris said.

Steak and Ale’s resurgence in Texas is delayed but still alive, CEO says

Longtime restaurateur Paul Mangiamele’s plan to resurrect iconic Dallas chain Steak and Ale is still alive, he tells The Dallas Morning News. But his hope to open a Steak and Ale in Grand Prairie in 2024, as previously reported, is not likely. CEO Mangiamele, who is based in Dallas, doesn’t have a new timeline for when his Grand Prairie restaurant on a 5-acre plot of land off of Interstate 30 might open. “It’s taken a lot longer than anyone could have imagined,” he said. He hopes they break ground this year. WFAA noted the postponement in late April 2024. Mangiamele and his team are now focused on opening a Steak and Ale in Burnsville, Minn., in summer 2024. It’ll be the first resurrected Steak and Ale since the iconic restaurant closed in 2008. Mangiamele is keeping fans updated on a spirited Facebook page called Steak and Ale’s Comeback, which has more than 54,000 followers.

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‘Unprecedented’: Police associations voice support for Chief García staying in Dallas

Five years ago, Dallas police Sgt. George Aranda stood at a podium and called for the resignation of former Chief U. Reneé Hall, drawing heated disagreement from some city officials and officer associations. He stood at that same podium on Friday as he drew a contrast between that day and this moment — when multiple police associations came together to advocate for retaining Dallas police Chief Eddie García. “I don’t think in the history of the Dallas Police Department you had an association or associations who have come together to ask for the retention of a chief,” Aranda told reporters at a news conference in West Dallas. Aranda, president of the Dallas National Latino Law Enforcement Organization, vocalized his support for the city’s top cop while flanked by the presidents of the Dallas Police Association and Asian Peace Officer Association of North Texas.

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The news conference came amid widespread reports that García is being courted by city officials in Houston and Austin, both of which have interim chiefs. Aranda said the reports are true, but added the city of Dallas has now offered the chief a proposal, and he’s heard positive feedback about it. Dallas interim city manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has offered “as much as she could” to keep García, according to Aranda. “The city made its case to the chief at this point,” he said. García declined to comment. Tolbert did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Although not in attendance, presidents of the Dallas Police Women’s Association and Dallas’ National Black Police Association also told The Dallas Morning News they support García. The Black Police Association of Greater Dallas — one of the three largest associations — was not at the news conference and its president, Lt. Andre Taylor, told The News they didn’t have a comment.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators mark UTA graduation day with prayer, protest

Protest and prayer punctuated graduation day at the University of Texas at Arlington. About 150 Muslims gathered on blue tarps near the school library in afternoon prayer May 10, remembering those in Gaza and in support of pro-Palestinian protests at campuses nationwide. Later, in the afternoon sun outside of UTA’s graduation at Globe Life Field, protesters chanted, “Free, Free Palestine” while waving Palestinian flags. Sheikh Mikaeel Ahmed Smith, an instructor at Qalam Seminary in Carrollton, led the Friday prayer. In his sermon, he told the story of David and Goliath, a story shared in the Quran, Torah and the Bible. “(Allah) told us in an epic narration, whoever sees wrong, regardless of your faith, regardless of what you believe, when you see wrong in the world, you have a moral obligation to change it however you can,” Smith said.

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Friday prayer, known as jum’ah, is a special congregational prayer for Muslims. On Friday, students, religious leaders and community organizers assembled outside of the campus library. It was near the spot where students previously encamped for a week, before disbanding on Thursday. UTA officials say they gave protesters “final notice” on Thursday for being in violation of university policy. Student organizers said they feared arrest and decided to break camp. UTA police previously arrested an instructor May 2 for criminal trespassing at the encampment site. But, as with many college campuses around the nation, UTA students and community members continued their protest outside of their graduation ceremony.

Clarendon City Council voted unanimously against "Sanctuary City for the Unborn"

Asmall Texas town unanimously voted against a proposed ordinance to declare itself a Sanctuary City for the Unborn on Thursday. Following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, leaving individual states to choose their own legal status on abortion, Texas enacted one of the strictest abortion bans in the United States. Texas' ban, which does not have exceptions for rape, incest or medical needs, goes into effect as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. However, since the measures were put into effect, cities across Texas have considered and passed ordinances, declaring themselves Sanctuary City for the Unborn. The ordinance is a continued strategy by conservative activists to further restrict abortion, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who provides or "aids or abets" an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. On Thursday, the Clarendon City Council voted 3-0 against the proposed ordinance to declare itself a sanctuary city.

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The Clarendon Enterprise, the city's newspaper, wrote in a Facebook comment on Thursday that the decision came as "city council members said they believe it is not a city issue and that state law already covers this issue." The proposed ordinance would not only have prohibited abortion within the city limits but would extend the ban to residents of Clarendon regardless of where the procedure is performed. It would also have restricted the sale and possession of what the ordinance calls "abortion-inducing drugs" withing the city. In addition, while Clarendon sits about halfway between Amarillo and the Texas-Oklahoma border, roughly 60 miles from each, the ordinance would also aim to deter people from traveling through Clarendon to access abortion services. Amarillo is traversed by major highways that connect Texas to New Mexico, where abortion is legal.

'Chance of a lifetime': UT System approves Julie Philley as next UT-Tyler president

The University of Texas System Board of Regents unanimously approved hiring Julie Philley as the next president of the University of Texas at Tyler. The board in March had named Philley as the lone finalist before making its final decision Thursday. She currently serves as the school's executive vice president for health affairs, a title she held when UT-Tyler and the UT Health Science Center in Tyler merged in 2021, and she became vice provost as well in 2022. She is a doctor in pulmonary and critical care medicine. "I'm just honored and so grateful for the opportunity," Philley told the American-Statesman after the board's meeting. "I'm just so excited to serve."

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In politics, 'honor and dignity' can bring elusive and sometimes unsustainable goals

When Texas Gov. George W. Bush was running for president in 2000, one of the threads that tied his campaign together was the promise to "restore honor and dignity to the White House." The feel-good line, which occasionally subbed "decency" for "dignity," was invoked repeatedly by the candidate, his father, who had been president; his brother who was then-governor of Florida; and his nephew who would later enter politics. It was intended as much as a compliment to George W. Bush as it was a none-too-subtle dig at the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that dominated headlines in the final three years of Bill Clinton's presidency. By the time the 2000 presidential campaign was in full swing, Clinton had been accused of having an extramarital affair with a White House intern who was 27 years his junior.

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All of this made the "honor and dignity" message from the Bush campaign against Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, all those years ago especially salient. As much as Bush was selling himself as a successful Texas governor and a "compassionate conservative," he was implicitly promising Americans that they need not worry that his presidency would come with a tawdry sideshow that must be shielded from the eyes of impressionable youths. Last week's testimony from one-time adult film actor Stormy Daniels in the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump might be conjuring up a sense of de´ja` vu for some Americans old enough to remember the Clinton soap opera. The Trump jury heard salacious and even embarrassing details, which were later carried by all of the national news outlets, about Daniels' version of the 2006 encounter when she was in her late 20s and Trump was 60. It's important to note that Trump has denied he and Daniels had sexual relations. But missing from this narrative is the "what about the children?!" angst that was a running subtext of the Clinton scandal. Perhaps because the "children" of the last years of the 20th century are the parents of the kids today and Clinton was not the only subject of a political sex scandal during their formative years, none of this surprises the current generation of voters.

Trial for civil lawsuit filed by victims of Santa Fe High School shooting rescheduled for July

Survivors of the Santa Fe High School shooting, and the relatives of the eight students and two teachers who were killed, have waited nearly six years for a measure of justice. Now they'll have to wait at least a couple more months. A judge in Galveston County this week rescheduled the start of a civil trial – pitting the victims and their families against the accused shooter and his parents in a lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in damages – from May 28 to July 29. The trial is being delayed as the plaintiffs await related evidence from the Galveston County District Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting a criminal case against shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis, and also because the judge is determining whether Pagourtzis is mentally competent enough to be deposed, according to Clint McGuire, an attorney for several of the victims and their families.

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The criminal case is indefinitely on hold because the 23-year-old Pagourtzis, who was 17 at the time of the mass shooting in southeast Houston on May 18, 2018, remains in a state hospital and is not competent to stand trial, based on repeated psychiatric evaluations. The civil lawsuit seeks to hold Pagourtzis' parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, responsible for the 10 deaths and injuries to 13 others. McGuire has alleged in court filings that Dimitrios Pagourtzis' parents knew he was mentally unstable and dangerous and that they did not do enough to prevent him from using their guns, a .38-caliber pistol and sawed-off shotgun, to carry out the massacre. "These parents and victims are very interested in getting their day in court, so that their story can be told," McGuire said Thursday. "Many of them feel like this is the mass shooting that gets overlooked because there's been no criminal trial and they have never had their day in court. They're very much looking forward to having their day in court and having everyone hear their story and what this case is about."

Lesley Briones: I'm a Harris County commissioner and a mom. Texas' abortion law endangers our daughters.

This Mother’s Day marks almost eight years since I experienced the second of my two intense miscarriages, each of which resulted in hospitalization. I was blessed that the laws in Texas — and in the U.S. — were not what they are now, and I was able to get the stabilizing care I needed. That would likely not be the case today. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), ensuring everyone the right to receive stabilizing care in an emergency room, regardless of ability to pay. New state abortion bans threaten to dismantle this right and restrict physicians’ ability to administer lifesaving treatments. We are already enduring the impact of conflicting laws. Media reports have detailed numerous cases in which women’s lives were threatened after hospitals turned them away, refusing to offer stabilizing care.

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In Harris County, one woman recently miscarried in the lobby bathroom of an emergency room because she was denied treatment. This is the current reality for my three young daughters, who are growing up with fewer rights than their grandmothers. As a mother, Latina and Catholic, I am sickened to see equality eroded and freedoms stripped away from my daughters and all young women. As a lawyer and a former judge, I am appalled to witness the legal system weaponized against women rather than protecting their fundamental rights. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it turned back half a century of progress and told our daughters that legislators in their states would have the last word on their bodies. When the Texas Legislature passed a draconian trigger law banning abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest, they told our daughters that their rights were less important than those of a criminal. And when the state of Texas sued the Biden administration claiming that EMTALA does not guarantee your right to an abortion — even in cases of medical emergencies — it told our daughters that the guarantee of stabilizing care for every American does not apply to them. Thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s direct allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, my colleagues and I on the Harris County Commissioners Court formed a $6 million Reproductive Healthcare Access Fund. Within the bounds of Texas’ laws, Harris County — the nation’s third largest county — is investing in local organizations to provide essential reproductive health care services, including access to comprehensive family planning services, screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and more.

'Heartbroken': HISD principal departures send families reeling

Houston ISD alerted dozens of teachers and principals of both performance-based job cuts and budget-forced reductions this week, prompting parents across the state's largest school system to plan another round of protests as the tumultuous school year under state takeover nears an end. Among the dozens of teachers and principals asked to leave: both the HISD Elementary and Middle School Principals of the Year in HISD in 2023. Neff Elementary Principal Amanda Wingard confirmed in a Facebook post Thursday that the school district asked her to resign. "I have loved Neff and the Sharpstown community for the last 35 years," wrote Wingard, who was honored at a banquet a year ago for her leadership.

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Alongside her is 2022-23 Middle School Principal of the Year, Auden Sarabia, who told his staff at Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts this week that he was asked to resign or go before the Board of Managers, a teacher and parents confirmed. Saraba has worked for HISD for 18 years. Crockett Elementary Principal Alexis Clark is also not returning to her visual and performing arts magnet campus near the Heights. "I'm heartbroken. We're all heartbroken. I've done my best to protect my kids — they're young — from what's happening," said Liz Silva, PTO fundraising chair and incoming president. "Can't really avoid the topic anymore with them." Clark has been a staunch advocate for the campus, which is set to become one of appointed Superintendent Mike Miles' 40 new New Education System schools next year.

Houston janitors vote to authorize strike if pay doesn't improve

Hundreds of Houston janitors are calling for change and threatening to go on strike if an agreement isn't reached between their union and cleaning contractors. Saturday, inside the George R. Brown Convention Center, janitors represented by SEIU Texas agreed to go on strike if their pay and benefits don’t improve. They want better pay, more benefits and more hours. The janitors say they’ve gone on strike before and are prepared to do so again. “We will bargain every day until May 31, but if we do not get a fair contract, you guys are authorizing us to call a strike,” President of SEIU Texas Elsa Flores said. After voting, they took to the streets of downtown chanting things like “Si se puede,” which means “Yes, we can.”

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“It really means something that when they need to and when they've had to take that hard step of a strike, they've done it to protect their union, to do better in their wages, to be able to take care of their family,” Flores said. “So, this year, they're back again saying "yes, we can" because they believe it, they feel it, they know it in their heart.” One of the people marching on Saturday was Maria Zamudio. Right now, Maria makes $10 an hour and she said it’s difficult. “Llenas la hielera de comida y vives oscuras por no poder pagar los billes o pagar los biles y no tienes comida,” Zamudio said. “You fill a cooler with food and live in the dark because you can’t pay your bills. Or you pay your bills and have no food.” She and everyone else marching in their purple shirts on Saturday hope things will improve. “This is about the generations to come. We all know that we want to work in a building that's clean and sanitized, and we want folks who do that work well to be paid a fair wage,” Executive Vice President of SEIU Texas Resha Thomas said.

Lawmakers double down on LGBTQ+ policies ahead of next Texas session

The Texas Legislature saw a sharp divide in 2023 over a record number of bills impacting the LGBTQ+ community, and the fight over several that passed has spilled out of the Capitol and into the courtroom. Proponents of controversial bills that became laws — like the READER Act, a prohibition on certain medical options for transgender children and the so-called “drag ban” — have said their efforts were meant to protect children from explicit sexual content and influence. But those opposing many of the bills said the laws harm kids, discriminate specifically against LGTBQ+ people and restrict constitutionally-protected freedoms. Now state and federal judges are considering cases against the laws.

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Almost a year since the 2023 legislative session wrapped — and six months since KXAN investigated the influx of LGBTQ+ bills — we take a look at the status of the measures that passed, which ones have been challenged and held up in court, and others that failed but may be resurrected the next time lawmakers meet in 2025. Texans aren’t seeing the impact of several laws that sparked the most controversy last session, since they’ve been caught up in court battles and paused while appeals play out. Senate Bill 12, commonly referred to as the “drag ban” by its opponents — although it never explicitly mentions “drag” in the text — continues to be fought in federal court. The state appealed an injunction on the law. On April 10, the American Civil Liberties Union submitted a brief to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled the law will remain blocked until the court issues a final ruling. The lawmakers behind the legislation did not respond to KXAN’s request for comment. Another law that bans certain medical options for transgender children and could put a doctor’s medical license in jeopardy for providing them — created by Senate Bill 14 — is awaiting a Texas Supreme Court decision. The high court heard oral arguments on Jan. 30, when opponents of the law argued it stops parents from being able to make medical decisions on behalf of their kids and discriminates against kids on the basis of sex. The legislators who wrote the law did not reply to KXAN’s questions about the law and case.

County Stories

Harris County Jail guards charged for allegedly beating man into a coma

Three detention officers have been charged with assault for allegedly beating a prisoner into a coma inside the Harris County Jail. A Harris County grand jury recently indicted detention officers Ezihuo Osiminibeke, Jimmy Poole and John Ziesemer with assault causing bodily injury to Adael Gonzalez-Garcia while he was in custody. Court records say Ziesemer threw Gonzalez-Garcia to the ground, while both Osiminibeke and Poole struck his head with their hands. According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the three jailers were relieved of duty “pending the conclusion of an Internal Affairs investigation.”

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“The detention officers are no longer working in the jail,” the statement read. “All employees are held accountable for their actions and must adhere to all protocols and policies.” According to attorney Randall Kallinen, who is representing Gonzalez-Garcia, the Harris County grand jury declined to indict a fourth jailer, although Kallinen didn’t provide the detention officer’s name. Another jailer, Katon Martin, surrendered his jailer’s license, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. As of now, Martin has not been criminally charged. Gonzalez-Garcia, 48, was booked into Harris County Jail in November 2022 on an DWI warrant issued out of Walker County, according to court records. The following night, he “suffered an injury to his facial area” after falling from the top bunk in his cell, according to the sheriff's office.

City Stories

Dallas Morning News Editorial: Will Dallas’ real estate inventory help fix the police and fire pension crisis?

Providing tax relief to residents while delivering essential services like public safety and street repairs is a constant push and pull that all city governments have to navigate. Dallas, a city of aging infrastructure, has more needs than it can ever hope to tackle. On top of that, our city is staring down a $3 billion shortfall in its police and fire pension, a fund that benefits some 10,000 active and retired public safety personnel. Meanwhile, the pension for civilian employees has a $1 billion deficit. If there’s ever been a time to be creative with how the city administers its assets, it’s now. That’s why taxpayers should be encouraged that City Hall has made moves to monetize underused city-owned real estate. Officials have identified 10 properties to redevelop or potentially sell, an important first step to get a cohesive idea of all the assets the city owns.

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This real estate inventory can be considered when developing a 30-year funding plan for the police and fire pension that city officials must submit to the Texas Pension Review Board by November. The city owns a total of about 50,000 acres of land, but the properties are handled by multiple departments. Last November, a City Council committee floated the idea of creating an inventory of all city real estate so that officials can have a full picture of the city’s assets when making decisions. In an April memo, Assistant City Manager Robert Perez identified an initial list of 10 properties. The list includes the Oak Cliff Municipal Center, where the city’s development department has been based; a service center on Canton Street; and a site owned by Dallas Water Utilities in Hutchins. Officials are also reviewing alternate uses for two libraries, a Dallas Police Department auto pound in West Dallas and the Dallas Executive Airport in Red Bird. Some of the 10 properties are being appraised while city staff identifies funding for brokerage services to understand the options for other city-owned sites. The fifth floor of one of the properties, the Dallas Municipal Court building downtown, will potentially be used by the city’s housing department to shelter veterans.

Texas Music Museum seeks city assistance in finding new home

The city may soon explore assistance for the nonprofit Texas Music Museum in East Austin, including finding a new location for the facility that is in danger of losing its East 11th Street home. On Monday, the Music Commission heard a presentation from Clay Shorkey, president and caretaker of the museum’s thousands of artifacts and displays reflecting more than 100 years of the history of musicians throughout Texas. Shorkey, a retired University of Texas professor of social work who said he pays for the museum’s rent with his Social Security benefits, runs the facility with a handful of volunteers and said it is in desperate need of a larger, climate-controlled space that can better attract visitors.

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“I don’t think this gonna happen tomorrow getting a world-class home, but we certainly need a much bigger space,” he said, noting the existing facility has 3,000 square feet of display area and roughly 1,000 square feet of storage space. “We have enough to have a wonderful big museum … and we have the files and the photos and the artifacts and such. We want you to try to help us make Austin a real music capital with a kind of world-class, much better facility than we currently have.” Commissioners expressed support for finding ways for the city to assist the Texas Music Museum in the short term and long term, with funding from the Creative Space Assistance Program as an option to cover rent or basic improvements to the current space. The museum is also a recipient of funding from Cultural Arts contracts that it uses in part to fund live music performances at its events.

National Stories

IRS audit of Trump could cost former president more than $100 million

Former President Donald Trump used a dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks from his troubled Chicago tower, according to an IRS inquiry uncovered by ProPublica and The New York Times. Losing a yearslong audit battle over the claim could mean a tax bill of more than $100 million. The 92-story, glass-sheathed skyscraper along the Chicago River is the tallest and, at least for now, the last major construction project by Trump. Through a combination of cost overruns and the bad luck of opening in the teeth of the Great Recession, it was also a vast money loser. But when Trump sought to reap tax benefits from his losses, the IRS has argued, he went too far and in effect wrote off the same losses twice. The first write-off came on Trump’s tax return for 2008. With sales lagging far behind projections, he claimed that his investment in the condo-hotel tower met the tax code definition of “worthless,” because his debt on the project meant he would never see a profit. That move resulted in Trump reporting losses as high as $651 million for the year, ProPublica and the Times found.

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There is no indication the IRS challenged that initial claim, though that lack of scrutiny surprised tax experts consulted for this article. But in 2010, Trump and his tax advisers sought to extract further benefits from the Chicago project, executing a maneuver that would draw years of inquiry from the IRS. First, he shifted the company that owned the tower into a new partnership. Because he controlled both companies, it was like moving coins from one pocket to another. Then he used the shift as justification to declare $168 million in additional losses over the next decade. The issues around Trump’s case were novel enough that, during his presidency, the IRS undertook a high-level legal review before pursuing it. ProPublica and the Times, in consultation with tax experts, calculated that the revision sought by the IRS would create a new tax bill of more than $100 million, plus interest and potential penalties. Trump’s tax records have been a matter of intense speculation since the 2016 presidential campaign, when he defied decades of precedent and refused to release his returns, citing a long-running audit. A first, partial revelation of the substance of the audit came in 2020, when the Times reported that the IRS was disputing a $72.9 million tax refund that Trump had claimed starting in 2010. That refund, which appeared to be based on Trump’s reporting of vast losses from his long-failing casinos, equaled every dollar of federal income tax he had paid during his first flush of television riches, from 2005 through 2008, plus interest. The reporting by ProPublica and the Times about the Chicago tower reveals a second component of Trump’s quarrel with the IRS. This account was pieced together from a collection of public documents, including filings from the New York attorney general’s suit against Trump in 2022, a passing reference to the audit in a congressional report that same year and an obscure 2019 IRS memorandum that explored the legitimacy of the accounting maneuver. The memorandum did not identify Trump, but the documents, along with tax records previously obtained by the Times and additional reporting, indicated that the former president was the focus of the inquiry.

