Lead Stories NBC News - February 12, 2025
Inflation report to show U.S. price growth remains elevated, posing challenge to Trump The final inflation report covering the Biden administration shows President Donald Trump inherited an unfavorable inflation situation. Still, some economic policymakers say that, overall, the U.S. economy remains in solid shape. Prices for so-called core items, which exclude food and energy, were expected to have remained unchanged in January, at about 3.2%. That is well above the Federal Reserve’s official 2% goal. The core measure does not include data like egg prices, which have soared as a result of the ongoing effects of avian flu, putting further pressure on consumers. Instead, the biggest source of increase for economists’ preferred inflation measure is housing costs. Analysis from the data group CoreLogic shows demand remains strong in the Northeast, while there are indications that building materials costs have climbed in anticipation of Trump’s tariffs. Without further progress in slowing price growth, Trump may face growing pressure to take more aggressive action. Already, at least one Trump economic adviser has signaled the administration may look to curb overall consumption, which would most likely entail a slowdown in growth and even increase unemployment. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC on Monday that reducing demand and increasing the labor supply could address the pace of price growth. Markets have so far ignored those remarks. Instead, many investors have zeroed in on the uncertainty Trump has created through his tariff actions. On Monday, he announced he would impose 25% duties on all steel and aluminum imports, a move many parts of the business community have seen as problematic. Last month, Trump announced an additional 10% levy on all goods from China. The combined effect of price increases from Trump’s tariffs themselves and the implied uncertainty surrounding them and Trump’s broader economic plans could impede progress on the “disinflation” sought by economic policymakers. “We continue to believe that the Trump Administration’s trade, fiscal and immigration policy agenda would be mildly inflationary,” Bank of America analysts said in a new note to clients. > Read this article at NBC News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Associated Press - February 12, 2025
Musk appears at White House defending DOGE’s work but acknowledging mistakes President Donald Trump’s most powerful adviser, Elon Musk, made a rare public appearance at the White House on Tuesday to defend the swift and extensive cuts he’s pushing across the federal government while acknowledging there have been mistakes and will be more. Musk stood next to the Resolute Desk with his young son as Trump praised Musk’s work with his Department of Government Efficiency, saying they’ve found “shocking” evidence of wasteful spending. The Republican president signed an executive order to expand Musk’s influence and continue downsizing the federal workforce. Despite concerns that he’s amassing unaccountable power with little transparency, Musk described himself as an open book as he took questions from reporters for the first time since joining the Trump administration as a special government employee. He joked that the scrutiny over his sprawling influence over federal agencies was like a “daily proctology exam.” He also claimed that DOGE’s work was being shared on its website and on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. However, the DOGE website has no information, and the postings on X often lack many details, including which programs are being cut and where the organization has access. The White House has also been moving to limit independent oversight. The inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired a day after warning that it had become nearly impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in humanitarian funds after DOGE began dismantling the agency. Musk defended DOGE’s work as “common sense” and “not draconian or radical.” “The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” he said. “That’s what democracy is all about.” Musk acknowledged, in response to a question about false statements that the U.S. was spending $50 million on condoms for Gaza, that some of the claims he’s made about government programs have been wrong. > Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 12, 2025
Texas Gov. Abbott signals he's open to legislative 'clarity' on abortion ban but defends law Several weeks after three influential GOP state officials said Texas should clarify its abortion ban to protect mothers at risk of death, Gov. Greg Abbott signaled he is open to changing the law while defending its meaning as "clear." "I look forward to seeing what type of clarity may come forth in any proposed legislation," Abbott said in a Friday interview. "But it's important that people stop playing politics with this. Everybody on every side needs to understand (that) protecting the life of the mother is of paramount importance in this and that any doctor who fails to do that is actually violating their duty as a physician." Abbott's comments come after Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a Jan. 19 interview with WFAA that the law should be amended to protect pregnant patients at risk of death and their doctors, and at least two other GOP elected officials — state Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola and state Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano — have also said the near-total abortion ban might need tweaking for clarity. In January, Hughes told the American-Statesman he was "working on language" related to a potential clarification. "We don’t want to give doctors or hospitals any excuse not to help those moms in those situations," Hughes told WFAA's "Inside Texas Politics" in July. Texas has banned all but lifesaving abortions since August 2022, when House Bill 1280, also known as a "trigger ban," went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. An earlier law, Senate Bill 8, authorized people to sue people suspected of terminating pregnancies illegally beginning in September 2021. Abbott, a Republican, signed both bills into law. A number of Texas OB-GYNs and women who have faced pregnancy complications have argued that the law's exception is too narrow and too vague to allow doctors to intervene before a patient reaches a point of no return, highlighting several ProPublica reports on women who died in hospitals while they were denied abortion care for miscarriages. The most recent statistics from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission show that physicians terminated 135 pregnancies between January 2022 and September 2024 under the life-of-the-mother exception, an average of about three abortions per month. Abbott said those numbers prove the law is clear, though he also said "there needs to be a better understanding" of its meaning. > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 12, 2025
Texas Senate panel approves $140,000 property tax homestead exemption roposals to cut property taxes by raising the Texas homestead exemption to $140,000 cleared a key hurdle Tuesday when a bipartisan committee voted unanimously to approve and send two bills to the full Senate. Senate Bill 4 and Senate Joint Resolution 2, proposing an amendment to the Texas Constitution allowing the higher exemption, are priorities of Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate. Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the Houston Republican who filed the bills, told the Local Government Committee that SB 4 would build on years of effort by lawmakers to bring down taxes while the cost of living continues to climb in other areas. “You’ve got inflation baked in everywhere,” Bettencourt, chair of the committee, said during Tuesday’s hearing in the Capitol. “The one place it’s not baked into is Texas’s ISD property tax bill. That’s a big, big advantage for homeowners.” In 2023, voters approved raising the school-district tax exemption from $40,000 to $100,000 after a hard-fought battle by lawmakers to enact an $18 billion property tax package that included some $12.7 billion in new cuts. That was estimated to have saved Texas homeowners an average of $700 on their bills. The new homestead exemption amount would save homeowners an additional $363 per year on average, Bettencourt said. Nearly $3.5 billion in school district tax compression — using state funds to buy down maintenance and operations taxes — included in the Senate’s budget proposal would save residential and commercial homeowners an additional $133.13 on average on their tax bill, Bettencourt said. Texas had the third highest property taxes in the country a few years ago but has dropped to 10th place after lawmakers have worked on the issue for several legislative sessions, Bettencourt said. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page State Stories Border Report - February 12, 2025
Hundreds of Texas National Guard troops headed to Laredo to help Border Patrol About 300 Texas National Guard are headed to the South Texas border town of Laredo, according to Border Patrol. Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jesse Muñoz on Friday told the Laredo Morning Times that over 300 Texas National Guard soldiers will arrive in the Laredo Sector within a month to enhance border security. The new troops will be allowed to perform immigration officer duties under the supervision of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. This is under a new memorandum of understanding between CBP and the Texas National Guard that allows some in-state active-duty soldiers the authority to question immigration status under Title 8. “Under Title 8, they will have the authority to make arrests, but I want everybody to understand. We are not going to tell them, ‘Hey you guys go and take this area,’ and we don’t put Border Patrol agents out,” Muñoz told the Laredo Morning Times. ““They are going to work under direct supervision of the Border Patrol. If there’s a case where they make an apprehension, there will be Border Patrol agents close by that will come and assist.” Last week, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar issued a statement that U.S. residents should take precautions when traveling into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, which is across the Rio Grande from Laredo. On Feb. 3, there were several reports of gunfire incidents in Nuevo Laredo, and even close to an international bridge, the newspaper reported. Cuellar deployed Operation Lone Star resources, which include Texas National Guard troops and DPS troopers, near the international bridge and Laredo College to maintain a visible presence on the border, the newspaper reported. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week visited Sunland Park, New Mexico, where he said the thousands of troops coming to the Southwest border will be a “force multiplier” for immigration agents. Play VideoSecretary of Defense Hegseth visits El Paso “What President Trump has done – whether it’s Border Patrol, (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) or the military – is it’s going to take the handcuffs off our ability to do our job,” Hegseth told reporters. “And that allows us to get at the problem in ways the previous administration was not serious about.” > Read this article at Border Report - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 12, 2025
Houston Chronicle Editorial: Lotteries run on trust. Texas’ top lottery official gambled it away. Some 33 years ago, at a humble animal feed store near Austin, a sacred pact was made. Wearing a bold, red-and-yellow pantsuit adorned with gold buttons so big they rivaled her trademark silver coiffure, then-Gov. Ann Richards ceremoniously handed over a $1 bill in exchange for the very first Lone Star Millions scratch-off ticket. With it, she cemented a promise: not only would the newly inaugurated Texas lottery benefit schoolchildren and veterans, but, unlike back-alley gambling, it would be strictly regulated. The Texas Lottery Commission has shattered that pact. Charged with guarding the multimillion-dollar state lottery’s integrity, the commission has utterly failed to hold up its side of the bargain. As revealed by Houston Chronicle investigative reporter Eric Dexheimer and a state audit, the commission’s longtime director Gary Grief went out of his way to help shady businesses game the state lottery, potentially cheating everyday honest players out of their hard-earned cash. He would have gotten away with it, too – if it weren’t for a major tell. Under Grief’s leadership, the commission had raked in record-breaking sales even as it battled a general decline in lottery participation rates. Then, last year, Grief abruptly announced his departure from the Texas Lottery Commission, ending a 32-year tenure. His retirement, which took many by surprise, came just as the agency was set to be comprehensively reviewed by the state’s Sunset Advisory Commission. It also came on the heels of a highly publicized Lotto Texas win so improbable it had raised suspicions. Two years ago, a limited partnership aptly named Rook TX materialized just in time to buy up nearly 26 million tickets days before a draw. That amount, it turned out, was the same number of possible winning combinations for the $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot. What millions of players who’d hitched their hopes on the jackpot didn’t know was that a group of investors, with Grief's help, had a near lock on winning the money. As the state’s recent Sunset Review report put it, over the years, Grief had gotten “quite comfortable operating in a gray area” of the Texas Lottery Act. State law requires over-the-counter, in-person purchases at a licensed brick-and-mortar store. But the law's authors didn’t anticipate the rise of app-based courier companies that purchase tickets in people’s stead and deliver them DoorDash-style to real buyers. As early as 2016, Grief’s legal team flagged serious legal and policy issues with the courier business model. Over and over Grief ignored these concerns, not only passively allowing courier companies to flourish but going on to actively enable them to expand unchecked. Through a series of letters, Grief granted private, unregulated entities official approval to process lottery transactions “on behalf of the Texas Lottery.” App-based sales surged, becoming an increasingly critical source of revenue for the lottery agency. Today, they represent nearly 10% of the state’s draw ticket sales. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 12, 2025
Dallas County replaces voter check-in vendor ahead of May 3 election With three months until voters return to the polls, Dallas County officials are not waiting to see if its current voting equipment provider can fix problems that caused thousands to vote in the Nov. 5 election with incorrect ballots. The Dallas County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved a $7.6 million contract with St. Louis-based KNOWiNK to buy 4,500 poll pad devices for voter check-in and licensing and support services for two years. The vendor will replace Election System & Software’s electronic pollbooks, which malfunctioned during the Nov. 5 election and resulted in nearly 4,000 voters casting ballots tied to precincts where they did not live. As a result of the problems, the Texas Secretary of State in December decertified that version of ES&S’ pollbook software, which was used in 66 jurisdictions. The company will present an updated version to the state in early March, which an ES&S spokesperson said resolves the issues. But Dallas County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia said if ES&S’ updated pollbooks fail state certification next month, it will be too late to secure another vendor, leaving the county without critical equipment required to run its May 3 elections. It’s a risk commissioners were not willing to take. “We can’t promise you they’ll get certified,” Garcia told the Commissioners Court on Tuesday. “If that day the answer is oops, they didn’t pass, we’re dead.” Pollbooks are used to verify voters’ identity, check their registration and assign correct ballot types based on their residency — a job that would be unfeasible by hand in a jurisdiction as large as Dallas County, Garcia said. The new contract comes at a cost, which will be partially deferred by state grants. If the county extends this initial two-year contract, a five-year agreement for services with KNOWiNK could cost $10.5 million — $1.8 million more than what the county has paid ES&S over the past five years, Garcia said. But accounting for inflation, that increase is essentially voided, Garcia said. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 12, 2025
Jim Whaley: How Texas vets can thrive under new VA leadership (Jim Whaley is the CEO of Mission Roll Call. He is the former director of communications at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. As a 20-year veteran of the Army, his awards and decorations include the Master Army Aviator Badge, Legion of Merit, Air Assault Badge and Humanitarian Service Medal.) The new secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, has the potential to drastically change veterans’ experiences for the better. It can often feel like what’s happening on Capitol Hill is only distantly linked to our lives, but the reality is the decisions Collins and his team make will immediately be felt by veterans nationwide. As Collins enters his new role, his top priority must be making the VA work smarter for all veterans. This means listening to voices outside of Washington. As Collins aims to address ongoing challenges within the VA, his leadership will be vital for Texas veterans. Home to the largest veteran population of any state, Texas has over 1.5 million veterans who rely on VA services for health care, benefits and employment support. This concentration of veterans means that the VA’s policies, programs and shortfalls have an outsize impact on Texas veterans specifically. This is especially the case in major cities where many veterans live, such as North Texas, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso. Homelessness remains a major issue for Texas veterans. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 2023, there was a 19% increase in Texas veterans experiencing homelessness — one of the largest jumps nationwide. While major cities have made progress in addressing these concerns, there are still many veterans facing homelessness every day. Fortunately, past action indicates what an effective strategy may entail. For instance, between 2023 and 2024, Texas reported a 10% decrease in veteran homelessness due to VA programs Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing and Supportive Services for Veteran Families. Collins needs to double down on what’s working. The VA should collaborate with Veteran Service Officers, local housing and policy experts, and veterans themselves to prioritize stable housing availability for veterans. Health care is a major component of providing stability for veterans. For Collins, this means ensuring VA benefits are holistic and accessible to urban and rural veteran communities. As of 2023, Texas had an estimated 462,513 rural veterans — about 28.3% of the state’s veteran population — many of whom face significant barriers to care, including long travel distances and provider shortages. Moreover, a Mission Roll Call poll found that 93% of veterans want the option to choose their mental health providers, even outside the VA system. Collins has the opportunity to address these challenges to support veterans in Texas and beyond by strengthening the VA’s partnerships with local health care providers and streamlining access to community-based care. Another critical issue that Collins will have to contend with is the tragic reality of veteran suicide. Texas, in particular, has one of the highest veteran suicide rates in the country. Texas veterans need more robust support and access to resources. In his new role, Collins can begin to implement improvements to existing systems to this end. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 12, 2025
Fort Worth HOA hires former Bass lawyers to fight Keller ISD A Fort Worth-based law firm with deep ties to some of the city’s most prominent power brokers has been enlisted in the fight against a proposed split of the Keller school district. Kelly Hart & Hallman, whose past clients include the members of the Bass family, Hillwood and American Airlines, have been retained by the Heritage Legal Task Force. The firm also successfully represented the city of Fort Worth in its fight to ban eight-liner gambling machines. “This significant step underscores Heritage’s commitment to ensuring that any decision to divide the district is made with the full participation of the community,” the press release said. The Hillwood-developed community encompasses roughly 3,400 homes straddling Heritage Trace Parkway between Riverside Drive and Ray White Road The legal task force has raised $40,000 through private donations, and is soliciting additional funds through a GoFundMe campaign, according to the press release. The GoFundMe raised $6,340, as of 4:05 p.m. on Feb. 11. At least three Fort Worth city council members — Michael Crain, Charlie Lauersdorf and Alan Blaylock — have contributed. The press release also credited Mayor Mattie Parker’s support for helping to raise funds in Heritage’s legal effort. “It’s on!!” Lauersdorf wrote in a Facebook post supporting the GoFundMe campaign. Both he and Blaylock have come out in opposition to the proposed split, citing a lack of transparency from the Keller school board. Lauersdorf helped confirm rumors swirling in early January that the board was discussing a potential split. His account was backed up by board members Chelsea Kelly and Joni Shaw Smith who noted the plan had been discussed during a Dec. 19 executive session meeting. Board members supporting the split have argued the move is needed to address funding challenges brought on by dropping enrollment and the failure of the state legislature to raise per pupil funding to keep up with post-pandemic inflation. > Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page D Magazine - February 12, 2025
The Mavericks must stop acting like enormous dweebs toward their fans Yesterday, Matt Goodman dropped a piece about the weekend that was in Mavs-land. It contained a very appropriate title: “The New Dallas Mavericks Have Introduced Themselves, and Dissent Will Not be Tolerated.” Presuming they read our stuff, a sensible organization would have a long, hard think about why a social media user quoted in that piece compared the feeling of being at Saturday’s win over Houston to living in the North Korean dictatorship. It would then conclude, rather sensibly, “Hmm, yeah, maybe an entertainment product should not do that.” Alas, last night gave us further proof that organization is not this organization. Multiple fans were removed from the American Airlines Center in last night’s loss to the Kings for messages—one of whom mouthed “fire Nico” while being broadcast on the Jumbotron, which was also written across two signs—calling for general manager Nico Harrison to be fired. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon received statements from the team explaining why the ejections took place; they allegedly boiled down to a violation of the NBA’s fan code of conduct, specifically a rule claiming that “Clothing, garments or signs displaying explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization towards any person(s).” (The team also alleged that the fan who appeared on the Jumbotron “was also intoxicated, disruptive and uncooperative.”) Provided it’s true, that last bit is its own matter. As for the messages calling for Harrison’s job, well, let’s break those down. The phrase “Fire Nico” contains zero profanity, so that’s out. It is not—*dons my Serious English Language Scholar ascot*—a derogatory characterization toward any person, given that it is an action ordered against his professional status versus anything directly referring to Harrison’s personhood. So that leaves explicit language, which this clearly isn’t in the most popularly accepted sense of the phrase. But it could be construed as such if you’re going with Merriam-Webster’s primary definition of “explicit”: fully revealed or expressed without vagueness, implication, or ambiguity; leaving no question as to meaning or intent. Barring some unknown detail the team has declined to share publicly (and why wouldn’t they if there was one, considering it would only make them look better?), that’s what this is about. Everyone with the slightest awareness of the modern basketball landscape—this city, other cities, their fans, other teams’ fans, the media, fellow executives, current and former players—believes the Dallas Mavericks made one of the worst trades in sports history and has said as much in very direct terms, through seemingly every legal avenue, over and over again, for 10 days and counting. For their part, the Dallas Mavericks would really like everyone to stop doing that. And the Dallas Mavericks, run by a family with a history of suppressing messaging they don’t like and a former corporate suit bulwarked by PR flaks when he worked for the biggest shoe company on Earth, think the best way to get everyone to stop is through brute force. And, hoo boy, they do not seem to realize how doomed that strategy is. This comes as no surprise considering the people getting criticized are folks who either are used to getting what they want and previously occupied positions at a very far remove from anyone who could levy serious criticism at them. > Read this article at D Magazine - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 12, 2025
As Luka Doncic fallout mounts, injury-bitten Mavericks may only see things get worse Luka Doncic’s welcome to Los Angeles looked like fun. Fans chanted his name and LeBron James wore a Luka T-shirt. And if the new guy’s debut wasn’t as dazzling as Anthony Davis’ the other day, at least he was around for the end of it. On top of everything else, one of the celebrities who turned out at Crypto.com Arena for the unveiling of a new era was Dirk Nowitzki, showing support for a player he called “my guy.” One former face of the franchise to another. The hits just keep on coming, don’t they? On the same night Laker fans got Luka T-shirts, 1,500 miles and another universe away, protesting Mavs fans got the boot, the old owner got in a shouting match with someone other than officials, the new owner got booed and the media got stiffed when the head coach skipped the postgame presser after a 129-128 OT loss to the Kings. Jason Kidd didn’t send a note explaining his absence, but he might have been at a loss to explain what the Mavs will do Wednesday against the Warriors now that Daniel Gafford, the last center still standing in Nico Harrison’s Great Wall of Dallas, is out for two weeks and maybe a month or more after spraining his right knee in the second quarter. Remember Nico rhapsodizing about a frontcourt of Davis, Gafford, Dereck Lively II and P.J. Washington? Might be a month before it’s assembled, if then. Remember Nico saying fans will get over the loss of Luka once the Mavs start winning? Could be a while if Kylor Kelley is the man in the middle. Win-now mode? Maybe later. Much later. Monday’s atmosphere at American Airlines Center was a wild mood swing from Saturday’s, when a warm welcome for Davis and Max Christie in a rout of the Rockets suggested maybe this could work out after all. The first clue that it wouldn’t came when Davis crumpled in the third quarter after not so much as a shove. He’s reportedly out a month, if not longer. Which is about par. For all the complaining about Luka’s availability, he leads Davis in games played, 423-367, since he entered the league. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 12, 2025
HISD releases board’s ‘confidential’ evaluation of Superintendent Mike Miles. Here’s how he did. State-appointed Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles lost several points in his annual performance evaluation from the board for failing to effectively communicate with community members and for not prioritizing a positive culture, according to recently released district records. Miles earned 66.7 of the 100 possible points on his evaluation, meaning he received a bonus of $126,730, or 66.7% of the maximum possible bonus of $190,000, according to the evaluation the Board of Managers approved in an 8-1 vote in October meeting. HISD initially said in October that the results of the evaluation were confidential, but it released the full scores to the Chronicle in response to an open records request. According to an amendment to Miles' contract, 60% of his evaluation is based on whether he met four specific student outcome goals and honored the constraints that the board set in November 2023, while the remaining 40% is based on how he scored on an executive leadership and vision rubric. He earned 35 of 60 available points in the student outcomes section and 31.7 out of 40 points on the executive leadership and vision rubric. Miles earned a perfect score from board members for demonstrating vision, as well as high marks for making effective decisions and maintaining an effective budget. The board also determined that he had effectively maximized human capital and worked well “as part of a high-performing team.” However, he lost points for falling short on the district’s goal for third-grade student performance on the reading STAAR during the 2023-24 academic year. Board members also determined he had not been effective at constructing a positive communications strategy or prioritizing a positive culture and people wellness, according to the scores. HISD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the results of the evaluation. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 12, 2025
Baylor, MD Anderson among Houston research institutions that could lose millions under NIH grant policy Houston’s largest health care institutions stand to lose tens of millions of dollars under a new National Institutes of Health policy that slashes grant funding for medical research, triggering widespread concern among researchers and university administrators. The funding in question, also called “indirect costs,” reimburses grant recipients for overhead costs associated with research, such as the cost of support staff and maintaining lab space. The policy change would not affect direct costs, which go directly toward specific research projects. The NIH on Friday announced plans to dramatically lower the rate at which it reimburses indirect costs, drawing a lawsuit from 22 states (not including Texas). A federal judge blocked the policy in those 22 states Monday afternoon. On Monday night, the judge expanded the order to apply nationwide. In Texas, many university leaders and researchers remained anxious about what the future holds. Research institutions in the Houston area collected a combined $263 million in indirect costs last year from the NIH, according to an agency database. “Within a short order, there would probably have to be personnel decisions,” said Darren Woodside, vice president of research at the Texas Heart Institute. “The long term consequences are dire. You’re really talking about the U.S.’s leadership role in medical research being affected.” The new NIH policy caps reimbursements for indirect costs at 15%. Until now, large research institutions have been paid considerably higher reimbursement rates – some greater than 50% – to account for their high overhead expenses. In announcing the decision, the agency said it is "obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people and improve their quality of life," adding that indirect costs are "difficult for NIH to oversee." The policy change could have devastating impacts in and around the Texas Medical Center, officials said. Rice University – which received $24.6 million in NIH grant funding last year – would lose $9.1 million this fiscal year and at least $11 to $12 million in every future fiscal year, according to a university spokesperson. The University of Houston estimated that it could lose about $10 million annually and braced for the possibility of further cuts from other federal agencies. “We must consider the possibility that other federal agencies may adopt similar policies, further compounding the challenges faced by research institutions nationwide,” the university said. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page D Magazine - February 10, 2025
After appellate court ruling, Dallas still can’t enforce its short-term rental ordinances The city of Dallas failed to convince a three-judge panel that it should be allowed to enforce regulations against short-term rentals while a lawsuit wends its way through the courts. After public outcry from homeowners who lived next to short-term rentals that hosted large parties and other disruptions, the City Council voted to ban rentals through platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO in most of the city in June 2023. Council employed a two-pronged approach: restricting where they could operate by amending the zoning ordinance, and adopting a set of requirements for short-term rental operators. Those requirements include registering their properties with the city, providing off-street parking, and having a designated individual who could come to the property within an hour if necessary. The two measures were due to go into effect in December of that year, but four operators and the Dallas Short-Term Rental Alliance filed suit against the city in Dallas County district court that October. They also requested—and received— a temporary injunction to prevent the city from enforcing its new rules. At the time, Judge Monica Purdy found that the operators had made their case; an injunction was necessary “to prevent imminent and irreparable harm.” The plaintiffs provided sufficient evidence, she said, to argue that the city had pulled the rug out from under operators when it adopted the ban. Many of the impacted owners had been following the rules and paying their hotel occupancy taxes to the city for years. “There is no adequate remedy at law because it will be impossible to quantify the near decade of investments Plaintiffs made in their STR businesses, including the hiring of employees, acquisition of numerous properties, and improvements on those properties made in reliance on the City’s representations that STRs were and are a lawful business,” she wrote. A three-judge panel with the Dallas Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Purdy’s ruling. In an opinion issued on February 7 and authored by Senior Justice Yvonne Rodriguez, the panel found several of the city’s arguments to be faulty. The opinion cautioned that finding for an injunction only means that the applicants successfully made their case for continuing the status quo until a trial can be held about the merits of the actual lawsuit. The trial date for the lawsuit has not been set yet—and it may not be. David Coale, who represented the short-term rental operators during the appeal, said that “it’s not unusual” for the arguments and findings during the injunction proceedings to ultimately resolve the dispute. “There’s not much point in a trial when the real dispute is about the law, and when the law is settled by an appellate opinion as we have here,” he said. Lisa Sievers, who is the president of the Dallas Short-Term Rental Alliance, said her group of operators prefers to work out regulations both the city and operators can live with. “While we are happy that short-term rental owners and operators are able to continue to operate under the injunction, our goal has always been to sit down with the City of Dallas and get a fair and reasonable ordinance passed,” she said. “We worked for several years on three different City of Dallas STR Task Forces to craft a good registration ordinance. We’d like the City to return to the original ordinance and work with us to get the job done.” > Read this article at D Magazine - Subscribers Only Top of Page National Stories Washington Post - February 12, 2025
Trump executive order vows substantial cuts to federal workforce President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that requires federal agencies to work with the U.S. DOGE Service to cut their existing workforce and limit future hiring — the most explicit statement yet by the president that he supports “large-scale” cuts to the federal workforce. The executive order gives billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE, tasked with finding government inefficiencies, even more power than it has amassed in the first three weeks of the new administration. The order installs a “DOGE Team Lead” at each agency and gives that person oversight over hiring decisions. DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency. The directive instructs agency heads, after the hiring freeze expires, to recruit no more than one employee for every four who depart from the federal government, with exemptions for personnel and functions “related to public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement.” And it orders agency heads to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force, consistent with applicable law.” Eliminating 25 percent of federal employees would cut the overall budget by about 1 percent. Semafor first reported that Trump would sign the executive order “We are going to be signing a very important deal today,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “It’s DOGE.” He said that his administration had found “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.” Beside him was Musk, who said: “If the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?” “It does not match the will of the people, so it’s just something we’ve got to fix,” he added. Neither Trump nor Musk provided specifics about the corruption they found or how they plan to address it. Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said Tuesday evening in a statement that “the arbitrary firing of thousands of employees across multiple federal agencies outlined in tonight’s executive order would decimate government services critical to the American public.” > Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page Politico - February 12, 2025
Florida’s immigration battle may be over soon. But will Republicans’ good times last? The standoff between the Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis over illegal immigration may be coming to a close. But a new era for the state’s governing party is just beginning. Despite a contentious intraparty civil war that turned hostile at times online, Republican legislative leaders and the governor crafted a sweeping new proposal behind closed doors that aims to help President Donald Trump carry out his massive deportation effort. This type of compromise negotiation had fallen out of fashion in Florida recently, as DeSantis enjoyed unprecedented sway and was able to push legislators to follow his lead. The question now is whether it will continue — and how it will shape the upcoming legislative session, where DeSantis has both budget recommendations and additional high-profile policy pushes on the line. The final legislation expected to be passed this week includes items that DeSantis wanted. But it also had notable changes, including eliminating the ability of the governor to unilaterally transport migrants out of state like he famously did in 2022, when the state shipped migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. “We have shown the world we are serious about the legislative branch, we have shown the world we can think for ourselves,” state Senate President Ben Albritton said Tuesday morning at an annual Florida Chamber of Commerce event held in Tallahassee. Legislative leaders — and more notably DeSantis — have hailed the new immigration proposals as the toughest in the country, even though some measures appear destined to draw legal challenges. When announcing the deal, the acid-tinged commentary of the past few weeks evaporated. Albritton, along with House Speaker Daniel Perez, thanked DeSantis, while the governor also praised legislators for moving ahead. “All in all, I think this is really, really strong,” DeSantis said in a video he posted on social media. “I commend the Legislature for stepping up to the plate.” It was a turnabout from recent weeks. Before Trump took office, DeSantis called for legislators to hold a special session in late January to consider immigration enforcement changes, among other major issues. > Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only Top of Page Religion News Service - February 12, 2025
Faith-based groups challenge Trump orders in two court cases More than two dozen religious groups pushed back on President Donald Trump’s actions and executive orders, filing two lawsuits a day apart challenging the president’s attempt to effectively freeze the federal refugee resettlement program and defending a rule that prevents immigration law enforcement agencies from raiding houses of worship and other sensitive locations. On Tuesday (Feb. 11), 27 religious groups filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington arguing that Trump’s decision to rescind a 2011 government rule banning immigration raids in houses of worship, hospitals and schools, violates the groups’ constitutional rights. The plaintiffs include the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Latino Christian National Network and Mennonite Church USA. “Unannounced raids into our sanctuaries and other church spaces presents very real danger to both our members and our communities, most of whom are black and brown people,” said Bishop W. Darin Moore of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in a statement about the suit. The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said, “By joining this lawsuit, we are seeking the ability to gather to fully practice our faith and follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.” In a separate statement to Religion News Service, an Episcopal Church spokesperson said, “We joined the suit because Episcopal congregations across the United States have already seen decreased attendance at worship services and social service ministries due to fears of ICE actions. In some places, even congregants with documented legal status are choosing to stay home for fear they may be mistakenly arrested based on their appearance.” > Read this article at Religion News Service - Subscribers Only Top of Page Washington Post - February 12, 2025
Education pick McMahon has a record at odds with Trump’s radical agenda Hours before President-elect Donald Trump announced that Linda McMahon was his choice for secretary of education in November, McMahon posted on X about education. But her message wasn’t about closing the Education Department or combating “woke” teaching or restricting transgender athletes. It was about apprenticeships, a low-key issue with bipartisan support. The post was fitting, in a way. In the 15 years since McMahon first held public office, she’s taken moderate positions on many education issues, reflective of her home state of Connecticut. Serving on the state school board, she backed diversity and equity initiatives, board documents show. During an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 2010, Democrats accused her of wanting to shutter the Education Department, but McMahon pushed back, saying that was not her position. Yet, if confirmed, McMahon, 76, will be joining an Education Department that under Trump has already launched an intensely ideological agenda. The White House is preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and, in the short term, dismantling its staff and functions. Even before her possible arrival, the U.S. DOGE Service, helmed by billionaire Elon Musk and a team of young aides, has entered the agency headquarters and begun slashing spending and staff. The department also has scrubbed its websites of any mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion and put about 100 employees on administrative leave because of alleged ties to DEI, though many simply participated in diversity training during Trump’s first term. And the White House has ordered the agency to deny federal funding to any school that teaches about “gender ideology” — the idea that one’s gender identity can differ from their biological sex at birth, or “discriminatory equity ideology,” a label the order attaches to a range of ideas related to systemic racism. McMahon is expected to be pressed on all of the above Thursday at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Democrats have signaled that they are more concerned with Trump’s education agenda than McMahon’s education record. And so far, all of Trump’s nominees to Cabinet positions have been confirmed by the Senate. > Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fox News - February 12, 2025