Medical residents are starting to avoid states with abortion bans, data shows

According to new statistics from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), for the second year in a row, students graduating from U.S. medical schools this year were less likely to apply for residency positions in states with abortion bans and other significant abortion restrictions. Since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, state fights over abortion access have created plenty of uncertainty for pregnant patients and their doctors. But that uncertainty has also bled into the world of medical education, forcing some new doctors to factor state abortion laws into their decisions about where to begin their careers. Fourteen states, primarily in the Midwest and South, have banned nearly all abortions.

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The new analysis by the AAMC — exclusively reviewed by KFF Health News before its public release — found that the number of applicants to residency programs in states with near-total abortion bans declined by 4.2% between 2024 and 2023, compared with a 0.6% drop in states where abortion remains legal. Notably, the AAMC's findings illuminate the broader problems that abortion bans can create for a state's medical community, particularly in an era of provider shortages: The organization tracked a larger decrease in interest in residencies in states with abortion restrictions not only among those in specialties most likely to treat pregnant patients, like OB-GYNs and emergency room doctors, but also among aspiring doctors in other specialties. "It should be concerning for states with severe restrictions on reproductive rights that so many new physicians — across specialties — are choosing to apply to other states for training instead," wrote Atul Grover, executive director of the AAMC's Research and Action Institute. The AAMC analysis found that the number of applicants to OB-GYN residency programs in abortion-ban states dropped by 6.7%, compared with a 0.4% increase in states where abortion remains legal. For internal medicine, the drop observed in abortion-ban states was over five times as much as in states where abortion is legal. In its analysis, the AAMC said that an ongoing decline in interest in abortion-ban states among new doctors ultimately "may negatively affect access to care in those states." Dr. Jack Resneck Jr., immediate past president of the American Medical Association, said the data demonstrates yet another consequence of the post-Roe v. Wade era. The AAMC analysis notes that even in states with abortion bans, residency programs are filling their positions — mostly because there are more graduating medical students in the U.S. and abroad than there are residency slots.

In top races, Republicans try to stay quiet on Trump’s false 2020 claims

In his run for the Republican nomination for senator in Ohio, businessman Bernie Moreno baselessly alleged that political insiders, big tech companies and the media rigged the 2020 election. But after he won the primary in March, Moreno declined to say whether he believed Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump, insisting voters wanted to talk about other issues. A mirror-image shift has been underway in neighboring Michigan, where former congressman Mike Rogers is also avoiding discussion about the 2020 vote. Rogers had previously declared the election “free and fair” and compared Trump to a “gangster” for pressing Georgia election officials to find more votes for him. Now running for Senate with Trump’s endorsement, Rogers has tried to quickly move on when asked about those views in media interviews. Two years ago, many of the highest-profile GOP candidates for top offices in swing states eagerly amplified Trump’s false election claims, telling voters the last election had been stolen and warning them the next one could be, too.

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That position turned out to be a turnoff to many swing-state voters, contributing to Republican defeats in important races for governor and other statewide offices in Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Undeterred, Trump has followed the same election-denying approach as he runs for president this year, while also declining to say whether he will accept the results in 2024. He routinely makes false claims about elections in interviews and on social media and this month baselessly told supporters at a rally in suburban Milwaukee that “radical left Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020.” But this time, many of the Republicans running alongside Trump in swing races are being far more ambiguous about their stance on 2020. Whether they have previously dismissed or embraced his claims, GOP nominees in some of the year’s most critical races are now evading the question and changing the topic. A number of them have steered clear of his most brazen allegations but tried to endear themselves to Trump’s supporters by questioning voting rules. The dynamic reflects the bind confronting GOP candidates in competitive races: If they echo Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen, they could alienate swing voters whose support they will need in November. If they say it was decided fairly, they risk Trump turning his ire against them. “When you have to seek Trump’s blessing, I think that’s where it becomes a little bit of a tightrope to walk,” said Jessica Taylor, who analyzes Senate races for the Cook Political Report.

Are workers in the Deep South fed up enough to unionize? We're about to find out

If you want to understand the state of labor in America today, take a drive through Alabama. Not a long drive. Just a 25-mile stretch of I-20, between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Here, union hopes have been raised, dashed and dragged out over years. This is the Deep South, after all, where anti-union attitudes are enshrined in state constitutions. A major test of those attitudes comes Monday, when more than 5,000 workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant will begin voting on whether to join the United Auto Workers union. It's the latest expression of deep worker dissatisfaction in a part of the state that's home to two other fiercely-fought labor disputes, all situated right off the same highway.

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Inside the seven-million-square-foot Mercedes plant in Vance, Ala., the journey to this dramatic juncture has been neither straight nor smooth. You hear it in the story of Jacob Ryan. When Ryan first got to Mercedes as a temporary employee 10 years ago, he remembers a coworker handing him a pro-union flier in the lobby. "I read it and ended up throwing it away before I got to my team room," Ryan says. "I didn't want to be seen with a flier." He feared it would jeopardize his future at the company. As a new, temporary employee 10 years ago, Jacob Ryan was afraid to be seen holding a pro-union flier. Nowadays, he's the guy handing out fliers, always wearing his union hat. Like his coworkers, Ryan knew the jobs at Mercedes were highly desirable. In a region that had lost its steel and textile industries long ago, the auto plant offered wages and benefits comparable to union jobs up north. The UAW didn't stand a chance in this environment. In fact, a key reason the Alabama auto jobs even existed was because of the lack of unions. Alabama was among several southern states that lured foreign automakers with big incentives and the promise that unions would never be welcome. Within just a few decades, not just Mercedes, but Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Mazda were all building cars in Alabama, adding tens of thousands of well-paying jobs to the state's economy. In 2016, the state doubled down on its anti-union stance. Alabama voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment protecting the state's right to work law. Workers here cannot be forced to join unions or pay dues, even if their workplace is unionized. Amid all of this, efforts by the UAW to drum up union support at Mercedes sputtered along for decades, gaining little ground. Until now.

Yahya Sinwar helped start the war in Gaza. Now he’s Kkey to its endgame.

After Hamas attacked Israel in October, igniting the war in Gaza, Israeli leaders described the group’s most senior official in the territory, Yahya Sinwar, as a “dead man walking.” Considering him an architect of the raid, Israel has portrayed Mr. Sinwar’s assassination as a major goal of its devastating counterattack. Seven months later, Mr. Sinwar’s survival is emblematic of the failures of Israel’s war, which has ravaged much of Gaza but left Hamas’s top leadership largely intact and failed to free most of the captives taken during the October attack. Even as Israeli officials seek his killing, they have been forced to negotiate with him, albeit indirectly, to free the remaining hostages. Mr. Sinwar has emerged not only as a strong-willed commander but as a shrewd negotiator who has staved off an Israeli battlefield victory while engaging Israeli envoys at the negotiating table, according to officials from Hamas, Israel and the United States. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence assessments of Mr. Sinwar and diplomatic negotiations.

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While the talks are mediated in Egypt and Qatar, it is Mr. Sinwar — believed to be hiding in a tunnel network beneath Gaza — whose consent is required by Hamas’s negotiators before they agree to any concessions, according to some of those officials. Hamas officials insist that Mr. Sinwar does not have the final say in the group’s decisions. But though Mr. Sinwar does not technically have authority over the entire Hamas movement, his leadership role in Gaza and his forceful personality have given him outsize importance in how Hamas operates, according to allies and foes alike. “There’s no decision that can be made without consulting Sinwar,” said Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Hamas member and political analyst who befriended Mr. Sinwar while they were both jailed in Israel during the 1990s and 2000s. “Sinwar isn’t an ordinary leader, he’s a powerful person and an architect of events. He’s not some sort of manager or director, he’s a leader,” Mr. al-Awawdeh added. Mr. Sinwar has rarely been heard from since the start of the war, unlike Hamas officials based outside Gaza, including Ismail Haniyeh, the movement’s most senior civilian official.

Russian forces push deeper into Northern Ukraine

Russian forces continued their advance across northeastern Ukraine on Sunday, seizing a number of small settlements along the border and forcing Ukrainian troops to retreat from some positions, according to the Russian and Ukrainian militaries, as well as aid workers. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its troops had captured four more settlements — all but one located directly north of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city — as they pressed ahead with a new offensive launched on Friday. Aid workers confirmed that Russian troops had advanced deeper inside Ukrainian territory and were now threatening several small towns on the outskirts of Kharkiv. A Ukrainian military unit fighting in the area said the Russian forces were pushing hard from the Russia-Ukraine border toward Kharkiv.

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“Today, during heavy fighting, our defenders were forced to withdraw from a few more of their positions, and today, another settlement has come completely under Russian control,” said a video statement released on Saturday night by Hostri Kartuzy, a Ukrainian special forces unit. “The Russians are dying in droves. But they are pressing on regardless and succeeding in some areas.” Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s top military commander, said that the situation in the Kharkiv region had “significantly worsened” this past week, but that Russian attempts to break through Ukrainian defensive lines had been unsuccessful so far. Ukraine’s outnumbered and outgunned troops were already stretched thin trying to defend a 600-mile front running from south of Kharkiv to the city of Kherson on the Black Sea. By opening a new front north of Kharkiv, the Russian army aims to further stretch the Ukrainian lines and make it easier to break through at certain points, military experts say.

Federal judge blocks White House plan to curb credit card late fees

A federal judge in Texas has blocked a new government rule that would slash credit card late-payment charges, a centerpiece of the Biden administration's efforts to clamp down on "junk" fees. Judge Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Friday granted an injunction sought by the banking industry and other business interests to freeze the restrictions, which were scheduled to take effect on May 14. In his ruling, Pittman cited a 2022 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that found that funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the federal agency set to enforce the credit card rule, is unconstitutional.

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The regulations, adopted by the CFPB in March, seek to cap late fees for credit card payments at $8, compared with current late fees of $30 or more. Although a bane for consumers, the fees generate about $9 billion a year for card issuers, according to the agency. After the CFPB on March 5 announced the ban on what it called "excessive" credit card late fees, the American Bankers Association (ABA) and U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a legal challenge. The ABA, an industry trade group, applauded Pittman's decision. "This injunction will spare banks from having to immediately comply with a rule that clearly exceeds the CFPB's statutory authority and will lead to more late payments, lower credit scores, increased debt, reduced credit access and higher APRs for all consumers — including the vast majority of card holders who pay on time each month," ABA CEO Rob Nichols said in a statement. Consumer groups blasted the decision, saying it will hurt credit card users across the U.S.

Target displaying a little less Pride merch in 2024

Target confirmed Friday that it won’t carry Pride Month merchandise at all stores in June after the discount retailer experienced a backlash and lower sales over its collection honoring LGBTQ communities. Target, which operates roughly 2,000 stores, said decisions about where to stock Pride-themed products, including adult apparel, home goods, foods and beverages would be based on “guest insights and consumer research.” A Target spokesperson declined to disclose the number of stores where the merchandise will not be available, but the company said its online shop would offer a full assortment. The moves were first reported by Bloomberg.

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“Target is committed to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month and year-round,” Target said in an emailed statement. “Most importantly, we want to create a welcoming and supportive environment for our LGBTQIA+ team members, which reflects our culture of care for the over 400,000 people who work at Target.” Kelley Robinson, president of the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said Target’s decision was disappointing and risks alienating LGBTQ individuals and allies at the risk of not only profits, but also their values. “Pride merchandise means something,” Robinson said in an emailed statement. “LGBTQ+ people are in every zip code in this country, and we aren’t going anywhere.” Last year, Target removed some items from its stores and made other changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride Month after intense reaction from some customers who confronted workers and tipped over displays. Target also moved displays to the back of its stores in certain Southern locations last year.

Lead Stories

Accused middlemen plead guilty in Henry Cuellar bribery case

Two political strategists close to Henry Cuellar have agreed to plead guilty to conspiring with the South Texas congressman to launder more than $200,000 in bribes. The Department of Justice struck plea deals with Colin Strother, of Buda, and Florencio "Lencho" Rendon, of San Antonio, ensuring their cooperation in the investigation of Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, according to court documents unsealed this week in Houston federal court. A federal indictment unsealed last Friday accuses Cuellar, 68, and his wife, Imelda, 67, of collecting nearly $600,000 in payoffs from a Mexico City bank and Azerbaijan government officials from 2014 to 2021. The alleged payoffs passed through Strother's consulting business to a shell company set up by Imelda Cuellar.

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Prosecutors filed criminal information documents in February against Rendon and Strother, a high-profile campaign manager known in San Antonio for his outspoken, aggressive style. They signed plea deals in secret in March. The two men agreed to plead guilty to money laundering conspiracy, with each facing up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000. They also agreed to cooperate with the Department of Justice in its case against Henry Cuellar, a member of Congress since 2005 who sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Like other cooperating defendants in public corruption cases, they could end up with lighter sentences than the ones spelled out in their plea agreements. Chris Flood, one of Henry Cuellar's defense attorneys, denied the congressman had committed any wrongdoing, saying, “There was no bribery in this case.” He also cautioned against a rush to judgment based on the word of Rendon or Strother. “We are not afraid of the truth,” said Flood, who is also vice president of the Texas Ethics Commission. “We know in a trial, the judge will warn everyone about the credibility of those two witnesses.”

HISD confirms widespread job cuts for teachers, custodians and principals for the 2024-25 school year

An undisclosed number of Houston Independent School District teachers and principals received notices this week that they will be out of a job, state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said Thursday. Miles said principals have begun making decisions about which teachers to hire back based on certain data points, such as spot observations, performance on the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System professionalism domain and performance on the Measures of Academic Progress Growth assessment and other student achievement data. “We are using data maybe for the first time,” Miles said during a media conference. “At this time of year, when principals assess whether or not a teacher will return, they're looking not just at the anecdotal information, but they’re also looking at data of all sorts to assess. So that's what principals have been doing. They've been looking at data.”

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Miles said he did not know the specific number of teachers or principals who would not be keeping their jobs but that the district would have that information in a few weeks. Multiple teachers reported receiving notices this week to attend a Zoom call to discuss their “future employment for the district” Friday, although the exact nature of the call was not made clear. Miles said that although several teachers will not have their contracts renewed, the district was not cutting the number of teacher positions. He said the district has been hiring people to replace the teachers who would not be renewed and that HISD students would still have an effective teacher and approximately the same class size ratios during the upcoming academic year. “Last Saturday, at the job fair, we had about 1,500 to 2,000 teachers apply for about 800 positions. Several hundred where offers were made,” Miles said. “I don’t know the exact number, but it's ... maybe 500 positions in the NES schools out of 5,000 that still are vacant, and those will be filled by the end of May.” NES refers to Miles' New Education System. Miles said executive directors and division superintendents were also reviewing instructional, achievement and leadership data for principals and making decisions this week “based on several things” about who would be keeping their positions next year.

Pace of US deportations up 50% from 2019, new report finds

The pace of migrants being ordered deported by U.S. immigration judges so far this fiscal year is 50 percent higher than in 2019, the peak year for the Trump administration, according to a new report. U.S. immigration judges have ordered 137,000 others deported in the first six months of Fiscal Year 2024, according to a report by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University. Additionally, nearly half a million migrants have been deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents in that time frame.

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“Compared with peak removals in FY 2019 during the prior administration, the pace of new removal orders today is 50 percent greater. The increase in removal orders coincides with the expansion of the ranks of immigration judges during the current administration,” according to TRAC’s report, “Top Places With the Most Immigrants Recently Ordered Deported.” A senior U.S. administration official this week told reporters that from May 12, 2023 — when Title 42 was lifted — until April 17, the Biden administration has removed over 690,000 individuals, most of whom crossed the Southwest border. That included more than 105,000 family members from 170 countries around the world. The government of Mexico also recently released a report on the number of migrants it has released so far in 2024, with most sent to neighboring Guatemala and Honduras.

Texas Republicans vowed to rid politics from prosecution. A push to remove one DA shows the opposite

Last year, Republican lawmakers boasted about removing politics from local criminal prosecutions when they passed a law that makes it easier to remove elected district attorneys who refuse to try certain crimes. But the law’s first real test — a push to remove Austin’s Democratic district attorney — shows their attempts have only injected more politics into the process. The petition against Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, which a local resident submitted last month, was written by Garza's former Republican opponent. The judge overseeing the case was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, an outspoken critic of Garza. And the Republican prosecutor assigned to the case has challenged one Texas city’s move to decriminalize low-level marijuana possession, a policy championed by Garza and many other reform-oriented prosecutors.

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Garza, who easily won his recent Democratic primary for reelection, has blasted the petition as flawed and politically motivated. “In March, a few billionaires and MAGA Republicans and their dark PAC money failed to stop our progress at the ballot box,” he said in a statement. “Now, their allies are wasting taxpayer money trying to undermine the voters' decision of Travis County. They failed once, and they'll fail again." House Bill 17 was part of a larger conservative effort to clamp down on progressive criminal justice policies in Texas’ big cities. It came after several district attorneys announced publicly that they would not prosecute low-level drug possession, abortion-related crimes and child abuse allegations against parents of transgender children receiving transition care. Texas law had already spelled out a process for removing elected officials on the basis of “incompetency,” “official misconduct” or “intoxication.” A local judge could preside over the case, and a local prosecutor could present it, though county officials had the option to appoint someone else.

State Stories

Ethics Committee investigating U.S. Reps. Ronny Jackson, Wesley Hunt from Texas

The House Ethics Committee revealed ongoing investigations Thursday of U.S. Reps. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo and Wesley Hunt, R-Houston. The committee included no details of allegations against the Texans, and it was unclear whether their cases are related. The Office of Congressional Ethics receives many allegations and refers a small number to the committee for review. The committee is allowed to review referrals confidentially for 45 days but must issue a public statement if it needs more time. That’s why it issued the statements Thursday about Jackson and Hunt.

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“The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” a statement from the committee said. The committee has until June 24 to release more information on the Hunt and Jackson investigations. “Congressman Hunt has been in full cooperation with the House Ethics Committee and is extremely confident that the matter will be dismissed shortly,” Hunt spokesman Matthew Topolski said by email. Topolski did not respond to questions seeking details of the investigation or allegations. The committee said in May 2022 that Jackson was the subject of a probe into whether he used campaign funds for personal use. Jackson’s legal team has said that nothing inappropriate happened and that everything was above board. Asked for comment on Thursday’s announcement, Jackson spokesperson Kate Lair said it was prompted by a “baseless complaint” that raised no new information.

‘Lingering questions:’ Tarrant commissioner criticizes sheriff’s office response after jail deaths

Republican Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez says the sheriff’s office needs to do a better job keeping the public – and grieving families — informed after someone dies in the county jail. In April, two men died within a few days of each other. One of them was Anthony Johnson, 31, who died after jailers pepper sprayed him during a contraband check, according to the sheriff’s office. The county medical examiner has not yet released his cause of death. On Tuesday, Johnson’s family and concerned Tarrant County residents demanded answers from county leaders at an emotional Commissioners Court meeting. Johnson’s mother told reporters she wants to see the jail video that captured her son being pepper sprayed, and his sisters criticized the Sheriff’s Office for giving them little information about how their brother died.

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The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office needs to do better, Ramirez told KERA News. “Clear communication and telling them exactly what happened – that is what they deserve,” he said. Ramirez, who’s the former president of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association, said the sheriff’s office has no policy laying out how to inform the public about in-custody deaths, unlike other law enforcement agencies, including the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD). He sent a proposal to county staff, including policies from around the country and from FWPD. FWPD follows a timeframe for releasing information about police killings. They release video of an incident within three to five days, unless there are “sensitive items that you can't release at the time,” he said. “There's nuance to every single case, but I certainly understand the public's frustration with not receiving any information,” he said. Since Sheriff Bill Waybourn took office in 2017, more than 60 people have died in county custody. These deaths have cost the county more than $1 million in lawsuit settlements and raised the alarm about jail conditions, amidst allegations of mistreatment and medical neglect.

Who will be the next Austin police chief? City Manager Broadnax begins national search.

In his first major decision, Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax, whose first official day on the job was Monday, will conduct a national search for the city’s next police chief and hopes to name a leader to the position this summer. The city is hiring the search firm Mosaic Public Partners, the same company that recruited Broadnax, for the search and to bring forward finalists for the job, city spokeswoman Michele Gonzalez said. The position is expected to be posted within days, and the city is currently working with the recruiter to develop a profile for the type of police leader they say Austin needs.

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Interim Police Chief Robin Henderson, who has held the position vacated by Chief Joe Chacon since September, told the American-Statesman that she plans to review the posting and evaluate her next steps. Broadnax said immediately after his hiring in late March that the appointment of a permanent police chief is among his highest priorities. He reiterated that in a statement Monday. The hiring process for the position, likely to pay in the $300,000 range, is expected to include a period of public input to give the community an opportunity to interview finalists. Gonzalez said the city currently has no applicants because the job has not been posted. Broadnax’s choice requires City Council approval. The Austin Police Department has struggled in recent years with having fewer officers – it has 321 vacant positions among 1,812 positions right now – and the city and police union currently are in negotiations for a new labor agreement.

Paxton moves to shut down charity housing undocumented migrants

For nearly 50 years, Annunciation House has provided shelter, food, and education to refugees and undocumented immigrants in El Paso. The State of Texas is trying to shut them down, citing concerns they are harboring fugitives and thwarting law enforcement’s efforts on the border. In a new legal filing, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argues “Annunciation House is engaged in systematic conduct that constitutes illegal alien harboring and operation of a stash house, as a matter of law – both of which constitute felony offenses.” His office is asking an El Paso court to stop their operations, citing state and federal law that prohibits aiding and abetting illegal immigrants.

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“Any non-governmental organization (NGO) facilitating the unlawful entry of illegal aliens into Texas is undermining the rule of law and potentially jeopardizing the safety and wellbeing of our citizens,” Attorney General Paxton said. “All NGOs who are complicit in Joe Biden’s illegal immigration catastrophe and think they are above the law should consider themselves on notice.” The Catholic charity refutes all allegations of illegal conduct. They explain their “mission has always been to provide safe and free housing to refugee families in the Gospel spirit of service and solidarity” — the same mission they say they have been accomplishing openly for 46 years. “All (Annunciation) does is provide a place to sleep and food to families in need,” Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid attorney Jerry Wesevich said. “The alternative would be to have families out on the street in El Paso and nobody wants that… it’s imperative to welcome the stranger and to love one another. There’s no smuggling that goes on. There’s no stash house.”

What Azerbaijan wants from Texas politicians

It’s harder to be a moderate in Washington, D.C., than ever before. Nobody knows that better than the veteran centrist Democrat Henry Cuellar, who faces prosecution from the federal government for his work on one of the few remaining bipartisan causes in Texas politics: the glorious nation of Azerbaijan. On Friday, the Department of Justice indicted Congressman Cuellar, who represents Laredo, on fourteen counts, including bribery, conspiracy, failure to register as a foreign agent, and money laundering. Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, are alleged to have used a network of shell companies to hide $600,000 in payoffs from a Mexican bank and an Azerbaijani oil company. For those payments, the feds allege, Cuellar offered concrete deliverables, the “quid” for the “quo.” Cuellar is supposed to have promised to pressure Biden administration officials to back off from enforcing regulations on Mexican banks and to have promised the Azerbaijanis he would back them in Congress. Cuellar denies the charges. His office did not respond to an interview request from Texas Monthly, but in a full-throated press release about the indictment, he wrote that “everything [he has] done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas.”

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For a powerful borderland representative who is the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee (Cuellar stepped down after the indictment), allegations of entanglements with a Mexican bank would seem to make a certain amount of sense. But Azerbaijan’s alleged involvement with Cuellar struck many as a curious detail. To many Americans, “Azerbaijan” sounds a bit like one of those fake Eastern European countries that produce the villains in Liam Neeson movies. Azerbaijan is, instead, an oil-rich country that won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The nation is a family-run despotism: only two men have run the country since 1993—first Heydar Aliyev, and then his son, Ilham Aliyev. The country’s wealth is tied up in the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR, which is also run by the Aliyev family. The irony, though, is that Uncle Joe’s Department of Justice is cracking down on Cuellar for his work on one of the last remaining issues that basically the entire political spectrum in Texas agrees on: advocacy for the immortal nationhood of the Azerbaijani people. If that sounds like a joke, the joke’s on us. Azerbaijan’s lobbying efforts were a quiet drumbeat in our state for much of the last fifteen years or so. The drumbeat was too soft for almost anyone to hear, and on the face of it, it seems to have accomplished little except getting Cuellar in trouble. But it’s a revealing campaign to explore, because it shows how easy it is for a foreign (and dubious) government to purchase influence in Texas, a state where the political system is already purpose-built to allow rich folks to buy influence.

At the Habsburg Convention in Plano

Why did several hundred people in Texas pay good money to spend a beautiful Saturday inside, listening to three living members of the Habsburg family and a scattering of Carlists talk about what ails the world? It’s clear what the Habsburgs got out of it: the conference, held in Plano and organized by David Ross, a Dallas-area realtor and right-wing Catholic, was in support of the family’s effort to win a sainthood for Emperor Karl I, perhaps the least successful and most tragic Habsburg monarch, who reigned for the last two years of World War I and then died penniless on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The family hoped to keep their memory alive—and maybe sell a few books. What everyone else might get out of it was unclear, at least at first. Plano, a town of some three hundred thousand people just north of Dallas, seemed an unlikely place for a monarchist conference.

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“We don’t rule anymore,” said Paul von Habsburg, the great-great-great-great grandson of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, from the stage, “so we find other things to do.” It is important to stay busy. “You might know I have a cousin who is a race car driver,” he added. Members of the Habsburg dynasty have been movers and shakers in Europe for a thousand years, during which time they married whom they had to marry and did what they needed to do to keep their family in power and their throats un-slit on top of the continent’s unending dogpile. Now, like his audience, he found himself adrift, an archduke of nothing. Before, he would have been born with a purpose. “There’s no real path anymore,” he said. “I think that’s good.” Tales were told of a time and place when there was a path, whether those paths were “being the Habsburg emperor” or “serving the Habsburg emperor.” Eduard Habsburg, currently the ambassador to the Vatican of Viktor Orbán’s regime in Hungary, noted that Texas was once Habsburg land—through the descendants of Charles V of Spain, who oversaw the boom years of Spanish colonialism. To his mind, he said, it still is. The audience cooed.

Texas launches program to repay ranchers, farmers for immigration-related property damage

Ranchers and farmers along the state’s southern border can seek compensation for immigration-related property damage under a state program launched Thursday. Texas lawmakers established the Landowner Compensation Fund last year to assist landowners whose property near the U.S.-Mexico border is damaged in connection with a border-related crime. Compensation is capped at $75,000 per incident under the law known as Senate Bill 1133. The Texas attorney general’s office will administer the program. “This program will provide needed relief to Texans whose property is damaged by foreign aliens waved into the country by the federal government,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Thursday.

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SB 1133 flew through the Legislature without opposition. Six state senators — three Democrats and three Republicans — authored the bill, while Rep. Tracy King, D-Batesville, was the House sponsor. The Senate Committee on Border Security, in a report published in January 2023, said a number of ranchers and farmers suffered “record financial losses and property damage” from migrants who had illegally crossed into Texas. SB 1133 applies to land used for agriculture as an occupation or business venture. The law offers compensation for crimes related to controlled substances, human smuggling, evading arrest, human trafficking or conduct related to transnational criminal activity, such as cartels. To be eligible for compensation, damage must be documented in a police report. Landowners have 90 days from the day of the damage to apply for compensation, according to the attorney general’s office. Damage that took place before Sept. 1, 2023, when the law went into effect, is not covered.

Cuban, Mavericks won’t back down from crypto suit after celebs settle for $2.4 million

Former NFL star Rob Gronkowski, NBA player Victor Oladipo and NASCAR driver Landon Cassill have agreed to pay a combined $2.4 million as part of a lawsuit involving defunct cryptocurrency platform Voyager Digital for their promotion of the crypto lender. The settlements leave the Dallas Mavericks and its minority owner and Shark Tank entrepreneur Mark Cuban as the last remaining defendants left standing in the lawsuit. But unlike the athletic trio, Cuban may not look to settle his portion of the lawsuit. Cuban declined to comment, but his attorney, Stephen Best of Brown Rudnick LLP, said he and Cuban are waiting to see how the court rules on motions that could dismiss, transfer or limit the damages to a lower number.

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“We are awaiting key dispositive rulings from the Court,” Best said in an email to The Dallas Morning News. “We are filing an unopposed position statement with the court this week that no part of the settlements with others are to have any force or effect on the Dallas Mavericks or Mark Cuban.” According to Law360, Gronkowski is slated to pay $1.9 million. Oladipo, who retired from the NBA last year, will pay $500,000 and Cassill is on the hook for $25,000. Cuban and the Mavericks announced a five-year partnership with Voyager in 2021 where fans could receive a $100 reward if they deposited $100 and traded a minimum of $10 by the end of the month. The deal attracted so many prospective investors that Voyager implemented a waitlist. However, the partnership almost immediately went sour. Only a few weeks after it was announced, digital currencies peaked before crashing with the global market cap of cryptocurrencies going from $2.9 trillion to $1.2 trillion. Voyager then filed for bankruptcy in July 2022.

Southwest Airlines’ ‘heart and soul’ Colleen Barrett dies at 79

Colleen Barrett, president emeritus of Southwest Airlines, has died, the company announced Thursday. Barrett, 79, was considered the prime force behind the Dallas-based carrier’s “LUV culture” and was instrumental in the company’s founding and the early strategies that the carrier still uses today. “Colleen passionately guided generations to do the right thing, and often cited The Golden Rule—insisting that everyone treat each other in a way they would hope to be treated,” the company said in its noon announcement. “She widely is credited with giving Southwest Airlines its heart because of her strong belief in employees showing love for each other, as well as to our customers. That foundational tenet defines the Southwest culture more than half-a-century since the founding of the airline. She lived her life as an example for all to follow.

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“The entire Southwest Airlines Family extends deepest sympathies to her son and daughter-in-law, Patrick and Melodie Barrett; her beloved grandson, Evan Daniel Barrett; and her brother, Pat Crotty and his family,” the company said in its announcement. “Colleen’s fervent mantra was to treat people the way they want to be treated—with kindness and respect—and the rest will follow, including profitability and shareholder satisfaction.” Barrett was the legal assistant to Southwest co-founder Herb Kelleher when he was first drafting the concept for the airline in the late 1960s. She helped draft the company’s early legal strategies as it fought in courts for the right to fly from Dallas Love Field to San Antonio and Houston and then joined Kelleher when he took over as the airlines’ CEO and chairman in 1978. Barrett didn’t remain an assistant for long, taking over executive positions in administration, planning and customer service as she became a major cultural force within the growing company.

Robert Quigley: At UT's protests, student journalists were heroes

(Robert Quigley is a professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and Media. Twenty-nine other faculty members from the school co-sign this op-ed.) As Texas Department of Public Safety troopers dressed in riot gear fired pepper spray and flash-bang grenades into a crowd of young protesters on the University of Texas at Austin campus Monday, April 29, student journalists stepped up to document the chaos. They stayed on the scene to capture every detail as law enforcement roughly dragged dozens of protesters into custody. Some of those student journalists came away with pepper spray in their eyes, scraped knees and temporary hearing damage from the grenades. But their work had just begun. They had photos and videos to edit, stories to write and social media posts to create. They also had finals to study for, projects to complete and essays to write. It’s the end of the spring semester, so seniors have been planning graduations while also worrying about the job market.

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I'm a journalism professor at UT. We are lucky to have arguably the strongest college newspaper in the nation in The Daily Texan, which has consistently produced excellent journalism for more than 100 years. Walter Cronkite, Bill Moyers and even Lady Bird Johnson worked at The Texan, and countless other top journalists have started successful careers there. Since the Vietnam War protests, few student journalists have had to face the stress of the current staff. Part of what makes The Texan great is its independence from the university. The students are free to hold the powerful to account and tell their stories without pressure from the school. Beyond staffers from The Texan, student journalists from Texas Student TV and several students interning at local news outlets also covered the protests. Throughout history, student journalists have often been at odds with the official university stance. Some in the administration undoubtedly see student journalists as ankle biters and thorns. We see them as driven students who are doing their best to learn the craft in a maelstrom while also confronting all the pressures that young adults face, from learning to be independent to passing an astronomy exam.

Who will be the next Houston Police Department Chief? Here are names that have been raised

Mayor John Whitmire hasn't yet outlined his plans to hire a new, permanent police chief to take the place of former Chief Troy Finner. But that hasn't stopped some names from being floated as potential replacements to lead the state's largest police force. Whitmire on Wednesday said he wasn't ruling out an "internal or external chief," and that he plans to use his personal network to find candidates and lead the search himself. Here are some of the names that have been floated to be the next Houston chief.

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Eddie Garcia, the chief of the Dallas Police Department, emerged as a rumored candidate for the Houston job less than a day after Finner's departure. Dallas TV station WFAA reported that Houston and Austin were "showing interest in potentially hiring" Garcia, who's been in his position since 2021. Garcia is an at-will employee and can leave at any time, the station reported. Art Acevedo was Houston's police chief from 2016 until 2021. Previously the leader of the Austin Police Department from 2007 until 2016, he left Houston to become the chief in Miami. His time in Florida lasted just 7 months. Larry Satterwhite was made the acting chief of police the night of Finner's retirement. A 34-year veteran of the department, Satterwhite came up as a patrol officer, SWAT team member and special operations commander, before being appointed as executive assistant chief of field operations in 2021 by Finner. In that position, Satterwhite supervised some 3,000 HPD employees who work in the department's patrol divisions.

Former teacher sues Humble ISD alleging violation of Voting Rights Act with at-large elections

A former Humble ISD Spanish teacher sued the district Thursday, alleging trustees and administrators violated the Voting Rights Act by holding all at-large elections for the school board. The lawsuit, filed by Brewer Storefront, the advocacy arm of Dallas-based Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, states that Humble ISD has a 70% minority student population, yet a majority white board. It also claims that the district has a geographically significant Hispanic population that would allow for at least one Hispanic-majority single member district to be drawn for increased representation. While the board does have two black trustees, the board does not have a Hispanic trustee. The firm called the 48,000-student district's elections system a “relic of the district’s past.”

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National Stories

Inside Biden’s decision to go public with his ultimatum to Israel over Rafah

President Joe Biden’s decision this week to make public his ultimatum that a major Israeli offensive in the city of Rafah would result in a shut-off of some US weapons did not come easily or lightly. It came after multiple rounds of phone calls with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, starting in mid-February, urging him to reconsider his plans to invade the densely populated city in southern Gaza that has been a critical conduit for humanitarian aid. Hours and hours of virtual and in-person meetings between Biden’s top national security lieutenants and their Israeli counterparts were intended to send the same message, according to officials: There are other ways to go after Hamas, Biden’s aides laid out, that stop short of invading a city where more than a million Palestinians have gone to seek safety, officials said.

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At multiple levels, the president and his team warned Netanyahu that a major invasion of Rafah wouldn’t be aided by American weapons. It was a message the White House believed was well understood by the government in Israel, White House officials said Thursday. Still, making those warnings public was a step Biden had long been wary of taking. Doing so would amount to a turning point, and the biggest break in US-Israel ties since the start of the war in Gaza following the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas. Even under pressure from progressives in his own party to take steps to limit humanitarian suffering in Gaza, Biden has been careful to avoid an open rift with Netanyahu. Still, in Netanyahu’s war cabinet meetings, a decision to go into Rafah appeared imminent. The Israel Defense Forces have now established a presence in Rafah and along its border, choking off two aid entry points and warning of a larger offensive to come. Ultimately, officials said, Biden came to believe his warnings were going unheeded and so he changed course.

Virginia school board votes to restore names of Confederate leaders to schools

The school board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, early Friday approved a proposal that will restore the names of Confederate military leaders to two public schools. The measure, which passed 5-1, reverses a previous board’s decision in 2020 to change the names of schools that had been linked to Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby, three men who led the pro-slavery Southern states during the Civil War. Mountain View High School will go back to the name Stonewall Jackson High School. Honey Run Elementary School will go back to the name Ashby-Lee Elementary School. The board stripped their names after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, fueling a national racial reckoning. The calls for racial justice and equity inspired some communities to remove Confederate symbolism and statues of Confederate generals.

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But in Shenandoah County, the conservative group Coalition for Better Schools petitioned school officials to reinstate the names of Jackson, Lee and Ashby. “We believe that revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community’s heritage and respect the wishes of the majority,” the coalition wrote in an April 3 letter to the board, according to a copy posted online. The board considered a similar motion in 2022, but it failed because of a tie vote. The board moved to change the names in a 5-1 vote, according to minutes from a meeting held July 9, 2020. The minutes say that the goal of the resolution was "condemning racism and affirming the division’s commitment to an inclusive school environment for all." Current board members said the 2020 board's decision was made hastily and without appropriate community input. About 80 people spoke Thursday before the board's vote, most of them against restoring the old names. In the last decade, Confederate iconography has provoked intense sociopolitical divides across the nation.

Stormy Daniels testimony on sex, lies and money was risky for both sides

Stormy Daniels finished testifying Thursday in Donald Trump’s criminal trial, capping a tumultuous day and a half of courtroom accusations, denials and counter-accusations that infuriated Trump, briefly raised the risk of a mistrial and left the jury to decide whether the adult-film actress’s tale of secret sex should matter in a financial crimes case. Daniels first took the stand on Tuesday, describing in sometimes disturbing language what she said was an evening in 2006 when she and the businessman-turned-reality TV star had sex in a Lake Tahoe hotel. Trump, the former president who is also the presumptive GOP nominee, listened intently to what she said, at times reacting so audibly that the judge warned his attorneys that he could be intimidating the witness and must stop.

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When Daniels returned to the witness stand Thursday, it was to face off against Trump lawyer Susan Necheles, who took a no-holds-barred approach to challenging the porn actress’s credibility on a host of issues. Daniels’s testimony was often explosive — in her rapid-fire, often indignant delivery, and in the details she offered of a sexual encounter that at times sounded nonconsensual. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued unsuccessfully for a mistrial based on Daniels’s testimony, saying it went too far in suggesting to the jury that Trump may have committed some sort of sexual assault, in a case in which he is only charged with falsifying business records. Blanche called some of Daniels’s phrasing “a dog whistle for rape.” “It almost defies belief that we are here for a records case,” he said. “This is not a case about sex.” For the second time in two days of court proceedings, Merchan rejected his mistrial request and faulted the defense for not objecting more to what prosecutors did. Merchan faulted Necheles in particular, saying she should have objected when prosecutors elicited testimony about Trump allegedly not using a condom. “I wish those questions hadn’t been asked,” the judge said. “But for the life of me I don’t know why Ms. Necheles didn’t object. … Why on earth she wouldn’t object to the mention of a condom I don’t understand.”

Police dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment at MIT, move to clear Philadelphia and Arizona protests

Police early Friday dismantled a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and moved to clear protesters from University of Pennsylvania’s campus in Philadelphia, just hours after police tear-gassed protesters and took down an encampment at the University of Arizona. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, video showed police roaming through the MIT encampment and organizers said about 10 students had been detained. Police in riot gear arrived around 4 a.m., encircled the camp and gave protesters about 15 minutes to leave. A crowd outside the camp began gathering and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans but were dispersed by 6 a.m. At the University of Arizona, campus police in riot gear fired tear gas late Thursday at protesters before tearing down an encampment that included wood and plastic barriers on campus. In statement, the University of Arizona said it made the decision because the encampment violated school policy.

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“A structure made from wooden pallets and other debris was erected on campus property after 5 p.m. in violation of the policy,” the school said in a statement. “University officials issued warnings to remove the encampment and disperse. The warnings were ignored.” The school also said that police vehicles were spiked, and rocks and water bottles thrown at officers and university staff. In Philadelphia early Friday, police detained people who were at an encampment that has been in place at the University of Pennsylvania’s campus for more than two weeks. Officers moved in after giving pro-Palestinian protesters a warning to leave campus or face possible arrest. Tensions have ratcheted up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the United States and increasingly in Europe. Some colleges cracked down immediately, while others have tolerated the demonstrations. Some have begun to lose patience and call in the police over concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety. The move at MIT comes several days after police first attempted to clear the encampment only to see protesters storm past barriers and restore the encampment, which includes about a dozen tents in the heart of the campus in Cambridge.

Corporate America is sitting out the Trump-Biden rematch

What election? In the midst of what many expect to be the most toxic presidential campaign in modern history, American businesses are going to extraordinary lengths to stay off the political radar. Some CEOs are privately drawing up plans to tell employees not to expect comments on political matters in all-hands sessions. Others are reconsidering common election initiatives, such as get-out-the-vote drives, fearing those could be viewed in the current moment as partisan. A number of companies are also taking a harder line on workplace activism after long tolerating dissent. In a recent memo following protests by employees over the war in Gaza, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said he didn’t want the company to “fight over disruptive issues or debate politics,” noting that, ultimately, “we are a workplace.” The company fired dozens of employees for disruptive activity in its offices as they protested Google’s contracts with Israel.

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Executives are coaching managers to lower the temperature. At Cisco Systems, the company’s top human-resources executive, Francine Katsoudas, plans to advise managers in the months ahead to be aware that employees will be experiencing a swirl of feelings tied to the election. “We’ve seen how emotional politics leading up to an election can be,” she said. What “I would say to a leader is, ‘Be there to support your people.’ I don’t think it’s wise for us to encourage some of the debate because it is just so personal.” Plenty of workers want companies to stay apolitical. In a survey of 532 U.S. employees conducted earlier this year, 28% felt employers should host election-related events such as town halls and debates while 71% felt employers should keep the workplace politically neutral, according to the Weber Shandwick Collective, a group of marketing and communications brands. “The workplace is not the forum for working out all the political issues of the country or the world,” said Evan Smith, CEO of the roughly 175-person artificial intelligence startup Altana, which focuses on supply chain issues. He doesn’t plan to comment on politics in all-company meetings. “We have a mission. And everyone is at will, signed up to make the mission happen.” Prior incidents now inform how some companies approach political talk at work. Jeremy Brandt, CEO of WeBuyHouses.com, said his company put dispute-resolution policies in place after some volatile incidents happened at the Dallas-area company’s office during previous elections.

Oklahoma judge hits pause on state’s anti-ESG law

An Oklahoma District Court judge has blocked an anti-ESG law that prevents the state from doing business with financial institutions that it believes discriminate against oil and gas companies. Judge Sheila Stinson issued a temporary injunction on a lawsuit brought forward by a retired state employee in November, granting his request to halt the enforcement of Oklahoma’s 2022 Energy Discrimination Elimination Act. The plaintiff, Don Keenan, filed the suit against Oklahoma and its treasurer, Todd Russ, alleging the law was “unconstitutional.” Stinson said in her ruling Tuesday that any attempt by the state treasurer to divest or reallocate funds other than to benefit pensioners is “contrary to and a violation” of Oklahoma’s constitution. The ruling also stated that countering a “political agenda” of certain financial companies — as Russ contended in a letter to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System last year — diverted from the retirement system’s “constitutionally stated purpose.”

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Interfaith Power and Light honors Durley with climate champion award

Civil Rights leader Gerald Durley is this year’s recipient of the Faithful Climate Champion award from Interfaith Power and Light. Interfaith Power and Light is a national climate organization that mobilizes people of faith and conscience to take action on climate change. Durley, a student leader in the 1960s Civil Rights movement and pastor emeritus of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, received the award “for his commitment to environmental justice as a civil rights issue, transforming how we think and act for the benefit of all communities,” according to a news release. The award was presented during an event at Gallaudet University where Durley and IPL President Susan Hendershot spoke about the current status of the environmental justice movement.