Freed American hostage Marc Fogel lands in US after years in Russian captivity Marc Fogel, an American who had been detained in Russia since 2021, landed back in the U.S. on Tuesday. Fogel, a history teacher who was working at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, returned to the U.S. after his release from Russia following talks with the Trump administration. He was serving a 14-year sentence after his arrest in August 2021 at a Russian airport for possession of drugs, which his family said was medically prescribed marijuana. Fogel was seen in a picture posted by the White House on social media smiling and raising his fist while wrapped in an American flag as he walked off the plane on U.S. soil. > Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only Top of Page
Lead Stories Wall Street Journal - February 11, 2025
Trump’s conflicting business policies sow economic uncertainty It usually takes years for a president to leave his mark on the economy. Donald Trump has done it in just a few weeks. His plan to raise tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China has rattled markets and boardrooms. Some businesses are seeing signs that deportations could affect their workforces. More than 40,000 federal employees are preparing to resign and others are rethinking their futures under pressure from Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. At the same time, President Trump’s pro-business, pro-fossil fuel agenda has excited many businesses who have made multibillion-dollar investment announcements. The end goal seems to be an economy with a smaller role for imports, immigrants and the federal government and a bigger one for private investment. But the execution has generated intense uncertainty—among business owners, workers and trade partners—that could damp growth, at least temporarily. While Trump’s election was fueled in part by voter concerns about inflation and standards of living, he nonetheless inherited a solid economy. Gross domestic product was up 2.5% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter, and Friday’s employment report from the Labor Department showed that the economy added 143,000 jobs in January while the unemployment rate ticked down to a low 4%. Inflation has fallen sharply from its 9% peak in 2022, though is still closer to 3% than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Many firms are bullish about Trump’s presidency, with surveys of chief executives, chief financial officers and small-business owners after the election showing notable increases in optimism. The Institute for Supply Management reported earlier this month that its index of manufacturers’ new orders in January rose to the highest in nearly three years. But events since the inauguration have dented that optimism. The S&P 500 rose 5% in the first five days after the election and has since moved sideways. The University of Michigan on Friday said its preliminary index of consumer sentiment, based on surveys conducted since Trump’s inauguration, dropped in February. Preliminary results of a small business survey by Vistage Worldwide for The Wall Street Journal show that a postelection pop in confidence was reversed in February. Wall Street just ended the quietest January in a decade for mergers and acquisitions announcements. > Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 10, 2025
Texas House speaker vows to pass ‘school choice’ bill Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows has vowed to pass a “school choice” law this session in response to public statements from President Donald Trump. “The Texas House must now pass School Choice to deliver a gigantic Victory for Texas students and parents,” Trump said in a recent post on Truth Social, his social media platform. “I will be watching them closely.” Burrows’ response was simple. “We will,” the newly elected speaker said on X, attaching Trump’s post. Similar proposals to use taxpayer money to help families pay for private school education have died in the House in recent years. This year could be different, and with Burrows’ endorsement of the policy, it now appears momentum is behind the Republican-led effort. “I support empowering parents to decide the best educational option for their children, and I believe the votes are there in the House for a universal school choice program to pass this session,” Burrows said in an emailed statement Monday. “The House is prepared to lead on this issue and, importantly, on securing meaningful investments for public education and teacher pay raises.” Gov. Greg Abbott has made passing a school choice bill his top policy goal for this year’s legislative session. Abbott has said he believes the votes are there after the governor worked to unseat several House members who helped block voucher-style efforts in 2023. The Senate quickly approved a school choice measure, Senate Bill 2, last week after Abbott made it an emergency item during his recent State of the State address. The bill passed largely on party lines and arrived in the House on Thursday. Trump congratulated Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and SB 2 author Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, in his post. Republican budget writers have proposed using $1 billion of surplus money to create a school choice fund. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fox News - February 11, 2025
Texas confirms growing measles outbreak affecting school-aged children Officials at the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) warn there is a growing measles outbreak involving school-aged children. The report said that 10 cases have been identified in Gaines County and eight of the cases are school-aged children, of which two are under the age of 5. All were unvaccinated cases, said officials. "Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities," the alert said. Seven of the cases have been hospitalized, according to the Texas DSHS. The rise in cases comes more than two decades after measles was reported eliminated by health agencies in 2000. This week’s alert went on to advise that additional cases are likely to occur soon. "Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities," they said. Officials urged people to immediately report any suspected cases to their local health department with the infected person in their presence. DSHS said the virus can be transmitted through direct contact with infectious droplets or airborne and spread when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes. They also warned that the virus can remain infectious in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area. Vaccination is the best way for people to avoid infection from measles and other preventable diseases, the advisory said. "Children too young to be vaccinated are more likely to have severe complications if they get infected with the measles virus," DSHS said. > Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Washington Post - February 11, 2025
Trump’s NIH challenges the model that underlies U.S. scientific dominance At Mark Peifer’s University of North Carolina lab, scientists study the elaborate machinery that cells use to communicate with one another, which often goes awry in colon cancer. Last week, the “cold room” on his floor went down. No cold room, no experiments — at least until university facilities personnel were able to fix it. The maintenance of research facilities is included in about $208,000 for “indirect costs” that are part of Peifer’s nearly $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health — money that allows his whole enterprise to continue functioning. But in a bombshell announcement Friday night, NIH said it would immediately impose a dramatic cut in funding for such indirect expenditures, the latest abrupt action by the Trump administration. On Monday afternoon, a federal judge in Massachusetts issued a temporary restraining order that halts the move in 22 states that sued to stop it. That evening, a coalition including three large higher education associations and some of the country’s most elite universities filed a more sweeping lawsuit seeking to stop the cuts nationwide. “Without overhead, universities cannot support labs like mine,” Peifer said in an email. “The aging building in which I work will literally fall apart around me if the maintenance is removed. No new faculty will be hired. I guess I’ll have to manage my $375,000/year budget with a calculator?” For 80 years the great research institutions of America have enjoyed a special relationship with the federal government, one that has powered scientific and technological innovation and made the nation’s universities a magnet for the world’s most brilliant scientists and engineers. Research leaders contend that the NIH decision will damage America’s ability to compete with China and other nations on the frontier of biomedicine. Although it is framed as a simple cost-cutting move, it is part of aggressive actions from the administration that have shaken the scientific and medical establishment. In a post on X, NIH said the cap on indirect costs would save $4 billion per year. The agency said in a guidance notice that about $9 billion of the $35 billion it awarded to researchers in fiscal 2023 were indirect costs. About 80 percent of the NIH budget goes to outside institutions. > Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page State Stories Dallas Morning News - February 10, 2025
How will Gov. Abbott's priorities impact career training programs in Texas' high schools? Texas faces an urgent need to prepare students for the future workforce, as nearly two-thirds of projected new jobs will require post-high school training over the next five years, advocates say. But too many graduates lack the skills to meet the demand. Texas faces an urgent need to prepare students for the future workforce, as nearly two-thirds of projected new jobs will require post-high school training over the next five years, advocates say. But too many graduates lack the skills to meet the demand. “High schools must provide more career training programs so that students can go directly from graduation into a good paying job,” Abbott said during his recent State of the State. About 63% of jobs in Texas will require education or training beyond a high school diploma by 2030, according to the Republican governor’s proposed state budget for the next two years. But less than 40% of students earn a degree or workforce credential within six years of graduating high school, according to Abbott’s proposal. Meanwhile, only 32% of workers have skills for those jobs, according to the Texas Workforce Commission’s labor marker information. In 2015, Abbott set a goal for 60% of Texas' 25- to 34-year-old workforce to obtain a postsecondary degree or credential by 2030. By that year, Texas wants 550,000 of its higher education students earning a certificate, associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree. Workforce training advocates say additional funding opens the doors for more students to participate in programs that get Texas closer to the goals and help break the cycle of poverty. Only 26% of young adult Texans in 2022 earned enough to afford essential expenses, including food, shelter and health care, according to research from the nonprofit Commit Partnership. (Commit is a supporter of the Future of North Texas initiative at The Dallas Morning News.)> Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 11, 2025
State requests help from attorney general's office to ensure compliance of Harris County Jail The Texas agency overseeing jail standards will heighten its response to Harris County's years-long struggle to meet state guidelines and tackle overcrowding — less than a month after it was issued a notice for failing to complete face-to-face observations of inmates. During a Thursday meeting in Austin, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards requested the Texas Attorney General’s Office’s help to enforce Harris County Jail to comply with minimum standards. No details about what the attorney general’s office will do to ensure future compliance were discussed during Thursday’s meeting. Harris County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Harris County Jail has struggled to meet minimum jail standards for years. A remedial order was first issued in 2023, leading the sheriff’s office to increase staffing and outsource inmate housing, resulting in a certification of compliance in August 2024. Phillip Bosquez, assistant chief of detention operations command, told commissioners Thursday the sheriff’s office has worked to increase its staffing in recent years and is in discussions with the Commissioners Court to add more open positions. The jail also spent $50 million last year to outsource local inmates to privately operated jails in Garza and Jefferson counties, as well as in Louisiana and Mississippi to help with overcrowding. Commissioner Duane Lock said he is concerned about the deaths of outsourced inmates that have happened out of state in recent years. Since 2022, three Harris County men awaiting trial died after being transferred to the Louisiana correctional center. “I am asking you because of the standards that we have here in Texas versus whatever standards, I don't know the standards in Mississippi, nor do I know them in Louisiana,” he said during Thursday’s meeting. “My question is centered on trying to keep the inmates in the state where we have and understand our standardized set of standards across each county.” Advocates with Communities Not Cages, a group fighting against jail expansion and for de-carceration in Harris County, characterized Thursday’s decision as a step in the right direction that proves the county’s efforts to fix the jail have been unsuccessful. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 10, 2025
Stacey McKenna: Fentanyl test strips save lives. Why are they still illegal in Texas? (Stacey McKenna is a resident senior fellow for the Integrated Harm Reduction Program at the R Street Institute.) Last year, a fentanyl-contaminated batch of crack cocaine killed at least 12 people and led to 70 overdose 911 calls in just 72 hours in Austin. Such a tragedy underscores the gravity of Texas’ overdose crisis and should be a wakeup call to state lawmakers. Fortunately, there are tools — simple test strips that indicate whether a drug is tainted with a dangerous substance like fentanyl — that help people make safer choices when it comes to substance use and reduce their overdose risk. Unfortunately, those tools are illegal in Texas. But a new piece of legislation, introduced by a Republican state representative, could change this and save countless Texans’ lives. Illicit drug use has never been completely safe — an unregulated supply means there’s minimal transparency or quality control. But a decade ago, when I was conducting field work with people who used methamphetamine, my participants could assume their supply would be opioid-free. And those using heroin rarely worried that their usual dose would be 50 times stronger than expected. Now, however, the rise of synthetics has resulted in a market dominated by the highly potent opioid fentanyl, with a roster of novel adulterants — substances added to the drug supply to enhance experience, add weight or improve delivery efficiency — waiting in the wings. Indeed, recent research from many states, including Texas, found that up to 15% of stimulant samples now contain fentanyl, too. And the animal tranquilizer xylazine has made its way into the Texas supply. These adulterants in the illicit supply are serious public health threats. People who primarily use stimulants or psychedelics often lack protective tolerance against fentanyl, making them especially vulnerable to an overdose. And, because fentanyl is so potent and fast-acting, even people who have used opioids for decades are at risk. Meanwhile, xylazine complicates overdose because it depresses breathing but does not respond to the overdose reversal medication naloxone. Checking drugs by using test strips, or more advanced technologies, to test a small amount of a drug for adulterants such as fentanyl or xylazine, can provide people with the information to make safer decisions about their drug use, reducing their overdose risk. Texas is one of just four holdout states in which possession, free distribution and sale of this life-saving equipment remains a crime. That glaring legislative gap is likely part of why the state is seeing a smaller decline (about 10 percent) in overdose deaths relative to its neighbors (between 20 and 28 percent) — all of which have authorized some form of drug checking equipment — and the rest of the country. This is why Texas State Rep. Tom Oliverson, a Republican and an anesthesiologist, has introduced a single, straightforward piece of legislation that could save a lot of lives. > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Tech Crunch - February 10, 2025
Lyft to launch Mobileye-powered robotaxis ‘as soon as 2026,’ starting with Dallas Ride-hail giant Lyft plans to bring fully autonomous robotaxis, powered by Mobileye, to its app “as soon as 2026” in Dallas, with more markets to follow, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The news comes a day before Lyft reports its fourth-quarter financial results, coinciding with Waymo’s preparations to launch a commercial robotaxi service with Uber in Austin and, later, Atlanta. Tesla has also shared plans to start an autonomous ride-hail operation in Austin in June. Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate with experience managing fleets, will own and finance the Mobileye-equipped vehicles that will show up on Lyft’s ride-hailing app. While Lyft has not yet disclosed which carmaker it is partnering with for the launch, Mobileye’s advanced driver-assistance technology is already integrated into vehicles from Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan, Ford, General Motors, and more. Lyft also didn’t share how many vehicles it would launch in Dallas to start, but Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s executive vice president of driver experience, told TechCrunch that the plan is to scale to thousands of vehicles across multiple cities after the Texas debut. The Marubeni partnership is a non sequitur for Lyft: The Japanese company owns subsidiaries across almost every industry, from food and real estate to agriculture and energy, but doesn’t have a large presence in ride-hail or autonomous vehicles. That said, over the past few years, Marubeni has begun to dabble. In 2021, the company partnered with Mobileye and transit planning app Moovit to launch an on-demand mobility service in Japan. TechCrunch has reached out to learn if that collaboration is still active. Mobileye served as the intermediary between Lyft and Marubeni, said Bird. For Lyft’s asset-light business model, finding a partner to commit to owning the fleet is crucial. > Read this article at Tech Crunch - Subscribers Only Top of Page D Magazine - February 10, 2025
The new Dallas Mavericks have introduced themselves, and dissent will not be tolerated Caglar Ozerdim and Julie Shaddox can’t tell their love story without the Dallas Mavericks. It began a dozen or so years ago, when he invited her to a game because he didn’t have anyone else to go with. They fell in love, got married, had two kids, purchased season tickets a decade ago in section 116. They rode out the end of Dirk Nowitzki’s career and watched as their team somehow outwitted the Suns, Kings, Hawks, and Grizzlies to nab an ascendent, generational talent named Luka Doncic in the 2018 draft. Then, two weekends ago, news broke that general manager and former Nike executive Nico Harrison had traded the 25-year-old to the Los Angeles Lakers for aging star Anthony Davis, the young flyer Max Christie, and a lone future first-round draft pick. On Saturday afternoon, about an hour before the Mavs tipped off against the Rockets for their first game in Dallas since the trade, Caglar and Julie waited on a DART train at Market Center Station to take them to Victory Park. They wore Mavs shirts but covered the team’s logo with blue construction tape. They held two signs: she with “NO LOYALTY NO CULTURE,” he with “GO BACK TO SELLING SHOES NICO.” “You said you were physically angry when you woke up,” Julie said to her husband. “That night I had a dream you left me for another guy,” Caglar replied. Caglar and Julie had a border collie named Sam who was struck and killed by a driver. “This pain is similar,” Caglar said. “It was just so sudden.” Ten days after they embarked on a five-game road swing, the Mavs returned to the American Airlines Center very different from how they left. Their environment was even less familiar. Fans raised more than $16,000 to pay for digital billboards near the arena. Police with leashed K9 units flanked the entrances. (Harrison had apparently received death threats.) Staffers set up barricades in Victory Plaza, creating a pen for protesters. The guys with the coffin were back, and this time they brought a megaphone. About two dozen fans sang “Halleluka,” sportswriters and podcasters Isaac Lee and Jason Gallagher’s flip of the Leonard Cohen original that they once performed in the stadium in front of Luka. Fans chanted, “He’s not fat, bring him back,” and posed for pictures next to a life-size cardboard Nico, his face obscured by a clown nose. “It’s the closest thing I’ve felt to genuine heartbreak,” said Omar Alfarawati, a sales manager who lives in Richardson. “I didn’t watch basketball before Luka.” Matt Robinson wore a shirt of Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson also sporting a red clown nose. “Someone was handing these out; I didn’t have one before 30 minutes ago,” he said. Neal Ghanta put on a suit, drove down from Oklahoma, and pulled a brown paper bag over his face. “Don’t be sorry for me,” said the recent OU grad. “There’s a whole city of fans who are in pain.” Security corralled the anger outside. Fans wearing shirts that denigrated Harrison weren’t allowed into the stadium. Ushers reportedly asked fans to remove tape covering the team logo. There were no crowd shots broadcast onto the Jumbotron. The sole crowd bit involved a man who nailed the lyrics to Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” with such ease that a sportswriter friend of mine texted to say he thought he was a plant. “The game felt very North Korea-y,” posted one fan on Twitter. > Read this article at D Magazine - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 10, 2025
Richardson ISD under review as Texas AG expands scrutiny of transgender student policies Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants the Richardson school district to turn over any documents it has related to policies and procedures regarding transgender student athletes. On Monday, Paxton expanded his ongoing review of Texas schools’ actions regarding such students to include Richardson and Hutto. His office requested similar documents from the Dallas and Irving districts last week. The demand for information comes after a group called Accuracy in Media used hidden cameras to record various school administrators talking about how their districts would treat transgender students. In a video recorded in the Richardson school district, a person posing as a prospective parent — later identified as an “undercover journalist” — asked whether her transgender daughter would be able to stay with the rest of the girls on overnight school trips. A person identified as a district administrator is heard saying that it would be determined on a case-by-case basis. She added that in cases where that has occurred, all the students in the room were friends and “the parents were OK with it.” The attorney general office’s letter to the district notes that it is “implied in the video that your district allows the participation of biologically male students in girls’ sports in violation of state law.” In a statement, Richardson ISD officials said they will comply with the request for documentation. “RISD closely follows Texas law, including the UIL requirement that student athletes must compete according to the gender on their original birth certificate,” they wrote. “The district is not aware of any instance whatsoever where this requirement was not followed in RISD.”> Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 11, 2025
Cy-Fair ISD superintendent says new gender policy won’t change current practice A controversial gender policy closely resembling one in Katy ISD was approved by Cy-Fair ISD trustees in a 6-1 vote Monday night, putting roughly 200,000 students in the Houston area under a similar rule. The policy could force staff to “out” a transgender student to their parents if they request to use a pronoun or name at school that differs from their biological sex. It also prohibits district staff from providing treatment for gender dysphoria and bans material that “promotes” gender identity and gender fluidity. The policy first passed in Katy ISD, a 96,000-student district in west Houston, at the beginning of last school year and has since been discussed by neighboring Conroe ISD with 72,000 students, where newly elected trustees have pledged to take a second look at it. Speakers used religion to argue both for and against the policy in the 118,000-student Cy-Fair ISD Monday night. Student Valeria Patino said that as a Catholic, she is “appalled” by the policy. “You claim to stand by faith, values and righteousness, but know this, you are the ones casting judgment. You will bear the weight of these students' suicides caused by your action. It's not protection, it's harm,” Patino said. During the invocation of the meeting, Rev. Heather Tolleson prayed that the trustees would think of all students when leading the district. “May we represent this deep and vast school district in all of its diversity and everyone who makes it up, especially our students, regardless of race or gender or class or our gender identity or expression or sexual orientation. May you let us lead each and every student with dignity and respect, showing them that they are a valued member of our school district that makes us strong. May you allow us to leave our own convictions behind …” Tolleson said. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 11, 2025
Dallas Morning News Editorial: Don’t reimburse Gov. Abbott for Operation Lone Star without audit Gov. Greg Abbott has said multiple times that he wants the federal government to pay up for Operation Lone Star, the border security initiative he launched in 2021 that has cost Texans more than $11 billion. Abbott recently made his pitch directly to President Donald Trump, and some Republicans in Congress have indicated they will support federal reimbursement. Not so fast. Texas needs to show receipts first. While Operation Lone Star has become a punching bag for the left, Abbott was right to take action as illegal border crossings skyrocketed and the Biden administration sent mixed messages. The governor deployed state troopers and members of the Texas National Guard to detain people trying to cross the border undetected, turning over migrants to U.S. Border Patrol. Abbott also installed more border barriers and began busing asylum-seekers to cities in other states. Migrants riding the buses did so voluntarily, and some said they were grateful for the trips. The busing relieved pressure on overwhelmed Texas communities and forced Democratic leaders to confront concerns about unchecked illegal immigration. However, some aspects of Operation Lone Star have raised serious concerns — concerns that have been exacerbated by a lack of transparency since the initiative launched. Operation Lone Star created something akin to a standalone legal system to process migrants on criminal trespass charges, some of which were later tossed in court. A year into the initiative, journalists found that hundreds of criminal charges and pounds of seized fentanyl attributed to Operation Lone Star weren’t related to the border. We were also alarmed by reports in 2023 that state officials placed barrels wrapped in barbed wire in the Rio Grande, where migrants couldn’t see them, and allegations that some troopers were instructed not to help migrants in distress, including children. Abbott’s antagonism toward then-President Joe Biden also put Texas at odds with Border Patrol over the placement of concertina wire along the border. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 11, 2025
Glenn Hamer and Nicole Nosek: Texas should learn from California’s failures in housing policy (Glenn Hamer is the president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business. Nicole Nosek is the chair of Texans for Reasonable Solutions.) For decades, Texas has been a beacon of opportunity — a place where the American dream is not only within reach, but readily available for all who seek it. Whether you work for one of the more than 50 Fortune 500 companies that call Texas home, or you’re an entrepreneur building and expanding your business operations, Texas has the resources and economic engine to make sure you can reach your full potential. However, with Texas projected to gain as many as 5 million new people by 2036, our state’s rapid population growth and lack of housing supply to keep pace have fueled a clear housing crisis, putting a key pillar of the American dream — securing a stable, affordable place to live — further out of reach for more Texans. We know that when residents cannot find housing to fit their needs, businesses suffer because they struggle to recruit and retain the workforce they need. Skyrocketing housing costs were a major reason why states like California have hemorrhaged major corporations to states like Texas and Florida in recent years, according to a study by the Hoover Institution, a public policy research center at Stanford University. Will we learn from the housing affordability failures in states like California? State leaders have already sounded the alarm on the urgent need to address this crisis in order to keep our economy strong. Last August, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar warned that, even with the Legislature’s historic property tax relief and reductions in regulations last session, our state’s housing crisis “remains daunting” and that addressing it will be “key to our continued overall economic health.” During his recent State of the State address, Gov. Greg Abbott made clear that the Legislature must take steps to make housing more affordable, acknowledging that “we need to make it easier to build, slash regulations and speed up permitting.” Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is directly acting on housing affordability for Texans by prioritizing SB 15 to remove barriers to affordable housing. There is perhaps nowhere more emblematic of the increased burden of high housing costs than in the rapidly growing Dallas-Fort Worth area. In fact, a recent public opinion poll conducted on behalf of the Texas Association of Business Foundation revealed that an overwhelming majority of Dallas-Fort Worth-area voters believe there is a critical short supply of reasonably priced homes, with nearly half saying it is a “serious” problem and a majority indicating they want more housing options. Thankfully, there are commonsense solutions to this crisis. In addition to continuing to provide property tax cuts to reduce high costs of living, there are several measures supported by Texas voters that would meaningfully move the needle in addressing our state’s emerging housing affordability crisis. First, to address the relentless demand outpacing supply, Texas needs to affirm the fundamental right for property owners in new neighborhoods to build detached townhomes on their own land. In new neighborhoods, Texas landowners with at least five undeveloped acres should have the power to build housing that’s more accessible and meets the needs of their communities — cutting through restrictive regulations and unleashing the full potential of Texas’ housing market. In the D-FW area, the TABF poll demonstrated that almost 7 out of 10 support this policy. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Express-News - February 11, 2025
La Pryor ISD superintendent placed on leave after alleged assault of 6-year-old When Helena Diaz’s six-year-old daughter returned from school with bruises on her body, she assumed the child had fallen off the monkey bars or taken a tumble on the playground. It was a total shock when Child Protective Services knocked on her door four days later. A social worker came to ask Diaz for permission to pull her daughter’s student records. The request came as part of an investigation that would later result in the suspension of La Pryor Independent School District’s top leader. “Everyone was aware and said nothing,” Diaz said on Monday. “The whole system failed her.” The incident occurred at La Pryor ISD’s elementary school on Friday, Jan. 31. According to Diaz, witnesses and board members who saw surveillance footage said her daughter had stepped out of the classroom and was walking around with a special education employee when they ran into Superintendent William Arevalo. Diaz said her daughter, a kindergarten student who is being tested for an emotional disorder, likely left the classroom to calm down after becoming frustrated. She said witnesses reported her daughter being noncombative when Arevalo allegedly dragged her down the hallway and “picked her up and threw her” into a room. “These are people who work at the school saying he threw her so hard that she hit the wall and fell,” Diaz said. “When the woman who was walking with my daughter tried to intervene, he became aggressive and hostile towards her, and she said she was in shock. He closed the door and said he was going to do it his way.” Diaz said the employee tried to find somebody to de-escalate the situation while her daughter screamed for help. She said it took 45 minutes before another staff member entered the room to find the child “in the fetal position crying and asking why no one came to help.” The mother of two said the school was concerned enough to send her daughter to the nurse’s office after the incident. She said she gets calls when her daughter gets a paper cut or trips outside, but there was no notification this time. To this day, Diaz said the only communication she’s received from the district was a call asking why her two daughters have not been attending school. > Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Express-News - February 11, 2025
Hill Country city could become home to gas-powered AI data center A data center geared toward serving artificial intelligence companies is being planned for the San Marcos area — and it will be powered by natural gas. The Dallas-based company Energy Transfer LP announced Monday that it has entered an agreement to supply up to 450,000 MMBTu — or million British Thermal Units — per day from its Oasis Pipeline subsidiary to the Denver-based company CloudBurst Data Centers for a data center campus outside San Marcos. The gas will be enough to generate up to 1.2 gigawatts of electricity for at least 10 years, according to the news release. A gigawatt is a unit used to measure electrical power; it is equal to 1 billion watts. CloudBurst expects the data center to be operational in the third quarter of 2026, according to the release. Additional details for what CloudBurst calls its “flagship” data center are scarce. The company doesn’t appear to have disclosed exactly where it will be built, or just how large it will be. On its website, it says the data center is “designed for expansion in the near-term” and that the power will be supplied in part by rooftop solar panels. The project appears to be linked with a data center that is planned on 199.5 acres of ranchland at the crossing of Francis Harris Lane and Grant Harris Road. The property straddles the southern border of San Marcos city limits, about two miles south of Interstate 35, according to documents from the city of San Marcos. The San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday is scheduled to consider a request by the current owners of two properties comprising the site to clear the way for the center to be built by changing the properties’ designation in the city’s growth plan from the so-called “comprehensive/cluster,” indicating areas where development should be discouraged, to a commercial designation. > Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Express-News - February 11, 2025
North East ISD to close three schools amid budget shortfall, declining enrollment Standing on the sidewalk beside his older sister, five-year-old Kassius Reyes held up a sign displaying his classmates’ colorful handprints and four words. “Keep our school open!” the handmade poster read. But later Monday night, at a crowded board meeting, the North East Independent School District board voted 7-0 to close Driscoll Middle School, Wilshire Elementary School and Clear Spring Elementary School to cope with an enrollment loss of 12,000 students over the past decade. The cost-cutting plan is expected to save the district $5 million annually to offset an estimated $39 million budget deficit. Kassius was one of a few dozen community members who gathered outside the NEISD boardroom Monday to protest the proposal. Before the meeting, advocates passed out black ribbons to mourn the loss of their schools. A kindergarten student at Clear Spring Elementary School, Kassius said he was sad to hear that he won't return to the campus next year. “It’s sad we can’t have our friends anymore,” he said. “We have to make new friends at new schools.” Next year, students who attend Clear Spring will be split between El Dorado, Serna and Royal Ridge elementary schools. Driscoll will be consolidated with Garner and Harris middle schools, and Wilshire will be consolidated with Northwood and East Terrell Hills elementary schools. Attendance boundaries and transportation routes will be adjusted to accommodate the influx of new students to existing campuses. The district said it will work to relocate all staff to their new campuses and give affected employees priority for open positions. NEISD officials shared plans for supporting families through the transitions, including holding one-on-one meetings with families to ensure all special education students receive proper services at their new campuses. The district is also extending the deadline for affected families to apply to its school choice and magnet programs. > Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Report - February 11, 2025
As new Texas Hispanic caucus leader, Romero prepares for fierce battle over immigration Almost immediately after assuming his new role as chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, state Rep. Ramón Romero Jr., D-Fort Worth, left no doubt that he planned an activist trajectory as he fired off statement after statement during the opening days of the 2025 Legislature. One such statement assailed President Donald Trump’s emerging immigration policies as a threat to “the very fabric of our nation.” Another vowed the caucus’ opposition to possible immigration raids in Texas schools. Romero lamented a House rule change blocking Democrats from chairing committees but at the same time held out hope that lawmakers were embarking on “a productive session where all Texans will benefit.” Interviewed in his office on the fourth floor of the State Capitol, Romero said the caucus, widely known as MALC, is facing daunting challenges as Trump presses ahead on beefed-up immigration enforcement with support from Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans who control state government. “There’s a lot of people in the political world right now that are looking for a scapegoat, and they point to the Latino community,” said Romero, 51. “We all know that the immigration issue has been top of mind.” One of Romero’s first major initiatives includes the appointment of a six-member committee within MALC to produce a strategic plan for border development. The project would be funded with $11 billion that Abbott is seeking in reimbursement to Texas for the cost of border security and wall construction during the Biden administration. The money, Romero said, should be used to “address the real needs of our border communities,” including infrastructure, workforce development, trade and security, with an overall goal “to rebuild the border and keep jobs in Texas.” He named Rep. Eddie Morales Jr., an Eagle Pass Democrat, to head the project. In taking the reins of what is widely known as the oldest and largest Mexican American legislative caucus in the nation, Romero marks another step in a personal journey that started in childhood poverty in east Fort Worth and followed with self-made success in business and politics. > Read this article at Fort Worth Report - Subscribers Only Top of Page City Stories Houston Chronicle - February 10, 2025
EPA finds cancer-causing toxin at site of Fifth Ward community center in Houston Community leaders blame a history of “corporate greed,” negligence and environmental racism for cancer-causing contamination found at Hester House in Houston’s Fifth Ward, officials said during a Monday news conference Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Congressman Sylvester Turner led a discussion on the results of a study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The study identified “detectable levels” of dioxin, a known carcinogen, in the soil on the site of the community center that was five times the screening limit for children’s safety under agency standards. Ellis said under advisory by the agency that a fence would be put around the perimeters of an open field adjacent to the center’s day care facility, which will remain open. The public announcement was an effort to give the community some clarity beforehand. “I did not want to put a fence up … and give people cause for alarm, and not explain why we were putting it up,” he said. While the agency’s results maintain that the levels of dioxin are not an “immediate threat,” they are “deeply troubling," said Ellis, whose office operates the center. “No amount of carcinogens in our community or any other community is acceptable,” he said. Results from properties near the site show that “nearly all detected chemicals were below the agency’s conservative screening levels,” according to a statement from the agency. Further testing would focus on dioxins found to be above screening levels, the statement says. Dioxins are commonly found in areas that are densely populated and have a history of industrial activity, and it is “premature to identify a source before the entire testing and evaluation process is completed,” the agency’s statement details. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page National Stories Stateline - February 10, 2025