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In his remarks, Durley said he and others are laying the foundations for his daughters, son, grandchildren and great-granddaughter. “They did not have to come through the things some of us have had to come through, so encourage them to keep on with the movement for environmental justice. … And remember, they learn not from what we say, but what we do.” Hendershot, said of Durley: “I cannot think of a more deserving recipient of the Faithful Climate Champion award than Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley. His ability to touch hearts and minds and encourage others to see the interconnected nature of climate justice, economic justice and racial justice knows no bounds. He is a voice for those who often go unheard, and he confronts difficult issues with humility, intelligence and a wonderful sense of humor. Throughout my tenure as IPL president, he has been a mentor, a confidant and a very dear friend.” U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., spoke to the group by video. “I take great honor in recognizing this year’s Climate Champion, my colleague and good friend, the Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley, a Peace Corps volunteer, a Civil Rights activist, a devoted pastor, a trailblazer in so many ways. Rev. Durley has demonstrated what faith in action looks like. He knows we must not only pray with our lips, but we must also pray with our legs, and be the change we want to see in our communities and in the world.”

Lead Stories

Combative billionaire’s bank accused of bribing a Texas Democrat

Over three decades, Ricardo Salinas Pliego became one of Mexico’s richest men with a mix of political connections and tough tactics. Now, his bank is at the center of a U.S. federal indictment accusing a Texas congressman of accepting bribes. U.S. federal prosecutors say a Mexican bank channeled $238,000 in bribes disguised as consulting fees to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D., Texas) to further the bank’s interests in Washington by influencing U.S. anti-money-laundering legislation, according to an indictment unsealed Friday in Houston. The lender in question was Salinas Pliego’s Banco Azteca, according to a U.S. official. Salinas Pliego is among the oligarchs who emerged in the 1990s, when Mexico sold off state companies to private investors. He built a retail and broadcasting empire that includes Banco Azteca focusing on low-income households, and developed a reputation as a combative businessman who isn’t afraid to play rough with creditors, competitors and regulators.

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Neither Salinas Pliego nor his bank were charged with any wrongdoing. Luciano Pascoe, a spokesman for Salinas Pliego’s Grupo Salinas, which owns Banco Azteca among other companies, said Sunday on X that the conglomerate, like many other companies, lobbies “to safeguard the causes in which we believe and will always defend.” Banco Azteca has the highest standards of compliance, he added. Pascoe declined to comment further on the U.S. indictment. Cuellar, who represents a district on the Texas-Mexico border, said he is innocent. He was released in Houston on Friday along with his wife, Imelda Cuellar, after each paid an unsecured $100,000 bond. The indictment also charges Cuellar with receiving $360,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani state oil company for helping to advance the interests of the government of Azerbaijan. Salinas Pliego is a controversial figure in Mexico, where he is mired in tax disputes with the government over billions of dollars and has skipped debt payments to U.S. bondholders for years. He has used his television network to discredit adversaries, and has waged protracted courtroom battles with authorities and former partners such as General Electric.

FreedomWorks is closing — and blaming Trump

FreedomWorks, the once-swaggering conservative organization that helped turn tea party protesters into a national political force, is shutting down, according to its president, a casualty of the ideological split in a Republican Party dominated by former President Donald Trump. “We’re dissolved,” said the group’s president, Adam Brandon. “It’s effective immediately.” FreedomWorks’ board of directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to dissolve the organization, Brandon said. Wednesday will be the last workday for the group’s roughly 25 employees, though staffers will continue to receive paychecks and health care benefits for the next few months. The development brings to a close a period of turmoil for the organization. FreedomWorks laid off 40 percent of its staff in March of 2023, and as a result of a drop in fundraising, its total revenue has declined by roughly half, to about $8 million, since 2022, Brandon said.

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In an exclusive interview with POLITICO Magazine, Brandon said the decision to shut down was driven by the ideological upheaval of the Trump era. After Trump took control of the conservative movement, Brandon said, a “huge gap” opened up between the libertarian principles of FreedomWorks leadership and the MAGA-style populism of its members. FreedomWorks leaders, for example, still believed in free trade, small government and a robust merit-based immigration system. Increasingly, however, those positions clashed with a Trump-aligned membership who called for tariffs on imported goods and a wall to keep immigrants out but were willing, in Brandon’s view, to remain silent as Trump’s administration added $8 trillion to the national debt. “A lot of our base aged, and so the new activists that have come in [with] Trump, they tend to be much more populist,” Brandon said. “So you look at the base and that just kind of shifted.” This same split was creating headaches in other parts of the organization as well. “Our staff became divided into MAGA and Never Trump factions,” Brandon said in an internal document reviewed by POLITICO Magazine. It also impacted fundraising. “Now I think donors are saying, ‘What are you doing for Trump today?’” said Paul Beckner, a member of FreedomWorks’ board. “And we’re not for or against Trump. We’re for Trump if he’s doing what we agree with, and we’re against him if he’s not. And so I think we’ve seen an erosion of conservative donors.”

New email in HPD scandal was 'final straw' for Finner, mayor says

After months of controversy surrounding the Houston Police Department’s practice of suspending cases due to short staffing, the revelation Tuesday that Chief Troy Finner was on an email discussing one such case in 2018 was the “final straw”, Mayor John Whitmire said. Since February, the police department has been investigating its own practice of closing some 264,000 cases in the last eight years due to lack of personnel” code. When Finner announced the investigation, he said he did not learn of the practice until 2021, and he thought he put a stop to it then. TV news stations reported late Tuesday morning that Finner was included on a 2018 email discussing a road rage incident that was suspended due to a lack of personnel – despite investigative leads, such as a license plate number and a witness.

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Finner, responding to the email then, said it was “unacceptable,” but the revelation that he may have known about the code earlier than he suggested proved damning. Finner said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he could not recall the email until he saw it Tuesday. Even though the message said “suspended – lack of personnel,” Finner suggested he did not realize at the time there was an actual code to suspend cases for that reason. When discussing the development with news reporters Tuesday afternoon, he gave no indication he would step down. Whitmire left a City Council meeting that afternoon to determine the best path forward. The mayor said he and Finner had a dialogue that ended with the chief making the decision to retire on his own, and the mayor making the “tough decision” to accept. The mayor denied either asking Finner or offering him the option to resign. “It was the final straw. I think that can certainly be an honest statement,” Whitmire said of the 2018 emails. “I was sick when I saw the recent email, but I don’t have time to be sick. I have to protect this city and lead, and it can’t be driven by personality. Chief Finner is a friend, and it was very painful to see someone retire in the middle of their assignment.”

Inside the increasingly ugly GOP fight over a Texas runoff

Rep. Tony Gonzales’ centrist voting record and willingness to excoriate his colleagues have earned him a fair share of GOP enemies. Party leaders are still dreading what happens if he loses a runoff this month. The West Texan is battling for his political life after being forced into a primary runoff with a gun-rights YouTube star backed by members like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.). Brandon Herrera, known as “The AK Guy” after his affection for assault rifles, would likely align with rabble-rousers who have repeatedly challenged GOP leadership. If Gonzales loses the runoff at the end of the month, Republican leaders would face two worse alternatives. They either risk losing the seat entirely thanks to an unpalatable Republican nominee — who has mocked the Holocaust, veterans’ suicides and Barron Trump — or they hold it but welcome into their ranks someone who is likely to further inflame internal caucus divisions.

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“The reality is if Tony doesn’t win the primary, the Dems win the seat,” said Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who is backing Gonzales. “The guy that’s running against him could potentially win the primary, but he cannot win the general election. So, I think it’s a pretty clear choice. It should be for most people.” Gonzales stunned many in his own party when he captured a sprawling rural Texas district in 2020 that many believed would be lost. But his votes in support of gun control and same-sex marriage earned him a host of enemies and a censure from the Texas GOP. And he’s not winning any popularity contests in Washington, either, after repeated public criticism of his colleagues. Meanwhile, even lawmakers who don’t have a personal problem with Gonzales question why he’s held on to his centrist persona as his district grew redder during 2021 redistricting. It takes uncommon political skill to survive a runoff as an incumbent. And Gonzales not only has to win over voters, but he also has to confront attacks from members of his own conference who are enthusiastically campaigning for Herrera. That enthusiasm only grew after Gonzales called conservatives “scumbags” in a recent TV interview and said Gaetz “paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties.” “I’m against the circular firing squad that has occurred recently in Texas politics,” said Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas), who is backing Gonzales. “The Texas GOP is responsible for electing Republican candidates, not electing their own Republican candidates.”

State Stories

Cartels fueling westward shift in illegal migration, sheriff says

Despite a recent uptick in apprehensions on the West Coast, southeastern Arizona continues to lead the nation when it comes to illegal migration coming across from Mexico this fiscal year. Border Patrol Tucson Sector agents have encountered 373,242 unauthorized migrants this 2024 fiscal year including 31,240 in April, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data through March 31 and April numbers obtained by NewsNation. The San Diego sector had the most apprehensions in April, with 37,370 in April, but has logged 222,839 encounters in 2024 – 150,000 less than Tucson, data shows. The Del Rio Sector, which includes Eagle Pass, Texas, is third with 204,563 encounters in the fiscal year and El Paso is fourth with 180,738 – including 30,410 in April as reported by NewsNation.

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GOP senators amused as Ted Cruz seeks to move bill: ‘The foot’s on the other hand’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has become the subject of much bemusement among his Senate GOP colleagues as he has taken a detour from his role as a conservative rabble-rouser to playing the lead on reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Texas senator, long-known for stirring up trouble for leadership, has suddenly gone in the reverse as he has prodded Republicans against gumming up the works for the last must-pass bill in Congress for months. But the irony is not lost on lawmakers who have watched Cruz’s mischief up close and personal, especially on government spending battles throughout the years. “It’s been entertaining to be able to watch,” one Senate Republican told The Hill before quoting the movie “Airplane!” “What’s the old Hollywood joke? The foot’s on the other hand.”

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Multiple senators told The Hill that Cruz has been on the receiving end of numerous jokes from colleagues during weekly Senate GOP luncheons each of the past two weeks. Most members have given him high marks for his work on the FAA, but can’t help themselves as Cruz tries to keep the bill on track to pass ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline and keep unrelated amendments out of a final bill. “Let’s just say he’s taking a lot of ribbing right now in there,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said with a laugh as he stepped out of Wednesday’s lunch to take a call. “Of course, he’s making a pitch that this is different than all the other times when he’s insisted on having amendment votes because this one was much more transparent. … People are slightly amused by his compliance.” As a second Senate Republican put it, Cruz has been frustrated by the last minute-holds and “obstinance” of some members. “A lot of times, it’s [been] him. … So he’s getting a little bit of his own medicine,” the member quipped. “It’s a little humorous.”

State leaders of Pastors for Children gather to strategize on protecting public education

The first national conference of Pastors for Children was a spiritual and emotional shot in the arm for the organizers of its nine state chapters. “It is inspiring to know the fight we’re facing in North Carolina is happening nationwide and I’m not standing alone against the forces that want to destroy public education,” said Suzanne Parker Miller, a Raleigh-based Moravian minister and executive director of Pastors for North Carolina Children. The May 6-7 gathering in Orlando, Fla., included workshops and speakers offering historical and political context to pervasive efforts to privatize education with vouchers, charter schools, education savings accounts and other programs that undermine universal public education.

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Charles Foster Johnson, executive director of both Pastors for Children and its Texas chapter, said the inaugural event was intended to provide faith-inspired organizing strategies and much-needed encouragement for those fighting for public education at the grassroots level. In addition to Texas, the coalition has groups operating in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma. Tennessee and Virginia. Those are just a handful of the states facing relentless and well-funded movements bent on transforming U.S. education into a privatized system that benefits wealthy and white Americans and relegates everyone else, at best, into cogs for business and industry. “We run so hard, we don’t have any money and we are all putting out fires that the political class is starting, so we needed to be together. And we felt we needed to encourage and bolster and empower our Florida and East Coast leaders,” Johnson explained. Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has been one of the most aggressive privatizers of education through robust voucher and charter-school options. DeSantis’ self-proclaimed “war on woke” has targeted diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the teaching of Critical Race Theory, sociology and LGBTQ identity in public schools and universities.

South Texas church and cemetery named national Underground Railroad sites

A historic South Texas church and cemetery have been named a national site that was part of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves seek freedom in Mexico in the 1800s. The National Park Service last month added the Jackson Ranch Church and Martin Jackson Cemetery in San Juan, Texas, to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The only other site listed in Texas is Mission San Jose in San Antonio, according to the National Park Service. Seventeen other sites were also listed in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.

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But what makes the South Texas listings unique is that these locations helped slaves to go south to Mexico, where slavery was illegal. National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said these places were sites of daring escapes and where slaves took refuge, and the listings are the results of research and documentation because history “is not complete until all voices are represented.” Pablo “Paul” Villarreal Jr., says he looks up to his great-great-great-great grandfather, Nathaniel Jackson, who started the Underground Railroad efforts in South Texas when he arrived on the border in 1857. Jackson was the white son of a slave owner who grew up in Georgia where in 1804 his father, Joseph, purchased then 4-year-old Matilda. Jackson fell in love with Matilda and she became his common-law wife. The family moved to Alabama and in 1857 they trekked across the country in a caravan of five covered wagons to South Texas with the goal of crossing into Matamoros, Mexico. But for reasons unknown, they settled on the banks of the Rio Grande in San Juan and began helping slaves to cross the river south to freedom in Mexico. Historians estimate upwards of 10,000 people could have been helped through their Underground Railroad segment, although no official records were kept at the time.

What to know about Larry Satterwhite, HPD's new acting chief

Larry Satterwhite, a longtime assistant chief and commander in the Houston Police Department, was named acting chief of police on Tuesday by Houston Mayor John Whitmire. The interim promotion came after the sudden retirement of former chief Troy Finner, whose departure was announced in a late-night email by Whitmire. Satterwhite was already one of the highest ranking officers in one of the nation's largest police departments and has had a long career with some similarities to Finner, officials said. It remains to be seen how long Satterwhite remains in charge of the department, as Whitmire considers his options in the fallout of Finner's departure.

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Satterwhite has worked for the Houston Police Department for 34 years, the same amount of time that Finner was with the department. The two were in the police academy at the same time, he said Wednesday. Satterwhite joined the department in January 1990. He was first assigned to be a patrol officer in the Beechnut division, which is now called the Southwest Patrol Division. After 10 years in patrol, he spent six years as a member of the department's SWAT team. He was a sergeant in the Southwest division, served as a lieutenant in vehicular crimes and criminal intelligence units. He has also worked the commander of the police department's special operations division, which was responsible for preparing the city for high-profile events, such as the World Series. He was promoted to assistant chief over homeland security issues in 2017, by then-chief Art Acevedo, and then promoted to executive assistant chief of field operations in 2021 by Finner.

Cy-Fair ISD board votes to remove chapters teaching vaccines and cultural diversity from textbooks

More than a dozen chapters including content on vaccines, cultural diversity, climate change, depopulation and other topics deemed controversial by conservative Cypress-Fairbanks ISD trustees will be removed from textbooks in the state's third largest school system for the 2024-2025 school year. Trusteed voted 6-1 late Monday to omit the material, after an hourslong discussion about a $138 million budget deficit that is forcing the district to eliminate 600 positions, including 42 curriculum coaches, dozens of librarians and 278 teaching positions.

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Board member Natalie Blasingame recommended cutting the chapters after reviewing the textbooks as part of her role on the district's Academics, Safety, Vision and Planning committee. The district has discretion over instructional materials and the state curriculum, called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, does not list the specific topics, she said. The classes that will be impacted include biology, environmental science, earth systems, education and health science. In November, the right-leaning State Board of Education voted to approve only five of 12 science textbooks, rejecting some books that had more aggressive messaging about climate change, the Texas Tribune reported. Texas eighth-graders will be required to start learning about climate change next year as part of the state's revamped science curriculum. One of the textbooks approved, Savvas Learning Company Texas' "Miller and Levine Experience," will have portions of two chapters omitted by Cy-Fair.

Katy ISD board member calls for legislative action to allow tracking immigration status of students

A Katy ISD board member has asked the district to push for legislation that would allow the district to monitor children who are in the country illegally. Trustee Morgan Calhoun asked Katy ISD Chief Financial Officer Chris Smith at a Monday meeting if the district had any way of tracking the number of children who were brought to the country illegally and are students in Katy ISD. Her contention was that taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for students who came into the country illegally as trustees head into the budget season and as districts across the region are bracing for shortfalls.

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Katy ISD Superintendent Ken Gregorski told Calhoun that it was illegal for the district to ask families their immigration status, but Calhoun countered that the district should push for legislation that would allow the district to monitor students’ legal status. All children in the United States are entitled to a basic public elementary and secondary education regardless of their immigration status, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Calhoun did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday morning. As the law stands, “a school district may not ask about your or your child’s citizenship or immigration status to establish residency within the district, nor may a school district deny a homeless child (including a homeless child who is undocumented) enrollment because he or she cannot provide the required documents to establish residency,” according to the U.S. Department of Education. Calhoun said the district should be tracking immigration status so that the district could calculate how much money was being spent to educate children who are in the country illegally.

Feds find civil rights violations in Southlake, Texas, schools, students' lawyers say

The U.S. Department of Education is seeking to negotiate with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, over four students’ civil rights complaints — which three education law experts say signals that the department has substantiated the students’ allegations of racist and anti-LGBTQ discrimination. The Education Department’s civil rights enforcement arm described the next steps in its investigation in a letter Monday to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents the students. The development comes three years after the civil rights organization filed federal complaints on behalf of students who said Carroll officials failed to protect them from harassment.

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The four students, all of whom have either graduated or left the district, reported to the Education Department that they had been subjected to a barrage of racist and homophobic slurs and comments during their years at Carroll. One student said he suffered retaliation after reporting racial harassment to administrators. Another said he contemplated suicide after classmates repeatedly mocked him for his sexual orientation; his family said the district failed to address the bullying. On Monday, the Education Department notified the NAACP Legal Defense Fund that it had contacted Carroll district officials to begin negotiating a resolution agreement in the four complaints — a step the agency takes only after finding that students’ civil rights have been violated, said Katrina Feldkamp, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The Southlake school system — which became the focus of national headlines in 2021 after conservative parents rejected a sweeping plan aimed at preventing discrimination — will now have 90 days to reach an agreement with the Education Department on steps it will take to address problems identified in the student complaints, experts said.

The 'Remnant Alliance' is coming for a school board near you

On February 6, pistol-packing pastor Troy Jackson, a former Republican Party of Texas strategist and current candidate for vice chair of the Texas GOP, beamed as he welcomed a dozen conservative activists into a flag-adorned meeting room at the New Beginnings Church in Bedford. The attendees included the founder of Citizens Defending Freedom, a Tarrant County GOP official, the founder of the local John Birch Society, and a representative from the far-right group Turning Point USA. They were gathering as the Remnant Alliance, a coalition of Christian nationalist groups that are working to educate, train, and mobilize conservative Christian congregations to influence the outcomes of local elections—especially school boards. “Even if I don’t have kids in school, I’m showing up at school board meetings and testifying that you’re not going to teach our children this smut,” Jackson told the group. “You’re not going to sexualize these children. Because, even though I may not have children in the school, it affects the entire community.”

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Jackson’s heated rhetoric echoes the talking points deployed by state-level Republican lawmakers, big-dollar political action committees (PACs), and well-connected Republican consulting firms that have descended upon local school board races in recent years—and helped install majorities that have taken books off library shelves and rolled back protections for LGBTQ+ students. The election of those majorities was not coincidental: A recent Texas Observer investigative series revealed the coordinated nature of efforts to back more than 105 hard-right school board candidates across 35 districts since 2021, and how those efforts were funded in large part by billionaire donors who support school privatization. For decades, various far-right, faith-based organizations have been working to train pastors and turn congregants into school board activists and candidates. But now, the Remnant Alliance has united several powerful conservative Christian groups. The overarching ideology of these groups is Christian nationalism, which is “an ideology that seeks to privilege conservative Christianity in education, law, and public policy,” according to David Brockman, a religious scholar with the Baker Institute at Rice University. While conservative churches and outspoken pastors have long played roles in local politics, the Remnant Alliance represents a deepening and broadening of efforts to elect candidates who promise to infuse right-wing Christian values into policy.

Dallas approves deal to bring new women’s pro soccer team to Cotton Bowl Stadium

The Dallas City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved an agreement meant to pave the way for a new women’s pro soccer team to call the Cotton Bowl Stadium home starting this summer. The City Council authorized a two-year, $592,000 subsidy for the operators of Fair Park to secure a contract with the unnamed USL Super League team to play home games at the more than 90-year-old stadium in South Dallas. There is an option for the $296,000 annual subsidy to continue for a third year.

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“The addition of a USL franchise at Cotton Bowl would not just allow Dallas to witness the rise of women’s soccer, the city will proactively shape the future of the sport while providing the opportunities for those who might not have access to the sport at all,” said Monica Paul, executive director of the Dallas Sports Commission. The sports commission pursues sporting events and competitions for the D-FW area as a division of VisitDallas, which the city contracts to promote Dallas convention and public events, advertising and tourism. The move marks the second time in as many months that the City Council has approved a deal to bring a professional women’s sports team to Dallas. It was hailed Wednesday as a move expected to help bolster the city’s standing as a live sports destination, help Dallas be part of the continued growth of women’s pro sports, and be an economic development driver in the southern half of the city. A deal to get the more than 90,000-seat Cotton Bowl Stadium used more often “is something everyone has been yearning for at Fair Park,” said council member Adam Bazaldua, who represents the area.

Dallas interim city manager: Cities should ‘go home’ if interested in Chief Eddie García

Dallas’ top administrative official said late Wednesday that other cities should “turn around and go home” if they’re interested in pursuing police Chief Eddie García. The public statement by interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert came shortly after reports surfaced that Dallas’ top cop is being courted by city officials in Houston and Austin, each of which has an interim police chief. The city of Houston on Tuesday announced its former police chief, Troy Finner, was retiring effective immediately. His departure came amid a probe into why the Houston Police Department suspended thousands of criminal investigations, including 4,000 sexual assault cases, according to The Houston Landing. Tolbert said the interest in García is “no surprise,” adding the chief has been a “key leader,” helping lower crime rates and boost both police morale and trust with the public.

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“Obviously, City Council members and I want to keep him in Dallas doing a good job,” she said in her written statement. “It will take flexibility, creativity with a hefty dose of accountability to accomplish that, but we are working tirelessly to develop solutions. I believe Chief [García] wants to remain here.” García declined to comment. City spokespeople from Austin and Houston did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Wednesday. García started in Dallas on Feb. 3, 2021, as the first Hispanic person to lead the nation’s ninth-largest police force. Born in Puerto Rico and fluent in Spanish, he came with more than 30 years of experience as a cop in San Jose, Calif., where he climbed the ranks to chief before he traveled to North Texas. He has previously stated his goal was to stay in Dallas for five years. Police chiefs are not allowed contracts under the city of Dallas charter. The city manager has the authority to hire and fire the police chief and most other city department directors “at any time.”

UT System chairman to pro-Palestinian students: divestment not an option

The University of Texas System will not divest from companies at students’ urging, board chairman Kevin Eltife said Wednesday. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators called for university officials to divest from companies that manufacture bombs, jets, missiles and other weapons of war used in Gaza. Eltife opened Wednesday’s regent meeting to address the protests that have taken place on Texas campuses in recent weeks. He also defended the presence of law enforcement, which led to arrests at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at Dallas. “Free speech and assembly are fundamental to the exchange of ideas within our educational institutions and must be protected,” Eltife said. “However, institutional policies and restrictions must exist to maintain order and to protect our students and the greater campus community.”

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Students across the country have taken over campuses to protest the war in Gaza. Hundreds of people attended rallies at campuses in Austin, Dallas and other universities across the state. Protesters intended to set up encampments and occupy campus lawns and plazas as they demanded divestment and that school leaders call for a cease-fire in Gaza. “And as far as the calls to divest, divestment is not an option,” Eltife said Wednesday. “We will continue to maximize our investments to ensure our students have scholarships and we can provide an affordable, accessible education.” Eltife applauded state troopers for supporting campus police in dismantling protesters’ tents and barricades. Some students and observers have criticized the heavy use of riot gear by officers, some of whom deployed pepper spray on protesters, at the schools.

Nine of 10 Astroworld festival wrongful death lawsuits settled on eve of trial

Nine of 10 wrongful death lawsuits stemming from the Astroworld festival disaster have been settled, a plaintiff’s attorney confirmed Wednesday, averting a trial where superstar rapper Travis Scott could have faced tough questioning under oath. The settlements cover all the families except for the youngest concert victim, 9-year-old Ezra Blount, according to statements in court first reported by the Associated Press. Blount’s attorney, Scott West, confirmed his case is pending. The settlements wrap up a long quest for justice for most of the families whose loved ones died from a crowd crush during Scott’s performance at the festival on the grounds of NRG Park. The concert quickly turned deadly on Nov. 5, 2021. Scott took the stage at 9:02 p.m.; within minutes, the crowd crush began and fans collapsed.

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Dallas moving forward with plan to entice residents to switch from gas-powered lawn tools

Dallas environmental officials are considering a new program that would reimburse residents who switch from gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other landscaping tools to battery or electric-powered equipment. The Dallas City Council could vote as early as June on whether to approve the framework of a financial incentive program. The city’s office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability is still determining whether the program will provide discounts, vouchers, or a mail-in rebate that would require proof of buying non-gasoline fueled equipment in order to receive a reimbursement. “This program aligns with the city’s commitment to reduce our carbon footprint,” Paul White II, the department’s assistant director told City Council members during a committee meeting on Monday. “When compared to electric equipment, the gasoline-powered equipment emits high levels of pollutants that contribute to air quality issues, such as particulate matter and greenhouse gases. So transitioning to electric alternatives benefits the health of the community by reducing emissions that could eventually lead to respiratory issues.”

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Carlos Evans, the department’s director, told council members who are on the Parks, Trails and the Environment committee that the program is estimated to give reimbursements to 3,500 single-family households and that plans are in the works to consider expanding the program to businesses and residents who live in apartments. The money comes from $750,000 the City Council approved in this year’s budget for a lawn equipment transition program. The city is turning to the rebate because a new state law prohibits cities from restricting the use of an engine based on the type of fuel it uses. Rebate amounts could range from $50 each for leaf blowers, trimmers, edgers, and chainsaws; $100 for push lawn mowers, and $200 for riding mowers. There could be $25 offered for battery replacements. Department officials said they are exploring whether the city can get any federal funding to support the program in the future. The city estimates it could cost more than $24 million if all of Dallas’ single-family households with gas equipment wanted to convert, including more than $9 million for residents who just want to switch their lawn mowers. The city estimates 47% of the city’s more than 200,000 single-family households have gas-powered lawn mowers. Council member Chad West said he would support any rebate method that would offer some kind of financial incentive to residents and businesses.

County Stories

Communities In Schools of Houston speaks at Harris County Commissioners Court as May proclaimed “Mental Health Awareness Month” in Harris County

Communities In Schools of Houston (CIS) was represented at the Harris County Commissioners Court meeting on May 7 to speak about its mental health support services. During the meeting, County Judge Lina Hidalgo and the Commissioners Court officially proclaimed May as “Mental Health Awareness Month.” The Harris Center and the UH Health Family Care Center – University of Houston were also on the agenda to talk about the importance of mental health services for children, teens and adults. Speaking on behalf of CIS was Chanelle Omiwade, LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) and Program Director for Communities In Schools of Houston, ­who discussed the importance of accessibility to mental health supports for students of all ages. CIS is the largest provider of mental health services to schools in the Harris County area through its Mental Health Initiative, launched in 2012.

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Harris County sues TCEQ over Kashmere Gardens concrete facility amid air quality concerns

Harris County sued the Texas Commission on Environment Quality on Wednesday for approving a permit for a concrete crushing plant located near Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital in Houston’s Kashmere Gardens. The lawsuit – filed in behalf of Harris Health, Trinity Gardens and Kashmere Gardens Super Neighborhood councils – argues that the plant, which is operated by Texas Coastal Materials, will be less than 440 yards from a chapel within the hospital and that the facility doesn’t comply with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for the harmful particulate matter that the facility emits into the air. “What we’ve seen traditionally is an unwillingness from state officials to address the pressing needs of these communities,” said Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee. “If you look at the folks in Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens, there’s been substantial community pushback to this proposal to this concrete crushing site and you have yet to see anyone in the state taking this pushback seriously.” In a statement, TCEQ said it does not comment on pending litigation.

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Family, lawyer meet with district attorney about jail death

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn should immediately release video of what happened in the county jail leading up to the death of Anthony Ray Johnson Jr. or resign, the attorney representing Johnson’s family said. “If it’s too much pressure for the sheriff to expose wrongdoing ... he needs to resign,” Daryl Washington said in a phone call Wednesday with the Star-Telegram. “They’re going to try to keep it from coming out for a long time. It’s going to be damning. You’re going to see someone who didn’t want to die.” Jacqualyne Johnson, Anthony Johnson’s mother, and Washington met with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday, after she and her daughters spoke out at the Tarrant County Commissioner’s Court meeting on Tuesday. Washington said he didn’t leave the meeting angry and is hoping for progress soon.

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“I want to believe that there are going to be some attempts to move forward with something,” Washington told the Star-Telegram. “I didn’t come out of the meeting pissed off, but we need something and I hope it will come out soon.” Jacqualyne Johnson said in a text to the Star-Telegram that she doesn’t feel like anything changed after the meeting. The Johnson family has been demanding the release of any video of the April 21 altercation with Tarrant County Jail detention officers that led to Johnson’s death. They, and Washington, say they deserve to know exactly how Anthony Johnson, a 31-year-old Marine veteran, died. During the commissioners court meeting Tuesday, Johnson’s family demanded transparency, answers and the release of the video. They told the commissioners present — all but Roy Charles Brooks, who was absent and at a conference — that they don’t understand the torment his death has caused the family. “You can’t see my pain right now, but I can make sure y’all turn colors and see pain,” Anthony Johnson’s sister Janell Johnson told county commissioners. The family has also said they have been unable to get in touch with the Texas Rangers, who are investigating the in-custody death. The Texas Rangers have not responded to Star-Telegram requests for information.

City Stories

Dickinson mayor Sean Skipworth resigns following years of turmoil

Sean Skipworth, the embattled mayor of the Galveston County town of Dickinson, announced his resignation on Facebook Tuesday following years of political turmoil. In his Facebook post, Skipworth attributed the decision to “a campaign of rumor, smear and intimidation” directed at him, his family and other city officials by “a group of people in our city who feel their power slipping away.” “It has become acceptable to some to discuss hanging me and purging me from the earth,” Skipworth wrote. “My school-aged child has been a subject of smear. City employees have been stalked across state lines. In the last month alone I have had to contend with escalating threats and friends have been doxxed on social media. The situation has taken an enormous toll on my physical and mental health. I know it has taken a toll on the physical and mental health of my friends and family. I can no longer put that burden on them in good conscience.”

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National Stories

Controversial antisemitism bills are passing, and not only in the US House

A group of Jewish, Muslim and Christian activists gathered outside the state’s General Assembly on Wednesday (May 8) to protest a bill that would codify a controversial definition of antisemitism into state law. The Shalom Act is similar to the Antisemitism Awareness Act that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week. Critics, including those who demonstrated outside the General Assembly, contend it is intended to silence criticism of Israel and to crack down on the growing number of pro-Palestinian rallies roiling college campuses. But that gathering of Jews, Muslims and Christians did little or nothing to convince legislators. Only four hours later, the state House, which has a Republican supermajority, passed the bill and sent it on to the state Senate. Both bills, federal and state, adopt the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.

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While the IHRA definition itself does not mention Israel, it goes on to offer several examples of antisemitism that do. Manifestations of antisemitism, it states, “might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity” and offers several examples such as: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” “This bill will blur the line between legitimate criticism of the well-documented war crimes and human rights violations committed by the Israeli government, and antisemitism,” declared Lela Ali, co-founder of Muslim Women For, a Durham, North Carolina, activist group that is fighting the state legislation. Lela Ali, co-founder of Muslim Women For, speaks at a news conference May 8, 2024, outside the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh, N.C., against a bill that would codify a controversial antisemitism definition now being considered by legislators. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron) Ali was joined in Raleigh by activists from Carolina Jews for Justice, the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry and members of the local chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others. These groups, like their national counterparts, have said the IHRA definition is deeply flawed and if passed by the assembly will not only trample free speech but may be used to quash dissent of Israel.

Barron Trump to step into the political arena as a Florida delegate at the Republican convention

It will soon be Barron Trump’s time to step into the political spotlight. Trump, former President Donald Trump’s youngest child, who will graduate from high school next week and has largely been kept out of the political spotlight, was picked by the Republican Party of Florida on Wednesday night as one of the state’s at-large delegates to the Republican National Convention, according to a list of delegates obtained by NBC News. “We have a great delegation of grassroots leaders, elected officials and even Trump family members,” Florida GOP chairman Evan Power said. “Florida is continuing to have a great convention team, but more importantly we are preparing to win Florida and win it big.”

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Trump’s position as a delegate will be his highest-profile political role thus far. In a family full of politically involved children, Barron Trump, who turned 18 in March, has retained much more of a private life than his older brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom will also be Florida at-large RNC delegates, along with Trump’s daughter Tiffany. He was pulled into political headlines last month at the start of his father’s New York criminal trial related to hush money payments to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election. The former president’s attorneys argued that he should be allowed a break from trial to attend Barron Trump’s May 17 high school graduation, which Judge Juan Merchan agreed to allow. A Trump campaign spokesman did not reply to a request for comment. The Trump family will have an outsize impact on Florida’s RNC delegation. Eric Trump, the delegation’s chairman, joined Power, the state GOP chairman, on a phone call with party leaders Wednesday night.

Taxpayers are about to subsidize a lot more sports stadiums

Open a map of the United States. Select a big city at random. Chances are, it has recently approved or is on the verge of approving a lavish, taxpayer-funded stadium project for one or more of its local sports teams. This is true in Las Vegas, where the team currently known as the Oakland Athletics will soon be playing in a new ballpark up the street from the home of the NFL’s Raiders, also formerly of Oakland. Combined, the two stadiums will end up receiving more than $1.1 billion in public funding, not counting tax breaks. Something similar is happening in Chicago, where Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the White Sox, wants roughly $1 billion in public funding for a new stadium in the South Loop, while the Halas-McCaskey family, which owns the Bears, is requesting $2.4 billion for a new football stadium on the lakefront. Likewise in Cleveland, which has one of the nation’s highest childhood poverty rates, as well as in Phoenix, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. In Buffalo, the Bills recently received $850 million for new digs, and in Nashville, politicians approved a record $1.26 billion subsidy for the Titans.

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Economic research is unequivocal: These subsidies are a boondoggle for taxpayers, who have spent nearly $30 billion on stadiums over the past 34 years, not counting property-tax exemptions or federal revenues lost to tax-exempt municipal bonds. Stadiums do not come close to generating enough economic activity to pay back the public investment involved in building them—especially when they’re coupled with lease agreements that funnel revenue back to owners or allow teams to play in the stadiums rent-free. Even as an investment in your city’s stores of community spirit, stadium subsidies at this price are hard to justify. As the economist J. C. Bradbury told the Associated Press, “When you ask economists if we should fund sports stadiums, they can’t say ‘no’ fast enough.” You would think that three decades’ worth of evidence would be enough to put an end to the practice of subsidizing sports stadiums. Unfortunately, you would be wrong. America finds itself on the brink of the biggest, most expensive publicly-funded-stadium boom ever, and the results will not be any better this time around. Until the 1980s, super-rich sports franchise owners generally did not seek or receive extravagant public subsidies. Three events changed that. First, in 1982, Al Davis, the Raiders’ owner, left Oakland for Los Angeles because officials refused to fund renovations to the Oakland Coliseum, which the city had built in the ’60s. (They would later cave on this; the Raiders returned to Oakland in 1995, lured by public funds.) Second, in 1984, Robert Irsay, the owner of the Baltimore Colts, moved the team to Indiana after being offered a sweetheart deal at the publicly funded Hoosier Dome. Finally, a few years later, Maryland approved hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding—along with a historically lopsided lease agreement—for a new stadium for the Orioles, who were now Baltimore’s only remaining team. (The Ravens wouldn’t exist until 1996.) “If you want to save the Orioles,” Maryland House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell said at the time, “you have to give them this kind of lease.”

Biden says he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if it launches major invasion of Rafah

President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel – which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza – if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week. “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.

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The president’s announcement that he was prepared to condition American weaponry on Israel’s actions amounts to a turning point in the seven-month conflict between Israel and Hamas. And his acknowledgement that American bombs had been used to kill civilians in Gaza was a stark recognition of the United States’ role in the war. The president has come under extraordinary pressure, including from members of his own party, to limit shipments of arms amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Until now, the president had resisted those calls and strongly supported Israel’s efforts to go after Hamas. Yet a looming invasion of Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million Palestinian civilians have been sheltering, appears to have shifted the president’s calculus.

RFK Jr. says parasite ate part of his brain

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said doctors told him a parasite ate part of his brain, after experiencing memory loss and brain fog in 2010. The New York Times reviewed a deposition of Kennedy from 2012 that detailed his experience with his symptoms and the dead parasite. The Times reported that Kennedy started dealing with memory loss and mental fogginess in 2010, prompting concerns from a friend that the now-presidential candidate may have had a tumor. Kennedy gave the 2012 deposition during divorce proceedings from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. Kennedy discussed his symptoms in the deposition because he argued his cognitive struggles in relation to the situation had diminished his earning power, according to The Times report.

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Several doctors who had first concluded Kennedy had a tumor found a dark spot on his brain scans, The Times reported. However, just as he was packing up to have surgery and remove the tumor, he said in the deposition that another doctor called him and told him he believed Kennedy instead had a dead parasite in his brain. The doctor told him he believed the spot on the brain scan “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Kennedy reportedly said in the deposition. The Times also reported that around the same time as the parasite, Kennedy suffered from mercury poisoning that likely came from eating too much fish, according to the deposition. Mercury poisoning can lead to some neurological disturbance and issues with memory, among other symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “I have cognitive problems, clearly,” he said in the deposition, according to The Times. “I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.”

GOP, Dems show rare unity in killing Greene motion

The House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to protect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a conservative coup, torpedoing an effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust the GOP leader from the top job for his willingness to cut deals with Democrats on weighty legislation. The chamber voted 359-43-7 on a motion to table, or dismiss, Greene’s motion-to-vacate resolution, preventing the removal proposal from being considered. In an extraordinary move in the deeply divided House, 163 Democrats — more than three-quarters of their Caucus — voted to keep Johnson in power. And in a demonstration of the GOP’s support for Johnson, only 11 conservative Republicans voted to send Greene’s motion to the floor. The chamber erupted in boos on both sides of the aisle when Greene began reading her resolution. The outcome was not a surprise.

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The Southeast is bracing for a severe weather threat today as officials assess damage from deadly storms in Tennessee

As officials in the central and southern US assess the damage from reported tornadoes and powerful storms that killed at least three people Wednesday, residents from East Texas to South Carolina are bracing for a severe weather threat Thursday that could bring large hail, damaging winds and flooding. More than 9 million people in northern and central Georgia, southeastern Tennessee and western North Carolina are under a tornado watch until 1:00 p.m., the Storm Prediction Center said. Cities in the watch include Atlanta and Macon in Georgia, and Chattanooga in Tennessee. Tennessee was especially hard hit Wednesday, with at least four tornado reports for the Volunteer State, and flash flooding prompting water rescues and blocked roads north of Nashville.

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Tornado warnings were issued Wednesday in several southern states, including in northern Alabama, where a “large and destructive tornado” was in the area of Henagar, a city of a couple thousand people roughly 55 miles east of Huntsville, the National Weather Service said. That marked the fourth tornado emergency this week, with others issued in Oklahoma, Michigan and Tennessee. A tornado warning also was issued earlier Wednesday night near Huntsville, Alabama. Two of the tornado reports in Tennessee Wednesday came from Maury County, located about 50 miles southwest of Nashville, where a tornado emergency had been in effect. There was a “confirmed large and destructive tornado” near the city of Spring Hill around 5:50 p.m., the National Weather Service said. “We are urging for everyone to stay off of the roads. If you can stay at home, stay home,” the Maury County Office Of Emergency Management posted on Facebook.

Lead Stories

Longtime Henry Cuellar aide is eager to help feds make bribery case, his lawyer says

A longtime aide and adviser to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar is eager to help federal prosecutors make their case that Cuellar and his wife accepted bribes from foreign interests, the aide’s lawyer said. A federal indictment unsealed on Friday accuses Cuellar, 68, and his wife, Imelda, 67, of collecting nearly $600,000 in payoffs from a Mexico City bank and an oil company controlled by the government of Azerbaijan from 2014 to 2021. In return, Cuellar allegedly used his position in Congress to advance their interests. The indictment depicts Colin Strother, who has served as Cuellar’s campaign manager and chief of staff, as a middleman in the bribery scheme. Strother allegedly helped launder $242,000 in illegal payments.

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His lawyer said Tuesday that Strother, who was not charged in the indictment, is ready to cooperate with the Justice Department. “Colin is a good and decent man and has always cooperated with the government,” criminal defense attorney Michael McCrum told the San Antonio Express-News. “He wants nothing more than for truth and justice to see the light of day.” “If I were Henry or Imelda Cuellar, I’d be concerned,” McCrum added. Strother declined to comment, referring questions to his lawyer. The 50-year-old consultant has been a fixture in South Texas politics for years. In San Antonio, he’s managed numerous city council campaigns, advised the firefighters' union in its push for better contract terms and served as a spokesman for area business interests. A constant in Strother’s career has been his close association with Cuellar. For more than 20 years, he was the Laredo Democrat’s chief strategist and political eyes and ears. Cuellar was first elected to represent the 28th Congressional District in 2004. A partial review of campaign finance records shows that Cuellar’s political action committee, Texans for Henry Cuellar, paid Strother $111,798 for consulting services between 2015 and 2021.

Judge indefinitely delays Trump’s classified documents trial in Florida

Donald Trump’s Florida trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them has been pushed back indefinitely, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ruled Tuesday, increasing the chance that the former president’s ongoing New York criminal trial may be the only one to happen before the November election. The judge had originally set the Florida trial date for late May, but that has seemed unlikely for months, with Cannon still needing to make decisions on a number of key legal issues before a jury can hear the case. At a scheduling hearing in Florida on March 1, Trump’s lawyers pushed to start the classified documents trial after the presidential election, in which he is the presumptive Republican nominee. Prosecutors urged Cannon to pick a date in early July.

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If Trump returns to the Oval Office, he could appoint an attorney general who is willing to drop the federal charges against him; in addition, Justice Department policy forbids the criminal prosecution of a sitting president. In her ruling Tuesday, Cannon said there are many complicated legal rules and deadlines surrounding the use of classified evidence in public criminal trials that need to be considered before she picks a new court date. The order was a blow to special counsel Jack Smith and his team, who have argued that Trump’s team have had ample time to prepare for a summer trial and accused Trump’s lawyers of wrongly trying to use the three other criminal cases against him as a way to obfuscate and delay the legal proceedings in Florida. Trump’s Manhattan trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to a hush money payment began in mid-April. His lead attorney in New York, Todd Blanche, is also his lead lawyer in Florida, and the legal team has told Cannon that Trump and Blanche are tied up with the ongoing trial and cannot prepare for the classified documents case.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner announces retirement amid dropped cases scandal, Whitmire says

Troy Finner has stepped down as chief of the Houston Police Department, Mayor John Whitmire announced in a late-night, four-paragraph email to city employees Tuesday. "I have accepted the retirement of Troy Finner as Chief of Police, and have appointed Larry Satterwhite acting Chief of Police effective 10:31 p.m. tonight," Whitmire wrote. "This decision comes with full confidence in acting Chief Satterwhite's abilities to lead and uphold the high standards of the department."