Health insurance for millions could vanish as states put Medicaid expansion on chopping block Republican lawmakers in several states have Medicaid expansion in their crosshairs, energized by President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and a GOP-controlled Congress set on reducing spending on the public health insurance program for low-income people. As the feds consider cuts to Medicaid, some states are already moving to end or shrink their expanded Medicaid programs. Legislators in Idaho have introduced a bill that would repeal voter-approved expansion, while Republicans in Montana are considering allowing their expanded program to expire. Some South Dakota lawmakers want to ask voters to let the state end expansion if federal aid declines. Nine other states already have trigger laws that will end their expansion programs if Congress cuts federal funding. Meanwhile, discussions have stalled in non-expansion states such as Alabama, as lawmakers wait to see what the Trump administration will do. Many conservatives argue that Medicaid expansion has created a heavy financial burden for states and that reliance on so much federal funding is risky. They argue that expansion shifts resources away from more vulnerable groups, such as children and the disabled, to low-income adults who could potentially get jobs. In South Dakota, where voters approved Medicaid expansion in 2022 by a constitutional amendment, Republican state Sen. Casey Crabtree wants to bring expansion before voters again with a trigger measure. He told Stateline via text that his proposed amendment to the state constitution “empowers voters to maintain financial accountability, ensuring that if federal funding drops below the agreed 90%, the legislature can responsibly assess the state’s financial capacity and the impact on taxpayers while still honoring the will of the people.” But even some Republicans are uneasy about what repealing expansion would mean for their constituents. “Quite honestly, I have received hundreds of emails from constituents that have said, ‘please do not repeal.’ I have received zero asking me to repeal, which I think is very telling,” said Idaho state Rep. Lori McCann, a Republican who represents a swing district in the northern part of the state. McCann said she’s interested in reining in Medicaid costs, but skeptical about a full expansion repeal. More than 89,000 Idahoans could lose their coverage if the state repeals its expansion, according to the latest numbers from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. McCann said she learned this month that only a fraction of those would qualify to buy discounted insurance on the state exchange.> Read this article at Stateline - Subscribers Only Top of Page The Hill - February 11, 2025
Democrats step up talk about using shutdown as leverage against Trump Democrats in Congress are growing louder with threats to force a shutdown in March to put the brakes on President Trump’s and Elon Musk’s efforts to overhaul the federal government by freezing spending and dismantling agencies. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers think the March 14 deadline for funding the government gives them the best leverage to pressure Trump and Musk to back off their plans to pick apart the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other agencies. But they are divided over how hard to push the threat of a shutdown, fearing that Democrats might get blamed for a funding lapse that would furlough hundreds of thousands of federal workers and interrupt government services across the country. Democrats say they traditionally try to do everything to avoid shutdowns but now warn one may be inevitable if Trump doesn’t rein in Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “I never support a shutdown, but I can see where it could happen in this situation. It’s an extreme situation,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.). Durbin, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, pointed to Vice President Vance’s comments over the weekend suggesting the White House may not heed court rulings blocking its executive actions as a major provocation. “One step away from a constitutional crisis. Let’s be very blunt about this. If he believes the executive branch can ignore the directives coming down from the judicial branch, it’s an invitation to a constitutional crisis,” he said. > Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only Top of Page The Hill - February 11, 2025
Trump’s proposal for Gaza entangles Arab allies President Trump’s proposal to permanently resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip is complicating relationships with allies in the Arab world. His meeting Tuesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II stands to be an awkward moment as Trump continues to suggest Abdullah’s country take in more Palestinians, who by some estimates already take up about half the population. But Trump’s proposal has been met with steep opposition from the greater Arab world, who see Palestinian resettlement as a nonstarter, in addition to going against decades of U.S. foreign policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Arab nations and global leaders have been clear in their opposition to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the urgent need to rebuild Gaza so its people can live with dignity and security,” said Iman Awad, national director of policy and advocacy at Emgage Action, a Muslim American advocacy group, in a statement. “In particular, we expect that the upcoming meeting with the Jordanian King will reinforce these concerns, underscoring the necessity of upholding international law and preventing the displacement of millions of Palestinians,” Awad added. Trump sent shockwaves through the Middle East last week when he proposed the United States would take control of the Gaza Strip and rebuild it. He since has offered some new details of his vision, including that U.S. troops would not get involved, while sending mixed messages about the fate of Palestinians. The president for weeks has said he would like to see Jordan, Egypt and other nations in the region take in Palestinians who would be relocated out of Gaza. > Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only Top of Page NBC News - February 11, 2025
Trump threatens ‘all hell is going to break out’ if Hamas delays hostage releases The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was at risk of faltering Tuesday after President Donald Trump warned “all hell is going to break out” if the Palestinian militant group does not release “all” remaining hostages this week. The war in Gaza is on pause following a complex agreement in which remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are incrementally exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israel. But Hamas said late Monday that it was indefinitely postponing the next hostage-prisoner swap Saturday, accusing Israel of continuing to shoot at Palestinians, stopping them from moving back to the northern part of the Strip, and delaying the entry of medical supplies and shelters. An exchange slated for this Saturday was set to see three more hostages freed from Gaza. But Trump responded to Hamas’ delay by demanding all 76 remaining captives, 44 of whom are believed alive, are freed. > Read this article at NBC News - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNN - February 11, 2025
‘Gulf of America’ arrives on Google Maps The body of water formerly known in the United States as the Gulf of Mexico is now listed for US-based users of Google Maps as the Gulf of America. The change follows an executive order by US President Donald Trump renaming the area. Google has previously said it has “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” “People using Maps in the US will see ‘Gulf of America,’ and people in Mexico will see ‘Gulf of Mexico.’ Everyone else will see both names,” it said in a statement Monday. Google said last month it would also change the name of Mount McKinley, the nation’s highest peak, from Denali following Trump’s order. Former President Barack Obama renamed the Alaska landmark to Denali in 2015 as a nod to the region’s native population. But that change hasn’t been made on Google Maps as of Tuesday. > Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only Top of Page Associated Press - February 11, 2025
Elon Musk-led group proposes buying OpenAI for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO says 'no thank you' A group of investors led by Elon Musk is offering about $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI, escalating a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that Musk helped found a decade ago. Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to take control of the ChatGPT maker and revert it to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab, according to Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid on Musk’s social platform X, saying, “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk bought Twitter, now called X, for $44 billion in 2022. Musk and Altman, who together helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it, have been in a long-running feud over the startup’s direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab that would benefit the public good by safely building better-than-human AI. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, Toberoff has said. The sudden success of ChatGPT two years ago brought worldwide fame and a new revenue stream to OpenAI and also heightened the internal battles over the future of the organization and the advanced AI it was trying to develop. Its nonprofit board fired Altman in late 2023. He came back days later with a new board. Now a fast-growing business still controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission, OpenAI last year announced plans to formally change its corporate structure. But such changes are complicated. Tax law requires money or assets donated to a tax-exempt organization to remain within the charitable sector. > Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only Top of Page Politico - February 11, 2025
Trump’s Justice Department moves to drop charges against Eric Adams Federal prosecutors moved to drop their case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams Monday, which would clear him of all corruption charges as he seeks reelection in June. A top Justice Department official, Emil Bove, directed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to seek a dismissal of the charges against Adams, saying in a memo to the office the case has “improperly interfered” with the mayor’s reelection campaign and could hurt his ability to support Trump’s immigration agenda. The move was first reported by The New York Times. Adams has made clear he supports Trump’s efforts to deport certain undocumented migrants from the city. Should a judge sign off on tossing all five counts against Adams, who was indicted in September, the mayor would no longer face the prospect of jail time or a trial as he runs for reelection. A spokesperson for the Southern District, Nicholas Biase, declined to comment on how the office planned to respond and a spokesperson for Adams confirmed the news. The mayor’s legal team cast the decision as proof the justice department never had a case to begin with. “As I said from the outset, the mayor is innocent—and he would prevail,” Alex Spiro, the mayor’s attorney, said in a statement. “Today he has.” This move continues an emerging pattern of the administration of President Donald Trump dropping politically charged criminal cases he inherited when resuming the White House last month. And it shows the extent of the alliance between the Republican president and the Democratic mayor — an alliance that stands to hurt Adams in a Democratic primary. “The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration,” the letter from Bove reads. > Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only Top of Page
Lead Stories Dallas Morning News - February 10, 2025
Dallas Fed economist: Texas is ‘in the line of fire’ for proposed tariffs on Mexico The Trump Administration’s proposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada have been delayed, but Texas will be “in the line of fire” if they are eventually put in place, a government economist warns. Pia Orrenius, vice president and senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, described the coming year as a “balancing act” between headwinds and tailwinds. She spoke on Friday at the institution’s economic outlook event. On one hand, Orrenius cited the palpable optimism within the business community for potential deregulation and lower taxes that would bolster growth. But on the other, tariffs, lower immigration and government spending cuts could hinder growth, she told reporters. The Trump Administration has already begun a crackdown on illegal immigration. And though its future is unclear, a federal spending freeze has thrown Biden-era grants into chaos. Tariffs, though, could hit Texas the hardest. “We’re really in the line of fire here on tariffs, if they come, to place those tariffs on Mexico,” Orrenius said. Long before Mexico usurped China as the No. 1 importer to the U.S., it was Texas’ biggest trading partner, and that relationship continues to this day. Orrenius said her team had done a “back of the envelope” calculation into what a 25% tariff on Mexico could do to the Texas economy, and found a 15-30% decrease in GDP growth. At a baseline, many economists view tariffs as inflationary, lowering consumer purchasing power, pushing up prices and potentially curbing consumption. That, in turn, becomes a drag on economic growth. However, Orrenius pointed out that because of production sharing between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, tariffs can also amount to a tax on domestically manufactured products, both nationally and statewide. For example, a General Motors plant in Mexico manufactures transmissions that can be used in the SUVs produced at GM’s assembly plant in Arlington. Mexican-built GM trucks, meanwhile, can use engines made in the U.S. An interconnected supply chain exists across companies and industries; if products are taxed each time they cross the border, that can have a ripple effect on manufacturing and costs. “We can do a base-case impact on growth of tariffs, but can we figure out what the impact is on inflation and growth when you have intra-industry trade? That’s like a whole [other] level, so that’s why we’re worried about tariffs,” Orrenius said. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 10, 2025
Ken Paxton's megadonors helped put a top Texas judge in office. Now he wants to reform the system. David Schenck, the new presiding judge on Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals, is on a mission to make sweeping changes to the rules governing judicial elections in the Lone Star State. Right now, Schenck points out, anyone can donate to a judge’s political campaign in Texas, even if they are in the middle of a case the same judge will decide. There are few restrictions on how much they can give. And nothing in the law or ethics rules stops judicial candidates, including sitting judges, from asking those people for contributions directly. “We need to do something about this,” Schenck, a Republican, said in an interview shortly before he took the bench in January. “The adults need to enter the room here.” Now that he has a leadership position on one of Texas’ two statewide courts, Schenck intends to make that happen — even though he and two of his newly elected colleagues just won their seats on the bench with unprecedented support from deep-pocketed special interests. Ultraconservative billionaires including West Texas oilman Dan Wilks, Dallas telecom company founder Kenny Troutt and Houston software magnate Mike Rydin were all top contributors to a political action committee (PAC) supporting Schenck and the two other successful CCA candidates. The PAC raised $350,000, far more than any CCA hopeful has collected in the last decade, campaign finance records show. The fundraising blitz was set up by allies of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who vowed revenge against the CCA’s incumbent judges after they ruled that he could not unilaterally prosecute election fraud cases. Schenck said he never asked for help from Paxton or the PAC that supported him, and that he did not coordinate with them during his campaign. He also did not run at Paxton’s behest, and said he has been careful not to comment on how he would have ruled in the election fraud case that galvanized Paxton and his allies. Still, Schenck said that if any of the reforms he’s calling for make it harder for himself or his fellow judges to raise campaign dollars in the future, it’s worth the risk. “It makes you feel better about the office when you’re in it,” Schenck said. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Wall Street Journal - February 10, 2025
For CEOs and bankers, the Trump euphoria is fading fast It took less than a month for the second Trump administration to cool the enthusiasm of chief executives and dealmakers. Consumer sentiment is down and inflation expectations are rising, driven in part by worries about the impact of a threatened trade war. The deals market just ended its quietest January in a decade. A Justice Department that was expected to wave through acquisitions instead sued to block a big technology merger. Corporate bigwigs are now using phrases like “fragility,” “volatility” and “wait and see” to describe their outlooks. “Nobody knows what’s up,” Nick Pinchuk, chief executive of toolmaker Snap-on, said on a conference call Thursday. “It’s like being on Space Mountain at Disney World. You get on Space Mountain, you get in a car, and you’re in the dark and the cars go left and right, left and right and abrupt turns, you don’t know where you’re going, but you know, you’re pretty confident that you’re going to get to the right place at the bottom.” The recent whipsaw on tariffs seemed to hit hardest on business leaders’ confidence. President Trump announced plans to stick 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, only to delay them for a month a few days later. A number of executives, as well as top investment bankers and other industry advisers, have said that priorities have shifted in recent days to navigating tariffs and other policy issues. They need to settle supply routes, discuss whether to raise their own prices and figure out what is even happening. That doesn’t leave much room for thinking about big bet-the-company deals. The reaction is evident in the deals market. Just under 900 deals were announced in the U.S. in January, according to data from LSEG. That compares with more than 1,200 transactions in the previous January and over 1,500 two years ago.Even the hope of a lighter regulatory touch has taken a knock. The Justice Department sued to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion deal to buy Juniper Networks. The companies, which make wireless networking products for large corporate customers, plan to defend the deal.> Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 10, 2025
How Dade Phelan assesses his two terms as Texas House speaker: No regrets on top issues If state Rep. Dade Phelan has any regrets about not being able to win a third term as speaker of the Texas House, he's keeping them to himself. In fact, the Beaumont legislator said he wouldn't have changed a single thing on the three highest-profile actions he took during the 2023 legislative session that alienated a wide swath of the GOP base and turned a majority of his fellow House Republicans against him. Phelan, who was reelected in his Southeast Texas district in November but a month later ended his bid to keep the speaker's gavel, said awarding some of the chamber's committee chairmanships to the minority party was a decadeslong tradition that was worth preserving. Also, impeaching three-term Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton on charges that he had committed fraud and obstructed justice was the right thing to do, Phelan added. Had he been serving in the Senate, where he would have been a juror in the impeachment trial, Phelan said he would have voted to convict Paxton. In May 2023, the House overwhelmingly voted to impeach Paxton on 20 impeachment articles. The state's top attorney was later acquitted of all charges by a mostly party-line vote in the Senate. And finally, though there were some elements in the 2023 school voucher package, sometimes called "school choice," that he personally supported, Phelan said it would have been improper of him as speaker to twist the arms of House Republicans who were against the proposal just to give into Gov. Greg Abbott's demand that a bill allowing public money to be used for private K-12 education be enacted into law. "The votes just were not there," Phelan said about the 2023 school voucher proposal. "It wasn't some secret agenda by (the speaker's office) to not have school choice. The votes just were not there." Phelan's comments came during a sit-down interview Thursday at UT's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs with Evan Smith, the co-founder and former CEO of The Texas Tribune. Phelan, who at 49 is a 10-year veteran of the House, said the question he asked himself as he was being assailed by some of the ultra-conservative elements of his party for being too cozy with Democratic House members was not whether he could have been elected speaker again, but whether he should be elected speaker.> Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page State Stories Dallas Morning News - February 10, 2025
The Dallas Mavericks are not moving to Las Vegas, governor Patrick Dumont says For 13 months, other than within high-level Mavericks meetings, few in Dallas have heard this side of Patrick Dumont. Dumont’s comments in an interview with The Dallas Morning News are his first since the Mavericks eight days ago shocked the basketball world by sending Luka Doncic, 25, to the Los Angeles Lakers as part of a blockbuster trade that brought 10-time All-Star forward Anthony Davis, 31, to Dallas. Dumont, who stands behind the trade, says the backlash was anticipated. His tone and messaging to The News — and by extension fans — showed a dimension of his persona that had not publicly surfaced since his family’s purchase of the franchise’s majority interest on Dec. 27, 2023. Though he never raised his voice, his words at times were fiery, passionate and blunt, including when asked about an unsubstantiated and implausible narrative that has gained legs in the trade’s aftermath. “The Dallas Mavericks are not moving to Las Vegas,” Dumont said. “There is no question in that. That is the answer, unequivocally. The Dallas Mavericks are the Dallas Mavericks and they will be in Dallas.” The Brooklyn-raised NBA fan, Johns Hopkins and Columbia graduate is the COO of Sands Corp., which is based in Las Vegas but operates properties in Macao and Singapore. When the Adelson and Dumont families purchased 67% of the Mavericks from Mark Cuban and several minority owners, the Adelson-Dumont Las Vegas roots were immediately noted, and some wondered whether the Dallas franchise could eventually move there. Aside from the absurdity of a franchise moving from the fourth-largest media market in the country to the 40th, there’s the reality that the NBA Board of Governors would never approve such a move. Yes, NBA franchises on occasion have moved, but none from a top-five media market that they weren’t sharing with another NBA team. Besides, when the NBA does grant a team for Las Vegas and perhaps Seattle, league owners will want the respective projected $6 billion expansion fees. The possibility of casino gambling being legalized in Texas is murky at best, but Dumont, again emphatically, says the Adelson-Dumont vision of Dallas with or without gaming is crystal clear. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Express-News - February 10, 2025
'A literacy crisis': San Antonio schools work to comply with new state law as dyslexia cases surge The second graders could barely contain their excitement when dyslexia therapy teacher Jasmin Dean pulled out a stack of colorful flashcards. The five students jumped from their seats and lined up, their eyes wide and glued to Dean’s hands as she counted down from three. “Show us the word!” a boy yelled out. One by one, Dean flipped over the cards and revealed the text written in bold black ink. The pupils sounded out the words and screamed their answers. Whoever deciphered the word first got a point — but most rounds ended in a five-way tie. Six months ago, the students couldn’t write their names or identify every letter in the alphabet. Now, they can read Dr. Seuss to one another. “Teachers have the key to give literacy to every student,” said Dean, the founder and superintendent of Celebrate Dyslexia Schools. students overcome dyslexia, a learning disability characterized by difficulty in reading, writing and spelling. The new campus comes as school districts across Texas cope with a spike in students being diagnosed with dyslexia due to increased screening efforts and heightened awareness. In the past five years, the number of dyslexic students in Texas has grown from about 195,000 to nearly 330,000, a 70% increase, according to Texas Education Agency data. And as they face this daunting increase, administrators must comply with House Bill 3928, a 2023 law that shakes up how school districts evaluate, identify and teach dyslexic students. It requires them to provide special education services to students with dyslexia. Districts have to develop and track specially designed instruction plans for all dyslexic students with specific academic goals by the start of the next school year. Before, students with dyslexia were granted accommodations in general classroom settings but often lacked access to individualized dyslexia instruction and comprehensive evaluations. The surge in evaluation requests and services has left school districts scrambling to hire dyslexia specialists from the same limited pool of applicants. Unable to offer competitive wages or benefits due to stagnant state funding and a reduction of federal special education dollars, many have leaned on already overburdened special education staff to take on the greater caseloads. > Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 10, 2025
What to know about ICE deportation raids in Texas and what's changing under Trump President Donald Trump has said his mass deportation effort will focus first on criminals. But in his first weeks in office, he has also unleashed Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents to go after virtually anyone in the country without authorization. Trump has done away with restrictions on arrests around churches, schools and other “sensitive zones,” and has given ICE agents arrest quotas. And White House officials say the administration is working to deputize state and local police to help make arrests. Gov. Greg Abbott already signed an agreement empowering Texas National Guard soldiers to make arrests on immigration violations. ICE agents so far in Trump’s second term have been logging roughly 1,000 arrests a day, mostly by working off lists of immigrants with criminal histories that they have obtained from jails and prisons, said John Sandweg, an attorney who served as acting ICE director during the Obama administration. But those lists will likely soon run out, and agents will begin to broaden their targets. Experts and attorneys say even as that happens, immigration officers and anyone helping them still have to follow certain rules and procedures, regardless of who they are targeting or where they are arresting them. “We can expect we’re going to see more immigration officers, and how they conduct their business will definitely vary location to location,” said David Donatti, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. “One thing we emphasize is that ICE cannot violate the Constitution.” “All of us have the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures,” Donatti said. “All of us have the right to remain silent. You have the ability to say, ‘I prefer not to answer that question.’” > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Express-News - February 10, 2025
Abbott's call to fire teachers 'on the spot' over trans views is the latest in a fraying relationship Dan Hochman has taught environmental science to a generation of Galveston ISD students and loves it. But if he’d known where things were headed in Texas he said he never would have become a teacher. “I love those kids to death, but man (the state has) made teaching really not a fun career to be in,” said Hochman, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the State Board of Education in 2022 as a Democrat. “And it’s getting worse, especially here.” Teachers like Hochman felt a sense of whiplash on Sunday listening to Gov. Greg Abbott’s State of the State address. The Republican governor called for public schools to be fully funded and made raising teacher pay an emergency item that he said lawmakers should fast-track. But he also named private school vouchers as a top legislative priority, accused public schools of “indoctrination” and declared that “any educator who tells students that boys can be girls should be fired on the spot.” Some teachers said they see the comments as an escalation of the rhetoric Republicans have used against them, and worry it could have a chilling effect in the classroom. It comes as the Trump administration is waging war on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the federal level, a campaign that Abbott has publicly supported and is now building on in Texas. Education is expected to be a major issue at the Legislature this session as public school districts around the state are struggling. Many are running budget deficits due to inflation, soaring special education costs and stagnant levels of state funding. State lawmakers have earmarked billions of dollars so far in the state budget for public school funding increases. But even as more money for schools and teacher raises are on the table, Abbott’s comments indicate more restrictions may be coming too on how teachers can speak or act in the classroom. Asked whether Abbott’s remarks indicate support for any new policy or change to state law, a spokesman for his office pointed to an executive order he issued last week that said: “All Texas agencies must ensure that agency rules, internal policies, employment practices, and other actions comply with the law and the biological reality that there are only two sexes—male and female.” > Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Express-News - February 10, 2025
Will the feds pick up the tab for Texas’ $11 billion border crackdown? Republicans are pushing it The push to reimburse Texas for $11 billion the state has spent on Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security crackdown is underway as the governor heads to D.C. this week to make his case while Texas Republicans in Congress are gearing up for a funding fight. Abbott, who has urged congressional leaders to pay the state and met with President Donald Trump in the White House last week, is set to visit Capitol Hill Wednesday. The visit comes as Congress is working on government spending bills ahead of a mid-March deadline. Multiple members from Texas have filed bills to reimburse the state, which has sent thousands of soldiers and state troopers to patrol the border and constructed new sections of border barriers. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has said Texas members of Congress should refuse to support other federal legislation until the payment is made. U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, a Weatherford Republican, is set to introduce a bill Monday that would allow Texas to submit border security expenses to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That agency would review the expenses and decide what is eligible for reimbursement, then submit that list to Congress for funding. “Texas was forced to take on the job of the federal government and step up to protect our homes and communities from invasion,” Williams said in a statement. “I want to thank Governor Abbott for defending our nation in a time of crisis and agree that it is time Texans are repaid for footing the bill for Biden’s failures at the border.” U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Houston Republican, has also been pushing a separate reimbursement bill he filed last month with U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin. That bill would make states that have spent more than $2.5 billion on border security in the past 10 years eligible for reimbursement by the federal government. The threshold at would appear to only make Texas eligible. > Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Express-News - February 10, 2025
Floresville ISD considers four-day school weeks to recruit and retain staff Three-day weekends could be on the horizon for thousands of Floresville Independent School District students and staff. The school board voted unanimously this week to OK parameters for the development of a hybrid calendar — with both four- and five-day school weeks — for the 2025-2026 academic year. Trustees will vote on a final calendar in March, determining whether Floresville ISD will join dozens of Texas school districts that have made the drastic switch to four-day weeks in recent years. “One of the questions that has been raised quite frequently is, ‘Why are we looking at doing this?’’ Rhonda Wade, the district’s assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, said at a previous board meeting. "The main reason is we are trying to provide the best teachers for our students." The state modified the way classroom instruction was timed in 2015, changing from a required 180 days of classes to 75,600 minutes per academic school year. Since then, scores of districts across the state have opted to shorten their school weeks, most of them in rural areas that have struggled to fill teacher vacancies. Floresville ISD serves 4,073 students with 536 staff members in Wilson County, according to Texas Education Agency data. Neighboring La Vernia ISD shifted to a four-day school week last school year, joining Bandera, D’Hanis, Utopia, Charlotte and Natalia ISDs among nearby rural districts that have adopted it. Proponents say a four-day school week improves teacher morale, offers increased family time for students and provides cost savings for schools. Others, including Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, have criticized the move for harming student performance and say boosting educators' job satisfaction shouldn’t come at the expense of academic outcomes. Floresville ISD spokesperson Blanca Martinez said the district is considering a shorter work week “to retain and attract quality teachers and staff and provide quality instruction for students boost student and staff well-being, and maintain strong student and staff attendance.” District officials estimated the cost savings to be around 1% of its annual budget, or $380,000. > Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 10, 2025
South Asian North Texans wrestle with Trump’s push to limit birthright citizenship Dinesh Hooda’s 10-year-old daughter was born in the U.S., has lived in Frisco all her life and pledges allegiance to the flag with her hand over her heart each morning at school. Still, he worries — more than he did 10 years ago — about whether or not she’ll be considered American. “You never know right? It shakes you up as an immigrant. You never know what future protocols are coming, because I came from this path, my daughter became a citizen through this path,” he said. After President Donald Trump issued an executive order to change the requirements of birthright citizenship, even people who live in North Texas legally like Hooda say they are worried about future actions the Trump administration might take. The order has been a shock to many in the South Asian community in North Texas, which accounts for a significant portion of the region’s Asian American population. Under the order, announced Jan. 20, a child born to a mother who is unlawfully in the country or in the country temporarily and whose father is not a citizen or “lawful” permanent resident would not be granted citizenship. A day after Trump announced the order, U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Woodville, introduced a bill that would restrict automatic birthright citizenship. A federal judge in Seattle has temporarily blocked the order, setting it up for a court challenge. Last week, Trump told a group of reporters he thinks the Supreme Court will side with him on the case, according to a USA Today report. In August, Pew Research reported about two-thirds of the estimated 4.8 million people of Indian descent in the United States were immigrants. Many people in the Indian community are in the U.S. under student and work visas, said Chintan Patel, president of Indian American Impact, a national advocacy organization. India accounted for 279,386 — more than 72% — of the 386,318 H-1B petitions approved between October 2022 to September 2023, according to a Department of Homeland Security report to Congress last year. As of the 2022-2023 academic year, people from India accounted for more than 29% of the 1,126,690 international students in the U.S., according to the Open Doors report. The report is funded by the U.S. Department of State. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page KUT - February 10, 2025
Austin to overhaul how it regulates Airbnbs and other short-term rentals Austin is set to change how it regulates short-term rentals, with the intent of making it nearly impossible for people to rent their homes without a city-issued license. “We [currently] have no real leverage over an unlicensed operator of an STR,” Council Member Chito Vela, who represents parts of Northeast Austin, said. “The changes will bring everybody under the city’s licensing scheme.” A new city license costs roughly $800. If the ordinance passes, the city would require short-term rental websites to mandate owners provide a license number before advertising their homes for rent. A company like Airbnb wouldn’t be required to check that license numbers are active, or even real, city staff said. KUT asked Airbnb and Vrbo if they plan to comply with the city’s requirements if passed. Company spokespeople did not answer the question, but each sent a general statement saying they “welcome” and “appreciate” Austin’s work. Airbnb’s website suggests it does this in other cities. The new rules, city staff say, would allow them to focus on responding to noise or trash complaints at so-called “party homes” instead of spending time tracking down owners of unlicensed properties. “[We are] effectively playing whack-a-mole,” Daniel Word, assistant director with Austin’s Development Services Department, told council members last week. “Trying to locate the properties that are operating, that put up an advertisement, then take it down and then put it right back up.” With more owners licensed, Word said, the city could have more power to enforce “nuisance” violations. If a property is cited for noise disturbances or other behaviors that prompt neighbors to call police, the city would have the right to revoke an owner’s license. Austin defines a short-term rental as a home that is rented out in whole or in part for fewer than 30 consecutive days. The city has required owners of short-term rentals to have licenses since it began regulating these homes in 2012, but data suggest the vast majority of owners don’t have one. > Read this article at KUT - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 10, 2025
AG Ken Paxton appeals federal judge's decision that parts of SCOPE Act are likely unconstitutional An Austin-based federal judge ruled Friday that some aspects of a Texas law limiting minors' access to digital platforms likely violate the First Amendment, a decision Attorney General Ken Paxton immediately appealed. Northern District of Texas Judge Robert Pitman in part granted a preliminary injunction against aspects of House Bill 18, or the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (SCOPE Act), that would have unconstitutionally restricted protected speech. The law requires social media platforms and other websites to protect minors from "physical, emotional, and developmental harm," but Pitman ruled the law is not specific enough about what could be considered harmful. "The final issue for HB 18 is that the law fails to define key categories of prohibited topics, including 'grooming,' 'harassment,' and 'substance abuse,'" Pitman wrote in his ruling. "At what point, for example, does alcohol use become 'substance abuse?' When does an extreme diet cross the line into an 'eating disorder?' What defines 'grooming' and 'harassment?' Under these indefinite meanings, it is easy to see how an attorney general could arbitrarily discriminate in his enforcement of the law." The law went into effect in September 2024 after successfully passing during the 88th Texas Legislative Session. SCOPE Act author State Rep. Shelby Slawson from Stephenville said it’s intended “to keep kids safe online by empowering parental involvement.” “Many young Texans are undeniably suffering from the harmful effects of overexposure to digital platforms, manifesting in increased rates of self-harm, suicide, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, human trafficking and other mental health issues,” Slawson previously told the Chronicle. However, critics of the SCOPE Act have argued it unlawfully restricts children's and teen's access to necessary information. In August, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued Paxton on behalf of multiple plaintiffs, including a 16-year-old high school student who said the law unfairly blocks important content, like research on marijuana legalization for a school project. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 10, 2025
Arlington pastor stays silent on death penalty after Steven Nelson’s execution Returning to the pulpit after two weeks abroad, First Baptist Arlington Senior Pastor Dennis Wiles spoke publicly Sunday for the first time since the execution of a man convicted of killing one of the church’s pastors more than a decade ago. Steven Nelson, 37, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville for killing Clint Dobson, a 28-year-old NorthPointe Baptist Church pastor, during a robbery in 2011. The church’s elderly secretary, Judy Elliott, was severely beaten and left for dead but survived. NorthPointe had been associated with First Baptist Arlington but has since closed. “I think many of you know, obviously, Clint Dobson’s story has been in the news once again,” Wiles said, measuring his words in the introductory remarks before his first Sunday sermon since returning from Rome. “And I just want you all to know as a church,” he continued," that what we have been doing for the last 14 years is fulfilling our pastoral responsibility, and we have been pastoring Clint’s family and Judy’s family and even this past week, that’s what we were doing.” Wiles stopped short of commenting on Nelson’s execution. During a second livestreamed service in the morning, he said he had been invited to participate in a “conversation that became a referendum on the death penalty.” “I refused to be a part of that conversation because my responsibility, in my opinion, was to continue to lead this church [and] shepherd those two families,” he said. “And that’s what I intend to continue to do, and I refuse to be drawn into a conversation that I don’t believe is mine to be a part of publicly.” The brief remarks hint at the varied religious views on the death penalty in the U.S. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found the majority of evangelicals and mainline Protestants were in favor of capital punishment. Though the survey found the majority of Catholics were in favor, the Catholic Church itself has condemned the death penalty as violating the sanctity of life. Pope Francis condemned executions as fueling revenge rather than justice, calling them “a dangerous poison for the body of our civil societies.”> Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Express-News - February 10, 2025