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Finner's sudden retirement comes amid the monthslong internal police investigation into the department's use of a internal code — "SL" — to mark criminal cases and incident reports as suspended due to a lack of personnel. Finner announced the investigation into the internal code in February and has delivered periodic updates on the investigation and reviews of the suspended cases as it progressed. Last week, Finner announced that the internal investigation had concluded, but the police department had yet to release any information on its findings. Similarly, an independent investigative group organized by Whitmire to conduct its own review of the police department has yet to make any disclosures about its findings. On Tuesday, multiple Houston TV stations reported a new development in the scandal: an email written by Finner in 2018 referring to the suspended case issue. Finner had previously said that he first became aware of the code in 2021.

Power reserves could be lower Wednesday as temperatures soar, ERCOT warns

The Texas power grid operator issued a heads-up Tuesday that it may have lower reserves of electricity supply on Wednesday, when power demand is expected to rise as residents use more air conditioning amid unseasonably warm weather. Despite the notification, known as a weather watch, grid conditions Wednesday are expected to be normal, and there is not a request to conserve electricity, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Temperatures this week could creep into the 90s in Houston, weeks earlier than normal and in part influenced by last week’s heavy rainfall, according to Houston Chronicle meteorologist Justin Ballard.

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ERCOT’s forecast for Wednesday shows power demand inching right up to supply in the evening. The narrowest gap is expected around 9 p.m., when 65,486 megawatts of available capacity is expected, compared with 64,389 megawatts of demand, as of 1 p.m. Tuesday. One megawatt can power about 200 Texas homes during a heat wave, according to ERCOT. As the state’s grid operator, ERCOT does not own any power plants; its job is making sure power supply matches demand at all times. When power reserves drop below 2,500 megawatts, ERCOT can initiate a grid emergency to access various resources to increase supply and reduce demand, including rotating outages as a last resort. ERCOT issued a weather watch for Wednesday in part because it expects many fossil fuel power plants to be unavailable due to maintenance, according to its statement. During spring and fall, power plant owners typically complete required maintenance as mild weather helps reduce power demand.

State Stories

Austin Police say they haven't found source of opioids linked to overdose surge

The Austin Police Department announced a handful of drug arrests Monday, but police still haven't found the source of fentanyl related to a spate of overdoses that occurred last week. In a statement Monday, the department said it had made five arrests in connection with fentanyl-laced crack cocaine, suggesting the suspects were connected to the overdoses last week. Lt. Patrick Eastlick addressed that potential connection Tuesday, saying the arrests were part of an ongoing investigation, but not immediately connected to last week's overdoses. "The individuals arrested during these investigations are not linked as of right now to any of the overdose victims," he said. "And the purpose of these operations was to try to identify dealers responsible and the sources of the narcotics which caused the overdoses.”

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Eastlick said the department is still trying to track down the source of the fentanyl, which APD says was found in methamphetamine, crack cocaine and marijuana. The department is offering up to $1,000 for leads in that investigation. Residents can submit a tip to APD through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers. Gary Lewis, Denise Horton and Ronnie Mims were charged with possession of a controlled substance, and Kanady Rimijo and Marcellus Barron were charged with delivery of a controlled substance. APD arrested another suspect last week in a crackdown on drug sales in the downtown area following the overdoses. APD representatives said the substance in question was crack cocaine that also tested positive for fentanyl — the combination they believe is primarily to blame for the string of 79 overdoses that Austin-Travis County EMS responded to between April 29 and May 3. Authorities said it was the largest local overdose surge since 2015. The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the deaths of nine people who died of suspected overdoses in Travis County. Fentanyl was present in preliminary autopsy results for each of those individuals, and cocaine was present in the results for eight, said Hector Nieto, a Travis County public information officer.

‘The gloves are off’: SD 15 primary runoff could heat up after sleepy special election

Few voters paid attention to Saturday’s state Senate District 15 special election that saw emergency room nurse Molly Cook prevail over state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, a result the veteran Democrat blames on himself. He and his supporters got complacent, Johnson admitted Monday. Now, the four-term state rep has less than three weeks to reverse Saturday’s defeat. The pair face off again in a May 28 Democratic primary runoff. “It’s time to take the gloves off,” Johnson said, taking aim at Cook. “Obviously, your tricks have worked. Your lies invigorated your people. It engaged them and enraged them and they went to the polls.” Saturday’s election was to fill Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s remaining Senate term, which runs through the end of the year.

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The election drew a miniscule turnout — about 2.25 percent of the district’s 725,000 voting-age residents. Those who did vote preferred Cook by a little more than 14 percentage points. That represents a sharp turnaround from the March Democratic primary, when Johnson finished nearly 16 percentage points ahead of Cook but did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff against her. In an interview Monday, Cook credited her success to her campaign staff’s efforts to remind voters of the Saturday election. Johnson blamed his defeat on “poli-tricks,” pointing the finger at a series of mailers sent to voters by the Cook campaign that claimed Johnson is not trustworthy enough to defend Democratic values in the Senate. One of the mailers claims Johnson has “caved to Greg Abbott too many times” and details perceived shortcomings in Johnson’s record on the issues of gun control, abortion rights, healthcare expansion and public school funding. He also said he expects further political attacks in the weeks leading up to the primary runoff, specifically targeting his family life. Cook denied Johnson’s claim that her campaign is planning to roll out any negative campaigning about his family. A primary race is the most appropriate time for a “thoughtful and deliberate review” of Johnson’s record of service in the House, she added.

Dua Lipa, Tyler, the Creator, Sturgill Simpson headlining ACL Fest 2024

The 2024 Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup is here. Let's get into it. Dua Lipa, Tyler, the Creator, Chris Stapleton, blink-182, Sturgill Simpson, and Pretty Lights are headlining the festival. Dua Lipa, who just released her third album "Radical Optimism," and blink-182, which includes Travis Barker, Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus, will both be making their ACL Fest debuts. Tyler, the Creator was a last-minute add to the bill in 2021, after Da Baby was dropped from the lineup, but this will be his first fully produced ACL set. Texas favorites Khruangbin and Leon Bridges are also included on the lineup. More than 30 Texas artists are on this year's lineup, ACL Fest officials said.

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Renee´ Rapp, Norah Jones, Carin Leo´n, Foster the People, Chappell Roan, Orville Peck, Dominic Fike, The Mari´as, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, Caamp and Jungle will perform during both weekends of the fest. Weekend one-only performers include: Kehlani, Porter Robinson, Fletcher, Still Woozy, and Something Corporate. Weekend two performers include: The Red Clay Strays, Remi Wolf, Jeezy, Tyla and Santigold. ACL Fest runs Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 11-13 in Zilker Park.

Steve Sarkisian on Texas football playing Texas A&M for first time since 2011: 'We'll be ready'

Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian is gearing up for his program's first season in the SEC, which presents new — and some old — matchups. Among those for the Longhorns is the rekindling of an old rivalry with Texas A&M, which Texas last faced in 2011 when both schools were members of the Big 12. “The question is about with all of the changes happening in college football like NIL, transfer portal, conference realignment, you name it — we’ve got a lot going on right now,” Sarkisian told reporters at the Houston Touchdown Club.

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“But with that change, what’s coming is renewing the rivalry with (Texas) A&M and how to get our players that we recruit back into the vigor of that rivalry that I think y’all have enjoyed for decades and decades. It’s not hard at all. We’ll be ready.” Talk has been made in recent years with past rivalries being left behind due to major conference realignment in college sports. In Texas' case, while it leaves matchups with in-state schools TCU, Houston, Baylor and Texas Tech from the Big 12, it gains the Aggies, who left the Big 12 for the SEC for the 2012 season, and Arkansas, an old opponent from the Southwest Conference. Sarkisian said he wasn't worried about old rivalries, however. “People are excited about some of the conference realignment that’s happening,” Sarkisian said. “People are excited about the expanded College Football Playoff. People are excited about rivalries getting renewed. Everyone’s worried about conference realignment that we’re losing rivalries? Well, there are some good ones getting renewed, too.”

Businessman linked to burning of corporate records case puts 2 more companies into bankruptcy

Embattled businessman Frank Thomas “Tom” Shumate Jr. — a defendant in a lawsuit alleging business records were burned at a bankrupt San Antonio-area oil field services company he heads — has put two more businesses into bankruptcy. Shumate signed Chapter 11 petitions Monday for cement plant operators Superior Ready Mix of Texas LLC and WFO LLC, which share the same address at 146 Motte Parkway off Interstate 10 in Marion in Guadalupe County. It also has been the address for Cinch Wireline Services LLC, which sought bankruptcy liquidation in December. Shumate is president of all three companies.

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With lawsuits and recount petitions rising, some Texas elections seem to go on forever

It has been 15 months since Democrat DaSean Jones was sworn in as a Harris County criminal district court judge. He’s presided over hundreds of cases since then. And he’ll be on the ballot again in November, this time for a seat on the Texas Supreme Court. But there’s an asterisk on his 2022 election win: His opponent, Republican Tami Pierce, is still challenging the outcome in court, arguing that there were “improper or illegal votes that shouldn’t have been counted” and that the election was “plagued with mistakes.” Her case is awaiting a ruling from a Bexar County visiting judge. It’s another example of a pattern officials and experts say they’re seeing around Texas in recent years: elections that just won’t end. The November 2020 general election was easily the most litigious in recent history.

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But post-election legal challenges and recount petitions have been mounting ever since, experts say. And while there are no hard numbers, they say these challenges are becoming more common in lower-ballot elections around the state. Some level of scrutiny is expected after elections. Texas law requires automatic recounts in some circumstances, including a tie, and it allows for challenges in very close elections. But the challenges election officials are noticing lately are different. Many are coming from right-wing activists challenging specific aspects of how the election was conducted, and “throwing the kitchen sink” into their complaints, said Mimi Marziani, a political science and election law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “They’re not actually trying to have a different person elected,” Marziani said. “They’re trying to set some sort of precedent to destabilize free and fair elections.” With the 2024 election just months away, Texas courts are still working through election challenges brought as far back as 2021. Winning candidates like Jones, meanwhile, have taken office but must contend with the uncertainty surrounding their authority, which experts say could diminish voters’ confidence.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez's chief of staff charged following 2023 injury to a child allegation

Jason Spencer, the chief of staff to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, has been charged with injury to a child in connection with a 2023 allegation that he attacked his teen son. Spencer, 50, went before a judge Tuesday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He is free on bond. The child, in September 2023, accused Spencer of slamming him against a wall during a scuffle after the teen got into an argument with a sibling, according to court records. Spencer initially yelled at the child to go to his room but the encounter escalated. The child fell down the stairs when Spencer threw a plastic gun case against him. The teen asked the sibling to later take pictures of his bruises, the records show.

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The child’s mother, an ex-wife of Spencer, told Houston police that Spencer described the boy as having a meltdown that day and urged her not to take him to a hospital. A defense attorney, Murray Newman, maintained Spencer’s innocence in the case and added that his client loves his children. “Jason has cooperated with the investigating authorities completely in this matter and he turned himself into the court this morning to address these charges,” Newman said in a statement. The lawyer likened the allegations to family law cases where one party may attempt using the criminal justice system to their advantage. “That is what we believe has happened here,” Newman said. Jeremy Odom, a representative for the family of the ex-wife, rebuked Newman's allegations.

Marc Veasey: We made bipartisan progress on cutting internet costs. Ted Cruz wants to reverse it

Sometimes it seems like too many in Congress are only interested in grandstanding for political points. For the rest of us, making progress for the people we represent often doesn’t get the most clicks or the most primetime media attention. Often, it takes the form of something like the Affordable Connectivity Program. High-speed internet, which the ACP connects Americans to, has become as essential as electricity and running water in each of our lives. It’s a lifeline – for education, health care, employment and more. But too many Texans haven’t had access to this vital resource.

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The ACP is funded by President Joe Biden’s transformative Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and across our state alone, 1.7 million households (and more than 72,000 in my district) are seeing their internet bills cut anywhere from $30-$75 each month. That’s evidence enough that this program, designed to make high-speed internet accessible to all Americans, has been a lifeline for so many families. But right now, its future is being jeopardized by political inaction. I’m talking about the inaction of our junior senator, Cruz. He sits on the committee responsible for the ACP, but he’s not working to strengthen it or bring costs down even further. He’s holding up funding for its renewal. He’s even working to stop the program’s savings for Texas families, calling it “wasteful.” At the same time Cruz is trying to reinvent himself in a newly bipartisan image – it’s an election year, and Texans know better – the ACP is just another commonsense, bipartisan initiative that he opposes. The path forward is clear. Congress should act decisively to extend and fully fund the ACP. It represents a historic opportunity to bridge the digital divide and ensure equitable access to high-speed internet for all Texans by 2030.

Kyle Rittenhouse appears in El Paso for GOP candidate Brandon Herrera

Republican candidate for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District Brandon Herrera and controversial guest Kyle Rittenhouse visited El Paso on Monday, May 6, to rally support for Herrera’s campaign in a runoff race. Herrera is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, for the Republican nomination in District 23. Gonzales’ far-flung district stretches from San Antonio to East El Paso. The runoff election is May 28.

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Rittenhouse was acquitted of killing two people at a protest in Wisconsin back in 2020. Since Rittenhouse’s move to Texas, he’s become involved in Texas politics while appearing with conservative candidates like Herrera. At Monday night’s event, the venue wouldn’t let KTSM inside to film, and Herrera’s campaign said he wouldn’t give interviews, only adding that they plan to block walk and hand out yard signs on Saturday in the El Paso region. KTSM reached out to Gonzales’ team regarding Herrera’s stop in El Paso and they issued the following statement: “Brandon Herrera continues to disqualify himself. First, he makes fun of veteran suicide. Now he says Trump will lose the election. What will he say next? Meanwhile, Tony Gonzales endorsed President Trump on day one, has the support of both Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick due to his strong stance on securing the border and delivering for Texans.”

Tarrant County DA on why he’s appealing Crystal Mason ruling

Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells said he wants to send a message by seeking to reverse a ruling that overturned Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction. “I want would be illegal voters to know that we’re watching,” Sorrells said. “We’ll follow the law and we would prosecute illegal voting.” Sorrells briefed county commissioners Tuesday on his decision to appeal a March 28 ruling from the Texas Second Court of Appeals. The court found Mason’s 2018 conviction should be overturned because she didn’t have actual knowledge that she couldn’t vote while on federal supervised release in a tax fraud case. On April 25, the Tarrant County DA’s office announced it asked an appellate court to reverse the ruling. Mason, a Rendon resident, was convicted of illegal voting and sentenced to five years in prison in a March 2018 bench trial in a Tarrant County district court. That case has received national attention.

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Sorrells said the appellant court that overturned the conviction picked and chose facts and did not function as an appellant court should. He said if the appeal is granted the case will go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Sorrells’ office, as part of the county’s election integrity unit, is looking into three cases of double voting during the primary by people in their 70s. Mason was attended the briefing. Joined by her attorneys, Mason said she was upset and questioned the DA’s decision. “Like he said, he’s only been here for a year and a half. So what is his motive to continue this case if he wasn’t here from the beginning?” Mason asked. Mason’s case originated when she cast a provisional ballot in 2016. Sorrells, a Republican, took office in January 2023. Mason said she had no intention of going back to jail when she cast that ballot in 2016 and did not want to risk having to leave her kids again. “Who goes to the polling place to commit a crime to say ‘I’m going to leave you again’?” she said.

Kansas City Chiefs’ Rashee Rice suspected in downtown Dallas assault, police say

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice is suspected in an assault that injured a man in downtown Dallas, law enforcement officials told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. Officers were dispatched about 2:30 a.m. Monday to a nightclub in the 600 block of North Harwood Street, near Federal Street, for reports of an assault, a police spokesperson confirmed. A man was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries, the spokesperson said. Law enforcement officials told The News the man had visible swelling on one side of his face. The officials said Rice, a former Richland High School and SMU star, is accused in the case. A department spokesperson would not confirm the names of any suspects, saying “it is not our practice to release or confirm a suspect identity during an investigation.”

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Former Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan returns to Goldman Sachs as vice chairman

Robert Kaplan, the former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, is reuniting with Goldman Sachs and joining the New York-based financial firm. Kaplan will be based in Dallas in his return to the company and will be the company’s vice chairman and a member of its management committee, the body responsible for creating strategies and setting policy for Goldman Sachs across all of its businesses. He previously worked for Goldman Sachs between 1983 to 2006 and became a partner in 1990.

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The many years which Kaplan worked at Goldman Sachs along with his experience as a leader, like when he served as a professor of management practice and senior associate dean for Harvard Business School for nearly a decade, will serve him well in his return, said David Solomon, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. “Rob brings a wealth of knowledge, deep relationships and significant global leadership expertise to his role as Vice Chairman,” Solomon said in a statement. “During his many years at Goldman Sachs, he held a number of senior leadership positions, developing our leading businesses, building relationships with many of the firm’s most important clients, and investing in our distinctive culture of teamwork and excellence. I look forward to welcoming Rob back to Goldman Sachs.” The hiring comes less than four months after the Federal Reserve’s Office of Inspector General closed its investigation of Kaplan which looked into his trading of stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kay Bailey Hutchison: U.S. leadership requires partners

Most people, even America’s competitors, would agree that the United States is the leader of the free world —?for now. But will the country still be the first among equals in 10, 20 or 50 years? What factors will determine whether the United States remains preeminent? The answer depends, in part, on whether Washington pursues the right foreign policy: one that emphasizes security, reliability and alliances above all. Having a well-funded national defense gives the United States credibility. Military power is also the best tool for deterring conflict. Having fought a war of independence, our Founding Fathers understood that security is necessary for democracy to succeed. Fair elections, a strong economy, the rule of law and a free press — none is possible without the protection provided by military power. Having a powerful military also allows the United States to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” as President Theodore Roosevelt described it. As the American CEO of a major international corporation put it recently, U.S. policy should be “to always go forward in peace, with heavy armor in the rear.”

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The next key to a successful U.S. foreign policy is trust. While the United States has made mistakes in its almost 250-year history, generally, when it has said it is going to do something, it has done it. Our allies should continue to trust that we will do what we say, and our adversaries should fear it. When that principle has been abandoned in the past, the United States has paid a heavy price. Sustaining U.S. leadership requires the support of the American public, since in our political system, voters get the ultimate say over what goals the government should pursue and how much it should spend on international priorities and national defense. As a consequence, for the country to succeed, Americans must embrace the notion of an engaged foreign policy. At various moments in our history, some Americans have questioned whether the country should maintain its foreign commitments, arguing that it should focus on problems at home instead. Almost every recent poll on issues this year rates concern about the economy as the most pressing. The staggering debt coupled with inflation could explain the current rise in isolationism.

County Stories

Dallas County paid $160,000 to two men kept in jail long after they served their time

Problems created within a year since Dallas County bought and switched jail and court management software have cost the county more money, and people in custody their freedom. The county recently paid a $100,000 federal civil rights lawsuit settlement after keeping a man jailed after a judge said he had served his time. Chris McDowell’s lawyer blamed the new software. The county also settled for $60,000 with Ryan Harris, who’d been held in jail for too long after his release date last year. His lawyer said missing paperwork, not software, caused the problem. Krishnaveni Gundu is a co-founder and executive director of the Texas Jail Project. She says that similar lawsuits are pending throughout Texas. In Chris McDowell’s case, the federal lawsuit alleged that computer system problems likely contributed to his continued detention in the Dallas County jail.

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“The County’s longstanding flawed process for timely releasing inmates was exacerbated by technological issues as early as May 2023, when the County began migrating case files from the County’s 40-year-old Forvis criminal case management software system (Forvis) to Tyler Technologies’ Odyssey criminal case management software system,” states the lawsuit filed by civil rights attorney Dean Malone. “The County retired Forvis before Odyssey was fully operational. …[it]ineffectually integrated Odyssey and failed to train Odyssey users, which also led to more delays in releasing inmates after they had fully served their sentences.” McDowell had shoplifted from a Lancaster Wal-Mart two years ago and missed his probation appointment while he was in Ellis County’s jail for a drug offense. That landed him right back in Lew Sterrett. He stayed there at least 50 days after a judge said he had served enough time to satisfy his sentence. That day in court, he returned to the jail, excited, and packed his things. Then he asked a guard about the release process. "He got my name and stuff and he told me ‘Well you're going to [the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.’ I said ‘Excuse me?’" McDowell recalled. The county never sent McDowell to state prison, but it didn't send him home, either. He lost his job, his truck and 40 pounds.

Dozens speak out against Tarrant commissioners’ conduct

The last act of a tense and lengthy Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday was a continuation of tensions from the last one. More than 100 people signed up to speak during public comments, many addressing an exchange at the last meeting on April 15 when County Judge Tim O’Hare told Commissioner Alisa Simmons: “You’ll sit there and be quiet,” during a discussion over a contract with a political consultant. Later, during a discussions about ballots, he told her to “have a semblance of class.” Many from the Justice Network of Tarrant County, a group of religious activists who often speak at Commissioners Court, showed up to speak. Some people in the crowd wore black T-shirts that said in white letters, “I’m with HER you sit there and listen.”

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But the comments came from both sides. Carlos Turcios, who describes himself as a conservative activist and writes for the Dallas Express, encouraged members of the Facebook group Latinos United for Conservative Action to speak in support of the county judge. “This May 7th BLM activists are planning to show up in full force and attack County Judge Tim O’Hare with the argument of ‘racism,’ ‘misogyny,’ and ‘partisanship.’ We need to get conservatives to show up at the commissioners court meeting at 10 a.m.,” The post read. At around 4:15 p.m. Turcios spoke. He said white supremacy doesn’t exist. “Why is he being attacked? He’s being attacked because he’s a white male,” Turcios said, referring to O’Hare. “If he were a black individual, he would not be under attack. If he were an Hispanic individual, he would not be under attack.” Another supporter of O’Hare was Bo French, chairman of the Tarrant County GOP. “I am here today to debunk some lies that were spread online in a narrative by Commissioner Simmons that I find repulsive and unbecoming of this court,” French said.

Liberty County bridge over Trinity River collapses in washout after weekend floods

A bridge over the Trinity River in Romayor is closed after it buckled and collapsed in a washout. According to the Liberty Vindicator web site, FM 787 was closed early Monday because of a washout on the west side of the bridge, which collapsed in the same area Tuesday morning.

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A washout occurs when flowing water erodes a portion of a roadway. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, bridges can collapse during a flood when flowing water erodes the ground beneath them and around the bridge’s vulnerable supporting structures. According to Liberty County's Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, the surface elevation of the Trinity River near Romayor was staging slightly above the “moderate” water level threshold at 9 a.m. Tuesday, or at 41.1 feet above mean sea level.

National Stories

Greene relents, for now, on bid to oust Johnson

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is seemingly retreating from her threat to hold a referendum on Mike Johnson’s speakership this week after two meetings with the GOP leader. The Georgia firebrand is backing away from her pledge to hold an ouster vote, for now, saying the small band of conservative rebels interested in booting him would continue to watch Johnson’s actions moving forward. The speaker was widely expected to survive any attempted firing this week, as Democrats had committed to helping him. “We will see. … Right now the ball is in Mike Johnson’s court,” she responded, when reporters repeatedly pressed her on whether she would carry out her promise to force the vote.

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It is a dizzying walkback of a threat Greene first made more than six weeks ago. She had vowed to act on her vow to force an anti-Johnson vote this week even as it became clear that she didn’t have the support to fire him – with former President Donald Trump standing by him and Democratic leaders announcing they would align against her. During an impromptu briefing on the Capitol steps with her chief ally Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Greene offered no end date for the duo to decide when to try to force a vote on ending Johnson’s reign and said only that his runway is “pretty short.” Greene cautioned that her new stance didn’t “necessarily” mean she had ruled out making a move this week, while Massie attempted to add an even more urgent condition. “We actually have to see progress hourly” from the speaker, he said, though neither Greene nor Massie provided few specifics on what that would look like. Despite making several key requests of Johnson in their two lengthy meetings this week, Greene and Massie walked away without a clear commitment from him — and instead urged reporters to go talk to the GOP leader. Asked whether it is fair to dangle the threat of a no-confidence vote over his head with no timeline or specified legislation in mind, Greene replied that their leaked list of four items was “pretty specific” and that Johnson must now decide how to make good on their demands. Those four requests from Greene and her allies: defunding Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump; no more Ukraine aid, a deal on federal spending; and ensuring future bills brought to the floor boast support from the majority of the House Republicans.

Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial

With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president’s hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later. Jurors appeared riveted as Daniels offered a detailed and at times graphic account of the encounter Trump has denied. Trump stared straight ahead when Daniels entered the courtroom, later whispering to his lawyers and shaking his head as she testified. The testimony was by far the most-awaited spectacle in a trial that has toggled between tabloidesque elements and dry record-keeping details. A courtroom appearance by a porn actor who says she had an intimate encounter with a former American president added to the long list of historic firsts in a landmark case laden with claims of sex, payoffs and cover-ups and unfolding as the presumptive Republican nominee makes another bid for the White House.

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Daniels veered into salacious details despite the repeated objections of defense lawyers, who demanded a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments. “This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from,” attorney Todd Blanche said. “How can we come back from this in a way that’s fair to President Trump?” The judge rejected the request and said defense lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony. The Trump team later in the day used its opportunity to question Daniels to paint her as motivated by personal animus and profiting off her claims against Trump. “Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” defense lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels. “Yes,” she acknowledged. Daniels’ statements are central to the case because in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his then-lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump in July 2006 at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Mnuchin believes TikTok algorithm could be rebuilt if he buys it

Steven Mnuchin, the former US Treasury Secretary, said he’s still interested in buying TikTok’s US operation from its Chinese owner, and believes the social media app’s critical video recommendation technology could be replicated. “I’ve actually spoken to a lot of tech companies on working about rebuilding this,” Mnuchin said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “I do believe the algorithms could be rebuilt. So my plan, if we were to purchase, it would be to rebuild the technology under US leadership, make sure that it’s all disconnected from ByteDance going forward, and that it is very robust and secure.”

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A federal law passed in the US last month requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance Ltd., to sell its stake in the popular video app within a year or face being banned in the country. Even if it were to agree to divest — which ByteDance has said it won’t do — the company is unlikely to sell its core recommendation algorithm, the key technology that has made TikTok a hit and propelled the app to more than 170 million US users a month. The Chinese government would also have to sign off on any such deal. “The Chinese government has been very clear that they won’t give an export license on the algorithm and I understand that,” Mnuchin said. “We have sensitive technology that we don’t want to transfer to them, and they don’t want to transfer this to the US.”

U.S. paused shipment of thousands of bombs to Israel amid Rafah rift

The Biden administration paused the shipment of thousands of weapons to Israel, including controversial 2,000-pound bombs, amid mounting concern about the country’s plan to expand a military operation in southern Gaza that could dramatically increase the conflict’s death toll, U.S. officials said Tuesday. “Israel should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering with nowhere else to go,” said a senior administration official, explaining the U.S. decision to pause the weapons shipments. “We are especially focused on the end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza.” The disclosure marks the first known instance of a pause in U.S. arms transfers since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack into Israel that killed more than 1,200 people.

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Since then, the United States has surged tens of thousands of bombs and missiles to its ally even as huge swaths of Gaza have been turned to rubble and the death toll among Palestinians has ballooned to more than 34,000, many of them women and children, according to local health authorities. President Biden has described the bombing as “indiscriminate,” but he has been reluctant to leverage weapons transfers to try to force a change in Israel’s behavior. A second U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, described the move as a “shot across the bow” intended to underscore to Israeli leaders the seriousness of U.S. concerns about the offensive in Rafah, where an estimated 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are massed in camps near Gaza’s border with Egypt. The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The shipment being prepared for delivery to Israel last week included 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, the officials said. That decision will be felt quickly as Israel continues to rapidly expend munitions as the conflict passes the seven-month mark.

The Boy Scouts of America will be renamed Scouting America

The Boy Scouts of America, grappling with a bankruptcy and widespread accusations of sexual abuse, will change its name to Scouting America in an effort to become more inclusive, the organization announced on Tuesday. The new name will go into effect on Feb. 8, 2025, which will be its 115th anniversary, the organization said. The renaming is part of a wider rebranding effort by the organization to appeal to girls, as well as a response to longstanding critiques of its lack of inclusivity. “In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,” Roger Krone, the organization’s president and chief executive, told The Associated Press.

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In February, the Supreme Court cleared the way for a $2.4 billion plan to settle sex abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts settlement involves more than 82,000 claims of childhood sexual abuse. The organization already dropped the word “boy” from its namesake program in 2018, after announcing plans to admit girls. At that time, the Boy Scouts of America said that girls would be able to earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout. Since then, the organization has admitted 176,000 girls across its programs, and more than 6,000 of them have earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement. In 2020, the organization announced a “diversity and inclusion” merit badge and made earning it a requirement for becoming an Eagle Scout. In 2013, it ended its longstanding policy of barring openly gay youths from activities. Paul Mones, a lawyer for many plaintiffs in the Boy Scouts sexual abuse cases, said that the name change was largely an attempt by the organization to change the conversation from the bankruptcy and sexual abuse claims.

Report sheds light on deported migrants

The government of Mexico has published a report shedding light on how many migrants it is deporting to their countries of origin, and from which states Mexicans who the U.S. deports are coming. Mexico deported 8,612 foreign nationals during the first three months of 2024, the Ministry of the Interior reported last week. Ninety-two percent (7,697) were deported to neighboring Guatemala and to Honduras; 437 were repatriated to Venezuela, whose citizens have shown up at the U.S. border by the thousands since 2021. No other country received more than 100 repatriated citizens from Mexico during that period.

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On the other hand, the Mexican government says it issued 3,551 permanent resident cards to refugees in the first quarter of 2024. More than 3,000 went to migrants from the Northern Triangle of Central America and Cuba. Two-hundred and thirty Venezuelans who decided to stay in Mexico got the cards allowing them to work. Part of the American and international relief organizations’ strategy to address the root causes of migration consists of Mexico being able to absorb at least some refugees. Border cities longing for labor for manufacturing plants filling orders for U.S. automotive, medical and electronic industries could fill that role, American officials suggest. But Mexicans themselves are the largest nationality of migrants illegally crossing into the United States between ports of entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows.

Montana could be a model as more GOP states weigh Medicaid work requirements

Two decades ago, Jeff Beisecker and his family returned to Great Falls, Montana, from a religious mission to the Philippines. Beisecker had no health insurance and no steady source of income, and neither did his wife. Fearful of being without coverage, Beisecker enrolled himself, his wife and their four children in Medicaid for nearly a decade while he worked his way to a steady, full-time job. Having the extra help made a difference for his family, recalled Beisecker, 53. “And people might have looked down on us. I don’t really care, because it was there to help us along the journey.” For Beisecker, Medicaid coverage was a launching pad to stable work; now he helps others make that leap. As an employment and training coordinator for Opportunities Inc., a Great Falls-based nonprofit, Beisecker connects Montana Medicaid recipients to job training, career counseling, transportation and child care. Opportunities Inc. is one of several nonprofits that run a state-created voluntary program called the Health and Economic Livelihood Partnership Link, known as HELP-Link.

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“When folks come in, we can meet with them and say, ‘Hey, maybe you can take this training that we can help pay for, and you can come out and start making 28 or 29 dollars an hour,’” Beisecker said. An increasing number of Republican-led states want to require Medicaid recipients to work, arguing that doing so will help them rise out of poverty. Democrats and health advocates note that most people on Medicaid already work either full time or part time. They argue that states shouldn’t deny health care coverage to people who don’t have jobs, especially since many face serious barriers to employment. With HELP-Link, Montana might have found middle ground. When Montanans enroll in Medicaid, nonprofit organizations such as Opportunities Inc., which receives state funding, can offer career guidance and job training from professionals like Beisecker. A key part of that process is identifying barriers to work — such as a lack of training, child care or transportation — and finding ways to overcome them. “There are ways to support work without taking away people’s health coverage,” said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, which researches health care issues. “Montana is the most concrete example of a work-support connection,” she said. “That’s one place to look to make sure people are connected to work supports and job training.”

Las Vegas Sphere reveals nearly $100 million loss in latest quarter soon after CFO resigns

The MSG Sphere reported losing $98.4 million for the financial quarter ending on Sept 30, a day after the venue first opened in Las Vegas Strip. The loss was announced around a week after Gautam Ranj resigned as Sphere Entertainment’s chief financial officer, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Ranj held his role for 11 months. Sphere Entertainment said Ranj’s departure was “not a result of any disagreement with the Company’s independent auditors or any member of management on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or internal controls.” Senior Vice President Greg Brunner took over as the company’s interim CFO on Nov. 3, the filing added.

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Lead Stories

Why a Republican megadonor is teaming up with Democrat Colin Allred on immigration policy

U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas, the Democratic nominee for one of Texas' U.S. Senate seats, has teamed up with Republican megadonor Woody Hunt of El Paso to urge President Joe Biden and congressional leaders to expand work permits for people seeking to enter the United States to reunite with their families and for undocumented immigrants with a history of working in the country. In a joint-authored op-ed published Sunday in The Dallas Morning News, Allred and Hunt said that allowing more immigrants the opportunity to work legally in the United States would help ease what they described as a critical shortage of available workers and would help reunite families in which some members have permission to be in the country and others do not. "The right thing to do by Texas families is also the right thing to do by Texas businesses, and neither can afford to wait any longer," they wrote. "Allowing someone who has worked and paid taxes here for decades — someone who is raising a family here — to legally work, earn a living and help our economy is a boon for their family and for employers."

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Representatives of the campaigns for Allred and his opponent, incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, declined to comment on the op-ed or the Democratic candidate's association with Hunt. A spokesman for Allred said the opinion piece "speaks for itself." In their op-ed, Hunt and Allred said more than "3 million U.S. citizens in Texas live with someone who is undocumented, such as a spouse or a parent." "We also know that nearly two out of three undocumented Texans (64%) have been contributing to their communities here for more than a decade," they said. "They are critical to our economy and our competitiveness, paying $4 billion in taxes and wielding a spending power of $33.9 billion." Allred is running to unseat Cruz, a two-term Republican, in the Nov. 5 election. Hunt is the senior board chairman of the Hunt Companies, vice chair of the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development in El Paso, and treasurer of the American Business Immigration Coalition. He is also a supporter of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the immigration initiative started under then-President Barack Obama. In a briefing last month by the immigration coalition, Hunt said expanding work opportunities for immigrants is "politically smart and morally right."

Gov. Abbott says flooding still a threat as recovery begins in the Houston region

Texas' flood recovery has a long way to go, and Gov. Greg Abbott urged those affected to report damage to ensure that federal dollars go to help rebuild homes, businesses and lives. Abbott and more than a dozen local and state leaders spoke about what Abbott called an “extraordinary rain event” during a Monday news conference at the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management Warehouse. During the past week, the Houston region has received more than 20 inches of rain. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said reporting damage is important. “Damage assessment is critical to our future success,” Kidd said of reaching the threshold for federal assistance. Kidd said those who have flood insurance need to contact their agents soon. He said only 501 claims had been filed with insurance companies as of Sunday night.

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Trump tests Senate GOP leaders on election fraud claims

Former President Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election is putting GOP lawmakers in a tough spot, especially Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who are running to become next Senate GOP leader and have pledged to work closely with Trump. Both senators, allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), opposed Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who is in the mix to be Trump’s running mate, repeatedly refused to say Sunday he would accept the results of this year’s election. Now, other Senate Republicans will face the same question, including Thune and Cornyn, who will have to balance their past positions on Trump’s baseless claims of widespread election fraud with their ambitions to replace McConnell.

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Trump’s Senate allies may provide the swing votes that decide who wins the leadership race, and both Thune and Cornyn have reached out to the former president personally to bolster their standing with pro-Trump colleagues. “It’s a tough needle to thread, but it’s possible,” said Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide who advised GOP lawmakers to acknowledge that the changes to the law during the COVID-19 pandemic made it easier to vote in 2020 and to be on the lookout for controversial changes to voter registration and absentee ballot rules ahead of November. Darling predicted that Trump is likely to claim widespread cheating again if he loses to Biden in November. “We shouldn’t expect anything different from former President Trump in this election than we [saw] in the last election. It’s going to be a lot of the same arguments about how the election is run,” he said. But the GOP strategist warned that if Trump and other Republicans sound the alarm about widespread voter fraud in the months ahead, it could wind up depressing Republican voter turnout.

Looking Trump in the eye, the N.Y. judge warns he may jail him

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal trial found him in contempt of court Monday — the 10th such violation of a gag order — and warned the former president that he was flirting with jail time if he continued to talk or post online statements about witnesses, jurors, or relatives of those involved in the case. “Mr. Trump, it’s important to understand that the last thing I want to do is to put you in jail,” New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan warned from the bench. “You are the former president of the United States, and possibly the next president, as well.” But Merchan added he would take that step if Trump’s behavior did not change.

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“Your continued violations of this Court’s lawful order threaten to interfere with the administration of justice, in constant attacks which constitute a direct attack on the rule of law,” Merchan said. “I cannot allow that to continue.” The warning came as prosecutors signaled they expected their presentation to last roughly two more weeks. Merchan’s statement marks a significant escalation of the courtroom game of chicken that has played out in recent weeks between the judge and the defendant, who is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents and possible jail time if convicted. Trump, whom Merchan last week fined $9,000 for nine violations of the gag order, has somewhat reined in his public remarks.

State Stories

John Cornyn is fighting a new federal gun rule. Biden officials say he helped enable it

Weeks after a teenage gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school in May 2022, Texas’ senior Sen. John Cornyn helped craft the most significant federal firearm legislation the nation has seen in decades. Now, Cornyn is fighting against a federal rule that has angered Republicans and gun rights advocates — but that the Biden administration says his law helped create. The U.S. Justice Department rolled out a new policy last month requiring background checks for people who informally sell firearms at gun shows or on the internet. The rule, which is set to take effect on May 20, is based on a revised definition of gun dealers put forth in Cornyn’s so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Previously, gun dealers were defined under federal law as those who sell firearms with the “principal objective of livelihood and profit.” Under the revised definition, gun dealers are any people who “predominantly earn a profit” from selling firearms.

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“Under this regulation, it will not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store: if you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed, and you must conduct background checks,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said last month. “This regulation is a historic step in the Justice Department’s fight against gun violence. It will save lives.” Cornyn has vowed to file a congressional resolution of disapproval over the policy, and he said the Biden administration’s efforts to tie it to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is “an outright lie.” “This rule has long been on Democrats’ wish list, and for the Biden administration to say it’s a result of our school safety and mental health law is a shameless attempt to hide their real goal: to take away the firearms of every law-abiding American,” Cornyn said in a joint statement with North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. “We will fight this unconstitutional rule tooth and nail, and look forward to overturning it in the Senate as soon as possible.”

Former department head Rick Noriega's lawsuit against Harris County can move forward, judge rules

A lawsuit filed by a former Harris County department head against the county is moving forward after a district court judge on Monday denied a request to dismiss the case. Rick Noriega, Harris County's former executive director of information technology, was fired in May 2023 when county officials said he refused to complete mandatory sexual harassment training. A county employee in December 2022 had filed a sexual harassment complaint against Noriega, prompting the training requirement. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced the personnel decision, without naming Noriega, during a news conference last May.

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"The types of behaviors that perhaps may have gone unnoticed in the past in the county in a 'good old boy' culture are no longer going to be allowed," Hidalgo said. Hidalgo's remarks featured prominently in Noriega's lawsuit. "Noriega demanded that Judge Hidalgo correct her false statements and issue a public apology. Judge Hidalgo ignored that demand. And the County has done nothing to otherwise clear Noriega's good name," the lawsuit said. Hidalgo's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Noriega also alleged he had been "falsely and maliciously accused" of sexual harassment, claiming the complaint against him had been filed in retaliation after he had disciplined the accuser's husband, who worked for Noriega. "In other words, this complaint of 'sexual harassment' was payback," the lawsuit said.

Cleanup underway as floodwaters recede and evacuation orders lifted for Houston region

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo lifted a mandatory evacuation order for the East Fork of the San Jacinto River Monday after days of rainfall caused flooding near Hurricane Harvey levels. “Today is good news,” said Hidalgo, who added that no more major rain threats were expected. “We are out of the woods.” The county is shifting from response mode to recovery mode, she added. Most people should be able to return to their homes without any problems. Hidalgo cautioned, however, that some areas near the West Fork of the San Jacinto River and Bala Woods, North Shore and Forest Cove may continue to see elevated water levels, but said the river was receding more quickly than expected. Most roads were clear in Kingwood, she said, though she still urged people not to drive into standing water as it can hide debris.

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Hollins says raises would have saved Houston hundreds of millions in firefighter settlement

The city would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars if it had raised Houston firefighter pay six years ago compared to a proposed $650 million back-pay settlement, City Controller Chris Hollins said Monday in an analysis Mayor John Whitmire swiftly rejected as irrelevant. Hollins’ presentation suggested the settlement would be much less expensive if it were pegged to hypothetical pay raises that former Mayor Sylvester Turner could have doled out years ago. The controller’s presentation came with high stakes for him, Houston taxpayers and Whitmire, who is trying to win council approval for the deal in his first big test as mayor.

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Hollins said he was not trying to take sides, but the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association immediately rebuked his presentation as an irrelevant, inaccurate attack on the mayor. Whitmire, in a statement, said the analysis was nothing more than an “academic” exercise that failed to take into account relevant law. Whitmire in March said he had reached a deal to resolve a seven-year impasse with Houston firefighters over their pay, which had fallen behind that of other cities in Texas as department staffing shrank. The total cost: $1.5 billion, which includes roughly $1 billion for back-pay settlement, plus the interest and fees on a bond to pay for it, as well as the cost of a forward-looking collective bargaining agreement. Whitmire and the firefighters union say without the settlement, the city could have faced a court judgment of up to $1.2 billion for back pay alone. The settlement gave the city financial certainty while creating a path to grow the department, they say.

Mystery San Antonio steakhouse figures in Henry Cuellar bribery scandal

If history is any guide, when American politicians discuss corrupt deals, it’s often at a restaurant, and steakhouses seem to be the venue of choice. U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife, Nadine, are awaiting trial on charges that they accepted cash, gold bullion, a luxury car and other valuables in return for secretly assisting the government of Egypt. Key to the alleged plot was a dinner at a Washington, D.C., steakhouse attended by the senator, his wife and an Egyptian official. There’s even a picture of it in federal prosecutors’ court filings. They cited the dinner as an “overt act” in furtherance of a criminal scheme. The Menendezes have denied the charges.

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Ohio offers another example of the strange synergy between beef and bribery. Former state House Speaker Larry Householder was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison last year for accepting $61 million from an energy company in return for arranging a $1 billion bailout of a nuclear plant. Householder and his co-conspirators hatched their plan over a steak dinner in Washington, D.C., according to restaurant receipts and other evidence produced at trial. A similar repast figures prominently in a fresh bribery scandal much closer to home. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and his wife, Imelda, were arrested Friday on charges that they pocketed $600,000 in bribes to promote the interests of the Republic of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank. They have asserted their innocence and are free on bail. Cuellar, 68, said he will continue his campaign for reelection to a 10th consecutive term in November.