CPS Energy: No personal customer data leaked in recirculating 2023 cyberattack CPS Energy customers with identity theft or cybersecurity software are receiving notifications that their private information could have been exposed through a data breach, but the city-owned utility says it happened two years ago and didn’t include Social Security numbers or financial information. The situation stems from a 2023 incident in which a CPS third-party vendor, CLEAResult, was part of a “vulnerability exploit.” The utility said its own systems were not impacted and that the vendor had “taken steps to prevent future issues.” However, a hacker alleging to have information from the 2023 breach has been posting to a cybercriminal forum, prompting renewed concerns. It’s also a reminder of the escalating threat to critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. CLEAResult, an energy efficiency consulting firm, used a file sharing program called MOVEit that was compromised in May 2023. A report from Emisoft, a cybersecurity firm, estimated that more than 2,700 organizations were affected by the attack and that the records of nearly 96 million people were exposed. Houston-based CenterPoint was also a victim. It told cybersecurity news site the Record it had no reason to believe its own network was compromised. CenterPoint told the Record it was still assessing the data that may have been exposed by the hacker making the recent forum posts. CPS said the compromised data did not include any identifying information of its customers. Utilities and health care providers are often targets of ransomware attacks, where hackers steal data to either sell on the dark web or extort money from institutions or businesses. > Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only Top of Page City Stories Dallas Morning News - February 10, 2025
Dallas council members recommend increased hiring goals for new police officers A Dallas City Council committee is recommending the city boost its hiring goals for cops this year despite warnings from the interim police chief the new benchmark could impact other areas of the department. The council’s public safety committee voted 3-2 on Monday to propose hiring 325 new officers by the end of September instead of 250 as planned. The proposal also calls for another 350 new cops by the end of September 2026 and 400 more officers by September 2027. The recommendation now goes to the City Council for a decision. Council members Cara Mendelsohn and Jesse Moreno voted against the recommendation, believing 400 new officers this year was a more appropriate bar to meet public safety needs. But interim Police Chief Michael Igo told committee members the department believes 300 is a more attainable goal and a higher tally would likely mean pulling officers off patrol and other areas to ensure the proper training of the recruits. Later, when council member Gay Donnell Willis asked if hiring more than 300 officers this year meant Dallas would “temporarily go through a period of less safety by putting members out that we don’t have the capability to train right now,” Igo replied, “That’s correct.” Willis and council members Tennell Atkins and Kathy Stewart voted for the 325 tally. The recommendation was initially proposed by Mendelsohn, the committee’s chair, at 400, then revised by Atkins to 300. Stewart suggested 325 as a compromise, admitting it would be “a stretch” goal. “My concern is what sacrifices we will have to make in order to get to these numbers,” Stewart said. “But I know these numbers would make a huge difference in the long run.” Police officials on Monday said the department has hired 94 new officers since October while losing 48 of them over the same period. Igo said the department is on pace to hire 280 to 300 new officers this fiscal year, from October through September 2025. The department had 3,168 officers as of Friday, short of a new voter-approved charter mandate requiring the city to have a minimum of 4,000 officers. Another new charter change allows residents and businesses to sue the city if officials violate local and state laws. Dallas, Texas’ third-largest city, has the second-largest number of cops in any Texas municipality, trailing only behind around 5,300 officers in Houston’s department. San Antonio has 2,775 sworn police officers. Austin and Fort Worth both have around 1,800 cops. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page National Stories Politico - February 10, 2025
The Senate gives Trump his Cabinet — and their compliance Donald Trump is back, and it sure isn’t 2017 anymore in the Senate. Two of the president’s most controversial nominees are on a glide path to confirmation later this week. That caps off a notable three-week stretch that has seen more than a dozen Trump Cabinet nominees confirmed with near-unanimous Republican support. The sweep of successful confirmations is the latest sign from the Senate GOP that it wants to be viewed as a partner, not a problem, for Trump at the start of his second term. It’s a distinct shift from his first administration, when Trump had to withdraw one Cabinet pick weeks into his first term then later saw a small band of Senate Republicans scuttle the party’s marquee effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. “My goal was to make sure every one of President Trump’s nominees got confirmed,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said in a brief interview, adding that Senate Republicans vowed “to move ahead with speed, with urgency, and we’ve done just that.” Tulsi Gabbard is set to be confirmed as director of national intelligence later this week, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as HHS secretary likely to soon follow. That follows a high-drama vote late last month to confirm Pete Hegseth to be Defense secretary. A fourth controversial nomination, FBI director pick Kash Patel, also appears to be on track with Republicans, who can confirm Trump’s picks so long as they stay united. Senators quickly signaled after Trump’s November win that he would find a more pliant Republican conference — reflecting both the breathing room of a 53-seat majority and the conference’s MAGA shift since 2017. So far, they are outpacing their 2017 tempo of confirmations, clearing 13 nominees in the same amount of time it took Republicans to confirm six of Trump’s picks eight years ago. > Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only Top of Page Washington Post - February 10, 2025
Eagles overwhelm Chiefs to win the Super Bowl, shut down a three-peat The Philadelphia Eagles perhaps did not vanquish the Kansas City Chiefs’ NFL dynasty for good. But they emphatically placed it on pause and left absolutely no doubt that they, not the Chiefs, were football’s best and most complete team this season. The Eagles dominated from the start, scoring the first 34 points on their way to beating the Chiefs, 40-22, on Sunday night in Super Bowl LIX before a Superdome crowd that included President Donald Trump. The Chiefs failed in their attempt to become the first NFL team to win three straight Super Bowl titles. They were denied what would have been a fourth Super Bowl triumph in six seasons with Coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce in collaboration. And it wasn’t competitive. The Eagles raced to a 24-0 lead during a first half in which Mahomes threw two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown by rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean. The Eagles’ Jalen Hurts scored on a push-play quarterback sneak and, following an interception by linebacker Zack Baun, threw a touchdown pass to wide receiver A.J. Brown. Hurts added a second-half touchdown throw to wideout DeVonta Smith in a 17-for-22, 221-yard passing performance. He also ran for 72 yards and was named the game’s MVP. “I do it to win,” Hurts said. “This team approaches it just to do the same thing. That’s what it’s about.” Jake Elliott provided four field goals. Philadelphia sacked Mahomes six times and forced him into a fourth-quarter fumble. Mahomes connected on 21 for 32 passes for 257 yards. He threw three touchdown passes, two of them to rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy. But those were cosmetic — the Chiefs were shut out until the final minute of the third quarter. Kelce was limited to a quiet four catches for 39 yards.> Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page The Hill - February 10, 2025
Trump says 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum coming Monday President Trump said he will announce 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum on Monday, adding that he would also kick off reciprocal tariffs in the days after. Trump said that the steel and aluminum tariffs would impact “everybody” when asked what countries would be effected. “Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff — aluminum too,” Trump told reporters. “Twenty-five percent … for both.” He added that details of the reciprocal tariffs will be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday in a news conference. “Very simply, if they charge us, we charge them,” he said, adding that the tariffs would go into effect “almost immediately” and impact “every country.” Trump has signaled that he would impose sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as tariffs on semiconductor chips, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas. On Friday, he warned that reciprocal tariffs would also be announced early next week, adding that he thinks reciprocal as opposed to a flat-fee tariff is the fair approach. “In terms of tariffs, I mean we’re going to have tariffs, mostly reciprocal tariffs,” he said. “But probably a reciprocal tariff where a country pays so much or charges us so much and we do the same, so very reciprocal. Because I think that’s the only fair way to do it, that way nobody’s hurt — they charge us we charge them … as opposed to a flat-fee tariff,” he added. Trump imposed 10 percent tariffs on China on Feb. 1, following through on a long-standing pledge to target Chinese goods. He delayed the 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a month after speaking with both nations’ leaders last week.> Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only Top of Page Washington Post - February 10, 2025
Attacks on Catholics, Lutherans suggest new Trump approach on religion In 1999, then-presidential candidate George W. Bush called for the funding of religious groups that fed the hungry and housed the homeless, part of what he called the “armies of compassion.” During his first month in office, in 2001, the Republican unveiled an office to help faith-based groups partner with government, calling them “some of the finest America has got to offer.” One Republican president later, high-level members of the Trump administration and allies of the president are leveling attacks on religious groups, including Catholics and Lutherans, who do the same work Bush praised, questioning their efforts to help migrants. These attacks may signal a new political approach toward religion, some experts say, one comfortable belittling faith groups — despite President Donald Trump’s self-described brand as a champion of Christians. More broadly, it has aligned some Republicans against religious groups that in some cases propelled their rise to power, Trump’s included. Several religious groups working overseas say they are facing a cash crisis after the Trump administration ended funding for programs to resettle refugees from around the world in the United States. World Relief, the country’s largest evangelical refugee resettlement program, told its members in an email Wednesday that it is facing “an urgent $8 million funding gap.” The group said the funding lapse would immediately impact 4,000 refugees it works with. “This is just a complete reversal” of the Bush-era goal of bringing faith groups into public works and elevating their role in American life, said Melissa Deckman, a political scientist focused on religion and politics in America and chief executive of the polling firm PRRI. These actions are “a total abandonment of faith-based groups,” Deckman said. Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, signs have emerged that the administration’s relationship with some religious groups would be tested in new ways. Last month, Vice President JD Vance criticized the U.S. Catholic Church’s efforts to help immigrants and refugees, suggesting the Church is motivated by money, and alleged without evidence that it works with millions of “illegal immigrants.” (Catholic groups spend more money on immigrant services than they receive from the federal government, according to an annual financial audit.) On Sunday, on the social media site X, right-wing Trump ally Mike Flynn accused Lutheran organizations that receive federal grants to help the needy of committing “money laundering.” Flynn put quote marks around the word “Lutheran” — one of America’s largest Protestant groups — in the post. Billionaire Elon Musk’s then shared Flynn’s post, calling “illegal” multiple Lutheran organizations that work in the United States to provide health care to homeless people, run food pantries, and help migrants and refugees. “The @DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments,” Musk said, referring to his U.S. DOGE Service, also known as the Department of Government Efficiency. > Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page CBS News - February 10, 2025
Trump directs Treasury to stop minting new pennies, citing cost President Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing the rising cost of producing the one-cent coin. "For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!" Mr. Trump wrote in a post Sunday night on his Truth Social site. "I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies." The move by Mr. Trump is the latest in what has been a rapid-fire effort by his new administration to enact sweeping change through executive orders and proclamations on issues ranging from immigration, to gender and diversity, to the name of the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Trump had not discussed his desire to eliminate the penny during his campaign. But Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency raised the prospect in a post on X last month highlighting the penny's cost. The U.S. Mint reported losing $85.3 million in the 2024 fiscal year that ended in September on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced. Every penny cost nearly $0.037 — up from $0.031 the year before. The mint also loses money on the nickel, with each of the $0.05 coins costing nearly $0.14 to make. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump has the power to unilaterally eliminate the lowly one-cent coin. Currency specifications — including the size and metal content of coins — are dictated by Congress. But Robert K. Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, has argued that there might be wiggle room. "The process of discontinuing the penny in the U.S. is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies," he said last month. Members of Congress have repeatedly introduced legislation taking aim at the zinc coin with copper plating. Proposals over the years have attempted to temporarily suspend the penny's production, eliminate it from circulation, or require that prices be rounded to the nearest five cents, according to the Congressional Research Service. > Read this article at CBS News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Associated Press - February 10, 2025
Court grants request to block detained Venezuelan immigrants from being sent to Guantanamo A federal court on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba as part of the president’s immigration crackdown. In a legal filing earlier in the day, lawyers for the men said the detainees “fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantanamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang.” It asked a US District Court in New Mexico for a temporary restraining order blocking their transfer, adding that “the mere uncertainty the government has created surrounding the availability of legal process and counsel access is sufficient to authorize the modest injunction.” During a brief hearing, Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales granted the temporary order, which was opposed by the government, said Jessica Vosburgh, an attorney for the three men. “It’s short term. This will get revisited and further fleshed out in the weeks to come,” Vosburgh told The Associated Press. A message seeking comment was left for US Customs and Immigration Enforcement. The filing came as part of a lawsuit on behalf of the three men filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, and Las Americas Immigrant Advisory Center. The Tren de Aragua gang originated in a lawless prison in the central Venezuelan state of Aragua more than a decade ago and has expanded in recent years as millions of desperate Venezuelans fled President Nicolás Maduro’s rule and migrated to other parts of Latin America or the US. > Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only Top of Page
Lead Stories Wall Street Journal - February 9, 2025
The mood of the American consumer is souring The Trump bump in consumer confidence is already over. Tariff threats, stock market swings and rapidly reversing executive orders are causing Americans across the political spectrum to feel considerably more pessimistic about the economy than they did before President Trump took office. Consumer sentiment fell about 5% in the University of Michigan’s preliminary February survey of consumers to its lowest reading since July 2024. Expectations of inflation in the year ahead jumped from 3.3% in January to 4.3%, the second month in a row of large increases and highest reading since November 2023. “It’s very rare to see a full percentage point jump in inflation expectations,” said Joanne Hsu, who oversees the survey. Republicans have come off a postelection surge in confidence, she said, and Democrats and Independents also seem to believe that economic conditions have deteriorated since last month. Morning Consult’s recent index of consumer confidence, too, fell between Jan. 25 and Feb. 3, driven primarily by concern over the country’s economic future. “I don’t like the turbulence. I don’t like the chaos in the market,” said Paul Bisson, a 58-year-old, who writes proposals for a flight safety company and co-owns a dog daycare in San Antonio. Bisson voted for Trump, but feels “his policies have led to that chaos.” Bisson is hoping to retire in the not-too-distant future, and is worried that won’t be possible if Trump follows through with his tariff threats rather than just using them as a negotiating tactic. “That will make the economy worse, and that’s not what we signed up for,” Bisson said. “We’ve already cut back. There’s no more cutting back to do.” Immediately after Trump’s November victory, consumer confidence surged, a move largely driven by new optimism among Republicans. The sentiment stayed elevated throughout the run-up to the inauguration. Trump won the election largely by campaigning on a pledge to improve the economy and bring down inflation. Economists warned that his tariff plans could have the opposite effect. The president himself has cautioned that tariffs could cause some pain but would ultimately lead to more jobs and a stronger economy. Trump has paused his plans to impose tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. But consumers are clearly worried about their potential effects. > Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 9, 2025
Texas senator proposes cutting property taxes by raising homestead exemption Legislation raising Texas’ property tax homestead exemption to $140,000 was filed in the Texas Senate on Friday, offering the first look at how the Legislature may handle one of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency agenda items. Senate Bill 4, filed by Senate Ways and Means Chairman Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, included all but one of the senators signing on as a joint author. The bill is also a priority of Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate. Because it proposes an amendment to the Texas Constitution, the legislation must receive approval from two-thirds of the Senate and House before it could go before voters in a November constitutional election, where it would require a simple majority to be enacted. The House has not yet filed a property tax bill, although it is expected to put forth its own plan in the coming weeks. Abbott called for $10 billion in property tax relief Sunday but declined to specify how he wanted lawmakers to get there. Budget bills filed by both chambers earmarked $3.5 billion for new property tax relief by reducing school district tax rates statewide. SB 4 would raise the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000. In 2023, voters approved an increase from $40,000 to $100,000 after a hard-fought battle by lawmakers to enact an $18 billion property tax package that included some $12.7 billion in new cuts. Combined with $3.5 billion in cuts included in Senate Bill 1, that chamber’s budget proposal, SB 4 would save homeowners an average of $133.13 on their tax bill, Bettencourt said. The bill includes a provision guaranteeing that if a school district loses funding because of the exemption, the state would make up the difference. “SB 4 will not only cut ISD property taxes, but the state pays the bill, guaranteeing that no school district loses out on critical funding,” Bettencourt said. “This measure is a win-win for taxpayers and everyone alike.” The only senator not to join SB 4 as a co-author was Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas. He could not be reached late Friday to comment. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Washington Post - February 9, 2025
NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately The Trump administration is cutting billions of dollars in biomedical research funding, alarming academic leaders who said it would imperil their universities and medical centers and drawing swift rebukes from Democrats who predicted dire consequences for scientific research. The move, announced Friday night by the National Institutes of Health, drastically cuts its funding for “indirect” costs related to research. These are the administrative requirements, facilities and other operations that many scientists say are essential but that some Republicans have claimed are superfluous. “The United States should have the best medical research in the world,” NIH said in its announcement. “It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead.” In a social media post, NIH said the change would save more than $4 billion a year, effective immediately. The note highlighted the multibillion-dollar endowments of Harvard University, Yale University and Johns Hopkins University, implying that many universities do not need the added federal funding. The NIH policy, essentially a massive budget cut to science and medical centers across the country, was quickly denounced as devastating by universities and research organizations. Some scientists said the move could threaten research already underway and noted that their universities have a fraction of the endowments of schools such as Harvard and Yale. Industry leaders also questioned whether the move was legal, pointing to existing law governing NIH funding. “This is a surefire way to cripple lifesaving research and innovation,” Matt Owens, president of COGR — the Council on Government Relations, an association of academic medical centers and research institutes — wrote in an email. The funding is “part and parcel of the total costs of conducting world class research,” Owens added. “We are carefully reviewing this policy change as it contradicts current law and policy. America’s competitors will relish this self-inflicted wound.” Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, a nonprofit that works with university leaders, said some labs were in the process of shutting down over the weekend. > Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNN - February 9, 2025
Democrats plot strategy in shutdown fight against Trump: ‘Not a lot of good options’ Democrats have been powerless as they’ve watched President Donald Trump systematically move to dismantle federal agencies and push the bounds of his office with little concern about the fallout. But they do have one looming piece of leverage: the March 14 deadline to avert a government shutdown. House and Senate Democrats at the highest levels are now engaged in a fierce debate about what exactly to demand in their first big negotiation with Trump and how forcefully to push, according to conversations with more than two dozen members and senior aides. Trump and GOP leaders will need Democratic support in the Senate, where 60 votes would be required to advance the bill. In the House, they have to contend with a contingent of conservatives unlikely to vote for any spending bill. While rank-and-file Democrats are eager to play hardball with Trump, other senior Democrats are uncertain how firm of a line to draw, fearing they may be forced to capitulate in a funding feud and ultimately appear even weaker. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, have been in talks about how best to use the funding deadline to counter Trump. But some top Democrats worry that even if they won policy concessions, Trump would only ignore the law — as they believe he has in some of his initial assaults on federal agencies — so a knockdown, drag-out battle and potential shutdown could be all for naught. “If the foundational role of Congress is the power of the purse, why would we ever believe them again on an appropriations deal?” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware. “It’s going to be harder for us to work together because it’s harder for us to trust each other.” And as one senior aide described the situation: “There’s just not a lot of good options for Democrats.” Many exasperated Democrats, even some from battleground House districts, insist a shutdown shouldn’t be off the table if Republicans can’t put up the votes themselves. But Schumer and other governing-minded senators are proceeding more cautiously, wary of provoking a damaging shutdown and getting a share of the blame. > Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only Top of Page State Stories Fox 7 - February 9, 2025
Concern grows after Leander ISD announces job cuts and school vouchers move past Senate Leander ISD plans to cut more than 200 jobs because of a lack of state funding. That has parents and educators worried. What they're saying: Parents, both off-camera and on-camera, described Leander ISD’s decision on Wednesday to cut 215 positions in the next school year as "disappointing." "All the teachers and people who have to lose their jobs, it’s really unfortunate because they are here for the kids," said Saba Hernandez, a Leander ISD parent. Most of the frustrations heard from families were directed at lawmakers, especially after the state left $4.5 billion in its budget surplus last legislative session. "I just think it’s wrong that they are withholding the money from the public schools, and I believe that they should give the money that is owed to the public schools from the governor," said Hernandez. Leander ISD’s decision to cut positions, including more than 150 teachers, counselors, and administrative roles, comes as it tries to overcome a $34 million budget deficit. "Leander is not alone," said Clay Robison, a spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association. "Many districts around the state are dealing with budget shortfalls, they’re cutting staff, they’re cutting programs, they are increasing class sizes because the governor and tax legislature did not adequately fund public education." Robison worries the senate's decision to pass school vouchers on Wednesday could lead to more schools cutting jobs. "If this voucher bill passes, it will make their finances worse," said Robison. The law would allocate at least $10,000 a year in public tax money to families who want to send their children to private schools. By 2030, it could cost the state $4.5 billion, but proponents argue it is worth every penny. "Government-mandated schools cannot meet the unique needs of every student," said Governor Greg Abbott in his State of the State address. "But Texas can provide families with choices to meet those needs." > Read this article at Fox 7 - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 9, 2025
Suspicions about student athlete’s gender care must be investigated, AG Ken Paxton says Suspicions that a minor may be using testosterone as part of gender-affirming care requires state sports officials to investigate the student athlete’s eligibility to compete, Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in an opinion released Friday. Questions about testosterone use also require a student athlete to prove eligibility, Paxton wrote. Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath requested an expedited opinion from Paxton’s office Tuesday, saying questions about the student athlete — who was not identified — arose during a University Interscholastic League competition that was underway. A UIL letter accompanying Morath’s request said coaches and parents had raised ”concerns about a female student athlete who may be taking testosterone … for gender-transitioning purposes.” UIL’s rules bar students from participating in athletic competition sponsored or sanctioned by the league unless conditions are met: They won’t use steroids, they submit to random testing for steroids if they’re in high school, and a parent signs a statement acknowledging steroids are illegal and may be prescribed only by a licensed practitioner. The Education Code uses the Texas Controlled Substances Act’s definition of a steroid, which includes testosterone and “any substance that is chemically or pharmacologically related to testosterone.” Paxton affirmed in his nonbinding opinion that UIL should question the student athlete or their parents about steroid use. “The student-athlete’s eligibility has already been questioned by multiple sources,” he wrote. “UIL therefore has the obligation to investigate and the coordinate authority to remove the student-athlete from covered activities until they can prove eligibility by a preponderance of the evidence.” When student athletes’ eligibility is questioned, the burden of proof falls on them, according to UIL rules. “Whether the student-athlete fails or simply refuses that obligation does not change that UIL should, in either circumstance, conclude the student-athlete remains ineligible for participation,” Paxton wrote. “A refusal to cooperate with the valid, investigatory prerogative of UIL amounts to little more than a conscious choice to decline the burden that rests squarely with the student-athlete.” > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 9, 2025
Dallas could increase police recruitment goals in wake of voter mandate. Here’s how high Dallas may ramp up hiring goals for new police officers this year. The City Council’s public safety committee on Monday is scheduled to discuss whether to recommend Dallas revise its plans to hire 250 new officers and set the target at 400. If approved, the recommendation would go to the full City Council for a decision, and a green light would affect the current budget. The proposal comes four months into the fiscal year, which runs from October through September, and after voters this fall approved Proposition U, a charter change mandating Dallas have a minimum of 4,000 officers. Another charter change allows residents and businesses to sue the city if officials don’t follow local and state laws. The department has 3,168 officers as of Friday, police spokesman Corbin Rubinson said. Council member Cara Mendelsohn, who chairs the public safety committee, recommended the proposal. During the group’s Jan. 14 meeting, she announced she wanted the committee to consider a resolution to increase the police hiring goal to 400 officers. “Prop U made it clear the voters want more police, and the outcry from people all over the city is for more police officers,” Mendelsohn told The Dallas Morning News. “I think the department is working hard to recruit cadets. I would like to see a stronger focus on recruiting from Texas community colleges (and) from cities all over the state.” Council members Tennell Atkins and Kathy Stewart, two other members of the five-person committee, declined to say whether they supported or opposed the proposal. “I am aware of the agenda item,” said Stewart, the public safety committee’s vice chair. “We will work on this item as a committee on Monday.” Atkins, the council’s mayor pro tem, said he was waiting for more data on logistics before weighing in. “I need to know more about what the plan is to get there and if what we say is what we can do,” Atkins said. “Public safety is number one, but I need to know more about if it’s realistic or if we’re putting pie-in-the-sky numbers out there.” > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 9, 2025
Federal judge blocks parts of Texas law aimed at protecting minors from online content A federal judge Friday partially blocked a 2023 Texas law that required digital service providers to protect minors from accessing harmful content online. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman of Austin found provisions of House Bill 18 — also known as the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act, or SCOPE Act — were unconstitutionally vague or violated free speech rights. Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, an organization that seeks to increase youth participation in policymaking, sued the state in August, alleging the SCOPE Act restricted a constitutional right to share and access information. The law, partially blocked before it took effect last September, required providers to protect minors by curbing exposure to violence, bullying, harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse on their platforms, including through age verification and algorithms. The law also prohibited platforms from displaying ads targeted to minors without a verified parent’s approval and required providers to make a reasonable effort to prevent advertisers from using their platforms to target minors with content unlawful for Texas children to use or engage in. Citing the law’s requirements on monitoring and filtering, targeted advertising, content monitoring and age verification, Pitman said the plaintiffs had shown its restrictions on speech violated constitutional protections and should be invalidated. In addition, sections regarding a duty to prevent harm and additional duties on marketing and advertising were “unconstitutionally vague,” the judge wrote. Pitman’s preliminary injunction left other provisions of the law intact, including a requirement that digital service providers limit their use and collection of minors’ personal information and data, and another restriction on allowing minors to make financial transactions on their platforms. The ruling also did not affect a provision requiring tools for parents or guardians to control minors’ privacy and account settings. Attorney General Ken Paxton used the SCOPE Act as grounds to sue TikTok last year, saying the social media app illegally collects, stores and processes minors’ personal identifying information when they interact with the platform. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 9, 2025
Suburban development expands to Denton County along I-35 Johnnie Holcomb stood in the backside of his 5-acre lot just outside Justin city limits. The soil was mottled with sheep droppings and uneven patches of grass. A flock of roughly two dozen brown lambs, ewes and rams approached within a few yards and milled about before retreating to their pen as subtly as they’d come. The wind gusted and birds chattered and the occasional car buzzed past on the street beyond his southern fenceline, but the rest was silent. “I told my son, there are only two people who are going to move me, and that’s either the coroner or him,” Holcomb said. “My goal is to be walking across that pasture, one of these pastures, and fall over dead.” Holcomb, 78, and his wife moved to rural Denton County in 2005, having grown dissatisfied with the cramped surroundings and nosy neighbors of their suburban life in Haltom City. The world around his property today bears little resemblance to the country he’d escaped to two decades ago. An RV storage lot and a warehouse-shaped church now blot out the horizon facing east. To the south, construction crews are piecing together houses and streets for Treeline, a Hillwood master-planned community promising 2,700 homes “amidst the serene allure” of the North Texas countryside. “It’s going to be a nice development. I’ve driven through it,” Holcomb said. “What aggravates me is, when I moved out here, I could sit outside and see the stars at night.” The change visible from Holcomb’s backyard is transforming the rest of southwest Denton County at feverish pace. Families and businesses are surging northward, where land is plentiful, scenic and well-situated. The flood is forcing generationally rural communities to undergo sudden and severe growth spurts. Farm roads have become makeshift freeways. Towns with a few hundred residents in the early 2000s are now churning out thousands of homes. The ranches and pastures that once offered respite to suburban sprawl are now succumbing to it.> Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 9, 2025
Man dies after in-custody suicide attempt: Tarrant sheriff An inmate at the Tarrant County Jail died after a suicide attempt on Saturday, officials with the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The 36-year-old man, who was not identified by the sheriff’s office, was arrested on a parole violation in Palo Pinto County on Feb. 4, officials said. During the intake process, officers identified behavioral concerns and referred the inmate to Tarrant County My Health My Resources (MHMR), where he was cleared to remain in regular housing, according to the statement. The inmate was screened again on Feb. 6 and did not display any suicidal ideations or behaviors, Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office officials said. Later that day, he was found unresponsive in his cell by his cellmate and jail staff immediately began lifesaving measures, according to the statement. The inmate was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he died Saturday, officials with the sheriff’s office said. Tarrant County detention officers have intervened in 24 suicide attempts so far this year, according to the statement. > Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 9, 2025
Federal judge dismisses Tarrant County from Johnson death suit A U.S. district judge dismissed the claims against Tarrant County in the civil case brought by the family of Anthony Johnson Jr., who was killed at the county jail in April, according to the ruling issued Friday. In addition to the county, Judge Reed O’Connor dismissed six individual defendants named in the original case, the order states. The lawsuit will continue against the nine jailers most directly involved with Johnson’s death, including two who face criminal charges. Partial video released by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office shows several jailers fighting with Johnson during a contraband search of his cell. Two jailers pepper-sprayed Johnson directly in his mouth, and after he was handcuffed face-down on the ground, a jailer kneeled on his back until he became unresponsive, according to the suit and video. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Johnson’s death a homicide caused by mechanical and chemical asphyxiation. In the original suit, lawyers for Johnson’s family argued that Tarrant County was liable for the 31-year-old Marine veteran’s death under the “conditions of confinement” doctrine, according to the suit. O’Connor dismissed the county from the lawsuit on the grounds that Johnson’s death was caused by the actions of individual jailers instead of conditions at the jail such as overcrowding, he wrote in his ruling. The judge also wrote that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit did not clearly identify specific county policies that caused jailers to violate Johnson’s constitutional rights. O’Connor also determined that the six individuals dismissed from the suit were not shown to be responsible for Johnson’s death through use of excessive force or indifference to providing him necessary medical care. One example he noted is that two of those defendants placed Johnson in a wheelchair. Putting Johnson “in a wheelchair is taking some action, whether it was negligent or not,” the opinion reads. “That the others saw Johnson placed in a wheelchair and did nothing else does not establish that any of them was deliberately indifferent.” > Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 9, 2025
Elon Musk's shadow looms over this tiny Texas town. Can it cope with the rapid growth? Jason Alley has owned his cattle farm for almost 13 years. Through his work on over 91 acres at the corner of Farm-to-Market 1209 and FM 969, he has watched Elon Musk’s companies expand over the surrounding land. Alley said he sees construction start months before he reads about it in the news. He said he receives inquiries three times a week about selling his land, occasionally from one of the tech billionaire’s companies. “I've got a lot of questions. I hear these things that may or may not happen. I don't know if they're true or not true. They just keep everything quiet. … Overall, I think it's a good thing. I mean, the land values have gone up,” Alley — whose farm’s market value is over $1.558 million — told the American-Statesman. A movie studio, data centers, manufacturing facilities and plants alike have been flocking to this small town less than 30 miles east of Austin. The anticipated impact of these businesses could be transformative for the roughly 9-square-mile town. Yet, the potential economic boom of Musk choosing Bastrop for his business utopia could be even more profound. Owning more than 400 acres of land, Musk is transforming the area on FM 1209, south of FM 969, into his business utopia, dubbed “Snailbrook.” Musk announced in July his intent to move some of his companies’ headquarters to Texas. In September, he decided his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, would be joining the Boring Co. and SpaceX in Bastrop. The presence of the world's richest man in Bastrop, through his companies, is already being felt by residents and local business owners. Meanwhile, his influence in the White House as President Donald Trump’s closest ally is beginning to take shape. But perhaps not in the ways they might have expected. > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 9, 2025
DA Sean Teare fired prosecutors days into tenure over separate allegations of misconduct, lewd comments District Attorney Sean Teare fired two prosecutors days into office after one lawyer was accused of misconduct at trial, leading to dismissed charges, and another was forced out for allegedly making lewd and racist comments toward female colleagues. Both prosecutors, Katherine Frisbie and Michael Ambrose, lost their jobs over allegations of incidents that spanned Teare and his predecessor’s administrations, according to disciplinary records obtained by the Chronicle. The ousted prosecutors were not among those cut by Teare in December as he prepared to take office. Neither responded to requests for comment. The Jan. 9 firing of Frisbie, who joined the office in 2022, followed claims in December she failed to disclose her communications with a security guard whose identification of a suspected shooter led to a man's arrest in a game room shooting. A jury never heard the testimony from the security guard, who was wounded in the shooting. Frisbie alleged he could not be found. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 9, 2025
Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont makes first public comments after Luka Doncic trade Be assured, Mavericks fans, that Patrick Dumont hears, feels and says he even appreciates the full force of your wrath. Nonetheless, 13 months into his family’s majority ownership of the Mavericks and his tenure as team governor, Dumont stands behind the controversial and widely panned trade of superstar Luka Doncic. Fully. Firmly. Unflinchingly. “It’s hard to make tough decisions,” Dumont said. “And it’s hard to make the right decisions when they’re tough. And it’s easy to do nothing. Be the smartest Mavericks fan. Get the latest news. “But when you want to pursue excellence in an organization, you have to make the tough decisions and stand by them and keep going.” Dumont’s comments to The Dallas Morning News are his first since the Mavericks eight days ago shocked the basketball world by sending Doncic, 25, to the Los Angeles Lakers as part of a blockbuster trade that brought 10-time All-Star forward Anthony Davis, 31, to Dallas. Davis’ 26-point, 16-rebound Mavericks debut Saturday afternoon signaled a previously unfathomable era, against the surreal backdrop of a “Rally for Luka” fan throng massed outside American Airlines Center while, inside, the Mavericks defeated rival Houston. Dumont says the backlash was anticipated. His tone and messaging to The News — and by extension fans — showed a dimension of his persona that had not publicly surfaced since his family’s purchase of the franchise’s majority interest on Dec. 27, 2023. Though he never raised his voice, his words at times were fiery, passionate and blunt, including when asked about an unsubstantiated and implausible narrative that has gained legs in the trade’s aftermath. “The Dallas Mavericks are not moving to Las Vegas,” Dumont said. “There is no question in that. That is the answer, unequivocally. The Dallas Mavericks are the Dallas Mavericks and they will be in Dallas.” His general message is that trading Doncic, while shocking and painful to fans, was a necessary step toward building a culture that wins NBA championships, plural. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 7, 2025
Leander ISD cutting to 200 school staff jobs: 'Heavy heart and conflict in emotions' The Leander school district announced plans to slash more than 200 campus-level staff positions — including nearly 150 teachers — and $3 million in salaries from its central office to help reduce a $34.4 million budget deficit that administrators have forecast for the 2025-26 school year. Leander’s decision, announced Wednesday evening, comes as districts across the state make cost-cutting moves to trim growing deficits and desperately await decisions from state lawmakers this legislative session about possible boosts to public education funding. Gov. Greg Abbott has identified teacher pay raises as a key tenet of his education agenda, which also includes his signature priority of passing a school voucher program that would use public money to pay for children's private schooling. Leander Superintendent Bruce Gearing, in a video message released Wednesday afternoon, said announcing the job cuts comes with “a heavy heart and conflict in emotions." > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 7, 2025
Houston clean hydrogen startup Syzygy announces sweeping layoffs Syzygy Plasmonics, a darling of the Houston startup community, said it would slash more than half of its staff by the end of March in what may be the first dramatic blow to the local clean tech industry connected to Trump administration policies aimed at focusing American energy development on fossil fuels, advanced nuclear, geothermal and hydropower. The company, which has raised more than $100 million in funding and last year received backing from Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, has notified the state that it plans to layoff 68 employees beginning at the end of next month. In a pair of Workforce Adjustment and Retraining Notification notices filed with the Texas Workforce Commission Feb. 5, the company said that beginning March 31 it plans to lay off 58 employees at its headquarters on South Sam Houston Parkway in Pearland and another 10 employees at its office on Kirby Drive in Houston. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page National Stories NBC News - February 9, 2025
'We are figuring it out': Democrats struggle to keep up with Trump's dizzying pace At the start of the week, President Donald Trump warned ominously that the U.S. will retake the Panama Canal or “something very powerful is going to happen.” By week’s end, he announced that he was killing off a prior mandate for government to buy paper straws, the environmentally friendly sipping utensil that dissolves “disgustingly” in the mouth, he wrote on his social media site. The two pronouncements bookended a frenetic seven-day period in which Trump also made himself head of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with creative sway over performances, signed an order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports and cheered on Elon Musk while a cadre of engineers swept into federal agencies to cut staff and programs with an aim to downsize government. Actions are coming at so dizzying a pace that it can be tough to track what Trump has done and what he's turned around and undone. At a news conference Tuesday, Trump said that he would send U.S. troops into Gaza, if need be, to stabilize the bombed-out territory. He backtracked two days later in a social media post. The president imposed 25% tariffs on imports from two U.S. allies, Canada and Mexico, on Saturday, Feb. 1. Two days later, he paused the tariffs for a full month. A 25-year-old staff member working with Musk resigned Thursday after being found to have made racist comments online and was rehired the next day. The Denali — or rather, Mt. McKinley-size stack of executive orders gushing from the White House spans so many governmental and cultural fronts that disoriented Democrats appear unsure how to fight back. Last month, Senate Democrats had planned a news conference devoted to Trump's blanket pardons of those who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. But they scrubbed it to focus on a newer outrage: a freeze on trillions of dollars in federal spending. “We are figuring it out,” Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in an interview. “We don’t have the perfect plan yet.” A strategy at the start of Trump’s first term was to “flood the zone with s---,” as Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House strategist, memorably described efforts to keep the news media off balance. But the speed at which Trump is moving this time around makes the phrase seem quaint. Trump allies and supporters have embraced a different term: “Shock and awe.” Indeed, an NBC News review shows that Trump signed more executive orders in 10 days than any of his recent predecessors did in their first 100. The 47th president, Trump, has left the 45th president, Trump, sucking wind. “He [Trump] is delivering on every single campaign promise at a record pace even as the Democrats keep trying to die on hills the American people don’t support them on, e.g., USAID [the U.S. Agency for International Development] funding to export a progressive social agenda out of touch with Main Street America,” Peter Navarro, the administration’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, told NBC News. > Read this article at NBC News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Washington Post - February 9, 2025
U.S. intelligence, law enforcement candidates face Trump loyalty test Candidates for top national security positions in the Trump administration have faced questions that appear designed to determine whether they have embraced the president’s false claims about the outcome of the 2020 election and its aftermath, according to people familiar with cases of such screening. The questions asked of several current and former officials up for top intelligence agency and law enforcement posts revolved around two events that have become President Donald Trump’s litmus test to distinguish friend from foe: the result of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to the people, who, like other interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. These people said that two individuals, both former officials who were being considered for positions within the intelligence community, were asked to give “yes” or “no” responses to the questions: Was Jan. 6 “an inside job?” And was the 2020 presidential election “stolen?” These individuals, who did not give the desired straight “yes” answer, were not selected. It is not clear whether there were other factors that contributed to the decision. The questions were posed in direct interviews conducted by personnel hiring for the new administration. Political fealty has been a prerequisite for positions at all levels of the new administration, including for current civil servants seeking new assignments. But former national security and other officials said it is especially important for the nation’s security that intelligence professionals be able to give the president accurate information even if it does not align with his policy or political preferences. “It’s normal for a new administration to ask potential political appointees about their political views to assure that they align with the new administration,” said John Bellinger III, who served as the senior counsel for the White House National Security Council in the George W. Bush administration. “And it’s appropriate for a new administration to ask career officials if they are comfortable carrying out the new administration’s policies. But it’s not appropriate to condition jobs, especially in the intelligence and law enforcement community, on partisan political stances. We want career officials to interpret intelligence and enforce the laws in a neutral way without any partisan preference.”> Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNN - February 9, 2025
Elon Musk says he does not have plans to buy TikTok Elon Musk is not interested in buying video-sharing platform TikTok, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX said during a virtual meeting at the WELT Economic Summit on January 28. “I’ve not put in a bid for TikTok and I don’t have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok,” Musk said in a video released online Saturday by The WELT Group, which is owned by German media company Axel Springer. The Chinese-owned app, which has about 170 million monthly American users, was set to be banned on January 20 due to national security concerns. President Donald Trump gave ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, a last-minute lifeline by delaying the ban for 75 days. The extension has given TikTok more time to find a non-Chinese buyer, a condition in the bill signed by former President Joe Biden last April. ByteDance has said it doesn’t have plans to sell, though some investors have publicly stated they are interested. > Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNN - February 9, 2025
Consumer financial watchdog is ordered by acting director to stop fighting financial abuse Russell Vought, the newly installed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, sent an email Saturday night ordering all employees at the consumer watchdog to stop virtually all work — including fighting financial abuse. “Effective immediately, unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law, all employees, contractors and other personnel of the bureau shall…cease all supervision and examination activity,” Vought wrote in the email, a copy of which was viewed by CNN. In practice, this means that the nation’s top consumer financial watchdog has effectively been pulled off the street, prevented from providing oversight over big banks, payday lenders and other financial institutions that could be hurting consumers. “This means that nobody is actually overseeing $18 trillion in consumer debt right now to make sure millions of Americans aren’t getting ripped off,” one former CFPB official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told CNN. Vought posted on X on Saturday night that he “notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not ‘reasonably necessary’ to carry out its duties” and that the CFPB had an “excessive” balance of $711.6 million. This new order from Vought goes a step further than the one sent by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on February 3 that ordered CFPB staff to stop issuing rules, suspend rules that have not yet been issued or published, not to issue public communications and to stop making court filings other than to seek a pause. Vought on Saturday night reiterated the tasks that Bessent ordered employees to stop, adding supervision to the freeze. Vought said in his email that President Donald Trump designated him acting director on Friday. “As Acting Director, I am committed to implementing the President’s policies, consistent with the law, and acting as a faithful steward of the Bureau’s resources,” Vought wrote. The CFPB did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. A letter signed by dozens of House Democrats on Saturday called on Bessent to “rescind what appears to be an illegal stop work order.” Vought, who leads the Office of Management and Budget, took over as CFPB acting director Friday night and officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency deleted the banking watchdog’s X account, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. > Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only Top of Page Associated Press - February 9, 2025
Trump says he's firing Kennedy Center board of trustees members and naming himself chairman President Donald Trump says he is firing members of the board of trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and naming himself chairman. He also indicated that he would be dictating programming at one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, specifically declaring that he would end events featuring performers in drag. Trump’s announcement Friday came as the Republican president has bulldozed his way across official Washington during the first weeks of his second term, trying to shutter federal agencies, freeze spending and ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the government. “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN. I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” Trump wrote on his social media website. “We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” In a statement later on its website, the Kennedy Center said it was aware of Trump’s post. “We have received no official communications from the White House regarding changes to our board of trustees,” the statement said. “We are aware that some members of our board have received termination notices from the administration.” The statement continued: “Per the Center’s governance established by Congress in 1958, the chair of the board of trustees is appointed by the Center’s board members. There is nothing in the Center’s statute that would prevent a new administration from replacing board members; however, this would be the first time such action has been taken with the Kennedy Center’s board.” Drag artists accused Trump of targeting them because of who they are in a country where freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution. “This is about who gets to exist in public spaces and whose stories get to be told on America’s stage,” said Blaq Dinamyte, president of Qommittee, a national network of drag artists and allies. “Banning an entire art form is censorship, plain and simple. Americans don’t have to agree on everything, but we should be able to speak our minds and perform our art without bans, retaliation, or intimidation.” Unlike Democratic President Joe Biden and other presidents through the decades, Trump did not attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremonies during his first term. > Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only Top of Page Wall Street Journal - February 9, 2025
Federal judge blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE from Treasury system A federal judge in New York temporarily restricted the ability of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access the Treasury Department payment system, saying that doing so was necessary to prevent the potential disclosure of sensitive and confidential information. The early Saturday order by Judge Paul Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, precludes officials without proper background checks and security clearances from accessing the payment system through at least next Friday, including political appointees and special government appointees. It also orders any prohibited person who has had access to the records since President Trump’s inauguration to destroy them. The judge set a hearing for Friday. Some 19 blue-state attorneys general filed the case Friday evening, saying that Musk’s DOGE initiative risks interference with the payment of funds appropriated by Congress. Engelmayer said the states were likely to win on arguments that the Trump administration exceeded its authority in allowing broader access to the payment system. He also said the states faced irreparable harm without court intervention for now, including “the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.” > Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only Top of Page
Lead Stories New York Times - February 7, 2025
Trump’s power grab defies G.O.P. orthodoxy on local control In the space of two weeks, President Trump threatened to halt a congestion pricing program intended to reduce traffic in New York City and intervened in California as it confronted ruinous fires, overruling local officials as he made decisions about how to manage the state’s complicated water system. He signed one executive order cutting off federal aid to elementary and high schools that allow transgender athletes to play in women’s sports, and another intended to end funding to medical institutions that use puberty blockers or hormones in gender-affirming treatments. On Thursday, his administration sued the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois in federal court, claiming that sanctuary laws are obstructing the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration policies. For decades, the Republican Party, more than the Democratic Party, presented itself as an advocate of federalism, yielding authority and power to state and local governments. But this once-central tenet of Republican thought has seemingly been scrapped, with little debate, as Mr. Trump remakes the Republican Party in his name. “Republicans believe in federalism, of deferring to the states and the government closest to the people,” said Karl Rove, who was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush. “Not clear how much he shares that view.” The president’s attempt to dictate actions by the states — particularly the blue states — is the latest instance in which Mr. Trump has scrambled what remains of Republican orthodoxy. He has forced the party to abandon some of its ideological foundations on questions of foreign policy, deficit spending and, increasingly, respecting the rights of states to govern themselves and resist federal intervention. “Federalism was certainly the orthodoxy in the Republican Party from the 1960s on,” said Max Boot, the author of a recent biography of Ronald Reagan, who as president advocated sending power to the states. “If a Democrat were doing this to red states, Republicans would be screaming bloody murder.” > Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 7, 2025
Club for Growth launches ‘six-figure’ Texas campaign to boost school vocuhers The conservative advocacy group Club for Growth launched a statewide TV, print and digital advertising campaign Thursday to pressure lawmakers in the Texas House to support a “school choice” bill that would put taxpayer dollars toward private school education. The Texas Senate passed its version of the legislation, Senate Bill 2, Wednesday night. “Now, the onus falls on the Texas State House to pass this legislation without compromise,” David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth, said in a statement. “House lawmakers must unite to pass SB 2 without compromising or reducing its universal nature. School freedom should be for every Texas student, not just some.” Club for Growth declined to reveal how much it was spending on the campaign, calling it a six-figure effort that could top $1 million, depending on its impact. The campaign began Thursday with a full-page ad in the Austin American-Statesman encouraging constituents to tell state lawmakers to support Gov. Greg Abbott’s school choice plan. Additional ads will run Friday and Sunday, Club for Growth said. Television ads will begin airing during Sunday national political talk shows in the Dallas, Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Waco markets. The 30-second spot begins with a narrator praising Texas as No. 1 in oil and gas production, job creation and innovation. Next up? “Texas must be No. 1 in educating our children,” Abbott says in a clip taken from his State of the State address Sunday. “Parents should be empowered to choose the school that’s best for their child.” The ad concludes with Abbott saying, “We must pass school choice this session,” as text appears encouraging viewers to phone their legislators. Wednesday’s passage of SB 2, creating a $1 billion voucher-style program in Texas, marked the sixth time the Senate has passed a school choice bill, only to see the efforts fail in the House under opposition from Democrats and rural Republicans. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 7, 2025
Texas needs up to $33 billion in new, improved power lines. Who should foot the bill? Everyday residents and small businesses could end up paying for much of the $30 billion-plus in new and upgraded long-distance power lines needed largely to support more data centers, oil and gas electrification and cryptocurrency miners. Almost half of those investments are required in just the Permian Basin, according to a plan for the region approved by state regulators last fall that is estimated to cost approximately $13 billion. Texas needs new power lines because the current electric grid “has really become fully utilized,” Pablo Vegas, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said at a Tuesday meeting of the grid operator’s board. In the coming years, electricity demand is expected to surge, especially as Big Tech companies race to build data centers to develop artificial intelligence technologies. Transmission lines, the “superhighways” of the grid, are considered a public good. Thus, transmission costs are paid for by all Texas electricity consumers on their monthly electricity bill over decades. The allocation of those costs, however, is not uniform. Large industrial users can reduce their electricity consumption at strategic times to “very much reduce or even avoid their transmission charges,” said Olivier Beaufils, an ERCOT specialist at Aurora Energy Reseach, an energy consulting firm. “That means the rest of the costs gets higher for everyone else,” he said. Industrial facilities are the leading reason Texas needs an estimated $30.8 billion to nearly $33 billion in transmission investments, according to a recent ERCOT report. Yet these sectors could shift much of the costs to other consumers, such as households and small businesses. Examining how transmission costs are allocated is a priority for the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, which handles power grid issues, as lawmakers convene in Austin over the next several months. Sen. Charles Schwertner, chair of the committee, said in a January interview that he believes industrial consumers are “gaming the system, to an extent.”> Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Washington Post - February 7, 2025
Layoffs hit contractors and small businesses as Trump cuts take effect Private-sector employers and nonprofits are starting to lay off workers as a result of the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts and funding freezes, unleashing a wave of job losses that economists say could pick up steam in the coming weeks, threatening the broader labor market. The tally appears to be about several thousand private-sector jobs lost in the past two weeks since federal funding cuts and freezes took hold. More than 7.5 million Americans work in jobs directly connected to the federal government, according to the Brookings Institution, as contractors or grant workers — some of whom are already out of a job. And there are millions more who work in positions indirectly connected to federal funding delays. So far, the fallout includes rescinded contracting jobs in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Austin; layoffs at an independent-living facility in West Virginia that relies on federal funding to pay staffers; and furloughs at after-school programs in Maine and community health centers in Virginia facing federal funding delays. “Having funding yanked so quickly means government contracts are at risk, health research is on hold, and millions of employees are getting conflicting messages about their jobs,” said Harry Holzer, a professor at Georgetown University and former Labor Department chief economist. “We don’t know where this is going to end up, but we can’t dismiss its effects on the economy.” Still, the labor market remains strong, and economists say it could take weeks or months before government-related job losses show up in national data. At 4. 1 percent, unemployment is low, and there are more open positions than people looking for work. New figures Friday are expected to show that job growth continued in January, with employers adding an estimated 165,000 new positions. Even so, economists say the new president’s funding cuts, tariff threats and deportations could quickly change the economic picture. The Trump administration has taken dramatic steps to shrink the federal workforce by making it easier to fire employees, putting nearly 10,000 USAID employees on leave and offering buyouts to millions of federal workers.> Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page State Stories Houston Chronicle - February 7, 2025
Final ex-Lina Hidalgo staffer takes pre-trial intervention deal in COVID-19 contract case The former chief of staff for County Judge Lina Hidalgo accepted a pre-trial intervention deal Thursday on one charge linked to a controversial COVID-19 contract, setting into motion the end of a years-long political saga that pitted two Democratic leaders against each other. The county worker, Alex Triantaphyllis, charged in 2022 with misuse of official information and tampering with records, was accused alongside two other county aides who handled a vaccine outreach contract given to Elevate Strategies, a bidder with Democratic political ties and little public health experience. Unlike his former colleagues, whose cases were dismissed, Triantaphyllis is required to carry out 10 hours community service before the case can reach the same fate in six months. Triantaphyllis suggested he work with Meals on Wheels as he stood before the judge. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 7, 2025
Bud Kennedy: To some in Texas House, honoring Beyoncé is a waste of time. They would know. When Texans like George Strait, Willie Nelson or Kacey Musgraves won Grammys, nobody in the Texas Legislature complained. But this year was ... different. This year, some House members tried to start a stink. It so happens that the winner of Country Album of the Year was Beyoncé — a Black Texas woman. For some reason, a few white lawmakers said thanking her was a waste of time. It was a drowsy, warm afternoon Feb. 4 in the Texas Capitol when Houston lawmakers gathered to offer a routine congratulations to the Houston singer for her record Grammy haul. The House had just passed a series of other ceremonial resolutions without complaint. Nobody said it was a waste of time to declare Andrews County Day. Or Cedar Creek Lake Day. Or Wise County Day. Or Texas Association of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Day. But when lawmakers gathered to spend 5 minutes celebrating Beyoncé — she wasn’t there and they weren’t even declaring a special “day” — white state Reps. Brian Harrison of Ellis County and Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth threw a fit. According to a fellow Republican lawmaker quoted in the Quorum Report newsletter, a House sergeant-at-arms stepped between Harrison and Black lawmakers from Houston when Harrison went into a harangue about the lost time. Yes, about 5 minutes. After the resolution passed on a simple voice vote, 10 House members went out of their way to have the record show they voted “no” to congratulating one of the greatest singers in Texas history. “This is Operation Run Out the Clock,” a showboating Harrison fumed later at the microphone, saying the House just hasn’t done enough work yet and opposing a motion to take a long weekend off just like the Texas Senate was doing. So the House wasn’t wasting time Feb. 4 when it took up a series of typical thank-you resolutions. But of all the resolutions, Harrison and Schatzline just happened to pick the one about Beyoncé to complain. I wonder why. On X.com, Schatzline devotes a great deal of his energy to “banning DEI” — diversity, equity and inclusion — and touting a desire to “MAKE MERITOCRACY GREAT AGAIN IN TEXAS!” It is not clear whether he thinks Beyoncé merited a Grammy. Maybe he liked Post Malone.> Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 7, 2025
Texas school district warns of school bus immigration raids A Texas school district warned families this week that U.S. Border Patrol agents may be checking the immigration status of students riding on school buses. In a letter posted Wednesday to Facebook, Alice ISD said it received information that agents may plan to board buses headed to and from extracurricular activities, including athletics and band, at highway checkpoints around the Rio Grande Valley. Alice ISD later removed the letter from Facebook, local news outlets reported, but not before it began quickly circulating on social media. “We strongly encourage families to be aware of the potential implications of these encounters,” according to multiple screen shots of the letter. “If a student is found to be without proper documentation, they may be removed from the bus, detained, and possibly deported.” Thursday evening, Alice ISD said it sent the initial letter out of an abundance of caution and to help parents make informed decisions. It said it has no knowledge of agents targeting school buses. “As are many school districts, the Alice ISD is trying to navigate immigration practices,” the district said, later adding, “Student safety, which has always been and will continue to be our priority, was the only motivation.” The initial letter, signed by Superintendent Anysia Trevino, went on to say that students who lie about their immigration status may not receive U.S. citizenship in the future. District officials are also considering appointing a designated chaperone vehicle to travel with school buses, the letter said. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 7, 2025
OpenAI taps Texas for data center, eyes 16 other states as global competition heats up The global battle for the future of artificial intelligence has begun in Texas. OpenAI is expanding its push to construct data centers as a $500 billion “Stargate” initiative with the U.S. government takes shape. Work in Abilene is already underway as part of its joint venture with Oracle and Softbank, OpenAI said in a call on Thursday. The cost and specifics of the facility were not immediately disclosed. Meanwhile, the maker of ChatGPT technology is weighing at least 16 future locations that are expected to flourish across the country, including Arizona, California, New York, Pennsylvania and Utah. Each campus will be able to generate at least 1 gigawatt of capacity and will be linked. However, the Abilene site is seen as the linchpin of a massive infrastructure buildout, adding to the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s economic momentum. The city is the immediate beneficiary of a tranche of the four-year, $500 billion master plan that’s expected to buttress the regional economy. In ways big and small, data centers are starting to pepper the DFW landscape, with Magnum Economics estimating they generated more than $3.2 billion in state and local tax revenues last year. More projects are expected to reap an additional $3.7 billion in the near-term, the firm estimates. OpenAI’s ambitious data center buildout will also shape the emerging AI competition between the U.S. and China ? which shook global markets last week with the launch of DeepSeek, a cheaper ChatGPT competitor. “This is a very real competition and the stakes could not be bigger,” Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s vice president of global affairs, told reporters on a call. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 7, 2025
Confirmed and sworn in, North Texas native Scott Turner joins Trump Cabinet North Texas native Scott Turner is taking charge of the federal department responsible for supporting affordable housing at a time when high rents and home prices remain a top concern of inflation-weary Americans. “We all understand we have a housing crisis, a housing affordability crisis. We have a homelessness issue, we have disaster recovery,” Turner said Thursday as he addressed the workers he now leads as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. “We have to find long-term solutions to make homes affordable, to spur business creation, to create economic opportunity for every American family,” he said. The Senate voted 55-44 Wednesday to confirm Turner’s nomination, and he was sworn into office later that day by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the White House. All Senate Republicans backed him, along with two Democrats, Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Peter Welch of Vermont. Although most Democrats voted against the nomination, the opposition seemed to have little to do with Turner. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, voted against the nomination. She told Roll Call she had been prepared to vote for Turner based on his recognition of the nation’s housing crisis before growing concerned about potential cuts by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. There’s no indication Turner would stop threats to key HUD programs, Warren said. Turner, the only African American picked by President Donald Trump as a member of his Cabinet, steps into a role that comes with competing pressures to lower costs for Americans while cutting the federal budget. During his confirmation hearing, Turner painted a picture of HUD failing at its “most basic mission” to support quality affordable housing despite record levels of funding. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 7, 2025
30,000 tons of food stuck in Houston port after Trump halts foreign aid Tens of thousands of tons of food purchased through a federal program to feed hungry people overseas is stuck at a warehouse in Houston's port after President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid, according to an email from an international food agency and an employee with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The pause comes as the Trump administration moves to dismantle USAID, one of the world's largest government aid organizations. The organization spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year through its Food for Peace program to distribute surplus crops from American farmers around the globe, according to the Congressional Research Service. The hold-up in food aid drew pushback from Democrats in Congress this week, who called on Sec. of State Marco Rubio to intervene. "Purchases of commodities from farmers that power Food for Peace have stopped. Hundreds of tons of American-grown wheat are stranded in Houston right now," said U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, an Arkansas Democrat who serves as ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee. "This hostile takeover of USAID is illegal and unacceptable and creates uncertainty and instability for the agricultural economy." A White House spokesperson defended the move to stop food aid, saying it was "ensuring that taxpayer-funded programs at USAID align with the national interests of the United States, including protecting America’s farmers." "He will cut programs that do not align with the agenda that the American people gave him a mandate to implement and keep programs that put America First," the spokesperson said. Elon Musk, who is spearheading Trump's purge of the federal bureaucracy has moved to shut down USAID altogether, with the Trump administration ordering employees to stop coming to work this week.> Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page KVUE - February 7, 2025
'Unsustainable over time' | Restaurant owners say their businesses are suffering since customers are afraid of immigration operations For Saul Aguero, the owner of Fogonero, a Venezuelan restaurant in Pflugerville - more empty chairs at empty tables is not a sight he likes to see. "Continuing this situation is unsustainable over time," Aguero said. But with authorities conducting immigration operations in the Austin area, it is something he is getting accustomed to with many of his loyal customers fearing for their lives. "They are afraid that they and their families will be arrested in an ICE raid and they will not be allowed to live safely," Aguero said. "They came to this country in search of a better opportunity." Those fears, Aguero says, are now taking a toll on his business. "In the mornings, there were always between 40 and 50 clients, and now there are no more than 10," Aguero said. The sight of an empty restaurant is also a reality for Judith Medina, who owns Mexican restaurant La Casita in Pflugerville. Before, she had two employees, and now she is relying on only one since it's been slow. "We have days where there are no customers," Medina said. As business owners take in the quiet, they take assurance in the resilient spirit of the people they serve. "Hondurans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans and Mexicans are very hard working. They strive hard to do the job well," Medina said. "The immigrants are necessary in the United States." ICE officials recently said in San Antonio they "target only individuals with criminal records, convictions, gang members," and threats to national security. They also added there are no raids or checkpoints. > Read this article at KVUE - Subscribers Only Top of Page Smart Cities Dive - February 7, 2025
Uber CEO outlines robotaxi fleet plan in Austin Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced yesterday that customers in Austin, Texas, can now sign up to join an “interest list” to be among the first to ride its autonomous vehicles in the city when they become available next month. Atlanta will follow in the summer, and the company plans to have hundreds of autonomous vehicles in these cities later this year, Khosrowshahi said. Uber is partnering with Waymo in Atlanta and Austin as it has in Phoenix since late 2023. “2024 was a turning point for the industry, as AV technology began to mature and more people experienced the magic of their first autonomous ride,” Khosrowshahi said on the company’s Feb. 5 earnings call. He made clear Uber’s aims: “Executing brilliantly on our AV strategy remains our highest priority.” > Read this article at Smart Cities Dive - Subscribers Only Top of Page Construction Dive - February 7, 2025
Dallas-based Jacobs sees strong demand despite tariff uncertainty Jacobs CEO Bob Pragada said Tuesday he is not seeing client hesitation despite concerns over current and potential tariffs. “As the narrative is getting way out ahead, what this does represent for us is an opportunity to be a key and trusted advisor for our clients in how that might have an effect on their supply chains,” Pragada said regarding tariffs during a call with financial analysts to discuss earnings. “We’re not seeing it as a huge threat. Rather, we see it as an opportunity to assist our clients, while that political narrative continues to oscillate in different directions.” Pragada also noted deregulation efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration will help move projects forward. “Some of the deregulation is actually serving as a catalyst to accelerate some of these jobs that we have had either in our backlog or that are in the pipeline,” said Pragada. The Dallas-based construction company reported strong growth in its infrastructure, water and advanced facilities segments, according to its fiscal first quarter earnings report. Major projects in these categories include a 10-year water treatment contract in Jackson, Mississippi, and infrastructure jobs in Europe and Australia. “We saw solid revenue growth year over year, mainly in our infrastructure and advanced facility segments,” said Pragada. “We’re demonstrating impressive revenue growth globally in water and environmental control, with all major geographies showing strength in Q1.” Data centers and manufacturing facilities are fueling growth expectations, said Pragada. Jacobs’ data center business posted double-digit expansion, while reshoring efforts in manufacturing are expected to drive additional activity later in the year, he said. “Data centers continue to be a real positive for us,” said Pragada. “It’s now to the size where you can actually see it. It’s still 40 to 50 basis points, but it’s actually contributing to the overall growth of the company.” > Read this article at Construction Dive - Subscribers Only Top of Page The Barbed Wire - February 7, 2025
Houston’s top horn musician allegedly harassed Rice students for decades. And the school knew. Myrna Meeroff hadn’t had a seizure in four years. But in 1995, on her first day of graduate classes at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, she had one. Recovering in the hospital, she missed the beginning of the semester. She entered the French horn studio a week behind her peers — “compromised in every way,” she said. Meeroff’s horn instructor, William VerMeulen, invited her to lunch off-campus in what seemed to Meeroff like a gesture of goodwill. VerMeulen gave her a lay of the land and caught Meeroff up on missed material. He reassured her about her absences and even offered to find her opportunities with community orchestras, she told The Barbed Wire. Everything would be alright, she remembered him saying. Then, she said, he placed his hand on her thigh. Why is this man touching me in any way? Meeroff remembered thinking. It gave her pause. Other teachers had touched her during lessons, placing their heads on top of hers to hear the horn’s sound — weird, she said, though not sexual — but this was different. She forced herself to brush it off. A wave of #MeToo-esque reckonings rolled through the classical music world last year, prompted in part by a New York magazine report published in April. The article detailed sexual assault and misconduct allegations against two members of the New York Philharmonic who were fired in 2018, then reinstated through union arbitration. The uproar was swift: The Philharmonic commissioned an outside investigation into the organizational culture. More women came forward with additional allegations against both players, who were placed on leave then fired in November. The players have denied the allegations and sued the Philharmonic and players union. A federal judge recently dismissed a $100 million lawsuit filed by one of the players against the magazine. Online discussion erupted in the insular industry. And more allegations emerged. Two musicians were removed from the Calgary Philharmonic. Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music announced it had removed one of its professors. Then, in May 2024, Rice announced then-63-year-old William VerMeulen’s retirement, effective immediately. “Professor VerMeulen has been teaching at the Shepherd School since 1990, building one of the country’s most prominent horn studios — with numerous professional placements for his students, who are performing in many of the top ensembles around the world,” wrote Dean Matthew Loden in an email to music students and alumni, which The Barbed Wire independently reviewed. > Read this article at The Barbed Wire - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 6, 2025
Dennis Powell: As a judge, I visited the border. It's not the chaos you've been led to believe issues. Immigration had little impact in my little corner of the world. For Orange, Texas, “border crossings” consisted of U.S. citizens coming from Louisiana into Texas. I knew very little about immigrants, but in the past few years, that changed drastically. I pride myself on my fairness and reasonableness, but these aren’t traits you can simply put on like a robe. They require preparation and practice. Still, even the best preparation is limited to what’s presented in the courtroom. What I didn’t expect on this leg of my journey was how learning more about immigration and the border would fundamentally reshape my perspective. In May 2022, I was a retired judge, but I agreed to take an assignment to preside over cases under Operation Lone Star in Kinney County. Operation Lone Star involved arresting thousands of immigrants for criminal trespass and my role was to preside over these criminal prosecutions. As I worked through hundreds of these cases, I began to reflect on the operation itself. From my perspective, Operation Lone Star seemed less like a vehicle to protect public safety and more like an opportunity for Texas to take on the border even though the law delegated that responsibility solely to the federal government. After presiding over a multitude of cases, I issued a decision against Operation Lone Star on constitutional grounds, addressing its discriminatory practices against migrant men. The issue arose from the fact that only men were being arrested and charged, while women and children were released. Out of hundreds of charges filed, not a single criminal trespass case had been filed against a woman in Kinney County during my assignment there. This raised significant concerns about arrests and subsequent prosecutions being determined by gender. What I saw in the courtroom fueled my desire to go to see it for myself. What I found was astonishingly different from the chaos often portrayed in the media and in legal circles. I saw a border that was secure, with helicopters patrolling and law enforcement officers working in an orderly process. Migrants waited for months in Mexican border towns for their turn to legally enter, going through extensive screenings, interviews and sponsor verifications. To call them "illegals" is not only misleading but dismisses the effort and legality of their actions. During my visit to the border, I met many people who left an impact on me, including one man who had been kidnapped by a cartel in Mexico. Cartels target migrants with U.S. sponsors, holding them for ransom in horrific conditions. Despite enduring such trauma, many of these individuals, including this man, were remarkably positive and eager to contribute to Texas and to this country. I was not looking at policies or political issues; instead, I saw people — families striving for safety and opportunity. > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Religion News Service - February 6, 2025
Second minister accuses T.D. Jakes of sexual misconduct in defamation suit filing The Rev. Richard Edwin Youngblood, the brother of a minister who has accused Bishop T.D. Jakes of sexual misconduct, has made his own accusation against Jakes, claiming the Texas megachurch leader climbed into bed with him on a church business trip. The claims were made in a legal filing responding to a defamation lawsuit Jakes brought in November against Youngblood’s younger brother, Duane Youngblood, a Pennsylvania man who made allegations against Jakes in two 2024 interviews on the “Larry Reid Live” YouTube talk show. Jakes’ suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, includes denials by Jakes’ legal team of Duane Youngblood’s accusations that Jakes tried to groom and sexually abuse him. The suit also describes the younger Youngblood as being a parolee after convictions for sexual assault and corruption of minors. > Read this article at Religion News Service - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 6, 2025
Houston congressman says he was wrong about TikTok. Now he's backing Trump's support for the app A year after voting to ban TikTok in the United States, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt now says he was wrong. The Houston Republican said on Wednesday that he regretted voting for the legislation that ordered TikTok’s China-based owner to sell or face being removed from U.S. markets. “My vote was a mistake, but I am committed to learning from it,” Hunt said in a statement. Hunt, starting his second term in Congress, said he understands the “risks associated with foreign access to American data” that prompted the bill, but said that data is at risk in so many other ways already. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 6, 2025
John P. Hernandez and Chris Wallace: Texas businesses can help bridge cultural and political divides (John P. Hernandez is senior vice president of Amegy Bank and a member of the Texas Business Leader Alliance Advisory Board. Chris Wallace is chief executive of the North Texas Commission. The commission is a partner of the Texas Business Leader Alliance.) A glance at the day’s headlines might suggest that more divides us than unites us. Border spending, property taxes, health care access and school finance dominate the political discourse in our state, sparking debates that cut across party lines. And as Texas navigates novel economic challenges, from energy transition to workforce development, a critical engine for prosperity has slowed to a sputter: civic engagement. This is where leaders in the business community are uniquely positioned to solve problems, with a respected voice that can transcend political divides to identify practical solutions. The Main Streets and boardrooms where Texas businesses operate may not agree on all the issues of the day, but one thing most do agree on is that democracy requires participation. And economic prosperity requires democracy. In a survey of 500 business leaders, including owners of large and small businesses, chamber leaders and C-suite executives from all areas of Texas, 97% view their participation in public policy discussions as crucial. Yet, nearly two-thirds acknowledge that businesses could be doing more to engage on the issues that shape Texas’ future. This gap between aspiration and action represents a challenge, but also an opportunity to increase civic participation among the leaders themselves. Several areas of shared concern unite business leaders across the political spectrum. A near-unanimous 91% agreed that a strong, participatory democracy is crucial to a vibrant economy. However, concerns about civic health, including a widespread apprehension about political violence, tempered this. Moreover, a significant majority — 67% — of concerned business leaders cited a lack of bipartisanship as a key issue. Encouragingly, 81% of business leaders believe their customers would respond positively to their engagement with policy discussions. This suggests a unique opportunity for the business community to leverage its credibility — and shared frustration with political gridlock — to contribute to a more stable, constructive civic environment. The survey findings paint a clear picture: Texas business leaders share a common understanding of the challenges facing our civic institutions and the importance of engaged leadership in addressing these issues. Yet, there’s a collective sense that we could be doing more. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page National Stories The Hill - February 7, 2025
Sotomayor hits presidential immunity decision in first public comments since new Trump admin Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday doubled down on her opposition to the presidential immunity decision last summer and expressed concern about public confidence in the high court. In her first public remarks since President Trump took office about two weeks ago, Sotomayor said she worried that the Supreme Court has departed too far from public sentiment, when asked about dwindling public confidence in the court. “If we as a court go so much further ahead of people, our legitimacy is going to be questioned,” Sotomayor told an audience in Kentucky Wednesday evening. “I think the immunity case is one of those situations,” she continued. “I don’t think that Americans have accepted that anyone should be above the law in America. Our equality as people was the foundation of our society and of our constitution.” “I think my court would probably gather more public support if it went a little more slowly in undoing precedent,” she said. > Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNBC - February 7, 2025
Staffer at Musk’s DOGE resigns after racist social media posts exposed A staff member in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by tech billionaire Elon Musk resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about a social media account that advocated for racism and eugenics, the newspaper reported. The DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, earlier in the day had been approved by a federal judge to have access to the payment system at the U.S. Treasury, but the judge restricted his ability to share data from the system. “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth,” an account that the Journal linked to Elez tweeted last year. The Journal said it had established links between 25-year-old Elez and a social media account on Musk’s platform, X, that was deleted in December. “The deleted @nullllptr account previously went by the username @marko_elez, a review of archived posts shows,” the Journal reported. “The user behind the @nullllptr also described themselves as an employee at SpaceX and Starlink, where Elez has worked, according to archives of Elez’s personal website.” Musk is playing a major role in efforts by President Donald Trump to slash federal government spending and employee head count. Elez had been designated as a special government employee. “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” @nullllptr tweeted on X in September, the Journal reported. ?‘Normalize Indian hate,’ the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley,” the Journal wrote.> Read this article at CNBC - Subscribers Only Top of Page Stateline - February 7, 2025
Trump wants states to handle disasters without FEMA. They say they can’t. State and local emergency managers are facing a serious question in the wake of President Donald Trump’s first few weeks in office: When disaster strikes, will they be able to count on the federal government? Trump has called the Federal Emergency Management Agency a “disaster” and suggested it might “go away.” He said states would best take care of hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires on their own, with the federal government reimbursing some of the costs. He convened a council to review FEMA and recommend “improvements or structural changes.” But leaders in states that have been hit by disasters say they need more than the promise of an eventual federal check to manage catastrophic events. They say they’re not equipped to handle the roles FEMA currently plays — such as marshaling emergency resources from multiple federal agencies, providing flood insurance, conducting damage assessments and distributing billions of dollars in recovery funds. “FEMA has been an absolute lifesaver for people,” said Vermont state Sen. Anne Watson, a Democrat who has been involved in the state’s recovery from devastating 2023 floods. “I don’t see [states and municipalities] as being able to replicate what FEMA does. The possibility of it going away leaves millions and millions of Americans in a very vulnerable position.” Meanwhile, Trump said last month that he wanted to make federal wildfire recovery aid to Los Angeles conditional on California enacting new laws requiring voter identification, adding further uncertainty about whether states can expect help from the feds. Trump and his allies also targeted the agency in the wake of Hurricane Helene, spreading lies that FEMA, under President Joe Biden, was diverting disaster money to immigrants without legal status; failing to provide helicopters; limiting aid to $750 per person; and cutting off support for Republican areas. State officials say that while there’s room for a conversation about state and federal roles in disaster response, eliminating FEMA altogether would be shortsighted. > Read this article at Stateline - Subscribers Only Top of Page Politico - February 7, 2025
After Trump’s remarks on Gaza, some in Dearborn, Michigan ‘think we screwed up’ Donald Trump won Dearborn, Michigan, a traditionally Democratic Arab American enclave, thanks largely to outrage over Kamala Harris and the Biden administration’s stance on Israel. Some are starting to have regrets. After Trump unveiled a plan to “take over” Gaza and relocate nearly 2 million Palestinians to neighboring countries, two mayors in the region who had stumped for Trump have gone silent. And some Dearborn residents have been left horrified by the president’s attitude toward Palestinians. After Trump made his comments, people in Dearborn are responding “with extreme anger and disappointment with this president who lied to this community to steal some of their votes,” said Osama Siblani, editor of Dearborn’s Arab American News. Siblani, who declined to endorse in the presidential race, predicted that the proposal will “fail” and that Trump is “acting like a leader of a gangster group and not the most powerful nation in the world. Disgrace.” One leader in Dearborn, granted anonymity to speak candidly, described a sense of remorse among some in the Arab American community who voted for Trump or sat out the election but now “think we screwed up but we’re not going to admit it.” Trump’s comments Tuesday, which shocked the world and were quickly recast by his own officials, caused a sense of whiplash in Dearborn, laying bare the deep political divisions in a community fractured by the conflict that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians and decimated the region. Not long ago, Arab Americans were celebrating the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas — which some credited Trump for helping to reach days before his inauguration. Then came his remarks this week — and alarm over his desire to redevelop Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East.” Arab Americans for Trump, a group that helped with campaign outreach, rebranded itself as Arab Americans for Peace in the hours after Trump said the U.S. would take ownership of Gaza.> Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only Top of Page The Hill - February 7, 2025
Trump announces task force to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias’ President Trump announced plans Thursday to establish a task force and a presidential commission to protect Christians from religious discrimination. Trump addressed the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, where he laid out multiple steps he planned to take to address what he described as attacks on religious liberty and on Christians in particular. “While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares,” he said. “And we will bring our country back together as one nation under God.” Trump said he would establish a presidential commission on religious liberty that “will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right.” The president also said he would sign an executive order to make Attorney General Pam Bondi the head of a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias.” The task force will aim to stop “all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government,” Trump said. > Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only Top of Page National Catholic Reporter - February 7, 2025
Catholic Relief Services lays off staff, cuts programs after USAID shakeup Catholic Relief Services is bracing for massive cuts — as much as 50% this year — because of draconian reductions in U.S. foreign assistance ordered by the Trump administration, according to an internal email from the chief executive of the international relief organization. CRS is the top recipient of funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, which the Trump administration has targeted with a spending freeze, office closure and extensive staff cuts this week. Layoffs have already begun as CRS has been forced to begin shutting down programs funded by USAID, which supplies about half of the Catholic organization's $1.5 billion budget, said CRS president and CEO Sean Callahan in a staffwide email sent Feb. 3. "We anticipate that we will be a much smaller overall organization by the end of this fiscal year," Callahan wrote in the email, which was reviewed by National Catholic Reporter. CRS officials at its headquarters in Baltimore did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. bishops' conference, which created the organization 82 years ago, also did not respond to a request for comment. Retired Tucson, Arizona, Bishop Gerald Kicanas, a former board chairman of Catholic Relief Services, said eliminating USAID would be a huge mistake. "These are desperate people, living in desperate situations, struggling day by day, hour by hour," Kicanas told NCR. The cuts would amount to one of the biggest blows ever to CRS, a relief group founded in 1943 by Catholic bishops in the United States to serve World War II survivors in Europe. CRS reaches more than 200 million people in 121 countries on five continents, according to its website. Callahan said that CRS has already received notifications that some projects for which it is subrecipient have already been terminated and that more are coming. The staffing cuts and cost-saving measures would be across the board, impacting all divisions and departments of CRS, Callahan said. Temporary furloughs would not be enough to avoid staff cuts, he added. > Read this article at National Catholic Reporter - Subscribers Only Top of Page NBC News - February 7, 2025
Some Census Bureau data now appears to be unavailable to the public Many databases from the U.S. Census Bureau appeared to be unavailable to the public on Thursday, with users being told access was “forbidden” when attempting to download common datasets. Several data experts told CNBC that they were receiving the same error message on files that are routinely available. “My staff tried numerous economic releases, and we could not access them through Census.gov,” said Maurine Haver, founder of Haver Analytics. The company is a leading global data provider, including to CNBC. Data experts were able to download some files through various workarounds. A few of the datasets that were unavailable to CNBC late Thursday include information on voter demographics, population changes by state and small businesses. Economists were concerned that there could be wider implications. “When was the last time that Census just stopped publishing data? That just doesn’t happen,” said Michael Horrigan, president of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Two data experts at the institute were also unable to download data from Census.gov. “It suggests that there may be internal pressures not to publish data that we rely on, and we need to figure out if that’s true,” Horrigan said. Some databases were still accessible to the public. It is unclear if the restricted data was due to a technical issue or as part of the changes around information and communication under President Donald Trump. Erica Groshen, former commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Obama administration, said the Census data is vital to decision-making across government and business. > Read this article at NBC News - Subscribers Only Top of Page
Lead Stories Dallas Morning News - February 6, 2025
Texas Senate approves ‘school choice’ bill on largely party-line vote Moving swiftly on a central Republican priority, the Texas Senate approved a “school choice” bill Wednesday that would put taxpayer dollars toward private school education. The 19-12 vote was largely along partisan lines with Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, the sole Republican to vote against Senate Bill 2. All 11 Democrats also opposed the bill. Though passage seemed inevitable, Democrats did not give up without a fight, proposing dozens of amendments that were voted down in rapid fashion, largely on party lines. Final approval came at 8 p.m. despite Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s earlier estimate that debate on the hot-button issue could continue into early morning Thursday. “We now look for the House, this being the sixth time we passed school choice, to finally step up and give this opportunity to every child in Texas,” Patrick, who presides over the Senate, said after the vote. Throughout the debate, SB 2’s author, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, faced tough questions from Democrats but dismissed their objections as bordering on “fear-mongering hypotheticals.” “Who are we fighting for? We are fighting for these students who need help the most,” Creighton said. Republican budget writers have proposed spending $1 billion of the state’s nearly $24 billion surplus to create education savings accounts for Texas schoolchildren. Any student could apply for an education savings account, which could award $10,000 for private school expenses or $2,000 for homeschooled students. Those in special education would be eligible for an $11,500 education savings account, and the bill was amended Wednesday to allow $2,500 for homeschooled students with a disability. If the number of students applying for education savings accounts exceeds $1 billion, participants would be selected through a lottery system that sets aside 80% of the fund for students who previously attended public school and are either from low-income households or have a disability. The remaining 20% would be open to any student, including those attending a private school. Gov. Greg Abbott has made passing a school choice bill his chief policy goal for this year’s legislative session, and senators wasted little time moving SB 2 through committee and onto the floor for debate. SB 2, the first bill to come up for a Senate vote in the regular session that began Jan. 14, is among the most closely watched proposals moving through the Capitol this year. Republicans sought to blunt damage caused by a government analysis that showed the bill’s annual cost ballooning from $1 billion to roughly $3.75 billion after four years. Before the debate began, the Texas State Teachers Association released a statement highlighting the cost projections. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 6, 2025
Trump wants to expand LNG exports from Texas, but his potential trade wars could undermine the effort With President Donald Trump’s victory in November, Texas LNG companies were celebratory, ready for a promised end to a federal pause in permitting that threatened their future. But even as the Trump administration makes moves to expand U.S. exports of oil and natural gas, Trump’s hard-nosed trade tactics are ratcheting up uncertainty within some of the largest foreign markets for U.S. liquefied natural gas. China, the world’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas, announced Tuesday it was placing a 15% tariff on U.S. LNG, in response to Trump’s decision to impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods. And Trump is weighing tariffs on the European Union, setting up the possibility of a trade war with what is currently the largest market for American LNG. That has left developers wondering about future demand for their product abroad, even as Trump moves to resume federal permitting for LNG projects. Production of LNG is centered along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts, and developers are considering investing tens of billions of dollars to develop new terminals. “I wouldn’t feel confident on making predictions,” said Charlie Riedl, executive director for the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas. “We’re in the early days in all of this. It feels fluid, like we’re still an opening salvo of the trade discussions.” For now, LNG terminals along the Texas Gulf Coast are expected to see a slight decline in exports to China, which represented 4% of all U.S. LNG exports in 2023. The vast majority of U.S. LNG going to China is under contract, but Chinese companies buying in the open market are expected to shift their purchases to other nations, such as Qatar and Australia.> Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 6, 2025
How much is your Texas home worth? If you pay a lot for insurance, less than you might think. Higher home insurance premiums are threatening to destabilize the housing market, as buyers back away from increasingly uninsurable homes and homeowners struggle to keep up with payments in areas more prone to the impacts of climate change. Real estate analysts and academics are concerned that insurance hikes will crater property values in some communities, sending a shock wave through the country’s economy that, as a U.S. Senate Budget Committee report concluded late last year, could “trigger a full-scale financial crisis similar to what occurred in 2008.” “Insurance is the primary mechanism by which climate change is pricing its way into the real estate market,” said Jeremy Porter, the head of climate implications at First Street, a company that models climate risk. In Texas, where home insurance has spiked only recently, there’s little data on how property values are being impacted. In Seabrook, an idyllic city of 14,000 tucked just east of the NASA Space Center, online forums are filled with people’s anxiety over the rising cost to insure their most valuable asset. The city is known for its good schools and natural beauty, but almost every property is in a flood zone. Homeownership has been the primary way that Americans build wealth for nearly a century — paying roughly the same amount on a fixed-rate loan every month for 30 years and retiring with an asset to pass along to their kids. Climate change upends that bargain. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Washington Post - February 6, 2025
How Elon Musk’s deputies took over the government’s most basic functions Elon Musk’s allies are turning a once-obscure federal IT unit into the linchpin of their sweeping campaign to tear down the federal bureaucracy, sparking fears of improper overreach and chaos among tech employees in the government. During a tense meeting Monday, employees of the Technology Transformation Services (TTS) section of the General Services Administration questioned Musk ally and Tesla alum Thomas Shedd about the agency’s future, after he and a cohort of unidentified 20-somethings spent the preceding days peppering staff with questions about their accomplishments and reviews of their work. Shedd, who was named the director of the unit last month, told the workers that the administration viewed them as “Swiss army knives” who can roll out services across federal agencies. “You guys have been doing this far longer than I’ve been even aware that your group exists,” said Shedd, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Washington Post. “The way the administration sees you is you’re kind of the gold standard of how to go in and get work done at these agencies, how to understand the technical problems that they have.” In the background of those reassurances, however, Musk’s deputies have been quietly assessing the competency and loyalties of the existing staff to determine whom to retain. The GSA, Shedd and Katie Miller, a representative for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Shedd’s comments underscore how Musk and a band of allies are harnessing tech units and other agencies that handle daily federal operations to amass sweeping control of the executive branch. Musk’s group has officially taken over the White House office formerly known as the U.S. Digital Service, which was renamed on Trump’s first day in office the U.S. DOGE Service. His allies are running the GSA — which manages real estate, procurement and IT — and the Office of Personnel Management, which handles HR. With control of logistics, they’re taking extraordinary measures to slash at all parts of the government — pushing mass resignations, accessing a Treasury Department payment system, obtaining federal student loan data and challenging the very existence of the U.S. Agency for International Development. > Read this article at Washington Post - Subscribers Only Top of Page State Stories Dallas Morning News - February 6, 2025
Gov. Greg Abbott offers Trump land, military bases and jail cells to support deportation Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, seeking about $11 billion to defray state spending on border security, didn’t come empty handed to Wednesday’s Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump. Texas, he told Trump, can provide billions in assets to help the administration secure the border, enforce immigration laws and deport immigrants. That includes land for building more border wall sections, military bases to house federal authorities and thousands of prison cells for use as detention facilities, he said. Abbott cast his offer as akin to a real estate deal and said Trump understood where he was coming from. Abbott’s battles with former President Joe Biden over the border helped raise his national profile as he sent Texas National Guard soldiers to the border, had buoys strung across the Rio Grande and ordered razor wire barriers erected in an effort to block migrants. Abbott is seeking more than $11 billion from Washington to cover costs of Operation Lone Star, his 4-year-old border security initiative. Trump’s election victory flipped the state’s relationship with the federal government, with Trump and Abbott closely aligned on border and immigration policies. Abbott said the two discussed progress made since Trump took office. Illegal immigration into Texas has slowed to a “mere trickle,” Abbott said. He talked up more than 56 miles of border wall the state has built, with 18 additional miles under construction. Abbott also said the state controls many more miles of land along the border that could be used for a wall.> Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 5, 2025
Gov. Greg Abbott says he supports Texas legalizing sports gambling Gov. Greg Abbott is ready to allow online sports betting in Texas. In an exclusive interview for the Texas Take Podcast, Abbott said he has no objection to the Texas Legislature passing a law to join 39 other states that have legalized online sports betting. He said he considers sports betting part of the entertainment of watching professional football and other sports. “I don’t have a problem with online sports betting,” Abbott said in an interview at the governor’s mansion. “The reality is that I’d be shocked if there were not some Texans that do it already.” The comments are some of the governor's strongest in support of an industry that has ramped up its lobbying and political giving in recent years. A coalition of major sports franchises in the state, including the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Astros and the San Antonio Spurs, have teamed up with sports gaming companies like BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel to push for legalized betting through the Texas Sports Betting Alliance. They’ve hired more than a dozen lobbyists and tapped big names in politics and sports, such as former Gov. Rick Perry and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, to help make their pitch. "We appreciate the governor's comments because this echoes what we're hearing from Texans," said Jeremy Kudon, president of the Sports Betting Alliance. "They want the opportunity to vote on legalizing sports betting and putting in place a strong, regulatory framework that protects consumers and boosts revenue in the state." In a video promoting the broader effort, Perry said many Texans are already gambling on games through offshore sites, going to other states or using other unregulated means. He said that means billions of dollars are leaving the state, and those who use those sites don’t have the same protections that legalizing it would bring. Fertitta — whose business holdings include the Golden Nugget Hotels & Casinos – publicly backed a bill in the Legislature in 2023 that would have allowed sports betting in Texas. "Sports betting is a very popular form of entertainment. Sports fans enjoy placing bets on their favorite sports because it brings them closer to the team and puts them in the game," Fertitta said then. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Texas Monthly - February 4, 2025
The Panhandle is burning. Can ranching survive? Five fires ignited in the Panhandle that week, but Smokehouse Creek was by far the largest. It burned an estimated 40,000 acres on the first day and another 900,000 over the next two. The Texas A&M Forest Service wouldn’t declare it 100 percent contained for three weeks, but within three days it had already become the largest wildfire in recorded Texas history, surpassing the previous record holder—the East Amarillo Complex fire of 2006, which burned through much of the same area—by more than 100,000 acres. Two people were killed this time, a 44-year-old truck driver named Cindy Owen and an 83-year-old grandmother of four, Joyce Blankenship. In total, Smokehouse Creek scorched 1,058,482 acres in this state alone (another 70,000 burned in Oklahoma), nearly the size of Delaware. Across the Panhandle, 138 houses and businesses were destroyed by the five fires, including 76 residences in Hemphill County, homes that once had photos on the walls, heirlooms in the cupboards, pets in the backyard. In some cases, all that was left was a hole in the ground that used to be a basement. An estimated 15,000 head of cattle were killed, their hides burned crisp, eyes sealed shut, bodies wrapped in the rusty barbed wire they had tried to break through in their desperate attempts to outrun the flames. The total economic loss to the region could exceed $1 billion. In addition to high winds and fuel load, one reason the Smokehouse Creek fire grew at such great speed is that the topography of the area is a fire’s dream. The northeastern Panhandle is part of the Great Plains, but it is hardly flat. This is where the raised edge of the Llano Estacado meets the low rolling hills of north-central Texas, and the resulting landscape is pockmarked with canyons, sand hills, and mesas born of ancient seabeds and the tectonic shifts that produced the Rocky Mountains. The Canadian River cuts across this land in a northeasterly direction; wind and water erosion have turned it into something of a wind tunnel. Should a spark strike in the wrong place at the wrong time, millions of years of ecological adaptation all but dictate that it will get out of control, and fast. As unusual as the 2024 fires may have been, fire in the Panhandle isn’t. This place has burned for millennia. Before humans arrived roughly 13,000 years ago, lightning was the instigator, a regular enough occurrence that fire was a crucial player in the formation of the prairie itself. Fire historian Stephen Pyne has studied the relationship between fire and the prairie, calling them “ecological symbionts.” With all that burning, trees didn’t have much chance to establish deep roots, so fast-growing native grasses thrived. Plentiful grasses attracted hooved grazers such as the bison, which in turn lured humans looking for food and hides. Our species learned to harness fire as best it could. Paleo-Indians employed it during hunts, starting an inferno that forced animals to flee in a direction where the hunters could more easily take them out. Indigenous peoples would burn grass in the spring, knowing that new growth would attract more bison. The groups that thrived here, such as the Apache and Comanche, lived elsewhere or nomadically. In the prairie, fire was king. Humans were as reliant on it as they were on rain or the millions of bison locked into the land’s ecological cycle. Grow, eat, move, burn, grow, eat, stomp, burn, and so on, for thousands of years, until Europeans arrived with an attitude toward conquest. > Read this article at Texas Monthly - Subscribers Only Top of Page Texas Lawyer - February 6, 2025
JT Morris and Caroline Divver: How a new Texas bill endangers 'SLAPP' victims Imagine you get a call from your longtime client who owns a small business. A local city councilwoman sued him after he criticized her for awarding city contracts to her rich friends instead of who would best serve the public. Knowing money is tight, your client is worried about the expense he will incur defending himself. You tell your client Texas law gives him a weapon to defend his First Amendment rights against the lawsuit: The Texas Citizens Participation Act, which allows courts to swiftly dismiss lawsuits based on exercises of expressive freedom and award successful defendants their costs and attorney’s fees. Nearly half-a-century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court explained the First Amendment embodies our “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide open.” New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964), Even so, as the Texas Supreme Court recently observed, “[e]ach generation’s struggles and fears . . . test our society’s commitment” to free speech. Lilith Fund for Reprod. Equality v. Dickson, 662 S.W.3d 355, 362 (Tex. 2023). It is the distinct role of lawyers, judges, and elected officials, therefore, to reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to free expression, especially when individuals would prefer to silence their opponents rather than rely on the marketplace of ideas. SLAPPs exploit the American judicial processes by bringing meritless claims (often defamation, tortious interference with contract, breach of contract, or business disparagement), forcing opponents into a no-win choice: Either incur substantial litigation expenses or, more likely, self-censor because they can’t afford to defend their protected speech. Even when a SLAPP plaintiff voluntarily non-suits under Rule 162 just before trial, they’ve exacted pain on a critic by abusing the legal system. These tactics also prevent their adversaries from securing favorable judgments or recovering attorney’s fees. SLAPPs are especially dangerous in the hands of the rich, powerful, and politically connected, who can leverage their financial resources and access to counsel to bankrupt their critics. Simply put, SLAPPs and the threat of being SLAPPed chill constitutionally protected speech. To answer this threat, in 2011, the Texas legislature passed the Texas Citizens Participation Act (“TCPA”) to protect the freedom to speak out on public issues. There is no better example of a proposal that endangers the TCPA’s balance than just-filed Texas Senate Bill 336. In short, SB 336 aims to remove the TCPA’s automatic stay for interlocutory appeals in several situations. And this is not the first time a bill has targeted the automatic stay. In fact, the same bill was filed in 2023, as Senate Bill 896. In response to that bill, former Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court Wallace Jefferson wrote a letter to Chairman Jeff Leach, Vice Chairman Julie Johnson, and the other members of the Texas > Read this article at Texas Lawyer - Subscribers Only Top of Page Politico - February 6, 2025
Fort Worth native and former AOC aide to primary Pelosi Another chapter in a generational battle over the future of the Democratic Party appears to be taking shape in San Francisco in a fight for the seat now held by former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Saikat Chakrabarti, a former chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, announced Wednesday that he would challenge Pelosi in the primary, citing the former speaker’s efforts to prevent the progressive New York congressmember from becoming the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. “I respect what Nancy Pelosi has accomplished in her career, but we are living in a totally different America than the one she knew when she entered politics 45 years ago,” Chakrabarti, a 39-year-old former tech worker, said in a social media post. “America is stuck, and Americans want real solutions that are as big as the problems we face.” Pelosi, who stepped down as speaker in 2022 after nearly 20 years in the position, easily won reelection to her deep blue San Francisco seat last year. Her office declined to comment on Chakrabarti’s announcement. She has filed paperwork to run for relection in 2026 but has not said publicly whether she will see another term. State Sen. Scott Wiener has long been expected to run for the seat if Pelosi were to step down. Local political figures have also speculated that the former speaker’s daughter, Christine, might run for her seat if her mother were to retire. Whoever wins the primary is likely to win the general election and hold the seat for a long time in a city that remains a Democratic stronghold. Pelosi and the 35-year-old Ocasio-Cortez have at times had a strained relationship. In December, she opposed the New York progressive’s bid to lead the Oversight Committee over 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, who won the race for the position. > Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 6, 2025
Cowboys’ Micah Parsons weighs in on Luka Doncic trade: ‘I’m devastated’ Fallout continues from Saturday’s stunning Luka Doncic trade that rocked the NBA world and, especially, the Dallas Mavericks franchise. On Wednesday it was perhaps Dallas’ biggest, youngest sports superstar behind Doncic who was making his thoughts about the deal known, that being Dallas Cowboys pass-rusher Micah Parsons. Parsons has much in common with Doncic, first and foremost being generational talent. They’re also, as Parsons noted on Wednesday, the same age, just now entering their prime, and are both seeking their first championship. Parsons spoke with Dallas Morning News Cowboys insider Calvin Watkins and revealed that he may be just as torn up about the trade as the city of Dallas seems to be. “I’m devastated,” Parsons said. “Honestly, bro, we was the same age [25]. I felt like I would say he was getting the city spot. We could have done great things together.” Comparing a 15-man basketball roster to that of a 53-man in football is apples and oranges, but Parsons is perhaps as close to being the Cowboys’ version of Doncic as one could be. Parsons has been an All-Pro in three of his first four seasons, similar to Doncic being All-NBA five out of his first six. Would the Cowboys ever consider shipping out Parsons? According to Executive Vice President and Co-owner Stephen Jones, who commented on that very prospect in December, that’s a hard no. “We love Micah. I can’t imagine there’s a scenario where he’s not wearing a star on his helmet.” The Cowboys love Micah, Micah loves Luka, and Luka, apparently, loves the Cowboys. Former Mavericks insider Callie Caplan detailed in 2023 how Doncic had become a big fan of the sport of American football and, in particular, of the home team. Perhaps that’s just one more reason why Luka looked a little less than ecstatic during his introductory press conference in LA.> Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 6, 2025
Houston controller Chris Hollins warns he won’t be able to certify 2026 budget without 'drastic' cuts Controller Chris Hollins warned Houston City Council members Wednesday that he might not be able to certify next year’s budget without significant cuts to city services or new revenue following the Texas Supreme Court's denied appeal of a drainage-fee lawsuit against the city. Hollins, in a financial report to council Wednesday, told officials the court’s decision delivered a “gut punch” to city finances that would balloon the city’s already large deficit to more than $300 million. Finance Director Melissa Dubowski said during a council Budget and Fiscal Affairs committee meeting Monday that the projected budget deficit heading into the new fiscal year would be around $220 million. The denied appeal would add another $100 million to that deficit, bringing the total to $320 million. Last year’s budget totaled $7.3 billion with a $192 million deficit. “That means simply that we are going to run out of money,” Hollins said Wednesday. The lawsuit against the city was filed by a pair of engineers who helped create a charter amendment to put more money toward streets and drainage projects. After the city hit a revenue cap in 2016, the engineers sued, saying the city was shortchanging the drainage fund. The case went back and forth between the appellate court and the supreme court before Friday’s final denial. Mayor John Whitmire said the city intended to comply with the ruling. The warning from Hollins comes as the city deals with a number of growing financial issues and its departments struggle with a lack of resources. Last year ahead of the budget season, the mayor asked all city departments except fire and police to cut their budgets by 5% as the city continued to grapple with its budget shortfall and a costly settlement with the firefighters union. A payment plan for that settlement, which included $650 million in back pay for the years the firefighters went without a contract, still has not been publicly announced. City leaders also are looking for money for a number of costly initiatives, like an additional $70 million a year for a homeless plan and cash to pay for an estimated $15 billion in repairs to the city’s water infrastructure.> Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 6, 2025
Texas Democrat plans push to impeach Donald Trump for ‘dastardly deeds’ involving Gaza U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, said Wednesday he will file articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump — again. “I rise to announce that the movement to impeach the president has begun,” Green said in a speech on the House floor. “I announce that I will bring articles of impeachment against the president for dastardly deeds proposed and dastardly deeds done.” Green began his speech expressing concern over “ethnic cleansing in Gaza” and criticized the president for Tuesday’s comments in an Oval Office meeting and a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump suggested Gaza was unlivable and that Palestinians should be permanently resettled elsewhere. At the news conference, he proposed the U.S. “take over” the Gaza Strip. “Ethnic cleansing has been a crime against humanity, and I stand here today in the well to … denounce what the president said,” Green said, invoking Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote about injustice anywhere being a threat to justice everywhere. “And injustice in Gaza is a threat to justice in the United States of America.” Green first called for Trump’s impeachment over alleged obstruction of justice in a May 2017 floor speech. He introduced two articles of impeachment for high misdemeanors in December 2017. The House voted overwhelmingly to table them. He filed other articles of impeachment in 2018 and 2019 that also were tabled, while a 2021 effort — alleging Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors by weaponizing hate for political gain — was referred to the Judiciary Committee. The panel referred it to a subcommittee, which did not act on it. House Democrats voted to impeach Trump in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and in January 2021 for inciting an insurrection. Those successful impeachment resolutions were filed by other Democrats, and the Senate voted to acquit Trump in both cases. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 6, 2025
Young Arlington minister’s killer is executed at Texas prison Pastor Clinton Dobson put up a fight before he was knocked unconscious by blows to the head inside his Arlington church office. The violent thwacks, however, were not fatal. A plastic bag killed Dobson after it was placed tightly over his head. Dobson’s last breath sucked plastic into his mouth, a pathologist testified at the capital murder trial of Steven Nelson, the man who a Tarrant County jury would find killed Dobson in a robbery. Nelson, whom the jury condemned in 2012 to die, was executed on Wednesday night with a dose of pentobarbital as he was strapped to a gurney. As the solution flowed into both of his arms, Nelson at first trembled, then died in silence with his eyelids, on which dollar signs are tattooed, closed. A doctor approached, bent toward Nelson’s body and pressed and withdrew a stethoscope. “6:50,” the physician said in the death chamber at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit. “6:50,” a person repeated the time of death. Nelson’s face was covered with a white sheet. The ends of his hair peeked from the fabric. His last statement avoided the crime and was focused on his love for his wife, who watched Nelson die through a window. Helene Noa Dubois held up a service dog to the glass as Nelson spoke. “Know I am not scared. It’s cold as (expletive) in here. But I’m at peace. I’m ready to be at home. Let’s ride, warden.” The pastor, 28-year-old Dobson, was slain 14 years ago in his office at NorthPointe Baptist Church in north Arlington. Nelson stole a computer, credit cards and car from Dobson and church secretary Judy Elliott, according to evidence presented at the trial. Elliott was bludgeoned and survived. She died last year of a natural cause. Nelson also was accused of using a blanket to strangle a mentally ill inmate on their cellblock at the Tarrant County Jail while awaiting trial. Bill Ray and Steve Gordon, the defense attorneys who at trial represented Nelson, urged jurors to hand down the alternative life without parole sentence and argued that Nelson was abandoned psychologically as a child. Nelson testified that two of the defendant’s friends killed Dobson while Nelson was outside the church.> Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page Associated Press - February 6, 2025
Blake Lively is sued by Texas crisis specialist in latest 'It Ends With Us' lawsuit A Texas crisis communications specialist has sued Blake Lively for defamation after the actor pulled him into her legal fight with co-star and director Justin Baldoni over their film, “It Ends With Us.” Jed Wallace and his company, Street Relations, filed the $7 million lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Tuesday. It says he had nothing to do with any campaign to harm Lively’s reputation as she alleged in a court filing. Wallace is not among the defendants in Lively’s federal lawsuit against Baldoni, his production company and publicists, in which she alleges sexual and other harassment during the production and a campaign to smear her after it. The crisis specialist is named in the court papers and the New York Times story published on the day the series of legal battles began in December when Lively filed a complaint. Lively’s lawyers said in a statement that Wallace’s lawsuit “is not just a publicity stunt.” “It is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms. Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department,” the statement said. “While this lawsuit will be dismissed, we are pleased that Mr. Wallace has finally emerged from the shadows, and that he too will be held accountable in federal court.” In a filing last week in Hays County, Texas, that seeks a deposition from Wallace, Lively alleges he was used by publicists working with Baldoni to weaponize “a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums.” Wallace’s lawsuit says neither he nor his company “had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation.” > Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 6, 2025
Bankruptcy judge rejects plan for second auction of Alex Jones' Infowars A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday rejected a proposal to hold a second auction for assets owned by Alex Jones’ right-wing conspiracy website Infowars. “We’re not doing that any more,” Judge Christopher Lopez said in a hearing in Houston’s downtown courtroom. “I don’t trust the process.” The hearing was scheduled to hear arguments over a settlement related to Jones’ bankruptcy case. Jones owes the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting more than $1.4 billion after losing defamation cases to them in Texas and Connecticut. The settlement proposed a way for the sides in the two judgments to divide the proceeds from selling Jones’ assets between them. The settlement could potentially have cleared the way for Jones’ assets to finally be auctioned off. Jones, who is appealing the civil judgments, objected to the proposed settlement, and more than a dozen attorneys came to Lopez’s courtroom Wednesday morning prepared to argue over the matter. Lopez, however, brought the hearing to an end without hearing arguments from any attorneys. The judge said he couldn’t approve the settlement, because it also sought to collect money from Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, which is owned by Jones. Lopez left the courtroom without hearing arguments from attorneys, all of whom declined to comment. Jones’ attorneys hurriedly made calls to a delivery service to ask it to pick up boxes of exhibits it had just recently dropped off.> Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 6, 2025
Bridget Grumet: Many veterans don't get the help they need. Austin is working to change that. Some organizers might be satisfied with a monthly event that draws 200 to 400 people at a time, especially if that event is less than a year old. But Jesus Simental knows the need is far greater than that. As the veterans administrator for the city of Austin, he has seen the statistics. Among the thousands of Central Texans surveyed in the 2024 Needs Assessment of Texas Veterans, half said they didn’t know which benefits they qualified for, and nearly 40% said they didn’t know where to get help — distressing indicators that many who served our nation aren’t receiving the vital support they deserve. To help close that gap, Simental partnered with federal and state veterans agencies last April to launch a monthly veterans resource fair. On the second Wednesday of each month, up to 25 organizations set up tables at the Veterans Affairs clinic in Austin. A few hundred people attend. Experts give presentations on topics ranging from disability compensation to home loans to survivor’s benefits. The next one is on Feb. 12. The biggest obstacle to vets getting help “is just not knowing, not getting the word,” he said. For instance, Simental urges veterans and surviving spouses to see if they might be entitled to more assistance under the PACT Act, one of the largest health care and benefit expansions in VA history. The law, passed in 2022, expands benefits to service members exposed to toxic burn pits during their deployment. Crucially, for Vietnam-era veterans, the PACT Act expands the definition of who was likely exposed to Agent Orange and deserving of additional benefits for themselves or a surviving spouse. At the same time, veterans’ needs extend in many directions. In the 2024 Needs Assessment, conducted for the Texas Veterans Commission, Central Texas vets most commonly cited the need for mental health counseling, integrative and alternative therapy, and support for entrepreneurs and job-seekers. Organizations serving Central Texas vets reported the greatest needs they saw were for emergency financial assistance, mental health counseling and employment services. Even if someone has been told they don’t qualify for something, it’s worth asking again, Simental said. He has seen plenty of cases in which a veteran received bad advice or misunderstood the information. “A lot of them, once they're told (something) wrong, they run with the wrong information, and they never seek assistance again,” he said. > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 6, 2025
Clark Patterson: UT community should demand new president value free speech (Clark Patterson is the founder of the UT Coalition for Open Discourse, a Longhorn alumni organization defending the fundamental speech rights of all individuals affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin through open dialogue and promoting a culture of mutual respect and appreciation for diverse viewpoints.) The upcoming selection of the 31st president of the University of Texas at Austin provides an opportunity for Longhorn Nation to re-commit itself to the core values of open inquiry, civil discourse, free speech and institutional neutrality. Students, teachers, donors and alumni can help ensure that the school’s next president champions those core values by becoming active participants in the presidential selection and hiring process. UT's motto is "Disciplina praesidium civitatis,” which translates from Latin into "A cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy." A cultivated mind develops best in a climate of tolerance for a diversity of viewpoints, and a willingness among students and faculty to freely express opinions about all subject matter. Some recent surveys, however, suggest that UT isn’t the free marketplace of ideas that’s necessary for cultivating such minds, which is something the next president must correct. In 2024, the national Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) ranked UT 244 out of 251 universities in its College Free Speech Rankings. In fact, UT ranked lower than any other UT System university and far lower than rivals Texas A&M University (130) and the University of Oklahoma (51). This dismally low ranking should embarrass all Longhorns, past and present. Unfortunately, FIRE found that only 22% of UT students believe that “it is ‘never’ acceptable for students to shout down a speaker” and only 35% of UT students say “it is ‘never’ acceptable for students to block other students from attending a campus speech.” Also troubling is the percentages of UT students who self-censor. In FIRE’s CFSR survey, 1/5 of UT students say that they self-censor “very” or “fairly” often in conversations with other UT students. Another 22% of students reported self-censoring in classroom discussions, while 20% said they did it “in an attempt to get a better grade from their professor.” > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 5, 2025
Carol Goglia and Dominique McCain: Reading decline results prove intervention needs to come earlier (Carol Goglia is the president and CEO of Catch Up & Read. Dominique McCain is president and CEO of Educational First Steps.) The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress confirm what educators and researchers have long known: If a child isn’t reading proficiently by the end of third grade, their chances of catching up are slim. In fact, according to an analysis by the Commit Partnership, only 1 in 5 struggling third graders will reach grade-level proficiency by sixth grade. This is not just an education issue — it is a crisis with long-term consequences for students and for our economy. Literacy skills shape future academic success, workforce readiness and economic mobility. When students fall behind early, they are more likely to face barriers to success throughout their lives. By third grade, students make a critical transition from learning to read to reading to learn. If they have not mastered foundational literacy skills by this point, every subject — from math to science to social studies — becomes more difficult. Research shows that students who are not reading at grade level by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. The roots of this issue start early. We know that 90% of a child’s brain develops before age 5, and yet too many children enter kindergarten already behind. This is not a matter of ability — it is a matter of access to high-quality early childhood education, to evidence-based reading instruction and to interventions before gaps become unmanageable. The good news is that we already have research-backed solutions that can significantly improve literacy outcomes. Early childhood education, when grounded in high-quality instruction, dramatically increases the chances that children enter kindergarten ready to learn. In elementary school, structured reading interventions aligned with the science of reading can help struggling students master foundational skills before it’s too late. When these interventions are implemented well, they make measurable improvements to student outcomes. One of the most impactful investments we can make is in the training and support for educators responsible for teaching these skills. Measuring and improving high-quality interactions between teachers and their students, and training in evidence-based reading instruction empowers teachers to close literacy gaps and set students on a path to success. Texas has made strides in advancing evidence-based literacy instruction, but the latest NAEP results, also known as the nation’s report card, make it clear that we must move further and faster. Addressing this challenge requires bold action from policymakers, educators, businesses and community leaders. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page City Stories Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 6, 2025
Demonstrators voice concerns over Keller ISD’s transparency A closed meeting with board members of Keller ISD has generated more frustration over transparency and residents’ inability to choose their future amid a proposed school district split. Katie Woods was one of the handful of parents standing on Keller Parkway in front of Keller ISD Education Center with signs saying “Honk 4 Votes KISD” on Wednesday night. Security checked IDs at the entrance of the building, only allowing invited attendees to enter and keeping Woods and others outside. Woods is a Heritage neighborhood resident who has two children in the school district. She wishes the school district would be transparent about why it wants the split, and allow residents to vote on it as she fears it will place a financial burden on students. “I knew we wouldn’t be let in, but I really just wanted there to be at least some kind of public demonstration of how upset we all are that they’re still entertaining this idea,” Woods said. > Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 6, 2025
Will Dallas buy old DMN building to avoid derailing plans to revamp convention center? The Dallas City Council spent two hours Wednesday behind closed doors discussing its options after developer Ray Washburne announced he plans to sell the former Dallas Morning News building, a key part of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center’s revamp, to a data center company. Council members did not discuss the issue when they reconvened the open meeting. Washburne told The Dallas Morning News he informed officials potential sale last week. Then, the city posted a public agenda last Friday outlining they would “deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property located at 508 Young Street.” This comes nearly a year after The News reported the city was exploring a deal with Washburne. City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert told The News city officials have “worked in good faith” with all stakeholders, “but we will not negotiate something as critical as this in the press,” she said. “We are scheduled to brief the City Council on Wednesday during executive session and will provide additional details as it [is] appropriate,” she said when reached Sunday. Dallas officials gave The News the same statement after Wednesday’s meeting. The stacked executive session also included a discussion about the sale of another downtown property on St. Paul Street. Developer Mike Hoque told The News he planned to buy the building and build apartments near the convention center. The city envisions Hoque and Washburne’s developments as integral to its overall plan to transform downtown Dallas. When Washburne bought the property in 2019 for $28 million, he said he planned to turn the campus into a mixed-use hotel and entertainment district. Two years later, The News reported Washburne was working with developer Jack Matthews, who is also leading the project to redevelop the convention center. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Report - February 5, 2025
How much would a new downtown Spurs arena cost? A proposed downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs basketball team is expected to cost roughly $1 billion, funded in part by a potential increase to the county’s hotel occupancy tax, according to a discussion among Bexar County leaders on Tuesday. The county’s financial analysts say Bexar County’s venue tax — considered one of the most likely source of public funds — could provide about $400 million, according to County Manager David Smith. If voters approve an increase to the hotel occupancy tax that could be stretched to about $448 million — money that’s expected to help fund the arena, as well as other major upgrades to keep the existing Frost Bank Center in use. The estimates come as county leaders are seeking to put hard numbers behind a potential public-private partnership that’s been closely-guarded. They’re also considering a number of other uses for that money outside of a Spurs arena, such a renovations to both the Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum. “This was my effort to be open and transparent, to start letting the public know, this is your tax money,” Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said of the venue tax presentation. “… I’m not committed to a tax increase at this time.” The Spurs’ owners have been working behind the scenes with city officials on a landscape-changing entertainment district for more than a year — and even pushed the county to ask voters for money to fund the arena in the May municipal election — all without ever disclosing the projected cost and revenue sources. That lack of transparency ultimately cost the team a crucial deadline when lining up the funding, as county leaders said they were uncomfortable asking voters to put money forward without seeking the full picture of the project’s funding. “For all practical purposes, the May election has come and gone,” Sakai said Tuesday. The next opportunity to bring voters on board with dedicating county funding is November. > Read this article at San Antonio Report - Subscribers Only Top of Page National Stories Fox News - February 6, 2025
Protests erupt around the country against the new Trump administration's policies Demonstrators flocked to the streets of major cities across the country on Wednesday, in protest of President Donald Trump’s aggressive agenda on topics like the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), immigration, tariffs, gender, labor and more. Since his return to the Oval Office on Jan. 20, Trump has pressed forward with an agenda that puts America first at all costs, whether it is deporting dangerous criminals living in the U.S. illegally or offering buyouts to federal employees with an ultimatum to either return to the office or search for work. But with what critics say is a harsh approach to leading the country, Trump has ruffled a few feathers, causing people to protest around the country. The Associated Press reported that the protests were the result of a movement that has organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Websites and accounts across social media called for action with messages like, "reject fascism" and "defend our democracy." In Austin, Texas, hundreds of protesters took to the streets after protesting on the steps of the state Capitol building. As the protesters marched, they held signs that read, "Fight, our lives depend on it," "Impeach the b- - - -," and "Texas deserves better," while donning an LGBTQ+ flag and chanting, "Si Se Puede," or in English, "Yes we can." Protesters also held signs objecting to any influence billionaire Elon Musk may have on the presidency. About 80 miles south in San Antonio, Texas, hundreds of students from the city’s independent school district walked out in protest of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and mass deportations. Video posted to social media shows protesters holding signs that said, "This country was made by immigrants," and "The People United Will Defend Immigrant Families," and "The People will Defeat Trump’s Extreme-Right Agenda," while holding flags with Che Guevara, a Cuban revolutionary leader and Marxist who was born in Argentina and became a left-wing hero. The scenes were similar around the country. > Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNBC - February 5, 2025
Homebuyer mortgage demand drops further, a troubling sign for the spring market Homebuyers are seeing very little reason to get a jump on the all-important spring housing market, even with more listings coming up for sale. Mortgage rates haven’t moved much in the last few weeks, and home prices continue to rise. Mortgage applications to purchase a home last week dropped 4%, compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Demand was flat compared with the same week a year ago. “The average loan size for a purchase loan has increased since the start of the year and continued that trend last week with weaker government purchase activity, which reached $447,300, the highest level since October 2024,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 6.97% from 7.02%, with points increasing to 0.64 from 0.63 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. That rate was 17 basis points lower than the same week a year ago. “Mortgage rates moved lower last week, consistent with lower Treasury yields following the FOMC meeting and a volatile week for stock market. The 30-year fixed rate declined to its lowest level in six weeks,” Kan added. Applications to refinance a home loan responded to that small drop, rising 12% from the previous week and 17% from the same week a year ago. The percentage increases are large, but much of that is due to volumes being so low. Most borrowers today have rates well below what is being offered today. > Read this article at CNBC - Subscribers Only Top of Page Wall Street Journal - February 6, 2025
Mideast powers reject Trump proposal to take over Gaza Major Middle East powers rejected President Trump’s surprise proposal for the U.S. to take control of Gaza, redevelop the enclave and move Palestinians out permanently, pointing to the challenges ahead for a notion that breaks with decades of U.S. and international policy toward the region. Saudi Arabia, which the U.S. hopes to lead into a deal to normalize ties with Israel, said Wednesday it rejected any efforts to displace Palestinians from their land and reaffirmed support for a Palestinian state. It called its position nonnegotiable and said it wouldn’t establish diplomatic relations with Israel unless that goal was met. The foreign minister of Turkey, a NATO member, called Trump’s idea “absurd” and said the country opposed displacement of Palestinians or any “initiatives that try to take the people of Gaza out of the equation.” Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Palestinian leaders in recent weeks have also rejected the idea of relocating Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. In addition to raising moral objections, they have pointed to the security risks and instability that could come with moving a population with armed elements into countries already grappling with their own issues. A handful of Arab governments established diplomatic ties with Israel in the years leading up to the Israel-Hamas war, though the Palestinian cause remains a central issue for many Arab civilians across the region. The war has galvanized the cause’s supporters, leading to some demonstrations in the region and sparking fear of instability among Arab rulers. Trump’s idea for a U.S. takeover of the Gaza Strip comes at a highly sensitive moment and risks overshadowing other U.S. priorities in the Middle East. Israel and Hamas are in the middle of a fragile six-week cease-fire, in which mediators are set to begin talks toward a lasting peace. The U.S. and Israel are also weighing whether to use force to stop Iran’s advancing nuclear program, and both had hoped for a normalization deal to draw Saudi Arabia into a broader regional alliance against Iran, which has vowed Israel’s destruction and in recent years also threatened Riyadh.> Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only Top of Page Market Watch - February 6, 2025
Corporate profits are near all-time highs, while wages are near lows. How long can this last? Does something need to give? In a note that accompanies the charts below, Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid notes that U.S. corporate profits and asset prices are near all-time highs, while the budget and trade deficits are near historic highs. At the same time, wages are near their lowest ever when measured as a share of gross domestic product. Reid breaks down how these metrics fit together. Much like in 2000, investors are now arguing that high stock prices are justified by high corporate profits relative to GDP. But the current situation is more extreme, he noted. As the first chart shows, between the end of World War II and around 2000, U.S. profits largely ranged between 5% to 7% of GDP, so the 2000 bubble peak wasn’t all that remarkable. Since the 2008-09 financial crisis, however, they’ve climbed to run between 9% and 11%. That means “at face value,” it may be easier to justify higher equity valuations now than in 2000 because of those higher profits — assuming one thinks they’ll prove sustainable, Reid said. And then there’s record deficits. Perhaps it stands to reason that corporate profits would be higher as a result of corporate tax cuts, which also serve to increase the budget gap. Globalization probably didn’t hurt either, he wrote, because it offers a wider source of profits versus domestic GDP and has made it harder for any government to tax multinational companies as effectively as they have wanted to, Reid observed, helping corporate taxes to fall around the world. Fine — but doesn’t Economics 101 hold that rising government spending should crowd out private investment through higher costs, crimping profits? The rub, Reid said, is that other forces have kept a lid on rates over recent decades. These include a global savings glut, and then quantitative easing by major central banks, which all worked to help corporates. And since U.S. corporations moved to term out debt over those years, they didn’t feel much pain as yields rose over the last three years, he added.> Read this article at Market Watch - Subscribers Only Top of Page NBC News - February 6, 2025
Trump's pick to lead the National Counterterrorism Center has called Jan. 6 rioters 'political prisoners' President Donald Trump's pick to oversee U.S. intelligence on terrorism threats is a retired Green Beret who has called Jan. 6 rioters "political prisoners" and has had ties to a man police say was a member of the far-right group known as the "Proud Boys." The selection of Joe Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) is part of a wider effort by the administration to place trusted loyalists and partisan activists in senior government positions in intelligence, law enforcement and diplomacy. Trump and his supporters have said the intelligence community sought to undermine the president in the past and needs a radical overhaul. The National Counterterrorism Center oversees U.S. government intelligence on terrorist threats and retains a database of all known and suspected terrorists. Kent served in Army Special Forces, undertaking 11 combat deployments during a 20-year career, and later worked at the CIA. He lost his wife, a Navy cryptologist, in a terrorist bombing in Syria in 2019. Kent ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice in Washington state, in 2022 and 2024. Campaign finance documents show that Kent in 2022 made payments for "campaign consulting" to Graham Jorgensen, who was identified as a Proud Boy in a 2018 law enforcement report. The Proud Boys are viewed as “an extremist group with ties to white nationalism” by the FBI, and authorities say they played a significant role in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. The group has denied any connection to racist elements and says it is a fraternal group opposed to political correctness. A Kent campaign strategist told The Associated Press in 2022 that the Army veteran rejected “racism and bigotry.” Kent spoke at a “Justice for J6” rally in 2021 in Washington, D.C., saying people convicted for their role in the Jan. 6 attack were “political prisoners” who were being denied their civil rights. > Read this article at NBC News - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNN - February 6, 2025
Panama denies State Department claim US government vessels can now transit canal for free Panama denied a claim made by the State Department on Wednesday that the Central American nation had agreed to no longer charge fees for US government ships to transit the country’s famous canal. “In response to a publication released by the United States Department of State, the Panama Canal Authority, which is authorized to set tolls and other fees for transiting the Canal, reports that it has not made any adjustments to them,” the authority said in a statement, adding that it stood ready to establish a dialogue with the US. Panama’s statement directly contradicted the State Department’s claim earlier in the evening. “US government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year,” the State Department said in a statement posted on X alongside an image of a naval vessel entering the canal’s locks. Over the past 26 years the US has paid a total of $25.4 million dollars for the transit of warships and submarines, equivalent to less than one million dollars per year, according to a statement from Panama’s embassy in Cuba. CNN has contacted the State Department for comment. The latest controversy came just days after President Donald Trump reiterated his vow to “take back” the Panama Canal, warning of “powerful” US action in an escalating diplomatic dispute with the Central American country over China’s presence around the vital waterway. “China is running the Panama Canal that was not given to China, that was given to Panama foolishly, but they violated the agreement, and we’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. Hours earlier, the diplomatic stir caused by Trump’s repeated and publicly stated desire for the US to retake control of the canal had appeared to ease after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, making his first overseas trip as the top US diplomat, met with Panama’s President Raúl Mulino. > Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only Top of Page Wall Street Journal - February 6, 2025
More than 40,000 federal workers have resigned so far, short of target More than 40,000 federal workers have raised their hands to resign, putting the Trump administration at risk of falling short of its target for slashing the government through voluntary measures. The Office of Personnel Management last week told workers that they have until Thursday to decide whether to take a buyout. People who do so can continue to be paid through September without working, OPM has said. Unions and a dozen attorneys general say the offer isn’t guaranteed. On a call Wednesday with agency officials, OPM officials said the number of federal workers who have accepted the resignation offer is more than 40,000, according to a person familiar with the matter. Another person confirmed the figure was above 40,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. The Trump administration is expecting numbers to rapidly increase in the final day before the deadline, a White House official said. When it offered the deal last week, the White House said it expected between 5% and 10% of federal employees to accept, leading to about $100 billion in savings annually, without providing information on how the estimate was reached. Officials haven’t translated the percentage range into a specific target for the number of employees it hopes will resign. There are about two million Americans working for the federal government in civilian jobs, though some positions are exempted from the offer. Widespread uncertainty about whether the buyout will work as advertised has deterred employees from taking it. About a half dozen federal workers told The Wall Street Journal they were skeptical that those who accepted the resignation deal would be paid through September. They aren’t sure whether they can take second jobs during the delayed resignation, if they can access retirement plans for the federal workforce or if they can one day return to work in government, career coaches who are talking to federal workers said. > Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only Top of Page
Lead Stories Dallas Morning News - February 5, 2025
Gov. Abbott touts school choice ahead of Senate vote on voucher bill Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday evening that a universal, school choice voucher program that gives parents public dollars to spend on private school tuition will help Texas lead the nation in education. Speaking to families at Athens Christian Preparatory Academy, Abbott outlined his three pillars for improving Texas education: funding and training the best teachers, reforming the curriculum “back to the basics of learning and … patriotism,” and empowering parents “to choose a school that’s best for their child.” Education savings accounts, he said, are the way to fulfill that last goal. “The reality is, even with the excellence of many of our public schools, government mandated schools simply cannot meet the unique needs of every particular child,” he said. His visit comes ahead of Wednesday’s expected vote in the Senate on a voucher-like bill that would allow taxpayer money to be spent on private schools. Abbott told The Dallas Morning News Monday that school choice is his top priority this legislative session. He named it an emergency item during Sunday’s State of the State address. He has backed plans that would devote $1 billion for education savings accounts that families could use toward private school tuition. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, has said that the upper chamber, with 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats, will easily pass the bill. Under the Senate’s proposal, every student would be eligible to apply for an education savings account, or ESA. Families with children in accredited private schools would receive $10,000 per year per child. Children with disabilities would receive $11,500, under that plan. Home schooled students could receive $2,000 for education expenses that are not tuition. If applications exceed capacity, families could gain a spot via a lottery system, with priority given to low-income households and children with disabilities. Patrick estimated that about 90,000 students could access the fund. In 2023, several versions of a school choice bill passed through the Senate, only to be struck down in the House by Democrats and some rural Republicans who said a voucher-like effort would funnel away money from public schools. Since then, Abbott worked to stack the House with proponents and believes he has the votes to pass a universal ESA program. On Tuesday, the governor also touted his efforts to increase funding for public education, which public school leaders have demanded lawmakers do before passing a school voucher program. “Public education is not going to be shorted,” he said. Abbott said the state would provide “more funding for public education than ever before” this legislative session. And he promised “teacher-pay increases across the board, plus more for incentive pay.” Per-student funding, he added, will also reach an “all-time high.” The Legislature has not increased the base amount of funding campuses received per-student since 2019. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Associated Press - February 5, 2025
Absenteeism remains high and Texas schools want the state’s help to keep students in the classroom. In a typical school week, Delaila Constante makes more than a dozen calls to parents of students who are frequently absent from school. Last October, she made around 50 to 60 calls each week. As a parental involvement assistant at Edinburg North High School in South Texas, Constante is responsible for checking with parents of students who miss too much school, whether their absences are excused or unexcused. Parents often tell her their families face medical or financial difficulties like not having running water or enough food to put on the table. Constante came into her role in 2022, when schools were seeing absenteeism rates rise rapidly as a prolonged effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem lingers today. Texas school leaders and education experts say repeated absences can lead to worse outcomes for students and a risk of dropping out. “They miss out on learning,” Constante said. “They miss out on everyday activities in class. You miss a day or two and you stay behind. You’re playing a catchup game.” For school districts, which receive state funding based on average attendance, more students missing school can mean less money coming in. Schools throughout the state have employed multiple strategies to better identify and aid chronically absent students, like partnering with nonprofits and community organizations. Still, school leaders are looking for the state’s help to create more awareness of the problem and curb absenteeism rates. A student is considered chronically absent who misses at least 10% of days in a school year for any reason — whether they are excused or not. Absenteeism rates spiked after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic with about one in five Texas students being chronically absent for the 2022-23 school year, nearly double the rate for the 2018-19 school year, according to Texas Education Agency data. Chronic absenteeism rose even higher nationally during this time. Education experts and school leaders have attributed the continued rise in chronic absenteeism to several factors, including shifting habits about when families decide to keep their kids at home. Since the pandemic, parents are more skeptical about when to send their children back to school, especially when their student may be slightly under the weather or have a cold, said Sharon Vigil, CEO of Communities In Schools of Central Texas. Her organization works directly with students in Central Texas, including those who are chronically absent. But those changes have come with a cost: Research shows that chronic absenteeism can harm students’ academic performance, future outcomes and mental well-being. > Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only Top of Page Reuters - February 5, 2025
US job openings decline as labor market steadily slows U.S. job openings fell by the most in 14 months in December, but steady hiring and low layoffs suggested the labor market was not abruptly slowing down and that the Federal Reserve probably can hold off on cutting interest rates until at least June. The Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday showed there were 1.1 job openings for every unemployed person, down from 1.15 in November. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters last week, "We do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance." "Fed officials are likely to judge this report as suggesting that the labor market has cooled from a previously overheated state, but that job demand remains solid relative to the available supply of workers," said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economic advisor at Brean Capital. Job openings, a measure of labor demand, had decreased 556,000 to 7.6 million by the last day of December, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The decline was the largest since October 2023. Data for November was revised higher to show 8.156 million vacancies instead of the previously reported 8.098 million. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 8.0 million unfilled positions. Vacancies were down 1.3 million over the year. They remain above the 2019 average. The decline in job openings was led by the professional and business services category, with 225,000 fewer positions. Healthcare and social assistance vacancies fell by 180,000, while there were 136,000 fewer open positions in the finance and insurance industry. But the arts, entertainment and recreation category had 65,000 more unfilled positions. The job openings rate dropped to 4.5% from 4.9% in November. Businesses with 10 to 49 employees had the biggest drop in vacancies, followed by enterprises with 50 to 249 workers. > Read this article at Reuters - Subscribers Only Top of Page New York Times - February 5, 2025
Trump proposes U.S. takeover of Gaza and says all Palestinians should leave President Trump declared on Tuesday that the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced in years. Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Mr. Trump said that all two million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel’s campaign against Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference Tuesday evening. “We’ll own it and be responsible” for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism. Sounding like the real estate developer he once was, Mr. Trump vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” While the president framed the matter as a humanitarian imperative and an economic development opportunity, he effectively reopened a geopolitical Pandora’s box with far-reaching implications for the Middle East. Control over Gaza has been one of the major flash points of the Arab-Israeli conflict for decades, and the idea of relocating its Palestinian residents recalls an era when great Western powers redrew the maps of the region and moved around populations without regard to local autonomy. The notion of the United States taking over territory in the Middle East would be a dramatic reversal for Mr. Trump, who first ran for office in 2016 vowing to extract America from the region after the Iraq war and decried the nation-building of his predecessors. In unveiling the plan, Mr. Trump did not cite any legal authority giving him the right to take over the territory, nor did he address the fact that forcible removal of a population violates international law and decades of American foreign policy consensus in both parties. He made the proposal even as the United States was seeking to secure the Israel-Hamas cease-fire’s second phase, which is designed to free the remaining hostages in Gaza and bring a permanent end to the fighting. Negotiators had described their task as exceptionally difficult even before Mr. Trump announced his idea of ousting Palestinians from their homes. > Read this article at New York Times - Subscribers Only Top of Page State Stories Community Impact Newspapers - February 5, 2025
Texas must invest in water to meet population growth, state demographer says Texas’ population surpassed 31 million in 2024, state demographer Lloyd Potter told attendees at the two-day Water for Texas conference Jan. 28 in Austin. He stressed the importance of investing in infrastructure as people and businesses move to the state.“Water is one of the most urgent and important things for Texas right now. ... If you have people, you need water,” Potter said. “The people individually need water, and then all the infrastructure that comes with them needs water.” Texas gained about 1,500 people per day in 2023-24, Potter said. Most of that growth occurs when people move to Texas from other states or countries, he explained, and birth rates also contribute.“When we grow from migration, that's what puts stress on our infrastructure,” Potter said. Just outside Texas’ urban population centers, suburban counties—such as Montgomery, Tarrant and Williamson—have experienced the most growth due to migration in recent years, according to data from the Texas Demographic Center. Communities need support from the state to meet their water needs, Rep. Caroline Harris Davila, R-Round Rock, said Dec. 12. The Williamson County lawmaker said some cities in her district have 100-year-old water pipes. “Those cities need all the help they can get, and they've never had the tax base to prepare for this type of growth. ... A lot of the people that work in Austin are going to live in those areas, and they need that infrastructure just as much as the businesses moving into that part of town,” Harris Davila said during a panel hosted by the Austin Chamber. Texas population growth is expected to start slowing down, Potter said Jan. 28, due in part to declining birth rates.That is a good thing, he said, because it will allow the state to “breathe and catch up” with its infrastructure needs.“I'm not anticipating that we're going to decline—we’re going to continue to grow, but not quite as fast,” Potter said. “I certainly know this legislative session, water is a big issue, so hopefully we'll be getting some significant resources... and we’ll get caught back up to where we're not feeling stressed about water, and actually, the same thing is true for power and for transportation.”> Read this article at Community Impact Newspapers - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 5, 2025
Dallas Morning News Editorial: Texas school vouchers are inevitable, but they shouldn’t be universal A voucher-style program for Texas students is a fait accompli. The state Senate is expected to pass its “school choice” bill today, which would then send it to the Texas House. A coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans averted an education savings account program last session. That coalition is diminished after a series of electoral losses, so now the job of the House is to shape this bill into the most reasonable version it can while addressing public school funding with equal urgency. Gov. Greg Abbott insists on a universal voucher program for which all students are eligible, regardless of income. That is the proposal developed by the Senate: a $1 billion program that would subsidize about $10,000 per student in private school tuition and $2,000 for homeschooling. Officials expect that about 100,000 kids would benefit. That’s about 2% of all K-12 students in Texas — more than 5.5 million children in public and private schools. The 2025 bill stipulates that students who receive vouchers would also take an assessment, a nod to public accountability that is an improvement over a previous legislative attempt. Still, the current proposal remains too expansive. As currently contemplated, the program would use a lottery system in case demand exceeds supply. The voucher legislation, known as Senate Bill 2, lays out that 80% of the funding would be reserved for disabled students and low-income families whose children attend public schools, while the rest would be open to the rest of Texas families, including families already in private school. The low-income threshold is too generous: up to five times the federal poverty level, according to the bill. For a family of two people, that means homes making up to $105,000 would qualify. For a family of four, the ceiling for low-income eligibility would be $160,000 in income. Frustration with student outcomes in failing public schools and school districts is real, and a voucher program should be tailored to help those students who are trapped in bad schools and whose families can’t afford other options. They should be the focus of a means-tested voucher program in Texas. Abbott is pressuring Republican lawmakers to give him the sweeping program he demands, but they should look with concern to the red flags in Arizona. That state passed a universal voucher program beset by budget overruns and news reports that lower-income neighborhoods use fewer vouchers than more affluent ones. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 5, 2025
Mark Stanfill: Data centers are critical for Texas communities (Mark Stanfill is the mayor of Red Oak.) Here in Red Oak, we pride ourselves on being pro-resident and pro-business. We recognize the importance of attracting more businesses to our community to expand our tax base and reduce the cost burdens on our residents, especially since we live in one of the 10 fastest-growing counties in the nation. It’s not surprising that we have witnessed significant growth in data center construction in communities like ours in recent years, largely thanks to the relatively low price of land, availability of power and advantageous geography for new construction projects. Texas data centers support the data-driven processes, products, and services essential to industries like advanced manufacturing, AI, cybersecurity, finance, health care and other key sectors that rely on 24/7 operations. These long-term infrastructure investments for communities allow cities such as Red Oak to play a leading role in supporting the increasingly dynamic and interconnected 21st century economy. With Texas established as an undisputed hub for technology, innovation and business growth, we need to ensure policies at the state level continue to encourage the long-term investments that data centers bring to the Lone Star State. To put it in perspective, with $13 billion in data center investments already underway, and more in our development pipeline, these facilities are set to quadruple our city’s total taxable land value. Moreover, since most of the land on which these data centers are being built was previously tax-exempt, these investments have brought and continue to bring an increase to our city revenue. These new funds allow us to make meaningful investments, supporting education, strengthening public safety, expanding infrastructure and creating spaces for recreation and connection, all to enhance the quality of life for our residents. Data center growth also sends important signals in the power generation market, which benefits from the long-term and consistent electricity demand that data centers bring while encouraging more new power generation to come online. We continue to work closely with our energy providers to ensure reliability for Red Oak and the surrounding area. One data center project in Red Oak is set to become one of the world’s largest single-tenant data center campuses. It is no understatement to say this investment has fundamentally transformed our community, creating thousands of construction jobs and attracting retail and other industries to support the growth, along with employees of businesses tied to construction and operations. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page Dallas Morning News - February 5, 2025
Two Texas doctors agree to stop practicing during Paxton’s trans health care suits Two Texas doctors have agreed to stop practicing medicine on patients after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued them under the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. A third doctor, who Paxton has also sued, is awaiting a trial date. Paxton sued Drs. May Lau, M. Brett Cooper and Hector Granados in October and November, alleging they each violated a 2023 law banning physicians and health care providers from providing gender-affirming care to minors. The ban, which was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court last year, applies to a wide range of medical treatment, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery. Paxton accused Lau of illegally providing gender transition care to at least 21 patients who were minors and falsifying records to misrepresent the purpose of her prescriptions. The Attorney General alleged Cooper provided gender transition care to 15 minors and falsified records to conceal his conduct. Both doctors work at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas with hospital privileges at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. Paxton reached agreements with Lau and Cooper last month to stop practicing medicine on patients. The two may only practice medicine in research, administrative and academic settings. The agreement isn’t permanently binding, though. According to the document, it remains in effect unless it is superseded by another court order or terminated by one or both parties. The other doctor, Granados, is temporarily prohibited from providing certain types of care. Granados works at Pediatric Endocrinology Associates in El Paso. Granados' attorney, El Paso-based Mark Bracken, said in an email to The Dallas Morning News that the doctor has not violated the law. “We have been cooperating with the AG’s office to show them that Dr. Granados followed the law,” Bracken said. > Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only Top of Page San Antonio Report - February 5, 2025
New study shows disconnect in San Antonio's child care availability San Antonio’s child care providers were licensed for 30% more slots than were actually available last year, according to a study commissioned by the City of San Antonio and conducted by Texas A&M University-San Antonio. That means there are 20,000 fewer child care slots in San Antonio than would be suggested by the total licensing number, according to the study, which includes data from 54 zip codes and all 10 city council districts across San Antonio. Researchers examined Bexar County’s child care landscape under a microscope and gathered data that validated the issues families and child care centers have faced in recent years, which was released Friday and presented to the Economic and Workforce Development Committee. Sponsored by Ready to Work, the city’s Economic Development and Human Services departments and Pre-K 4 SA, the study was commissioned to clarify the issue for officials who play a role in ensuring San Antonians have accessible pathways to well-paying jobs. Researchers sent voluntary surveys to all Bexar County Texas Health and Human Services childcare providers, the Texas Education Agency, Head Start programs and Department of Defense child development centers and hosted focus groups with parents, advocates and centers that serve children under 5 to examine quality, access, and affordability. Right now in Bexar County, 250 centers — 30% of the estimated more than 750 centers in San Antonio — participate in the Texas Rising Star program, a voluntary quality rating system that ensures centers meet higher quality standards than others. A majority are at the highest level of quality, but of those, 70% do not participate in the child care subsidy system, which covers child care costs for low-income families. > Read this article at San Antonio Report - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 5, 2025
President of UNT HSC paid $560K for voluntary resignation The University of North Texas Health Science Center paid its outgoing president $560,000 in return for her voluntary resignation from the university, according to public records released to the Star-Telegram. Dr. Sylvia Trent-Adams stepped down as president Jan. 31. Neither HSC nor Trent-Adams has commented on the reason for her resignation. Trent-Adams could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. A spokesperson for HSC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trent-Adams signed a mutual termination and release agreement on Jan. 30, agreeing to voluntarily resign from her position. According to the agreement, Trent-Adams will receive $560,000 “in return for Trent-Adams’ promises in this Agreement.” The agreement stipulated that Trent-Adams will be paid within 30 days of Jan. 31, and that she releases the the University of North Texas system “from any and all claims and potential claims.” > Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fort Worth Star-Telegram - February 5, 2025
Texas has seven of America’s fastest-growing wealthy suburbs Texas has more affluent suburbs than California and is home to the bulk of America’s fastest-growing wealthy communities, according to a new study from GoBankingRates.com. The personal finance company’s report found the Lone Star state has seven of the 30 wealthiest suburbs in America — three of which are growing the fastest in terms of population. The report found the 30 wealthiest suburbs in America with the quickest rates of growth based on a number of factors, including property value, livability, household income and more., using data from Federal Reserve Economic Data, the U.S. Census American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey and the Zillow Home Value Index. According to the GoBankingRates.com report, Texas is home to the top three fastest-growing wealthy American suburbs: Fulshear, Celina, and Prosper. Celina and Prosper are in North Texas, and Fulshear is in Fort Bend County, outside of Houston. Fulshear ranks as the No. 1 fastest-growing community, with a population increase of 237% from 2018 to 2023. The report found the median household income in Fulshear was $178,398. The average home value in Fulshear was $521,157. Up in North Texas, the population in Celina increased by 190% over that same time period, making it the second-fastest-growing affluent suburb in the United States, with a median household income of $155,875 and an average home value of $611,512. Prosper came in at No. 3, with a population growth of 81%, a median family income of $187,603 and an average home value of $823,356. Other Texas cities that made the fastest-growing wealthy suburb list include Flower Mound, Southlake, University Park and Colleyville. Flower Mound had a 6% population increase with a median household income of $157,737 and average home value of $599,026 from 2018 to 2023. The population in Southlake changed by 0.66% and the median household income was $250,000. The average home value was $1.2 million. University Park had a 0.60% population increase, a median income of $250,000 and an average home value of $2.3 million. for homes. Colleyville had a -0.50% population shift, with a median income of $203,566 and an average home value of $886,166. > Read this article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 5, 2025
Austin-based SailPoint is seeking a valuation up to $11.5 billion for its upcoming IPO Austin-based cybersecurity firm SailPoint said Tuesday that it is aiming for a valuation as high as $11.5 billion for its upcoming initial public offering in the United States. SailPoint was founded in 2005 by Austin tech industry veteran Mark McClain. The company has built a reputation for services pertaining to identity and access management software. In 2022, the company was acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $6.9 billion. SailPoint previously went public in 2017 with an initial public offering of $240 million. After the Thoma Bravo acquisition, the company was delisted, likely to focus on restructuring. Now, the emerging cybersecurity company hopes to reenter the landscape with a valuation that will far outstrip its previous number. SailPoint and its parent company Thoma Bravo are offering a combined 50 million shares that will be priced between $19 and $21. SailPoint will carry most of the load as it is making 47.5 million shares available, while Thoma Bravo is selling 2.5 million shares — this will allow the company to raise up to $1.05 billion. According to Renaissance Capital, cornerstone investors intend to purchase 20% of the shares in the offering. At the midpoint of the proposed range, SailPoint would command a fully diluted market value of $11.5 billion. With its IPO, SailPoint is potentially setting the tone of IPO interest this year as 2024 was defined by sputtering debuts that caused many companies to get cold feet and reevaluate their fundamentals. Because of this, investors are now more critical of IPOs after an era where silicon investing frenzies resulted in high-profile failures. > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 5, 2025
Dell Technologies ending remote, hybrid work; employees return to office five days a week Round Rock-based Dell Technologies is ending remote and hybrid work, expecting all employees who live within roughly an hour of its offices to be at their desks five days a week, Business Insider reported Tuesday morning. The mandate begins March 3, and the company is retiring its hybrid policy effective that day. "We are building a new Dell Technologies for a new future," Dell told staff in a memo obtained by Business Insider. "The pace of innovation has never been faster, and for us to lead, the speed of our business must continue to accelerate. What we're finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction. A thirty second conversation can replace an email back-and-forth that goes on for hours or even days." According to the memo from CEO Michael Dell obtained by Business Insider, employees who live far from a Dell office will be allowed to continue working remotely, however, an internal FAQ reportedly said remote workers will not be eligible for promotion through the company's annual pay planning process without approval from three of the company's most senior leaders. The company reportedly wrote in the FAQ that "all future roles will be hired at a specific Dell office and will no longer be offered as remote. " Dell Technologies has not yet responded to email requests for comment about returning to the office and how this will affect its Round Rock- and Austin-based employees. Other companies, such as Amazon, AT&T and JPMorgan, have reversed their stances on remote work and now expect employees to work in the office full time. The demand to return to work comes as President Donald Trump signed an executive mandating return to offices on his first day in office last week. > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Austin American-Statesman - February 5, 2025
Cedric Golden: What are the Dallas Mavericks not telling us about Luka Doncic? Dallas Mavericks fans haven’t been this mad since Dwyane Wade shot 4,000 free throws in Game 6 of the 2006 NBA Finals. The local basketball team didn’t just deal its 25-year-old franchise face Luka Doncic, general manager Nico Harrison essentially got rid of him. Dallas sent the ultra-entertaining guard to the Los Angeles Lakers for all-star forward Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a draft pick, giving 40-year-old LeBron James a slugger’s chance at a fifth championship ring. But why? Was it just about the conditioning issues that undoubtedly contributed to Doncic missing games due to injuries? Should we make more out of Mavericks assistant GM Michael Finley taking that celebratory beer out of Luka’s hand after the Mavericks beat Denver to advance to the Finals? What about the $350-million supermax you won’t have to pay him now that he’s gone? Make it make sense, Nico. “Listen, one thing about me, I’m not going to talk bad about any players,” Harrison said during Sunday’s press conference. “That’s not going to do us or me any good. I just say there’s levels to it. There’s people that fit the culture and there’s people that come in and add to the culture. And those are two distinct things. And I believe the people that are coming in are adding to the culture.” Luka was the culture, right? Perhaps that was part of the problem for the Mavs’ discipline-based boss who played basketball at Army and spent nearly two decades as an executive at Nike. Doncic was a prolific performer who led the franchise to the Finals and put plenty of butts in the American Airlines Arena to boot, but there has to be something that made him expendable despite his professional accolades. "They must know something that we don't," league legend Charles Barkley said in a recent conversation on NBA TV. Either way, it’s the most talked about deal in the Metroplex since the Great Trade Robbery of 1989 when the Dallas Cowboys sent running back Herschel Walker, four picks and a set of dishes to the Minnesota Vikings for four players and eight draft picks that Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones used as building blocks for the first of three Super Bowl titles that arrived three seasons later. > Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 5, 2025
Texas A&M picks 4 companies to deploy cutting-edge nuclear reactors at Rellis Campus The Texas A&M University System has selected four companies to explore developing advanced nuclear reactors on its Rellis research campus in Bryan, university officials announced Tuesday morning. Each of the four companies — Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Aalo Atomics and Terrestrial Energy — could potentially build at least one commercial reactor on the Rellis Campus, company executives said. The announcement comes after Texas A&M sought an early site permit from federal regulators in November to offer land to nuclear companies. If approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Texas A&M would be the only higher education institution in the country with a commercial nuclear reactor site license. Ultimately, the goal is to create an “energy proving ground” at the Rellis Campus that can serve as a test bed for cutting-edge energy technologies, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp said in an interview. A&M would offer companies its nuclear engineering expertise, as well as a site to demonstrate commercial viability of their technology to kickstart further development, he said. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 5, 2025
Rice University among Texas schools facing uncertainty on research funding amid federal DEI ban Rice University is on a list of institutions that might be targeted for civil rights investigations stemming from a federal ban on diversity, equity and inclusion. The most prominent U.S. higher education institutions are explicitly mentioned in one of President Donald Trump's recent executive orders, instructing federal agencies to identify up to nine organizations for civil rights compliance investigations, among them higher education institutions with endowments of over $1 billion. Rice University's endowment was valued at $8.1 billion at the end of 2024. While the exact nature of possible investigations remains unclear, some scholars and advocates say that the threat against elite private universities dovetails with executive orders that have created chaos for federal funding – part of a broader attack on higher education that could potentially upend research and operations on U.S. college campuses. > Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page Houston Chronicle - February 5, 2025
Houston Chronicle Editorial: Senate's school voucher bill got a lot right. But they're still wrong for Texas We still believe the best school voucher bill is a dead one. Texans already have "school choice" with charter schools and other options and pouring taxpayer dollars into private institutions isn't responsible spending. But the governor has once again made vouchers a priority issue and Texas seems likely to become the next red state to adopt the program, following Florida and Arizona. And not to be outdone, the Senate's version would create the largest “day one” state voucher program in the country, according to the experts championing the bill. The bill “will serve more students with more funding than any proposal our body has considered yet,” according to the analysis accompanying it. This version isn't the worst one Texas lawmakers have cooked up. Indeed, they have studied and learned from some of the missteps of other states who have had these programs for years. “There is some advantage to being late to the party,” Sen. Paul Bettencourt said during the committee hearing last month. In this case, that includes putting in some safeguards to prevent all the dollars from flowing to current private school students and making sure the schools receiving them have some standards. Once the program hits its cap of 100,000 students, most of the bill’s $1 billion (expected to grow to nearly $4.6 billion by 2030) would prioritize students new to private schools and who either have a disability or are low-income (if you consider families living at 500 percent of the federal poverty line or roughly $160,000 for a family of four to be low-income). And students would need to attend accredited private schools, including religious ones, to take advantage of the $10,000 voucher. Of course, school voucher supporters never wanted Texas to be late. These bills have been struck down session after session for years, thanks to Democrats and rural Republicans in the House voting them down. We hope the alliance holds. For all the tweaks and adjustments, there’s no getting around the fundamental flow of public dollars heading to private institutions, even with a family as the intermediary. Nor can we ignore the ambitions of some to expand this program in future sessions. After all, the White House is now fully behind vouchers. How big does this get?> Read this article at Houston Chronicle - Subscribers Only Top of Page National Stories The Hill - February 5, 2025
Musk shocks lawmakers, setting himself on collision course Billionaire businessman Elon Musk is on a collision course with lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are starting to challenge his authority. Senate Republicans acknowledge they need to cut government spending, but Musk’s bold decision to lock federal workers out of the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID), which Musk called “a ball of worms” and a “criminal organization,” caught them by surprise. They are now questioning the basis of Musk’s authority to shutter an agency Congress funds annually through the appropriations bills for the State Department and foreign operations. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she has questions about whether President Trump’s authorization is enough to empower Musk to override Congress’s funding directives. “The president is suggesting that he has authorization. I think there is more than some question,” she said. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Musk or other senior administration officials need to notify Congress in advance before shuttering or reorganizing federal agencies. Collins said whether Musk had the authority to shut down USAID “is a very legitimate question.” “There is a requirement in the law for 15 days’ notice of any reorganization. We clearly did not get that. We got the letter yesterday,” she said. Collins said the law “also calls for a detailed explanation of any reorganizations, renaming of bureaus, shifting of centers, and again we have not received that.” She said she would talk to fellow Appropriations Committee members “about our next steps.” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned that simply shutting down a federal agency such as USAID would violate the Constitution in a strict sense, but he argued former President Biden also pushed boundaries with aggressive uses of executive power. > Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only Top of Page Fox News - February 5, 2025
Senate confirms Pam Bondi as US attorney general The Senate voted late Tuesday to confirm Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, voting 54-46 to install the longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general to head the U.S. Department of Justice. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., bucked his party to make the vote bipartisan. He was the only Democrat to join Republicans in support of the nominee. Bondi's confirmation comes as both the Justice Department and FBI have been under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress who have raised concerns over Trump's recent decision to pardon or commute the sentences of 1,600 defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and to oust more than 15 inspectors general and special counsel investigators. To date, there are no known plans to conduct sweeping removals or take punitive action against the agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigations. But U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sparked fresh concerns last week after he directed the acting FBI director to identify all current and former bureau employees assigned to the Jan. 6 cases for internal review. The effort prompted FBI agents to file two separate lawsuits Tuesday seeking emergency injunctive relief in federal court, arguing in the lawsuits that any effort by the DOJ or FBI to review or discriminate against agents involved in the Jan. 6 probe would be both "unlawful and retaliatory" and a violation of civil service protections. Bondi has repeatedly said she will not use her position to advance any political agenda, a refrain she returned to many times during her hours-long confirmation hearing. "Politics has to be taken out of this system," Bondi told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month. > Read this article at Fox News - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNN - February 5, 2025
How the White House convinced skeptical Republicans to back RFK Jr., Gabbard and Hegseth Sen. Todd Young didn’t back Donald Trump in 2024. But that didn’t stop Young from calling the president this past weekend as he was wavering over Trump’s pick for the country’s top intelligence official, Tulsi Gabbard. Trump told Young to “vote your conscience,” the Indiana Republican told CNN. And when Sen. Thom Tillis was considering a no vote on Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary last month, Tillis spoke with Trump and relayed his concerns about new allegations that emerged ahead of the Senate vote. “I made it very clear that if, on their face, they proved to be accurate, that I was a no,” Tillis said in an interview. “I told President Trump. We had a great discussion. It’s actually comical how people think it went versus how it went. I was treated with the utmost respect.” Two of Trump’s most controversial nominees, Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., won key committee votes Tuesday with the support of all Republicans, the clearest sign to date that the president is poised to get all of his Cabinet picks confirmed after Hegseth was approved last month by the slimmest of margins. The White House ultimately won over skeptical GOP senators – not with Trump’s usual bombast, but with a combination of Trump’s personal conversations with senators, extensive engagement from Vice President JD Vance and assurances from nominees that their past controversial views would not drive their positions in Trump’s Cabinet. Trump’s softer personal touch with senators in private contrasts with the not so subtle threats from the president’s allies outside the White House that any GOP senator who dared defy him would face significant political consequences. > Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNBC - February 5, 2025
USPS temporarily suspends some inbound packages from China, Hong Kong The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday it’s temporarily suspending all inbound packages from China and Hong Kong Posts. The change is effective immediately and will remain “until further notice,” according to an alert posted to the agency’s website. Letters and large envelopes, referred to as “flats,” sent from China and Hong Kong won’t be impacted, the USPS said. The announcement comes after President Donald Trump on Saturday signed executive orders imposing tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada. Trump on Monday agreed to hold off on imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days, but the additional 10% tax on goods from China remains. A provision in the orders eliminates a popular trade loophole, known as “de minimis,” which allows exporters to ship packages worth less than $800 into the U.S. duty free. The de minimis provision has been a critical tool for Chinese e-commerce firms, including Shein and PDD Holdings ’ Temu, as they look to grow their presence in the U.S. by offering rock-bottom prices on everything from clothes and furniture to electronics and home decor. The U.S. processed more than 1.3 billion de minimis shipments in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. A 2023 report from the U.S. House’s Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party found that Temu and Shein are “likely responsible” for more than 30% of all packages shipped to the U.S. under the provision, and “likely nearly half” of all de minimis shipments originating from China. China Post and Hong Kong Post are government-operated postal services. It’s unclear if the suspension applies to package shipments from China and Hong Kong sent via private mail carriers. In response to a request for clarification, a USPS spokesperson pointed CNBC to the agency’s original announcement. > Read this article at CNBC - Subscribers Only Top of Page The Hill - February 4, 2025
Schools poised to be major front line in Trump immigration crackdown Oklahoma is moving to require proof of citizenship for the guardians of public school students, while California schools are distributing “know your rights” cards to immigrant families as K-12 campuses become a crucial front line in President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Since the Department of Homeland Security rescinded an order that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot go into schools, families have been pulling their students out of class and administrators have created action plans on how to handle ICE agents. But while blue states are moving to shield their students, some red ones are embracing Trump’s policies, with the sharply splitting policies likely to create precarious environments for students and educators. “It’s concerning because it could increase educational disparities between red, blue [and] purple states based on their state-level policies related to these things,” said Victoria Francis, deputy director of state and local initiatives at the American Immigration Council. “So, students in different states might not have access to the same level of education because some students feel safe in their learning environment, other students don’t and choose not to attend school,” she added. So far, no school districts have reported ICE agents demanding entry, despite confusion at a Chicago public school last month that mistook Secret Service agents who showed up at an elementary school for ICE and reacted with alarm. States and schools have sent early signals on how they will stand on the issue, with GOP proposals on the table in Florida to make sure schools comply with the Trump administration’s agenda, while officials in blue states such as California distribute “red cards” that tell students and families what to do if ICE shows up at your door. > Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only Top of Page Stateline - February 5, 2025
Red states create their own DOGE efforts to cut state government Red states are echoing President Donald Trump’s quest to slash the size and cost of the federal government with their own initiatives aimed at making government smaller and more efficient. In the first hours of his second term, Trump signed an executive order creating a temporary commission he dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency. He first announced DOGE, named after a viral meme and a cryptocurrency, in November as an effort led by billionaire Elon Musk to find billions in federal cuts. In recent weeks, GOP governors and lawmakers have set up their own government efficiency task forces and committees to find ways to cut state spending. The Texas House of Representatives recently announced plans for a 13-member Delivery of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, committee that will examine state agencies for inefficiencies, and Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said a DOGE bill would be one of his top legislative priorities. GOP leaders in Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin have recently announced similar ventures. Conservatives have long sought to shrink the size and cost of government. And it’s common practice for officials from both parties to hire outside consultants to help reduce inefficiency or waste in school, state and city bureaucracies. But the DOGE effort is gaining new steam as Republicans look to fall in line with Trump and blue and red states alike face massive budget gaps that will require some combination of spending cuts or increased taxes. Democrats, however, argue that many states already have government watchdogs and efficiency panels, so the efforts might be redundant. And Democratic governors also have made gains in cutting red tape and increasing state efficiencies. > Read this article at Stateline - Subscribers Only Top of Page CNN - February 5, 2025
CIA sends ‘buyout’ offers to entire workforce The Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday became the first major national security agency to offer so-called buyouts to its entire workforce, a CIA spokesperson and two other sources familiar with the offer said, part of President Donald Trump’s broad effort to shrink the federal government and shape it to his agenda. The offer — which tells federal employees that they can quit their jobs and receive roughly eight months of pay and benefits — had up until Tuesday not been made available to most national security roles in an apparent cognizance of their critical function to the security of the nation. CIA Director John Ratcliffe personally decided he also wanted the CIA to be involved, one of the sources said. The spokesperson said that the move is part of Ratcliffe’s efforts to “ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration’s national security priorities,” adding that is “part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy.” Still, even as the offer was sent to the entire workforce at the agency, it was not immediately clear whether all would be allowed to take it. Some specific occupations and areas of expertise appear likely to be restricted, one of the sources familiar with the offer said, suggesting that the effort is far less sweeping than in civil service agencies that are not considered to be doing national security work. There’s also a caveat for Ratcliffe to retain flexibility to work through the timing of officer departures in critical areas, according to another source familiar with the matter. The Office of Personnel Management had issued internal guidance last week that some officers at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence may be able to participate in the program but that not all positions at the ODNI will necessarily be eligible, according to two other sources familiar with the communications. > Read this article at CNN - Subscribers Only Top of Page Politico - February 5, 2025
Greenland calls for snap election as Trump looms Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede called for an early election on March 11, amid geopolitical tensions caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to acquire the Arctic island. “It’s time for an election to the Inatsisartut [Greenlandic Parliament]. If the Inatsisartut approves my proposal, this will happen on March 11th,” Egede wrote Tuesday in a post on Facebook. “We are in a serious time. A time we have never experienced in our country. The time is not for internal division but for cooperation and unity for our country. I am once again more than ready to work for you and to lead our country,” he added. Egede’s announcement comes after parliament passed a law to ban foreign or anonymous donations over concerns of external influence in any election campaign. > Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only Top of Page
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