For third year in a row, Nate Paul is Travis County's most delinquent taxpayer

For the third year in a row, embattled real estate developer Nate Paul is the most delinquent taxpayer in Travis County, the Travis County Tax Office announced Monday. Paul — a former Austin real estate developer inextricably linked to the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — owes more than $3 million on eight properties listed under three limited liability corporations tied to his name, according to a Monday news release from the county's Tax Office. The delinquent payments were released as part of the Tax Office's annual top 10 list of most delinquent taxpayers. Combined, the 10 property owners owe $5.6 million in 2023 taxes.

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“I’ve sent letters and made phone calls hoping to collect the payment in full or work out a payment plan for those struggling to pay, and the property owners on this list are avoiding me,” Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Elfant said in the news release. “Why take the risk of losing your property because of unpaid taxes?” Paul also topped the list of Travis County property owners late on paying their 2022 taxes — owing more than $1 million total on six properties listed under three limited liability corporations tied to his name, according to a May 1, 2023, news release from the Tax Office. The largest bill then was for a midsized office space on East Avenue in downtown Austin. The list released in 2023 was updated to show that, a few days after the news release was published, five of the six payments that Paul owed were made. The Tax Office received a notification for bankruptcy on the sixth property, which is on Lambie Street, and while it remains delinquent, the Tax Office currently isn't able to collect payment outside of a bankruptcy court, a spokesperson for the office told the American-Statesman. An attorney for Paul did not immediately respond to a Statesman request for comment Monday. Property owners received their tax bills in November 2023 and had a payment deadline of Jan. 31, 2024, according to the news release.

Launch of Boeing's first crewed mission scrubbed due to a valve issue

The first crewed launch of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft was scrubbed Monday night due to a valve issue on the rocket that will push it into space. United Launch Alliance, which made the rocket, called off the flight so it could evaluate an oxygen relief valve on the second stage of its Atlas V rocket. The mission was slated to launch at 9:34 p.m. CDT from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. There is another launch window Tuesday night, but it wasn't immediately known if the rocket would be ready. There are also launch opportunities on Friday and Saturday. "Standing down on tonight's attempt to launch #Starliner," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on X. "As I've said before, @NASA's first priority is safety. We go when we're ready."

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This mission, NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test, or CFT, is a rigorous evaluation of Starliner to see how it performs with humans onboard. It’s the last major requirement before NASA can certify the spacecraft for annual trips to the space station. Boeing will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station. They'll spend roughly one week onboard the orbiting platform before returning to Earth beneath parachutes, with six airbags inflating just before they land in the western U.S. Boeing has experienced technical setbacks over the years, including its own valve issues, but Monday's delay was attributed to United Launch Alliance rather than Boeing. The valve was "buzzing," meaning it was opening and closing quickly, said United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno. The company's testing allows this valve to be cycled — where it is fully opened and closed — up to 200,000 times.

Despite years of violent warnings, no one stopped the Lakewood Church shooter’s rampage

Police, social workers and judges in Texas knew Genesse Moreno was mentally ill, armed and violent long before the 36-year-old opened fire on a Houston megachurch this February. In nearly 50 calls to police, Moreno told officers that she wanted to blow up a building and shoot her husband, family members warned that she was on the brink of psychosis, and neighbors reported years of threats and harassment. Relatives took to the Texas Child Protective Services hotline, too. They said the agency investigated Moreno for drugging and neglecting her son while, in court, they begged judges to protect the boy from his mother’s escalating violence. All together, at least a dozen government agencies had the opportunity and authority to intervene, the Chronicle found in an analysis of dozens of 911 recordings and hundreds of pages of police and court records.

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But no one investigated Moreno’s threats. Police advised frightened neighbors and relatives to “politely ask” Moreno to stop harassing them and take up complaints with the local homeowners’ association and family courts. No one stopped Moreno from stockpiling an arsenal of assault-style weapons in her home. Moreno previously had been committed to mental health treatment, but it’s unclear whether the hospitalization barred her from owning firearms under federal law. And no one protected Moreno’s son, Samuel, a medically fragile boy who ate through a tube, mostly couldn’t speak and rarely stepped outside, according to neighbors and relatives. Moreno was clutching the 7-year-old’s hand on Feb. 11 as she made her way through the halls of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church. She fired dozens of rounds from an AR-style rifle, shouting: “All I need is help.” She was fatally shot by off-duty officers on church security. Samuel was shot twice in the head in the crossfire and remains severely impaired. One bullet exploded in his brain, another remains lodged in his skull, his paternal grandmother, Walli Carranza, said. “This should have never happened. It could have been prevented,” said Gregory Fremin, a retired Houston Police Department captain who teaches criminal justice at Sam Houston State University. “It was a total system failure.”

University of Houston professor wins Pulitzer Prize in memoir

Local author and University of Houston professor Cristina Rivera Garza won a Pulitzer Prize Monday for her memoir, "Liliana’s Invincible Summer." The book tells a story of gender violence and a search for justice, as Rivera Garza details her return to Mexico City nearly 30 years after her younger sister, Liliana, was killed. "Liliana's Invincible Summer" was most recently named a finalist for a National Book Award, and was hailed in The New York Times Book Review for Rivera Garza's nuanced portrait of her sister. Rivera Garza is the University of Houston's MD Anderson Professor in Hispanic Studies and the director of the Creative Writing Program in Hispanic Studies. She is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and an award-winning author of six novels, three collections of short stories, five collections of poetry and three non-fiction books. The writer and professor was born in Tamaulipas, Mexico. She emigrated to the U.S. in 1989 and earned her Ph.D. in Latin American history from UH.

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Federal officials investigating whether Katy ISD’s gender policy is discriminatory

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation Monday into Katy Independent School District to determine if its controversial gender identity policy discriminates against students, according to records obtained by the Houston Landing. The investigation comes after the Landing reported in November 2023 that Katy ISD revealed the gender identities of 19 students to their parents in the two months after the policy passed. Several weeks later, student advocacy organization Students Engaged in Advancing Texas used the report’s findings in a federal Title IX complaint alleging Katy ISD discriminated against these students on the basis of sex. Katy’s conservative-majority school board was one of the first in greater Houston to pass a policy that requires staff to disclose students’ gender identity to parents and allow employees to reject students’ requests to use different pronouns, among other protocols.

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Outside interests pour millions of dollars into GOP primary featuring Texas House speaker

This year’s most expensive race for a seat in the Texas House is the heated primary between House Speaker Dade Phelan and newcomer David Covey, with at least $4 million already spent. No other race comes close, according to a review of campaign finance records, and with the contest heading to a May 28 runoff, the price tag is expected to jump significantly. Most of that money has poured in from sources outside District 21 in Southeast Texas, providing 96% of the donations to Phelan’s campaign and almost 99% of Covey’s. Out-of-state groups have pitched in as well, including Club for Growth, a national anti-tax organization that has spent more than $1 million on anti-Phelan TV ads, including one depicting the speaker as a liberal “Democrat in disguise.”

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It all adds up to unusually high fundraising totals for a Texas House primary – largesse that highlights the importance of the Phelan-Covey race as the Republican Party’s right flank seeks greater control over legislation and policy. Phelan, R-Beaumont, has been blamed for difficulties some conservative priorities have faced in the House, particularly those favored by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate. Last year’s House vote to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton put another target on Phelan’s back. Former President Donald Trump, who has strong ties to Patrick and Paxton, endorsed Covey, while Gov. Greg Abbott has remained neutral. Phelan has countered by emphasizing his deep ties to the district, where Phelan Boulevard is a major artery in Beaumont. “I’ve identified my voters,” Phelan told “Capital Tonight” on Spectrum News in March. “I’ve got strong support back home, despite $5 million that we know of that was spent against me, despite endorsements from all over the country against me.” Phelan will have to mount a comeback in the runoff to remain in office. Covey received 46% of the vote to Phelan’s 43% in the March primary. Alicia Davis, who raised little money and did not campaign aggressively, got 10%.

Dallas’ Cotton Bowl Stadium could become new home for pro team under proposed city deal

A new professional sports team could be calling Dallas’ Cotton Bowl Stadium in Fair Park home starting this summer under a proposed deal. The Dallas City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday to approve an agreement that would pay Fair Park’s management firm Oak View Group $296,000 a year to make it possible for an unnamed sports team to play their home games in the stadium. City Council agenda documents do not name the team or the sport involved. The documents also don’t specify whether there are other city incentives to be paid to the team. The proposed resolution describes the $296,000 as an event subsidy payment that amounts to $18,500 per game, meaning the team is expected to have 16 home games.

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A new women’s pro soccer league called the USL Super League begins play in August. One of the eight teams is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The website for the team, which doesn’t yet have a name, displays a 17-second video featuring footage of the downtown Dallas skyline and ends with a message that says, “Women’s professional soccer coming to Dallas this August.” Dori Araiza and Trip Neil, two of the team’s owners, declined to comment when asked Monday if the club would play at the Cotton Bowl. “It’s an exciting time in women’s sports and we appreciate the interest and the support,” Araiza said. “Our leadership has been in touch with several local venues as different options for our team to play.” Neil said the team is planning to reveal the club’s name, logo and other branding and more details about the upcoming season during an event Thursday at 10:15 a.m. at Klyde Warren Park.

History makers? Dallas is one of four sports cities chasing NBA, NHL titles at same time

Mavericks fans and Stars fans, take a moment to catch your breath, toast each other and enjoy this. Shout out also to all the Victory Park restaurants and ice cream shops that did not exist when I lived there 15 years ago. Winning a single playoff series is a long, long way from the ultimate goal, but the last time both Dallas teams advanced to the second round, President Bush was a year away from running for re-election. It has been a minute. Actually, 21 years. Both the Stars and Mavs seem capable of more. The Stars are the No. 1 seed in the West and certainly have their hands full with Colorado but they can prevail. The Mavs go from playing the old guys in the gym (Clippers) to the new kids on the block (Thunder), but who’s to say Oklahoma City is completely ready for the Luka and Kyrie Show? How far could this thing go? And should Dallas fans dream of the nearly impossible?

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It’s surprising, especially going back into the ’50s and ‘60s when there were very few teams, but no city has ever pulled off the double — winning the NBA title and Stanley Cup the same year. There have been several instances where teams from the same city reached both finals but none since 2003 when the New Jersey Devils beat Anaheim while the Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs. Strangely, both the Devils (Newark) and Nets (Brooklyn) left town not long after. Before that, you go back to 30 years ago when the New York Rangers ended their 54-year Cup drought against Vancouver but the Knicks came up short against the Houston Rockets. It just doesn’t happen very often. And while the two Dallas teams are very much alive and capable, they probably rank no better than fourth in the chance of pulling off the double finals this season. A look at the rest:

Texas ban on ‘woke’ banks opens door for smaller firms

The political conflict over socially conscious finance is a boon for smaller investment banks in one contentious market: Texas. The clash over environmental, social and corporate-governance investing follows state restrictions passed in 2021 on government business with financial firms perceived as taking a stand against firearms or fossil fuels. Wall Street heavyweights such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo have pulled back in Texas, even as the state’s growth has made it the nation’s top issuer of state and local debt, with $42 billion last year. Even beyond Texas, big banks are in retreat in the $4 trillion municipal-bond market. Higher rates and depressed borrowing have dented profits, which weren’t that spectacular to begin with. Large firms are pulling back at varying rates as a result.

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Citigroup’s recent restructuring axed the muni desk entirely. Long the biggest underwriter in Texas, Citi was locked out of most deals in the state over its policy of not doing business with retailers who sell guns to people under 21. State Attorney General Ken Paxton banned Barclays in January after identifying the firm as a potential “fossil fuel boycotter.” That is creating opportunity for firms that have managed to avoid the ire of Texas officials. Booming business in Texas helped land New York City-based Jefferies among the nation’s top three muni underwriters for the first time last year. Also benefiting are fast-growing smaller firms such as Memphis-based FHN Financial, the investment-banking arm of First Horizon Bank, which has historically focused on Texas local school bonds. Texas was the highest-grossing region for municipal bonds last year at Siebert Williams Shank, said president of infrastructure and public finance Gary Hall. The New York firm now has offices in Austin, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

City Stories

Lost Creek, two other areas of Austin vote to remove themselves from city limits

Three of six neighborhoods near the outskirts of Austin will be removed, or “disannexed,” from the city limits following voter approval in Saturday's election. That includes Lost Creek in West Austin, the largest of the three; land near Blue Goose Road in Northeast Austin; and a portion of land in River Place in West Austin. "Disannexing" from the city could mean these areas no longer receive certain services — like fire and police protection. Those services would be provided by the county. Unofficial, but final results show that 91.29% of Lost Creek voters were in favor of Proposition A to disannex from the city. Just three votes were cast for Proposition C, or the Blue Goose Road area, but all were in favor of disannexing. Proposition F, or the measure to disannex 212 acres of land in River Place in West Austin, had just one vote cast and it was in favor.

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Results also show that voters in the Lennar at Malone neighborhood in South Austin, or Proposition D, were strongly against leaving Austin, with 98.21% votes cast against disannexing. Not a single vote was cast for either Proposition B, which is the Mooreland addition in South Austin, or Proposition E, the Wildhorse/Webb Tract in Northeast Austin. Saturday's vote was spurred by a state House bill passed last year. The law requires the state's largest cities to allow some neighborhoods to vote on whether to leave the city limits. The areas must have been annexed between March 3, 2015, and Dec. 1, 2017. That’s when a handful of places were annexed just before a law was passed that could have stopped them. Travis County officials must review and approve the results before they are official.

National Stories

Greene signals possible offramp for Johnson ouster vote

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) huddled Monday for almost two hours with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — a marathon meeting suggesting the pair is seeking a deal to defuse tensions and preclude floor action on the Georgia firebrand’s resolution to boot Johnson from power. The two emerged from the Speaker’s office separately but bearing the same message: The discussion was constructive enough that they’ve agreed to meet again Tuesday. Greene later told reporters the huddle will take place at 12:30 p.m. Greene declined to say if she was ready to push through with her plan to force her motion to vacate resolution to the floor, but suggested she is seeking some assurances from the Speaker that he’ll fight harder for conservative policy priorities in negotiations with Democrats — the issue at the heart of both her criticisms and her removal effort.

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“I have been patient, I have been diligent, I have been steady, and I have been focused on the facts. And none of that has changed,” Greene, who was joined by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), another supporter of her resolution, told reporters after the meeting. “So I just had a long discussion with the Speaker in his office about ways to move forward for a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. We’re talking to him again tomorrow, based on our discussion today.” The comments are a departure from last week when the Georgia Republican was adamant that she would move to force a vote on Johnson’s ouster this week, underscoring the importance of putting her conservative colleagues on the record regarding whether they support the Speaker. “Next week I am going to be calling this motion to vacate,” Greene declared at a press conference alongside Massie, one of only two Republicans backing her effort. “Absolutely calling it.”

16 tornadoes reported in 6 states

At least 16 tornadoes were reported in six states overnight into Tuesday morning. The twisters were reported in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and South Dakota. The most destructive storm appeared to have been in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, north of Tulsa, where major damage was reported. In addition to tornadoes, 4-inch hail, about the size of a softball, was reported in Kansas. A tornado watch had been issued Tuesday morning for parts of Missouri -- including St. Louis -- and Illinois. That watch was to be in effect until 8 a.m. local time. The tornado watch in Arkansas was also extended to 5 a.m. local time. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, had issued the highest-possible severe weather risk alert for multiple intense, long-track tornadoes Monday afternoon and evening.

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Putin inaugurated as president for fifth term with Russia under tight grip

Vladimir Putin has formally begun his fifth term as Russia’s president in a carefully choreographed inauguration ceremony, in a country he has shaped in his image after first taking office nearly a quarter of a century ago. Putin won Russia’s stage-managed election by an overwhelming majority in March, securing for himself another six-year term that could see him rule until at least his 77th birthday. With most opposition candidates either dead, jailed, exiled or barred from running – and with dissent effectively outlawed in Russia since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – Putin faced no credible challenge to his rule. The inauguration ceremony, held Tuesday in the Kremlin, was attended by Russia’s top military and political brass, but the United States and many European nations declined to send a representative after dismissing Russia’s elections as a sham. “We certainly did not consider that election free and fair, but he is the president of Russia and is going to continue in that capacity,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday. Putin’s first inauguration ceremony, held in 2000, was heralded as the first time in Russia’s history that power within the Kremlin changed hands through an electoral process. In his speech then, Putin said his election “proved that Russia is becoming a modern democratic state.” Twenty-four years on, Putin has since remained in power as president or prime minister, and tinkered with Russia’s constitution to remove term limits and extend each term’s length from four years to six.

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The inauguration ceremony, held Tuesday in the Kremlin, was attended by Russia’s top military and political brass, but the United States and many European nations declined to send a representative after dismissing Russia’s elections as a sham. “We certainly did not consider that election free and fair, but he is the president of Russia and is going to continue in that capacity,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday. Putin’s first inauguration ceremony, held in 2000, was heralded as the first time in Russia’s history that power within the Kremlin changed hands through an electoral process. In his speech then, Putin said his election “proved that Russia is becoming a modern democratic state.” Twenty-four years on, Putin has since remained in power as president or prime minister, and tinkered with Russia’s constitution to remove term limits and extend each term’s length from four years to six.

Israeli military captures Palestinian side of Rafah crossing

Israel's military said it has taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, a vital entry point for aid to Gaza on the Egyptian border. A Palestinian official said all movement had stopped at the facility after it was captured by Israeli tanks. Twenty-three people were killed, including six children, in Israeli strikes on Rafah overnight, medical officials in the city said. The White House said the US remains opposed to an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, while the UN chief said such a move would be "intolerable," as international pressure mounts on Israel to hold off on a full-scale operation in the city.

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ProPublica series on Supreme Court gifts wins Pulitzer Prize

ProPublica received the Pulitzer Prize for public service on Monday for a series of articles on lavish gifts to Supreme Court justices that brought unprecedented scrutiny to the high court. The award, considered among the most prestigious in journalism, was one of 15 Pulitzers bestowed on news organizations — including three each to The New York Times and The Washington Post and one to a digital community start-up in Santa Cruz, California. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the Heritage Foundation on Oct. 21, 2021. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images By CHRISTINE ZHU 05/06/2024 06:21 PM EDT ProPublica received the Pulitzer Prize for public service on Monday for a series of articles on lavish gifts to Supreme Court justices that brought unprecedented scrutiny to the high court. The award, considered among the most prestigious in journalism, was one of 15 Pulitzers bestowed on news organizations — including three each to The New York Times and The Washington Post and one to a digital community start-up in Santa Cruz, California. In announcing the public service award, the board praised ProPublica’s “groundbreaking and ambitious reporting” that “pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court” and led to the adoption of a code of conduct.

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It began with an investigation that revealed Justice Clarence Thomas had been treated to luxury vacations over 20 years by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow that were never reported on the judge’s financial disclosure forms. The award went to reporters Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Alex Mierjeski and Kirsten Berg. It was the seventh Pulitzer Prize for ProPublica. Lookout Santa Cruz, a digital news organization that launched in November 2020, was honored in the breaking news category for its coverage of catastrophic floods and mudslides that displaced thousands of people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses. The New York Times won in the international reporting category for its coverage of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and the Israeli military’s “sweeping, deadly response” in Gaza. The paper was also honored for investigative reporting and feature writing. The Washington Post won alongside Reuters for national reporting. The paper also received prizes for editorial writing and commentary by Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Schumer announces more security funding for houses of worship after synagogue threats

On Saturday (May 4), some 40 New York City rabbis and synagogue staff received the same chilling email in their inboxes: “I have set a bomb in your building. You have a few hours to disarm, or else blood will shatter everywhere.” “I have talked about this for a long time with my community,” said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, one of the synagogues addressed in the email. “We plan for all this. We have protocols in place and we have increased security. We always need to be well prepared.” An LGBTQ+-affirming synagogue, Beit Simchat Torah has faced similar bomb scares before, but since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, many Jewish congregations, no matter their views on the war, have dealt with the threat of antisemitic attacks.

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In the wake of the weekend’s false bomb threats, Senate Majority leader announced on Sunday (May 5) a $400 million increase in federal funds available for security in houses of worship. In his announcement, he added that bomb threats in New York are the highest in the country. “The second I heard about the threats, your heart sinks, you hope it’s a hoax. And in this case, thank God, it was,” he said. “But that doesn’t (negate) the fear, the trauma when synagogues and other houses of worship have to be evacuated. The fear and trauma when they have to be evacuated stays with the congregants, and people who go the next day wonder, ‘Is it going to happen again, am I safe?'”

Though noncitizens can vote in few local elections, GOP goes big to make it illegal

Preventing people who are not United States citizens from casting a ballot has reemerged as a focal point in the ongoing Republican drive to safeguard “election integrity,” even though noncitizens are rarely involved in voter fraud. Ahead of November’s presidential election, congressional and state Republican lawmakers are aiming to keep noncitizens away from the polls. They’re using state constitutional amendments and new laws that require citizenship verification to vote. Noncitizens can vote in a handful of local elections in several states, but already are not allowed to vote in statewide or federal elections. Some Republicans argue that preventing noncitizens from casting ballots — long a boogeyman in conservative politics — reduces the risk of fraud and increases confidence in American democracy. But even some on the right think these efforts are going too far, as they churn up anti-immigration sentiment and unsupported fears of widespread fraud, all to boost turnout among the GOP base.

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While Republican congressional leaders want to require documentation proving U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections, voters in at least four states will decide on ballot measures in November that would amend their state constitutions to clarify that only U.S. citizens can vote in state and local elections. Over the past six years, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota and Ohio have all amended their state constitutions. In Kentucky — which along with Idaho, Iowa and Wisconsin is now considering a constitutional amendment — noncitizens voting will not be tolerated, said Republican state Sen. Damon Thayer, who voted in February to put the amendment on November’s ballot. Five Democrats between the two chambers backed the Republican-authored legislation, while 16 others dissented. “There is a lot of concern here about the Biden administration’s open border policies,” Thayer, the majority floor leader, told Stateline. “People see it on the news every day, with groups of illegals pouring through the border. And they’re combined with concerns on election integrity.”

Copyright May 15, 2024, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved